Desmodos

GRRRRRRR!!!

Sorry folks, stupid jerk work had an emergency so they're calling me in.

So I have to reschedule this for the evening or call it off entirely

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Also, Taunt is not really like a control. It's a mathematical value in a long string of values for a total Threat determination.

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Which is how I understand it, but that mathematical value has no affect on duration?

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You all must not spam attacks as fast as I do then. I can run a regen out of end. With Stamina.

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I pretty much spam my attack as soon as they pop up, but several things factor in here.

The first and most obvious is your build. Beyond primary and secondary, you have to look at how much recharge and how much endurance management (recovery + endurance reduction) your build has. If you have a higher amount of recharge then you will need greater endurance management. Most my Dark Armor builds end up with Dark Regeneration recharging every 10-12 seconds. That's really nice for emergencies but if you need to actually use DR every 12 seconds you're not gonna be able to manage endurance for very long.

The second is play style. A lot of players like to focus on single targets. I prefer to maximize my AoEs. IMHO, maximizing AoEs is the best way to manage your endurance on any Dark Armor build. If you don't position yourself so Death Shroud can work it's magic, you will always have endurance problems. Attack sets that are light on AoEs are the most difficult to manage endurance for me (SM, SS, MA, EM).

Stay off the temp powers. If you've made Black Wand, Nem. Staff, Sands of Mu, or Ghost Slaying Axe part of your attack chain, you've got issues. I know everyone thinks they're really neat at lower levels, but these attacks are rather expensive. Unlike your other attacks, you can't slot these for endurance reduction or damage. Never mind their damage will not scale to match enhancement at higher levels.

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Are there any prerequisite missions? If not, I'd like to participate. I have a level 21 Scrapper.

Word of warning, I am still pretty new.

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Zamuel, there are no pre-requisites for this TF. It grants XP from level 15-20. In your case, the TF will automatically exemplar you down to level 20 so you wouldn't earn any XP. This TF does grant a badge you will need for an important accolade and grants a nice chunk of merits (57 merits?). Hope you decide to join.

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! I just started a DB/WP scrapper that I feel completely out of my league with. What a ridiculously tight build.


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2 ways to open up the build.

1) Forget about Weaken Combo, not my favorite option, I never chose it, but I believe it's the most popular choice. Blinding Feint--Attack Vitals is Dual Blades bread and butter, the rest is just extra.
2) Forget about the Epics. Fighting Pool is your epic pool. It's the route I chose, but might not be the best option for those timid of IO builds. Just means you won't have a ranged attack.

Anyone gonna be around Monday evening that might be interested in a Synapses run say
7:30 PM EST/6:30 PM CST/ 5:30 PM/4:30 PM PST. **TIME CHANGE**

1) Des (on a tanker )
2) Vivace (tentative)
3) Thessalia (tentative)
4) Zamuel (scrapper, tentative)
5) Vanum (Tanker)
6)
7)
8)

Not sure I am understanding what the "detailed info" info screen is telling me in game.

On a level 17 WP/BA tanker I place one level 20 IO into Taunt the power. If I hover over taunt, it shows 25.6% enhancement for increase in taunt duration from 26.8 seconds to 33.66 seconds. This part I understand.

When I look at the detailed info screen, the duration is unchanged at 26.8 seconds but the Magnitude increased from 400% to 502.4%. This part does not make sense to me.

Is this an error on the "detailed info" screen or is there an aspect of the mechanic I am not understanding?

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Des I think you need a hug.

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Only if I get to bite.

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Sorry about that guys. I apologize.

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Now that's impressively refreshing. You sir have restored my faith in humanity....ok nothing could actually do that but Kudos for trying.

EDIT: and since lately no one can tell the difference, this post is intended as a genuine compliment.

Most folks on the Victory forums seem able to engage in the most heated discussions with out stooping to name calling. Since you've already chosen to degrade yourself, the least you could do is vary the derogatory names. In this way, you can serve of some entertainment value during your short stay with us.

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[/ QUOTE ]Besides... I14 gave us at least 2 very benificial IO's to /DA (another +3 defense, and that +endurance proc for dark regen).

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What is the name of this other +3 defense IO? Or is it just the abillity to add +3 defense from other sets?

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Gladiator's Armor: Teleportation Protection It's a PvP IO, meaning it can only be gained from PvP or purchased at Wenworth's. It also means it has additional bonuses during PvP. In this case, the "Teleportation Protection" is only applicable during PvP. In PvP and PvE it grants 3% defense to all.

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At last! I am out from under the guilt of not having written a New Testament or getting around to building the Dark Melee Dojo... Nice work, Des! You are a tribute to your... ahhhh... Well, great job!

I meant to comment on this some time ago, but I haven't been spending much time on the forums of late. It's good to see someone take up the cause of the much-maligned dark warrior, and I know from experience that it's where it needs to be: in your capable hands!

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It's easier to see things clearly once you stood on the shoulders of giants. Your bible began it all and is still a worthy read.

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Is there any reason *not* to juggle your toggles?


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Personal preference I suppose, but it boils down to two things for me. 1) I don't like stopping to put on toggles, I log in, turn them all on, and start killing. (OK, Yes I turn off CoF and DS when steal thing....if I remember.) 2) Toggles such as DE,MC,and OS are really cheap. For the most part,they're not really the source of your endurance woes. DS is an attack, leaving only CoF to turn off, but at 1.17 seconds, that cast time feels like an eternity at times. Heck I usually use zoning to turn it on so I don't have to wait for it.

And while it's true my DA builds typically have 3.5+ EPS, I've spoken against "toggle juggling" since before IOs. But hey, if it works for you, have it

EDIT: OK OK< I confess, I've killed of several defenders and controllers because I forgot to turn of CoF and DS while stealthing

I'll never understand why folks do the whole "toggle juggle" thing. The only toggle I routinely turn off is Cloak of Darkness, cause well...I like my costume On a half way decent IO build, the "toggle juggle" really isn't necessary. I run DE,OS,MC,DS,CoF,Tough,Weave, and Hover through out every fight.

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Sorry a Newbie question here. how do you monitor your defense and things like that? you said when it goes to red then you hit the panic buttons but how do you see that?

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Go into your Combat Attributes Window. (Found on your powers window, click the word Powers on your tray to open the powers window)

This will show you all your attributes and what's affecting them. You can right click any attribute to monitor in a small window you can place anywhere on your screen. Keep in mind you can only monitor 10 attributes at once.

EDIT: this might be clearer.
Power tray-->click word Powers-->Powers Window-->click Combat Attributes word (on top of the Powers Window)-->in Combat Attributes window right click specific attributes to monitor

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Are we making this a monthly thing?




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OK, but lets skip July 4th, too many folks traveling then.

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And Death Shroud? Heh, don't get me started.


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FYI, don't give up on Death Shroud. It's potentially your most efficient and most damaging attack. It's impact is subtle but quite massive.

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My experience on DA is with a tanker, not a scrapper, but those really did the trick for me (ignoring the specific level at which to get powers).

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IMHO, the situation is pretty much the same for Dark Armor Tankers, Scrappers, and Brutes. I agree with your advice.

Thing to keep in mind, Dark Armor has no passive powers. This exaggerates the endurance concerns further. Frankly, you may aswell turn all your toggle off or slot them purely with endurance reduction until you can either get level 20 generic IOs or SOs.

For me, ANYTHING pre-level 22 sucks. Granted, I play mostly melee and disproportionately scrappers.

The survivability on my ranged characters pre level 22 is the same as they are post level 22....which is virtually non-existent.

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To be fair, at low levels /dark isn't so great. At low levels it has meh resistances and no way to recover health, but still has huge endurance costs. When you get dark regen it's like night and day. And once you can slot 3 end redux and an acc into dark regen it's like night and day again. But before then? I found /dark to be very squishy. It's a late bloomer so may appear to 'suck' at first.

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I get where you're going with that, but it kind of needs clarification. While I agree Dark Armor changes radically once you have Dark Regeneration, DR is available at level 16; hardly what I would call late in the game. DR is rather unmanageable until level 22 and access to SOs/lvl25 IOs.

Mez auras are the next major advancement for Dark Armor, CoF at 28 or OG at level 35. Though CoF is available at level 28, it will probably be around level 35 before you can slot it up to be fully effective.

Compare to SR that needs to wait until level 35 before it can plug it's AoE defense hole, Dark Armor isn't quite the late bloomer. While yes, you will definitely see a jump in survivability from level 35 on, you can still do rather impressive things in the mid-20s just by leaning on Dark Regeneration.

Well, with IOs it actually gets more impressive.

<ul type="square">
Smashing: 47.4
Letha: 47.4
Fire: 43.2
Cold: 43.2
Energy: 23.1
Negative: 46.3
Psionic: 57.8
Toxic: 33.1[/list]

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*snickers*

"A blaster's defense if the distance they blast from..."

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They've got Melee attacks....AoE ones too...

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I'll be there with a lvl 22 blaster, Little Bertha. Mind you, she's my first blaster, and all my experience so far has been with melee toons - scrapper, tank, and brute. Whenever I try to solo her, she seems to die (not my fault!).

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I see nothing wrong with how you are playing her. Sounds just like how everyone else plays blasters to me.

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My blasters only die a lot when I play them...wait...

I'm in. What I bring depends on how fast you wish to run this.

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I've never tried to exaggerate the importance of the def debuff resistance. I've only tried to say that yes, it does, in fact, have an affect. Just because you want to ignore it doesn't mean that it's not there.

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I can't believe I'm the one saying this, but could the two of you actually state your case mathematically?

Yes, in principle, the Defense Debuff resistance should give Will Power an advantage in an ITF.

From my experience, and from what I understand of Sarrate's post is that the difference is minuscule.

Will Power doesn't have that much defense to smash/lethal to begin with. A single 20% defense debuff will drop Will Powers S/L defense into double digit negatives?

A single defense debuff puts a Cim minion at a 71% chance to hit a Will Power scrapper? ...75% chance to hit a Regeneration scrapper?

Am I figuring this wrong? Umbral and Sarrate are both better at the math debates than I am, but this difference is looking damned minuscule to me.

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17.34% def debuff resistance might not seem like much, but it means that you're going to need to get hit an extra def debuff for every 5-6 that a */regen gets hit by to get to the same level of reduced defense.

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That's not making any sense to me. 17.34% defense debuff resistance is gonna change a 20% defense debuff to ~16%. That still puts Will Power in the negative with a single hit.