Eiko-chan
-
Posts
1895 -
Joined
-
Quote:Defensive/GoTo set them to a point somewhat behind your traps. This has worked fairly well for me; I run forward, throw something long range to pull, duck around the corner, let the foes run into my Caltrops, get hit by the Acid Mortar, and then get demolished by the pets.Originally Posted by EricHough
1) If you stay in bodyguard mode while pulling your pets aggro the instance something attacks you back, which is basically as soon as you open fire.
And this prevents problem 2.
BG mode still works with Defensive/GoTo, and a slotted FFG (plus probably Manoeuvres and possibly Patron shields at higher levels) should give you more than enough defence to survive the minimal alpha as you run back into Supremacy range. -
I'm tempted to ask to come along. In that range I've got an NRG/NRG Blaster and a Grav/Kin Troller who doesn't have Speed Boost. Which would you prefer?
-
Quote:Except you know about it, and might have something to say about it.Originally Posted by SpittingTrashcan
I swear the worst part about the rep system is the need people have to respond loudly to anonymous criticism that nobody would ever know about if they didn't respond to it.
Nevertheless, I don't usually reply to reputation entries, but this one I felt I should, since it fit into the conversation that spawned it:
"You're one of those people that gives medals to losers, aren't you? Competition is what makes people stronger/better. Quit being a wimp. Take a challenge!"
Actually, I don't see the point of medals in the first place. Or races, for that matter. Competition does not make you "stronger/better". It is simply a display of some form of superiority, whereas you might suffer from inferiority in some other aspect of life.
Humans thrive on cooperation, not competition. And so does this game. -
Quote:*shows up wearing red*Originally Posted by LongClawTiger
*Wanders back in*
Did any nameless peons in the red shirts die yet?
*gets attacked by a mysterious power!*
*falls off screen* -
Quote:Seriously. In 2004, video game sales amounted to $7.3 billion; entertainment as a whole was $158.5 billion. That is a tiny percentage; 4.6%, to be exact.Originally Posted by LordXenite
A tiny percentage of entertainment? Seriously?
I agree, actually. Keep your HEATs. I was simply replying to the blanket statement that "Anything that involves no or little challenge/skill is poor design if its main purpose is entertainment." I believe the evidence of the entertainment industry shows this to be a bald-faced lie.Quote:One design does not fit all.[/FONT] -
I wish, when I was on one of my mostly-solo characters that I play when I'm not fixing problems at work, that people would pay attention to the comments I put there for your convenience stating that I am prone to sudden AFKs and cannot team. I mean that. I'm too considerate a person to subject you to my sudden need to go reset a printer (two minute AFK) or rebuild an entire computer (two hour AFK) at the drop of a hat, and I wish you'd be considerate enough to stop asking me to do things I can't do.
The most beautiful thing about this game is that I can play it, accomplish things, and feel super without a team. And when I want a team, I've got my OOC channel and SG mates right over there who are generally glad to join up.
Random people scare me. (Though the ones that RP scare me a little bit less, and tend to be awesome people, so I sometimes give them a chance. Proper grammar and spelling helps, too.) -
Quote:I actually have a fair knowledge of game design. I think most designers do it wrong. There's a reason video games are still only a tiny percentage of entertainment, and a reason why the Wii has absolutely exploded in popularity.Originally Posted by brophog02
And you have no apparent knowledge of game design.
The old traditional model of game design involving "Do It Again, Stupid" design, punishing difficulty, and competition over cooperation is a failing model, and every step CoX takes away from it (which it very strongly does) is a step in the direction of better. -
Quote:Recharge is more valuable than +Dam in IO sets because of the gross disparity of values available. Recharge bonuses vary from 2.5 to 10%. Damage bonuses vary from 1 to 3. That is why people build for Recharge, not Damage.Originally Posted by brophog02
If you're building a toon, you don't go for the +Dam IOs, you go for the +recharge IOs (which is why those sets are so much more expensive than anything similar). Recharge is more valuable than +Dam, globally, because of the disparity in the power of the attacks.
If I could get 135% global damage buff from IOs, I damn well would go for it. -
Quote:Even if you do it by closing instead of pulling, you're still trying to make sure the fight is taking place right there, and not all over the place.Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen
All that set-up is mostly a waste of time. My bots/traps tactic was generally open with Seekers from range, then charge into melee, drop Mortar & PGT, then start spamming Web Grenade and/or a patron immob. Maybe toe-bomb with a trip mine or two, but by that point everything is pretty much defeated anyway.
-
dragonslay is right about Challenge; if you're going Tankermind, you want Provoke.
Heal Other is generally superior to Repair, but you don't have room for another pool in that build, so what're you gonna do? -
Quote:A few points of mez protection is not the line between "need Tanker" and "don't need Tanker". A Tanker will always have higher health than a squishy. A Tanker will always have higher resistances and defences. And a Tanker will always have more mez protection, even with a few IOs added to the mix. Most importantly, the Tanker will always have better aggro management tools than any squishy.Originally Posted by Blue_Mourning
That's the problem that people don't seem to be seeing. yes, squishies are not as good solo, but scrappers are not as good on teams. If squishies are as good solo as they are on teams, wouldn't scrappers and to a lesser extent tankers be totally unwanted on teams?
And Scrappers are just fine on teams. A team of Scrappers is a terror to behold. -
Quote:You have a very strange definition of "entertainment".Originally Posted by PrincessDarkstar
Anything that involves no or little challenge/skill is poor design if it's main purpose is entertainment.
-
Quote:Yes, I agree with this. The variance between 0x4 and 2x8 is pretty high.Originally Posted by StratoNexus
No. But its possible the variance could be a bit less than it currently is.
What broken and non-existent "meleer" has less than 4 mag mez protections? Tankers get 13, and everyone else gets 10, and they get it to all mezzes, not just one or two, for the cost of a single power.Quote:Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Ah, so your standard is that for two slots a squishy should have greater greater mez protection than a meleer gets from their powersets.
My standard is that for two slots (one for stun, one for hold, just to be clear here) a squishy should get to have a gimped and limited version of mez protection that defence sets far outshine. Even those sets available to some squishies that have mez protection still outstrip the proposed IO solution.
The opposition to this proposition is starting to look rather irrational. -
Quote:If the team is dying around the Traps Defender, it's because the Traps Defender failed to use the Traps to their fullest potential at the start; Traps is not a "panic" set, it's a "control" set. There is a lot of good to come of Traps, but you have to use them before disaster occurs. Traps prevent disasters, they don't repair them.Originally Posted by marc100
Ive recently found a Traps defender to be semi useless. Theyre actually very slow, so when the team is dying around you, you really dont have anything to offer to save the team but to kneel down and try to set another useless trap.
-
Quote:+0x4, for the record.Originally Posted by Blue_Mourning
Why you feel that you should almost never die against these kinds of difficulty settings is beyond me, and why you would go with your cup open and ask for something to make it easier is also beyond me.
IOs exist to make characters able to take challenges. That's why the game is not balanced or designed around IOs. At the base game, the need for mez protection on all characters is much less. For the challenge game, the expanded difficulty options, that is precisely what IOs are for.
Anything up to +2x2, which was old Invincible, might still be considered "base game", though I'm sure the game is still balanced around Heroic, +0x0. Problems at that level should not necessarily be addressed by IOs.
Problems above that, however, absolutely should be addressed by IOs. That's why we were given IOs - to take on greater challenges and boost our characters beyond the "base level". I simply can't understand why asking for IOs to address the challenge game - IO level play - is unreasonable.
---
Of course, the issue also crops up in team play, which is an entirely different issue.
---
Oh, and should I mention my Tanker, who takes +2x8 without difficulty, +3x8 without much difficulty, and +4x8 with just a little difficulty? Are you saying that Tankers are automatically more "super" than Corruptors? Or Defenders, Blasters, or any other "squishy", for that matter? -
To quote myself from an earlier thread:Quote:Seeker Drones was the biggest point of disagreement; lots of other folks think it's very worthwhile. If you've got room for it, it's worthwhile.Originally Posted by Eiko-chan
Generally, I view Detonator as completely skipable, and if you're Bots, Seeker Drones as well (Protectors get Drones of their own). Must-haves are Poison Trap, FFG, and Web Grenade. Triage Beacon and Acid Mortar are both very good, and Trip Mine is nice solo, as well as against masses. I personally adore Caltrops, but others see it differently.
As for why you want these powers:
Web Grenade - you have to take it, but it's a nice immobilise and also has a -recharge component, which can stack if you spam it.
Poison Trap is billed as a hold - and it is a nice one, which I'll get to later - but its real benefit is its -regen component. It's also got more -recharge. The real beauty of Poison Trap's hold, by the way, is that it's unresistable. It's not a sure-hold and only has a chance of firing while enemies are in the cloud, but if it hits, it hits anything. Even an AV. Best thing ever was watching Reichsman double over vomiting (the FX of the Hold) from my Poison Trap.
Force Field Generator is a very powerful defence tool. Slotted, it's ~15% defence to everything, and that bonus applies to you, your team and your pets. And more importantly, it provides mez protection - Hold, Stun, and Immobilise - to everyone in range as well.
If you don't have Bots, Seeker Drones are really nice for two uses - taking alphas and debuffing to-hit and damage. Even without Bots, I still view this power as skipable, because unlike Poison Trap's Hold, the to-hit and -dam can be resisted (by the PToD), which limits its usefulness against AVs and EB where you really need the debuffs.
Trip Mine is excellent for setting up ambushes. With a bit of recharge, you can get 14-18 Trip Mines down before they start exploding, and that is enough damage to take down half an EB's health.
Triage Beacon is basically a stationary Regeneration Aura. Good way to keep your pets (and team) alive.
Caltrops is a slow field, which pairs really well with Bots or Thugs, who both have burn fields. Foes are slower getting out, so they take more damage. Slot in Pace of the Turtle's proc, and it's yet another -recharge power as well. Slot in Positron's Blast's proc and you get exploding Caltrops, and hilarity ensues.
Acid Mortar is a nice debuff - both resistance and defence - and can serve well to pull spawns as well. It's an AOE debuff too, which is always nice. You can't target it, though, which is its biggest drawback.
So, that's Traps in a nutshell. The combo of Poison Trap, Triage Beacon and Force Field Generator, as well as Acid Mortar, Caltrops, and general MM toughness, is why Traps is generally viewed as one of the primary AV-soloing secondaries. A good opening set of Trip Mines helps too.
A little tip on playing /Traps: it is a stationary set. For the most part, a /Traps MM sets up a killing field (Trip Mines, Poison Traps, Acid Mortar, probably some Caltrops) and then lures enemies into it. A /Traps MM makes a fort, then defends that fort. And once the /Traps MM is fully dug in, you're a powerhouse. Moving around a lot really diminishes the power of Traps.
As for Thugs, the three summons and two upgrades are obvious. The attacks are up to you; at low levels, you'll probably want them, but you might respec out later for other power choices. If you do take an attack, skip Pistols for Dual Wield; there's just no reason to ever take the Tier 1 attack power in a Pet set.
Gang War is a mixed bag. Good as a panic button, and just fun to see a bunch of thugs with bats running around, and it lets you slot the Recharge Intensive auras for further Henchman toughness, but I still view the power as optional. Nice if you have room, but if you have to cull something, it should be on the list as expendable. -
Quote:By "no problems" I meant "undue problems". I get defeated now and then, and almost always because a mez lands. Running at x4, I expect to be defeated every now and then of course, but over time the trend comes out: it's the mezzes. The mezzes are why I fail, pretty much every time (sometimes it's just a bad streak or I do something stupid, but mostly it's the mezzes.)Originally Posted by Blue_Mourning
But you said you didn't have any problems with any other group except for Longbow.
Longbow has high damage, -defense, and long mezzes. The combo of the three leads to far more frequent than should happen defeats, but my experience with my /Traps MM tells me that where the true problem lies is with the mezzes. The damage and -defense isn't enough to take down the /Traps MM, who has protection against the mezzes.
Throughout all my experience, it's the mezzes that are the operative factor. My characters with some form of mez resistance operate at about the level I'd expect super heroes and super villains to operate. Those without mez protection tend to feel just a tad more sidekick-y and weak than they should. It's clear to me that the problem is mez hole, and thus the solution is mez protection.
I'm not asking for an inherent, or even power pools to correct the problem. I want something optional - IOs. IOs and IO sets exist to fill most other holes in the game, be they defence holes, recharge holes, travel speed holes, etc. There are even IOs that exist to fill the KB hole that exists in several sets of mez protection for those that do have it. So all I want is parity - a chance to fill the mez protection hole several characters have with the use of IOs.
I can get 15 KB protection through IOs (21 if I include PvP sets). Is KB somehow more annoying or more a problem than Stuns, Holds, and Sleeps that I can't even get 4 points of those in the same way? -
Quote:I believe many do, at least. But it's a smaller chance, and shorter stun - in my experience, any way. I occasionally got stunned running against Rikti, but it wore off quick enough that it rarely ended the fight.Originally Posted by Blue_Mourning
So why are you fighting for mez protection instead of a reduction in ability for Longbow? Seriously, Rikti have just as many mez opportunities as longbow...actually I believe they have more because don't Rikti Minions all have a chance to stun?
I'm sure you'd be a lot more accepting and approving of a "Nerf Longbow" thread.</sarcasm>Quote:Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen
You are able to handle almost any enemy group in the game at x4, a setting which never existed prior to this issue, and which the devs have described as a setting for players that want a "challenge", and now you ask for the game mechanics to be changed to make it easier for you because of one enemy group?
Longbow simply illustrates the problem - mezzes ending fights. Longbow's mezzes are particularly long and frequent compared to other enemy groups, but the problem isn't actually Longbow - it's the mezzes. Lucky mez chains from other groups create the same problem, it's just not as consistent a problem as with Longbow, and thus probably easier to overlook for people concentrating on the Hero game. I might go down 1 in 10 on other groups with some mezzes, and 1 in 2 or 3 on Longbow, because Longbow's mezzes hit more and last longer.
I'd like to be able to patch up that hole in my build with IOs, like most other holes in the game can be patched with IOs. I don't think it's an unreasonable request. -
Quote:Yes. As previously stated, x4 is only a problem with heavy-mezzing Longbow. Rikti don't mez as much as Longbow does; this Corruptor can run against Rikti at x4 with little difficulty.Originally Posted by Blue_Mourning
Are you still soloing at x4?
-
So, I tried Howling Twilight on some Longbow over my lunch break. Doesn't help. Mag 2 is too low to stun the Nullifiers, and since they're still active, they get to shoot at me while I try to slap down Fearsome Gaze, Darkest Night, or Tar Patch. Which means they get chances to mez me.
I would still really like the option to get a few points of Stun, Hold, and possibly Sleep protection. Having a lucky stun take me out for ten to twenty seconds is more than enough for a spawn to take me down, and wobbling around like an idiot isn't fun, isn't "challenging", and shouldn't be a core part of gameplay.
If mez protection is an "I win" button, it's only because it counters the "I win" button that are mezzes. And if there's an "I win" button in a game, players should have it, not enemies. -
Quote:Well, it's pretty much true. Either they die by the end of the RoF (with maybe one more Fire Breath or Fire Ball to clean up) or I got mezzed and I'm down before the mez drops. That's pretty much how it rolls. Either way the fight's over.Originally Posted by Blue_Mourning
You can't have it both ways. You can't say "you know this enemy group is really hard because of mez", and then say "all of my fights are 30 seconds, tops!"
-
Quote:You fight slow. 1.5 minute recharge would be every third or fourth fight (barring mezzes and defeats, of course).Originally Posted by Blue_Mourning
Isn't it up every 3 minutes which means it's up every 1.5 minutes if you enhance it fully, which would make it an up every other fight power right?
Mag 2 isn't enough to stun a Lt anyway, is it? Which still leaves Nullifiers running around shooting beanbags. -
Quote:Never thought about it. Figured the stun and -regen were attached to the rez, which I knew was PBAOE.Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Wait, you use it on EVs/AVs? Do you always get in their face to hit them with it? How the hell didn't you know it worked from range?!
-
Quote:Uh, no, it's only proof I don't know Howling Twilight as well as I might. I don't use it much, and mostly as a rez or -regen on EBs/AVs. The recharge makes it less useful to me than you'd suggest.Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Proof that you don't have a clue what you're talking about.
-
Quote:Because Shadowfall isn't true stealth, and Howling Twilight is PBAOE. I'd have to eat alpha to open with it.Originally Posted by Blue_Mourning
Also, why couldn't you open half the time with Howling Twilight, which does a pretty good AoE stun, and the other half hte time have the MM open with Gang War/Pets? (recharges maybe?) and then also sometimes open with Tar Patch (and Rain of Fire if you've got it) from around a corner?