Jibikao

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Necro/Trick Arrow Level 36

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That should be a good challenge for ya! I am a bit like you who want to be different sometimes. I have yet to see a Necro/TA. I may have seen it below lvl 10 but definitely not 40+.

If you are bored, you need something very different and sort of challenging.

I suggest Necro/TA.

Judging by population, Ninja ranks the lowest followed by Merc.

You can try Ninja/Poison or Merc/Poison too!

which is a shame because fighting harder things are not rewarded properly IMO.

It's like why would you set customized mob to Extreme when they drop the same exp/tickets?

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"Seriously? Someone mentioned that they had to fix it 4 or 5 times in beta. Is this right, because if it had actually been fixed in beta, it really shouldn't be borked hitting the servers. It's shameful and sad."

That's why I added this line. If it was fixed 4 or 5 times, like I heard, then it was brought to Dev's attention before live. In the instance of something this horribly broken, there's no way that this didn't get reported. If it didn't get reported, what is the testing for?

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You would think that if something is bugged/broken 4-5 times, that should be the very first thing the dev tests for BEFORE the patch hits Live? I know if it's my company, I would!

Right now, I am not even sure if MM's temp is supposed to bring him out of Unaffected or supposed to cause a lot of -regen on him so he doesn't regen that much during that Unaffected period.

If he is Unaffected, can MM's power even "hit" him? So maybe MM's power is working as intended even though I don't know what MM's power actually does.


To dev's credit, I do think the specific temp powers for each AT is a GREAT idea. It promotes more team-plays and it gives "almost" every AT a "purpose"!

I actually didn't know I can re-stock my temp power in the machine until the AV was alone and I was bored after trying to hurt him down to 40% and he regen back to 80% and blah blah blah.

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So we weren't doing enough damage then? Does he have a lot of resistance to -resist debuff? I mean we had two sonic blast and we had 3 World of Pains and I run 2 Assault toggles. I thought our damage was pretty good until he turns into Unaffected.

I guess -regen like poison trap or drained psyche are helpful if you hit him right before he turns into Unaffected so he regens less? Those -regen effect lasts 30s?

I mean we got him down to about 40% and then he regen back to about 80% and then the cycle continued and we just got so tired of it.

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He's got over 200K hp and during the Unaffected period he gets several thousand percent Regen.

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So basically, right now you need a lot of -regen to be able to kill him because I can't think of other ways to kill him even with a lot of damage buff. I mean FS needs some foes (not that much damage buff with just him alone) to get to max. damage but even that I doubt you can kill him with his unaffected and regen. You need -regen so he regens less and you can eventually kill him?

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He actually has pretty meager regen most of the time; if he had the regular regen rate on top of 200K hp he'd be ridiculous in all situations. The several-thousand % regen comes in during his Unaffected period. Since he's Unaffected, you can't add more -Regen.

The team I did it with here on Live had:

2 Brutes
1 Crab
1 Fortunata
1 Stalker
2 Dominators
1 Corr ( /Dark)

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Dark has some-regen and the doms were /psi assault?

I've been reading some threads and it seems to me that having just 4-people can take him down much easier than having a full team?

I mean I've read that people did it with 4 MMs (assuming one or some of them are /trap or /dark or even /poison).

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So we weren't doing enough damage then? Does he have a lot of resistance to -resist debuff? I mean we had two sonic blast and we had 3 World of Pains and I run 2 Assault toggles. I thought our damage was pretty good until he turns into Unaffected.

I guess -regen like poison trap or drained psyche are helpful if you hit him right before he turns into Unaffected so he regens less? Those -regen effect lasts 30s?

I mean we got him down to about 40% and then he regen back to about 80% and then the cycle continued and we just got so tired of it.

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He's got over 200K hp and during the Unaffected period he gets several thousand percent Regen.

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So basically, right now you need a lot of -regen to be able to kill him because I can't think of other ways to kill him even with a lot of damage buff. I mean FS needs some foes (not that much damage buff with just him alone) to get to max. damage but even that I doubt you can kill him with his unaffected and regen. You need -regen so he regens less and you can eventually kill him?

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Okay, being an Altaholic... and something of a masochist, I've decided to roll up yet another Mastermind. This time, I will be revisiting Mercs, which I never got past 10 the first time around. (Not to do with the Mercs themselves - bad choice of a secondary...)

So... I'm trying to decide what would be a good compliment to Mercs. I already know /Force Fields is out (the aforementioned bad secondary - I fell asleep playing that one!)

I'd also rather avoid /Poison and /Traps, as I have one of each of those currently.

So... all that remains is /Dark Miasma, /Storm Summoning, /Pain Domination, and /Trick Arrow... how do each of these fit with Mercs?

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I am a huge fan of Merc and Merc/Storm is by far the nastiest combo. Reasons?

1. Well, all of them are ranged so you can just stand in between them with Hurrican running. No melee can get close!

2. Freezing Rain is so awesome!

3. Put 4 pet uniques in Tornado... your pets will be having close to 47% resistance to smashing/lethal and about 41% resistance to Fire/Energy/Cold (21% from Steamy and 20% from uniques).


I am not saying Merc/Storm is the best but it's pretty close! The only thing I have trouble with is AV with controls/psi damage.

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Just curious, how is Supress Pain comparing to Corruptor's version? I have a 45 Sonic/Pain and the 4s heal is very small. It's not good enough to keep me alive if I am under attack but it is good when I stand beside my bro's /pain. The stacking heal is ok.

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At 50, a Mastermind's Suppress Pain, once slotted, will give 390% +Regen.

At 50, a Corruptor's Soothing Aura, once slotted, will heal for 86.14 HP every 4s.

At 50, a Mastermind has 803.2 HP.

With 390% +Regen, the Mastermind will gain:
3.347 x (1 + 3.9) = 16.399 HP/s

With the Corruptor's aura, the Mastermind will gain:
86.14 / 4 = 21.535 HP/s


EDIT: I keep getting the names mixed up.

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Judging from the numbers, how is MM's better than Corruptor's?

Edit: I guess MM's aura benefits more on ATs with higher HP like Brute. I wonder how much Brute can get with MM's aura.

So we weren't doing enough damage then? Does he have a lot of resistance to -resist debuff? I mean we had two sonic blast and we had 3 World of Pains and I run 2 Assault toggles. I thought our damage was pretty good until he turns into Unaffected.

I guess -regen like poison trap or drained psyche are helpful if you hit him right before he turns into Unaffected so he regens less? Those -regen effect lasts 30s?

I mean we got him down to about 40% and then he regen back to about 80% and then the cycle continued and we just got so tired of it.

Ok, I don't feel like creating a new thread but HOW DO YOU KILL HIM in the end??

Our team was:
1 Fortunta
1 Dominator (Gravity/Energy)
2 Sonice/Pain corr
1. Robot/Pain
1 Stalker
1 Bane/Soldier
1 Brute

We did really well until the end... when Reichman was alone.

We took him down to about 50%, he turned into "unaffected". One of the teammates said MM's temp power is supposed to bring him out of Affected stage or reduce his regen or whatever. Anyway, we've tried many times but MM's temp wasn't doing !@#$. MM tried using the temp power before he turns into Unaffected (which is about 50% health) and AFTER he turned into UNAFFECTED. In either case, i didn't notice anything different.

We fought him for about 40mins... took him down to about 50% 4-5 times and then we just gave up.

We had tons of resistance debuff to take him down but we had no -regen debuff. Is that the reason why he regen so much?


So you MUST have -regen debuff for this SF?? I mean I can't see any other way to beat him besides -regen debuff after he turns into Affected.

And who else gets what MM has?? Midnight Kiss??? And why does Widow get that awful endurance drain thing? Drain who?? The ambushes?? I tried draining the boss and it did nothing... his endurance bar never moved.

Has anyone fully slotted Propel after the new change? How is the damage?

I have a Gra/Icy and I want to make my 2nd build an all ranged build just for different taste.

I am thinking about using Ice Bolt, Lift, Propel and BiB. I may skip Ice Blast (call me crazy!) because it only has 6s.

I don't know.. I am just trying to give myself a reason to take Propel again.

It may not be that bad an idea to use Lift for damage too. My current build skipped both Lift and Propel (kinda weird build I have to say) but I want to take Lift again. The listed damage seems to be better than Ice Bolt or even Ice Blast?

I love the new buffs. I've noticed a big difference when I get +damage buff on me since our base damage is a lot higher.

I feel like Blaster with better controls!!

Now I am going to buy sets for her and I am leaning towards more +defense than +recharge.

I did notice more endurance cost but I was also hitting much harder. It just means I should buy sets for my doms which is fine by me as it gives me more reason to keep playing them more.

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Poison: is pretty bad for mms in general.


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Are you serious? Do you know how strong Poison is as a debuffer? I mean seriously.

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Strong yes. Single Target, yes.

/Poison is by far the weakest secondary for MM. Believe me, I've tried A LOT of combos. I think Thug/Poison is a bit better because it is easier to put Noxious Gas on Bruiser but even that is weaker than other secondaries that can provide team supports. I've tried Thug/Trap that actually put me to sleep a bit (so strong).

Poison's debuffs are a bit over-rated anyway. Freezing Rain puts /Poison to shame most of the time.

PS: mmm, I am not sure which one is suckier.. Poison or Trick Arrow. I think I'll take Poison just because I can't imagine playing Necro or Ninja with Trick Arrow.

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I will, in fact, argue the point that Poison is a good debuffing set being that a majority of the debuffs are single target. Weaken is the prize winner of this set, in being that placing it with other assorted debuffs on more powerful enemies such as Archvillains or Giant Monsters, will effectively reduce them to mush. Honestly against a group of enemies Poison does have the utility of Noxious Gas (an AoE) and the extra added bonus of Neurotoxic Breath.


It's just the depth of perception and the current use of the secondary I suppose. Really good if you know what you're doing on teams, especially since the debuffs can be applied rather quickly with hasten on more of the hardier targets while the AoEs destroy the rest of the weaker opposition.

But you are right, it *can* be weak in certain situations, and strong in others. I just wish they would replace Poison Trap with something more useful. I'd still place it as one of the better debufing secondaries for MMs.

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I used to be like you who think /poison can shine in "certain" areas like against AV/Giant Monster. Hell, my very first lvl 50 MM is Merc/Poison. I liked him a lot but /poison is too single-target oriented.

Comparing to /storm, /dark and /trap, poison just lacks the "aoe" protection that helps the 6 pets survive better.

I know my merc/storm is like 3x better than merc/poison. Just Hurrican alone is better than any of the debuffs from /poison. Yes, I know Weaken is special but if an AV is going after my pet, there is not enough damage debuff to keep him alive anyway. Freezing Rain is way better than Envenom too. FR debuffs 30% resistance, debuff defense, AOE and knockdowns!


I don't know man. I think Poison is alright when you are on a small team or soloing but that's about it. The set is pretty under-performing in my humble opinion. (Oh, Poison is pretty good in pvp but so is storm and trick arrow) And /storm can solo really well too. You can Hurrican anyway you like since nobody is going to complain.

Poison Trap is a piece of !@#$#. Why does it have 4s interrupt??

Just curious, how is Supress Pain comparing to Corruptor's version? I have a 45 Sonic/Pain and the 4s heal is very small. It's not good enough to keep me alive if I am under attack but it is good when I stand beside my bro's /pain. The stacking heal is ok.

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Poison: is pretty bad for mms in general.


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Are you serious? Do you know how strong Poison is as a debuffer? I mean seriously.

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Strong yes. Single Target, yes.

/Poison is by far the weakest secondary for MM. Believe me, I've tried A LOT of combos. I think Thug/Poison is a bit better because it is easier to put Noxious Gas on Bruiser but even that is weaker than other secondaries that can provide team supports. I've tried Thug/Trap that actually put me to sleep a bit (so strong).

Poison's debuffs are a bit over-rated anyway. Freezing Rain puts /Poison to shame most of the time.

PS: mmm, I am not sure which one is suckier.. Poison or Trick Arrow. I think I'll take Poison just because I can't imagine playing Necro or Ninja with Trick Arrow.

Ugly Crab Legs??? What are you guys talking about? That's like the coolest thing about being SoA!!! Those legs look very cool!

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There's a nasty AI bug that creeps up when NPCs - including MM pets - don't have a ranged attack. So some form or ranged attack will stay.

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Then double Poison Dart's damage so it at least critical better during Hidden.

Right now I think Jounins are very messed up.

I still remember when Castle was trying to force pets to cycle every attack at melee range, Jounins would not cycle any attack if they use Golden Dragon fly at 10' range. It makes sense because all the other melee attacks only had 5' range at that time.


Looks like Jounins still need more work.

And I thought Castle reverted the changes on Oni? Oni still doesn't open the battle with Breath of Fire when I goto him. He used to open the battle with BoF all the time which is so much better.


Why do I feel every time they make one step forward on Ninjas and then two steps backward?


I mean I think they have improved Necro pretty well but Ninja still needs some work especially on Jounins.


I mean I would like to test Jounins if they lose poison dart. I wonder how an all melee-Jounin performs. It will be a major dps upgrade for sure but where can they get -regen from?


I think the dev should either get rid of Poison Dart all together or make it a much stronger attack or give Jounins a second range attack just like Grave Knights (dark blast and gloom).

I am voting for getting rid of Poison Dart all together or make Jounins' AI like Bruiser. One Hurl and then run in for melee.

I haven't really played my Ninja after they've introduced "team upgrade".

I made a new Ninja/Pain this weekend with my twin bro and we've discovered some major bugs with jounin.

We are only lvl 18 but this is a pretty serious bug. I've done quite a few tests on Ninjas before but nothing is as serious as this.

Apparently if you upgrade Jounin and he uses Soaring Dragon, he would ONLY cycle Soaring Dragon. It was my bro who noticed this first as he has never played a MM and he was curious about what the black ninja can do. Then I paid more attention to him and many times Jounin would only wait for Soaring Dragon to recharge and use it. He does not cycle the first two weak attacks. Has anyone noticed this?


Then I did another test. I command him to attack without upgrade. He cycles the first 2 attacks (but still doesn't cycle Poison Dart once sword is drawn). I then put upgrade on him and for 20s, he still doesn't use Soaring Dragon!

I consider this a major bug. Has anyone of you reported this behavior? I haven't tested Jounins with both upgrades yet but I think it is pretty serious at lvl 18.


By the way, Genins behave really well. They cycle kicks and throwing stars all the time.


Now Jounin seems to be gimped. I goto him but his AI for cycling katana attacks is very weak.

I took Share Pain first because I didn't know I can't get healed for 15s!!!

Then I took Soothe. I think I am going to respec Share Pain out. Yes, the damage buff is nice but I think the healing is enough with just Soothe and the aoe one.

I have a lvl 44 Sonic/Pain and I don't find /Pain that good. I think /Pain is better on a super-team as you can stack team buffs to avoid less healing. I get into this "healing-lock" too much on a large team if I am the only support. The freaking anti-mez takes 3s.

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Thugs: "We're taking back the street, Word Up yo!"


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LOL good one!

So you are going to control two characters at the same time? If that's the case, then duo Thug/Pain because the 2nd /pain can just put on auto aoe and use World of Pain whenever it's up.

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Thinking about gacking my Necro/FF MM and rolling up a Necro/Traps MM. Anyone tried this? Good combo or bad?

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I have tried it and I made for PvP originally. I liked it. He is at lvl 36 and stuck on Freedom server. (I am on Virtue now)

I originally wanted Necro/FF but /FF really offers just defense and has no debuff and I already have a Ninja/FF at lvl 45 and I wasn't sure if I want to cast bubbles that much again.

It turns out Necro/Trap is more enjoyable than /FF. Here are the good stuff to consider:

1. You can pull the mobs to you OR you can just team teleport in! I love this strategy on Necro/Trap. Team teleport also ports FFG with you so the moment you arrive, FFG is there and your pets can start mauling.

2. Necro's tohit debuffs stack nicely with FFG and Maneuver's defense.


If you don't mind taking Team Teleport, I think Necro/Trap is an awesome combo. Even without team tp, you can still use Seekers and then run in or just simply wait for the mobs to come to you.

I wanted Necro/Trap for pvp because of web grenade for -movement and mez protection and defense. They've nerfed Poison Trap to like useless in pvp so I am not so sure but hey pvp is pretty messed up anyway!

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TA does, in fact, have several debuffs that are unavailable to Dark, and against AVs, Flash Arrow alone is superior to the entirety of Dark's -ToHit.

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Wow, are you sure about this? I thought Flash Arrow debuffs only like 3.5% tohit?

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Against an AV, a dark's debuffs are combined not quite as potent. A while back AV's got massive to-hit debuff resistance. I recall a couple rad defenders going "WTF" while fighting one with me when they kept getting hit fairly reliably despite two sets of rad debuffs on it.

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Oh so Flash Arrow's tohit can't be resisted. I didn't know that.

But doesn't /dark have Shadowfall for 3.5% base defense? Defense is not affected by enemy's level as well. If the AV is higher lvl, 3.75% tohit debuff is still gonna be reduced but Defense doesn't?

/Dark also offers rare Psionic team resistance and very common Energy resistance?

I don't know man... Flash Arrow's tohit debuff doesn't seem that impressive to me. I know /TA also has damage debuff and it's only 15%, the same as Darkest Night but Grasp has base 10% damage debuff as well?


Put "feeling" aside (/TA set looks very weak when I team with them), /TA doesn't even look that good on paper. /Dark at least has a very useful self heal.


And also, let's say that Oil Slick Arrow is the defining power in TA, Necro will have a hard time igniting it? Merc will need Commando to use Flamethrower. Ninja's Oni does fire damage so he is the easiest. Thug will need tier 1 pet and Robot will need Assault Robot? Ninja and Robot (and maybe Thug) should be easy to ignite OLA but others may be a bit more difficult?

I've played several Ninjas and it is already tough to keep Genins alive. I doubt /TA's debuffs are good enough. A combination of debuffs and healing like /dark is much more efficient IMO.

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Thanks for responding. I like the sounds of this. I have 3 doms in the 30s. Which do you think would be best suited for the play style you're talking about (ranged powers)? I have a fire/electric, ice/psi, earth/fire. So far, I like ice controls the most.


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Some people like to build ranged Doms, but the approach is just suboptimal compared to a conventional build of range and melee. Make one of your Doms ranged if you want, it's your 15, but keep in mind you are in fact gimping yourself in so doing.

And keep a respec handy just in case.

Remember kids, a Dom that kills slowly dies quickly!

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I am one of those who dislike seeing an all-ranged Dominator. It's timid and used to be very low damage.

But I took my lvl 50 /thorn to Test and the damage from the 3 ranged thorn attacks are pretty good now. It's not impressive but much better than before.

I think an all ranged-dom is going to gimp himself much less than before. You are still gimping your damage potential but I guess it is safer not to go in for melee.

The dom can slot some +damage in control powers as well to make up the lack of melee damage. Gravity is a good choice I think. It has -slow and two attack powers (Propel and Lift). Is Gravity's Lift the same damage as Mind control's now? I haven't tested it.