Jibikao

/TA is the only set I have not really tried. Every time I think about it, it just discourages me when I look at the numbers. /TA's debuff values are not that good. I've seen quite a few Ninja/TA that makes me not want to try it. Their Genins just die left and right.

(Dark's best power IMO is Fearsome Stare!)

I had a lvl 21 Merc/TA but he is on Freedom and my main server is now Virtue.

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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?

You will see more and more of those "noob" builds because of AE farms. It's not as bad as 3 weeks ago but I am not surprised if I see "noob" build at high lvl because those people probably just join Freakshow farms to lvl up and they probably don't know much about the sets they picked.

I've seen Dominators without single hold at lvl 40!! That is only possible if they just join large team farm because I refuse to believe they can solo without single hold (ok, maybe at the easiest level but still)

I have a lvl 43 Grav/Icy. After the new buffs, I need to respec her to get a better idea.

I think overall, /Icy Assault will remain the most "fast-pace" assault since there is only one change in Ice Sword Circle. If you like building Domination fast (without too many set bonuses), /Icy could be a good choice.

There is a lot of -slow in Grav/Icy. It's overkill to be honest... lol

I have yet to try either Energy Blast or Energy Melee. I am afraid of the ST-targetness in EM and the knockbackness in EB.

I figure if I want to try them, I might as well try Energy Assault which has most of the Energy powers.

And I have yet to try Mind control so Mind/Energy it is for me.

Don't have the hard # but for Fortunata to deal great dps, you will need Follow Up and some claw attacks and possibly Poison Dart for -regen effect.

My attack chain is Dominate, Gloom, Subdue and TK Blast. This is a very good attack chain but I find myself taking too long to take down an AV. Maybe it is due to lack of -regen or lack of follow up.

You can try Follow Up, Lunge, Poison Dart and Dominate. Dominate will stop AV for about 25% of the time at least.

Call Reinforcements is worth it. Yes, the recharge is long but we now have Pet Recharge sets. They don't deal a lot of damage but they are good for taking hits and holding. My Bane survives much better with those two spiders are out. Bane/Crab have awesome Manuever that can benefit them and believe me, those 2 spiders need your team defense.

Crab's 3 littler spiders, however, is completely optional. I took it the first time and they are a lot weaker than Stalker's 3 epic spiders. Those 3 epic spiders used to have even more HP than the old Stalker HP! And those 3 can take -defense debuff sets. Crab's 3 can't.

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I tried to play a SoA but i just can't seem to enjoy it. I went to the hero vets, witch i just got yesterday, and they can fly right away and can transform and stuff it just seems more rewarding than a SoA. Now am i just missing something or what because it just seems so lack luster right now.

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I can't tell you how many times I stop lvling PB when I hit 14. Yes, the Fly and Form are kinda cool when you got them but it becomes annoying when you try to enhance those powers.

I haven't tried Epic Hero after their buffs. I can honestly say SoA > Kheldian. Of course some of you can disagree with me. I love how two SoA can almost cap the whole team's defense while not sacrificing anything. Those toggles are always on as long as you are within range. SoA is always on the attack-mode, unlike Defender/Corr who may spend time "supporting" others through buffs/heals or setting up debuffs. SoA just put on the toggles and fight.

I am just never impressed by Kheldians. When I play squishy, I love inviting SoA (with toggles of course) because I know as long as I am close to them, I get decent defense. If it's a Brute, I have to rely on him to draw aggro. With SoA, I just go crazy and it doesn't matter which AT I am at the moment.


PS: By the way, I have to emphasize that SoA WITH Maneuver. SoA without Maneuver is gimping himself/herself so hard that it's not even funny.

Of the 4 SoA, Fortunata solos the best. Not because she kills the fastest. It's more because she has the defense, mez protection and CONTROL to counter most things you can see when you solo.

Yes, NW and Bane do more damage but NW has literally no controls at all unless you use Air Sup and Bane is a bit more squishier at melee range.

Fort's damage isn't the top but it's sufficient enough to solo well and fast. Just take double Assault and Gloom and you will be stream rolling with ease.

Fortunata has mag 4 Stun to open the battle on boss or you can simply stack two Dominate with ease. It's not like Fort is going to die after the initial hit.


To give you a good example, I was soloing on relentless with my Crab. Everything went very well until the boss. He landed a CRITICAL on me which did over 1000 damage. I died in split second. If it was my Fortunata, I can open the battle with Stun and the rest is just risk-free. My NW also died once when I was farming at the Wall. One of the bosses landed a Critical on me and I died in split second before I could heal.

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Hmmm... I think I was having VS buffed by domination in my "Before" now that you mention it... i don't think VS benefits from domination so I got to review that....

I never accounted it scourgeing, btw.

That being told: VS actually is free damage so no, it does not pull down the set. On the other hand, without it you do much less damage. I like to think about it as a focused damage aura. You can't control who will be hit every tick, but it will hit some one. If facing a single foe it will stay put on him. With many foes it may spread the damage a bit.

Edit: double checked, I didn't.

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So Electricity was "out-performing" that much then? I like VS but I figure Dom's base damage buff won't increase VS' damage.

Still good to know that Elec performs well.

Starsman,

Is Electricity Assault performing WORSE because VS pet doesn't get any of the new buff? Assuming every power is adjusted, does VS pull down Elec set or no?

I kinda like VS but they took away Scourge (bummer) and it won't receive any damage increase from the new buff.

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The numbers Im seeing show this as a decrease in dps over time instead of an increase.
Example:
Sniper Blast: Increased this power’s damage scale from 2.76 to 3.56, increased its recharge from 12 seconds to 20 seconds and increased its endurance cost from 14.4 to 18.51.

Old scale 2.76/12rech=.23/sec
New Scale 3.56/20rech=.178/sec

Shots/min Old: 60seconds/12sec rech=5
Shots/min New: 60sec/20 sec rech=3

So youre doing LESS damage over the SAME amount of time for MORE endurance. All snipes would be better served by removing 2 of the 3 accuracy checks they go through for a power that is supposedly going to be more accurate due to the time it takes to make the shot. Missing 2 shots in 5 with %96 to-hit and %1.93 accuracy is ample evidence of this.

This is yet another stealth nerf like Domination received.

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Except that Snipe can't be used like a regular attack where you can cycle it whenever it's up. I can care less about the recharge increase because if I am using Snipe, I either use it to open the battle or to finish a runner off. I want BIG damage ONCE. That is what Snipe is good for.

Snipe is never intended to be used like Semi-Auto Assault Rifle where you just waste bullets left and right. Snipe is a hard-hitting, deadly shot which is what this new buff is for.

I like the new change. I may just use Snipe more now. If I want good DPS attack Chain, I don't need to include Snipe. The old Snipe is not even good at finishing off runners.

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after issue15 does mind/psi still the best choice for pvp?

who already test it?

thnx!

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I didn't know /psi assault was that good in pvp to begin with. /Psi used to rank pretty low in ST damage. The new buff improves Psi's Single Target damage by a pretty large margin. I see /Psi becoming even better in PvP.

By the way, even if the end cost has gone up for most of the attacks, the damage from Primary has not (ex: single hold and Lift). That's even more damage with no extra endurance cost.

I think may be some of you are killing faster now?

I used to see Katana users complain about endurance cost 'cause they hit so much faster after that buff. T_T Just try not to overkill things. I've seen Brutes use Knockout Blow on a target that only has 5% health left... now that is a waste of endurance.

Now it makes more sense to get sets and maybe perma-dom. I haven't decided on my first perma-dom yet.

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I really don't think DPA or DPS applies to Snipes very well. I mean, you can calculate it, yes, but for actual practice to reflect statistical average, one would have to cycle a Snipe as soon as it recharges. Given that it's interruptible and cannot be used just haphazardly whenever a Blaster fancies and that, given its long activation time, many opt for faster, slightly less damaging powers instead, it has been my experience that Snipes spend a LOT of time recharged and waiting to be used. From my own experience, that's AT LEAST twice as long as they actually take to recharge, and that's without speeding them up in any way. Add that to the fact that their DPA really IS lower than one would expect, I don't believe an increase is that far out of order.

There's actually another interesting phenomenon. The longer a power takes to recharge, the more likely it is that its actual use will reflect predicted DPA numbers, because it will spend less time waiting, relative to its cycle length. What's more, people tend to be more likely to use these powers, as they are relatively cheap in animation time vs. recharge time, bringing them closer to their predicted numbers.

In light of the above, I actually think that a change to make Sniper Blast have BETTER DPA than is expected of it will give the power some needed "oomph," but because it's not very likely to reach this predicted better DPA, still keep it balanced. I would not, however, mind seeing a recharge increase to preserve DPA. As Blasts are hard to pull off and tend to be situational, concentrating more of the attack into fewer shots is going to help it both get better ACTUAL DPA, as well as make it more exciting to play with, at least from where I'm looking.

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I think the dev may be playing it safe to see how Dominator performs with Snipes and they can use those data to see if it makes sense to port them to Blaster/Corr/Defender. I think it's highly possible.

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You know, the current level of Snipe damage, which is to say DPA, isn't all *that* bad. Adjusted for Arcanatime, most snipes do about 70~75% damage of T1 or 2 blasts, and about the same DPE as well. Considering their range and front loaded appeal, and the availability of some seriously cheap snipe sets out there, I'm not so sure it really needs that much love. Then again, I only have a snipe in one of my dual builds on just one of my blasters, so who am I to argue?

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My problem with Snipe is that a lot of time, the damage is wasted because the target is already dead because it takes 4s. You really have to pick a nice target to shoot Snipe (or pull). In that case, I might as well just cycle Tier 1 and 2 or 3 (Bitter Ice Blast / Blaze)

I've always thought Snipes are useless. I rarely see Dominator uses Snipe. They took Snipe just for the +recharge bonus.

I like the new change on Snipe and it won't surprise me if this treatment is spread around those who have Snipe.

My Dark Blast Corr took Snipe and I use it whenever I want to entertain myself. I get much better damage with just Dark Blast + Gloom and repeat.

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What powerset combination would you consider to be the "most powerful" for a PvE Stalker?

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Spines/Will + Shadow Meld.

or

Spines/SR + Ball of Lightning for more aoe

You can open any team size battle with Build Up + Throw Spines + Shadow Meld. Ball of Lightning is good if your primary only has ST damage.

Electricity and Claw are great too.

Actually, Dual Blade is good too!

In PvE, do you mean solo or large team all the time? If it's soloing, then Dark Melee rocks very hard. If it's large team, then Spines/Elec/Claw/Dual blade.


Actually, the only set that I can't figure out what's good for is Martial Arts....

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and Stalker is just plain weak for most purposes.

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Excuse meh???!

I think from what the OP is asking, Stalker seems the best choice!!! He can take his sweet time to kill his foes and doesn't need to rely on team.

And Corruptor is not good for new players because most corrs excel in teams and some terrible for soloing (/thermal and /pain to name some).

I say blue side, Scrapper. red side: Brute/Stalker/MM

4 Dream Team?

Any 3 SoA (with single or double Maneuver and at least one Assault) + a secondary the provides healing/resistance (since the defense will be capped through the roof)

/Thermal is actually very good with widows as widows have beyond amazing /Psi resistance so that fills /thermal's hole.

/Pain is a good choice as you can cast aoe resistance buffs and healing.

/sonic resonance has a lot of +resistance but sometimes you just need some healing.


I would nominate: 3 SoA + /Thermal

You know what, I, too, have never heard anyone looking for a Kheldian.

I play on Virtue server and I usually do one ITF on Sunday. I've been doing it 3 weeks in a row now (trying to get 250 merits for my damn Miracle unique!!).

I am a well invested Widow (both Fortunata and Night Widow). I constantly hear people asking for SoA or SoA in the same sentence as "supporter". I feel I am uber strong.

I have not teamed with enough PB/WS. It seems WS is strong 'cause I can see those dark minions shooting and that aoe soul drained power.

I also have not seen enough Hero Epics in the new zone. I wonder why? I've seen tons SoA. But it's on Virtue. Other servers may vary.

Nice math.

I think Dominators are actually doing really well between 1-12. I start to notice damage decrease at 12 and then at lvl 20 (without SOs), my damage seems to be quite low without Domination.

I don't think lvl 1-11 really matters that much as things can't kill you as fast (if you don't do it at relentless) and it is easier to find a team around that lvl range.

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Second, and similar in some ways to the first, is the way the new changes free you to use domination when you feel it would be the most useful. Since there is no pressure to use dom for the damage boost, it is more likely to be available for the dangerous encounters, which seems like it would be a hard-to-quantify, but real, boost in performance.

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Second point is my favorite one. At lower lvl, only Lost can really become "mez problem", so Domination is mainly used for just Damage buff as aoe holds have super long recharge and they don't come until later. In I15, my Dom can only save Domination for bosses to ensure that I can win easily!

I think it is too hard to examine an AT between lvl 1-11. MM is the most overpowering between 1-11. MM has no endurance for one.

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Mine is sitting at 37 with near-perma mind link. It kills faster then my brutes ever did, and I've about got the end issues wiggled out to go entire large missions non-stop with no rest and little or no insps.

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Damn, almost perma at 37!

I turned my widow into Blood Widow (follow-up). I use Follow Up and two Assault. The damage buff is crazy...!

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Necromancy/Soul Extraction: This power should now accept Recharge Intensive Pet Invention Origin enhancements.

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-Castle

link: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....part=1&vc=1

I guess he really does read his inbox.

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Nice "buff"!

I wonder why Dark Servant can't take Recharge Intensive?

The next buff is to allow Lich and Knights to take Accurate Tohit Debuff sets!

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More than likely.. it tells you in the guide.

It's probably not going to be a category of foes, but an individual character in that group that will be lvl 50. You can even use him as your ally if you want.

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But how do I pick that lvl 50 foe? I see my custom critter being lvl 1-54. How do I set them to 50 or where do I find that lvl 50 critter (or critter group)?

The guide just says Natterling - Minion (50 - 50). Where do I find this critter?

[/ QUOTE ] Natterling is in the group: Soldiers of Rularuu

Your custom critter group will still display as 1-54 in the editor, but the mission itself will be lvl 50 which will make your custom group spawn at lvl 50 as well.

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So I can pick a specific critter from the enemy group?? How do I do that? I thought I just pick either the enemy group or my custom critters?

Damn, I am so confused! LOL