Jibikao

The DoT from Gloom and Breath of Fire only have one accuracy check so if the first tic Scourge, the rest will too.

I do agree that DoT may not benefit as much. The case with Dark Blast set is that it has two cone attacks and if you cycle them like TT, NF, Gloom and Dark Blast, the following attacks have a high chance scourging. It could also be that Dark Blast does less dmg so I need to throw in more attacks to see scourge.


I think somebody needs to compare how many times Dark Blast set scourge VS Ice/Energy scourge. It is hard to compare to Fire / Sonic since their secondary effect yields more damage.

I am interested to know if Dark Blast indeed scourge less.

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None of his attacks show up as having a taunt, but I'm pretty sure he has the 400% taunt modifier on him, which would keep enemy attention much better than anything else anytime he attacks.

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Since Bruiser is using Brute's mechanism, I assume he can generate some "taunt".

Could this explain why that same AV barely runs against Thug/FF and runs/flies like crazy against my Merc/Storm? She literally moves around so much. She would run to another room, to the corner, or even flies to the ceiling.

The problem is she is Gravity/Psionic Assault AV. T_T My Merc/Storm has zero resistance in Psi dmg and I don't have it on myself either. I have 4 pet uniques but I just don't have mez protection for myself and psi resistance. If I chase, she would go to a corner and then hit Shockwave and 80% of my pets are dead (sometimes including me).

If I don't chase, she would regen back to full health and then snipe me for over 900 damage and I die. I didn't want to use bodyguard mode since I have the least defense against her attacks. My pets at least have 16% defense to all (I use Maneuver and Steamy).

It was very frustrating. I am actually really proud of my Merc/Storm but I really can't do much against Gravity/Psi Dominator AV. She has holds, stuns, aoe and all psi dmg.


I tried to solo her at relentless level and I just couldn't do it. My friend's Thug/FF did it. (although he didn't say if he beat her at relentless, I assume he did)

If she doesn't run around, I think I'll have a much higher chance of beating her.

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"We need a Support."

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Support can be healing, buff, debuffs, controlling and a mix of everything.

When I play my stalker with my brother's stalker, we need to go with SoA because of their team defense. If the team gets too big without any support, we'll find some corruptors or MMs.

I sometimes find a Dominator but ever since that Farming Madness period, I haven't seen a good high-lvl dominator for a very long time. Most of the Doms I've teamed with don't know !@#$ about their ATs.


My logic goes like this. If you are resistance based Brute/Tanker, healing can quite beneficial (if that person actually heals you in time). If you are squishies, defense buffs are better for survival.

PS: I would take a good /dark over /empathy any day, any time, any minute.

Just for my own curiosity, I built a melee-crab last night using my 2nd build.

I have to say, my melee-crab seems to be doing better than my Bane and it's sad!

I start the battle with Aim (Crab's Aim is 50% dmg boost?) and Venom, jump in to Arm Lash first, then Frenzy. Then I just cycle Slice, Longfang and Arm Lash and Frenzy or Frag Grenade if I am overwhelmed.

Crab can survival much better and the action is much faster. In fact, this crab is comparable to night widow.

My twin brother and I are both semi-melee Crab now and we are amazed by how good it turns out. Fast action, fun slashing and can still deliver aoe dmg.

Anyone know?

I am asking this because a friend tried to solo an AV mish and he said the AV never really ran around.

I took my Merc/Storm and the AV not only ran around so much but flew so high too. I had to use snow storm to bring her down.

I suspect Bruiser has taunt in his punches and that's why the AV didn't run when he fought her.

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I think Banes' issue is that, to make maximum use of its potential, you must be unwieldy. Imagine a Broadsword/Kin Scrapper with Hide and Hidden criticals. To make use of the kin side, he must de-Hide himself. Additionally, using the kin side puts his sword away, requiring redraw. When using the Venom Grenade, you de-Cloak yourself, preventing yourself from criticalling on the first strike. When using Surveillance, you put away your Mace, requiring redraw; this increases the time between strikes, and lowers your DPS. Additionally, since both -res effects are so short-lived--correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe both are 20s--these issues will continuously pop up.

That exacerbates the already-existent Bane issue of long cast times.

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Yup, basically you sum it up. I've been playing Bane a lot lately just to get to know Bane more.

Surveillance causing weapon redraw annoys me the most.

Poison Ray does a lot of dmg but it takes 2s and then another 3-4s to complete the dmg. A good combo is to start with Venom but that reveals you.

I can live with less defense and the lack of defense debuff resistance (as I think SoA have a lot of defense already and you gotta have some "holes"), but weapon redraw and long activation are annoying.

I don't think Bane is underpowered but the dev can definitely smooth him out with less weapon redraw.

I don't even think Bane needs a lot of +recharge because the activation time is so long. I took Bash, Pulversize, Shatter, Poison Ray and CC and I barely have any time to use Bash because by the time Poison Ray is gone, Pulversize is already up and then Shatter.

And I hate how I can't take Pulversize earlier. I would switch Pulversize with Beam Blast

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I know Sonic Blast is good and I've been wanting to try Energy Blast. Maybe I'll try Energy blast. I just know a lot of Brutes will hate me.

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Not just Brutes, but Stalkers, MMs and Corruptors with anchor-based debuffs. I did NRG blast hero side twice, I would never touch it again.

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I should name myself Annoying Corruptor. hehe

Yeah, that's the reason why I haven't tried it. It does look pretty though.

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I really like my Sonic/Pain

Perma 45% damage bonus(assult+WoP+sets)
95% tohit(Perma WoP)
55% resist smash/lthl 44% resist to Ice(patron +perma WoP)
18% resist to all(WoP Rocks!!)
Passive heal aura equates to over 25 hp a sec regen
AoE resist/defense debuff slotted with achilles proc helps a lot

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Mmm, interesting.

I know Sonic Blast is good and I've been wanting to try Energy Blast. Maybe I'll try Energy blast. I just know a lot of Brutes will hate me.

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Couple of questions

1.) What do you think about Serum?

2.) Does PowerBoost boost defense of FFG?

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1. Serum is very skippable. I took it the first time and then respec it out. The "god-mode" doesn't include psionic resistance and that's sad because a lot of times the team may need psionic resistance to take alpha. The endurance crash is kinda annoying too. And the duration is only 60s. You can easily skip this power and save some purple/orange for your Commando before the tough fight.

2. My gut says Power Boost does not transfer to FFG. FFG is not even a pseudo-pet. It is actually a real pet that can be target.


PS: Take Aid Other and 5-slot it. Your pets and teammates will love you.

Well, ranged primarily pets will be definitely "better" but I want to see another mix like Grave Knight.

I am hoping it's not Fire but we already have Oni.

I want Ice and/or Psionic damage type. Succubus type of boss pet with Psionic blasts.

Just something more different will be good.

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How well can a fully io'd out fortunata do on a farm compared to the permadom fire/psi? I've noticed some nice AOE capabilities on the fortunata, but I haven't really messed with one yet. I think with enough recharge many of those AOE's can be shot off pretty quick.

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Well, I've been farming those Rome warriors with my lvl 50 Fort. I think I did it faster than a Spine/Fire Scrapper. He and I were just clearing mobs to mobs.

My build is kinda expensive. I have one LoTG 7.5% and unique Numina and Miracle for +recovery. I also carry double assault but only one Maneuver. I do not need to "slow down" at all. Just by killing, you constantly get new inspirations so I just eat them. I can't recall the last time I actually "rest".

It's nice when mini-nuke is up. I can clear one mob so quick.

I am sure Fort isn't the best farmer out there but it's decent enough for me. It's almost impossible for me to die and I do very good damage with Psi Tornado, Scream and then Dominate one to kill one, Gloom another to finish off, Subdue another minion and TK and then cycle.

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The villainside primary healer is a pain domination mastermind, with necro/pain being probably the best overall in terms of team survival. Corruptors are the primary support, though. A thermal can stop a lot more damage than a pain mastermind unless the mastermind is extremely skilled.

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I would take MM/storm over MM/pain any day!! But it's just me... /storm is so good on MM.

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From what I have read, this class is the healing class for Villains, but, I haven't seen that many healing abilities on the trees, to make this class a healer and still have some damage output, what primaries and secondaries should I take? Should I also take the medicine ability?
Thanks

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You will be gimping your toon if you only want to "heal". Corruptor has an inherent that doubles the damage when the target's health is below 50%.

You can try to out-heal the damage taken, but in this game, it may be better to control, buff or debuff first. I am not saying healing sucks but if you are going for a secondary like /dark, you have an awesome aoe heal and decent controls (fearsome stare) and debuffs like darkest night.

The set that has the most healing is /pain domination and then /thermal. If you really like to heal, those two are good choice to start. (you may find soloing with /thermal is painful)

I would call Corruptor a good "supporting" class. Supporting doesn't mean just "healing". It could also be buff, debuff and control.

You know what, I just realized that MM's pets may not be able to take Pet Recharge pets? Just Pet Sets??

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2. The fact that khelds have a chance to spawn Quantums/Crystals. I've been rejected from many taskforces and farms because the people were afraid I'd spawn a crystal and we'd all wipe. Heaven forbid something in this game gives a challenge...


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That is my #1 complaint but the crystals are easier now (it seems) and I no longer have to keep reading "Watch out Quantum!!". It was mildly annoying that we had to kill quantum or void first because we have PB or WS on the team.

Overall, a good player is a good player. I don't mind having PB/WS on my team.

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I'm sure the COMPANY has 50 employees, but how many of them actually work in the same cubicle farm alongside Positron, War Witch & Co.?

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For reference, I count 47 people in this picture, which is now outdated.

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That picture was taken just a few weeks ago. There might be a few new faces not shown there, but that's a pretty good representation of the people who are here now, at Paragon Studios, in Mountain View, in the same building, in the same 'cubicle farm', working on this game and not any other game.

As others have pointed out, that doesn't reflect the various GMs, tech support people, Customer support, NCSoft West biz peeps, etc etc.

Hopefully, that's clear enough.

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mmm, so which one is Castle? I haven't seen his face yet! Reveal yourself!

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Banes don't need a buff.

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Yeah, they really do. Being squishier than all the other VEATs while not dealing more damage and not having unique features like a Fortunata's control makes a branch weak. Their attacks are just too slow. They're unwieldy. Surveillance dropping your Mace is bad. It also needs to last much longer. You shouldn't be whipping your targeting comp out every twenty seconds to maintain that -res.

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I agree that a good buff for Bane is to reduce the # of weapon redraw. That will speed up Bane's action a lot. Other than that, I think Bane is decent.

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O. M. G.

http://www.cityofheroes.com/goingrogue/

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Ummm... WOW... but what exactly does it mean for us? New AT's? New powersets? Are they merging the games?

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Call me crazy, I think it's a good thing if they "emerge" two sides. More players in the similar zone, more chance to team up and "the more and merrier"!

And I swear I don't mind trying PB or WS again for the 5th time if I can create them in CoV or in the future "emerging zone".

I kinda enjoy the challenge. They are "bosses" after all. Imagine you fight a team of lvl 54 Longbow Wardens or Gun Slingers. I believe they'll be even more nasty to fight.

So why should Customized Bosses be inferior?

I was laughing a bit when the Brute on my team got killed consistently when he jumped in. It was a big group of lvl 54 bosses afterall. Technically, you are "supposed" to die without proper support/planning.

I enjoy the current challenge. If my team does well, we still get great exp! Not as good as Ritki Farm for sure but it is a very acceptable rate.

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Back to the original topic

The post wasn’t really for Mercs but for Thugs. As far as I am concerned for Mercs its a no brainers since they really aren’t losing anything , If you slot Achilles and ToLG in both soldiers and spec-ops you still have enough slots left over to get a 90% + to hit / damage.

In Thugs , you do not have enough slots on your enforcer to get 90%+ to hit /damage + Achilles + ToLG and 2x IO slotted+Def to get Maneuvers from 7.50% to 11.25%. It might not seem like much but in later levels I find the difference between 15% def and 22.50% defense is very noticeable.

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A mix of purple sets may get you close to capped damage with +defense and AH procs. You don't need that much +accuracy since Enforcers have Tactics (?).

What is your secondary?

You can put two unique in Punk and Bruiser to get that extra defense/resistance.

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My secondary is Dark.

I don’t understand what you mean about Punk and Bruiser. Achilles and ToLG can only go in the Enforcer since it has the Defense DeBuff set ability , I don’t have any issue's with slotting Sovereign or Edict IO’s as I put them in the Bruiser and Thugs along with 5 Mandate's

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Oh, I was suggesting that instead of worrying about +defense in Enforcer, you can put more unique sets in Tier 1 and Tier 3 pets. The two new Pet Recharge uniques stack with Sovereign and Edict. Just a thought.

I am surprised that Dark Servant doesn't take Pet Recharge set.

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I can honestly say /dark armor sucks on Stalker. I've tried a lot of secondaries on Stalker and /da is the only set that I have trouble with. It just doesn't mesh well. And even with the mez toggles, it still feels weak on stalker.

Not sure about on scrapper though. The mez toggles don't mess with Hidden so I guess it's better.

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I have 5 Dark Armor Scrappers, most of them 50. I have a level 50 Dark Armor tanker with plans for another one...eventually. I have two Dark Armor brutes with plans for 1-2 more...eventually.

I don't have any Dark Armor stalkers. I have no plans for any Dark Armor stalkers in the foreseeable future. Presently, I cannot imagine what could possibly entice me to role a Dark Armor stalker.

For the record, I don't have any stalkers at all, but there are a few combos that interest me.

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Stalker is very good now. Welcome to the dark side! Just don't make a /da stalker to start.

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I've got two friends who run a duo of Elec/DA Stalkers. They say that Oppressive Gloom stacks, so that they can take out the big nasties and then kill everything else while they're stunned with their AoEs.

But Stalker DA really isn't much to talk about by itself. There are better choices that are easier on the endurance bar and give better protection.

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Yeah, the toggles stack. I guess I should have thought about that when my twin brother and I made new stalkers. I went with /energy aura just because I heard so much bad things about it (it is surprisingly better than I thought but /psi damage from bosses/av SUCKS).

It's the micro-management part that annoys me. If my toggle hits, I get revealed so I usually turn it off first and then turn it back but the two toggles take about 5s to activate and it just eventually gets too annoying.

You know what really sucks on Stalker and I've seen it? /Electricity Armor!!! Yes, elec armor has a bit better overall resistance but it has no heal and the god-mode has health crash too. Yikes... my friend made a Spine/Elec with me and he consistently dies more often than mine Spine/EA.

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I never see posts on Dark Armor or any recommendations for DA. I really love the look of Cloak of Fear, even though it sucks now....so I hear.

Is there a buff incoming for DA or was there one, or just a nerf?

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I can honestly say /dark armor sucks on Stalker. I've tried a lot of secondaries on Stalker and /da is the only set that I have trouble with. It just doesn't mesh well. And even with the mez toggles, it still feels weak on stalker.

Not sure about on scrapper though. The mez toggles don't mess with Hidden so I guess it's better.

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Back to the original topic

The post wasn’t really for Mercs but for Thugs. As far as I am concerned for Mercs its a no brainers since they really aren’t losing anything , If you slot Achilles and ToLG in both soldiers and spec-ops you still have enough slots left over to get a 90% + to hit / damage.

In Thugs , you do not have enough slots on your enforcer to get 90%+ to hit /damage + Achilles + ToLG and 2x IO slotted+Def to get Maneuvers from 7.50% to 11.25%. It might not seem like much but in later levels I find the difference between 15% def and 22.50% defense is very noticeable.

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A mix of purple sets may get you close to capped damage with +defense and AH procs. You don't need that much +accuracy since Enforcers have Tactics (?).

What is your secondary?

You can put two unique in Punk and Bruiser to get that extra defense/resistance.

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I had it slotted in soldiers waaay back when you could buff soldier recharge. It almost never makes any meaningful difference, compared to the chance for neg proc.

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Why not slot both? My Spec-op and Soldiers have both.

The problem with AH on Merc is that it is harder to tell when AH proc happens since most damage are DoT. Visually speaking, 3-3-3 damage isn't that much more impressive than 2-2-2 if you know what I mean but I think the AH effect is there.