Jibikao

Yup. I can understand MM having the least # of primaries but I believe they have more secondary sets than Dominator. Anyway, I am usually not a fan of "quantity". Quality is what I want and "fairness" is what I care about. If every other core ATs got something new, Dominator should too.

Anyway, I begin to feel we won't be seeing "Dark Control/Illusion". Think about it. We already have Dark support set that has a mix of controls. One can argue that /Dark started out as a "control" set but then later evolved to a support set. Much like /Time. It started out as a control set idea and then evolved into a Support set.

We already have plenty of /dark powers in the game. It is really not that hard to combine those powers and call it a "new set". The fact that we haven't seen it hints that we won't be seeing it at all.

I really think it's going to be a "natural" theme set. Whip Assault + something Natural Control. I think it's going to be Gadget/Chain control.

Dark Assault, on the other hand, is still highly possible. However, I still can't understand why they didn't create a Dark Assault right now. New animation just doesn't apply to Dark Assault because there are so many dark powers to choose from already. I mean the timing sounds perfect when Blaster got Dark/Dark. ugh... frustrating. Maybe we won't see any Dark/Dark combination.

I think Dark Illusion will be similar to how they created Pain Domination VS Empathy. It won't be a straight port with "dark colors".

Some people had problem with Pain Domination because they specifically wanted "Empathy" which includes Fortitude.

I think we'll see a mix of pet controls and usual control powers. I anticipate that the stealth powers may be taken out. Phantom Army MUST stay in or else it's not an Illusion set IMO. I can care less what they do with Phantom and Spectral. Phantom Army must stay!

And any argument that Phantom Army is going to be overpowered on dominator will fail because Illusion/Rad and /Cold Controller can already solo an AV with it.

Besides "Illusion", what other themes is similar to "Illusion"? Or what is the opposite of Illusion? Assuming Pain Dominaton is the opposite of Empathy.

PS: By the way, Time Manipulation started out as Time Control but they created a buff/debuff/control in the end. So it's safe to say there won't be Time Control.

Trick Arrow is a tough secondary for MMs only because it doesn't mesh well with certain Primaries. Its strength is in aoe slow, immb and debuffs/controls but some pets like Zombie and Genins will always run in and you'll end up not having enough powers to protect/babysit the melee pets. Aid Other can only save some.

Thug/Robot have an easier time with TA because they are mostly range and they have fire damage to light Oil Slick. Ninja/TA could do good damage but Ninja's survival is severely hindered with TA.

The debuffs from TA are also quite low because they follow all Mastermind's values.

Some sets like /Dark, /Trap and /Storm use "pet's" debuff values so they are naturally stronger than MM's own debuff value. For example, Freezing Rain and Tar Patch debuff 30% resistance regardless which AT uses it, including Defender! This is an advantage for MM. The only exception is Defender Trap. They did increase the debuff/buff values to match Defender's strength.

The only fear I have in Whip Assault is "weapon draw". Dominator switches between primary and secondary all the time and I would hate it if it causes weapon draw. Making a Whip Control would make Whip/Whip a "natural" combo.

Somebody claimed Thorny Assault actually doesn't have weapon draw delay but I feel it does.

So SoA can really see Stalkers? How easy can you see them with all those +perception? I heard that SoA has the highest perception?

Well, I am not sure how good Bane is in comparison to other ATs but I know Night Widow is pretty crappy, Fort got nerfed bad and Crab is like the worst. I've only done a small pvp match with my other friends using Bane and I remember at that time one of them is Crab. Crab does like no damage in pvp.

My Bane could really put some hurt on Corruptor with Surveilance, BU, critical and web. The match was pretty uneven since two of us are lvl 50 and the other two are not 50. I see the potential in Bane pvp but not the other 3 branches.

My logic isn't "assuming". It's a thoughtful logic. They created 3 new animations on Mastermind Dual Pistol. Two years later, they created Dual Pistol blast set.

Recently they created 3-4 (4 if you count the buff/pet one) new animations for Mastermind Whip attacks. It is very logical to believe that a Whip Assault/Control is in the works.

Maybe they do have Dual Wielding set in the future but the chance of seeing Whip before Autumnal (or whatever they want to call it) is extremely high and it's logical. I don't believe a Fire/Ice set is even in the works but I won't be against it if they release a new set with overlapping powers/theme. It is just not as "exciting".

I've always thought Stalker should have 1.125 melee (5% critical with 100% from hidden/placate) and Scrapper should have 1.00 melee but with great team critical buffs.

It makes little sense that an Assassin is more rewarded with "close proximity" teaming while Scrapper has no team critical buff. Hero AT is mostly designed as traditional "class" and it's more geared towards teaming; while Villain ATs are designed more for soloing. An Assassin should get a scaling critical chance (similar to what Scrapper gets from 5% Minion and 10% higher ranks) because more damage is needed to "eliminate" something at an efficient rate if the rank is higher.

It just seems like it's reversed to me. Don't you guys think?

Basically, I would have thought:

Scrapper
- More team-oriented with less base damage
- Critical chance scales with more team members; therefore encourage teaming more.
- Higher health since teams may require them to tank a little (off tank)

Stalker
- More base damage since he has less access to aoe
- Critical chance scales with the rank of the enemies
- Less health due to doing higher damage than other melee ATs. Definition of Glass Cannon

Mmmm, my first thought is that Life Drain with enough recharge is up very often and Dark already has tohit debuff (which is similar to having defense), so I was thinking I should push my HP higher, which makes Life Drain better because I have higher HP to heal back. Having more HP is like having more Resistance-to-all.

I think I am going for a mix because I don't think soft-cap range is necessary for Dark (since you already have tohit debuffs) and I want to have better damage (maybe with procs) and higher HP. Not sure if I am dedicated enough to get accolades at this point.


Right now I am stuck at Epic/Patron choice. I see the great benefit in either Ice or Mace for S/L defense but I also love Charged Armor's shield because defense means nothing if you die in one hit (no time for Life Drain to work) and energy resistance is probably 3rd most common type in the game behind S/L.

What's you guy's thoughts on Patron/Epic? (I am going to take both Tough/Weave)


PS: I also think that I am going to drop one of the cones later. Yes, at lvl 28, 3 cones are nice since I have no set bonuses and they are not fully slotted but once I have sets and decent recharge, I really don't need to cycle 3 cones. I like Torrent the best so far but it's one that's most hated on a large team. Torrent and TT just don't seem to mesh well. I like to start the fight with aoe knock back. I take way less damage that way. Scream is good when the mobs have little resistance to Psi (Mu, Ghosts, etc) and it has good -recharge debuff. I am not going to take Shockwave. I looked at the numbers and it just doesn't look impressive at all. Oh my, what did they do to Shockwave? My memory of P. Shockwave is still stuck at pre-nerf stage. LOL Shockwave's damage is not nice and I need to be in pbaoe. With 3 cones, I really don't see the need to run in for pbaoe. I'll only do that for Drained Psyche.

Honestly, they are "married" to this idea that Stalker is all about BU, AS and Placate. If one of them is not there, it's not a Stalker. :P

My money is on Staff having Build Up. I just don't know how they are going to add different Forms to the set.

Haven't you noticed that Stalker is the only AT that they don't want to break the mold? Stalker didn't get Shield and Fiery Aura because they don't want Stalker to have access to more damage from secondary like shield charge and fiery embrace. The "theme restriction" is like the lamest excuse because they have no problem giving Brute/Tanker access to concealment.

They just don't want to balance Stalker outside of "build up". Maybe due to PvP reason...who knows.

Nice!

What's lacking in Propel is that the graphic/damage doesn't add up. Are you telling me that a Chair does the same damage as a Car? I know it's impossible to increase damage on "larger objects" but that's one thing I don't like about Propel. Different size of Objects shouldn't do the same damage.

My concern isn't about what works or what doesn't work. If the dev feels "fine" about the current Martial Arts design for Stalker, then their standard for what works and what doesn't is pretty "low".

My concern is that because they have to add "Build Up" (mark my word), the Staff's uniqueness is taken away. Kinetic Melee is the only set that they specific add something unique to make up for the loss of Power Siphon mechanic. They add build up refresh and 100% critical in Burst (which I still don't know if it's intended).

Dual Blade is another example. Some people really hate it on stalker because two combos are tied to assassin strike. However, they did make 1K Cuts a bit better. Some may think it's not enough and some people may think it's fine. When I first level my DB to 50, I mostly only used BU + 1K Cuts but that's when melee reach was only 5'. Now that melee reach is 7', other Dual blade sets get a bit better but Stalker's 1K Cut still remains at 10'. I would have adjusted it to 12', assuming that 5 extra reach is the balancing point.

I am not an expert but from the looks of it, creating a Staff set for Stalker seems much more time consuming than creating "Large" Weapon for Stalker. I hate calling it Titan because the word Titan gives people a feeling that it "does not belong to" a "Ninja". lol

So realistically, we could get the same BS that "Stalker won't have staff set in this update but later updates...."

Maybe Stalker will get three build ups? Or one build up gives you everything. ugh.. I don't know. It does seem very complicated to "fit" stalker's needs. 3 Build Up powers seem unlikely because how do you reduce recharge? You need more slots for each type of Build Up that give both +damage and specific Form?

Oh, didn't know HEAT and VEAT have 85%. Interesting.

I think before we get into Brute/Scrapper Survival VS Damage ratio, we should look at Stalker. Stalker has the worst survival/damage ratio on his own with the lowest HP cap.