Jibikao
-
Posts
3510 -
Joined
-
Quote:And I agree. Maybe "weak" melee attack is a wrong choice of word. I meant to say some range pets would run in to use "brawl" like Robot and Merc. I know brawl actually increases their dps a bit but using that puts them in a much greater danger.Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
it doesnt just make pets use weak melee powers, it makes pets with NO melee powers at all run into melee
phantasm should never be in melee for any reason yet i have to resummon it almost more than PA
this also goes for protector bots who have NO melee powers running into melee
I think sometimes it's just easier to have a pet with all range or all melee. This AI will be much more predictable and manageable. When you have a pet with a mix of range/melee, you'll need to rely on the game to "decide for you".
The only way to counter the new AI is to have a "sit" command where the pets just stand still and attack and wait for the next range attack recharged. All MM pets have at least one range attack, so the Sit command should work well. Controller/Dominator don't get to control their pets so they won't have a problem with Fire Imps not going melee. Fire Imps has no range. -
If you are farming, why do you need it to be +4x8? Isn't +2x8 better or less?
As far as EATs go, Warshade should be able to. WS thrives in large crowds. Peacebringer... it will be tough. You definitely need a very well-slotted Human form because Nova can't survive and Dwarf takes forever to kill on its own.
I think a WS can definitely farm +0x8 depending on what type of enemies. Preferred one without too many mez attacks. -
Quote:Oh ok. So Genin and Jounin should have at least 50% then because any +4 or higher attack can reduce Genin's defense to nothing or negative.Originally Posted by Supernumiphone
DDR is independent from defense buffs. It will reduce debuffs by a fixed amount regardless of how much defense you have.
-
Quote:I can understand why they made the change because some pets used to just stand at a distance and won't cycle melee attacks often (Jack Frost was one of them). Because of this, they made it so pets want to cycle all attacks even at melee range. This change has good and bad because those that didn't run in before, now run in to use weak melee attack and put themselves in more danger.Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
i think a large problem with the pets right now is their AI issues
certain pets should not ever be in melee range, when i used to play my ninja/dark 3 years ago he was pretty sweet cause the oni rarely if ever went into melee, i actually didnt know he had a fire sword for almost 3 years lol
the arsonist is another example of bad pet AI that needs to be fixed, he should not ever be in melee range for any reason
this little AI problem also goes for pets other than mm though, many controller/dom pets and patron pets suffer from this problem
I don't know if we can ever get a pet-specific command like "stand still". We can goto pets and force them to stand still and not chase. This will help MMs in apex so much because then the pets don't have to run through the "blue patch of death" that much. -
Quote:And pets have low base damage so 15% damage buff on them don't feel as potent as 15% on a scrapper/blaster.Originally Posted by Pyromantic
Of course none of this considers other damage improvements such as enhancements. Masterminds actually get comparably less from assault than most other ATs, since the bonus they get is relatively little and they already provide a damage bonus to pets through supremacy.
But I think a lot of MMs take leaderships because they don't plan on attacking on their own and it really fits the theme. When I made my first MM, the term "Leadership" really stands out. You figure... you are a Master and you provide Leadership to the pets (little did I know that MM's Assault value is quite low. LOL). -
Quote:I know. I find this so annoying. Why are MM's primary pets not accepting Intensive Pet recharge sets? I just don't get it. And why letting Thug and Necro have a pet-like power accept the set while other primaries can't? Extra 5% defense and 10% resistance is really helpful.Originally Posted by David_Yanakov
Ninjas could be made all kinds of more viable if they would tweak Smoke Flash (and Serum for Mercs!) to accept recharge intensive pet sets like the level 18 powers of Demons, Necro and Thugs. As it stands the only way to get the option to include those procs is to roll /Storm
I mean pets already don't benefit much from your own set bonuses. I think it's only fair that they are allowed to accept all pet uniques and it's up to the master to decide what to take out to make room for those two pet unique.
I just can't understand the logic behind it. Why do other ATs' pets get to use both Pet and Intensive Pet Recharge? Shouldn't Mastermind be the first priority when it comes to pet slotting? -
So tonight I start to slot my lvl 47 Ninja/FF with some sets. I am really looking forward to the group aoe buffs because it can save me so much time and endurance and boredom.
Having said that, I took Power Boost from patron. Oh my... I didn't know power boost increase +defense-only powers until recently. My individual shield increases from 17.5% to about 24.5% defense. I just did a simple +2x0 longbow tip mission with Overdrive and it was a cake. lol
One thing I've been thinking is that if the dev can't increase Genin's defense, can they at least give the Ninja Defense Debuff Resistance? Genin only has pitiful 7%ish defense at lvl 50. One hit from any attack with -defense will cut it to zero (if you factor in the fact that Genins are -4 lvl or more).
Please give Defense Debuff Resistance to Genin and Jounin. Oni at least has resistances to back it up. If Ninja is meant to be all defense-based, I think 37.5% defense debuff resistance is fair? 37.5% resistance for a 7% defense isn't much but it should be decent with external defense buffs on them? I am not sure how debuff resistance works with other buffs on you. If resistance doesn't help other defense buffs on the pet, then the resistance value needs to be a lot higher. -
Quote:I haven't played my Thug for a long time. Did he use to open the battle with Breath of Fire? Oni used to do that all the time when he is within the range but not anymore. Yes, it's almost like Breath of Fire isn't treated like an aoe. It's just "another attack" that the AI uses when it feels like to.Originally Posted by Dromio
The Arsonist is bad with his Breath of Fire too. He only uses it at point blank range; it's treated like a melee attack. I've sometimes wondered if somehow that attack is mis-labled as a melee attack in the pet code somewhere.
I've seen the arsonist run all the way across a battle to get to point blank on his target so he can Breath of Fire. That power should be set to only be used at the edge of its range, not at point blank. -
Quote:Believe me, I've submitted and PMed the dev about Oni many times. He is still taking knockback set. Oni is Ninja's BOSS pet.Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
This is some excellent testing and analysis right here. Kudos and I hope it results in the Oni getting a look.
There are so many powers and sets which really need another look from the powers team, hopefully they'll start doing some of them.
This is like Bitter Ice Blast in Ice Blast is not taking any slow set or tohit debuff. I consider it pretty serious bug. Oni is a boss pet. He is not some patron pets that nobody cares.
And I honestly can't tell if this is BY DESIGN because let's say Oni's advantage is in having two battle modes (mostly range and most melee). This advantage can't be utilized when we can't set Oni's AI to "range only" or "melee only". The game sets it for him which results in random/confused/lack of use of certain powers.
Why do we need the game to decide which power is more important to use? I want Oni to use his Fire Blast more because it has better Damage Per Activation than other attacks.
They can change it so Fire Blast has 8s recharge so he can't cycle that fast. Oni's dps and role will be better if he stands at a distance and only uses Char, Ring of Fire, Fire Blast and Breath. Ninjas do not need one more pet to go melee. It only messes up their AI because sometimes the pets block each other and if one of the pet "pushes Jounin" out of melee, he'll start using Poison Dart again and pause a bit and then go melee. Pushing Genins out of melee range isn't so bad because Genin has 3 melee and 3 range attacks. -
Quote:I did test Jounins a bit and they are better than they were before. They are more aggressive going melee but yes, opening the battle with Poison Dart is really stupid.Originally Posted by Redlynne
+2
Oni needs Powers and AI work bad.
So do Jounin ... who need to "figure out" that Poison Dart from Hidden Status is a really stupid thing to alpha strike with.
And you can tell the dev learned from their mistake. Look at Victoria Lore Pet. She is a stalker and yet she has a "good" range attack to open the battle with. She doesn't need 5 other attacks. She just needs 3 attacks (one decent range, two melee) and I've read report that her alone can take down a pylon!!! It is not like Poison Dart sucks hard. It's just the initial damage is too low to benefit from the critical attack. They can still keep the -regen portion but make the initial hit much harder so the critical part is not wasted.
I have tried goto-aggressive with Jounins and sometimes they draw the sword out right away and open the battle with Golden Dragon Fly.
Again, this is another Ninja design flaw. It's like ON PAPER Ninja has the highest damage potential and yet the game/AI keeps restricting them to reach that potential and their squishiness certainly doesn't help their damage potential either. -
Here is Demon Prince's test. I want to explain a few things. First of all, I can't tell the graphic difference between Ice Sword and Ice Slash. I just count them as ice swords. Either way, it's decent damage. Ice Blast recharge in 8s, Block of Ice recharge in 8s, Ice Sword in 8s and Ice Slash in 10s. Oh and Prince uses way more endurance than Oni but a few -end should cure that.
Test 1: Start the fight at melee distance hoping to max. all of his attacks
Ice Blast: 10 times
Block of Ice: 10 times
Ice Swords: 13 times
Froze Aura: 5 times
Note: Prince used 38 powers in two minutes! This is a much more balanced performance. You can tell the game still favors range attacks on a pet with melee+range but this is fine because both Ice blast and Block of Ice are what I consider "good" attacks.
----------------------
Test 2: Prince starts the fight at a distance.
Ice Blast: 10 times
Block of Ice: 9 times
Ice Swords: 12
Frozen Aura: 5 times
Note: Prince used 36 powers this time (matches Oni's usage) and I think the reason is that Prince's AI told him to go forward but he is awfully big. There were times he ran forward and then got stuck in between dummies. It's like he doesn't know where to stand. I would consider 36-38 uses an average. Another thing I want to say is that Prince uses Shiver whenever it's up it seems.
-----------------------
Thoughts: Even though Prince only has 4 attacks that he cycles regularly, his overall performance is more balanced and he has no different "modes" where he gets stuck in using only melee or only range. I did notice that if you summon all 6 pets, Prince may just stay on the back and only use Ice Blast and block of ice but when he is alone, he uses all the attacks.
-----------------
Final Words: Whatever the dev did to Oni, you can tell his AI is very "weird" and in a way, messed up. Prince has a much better design because he uses all of his powers and he has synergies in his attacks. The amount of slow debuff he does on his own is already so good and his Chilling Embrace has radius of 10. In a way, you want Prince to go in.
Ring of Fire is pretty important for the whole Ninja group because it has -knockback. It is typical to see all the ninjas pause and then chase a target that gets knocked back by Crane Kick. You have 3 Genins doing that! I can see the reason to force Oni to use Ring of Fire more, but what I don't understand is the lack of Fire Blast. That attack has decent damage and it only has 4s recharge. Oni has 5 attacks available to him, so in two minutes, he should be using more than 40 powers.
Oni's biggest attraction is probably his Rain of Fire but it has its huge drawback, which is Target AoE. Rain of Fire is not location based so when the target is dead, it is GONE. So if Oni casts it on a dying foe, the rest of AoE potential is all wasted. Due to this reason, I believe the recharge needs to be reduced to 30s because a lot of time the aoe is just wasted. Another problem is the lack of Breath of Fire. I am never a fan of pet with cone attacks because it's hard for them to line up. I strongly suggest the dev change Breath of Fire to Fireball. Make it 24s recharge. I don't care. It is better than what Oni has now. He no longer uses Breath of Fire whenever it's up. Either that or the dev gives back Oni's old AI where he always opens the battle with Breath.
Earlier I mentioned that I rather have them get rid of Oni's fire swords so he would just cycle Ring of Fire, Fire Blast and Char. The reason is simple. With the current AI, Oni benefits LITTLE going melee. He doesn't cycle melee swords enough and his cone attack can't cover enough. What is the point for him to go melee? We already have 5 other pets going melee. One more is just too crowded IMO.
Well, it's late. I know it's a very boring topic but I just want to bring up the differences. I really think Oni needs some improvements and Prince's design is much better. They can start by giving Oni Hold/Immb set. Please! :P -
I know most of you don't care about Ninjas but tonight, I did a test on Oni VS Prince when they fight dummy in RWZ. I figure numbers don't mean much until I see them in a real fight for 2 minutes.
Oni
Test 1: I goto Oni right beside the dummy hoping that he can draw his swords so he has more attacks to cycle.
Test 1: For two minutes, Oni use:
Ring of Fire: 16 times
Char: 10 times
Fire Blast: 3 times (Why?!!!!)
Fire Sword Slash: 1 time (Why?!!!)
Fire Sword Hack: None
Breath of Fire: 6 times
36 powers were used in the first test. I am not counting Rain of Fire as the recharge is 60s and it does seem like Oni uses it as soon as it's recharged. The two things that really stand out is the lack of use of Fire Blast and Fire Swords. Edited: I made a mistake earlier thinking that there are 240s in two minutes. Breath of Fire was used 5-6 times which is about right when you factor in activation time. The real lack of use is Fire Blast and Fire Swords.
---------------------------
Test 2: I let Oni start the fight at a distance to start the fight:
Ring of Fire: 16 times
Char: 11 times
Fire Blast: 1 time (WHAT???)
Fire Sword Slash: 2 times
Fire Sword Hack: 2 times
Breath of Fire: 5 times
36 powers were also used in the 2nd test. Amazing. It's almost like the game sets a limit on how many times they are "allowed" to attack in a period of time. Char was used one more time because Oni started at a distance and he usually throws RoF and Char first before going in. Not surprised. What's surprising, again, is the lack of Fire Blast and Fire Swords.
-------------------------
Test 3: I let Oni start at distance and I want to force him to use Fire Blast!!! I only gave him second upgrade because between Ring of Fire or Char, I rather him use more Char.
In two minutes:
Char: 3 times (Hello???!!)
Fire Blast: 13 times (Well, I got what I want but...)
Fire Sword Slash: 7 times
Note: This is such a terrible way to manuplate Oni's behavior. In other pets like Lich probably works but with just 2nd upgrade, Oni only uses 23 attacks and Char was only used 3 times. Why??? Char only has 8s recharge. Between Char 8s, Fire Blast 4s and Fire Sword Slash 3s, Oni should at least score over 30 hits.
-------------------------
Conclusion: I did at least 5 tests but each test indicates that the game is restricting on what Oni can use and it's really messing up his AI. Basically if you give him two upgrades (which you should), he puts way more emphasis on using Ring of Fire over Fire Blast. Fire Blast is like ignored. Fire Swords should be a good source of dps for him but again, he doesn't use it much. For two full minutes, you can tell Oni would draw swords out and slash a few times and not really using other attacks and then he would switch "range" mode which includes Ring of Fire and Char. So basically, the game forces Oni to have different modes so in reality, he never utilizes his potential.
Edited: I made a mistake thinking there are 240s in two minutes. Breath of Fire were used 5-6 times which is about right. My problem with it is that Oni no longer uses it to open the battle. He used to do it as soon as it's available. -
My twin bro had a 50 Claw/Will Stalker and it was his most favorite toon.
I used to play his characters when he wasn't on and I have to say that Claw is a fast-pace set and it requires you to run back and forth a lot to get the most out of the knockbacks and aoe cone. It is a very "engaging" set. Let's put it that way. You run backward to use Shockwave and forward to use Eviscerate and you use Focus while jumping back to give you breathing room, etc. The knockback/down gives you a lot of protection.
I know people say Ninja/Broadsword have Parry defense but it won't surprise me if Shockwave/Focus give you more "protection" than Parry in most cases. I say most because there are times your knockback won't work so in that case the added defense is better.
PS: Broadsword should have been a Two-Handed Sword. One hand sword looks very weak. -
Quote:Good choice. Kinetic Melee is very good on stalker. You've got a nice pbaoe, a slow range attack, and your dps is very decent and it's fun trying to keep Build Up duration alive once you have Concentrated Strike and good recharge.Originally Posted by The_Larker
Well thank you for all the info I've decided to go KM/Nin and thinking very heavily on making a DM/?.
That being said thanks to all you helped make up my mind.
The only set I would advise you not to try as your first stalker is Martial Arts or Energy Melee. Some people complain about Stalker's lack of team contribution because other people are doing good aoe damage while you are trying to set up an Assassin Strike. The lack of aoe for those two sets really hurt the reputation. I level a MA to 50 and I only enjoy him on a small to med size team. Soloing, he is very good.
For the first timer, I think Kinetic, Electricity and Dual Blade are very good starter. Spines is great after you got Throw Spines but before that, it is so painful especially before Ripper. -
Quote:Let's put it this way... Gravity is unique because of Wormhole. It's the only aoe teleport power in the game as far as I know. If you use it right, it can be really fun. I am not saying it's better than Seeds of Confusing but it is at least fun for me.Originally Posted by Selenir
Ok, THIS is the response I was hoping for.
So, Grav isn't weak, it's just not very control-heavy, is that right?
I just wish I could use Wormhole earlier than lvl 26. Dev, just switch places with Dimension Shift already!!!! Who needs Dimension Shift at lvl 18?
I would only use the word "Bad" on a set that doesn't stand out. Gravity at least has Wormhole and Singy. I would use the word "bad" to describe Force Field set that can be easily replaced by Cold Domination or SoA with leaderships. Defense can be so easily obtained through set bonuses and all those Repel and knockbacks are just annoying. Or Stalker's Martial Art that has zero aoe damage is what I would consider a "bad" design. -
Quote:Gravity set is better for a small team because if you are on a large team, some people may really dislike Wormhole. And it is better if you are the leader and you start alpha with Wormhole.Originally Posted by Selenir
Should I reroll with different powersets? Is Gravity so terrible it underperforms, even with IOs?
My very first perma dom is Gravity/Fiery. I am all ranged. My attack chain is just Lift, Fire Blast and Blaze. It's fast!!!
Gravity's fun comes from Wormhole and where you spit the mobs out. It can get very satisfying when you teleport most of the foes (radius is kind of small at 15') to a corner and unleash your aoe on them and watch them melt.
Singularity pet is also one of the better pets because it seldom dies. I like a pet that doesn't die easily. You don't have buff/debuff to help your pets so your Imps may be dying fast when your controls are not active.
Use Singy to block path so mobs can't get to you. I love that Circle of Thorn map. I cast it in front of me in the narrow hallway and just blast behind it. :P Toss it in a corner and hide and watch mobs get knocked back.
Gravity does have two very badly designed powers. Propel is literally useless for an AT that already has Assault set. Dimension Shift is like the most confusing power in the game with very very very very very limited use. Mobs can regen health while being shifted so in the end, you don't really gain anything besides time to run away or confusing the hell of your teammates. Shifted mobs can still run and attack. They just don't deal damage. It wasn't like this before. Shifted mobs used to just "stand there" like good dogs. -
Quote:I RARELY use immb, period. They cost a lot of endurance, draws a lot of aggro and I like it when mobs are close together.Originally Posted by Verene
Wait...people take the single target immobilize? On any control toon? Who knew?
I may take aoe immb and use it on special occassion. -
Quote:Wow, they finally let you auto level to 50??Originally Posted by Shadow Wail
Go on the test server while you have a chance and make a grav/everything. They get autoleveled to 50 right away.
-
I've tested Demon Prince this morning for a bit. His AI is a lot better than Oni's.
First of all, Prince can take Hold and Slow sets! Oni can only take Pet set. I don't know why the dev just can't give Oni Hold and Immb sets. I've reported this so many times.
Chance for Smashing from slow set is going to be so good in Prince because every one of his attack can trigger the proc. What does Oni have? Nothing.
I was paying attention to Prince's behavior and he is quite melee oriented. His attacks are:
Ice Blast: recharge in 8s
Ice Sword: recharge in 8s
Ice Slash: recharge in 10s
Block of Ice: recharge in 8s
Frozen Aura: recharge in 20s
Shiver: recharge in 30s
You can tell the dev learned from their mistakes. They made Ice Blast hit harder but with longer recharge so the pet is "forced" to go melee more often because he has nothing else to do. The 8s apart is perfect with 4 attacks.
If you give a pet too many low recharge range/melee attacks, the pet's AI is messed up because it doesn't know when to use what. If you watch Prince, he uses every attack when it's up. I love it when he uses Block of Ice so often.
If you watch Oni, he doesn't cycle Fire Blast nearly as much after you gave him two upgrades but why is that? Fire Blast only recharge in 4s! Oni usually starts the fight with Ring of Fire and Char and then he would pause a bit. That pause causes him either to run in closer to use Rain of Fire (aoe) and then eventually draw out fire sword, or stand there to wait for Ring of Fire to recharge. And Oni doesn't use Breath of Fire right away. It's like he is saving it for something else. Breath of Fire is a cone attack and if you don't use it while you are at a good distance, then don't bother using it at close range.
I really don't know what kind of AI Oni is using and what they did to him, but he is the only pet in the game that has many "pauses" even though he has many attacks. It's almost like the game restricts him from using too many attacks within a certain time.
Oni has:
Fire Blast: 4s
Ring of Fire: 4s
Char: 8s
Fire Sword: 3s
Fire Sword Hack: 6s
Breath of Fire: 16s
If you watch your Oni carefully, he doesn't cycle attacks fast enough and I don't know why. He should be like Genins cycling every attack when its up. This can dramatically increase Oni's damage output. It is sad that Prince has way superior debuffs (the amount of slow debuffs from Prince is insane!!!), higher damage (by using all attacks available), and way smoother attack sequence and AI. Prince's only down side is his size. Those Demons are too huge and sometimes they block each other.
Are there any experienced Ninja user out there? Have you paid attention to your Oni's behavior?
I know Ninja isn't exactly a popular set that deserves time and attention, but maybe the set is unpopular because it has some problems that are still not fixed? Ninjas have huge survival issue. -
Try Soldier of Arachnos. Please!!
They are extremely team-friendly and they can solo well. All 4 branches are good for soloing. -
Oh and please give us better conversion from Shards to Threads so we don't feel like we are forced to do the trials.
I really like the Shard system when Weekly Targets were introduced. It was very "healthy" for the game as each week we have something to look forward to. But now there are a lot less people doing weekly because by doing just a few trials, you can unlock Alpha way faster than trying to get Shards.
-
Quote:I agree. I actually thought Incarnate abilities should be more powerset-specific but I know that is just going to take too long and too much effort to balance.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I'm not. If you're doing that, its by choice.
As to what I want from the next incarnate slots, I'd like less actual click powers and more character differentiators. There's four different Judgment powers, but the bottom line is it gives everyone a gigantic AoE. Its far more homogenizing than differentiating in a capabilities-sense: its more cosmetically diffrerentiating.
There are lots of things you could play around with. For example, the Vitae slot could muck with archetype-specific attribute caps. Suppose that tankers had the ability to increase their res max or their health max by small amounts with different Vitae powers. But blasters would have options like damage cap increase. You'd need to come up with a carefully designed matrix of stuff for people to mess with and carefully control the buffs. Maybe tankers get health max and res max, brutes get res max and damage max, and blasters get damage max and movement caps, just for example purposes. How you make enough options to fill at least four trees of Vitae powers per archetype I'm not sure yet.
But I DO NOT want something like this to allow for any buff for any character. I don't want blasters buffing health and res max and turning into pocket tankers. That's the exact *opposite* of what I want to see in future slots. We have five slots where everyone can take the same things and homogenize capability. I'd like to see at least *some* future slots have abilities that *amplify* the differences between different archetypes, powersets, and powers rather than mute them. Sometimes you can get away with giving everyone the same thing, and sometimes not. I'm not sure if there's enough cleverness to allow everyone to slot the same Vitae powers that buff archetype attribute limits and have it not be homogenizing. For example, you could make a Vitae power buff resmax by 3 percentage points. So that would push blasters to 78 and tankers to 93. Clearly, that's a more desirable and powerful buff for the tanker. But health cap is trickier and Damage cap is trickier both because they are more linear benefit effects.
I was thinking along the line of, for example, buffing Life Drain in Dark Blast to deal more damage and draining more health from the target. This buff must come from equipping an Incarnate ability. This makes Dark Blast even more "vampiric like". I know this is too much work but I think it's more fun for powersets to "grow" into something more unique than picking a Judgement power that every character can get.
I've been asking for a buff on VS in Electricity Blast. A neat idea for an Incarnate Electricity Blast user is to give VS a "Chain of Lightning" attack so VS pet will have two attacks that make it a lot more desirable since the pet doesn't benefit from set bonuses. Or simply adding a small chance that each electricity blast can "jump" to a nearby target. When you equip the ability, it gives you a proc chance. This is a good way to make certain not-so-popular sets more interesting and those that are leveling have something more to look forward to. If I know my Electricity Blast can have a chance to "Jump" when I become an Incarnate, I'll certainly level him up!
However, I know improving individual powerset is not going to happen so I guess the most "unique" we can get is having a specific AT-oriented Incarnate ability like the one you've suggested. This could be a good way to make certain ATs more desirable on a large team too (IE: Stalkers!!!!!!!). Maybe by equipping an Incarnate ability, your Assassin Strike can no longer be Interrupted and its damage scale goes up more? :P -
Time Bomb takes the crown for the worst tier 9 power but luckily Trap has other great powers to make it up.
Force Field is just very limited. Sure, it has some soft controls but knockback is almost completely ignored against an AV and knockbacks can disturb offense.
I would rank Force Field as the worst support set in the game because it can easily replaced by Cold Domination and a SoA with double Maneuver who also brings so much more offense to the team. Force Field is good early on when people don't have set bonuses for defense. -
The -self damage isn't that big of an issue if you use dark regeneration or some kind of healing to back it up when you need to. I've only noticed its effect when I set it on x6 or higher and I run into the mob and I am not killing fast enough.
I use mostly on my Necro/Pain MM. Mastermind's version has 12' radius which is larger than Scrapper's. -
Quote:When Fort first came out, there were complaints about how low Fort's damage was. I, too, thought the same way when I first branched out at 24. I only had TK Blast, Subdue and Dominate. The damage was lower than Blood Widow's and I didn't have double Assault leaderships and my recharge was bad (obviously). But things really change once you have set bonuses and Gloom in the attack chain. When you are fully slotted, you really only need attack chain of Dominate, Gloom and Subdue. And don't slot Dominate for too much +hold. You can't need it. Slot for damage and eventually chance for smashing purple proc. Why you don't need +hold duration? 1. Even with lots of +hold, you still can't hold a boss in one hit. 2. With enough recharge, you can easily stack another hold if you want to. 3. You have enough defense/mez protection to the point that even if you don't hold a boss, you can still kill him.Originally Posted by Tramontane
Alright, my Widow is rapidly approaching the level 24 respec. Now, I've already decided to go Fortunata- I've got a seperate toon that's going Night Widow- but my question is, is it better to focus on Fortunata abilities at first, or should I keep some Blood Widow attacks for the melee ability? Are there any powers I absolutely, positively Should Not Miss?
Appreciate the feedback.
I did take Scramble Thought at first. It was useful for a while until I have enough defense and get tired of the activation time.
So my advice to you is keep some blood widow attacks until lvl 41. Lunge is probably one of the most efficient melee attacks in the game in terms of activation time and damage.
Personally, I prefer choosing either all ranged or all melee. I really dislike weapon draws but it's just me.