Jibikao
-
Posts
3510 -
Joined
-
Quote:Originally Posted by Redlynne
After playing with it for so long, Heavy Burst doesn't really *feel* like such a terribly long activation time to me. But then I mostly (mostly) reserve it for when I've got 3+ targets in my Cone. Once you reach 4+ targets within the Cone of Effect, you're actually more "efficient" (endurance, damage, and time spent wise) using Heavy Burst to slaughter opposition wholesale, rather than retail via single target attacks. Heavy Burst is also an excellent "vehicle" for delivering Team aiding Procs ... such as Achilles' Heel.
I can understand the appeal, but quite honestly that feels very "selfish" to me (no offense). Don't get me wrong ... Damage Procs are a very good way to go for Solo oriented builds, but on a Team oriented build you'll actually get more return on investment from Achilles' Heel. That's because with a Damage Proc, only YOU get the benefit of the extra Damage ... in the sense that your Teammates cannot themselves "exploit" the benefits of that Proc (aside from having the target keel over faster). Damage Procs are a "little" extra damage, but they're also One Shot Wonders.
I do have two AH procs!! They are in my single and burst which I use most of the time. They recharge fast and shoot very fast.
On a large team, things just melt with a simple BU + Venom + Frag. I only want to take two aoe. I see no reason to take 3 so it's really between Frag or Heavy Burst. Frag has wider radius and I do enjoy the knockback effects since I have no control powers except for aoe web. Most people probably would take Heavy Burst but I chose Frag (activates 1s faster I think) and I put two damage procs in it (energy and smashing proc). There are times I can kill minions with just one cycle when the proc happens.
Now if it's a boss or AV, you are better off cycling Single Shot and Burst anyway (cheaper endurance, much faster activation). There is no need to include Heavy Burst in the attack cycle so the AH proc in Heavy Burst is not missed against AV. And I do use Surveillance all the time too. So between Surveillance, two AH proc chances in two of the fastest range attacks in the game, Venom Grenade and 30% damage buff, I think I have contributed a lot offensively.
Damage proc is great in attacks that recharge fast and activate fast. And I am not selfish at all!!! I took double assault and double maneuver. If I want to be selfish, I rather take Tough/Weave for myself. :P
And my Soldier is using Cardiac alpha so I have zero endurance problem. I can live with a bit less damage but I can't live with no endurance. I rather carry more Reds than Blue because a simple red gives 25% damage and lasts 60s. A blue only gives 25 end which can be used up so quickly. I may test with Musculature later but I am saving salvages for new incarnate abilities first.
The only powers I am not too happy with is Aid Other and Aid Self. I only have 2 slots for Aid Self. I may be better off with Tough. -
The best power to combine with /Pain is Oppressive Gloom (the stun aura from patron). It works wonderful! You have constant +regen and just set your aoe heal on auto. I just run into the crowd and try to stun as many minions as I can. The radius for MM is 12' which is larger than Brute/Stalker's 8' radius.
I run duo Necro/Pain with my friend sometimes and both of us use OP aura. It's fun to stun even bosses! -
I never understood the interest in staying mostly "Huntsman" until recently. I have to rank my Bane/Soldier my top two most favorite builds to play (along with my Fortunata).
This is the build I am running:
| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1408;675;1350;HEX;|
|78DA6593596F125114C7EFB094C294524A29D442172C6DED4 2219AF868AA56A32DA|
|6094D1FDCC8046ECA2464200326F64DBF81EB63A331AE2FC6 C4A5AE0F7E0063F57B|
|68EBF26AF0CEF95F10990999DFCCFF9E73CF7F0EE7662F1FE F61ECCA11A60C1E2B6|
|BB55A7ED1D40A25A352CBE72AE5A2CE4DCF19AD7EC9D4CACC C3184B76AED6524735|
|83E77355BDC8CDA6985C3335DDD08D8DFC49ADB8C1EBFF073 51783A78C1237B9514|
|F351F7CAB954A3995AB725E54E9F14459DF28D503F4BCC235 915D2BE9553FBD6779|
|512FE8061F5CAAEA85D4FAD2E25A3EAB15B8B8D5EADCDC8C5 A6E59FBD570B34F0EC|
|632CCF15120C41C5BCC7A73DD03EE12BAEE109EAA020A6539 58443CC4594F14E817|
|A2CBC9B645842223943FCC5AEA0D2B56EE8C0B11A20873CAC ACEADF6DDBB51B21B2|
|57D70E5832B2BC32DB3DCD768C3F1EB84FD37811BC02DC2C4 6DC22BE1C60337CC23|
|1DBE119A179ADBEBA3B0DE5E380C00F03BAF1216FC842E11A FCAFAEA7332D8F7027|
|849E8DF065E13260F9379CBB15F66F9CF0A4CB1C17384E879 E00261DF45204F782B|
|0A05E0500978E03A26692128770CC2470C254760670476466 0676C93BA97F05877F|
|C2BA120761AEBA057C48411C3C268C17B612422DB170921CC 6AC290DC6A48A68E77|
|F099081A468C7378873A71E02B61E133F085F04EB5E6031F1 3BF4FD2C403C2D443E|
|011921F034F08FDC2E8A86CCFA86CCB84A42527E44724AED2 477C509B13DF702777|
|6987C93DE0078AFC24CCFD027E138262C3693925D39892394 CC93CA6641E2DCA604|
|A329892B8C89A95E567B324590E539094D43282B1322056D2 32388DDD62AED6A914|
|3F71B1159BB2EA924750280A29CBAED6A96C78FB5AA7ABF1C DD73A8B32F2BB4DD9F|
|DA728CA698526749DBCECF9DA4E7217DA3BD0C1B4CDDD8C4D C9D8944336E5A04DF9|
|0B3495EB7B|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
A few things to mention. I didn't take Heavy Attack because its activation time is a bit long. I like to put proc damage to provide that extra "spike" damage when they happen. This build is very offensive.
My defense isn't soft-capped but I carry purples all the time and if there's anyone with Maneuver, I am already over the soft cap. One purple can easily put me to the cap. My goal is to debuff resistance (procs), proc damage and fast shooting. Single Shot and Burst are just so freaking fast and I only use Bayonet when I feel I need a bit more dps but it's mainly there for the +melee defense.
I usually Hover in air. This build has no endurance problem when I get mal down to 20 last night. I thought I would run into endurance problem but none. -
Quote:Wrong. Time Bomb is great because it makes you realize you've saved one power choice and at least 3 slots for something else. Time Bomb makes the decision for you. Skip it and you'll have more rooms for other powers.Originally Posted by fibblins
here's a quick tip on how and when to use Time Bomb effectively
Times when time bomb can be effectively utilized: -
Quote:Don't forget to take double Assault. Between you two, you'll have 60% damage team buff. :POriginally Posted by Scorcharina
Well, I'm now at level 18 with the Widow and I think I'm going to start with the Fortunata build. I'll definitely add the 2nd build as a NW, but I realized how much I prefer to stand back and target, rather than chase after everything.
As a bonus, my hubby also started a Widow and we are running them as a level pact. I can see some extreme damge ahead of us. -
Quote:I am pretty sure you reveal yourself when you get hurt and Red Crystal hurts you. Not only that, if people put a pain domination anti-mez buff on you, you reveal yourself due to the "damage self".Originally Posted by Roderick
Crystals are weird. They all break stealth, even the buff ones, but they don't break all stealth. I think a stalker can run through even a red one without breaking Hide.
If you are fast enough, you can still get a critical before red crystal hurts you. You just can't set up Assassin Strike. -
Quote:Oh... I'll definitely choose Archery/Kin over Kin/Archery then because when you have enough +damage and maybe one damage proc, you can score Scourge on the 2nd and 3rd DoT on minions.Originally Posted by EricHough
All the corruptor rain powers (RoA, Rain of Fire, Ice Storm, blizzard) check for scourge on each tick - 3 times for RoA and like 76 times I think for the others. The only rain-like power that doesn't check on each tick is dual pistols Hail of Bullets - and thats because its not a pseudo-pet type rain, its an actual AE dot power so it only checks on the initial attack roll.
-
Quote:Exactly.Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
among melee sets that were given the stalker treatment, kinetic melee arguably got the best deals of any of them.
-
Quote:You can't stack Build Up twice but there are times you can score two Build Ups (using Concentrated Strike after placate gives you a chance to score two Critical). It just refreshes Build Up recharge twice... as far as I can tell.Originally Posted by Pyro_Master_NA
Since you can use hide/placate to control when CS will auto rech BU, you can stack 2 BU into one AS, can't you? I heard someone talking about it, but haven't tried it myself.
Concentrated Strike only recharges the timer. It doesn't give you a buff directly. You still need to click Build Up so scoring two criticals doesn't mean you get two BUs. -
Having leveled a 50 Kin/Dark Stalker, I can tell you Kinetic on Stalker is pretty darn good especially after they buffed Concentrated Strike to give 100% chance to refresh Build Up when it critical. This actually makes the set very fun because you are always doing math in your head to keep that build up alive (through placate, natural critical, etc).
Not only that, Burst (pbaoe attack) has 100% critical chance!
As for Scrapper/Brute, I have to say it's better on Scrapper because:
1. You finally have a real hard hitting attack like Total Focus (Concentrated Strike)
2. Power Siphon works better for Scrapper due to scrapper's higher base damage.
So, I would choose between Stalker VS Scrapper. Oh and I rarely use Assassin Strike now. It sucks. -
Any Archery Corruptor here? Does each DoT from Rain of Arrow get Scourge chance, or the game only checks it once?
I have a feeling the game checks it 3 times so you'll have a chance to score 3 scourge if the target's health is below 50%?
If the game checks for scourge 3 times, then I'll go with Archery/Kin. Doesn't Corr also have higher damage cap at 500%? Defender is what? 400%? You don't need damage cap to kill things but if you want the full potential of +damage and mini-nuke, I guess Corr is the way to go. -
Between Aid Self and Tough, I'll take Tough just because using Aid Self really hurts your dps. You need to spend a while to cast and if you are under a lot of fire, you may need to run to the side a bit to heal up.
You mentioned that you may want to pvp, then Tough is a must. Some people told me Tough in pvp gives resistance to all (not too sure about psionic though).
Actually, if you are serious about pvp, you may want to take both Aid Self and Tough.
Now, don't take Weave. Take another Maneuver. Yes, Weave's # is a bit higher but for similar endurance cost, you might as well carry Maneuver for the team. Double Maneuver is very enticing.
In Trial content, your Tough may mean you die in ONE hit or not. If you die in one hit without Tough, Aid Self won't help you. -
Mind Link takes a while to cast and that's why I don't care if it's perma or not. I'll use it when I feel I need it.
Even if you don't need Mind Link's defense, Mind Link provides very rare Psionic resistance 30% base for the team, which is very amazing. -
Did you list out Stalkers?? You've got Ninjitsu secondary and you can take Weapon Mastery even though those throwing stars cannot critical. I'll suggest Elec/Ninjitsu to start.
If you want a Scrapper with a ninja-ish style, how about Fire/Dark? Dark Armor has a stealth power that makes you ninja-ish and you have Fiery Melee.
For Brute, you've got Dark Armor and Energy Aura for good stealth.
And maybe you can explore Night Widow too. She's got some nasty assassin skills and she has stealth and smoke bomb which are kinda ninja-ish. :P -
Quote:Yup and all of Dark Melee attacks can critical too so when you are on a full team, it may out-damage Energy Melee because EM has one attack that only does portion critical and one doesn't critical.Originally Posted by Golden_Pie
well wen it comes down to the top ST dmage sets I'd take DM over MA because of it's overall greater utility with Siphon Life and a small AOE cone.
Hence I say Martial Arts needs more buffs considering its top ST number can be hammered a lot by some tough smashing resistance and its utilities are not as good as Dark Melee.
I just think MA needs to activate faster. It feels slowish to me. -
So last night I took out my old lvl 47 Ninja/FF to test a few things. I was specifically interested in whether or not Oni's AI has been changed and if he still takes Knockback set which he has none.
Well, Oni is STILL taking knockback set. He should be taking Immb/Hold set.
I tested Oni by using him alone and with other pets. I am not sure how many of you remember the "old" Oni AI, but he used to always start the battle with Breath of Fire and Rain of Fire if it's recharged. His AI was very predictable which I like because I could always count on Smoke Flash, critical Breath of Fire. I used to count 16s and put smoke flash on him to get critical Breath.
Here is my conclusion after testing Oni:
Oni is confused because he is too many attacks. The core of the problem is his two Fire Swords. Yes, I know some of you like those two attacks because they are more damaging. However, Fire Swords are really messing up Oni's attack chain and his purpose on the team.
As fragile as Ninjas are, Oni is best served as immb/hold and range attacks. You really don't want him to run forward to cycle fire sword attacks because when he draws out his swords, he usually doesn't use Ring of Fire and Char until the target has moved out of melee range. I've tested his AI many times and it is frustrating to see how Oni
Another reason why you don't want melee attacks on Oni is that Breath of Fire is a CONE attack. It is way less efficient when he runs close and the cone doesn't cover as many targets.
I like to compare Oni with Demon Prince. Demon Prince's AI is way better because he, too, has one range attack, one range hold, two ice swords and most importantly, his aoe is a PbAoE so when he runs forward, it covers more targets and he has Chilling Embrace around him as well. In a way, you benefit more when Prince runs in.
What do you get when Oni runs in? A cone that doesn't cover much, two fire swords that stop Oni from cycling other attacks and what's worse is if any of Genins knockbacks with Crane Kick, you'll see Oni stands there for a bit and then decides what to use. It really costs a lot of delays.
Oni has the great "potential" to be one of the best bosses with range attacks but the game is "limiting" his potential. Once you put two upgrades on Oni, you'll realize that he doesn't cycle Fire Blast as much, which seems strange to me because it only recharges in 4s? Ring of Fire recharges in 4s and Char recharges in 8s. Just these attacks alone, Oni should comfortably cycle range attacks at a distance while letting Jounins do the melee work.
If the game forces Oni to cycle Fire Blast, Ring of Fire and Char whenever it's up, you will not feel the loss dps from two fire swords and your Ninjas will benefit more from Oni's controls.
I don't know what the game is doing but you can tell it's restricting Oni from using all of his attacks when they are recharged. There is no way he has "many pauses" when he goes melee because he has: Fire Blast, Ring of Fire, Char, Fire sword, fire sword hack, and breath of fire. Too many attacks? I think so. It's confusing the pet's AI!!! It takes away Oni's focus.
By the way, I also tested Jounins and they finally made them better. They used to sit at range using just poison darts or using caltrops and "pause" before drawing the swords. As funny as it sounds, Ninja set is full of "conflicts". If you only use Oni and two Jounins, Jounins will always go in to melee but if you summon Genins and direct them to attack all together, Jounins do not always go in to melee right away. Because of this, I've changed my command to Attack Aggressive for Oni and Jounins and the three Genins are only in Bodyguard mode. This way Jounins run in almost immediate after the first poison darts and Genins can pick their targets and die for all I care. lol
Another conflict is Genin's crane kicks. Whenever a target is knocked back, you'll suffer from a "delay" especially with Jounins. The only way to soften this conflict is if Oni always uses Ring of Fire when it's up which he doesn't if he runs in with fire swords.
What do you think?
PS: By the way, I didn't know Oni has both Lethal and Smashing resistance. I thought he only has Fire resistance. Interesting. -
You may like Ninja/ff. Mine is stuck at lvl 47 because I am just tired of bubbling each one. When all the bubbles are up, the ninjas survive pretty well as long as you use pet uniques and maneuver to stack even more defense.
I just can't wait for the new group buff. It will save me soooooooooo much time and endurance.
This is like the biggest buff for bubblers but the down-side is that Kinetic and Cold Domination become even more efficient! Cold Domination already put FF to shame. -
Quote:Oh I like this idea too. Knockback control is so poor against AVs. I wouldn't mind Force Bolt doing a sure knockdown. Other controls like hold/stun still works when the purple protection is down.Originally Posted by McNum
If we're adding things to Force Bolt, I got a nasty idea.
Knockback mag 0.3
Unresistible, unaffected by buffs and debuffs.
Recharge increased to 15 seconds
With that, anything in the game will be knocked down by Force Bolt. Minion, AV, giant monster, anything. Even if it's supposed to be knockback immune. And since the magnitude is so low, it becomes knockdown on the target, unless it's vastly lower level than you. Of course, the resistible knockback we aready have will stay, Force Bolt is a great positioning tool as it is. -
Quote:I don't like to include Epic/Patron attacks as a balance measure. MM's patron attacks SUCK. They have really long recharge with higher endurance cost. It's just like Martial Arts Stalker has zero aoe and the balance is to take one from patron. I hate that.Originally Posted by MondoCool
Repulsion Bomb does AoE damage on the level of a defender's AoE attack. I don't see any reason to increase the damage; hell, I use it on my FF defender, my Power Mastery blaster, and anyone else, really. It is an amazing power as-is.
The problem with buffing FF's attacks is that it's a buff/control set, not an attack set. Force Field Defenders have a whole secondary worth of attacks, and MMs/Controllers have an epic power pool full of attacks -- not to mention attacks of their own. They don't need improved. Take your attacks if you want to attack.
No, the problem is not that Force Field is just a control/buff set. The problem is that it is too limited in what it's doing and not adding enough "offense" and therefore sets like Cold Domination stands out so much more.
Sure, Defender has secondary with damage but my idea is to add a bit more damage when using Force Bolt. Instead of doing like almost no-damage, you deal 30.6 base damage. Mind you, 30.6 base damage isn't going to break the game. You have a Cold Domination set Freezing Rain doing 30% resistance AoE debuff, while knocking down, slowing and ice shields provide similar defense/resistance value and a single debuff that debuffs regeneration so much.
You sound like Repulsion Bomb is already doing "so much" damage. 30.6 base damage isn't that much considering it has over 3s casting time on a 30s timer. It is a terrible AoE attack on its own. Of course, some would say "the set isn't designed to be your source of damage". Well, it's not the main source but every little damage helps a set that's so one trick-pony. Your definition of "amazing power" is pretty shallow. Now, Freezing Rain is what I consider an "amazing power".
You get Force Bolt at level 1 so if it does a bit more damage, you get the benefit right away. You don't need to wait until lvl 41 for patron/epic. Hell, many of them probably abandon force field before 41. -
My other buff idea for Force Field is to make it even more Defense-oriented.
While the +defense values are decent, if you get hit by Longbow's rifle attacks or any attack with -defense, your Defense melts quickly.
I would suggest giving Dispersion Bubble a decent Resistance to Defense Debuff. Something like 15%.
However, I think Force Field needs to find a better balance between Defense and Offense. I would much prefer adding more offense to Force Bolt and Repulsion Bomb. -
Well, with the Group AoE Buff Change, Force Field players should have more time to do "other things" than spending so much time bubbling. This is a good sign!
However, I still feel Force Field is lacking. It has interesting knockbacks/repel but in comparison to Cold Domination, it is too one-trick pony.
Comparing to another bubble set like Sonic Resonance, Force Field lacks Offensive Contribution component either through debuffing resistance or buffing damage and it has no -regen debuff.
Remember the buff on Repulsion Bomb? They increased the damage to match a typical 4s recharge attack. This is nice but for 30s recharge and 3s casting time, the damage still seems sub-par.
Now, since Force Field players have more time to do other things, would it be too overpowering to increase Force Bolt's damage to match a 4s recharge attack as well (damage scale of 1.64?)? They can increase the recharge from 4s to 6s because honestly, once a target is knocked, there is really no need to knock again until he gets up so having a short 4s recharge doesn't mean much. I rather have Force Bolt does better damage so it becomes a legit attack on its own.
Force Field lacks -resistance debuff or -regen debuff, so I figure we might as well give it more "Offense" through more damaging Force Bolt and Repulsion Bomb.
I don't have the exact damage scale number but basically, I am using Mastermind's numbers.
Force Bolt Damage change from base 6.12 to 30.6 (recharge from 4s to 6s)
Repulsion Bomb Damage change from base 30.6 to 50.2 (recharge stay the same at 30s). -
Quote:Well, I do want to make a point that BAF and to some degree Lam are EASIER only because of larger team and more level shifts.Originally Posted by Tally
The only challenge in a BAF or a Lambda trial.....is waiting for the league to form...the actual events are fast, easy, and BORING after the first few times. Personally, I find the current two trials some of the least challenging events in the game, and your definition of challenge a farce.
When I first ran it with just 10 people, it was quite hard. Part of it is that we didn't have any level shift and we didn't know what was going on and we only had 9-10 people. Now that's a challenge we can accept.
But when you have a 16-24 player league, the trials become a lot easier. So is the difficulty in "high end content" lies in having just MORE PLAYERS? If so, I can see why some people (who normally don't like to PUG) are not interested in doing trials (especially not interested in being forced to camp in Pocket D). Mind you, I am not one of those people. I am very flexible. :P
The dev can make some solo/small team (4 people) trials challenging and rewarding. Of course some people can say "well, who is stopping you from doing BAF/Lam with just 4 people?". Well, we tried to do Lam with just 8 people and we locked the team, but the game still added more people to League.
And I think it's more healthy for the game to spread out the population. It's unhealthy to have many players camp at one location, while ignoring other events. -
Quote:Oh, the group buff change is in effect now? I thought it won't come out until next new trial comes out?Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
I'm curious about the differences between these two set combos. Kinetics is obviously a lot better at survivability and buffing. The Blaster is a glass cannon (in this case more like sugarglass). I already have the Blaster at 30, but now that Kinetics is no longer annoying, am wondering whether the damage difference is enough to keep the Blaster around.
As for your question, if your main focus is Radiation Blast, then Blaster's version is better. I really dislike Radiation on Corr because I don't like the fast recharging, low damage attack. Damage just feels very low to me but my character is Rad/Sonic and maybe it has something to do with it. lol
Radiation on Blaster is good with typical 4s Bolt and 8s X-Ray and Cosmic Blast is one of the best range attack with a sure mag3 stun.
But if you care about your secondary, then I would say Rad/Kin Corr is better and you already have a blaster, so why not try Corr? -
Since I am new to Kheldians, I just found out last night that Warshade's inherent is different from Peacebringer's! lol
I had MM and Corr on the team but when I looked for +damage buff, I couldn't see any. I thought it was bugged. Then I realize that Warshade gets +resist from Corr/MM while PB gets +damage?
Right now, I feel PB's solo ability is too weak. While the Dwarf form is extremely durable, its damage potential is way less than Black Dwarf's. Black Dwarf just seems so smooth with that very fast activating Drain.
Maybe they can add more buffs during soloing and the buffs gradually reduce with more team members like Defender's. -
Mu pet is one of the "better" patron pets and mostly because it stays at range more often (they still run in sometimes).
However, if you just want more dps, just take Assault leadership if you haven't. You'll get more use out of Assault than patron pet that dies quickly and has ridiculous long recharge (and has duration limit).
For theme purpose, Mu is not bad, although I believe only the Mu pet from Dominator can heal? I haven't used patron pet for years. Can't remember.