Jibikao

I would still use Eagle Claw in attack chain because it has a sure 3-mag stun and when it critical, it HURTS a lot.

I don't have high +recharge. I basically just cycle, storm, axe, cobra, crane and eagle. I use them whenever they are recharged. There is no one moment where I have no attack to use.

With the new buffed Kinetic, I think Kinetic's dps is even higher now. You just have to use the first 3 quick attacks and cycle critical Concentrated Strike correctly to keep Build Up going.

Even if Kinetic has a bit less dps than Energy with constant BU, build up also provides +tohit buff so each hit has an even better chance to hit especially against high defense mobs like Drones.

I have to say Kinetic has really made Energy Melee look bad. I find Kinetic even more fun to play because your mind is constantly trying to count/figure out when to use Concentrated Strike/Placate to keep build up going. It is pretty mind-engaging!

You know what, I enjoy Dark Blast a lot on Corruptor and I think I'll play a Dark Blast Blaster. It at least brings different things to the table.

I wish they could have given back something to MM due to the restriction on +recharge in pets. Yes, it sort of messed up some pet AI but some pets with simple attack like Zombie benefits a lot from it because it only really has one Slap and one puke and the +recharge helps it use Siphon Life more because it has 30s recharge. And pets like Voltaic Sentinel (with only one attack) enjoyed so much from the +recharge in End Set. This makes sense because set bonuses don't really affect VS' performance; whereas with better +recharge, you can use Blaze more often and deal more damage with +damage set bonuses. Overall, I still feel they take away +recharge while not giving back enough.

The two new Pet Unique in Pet Recharge sets are good except 1. Mastermind Pets themselves CANNOT take them (WTF??) so you have to rely on putting them in powers like Gang War or Soul Extraction but guess what? Not every primary set has a pet power like that so Ninja and Merc need to have a secondary like /Storm so they can use two more pet unique in Tornado. If the dev wants to take away their +recharge buff, they should have given something back IMO. And the Build Up proc is not very good. Each pet needs to trigger it and it only lasts 5.25s? I think pets enjoy more just from regular proc damage.

I can understand the reason behind the restriction (Bruiser is a good example) but pets don't get set bonuses. In a lot of high end content, your pets die so quick unless your pets usually stay at range like Robots (I say usually because by forcing the pets to use every attack, it also forces them to run forward to cycle melee attacks) or you use Taunt/Bodyguard.


PS: As for /Kinetic in MM, I don't see how it is not overpowering in troller. If troller can get it, so should MM. It's funny their definition of "overpowered" usually only works on some places but when you have builds that can solo AVs or even the whole SF, it is seemed as "ok"? This game has too many mechanisms where "balance" is broken and I am pretty sure they can break some balances for MMs.

I've suggested before that they should turn those Seekers into Police Drones. 3 seekers coming out and they'll shoot beams for a short duration and disappear. They cannot be target/killed.

If they want to be fancy about it and if they really want the seekers to "explode", then make each Seeker a bit different. Having 3 knock backs is a bad thing because if the first drone hits, the other two may not hit as many targets due to the serious knockback.

They should do:

Seeker 1: AoE damage knockdown
Seeker 2: Aoe damage + 15% damage debuff (like /traps')
Seeker 3: AoE damage + 15% resistance debuff

Photon Seeker is a lvl 32 power with 300s recharge so it's a "situational power". They should make these seekers more interesting than just exploding and knocking !@#4 all over the place. The last thing I need is having even more knock backs. It's not like Peacebringer doesn't have enough already.

No, most importantly, I don't get bored out of my mind trying to buff every pet and teammate! Now with this buff, I can target a pet up front and buff one on the back.

From Nova/Dwarf form to human, there is no delay but from human to either form or from Nova to Dwarf and vice versa has a delay.

I've respec my build to focus mostly on Nova/Dwarf because I want to see how the forms perform. So far, I like Dwarf but I find Nova below average at best. Yes, its aoe damage is decent but you can't do anything else in that form. And what's worse is that I feel my Dwarf form's ST damage is almost as good as Nova's ST damage and that is just wrong.

I actually killed myself once last night during Dwarf form. I was under heavy attack and I thought I could quickly change to human to use another self-heal but of course I died as soon as I changed. Just too much aggro and since you lose all the human toggles that you had before, you don't have resistances to back it up.


All in all, poor design. I find the delays very annoying.

Then they made it scale way too high. I think they were doing % damage and that's why a Stalker could solo a GM. Didn't they try like 5% or 10% AS health damage on GM?

There is no way a Stalker can AS a GM to death if they add like 500 more critical damage on Assassin Strike. 500 damage on a GM is not that much but I'll take 500 extra damage when I use Assassin Strike. (500 is just an example)


Yes, I do remember they tried scaling AS but I think it was based on % of the health rather than the actual damage numbers. I see that when we use placate, we sometimes score Double Critical. Why can't they make this Critical appear... say 4x when it's used on an AV/GM? That is the kind of scaling I am looking for, not % of health.

And lose a lot of endurance depending on how many you push back. :P

On a serious note, there is no excuse for a poorly designed power (just like Dimension Shift). Every power in the game has its use but to what degree?

You know what has a "good" use and most Stalkers can take?

1. Recall Friend
2. Leaderships
3. Aid Other/Rez

If you haven't considered any of those, then don't bother looking at Repluse. Repluse may work if it's a "click" power instead of a toggle that takes like 2s to turn on and off and cost a lot of endurance. If the endurance is cheap, then I may fool around with it.

Double ownage! Now Cold can buff just as quick and has more time to do other more important things!

I think the aoe buff thing is great for FF and Sonic but I think it's a bit too much for kinetic and maybe cold. I've always thought the balance point for speed boost is that you have to keep it up and it can be chore. Oh well... it's a great buff really. It just makes certain sets look even worse by comparison.

Well, for one, those passives give you mez protection. Even if the 3% is too low, the mez protection alone makes me love my SoAs.

Second, even if the defensive values are lower than regular Defensive set in Scrapper/Brute, your SoA is buffing the whole team too with great defense-against-all.

Technically, Crab should have less defensive value than Scrapper but with set bonuses, Crab can be turned into a mini tank. Crab is like a mini tank with awesome pet damage and great team buffs and resistance debuffs.


I can accept it if SoA has less survival and they should honestly. (but the truth is some SoAs like Fortunata has like god-mode defense with Mind Link, control, range attacks, excellent mez protection).


On my Soldier, I usually take two passives because they really don't need any more slot and +resistance is a lot harder to get than +defense. Use it to slot -knockback or more psionic resistance. There is really not one bad power in SoA sets. All have its use (well, except for Bane's mace beams which I hate).

/Poison needs the most buffs IMO.

It's funny that every time they buff certain sets, other sets immediately seem weaker. :P

My vote would be to make Force Field, Sonic and Thermal target aoe. Let Cold Domination and Kinetic stay the same way. I've heard complaints on people NOT wanting speed boost. It does happen. Force Field and Sonic need this buff the most IMO as buffing is a huge part of the set and it can get really boring soon if you need to keep buffs up on everyone.

So it's like a "target aoe" buff around the Ally then. The ally and the teammates around the ally within 30 radius will get the buff (except for yourself).

This doesn't just sound like "Quality of Life" improvement. It sounds like a HUGE BUFF to the the powersets because now they can spend more time doing dps than trying to put shields up on everyone.

The only concern is, is this too big of a buff for Speed Boost? I've always thought speed boost is so good but it takes effort to keep it up. Now with 30 radius, it makes Kinetic even better and I honestly can't think of any reason to make Kinetic even better. I can see that Force Shield and Sonic Res needing the buffs, but Kinetic?

Cold Domination already has one of the best debuffs in the game and now they are going to make it even better?

I am just not impressed with Nova's damage. To be honest, I find Human form damage low already (in comparison to SoA anyway) so anything lower than that is just silly. I was doing +1 Villain tip mission and one +2 Rikti lieut took me so long to kill in Nova form. I end up just soloing the whole mission as Dwarf because Nova form's ST damage just doesn't cut it especially I need to sacrifice mez protection and survival for it (IE: against Mentalist).

Yes, I do see Nova form as the DPS form which it fails to deliver.

Now, does your calculation include possible buff like Assault leadership in Human form?

I guess my point is Nova should excel in BOTH ST and AoE damage. When I say Excel, I don't mean just 1 or 2 better dps. I mean Nova form should at least have 25-35% better damage in ST and AoE. I would rather stay in human form most of the time because I can use many other powers like glowing touch, HP buff, god-mode, seekers, etc.

I tried to change from Dwarf to Nova last night but the delay is just driving me nuts. I tried to use Dwarf to take out lieut first and then use Nova to finish off minions but the delay just makes it seems unnecessary. Dwarf form has a neat pbaoe at least with good knockdowns.

At one point against Tsoo Sorcerer, the Nova's long-range attacks did help. It's not completely useless but I still don't think it's enough damage for a Form that only has 4 attacks.