Jibikao
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Quote:MA Stalker is really really sad. I don't know how they feel MA on Stalker is balanced even after the change. Yes, MA, on paper, has a bit higher ST damage than other sets but being all Smashing damage, its "a bit higher" damage is really not worth it unless it's for concept reason. Energy Melee has a bit less damage when you factor in team critical bonus but at least EM has energy damage.Originally Posted by DrMike2000
Similarly, my MA/SR stalker, with NO AoE at all, didn't feel that good at ST. Another competent character, but lacking somehow.
For MA to work well on a team, the activation time must be even faster IMO. MA doesn't need higher damage but it needs very faster activation. Maybe MA is the best in PvP. Blah... I don't pvp. -
Quote:Oh cool. I have an off-topic question. I assume the -resistance proc from Achille's Heel is the same way then?Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
1) Yes, because it goes faster. For some, it's what makes it possible.
2) Yes.
3) No. Bruising grants a power to the enemy, so the enemy gives itself the debuff. That means the debuff always comes from an even con source. It can be resisted, however. -
Quote:Oh, very interesting info.Originally Posted by Dark_Impact
I have to apologize, as I was wrong. I did some more testing this evening, and you do indeed see an icon when it goes off. I don't know how I missed it before. I will take the low road and blame lack of sleep. Two observations germane to the subject at hand:
1. As noted by others, the buff only activates for the single entity who attacked. If one punk triggers it, the others DO NOT get the buff.
2. Most interestingly (and forgive me if others already know this), the buff is stackable. I had a punk attacking a boss on his own, and noticed occasionally the icon would stack to two for a very brief time. So I set a chat tab to only show pet damage inflicted and watched more closely. Sure enough, against the same target with no buffs or debuffs varying, the punk hit for 3 distinct values with the pistols power: 39.69, 50.49, and 61.29. Same thing with empty clips, 3 distinct values: 15.87, 20.19, 24.51. On a different target (first one expired), dual wield: 28.05, 35.69, 43.32. I was only ever able to get the arsonist to stack the buff once, and that was by repeatedly forcing him to stop attacking in order to get his full chain to recharge. After the first barrage, his chain is too full of gaps.
It would seem you're best served putting the proc in whatever tier in your primary both does high damage, and has a relatively seamless attack chain. Of course other slotting needs could get in the way of this; for example enforcers would seem to be a good choice, but mine have the common 2x def buff, achilles heel combination, and there's just no room for another proc.
By the way, how long does the BU last? Mids is showing 5.25 second which is very short duration isn't it? I mean if you put it in Soldier Merc, they can probably only get one shot off during that timer.
I really want to test it in Genins as they have the most attacks and worst damage proc potential (only knockback set in Crane kick), but I find Ninja/FF quite boring and he is stuck at lvl 46. -
Quote:Necromancy and Trick Arrow shouldn't belong in the same sentence.... that is the least used MM combo of all.Originally Posted by AzureHaze
Trick Arrow has made playing Necromancy a joy despite the countless deaths to my current lvl 20 and the many more that are to come until lvl 32. To an old player Trick Arrow has been a breath of fresh air.
You are like one of my old friends who doesn't like MMs but only if it's coupled with Trap or Trick Arrow. He likes Trick Arrow because it doesn't put him to sleep. lol
I find Trick Arrow extremely weak on MM and it's even worse when you team it with Ninja or Necro because TA offers little to melee pets' safety. You can "enjoy" something that "sucks" though. After all, it's your money, your game. I've made a Demon/TA up until 33 and he was doing alright. -
Your pet's accuracy was probably quite under-slotted. Most MMs don't usually have accuracy problem as Supremacy gives tohit buff and a lot of MMs run leaderships.
Yeah, when you are under-slotted for certain enhancement, Alpha definitely makes a huge difference. That's why Muscular feels like it's not giving enough +damage because most sets already push Damage enhancement so high and you only get the bypass value which isn't much on pets with low base damage.
My Bane took Nerve and I can't wait to try 2nd tier with more defense. Seriously, Nerve is really only good for the +defense. My Bane runs Tactics already and there's just not many things I need extra tohit. -
Bruising effect makes soloing AVs more enjoyable? It's 20% resistance debuff right? Does it get scaled down by higher level mobs?
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Quote:I haven't done any real "timing" test after the change but visually, it is very annoying to keep drawing out weapons and visually, it feels like it is really slowing you down. The worst one is probably dual pistol.Originally Posted by Madam_Enigma
No, it doesn't. Back in 04 or so drawing a weapon increased the animation length of the power triggering it. In fact, it didn't even start the power activation till the draw animation was done. This I believe is why weapon sets were given a baked in accuracy boost.
After much complaining though they changed it. Now weapon draw shaves off time from the power's activation animation when it happens. It takes just as long to fire Glue Arrow for example with the bow already drawn as it does if your bow wasn't drawn before hand.
The longer animations was the big complaint about redraw, hence why they removed the redraw delay before power activation. -
Quote:I have several lvl 50 Stalkers but....Originally Posted by Vaped
When it comes to killing hard/annoying targets, there is no substitute for a good stalker. Seriously, they're awesome. People just tend to get so focused on the AoE that they forget how nice it is to have the boss dead before the minions.
Then again, who am I to say anything, I'm playing a human-only warshade right now. :P
My Bane can do better job than Stalker when it comes to "killing hard" targets. Stalker only has an advantage when he has time to set it up (at least 4-6s). With my Bane, I just use Surveillance, Shatter and then Shatter Armor.
Oh wait, my Bane also has access to 3 resistance debuffs 60% (even better ST killing), 30% damage buff for the team, at least 20% team defense buff and decent Aoe attacks.
I bet even Night Widow can do an excellent job at killing "hard" targets. Stalker isn't really the only one being good at killing hard targets.
Stalker's Assassin Strike is so overrated on a team situation. AS is pretty good at lower level when most people don't have hard-hitting attacks but as you level up and as you team more, Assassin Strike is very very limited. In fact, my Kinetic Stalker rarely uses Assassin Strike on a team. I just use BU + Burst and placate + Focused Burst.
Stalker's only real advantage is having more "critical" damage with teammates around him (within 30' radius which isn't large).
PS: In fact, I've been telling people that if you feel Stalker is lacking, give Bane a serious try! -
Quote:I am pretty sure this is wrong. Weapon redraw definitely adds more activation (for the first attack anyway) to the attacks.Originally Posted by Madam_Enigma
You do know that weapon redraw hasn't added to attack animation/activation length in years right? The power takes the same length of time to go off with redraw that it would without redraw. And if it does take longer due to redraw, /bug it since it's not suppose to.
For example, on my Fire/Thorn Dominator, I would use ST Hold and I would jump back and do Impale. Impale won't go off until I reach the ground because drawing thorn out takes time. If my thorn is out and do a jump back Impale, Impale goes off before I land.
Weapon redraw is very obvious on Bane when I switch between Venom Grenade and Mace Attacks.
I think you got it backward. It used to not add more time to activation but now it does and it's been a long while. -
Whatever it is, please NO WEAPON REDRAW!!!! I can't emphasize this enough because Dominator uses both primary and secondary so often. Playing /Thorn is annoying because every time you use holds, you have to draw out the thorn for assault powers.
Yes, I want a "natural" set but it's more of "Gadget" kind of control/assault set. There's a lot of talks/ideas about "natural" set. I vote for Martial Art style Assault and Gadget/Whip controls. -
Quote:Stalker needs more AoE and they wouldn't give Shield set to Stalkers... tears.Originally Posted by BrandX
True, but Shield Charge helps with the AOE nicely.
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Quote:All my characters need to have at least one aoe. I don't care if it's a small cone or not. I have to have at least one AoE. This is the reason why I will never make a Martial Arts Stalker even though I really wanted to try.Originally Posted by Sgt_Hobo
The more I play this game, the more I feel like it focuses mostly, if not entirely, on AOE centered characters. It seems to me that it's far more rewarding to invest in a character that can wipe out huge groups all at once than a character with more of a single target focus. Almost everything I read on these boards seems agree with me. Heck, it might have even been the place where I got the idea from.
I'm really not trying to bash single target powersets or archetypes, but at the moment I just don't see why anyone would chose a build such as Dark Melee instead of fire or electric melee. Yes, dark melee does offer more control which helps with survivability, but if staying alive isn't a concern, would there be any other reason to chose dark melee over fire or electric?
It just seems that it's much more rewarding to have AOE characters. You can tear through huge groups in very short amounts of time, as opposed to killing targets one by one.
And yes, there are EB's and AV's that appear, but do they show up enough to really make having a single target build worth it?
Look at the FOTM of the month builds too. They're almost all AOE heavy. Fire/Dark Corruptors, electric/shield scrappers, ill/rad controllers, Robots masterminds. They all have huge amounts of AOE, group-destroying powers.
Maybe I'm missing something here (I assume I am), but every time I roll a character, I feel like I should make sure I have good AOE abilities before I go any further. If I don't I feel like it won't take me very far.
So, can anyone tell me what the advantages are to single target builds?
Having said that, before they let you change mob size, Single Target oriented builds were better for soloing but now that you can change mob size (like +1 x 4), AoE-oriented builds get even more efficient when soloing. For example, Necro MM used to be more efficient at soloing (at +3) but now Robot and Thug MMs can just keep the level at +1 and do x5 or higher and get better exp and more drops than Necro/Ninja.
To some degree, I agree with you that AoE is a lot more favored. This is another reason why people seldom look for Stalkers because Stalkers have less access to AoE and it's not like their Single Target damage is that good. -
My Fortunata is very IOed and in the end, I took double Assault, double Maneuver, one Tactics, Tough, Weave, Hover and during AV fights, I run Darkest Night which costs a lot of end.
Cardiac is AMAZING even at first level.
My old build didn't take nearly as many toggles and she used to use Muscular. The amount of +damage increase is ok. I think having Tough is much better because I went from dying in one hit from Battle Maiden to surviving one major hit! -
My first Bane build took Venom and Poisonous Ray but in the end, I took out Poisonous Ray because it is just taking too long. If you use Venom Grenade, it will cause weapon draw when you use Poisonous Ray and PR is a DoT so the whole combo takes more than 5s to complete. I find that too long for my taste.
Ideally, Poisonous Ray is good if you have other Soldiers using Venom first.
I find that if I want dps, I only use melee attacks. -
Quote:Originally Posted by brophog02
That's most of the issue here: control. Even with a good set of binds, the best we can do is kinda nudge them in a certain fashion. Most of the pets have capabilities already, they just don't know how to use them. A set like Ninjas has quite a few control options, but you can never be certain when they will be used (and in some cases, they're just buggy). That's a real problem for a set like Ninjas, and often overlooked. Their defense isn't made to be the be all, end all......it's made to complement their soft controls. The problem is that the AI is very poor at doing that. The user has some ability, but not enough, and most users forfeit what control they do have.
This is the exact issue with Merc VS Robot. Merc's advantage is having more controls and Robot's advantage is having more resistance and defense and better healing. The problem with Merc's controls is that it is hard to "control" when they use them. Two aoe controls are on very long recharge (which you can't reduce through sets) and there are times when you try to kill the last boss and BANG, Spec-ops use two aoe controls right before the boss dies and guess what? Your spec-ops have no aoe controls for the next spawn! At least with defense, it's always there. Spec-Ops also no longer cycle Riflebutt much (the melee stun). I don't know what they've done to their AI. They seldom use riflebutt when the mobs get closer. They should have just changed it to Bean Bag stun.
I think it's just a Design Flaw but since the dev and most people think Masterminds are "overpowered", MM primaries are rarely being looked at. Robot and Thug design are great but other primaries have some serious flaws. Demon is pretty good too. I mean every since they introduced sets, the game shows Oni can only take Knockback set but he has zero knockback powers!!! That's the amount of attention MM pets are getting, which is little. Pets are MM's main weapons and if Oni is not getting correct sets, that means the master is not getting the correct sets. -
I was away for a few days on vacation and I've been thinking...
Many patron/epic powers are for Master's own attacks. While using own attacks is nice, I believe most MMs users would rather have powers that benefit their pets.
Knockout Blow from Mako set is interesting but wouldn't it be better if MM gets a power that only buffs the pet(s) for a duration to make pets even stronger? We already have powers that can only be put on pets like Detonation from Trap. I would love it if epic/patron or even alpha powers in the future can buff Pet's AoE defense for a while. There can be different versions of this pet buffs depending on which tree you choose like AoE defense, more pet damage (even adding proc damage to pets), and more resistance.
My Merc/Storm took Thunderstrike thinking it's cool but I honestly rarely use it. The damage is not that good and if I really want damage, I think the attack powers from Primary set is good enough.
I just think MMs should have more powers buffing their pets than having more personal attacks. I can see the benefit of having more personal attacks (in case your tier 1 and 2 pets just die so often) but if I choose to play MM, I want to turn my pets into my serious weapons/meatshield. I feel the harder the content, the more I need to attack on my own because genins/zombies just can't take any hit from +6. -
I don't have huge obsession with one set but some sets I have more than one or two.
Spine Set for Stalker. I have a 50 Spine/EA and 42 Spine/Nin
Sonic Blast: Sonic blast on Blaster and sonic/cold corr, sonic/pain corr. Now come to think about it, I think Sonic Blast could be my first obsession. I love the noise and I love -resistance debuffs.
Merc and Necro MM. I just like the theme and I like the fact that they are kinda under-powered and not overly used. I have 50 Merc/Poison and 50 Merc/Storm. 50 Necro/Pain and 46 Necro/Storm. -
I didn't look at your build but if you want an all-range Fortunata, you should have Gloom in your attack chain. It really makes a huge difference for Fort's dps. Slot Dominate for more +damage than +hold. Your attack chain should only be Dominate, Gloom and Subdue.
My first all-ranged took Muscular alpha thinking that I really just need more damage as Fort. I already have excellent defense, mez protection and range advantage. Well, that didn't work out too well because a full Thunder Strike set already pushed your damage close to 100% and after the bypass bonus, my Gloom's damage is only increased by about 10-12.
Then I changed my build and took even more defensive powers like Tough, Weave and one more Maneuver. I am carrying 8 toggles and several of them are heavy toggles. Well, even with Numina and Miracle and three accolades, I just can't last the fight long enough so I took Cardiac alpha and man, it is amazing!!!! So now, instead of carrying some blues and purples, I only carry reds for more damage when I need to. I usually save about 3 reds for AV fights. Tough does make a pretty noticeable difference during Battle Maiden fight because I no longer die in one hit if I get hit by her melee attack. :P Resistance works better with scaling defense in Foresight.
I am telling you, an all-ranged Fortunata with double assault and set bonuses is one of the best builds in the game! I just got my 2nd tier in Cardiac and I took +20% range. I can only safely kill pylon in Apex without getting aggro. :P -
Quote:Placate is what I would consider "double-edge" sword.Originally Posted by Berzerker_NA
I'm thinking that if I just want to deal double damage, I'll hit my opponent twice. Why placate them, then attack them once for the same damage as two attacks?
But I don't know how it plays out against AV's and such. Can you just keep placating an AV, then assassin strike them?
Pros:
- Double damage if you land a hit
- Blind a target so you can get away or set up an Assassin Strike
Cons:
- It slows you down a bit especially when you have high recharge
- You lose aggro which may hurt your teammates if you are the only melee taking hits. During AV fight, you may not want to use it if you are the main "melee", which has happened to me before. I've also helped kill my teammate when his health is low and I used placate to score critical. Well, I did score a critical but my friend died 'cause the boss changed his target. :P
- You may not get critical chance if you get hit right after placate. Personally I think Stalker should be granted Hidden even after getting it. I know it's in the system because Smoke Flash in Ninja MM still critical after getting hit.
I would take Placate but only after level 20ish. I used to take Placate whenever it's available but at lower level, you just don't have good attacks to make placate worth it. I am much better off taking one more attack than Placate.
How "valuable" is Placate? I say it's very valuable because it's very unique to Stalker. -
I did a test last night. I put chance to knockdown (from Kinetic set) in Chained Induction and BOTH the main target and the "jump" target(s) have a chance to get knocked down. :P
I am happy now. I am going to plan my new Elec/Will Stalker build.
I believe the damage procs should work the same way just like Jolting. -
Quote:Oh.. performance proc gives about .177. Oh good to know! I've never slotted performance proc.Originally Posted by Shadow State
Numina's adds .167 end per second, but as I said, that, and possibly the Regenerative Tissue, should probably go in health, to get the bonus while exemping as low as possible (unless you don't exemp below level 39)and because they add more to regen than the first level 50 IO in Health will.
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For Lady Grey, you need some controls to kill those Green "balls". We had one controller on the team and it took a while to kill off Green ball's "shield"? I don't know how you call it but you need to stack quite a few controls on green ones to be able to hurt them. I know just the hold alone from controller is not good enough. I was using Kinetic Stalker so I have some stuns and there was radiation corruptor for stun too.
I don't know how many hold/stun you need to stack but the more the merrier. -
Quote:Believe it or not, I put Chance to Knockdown 25% (purple) in my Throw Spines because I always use Build Up + Throw Spines on a team and I have the habit of not waiting for Tanker/Brute to "herd". I hate that !@#$. I just start the fight myself with BU and the chance for kb comes handy to reduce the amount of initial aggro. :POriginally Posted by GavinRuneblade
How do you have your AoE's slotted? Do you use 1 or multiple damage procs?
I haven't really planned an alpha build. Maybe you can even throw in one damage proc like Positron with purple sets.
I love Claw Stalker a lot but the aoe knockback can be too chaotic.
PS: You can easily put two damage procs in Spine Burst though. -
Sorry to bring up this question again but can somebody confirm that procs work on the "jump" target as well or just the main target?
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Quote:I believe this is the reason. I need to check tonight. I don't have the habit of completing an arc if my level has passed it.Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
Almost certainly you have too many old story arcs open; this is unfortunately a fairly common problem. You probably ran a mission or two for a contact then outleveled him and went on to the next leaving the previous contact's arc open. You'll need to look through your "active contacts" tab and talk to them and complete any open arcs.
I just never have this kind of problem until I took out my old lvl 50 merc/storm. I didn't even know there is a limitation on how many arcs you can take. I just know there used to be 3 Active Mission limitation. Now it's 5 or more or tip mission doesn't count because at one point, I took 3 tip mission plus two story arcs.