Kractis_Sky

1. It's ok to delete a toon
2. It's ok to not delete a toon
3. It's ok to have toons completely "finished" and shiny and IO'd/Incarnated
4. It's ok to have toons "incomplete"

Make a decision; I say save them and learn to be comfortable with "unfinished" products. It's an important skill.

Well, in addion to all that, if the Gaussian proc does fire you will see an icon under the your health and endurance meters that is labled "Boost Up." The icon looks like hasten but is purple (exactly like quickness). You should also note that the percent boost base numbers not your slotted numbers. I forgot the exact times but I believe the build up (focus chi in your case) will last about 10.24 seconds and the boost up effects about 5.24 - during that 5sec window you could notice a big difference in damage. The likelihood of it triggering, tho, is what - 5%? And is neither predicable nor worth building around. 100% build up at 1/20 of the time for 5sec is ~1% overall? It is meh. Just be happy getting the 2.5% def to the 3 positions for the set.

I think, overall, its a great idea. I wish that for those who already unlocked all the costumparts conventionally could be re-embursed for their v-merit equivalents. These took some work to unlock - a lot like the defeat badges.

For example: If you spent 250 v-merits on the helmet (not sure about that price but, w/e), you would be awarded those 250 merits back at the end of the time frame for the 7yr loyalty pact.

My i1 DM/SR is in the same boat. He's decked out to the 9's with all the yummies- even using PvP IO's from long time of marketeering. I went Spirit, and have T2 musc. I really dont think any of the Alphas are all that great for it, and with DM/Shield with T4 spirit (and hami-o's for DDR), I hardly play him anyway.

I've built kat/wp and kat/elec. They are indeed fun.

My DM/SR/body/T3spirit and T3musc is the i1 champ
Fire/shield/body/T4spirit is insane
Dm/shield/body/soon to have T4 spirit blows my DM/SR away (sadly)

Last (for inclusion) Stone/dm/body(?)/T4Spirit just cant be killed (soft-capped def, fully slotted granite, 2.54% regen (w/o siphon life healing for 461 a pop at 121% rech), EE heals for 1600+

Heh. Well its a pseudo-pvp thread, and since we cant rank peeps anymore. That group (PvP'ers) will put down anything. Typical, competative, trash-talk/posting banter.

Hands down Spirit Tree. The scrapper I Played for pvp was ma/regen, big difference with spirit. Heals back faster, stronger. Build-up will be back faster, and since fire only has DoT as its side-effect, it wont be modified by anything, so buff your secondary. IMO. If you wanna number crunch and see if you can push acc or def or some other thing with the alpha, be my guest. All I know is with the debuffs that fly around, the 10% extra you'll be getting wont be as great as having build-up and your healing tools as often. Your playstyle/builds may differ than mine (obviously, and I'm not getting into a build posting contest) as will your milage.

for what u said prolly spirit. I mentioned Musc due to my DM preverences, but I still like +rech. Anything to get tools back quicker the better, esp on a burst damage burst mitigation battleground

I agree. I know people could make agruments all day about Nerve and cardiac- that's fine you can have them. I like spirit and musc. Make them both and test them out. 5min of cool down to swap them out, or just zone.

If you use 3 lvl52* membranes in active defense and 3 lvl52* Cytos (i think) in battle agility, with double stacked active defense and Grant Cover, you can attain 95% DDR. Bug? Yes. Its on Paragonwiki, too. It's been known for a long time and I dont see it changing. I like it as a design feature to really make people think more creatively about slotting.


*Keep in mind, I think this number is used so that 50++ will do the job. A lot of work? Yep. Worth it? YEP! Castle did this when Grant Cover's contribution was re-evaluated and the new numbers were based on this. Dont quote me tho.

I primarily solo'ed my Stone/DM to 50. Pick a secondary you enjoy (you'll be playing it a long time). Be patient. Cant agree more with Syntax more. Use the dual build function after you get and slot Granite: make one build for teams and the other for solo. Properly built, non-granite stone tanks are good, and are great if you cant find a team, practice your solo skills with it and, again, be patient. Liking alts as you do, that will be your limiting factor. After 50, never used the non-Granite form.

How deep are your pockets? For AV soloing, I think the /wp or /inv would be the way to go due to ease of capping defense - especially /wp for protracted battles (not nessessary, but easier).

I dont like the combo. I have a fire/shield and and EM/Shield and personally find the fire/ a better toon. Excellent single target damage and *enough* AoE. LR and Shield charge are nice for when there are countless targets (ITF's, etc), but then you're not doing a lot until they recharge. You can build for recharge at some expense and Force feedback procs in them and thunder strike can be helpful. I find fire sword circle, while not as overwhelming as far as damage, up much more often and useful. As other have stated the single targe damage is lacking and I feel slow and clunky with moments of absolute powah!

Yep, slotting makes things more interesting. My understanding is that the duration is effected and magnitude is a manifestation of stacking (made easier by the expanded window of opertunties to stack (I know we're all not this dumb; just thinking "aloud")).* The question is then are most Tanks going to slot for taunt, use it and if not will the game be changed for it (altering threat magnitudes)? I doubt it. Any of it. Also, in accordance to buffing atributes tank taunt is 400%, right? Add in 100% for slotting and that's obviously 500%. Do many things get buffs past 500%? So, practically speaking, Werner's is interesting and Scrappers should be build to take healthy amounts of flack depending on thier attack styles. Big surprise. I guess I'm thinking too idealistically. I'm also concerned if Dev's look at this too closely, and toned down AAO argo, (in ref. to Eva D) the buff would be changed, too. That would be bad.

*whats the average taunt on a scrapper attack? Brute unslotted for it?

Hmmmm.... a /shield tank, a /shield brute, and a /shield scrap walk into a bar...

activate AAO and, just before unleashing armaggeddon, observe the results. I would say at *this* point a critter would be no more drawn to one or the other. Once attacking starts, Punch-voke would be the 3-way tie breaker- unless the scrappers damage would somehow overwhelm that (unlikely, but possible). The punch-voke is spliting the attention of the baddies until, brute taunts a few (1-5? targets). If the tank doesnt taunt, more attention is on the brute. Once the tank taunts, all bets are off. Tank gets the argo. This is how I see it. Taunt >> Active > Passive. I guess the question arises at what point does passive argo (via taunt auras) sway in favor of an AT. I can see brutes = scrappers. I see the point of Tanks necessarily drawing more argo via auras, but mechanically I would fear it would detract from using taunt and active argo management even more. That would just inflame the "do I need taunt" question even more. There's nothing I detest more on the tanker forums than the drawn-out theads on this subject (Needed? No. Does it *really* help? Heck yes!)

I find scrappers with taunt auras thematically fitting. AAO, RttC, Invic are some of the strongest powers in the secondaries of scrappers and should have repercussions - not to mention it fuels their mechanic. The taunt on AAO, is indeed, especially strong. I find this also fitting. There should be risk when damage is buffed that high outright. It's a lot like expecting not to draw argo when you're spamming AOE's as a blaster - Don't start nuttin' and there wont be nuttin'. Taunt can easily overwhelm them with an application or two. When I tank, I put taunt in the attack chain and have never had a problem. Of the two sets I can think of (regen and SR that dont have taunt auras AND no damage auras), I find that fitting, too. /SR seems to be rather sly/slinky the silent killer of the bunch - aura not to thematic. /Regen = independent burst healing (survival not requiring outside help) again not too thematic. Whether or not you agree is argumentative, I guess I've adjusted my expectations to make sense of what the devs have done.

My anecdotal advice: I have both fire/shield and Elec/shield scrappers. If you only intend on farming leuts and minions, fine. I would not use LR and SC on each spawn; that's too slow. Herd them up > Build-up > LR or SC > Thunder strike and single target powers for w/e is left (including chain induction - get all powers but the hand clap and taunt, IMO)

Its been my experience that although fire/shield doesnt have as much AOE burst damage as elec, it has *enough* plus a great single target chain to more quickly deal with left-overs and thus is my preferred build for all content (including both farming, all soloing, and teaming). It is a very well rounded build, but if you think you will enjoy elec/fire more, go with that - ALWAYS GO WITH WHAT U LIKE. A farm toon is likely going to be played for hours and hours and hours....

Edit: Last thing: I like Force-feedback procs. Elec/shield can have 3, and mine four with energy torrent from body mastery. I find they get my big hitters back faster - I doubt its productive to have 4 (maybe one in thunder strike and one in torrent).

I think you are also forgetting the crash is a lot more severe than it used to be. All end drops, all toggles, too. Unless you have a pocket empath with Adrenaline boost or dark consumtion or blue pills, your a sitting duck trying to toggle everything. Just get to soft cap and pop one purple. I still have elude to mule a Shield wall Unique - that is all.

-drop presence for fight pool
-consider leadership pool
-best attack chain is MG > smite > Siphon Life > Smite (most skip shadow punch, it adds flavor tho at the cost of some dps - i miss it
-Read up on IO sets for recharge and the Spirit Tree for your Alpha (both really important!!)
-Air Sup is still a nice saftey feature - i'd pick one b/w it and Shadow punch (based on travel power?)
-Try to keep Touch of Fear - again not my people take it due to dps, but a lot of fun and flavor to it
-Have fun, build toons with IOs, experiment, welcome back
(feel free to ignore me those are just my opinions)

dm/sr - got it
fire/shield got it
stone/dm tank (oh, survivability!) - got it.
dm/shield - soon enough

All with Spirit tree.

elec/shield - only lvl33

Few others at 50 that are just fun... meh, I dont know yet.

Going to have to play with the difficulty sliders a lot now.*

*Hoping they add an Incarnate option (see Shred's post) - I like solo and team play, unless they offered something like this, I'm having a hard time just standing there saying "look how bad I am, my damage is so great!" with basic difficulty content. Make it an all or nothing options (whole team or solo must be Incarnates, or no go)

I must admit I thought the "this effect" description ment only the damage buff. I didnt know it also included the -dam. That plus the -dam from AAO would be quite helpful, especially on a single target.

Source: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...=236028&page=2

My Pairing was with /sr, wasnt hit that much.

I like Leo G's response. I worked with it a lot in my db/sr with the attack chain of BF > Sweeping strike > ablating strike (with a lot of procs: Guas in BF; Sweep with armageddon and FoGladiator; ablating had Achilles'). Anecdotally and supported in the Rikti pylons thread it adds about 1% damage buff, but when it goes off: oooo, awwww, wow! (fireworks)

Purely anicdotally, DM/Shield margenally out performs KM/Shield when surrounded by 9 or greater foes. I can more predictably get a higher damage buff with soul drain with 9-10 foes + AAO. However, this solo takes some time as far as positioning, and teamed forget it: your fodder will be whiped out so fast by the burst damage do-ers. It will take time for you to get Power Siphon to whre u want it for Shield charge - longer than Soul Drain. And in midst of a volitile mechanic like AAO - you're really splitting hairs. With KM or DM/shields your best manuver would be: jump in, power up, kill the hard targets fast, sheild charge the rest. Good luck explaining that to a team. Fire is nice because you can get a significant damage boost w/o foes (which is the case for building KM/fire, but survivablility is sacraficed). Good luck in what ever you choose; they are all fun. Do whats fun first. Sheild does interfere with animations, but that's beside the point.

Edit: the -dam mechanic really isnt that helpful on scrappers to me; the numbers are just too low. Tankers it's much better and, IIRC, not resisted by any baddies (AV's too). I much prefer the Heal in Siphon Life