Madam_Enigma

Cyber_Naut said

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An SR io'd up needs to be softcapped to all 3 def positions or you're doing something horribly wrong. If you're happy with your build as is, then rock on, but being soft capped to all 3 positions makes you far more survivable than the number you have right now. At 35% ranged you're gonna get clocked a lot, and range is one of the easiest positions to soft cap. I know you're going travel powerless, but 2 of the universal travel io's are nice for extra range defense, and you can dump the kinetic combats which aren't gonna help an SR as much as sets like touch of death and makos.

I'd dump elude, maneuvers and laser beam eyes and get into the fighting pool - tough will give you some added resists when you need it and can hold the 3% def to all IO, and weave gives you better def than maneuvers. Elude is nice, but not that useful once you're softcapped, which is what you should be shooting for.

With all the def bonuses from IO's, softcapping an SR is silly-easy, so there is really no reason not to do it. And I just noticed you have combat jumping, with fast recharging claws, you don't need all those attacks, I'd drop swipe and get me some super jump since traveling is a pretty big part of this game.

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Except I could only put 4 slots in most attacks due to taking all of them. This limits effectiveness of slotting sets. keep that in mind. Sure I could respec to ditch several attacks and six slot the rest, but I like all the attacks Any ideas that wouldn't sacrifice damage for 4 slotted attacks?

Laser Beam eyes is purely for concept actually, so keeping it. Though elude is mostly a mule in this build for a set.

Did you realize that if my current build (with slots placed as listed) can travel at 70+ mph when I hit elude? I already can hit near superspeed levels of travel, and got the jump pack for vertical mobility when needed

As for tradeoff for no travel power, it's a trade off of RP concept vs not. Actually, slotting up run speed was a huge concession to mobility. This is a recreation of an old table top character. As such, the character didn't fly, jump real high, or any of that stuff. Wasn't even super humanly fast. I just slotted up run speed cause I got tired of taking forever to get anyplace.

By my math I'll end with 92.205 final accuracy, or 92% to round it off. Not too big a difference from hitting the 95% to-hit cap. And when followup is buffing me, I'll hit the 95% mark easily. Since I stopped running dif 5 (not worth the time when going for xp, not worth the hassle of AV's when 50) I shouldn't need too much beyond 92%. Right?

I know many here ascribe to the "if your not slotting 30% acc in every attack you miss too often" mindset. I find that it's silly. By slotting 30% you easily cap acc. Did you know by slotting a single ACC single origin you hit 99.75 acc, bounded by the hard cap to 95%? How about this, with no to-hit buffs and an acc modifier of 1.21 (less then this build) you have a 90.64% chance to hit even level mobs. Against a +1 (my prefered type) it's 78% which will still hit more often then not. And if there's a defense debuff, that too will boost your ability to hit more often.

That said, why is it in your opinion an "All or nothing" situation for getting more defense? And also, why in your opinion is taking a travel power so important, if the build already is designed to travel quickly all the time? I'm trying to understand your view point to base decisions on.

Main reason I'm planning on using kenetic combat is because I can get the +positional def with 4 enhancements without sacrificing too much damage. Got rather low on slots since I'm doing a travel powerless build. As such, needed to slot for run speed too. I still get 102% final to-hit I believe. Wasn't caring much about the typed defenses. Just ended up getting those on the way to positional defense.

I end up with the following.
48.1 defense melee
35.9 defense ranged (was finding fewer ranged set bonuses)
42.8 defense aoe

It looks solid on paper, but not sure how expensive it'll be. More psi defense would be handy too since some psi attacks aren't positional typed.

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Crabs have the greatest AoE potential, but at the expense of both defense and ST potential.

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Eh, what? Crabs have better defences than Banes and Huntsmen... they stay at range to make use of their CT, plus have Dull Pain and a toggle armour.

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A good portion of the yummy crab attacks I love are melee though. That, and I just love tearing things apart with the crab legs. Wish it could be removed when your using the 2nd build though.

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can you cap def on a crab??? has anyone seen a crap tank ?? if its possible i would love to try it. that more my play style any way. i dont care how the crab legs looks as long as the build is solid.

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Prob can soft cap crab defense, at least for ranged. As for tanking, forget about it. They do some nice damage, and get a mix of defense and resistance with decent mez protection though.

What, no comments? Usually if someone posts a build they get 50 comments within days.

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Is Glue Arrow still broken and fading when the enemy you shot it with is killed?

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Glue arrow (for masterminds at least) has always done that, but the debuff still affects the mobs it hit.

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Also, being an Arachnos operative, and "Destined One" are mutually exclusive once you begin the story for the VEATs. You erase your service record (hence you are no longer an Arachnos operative), and join the "Destined One" list like all the other AT's red side. No NPC outside of the VEAT story knows you were an operative. If a bounty hunter comes for a "Destined One" that would include every AT red side. The whole reason villains are being let out of the Zig is because that particular character you are playing is on the "Destined One" list. Due to the nature of the VEAT story there is no reason to treat them any different than the other villain AT's. You may RP differently, but the actual game story changes how SoA toons are viewed in the Rogue Isles.

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I know the storyline up to the level 40 missions, but I gotta say this. Oraboras disproves Recluse's claim about the VEATs. I mean, if you added yourself to the list but didn't change your destiny... Why is it when you travel back in time to 'fix' how you got started you actually end up breaking out of the zig with the rest of the destined ones?

Ah, but all wolf spider player characters at 24 have the possibility of becoming a bane. Thus by extention they must be psychic and their abilities have been turned inward to brainwash them. Especially since dual build lets you be a bane, and either wolf spider or crab.

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I would take /storm over /poison any day except for some AV fights but I don't fight real AVs in every mish.

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Every mission? No. But in the 40's you do fight them in nearly every story arc. many times multiple times in said story arc.

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traps is our most powerful general pve secondary. period. nothing has as many tools that actually work. nothing outside of force field replaces pets as infrequently. i have every secondary except storm at 40+ - i speak not from bs numbers in a planner or what others tell me, but what i've seen myself

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No, your arogence astounds me. I've teamed with /trap masterminds and found they had to replace pets about as often as I did. Which is to say, not often. You claim that /poison's single target nature makes it useless for general fights. No, it doesn't. By level 30 I found that 90% of the time my ninja didn't actually need much help to take things down. The odd heal, yes. Other then that what they needed was the hard targets being softened and their attention being focused. If you do those two things they don't need too much support. Heck, I've had entire missions where I didn't have to heal them even. And that's without me debuffing the enemies.

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oh and btw the following is everything that weaken does. lrn2cityofdata

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Oh, and I'm sorry. I don't have the time or patience to memorize every single web address people use in forum posts, and my bookmark for City of Data got lost when my old computer died. Nor is it really required since you can just log in and get all those same numbers with equal ease.

Also, did you notice a key difference between -special's defense debuff and acid mortar? That is that it isn't reducing the defense, but the person's capability of buffing defense. That means that BEFORE def debuff resistance kicks in your reducing the base value of their +defense powers. I've seen this in action while testing my AE arc I created. My Claw/SR scrapper got hit with it while testing, and my defense went down to about 8% despite high debuff resistance. Then I hit elude, and I only got about a quarter of it's def bonus. Granted, normally going from 30 defense to 110 defense is overkill. Going from 8 defense to 34 defense still can allow you to get hit frequently at times.

Again, explain to me why you feel that /traps is so vastly superior? It's for the most part stationary. It has a lot of powers which can be interrupted. Not to mention the fact that very little in it I find really helps that much if you have spastic melee pets.

You use your traps, I'll use my poison debuffs. And you know what? We'll probably go just as fast through missions. In fact, I may go a bit faster since I don't have to spent time preparing for every fight. I'll also do so with about the same level of safety as you. And during AV/EB fights you'll be resummoning pets just as often. Maybe more since you don't have as good of a way to recover from spike damage without dipping into pool powers.

So get off your high horse. /Traps may be strong, but it's not the end all and be all of debuffing sets. Neither is /poison. Both are equally strong, just geared for different strengths and weaknesses.

I wouldn't call peacebringers 'peaceful'. They came to earth out for blood. Granted, they have good cause. However they did come to earth with the sole goal of destroying something initially. This has led several kelds to go rogue. If it hadn't been for Sunspot, it's likely the peacebringers wouldn't be working with earth's heroes but instead waging their private war to the exclusion of all else.

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On a side note, DA tanks may need a lot of healing, but they can cover that them self. What they need more is +recovery. That way they can afford to run their toggles, attack, and use dark regen.

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Dark Armor LOVES Kinetics

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Mine loves empaths more, but not for healing. Mine loves the +recovery power (which I keep forgetting the name of). As strong of a +recovery boost, but without the annoying +speed. Sure you don't get +recharge with it, but IMO +recharge is a double edged sword. If your already having end issues it can exasperate them. I know on my DM/DA scrapper I like speed boost at times, but sometimes I notice it doesn't really slow down the endurance bleed as much as I'd want.

On a side note, DA tanks may need a lot of healing, but they can cover that them self. What they need more is +recovery. That way they can afford to run their toggles, attack, and use dark regen.

Does fort provide psi defense? If not, then ice tanks may honestly not get much use out of it... unless dealing with things that only do fire damage.

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So basically, Oni is the only one that is stuck with different "modes". He either cycles only Ring of Fire + Char or two Fire Swords and then randomly throw out BoF and Rain of Fire.

Is Oni too powerful if he cycles all range attacks? Fire Blast + Ring of Fire + Char? Maybe...

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I noticed the oni spams ring of fire and char (with the odd fire bolt) at long range. At medium to close range he uses all of his powers.

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At mid-range, he is mostly stuck with just Ring of Fire and Char and Breath of Fire and Rain of Fire with 60s recharge. He rarely uses Fire Blast.

At close range, he uses the same thing but if he draws out his sword, he only cycles 2 attacks.


I am happy if Oni just cycles Fire Blast, Ring of Fire and Char and occassionally BoF/Rain of Fire.

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Me, I'm happy when he's cycling BoF, Rain of Fire, ring of Fire, and char. When he's doing that... Well... Me and my oni have held a few EB's so far.

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On teams, do what u want. You are considered the tank of CoV, so if u want to make sure you have your defense, do it. Personally, as a MM, you don't have to buff other people. I put myself to a rule on my forcefield MM's, and the rule is that once i have all my pets (lv. 26), i often will only bubble the two people who i think will benefit from it the most, unless we are facing an AV.

And you think you have it bad now, try getting powerboost from the patron pools, and then trying to remember to keep all of your pets powerboost bubbled (can keep at least 6 perma, with rotation of pb) AND bubble other people. Now that's a pain in the rear. But Soft-capped mercs is nice though. heheh.

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Gah, yeah I know what you mean. I set up keybinds on my masterminds to target pets (if I have a power that targets allies). As such targeting them is very convenient. Helps with buffing, healing, or using things like noxious gas.

Then I get on a team and the team demands I use my rather anemic heal on them constantly as the team's 'healer'. Uhm, no. I'm busy enough on large teams keeping my pets alive. I'll heal the team if the following conditions are all met:

1. Pets don't need babysitting currently
2. Team member needs assistance (rez takes top priority though)
3. I think to check team window for their health
4. The team isn't a pack of idiots and morons who think they *need* a healer

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I was always under the impression that invisibility messes with alpha strikes, not so much aggro. Basically, unstruck mobs tend to fire their first attack at the first person they see, and that attack is usually one of their most powerful. If the tank runs in and fails to hit or taunt the mob, and the mob doesn't see him/her, its likely to fire its alpha at the first person who strikes it, which is often a Controller or Blaster.

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I thought group invis gets negated entirely if you attack?

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Poison: is pretty bad for mms in general.


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Are you serious? Do you know how strong Poison is as a debuffer? I mean seriously.

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Strong yes. Single Target, yes.

/Poison is by far the weakest secondary for MM. Believe me, I've tried A LOT of combos. I think Thug/Poison is a bit better because it is easier to put Noxious Gas on Bruiser but even that is weaker than other secondaries that can provide team supports. I've tried Thug/Trap that actually put me to sleep a bit (so strong).

Poison's debuffs are a bit over-rated anyway. Freezing Rain puts /Poison to shame most of the time.

PS: mmm, I am not sure which one is suckier.. Poison or Trick Arrow. I think I'll take Poison just because I can't imagine playing Necro or Ninja with Trick Arrow.

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Do you know what makes /poison so freaking nasty? Spammable -heal, -regen, and -special. I've seen EB's that love stun, holds, and knock backs never pulling them off due to -73% strength and duration to their effects. That -special for instance is the difference between a malta stun grenade disorienting you for a minute, or for 15 seconds.

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so?

with a kb prot io in ffg you dont need the -special, and poison trap and acid mortar take care of the rest

i'm sorry but for general play - and im speaking from experience with a 40+ thugs/poison - Traps is far superior especially once you start factoring in any amount of global recharge.

however on a team where tehre is already a disperson buble or ffg from another source, poison does shine.

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First off, spell check is your friend buddy. Did you notice what all that -special covers? If not, then I'll list it once servers are back up. It's quite the list. And I can reliably keep it on 5 or 6 enemies. Although honestly, you don't need to debuff that many enemies usually. Just the really hard ones.

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I'd rather they just not stun me, AKA /Trap's FFG. But yes, enemies with Heals that suddenly stop getting any real benefit from heals is funny, but not a huge all-around benefit, plus for being single target debuffs, you'd hope parts of the first two debuffs would be unresistable. I'd really like Alkaloid to be a Targeted AoE heal too, but I doubt either will happen until we get /Rad or something else added and it semi-trivializes parts of Poison.

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Actually... Uhm... /poison doesnt' need unresistable def and resist debuffs. It ALSO debuffs your ability to buff defense and resistance. My SR scrapper for instance will get seriously nuked by /poison if I forget to hit elude first. I witnessed myself going from 30ish defense to around 9% defense thanks to that -special. And THEN defense gets debuffed.

Also, consider this. If you have mag 1 mez protection (default), and the enemy uses a mag 3 hold it will hold you, right? Not if their debuffed by /poison. That hold is now a mag 0.81 hold. A single application wont affect you. Malta stun grenades seem to be mag 4 or higher base.

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Last night I saw a tanker tell the defender not to Fort him, he said " Don't fort me, cause it doesn't help me much "....

I mean buffs are buffs right?

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If the tanker is near the defense cap, and has self-capped their damage (possible for some tankers) then fort doesn't help them much. Just as Speed Boost doesn't really help my claw/sr, but instead can hurt me. If I really want more +speed I'll hit elude and turn on sprint, then run at about 78 mph. If I really want more +recharge... Well I don't need it honestly. Elude isn't needed constantly, and it's recharged long before it's needed again usually. If I need more endurance recovery, I'll just hit conserve power and gain endurance while spamming attacks anyway.

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"R U A HEALER?"

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When my warshade was asked that I said "Yes". I then joined the team, demolished the first large group of enemies while the team laid there dumbfounded (they were all dead and I wasn't rezzing them). I then hit stygan circle to heal/restore endurance and passed out wakies.

They accused me of lying about being a healer. I pointed out I'd used one of the strongest heals in the game, thus am a 'healer'. It just happens to be self only. They booted me from the team. I then stood outside the mission door and waited. Over half an hour they ran back to the mission 30 times. Finally they reinvited me. They'd been dying on the next spawn without killing anything.

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Poison: is pretty bad for mms in general.


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Are you serious? Do you know how strong Poison is as a debuffer? I mean seriously.

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Strong yes. Single Target, yes.

/Poison is by far the weakest secondary for MM. Believe me, I've tried A LOT of combos. I think Thug/Poison is a bit better because it is easier to put Noxious Gas on Bruiser but even that is weaker than other secondaries that can provide team supports. I've tried Thug/Trap that actually put me to sleep a bit (so strong).

Poison's debuffs are a bit over-rated anyway. Freezing Rain puts /Poison to shame most of the time.

PS: mmm, I am not sure which one is suckier.. Poison or Trick Arrow. I think I'll take Poison just because I can't imagine playing Necro or Ninja with Trick Arrow.

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Do you know what makes /poison so freaking nasty? Spammable -heal, -regen, and -special. I've seen EB's that love stun, holds, and knock backs never pulling them off due to -73% strength and duration to their effects. That -special for instance is the difference between a malta stun grenade disorienting you for a minute, or for 15 seconds.

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Poison: is pretty bad for mms in general.


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Are you serious? Do you know how strong Poison is as a debuffer? I mean seriously.

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Not to mention ninja at high levels are pretty dang survivable. They need more assistance vs single hard targets that hit like a truck, but deal with most things handily. I find that alkaloid and the odd medicine pool heal is enough to keep them on their feat most times. Especially if I ensure the nasty stuff goes down first.

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So basically, Oni is the only one that is stuck with different "modes". He either cycles only Ring of Fire + Char or two Fire Swords and then randomly throw out BoF and Rain of Fire.

Is Oni too powerful if he cycles all range attacks? Fire Blast + Ring of Fire + Char? Maybe...

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I noticed the oni spams ring of fire and char (with the odd fire bolt) at long range. At medium to close range he uses all of his powers.

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They're not good with the speed because they don't have any experience with moving so quickly. If you don't SB them against their will, however will they learn?

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i realize this may be hard to understand, but Speedboost's +speed can be harmful to someone's control capabilities even if they are use to high rates of movement. Narrow caves, small ledges you have to use accurate adjustments on, needing to move precicely to use a cone effectively. All these things can be fouled up by speed boost. Even if your use to high rates of movement, fine control is nearly impossible when moving too fast.

The things that allow Madam Enigma to be effective due to high speed include a cone attack which has a very wide and forgiving cone. Another part is that the character doesn't require precision movement, just running up to the enemy and spazing out. My warshade though does need more control. If I'm trying to heal for instance there's a huge difference between being able to accurately gadge my movement and being speed boosted. I don't always complain, but I've wasted stygian circle many times due to speed boost. I'll be trying to heal, and due to the +speed I'll go past the pile of corpses by a few feet, thus not get that heal I need mid combat.