Miladys_Knight
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:I'll be very surprised if the devs ever make Traps or Dark Miasma available to controllers and if they do I'll be willing to bet they gut the sets.Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
But only because Controllers don't yet have Traps.
The thing about TA is just about everyone considered it fine in the absence of something to compare it to. Controllers are just waiting their turn to whine about the set. Even for Controllers right now, it's among the weakest and least popular secondaries. No matter which AT we're talking about, nothing can change the fact that the opening four powers in TA are, quite frankly, the single worst four opening powers of any set. -
Quote:Yes I know... I was there then too.Originally Posted by Dispari
If only someone did a comparison of the Defender primaries a few pages back.
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As stated previously pets and psuedo pets do not get containment.
That means no containment damage from Imps, OSA, or Bonfire.
Hot Feet got "nerfed" some time ago it has a 75% chance for containment damage per tick instead of 100% like most of the other non-pet powers.
The beauty of Fire/TA is that /TA has many minor effects that combine well with Fire/ to give major effects.
Slotted up Smoke and Flash Arrow together give -15% chance to hit that is provided to you, your imps, and all your teammates. Stacked up with the defense from a defense based epic armor like Ice or Earth and you have excellent mitigation numbers without IO set bonuses.
Bonfire, OSA, and Hot Feet all combine to give large amounts of AoE damage. Even more so when used in conjunction with Acid and Disruption Arrows.
Ice Arrow + Char lets you quickly lock down a boss.
Cinders + EMP Arrow lets you lock down an entire spawn including bosses.
Flashfires, Cinders, and EMP arrow with average levels of recharge means that you have an AoE hard control ready every spawn. -
Quote:I let the number speak for themselves. You can go have a look if you like. The buff/debuff numbers on TA/ for defenders are the lowest numbers for defenders of all the defender primaries.Originally Posted by ShoeTattoo
Knight, your experiences with TA as a defender primary don't resemble my own experiences, nor does your judgment; I find TA to be a fun and effective set, both as a primary and a secondary. If you don't enjoy TA as a primary, that's one thing and saying "I don't enjoy it" covers that. To make a categorical judgment is another, and not something well supported by your own statements. Reflect for a bit about what the odds are that the strengths of TA could be highly meaningful on a controller, but amount to diddly squat on a defender or corruptor. The math on that way of thinking doesn't add up particularly well.
As for the last few posters before Knight who called TA silly names, you only succeeded in making yourselves look uninformed. Players solo emps, FF, and sonic defenders at all levels of the game; anybody who can't solo on a TA has truly earned the response "lern 2 play." Likewise, anybody who can't make a substantive contribution to a team with TA (as a primary or a secondary) is either brand new to the game or, if they're not a new player, then they should stay away from bows and arrows in real life because they'd probably point the arrow in the wrong direction and hurt themselves.
The question isn't whether or not TA "sucks", however one might define that. TA doesn't "suck" and people who say that are inviting others to draw unflattering conclusions about their playing skills and/or their willingness to be honest. The question also isn't whether TA performs like another set that some like better (for heaven's sake, play that set instead). The question is whether TA would be more fun to play, and therefore more popular, if it received some buffs. I believe it would be and everybody else seems to think it would be, as well. In fact, I don't recall seeing anybody come into this thread to argue that some kind of buff to TA would make it less fun to play.
The only concerns I see expressed about buffing the set are that buffs could potentially overpower controllers; which, once again, makes arguments that TA "sucks" as a primary rather difficult to believe.
If I had to hazzard a guess I'd venture to say that TA/ Defenders are the least played defender primary and as you know defenders are the lowest pop blueside basic AT. Now, you tell me what that says about the set.
I don't have enough ego to believe that the majority of the CoH population is too uneducated to know what power sets are in the mid to low levels of effectiveness.
We've heard the devs say that they are happy with the balance of the defender AT but population numbers should be telling the devs that even though they are happy with the balance of Defenders that the players aren't and don't share that view point. It's also the reason that every month a new "revamp vigilence" thread pops up on the defender boards.
/TA is a fine secondary for Controllers. Not because the numbers provided by /TA are exceptional (/TA as a controller secondary is probably middle of the road as far as power goes). The reason that /TA is a good controller secondary is that it does many things. It doesn't do anything really well but you can find something in /TA that goes with any controller primary. Combine the 2 effects and you have extremly high numbers for a controller. That's what makes /TA a fine controller secondary.
Buff the numbers enough to make TA/ an acceptable Defender primary and then when you combine effects with a controller primary you have the potential to have an OP controller. Not on the level of a Fire/Kin but certainly on the level of a Fire/Rad, or a Plant/Storm. -
I have a blaster on Justice named "Fusiondebt". The entire idea behind the build was to focus on the most annoying thing about Fusionette. So she's slotted for maximum AoE chaos.
It's not energy/energy though.
She's Energy/Elec/Fire.
Energy Torrent is slotted for Knockback, Explosive Blast is slotted for Knockback, Lightening Clap is slotted for Knockback, Thunderstrike is slotted for Knockback, and Bonfire is slotted for Knockback. My single target attacks are all slotted for damage.
Oddly enough she doesn't live up to her name. Knockback is extremely good mitigation in the hands of an experienced player. I got the mitigation of maximum AoE KB and the damage out put of a blaster. It's fun and very survivable. -
Quote:/TA IS fine. It's very nice as a controller secondary. The problem is that TA/ is a lousy primary. Personally I don't see the devs doing more to the set than a few miinor tweaks. I would be happily surprised if they did more than that though.Originally Posted by Radubadu
While I can appreciate the additional effort it would take they've obviously done it before and from all that's been posted it obviously needs to be done again, at least according to anyone with experience in the power set. I have yet to see a post that says "TA/ is fine as is". Even the people that enjoy it say that they do so in spite of it's flaws.
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Quote:You must do respecs very differently from me then. For me a respec happens once, perhaps twice in a characters life time.Originally Posted by Enots
It is not just the cost, but the time it takes to respec. I wouldn't go through the hassle of respec just so I could throw some lvl 35 doctored wounds on the market.
I usually level it up using commons, or cheap frankenslotting and perhaps a few top end IOs that I know that they will be keeping like a -KB, or a Numinas, Miracle or steadfast res/def.
Once I've played it long enough to
A) decide I'm keeping it and
B) decide which powers and synergies I like/want.
I plan my final build from there and start saving up recipes and IOs for the end build.
Once I hit 50 I respec and slot the permanent IOs. I usually don't respec again after that.
All of my toons have all their vet respecs, and only 2 have used a respec trial respec. Otherwise it's all been free specs that have been given out with every issue.
To date I've sold all the respec recipes that I have received as drops. -
Quote:Wouldn't it be a lot easier for the devs to just increase the drop rate of respec recipes?Originally Posted by Enots
I was respecing some IO's from my ss/shield (War Diety) to my dm/shield (Darklocked)brute today. I think that if Dev's made it so that enhancements were not locked so IO's could be more easily be taken off of toons we would see a decrease in demand as well as an increase in supply.
The reason I see this helping is I have a lot of semi-valuable (obliterations, crushing impact, numina's....) IO's on my SS/Shield the time and cost of respecing to get those IO's off of War Diety means that I will probably never get those off of him. It cost around 100 mil to buy a respec, I can only get ten IO's and I have used all my vet specs. I can still turn a profit by buying the respecs, but I hate spending 100 mil just to get semi-valuable IO's back. If I could more easily move those onto the market or onto another toon I would not need to rebuy them.
I could see a problem arising with people taking highly valuable IO's and moving them around differn't toons, I believe that the time it would take to move these around would be a big enough hassle to keep people from doing it too often.
Also this would not include changing the powers or slots, just the enhancements.
Just would like to hear your comments and concerns, good or bad idea? -
Quote:The trick with Fire/TA is to stay at "close range" just out side melee range but still in hot feet radius. Tricky to master but after mastering it becomes second nature. Fire cages + Entangling lets you stick the mobs where you want them. If one happens to close to melee range Ice Arrow and Char solve the problem.Originally Posted by Local_Man
I have an Illusion/TA at 50, but two aspects of Fire/TA cause me to avoid that combo. First, I consider TA to be a ranged set. Sure, you can fire off you arrows melee, but while you are shooting, you are a sitting duck. One of the main damage powers in Fire is Hot Feet, which means you either have to go into melee and stay there, or run in and out of melee. The ToHit Debuff in TA is not very strong even combined with Smoke, so you will get hit a lot when you are in melee. With no heal, that could be a problem. Second, the lit Oil Slick Arrow causes the Fire Imps to run away. Actually, it causes all controller pets to run away, but since Fire Imps only have melee attacks, it is a bigger problem for Fire/TA. On my Ill/TA, Phantasm and Phantom Army all have ranged attacks.
With Ice or Earth as the epic armor + Smoke and Flash Arrow you need little to no defense set bonuses. 3 AoE controls means that you always have a way to eliminate Minions and Lieutenants from the fight. The stacked holds eliminates bosses.
As far as the Imp/OSA problem... When OSA is burning the contribution from the Imps isn't really needed and when OSA goes out the Imps come back.
It's a solid soloer and a decent team build. -
Quote:You can update this thread, PM me here or in game, or catch me on JFA2010 or JU. Just let me know. I'll be there.Originally Posted by LSK
It all depends on all who want to give it a shot, was thinking maybe sometime in February.
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Quote:It takes far less dev time (which is usually in short supply) to just apply AT modifiers to the power sets rather than tweak them individually also once tweaked subsequent patches can break the powers or odd bugs can crop up.Originally Posted by Radubadu
My apologies if this has been addressed... but due to a character concept I decided to make a TA/A defender which lead me to read up on them and obviously I found this thread.
What I'm gathering from this and a few other threads I've read is that TA is weak for a primary but good/decent/passable/whatever as a secondary.
Nobody seems to be arguing EXCEPT those that are saying if the suggested buffs are given it will make it too powerful as a secondary especially for controllers.
Why can't changes be made to it as a primary leaving it alone as a secondary.
For example the way I understand it they increased the recharge time on a couple of powers for radiation blast as a blaster primary leaving it alone as a secondary, this was to compensate for the higher amount of damage it does as a blaster primary. Could the same not be done in this case?
One of the things I've seen repeated is a lower recharge time on a couple powers. Couldn't that be done to just the set as a primary?
The Devs tend to avoid doing that for those (and other) reasons. -
Quote:I'm pretty sure that I helped beat you and your duplicates up last night on Blue Side during an STF.......Originally Posted by Dr. Aeon
Blue side? BLUE SIDE?!
Dear forum posters, don't be fooled by the Television's propaganda. Oh sure, it may be luring you in with its sweet words of playing red side, but I ask you, WHO was the original red sider, hmm? Who was in red side before Television was even a THOUGHT?!
That's right, your good friend, Dr. Aeon.
These outrageous claims of me being on blue side are just that - outrageous claims, like the claims made by that ridiculous Dr. Creed or - even worse - Dr. Brainstorm.
Perhaps it's jealousy of my beautiful Architect Entertainment system that is driving Television to spread this propaganda. Perhaps you, Television, are the reason why I could not get that permit in Grandville for Architect Entertainment...your influence may be even more widespread than I thought.
In the end, dear readers, I ask that you all be very careful about this Television. Sure, it seems fun, it even references shows that, while horribly inaccurate of my own extraordinary and incredibly daring adventures in time and space, have the ability to draw you in for hours at a time. But then when those hours are done, you'll find just a little bit of yourself sapped away from the Television. Would I, Dr. Aeon, ever try to take part of you away? I think the answer to that is clear.
If you're somehow reading this Television, know that steps are being taken to settle this matter! -
Quote:The Norse Frost Giants (the bad guys in Norse mythology) come to mind. Sif (Thor's wife) was 1/2 frost giant and was the goddess of prophecy and divination (not too far a stretch to get to Psi from there).Originally Posted by Jay Peace
Think I am going to go either Earth/Psi or Ice/Psi. Earth and Ice both offer location AoE KD effects, allowing me to rush in and DP and PSW. Ice is looking best, because of the synergy with the Mako patron pool. Just a matter of seeing what kind of fun concept I can come up with, lol.
Thanks y'all! -
Quote:Annnnnd you can use the rune of warding temp power that you get from running the War of the Fir Bolg story arc. It's endlessly renewable all you have to do is Oro that story arc until you get the rune and you can go on about your business after that.Originally Posted by ketch
The immobilize in Gravity doesn't offer -kb, however your holds do. Wormhole's knockback is also a bit tricky as its magnitude will increase as you go up in level. At level 26, it's only a 10.3 mag knockback but will increase to 14.5 at level 50. After taking that change into consideration there is level scaling to consider as well. Basically, as enemies increase in level above you your powers will have a smaller effect.
For example, you just got Wormhole at level 26 and you rush of to face some +1 minions. Now your knockback is only 90% as effective, reducing it to a 9.27 mag kb. Some mobs may resist that. Some may not. It could even have varying effects on enemies in the same group.
Also, for Fire's question, you have a few options for lighting the slick. Like Ion said energy based attacks will ignite it. The Tech and Magic origins will both grant you a power that will do, but the are fairly short ranged. You can also dip into the Fire or Primal APP's for some more options there.
One other vote for the joy of Fire/TA comes from all the stacked AoE fire damage that you do.
Smoke from Fire/ can be enhanced to a value of -7.5ish to hit.
Flash Arrow from /TA can be enhanced to like value (it's also unresistable so it doesn't suffer from purple patch).
You can get very nice numbers in those 2 powers for 4 slots each if you use Dark Watchers Despair (good set bonuses, cheap IOs) Skip the end/rech and the proc. After slotting that's like having 15% extra defense for 60 seconds for the low cost of 10 endurance (best of all those numbers help your team and your imps)
My Fire/TA opens up with Smoke, follows up with Flash Arrow, then Flashfires to stun the mobs. I move in with Hot Feet running (combat jumping doesn't supress your movement) Cast fire cages in the air (6 slotted 5 posi's all but the Dam/Range and the trap of the hunter proc), Fire OSA (if it's recharged), Hot Feet immediately ignites it, then I cast Fire Cages again, follow up with disruption arrow, and occasionally I'll season that with Bonfire.
Then I just stand in the middle of the spawn watching them burn to a crisp and spam Fire cages every time it recharges. That keeps the mobs in the Bonfire and I get lots of proc damage. On spawns that OSA isn't ready the imps wade in and contribute their damage instead. You "can" take a pool attack and use it on any bosses in the spawn or you can just alternate Ring of Fire, Char (slot them both for damage), Acid Arrow (proc it out too) ,and Fire Cages.
It's fun teamed and works very well solo. -
If you are wishing to be rare then try pairing a low damage/low control primary with a mainly buffing secondary.
Grav/FF is fairly uncommon. (seen 1) *caveat to follow.
Grav/Therm (seen none)
Grav/Sonic (seen none)
Ice/FF (seen 2 have 1)
Ice/Therm (seen none)
Ice/Sonic (seen none)
Would all be extremely uncommon pairings.
Fire/TA would also be an uncommon pairing (I have seen one and have one)
* caveat
A poorly played Grav/FF is a nighmare to have on a team. I had the misfortune to be teamed with one on Justice (who has since been one starred and ignored).
You can entirely shut down your own team while allowing the mobs to destroy them.
You have the ability to teleport entire spawns of baddies away from the aggro controlling Tanks and Scrappers and on top of the squishies (blasters, defenders, other controllers) in the back. If you slot no stun enhancers in Wormhole the baddies wake up fairly quickly especially if they are higher con. You can also wormhole parts of the minotaur spawn in the first mission of the ITF (defeating all of which is required to finish the mission) off of the top of the mountain and into the water making finding those scattered mobs nearly impossible.
Running force bubble 100% of the time means that any melee focused toon will be forced outside the protection of your dispersion bubble in order to attack baddies.
Force bubble also lets you spread the spawn radially around the team and allows you to quickly and easily push mobs out of debuff patches.
Improper use of Force Bolt allows you to send the debuff anchor far far from the rest of the spawn.
Having both Dimension Shift AND Detention Field allows you to make defeat alls nearly impossible for your team to finish in a timely manner.
Pushing stuff around with force bubble and then popping PFF and watching the team wipe is something you do every 10 minutes or so just to shake things up.
Oh and don't forget to take the ally shields but never use them on the team. -
I'm having a decently fun time with a melee oriented Ice/Stone.
Opening with Ice Slick lets you get into melee range without taking an Alpha Strike. That lets you get full effect from Arctic Air safely. One application of Shiver plus 2 applications of Frostbite floors the recharge and run speed of the mobs. You can then smash with impunity. Perma Dom just makes it that much better. -
Quote:How did we get from "with 2 controllers on a team" to an AoE hold is useless solo? That has to be nearly the ulimate non-sequitor.Originally Posted by ShadowsBetween
Only if the player in question takes the AoE hold. I mostly solo, and find the AoE holds to be quite useless. None of my characters currently have one, unless it's something like EMP arrow. In which case the Hold is secondary to why I actually took the power.
I'd also say that you are pretty much missing the point of the controller solo if you don't take the AoE hold and believe it to be worthless. I'd guess that you are soloing set for one player.
My solo controllers (there are lots and I eschew FotMs so there's not a Fire/Kin, Ill/Rad, or Plant/Storm in the bunch) tend to solo with settings that vary between -1/x4 for my lowbie Earth/TA all the way up to +4/x8 for my Ice/Rad/Ice, Plant/TA/Fire or my Hurricaneless Fire/Storm/Stone.
I can't imagine going with out AoE controls nor can I imagine anyone with any experience what so ever thinking that they are useless.
YMMV of course. -
I had an Earth/Sonic that teamed exclusively with my wife's Mind/FF. We would then add random Pugs to the team and steam roll stuff.
It was mostly fun. The biggest problem I ran into was boredom (everyone on the team was essentially a stone tank as long as they stayed in the big bubbles) and endurance usage which was enough over the top that we ultimately stop playing that Duo around level 34. -
I could do that LSK depending on the time and day. @Grandpa Squeak on Justice.
The 2 toons I have most suited for that would be my Energy/Energy/Force Blapper or my Arch/Dev/Munitions. -
Quote:I don't find Ice to be slow at all. Most of the single target attacks animate in ~1.5 seconds or less. The AoEs activate in 2 - 2 1/2.Originally Posted by Harkness
I didn't say that DM doesn't work with anything else, just that it's "a bit awkward", which I think helps explain the OP's initial observation & question.
But I also find the entire set of Ice Blast awkward and slow, so, for my money, you just doubled the awkward, not avoided it. Obviously, your mileage does vary.
...Your server needs a green team?
I'll admit that the animation times for dark are longish but the superior mitigation that it gives makes that a small issue.
Most people that find it akward find it so because the heal requires a to hit roll. Proper slotting resolves this issue. For the rest they see only the primary function of the powers in the set and fail to take into account the secondary effects of the powers.
The only thing that my Dark/Ice/Psi misses that my Dark/Dark/Dark has is the stacking AoE stuns and 100% chance of KB in Torrent. Stacked AoE slows and stacked single target holds makes up for it quite well though. -
Quote:Thanks. My first attempt at it was a TA/Ice/Elec as the Norse Pantheon - Ullr.Originally Posted by Garent
I've been waiting for years for someone to do this four holds build. I salute you, sir.
The debuffs in TA/ just weren't good enough to get the job done (and we lack skis as a costume option). Before I had any IOs slotted lacking a heal meant I had to rest every spawn to regain health and rest isn't up nearly often enough.
Deleted, rebuilt as a different concept, though similar power theme, I am now completely happy with the character. -
Quote:Earth does have -KB in it's Immob. What you are seeing is the -KB has a duration of 12 seconds and the Immob lasts for 27.9 seconds without slotting for immob duration.Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
the earth immob does not do -kb, on my earth dom when i set an earthquake and use the mass immob, i still see the mob getting knocked down.
the fire, ice, and plant mass immobs have kb protection
earth and grav does not have kb protection
the earth control powers almost all of them do -defense too
i like mass immobs because they keep the mobs from scattering or running off and because they have very fast recharges.
Grav doesn't have -KB in it's AoE immob, Mind and Illusion lack AoE immobs, and Defender /Dark's T_T lacks -KB as well. -
Everyone is missing the obvious.
With 2 controllers on the team, even if neither of them have any +rech set bonuses, every spawn should have an AoE hard control being used. This should lock down everything but bosses (if your team can't handle the aggro/damage from a couple of bosses, or the controllers can't coordinate their single target holds, your team has issues that are more serious than simply canceling out an Ice Slick) and make the the need for flopping as mitigation a non-issue, or even counter productive, since you are in essence attempting to deprive your team of the contribution of the other controller.
If the battles are short enough that neither controller has an AoE hard control ready each spawn, you either need to up the difficulty, or your team has no real need of your services.
In my experience when an issue of this type comes up its one of three things.
1) A mid level vet that has learned the value of KD powers but hasn't the experience yet to coordinate with another controller.
2) A mid level vet that plays timidly and insists on staying at range. This is common for a player that either started out as a controller or blaster and doesn't yet realize the value to be found in Aura Powers. Playing a Kin of any kind, an Ice/ that uses Artic Air, a Fire/ that uses Hot Feet, or a Rad that uses Choking Cloud will quickly give you the skills required (and the desire to be) in close/melee range with the mobs.
3) A controller that is used to being the only controller on a team and either has difficulty changing tactics, or difficulty sharing "the glory".
As Local Man said, comunication is usually the key. -
Quote:I beg to differ on that point. My Dark/Ice/Psi synergizes quite well. The slows and holds in Ice combine nicely with Tar Patch and Petrifying gaze. The defender is designed for the green team on Hami raids (4 single target holds and Shadowfall to help with terror) but it works fine on a team and I do fine (if slowly) while soloing.Originally Posted by Harkness
Dark Miasma is a bit of an awkward fit with anything other than Dark Blast, so I think that tends to keep the Dark Miasma Defenders down. D3s are a very popular option though; just search this forum for the proof.
DM is much more common redside, where Dark/anything MMs have always been fairly popular, and, after the changes to DM, Dark/Fire Corrs now are arguably the most solo-able Corr.
I'm speaking from experience primarily with Virtue. -
I spam my AoE immob on my Ice/ and Earth/ for 1 simple reason. I have 2 damage procs slotted. (5 slotted Posi including the proc and Crap of the Hunter Proc.)
On all my Earth/ all I use earthquake for is an opener to mitigate the alpha. I follow up with an AoE control, and then start spamming cages. Earthquake adds a little defense debuff after that so it's not a total waste.
On all my Ice/ same deal. Ice slick is the opener to mitigate the alpha. Once it's down I move in with Arctic Air and as soon as it kicks in I start spamming Frostbite. Ice slick is not needed after that since with 2 applications of Frostbite, one of Shiver and Arctic Air even +4 are going to be at the -rech cap.
Same kind of deal with any of my Fire/ trollers. You just as well not toss ice slick in there. I'm throwing smoke, then Flashfires and casting cages to set up containment as I land in melee range with Hot Feet blazing.
With my Plant/ all your ice slick is doing is slowing me down. I toss in seeds, let the mobs self herd a bit and start spamming Roots (also double damage proc'd) Ice slick or Earthquake prevent the mobs from damaging themselves in this case. I have to cancel that flopping immediately. Hopefully I'm far enough ahead that I can get seeds down and let the mobs self herd before some other troller starts popping the popcorn.
I provide good mitigation as an opener and then move in to contribute damage. By the time the mobs get a chance to react there are few enough left that they pose no real threat.