Minotaur
-
Posts
1382 -
Joined
-
Quote:Build up, lightning rod (which doesn't break hide) crit with the next attack is not a bad opener on a group for my softcapped ElM/EA, the toon is pretty survivable too, for alphas I can have capped def to everything except non positional psi (about 43%).Originally Posted by Zanthar
So educate me. You havent given one reason why anyone would want a stalker over any other class in the game. Please. Tell me. Im actually intrested to know what it is that they bring to the table. Again not hating on them as I love the class, I put 2 to 50 and i play them often but seeing as you so handily told me Im wrong prehaps you can tell me what it is they bring and what is it they will bring after GR comes live? -
To the OP, I sit on both sides of this fence. I don't like what flipping/marketeering has done to what used to be some of the cheaper sets, as this means patience pays off less than it used to, in that if you leave a very low bid up for a month or so, it is unlikely to fill when previously it would have done. Recipes I used to get for 5-10K are often now costing me 100-200K which adds up when you want 50 of them of various types.
However, the bloated market pays its own dividends.
I started a stalker on a new server (no other vills), and when she hit 50 5-6 weeks later, she had a fully IOd (non purpled) softcapped /EA build and 3BN in the bank with only one decent (70M) drop. How ? Well I simply played the market and memorised/crafted a load of common IOs. -
Quote:Exactly, there needs to be a scaling table where standard/standard provides normal XP at low level, but you need hard/hard higher up.
For arcs aimed at lower levels you also have to turn down the difficulty setting of custom mobs or they will become too difficult. I have an arc aimed at teen levels where one of the factions involved is a custom group. Even with the setting set to standard/standard for minions and LTs and no insane powerset combos I received comments that this faction was a bit too difficult for some people's taste. -
Another (cheaper) possibility for excessive recharge is to slot some force feedback chance of +rechs. I know in say fault or footstomp, this has a chance to proc off every target hit, does anybody know how it works in thunderstrike (main target only or all targets) ?
-
Somebody should try a proper analysis on a rikti map and count vanguard merits too. I ran the RWZ arc mish where you have to kill the leader (Sal'tar ?) on the burning forest map set for 8 with no bosses. I don't run herostats, but killed a number of rikti significantly in excess of 100 and got 1 vanguard merit.
-
Quote:Then you've played and reviewed the wrong arcs, there are plenty of story focused arcs that are significantly enhanced by the custom mobs within them. I can think of at least 10 created by members of my SG alone. I don't write arcs, just play them and while most things can be done with standard VGs, the custom critters if well designed can add an awful lot. For example, there are very few masterminds in the standard groups, so they can make for an interesting fight, and I see stories using demon MMs a lot after GR.Originally Posted by Venture
Hitting a few points from upthread:
- I'm closing in on 150 posted reviews, not counting arcs I played but didn't formally review. I have Seen It All. Custom mobs are a nearly insignificant part of the AE experience.
- Arcs that exist only to showcase custom mobs are almost certainly not worth playing.
- Mainstream authors for the last several centuries have limited themselves to stories about perfectly ordinary human beings that live in a world their readers are intimately familiar with, being as it is the one the readers themselves live in. Somehow, they have yet to run out of viable stories and continue to get paid for their work.
- Corollary to the above, there are no stories that can be told outside of Paragon City that could not also be told within it, once you realize the story has nothing to do with what the costume and FX departments are doing.
If you don't care about story then you're in the wrong place to begin with. Bejeweled or an arcade shooter are probably more to your liking. -
I'd also suggest solving poverty via the market. I started on a fresh server with a level 1, and had a level 50 with a fully (non purple) IOd build and 3BN in the bank in about 6 weeks. It's not difficult and there are guides out there.
-
Quote:I mistakenly added 2 zeroes on a bid recently, fortunately I only wanted to bid 2K so not a disaster.Originally Posted by Errant
Gods bless the Zero.
I sell a lot of crafted common IOs and have had many sell for 5M, which I'm sure are spare zero issues.
I've never been on either side of one of the really big errors where something around 100M acquires an extra zero, although have seen many on the bid history. -
Quote:Ice/stone is really cool, in I16 I'd thoroughly recommend ice/elec. My ice/stones (I have 2, 50/47 on different servers) are monsters solo and teamed without ridiculously expensive IOs. The priciest items in my build are sets of 3 or 4 eradications, a steadfast res/def and a performance shifter +end.Originally Posted by Carnifax
How about Ice? I always like having an Ice Tank on my team.
Ice/Stone sounds interesting, you'd have lots of Control available to keep things stunned and on their arses. Or Ice/Dark, could be a bit of a monster in terms of being able to take damage.
This delivers me softcapped defence to S/L/E/N before I use EA, meaning I don't need to slot that for def as much and can slot it for endmod, end red and recharge mainly. Also force feedback +rechs in fault, tremor and the epic energy torrent mean that your best attacks recharge in no time, meaning I can happily skip stone mallet.
While you could build something better with more cash, ice has the advantage among the typed defence sets that you don't need kinetic combats which spiral ever upward in cost, smashing haymakers are sufficient to softcap you.
The only downside is that pre 26 and EA, you will suck for end use, but after that, the toon is pure joy.
OP, I note you gave up on your stone tank at 26, stone cannot be judged before you get 4 slots in granite at 33. -
My name is Minotaur and I'm a tankaholic
Some of my favourite 50s and their concepts:
Lady Lahar - ice/stone - a lahar is a volcanic mudflow often caused by a snowcapped volcano melting its ice cap during an eruption. Geologist whose powers manifested in her teens.
The pocket rocket - fire/fire - child in red/yellow camo gear with "straight up" yellow hair. This name has significance in the US that it doesn't have here in the UK, got genericed and I got it back. In the UK it's been the nickname of several small dynamic sportsmen, probably the most recent being boxer Wayne McCullough.
Mr Minotaur - stone/axe - my avatar, as a minotaur was always going to have an axe, decided on stone armor, my first 50 Jan 05 played many thousands of hours.
Abrakebabra - fire/DM - Stage magician costume with tophat etc, stage magician and kebab shop owner who got shut down when the inspectors realised he was cooking the kebabs without any gas supply to his shop.
Hand of bast - ice/fire - metal face/hands/feet, cat features and tail, egyptian headdress. Entombed in a pyramid with dead husband, prayed to bast who granted power of warmth. Freed by archaeologists, came to paragon city, decaying slightly, found a scientist who replaced face/hands/feet in metal and fitted refrigeration tech.
Paperless - stone/DB - after seeing Mr Minotaur jump kick in granite, which looked fairly stupid, made to see how silly DB moves looked in granite. Not a great toon, more fun to look at than to play. The name is a play on the fact that he has the rock and 2 blades (scissors).
Xvartacus - shield/mace - a xvart is a type of blue goblin from earlyish D&D, so made him as a xvart gladiator.
My other 50s are fire/ice, WP/SS
I can do pretty much anything I like with most of my tanks, the exception being my fire/dark which I tend to play as a heavy scrapper more than a tank, although I have main tanked many TFs with support. -
Quote:So they would behave like VEATs, where you have to respec to access some of the powers at lower level, and you get awarded a respec to do so.Originally Posted by Roderick
Villains can't select ANY epics until they do their Patron Arc at level 40+. This means that either the arc would have to be adjusted down, which may be more difficult than we expect (who knows?), or that villains would be forced to use the respec granted by the arc if they wanted the powers at 38.
It really sounds like more effort than it's worth. -
With all the epic pools being expanded to 5 powers, is it time to be able to pick them starting at 38 ?
If you have a turkey of a secondary tier 9 at 38, it would allow you to get started on your epic, and if you wanted, select all 5 powers. -
Quote:Nope, I know that, but I read more into the devs ambiguous statement about clamping down on farm abuses than you do, and I suspect the boss or lieut farms are going too.Originally Posted by Ironblade
It seems you're misunderstanding as well. You completely overlook the fact that AE lets you customize the enemies you are facing.
Once you have to take on mixed groups, many farming toons are just as good v freaks or battle maiden's minions as v anything they can construct in AE. The only advantages you would get from AE is 100% res chance if you wanted it on the mobs and and buff bots. If you don't need the buff bots, might as well go outside AE for the nice XP bonus there is on freaks. -
Quote:Complete misunderstanding of why AE is used for PL farming rather than standard missions. The people that were farming for PL, will now migrate out of AE and incidentally generate a load of purples as the advantage that AE currently has will disappear.Originally Posted by Ironblade
Except the supersidekicking goes into effect EVERYWHERE. Thus, it is a non-factor in any comparison between AE and regular content. Same deal with the team size setting.
So far, we haven't been informed of anything that affects AE and regular content DIFFERENTLY. That's what it would take to shift the population around.
Currently a lvl 50 and 5 lowbies go into AE, the mission is full of say 51s, but the lowbies auto SK up to 45 and get t3h ub4r XP.
This cannot be done outside of AE without bridges, so only 3 lowbies max can get the great XP.
Post I16
Whether in AE or not, all the lowbies will SK up to 49 regardless, so you can do AE or not for the same XP rewards, so may as well do non AE for the chance of purples. -
Quote:Originally Posted by FourSpeed
That's the sprinkle of salt over the shoulder that has me skeptical as well.
It is *possible* that the difficulty slider setting will be enough to draw farmers
out of AE and into real content (which would be a significant market plus), but,
I remain skeptical that I-16 will reward "normal" content play at a comparable
rate to existing AE Boss farms...
We'll see, but until the trends actually appear in market I'm not holding
my breath on it.
Regards,From Posi's MMORPG interview, I think we can expect boss or lieut farms will be a thing of the past with I16. Whether it will be as extreme as being unable to publish missions without all ranks of badguys in a custom group, I don't know.Quote:The developers are aware of some of the abusive power leveling techniques used in AE missions and are taking steps to curb them where possible and prudent
Source http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...re/3424/page/1
Clearly the auto SK to 45 abuse goes also.
I think that will be enough to draw at least some of the farmers out. -
Quote:Have you tried playing an EM/invul under the same conditions (no tough/weave and on SOs) v 4 minions dealing exotic damage from range ? My EA stalker was more survivable than my invul brute in the low 30s before I IOd the stalker. Bear in mind that you're facing EA kryptonite in earth thorn casters so your defence numbers will be pretty much non existant.Originally Posted by King_Moloch
No kidding? Everyone says NRG can be soft capped easily. Unless easily means with generic IOs or SO's it still doesn't change the fundamental problem with the powerset.
Try some other enemies, shields have very similar numbers to EA on SOs and most but not all people accept they're fine. -
Quote:Nah, he flipped them and bought a much cheaper tOriginally Posted by Talen_Lee
Be honest, you ate all the ks. Even the special ones.
-
2 tanks if they're sufficiently tough add a lot to team speed, the first tank handles spawns 1,3,5,7, the second handles spawns 2,4,6,8 meaning every group is tightly bunched for AoEs and the team can really roll.
End is a joke at high level for most combinations, it just costs cash/merits. It is an issue at lower level. I can see good reasons for a diminishing end cost discount being applied from say levels 8-22 to make those more fun to play. -
Quote:We should hold it in Norfolk, equally inconvenient for everybody but usOriginally Posted by Zortel
No driving license, no ID card, nothing. I'm off the grid. I'm actually posting this from my secret bunker, where Bindweed is undergoing Rezortification and getting his hair brushed.
... In all serious though, I really should get a passport, but it's all a load of hassle to get something I'll barely use and cough up a chunk of cash that could go towards building my second box. >.>
Seriously I'd love to attend one of these, Amsterdam would be fun. Can play the usual game of "How many times do you get offered drugs between the station and the tourist information just outside". -
Hi, and shameless plug:
I'm @minotaur, and have been around on the NA servers for 61 months or so. I have 150 or so toons across all servers on one account and am a serious altoholic.
My main home has been on Victory ever since I found eurocore (www.eurocore.org) who I now lead. We are a group of European players (mainly UK, Dutch, Swedish and German) and a few from other places who play at Euro friendly times. We have 3 SGs and 3 VGs, and if you're looking for a team in Euro peaktime, you'll usually find one, and often during the day too. Feel free to sign up via the website if this interests you. -
Energy torrent is in some ways the best attack you have, keep it. By the time you hit that level, you should also have the cash to buy a force feedback chance of +rech which is not expensive, and will recharge your good attacks faster.
I would slot your resist toggles Titanium coating res, res/end, res/end/rech plus a res/end from any of the other sets to get the +1.5% hits set bonus. -
Quote:Some of this is worrying. RttC is detoggled if you're stunned/held etc, as because of the to-hit debuff it's treated as an offensive toggle, had you forgotten to turn your anti-mez toggle on ? Are you running on SOs only ? There are plenty of IO sets that will up your typed defences so that a fire/fire boss won't hit you often enough to kill you. I play a SM/WP brute and have happily tanked LGTF on it (and ITF, but that was a lot hairier with the defence debuffs).Originally Posted by Mageman
Dark/Willpower - Nice on Endurance, but I can't take an alpha strike. I haven't figured out how to get Tough into my build (everything in /WP seems great, and I need attacks, although I do have Haste/SS). And now that I'm 35+, I'm starting to run into problems - An endurance sucking boss from the Carnival of Shadows had me running to rest (a blue won't help when everything detoggles), and a Fire/Fire tank boss at the end of a bank mission almost took me out (if not for the greens). I've also found that some things can de-toggle my Rise to the Challenge. I don't know what or why, but it's annoying to find it off.
I actually like my DM/stone brute, the ability solo to pull 2 groups together, wait while they try fruitlessly to hit you for a while and you're close to full fury, then rampage through the mission with no fury issues.
Do you ever play scrappers ? Brutes have the same defences with more hits, and scrappers can do ridiculous things. Many of the sets however develop late and really shine with IOs. If you're going to solo, I'd recommend the much maligned EA, as the main sets required to softcap that stop at 30/35, and my stalker was softcapped by the mid 30s. In teams however, EA is not as good. -
Was using tremor earlier this evening, definitely knockdown.
The best reason for having it is to slot another force feedback proc meaning that you'd be desperately unlucky if surrounded by mobs for it to fail to fire in both fault and tremor.
I also like to make the kinetic combat KD proc one of my 4 KCs in stone fist, so that has KD too, ditto boxing. -
I've signed up, no screenies as I can't be bothered to cancel all the bids to put cash over 1BN, but I have 3 billionaires in total. Only been actively marketeering for about 2-3 of my 61 months play, mainly concentrated on playing toons, but as I now have all 36 slots full on my main server, and most of the other servers also full, I'm finding other things to do like marketeering.
-
Quote:The hard cap varies by AT and is attainable by a sword/regen scrapper but not much else as it's close to 200%.Originally Posted by dave_p
Considering the hard cap for def or resist is not reachable by anyone by themselves, I assume most ppl understand "cap" means soft cap. My apologies for any confusion.
3 slotted Mog is 110%
3 slotted parry is 23% triple stacked for 69%
Throw in weave, CJ and IO sets for the rest
Nobody means the hard cap in posts.