Nihilii

PVP IOs don't drop since I15.

I've tried to look for information on the topic, but haven't found any.

How do -res procs in mercs work, regarding stacking ?

Are henchmen considered a different caster than you ? Is each tier of henchmen a different caster than each other ?

How about Acid Mortar ? Is it considered a different caster than yourself, and/or the other pets ?

Malaise
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

These psi AVs were so hard on Invul...Sweet, sweet revenge.

It didn't take me long to top the previous time. Between Malaise's low damage and negative lethal resistance, and an insane luck streak, I killed him in about 3 minutes and ten seconds.

... Yeah, I doubt I'll ever do better. My luck was really amazing there, you might notice I had at least one -res proc going 90% of the time, quite often two, and I hardly missed.

Mother Mayhem
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

This time, I wasn't so lucky. Plenty of misses and I took a lot of damage at once, but thankfully it still went fine.

... Looking at the video now, I notice the whole fight took me less than 4 minutes. Uh. I guess my perceptions were wrong, or maybe I got plenty of criticals to make up for the misses.

I just noticed I have a temp +25% regeneration increase from a safeguard. I consider it fair, as I'm missing two Shield Wall because of the bug, which means my HP should be 4.5% higher (and HP affects regen too). I'll keep the regen bonus until it runs out.

Infernal
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

Ouch.

So, first attempt, everything went fine. I was starting to think about what I'd write about the fight. "Infernal's damage isn't too high, especially as the DoTs are handled easily with WP regen."

Three axe hits later, I was down on the ground and revising that opinion.

That is, I still believe Regen works well against DoTs... but Infernal has random DoTs, which is more tricky. Each of his axe hits does between 0 and 5 ticks of additional 75 damage (with whatever resistance I have to fire), which means if the dices roll his way I can die in three quick hits from full HP.

Not only I did once, but I also died another time, again while he was low. I actually ran away, but being stupid I didn't take the time to fully regen and he promptly killed me as soon as I was back in melee.

Finally, trying a third time did it. I started using some behemoths first, but found out they hurt more than they helped, so I took them out. I also ran again near the end, and this time I waited until my life was at an acceptable level.

Diabolique is still a no go with her constant phasing, so is Dominatrix because of her resistances.

Tyrant
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

I don't know if it's the I15 changes or RttC being a weaker taunt aura than Invincibility, but keeping him in the lava wasn't easy.

Other than that, he seemed to love his Laser Beam Eyes power as much as always and didn't use many melee moves.

Marauder
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

Marauder being Marauder, you probably weren't expecting an epic fight.

You'd be right. High resistance + low damage = Long + uneventful fight.

Here's a link to my old build.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm just stating that I find it silly to get to 41 with a great theme and then abandon it for slightly better performance, even when it breaks concept.

[/ QUOTE ]

Myself, I find it silly to quote someone only to disregard everything he said. At the very least, you could start with "I believe you're wrong" or the less polite "[censored] noob", but to just ignore it like it never happened while you're quoting it... What?!

Again, I doubt anyone would go with Munitions over Force or Elec for power ; again, I think a rocket launching witch is an awesome concept and saying it's silly while forgetting that same witch has been shrugging off bullet shots, ran as fast as an athletic sprinter for hours and jumped at superhuman levels of height, as soon as level 1 is, well, rather silly.

Finally, if you like not only to crap on other people characters but to crap on the replies you get, I can play the rude game too.

Mind/storm/psi is a very strong combo and, except for lowered damage against a few foes (which isn't such the hurdle it is on other combos thanks to Confuse), has pretty much no weakness if built and played well. Between controls, ST damage, AoE damage, ally heal/mez prot, debuffs, buffs (steaming mist), pets (Tornado, LS), mez protection they really have tons of options. The Psi EPP is picked by tons of folks who want the easy mez protection ; having the ice EPP would make the character unique and probably still in concept (ice and storm fit well).

Really, to me it sounds like your character is just a cookiecutter concept, just like Inv/SS tankers or Energy/energy blasters. I've seen plenty of Mind/Storm/Psi, I've never seen ANY Elec/Elec/Munitions, and certainly not a rocket blasting witch, which, again, sounds insanely cool to me. If you can't wrap your mind around something that isn't just the cookiecutter Storm or Superman, don't blame others for it.

[ QUOTE ]
I haven't known him to use that power if you're in melee.

[/ QUOTE ]

He does. Oh, believe me, he does.

It might be just me, but I find a rocket launching witch to be an amazing concept.

In any case, I doubt she picked Munitions for überness either. The powergaming trend is usually Force or Elec for blaster EPPs.

Ultimately...

[ QUOTE ]
Sometimes a flawed character who doesn't wipe the floor with everything and does have weaknesses, is a more interesting character to play.

Peacemoon, Mind/Storm/Psi Controller

[/ QUOTE ]

These two lines, following each other, made me laugh. I don't mean this as a bad way, it's just that when I look at a mind/storm/psi, I think "tremendously powerful character".

<QR>

If you think the softcap by itself is enough to not need anyone else, you need to fight harder stuff. Using the softcap as a scapegoat for the "def > res in IOs" argument is a bad idea.

For the record, I completely agree that there's a skewed balance between def and res in IO sets, but you're hurting your point if you use poor (and arguably wrong) examples to support it.

Bobcat
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

In true catgirl fashion, we played cat and mouse for a while. Poor Bobcat isn't too good at it.

Other highlights include me kicking her in the face, me running away like a headless chicken when her Follow Up hits, and me whining when her Unstop crashes to 75%.

Neuron
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

Neuron is quite tough with his end drains and high damage, but he was no match for the special technique Nihilii learnt from Tibetan Monks.

They call it "Run-In-Circles-Around-A-Big-Cylinder-Shaped-Thing". It turns out these monks haven't attained enlightenment yet as far as names go.

Battle Maiden
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

A very long fight. With the I15 AI changes, she doesn't stick to her crossbow for more than one or two attacks (Chimera had the same behavior as well). On the other hand, when I kited she sometimes stood there doing nothing with her sword drawn (conflicts between trying to use a ranged attack and preference for melee weapon ?).

Black Swan
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

At exactly 4 minutes, I think this is my fastest AV kill ever.

Another AI quirk that seems introduced with I15 : the group behind us doesn't aggro, despite being only a few feet away.

^ Well said.

Frankly, this behavior alone is enough to be worth a bad rating (and I'm not talking 3+, but 1 or 2). I certainly rate low authors and artists with a terrible attitude in real life, why wouldn't I do the same in game ?

(Don't worry about your precious ratings OP, I won't do it because I don't care enough... but if I ever stumble on a "@Lazarus" arc I'll avoid it without even trying it.)

Grats !

Positron looks... contemplative, on the GW shot.

In that post, I thought he was talking about powers that can't target the repairmen, unlike auras, but maybe I'm reading it wrong.

Well, not having tried it since I15 I don't know much about it ; however, I don't know if I'm reading your comment wrong, but it looks like to me you're saying interrupting won't work (as I don't think RoF or Sleet can kill the repairmen the second they spawn... could it ?). I was suggesting the repairmen might not get their heal off because they'd dead, not because they'd be interrupted.

Spines/Fire is awesome for the towers phase. I've seen a friend at work with his - the two auras make short work of any repairmen in two ticks.

If you had two spines/fire (or four auras of any kind) on team, you might be able to do it despite the repairmen bug, as the first tick from four auras would kill the repairmen. Granted, I don't know how fast the repairmen actually heal the tower, but the auras start hitting them as soon as they spawn (normal attacks can't) so that's another plus.

Aah, but you see, that's the thing... RttC is only a 1.25s duration taunt.

I'm used to Invincibility, which has a 16.875s taunt duration ; by itself, it's already enough to allow yourself to walk to a random mob, go to Icon to make a new costume, run an ITF or two, and still find that first random mob aggroed to you when you're done.

This isn't the best part yet. Unlike the tanker version, Invinc can stack with itself. Activating every second, with a 17s duration.

Some would say that's a bug. They have to be wrong. Something that left so many tankers frantically taunting, jumping around, hitting everything to try to grab the aggro I'm getting by just standing around is obviously a feature.

Alternative titles :
"DB/WP - The mouse1 + W of CoH"
"DB/WP - Turn off your brain and spam that attack chain !"
"DB/WP - Any easier and..." Ok, so you get the point. DB/WP isn't hard to play.

Which is why I like it. Everything is passive except for SoW, CP and my attacks. No mez or damage type hole.

The price for this, compared to my DB/Inv, is lower peak performance, which doesn't bother me at all. Ok, I also lost the awesome aggro aura that is Invincibility, which does bother my friends.


Here's the build :

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1,401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Dual Blades
Secondary Power Set: Willpower
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Power Slice -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5)
Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- Numna-Heal(A), Heal-I(5), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(7), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(7), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(9), ResDam-I(9)
Level 2: Ablating Strike -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(11), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(11), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), Achilles-ResDeb%(27)
Level 4: Mind Over Body -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam(27), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(29), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(29)
Level 6: Fast Healing -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Heal(33), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(33), Heal-I(34), RgnTis-Regen+(34)
Level 8: Blinding Feint -- Hectmb-Dam%(A), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(34), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(37), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(37), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39)
Level 10: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Ksmt-ToHit+(40), DefBuff-I(40), DefBuff-I(48), DefBuff-I(50)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(33), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(40)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(15), Zephyr-ResKB(15)
Level 16: Rise to the Challenge -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(17), Numna-Heal/Rchg(17)
Level 18: Vengeful Slice -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(19), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(19), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(25)
Level 20: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(21), P'Shift-EndMod(21), P'Shift-End%(23)
Level 22: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 24: Health -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx(42), Numna-Heal/Rchg(43)
Level 26: Sweeping Strike -- Armgdn-Dam%(A), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Armgdn-Dmg(43), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(46), Empty(46)
Level 28: Heightened Senses -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), DefBuff-I(46), DefBuff-I(48), DefBuff-I(50)
Level 30: Stamina -- Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(A), Efficacy-EndMod(31), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(31), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(31)
Level 32: Kick -- HO:Nucle(A)
Level 35: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(36), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(36), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 38: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(39), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(39)
Level 41: Strength of Will -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(42), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(42)
Level 44: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(45), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(45)
Level 47: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 49: Tactics -- AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- HO:Nucle(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Clrty-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Heal-I(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

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The common defense IOs in HS and IW are Shield Walls (including the +3 res in IW).
The common resistance IO in HPT is the Gladiator +3 def.
Sweeping Strike's empty slot is the Fury of the Gladiator chance for -res.

Now the fun part ! Starting easy, with the Praetorian arc.

Chimera
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

Well, not so easy actually. His defense debuffs hurt, and with only 50% S/L res he hits hard, so I did a lot of kiting. A very close fight near the end.

At the time of this post, I was missing one Kinetic Combat and two Shield Wall (still going to miss these two for a while, PVP IOs aren't dropping at all since I15), which didn't help.

Shadowhunter
Screenshots : 1 2
Video

This one was cake. Not much to say, I didn't click SoW once and didn't move at all. Watch this or slap yourself one thousand times, it's about as entertaining.

... If you actually enjoy slapping yourself, I don't want to know about it.

By the way, my bid filled and I got the kinetic combat.


Siege and Nightstar were still too tough, curse their robotic resistances. On the bright side, I've lowered rep to Heroic and am soloing Siege as an EB while typing this post, with Ablating Strike on auto. Willpower : best AFK scrapper soloer ! That has to count for something.

And if you know me, you should know I'll cheat !

*summons Ouroboros portal*
*jumps back to 4 months earlier*

I win !

Ah, thanks !

Well, reading that left me even more confused. I've never seen my defense moving on my SD, Phalanx Fighting looks like it's exactly perma.

Are we 100% sure the numbers on Redtomax are correct ?

Edit : scratch that, I'm being stupid again and thought you were talking about the passive part. The other part does indeed vary with teammates.

If I understand this, that would make the duration of the stacking effect RoundUp(1/0.125)*0.125, right ? Yet that can't be right, because it's = to 1, and RttC definitely stacks.

Using 0.132 instead, that would give a 1.056 duration. It doesn't seem like 0.056 is enough considering I did consistently get numbers over +0.1, but it could be that I didn't run enough tests... or that I got the equations wrong. Again.

The way I see it, if you're going to try insane stuff without insps, you'll have to spend a lot for any build. If you stick to standard things, then any scrapper secondary with SOs will do the trick and Shield is great here for the damage boost from AaO and Shield Charge.

If you can pair your primary with Shield, I don't see any reason to go with something else (except for concept). It's just that good in my opinion.

Let's clarify the OP : by RttC stacking I mean the small period of time during which RttC gives twice as much buffs as it should.

Redtomax lists it as 0.13 (I can't believe I didn't check this site in the first place), close enough to one server tick, and my testing showed me it's giving a ~13% buff to RttC regen. I am wondering if someone knows exactly how it works, but that's just curiosity. Most likely, it's working exactly like it looks like it should, giving a straight 13% (or 13.2%) increase.

Just out of curiosity,

Has anyone managed to find out how does RttC stacking affect the regen ?

My gut feeling was that it was (just like Invincibility) stacking for 0.125s (or possibly one server tick ; that would make more sense, wouldn't it ?), and running a few tests against rikti monkeys, the numbers I got were significantly higher than my supposed regen, more or less matching a 1/8th boost.

That being said, it's a rather crude way to test (tiny samples, using a stopwatch...) so I'm wondering if anybody knew exactly how it works.

I'm sure you could handle another toggle with CP, but it might not be worth it without it. The biggest upside I see with Weave is it'd push all your defenses to the ~36 range, softcapping you with ten foes or one luck.

At current market prices, the 3 kinetic combat sets alone put you far above the 100m mark (case in point : I'm sitting on a 21M bid since 3 days on a dam/end/rech ; it's really hard to get these at a decent price from the market unless you're willing to wait weeks). I'd replace these for smashing haymaker, the additional 5% def isn't worth it on a budget imho.

Other than that, it looks great. I'd go for a kismet in CJ, trade Unstop for CP and drop one of the AoEs for Weave, but that's just how I like to do things.

Entertaining read. I hope the OP ignores the PC folks and keeps writing these reviews.

I just did an Invincible PuG Reichsman TF on Freedom. During the last mission nobody ever got hit by the mag100 stun ; I actually felt stupid because I told the emp it might be a good idea to stack CM on the tanker, but then the emp DCed for 20 minutes and nothing happened, so he stopped stacking CM at all. Our tanker being Shield without Aid Self had no trouble tanking the level 52 Reichsman even while the emp was gone, although his life yo-yoed a bit during that time. It took us about a hour to take him down so it's not because we killed him fast either, and I doubt we just "lucked out" over such a long period. His biggest hit (remember, as a +2, not an even con), did about 1300 damage on folks without resistances, and his AoEs having high knockback the squishies weren't standing around for the follow up to kill them unless they ran back to him right away.

Frankly, I think you should run it before shouting doom, unless my team ran into an exceptional AI bug it looked challenging but fine, rather tedious to *kill* him with his Unstoppable but I'm expecting it would have gone a lot faster if we had done it on Heroic.