Nihilii

It's definitely the point when it's specifically answering someone's else comment claiming the difference in survivability between stalkers and scrappers is negligible. Let's try to not make it look like people were saying things they didn't.

Well, I disagree with that because I don't really realise why would you pick BU for survivability . I mean, I understand the "kill them before they kill you" line of thinking, but ultimately I think of BU as something that is mainly for damage and tohit.

That, and I think using the word "crutch" in a statbased game is silly. IW is a crutch, mez protection powers are for sissies ! Yeah...

Given a very relative definition of "smidgeon" that means "up to 10000%", I tend to agree.

Seeing as the hit point gap by itself is a ~25% difference (~50% at cap), and that stalkers lack invul and shield, by my own definition of "smidgeon" the quoted statement would not be true.

There's a reason some scrapper combos can solo 7 different AVs at once without insps while we barely see AV soloing stalkers at all - though if you want to claim that reason is because scrapper players are a lot better rather than scrapper characters having more survivability, I don't think anyone here would mind.

I think public opinion might turn out to be Lisa complains a lot about Shield being supposedly unplayable without billion inf builds in various threads, if you keep this up.

Personally, I don't like the whole idea that AV soloing is done without insps, but you don't see me talk about it in every thread, do you ?

... Oh, wait.

Seriously though, it's one thing to ask for a cheap build, it's another thing to ask for a cheap build that is softcapped with tremendous AoE power (not picking on the OP, just using him as an example ). Not only you have to worry about market prices that are constantly fluctuating, but there's also all these self-imposed constraints ; it's a lot more work than making a "budget no object" build.

Can you blame people for picking the easiest way, especially if it's the one with the most interesting results (at least in my opinion) ?

As for playability of any combo with or without IOs, personally I level to 50 with minimal IO usage - some frankenslotting here and there, and the "final IOs" I'd use on my level 50 build as I level. For example, when I hit 27 if I already have the slots available for it I'll stick a Kismet accuracy and Steadfast res/def (yes, I know the kismet would be just as good as a level 10, but I happen to have a bunch of level 30 saved up). I've found every combo I've played can handle way more than a +3/x1 mission. Way, way more.

Just yesterday I picked a level 38 Elec/Shield brute I only used in AE farms ; he had only common IOs in some slots, and half of the slots were actually empty. Yet with inspiration usage (you kill fast, they drop fast) he could take on a +1/x8 freakshow mission. I didn't have Stamina so had to Rest every 3-4 fights or so, but it was fine.

That's kind of a worse case scenario. On my alts with slots that are actually, you know, filled with enhancements, I'm usually going nonstop most of the time. I won't claim I never die (I do, a lot), but there's really no performance problem with common IOs in my experience, unless you define your "average gameplay experience" as taking on +4/x8 missions by level 30 without ever dying, solo.

I think you give way too much credit to the average fire/kin player. It's a great combination for farming so lots of bad players flock to it and make the combo look bad, but it actually has lots of potential for AV soloing as well as general play.

I mean look at the fire/kin builds posted in the controller forum. Most of them skip ring of fire and leave char 1-slotted (or slot it with a hold set), of course such a build is going to have poor ST damage. It's the controller equivalent to trying to make a DM scrapper AV soloer using only Shadow Maul and Flurry.

Minions have about 400 hp at level 50. Fully enhanced Fireball does about 130 damage. With BU + Aim, 2 fireballs will barely kill minions. Do your teams take 20-25 seconds between spawns to wait for BU and Aim to recharge ? Maybe you also always have a kinetic (on top of always having 2 fire blasters) to boost the blasters damage with FS (despite, you know, minions being supposedly all dead within the first second and nothing but 3-4 lieutenants and 2 bosses left).

Of course, that's against even cons, which someone on such a fast team shouldn't fight anyway. Fighting against +4s, 2 damage capped fireballs would deal roughly 160 damage, making it impossible for that to kill minions, period. Even against +3s it'd be extremely unlikely that both your blasters would be damagecapped 100% of the time for it to work.

So, for your specific example, the answer is simple : stop fighting even cons on minmaxed level 50 teams.

Now, on a more general case, not getting into the likeness or not of playing with two fire blasters with perfect reaction times at all times, let's move on to the next point : are you seriously arguing Spines scrappers animation times need to be buffed because in the specific situation of a team with two competent fire blasters, they do some corpse blasting ? I mean, wouldn't every melee build out there have a stronger case than that complaining that two competent buffers on any team make them relatively useless ?

Not to mention FSC and Spine Burst are both ~3 seconds animation, Spine Burst being ~0.3s longer... I seriously doubt you're somehow corpseblasting with Spine Burst stuff you wouldn't corpseblast with FSC.

Finally, the passive-aggressive comment to wrap it all up. Yes, I'm now completely sure you described the ingame reality of your average team and not at all a hypothetical example made up from your *** just for the sake of arguing because you got angry someone suggested you were slower than him.

It sounds like you're using brute force to make your IO builds. I suggest using a bit more skill and finesse, then you might find out it's very possible to softcap, get extra resists and ~13% HP bonuses, on top of having a great attack chain and good end management as well.

Calling other people's numbers "wrong" because you slot poorly is ridiculous.