Oedipus_Tex
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Posts
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Joined
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Here are a few:
Invisibility (the power in the Stealth pool) prevents "aggressive" toggles from hitting enemies without actually shutting the toggle completely off. For example you can run into the center of a group of enemies with Arctic Air and Choking Cloud running and they won't alert until the Invisibility toggle is turned off.
Chain powers in the Electric Control set are actually a series of AoE attacks with a nearly 100% chance to hit all enemies if the first attack lands and the enemies are close together, due to the way the ToHit roll is calculated.
Feared enemies caught in a damaging "rain" power like Ice Storm or Sleet only get a chance to react every 10 seconds, not continuously.
Feared enemies that are knocked down or back by an attack lose their chance to retaliate or run. This happens even if the power applying the Fear is also doing the damage and knockdown (such as Terrify slotted with the Chance for Knockdown proc).
A lot of heavy hitting -Recharge powers actually are over the -Recharge cap for same level enemies, and only have extra effect when used on higher level or more resistant enemies.
Despite all looking more or less the same, the stats on knockdown zone powers are different from power to power. Ice Slick has the largest knockdown chance of any of them, and Liquefy has the lowest.
Enhancing Immobilize duration does not increase the -knockback time in Immobilize powers. Some types of Controllers (mainly Ice Control) can take advantage of this to have both Containment and knockdown at the same time.
Illogicially, hitting an enemy with a Hold or Immob that also has -KB will apply the -KB even if the enemy has sufficient protection to ignore the Hold or Immob.
Knockback powers always calculate knockback direction using the angle between the caster and the victim. For most powers this sends the enemy flying directly away from you. The exception is if the KB is technically cast by a pet, in which case the angle of knockback is based on the pet. Important to understand because of how illogical it is (e.g. an Explosive Arrow that blows up behind your target will send them flying away from you instead of toward you).
Most powers with Knock Up take Knock Back enhancements and IOs.
You can keep Super Speed turned on while flying with a Raptor Pack, allowing you to retain Stealth from that source.
If you Confuse an enemy that summons pets, the pets will usually turn on them even if not individually confused.
Enemies hit with Mass Hypnosis still "notice" you if you stand next to them unhidden. This does not happen with similar confusion powers that are non-notify. -
For what you're suggesting Fire/Kin or Plant/Kin Controller may be ideal. But it's a rough journey to the 30s if you try to solo that part.
If you want to try to "fix" your Corruptor, look to the Psi APP. Slept enemies don't react when you open with Fulcrum Shift, so it gives you more set up time. If approaching a group while injured you can also sleep them and steal HP from them. -
More disappointed than anything about the design of the Alpha slots. Hopefully it will be balanced out by later additions. Fire and Earth Control make out good with the forced combo of Recharge + Stun, everyone else not so much.
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Keep in mind that caltrops especially shouldn't be used on certain enemies. Mainly, Warwolves. They are mostly immune to the slow effect and run very quickly so the Fear will send them running huge distances before it drops.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Schismatrix
But i would advocate throwing them under this Tanker in particular. Especially since i have a hunch i know the Tanker's server and affiliation. Unless i miss my guess he's either a particular Tanker, or was tutored by a particular Tanker, who has a learning curve that resembles Kansas.
Pretty sure I do too. I have exactly one person on my zero star list, and it resembles this story so closely that I'm pretty sure its the same person or one of his affiliates. The only difference between this story and mine is in mine there were a pair of Defenders typing AM IN 5 SECONDS, STAY BEHIND THE TANK!!!, STAY BEHIND THE TANK!!!, and they actually kicked me mid mission when I declined to join their Super Group. -
Caltrops is useful but I very rarely use it while teamed for basically this reason. Caltrops is one way to get enemies into a certain position and Taunt is another, and they don't necessarily play well together. If someone's got the enemies positioned around themselves I rarely find the slow useful anyway (where are the enemies going?) Like others have said though, solo is a whole other story, and sometimes I use the trops to block an area where I'm standing some distance from the Tank.
All that said, this Tank sounds like someone I had the misfortune of running with once, binds and all. You were right to quit, although I also wouldn't personally continue throwing caltrops under Tankers in general. -
The Fire glow is exactly, or almost exactly, identical to the Fiery hands aura. One of my first characters had that aura so I didn't realize Hasten even had a graphic for a while. I'd be perfectly happy to just have Hasten have no graphic at all. Especially if they kill that godawful sound effect.
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Are you selling or transferring? The Basilisk's Gaze set is needed for many Controller or Dominator builds and also some of the Blast and Buff sets. I would never throw one of those away because I always have characters who need them, though maybe just because I play so many ATs that have holds.
Malaise's Illusions is totally not worth bothering with IMO as even the purple Confuse set comes in cheap.
I agree with keeping LotG and Winter's Gift as again these pieces are needed by a huge number of characters. I hold on to any I get instead of selling, typically. -
Quote:Originally Posted by rsclark
Look, I've got a DP defender at 50 and my Corr is at 30 now, and it's not a weak set, but in order for it not to be weak you need to work a lot more than most other sets. DP vs anything is like regen vs willpower only minus the way regen is actually better in some situations.
Are you saying that Dual Pistols is never better than other sets? -
While I won't say no to more damage, I think it's incorrect to categorize Dark Blast as poor. It's certainly lower damage than some sets but also much higher in utility and safety. IMO its performance is middle of the road on all sides. It certainly appears to be in better shape than Electric Blast, which also lacks a tier 3 blast.
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I'm going to focus on the serious heavy hitters that in my experience can seriously impact teams, especially if more than 2 or 3 show up in a group. None are strictly undefeatable, but left unchecked they can cause pretty serious problems. These are basically the enemies on my "handle first" list for my Controllers and Dominators. This list overlaps with some other people's, but its easier than commenting on each of their picks one by one.
Arachnos - Night Widows
Carnies - Master Illusionists
Malta - Sappers, and boss level Gunslingers
Tsoo - Sorcerors (particularly at lower levels)
Freakshow - Super Stunners
Rularuu - Overseers
Banished Pantheon - Any Mages
Circle of Thorns - Any Mages, but particularly Ruin Mages
Rikti - Mentalists and Communication Officers
Vahzilock - Embalmed Cadaver
Lost - those ugly mentalist guys whose name I forget
Crey - Paragon Protector (to keep it from toggling super-armor on near death) -
Quote:Originally Posted by rsclark
The versatility is the weakness of the set as much as a strength. Say you do find an enemy that is weak to one of your attacks. You still need to toggle swap ammo off every time you fire of piercing shot in order to get the res debuff and the same if you are able to stack disorient with another team member instead of hold.
And yes, it's good with AoE, but you have 1 PBAoE and one narrow cone, so to effectively use both, you have to move in and out of combat.
It's an awful lot of button pressing and micromanagement to get it up to the level of being about even with everything else.
Since the narrow cone with resistance debuff replaces a snipe you'd probably never use, I don't see how it's a penalty. -
My general experience with Mind Control is you will lean heavily on Total Domination due to the recharge on Mass Confusion. On my heavily IOed character I swap back and forth between them for each fight on a team. When soloing, I use both on a single group (mainly for the Containment). Power Boost is a major life saver for Mind Control because it means once you tag something with a power, they stay put for a good while.
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Oops missed that this is a PVP question. I don't PVP at all so I can't really talk about it.
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You see so many Mind Dominators because Mind Control benefits a lot from the Dominator's inherent Domination power. That power gives them a bigger Magnitude (6 instead of 3) mezzes. In most sets it works on about 3 or 4 powers, but in Mind Control it works in every power. Among other things this lets Mind Dominators sleep AVs during the Lordd Recluse end game Task Force discreetly.
Is it better on a Dominator than a Controller? IMO, generally, no. I have both a Mind/Cold Controller and Mind/Ice Dominator. The Dominator solos much easier, has sometime-mezz protection, deals better damage, and handles very hard enemies better. But the Controller provides shields for the team, has better stealth, much better debuffs, and provides force multiplication the Dominator lacks. In all neither character is "better," just different.
As for good secondaries for Mind, pretty much anything will work, depending on what you're trying to do. I actually think a Mind/Empathy Controller is more the kind of character many Empathy Defenders were hoping to play. Debuff sets are more popular pairings than buff ones, but anything will work if you team. For soloing Mind/Rad sticks out as particularly capable.
The only thing you should be aware of is that Mind Control on a Controller sucks horribly at soloing Elite Bosses and AVs. But there are a few other sets in that boat too. I guess the other thing to know is that getting AoE Containment is harder than some sets; whether this bothers you will depend largely on how much you team. -
Animation times are long on some powers, but the IMO set's overall performance is very difficult to measure. There is no way to directly compare it to other sets. It is the only set, for example, that has both a crashless nuke and substantial debuffs, making it very attractive for some Defenders. On Blasters, the main draw for me is the ability to toggle knockback on when its beneficial and off when it isn't. My main character, Oedipus Tex, is a Pistols/Dark Corruptor (rerolled from his original Earth/Therm and then Earth/Storm Controller versions), and the combo was very rewarding, especially on teams. I believe the knockback in Executioner's Shot becomes Knockdown against +4 enemies, which proved very beneficial when tagging un-taunted bosses on the fringes of team battles (surprising no one has ever written a guide about this kind of thing).
Long story short, if you're looking at it only by examining a spreadsheet its going to disappoint you, but in the actual context of the game it's a lot better. The only bullet type I rarely/never use is Cryo. I wouldn't mind a slight reduction in animation times and slight tweak to Cryo bullets but "underpowered" is, IMO, a stretch, unless half the power sets in the game are underpowered. -
Quote:I don't feel that I've portrayed it as the sole purpose of Swap Ammo. It's a feature of that set that models a mechanic I wish Energy Blast had. It's relevant to this discussion because several people have said the ability to turn off knockback would wreck teaming. It didn't in Dual Pistols. They need to address this in their arguments; the main way it's been broached so far is to say "I've played Dual Pistols to 50." As I said a while back (regrettably, rather curtly) that statement is confusing in light of adamant opposition to the very mechanic Dual Pistol provides.Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim
You keep talking like the sole purpose of Dual Pistols having Swap Ammo is to remove the KB when they want, but... that's not the case.
I can see why someone wouldn't want the toggle put in. I do not, however, think such people are idiots, bad players, "selfish" or whatever else. They are just people with opinions, like me. Where I bristle (and really, what drew me into this argument in the first place instead of bypassing it like most similar threads) are some of the insults that were/are being doled out to the "anti-kb" crowd. I am NOT part of that crowd per se, but I still think many of the statements were unfair.
Quote:Now, I'm not saying you can't avoid certain players if they have shown they won't play along well or don't use powers well (I do have a few 1-starred people that I avoid after bad encounters with them on teams), but making a decision based solely on a character's powerset or AT is not a good thing.
Well, I don't base my decisions on power set by itself. But I don't feel it's reasonable for me to insult people who do by saying some of the things that have been said in this thread (not in your post). Maybe if they came to the boards to tell us all how much we all suck I'd have a comment for them. But if people want to speed run, farm, run all-one-AT teams and whatever other things I think it's their decision and not mine. -
Quote:Originally Posted by PennyPA
Probably not. You make absolutely no sense. Proving you wrong after I was replying to EG then you start off on DP? Oooookay. Whatever you are on about.
And claiming "many players". That proves that no game will ever be perfect. Players will like X while other Players like Y, and so forth. You said it yourself with the "many" - as in "some," "many," "a lot," "a few," or "one person". There will always be complaining, so there is no issue to be fixed.
Breaking my own rule. I'm sorry you find me incoherent. I don't feel I've been unclear, but in case added clarity would mollify the conflict:
1) I think knockback looks amazing, is fun to do, and can be useful.
2) However I do think its unclear whether knockback functions as a bonus or a penalty when it is tied to multiple blast powers, because it does not give the player enough control.
3) The Dual Pistols power set is a place where I think knockback works well, because it puts that control in the hands of the player and ensures it is always a bonus.
4) I think that as a knockback specialist set Energy Blast would benefit from a similar mechanic, which did not exist when the set was originally created.
5) I think that if Energy Blast does not get said toggle, that I'll just go on not playing it. Also, while I personally don't avoid inviting Energy Blast characters, I don't think folks who don't want to are bad players or "selfish."
Now, what's clear is everyone in this discussion is pretty passionate about this topic. I know I came at you at first full tilt, and that was a mistake. There are many people on both sides of the debate. I don't know which groups constitutes the majority, but that doesn't really matter, because we're not all on a single team trying to figure that out. Many people like knockback. Many people do not. I don't think that's controversial, as these recurrent threads demonstrate. -
Quote:Originally Posted by PennyPA
Right, it doesn't matter. KB is fine then. Thanks for proving that.
You seem to have an issue with proving me "wrong" personally that transcends the current debate. I'm kind of an --- so I can see why that might be a valid motive. However I'll stand by the opinion that there is no way to be wrong about a statement that there are some number of people who don't like knockback. If there weren't, there'd be no thread, no one to argue with, and nothing to discuss.
I'm going to stop replying to you now because what you and I are engaging in at this point is basically he said/she said. I can tell from the nature of the conversation though that we'd probably get along great under different circumstances. Hopefully we'll meet on friendlier terms next time. -
Quote:Originally Posted by PennyPA
Funniest thing in this thread. "Many people" could mean anything unless you have real numbers.
The statement wasn't a contest, an election, or a public opinion poll. The fact is, there is some number of people who don't like randomized knockback in Energy Blast. If you want to quibble over whether that is "some," "many," "a lot," "a few," or "one person" it really doesn't change a thing about whether they think teammates with Energy Blast add or subtract from their game experience. -
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Players who would treat Energy Blast users in those kinds of ways are more selfish than the Energy Blast user because those other players are deliberately, willingly and knowingly placing themselves above all others. An Energy Blast user just doing his/her thing, shooting stuff, might be careless or inattentive, but that doesn't make him/her selfish any more than it makes the scrapper who one-shotted a foe (thereby forcing someone else to switch targets, lose anchor, etc.) selfish.
I think what you're describing as "selfish" is actually just a "a source of conflict." It is not selfish, to me, for someone to want to set up deliberate fighting strategies. Knockback doesn't fit into the way many people want to approach the game. They see it as a penalty rather than an advantage, and personally I have to agree with them to an extent (as many of the posters here, albiet accidentally, when they complain that people "just want to fight bowling pins" and the like). Thinking that randomized knockback attached to a blast set kind of sucks is not a selfish opinion in and of itself. -
HEALIX
Hey Everyone, Always Leave It eXpandable!
AND DON'T YOU FORGET -
Quote:Originally Posted by Schismatrix
See, i thought a pacifist was opposed to violence in general, not simply avoiding committing violence with their own hands.
"No, I didn't decapitate that dude, i sharpened my buddy's sword, juiced him with steroids and had him do it for me. After all, I'm a pacifist."
So, no, a useful pacifist in the context of this game is not possible.
Well my Ice/Rad and Ice/Therm Controllers made it 44 levels with nothing but a single target hold for an attack. While not entirely pacifists their damage sucked so much that killing stuff was pretty much not on the table. Hindering it and buffing teammates was pretty much the order of the day. -
Ice Earth or Electric Controller with a buffing secondary.
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Great work! I'm a little jealous of your talent. Maybe one of these characters will inspire you to do a drawing, if you're not sick of us just yet.
And with hand guns missing from picture:
