Oedipus_Tex
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Posts
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Quote:I don't understand how a Tanker treated as +1 level for defense and resistance affects Brute's fury generation. I may not have explained clearly, but my suggestion was only that Tankers be treated as if they were one level higher than they actually are when determining their defense and resistance.Originally Posted by magikwand
What exactly would be the benefit of that? I could understand why a brute would love such a power, as it would get him more fury, but why would a tank want such?
Not to mention that such a power would cause issues for fury generation for brutes if they team with tankers post GR. I don't believe there will be any way to give tankers "more" aggro control without causing some pretty hardy balance issues in the process. -
On top of the pets taking up space, there's also a mentality of many Masterminds that buffs are for pets only. Sometimes when I add a Mastermind to a team what I see is teammates getting slaughtered while the MM is busily healing his zombies. It's one thing to concentrate on your pets while the team is doing ok, but really poor style when the team is about to wipe. I suspect a lot of Masterminds don't even look at the team window to see how things are going, based on the number of times I've been killed.
That said, not everything about Masterminds is bad. Having those extra bodies around as potential aggro targets does make my squishies feel safer. -
Quote:I agree actually, but I don't see this as mutually exclusive.Originally Posted by Failsight
Defenders need a boost in what they do more than Tankers do. Just sayin'.
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I'm in the minority in this thread, but I would like to see Tankers get a slight lift to keep them competitive. The way I'd like to go about it is a little different than the normal cap method, though.
Personally, what I'd like to see is the Tanker's Gauntlet power expanded so that it causes the Tanker to be appraised as one level higher than his or her actual level when calculating defense and resistance against an attacker. The Tankers maximum defense and resistance would still be 95%/90% to any attack, but a level 50 Tanker would be treated as if s/he was level 51 when defending against an attack. This way, Tankers get a noticeable advantage, but only when fighting higher level enemies (IMO the real situation where a Tanker should outshine other ATs anyway), and that advantage is available both for Tankers who are capped and those who aren't, all the way from level 1. -
Fun experiment. I tried it using ONLY Controller powers (ignoring secondaries altogether). Personally I think a Controller running Arctic Air and Hotfeet who opens with Seeds of Confusion while standing in Volcanic Gasses next to a Phantom Army is totally reasonable.
1) Mind: Dominate
2) Plant: AoE Immob
4) Mind: Levitate
6) Ice: Arctic Air
8) Plant: Seeds of Confusion
10) Earth: Stalagmites
12) Fire: Flashfire
14) Hurdle
16) Health
18) Illusion: Phantom Army
20) Stamina
22) Fire: Hot Feet
24) Hasten
26) Mind: Terrify
28) Earth: Volcanic Gasses
30) Plant: Carrion Creepers
32) Fire: Fire Imps
35) Mind: Mass Confusion
38) Super Speed
41) Fireball
44) Fireblast
47) Consume
49) Rise of the Phoenix (well why not?) -
Looking at http://www.redtomax.com , it looks like the power Imps get is Resist Fire.
Self:
•RES(Fire) +40% for 10.25s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
Effect does not stack from same caster
•JumpHeight +3 for 10.25s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
Effect does not stack from same caster
•SpeedJumping +0.05 for 10.25s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
Effect does not stack from same caster
•MovementControl, MovementFriction +100 for 10.25s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
Effect does not stack from same caster
•RunSpeed +0.6 for 10.3s [Ignores Enhancements & Buffs]
Effect does not stack from same caster
So, 40% Fire Resistance, and run speed debuff resistance, and that's it. -
Quote:And here I thought I'd found the Troll 2 of powers. Oh well.Originally Posted by Leo_G
No, Blinding Powder isn't bad. It's decent if you decide to use it.
And no, it's a mag 2 sleep (so minions go to sleep) and a 50% chance of mag 2 confuse (so minions might start attacking eachother) along with its -perception and -ToHit.
Smoke Flash is the PBAoE placate power. -
Quote:Do you mean Blinding Powder? I have no experience with it but I LOL'ed when I looked it up in Mid's.Originally Posted by beyeajus74018
And Ninjutsu's smoke bomb, garbage.
Am I correctly interpreting it as a cone shaped version of Flash Arrow with a 120 second base recharge and a blind duration of just 20 seconds?
Oh, I see a 11 second Mag 2 sleep in there too, with a 50% chance for an additional Mag 2 for 23 seconds. So 1/2 of bosses, lts, and minions, will be asleep for 11 seconds, and the other 1/2 of minions asleep for 23 seconds.
I think this power just out-Flash Arrowed Flash Arrow. -
Isn't Flurry king of PVP these days? I've spent all of 5 minutes in PVP, promptly died, and have never looked back.
Kinetic's Repel is an interesting one. I actually don't find it to be that bad of a power... if it were in a different set. Force Field has something similar that I occasionally toggle on when bad guys are chasing a teammate. It pulses slower than Repel but still sends stuff flying and is actually half-useful as long as you don't leave it on too long.
Is Frostwork a contender? -
My two cents. There was a lot of good advice already that I won't repeat, but here are a few things to stand out to me.
RE: Ice Slick. I would never skip this power. In some groups it will be negated but in others it won't. It's not necessarily true that high level enemies don't fall on it. Levels of knockback/down immunity vary across the board. Most importantly, knockdown ignores the normal mag protection that minions/bosses/lts have.
RE: Shiver. Again I would never skip this power unless I was taking a -Speed/-Recharge power from my secondary (Storm or Cold's Snow Storm for example.. and even then I still prefer Shiver). The reason is that the amount of -Recharge from your other powers alone isn't enough to floor recharge rates and keep them there. -Recharge is quadratic. The more you have of it, the more effective it is, up to the cap (75%). Shiver floors Recharge instantly on a same level or +1 enemy. It might seem like the difference between -60% Recharge and -75% is small. In fact, -60% is almost half as effective as -75%.
The formula is:
RechargeTime = BaseRechargeTime / ( 1 + Enhancement )
Therefor, demonstrated on a power with a 1 second recharge time:
60%) 1 / (1 + -.6) = 2.5 seconds
75%) 1 / (1 + -.75) = 4 seconds
And these numbers get more drastic as the base recharge time of the power increases. If the power was on a 10 second base recharge, it would take 25 seconds and 40 seconds respectively.
Basically, to take advantage of -Recharge you have to lay it on the enemy as heavy as you can and sustain it. Shiver is a very effective way to do that, especially against +2, +3, and +4 enemies where you have to slam them repeatedly with -Recharge for it to have much effect. -
Good to see a few powers possibly reclaimed.
I always thought with Stealth if you really wanted to go inviso, you could go with Super Speed. It actually gives you a speed boost instead of penalty. Is there any truth to Stealth's claim that it's mutually exclusive with Steamy Mist/Arctic Fog, etc? I always found that weird, because Super Speed doesn't work like that. I guess to get to Super Speed you have to be a vet or take the pre-req, but at least the pre-req is the awesome Hasten.
With Group Fly I know Masterminds use it for soloing AVs. I guess that sort of redeems it. It still kills me that to get that power, it means taking 2 other powers out of the Flight pool too though. At least three of them can be slotted for easy ranged defense.
World of Confusion....... well luckily there is a proc you can stick in there that's better than the actual power, and the purple set you can slot into it has great bonuses. But the power itself is really funny: a mag 2, base 1.5 second Confuse that pulses every 4 seconds and only operates within an 8 ft radius. I kind of think of it as "Contagious Confusion or Bust." Interesting how the damage aura is non-aggro though. -
I don't think the nuke is awful. I agree it could use a damage boost, but I'm not sure I'm on board with calling it the worst nuke out there. It's not so awful that I'd personally skip it, at least for a teamed character.
Part of the equation is that Archery's Rain of Arrows is really, really, really good. It's probably the best of all the nukes out there, although that's subjective. Part of this is that RoA keeps Blaster-level damage when ported to other ATs, which HoB doesn't do. But it's also linked to the recharge time (fast), damage (great), shape (radial and ranged), and crashless-ness.
Full Auto is conditionally good. The damage and recharge are great, but the shape of the cone can be a challenge to work with. It also has a lower target cap than any other nuke, (10 instead of 16). I wouldn't put this power in the same ballpark as Rain of Arrows despite looking similar from a DPA perspective.
Hail of Bullets is very risky; too risky, IMO, because of where it makes you stand and the fact that it draws aggro the moment it starts firing instead of the end of the animation like most other nukes (exception: Full Auto). It does do less damage than either RoA or FA, and recharges slower. However, subjectively speaking I still like this power better than the crash-nukes simply because I actually use it. The crash-nukes are fun but can't be followed up easily. On a team, you can pop a HoB about once every minute. It's not RoA, but neither is anything else. I definitely think it could do more damage, but I also wouldn't advise skipping it, especially if you team a lot. -
Quote:Good one.Originally Posted by ketch
Dimension Shift.
I had actually forgotten it existed.
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Quote:I don't know if you're referring to me, since you didn't quote anyone. But if so, that's not what I meant to imply. What I said was this:Originally Posted by Shinkada
Lol'd hard at saying that less complaints = more changes. That's possibly the single most blatantly wrong thing I have ever heard from someone regarding this game.
This doesn't mean people shouldn't voice dissatisfaction, it means if you start screaming and pointing fingers every time someone disagrees with you or there's something you don't like people will stop listening. And it's a known fact in gaming that game developers should start with underpowered powers and tweak them up rather than overpowered and tweaked down because players tend to freak at the first hint of a "nerf," even of something that just came out of testing.Quote:The thing about it is, the reason the devs can't risk a massive hike to damage is that if they do it, get it wrong, and have to reverse it in whole or part, people flip out even more. The more we yell and throw boogers, the less likely changes of any kind get made.
Stating that you don't like a powerset is fine. Saying such and such power is poor, not working right, too weak, too strong, and so on are fine too.
Where things are murkier is when it turns into "...and anyone who disagrees with me is just stupid/blind/an idiot/mesmerized by the graphics/not looking at the numbers/illiterate/a fanboi/lying to themselves." That kind invective is counterproductive. -
I know this has come up before, but a lot of the old bad ones have been patched up. In your opinion, what are the single worst powers currently in the game?
My nominations:
- World of Confusion. Otherwise known as "At Least It Takes Purples."
- Stealth, in the age of IOs.
- Group Fly. For reasons long ago established.
And my winner, by a huge margin:
- Sonic Repulsion. A power that is rumored to exist in the Sonic Resonance set, but, like the invisible pink unicorn, speaks to us from beyond the fold of reality.
What are yours? -
Quote:This pretty much sums up my feeling about things too. Not trash, could use some tweaks, and way too many people freaking out. The thing about it is, the reason the devs can't risk a massive hike to damage is that if they do it, get it wrong, and have to reverse it in whole or part, people flip out even more. The more we yell and throw boogers, the less likely changes of any kind get made.Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim
So no more hyperbole about Dual Pistols as well, please. It is not trash, it is not completely ran over by other blast sets.
Could it use some tweaking? Yes. So no making me out as a blind fanboi of the set, either. I have plenty of posts in the open beta arguing for an animation to Executioner's Shot (I'd argue for Dual Wield as well), and a balancing of Hail of Bullets. HoB shouldn't have such an extreme range of damage to it and should work a little better.
However, its being a PbAOE is not that big of a deal... if you can't handle getting in melee range to use it, then you're just lumping the set along with ones that also have PbAOE nukes. The devs can't please everyone with a set's design, and that should not be an expectation. -
I wish Executioner's Shot got 30% lethal containment damage when enemies were stunned, held, or immob'ed. Then we could keep the nice animation and the power would make much more sense. Plus it would synergize well with the set's abilities, the abilities of several of the Blaster secondaries (which have a lot of immobs).
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By the way, is it a bug that enemies react to Piercing Shot before you actually fire? I could swear I've seen them react and attack me the moment the animation starts, well before the bullet is fired.
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The nuke is pretty weak. Certainly underwhelming compared to the animation for it.
There is one particular component of the nuke that makes it extremely dangerous that I haven't heard anyone bring up yet: unlike most nukes it starts pulling aggro to you the moment it starts firing, and gets more and more dangerous while you're trapped in the animation and putting out damage. I did drop dead three or four times on teams while the animation was still in the middle of playing, and the damage wasn't particularly great.
Overall, I think the set is not quite as bad as I think some people are implying. Being able to switch ammo types does bring an advantage, though I'm still unsure how much value exactly. I think that in terms of DPA calculations, though, Dual Pistols should always be evaluated with Incendiary Ammo as the base, not Lethal. I did almost all of my shooting with Incendiary as the ammo type and I think most people looking for damage will too.
If I had to compare the set to a buff set it would fall into the Sonic Resonance category for me; in need of some love but not drowning like Trick Arrow.
EDIT: Other quick note. Not sure what to make yet of the fact that this set can slot so many types of IO sets. I'm deeply curious to see w -
Oedipus here. Haven't been paying as much attention as I should. You can contact me in game with the global name puercospin.
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Quote:His projections might have been off (by only about 5 HP) but that's a 30% increase in damage. Measured over time it's actually a much bigger increase than what Aim would give, although Aim has its own advantages.Originally Posted by Leo_G
Really? By my (probably flawed) calculations:
a 100 dmg lethal attack (actually a 70 dmg +30 dmg lethal) vs 50% lethal resist = 35dmg + 15 dmg letha = 50 dmg
a 70 dmg lethal/30 dmg cold vs 50% lethal resist = 35dmg lethal +30 dmg cold = 65 dmg total, not 70-80dmg >_> -
Quote:Originally Posted by Coldmed
not really a small amount but with multipe foes it gives a ton!
i dont think your using it right if you say its only a small amount.
I don't mean the strength of the buff. I mean the effect it has once perma'ed.
The reason people want to perma Hasten and Accelerate Metabolism is that every second you are under a Recharge time bonus counts towards recharging the +Recharge power itself. For example, if you are under a Recharge bonus 50% of the time, you effectively get only 50% of the value of the Recharge power. Once the power is perma'd, you get twice as much value from the power.
Endurance Recovery has different implications. Every second you are under a Recovery bonus you recover more endurance. But the difference between 5 or 6 seconds from perma and being truly perma is only however much endurance you'd recover during those 5 or 6 seconds. Since you receive a huge jolt of instant Endurance every time you use Heat Loss anyway, there is virtually no noticeable difference between whether the power is perma or not.
What does matter is having the power recover quickly, but that's because it has 2 other effects that can't be perma'd: the endurance refill and the resistance debuff (which lasts 30 seconds). -
Quote:It's not strictly necessary for doing steamroller runs against easy enemies. I find it very useful against enemies that can hand you your tail though. Malta, in particular, turn into kittens when there is a competent Mind Controller around to confuse the bosses and sappers. It's not that you want to wait out the whole duration of the power so much as that you know if you hit someone with it they are out of the fight instantly and forever, and you can train your powers on someone else.Originally Posted by MaxLongstreet
I'm envious you've got the time to run all those TFs! Alas, 7.5/LotG's are rather a distant dream for me, for now.
123.4 second mass confusion is hilarious - I do have to wonder if it's entirely necessary. It's hard to imagine a spawn that can't be dealt with in half that time, especially when the spawn is helping out by killing itself. It would make a good Youtube video though, watching two minutes of spawn v spawn carnage, and it would certainly give time for an unhurried pee break.
EDIT: BTW, the duration of my IO'ed characters' PB'ed Mass Confusion is actually about 112 seconds, not 123 (that's the duration of the single target Confuse). While I'm at it, might as well report the other mezz durations:
Mass Hyp: 69 seconds
Dominate: 66 seconds (same for all Controllers)
Total Domination: 47 seconds (same for all Controllers)
Also, if PB affects the duration of the Contagious Confusion proc, that part lasts 37.5 seconds according to Mids. -
I have a 50 /Storm and 50 /Cold and love both sets. Of the two, Cold is the one I'd want around for an AV fight.
In terms of expensive high level slotting, keep in mind that Cold's shields plus Arctic Fog plus Ice or Earth armor can all be slotted with Luck of the Gambler +Recharge for a total of +30% Recharge netted from those powers at the cost of just one slot per power. It's expensive but I managed to do it by running Task Forces and using merits. I call my Mind/Cold the "task force buster" as he specializes in stealthing, stealing glowies (e.g. the sleep and grab tactic), and debuffing end bosses.
Storm is also great, and probably the better set at soloing for most normal situations. The kind of soloing it does isn't the farming variety though. It's just compotent at completing missions.
BTW, with Mind Control one APP to look at is Primal. It doesn't have a Defense based shield for you to slot LotG in, but it does have Power Boost. Power Boost combined with Mind Control is something to behold. Looking at my lvl 50's slotted Confuse power, the duration of Power Boosted Confuse is 123.4 seconds on a same level enemy. That's TWO MINUTES that the enemy is out of the fight! And you can cast it from invisibility.. and it ignores positional defense... and. .. and... really I think I have to pass out. -
Out of 35 characters I have only one with extensive IOs and a few others with some ISOs. Some of the characters have a few choice IOs here and there (procs, etc) but since I don't farm or play the market money is hard to come by. IOs are very nice but hardly necessary and I find camping for hours in the market gathering recipes boring. I've done it for my favorite character and don't spend enough time dedicated to anyone else to worry about it.