PRAF68_EU

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CT: Offensive and Leadership give the same boost to accuracy, and are the enhancable by the same amount?


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CT: Offensive is an accuracy buff. Leadership is a To Hit buff. They work in a diiferent way (there is a guide somewhere explaining how it works).

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but whats the point of all those boosts if you have no attacks?

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You can't be a Crab Spider below level 24, so it doesn't matter if you have few attacks before then.

It so happens that the good buffs are available at low levels, but most of the good attacks aren't available until higher levels, so you would end up with a bunch of rubbish attacks and no rome for the buffs.

Having said that, I would pick up Longfang earlier, since Shannon is taking it anyway.

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Praf you do make Mr.Logic look like Omar Sharif

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clueless

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When someone resorts to insults it is a sure sign that they have lost the argument, but just to humour you:

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BaB is actually saying using some of the SoA powers, specifically VG means you are maximising your effectiveness at the expense of "bane purity".

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BAB doesn't say you are maximising your effectiveness. He says you are attempting to maximise your effectiveness, but are scuppered by the redraw (he was specifically responding to someone who had tried to incorporate Venom Grenade into thier build and where now whining that the redraw made it much less effective than they had expected).

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try reading less like a text parser.

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You mean I should ignore what it actually says and just read into it whatever I want like you do?

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You think the redraw on Thorns isn't noticeable?

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Eh, no. Let me try and expain this a little more slowly. It could be I was making it a little to complicated. On Thorns, the draw time is included in the total animation time. This means that if you already have your Thorns drawn the time is added onto the end of the animation, so there is a brief pause before you can activate another power. This is how weapon sets used to work, however the pause was more noticable because the draw times are longer for weapons. However, all weapons sets added since Dual Blades don't have a pause between animations, meaning redrawing will slow your attack chain. Older sets are being changed, but Spines and Thorns haven't (yet) because the pause is much less noticable.

Of cause anyone who follows the US forums would know all this already, since it has been discussed extensively over the last six months or so.

Tell me, have you actually played this Venom Grenade wonder build? Why don't you post your build here so we can all see it? We promise not to laugh.

You mean m/s? Milliseconds are units of time.

Strictly speaking Mb/s is a rate (of data transfer).

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do enhancements actually affect the accuracy of CT: Offensive and Defensive?

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Accuracy enhancements affect the accuracy bonus from CT: Offensive. It has a base value of +10%. If you slot it with one +acc SO it will be increased to about 13%.

Accuracy enhancements don't affect CT: Defensive, but defence enhancements do!

As for wether or not to take CT: Offensive, on the whole AS builds are short on power slots not enhancement slots, so in most builds you are probably better off slotting +acc enhancements into your attacks. It doesn't give a big enough bonus to do without acc enhancements all together anyway.

Both. Your Bandwidth is equal to 2Mb/s.

Bandwidth is the quantity, Mb/s is the unit.

In the same way as the mass of FFM is 2Mkg.

It demonstrates what I've been saying. Venom Grenade isn't a Bane Spider power. If you take it then you character is a Bane/Wolf cross class character.

Oh, and BAB thinks redraw exists, or do you think you know better than the games chief animator?

FYI, originally redraw was not intended to affect the animation times of powers. If you had a weapon that was already drawn there would be a pause built in after each attack. However, a fair few powers where broken.

THIS WAS CHANGED.

Now weapon powersets are all being ajusted to remove the pauses between attacks (and hence be slowed by redraw). Katana is the latest one to be redone. You might try reading patch notes occasionally.

Oh, and BTW, you wouldn't notice on thorns or spines because they aren't weapon sets. In fact they do have a very very brief redraw time, but because it is so short they haven't been changed. They still have the built in pause after your attacks. So no, if you are using thorns redraw will have no effect. Redraw will affect Rifles, Maces, Axes, Broadswords, Katanas (since the latest patch), Dual Blades, Pistols, Bows and Claws.

You can build a petless gunslinger MM. It will have a harder time, but it is certainly do-able.

Official comment, from BAB:

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Wide Area Web Grenade and Venom Grenade (assuming you're talking about the one in the Wolf Spider powerset) are both set up as Assault Rifle attacks. It's what allows them to be used with other Wolf Spider powers without requiring weapon redraw.

There's unfortunately not any way to make them Assault Rifle powers and Mace Powers. There are a number of things that all have to be identical between two powers in order for the game to understand that you already have the weapon drawn that you need to have drawn, and making these two powers work with Bane Maces would make them not work with Wolf Spider ARs. We opted to make all of the powers work with each other with in the same powerset or class if you will. Similiar issues with Blood Widow/Night Widow and Fortunata powers.

FYI, the original design for the Arachnos Epics was going to be that once you chose a branch, you couldn't take powers outside of that branch. IE, once you became a Bane Spider, you couldn't take Wolf or Crab Spider powers. That changed and now you can...which causes these issues. My hands are tied here. It's no more possible to resolve than it is to make Air Superiority not cause weapon redraw for everyone.

My advice...if you're going to try and min/max your build by cross-classsing, you need to be aware of issues like weapon redraw and plan accordingly.

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Source

You have to get to level 44 though, and Venom Grenade is not a power you would want be without until that level.

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But surely my weakness' is the fact that without pets I have no damage or resilience

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This can only be a weakness if there is a reason why you would be without pets...

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Its not hard to get them into it, its hard to make them do anything while in it.

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Not so. Put your pets into Defensive Follow (which activates BG mode). Use a single target attack on a mob. The mob attacks you, which causes all your pets to attack that mob.

(This works best if you have some defense yourself, e.g. Robots or Traps, or hit your target with a debuff instead of an attack).

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Problem with that strategy is that it tends to shift the agro to the summoner after the minions are mowed down. That is quite unhealthy for the mastermind.

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Thats why the MM himself, not his pets, should aim to take the aggro if using BB mode in this way. the pets will suvive as long as he does. If they fall, it is more important to resummon them than upgrade them.

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The brute makes a far better 'tank' then my minions do any day.

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The brute makes a better tank than your minions, not always the MM. It is certainly easier for brutes to tank, which is why CoV ended up being played this way, rather than as originally designed.

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Plus fully buffed minions can do healthy damage to the opponents especially when they get an aoe attack.

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Which is exactly why MMs don't have an "upgrade all pets instantly" power.

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Masterminds are the CoV equivalent of CoH's tanks, yes?

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That was the original design intention, but very few players actually play MMs like that.

However, MMs do superior damage to tankers, and, under certain circumstances, have superior suvivability. The penalty for this is the set up time. Reducing the set up time would be a major buff that would lead to the MMs being nerfed in other areas (most likely a reduction in pet damage).

Your pets don't need to be upgraded in order to tank, you just need to summon them and use Bodyguard mode. You can start tanking from the moment you summon your first tier pets.

It's a good idea to have some idea what you want before you start. Like keldians, when confronted with a lot of power choices you really need to decide what you want to focus on.

With a crab, your main options are probably something like this:

1) ranged AOE damage focus
2) Defensive melee focus
3) Pet and buff focus

Electric Melee is fine. So is regen.

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Level 1: Incandescence

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Probably not worth a second enhancement slot.

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Level 4: Essence Boost

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Needs slotting for recharge and heal only. Don't bother with end or resistance.

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Level 6: Radiant Strike

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Mako's Bite proc worthless.

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Level 10: Shining Shield

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On the other hand, this needs to be slotted for resistance and end reduction.

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Level 32: Dawn Strike

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Also doesn't benefit from a damage proc, especially not lethal damage.

Damage procs are best in low damage fast recycling attacks, not long recharge high damage attacks. The damage bonus you would get from this power is less than you would get by slotting another +dmg enhancement, even after maximum ED.


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Level 22: Stamina

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The 4th IO is a waste. The third give you very little.

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Level 38: Light Form

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Any endurance enhancment in this power is wasted. You need to slot if firstly for recharge, and secondly for resistance.

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Level 14: Quantum Shield

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Level 49: Thermal Shield

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If you really must take shields, you need to slot them properly, and firstly for end reduction, or you won't be able to run them.

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+Knockback (Mag -8)

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If you must have this much KB protection, pick up Acrobatics. PBs have plenty of power slots but a shortage of enhancement slots.

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Level 44: Luminous Detonation

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It's pointless taking this unless you are going to slot it propery. You might as well pick up a pool power or Quantum Flight that doesn't need slotting. A damage proc is the worst possible option anyway. Even a +dmg TO would give you a greater damage boost.

Oh, it's not to bad, but it would be a good idea to try and build without using set IOs at first. What Mids can't tell you is how many years you would have to spend farming 24/7 in order to afford your build.

I can't really do a build for you, because a lot of choices are down to individual preference and play style with a PB.

I have a melee orientated human form PB, and I find one KB protection IO quite sufficient. 3 is a waste of slots, and a PB can't afford to waste slots.

I only have the S/L shield. The toggle shields are of dubious value since they keep getting detoggled. In your build running them is a waste of endurance anyway. The click heals are your main suvival tool. If you need more resistance you switch to dwarf or light form.

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(A) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance: Level 30

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Well, this one is expensive, of limited value, and possibly a waste of a slot on a PB. Same for impervium armor psi resistance.

That seems to be a general theme. You have a lot of extremly expensive IOs slotted that are of little benefit, and you have used too many slots for globals and procs and left many powers woefully unehanced.

Nope, there are only 2 reasons to take CT: O.

1) For the -acc resistance

2) To save a few slots that you might spend on +acc enhancements for something else.


As a rule of thumb, I find that anything over about +30% is sufficient, and anything over +40% is overkill. After that you will get more benefit from +To Hit powers.

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it's also true that Venom Grenade is buffing every melee attack by at least +20% plus the +40% to the toxic component in the melee attacks.

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Wich you have to thow away +67% damage on your most powerful attack to use. And you can no more make the debuff of Venom Grenade debuff perma than you can make every attack from stealth. And Poison Ray is the only attack that benefits greatly by the -40%, and the recharge is to long to spam PR.

And it's not "at least" +20%. If you target is an AV or has tox resistance the debuff will bre greatly reduced. +DMG > -res.

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The animation times of Venom Grenade and Poison Ray are actually both shorter than Shatter and Crowd Control.

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Not when you add in the time to redraw your weapon. Shatter and Crowd Control both do vastly superior damage to Venom Grenade and Poison Ray anyway.

If you do want to combine Venom Grenade with Toxic damage the best way to go is create a Crab Spider, and take Mako's epic pool for Bile Spray. No redraw, and both AOE's.


Yes, you can take Venom Grenade on your Bane, but it is far from the must-have-you-are-teh-gimp-if-you-don't-take-it that you imply.

If you want a real team orintated bane, I would take double leadership, Venom Grenade, and zero mace powers.

From an RP propective, no NPC Banes use a rifle, so all rifle powers would be out for a True Bane. But if I wanted to create an RP wolf spider, I would happily mix rife and mace powers. The powers I would place off limits would be Cloaking Device and Placate.

Resistance debuff doesn't work like that. -40% resistance is equivelent to +40% damage (apart from it being very heavily resisted by AVs).

However, niether Venom Grenade or Poison Ray benefit from the +67% damage from hidden that melee attacks get, and they both have long animation times and long recharges, and that isn't even taking the redraw into account .

Venom Grenade is not a bane spider power. You have to redraw (twice) to use it, significantly stalling your attack chain.

At best, wolf spider powers can be likened to an extra power pool that banes happen to have access to.

They should add "Old Hollows" to flashback. Autoexemplared to level 5 of course.

It fires grenades too.

And does hi tech stabbaty-stabbaty.

It fires grenades too.

And does hi tech stabbaty-stabbaty.