Sailboat

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Local_Man View Post
    Dom-Mez-Lev
    Sounds like an Israeli mafia boss.
  2. It's occurred to me that a Super Strength/Shield Brute would get three constant damage bonuses: Fury, Rage, and AAO. That seems...interesting.

    But I haven't seen much discussion of the combo (compared to, say, SS/Fire). I do see one thread n the front page, but not much else recently (searched a few months back AND went back about six pages of threads manually). I'll admit I have not haunted the Brute forum with the same intensity I have the Scrapper and Tanker forums, so I may have simply missed a major topic of discussion.

    Is there something that makes this combo less sensational than it first sounds...like maybe it exceeds the damage cap and is largely wasted? Or am I just late to the party everyone else has already been enjoying?
  3. Sailboat

    xxx/sr?

    Claws/SR is a great pairing on anything, and extra nice on a Brute (Brute claws lose some of the speed Scrapper Claws have, in exchange for more damage...SR adds some of that speed back in). DM/SR is a classic for the reasons already given.

    It's also worth noting that former Powers guru Castle spoke highly of his own Axe/SR. Presumably the knockdown gives SR lots of breathing room.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by The_Spad_EU View Post
    You want to stick with a single class of mez; either Hold, Hold or Sleep, Sleep - mixing them up won't give you any benefit and anything that hits after a Sleep takes effect and does damage (or heals) will wake them from the sleep.
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MechaCrash View Post
    Hold -> Sleep -> Hold will let you clamp down on the boss, yes. The first application of Hold will get some magnitude started, but piss off the boss. The Sleep will make it nod off for a little bit, and then the second hold will actually take effect. It'll break the Sleep, but who cares? He'll be held by then.
    Right, the sleep is thrown in not to stack mag but (because it can sleep the boss in a single use) to prevent him from hurting you while you wait for your hold to recycle.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zandock View Post
    Did your defender just change genders?
    Yes. You can see it in the picture, which is a defender gender-bender render.
  6. Try the shield with Broadsword on a Scrapper. While this sounds dull, like every other MMO out there, it turns out to be a mechanically synergistic combo with several tools to supplement its big burst damage and lots of attractive customization options. I was surprised to find out how much I enjoyed the pairing.

    Ah, found it: The Broadsword/Shield Addict thread.



    .
  7. For melee, I think Martial Arts, Dual Blades, and Electric are flashy. Typhoon's Edge in DB is just pretty, especially on a graceful character, and a couple of the Martial kicks are very showy. For MA/SR specifically, I particularly like when Practiced Brawler activates right after you've defeated someone with a fancy kick, it's so Bruce Lee. And Elec has those boomy knockdowns!
  8. Alternatively, Fire/Fire/Pyre is a good combo for offensive output without the fragility of a Blaster. It's a good soloer. Not an unbreakable anvil for the hardest content, of course, but rips up most normal stuff pretty well.
  9. I'm going to recommend a slight twist on Dechs' suggestion. The remaining famous combination you haven't got on your list is Stone/Fire. Fiery Melee for Tankers is different than for Scrappers, as the additional AoE from Combustion helps melt crowds (despite the animation time).

    Fire is great (for a Tanker) damage, both AoE and single-target. This may help ease the soloing. Its main downside is the lack of additional mitigation, which doesn't faze Stone Armor. One way to help offset the recharge penalties its to take 1-2 more attacks than are strictly necessary for an optimal chain, and thus have stuff to click while the rest is recharging.

    The main thing about Stone that's hard to get used to is the fact that either form of status protection (Rooted or Granite) affects your movement -- not just speed, but you can't hop over anything and you drop from the sky, even when teleporting, like, well, a rock. So you have to develop the fine art of toggling your status protection off and back on as you move toward battle...and not (shudder) forgetting. You can often just battle-teleport...but not always, so it pays to get a feel for toggling. Fortunately Sprint is mutually exclusive with either, so you can toggle Sprint on and Rooted comes off for fast movement, then hitting Rooted cancels Sprint handily. Admittedly this is somewhat less handy if you blunder into your Sprint hotkey while fighting in Granite armor...not unlike having your pants fall down around your ankles while fighting.

    All that said, Stone has a nice fortress-like feeling you should try out, and Fiery Melee is a very solid pairing with it. Now all you need to do is Google names of volcano gods!
  10. I kinda think of it as the early leveling being speeded up, then you settle into a more normal rate later. Certainly it would make little sense to get levels 45-50 as fast as we get levels 1-5.
  11. I don't care what the new sewer trial involves, so long as they name it "Flushed with Pride"!!!!
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dead Superhero View Post
    Iron Eagles?
    See here. The first two posts in that looooong thread describe our philosophy; you could then skip to the end without missing much, where you'd see that we are meeting tonight (Thursday 6/23/11) and are open to anyone who is interested in trying to make it as a superhero with only one life to live!

    If you discover that you are, add a tab for channel "Iron Eagles" and look for us tonight at 8:00 EDT.
  13. If you don't mind posting the server and times you play, you may find forumgoers willing to swoop in and help you through the tips.
  14. Have you considered joining a "hardcore" supergroup, such as the Iron Eagles?
  15. I see many, many people use EST/PST ("standard time") during Daylight Saving Time and they seem to be completely unaware it's wrong. I blame the fall TV promotions, which drilled "EST" into our heads over and over every year, one of the few places it's routinely mentioned aloud.
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by teflonshugenja View Post
    - Endurance is absolutely bar-none the most important thing to maximize for this toon. Contrary to popular belief this is not because your toggles cost too much (though CoF is ugly that way). It's because how much Endurance you have throttles how often you can use Dark Regen. Dark Regen lets you convert Endurance into survival. The more End you have, the more often you can mash your I-go-to-full-health button. More endurance = more survivability.
    This is both insightful and well-explained. Bravo!
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Melancton View Post
    I am not sure how Inherent Fitness helps.
    Hurdle on all characters at level 2.
  18. Hey, how do you feel about ethnic derivations? The Black Hand was a Serbian terrorist/proto-nationalist group responsible for the assassination that triggered World War I (note: I agree with historian John Keegan that Europe was "pregnant with war" and the triggering event would have been something else if it hadn't been the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. I can't pin WWI on Serbian nationalists.)
  19. Eh, there's lots of powers that can be mis-used; knockback powers are only somewhat more visible. And to be honest, people who knock knockback are usually overlooking some of its benefits (mitigation, for example).

    Pets get parked in doorways (where they at least block vision, if not movement) or drag unwanted aggro with them. Immobilizes can lock the foes in a spread-out position, hurting AoE and those "foe-buffed" powersets you're talking about. Ranged players of every stripe block doorways -- I try to remind myself to be gentle about asking them to move, but it's quite exasperating.

    Knockback is usually only bad if it's

    1) area
    2) misused

    Single-target knockback is hardly ever worth complaining about. I guess if someone uses a non-damaging single-target knockback power like Force Bolt and then wanders off, ignoring the knocked-back foe, it could be a problem; but otherwise the player who committed the knockback should just finish the foe off with ranged attacks and the Tanker or AoE character can safely ignore the whole event.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr_Brainbottle View Post
    Baron Judas Quisling Von Backstab (or just "Baron Backstab" for short) is an extremely trustworthy hero.
    Love it!
  21. Sailboat

    Hover plus Burn?

    I once leveraged this mechanic for roleplaying purposes -- a character was on fire all the time and hovered or flew everywhere, and turned off hover only to drop a Burn patch...and the gimmick was that she was "so hot that whenever she touched the ground, it burst into flames."
  22. That used to happen to me all the time, but after the "big fix" (as I recall it took several tries) it's been stable as carved stone for me. That fix was a long time ago -- many issues. I'm surprised it's still happening to anybody.
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rieze View Post
    This is comming from a tactical point of view so your enemies would have a hard time figuring you out.
    "Vulnerable to Smashing and Lethal Guy" is too long. :P
  24. Something that has always bothered me is that enemies can be moved out of the visual effect of Earth holds and immobilizes while still being affected by them, but Ice holds and immobilizes move with their targets. This is especially easily seen with Hurricane, but I'm pretty sure I've seen other powers do this. But I don't hear other players complaining about it. At least, I've seen it on my machine -- do others see this?

    I think (I don't recall exactly) that during the time period when the Earth holds prevent knockback, it doesn't happen. But eventually that wears off, and I find I can push enemies across the floor but the hold or immobilize graphic remains in place. The result is empty Stone Cages and a few feet away, immobilized enemies.

    This bothers me, and it baffles me, since Ice seems to lack this problem. Is this a bug? Something with my graphics? Is is fixable?
  25. Earth/Storm Controller. Huge piles of stone, earth-shaking rumbles and booms, clouds hurling lightning, tornadoes.

    But if you want knockback, go Illusion/Storm.