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Posts
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Quote:I am REALLY not sure about this. I routinely stack multiple sleeps after damage. I would suspect from my experience that sleep has its duration and its magnitude...while the 'sleeping' duration is cut short by damage, the magnitude remains (however ineffective) for the duration until another sleep is applied later, undisturbed.3) Multiple instances of the same mez type do stack with each other to increase magnitude. Different mez types don't stack together for increaseing magnitude. In stacking sleep, remember damage breaks sleep, so if the mob is being hit with damage as well, your not going to build magnitude on sleep.
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I suggested this elsewhere, but basically I'd like for sniper attacks to have two modes: one as a fast, high damage long range power and one as a higher damage but interruptable power.
- The gist is this: the power is interruptable.
- Once activated, the snipe is still interruptable.
- If interrupted, either by enemy attack or player movement, the power fires a current-damage snipe, causing the power to charge the appropriate endurance cost, and causing the power to go into recharge as it has been used.
- If NOT interupted, the power fires a far higher damage attack (I'm thinking x3 current damage in PvE) that also causes the power to go into recharge- but also causes an unresistable recharge debuff to the snipe power.
So basically you can use it quickly as a bit hitter, even in combat, or you can use it as a big hitter from range at the cost of using it again soon. -
Good progress so far, and very faithful to the theme.
I hate to nitpick, but it looks like the blue areas are the glowing areas on the male outfit, yes? I liked the glowing piping of the elemental order, as the areas made sense as a highlighted element.
Here though you have the rubber flex of the shoulders, the fingers, the soles, the back of the bots...I'm just not sure why those areas would glow. Maybe if the glove panels that seem to be glowing had some detailing to show why, like that they are a data panel, or tech vents or something, but right now I just can't discern why those areas would need to light up. Glowing piping serves as a highlight. Large areas of glowing fabric? It just highlights the back of boots and the half the gloves, and honestly I'm not sure these areas need to be highlighted. -
Quote:Yup. Mind control's terrify also work wonders, as it's a GIANT cone that tags huge numbers of foes with a bit of damage...if you damage something, you gain partial credit for its defeat. So while you should help kill things, even the tiniest ticks of damage spread to as many Rikti as possible ups the V-merit haul your team gains within a league when the Rikti eventually get killed.That's why any kind of AoE power you can toss out is great. All my main Fire/Rad Controller has to do to rack up 600-800 Vanguard merits a raid is Hover in the middle of the Bowl, drop Fire Imps and Hot Feet and spam EMPs, Bonfires and Judgment Pyros. My little bits of damage added to everyone else's little bits of damage keeps everything dying at a nice steady rate.
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This is not entirely true. It should give more ranged damage options, and since some secondaries are light on range, it will allow them to more effectively fill that hole. It will also help those who want to stay purely ranged but don't have the high recharge to cycle through the limited ranged options in some builds. Plus it gives a dual use...those things can still be used in a different order for soft control, or after for good damage.
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I would not keep any nukes changes/buffs unique to blasters. One can make the case that the crash is actually more detrimental to defenders and corruptors, as the nukes are less likey to kill, but leave the defender/corruptor just as open, and also disallows them to use team support abilities. This in a way spreads their penalty to the team's performance/longevity.
I would offer instead that blasters receive a higher max target cap on both nukes, cones, and other AoE's. This alongside a revision to nukes for all archetypes. Some suggest heightening the damage to be worthy of the present penalties, others that the penalties should be diminished. I'm in the latter camp, saying that it should cause no endurance crash or recovery debuff, rather a slight additional endurance cost to powers afterward and a minor -rech/-defense/-resistance debuff.
As for the target cap increase, I would specifically match all cone target caps to AoE caps on blasters, and have both be higher, like at 20 rather than 16. While the benefit of the higher cap would be less useful in many circumstances, (though a matching cone/AoE caps on blaster WOULD be more noticeable) it would mean that in circumstances where other archetypes would be overwhelmed, blasters could blow everything away more easily. -
Quote:Well, that's for the present fight. Basically you can use one group to soak a fulcrum, then take out the next with a damage capped hail of pointy sticks. I don't have a kinetics/archer, but on my archery blaster I'd basically go melee with my kinetic teammate to soak a fulcrum shift, then kill the next group even before finishing the present one.Except archery is all ranged with no PBAOEs and 1 cone so there is nothing really great synergy wise here. And there will still be redraw. Kinetics is also one of the few sets that works well with crashing nukes, but again that is not relevant here.
Yes, rain of arrows is awesome and yes kinetics boosts damage. I still back my claim to no particular synergy though.
Edit: This is not to say it wouldn't work great as a combo. Both are strong sets. -
My first brute, my second villain, and my second 50 is an energy melee brute. Call me biased, but I still love the set. That said, I do feel it has suffered a bit of "Flavor of the month smackdown." It was, and still is, the best at single target stun, and very good at burst damage. What has changed is that it no longer has any instant stuns for high rank enemies, and has no 'burst' burst damage. You can do huge chunks of damage but require a big windup to do them.
Issues I have:
1.Total focus
It has a longer cast time, higher endurance cost, and lower damage than total energy transfer. Yes I know, it's a lower tier attack that doesn't damage you. But still the long cast time means the foes is dies while casting in fast teams, and solo you are 'locked' in an animation while you can't do anything else. This used to be countered by its mag 4 stun, meaning even if you are left hanging in the animation, the offset was that the target, even if a boss, would be left stunned. Heck, this has a longer cast time and recharge than stone melee's seismic smash, which has better damage, control, cast, and recharge. A couple ways this could be fixed:
(A) Restore the mag 4 stun
(B) Reduce the cast animation.
(C) Add splash damage, making this into a thunderstrike clone.
(D) Add splash stun, giving it better crowd mitigation.
I like (A) because the set is unique in being so control focused, but am equally intrigued by (D). I NEVER want (C), sorry. Clones=meh. Actually, I'll come out and say that I like (D) best. This is the longest, thus most dangerous animating attack to use, might as well give some protection from the crowds that plink at me while I'm trying to slam their one buddy. A splash blast of stunning energy also would make this attack look more powerful too.
2. Whirling hands
The only AoE in energy melee. It can be handy to soften up a group, but it is slow so you cannot use it consistently to either kill or control a group that is on you. So should all the AoE damage that energy melee lacks be concentrated into one AoE, (ala superstrength) or should this one AoE provide better soft control, giving the set the multi-target mitigation it lacks elsewhere? Ideas:
(A) Increase radius from 8 feet to 10 feet, giving the one AoE better reach and coverage, causing its likelihood of hitting things to go up.
(B) Leave the radius small, increase the damage scale. This fits with the overall theme of concentrated damage.
(C) Increase the stun chance- while your ST attacks may neutralize the specific focus of your attacks, giving this better AoE mitigation would increase the survivability of the set against multiple enemies.
(D) Layer in addition soft control- knockdown, -recharge, something like that.
(E) Layer in an additional +1 mag chance to stun
I actually would lean towards both (B) AND (E). Nothing drastic on (B)...bumping its 25~26 (smash)/16~17 (energy)damage to ~30(smash)/~25(energy). This is similar to kinetic melee's burst, but skewed more toward the energy damage side. For (E) It's throw in a 50% chance of mag 1 stun...which may seem odd with the given 30% mag2 stun, but this would mean that IF it did stun with the 30% chance, it would be rather likely to hit lieutenants as well. If the mag 1 hit but not the mag 2, nobody would be stunned but it would assist in stacking stuns.
3. Stun
This is the second guaranteed stun in the set, but for a 1.8 cast stun, you do a tiny bit of damage...all the while delivering an effect that all other attacks already give. I couple ways to fix this:
(A) Shorter delivery. While it would stay a low damage effect, a faster delivery wouldn't impact overall damage much, while improving survival by removing damage from on target.
(B) Better magnitude: even if it's slow, if it's guaranteed to stun one high rank foe, it becomes a more unique tool.
(C) Splash stun: make this into a small group control power
(D) Add better damage, further strengthening energy melee as a single target damage dealer.
I actually lean away from (C) and (D), and towards (A). (C) just seems weird for a simple, low damage punching power, and (D) gives energy melee more of what it already has- high damage, slowish single target stunning powers.
4. Energy Transfer.
I loved the old fast cast mechanically, but the new animation does seem more powerful. The problem is that in most cases the damage is overkill, and with the slower animation things that can be one shot or already damaged on teams, exacerbating this. Overkill with a fast attack was cool when you just pop a minion to death in one shot...less cool when you are animating a long attack that hurts you as a team mate knocks them down to 20% health, leaving you to take out a sliver. Through target selection you can mitigate this, but at that point you are reserving burst damage because it doesn't burst well enough. Solo this is another long animation that you are locked into while other foes damage you, and to add onto that you damage yourself. Solutions:
(A) Reduce cast time
(B) Keep cast time, but deliver damage quickly upfront.
(C) Heighten stun chance, so that it is more likely to remove the fight for a bit.
(D) Add splash damage
(E) Add a small AoE splash stun
I actually like (B) best, speed up the two arm punch 'windup' portion, but slow down the 'wind down afterwards' part of the animation. This way you get burst damage upfront quickly, even if your character has to do a wind down animation. If I could, I would add (E) as well, for the feel of power and for survival.
So to summarize my personal preferences for tweaking Energy melee:- Give total focus a splash stun effect
- Heighten whirling hands' damage to about the same range as kinetic melee: burst, but with more of an energy portion. Add a 50% mag 1 chance stun in addition to its 30% chance of mag 2, allowing better stun stacking.
- Give "Stun" an incredibly fast cast time.
- Keep energy transfer's cast time, but put the damage upfront. If possible, give it a splash stun effect.
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Quote:Ooh, good call. My bad. Unsurprisingly, you can't split any of the sets for double recharge bonuses in any case. More surprisingly, you CAN do so for some pretty good defense bonuses.this is not true for all of them
the mm ATO has +rech in the 4th set bonus slot (this is only one i know of that is at the 4th slot, this set bonus also is only 7.5% rech not 8.75% like the other ATOs)
the corr ATO has rech in the 6th set bonus slot (dont remember if there were others like this)
most of the other ones have it in the 5th set bonus slot though -
Yes and no. No other set of "different" enhancements blocks 'another' set. You can only have one of Each ATO, though they are "different" for set bonuses, they are the same for their ability to be slotted.
As to the slots, It goes to what Necrotech_Master said. If you have 3 catalyzed, 3 normal ATO's, you get two bonuses for having 3. All +recharge bonuses are locked up the 5 ATO level, so no dice. In the dominator example, you would probably get two accuracy bonuses...one at normal level, one at ultimate. I would have to test this, though. -
Quote:Non-catalyzed ATO's have pretty unique bonuses that won't conflict with purples. Catalyzing ATO's ups their non-conflicting bonuses into the same range as purples. So if you have 5 purples already, ATO's are actually better left at their base state.Hrm. So if you stick a non-catalyzed version on a build with 5 purple sets it still conflicts even though the bonus is not the same because the name is?
For instance: Ascendancy of the dominator gives a 8.75% recharge bonus with 5 slotted. If you have 5 full purple sets slotted that give the "ultimate" recharge bonus of 10%, you can then have 58.75% recharge. If you Catalyze the ATO set, the 8.75% is bumped up to the "ultimate" 10% recharge bonus, and you then have a 50% recharge bonus. That "ultimate recharge x5" just will never go to "x6."
It's a bit odd, but ATO's have different bonuses between their catalyzed/normal states. Also note that there are reports that catalyzing part of a set 'breaks' the bonuses until the whole set is the same. (Normal or catalyzed, you can't get the 6 slot bonuses for a set that is half catalyzed, half normal.) -
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I actually originally put the proc in dominate, but moved it to subdue as that 6th slot was a freebie and I just use subdue more. But as noted in another thread, the proc still works with a +5 boosted purple damage along with a basilisk's gaze in just about any ST hold from the primary. This way you get decent control slotting, (also boostable if you desire) decent damage, (~66%) and boosted damage for everything else.
It just takes getting used to using the hold as an attack too, unless that's been your thing already. I'm just more used to using holds as intermittent controls, but to each their own. This proc is basically just best used in your most often used power that it can fit in so you can get all spammy with it. -
I put the proc in subdue on my mind/psy, and I can say this does help damage pretty well. I'm more surprised when it doesn't go off than when it does, and as subdue is part of my attack chain, the proc has a constant triple stack. I am looking forward to catalyzing it, but haven't done so yet as I need 5 of those for the AT set first.
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Quote:One of my favorite characters since issue 6 has been my energy melee/dark armor brute. His secondary stops all nearby minions from attacking. Cloak of fear caps at 10 targets, oppressive gloom caps at 10, so together depending on overlap they can stop an entire crowd of minions. Energy melee stacks with oppressive gloom and stuns any boss being attacked. Switching targets, I can keep entire spawns stunned for the entirety of a fight. I never run at below 70-80% fury, and before the fury changes I ran at 90%.I'm not sure why opponents being slowed down would be a problem on a Brute, when Energy Aura already slows opponents down, and other sets (like Energy Melee and Dark Armor) stop them from attacking at all. (Granted, Energy Melee has some issues, but I don't think that being very good at stunning enemies is one of them)
Ice/Ice any-melee-other-than-a-tank has been on my wishlist for a while.
You know why? Control auras give you free target padding. I you are guaranteed ~10 targets that cannot fight back, why not crank you settings to give you ~10 targets in every fight? The few attacks they manage to make from that many enemies in a stupor means little damage but enough to grant fury...not to mention attacking itself fills your fury.
Ice/ice brutes would likewise have no issues, especially in a target-rich fight. Perhaps it's my inner brute villain, but when the game gives me a number of ineffectual enemies, I ask for more. -
Other uses I have found:
- When you want a set's bonuses, but can't spare a slot and the set doesn't provide full enhancement. This is especially true for exemplar friendly builds, using things like 4 basilisk's gaze @level 30, call to arms at 4 slots @level 30, kinetic combat's accuracy, etc.
- Frankenslotting the pure damage purples. Damage purples over enhance damage, so you can 5 slot with the proc and boost up that set for the 5 slot bonuses, then use the single damage elsewhere. A pure damage purple with +5 boosts it to 66% damage in one slot. For control characters with decent damage in their holds, I like using 4 basilisk's gaze, one +5 purple damage, and a dam/acc HO. This caps damage, and gives really good hold, really good accuracy, and good recharge.
- When you want a set's bonuses, but can't spare a slot and the set doesn't provide full enhancement. This is especially true for exemplar friendly builds, using things like 4 basilisk's gaze @level 30, call to arms at 4 slots @level 30, kinetic combat's accuracy, etc.
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Quote:This is a common view of fear as a control...but I would pose that fear acts more as an unofficial -rech/interrupt in a fight. Fear allows one reaction to damage, then reapplies its cowering, if the mag/duration is correct. This means that even in the heat of a fight the cowering punctuates counterattacks as the NPC's are forced to come in/out of their trembling. It's not as potent as a full hold, but it is worthwhile. This is especially true if used on a crowd that survives on an opening volley of AoE. In that case, they will mostly tremble while your AoE comes back. Even struggling between return fire, they aren't giving the full, continuous fight they usually could....but kind of useless (except for the damage) fired into the main fray.
Thanks for all the responses!
It also works as a sort of proactive anti-runner mechanism, as a runner with a fear effect on them is forced to a full stop to tremble after 10 seconds of trying to make a getaway. -
It does make for a happy surprise when a sapper just gave you a hard time, or if you use a nuke power.
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I'm a fan of Archery/Energy blasters. Archery is all ranged, and many of /energy's abilities work from afar. Plus /energy past its glow-handed melee attacks is pretty visually innocuous, letting you be a 'pure' archer easily. The cream on top is boost range, so you can get some pretty decent reach.
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- Never quit a team until a mission is over, unless (a) real life responsibilities require attention, or (b) everyone else quits.
- If a friend (note: friend, not team member) needs something, (salvage, recipe, inspire, etc.) and you have it, give it.
- If the team has a plan, follow it. Give suggestions, but a team working together is usually better than people doing things your way. Don't confuse things by following your own plan.
- If you are on a team, watch their backs.
- Don't die unless it keeps somebody else alive.
- If somebody does something cool is does a great job, recognize it and makes sure others do do.
- If you do something cool/well, you can have fun with it, but don't make it about you.
- If it bugs somebody, don't do it.
- If somebody else is bugging you, politely ask them to stop. If they won't stop, go elsewhere and do something else.
- Don't get in the middle of an argument. Both sides will turn on you.
- If it's not fun anymore, stop. Changing things up is better than feeling burnt out/bored.
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The women I play with in CoH/CoV make female characters. The men I play with range from making only female, (a few) making both male and female, (most) and making only male. (few)
I know that's not a good standard to judge all players, but it's widely known guys make female characters. (See G.I.R.L. acronym**) If both male and female players use a lot of female costume items, and only a few just use male parts, it makes sense for the devs to make more female stuff. Why? more people use 'em.
(**Guy In Real Life) -
To Dink, I say thank you.
I will also say I have no regard to a 'fair' level of exclusives between genders. If someone else can have something, that doesn't make what you have more/less valuable. What is far more important to me is that all applicable characters have access to items.
If they added a nun habit costume, that should be female exclusive. A (American) football costume? Male exclusive. A trenchcoat? either. A long coat? Either. The truth is that 'female' clothing often has items that only females wear, while 'male' clothing is actually far more often unisex as far as to what people wear. -
I would highly suggest taking 'confuse.' It is your only fast recharging non-aggro power, one of your longest-lasting controls, and has distant reach. It is one of the go-to opening powers for mind/ as it can subvert any problem targets before you fight.
Total domination could really use more basilisk gaze in it. The excess accuracy also does far less good than better hold duration/recharge.
I'm not certain why you have chosen so many kb protections. If you had domination up more often, KB is far less a concern, KB protection comes 'free,' built into domination. A far more common approach is to slot luck of the gambler: +global recharge speed into defense set powers. This speeds the recharge of all controls, giving more safety, and enemies less damage and fewer chances to knock you around. The luck of the gambler +global recharge speed io's are also one of the few enhancers that can speed up domination on their own.
I would highly suggest slotting drain psyche for healing. It with stamina with domination give three endurance recovery powers as-is. Slotting for healing in it both helps the debuff and helps you heal faster between controls.
Soul drain is your build-up, and pairs nicely with drain psyche. Taking it earlier means you can boost all your damage sooner. Telekinesis is situational, but I've found its uses late-game. I do like it for its cool factor and it is very nice on indoor maps...this said, I would put other tools ahead in priority.
I would spare power slots for other abilities rather than slotting range in recall friend. At 10000 feet range without slotting, there are few places you could go in-game that could ever be out of reach of recall friend. Dominators are notoriously slot-starved, with so many powers that want slots or sets.
If you are taking levitate and using it in your powers, consider getting a tad more damage in, perhaps with recharge as well.
Dominate works better with more recharge, and a hold enhancer would help more than a hold proc, in my humble opinion, or more damage/recharge if you plan on attacking with dominate. -
I very much agree. As diverse as the stories go, the maps almost all come down to: office, warehouse, sewer, cave, tech lab.
C'mon.
The new praetorian tiles sets are cool, but even those office/warehouse ones are reskins in many spots.
What I'd like to see:- Mansion tile sets: pristine/run down variants.
They have something along these lines already for manticore's mansion/the Halloween trial, but I mean full multi-floored sets for missions. - Museum/government building/grand public building tile set: night/day versions.
I'm sorry, with the number of magical artifacts that get stolen, dignitaries that are threatened, and all of that this just makes sense. Maps would have high white ceilings and walls, marble floors, grand stairways and ornamental statues, relics, etc. - Manufacturing plant: chemical/mechanical variants
For stopping a villain group's plot to make a chemical weapon, create a terror device, etc.
- Mansion tile sets: pristine/run down variants.
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I've been too busy to test again, and when I wasn't there was a bug that locked the dark powersets again. But looking at it as-is, it looks like /fiery's step cousin:
- Dark blast (ST, Ranged)
- Smite (ST, melee)
- Gloom (ST, Ranged)
- Night Fall (Cone AoE: narrow, bonus range)
- Gather Shadows (Power boost/built up hybrid, just like 'power buildup')
- Engulfing Darkness (PbAoE)
- Life Drain (ST, Ranged+Heal)
- Moon Beam (ST, Ranged-Snipe)
- Midnight Grasp (ST, melee+immobilize)
It gets less damage in 'Gather Shadows' than fiery gets in 'embrace of fire,' but gather shadows boosts all control,and the secondardy effects of every single /dark power. (-tohit, heal, immobilize) /Dark also has one more attack than /fiery, and is the only dominator secondary to have a true heal. Also, /dark is a second option if you are going the 'ranged dominator' route. While /fiery has its three ranged attacks and one cone, blaze is medium ranged. Dark has three normal ranged attacks, all with full range, and its cone has long range as well. The downside with /dark at range is that its tier 9 is melee...so while /fiery has to skip using combustion & incinerate, dark at range can't use Smite, Engulfing Darkness, or Midnight Grasp. /Dark does get a lot more reach, though.