StratoNexus

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Or the Fire Breath treatment. I'd be happy with either. It just needs to deliver its total damage faster.

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It really would not take much of a change either. Currently, Flamethrower deals its damage after the cast time over 7.1 seconds. Change that to 5.1 seconds, and it's just about equivalent to Fire Breath.

So...
Summon HVAS, RV Mech, Warwolf, Amy, Shivan, Fluffy - Drop Buff Nuke on your army - Pop some purples, jump past, as the pets begin to aggro, drop DN on a Nictus (I am thinking the auto-hit one), Drop Chem Nuke and Tar Patch. Attack the crap out of Rommy (or maybe the healing Nictus, it might be best to take out the Nictus instead (in which case DN goes on Rommy), the effects of the Chem Nuke will dissipate if Rommy rezzes instead). Use purples and red inspires as needed. (after the inital purples, I am thinking just reds, but who knows).

1 minute sounds a bit unrealistic, but I never had a nuke buffed pet army on my side either.

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Players can now fill in weaknesses (with only a few exceptions) with inventions that Defenders (and teams) were required/desired for during the days of post ED, SO only builds. The converse is not true. There are no IOs that replace the team for the defender.

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Hmmm. While SOs are the more important balance point in my head, I have just started to IO out my FF/Nrg. Since endurance issues are a big concern for me, I wonder how much of an effect the expensive +Recovery IOs may have. Also, I end up with a lot of people at slivers, so maybe some +Damage set bonuses could be very useful (one less attack per kill not only speeds up kill rate, it reduces incoming damage and lessens endurance strains).

I guess seeing the effect of IOs on my FF/Nrg defender while solo will be the next experiment I run.

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More power to any player/team that's good enough to have never, ever, no really, EVER team-wiped. I'm not that awesome of a player.

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1) Find smarter teammates.

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Which is it? First you tell me you need extra smart teammates in order to use Dimension Shift. Then you tell me you need normal players in order to cause the accidents we all experience in missions.

I feel the latter is true and that Dimension Shift is not actually up to the challenge of helping teams in situations you would want it. Hell, on the best steamrolling teams, Flashfires, Stalagmites, and any AoE control are highly situational and almost never touched (or should be touched much less than they are). But when you need them, they help. When you need Dimension Shift, it sort of helps and it can greatly hinder. Flashfires really only ever minorly hinders (unless you slot the Stupefy: Chance for KB in it like I did for giggles, in which case it can also greatly hinder).

I am not saying situations where you need an AoE control do not exist. I am saying that a situation where you need an AoE control with the heavy drawback of Dimension Shift are almost non-existent (Bonfire's drawback is much less offensive for example, and many people still hate that). I'd much prefer an AoE control with less or no drawback. After all, I don't need smarter teammates to use Ice Slick and when something goes wrong I can prevent a team wipe with Terrify (or maybe even prevent the add in the first place with Smoke) without the heavy negative that Dimension Shift imposes.

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Same here. Would love to see it, don't want to be part of it.

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I like Master runs. But I like them with defenders.

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Not really. Secondaries that are used as a primary on other ATs generally are playing at 75% of the primary. Controllers walk all over this.


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This has never really been true. It was a simplification that was made when we barely understood the underlying mechanics of the game and when we were trying to figure out how powers worked ourselves. We grabbed onto and clung to the 75% figure because scrapper base resists/defense numbers became 75% that of tankers. It is not a rule nor even a guideline. It is not doctrine to be quoted, and is merely rhetoric of those who feel defenders are lacking in comparison to <insert AT comparison here>.

Different aspects of different ATs are supposed to be stronger or weaker depending on design choice. Blasters do X damage, defenders have Y to-hit debuffs, controllers have Z duration holds, brutes have T duration taunt, etc.

You can argue that controllers and/or corruptors need to be nerfed and/or that defenders need to be buffed. Falling back on some mystical 75% mantra is not going to be very convincing however and I encourage you to find some other argument. For example, the fact that three yellow minions sucks up 38%-50% of my end bar on my FF/Nrg seems problematic, while my time to kill is longer than other ATs, its not terribly longer, but my downtime is higher because I have end issues and I also get placed in more danger because I can run out of end mid-fght more easily than other ATs I have played. To be specific, when I start fighting with my FF/Nrg, the first spawn is always cake, the 2nd one is normally a non-issue, the third one can get dangerous, as by the end of the fight I am pretty much guaranteed to be sucking wind and trying not to toggle drop. 80 seconds into my playing, three spawns are dead, but I have no endurance to continue. Take a knee, move on, 80 more seconds have passed, and I now have a minute before Rest recharges. I have tried using blue inspires, but they are not enough to keep up a pace I find fun. I chose the FF/Nrg as a solo trial toon on purpose to see how bad it could get, and it was fine until the late 20s (I do not solo exclusively with her, but always make sure to spend a lot of time soloing).

My Storms, TAs, Sonics, and Darks have similar endurance issues. My Emps without Stamina have this issue (unless I get CP in the Epics), but I can't complain there since I skipped a mainstay of soloing. My Kins do not have this problem and I would say that my experience soloing Kin defenders leads me to believe they are fun as is. Even with AM, Rads seem to have some end issues, but my only Rad is a controller, so I can't speak well about that experience. Colds would seem to be problematic until 33, which would make 6 or so levels a hard ride solo. Anyone know how Traps plays on endurance?

Let me be Vigilant about my own health as well as my teammates (or some other method of helping a solo defenders use of blue, cheaper end costs on blasts could work fine, or maybe even blasts and buff/debuffs).

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Yeah, I use CoD numbers including all % for the fire DoTs. Mids' is close, but misses the mark on occasion.

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One thing about about CoD to watch for: in their overview charts, they also calculate the DoT for Fire (any DoT that has cancel on miss) wrong. They list Blaze as 3.02, when the average is actually 2.74. You have to do the average calcs yourself.

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ability to skip Flares

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But Flares is very good now! Skip Fire Blast!

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Something really cheap happened though when we defeated the yellow tower. One of the repairmen had spawned and used their heal somehow, died, then the tower came back up. I know the towers can be brought back, but man that was lame.

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I forgot about that one, we did have two tower respawns. Thankfully, the 2nd time on the yellow one was cake, it went down pretty easy.

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Does this mean the repairmen bug is gone? Did you guys notice them acting strangely at all or did it seem normal?

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I couldn't tell for sure. It seemed like they got off several heals after they died. If we didn't get them spawning right into the burn patch, we had some trouble. Hard to say either way.

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Very nice. No nukes/shivs is somewhat unexpected (by me).

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We were down to the green (last) tower, when our inspire load for that run was wearing down. I said, "Anyone mind if I use a Nuke?" I think I almost got lynched on the spot.

I spent all that time getting them and now I'll never need them (maybe Kahn or for fun at an all scrapper Rikti Raid).

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Out of curiosity, what'd you do to keep LR busy till enough towers were down?

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Shield scrappers with inspires.

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No nukes or Shavians used on the towers we did all with scrapper lock





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No nukes or Shivans used anywhere! 2 hours 33 minutes. 2 Tower respawns. Aggrod Aeon early but after we regrouped he perished fast, without incident.

1 hour until we start gathering. See you all about 6 PM EST, and we will start at or before 7 PM EST.

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The claws brute will be... something new.

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Something... Wonderful.

Your Fire Blast numbers are high since you are not properly adding the DoT of Fire and are overestimating its effect. For example, you have Blaze base average damage listed on your charts as 188.9, when the average should be 170.5.

See here for calculating DoT of Fire Blast DoTs

But. Claws... Shouldn't it be Claws/WP ? (my FM/WP scrapper is very good, my DM/WP Brute is very good, I have to imagine a FM/WP Brute would be superb).

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remember, underpowered team without IOs, VEATs or Brutes, so they may actually have to fight each spawn instead of just rolling through them), so the Grav Dom plants them all in place with Dimension Shift - he's probably already used his AE hold on the current spawn and AE immobilize would see him dead right quick.

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Teams made of masterminds, corruptors, and dominators with only SOs find good uses for Dimension Shift?

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Fire with just SO's encroaches on what a 250% io Archery build can do

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Misleading. Fire, with just SOs, can put out about the same single target DPS from 40 foot as Archery with lots of plus recharge can output at 80 feet, but the Fire blaster is also chunking through tons more endurance while needing to take and slot 4 powers instead of three. And who cares? Is this a meaningful statement in anyway.

Even if we disreagrd everything else and use your numbers as is, the SO builds are only 16% apart, the SO + Hasten builds are 20% apart, and the expensive builds are 26% apart.

Also, your Fire Blast numbers are high since you are not properly adding the DoT of Fire and are overestimating its effect. For example, you have Blaze base average damage listed on your charts as 188.9, when the average should be 170.5.

See here for calculating DoT of Fire Blast DoTs

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Differences in defense only magnify the gap. The 25% difference in numerical values for defensive powers does not translate into 25% more survivability.

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This can't be stressed enough.

Also, tankers have 33% more resists/defense than brutes at base (brutes have 25% less than tankers).

I like the increased aggro abilities of a Tanker, very noticeable to a Fire/Fire blaster (tankers also die less; and when the brute who is tanking dies, guess who the baddies start shooting).

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I think the general rule of thumb is that a team looking for a healer is a bad team.

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Generally. Good teams don't often ask for anything specific, since they already have what they need. A bad team can often become tolerable and even good with the right addition; although a simple healer is usually not enough, most "healers" do at least a little something else which makes it enough.

A good "healer" (one who also, probably primarily, does other stuff besides heal) can often turn a bad team into a good one or even very good one. That is the simple reason people continue to ask for them, many bad teams are not that far from working and do not need much help for people to start having fun.

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Archery blasters can and do more easily create sustainable single-target chains, meaning they have fewer gaps of "dead time" between attacks (time spent waiting for attacks to recharge), which means they have more consistent damage output and DPS.

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This is not true, except for /Devices blasters. Blasters, unlike defenders, do not have to make chains with just the primary. The bonus of the better recharge times that Archery enjoys is dissipated because of good DPA attacks from secondaries.

I agree with your premise though. Archery and Fire are on par, and each has certain advantages the other doesn't.

Old School. I watched movies like this with my father growing up.
I have been robbed. There are no hundred here.
(At :42 seconds, is that a Fire epic power? )

New stuff. I watch stuff like this with my son.
Cha! Hell yeah!

I have always been a sucker for a soppy love story.

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(QR)

I soloed Math at +1.

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Try the AV 'Calculus Sucksicus'...

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He's kicked my [censored] twice in a row, but, strangely enough, I had no problem taking out "Mega-Statisticon" or "Calculus the Discrete".

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I managed to take down Stringus Theorius... but there was a heavy price.

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I'd only do stuff like that on teams.

I have DS on my Grav/Storm. I use it from time to time in PvE. I picked it up mostly for its use in PvP (since I mostly PvPd in base raids, that hasn't really worked out for me recently ). My Grav/Storm is my first character.

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Most people "hate Dimension Shift" for the same reason they "hate" any power: it's not a power you spam on every mob/every time it's up.

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This is one of my gripes with Dimension Shift, although if it was useful every third or fourth spawn, I'd be happy. I also do not like having such a situational power come so early in the set, when players are still needing to fill out the basics.

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It's a power that requires forethought and creativity to leverage, and the vast majority of the playerbase doesn't want to deal with powers like these.

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True. However, it requires so much "forethought and creativity to leverage" that it really falls beyond the bounds of game reality. Wormhole requires "forethought and creativity to leverage", but not to the ridiculous level of DS. You have to go out of your way to utilize DS creatively (like dropping FR on the spawn the Tank is in, herdicaning the next spawn, and using DS on still the next spawn, since they might be close and accidental aggro anyway). Interesting and sometimes fun, but generally unnecessary, goofy, confusing for your teammates and pretty reckless if something goes wrong.