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Quote:Hand Clap is an AoE, just not AoE damage. SS also gets Taunt at level 10/12. KoB's gauntlet radius is also a very impressive 17 feet.No Mac. I am not ignoring Foot Stomp and all its wonderful glory, but waiting 32 levels as a Brute or 38 levels as a Tanker for your only area of effect power is a bit extreme in my opinion.
Most other sets have an area of effect attack earlier in the build and Super Strength has Hand Clap which could be changed to be an area of effect and still not make the set over powered. -
At high enough levels of recharge, the gap is small enough that the time spent animating Parry hurts your DPS more than just waiting.
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Looks fine.
You could consider the Cold APP for Frozen Armor or going villain and picking up Scorpion Shield. -
Quote:Endurance use is very good after Stamina and Consume. It is not quite as good at the not dying part as other scrappers, although level 1-25 its actually pretty strong relative to other scrapper secondaries. But after 30, most other sets pull ahead noticeably.How is /fire on the not dying part? What about endurance?
That being said, you are still a scrapper. You have mez protection and a fast recharging heal. You are still tougher than most non-armored characters. -
The orientation of the CDEC is rotated 180 degrees in the Imperial City zone. Running towards the south door you are actually pointing and running north. It was a bit disconcerting.
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Quote:RT is actually worse than that even. It does not have the damage debuff effect the other powers have and it also does not have the +damage portion when PS is active either. I am not sure why this range cone was so reduced by design, although the set is decently potent, so maybe it's to help the overall set balance.Wish - I'd love to see repulsing torrent be buffed a little. Right now, I see no reason to choose it over Energy Torrent other than it keeps the PS counter up. It would be great if the animaton was shorter. Necessary? No. It has a nice recharge and from a mitigation stand-point it works well enough (not Shockwave nice). However, with reasonable recharge, I believe Energy Torrent is better since you can sacrifice PS tally and Knockback for just Knockdown.
RT is functional currently, but on the weak end. Just good enough for me to not want to skip it and just bad enough for me to sometimes (but rarely) feel bad about that choice. -
Quote:You are assuming they had actually read and comprehended what you typed beyond just seeing the word Tarikoss.It's not a matter of inconveniencing people, it's a matter of they knew exactly what they were getting into at the outset and deciding that they were going to complain about it.
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Quote:It is not an oversight. It was a choice. Castle is well aware that it does not stack with the APP armors in its current form.Below is why I think this was an oversight on behalf of the devs and I'll see if I can draw someones attention to it.
Quote:As I said, I believe this issue to be an oversight since no AT has defensive options inherently available to the AT that don't mesh.
Pool powers and team and ally buffs should be useful to everyone, no matter the primary/secondary of the target, which is why they are made to stack with everything. Powers inside primaries and secondaries are designed to do what they do and do not need to cover everything (thus why HoB does not need to have defense all).
In the APPs Shadow Meld was made to stack with everything. Frozen Armor and Scorpion Shield (and maybe Rock armor someday) were not. Until HoB got defense, that discrepancy did not matter. I think the devs pretty much decided that in this case just using whichever is better rather than needing to worry about it stacking was the way to go.
The precedent now is that APP powers are like primary and secondary powers, they do what they do, irregardless of stacking. Was Shadow Meld made to be Defense to all with stacking in mind or just because the concept of the power or maybe both were considered?
The interesting question is how will they handle the balance concern if they ever decide to give the ATs with Blast sets an APP with a shield that does grant range, aoe, and/or melee defense (I am betting they handle it by never making that APP, which is a shame, because a MA secondary for blasters and a SR type APP would be pretty cool)? -
Quote:Probably for the same reason PuG type team mates benefit from my Fire/Fire blaster's strengths and yet I pay when I don't benefit because they fail to use their strengths.Edit: Why PuG type team mates should pay for a Willpower's other strengths that much I don't know.
Not all sets are all things to all people. I can respect someone not wanting to play a WP tanker because the aura is weak at taunting. But that does not mean I think it should be changed. -
Quote:WP tankers are extremely survivable, even with just SOs. I have seen you tank many times CMA. The weak taunt in the aura is noticeable and it is a disadvantage you must work around. You would be able to tank and hold aggro without issue. I dare say you might even find it fun, since you do have to be constantly working for that aggro, which is good, since you don't have to do much to try to stay alive (the set is kind of boring to play, IMO, except as a tank).Every other tanker in the game has all the tools that a WP has AND a functional aggro aura. Therefore, every other tanker in the game is superior at gaining and holding aggro. WP isn't just the worst at holding aggro, it's so far and away the worst that it isn't even on the same planet. THAT'S my objection to WP.
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Quote:Why are you afraid to list Burst's advantages over Shadow Maul? Are you afraid a reader might be able to decide on their own if given all the facts? Did you know that Burst's damage debuff is larger than the damage debuff in the other KM powers?IDark Melee has a shadow maul on a 8 second recharge vs burst's 15 second. Shadow maul does a base damage nearly double burst. It also provides more mitigation on the targets it hits than burst.
Shadow Maul has a much smaller AoE, a smaller target cap, and a much smaller likely number of targets affected. It also does not have a chance for KD.
Overall, Dark Melee has more utility, as it should, since that is what it is designed to do. But KM has its advantages over DM, just like DM has its advantages over KM. -
Quote:I don't understand this wait for them to rest theory.You may find that YOU want it tho. Simply because it forces people back into the fight faster and you don't have to wait for them to rest when they get up.
Vengeance-Fallout-Run to next spawn.
But I do like Mutation as well, I just was not able to squeeze it in, sadly. -
Quote:So your numbers putting DP in the middle are compared to all the other sets as if none of them have Aim. Hmmm. Interesting.No, Aim would make it perform at the levels that have been number crunched for it (since I haven't seen numbers that anyone else released comparing it to other blast sets and my assumptions ignored Aim because the only set without Aim was AR and I knew it would be a joke from the beginning). Aim isn't going to make any middling set top tier, since it only comprises a ~20% +dam boost (roughly a 7% increase in damage output) well slotted.
It would be kind of cool if they just gave DP blasters the three Ammo toggles at creation (and put the three toggles in the tray right away as well, like the MM buttons) and then put Aim in where Swap Ammo is currently. -
The control should be higher, around a B I'd say. Even with stun being given a lower value due to the wander away factor, it should be ahead of Energy Melee because of the three KD powers in the set.
I'd probably consider dropping the damage to a B.
I am not sure how or if the damage debuff affects aggro. Enemies sure don't seem to like my Kin when I hit Fulcrum Shift. If the damage debuff adds to the tanker's threat level, this set may be more useful for holding aggro, which would be a good thing considering the focus of this guide.
It is also noteworthy that this set has a 17' gauntlet radius in Concentrated Strike and a 13' gauntlet radius in the range attack Focused Burst. -
Well, I do not know for sure how it works now, but I know for sure it is not Exactly like it was before the nerf. It may be because of some other change(s), but the amount of enemies that get into melee is higher than it used to be and the ability to herdicane is not as good as it used to be.
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Quote:You call KM's AoEs long recharge but don't consider DM's PBAoEs to be extremely long recharge? Really? Really?Dark Melee
-TO hit
Permanent build up is possible (and it does aoe damage)
Self heal that is part of a solid attack chain
Endurance recovery (did I mention its also an aoe damage attack ?)
vs
Kinetic Melee
small area long recharge kd
minor -damage
12 seconds and 15 seconds compared to 120 seconds and 180 seconds? Woe is KM! -
Quote:If it is a middling set now, it is probable that if we also give it Aim, we would be making it stronger than other sets. Not necessarily all other sets, but it would probably leap frog over some of the other "middling" sets.DP would lose nothing to get Aim, and it's pretty easily demonstrable that the change wouldn't make DP any stronger than any other set out there (since it's middling at the moment and that's ignoring the use of Aim in the first place) and might actually allow it to be a set that is actually a numerical competitor rather than one that simply survives based off of aesthetics.
Aim would make it top tier, right? That would make it better than other sets you also don't prefer, right? -
Quote:Ironically, I would reduce the other detriments a bit and leave the KB hole as is. The KB detriment is interesting. The race to zero hitpoints is less interesting.Even if you took away the KB hole, FA would still have balance and "detriments." The KB hole is going over and above those detriments, making the set even weaker. And again, nothing about the set warrants having a KB hole on top of those weaknesses.
You ever play FA without Tough? Ever slot it for pure offense (OK, the +recharge is great for Healing Flames too)? Its other weaknesses are for more dramatic and require tons more IOs to "cover" than the KB hole. And they are not as effectively covered as KB is, IME.
Which detriments are interesting to you? You like being slept? Confused? Held? Stunned? Cowering in fear? Struck by any damage at full strength? Having your end recovery totally stopped? Floored Regen rate? Movement speed debuffs? -Recharge? Most people don't like weaknesses at all. KB is just a very visible one. -
Quote:These two seem related. Should they be seperate entries? Some of this has changed a bit as well I think, but I don't have any solid testing. Perhaps this should be looked into more? Web parts and the Arachnos Flyer in the STF and the subs in Faultline arcs may be a good place to test.Bug: Target Reticles for Single Target and Cones need to be positioned better on NPCs as you can find yourself unable to hit with both Cones and ST attacks depending on your relative position to the target. This is particularly noticeable with very large targets, like the Jade Spider Nihili & Desmodos, 2009-02-17
Wishlist: It would be nice to be able to hit very large enemies, i.e. giant monsters, up in the faces rather than always having to go to the hitbox located around the feet. (suggested by Houma, 2005-03-09 - NotABunny notes that there is a narrow layer above footstomp AoE where a flying/hovering scrapper can still punch/kick the giant monster, 2005-06-01
Quote:Wishlist: Shadow Punch's animation time was changed from .57s to .83s. Backalley Brawler cited animation concerns but there are other powers that still allowed to animate faster.
Balance: Repulsing Torrent's AoE size/damage/end/rech ratio does not match the forumla. Other similar cones with knock effects do not have this drawback.
At this point, so much has changed since some of those old concerns, it almost seems better to throw all of the old MA stuff away.
Quote:Bug: Spines does not speed up attacks to compensate for having to redraw spines - reported by Thornkiller after testing attack chains with minimum/maximum spines redraw
Quote:Balance: Spines/Ripper is claimed to be a 'wide' cone but is about 90 degrees, far less than Slice's 120 degrees.
Quote:Bug: Some mob powers that now do -regen need to have that in their debuff descriptions - for instance, EM Pulse, Twilight Grasp, Howling Twilight, Transfusion, Lingering Radiation - Stupid_Fanboy, 2005-06-14
Quote:Balance: Post-Enhancement Diversity, is it still necessary that regen powers have both enhanceable and unenhanceable healing? - MAS0N, 2005-10-11
Balance: In comparison to the Regeneration % that Willpower can achieve, is it still necessary that regen powers have both enhanceable and unenhanceable healing? - SpiderTeo_OC, 2009-02-10
I would add the following to Regen:
Balance: The self-rez is poor and impractical to use. You want the feeling of getting up and staring the enemy down, startling them with the fact that your wounds are gone. Instead, it is better used after the enemies are no longer in the area, as an after the fight type of rez.
Quote:Balance: Mind Control's Dominate and Illusion's Blind seem to have extremely high accuracy or are autohit - noted by Patient_V, 2006-03-10 - Sockem notes per Arcanaville/Castle PMs, these powers are not categorized as Melee/Ranged/AoE - 2006-06-06 - moved to balance issue per Arcanaville, 2007-05-22
Balance: The self-rez is poor and impractical to use. You want the feeling of getting up and staring the enemy down, your grit and detemination shining through. Instead, it is better used after the enemies are no longer in the area, as an after the fight type of rez.
Quote:General Issues affecting Scrapper Ancillary Pools - unresolved
Melt Armor - I don't know. It is not any one thing, it is the culmination of all this powers stats that make it so very bad. When it was ported, the recharge was increased, the end cost was increased, the radius was decreased, the defense debuff was decreased and the resistance debuff was decreased. Even for corruptors (and now controllers) the power is already on a balance edge when you compare it to other similar powers (the low edge). Something about the APP version should be improved, probably more than one thing. -
Quote:Ultimately, style and thematic reasons are the basis for many decisions. The entire blaster AT exists in that realm. If FA is falling below other sets in the dev performance metrics/data mining, I do not and will not ever believe the KB hole is a big reason why.Ugh, this debate over whether 4 points is enough or not is pointless and clouding the issues. However you get around the KB hole, it's a hole that FA and DA have to fill (unlike all the other defensive sets), AND NOTHING ABOUT THOSE SETS MERITS HAVING SUCH A HOLE TO FILL.
Sorry, had to put the caps in to drill it home. It's just that simple. There aren't good balance or thematic reasons to keep the hole there, and it's a detriment to both sets, no matter how many ways there might exist to get around it.
It is perfectly OK that FA has detriments. All sets should and I think they all do. They do not have to be perfectly equal in all hands. They do not have to be equally liked by all potential players. They certainly do not have to all have only the same set of detriments. I like FA as it was two weeks ago and I still like it now. I would probably like it even if they made it completely immune to all KB that ever could be done in the game, but I would mourn the loss of an interesting flaw. -
Quote:My reply has been mixed in several of my posts. In my gameplay, I haven't found anything I can survive against anyway become a problem because the enemy has a Ballista or a a few Fake Nems.
I have regularly played my Kat/Fire/Wpns scrapper with a just a bubbler (both a defender and a controller). In those cases I have frequently turned my difficulty up past +1 / X4. I know what that kind of defense means to me. Your build has that Defense (for most stuff) baked in and you have Tough and you have lots more passive regen.
Even when the bubbler goes AFK, just having the small bubbles makes me substantially tougher, despite the fact that I get knocked back on rare occasions.
Quote:What's going to stop the Energy KB attacks against me? What about Psionic ones? Or even Cold KB? Ranged KB and AoE KB attacks? I am not dropping any KB protection to allow those kinds of attacks to knock me back, regardless of how prevalent Smashing/Lethal might be mixed in with any of the listed attacks.
You can do whatever you want. You can build to protect yourself from 0.1% of the game. But do you really think it is good advice to give to most players? Do you really think we should be telling people that if they want to play a FA scrapper (or brute or tanker) they need 12 pts of KB protection in order to function when fighting Nemesis and Council? -
Quote:You can move to about 1:40 in this video.Really? You hold your hand in front of your face before getting ready to run?
If the position was just for running, it would probably be wiser to have your arm to the side, but still forward of your body, but I imagine the arm in front is there more as a fighting stance, as opposed to a pure running stance. -
Quote:I do not believe that point exists regularly for FA with 4 pts of KB protection. Its likely any enemies that could threaten me like that will kill me regularly even without KB. My tanker is seriously threatened by +2 / x8 Nemesis, I have to work to live. Its not a cakewalk to survive, but the KB is not a big issue. I have to be aware of it, for sure, but its pretty easy to make sure I don't get KBd at a critical juncture.What that says is that your Tanker, and possibly Tankers in general, aren't significantly threatened by those foes at presumably +1. Again I'll repeat - this is about high end solo play. This is playing at levels where doing the wrong thing - or being prevented from doing something you planned to do when you planned to do it - probably means you die. You clearly aren't at that point with the four Fakes and friends.
I continue to acknowledge that deaths resulting from KB is not zero, but compared to what else may kill me, it is insignificant. I continue to acknowledge it is possibly different for DA.
For clarification, when I run against enemies without knockback and get to a point where I am threatened and have to work to survive (remember I like RotP, so I play at a point where the enemies are dangerous enough to kill me), that is where I am comfortable playing. I like that edge (probably why blasters also appeal to me). When I switch to Carnies and Nemesis and Council, I don't turn the difficulty down but nor could I turn it up.
I said it earlier in this discussion:
Quote:I find that as I turn up my difficulty, I can start dying more than I like and I start dying long before I start getting KBd with any frequency that matters. Is it possible that if I built a more defensively oriented FA scrapper I could find a balance point where I mitigate a lot of damage and can easily survive +2 or 3 /x 6-8 spawns but only if I also have 12 pts of KB protection? Based on my tanker experience, I doubt it, but I'd love to see the comparisons on that theory build between 4 and 12 pts of protection.Quote:I haven't been trying to move the goalposts, but if they've moved, I think it's because they weren't somewhere useful to start with. Discussing how much KB protection one needs on a team is pretty hard to pin down. On a team, you could argue that no one "needs" IOs at all. Having them can sure as hell help, though, because they improve on what you can manage with no help from your team. If your team is there to help you and make your KB no problem then that's awesome. I live for those moments when my team couldn't help me and I pulled something off anyway. Being knocked around in that moment doesn't trip my hammer, and avoiding that on FA and DA (and maybe ElA) means investing in more than four points of KB protection. (I personally shoot for 12, not 16. And PvP is a radically different beast of course.)
I also mentioned the goalpost moving, because I want to acknowledge that I am talking more than I should be about stuff where I have little actual experience on my FA scrapper (although I think my tanker experience is applicable, since the KB hole is the same on both, and the only way I could test my scrapper is by increasing its survivability near to the levels where my tanker is at).
If I am going to give advice to someone who just wants to play the game, with pugs and friends, I am going to recommend 1 KB protection IO is plenty. The other 2 or 3 slots are likely better spent elsewhere for 95%+ of their gameplay and for those times when something bad happens on a team, they would be better of using inspires, IME. -
Quote:Rad/Fire is excellent as well. My SG has several people playing Rad/Fire and my wife's is 50.Have you tried Rad/Fire StratoNexus? My Rad/Fire rivals (and may have even surpassed) my Fire/Fire.
I had wanted to play a Rad/Fire blaster, but I never ended up making one after test. Irradiate + FSC + HF = mmmmm.