StrykerX
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Posts
1360 -
Joined
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I'd put SR one notch higher. Sappers can't drain what they can't hit, so it will take them more shots (on average) to drain a /SR than a /Dark. /Elec is definitely number one though since it pretty much doesn't matter how much they hit you (which is good since you'll have pretty much zero defense).
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No AT is useless, but from a strict numbers standpoint Defenders are the least useful (at least on teams). Controllers have about 80% as much buff / debuff power as well as powerful crowd control... Defenders just have buff / debuff powers and weak blasts.
Of course a full team of Defenders can steamroll just about anything... they're actually a fairly powerful AT. It's just that Controllers are even more powerful and both compete for the same support positions on a team.
EDIT... well, I seem to have touched a nerve since someone decided to give me negative reputation over this post. Too bad. I stand by what I said. Controllers can do everything Defenders can do nearly as well as a Defender. Not as well, but fairly close. However, Controllers can also do a lot more for a team with their primary than a Defender can with their secondary... AoE controls and moderate (assuming not Fire) damage are better than just moderate damage. Look on the Defender boards and you'll see plenty of complaints about this issue...
I'm not saying Defenders are bad. I love teaming with them... they make a huge difference in team survivability. But in general (exceptions do exist) a Controller with the same buff/debuff set will add even more to the team than a Defender will. For instance, a Kin/Energy Defender adds a ton of damage buffs and recharge / recovery buffs to a team as well as some extra damage. An Earth / Kin Controller adds lower but still very nice damage buffs, along with the ability to neutralize an entire spawn if need be. I'll take the ability to lock down troublesome bosses or disrupt an entire second spawn long enough for the team to finish the first one and get ready for the adds over Defender damage output.
Again, I'm not saying Defenders are bad. I'm saying Controllers are too good compared to Defenders because they get massive control while still having about 80% of a Defender's buff / debuff power and they get Containment, which often lets them outdamage a Defender's blasts with their roots and holds. Defenders need more damage, a better inherent, or both... and until they get it any min-maxer looking to put together the "perfect team" is going to pick a Controller instead of a Defender in almost any circumstances. Don't believe me? Play both and see for yourself. -
Good to know... I thought the animation on the Regen clicks was long enough for the combo to time out. I guess if you really love clicky powersets DP / Regen would be perfect then.
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My only gripe with DB / Regen would be that interrupting combos can make a serious dent in your DPS unless you are using an extreme recharge build. I'd much rather use Katana for /Regen simply because it also has nice flowing sword animations but doesn't doesn't lose any damage if you pop a heal at the wrong time.
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I may try something like this if I can afford it:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Technology Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Spines
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Lunge -- Mako-Acc/Dmg(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Mako-Dmg/Rchg(7), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(15), B'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(36), B'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(43)
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(3), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(7), ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg(15), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(36), S'fstPrt-ResKB(40)
Level 2: Spine Burst -- Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(5), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(9), Oblit-Dmg(17), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(37), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 4: Murky Cloud -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(5), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(9), ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg(17), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(37)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 8: Impale -- Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(11), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Decim-Acc/Dmg(19), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 10: Obsidian Shield -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(13), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(13), ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg(19), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(40)
Level 12: Build Up -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A)
Level 16: Dark Regeneration -- Nictus-Acc/Heal(A), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(21), H'zdH-Heal/EndRdx(23), H'zdH-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Theft-+End%(25)
Level 18: Health -- Mrcl-Heal(A), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg(50), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(50)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(25), EndMod-I(27), P'Shift-End%(42)
Level 22: Quills -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(27), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(46), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(48)
Level 24: Death Shroud -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(31), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(42), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(46)
Level 26: Ripper -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(48), KinCrsh-Rechg/EndRdx(48)
Level 28: Cloak of Fear -- Abys-EndRdx/Fear(A), Abys-Acc/EndRdx(42), Abys-Acc/Fear/Rchg(50)
Level 30: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 32: Throw Spines -- AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(34), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(34), Dmg-I(34), RechRdx-I(36), TmpRdns-Acc/EndRdx(46)
Level 35: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 38: Tough -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam(39), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(39), ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg(39)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(45), P'Shift-End%(45)
Level 47: Cloak of Darkness -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 49: Oppressive Gloom -- Acc-I(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
3.52 end / sec recovery (without uniques) and two Performance Shifter procs plus 11% +endurance should be plenty of juice, and I'll have 15% +damage and good accuracy. It's a more expensive build than I'd initially planned on, but I think I can afford it (depending on what non-quad Obliteration IOs are going for these days). No global recharge, but I think I have just enough recharge slotted to use Throw Spines -> Ripper -> Impale -> Lunge for my attack chain, which does pretty good DPS against bosses. I'd be burning exactly 1 end per sec more than I regen (not counting heals) with all toggles running, so as long as I can kill bosses in 90 seconds or so I'll be fine... which should be possible with just over 140 DPS.
140 DPS vs single targets, lots of AoE, good survivability vs just about anything... yep, I think I'll try it. Won't be much of an AV soloist, but should be great against normal spawns. -
Don't forget DB / SR, aka the "swashbuckler" build. You don't really need a taunt aura... stay close to the tank on teams to get max targets, and if solo they all aggro you anyway. I've never found runners to be that big a deal...
The fun thing about DB / SR is that you get a 20% recharge boost power and you have very few click powers disrupting your combos. You need about 35% global recharge to pull off Blinding Feint -> Attack Vitals, which is pretty much your best possible DPS chain that doesn't require near perma-Hasten level recharge. Quickness gets you more than halfway there, meaning you need almost no +recharge from IOs to get optimum DPS... that's a big help in build planning. You can focus on softcapping and regen and possibly skip Aid Self entirely, or at least minimize how often you use it. You also get to skip Hasten since it does nothing for you unless you are chasing one of those insane recharge chains or spamming Typhoon's Edge instead of using combos. -
How well does /Dark Armor compare to te other Scrapper defenses on a moderate IO build? Can you handle the heavy endurance usage with just Stamina and frankenslotting / mid-range sets, or are recovery uniques pretty much required? I'm assuming I'll need to use Dark Regeneration fairly often, with the moderate resists and Cloak of Fear or Oppressive Gloom keeping me alive until it recharges (plus the high mitigation of killing everything in a massive AoE blitz that Spines gives ) Softcapping defense doesn't seem to be a real option even with a high budget, so it looks like the strategy is to use resists to survive an alpha, pop Dark Regeneration, and then try to keep things feared or stunned with your toggles.
I've heard very good things about high-end Spines/Dark builds, but how does it compare to Spines/Willpower or Spines/Regen on a sub-100 million budget? For that matter, it looks like Spines/Invul could be softcapped for S/L defense rather cheaply and with Aid Self that could be nasty... -
If you want a cheap blueside farm build (casual players generally don't have a billion inf lying around) I'd suggest a Shield / Fire or Willpower / Fire Tanker. Shield / Fire if you are willing to spend 50-100 million or so on IOs (not at all hard to collect that much by level 50 just from playing the game), WP / Fire if you are sticking with SOs / generic IOs. /Fire Tankers do very respectable AoE damage and are tougher than Scrappers (unless you go Fire/Fire), especially with a budget build. A Spines Scrapper will do more damage, but the Tanker will be able to handle larger spawns. If you don't care about soloing 8-man spawns go with a Spines Scrapper (Spines / Willpower or Spines / Regen are my picks)... they absolutely mow down mid-sized spawns but they're quite a bit squishier than a /Fire Tanker without a large IO investment.
Redside, you can't beat a Brute or Mastermind. Electric / Willpower might be a good Brute choice (Super Strength needs a lot of recharge to be a really good AoE machine and that's expensive), or Dual Blades / WP. A lot of people dismiss Dual Blades as a second rate set, and it is once you start talking about high end builds, but for budget builds it's very competitive. If you don't mind letting pets do the damage then a Mastermind is pretty much the toughest thing out there... Bots / Traps, Bots / Dark, Thugs / Traps, and Thugs / Dark are probably your best bets for farming. I personally like Bots / Traps the best... you start off slow but once you hit 32 you turn into an AoE death machine with extremely good survivability. The drawback is that Masterminds have a very distinct playstyle that some people don't care for. -
Only way I know of to ensure a specific boss appears is to select that specific individual boss for an encounter and make sure the group associated with him (if it's an enemy) has no bosses in it. Any time a group has multiple bosses (or lts, or minions) it picks one at random when needed. If you have, for instance, three custom bosses in a group and a team is large enough for a three boss spawn it will pick three at random... could be one of each, or could be three of one, or anywhere in between.
Truly custom spawns would be a very nice addition... among other things, it would let us do the "two bosses fighting or talking" type of encounter. -
WP / Elec should be fun if you like AoE farming (or actual tanking where you just want to hit as many targets as you can to keep them mad while others kill them
). My only real gripe with Electric Melee is that its AoEs tend to be focused on enemies in front of them... it's good for Brutes but Tanks get the AoE version of /Fire which is in my opinion better suited to being in the center of a pack (which is where WP is best). As long as you don't mind lots of minor position shifts it should be fun though... just more active than the WP/Fire strategy of "stand there spamming Combustion and FSC plus your ancillary AoE".
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Quote:Really? I did not know that. Will be interesting to see what happens this time since the whole sidekick / exemplar system got re-written. Of course right now it's looking like exemplar = base inf, but who knows how it will react to double XP code?Originally Posted by Corebreach
During Double XP weekends, Exemplars got about 4x the standard Exemplar inf. Non-Exemplars got 2x the standard non-Examplar inf.
Maybe it'll turn out to be using an uninitialized variable and the multiplier will be different for each person...
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Quote:Triage Beacon is very handy for soloing Elite Boss or higher enemies. If you take a taunt power (I prefer Challenge myself) you can tank tough enemies by immobilizing them with Web Grenade and taunting. You don't have to keep the bots in Defensive Follow to get Bodyguard... Defensive Stay and Defensive Goto also work as long as they are within 60 feet of you and in line of sight. That means you can drop a Triage Beacon, park your bots on one side of it in Defensive Stay, and stand on the other side spamming Web Grenade and Challenge / Provoke. The EB / AV will attack you, Bodyguard plus your high Ranged defense will protect you, and the Triage Beacon will heal the Bodyguard damage while the bots stay safely out of AoE splash radius.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Triage beacon is only more useful on teams, bots tend to run around a bit too much (as do all MM pets) and get punted around a bit. Has its uses though.
Get your Ranged defense to 40% or so and you should be able to use this method on pretty much any EB and a lot of AVs. Even without IOs you'll have enough Ranged defense from FFG and your Protector Bots to help a lot, and with IOs you can easily get into the high 30s or even softcap if you don't mind spending some extra inf.
As far as key powers, I'd say aside from the obvious (all pets and upgrades), the big ones are:
Web Grenade: you have to take it, but you want to slot it well (and be sure to include good end reduction since you'll be spamming it)
Force Field Generator: the defining power of /Traps. Get it, slot it, love it. All you need are three defense SOs or equivalent.
Acid Mortar: the 2nd best power in /Traps. Really helps speed up killing bosses or higher. Probably a waste to drop one for Lts / minions, they die too fast for it to matter. Great with an Achilles' Heel proc.
Poison Trap: really handy for EBs or higher due to the -regen. Slot it for recharge first, then worry about the hold component (or don't, it's the -regen that really matters).
Provoke or Challenge: really helps in AV or EB fights as stated above.
Aid Other: much better for healing your bots than Repair. Repair is a full heal, but it's very slow to recharge. Aid Other can be used every few seconds.
Aid Self: you won't take a lot of damage, but you will take some and you'll already have Aid Other so you may as well take Aid Self.
Maneuvers: combine it with the 5% pet defense aura IO for very hard to hit bots.
Tactics: handy against +3 or +4 mobs to keep the pets hitting (especially the Battle Drones).
Caltrops and Trip Mines can be extremely important or almost useless, depending on your playstyle. I personally like them but they're high on the list of things I'd skip if I needed to free up room. Seeker Drones are another power that can be very important or very skippable: they have a handy -damage debuff and you can drop them on top of a mob to draw it's alpha strike, but with near-softcapped defense on both you and your bots you can also just steamroll things. Maneuvers is OK if you can find room for it (both Maneuvers and Repair are good picks for your level 49 power since they don't need extra slots).
One thing about Bots / Traps is that you do not need Stamina if you skip the personal attacks. Mastermind attacks use a lot of endurance, so if you use them regularly you'll want Stamina or significant +recovery from IOs. If you don't use the attacks and you have good endurance slotting you can skip Stamina and still run Leadership toggles (you'll want a couple blues for AV fights and you won't want to run your toggles right after summoning and upgrading, but it's workable). Just be sure to slot a couple of end reduction SOs or IOs in each upgrade power... they use a ton on endurance. -
Quote:Are you losing at least 0.01 DPS? If yes, some people will say you're missing out...Originally Posted by Umbral
Considering I'm more than confident that my builds are attaining a very similar level of DPS and survivability to yours, I'm highly doubtful that I'm sacrificing a particularly large amount of damage output in order to attain endurance sustainability.
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I think quadruple inf is working as intended. Double XP weekends give 2x XP and 2x INF to normal players, so level capped or exemped players who (pre I16) got their XP converted to INF get 2x (2x INF), or 4x INF. Influence is awarded based on XP so doubling one doubles the other too.
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So... assuming a moderate budget (around 100 million or so) for IOs, do you think Electric would be more survivable that Fire? Or would Fire's much faster recharging (since I can't afford a high recharge build) heal outweigh Electric's higher resists? Or is it better to just go softcapped Shield plus Aid Self in that price range, since I think Shield on a Tanker can be softcapped quite cheaply? I'm not really concerned with concept... I'm just looking the most survivable (assuming moderate IOs but nothing really expensive) Tanker primary that has a damage aura or other +damage function like Against All Odds. I'd imagine Willpower would be the best mitigation (aside from Granite) for that level of investment, but it has no increased damage and a weak taunt aura so I'm not really interested in it for this character.
My only real past Tanker experience is a Fire/Fire... I liked it all right but it was a little squishy for what I'm wanting now (soloing 8-man spawns). Plus I changed servers and don't want to pay for a transfer...
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Quote:How are you going to softcap S/L defense (or an defense for that matter) on Electric? You're starting with no defense at all except Weave and maybe Combat Jumping, so you'd need over 30% S/L defense from IOs. Even if that's possible I can't see getting it without seriously gimping the rest of the build... it seems like going for +HP and +regen (and S/L resists if you can actually afford Gladiator's Strike sets) would be a better build.Originally Posted by dave_p
Having actually played all the sets though (though my ELM is still young), ELA definitely feels a bit squishier w/o the uber heals that FA & DA get. Then again, all 3 sets feel a bit squishy (compared to the other sets) until I get some serious IOs into them, so it's a bit early to tell. My gut feeling is, once fully IOed out (and that means soft-capped S/L defense for all of them), ELA will be tougher than Fire, but weaker than Dark.
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You know, with all these bugs that are cropping up from I16 I'm beginning to suspect the devs are trying to lure over some Champions Online players by providing them a familiar game experience...
(Though if that's the case, they'll need to add a lot more bugs...) -
Has anyone crunched the numbers to see where Electric Armor and Electric Melee rank compared to other Tanker sets? From my (admittedly brief) initial examination, it looks like Electric Armor is a good solid resist set that can get very good Smash / Lethal resists (with Tough) and decently high exotic resists, with no psi hole like Invulnerability. Assuming a moderate IO build (say, 100 million inf or so at 50) it looks like it gives Invulnerability some competition for general purpose use but is a bit below Shield (easy to softcap on a Tanker) and Stone, and maybe Willpower. I'm not sure how it compares to Dark... both have active mitigation (end drain and fear). Can Electric Armor fully drain a mob's endurance without Electric Melee paired with it?
Electric Melee seems like it's a bit harder hitting than Fire Melee against single targets but with slightly worse AoE. It's still an AoE heavy set, but I'm not sure it can compete with Fire there since the Tanker version has two PBAoEs. I'm actually wondering if Electric Melee is (from a pure min-maxing standpoint) worth using since Fire seems better for AoE specialists and the "big three" sets are better for general / single target use. Though I do notice Electric Melee has powers with a Sleep effect, which allows slotting IOs not normally found on a Tanker... I wonder if adding Call of the Sandman heal procs would help survivability much?
Anyone with more experience playing these sets redside care to comment on them? -
The Energy Aura power set is a bit different for Stalkers. It doesn't have Energy Cloak, so it has higher base values for the two defense toggles. A Brute running Energy Cloak and both defense toggles has the same smashing / lethal defense and slightly higher exotic defense as a Stalker running both toggles. The Stalker does get Hide, but much of Hide's defense suppresses in combat while Energy Cloak's does not... and Brutes also get a resist auto power that Stalkers don't. In the end, the Brute is going to be slightly tougher but will have to take a couple extra powers to do so.
And yes, it is a bit silly to require three toggles for the Brute to get the same benefit a Stalker does in two, but that seems to be common for Stalkers... look at Super Reflexes. -
I'm not sure a Blaster can solo some of the psi heavy AVs without inspirations. You'll be held most of the time (since they use holds that have no positional component and therefore can't be avoided with defense) which means no healing and no Blaze. Unless you have enough +regen to passively out-heal the damage from those holds as well as the lucky hits that get past your defense (highly unlikely if you are also softcapping) you'll need Break Frees.
My Archery / Energy Blaster uses an all ranged build with over 30% ranged defense, so I can easily softcap with a Luck or two against hard targets. A couple of the psychic AVs (I think Malaise was one) tended to hold me very often anyway... I had to use Break Frees to solo them as EBs. A high end build could probably solo them as full AVs with Break Frees, but doing it without them would be extremely dangerous. -
After finally joining a server with a good population and overcoming my altoholism long enough to actually play a 50 for a while, I finally hit the one billion mark:
The funny thing is that this isn't a character I did any marketeering on (that was mostly redside and I never got over a few hundred million)... I just crafted and sold any good drops and ran a few TFs and some Hami raids. Nice to know that you can actually get rich just playing the game instead of spending all day in the market.
(Not that there's anything wrong with spending all day in the market, but honestly I'd rather go fight bad guys.)
Of course, now the hard part is deciding what to do with it... so many alts, so little inf. I'd invest it but things have gotten so shaken up with the I16 changes that I don't dare play the market... no telling what's going to happen. And I really don't want to spend two weeks making spreadsheets to try to figure it out... -
I'm a big fan of Bots/Traps Masterminds. They start off slow, but by the time you hit level 32 you are mowing down just about anything. They also do very well without expensive crafted enhancements... many power sets can be great with enough investment, but unless you want to spend more time playing the market than you do actually fighting bad guys (or good guys, as the case may be) you'll need to play a long time (or keep playing a level 50 character for a moderate amount of time) before you can afford those fancy IOs. Masterminds are probably the best characters in the game with only basic enhancements, and Bots/Traps is one of the best Masterminds.
Heroside, I'd say go with a Regen or Willpower Scrapper (pretty much any primary) if you want a good solo character without expensive IOs. Plus once you do get those IOs, Scrappers tend to become extremely tough. For teaming, Defenders and Controllers are the way to go... they're painful to level up solo, but they massively boost a team's effectiveness and if you can afford to really trick them out some of them can solo almost anything.
My picks for the best powersets for a new player:
Villains
- Any Bots or Thugs Mastermind (/Traps and /Dark probably the top picks)
- Any Willpower Brute
- Fire / Rad Corruptors
- probably some Dominators, but I don't know enough about them to recommend one
Heroes
- Katana / Regen or Katana / Willpower Scrappers
- Fire / Kin or Fire / Rad Controllers
- Rad / Sonic Defenders
- Plant Controllers (you don't have the raw damage of Fire, but you have an AoE confuse that is usable every fight so you're pretty much immortal)
Blasters can be very good too but require expensive IOs to get good survivability. Illusion / Rad Controllers are unstoppable with unlimited inf builds, but you need about a billion influence to make one really good. Likewise, Storm Summoning can be very powerful but it's not a beginner friendly set... it's tricky to master and requires an expensive build to really get the most from it.
Of course if you just want to feel immortal, make a Stone or Willpower Tank. You won't do a ton of damage, but you'll stay standing when everyone else doesn't. If you also don't care about AoE damage, try a Shield / Dark Melee Tank... high defense, to-hit debuffs, and a nice melee heal means you pretty much don't die. You also don't kill things very fast (at least not without a high end build), but you don't die... Stone / Dark is probably the absolute toughest build in the game, but be prepared to either spend 2-3 billion influence on IOs or have time to go eat dinner before a fight ends if you try to solo. You'll still be alive when you get back from dinner though...
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Spectral Pirates: We would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids...
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Based on all the goofiness I've seen today (like the global chat channels going haywire) I'd say it's a bunch of server-side fixes, and there are (hopefully) more to come.
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Quote:Sounds like he meant that the actual powers are working fine. The problem is apparently buried somewhere in the timing code, which isn't BaB's department. He checked the stuff he could fix, none of it was broken, so he checked it off as working as designed.Originally Posted by Razoras
If it is working as designed does that mean that this problem has existed for as long as the STF has been around and has just gradually become a big deal? Or is Castle confused about what the post was about in general?