SuperSean

Welcome to you Cricket! Are you also a symbol of good luck?

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Can someone help me better understand how to defend against a Stalker in PVP? I know all about perception but what I want to know is will AOE powers expose Stalker before they get the "Strike" off on you. For example Electric Field, Quials or Chilling Embrace will any of these or other powers like this help uncover the Stalker before he gets me? If so then what ones seem to work the best and how would you slot it to work the best? Any help would be appreciated.

MWD

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One thing not mentioned in your post is what AT/Powersets your character is that you're trying to work out a Stalker defense on. Tell us that and we can be more specific in tactics.

As far as personal experience though, the 3 chars I've run in PvP and actually have success with are two defenders (a rad/rad and a kin/elec) and a controller (grav/ff).

My rad/rad's approach to surviving Stalkers is movement, Choking Cloud, and a shot of Irratdiate every now and then. Granted I don't always hit the stalker, but occasionaly I do (it is somewhat funny to see them appear all of the sudden choking if the cloud gets them) and even if I do get hit, having a self heal is nice with Radiant Aura.

The kin/elec mainly relies on slotted Tactics for perception help and using Short Circuit every now and then. Being able to shoot off Tranfusion can save me, but its never full proof. Movement is her best defense.

So far, out of the three, my grav/ff controller is the best defended against most anything. With Force Bubble not much gets near me unless its toggle gets dropped, but Dispersion bubble helps with defense. Usually the only thing that gets through ForceBubble are tanks with heavy knockback protection. Most Stalkers don't have a lot of knockback protection that I've seen. A Singularity running tends to catch a lot too.

So in all, my "squishy" chars do alright, my controller having the most success so far, but I've never felt as if I was undully gimped vs. Stalkers. There's ways to make any char work, even if some do better than others, but a lot is dependant on your AT and powers and how you play them.

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dammit! Selle was mine!

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Moving faster than a speeding bullet is sometimes a neat trick, no?

Besides...Sellefane is neither yours nor mine...we are all Selle's. Mere pets in her game of the World. That is why she is teh awesome. /em gong

Sellefane

FTW!!

That is all.

/em clap

Very nice indeed. Good on improving their creepiness level with the little bit about the skull masks. And nice to see the player grown mythos having an impact.

Oh and for SokMunki (btw, I've always loved the "Skulls" avatar there), I think the in game reasoning for the dropped 'L' and the 'Go. Hunt.' both, was the previous line: "Some stories describe him as a feral hero, barely able to communicate. "

Hard to describe bad spelling of chat that's supposed to be spoken, but I think a good attempt. Just wouldn't be the same if they corrected it to "Skulls".

My heart goes out to everyone in need of a super hug.

And we likes Athyna in it!

Still a nice suprise last night while playing and then earning badges/costume pieces.

Any bets that this will last till the Ides of March?

But one other burning question....why do I suddenly feel like trying out for some group called the Argonauts?

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I have it on good authority that Jake is in fact... a 5th Column Mekman.

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So, when Jake appears as a woman or a homeless man... he's a robot... in disguise!

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Bah weep granna weep ninnie bon Jake! Come with me to light our darkest hour!

Lol, and a heart attack is averted knowing that the AASQ and other fun loving cousins have found a home.

Was trying a few refreshes to see what happened to AASQ in the General section.

Although the danger now I think is that these are all in one place and more easily targetted....

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Very nice holiday message.

Mod bless us, everyone.

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Indeed.

Truly we are blessed on these St. Cuppa's days.

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Seesh! So only Cuppa likes being a melee so far?

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But a rad/rad defender IS a melee char!

Right??

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(*What the heck are crumpets anyway?)

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um...well...you see...uh..

I like pie.

Aye, good to add to the background...even for "old" content, its still background that wasn't there before and its nice to see.

And Btw, happy birthday Arctic_Sun.

Just adding in...Picked up CE from GameStop, only six figures, was missing Ghost Widow.

Thanks Loki for checking and for getting Cryptic/NC Soft to help out on this.

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I think Sister Psyche referring to a certain villain as "Ghost Bimbo" takes the cake for me.

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That one and her comment of "There are no minds to read here!".

Was quite fun all around.

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Lawful Neutral, I see.

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Astute!! You shall have a +1 bonus to all future rolls to determine alignment.

And I for one welcome our new _Nomad_ overlord.

Many libations and sacrifices (what else would we use Anti-Cat for?) will be made to welcome you. Hope you enjoy the forum fun. But we understand if you knock a few heads around.

Welcome to you Arctic_Sun! Prepare for the onslaught of first the avatar making contestants and then the editing police when they come after your first bits of content.

Looking forward to your additions to CoH and the community.

Thanks for adding to CoH Gil. Every bit from community to stories just adds to the great whole and I appreciate the part you played in it. Good luck in the future endeavours.

Another simple issue that some have alluded to is the travel aspect. Yes its annoying sometimes to go all the way across Atlas pre-travel powers, but Atlas is connected to four other zones with doors, where as Galaxy only hits two. Simply more traveled I think. Atlas is more of a "hub" and especially when you're going through the Hollows arc, a bit more convenient for leveling, and perhaps insp buying if you haven't advanced with Wincott and are just playing someone else's missions.

Plus I've been annoyed before by starting in Galaxy, being sent across Atlas, and at times to Atlas, but without any contacts there to pick up needed inspirations.

Galaxy is still nice, but the 'activity and travel hub' still seems to be Atlas, for good or ill.

Tons of fun, best luck all.

My entry: Mystic Mistress

on Triumph

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Though I'd say we honestly don't really know what the devs want, they haven't communicated with us on this at all.

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Aye, I would humbly ask that we have some sort of dev response on the I4 wormhole change. With so much controversy over its new functioning, I would think perhaps something might be addressed.

Just to get a fresh idea on it, I looked over the powers available comparing level 12 powers between the controllers for Dimension Shift and level 26 powers for Wormhole. My impression is that it seems that this new version of Wormhole fits in the level 12 slot better than at 26, when you view the correlation between the powers/effects of all the controller's primary powers at those levels.

If the overall purpose is to bring controller powers at a particular level to be "more in line" with other controller's powers at that level, why does there seem to be such a discrepency here?

Again, I'm not wanting to flame/troll/threaten to cancel my account, I'm sticking with the game and my grav troller because this is a great game that I enjoy. I would however like a Dev, be it Statesman or Positron or whoever, please let us know what's going on in this process with Grav controllers, and if we can expect more changes when controllers in general are "looked at" as States indicated they would be around the I5 - I6 timeframe.

Nothing fancy nor qualifying, nor hidden rant or sarcasm.

I just want to add my simple thanks.

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States and crew:

Thanks for all the Defender and Controller PvE love in I4. Turned a lot of "don't bother" powers into "how do I find a slot for that" powers. I very much appreciate that when you are looking at fixing an AT, you take out the low-hanging fruit with minimal delay.

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Dittos on the kudos. Playing mainly Defenders and Controllers myself, its shaping up to be a pretty interesting Issue. Sure there's things changing, and maybe not to exactly what I might want, but still, I've never felt the Devs were silent, abandoning us, or just not caring.

Also another thing, not that I think you guys would, but you Devs have never once been billigerent or anything but funny and nice, even when a lot of the posts directed your way are biliigerent. Thanks for listening.

As far as coding (now I make no real claims to know what the devs have) but I don't think it should be too bad. Lets say for example you use the core Singularity animation, minus its repel field, for the center of the Grav Well/Sink/Flux power. Put the grav swirlies on the affected mobs, apply the effect qualities, especially if those qualities of Foe -Speed, Knockback, etc are just applied functions/qualities/however they define them. Given that affects are shared among mobs and players, I would hope that they are able to just define the mob/power object with its qualities. Don't really know, but I'll cross my fingers that its an easy setup for the Devs.

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There is one thing to think about. If propel gets an AoE disorent then any enemy mobs with propel will also get this. Think how this might impact those in their 20's fighting the family.

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Hehe, yeah, reminds me of my first time facing off with a Consig...I realized what a pain you can be with those powers. You are right to mention the considerations, especially with PvP concerns.

I hesitated to come in here and post after testing because I didn't want to mindlessly parrot here. However, since the Devs called for us to post, I'm adding my experiences to the mass as my 'vote'. But I want to pass on thanks to all those who have already posted, I think I had a better idea of what to look for and consider when I tried out my I4 version.

After getting Wormhole on live servers, I instantly put it to use attempting (sometimes succesfully, sometimes not) to snag outer mobs in a controlled pulling. Also very handy to port extra lts/bosses with AE powers out of the way so that multiples of them aren't a pain. And of course, able to pull bosses out of mobs to a tactically favored location so that they could be handled first and the lower mobs dealt with after.

When helping out with 'Defeat x of mob' missions, very handy to preceisly manage the number we or just I had to deal with. Use most often applied was snagging runners and placing them back in the already going AoE effects of allies.

Now with the I4 version, I have to be very picky as to when I use it. Can still bring bosses, but now with their accompanying lts/mins which we were trying to aviod. Some ability to place them in AoE effects (if there). Spread out mobs tend to generate more aggro than seems worth it. If I port a group of mobs, they're off somewhere and heading back after disorient wears, while their buddies around them are all aggroed on me. If not able to remove group that's still there from the fight (which with a grav controller is a slow process to defeat a large number of mobs) I ended up putting myself in a pincer effect. Any student of tactics will tell you that being in a pincer in not generally a wise choice, so I certainly don't want my team subjected to a poor tactical situation. I also seem to generate more aggro with the AoE Wormhole, than with the single target wormhole. Perhaps its just perception.

As far as Dimension Shift goes, never planned on taking it, and still don't. Based on the description of the power, not the claims of others, I chose not to take it. The teams I run with and my tactical choices just don't use it. I'm sure I could find uses for it, but I still choose not to. Same can be said for Propel. Don't have it and chose not to get it. Looks beautiful, but not so effective in my team running. I'd love it to have for a 'cool factor' power, but its not in my build currently. As soon as combat starts, I'm laying holds and immobs. If used for anything but an opening shot, Propel is less useful to me than the holds/immobs I could lay out in the same amount of time. No I don't have Sing's yet, so it may make a difference then.


My suggestions in order of preference(watch out, probably the same as have been said before. )

1)
* Keep single target wormhole.

* Replace Dimension Shift with "Gravity Well" - AoE 'patch' Disorient where mobs are drawn towards center of effect. I think this fits conceptually better with gravity set and I know it would be a more applicable choice in my personal tactics. Also still serves as an "oh crap" power if that was the intended use of DShift, but still lets your team take care of the mobs when they want to, not when the power lets them.

* Decrease animation time on Propel. I realize that damage increase probably neccesitate a balancing of time, but since long animation times are the bane of our existence, I personally would be willing for same damage/added effect/cone perhaps so that animation time could be lessened. - I know the game code probably would need a lot added since we don't have a destructable environment, but to me the best "fix" for Propel would be for it to act like the Gravity Gun from HalfLife2. Perhaps this can be added to the 'wish list' for things down the pipe.

2)
* Keep single target wormhole.

*Replace DS with AoE wormhole.

*Decrease Propel animation time


As always, I'll work with what I have, but those are just my opinions on what I like and don't. Great comments everyone, thanks for suffering the musings here.