macskull

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Oh damn. Sounds like a dream... At least it proves that it shouldnt be hard for them to create a PvP zone with i12 rules.

I bet it would quickly get 10x more crowded than RV/SC/Warburg and the arena all put together...

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Adding a zone with I12 rules is incredibly easy - just take any current non-PvP zone and enable PvP. The only reason PvP zones and the arena cause all the I13 crap to happen to your character is because those changes are only flagged to happen in those zones.

[censored]

From SS: Jab, Haymaker, KO Blow, Rage, Taunt, Hurl. Footstomp is meh unless you fight a lot of MMs. Hurl is vital because lacking a good ranged attack will put you at a severe disadvantage.

From Ice: maybe everything except Chilling Embrace and Icicles (since they get detoggled). Choosing between the two I'd keep CE because it's autohit (meaning any Stalker that wanders near you will get have Stealth + stealth IO dropped). Permafrost is debatable but it gives extra slow res as well as another source of +res to fire and cold (admittedly not much after DR, but it's at least a place to slot special IOs).

Honestly I'd take the Stone epic and take Fossilize + Stone Prison (Quicksand if you have room, another good Stalker-killer). Barring that, go with Energy for Focused Accuracy (still worth it, especially for the +perception).

As far as your pool power conundrum - if it's an arena dueling build I'd go CJ/Medicine, if it's a zone build I'd go with the fighting pool.

You're a Dom. Unless Domination was up, you have no mez resistance. Scare lasts a base 2 seconds (assumedly) so enhanced that'd be about the 4 seconds you were experiencing.

I'm not debating that, I'm just pointing out that not all kills a Stalker gets are blatant kill-steals.

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When your 900 came at the end of a fight when the target only had 10 HP left anyway, yeah you're a KSer. I've seen it too many times from way too many Stalkers so don't bother denying it. You know it happens.

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Odds are:

1. That 900-damage attack was executed when the target had substantially more than 10 HP left. Especially in zone, with a longer animation attack, a lot of damage from other players can come in during that window.

2. I'm going to hit them with the heaviest-hitting attack that is recharged, regardless of how much HP they have. I don't want them to pop a few greens as my piddly little attack is animating, and thereby live - I want them dead.

Earth/TA or Earth/FF. Grav and Mind can piss people off to.

Alternately, anything /TPFoe.

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Now the other question would be, would it be worth it to drop Web Grenade from Weapons mastery?

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Web Grenade is the reason to go Weapons Mastery (some people like Caltrops for Stalker bait but meh @ Stalkers if you know how to keep moving).

<snarky QR to topic of thread>

Sure. My only Fiery Melee character isn't high enough to have GFS.

WANT FIRE/ STALKERS NAO!

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Psi beats all other primaries hands down...I've been getting wrecked all day by Psi blasters in zone and I'm kinda confused as to how they escaped the homogeny. Hopefully they don't follow the trend of everything else that's good and get Nerfed. Bets anyone...?

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Psi Blasters do as well as they do because their tier 3 attack (Will Domination) isn't short-ranged like most other blast sets, and they have four solid single-target attacks other than their snipe (most sets have 3).

In terms of effectiveness of primaries before I12 it was Fire -> Ice -> Sonic (my first experience with real organized PvP was playing a friend's Sonic/EM in a 5v5 pentad tournament for a match or two). After I12, it was probably a tossup between Psi and Fire for number one, followed by Ice, and then Sonic. Post-I13, though, I'd say Psi -> Sonic -> Arch -> Fire. Ice really isn't much of a contender anymore due to the damage changes, and Arch kinda popped in because with global resistances damage type doesn't really matter, its inherent accuracy bonus directly counters elusivity, and Blazing Arrow hits like a truck due to its animation time, except it's also an 80-foot attack.

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Stealth + stealth IO can be countered by having one source of perception
That's 2 sources of stealth being beat by one source of perception .

[/ QUOTE ]No, Stealth/Stealth IO are each half of full stealth. The appropriate comparison would be to compare them to the +Perception IO, which only counters one of the two.

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only that other ATs that have built around stealth can now be stealthier too.

[/ QUOTE ]No other ATs in the game are built around Stealth, that's the thing.

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While it's true that stealth + stealth IO are both half strength they provide more stealth than the stealth cap allows .. So .. No matter what , it takes but ONE perception power to counter a stealth capped non stalker/soa

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You're saying that like it's a bad thing. Imagine this scenario:

There is an enemy in the zone that's capable of a devastating amount of damage, but you can't see him because he's got more steath than you have perception. Suddenly you're hit with several attacks, and you have no idea where from - and then you're staring at the "Go to hospital" button while you're still trying to figure out what killed you.

What have I just described? A Blaster or Dominator under your proposed "higher stealth caps for non-stealth-based ATs" plan.

The reason Stalkers and VEATs get a higher stealth cap (and that those caps are balanced relative to other ATs) is not only due to the fact that they rely on stealth to deliver their critical attacks, but also due to the fact that those characters are melee-based. They need the stealth, not only because it's required to set up the majority of their damage, but also because they need to be able to get into melee range unseen to actually execute those attacks. Give a Blaster the same stealth cap as a VEAT and suddenly you've got an enemy that can lob lots of damage really fast, from an 80+ foot range (much more if they're an /Energy Blaster with Boost Range).

You might not know this, but many people in zones don't have any perception beyond base (not even the +percep IO). I've been on both sides of the fence, and it's far more aggravating to not be able to see something at the 571-foot stealth cap than it is to be seen by someone when I'm at the 571-foot stealth cap.

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I understand that the MA is meant for players to use this as a tool for writing thier own arcs and not as an exploit.

My idea is in two parts:

1) Only Developer's Choice and special authors' missions should offer XP (other missions could still offer badges and tickets).

2) Developers offer a more loose qualification for "Developer's Choice": Something like Dev Choice: Accepted and Dev Choice: Exceptional. There would have to be some nomination process allowing for streamlining what missions could be promoted by the Devs. Alternatively, perhaps a committee of players could be appointed to oversee this type of process - allowing for further player interaction in the game!

This way creative, non-exploitive type missions could still be given an acceptable rating (giving XP) while farming (or other exploitive) missions would simply never be qualified.

You can still powerplay through missions. But then again, you could always have done that. So players would still have the intended use of the MA, still have XP from appropriate missions while undoing a bit of the exploitive behavior.

Bonus Idea: 3) One might also look into the SK/LK system as well. This has been a heavily exploited feature in the MA. Perhaps keep this feature in un-qualified MA arcs, but have more of the standard SK/LK-ing system for Accepted and Exceptional arcs.

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Yeah. that'll work. except for the part where nobody will play non-DC arcs ever again.

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This.

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Most Flagrantly Perverted

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lol Doll

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Don't you mean "LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL?"

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I hate to nitpick part of your post here, but aren't you guys always claiming that nothing we do in this backwater forum channel is gonna make the devs change anything, that it's below their radar, etc etc? Wasn't this repeated several times in this very thread a week or two ago?

The amount of farming couldn't have been THAT bad...there were still almost no PO's on the market and the prices were still sky high.

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I think the argument was that some people posting about a particular activity or another on the forums, while likely to draw some attention, probably won't show up as big blips on the radar, as opposed to datamining of in-game actvities. I don't think anyone on the forums needed to say anything about arena farming, meows, or Freakshow, but they certainly showed up as "wow, look at this" points in datamines.

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Stalker as is unresisted dmg. Dr affects dmg boosts etc but AS is still unresisted. Two stalkers can take down anything with double AS - except maybe a tank/brute or mm in bg mode.

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Only the crit's unresisted. That's still nothing to ignore, and you are correct about double AS's dropping pretty much anything, but as a solo Stalker it's difficult to get kills against a full-HP target assuming they're competent.

Meldash, thanks for taking the time to explain something to someone who Just Doesn't Get It.

I think there are two things that should be done so that the supply of PvP IOs doesn't begin to resemble most of the redside market pre-I13:

1. Increase the drop rate of PvP recipes (on valid kills) dramatically.
2. Change the rep system so that it only applies to kills, not deaths. If player A kills player B, player B will not get rep for killing player A within the next five minutes. This means if players A and B are the only ones actively engaging in PvP in a given zone, they will likely never get a drop. Likewise, if player A and B are fighting, and player C comes along and kills both of them, player C gets two kills worth of rep, but neither A nor B can get a recipe drop from any of the three players in that scenario within the next five minutes.

This change is going to encourage less PvP, not more.

ok.

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So why do lots of people build for +dam under the new rules?

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People build for +dam (in general, not necessarily on Stalkers) so they're doing more damage all the time. In a game where incoming damage types don't really matter anymore, even a bit more damage makes a big difference. Personally I've been building for +HP, and +dam often comes as a side effect of sets that have +HP bonuses (recharge as well).

People are mad because they can't figure out how to use inspirations, so they constantly whine about running out of endurance when fighting a Therm. All you gotta do is bring some blues along, it's really not hard to figure out.

Of course, they'll probably give Heat Exhaustion the Drain Psyche treatment - if the real numbers readout is correct, DP now does -0.8 end/sec, which isn't even enough -recovery to stop your base recovery rate.

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I wish they'd just give stalkers the chance to critical anytime like scrappers in pvp and get rid of the 'only critical from hide' crap.

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Yeah, because that wouldn't gimp Stalkers or anything. *rolls eyes*

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Of couse, the 5 main pvp board trolls haven't shown up to put in their 2¢ yet.

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The other 4 stopped posting here after people who actually know how to PvP told them off for being bad. You're the one that hasn't seemed to get it yet, I'm sorry.

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the response i expected to get.... Stalkers QQ more than anyone.... you have the only power in the game that costs 0 endurance.... You are the only Archetype that has a for sure crit... You have placate...

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Taunt and related powers cost no endurance, so you're wrong there. Widows and Soldiers have guaranteed crits, so again you're wrong there. Widows and Soldiers also have Placate.

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I dont think PPP powers should crit under any circumstances.

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Again, you're wrong there. Go play a Stalker and let me know how you do, then come back and whine about Stalkers. Wanna beat a Stalker? Keep moving. Stalkers are quite possibly the only AT where the best counter against them costs players literally nothing except use of the W, A, S, and D keys.

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The only people willing to put in the time farming are the hardcore PvPers. And with all the PvPers doing nothing but farming in the arena, there was NO pvp. And once all you hardcore PvPers get all your PvP IO's, the difference between casual PvPers and hardcore will be even more pronounced.

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Uhh, no.

They just want them to not be farmable - drop rate, availability, and price be damned.

DR. It eats into the damage bonus from IO sets and Build Up, as well as the actual enhancements slotted in your powers. In reality unless you pop a bunch of reds beforehand you probably won't be seeing more than 1000 damage with crit TF + AS.