Erratic1
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Posts posted by Erratic1
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6 minutes ago, serxiom said:
Indeed thats the best way. However i checked your build and got some feedback for you.
- At first sight you defense numbers looks great but those total numbers lie. Why? because Stealth. Stealth is tricky because you are in "hidden" mode yes... you will have 8.5% + def but once you step out from stealth al that % defense is gone. So, if you have your pet out you lose stealth inmediatly and with that your global defense went from 40% ish to 30%
- You are almost with Perma Link Minds but lets say you cant keep it up or missed to push button and your defense went from 30% to 25%
- Your attacks slotted with slow sets instead of damage sets... not DPS effective.
- You pick some useless powers as Indomitable Will just for muling a LoTg same as Inflitration
- Hasten just need 2 rech reduction that you can upgrade +5 when 50
- Strangler your main ST hold tool is underslotted. You want that tool slotted properly. It will let you lock AV´s EB´s Bosses with just one click and domination ongoing
- Carrion Creepers is advisable to frank-slot if you can. It pays off big time.
- No travel power... well thats a constraint.
- Thanks. I usually try to toggle off things which are not broadly true (Hasten when not perma, Force Feedback, etc.) but missed Stealth. That throw a real wrench in things.
- Slotted the attacks less for the slows than for the +Global Recharge.
- Indomintable Will was taken from worry about Mez, but I guess 123% Global Recharge brings one to perma-Dom and so Indomintable Will is not useful/necessary?
- Infiltration was the travel power. 😛
Thanks for the build. It keeps the powers I really want except Infiltration*.
If you don't mind my asking, but how viable is the notion of being capped at Range to be able to apply controls then once things are sufficiently locked down leaping into melee range?
*Its a theme thing. He's a (admittedly urban) druid, so good at moving about the terrain unseen.
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1 hour ago, Spaghetti Betty said:
. The only thing I'd be concerned about with SS/EnA is that you are going to be pretty vulnerable for those 10 seconds thanks to the -20% DEF.
Yeah. That is going to be a bit of an issue.
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6 minutes ago, Snarky said:
I had a pen and paper Champions Clone of Wolverine called Badger. (did not realize back then badging was a thing...)
The Badger may not like being called a Wolverine clone:
@Ultimo, Fury is less going berserk than getting increasingly mad. Rage is more going berserk. Like above, Claws for Wolverine. Street Justice for the Badger.
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Apropos of nothing, I check some of my 50's names across servers:
Created 1/15/2021 : Used on one other server
Created 1/29/2021: Used on three other servers
Created 8/6/2021: Used on three other servers
Created 11/27/2021: Used on no other servers
Created 10/17/2021: Used on three other servers
Created 11/10/2019: Used on three other servers
Created 2/26/2021: Used on two other servers (wow...figured it would be use more than the previous one)
Created 10/13/2021: Used on two other servers
Created 4/24/2019: Used on all servers
Most common server to see name open on: Indominatble
Least common server to see name open on: Excalibur and Excelsior differ by one, going to call that a tie.
Will also mention that with the exception of the last character, all the characters had been logged in within the last 60 days, most in the last 30 days. Though to be fair, theese were my page one characters (except the last). there are older 50s with far greater last login ages. Hmmm...let me check them....
408 days offline: Used on no other servers
693 days offline: Used on no other servers
420 days offline: Used on all servers
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18 hours ago, MagicalAct said:
Hey all, currently struggling with a costume for a Bane Spider. He's an inventor who creates his energy staff that allows him to fly, shoot bolts, bend light around him to turn invisible. I'm a big Jack Knight Starman fan, and wanted this character to be more the golden age style though, going for a Doctor Mid-Nite, and original Starman look but everything I've come up with so far hasn't made me happy. His name Lantern-Keeper based on the light of the staff he carries.
Have you considered just going full homage?
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21 minutes ago, MHertz said:
I’ll say again that the PL part doesn’t bother me, and I think could divert the debate into an argument about PLing instead of staying on topic. I know you’ve replied to this already, but I’ll further note that if we had fewer slots, there would be less PLing, because there wouldn’t be unlimited slots to place those characters.
You have no way of determining how much PLing there would be. People might very well strip their 50s, save the resources, then make and PL new characters. Stripping the resources from old one you are forced to delete in fact makes it easier to get the new 50 up and going. And you've incentivized stripping because in order to have the new character and old one had to be deleted and you might as well get something out of it.
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7 minutes ago, ZemX said:
... and is then upset that "Face Puncher Emeritus" is taken?!
I'll show myself out... 🤪
See second bullet point. It cannot be taken but there could be two Face Puncher Emeritus running around.
Look at DC and the Flash character. Just how many are there?
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8 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:
I farm and play. I don't farm to get as many 50's as possible, I farm maybe once a month or longer if I have an alt that's struggling at lower levels and I want to get to a power tier that will help, or past content I'm bored with. Most alts have been played properly and once I get to tier 4 on all the incarnate stuff I move them to their own column and retire them. The only reason some of them have been logged in since they were retired 2+ years ago is to get the PaPs last Halloween. Otherwise they are not played. It doesn't mean I don't love them, and it doesn't mean I haven't sweated over keeping them alive and sworn like a sailor when I've done something stupid. So far I'm up to 21 retired level 50's and the number creeps up slowly. I have 2 more I'm working on that only need a few components to be complete, and maybe 6 that are 50 but are low vet level.
The chances are their names are going to be in demand. I know this because I've seen others with the same name on other shards. The chances are also high that I probably will forget to log them in eventually and lose the names. I'd prefer that didn't happen. A lot of people retire their 50's and the farming to 50 discussion aside we tend to move on to other alts. I have probably a dozen or so at levels ranging from pre-10 to mid-40's. Those get played for a few days or weeks then I move on to a different one. The chances of losing those names is small. The retired 50's though, they are at risk simply because I've moved on.
Personally (and taking off my GM hat for a minute) I think it's a reasonable compromise. You can argue people have reduced the cachet of having an incarnated level 50 with farming, but people play how they play and if they are having fun and it's not hurting anyone else then that's their choice. I play how I play, which is mostly solo but team for the occasional iTrial or raid, and I'm not hurting anyone either. Alts under level 50 that get played at least occasionally will be safe. Level 50's will always be safe. Those 300 level 1's you made because you didn't want anyone else to have that name and will never use aren't safe. If you want to keep them you'll have to log them in very regularly, and that's going to get old very quickly.
It is almost a shame there is no, "Retired" setting we can give characters which would:
- Flag them as Emeritus and give make an, "Emeritus" title available.
- Track ownership to the player by some unique value.
- Release the original name back to the pool for use (since the character now tracks to the player invisibly).
- Make it so they can only be logged in and played while they have rest xp (no point in being retired if you are not retired).
So, @FrequentAltMaker levels her character Face Puncher to 50, retires the character, and thereafter can display Emeritus in her title and play the character infrequently. @NedNewbie decides to make a character named Face Puncher and delights to find the name available. At some point he might even retire the character.
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Guess I will have to build it and test it...
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6 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:
Well it was lowered from its old 775% to 700% on homecoming, its still higher than the other ATs. Iirc, Blaster, Scrapper, Stalker and Corruptor get up to 500% and the other AT's up to 400%.
But Brutes start with a lower base and scalar.
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5 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:
Given permanently at the damage cap and max recharge, I think it's a EM/Bio Brute as Brute has a higher damage cap then other ATs. I haven't ran the numbers but I think a damage capped brute would outpace other options.
I thought Brute damage cap was lowered to keep them beneath a certain other AT?
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I keep thinking I am making my final brute. I had thought that with the Energy Melee/Radiation Armor brute I got to 50 a week or so ago. But I was compelled (goaded) into making another one following a discussion elsewhere. So, I have violated two expectations: a new brute and retreading ground from Live (as I had an SS/Energy brute there). But I know more about building characters than I did on Live and IO sets are much easier to come by. Probably did not help I was perusing the Tanker forums where it was once again claimed Tankers are the superior farmers. Can we Brutes have nothing? Fine. I will play something no other melee AT can be, Super Strength/Energy Aura.
She has been a lot of fun up through level 39. Give a girl Energy Drain and Energize and she'll go all night. And that before even considering slotting IO sets.
Now about the Rage Crash....
Like a lot of others, I really hate it. HATE IT! Received wisdom is the more recharge you have the more often you are in a crash situation and I have seen advice about only wanting enough recharge to have Rage available when it runs out. I can really understand the motivation driving that conclusion. But it only goes so far.
Say you have Rage recharging every 130 seconds. You pop it, enjoy +80% damage and +20% To-Hit for 120 second, drop to no damage for 10 seconds, then are able to repeat. This is what some would call optimal.
Now, say you instead have Rage recharging every 110 seconds. You pop it, enjoy +80% damage and +20% To-Hit for 110 second, * pop Rage again, enjoy +160% damage and +40% To-Hit for 10 seconds, drop to no damage for 10 seconds, then rebound to +80% damage and +20% To-Hit for 90 seconds, pop Rage again to boost to +160% damage and +40% To-Hit for 10 seconds and the cycle repeats from the * above.
In the first scenario you are dealing no damage for 10 seconds out of every 130 seconds. In the second, once you are in the repeat phase, you are looking at 10 seconds out of every 120 second dealing no damage. But you have 10 seconds of dealing +160% damage too. Average the two together and...well, you're dealing +80% damage across those two periods. Yes, you experience a period of dealing no damage, but your overall damage is like you did not have a down period.
At Rage recharging every 60 seconds you will be experiencing no damage every 60 seconds for 10 seconds, but you will have +160% damage and +40% To-Hit for the rest of the time.
I decided to lean into Recharge figuring double Rage might be entertaining enough to make the no damage periods tolerable.
What follows is my tentative plan. Yeah, it would be nice to have 20% more S/L resistance. But Rage cycling is the goal, perma-Hasten necessary, and so packing on global recharge a requirement.
Spoiler| Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1629;696;1392;HEX;| |78DA75945B4F135110C7FFDB2E562815906B8102054AB99656F9005E800785046D7| |C6E1A3C96267521ED92C007F0CD076F89AF5EDFBCFB35F47BC8550CEA8309AED333| |3B7090B0497B7E67E6CCCCFFCCEE39F36BD3F55FBFCC5D8215BE5ACA572AB92BE55| |55785B28B45E52C2A549F10FD3AB53937AF4A4AA5B2AB2BAA9CCBBA65E514DCA528| |BBA6D51DE554546AC651E5C27AEEF26A398FC8C2F27229355B2C2CB945A710E659A| |93AADD39C5D51EA768BC69935CA59BCAB1C37EF16979DE8CC4A715172CDE72BAE2A| |AFB3B40E5213A75FBF457F16E4F182C042D56C23801B0237196C6419DEE078900D3| |4D234535DD2C47006CD022D0C67D1CA3040836544D7587816D49E73782EF082A111| |2F055E319CC76B8600353488A33434F1E84198EC35467AD4A08B231216BF8543D92| |13CB0FDA40F195AF048E031431B9E30BCA7905A336F2DD77B4793B0D98CB034A34D| |9AD121CDE89066744A33DE5248C4EC7F0469599261E8C64581298620EDA2C1EC600| |3DA691AB3D1830BBCD71E9D2659850C439F4EA3618A2149032994449ED58431E8E8| |3E810F34349BF29A455E5CE4C5455E5CE4DD4F80B6671DC96BC54640CB1BC0A6C09| |6C036C3207604EE05749A4F14DB0E435EBB746F50BA3742431446A5A8541A924A43| |5269482A25A552522A7DA6D82EB39F5DF8C66D4C628361049B025B02DB0CA3D861A| |0EF0931F34B88E1BA2C39802E398A5DB68C635FC0DFCB300DBDE6D7D98BF180BF64| |8261022981498134437FC83FCB7E74A05F5EE1E409F84843C23C3909D150DB04ADE| |3D0338CA79CBF9E3C63A6674C3C11F2A4CC5DA77060FB05FF3264F415A1814E2383| |C56091EEB4A925CDA76AD6D657CC2DB17BDD36CCC7D3465A38778A7DC136AF28B25| |B6CDFA93B7E77C9FADD53ECDF4FDAAFF1F1D9FBCF431BDAB3FDABEE07431DF6057E| |32D4E397C06F06BA26AA4D394CE3FD2143C6C8EBFD03439FD917| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
Let me know of any improvements you can think of.
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5 minutes ago, Bopper said:
I believe the assumption was you're already at damage cap, so a set that gives +damage isn't going to matter. You'd want to look at resistance debuffs and bonus damage (such as crits).
I had read that when I first read the thread and then when I came back because of the most recent post I had fogotten that stipulation.
Thanks!
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If Bio is getting mentioned for its +30% to damage, why is double stacked Rage not on the table with its 160%?
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15 minutes ago, aethereal said:
Maintaining fury is not hard, and fury builds very quickly. This idea that brutes are constantly struggling with low fury is pure cope.
You can exit a fight, take a knee, recover to full health/endurance, and still have a nice chunk of Fury, which will as you noted very quickly be back to superior damage levels after a swing or two.
Due to another conversation last week, I got around to making the SS/EA Brute I had been avoiding doing (played one in Live, was trying to avoid repeating myself but also know more about building characters...so gave in). She was decent at lower levels, but once she got Energy Drain at level 24...oh my...the wrongness which has ensued. Mostly mentioned because I had been paying attention to Fury while leveling her.
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35 minutes ago, Blackjoy said:
<Bunch of hand-wavium, ignores math, argues by assertion>
I am going to avoid having this apply to myself:
I am good with letting you be wrong.
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On 2/20/2023 at 11:55 AM, MHertz said:
Lots of people name their characters after their power sets. Let’s see, it’s a broadsword/dark armor Scrapper, I’ll call him Darkblade. Or Nightblade. Darn, that’s taken too. How about Shadowsword? Darksword? Shadowstab? Occlusion Scalpel? Doompoke? Darn. All taken. Well, I guess I’ll go with xXDark B1ad3Xx.
8 minutes ago, Ironblade said:What?! You have a problem with a broadsword scrapper having the word 'blade' in his name? I feel called out by this! 😛
Ebonblade is available on two shards
Onyxblade is available on all shards
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Tempest in teapot. 50's names are not up for release in any event, so I am not going to argue the point. The furthest I can see it being reasonable to release names of level characters is if/when the work is done to determine the account they are on has been inactive for a significant period.
FWIW, I just gave up the name Preeminent. Imperil was open and I felt it better captured the hazardous nature of being around the character (Bio/Rad villainous tanker).
Some may not think either name is all that awesome and that I did really get a good name either way. Beats 'Toxic Todd'.
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44 minutes ago, MHertz said:
It is equally unreasonable to assume that the only idle names are undesirable. People don’t take breaks from the game, or stop playing, or move on to other things, because they didn’t have any good names. Sometimes even good names will go idle because the player moved on.
Then as you like to say, good thing I didn't assume that.
44 minutes ago, MHertz said:A player leaves behind, let’s say, 20 characters. Maybe 1 or 2 of those names are cool. Someone should get them.
I don't disagree. The key words above are, "leaves behind". Active players have not left.
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2 minutes ago, MHertz said:
A quick sample of active players using the names they could get. I hope you can see that’s not the same as a sample of names that are presently idle.
It is unreasonable to think that desirable names are universally not being played.
2 minutes ago, MHertz said:Names that are idle for 1 year:
- were created with more freedom because there were fewer existing names already in use at the time
- may have contributed to the unavailability of better names for the active players now
I’m not saying there’s going to be a ton of awesome names freed up by this. Likely not — most names just aren’t that awesome to start with.
I was here a year ago (and two and three). Naming has not gotten meaningfully harder in that time. "Black Ice" went early I am sure and was not available after the first week or two.
Some character names I have gotten in the last year:
Restless Dead
Ultrapower
Glamours
Street Druid
Trapstress
Ghostfist
Stellaris (renamed later)
Eye of the beholder how desirable those are but they are not names nobody would think of (I think).
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13 minutes ago, MHertz said:
Sweet! I’m all about solutions based on things we can measure. If database stability is not an issue, then it can be disregarded.
We still have the issue of, what did we estimate, 600K potential names being freed up, out of 2M names? That’s a number worth discussing. That’s 30% of the existing characters — it’s not nothing.Here is a quick sampling of player names from my most frequented server showing right now as I type:
Agatha Stone
Aubrey Kate
Axle Rock
Black Ronin.
Deflagrator
DiscoTech Juliet
Doctor Mortuus
Dro Skulls
Dro Tsoo
Forrest Gumps
Frozen Circles
Fyre Urchyn
Garbopolis
Gemma Trappe
Ghost Gunman
Graffiti Artist
Grats
Higgs BonsaiHon
Any of those names you would likely think of to use were they forced to be available to you?
A GM has noted the great number of names which nobody is going to be rushing to get. Freeing up a bunch of names may occur but those names were not preventing people from getting what they want.
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1 minute ago, MHertz said:
I believe it was already mentioned that this is a distinction the game cannot make, because there is no “account activity” that can be tied to a character. I would be in favor of this hypothetical example, for all the good it does.
Your characters are tied to your acount otherwise when you logged in you would not have a list of characters presented to you. Whille there may not be a specific field in a database tracking when accounts log in, given you have a database with accounts and with characters with datetimes associated with being logged in, it is a straightforward query to find the most recent datetime associated with each account.
I last logged in about an hour ago. Only one character will show that time--the character I was logged in to. Save that time against my account name and write it to a table. Do that for everyone and...oh my, you have a table of accounts and last activity.
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16 minutes ago, Greycat said:
And I doubt the database is having any issues with stability. It dealt with far more accounts for far longer than HC's been running when the game was live, after all, and I don't think characters take all that much space.
Back at shutdown when Sentinel was created to extract out character information for possible reimport should the game be saved some way, the xml files produced were 31KB in size. So figure a milllion characters would fit in 31GB.
My five year-old phone has twice that for its base storage.
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1 minute ago, MHertz said:
And I’m for it. If the character isn’t being played at all, not even once a year, then it’s just cluttering up the database.
In my previous job the company kept every fiscal transaction, along with all the associated medical information ( procedures, resources, guarantors, insurance [including how it changed over time], contact information, providers, locations, payments, charges, etc.) going back for 30 years.
It is hard to see how our character, especially coming from what was constrained by the technology of 18 years ago, is really producing that much clutter in terms of modern storage.
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Super Strength/Energy Aura
in Brute
Posted
I have an Energy Melee/Radiation Armor Brute (one step ahead of this one in terms of being worked on) who makes relatively obscene use of Energy Torrent and Cross Punch both slotted with Force Feedback to keep foes off their feet for reasoanble chunks of time who gets by decently with much lower global recharge. Perhaps if I move the Force Feedback in Cross Punch to Energy Torrent (since it is guaranteed on more things anyway), then between the 5 second recharge on Foot Stomp and 4 second recharge on Energy Torrent, she will be okay in many situations. Even if they are not dealing damage they are still reducing attacks from things in melee.
That leaves foes which do not get knocked down and those operating at range and so not getting knocked down. Honestly I would feel better with a bit more Resistance but getting it....