[Is /Ninja Training Absolute Trash?]

Old thread, but here's my take on it.  /Ninja isn't in a good place.  It's perfectly functional, but it has problems.  I leveled a Sonic/Ninja to 50 (do not recommend) and here's my opinion on Ninja's powers.

 

Immobilizing Dart: standard immobilize.  No real issue with it other than the damage which is far lower than any other Blaster immobilize, barring Temporal which exchanges its damage for a Delayed effect.  It could stand to offer up a little more damage; I think it should do a spot of lethal damage before applying the toxic DoT.

 

Sting of the Wasp: no real problem with this power.  Would like an actual weapon draw animation though.

 

Choking Powder: is pretty much a copy of Char from Fire Mastery, but with toxic damage instead.  I almost think this power does too much damage for its level and damage type, but otherwise solid.

 

Shinobi: this power is the main issue I have with the set.  Instead of a build up you have a weak version of Hide with a 30-second cooldown on the out-of-combat damage boost and the invisibility is only as good as Stealth or Field Operative/Cloaking Device.  With the changes to Targeting Drone in Devices, why can't Shinobi also get that kind of love?  If you have to lower the damage boost to make it balanced that's fine but 30 seconds between fights is too long in a game where average encounters tend to be over in 12 these days.

 

The Lotus Drops: no issue, though a little slow charging compared to similar PBAoE attacks.

 

Kujin-toh: no issue.  Would be nice if it were a toggle however.

 

Smoke Flash:  Last I checked this power is actually bugged.  Any time I used it it would not placate targets like it says.  I even fired up my second box and used it in PvP and could not placate an unenhanced detoggled brute.  If you ask me, this power should also reset the timer on Shinobi's damage boost.  The resistance debuff is ok, but doesn't feel too useful when things are still hitting you.

 

Blinding Powder: because Shinobi isn't full invisibility, it's actually really difficult to use the powder undetected due to a very short range.  The sleep synergizes well with Sonic since it does no damage and can stack with other sleeps (Siren's Song) but is underwhelming otherwise since it's mag 2.  The confuse is also underwhelming, though I hear the CC proc makes it much better.

 

Golden Dragonfly: no issue, but seems to lack the same kind of power from similar T9s like Total Focus

[Help me find something new and fun]

I love Blasters.  I roll lots of Blasters and here's a couple i've found.  They're a bit unorthodox but still a blast (ha!).

 

Archery/Energy.  Fast attacks, early build up, but most importantly Boost Range is freaking amazing at letting you put so much distance between you and your fight as possible.  Combined with Ranged Shot you can easily break 100ft range on Fistful of Arrows and practically Rain on groups that are just barely in render distance.  Grab another cone attack from your epic (I have Mace Beam Volley as well) and become a long-range death monster.  As an extra note, if you decide to take Teleport; Boost Range and Ranged Shot both affect it.  If you Boost and take a snipe, you can teleport over 600ft away at once, making it objectively the fastest travel option in the game other than someone recalling you.

 

Fire/Dark.  Strange but fun.  A weird mix of running into groups for your dark AoE buffs then dropping Inferno or bouncing out for Fire Breath.  Plus some nice utility with a ranged fear and to-hit debuffs.  Not perfect, but it fit my style.

 

Water/Fire.  What I love about Water Blast is how customizable it is.  While you can recolor other sets, they're usually still the orginal power (purple energy is still energy) but water gives better creative control.  With dark coloration, I have an oil theme on this character that looks cool and does tons of damage.  Lots of close quarters fire AoEs and oil blasts.

 

Sonic/Mental.  Mental is an excellent secondary for Sonic.  Psychic Scream gives you another excellent cone blast for Sonic's decidedly lacking AoE potential and Psychic Shockwave is a great followup after a Dreadful Wail to clean up survivors.  Not to mention Siren's Song sets you up for a free crowd-sized Drain Psyche to turn you into an unstoppable machine.  Sonic's -res can also make your Psi attacks more useful on the enemies that frequently heavily resist Psi damage like machines and zombies.  The two sets just work really well together.

 

Dual Pistols OR Assault Rifle/Martial Combat.  These are combos that just make you feel like an action movie star.  Gunplay and roundhouse kicks.  If you want to play like you're Keanu Reeves, this is how you do it.  Martial also comes a status protection power (it's basically a Break Free as a power) and a weird teleport attack that can work to rapidly adjust your position in combat which can be helpful for getting out of a jam, positoning for cones, or jumping in with Hail of Bullets.

[Favorite in-game quotes]

Not so much dialogue, but if you roll a Resistance Crusader, the first mission objective on the Nav for Ricochet is always funny.

 

Ask someone what exactly Ricochet said.

Also, I think whoever wrote some of the Rikti lines was having too much fun.

 

Profound realization: you complain.

Bomb defense: Priority > Negative. Bomb defense: job description

I feel: Targeted

Status: Quiet > Status correction: Too Quiet

 

Another one that makes me chuckle is a random Freak Tank in Bloody Bay.

 

I already told you.  When you're me, then you can use the walkie-talkie.

 

Also, how could I forget the Circle banter in the Halloween tip mission.

 

If we're going to be here a while, are you siding with the Loyalists or Resistance?

Give me that thorn blade.  You are too dumb to wield it.

 

[Tanker Gauntlet seems to cause some effects to AoE]

Not long ago I recall having a chat in the bug form about Staff and Sky Splitter having some kind of AoE effect that seems to have been attributed to Tanker's Gauntlet effect, which adds an AoE taunt to every single target attack.  It seems this effect may be unintentionally causing secondary effects of some attacks to apply to the Gauntlet AoE as well.  I've got a Dual Blades Tank right now who just trained 28 and got Vengeful Slice which causes a knockdown partway through the animation.  This knockdown seems to be applying to all targets in range of the taunt effect, but only the knockdown.  I recall my Dual Blades Brute on live servers, and that attack never dealt an AoE knockdown so i'm betting it's a Tanker problem and something is making me think it's more than just VS with this problem.  In case people ask about additional effects or slotting, Fire Armor is my shield and the only power slotted with a KD effect is Typhoon's Edge so there shouldn't be any external KDs going on here.  VS itself is fresh and only has an IO Damage currently.

 

As an unrelated but quick bug, Fire Armor's Consume states that it provides two minutes of "Endurance Protection" after use, which I assume is supposed to mean protection from recovery debuffs or endurance drains.  This doesn't appear to be doing anything.  Combat attributes reports no resistance to Recovery Debuffs, and Consume is not anywhere to be found on the spreadsheet after the 15 second recovery buff goes away.

[What control goes best with /time? (not grav)]

I run a Plant/Time myself.  Lots of control, lots of buff.  Back on live one of the main reasons I had rolled that combo was for stacking Regen and Recharge on the Hami tank; multiple Trees, Selection, and Chrono Shift were instrumental for keeping the tank(s) up and running when straight heals weren't an option.  Overall however, the combo feels like a jack-of-all-trades.  You get a large amount of control with Plant's variety, plenty of damage with procs and vines, Time covers so manu bases in the buff and debuff department and just makes everything easier.

 

I also like the thematics.  I like the idea that Time control is actually your character's main power and you're using it to make plants grow like crazy in isolated spots.

[Is Sonic good for Blasters?]

Sonic's an oddball set on a Blaster and isn't terribly strong at putting damage down range like other sets.  It makes up for a lower amount of damage by offering a fair bit of crowd control in the forms of AoE KB, AoE Sleep, and AoE Stun on the T9 Nuke.  The -Res is useful, but more effective when used by a Defender or Corrupter (Blaster gets -13% per attack, while Corrupter has -15% and Defender gets a whopping -20%).  It's good for melee builds since it just further boosts your powerful melee attacks in your secondary, and the crowd control helps with soloing.  One of my favorite older builds was Sonic/Mental where Siren's Song lets you set up Drain Psyche without too much risk and Psychic Scream gives you another much needed ranged AoE.  It's a little less effective since Mental has less in the way of melee attacks, but solid utility none the less.

 

Right now i'm running Sonic/Ninja as a bit of a challenge build.  The combo is strange for sure but provides a decent variety of damage with toxic and lethal attacks.  /Ninja seems to have other issues that bog it down however, lots of powers just don't seem well implemented, but that's not Sonic's fault.

[Hostile Tuatha enemies in Lady Winter mission.]

I've run the Lady Winter mission a few times and one thing I keep noticing: one group of the Tuatha de Dannan that are supposed to assist you are spawning as enemies and are hostile to the surrounding Tuatha as well.  This results in a little in-fighting before you can decide on where they go, and you can also kill them yourself.

[Sky Splitter buff broken and now power aoe too!]

Sky Splitter doesn't need AoE damage, Staff already has stupid AoE damage to begin with, only really being outdone by Titan Weapon.  SS is fine as a heavy ST attack, given the power's secondary effects (even if bugged) and the fact that it's also a knockdown and stun.  AoE damage on it would be overkill, especially when factoring in Scrapper/Stalker criticals.

 

After checking other powersets, I really do think the AoE is in reference to Tanker inherent taunts.  Every normal attack had a 5-target radius, even weak attacks like Mercurial Blow, Jab, Swipe, Chop, etc.

[Sky Splitter buff broken and now power aoe too!]

51 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:

You need to play it then, cause it does. It has a 5 target splash damage in a small radius around the enemy you hit with it. It may have been bugged on the mission I was on, or some other factor, or they had a new patch fixing that part of it cause it seems to be working for the splash damage now. The bonus buff however is still broken and needs fixed asap.

I do play it, I have a Staff/Elec Scrapper at 50.  Sky Splitter has no AoE effect.  Paragon Wiki also backs me up on that.

 

The bonuses are broken, yes, but the power does not have an AoE effect.

 

EDIT: I took a look at the power in the character creation screen, and it turns out I might be half wrong.  The Scrapper, Stalker, and Brute version of the power are single target, the Tanker version reports a 5-target AoE, so perhaps you've got me on that one.  If there is an issue with the power not hitting AoE, it's a Tanker issue and not a problem with the other three ATs that can use it, which is not something I can vouch for.  It's also possible that AoE could be referring to Tanker's taunt effect, which is on every power and Staff is reporting a 5-target AoE on EVERY power (10 for EotS) in Character Creation, as are pretty much every other set.

[[BUG] Travel Powers: Jump Pack greyed out after use]

I know what he's talking about, yes, it has a 30 second uptime and a 30 second recharge, but periodically even after it recharges the power remains greyed out and unusable until you change areas.  I haven't had it happen in a while but I still see it occasionally, usually at super low levels.  

[A few First Ward mission NPC hiccups (plus an extra)]

Been playing through First Ward and I've come across a few missions where certain NPCs aren't behaving correctly.  None of these prevent mission completion, but they are a little annoying and peculiar.

 

Katie Douglas, Investigate D-SEC:  Colonel Duray does not properly despawn when defeated.  He is supposed to teleport out upon dying or reaching a certain HP if I recall, however instead he is reviving himself with 25% HP upon death and entering a 'You cannot attack this target' state while still flagging hostile.  The mission completes as soon as he dies the first time, however having an invincible Boss-tier enemy following you around makes it very difficult to clean up the rest of the IDF or Awakened spawns in the map if you wanted to.

 

Cerulean, Meet with Diabolique's Shadow:  When Diabolique's shadow becomes hostile, Cerulean does not assist in fighting her or the Apparitions she spawns (he just stands there like a doofus holding the summoning scroll).  I distinctly remember him helping you back during the days of live.  Additionally when Diabolique's Shadow dies, she revives with 25% HP like Colonel Duray, however she can be attacked allowing you to kill her a second time for another helping of Elite Boss experience.  She does not revive again and the mission completes after she finishes talking after her first defeat.

 

Sir Bedwyr, Confront Lorn:  This mission has a lengthy cutscene where Pendragon confronts Lorn and The Black Queen.  When that cutscene finishes the cutscene versions of Pendragon, Lorn, and The Black Queen do not despawn while the correct versions of the three spawn, with Pendragon spawning as an ally, Lorn as hostile, and Black Queen as untargetable.  The hostile Lorn will attack the cutscene NPCs before you reach their location, resulting in a rather silly scenario where the cutscene Lorn was being killed by the hostile Lorn.  The cutscene NPCs do not fight back.  After hostile Lorn is defeated, the rest of the mission plays out as normal, however the cutscene NPCs remain in place, resulting in The Black Queen assuming control of the Black Knights in front of both a dead Lorn and an alive Lorn if you were able to save him, as well as two Pendragons and herself.

 

As a bonus, this one isn't part of First Ward or Night Ward, but still silly,

 

Roy Cooling, End the Medi-Port Conspiracy:  During the fight at the top of the Sky Raider platformer with Captain Castillo, he will interrupt the fight around 50% HP in an effort to make the fight more exciting.  He sets the platform on fire, then teleports out to make a dramatic reentrance.  Upon teleporting out, the original Castillo remains in place, but is now completely invisible and untargetable and, even better, flagged as an ally helper.  The invisible Castillo assists in fighting himself as well as the Zeus Class Titan that spawns after Castillo's defeat.  His flamethrower remains visible and he can potentially summon a Force Field Generator to help.

[Sky Splitter buff broken and now power aoe too!]

Sky Splitter doesn't have AoE damage to begin with.  It's a heavy single target damage with bonus damage if you have 3 stacks of body/mind/soul.  It's not like Katana where there's a very narrow arc that can hit extra targets if they're single-file.

[Dr. Graves (and other contact pop-ups) can cause a softlock]

It seems like this could happen with any contact window that pops up as soon as you level up, but Dr. Graves was just the lucky one to cause it.  In my rush to slot enhancements immediately on training level 5, I was greeted with Dr. Grave's contact pop-up the very moment I entered my enhancement window.  This resulted in his pop-up window completely covering the exit button in the enhancement UI while simultaneously obscuring his own window closure button below the screen, resulting in a case where I could not exit out of the enhancement window (unless there's a keyboard button that does it and i'm just an idiot).  I had to close CoX via Task Manager to get out of it.

 

It might be an issue with resolution scaling.  I play Borderless Window at 1920x1200 resolution, don't know if other resolutions result in the contact pop up obscuring the button.

[Blaster Ninja Training: Smoke Flash Placate?]

Tested in PvP with my alternate account, Smoke Flash's Placate effect is not applying at all.  A brute with next to no enhancements and no toggles running was not placated whatsoever, however the damage resistance debuff applied and the chatlog stated "you placated $target."

[Blaster Ninja Training: Smoke Flash Placate?]

Been leveling a /Ninja Blaster and I was partially excited for Smoke Flash as a nice tool for getting out of trouble, but my attempts at using it are making me wonder if it's implemented correctly (I know Ninja Training wasn't a set on live).  The power reports that it should placate targets affected by it by 300% for roughly 6 seconds, but any time i've used it the placate effect animation plays (the pink swirl at the target's head) but they just keep attacking me like nothing happened.  I've attempted this on a few groups' minion enemies (Apparations, Carnival of War, Drudges, DUST) and everything has completely ignored the placate thus far.  The enemies are unaffected by DoTs or even statuses/debuffs (other than the power's own -res).  Am I not understanding placate mechanics or is something just not working when I try to smoke out on things?  Is the -res applied by the power breaking the placate effect perhaps?

[Which zones do you play in and which zones do you rarely/never enter?]

Blueside, I tend to avoid Skyway, IP, Croatoa, Founder's and hazard zones.  I usually follow the newer storylines and many of those stories don't use those zones.  I typically do the AP trio, Shauna/EE in Kings, Montague in Steel, then move to Faultline followed by Talos.  Tips in Talos after Keith/Jenni/Roy, then Bricks at 30 for Provost.  RWZ at 35, then PI/RWZ at 40.

 

Redside, I generally only pass over Oakes and Nerva. I usually get enough experience from Kalinda/Burke/whoever the new contact is to skip Oakes, only going there for Dr. Graves' missions.  Meanwhile Nerva has far less going for it compared to Sharkhead where you have Dean/Leonard/Vincent and Marital with Mr. G.  RWZ strikes again at 35+ too and the first Patron arc also helps fill the gap.

 

Gold, you kinda get forced into the main three zones.  You only go underground for Resistance Crusader stuff so the underground is often avoided, and First Ward/Night Ward I really need to be in the mood for as those two zones are rather tedious and can be difficult.

[Skipping ahead to Calvin Scott's story arc in Neutropolis]

Coming back to this a day later; it seems the issue sort of corrected itself.  Upon completing Calvin Scott's first arc mission, the next mission prompt gave me the option to choose Crow as a contact, or continue his arc.  He isn't offering Aaron Walker, but I expect he will soon enough.  Still not supposed to happen this way.

 

EDIT: However, despite speaking to the Resistance contact and receiving the passwords to enter the Resistance Hub, I am not allowed to as a Loyalist and the mission to meet Crow is not able to be completed.  This leads me to suspect that there may be some jankiness to playing Crusader storylines as a Loyalist overall as I bet you can't get into the Imperial hub either.

 

EDIT 2: I decided to finish Calvin Scott's story and switch to Resistance hoping to maybe pick up the missing pieces.  While that allowed me to enter the Resistance Hub, Crow isn't present since he's a little dead after Calvin's arc and Helix won't talk to me either, essentially locking me out of two Crusader arcs.  I think the moral of the story here is don't cross the Resistance if you're a Crusader.

[Skipping ahead to Calvin Scott's story arc in Neutropolis]

Some Praetorian shenanigans here.  Playing my Resistance dude tonight, I played through Wardog's story arc in Underground Imperial and opted to switch to Loyalist when given the choice with the intent of continuing the Crusader storyline as a Loyalist.  I was level 15 when I made the switch.  Calling Calvin Scott afterward expecting to get the choice between the Neutropolis Resistance contacts I was instead greeted with his story arc instead of the contact choices, which would be the final chapter of the Crusader line.  I had wanted to run Crow and Helix's story arcs first but I am not being given the option as not getting Crow via Calvin Scott prevents me from entering the Resistance Hub in Underground Neutropolis.  Thankfully the lack of access to the Underground Hub doesn't look like it will lock me out of the story arc, but it still leads to a major plothole for Crusader-running Loyalists.

[Stalker Staff Fighting bugs]

For the second part, weapon sets with Aim/Build Up tend to cause rooting so it's not exclusive to Staff.  Archery's Aim has the same issue where it roots if you have to draw the bow and I want to say Battle Axe's Build Up also does it.

[Captain Mako mission Rescue Arachnos Operatives issue]

Captain Mako's first mission requires rescuing two Arachnos operatives as well as defeating a boss.  When I took the mission I had the two operatives spawn with a Spines Longbow Warden, resulting in both of them dying from the damage aura before I could reach them.  The mission was not able to be completed after that despite defeating the boss and clearing the map, a reset was mandatory.

[Favorite late game & level 50+ support set]

I'm personally a fan of Time's overall coverage and versitality.  The set can do so much in both directions: regen debuffs and party healing, reducing defense/resistance while boosting damage, accuracy and recharge, cutting accuracy and recharge while improving defense.  The only thing it doesn't seem to do is boost damage resistance.  Time is the only powerset I hit 50 with twice on Live (Time/Dark Defender, Plant/Time Controller), and i've done it a third time on Homecoming (rebuilding the Plant/Time).

 

As of late, i'm also having fun with Storm.  The set generates so much chaos with all the knockdown it offers.  Tornadoes, gales, and thunderclouds everywhere, plus my /storm Controller runs Leviathan Mastery so I can double down on Tornadoes with a Water Spout.  Throw in more chaos with Electric control, everything is left flat on their ass with no endurance left to fight back.  Fences with a Ragnarok KD proc, Gremlins with Overwhelming Force KD proc, Jolting Chain, it's stupid how everything just falls over when I attack.

[The final boss of the library]

So I have no idea what could've caused this, but I had a strange instance where one of the random physics-affected books in the Founder's Falls university just started growing for no discernible reason.  The book was still affected by walking into it it wouldn't stop increasing in size, eventually taking over most of the first floor of the library.  It only stopped after I assume I went out of render distance, at which point it simply vanished as if nothing happened.  Very peculiar and rather entertaining, probably nothing serious.

 

 

[Hardest Blaster Combo to Solo With?]

21 hours ago, Eirwen said:

I would love to give Sonic a good shot, I have some great hero ideas for it, but each time I try it the screaming/sound effects put me right off.

I don't actually know how, but I often see people on Reddit talking about changing files to make Sonic, or any sound effect, much less ear-rapey.  With a Sonic/Mental Blaster myself, I do agree that Sonic Attacks are not something I want to constantly listen to for extended periods; up there with Psychic Blast (and Fortuna psi attacks by extension) as well.

 

That said, Sonic/Mental is actually pretty sweet.  The mix of Smash, Energy, and Psi damage is a solid amount of coverage. Psychic Scream is helpful to add an extra ranged cone (I personally see Sonic as one of the weakest in terms of raw damage output and lacking in AoE damage, so extra attacks are helpful) and Sonic's -Res help out with the frequent Psi resistances you run into late, plus Siren's Song pretty much guarantees Drain Psyche can be used without fear of death.

[Is Ice Armor any good for scrappers?]

On 10/7/2019 at 12:19 PM, Uun said:

It's pretty darn rare. According to the stats the devs posted a month ago, there are only 64 lvl 50 /Ice scrappers.

The main reason I rolled one a short while ago.  Axe/Ice is the combination of the least used primary and secondaries based on that data (at level 50) with only one player having that particular combo at 50, so I wanted to try it and see if it was garbage or just underused.

 

So far: endurance is a non-issue with Energy Absorption; it's available sooner than Tanker's version, but as a trade off no Icicles for a longer while.  Axe recharge remains slow, but Ice Armor provides plenty of opportunities for LotGs (except for Wet Ice for some reason) while Axe can practically go 100% FFB recharge boosts.  Fights are slow at the mid 20s where I am, and mobs often run away from me after I take too long to kill them; almost considering Provoke from the Presence pool to keep things close by.  However I hardly take hits, my defenses are usually 30%+ to all environmental damages except Psi or Tox (Hoarfrost gives Tox resistance, but not a substantial amount) and that will only get better with more enhancements and slotting.  I've been rolling +0/x4 with Bosses and making slow and steady progress, though in truth the combo makes me want to repurpose it into a Tanker instead.

 

My conclusion: functional, but sluggish.  Build Up with Axe hits like a truck though and especially when they crit.  The combo is fun to play in high speed though, I actually had a ton of fun rolling it through a Yin TF where I would just rush in like a madman and take the alpha instead of waiting for the actual tank.  Very survivable.

[Best resistance based armor set?]

7 hours ago, molten_dragon said:

Dark armor is a great set with one glaring weakness.  You will have incredible endurance problems.  I played a DA tank on live, and once I hit 50 and got fully IO'd he was an absolute beast.  The road to 50 was absolute hell.

Doesn't /dark also lack natural KB protection? I know that's easy to fix these days with Karma/Steadfast/Zephyr IOs instead of being forced to take Acrobatics, but its extra slots you need to invest to fill a gap.