ZorkNemesis

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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."

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?

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It's a good list, but May 2009 for the last update, it's missing a lot of content for sure. Seems it was put together before Going Rogue as none of the normal Praetorian groups are present, just the old ones for each AV. It also doesn't seem to show which enemies are vulnerable to the electric attack boost (which it turns out I was mistaken; I thought it was electric powers in general, but I could've just been looking at the EMP Glove temp power instead). Still worth pouring over that list though, i've always wondered about a few of the groups and what they're vulnerable to. Even if it's a little dated, it still has good info.

A bunch of the "sustain" powers offer a minimal amount of absorb in addition to their recovery buff. Time, Ice, and Martial all have an absorb, not sure about others. Many others offer regen, Devices, Energy, Mental, and others.

Electrical Blast/Manipulation have a secondary property in their info that shows most electric attacks deal bonus damage to mechanical foes. Is there a list out there for which enemies this applies to as it seems really inconsistent sometimes. I know of a lot of enemies: Freakshow with cybernetics, turrets, Mek Men/Hoverbots, Malta Titans, and others, but there's also some that you'd think would count but don't like Praetorian Clockwork (and the Longbow/Arachnos variants; oddly enough these don't resist psionics either) and IDF/WarWorks. I'd like to know which mobs to pick on to make my Electrical Blaster's life easier.

I feel like, in this scenario, the Blaster would solo better simply because Blasters strength lies in crowd damage. With energy blast you'll be dealing damage and keeping most mobs flat on their asses the entire time, preventing most retaliation unless you miss or the mobs resist KB/KD effects. A gravity dom certainly can keep groups under control to prevent retaliation as well, especially with Wormhole and Dimension Shift and the extra control support from the Singularitu, but dom assault sets typically lack in crowd damage and control powersets don't usually offer much damage without building for it. Crowd fights on the dom will take longer with less AoE damage and if you can't knock out the group before your controls drop you may have some trouble.

No bug; Conductive Aura has no endurance cost if you check its detailed info. You can run it with your end at 0 if it comes down to it. Part of the reason for that is because the ability increases your recovery rate while its affecting enemies, to have it both drain your endurance and increase your recovery would be counterproductive, especially given that the recovery boost is negligible at best anyway. Also not a bug. Being held, slept, or stunned will turn off any offensive toggle auras regardless of power set. If your toggle affects more than just you and your allies it will be turned off and Conductive Aura is one as it drains endurance from nearby foes.