carroto

Thanks for the effortful post. I agree with most of what you wrote. However I doubt that any changes to incarnates would change the part I quoted. People want to use their entire builds. They don't like losing access to powers when they exemp down. Of course some are willing to accept it to do a TF or similar, but given the choice they'll still prefer to be operating at level 50.

Looked at the new Touch of Fear in the character creation screen. It's a clone of Street Justice/Spinning Strike, which from what I've seen isn't a greatly well-thought-of power to start with. However ToF has half the recharge, half the damage, but a slightly longer animation, which means it's pretty bad from a DPSA perspective. My hope when initially reading about the change was that it would finally bring DM into the realm of playable sets for me. I don't think it will. I guess I'll try it out on the beta server, but I've been playing this game long enough that I think I have a good idea how that will feel in actual play. Too little damage to justify the time spent applying it. We'll see.

While that was an issue it could also be used to cheese "Master of" runs as well. That and generally avoiding defeat anywhere anytime.

The most important part of all of this is obviously the shoulder kittens. This was clearly a ploy to deflect criticism from other aspects of the issue. This will be effective, sadly, because kittens. Well played. I haven't dug into the details yet but the one thing that does disappoint me already is the need to get the exploration accolade for a zone before being able to easily travel to it. I've always enjoyed slowly getting exploration badges as I play through zones normally. When I have a mission close to a badge I'll go ahead and get it. There's something that feels good about doing that, a slow trickle of dopamine as I am playing the game normally. Instead now it will be something grindy I have to do on new characters just so I can get around. Not looking forward to Independence Port on new characters. I know that I don't have to do it at level one, but at some point there will be that moment. "Ugh, I have to travel to IP, guess I might as well get it over with."

The single-target blasts are pretty poor. The first two especially, but really all of them. I dream of Corruptors getting the Blaster version of Rad Blast. The one thing I do love about the set is the snipe. Since it does its damage in 4 chunks (I think it's 4), if you put a -res proc in it and it fires, you'll see the first bit of damage do one amount, and then the other three do more damage. So it's able to boost it's own damage, which is great. My favorite snipe in the game. Too bad about the rest of the blasts though.

Looks like Tony V deleted his post. Can anyone who had a chance to read it summarize? All I get from reading the rest of the thread is that he got engaged.

Where is this duck in game?

My only disagreement is that the use of level shifts and other incarnate abilities in non-incarnate content does cause some issues. It's easy for incarnates to run TFs and such at +4 because it's really only +3 to them. However for anyone below level 50, it will be +5 to them. At that point you're not really contributing.

I saw someone mention recently that the numbers for Corruptors are off in Mids'. I'm not sure about other specific powers or ATs. You can check in-game or if you don't want to have to log in to check you could use the tool in my signature. It's not really for that, but if you select a power it should give you accurate stats most of the time. The only areas I'm aware of where it's not accurate are Stalker Assassin Strikes and any powers that use pseudo-pets. It should be good for most regular powers.

I'm not sure I have anything new to add. If I could do one thing it would probably be to normalize the first three powers most control sets get to the lower end of animation time. Any bread-and-butter power on a short recharge that has a long animation affects the feel of playing the set in a strongly negative way. There are control sets I can't bring myself to play because of how clunky that makes them feel. I did manage to take Earth Control to 50 on a Controller, but that was mostly because I wanted the pet. That and it has an interesting variety of other tools. It's the same reason I can't bring myself to play Kinetics. There's a lot about the play style that appeals to me, but the main powers I'd be using over and over regularly have unnecessarily long animations that make the whole thing feel sluggish and clunky. It's the opposite of what a set like that should feel like to play. Next I would certainly like to make all control powers benefit from Domination if possible. I think I said earlier in this thread that I started an Electric Control Dom but shelved it when I learned that the confuse doesn't dominate. Same for Ice Control. If the ST hold were sped up and the toggle benefited from Domination I'd want to play one for sure. There aren't that many control sets to choose from, and unfortunately many of the choices have one or more things that make them clearly inferior choices. Not just numerically, but seat-of-the-pants fun as well. So I keep coming back to the same few primaries, but I've done them all already. So I tend to not roll up many Dominators, even if I'm in the mood to make a new one. I also agree that the difference between perma-dom and not feels too large. After I fully IO and perma-dom one of my Doms it feels like a different character altogether. I mean really. It's like I spent all that time leveling it up only to swap it out for a different one when I got there. However I don't think I saw any suggestions I really liked in this thread for changing how Domination works. I guess just removing the need to build Domination would address the main problems, but somehow that doesn't feel right either. I don't have a better suggestion to offer at the moment. I will say that having Domination on auto and having to remember to keep on top of clicking Hasten when it recharges, or else losing dom and starting from scratch...I don't care for that whole part of playing a perma-dom at all. But the benefit of doing it is too great to not do it. The whole thing feels so gimmicky. I wonder if that's not part of the reason Doms aren't more popular. You are shoehorned into one specific style of building that even when you get there is kind of a fiddly hassle. But not doing it means you're a low-HP squishy without a good way to stop a boss from eating your face, so you kind of have to do it.

Seems to me the simple way to look at this is as DPA. Using your numbers: Bash - 45.6 Pulverize - 69.3 Shatter - 61.84 Crowd Control - 52.3 If we think of Placate as an attack dealing damage equal to 50% of the damage of the attack that follows it, we can calculate the DPA for Placate as well. Bash Placate - 19.6 Pulverize Placate- 32.2 Shatter Placate - 41.8 Crowd Control Placate - 31.7 So it looks to me like the only time using Placate will not lower your DPS is if you have significant gaps in your attack chain in which you're just waiting for something to recharge. Also the above analysis doesn't take into account the possibility that an attack could land and break hidden status before getting the crit. Like I said before if it's just a build filler or taken just for fun (which it is), I can see including Placate in a build. But from a pure performance perspective you wouldn't want to use it. Edit: I did think of one possible use. Presuming that SoAs get the same 50% chance to crit on AoEs that Stalkers get, it might be worthwhile to Placate before Crowd Control against a large number of enemies. Still, that's a 50% chance for a 50% crit. Also a large number of enemies means a higher chance to have hidden status broken before getting your crit.

I've always taken the damage thing to be something like a temp power granted to them when they spawn. However it doesn't immediately apply, so you can damage them before they are untouchable, but at that point they aren't targetable. So you can damage them with auto-powers (and pets which can target them when you can't) but by the time you can target them with regular powers, the untouchable has been applied and now you have to wait for it to wear off.

I have teamed with this person on Torchbearer. Don't know them, but they seem to be quite active. Good luck getting the name.

Is Placate worth taking from a numbers perspective? I seem to recall that even on Stalkers, who get a full crit, for many sets you actually end up lowering your DPS by using Placate. It's hard to imagine it being worthwhile on a Bane. I mean, if you want it for style/fun or just need a one-slot-wonder power then sure, but does it actually help your attack chain?

Blasters just never clicked for me for a long time. I was always trying to play them as blappers and they were too squishy for me. Maybe it's a "L2P" situation, but the reward for being in melee just wasn't there. I'm sure they can be amazing fully IO'ed at 50, but I play my toons up the old-fashioned way, and being in melee just had mobs eating my face. The thing that turned it around for me and led to me liking Blasters was trying the hover-sniper style. Blasters do it better than any other AT and it plays great from a low level. Any IOs you can put in the build for defense help of course, but you don't have to be soft-capped to have strong solo ability. Also I don't like some of the build compromises that have to be made to reach the defense soft-cap to multiple damage types and/or positions. With a hover-Blaster you can usually do great with just ranged defense. That plus the sustain does quite well in most situations. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of great secondaries for hover-Blasters. /TA is far and away the best, but I like /Rad as well.

I just finished the first SSA for the first time the other day, and I was surprised that there wasn't a badge for the whole thing. Seemed wrong. We need just a few more. That's all, just a few.

The main difference is that the damage difference is just what it is, while the buff/debuff difference gets multiplied by the number of team / league members. Even if Corruptors can edge out slightly while solo as in your example, the difference may not be large enough to notice, while on a team it will be significant.

Is there any reason to think it would turn out better than old Defiance for Blasters? Trying to dance near death for a minor damage boost doesn't seem all that appealing on the surface.

I like that regen plays so differently. I enjoy a more active mitigation style. However I can't get away from the knowledge that active mitigation means lowered damage output. Not only that, but it takes away time I could be employing active mitigation from my attack set. I like armor sets that contribute to damage in some way. I'm a big fan of damage auras, but other boosts are appreciated as well. An armor set that doesn't offer any kind of boost has to have some other way of hooking me. Regen is the only set I can think of that not only doesn't increase my damage, but actually decreases it. What does it offer to offset that penalty? Just a different play style. Sometimes that's enough, but for me generally it's not. There's got to be some reason for showing up, and regen doesn't quite make the cut.

I just rerolled a Defender as a Corruptor, despite knowing that Defenders are better in most cases. As others have said, Defenders will tend to do similar damage solo, and on teams their debuffs will often contribute more damage than any extra damage a Corruptor might bring. There's not a good case to be made for Corruptors from a raw numbers perspective aside from a small subset of builds perhaps. However a lot of players don't enjoy just knowing that they're contributing in some abstract way. They want to see the big numbers. I don't know if that's enough to maintain any kind of popularity for Corruptors, but it was enough for me to decide to go that direction. The Corruptor is just more fun. Scourge is fun. Although it's true that often times it's wasted on lower-tier enemies, there are plenty of times when playing a Defender that an enemy is left with a sliver of health and I know that the attack would have scourged and defeated the enemy on a Corruptor. I don't know if that means they're balanced as-is. The difference in buff/debuff strength between them feels too wide for the narrow discrepancy in overall damage.

I am up and running on Linux after patching. Fortunately etoh_downloader gave me the command-line parameters I needed to run since it wasn't quite obvious from the patch notes.

Get the following error in the Set Bonus Finder window. I select a Bonus Effect on the left, then if I select anything under Effect Strength, such as "1.25%", the error occurs. If I don't select anything under Effect Strength but leave it at the default ("All"), I can use the feature just fine. Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately. \n\nArgument 'Expression' cannot be converted to type 'System.Int32'. See the end of this message for details on invoking \njust-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.\n\n************** Exception Text **************\nSystem.ArgumentException: Argument 'Expression' cannot be converted to type 'System.Int32'. at Microsoft.VisualBasic.Conversion.Val (System.Object Expression) [0x000b3] in <226ab7938fda44a787c98631abde06da>:0 at Hero_Designer.frmSetFind.FillSetList () [0x000b2] in <59a1d9e2662146d683dd43772202a3ea>:0 at Hero_Designer.frmSetFind.lvMag_SelectedIndexChanged (System.Object sender, System.EventArgs e) [0x00000] in <59a1d9e2662146d683dd43772202a3ea>:0 at System.Windows.Forms.ListView.OnSelectedIndexChanged (System.EventArgs e) [0x0001f] in <afc71676634a41889c6929c14e8a57bd>:0 at System.Windows.Forms.ListView.WmReflectNotify (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00519] in <afc71676634a41889c6929c14e8a57bd>:0 at System.Windows.Forms.ListView.WndProc (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x000bc] in <afc71676634a41889c6929c14e8a57bd>:0 at System.Windows.Forms.Control+ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x00001] in <afc71676634a41889c6929c14e8a57bd>:0 at System.Windows.Forms.Control+ControlNativeWindow.WndProc (System.Windows.Forms.Message& m) [0x000b3] in <afc71676634a41889c6929c14e8a57bd>:0 at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback (System.IntPtr hWnd, System.Int32 msg, System.IntPtr wparam, System.IntPtr lparam) [0x00030] in <afc71676634a41889c6929c14e8a57bd>:0 \n************** Loaded Assemblies **************\nmscorlib\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.6.57.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/4.5/mscorlib.dll\n----------------------------------------\nHero Designer\n Assembly Version: 2.6.1.25\n Win32 Version: 2.6.1.25\n CodeBase: file:///C:/mids/Hero%20Designer.exe\n----------------------------------------\nSystem.Windows.Forms\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.6.57.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/System.Windows.Forms/4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll\n----------------------------------------\nSystem\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.6.57.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/System/4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll\n----------------------------------------\nBase\n Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/mids/Base.dll\n----------------------------------------\nSystem.Drawing\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.6.57.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/System.Drawing/4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll\n----------------------------------------\nAccessibility\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: \n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/Accessibility/4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll\n----------------------------------------\nmidsControls\n Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/mids/midsControls.dll\n----------------------------------------\nSystem.Configuration\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.6.57.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/System.Configuration/4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll\n----------------------------------------\nNewtonsoft.Json\n Assembly Version: 12.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 12.0.3.23909\n CodeBase: file:///C:/mids/Newtonsoft.Json.dll\n----------------------------------------\nSystem.Core\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.6.57.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/System.Core/4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Core.dll\n----------------------------------------\nSystem.Numerics\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.6.57.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/System.Numerics/4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Numerics.dll\n----------------------------------------\nSystem.Runtime.Serialization\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.6.57.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/System.Runtime.Serialization/4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Serialization.dll\n----------------------------------------\nSystem.Data\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.6.57.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/System.Data/4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Data.dll\n----------------------------------------\nSystem.Xml\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.6.57.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/System.Xml/4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll\n----------------------------------------\nMicrosoft.VisualBasic\n Assembly Version: 10.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 10.0.0.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/Microsoft.VisualBasic/10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll\n----------------------------------------\nAutoUpdater.NET\n Assembly Version: 1.5.8.0\n Win32 Version: 1.5.8.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/mids/AutoUpdater.NET.dll\n----------------------------------------\nI18N\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.0.0.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/I18N/4.0.0.0__0738eb9f132ed756/I18N.dll\n----------------------------------------\nI18N.West\n Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0\n Win32 Version: 4.0.0.0\n CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/mono/mono-2.0/lib/mono/gac/I18N.West/4.0.0.0__0738eb9f132ed756/I18N.West.dll\n----------------------------------------\n\n************** JIT Debugging **************\n

Seeing some strangeness in some damage numbers and I'm hoping it's something easy I'm missing and someone can set me straight. Looking at Corruptor Archery Mids' is showing the first two attacks doing the same damage. Not the same DPAS, the same raw damage. Looking at Corruptor Dark Blast->Tenebrous Tentacles it looks like the DOT is being counted twice. Edit: Also Force Field->Repulsion Bomb seems to be including scourge damage. This is even with the option to ignore any extra "chance of damage" turned off. It's just doubling the damage display. The attacks in Dark Blast have different damage scales than in the export from this tool. I just logged into the game to check and the numbers there match those from that tool, not those from Mids'. As near as I can tell none of the numbers in Mids' match those in the game or in that data export. As I said, I'm hoping I'm just missing something obvious here, but I checked my configuration and I have it set to display PvE values and I'm using a new, empty build so there are no enhancements or anything else. I have the view set to "Damage per activation (level 50)". I can't find any other setting that might be causing the display to be off. Hell I checked in the database editor and the damage scales in the powers I checked were off relative to those other data sources as well. What's going on here?

Should depend on the type of proc. If it's a slow proc then yes, it could still proc. But I'd expect a proc from a damage set to suppress along with the damage from the power.

I'm not really a Windows guy so maybe I'm just ignorant here. I thought that Windows prevented applications installed in one of the standard locations from writing to their own directory unless they are run as administrator. As someone running primarily on Linux and using etoh-downloader for updating, I manage my game shortcut manually. I have to say this blurb here does not make it obvious how to migrate my existing command-line parameters to something that will work under this new configuration. Do I just add -legacylayout and expect everything to work as before? Do I take out the -patchdir and -patchversion arguments since they are no longer supported, or are they still used if -legacylayout is used? I have no idea how things should look once this goes live.