r0y

Something like Gorefiend's Grasp?

Yes, these have all been mentioned; however, with SR you really end up taking the entire set. My SR's skip Elude, and have since long ago, back on live, when perma elude went away... I was comparing defense-based sets. Sure SR is the only set with "damn fine" def debuff resists. Period. The resistance to slows is similar with other +recharge (Quickness) powers that other sets also offer. It's a great 1-slot power. Here's what I tell SR tanks/scrappers/brutes: go do Apex and see how you do w/o backup on that first mission in the sewers. Let me know. I've done it on my SR/Dark tank, but just barely. It ain't easy. Now do it on an Rad Armor or Dark Armor. Like night and day. Even WP shines in there. And of course Bio. SR is fine, but it's not really great. It's great if you stick to PI and run radio missions, sure.

Gravity's AoE hold does this already. It does look sweet, too!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned using the door on the cargo ship instead of the sub for the MLTF. Similar to the ApeMage helicopter (using door in front of chopper).

I like Dark Blast for defenders. A Lot. It procs up nicely and provides decent soft CC in the form of stun, knockdown, immob, and -ToHit. Lots of AoE, damage is OK (it's DoT, so isn't realized immediately), the -ToHit from a defender really is helpful, so you don't need to be over softcap (but it's helpful if you can). Nature is far more survivable, but Poison is more damaging (not just via debuffs, but proc'd out poison trap). Lifesteal also provides a self-heal, so you can keep the tank topped off. It hits decently hard, too. I have a Nature/Dark... and a Poison/Dark... ___

Milk Duds. Always. Goobers lost to M&M's, and how can you forget SNOWCAPS?

StJ is a very easy combo system, as there are two "dumps" for the combos (ST and AoE). When the stars align (with both Stalker ATO sets) it is amazing damage. Normal play is also incredibly strong. I'll have to check out Rad Melee (I hated it on a tank, too long of animations and a much more goofy mechanic). I also love EA on my stalker, but /bio is the obvious +damage choice.

Could it be an ATI issue? I'm running a Radeon RX580 with a Ryzen 7 2700X and notice my fans shoot to "loud" when in game a lot. Haven't done any thermal monitoring, but thinking maybe I should...

EA is so much more than SR! Not just positional vs. typed, but EA has decent resists, but several utility powers to boot. Sure, SR is the king of defense, but even with it's resistance scaling and def-debuff resists, there's not much else it offers by way of layers. I believe EA is a more complete set, but I do love SR (when it works). I think EA is spread out to cover more (and thus not as strong as defenses), where SR is sole-focused on one thing. In the ATs they are available for, I almost always choose EA (e.g. Brute, Stalker, Scrapper, Sentinel). I think I've played both on all ATs (well, never did SR on stalker) and EA feels more "secure" to me (e.g. should something go wrong, I have other layers to fall back on).

So I went to the Test Server on my Plant/Storm controller. Respec'd into Water Spout and ran some short tests on a Rikti Pylon. 1st Set: 5 Annihilations + 1 Sudden Acceleration (KB-KD). This uses 1 -res proc in Annihilation, but uses a KB-to-KD proc from Sudden Acceleration, as I'd use it that way on live. 2nd Set: 5 damage procs + 1 Sudden Accelertaion (KB-KD). This is using Posi, Javelin, Bombardment, Lady Grey, and Explosive Strike in addition to the KB-KD proc. I hit the Pylon with two (2) of each set/configuration. All other powers/incarnate/buffs/etc were the same for all tests. Results/Summary: Granted, it's only two runs for each setup, but I think I'm convinced that damage procs may be the way to go - especially in a fire and forget type power that Water Spout wants to be. I know the benefit from -Res for that short period of time will apply to other damage and teammates' attacks, but it just did not seem to be debuffing for very long. Oddly, in the first run (Set 1), I got a spam-msg of "Water Spout: You reduce your targets damage resistance temporarily" (eight times in a row). In the second run (Set 2), I didn't see ANYTHING about a debuff, but 16 of the 60 ticks were slightly larger (6.74 vs 6.57). I am assuming that it's a res debuff, but I don't know. If it is not, then the Set 2 run would be 107.84 damage lighter, and only enhance my decision to go damage procs. I do not know if more damage-procs would fire off if there were more than 1 mob (the pylon). I'm feeling like it's not, as Water Spout is a pseudo pet, it just checks for a chance to fire off every 10 seconds and either does or does not, and applies the proc damage (if successful chance) to whatever mob the pseudo pet happens to be damaging at that time. I could be off on this - if so, please let me know how damage procs work in a pseudo pet with multiple mobs.

Recently, I was playing around with Water Spout from the Leviathan Mastery and saw that many people double up on the -res procs (one Achilles Heel, one Annihilation); but was wondering if damage procs work well in there, too. So I /respec a scrapper (claws/sr) and added it with the following damage procs: Posi (PB) + Javelin (JV) + Bombardment (Bomb) + Lady Grey (LG) + Explosive Strike (ES) + Overwhelming Force (OF). I then went to DA and dropped it on a level 54 mob group (few Banespawns and a Elder of Sorrow): Power dropped at x:18:41 (eighteen minutes after the hour, 41 seconds in). Power finished at x:19:11 (30s duration). In that duration the procs went off as follows (in order): :42 - LG (51.65), Bomb (77.48) :52 - ES (64.57), ES (64.57), LG (51.65), Bomb (77.48), OF (KD), ES (64.57), JV (64.57) :02 - Bomb, Bomb, JV, PB, LG So because it's a pseudo pet, the every-ten-seconds chance applies. The :42 marker is the "drop" and the power started doing it's own damage (ticks of 6.85) at :43. So between the drop and the next chance for procs (10s), how much did the power do via DoTs? It did 28 ticks of 6.85 or 191.8 damage to the mobs. Granted, more mobs = more damage, but similar for proc chances, unless I'm wrong on how it's calculated. Also in that first 10s, my T3 Reactive Interface hit 5 times for 14.45 damage, for a total of 72.25. It did not go off the second 10s (:52), but did on the third (:02). So I am wondering, if I just improve my damage (say, 5 Annihilations + 1 Achilles) would the performance be better? What do most people usually run for Water Spout? Here's the raw capture log:

Well, because PsiMelee has so few attacks (at least, I didn't take too many), I am limited where I can put my Scrapper ATOs. AS gets the Stalker's Guile (obviously), and I proc-out GSB. So that leaves psi blade or mass levitate if I want the set (and I do). The 6-set bonus is recharge, so one really doesn't want to lose out on 10% (catalyzed/purple'd) recharge for an FF proc. I really like/need all of the bonuses in the set, so for the over-all build, that's how I went. Frankenslotting it may serve better if the build was different, and Mass Levitate is a decent spot for the FF-rech proc. So is Torrent from Darkness Mastery (that's another very damage-proc-heavy, soft cc power). I might dump the Acc/Dam posi in it for the FF proc; I wanted *some* accuracy, and the 2-set bonus of posi is +recovery, which is always welcome. I'll see as I get up in level and flesh out this build.

Did it change recently? Last I tested that proc it went off only 1 time, even in AoE situations, so I was getting ~90hp or whatever per shot. It was so bad. I was truly hoping it was awesome, but last I knew they limited that proc and "fixed" the sleep one to do the same (esp. in AoE's). The only place I use the PT-proc is in a tanker's Stamina, for the every-10s hp heal (which is great on high-hp toons).

Yeah, that also bugs me... I mean, it makes sense (they take damage as they hit the ground), but it does feel like it's adding to the animation/activation. I wonder if it is, or if it is just my perception? You know, 2.5s to animate, but another 0.5s for the mobs to fall and take damage...

Wait, you have an issue with Psi Melee's (fairly long) activation of 2.5s for Mass Levitate, but seem to enjoy Rad Melee? I'm pretty sure Rad Melee has a longer activation in both the T9 PBAoE and the big ST attack (that would compare to Greater Psi Blade). Unless I'm not remembering correctly, or Rad Melee on Stalkers is much faster than brutes and tanks (I only played it on those). But from my memory (I retired my Rad Melee toons) it was so painfully slow, and in teams I would get kill-stolen a lot. It reminded me of Energy Melee's Total Focus and Energy Transfer. Sure, the hits were hard, but it took so long to activate that all my team mates would just finish off the dude I was targeting. That frustrated me so often, I retired the toons with it. At the very least, they are roughly the same in activation/animation times... I think Psi is a hair quicker, but when you're 2½+ seconds, I guess it doesn't matter all that much.

True, and you can delete them from the .json file, as well... I was just hoping for a bit more user-friendly save/load. The cleaning up of available color schemes was more to prevent the very poor schemes from being used (I still cringe when I see some of them in the forums).

I've been playing Mids far more than I'm playing the actual game. Reminiscence of my last days during live... Anyway, I'm on a Dark Armor kick (made a tank: DA/Claws) and wanted to make either a Scrapper or Stalker. So I'm looking at Stalker, and realizing that if I proc things out, along with the Stalker ATO sets and crit potential, it's likely to be a decent toon. I'm not thrilled with the survivability (this is all on paper for now), as the resists and defenses aren't that strong; I imagine it has a lot to do with the massive heal in Dark Regen... Since I almost never slot Dark Regen for heal, it becomes a decent PBAoE mini-nuke / endurance recovery tool. It really does make the set unique and viable from the moment one gets the power. So I proc'd out Dark Regen, Greater Psi Blade, Torrent, and Tentacles. Mass Levitate seemed to look better with six Superior Assassin's Mark IOs. Proc'd out, it was barely better. Here's the build: ...and here are some pix of mids (so you don't have to d/l and such): (no accolades, no incarnate, only toggles on) According to Mids, Dark Regen will hit for approx. 250 damage every 12s while Hasten is on (<17s w/o)... which also refills the blue and green bars (if hitting enough, etc). I think the chain, once a hidden AS is out of the way and ignoring the clunky INSIGHT mechanic, would be Torrent→Dark Regen→Tentacles→Mass Levitate→Psi Blade→Assassin's Psi Blade (APB)→Greater Psi Blade→repeat. This should take out much of the mob because of the front-loading of the AoE's, while building stacks for Insight (+3) for GPB. Basic AoE spamming would be: Torrent (always first, as the KB-to-KD proc makes this a wonderful soft-cc power, as well as a fast damage dealer), Tentacles (more soft cc via immob and -ToHit), Mass Levitate. Then Torrent/Mass Levitate with fillers like Dark Regen and single-target stuff on high-hp targets. Torrent, without Hasten, has a quick 8.33s recharge and hits for 158.4 damage while doing -ToHit and KnockDown. It is also a generous 60' length and 30° arc. A *very* nice power, indeed. I used to skip it! What a dunce. Tentacles are OK, the damage is in DoT form, so that kind of sucks, but I think of it as a nice debuff/hold-still power. The procs change this a lot (they hit up front) so you're getting about 260(?) damage up front, then the DoT (~64 damage) over however long. The -ToHit debuff adds to Torrent's, too. It's not amazing, but it's not useless, either. Mass Levitate was always a favorite of the Psi Melee powerset for me. Sure, the damage is at the end of the animation, when the bodies hit the floor... let the bodies hit the floor... (couldn't resist), and it's up pretty fast at 7s (no hasten) and hitting for 232, mostly smashing (so you can damage robots better in end game, which Psi is hurting to do). Greater Psi Blade is a good attack for all Psi Melee ATs, but seems like it would REALLY shine for Stalkers (given the hide proc, the crit building mechanics, etc) and mine is up every 8.33s and hitting for 684.8 damage - the good thing with procs is, you're adding S/L/N (and more psi) so it's not mostly psi, which is weak against Praetorian clockwork. This thing should Crit for a decent sum. The other nice thing with Stalker over Scrapper is Assassin's Strike. Sure, you lose the weak cone attack (only decent when Insight is stacked and it adds a DoT, but meh); I'd much rather have a Quick Form AS than a mediocre cone. It also allows me to skip TK Blow, as the AS builds insight (should I use the mechanic, and I often do). Psi Blade is basically a filler attack / set mule. It's always up, hits for OK damage... not worth proc'ing out do to the recharge (5s). Dark Armor is ok for resists (about 50%+ to all but energy/toxic, and those are not too weak), defense is sub-par, I did not slot for defense via sets, so it could be a lot more, but I'm thinking if Dark Regen is up every 12-17s, I can probably take quite a few hits. This ain't no tank, but it ain't no slouch, either! The real power of Dark Armor is the debuff resistances! almost 70% for Endurance Draining / End Recovery debuffs. That's huge. A little recharge/speed resistance (coupled with Winter Travel proc, a decent 35% is achieved). Perception debuff resistance is also nice, as a lot of things BLIND. I do wish they added ToHit debuff resistance (Shadow Dweller would be a PERFECT spot for it). No defense debuff, but I'm not really counting on my defenses that much. I trade proc-filled attacks for defense here. If I want to survive more, I'll play my dark armor tank.

The build I currently use is this one: But I don't play it that often... Bio can be hard, because it wants so many slots in so many powers...

Dark Armor is for more advanced play. Better grasp of set bonuses, proc'ing things out, etc. EA is more forgiving. I play and love both of them. For a scrapper, I'd lean towards EA, as @Without_Pause mentioned, Dark Armor will do better on higher-hit point toons. One thing about Dark Armor: turn the Dark Regen (heal) into a PBAoE nuke. Add a Theft of Essences +end proc, the rest damage procs. You'll not be sorry. It becomes part of your attack chain, and with enough mobs, a full end bar. The heal is so ridiculously powerful, you really don't need to enhance the heal portion (think it's 30% base hp per mob!). Maybe do 5 procs (1 being the +end, 4 damage ones) and a Acc/Dam IO from one of the proc sets (so you get a 2-set bonus, at least). EA has to use Energy Drain a lot, thankfully it's easily perma. Don't focus much on defense enhancement with energy drain, focus on end mod set bonuses. The only defense I'd put in it is a LotG def/global. EA's heal is crap on anything but stalkers, as the recharge is too long. Very difficult to get near perma (for the end discount) on other ATs (e.g. scrappers). Still, it's your only heal, so that's a bit of a drawback (the 120s recharge, esp. considering dark armor's 30s!!) Both sets have a stealth power, functionally identical (you'll get about 6% def to all, same end cost). EA is better because it layers in with the other defense-providing powers (which also provide a bit of resistance). The other MAJOR benefit of Dark over EA is the Debuff Resistances. Dark has no defense debuff resists (like EA does), but it has AMAZING end-drain/debuff resist (almost 70% endurance debuff and 70% recovery debuff). EA has a less (25% each). That's significant in end-game stuff. Laugh at sappers, or "be concerned" about them. I think DA is better for the exotic enemies: Malta, Carnies, etc. Stuff people don't really like to do. I think EA is better for the standard enemies: Council, Freaks, etc. Stuff people often do. YMMV. I would love it if tanks for EA, but I can see why they don't. It's a lot of power without having to work hard to get it (like DA can be).

It needs a LITTLE love. The AoE is great, and the cone is not bad. Boggle is a missed opportunity (should be a high, single-target damage attack with a confuse - that'd be unique!) and should be skipped. As others have said all over the forums, Insight is not a good mechanic, as it has duration issues. I think when tanks had a broken GSB (insight strike spread!) it was better. It got "fixed" and is now lack-luster like all the other ATs. Apart from proc'ing it out on a stalker, I'd skip it. Also, psi damage is resisted heavily in the incarnate trials (robots/clockwork). It *is* fun on the ITF though (where it eats through MoG and Unstoppable on those EB's). Too few attacks, I get bored with it. I only with that MIND CONTROL got TK changed into Psi Melee's Mass Levitate.

So I was noticing that Mids does not seem to have correct information on the Epic Snipes (at least for stalkers). So I went in game and did the info on: [Mu Mastery.Zapp] vs [Soul Mastery.Moonbeam] vs [Mace Mastery.Mace Beam] Here's what I got: Is the 5% chance for another 98.99 in error on Moonbeam? They all do 197.7 (mace is split between smash/energy), then should do another 98.99, but Moonbeam has only a 5% while the others are 100%? And I am not sure what the "special" energy damage is in Mace Beam for the crit/placate damage. Has anyone used Mace Beam? In short, Mu / Soul / Mace all have similar load-outs: 1) a ST blast, 2) a snipe, 3) something unique, 4) a hold, and 5) a Pet. Mu Mastery: it's all energy which (I believe) is still less resisted than smashing/lethal. But not as much as Negative. The unique is Ball Lightning, a great TAoE power! Takes slots, though: More=Better. Soul Mastery: it's all negative energy which is the least-resisted of the bunch. The unique is Shadowmeld. Not something you want to rely on, but it's a great 1-slot power that helps absorb Alphas strikes. I'd put a single LotG recharge in it. Mace Mastery: it splits it's damage between smashing and energy, which might be useful (e.g. vs. robots). The unique is Disruptor Blast, a TAoE power, like Mu Mastery (but smash/energy), more=better for slots. Leviathan Mastery: is not a typical load-out like the other three villain epics. It gets a ST Blast (lethal damage), a PBAoE (smashing) that carries the set (whole reason people would take it), Hibernate (let's be honest, if you need this at this level, you're not doing too well), a cool-looking hold (lethal), and a pet. Unless you only need one power and can 6-slot it with procs (Water Spout), I'd skip it. I usually take Soul Mastery, as I like the snipe (until I found out it's gimped) and use Shadow Meld as a light-RP power (lol) and a LotG mule. I often don't have a lot of slots by the 40's, so I can't invest too many slots in the powers, and there is a lot of proc-damage opportunity in most of them.

Another one I like to use is e-mailing myself wakies, so I have them wherever and on all my toons. Store them in the email, etc. /macro Z "emailsendattachment @r0y Wakkey 0 2 0 "from $name"" What I do is buy a bunch of cheap T3 "Restoration" inspirations (usually under 10K, patience here), then fill column 1 (the "F1" column) with four, spam the macro 4 times, move four more, repeat. I could have five (5) different macros and do the whole tray, but I move like 4-8 at a time. Don't need them *that* often! (Note the nested quote... it works for /macro and /bind)

All these assumptions about me based on one small sentence: I'm not a "mostly proc" kind of player. Yowza.

I loaded a character I'm currently theory-crafting and created yesterday in MRB 2.7.2.10 (db 20.0515) - a Thugs/Time MM: So I'm thinking, maybe the newer mids save/loads slightly differently? So I opened up an old build (last file save date of 15 Dec 2019) and it seems fine: So I'm not sure if it's a save format thing that Mids is doing (changing), or an AT or Powerset combo... it is frustrating, I can imagine. If I'm the only one, then it's something on my end, but I'm not sure what I could be doing to cause it. I mean, the .mxd is the .mxd... in fact, let me attach them directly here... Stalker-Staff-SR_Monster Pole.mxd Mastermind-Thugs-Time_Bister Mig.mxd

I downloaded 0.0.11 and installed. Opened my Ice Melee/Bio and got a partial load. Just to make sure I didn't mess up the file earlier today, I opened it in my current Mids Reborn. Here's a side-by-side: I need sleep; eyes are drying out. I'll monkey around with it tomorrow morning or something. I'm sure it's something on my end.