Doomguide2005

March 16

As stated I'm not afraid of using AP. I'd use it but the content in most of the game doesn't seem to require it so why subject myself to its debuffs. If my ally is dying while Fortitude, Clear Mind, RegenAura and perhaps Adrenaline Boost are running while I use HO/HA on them I'm more prone to think they are going to die anyway or the team needs to rethink its notoriety settings (or both) than AP and they'd be standing, HO and they wouldn't be. I'm also not afraid to say maybe I'm wrong about that let's work up a build including (and using 😜) AP and see what happens. I've also got about 4 runs in ☆ mode (1 Aeon duo and 3 8-man ITF) none of which were at 3 or 4☆ and were not run on one of my Empaths but mostly my t4'd scrapper so my experience in Hardmode content or PvP is certainly not a place to speak with knowledge about APs value in such content. I'd also say there's more than a few 'shiny' characters and sets out there so getting that actual build and time in might be awhile 😁.

March 16

High Defense. If it does not hit it does not mez in most instances.
Defense Amplifier
Mez them first. Including START Stun grenades. Stealth and target binds to spot them first.
Breakfree inspires. Binds to convert inspires to Breakfree types
Sorcery pool - Rune of Protection
Combat Jumping vs Immobilize (also afaik Teleport abilities should move you around if the mez is Immobilize)
Acrobatics vs Hold
Mez resistance while it won't stop will shorten time mezzed.
Pets from any source to draw fire both before mezzed and to draw them off you while you stand there realizing you don't have a breakfree 😳
Positioning and maneuvering. Pull and then end drain the crap out of them preferably while standing in one of your buff patches
Swallow any pride you have and turn it down or otherwise adjust notoriety.
Pull to elevators or doors. Even if held stunned and sleeping you can still click a door and most (not all) mobs will not chase you further. The only way my pre IO post nerfs Regen/Broadsword scrapper survived Sappers was tp foe and if she got zapped teleporting one was just this when her end bar vanished.

March 16

3 hours ago, Haijinx said:

"Proper procbombing build" SMDH its come to that, has it?

Well I might experiment in an alt build but in general it is not a trade off I'm willing to make on my Empaths. Too much given up for me to due extra damage when the team could be doing so through my buffs. I'm quite satisfied to let loose with a Spirit Drain boosted Atomic Blast which if it doesn't kill stuff outright leaves them all running their version of a hold animation while quickly getting picked off by Fortitude and Assault buffed teammates at minimal risk of return fire.

March 16

21 hours ago, Sovera said:

Obviously try not to overlap too much, but a couple of you doing resistance shields, a couple doing defense shields, a couple doing buffs, debuffs, and you'll be running amok on any group content.

Having been on many Green Machine teams i can definitely vouch for the utter overkill 8 Empaths will become. Do you need accuracy. Not even close to need. At 8 Incarnate level GMs normally enhanced your overkill is in overkill as in if the foe was at the Tanker defense hard cap of 225 you'll need roughly each Empath to stack 5 Fortitude a piece and with no accuracy enhancement at all your final to hit will be 95%. Many GMs at the recharge levels we'll reach can readily cast 5 Forts across the team each if my quickly done napkin math is correct (8 Tactics +144 To Hit + each additional Fort another +18 To Hit).

Which brings me to @Sovera's comment above. My friends and I did what she described. By the low 20's (you know that distant nearly impossible level to reach) we were obliterating +4/×8 Arachnos in Faultline up to and including Arbiter Sands and other AVs. There were just 5 of us. 1 Scrapper DM/WP and 4 Defenders. 1 each Dark Miasma/Archery, a Dark/Dark, a Cold/Dark and a Sonic/Dark (yes we weren't intending a superteam merely a team themed around Dark power sets and ...). We were our own worst enemy as it turned out. We bored ourselves to death and as a team we didn't get past 30th. I think only my Sonic/Dark reached 50.

March 14

45 minutes ago, Luminara said:

Guys, he does this regularly, complaining about how bad defender damage is, or that people are "incorrectly" slotting their defender attacks with Damage enhancements instead of control/debuff enhancements, or how few players seem to realize that they're playing defenders wrong by using attacks at all...

Just smile, nod and let the thread filter down to the bottom like the others.

It's been awhile. You can accuse me of wondering if the stripes still match but hoping maybe .... *sigh*

March 14

I haven't really delved into procs (as in proc centered builds) much but Rad blast is certainly well set for it and keep telling myself I need to explore it with 1 of 3 builds.

On my Emp/Elec while I'm slotting for damage first I'm usually also pushing the -endmod and -recovery particularly with the AoEs after all the faster the shocked condition comes up the better. Easier these days with the newer endmod sets. But I'm also paying even more attention to the -recovery than the -endmod. The drain seems to occur but keeping them flatlined is really where I'm looking to be.

March 13

2 minutes ago, MoonSheep said:

i only pick defender blast powersets for their secondary effect rather than damage, e.g elec for minus endurance, sonic for -res. life is a lot more enjoyable this way

accepting your fate as a low to no damage dealer allows you to focus on those secondary effects, making your defender even more powerful on teams

the exception to this is a procced out poison/fire def with dominate from the psi mastery decked out with 5 damage procs - now that’s a damage dealer

indeed!, hence why I lead with Irradiate, nice debuff that tics to interrupt annoying mob powers while synergizing with her Tactics and Fortitude to help ensure everyone is hitting their targets including me when Atomic Blast goes off dropping a potent defdebuff and mag 3 Hold in addition to damage. Point is select your priority whether its debuffing like mad or damage. But either way if you don't chose to push damage well you aren't going to get it even at defender levels. Which is good enough to chew up mobs on a Emp/Fire running point on 800 series missions even if not Blaster level.

March 13

Indeed if your best blast is only 3 tics of 30 damage you clearly are not building, even on SOs, for damage in your blasts. Not everyone wants a highly offensive Empath (or Pain), but as @MonteCarla points out Cosmic Burst unenhanced for damage does 77 (rounded). Fully enhanced on SOs should be about twice that. Everything after that is more damage (Assault and several Pain powers can self boost it further). My Emp/Rad is around is around 300 with PBU and recharges in about 2.5 seconds. But she is built for higher defenses and offense while remaining perfectly capable of keeping a team buffed and green using IOs (any lack of damage output or buffs to the team is pilot error not the fault of any power) but has very little outside of PBU to self boost the damage further discounting Inspires. And that does not count the mez and debuffs accompanying her blasts. Point being if you don't slot for damage regardless of SOs vs IOs vs sets vs Incarnate Abilities it's not really the blasts themselves not doing enough damage. You won't be doing blaster level damage but those values should be notably better than 3 * 30 damage,

Edit: And she will leap into endgame mobs with little hesitation commonly letting loose with Irradiate followed by Atomic Blast if for some reason there's much standing at that point after the team also lets loose (yes that means she's often breaking the alpha return) she'll start in with Cosmic Burst and Air Superiority on a boss who's rapidly stunned and doing flips while I mix in the buffs to teammates while continuing to blast. She tends to do this more with her Dark Mastery build rather than PBU but Oppressive Gloom plus Stun Grenades and Cosmic Burst tend to leave entire mobs out of commission.

March 12

Be sure something odd isn't turned on ... like Rest.

Edit: To be clear I don't know it's Rest but Rest does have some extreme debuffs if a foes catches you in Rest.

Edit 2: anytime i get some value that is way off from expected checking to be sure something isn't on (or off) is my first step. Force Feedback, for example, when things get calculated i see throw folks often. They think "wow, I have really good recharge"

March 12

21 hours ago, Psyonico said:

I suspect you have 74.995 resistance or something like that

Oops. We're in total agreement i was looking at the blue energy resist when I wrote that

March 11

14 minutes ago, Psyonico said:

I suspect you have 74.995 resistance or something like that

Or the reverse. Over 75% ... 75.15%

March 11

Not sure if I'd use the word signature but they do tend to be my go to characters

GRETA-001 >> Claws/SR scrapper about 200 vet levels and definitely my main
Reyna Morningdew >> Empathy/Rad. My go to Empath.
Seismic Susurrus >> Earth/Storm controller for those times i want controlled chaos

March 9

On 2/13/2024 at 11:37 AM, Duckbutler said:

There's a lot going on here.

This is what gets me. Isn't there an aggro cap of like 16 targets attacking a single player? And like, on an 8 player team spawns tend to be more than 8 mobs so there will definitely be mobs running around loose if you try to pull more than 1 pack at a time without killing at least some of it? It's fine if you have maybe a tank and a brute or if you have a tank and control powers in the group. But then you leave unenhanced lowbies alone attacking boss mobs that are +5 to them and they're doing like 10% of their damage potential. It's not great.

They did tweek threat and aggro recently if I'm not mistaken so the HCWiki article is not only old but probably slightly out of date but likely still of value. That said the aggro cap is (was?) 17 or 1 greater than, outside of Incarnate abilities, the largest damage AoEs. Your threat list can be greater and is constantly recalculating so as foes are defeated new ones will aggro onto you from your threat list. Your tauntless rusher will likely aggro the latest mobs as they will now likely be highest on his list. Meanwhile the bosses that would otherwise continue to follow him now look at their threat list and now the that debuffing support character who's still attacking find themselves zooming up the list ... and the MI or DRM turns their attention on the attacking support. And disaster is set up.

March 8

1 hour ago, BazookaTwo said:

Untrue. You can still access the START Vendor in pocket D during a Task Force

I recently discovered that the p2w (START) vendor in Fort Trident can also be used similarly to the pocket D vendor (though I'm unsure if there's any advantage to having both options)

I also have started using both the Plasmatic Taser and Stun Grenades both of which can help deal with the waves Doc Vahz summons.

In addition to the Shivan option mentioned above (in Bloody Bay) the p2w vendor also offers summons options including the police radio back up which my Empath utilized when tackling Doc Vahz and is a relatively cheap option for a new or leveling lowbie. And I would also second the recommendation to use sg base empowerment buffs

March 8

It varies quite a bit but AT, sets and level all play into it. I have one "outlier", my main a Claws/SR scrapper, who runs basically across the spectrum depending on goal and mood. About the only thing she won't do is turn it down so much threads and shards can't drop. Probably hits +3/×8 mostly for content with a level shift effectively dropping that to +2/×8. I'll tear through tip missions at +1/×1, then turn around crank it to max and try an 800.1 series, incarnate mission arcs or most recently a crack at the new 1☆ Lady Gray solo. Managed to take down the CWK in the first mission though I'm fairly certain Penny met a rapid demise while I was busy with the AV and waves of clockwork. Generally her upper end is dealing with AVs ... I generally find it too tedious solo so I generally avoid fighting them unless teamed which is why I dropped the TF at that point. Had my share of silly scrapper tricks solo vs AVs on Live no real desire to do it more. I was more curious about ☆ Rikti mob abilities than actually soloing the whole thing ... fascinating 'nuff said

March 7

All critter damage resistances act as resistance to resistance debuffs vs that damage type. So no afaik any critter can, depending on their damage resistances, resist any resistance debuffs acting against that damage resistance type not just AVs and GMs. That's why in, for example, Hard Mode it's beneficial for any AT to hit 100% damage resistance. That way even a Scrapper or other AT can resist all of a incoming debuff meaning no matter how large the attackers resistance debuff their resistance to that damage will be capped at 75% not 75 minus the incoming debuff as they can in fact resist 100 % of the resistance debuff. Only unresistable resistance debuffs would apply.

March 6

Ranges from barely a clue till 40+ to right out the door I have a strong idea both of which reflect right back to how familiar I am with the power sets and AT. Earth/** controller I've got a solid idea out the door. Ditto for SR or Empathy. Darkness Control/Electrical Affinity though I'd a lot less sure till 50+ as I have yet to play either. Mids is almost always for a "final" respec in late game, sometime after 35+ most likely unless I'm experimenting with a otherwise familiar pairing.

March 3

7 hours ago, bAss_ackwards said:

Good to see you again! Is LL back together in an SG? I returned when the official license news hit. 🤩

Yes though not sure how many are back regularly. I know I see Jane online regularly. The sg started up on Indomitable. Most of mine are on Everlasting.

March 3

2 hours ago, bAss_ackwards said:

DM/Inv. It is an indestructble powerhouse that just doesn't quit!

Regular self heal and -ToHit on everything from DM.

Softcapped typed defenses which can get to 59% without Barrier, for Incarnate content.

Capped S/L resists, and 30 to 50% for the rest, including Psi with the use of specific IOs.

Perma capped HP.

Taunt aura that gives you +ToHit.

Can IO out to get perma (or near) Haste and Soul Drain.

Endurance refill from DM.

Hey bAss welcome back.

Silhouette from the Lethal Ladies

March 3

Have to get the builds on my computer to get a good look. Leveling one right now, they're about 30th as recall

March 3

Short answer: No I wouldn't bother

Long answer: On Live my main was Claws/SR and my badge hunter. The choice ended up far more useful for healing an ally (and working towards the badges). Eventually it morphed into set mules for +max health and regen bonuses. On HC I didn't bother as I took Rebirth and that is a much larger heal ... and more often than not I use it to heal others such as after Shadow Cyst goes boom or when things are trying to go sideways for the team with lots of colorful teammates showing. While leveling maybe more useful than inspires, maybe. In the end game not so much. More important to hit those defense caps, get DDR to 95+ and talking from mitigation pov to get +max health and regen on the build. Rarely do any Scrappers or Brutes I team with exceed the health or regen numbers on the current version of my main. I am likely sacrificing some dps but outside of Hardmode her durability is top notch and only dies when I'm being stupid.

February 26

21 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

@Shemulator

To add to what Snarky has said about stuns I'll add that the now START (former p2w) vendor offers relatively cheap Stun Grenades which I've found quite useful for upping survival for support characters and are available from the get go. And they'll stack with things like Dark Pit or Thunder Clap much earlier than waiting for Oppressive Gloom. And of course would also open up your choice of Mastery/Epic pool.

If you plan on Hover or Fly I've found Air Superiority an excellent choice for melee. The knock is a given if the target isn't protected. I can often keep a boss permanently knocked while I whittle their health down.

Hasten I'd consider a near 100% choice on an Empath. Empathy's powers thrive on recharge. Likewise I'm a big believer in support characters and using Leadership.

I would say Dark Blast is very much a heavily range oriented set. Only the Nuke is PBAoE and only three of Empathy's powers are PBAoE (and like all of Empathy effect only your allies). Those 3 being Healing Aura, Recovery Aura and RegenAura. And Resurrect while technically a ranged power is only 15ft.

I would personally be looking for Gloom, Moonbeam, Tenebrous Tentacles, Nightfall, Torrent and Black Star. Dark Pit is a stronger choice for solo work (or combined with a steady diet of Stun Grenades) or any time you see teammates laying down stuns. Life Drain should be totally skippable for what hope are obvious reasons.

Empathy - I would consider all but two powers as basically must haves on your typical build. The other two, Resurrect and Absorb Pain I'd consider player preference and choice. Resurrect is bland Rez. It's just as easy to use a temp power or pass a wakie and ready Clear Mind plus your other buffs than use Resurrect. As to Absorb Pain there's considerable debate surrounding its use. It's a very large heal and can be used at range to get a teammate back to health which combined with Heal Other gives you two very strong heals. So where's the debate coming from? The downside of AP is it hits the Empath with ~125 special damage, a 100% heal resistance debuff and 100% regen debuff for 20 seconds (all unresistable). If you have aggro from some source(s) you're definitely risking death as your ability to heal or be healed is basically non-existent for 20 seconds. Either be ready to break LoS or hope whoever is holding aggro keeps it (unless that's you 😳).

Unfortunately the Mids of my Defender build from Live of Empathy/Dark Blast did not survive the post Sunset to the HC Sunrise and I haven't yet remade the build from Live.

>>>>>Found an old copy of it in the Repeat Offender Forums. It looks like the data chunk is viable if a bit old (as in i19 sometime old). But much of it should work just fine as Empathy really hasn't change only some of the available IOs

21 hours ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Attempting to add a very old version of Dark Lightning, my Live Empathy/Dark

GxBqQCwKbGPjaD+iTy4tSI8uicttU6otpnwTHHy2tttuShPi8QTzvv2cyleh64R5+QjJ8HztfFXtnVZDKd23pXhMGTO1laCldz7iKFKgpPz4A59icqTND+jJE4orEJH7X/tfKP/3Xwqhk+2+BhlS4t6V+aKY6awhtg/RZJK2Er1xSMRgUtMMdgfdu6QHodF4jcNjuOLCfccAlaEiejHuhlmRMSl69NQNtJZCkdJfzcTuYQkwXiOF6+ploQDnQsTYQIjPAvwT9FfGEee2vCaMBxskHZY9FpC0x6c+uytpXGEFkcCV0rQUzlCKcWB7NrfCxhrXQXiCjDc2VLp4pkwPM7FjWf8fL8f1ze2vvdbkIqzja8893N6se4LX/zdtOZGUdvqF0VNv4LEV0bxeV1PZftqZ/MQzyBpb1jWPJYqn+yYIdkPAxvqp93+nu67uncKvkY1W+D3Pqiu8nytQJEDPF956YJrkNfnempaeacEyzPN9NyMa+8DjmL7rvr8VcCeZmnVWD1Y6fykgRjbMZx48rv4SQS6+4R6evxtaxHmZ+7RU0N/5K+saWzTv6Ww8d/SmfuCXML4YgYmh/yO4DxyF+VG1n/sb3fACdjuU5e3TSt8QNi3B2XkxNpgImrjp8ZUs9D6b/IXJ0JjMzUxgcxes+jGfwKq0hrJOIxjrniBtg8JaF2Nlxu+Rwb/WBahPv0yITSo0lIEbA+TQL4UaqMVC595gQZNWOOIv+JY285ClyuXebW4C3Rcffmn5bZWSzR5E3ccYkgwZ3GtdkMTJ3FswqQXYTo8MGxaIRsRJNsMypT7LxBnG920aDjNvD1c6vv1stpwsi3LzGqfuVWQKJijmCwzNM+vZOvKvSO+yo957yQpUaKhhkUU+92E/Pe04t8UdhM2E/01F72uRI+HN7h1HZkYLtOuztJsbYYdeBBu+3TXg2rvtVuV150FfIwkzpG6UX8yj4obuvOM31HgzyqHyVL0OvBW3sZsMGvt2cFx3RWxuq/ouVoB+qwIoatmIc5yGgiS9YhQMr/ZyfHwgveeVAa//8zVUxMqt4AP5nUT/y5lsVXpHdFkkRzjMsQ/tdOeh8uO3/zIbHtPq4C1JxOGRYwrolrJtECl0qbBloyN7qZtMGc+4QblWxiwQO5IJXyZUC2ySxkMmI1g0yJOTrGWyqOChRIXOod5glDa0uJsOpy69BybD3N34UNtuITDs4bPT54WDs6IzX3ILU8UdNTD3h3WbtwnVkq7x5BEqka1DCagV/JJElo5yURFDsGHCDkUIrtw3jsTekfZSDKFfumsJM1jeSj6wx6okIC+T2dRhkaR4l5rrVXJF1boo3IbH5rrxfnrZRihe3EnC82yYA4igoW14PgevJcuqJgySIxzmCP/YyYdx+H1fFibmcM8hCbwqDrHM51FRwKjjDezSZJ7vXQSIFn/5N1yINieebvUUjJIJirkTKXoXOyoc1v+h3c7Y0ovpUwb+K8avHpgite0LgSqHYAD+wQQTVHMsynn34I/nfVuxYyO+eBmL7klP3oxg1gMcz96F7dUtfNq0saY+osx9tudDJ6t3Idpg88xMtXvdRDezuFKMw2yoWLZ5VWVzoNI5UNky2LVAjpCR7aLcjOGdDe+FnvuAyUTBR5/gulqnqpXYS1kgoCpDsy1QKTf2Fa1oj7Yx23LpPHyZhKmDAxVt7dTV+TaUuAmrGJF7b1yHxVCxojJf2RI4K6lh1PnOePmDcjGK2ya4eCmZ5G7FtNfOZ1WaOw8WkJILFJd/7cHsvJNK0LnNjwL5HL7klfGokXUq1WboDUZ2bh8cnJd8QPGZjKgPg1CKG2uKWjzKLFo8YtzptnMCETVrwk95V9IhXIEd7ydr2tqap7QLyT+QLwV3ncXZHF3bAQmEOpe9L4tN3YMzOCzYoNh3FRlsMuuinFvVYHPJUe1oduQhT/JPBkh4+hLGDMpbSDpYLO3nMzpL/vmgeOraPldcgfKU+0EanjjFHhwrsUhGdjMEck9lrLCm4KTbzIoX7IBMh3VT9nPyJbH1w/HREO/bdczTaOQQpadXZkX2T0jBD+p6EWJhD8ZPF/tIfoei+vSJvggm2EoIrmrWo/CDXAk3v+/BowPTfJpkZWzT72cURTAnxKrRxY7Fn7Ml17B6keCsWHqPXk1p9xIEzTUPrmIckvv2YAP2Rjt+mFhALBX42nhm3eLhc9ziLiBCH1/nSZv9L6gWgA//y/Tf7+RUCljwM2e+pgFvzh+/c8MbI4KxdN6BDttkDuOB9YIvgtFOWqiV0KP7FcVUmPRLF33/Xn1Fzq5c0M8F6x2p31jZ/tMEdlMQARgz8uBPArj5pOj5jhP3ZcL9TnOK6aOp3DD6/NZvIAzlTgWFVSX986LOeFO5MYNjRRjuIglj9wE=

February 25

55 minutes ago, hejtmane said:

I five slot mine with Heathcomb at 50 and add a healing HO for the 6th slot

I would be doing something similar. Depending on how strongly you needed or wanted the set bonuses from Hecatomb you could likely red line the damage in 3 slots then use Golgi or a similar 3 slots of a heal set to essentially max both damage, heal and recharge iirc (it's been a while since Live when I ran this pairing as a Brute on Live)

February 25

@Shemulator

To add to what Snarky has said about stuns I'll add that the now START (former p2w) vendor offers relatively cheap Stun Grenades which I've found quite useful for upping survival for support characters and are available from the get go. And they'll stack with things like Dark Pit or Thunder Clap much earlier than waiting for Oppressive Gloom. And of course would also open up your choice of Mastery/Epic pool.

If you plan on Hover or Fly I've found Air Superiority an excellent choice for melee. The knock is a given if the target isn't protected. I can often keep a boss permanently knocked while I whittle their health down.

Hasten I'd consider a near 100% choice on an Empath. Empathy's powers thrive on recharge. Likewise I'm a big believer in support characters and using Leadership.

I would say Dark Blast is very much a heavily range oriented set. Only the Nuke is PBAoE and only three of Empathy's powers are PBAoE (and like all of Empathy effect only your allies). Those 3 being Healing Aura, Recovery Aura and RegenAura. And Resurrect while technically a ranged power is only 15ft.

I would personally be looking for Gloom, Moonbeam, Tenebrous Tentacles, Nightfall, Torrent and Black Star. Dark Pit is a stronger choice for solo work (or combined with a steady diet of Stun Grenades) or any time you see teammates laying down stuns. Life Drain should be totally skippable for what hope are obvious reasons.

Empathy - I would consider all but two powers as basically must haves on your typical build. The other two, Resurrect and Absorb Pain I'd consider player preference and choice. Resurrect is bland Rez. It's just as easy to use a temp power or pass a wakie and ready Clear Mind plus your other buffs than use Resurrect. As to Absorb Pain there's considerable debate surrounding its use. It's a very large heal and can be used at range to get a teammate back to health which combined with Heal Other gives you two very strong heals. So where's the debate coming from? The downside of AP is it hits the Empath with ~125 special damage, a 100% heal resistance debuff and 100% regen debuff for 20 seconds (all unresistable). If you have aggro from some source(s) you're definitely risking death as your ability to heal or be healed is basically non-existent for 20 seconds. Either be ready to break LoS or hope whoever is holding aggro keeps it (unless that's you 😳).

Unfortunately the Mids of my Defender build from Live of Empathy/Dark Blast did not survive the post Sunset to the HC Sunrise and I haven't yet remade the build from Live.

February 25

22 hours ago, Techwright said:

Yes, I'd seen the police drone devs a handful of times over the years. As to human form, I can only vaguely recall one time where devs appeared in a group activity as NPC character, like the Vahz. However, some were also there with their choice of avatar. Ghost Widow, for example, was present.

I hadn't even mentally correlated in my old brain this sort of appearance. I'd heard of GMs showing on several occasions in this manner. Notably at the end of CoV beta in Mercy where our characters got to dogpiled several members of the Freedom Phalanx. And as I understand it after a certain moment when Howling Twilight and a Hami Bloom brought an invisibly watching Admin out to exclaim "you did what?!!"

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