nihilii

I have seen people alluding to an AI trick to make him not use Dull Pain. Not sure what it is. Anecdotally, I've noticed whenever I stand in melee and attack nonstop, he is very unlikely to use Dull Pain. But if I stop attacking for a while, or if I move away, he tends to use DP right away. Perhaps the idea is to be in melee and to keep enough DoT on him the occasional fist of the heavens doesn't stop damage long enough he uses Dull Pain, or perhaps there's a more refined tactic to use there.

I'm not sure if it does anything with recipes or influence (although the latter should be easy to verify), but it definitely gives you tons of medium and large inspiration drops.

Between Return to Battle and the Super Packs Revivals, I haven't visited a hospital in a long... Loooooooooooong... VERY long time. Flip enough Super Packs, and you never have to leave a mission unless you want to. I suppose I could also, uh, not die so much, but, y'know...

Multiboxing, my Rogues got kicked off my Vigilante team when going to their base from Peregrine Island a couple days ago.

Fair points. I can only agree I've started from (my perception of) the results and worked backwards to try to rationalize some discrepancies. So perhaps I am wrong in some or all of these rationalizations. But to refine it further: when I say insta buildup starts lagging in the endgame, I think of the times where I get, say, BU recharging twice within 10 seconds or so, sometimes not too far after its natural recharge which makes a string of 3 BUs; causing some of the duration to be wasted, less attacks and less Assassin Focus, and so on. Comparatively, at lower level it's unlikely you have an optimized attack chain. So Build Up suddenly recharging is almost always a great boon. You're right to call me out on "you are likely to have better options", worded as such it doesn't make sense. The sentiment I wanted to convey is that Stalker strengthes start fantastic at low level, then the curve for improvement sort of flattens a little bit. Scrappers have arguably the reverse dynamic where they start at a slower pace, but the longer you invest into them, the better returns. Going back to insta BU, having BU suddenly recharge adds to the cognitive effort (or intuitive mechanical skill) required in playing a Stalker. You play a Scrapper, everything is predictable when it comes to your own actions. You mash keys in order for as long as you want. With a Stalker, there's more conditional factors; whether BU recharges, whether the Hide proc goes off, whether you get hit before you follow up with a Hide crit, whether you got 3 stacks or not. There's things you can do to mitigate these factors, some at the build level and some at the player level. But I think it boils down to: Stalkers require more skill than Scrappers. Because Scrappers are less demanding, they're somewhat more flexible in a scenario where the net performance is identical between the two ATs. It doesn't help that a case can be made (some) Scrappers outperform Stalkers in scenarios where having an aggro aura prevents the enemy from running, or with the outlier that is Scrapper /bio. It is painful to read in depth threads on the Stalker forums optimizing ST DPS rotations and for all of that to amount to maybe 500-600 DPS against the stationary and relatively unthreatening target that is a Rikti Pylon, while Scrappers can get to the same damage output and apply that damage output in most tough encounters. It's not that big of a deal, to be sure. Overall, Stalkers are a better balanced AT with a smoother performance curve, both from low level to high level and between their primaries. If I were to advocate any changes, I'd go for the same thing you name: the lockout on chance to hide doesn't seem to serve any meaningful purpose except penalize the upper end of potential performance. I'd love if stacks lasted longer and/or if the individual chances to proc a stack were higher or possibly 100% on all powers too, but maybe that's a me thing. Building attack chains is just frustrating on some primaries when you see routes that would make sense except for the realisation said chains would put you at 60-80% chance to crit with AS.

I like getting the proc to boost smaller hitting attacks, so they clear a minion in one hit. CU itself will wipe a +4 lieut in one shot with Gaussian BU, or generally leave it with a sliver of health otherwise. It feels better to avoid overkill damage against anything that isn't a boss. The recharge part of the ATO also ruins proc chances for smaller attacks. With their fast recharges, Shin Breaker and Rib Cracker would take a hit there. I've toyed with alternates and it resulted in significantly lower sustained DPS, so that settled the matter for me. Slotted like that, it doesn't last long enough for Moonbeam. I think the duration is 3.25s, and SB + RC are less than 3.2s, but the proc starts activating during the power it's slotted in (I think Bopper had a spreadsheet tracking the "on hit" moment where procs trigger, which can be at any arbitrary point of the animation). I'm following that guideline for most primaries: ATO in highest damage attack which generally can use the recharge, won't take too much of a proc % hit if at all, and turn your smaller attacks into pseudo T9s. The Critical Strikes ATO has no lockout. Makes it very powerful indeed on primaries with longer casts. Rad Melee is probably the worst offender: ATO in Devastating Blow, crit on Moonbeam, crit on Radiation Siphon, add Radioactive Smash and that's a full cycle where half of your attacks have a near guaranteed crit.

Feeling pretty dumb as I can't seem to get the forum export working. Here goes in plain text:

IMHO, Razor makes a very strong case, and the mitigating aspect of perma Light Form being blatantly overpowered is that Peacebringers as a whole are fairly underpowered. In the context of this thread, if Unstoppable became perma and only crashed you to 50% HP, could you imagine how much tougher invul characters would be? But I also agree with OP, as long as the powers aren't perma (and regular T9s aren't), a lessened crash would be fair. Crash to 50% HP, combined with the endurance crash it makes for something dangerous but not something that takes you out of the fight entirely. It is somewhat strange we accept T9s in attack powersets as generally desirable powers and T9s in defense powersets as highly skippable. The game has evolved such that defense powersets are tough enough and relatively balanced with each other despite the crashing T9s in only some of them, so it makes sense in practice. But it's a little strange regardless.

I think it's safe to assume if you run into a build that looks like it's unsustainable, the build is planned around Ageless. I doubt anyone plays builds that are actually unsustainable, because, I mean... the builds would be literally unplayable! My builds very often end up barely above parity with EPS, so their toggles don't drop. Then Ageless takes care of actions.

Whaaat, it got buffed? I assumed it woudn't get anything because it was a pseudopet, just like Irradiated Ground didn't get a radius buff. Interest in /ice suddenly peaking.

Having nothing saved on this computer, I used the excuse to remake a build from scratch, the way I'd do it now It would run with Ageless Destiny, Assault Hybrid, Degen Interface. - a procced out DNA Siphon deals some damage and sets up -RES for your next hits. It's not worth using against single AVs as a damage power, but if you need to heal, you lose much less DPS than you would with traditional slotting. The -RES can also make it worth it if you have your Lore pets out, or teammates. - 100% slow resist, not a critical part of the build but something I love personally and fit whenever I can. This is mostly the reason for slotting Synapse's in Inexhaustible, and the misc Winter Sets here and there. Someone who doesn't care about slow resistance could save those slots for other purposes. I skimp on S/L res for example; partly because the Reactive Defense IO scaling at lower health, Evolving Armor with multiple targets, eventual insps or buffs here and there are common enough to push 60% to 75%; partly because with Shadow Meld + Bio clicks, we're sturdy enough against S/L damage most of the time. /bio tends to die to energy damage and defense debuffs more than anything.

I stand corrected on that one! I always thought the ATO (3 PPM) wouldn't have enough to be at 90% due to its innate recharge component, but you're right: even there, we remain at 90% chance. Which answers your next question: ATO goes in Crushing Uppercut. This makes Shin Breaker and Rib Cracker hard hitters half of the time.

Personally? I'd go with StJ/Bio. It's plain fun to smack an AV with a CL 3 Crushing Uppercut under Gaussian Build Up after you've set up -RES through your other powers. Great animation, big chunk of damage, you watch that HP bar move and it feels right. AoE might be ugly, but it never bothered me too much. I take DNA Siphon and proc it out - boom, poor man's PBAoE. The damage aura does the rest. It's never going to be as fast as a primary with actual good AoEs, but if you get into the grove of punching everything to death 1 by 1, who cares. I like that with a Critical Strikes proc in Crushing Uppercut and procced out Rib Cracker + Shin Breaker, you're almost guaranteed to defeat a +4 minion in one hit regardless of what you use. So when stuff is scattered, you move from enemy to enemy taking them down in a single blow, one after another. It meshes well with that gritty brawler feel Street Justice conjures. There is of course the option to replace /Bio with /Rad, and have better AoE output through procced out Radiation Therapy *and* Ground Zero. To be honest, again speaking from a personal "fun factor" perspective... I prefer sticking with /Bio there. The cool thing with damage auras is 1) their damage really add up over time 2) their damage happens while you do other things. You whack the bosses, minions fall as you do it. Plus, /Bio -RES and damage boost through Offensive Mode is again key to getting that "one shot everything" feel. Claws/Bio can also be great fun. With Shockwave, your enemies spend more time on their back than doing anything else; and between Focus, Shockwave and Moonbeam, you've got a wealth of ranged options to make you more versatile. Spin does absolutely bonkers damage, especially if you use it after a Critical Strikes proc. I am not fond of Katana. Soaring Dragon lifts things up, and unlike Crushing Uppercut doesn't always do enough damage to kill them on the spot. There's no really big hitter, but it doesn't feel as fast as Claws either. You have to press press press these hotkeys to keep the damage coming, yet it doesn't seem enough damage comes. And for one more very subjective complaint, I find it easier to rationalize Moonbeam on a weaponless set like StJ or even with Claws than with Katana; if I have a sword, I want to use my sword, damn it. Katana is actually a good set, but it doesn't click with me. YMMV. (I probably just convinced myself I need to have another go at Katana and try to make it work.)

Claws has Follow Up and fast attacks with good variety when it comes to proc options. I don't recall if it is superior to StJ or just in the same range, so perhaps I misspoke, but I wanted to err on the side of safety and not sell it short. 😄 The highest ST DPS builds will leverage Follow Up (+DMG, Hecatomb proc), Focus (ranged procs and overall great DPA), Slash (Achilles' Heel, melee procs), Shockwave (Annilihation, targeted AoE procs) and of course Moonbeam. /Bio is as always the secondary of choice. I'd pick /Rad and /Invul as solid alternatives, if only because they have an aggro aura. ...I guess by that same tune I ought to include /WP. /WP just never comes to mind as it feels too much like a poor man's /invul these days. Poor Willpower.

We're in a topic specifically asking about stj/bio scrapper vs stalker for the purpose of soloing AVs, so my answer only means to answer that focused question. I don't mean to imply any general statement regarding the relative worth of StJ scrapper compared to other scrapper options and the relative worth of StJ stalkers compared to other stalker options. In any case, if we remain on the AV soloing topic, I would argue against scrapper StJ being an underwhelming powerset even once we remove /bio from the equation. - Battle Axe, Dark Melee, Elec Melee, Ice Melee, Kinetic Melee, Psionic Melee, Savage Melee, Spines and Staff (9) are clearly under StJ in ST damage output. - Broad Sword, Dual Blades, Fiery Melee, Katana (4) are probably either slightly lower or in the same range. - Claws, Energy Melee, Radiation, Titan Weapons and War Mace (5) are at least in the same league and likely better if you go all out. I'd rank StJ as somewhere in the #6 to #8 range out of 19 spots for scrapper AV soloing. Not the best, but somewhere in the top third. You could do a lot worse! Some of the disadvantages you mention are advantages in the context of a highend build. Crushing Uppercut being given 25s base recharge makes for a higher proc rate. That recharge also meshes well with Moonbeam's 24 seconds. By happenstance the combo system works out nicely for a highend Scrapper build, as you can run Shin Breaker -> Rib Cracker -> Crushing Uppercut -> Shin Breaker -> Rib Cracker -> Moonbeam. Having 4 combo building attacks every cycle makes for near guaranteed Combo Level 3 on every Crushing Uppercut use. That chain also maintains high -RES through Achilles' Heel in SB and Rib Cracker's native -RES. I'm not trying to be daft, I understand where you're coming from. If we think of the relative standing of each version of the powerset within their own AT, stalker StJ is #2 (EM takes the crown). Which makes it odd instinctively to read recommendations of Scrapper StJ over Stalker StJ. But it is my opinion (that so far I haven't been able to disprove) Scrappers, especially /bio Scrappers, have numerous advantages in the practical scenario of AV soloing.

I agree in an ideal world it should be that way, but unfortunately it doesn't play out this way. You can look at the Pylon thread to see stj/bio scrappers slightly edge out stj/bio stalkers. In itself that result hints at further issues in the "real" game: stalkers have more conditional DPS (hide must not be broken by AV attacks before the crit happens, AS stacks must be built), lack aggro aura (AVs will run). More thoughts on the topic here:

Yes, I think you're putting the finger on what I had less success expressing. I have the same predicament in the end: there's all those tools, but more than half of them remain unused while I stick to the "better" options (subjective as that may be). Even worse, said better options are influenced by disparities in powersets. i.e. for me there's a wide gap between the two primaries with fast activation ST holds (Mind, Fire) and everyone else, because I make the ST hold a staple of my rotation. The /ice epic is too good a choice with Sleet and everything else.

Dominators do pretty close to Blaster damage as is. In fact, with some outliers you even start wondering what is the point of a Blaster, given that you're getting a truckload of additional perks for being a Dom (perma mez protection, fantastic controls, and so on). Having said that, I don't play my Dominators much and I don't really click with the AT. Having an active primary and an active secondary (and an active inherent) fills your trays with so many options it's sometimes tough to choose the right tool. Controllers are probably weaker in the overall game today, yet they're more comfortable to play for the very reason their secondary is a secondary and not another primary. Even Blasters don't get it as bad, their secondaries may be active, but they're not *as* active. I don't have the strongest case for these feelings, but this is how I rationalize my own struggles with the AT if nothing else. It begs the question if Dominators can truly be "fixed" or if their design is "schizophrenic" to the point players who don't like them now couldn't like them until the AT was changed so much players who currently like them would be disappointed.

A strange collection of strawmen. I don't think anyone is confusing influence for real money, nor have I seen anyone arguing the impact of spent inf in builds is null (although it would be myopic to say ALL that influence is lost, as people occasionally respec abandoned characters and dump IOs on the market to fund other alts). There's a fee on the market. Are there positive consequences to it? Are there negative consequences to it? Some of the positive consequences we know for a fact. Some, we can theorize about with some level of confidence. I'm not sure any negative consequence to the fee has been evidenced or even theorized yet. With that, it then comes down to simple logic: if scenario A has a nonzero benefit and scenario B has no benefit, scenario A is preferrable. That is true regardless if we can quantify the benefit of scenario A, because here's the kicker: as someone was fond of bolding, influence is not real money. This is not a real system. There is no added cost to the existence of the fee, no middlemen that have to be paid collecting it, no storage facilities, no digital infrastructure. Your entire "amusement" at the "absurdity" of everyone else here seems tied to an inability or unwillingness of yours to accept this simple logic point. Setting your blinders on firmly, you then put your full effort into designing strawmen of people vehemently defending - whereas I mostly see attempts to explain. But no doubt, this is my own bias as part as the Great Crusade for the Right to Pay 10% Tax on every transaction speaking. What irrational and custom-bound animals we all are, ho ho ho.

Right, but the Elude crash right now is -10000% rather than -1000%. So even a full endmod slotted AB would be a drop in the water against that. You raise an interesting point on nukes, it could be that I'm misremembering overcoming nuke crash rather than T9 crash (the former a more common usecase!). I still want to believe the T9 were changed...

EM/Bio is possibly top dog for that purpose right now. The EM buff played out really well especially for scrappers, not only you can deal top tier damage but you can manipulate the Critical Strikes ATO to turn ET into a heal rather than a HP loss. EM is also incredibly end efficient, and of course mostly deals in rarely resisted energy damage. EM/Shield is definitely a strong contender for that reason. /Shield loves a heal, and provides you with sturdier defenses than /Bio. It will deal less damage but should be safer. Rad/Bio and Rad/Shield are also great, somewhat for the same reasons. Rad Melee needs to be procced out to deal competitive damage, much moreso than other primaries, but it deals very competitive damage with the proc approach; and again, provides you with a reliable heal as part of your attack chain, lets you deal mostly energy damage. War Mace/Bio hits like a truck against anything that lacks strong smashing resistances. Arguaby still hits like a truck against anything *with* strong smashing resistances. War Mace is strong. It also has a "no frills" attack chain, no combos no nothing, which makes the powerset versatile in how you need to react and adapt to various conditions. /Rad is a great secondary in its own right, not to the level of /Bio or /Shield when it comes to the offensive boost against a single target. But more than capable regardless, especially if you stack Shadow Meld on it (which you likely should anyway. Moonbeam and Shadow Meld are optimal for so many Scrapper AV builds). /Rad has fantastic end management, great overall resistances and absorb/healing/regen, it makes for a sturdier "I know I'm going to get hit but I also know it's not going to hurt too much" experience. With something like Street Justice in particular, it can be a nice way to balance the lack of AoE in primary with procced out Ground Zero and/or Radiation Therapy.

STJ, for sure. Dark Melee is fun and has neat tools, but just doesn't match the single target damage of Street Justice.

Scrapper: - same DPS - slightly higher survivability - has aggro control (AVs won't run) Stalker: - higher burst damage On either AT it will be strong enough to solo AVs with ease, but Scrapper has the clear advantage. Note that by "endgame" I assume "incarnate and IOed out to the gills with a dedicated DPS build". The more casual or the lower level the build, the more likely the Stalker might outdamage the Scrapper.

I could swear it worked like that too. Which made discovering Ageless not working a disappointment. I don't have memories with Geas specifically, but I remember you'd get Adrenalin Boost from an empath and you'd power through a T9 crash. My memory might be shaky, or maybe the T9s were changed at some point to specifically enforce that -recovery period. Like you say, it's easy to "miss" the 10s of recovery between managing the crash itself and retoggling.

I thought this was an error in Mids, but Tanker Elude doesn't take endmod set IOs. This seems unique to the Tanker version, if Mids is to be trusted: Scrappers, Stalkers, Brutes, Sentinels all happily take endmod set IOs.