tidge
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Posts posted by tidge
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13 hours ago, Ukase said:
Windfalls, there's something about them. I don't think they work as intended, if they work at all. They certainly don't increase influence gain. But anyways, I digress. Yeah, they can be streaky. But I've gotten more than I'll likely ever use. In addition to stocking the bins in my own sg, I've stocked the bins in my own sg. I've over 700 + stashed. Dunno if I'll ever use them. I keep thinking the devs will do something about farming to negatively impact afk-farming, and when they do, I expect the price of purples to increase. I aim to be prepared.
I also don't trust Windfalls to improve the drop rates or rarities (of salvage, or recipes). I did some experimenting (using several I had from opening packs) with familiar x8 (non-AE) content and I noticed absolutely no difference in the recipe/salvage haul. I was paying no attention to XP or Inspiration drops.
I don't object to this game's RNG, but I'd certainly like to be able to disable/modify Streakbreaker. When I'm swinging at enemies with 95% ToHit, It isn't the next attack roll (which gets ignored) that I want to autohit, it's the next toHit roll of >95% (which almost always comes in fewer than 10 rolls) that I want to hit!
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Without knowing your specific goals/concepts I'll just ramble about some powers I've taken on similar classes. I have a War Mace/Invuln Scrapper and a /Bio Stalker. Generally: I invest fewer slots on resistance and defense powers... I typically look for set bonuses elsewhere. This is a matter of personal preference (of course), but I would pull at least three slots from Weave. Note that you can boost (50+5) not just IOs but also the non-unique pieces of PVP sets.
The Kismet +Accuracy (really +ToHit) is a tricky piece. The bonuses help (especially while leveling up). It will only work when Combat Jumping is toggled on. The real advantage of that piece is IMO when using Fast Snipes (because the first 22% of +ToHit translates to MOAR DAMAGE) but you don't have a Snipe, so I feel like there is a better use for that slot.
I didn't see Reactive Defenses Scaling Damage Resistance in the build. Maybe I missed it.
I feel like Hasten is too late in the build for most game content, at least to invest a second slot in it.. I should note that my Stalker has it at lvl 38, my Scrapper doesn't have it all!
Build Up: Even with a full set of 6 Gaussian's this power will %proc at the ceiling of 90%. I encourage you to at least add a second slot here for a Recharge IO (at 50+5). No matter what else you are going for as a Scrapper, you probably want this power available as often as possible.
DNA Siphon can be an effective PBAoE, but it isn't worth slotting for Damage, IMO Accuracy and Recharge serve it better (since it is also a -Regen debuff). Here is the slotting I use (on the Stalker). Touch of the Nictus is providing a global Accuracy bonus, plus more HP. The other 3 slots can be tailored to you preferred %procs.
Level 28: DNA Siphon
- (A) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
- (39) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing: Level 50
- (40) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage: Level 50
- (40) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage: Level 30
- (40) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50
- (42) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50
I think you don't need the second slot in Health (in the level 50 build). I would keep the Miracle, dump Numina. Extra Recovery/Regeneration hits a point of diminishing returns, and Bio has many ways to address Health/Endurance. If you doubt my advise, just play without it unslotted for a bit and see how it affects your play. With all the %PerShifters, you certainly shouldn't need extra Recovery.
EDIT: Does the build include one (and only one) Power Transfer %Heal? If not, I would replace one of the %+End Performance Shifters (preferably from a low-level Auto power) with it. This %proc will only fire once, no matter how many you have. My Scrapper has one slotted in Stamina, but with Bio you may not need one... it's the kind of thing you only need when you need it.
Similarly, I would drop the Panacea Global (slot) from Physical Perfection and include it as one of the five used with the others. I happen to use 5 Panacea plus a 50+5 EndMod in Boundless Energy (I think this is Inexhaustible on Scrappers), and all six pieces of Preventive Medicine in Ablative Carapace.
Just a few comments on the War Mace attacks:
My own preference is to put the ATO pieces in the lower level attacks, and use the Very Rare sets in the higher level attacks. I have considerations of:
- Getting the 5-piece recharge bonus, while balancing %damage proc rates
- Being able to boost Enhancement values (without impacting %proc too much) <- e.g. ED may hamper +Damage, but a small Damage boost (or Endurance discount) goes further on the BIG attacks.
Just as an example, I have Crowd Control 5-slotted with Armageddon and the 6th slot is a +Recharge piece from the Force Feedback set.
The only franken-slotting I have in the War Mac attacks is Whirling Mace, I wouldn't fault anyone for opting for more conventional slotting.
Level 18: Whirling Mace
- (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
- (25) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
- (27) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50
- (27) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50
- (29) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage: Level 30
- (29) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage: Level 50
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On 1/30/2021 at 8:15 AM, josh1622 said:
I've seen several builds with damage procs in DNA siphon posted. There's often a better place to run fury proc in my primary set. It's only useful as an opener since it will hit dead targets. I prefer rad's 2 proc bomb powers instead.
Here is how I have it slotted on my Stalker (my only /Bio character), other %procs like Armageddon's %Fire is elsewhere in the build. I didn't go with %-Res on the Stalker, YMMV for a Tanker. Similarly, if you have Endurance issues, adding the %+End piece is a no-brainer... but Bio has other means to mitigate that issue.
DNA Siphon
- (A) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50
- (39) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing: Level 50
- (40) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage: Level 50
- (40) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage: Level 30
- (40) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50
- (42) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50
The HP set bonuses from Touch of the Nictus are certainly better for Tankers than for Stalkers. IIRC, I have the (non %proc) Touch of the Nictus pieces boosted.
When I was choosing to use and slot this power, I was happiest with having extra PBAoE damage as well as the set's Accuracy bonus, and I think I have the total recharge 'just so' to maximize %proc chances and have power ready to reapply a -Regen when its effects would expire.
EDIT: I should add something that may be obvious: On Stalkers, Bio is a secondary set, and the available level range for it starts higher than it does as a primary set. This may have some effect om the choice of certain %procs.
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2 hours ago, DougGraves said:
I'm not saying they are underpowered or overpowered. They are just boring. Their look is so normal it is boring Their attacks are boring. I can't think of any special types of warriors like sorcerers or shamans that you pay special attention to.
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1 hour ago, Uun said:
I usually do 2 lvl 50+5 recharge IOs
This is 99% me, unless it is on a character with nowhere else to slot Global resistance pieces.
The last character I took to level 50 (a Mastermind) didn't follow this advice, and instead went with 4-slots of Unbreakable Guard.
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1 hour ago, oedipus_tex said:
I love the OG dev team and some of their creations. But it's perfectly fair to call what they put into the Assault sets "random." DPA all over the place, no real thought about how cones and DoT affect a control heavy archetype, weird mitigation tools like Chance for Knockdown on an archetype that needs to cancel knockdown to incapacitate the foe. The Homecoming team has done a good job cleaning up what was left to them. If you happen to play Dominators on an Issue 24 server their problems are impossible to miss.
If you've read my posts about issues facing Dominator, one of the biggest is how little extra control or utility the Assault sets add. If the Control set is very strong or has a good debuff (Plant, Dark) it can work out okay. If you're playing something like Gravity or Fire though where the controls aren't that powerful it's hard to make up for it.
I did say it was a minor quibble, and it wasn't about the entire suite of Dominator secondaries.
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Recovery rate shortens the 'time between' +Endurance refills. Every player has a base value (of Recovery), Stamina gives you even more (Recovery), even without specifically slotting it.
+End from Performance Shifter is a straight-forward 'Have some more Endurance!' boost, unrelated to Recovery.
There is a point of diminishing returns (on Recovery), so it is often the case that bonuses to Recovery do far less than you might expect. IMO It is far better to work on
- Slotting for Endurance Reduction (directly, or indirectly via Incarnates)
- Increasing Maximum Endurance (accolades, set bonuses)
- Getting Global Endurance Discounts (set bonuses)
- leveraging temp powers
The same goes for Health and Regeneration, but because different ATs have different Maximum Health/HP, the break-even point comes at different spots for different ATs.
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1 hour ago, Galaxy Brain said:
@tidge, just curious due to the AT and powers... how did they get to 50?
I didn't ask. I try not to be critical of any player's play style, power choices, costumes, etc. so I sincerely just took them on face value.
1 hour ago, Arbegla said:There's the problem. He's running a mission solo, that's designed for a group of six. And based on your story, you were able to accomplish it, with just two people.
I don't want to reduce this little story to an ad hominem argument. I wanted to share only that I recently encountered a new (-ish?) player that was having an appropriate (IMHO, YMMV) level of frustration because of game content. I explained that the difficulty setting was almost certainly too high (just as I indicated in my post) but that is what he wanted to run with. The last several pages have had a whiff of 'the game is too easy' to them... but this player did not self-gimp, they simply didn't take full advantage of everything the game has to offer (as has been described by others, above). I don't think my PUGmate was a 'black swan'. I just wanted to share teh story of a player who would (likely) end up even further behind the curve if the game was 'rebalanced around IOs' (which I take to overlap significantly with 'made harder'... certainly not in all cases, but in a majority of them, I suspect)
I didn't tell the play that I've done that arc with a fresh level 50 at the same (or harder) settings, but the times I didn't do it by mistake (Unai Kemen can lull you into a false sense of security!) it was after my post-50 respec into... wait for it.... enhancement sets! I don't level up my characters without MOST of my final power/enhancement choices in place, but some of my fresh level 50s have had serious trouble solo-ing that particular arc even with (non-superior) Enhancement sets that I think most character builders would agree were 'efficient enough'.
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Apropos of (almost) nothing: I spent some time recently helping a (new?) player complete Mender Ramiel's arc (to unlock the Alpha slot). Just to provide an idea of what I observed about the character in question:
- Fresh level 50
- Spines/Fire Brute
- Difficulty set to +1/x6
- No enhancement set bonuses
By itself, the primary reason the character was having problems was the difficulty setting... but the lack enhancement bonuses was certainly not helping. I don't play brutes, but I have observed with many other ATs that this arc is relatively easy with a kitted level 50... but much more of a struggle with less-optimized builds.
Without arguing about the specific ATs, or specific play-styles of players that face that arc... my opinion that the game should be 'rebalanced for IOs' remains NO, otherwise players like the one I was helping are going to end up even further behind the curve.
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48 minutes ago, TheZag said:
I have recast the power before the pet expired and the result was the power went on cooldown, no new pet was summoned, and the original pet expired shortly after.
That is the exact behavior of the spiderlings, unless all of the initial spiderlings have been defeated, the ones from the latest recast will expire when/along with ones from the initial cast would have expired.
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Minor Quibble: I don't think it is entirely fair to think of a Dominator as a nukeless Blaster without a sustain. Domination is a form of "sustain" for its AT. (yadda yadda unmotivating 'change domination' arguments to follow)
I am trying to understand the subtle, shifting headspace that exists between this thread ("Doms can't compete with Blasters") and the "Should Set be Balanced around IOs" ("non-Blaster ATs are doing too much damage")... but I'm having trouble following these two different threads to know what the motivation for each of them is.
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I'm in agreement that the Patron pets are pretty much working as intended. There may be (unrealistic) expectations for them:
- They aren't "henchmen" (as from a Mastermind), so the player won't have the same level of control.
- They will require attention, as they aren't a fully-kitted second player.
- You can only have 1 of them, even if you can get the power to recharge faster than the pet expires <- not verified, but I assume the power behaves like spiderling pets
I agree that there are two features of them that can be frustrating, but I don't think these are worth changing:
- The long recharge times. Assuming that you can keep the pet alive (and this is on the PLAYER, not the PET) you can have the pet available 100% of the time. This requires some investment in slots, but there are dedicated "Recharge Intensive Pet" IOs (plus common IOs) that can help with this.
- The power is only available at very high levels (level 44 is the earliest, IIRC)
Personally, I don't expect a 'crowning' power from an Epic/Patron pool to be available at lower levels, even if such a pet power would be helpful the (lower) levels where many solo players could use some extra help (if they want to face challenging content). One of the balance features of the game that I experience (playing solo content at 40+, without exemplar) is how high to turn up the number of enemies (*1)... and a (long recharge) pet will need some attention to handle large spawns. The player either needs to focus on keeping the aggro, or buffing the defenses of the pet. Most ATs can do this, but it does require some active choices on the part of the player, either in power choices or play style.
(*1) When leveling, and post-50, I prefer to keep content at even level but to face larger spawns. I find certain content to be a boring 'war of attrition', and I prefer 'drops' over 'pure Inf'. YMMV.
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6 hours ago, Galaxy Brain said:
I think a big part of it is that in general, Self-Gimping is less fun than tackling a challenge.
What is more rewarding? Beating something you know you could win with one hand tied behind your back, or taking down something that you know you had a good chance of failing at even when going all out?
I think that castrating the damage slotting options of entire classes because the masculinity of damage dealing by other classes feels threatened is lot more radical and can only be viewed as rewarded by some peculiar sense of "but this should be better" logic.
I'm reading that players simultaneously don't want to occasionally run an arc without enhancement bonuses but instead want other players to have less access to enhancements.
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4 hours ago, tidge said:
Don't most Ouroborous and SF/TF arcs allow the person starting the arc to allow missions to be played by characters without enhancement bonuses?
I don't see the need to 'rebalance' the entire game when players who want a different 'balance' that is identical to what is being suggested above already have that option.
1 hour ago, Bill Z Bubba said:Yes, but there's a huge difference between balancing a game and self-gimping in an attempt to correct for said lack of balance.
*IF* the perceived imbalance is coming from Enhancements (which is, I believe the stated point of this thread), then it should not be considered *self-gimping* to have an option to play without the source of the perceived imbalance.
12 hours ago, Galaxy Brain said:To clarify:
The thread here is more to discuss how IO's have impacted the game enough to where it should be addressed in some / certain manners. IO's are incredibly flexible, so balancing to a certain kind or build is a fool's errand, but recognizing that in general they push the envelope on what somebody brings to the table is beyond what was "intended" is something to look at.
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Don't most Ouroborous and SF/TF arcs allow the person starting the arc to allow missions to be played by characters without enhancement bonuses?
I don't see the need to 'rebalance' the entire game when players who want a different 'balance' that is identical to what is being suggested above already have that option.
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Most muscle:
Most abused:
Most over-rated:
Most market-friendly:
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You are about to miss out on all the cool arcs in Sharkhead Isle!
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53 minutes ago, Luminara said:
We have no idea if the planet is going to continue to spin, or the sun continue to fuse hydrogen...
Nerf fusion.
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10 minutes ago, Hew said:
Procs. You get +6% def in tough, +8ish% resist all in weave, + lotg. That is a lot of juice. If you arent using set IOs, maybe it is more palatable to skip, but its a lot of durability in the pool....
Those aren't %procs, those are Global bonuses (for the most part), and they will work:
- without having the power (e.g. Tough) toggled on
- down to the lowest active level of the Enhancement piece, even if you don't have access to the power (because of Exemplar)
The only *sly* enhancement (that I use semi-regularly) that can be slotted in a Defense slot is the Kismet +Accuracy; it is necessary to be slotted in a power that will be toggled on (or is always on) in order to contribute 6% to ToHit.
If it was not clear from my post above, by "mule" I mean that I am leveraging the Globals, but I am not necessarily using the power (via toggle) to get the Enhancement bonus(es).
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9 hours ago, Aeroprism said:
I remember on live someone said Though/Weave (along with boxing) were intended to give squishies like controllers some means to do and soak damage. Maybe. That person could have been mistaken.
One thing is for sure: in 2021, the fighting pool has become the new fitness (mandatory) pool and it annoys me. I'll try different stuff: allowing players to be imaginative and try stuff is what CoH does best.
I definitely will take the Fighting pool on a majority of my characters, but MOST of the time it is to get a power to use as an enhancement mule. I have a /SR (Stalker, not Scrapper) that took Kick/Tough and 47/49 just to mule the extra +Defense pieces. For most of the game's content she doesn't even have access to a damage reducer (except for the Shield Wall global). My other squishies (with neither Defenses or Resists) tend to dip into the Fighting pool earlier but i don't kid myself that they are able to soak damage!
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Aid Other vs. Triage Beacon
I have two MM that I've taken through 50+. One is Robots/Traps and one is Thugs/Thermal. There may be subtle combinations when trying to speak to Thugs/Traps, so I just wanted to explicitly write about the place of my perspective. I should note that the 'Bots MM went to 50+ before the henchmen AI changes.
I found Aid Other to be useful when leveling, but swapped it for Triage Beacon. The downsides of Aid Other, from my PoV
- It breaks up whatever else you are doing, both in terms of clicky powers and attention.
- Some henchmen just aren't worth chasing down to heal // only rarely is it absolutely neccesary to heal a henchmen
- dragging a green inspiration will also heal a henchmen
- body guard mode needs as many henchmen as possible
Aid Other was useful while leveling, because with very few other powers and only a few henchmen it is useful to keep them ready for the next fight. For example: it is possible to street sweep Perez Park at appropriate levels if you can keep your very few available henchmen healed. The dynamics of a MM with 3 henchmen (and only 2 at -1) is very different than a MM of 6 henchmen where only 1 is at even level.
Triage Beacon has an obvious downside: In highly mobile play, there won't be as many opportunities to get much benefit from it, but in HARD fights it will be much more useful than a single target interruptible Aid Other. Triage Beacon is also not a true heal, of course.
Now about Thugs. Thugs are not as well behaved as Robots, as Thugs rely on a few melee attacks. It's pretty much the Bruiser that is the candidate for Aid Other, as he'll scamper all over creation and occasionally get quite far from you... but I don't think it is a good tactical choice to run after the Bruiser to give up your position (with Acid Mortar, Caltrops, Poison Trap) where your Enforcers and Arsonist will be (I have found the Enforcers to be the laggards). Once the Posse is in play, you can rely on your pet window (or targeting macros) for targeting the true Henchmen, but visually the combat zone is going to be crazy. Thermal has a single-target (non-interruptible) buff that I try to apply to the Enforcer, but quite frankly I find it to be a PITA to stay close enough to him to do that... I can only imagine how painful it would be to try to apply Aid Other to him.
Of course, you could do without either power. But... Triage Beacon is a power that makes a BIG difference on low-level task/strike forces (even if the slotted enhancements are above the level of the TF) because a TF PUG of 8 will likely be close together and will appreciate the Triage Beacon boosts a LOT more than one-off casts of Aid Other. Also the set bonuses from Healing sets are pretty nice.
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I only put uncommons on the AH about once a month, so I doubt it was any of my characters. And even then, it only the uncommons not used in my own crafting on recipes or SG boosts. I also don't check the final sale prices on salvage so it is unlikely I would even notice.
I can almost imagine the scenario that could lead to lots of lost Inf, but it involves not paying attention.
- Place some ~10MInf bids on many (ten at a time?) specific (Very Rare? PVP?) Recipes
- Jump to the salvage area and start placing bids on salvage (ten at a time) but not updating the bid price.
I've done something similar, but it is immediately noticeable because the "bought" items tab in the AH increments while the total Inf decrements. When SERIOUSLY overbidding I think you have a little bit of time to cancel (part of the) bids for ten-at-a-time.
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22 minutes ago, Black Zot said:
Wait, does that absorb proc actually work on Triage Beacon/Spirit Tree?
That particular proc only works for the character with the power, and it will fire even if you never drop a Triage Beacon. (assuming level ranges, damage taken, blah blah blah fishcakes)
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I think it might depend on your primary. My /Traps build doesn't have too many procs, because I don't really need to do extra damage as much as I want to help the henchmen do extra damage. There is a subtle point that any one given %-res source won't 'stack' with itself, but the duration length will be increased if it was re-applied (such as from the Achilles Heel %proc) I want to say that Pseudopets (like most traps) have a slightly different (inferior) way that they work than in character powers.
The only other caveat is that the Endurance cost of attacks for MMs is quite steep, so there is a real balancing act when deciding to try to provide your own offense (via %damage) and letting the henchmen do their thing.
I can share the slotting of my Bots/Traps/Mace (level 50, leveling was different)
Web Grenade is not really worth slotting, IMO:
Level 1: Web Grenade
- (A) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure
I like the slow from Caltrops, I have a sort of compromise slotting that uses one lower-level set and one higher level (both attuned). I can't quite remember the math, but I think the %smashing is close to the ceiling while the %-Res should be about 70% of whatever the %damage is.
Level 2: Caltrops
- (A) Annihilation - Damage/RechargeTime: Level 50
- (7) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff: Level 50
- (9) Impeded Swiftness - Damage/Slow: Level 30
- (9) Impeded Swiftness - Range/Slow: Level 30
- (11) Impeded Swiftness - Endurance/Recharge/Slow: Level 30
- (11) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing): Level 30
Triage Beacon holds a 6-piece set for bonuses:
Level 10: Triage Beacon
- (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal: Level 50
- (17) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance: Level 50
- (19) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime: Level 50
- (19) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime: Level 50
- (21) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance: Level 50
- (21) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb: Level 50
Acid Mortar has two %-Res in it. It should be more %proc friendly because of the longer recharge time.
Level 14: Acid Mortar
- (A) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff: Level 50
- (34) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff: Level 20
- (34) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff: Level 50
- (36) Undermined Defenses - Defense Debuff/Recharge: Level 50
- (36) Undermined Defenses - Recharge/Endurance: Level 50
- (36) Undermined Defenses - Recharge: Level 50
FFG is included for completeness. No %procs.
Level 16: Force Field Generator
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed: Level 50
- (46) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 50
- (46) Defense Buff IO: Level 50
Poison Trap is another compromise between set bonuses, %proc, and actually doing the job of holding enemies.
Level 22: Poison Trap
- (A) Gladiator's Net - Accuracy/Hold: Level 50
- (23) Gladiator's Net - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50
- (23) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
- (25) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Endurance/Hold: Level 50
- (25) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Accuracy/Hold/Recharge: Level 50
- (34) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic): Level 50
I have the attacks designed to grab some aggro, knockdown and %-Res enemies with AoE; Photon Grenade, Mace Beam Volley.
Do Dominators Need a Buff?
in General Discussion
Posted
While the purple patch brings it's own sort of annoyance, wouldn't an unresistable debuff from Dominator controls be OP?
I appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking, but many Dominators can apply different mez effects, so with just a couple of Dominators there would be some serious debuffing of AVs/GMs, etc.