tidge

I do the same, but I dislike that it resets all my timed powers... including the fast transport options. I use different bodies and costumes for the different builds! I have multiple VEAT builds that really ought to have been respec at least once... but I liked how much they played that even after the power choices became available sooner I didn't respec them.

I am of the general opinion that for most of the scenarios of play, %damage is better than %-Resistance. <- I write this because I'll advocate for the few cases when I think %-Res can be better. In the linked thread (above) I repeatedly explain why %-Resistance has sooo many things working against it. 0) The same source of -Resistance will not stack, but it will extend the duration. 1) If a Mastermind can keep -Resistance in play, the henchmen will (eventually) do more damage than a Mastermind could possibly do with %damage. I have found this true for both large spawns and for Giant Monsters. 2) Similar to point 1, if a player is always teaming against primarily "lotsa HP targets" and has more than one reliable %proc attack each with a final (global) recharge time of about 10 seconds, then it is possible (modulo resistance resisting resist debuffs) that a team of relatively mediocre DPS will have faster times. [Masterminds can chain enough sources of the same %-Resistance source and most of the henchmen have mediocre damage] 3) Some (solo) builds can get both a reliable %proc power and also have a large number of fast-firing, mediocre damage, attacks. If the %-Resistance sticks, the subsequent rapid-fire attacks could (modulo resistance resisting resist debuffs) do slightly more damage in the subsequent attacks. In the last point: I am specifically thinking about Kheldians, because the alternate forms come with extra rapid-fire attacks and most of those attacks themselves are not good for %procs and the player has to decide how many slots to invest in all those attacks... writing only for myself, even on other characters that have ended up with seven "attacks", I haven't 5-slotted all of them... so any multi-form Kheldian I can consider playing would have some non-human form attacks with 3 slots. I will repeat this from the other thread: if you are a player that primarily wants to apply -Resistance to a single target, just take Weaken Resolve from the Force of Will pool. With only two slots, you can have the first slot be an Accuracy IO and the second slot can be a %-Resistance piece. If Weaken Resolve hits, it will always apply it's longer-duration debuffs and it has a very decent chance to apply the %-Resistance for the gamblers.

There is IMO a disadvantage with playing against critters that con below you... Many of them start taking knockback (from certain attacks). Scattering critters generally slows down clear times.

There is no problem here. The time investment is (now with tentacle merits) is entirely reasonable and in line with what I would expect for solo players, teams and leagues... keeping in mind this is a zone critter. Next complaint: waiting for Hamidon to spawn because...

The clock (or calendar, since it is almost 7 days real time) for the SSA repeats is per character. As you have discovered. The first time you run the SSA story you can do a repeat immediately. I want to say that once you have done a weekly repeat of any SSA, the clock has started for repeats of the other SSA, but not for the first time rewards of those SSA. I can't honestly remember it being different than this, but considering how often I solo run SSA I want to believe if there was a 20 merit weekly option for each different SSA I probably would have been running more than just Theoden's mission over the bast five years. Theoden's arc (either side) is pretty quickly completed, so even without the bonus merits it isn't a terrible thing for a solo player to do. The default merits/time are pretty much in line with rewards for other content.

The RNG is a pseudo-random number generator that fills the space between 0.0 and 1.0 "flatly", so I can totally believe that if 8 players are on a reward roll for a mini-pet recipe, the chance for seven of them to get a 10% roll are less than 10%. BTW, does anyone know if either 0.0 or 1.0 are allowed values per the CoX RNG? I am more likely to believe that only one of these boundaries is an actual allowed value, but I'd like to definitively know for future precision.

AoE Stuns that also reliably %proc are golden. Also, I desperately want some non-Negative damage in the build.

I wouldn't support this suggested change, but I would like it if AT with the equivalent of Provoke or Pacify had the option to take the version from the Presence pool and have it work like their AT power. IMO the Presence pool has two GREAT powers gated behind having to take either/both Pacify and Provoke.

I am working on leveling a Warshade, and at my level 25 respec I put Starless Step into the build: I didn't have another Warshade power I wanted at that level (I don't need another single-target power(*1)), or I wanted in the final build, also... I didn't feel like taking a pool power, because per my plans it won't be until circa level 35 I can take another pool power. I like Combat Teleport, so this was a natural choice for me. For the final bullet point, I have macros ready to jump into a targeted enemy's face. Less necessary for the blasts, but definitely needed for the PBAoE. I like the +ToHit, and even if that effect isn't buffed, I find myself eyeballing all the different travel powers for the 20% Slow Resistance global piece.... there are obviously a lot of options for it, but I find myself enhancing all those other travel powers in somewhat specific ways for Quality-of-Life reasons (Accuracy, Range, Endurance, ToHit, etc.) It is possible that I find myself not using Starless Step so much, but I expect human form to get a lot of play. My approach is to go tri-form, but I can see myself leveraging a second build focused entirely on the human form. In that case, I may drop Starless Step, as I will be able to mimic it with the other Warshade powers. (*1) I am using Gravitic Emination as a human-form attack. It's too good of a source of non-Negative AoE %damage to pass up IMO. Right now I have both Ebon Eye and Shadow Bolt for set bonuses and extra attacks for the non-human forms.

I have my form-shifting macros configured such that the trays always change, but occasionally the form does not toggle off. I address this by putting the Nova/Dwarf toggles in the "human form" tray. This requires an extra click/button press to detoggle, but it is right there. FWIW, I only keep the rapid-recharging powers in the human tray (the one that gets replaced by Nova/Dwarf). The longer recharge human-form powers I may want to use are in a separate tray so I can keep an eye on them.

For solo play, higher multiples of critter spawns are better for XP (and drops, don't forget the drops!) Ultimately, the one thing I suggest a solo player avoid is setting the difficulty such that map clear times become unreasonably long. This may not matter for an AFK farmer, but it can be extremely tedious to work through "defeat all" maps at +4x8. I usually don't go above x2 until I have some AoE, if I really don't have AoE then I will usually turn up the level if I want more of a challenge. I don't want to have to click a few single-target attacks 100+ times to clear a room. There is a real balance, because larger spawn sizes will require more "survivability", whether that be more AoE damage, more Res/Def, more control.

Are the new camera controls the reason my character has started turning 180° when I execute a command like this? /macro_image "FortunataTraining_TelekineticBlast" "Back" "powexec_location Back:25 Shadow Step$$powexec_location Back:25 Black Dwarf Step" Previously, this sort of macro would leave me facing the area I just teleported from, allowing for quick ranged attacks (e.g. cones)

I haven't done the math. I have it in T1, mostly because that power is muling pieces I don't want muled by the T3 (or T2). Partially because I want the T1 to have better ToHit chances. The one thing that could convince me to swap (aside from 10+% improvement in DPS) would be this: when the T3 is rocking, it has no pause between attacks to accept Damage inspirations (other than Team versions), so having 'self apply' a damage buff would be a good thing.

Is the obsession with Achille's Heel due to some particular -Def primary or secondary? I've been long advocating for the Annilation %-Res in multiple AoE powers, specifically for MMs. Robotics would get a bum rap (pre rework), but stacking %-Resistance made a hide difference in x8 clear times... But MMs are not like solo play. Writing for myself, after I saw the huge improvement in map clear times with the MM, plus the ability to chew through GMs (-Regen), I reworked several Rad ATs (mostly support classes) to pile up that Achille's piece... and the results were disappointing. My advice remains: if you want a resistance debuff, take a reliable one from a power pool. Weaken Resolve is tailor made for this, and it accepts the Achille's Heel set, and it demonstrates (via animation) that you are applying a debuff to the target.

I agree that Stalkers can be surprisingly x8 team-friendly. My experience has been that a Stalker leveraging just a couple of AoE attacks in addition to their single-target damage speeds up standard, grindy content. I definitely feel that because of the power options (so many primary/secondary powers, no epics, earlier power picks on HC so fewer reasons to use pools(*1)) limits the design space of those characters. Three different builds on a single character allows for plenty of room to explore different N-form builds... my guess is that most players settle on a play style with whatever N-form they like, so there isn't much incentive to try different combos. (*1) I'm work-shopping a Kheldian right now and I don't see a reason to pick a power pool before level 32. At first glance, thinking about a "level 50" build I would have only one available "non-Kheldian pick" before then on a tri-form... if I go 1-form I guess I could have two more.

So based on some searching and visiting City of Data (which has had some changes in the way data is represented over the recent years) I think the ToHit roll for %procs was made part of the %proc themselves with the primary(?) purpose of making sure that %damage didn't automatically hit when slotted into an autohit power. I'm ok with this, as there is a often stated feeling that %damage is overpowered to the point of needing to be revisited(*1). Requiring a ToHit check for %damage is a completely reasonable mechanic (on top of the %proc formula), and I don't think it is unreasonable to ask players to slot powers for Accuracy if they want to leverage this extra source of potential damage. (*1) For the record: I don't believe %damage is overpowering; I consider the opportunity to slot %damage one of the more democratizing design choices the game offers.

I did some searching, but I couldn't find the connection. I remember being made aware of this in one of the AT subforums and from there being directed to a different forum for details. This was years ago.

Some back of the envelope calculations... if you want to see if there is a slight difference between %proc rates (which could be attributed to a "secret additional check")... let's say 88% instead of 90%... I think in order to have 95% confidence with 80% power if you saw at least 5239 successful procs out of 5842 you could "disprove" the 88% hypothesis (at those levels) This is a somewhat difficult experiment to construct because of what gets logged. We aren't concerned with actual hits, just hits that trigger %damage, so it isn't impossibly tedious. If the secret additional check had a larger effect, say 0.95 (the 'always miss' threshold) times 0.90 (%proc ceiling) = 0.855, then the numbers for a 99%/95% confidence/power are smaller... something like 748/847 to 'disprove' the 0.855 fraction. I don't really like this construction because it's the 0.90 we are trying to disprove... if it were possible to reverse the problem and easily record number of No Procs (which would never be logged!) the experiment takes less data: 75 no results out of 572 possible results would be enough to tell the difference between 1 10% no-proc chance and a 15.5% no-proc chance at 99/95. The logs would have to be translated to go this way. Smaller difference require lots more data... so that last construction would require almost 15K total proc chances to tell the difference between 10% and 11%. I guess take that Tanker to Perez Park and start spamming Taunt with just Perfect Zinger %damage and Recharge IOs? I don't remember if hits of Taunt get logged. If they do, just make sure no other Taunt effect is in play (like an aura, or attacks). If you don't care so much about type two errors the experiment could probably stop after about 400 hits of Taunt. If 48 chances to apply %psi damage turned out to not do damage out of 397 chances, that would be a 90%/50% result.

In my defense, at launch I don't think that option was that obvious.

I was playing from launch day... and I shudder to think how much time I spent in every door mission going back to the door to exit the instanced map.

I have used both... my old VEAT builds leverage the Presence pool, I'd go Confront, unless there was a complete shortage of power picks and you needed to take Provoke. Provoke needs to be slotted, for those times you want to use it. I was typically trying to use it to help out squishy teammates... and so the ToHit requirement can hurt. The AoE is somewhat laugahable, for those times you want to use it (again, a Squishy teammate with a whole angry spawn will not be saved) My experience with using pool Provoke (on both VEATs and Scrappers) was that with some slotting I could use it and my damage to pull (single-target) aggro off of just about any other AT except for Tankers who were trying to keep aggro. I remember making changes to my Provoke slotting (and giving it up on a Scrapper) because I thought it was absurd that I'd be teaming with Brutes (for example) and have the ability to steal their aggro with a power I had taken nominally to help protect softer allies. The only times I felt good about the choice of the AoE Provoke was when I would PUG with a Tank or Brute that would "leave behind" a mostly undamaged pair of bosses for the squishies to deal with. Those sorts of players inspired me to see just how much effort it took to get aggro from them when they nominally ought to have been trying to hold it. I didn't like walking the line between griefing and anti-griefing so I mostly avoided that power pick! I was letting that playstyle live in my head rent-free!

I have always 6-slotted both of the Scrapper ATO sets. Generally I don't think they lend themselves to 'franken-slotting', but if I didn't want the 6-piece bonus from Scrapper's Strike, and There was a long-enough recharge power I wanted to fire faster Then I would consider franken-slotting that longer recharge power with the Scrapper's Strike Recharge/Global Crit Bonus. So maybe Mass Levitate? The only thing working against my considering it for Greater Psi Blade is that I would almost certainly 5-slot Greater Psi Blade with some set, and add the very rare Unbreakable Constraint %Smashing piece as the final piece for that attack.

Sharing my final build for a Psi/Invuln/EM Stalker. I played this up to 50, and made some modifications along the way. I think there is a better Stalker to be made with this Primary/Secondary choice, but I like where this one landed with respect to the specific powers I wanted to have. I rather like how the Force of Will pool matches (graphics-wise) the Psi Melee primary. It wasn't within my specific character concept to use the Psi Mastery Epic pool, but I can see layering that set on top of the primary AND Force of Will to make a certain type of character. Invulnerability fit the concept better than most other choices, as well as being something of an easy set to run with. My play style choices and slotting preferences are on obvious display. I wanted Wall of Force as early as possible for two reasons: The single-target focus of a Stalker can be frustrating from the perspective of RNG missed attacks, so AoE mitigates that bad feel Runners, or critters otherwise not in melee range Normally I'd take Combat Teleport much earlier (to mitigate that second bullet point). Specific to the type of low-level content I play, I'd be pretty comfortable swapping the level pick of Dull Pain (level 10) with Combat Teleport (level 30).... as shared above, the progression of my Invulnerability power choices more-or-less allows for "one man stands" in level-appropriate PUG content. I find Project Will to generally be an inferior pick of ranged attack, but (a) it offered set bonuses I wanted and (b) it was a choice between that or Weaken Resolve. Weaken Resolve is a common choice for me, and takes no more than one extra slot... so if a player is focused more on higher-level content exclusively I would suggest the following changes: Level 8: Weaken Resolve (A) Analyze Weakness Accuracy/Recharge 50+5 (*) Achilles' Heel %-Resistance 5-slots in either the single-target or cone Epic ranged attacks. I don't think this Stalker needs two cone attacks, but I won't argue against having more AoE for larger spawn sizes. I'd slot Energy Torrent just like Wall of Force, so that would be a loss of some set bonuses for me. If the loss of 10% Global recharge hurt too much, that second slot from Weaken Resolve could be used elsewhere for a fifth LotG mule. Pull one slot out of Unyielding to make the slot math work out. Weaken Resolve will help against some particularly high HP targets, although I am reasonably satisfied with single-target damage (despite the concentration on Psi damage).

Even if we accept the math above, my main argument against the blanket recommendation of %-Resistance is that (for this example above) is this: In order to see the hypothetical benefit of "200 extra damage", that benefit won't show up until the next attack. If the critter gets defeated because of %damage, it isn't necessary to make multiple attacks. It makes no difference if a critter with 10HP left is finished off with an attack that does 2000 or 2200. For giant sacks of HP, this is noticeable. For other critters, less so.

I'm often using a LOT of respecs during leveling. Often I want to try different powers, sometimes it becomes necessary to change up enhancements. There are some non-standard things that can be done with power pools, respecs help explore those options. Outside of changes to power sets, the most common reason I'll respec a "completed" build is for some quality-of-life adjacent reason... commonly I'll discover that that I have Endurance management under control in a level 50 build, so I pull slots from things like Health or Stamina to put somewhere else.