[Spider Mastermind]

requires Perma-Hasten which in turn requires an expensive IO based build (you need about 125% global recharge plus hasten).

 

(5 + 6.25 + 7.5) = 18.75 * 5 = +93.75%

 

Only way you're getting consistently to +125% would be through Purple IO Sets ... and that's EXPENSIVE ...

[Targeting Help]

I find this to be a better General Purpose™ macro/bind/keybind for targeting owing to the fact that it will prioritize targeting any of the special Anti-Kheldian mobs you might encounter so as to eliminate those first before falling back onto targeting whatever Foes are closest to you.

 

/macro name "target_enemy_next$$target_custom_next alive quantum$$target_custom_next alive void$$target_custom_next alive cyst"

 

The above macro is best used for ranged attackers, while the lower one is what you'd want for a melee attacker.

 

/macro name "target_enemy_near$$follow"

[City of Heroes Huntsman Arachnos Wolf Spider Guide by Aisynia Link]

The original (archived) version of Aisynia's  07-11-2008 post can be found here.

 

My take on things (also archived) of how to build a Huntsman can be found here.

I'm currently working on writing an updated version of the builds to incorporate "stuffs" that have happened in the meantime (like ATOs).  I'm hoping to have everything posted in the next couple of days or so.

[best way to keep insta-snipe up?]

RedTomax data isn't available anymore

 

Oh ... but it is ... although not every single sub-page may have been captured, but most of the site does exist in the Wayback Machine.

[Show Off!!]

Use Imgur instead for parking pictures for public use someplace that won't disappear on you.

[-Recharge - how does it work with procs?]

Link: Force Feedback Proc IO

 

The way it works is that your recharge "quantity" gets temporarily increased.

The easiest way I have to think about (and explain this) is that rather than working from a division standpoint (which will drive you nuts in a hurry) it's a LOT easier to think about this in terms of addition.

 

Think of it like this ...

 

Totally unenhanced, you have a (base) 100% recharge rate and enchancements "add" onto that rate.

So if you add a +20% Recharge enhancement to something, you now have 120% recharge in that power.

It's very easy to convert that into an iterative addition system, where instead of adding +100 every second (or whatever time interval you care about, so long as it remains constant) you're instead adding +120 every second.  This then makes it possible to cross compare the Recharge procs versus the alternative of "permanent" Recharge enhancement options.

 

So if the Force Feedback proc is +100% Recharge for 5 seconds (followed by a 10 second proc effect suppression phase, meaning that even ideally you'll never get more than 4 procs per minute, ever) ... how long would an alternative Recharge amount need to be in effect to achieve the same outcome?

 

Well ... 100 * 5 = 500 ... for a single proc of the Force Feedback IO.

If you want to compare that against a +7.5% Recharge set bonus, you can do a very simple formula:

 

(100 * 5s) / 7.5 = 66.667s

 

This means that if you're able to proc the Force Feedback IO once every 66-67 seconds you'll be breaking even with the amount of advantage you'd be getting from a +7.5% set bonus over that same time span.

Proc more often than once every 66-67 seconds and you're ahead of the alternative.

Proc less often than once every 66-67 seconds and you you're behind the alternative.

 

(100 * 5s) / 7.5 = 66.667s

(100 * 5s) / 6.25 = 80s

(100 * 5s) / 5 = 100s

 

So if you're trying to weigh the relative merits of the Force Feedback proc against more "permanent" recharge set bonuses, simply ask yourself how often you expect to have that proc activate thanks to your attack chain (since you need to be attacking in order for it to be of any use).

 

The other benefit is that if you're already capped on +7.5% Recharge set bonuses, the Force Feedback proc will allow you to "pile on even more" Recharge without falling afoul of the Rule Of Five for set bonuses, so long as you put it into attacks that can proc it (more than once per minute).

 

After that, it's just napkin math and theory crafting.

[Leadership]

Here's the thing about Leadership toggles ... the more people have them the more everyone benefits.

 

Something that I see A LOT on people's builds is diving into the Fighting Pool in order to Weave (and Tough).  There are a lot of builds out there that rely on Weave to be able to reach the Defense Softcap the way that they do, but ultimately reaching for Weave for that is something of a "selfish" build plan.

 

What do I mean by that?  Well ...

 

You can pick up Weave and it's good for you ... and only you ... or you could pick up Maneuvers instead and it's good for EVERYONE that you team with.

Maneuvers may only add half the Defense of Weave, but if there are 2 people on a team with Maneuvers then EVERYONE on that team has as much +Defense as those 2 people would have been getting out of Weave, not just merely those 2 people.

And this is really a thing.  When you realize that if you're on a team and only ONE OTHER person needs to have Leadership toggles in order to "break even" against the benefits of Weave for an entire team, that starts looking pretty "doable" rather than being something of a high hurdle.  Don't be a part of the problem, be a part of the solution (and all that jazz).

 

Given that reality, I always figured that investing in the Leadership toggles was a superior choice overall since it meant that I brought "more" to every team my characters joined, making EVERYONE on every team I joined better ... rather than being selfishly concerned with only myself and everyone else I ever teamed with was completely on their own.  The only times when taking Maneuvers, Assault and Tactics became a sub-optimal (by comparison) liability was when I was soloing, and even then I wasn't that far behind the alternative investment options, so I always considered picking up all of the Leadership toggles to be more of a Force Multiplier investment that made a difference on every Task Force and Mothership Raid.

 

Go figure, eh?

[Rescued from the Archives ... WAI: Slotting Ninjas for Comedy Value (^_^)"]

Source: WAI: Slotting Ninjas for Comedy Value (^_^)"

 

Yesterday I sat down with Mids' and respec-ed my Level 19 (now level locked at 20 in Praetoria) Ninja/Time Mastermind ... and decided I really needed to find someplace to put the new Overwhelming Force Proc into my build somewhere. But where?

 

I basically had a choice between Genin and Jounin for this, and I decided that on balance it would be better to slot a Knockback "governor" Proc into Genin than Jounin simply because Genin later get Crane Kick post-32, and because with 3 of them running around (most of the time) they produce the largest amount of "dice chucking" to produce Knockdowns with. Plus Genin tend to cycle their attacks very quickly with relatively few pauses, improving their "throw lots of dice" potential.

 

Today I was playing this completed respec ... and I started seeing the Easter Egg in the Overwhelming Force Proc start going off ... at least once per mission instance. And it's HILARIOUS!

 

 

 

For those who don't already know, the Overwhelming Force Proc has a miniscule (ie. less than 1%) chance to Proc a special animation ... a GIANORMOUZOID MUSHROOM CLOUD NUKETACKULAR that's bigger than my screen (and I'm running at over 2500x1600 resolution). Arbiter Hawk deliberately put this in as an Easter Egg, and I for one am highly amused that he did. The thing is, when you slot the Overwhelming Force Proc into Genin, every single attack they do has a chance to Proc the Easter Egg ... and Genin throw out LOTS of (piddly damage) attacks at a pretty good clip (see above: "chuck lots of dice" point).

 

At first, I didn't even realize what the heck was going on, because all of a sudden my entire screen would be completely filled with light and smoke and I couldn't see the hostiles I'd been (and still was) fighting. And then I saw it happen "from a distance" where a single Genin threw a Shuriken at a Ghoul ... and the MushroomCloudOfNUKITTYNUKENUKENUKE! went off and I had to stop playing for over a minute because I was laughing so hard.

 

My Genin are now armed with Atomic Annie Shurikens and their kick attacks can go supercritical and NUKE whatever they're up against at any time. It's so ridiculously overblown (literally) that it just brings a smile to my face every time I see it happen. It's even funnier when 2 or 3 of them Proc the Easter Egg at the same time and I can only imagine the foes I'm fighting against wondering where the air raid siren has gotten to? It's just so gloriously comic book-y!

 

 

 

Again, for those who don't know ... the Easter Egg Proc in Overwhelming Force doesn't "do" anything game mechanically (no extra damage or anything like that), it just merely adds graphics ... and comedy value.

 

Thank you for redeeming Ninjas for me XD

 

This is so going in my Genin.

 

Now I'm kind of wondering what would happen if the Overwhelming Force Proc were slotted into a Caltrops power (which Jounin have). Would you possibly get NUKEular Land Mines among the Caltrops going off (very very occasionally)?

 

Hmmm. This proc also adds a 20% chance for knockdown in powers without knocback. Does it give all of the Genin's non-Crane Kick attacks a chance for knockdown?

 

Yes.

 

Shurikens do Knockdown.

Thunder Kick does Knockdown.

Storm Kick does Knockdown.

Crane Kick will do KnockDOWN.

 

It's really quite impressive to see my Genin throughputting so much Knockdown, since it really improves their survivability (so long as they're not individually drawing too much aggro and thus too much damage onto themselves individually).

 

If Genin effectively adds a soft control power to their damage, you may have singlehandedly provided the elusive ninja buff.

 

Have you tried this on your lvl 50 ninja/TA MM, does the awesomeness continue at high levels?

 

I hate to consider reslotting my nin/poison but this might be worth it.

 

Heck, I hate considering even playing Ninjas, but you're definitely making it look appealing.

 

And I agree, I think you, sir, have just fixed ninjas. Congrats.

 

Do you get the fancy mushroom effect only on converted knock back to knock down attacks or can it happen on the chance to knockdown?

 

The easter egg gets the chance to happen every time a genin attacks, regardless of if it knocks.

 

The Easter Egg Proc can happen on any damaging attack because the Set is a Universal Damage Set. As I mentioned upthread, I'm seeing the NUKE FX go off at levels 20-24 (ie. before Genin can use Crane Kick, their only native Knockback power, becomes available to them). Shurikens and Kicks (Thunder and Storm) all have a chance to Proc the easter egg animation ... and because they're all damaging attacks, they all have a 20% chance to KnockDOWN thanks to the KB-to-KD Proc in Overwhelming Force. The opacity level of the NUKE FX makes it hard to see, visually, if under all that smoke and light if the $Target fell down or not.

 

As great as it sounds ... it really isn't *THAT* good (on its own) as a "silver bullet" for Ninja survivability issues. It's HELPFUL ... don't get me wrong ... but it's not a "be all/end all" solution in and of itself. I just happen to be running a Ninja/Time build right now that is stacking multiple effects in the form of (PBAoE on me) To-hit Debuff and (Target Location AoE) Movement+Recharge Debuff and (PBAoE on me) Heal+HoT to make my Ninjas far more survivable than they have any right to be ordinarily. When Foes have their Recharge Debuffed down to the Slow Cap, their Movement Speed Debuffed down to the Slow Cap, and their To-hit Debuffed more than halfway down to the Defense Softcap ... in combination, those things make Ninjas "pretty sturdy" so long as they fight in "formation" and don't go wandering off out of range (and getting themselves KILLED like idiots ). Add KnockDOWN to a pile of Genin attacks and Foes are going to be spending even more time NOT ATTACKING your Ninjas (or yourself, if Tankerminding) ... which only improves Ninja survivability even more.

 

When casually soloing (+0 x1 @ Level 20-24 in Sharkhead) it's actually somewhat rare for ANY of my Ninjas to be defeated and need resummoning, and when they do, it's usually only 1 Genin (who wandered off and got himself smoked). That's because *I* can control the flow of battle, *I* can pick when to engage (and how), and *I* have time to throw around heals and buffs in between spawn groups. I'm also not dealing with situations where my Ninjas are severely outnumbered (and if they are, I can just pre-emptively throw down Distortion Field to prevent my opposition from attacking all that much). As you might imagine, on a team or in a Strike Force, the dynamic is somewhat different. My Ninjas are still "better" than they would have been without the Overwhelming Force Proc ... but the Proc in and of and by itself is not "game changing ENOUGH" to solve all of my Ninjas' survivability issues.

 

Last night I joined a Silver Mantis Strike Force (which took me from Level 22 to 24) and my Ninjas were surviving "okay" so long as I kept them on a fairly tight leash and didn't get "too ambitious" in terms of what I was up against. The final map on the platform (of course) was a complete DISASTER for me because of how the "terrain" and deployment of opposition basically makes it IMPOSSIBLE to "control" your Pets with any meaningful success (my Ninjas loved "jumping off the platform" to their doom repeatedly). This reinforced the "when Ninjas stray..." principle in how their limited survivability is entirely dependent on staying with me and fighting at MY side because of the stacking of power effects that *I*, as the Mastermind, bring to the battle.

 

I have not tried it, and given my experience with Ninja/Time @ 20-24 I expect it to "help" but not "solve" the problem of Ninja survivability when in "contact" with Foes while "poorly supported" by Secondary Powers. I expect I'd have to be using Presence Pool Fear powers to shore up my Ninjas even approximately closely to what Time Manipulation can do in this regard, since Trick Arrow offers surprisingly little survivability aids. Glue Arrow is approximately close to Distortion Field (although Distortion Field is *MUCH BETTER*!), and Flash Arrow is "similar" to Time's Juncture (although Time's Juncture is a *MUCH BETTER* To-hit Debuff!) ... so there *is* some potential for transference of strategy/tactics from one to the other ... but without the PBAoE Heal of Time Manipulation, you have to resort to things like Aid Other with Trick Arrow, and that is nowhere NEAR as effective!

 

The Comedy Value alone makes it worth it, in my opinion ... since Atomic Annie Shurikens are just so ridiculous.

 

So long as you don't have outsized expectations of "free" survivability courtesy of the Overwhelming Force Proc, you'll be okay. Having a 20% (not 100%) chance to Knockdown in every attack is "helpful" but it isn't "enough" all on its own. You still need both Secondary and Pool powers to "shore up" the inherent weaknesses (which are MASSIVE!) of Ninjas to being attacked themselves (they are *total* Glass Cannons). Time Manipulation gives me the necessary "toolkit" to minimize the weaknesses of my Ninjas "enough" that I can keep them alive and fighting, and the Overwhelming Force Proc is simply the "cherry blowing up the top" of a badly slumping sundae.

 

The *best* ways to keep Ninjas alive is either the path of NO GET HITSU!! where a combination of Defense Buffing and To-hit Debuffing pushes them towards the Defense Softcap ... so they take very few hits/damage ... -or- ... prevent your Foes from attacking the Ninjas "directly" either through Tankerminding, where you just don't let your Ninjas grab and hold aggro ... and/or Slow Debuffing, where you just don't let your Foes recharge their powers to attack with. Adding (a chance to) Knockdown to every single Genin attack power via Overwhelming Force Proc works as a "force multiplier" for either build strategy since the Knockdowns futher "limit" the number of incoming attacks that your Ninjas will need to defend against, further enhancing their survivability. It "helps" but isn't enough all by itself to be (literally) game changing.

 

It is however funny as all get out to see Foes getting knocked over by Shuriken hits ... and that sometimes detonate in huge mushroom clouds of light, smoke and fallout ...

 

Thanks for the answer. I'm going to use one on the lowest tier wolves for my beast MM - mostly as I like to see them run down foes. I'm glad they will be able to still cause the flair for dramatic

[Suggestions on Mind Control (and other powers?)]

Telekinesis is a unique power, but its extreme endurance cost and built-in repel makes it both difficult to control and very situational.  A quick fix would be to lessen or remove the repel effect and potentially lessen the endurance cost, thus broadening its ability to be used while keeping its unique feel.

 

City of Data: Telekinesis

 

Telekinesis suffers from what amounts to a TRIPLE WHAMMY put on it by Cryptic/Paragon Studios when they implemented the Control NERF that included putting caps on aggro.  Whereas before the nerf, Telekinesis could affect an unlimited number of $Targets within the 10ft radius Sphere around your anchor target, which is when Telekinesis REALLY started to shine ... after the nerf Telekinesis could only affect a maximum of five $Targets.

 

FIVE.

 

This meant that although Total Domination (and other "mass" control powers like it) had a max target cap of 16 ... Telekinesis was nerfed into the ground with a max target cap of only FIVE targets affected, maximum.

 

FIVE.

 

That meant you couldn't do THIS anymore ... (yes, I was playing at 640x480 resolution back in those days) ...

 

 

I count TEN Skyraiders being held/repelled by Telekinesis in that image.

Not five ... TEN.

 

Needless to say, all efforts to correct this massively unfair (and totally unnecessary) "fix" to Telekinesis fell on deaf ears at Cryptic/Paragon Studios ... even though the actual solution to this specific problem involved changing a SINGLE parameter for the power.

 

Step 1: delete "5" from max targets table cell

Step 2: replace with "16" in the max targets table cell

Step 3: DONE

 

Apparently, this was "too much work" or something to get done in multiple years after the nerf ruined Telekinesis as a MASS Hold power.  Yes, I'm still bitter that no one on staff thought this was worth the effort it would take to fix.  They made a mistake and resolved never to correct it.  Thanks guys!

 

 

 

Now the bigger problem with Telekinesis was that it was originally balanced around the notion that it could hold an unlimited number of targets within a 10ft AoE around the anchor $Target, with "extras" within that AoE able to fall out of that radius if the Repel aspect of the power allowed them all to drift too far apart from each other ... which was quite possible in the absence of convenient terrain to "corner pack" them all into (see above picture for reference of exactly this).  That's because the Repel always moved Foes AWAY from the CASTER, and since $Targets refused to stay in a nice straight line (forever) this meant that over time they'd essentially "drift apart" on different vectors unless there was some kind of terrain to push them together into.

 

That doesn't necessarily have to be the case anymore, though.  One of the tools that became available long after Telekinesis was put into the game was the ability for powers to open up OTHER POWERS, like with Kheldian Forms and later Swap Ammo in Dual Pistols and so on.

 

What Telekinesis REALLY needs to be is a 2-in-1 power where the power pick opens up 2 subsidiary powers, both of which would be Toggles.

• The main power would be a Hold Toggle that does everything Telekinesis does right now MINUS the Repel effect.
  
• The second (sub) power would be a Repel Toggle that applies the Repel effect of Telekinesis only onto the $Target affected by Telekinesis (so use the same anchor) plus a 10ft radius around that $Target.
  
• Furthmore, the second (sub) power for the Repel effect could only be Toggled on while the main (sub) power Hold Toggle effect was toggled on.  As soon as the Hold of Telekinesis is detoggled, the Repel of Telekinesis is automatically detoggled with it and both powers go into Recharge (base 60 seconds for each).

This way, you'd be able to toggle on/off the Repel effect of Telekinesis "on demand" rather that suffering from an (unwanted) "Always On" condition (that doesn't help you any most of the time).

 

The way that I would implement this would be to alter the Hold Toggle side of Telekinesis to make the Repel effect conditional upon a designated buff effect being put onto the caster (no buff on Caster, no Repel effect added to the 10ft radius Target AoE Telekinesis).  You then just make the Repel Toggle add this designated buff add to the Caster.

 

The Endurance Cost of Telekinesis on City of Data is 1.56 END per 0.5 sec activation.

I would recommend splitting this not in a 1:1 fashion of two halves, but rather into a 2:1 ratio of thirds.

• Make the main power with the Hold Toggle cost 1.04 END per 0.5 sec activation.
  
• Make the second (sub) power with the Repel Toggle (self buff enable) cost 0.52 END per 0.5 sec activation.
  
• Total cost with both Toggles active ... 1.56 END per 0.5 sec activation.

 

 

And THAT is how you take a power that was nerfed into the ground by Cryptic/Paragon Studios and REFACTOR it to yield the exact same performance in a MUCH more controllable state that makes the power actually worth taking (and using), rather than keeping it as an annoying novelty that hardly anyone makes use of and which is extremely prone to making a mess of herding in team situations.

 

Your move ... Dev Team.