Redlynne

"Never play on patch day." All these years later, it's still sound advice ...

It is asking a Yes or No question of the Developer in charge of powers ... Powerhouse ... about the feasibility of a proposition. Is it possible? Is it not possible? Never thought I see the day where I had explain how yes/no questions "work" to someone in these forums ...

http://web.archive.org/web/20121014173018/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/

Trick Arrow ... vs ... Tactical Arrow Accuracy is the same. Animation time is the same @ 1s. Endurance cost is the same @ 5.2. Range is the same @ 80 ft. Recharge Time is the same @ 4s. Immobilize MAG is the same @ 3 but the duration is modified by Archetype modifiers (working as designed). -Recharge debuffing and -Speed debuffing is modified by Archetype modifiers (working as designed). The only difference is that the Tactical Arrow version adds an Energy Damage over Time ... which is EXACTLY what you'd need to light up an Oil Slick(!). All that is "needed" to go about "fixing" Entangling Arrow in Trick Arrow can be found in the already working code. A simple copy/paste from Electrified Net Arrow to overwrite Entangling Arrow and you'd "solve" the problem(s) with Entangling Arrow. S imple. E asy. E ffective. ... not being done (yet) ...

I agree.

Granted. I have no problem with keeping the chance to hit miss from Hidden in PvP while making Assassin Strike autohit from Hidden in PvE.

Speed ... not needed if you want to spend slots on your running powers (Quickness, Swift, Sprint equivalent) but even if you double slot all of them and stack with Ninja Run you'll get up to 75.2 mph ... but if single slotted you get 67.8 mph. Which means you can add +1 slot to 3 powers and go past the ED cap and get +7.4 mph for your trouble. Yup, that's the choice. I would point out though that if you combine the Medicine and Leadership pools you can take Injection as your "intro" to Medicine power and Injection gives you a -7% -ToHit debuff, a -7% Damage debuff and a -8% Recharge debuff against a single enemy $Target ... and Injection can be 4 slotted with Dark Watcher's Despair to yield -9.98% -ToHit debuffing while keeping the -Recharge proc (-20% recharge for 20s, 3.5PPM for 77% proc chance with +16.85% recharge enhancement on power). In a pinch that can help cover a Defense shortfall for you when using Injection offensively rather than defensively on allies/teammates. Injection Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff: Level 27 Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance: Level 27 Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Endurance: Level 27 Dark Watcher's Despair - Chance for Recharge Slow: Level 21 So there's that option. If it were my build, I'd drop Speed, Fighting and Leaping pools and instead use Leadership, Medicine and Teleportation (movement so fast you're gone "in the blink of an eye!") and just use Ninja Run for actual MOVEMENT through space (as opposed to simply skipping PAST space with Teleport). You can use Vengeance as an extra Luck of the Gambler mule, just like you've been doing with Combat Jumping and you'd also be able to use Teleport to "get high" when you need to go UP instead of just jumping to get there. That then leaves you with a spare pool to play with, whether it be for Body Mastery or anything else that strikes your fancy. I also STRONGLY urge you to spend 2 and 2 slots on Health and Stamina to achieve the following that I've mentioned before: You'd be amazed by how many endurance recovery problems this solves (and it gets you extra movement speed in the bargain!).

You're thinking of Preventative Medicine which has a proc once per 90s limitation on it. Last time I checked, Burnout has a 30 minute base recharge, so I'm a little dubious of an "every couple of minutes" use for it.

Filed under the heading of Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish that one. Greater Ice Sword is perhaps one of THE most disappointing powers in any powerset.

My first main ... Redlynne ... was a MA/SR Scrapper (rolled back in Issue 2!), so I remember Super Reflexes from before Enhancement Dysfunction (ED). So ... yeah. In my experience, there are two ways to "bounce back" after taking hits through your Defenses ... Aid Self and Phase Shift (of all things). Aid Self is actually a lot easier to use with Super Reflexes than you'd think. Yes, it has an Interrupt of 1s (for which there's no point in slotting Interrupt Reduction), but so long as everything keeps MISSing you, you'll be able to use Aid Self while $Targets are whiffing all around you. Nowadays, I'd argue to reach for all 6 slots of Preventative Medicine, which also offers a periodic Absorb, and put that into Aid Self. Not to put too fine a point on it, Aid Self is the difference between a /SR who survives versus a /SR who faceplants. However, the downside to this approach is that there are periodic DoT effects that will interrupt Aid Self (such as Caltrops) which will prevent/preclude use of Aid Self. Now, you can get around this problem by use of a flight power (such as Hover) to lift yourself above the groundbound area denial, but if you don't have Hover/Fly/Mystic Flight or even Teleport to change location this can be potentially problematic. The alternative that I was using before Aid Self was, of all things, Phase Shift. The idea was that rather than pull out the tricorder to heal myself I'd instead just take a "time out" and let Regeneration heal me back up to full. The difference is that back in the day I could sustain Phase Shift for longer than 30s (could sustain it indefinitely in fact). Nowadays you'd need to calculate how much of your HP you can regenerate in 30s ... and realize that executing this option literally takes you "out of the fight" so you're not able to contribute again until it's "safe" for you to rejoin it. Between the two of them, I found that Aid Self was far more useful and quicker to get me back in the fight. And besides, I wouldn't have been able to hold the aggro of FIVE RIKTI MAGUS on me for over a minute at a time without Aid Self, since the damage that would "leak through" my Defenses would have faceplanted me if I didn't have access to Aid Self.

3 recharge reductions in Hasten is beyond excessive. You can overcap recharge with 2 Level 50+5 recharge enhancement, so the third slot here is just flat out wasted. But I'm still looking at this and can't imagine a justification for this much of a wasteful expenditure on Hasten for this build. If you had Evasion in the build Hasten could be justified, but as is Hasten is barely doing much at all for you. Swift (with Run 50+5 slot) and Quickness (with Run 50+5 slot) and Sprint or Prestige Power Run (with 50+5 slot) plus Ninja Run will get you up to 68.9 mph with One Slot Wonder powers ... the only thing that Super Speed is giving you is another +21.1 mph to reach the run speed cap of 90 mph. Now, taking Super Speed would make sense if you were putting a Stealth IO in either Super Speed itself or in Sprint so as to stack enough stealth radius to be able to "negate aggro" via proximity except against mobs that ignore Stealth (Rikti Drones, etc.). But without that combination, Super Speed just isn't adding all that much for you over what you're already able to get out of Swift+Quickness+Sprint+Ninja Run ... and there are better power picks you could choose for another One Slot Wonder power (such as Vengeance, which can slot a Luck of the Gambler recharge bonus IO). So my recommendation would be to drop the Speed pool entirely ... reclaiming 2 power picks and +2 additional slots to distribute elsewhere ... and live with Ninja Run as your "travel" power instead. Why are you adding these slots to Combat Jumping instead of adding them to Agile/Dodge/Lucky instead? Personally, I prefer doing a 5+1 slotting for Dragon's Tail so as to put a Force Feedback proc into it, which will allow you to swap the power Hasten for a single slot and enhancement that yields a comparable output. I could go on ... but I think you're starting to get the sense that there's a lot of room for additional improvement on this.

I'm rather ... partial, I guess you could say ... to playing a Time/Dual Pistols/Soul Defender ...

Wait ... the demons aren't all high school girls?

Paging @SmalltalkJava ... please pick up the white telephone that's burning with hellfire ...

Heh ... I just addressed this topic in the context of Scrappers ... My opinion on the matter is that the Fighting pool is NOT "needed" (per se) to achieve those high performance levels, but a lot of people reach for it because ... a lot of people reach for it. It's also very simplistic in the "Just Do This" sense, so people take the path of least resistance and don't question it all that much. It's easy to explain and "obvious" how your build benefits, so that's the end of it ... right? However, if you take a longer/broader view of things, I'm of the opinion that the Fighting pool is only better for soloists ... but you can get comparable (and possibly even better!) performance out of the Leadership pool. Click the link provided above for why I make that assertion and how it can possibly be true even for Scrappers with their "worst among Archetypes" buff strength from the Leadership pool. Also, if you look at pretty much any of the builds I post in these forums, you'll almost never see the Fighting pool in them, but quite often you'll find the Leadership pool. There's a reason for that ...

If you put it in a Click power, the proc has a duration of 120s. If you put it in Aid Other, you will need to be teamed to get the benefit of this proc "full time" and you'll have to keep using Aid Other at least once every 2 minutes. Unless you need the 6-slot set bonus, put Numina's Convalescence proc in Health and have done with it.

Ice/Ice is just a slow to mature combination. It takes a LOT of slotting before it starts getting "really good" at what it does, so there's a lot of "growing pains" as you level up. Once you make it to 50 it's pretty strong, but it's getting to 50 that's a slog for most people.

That gives me an idea ...

@Powerhouse ... would it be possible to make Assassin Strike an auto-hit power while a Stalker is in Hidden status ... but require a Hit Check when not in Hidden status?

This is one of the logical fallacies that I really want to combat on these forums. Almost everyone looks at Maneuvers and compares it to Weave (duh) and quickly decides that Maneuvers is too "weak" in comparison to be worth the trouble to invest in it. But that's taking only the solo/selfish view of how to build/play your character into account, and ignoring discounting how Maneuvers can stack in teams, while Weave won't. So let's do an apples to apples comparison here, since I figure there are more people on these forums who will benefit from it than just yourself. Let's take the slotting you have for Weave and apply it to Maneuvers as well. So if I do this ... Level 4: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 27 (5) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 27 (5) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 27 (7) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 25 Level 14: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance: Level 27 (15) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 27 (15) Luck of the Gambler - Defense: Level 27 (17) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 25 Level 16: Tactics (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff: Level 27 (17) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge: Level 27 (19) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance: Level 27 (19) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance: Level 27 (21) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance: Level 27 (21) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up: Level 21 What kind of +Defense throughput am I looking at for the respective pools? Well, with: Weave ALONE ... the throughput is +5.72% Defense vs All. With Weave + Tough slotted with two +3% Defense IOs ... the throughput is +11.72% Defense vs All. Maneuvers ALONE ... the throughput is +3.47% Defense vs All. With Maneuvers + Tactics ... the throughput is +4.72% Typed Defense (S/L/F/C/E/N) except Psionic (which is still +3.47%) and +5.97% Positional Defense (Melee/Ranged/AoE). Since Positional Defense is what you want in a Super Reflexes build, you're already ahead of the curve here by taking Leadership vs Fighting when not counting the pair of +3% Defense Resistance IOs that would be getting slotted into Tough. So what does this look like in a team context? Well ... let's look at what happens if you have the exact same build be duplicated multiple times on a team to do the cross-comparison of counterfactuals. Team-1 ... Weave: +5.72 +3 +3 = +11.72 Defense ... Leadership: +3.47 +2.5 = +5.97 Defense Team-2 ... Weave: +5.72 +3 +3 = +11.72 Defense ... Leadership: +3.47 +3.47 +2.5 = +9.44 Defense Team-3 ... Weave: +5.72 +3 +3 = +11.72 Defense ... Leadership: +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +2.5 = +12.91 Defense Team-4 ... Weave: +5.72 +3 +3 = +11.72 Defense ... Leadership: +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +2.5 = +16.38 Defense Team-5 ... Weave: +5.72 +3 +3 = +11.72 Defense ... Leadership: +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +2.5 = +19.85 Defense Team-6 ... Weave: +5.72 +3 +3 = +11.72 Defense ... Leadership: +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +2.5 = +23.32 Defense Team-7 ... Weave: +5.72 +3 +3 = +11.72 Defense ... Leadership: +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +2.5 = +26.79 Defense Team-8 ... Weave: +5.72 +3 +3 = +11.72 Defense ... Leadership: +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +3.47 +2.5 = +30.26 Defense So basically, in a Team situation where you and ONE other teammate have slotted Maneuvers with as little as +3 additional slots like is being shown here, the Leadership Pool is actually being rather competitive with the Fighting Pool option (a difference of -2.28 Defense, all else being equal) ... and even when you're solo, with Leadership you're only at a deficit of -5.75 Defense relative to the Fighting Pool option when using the exact same slotting investment for Maneuvers and Weave (and the two +3% Defense IOs in Tough to get to Weave). In other words, the Fighting pool is only the "best" option (or at least "clearly best" option) when dealing with a strictly solo context, but as soon as you move into a team context where more than one teammate can be running Maneuvers, that advantage to Weave functionally evaporates, even when looking at the Leadership pool in terms of Scrapper strength buffing from Maneuvers. The kicker to this is that if YOU'VE got Maneuvers on your PC, it's a LOT easier to find ONE other teammate with Maneuvers than it is to find TWO other teammates with Maneuvers. Furthermore, if more Melee Monsters took Leadership instead of the Fighting Pool it would be a LOT easier for everyone to reach the 59% Incarnate Softcap for Defense than it is for everyone trying to do that using the Fighting pool. And that's not even including the side benefit of putting Gaussian's into Tactics so you can proc Build Up way more often than you would otherwise be able to for Build Ups that require ZERO animation time so you don't have to disrupt your attack chain in order to get the benefits. Now, personally speaking, my favored slotting for Maneuvers is NOT the Luck of the Gambler set ... it's this: Level 4: Maneuvers (A) Reactive Defenses - Defense: Level 27 (5) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance: Level 27 (5) Reactive Defenses - Endurance/RechargeTime: Level 27 (7) Reactive Defenses - Defense/RechargeTime: Level 27 (7) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime: Level 27 (9) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage: Level 20 The yield from this slotting of Maneuvers is +3.48% Defense ... and +1.87% Hit Points, +3.75% global endurance discount(!), +8.75% global recharge reduction(!) and some miscellaneous Resistances that no one is going to care about. An alternative slotting to use for Defense powers (in general) if 6 slotting them would be this: Level 4: Maneuvers (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance: Level 27 (5) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge: Level 27 (5) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge: Level 27 (7) Red Fortune - Defense: Level 27 (7) Red Fortune - Endurance: Level 27 (9) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed: Level 25 The yield from this slotting is +3.57% Defense, thanks to ED (so a very marginal increase of +0.09% on a Scrapper) ... +2% Damage (All), +12.5% global recharge reduction(!) ... and some miscellaneous Resistances that no one is going to care about. Because the Reactive Defenses Scaling Resist IO is a unique, you can only get away with 6 slotting Reactive Defenses ONCE on a build ... and given the marginal/minor amount of +Defense you'd be giving up for it relative to the 5+1 Red+Luck slotting, I personally have a strong preference for putting Reactive Defenses into Maneuvers. So this then is why I so strongly favor use of the Leadership pool over the Fighting Pool for Melee Monster types who rely on Defense as their protection scheme ... because Leadership makes EVERYONE better at what they do ... and if everyone was taking Leadership instead of the Fighting pool we'd ALL be "stronger" for it. Yes, other Archetypes "get more" out of Leadership buffs than we do as Scrappers, but what we're getting out of Leadership can still "make a difference" for everyone involved ... so it's not a "waste" to pick Leadership rather than Fighting. Pretty much the ONLY time when choosing Leadership rather than the Fighting pool is a net loss is when you're either soloing or on a team/league in which NO ONE ELSE took the Leadership pool. But if more Players figure out that the Leadership pool is "better" for them than the Fighting pool when you need the boost the most (Task Forces and Incarnate Trials, for example, which are all group content) then that fear/worry/concern that you'll be the only one on the team/league with the Leadership pool will be reduced. Bottom line ... the Leadership pool is "better for you" in the long run than the Fighting pool is ... and the only edge case where that "isn't true" is the soloist condition (or the team with no one else on it with Maneuvers) ... and that's not even counting what Gaussian's slotted into Tactics can do for you, let alone what Assault will do for everyone you team with (especially if stacking Assault with other people who invested in the Leadership pool!). This would be an INCREDIBLE mistake to make. First of all, the endurance drain for keeping Focused Accuracy up is just plain RUINOUS. You can run TWO Leadership toggles for the price of running Focused Accuracy! Focused Accuracy is just an endurance sink, plain and simple. If your endurance problems were bad before, adding Focused Accuracy to your build will only make them worse! Additionally, putting Gaussian's into Focused Accuracy is just about the biggest blunder you could possibly make. With Tactics, it's an aura that can affect multiple teammates/leaguemates which is where you get the increased chance to proc every 10 seconds from (it makes more checks to proc at 10 second intervals based on how many teammates/leaguemates are being affected by it) and it only needs 1 success per Chuck Lots Of Dice!! roll every 10 seconds to be successful at that. But with Focused Accuracy, your maximum $Targets is ... ONE ... yourself. This means that slotting the Gaussian's Build Up proc into Focused Accuracy means that the only condition being checked for is the Team-1 condition ... meaning a 6.5% chance to proc every 10 seconds for as long as you're paying the exorbitant endurance cost of running Focused Accuracy. So to put it mildly ... taking Focused Accuracy and moving the entire Gaussian's set into it is what we like to call A BAD MOVE™ in these parts of the builder community.

I think you need to reverse the order of operations on that to make it work in a single click. /bind [keyname] "targetcustomnext oil slick$$powexecname taser dart"

You can either Provoke, when you're not doing any damage yourself (resulting in a twice nothing is still nothing wash through the Threat formula) or you can take your own personal attacks and do damage with them as your opener that will draw aggro to you from the beginning. The difference is No Damage/Not Perma versus Yes Damage/Repeatable.

Doing this helps: Level 2: Health (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance: Level 10 (17) Miracle - +Recovery: Level 20 (27) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery: Level 30 Level 2: Stamina (A) Endurance Modification IO: Level 50+5 (5) Performance Shifter - EndMod: Level 27 (19) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End: Level 21 Also, what do you need Hasten for?

Reactive Defense (a full 6 slots) ironically offers less recharge bonus than doing a 5 slot Red Fortune + 1 slot Luck of the Gambler global recharge. The former is 8.75% global recharge ... while the latter is 12.5% global recharge from the same number of slots ... for a +/- 3.75% differential between the two options. The difference, of course, is the Scaling Resists from Reactive Defenses, which I'd argue on a Super Reflexes build is worth it to have. That said, if reaching for a 6-slot Reactive Defense, my personal recommendation is to put that into Leadership: Maneuvers since the loss of Defense on the available enhancements relative to the 5+1 Red Fortune/LotG combo is quite minimal (I think it's like -0.2% or something pretty marginal in the final computation). Dipping into the Leadership pool instead of the Fighting pool will mean that you won't have as much +Defense from Maneuvers as you would from Weave (it's about half of Weave's buff), but if you're on a team with anyone else who ALSO has Maneuvers then between the two of you you're both at Weave levels of +Defense (and so is everyone else on the team who sticks with your group) ... so the only downside is when you're soloing, or when no one else on the team took Maneuvers (the selfish bahstids!). However, reaching for Leadership to get Maneuvers instead of Weave also gives you access to Tactics, which when 6-slotted with Gaussian's Synchronized Fire Control will make up the difference you "lost" by taking Maneuvers instead of Weave ... AND Tactics with the Build Up proc in it will tend to supercharge your +ToHit and +Damage in a Team-8 context (and even moreso in leagues!). You may have seen me post why this happens in other threads, but it bears repeating here in this context. Each Build Up proc out of Tactics will give you an additional +40% +ToHit AND +100% +Damage for 5.25 seconds on a Scrapper. Does that sound like something worth investing in? So if you take Leadership instead of the Fighting pool ... what happens? Well, for one thing you won't need to take Boxing (and then not slot or use it for anything). You won't have Tough to slot Resistance set IOs into, so there's a net loss when factoring in +Defense Resistance IOs You won't have Weave. Instead you'll have Maneuvers, presumably 6-slotted with Reactive Defenses so as to get the Scaling Resistances buff. Instead you'll have the option(!) to take Assault, if your build has the leftover power pick for it, and which is a One Slot Wonder power that needs no additional enhancement. You'll want to take Tactics and 6-slot it for Gaussian's Synchronized Fire Control, bringing the +Defense boost from the pool overall back up to the level of what Weave was offering you in the first place. So basically you can either go with 3 power picks from the Fighting pool like you have and invest +6 additional slots in them like you have ... or you can got with 2-3 power picks from the Leadership pool and invest +10 additional slots in them and get a LOT MORE out of your powers and picks (for yourself AND your teams!) ... and you're going to "get" a lot of those extra slots from your investment into Focus Chi (1-2 slots for recharge instead of 6 slots for Gaussian's in Focus Chi) and then be able to get MORE PROCS from the Gaussian's Build Up in teams than you would from using Gaussian's in Focus Chi. So, really ... the only thing you lose by going with Leadership instead of Fighting is ... Tough ... and the IOs that can be slotted into Tough. Just something to think about, since I seem to be the only Scrapper/Tanker who thinks that Leadership is a superior choice to Fighting ... but then that's really about the difference between being a Team player and a Solo player.

To be honest, with Minimal FX Mystic Flight in the game, I seriously have to wonder why people who reach for the Flight pool just for Fly (and nothing else) aren't instead reaching for the Sorcery pool so as to pick up Mystic Flight. The reason that I say that is because Mystic Flight is Fly PLUS a Teleport. You can enhance the Fly side of the power but you can't enhance the Teleport side of it (and honestly, you don't need to enhance the Teleport side of it). So Mystic Flight works just like Fly but has a lower endurance cost to use (go figure, eh?) and the Teleport built into it gives you access to some really tricky maneuvering that wouldn't otherwise be available to you (such as teleporting around corners while autorun moving forwards just by using camera look instead of mouse look). Also, you don't need to use a Freebird's set IO if all you're reaching for is endurance reduction, since you can get that out of a Common IO. You'd want to be using a Freebird's set IO if you were reaching for the End/Fly IO instead ... although, honestly, at the flight speeds you can get up to without enhancement but no Afterburner, you might as well just use a common endurance reduction IO and have done with it. The alternative, of course, would be to use a +3 HO that gives you End/Fly/Jump/Run instead. Given the fact that you've slotted everything as a Level 50 enhancement, if those enhancements are not attuned then the first time you Exemplar below Level 47 you're going to get a VERY RUDE awakening when pretty much ALL of your set bonuses "stop working" for you. However, if your sets are attuned then the set bonuses will Exemplar down to the minimum Level of the respective sets and go -3 Levels beyond that (so a 30-50 set will still have its set bonuses active at Exemplar Levels 27-50, for example). My point being that even if you don't "need" Combat Training: Offensive at Level 50, it's still a decidedly handy thing to have when you Exemplar, particularly when you Exemplar into the lower levels of play, either via Ouroboros or through team play involving supersidekicking.