Sanguinesun

Its a completely different mechanic and for a completely different set with a different functioning theme that I'll address later in the post. As someone already mentioned, IR is a pseudo burn pet. Its a stationary cloud( not really "ground" based either like the name indicated because it can activate in the air) that activates about every 5 secs or so. Once activated the cloud patch remains stationary in that location ticking damage. If you move, you can have 2 patches up for a couple of overlapping seconds. Quills activates always in radius around you, constantly from you and with you for its tick damage. It is not restricted with a stationary effect. So the change to "10 seconds" though is for the ---damage/recharge debuff, etc etc----- that goes commonly by players into the power to add more effectivity to the power. So instead of those procs applying those damage/debuffs every drop of a patch/cloud on the first tick of its activation (ie at the start of every 5 second interval), they're now instead only activating once every 2 cloud/patches instead. This essentially reduces the output/effectivity of the procs put into the power by 50%. Comparing then Quills at least on the level of considering procs to that of Irradiated Ground.... ____________________________________________________________________ IO Procs that can go into Quills (12 Total): ATO's: Unrelenting Fury: +end/+recovery (Unique) Brute's Fury: Fury Bonus (Unique) Slow Movement: Ice Mistral's Torment: Cold Damage Impeded Swiftness: Smashing Damage Pacing of the Turtle: -recharge PBAOE damage sets: Superior Avalanche: Knockdown chance (Unique) Fury of the Gladiator: -20% Resistance (Unique) Armageddon: Fire damage (Unique) Bombardment: Smashing damage Scirocco's Dervish: Lethal Damage Eradication: Energy Damage Universal Damage Set: Overwhelming Force: Chance for KB/KD to KD (Unique) ______________________________________________________________________ IO Procs that can go into Irradiated Ground (11 Total): --No ATO sets allowed--- PBAOE damage sets: Superior Avalanche: Knockdown chance (Unique) Fury of the Gladiator: -20% Resistance (Unique) Armageddon: Fire damage (Unique) Bombardment: Smashing damage Scirocco's Dervish: Lethal Damage Eradication: Energy Damage Defense Debuff sets: Achille's Heel: -20% Resistance Touch of Lady Grey: Negative damage Accurate Defense Debuff sets: Analyze Weakness: +Tohit Shield Breaker: Lethal Damage Universal Damage Set: Overwhelming Force: Chance for KB/KD to KD (Unique) _______________________________________________________________________ So Irradiated ground takes less procs no access to ATOs but gains 2 vs 1 -resistance and a +tohit proc choices if desired but cant take any ato procs and -now- has any proc only occur at 50% of the time due to activation only once ever 2 patches and its a stationary/static patch/cloud activation that prevents potentially there being constant damage ticks for every group/mob encountered. It inherently has -defense has the special attribute contamination and thus extra damage in conjunction with itself and other powers in the set(and the heal with siphon). Quills takes more procs takes ATO's only access to 1 -resistance inherently has -speed and -recharge as mentioned above is radius tick from the player dynamically as they move meaning its quickly damaging mobs in any group. So if you want to view this a different way, Radiation's power set is more offensive(contanimation mitigating the general lower damage output of the set and the -defense to help it more). Spines is more of a defensive oriented set with -recharge and -speed but more readily seen straight up damage. In other words, they're two different sets with differences in fuctions. That makes sense as the real live devs originally designed sets with different functions like that. But these AoE toggle damage output/function isn't really any different in a larger scheme of their activations with the balances of their sets and in balances with other sets with similar functions too. The changing of IR thus is lacking more transparent reasoning and given as well that devs focused on that... yet bumping Breath of Fire to do more damage than some AoE T9 nukes should also show just how imbalanced the approaches/mindsets are becoming seemingly to change for the sake of change that is going on. All these irradiated ground changes to curtail its effectivity that has existed for the power set for years and years now make for compelling evidence that it is solely because of the dogged determination of a segment of folks including some on the dev team to curtail/discourage farming, not all at once (its becoming every update now this is going on), but in phases. Outside of any other aspects of game play, changing irradiated ground and other aspects of rad etc would not be considered. It is just treating a perceived symptom(farming is bad) and not the perceived cause(an extremely imbalanced game economy and recipe access system due to time gating originally for subscription/microtransation purposes when the game was live as well as gatekeeping what others enjoy doing). That's meaning both influence and character leveling aspects of the game regarding that. If the team truly then wants to transparently address that, then that's a whole other thing. My recommendation for irradiated ground then: due to the static nature of the power's mechanics and its differences with procs in conjunction with the rng of contamination, and its place with damage in the set wholistically, there's nothing that needs to be changed as -again- this has been the way its played since live. Its not a power, proc, or set/set combo issue or balance one. Its a contrived one from opposing mindsets of game play which needn't exist.

Its just a spin tactic certain folks are using for justification of changes they want to see implemented. I keep seeing this same sort of "its a bug and we need to remove it" silliness on chats on the servers. Same folks have also shifted their discussion to essentially revealing they want to see all procs removed from the game too (which isn't going to happen).

And today, the recharge time, radius, and activation time for burn was reverted to its original numbers.. The Breath of Fire (Fire Breath) still is the most damaging attack in the set now due to the 46 ticks and front loaded damage. I reported on that in the feedback for it as it does more damage than the T9 single target Greater Fire Sword in the fire melee set. Feel sorry then for the teams that live would encounter cot or carni doing that attack, it'll be mission wide perpetual damage as a team moved from group to group in a mission, in tandem ticks from multiple mob sources, etc. Its basically once it hits an unavoidable. more damaging caltrops tick off. For players taking the attack....

If a feature to the game as been in the game since live and you simply don't like it, calling it a bug to justify removal doesn't actually means its a bug. In other news.... Devs in today's beta patch reverted burn's doubling of the recharge time and its radius and activation time back to what it was before.

Discussions on changes / additions this cycle (and past in some cases) to the game really reminded me of the video below. It's an old vid but I think both devs and players who have never seen this take something from this. Sometimes just because we want to change, add, or even remove etc something to the game doesn't mean that it actually benefits the game. I

1. AE lists the DoT as 46 not 45 ticks. 2. An Elite Boss at 50 for this power does according to AE: Average damage: 205.83 Damage per activation time: 77.09 Damage per cast cycle: 26.84 To give this more perspective, the T9 in the melee set(Greater Fire Sword) which is a single target does: Average damage: 104.22 Damage per activation time: 76.08 Damage per cast cycle: 14.14 So my question is why is Breath of Fire doing damage on par with a T9 Nuke.? It seems way too excessive. And I said this in another thread which was disputed but its true: Multiple mobs using this power mean that the 45(46 again according to AE) do their ticks in tandem with each other (let's call that a stacking). That's a rather excessive amount of damage for a pretty commonly used power from not just AE mobs but for lots of mob sets in game. The change to this power seems that someone wants to make this like a Caltrops power with the excessive amount of ticks. Difference is that caltrops is an area on the ground effect that a player can move out and doesnt have a front loaded damage to the attack either. Once hit with Breath of Fire, you're essentially guaranteed to take the full 46 ticks and that front loaded damage too. My recommendation: revert it to what it was before. There's no need for this to be so high damage at its tier and be a cone aoe. Its completely imbalanced. While sure players would love to have it for their own purposes to use in game, Seeing players on teams taking literally a constant ticks of damage as they move from mob groups(cot's would be a good example) to mob group perpetually is again, excessive.

On the mission maker right this second. It can be set to 100% for Bosses and EB's too without taking any sword attacks but you're going to need to take aim/buildups on both prim/sec to get there.

You can freely switch servers. Its just a matter of clicks. If you run out of transfers, you just simply wait a week and the number transfers allowed refils. That said Excelsior has a little bit higher pop than Everlasting though everlasting is where many of the rp'ers choose to play. Also, I highly encourage you to read up on patch notes/updates since you have been gone -and- to read the current beta patch notes so you can anticipate changes(alot) to come. Also we've got the halloween event going on now so read up on the offerings for it this year.

Are you promoting a false dichotomy or just towing a dev intended line of intentionally alienating and invalidating a segment of the player base by targeting their game play enjoyment through specific changes with the sole purpose or damn near close to it for that goal or something else?

I dont recommend it. HC's servers are already in a very precarious situation with NC Soft et al (its not just NC Soft mind you. Marvel's previous suit against Cryptic wasn't in perpetuity nulling the game from infringements and that was before the Almighty House of the Mouse took over Marvel either....). Not saying that it would happen.... just why fork around and find out, ya know...

Sure, so as I'm saying lets explore that with more actual data and help sort it. My answer to the intentional changes to discourage farming is work more to help folks farm more and more efficiently, basically.

I went and briefly tested some of the changes currently being seen for the fire sets. Breath of Fire is doing its initial hit plus now a whopping 45 ticks of dot damage. Stacked with multiple mobs using it that hit you and its just inane. Other attacks dot's too are longer and.... The -defense from the fire sword attacks are causing -defense cascading pretty quick even if chewing purples. The burn recharge doubling means on a typical fight for most builds on a 20 group mob set its now only available half the time or worse(since one may be actively using other powers. It completely breaks previous attack chains leaving gaps to be using other powers that may cause a faster endurance drain. And that's important, the activation and damage with burn was a relatively low ratio for the total attack chain, having now to apply more attacks (or just sit there thumb twiddling) means more endurance lost which then throws off even more (for example if you have your endurance gaining previously paced differently). All in all its a mess. Edit: Looked at Phoenix Rising. Same recharge time as live's version: 5min/300s before modifying. So even with the best recharge rate 400%, 1min/60 seconds is about the lowest someone can get it and even then, its damage scaling up only if you're in trouble doesn't make it a reasonable addition to an attack chain and thus doesn't fill the void by the doubling of burns recharge.

Breath of fire from mobs is 100% broken at the moment on test: This is just ONE hit of Breath of Fire: Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 46.13 points of Fire damage. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Mob Boss hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. 45 DoT ticks of the fire. Stack that with multiple Breath of Fire mobs and its beyond rediculous. Also, if the mob dies the post death ticks of the Breath of Fire come up as: UnknownSource hits you with their Breath of Fire for 3.59 points of Fire damage over time. Other attacks dot's also seem longer than currently on live. Just silly. So can we get more transparent, clear, honest explanations as to why The Fire sets (defensive and offensive are getting all these changes including burn and all else.

So let's think on this then in a different way to perhaps help folks start to look at how to (at least for the active farmers since this wont really help afk farmers perhaps). Damage output from power activations for a given set of time and endurance costs for output. If we work from the premise of a typical farm's 20 mob cluster as a goal to down., then the above ratio of damage output per activation - in x time - endurance cost for that output. And when I say typical farm's 20 mobs I mean the current highest exp/influence ones, not alternative farms made by some. That ratio is the key. What are the numbers that are for the higher end builds of Rad/fire now? What are the numbers that are for the same higher end builds on the test server? Once knowing those differences: What are the numbers for current non Rad/ builds commonly used: Claws/Fire Spines/Fire What then are potential numbers for other alternative builds that could also become potential contenders as well with the above ratio of statistics? --- As for Pheonix Rising, data numbers on it on test I've not looked/see details of on the forums and that would be important to see how it would be a potential factor for adding to a chain for /fire or not. Currently on live though at 300s recharge, it'd take a 400% recharge build to just get it to 60s and thus not necessarily be a viable addition to damage dealing. Also since the power's damage output according to the patch notes increases as the player's health goes down AND cant be activated unless the player is at 75% health or lower, then it means its more situational in use and potentially not worth the effort to add(Especially if the recharge is still 300s). Again, I've not tested it so I don't know.

Or like back in July when they intended to remove things more from AE, really make your voice and criticisms heard against it to hopefully neuter those intentions.

Except the plans to double the recharge time for burn and pretty much nerf procs for it and more, mean that fire farming with it will be less effective/slower damage total output. Famers will still tend to use ball lightning and fences due to their aoe as well.... Only -good- news is that they're changing Fire melee abilities to be pure fire only with no lethal so farms' mobs will be all fire resist and not split between lethal fire. So farmers can return to focusing on fire resistance, fire defense and positional defenses and with the change to cremate adding a knock down but fire getting one power with kb protection means an important hole's going to be filled there too. My take with your consideration for claw though is that it wont out perform still though rad/ due to its irradiated ground, the power set's contaminated proc and the sets general -def either. even with the 10 second nerf. So if anything, Spines now may have come out even better. All in all this is 100% categorically an intentional change to discourage farming as a whole still though. People have been saying their intentions for procs were coming.

Here's my take on your questions: There isn't such a thing. 1. Content in the game, 1-50 and post 50 even, is not a constant in terms of how it can/should be handled by an AT/powerset/build. There is no "One size fits all" AT or power set choices/builds to provide consistency in the way you're asking. This contributes heavily to why answers vary between player to player. 2. "Solo" also doesn't account for efficiency of time either. As an extreme example, a poorly made character can take hours to finish a mission that a well-made one can do in a matter of minutes. So, they "consistently solo" but at a snail's pace and perhaps consistent debt too 😛. That's a factor that some people don't consider when they see the plethora of threads by people posting videos downing XYZ challenging content. They just see something seeming to be advertised as powerful and think "the best" without taking a look at it with a more skeptical eye. Devil's in the details essentially... when the details are also provided too, mind you as sometimes, they're not made readily available/apparent. 3. As pointed out already too, even with AT's and builds that players claim to be the best or optimal, it doesn't factor the player's capabilities or more aptly imo, judgement in handling content. But I also think its important to qualify that as to say that its not as major a factor as some players like to make it out to be but it can be a factor none-the-less. Some players prefer to use that as a tactic of misdirection from showing their hand so to speak when it comes to builds they use. 4. "Solo" also needs to be qualified by what exactly is desired to solo. Again not all content is the same and tactics, tools, and strategies change depending on that per points already mentioned. So all in all, my suggestion is to look at things dynamically vs consistently. Doing so then can help open up more flexibility and adaptation to your game play/leveling goals. Plan your choices for content to be tackled solo to better optimize your AT/build choices. Factor your use(or not) of IO sets in that leveling process and whether changes will have to be made at multiple times (again or not) during that 1-50 progression. Accept that there will be segments(level ranges) that there will be more challenge to your goals than others. And lastly, post 50, be flexible and adapt to end game goals you may (or may not) have for the toon. Doing all this then becomes a recipe, over time, that better matches your wants instead of chasing a phantom "best".

This thread with a more active farmer brute build may be something to look at: Looking at your build comparing to Angel's active one, you're at about one fourth the damage output theirs does (roughly speaking).

This may not be an ideal thing to say for you but your wants may not exactly match the reality of fire farming, especially post Page 4's update. You're going to need to either spend some time investing in the IO's for the more ideal build you need per effective builds post page 4 that folks have put out..... or you're going to going to have to just make other considerations. I also have to say that likely the "cheap builds" you're speaking of for spines/fire are for pre-Page 4 considerations as well. Yes, its a bit of a catch 22 but its also not hard to run lots of TF's to get merits for IO's/recipes and then to join other farms when they call for hitters to help get your some farming under your belt to boot. Its not insurmountable but just takes perhaps a little bit of time. A guy for example the other week on Excelsior had a rad/fire build set up and accolades, and 3 of his incarnates to tier 4 in less than a week. Granted he was playing all day due to being on vacation he said but it should perhaps help you see its doable. You just have to farm slower and incrementally higher as you get better kitted out.

Just my take on things. 1. Unless an group of players is doing something against the policies of HC, the likelihood of any action being taken against them is unlikely. 2. Classy RP groups in this game or else where do not blanketedly turn down others because of previous membership in some other group. Classy ones also do not tend to put on exclusionary airs either. 3. However, classy rper's also do not resort to making a forum thread which is just one sliver of a step away from a naming and shaming thread, especially if there is true grievances to be had per point 1 I made. To me, this is just 2 wrongs dont make a right. Find other rp groups in game or make your own where you can exemplify the Role Playing Classiness that you wish to be involved in and thrive. And for the record, I must begrudgingly agree with Krimson. (darn it) Good luck to you.

Seems a bit confusing your seemingly trying to diminish the claims that /cold corruptors are extremely powerful for 4 star ITFs when you just made a thread in the defender forums recently showing off your team having beaten it.... With 4 /cold corruptors in the group:

Perhaps this suggestion doesnt have applicability for your condition and I know everyone is first suggesting power sets etc, but would perhaps a Razer orbweaver/tarterus peripheral help your needs? I knew someone years ago who played wow who had some issues who found that razer peripheral more accommodating to their needs. Just thought I would mention it at least.

Check the brute /fire farming builds for proc examples. 4-5 slots with dam procs and at least 1 -res debuff slotted is typical.

At 23, you'd not be using it for fire farming anyway 😛 At the level stated, its not important to focus on killing power. Its more important to focus on leveling. Let your teammates focus more on the damage. You don't even have burn and other offensive set powers yet. So again just focus on leveling and keeping in mind what your post level 50 game play goals are to be and learning to play with your teammates in such respects accordingly as you level. Think on leveling as earning your belts in karate learning the most fundamental basics BUT then understanding that getting to blackbelt means you've internalized said utter basics and its from there the real learning starts to occur(ie in game post 50). So with all that said, and your saying that she's cash strapped, just use basic Invention Origin enhancements(not sets) and until 50. As for giving you a build to work with, that's tougher to do because we can give you basic build considerations for whilst you level but you're going to have times of challenges(end, certain damage type mobs you encounter, no knowing your team's holes/weaknesses etc etc). Just be judicious with your choices since as you know, you cant take everything and cant slot up fully everything. Make good choices with your power pool as well to help bolster your defenses/resistances(leadership/Fighting pools), leaping's combat jumping and jump for travel, Speed's hasten, and then 35 on consider what you want to do concerning epic/patron pool sets(if anything, you may choose otherwise depending again on your goals). And then once 50, start deciding on the post 50 build you want to have and then IO sets/ATO set choices you want to start investing in. But again, all in all, just focus on gen pop leveling.

Was whirlwind not mentioned because of it being melee and end heavy?