Sovera

A set having good AoE is not based on the number of AoEs it has, but how well they can be chained and the damage that they do. Spin is obtained early and is the standard with a good recharge, Shockwave is a super fast animation coupled with a fast recharge. Anyone who has played Claws knows that the set is an AoE blender other sets (even Spines) can only aspire to reach when an AoE rotation is Follow-Up, Spin, Shockwave, repeat. Bonus points if having Hover and floating on top of mobs so that Shockwave acts as PbAoE. As a Scrapper I expect my BU + Spin + Shockwave to have killed all minions and probably lieuts if there were crits involved. Quills does tip the balance for Spines, but it doesn't have the fast animations and fast recharge, and Claws boasts of good ST damage -as well- which Spines can only eye longingly.

I already mentioned this over the Scrapper forums, I believe. Basically the Stalker version is the better KM, IMO. What you do is not use the big attacks but spam the first three. You'll do as much damage but not be locked into a super long animation. What the Build-up version does is giving a +damage stacking buff so you do super fast attacks to build it up and then keep on going nuts while it lasts, no big pauses or it runs out and needs to be stacked again which is one of the reasons the big attacks aren't a good thing and sticking to the first three attacks is what ought to be done. As for not being able to stick a KB>KD IO it sounds like you need a better tweaked build, if you'll link me yours I can take a gander.

You musat live in a perfect world where patches don't break things. For the rest of us it's par de course that something may break on patch day. The real difference and gripe is on how LONG it takes to fix what was broken, and the devs already spotted the problem and fixed it, so the fix will be out soon. Really, demanding a rollback because a patch broke one thing in the ocean of changes is a bit of a heh attitude.

Wait, what? One of the best AoE sets Scrappers has is predominantly ST? All Scrapper Sets could only aspire to do the AoE Claws can.

*headscratch* Perhaps instead of stating a string of 'facts' you should ask to receive answers. Since others have already disproved your list (I had a 🙂 for the 'full group of incarnates unable to defeat +0x8 AE content. Perhaps you could point which mission in specific you are talking about or was it just a claim?) I'm not going to add my own to it. I also had several cases of looking for an IO where there were 0 available and never failed to get it in a day by leaving a bid. If it's really bad remember you can buy the recipes with 100 Merits and just doing a Tinpex alone (40 minute total) gives 80 merits. One double Hami raid (20-30 minutes total) is 120 merits. As I said, ask when in doubt, don't just make a list stating things as truth. As others mentioned other than for testing purposes or minimal last leveling on some characters I don't go into the AE for farming and I have two characters IOed to the nines, plus 800 million in liquid cash, plus perhaps half of that in IOs in my base for alts to grab.

I have an Ice/Bio and it works great. But, if anything I would just like to get some agro with the thing. I have heard that Chilling Embrace works well as a substitute agro aura. Any /Ice Stalkers care to pipe in? I feel a bit naked without a proper heal (Hoarfrost is too long a CD to really count on) though in the high levels alternating that one and Icy Bastion should work well to keep the upright status going. In the lower levels it depends on how much Chilling Embrace mitigates.

Sounds like a thing. I'm going to suggest two routes. The first and simplest will be to remove the 'silent' part of all the binds and then reload and keep an eye on what message error you get in the chat. The second one would be to try the notepad ++. I have had some niche problems with the regular Notepad where it uses an UTF-8 format, or whatever it was, which made the files have an invisible character in front of what we type in and that messes things. It's a niche problem though, but it has happened twice. I'd start with the first route. But you can download Note++ from here https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ and then just open your text files, click on Encoding, Convert To ANSI, and save the file. Reload in game and try once more.

I noticed a couple of things with HD when I leveled a new MM today. Most if not all of the assorted pet sets say they start at level 25 but in-game they start at 15, and for some reason HD showed me with extra defense after a complete build while in-game I had 4% less defense. I can only assume it is some screwy math with the Protector Bots. I can throw the link of the build here if there's an interest.

Just finished leveling a MM today and the Overwhelming Force on Bonfire works 100% while doing a fat zero nothing slotted in Assault Bot. Sudden Acceleration works on the bot.

With the changes to MMs I had to make one and why not recreate the MM I had on live. I leveled it in two days via the usual TF route and had the full AT experience. Unfortunately HD lied to me, liiiiiies, and despite saying I am softcapped I am actually 4% shy of the softcap in the game. It's something that can fixed by tweaking the slotting, I suppose, but I'm not. Between the CC and the -ToHit and the knockdowns 41% is fine. So that means Melee, Ranged, and AoE are at 41%, Hasten is at 125 seconds, and, Bonfire. Bonfire is the elephant in the room and I'll address it first. The common way of playing Bots/ is picking the Mace immobilize in order to prevent the bots doing Knockbacks out of the fire patches. This would have saved a lot of headaches trying to fit in all the auras + procs + defense slots + having as much accuracy as possible to help the bots hit things, especially the T1 and T2. To further injure the insult Overwhelming Force with the tasty damage% attached to it did a fat zero for Assault Bot so I was forced to slot in its lesser cousin, Sudden Acceleration, which made the slotting even more complicated. I wanted Bonfire for several reasons. The first one because it's fun! Yep, okay. But also pretty damn good control. Things on a Bonfire tend not to move until they die. But just as importantly was the Force Feedback. This is because in today's ultra fast meta CDs of 25-30 seconds just don't cut it. They no longer are up every pack to be instead up every two packs, and since we are Tar Patch/Howling Twilight slaves I wanted to maximize their uptime. It also takes a -res proc, which is nice since we are using it on AVs as well as on regular packs. The choice of taking the immobilize in Mace Mastery is still a good one, but on top of the 2.5 second animation that adds nothing else and needs to be spammed in order to re-apply the effect it will just help us. Bonfire helps us and helps the team by indirectly helping with our recharge times so more Tar Patches, more Howling Twilights, etc. But in the end I wanted Bonfire and Bonfire was got. Darkest Night I ended up only using as I leveled to 20, and then stopped using altogether. I might as well remove it from the skillbar although I know this is heresy and people are going to jump in letting me know I am WRONG. Hey, I'm just saying. I kept the power pick and slotted it. Use it if you want to. But to me it has no use. For regular groups we explode them and there is no point. For AVs? Sure, I mean, why not? Use it or not use I don't see the difference in -practical- terms. In practical terms we are spamming our heal on an AV to cut on their regen so any damage that they might manage to do is instantly healed. After Level 20 we have Fearsome Stare and this is up at every spawn if it's slotted early, and it should be. We not only nullify the alpha in complete impunity thanks to Shadow Fall letting us get close, but the Terrify effect works on bosses as well. That means my usual opening once at 20 was Fearsome Stare, and then Tar Patch in complete impunity while my team assaulted the poor mobs. Speaking of Shadow Fall we can add the Celerity Stealth IO in Sprint and with both together we can do Stalker sneakings if we want to. Dark Servant is a boss with three procs to its name. I gave him a try with just the guy summoned and he killed three even level minions at a decent pace for a darn pet who takes no damage slots. While not super spectacular damage it does add its part and overall he's a great pet commonly triggering two damage procs when he heals and with his own Darkest Night. The guy heals, he CCs, he's a good bud. Don't skimp on him. Once Bonfire opens we can finally alternate something when Tar Patch isn't up yet. One spawn Tar Patch. The next Bonfire. In either case Fearsome Stare to lead it. Fearsome Stare is a better immobilize since when mobs are hit they stop trembling and come closer only to resume trembling (as they should, we're awesome). Once fully IOed we can try to throw both if the team is killing slowly enough but if not we do not need to twiddle our thumbs and can alternate. Things I've extracted from playing a MM a decade later: The bad: The good: The build:

That's not very new player though. It implies having Videot installed and when someone is at the point of having that they should know what they are up to 🙂

/Energy Armor, /Bioarmor. Can't go wrong with /Bio.

Hmm.. To be honest any Stalker will solo well. You decide when to start and when you do you either kill something or take a huge chunk of their HP. Are we talking +0x1 solo or +4x8? Depending on which self-heals and sets with more or less AoE will impact in the decision. Ninja/Ninja is a fine option. Ice/ is also very good since it has a good blend of AoE and ST plus can hold some sweet procs. You can also do some sweet things with Staff/ since both it and Ice needed the help in the single target which Stalker provides with Assassin's Strike. Kinetic Melee also got help from the ST department and is a set that blooms extraordinarily early, as early as level 18, by unlocking all the ST attacks you would use and the set's AoE, and makes up for the weaker AoE by making its sole AoE auto-crit from Hide which can be fished for very fluidly. All things considered I might advise Kinetic Melee for a solo experience due to its early start. Ice, for example, wants level 26 for its wtfbbq heavy hitter (heavier than AS) and 32 for the second AoE.

Ask and thou shalt receive

Added a 'simple things to know' section.

As I said above -what- is being farmed will make the difference. The better maps are the Comic Cons since the map is small and the enemies wander to us, but that's the sort of thing that will simply -eat- the pets. They are uber squishy. A Demon/Thermal might manage better with a build that caps their resistance, but even so... And then there's the fact that MM damage looks good on spreadsheets but not so much in actual gameplay making farming on a Defender nearly as fast but not having to fuss with constant resummoning. If you really want to, then go for it, but consider running TFs in groups instead. My gut, not backed by any math, tells me a Tinpex and double Hami a day (roughly 50 million in merits for an hour's work) is going to work out better. I'm leveling a Bots/Dark atm and will post about it later once I get to 50 today and slot it properly but I can say I would never throw it into a farm map considering how anything looks at them and takes half their HP. If the pets were orbiting satellites I could try to keep them up with a spam of heals, but they scatter, they chase, and doing a Follow command makes -everything- stop as they sprint back to me which is just not conducive to DPS.

Things like a comicon will just eat your pets alive. Doing a regular map with spawns scattered and taken down one at a time will work better since they are closest to regular play.

You're thinking about hyperbolic time chamber. Completely different thing.

Hyperbole.

I do like tanks in the team as well. I don't play the game super min-maxed that I am taking special care about whom do I invite to run content with. So it's always a pleasant surprise to find a Tanker and know I can easily follow them around because where ever they are there will be a ball of mobs trying to reach the tough-to-crack center.

Consider trying the Stalker version to patch the ST problems the set has.

Hasten does this to me sometimes. Shows as recharged but does not go off for a good good bit, 20+ seconds.

I personally just float above enemies. With minimal movement (made easier since we are not being body blocked) cones do act like PbAoEs, but Frost in Particular.

I've been tricked into joining speed ITFs twice and they are the same person since they use the same macro to advertise. But now I know better. I just don't consider 'XP ITF +4 Kill most of all' to be a speed run, but then I join and it's 'don't trigger the ambush at the hill. Don't fight the (fat stack of XP) kheldian ambushes at the top of the hill. Don't wait for the cyst ambushes and move on. Go straight to Romulus and Requiem, and then work back killing the generals.' The only lip service paid to the 'kill all' is at the last mission where the group waits just after the bridge while everything from nearby is pulled, but even then for a 'kill most of all' and 'XP ITF' I ended fighting a lot less than a regular ITF.

The success of the build lays squarely on Sonic/. The constant CC in the AoE and very early AoE rotation is all Sonic/ and the vampire effect from Defensive Opportunity works because of Sonic's cones (it doesn't work the same with all cones, Ice/ for example). Ninjutsu is the most well rounded Sentinel secondary in my opinion.