Sovera

All those changes for mercs, like, wow, I'd play one. One of you MM afictionados should go to the COHX test server and report on the changes. Especially removal of brawl.

This was very informative to someone who does not play StJ. Thanks for the time taken to write it all down, Frost. Tbh Rad isn't very thematic at all for my character, it is Staff I'd like to get into, but I like the ST damage of Rad and ST is where Staff flounders a bit. A close second would be StJ though and that makes me interested in checking it up on the PTS. I think the proc removal off Contaminate is not yet 100% removed though. I have noticed Blistering Cold's icey proc hitting different enemies than the one I had targeted.

I have never played an StJ (though I do love the animations) so take what I say with a grain of salt. I perceived it as being pretty AoE-less though. Isn't Spinning Strike a six yard radius AoE? I don't visualize it hitting many enemies which in practical terms makes the claim of having a better AoE a bit iffy if their numbers are similar but one hits twice as many mobs. Personally I would put Irradiated Ground firmly in the ground of underestimated AoEs. It's basically two patches doing hurts and spewing procs pretty much 24/7 (once we settle down to fight, if we are always on the move this does not happen), and more importantly we don't waste animation time on it, so it's ticking while we do our bit with other attacks. And then Contamination effects. Not much damage, but there and in AoE. Right now I do three ST attacks while waiting for Atom Smasher and using Siphon last so the other two can use the Contamination effect before Siphon eats it. Friendly argument, I have no vested interested on either side and haven't even played an StJ to speak with assurance that X has the better AoE.

I've managed to drain and keep mobs drained with my Elec/* Sentinel. I've also noticed that most of the time I have killed things before this has happened which made the draining useless.

Rad only has one power that demands being close to the ground. It can be annoying because of that, but I've leveled both a brute and a scrapper with it and it worked fine, it just requires to point my nose to the ground when using Atom Smasher. I recommend a Rad/Bio. I'm leveling a Scrapper but it can easily be converted to a Brute. It doesn't need anything expensive to get started, the brute has better AoE (Electrifying Fences + Ball Lightning), the scrapper has better ST (my best time so far 1:45 pylon), both I've thrown at Comic Con during idle times and they survived fine. Street Justice is slightly better ST further, but has no appreciable AoE, where Rad has a Footstomp like power + damage aura, and /Bio is pretty survivable and has a *second* damage aura.

It is, and Overwhelming is the only way to mitigate it.

As it was mentioned if it is hardcoded then it's not going to happen, but, as Vanden mentioned, we still need to get there, and if we wanted to work for 100% hit chance like we work for 45% defense, then we could. Moot point, but I leave with a vote for a yes.

Then keep it for NPCs and in PvP.

Keep it for NPCs then.

The power does not need to having its animation fixed. We just need a third copy paste Ninja run/Beast run with Sprint's animation.

I'd be all for it. Missing just for the sake of missing adds a fat zero nothing to the game. It is annoying for regular powersets and uber annoying for combo sets. An artifact from DnD, git yet gone! At the very least combo powersets ought to get a combo point just for having launched the attack, not only if it lands.

I've noticed no difference with or without it, but without numbers this will be difficult to test whether it is working or if the effect is too subtle/low to be eyeballed.

Valid point, broroxis. I knew of that mechanic with Gaussian and Tactics and it's perfectly valid (dare I say perhaps superior) to switch the slots between Fusion and Tactics. But I personally do prefer the on demand proc.

Radiation/Bio Scrapper. I've lifted the build from honorable @Auroxis from here. Quoting his times from here: I have been rather enamored with his results but I found his build to be a quick PTS thing which I wanted to optimize. I started by copying his build verbatim and trying it on the PTS and got a 2 minute time proving everything was in place. Then I started tinkering to fit it into a generalist build. Moonbeam was not necessary since I already had enough enough attacks. Shadow Meld is great... but such a short duration and it has a 3.1 animation time... So I messed with the slotting to achieve 40% defense. Which means I needed a ton of Recovery to.. er.. recover from not having Ageless. With Barrier I get the last 5% defense and also the last 5 points to cap-ish S/L (capped at 90% HP when the Scaling Resists IO kicks in). To my surprise as I kept on getting short on slots and removing procs.... they made no difference. Procs are a drop in the ocean that are Scrapper crits. Certainly wanted because they *do* improve on times, buuuuut... Proof is in the pudding as some say. 2:13 2:25 1:45 2:15 attempting Devastating, Siphon, Smash even with gaps. Less endurance cost. 2:10 1:54 with Devastating, Siphon, and Smash again. It's also cheaper on the EPS. Basically whiffing on a Devastating Blow during Fusion + Gaussian proc makes or breaks the 2 minute mark. Also gave it the ol' stress test of Comic Con at +4/8 and it came out with flying colors. Unlike the Brute that had Ball Lightning and Electrifying Fences to add to the AoE chain, the Scrapper finds itself with just Atom Smasher and both damage auras.... and it made no difference. The crits made up for it and the Contamination mechanic added a bit of AoE (don't use Siphon during the AoEing as to not lose it) since instead of casting the Mu AoEs I was using my Rad melee ST attacks. Thoughts:

Wow, 13 hours without a new reply. 1331 replies later I think we finally exhausted the topic.

Tbh I don't even understand why Rage *needs* a crash. Has someone been secretly deleting posts where SS destroys a pylon in one minute like a certain other set? No? Then in a world where TW exists why single out SS?

God yes.

Roleplay is fine, and I myself am a roleplayer, but I would not mix roleplay and game mechanics. I don't RP with NPCs. Stuff like adding +perception or +Tohit, or 'go scout and come back with info' is RP and has no use to be found in game play when game play is blitzing through packs unleashing nukes and AoEs and moving on.

As an addendum this happens on LGTF as well, where we can start it at 35 but the Hami mission spawned us level 50 mitos and we had to give up even with EoEs.

At this point in the timeline I just wish I could have an agro aura on stalkers, weird as it may be. Mobs running away at 20% is such a PITA.

The *funny* part is that I met most of them in WoW and they are playing the game. WoW! Let us compare the build possibilities between one and the other! So you're a hunter. Do you want to go melee, ranged, or ranged with a pet? Voila, three builds, three choices. Then I point them at easily 40-50 choices with with just scrapper. Do you wantto throw fire and be super dodgy? You can. Do you want to throw fire and be protected by ice? You can. do you want to throw fire and be protected by fire? You can! And after we reach the end of the list we can start all over with ice. Throw ice? Sure, do you want to do it with super dodgy? Do it. Protected by ice? Do it.

Sadly I have been simply UNABLE to bring ONE, SINGLE, of ANY of my friends to try the game because they look at it and go BOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GRAPHICS ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD LOOOOOOOOOOOOKING............................................................. And voila, I've just summed up the answers I got from my raving about the preposterous number of build possibilities, not just swinging a sword or shooting a bow, but summoning storms, throwing fire, throwing ice, fighting with giant FF7 swords, flying, super jumping, the *immense* capabilities of SG bases, the costume creator possibilities and etc.

The patch notes say the Offensive Adaptation (and others) are fixed, but a quick look showed it adding no extra damage to attacks with it toggled on.

Man, breakdancing in granite form must be a riot.. I WANT TO SEE IT!