Nexros

Brute > Dark Melee > Shadow Maul Total damage incorrectly including Fiery Embrace. Total damage for brute at level 50 should read ~67.52, not 97.88. Brute > Dark Melee > Touch of Fear Same problem, including Fiery Embrace in summary of damage totals. Level 50 damage should be calculated as ~36, not 52.2. Brute > Dark Melee > Midnight Grasp Including DoT portion of Fiery Embrace. Correct damage at level 50 should be ~115.12, not 125.44. Keep up the great work! Maintaining a game is never easy 🙂

@Bopper does this also affect other cast-and-forget skills like deflection shield or farsight? Is there a rule to what power boost-like powers affect and do not affect?

Alrighty. If that is the case, then I submit a new bug report: Ice shield and glacial shield descriptions and detail breakdown are incorrect as no mention of this is anywhere in the game. cheers!

I see, sorry for the post then. Any reason why the def component is not boosted in this case?

As the title says: Power boost cast before ice shields does not boost the def. Works great on ff though. Is this intentional?

Threw away my ninja/cold since power boost doesn't affect def component of ice shields for some dumb reason... if you plan on using power boost like you can on ff, forget it, doesn't work.

Here's a little tool I made for myself a while back because I have alt-itis and I hate alt+tabbing back and forth from the wiki to get accolade powers. This is far from feature-complete, but has done what I've wanted from it for a long time. My question to the forum folks is: would this be of interest to people as a more complete version? Perhaps a "by zone" section for badgers like myself? Best to just try it out: Instructions Close out City of Heroes client. Create the following directory (unless it's already there): <Install Location>\Homecoming\data\texts\English\Menus Drag and drop the test.mnu file to that location. Start City of Heroes Create a macro to call the menu like so: /macro someName "popmenu Accolade" You can also make a keybind if you prefer that: /bind keyName "popmenu Accolade" Call the menu The idea behind it is to use existing game functionality (not modifying game files) to allow for a quickly browsable list of useful badges, which are completed, which are required, and instructions/thumbtacks/portals/etc to get them quickly. For now, it's just for accolade powers, but I'm curious to hear the community's feedback and thoughts on the idea of expanding it into something more. test.mnu

The beauty of ninjas/ff is that you won't need to take a large portion of the ff powers to have a tough team. I probably wouldn't take anything except the 3 shields--2 casted, and one toggle area shield. Instead, I would focus on things like mace AoE immob, field medic instant casts, and crazy ammounts of -end from sets like leadership, and IO end discounts. This way you can effectively spam smoke bomb. Smoke bomb is very VERY expensive, but also underestimated because of it. It both doubles minion damage for a fairly long time and removes aggro from them as you cycle through them. I think ninja/ff could be rather strong and it combos well with their natural def.

As far as comic book epicness, I would say necro and demons paired with dark. Ninjas paired with storm--I've done this build and its very strong, just unfotunately too much end use for my taste. Ninjas/cold is also extremely strong at end game and can be surprisingly thematic. Robots/ff is a classic power build, just lacks a lot of excitement during leveling. IMO, thugs is by far the easiest to pair with whatever you want and make it thematic.

For me, it's the inconsisency in how they can be slotted. I can't tell you how many times I've slotted something just to find out that it doesn't work as expected or not at all. For example, a MM archetype-specific set that only slots in MM pets (not tornado, etc.) with -recharge... when recharge doesn't affect MM pets or the summon power itself... But wait, there's more! You can attempt to synergize with pets by adding +damage or -rech, but nope. They aren't affected by most of these affects. Sure, speed boost can make them zip around, but they still have the same recharge redux and McTiny damage boost cap, so forget fulcrum shift as a good idea. In fact, so many issues with slotting and buffing pets, that ALL of MM builds now focus on debuffing instead of strengthing my pets. Why do you think Dark Miasma is so strong with MM? Because, as already noted, increasing pet def/res is mildly useless. But debuffing enemy -to hit works great. Lastly, I get why t1 pets should be weaker than t3 pets. But underleveling them applies the purple patch to your t1 pets at only +1/+2 content! That's NUTS. Make them weaker, but don't make them -2 levels.

Yes! Finally slotting dark and fluffy with -tohit. That's the stuff! After I started walking through +4x8 on my Necro/dark, I ended up going acc heal x2, -to hit x2, procs x2 in fluffy and ended up settling there. Also started removing the +def pet procs (not all) since I was capping the hit chance on mobs

This is correct. In +4x8 missions (with only Fearsome Stare and Darkest Night) PvE has around 5-9% chance to hit me and 10-50% 5-20% chance to hit my minions. This is BEFORE maneuvers and dark fluffy-face, and only accounting for the enhancement procs on the minions (10% defense or so). Keep in mind that it is not possible to get under 5% due to game mechanics. This means that stacking 30% defense will do almost nothing for your survivability if you have strong -tohit like Dark Miasma does. I also only 3 slot Darkest Night, and 4 slot Fearsome Stare... so I have no idea why anyone would run any kind of defense at all on a Dark Miasma MM. The only situation defense would come in handy is during very large encounters where the aggro cap will force mobs onto you that are not within your debuff zone (this can happen occasionally, but is rare), I have solo'd ITF +4x8, albeit extremely slowly, including the Dwarf surge at the end of the first mission. For this reason, ALWAYS go resist with Dark Miasma. You'll just get a lot more bang for your buck, so-to-speak. The minions will always be easier to hit due to the level shift disadvantage, but this is also true when slotting defense. You will never get better than 45% on T1, 34% on t2, and 27% on t3 minion when facing +4 mobs with a +1 level shift, even if you stack defense. This is because, again, game mechanics dictate that each level CRITTERS (your minions) are lower than the enemy, a base of 9% chance to hit is added back by default. This is one of the arguements made against MMs being strong end-game soloers, but it can be effectifely offset with resists and heals. Edit: after running in-game tests against +4 bosses, I'm unsure how the math is working after all. My minions are also seeing extraordinarily low hit chances, more than I thought the game allowed simply because they're lower level, but this doesn't seem to be following the 9% I assumed was accurate. In actual combat, I'm seeing similar numbers as me (5-9%) on t3 and only 1-2% higher chances for each lower tier going as high as 15% on t1 minions... I'm unsure why this is, but I'm not complaining!

Oh yeah, 25 is pretty high, but not too high. Will definitely cover your bases. But that's readily reached using shadow fall, maneuvers, and bonuses and without the need for weave. Your minions will be much high def than you due to the pet procs

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents as a Necro/Dark main. I play pvp and solo +4x8 without the need for fighting pool powers or sorcery armor. The dark -tohit is EXTREMELY strong, especially when slotted for it and musculature alpha. But to answer your question, definitely high resistance and here's why: With the -tohit all mobs and players (unless they spam yellows) are going to have a 5-15% chance of hitting you (depending on how you slot and play) even if you don't slot ANY defense. 5% is also the minimum allowed hit chance, it CANNOT get lower chance than that. Additional defense will not go a very long way due to the high synergy with -tohit and will only be useful against very very high acc. Hit me up in game and I can show you live numbers, if you're interested! @Nexros for global

Sry!! I'm not sure how that happened hahaha. I mean.... DARK MIASMA, RIGHT?!

Haha TOTALLY busted! I loved gw2 necro until the gw2 game loop kinda burned me out.

This has definitely gotten a whole lot better with recent minions behavior changes! It used to be very taxiing to manage zombie runners, but I don't think they'll chase a target more than 100m from the MM any more. You just have to resist the temptation to follow them, or they'll keep chasing 😂

Here's a short video showing this on +4/8 cim mobs. Seeing a build is fine and dandy, but I like to see them in "person". I tried to avoid Judgment and Lore pets as those drastically increase damage.

Just posted a build for Necro/Dark then saw this! Very strong tankermind, clears very fast also:

Whoa! I just realized there's a /buildsavefile command now. That's dope! Thanks for that hint. I've attached the build but I think the notes and breakdown will likely be more helpful. NexrosBuild

I'd be happy to, but I'm not really MIDS user and I have no idea how to export it lol. So here's some screens and notes. Notes: 1. ANYTHING less than lvl 50 or attuned is a proc. 2. I don't proc toggles like Darkest Night (except for Oppressive Gloom, proc that out!). I find that they don't really trigger enough to be meaningful for my playstyle. 3. Mark of Supremacy goes in Zombies because (a) they need the accuracy and damage, (b) the don't need recharge. 4. Soulbound Allegiance in Grave Knights (except Rech/Acc for the -res proc) because THEY DO ALL YOUR DAMAGE... like a TON. 5. Command of the Mastermind in Soul Extraction because (a) it is the best pet set for recharge and (b) they do not need the +acc as much at zombies do. 6. Lich: honestly I don't think the set you use really matters much in the Lich, but that doesn't mean the Lich isn't critical to the build! Just be sure to get all the pet auras, and I personally find clouded senses proc to do well. 7. Dark Servant: I try to slot juuuuust enough recharge to make sure he's perma, and that's about it. The rest should be focused on -tohit, heals, and damage procs. With enough bonuses and 2 -rech in Haste, you should not be slotting ANY -recharge in Dark Servant. Around 130% recharge redux with double slotted haste active should do it. 8. Patron powers: I did this for shits and giggles. But what I will say is that the KD proc in soul tentacles should not be underestimated. ALSO the -tohit proc in Oppressive Gloom is very strong for stacking. I am sure there are other patron pool sets that will do well. 9. Rotation: The name of the game is -tohit. The more enemies you can get with Fearsome Stare, Oppressive Gloom, and Darkest Night the better. You also need good accuracy because your heals require a hit check, for this reason Fearsome Stare is 6 slotted. AND YES, I INTENTIONALLY ADDED THE +TOHIT PROC. I get asked that a lot... lol. That +tohit proc fires EVERY TIME if you hitting a large group. So.... Fearsome Stare -> Twilight Grasp, in combination with -def from Grave Knights, Defense builds don't stand a chance. Yes, I do PvP with this build, but usually only arenas. 10. Incarnates are Alpha: Musculature Radial Paragon --- this has -tohit AND +damage. There's really no better option for this build.... Hybrid: Support Core Embodiment --- I think all MMs take this, it's great. Lore: Demons Core Superior Ally --- Really doesn't matter much, but they have great -tohit synergy. Radial is also GREAT but is less damage, more -tohit--a tankier option, but I don't find a need for it. Interface: Spectral Radial Flawless Interface or Diamagnetic Core Flawless Interface--- Diamagnetic is extremely tanky, spectral will do more damage. Destiny: Clarion Core Epiphany --- The big weakness to this build is cc. Clarion is CRITICAL for it. Judgement: Whatever you like, I went with Void for the theme and because I'm often in piles of enemies for Oppressive Gloom. If you want to see rotations, hit me up on Excel or global @Nexros in game. Cheers, -Nex

Wow, I thought groups invis was better, though I never really play troller. It might make more sense to buff Group Invis simply because the distance between Fade and Group Invis seems odd... So something like: Controller numbers (my change in bold) Power Defense Rechare/Duration Grant Invise 2.5% 3 sec / 2 mins Group Invise 5-9% 4 minutes / 2 mins Fade 9% 3.5 minutes / 1 min That would make a lot more sense to me. That being said I have no idea how to properly balance power sets at all, just an observation. One other thing to note here is that Group Invis is part of a Control set, not a Support set. So that may be a poor comparison to begin with? idk

I suppose stealth would reduce aggro distance... but it is always possible to cancel a buff. I hadn't thought of that though. Still, as a stealthy MM, it's super annoying.

I've been working on a themed build and I realized all the fast recharge buff ally abilities have been changed over time to being much less spamy and aoe. Why isn't this the case with Grant Invisibility in the Stealth pool? Just curious, was this just forgotten about or is it intentionally still a 4s CD single target skill for a reason?

Excellent break-down of Dark!! My main is Necro/Dark and people are always surprised to see me solo +4/8 content faster than brutes can. Those Scrapper Grave Knights are no joke! I'll be using this post as my go-to for explaining Dark from now on lol.