Frosticus

Oh ok Aura of insanity says hi. But it's your rp, so don't as you like.

Seems like psi armor to me.

Keep your expectations low for the proc damage. Healing proc works nicely though.

Agreed. I'll take the aoes as big as you are willing to make them. I kid you not. Ill faceplate thousands of times before I request them to be smaller.

I think trawl on cat 5 is the low hanging fruit that will allow them to keep it as a dot/debuff/control nuke. It would really.. wait for it... Pull the set together

They were gonna get it, but then they weren't cause caltrops is important or good or something. I dunno I tuned out when someone started arguing that stalkers get hide for free vs shinobi costing 0.26 end/sec, so they didn't need the 3+ end/sec that kyoyo can offer (pre nerf). Stalker nin has no +offense via shinobi and no +offense via bottomless endurance, but it can scatter mobs with the best of them. Stalker nin is in a bad spot unfortunately.

Meteor, in all of its lack of glory, also ends up with well under 170 base rech. Using seismic blast powers can subtract a lot of time off the countdown. Aim (think this is bugged tbh) also takes of a huge chunk of time. That's seismics gimmick, but just providing another example where the long base rech might be flexible.

Geyser is ranged. Base 125 sec vs 170 sec Cat 5 also has a shorter range for some reason. At 60ft it puts you close enough to draw attention before casting sometimes. Geyser also has interaction with tidal force that brings its base damage up to traditional nuke levels. As well as base acc of 1.4 so you can easily get away with skimping on slotting (I do 3x dam/rech). Not saying cat 5 needs to be Geyser, just pointing out that base 170 sec (for me) indicates stuff is about to get wrecked right meow.

Part of the issue with cat 5 is the base rech creates the expectation that it is going to wreck things. It has the extra base rech attached to nukes like blizzard and thunderous blast. So that sort of sets the mindset If it is intended as more of a dps tool that needs massaging via storm cell and steady player action perhaps a shorter rech like geyser/hail of bullets would help establish that* *I get cat 5 'can" do a lot of damage, but it doesn't if you just cast it and walk away, so dunno what to say about that with regard to damage adjustments.

What you are seeing is the 5-40% chance of crits that sents are getting. Shinobi adds a flat +30% chance for one attack (non nuke) if you have gained stealth status (the 8 seconds mentioned above). Not all shinobis are created equal. Scrap: 1 attack - 65% crit chance on st, 30% on aoe Sent: 1 attack - live +40% dam, test +30% crit chance Blaster: 1 attack +25% dam, all attacks 20% chance of lethal proc Stalker: none

As far as glow ups go: Smoke bomb/blinding buffed Kyoyo nerfed Shinobi nerfed for sents (most of us open with the nuke) Kb protection added to stalkers Pretty ho-hum Regardless of what was going on with retsu I think there is more juice to be squeezed out of this update. 1a. un-nerf Kyoyo. Keep the end over time if you want, but it didn't need a 50% increase in base rech. 1b. Alternately, keep Kyoyo at 90 seconds but give it some of the absorb that had no real purpose in Retsu (considering its main role is to softcap your base kit and give you meaningful ddr - Nin has about 30% def before IO's/incarnates and 34% ddr) 2. Stalker caltrops matches the version found in epics. So it could use a buff. 3. Sents get crits now, why isn't their version of shinobi more like the blaster one? - small + dam from stealth, small boost to crit chance all the time 4. buff movement speed of Kuji-In Rin (currently +35%, increase to +70%) - thematically ninjas would make a nice choice for natural origin builds that skip travel powers and ninjas are always very agile. 4b. allow movement buff of Kuji-in Rin to stack rather than replace (the mez protection stacks, the psi res stacks, but the movement buff replaces).

Ya that's the bugged storm cell. Its would make for a nice cat 5. Blizzard shows us nukes don't have to be instant, but they do need to be good.

Ya I wish storm could front load its nuke like I suggested via the brew stacking. It more closely aligns with dark blast in that it can put out staggering tohit debuff numbers. Ie. Cell+highwinds = 26.75% auto hit 16 target 25ft aoe tohit debuff. I think regardless of how cool/good storm cell performs (in a future patch) the set will always be held back by cat 5. Frontloaded cashless nukes set the bar very high. Bugged cell showed me the cat 5 I dream of with that zap, zap, zap over the whole spawn. ~10 second of that (with decent damage) the wind effects and dot rain can persist longer if you want. Sign me up. Cat 5 should have some trawl too

Its not for me to share, but Player 1 has indicated a whole batch of changes coming down the pipe for a patch soon. At a glance they look well worth testing.

If you want to get the most out of the absorb just sit on PB until you are low health. It can be used like a breakfree and you don't get mezd that often to begin with on an sr.

If old elude was redundant why does it still buff defense? is that not still redundant? Stalker version of fast healing t2 power (regen+recovery) > new elude. Rune of protection (power pool) > new elude because the added resistance works way better with the scaling res. If you want sr to have a non redundant t9 that people will feel compelled to include then give them the new unstoppable.

The devs have lost the plot with these t9 changes in a convoluted attempt to make everything fit neatly into a spreadsheet. If they don't understand the power fantasy that most of the t9s were crafted to fill then there is not really a path forward trying to argue them back. Honestly if you can't find a way to modernize these powers while still satisfying the power fantasy then just leave them alone. Ex: New unstoppable is a good power. It has nothing to do with being "unstoppable" in the power fantasy sense. It would be a solid t7 power or something in a different set.

This can't possibly be true. If it is, just shelve the storm cell changes. The cell lives for 1 min. Edit: changes coming that will be well worth testing 😀

Is Automatic Lightning bugged? Beta vid: From 0:57-1:04 I see no lightning strikes despite being at 5 brew stacks and ample targets. It should have pulsed at least 3 times in that window?

I like most everything, while I have no issues with consume spam it sure could use a trim to its animation.

I liked my psi/stone/ice stalker before and this tunes it up in a good way. Big fan of the faster boggle, improved gpb is great and removing the insight lockout gives this set great flow for Stalkers as every gpb can be enhanced by fast AS. Its not my highest damage stalker, but it is super versatile.

My feedback from CB remains the same. Here's 2 vids Beta and Live, same spawn/build/approach Watch for blue lightning strikes, those are the storm cell ones, everything else is colored yellow. Live gets considerably more strikes from storm cell and triggers highwinds very early in the fight. Bear in mind this set is pretty weak on live. Beta version is really bad at 0-3 brew stacks and is just mid at 4 and 5 imo. This set needs way more lightning from storm cell. Right now if this set was perma 5 brew stacks it would still be mid. Beta: Live:

I don't have a lot of hope when the main dev says (live) retsu is redundant on a set that has under 30% def at ED cap and a meager 34% ddr. I think these changes are heavily influenced by IOs and incarnates and the 30/300 t9s are awful unless you have a lot of +rech in your build, which again leads to balance around IOs and incarnates. If we are keeping score (all t4d) Both my /ea stalkers will be turfed. My elec/nin sentinel will be turfed. I think I can salvage my stone/nin scrapper, but unsure if I will cause there are way better secondaries than nin.

Retsu doesn't need the +def or ddr now that it has absorb and insta recharge. Its redundant.

I brought up the same thing in CB. If I just hit retsu why would I "need" any of my ninja powers? This is my window of opportunity to go full offense, so I won't be using additional mitigation tools. Instant recharge is an "oh shiny" feature further compounded by the fact none of the ninja powers (other than retsu) have long recharge periods to begin with.