Frosticus

I personally view things as risk vs reward. Or at least that is a major contributor to how I view balance. So for me fulcrum, while ludicrous, is ok because you need to face down 10+ enemies for it to be ludicrous. And you need to do it often, on a set with little personal mitigation. Farsight and in particular, pb+farsight, entails rolling your face across the keyboard once every 2 min. If CoH is easy, then pb+fs is the hello kitty difficulty setting. People say, "but the VEAT's can mind link." yes they can. But people probably don't realize that mind link is bugged. The power is not supposed to be benefiting from recharge slotting. It doesn't accept recharge enhancements. So the fact that def/rech IO's are boosting it is not working as intended (note I play a widow, i'd be ok if this was fixed, but I'm not worried about it). So fortunatas should really struggle to perma mind link. NW's with a good IO build could. Definitely not with just SO slotting like a time manipulation heh. If fulcrum was a "gather for" buff that gave +200% damage and lasted 2 min, I think most people would think that was OP, but maybe not...

I love the missions with doppelgangers. Sometimes they can be one heck of a challenge. Like stalker combos can be hilarious. Although it turned my savage melee into dominator savage assault. It was still cool.

The beauty of this game is there is room for defenders that only take heals, petless masterminds and people that sequester themselves in phase shift while waiting on elude to be up. keep in mind that farsight can hit anywhere from 1 to 255 friendlies. Your phaseshift only positively affects you and your enemies while the rest of your team covers your absence.

Ok, but in this example what does your SR do for the other 3+ min that elude is down?

You may have already posted this: It just goes up to the damage cap. So 9.38x4 = 37.52 resistance. how you get there isn't of consequence to the cap. So any combination of res slotting and damage boosting will get you there.

imo given the short duration of powerboost it was probably intended to be reactive. ie short powerful heals, burst sapping, or alpha absorbing with a boost in weave/maneuvers. With it benefiting 2 min duration powers on the magnitude of farsight it becomes an even better proactive tool. *remember ff ally buffs used to be single target. To be even and consistent maybe powerboost should grant 2 min +special. That way everyone can benefit from it more equally. If no one cares that farsight is granting as much personal def as it is under powerboost then hurricane, or dispersion bubble should be allowed to operate that way full time too. And find a way to get traps ffg in on this too because there is no indication to a player that hasn't dug into the code that farsight will grant them heaps of def with powerboost, but ffg wont.

pb, doesn't boost endurance recovery. If it works with victory rush, then that is an oversight.

Exactly. Powerboost has turned into a power that you get to have your cake and eat it too. Several things: - ally buffs used to be single target, so powerboosting everyone's was much more difficult. Now it is pb+one shot buff entire team into the statosphere. I like one shot buffing though. - There used to not be any meaningful aoe buffs that powerboost had a major long duration impact on. (boosting the runspeed on Accel metab and similar is pretty minor) - huge amounts of recharge have made the base recharge of powerboost a non factor I'm not trying to pick on farsight, but I doubt anyone would be like "yah fortitude should be an aoe buff", but that's what pb'd farsight basically is. I stopped in i19, but did the original devs just stop caring? And there is no documentation in the game, or logical recourse that explains to the player that something like ffg from traps won't be awesome with pb, but farsight will be.

Maybe. I think some nerfs are good in the long run. even if they sting a bit at first. Powerboost is clearly intended to be a short duration buff, yet it applies unevenly across sets with some getting upwards of 2 minutes bonus out of what is supposed to be a 15 second buff. I dont think farsight giving as much or more def (with powerboost) as the entire super reflexes set to everyone, caster included, is good for the game. I dont think farsight in and of itself is broken though. Conversely I dont think it is fair that a cold user cant boost their ally shields just because they offer a bit of resistance no one slots for. Not when forcefields shields offer endurance drain resistance, but do benefit from pb. I understand why, but I doubt the vast majority of users do. Lack of intuitiveness may not be reason to nerf, but it is reason to normalize. Pick a direction, it ultimately doesnt matter, but it should be predictable and consistent.

You should be able to get a permanent +40% rech from the power if that is your goal and you micromanage it. I wouldn't do that myself. I'd probably shut it off as the spawn dies and then turn it right back on as I'm zipping to the next. How much rech will that give you over time? how fast do you kill each spawn?

Unpopular opinion, but I'd be ok if powerboost didn't affect defensive powers at all. It's current application is inconsistent and not entirely intuitive. Things like powerboosted farsight, or fade, eclipse ffg. I mean fade shouldn't work with pb to begin with, but it does. But there is no reason for the average person to know before hand that pb will or won't boost ffg/farsight. Just like the avg person wouldn't know that pb does work on forcefield ally buffs, but doesn't work on cold's ally buffs.

Unless you are chasing set bonuses early, I actually prefer to slot the 2 damage procs into seeds. The 2 damage procs turn it into an ok aoe blast considering you are going to use it every spawn anyway. And aoe damage is always welcome.

nah, but I think it could be a good combo. unlimited endurance, damage aura and slow aura because runners are the worst on tw as is killing off slivers of health when momentum drops.

It interacts with one of the other armors and boosts your resistances too. Fairly significantly too in defensive mode (whoever plays in that mode?). heal proc is pretty disappointing in the aura imo. It probably has some uses for single target focused stalkers as the sleep might play some role. For aoe stalkers it is pretty skippable. At least on my sav/bio, I can't say it made any discernible difference beside from purple sleep IO's being fairly cheap.

This is a pvp mechanic. 20% chance to crit on mezzed players.

hurl boulder is very slow. you shouldnt need it given your other, better st attacks

yah same problem as always with /thorns. the redraw really impacts flow in a negative way.

/rad is a force multiplier. things improve a large amount once you get imps and again when you start adding damage from your epics. strive for recharge for high uptime of AM/hasten and get your endurance sorted out. Fire/rad is quite strong. playwise you will often just use EF and LR for most fights as rad infection is too slow.

1. You can't perma shadow meld, but you can have it up close to half the time. Which is enough to take just about every alpha. It is best used on the way into spawn because it has a long cast time. 2. Genetic on the other melee AT's gives -res and damage. We all wish thats what stalkers got. It is an ok power. Another layer to the parfait that is /bio. It works really well vs even or +1's, but you don't need it against them. It barely does anything vs +3/4. Though it does up your resistances a bit, which is ok. Parasitic is a god mode power. If it was on a set like /sr or /shield it would be unbelievable. But you don't need it vs regular stuff and when you do need it, there is a good chance it won't keep you upright. People like /bio for a variety of reasons on stalkers. But it is not as good for us as it is for other melee AT's. Every set has its weak spots. /bio just struggles a bit vs energy and psi, which is common endgame damage (its not terrible though) and has no debuff protection, which can be challenging. 3. It is both. /bio is hard as nails when things are sailing smoothly and the offensive advantages are great. Its weaknesses are just a bit more pronounced on stalkers because their absorbs are smaller and their regen (hp/sec) is lower due to their smaller health pool. I've never seen a /bio scrapper stand in a pack of +3/4 cims taking hits like it is a bunch of flies, but maybe they can. My /bio stalker can't with approx 30% s/l def and 60% res. That doesn't hold them off long.

Solo: Most any set that has -res debuffs (more so if they stack) that have been properly adjusted to defender modifiers can edge out corr damage before scourge provided you don't exceed the defender damage cap. Without procs. A bit more so with, due to the extra -res. It's not a massive amount, but an amount none the less. Sets that we never adjusted properly likely favor the corr for damage. Ie dark and cold as their -res summons the same pseudo pet as defenders. Buff heavy sets tend to favor the corr for personal damage as you can start to bump into the defender damage cap without too much effort. In a team where the buffs/debuffs are being generated from a 3rd party that is advantageous to the corr due to higher base damage and higher cap. Here are 3 examples where a solo def will do as much or more damage than a corr without procs and without stacking primary -res debuffs. Storm/x/ 65x 2.25 x 1.35= 190.1 75x 1.95 x 1.3 = 190.1 poison/x/using leadership assault 65x 2.44x 1.65 = 261.7 75x 2.1 x 1.4875 = 234.3 rad/x (just AM+EF) 65 x 2.5 x 1.3= 211.25 75 x 2.15 x 1.225 = 197.53 ymmv

Tough question. I have parasitic aura on my sav/bio. It is up over half the time. It is basically god mode lvl regen+recovery. However, it is a bit misleading imo -If things can't debuff you then you didn't really need parasitic aura. -If things debuff you they might well kill you right through it anyway. In that regard the power may have actually gotten me killed a few times because you are regening well north of 100/hp sec on top of all your bio layers, so you hang too long and then splat. Genetic corruption is of questionable value on an aoe stalker as you don't really fight minions if things are going properly. My final thoughts on stalker /bio and this might be because I've geared it too much toward offense, but it is a fair weather set. Don't get me wrong, the weather is usually good, but it is a bit weak vs energy and psi and can fold very quickly if you don't monitor debuffs. I've done a solo MoITF on my sav/bio, but it required a lot of shadowmelding and frequently disengaging. I haven't been able to solo crimson prototype yet from market crash. As a general rule I don't use inspirations/temps/lore when solo'ing though, so ymmv.

Except that it IS often the case until you exceed the defender damage cap, which few builds do solo (consistently). You quoted me, but ignored what I said. "corrs should probably deal a bit more damage than defenders before scourge, but they often don't once vigilance, debuffs and modifiers like aim/assault/souldrain are included." How many examples would it take? I gave the example that I was examining - fire blast with storm summoning.

corrs should probably deal a bit more damage than defenders before scourge, but they often don't once vigilance, debuffs and modifiers like aim/assault/souldrain are included. what do you do? I'm in the midst of rolling a fire blast/storm/soul character. I can get the fender version to very high defense, resistance and deal quite a bit more damage than the corr which is lower in every category. That said, "rain of scourge" is cool, but not enough for me to go with the corr.

I think EA is an awesome set. super easy to soft cap to all types (except psi) no endurance issues at all +stealth decent heal + regen very good recharge bonus The psi hole is huge though. Almost no protection at all vs psi enemies other than your ok heal and a small amount of -rech protection. If you have a way to overcome that issue the set is unreal. The only thing shield lacks is a heal/regen (has good hp bonuses though) and endurance mangement. It doesn't have any psi res, but is positional def so protects well from most psi attacks. For me it is less of an obstacle to overcome the healing and endurance management of shield, than it is to overcome the psi hole in EA. Both have tremendous benefits though.

Feral is probably the most fun power in the game. savage leap is a close second due to one shotting entire groups, but you are absolutely right about how fast feral charge gets you around. These powers are game changing once you get the hang of them.