"To Archon Burkholder,
Sir, if I may speak frankly, a blind fool can see that there is major trouble coming our way. My base was completely overwhelmed by a single hero, by the name of Ragnarl, I believe. The creature simply strolled past all our defenses without even blinking, and left many broken bones in his wake. If not for my loyal adjutant who pulled me out of the base, and our esteemed doctors and the extra doses of super-serum I was judged worthy of, I would not be here to make this report to you.
I hear that our other bases have reported strange sightings. A bearded dwarf warrior, reminiscient of Norse mythology of old, walking right through grenades, bullets and turret fire bouncing harmlessly off his rocky exterior. Without doubt, that is Ragnarl. Even flamethrowers merely set his beard smouldering as he hacked our computers and rummaged through our supplies with impunity, completely ignoring our attempts to evict him. The men are becoming extremely demoralized. Apparently, he doesn't consider them even worthy of fighting or opposing him, though reports indicate he takes an almost devilish joy in dismembering our Zenith Mechs.
One patrol report suggests he used an EMP grenade on a Zenith Mech (code number #543-1428) on the Bony Morass beaches. As a test run, perhaps? He has not been known to use any since. Or maybe he is saving them up for a real assault on our bases.
One of our salvage crews retreived this recorded footage from an observation camera in Archon Parson's command post.
Optimists would say the dwarf was caught in an ambush. I think the creature just slowed down for fun. Note the Galaxy Adjutant crumpled on the ground, he was knocked out in two swings of the mallet and a single stone fist to the head. As the men in the footage are no longer to be found, I believe it is safe to say they are either in prison, or in a hospital or an early grave.
I repeat, there is major and significant trouble headed our way. We need to be prepared.
Signed,
Archon Salvatore"
Penciled on it is the reply, "Your comments are duly noted. Attached are orders for your new posting. As you may have realized, any heroes will need to go through you to get to our Megamech. Mess up this time and you will have an eternity to contemplate your broken bones in the Ziggurat. A. B."
Hee hee, nope I can't manage a CreyIndustries.com thing all the time, but it was fun to try it out once. As you may have guessed, I have done it! I have opened Ernesto Hess!
And I'm still in the beginning throes of level 29, thanks to mission objectives which don't involve a total "defeat all." Raggy can't sneak, but he can sure make a good attempt while solo. Superjump can get me past a lot of guys unnoticed, and those who do notice, well, they are left in the dust, and I'm not even aware they tried to shoot at me unless I hear the sound. :P
Pic was actually a sneak gone bad. I couldn't resist mauling a Zenith Hoverbot (those mechs must be vulnerable to Smashing, my damage goes through the roof on those things), and that alarmed every mob there or something and they wouldn't stop pursuit. Got to and finished the Archon before I turned around and realized they had all followed me from room to room until they caught up.
Heh, unfortunately for them, I reached lvl 29 a while back, and decided to add an extra slot to my mallets. And changed/fixed the slotting on 'em. Now 5 slotted, I'm afraid to say, it looks like damage is king. Just one acc, one end redux (for maximum benefit and no diminishing returns) and 3 damages on both mallets. I can take out most mobs with two swings, or at most, tickle them with fist and jump kick while waiting for the second attack cycle. And since they are dead so fast, my end does have time to regen back in the downtime that follows.
(I guess when I am teaming, I'm not supposed to be focusing on fast or steady damage anyway, that's the damage dealer's problem. All I need to do is conserve end and save up for those mallet taps to gain attention - and excessive damage has to help taunt magnitude - or to help take a boss down.)
There is a slight gap in my attacks still. Not terribly noticable, but slightly bothersome. It looks like I am going to have to bite the bullet and try hasten eventually in a respec. *cries* Not about to slot recharges, I think with mallet brawl index being what it is, the damage SOs have the most bang for the buck. So that leaves taking a power, or teaming with I4 speed boosting or AM giving people. :P
P.S. Amusingly enough on that last mission, I earned enough influence to get me the Celebrity badge. And it was also coincidentally, the 50th badge, which means Explorer popped right in with it. How fun.
(Someone needs to help me take a screenshot of my badges as seen in the info screen some day. They might look cool from that perspective too.)
Now all I need to do is find time and a team for 1) Hess, 2) Bastion. Preferably before the weekend even. I'm scared, second SG stress test is starting, means the devs are pushing ahead and if they ever get PvP stabilized, they might just open it on Live when they feel they need to.
(Frankly, I think they should take at least one more freaking month on it and get it right, because right now, it's horribly borken (sp. intentional) and needs severe tweaking to make it become fun, otherwise they will have an interesting time when all the PvP outrage threads show up on the Live threads after I4. But I know devs and their sense of 'appropriate' timing.)
8 comments:
Time to start sending defenders tells asking for kinetics? But kin is a far more common in controllers, so you need to send controllers tells asking if they can speed boost. That would make you a joke in the controller world of course...but nevermind if it achieves its purpose.
You do realise that debuffing mob resistance is the samge as buffing damage given or buffing endurance to make more attacks or buffing attack speed, right?
You saw it for yourself in the inverse way. Instead of an extra damage dealer or something like a rad debuff, that empathy fort/RA increased damage on the same toons so much that Envoy was brought down.
Let's see... freezing rain does base 25% debuffing of damage resistance on even con mobs and some unknown defence debuff which I can't find. I'm currently slotting it for recharge and it is almost perma at 2SO recharge. Since I am a controller I don't have to slot slows into them to keep mobs inside. So 3SO recharge 3SO defence debuff and inherent resistance debuff... How about turning mudpots on and slotting the thing up for damage?
I did notice fighting fighting Envoy the other time, my snipes did 200+ damage...then when my controller team-mate rained him, My snipes did 500+ damage. That's equivalent to attacking twice as often right? Something like having hasten on huh?
BUT it's ok...people never notice what's not bright, glowy and centered on their toons. Hulk must smash more, more endurance, smash more. More smash more damage, yarrr!
As for stoner slow speed, can't help that. You always have to trade something for the other.
The only tank with psi resistance? The faster regeneration speed of tanks (save for hibernate but that stops you from doing any other thing)?
Something has to give right?
Just like a fire tank trades in durability for damage ability.
Oh, you want to have tank-like defences/resistances, INCLUDING psi-resistance. AND you don't want the speed penalty. AND do lots of damage without having to worry about toggles running.
I'm seriously not sure if there's anything in the game that's like that. Pre-nerf Regens can pretty much ignore damage type but they do have their own alpha problems. And devs are nerfing those for some reason, I wonder why.
Or I could slot freezing rain for stacking and stack up the resistances...how does 50% damage resistance debuff on the enemy sound?
Nah, all that little orange 1s are just for eye candy.
You know, I dunno why you sound so bitter. I classify damage resistance debuff and other debuff types as their own category. And I enjoy 'em, I'm always a fan of more controllers and defenders, with all the stackage that follows.
But it also stands to reason that all things being equal (the freezing rain is happening anyway, the debuffs are happening), and you put someone with hasten and someone without in there, the guy with hasten can deal a lot more damage at a faster speed, at the cost of faster end drain.
(In which case, what you need is end recovery to offset it. And the evil words which I shall not mention here again.)
The fun of CoH is that you can have multiple solutions to the same problem. I do not deny that. I enjoy it.
But here I'm simply calculating for myself (as a solo tank, first of all) how much more efficient I can become and improve my personal DPS. I'm not fixated on it, I'm not going to crunch a million numbers, but I think it's something that most people will at least give some thought to as they level their characters and find out that something doesn't feel quite right, something isn't quite as good as it could be.
I never pick a player up depending on his powerset. Just the AT balance - a blaster is a blaster when you need damage. A def is a def when you need support functions. Which I think that's what you're really feeling sour grapes about. Everything can contribute as long as the player knows what the heck he's doing.
But it doesn't automatically prevent me from considering the synergies of various powers with Stone and what would make my life easier as a tank. Freezing rain would help DPS, but it sure can't help me taunt or hit faster, or help me move faster - which is sometimes necessary when that braindead blaster is off in the back trying to wrestle with a Zenith Mech. As a stoner I'm slow, it's irritating sometimes, especially to the team unused to it who will not wait up. So how do you counteract that? With a power that shows amazing synergy, like AM, or speed boost. Which of course is complete crack for me. Seriously, try out your stoner rooted and find a friendly speed booster. Then come back and tell me I'm wrong to want to think about getting it when I can.
But I'm strange in certain ways, you know. I'll never yell at anyone in my team that I need 'this' or I need 'that'. There was a /kin on one of our TFs - Moonfire, I think - who would only remember to speed boost me every so often. He was too interested in running up ahead to try and glacier stuff and getting squished by boulders. I loved it when I got it, I tried to praise it when he remembered, but when it was off, I lived without it. I never yelled for it. It would have made me much happier to get it, but I don't tell people how to play their characters or demand stuff from 'em.
Are you upset at that granite armor thread in the Tanker boards? Personally, I don't know what to make of it. I'm perfectly willing to live with and adapt to whatever change or not happens to Stoners. Because I like the whole concept and playstyle. Heck, I was willing to play an I3 Rooted Stoner. I don't mind being generally considered a second-class invul tank except when psi comes into play, because I believe stone has its own charm, and needs its own slotting to feel correct.
And that's where self-experimentation comes in. I don't believe in following a guide slavishly. I actually still haven't figured out if I want to use a respec yet, because I can't remember how my powers are ordered or slotted currently, and I'm actually happy with the way he's built and has been leveling. So I might just take up hasten in the future, and not push down any more powers. Perhaps I don't need minerals yet with granite being what it is. Then level 30 could be hasten.
Once upon a time, (as you know), rooted was rooted, unyielding was unyielding, and tanks couldn't move. The difference to that were the ice tankers, who had mobility but in exchange they were pure defence tankers. There were also fire tankers, who didn't have any mez toggles at all (or even knockback), but had burn.
So tanks needed teams. They needed blasters to blow things up around them, defenders to help them out because if things didn't go well they sure as hell couldn't just run off. They needed controllers to manage the strays. Not to say they could not solo, but the manual says it -- they could, in their own slow, deliberate pace.
It wasn't that they were slow in moving...they could ... not...even...move... if they were standing around mezzers.
Which, of course, you know.
Then I3 came, and the devs, in their wisdom, gave stone and invul tanks mobile status protection.
Suddenly, ice tanks weren't the only ones with mobile status protection. Who wants to be an ice tanker when they can have resists -and- defences ? And be mobile!
Oh yes, upping of tank damage too.
(This certainly has given rise to a lot of bad tanks, simply because of the fact that now they can say "screw my team-mates"...whereas before, they jolly well needed to keep their team-mates alive otherwise they would be stuck in a sea of mobs slowly wearing them down.)
But it's not enough to be mobile...limited...slowly mobile...rooted, but when stone tankers want to be speedy rooted and granited...ummm...well...why not make an invul tank then? Those move around with no speed penalty. Except they have a hole in their armor...it's called Psi. But it doesn't hurt that badly, if I'm not mistaken. Psychic Clockwork King is just one mission.
Recharge speeds. Nobody told Ragnarl to not pick up hasten. It isn't too late to pick it up either. Pick it up at 30. Even a few slots in it makes it worthwhile. Or respec it in, I'm still game for doing that Sky raider respec. I don't think those flamethrowers are going to hurt with brimestone on.
But compare oranges to oranges, apples with apples. Of course a stoner with both hasten and freezing rain does more damage with a stoner without hasten and with freezing rain.
Fact is there is no hasten on this stoner now.
So does a non-hastened stoner do more damage through resist debuffing or through recharge buffing via AM/speedboost?
A rad would of course toss in his toggles. Do a search on the defender forums. Some people did a test and find that all the rad debuffs and buffs add up to -nearly- triple stacked freezing rain. This isn't adding other storm debuffs in. So in buffing up damage, storm is better than rad pure numbers-wise. Storm has, of course, various issues.
What about kinetics? That is more vague. With fulcrum shift, kinetic defenders are indeed the kings of damage buffing. But since kinetic defenders are rare, it would be a kinetics controller...fulcrum shift isn't available until 38, and won't be properly slotted until 40, meaning lots of downtime.
The -real- issue then, is really not total damage output. It's not endurance if you say, through your own testing, you can swing that mallet with 1 end red without having endurance problems.
Of course with endurance buffing, you can take out that end red and slot in damage or recharge, or take out a recharge and slot in damage. But it's pretty much not advisable to slot as if you can -always- find a kinetics powerset to play with.
So the problem could be perception. A gap in attack cycle is annoying? Aesthetics problem? Hit less often for more or hit more often for less? Your own dilemna in slotting, again. Put one more recharge in slotting if the gap bothers you.
I don't think that's really the issue anyway.
The real issue is the movement penalty associated with the stone armor set. And of course kinetics synergises with it because of speed boost. That is, basically, the crux of the business. Movement penalty.
Because as seen from analysis, the recharge point is moot when you do compare the right things. Again, of course a stoner with hasten will do more damage, under any type of situation at all. And of course with hasten on you would need some kind of endurance buffing. At that point, when you -do- have perma-hasten, your point on endurance buffing will be valid. However, when you -don't- have permahasten (as you don't have now), the debuffing effects of rain provides equivalent or better damage output than buffing of recharge rates and endurance buffing (which isn't really a factor when you don't have permahasten which then causes you to burn endurance)
On my dark defender, I run tactics, shadowfall, darkest night, acrobatics. If I am RA'd or speedboosted, I can run manuevers too, so end buffing is good. I love it. Running four toggles, I can't blast much. I don't have a sustained DPS, because I can only choose to blast, now and then, or my endurance will run dry, my toggles will run. And when my toggles run, I die. I don't have even tank hp to survive getting them up again. I have a nuke, it's a darn fun thing to toss into stuff and make them go boom. But unlike a blaster, I can't just go around throwing my nuke. If I am certain my team is in no danger and is just cleaning up, or my fluffies have everything well debuffed, then I can throw a nuke which drops my toggles. If I am speedboosted or RAed, the endurance buffs offsets the nuke sappage, and if I time it right I can continue to keep my toggles up (just before the end tick). I love endurance buffing too.
Everyone loves endurance buffing.
But without it, a player just have to be responsible when teamed.
A tank grouped with a kin defender isn't soloing either.
The other thing about being /kin instead of kin/, is that as a controller, the controller's first job and primary duty is to control. Speedboost runs. The controller can't always remember to put it back up. That other ice controller was /rad, not /kin, by the way...being /rad, it means he might not have got AM slotted up to perma yet...so it runs, it's still recharging...and he can't put it up? Different controller sets are more or less slot heavy on their primaries. The Ill/rad in the first TF specifically pointed out that she has Perma-AM. The key word is Perma, meaning she could have it out all the time.
The other thing is, which I was pointing out, is you can certainly delight in a certain powerset's synergy with another. But how are you going to get that powerset to play with you? Kinetics synergises with lots, lots of things. Scrappers for one. More than stone tanks. Kinetics is just pure candy for stone tanks. Doesn't mean the other way around. How are you going to go around specifically looking for a kin/ or /kin? That's what I was pointing out.
If you point out that I sound bitter. Well, I am a bitter. I am also cranky. The only thing anyone ever notices are toon-centered glowy thingies and effects and the orange numbers of damage done.
Face it, why do you get angry when you're tanking your ass out and the happy blasters go "Let's get more purples, more XP!"? Because nobody notices the damage that is -not- splattering them. All they want is more and more things to kill.
Why am I bitter and cranky? Because everyone wants more end-buffs and more damage-buffs, and more attacks and higher dps. And of course once they have that they rip through the smaller mobsets. So they want more mobs and bigger mobs. Then they find that they're dying because bigger mobs do more damage and higher dps doesn't mean shit if you can't survive. Better get a...healer...who is there buffing them. Personal buff/healbot. And when that buff/healbot can't keep up...time to get a controller and do some crowd control. Though of course post thirties nothing can really kill a tank unless he does extreme herding, so buffbots are good all the way through.
Which really just brings us back to what we're not supposed to be about: Leet numbers and leet xp. Because if you really want to talk about numbers, I can do the minmax thing too and make a minmax posting. And I can also make the minmax suggest to just take hasten, which would then validate all your points, and permit you to join the giant club of end/damage-hungry tankers/scrappers out there who just, just, just absolutely need their next shot of kineticrack or RAcrack.
When talking with a non "Big 3" defender, you must remember that there are a few words that are as taboo as the word "niggah" or "nazi". They are "heal"/"healer"/"r u healer" and variants thereof, "RA", "blasting". Such terms tend to cause sudden explosions of defenders telling you to go to the Americans.
:P
I really wonder why defenders are so rancid on this issue, the same way a lot of non-taunt tanks blow up the moment someone mentions that tanks should take taunt?
I was musing. I wasn't taking in every factor to calculate maximum DPS, cos I don't enjoy doing that. I was just considering what would lessen the attack cycle gap I currently have. And wondering if hasten would do it, making me happy even when soloing, at the cost of one power...or endure it until I run with what you term the popular big 3 - since they are popular, the chances of getting one of them when you team up are pretty high, wouldn't you say? (That's what making you see red every time a def shows their head, too. :))
I don't have a recharge slotted in my mallets. I don't want to slot in a recharge. Personal choice, as I stated up there. Which means my only (self-limited) options to speed up recharge rate are hasten or being fortunate enough to receive you-know-what.
People will think of ways to get around limitations. That's only natural. I was ready to go tele-tank with I3 Rooted if need be. I'm still considering it as an option. Just because blasters are squishy or fire tanks are without certain status protect, doesn't mean they can't try to calculate ways of getting that defense, through stealth, acrobatics, etc. Or getting clear-minded. Ditto for stone tanks being slow.
How do I go around specifically looking for a kin? I'm not gonna send tells to every defender asking 'r u healr, or r u kin' if you think that's what considering min-maxing does, then you're insulting my intelligence. I take every defender I can get because they have a role to play. Darks are notoriously good for damage resistance, and that makes my TANK job easier. But it doesn't help actual damage output per second any. Which of course, is not needed if you can withstand the mobs longer so that you can hit them longer. But we're (or at least I was) talking about what skills specifically increase whatever facets - be it damage to mobs, damage resistance to attacks, status protection, or speed or recharge rate, etc.
Oh, and if I do meet a kin and we get along, we can always friendlist each other and team together if we find we like each other mutually. Maybe the kin wants a tank that actually tanks?
Serendipity happens all the time. I had no clue when I was befriending Star Control that he/she was the leader of Instant Heroes and had a level 40+ scrapper and blaster. But I think we get along pretty well, and share the same obsessions about collecting all TF badges and so on.
Oh, by the way, my end bar does run out, 1 or 2 end reduxs, it doesn't matter. It's just a matter of when. Of course it's a balancing act. But I don't see why I can't brood to myself about whether I want to slot 1, 2, or 3 of them on my own blog post.
I think defs are really over-reactive. I shall one day make a bunch of them and see whether it's really so darned annoying or no. I still think that it's the team's loss if they don't want me (be I whatever powerset) and that I'll be better off in a team that will take me without demanding 'healrz plz' :)
The "Big 3" is termed what most people see as "useful". Empathy, FF, Kinetics.
There are only empathy defenders. However FF defenders are just about extinct, and kinetics defenders are rare and in between. Ironically, Rad, the king of the hill of defender sets, is absent in the "Big 3" because it does take a bit of awareness to not kill the anchors.
I've worked with the giant number of three kinetics defenders in my entire career in CoH. One in a respec, one in a random pickup, one recently on Striga.
So, good luck to finding your elusive kinetics defender to befriend and snuggle up to and be warm and fuzzy forever more.
"I really wonder why defenders are so rancid on this issue, the same way a lot of non-taunt tanks blow up the moment someone mentions that tanks should take taunt?"
Ah, that sums up the subconscious attitude.
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