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Can someone experienced go over the more worthwhile ability upgrades for the Blade archetype (or point me to someone who does)? I feel bad training the skill that adds AoE to one of my initial attacks only to find out that the level 11 skill pretty much overlaps with it.
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Sep 20, 2011 04:16
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Nissir posted:Is there a way to make a freeform necromancer/pet class that is good at soloing? Or should I stick with something simple like a melee dps class? Well, you mentioned free to play, so you couldn't have a freeform character with free to play anyway. Behemoth is a good, solid and resistant melee DPS archetype. Blade is alright too, but doesn't have a lot of varied attacks until later on. Heavy neutrino posted:Can someone experienced go over the more worthwhile ability upgrades for the Blade archetype (or point me to someone who does)? I feel bad training the skill that adds AoE to one of my initial attacks only to find out that the level 11 skill pretty much overlaps with it. That's pretty much the thing with Blade, really. Once you have Scything Blade with Swallowtail Cut, you have literally no reason to use Reaper's Caress. The latter only becomes useful again once you have Reaper's Embrace, since bleeds can stack further with Reaper's Caress, and do more damage. But that's L40 in the Blade archetype, as opposed to L12 or so in freeform. Not really that impressive.
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Sep 20, 2011 04:23
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In general, with buffs, the "base power" that grants them explains what the buff does. Enrage gives you the benefits of an Enrage stack, Defiance tells you what a stack of Defiant does, and any of the Form of the <whatever> powers tells you what Focus does. The downside to this of course is that there are other powers that can grant or refresh one of these buffs, and the tooltip doesn't explain it, so that's a bit of a UI mistake. But once you know the basic idea it's not hard to track down the numbers, and the tooltips are a hell of a lot better than they were. Heavy neutrino posted:Can someone experienced go over the more worthwhile ability upgrades for the Blade archetype (or point me to someone who does)? I feel bad training the skill that adds AoE to one of my initial attacks only to find out that the level 11 skill pretty much overlaps with it. Nissir posted:Is there a way to make a freeform necromancer/pet class that is good at soloing? Or should I stick with something simple like a melee dps class?
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Sep 20, 2011 04:26
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E: Wrong thread. Second E: Is there any news on when the new costume pack is hitting the store?
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Sep 20, 2011 13:50
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whatspeakyou posted:E: Wrong thread. Wednesday to Saturday. They never narrow it down more than that.
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Sep 20, 2011 21:21
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Most likely Thursday or Friday due to recent trends.
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Sep 21, 2011 00:44
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The golden age costume set's out. Hooray! As well as ten shared bank slots for the hideout, for 185 cryptic fun bucks. Not sure how useful this is, but it's an option. Also, not only is the calendar for October not up, the listing for next week's release seems to be missing as well. So who the gently caress knows what's coming up soon. 
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Sep 22, 2011 23:13
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Are there any 5-man dungeons of some sort in the game? I'm getting a bit sick of soloing.
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Sep 22, 2011 23:35
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Heavy neutrino posted:Are there any 5-man dungeons of some sort in the game? I'm getting a bit sick of soloing. http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Lairs That said: no there's not really a lot. And more importantly, any indoor instanced quest and all the mission packs automatically scales up with the party, so they sort of double as the same purpose there anyway. There's no real reason not to group if you're interested, honestly, it's just that the game doesn't force you to and is generally fairly easy, so most people don't.
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Sep 22, 2011 23:42
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Asimo posted:Also, not only is the calendar for October not up, the listing for next week's release seems to be missing as well. So who the gently caress knows what's coming up soon. It was the Free Silver Archetype originally. Edit: After some discussion, the categories for the next CC have been shuffled slightly. They are now Best Worst, Cute Intimidating, Sexy Oddball, Retro Creature, and TBD. The 2 left over common categories are Fantasy and Tech, but Tech Fantasy/Fantasy Tech is a bit too vanilla. So we need some suggestions to swap one or both of them. "Retro Creature" isn't really set in stone either, so feel free to suggest for that too. It has to be a commonly used category though. Aphrodite fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Sep 23, 2011 |
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Sep 23, 2011 00:58
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New gimmick on the forums. It's called Field Report, and it's basically a list of what they're working on. http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?p=1950217#post1950217 A lot of cool stuff in there. Also I edited my post above. Please read it, and reply.
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Sep 23, 2011 02:20
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I'm thinking of dropping the $15 subscription fee on the game to try out a freeform hero, but I'm worried I might still be expected to pay for essential MMO features despite paying the price of a pay-to-play MMO. It's not mentioned on the website, so I'll ask here. As a gold member, do I get to: 1) Respec? 2) Have multiple bag slots? 3) Have bank slots? The first point is pretty much a deal breaker. I can't justify paying the price of a MMO and still be expected to shell out some 15 bucks to correct mistakes in a system wherein it's really easy to make mistakes.
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Sep 23, 2011 09:42
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You can fully respec without Retcon tokens by using in game currency. You have to do it one skill at a time, and gets progressively more expensive, but its not prohibitively expensive (at least at level 20).
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Sep 23, 2011 09:59
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Yeah. You have to buy extra bank slots with in-game cash (although it's mostly a pittance except for the last one), you can respec whenever you want (although a full respec is quite costly at 40, but not impossibly so; you can probably afford to do at least one by the time you get there), and you get four bags slots for free right away (although you'd need the bags to fill them, also easy). Really, these are the basic sort of conveniences they locked away to encourage folks to pay money though subs or c-store, so... Also you get eight character slots when you subscribe (and another free whenever you hit 40), on top of that too. So another annoyance down.
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Sep 23, 2011 10:10
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Whenever you hit 40 as Gold, you get a free respec for that character. Plus the character slot Asimo mentioned.
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Sep 23, 2011 11:11
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I'm not terribly sure how to mix and match skills effectively. I respecced my 1h blades character into a dual blades fighter, and pretty much stuck with dual blades skills all the way with the slight exception that I picked up Scything Blade again because that skill kicked major rear end. Were there other possible combos I was unaware of (for a str/dex martial arts character)?
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Sep 23, 2011 15:29
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Well, for example, you could mix Supernatural Bestial with Single Blade. Bestial has a lot of bleeds and also Massacre, which does huge damage to bleeding stuff with an advantage. Of course this would require your character to be some sort of... werewolf swordsman, and what kind of nerd would do that? There's a pretty effective build template dubbed "Rage of Majesty" that makes great use of freeform. It uses the passive Aura of Primal Majesty, which is a boost to all of your stats. It then uses Enrage for a damage boost, which has its power and duration raised, and cooldown lowered by the stat boosts from Majesty. On top of that you have good health, good energy, and decent criticals. Majesty is from Primal Sorcery, Enrage from Might/Heavy Weapons, and attacks from anywhere. The original build used Thunderstorm because it was Zeus themed, but that's not necessary or anything. Another good example is the basic walking tank defensive build. You take Defiance or Invulnerability (From Might/Heavy Weapons and Power Armor, respectively) and combine it with Inertial Dampening Field (From Force) plus a heal from Gadgeteering, Martial Arts, Celestial etc. There's a few heal options and which you want depends on your superstats. Freeform isn't so much about having 14 powers all from different sets, but about choosing a theme and enhancing it with good powers. Scything Blade is a really good pick. Apply Swallowtail to the strong guy in a group, then Eye of the Storm them all down.
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Sep 23, 2011 15:51
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Also, Cryptic semi-frequently throws a free full respec for everyone. I'm not 100% positive when these happen, probably with the release of new archetypes, but I do know that my characters pretty much always have a "Free" respec available. As for picking powers in freeform, the gist of it is as Aphrodite says. If you're not sure about how well different power sets synergise, just ask the channel or in this thread. After a while, half the fun of the game becomes to try experimental, wacky builds with unlikely synergies. 
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Sep 23, 2011 16:07
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I have a Fire and Ice character, purely because I discovered that Heat Wave fires from the left hand while Ice Blast fires from the right. They're both the same damage type group and so Ice Form boosts the damage of both.
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Sep 23, 2011 16:18
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Aphrodite posted:I have a Fire and Ice character, purely because I discovered that Heat Wave fires from the left hand while Ice Blast fires from the right. Oh, really? Welp, guess I know what I'm making next.
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Sep 23, 2011 16:30
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Aphrodite posted:Freeform isn't so much about having 14 powers all from different sets, but about choosing a theme and enhancing it with good powers. Very much so. There are many powersets that aren't necessarily spectacular on their own, but have specific powers (Archery -> Quarry, Power Armor -> Unbreakable, Force -> IDF, Celestial -> Imbue, Infernal Supernatural -> Resurgence, the Martial Arts sets -> the Forms) that can easily be cherry-picked into an effective build that is otherwise unrelated. The main idea is to round out your build and not be one-dimensional; everyone can benefit from a heal, a damage reducer like IDF, an active offense or similar power to jack up offense temporarily, and/or an active defense to keep you standing a bit longer. Whenever you hit a new power level, think to yourself as to what's the most obvious hole you have right now (are you taking too much damage? running out of energy too often? need an AOE attack to clear out crowds, a spike-damage attack for taking down bosses, a buff to make everything more efficient?) and base your power choices around that. Also, don't rule out setting up multiple builds once you're high enough level to have some power picks to spare. For instance, my Dual Blader has a default build that's pure offense (Brawler role, Way of the Warrior passive, equipment to match), but I also took Defiance and set up a Defensive build (Protector role, Defiance passive, a little higher CON and PRE) for taking on big bosses like Blood Moon undead. Damage is obviously lower, but he's also a lot harder to take down, so if I get into trouble it's one click to shift into Defensive mode, clear poo poo out, then switch back after the fight.
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Sep 23, 2011 16:34
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whatspeakyou posted:Oh, really? Welp, guess I know what I'm making next. Yep. Obviously Fiery Form will do the same, but I found Ice Form's chill to be more useful than Fiery's little AoE. The attacks themselves don't have any actual synergy, but I'm not powergaming. I have a few options how to tackle each mob group, rather than just Conflag or Avalanche 24/7.
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Sep 23, 2011 16:35
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Even before the superstat unlinking from sets, Ice Form was superior for a DPS character because it incorporated Dex and so you could tidily work crits into any elemental build. Fire was PRE/something which meant fiery form was great for a DPS/pinch heals build. Also fun to note: Shadow Embrace and Lifedrain come from the left hand, and are Paranormal damage, while non-dual-wielded psychic weaponry are all righthanded (as all weapons are by default). Mixes well, if marginally less effective than either set taken fully-on.
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Sep 23, 2011 16:51
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Aphrodite posted:Freeform isn't so much about having 14 powers all from different sets, but about choosing a theme and enhancing it with good powers. Scything Blade is a really good pick. Apply Swallowtail to the strong guy in a group, then Eye of the Storm them all down. Speaking of this, I went with Sword Cyclone -> Butcher's Blades instead of EotS, and I kind of regret it. The move costs a bazillion energy and takes forever to charge. Most of the time I just tap it several times because it's more likely that someone will knock me on my rear end while I'm charging it. I guess the problem I'm having is that my character is made out of cardboard. He kills really fast, but conversely dies really quickly, too. I took the healing and dodge steroid from the Martial arts tree, but it's not nearly enough. Fighting VIPER, for example, is hell on earth because their main henchmen (soldiers) are ranged, do high damage, and have the good sense to stay far away from each other. And don't get me started on the Brickbusters' damage return. Usually if I draw two packs of VIPER mobs I'm probably dead.
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Sep 24, 2011 00:15
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Heavy neutrino posted:Speaking of this, I went with Sword Cyclone -> Butcher's Blades instead of EotS, and I kind of regret it. The move costs a bazillion energy and takes forever to charge. Most of the time I just tap it several times because it's more likely that someone will knock me on my rear end while I'm charging it. Eye of the Storm's a handy power, but a little more situational, since its damage is piss-poor unless you're solo or have aggro, and have its advantage. The survivability is definitely handy though, but even so I'd probably still take Sword Cyclone first as dual blades. quote:I guess the problem I'm having is that my character is made out of cardboard. He kills really fast, but conversely dies really quickly, too. I took the healing and dodge steroid from the Martial arts tree, but it's not nearly enough. Fighting VIPER, for example, is hell on earth because their main henchmen (soldiers) are ranged, do high damage, and have the good sense to stay far away from each other. And don't get me started on the Brickbusters' damage return. Usually if I draw two packs of VIPER mobs I'm probably dead. Granted, I suspect part of the problem is that VIPER in general is ludicrously overpowered, especially at lower levels. They used to be weak and easily farmed, but due Cryptic being Cryptic they vastly overbuffed them to compensate for it a while back, leading to all those insta-knockback grenades, minions with weapons that cut through defenses, and so on. They're not impossible, but it's still a bit dumb. 
Asimo fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Sep 24, 2011 |
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Sep 24, 2011 00:43
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Eye of the Storm is a tier 2. Cyclone is a 3.
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Sep 24, 2011 00:55
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I definitely have a slotted passive; I got unoriginal and decided to go with Way of the Warrior, although I seriously contemplated Unstoppable because knock can go to hell forever. I didn't get Resurgent Reiki on Chi resurgence because the tooltip is retarded. I mean read it for yourself: it says nothing of what the advantage does except hint at the fact that it heals (if certain untold conditions are met). I'll definitely take a look at it and The Elusive Monk, which is another advantage the tooltip left me completely clueless about. That said, I went through the Resistance adventure pack last night. That was...surprisingly fun, actually. I've never quite been through the experience of a story-driven MMO segment, and it was a breath of fresh air. The mixing and matching of mechanics (squads of goons helping you out, piloting a huge death robot, being a worthless sidekick in a fight between giants) was great, too. I hope all the packs are like that. I probably wouldn't replay it on my own, though; some parts were really frustratingly hard. You and your nine lives can kiss my rear end, Arcana.
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Sep 24, 2011 01:38
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The sad thing is the tooltips in ChampO are far better now than they used to be.  But yeah. The dodge-based defenses (including Quarry and WotW as well as Lightning Reflexes) sync wonderfully with BCR+RR, to the point the combo is one of the things that turns Lightning Reflexes from "somewhat weak" to "arguably overpowered in the endgame". And with Parry and its advantage you can get a decent level of dodge going even in a DPS build to make use of it.In general, it shows a good idea in freeform building in general, in that you always want to have something to cover every aspect wherever possible. Good single target, good AoE, good defenses, a self-heal or damage shield or two, passive buffs, etc... you can get all of these rounded out by the midgame and make a pretty strong showing even in a weaker powerset. Just don't be afraid to go outside of your powerset for stuff, since there's a lot of things (like IDF or any of the active offense/defense buffs) that sync well with any build and have subtler SFX. For better or worse, Resistance was the best mission back they've done. Demonflame and Aftershock are quite fun too, but Serpent Lantern is both full of annoying VIPER enemies and a bit repetitive, even if it has BoE drops and thus was the best to farm.
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Sep 24, 2011 01:48
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Asimo posted:Granted, I suspect part of the problem is that VIPER in general is ludicrously overpowered, especially at lower levels. They used to be weak and easily farmed, but due Cryptic being Cryptic they vastly overbuffed them to compensate for it a while back, leading to all those insta-knockback grenades, minions with weapons that cut through defenses, and so on. They're not impossible, but it's still a bit dumb. I missed that part of your post the first time; it definitely feels like it to me. It's not just the odious grenade tossers (and holy poo poo did the Infiltrators annoy me before I got Sword Cyclone with their annoying rear end smoke bombs), it just seems like whenever I jump into a VIPER pack, my health goes down twice as fast as it does against any other faction pack. It seems like VIPER and some other elements of the game aren't terribly well balanced. For example, there's a mission in the Westside chain where you have to go into the prison and beat a bunch of bosses. That's easy, but as soon as you enter the prison you get gangbanged by some 20 henchmen inmates, if you'll pardon the unfortunate pun. It's stupid hard to survive. Apparently my character has another free respec for some reason, and I was thinking about trying an unarmed (not might) build. Any suggestions? I was thinking of getting the Immolation skill from the Fire tree because if there's something cooler than punching out supervillains with your bare hands, it probably involves the inclusion of fire.
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Sep 24, 2011 08:11
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Dual blades is actually a really nice, easy set as an introduction to freeform building, imo. Lightning Reflexes is nice, works well with energy shield/laser knight. With WoTW, parry (with elusive monk, which increases dodge chance/avoidance when fighting in melee) is probably the safer block choice. Either way, BCR/RR is a must. Later on, when you've got a power slot for some active defenses, masterful dodge makes BCR/RR pretty lol. Pretty sure my blades character only has Cyclone and the Dragon thinger plus thunderbolt lunge for attacks, don't feel like you need ten thousand different killy things, stick with the bare minimum (even though it can get a bit repetitive) and spend those power slots on heals/damage absorbers and the other fancy stuff that makes you absurdly powerful. One final thing: if you're ever unsure about which block to take, grab force shield. With it's force sheathe advantage you can make end worries a thing of the past.
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Sep 24, 2011 08:19
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Heavy neutrino posted:Apparently my character has another free respec for some reason, and I was thinking about trying an unarmed (not might) build. Any suggestions? I was thinking of getting the Immolation skill from the Fire tree because if there's something cooler than punching out supervillains with your bare hands, it probably involves the inclusion of fire. Since you're gold now it sounds, I recommend trying a build out on the test server, since there's no real risk in doing so. If you're going unarmed, I personally recommend just taking Lightning Reflexes. Passive defenses are usually better overall anyway, since they don't care what damage types you use, and killing minions and stuff quickly isn't usually that big of a concern. Martial arts sets gain a pretty dramatic damage boost from Focus too so swapping a slotted offense out for a slotted defense still gives them solid hitting power. If you go out of your way to grab some out-of-set defensive stuff you'll basically be unkillable too once you get into the 20's, speaking from experience. Immolation's fine too; I think its damage boost is universal rather than type-specific, so it should mesh well. The only real possible incompatibility with a Lightning Reflex-focused Martial Arts build is that Focus only boosts the damage of melee attacks, so if you mix in ranged attacks they'll be unmodified. Heck, Unarmed's Form of the Master gives you Focus when you dodge, so it doesn't matter what stats you have or attacks you use there (although I'd recommend Dex/Con myself.)
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Sep 24, 2011 09:50
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How am I supposed to beat The Left Hand (Demonhame)? He holds me and then hits me for more health than my maximum. The bosses in this pack don't feel balanced at all. I must have died at least three times to each of them versus a single death in the entirety of Resistance. edit: Well, I guess all I have to do is hope that he doesn't use the hold move! Or clip into the ground where I can't hit him! edit 2: Killed him after 5 tries. Three of them he used the hold move, two of them he bugged into the ground. I am not replaying this pack. VVV: He's childishly easy if he doesn't use his cheesy 10 second hold move. Block his triple combo, get a hit in, repeat. If he does, I'm just hosed because he gets super damage from the hold and hits me for 1000/2000/2000. Again, the bosses simply don't feel balanced. I got through the first two forms of Inquisitor of the Mind without a hitch, but died some 5 times on the last phase because he's with about 10 goons. Jack Fool would hold me and then Critical - Dodge - 4000 (I have 3300 HP). It's almost like giving bosses a status effect that stuns you and multiplies their damage by a large number isn't really appropriate for solo content. Heavy neutrino fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Sep 24, 2011 |
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Sep 24, 2011 12:39
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Your experience with The Left Hand sounds very typical; he's not easy unless you have the kind of supertank build that doesn't mind his big spike attack.
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Sep 24, 2011 14:46
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Heavy neutrino posted:I missed that part of your post the first time; it definitely feels like it to me. It's not just the odious grenade tossers (and holy poo poo did the Infiltrators annoy me before I got Sword Cyclone with their annoying rear end smoke bombs), it just seems like whenever I jump into a VIPER pack, my health goes down twice as fast as it does against any other faction pack. It seems like VIPER and some other elements of the game aren't terribly well balanced. For example, there's a mission in the Westside chain where you have to go into the prison and beat a bunch of bosses. That's easy, but as soon as you enter the prison you get gangbanged by some 20 henchmen inmates, if you'll pardon the unfortunate pun. It's stupid hard to survive. Dual Blades is one of the more powerful offensive sets, but the game makes you fight tactically once in a while, too. For instance, Let's Stop a Riot! starts exactly as you describe -- a wall of inmates coming from the west and east hallways to gangbang you in the central foyer. How to avoid being overwhelmed? Divide and conquer. Pick a hallway and charge down it, cleaning out the inmates as you go. Now you have about 1/3 of the total inmates gone, you haven't taken much damage, you have a little distance between you and the main group of inmates, and you have a clear area at your back to retreat to. Having some of the Heals or Shields from the RenCen vendors doesn't hurt, either. Still taking too much damage? Cyclone is a great crowd-clearer, among the best, but Eye of the Storm is an even better choice if you're worried about incoming damage because it has a built-in damage shield. Take that and the Blade Beyond the Veil advantage, and laugh as half the inmates run into melee range and get chopped while you still have most of your health bar. (Of course, retreating to the hallway probably wouldn't occur to someone on their first trip through that mission. It didn't to me. Experience helps too.) Same deal with VIPER. One of their less appealing characteristics is that outside of Infiltrators, they DON'T tend to charge into easily-mulchable groups; they stand at range and pelt, so you're taking damage from one or more even while you're whittling down the others. If you aggro too many at once with an offensive passive, that's a recipe for low health. Some of them in particular (Brickbusters at range, Infiltrators up close) can churn out a lot of damage in a short time; blocking against the former and quickly killing the latter is important. quote:Apparently my character has another free respec for some reason, and I was thinking about trying an unarmed (not might) build. Any suggestions? I was thinking of getting the Immolation skill from the Fire tree because if there's something cooler than punching out supervillains with your bare hands, it probably involves the inclusion of fire. Boy, did they have you in mind once you can access Tier 3 Unarmed powers.
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Sep 24, 2011 15:19
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Though technically it's Dimensional damage.Heavy neutrino posted:Again, the bosses simply don't feel balanced. They're not. You're not supposed to be able to solo them.
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Sep 24, 2011 15:58
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Goddamn, why am I subbing again? I saw it on Steam as f2p a week ago, spent most of my morning just loving with the char creator and here I go again because I want to play a pure power armor dude. I was free, damnit! 
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Sep 24, 2011 16:01
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Do yourself a favour and stick Orbital Cannon on your PA guy, and avoid powers outside of Concussor Beam, Minigun, Micro Munitions, and maybe Chest Beam. 420 ridiculously overkill everyspawn.
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Sep 24, 2011 18:25
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You could stick Orbital Cannon on any character with any build and wipe out 90% of the groups you fight. For especially trashy pulls I just toss an aoe slow after charging the cannon and cruise on to the next group because that one is dead and they just don't know it yet.
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Sep 24, 2011 20:17
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My favorite power combo is the Tech T4, which sucks all the enemies into one spot, and the Orbital Cannon with the Anvil of Dawn advantage. Start the beam, toss the bomb, watch them loving melt.
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Sep 25, 2011 00:18
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LordSaturn posted:My favorite power combo is the Tech T4, which sucks all the enemies into one spot, and the Orbital Cannon with the Anvil of Dawn advantage. Start the beam, toss the bomb, watch them loving melt. That's my favorite one too. My gadget character has all these widgets and doodads but all I really need are those two.
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Sep 25, 2011 07:51
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