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You guys are organizing goon run costume contests and you didn't invite me.  (i'll be back  ... at some point)
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Jul 9, 2011 07:29
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I've seen a few attempts at this, but this guy's came out the best. sentrygun posted:You guys are organizing goon run costume contests You know you can just login and show up on a freebie character right?
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Jul 9, 2011 07:36
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Aphrodite posted:You know you can just login and show up on a freebie character right? I've done that a few times. It's just that every time I think "I would enjoy a nice couple hours of spreading friendship in Caprice" I remember that I'm generally several patches behind and I'm lazy. 
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Jul 9, 2011 07:39
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Does the power of Primal Majesty only really apply at high end?
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Jul 9, 2011 09:18
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Even though Cryptic removed all the flesh tones from the costume color palette, there's a few that are still quite close. As long as they're not beside actual flesh, you usually can't tell the difference. I ran out of ideas on one character, so I just started copying real characters for the hell of it. Mary Marvel was easy to do. Lightning Lass I got really close. Then I tried Hotwire from The Batman. This is what she looks like:  This is what the CO costume looks like:  Good enough for a costume I'm never actually going to use. One slight problem, though... http://oi55.tinypic.com/jpy2k0.jpg
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Jul 9, 2011 09:22
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Does Cryptic get aggro over stuff like that? Nice choice with the Jet boots.
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Jul 9, 2011 12:52
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The official policy is that straight out "Batman" isn't okay, but "Batman's Fat Uncle" is just fine. Basically, parody value is what matters. Meanwhile, I've never heard of anyone getting a worse punishment than a forced rename/costume blanking.
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Jul 9, 2011 16:26
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Also if you want to rectify the no undies issue and keep the thigh highs look, try either Curves of Curves Open from the first premium tights pack.
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Jul 9, 2011 16:37
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I've been messing around with alternative costumes for most of my gang, it's fun coming up with a new look that retains elements of the original. Here's some of my poo poo: Null(Might)   Pythia(Primal Sorcery)  
AttackBacon fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Jul 9, 2011 |
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Jul 9, 2011 17:57
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Rolling forward on the damage guide, we're going to be covering the attacks of the technology tree. Though, if you're using the technology tree attacks, you're more likely than not making a character which is based entirely after a given powerset, so these tips will apply more as general build advice for these cases. Archery  -Archery, on paper, is supposed to be a ranged DPS combatant with fair single-target and AoE damage offset with uncanny defense for a DPS unit, so the defensive options this tree offers you kind of end up being the only thing worthwhile from this set if you're cherrypicking powers. --Quarry is a passive which boosts the damage of all physical damage fairly substantially, and all other damage to a degree as well. The damage buff scales off of intelligence, and will also build stacks of buff that further increase your intelligence stat, your ego stat, and your avoidance (how much your dodges decrease damage.) To make the most use of these mechanics, you'll have to superstat INT/DEX to get the superstat damage buff, and enough probability to land criticals with your elevated EGO. With the probability to land criticals with Dex or Ego alone introduced, as well as the damage scaling Ego could provide and the extra knockback, INT/EGO might also be a good option (if you don't mind statting 2 support stats.) Quarry comes out as one of the best offensive passives in the game, and can support any number of build types, from Munitions, to Power Armor, to even Throwing Stars and Ranged Bleeds. --A great tool for any dodge-based characters, whether based around offense or defense (via Lightning Reflexes), is Evasive Maneuvers, a reverse-lunge which increases your dodge chance quite substantially, even at rank 1. Combined with other dodge mechanics, such as Bountiful Chi Resurgence + Resurgent Reiki, and Parry + Elusive Monk, it's very possible to become highly survivable as an offense-based character, or nigh invincible as a defense-based one. --Probably the only redeeming feature about any of the archery attacks is the advantage on the energy builder: Strafe + Aversion, which causes you to have an increase in your dodge stats based on intelligence. It emphasizes the theory of the Archery build, and can be pretty useful in a pinch. It also means giving up several low-level move slots in exchange for either crappy archery attacks, or the good archery non-attacks, so you'll only want it if you're high level enough to have other attacks. And if shooting arrows for energy isn't your thing, then you can probably skip it anyway. -If you ARE planning to build pure archery, then here's what I can tell you about that. --Straight Shot is your initial attack, which remains useful to high-level archery characters for its advantage, Split the Arrow, which reduces target defense against your next two Archery shots. This is assuming you stick chiefly to Archery, so if any of your primary attacks are not archery based, you might as well pass this one. --The main AoE attack combo you'll use for lower levels is Torrent of Arrows + Storm of Arrows; Torrent of Arrows is better for starting a battle off, and when it crits, it can kill multiple henchmen all at once. Storm of Arrows provides more sustainable damage for the area, and has the unusual quirk in that it can hit more enemies than other area attacks. Which is completely useless in 1-player PvE.  --Higher level AoE will see use of Explosive Arrow, which has the advantage of having no recharge. The disadvantage is that it does fire damage, which isn't quite as strongly boosted in damage, due to Quarry's nature. Speaking of that, yes, you are going to want to use quarry with Archery. It already is one of the best passives in the game and it really is meant to directly augment this powerset. --So we have an archery build which gimps itself by using a ton of arbitrary recharges and can buff itself to extremely high INT levels? Why the hell is Hunter's Instinct even here, then? If you're going to take an energy return on this, take Gadgeteering's Molecular Self-Assembly, as the components of all the recharge your attacks and defense use will feed the energy right back into you. Gadgeteering  -Gadgeteering is the opposite of Archery in terms of its cherrypicking utility, in which it has some of the worst passives available to it, but has some extremely useful pets, attack utilities, and defensive options. --The energy return offered by Gadgeteering, Molecular Self Assembly, used to be a nigh-useless... Click power thing. Now, it's probably one of the most versatile energy-return mechanics available, and a great option to pair with recharge-based moves like Enrage, Conviction, and even Power Armor attacks. Since the energy return scales with intelligence, it's a very good idea to take this and the Int superstat if you use a ton of recharges. --Gadgeteers also get two of the best defense/healing options for less durable characters: Bionic Shielding and Support Drones. The support drones follow you around and will attempt to heal any friendly targets nearby. The advantage of these drones is that they can make you much harder to kill if there's no other friendly targets around, and at rank 3, their heals have a much higher chance of reaching you. The disadvantage of them is that they're not exactly durable, can get easily sidetracked by other wounded allies and even themselves, and at any rank lower than 3, will have a much lower chance of connecting their healing beams with you. Bionic Shielding will make it so that the next 5 hits you take will substantially heal you in return. Especially if many weak attacks are connecting, you can use this to quickly get healed and back to the fight. -Building around Gadgeteer offense, the build ends up playing like a City of Heroes character, with many recharge-based attacks; some which can hit really hard, but are also mostly slow. It's less about spammable, sustainable attacks in Gadgeteering, and much more about the side-attack options you have: --If you build chiefly around Gadgeteering, you'll most likely end up taking Munitions Bots for your offensive bread-and-butter. They're pretty good as hit buffers, even when turrets, so you'll want to switch them to that mode whenever in a big fight. Even when they die, they drop a cluster of mini-mines, which actually hit for a good portion of damage. --Another big feature of Gadgeteering attack utilities are the next-hit power buffs, Sonic Device and Toxic Nanites. Of the two, Sonic Device comes out on top, as it can interrupt enemy charge attacks to create and opening, and with the advantage, Sound Refraction, it can be used to stun multiple targets. Toxic Nanites is a decent DoT damage buff; I'm not sure if it gets buffed by elemental offensive passives, but compared to sonic device, it's pretty underwhelming, but still a bit useful. --Gadgeteers get a key alpha strike move, Orbital Cannon, which takes roughly 5 whole seconds to set up. When it finally lands, though, the damage burst is gigantic and devastating, especially if the target hasn't moved from the crosshair. You will definitely want to get the Anvil of Dawn advantage, as the continued damage bursts it can deal post-blast are also useful. --Finally, there is also their big melee hitter, Gauntlet Chainsaw, a high damage, high cost melee cone that can completely mess up entire mobs in close range. If you want to build around Gauntlet Chainsaw, I'd recommend picking up Quarry and a Martial Arts Focus Form for maximal damage and energy returns/efficiency. I'll cover more details on the execution of the endurance-based quarry melee fighter a bit later. --A gadgeteer will probably want to take either Electric Form or Invulnerability as their passive, along with appropriate attacks if based off of Elec Form. The primary experimental gun attacks under the roof of Gadgeteering are a little underwhelming in damage terms. --Though with the update to the Gadgeteer attack options, they do now have one very potent attack in Pulse Beam Rifle, which is a single-target maintain which ramps up in critical chance and severity the longer it's held. Taking the advantage on it, Finite Improbability Engine, will make it so that it deals out random debuffs to the energy during the maintain, which can be unexpectedly useful for defensive purposes: The criticals it generates, especially when using DEX/EGO, can hold its own offensively quite well. Munitions  -Munitions is basically Archery, except much more viable for solo play, thanks to its stronger attacks and more straightforward execution, with a build that has less defenses in general, but a lot more damage, based off of criticals. Munition attack advantages also provide an uncanny number of synergy possibilities as well. Since these alternatives usually are a little less effective than native power solutions, it's usually not optimal to cherrypick from Munitions, but otherwise perfectly viable to build a character based on the powerset. -I find there's two ways to build a munitions character; either go all-out with different weapons to create a ranged DPs build, or focus chiefly on the pistols to create a DPS/dodge mix with very unusual mechanics. --The primary single-target output for a munition build is Assault Rifle. The Assault Rifle's a bit unusual in its damage curve, in that the initial burst of damage is high, with the following sustained fire dropping off in damage immediately after, and then climbing back up. The most damage possible can actually be gotten out of the rifle by rapidly tapping it instead of repeatedly maintaining it. --The main solution for multi-target damage is SMG burst, which hits very rapidly in a cone. If you're building a ranged bleed build or want guns in your melee bleed build for some reason, the advantage of Aggression can be very useful for keeping the bleed pressure up on multiple enemies. Gatling Gun can be another fun solution to AoE damage, but I haven't seen it mentioned as much; the range is longer, but the cylinder is quite narrow, and good luck doing any good damage with it against an enemy with invlun/defiance. --Shotgun Blast is a good ability for interrupting enemy actions, especially with Breaching Round. The shotgun becomes even better if you use any sort of enrage mechanic, but can be very useful for its purpose even without it. --Though I'll be discussing it later for completely different reasons, Lead Tempest is hands down the best Self-Centric AoE attack in the game in terms of range. If you're a tank and need a quick way to catch enemy attention, take Challenging Strikes on the move and you'll be able to draw most aggro to yourself quite easily. -If it's your cup of tea for whatever reason, you can build a Munitions character based entirely around the different pistol attacks the game gives you. The result is a balanced DPS/dodge combatant with an unusual tendency to do best in melee range. --Two Gun Mojo serves as the primary tool for ranged damage in this setup. Though, the actual use for the move is to get a stack of enrage to feed its other two big-hitters. --Holdout Shot is an unusual attack that can serve any ranged-crit-DPS build very well; when low on energy, it will do twice as much damage as usual, and when it actually lands a crit, the damage doubles again, and so the attack becomes a good bridge-action for when you happen to be low on energy. The main disadvantage of the Holdout Shot is that the animation windup for it is really slow, so on higher PvE difficulties, it's likely the enemy might actually dodge this attack. If you need extra survivability, feel free to take its advantage, Stim Pack, which will apply a heal-over-time effect to you that starts out with a strong burst. Like the move itself, it can crit, and it heals for a lot when it does. --Bullet Beatdown, for the akimbo pistols build, ends up being the main output for damage, as the planned build uses a Martial Arts Focus Form (in this case, Form of the Master) to obtain energy returns. Consequentially, it also boosts melee damage, which makes the Bullet Beatdown come out as a super-damaging melee attack with a wide number of debuffs on each hit, ranging from roots, to even a chance to interrupt enemy actions. With the advantage, Not Without Incident, the attack becomes AoE by chance, or whenever enraged, and when combined with Parry + Elusive Monk, the attack also will make you more capable of dodging! --Closely related to Bullet Beatdown is the active defense provided by Munitions: Lock and Load; this ability will increase the damage of all technology-tree attacks for 15 seconds, but the main selling point of this move is its advantage: Two Smoking Barrels, which causes the recharge on this move to decrease by 2 seconds for each melee hit you land. Combined with a technique like Bullet Beatdown, you can run this offensive passive very frequently. This is yet another technique that's useful to a Chainsaw/Lasersword/Quarry melee build. This information is now outdated; Lock and Load now operates much more like a standard damage boost active. --Once again, Lead Tempest shows up here, but also with its advantage, Tread Softly. Combined with the dodge mechanics discussed above, it becomes the alternative to Bullet Beatdown for increasing your dodge chance/avoidance in a pinch, and once again hits in a wide ring for good damage. --Breakaway Shot is probably the least synnergized of the remaining akimbo attacks; it hits for a good burst of damage in a large cone. The fact that you backflip and move backwards while using this attack actually increase the scope of range the attack has quite considerably. The defiance stack it offers is also a good bonus, as it offers a laser-knight-esque defense without actually having to take that technique at all. --Munitions gets most of its damage from being energy efficient enough to build around the stats of Dex/Ego. However, the most effective way to build the Akimbo Pistols build is to once again take Quarry, as the Bountiful Chi Resurgence + Resurgent Reiki combo can actually be stacked up to Two Times in this build, thanks to heavily elevated intelligence. As a result, the passive offers this build elevated damage, with a sizable health-regen and elevated dodge-chances in the right situations. --Munitions is mostly so effective thanks to its energy return mechanic, Killer Instinct. This restores energy whenever you land criticals with munitions attacks. In the case of the Akimbo Pistol builds, using this means you have a chance to restore energy when taking hits, and when dealing them. If you're focusing on Munitions attacks, it's preferable to take it. --It's preferable to take an offensive passive with Munitions, as the damage output of munitions attacks is a bit lower by default; a defense-passive munitions character has very poor damage output, even when taking criticals into account. Power Armor  -Power Armor has the least cherry-picking powers of all, and, as stated in the OP, is very restrictive about out-of-set powers. Regardless, it plays a lot different than other powersets, and can be a ton of fun once you get the hang of its mechanics. -To make it perfectly clear, Power Armor is super costly in endurance. It can empty its entire energy bar within seconds by using 3 attack toggles at once; one in a shoulder slot, one in a chest slot, and one in the hand slot. The slots are detailed on the attack descriptions and only one attack per slot can be used. For summary, the different attacks for each slot are: Hand Slot powers -Wrist Bolter (w/advantage) -Concussor Beam Shoulder Slot powers -Eye Beams -Minigun -Shoulder Launcher Chest Slot powers -Micro Munitions -Chest Beam -Slot powers can only be used with one another; any powers that don't use these mechanics can't be used while these powers are enabled. -For the majority of the time, your main attack combo for sustained damage will be Concussor Beam, Minigun, and Micro Munitions; Concussor beam hits a single target and propels it backwards a bit, but does really good damage. The Minigun will hit like the Gatling Gun, hitting enemies in a line for rapid damage ticks. It's important to take Minigun's advantage, U-238 Rounds, as one of the selling points of Power Armor attacks is how much they can reduce enemy defense. Micro-Munitions fires rockets which explode around a central target. Also note that you can fire each of these attacks at completely separate enemies, so long as the angle between the different targets isn't more than around 70 degrees. -PA gets two good damage burst attacks; Chest Beam and Shoulder Launcher. It's preferable to take the chest beam, as it can hit both rapidly or be charged, does great burst damage, and further reduces defenses alongside the minigun. Shoulder Launcher can further augment the burst damage in a sphere, but lacks a defense-reducing mechanic, and can't be fired quickly at all. I think running out of energy also might interrupt the Launcher's priming period if it's still in that stage. -Power Armor should use one of three passives; either Quarry due to its intelligence stacking and energy efficiency, as well as boosting the wide damage types of Power Armor, Defiance for returning energy on hit, or even Targetting Computer combined with traditional REC/END stats, for an equal boost of all damage types that Power Armor deals (in exchange for some lost time with target priming). taking Force Shield is also important, as it further helps to build energy as you sustain damage. Finally, the key energy return mechanic to use here is Molecular Self-Assembly from gadgeteering, as it will cause you to regain energy whenever one of your Power Armor weapon toggles ends. You will want to build around all three stats of Intelligence, Recovery, and Endurance for all power armor builds, choosing the first superstat of Intelligence, and the second one of Dexterity if Quarry, or by using Constitution if Defiant, alongside Endurance or Intelligence. -In terms of cherry picking powers, I already mentioned Chest Beam in my previous tips post, but as Aphrodite pointed out, Laser Sword is the other; a super-fast hitting melee technique that can be buffed noticeably by either Electric Form or Quarry. Furthermore, its advantage, Particle Acceleration, makes it so that the enemy takes even more Particle Damage than before, so repeated hits from the Laser Sword will do even more damage, and that attacks like Gadgeteering's Orbital Cannon and Experimental Guns can now actually do some good hits. Since the attack hits rapidly and has a fairly high cost due to this, it can go alongside Gauntlet Chainsaw for the energy-efficient quarry melee build. -The counterpart to Laser Sword is Energy Shield + Laser Knight. Aside from being the overall sturdiest block in the game, the advantage of Laser Knight is invaluable to offense-based melee characters, as it offers a passive defense buff whenever you land a melee strike. If you're melee, aren't built explicitly around dodge mechanics, and have enough energy efficiency to fight continuously, Laser Knight can be an excellent choice if you don't mind having a honeycomb on your arm. Ironically, Energy Shield is completely useless to a Power Armor character. edits for slight tag error correction and better spacing. And spelling. And updating facts. Bluhman fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Oct 31, 2011 |
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Jul 9, 2011 21:06
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Bluhman posted:--Though I'll be discussing it later for completely different reasons, Lead Tempest is hands down the best Self-Centric AoE attack in the game in terms of range. If you're a tank and need a quick way to catch enemy attention, take Challenging Strikes on the move and you'll be able to draw most aggro to yourself quite easily. Yeah, but not always the target you want aggro from. Lead Tempest has the colossal downside of randomly picking targets including destructible objects within its enormous range for its %tohit procs every pulse of the maintain. Lead Tempest is a cool-looking but ultimately terrible power for this reason. If you just want CS on a single large boss target it's pretty great, though.
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Jul 9, 2011 21:31
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Once you're in the thick of battle, though, and everything around you already is aggroed, it does shine. Even when enemies are scattered all around the room and shooting you from afar, Lead Tempest will allow you to hit them all. The statement also was referring more to team play; I've seen quite a few tanks use it inside Therakiel's Temple to some good use. However, in open instances with wandering mobs and unpredictable respawn rates, yes, Lead Tempest is horrible. And with big boss fights, you might as well just get Crippling Challenge on one of your single-target attacks instead.
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Jul 9, 2011 21:39
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Yeah, two key elements of any taunt in this game's aggro structure are their range and persistence, and Lead Tempest has the range hands-down. I used Ego Sprites and Thunderclap for my taunts on Eclipse for a long time, and that worked really well, even when the threat until cooldown mechanic was re-evaluated because of powers like Thunderclap.
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Jul 9, 2011 21:47
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Bluhman posted:The primary experimental gun attacks under the roof of Gadgeteering are a little underwhelming in damage terms. Experimental Burst Ray on the other hand has useful random effects and actually is good damage compared to similar-tier stuff like Submachinegun Burst... in theory. The problem is that it's a charge power rather than a maintained power, which is far less useful in practice. It's common for enemies to run to the side to avoid ranged cone attacks; with something like a Breath attack it's easy to just stop and re-position, but with Burst Ray you're stuck firing off your shot and wasting half your energy against a single target. You can (and will) be knocked back or interrupted while charging, forcing you to start charging again. And while with things like SMG if your target dies the power continues, allowing you to damage other enemies nearby, with Burst Ray if your target dies while you're charging... do nothing. You don't fire, and you don't lose energy, but you lose the charge and can stop over. Since you're almost certainly going to be a pet build as Invention, this is a far more likely scenario than it sounds, and incredibly annoying in practice. The chance of failure with repeated charges is obnoxious as well, as the damage buff isn't quite high enough to justify it. You can tap experimental burst ray at least, but it's a higher energy cost and lower damage than its competition if so. Bluhman didn't mention Attack Toys, and I see a lot of people skip them because they're... well, attack toys, but they're actually incredibly useful as a pet power if you have a concept that can tolerate it. Since the F2P patch the toy automatically summons duplicates, and while there's a bit of a ramp up time, with a full set of toys out at Rank 3 they do surprisingly high damage, and tend to attract attention away from you or your more valuable pets. There is a bug(?) however where each additional toy counts as an extra controlled pet out raising endurance costs, but if you're a dedicated pet build you're probably either in Sentinel or used to letting them do most of the work anyway. quote:--Two Gun Mojo serves as the primary tool for ranged damage in this setup. Though, the actual use for the move is to get a stack of enrage to feed its other two big-hitters. quote:--Bullet Beatdown, for the akimbo pistols build, ends up being the main output for damage, as the planned build uses a Martial Arts Focus Form (in this case, Form of the Master) to obtain energy returns. Consequentially, it also boosts melee damage, which makes the Bullet Beatdown come out as a super-damaging melee attack with a wide number of debuffs on each hit, ranging from roots, to even a chance to interrupt enemy actions. With the advantage, Not Without Incident, the attack becomes AoE by chance, or whenever enraged, and when combined with Parry + Elusive Monk, the attack also will make you more capable of dodging! quote:-For the majority of the time, your main attack combo for sustained damage will be Concussor Beam, Minigun, and Micro Munitions; Concussor beam hits a single target and propels it backwards a bit, but does really good damage. THe Minigun will hit like the Gatling Gun, hitting enemies in a line for rapid damage ticks. It's important to take Minigun's advantage, U-238 Rounds, as one of the selling points of Power Armor attacks is how much they can reduce enemy defense. Micro-Munitions fires rockets which explode around a central target. Also note that you can fire each of these attacks at completely separate enemies, so long as the angle between the different targets isn't more than around 70 degrees. Asimo fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Jul 10, 2011 |
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Jul 10, 2011 00:05
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I think Micro Munitions is kind of small in terms of hitting range too, but it's the only sustainable area move you'll have that can hit in a sphere. In addition, every little bit of damage helps, and when all three of the attacks are hitting a boss, especially after a chest beam's worn them down, they're going to go down fast. I actually do agree about the point on Two-Gun mojo; it's... Okayish if you empty your clip on a boss, but half of the time, it's just going to waste time as you fail to get a full maintain off on repeated minions as they slowly die, and you also slowly die. Just getting enrage from the might tree would be a simpler solution for when you need the buff on your Bullet Beatdown. I just suggest it because it does work well in boss situations, fits the theme of the build, and doesn't require recharge or ranking like enrage does. Bluhman fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Jul 10, 2011 |
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Jul 10, 2011 00:32
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For a build as likely to lack strength and con as a Munitions build is, Howl is absolutely a better consideration than Enrage, especially if you're going to have Int superstatted for Quarry. In fact Enrage is, as a power, largely marginalized at this point but for simply serving as a conversion tool for stacks of Defiance to Enrage. In terms of maintaining an Enraged! condition, Howl or a rage-granting attack is generally superior.
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Jul 10, 2011 00:59
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doomfunk posted:For a build as likely to lack strength and con as a Munitions build is, Howl is absolutely a better consideration than Enrage, especially if you're going to have Int superstatted for Quarry. Which reminds me; how's that self-heal advantage on Enrage? It sounds... questionable even with Defiance, but I wonder if I'm missing something useful again.
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Jul 10, 2011 05:24
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Terrible. Don't bother, if you have it and are putting ranks in it just take it to 3. e: for reference, the almost insignificant heal component of ego sprites' advantage heals for much more than it.
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Jul 10, 2011 05:35
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I see I have chosen wisely in the past. 
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Jul 10, 2011 06:46
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Yeah I took that Enrage advantage. poo poo SUX. It's completely unnoticeable.
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Jul 10, 2011 07:00
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I really hope people don't mind these really long posts on questionably correct build information.  Alright, onto one of my favorite set of sets in the game: The Martial Arts category. Every single one of them is a Melee Fighter set, each using critical mechanics to a degree. Because of this, it's quite viable to create Martial Arts characters which take techniques from each of the subsets. Dual Blade  - Dual Blade is all about extreme melee-area DPS. Used properly, you basically become a human blender that completely decimates anything within melee range. Simply put, it has some of the best melee techniques for damage out of the four, and is probably the most flexible. -- Your main source of single-target damage output is Dragon's Wrath, which has great energy efficiency, can tap fast, and charges fast. The best thing about Dragon's Wrath, and other Dragon moves for that matter, is that releasing a full-charge strike with them causes you to gain the Rush buff, which is an Energy-Over-Time buff. The buff lasts longer the more focus stacks you have, with 8 focus stacks producing a period of 8 seconds of energy restoration. For defeating bosses using Dragon's Wrath, it's preferable to charge up a full Dragon's Wrath stab and follow it up with rapid ones. -- The main solution for area of effect damage is Sword Cyclone, which is a maintain that hits all targets around you for rapid damage. If you're hurting for extra defense, though, Eye of the Storm is another excellent alternative, as it basically generates a shield for every second it hits enemies. If you take the advantage on it, Blade Beyond the Veil, every enemy in melee range which hits you takes damage, and so it becomes extremely viable for mob killing. These mentioned moves are pretty much the only real attacks you'll ever need as a Dual-Blader. It's a very effective, and very simple setup. -- Dual Blade's native Focus Form is Form of the Tempest. Out of all the focus forms, this one is the best suited to any offensively-geared critical melee character, as it will offer you extra damage and energy whenever you land your criticals. - Almost all offensively built MA builds are best off with Way of the Warrior as their passive; combining it with Bountiful Chi Resurgence and Resurgent Reiki, alongside Parry with Elusive Monk, the stacking dodges will make you much more hardy in melee range. This becomes even more true if you use Evasive Maneuvers from Archery in conjunction. Melee sets also do reasonably well with most defensive passives, as the focus forms they use provide enough damage buffs to hold their own in most situations. Fighting Claws  - On the flipside, Fighting Claws focuses on using a wide number of single-target techniques to wear down enemy defenses. First off, single target. Single target and nothing else, which is just awful. Second, the defense debuffs don't even matter most of the time because the setup is sort of awkward and the payoff tends to just not be worth it. -- The main reason said payoff isn't worth it is because of Dragon's Claws; this downward swipe of the claw acts almost exactly like Dragon's Wrath, but has the added bonus of an extreme bonus to crit severity. This makes it much more powerful than Dragon's Wrath in PvE circumstances; while DW can pierce some defenses, most enemies in PvE areas don't have any. Meanwhile, the raw damage that Dragon's Claws offers on crit will completely decimate high-health enemies without defenses, and because of this, all the other single-target attacks Claws has are rendered moot points. Single Blade  - Single Blade is bleed-centric; it has attacks which build and maintain bleeding effects on enemies as they slowly maintain damage, and then can use special attacks to end the bleeds in a massive burst of damage. Single Blade, versus claw, feels complete, but still isn't as simple an execution as Dual Blades or Unarmed are. -- The first thing you'll need as a blader is a technique which can build bleeds easily. Normally, this comes in the form of Reaper's Caress. However, this requires you to hit with a long and slow 3-hit combo, and generally has very bad DPS. If you don't mind being a cannibal, the best melee technique to easily get the maximum bleed stacks (5) is Bestial Supernatural's Bite, which will guarantee an enemy builds a new stack of bleed on full-charge. If you need to do this at range for whatever bizarre reason, Iron Lariat + Kyoketsu Shoge can also let you do this while drawing the enemy in. -- Scything Blade is a fair AoE cone which can cause a single or multiple targets to begin bleeding; if fully charged, all targets hit will have a bleed applied. With the advantage of Swallowtail Cut, this move can take down higher health enemies quicker, AND the swallowtail cut debuff counts as an entirely different bleed stack as well, which results in different damage distribution when dealing out a finishing blow. If you really need to have a large number of multiple targets bleeding, the best way to do it is with SMG burst + Aggression, which can really help rack up the focus stacks. -- The big finishing move of Single Blade is Reaper's Embrace. This move has some disadvantages; it has an extremely slow animation, and otherwise does fairly average damage if the target isn't bleeding. If it is, however, the bleeds will all transform into extra bursts of damage overlapping the main slash, consequentially making it very good for suddenly killing a strong target. The advantage on the move, No Mercy, can be used to help maintain your focus stacks and chain the attack continuously with repeated full charges until the advantage fails or the enemy dies. -- If for some reason you need to keep bleeds running while you build up more or something, you can take Dragon's Bite. As a dragon move, it will provide the rush buff on a full charge. Of all the Dragon moves, this one's probably the least notable. -- Single Blade's focus form is Form of the Swordsman strangely enough. This form is especially worth it if you have a way to get bleeds on many enemies at once, or are capable of building them up fast. Unfortunately, as explained above, this is only possible using powers from outside Martial Arts. Unarmed Martial Arts  - Unarmed centers all around dodging, with attacks that hit reasonably hard, but at the same time give the user dodge and avoidance buffs as they're used. Built properly, you can turn unarmed martial artists into nigh-invincible tanks. -- The big selling point of unarmed is Dragon Kick, which is not only a rather damaging cone attack, but when fully charged, it will stun all enemies in melee range, making it a fairly good interrupter. Alongside its advantage, Lashing Dragon Tail, it can be used to augment your dodging effectiveness for a good amount of time. -- The single-target attack that Unarmed gets is Burning Chi Fist, which does pretty good damage on rapid taps, but is quite energy costly. The full-charge bonus causes the enemy to sustain dimensional damage over time, which can actually be exploited in a very unusual way: By using a fear-educing attack such as Void Shift + Emerging Nightmares from the shadow set, or Howl from the bestial set, you can take advantage of the dimensional damage that you can get out of Burning Chi Fist by taking the energy return mechanic of Spirit Reverberation, which causes you to gain energy whenever dealing dimensional damage to a feared enemy. Furthermore, with Burning Chi Fists' advantage, Fists of Righteous Flame, you will be able to do dimensional damage with your other attacks, enabling you to get a reliable stream of energy as you punch scared enemies to death! -- Crashing Wave Kick + Subtlety of the Tides can prove to be a good move for boosting your dodge stats in a pinch; using it every once in a while between your main attacks of Burning Chi Fist and Dragon Kick will help further sustain a high dodge chance. -- The focus form of Martial Arts is Form of the Master, which grants stacks of focus when dodging enemy attacks. Its advantage, Storm Eye Prana enables you to recharge healing techniques faster. This enables you to do the same thing that was done using the Quarry Pistol Build; you can stack multiple Bountiful Chi Resurgences on top of one another for double dodge heals. - Unarmed Martial Arts is clearly meant to be built for defense, used in conjunction with the dodge mechanics described in the Dual Blades section. Lightning Reflexes is the standard for most Martial Arts characters, but it can get much more interesting than that. Since techniques such as Subtlety of Tides, Evasive Maneuvers, and Elusive Monk all contribute to stack dodge buffs, it can be beneficial to vary your defenses with a passive like Invulnerability or Regeneration. In the end, though, it comes down to whether you want to ensure you're almost always dodging, or prefer to have some sort of defenses when you can't. - Closely related to this, Parry is actually of little use to a Lightning Reflex martial artist. Power Armor's Laser Knight produces more effective results for the martial artist in cases like this, as it seems Elusive Monk is rather severely affected by diminishing returns. -With the advent of the Unarmed Pass, a new, offensive repertoire of MA moves has been opened up. Somebody remind me to type this up when I'm not half-asleep and can remember the names of the new moves. Shared Martial Arts  -There is a small selection of martial arts powers that aren't specific to any of the sets. Some of them are completely awful and you should never even consider taking (sneak, smoke bomb...) Others, however, are key to making some MA builds work much better. -- Thunderbolt Lunge is the main lunge that all these sets share, allowing the user to close in on targets very quickly. It doesn't stun like Mighty Leap or Void Shift does, but can do so if you take the advantage of Essence Assault. Lunges aren't completely necessary for melee characters, but serve as an easy and quick way to immediately get into melee range. -- While it might not seem like anything great at first glance. Inexorable Tides is probably one of the best interrupter powers for melee in the game, causing all enemies in front of you to be knocked up a short distance. You can even chain the attack 3 times in a row rapidly to attempt to deal fall damage to enemies, or space your strikes effectively to maximize enemy downtime. Thanks to the knockback mechanics, this can be used to quickly build up knock resistance stacks on enemies, making it a valuable resource for maximizing the damage from Knock-heavy sets like Might and Heavy Weapons. -- Shuriken Throw is the same deal as Inexorable Tides, except for a single target at extreme range with excellent energy efficiency. With fair energy, you can repeatedly throw shurikens at enemies from up to 100 feet away, and even potentially knock them down. Combined with other melee damage buffs, such as focus forms, Shuriken throw can do quite good dps if you build around it. Specifically, the basics behind a Shuriken build include Quarry, A focus form, and running in the brawler role. This combination will provide the maximal damage buff for your stars, and also is a good basis for using Gauntlet Chainsaw and Laser Sword as well! Bluhman fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Oct 31, 2011 |
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Jul 10, 2011 07:29
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I certainly don't mind, you're more or less spot on with your brief skill summaries. I want to point something out, in addition: The Lashing Dragon Tail buff, Evasive Maneuvers, and Bountiful Chi Resurgence all last about the same amount of time: 12 seconds. (I think EM actually lasts a bit longer, like 14, but that's irrelevant. This means that with a r3 Evasive Maneuvers, frequent use of Dragon Kick, and BCR, you can and will have a flat +24% dodge, half again your current Avoidance, and continuous regeneration with (with an advantage) additional pulses every time you dodge an attack. This is nice when you're LR or Quarry. This is ridiculous when you're regen, like Mewn, or Invuln, like my tank. I mention this a lot, because really it's something everyone should experience: Being completely invincible. Note Mewn's regen option does not come with an intrinsic damage penalty from BCR so you're free to kick as much rear end as possible... And that's where Elusive Monk comes in!
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Jul 10, 2011 07:45
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If you do use Spirit Reverb/Void Shift/Burning Chi Fist interaction you have to do this every time Evasive is up. No exceptions. You are significantly less badass if you do not: Void Shift to apply Fear if it's not already up, Burning Chi Fist, Evasive Maneuvers, Void Shift. Then continue burning them with your mighty Chi or Dragon Kicks. It's even more badass if you use Breakaway Shot instead of Evasive Maneuvers, but that has a significantly higher energy cost. Plus Breakaway has no cooldown, so you may find yourself forgetting to use real attacks because of how cool you look. Still, this is a superhero game. Looking cool is way more important.
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Jul 10, 2011 08:24
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Aphrodite posted:If you do use Spirit Reverb/Void Shift/Burning Chi Fist interaction you have to do this every time Evasive is up. No exceptions. You are significantly less badass if you do not: Before I retconned to Dex/Int I was Dex/End, and with that large of an energy pool I could chain Breakaway Shot 3-4 times; I would basically just jetpack above the enemies spamming it.
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Jul 10, 2011 08:55
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It's kind of a useless advantage but I always take the garotte wire on Breakaway because it's just so goddamn cool.
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Jul 10, 2011 08:58
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Bluhman posted:If you're hurting for extra defense, though, Eye of the Storm is another excellent alternative, as it increases your defense while it is maintained, in exchange for some damage (and the ability to move I think...) quote:-- The main reason said payoff isn't worth it is because of Dragon's Claws; this downward swipe of the claw acts almost exactly like Dragon's Wrath, but has the added bonus of an extreme bonus to crit severity. This makes it much more powerful than Dragon's Wrath in PvE circumstances; while DW can pierce some defenses, most enemies in PvE areas don't have any. Meanwhile, the raw damage that Dragon's Claws offers on crit will completely decimate high-health enemies without defenses, and because of this, all the other single-target attacks Claws has are rendered moot points. quote:-- The focus form of Martial Arts is Form of the Master, which grants stacks of focus when dodging enemy attacks. Its advantage, Storm Eye Prana enables you to recharge healing techniques faster. This enables you to do the same thing that was done using the Quarry Pistol Build; you can stack multiple Bountiful Chi Resurgences on top of one another for double dodge heals. quote:-- Thunderbolt Lunge is the main lunge that all these sets share, allowing the user to close in on targets very quickly. It doesn't stun like Mighty Leap or Void Shift does, but can do so if you take the advantage of Essence Assault. Lunges aren't completely necessary for melee characters, but serve as an easy and quick way to immediately get into melee range. quote:Thanks to the knockback mechanics, this can be used to quickly build up knock resistance stacks on enemies, making it a valuable resource for maximizing the damage from Knock-heavy sets like Might and Heavy Weapons.
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Jul 10, 2011 09:37
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Asimo posted:Hmm, does it actually work this way? I always assumed that the "does extra damage to knockback-immune targets" referred to things like Supervillains and Cosmics and such that couldn't ever be knocked back. If it applies to just resistance too, well... that's quite useful. Indeed it does. I've been able to get Haymaker taps to go from around 1300 damage to 2100 by using a combination of Demolish and Knockback resistance application. It's very easy to test and do on the Powerhouse dummies. checking again, the base damage of my Haymaker is around the 1300 range instead of 1600. Applying nothing but knock resistance will result in damage taps around the 1600 range; Just shows how much of a difference it makes! Bluhman fucked around with this message at 12:01 on Jul 10, 2011 |
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Jul 10, 2011 09:45
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Bluhman posted:Indeed it does. I've been able to get Haymaker taps to go from around 1600 damage to 2100 by using a combination of Demolish and Knockback resistance application. It's very easy to test and do on the Powerhouse dummies.  Makes some sense anyway, although it's weird that only knockback powers get a bonus when resisted while other control powers don't. I guess it really is the only decent control method in ChampO.
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Jul 10, 2011 09:57
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Death is the only decent control in ChampO. 
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Jul 10, 2011 14:58
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I bought a lifetime subscription to this and logged in for the first time randomly yesterday. I have a bunch of tokens but no idea of what to spend them on. My character is a gadgeteer, I don't even think my level is particularly high, like 25 or something. Thoughts?
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Jul 10, 2011 19:29
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MelvinTheJerk posted:I bought a lifetime subscription to this and logged in for the first time randomly yesterday. I have a bunch of tokens but no idea of what to spend them on. My character is a gadgeteer, I don't even think my level is particularly high, like 25 or something. Thoughts? Cosmetics, mostly. Costumes, travel power skins, hideouts.
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Jul 10, 2011 19:39
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As a Lifetime subscriber, you don't really need a whole lot. The obvious things would be Character slots maybe (sure you have 16, but you'll run out... eventually...), and of course any costume bits or travel powers that are useful for a particular concept. It's not like the points expire so you can keep them around until something really gets your attention, and as mentioned in the OP you can test out devices and such on the test server without any actual cost (if you're gold/lifetime anyway). e;fb
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Jul 10, 2011 19:39
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They also have regular 20% sales if you really want to save points. The latest releases (Usually the most recent travel power skin, costume and device) aren't discounted but everything else is.Asimo posted:(sure you have 16, but you'll run out... eventually...) You do get a new character slot every time you hit 40 with a Gold character though. So you can technically have infinite slots for free.
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Jul 10, 2011 19:47
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Aphrodite posted:You do get a new character slot every time you hit 40 with a Gold character though. So you can technically have infinite slots for free.  (Granted, then it's a matter of pruning old redundant ones, but...)
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Jul 10, 2011 19:53
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Dang, I haven't played this in a long time but I'm starting to get the itch. So, my old characters will have to be respecced into an archetype and what premium costume pieces I had will no longer be available, right?
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Jul 10, 2011 19:58
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Asimo posted:You make the flawed assumption that you can reliably get to 40 before ADDing your way into some other new gimmick concept. You'd be surprised. ognar has like 9 level 40s. Inzombiac posted:Dang, I haven't played this in a long time but I'm starting to get the itch. So, my old characters will have to be respecced into an archetype and what premium costume pieces I had will no longer be available, right? Correct.
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Jul 10, 2011 20:02
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Inzombiac posted:Dang, I haven't played this in a long time but I'm starting to get the itch. So, my old characters will have to be respecced into an archetype and what premium costume pieces I had will no longer be available, right? Well, if by premium you mean ones you've spent Cryptic funbucks on then you'll still have those.
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Jul 10, 2011 20:07
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FlyinPingu posted:Well, if by premium you mean ones you've spent Cryptic funbucks on then you'll still have those. Ok, cool. That's all I was worried about. Most of my characters were pretty exclusive to one tree so I don't care too much about free forms.
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Jul 10, 2011 20:38
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FlyinPingu posted:Well, if by premium you mean ones you've spent Cryptic funbucks on then you'll still have those. There are premium only packs though. They're a mix of new pieces and old ones too, so it's possible he could have some costume parts no longer usable.
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Jul 10, 2011 20:51
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Thanks for the awesome rundown on the sets, Bluhman! Definitely helps in piecing characters together.
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Jul 11, 2011 00:18
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