Author Topic: So, uh, how were these power combos?  (Read 12821 times)

Waffles

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So, uh, how were these power combos?
« on: July 20, 2014, 10:08:39 PM »
If the game relaunches I'm considering rolling these to 50 to get my Arachnos soldier and Kheldian unlocked.

DB/Ice Stalker

STJ/Ninjitsu Stalker

Demons/thermal (Or) Demons/time mastermind (I heard good things, but mine was Demons/dark)


Obviously i'm in for one hell of a wait, but I like to plan things, i'm weird like that >_>

Charged Mastermind

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2014, 11:21:53 PM »
If the game relaunches I'm considering rolling these to 50 to get my Arachnos soldier and Kheldian unlocked.

DB/Ice Stalker

STJ/Ninjitsu Stalker

Demons/thermal (Or) Demons/time mastermind (I heard good things, but mine was Demons/dark)


Obviously i'm in for one hell of a wait, but I like to plan things, i'm weird like that >_>

I warn you I didn't make many alts so my reasoning may be a bit funky or downright stupid.

But, Dual Blades (I'm assuming)Ice Stalker doesn't seem too bad. I don't think Ice was available on stalkers though.

Street Justice was insane and even if you didn't get much damage it made me feel like I was killing them with two blows. I am not sure about ninjitsu though. Never really played it.

Demons were insane too. I preferred Robotics over Demons but Demons were a hell of a good time. As for powersets, I would consider Time Manipulation out of pure preference. Thermal Radiation is spectacular but I don't think it is as good as Time Manipulation.

HEATSTROKE

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2014, 12:46:52 AM »
Stalkers do get Ice Armor..

Time is a much better set than thermal.. IMO its not even close..

Street Justice.. awesome.. loved it..

And level 50 is not required to unlock the Epic AT's anymore.. They unlock at level 20.

Waffles

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2014, 12:54:14 AM »
I inquire about the STJ stalker because I had a STJ/regen scrapper and I hated it, not because it was weak or anything, but it didn't mesh well with regen, in my opinion.

It seems kinda scary on a stalker, judging by this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-eW_P_NqMg
« Last Edit: July 21, 2014, 01:10:16 AM by Waffles »

NinjaWeazel

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2014, 01:59:34 AM »
I had a StJ/EnA Scrapper (as a clone of my MA/Regen main).  It was pretty baller.  A friend of mine had a StJ/??? Stalker, and it was completely off the chain.

Apex Viper

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2014, 02:15:47 AM »
I had a StJ/SR Brute. He was becoming my favorite character before the shut down. He was my first SR toon. I can't wait to re-roll him.
In the end, we all are heroes, even the Villains; fighting to save a city that we all love.

Thirty-Seven

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2014, 04:08:23 AM »
I had an StJ/Shield Brute who was a Praetorian version of Blue Steel... let's just say that he lived up to the moniker.  I loved playing him!

Waffles

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2014, 06:16:53 PM »
Hm, Looks like you guys got me settled on giving STJ another go! I'm thinking stalker though. (Had a ninja/ninja when stalkers got that -insane- buff. Didn't get to test other specs, so, yeah.)

Not sure if I want to do SR, Ninjitsu, or ice armor...Hm.

I never did SR, but I know how defense works (Roughly half my characters relied on ranged/melee/S/L capping), was it easier to softcap than other classes? I played a night widow for awhile, is it somewhat like that for solo work?

Also, thanks for the tip about level 20 epic unlocks. I already had 50s in both categories, and nobody ever told me >_>
« Last Edit: July 21, 2014, 06:36:49 PM by Waffles »

Microcosm

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2014, 02:06:25 AM »
StJ by my calculations is the strongest stalker set. DB also is an interesting set, though it has differences on stalkers from the other classes. I'd avoid the combos for the most part though once  you've got your build worked out.

Stalker Ice Armor is possibly my favorite set in the game. It has more layers of survival than anything else really. Ninjitsu is also a lot of fun because of it's extra toys that SR doesn't have, especially blinding powder.

Had a demon/time but didn't get it past mid 20s or so. It's on my list as well.

Angel Phoenix77

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2014, 07:05:55 PM »
StJ by my calculations is the strongest stalker set. DB also is an interesting set, though it has differences on stalkers from the other classes. I'd avoid the combos for the most part though once  you've got your build worked out.

Stalker Ice Armor is possibly my favorite set in the game. It has more layers of survival than anything else really. Ninjitsu is also a lot of fun because of it's extra toys that SR doesn't have, especially blinding powder.

Had a demon/time but didn't get it past mid 20s or so. It's on my list as well.
question, on a scrapper the dbs power came from combos, did sj follow this power structure? The reason I ask is because I only got my sj up to level 12.
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Apex Viper

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #10 on: July 23, 2014, 07:28:49 PM »
question, on a scrapper the dbs power came from combos, did sj follow this power structure? The reason I ask is because I only got my sj up to level 12.

Street justice was the same.
In the end, we all are heroes, even the Villains; fighting to save a city that we all love.

Microcosm

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #11 on: August 20, 2014, 03:09:08 AM »
question, on a scrapper the dbs power came from combos, did sj follow this power structure? The reason I ask is because I only got my sj up to level 12.

Actually, the dual blades on a scrapper was at it's best if you didn't use the combos at all, assuming you had enough recharge. The combos were best for leveling until you got your build fleshed out. Its top chain was Sweeping Strike>Ablating Strike> Blinding Feint>Ablating Strike, which required a huge amount of recharge. Even with a gap, however, that chain was still the best.

Street Justice combos were entirely different mechanically, and using a stack of 3 on a Crushing Uppercut was truly devastating.

Ankhammon

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #12 on: August 20, 2014, 05:01:04 PM »
Actually, the dual blades on a scrapper was at it's best if you didn't use the combos at all, assuming you had enough recharge. The combos were best for leveling until you got your build fleshed out. Its top chain was Sweeping Strike>Ablating Strike> Blinding Feint>Ablating Strike, which required a huge amount of recharge. Even with a gap, however, that chain was still the best.

For DPS, you are correct. However, I still think one of the best things about Dual Swords was the combo system. It allowed a versatility that the set was lacking otherwise.

Then again, I may have been the only person who liked the weaken combo. :)
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Microcosm

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #13 on: August 20, 2014, 11:49:11 PM »
Don't get me wrong, I used the sweep combo all the time for aoe, and the other combos until i got some extra recharge. People often focused on the combos not realizing they could get much better damage without them.

Ankhammon

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #14 on: August 21, 2014, 05:44:48 AM »
Don't get me wrong, I used the sweep combo all the time for aoe, and the other combos until i got some extra recharge. People often focused on the combos not realizing they could get much better damage without them.

Yeah. That was part of the genius of the set. You could go really high recharge and get that extra damage, but the combos were low hanging fruit. So if you had a different something in mind you could go for that and be just fine.
for instance, if you had a dark/dual blades tanker you could concentrate on defense or HP and leave the heavy recharge alone and still be pretty good with the set... I think I had one of those for a cup of coffee. 

It had that jack of all trades feel about it.
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brothermutant

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #15 on: September 27, 2015, 02:52:23 PM »
If the game relaunches I'm considering rolling these to 50 to get my Arachnos soldier and Kheldian unlocked.

DB/Ice Stalker

STJ/Ninjitsu Stalker

Demons/thermal (Or) Demons/time mastermind (I heard good things, but mine was Demons/dark)


Obviously i'm in for one hell of a wait, but I like to plan things, i'm weird like that >_>
I would go with your STJ/Ninjitsu build idea first, but Ice was pretty badass. I had a STJ/Nin stalker that was killer. Super fun and I liked it better than Super Reflexes way more (caltrops were GREAT if you needed to retreat quick).

Vee

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #16 on: September 27, 2015, 04:27:49 PM »
It depends on what you want. SR had the ddr and scaling resists to make it more hands off, whereas ninjitsu had the heal and the gadgets to make up for lack of resistance and lower ddr. Both were viable.

Arcana

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Re: So, uh, how were these power combos?
« Reply #17 on: September 27, 2015, 05:56:25 PM »
It depends on what you want. SR had the ddr and scaling resists to make it more hands off, whereas ninjitsu had the heal and the gadgets to make up for lack of resistance and lower ddr. Both were viable.

Just a note on Stalker SR: Stalker SR was significantly different from Scrapper SR in a number of ways, particularly related to DDR and scaling resistances.  Because the scaling resistances were in the passives, Scrapper SR has three and Stalker SR has two.  Thus, the scaling resistances were materially weaker in the Stalker set than the Scrapper set, and it would be misleading to think they were 1/3rd weaker: for a variety of complex reasons the actual relative strength was something like half the strength, and on top of that they were being applied to something that had a lot less base health.  Normal resistances can be compared at least proportionately between things with different levels of health (I wouldn't, for example, say that electric's resistances were "weaker" on stalkers than scrappers) but the scaling ones don't work that way.  Second and similarly, SR's DDR are in the defensive powers and stalkers have one less (6 for scrappers, 5 for stalkers).  That means the 13.84% DDR stacks to a base 83% for scrappers and 69% for stalkers.  With slotting (it increases with defense slotting) the Scrapper version is usually pegged to 95% no matter how you slot your defenses.  The stalker one can get to 95%, but it usually requires making sure you aggressively slot all defenses.

Conversely, stalker SR has higher defenses and significantly higher AoE defense.  First, for melee and ranged defense SR's powers have the same defense for scrappers and stalkers, but stalkers have hide.  1.875% defense from Hide is immune to suppression and for SR-levels of defense that can be significant.  +56% defense slotting equals 30.4% defense for scrappers, and 33.35% defense for stalkers.  On top of that, stalker Evasion is stronger (in defense) than scrapper Evasion + Lucky: base 21.375%.  So +56% slotting for stalkers would be 36.3% defense to AoE.

So higher defense, much higher AoE defense, lower scaling resistances, sometimes lower DDR.

Also, I should point out that while Ninjitsu did not have the scaling resistances, it did have straight-up resistance to both  Psionic and Toxic.  That means Ninjitsu tended to be stronger against psi in particular than SR having both psi resistance and a heal verses SR only having higher defenses against positionally typed psi.