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Yukiko Hanamura
evilkittyman
Posts: 13 Arc User
(WARNING: This is the sort of post I love to write, but it is also BIG, and discusses far more than the characters prospective build/powers selection. It is, in effect, a complete profile sheet for my latest character concept, complete with background and origin. If you dig backstories and extensive theme concepts, keep on reading and enjoy! If not
look for the big red START HERE FOR RELEVANCE message below for the important* bits.)
Yukiko Hanamura
Even before shed finished awakening, Yukiko knew something was terribly wrong.
She didnt know how long shed been asleep or unconscious, rather. All she knew was that she had been troubled all throughout the long night with horrific dreams. Fire and devastation, blood and anguish, screams of agony and terror. Dreams of ruination, dreams of the desecration of everything she knew. Part of her knew that the dreams were no mere fabrications of a drifting mind. She knew, even with the deep fogs of medical sleep still clouding her mind, that nothing would ever be the same again.
oming around! God, that was fast Yukiko? Yukiko, can you hear me?
.guhhhh the girl groaned, eyes squeezed shut against the hospital lights trying to drive white daggers into them. [ wha what ] she started, only to be interrupted by a brief but violent coughing spasm. When that was done with, she started again, voice weaker but less trembling and unstable. [What happened?] she asked. The words were in Japanese, as they always were. Unlike most of her few remaining contemporaries, Yukiko actually spoke passable English, but around her shrine nobody else did. But even then, she could feel it. She wasnt anywhere near her shrine anymore, and that was far from the only thing that was deeply, terribly wrong.
[Please, lay still. Ill explain everything to you, but youve been through a terrible ordeal and your bodys still recovering,] the voice replied. Male, and with the unmistakable rumbling depth and offputting accent of a gaijin. Not dispassionate or lacking in warmth or kindness, but still undeniably alien. Yukiko tensed up upon hearing the foreigners words, and the action cost her a wave of pain strong enough to force a weak cry from her. It felt as if every single cell in her body had protested the action all at once, a flood of fire from head to toe that left her light-headed and whimpering.
[Easy, easy!,] the gaijin continued, and even through the unfamiliar burr in his words, Yukiko could hear the concern and empathy in his voice. [Please, Yukiko! You cant jostle around yet!]
[ what happened?] Yukiko finally wheezed a few moments later, laying in a tired, aching heap of misery on whatever strange bed she was currently occupying.
[Youve been gravely hurt,] the voice continued. [Almost fatally. The doctors managed to save you, but nobody knows where all this cyber came from. Who set this up for you, Yukiko? This is expensive stuff, top-shelf. The medicos are going nuts trying to figure out what else it can do.]
Cy-ber? Yukiko muttered, mouth catching for a moment on the English word. [What cy-ber? I dont know whats going on what happened to me, why do I hurt so much everywhere? Why do I feel so strange?]
The voice was silent for a moment. When it spoke again, the obvious dread in its tone quickly incited matching feelings in Yukiko. [You dont know. You didnt know. Oh my God. Yukiko, Im so sorry everything looked legitimate, all the paperwork was signed and in order it had your signature on it. If we had known ]
That was too much for Yukiko to bear. She finally managed to force one eye open, cracking it against the pitiless white lights of what turned out to be a sterile, soulless hospital room. She saw the owner of the voice, a rough-cut man in a well-tailored suit with a look of lurking horror on his features, as well as a white-faced doctor standing behind him, staring at her with emotions on his face she couldnt quite recognize.
And, drawn there by an unusual, out-of-place gleam, she saw the polished metal and plastic that lay where her left arm should have been, ending in a three-fingered hand tipped with razored metal claws.
Yukiko started screaming. She started screaming, and she didnt stop until the sedatives kicked back in.
* * *
WTF Is All This About Already?!
Following several frustrating failures with Kaminari Jane (turns out that Lightning and Unarmed just do not want to play nicely together), I found myself fiddling in the character editor with no real goal, just putting pieces together and seeing what happened in order to pass the time.
Dont judge. I know for a fact that youve done exactly the same thing, you.
I was messing around with an archery-flavored miko outfit for no real reason than the fact that Ive always liked the look of miko outfits (and am still in need of a good archer) when the notion struck me to see what could be done with Robotic Arm Left in the one-sleeved gi thats popped up since Ive been gone, and that was the pebble that started the avalanche. An entire character started building herself in my head without my go-ahead, whether I wanted her there or not, with a background reminiscent of Janes but a completely different attitude and style.
Id determined a few days ago that a fresh start would be the best way to relearn Champions, getting into it with a brand-new character and figuring out what to do as I go along, but had yet to hit a concept I really liked until Yukiko put herself together in my head.
While I have a strong notion of Yukikos character her background, personality, morality and motivations her mechanical build is still quite thoroughly up in the air. I figured Id gather some opinions here, since there was some pretty solid brainwork in Janes thread. Lets see what we can do this time, eh?
* * *
You Sound Proud Of Yourself There, Brah. Pics or It Didnt Happen
Yukiko Hanamura
* * *
(Even More) Character Background. Because You All Know You Want It.
Yukiko is/was a miko (read: Shinto shrine maiden, or something very roughly analogous to a priest(ess) running a small local church), one of quite few true traditional miko left in the wake of all the changes the world has undergone since Supers became a thing. Yukikos shrine in particular was remote and rather small, a local fixture rather than a big, gaudy tourist trap the way some more infamous shrines have become. She tended her shrine and cared for the spiritual well-being of both those who came to seek her shrines blessing and the kami her shrine served up until a gaijin came to her shrine claiming to be on a tour of Japan. He was even stranger than most and Yukiko distrusted him immediately, but couldnt do much about it without being rude and losing face.
Two days after the gaijin left, having spent most of his time cooped up in an inn room in the village Yukikos shrine served, the kami in her shrine went berserk. It manifested in physical form and summoned a small horde of yokai and went on a rampage, tearing both the shrine and the village apart and killing most of the villagers. Yukiko tried frantically to calm her shrines spirit and return it to its abode, but to no avail. Whatever had enraged it was too powerful, sunk too deep into it, for Yukiko to be able to reason with it. In the end, she was forced to try and drive the spirit off, drawing its attention away from the last few surviving villagers with a few mystic arrows.
This did not end well for Yukiko.
When she came too, she was in a Tokyo hospital, having found herself the recipient of a suite of highly advanced, tremendously invasive cyberware she had no idea shed authorized (see above story snippet) which the hospital had received and put into her as per her instructions. Following that, it was discovered that whoever had forged the documentation needed to get Yukiko rebuilt had dropped off the face of the earth, leaving Yukiko with no clues whatsoever save for one short message pre-loaded into her new cyberware:
The man who drove your spirit into a frenzy can be found across the sea, in America. He was last sighted in Millenium City. Ive given you everything you need to find him now its on you to do just that. Good luck, Y. Try not to go insane before youve finished your job.
E.
With her shrine leveled and her village in ruins, there wasnt really much for Yukiko to do except head to MC and start searching for the man who had destroyed her life.
START HERE FOR RELEVANCE
I actually have two prospective builds for the character-that-will-be-Yukiko, which I am unsure of. One of them, termed The Shrineless, is the original mix of Archery and Unarmed that appealed to me in the first place, while the other, termed The Possessed is a take on demonic MA which focuses more on brutal smashing power and takes a much darker tone with Yukikos overall theme.
The Shrineless
A semi-unusual mix of Archery and Unarmed meant to patch up the weaknesses of each with the strengths of the other in a thematic and versatile fashion, Yukikos Shrineless build represents her cold fury, the razor-honed focus of a lifelong martial artist, and her determination to make the best of what was done to her. It can be considered the Light Side version of her theme.
Archery is a magnificent set for dealing with trash and multiple foes, with Storm of Arrows being one of my favorite powers in all of Champions Online but get a single powerful foe in front of you and Archery falls apart. Thats where Yukikos martial artistry comes in.
Burning Chi Fist provides the single-target smashing power Archery lacks, dealing heavy damage to a single enemy while Dragon Kicks Rush, Tempests Focus, and MSA ticks off of the occasional Thunderbolt Lunge, BCR/RR, or even point-blank Storm of Arrows fuels her rampage. MSA was selected over Hunters Instinct specifically for its versatility both the ranged and melee sides of Yukikos build can find ways to trip MSA.
The Possessed
Discarding Archery entirely, the Possessed is an Unarmed/Darkness build trading Focus for Enrage and versatility for anger. This variant of Yukiko represents the seething rage she lives with after the violations visited upon her shrine, her people, and her body, the taint shes suffered on the claws of her corrupted kami, and her surrender to the same brutality that was visited upon her.
The build sacrifices ranged combat completely, focusing on crushing close-quarters dominance. Burning Chi Fist remains the weapon of choice, backed this time by Enrage and multiple knock powers allowing her to stack it up. The build is more focused, with better AOs and stronger damage capacity, but is significantly more fragile and lacks the ability to withdraw to a safe distance and still fight that the Shrineless build holds. Theres an extra power slot and two unspent advantage points because Im indecisive, but my gut in that instance is to shoot for Dragon Kick w/Lashing Dragon Tail to try desperately to patch up the Possesseds shoddy defenses.
Theorycrafting:
Some things Ive considered changing around in the Shrineless build as listed:
-Support Drones over BCR: I find BCR/RR to be more reliable in general than Support Drones, which are easily knocked out in real humdinger fights, but the drones are less selfish and also dont take a bite out of my damage. Yukikos theme can actually tolerate both, as shes got access to sufficient technological resources to acquire supporting robots. Is the energy penalty and spotty reliability of the drones worth putting up with over BCR/RRs damage cut?
-Retaliate over ES/Laser Knigget: Laser Knigget is another heavy damage cut on top of BCR/RR, and in my wanderings around the boards these days it seems very clear to me that the self-reliant, cover-all-the-bases characters Im used to have gone the way of the dodo, replaced by absolutely tippy-top every-last-point DPS types. Retaliate can supercharge the next BCR or Durgan Kick I toss out, trading steady defense for smallish damage spikes. This seem more like the thing to do?
-Straight Shot: Straight Shot, normally a weird sort of bass-ackwards staple in pure Archery builds, does jack-all bupkiss for me here except make the build legal. I would like to get Torrent of Arrows in there as Relentless Recurve is never a bad thing to have, but thats a no-go. I can replace Straight Shot with Evasive Maneuvers after some leveling to get something more useful, but is there a sneaky way of getting Torrent in there over Straight Shot that Im missing due to rustiness?
Some things Ive considered changing around in the Possessed build as listed:
-Form of the Tempest back in over Enrage: This would essentially be a total rebuild of Possessed Yukiko, swapping back in the much more reliable Form of the Tempest over the somewhat stronger/more thematically correct Enrage. Dex and Strength would switch places and Roomsweeper would take off in favor of One Hundred Hands, with talents and specializations tightened up accordingly. This would be a significantly more effective build, but would also be pretty bog-standard with no real flavor to it and would muddy Yukikos (final choice of) theme is she a martial artist clinging to her focus and discipline to stave off the beast, or is she a tainted savage holding on to whats left of her humanity only because its less painful than letting go completely? Anyone got some counter-notions?
Yukiko Hanamura
Even before shed finished awakening, Yukiko knew something was terribly wrong.
She didnt know how long shed been asleep or unconscious, rather. All she knew was that she had been troubled all throughout the long night with horrific dreams. Fire and devastation, blood and anguish, screams of agony and terror. Dreams of ruination, dreams of the desecration of everything she knew. Part of her knew that the dreams were no mere fabrications of a drifting mind. She knew, even with the deep fogs of medical sleep still clouding her mind, that nothing would ever be the same again.
oming around! God, that was fast Yukiko? Yukiko, can you hear me?
.guhhhh the girl groaned, eyes squeezed shut against the hospital lights trying to drive white daggers into them. [ wha what ] she started, only to be interrupted by a brief but violent coughing spasm. When that was done with, she started again, voice weaker but less trembling and unstable. [What happened?] she asked. The words were in Japanese, as they always were. Unlike most of her few remaining contemporaries, Yukiko actually spoke passable English, but around her shrine nobody else did. But even then, she could feel it. She wasnt anywhere near her shrine anymore, and that was far from the only thing that was deeply, terribly wrong.
[Please, lay still. Ill explain everything to you, but youve been through a terrible ordeal and your bodys still recovering,] the voice replied. Male, and with the unmistakable rumbling depth and offputting accent of a gaijin. Not dispassionate or lacking in warmth or kindness, but still undeniably alien. Yukiko tensed up upon hearing the foreigners words, and the action cost her a wave of pain strong enough to force a weak cry from her. It felt as if every single cell in her body had protested the action all at once, a flood of fire from head to toe that left her light-headed and whimpering.
[Easy, easy!,] the gaijin continued, and even through the unfamiliar burr in his words, Yukiko could hear the concern and empathy in his voice. [Please, Yukiko! You cant jostle around yet!]
[ what happened?] Yukiko finally wheezed a few moments later, laying in a tired, aching heap of misery on whatever strange bed she was currently occupying.
[Youve been gravely hurt,] the voice continued. [Almost fatally. The doctors managed to save you, but nobody knows where all this cyber came from. Who set this up for you, Yukiko? This is expensive stuff, top-shelf. The medicos are going nuts trying to figure out what else it can do.]
Cy-ber? Yukiko muttered, mouth catching for a moment on the English word. [What cy-ber? I dont know whats going on what happened to me, why do I hurt so much everywhere? Why do I feel so strange?]
The voice was silent for a moment. When it spoke again, the obvious dread in its tone quickly incited matching feelings in Yukiko. [You dont know. You didnt know. Oh my God. Yukiko, Im so sorry everything looked legitimate, all the paperwork was signed and in order it had your signature on it. If we had known ]
That was too much for Yukiko to bear. She finally managed to force one eye open, cracking it against the pitiless white lights of what turned out to be a sterile, soulless hospital room. She saw the owner of the voice, a rough-cut man in a well-tailored suit with a look of lurking horror on his features, as well as a white-faced doctor standing behind him, staring at her with emotions on his face she couldnt quite recognize.
And, drawn there by an unusual, out-of-place gleam, she saw the polished metal and plastic that lay where her left arm should have been, ending in a three-fingered hand tipped with razored metal claws.
Yukiko started screaming. She started screaming, and she didnt stop until the sedatives kicked back in.
* * *
WTF Is All This About Already?!
Following several frustrating failures with Kaminari Jane (turns out that Lightning and Unarmed just do not want to play nicely together), I found myself fiddling in the character editor with no real goal, just putting pieces together and seeing what happened in order to pass the time.
Dont judge. I know for a fact that youve done exactly the same thing, you.
I was messing around with an archery-flavored miko outfit for no real reason than the fact that Ive always liked the look of miko outfits (and am still in need of a good archer) when the notion struck me to see what could be done with Robotic Arm Left in the one-sleeved gi thats popped up since Ive been gone, and that was the pebble that started the avalanche. An entire character started building herself in my head without my go-ahead, whether I wanted her there or not, with a background reminiscent of Janes but a completely different attitude and style.
Id determined a few days ago that a fresh start would be the best way to relearn Champions, getting into it with a brand-new character and figuring out what to do as I go along, but had yet to hit a concept I really liked until Yukiko put herself together in my head.
While I have a strong notion of Yukikos character her background, personality, morality and motivations her mechanical build is still quite thoroughly up in the air. I figured Id gather some opinions here, since there was some pretty solid brainwork in Janes thread. Lets see what we can do this time, eh?
* * *
You Sound Proud Of Yourself There, Brah. Pics or It Didnt Happen
Yukiko Hanamura
* * *
(Even More) Character Background. Because You All Know You Want It.
Yukiko is/was a miko (read: Shinto shrine maiden, or something very roughly analogous to a priest(ess) running a small local church), one of quite few true traditional miko left in the wake of all the changes the world has undergone since Supers became a thing. Yukikos shrine in particular was remote and rather small, a local fixture rather than a big, gaudy tourist trap the way some more infamous shrines have become. She tended her shrine and cared for the spiritual well-being of both those who came to seek her shrines blessing and the kami her shrine served up until a gaijin came to her shrine claiming to be on a tour of Japan. He was even stranger than most and Yukiko distrusted him immediately, but couldnt do much about it without being rude and losing face.
Two days after the gaijin left, having spent most of his time cooped up in an inn room in the village Yukikos shrine served, the kami in her shrine went berserk. It manifested in physical form and summoned a small horde of yokai and went on a rampage, tearing both the shrine and the village apart and killing most of the villagers. Yukiko tried frantically to calm her shrines spirit and return it to its abode, but to no avail. Whatever had enraged it was too powerful, sunk too deep into it, for Yukiko to be able to reason with it. In the end, she was forced to try and drive the spirit off, drawing its attention away from the last few surviving villagers with a few mystic arrows.
This did not end well for Yukiko.
When she came too, she was in a Tokyo hospital, having found herself the recipient of a suite of highly advanced, tremendously invasive cyberware she had no idea shed authorized (see above story snippet) which the hospital had received and put into her as per her instructions. Following that, it was discovered that whoever had forged the documentation needed to get Yukiko rebuilt had dropped off the face of the earth, leaving Yukiko with no clues whatsoever save for one short message pre-loaded into her new cyberware:
The man who drove your spirit into a frenzy can be found across the sea, in America. He was last sighted in Millenium City. Ive given you everything you need to find him now its on you to do just that. Good luck, Y. Try not to go insane before youve finished your job.
E.
With her shrine leveled and her village in ruins, there wasnt really much for Yukiko to do except head to MC and start searching for the man who had destroyed her life.
START HERE FOR RELEVANCE
I actually have two prospective builds for the character-that-will-be-Yukiko, which I am unsure of. One of them, termed The Shrineless, is the original mix of Archery and Unarmed that appealed to me in the first place, while the other, termed The Possessed is a take on demonic MA which focuses more on brutal smashing power and takes a much darker tone with Yukikos overall theme.
The Shrineless
A semi-unusual mix of Archery and Unarmed meant to patch up the weaknesses of each with the strengths of the other in a thematic and versatile fashion, Yukikos Shrineless build represents her cold fury, the razor-honed focus of a lifelong martial artist, and her determination to make the best of what was done to her. It can be considered the Light Side version of her theme.
Archery is a magnificent set for dealing with trash and multiple foes, with Storm of Arrows being one of my favorite powers in all of Champions Online but get a single powerful foe in front of you and Archery falls apart. Thats where Yukikos martial artistry comes in.
Burning Chi Fist provides the single-target smashing power Archery lacks, dealing heavy damage to a single enemy while Dragon Kicks Rush, Tempests Focus, and MSA ticks off of the occasional Thunderbolt Lunge, BCR/RR, or even point-blank Storm of Arrows fuels her rampage. MSA was selected over Hunters Instinct specifically for its versatility both the ranged and melee sides of Yukikos build can find ways to trip MSA.
The Possessed
Discarding Archery entirely, the Possessed is an Unarmed/Darkness build trading Focus for Enrage and versatility for anger. This variant of Yukiko represents the seething rage she lives with after the violations visited upon her shrine, her people, and her body, the taint shes suffered on the claws of her corrupted kami, and her surrender to the same brutality that was visited upon her.
The build sacrifices ranged combat completely, focusing on crushing close-quarters dominance. Burning Chi Fist remains the weapon of choice, backed this time by Enrage and multiple knock powers allowing her to stack it up. The build is more focused, with better AOs and stronger damage capacity, but is significantly more fragile and lacks the ability to withdraw to a safe distance and still fight that the Shrineless build holds. Theres an extra power slot and two unspent advantage points because Im indecisive, but my gut in that instance is to shoot for Dragon Kick w/Lashing Dragon Tail to try desperately to patch up the Possesseds shoddy defenses.
Theorycrafting:
Some things Ive considered changing around in the Shrineless build as listed:
-Support Drones over BCR: I find BCR/RR to be more reliable in general than Support Drones, which are easily knocked out in real humdinger fights, but the drones are less selfish and also dont take a bite out of my damage. Yukikos theme can actually tolerate both, as shes got access to sufficient technological resources to acquire supporting robots. Is the energy penalty and spotty reliability of the drones worth putting up with over BCR/RRs damage cut?
-Retaliate over ES/Laser Knigget: Laser Knigget is another heavy damage cut on top of BCR/RR, and in my wanderings around the boards these days it seems very clear to me that the self-reliant, cover-all-the-bases characters Im used to have gone the way of the dodo, replaced by absolutely tippy-top every-last-point DPS types. Retaliate can supercharge the next BCR or Durgan Kick I toss out, trading steady defense for smallish damage spikes. This seem more like the thing to do?
-Straight Shot: Straight Shot, normally a weird sort of bass-ackwards staple in pure Archery builds, does jack-all bupkiss for me here except make the build legal. I would like to get Torrent of Arrows in there as Relentless Recurve is never a bad thing to have, but thats a no-go. I can replace Straight Shot with Evasive Maneuvers after some leveling to get something more useful, but is there a sneaky way of getting Torrent in there over Straight Shot that Im missing due to rustiness?
Some things Ive considered changing around in the Possessed build as listed:
-Form of the Tempest back in over Enrage: This would essentially be a total rebuild of Possessed Yukiko, swapping back in the much more reliable Form of the Tempest over the somewhat stronger/more thematically correct Enrage. Dex and Strength would switch places and Roomsweeper would take off in favor of One Hundred Hands, with talents and specializations tightened up accordingly. This would be a significantly more effective build, but would also be pretty bog-standard with no real flavor to it and would muddy Yukikos (final choice of) theme is she a martial artist clinging to her focus and discipline to stave off the beast, or is she a tainted savage holding on to whats left of her humanity only because its less painful than letting go completely? Anyone got some counter-notions?
____________________________________________________________
ATTN: Player previously known as DevilLordLaser, prior to Forumocalypse.
ATTN: Player previously known as DevilLordLaser, prior to Forumocalypse.
DevilLordLaser wrote:To hell with this schitte
Post edited by evilkittyman on
0
Comments
They are both good builds, though. I esp like the first cause it exemplifies how to take a strong AoE ranged tree and mix it w/ a strong single-target melee tree.
On BCR/RR vs. drones: I'd prob just keep BCR cause its more convenient and reliable on its own, even w/ the damage penalty. Other option is just using Conviction.
Also:
isn't really true, imo. There are a few forum-goers here that like to make optimal dps builds, but dun confuse that for meaning the community at large is adopting this paradigm. Do-everything FF builds are still king in most content.
Anyways, ya can prob replace LK_EM w/ Retaliation and be just fine. LK/EM are nice boosts for melee, but for non-tanks they aren't too high a priority, imo. (also, the archer build isn't melee-ing some of the time to benefit from LK/EM anyways)
Not w/ FotT as the toggle. Unless ya dun mind having Rain of Steel as the end builder?
Powers:
Level 1: Rain of Steel
Level 1: Form of the Tempest
Level 6: Thunderbolt Lunge (Nailed to the Ground)
Level 8: Quarry (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 11: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 14: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Rank 2, Resurgent Reiki)
Level 17: Storm of Arrows (Rank 2, Achilles' Heel)
Level 20: Burning Chi Fist (Rank 2, Fists of Righteous Flame)
Level 23: Dragon Kick (Rank 2, Lashing Dragon Tail)
Level 26: Torrent of Arrows (Rank 2, Relentless Recurve)
Level 29: Ego Surge (Rank 2, Nimble Mind)
Level 32: Masterful Dodge
Level 35: Retaliation (Rank 2)
Level 38: Intensity
- Be safe and have fun, champs - for science!
The second concept sounds like it'd suit a Shred/Massacre setup.
As for DPS vs soloability, it's not that solo survivability went extinct, but that mitigation and healing have finite thresholds for usefulness, for example, if the hardest enemy only ever hits you for 100 damage per second at peak, you only need to heal for 100 damage per second - any higher would be a waste. On the other hand, you can never have too much DPS.
With players finding or gaining access to new routes to survivability, including Justice Gear, AD rotation after Unbreakable was fixed and Juggernaut spec with Wardicator or Guardicator, the logical development would be to direct the freed up resources towards DPS.
The funny thing is my character, Kitty, actually toyed with both MA + Lightning and MA + Archery at some point, although she's back to MA + Throwing Blades.
- Be safe and have fun, champs - for science!
ANYWAYS.
Ill admit, I was leaning pretty heavily towards Shrineless myself. Possessed gets heavily into Yuureis territory, and while Yuureis old, beautiful build has apparently been utterly ruined by various On Alert/Reloaded changes (>_> ), shes still where I go to if I want a savage, creepily inhuman sort.
I know Conviction/MSA is a pretty traditional energy engine, but I just do not get along with Conviction. I always forget to hammer it on cooldown the way I ought to, and even in those rare instances where I do, it doesnt seem to do much. Might well be that this is the time to try it again, though it would simplify the close-quarters UA portion of the Shrineless build a good deal.
Heh I generally dont plan my builds around specific gear levels I decide which stats I want to emphasize and if there are secondary things I need my gear to pick up, but I dont, for example, consider a build incomplete if its not in full-up Legion gear or whatever the latest super-de-dooper ultratopend RAID 5 gear is. This probably results in me over-emphasizing a characters durability and ruggedness by modern standards as I do not/cannot count on my gear to pick up the slack.
One of the appealing aspects of the Shrineless build, actually, is how well its specializations round out what I need for Yukiko stat-wise Super Intelligence is used within an inch of its life, Im deliberately and specifically counting on it, and Audacity, to help me hit Strength/Ego softcaps while also building up extra Offense to throw into Aggressive Stance. That sort of careful, thorough design makes me smile, but is also largely useless if one is planning on simply getting to 400 everything with whatever madly overpowered gear theyve pushed out since I was last around
Does it bother anyone else that Cryptic is STILL making it extremely difficult to make an effective multi-range character? You can mix damage types and powersets and whatever else you want just fine, but LAHD HELP YALL if you want to switch between ranged and melee combat. Not a toggle in existence that doesnt heavily penalize one or the other, no special build role for mixed-range play they just dont want it happening, do they? -_-
ATTN: Player previously known as DevilLordLaser, prior to Forumocalypse.
I'm not an advocate of Conviction powering MSA. Every Conviction you pop is time spent doing 0 damage. If you have the room, use a spiky attack like Rimefire or Particle Smash or Backhand Chop or a DoT like Mental Storm - at least that will raise your DPS. I suspect even fitting the terribad Gas Arrow into your rotations will be better for DPS than popping Convictions.
If you're referring to the other thread, the Armadillo set is a set of cheap low-end gear with a useful set bonus. The items have no level restriction and will level as you level. It costs 11,000 Questionite and you can get a set of secondaries in 5 days of Questionite farming on a single character, or 3 days on 2 characters.
The 20% from softcapping Str or Ego is additive and should work out a 1-2% gain in practice. Quarry is still useful for pushing Int to very high levels though.
It is not difficult at all - I ran a few cases in my superstat testing using Dex and Form of the Tempest with a ranged attack to see how the half bonus would affect damage. Turns out it's only about 11%-14% behind - 11% in the case of Primary Dex, 14% for Primary End. On hindsight I should try FotT with Primary Int, considering how Expertise works.
I have two characters that use FotT mixing melee and ranged attacks: Kitty with Throwing Blades and Unarmed and Etincelle with Laser Sword and a variety of ranged sets, and they're both great characters in their own right.
Kitty tanks Frosticus with 100% Dodge using cheapskate gear - only 1 piece of Legion, the rest of her gear is cheap stuff like Heroic and it works with both Armadillo secondaries or even the normal purple secondary drops.
Etincelle on the other hand is what I'd consider a runaway success in the wrong direction. At first she was a defensively-oriented Primary Str AoPM character, which was very survivable, but I hated the low damage. Then I flipped her to Primary Int, and the combination of Hybrid mode's lack of threat reduction, Laser Sword and Pyre's base damage, having Int's Detect Vulnerability close to the 20% sweet spot and >57% crit chance from 400+ Dex along with specs means she pulls a LOT of aggro with the new, higher DPS but squishier setup and I'm wishing for the defenses of Primary Str again -_-
Bulgarex: Thanks! Heh, I always prefer to have proper backgrounds and histories for my characters, and while some of them are, ahh...less than totally serious (among my Olde Thyme crew is Mireila, a succubus demon's-rights activist lawyer. I am in no way kidding), they're still there. I don't really get a chance to do much proper straight-up roleplay in Champs, but that doesn't mean I don't like telling my own stories. As for anchoring into the Champsverse...well, you've got me there. I know absolutely nothing about the 'verse except for what this game has told me and tend to mostly just avoid dealing with specifics of the setting until/unless I have to. If you feel like shooting me a message or two I could certainly catch up, always willing to learn.
Selphea: good stuff in that superstat testing post. I will admit to only reading the ten-things part rather than looking at the data collection because I'm not quite up to dealing with Cryptic Math again yet, but still some interesting notions.
The power progression on Yukiko is actually pretty tight, especially in the early few levels. About the only thing I can really pitch for something like Backhand Chop would be Thunderbolt Lunge or Intensity, neither of which seems quite like a good idea. I know lunges don't keep up the deeps, but given Champions' traditional maneuvering awkwardness, and the fact that character movement in the game seems to've gone completely to pot since the last time I played (SERIOUSLY! Why do my characters never face what they're shooting anymore?! They face dead forward and shoot at impossible angles, but whenever I'm out of combat the only direction they DON'T face is forward! What happened?!), I'd really prefer not to go without one. Especially since I don't have any other ready source of NttG. Any ideas where I could make some cuts or switcharounds to try and get something better for MSA in close combat in there? Other than point-blank arrow storms, which are totally an option but sorta defeats the point of having a strong single-target melee side, methinks
ATTN: Player previously known as DevilLordLaser, prior to Forumocalypse.
I'd say: Don't
The impression I get is you want some kung fu punches and kicks to go with archery so here's what I'd suggest:
Swapped EM for Thundering Kicks coz you didn't like EM anyway
Dropped Laser Knight because Thundering Kicks will cover the defense.
Dropped BCF because Thundering Kicks with Warden Mastery covers your single target hitter. Replaced with Torrent.
Dropped Dragon Kick because you lost a punch with BCF. Replaced with Demolish to get a punch back. Call it a Focus Attack or something.
Stick with Lunge for MSA - you're short on slots.
Swapped Avenger for Warden to get Warden Mastery. You have mostly low energy attacks so you won't be missing the 10 Rec and 10 End. You probably won't be missing 10 Str, Ego or Pre either.
PowerHouse (Link to this build)
Name:
Archetype: Freeform
Super Stats:
Level 6: Intelligence (Primary)
Level 10: Dexterity (Secondary)
Level 15: Constitution (Secondary)
Talents:
Level 1: The Master
Level 6: Acrobat
Level 9: Coordinated
Level 12: Healthy Mind
Level 15: Negotiator
Level 18: Impresario
Level 21: Quick Recovery
Powers:
Level 1: Strafe
Level 1: Thundering Kicks (Rank 2, Rank 3, Accelerated Metabolism)
Level 6: Quarry (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 8: Form of the Tempest
Level 11: Molecular Self-Assembly
Level 14: Storm of Arrows (Rank 2, Achilles' Heel)
Level 17: Bountiful Chi Resurgence (Rank 2, Resurgent Reiki)
Level 20: Thunderbolt Lunge (Nailed to the Ground)
Level 23: Torrent of Arrows (Rank 2, Relentless Recurve)
Level 26: Demolish (Rank 2, Below the Belt)
Level 29: Energy Shield (Rank 2)
Level 32: Ego Surge (Rank 2, Nimble Mind)
Level 35: Masterful Dodge
Level 38: Intensity
Travel Powers:
Level 6: Acrobatics (Rank 2, Rank 3)
Level 35: Ninja Vanish (Rank 2)
Specializations:
Intelligence: Enlightened (3/3)
Intelligence: Tactician (2/2)
Intelligence: Detect Vulnerability (3/3)
Intelligence: Expertise (2/2)
Warden: Fortified Gear (3/3)
Warden: Slaughter (2/3)
Warden: Ruthless (2/2)
Warden: The Best Defense (3/3)
Vindicator: Aggressive Stance (2/2)
Vindicator: Merciless (3/3)
Vindicator: Focused Strikes (3/3)
Vindicator: Offensive Expertise (2/2)
Mastery: Warden Mastery (1/1)