Greycat

First thing first, does it happen after you reboot?

If you've played it before, you might be remembering a more fully slotted PA. It'll heal back the base damage (not enhanced,) and from what I was seeing it took about 10 seconds. If it's not slotted, between the enemy's natural regen and the lack of slotting, it will heal it fully back - but it should definitely not be right away. Of course, you did say it *was* right away. I don't have an answer for that at all. Other than maybe what CVT mentioned, but I'd expect that to heal a different amount and still have some sort of lag, and/or not be consistent.

*points at the suggestion of a Prae Hami raid as well, which is an idea kind of along those same lines.* However, this somewhat indicates you're fine with the current raid as is. Which, as I've mentioned, is fine. What about it do you like strongly enough to not want any sort of change? I'd think *that* information would be valuable as well. Is it just familiarity, something in the mechanics? What, exactly? (Or approximately.) Edit: Also, just to get a feel for it, how frequently do you raid? Nightly? Maybe once a month? (This does not make your answer any more or less valid. Asking this primarily because a thought popped into mind - and I think I'd like to have those that have ideas for change answer, too - to see if there's a degree of "hami fatigue" in people that do it frequently... or, conversely, familiarity with it driving a desire for the status quo. For me... *probably* 2-3 days a week at average, sometimes once, sometimes twice in those days... and I'm calling both runs on those "a raid," to be completely clear.)

Went to RWZ. Pulled one comm officer. Killed just that. Gee, look at that yellow text, right after the green that declares I have defeated the Communications Officer. That is XP, Inf and Incarnate XP. Also known as "rewards." You were saying? (Apparently you were saying you don't play the game.) You are also not reaading the thread, as I did not suggest a nerf to rewards. So, either read the thread and be constructive, or, quite frankly, stop trolling. Actually, either one you do, I won't see, as you're no longer worth the time. My apologies to everyone else. This troll just got on my final nerve and needed dealing with.

... I had to think about that for a moment. Nope, that isn't in there now. Yeah, that'd be interesting to be able to do.

I know. Just poking at you. 🙂

Read the first two posts. Everything is laid out there. There is no agenda. I don't play those little BS games. If you don't want to believe that, or are busy believing everyone else is lying, then there's no point in going further.

First. The items that give "zero rewards" tend to be pets (gun drones, Sky Raider engineer FF generators) - or things that the summoner (such as comm officers) had their *own* XP increased to compensate for. If one does not, put in a bug report. If you do not think this is a good design, start a thread of your own in suggestions. Second, as I've told others, it's not your place to determine what the devs should or should not spend time on. You are not a dev. The devs are big boys and girls. They can determine for themselves whether something is worth spending time on or it gives any benefit. "I do not like it" is not the same as "this gives zero benefit and isn't worth dev time." That *aside* from the fact that this is not being put in as a suggestion, but as a discussion. I suggest you go and read the initial posts where I explain exactly that, because going over your comments so far it doesn't sound like you have at all. Third, yes, new content is nice. Revamping old content and power sets *also* gives us new and exciting things to do. The developers, live and here, are aware of this. This is why we've had Positron revamped. Synapse. Yin swapped in. Faultline, the RWZ and DA reworked. Powersets reworked - including in the issue we're currently in. Fourth, I'd *greatly* appreciate not throwing things out disparaging other players such as "You must not play the game." If you can't do that, please be a jerk elsewhere. Because I'll tell you, I'm seeing it more and more and have hit my *limit* on it today. Start your own thread, call it "Greycat's an asshole" and gripe there if you can't help yourself. (Because, frankly, I am or can be one, and I'm fine with that.)

Discussing things? I don't think so. You've made it clear you don't think there's any need for change. Thanks. Anything else?

Oh, like winning a week at a time isn't enough for you, huh, now you want *comments* on your posts. Geeez... 🙂 Probably nobody's made a comment since they're fairly straightforward enough there's not really much to be said. I have nothing against them. *shrug*

Hopefully I'll remember. >.< Therra and Synapse's TF have history... though she already has Tesla Cage. 😄

It wouldn't be unheard of to give it a name tied more to the set. (Spines, for instance, has Assassin's Impaler.)

Not my issue, but I'm throwing my information here in case anyone needs help getting to it (current updates on Win10, as a few things changed or moved) - On a Windows PC, right click "This PC" and "About." The current version of Windows changed the about screen a bit, and gives you an option to copy your PC specs. You'll get a readout like: Device name FirstLight Processor AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor 3.59 GHz Installed RAM 32.0 GB Device ID - Product ID - System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display (You can delete the device and product IDs like I did.) Just beneath that is the WIndows information - copy, paste. Edition Windows 10 Home Version 20H2 Installed on ‎8/‎30/‎2020 OS build 19042.685 Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0 The only thing really missing from this is the graphics card (which, yes, I wish they would include.) On the right side of this window, click on "Device Manager," expand "Display Adapters," and it'll tell you whatever your graphics card is. (nVidia GeForce GTX 1080 in my case.) On a Mac - apple logo, about this mac.

"DEVS" are adults who can choose to read it and do what they want. Seriously, can we *stop* with the "Stop pestering the devs" and "this is a waste of the devs time" responses? The only thing that *is* a waste of time are... those responses. None of *us* have the authority to go through and dictate to the devs what is or is not worthy of their consideration or time. This is the suggestion and feedback forum. It's here for suggestions - whether any other player thinks they're "worth the devs time" or not - and feedback. No *player* is the goalkeeper, "suggestion must meet this criteria before being worthy of being viewed, much less considered or implemented, by the development staff." If the devs feel pestered by a suggestion or poster? That's what the moderation staff is there for. They can shut down or even hide posts or posters. That's their job, not the job of anyone else here. If the devs feel something is not worth the team's time or resources? *They won't do it.* And they'll make that decision whether or not any non-dev forum user deems it worthwhile or not. So, in general - just *stop* with those responses. You (generic forum-goer) are in no position to make that determination, and you have no right or authority to basically tell another forum user "Stupid suggestion, sit down and shut up until I determine which suggestion is worthy of being seen, peasant," which is essentially what this is.

Don't have much to say about the first two - I wouldn't hold my breath on our LRT version, Shadow Slip, coming back, though I get the argument - but for the third... Starless Step (for the non-'shade among us) went from the ranged TP Foe to our version of Combat Teleport. (I kind of wish they'd changed the name, because this threw me - someone who's played 'shades live and here - with this comment.) I'd say it's a bit early to talk about removing or replacing it, on one hand. I still haven't quite worked it into how I do things on my 'shades. I disagree with your reasoning *why,* as I really *am* "jumping all over the place" when I play, and there's a lot more going on in melee range (TP in - Mire being an early opening, Eclipse being fairly standard fare to start with late game. Orbiting Death is, of course, melee range, as well as Inky Aspect. By late game I end up in melee range more often than at range for most things.) That said, Warshades by default have Teleport from level 1 - no power pick needed. I use that out of habit for travel *and* combat. I don't see myself binding one thing for travel, then binding the other for use in combat. Starless Step's ... advantage is the tohit buff (which is nice for the *first* mire/eclipse, sure, and/or if you're dealing with small groups) and shorter animation. But given my 'shade "does stuff" when teleporting in, the shorter animation between SS's jumps doesn't really confer an advantage. It's one thing when you have to dip into a pool because you *want* a combat teleport aside from whatever you use for travel. It's another when you have TP from level 1. I'd sit on any change for a while 'til we get more of a feel for where this could fit into playstyles... but I'd probably say "fold the buff into the first three times a 'shade just uses inherent teleport" and agree they should replace with... something, the way it seems now. It does feel a touch redundant with our Teleport not requiring a power pick at all and being given on character creation at the moment.

Disclaimer: This is only tangential to my post in general discussion on if or how Hamidon should be changed/buffed/whatever. I'm actually going to be ignoring the Hami raid here and focusing on lore and missions. That post is discussion, this is ... to figure out some updates. I will say that post is what got me started down the path of thinking about this. That said, off we go. So, the Devouring Earth haven't really been updated much, primal-side. They hang around in seeming random zones, you can ignore their missions, then suddenly *boom,* Hami's the end game non-Incarnate raid. The flip side of that is Hamidon *is* the big bad for Praetorians. Unlike Primal, in Praetoria we get to see him (sort of - more like see his effects) in nearly full glory. He has avatars. He has seeds. He is destroying cities, he's on top of and beneath the earth, for all we know he's trying to figure out how to get to space and spread to other planets and become the Praetorian Coming Storm for their universe. Primalside, though, it's ... rather... bland. We have creatures hanging out in Talos and Croatoa for... some... reason? And founders, though that makes sense because there's a direct link to Eden and the Hive. (There's also the Abyss, with them trying to bring Hami through outside of paragon... which, and I'll bring this up later, should have characters that started as Praetorians absolutely ecstatic that they wore the brown pants today.) You have to run specific arcs to get a touch of the horror in Tanya, Pyriss - even Psi Knight asking you to kill him before he's completely converted to a Devoured. Otherwise, those are just... funny shaped sacks of XP. Oh, and of course we have some in Crey's Folly, which makes sense since it's an ecological disaster that would be *infuriating* to the Hamidon... but, again, they're just sort of there, mostly as swarms, it seems. Plus a few stragglers in PI, and around the island in IP that Terra Volta's on, which should be much more alarming than it is. It's past time that the Primal DE storyline got updated. These arcs are some of the oldest in the game. I don't think they've been looked at since being put in. Even redside - which has "newer" arcs - they're from around redside launch (with Pyriss - and I will say I liked that she was brought in in the incarnate content, too. It was a nice cameo.) A lot has changed since then. It'd be nice for the game to reflect that - and possibly add content in areas there isn't any now. A note on mobs. I don't think the mobs need updating. Yeah, really. They've got a nice mix of abilities, resistances and debuffs that they're still a worthwhile fight. I honestly think that - other than perhaps a cameo or special mob here or there for story reasons - the DE as a group of critters can be left as is. Yes, incarnates can still pretty much roflstomp them - but they *exist* in a wide enough range that, by the time you get there, frankly, you've earned it. (Again, not talking about the raid - that goes into the whole long running "incarnates vs high end content" thing I'm not touching. I'm talking "if you can now nuke the rank-and-file mobs in missions that have been annoying you for 20-odd levels? Go for it, it's probably cathartic.") The DE currently start at 25, with one very easy to miss contact in Talos. (A contact in IP can give the same mission. But you're *much* more likely to get the Wheel of Destruction, for instance, or the Freakylimpics, or the Sky Raider secret. Serieously, it seems like ten contacts in each zone could hand you any of these others, so this one's easy to miss. ) This is the Will of the Earth arc. (An Unnatural Order.) It's ... an all right arc, but it's also kind of coming out of nowhere. I'd almost want a 20-25 arc - or a few - that introduce some "ecoterrorists" who turn out, at the end, to be following the DE's/Hamidon's directives. For Praetorians? You get a special one... with fellow Praetorians who, on having escaped Hami on Praetoria, learn he's here too, give up, and see him as inevitable... and start working to bring him to power. 25, then, brings us to the Will of the Earth arc with a little less suddenness. I'd also like to see a new one in IP, honestly, just dealing with the fact they're *at the walls of the zone that houses the city's nuclear reactor.* Probably dealing, initially, with more of either the terrorists and/or Praetorian "inevitablists" working to breach the walls. There are tunnels enough, you work to discover the plot, stop them from planting something that starts a DE attack that, unstopped, would break through. 30 - 40 is where things should get interesting and let you continue the plot. IT's also where there's a technical question - does the game keep track of those who started as Praetorian? You can't do it via badges or arcs, obviously - you can ouro those, as I'm recalling. If it can keep track? In my mind, there should be people reaching out to ex-Praetorians about how these "damn Primals can't even keep their own Hamidon under control." If it's possible, again... this should be *really* giving some nice possibilities to ex-Praetorians... to either help or hinder Hami. Yes, including redsiders. If you want to help, you can get missions to get like-minded people to some point to eventually be converted to Devoured. Primals can get this, too... and yes, perhaps even end up with a Devoured temp summon. (I was thinking "end up as..." but so far the process isn't reversable, in lore.) Crey's Folly should also be coming into play here. Yes, the zone gets content. Hami fighting against the pollution - could it even be a *sympathetic* arc for Hamidon? - and maybe seeing if, in its efforts to clean up, it can *use* the toxic sludge to bring forth even more powerful creatures. "Let mankind die at its own hand," basically. Crey, of course, would also be a major antagonist - and I can see these arcs being very grey and ambiguous. Heroically, you wouldn't really *want* to help either side - you'd want to stop Hamidon and put Crey in jail - but what if you didn't have the choice? Given ten levels and several arcs to develop this - and maybe a RIkti side interest in seeing if they can use these creatures, just as they did the Hydra - should fill up plenty of the Folly. Founders should also have its share of issues, 35-40. While it may not get many story arcs for this, it could get something else. Buds. yes, the little guys that show up after you defeat Hamidon. They end up randomly showing up - thus the Praetorians "they can't control their own" freakout. They shouldn't be allowed to build up too badly (there are population fluxes, after all,) and no, they don't develop into a full Hami, but something GM powerful a team could take down? Sure. Rally the other DE around, too. 40-50? PI time. Both Portal and Praetorians do *not* want Hami finding out about Praetoria - and don't want anything coming through from that side, either. You can help - or hinder - this effort. (If you want to do this redside, it'd be missions and instances, of course.) And just for fun (and this'd be work,) well... you know those odd, giant bones on Monkey Island? What could Hamidon get inspired to do or make by those.... So by the time you finally get to the *raid,* you should have a healthy dose of lore and/or respect for Hami, versus just showing up for whatever reason to fight a jello blob. Granted, this has been a bunch of rough ideas, sketches and outlines - and barely touches on redside (which is kind of problematic on its own,) but there's a *lot* of potential with where the game sits now, lorewise, to update the DE and make them much mroe interesting and built up into much more of a threat, and I think it'd be worthwhile to do. It'd be a project over multiple "issues," with other things going on, I'm sure, but I think it'd be worth the effort.

Since this sort of thing has been mentioned, it should be pointed out the Hamidon raid *has* been changed (whether players liked it or not) in the past already. There's no Golden Dawn that can cause a raid to fail. There's no Hold phase any longer (we send controllers to hold the green mitos, but that's about it.) The people that enjoyed those had the raid changed on them and had to adapt. So, to me, this is kind of an invalid counterpoint. The devs can and will change the game no matter how happy or unhappy any group of players is with it. The live devs did it, the devs here have done it - after all, just look at the transportation changes and power changes *this issue.* Those changes were forced on players. Having a level cap raised from 40-50 was forced on players. The Faultline change was forced on players. The RCS turning into the RWZ with missions and a raid was forced on players. Your options, when it comes to changes, are accept the change, don't and stop playing, or go to another server - the third, of course, forcing its *own* set of changes on its players. That's the nature of a live service game model - you can't choose not to accept a patch and continue playing. I will stress this does not mean "I like it as is and wouldn't like to see it changed" is not an invalid position to have, though. You're (generic you) perfectly welcome to have and state that opinion. A "why" would be nice, too, just to flesh it out. Even so, we've had 2-3 of those. And I'm *perfectly happy to see people say that, too.* (Just stay polite about it.) And I kind of feel it has to be mentioned, since some people sound outright offended I brought up anything - I'm not actually advocating for *any* of these changes. I'm taking a player comment and, finding it interesting, running with it here for discussion. I'm not a dev, I have no particular pull, even though I threw out some example ideas does not mean I'm saying "change it this way." You don't have to argue with me or be angry with me, or the original commenter, for bringing it up. It really *was* an offhand comment that, thanks to the followup commentary in the raid, I found interesting enough to start a discussion here. Discussion, folks, not argument - some of the posts started sounding a bit personally-offended here. And, I should note, the discussion isn't necessarily about making hamidon *harder,* though that can be part of it - yes, even though I mentioned buffing him in the title - but shaking up the experience. (Also mentioned in the top post.) It can be mechanically *changed* without nerfing anyone or taking anything away - but it seems very few people are even noticing that was mentioned. Throw some ideas out there on what you'd maybe find interesting. Whether it's on the primal raid or - as some people have picked up on - the Prae Hami, which honestly is a more powerful hamidon in all its earth-spanning glory, it seems (which is part of why the main hami raid, to me, feels like it may not be living up to its "big raid" potential any more.) If I were going to define a *problem?* To me it would be this: Right now on a Hami raid, there only has to be at a *max* five people actually paying attention to what's going on, out of a full zone of 50. The raid leader, Hami taunter, and lead for each mito type - and the raid leader is probably taking on one of those roles. The rest? Follow, target through mito type lead, press attack keys in sequence, occasionally take an EOE. If I'm on my Mind/Time, for instance, I'm literally going 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 EOE 1-2-3-4. It's pretty much true for any other AT I bring along, with only a minor change for hamikazes. (And this is without me even needing to *use* any Incarnate abilities - Judgement on the buds, maybe, other than that, I'm just getting a single level shift.) And you know what, I'll admit sometimes for me this is *just* fine. Long day at work, it's a no-thought process 'til Hami's down and I need some AOEs for the buds. Repeat twice, 120 merits, or 80 and 4 Emps or what have you. You tell me, though. Is that good or bad? Should the "end game" raid, the big bad, allow that? Or should it be more engaging and interesting? Thus... "Shake it up."

Well, lore wise there's apparently a difference - at least for the Bane Spiders, they get added to a sort of psychic network. Psionic females go to the Widows/Fortunatas. And yes, that was set up before VEATs kind of tossed it out the window. So, right now it's just... "they haven't made any," I guess.

I've got to say some ATs are going to have a ... let's say much wider range than others. Sure, blasters are damage/damage, with damage on top and damage sprinkles. Does that offset (say) a brute having built in mez protection? But that aside, something like a controller can go from my "... why am I trying to solo this, it's taken me 5 minutes on two even con mobs" earth/FF to the "yes, we used to use these to farm" fire/kins. Are we considering a defender's boost to damage when solo? ... and no, I don't have data sets or anything. I don't do a *thing* with numbers. But I will watch this out of curiosity. Discussion can be fun. (Or it can get locked. Let's lean more towards the first than the last.) Only rating I'll put is "most fun = Warshade," for me. *shrug*

Aww. Wish I'd been on!

Sands of Mu (and I think Ring of Pain, I don't recall) should be from the Wheel of Destruction arc. It grants a couple, most of which disappear pretty quick.

Well, as I mentioned, there were other followup comments - none of which, honestly, were disagreeing or disparaging. Mind you, this is a regular group of raiders. They must enjoy doing this (or, well, just getting the fast rewards.) If I went to all ... three or four... evening raid sets, I'd see many of the same people. They *know* Hami. The idea of shaking up the Hami raids by doing *something* to make it different again seemed welcome. Thus the topic. I find it interesting that there are replies here that seem focused on "nerfing players." In the two posts I made setting up the discussion, only one (let's say 1 1/4) points had anything to do with really affecting the players' slotting or abilities. And provided workarounds or explanations. I suspect at least one person actually didn't read it and gave a rote answer. 😉 (Not necessarily you, WJR.) So - for everyone - let me reiterate the main part of this that I wanted people to look at to spark discussion: Think of ways to shake things up - and why! Or why it shouldn't be. (And let's not put the "Dev time" argument in. It's really *not* an argument, just kind of a lazy way of saying "I don't like it." I've made my argument against that reply before.)

OK, brief testing - Illusion controller, went to the "back 40" of Faultline and the Arachnos base there. Found a patrol of Arachnobots. Picked a LT Arachnobot Blaster: Spectral Wounds is slotted. [14:51] You hit Arachnobot Blaster with your Spectral Wounds for 39.5 points of Psionic damage. (Attack made.) (about 10 second delay) [14:51] You hit Arachnobot Blaster with your Spectral Wounds for 15.78 points of Special damage. (Illusory damage healed back.) And just natural regen did bring back much of the rest of the health in between. (I didn't do multiple attacks in between since I wanted to watch for this.) Since it is slotted, it'll do more damage than heals back when the spectral damage disappears (showing under "healing delivered," if you're monitoring it.) PA, of course, doesn't show up under this, so it has to be a matter of watching. Arachnos Drone Coordnator (LT) finally showed up - [14:57] You hit Arachnos Drone Coordinator with your Spectral Wounds for 46.62 points of Psionic damage. [14:57] You Hold Arachnos Drone Coordinator with your Blind. [14:57] You hit Arachnos Drone Coordinator with your Blind for 25.47 points of Psionic damage. [14:57] You hit Arachnos Drone Coordinator with your Spectral Wounds for 46.62 points of Psionic damage. (damage plus containment.) [14:57] You hit Arachnos Drone Coordinator with your Spectral Wounds for 28.42 points of Psionic damage. (damage without.) [14:57] You hit Arachnos Drone Coordinator with your Spectral Wounds for 18.63 points of Special damage. (Shows under healing, illusory dmg healing back later.) [14:57] You hit Arachnos Drone Coordinator with your Spectral Wounds for 18.63 points of Special damage. (ditto.) [14:57] You create a Phantom Army of pure illusion! There was a definite lag between damage done and spectral damage disappearing. (Sadly this just gives minutes, not seconds.) PA also managed to do damage and have it stick. Granted the coordinator was lower level than me (couldn't find an even level one) but it still took damage (and lost damage) the way I'd expect. (Noting again, my powers are slotted, so they will do more damage than should heal back.) In short - everything worked the way I would expect. Not sure what happened with you.

Wanting to get this straight before testing to see if it does it to me. - Attacked Drone Controller LT for (making up numbers, not really the important part) 10 dmg +10 spectral damage. - Normally, Drone Controller would take 10 damage and keep it, 10 spectral reverts back after time. Instead, it got 20 back immediately. - Phantom Army attacks also healed back immediately. - Specifically affects Arachnos robotic *Lieutenants* (Drone commander, LT rank spider folks.) Even level? Anything slotted?

.... Are they too powerful, and have they really had an impact, though? OK, maybe you can make the "too powerful" argument for the signature summons (they *should* be for what they're costing, with the usual couple minutes of life,) but the lower level reinforcement doesn't do much. If I pick one up, it's usually to let it be a distraction for something so it eats the alpha instead of me. I can't think of the last time I saw anyone *else* using them. Honestly, the Shivans (which you pay only some time investment for, given most servers don't really have ongoing PVP in Bloody Bay) are more powerful than the reinforcement - and I *do* see them used more. And on the upper end, I think Lore has probably eclipsed the signature summons. I don't disagree that they shouldn't be permanent, I just .. question saying they've had much of an impact on the game.