Sir Myshkin

I want to toss an aside on the -Regen "debate": It really doesn't matter where, or if this really exists (in my opinion). Is it nice to have? Structurally yes, it's a nice additive, but that volume it produced isn't really comparative anywhere else and was more likely to be a nerfed aspect anyway, more than a retained one if the Bob's got a buff of any kind. Irregardless of this component's existence I don't personally feel there's enough balance in the damage department for these guys yet. I feel like we should be trading out something different over -Regen for another aspect involving a DoT and cauterization or plasma radiation related themes. The -Regen concept just doesn't add value to the moment-by-moment fight and general survival of the crew. What about -HP? Not egregious amounts, but like what we see in Degenerative ballparks of -5 to -7%? Maybe each Bob gets -2% to stack up to -10% on a target? And in regards to maybe a small bump to damage, as well as addressing the somewhat aggressively expendable behavior the Bob's seem to be experiencing right now, what about a modified Oil Slick for the Protector Bots? With Assault Bot having Ignition it'd be a pretty sure-fire *badum* execution into some burn patching if they were able to drop smaller, short cycled slicks with some DoT for a little flavor boost and damage boost.

First off: This is an executed test performed on the beta server. Second off: I somehow tabbed into the submit button which submitted when I hit the space bar... no idea, so there's an edit to complete this submission pending... Third off: Final edit complete, read away: Buckled down and transferred over my Bots/Kin as it stands in its live incarnation to see how it reflected with the changes. My primary goal was to test two specific things: How it stands up to a basic Pylon test How it stands up to a swarm of 54 Rikti These are kind of my standard go-to performance checks for any content in the game. If a build can't qualify against these two things solo (within acceptable margins of reason), it'll reflect immediately. To keep this attempt both equal with my past testing on this particular "drop kill" concept, and to stay in line with a pure(er) Beta process, this is going in without the fancy suite of Incarnates beyond just the T3 Musculature Alpha as I had before. Against a Pylon With Masterminds my expectation is how well a MM build can "drop kill" on a target, which is a very simplified term for me on approaching a target with nothing summoned/prepped, execute your entire battle plan on the spot, and execute the target. Previously my Bots/Kin could drop kill a Pylon between 7:00-8:00 minutes. This is done almost entirely at the leisure of the Robotics crew with no direct damage support from [me] beyond Kinetics. Taking this task on Beta I was able to repeat this once, but with what looks to be some caveats to the performance chances in the set. My first attempt came in at 7:30 from first summon, to the explosion of the Pylon, my second attempt I ended up cancelling the attempt after over 9:00 minutes of frustration in the Pylon breaking through with KB and tossing the Bots around like ragdolls. I also was faced with an excessive amount of resummons in the second attempt from the bots dying constantly and inexplicably. Not to say I didn't face several resummons in the first run, it definitely wasn't in the ballpark of round two. I decided to go out and take a swing at the Rikti in the field as a break of pace, hunt the groups down and find a few patches of 54's, see how the Bob's do... Against 54 Rikti Group wise it wasn't a terrible run, I definitely got the shaft more by getting nailed with Mez thanks to those wonderful Mesmerists which put the Bob's in danger more from lack of support more than incapacity to deal with the Rikti. I do feel like I want a better idea of what their revised attack cycles are now though. I got a weird feeling of "down time" during the Pylon run, and that still carried over during the group experience as well. The Assault Bot was bursting through three attacks in a heart beat and then taking a soda break. The faster animations might be a tad TOO fast, I dunno, really haven't had a chance to look at it as the server crashed before I could look at their new cycles. Thoughts so far? Well, I think the damage might be sort of okay, I really dislike the idea of loosing out the advantage of the -Regen, but at the same time I know many build concepts just can't fit those attacks in to make that happen. I toyed around with it a bit last night and... just Nope. There's too much going on to try and squeeze that in, even just one is hard if we want to really try and keep the MM alive, take the full cadre of the Secondary, and still even just have ONE pool category and a travel power. It's tough. I also, on the concept of the damage, am a bit "eeeehhhhhhhhhhhh" about it really being enough on its own. I'm not gonna say one way or the other on how any of it should be shaken out, but I personally don't know that the Robots exclusively on their own are just quite doing enough damage still. As it stands currently I can do more single target DPS with a Traps Defender using exclusively Boxing, Kick, and Cross Punch as its attacks (solo'd Pylon 6:30) than this squadron of Bob's. And keep in mind, when the Robots go up against a Pylon it even-cons so it's not even a legit fair comparison, it's technically in the MM's favor (which is why I prefer to do a drop kill test instead, for more realism), and the MM is still under performing by a pretty wide margin. Take that for what it's worth. No I'm not saying there's something wrong with the Fighting Pool, haha, I'm just saying that's how poorly off Robotics kinda still maybe might be? And I haven't even tried Mercs yet /em shrug

If you watch the combat log you can see the actual attack rotation they use, and you'll get to see what new attacks were added to the cycle. It's stated in the patch notes that the "henchmen" had their cast times shaved down, and this will impact cycle times, which will impact endurance burn. Originally the cycle that all MM pets were designed with was specific to a set list of attacks with a specific cycle to help keep them on track and consistent because speeding up their options cause the AI to get a bit wonky. Since you're already looking into it now, if you're interested I'd suggest looking at the attack cycles and report those back to make sure the bots on each level aren't getting stuck on a singular attack that's burning them down, or an abnormal chain that's excluding a lower-base power to help balance their endurance cycles.

There are some critters in the game that have an inherent AI that wigs out when confronted with certain metrics, wether it be a fear trigger, a weird issue with DoT, confuse, what have you. The worst cases seem to exist in ITF with the EBs and Rommy for sure having some odd experiences that drive them into track star runners. I notice that sometimes it is just a matter of not using a specific power once you get down to that last enemy and it’s just a matter of experimenting on which one is causing the mob AI to wig out. A lot of time Tornado seems to be the culprit to me because it can chase its target, but isn’t always the case. Explosive Blast is a great tool for keeping groups down, and Freezing Rain will slow their ability to run. It’s easy to keep this going no matter where you’re at. For me my typical entrance into a spawn would be LS > EB > FR > Tornado or LS > Nuke After a while the flow of the powers will come naturally and you’ll become less fearful about jumping erratically into spawns. Remember that the faster this thing plays the longer it spends at 300+% recharge. Fill in hand with snipes. Between Victory Rush and Conserve Power and all that recharge, the Snipe in this set gets used like a pud T1 just fired from the hip left and right. Also, use your inspirations! Convert things to reds and burn them up. You’re there to bring damage, not “support” at that point. This build keeps the team alive by being ahead of the curve and causing so much controlled chaos that the enemies don’t have time to react, and by the time they can, they’re dead.

You have a little overkill in a few places. Whether it was just a lack of inspiration, or intentional, you don't need Physical Perfection. Gamma Boost will easily take care of Recovery for Rad Armor since it'll spend more than enough time at 50% or higher health. You're also super over slotting Particle Shielding, that thing taps out at just two health IO's so six slotting the power is extreme. As Betty kind of pointed out, if there's not going to be certain minimum goals kept in a build for defense, then it may be a safe consideration to scrap them altogether and focus on the prime elements. So scrap all the defensive powers and just pour the effort into capping Resistance without the use of the Tanker Proc. It's okay to still keep the basic 3% IO's for just background filler, but a build can be run without defensive focus when you can hard cap Resistance like a Tanker can. Given you're seeking a more Angelic concept, I might suggest either Flame (like Holy Fire) or Electrical (like Lightning Bolts) for an epic. If we toss out the junk powers, fill in with Electrical (lightning sounded cooler in my opinion), and focus on capping Resistance as close as possible within your current constraints, you'll get near a build like this:

Good thing the Universe isn't Real.

Shield Defense could be written off as held by a mystic being, magic could come from the shield itself in fact. Radiation, Electric, or Fiery Aura are all passable opportunities for a mystical resistance. Invulnerability is still likely the most appropriate for a "Superman" theme though, and then just change up the attack/melee side. I tend to agree that Energy Melee is probably the best choice, and definitely make sure the Sorcery Pool is in there. Fire, Ice, and Psi melee all have options for creating manifested weapon forms which could also be taken as a mystical concept too though, so consideration there as well. As for Epic, I'd lean on Leviathan maybe just for School and Spirit Shark abilities; they aren't the strongest necessarily but they do look the most magical.

The comments of mine that were removed where specifically targeted feedback, more in depth in fact than what has been left behind in this thread. This is why I brought it up because I wanted to know why they were redacted.

Okay, I know I'm not that crazy, where did half the posts in this thread go along with the one's specifically tied to suggested changes?

Exactly! This is why I think it needs to be in the T9 as a critical part of its function as I proposed.

Okay. Earlier I did a struggle-paste from mobile to get information moved into this feedback from the old suggestions thread but now I'm actually sitting somewhere I can type and actually express more fluently some thoughts based on what's been enlightened here. For non-scrolling reference, the original concept I'm working from: Modified under current trajectory, stuff in blue are items I revised from my original thoughts back in 2019 to fit the current dynamic of proposals by the Dev team in this round of beta testing for Force Fields. I used some design consideration from their process with Trick Arrow in how I approached some of the revision here while trying to keep what I feel is the heart of FF true, and not over complicate the spread of power choices. I do feel to an extent that Trick Arrow and Electric Affinity were examples of having too vast an array of interweaving choices, here things stay more true-to-lane. Deflection and Insulation Shield Each grants one stack of Force Protection, 120/s duration. I did pull the DDR from here and move it below, I can concede the process of centralizing DDR into one power. Personal Force Field Allow for a non-combat status and a combat status like Superior Invisibility. While static, does everything that PFF does now. When combat is initiated by the player, suppress to 10% Defense and 5% Resistance, enhanceable so that a player can get those values to 15/10. That, in combination with Disperssion Bubble would get them around 28-30% Defense. Grants one stack of Force Protection while on. Force Bolt Add -15% Res (Defender) on primary target. Bump to 33 base damage Add KB/KD splash (ala Propel) There are a few staple powers that were always vocally out spoken (we have already seen that here in this feedback thread) against loosing certain features. This is one of those powers that should be strengthened, but not deviate from its original path. Force Bomb (previously Repulsion Bomb) Reduce the cast time to 1.67/s from 3.07/s Increase the recharge to 60/s Add -15% Def component (20/s) Add -20% To-Hit Component (15/s) Add Vectored Knockdown Alter stun to 20% Mag 3 (10/s) While I agree that turning this power into a better utility is necessary, shredding its damage and popping in a low level -Res is mediocre, and thematically some of the effects in Dampening Bubble don't make sense in the same power where they can be separated here. Modeled this around the same structures of several other abilities that contain -ToHit functions from a Support stand point. Keeps its current damage output. Detention Bubble (Previously Detention Field) Now has -50% Slow Now has -30% Recharge Now has -30% Res Now has -150% Regen Now has 30' Radius No longer an intangible capture field, still 60/s recharge, 30/s duration. Descriptive Text: "You create an atmospherically dense bubble that wears down any enemy that enters, greatly slowing them down and weakening their resolve to fight." It's about time this power did something useful. Instead of trying to force comply other powers to getting -Res into the set, lets fix this one to do that job! Expulsion Field (Previously Repulsion Field) Combined with Force Bubble, now includes a 20ft radius Repel aura alongside a 9ft radius Knockback aura. The larger repel area acts just as Force Bubble did. No longer drains endurance per target hit in PvE. If slotted for KB2KD, the repel is also disabled. No complaints here, this is as offered by the Devs, I just think the name needs changed, it was a little repulsive. Dispersion Bubble Effects linger for 15/s if player leaves the influence of the bubble. Can't disagree, this is a solid call. Force Domain (Previously Force Bubble) Now a click power with 60/s recharge and 15 end cost with 30/s duration. Grants 5% stacking Absorb for each layer of Force Protection up to 4 stacks maximum. The power description would be something like "Simply oppressing your enemies movements allows you to focus on your allies, improving the shields around you and your team, giving them greater density against enemy attacks" Applies +Special (Defender) to you and allies: 21.63% (enhanceable) to Defense Debuffs 25% Damage, 10% To-Hit, 35% Perception 35% Regen, To-Hit, Perception, Slow, and Recharge Debuff Resistance Applies -Special up to 16 target enemies: -25% Damage, -25% To-Hit, -50% Perception, -Heal, -100% Regen

It might sound kind of crazy, but Super Strength's first three attacks are super subpar. When you take all three of the attacks out of the Fighting Pool they get a collective boost to several stats just for owning all three, and this ends up making Boxing and Cross Punch better attacks than Jab, Punch, or Haymaker. To top it off Cross Punch gets PBAoE enhancements so it can take the -Res proc. Add in the Force Feedback +Recharge proc in Knockout Blow (which will go off quite often surprisingly), and you'll easily be able to run around with an attack chain that is Boxing > CP > Gloom > Boxing > KOB

Th... hrn... one sec, I need to double check which build I linked you to. Okay so, yeah. Survivability is perfectly fine, the build is pretty much hard capped across the board on that one. Yes there is some wiggle room but that particular build is insanely offensive focused, it can be scaled back a bit to get the last little nudge of Negative covered, and an ounce more Psionic if desired. Easy to trade Dark Obliteration for Ground Zero if you desire! Absolutely not needed. With the way that Gauntlet was updated it is passable for the right kind of build to forgo taking a Taunt so long as it has the right kind of tools to cover for the job (which this build does). Aggro is generated on multiple different levels from Visual, Damage, Anchoring (like Debuffs), and actual Taunts. Above all damage supersedes everything and can peel aggro off even the most aggressive taunter. When you have two Tankers together, the one doing more damage will be the higher threat level, and so on. The next queue is anchoring, which comes from Darkest Night. By having a way to anchor into a spawn (or another spawn that you're not currently engaged in), the Tank can aggro outside of their limit and bring in further aggression. This build will always be the most powerful tank in the room (unless there's another like it, then they'll be fighting each other like cats in a bag). Everything will hate you, everything will want to see you die. All you have to do is throw out a few hits on the welcoming party and watch the world burn. Your Taunt is a punch in the face. Also, sub note, Beta Decay is a taunt aura which is another reason that the actual Taunt power isn't necessary. Cheers!

Clip from a solo +4/x8 No Temp/Insp ITF Run: Knocking out a Pylon without full Incarnates (T3 Musculature and only T1 Degenerative), about 4:35 for the Pylon itself: The 4.0 Build however is heavily tailored to my time with it. It'd be like someone who's never driven hopping behind the wheel of a Formula 1. Versions 3.0 and under however are more favorable, but do take some getting used to. They're full self sufficient Storm builds which are hard to do, especially at the kind of level these run at. They'll drop multiple Tornado and Lightning Storms in roll, Nova is like every ~35/s. Every cast of Lightning Storm procs a BU effect, so pretty much every spawn is LS > BU > Explosive Blast (or) Nova. What's funny about that BU proc is it results in the same kind of net gains in the build that a regular player would get having BU, but it doesn't cost me a power pick. This is the 3.0 Build if you're interested (and is the one closest to what's tested in the Pylon video). Madness, simply madness. 😉

The few situations on my Scrapper where I ever experienced immediate death were often tied to either cascading failure (which is hard and few between), or a few unlucky series of hits for high amounts of damage that wee-lil' Scrapper HP couldn't handle. Tankers out-of-the-gate are already packing more HP than most aggressive things in the game are gonna break them over. Rebirth Radial is the tool I stuck to post 50 because even at the low end of its diminishing performance it still gave ample Regen, it's a solid heal, and it was like having a pocket Instant Healing on tap. Not like SR is going to need any of the other Destiny's anyway. Player choice. Procs: When you pack 3-4 into one ability, even a fast cycling T1,2 or 3 attack, the odds of seeing at least one of them go off each attack cycle is still pretty good. It's very unlikely to see all of them go off at once, but they'll have pretty good odds of one, sometimes two pretty consistently. There is a minimum chance for all procs to fire, so there isn't a condition that they will never fire, just lower odds. The only thing about abilities sub-30/s that one should be mindful of is just avoidance of how much recharge is being put into the attack to avoid further reducing its odd chance, although honestly anything 0-10/s flat out doesn't matter, 11-15 sort of matters, 16-20 avoid if you can, but a little won't hurt, 21-30 it's best to not if the power can get away with it, but if it is something that needs to meet a duration condition then do only enough to meet that condition (although there are very few powers that have a 30/s base recharge, are duration based, and aren't naturally up fast enough for their own cause). You might see a bunch of "Proc Monster" links in my signature. Trust me, it works.

Technically they asked for two things, something that would solo well and be able to attack “at range consistently”, but not exclusively. there is value in understanding how to keep a build from getting stuck in a corner. There is also value in recognizing that a build will get stuck with a few powers it may not plan on using on the regular, so make them useful choices, and if that choice happens to be something that can hit for 1,000 points of damage, then make it so. There is also no mention of being a “Hover Blaster.” This is an assumption, and a poor one to make. I play my Ice/Atomic near exclusively at range when allowed, but I also am aware the game will not permit me to spend every mission and moment outside of melee, thus the tools in my secondary open up survival options in stacking holds and an additional AoE that is more useful than most on that side. This character also does not fly, it uses SS for movement. When I mentioned Seismic/Earth, again another set that I play at range, with SS as it’s travel, and I “kite” the character in and out of melee a lot to utilize his harder hitting tools. Now if someone truly wanted a pure “maximum all range” character, then I would tell them to choose Dark Blast because it has the greatest range on its attacks compared to any other blast set. As for secondary though my opinion still stands it’s best to choose one that is most accommodating to the primary and keeping the character alive in a wider spectrum of odds while fitting the player’s skills and needs.

I gotta admit ... I very rarely see anyone even using Mystic Fortune in the first place to even think about this. I'll start a new character and go running around for hours, days, maybe weeks before someone hits me with it and I'm like "oh right, gotta fix that auto-accepting." I figure let folks have their fun, most of the time anymore it's someone doing it for concept reasons, or they just like the busy-body aspect of giving it out in-between missions and such. Back on Live I only ever used it because it was a status thing since it meant you were around long enough to have earned it in the first place. Here... not so much a thing.

I put a lot of time under my belt with SR, in fact KM/SR on a Scrapper to be specific. I tried carrying around Aid Self for a while thinking I'd A) Need it, and B) Use it, but I found two things: I never used it, and the times where I took the kind of damage that I'd have wanted to heal myself it was too quick for a heal to have mattered. Carry around green inspirations as they'll serve you better, and faster than Aid Self ever will. Once you hit 50 you can also pick up Rebirth Radial for a Heal+Regen combo that will also be a blessing to SR. You'll be far more worried about the long-term needs than the short term burst healing. Endurance kind of falls in the same stride, there's nothing super taxing about Kinetic Melee that Conserve Power, nor Physical Perfection should be a necessity. As a Tanker you're able to easily hit 59% Defense on the positional so there's not a lot of reason not to, especially if you're already dipping into Fighting. This is a build I had on hand, I moved one thing around and put Gloom in, but it's pretty much what I'd suggest sticking to:

The Mad King doth share! The link in my signature will talk about it, but here is the link straight to the build here.

Depends on what foundation you want to build on for the secondary. If you're hoping to get some defense aspects into it some are easier than others. Personally I find Atomic to be one of the better choices to pair with most Blaster primaries because it has a nice all-around selection of tools and it is easy to work into a schedule of defense. Time Manipulation is another popular choice as is Devices for similar pairing reasons. Electricity and Earth Manipulation have the hardest hitting attacks available in them between Charged Brawl, Shocking Grasp, Heavy Mallet, and Seismic Smash which can be important if your end-goal is maximum DPS opportunity. From the primary side Fire and Ice are the two heaviest hitters, and there's a fine line between the two. Fire nudges out most cases simply because of its superior edge on AoE for most, but Ice Blast has better controls and, when it comes to just single target damage, can take the edge. Ice Blast > Bitter Ice Blast > Freeze Ray is going to become the ST chain for an Ice Blaster, and Freeze Ray can be decked out with a ton of procs on top of it already be a strong attack for its fast animation time which makes it a deadly ability. If this set gets paired with a primary that can stack in access to any kind of -Res on a target then it'll quickly dwindle down its enemies. For me personally my final choice ended up being Ice/Atomic when I went searching for a good Single Target option, but I found that I could do some ridiculous AoE with it still in Ice Storm and Blizzard with Atom Smasher and picking up a Judgement at 50. Drop Blizzard on one spawn, Pyre another, and Ice Storm+Atom Smash a third. Anything that survives will clump up on you and the rest are very quick clean up.

Anyone can cook, but to cook well takes practice. My favorite ranged build is Ice/Atomic on a Blaster. It can do most of its shenanigans from ranged, two AoE's are TLAoE (one of which is the Nuke), and it can stack up to three abilities with a hold component on top of an AoE that bursts a Mag 2 hold. Seismic/Earth on a Blaster is also looking to be a strong heavy-hitting combination with an assortment of soft-control in Knockdowns and a lot of hard hitting attacks, very hard hitting. Stalagmite and Seismic Smash can easily result in 4-digit hits on a debuffed enemy. And don't think you have to take glass cannons out of the running, some times the right combination of powders can get just the right type of burn! A Mad King Special lives in the realm of BU > Aim perma cycles, taps Force of Nature like candy, and doesn't understand what it means to live below 200% recharge. Here is an example:

Muwahaha … haha … ha Storm/Energy Mad King v4.0 (Unreleased) Specialist build.

Testing game mechanics. And not so much about the numbers but just the actual leg work involved. Wasn’t something I’d normally consider but once I started doing it I found it relatively relaxing and fun. It isn’t something I always have the kind of time for though. Also, playing without sound. It’s nothing against the game tracks, I just generally don’t care to listen to it anymore, and haven’t for a long time. It definitely makes looking for glowies a lot more interesting!

I dare say that my knowledge of how the game works is what drove me to have more fun playing it than compared to when I started. I’m a little quirky, a little insane, some might even call me mad in that regard, but I find a certain level of enjoyment in knowing where the limit is and trying to break it. I used to make character AT and power choices based on concepts, now I more make concepts based on the set choices I make ahead of time. When I first came back to Homecoming I focused on building all the pairings I never got around to that I had wanted to, that later evolved into pairings that could do extreme and ridiculous things. I have also invested almost zero major time into costume design as I had so many back logged costumes that I’ve just been pulling old stock and tweaking them to fit new stuff.

Yes, you've got the right idea. It is possible, once a Dimension shift has been activated, to drop Location-Based (TAoE) skills into the shifted space to be summoned or (in the case of powers like Wormhole) moved into. I tested this with Fold Space earlier today too and... that's not 100% confirmed yet but I think it does work, although it might not be intended to, hard to say cause it freaks out and says "unaffected" and then ports the targets anyway. But yes, powers like all of Storm, drop Rains, Phantom Army, pretty much any and all pets, all can be dropped in. There is no target limit on how many things can exist inside a single Dimension Shift, but it does have a physical volume limit, and it auto-immobilizes any enemy mob that it catches inside. It is possible for a single player to get Dimension Shift into "perma" status at 20/s intervals, but there is the recasting gap which... may or may not really be that big of a deal, but still advisable for a second Shift to trade off, or expand the applicable field radius. Just remember that things from outside the shift, like attacking, or general explosions (Novas) cannot impact what happens inside and vice-versa. Black Hole does not work the same, it is a straight void of intangible and suckage.