Galaxy Brain
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Posts posted by Galaxy Brain
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Tbf, Dragons Tail is a pretty dang good AoE in the context of MA
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34 minutes ago, Saikochoro said:
Don’t want to get boo’d off the stage, but I also don’t particularly want an AoE buff on energy melee. Sets whose main claim to fame is single target damage should double down on that instead of making every set AoE monsters.
Energy melee should however be a super threat in single target. I think energy transfer should get a full revert of all nerfs. Given the self damage aspect of ET, I personally think this attack should hit harder than anything else in the game. Then if that isn’t enough, reduce the animation time of total focus slightly without gutting it’s damage.
Those things alone would make me super happy.
There's a difference between "buffing into an AoE monster" and "oh, it really needs some AoE capability since being pure ST aint cutting it"
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29 minutes ago, Infinitum said:
Trollers - Indomitable Will FTW come on its calling - power boost is the path to the dark side anyway.
Fair, but by the time you get that it's super super late and Armor AT's usually get their mez protections by like lvl 12ish
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Tbh, this has always bothered me *a lot*
Tanks having a ton of mez protection = sure, makes sense as they're expected to take a ton of heat.
Other melees having mez protection = also sure, they're expected to be in the thick of it... except the way it plays out with their values + damage output/etc they may as well be mez immune like tanks are to where all mez except the random, rare holes poke in for certain content (except KB on certain sets)
All other ATs = essentially defenseless, which sucks in comparison to the next step up (melee dps) which are practically mez immune at all times.
On top of this, in a practical sense all mezzes are sort of the same when youre hit by them except immobilize. Sleep / Stun / Hold / Fear all render you unable to act for a time unless you pop a break free, or happen to get hit again/healed by an outside source (for sleeps and fears, sorta). Knockback isn't as bad unless you get unlucky where you're hit, but often KB causes the enemy to change behavior which makes it sort of a net neutral situation. Chain KD stinks tho. Confuse is incredibly rare despite it being a hole many mez protections have, so that ends up being kind of a wash too. Immobilize is rarely a factor for ATs who get mezzed tbh.
This is where the frustration comes from the most i feel. Armored ATs across the board basically never have to stop while everyone else just doesn't get to play whenever any commoj mez hits. If there were some scaling like Blastsrs can be held but they have mag 5 stun protection, or stuff in between thatd go a long way.
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What if when you attack and hit, you get a buff that reduces animation time for 5 seconds?
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PET SUMMONING SET TESTING:
Hello Everyone,
Following up with what was done in the Scrapper Primary Testing, and Blaster Primary Testing, its time to take a look at the Mastermind Primaries!
The above links above will go into more details, but the premise of these tests are to isolate MM Primaries as much as possible to gauge their "realistic" base performance in a given mission environment. This is done through running a course 5 times per primary (more on that in a sec...), and then recording the times to formulate an average
- Using a standardized Office Map, we can set a course that properly challenges the player with movement with corridors and different vertical spawn points that we see in normal missions. Pylon and Farm metrics are nice, but they do not really reflect normal game play.
- Broken up into 4 floors, this map contains custom-made enemies that appear at roughly the Red Dot locations shown above. Floors 1-3 have at least 2 guaranteed Boss encounters, and Floor 4 has a guaranteed Elite Boss encounter. Red Lines represent clickable doors with a gentleman's rule to finish the room before moving through the door, and circled areas are where some herding up can be attempted if possible. The enemies use a mix of powers with S/L damage to represent the common damage types we see.
- The Masterminds I used all have a near-identical SO build where I use /Pain only with the Regen Aura, and the AoE/ST heal to simply heal-bot the pets, slotted as such:
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- The special powers were either slotted as above with max Rech/Dam, or End cost/Heal/etc where applicable. 2 attacks per primary set were taken to simply help pull enemies and were not used much at all, and even so paled in comparison to Pet output as seen above. Leadership + the pain abilities seen above were enough to allow the pets to do their own thing.
- Running at +0/x3 allowed for a variety of mob encounters that often would be spread in such a way to equally balance AoE and ST output. The mobs also carried KB/KD and Stuns, which could put my MM out of commission on occasion as well as knock pets a bit to cause some danger.
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Unlike the other tests with Scrappers and Blasters, the MM really was not in any threat thanks to Bodyguard and barely ever got a scratch worth noting. Instead, this time I tracked Pet Deaths with the following scores:
- 0.5 for Minion deaths
- 1 for LT deaths
- 2 for Boss deaths
- The scores were added up and then multiplied by 10s for the MM safety rating to better measure how tough the pets are in a realistic setting (aside from me being a healbot)
So, with these rules in place to emulate an "average" mission that tests ST, AoE, and Mitigation of just the primaries at a basic level, lets see what happened:
Sorted by AVG:
Remember what I said about 5 runs? Well, Mercenaries is the reason for that. With an average time of about 9 and a half minutes each time, I wasn't going to go for a whole 10 with them and to be fair I went for 5 runs each with the others, making sure to get different spawn configurations each time with quick re-runs if I got similar patterns.
Beasts leads the pack with the best avg clear time, with Demons, Thugs, then Ninjas right behind. Necro and Bots were both slower thanks to a lack of AoE and ST respectively causing enough parts of the mission to slow down significantly for them. Mercs came in dead last by a HUGE margin due to well... just raw slowness. There were times where they felt great as all their powers came off cooldown and they could perform as good as any other primary... but then the fight kept going or we moved to the next fight in the room over and it just wasn't a good time.
Sorted by SAFETY:
Mercs*: Despite having a score of 1.5 vs Demon's 1, and having the worst time still with this factored in.... in my play-throughs this was the safest set. The deaths of a Spec Op and the Medic only happened in the last fight vs the EB in the last run of the 5, and outside of that unfortunate event I only saw a bit of damage come in on the commando / a soldier every so often thanks to the Spec Op's controls, Frag Grenades, and Buckshots actually coming in clutch more often than not in order to keep foes at bay fight to fight. Their bonus range also helped to initiate fights a bit more safely. There was never a need to use Serum at all here (more on that later)
Demons: The Gargoyle takes on a lot of Aggro and scored 1 death for Demons in 5 runs of the mission. However, the pets did take a ton of hits through all the runs but luckily never went down thanks to the combo of their resists, healing from the Ember Demon, and their soft controls after the initial alphas. Hell on Earth when used helped spread aggro nicely and increase group safety too.
Beasts: 2 lionesses died as well as a single wolf. Being in melee range, I was surprised by their durability with their combos of self buffs, soft / hard controls, and their innate res/def combo + Fortify pack. I blame the few deaths they had on just RNG.
Thugs: 1 Enforcer, 2 Arsonists, and 1 punk gave themselves to the cause here. The minions are a soft spot here for sure, especially the arsonist as we all know, but of interest was when the Enforcer went down it caused a bit of a panic mode as a good chunk of the whole group's defenses went out the window. With Gang War up, aggro was spread so much that survival for the group was a breeze.
Necro: Just a note here, I allowed 5 pets to die in order to spawn ghosts for each run which did make a big impact on clear times even with the weakest ghost, 4/5 were t1's with 1 Death knight contributing itself to the ghost army, the Lich never bit the dust even when I tried. Outside of the purposeful deaths, 1 Knight died along with 5 Zombies!!! It feels like they are rather squishy compared to other T1 pets which is odd given they do have a decent spread of resists (though mostly exotic), but I think their issue is a lack of CC from their attacks + melee range that put them in added danger. The ghost did help out in spreading aggro and -ToHit and vs 1 target they could pile effects on they were 100% safe. Something to note though is that summoning a ghost did leave you / pets vulnerable in a pinch as the animation takes a bit.
Robots: Fire and Knockback can keep enemies at bay, but slow animations leave them sitting ducks in between volleys. Bots saw 1 Protector Bot death and 5 Battle Drone deaths, likely in between shield applications + being stuck in their atrocious 6.33 sec Laser Full Auto animation caused unlucky hits to cascade in. Repair was essentially useless as the ST pain heal and protector bots more than made up for healing except for those "in a pinch" emergency moments where the T1's bit the dust.
Ninjas: Oh boy, yeah I knew they were squishy but dang. While the Oni never died, a score of 12.5 is atrocious with the amount of Genin and Jounin that bit the dust. They just... really lack mitigation, what else can I say?
Sorted by BEST TIME:
Not much different from the Avg here
Sorted by WORST TIME:
Sorting by the worst time, we see Ninjas actually step up a bit!
Sorted by STANDARD DEVIATION:
Ninjas had the best consistency by far mob to mob with the ability to control criticals for key encounters + decent damage overall, even with the resummoning mid-fight. On the flip side, Robots had horrible consistency thanks to knocking enemies away from burn patches constantly, as well as the Protector Bots stopping every so often to slowly re-bubble or heal a fellow bot. When they were good, they were good outside of slowing down at the boss / elite boss encounters, but they had a nearly 2 minute swing between that and their worst time due to these factors. As a point of comparison, Thugs also relied a lot on Burn Patches but they were able to constantly apply offensive pressure without needing to stop for ST support abilities, as well as have AoE knockdowns and Stuns on deck quite often to allow the patches to do their thing.
With these 5 metrics in mind, I was able to rank each primary based on the actual score per category + the gap between it and the next set, and then add up these values by weight. The lower the final score, the higher tiered the set is when looked at it alone:
FINAL RESULTS:
While I normally would have tiered these S-A-B-C-D, the gaps between each tier felt much more massive for Masterminds. Lets break this down per tier:
S TIER:
Overall, Demons is where it's at. This should really come as no surprise, but these guys have it all when it comes to ST output, solid AoE output, great survival and even crowd control / debuffs all in one. It's definitely a step above the others. Hell on Earth was used in the last room due to it's duration/recharge to help tackle the EB spawn and that power is a great boost overall as a combined actual buff to either the Prince or the Gargoyle, as well as added damage to a group. Really just checks all the boxes.
A TIER:
Beasts and Thugs are practically tied in this test to isolate the pets on a basic level. Both, like Demons, combine solid offenses and defenses but had a bit more struggle when it came to safety that knocked them out of the same tier. Their special powers were both solid with Fortify Pack being better than I expected when it came to actually fortifying the pets in a pinch, and Gang War used in the EB encounter made that fight a breeze.
B TIER:
An interesting set, Ninjas performed amazingly when they were on a roll but the terrible, terrible safety really held them back. Smoke Flash also felt a bit clumsier than I think it should be as it costs a lot of endurance, causes the pet to perform an animation where they could be rooted and taking some hits, and lasts only a short while per individual pet. I feel like if this were made an AoE for the whole group and set to a longer recharge it would make the set MUCH better for risk/reward as it could reliably outpace other primaries in terms of offensive output in exchange for safety... though, they should also be thrown a bone there too as it was *that* bad.
D TIER:
Necro and Robots have similar issues. Starting with Necro, the undead horde has problems when it comes to AoE output with narrow cones and low-damage control powers to lean on for area coverage which really slowed them down at the start of a fight. Their ST was fine especially when you had a Ghost on your side... but actually getting one was a clunky affair. Not only do you have to get a pet to die in combat, which requires you to specifically set that scenario up in a manner that doesn't start to cascade into more damage coming in / etc, but you then have to lock yourself into summoning the ghost and then re-summoning the lost pet + upgrading and its just a whole thing... This power in particular needs a revamp for usability badly on top of some AoE potency being given to the horde.
On the other hand, Robots really struggled with Single Target damage, as well as consistent AoE damage by themselves. When everything was aligned, they could melt mobs like nobody's business but that required the bots to also not knock enemies out of the burn patches which they were all too happy to do between the Minion and LT ST blasts and the Swarm Missiles. The boss fights are what really slowed them down, as with an EB only and no secondary support their unique -Regen couldn't really shine that allows them to uniquely be a big-game hunter. Repair also was not necessary at all given the /Pain heals were simply wayyyy better on the whole (as are all other heals from secondaries to be honest). Ultimately, what this test showed was that Robots have some extreme specializations that cause it to make sacrifices in the sort of "day to day" setting.
F TIER:
So, hot take but Mercs actually have a very nice skeleton, the meat on it is just rotten. When all the powers like the Rocket, the Spec Ops CCs, and cones aligned they work great! It's just that this alignment was super rare to happen with any consistency, and in between the actual animations were super slow and the damage output very lackluster with it being almost all slow DoT on top of the slow animations. Serum was straight up ignored due to how bad it is, and was never even needed for an emergency support tool as basic heals did the trick for the Commando (the only realistic target for Serum) and we all know the downsides. They really felt more like playing an MM in slow motion which was downright jarring playing all the primaries back to back and could really really use a revamp to tons of their stats to be competitive.
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These are my thoughts and observations on the primaries so far. Take it with a grain of salt though as these runs were designed to highlight just the pets with minimal support and no X factors like enemy debuffs or extra pet buffs / procs / etc. The latter of which will get it's fair shake later on as I revisit the primaries with "optimal slotting" + pet auras to see what kind of drastic differences we can achieve.
Thank you,
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Gotta give a +1 to shared missions. Its very lame that you can join a team, do a whole story arc, but not get merits because you didn't have the content and click each mission accept in the same way.
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6 minutes ago, Eldyem said:
Personally, I want more differences based on AT for certain Powersets. Think the Scrapper-Stalker divergences (Assassin's Strike, etc) but less generically applied to the AT. I'd also expand Inherents somewhat so sets aren't clogged with 20 different ways to format "Hide" or "Build Up" or whatever.
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Did anyone notice the bug with the clown car if you didnt summon the t1 pets fi.... oh crap wrong forum
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Figured this could be a fun, "pie in the sky" topic for folks to kind of toss ideas out that would probably way too drastic to actually do, but would be fun to muse about!
For me, I would revamp Endurance.
This has honestly bugged me for a while, but we see seeds of it's problems all the way back from Issue 0 until... whichever issue made Stamina inherent. Characters seem to either have major End Issues, or 0 end issues with the in-between being incredibly rare. It also seems that starting out, Endurance is the number one issue for many characters to the point of being unfun / punishing just trying to play the character especially where toggles are concerned, slowing things down or making things much more dangerous and frustrating. Once you build past that point though its like you never had issues at all and End may as well not exist.
There are many ways to take it, but personally I would be cool with a switch from Strategic Endurance (where your build/plans dictate performance) to Tactical Endurance (where your decisions in the moment dictate performance). As an example, lets say end costs were Doubled but recovery was Quintupled. You could rip through your end quickly, but the downtime between would be incredibly small. Or you could pace yourself and essentially never run out of end but play slower but steadier. That would allow for a much "smoother curve" to leveling and different kinds of builds and playstyles in my opinion.
What would you all take a swing at?
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I fully endorse needing Infamy Specifically to encourage people to play redside
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Rez powers in general need a look-see IMO. The best by far is howling twilight as it is a massive Mez / Debuff attack that also happens to AoE rez, giving it great utility. Defiblerate also has similar dynamics where it has a sleep/end drain component + rez for Elec Affin. Powers that just bring you back... while nice... are sort of left behind now where wakies are common / you can zoom back from the hosp at lvl 4.
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On 9/7/2020 at 11:31 AM, Seravajan said:
What is an IO? Is there a list of all the abbrviations used in this game somewhere?
The beasts are so incredible quishy that they get oneshotted even from heavy hitting reds. The good powers from the /nature have a such long CD that it is difficult to get them running in every fight.
I have the strange feeling that it will become better again at level 24.
IO = Invention Origin enhancement, you'll find them in the Auction House (type /ah and it'll pop up!), or under your Recipes Tab. You'll have to craft them using Salvage, but once you make them they never expire like normal enhancements that you find at stores / drop from enemies into your enhancement tray, and usually come with cool perks.
Since you're below level 24, I'd reccomend maybe trying +1/x2 or x3 at most as the added levels hurt your pets extra hard until you get special IO's or just level up some more. Remember that your wolves are 2 levels lower than you! That +4 Purple guy is +6 to them!!
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24 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:
PvP.
Whats that
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Just for some context, the MM pets inherently get whacked with the following:
Tier 1 Minion pets vs an even lvl enemy (even lvl to the MM)
- Damage = 0.8x (100 damage becomes 80 damage before any other stats)
- Hit Chance = 0.56 (compared to the normal 0.75 base)
- Damage Taken = 1.22x (100 damage sent their way becomes 122 damage before other stats)
- Chance to be hit = 0.6 (compared to 0.5 base)
Tier 2 Lieutenant pets vs an even lvl enemy (even lvl to the MM)
- Damage = 0.9x (100 damage becomes 90 damage before any other stats)
- Hit Chance = 0.65 (compared to the normal 0.75 base)
- Damage Taken = 1.11x (100 damage sent their way becomes 111 damage before other stats)
- Chance to be hit = 0.55 (compared to 0.5 base)
Tier 3 Boss pets vs an even lvl enemy (even lvl to the MM)
- Damage = 1.0x
- Hit Chance = 0.75
- Damage Taken = 1.0x
- Chance to be hit = 0.5
- Essentially, the boss = a Player in terms of scaling
Out of the gate, the non-boss MM pets not only have less HP but just straight up take more damage + are easier to hit to varying degrees even against even-lvl enemies. This makes it an up-hill battle to keep them alive in certain content just by nature of them being lower level. This also affects their offense to a degree, and it's why we see Bots as the top AoE primary thanks to the big guns being on the Boss pet and thus not being diminished by level scaling like we see on the Thugs Arsonist. Though, MM damage can be kinda silly overall so that is lesser concern. This gets way way worse as you go up in level:
Tier 3 Boss pets vs a +4 enemy ( +4 to the MM)
- Damage = 0.48x (100 damage becomes 48 damage)
- Hit Chance = 0.39
- Damage Taken = 1.44x (100 damage becomes 144 damage)
- Chance to be hit = 0.7
Tier 1 Minion pets vs a +4 enemy ( +4 to the MM)
- Damage = 0.15x (100 damage becomes 15 damage)
- Hit Chance = 0.2
- Damage Taken = 1.66x (100 damage becomes 166 damage)
- Chance to be hit = 0.825
Tier 2 Lieutenant pets vs a +4 enemy ( +4 to the MM)
- Damage = 0.3x (100 damage becomes 30 damage)
- Hit Chance = 0.3
- Damage Taken = 1.55x (100 damage becomes 155 damage)
- Chance to be hit = 0.75
They get *astronomically* worse as you increase the threat level you're facing.
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4 hours ago, ShardWarrior said:
Sure but they also trade some defensive value in favor of that. At least to me, if you want to start adding heals/absorbs and end recovery tools into SR, you may as well just roll Ninjitsu and call it a day.
That's..... debatable
That list included: Rad, Bio, Elec, and Energy Aura which are all seen as top-tier armor sets.
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3 hours ago, zenijos10 said:
At which point do traps or devices constitute technology or science? A sword, strictly speaking is technology as is a bow and arrow, as is a wheel. To a society who has never seen a wheel wheel might be consider magic. The origins are far more flexible then they might seem on first glance.
That said, I do like the idea of power sets thematically based around strategy or tactics, but I think you can make a case for nonmeta, natural explanations for all controls sets.
On the otherhand, nonmeta or non super powered is a player/story contraint and it too can fit among any origin. And it would be nice to extend powersets AND ATs to fit more stories like this. I think its important to differenciate between origin type and character flavor/ story.
I think we can safely draw the line past "simple machines" to be the tech origin, especially in the game's setting where tech usually = super tech.
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2 minutes ago, ShardWarrior said:
Save WP and Regen, End recovery can be a problem for just about every set combo. SR could use the AoE defense eariler on, not a absorb in my opinion.
WP, Regen, Rad, Bio, Ice, Fire, Elec, Energy Aura, and Ninjitsu all have some form of End mitigation tools.
Dark, Invuln, Shield, SR, and Stone are the only armors that lack End tools. From that perspective, they are actually kind of outliers.
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2 hours ago, zenijos10 said:
I see a lot of people asking for or explaining that a given powerset (existing or invented here) is for a given origin or only certain origins make sense.
*snip*While I 100% agree, most every group of sets has at least one "a normal guy could use this" style power be it guns, traps, melee weapons, or good old punches, except for the control sets. They're all essentially super-human past a certain point, and having one that is Trap/Tech based can add a lot for concepts too.
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Nah, make it even longer. I want to see my enemies cower as I look at both fists before they kasplode
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9 hours ago, ShardWarrior said:
I think that is mostly an issue with Power Siphon and how it works. Beyond that, I would not call the set lackluster.
Its sort of both. You have some incredibly fast attacks, and incredibly slow ones, but they all give you the same amount of Power Siphon when used + you lose Siphon during the animation of the "big hitters". Even something as simple as like, Burst gives you up to 3 stacks on use would be helpful.
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I quite like @Nymaen's idea for a dedicated "this power marks the target" attack per set. I'd vote for making it lvl 6 and either the T3 attack / CC attack they all get. Have the mark be essentially the exact same as now, but on a power you can somewhat reliably use to keep marking a target with outside of triggering Opportunity.
I feel like a lot of focus is put onto the opportunity modes (rightfully so), but the more flashy part is the ability to mark a target. I don't think it'd be that unbalanced to keep it on 1 target at a time (new application deletes old one, doesn't stack nor spread among multiple targets at once). Being able to reliably pick out one dude and say "everyone, beat this guy's ass!" would be super fun, instead of it being an every so often thing.
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14 minutes ago, Sakura Tenshi said:
- Shieldless Shield Defense (maybe call it 'Warrior's Defense'?)
Basically exactly what it says: a shieldless version of shield defense to get the nice mechanical benefits... Namely shield charge and grant cover, and let it be coupled with powers which normally can't use shields like Katana, titan weapons, claws, or maybe because you don't want the weird frankenstein armslam it does to several overhead attacks like air superiority, default haymaker, and havoc punch. Also this would open "Shield Defense" as an option for Sentinels!
Just wanna point this one out as something that would be amazing to implement asap. Like, have this as an option for sure but also make it default to "no shield 4 u" when paired with a set that doesn't work.
Also the specialist ranged weapons (except power armor) would be amazing ways to buff individual parts of the criminally underperforming assault rifle.
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1 hour ago, Eldyem said:
I actually assumed a Mutant Origin, like Frostfire.
The inherent issue with letting us choose the element of all 3 pet tiers is that it gives a level of versatility (and complexity!) that other Masterminds just don't get and it is very vulnerable to getting out of hand. I like the idea of being able to pick and choose what I want, but I'm apprehensive of what the costs could end up being for that versatility - see how Dual Pistols rarely switches ammo types. I also wanted to keep things as close to reusing existing assets as possible because that's just easier.@Keovar, gotta agree with this for getting too complex. What about mirroring Demons and each pet within a tier is a different element?
Page 6 predictions!
in General Discussion
Posted
Instant healing and rage have been swapped and made toggles