EnjoyTheJourney

Recently put together a blaster build using the energy manipulation secondary. Mids showed that without power boost active acrobatics provides -2 hold protection. When power boost was activated hold protection in acrobatics went up to -3.57 in Mids. Is this a display error, or does power boost actually increase hold protection in acrobatics? Thank you in advance for any insights offered.

Thank you for your reply. I've run a couple of 4* ITFs and they were a lot of fun. They were both successful runs with few deaths. But, the teams' success definitely wasn't because of me or my characters. Rather, those teams were led by people who knew what they were doing and they gave good advice which I followed as best I could. My sense before posting was that the character builds I listed above might be more or less "swimming against the tide" when it comes to getting recruited to 4* runs. Implicitly what you're confirming is that none of the characters listed, except perhaps the bubbler, are likely to be highly valued on 4* runs. Which is fine. I simply won't ask to join 4* runs as all the preferred character types happen to be the kind I don't enjoy playing. Plus, taking up team leaders' time with requests to join with characters they're not that interested in having on the team seems a bit inappropriate. All good in the end. I'll just run other content instead. There are plenty of other fun options available beyond 4* runs.

After more than a year away, my knowledge about 4* content is not particularly deep and my experiences have been very limited. Also, criteria for recruiting / building 4* capable teams is still somewhat of a mystery for me. Thus, picking characters to offer to bring along is a bit of a barrier for me when thinking about asking to join 4* teams. Trying to match characters I enjoy playing with the characters / builds 4* team leaders may (or may not?) want on their team, a handful of character builds have come to mind, as outlined below ... electric / SR / mu sentinel Debuffs include vulnerability and endurance drain. Barrier T4 and ageless radial T4 destiny available. Obviously not a fire blaster with a 16 target cap for AOEs. But, nuke is up every 23 seconds without external speed buffs and has high DPA, quick recharging AOEs beyond the nuke, with single target damage of about 300 DPS based on pylon testing done that follows the usual pylon testing rules. Quite durable. earth control / ice assault / fire mastery dominator Debuffs include strong -defense, strong -movement speed, noticeable -recharge, and melt armor with a 20% -res proc. Minor -to hit debuff from earthquake. Quicksand isn't needed or used every spawn. But, when helpful it provides an autohit -def debuff and movement debuff that is made stronger by a slotted D-Synch deceleration IO and by intuition radial alpha. With domination active, without power up active, and without external speed buffs stalagmites is about 2 seconds shy of being perma against +3 mobs. Very strong on AOE controls overall. A high mag single target hold is useful against hostless nictus. Has single target damage of close to 300 DPS based on pylon testing done that follows the usual pylon testing rules. AOE is probably not as high as many other 4* characters. But, it is still noticeable with one AOE damage toggle and two other AOEs. Has T3 barrier destiny currently (T4 soon) and good defenses overall. illusion control / poison / psi mastery controller Regen debuffs are not the strength of poison, but key helpful debuffs are otherwise very strong. Spectral terror allows for control and substantial -to hit against ranged mobs. Phants are 0.6 seconds from perma without external speed buffs, they taunt and damage enemies, they're nigh unkillable, and they apparently distract hostless nictus aspects from targeting player characters (or so I've heard). Single target damage is about 360 based on pylon testing done that follows usual pylon testing rules. AOE is not high overall, even though without external speed buffs a proc'd up poison trap does about 330ish damage about every 18 seconds or thereabouts. Two other build concepts that I don't yet have fully developed in-game characters for at the moment are a seismic blast / force fields / power mastery corruptor and a poison / fire blast / mu mastery defender. Not sure how welcome they might be on a 4* team. Thank you in advance for insights offered.

Given the look, perhaps other reasonable candidates could include the ice primary or DP primary matched with /dark, /ice, or /ninja secondaries.

If it's possible to do this on the beta server then that would be quite helpful. Thank you either way, though. I've never bothered with base buffs, but it may be something to consider for the future. Knockback has been muddying up results from pylon test results on the beta server for quite a few character builds in the recent past. I know that pylon defeats are showing a lower level of single target damage than would happen in actual gameplay. But, it's not easy to figure out how much of an impact it's having on pylon test results, so making knocks completely go away would help quite a bit.

I went back and checked on my character's beta build and found a glaring problem that created confusion on my part. I had several open IO slots from a respec, with one of those slots intended for blessing of the zephyr: knockback protection. I had been testing the character that way while believing those slots had been filled (not totally sure how I lost track of filling the slots with IOs, but it probably had to do with a 10 year old needing attention on a priority basis). Naturally, with many empty slots and only 8 knockback protection from IOs knockback was still occurring. Once the empty slots were all filled the "base" knock protection was set to -12 magnitude from IOs and T4 clarion destiny brought knockback mag reduction to an even higher level. There was no knockback or knockdown after the missing IOs were put into their respective slots and T4 clarion was put on "auto-activate." Returning to the dialogue about weaken, Frosticus seems to have been right all along; if knockback protection of -11 magnitude doesn't work with weaken being used then weaken probably doesn't reduce pylon knock magnitude in any way. A bit of math, assuming AV-level 85% resistance to debuffs and no purple patch effects because it seems that level-shifted characters shouldn't be lower level than a rikti pylon ... "base" pylon knockback mag * ( 1 - ( weaken debuff * proportion of debuff applied after reduction from AV-level resistances of 85% ) ) = pylon knockback mag if affected by weaken 12 * ( 1 - (0.74 * 0.15) ) = 10.67 So, even if weaken is severely reduced in its effect by AV-level resistances to debuffs it seems that -11 to knockback magnitude would prevent knockback and knockdown. Did I completely or partially muck up the math on this?

If pylons con even to characters then purple patch effects shouldn't matter because there are no adjustments to any numbers subject to the purple patch when enemies con at even level. Then -12 knock magnitude should be enough to avoid any knocks whatsoever. And yet, Frosticus has found that -14 is what is needed. I'm confused. What am I missing?

Wow, are we ever deep in the weeds about mechanics. I'll put a couple of thoughts below and see if they check out ... Rikti pylons can do 12 knockback (40% chance). If the magnitude is increased by the purple patch then they have 1.11 * 12 = 13.2 knockback magnitude against -1 enemies. If -14 to knockback magnitude were subject to the purple patch then 0.9 * 14 = 12.6, which should lead to knockdown every time a character gets hit if a rikti pylon cons at +1 or higher to our characters. But, that's not what's happening in the video Frosticus provided. Am I getting the rikti pylon level relative to characters wrong? Are they considered even level for calculations, despite conning yellow?

After making my last post the thought occurred that perhaps weaken really does nothing and knockback protection does not get reduced by the purple patch. That could fully explain what I'm seeing. The purple patch affects debuffs that characters place on mobs. But, debuffs are delivered either by hitting mobs in order to apply the debuff or by an auto-hit power (usually an aura with a fixed area of effect, such as venomous gas). Knockback reduction (in percentage terms or in points reduced) doesn't seem to function as either an auto-hit aura with a fixed radius or as an "on hit" effect. So, perhaps the purple patch doesn't apply to knockback reduction.

Maybe a gravity / electric / psi dominator? Although, for a lightsaber, perhaps a re-colored ice assault would work better than electric assault.

Luminara - Knockback magnitude reduction always seemed to be a number that functioned much like character resistances and defense totals and which wouldn't be subject to purple patch effects. But, thinking of it as a "debuff aimed at enemy actions, and therefore subject to the purple patch" makes good sense, on reflection. And, it makes what's been happening in-game easier to understand. Thank you. Frosticus - Thank you for clearly outlining the dividing line between "get knocked back" and "never get knocked back." It could have taken a fair amount of time spent testing to find that out otherwise. For me pylon testing on the beta server functions as one way of gauging whether builds are likely to be fun to play or not before spending a lot of influence and many hours on them. Doing that has greatly cut down on the number of characters that turned out to be unenjoyable to play after they were leveled to 50 and fully kitted out. It seems unnecessary to have 14 knockback reduction for general in-game adventuring. So, I'll just apply some kind of rough, estimated mark-up to estimated DPS to try to account for the time lost to knockback when gauging whether a character is ready to be played or not, instead of designing all characters with 14+ knockback reduction in mind. It's been over a year since I spent significant time doing pylon tests. It would seem that I forgot about all those knocks from that earlier time period.

If weaken doesn't work as per its power explanation then it all makes sense. Thank you. I'll look at squeezing 2 extra slots into knockback protection. It will also boost resists offered by rune of protection, so knocks should be no longer happening from the pylon after that. Thank you for a road map forward. Edit: In the end I took one slot out of enflame, proc'd enflame up for better damage, lost 6.25% recharge by doing that, and put a blessing of the zephyr: knockback protection IO into mystic flight. I'll test it later today. After testing even at 12 magnitude knockback protection from IOs and clarion core T4 going once in a while there's still knockback. That's a bit surprising. That said, knockback frequency went down by a lot, which made the pylon fight more enjoyable. 👍for the advice, thank you again.

A search didn't turn up information, hence this inquiry. It seems like lately rikti war zone pylon knockback has been a noticeable factor affecting pylon times. I don't recall having it be so noticeable in the past when I did a fair number of pylon tests. Has there been a change to pylon knockback in the last year, while I was taking a break from the game? Or, is my memory just in need of a reboot? Also, is the knockback magnitude calculated "per missile", with the magnitude stacking for every missile that hits? Here is the City of Data link for rikti pylon ... https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=rikti.war_zone_pylon.swarm_missile&at=boss_archvillain A sample of things done very recently to better manage knockback for a recent set of pylon tests for a poison / fire / mu defender ... - 8 knockback magnitude reduction from slotting karma: knockback protection and steadfast: knockback protection - keep casting weaken on the pylon, which is supposed to noticeably reduce knockback magnitude - having rune of protection engaged when it can be, which is supposed to subtract 10 points from knockback magnitude, alternate with melee hybrid core - having T4 clarion engaged and set to automatically re-activate Doing a bit of math based on the foregoing, there's a steady 11.5 knockback magnitude reduction (IOs = -8 magnitude and clarity >= -3.5 magnitude). There's a 95% chance of a knockback magnitude reduction from weaken at any given point in time (not sure how much of a reduction, but it should be impactful), based on the "to hit" chance of >95% for weaken against +3 foes. Knockback magnitude reduction peaks in the 30s when clarion is in a "high buffs" part of its cycle and rune of protection is engaged. Knockback from pylons looks like it shouldn't be happening unless knock magnitude is stacking "per missile" when hit. Sometimes this seemed to work because even when hit my poisoner wouldn't get knocked back. But, often it did not work, especially when clarion was in the "low buffs" part of its duration. Any clarity offered would be most helpful and appreciated.

Mechanically it's a bit of a challenging combination, or at least it felt that way when trying to put a build together. Attached is a Mids file for a build I put together. It's thematic in the choice of mastery (psi assault, psi mastery). One mechanical benefit for psi mastery would be better defenses from mind link, which with rotations of force of will / barrier core destiny / melee core hybrid should keep defense totals against melee and ranged attacks in a pretty good place. Hopefully the sample build helps. Dominator (Plant Control - Psi Assault- Fire Mastery).mbd

Thank you for the insights. It seems clear that at least sometimes I was indeed trying to target them before they could be. I'll watch more closely next time to learn more before giving up on the current targeting macro. I have an illusion / poison controller whose ears perked up upon hearing that phants may distract hostless and get them to waste their grab on them.

I find combat jumping very useful because I tend to find running mystic flight all the time hard on my characters' end bars. But, it's difficult to say for certain whether or not you'd get much use out of combat jumping. If end is consistently in a good place (which for /dark in particular may be true), you're really good with the translocation bind, and you're comfortable with dropping down temporarily to drop poison trap then perhaps combat jumping will only serve as a mule for a unique IO and a bit of extra defense at a very low endurance cost. But, perhaps with the last power pick a slot for a helpful IO and a bit of extra defense at a very low endurance cost wouldn't be a bad choice. Or it would be a bad choice. Not sure. Mycella seems like a great pick / find for a character name. Hopefully your controller ends up being a lot of fun to play.

My dom ran a 4* ITF this evening and I tried using a macro to target hostless nictus aspects, with some success and with some failed efforts at targeting them even when they were in plain view. Not sure why a macro would work sometimes to target a specific named creature type, but not at other times. Are "Hostless ..." considered different creatures once they are trying to take somebody over, requiring the use of a different targeting macro? The macro used was as follows: /macro Target target_name "Hostless Nictus Aspect" It is perhaps worth mentioning that when this same macro is used with targets such as Sally, Echoai, Jack in Irons, Atomic Bomb, Kidnapped Salamancans, Walter Daschle, etc, it seems to be totally reliable. Any insight provided would be most helpful and appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Ah, I probably overdid the advice then. You seemed to dislike illusion, and so I mistakenly ended up concluding that you didn't have much experience with the set. My bad on that.

It might help to think of spectral terror as being much like bonfire or earthquake. It controls an area, reducing mob attacks and movement within it. It can also act like a kind of gate, minimizing mob movement into an area, as well as out of it. So, think about a part of the battlefield where you'd like mobs to not do very much, drop it there, and then you can focus your attention mostly elsewhere. With experience you tend to get better at using spectral terror proactively to slow down incoming ambushes, create chokepoints where mobs can be gathered up for AOEs, and so on. If your positioning is off or the battlefield changes, then you can reposition it with about 2 seconds of casting time. Getting the most you can out of spectral terror can be a kind of mini-game carried out within the larger game of playing a controller.

Your results are interesting, particularly vis a vis symphony, which I know almost nothing about. When it comes to illusion, the use of spectral terror can make quite a difference to both safety and clear speed. If you six-slot it with the Cloud Senses set then it provides a noticeable amount of ranged defense and some recharge. Plus, it becomes another layer of minus to hit that complements the dark secondary. Spectral terror is very helpful when dropped near groups of ranged attackers, which the controller dark secondary can sometimes struggle to manage. Ambush spawns, over-aggro, etc, can often be managed more or less entirely just by dropping spectral terror nearby. You'll notice it locks down bosses because it repeatedly casts fear and its fear magnitude stacks on mobs with each casting. Even if mobs are immune to fear the minus to hit is quite noticeable and will help to protect your controller and your party. With dark being a fairly busy secondary it's helpful that you can drop spectral terror and let it do its thing for usually the entirety of the rest of the fight without spending any more casting time on it. Finally, the damage from the cloud senses damage proc will finish off mobs with a sliver of life left while your phants and you are focused on other things. Here is a link to the COD entry for controller spectral terror, in case you'd like to learn more about it ... https://cod.uberguy.net/html/entity.html?entity=pets_terror Spectral terror and phants together improve safety for illusion controllers and their teammates by quite a lot. They complement dark very well for improving safety for your controller and your teammates. Regarding the "AOE vs single target" focus for any given set, on teams AOE is not that often an issue. Enemies will tend to melt whether you play illusion or fire when playing on a team. But, having phants available when the tank goes down against a tough AV and being able to more quickly defeat GMs / AVs (or to solo them if you'd like) makes a team noticeably stronger. Clearly, I'm biased. Those who really like other primaries will also have their own reasons for their preferences.

I totally forgot that. doh! Pairing with melee hybrid core sounds like a good idea. Then you can rotate them and with some care about timing melee core hybrid should routinely be activated when it's time to re-activate indomitable will.

Another straightforward one that you almost certainly know about is indomitable will in psi mastery. With perma-hasten it can be about a couple or a few seconds from being permanently activated. It's available as of level 35, as well, which provides some help with mezzes while exemp-ing down to Manticore TFs and higher. It doesn't offer knockback protection, though. So, taking indomitable will can cost two or three more slots to take than it might at first appear if it's your primary source of mez protection.

It looks like you're homing in on symphony / dark, which seems to be a strong pairing. Hopefully that goes well for you. To briefly answer your questions, there are four main powers from the sorcery pool that can be quite useful for a controller. They are rune of protection, mystic flight, arcane bolt, and spirit ward. They're all quite good at what they're intended to do when in the hands of a controller. Rune can be particularly appealing because it gives you part-time access to mez protection that can serve as a break free inspiration replacement, as well as a resistance boost. It's available as early as level 20 and it's very nice to have on hand when exemp'd down for TFs and such. I don't like knockback, in general, so your reservations about phant knockback make particular sense to me. But, phant knockback becomes noticeably less noticeable as you move deeper into your controller's journey. First, when fighting higher level mobs knockback magnitude seems to be subject to purple patch reductions, or at least it seems that way. Second, as your build fills out (and especially with poison -res debuffs stacked up) phants defeat mobs at a healthy pace, so those things you occasionally notice falling over as they move back a small distance are quite often not getting up again. Third, poison is a busy secondary and you'll seldom lack for things to do. With bodies not flying hither and thither I find that I seldom notice phant knockdown / knockback once powers are slotted up. FWIW, and others may quite reasonably feel differently about phant knockback.

One strong pairing could be illusion / poison / psi, with the sorcery pool, and ultimately with agility core, melee core hybrid, and barrier core. Spectral terror slotted for -to hit and venomous gas help to make up for any shortfalls in defenses. Get perma-hasten for phants and indomitable will. That combo should be able to get around 400 DPS on pylons (or more) and has a mini-nuke in a proc'd up poison trap. Snag psy shockwave from the mastery for more AOE and a bit more mez (plus for the force feedback +recharge proc, very handy for this kind of build). Stealthing missions is easy with illusion. You mentioned illusion as being "chaotic", which it can be. But, a simple way to reduce the chaos is to just not take phantasm. Your ability to do damage doesn't suffer much in his absence anyways, given all the tools available for this build. Without phantasm the build plays quite differently, with spectral terror, flash, and blind typically locking mobs down instead of causing them to scatter.

After some testing with trapdoor runs and with teams, the AOEs were tweaked to improve their damage. The ideas given earlier and Mythical Creature's sample build were very helpful for making adjustments. It's true that accuracy is a bit low for +4s. But, most battles take place at +3 or less, so accuracy has been set to match that. With a year layoff before recently returning perhaps that way of slotting accuracy needs to be re-visited. Is slotting for +3 mobs now a not-so-good way of slotting accuracy? Regarding how the build was tested, nobody would ever confuse me with somebody who is actually good at running Trapdoor. I miss jumps sometimes five or six times in a row, get hung up in the geometry, and make all manner of other errors. But, this particular sentinel now does an easy and relaxed 8 minute trapdoor run, using all defensive measures along the way (absorb consistently up, wait a few seconds until the next spawn if it allows key powers to recharge first for a good alpha, destiny used when up, etc). Single target rotation execution has been adjusted to include AOEs ahead of charged bolts and is now about 280 DPS without working that hard on optimizing damage done. In teams this sentinel is quite efficient at clearing spawns because the AOEs are up so often and they have pretty good DPA. Their frequency of use and quick animations (well, other than the nuke) helps to make up for their ten target cap. This character is intended to be able to serve as the "tip of the spear" for most groups, capable of taking most alphas and being the center of attention for most AVs and GMs while teaming. With that in mind, the attention paid to increasing most resistances not only reduces the risk of one shots, but also causes resistances to hit their ceiling noticeably sooner than they otherwise might as damage is taken (basically, trying to leverage passive resistance increases from SR and make them stronger). Unleash potential from Force of Will also helps when serving as a team's "tip of the spear" because sometimes your character will get defenses debuffed or take big hits when (s)he is taking alpha or getting a lot of love from an AV or GM. Unleash potential is also a way of at least partially neutralizing mobs that bypass defenses via large +to hit bonuses or special abilities. Unleash potential isn't used that often. But, when it is used it tends to be quite impactful. Edit: New build attached Wizard of LIghtning - Sentinel (Electrical Blast - Super Reflexes - Electrical Mastery),v2.mbd