Mystic_Cross

Question: Are Stalker versions of these powers supposed to be able to take taunt enhancements/sets now too? Because they do.

So far I've run through this arc on a level 50 Tank and a level 30 Tank via Ouro, a level 28 Blaster via contact, a level 50 Blaster via Ouro and a level 50 Controller via Ouro and it's played refreshingly different on each of them. The level 50 Tank laughed the whole way through. The level 30 Tank had a tougher go and had to stop to rest several times, partially due to the number of enemies and partially due to changes with Energy Melee. Overall it was not much more difficult for the level 30 Tank. My level 28 Blaster had a bit of a rough time and several deaths, a handful of which were delivered by the psi-clone ambushes, and then there were a few I could've avoided... like standing in a fire patch and not moving when my 5yo distracted me. For the level 50 Blaster things went a lot smoother, having a few set bonuses and better slotted powers really made a noticeable difference. The way the missions played between the two felt unique to each character, even though they both had the same powersets. The level 50 Controller was the most interesting playthrough for me. I was able to lock down most of the mobs, even the "zoombies" and the entire host of missions felt much easier overall. I got into a real life or death battle though, when the psi-clone ambushes came. Had to make use of all my controls several times to get through that. I was really in doubt as to whether I was going to survive or make a hospital trip, but it all turned out swimmingly in the end. More than that, it made me feel like having a Controller/Dominator along on a team for this would be beneficial, without being necessary. A level appropriate Controller would likely have a tougher time solo without their pet(s) available, so it's a good thing that they'd be handy on a team running this.

BUG: The contact store still is not working when starting the arc from Ouroboros. 1. Start arc in Ouroboros 2. Teleport to contact via large Ouro crystal 3. talk to contact and ask about the store 4. Try selling something from your inventory, it doesn't work. The store seems to work properly when starting the arc within the appropriate level range by speaking with the contact.

B-but what about the epic-ness of floating ground smash...

Would that be a fix for the missing waypoint? Did you figure out what was causing it?

Go to the location on the map and talk to the Hazmat Commander to complete that mission. I guess that one didn't get fixed this time around.

I would love a nice ground punch animation like the one from Rad, Atom Smasher is it? Would that be possible to add as an alternate animation, I wonder? Also yes, I believe Power Crash is currently using the original Stun animation.

I’ll be keeping Barrage as my T1 on Tankers, please and thanks.

I wasn't really suggesting a 10s timer, just throwing a number out there that sounded reasonable. You make it sound not so reasonable 😄 Using a short EC buff window would probably be just as bad then. Eh, it was worth a shot.

So far I'm liking this power. It auto-granted to me when I logged in and seems to be working fine. One problem I have with it is that when you "cancel" out of the teleport list without using one, the power goes on cooldown... and the cooldown is pretty long. Looks like I still need to collect RWZ and DA for a complete list. It would be nice if you applied the fixes above to the Long Range Teleporter 😄 These look interesting and it will be nice to get Ouro use from level 1.

Has any consideration been given about making EF a timed buff instead of “build n burn”? Like, put it on a 10s timer and any attacks within that window would benefit from it. I think that would alleviate the feeling of a “forced” attack chain as well as any clashes of interest between BS, PC and fET.

@Troo I could live with the bonus in BS being moved to something else. What else? I don't know. I'd love to see an AoE stun in the set, so just rolling it into PC comes to mind. I'd suggest Whirling Hands first since it's also available earlier for tanks, I don't think that would happen, but who knows? As for stunning one target, for myself, I find it useful and even entertaining to use whether I'm in imminent danger or not. Completely necessary? probably not. Having it still enables options for alternate playstyles while removing it completely would serve to limit those options. Personally I'm a fan of the -special effect though, especially on control heavy or harder to deal with mobs like awakened PPD. Gravitic Radial also has a -special debuff and it synergizes well with BS right now, IMO.

After several hours playing around on a tank at level 30 I’m not so sure that anything should be removed from BS, but maybe that something should be added elsewhere. Allow EF to have two stacks on tanks/Brutes. Make Build Up grant an EF stack and give TF an end discount if used while EF is active. At lower levels you could burn EF with BS or TF and the end discount would go a long way here. At higher levels you could make better use of BS or PC once in a while and still benefit from fET.

Yea TF does still give the EF stack even when it misses. Also if you miss with your EF powered attack, it doesn't burn the stack. You have to spend it on another power or wait for the one that missed to come back up. It would make sense if at least the timer was refreshed when using another TF within the time window, but it looks like it's flagged unstackable in every sense. At level 30 play I've been occasionally ending the last guy in a mob with a TF then running to the next mob to drop an EF powered BS on the first guy I see just so I can burn the stack and restart with TF again.

Tanks and Brutes can't get a 2nd EF stack. Doing TF>wait>TF doesn't work, it doesn't even refresh the timer. I just attempted it on my tank.

The same thing happened to me. Thought I could leave then come back and re-read the intro, but when I talked to him again he acted like we'd gone through the dialog already and just handed me a mission and that was that.

and apparently there are choices in this arc that can affect what missions you get, because my blaster finished the arc without getting the same "get antiviral from CDC" mission. He did however get a mission for Pathogen's warehouse, so I remembered the location and brought my tank to that spot. There was still no marker, but talking to the PPD Hazmat Commander outside Pathogen's warehouse completed the mission, and subsequently the arc since this was the final mission for my tank. Below is a screenshot with map location in south IP for the Hazmat Commander:

I tried re-entering IP on the South tram but still got no waypoint marker for the CDC vaccination mission. I'm currently bringing a blaster through the arc at level 28, but am auto-completing some of the missions to get to that point faster and see if it happens again. I did run into a small situation on one of the missions where I couldn't get to the door, my blaster just has superspeed, and none of the p2w temp powers (like jump pack). When I got to the mission "Investigate the Rusty Rivet bar" the door seems to always spawn on the roof as a designated point... I like it, it's a mission door I've never seen used before so it was memorable, but my SS only blaster had to figure out that I could jump onto a streetlamp, and then onto a higher ledge, and then finally onto the roof to access the mission door. It was a bit frustrating for a few minutes, trying to decide if I should run all the way back to Atlas or something to get a temp power. Below is a pic of the areas I had to jump on to reach the roof.

Wanted to chime back in on Bone Smasher again, but this time relative to sub-level 35 play on a Tanker. Seeing as TF>BS is the only “combo” available for tanks until level 35 I’ve been using it often at level 30 while running through the new freaklok arc and it’s very handy at that level. I usually get to stun one guy with TF and then switch targets and stun another guy with BS, or they can be stacked together on a boss for a guaranteed stun. It pretty much plays the same as before the changes with stun, except now we actually have the ability to reliably stun bosses with a 1-2 punch while dealing more damage. So while it may feel like a bit of a penalty at later levels when you have a choice between using BS or fET, before that point it is still very helpful. At lower levels this is giving us better control and more damage than current on live. I say better because a lot of people currently skip stun due to it’s lack of damage, but they’ll be getting its functionality without even needing to change their build now.

Hmm, well I entered IP from the north tram so perhaps that caused it to not trigger the waypoint for some reason? I’ll try going through the south tram when I get home and see if anything different happens.

Ok, I'm stuck on Agent Watkins "get your vaccine from the CDC" It says I go to Independence Port, but there is no marker for a place to go when I get there. I even checked the tram just to make sure it wasn't listed there. Has anyone done this one yet?

Emphasis mine. Have to say I agree with this. I've gotten into spots where I'd use Bar>TF instead of BS>TF and then be stuck with either burning my charge on BS or waiting a few seconds until ET is recharged. I usually choose to wait, because it feels that much more important to get that 'fast' ET. About the only time I'd actually consider burning a charge on BS would be fighting an AV/GM/Pylon... and even then I'd probably still question whether it wouldn't just be better to wait a few more seconds for 'fast' ET instead. Frankly, I don't enjoy those short moments of "WTF do I do?! Wait or..." it prevents immersion for me.

Or after ET.

Did your Brute take and use Death Shroud? If so, try the same thing on a Tank and grab Cloak of Fear too for another 0.52/s endcost toggle. Even with End slotting and not using sprint you'll be draining nearly 1.6 end/s just from your toggles and only have a 2.08 recovery. Brutes can also ramp up damage with Fury which makes you need to use less attacks overall in order to defeat the same enemy. Running an Invuln/EM tank with Assault and Tough (so 5 toggles total) at level 30 with a basic level 25 endurance IO in every toggle and every attack, with a Performance Shifter +end proc in Stamina and a Miracle unique in health and I burn 40-60% of my endurance bar fighting a yellow LT and two white minions. I can get through 3-4 groups on average and then need to stop and use rest unless I just carry a full tray of blues and convert all insps into them. I agree it's manageable, but it still feels like slightly worse performance than I'm getting from the same tank on live. The only difference between the two builds is that on live I have Weave instead of TF. On live I don't have to stop and use rest, ever. I can just manage by converting and eating blues. The addition of TF at level 20 has pushed me into "slower than on live" territory due to needing to stop and rest several times during a mission.

Bolded part by me. Tanks have an 18 level wait between getting TF and getting ET, and a 15 level wait for Power Crash... so it's not that quickly for us. That said, I really do think there should be at least one other way to generate focus at the very least. Build Up is a good candidate IMO