Ultimo

Right now, the Brute is L16. I've slotted him with SOs, and usually focus on defenses first, so each armour has 3 slots assigned, one endurance redux, two resistance. I do the same on the Tanker. I usually try to build for survivability, I figure I can only do damage if I'm alive to do it. Actually, he just leveled, so here it is now.

Yes, that's the same on my Brute. It's in the general options for the set as a whole, but not the individual powers. However, setting it to no pulse at the top like that does NOT set the power itself to no pulse. It sets it to Color Tintable.

So, I created a new character the other day using power sets I've never used before. I find myself a bit torn about what to DO with him. The original character he's based on is one I made in the comics I used to make when I was a kid. Basically, he's an alien warrior, phenomenally strong and tough. wielding a powerful energy blade. In the comic, he was one of the most formidable villains we created. I wanted the same for the character here. So, I made him a Brute, Titan Weapon/Dark Armour. At first, I was very impressed. With Titan Weapon, he was a juggernaut, slaughtering foes with ease. However, as his level went up, I found he seemed more and more squishy, until I found I simply had no choice but to reduce the difficulty to -1. Even at that he's getting slaughtered constantly. Every fight, even against as few as 3 minions, he is forced to slug down a dozen inspirations to survive. It made me wonder what was wrong with Dark Armour. Is it just not any good? I had heard otherwise, but this experience was... disappointing. So, I remade him as a Tanker, Dark Armour/Titan Weapon. He's certainly tougher, but his damage output is laughable. As before, by the time he defeated even three minions, he was on death's door. Not so much because his defenses weren't good enough, but because his damage output was so weak he was taking more damage than he was as a Brute. So, I'm torn. I'm inclined to keep on as a Brute, he really ought to be doing terrific damage. That was one of his signature attributes in the comics. However, he's also supposed to be very durable, and he's just not. Is it the Dark Armour? Does it eventually provide some decent protection, or do I need to start finding ways to supplement it? I've been tinkering on Mids, and it's hard to fit everything he needs into the build in a timely manner. So... any thoughts? Suggestions? Is Dark Armour worth working with, or is it generally weak? Is there a better choice? I really wanted to try something a bit different, most of my sturdy characters are using Invulnerability or Willpower, and I can't deal with power sets with egregious effects, like Bio or Stone Armour. I was willing to give Dark Armour a try for this guy, because it IS kind of in character, with a bit of rationalization (I rationalized that the people of his world, which has 5 suns, needed to adapt to control light and shadow). The issue is the survivablity. Titan Weapon is taking some getting used to, but I'm kind of enjoying it. It requires a bit more attention to what you're doing, you can't just mash buttons as soon as they appear. It might make be better at other ATs once I get used to it. Any thoughts are welcome. I'm really just kind of looking for feedback.

He's a Brute, Titan Weapon/Dark Armour. Never tried either set before, thought I'd give it a go. You're correct, I meant Dark Embrace.

Strange then... you do see the pulsing in the video. Perhaps it's something client-side I don't know about...?

Dark Armour, set to No Pulse. There are very slight dark tendrils around him, and no pulsing. Dark Armour, set to Minimal FX, the tendrils go away, but now he pulses darkness (his whole body becomes black for a moment, every couple of seconds). Murky Cloud set to Minimal FX, he pulses as above. There IS no setting for No Fade/Pulse. Murky Cloud set to Tintable, there are sparkles and tendrils, and he pulses as above. Obsidian Shield, set to Minimal FX, he pulses darkness, as above. I'll make a video and edit it in. Here's a video. In this clip, the Dark Armour is set to No Fade/Pulse, Murky Cloud and Obsidian Shield are set to Minimal FX.

Ok, I went back in and looked again. Turns out there are two powers doing the pulsing. Murky Cloud does it and Obsidian Shield also does it, but only on Minimal FX. There IS a no pulse setting for Obsidian Shield, but then there's a bunch of effects surrounding the character's head. Seems I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. This is why I suggested Minimal FX should include the No Fade/Pulse state.

Except it does. The character periodically turns dark when it's turned on, I assumed that was the Fade/Pulse the setting was referring to... I'll check it again, perhaps it's not what I thought it was.

It would also be easier if you read what was said before, but let me repeat myself. The "Momentum" text appears in the top right corner of the screen, somewhere players aren't going to be looking very often, and only remains briefly. This makes it easy to miss. Most of the time, players are going to be looking at the enemy or at their UI bar. If an indicator on the UI bar is so difficult, then perhaps an animation effect can be added, something similar to Domination, where the character gains a glow or other effect. The idea here is to put the indicator, whatever form it takes, somewhere players are usually looking, so it won't be so easily missed.

I'm aware of all that. The issue is that I can get rid of the pulsing on all the powers that have it, EXCEPT Murky Cloud, which results in the character pulsing dark all the time. There's no point in having a no fade/pulse option on ANY of them if one of them is still going to do it.

I'm fine with no fade meaning there is still some residual effect. The problem is that I can set the other powers to no fade/pulse, but there's still this ONE power I can't do it with, so I'm stuck with a fading/pulsing character regardless of my settings in the other powers... and Minimal FX doesn't solve it either.

Ah, I misunderstood. The thing is, powers that REQUIRE Momentum can't be used at all without it, so they're already greyed out and can't be used. Thus, you already know when not to use them, because you CAN'T use them. The thing with the other powers is that without Momentum they take a LONG time to fire, and there's no way to cancel (that I know of), so I could end up getting myself killed while sloooooooowly building up that Titan Sweep, having activated it, not knowing Momentum had expired.

I wasn't aware of this, though I have seen some extremely strong War Wolves pop out of bad guys.

Playing a Dark Armour character for the first time, I've noticed something peculiar... probably an oversight. I've set the powers on the character to be as minimally invasive as possible. That means Minimal FX where I can put it, and No Fade or Pulse where appropriate. The problem is that SOMETHING was still pulsing, covering the character with darkness periodically. I tracked it to Murky Cloud, which I have set to MINIMAL FX. This power, alone among the armours in the set, does not HAVE a No Fade or Pulse setting. This seems odd, because the other armours do. It's pointless setting the others to No Fade or Pulse if this one is going to do it anyway. Can we get the No Fade or Pulse setting added to Murky Cloud? Also, the Minimal FX setting should INCLUDE No Fade or Pulse by default.

That's basically what I'm looking for. Any power being enhanced by Momentum should get a ring around it to let us know. I mean, when I'm fighting bad guys, I'm usually looking at THEM or the toolbar, not up in the top corner where nothing is usually going on. With Momentum lasting only a couple of seconds, it's easy to miss. If it's on the toolbar, I'm not likely to miss it.

The ring on Followthrough is actually redundant, since it lights up to indicate Momentum... but the power can't be used without Momentum. If it's lit up and usable, you've got Momentum. You don't need the ring. Other powers, though, don't get a ring. There's no indication on the icon at all to indicate Momentum. It would be nice if they got a ring to indicate that they've been buffed by Momentum. Indeed, what I'm suggesting is that ANY power being buffed by Momentum should get the ring on the icon to indicate that.

The ring is only there when a power that isn't normally available is available. For example, if I Momentum is active, there will be a ring around Followthrough, which also lights up (I misremembered the name, I thought it was Crushing Blow). There is NO CHANGE to any of the other powers, Defensive Sweep, Titan Sweep, etc. If Followthrough is on cooldown, it will not light up and it will not have a ring around it. That is, apart from the notification in the corner of the screen, there is NO indication for powers like Defensive Sweep to indicate they've been buffed by Momentum. I'm just suggesting that the icons on the toolbar indicate when a power has been buffed by Momentum.

Not having played a character with Titan Weapons until now, I wasn't aware of the Momentum mechanic. I am finding it a bit awkward, though, because I'm often making attacks without Momentum active, without realizing it's not. At present, there's a notification in the top right corner indicating "Momentum." It's kind of easy to miss, it's not in a part of the screen we're generally looking at, most of the time we're looking at the enemies or the UI bar. My suggestion is to make a notification on the UI bar, as follows: Certain powers are only usable when Momentum is active, such as Crushing Blow. Such powers are usually dimmed grey, and only light up when Momentum is active. They also get a coloured ring around them, letting you know the power is now available for use. My suggestion is to put a coloured ring on ALL TW powers when Momentum is active. So, when Momentum is NOT active, powers like Crushing Blow would be dimmed with no ring, and could not be used. Powers like Defensive Sweep would be coloured normally with no ring, and could be used, but slowly. When Momentum IS active, Crushing Blow would light up with a ring, and Defensive Sweep would get a ring around it, indicating it would be accelerated. I feel this would be more readily noticeable when in combat than the notification in the top corner.

Did you read what I said? Suppose you've set your difficulty so there's no bosses, and AVs appear as EBs. Enemy bosses, EBs and AVs, will get scaled down, appearing as Lieutenants, Bosses and EBs, respectively. This is NOT the case for allied NPCs of those ranks. So, suppose I'm making an AE story which includes a character called Ultimo, who is built as an EB. If he appears as an enemy, he will appear as a BOSS, not an EB. However, if he appears as an ally, he will remain an EB. This presents a problem if he's set to betray the player, because now the player is facing an EB, even though his settings SHOULD have made him a Boss instead. It also presents a problem since the EB ally will trivialize the content of the mission, being excessively overpowered, relative to the other enemies. Again, if enemy AVs, EBs and Bosses are scaling down, allies should too.

I've posted elsewhere about this, but I thought I should make an actual suggestion about it. Basically, when you make an AE mission, enemy Arch Villains, Elite Bosses, and I think Bosses too (not sure on this one) get scaled down to the next lower level, if you've selected no bosses in your difficulty preferences. So, an enemy created as an Elite Boss would appear as a Boss, instead, for example. However, something I've encountered is that ALLIED AVs, EBs and Bosses, DO NOT get scaled down in the same way. This presents a problem when these characters are supposed to help you because they completely trivialize the opposition (since EB and AV damage is SO far over the top), or when they're supposed to START as allies, then BETRAY you, since you'd now be facing an enemy you're not strong enough to fight. So, my suggestion is this: Have allied AVs, EBs and Bosses scale down the same way enemy ones do.

Ya, the Atomic Manipulation powers have a couple of such things, holds and immobilizes... which synergize quite nicely with Energy Blasts, actually, as it prevents foes being knocked BACK as much, which teams like. I understand too, that I'm surrendering utility, but the reality is that Defenders are just difficult to enjoy because they feel so WEAK. Yes, I have more stuff I can do, but when I'm solo (which is most of the time), I'm just hitting enemies with wet noodles. It's just not much fun.

Knockback is an issue too, which I've mentioned in the past. My thinking is, if it's undesirable, do something to MAKE it desirable. My thinking is to make knockback do damage, relative to the AMOUNT of knockback done (ie. if you're knocked flying through the air, it should HURT to land, or hit a wall, or what have you). Throw some damage decals where you land, a bit of debris, and stuff like that, for appearances' sake. That way, knockback enhancers might become more popular too.

So tonight, I took on a Tip mission on my L21 Dark Control/Dark Miasma Controller. It was the mission where you go into a Longbow base and take control of "Crazed Wardens" to wipe out the base. Pretty straightforward, and I've done it on many of my characters with little difficulty. Until tonight. I went in, and did what I usually do. Confuse on one guy, let it recharge, confuse the other, then Hold the third, and clean up with Sorcery's Arcane Bolt and Enflame. However, to my confusion, the enemy were immune to my controls. Confuse did NOTHING. Dark Grasp, Living Shadows... no effect. Add to that, they were doing rather huge amounts of damage. My character has a bit over 400 health, these MINIONS (Longbow Riflemen) were hitting me for 174 damage in one shot. Two or three of them, and I'm just dead. Every group, it was the same. The first Warden (he was Super Strength and Invulnerability) was basically oneshotted by one of the groups with two Officers, after which they all came after me, despite my invisibility. I tried Howling Twilight, to disorient them. It has no ToHit, it hits automatically... but they all ignored it. What attacks I made either missed or were deflected. Literally ZERO hits for the whole fight. Twilight Grasp to heal myself - Deflected. Just no way to fight back. BOY it was frustrating. Controllers who aren't allowed to control their enemies are just POWERLESS. No way to fight them. All I could do was suck down a dozen purples and bulldoze through. No fun at all. Anyway, rant over. Thanks for listening.

I've actually changed my settings from Balanced to High Performance, and that seems to have fixed it.

Tried it, it now works perfectly. Thanks all, that was the other shoe I needed.