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Arbegla

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Posts posted by Arbegla

  1. Having ran multiple characters through the old system back on live, I can say that I really enjoy the faster unlocks that Homecoming gives to the incarnate system. I don't agree with adding a 7th slot as the power creep for IOs themselves is pretty massive.

     

    Back on Live, the ATOs, Winter IOs, and other 'high end' enhancements were rarer than rare to get a hold of, and thus made progression slow down a lot. Homecoming opened up the flood gates, and allowed many different avenues to achieve power. Refactoring the incarnate system, while I will argue is needed, doing it the way you're proposing forces a lot of people to start from scratch, even if 'scratch' will be over soon, as you're making levels easier to gain.

     

    I think slight tweaks here and there, like adding the incarnate powers to the enhancement menu, and making the salvage easier to manage (and removing shards and anything that deals with shards..) would be a good first start, without really changing the overall system, just making it more streamlined.

     

    I also feel like there needs to be a real tutorial, like we have for the Invention system, where you literally get a free recipe, free salvage, and told to craft something yourself. Even if its a T1 power, and optional, its still a good thing to have the ability to get walked through how the system works. The university contacts, even on V side, do a great job of explaining the Invention System, but there is nothing at all like that for the Incarnate System.

  2. If you really want high damage numbers everywhere, I recommend a bot/storm/mu MM. You have plenty of DoTs from the robots, plus fire patches, and the mu mastery gives you a -KB AoE immobilize so you can keep everything in your kill patches of fire, lightning, and tornadoes.

  3. I know we have individual pylon times, but has a scrapper tried to solo ALL of the pylons before? I know there is a time limit on respawn, but what amount of DPS would be required to solo the entire raid, and get the shield lowered by yourself?

     

    Just curious.

  4. 19 hours ago, Lyrium said:

    The way to fix the issues with BG mode is to create Assist mode, like other games. Pets do not attack unless attacked (like now) OR you attack one mob, then they assist you

     

    That's basically defensive mode as it works right now. Once you attack a mob, the mob attacks you, and the pets attack the mob.

  5. 4 hours ago, Techwright said:

     

    I wonder, does this need to change?  I've seen multiple cases over the years where a PUG league is quickly formed and the make-shift leader leaves one or two poor souls isolated, and therefore not hitting that 10% if the GM is taken down rapidly.    Why does it remain distinctive to the team when a league is clearly intended?

     

    I thought this was changed actually, because of the Croatoa Giant Monsters and the fact that Jack in Irons and Skeleton Man can duke it out for hours and then noone gets credits for finally killing them, because of the 10% damage rule being regenerated over and over again.

  6. Hmm, I thought it would also reduce the value of the endurance that the protector bot uses to cast their heal, but if that isn't the case, then I might have to revert back to a straight Heal IO.

    I use a heal/end HO just to have endurance reduction on the upgrade, but I've noticed that I'm not upgrading as much in combat anymore, so getting more Heal value out of the protector bots would be useful.

  7. How is bot/traps not on this list?

     

    You get mez protection, amazing heals now (especially with the maintenance drone) stackable debuffs, and plenty of different playstyles, as you can create a death room, or just zip into groups and toe-bomb things.

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  8. 12 minutes ago, tidge said:

    It could be that I tossed (ha!) Web Grenade from the build, I am surprised to read that AVs have a vulnerability to immobilize.

     

    Well, purple triangles don't affect immobilize, so they just have normal protections that a boss has and nothing special.

     

    In the grand scheme of AVs protections, though, it might as well be a vulnerability, as other forms of mez get destroyed with the purple triangles.

  9. I know this might be a 'standard code rant' issue, but I was wondering if it would be possible to be able to track the last tohit roll made against you, to be able to better see how successful Defense and other buffs are doing for you?

    I know we can track defense, and we can stack our own 'last to hit against an enemy' but being able to track what the enemy is rolling against us would be neat too.

  10. 49 minutes ago, MsSmart said:

    Maybe there should be no auto-hit all together...

     

    Auto-hit debuffs make sense. Autohit damage.. not so much. But -endurance and -recovery are hard to counteract, so putting some -recovery resistance (or -end resistance?) into the blue inspirations seems like a good idea. Its not adding +recovery, just makes it harder for you to get debuffed after using them.

     

    Plus it thematically makes sense, based on the names of the blue inspirations anyways.

  11. Another way to die quickly would be to go to Siren's Call, and jump into the 'hot spot' zones where all of the NPCs group up before fighting each other. Even if you get a hot spot that is out of the way, its a quick run back, and they will slaughter you quickly.

  12. On 11/15/2022 at 12:20 PM, Rudra said:

    Yes. All turning off xp does is stop you from earning xp from defeating mobs and completing tasks. It does not stop the accumulation of patrol xp.

     

    For a level 50 character, you could get really really close to leveling up (full bars) then turn off XP. You'll still get patrol XP, but you wont visually be able to see it. You also won't get anymore Vet levels, but I'm not sure that is a concern of yours.

  13. On 11/16/2022 at 2:27 AM, SableShrike said:

    In short, I don’t think Bodyguard has ever really done anything for MMs outside of preventing PvP ganking.

     

    What do you guys think about Bodyguard working regardless of pet stance?

     

    If bodyguard mode worked in any stances, MMs would be the ultimate Tank Mages. Bodyguard mode triggers when an attack is rolled against the MM, but that attack doesn't have to be successful.

     

    Meaning a fully softcapped MM can stand in melee combat, get swung at, and their pets will react, all while enjoying Bodyguard Mode benefits already. If you're standing away from the enemy AND away from your pets, you're doing something wrong, so getting one shot shouldn't be that much of an issue.

     

    Yes, high level content makes it dangerous for MMs to be in melee range, but with proper slotting, MMs have the highest effective hitpoints in the game, and should leverage that as best as they can by abusing Bodyguard Mode.

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  14. 1 hour ago, tidge said:

     

    My experience with GMs and AVs since page 5 (with by Robotics/Traps) build has been overall disappointing. Generally, the GM/AV will simply run which makes it hard to keep focused fire on them... and if the MM chases them, there is a real danger of "leaving the henchmen (and traps) behind" which is not good. Here are my specific experiences with a level 50 MM:

     

    Halloween GMs in low-level zones (Hollows, Skyway, Faultline) : Easy-peasy, easier than last year (pre-page 5). I never had that much trouble with them, it is just that defeat times fell noticeably.

     

    GMs in Peregrine Island: I can no longer defeat one, and can't really survive against more-than-one. And since they RUN, there is almost always going to be more than one. Prior to page 5, this was a VERY tedious endeavor... but now it feels much worse. I suspect it is the shift in the -regen to the MM that is the source of the trouble here. I want to note that my MM had (and used) two of the primary attacks before page 5, so it is not like the comparison is apples-to-oranges.

     

    AVs in solo (Classic Blue) TFs: I have been able to solo each one I tried (generally the weeklies, I can recall Penny Yin, Citadel, Enesto Hess) but in each case the AV reaches a point at which they run... Clamor went to the hallway beyond the "coolant belt" room, Hess was running/jumping all over the Goliath Mech Man. I guess this is an interesting sort of challenge, but it is highly frustrating. Vandal was actually the most challenging of these three: He also ran, but what made him a challenge was that his Melee attacks were focused on the MM, which made it REALLY dangerous to be far from the henchmen.

     

    I have also tried some 'even level' events:

     

    Paladin Construction in Kings Row: This was fine (easier for a solo MM than on other AT), but of course the construct doesn't run while it is being built and the spawns are all nearby.

     

    Zig Breakout in Brickstown: Still doable, with the only noticeable difference (to me) was that the undefeated Freaks and the final 3 Prisoners are more likely to hightail away from the event, and that it is harder to keep track of all of them with my attention divided between the Bots and the mobs. Times have dropped, but only because of the "run away"... I don't like to leave this event unfinished, so I find myself hanging around waiting for the mobs to come back.

     

     

    I'm surprised you're experiencing more running away, do you not use Web Grenade or other Immobilize effects? AVs (and even some GMs) have a vulnerability to immobilize built in, to allow for containment on Controllers, but it also allows MMs (and other classes really) to lock them down and keep them from running away.

     

    I've had an opposite experience with my Bot/traps since the changes, as things just melt so fast now that I don't have to lock things down as much. A quick volley of Web Grenade -> Electric Fences -> Web Grenade on a boss/EB/AV and by the time I get the rest of my debuffs down, its near death just from AoE and Single target attacks from the robots.

  15. Instead of arguing for or against a reduction in time for the upgrades to affect the mobs, I think we should push to have the resistance split out, so you get half resistance on summoning the pets, and the other half (being enhance-able) when you upgrade them.

    This should give the pets some more durability, without changing too much in the ways of the pets working. With the fact that the upgrades are AOEs now, the setup time for a MM is MUCH shorter than it used to be, though I do definitely see and notice a different in survivability  when not having the resistance equip on the bots.

     

    With the reduction in the flamethrower recharge time, I dont want to skip the equip power on the assault bot anymore, as its much faster and deals a decent amount of damage now.

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  16. Degen is the best for /traps IMO, because of the sheer number of DoTs you have. the -maxhp does more overall Damage then the -resistance you get from reactive.

     

    Especially once you factor in the pets, Degen is just the hands down the best option.

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  17. I focused on Maximizing Recharge on my bot/traps build. I run between 200-300% global recharge on top of ED capped recharge in most of my powers (Agility Alpha, and the +rech proc in my Arcane Bolt) I also run over 54% defense to most things (which is right around the Incarnate Softcap, before my Support Hybrid pushes me over)

     

    This allows me to double stack Triage Beacon, Triple Stack Acid Mortar, double stack Poison Trap (which the +absorb proc, which turns it into a mini protection power as well) and keeps Seeker Drones up every single spawn.

     

    Maintenance drone is up every ~25 seconds as well, so my bots don't die nearly as often as they used to before the patch.

     

    Going full Procs is nice, but do keep in the mind that the rumor mill has been saying Procs are going to be adjusted sometime soon(tm) so you might not want to stack all of them in one power, as we just don't know what is going to happen with them.

  18. This is my robotics slotting now. I did try out the Pulse Rifle Burst on life, but unfortunately, Arcane Bolt just out performs it so much that its not even funny. I'm a /traps, so the loss of -regen doesn't affect me at all, and the maintenance drone just let me remove Spirit Ward and swap it right in, slots and all.

    I did take one other slot out of Charged Armor, just to get the two piece bonus from Unbreakable Guard in Equip, and now my Assault bot rocks 76% resistance to lethal/psi/cold (Remember Kids, Pets have a 90% resistance cap, like TANKERS!)
     

    Battle Drones 6 slots -> 2 Superior Mark of Supremacy, Straight Damage, 2 Call to Arms, the Dam/End, and the Defense Bonus aura for Pets and the Acc/Dam/End  Sovereign RIght Resistance Bonus, Edict of the Master Defense Bonus
     

    Equip Bot 2 slots -> Unbreakable Guard Straight Resistance and the +7.5% max HP
     

    Protector Bots 6 slots -> 4 Superior Mark of Supremacy (Everything NOT in battle drones, so the Dam/End, Acc/Dam, Acc/End and the End/+resist/+regen Aura, Expedient Reinforcement Resist Aura, and 1 LoTG def/+rech

    Maintenance Drone 6 slots -> Full Preventive Medicine set
     

    Assault Bot 6 slots -> 4 Superior Command of the Mastermind, the Acc/Dam, Dam/End, Acc/Dam/End/Rech, and the Rech/+AOE def aura, 2 Soulbound Allegiance, the Dam/End, and the BU proc,
     

    Upgrade Robot -> level 53 Heal/End Hami-Origin
     

    With the additional damage that the Robots do, the current slotting keeps them all good on End even when really low level. I was able to solo the MSR last night on Torchbearer with this character, downing all the Pylons, and actually planting a bomb, so I'm definitely a happy camper.

  19. Alright, so I ported my Bot/Traps/Mu over to test, respec'ed it to adjust some slotting and grabbed Maintenance Drone, slotted up Equip Bot to boost pet resistance, and got Pulse Rifle Burst instead of Arcane Bolt.

     

    I also swapped around 2 enhancements in the pet powers themselves, as I did notice some endurance issues in the Assault Bot and Battle Drones. Managed to keep the same set bonuses, just slightly different enhancement slotting.

     

    First test was normal missions running at +1/x8. Set didn't feel much different, except I didn't have to wait for Battle Drones and Assault bots to finish animating before moving onto the next group. Overall, clear times were faster, and the bots seemed more responsive to commands (probably because they weren't stuck in Animation Hell)

     

    Second test was a +4/x8 Solo ITF. I've only ran a +0/x1 Solo ITF on live, but its not much different really. I noticed that with the buffed resistance, the Assault Bot wasn't getting 1 shot, even against +4 mobs. I checked the numbers, and they now have a pretty large Resistance value (70+ in lethal/cold/psi) where they don't have that on live. It seems like the resistance values got scaled different, because Battle Drones actually have slightly less Resistance now, but all in all it seems ok. Maintenance Drone was amazing, as it was a full heal on the Battle Drones, and while occasionally the Protector Bots and the Drone would heal the same thing, it wasn't often enough to matter. Romans died fast, and the build performed very well.

     

    Third test was a solo Mother Ship Raid. This is meant to be a stress test, as you're trying to beat the clock on the respawn times on the pylons. This is where I really noticed the endurance being an issue and why I swapped out those two enhancements I mentioned earlier. On Live, I can solo basically down to 4 pylons, but I can't get them down completely, as the respawn time is too fast. On test, however, I was about to get it down to 1 to 2 pylons before the next respawned. I did have some player error and bad luck with the Drop Ship killing my pets, but overall the DPS increase MORE than makes up for the reduction in -regen in the Assault Bot.

     

    Yes, bot/traps already has amazing -regen in the form of Poison Trap, and I did use my Pulse Rifle Burst often (I put a +rech proc in it) but All in all, this is a massive boost to the powerset with minimal changes to my overall build.

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  20. 10 hours ago, desarix said:

    I boasted about your feat on chat. I said 43 hours and 30 deaths. Sorry it was 44 my bad.

     

    The universal response was that they were surprised you stuck it out. They were all impressed. Anyway kudos to you for being able to take on Dr.Aeons SF alone and at those settings. The one thing I forgot to mention was that you had set it at +4X8. They would have been even more impressed.

     

    I did +4/x8 as a test to see if it would even be possible to try the hardest of hard modes. I'm excited that I was able to complete it, and I have ideas on how to do it again. But right now, after a 44 hour drag, I'm gonna take a break from pushing on that. I'll update this thread once I try the other difficulties.

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