Spectral

Instead of being sad about loosing my emp->reward source of money/purpleIO for the next altoholic toon, I'm pondering what to do now... IThreads I know I can exchange Empyreans into IThreads through the incarnate crafting window... I can then exchange those at Luna (Ouroboros) for UltraInspirations... um, not my thing... I buy the occasional Super-Rezz and Ultimate+1lvl... the prices for these on the AH will (likely) drop fast once the page 4 patch hits live. So actually AH-selling UltraInsp will become pointless unless you enjoy trading (which is a totally legit way to play the game, just not something I enjoy much). I can also take my IThreads to AE-vendors and exchange IThreads for orange salvage to self-craft my purples, purple recipes will likely go up in price on the AH... but I get more reward merits to compensate (in theory), so I can just exchange reward for purple recipes and then craft... lots of crafting instead of playing the game, meh. ________ It almost seems like Empyreans have become the new Astral²... who gives a damn about them/not very useful stuff - that fills inventories and will never get cleaned up... So... anyone here got a clever idea what to do with Empys when the next patch goes live? or are Empys now like Astrals... mostly useless once full T4...? PS: Funny enough... I dislike AH-trading more than I dislike afk-farming... so I might actually have to end up making an afk-farmer - if access to purple IOs becomes too difficult through normal content (big economy shift incoming). Which is kinda hilarious 🤪 (or maybe devs are actually not anti-afk-farmer? and people just assume because of some past heat/hate?)

True, I did not see that update, thank you for letting me know... so more money... not sure that will solve the AE farm issue, but whatever... curious to see if that means they also take away emp -> thread conversion... threads can be made into money, too. But that's likely not as lucrative? I've seen friends that like farming drop the normal rewards in AE and go for the tickets only... not sure if that will then become the efficient way of farming (my farm knowledge is hear-say).

um... just so I understand... option 1 say "no AE XP post-50" so... people will still be able to PL their altitis (yes I suffer from altitis too) in AE... what they wont get is a toon that's fully T4 in all incarnate abilities... but those are not strictly needed...? so... how is it bad to only level alts till 50 in AE? do you just PL them to 50+T4, then equip them and then shelf them? blocking the emp -> merit will seriously hurt people with a style similar to mine... I don't farm... however I do get "a lot" of emp from the stuff I do and I would then basically be forced into "playing the AH", which is even more boring than farming for me (not saying others may not enjoy it, if you like it, that's great), AE farmer will not care about the emp -> merit stop, it will hurt casuals more than it will hurt farmers/AH-players... Also it will drive AH prices on some things even higher (offer vs demand), making money farming of some kind even more necessary (ie pushing for min-max money output of whatever you do) do we really want purple IO to go into 50Mil or even 80Mil each? emp->merit makes sure purple IO stay affordable... what's the point of farming 50+T4 toons in AE if they then run around with orange IO sets? I'd rather have 50+T0 toons with purple sets, but that's my personal preference...?

I feel like the empyrean to reward conversion option will hurt a lot more than just AE farmers... people that run a lot of Itrials will also get punished hard... I'm not sure why that would be a good thing... What are we supposed to do with empyreans we earn through itrials once our toons are fully T4? buy ultimates (after converting empyreans to threads) at Luna and flood the AH? that just feels so bad/wrong/sad/boring then at least allow us to buy purple/AT/winter IO with empyreans, not just reward merits...

Sigh... I totally realize the tried and true version of that trial. But I like to know if there are other - less optimal ways - because franky, the "kill them" route sucks... (yes, you can do it with just 2 good fire blasters) so if I don't have enough people with mind-doms (who seem to be the only acceptable doms to be allowed to do this), what are my options, knowing that most trollers and doms are "useless" inside, so might as well figure out how they can do stuff outside...? Not turn as many? From what I've seen myself, if confused: they don't turn anything... so your confuse likely ran out... Did you test if sleeps still allow them to turn? or the unaffected-bubbles? like really actually test, or is that just hear-say? Of course they will animate it... but will it still turn protesters? did you test this or do you just think/believe that's what happens? I guess I'll end up testing this myself at some point to know for sure... I got a few people who - like me - have master of all itrials ... at that point doing it over and over is basically farming. I like understanding and trying new ways, I really just wanted to know if others had already tried this and what the result was. Ok, I'll trust you on this, thank you, good to know. Sorry to hear that, if you want the "master of" head over to Reunion, itrial leaders of reunion manage the " straight master of" 8 out of 10 times... (likely 9 out of 10...)

I tried to gather this info but my google-fu (and City-Of-Data-fu) but failed... In the TPN Itrial... does anybody know: - how long the telepathists stay (1 minute? more?), if they don't get killed, do they despawn? - can they double spawn (2+ telepathists for the same group of protesters) ? - can other CC outside of confuse be used on them? sleep, ...? how does that affect their "turn protesters" aura? - what about "unaffected" powers (Sonic Cage, Detention Field, ...) cast on the telepath? - what about "unaffected" powers (Dimension Shift) cast on protesters? (Black Hole would not work here...) - is their confuse protection mag 3? mag 4? (i've heard it has to be dominators, but controllers seem to be able to do it as well?) - if 2 turned+confused protesters kill each other (contagious confusion) without ever getting damage from players, does that reduce public opinion? (normally you don't get credit/xp if confused stuff kill each other, right? so this should not affect public opinion?) I know the classic way to do that Itrial is "confuse or kill", I just would like to understand why that is "the only acceptable way to do this trial". Are there alternatives (even sub-optimal)? Which ones... 🙂

I know this thread is ooold, but I still felt like giving some additional input... A well built Ice/Dark Corruptor can solo camp a door (I did this multiple times: tar patch -res + rains² kills nearly everything), if stuff makes it through, it gets an ice single target in the face or if it's 4+ mobs a judgment. I've also seen fire blaster friends obliterate stuff at doors all by themselves (well built high damage ones), never needing help to cover that door for the entire BAF phase. I'm fairly sure other well built toons can do just the same. Funny enough I have seen door-sitting strategies work way better than choke-points, too much stuff makes it through the choke-point way too often (as CC doesn't do much against these mobs), it would need an "insane" amount of coordinating the nuke-times of people evenly enough on the south path. Often people go all out on the first group and then they need to wait till stuff recharges... or you need well-oiled SG/buddy leagues with optimized toons for that occasion. From my (rather small) experience, having the league spread dps evenly across all doors and just 2 dedicated chasers works marvelously... I only saw it fail once, which I'll put in the category "bad luck" (I'm on +-8 months of running itrials 1-2 per week, now). I can see how a MM-only league can use the chokepoint idea to great effect. A PUG league (is that a PUL?) with an even spread of mismatched AT is likely better at door-camping from what I could observe (concentrated bursts of enemies with downtimes for powers to recharge). So maybe the rule for PULL (PUL-Leaders? 😉 ) is to know what your league's strong an weak points will likely be? and delegate key responsibilities to people that are well built for this (single target kings are great for chasing runners, AoE best sit around and nuke when mobs run past doors/chokes/...)?

From my extensive talks with Tuft and "the other", the consensus was that Time's Juncture and Whirlpool are ok because of their transparency. Hurricane is a whirling very bright disk that cannot be seen through (even when reducing particles on the user side: it just creates a pulsing effect) and can take up the entire screen: Council caves as Melee AT...

I have seen at least 3 different storm-players with hurricane on for the entire mission/TF because they were "tanking" (on multiple occasions). As the team did not have a tank, it made sense and they were very successful in keeping mobs together and herding. Forcing somebody to switch toon so we can have the "holy trinity" is not what I would want to force people to do (especially when doing WST)... Just yesterday we did a very successful Moonfire with 3 Scrappers, 1 MM, 1 Defender, 1 Controller, 2 Blaster... no Tank, no Brute. Hurricane can tank (actually herd) some content if the player knows what (s)he is doing. (Of course tanking a Magisterium with Hurrican, makes little sense) Doing things in non-standard ways is actually fun to me: thinking outside the box. 😉

Wow... I'm so sorry @GM Impervium that you had to step in. I was hoping for feedback but not for it to go viral in the bad way it did. I'm sorry. I just wanted to reiterate: I, personally, don't have that problem, so while I can test some things to some extend, I'm not a good beta-tester to fix this. I know of at least 2 Guildies (and I play with them all the time) who are very badly affected (one of them being Tuft, the other doesn't want to post and I definitely can understand why) and I've had other people (who's @global I don't remember) leave my teams/TF/... because "they did not like hurricane" (I never had anyone quit team because of energy blast, initially I though it was Hurricane's repel/KB, but that discussion with Guildies put the "quitting team" in a very new/different light).

Ok, just to clear up my intent: 1) I don't have that problem (fyi, people with color-blindness-issues, red-green/etc, are supposed to be 8% of the male population and only 0,4% of the female population, I still think it's worthwhile to not make life harder for them, because we fail to care), but from working in IT I know a bunch of colleagues that have a red-green problem and don't dare to talk about it, so I was hoping people that do have a motion sickness issue would not be afraid to vote anonymously in a poll. 2) I was curious how many of the playerbase do (5%?, 1%?, 0,1%?) have that problem, and a poll could be good for that, but with only 24 votes, this poll not representative, maybe I was crazy thinking this could maybe get 200+ votes to get an idea (<-- most likely crazy, hopefully I might have more votes dripping in until next week? next weekend should give people time?). I personally have no idea how many are affected. 3) I was also curious if there are known workarounds, so if I hear that other people have this problem, I can tell them... @Glacier Peakthank you for your suggestion, I tried to see what it does with my stormy (I set particle count to minimum), and basically it's a constant on-off... like switching the power on and off ...? Not a steady half-transparent look that I was hoping for.

Well I know of at least 2 people (from my SG), who will need to quit the league/team because it is so bad for them. It was a discord discussion with them that got me to post this poll. 🙂

I would also love to see Wind Control... here is my list of "recycling of visuals" that I (personally) would be totally fine with: Downdraft Ranged, Hold(Foe), -Movement(Foe), -Rech(Foe), -Fly(Foe), Pressure Builder (Self) This one seems to be the most tricky... basically some kneel/bent-over animation (similar to the throwing-up animation, but without the "empty your stomach"?) would be nice, but I'm not sure how easy it is to "lengthen" that animation into a "hold". Updraft Ranged, Light DMG(Smashing), Knockup(Foe), -Fly(Foe), Pressure Builder (Self) Use Gravity's Knockup, it's essentially the same. Or, way cooler: use Ghost Window's Soul Patron Pool Single Target Hold, but I don't see this happening. Breathless (This one actually needs to be renamed, being out of breath does not immobilize...? it would stun/hold/...) Oppressing Winds? Ranged (Targeted AoE), Variable DMG(Lethal), Immobilize (Foe), -DMG(Foe, All), +EndCost(Foe, PvP), Consumes Pressure Have the little green "slow" effects around hands and feet be obvious and constant, maybe "crouch/kneel" mobs to show how the air pressure makes it impossible for them to move. Add some "Hover" visuals around enemy feet. Wind Shear PBAoE (Toggle), -Speed (Foe, All), -Fly(Foe), -ToHit(Foe), -DMG(Foe, All) Group Fly's animation would be very fitting here, and is a rarely seen animation to begin with. With the ashy stuff from Fire Control Holds around enemy heads? Thundergust Ranged (Cone), Minor DMG(Smashing), Knockdown(Foe), -ToHit(Foe), Pressure Builder (Self) Sonic Blast has a few cones that would be quite fitting here. Microburst Ranged (Targeted AoE), Variable DMG(Smashing), Stun(Foe), -Speed(Foe, All), -Fly(Foe), -Rech(Foe), Chance for -DEF(Foe, All), Consumes Pressure Sonic Blasts, as well as Psi Blasts have some fitting visuals here. Keening Winds Ranged (Targeted AoE), Confuse(Foe), EndDrain(Foe), +End(Self) Gravity's Propel without the actual objects or Sorcery's Arcane Bolt without the rune? The effect on enemies with confuse is always the same, so nothing new here? Maybe add "white ash" from Char Fire Holds around enemy heads? Vacuum Ranged (Targeted AoE), Hold (Foe), Moderate DoT (Lethal), -Movement(Foe), -Rech(Foe), -ToHit(Foe), Special(Pet), Pressure Consumer (Self) This screams Gravity AoE Hold... Mobs hovering suspended in the air... maybe combine with some force bubble effect around enemies. The caster animation from Ghost widow's single target hold would be perfect here 😇. Clear Skies Self (Auto), +ToHit, +Rech, +Rec, -EndCost No textures needed: auto power Vortex Summon Vortex I wish this would not be so "obviously" Gravity Simulacrum... so maybe like Storm's Tornado/Leviathan's Water Spout?

As I now know of a few people that actually get nauseated by the graphics of Hurricane (especially if brightly colored, apparently dark/black is more bearable to them). Talking to these affected people the consensus seems to be: - bright colors are far worse than dark colors - the rather similar (visually) power [Time's Juncture] from Time Manipulation is not as bad as the graphic is more "transparent" and not as bright It would be great if more affected people could share their thoughts about this? Would "decreasing" the particle numbers (amount of pixels) for Hurricane to a level similar to Time's Juncture "fix" this? Is that even possible for dev's to do (code-wise)? Or would forcing Hurricane to "dark colors only" be an option (including the original, that is very bright)?

Monster Truck's Costume is great, Supertroll gone Liberty, and I love the Cheerleader idea. I'm still a bit overwhelmed (I actually won? pinch me again)... thank you GMs for the fun, it was great! Your hard work is really truly appreciated. your Red Riding Howl 😉

Hurricane is great against EB and AV, their high resistance to status effects means they go nowhere but they get the amazing -toHit (on my offender that's something like -40 or -50 % ?). While I rarely switch it on outside of EB/AV fights (or stuff that explodes like the crystals in ITF), I use it heavily vs these to great effect.

As I have an E³ in the works myself: how is elec mastery? I'm planning for AoE immob, second ST hold, the lightning field (slotted to drain even more end), and the chain heal. Is the chain heal any good? (building a troller without the AT... and with built-in status protect) I've never really liked the Blaster masteries even with the villain side patron pools. (For some weird reason I very often end up in teams that are trollers+domis only, or teams that are blaster-heavy with no tanks or healers).