Ston

I hope farming isn't supposed to be a convincing argument for any archetype mechanics. I use a Brute, but can just as well use a Tanker. Anything that has a damage aura that I can leave alone and be confident it won't die for periods of time. Pretty sure tankers are preferred farmers lately anyway.

IMO every AT does have a stand out feature besides Brutes. Except maybe Masterminds...? Khelds / VEATs - Too many to name Blaster - Several tools for more damage / mez protection (interactable) Controller - Team buffs / containment (interactable) Defender - Team buffs / more damage while solo (interactable) Corruptor - Team buffs / scourge (interactable) Dominator - Permadom (interactable) Scrapper / Stalker - Controllable crit damage (interactable) Sentinel - Vulnerability via fury meter (interactable) Tanker - AoE radius/cap buffs / AoE punchvoke (interactable) Brute - Fury that you can't interact with and barely changes in combat

Depending on the base layout, it takes like 15 seconds to use the p2w base teleport power and buy the empowerments you want. Is that really a core gameplay mechanic that would lead to power creep if it were to be altered? Is looking at loading screens really that important?

Asking for a QoL improvement to not need to go to your base every hour is not power creep. Asking for a new base buff that gives you negative energy damage procs to all your powers would be power creep.

I haven’t collected any for Controllers. This is largely due to melee sets being much more inconsistent in their attack recharge/damage numbers compared to ranged sets. Also, all melee powers have access to a minimum of 4 damage procs while ranged powers have access to a minimum of 2 (blaze, blazing arrow, etc).

I've done some testing on proc vs procless builds. My findings are that most of the top performing sets benefit from procs more than the lowest performers. Yes, even fire blast. A proc nerf will do nothing to make the game more enjoyable. I'd be willing to hear out changes to procs, but any flat nerfs to damage procs will just make the game slower and reduce variety in builds.

A project I threw together with lvl 50 gameplay for each archetype

Most of the builds on here are a couple adjustments away from being viable PvE builds. Mostly changing some pool powers and adding AoE.

Correct. The bigger the radius of an AoE attack, the less damage it will do. But on the flip side, you will be able to hit more targets. If you compare a single target attack to an AoE attack with similar recharge rates, the single target attack will always do more damage according to the damage formula.

Storm Kick slotted with 5pc hecatomb (all but dam/rech): *Assumes both ATOs are being used. Brawl with same slotting: I don't know where you are getting your numbers from.. but Brawl will NEVER be a good replacement for any attack in an attack chain.

Here is the build I used for my submission: fire_bio_mace.mbd And the video:

Yes & yes. You should post a submission and show that 🙂 Personally, I've gotten better times with Bio and Stone since Fiery Aura doesn't have Fiery Embrace on Sentinels. But would love to see what kind of DPS it can put out!

Hint: Use the following: Bio Armor or Stone Armor Mace Mastery Enflame Unrelenting Geas + Daggers Would be awesome to see Sentinels in the same neighborhood as Stalkers & Doms.. (35s-45s)

100% agree. I’ve done tinpex once since the update and I had no idea where I was going. Probably the worst navigation I’ve experienced in the game. The zone updates are awesome aside from that. But that one thing is a pretty significant problem.

I'm of the opinion that this does not need to exist. It doesn't take into consideration that you could lose 500m on one roll, but only 250k on another. You already have to do so much activity in game to afford some of these enhancements.. When they fail to upgrade it is extremely defeating. If you could just add 5 boosters to IOs, that would be great. If you could pay some amount of influence to make the odds of upgrading 100%, sure. But until then I really don't think this is a necessary mechanic.

Enter: fire blast and patron pets. Run Type: Pylon (Open Beta) Archetype: Sentinel Primary Powerset: Fire Blast Secondary Powerset: Bio Armor Epic: Mace Time in seconds: Best: 48 Seconds Burst: Burst - due to Geas Hybrid: Assault - Core (toggled on) Number of Runs: 1 Version: Open Beta Temps Used: Offensive Amp, Geas, Daggers fire_bio_mace.mbd

Aaaaand to kick off my month of Sentinel testing: Run Type: Pylon (Open Beta) Archetype: Sentinel Primary Powerset: Electrical Blast Secondary Powerset: Bio Armor Epic: Elec Time in seconds: Best: 55 Seconds Burst: Burst - due to Geas Hybrid: Assault - Core (toggled on) Number of Runs: 1 Version: Open Beta Temps Used: Offensive Amp, Geas, Daggers elec_bio_elec.mbd

Ended up trying a lot of stalkers that I probably won't submit official runs for since I kept overwriting the same build and deleting recordings/screenshots. Here are some unofficial best times I had: martial/bio/mace: 34s db/bio/mace: 28s ninja/bio/mace: 29s fire/bio/mace: 32s km/bio/mace: 36s psi/bio/mace: 39s Run Type: Pylon (Open Beta) Archetype: Stalker Primary Powerset: Energy Melee Secondary Powerset: Bio Armor Epic: Mace Time in seconds: Best: 26 Seconds Burst: Burst - due to Geas Hybrid: Assault - Core (toggled on) Number of Runs: 1 Version: Open Beta Temps Used: Offensive Amp, Geas, Daggers em_bio_mace.mbd

Which I think is a good thing, no? Some sets/builds have better movement speed than others which should impact clear speed. Kinda like using Jaunt in Trapdoor would give you faster times than builds without any teleport.

Right. The idea is they'd be the final "reinforcement" sent to defend the pillbox. Ex: Team of Heroes are capturing a neutral/villain pillbox. They defeat 3 turrets. When they start attacking the 4th, Lord Recluse spawns along with a wave of enemies in an effort to stop the pillbox from being captured by heroes.

The idea is there would only be 1 turret remaining on the pillbox when the AV/Hero spawns. And the AV/Hero would spawn as an ally of the turret to try to help "save" their pillbox. Also, did a quick check: Captured turrets are lvl 50 bosses. Uncaptured turr ets are lvl 54 bosses.

Introduction: As a player who enjoys PvP, I would love to see an expansion to our current PvP zones that drives more players to participate in them. Problem: There are A LOT of factors that are currently driving players away from PvP. Some of the most impactful are: Lack of meaningful rewards Lack of participation Builds performing vastly different in PvP and PvE content The large gap in skill/knowledge between veteran PvP players and newcomers Proposed Solution: My proposed idea to address some of the mentioned problems is a large revamp to the lvl 50 PvP zone, Recluse's Victory. Currently, the zone is mostly populated by experienced PvP players who play against each other with the goal of securing kills. Players will largely ignore the zone objectives. My thought is that you can encourage players to participate in the zone mechanics by increasing rewards and updating the zone objectives. Taking a look at the problems I mentioned above, updating the zone could address them in the following ways: Add a new currency that is rewarded by participating in and securing zone objectives. There needs to be rewards for players that devote their time to PvP gameplay. Currently, the rewards granted by defeating players and the handful of badges are not worth the time unless you value bragging rights. We would want to limit exploiting this system, but still allow players to farm it if they choose to do so. The goal would be to limit the reward rate to about the same as the reward rate for AE farming Update the zone mechanics so that larger team sizes are encouraged to complete the objectives. Currently, players can easily solo the zone pillboxes by killing all of the turrets and clicking the middle glowie. Add more PvE elements to objective so that all builds can meaningfully contribute to objective completion. As more waves of enemies are added to zone objectives, AoE and CC powers become increasingly valuable. Currently, there is little to no reason to use most AoE powers in PvP. Traditional ST DPS PvP builds would struggle to capture objectives without help from teammates. Limit rewards that would be granted for the current PvP meta (straight up deathmatch gameplay). Adding a short cooldown to rewards granted for defeating an enemy player would limit multibox farming concerns Solution Details: There would be a lot of work that needs to be done to deliver this new experience for the zone. Here is a detailed breakdown of my ideas for each of those points. New PvP Currency — PvP Merits A new currency that can be spent at PvP Merit Vendors that would be located in each of the zone bases. Vendors will exchange the currency for special salvage and ATO rolls that are found in super packs (XP Boosters, Tailor Sessions, Special Inspirations, Temporary Powers, etc) Special Salvage Roll 100 PvP Merits Temporary Power Roll 250 PvP Merits ATO Roll 1000 PvP Merits Updated Zone Mechanics Update all turrets to be lvl 54 Elite Bosses (neutral turrets default to Arachnos NPCs) Add Arachnos / Longbow ambushes to turrets that spawn at 75%, 50%, 25%, and 0% HP Ambush defaults to lvl 54 and a team size of 8 Add a random signature Hero / Villain to the final ambush on the final turret for all pillboxes. The zone is "won" by capturing 5 out of the 6 pillboxes Rewards Defeating Enemy Player 10 PvP Merits Destroying a Turret + All Ambushes 25 PvP Merits Defeating Signature Hero / Villain 25 PvP Merits Capturing Pillbox 50 PvP Merits Winning the Zone 125 PvP Merits Capturing a pillbox would result in 175 PvP Merits Requires defeating a total of 16 waves of enemies, 4 turrets, and 1 signature Hero / Villain Capturing 5 pillboxes and winning the zone would result in 1000 PvP merits, enough to purchase a random ATO roll Rewards will be given to all players evenly on a team as long as a player on that team is interacting with the zone objectives 60 second cooldown will be put on rewards granted by defeating an enemy player Bonuses would be added to rewards based on hero/villain population, number of pillboxes captured, and other factors. Final Thoughts: I think this game has serious potential for very fun PvP content, and I think that is accomplished by combining traditional PvP gameplay with PvE elements so that anyone can contribute in some way. Toxicity would be unavoidable and there would obviously be some bad apples, but the goal would be for any player to be able to step in, participate in PvP, and get some rewards. On top of all the new mechanics and rewards, there would be the spirit of competition, the thrill of defeating your opponents and the frustration when they get the better of you. Rewards would obviously need to be dialed-in to make sure it isn't more rewarding than regular PvE content, but can still be farmed to get meaningful rewards if players want to spend their time doing PvP content. Something to remember is this would all follow the current PvP zone rules of diminishing returns, Alpha-only for Incarnate powers, limited temporary powers, etc. Any feedback would be much appreciated! Thanks for taking a look!

Now that our Trapdoor test is dead.. I was thinking of using this AE mission to replace it. What do you guys think? I'm pretty happy with the map and number of enemies, but would you want more variety in enemies? - Battle Maiden enemies (easy, good mix of range and melee attacks, standard damage types) - Defeat 1 Elite Boss (vanilla 5th Column EB who has 20% resist to all damage types) - Outdoor map with 9 total spawn (their location will vary slightly, but they will always be in the water area)

I'll have to go back and add build files to those two runs later. I've been overwriting the same file and forgetting to save them 🙃

Run Type: Pylon (Open Beta) Archetype: Stalker Primary Powerset: Dual Blades Secondary Powerset: Bio Armor Epic: Mace Time in seconds: Best: 33 Seconds Burst: Burst - due to Geas Hybrid: Assault - Radial* (toggled on) Number of Runs: 1 Version: Open Beta Temps Used: Offensive Amp, Geas db bio soul - Stalker (Dual Blades - Bio Armor).mbd