Lazarillo

But the inability to use Fallout on my robot pets just feels like such a freaking waste! Why even be Bots/Rad, if I can't simulate an explosive power core breach?

I was on this team (Technician Savage! Hi!). Hamidon is a true supervillain, taking our moment of hope and relief and turning it to abject despair. But yeah, Hammy's such a rough experience during Lady Gray as is, I don't feel like he needs to add any extra hurdles to jump through, especially because this does feel like a bug, more than anything.

Yeah, conceptually, they kinda work that way, but the nature of the game makes that tricky to execute. After all, the player characters don't get to hang around their hideout moving pieces on the chessboard. They're actively pursuing the missions. That's kinda where the conflict is for me. It's very hard to come up with a concept for a character that both would be actively putting themselves into the battle, but not be able to battle themselves. The classic Mastermind works great as a boss or enemy group leader, less as a player character, most of the time. At least for me.

Because I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that Masterminds can't really defend themselves, I tend to conceptualize a lot of characters who could be more "lead from the front" types, that I then don't end up playing because that would require a whole new AT (I have ideas! Someone on HC staff, hit me up! 🙃). And on the opposite end of the spectrum, I have a tendency to come up with Controller or Dominator-type characters and then go "yeah, but I don't really think the pet fits my concept", and lose interest that way, too. Plant Control hits me really hard with this. No offense to Audrey, but my concept of Plant Control would involve keeping the Creeper Patch as the main summon of the set, I think.

The Rebirth Community has the Guardian AT, which do this, and which, I admit, I really enjoy playing (though their inherent is wonky and unimmersive). HC's made clear that they don't want to be accused of copying others' work and thus probably wouldn't do anything too similar, though. Plus, they'd probably (maybe?) rather focus on making this community's own unique AT less janky first.

That's all well and good when you assume no cost. But the point is that the builds that can make use of amplifiers at max level are already pulling 7.5 million influence per hour (or greater). And no build that's that highly specialized is going to be effective because it's using buffs that at that point are so small relative to set bonuses and the like.

It doesn't really do either? That's the point. I could gain effectively similar benefits by, say, joining a few DfB runs, but then I'd miss out on story content in Port Oakes (or not be able to do Praetoria at all), and if I need to slow down, of course, I can turn off XP. But in doing so, I'm not able to fully apply myself to the content, and/or am deliberately limiting myself on team content. Amplifiers are nice because they allow me to fill a gap that that is left by choosing not to level quickly.

If the intent is to discourage their use period, then I'd say just remove them from the P2W vendors and be done with it (though again, that's not the rationale that seems to be given in the notes). They aren't practical as an inf sink for reasons already noted: at the point you're generating that much Inf, they're unnecessary.

In my experience, it's the opposite. I don't want to move too quickly through the early levels, as it's very easy to outlevel content that I want to do with my characters from the story side of things (content that either can't be flashed back to in most cases, or is diminished if done as a flashback). But the fun factor ends up diminished because so many things are level-gated.

They're not any cheaper at 50 with this change, though? The cost of the amplifiers is [Level]²x1000, per amplifier per hour. Same as they are post this patch. This is only a nerf to using them at lower levels, essentially. It's no change at max level, where they're not really serving their purpose anyway because anyone who could afford them is built enough to render them completely meaningless. If the explicit purpose is for them to be an Influence sink, then the proposed changes don't fix the current circumstances. Ultimately, removing the option for low level characters to use them would be the same as, say, attaching a 10 million-inf entrance fee to DfB.

How? If they weren't worth sinking money into before, they won't be any more worthwhile now. You think because people aren't spending 24,000 on their new characters, they're more likely to spend 60 million on their finished ones?

Like most Stalker sets, they lost the damage aura (Mud Pots, in this case).

I'd very much say they just need to be kept ticking down, in that case. Right now, they're useful as replacements to things like DfB for new characters (particularly Praetorians), and less useful to people who are already performing high level content due to the restrictive prices. Circumstances where they're going to end up being temporarily disabled are for that high level content where they should be impractical, while the more practical use shouldn't be effectively eliminated for that.

What are the odds that a fix for this could maybe get snuck into I27 page 3?

IIRC, the big result of its fall was two nerfs (well, one overt nerf, one tweak that ended up being a nerf to Fire/Kin specifically): First, the Imps got their level knocked down. They were originally summoned at the player's level. At some point, that got knocked down so that they became -1. Second, pets were changed to be immune to any changes in their Recharge values, as that could wreak havoc on their AI, something that Fire Imps, only having their one brawl attack, didn't have an issue with, and instead, just became little brawling machineguns when Speed Boost-ed. Between these two changes, the unstoppable flaming vortex that was Fire/Kin just couldn't keep the Imps killin' like it used to, and the combo fell out of favor with farmer types, though it remains a pretty grand combo in terms of overall synergy and usefulness.

Hard no from me. "No deaths" challenges are boring. You've gotta have a little risk to have fun. "Master of" challenges are better when they're more focused on unique mechanics and additional work, like the Incarnate Trials (and from the looks of it the new ASF), not when they encourage you to do less.

My /Titan Weapons tanker uses a specific set of animations designed not necessarily for maximum effectiveness or anything, but just because it looks like it's got the right kind of "flow" when Momentum is active. After getting Momentum with Rend Armor, go to Defensive Sweep (swing wide and upward!) to Crushing Blow (keep going, spin and down!), to Follow-Through (twirl that thing and repeat the swing without moving!). I also have an /Atomic Blaster who does it for both cool factor and animation sake: Electron Shackles (extend the left hand) immediately followed by Positron Cell (arm stays extended, hand clenches back into a fist). Looks cool and activates the set's unique debuff at the same time!

Yeah, I've been trying to think of some sort of "elegant solution". One that had come to mind was something like changing Build Up for the set from straight +Damage to a "guaranteed Critical on the next attack", and then give Seismic Smash a chance-to-Recharge-Build Up effect. Thus allowing the Critical hold to be "stored" for when it was needed. Something like a combo system or an Energy Lode-esque idea like you described might work as well.

So I'm a little on the fence about the way Seismic Smash works with Critical Hits. In essence, I'm middling on the actual use of tying the boss-level Hold to the Critical Hit. The purpose, to me, of giving that level of control to a melee power is to prevent enemies from using speedbump powers. I want to avoid things like Fake Nemesis putting up their PFFs, Paragon Protectors launching MoG, etc. A skill that creates that effect a fraction of the time, and can't be made to do so reliably, doesn't really accomplish the effect at all, in a practical sense, because I end up still having to build and fight around the assumption that I will not have a Mag. 4 Hold when I need it. Now, in practice, I've played around with a Stone/ Scrapper and the set's general levels of control from knockdown, and damage out the wazzoo mean I've generally avoided needing the Hold in my experiences so far. So this beef may be mostly academic. But by the same token, that still means that getting a "critical" Hold isn't really meaningful. I'm wondering if there's therefore not something better that can be done (since I do agree with the general design philosophy that says a full-damage Critical for Seismic Smash would likely be a little too amazing).

Yeah, I was just thinking, "I should go back and edit the post and note just that."

Do we really need a further extending of the broken old i0 bosses you defeat by alt-tabbing?

Is it by design that Sentinels have no additional methods of building Static through other sets like the other ATs do? Is there any thought to adding such to powers in Electricity or Mu Mastery (since there doesn't really feel like anything in Electric Armor fits the build-through-action motif)?

These appear to be Detail 1, not Detail 2. The lit-up blue part of the gloves cannot be color changed. Is this working as intended due to something like a technical limitation? Or a bug?

Well, I ain't here to judge, but for me personally, yeah, actually. I won't to join the classic "Master of" TF badge runs, because they're not a fun way for me to play, and I'm not inclined to bring other people's fun down by impeding them on such runs, either.

If you ain't dyin', you ain't tryin'.