Ukase

Interesting. Thanks for the clarity. If I see Okie, I'll ask him, I know he ran an MoDD earlier today.

Are you saying that she consumed them before the essence timer expired?

Yep. It's time, I think. I know that some folks show up when they can, and some folks forget about it, and get reminded via lfg. But it would certainly be nice to zone in and know that an errant bud isn't spawning on some player not in the league. They may or may not even know that we have to defeat the buds to get hami to spawn/respawn.

I'll say now that I'm concerned about even mentioning this, as while I've gotten it to repeat, it's only happened in one place. The Abyss. From time to time, a raid leader will ask if I can slot incan or clarion. So, I do. And invariably, I forget at the next raid to switch back to rebirth, and don't realize it until we're about to buff and go clobber the big blob. So, I have options: I can quit - wait 5 minutes, slot it. That would work and we all know it would work. I could go to my sg base while on the league...maybe it would work, but I might not get back in the zone. So, last week, I just kept clicking on the rebirth radial to swap it after hami was down, before the buds spawned, and it swapped! I had literally been spamming attacks at hami less than a minute ago. This goes against this odd rule of the 5 minute limiter on swapping incarnate powers. Yesterday, same problem. Feeble memory, yada, yada, yada, and again I was able to swap it out in about 20 seconds of repetitively clicking on the Radial Rebirth (T-4). So, my concern is that this isn't a bug at all, and I'm just too obtuse (I know I'm at least somewhat obtuse) to grasp what words mean. My other concern is it's a legit bug, and the HC devs look at it, and in trying to fix it blow up the game or something crazy. Or just delete my character by accident. I dunno. It just seems so innocuous to report something like this. But, maybe it's important. Certainly not complaining. And just so we're clear, the Destiny that was being replaced was fully recharged. It's not like I spammed Ageless, and then swapped for rebirth right away. That would be a superb exploit, no question. This seems more harmless. But, perhaps we can at least get some clarification as to precisely when we can swap these powers without an error message telling us we should invest in a proper watch.

Something odd...I rechecked - and now I can use all of them. Now I'm really confused!

Someone made a post that confused me. I wasn't going to ask for elaboration, but leave the confused emoji - but the only option was a thumbs up. People give me pizza, pineapples and thumbs down from time to time, and the confuse emoji too - why can't I do this for certain other posts?

I used to be in your camp about pylons, as it really doesn't matter if my blaster can defeat the pylon in 90 seconds, when it wasn't attacked once. The answer to the question of "How much dps does your character do while taking damage" gives more relevant information. But the more I play and see others play, the more convinced I am that many of us, because of the way we're wired are just over-thinking this stuff. This isn't NASCAR where I need to eke out the very best speed I can and still keep the car on the track and the driver safe. But some players, they really enjoy the nuance of the numbers and winning the qualifying lap time. And I suspect, in part, it's due to the fat loot that awaits them at the conclusion of 4* TFs. If they know they're not being carried on these runs, I'm sure it's a lot more fun for them. But it could just be folks just want to do something the best of their ability, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. The only goal I have is to play my character as best I can, and try to contribute as much as the next player. I'm more than willing to follow a specific build if someone wants me to, for a specific purpose. But I'm not going to not have frigid protection on my ice blaster because I expect to have a couple of Kins on my team to give me endurance. I can't rely on a kin to be on my team, nor can I rely on their skills to give me the endurance when I need it. Anything can happen in those settings. I'd have to really know the team well before I could grow to trust them in that regard. Even then, it would be a special build just for that TF. (as I understand it, that's fairly normal to make a build specifically for 4* TFs. ) But, in order for them to trust that I can carry my weight, I don't think it's unreasonable for them to ask for a pylon time below some threshold. 1 minute or so, seems to be the desired value, but that might be nuts to say out loud.

I love the passion all sides have on the issue! I think what's needed is the tedious, unfun stuff, like numbers. Take an SS tank, and have rage, show it does in a given mission, and then analyze the results vs no rage, double rage, each of the different primaries. Then repeat with the other ATs that can get SS. Then comes the counterpoints: how is rage slotted? How is the rest of the build slotted? Some of you are so clever with your play, and your builds, you could clear a map 90 seconds faster than I could with my best character. And I also suspect that when one player says "X is fine", that maybe they play a certain way and when a player says "X needs work", they play differently. Sadly we need to find time to do the missions and get the numbers - which even then will be suspect because some folks have a great attack chain and don't use a t-9 when they only need a t-3 or a t-1. It's really easy to say things are messed up when often it's user operation resulting in less than optimal results. Lord help us, I suppose a pylon could work too, as we're not testing survivability. But I find when I'm not "recovering" between mobs, my end runs down, which slows the dps. (as it should I guess) It's just that with pylons, there's a tendency to go whole hog, put on your fog effect, and use the START buffs, etc.

Below is the macro I use to spawn Spirit Tree with my plant/cold controller. And up to now, it's worked perfectly. /macro TREE "powexecname Spirit Tree$$powexec_location target Spirit Tree" I'm in the first mission of Maria Jenkin's portal jockey arc, where I'll have to clobber Chimera. When I'm solo, I typically use the macro to place the spirit tree in the midst of a group. Then I'll use the same formatted macro for Carrion Creepers. Again - no issues with this macro until this mission. There's a Greater Devoured 39 feet away. And I'm getting an out of range message when I try to use them. I can click on the power, and place the reticle at the target no problem, so the issue is with the macro, I guess. It is an older game, and it's bound to have issues. And ultimately, if it's just in this mission, or just in watery environments, not a big deal. But maybe some of you know macros better and there might be a solution that will always work. Edited: After placing the reticle on the group, I dispatch those npcs, and the next groups, the macro worked fine and continued to do so. I can only guess there was something under the water that prevented the placement via macro. Just not sure why the "out of range" error message. //begin mini-rant I don't know why the original developers thought placing a reticle in a specific spot when a target could be used was a good thing. They had their reasons, and some of you may appreciate the flexibility. It's all good, but man, I'd really just prefer to mash a button and have the attack fire at the target. //end mini-rant

My second character on retail was very much like this. My first character was an elec/elec blaster. I was so clueless, I had no idea how clueless I was. Didn't know there were forums. I'd just gotten the game, punched in the 16 digit code, made a couple of characters, and the elec/elec blaster seemed the more fun of the few I'd tried out. I'd noticed on a hunt into Terra Volta that Tank bosses would stun me, or one of the others would sleep me, and then I'd be defeated in short order. This happened to me ....10? 15 times? All trying to take out the same Freaks in TV. I didn't know what a pull was, let alone how to do it. I didn't know break frees existed, or if I did, I didn't have any. And there was no /AH to get some. And I was probably pretty broke, too. If there had been an AH my guess is they would have cost 1M or something. So, my inexperienced naive brain said, "I need a blaster with heals". CoV didn't exist, so a corruptor or MM wasn't an option. I made an emp/elec defender. I didn't take heal other until I'd taken all my attacks from the secondary that I could. I never took absorb pain. I read the description and was like "Why would I want to weaken myself? What idiot would take that power?" I have a clear memory of seeing Adrenaline Boost and Clear Mind and wondering why I couldn't use these on ME. I needed them more than anyone else! It was around level 30 or so I discovered the forums and realized how ignorant I was. (still hold on to a part of that ignorance!) So, yeah, I've done the bizarre. And that was by sheer accident of inexperience. Took me 540, or 570 hours to get to level 50. I can't remember. It was a LONG time. My first 50. I think when the doors shut, I had maybe 8 50s. The others went much, much faster. I think my spines/regen scrapper got there in 39 hours or something.

Any chance we could get some garlic and/or cross invention salvage? Asking for a friend...

So, this has happened a couple of times now. Scenario: Janet Kellum's story arc. I'll leave my base to go to the next mission and I'll get ambushed. The first time it happened, since it was Malta, and not Crey, I just figured it was someone else's ambush (level 43 malta don't normally hang out in Talos). This next time, in IP, more Malta. So, I was expecting the ambush, but I was expecting Crey, not Malta again. No idea if this is repeatable, as I haven't outleveled the contact to try it again. And it's really not a big deal - just reporting it.

I love how in the initial post you were monitoring Gravity. I still have some characters that find themselves monitoring this after an update.

I think the assumption is for the -res to fire before the teammate's attacks register in those circumstances where the teammate fires at such a time where the -resist is registered, then the teammate attack registers. But, if I'm understanding, when player A uses their proc'd attack, all of those procs and the -res register in one "server tick". So either the teammate's attack hits before any of the Player A procs, or after all of Player A's procs. Of course, me understanding is a large assumption.

So, that emphasis of yours. What current game data would you like to see? I guess what I'm asking is, do I take my tank and find some mission, clear it with unchained might, and then take that same tank, the only difference being I have rage instead and compare the times? So, I'm a bit puzzled by this - if that's what you're asking - because it's an apples and oranges comparison. You seem to be saying that the tank dps with UM is less than it is with Rage. This doesn't surprise me. And I'm okay with it. The reason is - I don't have to watch my endurance bar and ensure I've got at least 50% before it crashes. I don't have to make sure I time my heavier hits until after the crash. To me, the sacrifice is worth it. But that's just me. I don't dare speak for anyone else. If I only played a character that dealt a minimal threshold of damage, there's a lot of characters I wouldn't play. And no matter what change they did to Super Strength on a tank, I wouldn't play it. Because even if it's good, it's still pretty lame when I compare it to my blasters. While I don't think damage should be discarded as a factor in the change, I don't think it should get as heavy a weight as you think it should get. Just my opinion. I solo a lot, so sure, I'd love it if it got more. But I think the idea is you have less dps because you don't have the crash. Maybe the number is too low in your mind - that's fair. Maybe I've completely misconstrued what they're after. That's certainly possible. I just know I played it and didn't notice the dps was weaker than it should be. (Bear in mind, I didn't do math, I just played some content and it took about as long as I would have expected it to.) And if I've misunderstood, or misread your post, I apologize. I'm just looking for clarity and trying to be helpful.

For me, it just seems odd the range is short, but I appreciate the info!

Short version: Fissure range should be 2x to 3x the current 20 foot range. Longer: I'm not in the loop enough to know the reasoning for a 20 foot range on Fissure. I'm curious as to what that reason is, though. My feedback is that while I'm grateful my controller will have access to seismic smash, I'm finding that the 20 foot range is insufficient for my needs. I don't think I've encountered a power with such limited range, except maybe on a Sentinel. Even then I recall the ranges being 40 feet, maybe 60 feet. Never 20 feet. Was this a mistake? By design? Why? Just to have something different?

I appreciate the math you did, and your perspective. But for me - passive stats are what I like! I don't want to manage a rage crash. I thought my tank on Brainstorm was doing just fine with Unleashed might. And I didn't do any math. I didn't need to. I was having fun with it, and to me that's the only test that I was concerned with. The damage was nice. I didn't try to tackle a pylon or Trapdoor or anything. I just played content the way I normally would. It's fine the way it is. Would I like more? Sure. But I don't have any evidence to suggest it needs more. Now your math may say something different, which is fine. But I don't see why they can't add it, and change it later. It's not like that hasn't been done before.

This is you. You can only speak for yourself. I know plenty of folks that play all day, every day. And I don't even get out much. The game is getting better with age.

That's a damn shame. I liked Unchained might, and would take it over rage because of the dps I get from hand clap through unchained might. No unchained might, no handclap.

Yeah, I shouldn't have used Adamastor. My point was that someone who would want to solo a GM (regardless of GM) might have a problem doing so if a map marker pointed out where the GM was to other folks. Scenario: I want to solo Kraken. (I don't really want to) I see the message in Hero Event channel and find him before anyone else. I pop an inspiration or two, and I've got him about 1/3 of the way down, and then someone else shows up and "helps" even though I don't want or need their help (at least I don't know that I do, but the point of soloing the GM is to find out if I can, I guess) With a map marker - that's the only scenario where I see someone might have an issue. The only real foul is the first player didn't find out of they could solo the gm or not. Everyone gets paid, so it's ultimately not a big deal (to me), but might be to the first player. ME - I'm in favor of it. I'm just trying to look at all sides of the issue.

Have you ever tried to solo Adamastor? Ya gotta wake up pretty early in the morning to do this, so to speak. It may not be a league of 30, but invariably someone comes by and wants to get at least a hit in for merits. The lesser rewarding GMs like Babbage or Kraken which can be a little tougher to find might give that player a chance to solo it. But with the marker...odds are some merit hungry person (like me!) is going to come along. Some players will respect a player trying to solo, others won't. Both are fair play, but it would have an impact on the solo hunter in this context. I've been the solo player, and it's not like I was beating the GM like a level 7 Hellion with my level 15 blaster. It was more how you might expect an ill/rad to fare against Adamastor. Slowly. Too slowly. I do think the pros of having the marker outweigh the cons. But so far, I'd say the last 20-30 characters I've made have gotten all the GMs without this proposed change - but I've been playing a long time and have the maps to see their likely spawn points.

Um..actually, I was trolling. A bit. So completely a fair comment. It's a bit of a peeve of mine to see players give advice to newer players that is clearly missing what I consider required caveats. So, your suggestion would certainly help those new players who fall victim to incomplete advice.

I use these channels, except for General where I disable that just on principal. The same dialogue that goes on there SHOULD be going on in Help and LFG, but people are hypersensitive to off-topic chat. But I digress. New players often get shut down and simply referred to the forums or discord to learn about the game. There's no question I use Vidiotmaps, and the badgesetlist pop menu. But in the same way the Fast Travel pop menu is now an inherent part of the game, I'd love it if the badgesetlist were also an established inherent, with a nice macro icon, as well as vidiotmaps. A radio button to show badges or not could be toggled. Off by default. I dislike the idea of suggesting a new player stop playing and tab out or log out to read about how to download a couple of add-ons just to improve their playing experience. Could they muddle about without these things? Sure. It's debatable if they will enjoy the game more or less ignoring the suggestions or heeding them. People are different. Some folks will have more fun going right to a GM than others, and I'm sure the opposite is also true. Anytime a player is advised to use Mids, to visit the forums, or leave the game to learn about the game - the game has failed the player. This information should be easily discoverable within the context of the help menu. Now - we know that would be a HUGE undertaking, a likely huge pain in the butt. And I wouldn't ever expect all of that to happen. But this addition is interesting in that the only player that might be negatively impacted would be a player that wants to solo a GM for whatever reason. You make a little radio button that a player selects - off by default - "Show location of GM". The folks that like the hunt can hunt. The folks that don't can go right there. Now, that adds an element of "will the hunter get there in time" risk, but if it's just a matter of visiting spawn points, they should have plenty of time to get a hit in. The hard part comes for an NPC like Caleb or Paladin when they are on the move. And Babbage and Kronos when they're spawning in response to ambush. I don't know that Babbage or Kronos should be advertised, as both are in response to a player's specific actions, and that should be left up to the players running that content to decide if they want help or not. But given some of the crazy game mechanics I've seen added, I'm confident they could add this if they wanted to. And that's the rub.

I was grabbing the explorations on a level 30 controller in Indy port, and happened to see the Ghost ship about to exit. It left behind, as it is designed to do - ghosts. That are level 25. This doesn't make much sense to me. It seems like these should be unleveled, the way the snowmen that spawn from Christmas presents are. The badger in me hates the idea, because it means I'd need help, most likely, to get this badge on my controller, if I wanted to get it quickly. But damn, I was 1 bar from 31. Might have been nice to knock those 50 ghosts out, get the badge, and maybe get the next level. Is there a reason these are level 25 npcs instead of unleveled? Or have our brilliant devs just not gotten around to it yet?