Uncle Shags

Yes, OP could have circled that part instead and used the exact same title and comment, genuinely, instead of sarcastically. That player in lfg really does do a great job of being both very friendly and unfriendly within 14 short little words. Very efficient. Like Hemingway. I agree though, that you can lfg how you want, and the glitch mode can be quite jarring. It's not like changeling is a protected minority status you aren't allowed to discriminate against.

Ha! I let you know when I find out... I've got a problem too. Might be similar to yours. Every time I make a new toon I'm positive that this one will be The One! The legendary Main that is so awesome and fun to play that I stick with it into hundreds of vet levels. I had this same pattern back on live. Chasing the Main seems to be in direct opposition to this other thing this game makes me do. I don't know what it is exactly, but it sratches a creative itch for me, or something. I love to make new characters, usually with some synergy between powers. I try to make them "the best at what they do" (I think I read too much Wolverine in high school...) and come up with ridiculous origin stories. Sometimes it's almost a palpable obsession that makes me want to build it and see how much baddie ass they (I) can kick. I think about it on the drive into work while shaking the steering wheel, "It's going to be awesome!" But then that obsession fades away. Fortunately, or not, for the last couple of years it always seems to come back, with a new "best" that will become everything I need it to be. Yeah, I'm crazy too. I think there are others like us here. With similar, but also unique symptoms. Something that is different now from back on live is that the altitis cycle for me is now long enough to hit 50. With double xp and fast moving teams I can usually get a couple dozen vet levels before I move on. On live I only got one toon to 50. Lots of alts though! I'm not too worried though. This new guy I made is different. I just got him to 50 a couple days ago. He's a bad mofo. It feels good. He's definitely The One.

I'm not complaining. I like a challenge. But I just want to be prepared. While running +4 MJ's AV arc tonight with a full pug team we ran into a lvl 56 Nightstar. We could barely scratch her and had to reset. I was going to just leave it at +4 because I figured it was a fluke and we'd get a 54 or 55 the second time, but a teammate got me to drop it to +3 just in case, even though it seemed blasphemous. Good thing, because she was 55, still +2 over mission setting. I've not run MJ since the new mission difficulty changes. Is this pretty standard? If so, it's going to take some getting used to. I'm going to feel a little, idk...wimpy?... if I have to run MJ at +3... I'll get over it I'm sure. Maybe because I've run it so many times it just feels weird. Change is hard for the old man....

Thanks, Dad. I'll try to be better.

This is what goofs me up. I'll try to look at someone's build but it's a from version different than current which fritzes it all, puts me into an older version and cascades into disaster. Since my recent fix I've avoided looking at anyone else's builds. Which has worked. But stinks.

AKA their first three attacks...

Blasters can use their first 3 attacks while mezzed and then clear it with a proc in one of them. That's not quite full immunity, but not really fully mezzed either...

Beets are more sugary than strawberries. Nerf vegetables!

Agreed! It limits options and hints at a "that's not allowed" vibe. I don't want to derail, but I also think the ability to make less stereotypical bodies would be great. At some point they added (I think it was added after launch?) the female chest size slider, which is nice. Similarly, a stomach size slider, I think, is necessary in order to represent more body types. Can we get a beer gut option, please?!

I've found multiple +5 carnie illusionists stack holds really high, quickly. I think others have mentioned Malta.

Which do you prefer? I tend to smash them both at once for moar damage. But I recently changed my slottng a bit and last night I noticed they were recharging at different rates so I tried the alternate technique. Now I'm wondering how other people do it.

I tried to do this too. Tried legacy mace. Didn't seem to work.

I think in order to get a grasp of the individual sets, you also have to have a bigger picture understanding of mitigation types and how they sit within each set. Specifically, the broad categories of defensive, resistance, and healing armors. They each have their pros and cons that apply differently depending on the enemy type and the situation. Very briefly, defense can avoid all sorts of nastiness completely, but when stuff sneaks through it can be large and dangerous. Resistance can turn big damage into small damage, but getting hit means you're also getting hit by other things like debuffs and mezz. Healing means no matter what happens you can just heal it back, but it shares the weaknesses of both of the other armor types. Most of the above can be dealt with through purposeful build craft, but it can get complicated. Most times, you just can't have it all. I feel like this is good game design. Here is a specific example. I've been thinking of rolling a new Psionic Armor tank. I've tried it out on test first and found that it did much better when I focused on its strengths (resistance, absorb, and healing) and completely ignored its weakness (very low defense). Usually a balance of mitigation is best, but in this case I found that chasing defense numbers wasn't doing much and it lead to build sacrifices elsewhere. Some of the biggest challenges, slow and to hit debuffs, that are a problem with low defense can be overcome with set bonuses and focused accuracy. Long story short, I found myself rocking it hard on my test server psi tank, other than two specific weaknesses: end drain and stacked mezz. Arachnos in mass will destroy my end bar. Carnies at +4 are fine, but at +5 their mezz duration increases and can hold me through my status protection. I think every tank has their Kryptonite. It can be humbling if you're not prepared. But I think that's working as intended!

Apparently the new patch is all sorts of wonky. This fixed it for me:

Holy shit it worked. You're my hero.

I believe my message is the same: I tried your fix and it didn't work. It seems like I have the same symptoms. Clean install, first updates try and then ultimately fails. Trying again gives the error message. Nothing has changed. Same PC, same OS.

Thanks! Also, that looks fantastic!

I tend to like small characters. But sometimes I want big visual effects. Are these in direct opposition? For instance, will my Meteor, Rise of the Phoenix, or Fallout be smaller or larger depending on the size of my character? I'm pretty certain it won't change the actual range/radius of the powers effects. I'm talking purely visuals here. Looking to make biggest boom boom. Thanks!

And then he'd come back in for a couple more snarks before announcing the official departure again.

Now I don't know what to think. I thought I needed to increase my defense, I just went back and tested and it made no difference. I thought +5s were way harder, I just went back and tested and now I can't even tell anymore. AFTER taking a pretty strong stance that it was waaay harder. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills... The only thing that makes me feel somewhat sane is that I fought quite a few +6 bosses in my prior tests. Tonight I only found 1. Maybe that made a difference. All I can say is I hope they make it hard. Please crank the +6 boss knob up to max! I'm going to bed...

So a +5 boss isn't going to be hitting you more frequently than a +4 boss if you have 45% defense?

I enjoy this, because layers of irony build up pretty quickly. We can easily get a triple decker if I complain about you complaining about people who complain. Now if you respond to my complaint we can get it up to four. How high can we go?!

Just did it tonight. One and a half hours of frustration. Wasn't helpful that someone decided it was their job to fly ahead of the tank with aoe immob on auto click. I might get a migraine...

Maybe. I haven't tried it on a team yet. We'll have to see. But I have tried it solo quite a bit on various toons, and I don't think "a bump in stats" fully captures it. It's not just that they have more hp and hit harder. They also have a greater chance to hit, so defenses built for +4 are going to fail. Mez lasts longer and hits more often so status protection is going to fail. Mezzes will end faster against them so bosses will be running around smacking people. Which will be exciting because +6 bosses chunked my tank like an AV rarely does. Pulling every group in sight was a +4 tactic you could get away with pretty easily. I'm not sure that'll work as well vs +5/6s. I don't know about you, but pug teams I join range in quality from steamroll to can barely take out MJ AVs. I suspect below average pugs are going to have a hard time. But hey! Maybe I'm biased because I want this to be hard. I'm really looking forward to the challenge, so maybe I'm overly optimistic. And, in principle, I like to make it a point to make room for other's opinions. But on the other hand, I'm also basing my impressions on actual experience on test.

I don't think those two quotes are incompatible. Are people going to get demolished? I think so. Especially solo. Some people aren't going to make adjustments in their tactics or builds to accommodate the increased difficulty and will be surprised. Notice I said faceplant "if you're not careful." I don't think it's only about money. For example, my SR tank build wasn't holding up vs +5/6s so I had to change it. I shifted things around and added weave for more defense. It worked. But it didn't cost me a dime. I think a diverse team of decent 50/51s will be able to handle it. Some will be faster than others, and some will choose to run +4s or +3s just like now, but that's just the way it is. You won't get kicked off a team for a budget build any more than you will for running a JJ one or for smashing your face on the keyboard now. Billion dollar build won't be the price of admission. I'm betting you probably won't be able to bring a bunch of lowbies though... And maybe +1 incarnate will be more important. But that's easy to get. Who knows, maybe team leads will be demanding resumes and links to mids for team membership. But I doubt it.