Maelwys

Also for any disgruntled Radiation Armor farmers... it might be worth keeping a close eye on Brainstorm. They're currently trialling yet another tweak to Radiation Therapy - effectively raising the proc rate again (although it'll still only be about half of what it used to be prior to the i28p2 patch) whilst simultaneously also doing away with the diminishing return curve and turning it into a flat reduction. The upshot is that this is good news if you're used to leveraging RT for AoE damage. As it'll likely become useful again; just not as overpowered as it was before the patch. For my EM/Rad Scrapper it's allowing me to reach ~55.6% of RT's previously attainable AoE damage over time, compared to the ~35.2% I'm currently getting on Live. So don't go rerolling just yet... 😉 (Ground Zero is likely going to stay as-is now targetcapwise; but we might be able to pester them into reducing its cast time a smidge...) Edit: Turns out Damage Proc activation rate in "Ground Zero" appears to be bugged at the moment too; they're currently kicking in much less than they should be! CP has confirmed the underlying cause of this has been found and fixed, so expect Ground Zero to start proccing properly again SOONTM.

FWIW it might be worth watching Brainstorm closely if you're a Radiation Armor user. They're trialling yet another tweak to Radiation Therapy - effectively raising the proc rate again (although it'll still only be about half of what it used to be prior to the i28p2 patch) whilst simultaneously also doing away with the diminishing return curve and turning it into a flat reduction. The upshot is that if you're intending to use it for damage output then it'll likely become kinda useful again; just not quite as overpowered as it was before the patch. For my EM/Rad Scrapper it's allowing me to reach ~55.6% of RT's previously attainable AoE damage over time, compared to the ~35.2% I'm currently getting on Live.

Interesting. Under the original version of the changes this was 25s base with +20s for the first and +14s for the second and +9.8s for the third etc. up to a maximum of 90s. The next version (that made it to live!) then set this to 15s base with +12s for the first and 9s for the second and +6.75 for the third etc. up to a maximum of 60s. This revision looks like the same 25s base duration as the original (so the activation rate of 3.5PPM procs in it become 46.72% again instead of the current 28.77%) And with a -70% flat reduction for additional targets instead of -25% multiplicative it's not hitting their performance vs large numbers of foes anywhere near as hard. I've been testing various different slotting setups on my EM/RA Scrapper; in an attempt to get the best bang-for-my-buck in terms of AoE damage output over time. The most effective combos I can find in each case are below: ("Old" Live prior to the i28p2 changes) ("Current" version on Live after i28p2) (This proposed "New" version on Brainstorm right now) This revision certainly seems like a more reasonable balance IMO compared to what is on Live right now. Still lower spike damage (unless you're just fighting a single target) but the dropoff in damage over time versus higher numbers of targets is considerably less harsh. Adding more procs instead of damage enhancement aspect also appears to be detrimental; therefore "procbombing" will be bad but fitting in 1-2 procs is fine. From a mitigation standpoint the numbers are still much higher than they used to be prior to the i28p2 patch whenever you're only fighting a single target. Looks good to me 👍

Yeah that one went right up to the wire but it did get revoked after all the negative (but well evidenced and reasoned!) feedback.

I wouldn't say the effects have been positive for Tankers. But I would say that IMO they have been positive for Melee AT balance as a whole; and also that in the end they were much less harsh than I had braced myself for. IMO they actually did a pretty good job of balancing the Tanker AoE damage nerfs so that they only really hurt if you're consistently saturating your AoEs (by hitting >10 foes) due to the "overcap" damage reduction mechanic. The base damage reduction that was affecting all Tanker AoEs with a <15ft base radius got reverted in a last-minute revision before it hit live; so currently on Live unless you're hitting >10 targets the only thing you should notice is a slight decrease to proc activation rate in those AoEs. The tweaks to Cone attacks might be more noticeable for most players. These no longer get a 50% arc boost, so it's now much less likely that you will be able to hit multiple targets with them... and at the same time they removed the larger target cap (which IMO due to the aforementioned arc boost removal is is almost irrelevant; because it's now very unlikely that you are going to be able to reliably hit >5 foes with a melee cone!). However the reduction to Cone base damage was reverted in an earlier build; so at least the changes to Cones that hit Live have not negatively impacted anyone's single target attack chain (Staff's looked horrendous at one point on Test!)

Yes. Lots, in fact. Personally at the moment I'd go with a RadM/Stone Brute for maximum efficiency... but AFK Farming has never really been about generating bleeding edge inf/hour. Hey, I'd buy one... 😛

AFAIK there's not been a conflict with multiple PT procs locking each other out for many years now and when it did exist it was a "one per server tick" thing, not one every 10s. I've been merrily slotting Power Transfers into multiple toggle/auto powers on my Brutes and Tankers for ages and it's quite common to see 3+ activate simultaneously.

FWIW, this is the sort of thing I personally would be recommending for an "AFK Farmer" now. (And it'd run versus Fire damage foes obviously, not S/L damage ones!) zBrute RadMelee_StoneArmor (AFK Farmer).mbd (Average endurance cost of sticking via Atom Smasher on Autofire should be ~1.643 End/Sec; the slight deficit is more than covered by Panacea procs) As for "Active" Farming...? The playing field has been evened out a lot; so there's no clear runaway winner any more which IMO is a good thing. Tanks and Brutes when both at the damage cap (via popping red insps!) will be pretty close performancewise. Tankers will find it easer to survive; but Brutes will have a slight lead on damage output. Realistically you could pick either. Or possibly even a Scrapper or VEAT (even more damage, even less survivability!) or something more exotic (I've been known to use Stalkers, Sentinels, Blasters, Masterminds, Kheldians and Dominators...) In terms of Melee AT powersets; Martial Arts will likely still come top due to Procbombed Dragon's Tail. Radiation Armor has suffered now that Radiation Therapy isn't worth procbombing and Ground Zero hits far fewer hostile targets... but Beta Decay's +Recharge plus a toned-down Ground Zero is still better than what most other sets provide. Personally I'd put both Fiery Aura (Procbombed Burn and Fiery Embrace) and Stone Armor (Minerals +Recharge and Brimstone Armor damage Procs) up there as potential contenders; and both sets will be slightly more effective on Brutes than on Tankers because Burn ticks and Brimstone Procs are affected by Fury. And Mu will still be the goto Epic/Patron Pool for Procbombed Ball Lightning and Electrifying Fences. At least on Tankers and Brutes. [Edit: Slotting tweaked slightly after accounting for Mid's buggy handling of Brimstone procs - ought to be pretty optimized now!]

Brutes and Tanks are roughly similar now (with Brutes having a slight edge in raw damage but Tankers having an easier time meeting the survivability thresholds). For AFK farming I'd go RadMelee/Stone Brute. For Active Farming I suspect the Epic pool attacks that already have a 16 target cap will become even more useful than before. Offensive set ranking is unchanged since everything has been nerfed equally. For Defensive set, Radiation Armor's been nerfed but Ground Zero is still better than what most other sets give you, might be a toss up between RA, FA and Stone.

Assuming it's a Tanker, then that'll be primarily due to the effect of the new "Overcap" damage reductions. The activation rate of Procs on AoEs with a base radius smaller than 15ft were also reduced a bit via the way they tweaked Gauntlet (moving the improved radius into each attack instead of treating it like a global buff). Thankfully the reduction in base damage for Cones and AoEs didn't make it out of beta so the nerfs to Tanker AoE damage are not anywhere near as uneven and heavy handed as they could've been... but there's still a noticeable negative effect on clear times whenever their AoEs are fully saturated. Like on farming runs.

(i) Swap the Numina Proc in Phoenix Rising for a Preventive Medicine Global; then swap the Heal/EndRed Numina IO in Physical Perfection for the Numina Proc. The Numina Proc won't work in a clicky unless it gets used at least once every 120s... but the Preventive Medicine Global doesn't care if the power gets used or not. I'd be very wary of deaths due to Spike damage - you're at the absolute bare minimum HP/Sec figure here even with accolades; and you don't have any Superior Unrelenting Fury +Regeneration proc activations to help take the edge off. So in addition to the above, I'd also recommend adjusting your Stamina slotting to fit in another Power Transfer proc (e.g. Power Transfer proc + Power Transfer EndMod + Performance Shifter proc). At a net recovery of ~1.15 End/Sec you'll also need to be careful of your endurance consumption; but even before getting the accolades clicking on Ageless and/or Radial Banished Pantheon at the start of the mission ought to take care of it. (ii) Providing you run BOTH Tactics AND Focused Accuracy you'll be OK accuracywise without Nerve Core - Atom Smasher is just about reaching 95% hit chance vs +3 foes. (iii) Finally... this slotting: 6x Damage Procs is fantastic for ACTIVE farming; when you have lots of different AoEs to procbomb and use one after the other without any gaps. However for AFK farming you only have one single AoE that you can set to autofire, so you really want to be getting as much damage over time from it as possible. Currently, best-case with 90 fury and T4 Musculature Core Alpha you can expect this to be doing an average of 609.1 damage every 19.168 seconds (31.78 DPS) If you swapped to a Spiritual Core Alpha it'd be 486.2 damage every 15.218 seconds (31.95 DPS) but with this slotting (which has the entire Obliteration set except the Acc/Rech, plus an extra damage proc): You gain damage and recharge aspect and a +recharge set bonus; for 459.3 damage every 13.708 seconds (33.51 DPS) By swapping the Musculature Core for a Spiritual Core, it becomes 418.2 damage every 11.878 seconds (35.21 DPS) and with this slotting (which has Lv50+5 Dam/Rech IOs in the first 3 slots, plus damage procs in the last three slots): With Musculature Core, 475.6 damage every 12.648 seconds (37.60 DPS) With Spiritual Core, 435.5 damage every 11.478 seconds (37.94 DPS) and if your budget can stretch to 2x Purple IOs (Armageddons - a +5 Dam/Rech and the Proc): With Musculature Core, 533.4 damage every 13.568 seconds (39.31 DPS) With Spiritual Core, 468.1 damage every 11.788 seconds (39.71 DPS) Note that these last few examples have a net recovery of ~1.15 End/Sec before procs (~1.23 with the two Purples); and will be consuming ~1.76 End/Sec (~1.71 with the Purples) by spamming Atom Smasher. However the Panacea and Performance Shifter procs will add an average of ~0.625 so you should be fine even without Ageless.

I'm pretty sure back in the day slotting Acc/Mez HOs increased the Magnitude of Intangiblility effects; as I distinctly remember using Sonic Cage to collar problematic AVs in tricky encounters solo without having to have another teammate with a similar effect to stack it with. Phasing Infernal whilst we killed his Summoning Portal was one of the earliest uses IIRC; and I'm fairly certain it still applied whenever the original Statesmans TF was released - I recall teams caging Ghost Widow; as well as the towers.

I wonder if we could convince Dark Watcher to help us resurrect HotBot...? 🤔💀🪄👻

FWIW I've found Mojeek tends to always show a decent grouped-up summary of the contents of the HC Forums by default; so that might be a better option if all someone is looking for is a quick replacement for how Google used to work whenever you just type something quickly like "maelwys homecoming forum". Brave on the other hand seems to prefer showing you a variety of results from across the web rather than focusing in on one particular domain - so you really need to add the "site:" qualifier (like "maelwys site:forums.homecomingservers.com") if you want more focused results. Haven't tried Kagi. Yandex searches seem to be laden with random murky bloatware/malware references for some reason. Swisscows and Gigablast also exist but the former isn't wonderful and the latter is total garbage.

Personally? I'd give Staff a try. After the Regen rework (I hesitate to claim the Devs have "buffed Regen" for fear of fracturing reality) you've got Health Regeneration and +MaxHP and Endurance Recovery (even on Stalkers now!) covered. Instant Healing being replaced by Reactive Regeneration means you have far greater sustain than before; and Moment of Glory and Reconstruction still provide you with some "Spike" mitigation. Dull Pain Second Wind might be skippable now depending on whather or not you can cap your MaxHP without it after Ailment Resistance + Accolades and Set Bonuses. However it still has plenty of room for Damage Resistance and Defense buffs (and even provides some inherent DDR now via Ailment Resistance). Stalkers have always had the "best" version of Staff - as the set lacked Spike ST damage (e.g. "Assassin's Staff") and Build Up on other ATs. But it's just had a buff to its regular ST damage - now Sky Splitter gains a sizable chunk of additional bonus damage whenever you activate it with 3 stacks of Perfection of Body (which Stalkers get by default without having to sacrifice a power pick for "Staff Mastery"!) so instead of 203.93 base damage it's now dealing 245.57 (before Crits) in addition to granting you a non-stacking 9.98% Damage Resistance buff for 15s and inflicting Knockup (FF Proc!). Compare that to Crit Fast AS's 306.97 base damage. Since AS adds one Perfection Stack; you need two more attacks to complete the basic AS > X > Y > SS chain. Serpent's Reach is a decent DPA ST attack with a 40ft range that happens to also take Ranged IO Sets (another purple proc!) and inflict Knockdown (FF +Rech Proc!). So that's one. Guarded Spin deals reasonable damage for a 90 degree melee Cone and applies an enhanceable and stackable +11.25% Melee/Lethal defense buff for 10s; making it a pretty good filler. The other option is Mercurial Blow which is a little higher DPA and also inflicts -Def (Achilles' Heel Proc!) but has a low base recharge so isn't hugely worth procbombing. Therefore I'd go with Serpent's Reach and Guarded Spin. A chain of AS > GS > SR > SS (or whatever order you decide on) requires a fair amount of recharge for Sky Splitter (+192%) and Assassin's Staff (+115%) but you can prop that up a bit with FF proc activations if needed. If you throw an Epic Snipe in there too then it'll drop to a mere +123% required for Sky Splitter so you'll really just need to focus on stacking Recharge for the snipe itself (e.g. Moonbeam needs +194% recharge for a chain of MB > AS > GS > SR > SS to be seamless). Either way you'll end up dealing decent damage and getting +9.98% Resist to all and +22.5% (Enhanceable) Melee/Smashing Defense. SS can be swapped for Eye of the Storm if/when you need more AoE.

IIIRC the main impact is to the damage ticks. They now obey the AT modifiers so Controller version deals less damage than Dominator version etc.

In 2005 maybe? These days I almost certainly would've gone with Plant/ before today's patch. Now I'd probably be leaning towards Arsenal or Illusion (depending on whether you're primarily leaning more towards AoE damage or Single Target damage). As for secondary? Arsenal gets a substantial chunk of its AoE output from procbombed Sleep Grenade and Flash Bang which both have low base damage; and Illusion gets a substantial amount of its output from Phantom Army which can't be buffed (other than via Assault Hybrid) so IMO /Kinetics (e.g. Fulcrum Shift) won't be doing as much for either of them as /Marine (Procbombed Whitecap plus Shifting Tide stacks and Brine). However /Traps or /Storm or /TA would all be decent options too.

Nah; from what I could see there was actually a LOT of engagement on the Open Beta focussed feedback forums this time around - especially in the Tanker thread where the Devs specifically asked us to post clear times so they could see the effect of the changes. They made pretty major revisions and concessions based on it; revoking the radius nerfs first partially (Cones) then almost fully (AoEs) and changing the new "overcap" mechanic from two different exponential curves to a single much easier-to-understand flat reduction. There were also several bugs spotted and fixed over the course of the testing and feedback (e.g. Staff). Yes, there are certainly things requested that didn't make it into the patch (like lowering the cast time on Ground Zero!) but it's a whopper of a patch as it is, and the result looks much better now after all it went through on Beta.

I always assumed that the real reason that Illusion Control's PBAoE hold has a ~3.0 second cast time is to properly fit a 108 BPM tempo. (if you listen carefully you'll notice it takes six just-over-half-second beats after "FLASH!" before Freddie the Phantasm and the Phantom Army respond with that iconic choral "a-ahh") 😜

No worries. It's rather easy to miss the "-" at the beginning of "-Res modifiers lowered to match other melee ATs." 👍

With that sort of cash you'll be looking at a Granite build. I'd aim for something like the below; which can handle both S/L and Fire farms. (Note there are a few IOs that need +5'ed in Stone Skin, Granite Armor and the two damage auras) Brute (Radiation Melee - Stone Armor) - NoPurples.mbd After you have a bit of scratch you can look at a more expensive Graniteless build which uses Purple and Superior Winter sets to cap Fire Resistance and Defense. (Like this one: zBrute (Radiation Melee - Stone Armor) - Purples.mbd)

Elec's definitely getting some love; that extra sustain is going to help. Probably won't quite be top-tier but still much more solid than it is currently. Combined with SS? The Rage Crash won't hurt much; and Lightning Reflexes plus a FF +Rech in Foot Stomp pulls a fair bit of weight. Should be fine.

Sure. Step #1: Look at this thread: Step #2: Go to AE and search for terms like "Farm" and "AFK" and you'll see plenty of maps that state they're been revamped for the Page5 changes. America's Angel has some good 10 minute Asteroid Farm maps for both AFK and Active farming that deal either Fire or S/L damage. Worst case you can make your own custom enemy group + map (I've done it for Cold and Psychic damage enemies for my MM farmers!). Step #3: Make sure your difficulty is set properly. Typically this will be+4x8 with Allow Bosses when Solo and Enabled AVs... but you can reduce the level all the way down to +0x8 and disable bosses if you're struggling to survive. For AFK farming on +4x8 you need 90% resistance and 45% Defense plus AT LEAST 35 HP/Sec passive regeneration. Step #4: Stick all your toggles on, put your chosen PBAoE on Autofire and Zone in. for Asteroid maps; parking yourself towards the middle of the map rather than at the very edge tends to speed things up; as does starting off by summoning your Lore Pets (Radial Banished Pantheon typically) and enabling your Hybrid (Assault Core/Radial). The America's Angel maps have a glowie to click on otherwise it'll kick you out after 10mins (which can be helpful as it means you'll need less clicking to get to the next map with a fresh batch of enemies) Some maps have helper NPC allies - these need to spawn as Archvillains not Elite Bosses or they'll die too fast to be useful. Don't bother with the "40 minute AFK" cave maps. You'll be better off spamming the 10 minute asteroid ones.

Even just yoink the character animation from Void Judgement (pretty sure it's 2s base) and speed up the particle effect to match. You big tease you 😛

Hopefully involving a reduction to the cast time of Ground Zero? 🤞🥺 🥺 🤞 I know I've been posting about the Radiation Therapy changes; but they make perfect sense balancewise IMO. It's become a lot better as a survivability tool; and it was never supposed to be a Nuke. (Honestly even one big damaging "AoE" per secondary powerset is plenty; even if my EM/RA Scrapper's clear times are going to be taking a notable hit!) 😛