ThatGuyCDude

Babbage likes to drop Sprockets. These Sprockets are identical to the kind that spawn everywhere else Clockwork are seen. There's a problem with this: they have a bad tendency to jump up to the level of a taunter while the Babbage is being engaged. Suddenly there's no hope of a low-level character or team joining the fight against the giant monster, because the Sprockets are now spawned at level 50 instead of a scaled state relative to the player fighting them. Other entities in the game spawn adds relative to their level at the time they're spawned. That's fine. But Giant Monsters are different, because they're not instanced content and they're intended to be faced by leagues. Entities they spawn should be a separate variant of the basic enemies, set level-less so they can be fought as blue or white threat minions/lieutenants/et al. regardless of if the player is Level 1 or Level 50. Yes, this is a response to Torchbearer's Saturday Night Synapse (Babbagefest). Yes, I imagine the Sprockets spawning without a level is a technical limitation because of their leveled presence elsewhere. The solution? Make a copy of the Sprocket enemy that is specific and exclusive to Babbage and Paladin and always spawns unleveled. Giant Monsters with spawns that would need to be inspected: Jurassik (Rubbles on death) Paladin (Sprockets - can share enemy data with Babbage) Babbage (Sprockets - can share enemy data with Paladin) Jack in Irons (Red Caps, though I think he's fixed already) and possibly the Arachnos Flyer (though given its zone's average threat level this is probably unnecessary)

Debuffs don't track who they're from (Seers will stack their progressive Mez on you if there's two of them attacking at once), which means stacking Broadsword players would accelerate their Sever rate but only the last one to hit would get the benefit. I'm not entirely sure that's a problem (it's still the same number of triggers total), though it could be frustrating if one player has a better damage enhancement rate than the other. What other mechanics could be considered as a means to handle this problem, I wonder? Sentinels don't share stacks of Vulnerability but they do share the benefit. A second Sentinel is prohibited from applying their inherent bonus to the same target. This seems like it's a similar situation with Broad Sword, but it doesn't really work out. Moving on. MasterMinds have abilities that affect their own pets. That's more promising. ...Eureka. You make Broadsword spawn an invisible, fast, flying pseudopet that follows the target. IT gets stacks of real Laceration (the target gets 'fake' stacks for player monitoring). When a Sever is proc'd, it feeds through the pseudopet which then detonates on the target as bonus damage (removing an equivalent count of 'fake' laceration stacks to convey to the player that the effect has triggered).

YES! I freaking hate those guys! I hated Carnie Illusionists until I had a flash of inspiration: their strategy is a brilliant mitigation tactic. Now I take Phase Shift on all my heroes, get a pack's attention, and then stand there and laugh as their alpha strike passes harmlessly through me.

A MasterMind's inherent--Supremacy--pulses a leadership-esque wave to all henchmen within 60 feet every .75 seconds. This pulse grants those Henchman a flat 25% boost to damage and another flat 10% boost to hit rate. What if the MasterMind inherent were to broadcast other stats as well, scaled to their own combat attributes? 25% of their Regeneration Rate 25% of their Recovery Rate 10% of their Personal Hit Rate 10% of their Personal Damage Rate 10% of their Defense 10% of their Resistance 75% of their Travel Speed and Stealth 50% of their Status Resistance Inspirations cannot automatically affect pets because of engine limitations. Only Team Inspirations work, and while proliferating that system to the entire inspiration mechanic is intriguing it would vastly shift combat balance. So, the MasterMind must inspire their henchmen one at a time. But... with a buff like this, a MasterMind could also use an inspiration on themself and splash some of the benefit onto their minions through the Supremacy field (instead of having to dedicate their whole tray to henchmen inspirations). It would also mean that buffing the MasterMind through other means (like a teammate's support, pool powers, and clever enhancement slotting) would also benefit nearby Henchmen. The biggest complaint I see about the archetype is that the henchmen are too frail. This doesn't exclusively apply to the players, either; the Kallisti Wharf Skulls who spawn minions through the MasterMind mechanic are equally hampered by this weakness. As Henchmen are a remote appendage of the MasterMind's total body (like individual worker bees in a hive), it seems logical that they would share in the MasterMind's enhancement. Thoughts?

For me, part of the problem is that certain power sets--by virtue of touching several different aspects of enhancement--are more viable as 'proc bombs' than others. Got a power that can take a slow? Hurray, you can throw another damage proc in there! It also bothers me that the proc damage is fixed instead of based on the triggering power: if my T1 punch procs did T1 damage, it wouldn't matter that they proc just as frequently per activation as my T9 procs doing T9 damage. Heck, they could trigger every activation if their damage/effect were comparable to the power being used (well, most of them, Mez and knockdown procs are not so granular)! The other counterintuitive point of slotting procs is that they're supposed to be a small bonus on top of other enhancements, and yet they end up being the most important thing you can slot. I suppose diminishing returns on proc rates after the second proc could help with that, but how might priority be determined? Slotting order? Would make unslotters much more popular I suppose. ...Oh wait, that's drifting off-topic. I'll say that proccing with a Brute is loads of fun because they scale with Fury and the damage gets goofy; the attack itself does basically nothing but then 'crits' four or five times from the procs. Honestly it's a huge draw for me to play with them, and I wouldn't even mind if the weaker attacks proc'd for weaker damage bonuses or lessened/shorter effects. As for slotting for mez/range, the former has an interesting but opaque system in Dark Armor's Cloak of Fear: slotting for mez increases Magnitude instead. Now granted, I'm not sure HOW that works... is it the number of fear enhancements that increase magnitude? The percentage over 100% of the Fear rate as a chance to boost it? City of Data was unclear on these points. ...But, one wonders how more control powers would play out if slotting for magnitude instead of or in addition to duration. ...It would reduce the need for magnitude-up procs, too, which could be replaced with something else. Range doesn't have a power that plays with it in this fashion (as far as I know), so can't really make a comparison there.

I made the thread after running Sister Psyche through Ouro on -1x1. Clamor spawned as an orange Elite Boss. Enemy groups consisted of 2-3 minions or a minion and a lieutenant; no bosses. I didn't use a special contact: just the list from the crystals of fire and ice. Active taskforces don't respect negative level shifts or boss restrictions. Soloing Posi 2 or Synapse will still spawn bosses as bosses and archvillains as archvillains, even if your notoriety settings would dictate otherwise. I'm also not sure if some of them actually pay attention to team count or not; I know Synapse does but I could swear Posi 2 does not. Ouro on the other hand appears to respect them, hence the thread.

Sorry, I should have stated in my post that I believe increasing scarcity would be the only way to change how much INF the game costs to play. Increasing the cost of enhancements simply buffs farming because players vendor them off. Decreasing INF gains has no effect--as demonstrated by XP boosters--because most INF is generated through vendoring and farming (and reductions don't make farming go away, they just make it happen more). If the goal is to get the players out of the farms and back into the game, honestly the suggestion to go with is decreasing or removing the cost from DO and SO enhancements and IO recipes (the 'everything is free' model contested in the original post). It indirectly harms farming because players will not be able to profit from vendoring, and it facilitates players gearing with SO enhancements as they level (the model around which the difficulty of the game is balanced). Demand for crafted enhancements would thus go down (but not much), dropping prices there, but INF would be harder to come by so the market would quickly reach a new equilibrium. Still, any change to the game's economy would be met with a tumultuous period of instability and with community backlash, so the question really becomes is it worth the strife to change the balance? Honestly, I think not. Torchbearer has a user posting 100 mil 'bounty' raffles for players who participate in the two rounds of Hamidon raids; players are thus encouraged to participate and the winner can take that windfall to the market to get enhancements or prismatic aether for cosmetic rewards. A lower level of INF generation would put the mockers on incentives like that.

TaskForces play differently in Ouroboros (see Sister Psyche's flashback about Clamor) and that's an interesting and novel gameplay pivot. Let's talk about it. While in a flashback, the TaskForce content is subject to notoriety limits. You can run them solo and not face x8 packs while doing so. Struggling to beat that archvillain (or archvillains? I'm looking at you, Aeon!)? Well, in Ouro you can knock them down to Elite Boss, AND you can switch to -1 if that's not enough. Ouroboros mode also gives you the opportunity to stop and read the text boxes, something that never gets the opportunity to happen when you're running in a team. So maybe the other active TaskForces (or rather copies of them) could be added to the corresponding Ouroboros level categories? They don't even have to give the same rewards or badges as the regular versions... just let players flashback/solo them for the content and/or practice.

Increased scarcity of item drops (salvage, recipes, and I assume enhancements), as well as the removal of enhancement conversion items, will make the game cost more INF to gear up. This is because the drop in supply will consequently result in an increase in demand, raising costs and subsequently raising prices to justify the time and energy to create said items. Suddenly what you would expect to pay 3 million inf for will cost 300 million. The removal of conversion items will make the values skyrocket even higher, as important enhancement pieces are further rendered scarce by the inability to roll them from less important ones. The auction house will empty out as the players who already have that kind of INF to throw around clear all the listings, and that would be the end of it. As many others have said, it would also drive off new players (even veterans from the live version of the game) because the investment of both time and virtual currency to set up a build would be too high for the benefit. It would cause cascading collapses as group activities drop off to make time for more influence and salvage and recipe farming, and a large percentage of the already quite small population of the game would drop out.

Hmm... Homecoming Hotfix thought: make duplicate copies of the contacts [like Tina McIntyre (Hero) and Tina McIntyre (Rogue)], plop them next to each other, and phase them based on team leader world state (like Dr. Stefford in Praetoria... though he probably needs to be adjusted too since he breaks a mission when he's removed). It'd mean players could run the same arc twice for double rewards if they switch alignments (and manage to stay in the level range for both), but players can rerun arcs anyway in Ouroboros.

Yes indeed. Assault (the Dominator Secondaries)/Support (the Defender Primaries) performs quite well as boss sets in Architect Entertainment... there's room for something interesting for players to come out of that. I've also seen suggestions for Melee as the primary with a mashup of Control and Support as the secondary. I could see Blaster Secondary/Defender Primary making for an interesting power assortment, too, though it's not a combo you can test in AE (pity). An inherent that echoes the support abilities back on the user, perhaps with a proc rate based on 'Peril', sounds like a good fit.

The deer caught in the headlights. The frog trapped in a snake's gaze. That feeling of "Oh man, this guy is going to KILL me!" that paralyzes the bruiser's victim. Mez is on-point for a terrifying tower of rage. If it's a passive feature (a class inherent) that's tied to the amount of Fury the Brute currently possesses, then it doesn't matter that it would slow down Fury generation because it triggers more often when additional fury is unnecessary (the bar is close to full). It's also a slow down, not a cessation, as the Brute's attacks also generate fury; it would give the Fury bar a nice normalized curve that makes the dizzying highs less frequent and more exciting. The only issue with a Mez is that there are situations where you wouldn't want it to apply. So you make it a toggle power the Brute gets at Level 1 (like Sentinel's debuff click), and the player can turn it on or off as needed. It's a buff, but in a lateral category that isn't "survivability" OR "damage"; it's a third leg for the table to stand with. It's also a nerf, because when control mitigation goes up damage output equivalently goes down. It's also probably the only approach that wouldn't require mass respecs for any archetype, and the one that would have the least opt-out impact to current Brutes: never use the toggle and they play just like they always did.

I've been dwelling on this kind of approach too recently. Given Tanks are currently under revision, I went down memory lane about possible Brute niches. My suggestion last year was an activation power for Brutes that would hold a group of enemies, building on the notion that control is a form of damage mitigation that doubles as threat management for the entire party, and playing off Dark Armor's existing terrorize mitigation design. Having slept on that idea for a year, it's clear a click isn't the solution, but a Fury-based debuff could be. Anything but a hold won't make a difference, though, because of the Interface Incarnate Slot. A Brute applying -toHit penalties with their primaries won't be any different than somebody else doing it with all of their powers anyway. Perhaps instead a toggle that--when on--gives all Brute attacks a chance to apply a hold, with probability based on how much fury the bar has. Holds slow fury gain [lack of 'being attacked' generation], but if the bar is closer to full that's less of a problem. Also, being a toggle, you always have the option to turn it off if the control portion of the party has it covered (or in situations where you don't WANT the enemy to be held, like when you're leading them to a vantage point). ...Call it "Paralyzing Fury" or something. I dunno... workshop it. Under the hood it'd have to be a bunch of separate Mag 1 hold abilities separated by tier so they could stack; that's not a problem though because then the trigger rate by Fury percentage could be adjusted for recharge time.

For the benefit of costume theming, as well as using an epic pool to add an additional accessory to a character, I suggest the more mundane mace and axe models (such as the shovel, the fire and lumberjack axe, the baseball bat, and the wrenches) be added to the Arachnos Mace item slot as options, so that they are usable by Bane Spiders and anybody who takes the Mace Mastery pool. I want to bat a web grenade at my enemies, or give my fireman sentinel a fire axe at level 35 (the kind used to chop down doors, not the kind actually MADE out of fire). I suspect others might be interested in the same.

I do rather like the corporate offices map that comes up frequently. That said, I think it would have better pacing if the first floor (with the lobby) and the second floor (with the two skywalks) were selected randomly as the entrance and only one of them was present on each 'radial' mission. Compared against the Astoria-style caves that also pop up from that contact, they do run a bit long... removing one floor from the picture would help make the pacing more consistent. In short, I agree!

Haven't had a chance to try them yet, but... if the captions are too long, wouldn't it be better to shunt that text into non-progression clues and souvenirs instead? That way players looking for the lore can take their time with them in a solo or repeat run, whereas teams would only need to worry about the broad strokes. Older missions from Live handle lore that way, letting players engage as much or as little as they like. Just deposit them into the player's clue repository when the walls of text would occur, with the pop-up captions being summaries instead. EDIT: Okay, I've played about half of Alexander's arc and I see the problem clearly now (and clues are not the solution). Captions need about a three-line limit to allow the average player enough time to read them before the next one comes along. The long ones definitely need to be broken into more bubbles.

Men were REAL men! Women were REAL women! And small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri! (How would the new models be selected? Power customization? Randomly? Random might interfere with henchmen/pet naming conventions, unless the game starts tracking pet names by model instead of pet slot number. EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm on board with any customization or variety expansion in the game... just trying to wrap my head around how the devs might handle the details.)

I've never seen the problem on Savage Leap, but Savage Leap's teleport order is different: it spawns the pseudopet immediately (instead of after .8 seconds) and then the teleport occurs .1 seconds after the activation, so if you miss you don't teleport at all. That might actually be beneficial to White Cap, since if the power fails you'd remain out of the fray. Trading the White Cap priority so that the teleport occurs at .8 seconds after activation and the pseudopet at .7 might be the fix it needs.

I wonder if there's a way to move the procs off the initial hit onto the pseudopet instead; this sounds like the same mechanism that Burn was originally using to double-proc (one for the activation that spawns the pseudopet, and one for the pseudopet itself). If the procs could be called on the pseudopet instead of the initial hit, that would ensure it's spawned before proc damage can defeat the original target, right?

While a dice roll's true for a single proc, having 'em in a bunch of different powers would increase that probability (three attacks would make it like a coin flip each rotation). The idea was to chance for a consistent bonus control, a happy mitigation every few attacks. With Oppressive Gloom running, that would make regular attacks on a focused boss target have a chance to spread the stun. I already do this with fears using the Presence pool and Cloak of Fear (can even fear Elite Bosses, or ArchVillains when they don't have their purple arrows of doom up), but that's dependent on Mag 2s from three sources. If Triumphant Insult and Unspeakable Terror had been Mag 2s, I could've chanced a similar outcome from them, Pounding Slugfest, and Oppressive Gloom, but no such luck... having to use that many slots to chance stacking Mag 1s up from 4 to 6 (when they only last 3 seconds instead of 8 ) just isn't worth it.

I forgot about the Stalker terrorize, it's been a while since I played mine. I think that's the way to handle it, as a general buff to stealth and a doubled buff to stalkers: make the player drop a 'typically standard perception' radius (of 50 feet so bosses, snipers, and turrets would ignore it) brief terrorize on dropping stealth, just enough to make the mobs go 'Oh!'... and make the stalker version triggered by dropping Hide more effective. The current stalker Terrorize is a Mag 5 with a 25% chance to trigger within 30 feet of the Assassinate target, so that could become the unstealth baseline and Stalkers could get a buff to 100% within 100 feet (so only snipers aren't startled, and then only if they're out-of-range). The stalker version also currently lasts 8 seconds, whereas standard stealth could get by with--say--2. The game currently handles this as a rider to the Stealth Assassin Strike pseudo pet (it's a debuff called "Demoralized"). I wonder if similar pseudo-pets could be spawned as a PBAoE on the character when a stealth power is suppressed. To make it fair, have game mobs drop a similar terrorize on the player when they drop stealth.

You'll also lose all your alignment points, so if you were close to 10 in a category it might be better to get there and do the alignment swap mission before resorting to Null the Gull (otherwise you're going to lose out on 40 merits). I believe you also lose all of your alignment tips.

I agree that the inclusion of enemy reaction time for unstealthing to represent surprise would be a welcome addition. I wonder how the devs would go about coding it, though... a high-priority brief animation feint attack that does nothing and has a VERY long cooldown, to stall them for about one attack? Some sort of brief placate into taunt aura when Stealth is canceled? *Shrug*

For Earth, you can use the crystalline Quartz Devouring Earth, the granite Devouring Earth, and the mushroom Fungoid Devouring Earth (up to you which order to put them in, but I think granite being last is a nice parallel to Earth Armor). I agree there's not much to work with for water models, you'll end up with Hydra sludge soldiers or water bubble mini-Sallys... which isn't terrible, but probably isn't what people are picturing for 'elemental' henchmen. You could do Electric with the Sprites (of Croatoa, like the Wisp prestige pets), the Gremlins (of Cap au Diable, as you mentioned), and the Lanaruu Storm Elementals (of the Shadow Shard): that might make for an interesting entourage.

Aw man, it's only a Mag 1? Dang, I thought all the procs were Mag 2. Guess I could switch those for Mocking Beratements for the extra proc damage, or even Pounding Slugfest since I just checked City of Data and at least those are Mag 2 stuns. I was wondering why I wasn't seeing any stuns between Fear phases... of course I wouldn't if they typically only work on minions. Oof, even the Control Hybrid incarnate that boosts magnitudes wouldn't help with that... what a waste. Well, looks like I'll be doing some aggressive re-slotting! Thanks for the info, everybody. (Really wish that these enhancements would list the magnitude of their effects in the description!)