tidge
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Posts posted by tidge
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4 hours ago, UltraAlt said:
Yeah, when I first started playing on Homecoming I slotted thinking "Oh, Fast Snipe is cool", but then when I realized what it was an that snipe powers automatically turn into "fast snipe" during combat I was like "That enhancement is useless". They really need to change that enhancement from "fast snipe" to something else ... I think there is a suggestion thread about that ...maybe there is more than one.
I find the Fast Snipe (and range!) enhancement from Experienced Marksman to be a very sneakily good option. It is also the 6th piece, so it isn't by any means necessary... the rest of the set offers good enhancements (including Interrupt times, Recharge) what I like about this piece:
- There are a few blast sets that get a Snipe at low level, so having the Fast Snipe gives the character a 'regular' attack... I know this can feel like 'but I lost my infini-range attack!', but for most content this isn't really necessary.
The Mechanics of the Fast Snipe are such that building for +ToHit (up to +22%) adds damage to the Fast Snipe. We did lose range on the Fast Snipes, but the range enhancement helps to mitigate that. This is the purpose IMO to slot that piece even though in-combat the Snipe powers all become 'fast'. IIRC, +22% damage is what the Slow Snipe does... so a Kismet piece and power choices can have Blasters pretty much almost always at +22% ToHit.
I typically don't use Fast Snipe pieces on Scrappers/Stalkers... I like them to have the option for very long range attacks, and when in combat they will always have Fast Snipes anyway (as noted above).
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Re: Winter ATOs. I almost never use those in builds. The Entomb %+Absorb is probably the most likely to be used, as Absorb is somewhat hard to come by, and many powers that can take it tolerate improved Recharge and still maintain good %proc rates with the Superior version.
Occasionally, I'll slot two pieces for more Slow Resist, but that it about it. I can understand why old school Fire Farmers used them in builds, and they can appeal to folks chasing "Defense Caps" but I almost always see better choices for my builds.
For a while, I was using Winter ATO only while leveling up... and recycling... but I eventually found enough characters where I wanted them in the final build so they got taken out of circulation. I now use attuned PVP pieces or Universal Damage pieces for that purpose.
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Since the stated purpose of the new indicator ring (around power icons) for MM Robotics primary to indicate the duration of the effect, is it possible to add the same indicator to the temporary power Envenomed Daggers?
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Influence is always being created... pretty much whatever a player is doing (ignoring players only playing 1-49 with 2XP)... so this model doesn't really make sense to me, except in this context: Almost everything on the AH is easily available, much of it is trivially available... so there isn't IMO much holding up prices except demand. We used to have incredibly high demand... I'm not sure that the demand is at previously high levels. This could be fewer new characters, fewer players, a higher percentage of players who don't need to use the market... any combination really.
There absolutely are players who "hoard inf"... or rather "accumulate Inf for the sake of Inf"... that is pretty much the casual definition of an Ebil Marketeer (and to some, AEternal Farmers). It's not much different than collecting badges IMO, just one more part of the game. Without the AH, massive Inf accumulation/time really only takes off above level 45... and even then only with increased spawn sizes... so eventually every player (minus the "I only play to level N" crowd) is going to get there.
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Any level shift change would also end up with ToHit penalties, just like for MM henchmen.
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2 hours ago, Hedgefund said:
No, difficulty setting affects mob level, not player level. If a player (and mission) is level 30 and set to -1 they should see 29 and 30 level enemies. The player will be 30 and sidekicks will be 29 just as for any difficulty level.
That's Numberwang!
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Afterburner would bother me a lot less if it had a shorter cool-down, like the START jump pack.
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This sounds like a bug. I'm guessing the -1 setting is supposed to alter every players' levels by minus one in the mission?
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I'm unconvinced that the Sally recipe ever drops. I did a LOT of testing upon release, and I never got it to drop... and I got all the other zone monsters to drop recipes (although never tried the Rikti Dropship solo). I think it is because Sally doesn't give rewards. I 'defeated' Sally easily 100+ times with no recipe drop.
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8 hours ago, Parallel said:
Is it worth slotting Damage Res in Enchant Demon now? Or Healing in Abyssal Empowerment?
What are you slotting in them now?
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1 hour ago, Jacke said:
I've found that on Assault Rifle Blasters, my Robotics Mastermind, and some other ATs while I can't remember at the moment. And like other things, the Costume System is rather complex and fixing the issue is very non-trivial.
I remember it happening with Soldiers of Arachnos as well.
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On 11/25/2025 at 11:02 AM, Arbegla said:
The LRSF only has 1 giant monster in it that I can remember (the kronos titan) and I've solo'ed it before. The hardest part will be the end I think, with all of the AVs pounding on my facebones.
I slow-soloed the Dr. Aeon SF today, specifically to see how I'd do on even-level against the 5 Council AVs... I had 4 deaths total, at least three of them because I had sacrificed bodyguard mode. One death came in the Council fight. My character didn't feel any different in it, except that it seemed to take longer (probably by the 20%, but it has been years since I did that SF solo.
49 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:Oddly enough, the first one I logged into ... I went to a tailor to do one-thing-or-another and had a costume part error message. For whatever reason, it didn't like the weapon I had picked on that robotics mastermind. No idea when that started. I haven't tried to do anything to their costume for a longtime.
This problem (specific to Robotics MMs) has existed for years. There are a handful of other primaries for other characters that this happens... each one I encountered was because of a hand weapon. I want to say that the renaming/renumbering of the "guns" is the issue.
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in Mastermind
1 minute ago, Maelwys said:Therefore in my mind it's really only the players who have the capability to play at higher difficulties but choose to run at +0 (especially if they're built well enough to never be in any danger of their henchmen dying) who are actually going to be inconvenienced by the changes... but even then, we've had multiple examples of people simply not seeing any noteworthy difference in clear times. So I'm definitely leaning towards the Devs having found a reasonable balance for establishing the new baseline performance.
This is me... on both counts: I prefer "even level" solo (not just for MMs) because I've done elevated difficulty as proof-of-concept, but I find it boring. I can also 'survive' whatever content.... although Lusca is now firmly in the category of difficult and boring to solo, so I'm not ashamed to admit that she was just boring to solo before.
IPerhaps it was just my (lack of?) reading comprehension... but on Open Beta I didn't see many people posting time differences. I posted mine for GMs, for Tips @ 50 and some Incarnate content. And mine was only for a single MM.
8 minutes ago, Maelwys said:Soloing GMs though, I'll 100% accept that's taken a noteworthy performance hit. However those characters tend to not really be hurting for performance in the first place (AFAIK MMs were and still are the strongest AT for soloing GMs. Illusion Controllers and Crabberminds can dish out a lot of damage too, but they both have issues focusing their pets attention onto a specific target and the latter has a much harder time keeping their pets alive).
And as mentioned previously... there are further changes due shortly. Not SoonTM but soon.
I'm not salty about the changes... but because of the level-less effects, they hit *me* in what I do most with my solo MM. I can believe that the Devs would prefer no one be able to solo a Giant Monster... but that appears to have simply pushed people towards multi-boxing them... with some irony is that it is both easier and more rewarding to multi-box GMs.
The current round of changes don't seem particularly inspiring to get more people to play MMs... as @Maelwys notes... there is no shortage of suboptimal builds and playstyles, and eventually that catches up with the enjoyment. It will be new primaries that drive the real excitement.
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1 minute ago, Derek Icelord said:
Given what Zed has gone through to keep the existing program up-to-date and (mostly) accurate, I feel rather confident in saying it's more than "just a database". At the very least that glosses over a lot of complexity. Otherwise, I have to imagine someone would have built an alternative already.
My comments were NOT about the program "as is", my comments about the 3-piece architecture (so more than "just a database") were what was needed to fulfill the purpose of the software. In more detail:
1) Database
This is needed for the ATs, power sets, the powers, the enhancement sets, etc. Think "stuff we can look up on City of Data"
2) The GUI
This is needed to that users can make selections, and see options based on the selections... as well as the outputs of their selections
3) The 'rules enforcer'
This is needed to validate (in presentation, in choice) what the user can select under different circumstances. Levels of selectable powers, enhancements are the obvious things... but there are a wide variety of odd 'rules' about powers (VEAT paths, new 'pick one' powers) and of course restrictions on enhancements. I forsee this module keeping track of the net bonuses as part of its 'enforcement' (basically: allow/disallow and track, apply the ED formulae, etc) <- but information in the database feeds a lot of this.
Most of the work happens in #3, ideally a well-constructed database can make the logic in #3 more straightforward and simple.
Bootloaders and autoupdaters aren't necessary to do what people want the program to do... those are fine to have as options, but a "check for updates" feature is often "good enough". With relatively few dependencies updates should be pretty smoothly.
As for "why hasn't someone built something else?" ... Frankly... there are only a small handful of players and forum regulars I think might have both the motivation and talent to tackle this. It is human nature to simply stick with the old tools. I'd like to develop myself further with database design and rules enforcing... but I simply have no motivation to do this just to have near-infinite levers to shift for tiny percentages of whatever. For me... those tiny differences in numbers don't affect my enjoyment of the game. The number one thing I track when I am planning a character is the number of enhancement slots... after that, I typically have a very good feel for what works best... and if I want to try something else in-game... I do it in game.
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1 minute ago, Frozen Burn said:
Sometimes i do this for nostalgia purposes. 🙂
There is no waiting, and it is just as close as the train (each direction).
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in Mastermind
29 minutes ago, Arbegla said:One thing to consider is that +0 to you USED to be +2 to your T1s, and +1 to your T2s, but now its even level across the board. So, +0 to you is now +0 to all your pets.
This makes the math kind of finicky but as others have stated, its about the same damage wise, and BETTER survivability.This is true... except against leveless enemies, a level 50 MM had the T2 facing level 49s, and T1s were facing level 48s. Now the T1 and T2 are facing level 50s, but with lower base chances ToHit. The level-less have the same chance to hit as before, but now they hit like level 50s.
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19 minutes ago, Arbegla said:
You mean there are those who don't have every connection memorized by heart and hated the muscle memory change when the trams go merged together?
Basically if it isn't reachable by tram or O-zone, does the zone even exist?I always smile when I see a Numina TG PUGmate take the TUNNEL from Talos to Founders Falls during the hunt phase.
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9 minutes ago, Rudra said:
I am very glad that proposal didn't pan out. Re-using the sealed Galaxy City connection point in Perez Park would not have lined up with the city map.
I have it on good authority that a significant number of players don't even know how to see the city map. Source: Every Numina TF ever.
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in Mastermind
10 minutes ago, Maelwys said:If you don't have heals/regeneration/etc to top up their health bars, there's an argument to be made that reducing their damage output reduces their survivability (because they can't kill stuff faster than stuff can kill them!) but given that's not true vs +2s and above, IMO it's hardly a huge issue.
I consider the current stuff on Live to be something of a wash... but you can't have it both ways: (a) It's not a big deal that solo +0x8 takes longer and (b) vs >+2x8 solo MMs do better.
I didn't play MM solo against +3 content... not because my MM couldn't survive, it was because my MMs take too long to finish that content.... and not entirely due to the level shifts, The fact that the T1 and T2 need less net +Accuracy to fight >+2 enemies is true... but it isn't practical, at least not for me. I can't even bring myself to believe this without some sort of statement like "the game is balanced around +2 for solo play". I used to regularly take my MM through +3 content... just not solo.
Maybe I'm the niche player by soloing GMs and content at +0/+1x8... but since that is the content I play all the time... It was easy for me to test in on Beta.... and it does take longer to do these things. It's not necessarily harder... just longer.
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1 hour ago, Navy Spider said:
WTB angry Vulcan slap
TBF, Cap'n Mako's alternate animation for Knockout Blow is pretty much right out of the TOS fight manual.
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I don't use Discord, and I really don't want to ever use Discord. To not copy something posted on Discord also here... seems rather petty.
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in Mastermind
18 hours ago, ElectricKnight said:Yeah, I think the "considerably more survivable" is getting overlooked. I mean, I'll find out when I log in, but I suspect my MM will be better than before. Those -2 and -1 levels really have an affect, so even level pets should be nice. And if the tweaks to damage feel too bad, I'd hope they'll tweak it.
I have some comments on "considerably more survivable".
Because of the (previous, negative) level shift outside of Incarnate content... T1 and T2 henchmen were more likely to be hit by enemies that were even level with the MM (and T3). If the player had previously accounted for the level shift and had capped the henchmen defenses for certain content, the new changes haven't really improved survivability.
Imagine if we gave all blasters a +3 bump in all defenses, but cut back damage by 3%... all Blasters would become "more survivable", but some wouldn't become "considerably more survivable."
The sky isn't falling... but +0x8 content does take longer, per my tests.
Against level-less enemies... the T3 and T2 don't have a net change in how often they get hit, but when they are hit they are hit harder, and they hit back less often then before. Against this sort of content, it is more fair to say that they are "less survivable"... but this might be considered niche enough that TPTB don't care. I doubt most players would even notice, I expect when zone Invasions start up folks may notice their henchmen dying sooner but maybe not.
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Just now, Acroyear said:
I guess the main question I have is, was there a high demand for a connection between Kings Row and Perez Park? I've been playing the game since 2004, and I've never felt that it was needed, so I guess I'm just surprised one was added all these years later.
there was a long-ago public suggestion to establish the connection; that proposal had the gate in KR at the same spot but was going to recycle the connection point to Galaxy City in PP.
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I can really only speak to the most recent round of MM changes, as that is what I tested.
- There was one proposed change that got rolled back (henchmen HP reductions) that was well-recognized as being a step too far.
- For even-level content, MMs take up to ~20% more time to accomplish what they used to.
- Everything else MM-related (general changes) is pretty much a wash(*1).
The first would have been a brutal nerf to both the survival of MMs, and their damage output... so hopefully that is no longer under consideration.
The second is one that we pretty much have to *shrug*, because of a promise of some future improvements <-- and I am only commenting in this thread because those improvements are supposed to roll out before 2026(!), so I hope we can test them in Open Beta.
(*1) I didn't test content (solo +3 or higher) that justified the changes... basically, "address purple patch for henchmen"... stuff I wouldn't MM solo anyway,,, so I'm disappointed in the performance change right now, but I have an atom of hope because it was more-or-less recognized that MMs would have to get something more, it just wasn't announced what.
I saw General comments in game (from a player that isn't well-known for play performance) that was ga-ga over the henchmen getting 40% of (most of) the set bonuses. I am not skeptical about their excitement, I skeptical that the 40% (while in Supremacy range) are doing much... MMs tend to have to franken-slot (my main appears to do far less franken-slotting than most) which means fewer bonuses... and most bonuses (that can be inhereted) are rather small even before the 0.40 factor). Of the items "on the table" for a future update: I suspect that henchmen will end up inheriting 100% of the same set bonuses, because the 20% performance reduction is real... and set bonuses won't affect that at all... except possibly those 15% +Accuracy bonuses that are possible from sets.
Any ATOs not worth it?
in Archetypes
Posted
@Uun identified the ones that I will skip (unless I specifically need one or more set bonuses). Energy Font/Fiery Orb can be cute, but there is almost always a better use for that slot.
The best are the Scrapper ATOs, after thos... probably the Stalkers, VEATs and Tankers... but generally they are good.
As for set bonuses: I will share one trick relating to Dominator ATOs and set bonuses. I have one (perma)Dominator that already has five +10% recharge bonuses from purple sets, so I use the non-superior Ascendency of the Dominator set to get +8.75, since the superior set's bonus of +10% would be wasted.