tidge

April 21

1 hour ago, Jacke said:

The current Kheldian Powers do scale up as the Level of a Kheldian increases. Sure, they're still T1-T4 attacks, but that can be adjusted as well as these tables (looking at the Kheldian column).

I was thinking specifically as a 'extra' (additive) scaling factor right in the power formulae (with a subtractive recharge factor?) to make them essentially bridge from being the equivalent of a T4 to something more like a T7 or T8 as the Nova player levels up. Alternatively, based on MM henchmen summons, we know that player level can be checked prior to the power manifesting... so I can imagine flat-out different formulae, but this would be a step-change rather than a gradual ramping up.

My thinking was "low level blasts from other ATs typically get disfavored as those ATs level, but Nova forms are stuck with them".

April 21

1 hour ago, Jacke said:

Also, like the click-mez-protection Powers on Super Reflexes, Shield Defense, and Ninjitsu, for good performance when Exemplared, Hasten needs to have 2 Extra Slots for 3 Slots total. Else with Exemplaring down to lower Levels, the reduction of Recharge Reduction enhancement by:

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Exemplar_Effects_on_Enhancements

hits those Powers hard. 3 Slots total is needed for the click-mez-protection to keep them perma. Hasten is harder to perma, but with only 2 Slots, the downtime gets significant.

This is a good point that I typically ignore... probably because I so rarely put Hasten in my builds. The global recharge I build for will disappear below the sets' levels, but usually 50% is coming from ATO/VR (down to 7) with a LotG level being the dominant gate. I try to avoid the level 30 sets for this reason, but there are plenty of healthy +Recharge bonuses from sets that go below 20.... and there is always the Force Feedback %+Recharge, but I don't like that one so much.

April 21

Just now, Meknomancer said:

I haven't tried it since a day 1 fire farmer but isn't the entire concealment pool 3 power picks for 3 luck of the gamblers still a worse pick than hasten on its own? If your chasing recharge.

Often Hasten requires a second slot to earn its place (and juggling multiple auto-fire powers... not impossible, but "one more thing") while the 3x Concealment pool requires no extra slots to be used as mules for the LotG pieces.

April 21

3 minutes ago, Meknomancer said:

I'll never understand 6 slotting things like the entire shield wall set on anything but tanks , will that toxic/psi bonus make a difference, does that end/rech help out your blue bar? No in both cases.

I feel the same about Shield Wall... except that I'd never 6-slot on any AT. 3-slots is common for me, I can't think of a character of mine that slotted 4 or more.

April 21

7 hours ago, Jacke said:

Hasten is not needed in a build unless it has a critical or several important Very Long Recharge Powers, like Illusion Control's Phantom Army or the Powers in Nature Affinity. Better to get Global Recharge from enhancement set bonuses, especially those from Purple, PvP, ATOs, and WOs, as they don't go away when Exemplared. Combat Jumping is nice to have but not essential. A build can only have 4 Power Pools; this is one of the tightest constraints on a build. I see no reason to automatically take either Hasten or Combat Jumping in a build, because they both need a Pool Pick to add one Power.

I've bolded something I think is key about builds. In the olden days of live (circa Issue 1, when 4 more power picks became available) it was common to take Fitness, plus Hasten, plus Fighting... and then the last pool would often be Leaping (for Combat Jumping and possibly Acrobatics). Once Fitness became inherent, it freed up one pool choice, but it was still common to see recommendations for Hasten/Fighting/Leaping... and these remain common today!

On HC, because it is so very straightforward to get global +Recharge bonuses via enhancement sets, I also don't see much need to take Hasten, except for:

Characters with critical, very long recharge time powers
Characters that opt to have very few attacks (with longish recharge times) and want a steady attack chain

I can see a case for a player not wanting to invest in enhancements that offer global +Recharge and going for Hasten instead... but when I see folks pick Hasten at level 4 (or really: below level 18, when it shouldn't be needed, except maybe for Dominators) and then also try to build for perma-Hasten, I tend to think that is like the tail wagging the dog.

I went on a BR kick about 18 months ago, trying it on all ATs except Corruptors (no judgement, but I had just played several). I went with BR/MA, here is a snapshot. I went with Martial on this one because I wanted to focus on the BR and I felt like Martial offered the most without forcing me to lean too hard into the melee. (I enjoy Blapping, but this was for concept)

April 21

To the OP:

Khelds are in a weird spot (and have been for a long time). My PoV is this: The multi-form basis of the AT(s) essentially means that the performance of the powers inherent to the (non-human) forms is going to be effectively 'level-locked', in this sense:

The Nova form blasts are pretty much the equivalent of low-level blaster powers
The Dwarf form gets great survival tools, but mediocre melee tools (akin to lower-level melee powers)

The "changeling exploit" is a sort of way to overcome the otherwise poor performance the ATs will have if they rely (mostly) on one form... so there is a dual issue with Kheldians that:

The dev team has to come up with something better,
The dev team has to close the 'changeling exploit' loophole (without crippling the multi-form identity of Kheldians)

I think it is an open question if #2 is possible... but the bigger issue is probably #1. I've liked a lot of what the HC devs have added, but when it comes to power sets for players, the bag of tricks appears to be: combination mechanics, pseudopets, (semi-hidden) status flags. I don't think any of these approaches would translate well to the multi-form Kheldians, and I don't think there is an appetite to scrap the ATs and start over.

My (personal) current thinking is that (assuming changeling exploit is done away with) the most natural way to allow Kheldian non-human forms to "scale up" with level content would be to alter the powers of the non-human forms to use formula (for damage, mostly) to have a sort of extra dynamic scaling (based on player level) so that (for example) the Nova form blasts don't always feel like a player is using a bunch of T1-T4 attacks against level 50s.

April 21

On 4/19/2025 at 5:55 AM, Crossrealms said:

I am planning a completionist run and have decided I want to use rifle attacks. What would serve me better? The huntsbane or the AR/Dev?

I've done both. I enjoyed the Huntsbane more(*1), but in order to maximize what it can do, you have to pick up the mace.

(*1) I tend to have a lot of fun red side, but playing a Hunstman as a redside gun-toter (and not leaning at all into the Arachnos VEAT concept) was possibly the most fun I've had in the game.

April 20

On 4/3/2025 at 7:03 PM, Story Archer said:

If you don't take Hasten, what amount of global recharge do you need to make Domination perma?

This can be a slightly tricky question to answer, considering:

The Dominator can get caught using a somewhat long animation,
Slow effects

On one Dominator with several long-ish animations, I was most comfortable with +130% recharge. The final build is actually at +136, but the last bit is coming from a set bonus from a level 30 enhancement set. I try to avoid taking Hasten for perma-dom... this means that I typically won't have it until the level 50 build, but I find this to be a fun build challenge and the character becomes that much more rewarding to play after the level 50 respec.

April 19

9 hours ago, FFTMime said:

but is a taunt aura DESIRABLE on a scrapper?

I see people really only go do things once teams are fully packed, and a scrapper getting the attention of an 8 man group all at once sounds special. Or maybe I'm too used to regen being stinky.

My typical experience has been that Taunt auras (for Taunting) aren't that great, and (more commonly) are not used well for actual aggro management. Many folks play like they don't know that such auras actually tick, and that when they do they may not always affect nearby critters.

Now, having written that: If the aura doesn't have a terrible base accuracy, high endurance cost, AND provides another effect... why not take it? FWIW, I usually delay "damage auras" because they typically require an investment in slots. For a LOT of content, especially if enemies are not above +2, many scrapper secondaries perform as well as tanker primaries.

About Bio in particular, from memory, the last 4 powers are all PBAoE, and between them they are doing debuffs and damage (%damage) beyond just the "Taunt"... so with some rapid cycling where possible, I can believe that a /Bio Scrapper is holding attention, and with whatever the primary is they are probably defeating enemies before those critters decide to run away.

April 18

5 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

Any scrapper can get the presence power pool. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Presence#Provoke

It isn't an aura, but it basically works like a tanker taunt without the threat magnitude of a tanker taunt.

It's not precisely like a Tanker's Taunt, as the Presence pool powers are not auto-hits. Pacify might stop runners (also not auto-hit) like Placate will, but I haven't tested it... there are some small differences between those pool powers and the Primary/Secondary powers.

The best method for dealing with runners is IMO an Epic/Patron Snipe.

April 18

MOST of what I see during Mapserver is a lot of people having fun, even if they are essentially just standing around farming XP+.

There are a tiny fraction of players that get weirdly vocal (in LFG, elsewhere) with hints of entitlement, as well as borderline bullying/toady behavior, presumably because "somebody's doing something that robs me of my XP!" that I don't like to see.

There were, of course, some excellent league leaders, specifically those who paid attention to who was in their league and who had team stars. There is (in my experience) a wide gulf between folks who want to lead a league and those who simply want a league to make their own rewards come faster.

April 18

4 hours ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

league leader being able to set team leaders could help with this. sometimes a 50 team leader bails or disconnects thru no fault of their own, leaving a team without high enough leader and the next person down the list is automatically promoted. But if that person is AFK everyone is waiting and complaining because nothing can be done until they return to the keyboard and promote someone else. actually, not entirely true. the league lead can tell the team members to quit and then he can reinvite them after booting the non-responsive team leader.

Sure... but only if the league leader is paying attention. Currently league leaders can shuffle teams (when there are fewer than 6 teams) to rebuild teams with level 50s... as I wrote, I commonly see (open world) league leaders be pretty bad at running a league.

April 17

22 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

Gaussian's Chance for Build Up is interesting insofar that I like to use it but I'm unclear as to where its best position is?

To put it in a Build Up/Aim type power seems... odd. If it activates when the power is used that seems strange - unless it gives double the damage?

It works well in PBAoE armor toggle's that take it (for Melee characters, i.e. Invincibility). If I use it in a Build Up/Aim, these usually have a base 90sec recharge time so I either slot the whole set or back it up with at least one 50+5 recharge IO so as to get the most (on-demand) use from it.

It will work OK in Tactics, but only IMO if:

the player will be surrounded by a large number of allies/henchmen/pets, and
the AT doesn't have a very weak damage scale to begin with

The best case is IMO Crabberminds (they can have a lot of pets, the damage scales are respectable). It triggers a lot for a MM with a full suite of henchmen (plus pets) but the MM base damage scale is pretty bad compared to other ATs, so the benefits from the %BuildUp are not that great.

April 17

I tend to not use...

+Regeneration, except on Tankers/Brutes

Psi Resistance, unless it is a resistance-based character and that area needs to be shored up

+Perception, as I rarely have a power (with extra slots) that can use it

Force Feedback %+Recharge, as I find it to be an inelegant approach to MOAR RECHARGE and I almost always have a better use for the slot.

Achilles' Heel, unless the character is almost always on teams (so many powers can take this, but a significant portion of those have poorish %chances and/or are part of sets that don't offer great opportunities to capitalize on it... solo... when it does trigger)

April 17

5 minutes ago, WuTang said:

With that in mind, is there an actual endurance draining build that is effective? Suppose a recharge debuff would need to be in the mix too.

I've teamed with plenty of players that built 'sappers', and I've watched enemy blue bars shrink to near zero, but from my PoV it isn't a great strategy for success. As near as I can tell (from the outside PoV) the positive effects are limited to:

Some enemies appear to "slow down" attacks, maybe as they wait for the 'recovery tick'
I think I may have seen some enemies detoggle one of their toggle powers

April 17

22 hours ago, LordXenophon said:

I don't believe we need most of these things. I can't say any of your ideas are bad. In fact, any of them would probably be welcomed by the community. I've never been able to drag a team member at all, so I wouldn't mind seeing that fixed.

The one idea which is critically needed is the ability for the league leader to designate team leaders.

I was in agreement up to the point of league leaders being able to set team leaders...

I've been on (league) teams where the team leader was an inappropriate level, and the team couldn't get the team leader to correct the situation.

I've also been on leagues where the league leader was putting players on inappropriate level teams.

Each case is annoying, and MMV as far as perception of which (disengaged league leader, disengaged team leaders) happens more frequently but both are incredibly common in my experience... and the problem is greatest when leagues are zoning. Even smallish leagues that pop into an instanced map (from open world) have problems with players not being engaged enough to recognize what has happened when stars go to different folks or some folks delay zoning/crash out/whatever.

April 15

I have a DB/Ninjitsu Scrapper... it's pretty good, it was built for concept, but I don't find it to be particularly powerful combination.

I don't like that there isn't a native (non-combo) "Build Up", and the combos all feel pretty lackluster to me. If there isn't a specific concept in mind, it might be more fun to play DB as a Tanker... when playing my DB Scrapper, I sometimes think I'd clean out spawns faster with the larger AoE of the Tanker.

April 13

1 hour ago, High_Beam said:

It should last only 1 week, just April Fools week, and that's being generous.

Silver lining: It helps me make Inf on the Auction House!

April 13

HC launched with SG Beacons to Echo: Zones; these were removed as one (of several) revamps to "fast travel". Ouroboros portals are trivial to get (for blue), not that hard to get (for red) ... and we don't talk about gold.

The Ouroboros portal power has a pretty short cooldown period, and SG bases can have their own Pillars, so aside from an asthetic there isn't much need for in-base Ouroborous portals.

FWIW: Every once in a while I still see trips to Ouroboros 'messing up' for Rogues/Vigilantes.

April 13

Mapserver invasions are by level-less enemies.

April 13

5 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

As per usual open zone events rules notoriety doesn't affect spawns.

Multiple leagues in zones will slow everything down. Lag is real.

I remain surprised that *many* folks will repeat, with authority, that for open-world invasions "team leaders have to turn up notoriety." I always feel like this is a case of "Tell me you don't play that much (variety), without telling me you don't play that much." Why even repeat advice if you don't know what that advice will actually do?

The multi-league zone lag is very real, and will affect everyone in the zone even players completely out of perception range. I witnesses this while solo fighting Paladins (and their spawns) in Kings Row. It wasn't bad with a single league, but one a second league was formed in the zone things went into near-slideshow mode.

April 12

On 4/11/2025 at 3:09 PM, Hedgefund said:

I've seen people complain about poor rewards and no doubt that's a consequence of being on a low damage team, especially as we get further into the event and people start leeching and using low level characters and multi-boxing.

Preach on! I'm sick of folks in open-world invasion leagues claiming they are losing XP during Mapserver because some team leader doesn't have their settings at +4x8. The last two times I saw that specific complaint, those players were on leagues of low-level non-DPS characters just standing around, not making any attacks.

A solo player with +4x8 settings open world is NOT going to get more/higher-level spawns from an invasion.

April 12

Of course, there is code "in the wild" *and* the game has a long history of what has been added and what has changed that it is reasonable to extrapolated "what is feasible".

There is literally no bottom when considering "suggestions", no matter how hard someone claims to want certain ideas. Some oft-repeated suggestions are simply NOT going to happen even if they are feasible (e.g. "Bring back SG prestige"), and if players making those suggestion literally don't know why certain suggestions are a bad idea, they need to be able to tolerate feedback that opposes their idea.

April 12

I've witnessed a lot of peculiar player behavior w.r.t. Adamastor, but I've yet to see it fail to spawn because of a crowd.

I can believe that there are multi-box doofuses parking characters right there, as I've seen that on lower population serves. A related behavior I've seen that I suppose could contribute are the folks that somehow think Adamastor requires a multi-spawn Lore pet brigade to defeat, as if it was Hamidon. As near as I can tell, a majority of those folks *are* multiboxers who have gotten used to not being able to control all of their characters so they rely on multiple Lore pets to do their playing for them.

April 12

13 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

Serious question: Can those pieces be slotted in different powers or should they be combined in the same one? I think they should work wherever placed but... sometimes vagaries in the game, combined with my own incomplete understanding, confuse me

On a wider note, and I thank you for all your great commentary, I have further questions. It seems this is beneficial primarily to high HP toons that are able to soak damage. Tanks, Brutes, SoA, etc. Blasters, Trollers, otehr squishies, not so much. Is that a fair assessment? If that is a correct extrapolation, what would work better for said squishies?

The "global" pieces can go into any power... if I am not getting a set bonus from Shield Wall, Reactive Defenses, or Unbreakable Guard, or whatever... I tend to slot them in late-pick powers.

Some pieces need to be in an active/available power, like Power Transfer %Heal (IIRC) or Kismet +ToHit.

Scaling Damage Resistance isn't bad for any AT, but high HP characters can (generally) be taking damage and still not worry about taking damage. Lower Health characters might get a few more seconds to make a run from danger.

Generally: Defenses are best, since it means the character isn't getting hit at all. After Defense, I'd probably rank Absorb as the next-best thing to have, no matter the AT.

Resistances are trickier to characterize... their importance depends both on content being faced and what (if any) other defenses/resistances are available for the AT in question. The game used to be somewhat "simpler" in how damage typing worked against defenses, as well as how certain (high-level) enemy types used to only do certain types of damage. Personally I'm not a fan of all-out pursuit of hitting/exceeding resistance caps, because even though it is mathematically true that (for example, a Tanker) going from 85% resistance to 90% resistance is "taking one-third less damage!" if that character has enough regeneration, healing, etc. it could end up making very little difference in play.

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