tidge

On the Numina TF, don't send the non-DPS AT to defeat Freaks in Crey's Folly by themselves.

Here is my own take on the 'backpack build'. It isn't optimized for DPS, but as written in the first post it is more designed to show off the backpack (primarily ranged) and have a full suite of Spider pets. Part of the lack of optimization is this: in practice (for the content I play) I almost never use the Web Envelope, and Frenzy is only occasionally used. To the point made by @Two Dollar Bill, this build has plenty of attacks because of the (global) Recharge. Like @khy first build, this build is to emphasize set bonuses. The Global Recharge + Pet slotting is sufficient to be able to resummon the T2/T3 pets as their timer expires. The build is ultimately an exercise in compromises between power picks between aesthetic choices, available powers, set bonus options to support the non-Incarnate recharge necessary for 'perma' pets. The most trivial change I would recommend is that the travel power (Mystic Flight) doesn't need to be taken as early but as I recall: when chasing set bonuses for this spin on a VEAT there is an additional constraint of at what level certain powers become available. YMMV if you want the 4 points of Knockback Protection it offers from the Universal Travel IO. Here is the code: We discussed slotting Spider pets in the following thread. The build above shows my slotting, but there is an excellent point in the following thread that the Soulbound Alliegence %Build Up proc is almost certainly wasted in the Spiderlings when playing against elevated content (+4) as they have few attacks to take advantage of it.

I haven't done it in a while, but I used to run my Bots/Traps/Mace build through the Briggs S/L Comicon for drops. Nothing spectacular (~30 minutes to run through 0x8 content) apart from the drops. In my experience, it was KB->KD that really makes the farming work: T1, T3 'bots / Photon Grenade (AoE) / Mace Beam Volley (Cone) / Pulse Rifle Burst (ST) added with the AoE control/debuff Caltrops, Acid Mortar, Poison Trap. Knock down the enemies into patches of slow death, while applying -Res to them. This requires a pretty active playstyle, but the pets are pretty good at not dying. The MM's S/L Defense/Resistance isn't breaking any records (~35% across the board, without the FFG) but the FFG adds 15.7% to Defenses, which crosses the soft cap on S/L Defense.

If we are only talking Widows, I don't see a tremendous amount of difference. I favor Mu for some peculiar reasons on my ranged Fortunata: I prefer the 'electricity' effect, as the AoE (and DoT) lights up the enemies in dark (Astoria) content. That character has taken, in order: 35) Mu Lightning (6-slotted with Thunderstrike) 41) Ball Lightning (6-slotted with Annihilation) 44) Static Discharge (5-slotted with Positron's Blast) Those sets give me the set bonuses I want. I could fit the pet in at 47, but it would only get a single slot. That character is a duo-build, with the 'other half' being a Night Widow focused on the melee attacks, but took Soul: 35) Gloom (6-slotted with Thunderstrike) 41) Dark Obliteration (6-slotted with Annihilation) 47) Darkest Night (single-slotted with an HO Enzyme) I could afford to be somewhat less strict about chasing positional defense bonuses from sets in the Night Widow build because Mind Link is easily permanent, but I feel that these late-build attacks aren't that important for my play style (with that build, considering what the Fortunata can do). Generally: I wouldn't take an Immobilization, because I prefer the enemies to come to me. I wanted an AoE to fit a different -Resistance proc.

You can probably even defend Medicine as a choice for a Crab, if you are also (eventually, at higher levels) going to have a lot of pets out. The visuals will probably not be what you are looking for. If you want to fight with a Sword, and use the Medicine pool as well, you probably want to lean into higher Defenses. I will like Willpower or Super Reflexes may be the Defensive sets that are somewhat self-sufficient to allow you to cast the heals. Note that if the healing isn't going to be a major part of your play, you can stock up on Team Inspirations to do group healing.

As near as I can tell, if you are at 95% (final chance to hit) with all attacks, and your last attack check at a target is a MISS, the next attack check against a target will be forced to hit WITHOUT making a roll. AoEs mess things up in the sense that you can't predict which specific target in the AoE will be the 'next' attack. It should be noted that the combat logs don't record (or don't easily record) the 'to hit' checks from certain auras and the like. If you are looking for large groups of enemies to test against that have large groups that are not really spread out to test 95% behavior of AoE: Sewer Network and Tunnels of the Trolls are not bad spots, but the max size of a group is somewhat random.

The Ironman badge... UGH. I will say that this is one badge required for an accolade (without switching sides) that seems exceptionally disproportionate in the availability to achieve. Some AT simply don't have the HP (and/or healing/regeneration ability) to be anywhere close to earning this by level 45. Often what I'll do when I want to work on that Badge (because I'm Redside and deep into Grandville) is to make runs through Recluse's Victory to let the bunkers have their shots at me. In contrast, every AT has the same XP bank to make 'debt-withdrawals' from: If I haven't gotten the debt badge I want/need by level 45, I will pop into Dark Astoria and just start street sweeping. Eventually I'll run into something that will clobber me, and voila I am on the way to paying off debt.

Long-time player, first-time poster (in this thread). I'm writing just to document my personal thoughts. 1) I prefer the general 'do these missions to learn the Lore' arcs over the 'enforced Lore' arcs. This means that I'm easily bored by the 'conclude Praetoria' Incarnate content; repeating Incarnate content (and SSA) ultimately feels less like a comic book experience to me than picking up an Ouroborous mission or SF/TF and running with it. 2) I am currently taking the 'slow path' of leveling a Blue-side Controller: No XP boosts and joining TFs/SFs only at certain 'dead zones' of level-progression. No ToT leagues. No AE. Hoo-boy is this painful! I'm a patient person, but I can see how this approach would not be for most people. I'm taking it slow because I'm trying out a couple of new power sets and want to see how it plays across all content without a lvl 50+ kit. By contrast, I'm trying a slightly different combination of power sets used on other ATs but now combined on a different AT for which I've already played several to level 50+. That character is going to earn as much XP as fast as possible because I don't need to do as much exploration of power/slot choices because I've already explored most of them. The differences in this build will mostly be when the build is at a higher level and has made different slotting choices. I wrote (1) because it should reveal that I'm not particularly bothered if a server can't trivially form a League to run Incarnate TFs. I wrote (2) because it should reveal that I like having other people to play with, even if I mostly solo. I don't care if the folks I play with at low levels are exemplared down when I am low level. I prefer to take my lvl 50+characters through low level content, even if I didn't power-level past it.

Here is my general approach to a couple of IO uniques. YMMV of course. I should note that I have not played a MM with a recharge-based pet summon (*1) 1) Overwhelming Force KB-KD/%KD: I almost always add this to the T1 pets. (*2) You can add this piece very early in a build. 2) Soulbound Alliegence %Build up: I almost always add this to the T1 pets. You have to wait until lvl 50 to add this to a build. In both cases, the primary reason is the same: I want to see the proc triggering more than if it is just on another tier. The KD provides some control, even if the T1 aren't doing as much damage. I also want the T1s to have a (necessary) boost because of their inherent level shift. The T1s of course need to have a reasonably quick attack chain to take advantage of the Build Up. If you play a significant amount of time against +N content, chances are good that the T1 pets are missing most of their attacks (because of level shift) so the %Build Up is almost certainly more valuable in the T3. (*1) I wanted to state this upfront, because it reveals my MM builds have less slots to mule Defense/Resistance IOs, and it also means that my MM builds don't care about global Recharge as a build with a recharge intensive summon. (*2) My 'main' MM is Bots/Traps. Despite taking down GMs and clearing out Lts and minions quickly, I find the Bots are quite bad at single-target clearing. Their performance improves significantly by adding KB->KD, adding AoE MM attacks that also do KD, and having a variety of AoE -Res/Slow/Hold. In my build I had to put the unique Overwhelming Force piece in one of the MM attacks, but the Sudden Acceleration set is not unique, so that is what T1/T3 got. The T2 slots were needed for Defense Uniques. One final word: It is common to see folks recommending tactics with the Gaussian's Fire Control %Build Up proc slotted, because 'all your pets means that the final chance to proc is increased!' This is true but the proc is only good for the MM and MM base damage scale is so low that I can't recommend that piece as any sort of priority.

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Can you go into some detail on this point: Assume a 'final to-hit chance' of 95%. If there is only a single target enemy, is it still true that "a specific critter targeted by the single-target attack can be missed, then the cone, AoE or PBAoE can miss, and the following single-target attack can also miss" ? If switching between ST, Cone, AoE and PBAoE can allow for more "misses", this would go a long way to explaining what I think I'm seeing in some content. Tangential addition: Oh how frustrating it is to fire off a 95% PBAoE against a group of 8 or less mobs and see multiple "MISS"!

I had previously done a similarly-fruitless search, which is why I added it to this thread.

The poor Sewer Networks were even forgotten in the Beta Issue 27 teleporter revamps!

I'd like to know where on the RNG spectrum the 'good' recipe drops are. It would be just like the RNG to keep them out of the 95.00% - 99.99% range!

Echo of Statesman is the Hero Tank.

Of the options listed, I chose only one: (B) T1 Immobilizes in control sets I know that there are players who aren't bothered at all by being forced to take a single target Immobilize from a secondary. Writing for myself: These power picks are the top of the list for nearly useless powers at all game levels (from lvl 1 to 50+), and are one of the least-optimal powers on any build to invest slots in. I've read the arguments that attempt to list the benefits of a ST Immobilize, but those arguments all read like rationalizations of a poorly-considered power to me. The cases where a ST immobilize is the first choice of an attack are so situational that they may as well not exist. I have no issues with a ST T1 Immobilizes in a primary, as I can simply skip that choice.

Does anyone know of a way to spawn multiple targeting drones, preferably A LOT in an AE mission, so that it would be easier to collect data on AoE (including PBAoE and Cones). I firmly believe in the perception bias, but I'd like to be able to generate actual data.

I'm not planning on any respecs for my full-kit builds, although I will allow for tweaking. I have several blasters that have stalled in the mid-levels who were due for respecs anyway. I'd caution everyone who dearly loves their blaster to try out the open Beta; not everything makes it to the HC game. Also keep in mind that there is not guarantee that some other change won't get added, either in addition to, or in place of, one of the announced changes.

Here is my own Mandela Effect: I don't remember the "Mission Exit" button existing at launch. I have no idea if this was true, or if it just took me some time to discover it!

Sorry I am late to the thread: Could we get the ability to teleoprt into both Sewers? If folks have to collect the badges to access them (via) a teleport beacon, could we get the portals put close to the centers of those (forgotten) Hazard Zones?

/agree. I could tolerate T9 crash on something like a Tanker... if instead of more defense/resistance it boosted offense output, but have trouble imagining how this could be implemented in a way that made sense. For (my, perhaps unimaginative) Tanks, the issue isn't staying in a tough fight, but finishing one.

Not that I disagree with @omega-202 position, but I must know... ...which dumpster were you diving into in week 1?

I believe it has been conclusively demonstrated that the 'bug' is that the AH query to the database of objects (stored in the AH) is hitting another object that is also stored in the same database. You are seeing real data, just for a different object.

I like to think that I am a potential victim of observer bias (try playing an all AoE character in x8 content and tell me that the RNG is 'fair') but despite many many many rolls of the converter wheel (in sets, out of sets) I don't feel a bias in the converters... for in-set conversions, to me it really does feel like the results are following a Poisson distribution.

Travel powers are also a QoLife issue for me. Ultimately the P2W options are cheap enough that you can do without, but I use my Travel power to hold one of the Global Universal Travel IOs (either Slow Resist or Knockback Protection). On many characters, Knockback resistance makes a big difference on low level TFs like Positron. In the easy/cheap global Defense IO era, if I have an available power pick I will often add Combat Jumping at level 49 simply to slot a LotG Def/Global Recharge piece. I will typically have already taken Mystic Flight (The additional Teleport is useful in some areas, like Mayhem (side) Missions). I almost always have Ninja Run toggled on, which IIRC will de-toggle Combat Jumping. Occasionally I remember to turn it on when I am in lvl 50+ content. If my character has already taken a power pool (Flying or Leaping) I'll pick up the appropriate T1 to slot the LotG piece.

IIRC, each level above 50 increases the base boost by 5%. So for an HO that increase range (20%) at lvl 50, a level 51 piece would increase range by 21% (assuming no enhancement diversification). Also if IIRC, for HOs the point at which ED starts cutting in is at 2x the un-boosted level. Using range again, the base is 20% and ED kicks in at above 40%. (this space reserved for the mea culpas upon the inevitability of me being wrong)