tidge

If you have event zone messages turned on in the same tab, you will see where WL zoned. These WL are timed, so there isn't a lot of time to dilly-dally if you want to fight one.

What is min level for WL?

MMs don't have to have all of their henchmen standing in the same place. This is part of what I meant when I wrote: I get it... not every solo MM encounter with an AV or GM plays like scrapper-lock is a winning strategy. I've got some MMs that can do exactly that... but for some content I expliciltly have to pay more attention to what the henchmen are doing.... and for the content where I can play the MM like a scrapper/blapper/contrapper... I *still* have to pay attention for when things begin to go pear-shaped. Put another way: The game can be exceptionally easy for some ATs and builds. The game isn't harder for MMs. (EDIT: Unless you seek out content specifically to make it harder... but that is true for most ATs)

I think there are two dominant effects: 1) Server-Client and Game resolution of aura applications (for everything, including Bodyguard, Supremacy, damage dealt, etc) 2) Player expectations being incompatible with "how to play" The first might be able to be mitigated for "death spirals" of henchmen getting clobbered before they have finished animating on summons, but it surely isn't some broad mitigation of "AoE damage"... For example, the henchmen could have a "complete immunity" for a duration equivalent to the animation time... but that would have to be a special sort of immunity that allows them to start benefiting from buffs/auras/Supremacy/fishcakes. I'm not sure this is possible, or if it wouldn't immediately be susceptible to the same complaints we already get. Alternatively... MMs have to adapt their strategies vs content, which is something that almost no other AT must do. Standing toe-to-toe with something that has a base ToHit of 75% means that you had better have the henches at 25% better defenses than they have against even con minions.... or maybe not summon them where they are likely to get hit by AoE. Obviously the content designers have limited tools to make things harder, but considering Destiny Barrier exists... we are almost certainly going to see more auto-hit enemy powers.

I typically delay one of those for a late-build choice... but when I have both I tend to alternate. I don't pay that much attention to the damage cap on my Blasters, FWIW. I pay attention to ToHit bonuses, but those usually go past the point of diminishing returns (or cap, IIRC) if I use both simultaneously.

Kismet is a level 10 set, Blaster's often can take their buildups/aims before they get their snipes. The other choices of sniper sets... kinda suck IMO, and the best of the bunch are much higher than level 10 to slot. I realize it is possible to (at level 10) slot ranged single-target sets, and blaster ATOs in the Snipes too... but Blasters have other attacks (in both primary and secondary to slot those). The Experienced Marksman set has useful bonuses even without slotting the "Fast Snipe"... it's not as if a character is likely to dump all six slots into a sniper attack at level 10, yeesh.

This is a special feature of Snipes. Currently, on HC: "Slow Snipes" have longer range, and base damage is increased by 22%. They are interruptable, and the interrupt time eats into time for other attacks. "Fast Snipes" are not interruptable, have reduced range, but every amount of +ToHit increases the damage of the attack, up to +22% (equivalent of the "Slow") In terms of performance... the nearest equivalent I can think of is the Stalkers' Assassin Strike from Hidden. Those do more damage, but multiple uses of them slows down attack chains, and when used as the opener takes longer. To repeat what I wrote earlier: If a Blaster can take a snipe at low level (e.g. Moonbeam at level 8), slotting the fast snipe piece makes it behave like a 'regular' attack with a predictable cycle time. I find this to be most convenient when I don't want to take both the T1 and T2 blasts to have a regularize attack chain. Personally: I never feel the need to play 'far away blaster' except on certain Master of ____ runs, so I don't plan on opening at Slow Snipe range as most of my attacks are not at that long range. I *do* miss the original (HC) fast Snipe range, because runners. It isn't particularly hard to have a solo level 50 Blaster sitting at/near +22% ToHit. Kismet can get +6, there are Build Ups, Aims, Tactics... and for certain builds (I've done this with Temporal Manipulation) a Build Up like Chronos can be auto-fired every 22ish seconds, with a ~90% of having the Gaussian's %BuildUp proc activate. For Scrappers/Stalkers who get Snipes in an Epic/Patron pool in the 30s... they shouldn't need the snipe for a realistic attack chain... so the Slow snipe (as an option) makes more sense for them IMO. Depending on the primary, those ATs may not have another ranged attack, so Sniper enhancement sets may not even be an optimal choice for them. Blasters usually have lots of different options for various damage enhancement sets, and IMO the Experienced Marksman set offers attractive set bonuses for Blasters.

@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.

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).

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.

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?

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.

Any level shift change would also end up with ToHit penalties, just like for MM henchmen.

That's Numberwang!

Afterburner would bother me a lot less if it had a shorter cool-down, like the START jump pack.

This sounds like a bug. I'm guessing the -1 setting is supposed to alter every players' levels by minus one in the mission?

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.

What are you slotting in them now?

I remember it happening with Soldiers of Arachnos as well.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

There is no waiting, and it is just as close as the train (each direction).

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.

I always smile when I see a Numina TG PUGmate take the TUNNEL from Talos to Founders Falls during the hunt phase.