tidge

January 7

11 hours ago, MaskedMan said:

Would it be recommended to slot a knockback to knockdown in Meteor? I've seen it launch mobs so far I can't even tell where they've gone

As written above, it is a matter of taste. I do tend to slot Meteor with a KB->KD piece because I've found that in some content a total-wipe of all the critters hit doesn't happen... and sometimes there are things like ally toggles on creatures' corpses, or allies that want the bodies for their own nefarious reasons.

January 7

7 hours ago, kelika2 said:

the mindless dregs who frontload their respecs/builds with power pools who complain about being bored with one or two attacks

This bit I snipped isn't specific to the Synapse, but this is a good place to see this issue(*1). FWIW, even on characters for which I don't have many attacks, I usually try to have some plasmatic tasers or hand grenades in the pockets; each is a relatively temp power from S.T.A.R.T.

(*1) The issue being: players with relatively ineffective characters for low level content. The number one head-scratcher for me is the commonly-seen-in-build recommendation to take Hasten at level 4, although any time Hasten is taken much earlier than a power with something like a 60+ base second recharge is available seems wasteful IMO. I suppose there are REALLY tight builds possible, but usually those I've seen also have more than one pool power picked before level 20.

January 7

24 minutes ago, Riverdusk said:

I don't know, I find I use it pretty often. Just looking at one of my latest characters an elec/elec sent I put it in zapping bolt, 5 Apocalypse (skipping dam/rech) and the Glad Jav Proc. I find I often use that exact slotting in one of my ranged attacks on quite a few of my characters.

I smell what you are cooking. I can imagine it being slotted... especially if the power has no other damage type (beside poison) %proc available, but all things being equal, I might just prefer the extra 6% psi defense (6th slot of Apocalypse) and guaranteed 5%-ish more damage by adding Damage/Recharge (from the attack). On average I guess (some scribbling off-panel) the difference is only 6ish more of the same type damage versus 36ish (of a different type of damage), but it is still only against a single-target. I tend to drop %damage in the AoEs.

Another personal feeling about %damage in a single-target attack is a somewhat arbitrary one: Ultimately I want to minimize the total number of attacks against large groups... so if the both the 6xApocalypse choice and the 5xApocalypse+2nd %proc choice don't end up speeding clear times (after nuking a goup) then the extra %damage wasn't really helping (to my thinking). Obviously things are a little different for Sentinels and Blasters with respect to AoEs... but again, if I have an extra slot for %damage, I am probably putting it in an AoE attack.

January 7

AFAIK, once an attack hits, any DoT from that attack will not require further ToHit checks. Toggled Auras are things that get repeated ToHit checks. Some pseudo-pets obviously make subsequent attacks (with ToHit checks) and I think there are a small number of powers that leverage something like a pseudopet to randomly try to do damage. Those things shouldn't be part of the players' streakbreaker(s)... I think every critter that can attack gets to benefit from streakbreaker (henchmen do).

Also AFAIK, any non-guaranteed child effects (from a successful attack) don't factor into streakbreaker at all, those chances belong to the power not the player/critter so I don't know why they would.

Many of these above are all rolls on the RNG of course... but from players who have shared logs of their own roll results we've seen a remarkably flat distribution... which was how it was designed. It would be worse for all of us if it didn't give flat results! I have no complaints about the RNG, it is more that I think the implementation of streakbreaker is the confounding factor at least for characters with typical 95% ToHit chances on all attacks, because those characters REALLY don't want to miss.

I also don't entirely blame the live devs for implementing streakbreaker... it was more-or-less an attempt to shortcut any complaints that the RNG is being unfair w.r.t. combat. I do think that the choices of cutoffs are weird... for example: given a 50-50 chance ToHit, there is a 6.25% chance of four consecutive misses... and a 3.13% chance of a fifth miss (that streakbreaker forces to be a hit). But for 95%, streakbreaker's trigger after 1 miss (on the second roll) is only 0.25% to have been a second consecutive miss (the first one had a chance of 5%). It is hard to convince folks that the flat RNG is being fair when streakbreaker is often jumping in, especially at the ToHit ceiling. I feel like it would have been easier to convince players about RNG by not included streakbreaker but instead include direct logging of all RNG rolls, or at least all ToHit rolls if that is what streakbreaker is supposed to address.

I apologize for rambling about this... I feel like I started thinking about this when I had trouble figuring out why AoE attacks against large spawn sizes (up to 8 grays, clustered close enough in the area-of-effect) seemed to be generating more than one MISS message too often for my taste. I grew bored collecting and analyzing data for the 'power' side of the hypothesis I was testing: I used AoE to get many rolls at once, and I didn't have the stamina to keep executing single-target attacks. Ultimately I collected enough data to 'disprove the null hypothesis' I had chosen, but not with enough power to convince anyone (myself included)... so I could be wrong!

January 7

14 minutes ago, Ironblade said:

Nonsense. Unless you're talking about REALLY low level. The 'good' content starts at level 8 (i.e. Positron TF).

I would agree with an argument that most of the ATs don't feel particularly distinguishable (in play) from one another until about level 12.

Below that level... the S.T.A.R.T. (formerly P2W, formerly veteran reward powers) attacks and travel option make initial content very tolerable, even for long-timers. With 2XP and easy patrol XP (exploration badges) it takes very little effort to 'graduate' from Atlas Park (or Mercy Island) even without trying something like Death From Below.

Starting at level 5, with radio/newspaper missions it is pretty quick to start getting the Safeguard/Mayhem missions. By level 20, with Ouroboros in the mix, there is plenty of content. Obviously Ouroboros and Safeguard/Mayhems can be run at level 50 too, but most of the 'flashbacks' are low(er) level content.

I personally do find some of the arcs at certain levels to be a bit of a drag(*1), but I never feel short of different content to do below level 30, and above that point I find myself working to mix things up.

(*1) Mileage may vary.

January 6

2 minutes ago, Octogoat said:

I dunno but 1-50 story wise is always engaging for me but I can see how mechanically you could get bored easily but I think you'd get more bored farming where you kill a map full of clown ass mobs over and over for hours or sit at a door

I'm trying to gauge how much of the game is seen by the user as a "waste of time"... there is very little reason to spend much time in the intial level ranges, and at a certain point there is a lot of content available, so I'm trying to calibrate the comment.

January 6

25 minutes ago, brasilgringo said:

Folks above said not to proc it out with dmg procs.

As I wrote, I don't have direct experience with Liquid Nitrogen... but I expect it to act like other AoE and trigger the %proc on cast... it appears to be a rather large AoE with a 10-target cap.... but the cycle time is pretty miserable. The non-intuitive thing about powers like this (patches, puddles... most pseudopets) is that they work better (for %proc) if the power itself has accuracy slotted in it. Sometimes folks just load the power with %damage pieces and get frustrated when they don't see them proc.

For these sorts of damage-over-time powers, I never count on any %proc damage from the 'ticks', just on-cast.

January 6

As an aside... I truly can't remember the last time I used a Gladiator's Javelin %Toxic piece in a build. Maybe on a Stalker's epic snipe from long ago? I know that there aren't many options for %damage from purely ranged damage sets, but there is a lot of design space that makes adding that %proc to a single-target ranged attack an uphill battle for me:

single-target ranged attacks are usually good for set bonuses
single-target ranged attacks are usually bad for %proc rates (and benefit more from set-slotting as opposed to franken-slotting)
single-target ranged attacks often have another component (e.g. Defense debuff) that offer alternative %damage type
Gladiator's Javelin has some IMO mediocre set bonuses, YMMV.

January 6

21 minutes ago, Seed22 said:

The low levels here ARE a waste of time. They’re utter shit. Full stop.

What level range are you calling "low levels"?

January 6

Thanks! I certainly got the feeling (from a Citadel TF) that extra KB protection beyond Bo Ryaku wasn't going to be necessary, but it was more-or-less going to be near level 50 when I could do more serious testing. I appreciate the heads-up that I can very likely make some different choices along the way and at end-build.

January 6

I haven't used this primary, but my instinct would be to treat it like Caltrops... for which I have two (and one-half) weird strategies, and then a final likely approach

Single-slot wonder, focusing on recharge... possibly 2 slots if it is being really useful. (moar recharge)
Mix/match set bonuses and %proc, which out to reliably trigger on cast, something like:

(A) Annihilation - Damage/RechargeTime

(*) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime

(*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Damage/Recharge

(*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge

(*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance for Damage (Cold)

(*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage (Lethal)

Because it is a 'puddle' it might work better with the sort of slotting I use for Corrosive Vial (more accuracy, more recharge, less endurance concerns)

(A) Positron's Blast - Chance for Damage (Energy)

(*) Bombardment - Chance for Damage (Fire)

(*) Javelin Volley - Chance for Damage (Lethal)

(*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance for Damage (Cold)

(*) Javelin Volley - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50+5

(*) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5

As a practical matter... I think ultimately the best use of slots in Liquid Nitrogen would be to hold a useful set for a set bonus. The base recharge time is a little long (90 sec) for my taste to try to use it as a source of %damage, although I can see the appeal for a Controller if it were available every 45 seconds.

January 6

Ah memories!

Looking back at the 'roadmap' much was offered in 2020... although I still confused what the 'endgame' meant. I took it to be 'content for 50+', which we got... and which is playable by pretty much most ATs, although some perform 'better' than others... we did get a lot of what was else was hinted at, especially in Issue 27p1.

I won't rehash my position that PPM/procs do far more for game balance (across ATs and builds) than they upset balance, but I don't really see how any choice on that spectrum has much to do with 'endgame.' I'll continue to hope that TPTB calmly looked at the PPM system and agree with me... or at least recognize that in order to believe the PPM system makes the game unbalanced there has to be an extraordinary level of precise examination of very specific player choices.

January 6

Here is something that is on my mind, that isn't directly related to the (static) builds: are the attack chains used in the fights for both builds exactly the same (specifically the timing/use between single-target and AoE)?

There is a very subtle sort of RNG effect I'm convinced I see but is very hard to completely believe (in hypothesis testing this would be "high confidence, but with low power") between performance of different chains (AoE, ST)... see below. This could manifest itself in the %+Res in a marginal way for the extreme content here.

My attempt to explain my thinking, because 'streakbreaker':

Spoiler

We know that the pseudo-RNG yields a flat distribution to evenly populate 'rolls' between 0.0 and 1.0

We know that 'streakbreaker' for final ToHit chances about 95% does the following:

It watches two different 'streaks', one for AoE attacks, one for Single-Target
at 95% final ToHit, one miss of a type of streak (AoE or ST) guarantees the next attack of that type (AoE or ST) will be turned into a hit.

We know that the 'ToHit' check happens for more than just attacks...e.g. auras with a ToHit check. I think the only such power used in this case is Against All Odds. <- I mention this because it is possible for PBAoE auras with a ToHit check to hurt the AoE streakbreaker, but for the rest of this I'll pretend that final ToHit is always at the 95% ceiling for everything in the build.

My guess about streakbreaker is that RNG makes the rolls, but then throws the results of the rolls away.

I have no clue if the RNG calls for %proc is subject to streakbreaker, but I'm going to assume "NO".... in the build above I didn't see any procs in powers where I think this would be the case anyway, I mention it only because procs are another invocation of RNG.

Because of the 'flat' RNG distribution, for ceiling 95% ToHit we'd expect that 1-in-20 attack rolls to be a miss, and the RNG has demonstrated this to be the case.

However: the chance of getting an immediate second miss (without streak-breaker) is NOT 5%, it is much less... and by my informed-by-flat-priors guess makes me think that it is in fact a greater chance than 19-in-20 that any roll after 0.95+ would be below 0.95 (because pseudo-RNG is flatly populating between 0.0 and 1.0) so in effect, streakbreaker is tossing out more hits than misses, and slightly inflating the chance of another miss. Even ignoring RNG priors (and flatness) if I got the math right the chance of two consecutive 0.05% results is only 0.025%, not the 0.05% for any one roll.

Normally this sort of thing kinda washes itself out, and is highly annoying to check (for high power, see my hypothesis test comment above) because so much has to be controlled for but for this more extreme sort of content that has been run repeatedly with similar results... I think it may be possible that the reliance on a %proc in an attack for more resistance... could be falling in the margins for this (unfortunate) build.

To first order, if a log-parser is used, you could take a look at the total number of streakbreaker calls for each case. This won't be super-informative, but if the number is consistently different between the builds while being consistent among both builds, this could be a clue.

Like I wrote: this is a PITA to test for many reasons. (1) we don't see the roll that was tossed (if it was!), (2) we don't get told in the logs which streakbreaker (AT, AoE) was used (but we can tell by power choices, so not impossible), (3) we have to take all other sources of player RNG calls out of the mix (including %procs).

January 6

I can understand the thinking, but Blaster's are the last AT that need any sort of 'buff' across the archetype.

January 6

I started a /Ninjitsu Scrapper to try out a new-to-me secondary, and as I was planning out the build, it looked as if it would be pretty easy to add enough extra KB protection (via set bonuses from sets I was going to be using anyway) to cross some major thresholds (20+, because FREEM!). Don't judge me (yet), as this was just the planning....

Bo Ryaku is an Auto power that provides a scaling resistance to KB (133% at level 30, 173% at level 50), as well as a scaling protection to KB (3.99 at level 30, 5.19 at level 50). I know that KB resistance can mitigate KB without (much, any) need for KB protection, but I was more familiar with the ginormous amount of KB resistance from something like Super Reflexes' Practiced Brawler (10000% Resistance).

In game so far, from some limited testing, it looks as if (at level 30) that I'm not taking FREEM! KB with just Bo Ryaku and 3-point KB protection from rando enhancement slotting (so 7 points on top of resistance). Normally, FREEM! is the KB I worry about (for melee) beyond something like 4 points for CoT/BP baddies... but I don't have to dogpile more KB Protection into a build I won't...

...so can anybody offer some clearer insight about the level of KB Resistance and KB Protection specifically for Ninjitsu? The KB resistance is orders of magnitude lower for Ninjitsu than SR or Invulnerability, but maybe 130+% is good enough? I'll eventually test, but I don't quite have the build where I need it to be to do deeper testing.

January 6

The utility cutoff (for rewards) at 100 Vet Levels is a somewhat new thing. Of course running other content that offers rewards, including fun times, will keep earning XP... so it isn't exactly only "vanity".

January 6

With a Gaussian's %Build Up in play, and the rest of the slotting, I can't imagine the +6% ToHit doing all that much for +1 content... except possibly on Brine... which still should have teh global Accuracy bonuses from the slotting elsewhere.

January 5

I'm not crazy about the henchmen slotting. For example, 3x Nucleolus in the T2 is probably hard to justify. I can sort of understand why the O-Force piece is in the T3, but in my experience it doesn't need to have a KB->KD piece any longer. One of the Henchmen should have the Soulbound Allegiance %BuildUp piece... I prefer it in the T1 for robots, others feel differently.

Stamina seems over-slotted.

Soothing Wave is probably not going to perform well enough (or be as necessary) to justify having it, or investing those slots in it.

Brine probably wants 2x Siphon (Heal/Accuracy) instead of 2xGolgi. If you think the ToHit is fine for Golgis, just make them Health IOs or Heal/Recharge

What do you think you need Hasten for? Some of the choices of enhancement sets appear to be chasing more global recharge, but alternate slotting with Mark of Supremacy is probably more efficient. Hasten is a sort of double-trap for MMs, because of it's own (eventual) endurance cost and the Endurance tax that MMs pay.

Equip Robot should probably have a Resistance set... perhaps 2xUnbreakable Guard to help with Endurance?

January 5

I am also confused if this is a complaint that the price(s) of whatever are too high or too low?

FWIW, It strikes me as irresponsible to bid on a level 50 PVP %damage piece's recipe, as the crafting prices of level 50 recipes are much higher than for lower levels... and the %damage of the same but lower level piece is going to be the same as for a level 50 piece.

13 hours ago, Jacke said:

Being able to purchase Recipes and some Enhancements via Reward Merits puts an upper price on them. I think most would consider that price to be rather high, much higher than using the Merits in other ways to get Inf to buy stuff on the Auction House.

The last time (years ago!) I did a personal back-of-the-envelope estimate comparing buy-with-merits-and-craft or convert-merits-to-sell-and-buy-with-inf The level 50 PVP pieces had to have AH prices above something like 16M to be more economical to buy-with-merits-and-craft... and I don't think they've been at that level for years. That is roughly the same price for Very Rares (which only exist at level 50, typically require more rare salvage, and I think have a larger default crafting cost than other level 50 recipes) and ATO/Winter pieces.

IMO PVP set pieces are somewhat unique as for me they pretty much only exist at level 10, catalyzed, and level 50 (to be boosted). The fungible market allows easy disposal/catalyzation of the pieces/recipes from levels 11 thru 49. I have some of these floating around, but generally they either get converted or catalyzed for personal use.

January 4

33 minutes ago, macskull said:

That's just not good design.

Setting aside what "design intent" means in a game with this much freedom of choice, Null the Gull remains an excellent compromise.

January 4

For active solo farming, I am of the general opinion that there isn't much need to turn up the level of opponents (above even, modulo Incarnate levels and content) to the point where defeats are less frequent than they would be at even level. Drops (specifically level 50 IO, PVP and Purple recipes) will be the same for a level 50 spawn as a level 53 spawn.

I'm liking that you skipped Water Jet. The set got a slight rework to remove what was a core defect (consuming Tidal Power on a miss) but it is still a single-target attack that I find breaks up attack chains against large spawns, and remains a single-target. MMV, but if two AoE can take out eight enemies with three casts, this is more efficient than one AoE cast and four ST casts.

Does the build not include Reach for the Limit? Normally Water Blast as a primary allows for a secondary's clicky Build Up, Martial gets it essentially baked in. I go for Ki Push over Storm Kick, but neither will make or break a farming build... although the repel from Ki Push is something I find to be a good control for a Blaster.

If you are self-challenging with +4x8 content, there is no shame in having Rise of the Phoenix from Fire mastery. Melt Armor can be useful as well, although it needs Recharge (and likely Accuracy). If it is the bosses you are struggling with, Melt Armor can help (and I suppose Water Jet, but again MMV depending on strategy).

I don't use Hasten on my /MC blasters; I have inner Will on auto.

January 4

Perception bias: I've probably had the "Auction House is too Busy" message once in the last 12 months, and it happened to be last week... and I was rapidly flipping between alts to clear out inventory and transactions. This instance was not a queuing issue for purchases, as I was trying to claim inf for sold items.

I'd be surprised if there was much of an affect based on folks trying to purchase seeded items for the same price... I've put it a lot of the identical bids for non-seeded items (10xconverters, 10xsalvage of same rarity) and the AH doesn't fill one bid before starting to fill a second. I think it is just the queueing of the database at play.

January 4

I haven't tried it, but I'm curious to read the thoughts of others. The graphics would likely be pretty cool to watch.

Full disclosure: I recreated a Gravity/Kin controller from Live on HC Day 1 (or 4, depending on how you think about that first week), took it to 50+ and then it took me 5+ years to revisit Gravity (the second time as a Dominator). The Dominator is my current 'flavor of the month'... I think it offers me more to do than the Controller, and leveling was slightly easier (although I didn't have permaDom until I could slot Purple sets) but even so it was somewhat slow to level (doing typical content). The primary gauge of leveling speed for me is that once I have some AoE I like to set the solo missions to -1x3... and the Dominator did take a lot longer to clear those than I'd expected... see @SeraphimKensai comment above about not winning any damage races.

January 4

12 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

I appreciate the questions @tidge, however, the thread itself is to gauge feedback of whether the Homecoming Team and the community want to do an AmA.

There would have to be a separate thread started by a Homecoming staff member to moderate and compile all the questions.

I getcha, but considering the general level of activity in the Suggestions subforum I accept that it is a forgone conclusion that the forum user base would appreciate an AMA.

If TPTB don't want to engage (or have a low tolerance for the absolute level of engagement), the thread would have somewhat low levels of utility anyway. The main driver behind my areas (posted above) is that my general experience with AMAs is that they end up being somewhat highly focused on the individuals who show up to answer the questions. I have different levels of engagement for different things that I know interest TPTB (at least a little, including topics like "content", "currencies", and "costumes")... but if the AMA is going to be focused on something like art assests... well that would be a different kettle of fish than one focused on the powers.

January 4

I'm not going to watch the video (I'm really not that interested in that many MMORPGs)... but where did City of Titans or Ship of Heroes land on the list (if they did)?

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