tidge

I'm working on a /Nature Affinity Corruptor, and I will be using it on teams some fraction of the time, but mostly I play solo... so I am looking for thoughts on some of the powers in the secondary, including slotting suggestions. A couple of things to get out of the way: Inf is not a constraint Number of slots should not be considered a constraint I don't object to getting a set bonus from Enhancement Sets, but I will not chase one 'just because', especially if the extra pieces are only offering marginal returns on the enhancement of the slotted power. I want a 6-piece set of Preventive Maintenance for Endurance discount and Global Recharge. I like the 5 and 6 piece set bonuses from Panacea (more Global recharge at 5, more Heal at 6) but I see the real value of this set as being able to boost the pieces to 50+5... so I am not necessarily wedded to it. Here are the powers that have me wool-gathering: Regrowth (available at level 1) - Takes Healing sets In the era where many builds can be made self-sustaining, I will delay this choice. I don't mind having a heal to toss at allies, but this power feels like one I wouldn't otherwise want to invest (m)any slots in (as a Corruptor). Wild Growth (available at level 4) - Takes Resist Damage and Healing sets This one offers the most confusion for me. It is a long recharge power that offers resistances, so it seems like Recharge + Resistance is a no-brainer. It can also act as a decent mule, but I can take other powers for this reason. My default thinking here is at least 2 pieces of Unbreakable Guard (or 4 pieces of that same set) I certainly wouldn't mind trying to boost the Regeneration so a little franken-slotting with something like Healing (50+5) Heal/Recharge piece isn't out of the question... I simply doubt I'd put more than 1 healing piece in the power unless I wanted the PVE bonus from Panacea (and I'd boost those pieces) Life-Giving Spores (available at level 16) - Takes Healing and EndMod sets Because this is such a fast-recharging power AND an ally AoE, I am wondering: Is this a good place to put pieces like Panacea %+HP/+End and Performance Shifter %+End? Obviously I can toggle the power well within the 120 sec time period to activate any effect on myself... but will %procs in the AoE patch help any allies? I am assuming that the Performance Shifter %Self Heal is caster-only in all circumstances. Early team experimentation has been inconclusive... but solo I like this power just fine (especially with some Scaling Damage Resistance). If I can benefit teammates, I'll slot it that way after controlling the Endurance cost of the power. The only other cornball idea I have for slotting Life-Giving Spores is to drop a %Stun piece in from Energy Manipulator. The power itself can't be slotted for Accuracy, so I expect D-Syncs and more mundane Acc/EndMod pieces wouldn't help.. and the low magnitude Stun hardly seems worth it. Wild Bastion (available at level 20) - takes Healing sets Another long recharge power, this feels like the place to put 6x Preventive Maintenance... unless I can really improve both Recharge times and Absorb/Heal values via franken-slotting. Rebirth (available at level 24) - takes Healing and EndMod sets I plan on skipping, otherwise it would be a mule for something like Performance Shifter. Overgrowth (available at level 30) - takes ToHit Buff (!) sets This feels like 2-slots only of Recharge 50+ IO pieces. I don't mind buffing +ToHit, but with such long recharge times I can't imagine dedicating more slots to this power just for set bonuses. My primary has a Build Up power. I am taking Corrossive Enzymes (slotting for Accuracy and Endurance Reduction) but skipping Entangling Aura (I don't forsee having the slots to make it do very much for me, especially balanced against when I could fit it into my build)

I forgot to answer this specifically: I went Corruptor with the thinking that Water Blast tends to have some damage-over-time components, which I thought might play better with Scourge. I'm not sure I'm seeing this, but I am also not paying a lot of attention.

I have tons of fun with my Water Blast/Atomic Manipulation Blaster. This combo allows for Blapping, but it doesn't penalize for playing at range. I absolutely lurv that I could build this character without a %proc focus and just lean in hard to 'classic' slotting (albeit with Enhancement sets). With only slotting and set bonuses, I think the lowest Accuracy attack is at just under 180%... this character doesn't care how many Nemesis Vengeance get popped, or Moments of Glory are triggered, etc. Plus it's got two Build Up powers as well. As an aside, while leveling I had the Kismet +6% ToHit slotted in the always-on Infiltration, but since Water Blast doesn't have a Snipe and 'true' slotting leaves tremendous Accuracy it didn't stay in the level 50-build. The only thing it doesn't really excel at is debuffing without using attacks.... which is just fine by me. I should disclose: the above build, as driven by *this* maniac (points at self), can/will be defeated when I'm being sloppy (at least 95% of the defeats) or when RNGesus demands sacrifice. It's why the build includes Epic Fire Mastery's Rise of the Phoenix. I didn't dedicate any additional slots to it however! I am currently leveling up a Water Blast/Nature Affinity Corruptor... partially because I wanted to see how 'just' the primary plays. This build will be experimenting pretty hard with %damage in the attacks. At level 30, it can hold its own against even-level large spawns... it has done some PUGging against higher-level spawns, and as long as there is a single other teammate who is playing somewhat intelligently we've been able to hold off some very threatening spawns. Neither build will use Water Jet, FWIW.

I used to slot Caltrops for %damage, but unless a %damage piece is in part of an enhancement set, there is almost always a better choice for the slot that will improve Quality-of-Life for the character. Something like a travel speed increase additional Recovery. Often there is just a better power for a %damage (or an additional set bonus. My general sense after a LOT of play is this: Caltrops is almost always more useful when slotted for Recharge and Slow.

Who are you and what have you done with Snarky?

I also answered in private... and one thing I had forgotten was that I have played a fair bit with a Plant/Electricity Assault Dominator. Based on that character, I came to completely HATE Thunderstrike. According to City of Data, it looks like the Stalker version is a 'true' AoE and not requiring a target. My Dominator experience led me to respec out of it, as it was not at all practical for damage or control of more than one opposing figure... partially because of enemy placement, partially because of the long wind-up. In other threads I have been quick to point out that Hasten only offers marginal improvements to most of my builds. All of my Stalkers have Hasten, and I believe each of them has it 'perma'. It is a combination of completely smoothing out attack chains and making some long-recharge powers viable for each spawn.

Writing for myself: It's a little bit of "column A" and a little bit of "column B". Column A is that there is a lot in the game (besides inspirations) that an individual player can leverage so that most mezzes aren't as problematic for as much content. Column B is one that I am also guilty of: players may not have the powers to help teammates who are mezzed. The ability to take higher tier powers earlier in the game has (generally) reduced the number of opportunities to pick the sorts of powers we used to have to take. The anti-mezz powers were generally early-ish choices, which was mostly when they were needed. With 20 inspiration slots, I figure most players can decide what they need.

There is at least one GM-hunting Mastermind I'll never convince to clean up spawns in King's Row (or elsewhere) but for everyone else, here is the advantage of using /optionset showvillainname 1

I swear it isn't me, but in 2019 I did verify I could launch the game (using Tequila) with a repurposed prototype device that had Windows XP as its core. This was a quasi-embedded system without a dedicated graphics card... so yeah, this was ugly.

I thought I noticed an anomaly, so I zoomed in

/bind n target_custom_near enemy alive /optionset showvillainname 1

Just because a power accepts a Hami-O, it does not mean that all aspects of a Hami-O are actually doing anything in a power. The simplest test to tell if part of a Hami-o/D-Sync Enhancement is actually going to contribute to a power is: If the power won't accept IOs of a certain category, any a HO/DS won't contribute an enhancement to those types of categories. This is different than named Enhancement Sets which may contain pieces that enhance an attribute of a power even if the power will not take an IO of the type. One power where this is commonly encountered is Mind Link. The power can have its recharge time reduced by slotting Defense and ToHit Buff named set pieces which include Recharge, but a HO Membrane Exposure will not affect recharge times of the power. The HO will only affect the ToHit and Defense buffs. Character design tools don't always account for this.

I have at least two characters that can squash a MoG-infused Paragon Protector without using any inspirations (*1). Those characters stick around to finish off the enemy. On all my other characters, I'm monitoring last hit chance and doing the math on Streakbreaker... it usually doesn't take long to realize that I can come back for that one. (*1) It doesn't take much more than slotting for Accuracy, rocking a +ToHit bonus, and something like an enhanced Build Up / Aim. Aura-dudes and proc-monsters aren't typically going to cut it. I with @Techwright, with one exception: If the TF lead wants to stay and destroy all the police station doors in the first Penny Yin TF mission, I'm not sticking around for that nonsense. Go and run Aaron Thiery's arc if you are that desperate for Doorbuster. Otherwise, I stick around and defeat... my chances of getting the good recipe drop go up as more players exit! One arc that I wish players would be thorough about "defeat all" is the concluding arc of Positron 2 TF, at least to take out as many of the named Vahzilok leaders as possible. I am aware of the other ways to get those leaders... I'm just not sure how many players are aware of how many are in that mission.

A note of thanks to the team (especially @Cobalt Arachne) for the level-less adjustments to spawns in Croato. Not only is it nice to get reward drops from the flunkies that accompany the Giant Monsters, it makes it MUCH easier to reset the table for the Monsters to respawn. Of course, we still have some VERY sloppy Giant Monster Hunters who can't be bothered to do a minimal amount of cleanup, see this shot from Crey's Folly of Rubble Underlings that some all-powerful monster hunter couldn't be bothered to defeat (target reticle snapshot included from the image):

Salvage was seeded by the devs. I don't recall if anything else like converters or boosters were seeded. In the past, the prices of the Winter packs was lowered for a short time, but that is no more. What you see in the market today is pretty much the result of actions and choices by player base.

At the end of Live, we were getting new power sets, with animations that were not trivial and benefited players across all levels (not just Incarnate content). We were also getting new emotes and costumes. There were some Lore-related things that fell flat for me, and I absolutely despised the Incarnate system on Live, but there was obviously dev time being put into zone/mission geometry as well as story arcs. I find the original blue-side zones (and then the Hollows) are not particularly fun to travel/explore/play in... later zones like Striga, Croatoa, Redside (mileage varies on Grandville as an experiment in zone design... Shadow Shard is the true failed experiment in zone design IMO) and event the Dark Astoria revamp show how different design teams can work together to make an "open world" really work. My specific griefs about the paragraph above: Some of the actual graphics used Redside was lazy, specifically the buildings which exist fully drawn below the 'solid' ground. Out of respect for graphic cards of the original era, those elements should have been eliminated such that out cards didn't have to render things we'd never see. Also: I'll never be a true fan of the linear arcs that don't leave the world in (effectively) the same state as when the arc started. Just as "every comic is somebodies first comic", every new character should be able to experience the same comic-book world as every other player.

The original Deus Ex had the water fountains and vending machines for tiny refreshment bonuses.

I don't write this to be contrarian, but on a merit-rich character that ran multiple weekly ITF recently that also didn't have a tricked-out set of Alpha powers, I chose the alpha salvage reward once (which I knew I could use) in place of more merits to get one of the alpha powers over the T3->T4 speed-bump. Every once in a blue moon when similar circumstances arise I will occasionally make the (generally poor) choice of Empyrean Merits as a Hamidon reward. Generally: I agree that the Alpha-slot Incarnate salvage is a poor choice for a reward. It's not as bad a choice as a random Single Origin Enhancement from the signature Story arcs!

MMs are among the most versatile of solo builds, especially one at level 50+. It's solo MMs that I always see sweeping zones for GM hunts (except in Peregrine Island, I never see other MMs hunting here). A Robotics build is perfectly fine for Smashing/Lethal farms if AE farming is your jam. If there is 'one stupid trick' to quickly finish a S/L farm, it is to funnel the enemy spawns towards the henchmen while keeping the 'bots buffed (and stationary) and the enemy in the kill zone. It's definitely not AFK farming. MMs can grind low level Oroborous missions quickly if players want quick Merits instead of Inf/drops. The only type of content I've found that MMs are not good at are missions that (for some reason) the player wants to move quickly through a map to get to objectives... and this is because of henchmen AI for travel routing. MMs builds can be made for Stealth and easier group travel (I've used the Concealment, Flight and/or Teleport pools on MMs that don't have a primary/secondary that could help with these, so this approach isn't forbidden to any MM). I'd casually estimate that 99% of content where a player goes a long way on a map very quickly is due to player choice and not because of a game mechanic. My exemplared MMs can complete the first SSA1 arc in very short times (especially now with powers available at lower levels) and the first two-thirds of that arc have timed/travel components. The main example I can think of where a fast-moving solo MM that doesn't want to fight every group would be likely to take longer would be something like the Dark Astoria arcs. For example, in the first arc there are objectives scattered through the maps with occasional necessary fights, A MM will need the henchmen for those fights even if they've stealthed to them. Honestly... the DA arcs make great farms, so I wouldn't even bother trying to stealth them as a MM. For the @Heatstroke: I don't have experience with Bots/FF, I would worry that Force Field doesn't bring enough debuffs for the hardest targets (AV, GM). Robotics is a pretty easy primary to make very strong, a lot of this is due to the ranged attacks of the fully upgraded henchmen. The MM attacks from Robotics can include %debuffs; I wouldn't take more than 2 (plus a Patron AoE of some sort). I run a Robotics/Traps, with the FFG, Supremacy, the Protector Bot bubble, Maneuvers and some Enhancement uniques I know that the MM is above the Defense softcap, and it feels like even the T1 henchmen aren't getting hit at much.

While leveling: I will always ramp up spawn size before ramping up difficulty.... exactly when depends on the character and how I've been slotting its powers. In solo play, I almost never ramp up difficulty except in the following cases: For Incarnate content, I will minimally increase difficulty to match Incarnate shifts. For level 45+ content, if I have an Alpha shift, I will increase difficulty to account for that. If I'm facing enemies that take a LOT of knockback without me doing anything differently, I will turn up difficulty to keep them from scattering too much. There are two reasons for this personal behavior: I don't enjoy endless slugfests As near as I can tell there is no difference in recipe/salvage drop rates between +0 vs. +3 Generally: XP/Inf is better for more defeats in less time.. The only exception is when I know I will be facing an AV in a mission and for some reason I want the AV to be more powerful, I have turned the settings to +3x1. I don't do this often.

There will be cases where a single piece from an enhancement set is what is needed to maximize one (or more) aspects of a power (for the chosen slotting). If that Enhancement isn't providing a global effect or some sort of %proc, it is probably best to acquire the piece at its maximum level and boost it to +5, as the set bonuses won't be a factor to consider.

A note of caution, regarding 'unslotting' at low levels (below 20). The non-set (i.e. inherent) bonuses from enhancements at low levels are not particularly strong, and can be somewhat obscured by Beginner's Luck and/or any bonuses from early mission arcs like Death from Below. I usually only use unslotters on characters below level 25 when: The Enhancement is 'valuable' (a very subjective adjective) and I want to keep it (that is, not clobber it with a new slotting choice) It is a piece that provides some sort of global (e.g. Kismet +ToHit) that is simply in a 'wrong power' (e.g. moving it from a Click/Toggle to an Auto power) It is some sort of %proc that isn't 'paying off' in the power (many %proc don't offer as much 'bang-for-the-slot' at lower levels, many powers are simply bad choices for %procs) Often I'll find it is useful to do a respec in the mid-20s, just to move slots around in powers. All the enhancements become unslotted during the respec.