tidge
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Posts posted by tidge
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23 hours ago, Neiska said:
Proc procity-proc proc proc!
Welcome to the Procity of Heroes!
22 hours ago, Sykar said:Well good luck with your studies. I learned English by reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy with a dictionary next to me and I read it several times.
Imagine what the vocabulary would be like if instead of Lord of the Rings it had been the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant!
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I'll offer a minority viewpoint of (perhaps) no relevance for the Fire primary: My "Mystical Blaster" used the Sorcery pool as follows (page 5):
Level 4: Mystic Flight
(A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
(*) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/EnduranceLevel 12: Arcane Bolt
(A) Apocalypse - Damage: Level 50+5
(*) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(*) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(*) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance: Level 50+5
(*) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage (Negative): Level 50Level 24: Rune of Protection
(A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%I landed on this because (A) I wanted Rune of Protection somewhat early in the build and (B) I didn't have enough power picks to get everything I wanted (mostly in terms of powers to mule Enhancements). The DPA on Arcane Bolt isn't great... but it isn't terrible. I ended up using it as a place to 5-slot a Very Rare set.
Because of my choices I was going to end up with a gap in attack chain or have some other sort of performance gap across a lot of content. For this character: level 24 is when I wanted Rune of Protection, often my builds that take it get it somewhat later. To be honest: unless my character looks like some sort of magic user, the Arcane Bolt animation kills the immersion for me. This guy leaned hard into the mystic aspect which made the above choices easier.
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Even though I think it is a mundane option, when I want an actual power for a squishy's mezz protection I lean into the Sorcery pool for Rune of Protection. I'm not crazy about burning a couple of pool powers to get it unlocked, but there are reasonable precursor mule powers, and Arcane Bolt isn't a terrible single-target attack for Controllers... although I prefer other pool power attacks.
Often with Controllers I simply don't sweat the risk of enemy mezz and try to have a column of "Break Free" Inspirations on stand-by.
Also keep in mind that the temporary SG base buffs (mezz resistance) can be crafted with some salvage... this isn't the same as protection of course.
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On 8/19/2023 at 7:58 PM, Heatstroke said:
Im like.. Three words buddy.. Perma Dull Pain..
so after we take her down I explain to him
Dull Pain is a power my Invulnerability Tank has (and has "perma") yet almost never uses (after having leveled up). It may be the only early-pick, 6-slotted power in my roster. Every once in a while there is some exemplared content where I find myself using it, depending on the PUG. While leveling, I do use it more regularly.
I completely agree that in certain high-level content it gets put on auto, for the reasons described. I find that certain content requires juggling it with the Incarnate Rebirth!
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3 hours ago, Raikao said:
Then why does it work for Necromancy? You literally tested this. Don't tell me Necro just gets everything (numina, panacea etc procs and easy END management with golgis) while every other set this doesn't work. That just seems like a bug then.
I don't have a Necromancy MM, and I didn't want to yuck in anyone else's yum, but I find myself wondering if the Healing %effects/globals might only have been applied for 120 seconds on the henchmen. I can't explain what people think they see with Endurance Reduction. I assume that Robotics can also slot those Healing %procs and globals, but that they would only trigger when the MM casts the power. Maintenance Drone is where I 6-slot Preventive Medicine.. I suppose if I made some different choices the %absorb piece could be muled by Upgrade Robot.
As @StrikerFox notes, the upgrade powers (for Robotics) have a pretty steep Endurance cost, but I don't have any context for comparison (I was bored with a Thugs MM, and I simply never felt like rolling up any others).
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16 hours ago, drgantz said:
I've always used 3 slots in Health and Stamina because I've heard that more than 3 enhancements give diminishing returns. I recently saw someone say that they should be 6 slotted.
Most of my toons are either Stalker, Scrapper, Tanker and Blaster. Most don't have self heals or End regain.
How should I slot them and which enhancements are best?
I can't imagine 6-slotting Health. A Healing piece (e.g. an IO) does improve Regeneration, so for Tankers and Brutes (high HP characters that will be taking damage and benefit from Regeneration) I recommend slotting the Numina Healing/Absorb piece along with the Numina global to double-down on improving Regeneration (2-piece set bonus!). Squishier characters are less likely to see as much benefit from the Regeneration as much as extra Recovery (because spamming attacks or running toggles that burn Endurance).
Of course, Tankers often have another power than benefits from slotting Healing sets, so there are more dimensions to what gets slotted (and where). I usually don't chase Regeneration, except on characters with a large base HP. There are a few other sets (Willpower, Super Reflexes, VEATs) where I will consider adding more Regeneration to go along with something like Scaling Damage Resistance.
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2 hours ago, Etched said:
Out of this list it would be rewards and drops.
Mostly the lack of drops for Enhancement Boosters NOT BEING A DROP SALVAGE. Everything is a drop with the exception of Booster and Unslots, which you can only get through Merits or AH and the Boosters are always expensive. If it's salvage allow it to drop with the rest of the salvage.
This never occurred to me. I have no argument against Boosters dropping, except that I have never felt that I was missing much by them not dropping.... and one +1 booster would excite me about as much as one Enhancement converter (not much)... of course they could be sent to the market, but my builds are eventually going to use them.
This wouldn't be a priority for me, as it is nearly trivial for players (even with solo, low-level characters) to quickly run content (assuming zone exploration badges have been collected) to collect enough merits to buy a Booster (or a couple of Unslotters) from a merit vendor. IIRC each starting zone has at least one quickly repeatable (~6 minute) arc that gives at least 5 merits. The SSA1 (Theoden) arc can be rerun in about that time (all ATs) for 5 merits each run... not counting the 20 merits for first time and first weekly repeat.
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50 minutes ago, Hedgefund said:
So, my n=1 conclusion is not "gosh this is dramatic" it's "meh". If this Golgi "trick" is working, it doesn't seem to be doing much.
ETA - just to be thorough, I want to add some additional details. After the first test. I unslotted the heal, slotted the Golgis, dismissed all the pets, resummoned and reupgraded. Just wanted to make that last point clear because not resummoning would mean they were using the original slotting the second time.
Also the point is to show the difference in blue (endurance) bars, which I'm sure you folks get but one can't assume everyone does.
I tried something similar (as I was desperate to find a use for a lvl 53 Golgi I had floating around as well as spare 50+5 Endurance IOs ) and I couldn't see any difference (in any henchman's blue bar). Whatever is happening with Necromancy does not appear to be happening with Robotics.
If Upgrade Robot somehow improved Endurance consumption of all the henchmen, I'd probably just single slot it with a level 50+5 Endurance Reduction IO, as in practice my Protector Bots don't do as much healing as I get from my six-slotted Maintenance Drone.
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I feel like the Accuracy slotting is important for Drain Psyche, so I usually shoot for 3x Touch of the Nictus. After that, I tailor choices. The %+Endurance is used when:
- The character burns Endurance like crazy (Doms with high Recharge tend to fall into this category, despite Domination refills)
- The power is likely to be used in every spawn, against multiple enemies
This is how I have it slotted on one of my Dominators (Fire/Psi):
(A) Theft of Essence - Chance for +Endurance
(*) Touch of the Nictus - Chance for Negative Energy Damage
(*) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
(*) Touch of the Nictus - Accuracy/Healing
(*) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
(*) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTimeOn this build, this is where I could fit the Preventive Medicine %+Absorb) piece, and if I wasn't on the razor's edge with Endurance (across all level ranges) I think 5x Touch of the Nictus (and the %+Absorb piece) would be my second choice.
I don't typically try to enhance EndMod on click powers.
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50 minutes ago, Raikao said:
It reduces the bots endurance costs. At least it should since it works for Necromancy. It's the new hot slotting strat. 1-2 Golgis in the second upgrade and maybe one endurance reduction on the pets (easily obtained from just using 2 pieces of Superior Supremacy set on each pet for 3x10% recharge)
Are you sure about this? My understanding was that the endurance reduction was on the cast (by the Mastermind) of the Upgrade Robot power.
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31 minutes ago, Neiska said:
Overall I like the MM primary updates, only the Robotics do I dislike. To me they took what made the set unique and fun, with different ways to use and made it like the other sets, as with the lateral move of the -regen. They say the DPS was improved, but in all of my personal tests its been worse. Every test I did from before/after is over 2 minutes difference, and not a single test were the new robots "faster." So I suspect what they really mean is the T1 and T2 pets damage was improved, but the T3 pet was reduced or changed. Not that I expect them to make any reversions or updates to Robotics again anytime in the near future.
I think I've noticed (corner?) cases where the performance of Robotics (/Traps) has improved, and some where it is worse. I can't be sure, as I had mostly mothballed by Homecoming Day 0 MM for a year or more until the more recent changes. I also had leveraged the MM primary attacks, so I didn't have to radically change my playstyle. What follows is purely anecdotal.
The area where performance is worse is in solo play against PI/Eden/Abyss Giant Monsters. My guess is that this is because previously the -Regen from 6 henchmen was doing a LOT of heavy lifting against these big sacks of HP. I don't regularly tackle enough different content to see this, except that I feel like high-level zone's Event GMs also take slightly longer to solo, whereas low-level zone event GMs (e.g. Winter Lord) have roughly the same (solo) defeat times.
The improvement I see is against:
- Low level zone GMs are defeated in shorter times (defeat times are faster, presumably because -Regen only from the MM is "enough")
- Even-level x8 instanced missions are cleared faster (presumably because of increased damage, and not needing to slot KB->KD)
Fore example: I don't recall being able to reliably defeat the Grandville Arachnos Flier at a single landing site (with only Robotic henchmen) prior to the recent changes. Since the update, I can be reasonably "late" to a landing site and still have a 50-50 chance to defeat it before it takes off with its shields up. I feel like noting: even with the longest path between landing sites (is it Beta 1 -> Beta 2?) that allows the flier to nearly completely regenerate, the Robots can eliminate the flier at the next site.
Also complicating things for me: RNG provides wide swings in defeat times against certain GMs (notably Jurassik).
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Is this how I am supposed to find out +4 bosses can be teleported?
EDIT: or that Threat and Fear now have PVP or Purple Enhancement sets?
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Simple answer: No.
Slightly complicated answer: If I want a Tanker build that can more-or-less focus on surviving whatever, and I don't lean too hard into trying to hit (with click powers) as many enemies as possible (with attacks, not Taunt) I have a couple of builds that invest slots into powers such that I can boost Psi Resistance via Enhancements. This is me wanting to provide a Tanker that is better at being a classic Tanker such that teammates have to worry about my Tanker over a slightly wider range of content.
In the complicated thinking: My opinion in this case is that it is almost certainly going to be more obvious to teammates that the Tanker is crumpling to certain enemies than it would be that the Tanker is doing more %damage to some enemies or has slightly faster recharge times on some attacks. Again for me, this varies a LOT between my characters.
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On 8/14/2023 at 11:20 AM, Neiska said:
Robots had the best AOE and inherent -regen. They had weak ST though (and still do), but the biggest complaint was how back-loaded the set was. The T3 pet did roughly 80% of your total net damage, which made doing things like Ouro or side-kicking down a pain. But there were also ways to take advantage of that was well. Having so much damage on one pet made ST buffs like Forge much more useful, and it was easier to drop a red inspiration onto your big T3 and boost your damage as well. It was also a mixed blessing when it came to teams, as you could get by with just your T3 pet and it wouldn't impact you very much. But now you can't really do that anymore and have to bring all the pets, the same as every other MM set.
I have no disagreement with the facts as explained, but I do disagree with the assessment (bolded above) that a MM with ONLY an Assault Bot was effective (prior to recent updates). [I have no real disagreement about the caveat of only using the most survivable Robot on Teams, except that MMs Tank better with all henchmen.] On my Robots/Traps MM, my "one big robot" build was painfully slow solo. As noted, this is primarily because the Robots excel at AoE and DoT... with all the henchmen out during combat, it is less obvious (at least to me) all the DoT and AoE that is accumulating on an average (large) spawn... but with only the big guy, it was pretty clear just how hard it was to take out even lone bosses.
I haven't played as much with my revamped "one big robot" build... mostly because the revamped standard build has been so much fun.
One of the recent Homecoming changes that have helped all MMs: being able to take the higher-tier powers earlier in a build lets MMs have a better spread of henchmen across more content. Theoden's SSA1 arc now allows solo MMs to finish in roughly the same time as other ATs... still slower, but times are not a factor-of-two difference.
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On 8/4/2023 at 9:51 PM, Sakai said:
You can boost PvPs? Wonder if I k ew that.
IIRC, the game engine prevents boosting of (all, not just PVP) pieces that only offer %effects or global effects, but you can boost all the other pieces. It is possible to play converter roulette to roll a 50+5 PVP piece into one of the types that can't otherwise be boosted, but those will have a "red" border (normally identifying a piece as 'unslottable'.)
In my calculus, there are two reasons to boost (level 50) PVP pieces, as opposed to picking a different strategy (*1):
- The build is getting a PVP set bonus
- A PVP piece is offering a combination of enhancement attribute boosts that aren't otherwise available
The Boosted PVP pieces I usually work into builds (mileage varies because of available powers) are similar to @Yomo Kimyata:
- Shield Wall Defense, Defense/Endurance (because I will be using the global)
- Gladiator's Armor Resistance, Resistance/Endurance (because I will be using the global)
- Javelin Volley Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (Ranged AoE %damage attacks, accompanying the %Lethal proc)
- Gladiator's Net Accuracy/Hold, and typically Accuracy/Recharge (Holds take a LOT of %damage, and the set bonuses form PVP are IMO better with fewer pieces than with other sets. I do like the Superior Entomb Accuracy/Hold/Endurance piece if the Hold is being spammed.
- Experienced Marksman (5 pieces only, no "Fast Snipe" piece), when the Snipe is taken at a low level and I am not using an alternate set in the power.
Panacea pieces (other than the global) always get boosted, but my build will typically need something like at least two healing/absorb powers (besides Health) requiring slots before I know I'll be using more than just the global from this set. Mileage varies of course. The Healing/Absorb sets are in a weird spot in my head: Numina's Convalescence is a set that seems tailor-made for high-HP characters, Preventive Medicine has great 5/6-piece bonuses, and of course the Miracle and Regenerative Tissue sets set have a useful Global +pieces.
(*1) Alternate slotting strategies include:
- Simply boosting lvl 50 IOs (for cases where the PVP piece only enhances a single attribute)
- Llvl 53 HOs/DSyncs
- Attuned "Superior" ATOs or Winter pieces
- Using a lower rarity (and lower cost!) piece that offers the exact same enhancement potential as a PVP
1,4 are cheaper options... and the enhancement gap between a 50+5 dual piece and (the same combination) 53 Hami-O is pretty thin.
2: "Identical" 53 Hami-O's offer higher enhancements because they start higher at 50, but the costs are higher.
3, 4: I always keep an eye out for pieces that offer a combination that doesn't exist in another form. This is obvious with (some) Hami-O/Dsync pieces, but I'm always amazed that there are so few Accuracy/Endurance pieces (not counting Pet/Henchmen enhancements) available at level 50 (to be boosted). A personal favorite is Multi-Strike: Accuracy/Endurance for Melee AoE %damage builds.
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On 8/11/2023 at 3:47 PM, Sheeshab said:
I don't think it is possible but thought to ask. I am currently playing a Robotics Master Mind. Can a macro be created that will select my boss robot and cast Tempral Selection, all with one button? I hate targeting the robot to cast the buff, and then losing my target I had previously.
If this can be done, what is the macro?
Thanks
Unfortunately I won't be able to give a complete answer; I did (one upon a time) set up a series of "bind files" (bound to the same key) that would:
- Select the henchmen I wanted and then load the next keybind, such that the next press would... (goto 2)
- Apply the single-target buff to my (now selected) target, and then reload the keybind such that the next press would...(goto 1)
This isn't a great system, because it is possible to have the binds "desynchronized" for what you want, because of power recharge times, missing henchmen, lag, whatever.
IIRC, in olden times (long before Homecoming) this was one of the mechanisms for sequentially applying buffs to each teammates on a team.... because some buffs didn't automatically hit all friendlies in a certain area.
A tangential comment: The "select" feature is one of the best reasons to give each henchman a unique name, as a targeting macro/bind can pick something you don't want to buff. I have a Defender with IIRC this (as a macro): target_name Dark Servant$$powexec_Name Spirit Ward
IIRC, this is the order because if If I don't have Dark Servant targeted, it targets the Dark Servant, if I do have it targeted it applies Spirit Ward. The weird thing I notice is that sometimes the power picks something like a Carrion Creeper Vine (not one of my pets) to target! So it's a double-click to apply the power to the pet. I'll have to try changing it to pet_select_name!
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2 hours ago, Frosticus said:
You either aren't understanding what is being stated in the OP, or you are intentionally giving bad information.
I'm happy you like World of Confusion; but you seem to be missing the point of Endurance cost of a toggle that must be toggled on, versus a mule power that doesn't have to be toggled on. I evangelize for Unrelenting, but it isn't an easy sell, no matter how much performance I get out of it.
2 hours ago, Frosticus said:I was in the exact scenario that others have posted in this very thread pretending that a lotg mule (veng) was more beneficial.
Beneficial to who? I already have perma hasten.
I had some Doms that need Hasten (and/or FF: %+Recharge) to hit perma-Domination, life is much easier on builds that can hit perm-Dom without Hasten (and/or FF: %+Recharge). Unless the build already has five LotG +Global Recharge, there is room for at least one more (by skipping WoC). I brought up Combat Jumping specifically because of it's role as a toggle that provides (Defensive) benefits and a low Endurance cost such that even if it is "just" a mule it could still be toggled on to improve the defensive profile of the character.
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I also use a lvl 53 Cyto in Tactics on my MM. It's been forever since I checked how the lower-tier henchmen's ToHits look (with Supremacy, slotting, blah blah fishcakes) but the power is kept toggled on primarily for their benefit and I didn't want to burn slots in that power.
EDIT: That same character also uses a level 53 Cyto in Maneuvers, pretty much for the same reason.
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I am a very uneven joiner of Hamidon Raids. I always take the 80 merits first, and then (because I don't swap characters) it is a coin-toss between the additional 40 merits or a HO. There are a small number of HO that I feel like "oh, that could go on any character", there are a small number of "those are valuable enough to hoard for specific builds", but the vast majority of them are either simply not useful for my builds or not valuable enough for other players' builds that buying them on-demand from the AH is fine for me. It's no secret what 120 merits can do in the hands of a marketeer; as I have written before: as a merit-rich player I see 120 merits as 1.2 ATO for a new character.
Every once in a while I'll take the Empyrian Merits, usually on characters I simply don't want to play in Incarnate Content.
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On 8/3/2023 at 9:13 AM, Raikao said:
Please explain why you're using "mm" to denote millions?
The "mm" makes you texts just frustrating to read.
On 8/4/2023 at 4:13 PM, Yomo Kimyata said:Talk to my lawyer, or if you are in Finland, my lakimies.
MM brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right it's better than yours
I can teach you, but I have to charge
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6 hours ago, Frosticus said:
I think this is an interesting discussion. Are you being disingenuous?
If the argument being put forward is that a generally dissatisfying power pick (World of Confusion) can do something, I agree. I don't think it is disingenuous to point out that there are any number of power picks (many of which don't even need to be toggled on, or require extra slots to provide benefit to a build) that will, in the context of most builds(*1) that provide more value. My opinion: I think it is slightly more disingenuous to claim WoC as a "one-slot wonder" while simultaneously adding Very Rare set bonuses (such as global Accuracy, presumably in other powers) and incarnate effects into the toolbox of trick to make it viable.
(*1) Specific to Dominators: The LotG +Global Recharge pieces cry out to be added, for the purposes of perma-domination. By the level at which a Dominator could even pick World of Confusion, that is likely to be the point in the build at which a pool (perhaps Concealment, but there are many options) that offers opportunities to mule the LotG pieces. Opinions can vary, but I think picking any other power from The Psionic Mastery Epic pool as a second or third choice (no matter what the first choice was) is likely to be better for a Dominator, because of the ability to slot a Global Enhancement piece for Resistance or Defense or Recharge.
Strictly going off my experiences with Dominators, which I often play as being in the middle of melee combat, I did not find WoC to be useful in most combat, for a variety of reasons primarily because the Dominators need to be using their AoE Immobilize/Holds for both Offense and Defense... such that allowing enemy mobiles the time to move around in an effort to group them into the tight radius (because very few spawns are tightly grouped) of WoC is highly dangerous. This is why @Wimbochismo called out powers like Fold Space as being a potential partner for a player that really wants to leverage WoC (in addition to other toggle auras). Again, my personal experience: Whatever "layering defense" an 8-foot radius of WoC provides, it simply wasn't providing any noticeable benefit for most spawns. enemies which spawn/buff get targeted for mezz or damage rather than hope RNG and an aura have them eventually buff me.
It's really never been a secret that World of Confusion can take a Very Rare mezz proc to stack Confusion to improve that power. I'm pretty sure a similar "one-slot wonder" argument could be made for many other powers that for some reason players don't want to invest other slots... for example only investing a single slot of Soulbound Allegiance %Build Up in Fire Imps.
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33 minutes ago, Wimbochismo said:
Although I still kinda wanna try something like a Hot Feet, Choking Cloud, World of Confusion procced Controller to see what happens...
The Fire/Psi/Psi Dominator I run has Hot Feet, I tried WoC with it. I felt very meh about the combo. MMV.
As @Wimbochismo mentioned earlier in the unquoted portion of the post, these sorts of toggles demanded melee range, which didn't really jive (for me) with the rest of what that Dominator was doing offensively. That character was a perma-dom, and I play it with a LOT of button mashing on offense, which I hope brings some understanding of my own sensitivity to Endurance budgets. Even with the blue-bar refill from Domination, I'm often running my Doms on the knife's edge of spending all the Endurance before the refill (because attacks are recharging faster).
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10 minutes ago, Frosticus said:
You sure about that?
City of data has a base of 0.163 End/sec, which is almost three times higher than something like Combat Jumping's 0.065 end/sec.
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8 hours ago, Chance Jackson said:
I seem to recall Pseudo pets inherit some buffs from the caster so shouldn't Caltrops inherit my global acc from sets & +tohit from tactics? If so the Procs slotted in Caltrops should also benefit right?
I don't actually know. MM Henchmen definitely get Supremacy bonuses for example, but I don't think they get MM global bonuses of any sort.
My guess is that any %proc on cast uses the Accuracy of the player, but after that I don't know how the pseudo-pet would know who summoned it (and which global bonuses to use).... but that is just a guess made based on my casual observation of %procs. I almost always use an enemy-targeting macro to toss Caltrops. I don't think all "pseudo-pets" are the same, and I'm not sure how I'd be able to construct experiments to tell. I sometimes keep a pet combat window available (even for non-MMs) to try to look, but I'm not parsing logs or collecting hard data. Acid Mortars show up in pet windows (like Henchmen), but Caltrops don't.
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Is Market Inefficiency Causing Salvage Price Spiral?
in The Market
Posted
The only other unusual thing I noticed in the market recently was that Converters had been sitting relatively high (my opinion) and then fell back to a price that looked as if they were being dumped at a higher rate than they had been (just previously) bought at.
I usually start to dump uncommon salvage when the individual stacks in a character's personal inventory get close to '10'... otherwise I'm generally using them to craft (recipes, or SG buffs). I do have an alternate strategy... keep reading. I notice the jump in prices, so I switched to...
Pulling the yellow salvage I had sitting in personal vault space or in the AH and dumping it on the market. The alternate strategy is to slowly build up these stacks for times when folks go cuckoo for yellow. It's peanuts, but I like to imagine that there is either: