tidge

I've got one (from before the proliferation of the GM mini-pets) but for the life of me I can't recall how I got it.

The request to "slow down XP" maybe sounds reasonable to some people, but IMO anyone who thinks turning off XP isn't a viable solution is probably not thinking things through. I don't understand why "I want XP, but less of it" is even a thing, since the "AE Inf Nerf" for level 49s... which happened about a million years ago on Homecoming. The initial OP request sounds like it is motivated from some old farming guide from the early days of Homecoming, with an unstated "less XP more Inf, please". Immediately something that comes to my mind: The current way Patrol XP works (especially with exploration badges) would certainly be the next thing that players unwilling to turn off XP to end up clutching the pearls about. As a practical matter, there are only certain levels where XP has to be turned off in order to experience "all the content" at level.

I think I gave up on trying to understand the 'best' place for each of the Scrapper ATO %procs. I've defaulted to this sort of thinking: AFAIK Scrapper's Strike: Recharge/Critical Hit Bonus is a global, so I either Add it to a power that needs recharge (when chasing a 3-slot bonus), like an AoE that will get %damage, or Toss it in any-old power that is going to get a 5-slot bonus In contrast, I find that I typically consider the Critical Strikes set to be harder (intellectually) to break up (for level 50+ builds) because the 2- and 3-slot bonuses are easy to come by from other set choices (most Purple sets offer similar bonuses on the way to getting a 5-piece global Recharge bonus), so essentially by default I end up slotting all 6 of Critical Strikes in the same attack... so my primary concern is not so much about that single +50% Critical Hits %proc, but rather which of the Scrapper attacks doesn't have better slotting options (either for franken-slotting(*1), or for set bonuses) Often, I end up with the Critical Strikes set in one of the first three attack choices (on a build, not necessarily in the primary)... I'll make the call based on what the likelihood of %proc will be, but those powers are all fast recharging and slotting a set like Critical Strikes will end up essentially capping recharge times anyway, so the %proc chance will suffer no matter what I do. (*1) Soooo much depends on what the rest of the build offers. I never start a Scrapper concept planning to fraken-slot (because: high damage, often my Scrappers take relatively few attacks), but if the primary has something odd like low-damage AoE, lots of Damage-over-Time, or offers the chance to reliably stack %-Resistance I'll consider franken-slotting.

I don't think calling certain power sets mechanics "hokey" is wrong, nor do I think they are always bad. Minor digression: if there is an overarching issue I have with the "newer" sets it is that mechanically the powers are "doing too much" for both the server (computing collisions/interactions) and client (graphics-wise, beyond "particle count") that diminishes my appreciation. In particular Storm and Marine are doing a LOT to both sides of the game engine... this can be most easily seen on teams with more than one of each, and should be especially noticeable (even with a solo character) on Tirck-or-Treat door knocks... because enemies may not even be able to spawn from a door! But I digress... As for the "hokey" mechanics, I have three, typically exclusive, approaches: I play them on the ATs where what makes the hokey aspect less evident (or can lean into it appropriately) I compromise on power picks I ignore the mechanic Some examples of (1) for me include preferring Storm on non-Blasters, and to an extent preferring Beam Rifle on non-Blasters (my experience Beam is fine for Blasters, it's just that I find paying attention to Disintegration works better on non-Blasters). An example of (2) is Savage Melee... I skipped Hemorrhage to better accommodate my spend of Blood Frenzy. The revamped Energy Melee could almost fall into this category, but it is more like... An example of (3) for me is Street Justice. The various effects of the attacks (both Builders and Finishers) are "good enough" for my purposes that I make no effort to regularly exploit the combo system. Energy Melee isn't quite here (for me) because I do try to time the use of Energy Focus mechanic. Some sets I find that I basically need to embrace the mechanic. I mentioned the revamped Energy Melee, but Temporal Manipulation is another set where I found I essentially needed Time Wall (now selectable at level 1, so yay!) to get the most out of other power picks.

I have played both Dark (primary) and Plant (secondary) on Blasters, but not together. Dark is a perfectly fine primary, with more Damage-over-Time than other primaries. MY immediate suggestions: Gloom: Defiant Barrage Umbral Torrent: Frankenslot with Acc/Dam, Acc/Range, O-Force Knockdown and 3 %damage procs (possibly a %-Res from Annihilation) Moonbeam: I like the 5x Experienced Marksman set for early-pick Snipes. 5 or 6-slot to taste Tenebrous Tentacles: Annihilation, 6-pieces. Good bonuses and %-Res Life Drain: minimally 3x Touch of the Nictus. I also have 2x Gladiator's Javelin and Cloud Senses %damage in it. Blackstar: I'm not terribly impressed with it, so probably just 5x Armageddon. Plant isn't a bad secondary, but I think it takes some play to figure out how to best use it. After playing with it, my suggestions start at Skewer: 5x Hecatomb. This isn't an attack that will be used very much (after a certain point), so it is for set bonuses. Dark is a lot of "keep away". Toxins: Either 6-slot Gaussian's or 2-slot with the %Buildup and a boosted Recharge IO Spore Cloud is fine with a single Hami-O Wild Fortress: I use 2x Preventive Medicine, the two Resistance +Def global pieces and a boosted Endurance IO Vines: is a good %proc AoE. I use 3x Gladiator's Net, the Superior Entomb %+Absorb/Recharge and 2 more %damage pieces. My personal experience leveling up with Plant Manipulation was that enemies weren't really getting close enough to use Ripper or Thorn Burst. I also am not a fan of single-target Holds/immobilizes, so those powers became skips. The ST Hold can be find for trying to stack control, but generally I find Blasters need more survivability than ST control. Skipping powers that don't offer as much of return allows Blasters to lean into more surviving, getting powers like Rune of Protection, Unrelenting, Unleash Potential, whatever, sooner rather than later.

10) Limit "couple of idea" threads to two ideas per thread.

They aren't a completely outside the 1-20 level range, but the Shivans/Neo-Shivans are close to being the "are they even in the game?" group. It's not so much that I miss them at higher levels, but I thought we'd get some with more radiation/stone attacks at some point.

That was quite a own-goal.

On the other hand... How about porting some of the Energy Blast animations as options for the Sorcery and Force of Will pool's ranged attacks? I don't mind the other aspects of those powers (animation times, etc)... it's more that I find the specific default animations to be a little bit immersion-breaking for some of my characters. Energy Blast is IMO one of the more 'neutral' appearing blast options. Yeah, yeah, I understand these were originally intended to be "origin specific" power pools... but these pools are among the better balanced IMO so it's hard to pass them up... and since the ranged attacks are one of the three "gates" to pick a fourth or fifth power (from the chosen pool) I'll end up with some sort of oddball animation for non-magic or non-psychic characters.

This seems an odd statement to make (not so much about the expressed preference, more about the "backloaded") This comment must be in the context of running lower-level content at increased spawn sizes, since Invincibility (for Scrappers) is available at level 24. The scaling nature of enhancements at lower levels, as well as the general unavailability of slots while leveling below 12 (Dull Pain can be a level 4 pick for Scrappers) means that this suggestion would get an immediate /jranger from me if the post was made on the suggestions forum. I can agree that Dull Pain isn't needed particularly early for characters with Invulnerability as their armor, and while I take the power when constructing Invulnerable characters... swapping those powers makes no sense to me... unless of course something bizarre is planned like soloing Positron 1 at +4x8, not exemplared. I also can't really believe that an Invulnerable armor character needs to get to level 35 to "feel sturdy", that set is one of the simplest (in my experience) to construct and level with. Part of what makes it easy IMO is that it is neither necessary to have everything toggled on (for most content), nor is it necessary to invest heavily in slots for the armor toggles. As mentioned above, at low levels enhancements for resistance and endurance are barely noticeable in the toggles. The Homecoming game lowered the level gates for some primary/secondary (and Epic/Patron) power picks, and it isn't quite as necessary (or effective) to add Tough/Weave to Invulnerability layering... it can still help (more so for Scrappers/Stalkers) but more Fighting pool picks doesn't quite add the same magic power against all damage types as before.

(wait until these folks realize they can burn Invention Discount tokens at the SG base buff devices)

I think I observed another type of object that behaves similarly: Prison doors in Council maps. At least, Savage Leap (from Savage Melee) couldn't work with them. "On the floor" is how I describe issues where I use a (targeting) location macro and it doesn't work as expected (and affects similar powers without using macros): The map geometry is weird, due to map construction (e.g. Grim Vale "floor", or can be seen on "hills"... also some Grandville platforms) The mobile's body model is 'peculiar' (some Giant Monsters, some objects) There is a side effect to the map issue that can often be seen on instanced maps: a power that requires a target location will not appear where cast, but 'below' the area of cast. I've seen similar issues on player-created maps where floating platforms exist, powers that require placement on a "floor" won't work at all on such platforms.

I think it is important to recognize that for non-incarnate (i.e. "classic") content the Mastermind AT is balanced. It isn't true to write that a MM gets weaker as it levels up to 50. It is more true IMO to write that the MM is one of the few classes that has to adapt its play style the most for different content, far more than other ATs have to adapt. Henchmen do more than just provide offense. A skilled MM has to plan what it wants to do with the different tiers of henchmen, and choose powers (and slot them) appropriately to achieve those goals. More offense via enemy debuffs is one choice, focusing on helping the henchmen to survive is a choice. Unrelated to the discussion of henchmen, but I want to provide a counter-example to this: Kheldian Nova form blasts are strong (even unslotted) at levels 6-14 or so, but they get effectively weaker at higher levels, even while slotted. They'll hit, but it can take a lot of effort (and/or an exploit) to get them to hit very hard, compared to any kind of other ranged attacker above level 30.

As my sad clown indicates, the single-ally focus of Antidote just feels wrong in this game. Whatever the balance aspects of it are supposed to involve, I find it to be one of the clumsiest ally buffs in the game. Isn't -Healing also a separate thing (than -Regen)? If so, if its the kind of thing that is super-useful against such a small number of enemies that a -Healing component could be added simply as a straight-up boost when fighting things like the Goliath War Walker.

I gotcha, but even if it did increase the level of spawns, I think it would have been a bad idea.

I'm firmly against raising the (personal player) difficulty rating during ToT leagues in PI, on principle, for the following reasons: 1) If the goal is XP, faster defeats is probably better than slower defeats. The spawns show up from door clicks, so not having a bunch of players not able to easily hit/damage critters isn't IMO on the right side of the XP/Time curve. 2) If the goal is badges, faster defeats is obviously quicker to get badges 3) If the goal is drops, the doors are more reliable than defeats (on a team), and slower times to defeat will obviously diminish drops, even with increased spawn sizes. Keep in mind, it is rare that the PI ToT league is all level 50+. ToTing isn't the same as a level 50 instanced radio mission.

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na.... Bat'Zul!

Blake's 7 Season 1 is coming to blu-ray in the US! Target date is mid-December 2024!

Doesn't the Scrapper Rad Armor set also include PBAoE -Defense? I find that on my characters that can apply an AoE -Defense debuff, that the %procs are much more reliable, without having to worry as much about Accuracy.

That's cool! IIRC, Ground Zero has one of the higher base Accuracies.

When I solo, I get pretty substantial drops (of all sorts)... I often have to empty my pockets. When I team, I almost never have to empty my pockets. When I was referring to recipes in my above post, it is people buying recipes with merits, because for me, I can get 100 merits to drop (on a league) faster and more reliably than I can get one purple to drop (into my pockets) while in a league.

I don't MIDS, but I'd balance the attacks with %procs against what else I might do with those slots. Dark attacks can be something of an interesting case, because the %damage will be upfront for DoT, but Damage enhancing will be spread out for those later ticks.

Oh I know whose thread it was, they specifically hid it. Like I wrote, I did enough testing with-and-without Accuracy slotting that I feel confident. I didn't collect enough data to have high power, because a LOT of data is needed to tell the difference between two percentages that are close to each other. Random comment about the RNG, not specific to %proc

At some point it is less about "maximizing damage" and more about "minimizing the number of attacks to defeat ____ (critter/spawn)". For example: If an AoE Nuke with %damage is always going to require a second followup AoE to clean up... maybe just go with the set bonus? Edit: This is why I seldom slot single-target Holds for DPS. If I have to keep swinging on an enemy that I just hit with the ST Hold, I'd rather just that critter stay held.

In my imagination, two related reasons: 1) I believe I see the Rare and Uncommon prices swing upwards when merits become easier to acquire, because of the WST (Tinpex, mostly) or, as during Halloween and Winter Events. Folks need Orange to craft those merit-purchased recipes. I've convinced myself that I see a slight rise when Market Crash is also the WST. So demand goes up. 2) When XP/Inf is cheap (Mapserver leagues, et al.), I think some folks would rather just farm on a league, and of course drops are not as good as for a solo player at x8. So supply goes down.