tidge
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Posts posted by tidge
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I think all the folks interested in changing to a different game engine are working 100% on City of Titans.
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I'll always use Mission Teleport/Team Transport if the door is farther than 1.1 mile (unless I can fly on autopilot and use the AH), or if the door is likely to be somewhere non-trivial to navigate to, such as being below street level.
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As written by others: Pretty much any AT will contribute to teams. I'd start with something relatively simple and obvious like a DPS-oriented character to start.
Of all the debuff options, I do not recommend starting with a Poison primary. A couple of things:
- Generally with debuff characters, I think it is hard for a new player to understand how the debuffs are working until you have some practice with how enemies behave while NOT debuffed.
- Poison as a primary (especially with Defenders, in my experience) is a really mediocre choice.
Poison is (again my experience) a fine secondary, so let me share my hot takes on the Defender primary.
Alkaloid: a T1 single target heal, with a 60 sec +Rex for Toxic. Nothing great, but boring for solo play and on teams you'll end up Single-target-spamming it for some content.
Envenom: An excellent debuff, but it has such a small radius that it is effectively single-target, It can take %proc, but it isn't particularly a great %proc power.
Weaken: Another fine debuff that will effectively be "single target".
Quick note about these first three powers: they won't really be that useful at low levels (YMMV when facing Vahzilok with allies) and you will have to take two of them as a primary!
Neurotoxic Breath is a cone slow. It has a decent range. AoE Slows are fine, and I use them, but they do relatively little in the scheme of things and cones are inherently trickier than other AoE slows.
Elixer of Life is rez that can be used as a mule for Enhancements. You'll take it, but rezzes are generally not necessary.
Antidote is a real stinker, because it is a single-target buff for teammates. It is a great buff, but it is a true PITA to try to apply it to all teammates AND debuff enemies.
Paralytic Poison is a fine ST hold that can also be leveraged as a single-target %damage attack. The secondary will determine which direction you go with it.
Poison Trap is a great AoE hold, but a somewhat tricky one to use because of its placement and trigger distance.
Venomous Gas is a T9 that I really dislike. It is a good debuff, provided enemies aren't murdering you while you try to use it. My experience has been that it is nearly impossible for a solo character to have defenses high enough to really leverage this for even-level large spawns. Against +N critters, it gets that much worse. If teammates don't know that you will suddenly be in teh mix and need looking out for, it gets really ugly. I just don't think this power gels with the rest of the set.
TL;DR: The Poison set has some good stuff, but it the powers don't synergize really well with each other and makes for boring play. I love it as a secondary, because I find it easier to pick and choose which powers will better compliment whatever fun primary I have chosen.
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While I don't recommend trying to solo Tarikoss at level 15, there is "one dumb trick" that can be exploited in the final mission: Infernal will fight Bat'Zul for you.
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11 hours ago, biostem said:
Looked over this thread a few times - what are the actual nerfs or changes that the OP is upset about?
On 7/8/2024 at 12:33 PM, PeregrineFalcon said:We talked about this already... didn't we?
Long time posters are using alt accounts to troll the forums with hot button topics. This has been happening for awhile now.
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7 hours ago, Akisan said:
(And I do get it - the whole "Shards are useless" misinformation campaign got old a few years ago)
This is how I feel about it, with a *twist*... I think most of the "How do we explain ____ to new players?" is a worn-out consideration, with all the subtleties about the Incarnate content/system to be particularly tiresome... because those who want to "better explain Incarnates to newbs" (my words) also want to "better explain" all sorts of things like the invention system, contacts, TFs, leagues, Hamidon raids, Null the Gull, etc. etc.
I'm not at all against wanting new players to learn all the different parts of the game... it's more that I often get the sense that some folks want hypothetical new players to be able to master all elements of the game with nothing more than a couple of hours and clear instructions. The Incarnate system, is simultaneously a grafted-on mechanism for MOAR POWER that was designed to draw subscriber $$$ *and* (right or wrong, depending on the player) seen as the "end game" goal. My thinking about the shards/threads discussion is two-fold:
- If a player is actively pursuing INCARNATE POWER, they'll do their own research how to achieve it
- If a player asks "what do I do with all these ____ (shards/threads)?" that's the time to explain what to do with them
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4 hours ago, Trickshooter said:
Vigilance is vanilla, but it's fine. Defenders perform well enough that they don't need a gimmicky inherent.
Vigilance isn't the last inherent I think needs consideration... and it definitely is not the first. My personal assessment is also that it is perfectly fine, and has benefits for both solo and team play.
In comparison: The HEAT inherents offer nothing for solo play, and the VEAT inherent is not nothing... but it is close to nothing in the scheme of things.
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I am in favor of alternate animations. Specific to Sorcery... I do agree that Rune of Protection is a peculiar standout, considering how the other powers in the set can be minimized (to different degrees).
I get the original idea behind the "Origin" pools... but from my PoV those pools offer enough variety between each other that sometimes it just makes sens (to me, anyway) to take powers from an Origin pool even if the pool makes no thematic sense for my character. Some of this is indistinguishable from "min-max" thinking, but sometimes there is a specific non-travel power I want for concept so... Bob's your uncle, that pool gets picked.
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On 5/20/2024 at 11:26 AM, Argentae said:
Step out from corner and hit the spawn with Gale. Almost always get a FF +100 rech buff. and while the damage procs rarely show up in floating damage numbers, one or more procs often enough to do pretty dang good damage for the 7.8 end cost.
I'm going to do some experimentation with Gale (on a Defender). I want to say this: Gale has an inherently low Accuracy (0.9 base) which will be working against the %damage chances. I plan to slot the power with Accuracy, The inherent recharge rate is quick, so %damage won't be great, but with the large number of targets it ought to wash out. I haven't settled on my build, but I suspect I'm probably just going to have a 50+5 Accuracy piece in it... possibly a boosted Accuracy/Range, but I am leery of the lowish base Accuracy against +N critters.
Sidebar: There is some evidence (based on code reviews) that beyond the %proc chances (based on radius, recharge time, etc) for a power, the %proc which can affect enemies require an additional ToHiT check based only on the accuracy of the power being used.... so personal global Accuracy or ToHit bonuses don't apply. I believe this is implemented to prevent AutoHit powers from guaranteeing damage (such as Taunts). %+Recharge almost certainly does not need a second ToHit check against individual critters, as it doesn't apply to them.
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8 hours ago, LKN-351 said:
Those are good suggestions but I've built 6 level 50 characters with IOs that aren't attuned. LOL That would take a long time.
I know I know it's gunna take some time to redo them though. I'll probably just use some unslotters and then a respec to sell off whats slotted and buy them attuned.
7 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:Try doing it piecemeal, a few at a session. At level 50, I have to imagine you probably have some cash around. Put in orders for things like the Gaussian's at a low ball level, then once you buy it, unslot the fixed level one, replace it, and sell it.
You will need some Inf, but I want to second what @Yomo Kimyata wrote: Play 1 hour at level 50+0x8 with each level 50, and put in some low bids on attuned pieces. Swap to the next character. In addition to 1 catalyst per 24 hours, after 1 hour of such (more-or-less constant) play you should have a 50% chance at a level 50 PVP or Purple Recipe as well.
You don't need to do them all at once, and once you have seen what it takes for this bunch, future characters should go smoother.
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On 7/5/2024 at 8:07 AM, pawstruck said:
Ok but... Is "defensive mode" a separate thing from the three commands you can give your pets (that would be on your default bar)? Do you have to use a macro to access defensive mode? How the hell are
new playerspeople supposed to know this stuff?There isn't a Mastermind (or a Dominator, or Brute, or Peacbringer, etc...) "tutorial", so learning these are all on a curve. If I am teamed with a MM on a PUG and I notice them dying a lot, I suggest that they consider using Bodyguard ("blue", or even "green") mode. Occasionally on a hectic PUG, I notice if a MMs henchmen are doing something likely to be unintended... henchmen not following, henchmen stuck, henchmen not attacking (often because the way aggro is distributed) I may say something, but otherwise I generally expect that people seek out advice on how to maximize their potential, as with all other things in life.
The pet window can "do it all" from one mode (advanced/basic) or another. I typically click/drag the green/blue/red/command buttons from the pet window down to a tray... then they look like macros. I make sure to edit the macros to make sure they do what I want. IIRC until all the henchmen are in the window, I think the macros added this way may only cover the existing henchmen. IIRC it is necessary to switch between the basic/advanced modes in the pet window to see all the ones I want.
The only macro I go out of my way to add is the one to dismiss them all, which I put out of the way so I don't accidentally click it.
I usually have one tray with these commands (for all henchmen): "go to", "follow me", "stay", "blue", "green", "red", "attack my target"
I understand the appeal of the various MM keybinds, but for the types of content I play, and my preferred MMs, when I want to direct the henchmen in multiple, different ways... I just use the pet window. This is just my experience: with the faster resummons and the ability to buff the henchmen at the same time, plus the low barrier to having whatever enhancement sets I want, I just don't need to micromanage henchmen so much.
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I haven't dug through all of the melee cones, but my immediate reaction is: At low levels, with small spawn sizes... it is annoying that the melee cones rarely hit more than one enemy (at +Nx1) without subtly adjusting my character's positioning. Two things happen: I learn to adjust my position and/or I turn up the spawn size... at higher spawn sizes even my low-level melee cones will hit more enemies. I make no claims to how "balanced" this is, just that this is my experience.
Some of the melee cones have control secondary effects, I don't know how 'balanced' this is in aggregate. Historically I always got the impression that the (Live) devs over-valued enemy controls (especially stuns) as opposed to things like enemy debuffs.
I certainly don't object to a review of melee cones, but my suspicion is that some of them (particularly those available as very early power choices) probably don't need any improvement.
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In addition to have mousebinds for quicky teleports, I often have a couple of macros to TP to a target location, or backwards (to use cone attacks)
Some examples, sub in the name of the power you want to use:
/macro_image "DevouringEarthSeed_Respiring_Seedbuff" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Shield Charge"
/macro_image "StaffFighting_StaffMastery" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Combat Teleport"
/macro_image "StaffFighting_AssassinsStaff" "BACK" "powexec_location Back:25 Combat Teleport"/macro_image "Gadgets_TargetingDrone" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Jaunt"
/macro_image "DevouringEarthSeed_Hematic_Seedbuff" "BAMF" "powexec_location target Burst of Speed"
/macro_image "DevouringEarthSeed_Hematic_seedblood" "Back" "powexec_location Back:25 Burst of Speed" -
8 hours ago, LastHumanSoldier said:
Not a great way to grow the community.
I did not get the impression that this thread was started by a new player, although it could have been started by someone with a very narrow perspective and a somewhat hostile opening line.
Specific to Blasters... I think there is a case to be made that Blasters are the AT that has received the most TLC over the development of the game. Jibber-jabber follows.
Setting aside the entire concept of how in-game rewards are biased toward as many defeats as possible in as little amount of time, Blasters have an inherent mitigation for enemy controls, they can work towards defense "soft caps" just like every other non-armor AT, and they pretty much all have a way of not worrying about Endurance consumption through the "sustains". Blasters can get debuffs through Pool choices, and can get pet summons though at least one Patron pool (Mu, at level 38! Mac, at level 41... other AT need to be level 44 to get a summons!) Did I mention the controls and/or debuffs that are in the Blaster secondaries?
All of the above is available without thinking about enhancement slotting for set bonuses. This is my experience when planning Blaster builds, YMMV: Because Blasters have easy access to so many different types of attacks (ST range, ST melee, AoE Range, AoE Melee) and all those types of attacks have enhancement sets with an excellent selection of set bonuses, I find it pretty easy to take Blasters in a multiple number of different ways that I don't usually have (or must work harder at to get that variety) for other AT. For example: not every AT has the option to be able to slot ATO in both (or even most) Primary and Secondary powers! The point I'm trying to make here is that Blasters are among the most flexible AT in the game, and it is pretty trivial to make them effective, no matter what direction they are taken in.
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7 hours ago, LKN-351 said:
I want to do this going forward, but for now I just need to fix what I've already done.
If you only have the one level 50, I recommend that you pick some level 50 content you can handle(*1) at +0x8 (solo) and run through it collecting level 50 recipe drops (and whatever else). You can vendor level 50 recipes for an average of 100 KInf. Use the Influence to buy catalysts (they should be 1 MInf or less). This will save you a lot of bother, especially if you don't need to respec.
If you have more than one level 50, do this on each of them; you should get a Catalyst drop for each of them once per 24 hours.
(*1) I'm going to suggest some content. Don't turn up the difficulty +N, because it is the drops you want more than a little more XP for each individual defeat. You want to be solo, because the drops otherwise get divided up.
If your character needs Incarnate components, run Heather Townshend's Dark Astoria Arc, If you have incarnate level shifts you can up +N, it just depends on how your build handles the content.
If you don't care about the Incarnate stuff, you could just run Alignment (and then Morality) missions. The Alignment tips are fun, and pretty easy. Every 10 you can do a morality mission for 40 merits.
You can of course just run arcs... but I don't like being pinned down in an arc if I am trying to make a buck.
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As I am sure I wrote in at least one of the threads linked to by @Glacier Peak , and if not in a thread unlinked to: The only goofy practice pre-aggro cap that gave me anything like a rush of endorphins was collecting up the Rikti Monkeys and bringing them to Portal Corps (after PI opened up). This was a very different time in the game. I have never missed the pre-aggro cap days.
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I end up with mostly attuned pieces on just about every build.
1) I buy/slot attuned pieces when they first go into the build.
2) I use enhancement catalysts to attune a crafted piece already slotted.
Because I don't have a large roster of characters, and I tend to craft/convert a lot, I tend to end up with un-catalyzed pieces I am sure I will use eventually, and lots of catalysts, so I do the following...
2b) When I respec, I often swap in non-attuned pieces for attuned pieces, so that the attuned pieces are available for another build. Then I attune the slotted pieces after the respec.... unless I have swapped in the 50 PVP/Very Rare pieces that I intend to boost.
When the market prices for enhancements are low, this is a waste of Inf. But for many pieces (Steadfast Protection, LotG, sub-50 PVPs) it is extremely convenient to have extras in the base.
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1 hour ago, tidge said:
What is it with OPs that hit thumbs down every post that expresses disagreement with the suggestion? I feel like such people would "thumbs up" their own posts if they could.
Often an original suggestion is crafted in such a way that a thumbs up/down seems completely neutral, and a followup post expressing why someone disagrees often express pretty politely the reasons for their disagreement with the original premise. The OP hitting thumbs down in these cases strikes me as rather immature.
56 minutes ago, Dini said:Possibly because the idea is being discounted out of hand rather than options offered for how it could be included. But you do you and, guess what, others can do what they want as well.
I LOLed because the OP couldn't help but to toss a thumbs down on a post that literally expressed no opinion on their suggestion; I wonder if there are some aggro issues IRL.
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FWIW: The Ouroboros version of the original Positron arc can be done instead of doing both parts of the "new" Positron arc, for a similar reward. The original arc is a bit of a slog, but I have found it to be relatively easy to solo on level-appropriate characters that haven't been tricked-out. IIRC it doesn't feature an AV to defeat.
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What is it with OPs that hit thumbs down every post that expresses disagreement with the suggestion? I feel like such people would "thumbs up" their own posts if they could.
Often an original suggestion is crafted in such a way that a thumbs up/down seems completely neutral, and a followup post expressing why someone disagrees often express pretty politely the reasons for their disagreement with the original premise. The OP hitting thumbs down in these cases strikes me as rather immature.
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I want to say that I've noticed two... but since they don't do anything I long ago stopped paying attention to them.
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Specific to the Gaussian's set: The prices on this set fluctuate quite a bit in my experience. 3 MInf seems high to me, but buy-it-now is a thing. Specific to me: I used to keep extras of this set for alts to eventually use, but then I noticed that the prices were under 2 MInf. In practice, I am either using 1 piece (the %BuildUp) or 6 pieces (for full set bonuses) with no. middle ground.
More generally, about attuning via the AH: Catalysts drop freely, and are often less than 1 MInf on the AH. This means that I pretty much only attune via the AH if the character doesn't have access to a Catalyst or the market price is above 2 MInf. There is a range between 1MInf and 2MInf where I suppose it can make financial sense to use the AH to attune, but this is firmly in the "why bother?" zone for me.
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Just now, Haijinx said:
I'm still looking for the explanation of the changes and how they make it hard to solo...
My guess is... FREEM!!, with a side of Umbral Shield.
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Diantane, is that you?
[sarcasm]
Here are some possible fixes to help out the suffering Blasters:
- Allow them to make attacks while mezzed?
- Dial down the recharge time of the nukes?
- Give them some sort of power to help with endurance burn?
- Allow them to slot ATO in both primary and secondary powers?
[/sarcasm]
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Is Range Underrated?
in Blaster
Posted
Assault Rifle's Nuke (Full Auto) has both an inherently long range (80') and very wide arc (90°)... and with how most large spawns are positioned, the added range makes it easier to find everything in the target cap (10 IIRC). I'm always a little surprised how many critters can get swept up in it, even without +Range bonuses.
AR isn't unique, but it is one of those sets with attacks (including multiple cones) with wildly different ranges. On my AR Blaster I did not even attempt to 'even them up', rather I shift between attack chains depending on enemy positioning. I also found that Blapping did not come naturally to my choice of AR/Plant, so I think of the different ranges of the various attacks as a sort of compromise to being willing to be 'in the mix'.
This is in contrast with my Archery/Trick Arrow Blaster for which I made an effort to slot the short-range attacks with Range enhancements specifically to be able to better stay in place (at range).
The only other Blaster I can think of where I made a conscious choice to add range to a cone is on a Dark Blaster's Umbral Torrent. This is a T3 cone with a long range albeit small arc. It also happens to be a good candidate for %damage and offers knockback/knockdown... which I find most useful for grabbing the attention of distant spawns without being immediately overwhelmed by them. The small arc otherwise makes Umbral Torrent a somewhat poor choice for close combat fighting against multiple nearby enemies.