tidge
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Posts posted by tidge
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I rather like Infiltration, and use it as a travel power. Typically my Blasters end up taking 4+1 pool choices for power variety... I find the Concealment pool to be a good choice for end-build power choices for muling Defensive enhancements, so taking Infiltration early gets me a zippy, useful, travel power (that can be slotted with travel sets) that can also hold a Defensive enhancement (e.g. Kistmet, Shield Wall, Reactive Defenses) at early levels to give a character a little more oomph in lower-level content. I find that when Infiltration is slotted with a single Endurance/Travel piece I may not be the first player on a group to get to the cross-zone mission door, but I am usually in the first half of players to get to the door.
I can understand other players feeling like all the other travel options/pools offer more of what those players find useful... I have plenty of characters that take more obviously recognizable "travel powers"... but I don't think Infiltration deserves any trash talk. For me, the "concealment" aspect of the power is not even one of the top three reasons why I take Infiltration.
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"When the discussion on page 1 degenerates to an argument about how to have a discussion, then it is very likely that either it was a bad suggestion or the OP didn't really want a discussion."
As for the OP suggestion, The game already has different instances of something this(*1), but maybe not in the way suggested.
(*1) Aside from the common "in mission" things that spawn "extras" mentioned by @Rudra (who read my mind, BTW), several of the "Giant Monster" class will spawn a (usually relatively small) number of associated critters. The most annoying thing about these (to me, YMMV) is that without a targeting bind... they kinda get in the way of quickly targeting the GM. Otherwise, they are barely a threat. I don't see how this suggestion would play out any differently.
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Did you have teammates? Running at 0x8 is turning up the difficulty.
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1 minute ago, Eiko-chan said:
But let me restate, very, very, very, very clearly: This is not about difficulty settings. If it was about difficulty settings, I wouldn't be singling out a single enemy group.
At the same level, with the same settings, this character did just fine against UPA, IDF, and Arachnos. I didn't have huge issues with the Circle, though I'm not sure at what level their revamp really comes into play.
What is the difficulty setting (team size and level) you have for the Council content you are struggling with, and what is the content (and level) at which you are having this trouble?
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13 minutes ago, Rudra said:
It's seems less that they are setting a higher difficulty than they are comfortable with and more an expectation that everything should be able to solo everything at +4/x8 without any (noticeable) difficulty.
6 minutes ago, arcane said:Bingo. And there’s zero reason to implement changes based on such a flawed expectation.
Don't forget: "As early a level as I want."
I encounter enough players in-game who quickly admit that they have bitten off more than they can chew, because they adjusted some setting upwards... could be difficulty was boosted, could be enabling AVs. I never hear such players saying the game is too hard or unfair.
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37 minutes ago, ivanhedgehog said:
Hami. must have taunt and the different mitos taking different damages
2 hours ago, tidge said:I'm struggling to think of any CoX content that explicitly calls for "trinity design"... we've even had the Hamidon defeated by a team of 8 stalkers.
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19 hours ago, Bopper said:
For your build, I see Mind Link is using the Rech/ToHit/Defense Hami's, however I believe those are not able to be slotted as Mind Link doesn't accept Recharge enhancements. You can reduce the recharge using Defense or ToHit Set IOs, however.
13 hours ago, Linea said:Just checked in-game. It currently has 3 Membranes and a Defense/Recharge in it.
HO Membranes (+ToHit / +Defense / Recharge) CAN be slotted in Mind Link, but the Recharge portion of the Membrane Exposure isn't doing anything for the Recharge part of the power. The HO Membranes are only boosting +Defense and +ToHit.
I recommend looking at Adjusted Targeting 50+5 Recharge as well as Boosted Defense/Recharge or ToHit/recharge pieces if you want to franken-slot. I've gotten into the habit of just dropping 6xReactive Defenses in Mind Link.
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On 5/21/2024 at 8:00 PM, Snarky said:
why? why necro this thing? why?
Older threads have been (recently) pulled from the soil in which they rest!
I think @Pleonast comment was the best one, rephrasing: If you want a Tank that exemplars well, it is necessary to think about what levels which powers are taken.
For my Tankers, this essential comes down to: Can this character run through Positron 2 or Synapse on a team of eight and still be Tanking and not lagging? (Lower level Red Side content has less of an obvious need for "Tankers", since CoV didn't launch with Tankers available.)
Practically, this means:
- Having a Travel power of some sort before level 16
- Having at least 2, preferably 3, attacks... plus the Taunt. Temporary attacks can supplement, but they won't be slotted (obviously)
- Having enough Defense/Resistance/Healing/Regeneration, whether or not I actual use them is another matter (i.e. not all toggles need to be used for all content, *1)
- Never taking Hasten below level 20, because it yields so little for lower level/exemplared content.
I'll add some comments related to my bullet point about Hasten. Hasten is a power that only affects the Tanker. By level 50, there may be one-or-more powers in a Tanker's build that are yielding net positives to a team which benefit from that extra recharge, but IMO it is unnecessary (and somewhat selfish) to put it in a build so early. Obviously if no other desired power "fits" in the level range final build and it gets dropped in, that is a different conversation. I sort of feel the same about Tankers' Build Up powers... they are good for solo play, but before certain enemies appear (ehem, MoG Paragon Protectors) I don't think a Tanker really needs a Build Up for team play.
(*1) In addition to often running on low level TFs without toggles, I often make one other peculiar(?) choice to NOT try to take the Fighting pool early on a final/level 50 build that exemplars down. I am aware of the advantages for many Tankers to add the Fighting pool powers, but as a practical matter I don't find any of the toggles activated to make much of a difference for most content. Having them for Enhancement mules is probably 98% of what my Tankers take them for... but even most leveling tankers should be able to Tank level-appropriate content without +6% Defense/+5% Resist/+MaxHP/whatever.
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On 4/10/2024 at 1:17 PM, arcane said:
Thank you both, that settles it.
And I found the extra slot I was hoping for anyway; I completely forgot that Howling Twilight is AutoHit and doesn’t need an Accuracy IO.
On 4/25/2024 at 4:05 AM, Psylenz0511 said:Yes, please do NOT forget that the stun and slow of Howling Twilight are autohit B-) as well as that groovy rez aspect some folks use it for.
AFAIK: Any %procs in an AutoHit power require a ToHit check (in addition to the %proc chance), when I add %procs to Howling Twilight, I don't ignore Accuracy slotting. For example:
Howling Twilight
(A) Bombardment - Chance of Damage (Fire)
(*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage (Lethal)
(*) Absolute Amazement - Stun/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance: Level 50+5
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I get mixed results from my Defenders. The best ones are those that offer both solid team buffs and impressive enemy debuffs. FWIW: In this era of CoX don't find enemy -Defense to be the end-all-be-all that it was in the early days of Live. A well-built, well-played Defender can make a huge impact on team performance.
I have several Defenders I really like; my least favorite Defender uses the Poison primary. It is IMO too clumsy to use to assist teammates, and too single-target oriented to contribute much except against single hard-targets. It really feels like it is from a completely different era of the game. I like Poison just fine as a secondary, it is as a primary that I find it to be weak sauce.
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13 hours ago, RelativeQuanta said:
I would also point out that the prevailing opinion in this thread about leveling, non-hardmode content is exactly the trinity design. Which this game supposedly doesn't follow (except for the times that it does).
I'm struggling to think of any CoX content that explicitly calls for "trinity design"... we've even had the Hamidon defeated by a team of 8 stalkers.
One of the at-launch features of the game is Inspirations; these specifically allow players to not have to rely so much on "trinity thinking".
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I second the suggestion for checking City of Data.
Writing only for myself: knowing what the actual numbers are helps me decide what, if any, attributes of a power are worth investing (certain types) of enhancements in.
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10 hours ago, Lunar Ronin said:
It's Council vs. Masterminds. Nu-Council are very, very nasty when soloing as a Mastermind. That's the real issue of this thread, and it is a legitimate issue.
I'm not seeing this in my own play experience. I change my MM tactics for different content ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .
Reading between the lines of the OPs posts about the MM experience, my takeaway was that difficulty (certainly spawn size, it is unclear about +level) was being turned up at somewhat low levels (earlier than 45). There simply aren't enough complicated nuCouncil appearing in a 0x1 setting to worry most MMs, at any level... unless of course there is something really poor about the henchmen slotting and/or tactics.
IMO, any time the team size is set above x1, we aren't talking "solo" play anymore. It is true that even a relatively modestly crafted character(*1) can often, and is expected to, in some content, solo more than one spawn at once (unintentional aggro, wanderers passing by)... and in the "good market" era of HC we can all make characters much better than "modestly crafted"... but it strikes me as a disingenuous argument to both want to turn up difficulty settings and then want to complain that the enemies are too difficult when doing exactly that.
(*1) As a practical matter, I'm about 50-50 on if I turn up the difficulty for my characters. Specifically on MMs, I find that it is relatively easy to turn up the spawn size after the second upgrade is available... but that doesn't mean the game is "easy mode" forever after level 26. As the enemies become more complicated after level 30, the MM has to adjust playstyles. I experience a similar sort of thing with Kheldians... the progress immediately after getting Nova form is pretty easy, because the enemies aren't able to deal with a character that has that many ranged attacks, at that level. After ~level 12, the enemies are better equipped to handle that sort of thing, and the game rebalances. It's not that enemies above level 16 are too "highly tuned" for Kheldians, it is that the game now requires a different strategy from a solo player.
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17 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:
I could not imagine using this power with less than 2x endo and 2x enzymesAs I wrote: I think chasing enhancements for enemy debuffs, especially those below 10% isn't worth trying to enhance them for enemies that are not likely to be sticking around long.
Also because it's a "no more than 2" stack on the Fear portion, I concluded that once I had the base accuracy above 110% (because the two other Fears are about 150% base accuracy) that was all I needed to invest in a rather meh power (that I don't even need to keep toggled on). I had originally 6-slotted it for set bonuses, but I had to pick either Fear or -ToHit, and invest a rather large number of slots that could be used elsewhere. For example, adding a Kismet +ToHit to a toggle... which I did on the Tanker but not the Scrapper, so the Tanker has an even better ToHit chance with the toggle.
Frankly, I find the practical effects of each of the non-damage auras by themselves to be insignificant enough that I wouldn't fault someone giving up both of them and just go with a %-Resistance piece in the Damage aura. The %proc rates will be horrible, but in terms of how it would improve performance... I don't know that we could tell a difference. between all these middling choices.
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On 5/22/2024 at 2:58 PM, Herotu said:
What's the method?
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Now that it is more evident that the the OP wants to be able to face-tank AVs with a Defender... below level 40... and has doubled-down on this attitude... sympathy has evaporated.
As @Luminara wrote: relying on +Defense and -ToHit is eventually going to lead to disappointment. AVs are not just like the mooks "but at +N" from the rest of the mission. AVs require some strategy and coordination. On TFs like Manticore, it may not look that way if
- a team has been steamrolling/stealthing, and
- there are a bunch of experienced players with a wide variety of tricks (including controls, debuffs, team buffs/heals) to call on for the AV fights
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On my /Dark Scrapper and Dark/ Tanker
Death Shroud
- Fury of the Gladiator Dam/End/Rech (50+5)
- Fury of the Gladiator Acc/Dam/Rech (50+5)
- Fury of the Gladiator Acc/Dam/End/Rech (50+5)
Cloak of Fear
- Hami-O Endoplasm Acc/Mezz (53)
- Nightmare Acc/End (50+5)
Skipped Oppressive Gloom
I usually take Cloak of Fear as my final choice from Primary/Secondary, and only if the build has Global Accuracy (or ToHit) in it, because of the terrible inherent Accuracy.
My Stalker has multiple other Fear powers, otherwise I'd skip Cloak of Fear. My characters do not have other Stun powers/effects, so I skipped Oppressive Gloom on both. I'm simply not a fan of PBAoE status/effect toggles. I can almost feel good about them on Tankers/Brutes because of "aggro", but I generally don't like having to worry about their Accuracy against +N and Endurance costs. I slot for +Mezz because the base fear effect is something like 7 seconds, so if trying to stack the effect longer is better. The base -ToHit is IIRC -5%, so boosting that is marginal without an investment in slots. YMMV but I never trust PBAoE debuff toggles.
Death Shroud is a power that I usually only work into a build early after respecs when I have Global Accuracy/ToHit bonuses. My level 50 Scrapper has it as a "first choice", my level 50 Tanker didn't bother with it until level 18... my general opinion is that for content below a certain level it isn't doing that much. It becomes more important for soloing a increased spawn sizes or when teams are facing enemy spawns that can't be defeated in a couple of attacks.... so something like a +2 Synapse TF.
I opted for the 3x Fury of the Gladiator because of the lack of Knockback protection in Dark Armor. Dark Armor allows for 3xGladiator's Armor as well, so using that along with two of the 4-point KB protection pieces gets 14 points of KB... and it is important for Dark Armor types to not get knocked around or knocked down to be able to spam Dark Regeneration.
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5 hours ago, Jack Power said:
14 pages of one (maybe two) topic(s) is kinda hard to overview and I understand there are different views and I do respect this.
Just wondering if this isn't something that the difficulty setting doesn't fix? I am by no means a high level player and haven't even tried the hardcore stuff.
The difficulty settings do address this, and it was pointed out multiple times in this thread. (*1)
I'll repeat something I wrote earlier: The only time (so far) nuCouncil made one of my characters feel like "wow that is really hard!" was in the following circumstance:
- I was solo on a Warshade somewhere in the "Brickstown" level range, so mid-30s, but below 40. (read as "leveling up, and not tricked out and exemplared down")
- doing the Warshade arcs (read as "rather pitiful damage, no controls")
- The "final" map EB (spawned +1 to me) went nuclear, transformed, and I didn't have enough nearby enemies left to do my usual Warshade tricks.
I was tempted to reset the mission, but using a lot of Inspirations (a trick learned back in the very early days of Live) was enough to beat it. Obviously, I could have also asked for help.
Otherwise: The NuCouncil hasn't forced me to change anything about my play style or build choices, for any of my characters, except that if I think of it... and think knockback will be an issue... I will craft a SG base buff for knockback protection. NuCouncil spawns are slower to defeat, but they were ridiculously easy to defeat en masse prior to the update.
(*1) It isn't clear to me that this round of complaints is due to anything other than setting large spawn sizes and playing solo. My experience has been that the dominant effect of larger spawn sizes is that more enemies will eventually hit... and now that the Council has more "annoying tricks" (including soft controls like FREEM!) players you used to just shrug off the relatively few hits of S/L damage are now finding that this enemy group requires slightly more mental bandwidth. This is almost certainly why some players write that "this was a swing of the nerf bat against resistance-based characters", as they tend to take more hits than defense-based ones. Folks that aren't immediately frustrated by those effects/controls are annoyed that several nuCouncil enemies have higher resistances, which is slowing down defeat times, but my experience is that those critters aren't any worse than certain other enemy types at the same level.
On teams? I haven't seen any issues with clear nuCouncil times, even when it was my character being tossed around like a ragdoll.
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2 hours ago, Linea said:
Back on Topic
What are the worst armors and why?
- I want to build one. Yes I'm crazy. Sometimes I just like the challenge of making the worst work as well as possible, and figuring out what that means.
- Point out the Why. Which armors and which points of which armors need attention and why they need that attention. Aka: If scrapper fire had a taunt aura it would suddenly be top tier instead of bottom tier.
I can get behind this thinking, but I tend to go beyond just thinking about the armor, but can I make the "generally recognized as bad" parts of the armor work?
For example: we have recently had rather long discussions about the Dark toggles. I feel like on my /Dark scrapper, I actually have Cloak of Fear working for me, but I have some other crazy Fear stuff happening in the build, plus a metric ####-ton of Accuracy and ToHit to cover for it's horrible waeknesses. Even I wasn't crazy enough to try to also make Oppressive Gloom work.
Otherwise, I suspect that each of the "Armors" (for all ATs) has been more-or-less "solved" by lots of players. My personal challenge is pairing an Armor with the other set (primary or secondary) and perhaps leaning into one pool (could be epic or patron, but those come so late!) to make the character sing with a unique voice.
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They remain punchable.
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IIRC, the various emotes can be made to work while holding shields... it is just that there is a specific emote that needs to be done immediately before. I can't recall what it is!
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The nuCouncil is effectively demonstrating that they can now leverage certain "player tricks", at an appropriate mission level... whereas before, pretty much the only "player annoying" tricks were Warwolves running away, and Ascendants being untouchable. The Council was grossly under-powered considering the level range of content they appear in.
I continue to suspect that it is only because the Council had been seen as punching bags that they are specifically being singled out. The CoT has been briefly mentioned, but somehow their updates, like Crey before them, are not drawing attention.
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33 minutes ago, Eiko-chan said:
NuCouncil should not appear until level 50. Or possibly even only in Incarnate content.
Do either of the follow matter?
- The powers and abilities demonstrated by the NuCouncil appear in the lore well before level 50.
- With the exception of the random FREEM!, those nuPowers are not radically different from powers exhibited by other factions bosses.
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16 minutes ago, ZacKing said:
Yeah, a lot of that in the Suggestions forum is noise, but I don't think that's what was meant. As far as the beta feedback, I've definitely seen well presented feedback that wasn't "you suck! this change sucks!" type feedback against changes that get hidden or shouted down or both.
I am not saying true feedback doesn't appear, I'm saying that I witness a very large chaff-to-wheat imbalance.
One potential sign that a suggestion/feedback is started in good faith, with specific merits that can be evaluated is IMO that it doesn't degenerate into arguments about logical fallacies, or about how the forum moderators did somebody wrong. See also...
20 minutes ago, ZacKing said:There's definitely a white knight brigade ready to pounce on anyone who disagrees with a particular change. More often than not and more and more recently, you're not able to even question other people. Honestly, it's like watching a cult sometimes, at least to me.
1) I don't know why "questioning other people" even comes up in the suggestions game forum, unless this is a specific comment along the lines of "I have a question only a dev can answer".
2) I think you underestimate how infrequently /jranger is used, especially compared with the first several years of Homecoming. Frankly, often when /jranger is used, someone else almost immediately comes along and explains why the suggestion probably merited a /jranger. See "Bring back Prestige"
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If Pets are this bad, what is the point of Masterminds?
in Mastermind
Posted
"Henchmen", not "pets".
While my MMs certainly do get summoned and buffed, and occasionally get defeated... I have to be playing some rather extreme content or playing in a very sloppy way that this happens.
Without focusing on specific primary/secondary choices, or making specific enhancement slotting choices, here is some general advice for all masterminds:
If the henchmen are taking huge amounts of AoE+bodyguard damage, you (the player) have probably picked the wrong fight. The spawn sizes may be too big (most enemies concentrate on single-target attacks) or the enemy is an AV/GM with a fast-charging AoE attack.
I think it is rather important to, for most content, avoid the temptation to direct the henchmen to attack specific enemies. It takes them out of Bodyguard mode and for melee henchmen they will run all over the place to get to their target.
It is also important to realize that while the Henchmen are the source of a MMs offense and hit points... but that they are intended to be defeated. It's not particularly different than a Blaster's or Scrapper's Health bar. The trick is to be playing content where you manage such things.