tidge
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Posts posted by tidge
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On 4/22/2025 at 10:54 PM, Renatos1023 said:
Are VEATS fine without the patron pools, or would I absolutely be missing something? And if so, what is considered the best one (currently running as a Fortunata).
For Soldiers, I almost never take a Patron pool unless I am playing a Crabbermind (because of the final pet). Otherwise I find that the pre-Patron powers can do everything I want and demand all my slots.
For the Widows, I usually take a Patron pool because the extra AoE powers tend to help with larger spawn sizes. Mu is the set I prefer, mostly because of the animations.
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Takeoff also has a somewhat long recharge time that makes it somewhat inferior as a reliable control/threat power. I do tend to take Force of Will on Tankers, in mission I will (if I remember) use Takeoff to knockdown enemies just to make a statement.
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8 hours ago, Psyonico said:
That depends on your definition of “acceptable performance”. I personally find very few sets *don’t* give acceptable performance. For example, Electric Control. I find it neither does enough damage or control to be worth my time. Every other control set does either one or both of those to a satisfying extent for me.
I have sets I keep going back to for concept/animation reasons, but I keep getting reminded how underwhelming I find them. I don't really find them unacceptable, but I find them to be low-performing (for my tastes for the AT). Sometimes those sets shine on other ATs, sometimes those sets offer "one great trick" that gets a lot of attention but doesn't rock my world.
The old, linked posts about differences in clear times measured in seconds between melee types... not particular persuasive to me, although the relative difference between melee sets does align with my personal perceptions.
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I've used Infiltration as a character's travel power, usually on really tight Blaster builds where I was going to otherwise "run out of pools" and needed some end-build mule powers for LotG, I might have a character that has a Kismet +ToHit in it (if taken at low enough level), but otherwise it is muling a Winter's Gift Slow Resist or a LotG.
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10 hours ago, Hedgefund said:
So actually just a couple of hours ago I noticed that my normal bid for rares had gone unfilled for a few days now. I don't monitor the market but seeing that there's a clear trend up made me think of my brain storm stash so I just plowed through a few thousand to up the supply (at a fair, but not a bargain price for current conditions). If the trend is continuing tomorrow I'll repeat.
The influx of new level 50s (from Mapserver, from ToT) usually signals more market activity.
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From my perspective, the increased PBAoE radius for Tankers (on HC) more than makes up for whatever "fun" Tankers could derive from herding enormous numbers of critters. I was playing a Tanker since Launch day, and except from being able to easily survive hundreds of Rikti Monkeys (after first expansion) it was usually more fun just to play a Scrapper.
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I put rare salvage in the personal vault of each character. I have two racks in the SG base for rare salvage... I keep this 'buffet' stocked. If I need a specific rare piece that I don't have, I just AH some pieces that I don't need.
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On 4/21/2025 at 7:56 AM, Falcon Striker said:
I just want to start an open discussion about the game balance, and end game viability and things like scope creep. It's something my friends and I are starting to notice trying the archetypes out playing a lot recently after not playing for a long time
I'd like to first bring up what brought up this discussion, Brutes. I guess they got nerfed a lot, and SURE you could maybe argue they can fill a dps slot and be some what viable with procs. But then I'd argue scope creep. Why pick a brute over a tanker or a scrapper or even a stalker? They just seem inferior and their rage meter doesn't help them much at all.
This suggestion isn't practical (because of existing characters, and *all* the history, going back to how Live Scrappers outclassed Live Tankers for most content before CoV even existed) yet here I go: If there is a belief that Tankers, Scrappers and Stalkers all "have their place" (even if not everyone agrees) the melee class that I think is missing is a melee character that debuffs enemies in PBAoE... not completely dissimilar to how the Sentinel AT does something distinct from Blasters/Corruptors/Defenders/Controllers/Dominators. Keep in mind that I consider Sentinels to be essentially Scrappers with Ranged attacks...
If a Brute could (hypothetically) see a scaling increase in damage output by debuffing enemy resistance (with or without the way Fury builds damage output) it would at least give them a different role on teams than the other 'melee' types.
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15 hours ago, biostem said:
For me it's about the tohit buff that combat teleport grants - leverage it! That being said, I rarely take speed of sound from experimentation because I'm not a big fan of the set overall, and I generally a travel power with more sustainable vertical movement...
I prefer Combat Teleport to other similar powers, yet... I observed some weird behavior (at low level)
I rarely see this at higher levels, but I have more to do at higher level so I have not really been paying attention any longer.
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I hope that some folks will leverage this thread to understand why they may think their characters are "keeping aggro" based on solo play, but really are not "managing aggro" when teamed. In particular, when teamed "running past a spawn (and waking them up)" is not the same as "controlling aggro".
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5 hours ago, biostem said:
IMO, Kheldians are only "slot-hungry" because taking Nova and/or Dwarf forms gives you like 5 powers for the price of 1, not to mention all the other freebie powers they get from their versions of flight or teleportation pool powers. If we take into consideration all the free slots they get as a result of this, they can be quite far ahead of other ATs in terms of total available slots - it's just moving past the urge to have all your powers 6-slotted that's the difficult part...
I don't disagree about being judicious in the choice of where to put slots (in a multi-form). On my builds the Nova form ST attacks often simply hold a small number (3 or fewer) enhancement pieces (IIRC, I slot one of the ATO here). Dwarf form tends to get more slots in its powers, since the Dwarf is the survivable form.
The extra potential for slotting the forms' travel powers is somewhat hit-or-miss. I like those powers as mules, with occasional extra slotting, but I don't consider them (extra travel powers for mules) to be that advantageous.
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1 hour ago, Healix said:
you can make overalls..
Tell me more... is it all body types? If so, which options?
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1 hour ago, Jacke said:
The current Kheldian Powers do scale up as the Level of a Kheldian increases. Sure, they're still T1-T4 attacks, but that can be adjusted as well as these tables (looking at the Kheldian column).
I was thinking specifically as a 'extra' (additive) scaling factor right in the power formulae (with a subtractive recharge factor?) to make them essentially bridge from being the equivalent of a T4 to something more like a T7 or T8 as the Nova player levels up. Alternatively, based on MM henchmen summons, we know that player level can be checked prior to the power manifesting... so I can imagine flat-out different formulae, but this would be a step-change rather than a gradual ramping up.
My thinking was "low level blasts from other ATs typically get disfavored as those ATs level, but Nova forms are stuck with them".
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1 hour ago, Jacke said:
Also, like the click-mez-protection Powers on Super Reflexes, Shield Defense, and Ninjitsu, for good performance when Exemplared, Hasten needs to have 2 Extra Slots for 3 Slots total. Else with Exemplaring down to lower Levels, the reduction of Recharge Reduction enhancement by:
https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Exemplar_Effects_on_Enhancements
hits those Powers hard. 3 Slots total is needed for the click-mez-protection to keep them perma. Hasten is harder to perma, but with only 2 Slots, the downtime gets significant.
This is a good point that I typically ignore... probably because I so rarely put Hasten in my builds. The global recharge I build for will disappear below the sets' levels, but usually 50% is coming from ATO/VR (down to 7) with a LotG level being the dominant gate. I try to avoid the level 30 sets for this reason, but there are plenty of healthy +Recharge bonuses from sets that go below 20.... and there is always the Force Feedback %+Recharge, but I don't like that one so much.
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Just now, Meknomancer said:
I haven't tried it since a day 1 fire farmer but isn't the entire concealment pool 3 power picks for 3 luck of the gamblers still a worse pick than hasten on its own? If your chasing recharge.
Often Hasten requires a second slot to earn its place (and juggling multiple auto-fire powers... not impossible, but "one more thing") while the 3x Concealment pool requires no extra slots to be used as mules for the LotG pieces.
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3 minutes ago, Meknomancer said:
I'll never understand 6 slotting things like the entire shield wall set on anything but tanks , will that toxic/psi bonus make a difference, does that end/rech help out your blue bar? No in both cases.
I feel the same about Shield Wall... except that I'd never 6-slot on any AT. 3-slots is common for me, I can't think of a character of mine that slotted 4 or more.
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7 hours ago, Jacke said:
Hasten is not needed in a build unless it has a critical or several important Very Long Recharge Powers, like Illusion Control's Phantom Army or the Powers in Nature Affinity. Better to get Global Recharge from enhancement set bonuses, especially those from Purple, PvP, ATOs, and WOs, as they don't go away when Exemplared. Combat Jumping is nice to have but not essential. A build can only have 4 Power Pools; this is one of the tightest constraints on a build. I see no reason to automatically take either Hasten or Combat Jumping in a build, because they both need a Pool Pick to add one Power.
I've bolded something I think is key about builds. In the olden days of live (circa Issue 1, when 4 more power picks became available) it was common to take Fitness, plus Hasten, plus Fighting... and then the last pool would often be Leaping (for Combat Jumping and possibly Acrobatics). Once Fitness became inherent, it freed up one pool choice, but it was still common to see recommendations for Hasten/Fighting/Leaping... and these remain common today!
On HC, because it is so very straightforward to get global +Recharge bonuses via enhancement sets, I also don't see much need to take Hasten, except for:
- Characters with critical, very long recharge time powers
- Characters that opt to have very few attacks (with longish recharge times) and want a steady attack chain
I can see a case for a player not wanting to invest in enhancements that offer global +Recharge and going for Hasten instead... but when I see folks pick Hasten at level 4 (or really: below level 18, when it shouldn't be needed, except maybe for Dominators) and then also try to build for perma-Hasten, I tend to think that is like the tail wagging the dog.
I went on a BR kick about 18 months ago, trying it on all ATs except Corruptors (no judgement, but I had just played several). I went with BR/MA, here is a snapshot. I went with Martial on this one because I wanted to focus on the BR and I felt like Martial offered the most without forcing me to lean too hard into the melee. (I enjoy Blapping, but this was for concept)
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To the OP:
Khelds are in a weird spot (and have been for a long time). My PoV is this: The multi-form basis of the AT(s) essentially means that the performance of the powers inherent to the (non-human) forms is going to be effectively 'level-locked', in this sense:
- The Nova form blasts are pretty much the equivalent of low-level blaster powers
- The Dwarf form gets great survival tools, but mediocre melee tools (akin to lower-level melee powers)
The "changeling exploit" is a sort of way to overcome the otherwise poor performance the ATs will have if they rely (mostly) on one form... so there is a dual issue with Kheldians that:
- The dev team has to come up with something better,
- The dev team has to close the 'changeling exploit' loophole (without crippling the multi-form identity of Kheldians)
I think it is an open question if #2 is possible... but the bigger issue is probably #1. I've liked a lot of what the HC devs have added, but when it comes to power sets for players, the bag of tricks appears to be: combination mechanics, pseudopets, (semi-hidden) status flags. I don't think any of these approaches would translate well to the multi-form Kheldians, and I don't think there is an appetite to scrap the ATs and start over.
My (personal) current thinking is that (assuming changeling exploit is done away with) the most natural way to allow Kheldian non-human forms to "scale up" with level content would be to alter the powers of the non-human forms to use formula (for damage, mostly) to have a sort of extra dynamic scaling (based on player level) so that (for example) the Nova form blasts don't always feel like a player is using a bunch of T1-T4 attacks against level 50s.
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On 4/19/2025 at 5:55 AM, Crossrealms said:
I am planning a completionist run and have decided I want to use rifle attacks. What would serve me better? The huntsbane or the AR/Dev?
I've done both. I enjoyed the Huntsbane more(*1), but in order to maximize what it can do, you have to pick up the mace.
(*1) I tend to have a lot of fun red side, but playing a Hunstman as a redside gun-toter (and not leaning at all into the Arachnos VEAT concept) was possibly the most fun I've had in the game.
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On 4/3/2025 at 7:03 PM, Story Archer said:
If you don't take Hasten, what amount of global recharge do you need to make Domination perma?
This can be a slightly tricky question to answer, considering:
- The Dominator can get caught using a somewhat long animation,
- Slow effects
On one Dominator with several long-ish animations, I was most comfortable with +130% recharge. The final build is actually at +136, but the last bit is coming from a set bonus from a level 30 enhancement set. I try to avoid taking Hasten for perma-dom... this means that I typically won't have it until the level 50 build, but I find this to be a fun build challenge and the character becomes that much more rewarding to play after the level 50 respec.
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9 hours ago, FFTMime said:
but is a taunt aura DESIRABLE on a scrapper?
I see people really only go do things once teams are fully packed, and a scrapper getting the attention of an 8 man group all at once sounds special. Or maybe I'm too used to regen being stinky.My typical experience has been that Taunt auras (for Taunting) aren't that great, and (more commonly) are not used well for actual aggro management. Many folks play like they don't know that such auras actually tick, and that when they do they may not always affect nearby critters.
Now, having written that: If the aura doesn't have a terrible base accuracy, high endurance cost, AND provides another effect... why not take it? FWIW, I usually delay "damage auras" because they typically require an investment in slots. For a LOT of content, especially if enemies are not above +2, many scrapper secondaries perform as well as tanker primaries.
About Bio in particular, from memory, the last 4 powers are all PBAoE, and between them they are doing debuffs and damage (%damage) beyond just the "Taunt"... so with some rapid cycling where possible, I can believe that a /Bio Scrapper is holding attention, and with whatever the primary is they are probably defeating enemies before those critters decide to run away.
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5 hours ago, UltraAlt said:
Any scrapper can get the presence power pool. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Presence#Provoke
It isn't an aura, but it basically works like a tanker taunt without the threat magnitude of a tanker taunt.
It's not precisely like a Tanker's Taunt, as the Presence pool powers are not auto-hits. Pacify might stop runners (also not auto-hit) like Placate will, but I haven't tested it... there are some small differences between those pool powers and the Primary/Secondary powers.
The best method for dealing with runners is IMO an Epic/Patron Snipe.
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MOST of what I see during Mapserver is a lot of people having fun, even if they are essentially just standing around farming XP+.
There are a tiny fraction of players that get weirdly vocal (in LFG, elsewhere) with hints of entitlement, as well as borderline bullying/toady behavior, presumably because "somebody's doing something that robs me of my XP!" that I don't like to see.
There were, of course, some excellent league leaders, specifically those who paid attention to who was in their league and who had team stars. There is (in my experience) a wide gulf between folks who want to lead a league and those who simply want a league to make their own rewards come faster.
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MM dps
in Mastermind
Posted
Since Penny Yin TF was mentioned....
No matter the AT, when I solo it I do it at +0x1, and rarely engage more enemies mobiles than necessary. My (lvl 50) MMs don't take much longer than (lvl 50) Blasters/Scrappers/Stalkers/Tankers, but they do take longer. I've soloed it with other ATs, but those are the AT I'll choose for a quick 40 merits/Notice/etc.
The main source of attributable variation among ATs is due to damage/resistance type mismatches, but the Yin TF has a combination of rez (Freaks) and transformations/untouchables (Council) that can add minutes to any run.