tidge
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Posts posted by tidge
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Ignoring the Babbage, Synapse TF is relatively quick and easy to solo... If the spawn size has not been turned up. If the character doesn't have DPS for the CK, any single temp summons (e.g. a Shivan) ought to be sufficient. I've done exactly that with Controllers.
I grok the monotony complaints, but this TF is not the worst offender... And the rewards are pretty good for the investment in time.
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2 hours ago, Display Name said:
6) If you go looking for the Winter Guardian and find it, don't say "Here!" No one know where you are in the league, and you can't Follow someone by clicking their name in the chat. Type $loc to broadcast your location. See how easy that was?
Jessme Ritin': I find it easier to click on the leaguemate's name and "follow" then it is to mess around with $loc.
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The build is fun, even if I have 'hang back'. I don't often use Bonfire, but when I remember to use it I find I want it! It is practically just a stepping stone to get RotP.
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6 hours ago, Lhanis said:
What I'm trying to ask is more along the lines of... what is the actual difference from a numbers standpoint? With the example I gave of Dark Blast/MC versus, say, Dark/SR Sent, if I'm leaving out the melee attacks... what actually changes between them. MC may not have been the best set to use as an example, it just happened to be the one I had my mind on at the time I was thinking about all this.
I think you may find that the lower target caps from Sentinels ends up bothering you more than whatever might by bothersome about Blaster primary/secondary combos. If face-planting is a really bothersome issue, the Epic Flame pool offers Rise of the Phoenix after several other good power picks.
FWIW: Even though I have melee (and PBAoE) attacks on my Dark/ Blaster, that character almost exclusively makes ranged attacks. I find Dark to be one of the slower Blaster primaries... partly due to the DoT... and partly because of knockback/knockdown... and partly due to the way RNG tends to let some fraction of mobs get close while others are scattered or immobilized. I suspect if I was playing a Dark Sentinel I would find myself wanting some Melee attacks (because of lower AoE caps)
I like Blapping, but on fast PUG teams, the teammates may not even realize if a Blaster is using melee attacks.
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I had never played any of the Archery/Arrow sets; this post includes my final (level 50) build. I realize that this isn't a shockingly original combination. I'm putting it out in the wild on the chance that there may be elements that could be leveraged by other players.
Some up-front talking points:
1) I typically like to have Blasters who can Melee... this is NOT that type of Blaster. This may be the most "ranged only" character in my lineup.
2) I realize this is an "expensive" build based on slotting. In reality, aside from investing in the ATO and Winter Pieces early in the build (for me, via merits) burning up a lot of Catalysts (after the level 50 respec) I happened to have a LOT of stuff lying around the SG base that went into it. This won't help anyone else, I simply felt like making a comment about how storing drops from other characters can make some builds much more affordable.
3) In attacks: this build leverages both straight-up enhancement for set bonuses and %damage from procs. I know that both types of attack slotting have proponents. This build felt a little weird to me because I usually don't have so many of each type of attack. I think this was a side effect of not having melee/PBAoE 'attacks'.
4) I did try to get all of the ranged attacks to have roughly the same range. I felt this was most important to increase the ranges for Glue Arrow and Electrified Net Arrow, I had a single slot left over that went into Fistful of Arrows just because.
5) I think the build could have better Defenses; this simply wasn't that important to me. This is built for fun more than survival. Even without the level 50 choices, this build was handling even-level x8 content solo relatively early in the play-up.
6) The travel power is Infiltration. Between Infiltration, a Stealth global in Sprint, and Flash Arrow this build doesn't care about too much in the way of being spotted while trying to sneak through areas. With the additional toggles and enhancement slotting, this isn't a painfully slow way to get around the city, but temp powers are needed for some navigation.
I included some macros I use for this character.
SpoilerLevel 50 Blaster
Primary Power Set: Archery
Secondary Power Set: Tactical Arrow
Power Pool: Concealment
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Flame Mastery
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Level 1: Glue Arrow
(A) D-Sync Guidance (Accuracy/Range): Level 53
(*) Javelin Volley – Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Javelin Volley – Chance of Damage (Lethal)
(*) Positron’s Blast - Chance of Damage (Energy)
(*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance of Damage (Cold)
(*) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff
Level 1: Aimed Shot
(A) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage
(*) Superior Defiant Barrage - Damage/RechargeTime
(*) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(*) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
(*) Superior Defiant Barrage - RechargeTime/+Status
(*) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
Level 2: Fistful of Arrows
(A) Ragnarok - Damage: Level 50+5
(*) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance: Level 50+5
(*) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge Level 50+5
(*) Range IO: 50+5
Level 4: Electrified Net Arrow
(A) HO Centriole (Damage/Range): Level 53
(*) HO Nucleolus (Accuracy/Damage): Level 53
(*) HO Endoplasm (Accuracy/Mez): Level 53
Level 6: Blazing Arrow
(A) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage
(*) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Damage/Recharge
(*) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
(*) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(*) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
(*) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Recharge/Chance for Fire Damage
Level 8: Infiltration
(A) Blessing of the Zephyr –Travel: Level 50+5
(*) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage
(*) Luck of the Gambler – Defense/Recharge Speed
(*) Kismet - Accuracy +6%
Level 10: Upshot
(A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
(*) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
(*) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
(*) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
(*) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
(*) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance of Build Up
Level 12: Explosive Arrow
(A) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage
(*) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(*) Javelin Volley - Accuracy/Damage: Level 50+5
(*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage (Lethal)
(*) Positron’s Blast - Chance of Damage (Energy)
(*) Bombardment - Chance of Damage (Fire)
Level 14: Boxing
(A) Superior Blistering Cold: Level 50
Level 16: Flash Arrow
(A) ToHit Debuff IO: Level 50+5
Level 18: Ranged Shot
(A) Apocalypse - Damage: Level 50+5
(*) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge: Level 50
(*) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
(*) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance: Level 50+5
(*) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage (Negative): Level 50
Level 14: Combat Teleport
(A) Blessing of the Zephyr - Knockback Reduction (4 points)
Level 20: Eagle Eye
(A) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
(*) Synapse’s Shock - EndMod
(*) Synapse’s Shock - EndMod/Increase Running Speed
Level 22: Tough
(A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
(*) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
Level 24: Gymnastics
(A) Luck of the Gambler – Defense/Recharge Speed
Level 26: Rain of Arrows
(A) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage
(*) Superior Frozen Blast - Damage/Endurance
(*) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
(*) Superior Frozen Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
(*) Superior Frozen Blast - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/Recharge
(*) Superior Frozen Blast - Recharge/Chance for Immobilize
Level 28: ESD ARrow
(A) Absolute Amazement -Stun/End: Level 50+5
(*) Absolute Amazement - Stun/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage
(*) Gladiator's Net - Chance of Damage (Lethal)
Level 28: Radioactive Cloud
(A) Unbreakable Constraint - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
(*) Gladiator's Net - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50
(*) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage (Psionic)
Level 30: Oil Slick Arrow
(A) Javelin Volley - Accuracy/End/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Javelin Volley - Chance of Damage (Lethal)
(*) Bombardment - Accuracy/End/Recharge
(*) Bombardment - Chance of Damage (Fire)
(*) Ice Mistral’s Torment - Chance of Damage (Cold)
(*) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage (Smashing)
Level 32: Weave
(A) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
(*) Shield Wall - Defense/Endurance: Level 50+5
(*) Luck of the Gambler – Defense/Recharge Speed
Level 35: Bonfire
(A) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown
(*) Recharge Reduction IO: Level 50+5
Level 38: Fire Shield
(A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP
(*) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
(*) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance
(*) Unbreakable Guard - Endurance/Recharge
Level 41: Melt Armor
(A) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5
(*) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge: Level 50+5
Level 44: Rise of the Phoenix
(A) Scirocco’s Dervish - Accuracy/Recharge: Level 50+5
Level 47: Combat Jumping
(A) Luck of the Gambler – Defense/Recharge Speed
Level 49: Stealth
(A) Luck of the Gambler – Defense/Recharge Speed
Level 1: Brawl
(A) Accuracy/Damage: Level 50+5
Level 1: Defiance
Level 1: Sprint
(A) Celerity - +Stealth
Level 2: Rest
(A) Interrupt Reduction IO
Level 4: Athletic Run
Level 2: Swift
(A) Run Speed IO: Level 50+5
Level 2: Hurdle
(A) Jumping IO: Level 50+5
Level 2: Health
(A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance
(*) Miracle - +Recovery
Level 2: Stamina
(A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
(*) Performance Shifter - EndMod
(*) Power Transfer - %Heal
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/macro_image "ThornyAssault_Aim" "RoA" "powexec_location target Rain of Arrows"
/macro_image "Arachnos_Patron_selfToHitBuff" "Oil" "powexec_location target Oil Slick Arrow"
/macro_image "Arachnos_Patron_MegaBuff" "Boom" "follow$$powexecname Electrified Net Arrow$$target_custom_next Oil Slick"
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My experience has been that I can't play Dual Pistols with the sound on, because the dog that is scared of fireworks goes into a panic.
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It is possible to wear Statesman's costume (and his helmet) in a level 20-29 tip mission, as a Rogue in Paragon City (it's a "Hero" mission).
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8 minutes ago, twozerofoxtrot said:
LOTG is not a proc. As Luminara pointed out it, it is treated as a Set Bonus, so it does require attunement to gain the benefit when exemplared too far down.
This explanation is precisely why I feel it is important to not confuse the difference between a global effect and a %proc effect when describing enhancement pieces.
38 minutes ago, GM Crumpet said:I'm now confused. People always tell me procs like LOTG don't need to be attuned as the effect works down to it's min level. "Don't attune purple, PvP and procs" is the accepted wisdom I hear from others. I do attune as I get itchy skin when some are attuned and some aren't, but it always confuses me 🙂
PVP pieces will always have their regular enhancement effects scale down (as other enhancements) and any set effects will be in play scaled down to lowest level the set could be slotted... that is: the set bonuses don't "drop out". However, their enhancement effects (e.g. Accuracy) won't scale above a specific level unless they are attuned, or are already at the highest level (50, which can be boosted by up to +5). Non-boosted PVP pieces below 50 may as well be attuned, I wouldn't consider boosting any PVP piece in the level range 45-49.
Purple (very rare) sets behave just like PVP (enhancement effects, set bonuses), except they can only be slotted by a character at 50... and since they can be boosted, it makes no sense to attuned those. ATOs and Event pieces can't be boosted as they always come attuned, but they can be made "Superior".
When I won't be getting a set bonus, or the set bonus is one I don't particularly rely on, I will almost always slot an enhancement piece at its highest possible level and boost it (assuming the piece can be boosted). This is less important where "diminishing returns" from Enhancement Diversification comes into play, but this thinking usually comes into play where that is not an issue for the given power.
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I never went back to MMO. I did a lot of 4X (Civ, Galactic Civ) and did quite a bit of immersion into/replays of Deus Ex. Also lots and lots of pub trivia.
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I thought I'd post this in a not-too-old thread... lots of testing has shown that slotting Endurance Reduction in the primary Robotics' Upgrade Robot doesn't do anything for the henchmen (unlike some other primaries) but a while back I realized I could make a slight compromise in my T2 henchmen slotting to replace the straight Defense Buff IO with a Defense/Endurance piece. I use a Hami-O at level 53, but a 50+5 boosted Defense/Endurance piece will do.
I've been running this slotting for a while, and the slight loss of Defense hasn't been noticeable. The Protector Bots were the henchmen that were usually running low on Endurance, this has pretty much made it so they are not even close to approaching empty for most of the content I play.
There was another slight change I made, to pull out the LoTG piece and instead give the T2 a little more Accuracy/Damage slotting via Call to Arms. I wanted a little more Recovery, but if Endurance wasn't an issue I'd probably have replaced it with a boosted 50+5 piece from one of the other sets (and shuffled some of the unique pet globals, like Expedient Reinforcement from the T1).
Level 12: Protector Bots
- (A) Mark of Supremacy - Damage/Endurance
- (13) Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Endurance
- (13) Defense Buff IO -> HO Cytoskeleton 53 or Def/End 50+5 piece <- THIS WAS THE CHANGE
- (15) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed <- I also changed this to Call to Arms - Accuracy/Damage
- (15) Call to Arms - Defense Bonus Aura for Pets
- (17) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets
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I also think the OP doesn't really want to play a Blaster. If the hangup is a long the lines of "must use mental powers at range and help a team", maybe a Fortunata is a better fit.
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I can't comment (no experience with FF on a MM) except that the only reason I would choose the FF secondary would be to skip slotting the henchman/pet uniques in the Robotic henchmen. As a point of comparison, my Robotics/Traps with FFG MM has all the henchmen pretty well capped (defensively) to the point where I can see the MM himself way above all softcaps. When henchmen fall, it is rare I am replacing more than 1 at a time.
I am sure that there is content where the FF secondary would be offering positive returns (compared to /traps) but I find the debuffing and extra aggro from Traps improves map clear times, and contribute positively to GM defeat times.
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If I were to go Ninjas, my first choice of secondary would absolutely be Trick Arrow. The set's inherent debuffs look to be very powerful, and many of the ranged attacks could slot the Annihilation %-Res piece as well. I like having multiples of that %proc in MM AoEs, because increasing the duration of that debuff helps increase damage output from the henchmen.
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9 hours ago, StrikerFox said:
Don't be ashamed to take some mule powers. Just to get that extra LotG.
Disclaimer: I don't use MIDS so my comments are more general than specific.
I recommend Mules for LotG +Global recharge long before recommending Hasten... unless there is a specific, very long recharge power in the build that is intended to be always used. My thinking:
- MMs have a deep Endurance tax on their powers. Hasten will result in more casts of all powers for more -Endurance... even without considering the -Endurance hit at the end of Hasten.
- Chasing perma-Hasten is a little bit of a mental trap for some builds... I mean to say that slots and enhancement picks are directed more towards perma-Hasten instead of towards more survivability, offense, or simply Quality-of-Life.
- The henchmen resummons are now (on Homecoming) super-speedy with no concern for Recharge.
Another side effect of Homecoming that really benefits MMs is the ability to pick higher tier powers sooner in a build. There are fewer obvious 'empty' power picks at low levels, so there are fewer opportunities to fill up a build with pool powers(*1)... unless of course the player delays her primary/secondary power picks. Hasten is nearly worthless (IMO, YMMV) as a low-level (pre-20) power pick since almost all powers available before this point have reasonably fast recharge times anyway. Even in final (50+) builds I find the relative ease of affording Very Rare sets to deeply affect the utility of Hasten on most builds.
(*1) This is another reason why Provoke isn't so valuable in this era; all ATs can get have AoE attack by level 20, either from their primary, secondary, or pool.
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I can't speak to either the primary or the secondary. My blunt recommendations would be:
- slot Hell on Earth with the global henchmen/pet defense pieces, to free up slots in the henchmen
- Don't put %damage piece in the henchmen, try to leverage set bonuses and Acc/End/Damage instead
- The %BuildUp Very Rare and Overwhelming Force Knockdown should probably go in the T1, since each hench can use them and the level shift hurts them
I was disappointed with Sorcery on a Thugs MM. I want to say that I tried everything I could think of to leverage that pool and I found it to be a poor choice, except for mule powers. If the intent is to be active-ish with a pool... Experimentation offers a good (IMO, YMMV) travel power, an ally buff, a self buff, and the awesome Corrosive Vial (which should help henchmen).
Pain is probably tricky... I generally regard MM secondaries to be the best when they are debuffing enemies. Keeping Henchmen "alive" is far less important to me than whittling down enemies faster. At low and mid-levels, it is important to keep the henchmen alive (so no judgement from me on that score), but in a more-complete build this is not what I focus on.
EDIT: I also don't think Provoke is a good choice for MMs. I like the Presence pool... but Provoke requires a ToHit check and the max targets is only 5. Better IMO is to use an AoE attack to get aggro. from the same pool, Invoke Panic has a target cap two times larger!
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On 11/21/2023 at 11:14 AM, Clave Dark 5 said:
But if employment practices, both good or ill, aren't one of the epic battlegrounds of the current age, I don't know what is.
"Can I interest you in the exciting world of Day jobs?"
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I was an initial backer of the City of Titans... for most of the sentimental reasons that have been written. Also like others have written: I long ago gave up on the project. I've never installed a single piece of software that was offered as part of my initial Kickstarter pledge. In my case it was less about the slow pace of progress, it was that the early focus seemed to be entirely on the graphics... especially the costume options... and trying to make a highly detail (graphics-wise) world. I specifically remember reading in one of the updates how the dev team was trying to adapt true (Planet Earth) surface scans into terrain features for the game world. This struck me(*1) as a blatant time-sink... especially (IIRC) as this was after a decision in the choice of the underlying graphics engine.
(*1) Full disclosure: I spent many years as a project manager on multiple software projects... yes, for those of you in the business, that guy. Every project has its own unique ways of going off the rails, but letting programmers spend more than 5% of their time on "experimenting" has always been an incredible time-waster. I'm not anti-creativity, my approach was to tolerate creativity in the pursuit of satisfying actual requirements. AFAIK the Phoenix Project was almost entirely passion-based as opposed to being target-based. The initial updates struck me as completely reasonable.
EDIT: I didn't find out about Ship of Heroes until much later. What struck me as most interesting about that project was that they explicitly wanted to have a reason why players couldn't leave a zone.... aka "War Walls". I thought that was a fine solution to a grumpy complaint about wanting to get past the zone walls in CoX.
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Nothing to do with JE or Statesman...
One side observation of my own: CoX was so immune to the South Korean style of factory play that "Inf Sellers" could barely make their presence known in-game during Live. There was no practical need to buy Inf... especially with Veteran Rewards, which made the repeated play incredibly bearable. The subscriber model as implemented, for all purposes negated the need for micro-transactions. I'm sure this rubbed NCSoft the wrong way, in multiple dimensions.
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18 hours ago, Crysis said:
You say bug I say MM buff.Actually makes me wonder what other ways I can leverage this buff.
I always try to slot it in the T1 henchmen. My thinking is that (when triggered) it can help with the level shift that has them fighting uphill. I want to say that I have at least one non-MM character where I included it (probably a Crabbermind) for similar reasons. The T2 Disruptors are probably the best place for this piece as they have more attacks than the T1 Spiderlings. I want to say that I have also slotted it in Fire Imps, just because.
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6 hours ago, Verfall said:
My memories fuzzy, but I believe the breaking point for most of us was, after reducing defensive numbers across the board and saying there was going to be "no more nerfs" we got handed ED. As an Invul tank, we went from herding maps to anything non-SL hurting a ton. Did we need reigning in? In hindsight, of course. But at the time we went from gods to street level practically over night.
I feel what is being written, but that doesn't line up with my own feelings as a Day 1 Invulnerability Tanker. If anything it was the aggro change that hit "herding maps". I will sympathize that pre-ED it was possible to over-exaggerate the core attributes of any AT. My own feelings regarding pre-ED for my Tanker was pretty much: "It looks like those Scrappers are shaming me!"
That Day 1 Tanker of mine was Invulnerability/Energy Melee, so the changes to the secondary certainly (and to some extent ED) hurt me in all sorts of places. With that character, I took a peculiar and limited joy in applying long-lasting stuns to all sorts of enemies... even if they would zip away at Mach 5.
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I have long advocated for a %Contageous Fear; the existence of such a piece would greatly improve the viability of single-target Fears in the layer game.
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16 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:
Oh the days of Unyielding rooting you in place, forcing all of us early Invuln tanks to use teleport, or detoggle our mez protection to run around.
I have a vague memory that Stateman (the PC) also had ranged attacks, which were not really a thing for Tankers at Launch. Between that an Unyielding, as an Invuln Tanker from Day 1, it felt like Dev "cheating" for their PCs in ways that were not as immediately obvious with the rest of the big names. It's sort of like in the more modern era, Penny Yin has access to an obvious pet that players can't access... although that bothers me not-at-all.
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I had a very narrow gripe about Statesman from launch: IIRC Statesman was an Invulnerability Tanker, per the game materials. My gripe is that those of who played Invulnerability Tanks couldn't do the things that Statesman could do... Like move when powers were toggled on.
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I think I've seen it double-stack on my T1 henchmen.
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Synapse Task Force Dread
in General Discussion
Posted
The two issues I encounter with getting a Shivan from Bloody Bay are: