[Modern Force Fields Guide]

Oh, that's good to know about the KD... my past experience has been with the similar power from Epic pools that scattered enemies. I still won't go with Force Bomb on a primary build. There are too many things about the power that don't appeal to me. Number one being that I'm sour on the animation; number one-point-five being that this build is already wielding nine attacks. Keep in mind: I'm not trying for a min-max build as much as I was an angry laser-gun-wielding character.

 

Does anyone know what End Mod does in Power Sink? I'm guessing that it increases the drain on enemies and not on the Endurance granted to the caster?

[Modern Force Fields Guide]

Rune of Protection is the mule for the two pieces that give me +6% Defenses. Don't overlook that it is a hefty +Resistance (All) as well! Dispersion Bubble is not protecting me from all mezzes (e.g. Sleeps, Confuses).

 

Force Bomb: I've used this power on other characters. Generally, even though this is a fine %damage power... I don't like having to slot it with KB->KD (to keep enemies grouped) AND have to slot it with Accuracy (to help the) also slotted %damage pieces.  It simply too much of a slot investment in a power I won't use in this build. I am aware of the extra -Resistance, but I have two powers (from Beam Rifle) that (a) I have slotted anyway and (b) have the Annihilation %-Resistance piece in them. I am also sour on the animation of Force Bomb!

 

I purposely skipped Aim. I wanted 6x Gaussian's for Defense bonuses, and I simply decided that (as a Defender) I would rather keep Tactics up all the time (sacrificing a 90% ceiling %Build Up, I know) and so leverage all the enhancements to Endurance reduction and +ToHit from Gaussians. If this was a Blaster, I'd keep Aim, but as a Defender I felt that Tactics was the better of the two choices... It helps my team plus my (Fast) Snipes get the extra damage boost from Tactics. When I'm playing solo, my sense is that an occasionally used Aim (plus %Build Up) isn't going to make a significant difference in the "number of attacks of I have to click" to defeat enemies in a spawn. That sort of thing does make a difference for my Blasters, but I'm just not convinced that for the Defender (remember: Beam Rifle) I'm going to save myself (m)any clicks but have a short duration boost to damage. I could be wrong of course. I'm not quite ready to take on +0x8 content yet to test.

 

As I wrote above, I've been using the first two powers from Mu Mastery Patron pool (Power Sink, Charged Armor) and liking them. Victory Rush is going to be replaced with a Concealment pool power as my 5th LotG global +Recharge mule as I need to make a slight compromise on slotting to get the Power Sink's recharge times to where I want.

 

My concept is essentially driven by wanting to have all the Beam Rifle attacks. Usually I would never recommend such an approach, but here I am. There is one interesting 'meta' side effect: I have three single-target powers that I usually open with against hard targets when solo: Repulsion Bolt / Disintegrate / Lancer Shot. My Accuracy is such that I never miss two these three attacks (streakbreaker for class +95%)... any two of them have me in set up pretty good shape against that target. None of these are the tier one attacks of course. I realize I could do without one of the two initial secondary attacks and free up a power choice (and some slots) but I haven't worked myself to that yet. I need to see what the attack options look like in the level 50 build.... if I am never casting one of the first two attacks, I will probably make some changes.

[Modern Force Fields Guide]

The Power Transfer %heal appears to be tagged as "on cast", which was the big reason for changing my mind on Patron pools. I have been playing with Mu's Power Sink and I rather like it for my button-mashing-pew-pew Defender. I don't have the character at its level 50 build yet, so Endurance management is currently "ok", with a forecast of being "even better". If that is correct: think the only other "global" I could drop in would be the Synapse Shock Run Speed piece.

 

I have the Preventive Medicine %Absorb into Spirit Ward, so I'm not doing without it. If I didn't have that power I agree that its a good option for a high-level mule power.

[Slotting Hide]

The default slot get the Kismet +6% ToHit. I think every one of my Stalkers has (eventually) added a second slot for the LotG global +Recharge piece.

[Modern Force Fields Guide]

2 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

Hibernate and PFF do seem to be a bit redundant. 

 

I was going to use each of them as a mule, but the mule options for Hibernate are mediocre.

[Modern Force Fields Guide]

Revisiting a not-too-old thread....

 

I'm noodling around with a Force Field / Beam Rifle Defender. This is not a primary I've used since some early days on Live; I've only played with Beam Rifle on Blasters. Here's the Power picks I think I'm going with (spoilers for shrinkage):

 

Force Field

Beam Rifle

Sorcery

Leadership

Leviathan Mastery

 

Spoiler

1 Single Shot

1 Deflection Field

2 Charged Shot

4 Cutting Cone

6 Mystic Flight

8 insulation Field

10 Disintegrate

12 Dispersion Bubble

14 Repulsion Bolt

16 Maneuvers

18 Spirit Ward

20 Rune of Protection

22 Lancer Shot

24 Penetrating Ray

26 Tactics

28 Piercing Beam

30 Overcharge

32 Damping Bubble

35 Shark Skin

38 Hibernate

41 Personal Force Field

44 Vengeance

47 Assault

49 Victory Rush (??)

 

There are more attacks than a Defender needs, but I found myself wanting to leverage:

• -Resistance in Repulsion Bolt
• %-Resistance in a few Beam Rifle attacks
• more Beam Rifle attacks to spread Disintegration
• multiple quick-fire attacks (again Disintegration)
• I wanted the Stun from Lancer Shot (it felt weird not having any sort of mezz)
• I am juggling the ATOs and %damage
• I felt like it fit the concept to be spamming the Beam Rifle attacks.

I'm running Dispersion Bubble as my Kismet +ToHit Mule (plus 3xShield Wall and a LotG), and Maneuvers with 6xReactive Defenses.

 

I'm not sure where I'll land with Epic/Patron. I won't have an extra slots once the Resistance toggle is 4-slotted... so the leading candidates were Leviathan or Soul Mastery. I like Power Boost (Soul Mastery) but aside from the Defense buffs I don't really have anything worth boosting, and I know if the short-duration boost is something I could pull off reliably for teammates. I think with some juggling of slots (by swapping out Victory Rush for another LotG mule) I could get the recharge time down to about 42 seconds on Power Boost.... but I am never sure if I want to make those compromises for a high-level power pick... with those kind of returns.... since I'm selfish, I wonder if Mu Mastery's Power Sink (at 42 second recharge) isn't a better option?

 

I'm not sold on the order of the final 4 powers.

[Attuned enhancements question]

4 hours ago, macskull said:

You've got that backwards. For dual-aspect enhancements a 50+5 provides 33.1% bonus to both attributes while a level 50 Hami-O provides 33.3%, and a level 53 Hami-O provides 38.3%.

 Thanks for the correction. I remembered the 50+5 and 53 being close.

 

 

[The Disagreeable Dr Quarterfield and The Mortifyingly Cruel TF]

21 minutes ago, Hedgefund said:

Just so I can provide A positive - most of the named bosses are Monty Python characters.

[Attuned enhancements question]

1 hour ago, liveevil4000 said:

I am wondering if I should have attuned sets on my toon. 
I like doing TFs which exemplar me down from 50, and I lose set bonuses. 

 

is it worth getting them?

what are the disadvantages to having them attuned?

or is it better to enhance them and deal with not having set bonuses at lower level?

 

It's been a while since I've seen this bit of advices offered regarding how to (relatively easily) get attuned enhancements: The market house (/AH) buckets/auto-converts an enhancement at a specific level with enhancements that are attuned. It is possible to "convert" a non-attuned enhancement to an attuned one by putting a non-attuned piece on the market and buying an attuned one in its place. You do have to pay the price of the auction house's "vig", and any buy-it-now inefficiency of course.  Once a character is level 50, Enhancement Catalysts will drop one-per-24 hours, assuming the player is actually defeating enemies to get drops (it doesn't take many defeats, maybe 50).

 

If there are set bonuses to be had, I almost always go attuned (or use sets that don't need to be attuned). The times when I don't attune but use boosted (max level)+5 pieces instead are:

• There is no set bonus I want, and I simply want as much enhancement as possible. Common examples from my builds include Healing/Recharge, Accuracy/Endurance reduction.
• Every once in a while there is a power that only takes a certain type of enhancement, and the set bonus simply isn't something I care that much about (as much as I want the actual enhancement values). Examples include the Adjusted Targeting Recharge piece (a ToHit Buff set) in Link Minds (also falls into previous category) or when using only a couple of pieces from a set like Analyze Weakness (Accurate Defense Debuff)
• I don't feel like spending Inf on the market for something like a Hami-O or D-Sync for the equivalent set of enhancements.

I don't object to shelling out Inf for Hami-O's or D-Syncs, but in order to get the maximum boosts from those, it typically becomes necessary to buy multiples and combine them. A Merit Vendor can be used to buy boosters. IIRC the enhancement values of a boosted 50+5 piece are just above the enhancement values of an "equivalent" level 50 Hami-O. The gap widens of course for higher-level HO/DS.

 

[What does it mean to proc out a tanker?]

21 hours ago, biostem said:

 For instance, slotting taunt with the perfect zinger and triumphant insult special IOs can make it into an AoE damage/disorient ability.

 

21 hours ago, Spaghetti Betty said:

On top of what might already be available to your chosen melee, Tanks (and Brutes) also get access to another damage proc option in Perfect Zinger, since every attack in their melee can take Taunt enhancements. This usually means they will be able to slot no less than 4 damage procs in an attack if you're not looking for any additional effects.

 

 

A quick comment on using Perfect Zinger %damage: The Tanker's Taunt is not an ideal place for this piece, as %damage requires a ToHit check, even when slotting in powers that otherwise do not require a ToHit check (like Taunt). IIRC, there are a couple of Accuracy/Recharge options in Threat enhancements... but slotting Recharge is working against the %proc rate for the already quick-cycling Taunt powers. This sort of calculus is one of the reasons I prefer the Mocking Beratement set over Perfect Zinger... I'm either single-slotting or 6-slotting Taunt.

 

Perfect Zinger's %damage is a perfectly good piece to add to actual attacks, as described by @Spaghetti Betty, if the attack is going to also have Accuracy slotted.

 

For Tanker Melee slotting, I am more likely to slot Accuracy/Endurance Reduction (at 50+5) than I am Accuracy/Damage (at either 50+5 or 53 via Hami-O or Superior Winter or whatever). This is because the %proc attacker benefits from spamming those AoE attacks (via as much global +Recharge as possible, since global recharge does not hurt %proc chances) so the Endurance cost is often a limiting factor. There also exist Accuracy/Damage/Endurance Reduction pieces as a compromise.

[Can you go through walls]

17 hours ago, savair said:

I need some help a lot of times when I am on a mission I follow someone. But
I find myself running in to walls is there a way to go through walls or how do 
I fix this problem

 

17 hours ago, Ghost said:

You can’t run through walls.

Easy fix is to not set to follow

 

[Tanks and Brutes question]

8 minutes ago, WumpusRat said:

Or are proc-tankers basically trying to run around and herd up a bunch of stuff so that when they DO attack their procs have a higher chance of going off?

 

The 'Tanker Buff' was that the area of their Melee AoE attacks increased, so they will have more possible targets near them as compared to a Brute using the same attack. It's not that their %proc rates are different, it's just that they have more potential targets. This buff was IMO a pretty fair one, as Tankers used to commonly take a long time to clean up all the scrubs in a spawn. Of course: most of the mobs in a typical spawn are scrubs, so hitting more of them with %damage whittles the size of the spawn even faster than it used to (for Tankers). It used to be embarrassingly slow for (some) Tankers to clear large numbers of scrubs, let alone a couple of bosses being in the mix (at least for the ones I played).

 

For me: Tanking play-style hasn't changed, except that I'm far less worried about quick-changing targets (for Punchvoke) when a Tanker is completely surrounded. The only circumstances when I do anything like 'herding' with a Tanker for my own benefit are:

• The spawn is down to a small number of hard targets; I'll drag these to the next spawn if it is close by
• There is another spawn in range that I want to get the attention of; this is essentially dragging the next spawn to me

 

[Are the primary attacks worth it for MMS?]

As mentioned above: If the MM attacks are now doing something they didn't used to do (e.g. -Regeneration in Robotics), perhaps they should be examined.

 

Even before those recent changes; I always found the AoE MM attacks to be better at drawing aggro than Provoke (Concealment pool). Also: the AoE attacks can be slotted with a soft control (like Knockdown) or a %-Resistance piece.

[Yellow Salvage, what's up with that?]

1 hour ago, Andreah said:

I have it on good authority that the yellow salvage drought will only get worse -- hurry and buy as much as you can! The world is an unstable and scary place. Protect your retirement and alting investments and buy Gold salvage from Yomoland Capital Group today!

[Tanks and Brutes question]

18 minutes ago, arcane said:

I want to point out that you can't defeat anything if you can't survive it first.

 

There is also a spectrum of 'the meta' favoring something, versus punishing something. Without %damage the spectrum for rewards is significantly wider between AT and play styles. without %damage, it's not as if a non-damage-dealing class can finish a -1x8 'defeat all' mission in anything like the time it take a Blaster to complete the same mission at +1x8.

[Tanks and Brutes question]

50 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

The current damage to survivability meta strongly favors the tanker.  It is significantly easier for a tanker to add brute damage in the form of damage procs than it is for a brute to add tanker survivability.

 

No disagreement; I want to point out that Rewards (Inf, XP, Drops, Merits) come from defeating mobs, not surviving mobs.

[Tanks and Brutes question]

Just so I understand... is the proposal that Homecoming has to have radical changes to %procs (and seemingly most everything else about game mechanics) because somebody imagines that in this wonderfully fun game (for all players and playstyle choices) some hypothetical person is maybe having (exponentially) more fun than somebody else?

[Tanks and Brutes question]

I'm doubling down: Every proposed change to %procs appears to me to be either:

• An overhaul to address some marginal part of the game, or
• A solution in search of a problem

Furthermore: any attempt to build a complete overhaul to %procs that has its origin in a single perceived problem with %procs (e.g. "IMO, that Tanker cleared a x8 spawn too fast!") is NOT approaching this issue in a holistic manner.

 

The Homecoming game is at a VERY good place: pretty much every AT can solo play a HUGE amount of the game's content at roughly an equivalent pace (i.e. order of magnitude completion times) for a commensurate level of  rewards. The current %procs make this possible.

[Tanks and Brutes question]

4 minutes ago, Gobbledigook said:

Maybe the procs should be based on the AT damage scalar with possible Fury affecting them or crits etc?.

 

Absolutely not: %proc damage is pretty much the ONLY thing that allows solo ATs with relatively poor damage scales (e.g. Controllers) to get clearing-defeat-all-mission-times within the an order of magnitude of the DPS-oriented ATs. The game's rewards... Influence, Drops (not counting Prismatics or Brainstorms), and Merits... fundamentally come from defeating as many enemies as possible in as short amount of time.

 

My perspective is that some folks often want to tweak %proc based on some second-order consideration of a couple of ATs (or even more narrowly: a couple of different primary/secondaries in the same AT) while ignore the zeroth-order effects of just how poorly entire ATs perform without a potential boost from %damage... should the player of such an AT choose to make slotting compromises.

 

AFAIK: Damage scales already come into play for Temporary (attack) powers... if you want to experience a difference in mission complete times run a level 5 (or 10) Blaster and a level 5 (or 10) Controller through content using only P2W temporary attacks.

[Yellow Salvage, what's up with that?]

To resurrect both a thread and an old Usenet meme: It must be September when the Yellow Salvage prices go above 20 Kinf.

[Bots/Devices Post Issue 5]

I like the Time Secondary (on other AT, haven't played on a MM). I'll repeat my comments that while Temporal Mending is valuable (moreso for allied players than henchmen) I think for a Robotics MM I'd rely on the Maintenance Drone to heal the henchmen. I'm not saying skip Temporal mending, but maybe don't slot it. It's a real toss up who you want to be more valuable for: henchmen or PUGmates. Hitting Defenses for the -2, -1, 0 level henchmen is more important than trying to heal them IMO.

 

Masterminds have damage scales of 0.55; their attacks have a rather large Endurance cost. IMO it isn't practical to chase all of the following to try to improve damage output of the MM's personal attacks:

• %proc damage
• set bonuses, including (global) Recharge (needed for %procs)
• Accuracy (needed for %procs)
• Endurance reduction (needed if spamming attacks)

My 'one robot build' attempts to put more damage in the MM via %procs, so it isn't as if I can't imagine how to do such a thing. IMO there is no reason to try to go overboard with %damage in MM attacks, which is why I leverage set bonuses. I deeply appreciate the %-resistance from Annihilation.... keep in mind that -Resistance is a 'force multiplier' for teams, and that an MM has brought their own team with them. The only weirdo compromise to 'conventional netdeck wisdom' is that I have the Gaussian's %Build Up in Tactics... this will frequently boost the MM attacks, but ultimately I don't think it is really contributing that much to performance; see below about how 'extra' ToHit from the %BuildUp can help with Aggro attraction.

 

The end result of my personal calculation is that if I can get Accuracy and Endurance Reduction in attacks, plus valuable set bonuses... I got three of the four things I wanted in a %damage build anyway, with the alternate being I could chase getting only one of those four things (multiple %damage). Note that my build doesn't chase (global) +Recharge because of the endurance tax. The Time Secondary has some VERY good powers in the higher tiers (Farsight! Slowed Response! Chronoshift!) that may demand more global recharge, mileage varies. Keeping Slowed Response in play at all times (with Accuracy slotting) should improve performance significantly.

 

Aggro management - I play Bots/Traps such that the MM is using attacks (mostly AoE) to attract aggro. AoE works best, Accuracy/ToHit is important. Once I've gotten the attention of enemy mob(ile)s and drawn them to the henchmen and (pseudo)pets, I don't worry about keeping aggro. I don't care if the enemies target things like Acid Mortars. This strategy (with Bodyguard mode) really only begins to fall short when both of the following occur: (a) there is a small number of enemies AND (b) another player is keeping all of the aggro on themselves. This just means I have to pay attention and switch modes.

 

Almost all of the damage comes from the henchmen; the best a MM can do is to buff the Henchmen and debuff enemies.

[Still take a travel power?]

Sometimes I want this:

 

but I must make do with this:

[Missing something in my sets]

26 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

Which is a...

 

Say it with me now...

 

Come on, you can do it...

 

[Missing something in my sets]

Have you looked at their in-game base attributes?

[Perma dom]

I want to say that perma-Domination requires something like 122.5%; I always shoot for 123%. This is of course assuming that enemies aren't hitting the character with -Recharge.

 

Mileage varies on what follows. I have built Dominators using different methods (and combinations) of hitting Perma-Dom:

1. Purely via global +Recharge from Enhancement slotting
2. Relying on Hasten
3. Relying on Force Feedback %+Recharge

I have enjoyed playing Dominators the most when I didn't need either (2) or (3). A side effect of Hasten (beyond the simple practical consideration of trying to juggle multiple 'perma' powers) that I dislike is its extra Endurance cost... both upon expiry and because of MOAR button-mashing... as my Dominators walk on the knife's edge of spending blue and getting blue bar refills via Domination.

 

In almost all cases where (1) is all I need, I will still usually add Hasten to the build for (a) Emergencies and/or (b) really long recharge-time powers. Nobody likes finding their Domination expired because of a bunch of slows, only to become vulnerable to mezzes they have been shrugging off... with an empty blue bar.