Redlynne

I know, I know. Still, it feels sometimes like it's "my fault" that the powerset combination is as ... popular(?) ... as it seems to have become (at least here on the forums). 😉

2 or 3. Always pick the "back" elevator ... so as to arrive at a location farthest away from potential aggro upon exit. This is why in tech labs with the "pneumatic tube" elevators I will always pick the center elevator, because the tube will block Line of Sight against anything beyond the elevator room, so you're safe(r) upon exit than using either of the other elevators.

Oh? Really ... 🤣

Paths through alignments, switching as often as possible, updated in my original post.

Request that the Mark As Read buttons remove the confirmation pop up. When I'm needing to click that confirmation box some 20+ times per session while browsing/clearing forums ... it gets OLD ... fast ...

Use imgur like the rest of the internet. That way you can link to the images and let people pick their own zoom factors to look at them.

Dark is at least ... thematic ... for Ninjas, but it also comes with its own set of preferences for positioning and engagement tactics. For one thing, the heal is Target AoE rather than PBAoE, which has some implications for when it can be used (must have $Target versus at any time). I like using Temporal Mending AFTER a fight is over, in addition to while a fight is happening, so as to "top up" my Ninjas on health before moving on to the next group of $Targets. You won't get that kind of performance profile out of Dark, for instance, because the Target AoE heal requires your Allies/Pets to be clustered up around a (live) $Target in order to use it. That means that if your group is "split" (some by you, some by the $Target, and you're not "huddling up" near the $Target very nearly in melee range yourself) then you'll only heal some of them but not all of them. Can you work around such factors? Sure ... but you need to "train" yourself as a Player to take advantage of the different circumstances, situations and positioning with Dark in a way that can at times be somewhat less ... forgiving ... than what you'd need to be doing with Time. But then, what do I know about these things, eh?

The difference is that Sudden Acceleration modifies powers that ALREADY have Knock in them so that the Knock MAG is limited enough to only be KnockDOWN. Sudden Acceleration does not ADD any Knock to a power that doesn't already have any. Overwhelming Force WILL ADD Knock to a power that doesn't have any Knock to it natively. So in a Pet attacks context, you want to put Overwhelming Force into Pets that have: A lot of attacks A lot of attacks with short recharge times (so they use them "often") Few attacks that do Knockback/down natively A lot of Pets get summoned for that Tier, resulting in a Chuck Lots Of Dice!! throughput maximizing the chances the proc will happen via multiplication By contrast, you'd want to put Sudden Acceleration into Pets that have: Multiple attacks with a KnockBACK (not KnockDOWN) component built into them already

Yes. I see. You have very cleverly released two files with the exact same name and different file sizes ... leading to one all important question ... Huh? What's that? You say it's OBVIOUS ...? Oh. Right. So it is. Move along. Move along. No ebil mind control software to be seen anywhere near here. Move along, move along. We are not ninjas, we are merely a hedge. Move along, move along ...

This is my shocked face. To think that would be ANY incredibly sloppy coding in a game that Noble Savage himself told me, in person, at the 2012 Player Summit was ... and I quote ... "all spaghetti code now" ... is ... um ... entirely predictable and only to be expected. I mean, it was only Arbiter Hawk himself who said at that same Player Summit during a panel that for some parts of the game, working on the base game code was like trying to work with a jenga stack WHILE IT'S ON FIRE!!!!!!! So yeah ... this is my shocked face. Right. Moving on ...

Best counter I've found to Ninjas getting spastic all over the map is to keep them in Bodyguard Mode and soak the alpha myself (dividing out the damage to them) which then prompts them to aggro on whatever hit me. Doing this from a distance "encourages" the Ninjas to stay put beside me and use their ranged attacks to start with (Shuriken machinegun spamming from the Genin) while whatever attacked me closes range. If the $Target "had friends" they will be bumrushing towards MY position, rather than sending the Ninjas in over to THEIR position, which then helps keep them ... focused ... on the task at hand of delivering a beatdown in MY vicinity, rather than rushing off and trying to aggro the entire map for me.

Gah! Bright Theme TOO BRIGHT!!!

My experience with Ninjas (on Ninja/TA where there was NO HELPING them with the secondary) is that Ninjas aren't borderline suicidal ... they're superjump off the cliff and keep your eyes closed suicidal if they aren't getting support in preventing them from killing themselves. This is why I consider Tankerminding via Bodyguard Mode so incredibly crucial for them, particularly with a powerset like Time that has not only a PBAoE Heal plus Heal over Time but also boosts their Regeneration for a while as well into the bargain. This means that by taking the attacks onto yourself you are simultaneously DIVIDING the damage up among your Ninjas while also simultaneously MULTIPLYING the effective healing (and, let's be honest with ourselves here, overhealing!) that Temporal Mending is able to deliver for you ... and that's not even including the effect of Temporal Selection into the bargain. Smoke Flash doesn't even take any Set IOs. It can't mule ANYTHING. Smoke Flash accepts Endurance Reduction, Range and Recharge Reduction ... and THAT'S IT. Nothing else (aside from HamiOs, and they aren't superior to Common IOs in this context) can be slotted into Smoke Flash. I've recently started to think that skipping the Bow attacks out of the Ninja primary is a mistake if only because you can slot the Annihilation Resistance debuff proc and/or the Frozen Blast Immobilize proc into Fistful of Arrows ... and you can slot the Winter's Bite (unique) proc into either Snap Shot or Aimed shot for Slow and Recharge debuffing along with the Devastation proc for a Chance to Hold. In addition to giving you some damage production (to multiply the effectiveness of your Provoke Taunts with) these procs would also allow you to exert additional soft/hard control effects over the action while your Ninjas do your fighting for you. Snap Shot and Aimed Shot would also give you quick recharging "ranged pull" powers without needing to wait for the recharge on Nemesis Staff or Black Wand to draw $Targets towards you to be dispatched by machinegunning Shurikens from your Genin (which I'm seeing a LOT of while doing all the content in Nova Praetoria with only 2 Genin at my disposal as Disposable Minions 1 & 2). As for keeping Ninjas alive with Thermal ... good luck with that. The Pet Aura IOs will certainly help, but Ninjas are inherently ... flimsy ... when it comes to survival, although if you can get them up to the NO GET HITSU!! softcap they will start to shine, but that requires a LOT of polishing work.

Counter-proposal. An Inherent (as in everyone gets it) Toggle that modifies ALL Knockback to "clamp" at maximum MAG 0.75 regardless of how much MAG is output. Turn Toggle ON to convert "all" Knockback into KnockDOWN. Turn Toggle OFF to allow "all" Knockback to be "full power" KnockBACK. And then leave it up to the Player(s) to decide what the current circumstances call for. That would remove the KB>KD IO tax problem for every Archetype.

At present, the functionality for showing that a post is unread is the "balloon marker" (on individual posts) or highlighted star (in the forum menu list). I submit that this method of presentation is ... less than optimal when dealing with listing of child forums, particularly in the Archetypes area, where it can be really hard to distinguish between bold and not-bolded text from the main forums menu. I find myself needing to go into the Archetypes forum itself just in order to see the "stars on thars" to know which child forum has new posts in it. Recommendation. In addition to bolding the font on the forum name or post when a new post is to be found inside a forum, please include a color shift on the font as well ... say ... Vivid Yellow (all hail our savior Emperor Cole!)... to provide better contrast against the stock forum background dark blue/grey coloring in addition to the already standard bolding of text that is already happening.

In solo play ... yes. In group play ... no.

I see a button for bullet lists. I see a button for numbered lists. I do not see this option yet. I see a button for I see a button for increasing/decreasing indent. I see a button for strike through. I see a menu for font color. I see a menu for font selection ... although, granted, there aren't a whole lot of fonts to choose from in it ...

Two things that I'm curious about, with regards to putting procs into Ninjas. The first is that by everything that I can tell, Ninjas didn't just get the short end of the stick with regards to available Sets for their Primary powers (both Pet and otherwise), in some sense they've got almost no stick AT ALL to work with. I mean, look at this: Genin = Pet, Recharge Pet, Mastermind, Universal, Knockback sets can be slotted Shuriken = Ranged Damage Thunder Kick = Melee, Stuns Snap Shot (Shuriken) = Ranged Damage Storm Kick = Melee Aimed Shot (Exploding Shuriken) = Ranged Damage Crane Kick = Melee, Knockback Jounin = Pet, Recharge Pet, Mastermind, Universal, Knockback, ToHit Debuff sets can be slotted Caltrops = Targeted AoE, Slow Hack (Sting of the Wasp) = Melee, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff Slash (Gambler's Cut) = Melee, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff Disembowel (Soaring Dragon) = Melee, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Knockback Placate = none Poison Dart = Ranged Head Splitter (Golden Dragonfly) = Melee, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Knockback Blinding Powder = Confuse, ToHit Debuff, Accurate ToHit Debuff Hide = Defense Oni = Pet, Recharge Pet, Mastermind, Universal sets can be slotted Fire Blast = Ranged Fire Sword Slash = Melee Fire Sword Hack = Melee Fire Breath = Target AoE Ring of Fire = Ranged, Immobilize Char = Ranged, Hold Rain of Fire = Target AoE Snap Shot = Ranged Damage, Universal Aimed Shot = Ranged Damage, Universal Fistful of Arrows = Target AoE, Universal Of these limited options, in terms of single most useful investment options, I'm thinking that the following is true for damage related procs (the Pet Aura IOs fall into a slightly different category). Genin ... Overwhelming Force (6 of 6 attacks) and Soulbound Allegiance (6 of 6 attacks) procs My rationale here is relatively simple. There are 3 Genin (eventually). The Genin use LOTS of attacks. The recharge times on all of the Genin attacks is relatively short. This yields LOTS of opportunities for Overwhelming Force and Soulbound Allegiance to proc for you, under the Chuck Lots Of Dice! theory of usefulness. Jounin ... Achilles' Heel (4 of 9 attacks) As tempting as it is to slot Overwhelming Force into Jounin (for "Knock Trops") I honestly think you'll get a better return on investment out of Genin on the enforced KD proc ... and because Overwhelming Force is unique, if you can only put it in one place, I'm thinking that Genin is still the better option over Jounin. The ToHit Debuff sets are "interesting" as options, but given the slot pressure on the Ninja Pets specifically, since the Level 18 power doesn't let you mule Pet Set IOs (or ATOs) into it, I really feel like endorsing use of more than Achilles' Heel in Jounin (aside from Pet Aura IOs) will probably wind up being counterproductive. If you've got a "sapper build" Secondary however, use of Deflated Ego for the recovery debuff might make for an interesting choice if you're desperate to stack things together for that specific debuff purpose. (side note: does anyone know how long the Deflated Ego recovery debuff duration is?) Oni ... Overwhelming Force IF you're not going to put Overwhelming Force into Genin or Jounin but are still determined to slot the Overwhelming Force proc into a Ninja Pet. For the personal Ninja powerset attacks, the proc options for Snap Shot and Aimed Shot are just really lackluster, with the PPM formula really punishing this power (3.188 second animation plus recharge BASE). You'd need to have 20 PPM just to get to a 90% chance to proc on power use assuming no recharge reduction from slotting in the power (yeah, right). Tempest is really lackluster unless you've got a recovery debuffing secondary (and/or have your Jounin slotted with Deflated Ego) to blend it with. Entropic Chaos suffers the same problem. Decimation is wandering into the "what's your point" territory. Devastation offers a chance to Hold that will barely ever proc when slotted into Snap Shot under PPM rules. Apocalypse and Gladiator's Javelin at least offer damage procs, but again the chance of a proc per attack is going to be really low simply due to the animation+recharge time on Snap Shot when normalized for PPM. Winter's Bite looks interesting, but only as an alternative to the more expensive Purple set proc options. Pretty much the same thing applies for Aimed Shot as for Snap Shot ... the only difference is that Aimed Shot takes slightly longer to animate and recharge. Not a whole lot longer, mind you, but still longer nonetheless. Fistful of Arrows though is where it gets really interesting on proc options (ironically). I'd even go so far as to argue that putting an Achilles' Heel proc into Jounin and the Annihilation proc into Fistful of Arrows (for "double" Resistance debuffing opportunities) ALONE is making me want to add Fistful of Arrows to my Ninja Mastermind build(s). There is, of course, also Positron's Blast proc for Energy damage, while Javelin Volley offers Lethal damage in its proc. A curious additional option is the Knockdown proc from Ragnarok, for a chance to Knocdown, and/or the Frozen Blast proc for a chance to Immobilize.

Put me down for wanting to be able to use animated gifs of 300 kb or less that can fit within a bounding box of 100x100 pixels.

Great, another reason to update my Peacebringer leveling build ...

I'll be glad to get back to the old forums so I can get my Signature back ...

If you're changing the secondary powerset, you may want to "rebalance" the power picks and slotting to better suit your preferences. Out of the Ninja/* powerset itself, I'd recommend the slotting for the Ninjas, training powers and Smoke Flash (so 6 of 9) either "as is" or perhaps look around for some damage procs you can slot into the Ninjas in lieu of the stock 'n' standard Acc/Dam/End mix. However, at this point, I'm seriously considering doing a rebuild on the Ninja/Time/Mace framework, simply because I wrote this up and posted it before I'd even started playing again (so, relying on 6+ year old memories of how to build and why) and I'm already running into second guessing some of the choices I made ... such as not taking any of the Ninja primary attacks that use the Bow ... while running around at up to Level 10 in Nova Praetoria. I've also run into various issues with my bindloadfiles that have forced additional tweaks and reworks, but since I can no longer modify my old postings after the forum move, I'd basically need to just write up a new build post and start over anyway at this point for that. So look at this build as being a first/rough draft that I wanted to have access to for leveling purposes, with the thought always in mind that it would no doubt need to be tweaked and updated and playtime accrued and experience with the build increased.

Something must be wrong ... since *I'm* listed on the all time leaderboard for some unknown reason(s) ...

Is anyone ever going to post some patch notes for what happened today? Aside from the forums update, of course.

That does seem to be an ... unfortunate(?) ... side effect of playing Time/Dual Pistols/* for some reason. Someday we'll get an answer as to "why" but until then, MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED!!