Redlynne

Underinformed writers?

It is very successful at doing what it's supposed to do. The "problem" is that people put a remarkably low priority on the power doing what it does. So here's a different way that Single Target Taunts (all of them!) could be modified. Give them the "Jolting Chain" treatment ... except instead of doing damage, the power just Taunts instead. Just limit the number of splits/jumps that the power can make and you'll be able to affect more than one $Target depending on conditions. I can easily envision a scenario where Confront would be reconfigured to Taunt a single $Target and then "chain jump" to (up to) 2 more $Targets in the immediate vicinity (so short range on the jumps) ... and that's it. That would be enough to get the attention of 3 out of a 3+ man spawn grouping ... under the notion that 3 Minions equals 1 PC.

Not without dropping all other priorities for about a week to do it ... and I've got more important things to do than this ...

Explain to the class why the Sudden Acceleration KB > KD IO is useful when slotted into this power.

Care to get caught up on the updated version(s)?

So ... buffs for ME, but not for THEE ...?

A crit rate buff would only "work" for archetypes that do critical hits (which isn't all of them if looking at Taunts more broadly than just for Scrappers and including the Presence Pool into the bargain as an overall update for Taunt powers). A broader (and perhaps simpler?) solution would be to port over the "Double Hit" mechanic used in Incarnate slotting. Simply key in a short duration (1 second duration?) "Double Hit" enabler on the next attack used after a Taunt ... so you have to "combo" Taunt with something else (anything else) to take advantage of the Taunt for greatest effect. The notion that I'm reaching for here is broadly similar to the temporary buff that Eagle's Claw in Martial Arts gives to the next attack(s) after Eagle's Claw ... except using the "Double Hit" functionality instead of a crit chance modifier. That way, the update could be applied to ALL Taunt powers, including the Presence Pool versions, rather than being something archetype specific.

Hilarity ensues ...

So long as it isn't interfering/preventing you from playing (the way you want to play) ... I wouldn't be too concerned about it.

Well, if you follow the example I've posted ... you'll see that your best "play" for slot investment is Human 3-5 ... Nova until "done" with slotting up Nova ... Dwarf until "done" with slotting up Dwarf ... and then circle back around to filling out your Human form *IF* you're playing as a Tri-former Kheldian (so both Peacebringer and Warshade).

Probably done as a way to combat "burner" characters/accounts which could be used for spamming channels. Either that or it's a "timing thing" on when all of your communication channels get loaded up on a new character, such that at the moment of first spawning your character is (literally) SILENT ... hence the notification ... before the communication channels get loaded in automatically (so temporary silence, rather than permanent until countermanded by a GM).

Well ... it just takes more time/effort to make that kind of analysis than just saying "MOAH DAMAGE YO!" and ignoring EVERY other parameter of consequence (simply because they're inconvenient to have to think about ... seriously). It seems that for a lot of people, all they "care" about is doing more damage in less time ... and think that if you just stack up "the (in a vacuum) Best of Everything™" the integration of all of those factors will (smoothly?) result as a natural consequence. This is why you see so many builds just cherry picking only "the best" powers to use, as if that was ALL that was needed to make an "only the bestest!" build. It's not ... but it's funny to see people perpetuating the notion, due to what I attribute to sheer intellectual laziness (which doesn't take a whole lot of thought or effort to do). But you can't just TELL people that they're making a mistake by focusing on one (and only one!) parameter for their "all the bestest!" collection and have them believe you. You have to SHOW people that when you get to the integration step (that most people ignore and/or forget about) ... there's a problem. Just because you use "only the bestest!" powers doesn't ipso facto mean that they're all going to integrate cleanly/neatly/nicely together within the context of an overall build plan ... and THAT is the REAL challenge in making a build that works BETTER than the sum of its parts! I know ... I've tested. However, I'm an ... outlier ... in that regard (obviously). "There is MADNESS to our METHODS ... YEEEESSSSSSS ..."

Prior to Level 24, the Crab Backpack will not appear on your Soldier of Arachnos. At Levels 24+ you will PERMANENTLY enable the Crab Backpack if you take ANY Crab Spider powers AT ALL. And when I say "not appear" I mean that while you're running around in game it won't be there, but as soon as you look in the costume editor it will be. Don't sweat it.

Kind of surprised to see that no one has suggested Gravity/Kinetics yet. Kinetics has a self-heal and Gravity is the "blaster with mez" powerset among Controllers. Wormhole plus Fulcrum Shift ought to be quite devastating ... and that's not even including the Impact mechanics getting multiplied by Siphon Power/Fulcrum Shift even more. Kinetics has Transfusion, which can be slotted up with 5 slots of either Accurate Defense set plus the proc of the other Accurate Defense set to make for a really MEAN Foe $Target AoE Heal power that heals, grants endurance(!) AND does proc damage all in one go. Only problem is, you need to be relatively close to your $Target to use it. Take ALL the Gravity powers, including Dimension Shift(!). Take ALL the Kinetics powers. You have 6 power picks left. Take Mystic Flight ... so you can Fly AND "wormhole" Teleport YOURSELF up to 100 yards per Teleport ... and with Siphon Speed you can run at the speed cap, and with Inertial Reduction you can Superjump (with your team!). So with only 3 power picks you can Run, Jump Fly AND Teleport! Take Assault and Tactics from the Leadership pool. You have 3 power picks left. With 3 power picks you can add whatever pool, epic or patron powers you want (up to 3 of them) to your build. From Sorcery, you can add Spirit Ward, Enflame and Rune of Protection ... so as to get partial mez protection/absorb and also the Wormhole, Fulcrum Shift, Crushing Field OR Dimension Shift. Enflame combination to melt your opposition. From where I'm looking at things, Gravity/Kinetics looks really ... unfair ... to your $Targets ...

That's what the Perfect Zinger proc is for ...

Well, I did say it was an exploit when I posted it ...

Kinetic Melee/Ninjitsu ... or Kinetic Melee/Energy Armor ...

While a Sudden Acceleration KD IO may not be worth it ... a Force Feedback proc often will be ...

I've been ... looking sideways ... at a Gravity/Kinetics build, based on my work on Gravity/Time/Primal, but I haven't had anywhere NEAR enough free time to polish it up into a draft form worthy of being posted (let alone used). Still have lots of "research" to do on it to ensure that everything falls into place the way that I assume it ought to. Wormhole+Fulcrum Shift however just gets RUDE ... Curiously enough, however, in looking over the build that I've been working on, for once I didn't feel compelled to pick up Hasten ... probably because there's enough Force Feedback proc potential in Gravity and Kinetics to not really "need" Hasten.

Good thing I developed a way to NOT need to use that exploit in my builds then! 👀

Those are things that buff self ... not debuff $Target.

Single Target Taunts ... add -100 ToHit Debuff for 3 seconds, making "next attack(s)" (in the next 3 seconds) extremely likely to miss. AoE Taunts ... add -100 ToHit Debuff for 2 seconds, making "next attack(s)" (in the next 2 seconds) extremely likely to miss. Add Accurate ToHitDebuff as well as ToHitDebuff enhancements and sets available to Taunt powers. Basic idea being that your Confront/Taunt use makes your $Target(s) overcompensate and "waste" an attack (or two...) on you in return. I mean ... you're doing this ... ... to make them want to hit you (and miss!) ...

Jack Emmert: The players will love what we're doing with the Global Defense Nerf and Enhancement Dysfunction. MORE THAN 90% OF THE FEEDBACK TO THE CHANGES ARE NEGATIVE THE FORUMS MELTDOWN UNDER THE TSUNAMI OF NEGATIVE FEEDBACK THE FORUMS HAVE TO BE SHUTDOWN FOR 3 DAYS TO RECOVER FROM THE CRASH BROUGHT ON BY ALL THE NEGATIVE RESPONSES Jack Emmert: So we'll be pushing those changes LIVE during the next patch. FORUMS COLLECTIVELY LOSE THEIR MINDS ... AGAIN JACK EMMERT STEADFASTLY REFUSES TO LISTEN Yeah ... I remember ...

It's the equip/upgrade sound FX being played simultaneously on each Pet that is multiplying the volume of the sound FX (and "surrounding" you with it) when you zone. Might be a good idea to put this into the Feedback forum as a suggestion to lower the volume of the Level 6 and Level 32 powers on every Mastermind primary powerset, to help mitigate this problem. It would seem to be a relatively simple thing to replace all of those files with a "quieter" version (not silenced, just quieter) of the sound for those powers. Heck, I'd even go so far as to say that if the Homecoming Devs wanted to get cute about it, they could rig it up under the heading of Alternate Animations chosen in the costume editor ... except that the different variants of the powers would have the exact same animations (so no changes visually) but instead would function call different audio files for the sound FX when the powers are used ... so you could have an Original (loud) version and an Alternate (lower sound volume) version of the equip/upgrade powers ... just in case people don't want to lose the original while making the alternative option available for those who want it (and want to keep their hearing intact).

If you ignore the boost to damage from Fiery Embrace (is that even spelled right?) the straight damage of the two powers works out to: Energy Torrent: 15.18 Smashing + 35.43 Energy = 50.61 total damage (all at once) Breath of Fire: 35.92 (x2) Fire + up to 4 ticks of 5.28 Fire = 92.96 total damage (over 4.1s) However, of the two, Energy Torrent has WAY MORE proc monster potential than Breath of Fire does, thanks to the longer recharge time with no recharge enhancement in the power at all, and because Energy Torrent can access Target AoE AND Knockdown sets, instead of just Target AoE sets. Energy Torrent (1 PPM) 1 * ((24 / ( 1 + 0 / 100 )) + 1.07) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 40 * (11 * 45 + 540) / 30,000))) = 20.53% Breath of Fire (1 PPM) 1 * ((10 / ( 1 + 0 / 100 )) + 2.67) / (60 * (0.25 + 0.75 * (1 + 15 * (11 * 30 + 540) / 30,000))) = 15.92% That means that putting a Force Feedback proc into Energy Torrent becomes something of a No Brainer™ ... and you can make up for the "lower damage" on Energy Torrent simply with damage procs (and more of them!) than you could put into Breath of Fire, and those damage procs will deal additional damage more reliably (and at a greater distance) than you'd be able to get with Breath of Fire. Additionally, once you've got some significant recharge in your build, the LONG animation time of Breath of Fire is going to start to DRAG on your overall attack chain tempo/speed, while Energy Torrent is something you can just drop in whenever you feel like using it (for a quick Force Feedback proc). Something else to keep in mind is the asymmetrical advantage that Energy Torrent will have over Breath of Fire when factoring in the Force Feedback proc. What asymmetrical advantage am I talking about? Well ... let's take a look. With NO recharge at all ... Breath of Fire has an activation time of 2.67s and a recharge time of 10.00s ... for a total cycle time of 12.67s (using above data). Energy Torrent has an activation of 1.07s and a recharge time of 24.00s ... for a total cycle time of 25.07s (using above data). Which means ... you can basically cast 2 Breath of Fire in the time you can cast 1 Energy Torrent ... right? Well ... yeah ... with no slotting or global recharge buffing involved ... sure ... in a vacuum that would be the case. But then as soon as you start factoring in Force Feedback procs (which affect your ENTIRE build, and not just Energy Torrent) the entire calculus changes rapidly ... especially if you've got Hasten and +80% global recharge from set bonuses (so still no recharge enhancement directly slotted into the powers directly). Under those circumstances, the recharge time of Breath of Fire drops to 4.00s while the recharge time of Energy Torrent drops to 9.60s, which still seems like Breath of Fire still has the advantage ... until you add in the animation times and realize that 4+2.67=6.67s does not compare all that favorably with 9.6+1.07=10.67s per animation+recharge cycle ... and then you factor in what Force Feedback would be doing of adding another +100% recharge for 5 seconds when procced and you wind up with a 7.6s recharge time (factoring in the 5s duration on Force Feedback procs) for Energy Torrent and wind up with 7.6+1.07=8.67s total cycle time for Energy Torrent (with a Force Feedback proc) versus 4+2.67=6.67s for Breath of Fire. That then means that the "timing" advantage for Breath of Fire is only 8.67/6.67=1.3x ... meaning you can use Breath of Fire 4 times in the amount of time it would take to use Energy Torrent 3 times (all else being equal and "perfect" for doing so) ... but look at how much animation time is being EATEN by Breath of Fire in that cycle! Using Breath of Fire, you've only got 4 seconds in which to animate something other than Breath of Fire(!) ... while with Energy Torrent you've got 7.6s to 9.6s(!) to animate something other than Energy Torrent ... per recharge cycle! In other words, at high global recharge values, Breath of Fire is going to start "eating into" the animation time you have available for your other attacks and starting to dominate your attack chain by squeezing out other powers by not giving them time to animate during repeating attack rotations due to the 2.67s animation time on Breath of Fire. In contrast, Energy Torrent places very little pressure on repeating attack chains and will have an increasing chance to proc Force Feedback with more $Targets hit, accelerating recharge times on EVERY power in your build, while still leaving open some 7.6s to 9.6s for OTHER POWERS to be used every recharge cycle while only costing you 1.07s to cast. Additionally, you can use Energy Torrent as a soft control (Knockdown) attack, while Breath of Fire offers no such mitigation. My point being that with no recharge slotted into the powers, but with a lot of global recharge modifiers stacked up in your build, Energy Torrent winds up being a lot LESS disruptive to your overall attack chain, with a lower demand for animation time per repeating cycle, while also "supercharging" the recharge on EVERY POWER IN YOUR BUILD when using Energy Torrent. On balance, I'd say that the advantage goes to Energy Torrent, even if Energy Torrent isn't doing "more damage" than Breath of Fire "directly" in Energy Torrent when cast (but is doing so through the knock on effects of Force Feedback procs and damage procs and lower animation time demands per repeating attacking chain cycle). In other words ... Energy Torrent will "integrate" better into most builds than Breath of Fire will ... when looking at these two powers in (relative) isolation to each other. Remember ... it's not just how much damage you produce from the power(s) when you use it(them) ... but rather the CONTEXT in which you can manage to use those powers reliably and repeatedly that truly matters.