Jump to content

Keen

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    151

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Keen

    Buffs breaking Emotes on targets: A partial workaround

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted · Edited by Keen

    Many buffs are known to break emotes on other players when cast, which can disrupt social interactions for some groups.

     

    Today I found a way to stop some of those buffs from breaking emotes:

     

    • Turn on Afterburner
    • Turn on Fly
    • Perform the emote in the air

     

    This works against any buff that causes a "hurt" animation on allies, including Speed Boost, Increase Density, most Electrical Affinity buffs (except Rejuvenating Circuit, more about that in a moment), Injection from Medicine Pool, the Valentine Arrow buff, and some other power that causes that animation. It also prevents SnowBall and Flying Disc from breaking the target's current emote.

     

    Buffs that cause a "power up" animation on allies still break emotes on allies. Those include but not limited to: Heal Other, Ice Shields, Fire Shields, Clarion, Aid Other, and Rejuvenating Circuit, among others.

     

    Some emotes, even when performed with AB+Fly, can still be broken. During testing, it was noticed that all the stances (herostance, villainstance) are broken after receiving any buff that causes a "hurt" animation. So other emotes might be affected as well. But mostly everything else works, including all dances, and emotes that have different ground/air versions (like yoga).

     

    While this does not prevent all buffs from breaking emotes on other players, it's still something we can use. I wish all buffs would not break the target's animation if they're running emotes, but I understand how this wouldn't be a priority right now. Either way, I hope this post will be useful to someone out there.

     

    (Thanks ROBOKiTTY and Divi for helping with testing!)

     

    • Like 4

    Blaster vs. Sentinel for content, end game teaming

    in Sentinel

    Posted · Edited by Keen

    I had a similar dilemma recently, trying to figure out a "main" for badges and whatnot.

     

    Ultimately I went Sentinel, because I personally favor defense way more than offense, and I enjoy being ranged a lot more than melee. So I built a proc-oriented Beam Rifle/Willpower Sentinel that manages to get a 4m30 pylon time (better than many of my Blasters) and has around 80HP/s regen -- better than the average Regeneration Scrapper without Instant Healing/Dull Pain on -- on top of the other defense layers from WP. Beam Rifle does -res and I slotted a few -res IOs as well so it helps quite a bit on teams and endgame content.

     

    But the difference exists, and it's huge. I also have a Beam Rifle Blaster who can solo giant monsters in the Hive -- the damage output is quite absurd. It is my fastest pylon killer to date (2m30). It needs Clarion to get around mez (while the Sentinel went for Ageless). But as others mentioned, I'd rather not rely on Incarnates or Inspirations as much, so Sentinel gives me the comfortable level of gameplay I'm looking for.

     

     

    Hamidon Raids - Role Guide

    in Guides

    Posted · Edited by Keen
    2025-6 Patch Notes updates

    Hamidon Taunter Role

     

    Being the Hamidon Taunter can be done by any melee class if they have Taunt and enough external support. But sometimes multiple characters for this single role can be difficult to organize, and the more players are involved with this, the less they'll be contributing to the raid overall.

     

    In an ideal scenario, ONE player should be able to take care of Hamidon without needing any external attention.

     

    Certain ATs and power combinations make it easier to taunt Hamidon without the need of external buffs.

     

    Let's understand what happens to whoever is taunting Hamidon:

     

    • They will be hit by green beams. They cause unresistable regeneration debuffs that, when stacked, are enough to bring regeneration to zero even with multiple regeneration buffs. They also apply -Healing Received which makes heals less effective on the target. (Tankers and Brutes, when fully debuffed, will only be able to use their heals at 25% efficiency.) And finally, they also deal a heavy Toxic DoT, which can kill the taunter even through EoEs if they don't have toxic resists or absorb shields.
      • Green beams can be avoided by taunting Hamidon from range.
    • They may be hit by blue bolts. Their endurance will be drained, their recovery reduced, they will have their recharge and movement slowed, and they may be terrorized.
    • They may be hit by yellow blasts. They may be stunned and knocked back, and suffer heavy Special damage, including a DoT.
    • They will be hit by Hamidon, which does all of the above at some level. Some debuffs from Hamidon last for around 70 seconds, and a Hamidon tank will usually have ~20 stacks of them (most notably, -Healing Received and -Regeneration) over the course of the raid.

     

    So a strong, self-capable Hamidon taunter needs the following:

     

    • Endurance Drain Resistance (Critical).
      • Blue attacks directly damage the target's endurance points in addition of a recovery debuff. Two different things, but fortunately, some armor sets offer both debuff resistances together.
      • Recovery alone is often not enough to counter this, unless it's really, really high (Ageless Destiny, for instance).
      • Ageless Radial gives debuff resistances, which includes endurance drain resistance.
    • Slow Resistance (Critical)
      • Some armor sets offer this, while the rest can be attained with Winter IOs.
      • This will also prevent heals from becoming unusable due to too many recharge debuffs from blues and Hamidon.
    • Toxic Resistance (for builds without Absorb)
      • This allows the taunter to better resist green beam damage.
        • For builds with Absorb, it can prevent green mito damage from reducing your health, so Toxic resists are less important for those builds.
      • It is possible to earn great amounts of toxic resistance with purple IO sets (30% max). Other non-purple sets also offer varying amounts.
    • Regeneration
      • Regeneration is more relevant when taunting Hamidon at range, or when the taunter is not being hit by green beams.
        • When taunting Hami at melee, green attacks will fully nullify whatever regeneration the taunter has, as high as it is.
        • While in melee, the taunter has to wait for green mitos to go down, or their beams to hit other players or pets, to have brief moments of positive regeneration, until the next bloom.
        • Staying at range from Hami prevents the taunter from having their regeneration nullified by greens.
      • Hami's -regeneration debuffs are resistable (green mito's are not) and their negative effects can be reduced by things like Ageless Radial.
      • It is possible to have very high levels of regeneration if the taunter is able to avoid green beams, reducing reliance on self-heals or external support.
    • Extra Stun Protection/Resistance
      • Sometimes the Hami taunter will be briefly stunned when many yellows are attacking them (e.g., during launch).
        • Depending on your powerset choices, this can suppress many vital toggles and the cascade effect can be fatal.
      • Melee Hybrid (mez protection), Clarion Destiny (mez protection) and Control Hybrid (mez resistance) are the Incarnate choices for this.
      • Many IO sets give mez resists as well.
    • Additional Knockback Protection
      • When the Hami taunter is briefly stunned, mez protection may be briefly suppressed.
      • This may cause a KB chain on the taunter that would be difficult to recover from, specially if the taunter is slowed.
      • This includes all armor powersets that offer KB protection+resistance, as all that resistance may be suppressed while stunned.
      • KB protection from Acrobatics is suppressed while mezzed as well.
      • KB protection from IO sets is not suppressed while mezzed.
    • MaxHP and Absorb
      • Having lots of HP allows the taunter to survive for longer until enough greens are defeated and the taunter can regain some regeneration (while in melee).
      • Absorb shields will stop the toxic damage from greens, but not the special damage from yellows, blues, and Hamidon.
      • Having MaxHP + Absorb allows certain builds to better rely on regeneration, and make self-healing and toxic resists less needed.
      • MaxHP also increases the amount of HP regenerated per second, as regeneration operates on a percentage of total HP.
    • Self Heals
      • Most Some armor and melee sets offer healing that is unresistable, and therefore not affected by -Healing Received debuffs from greens and Hami.
      • 2025-6 update: only a few powers now offer unresistable heals, such as Second Wind (Regeneration) and Dull Pain (Invulnerability). See full list here (then search for: "Armor Sets > Self heals").
        • After the patch, relying on self-heals while being at melee with Hami is more difficult now.
    • Terrorize Protection/Resistance
      • Only a few armor sets offer this, and they often don't have the other critical requirements.
      • Blue mito attacks cause fear/terrorize, which may disrupt your initial traveling to the nucleus and your taunting chain.
      • Tactics helps with Terrorize resistance, as well as Clarion Destiny and Melee Hybrid.

     

     

    Base Buffs offer many helpful 1-hour-long buffs for minimal cost (white salvage), the most important being: KB protection (10tps), Recovery Debuff Resistance, Slow Resistance, Stun Resistance, Fear Resistance, and Toxic Resistance.

     

    Below is a matrix of requirements per Armor set (numbers for Tankers unless otherwise specified):

     

    Armor Set Self Heal Toxic
    Resistance     		Slow
    Resistance     		Terrorize
    Protection     		Endurance Drain
    Resistance     		Stun
    Resistance

    KB

    Protection

    		Notes
    Radiation Armor

    Yes

    (Low)

    (Resistable)

    50%

    (Enhanceable)

    45%

    (Toggle)

    		No

    86%

    (Auto)

    Normal

    (Toggle)

    Yes

    (Toggle)

    High resists

    Debuff protection on auto powers

    Has Absorb

    Low Max HP

    * Top set

    Bio Armor

    Yes
    (Slow)

    (Resistable)

    (Can miss)

    25%

    (Enhanceable)

    30%

    (Auto)

    		No

    86%

    (Auto)

    Normal

    (Toggle)

    Yes

    (Toggle)

    High Max HP
    High resists

    Has Absorb
    Debuff protection on auto powers

    * Top set

    Dark Armor

    Yes
    (Resistable)

    (Can miss)

    20%

    (Enhanceable)

    No

    		Yes

    86%

    (Toggle)

    Normal

    (Toggle)

    		No

    Heal is strong and fast but can miss
    Low Max HP

    Good set but difficult to build

    Debuff protection on toggles (can suppress)

    If stunned, goes down fast

    Regeneration

    Yes

    (+MaxHP)
    (Multiple)(Unresistable)

    15%

    (Enhanceable)

    (Stackable)

    		No No No

    High

    (Resilience)

    (Taunt)

    Yes

    (Toggle)

    Need to offset endurance drain w/ Incarnates or temps

    Moment of Glory is a good alpha soaker (mez prot, recovery)

    Stone Armor

    Yes

    (+MaxHP)

    (Slow)

    (Resistable)

    20%

    (From Heal)

    		No No

    86%

    (Toggle)

    		High
    (Granite)

    Yes

    (Toggle)

    Heal is Earth's Embrace
    Has high amounts of Stun protection w/ Granite

    Can take alpha without Melee Hybrid

    Electric Armor

    Yes

    (Slow)

    (Resistable)

    20%

    (Enhanceable)

    40%

    (Auto)

    		No

    86+129%

    (Auto)

    Normal

    (Toggle)

    Yes

    (Auto)

    (Ground)

    Immune to end drain
    Low Max HP

    KB protection requires being on ground

    Willpower No

    7.5%

    (Enhanceable)

    		No Yes No

    Normal

    (Toggle)

    Yes

    (Toggle)

    		Need to offset endurance drain w/ Incarnates or temps
    Lacks a self heal
    Fiery Aura

    Yes

    (Resistable)

    20%

    (Enhanceable)

    (Stackable)

    *

    20%

    (Auto)

    		No

    50%

    (Stackable)
    *

    Normal

    (Toggle)

    		No

    Strong heal

    Difficult to build
    Low Max HP

    * Needs preparation before launch (stacking Healing Flames and Consume)

    Ice Armor

    Yes

    (+MaxHP)

    (Unresistable)

    (Very Slow)

    20%

    (Enhanceable)

    100%+

    (Auto)

    		No No

    Normal

    (Toggle)

    Yes

    (Toggle)

    Immune to slows
    Need to offset endurance drain w/ Incarnates or temps

    Heal is Hoarfrost

    Invulnerability

    Yes

    (+MaxHP)

    (Unresistable)

    (Very Slow)

    20%

    (Enhanceable)

    20%

    (Auto)

    No

    25%

    (Auto)

    Normal

    (Toggle)

    Yes

    (Toggle)

    		Heal is Dull Pain
    Low Endurance Drain resists
    Shield Defense No

    15%

    (Enhanceable)

    30%

    (Toggle)

    		Yes No

    High

    (Click)

    Yes

    (Click)

    		Need to offset endurance drain w/ Incarnates or temps
    Lacks a self heal
    Super Reflexes No

    Very Low

    (Scales w/ HP)

    40%

    (Auto)

    		No No

    High

    (Click)

    Yes

    (Click)

    		Low Max HP
    Need to offset endurance drain w/ Incarnates or temps
    Lacks a self heal
    Energy Aura

    Yes

    (Resistable)

    (Slow)

    7%

    (Enhanceable)

    		20% No 25%

    Normal

    (Toggle)

    Yes

    (Toggle)

    		Low Max HP

     

     

    After the 2025-06 patch, most armor heals became resistable and affected by Hami and green debuffs. They're generally less efficient now. Tanking Hami at melee without league buffs is now more difficult.

     

    Taunting Hamidon from range allows the taunter to have positive regeneration due to avoiding green mito attacks. However taunting from range is less efficient due to taunting itself being weaker from range, so it's easier to lose Hami aggro in that scenario.

     

     

    ____________________________________________________________________

     

    You've reached the end of the guide. Thanks for reading this far, and if you find any errors, kindly let me know.
    Acknowledgements to Elmyder, Veracor, gchpaco, Sue, ROBOKiTTY and crew, and all the daily Hamidon raiders on Everlasting.

     

    See you all in the Hive/Abyss!

     

     

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 3

    Hamidon Raids - Role Guide

    in Guides

    Posted

    Targeter Roles

     

    Targeters have additional responsibility for ensuring smooth runs -- it's not just about having a bunch of people following you around while you point at targets of your choice. A poor targeter can slow things down considerably, and even cause additional problems if they're not paying attention.

     

    There are certain things a Targeter needs to keep in mind at all times:

     

    • You'll have several people following you around and attacking your target. Use this power responsibly.
    • A dead targeter is no targeter. While you can still select targets, you can't be at them. Don't die.
    • Make sure your followers know what to do and ensure that they actually follow you. Take care of your team.

     

    How does the above translate to an actual game plan?

     

    • Don't die = use EoEs proactively (before you actually need them). That means you no longer have the luxury of saving up your EoEs. You should at least pop an EoE after launch, and another after bloom. Do not wait to be damaged. Three simultaneous blasts from yellows is enough to kill any squishy class without EoEs before you can even think about using them (and you'll probably be stunned anyway).
    • Use this power responsibly = do NOT keep targeting Hamidon past the 75% HP call. If you do, you may contribute to cause a double-bloom.
    • Take care of your team = give them quick instructions from time to time. A melee targeter can send a short message on the league channels asking for the melee characters to attack their target after a bloom. Upon launch, a ranged targeter can quickly remind their followers about only using single-target damage on blues. A control targeter can remind their followers to use holds as well as damage on greens. And so on. Make sure to use league/broadcast chat for this, and not team chat. Many of your followers may be outside of your team.

     

    It also helps that all targeters go the same direction around Hamidon. On Everlasting, all targeters go clockwise. This helps with consistency and also prevents people from getting lost on what the next target is. If they get the first target correctly, they'll know what the next ones will be more easily.

     

    Below are some tips for each role.

     

    Melee Targeter

     

    This is the hardest targeter role. Yellows are placed in the outermost area of the goo. They're the farthest from each other, and it takes a bit of time to get to the next one as they go down.

     

    It is difficult to auto-follow a melee targeter in this scenario due to flight momentum. Say you're a follower, and the targeter may stop close to a yellow, and if you're auto-following, you may fly past them (and drift away) which may land you too far from the yellow target and few/none of your attacks will activate. So followers should be doing some manual movement, and the targeter can instruct them to do so.

     

    Another tip is to actually instruct them to not auto-follow, but ask them to attack their first target. They can target the yellow mitos themselves: the first target (upon launch or after a bloom) being decided by the targeter; the next ones, by just moving clockwise. Each follower can then target the next yellow clockwise then hit F. This fixes the issues with flight momentum and often results in a faster yellow clearing (if all melee attackers are doing their jobs).

     

    After all yellows are down, the melee targeter will move to the current green target to "induce" their followers to attack that green. Same rules as following yellows apply here as well.

     

    Ranged Targeter

     

    This is the easiest targeter role. If you're looking into becoming a targeter, I suggest starting here.

     

    Followers can auto-follow the targeter and focus their efforts on activating the best single-target DPS possible as well as not dying (by using EoEs). If the ranged targeter is good/experienced, they won't need to do manual movement at all.

     

    The best approach for the ranged targeter is to place themselves between two blues and attack the one behind them (in the anticlockwise direction). Once that blue goes down, the targeter quickly switches to the blue in front of them. This warrants close to 100% damage uptime from all your followers and greatly speeds up blue clearing. After damage starts on the next blue, the targeter then moves to the next position (between two blues) and repeats the process. This also has the benefit of staying in a range that short-ranged attacks will work, including all Sentinel attacks.

     

    The ranged targeter should not get close to blues. Endurance drain and terrorize-lock can be disruptive for some ranged classes. If they aren't buffed, their endurance will quickly drop, rendering them useless. Blues also deal Special damage, which means quite a bit of damage if attackers don't have EoEs on.

     

    Unlike the melee targeter, after all blues are down, the ranged targeter will just move to the current green target and do all the targeting from there on until all greens are defeated, just like with blues. Ranged followers will keep doing what they were doing on blues, additionally using any holds if available.

     

    Despite being the easiest role, the ranged targeter poses the higher risk of causing a double-bloom due to the large amount of players auto-following them. So they should pay close attention to the "bloom" call and detarget Hamidon quickly enough so that all the targeted-through damage isn't too much.

     

    Control Targeter

     

    This role is quite simple but requires patience. Green killing essentially requires that all control characters focus on a single target. If followers aren't listening, green clearing can take forever. It is not uncommon that the first green mito is still alive after all blues are cleared because the control players are unfocused.

     

    Another situation is that the control team successfully breaks the green shield, but is unable to kill the green due to healing from other greens. This happens if the control characters are not using damage between holds.

     

    As with blue targeting, the control targeter can be auto-followed. They will usually move themselves (and all their followers) into melee range of the current green target, so Dominators can use their melee attacks.

     

    The control targeter must also be aware that one specific green can spawn very high in the air and be easily missed in the rotation. This can cause leaguemates to start attacking Hamidon before all greens are down.

    Hamidon Raids - Role Guide

    in Guides

    Posted · Edited by Keen

    Roles By AT

     

    Depending on your AT and power choices, you can perform better at a certain role.

     

    Tankers and Brutes with Taunt

     

    • You are best at taunting yellows.

     

    A "Taunter" is either a Tanker or a Brute with Taunt. Their primary role is to use Taunt from distance to draw the AoE blasts away from the melee team and the rest of the league. Taunters should not melee yellows for the purposes of taunting -- this causes double damage on any melee character that approaches that yellow. Taunters should not try to use ranged attacks on yellows, as they will be evaded and not contribute to taunting.

     

    After all yellows are down, Taunters should help with greens, using holds (if they have any) and damage. (Some melee attacks are also holds, like Knockout Blow.) They should not be trying to taunt greens (greens have 100% taunt resistance). Just standing next to a green is enough to draw their aggro.

     

    If there are too many Taunters, the overflow Tankers/Brutes can act as melee characters, and should avoid using Taunt during the raid. See Scrappers / Stalkers section.

     

    Scrappers / Stalkers / Tankers and Brutes without Taunt

     

    • If you have enough KB Protection and Resistance, you are best at attacking yellows.
    • If you don't have KB Protection but have some ST ranged attacks, you are best at attacking blues.
    • If you don't have KB Protection and don't have any ST ranged attacks, you are best at attacking greens.
      • Most Fire Farmers fall under this category.

     

    Yellow mitos deal a huge amount of Knockback, both in their ranged attacks and in their damage aura. They can quickly overwhelm most characters without KB resistance (which is different from KB protection). Most KB protection powers from armor sets also give KB resistance. KB resistance helps reduce the KB magnitude dealt by the yellow pulses and attacks. Not all KB protection powers give KB resistance. Some examples:

     

    • Grounded (Electric Armor): only gives KB protection and doesn't work while airborne. Since we attack yellow mitos in the air, this power ends up giving zero KB protection for this purpose.
    • Acrobatics (Leaping Pool): only gives KB protection and even after slotting with KB IOs it's not enough (alone) to withstand the high KB magnitude dealt by yellow pulses.
    • Some armor powersets (e.g., Dark Armor, Fire Armor) don't offer KB protection at all.
    • KB protection coming from IO sets do not give KB resistance.
    • Evasive Maneuvers gives a good amount of KB resistance while flying.

     

    The amount of KB protection a melee attacker needs to have, without KB resistance, to be able sustain the damage pulses from yellows, is at least 16 points. Players without KB resistance can reach that amount of protection with IO sets and/or Acrobatics.

     

    Without KB protection, any melee character that attempts to attack yellow mitos will flip midair and be pushed back. Whenever they try to close in, they'll flip again. And again. They'll barely land any attack to be actually useful as part of the melee team. That's why they get a ranged role if they have single-target ranged attacks. And if they don't, their damage can help kill greens once their barriers are down -- and sometimes, even while they're up.

     

    Taunters without KB protection that are on taunting duty will be knocked back, but they're still able to land some taunts on their targets between flipping midair or falling on their backs.

     

    If your primary powerset doesn't offer KB protection, remember that you can get it from Incarnate powers such as Clarion Destiny and Melee Hybrid, as well as IO sets, and Inspirations (Break Frees).

     

    Blasters / Sentinels / Corruptors / Defenders

     

    • You are best at attacking blues.
    • If you have positional-less attacks and the melee team needs more damage, you can help on yellows before moving on to greens.
      • E.g., Dominate does not have either Melee, Ranged, or AoE flags, therefore hits yellows.

     

    Ranged characters with holds should still focus on blues first. Even if they have holds, the ranged team will eventually converge with the Control Team to kill greens quickly.

     

    Sentinels have reduced range. They need to pay attention to the ranged targeter: if they are too far from the target, the Sentinel needs to move closer. Conscious ranged targeters will be considerate about this and attack from a range where everyone can be effective, without getting too close and dying terribly from full end drain and terrorize-lock.

     

    Healing should be secondary. Corruptors and Defenders get less from their heals on auto than doing damage instead, mostly due to debuffs going around caused by green beams. Buffs are good to go any time during mito clearing.

     

    Controllers / Dominators

     

    • You are best at holding greens.
      • Greens will go down faster by dealing damage between holds.

     

    It's a common misconception most control players have that the sole damage from their holds will be able to kill greens once their shields go down. But most of the time, other greens will heal it up faster than most Containment/Domination damage can keep up. Tossing damage in-between allows the control team to be able to kill greens without external help.

     

    Controller/Dominator pets are somewhat useless because they can't follow orders, but they can be used as cannon fodder for green beams, redirecting them away from the Hamidon taunter and other leaguemates. They have a tendency to pester the main nucleus, which is usually not a problem, except if it's Phantasm as they have a chance of stealing aggro away from the Hami taunter. Phantom Army should be used with caution, specially if the Hami taunter is inexperienced or doesn't have enough Threat slotted in their Taunt.

     

    Masterminds

     

    • You are best at distracting greens.
    • If you have Group Fly, you can attack greens or blues depending on the melee/ranged aspect of your primary powerset.
      • E.g., Beasts are best on greens (they can't attack blues or yellows), Mercenaries can attack blues, etc.
      • Mixed sets can stick to greens.

     

    Masterminds are the hardest AT to play in Hamidon raids. Their HP is too low so they can die fast to green damage, they can be killed very fast without EoEs, and keeping Bodyguard up can be challenging without some heavy micromanaging.

     

    Moving around the goo without Group Fly is often challenging. E.g., if they're following the ranged targeter, as the targeter moves around, pets will always land next to Hamidon as they attack the next blue, which will cause them to die from Hamidon AoEs. Micromanaging pets to move away from Hamidon before they attack the next blue is a slow process and mostly not worth the trouble. Having Group Fly allows the pets to stay closer to you more often, and away from Hamidon. Melee pets should be given extra attention, as they have a tendency to attack Hamidon even with Group Fly on, while other ranged pets can stay further away from Hami to prevent that.

     

    Distracting greens can be helpful. It allows the Hamidon tanker to better handle incoming green damage, and it also protects other raiders from green damage as not everyone has toxic resistances. But how to distract greens properly? Usually, before launch and bloom, the Mastermind can move away from the goo and bring their pets close to them (using Follow), then order the pets to attack the last green in the rotation. Find out which green mito the control targeter initially selects on launch/bloom, then the "last green" will be the one to the opposite direction (in other words, if the targeter is going clockwise, go counterclockwise to find the last mito). The pets will then begin attacking that green until all other mitos are down. The MM themselves can go on about doing other things, like helping ranged teams, or buffing other raiders. As that green will likely be the last to be killed, the damage from pets may make other greens try to heal it, causing other mitos to be not healed, and also cause the attacked green to attack the pets instead of the Hamidon tank or other players. Pets may die from toxic damage but that's okay. Just resummon then before bloom and repeat the process.

     

    How about yellows? There are certain conditions that allow pure melee pets (like Beasts) to do great damage to yellows. However, that depends on pets having Knockback+Stun protection, which only a few sets can provide, like Trick Arrow or Electric Affinity (with their AoE mez protection bubbles). Without those, even with Group Fly, when a pet is knocked back, it falls to the ground (instead of flipping midair), which causes DPS to drop significantly. So unless you can sort of guarantee KB and stun protection to your pets, the recommendation would be not trying to take on yellows.

     

    Finally, keep in mind that pets should not be allowed to roam freely in Aggressive Mode. They'll almost always end up attacking Hamidon, which does not help with raid progress at all.

     

    Peacebringers / Warshades

     

    • If you have melee attacks and enough KB/stun protection, you can attack yellows.
    • Otherwise, and if you have ranged attacks or Bright/Dark Nova, you are best at attacking blues.
    • If you have Dwarf Form, you can double as a yellow taunter.

     

    HEATs do a bit of everything but very poorly. A "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" type of AT. Human-only builds suffer the most from this.

     

    Light Form offers very little mez protection (only 3 points) to be able to sustain yellow damage auras. (They also cause mini heart attacks on all healers in the league whenever their buffs expire.) They can offset KB protection with IOs, but additional stun protection must come from external buffs or Incarnate powers. It's also impossible to melee yellows reliably in Dwarf Form since it cannot fly, unless a teammate provides Group Fly.

     

    Gravity Well and Incandescent Strike are holds that can be used against greens.

     

    Arachnos Soldiers / Widows

     

    In the following order:

     

    • If you have melee attacks and enough KB/stun protection, you can attack yellows.
    • Otherwise, if you have ranged attacks, you are best at attacking blues.
    • Otherwise, if you have holds, you can help with holding/damaging greens.

     

    VEATs are actually very versatile in raids and can fill multiple roles better. Their buff auras (Tactics and Assault variants) can improve their teams' damage and resistance to terrorize effects from blues.

     

    • Thanks 1

    Sentinel Beam Rifle - firing position bug

    in Bug Reports

    Posted · Edited by Keen

    It seems that Sentinel's Beam Rifle attacks will start firing from the leg if you pick an Epic with a weapon (such as Ninja Tool Mastery).

     

    All attacks in the set are affected, even AoEs.

    Also affects the power preview in the costume editor.

    Once you get one power (doesn't need to be a weapon attack), your character will be bugged forever even if you respec out of the Epic.

     

    (Thanks Just-K from the Discord for the info.)

     

     

    screenshot_200831-16-53-52.thumb.jpg.49b973cf848ece62cb8f5a313bba7028.jpg

    Weekly Discussion 55: Power Pools!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Teleportation:

    • Recall Friend, Teleport Foe, Teleport Team, Long Range Teleport:
      • Cast times are too long. I'd reduce everything considerably.
    • Teleport:
      • Current cast time is too long; should be at least as good as Jaunt, activation-time-wise.
        • Motivation: a power pool that specializes in teleport should be the king of teleport. How come Jaunt is better overall?
      • Could have different customization options, including current Teleport, Jaunt, and Burst of Speed animations/effects
        • Random Observation: Burst of Speed does sound like an attack that belongs to the Teleport pool.

    Concealment:

    • Invisiblity:
      • Revert changes done in HC.
        • Previously it had Only Affects Self flag and kept the defense bonus in combat, being much more useful for scouting.
        • The current changes make combat worse by providing no benefit (since they all suppress) and still draining endurance.

    Flight:

    • Fly:
      • My favorite travel power.
      • Could have customization options that change the default flying animation.
      • I'd improve max flight speed by a small amount, to make it more appealing compared to P2W jetpacks.
      • Suggestion: have it affect the owner Pets (MM, Controller/Dom, Epics, etc) while it's toggled on.
        • not the same as Group Fly, and not limited by area of effect
        • could be tied to the last pet upgrade for MMs, so non-upgraded pets don't fly
    • Air Superiority:
      •  I love how it looks and its soft-control usefulness.

    Speed:

    • Flurry:
      • I dislike this animation.
      • I understand it has a long animation time to give the impression of speed with multiple fast attacks. But the current animation still feels slow and heavy. Should be something like... One Thousand Cuts, but with punches.

    Fighting:

    • Boxing:
      •  I like the gutpunch animation.
      • More animations would be welcome.
    • Kick:
      •  The current animation is okay (not bad, not good).
      • Would love to see more animations.

    Leaping:

    • Jump Kick:
      • I strongly dislike this animation.
      • Could use more animations.
    • Acrobatics:
      •  I like having the option to have hold protection.
      • But it takes a lot of investment.
    • Spring Attack:
      • I like it overall, but could recharge faster.

    Medicine:

    • Aid Other, Aid Self:
      • I understand the reason they have long cast times and are interruptible -- it's not supposed to be a full fledged healing set.
      • But they can be "bad enough" just having a long cast time, so I suggest removing the interrupt times altogether.
    • Field Medic:
      • Without interruption time in the base powers, the passive effect of this power could reduce the activation time of both Aid Other and Aid Self, while its clickable effect could increase the healing amount of those two powers.
      • Since it requires heavy investment, it makes sense to me that such investment could make the two heal powers closer (but not equal) to a full fledged healing set.

     

    • Like 1

    Weekly Discussion 54: Martial Arts

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Keen

    Many of the Martial Arts animations are great, but once Martial Assault Combat for Blasters came around with that *amazing* spinning kick animation, I just want that ported to MA. That's my #1 request for the set.

     

    The alternate animations however, IMO look really bad, all of them. The momentum just feels wrong, lacking weight/impact. For those wanting more "punchy" animations, I think more alternate animations from other sets could benefit the set and maybe reduce the migration to Street Justice or Kinetic Melee (which have their own issues). Also it would be cool to restore the Chun-Li kick as an alternate animation to a power with the appropriate activation times.

     

    • Like 1

    Crash after defeating Hamidon.

    in Bug Reports

    Posted

    12 minutes ago, Dimensio said:

    On which server do you play?  I regularly attend Hamidon raids on Excelsior and no one seemed to think that this behavior was normal prior to last night.

     

    Everlasting. We do four raids per day (six on weekends) and those crashes happen around 1 out of 3 times affecting a varying number of people.

     

    Best Tank for Hami raids?

    in Tanker

    Posted

    I have a finished version of my Bio/Dark Hami Tanker.

     

    Keen (Hami Tank) - Tanker (Bio Armor).mxd

     

    It's a league-setting oriented build -- it doesn't have enough KB protection from IOs, so you'll need mez protection for the initial launch/alpha. Melee Hybrid + Clarion to be 100% safe against the initial stun (38 mag total). In a league setting, it doesn't require any external buffs to stay alive, neither on launch or during mito clearing.

     

    cc @Menelruin @S33k3r 

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

    Best "Damage Sponge."

    in Tanker

    Posted · Edited by Keen

    8 hours ago, Bopper said:

    I do agree with this. Although you will be vulnerable to Defense Debuffs and you will probably only be able to build to softcap defense in S/L/Melee, but you can hit 86.5%+ resistance to basically every other debuff imaginable in the game (you'll need Focused Accuracy for To-Hit debuff protection, but it's available). Factor in the ability to resistance cap most types of damage (Cold you likely won't, but that's also one of the rarest damage types to face), the absorb shield, the heals, the regen. Rad Armor is a beast of a damage sponge. Rad Armor is so good, it has arguably the best T9 Armor power in the game, and I see builds still skip it because they already have their survival covered.

     

    And best of all, you can jump up onto a curb. That alone makes Rad Armor OP.

    Having built a Radiation Armor Tanker recently with all resistances capped but Cold (82%), I agree with everything in the above. That includes skipping the T9. It also makes a heck of a Hamidon tanker due to capped toxic resists, endurance drain and slow debuff resists.

     

    • Like 1

    Electrical Affinity "seizure" animations on allies

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted · Edited by Keen

    12 minutes ago, Naraka said:

    If anything, a better argument for changing the animation is that all the other powers in Shock Therapy are "inoffensive" except that *ONE* power so why not change it?

    Because now there are a number of players who actually like being able to cause (or receive) pain to/from allies. Not judging, just acknowledging their existence.

     

    I can only imagine that if the devs went ahead and changed the animation, those players would come to the forums to complain about it. This is why I'm trying not to advocate for an outright animation change, even though it would address my personal issues.

     

    Weekly Discussion 49: Alternate FX/Animations.

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Keen

    Hm...

    • An option to not have my animation changed by any ally buffs (Kinetics, Thermal, Elec Affinity buffs, etc)
    • An option to not change an ally's animation when I cast buffs on them, similar to above but different viewpoint (both could co-exist)
    • Real Minimum FX for everything, specially things like Bio Armor
    • Non-visual-stealth options for stealth powers. Dark Armor has this already, as their "Soul Noir" option for their cloak power doesn't apply any visual stealth on the user (but applies stealth attribute), unlike the other options. This could also extend to area buffs, so defenders can like, cast Fade without making everyone visually invisible.
    • Related to the above but different viewpoint: an option to not be visually affected by stealth/invisibility effects from ally buffs (Fade, Shadow Fall, Arctic Fog, Grant Invis, Mass Invis, etc)
    • Ability to set the default flying animation among the existing ones without having to use an emote -- include Hover's current animation as an option for that, that'd be pretty cool to use as a normal flying animation.
    • Ability to set a default stance animation among the existing ones, same as above. Examples: centered, cross arms, hero/villain stances, etc
    • Ability to set a default running animation to perform like a Slide, Ninja Run or Beast Run, etc, without having to use those powers.
    • Pistol animations from Thugs MM set proliferated to Dual Pistols
    • The Spinning Kick animation from Martial Assault proliferated everywhere it can, including sets that don't do kicks (Super Strength) or sets that have their own exclusive animations (Street Justice) or elemental sets like Fire, Dark etc, with proper effects added to kicks. (This could apply to other animations too. 🙂 )

     

    • Like 4

    Electrical Affinity "seizure" animations on allies

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted · Edited by Keen

    On 4/17/2020 at 9:20 PM, Naraka said:

    Have you taken my advice and sought assistance from fellow players that can create mods and/or remove certain sounds/animations?

     

    There are several reasons I don't want to mod my client:

    • I just don't. I want my experience to match what most other players see.
    • Modding is not easy. (Keep reading...)
    • Modding animations will not stop other players from seeing my character having seizures, which is a small part of the original problem.
    • Replacing the seizure animation causes enemies to not play it when they're mezzed. It's not a problem for the animation to be caused BY and ON ENEMIES -- my OP clearly states that the problem was solely about the animation being caused AMONG ALLIES. Also myself, when affected by that animation BY ENEMIES was totally fine. After modding, I don't have those visual cues in combat anymore.
    • Keeping mods across different computers is a pain. I have two gaming laptops and one gaming desktop that I can play CoH on.

    I knew about modding back from the Live days and used it to an extent while I was interested in machinima stuff. But not anymore. I just don't have any desire to mod my client these days whatsoever. 

     

    However it came to a point that it was either that, or not play the game at all. 

     

    So modding became the lesser of two evils, and not a "solution" by any means.

     

    I spent a week or so away from the game after my previous breakdown. I played a bit of other games but was missing CoH so badly, so I decided to look into minimal modding so I could be able to play the game again.

     

    I already knew what to expect. First I had to use a pigg reader/exporter, and most options out there are not really friendly. Even the newest tool from Ourodev (Piglet) was not intuitive. I wanted to export only specific animations or use search features, but that proved to be a challenge. So I just exported everything. Then I had to look into animation file names to try to find the animations I wanted to use instead of the seizure one. And so I found the two animations I needed to replace:

    • electro
    • air_electro - seizure animation while flying

    Okay so now I have to find an animation to replace it with. Considering the culprit power from Electric Affinity is a buff, I could replace it with a buffing animation like absorb, which is used when you eat an Inspiration for example. But that caused the following to happen:

    • Enemies affected by electrical powers would play that "buffing" animation.
    • Myself when affected by an electrical mez would play that "buffing" animation.

    NOT GOOD. So I started looking for that quick "bump" animation that plays when allies receive Speed Boost. It is also the generic animation that plays when players are hit in combat. That would resolve the two issues above.

     

    And that's where my nightmare began. Checked all the available topics and couldn't find anyone reporting what that animation was named. I spent literally DAYS looking for that animation. Every time I need to test an animation, I have to replace the file in the data folder, then restart the game.  It was very time consuming.  I think I had to do that hundreds of times, for every animation file I suspected to be the one I was looking for. I couldn't just change animation files while the game was running -- it would freeze the game and I'd have to force-close it.

     

    Demorecording didn't help. Apparently, hit reactions are baked into FX files, and demorecord code would not tell me what animation the affected target would play. And I had no clue how to open or work with FX files.

     

    At some point and days and lots of frustration later I came across this animation named "HQ_high" which name didn't really tell me anything. So I tested it ingame, and that was it. The small bump animation. All good! Then the next would be the aerial animation. I just used the same file, and it was pretty bad. The character would play the "grounded bump" animation while in the air, with steady feet.

     

    So I had to look for the aerial bump animation. You'd think it'd be called "air_HQ_high" or something (most aerial animations start with "air_" in the names). But NOOOOOO. It had a totally different name. Nightmare Part 2 begins. More days looking for a frickin' animation that was not reported in any topic whatsoever. MEANWHILE, I realized the animation I replaced would only play for male characters. Female and Huge players would still get the seizure animation. I wanted it gone from all of my allies, not just myself. Yay, time to replace more animations around.

     

    And guess what?? Female animation file names can be different. Thankfully, the male animations playing on female skeletons did just fine. But female characters had no HQ_high animation. What gives? Turns out their name was actually "combat_HQ". Huge version matched male. But then I was still looking for that aerial version.

     

    After spending even more days looking for it I had an idea. Maybe looking at the source code of the game could give me hints. So I went to Ourodev and downloaded the whole thing (3GB). After some quick searches using the file names I previously found out, I was able to discover that the aerial bump animation was called "float_HQ". (Of course I missed it because Windows search sucks.) And that it thankfully matched across male, female and huge.

     

    So in regards to animations, this is what I did regarding replacements:

     

    Copy This File to data/player_library/animations Rename it to
    male/HQ_high.anim male/electro.anim
    male/float_HQ.anim male/air_electro.anim
    fem/combat_HQ.anim fem/electro.anim
    fem/float_HQ.anim fem/air_electro.anim
    huge/HQ_high.anim huge/electro.anim
    huge/float_HQ.anim huge/air_electro.anim
       

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Then I tested things in game for a few days. Then I noticed things like ally pets (demons, robots, etc) were still getting the seizure animation from ally buffs. Welp. More animations to replace. This is still going on.

     

    I also replaced some of the sounds, and noticed it improved things a great deal. While sound effects from Elec Affinity were not exactly part of this specific problem, they helped aggravate it -- whenever those sounds played I'd get psyched about my character getting a seizure. So dampening those sounds helped. I chose two sounds as replacements:

    • data/sound/Ogg/V_Powers/Mu_cagebolts.ogg -- the sustained effect after they hit
    • data/sound/Ogg/V_Powers/Mu_cageboltshit.ogg -- the sound upon impact

    Those are the sounds of Mu Mastery's Electric Cages, a lowered version of electrical effects. Since I was already decided to NOT look for sounds specifically used by Elec Affinity, I just scanned through ALL electric sounds that I could replace. This affected most electric power sounds in my client, and somehow had an effect on Elec Affinity too, which was what I wanted after all.

     

    So currently, when ElecAff buffs go around during Hamidon raids, I barely hear them, I don't see my character and my allies get seizures (aside from pets) and things have generally improved. But I don't consider this resolved at all. This is just a band-aid solution, and it was a huge PITA to set up. I don't want to ever have to mod my client again for something like this. But at least I can play the game now.

     

    I still hope this can be addressed from the devs side so one day I can remove those mods from my client and see that animation again where it belongs: during combat and among foes.

     

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 3

    Electrical Affinity "seizure" animations on allies

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted

    I've reached my limit with this issue today and I had to force myself away from the game.

     

    I don't want to quit, this is one of my favorite games of all time and I enjoy playing every day. But I also don't want to feel like I'm gonna throw up while I'm playing -- which has finally happened today. I've tried to put up with it for weeks, but there's only so much I can handle. Yes, I have mental health issues. So do many videogame players. Playing is a way to cope. This game used to be a place where I felt powerful and safe, and it's unfortunate how a single animation quickly turned things around. Finally, the lack of GM/Dev input here is highly demotivating and I don't feel like I belong anymore.

     

    As always, YMMV. If you enjoy the animation, that's great, carry on. I'm just one player negatively impacted by this.

    • Sad 3

    Electrical Affinity "seizure" animations on allies

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Bentley Berkeley said:

    Oddly enough lacking empathy for animals suffering is very much a sign of several potentially dangerous and violent mental disorders.

    You're way out of line here with that implication.

      

    35 minutes ago, MTeague said:

    At no point did Keen say he would feel nothing if REAL dogs dropped dead.

    This is correct. While I'm not an animal lover, I'm not an animal hater either. Seeing any living being die in real life is extremely disturbing to me, and honestly I'm baffled that this has even been brought up.

     

    It also comes down to how much we relate to the visual entities in-game. I have a very strong connection with my own character. (And yes, I look at it all the time.) I don't feel the same connection when I see other MM's animal pets, so when they "die", it tends to not affect me compared to something that affects my character directly. Yes, I get very psyched up in combat and that's the main reason all characters I build in-game are extremely defensive so I feel the less pain as possible, and I also avoid dying at all costs. Yes, I mostly have no debt badges. I don't collect badges at all anyway. YMMV.

     

    2 hours ago, Bentley Berkeley said:

    I would very much argue that finding a way to not have animal allies die in pain outside of combat, is a far more worthy topic to discuss then this one.

    Please go ahead and look up for a topic to defend that point or create one yourself. I do NOT disagree with you, but you keep using it as a reason to dismiss this topic. We can have BOTH discussions and their solutions are even different.

     

    2 hours ago, Bentley Berkeley said:

    I in fact compare people hating on shock treatment to anti vaxxers. It is a valid medical procedure. So yes allies using their shock powers to help someone to me is no different then using it like a  defibrillator, something we have seen the Flash use his abilities to do, and in fact Im pretty sure he has even used it to shock people out of being mind controlled before which very much would count as a form of shock treatment.

    I am not denying Shock Therapy is a valid medical procedure, but it can still cause mental triggers. I'd also think that heroes standing around in a non-combat environment shouldn't be subject to seizures, specially when they don't need any treatment.

     

    For what it's worth, I think Defibrillator is the best power in that set: it makes total sense, the animation is amazing, and it has multiple purposes. It requires a combat state however (a dead ally), which is something the seizure-inducing power doesn't require.

     

    • Like 3

    Electrical Affinity "seizure" animations on allies

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted

    11 minutes ago, Naraka said:

    Well crap, I didn't know people were that dense.

     

    You don't have to move 100% of the time, just when you get the buffs.

     

    I would certainly qualify that as *something* when responding to a post saying there is *nothing* you can do. Jeeze lol

     

    Read again:

     

    10 hours ago, Keen said:

     

    ... I can stop them from causing that effect on me.

     

    ... I'll control or kill the enemy before they do anything to me.

     

    ... I do have the capacity to fight back and avoid all effects.

     

     

    If I have to move after getting a seizure, I'm not avoiding it. The damage's already been done.

     

    Thanks for proving my point.

     

    • Like 1

    Electrical Affinity "seizure" animations on allies

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Naraka said:

    Yes there is, and it's a lot easier than all those other ways. It's called *Movement*.  Just move = no seizure.

    You know "standing around" is a thing when you're not fighting, right?

     

    You know moving 100% of the time when not fighting is totally unrealistic, right?

     

    Yeah because of course I'm just going to be running around when not fighting to avoid a drive-by buff that I have NO IDEA when it's gonna happen.

     

    🤦‍♂️

     

    • Like 3
×
×
  • Create New...