Sovera

You both get away from Burn, I'll cut ya! *brandishes butter knife!* Seriously though, if Burn is 'fixed' I hope it gets a tweak because I've played Burn on SOs only and it's a mild hot breeze gently tickling mobs. We don't need more Hemorrhage 'fixes' that simply made the general recommendation being not to take it on ANY of the ATs. Fixes like those I could do without.

Visually one click gives half a level of rested XP. Two give a full level. Rested XP is an extra 50% XP (not double XP (100%)), so I should at least have obtained half a level more from two uses of the Experienced power, but there was no effect during the DFB run where I barely barely got enough to reach level 7 where level 7 is where one DFB run usually puts me at regardless. I can see what you're saying though. As long as the rested XP scales with the required XP (AKA 'half a level') then if I need 500 XP to level I'd get 250. But if I need 500k then I'd get 250k. If it works like that then yes, using it in the low levels is of nearly no use.

After some testing Reactive seems to have no impact on regular play (more testing from different ATs required) and zero influence on an AV. The 75% chance for dot version does for maps however. Degenerative with 75% for DoT is a middle ground that shaves some time off maps while having a substantial impact on AVs. This is of less import on pylons who gobble up every scrap of -res thrown at them which is why -res effects are disproportionately important for those tests. Even so Degenerative will probably be a bit better (and still work on AV/GMs).

I just noticed something odd. I will usually do two runs of a farm map to PL a new alt. This invariably ends with the new character at 23. I ate two double XP from the anniversary and ended level 23 exactly the same. I will usually run one DFB and end level 7 (terrible btw, forces me to AE the last level so I can do Posi 1). Ate two double XP from the anniversary and just barely squeaked past to reach level 7. Where did that whole level of rested XP even go??

Strictly speaking Fire and Cold is not a big worry due to the lack of enemies doing that sort of damage in the higher levels, where Smash and Lethal are universal, and Energy and Negative the second most common.

😄 I would split it between Shield Charge and Radioactive Siphon in order to increase E/N resistances. Shield doesn't need the Melee defense. Something like this. Live off Recovery Serums until 32 and then alternate them with One with the Shield. At 50 you don't need Barrier just for 5% resistance so take Ageless and use that for endurance with One with the Shield as your panic button.

After leveling three characters with Sorcery I must say the game of whack-a-mole with Spirit Ward and Enflame gets old fast. I'm not sure of the reason why Enflame has to be this hybrid of toggle and click where it needs to be reapplied like a click every 60 seconds but has an EPS during the duration, but it's not an interesting mechanic for sure, furthermore as the re-toggling needs to be done each time an elevator is taken. I would understand a change of maps and needing to re-apply, but not floors. This means that: A) It continues being a toggle and gets a stretchier leash so changing floors does not break it. B) It becomes a click and changing floors does not matter. Tweaking the numbers so the toggle is on all the time is much preferable since it avoids having to find our tank person and reapplying instead of playing the game. At this point I don't know why it was not made to be a 60 second buff like Inertial Reduction (which suffers from the same once-every-minute annoyance further multiplied since it is meant for the whole team and needs to be re-applied for the straggling team members). Of Spirit Ward I have nothing but good things to say other than suffering from the same leash problems of Enflame. Same solutions in my opinion, with strong emphasis on a toggle we can cast and forget. Were it not for the restriction to only have four pools I would remove some of my inane whatever-shall-I-pick choices like Assault for Spirit Ward and throw it on one of my squishy team mates.

Tbh I might still re-think TA. I'm not going to be balls deep in theme but still, dropping a state of the art (of war) multi-gun to plink wif a lil bow just jars me 😛 But it avoids the whole 'go into melee range' when there are enough AoEs to cycle (with a brutal range) until everything is dead.

I've tried it a couple of times but couldn't get into it. Not because of the slowness but because of the cones AND the initial slowness. I kept trying to move to position myself for the cones and the piss poor damage of the initial attacks coupled with all the bouncing trying to position myself, with the mobs flocking around, and then Momentum running off and I need the initial swing again, and... I said screw it.

I place it on Radioactive Smash since my rotation is invariably Devastating(ly slow) Blow, Radioactive Smash, Radioactive Siphon, Radioactive Smash. Repeat.

Might I suggest some sort of test that proves or disproves things? I have always disliked these forum arguments where one person insists everyone else is wrong but they have found the secret holy grail. Downing a pylon, perhaps? Or whatever other metric such as the Scrapper forum Trapdoor test.

I have been playing different ATs from my beloved Tankers and I'm poking Blasters again. So, AR has been recently changed but none seems to think it was enough because at least I see no AR builds posted since the AR tweak patch. The damage seems a bit weak to my un-Blaster trained eye. AoEs hitting for 125-260 damage is nearly Defender levels. Ignite has a nice heavy feel to hit, but, 4y radius, really? Am I missing something? I know the mobs will run away from it straight away so I've tried proccing it out, immobilize and KD to make them sit there for a few seconds more. The ST is also a bit puzzling without dipping into the secondary. Slug, Sniper Rifle, Slug, then something. Ignite, perhaps? With a bit of recharge in it Ignite would recharge fast enough to do this. Two second cast time for Ignite and Full Auto makes for decent use, and all the Bombardments and Intuition there is some outrageous range boost. Buckshot from 40 to 82, Full Auto from 80 to 164. Piece de resistance is adding Oil Slick which Flame Thrower/Ignite ought to light up. Is a Tanker's agro aura even enough to handle all this fear? I have not finished messing with it since bed beckons but I'll throw it in.

Force Feedback proc. It's under Knockback.

I distinctly remember Containment messages, but, back from pre-sunset. We're talking issue 7 to 14.

Doom&gloom. Getting bored with a game is normal. I've been playing it for two years now and I'm there myself. Done all the things I wanted to do and the RP community isn't GW2 (at its heyday) so I'm out of things to do. Nothing abnormal in this.

Is this still a thing? I used to see the Containment message pop up all the time but I don't think I've ever seen it for my Grav. Is this a thing that was rolled into Impact, or does Impact replace Containment? I keep thinking I'm getting Impact -and- Containment but I'm no longer sure.

Do people really feel a need to land so much? I never land except when roleplaying. When that happens I use the mouse to detoggle Hover. I'm in Hover mode since logging in until logging out. As such I have a one keybind to activate Fly (mouse button4), a second press activates Afterburner. I have one keybind that detoggles Fly (control + button4) and ensures Hover is on (strictly speaking not needed, but it's legacy from the previous patch). To be honest nothing much changed other than needing to detoggle Fly so it's not consuming endurance.

Propel does benefit from the Impact mechanic that is, if I understand it correctly, an added proc like damage instead of a flat extra damage. One one hand I don't think it benefits from Fulcrum Shift(?) but it does mean it bypasses the damage cap. As for Seismic Smash, yeah, it's a pretty heavy attack, but you can click on Containment and see if it gets bonus damage or not. I've been messing with a Grav/Storm build but I'm leery at the 0.40% positive EPS (:D) and no Transfusion, though I figure alternating Victory Rush and Recovery Serums will keep me afloat. I just need to question myself on why would I even want to roll one.

Auras are terrible for procs. It's much better in Burn (something like 80% chance to go off in a procced out Burn). But -res procs are not very useful outside of AVs (in my experience). Tested in farm maps and there was no difference between -res procs and damage procs, with the advantage that damage procs work all the time and -res procs become semi useless if someone else in the team has them as well. If someone has data to refute this please correct me.

Second update: - Insulating is really powerful. Just like other shields it also does a minor heal on top of shielding and it all adds up. It stacks on top of Spirit Ward as well with my Bruiser having nearly half its HP bar in a shield. - Because of this it's rather simple to send the bruiser in first to soak alphas. But Thugs is like a herd of cats where some run into melee range, others pew pew from afar. This scattering does not play well with chains, as well as it may require an extra bind to only send the Bruiser in otherwise the ranged pets start attacking before the Bruiser has even come into range. - Speaking of binds I'm running out! Two upgrades, three pet summons, five elec powers, both Sorcery toggles, one attack command for pets, one Follow/Bodyguard command, etc. Most of these in constant need of being used. - Pets are definitely too slow. Considering the low damage of Enflame I'm going to propose only taking Spirit Ward from Sorcery and then go all the way up to Group Fly. With the devs having helped MMs with the fast re-summon and lower endurance cost the only thing left is the tardiness of pets showing up for combat, as well as dying when we just go from one mission to the next. If I was to re-roll things I would change: - All melee or all range primary. Bots works exceedingly well as a flying ball of missiles and death though the damage is low. Ninjas are great at ST but lag in AoE, but they are all melee and Elec Affinity would do a good job at keeping them safe. Necro might be a good bet too. - Group Fly instead of Enflame. - MMs are still a bit too fiddly (and way way too many keybinds). An alternative would be an AT with a single melee pet for the whole Spirit Ward/Enflame (not requiring Group Fly then) gameplay (it does have merit since it helps baby tanks) though that greatly narrows the options. Combos who do multiple pets like Fire or Electricity would not play well.

Status update: - Blitzed through the levels at a grand speed. Reached Manticore with two hours left on my Amplifiers which is some sort of new record for me. Team can be kept safe and productive pretty much since Posi 1. I can't say that it feels better or safer than my Stormie opening every fight with Freezing Rain. The damage definitely feels better than the Stormie though, MMs still lend themselves very well to minimum battlefield attention letting the pets go ham while we focus on support. Other ATs have to choose whether to blast/control or support. - My visions of endless endurance are tempered by actual playing. Energizing just barely keeps up with my endurance and most of the time is unable to depending how far back I am from the chain's start. I've seldomly detoggled though, but mostly because I just take it easy spamming things (Energizing is the only true spam, I don't use the heal if everyone's on full HP). That said I only have the basic Panaceia/Performance Shifter +end slotted in. I still lack an accuracy/endurance/recharge to slot which will fractionally decrease the hefty cost eating through Energizing's benefit. - Few dead pets, but mostly because I follow after the meleers. What damage they take can be healed without a problem as long as it is incidental, but I found they crumbled easily despite all res and defense auras slotted in if I let them out of my sight or face tanking a boss. Not the Bruiser though, that one's a champ. - Sorcery plays trés bien with MMs. Under level 26 we have baby tanks who need the help. Spirit Ward makes a visible difference despite still being only with two slots. Enflame is a bit harder to quantify. It does a lot of little numbers and behaves like a damage aura so it's better to take it like that, but I'm unsure if it's really adding much to the kill speed. Regardless after level 26 and baby tanks no longer needing help I've taken to Spirt Warding and Enflaming the Bruiser instead and that has been working fine. - 35 is a long time to wait for Insulating, but a quick test with no slots sees it recharging in 7 seconds. ...yeah, between heals under 3 seconds and shields under 5 seconds I can see how we can make pets pretty much immortal. This is a nice departure from the norm. - Pets are still way too slow in following us. It's common to reach a dead end, toggle on Fly and backtrack, then twiddle my thumbs waiting for the pets to arrive. Group Fly might be worth it just to avoid this, and where possible get pets out of melee's way too. Forcing everyone into Fly mode will get old fast though, and I need two powers to reach Group Fly anyway which means I would have to choose between going deeper into Flight or not take Enflame. Considering the low numbers and the annoyance that is having to retoggle every minute it's a consideration.

All I find are people referencing how they tried the combo but no posted builds. I've been messing with one but lack the nuances since I haven't played a MM in ages. EA has a bit of a bad rep as not adding to damage, but that's fine by me. I don't intend to solo and it's going to be full Leadership + Sorcery pools with EA added in as a super survival tool and providing me with the endurance to sustain it. In the meanwhile pets are just passively doing damage for me while I ignore them 😄 Because it's for team play I'm not fussed/focused on uber survival since I'll be following an agro magnet that I'm Enflaming, Spirit Warding, buffing with Leadership and Faraday, recharge, damage, etc etc etc. I started messing with things but don't really have a goal and as such the build is a bit all over the place. No emphasis on defense but I still slot the +3% uniques, no epic shields but still grabbing resists, etc. Lets call this a first draft: full support while pets passively do damage. - I didn't want the Bruiser's Handclap to scatter things so I had to slot something to prevent that. - I am not going to fuss trying to sap, so no Shocking, Discharging or Difibrilating (who dares to die with all this support anyway?!). - I'm not interested in -res procs outside of pylon tests so exchanged it for a regular damage proc on the Enforcers. - A bit more accuracy for the Thugs plus the BU proc to help them (they need help) as well as the Overwhelming to cause KDs. - Gang War is just for AVs so I did not bother slotting with recharge. - On top of all the mitigation EA provides I've added Bonfire. Nothing is really going to be able to hurt the agro magnet I'm following after between hakuning the mob's tatas with Bonfire and 5 second shield drops, and 3 second heals, and Spirit Ward. Overkill, it's not like tanks are known for their squishyness, but heck, let me have this.

Completely immune to damage? Well, no, I mean, sometimes we get hit even through 45% defense 😄 But if it's what you want then go for it. I was guilty of not thoroughly reading the first post and how you really wanted the full ranged experience. I can't blame you, I used to be like that too.

Thanks for the -very- detailed breakdown, internet Sammich person. As a non Defender, non Stormie this was great to read. You do approach it from the solo angle which is not one I'm not intending to follow (squishies in a team are fine and all, but for solo let me go at it with one of my Fire Armor tanks), but for teaming we seem to have a somewhat parallel thinking. The lack of a purple (?) damage proc in LS definitely colored my views on the results, though ultimately I still think it belongs to an older time where things took longer. So far the Watery experience has been that AoE is a bit better as expected, but the ST is pretty damn mushy. I need to frankenslot Dehydrate and get some procs in because sub-Yin the STing was pretty much like tickling enemies (4-5 hits to kill a +1 minion). I do notice that teams are melting more with Water helping things along. Moar KDs never go amiss either. I just got Water Jet and I need to finish slotting it so I can give my impression on it.