Ruin Mage

Some things that feel auto-hit are because of the high amounts of ToHit these mobs have. Strangely, I've tanked - for example - a Brickernaut explosion only for the next one to blow me up.

Mind you, the difficulty settings were intended - as far as I am aware - to tackle the current 'endgame' meta of Incarnate'd/IO'd characters and what things that has produced. This, as it stands, does not (yet? Who knows!) proliferate outside of that sphere. Incarnates/IO'd builds are a vast difference in breeze-y versus doing, say, Synapse at level. Or insert any TF needed pre-50. I will admit I'm now lost on the original point of what you were saying, but I am a simple forum cop.

From the new content on Beta.

I play blindfolded.

But what if I am playing a bunny character? I'm supposed to hop! I'm sorry.

I will reiterate that not everyone this was meant for will read this. Not everyone who is the target of it will go 'hm is this talking about me?' - because that's the nature of how things go. Well-intended threads like these are good, but often miss the mark. Not to dissuade the thread, person of many forum accounts, but it's a matter of it falling on deaf ears. Yes, people in the thread generally agree - dogpiling someone is bad and helps no one. However, I do not see a reply - unless I missed one - that indicates someone going they've read it and understood that it may be talking about them among many others. At most, a conversation is had. But the desired change may not be so easily achieved. Forum/internet anonymity works wonders. I for one don't intend to stop being The Forum Cop.

Now that we have our own Seismic Blast & Earth Manipulation, this thread could be awesome for the future. Good work on all these 21 pages 🙂

The no-level code may not work exactly on a mass scale like applying it to zones. Not only that but some enemy groups specifically cut off well before 50. One server has tried to make Atlas & Mercy have "no level" mobs (i.e minions always white, lts yellows, etc) but it doesn't work. Some mobs always spawn with a level. Having it auto-adjust would require a bit of code-wrenching and it wouldn't really add much IMO.

It would have to be a newly coded thing, but that includes finding a way to integrate the game with some sort of 'Streamer Mode'. Streamers often have ways to blur it/hide it themselves, or can get an easy way.

Yeah, some power interactions may be goofing up her intended mechanics. At least its been reported! Have to wonder if its something with holds/immobs

It may have been just her not doing her repositioning. According to Cobalt, she's meant to ignore -fly. She's ignored Tar Patch in my Relentless runs so far, but maybe something else is up.

To each their own on what they've experienced, and on different Shards as well. It still stands that the game prior to the ADO/Challenge Mode stuff of P3 was strikingly easy and that had its profound effect on things.

I don't think it's really heavily scripted. Let's look at the fights with scripts/mechanics; Cauldron One mini-boss after another Boss has two times where you probably want to switch off of him - turrets & additional mobs Nothing too heavy there. Teams just need to switch. Burning the AV down won't end well. Zoe She calls Brickers to her side, especially ones left on the map 3 times, a group of adds spawn in. Two sets of Brickers, one set of harmless dudes. She goes immune during this. Again, a little add control and some thought of stealthing vs clearing. Not meant to be a speedy fight. Roller, Ripples Roller calls for aid on engagement, nothing like the bad bosses but still some additional mobs 3 times, he sends you into a Ripple These ripples have optional fights for a badge. #1: Fight four AVs with new abilities, take them out, and fight a fifth with the main ability from each AV. That's pretty cool. Also ambushes, but can burn him down to get yoinked to Roller #2; Fight four monsters or dogpile the creature in the middle to fight everything in the room. You can try to burn the middle creature to get yoinked back #3; 2 AVs, one with a telegraphed Nova-like ability. The other a beefy dude who also hits like a truck. Nothing out of the ordinary here, but now a dangerous ability has telegraphing. Rodney, Round 1 Nothing special here, he teleports away Surge He summons two adds. Kill them or he heals & spawns puddles This should not be difficult once you get used to the puddles. Rodney, Zoe Part II Surrounded by mobs, but otherwise they just use abilities with no real mechanics. BEat em up, ez pz The King Blue beams. Like Battle Maiden. Nothing new. 3 phases - Dopplegangers, Real Midas, and Zeon Oh and he deletes the thing you need to be able to damage him. The final thing is an advanced version of Reichsman, the second thing is a little different but with some inspiration from elsewhere (Dopplegangers) None of this is WoW-like, given the vast differences between the two games. None of these mechanics are astoundingly difficult after you see them a couple of times. A few things are new or re-hashed from other areas in the game. Nothing that we've not seen before, but with additional things tied into it. It should be noted that BAF, Lambda, and various other things have announced incoming attacks but only partly telegraphed some. Some TFs/Trials have had stuff like immune-unless-this-happens, etc. It just so happens that the mechanics hit you in the face with a crowbar if you think its just another ITF.

The time taken to complete will drop once more people are used to Relentless (or the other difficulties) - which also comes with the adjustment period to having to stick together and play it safe. It comes with having to adjust to telegraphed attacks, actually do mechanics, and not just keep moving/keep pulling. The maps are generally tightly packed with mobs and closed spaces. Things are actually a threat. The reward table has been said to be temperory - at least the 40 completion merits. However, Relentless also offers a slew of Astral/Empyrean merits that can be converted. The real bragging right will be getting Relentless done with less than 50 deaths.

Well, that's the thing - Relentless isn't meant to be a super quick easy thing. The three hour marks are because people are still kicking old habits, getting used to the challenge, and so on. It's meant to be a challenge, and it's meant to be for Incarnates / fully IOed characters. The base ASF (without all the added powers, for example) has been getting around regular 45 minute runs from what I hear. That can easily be cut down once more people get out of the 'ooh new lore/new shinies/new maps' phase and more used to what it offers. From my experience, you should not go into Relentless unless you can commit to most of it. The Midas fight is tedious but manageable, for example, without a tank. It's the other fights that you will have a hellish time with depending. I do think the 3 hour timer will start to drop as people figure out effective skips, figure how to focus bosses, and get used to having to play as a team again. It will still be a lengthy TF, but that's okay. Not every TF needs to be done in 10-15 minutes like the TinPex easy-farm. This isn't TinPex or the ITF or PennyYin - not with all the additional powers and mechanics. The additional thing is that this is all optional. I have run Relentless three times so far, and I can tell that the adjustment period will last a little while and some people may swear it off. I personally find it to be fun to try and see how each team composition handles it. How certain power sets can make things go from bad to good - I've seen insane recoveries from deaths. I've also seen pulls go from "We're good." to "oh god the pain." Which is what's been lacking. A real challenge that doesn't get easy-moded by a team of 7 blasters and a corruptor. People aren't used to telegraphed mechanics, their maxed out characters being challenged, or anything else the challenge mode offers. Things are going to need to get used to, but nothing about the difficulties should change or needs to change until more data comes in. Personally, it's shippable besides a few typos and some tweaks to how Midas' blue beam blast works.

ASF on max difficulty will take a while to get used to, because people are far too used to Council radios and everything being easy. That's legitimately it - that it has been so lengthily ingrained into them. Things are fast, easy, and anything not fast & easy is often ignored or done less. Relentless ASF puts a stop to the 'go go go' mentality, and aims to put more of a thinker's cap. The rewards are being worked on, but if you prefer getting fast and easy rewards? Relentless won't be for you.

Relentless #3 completed. I cannot stress strategy and team composition enough, ahaha. I'm having fun but holy shit does Relentless get dicey if you make one slight mistake. On OHKO powers; Those are almost always telegraphed. Brickernauts glow, Incandescent glows. Stuff also just hurts a lot more. No more relying on softcap defense.

Relentless is relentless. 3 hours, 158 deaths. You really have to be smart about the fights you pick, and that's with a rounded out team. Oh and don't goof off >.> (Two Empaths, 2 Radiation, and 1 Dark for support I'm almost certain) The challenge mode/hard mode stuff is fine.

Because more granular does not attack the current "easy" nature of the game. The big packages - i.e Relentless' settings - are needed to take an axe to the current meta of things and paving the way for the future. They can't do meaningful new content if they were to tackle it the way you're suggesting here. The way everything has power creeped and homogenized has made even Master of badges trivial. This is but a start to making that not so. There's only so much coding can do as well, and bogging down the challenge mode selection screen with even *MORE* options across every selection piece is a UI nightmare that would not look good. Team leaders won't really interview people for Relentless. Relentless can be done with many team comps, and if speed is the deal then Relentless isn't for you. Certain team comps will excel, and it's about time that support got to step up again. There's no real downsides to an optional challenge mode that requires more strategy versus blind murder tornadoes. This isn't content that can't be completed by an all blaster team, but they will have a rough time as designed. That's not bad design - thats intentional as a start to make sure what comes next falls into the same trap of stuff outside of the ASF. Having teams focus on roles is a good thing. It means things are balanced. An all blaster team is not balance. An all tanker team is not balance. AT stacking to a full team of 1 AT is not balance. That's not what the game is about, and has never been about. I think it's a load of manure that this will cause "Well, this is why I should be on the team!" - that's a very big leap for a mode that you do not have to partake in. EDIT; Or as Cobalt said - it's not required, but you will have to strategize around Team Composition - which is SORELY needed in a game meta full of pop barrier and go.

I can see that, yeah. They might get whalloped unless they wait for pathing. Some of the maps are tightly packed which is good.

Words. The badge text is long, but the explanation is simple; Yes.

That's something also being brought up in the tester Discord - on applying it differently to different insps. From conversations with the devs, not even a forum riot would make them scrap this.

That's fair. I will say that my dark/shield - which is not exactly a minmaxed build meant to just shit on content (because Dark is single target and not too AOE-y for one) - worked just fine. Builds, in general, will be fine so long as its not some super gimped build for...whatever reason. I could go on, but you get the idea and I understand what you're saying. Soloing relentless is a challenge I want to see someone try - if only to see their reaction to getting splattered. Because the devs won't really listen to the whole idea that "if x can't solo relentless, then it sucks." - nor should anyone else.

Relentless shouldn't be the baseline for character performance considering what it throws at you, TBH. It won't be baseline, for example, for AVs to telegraph their "have at you, die." attacks in regular content.

I don't believe I saw an Incarnate reward table. I need to run it again.