Brutal Justice

Also confirmed. I don’t run boosters so it’s not booster related. A fresh lvl 1 would always lvl on the first group. Takes almost 2 groups now. A fresh lvl one would also hit lvl 6 before the hydra. Now you finish the DFB at lvl 5

I know that this is a bug and will be fixed quickly. What I am saying is I am actually fine with their behavior. Fix the bug and update AI in an intended manner. The mobs are no more difficult, they just don’t ball up and die. Ever fight cabal or praetorian clocks? Also I am more likely to run in terror from a burning patch on the ground that just killed 15 of my buddies than I am some little tacks on the ground. You’re also not struggling to wipe out the jokers goons. The goons are also more likely to run from Batman than Joker so it’s actually quite super. You’re also not dropping that AV solo in seconds unless you’re using lore pets... which isn’t solo. Burn was also made more front loaded with its damage so even if they run you’re hitting them with solid damage. Overreactions are just that. All groups don’t need to behave like cabal or be immune to things like warwolves, but if they flee in terror when under extreme duress, that seems pretty reasonable to me. Fight or flight seems quite natural.

You’re not unable to do the things you could do before. Your toon didn’t lose any of its power. It just takes slightly longer to do what you were doing. You don’t have to reroll. It’s akin to when they created the collision mechanics for the mobs. You could stack all of the enemies on top of each other and just blow them up in seconds. Making the AI better doesn’t diminish you and what you’re capable of. There are so many ways to deal with the flee. Break line of sight, use knockdown, take an epic aoe immob, take quicksand. You are far from needing a reroll.

I ran a quick dfb last night and came out lower level than I am used to. I had to afk for a couple minutes so I was a couple mobs behind during the vahz phase. Is it possible to be out of range for xp? I never run with a booster. Normally I go in at lvl 1 and come out at lvl 6. A second run gets me to lvl 8. Last night I went in at lvl 2.5 and came out at lvl 5. I’ll run some more tonight without going afk just to make sure. But that’s what I saw last night. I normally run 2 dfbs to get to lvl 8 then start a positron tf. That’s pretty much my toon progression for all new alts so I’m fairly familiar with how much xp I normally net.

It’s about adding value and variety to the game and archetypes. If you want to burn down the game then roll an ice/fire like people used to when the AI wasn’t as dumb. Currently ice slick is one of the most skippable powers in ice melee. Which is lame. All of the variety and uniqueness of sets has just gone to trash with more damage and dumber AI. Taunt shouldn’t keep things from running in terror. Or are tanks secretly the best mind controllers in the game? Tanks redirect fire they don’t control fire. If you want to control fire, I don’t know, maybe bring a controller or dominator? Again, value and variety should be our focus for a healthy game.

I play a bots/trick arrow that’s really starting to come together. He’s been in holding until the pet changes went live. I find the bots help pick up the holes trick arrow has. Trick arrow doesn’t have useful -regen, the t9 has such poor duration vs recharge it’s fairly useless. The bots bring the -regen. Trick arrow doesn’t have a heal. Bots heal themselves and you can pick up repair to heal them more if you like. Bots are also quite durable out of the box. Now for synergy. With pets staying at range, glue arrow is helpful for survival and damage. Enemies can’t run out of the glue like they can with tar patch so it’s more effective at keeping things in the burn patches and away from you and your pets. Disruption arrow is stackable just like tar patch and can be fired into walls, ceilings, etc making its placement very versatile. Add in acid arrow which can take two -res procs and damage procs and you have -res for all occasions. Acid arrow is somewhat meh on its own but procced out it’s awesome. Single target immob for keeping bosses and avs at range and still in their burn patches. Ice arrow filled with damage procs is a big hitter. Bots easily light oil slick for even more fire. With the procability of trick arrow you’re bringing your own solid damage just by using your secondary. Now I just can’t decide between bonfire or a shield and to me that’s a good problem to have. All I know is when I show up to a mob it’s like you’re in your own Michael Bay movie. Explosions and fire everywhere. It’s glorious.

I actually like it also. It’s pretty dumb for mobs to just stand there and burn to death. Not only is it better AI but it gives life and purpose to some struggling archetypes and systems. The game has become all damage all the time! This actually gives slows some value and controllers value. I feel like controllers struggle in the IO world because their controls and low damage are more or less pointless. It’s not making your tanks and brutes less powerful. It’s just adding value to lesser archetypes.

There was a controller in my team tonight. I think I am actually ok with how the mobs are running a little more. It made me appreciate the controller for the first time since live. Leave the threat fleeing as it is now.

My commando still likes to get pretty close to the action. Probably due to his short range cones.

Brutes received buffs to accommodate the tank buffs. As the tank buffs are continually being reduced, will we see a reduction in the brute buffs as well?

Errr, so does every -res. Your rad defender toggle ends up something like -13 res while bruising ends up -9 res. If you think this is a valid argument for dropping bruising then you might as well drop some other signature powers from signature sets.

Never mind. I got it figured out.

I don’t have mids because I play on a Mac, so I make all of my builds by pen and paper. Less than ideal I know. Also when I make the builds I am away from my computer. Normally this isn’t much of an issue because of the wiki. However, with ice melee and fiery aura I am struggling because neither of these sets are listed for stalkers on wiki. Normally when this happens I just go off other AT lists but these two sets for stalkers vary quite a bit from the other ATs. There are zero builds for fiery aura to reference. Can somebody post a simple build with all of the primary and secondary powers selected at the levels they are available? Much appreciated. PS cauterizing aura is a flat rate heal as opposed to a % heal? I am pretty sure I haven’t seen the heal increase from +hp only from enhancement and +level.

Done

If only you could make a tactical arrow instead of a trick arrow would you feel better off? Seriously, how has tactical arrow remained at its current level and trick arrow received nothing as compensation?! On a a more positive note, I had a merc/ta on live that was fun. It wasn’t top tier performance but it was fun. With the ranged pet fixes coming I am hoping for some better value out of trick arrow. Every little bit helps.

I never see anything on /rad. I am looking to make a /rad mm and I’m thinking of going beasts. Anybody run one? What sort of feel/performance should I expect?

Is it me or do the ninjas run out of end extremely fast. I have a lvl 20 and the genin run out of end pretty quickly with only their lvl 1 upgrade. I don’t remember having that issue with other pets. Maybe with their lvl 2 upgrade, but not with lvl 1. It really hurts their dps once they run out of end. Do ninjas need help with end usage?

With the new mastermind fixes in the works I am excited to pick up a couple masterminds I have stalled out. Do +dam IO bonuses translate to pets? How about pets like tornado and lightning storm? Is there any way to significantly increase your damage potential?

Agreed. The top performing sets are sets with high damage t8 pets because they don’t suffer from the level gap. It would bring all sets up and really help out those that rely on their lower tier pets for damage like zombies.

Hey TEB! I tried to send you a global tell and email. Not sure if it went through or not. @Brutal Justice here if you remember me from Wrecking Crew

No need for testing. Just give us the brute version with tank numbers. They can get fancy with it later if they want.

The real crime here is that it’s almost 2020 and I still can’t make a regen tank!

Imbalance is when a blaster is allowed to tank an AV but a tank isn’t allowed to dish damage like a blaster. When blasters have so much durability they don’t need your holds or stuns but your troller isn’t allowed to match blaster damage. You don't have to nerf the defensive set bonuses. Allow scrappers and blasters to be durable. Just separate them into offensive and defensive sets. Allow for people to add significant damage as a trade for durability. What’s a specific example of imbalance if they doubled the +dam bonuses and separated offensive type bonuses and defensive type bonuses into specific IO sets?

This is what I was trying to say about the curve of def and res. I know there are multiple types of def and res that need accounted for. I figured their exponential returns would offset the diminishing returns of +damage and the number of set bonuses both would require to reach equivalent levels. I think we are saying the same thing... I’m still not sure I’m communicating it very clearly.

Doubling the existing bonuses would be fine. They would need to be separated though to avoid massive power creep. Force the choice. Focus on one or the other, or go with a mix. IOs have largely benefitted the dps types and left the mitigation types behind. Tanks and controllers specifically. The SO world is balanced. The IO world is not. Don’t nerf IOs just balance them to balance the endgame.