Midnight Guard

Thank you kindly! I think @Croax appears to have hit it closest to what I imagined. But @Zeraphia Thank you for the time invested as well. This will give me lots of opportunity to see how experts build.

Greetings I don't have a Mids build at the time of posting available. I currently roll with a 50 T3 Incarnates stj/bio/mu Stalker who is quite strong. He can withstand a large amount of punishment with a set of IOs I've picked up along the way. E.g. 5x LotG, full ATOs, all the resistance and defense bonus IOs, heal and end procs, and some additional procs like -res in shin breaker. I traded Placate, Sweeping Cross and a travel power to max on Bio and defensive essentials like tough, weave, maneuvers and CJ. But I also truly enjoy Zapp and Ball Lighting's powerful snipe-crits and AoE crits. I'm running Core Musculature, Core Vorpal for style, Barrier for permanent defense and res boosts, Talons of Vengeance Radial for style/capping resistances/AoE, Diamagnetic Interface for the stacking AoE -ToHit to further boost my survivability, and Assault Radial. I love soloing hard content and am comfortable with +2x8 Boss AV Dark Astoria arcs by cycling my absorbs and critting AoEs for days. I often grab agro of AVs in PUGs and facetank by using Brawl's -10% ToHit synergy from the Fighting pool, switching to Defensive adaptation and keeping absorb high. In some situations I even play as a purely ranged DPS and support character like BAFs where the tanks constantly get everyone in melee ringed and subsequently destroyed- a quick well-placed barrier here is a good role to fill. One Build Up with Gaussian proc, Assault activated, Offensive Adaptation Ball Lightning from Hidden can consistently one-shot a group of Mindwashed Refugees incl. Lieutenants with a crit. It'll even refresh the BU most of the time. I've read one guide when I searched for builds here on stalkers and took all of the advice I could. But my next step is a S/L softcapped true endgame IO set build- or as close as I can get to a min/maxed build I can work towards. Is anyone out there capable and willing in helping me put one together with my current power choices and preferences in mind? Thank you kindly in advance.

He is not exaggerating. These situations occur, they are facts of the issue. He is being specific. Making this observation doesn't add anything beyond effectively stating you don't care. You also omitted really trying to break down _why_ it sounded like a management "failure", implying perhaps you cannot - in which case SpiritFox just has more information on his table than you. We're all just trying to improve the game with science here. This issue needs to be fixed. There is already a workaround that meets the needs of both parties; i.e. allowing pets to move 'a little' within their Go-To spots, as outlined by the dev.

I'd love to do this, but since I've slotted Surveillance with a -res proc as well as having to consider it's tohit check, I opt for Build Up first to make sure it lands and to quickly chain from Surveillance into Shatter before my stealth breaks from attacks.

My Bane Spider's current rotation looks something like this: [Build Up] (Mace) > [Surveillance] (Hands-free) > [Shatter] (Mace) > [Venom Grenade] (Rifle) > [Crowd Control] (Mace) And then the occasional mid-combat [Hasten]. Tons of other powersets have received the No Redraw option, could VEATs please have it too? Thanks. 🙂

Thanks for the response! I think this sounds good. But I agree with @TheSpiritFoxthat the leash distance should probably be uniform, also to help new players keep pets better managed. I don't know about Stay - Defensive to be honest, but it sounds good in theory.

Yes, thanks for clarification @Number Six! Highlighting for context: So essentially this is what we asked for - but you have the technical knowledge for the code required - it's hard to visualize without seeing it practically, but you're saying the principle would allow then to stay close to the Goto spot and defend the area allowing melee some freedom of movement. All of my yes! Happy to help with this! Question: Would this keep the "ignore AoE clouds" part of the updated Goto? And thanks @TheSpiritFox for MM clarification details 🙂

DefFollow is still too risky because I need the mobs I am actively attacking with pets to be near me alongside my henchmen. I have to use Goto to stay alive in challenging content, using corners and walls to herd mobs etc. EDIT: To be more specific, I'm using Time Manipulation, so both the two Heals and the PBAoE aura are key skills I need both pets and enemies within, hence why close quarter fighting through Goto is vital.

I Use Demon Summoning, level 50 maxed Incarnates! You definitely always want their pets to use their full attack chain specifically in solo situations. You and your pets being solely responsible for DPS means any minute difference is big in the long run. I frequently farm and solo +4x8 as well, facing the game's hardest content alone, simply because my MM can. But these small changes make a big difference to MMs' DPS as a whole.

I have the same issue. You must click Ctrl once after using Alt Gr to fix it.

Allow me to illustrate my pre- and post-patch MM tactics: PRE-PATCH Defensive-Follow: [Bodyguard] [Forces Passive for 10 seconds for all Henchmen] [Henchmen attack top of hate-list after 10 seconds] Defensive-Goto: [Bodyguard] [Henchmen move to location and attack hate-list immediately] (Hate-list can be manipulated with enough spamming of this command) Naturally I used DefFollow often, but when my pets started to 1v1 enemies I would call them with Goto to stay in BG range, and attack enemies closest to me for AoE etc. They would eventually listen to me if I spammed Goto and focus near targets. They would also move around freely to cycle through all attacks. POST-PATCH (UNCHANGED) Defensive-Follow: [Bodyguard] [Forces Passive for 10 seconds for all Henchmen] [Henchmen attack top of hate-list after 10 seconds] (NEW) Defensive-Goto: [Bodyguard] [Henchmen move to location and attack hate-list immediately] [Henchmen do not budge an inch and will wait for ranged cooldowns when more than 7ft from an enemy] Now, using DefGoto means my henchmen must be forced into melee range one at a time for me to keep pre-patch DPS. They just won't move to use their melee attack. And naturally moving all henchmen is most efficient, but that means bunching 5 Henchmen onto one target for the sake of one henchman. If I allow my pets free movement through Offensive-Follow for example to skip the 10s Passive window from Def-Follow, I forgo Bodyguard. This is a massive risk. I can imagine using half-half commands to keep some pets on Defensive and Offensive, but regardless the DPS loss exists and so does an increased risk. My suggestion: 1. Defensive-Goto is reverted to pre-patch. 2. ALL Stay commands retain post-patch behaviour properties. 3. ALL Passive commands gain post-patch behaviour properties. 4. ALL Passive commands gain Bodyguard. This way, you can use the intuitively named (and underused) Passive and Stay commands to properly seat your henchmen in that gas cloud, moving into it with passive-follow which now has bodyguard to protect you (You could spam def-follow for the same effect), and then tell them to Def-Stay to give bodyguard, attack back and not move out of the gas cloud. This way, you can also allow the same freedom that DefGoto had from before, allowing free placement of henchmen, bodyguard and their freedom of movement to the same extent as previously.

I've been getting an error like this: Manifest download error for http://patch.savecoh.com/manifest.xml Unable to connect to the remote server through Tequila. Anyone else? Cannot start the game.