quixoteprog

At the risk of demonstrating my ignorance I was just wondering, how do you get the merits to buy the IOs that go in most of these builds with a farmer? Those are gotten with merit rewards. Do you take time out to do content in Ouroboros? I look on the AH and see them as an options, but none are for sale for inf.

I was in a team last night that wiped once and nearly wiped another time. One guy was trying to get people to corner pull and engage in even a little bit of strategy and most of the team just would not listen. It really depends on how many of the players are at least minimally competent. Or, at least age 10+ I think, as people have already said, that the game is very dense with optimized twinked builds, played by adults. And these people tend to be more motivated to level and so dominate the LFG channel. That means that even if you know very little about the game, are 7 years old, and are running with several expired training enhancements and tend to spam flurry of blows because it looks cool your average experience may well still be that you steam roll a +4x8 mission. The problem is that when a group forms with more than a couple people who don't know what they are doing it will wipe, repeatedly. I've been in a couple of those and it can be frustrating because all it would really take to get it to work is for people to exercise a LITTLE bit of strategy. Because, yes, the game is pretty easy for the most part. You just do corner pulls, give the tank time to use their taunt, HEAL the tank. And probably most important. Make sure the tank is not 7 with a horribly sub-optimal build.

Cool build, but with the snipe changes do you think switching out Tactics for something else might be better? Tactics will still give you a boost on fast snipe damage, but I don't think it would be worth it for the end cost of a toggle. I took aim since it will boost +acc. and cost end. only when I use it. I'm only 38 atm so not sure how it will all work out on high level stuff but I picked Power Thrust, Conserve Power and Build UP from EM. Thinking about taking Power Boost, but still not completely sold on it. Not really interested in taking melee powers I don't have to take. I took took Kick, tough and Weave as well, and combined with hover it seems to be worth the endurance. I was thinking, though, that it might be better to take Combat jumping as well and then run that and weave, leaving tough off except for boss fights. Resistance doesn't seem to be worth it for someone with so little health, except in extreme situations. For my Epic pool I am trying out Cold Mastery since I like the idea of using hibernate to turtle up and regen. as well as letting some powers reset But like I said, still just 38 so have not tried it so don't know if it will be worth it in practice.

I have seen a lot of builds for various archetypes out there but not so many blaster builds and not a single energy/energy. Are they so rare? My guy is only 38 so will probably respec once I get to 50. I know there are a couple of good ranged damage set, but anything that works in Energize and Buildup?

Yeah, or maybe just a two foot sphere. I could finally fulfill my lifelong dream of being the Bionic Watermelon. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=bionic+watermelon

I would like some more compelling game play. Some element, probably optional because it would involve a change in play style. I would like the mission description to have some useful information instead of, for the most part flavor text. For most mission, not all but most, you don't really need to read anything other than the objective summary. Find all clickies, defeat bad guy with a name, Defeat bad guy and his henchmen, clear the map. All pretty self explanatory. It is so unusual for there to be any need to read this stuff that when you get one of the rare missions where it IS helpful, even necessary, I usually miss it. I have had at least a couple missions, usually red side, where the objective was "prevent the escape of <Dude-X>". As I work my way through the map I see one guy come running by without stopping. About the time I start to think, "hey, that one mob did not even stop to attack once" I get kicked out of the mission because it failed. About which time I realize all I really needed to do was stop that guy from reaching the exit. That is super frustrating. NOT because it makes the mission harder, I'm fine with that. It's just that 99% of all missions have nothing like that and then you get the one where it does, with no warning, and you get burned. I would really like MORE missions like this. It would be nice for them to be marked in some way. You enter a map with clickies, but instead of just needing to run around and click them all you need to click them before a certain mob does. Or, I need to destroy it before the mob gets to it and "activates" it in some way. It would also be nice if a door mission to a building had several options for entry. For example, you don't just get ONE waypoint to a mission, you get several. Picking the right door makes the mission easier, less mobs to fight or easier, or whatever, picking the wrong one makes it harder. The way you know which one to pick is by picking up hints in the mission briefing. I understand the difficulty of the task and how much work it would be only to satisfy someone like me; but you asked.

I am currently running fire farm missions with bosses off at +3x8 at lvl 48 and while I feel like I could manage a run at +4 and/or bosses on I am not sure if that would make the runs take so much longer that it would reduce the inf/min. At 47 I just switched to lvl 50 vanilla IOs, but was going to wait to do sets because they can be kind of expensive. Do you need set bonuses to make doing +4 with bosses worth it?

My problem with the Sentinel opportunity thing is that it always seem to pop when the target is almost dead. Not sure how much utility it provides. Nothing like brutes rage mechanic. I am not 100% on the mechanic, but it seem like you fight 5-10 things, it pops on the 10th, and usually when that guys is half dead already, and gives you a bonus on that creature. Is there something I am missing here?

If only you had been fighting an Juicer Freak. You could tell him, "Darling don't you monkey with the monkey!"

The Robots primary could replace pretty much any MM direct attack with something that turns the "clang clang clang" of their walking into something quieter, and I bet it would rank pretty high on the list. You could call it "Robo-Sketchers" or even "techno-stilettos" for the sophisticated MM out for a night on the town with his posse.

As a thought, just because a power is not represented on a lvl 50 does not mean it is not worthwhile. Some people may take a pool power or something to fill out their attach chain until they get a better primary power set power at higher level then respec out of it. Someone may have had a power, and gotten good use out of it at some level, then respecced into a different power pre-50 because they changed their build once they got access to the Ancillary Power pool powers. Not saying the list is not valuable. Just that, as Inego Montoya might say, "it may not mean what you think it means".

I was under the impression that you can email inf to ANYONE, if you know their global chat-handle. Is that not correct?

Not to mention the liability of keeping any personally identifiable information on the players who owned those accounts. Imagine the uproar if they got hacked, which happens to EVERYONE, and data on user of a game shut down 6 years ago go into the wild. There is a small chance they have the data, because people screw up and forget to purge backups, especially in large companies. But there is 0% chance they would admit to having it. If anyone even knows it is there.

From what you say it sounds like you are being a bit too aggressive with AoEs in groups. Especially in radio mission groups. In my experience, mission groups tend to be running +2-4 levels because anything less is too easy when you have all the overlapping buffs, and so getting aggro from multiple minions or more than a single Lt can be pretty hard on an archetype specifically designed to die if anything survives their initial attack. You can scour the internet to find a build that tells you to take tough and weave (my blaster has both they help a bit in solo stuff), but no amount of defense you have access to as a blaster is going to save you from a +4 Lt. or Boss that takes a liking to you. That being the case I doubt your build is the problem. I would suggest picking whatever powers you want and not worrying about builds until lvl 30-40? Then respec. Until then, the following group tactics have worked well for me when running a blaster in a mission group 1. Stick with the group. Running into a mass of 15-20 +4 mobs packed with Lts, and a couple bosses by yourself is not healthy. 2. NEVER attack first. Wait for someone with real defense and resistances to take aggro. Once the group is involved go with single target attacks until your first target dies. Then drop an AoE if anything is still alive. 3. STAY BACK. Don't wade in there. You have ranged attacks, use them. You may have some melee attacks to. Those are either acts of desperation, to bail you out if you made a tactical mistake that put you in a position to use them, or maybe just a way to lure you into giving defenders and controllers who took rez powers someone to use them on. Don't be fooled. 4. Don't be ashamed to run away. 5 Break frees >>>>> Awakens. Mainly because they allow you do do number 4 above. 6. As a blaster you can use your first two powers even when mezzed. If you don't have a break free, do that.

Dream on my man. Dream on. Not the power sets thing. The bug fixed thing. Never. Gonna. Happen.

I am new to the whole farming thing. I have a spines/fire brute up to 44ish He has fire resist at 90%+ (which I think is the cap for a brute?) and fire def~= 8.8% (which I'm sure is not) I am to the point that +2/x8 goes pretty quick and I can leave with about half my purples un-eaten. And I'm pretty sure I could do a +3 without face planting. But it just seems like it might take so much longer because of the reduced damage and hit rate that it might not be worth it. Does anyone have any numbers on what defense level and damage numbers you need to make each level (+1, +2, etc.) optimal? I am sure I could just try it and see, but it would take a lot of experimentation to get the numbers and see what is most efficient. And I'm hoping someone can baby bird me the numbers.

It seems to me that while healing is moderately useful it is not vital. Especially at higher levels. Maybe a group looking to run something at the highest difficulty. But even then this game usually rewards damage over anything else. I would not be surprised if you could run every piece of content with 8 scrappers, or 8 blasters even.

So, your saying that my OPTIONS of people to group with would be fewer but I'm saying my CHOICES of how to play would actually be GREATER. It may just seem like semantics, but I think it's important. With this new option there may be more people who insist on me playing a certain way WITH THEM,although I think your fears are exaggerated. If this were WoW, with a lot of hard core players who look at end game content as a job that rewards play who are WILLING TO PUT IN THE WORK! (please add a "BOOYA!" tone to the all caps section) Then, yeah, that could happen all the time. I saw one clan that required you to submit a "resume" for your character in order to join. They didn't want anyone slowing them down. I never submitted one, but would not have made the cut if I did. This game, however, seems like more of a safe place. I seriously doubt that you are going to find THAT many more people willing to kick you because you won't conform to their play style. But the current situation means I either need to alter my powers in a permanent/semi-permanent way, or not play with the haters. In exchange, under the current system, you think I can now have the option to play with people who TOLERATE me. They are annoyed by my presence, just not enough to kick me from the group. That sounds less fun than just soloing. I personally would prefer the option to solo the way I want, and if I want to group I have the option to make a concession to the group, when I have to.

I don't see how someone requiring you to make a choice restricts your choice. And I say this as someone who really enjoys my E/E blaster and loves to send things flying. But having a toggle would just open up more choice. Currently, when faced with a leader who hates KB you have the choice : A. Sacrifice a slot (for possibly EVERY damage power, if you are E blaster say) to play on his team. B. play by yourself. C. Find a team cool with KB THIS suggestion actually offers you more choice. A. Sacrifice slot(s). B. Play on the team with the toggle set to KD C. Play by yourself, with it set however you want. D. Find ANOTHER team that is cool with KB. Everybody wins.

While it would definitely be preferable to sacrificing a slot in each power that does knockback just to make it easier to team. I can see the case where I would want some powers to do one and other the other. I run an Energy/Energy blaster. And I would be fine with, even prefer, to have my ranged powers do KD or KU, but I prefer to have the one melee power I took from Energy Manipulation do KB so that the mobs are not just knocked down but also pushed back out of melee range. So, maybe TWO powers? One for melee and one for ranged? That way tanks and scrappers whom I imagine would ALWAYS want KD could set them both to that. Instead of a toggle it might could be an inherent power. You do a quest, or talk to an NPC and they set it. Kind of like alignment or notoriety?

My first main, back in the day, was an Energy/Energy blaster and it was always a ton of fun. But I mostly solo. Having a bit of control is useful. My biggest complaint with En. secondary is all the melee powers. Half of the powers are REALLY useful boost for my primary attacks. The other half are like, WTF? Melee attacks? in Energy Manipulation? It is the equivalent of taking a scrapper secondary like Invulnerability and replacing half the powers with stuff from the Assault rifle set. Sure, ranged damage attacks that do knockback, disorient and stun can be useful, to a scrapper, or anyone, in certain situations. But as a scrapper you try to avoid those situation.

I would suggest leaving the damage as is, and just have it be an AoE affecting up to three opponents in your forward facing arc. That would be both thematic as well as explain the long animation time. I mean, you are using super speed after all.

One of my first characters back in the day was a mind/emp (it was May of 04 and I really didn't know any better) controller. Flurry was his main source of damage. I think I actually confused it with Shadow Maul or some other attack that uses the same animation but does real damage. I don't think I ever got him over level 20. Did I mention he was a mind/empathy controller? Before containment? Arcane bolt is definitely better. Flurry needs a buff.

What I would like is to see a REAL auction house. One where you set a min. price and an end date for the bidding. People bid on it and the highest bidder gets it. If you want, and I assume most people would do it this way, you can add an "immediate purchase" price. Similar to many eBay auctions. The AH could make a suggestion on this based off of the last 50, 100 or "N" sales of that item, but it would be whatever the seller deems fit. If someone pays that they get it right away. That would be a bit more overhead, though, and so I don't see the devs implementing that any time soon. I can only assume the original design concept was to keep the coding as simple as possible while allowing things to go up and sell immediately by just setting the hidden min price and then it goes to whoever is willing to pay more than that. But this just hides so much information that for anything but the most popular items the prices fluctuate so wildly that you never know how much something will sell for from one day to the next.

I question the need for tough and weave, or anything from the fighting pool. As a controller if you are getting hit so much you need to take three powers and 4 slots to mitigate it just run a scrapper 8-] j/k But I have a post 50 ill/rad and I don't take much damage, unless I get careless. Are you using them as mules for some set bonuses? I am ignorant of many of the enhancement abbreviations and am too lazy to look them all up. When running solo I don't have any trouble with most elite bosses and AVs. Even if they are wearing those purple triangles of doom, I can usually wear them down with Deceive on a nearby min or LT then finish them off myself. I'm the first to admit my build it WAAAY sub-optimal. I still don't have perma PA, AM or Haste. They are close, but I don't find I need it. When PA is down I use Spectral Terror and deceive to tie up mobs. But then I am optimized for missions on +1x3, not +4x8. Is this build made to do that?