KaizenSoze

I have been discussing with a few people the problem of uncontrollable pets at high difficulties. Controlled pulling is important and it seems to me that pets that cannot be pulled back are a liability. Just a thought for the next patch. Maybe give all pets a return to owner button. What has been folks experience with non-Mastermind pets on relentless?

There is one circumstance I would pick Degenerative radial over core. Otherwise, it's core all the way. If you're using Soldier of Arachnos venom grenade which provides -40 toxic resists. So, it boosts the toxic dot nicely.

So, after lots of testing on the beta server. Unfortunately, solo as it's hard to get groups. My test routine goes like 4x8 DA "radios", 4x8 PI Radios, Oroboros Trapdoor mission, then 50x8 ASF first 2-3 mission. I tested Mind/Dark, Mind/Savage, Mind/Martial, but the winner is... Mind/Thorny/Psi... what!..did you give the wrong envelope again! No really, this was the best?!?! Let me try and explain and you all more experienced folks can tell me how insane I am. Mind is well awesome, the new sleep auto hit is amazing for stopping everything, even with the small AV nerf it got in the last build. Plant and Dark are better soloers, not arguing, but I have done relentless runs with other ATs. @Mezmera is accurate about how useful the amount of control Mind brings to ASF at that difficultly. Thorny Assault works best for my play style. You can fight at range or melee on the edge of the group with Terrify and Fling Thorns cones. So, it does not required jumping into the middle of the fight and back out like savage. Lots of utility to the group with -defense, it has massive amounts of -defense and -fly/jump to keep the mobs nearby. Also, Impale and Thorn Barrage proc really well. Thorn Barrage in particular procs extremely well for force feedback. The build is a bit wobbly on end in long fights, but domination comes back quickly because of the force feedback proc, so it's manageable.

More difficulty thoughts. Miss Liberty's TF: Banes get venom and frag grenade. Mu's get an end drain toggle. Spiders summon more spiders to aggro cap the tank/brute. Widows/Forunatas get mind link and shockwave.

A bit of bummer. I was enjoying sleeping the AV in the cauldron fight with mesmerize in one shot while I cleared the turrets. But I can see how that could be exploited. Still I love the sleep change, nothing like resetting a fight that got out of control with one Mass Hypnosis.

I have been thinking for fun what extra powers could be added to other TFs at the higher difficulties. Freakshow tanks have an EMP burst. Council vampires put a life drain toggle on their victims. Good use for controls to knock those toggles off. Sky raider bosses get full auto or a missile barrage.

Nah, recharge

Voltak from your video, you obviously figured out all the strategy for the Live TFs. I look forward to you trying out Doc Aeon's SF. It's been designed to minimize a number of the common tactics. Over level 51 some of the mobs run tactics which severely reduces the duration of confuse and fear. My Fortunata could not keep any confuse on key mobs due to tactics. Pretty much everything flies, so no avoiding melee. One of the reasons I wanted a melee durable build. It will be fun to see players adapt.

Thank you all for the feedback. I know the Mind Control is a touchy subject here. So, I am not trolling when I ask, with the new sleep changes has anyone tried Mind or Plant:Spore Burst. I have a grav/psi dom which I ran the new SF on beta for a few missions. Even with Spirit Ward if I left Singy unsupported he took quite a beating because of all the -resist. The benefit to Singy is the ease of locking down an EB with the extra controls. I am familiar with Dark Melee, not Assault, and the usefulness of LifeDrain. Drain Psyche is great, but I find it difficult to use well w/o the crutch of Wormhole. So, Dark Assault looks like the better choice for me. I am undecided between Plant and Dark. Has anyone run ASF at high difficult? What was your experience?

So, I have been checking out Dr. Aeon's Strike force on beta. The higher difficulties are well pretty difficult. I like to play hybrid ATs, VEATs primary, where you have a mix of ranged and melee. Pure ranged/melee builds bore me after awhile. I am looking for a durable combo that can live mostly in melee. Durable or control heavy enough to survive at +4 in most TFs. Examples, sapper builds, heavy control builds, debuff builds, others I haven't thought of.

A video is worth a thousand posts. A quick fight with one group of 54 Arachnos. No Tesla Cage Proc'ed out Dominate I am dropping World of Confusion next build, so I didn't use it Mu Guardian bosses are still very energy resistant, but the lts and minions go down pretty with no end Note, how little return fire I am taking Build is still work in progress. Need more binds.

To be clear I am talking my traps/elec defender experience, not blaster. If I can keep drain and -recovery on a target, which is much easier for a defender. Yes, they still attack, but much less frequently, don't use some of their expensive big hitters, and lose some defensive toggles. For example, I noticed that 54 Arachnos Mu mobs were dying surprisingly quickly to my energy attacks, even though they have high energy resists. Turns out most of the energy resist is from a toggle Lightning Armor. Also, I was fighting in close range with Fortunata Mistresses which fire a Psychic Wail nuke at low hp. They cannot fire it due to lack of end, it requires 28 end. I did a quick look at Blaster values and compared them with the slotting I am using on my defender. Short Circuit with a complete Power Transfer set. End drain, Blaster 59 vs defender 74. Thunder Strike with damage pieces only. End drain Blaster 55 vs 80. Also, also an 30% chance for more end drain 25 vs 33. Tesla Cage with end set 14 vs 17. Most mobs will be drained pretty quickly with those numbers. Plus, blasters can take a secondary that also helps with drain. End drain isn't go neuter mobs, but it does provide defensive advantages that are not immediately obvious.

More testing follow up. I find Tesla Cage still very optional. I swapped Tesla Cage for Psychic Mastery: Dominate. TS drains better as expected, but Dominate is so much better in terms of damage and twice the base hold duration. The constant barrage of single target attack was more than enough drain and shock against tough single targets. Short Circuit, Ball Lightning, and Thunderstrike were plenty of drain and -recovery for AOE. My suggestion would be raise the recharge of Tesla Cage, so it procs better. Right now, the Epic pool holds are better in terms of damage potential. TC with full procs, 325, dominate 462. About 30% more damage. Now, for a corruptor, blasters, or sentinel Tesla Cage might be more useful. Not seeing it for defenders due to their excellent end drain modifiers. Current build, Victory Rush is for teams. I didn't need it fighting 54 Arachnos, even with those damn Mu drains.

Side note, nice trick when soloing the ASF cauldron fight. Once, the turrets activate, placate the AV while taking out the turrets. The turrets are too widely spaced for an effective placate, but at least you don't have the AV shooting at you also. On topic, I have the AV just seem to forget about me when clearing turrets after a placate.

A little more elaboration from me might help. I have Short Circuit slotted with a Power Transfer set. That's nets you -74% end in Mids. Also, my traps/elec is a high recharge build. I always have a single target attack up. Between that and Voltaic Sentinel, there is plenty of -recovery. Once, I drop Tesla Cage next build. It will be obvious if I was underestimating Tesla Cage's benefits. I was testing this build against 54x8 PI radio mobs, Council and Arachnos. It wasn't fast, but as long as I didn't pull two groups of Arachnos. It was safe. I even could survive that most of the time. Yesterday's build:

Yes, I have seen exactly this behavior. Mobs lose aggro and just walk away or remain passive long after the placate timer has ended. I was doing the cauldron EB-AV fight in ASF. One of the EB just stood there even after I hit him 5-6 times. Still probably existing placate bugginess. Just more obvious with more targets.

Overall I am liking the changes. Except for one power, Tesla Cage. I have tried electrical blast defenders with storm, poison, and traps. Storm does lots of damage and the endurance return from electric blast helps a lot with the end issue. The issue with storm is between the tornado and lightning storm fear issues, zeroing out end triggers even more running. Mob just scatter at max speed. Poison just didn't gel. Oddly, I enjoyed traps the best. Since, you can hang out in point blank range the safest with traps. I was toe bombing mobs with poison trap and acid mortar after I zeroed out their end with short circuit. Caltrops gives you enough slow to get them grouped out for your AOEs. Scatter was a worse issue with my first build w/o caltrops. But Tesla Cage at least on a defender just isn't worth it. Defender have such effective end drain that the other attacks do enough. Tesla cage doesn't proc particularly well. Raising the recharge from 10 to 12+ sec would help it proc much better. The damage isn't worth enhancement, then chaining damage increase doesn't seem noticeable. The hold is just ok.

TT:Offensive. I like that %33 toHit resistance, but something had to give.

Experience from the beta server. The extra damage is nice, but the defensive power of the new placate is the special sauce. Getting swarmed, placate. Need to take an annoying mob of the fight. While you deal with the other annoying mob, placate. You get the picture.

I have definitely seen some buggy behavior with placate. It probably existed before the change. Just using the power more. I have placated a mob and started hitting him and it's like he's still placated. Just stands there. No extra crit damage, just no return attacks. I'll see if I can reproduce it consistently.

I wasn't seeing any better times on Trapdoor tests. I think the new placate will have some defensive utility. Being able to remove five targets attacking when you're getting overwhelmed should be helpful. @carroto Would be interesting to see what benefits most on Night Widows. Right now, I pair placate with Slash, since that is by far NW's strongest single target attack. But that doesn't follow the double animation guideline. Only NW AOEs are double the animation time on the new placate.

From the patch notes: Pandora's Box Completing the last mission of SSA2 Pandora's Box will trigger a Nemesis invasion in a zone matching the arc's alignment. SSA2 is Pandora's Box Episode 5 (Levels 40-50). Not Pandora's Box Episode 2 (Levels 35-50) The contacts are: Hero: Heldenjaeger (Located in Steel Canyon.) Villain: Inconspicuous Female 39757 (Located in Sharkhead Isle.) Complete the arc and a Nemesis zone events starts somewhere. I think it's worded very badly in the patch notes and have said so. If you find it confusing I suggest adding a comment here.

Still watching, but I see familiar faces from our run. <== Customer Service Rep The bio tanker is holding up pretty well.

I am sure this suggestion will be greeted with boos and hisses. Devs, when you get around to adding these modes to the ITF. Make sure and add plenty of -fly at max difficultly. One of the main reasons that people can solo it is the relatively weak ranged attacks. That isn't the only reason, but it helps a lot. This from someone who mostly plays VEATs which get shredded in melee on ITFs. But a flying Fortunata can solo it.

On a humorous note, given the incredible ingenuity of player base. What is the betting line on how long it take before someone solos relentless mode? I say three months, then twelve months after that someone will post their emp defender soloing it. 😛