Nyghtmaire

Less cheating for “in-person” chess. Computer chess, cheating is easily available to the wickedly minded. For in-person, you need an earpiece or (allegedly) an insertable. I guess that’s still fun should interests align…

Serious question after reading this thread (as well as the various market related threads here in General): it seems that the view is that there is no good time to buy a Winter Pack without the sale. Is this accurate? I don’t see the costs of various Winter IOs 25m+ yet. Is the consensus that Winter Packs are not useful for marketeering at this time at the current price? Rather, only valuable to the individual player for an IO and some assorted ephemera AND a more general antagonism to marketing.

That’s excellent! Improved mercs is almost as surprising as the game coming back in the first place.

I’m digging (a grave?) for how celebratory this thread has become. Right on!

And friends don’t let friends go SOUL.

Dark Affinity is most baller on a controller and goes with about every primary, making the build a tank with endless recovery with a recharge build. For Corruptors, both Fire and water would be great. Fire exploits the damage potential of Tar Patch (pull with Darkest Night into Tar Patch, give ‘em a Rain of Fire and all the other AOES); Water builds even more control with Dark’s debuffs. Psi can stack stuns with Dark (especially if you pick up Oppressive Gloom), with the caveat of the challenges with psi resistant mobs. Love my Ice but wouldn’t sleep on the new Sonic (some more stunning, extra -res, similar but more cones as Dark primary for Corruptor). Basically, all the -hit is a great blanket of safety. Tar Patch and DN moves the mobs around to where you want them. And you can heal yourself when things get crazy. All the tools, all the time and no bad choices (except Black Hole… ugh)

City of Data (for Homecoming) is a wealth of happiness for this. Your sense is correct re Howling Twilight. It is a -500% regen debuff for 30 seconds, a big stun, takes damage sets, and a slow. Hard (as, almost impossible) to perma but can get close. In addition to the above, it also rezs every dead teammate - awesome but least commonly useful effect. It fits well with Oppressive Gloom (stun), Twilight Grasp (regen), and Tar Patch (slow - which honestly needs no help there). The rez is cool in that it’s a full health and endurance bar (best place I’ve ever rezzed is in the bowl during an MSR when the initial drop gets fuzzy). Otherwise, use it often. Wish it had a quicker activation time. Tar Patch is great - easily every every spawn with-22.5% resistance. Also fairly easy to cap run speed reduction. I prefer Dark to Cold for style. And Dark Servant - which does any number of amazing things. Reverberant wishes it could be as cool Dark Servant. A Xxx/Dark Corruptor is mad safe for soloing red side. It was great on Live and even better on Homecoming. Dooooo Iiiittttt! Edit - I have an Ice/Dark at 50 and a Dark/Dark (leveling). Both play light a slow, rolling cloud a cold death solo. On teams, usually time for one debuff then it’s blast city.

I have procs in Gloom on my current build, but will be respeccing soon to change it. Just not worth the slot investment. My Necro/Dark is slowly going recharge > recovery/End > HP >>> ranged defense.

I’m far away from my system with Mids/builds. That said, welcome back! Recommend that the key to a solid Necro/dark build is recharge: enough to get Soul Extraction as close to perma as possible as well as have Tar Patch and Howling Twilight up as much as possible. At least 80% global + hasten is a good initial target, but more is really better. Second step is to get all 6 pet uniques slotted. I agree with @bellona100 re defense. To that, Personal defenses don’t need more than mid-20s with all the -ToHit. It’s certainly not worth building to soft cap. The new Soul Extraction makes Necro a ridiculous damage powerhouse IF you can keep your pets alive. Here is a link to the new changes. And there are a bunch. Also, check out @Force Redux’s Dark Miasma guide, stickied at top, for a recap of the secondary powers. This was not affected by the patch. Minimal slotting for any 2 of the 3 personal attacks (I skip Life Drain bc Twilight Grasp is a more useful heal for self AND pets that also reduces regen). For the attacks, they proc poorly - low chance - and cost too much endurance. Purpose is to summon your taunt ghosts. Keep ‘em up and move on to other controls/debuffs, and moving your pets to selected targets. For incarnates, either Alpha: Musculature or Intuition radial (for damage - good for pets, the -ToHit, and either immobilize or holds depending on what you took in your patron/ancillary). Barrier let’s your pets go totally 28 Days Later, but Clarion can be very helpful in some circumstances. Any damage proc for interactive - degenerative if big game hunting, reactive otherwise. If you’re stressing the debuff aspect, it sometimes can be nice to have diamagnetic for -ToHit) or paralytic (-dam) as options. Hybrid - Support rules, but Control radial ( only if you took an immobilize - and if so, may as well take reactive spectral as well) makes you a black cloud of control effects between you, that Lich, and the Dark Servant. Basically, fear + immobilize = stun. Sweet! Speaking of patron/ancillary selections, Soul rocks. Bonfire abuse is always fun, no lie. But I keep coming back to Soul for how much it builds on all the things your secondary, Lich, and Dark Servant already do. Howling Twilight with Oppressive Gloom is a thing of beauty. This + control hybrid procs and you’re stunning EBs. Mace/Ice isn’t worth the shield. MMs have the highest functional resistance of any AT because of bodyguard. With capped resistances (75%) and max BG mode (6 pets all on defensive), a MM has an effective resistance of 95.75% - greater than either a tank or brute. Some mid-level defenses, lots of -ToHit, and Twilight Grasp firing every power activation, you’re essentially immortal in almost all areas of the game. Between your pets (including Dark Servant) and your own powers, you can stack -ToHit up above -150 on even level mobs in 5-6 seconds. That’s quite a little more than anyone needs. Quiet shout-out to Mu for the energy resists in the shield (layers with Shadowfall) and a targeted immobilize. The -end does nothing impressive with the primary or secondary though. Again, welcome back and have fun!

This thread is getting too hot for me…

“Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus” - The Killers

Influence only has relative value in relation what it can get you. In @Ukase’s blaster ATO example, the value of influence is significantly less than on Homecoming, albeit with the caveat of (presumably) increasing the difficulty of acquiring IOs for any planned build. Suspicion: the value of merits increases with the ability to purchase desired recipes (with the assumption that merits are similarly easy to come by). Regardless, influence quickly becomes meaningless when a player can acquire whatever is needed for a specific character without significant effort. Anything above that is for the joy of the meta game - and big number is better than little numbers. Caveat 1 - I don’t play on Thunderspy. Caveat 2 - Stuck on Amtrak with only whiskey for food. Caveat 3 - Thanks to @Yomo Kimyata, I’ve amassed another half a billion since @Snarky started this thread.

@StrikerFox has the goods.

@Six-Six I thought the Analyze Weakness proc was for +hit, not the negative. Was this changed? https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Analyze_Weakness:_Chance_for_%2BTo_Hit Otherwise, I agree strongly with prioritizing accuracy slotting pets as well as the efficacy of Aid Other for FF while leveling. Also, have you tried Spirit Ward as an alternative ever?

I’ve really enjoyed going through this thread. But the quoted part is the best. My inner 10 year-old is in heaven!

I'm all for players having a wide and deep toolkit that provides ownership and agency over their idea of “fun” in this game. And finding like-minded participants is part of that toolkit. Intensely opposed to pushing the “fun” responsibility onto volunteer developers (with attendant increase in operating costs and time) as well as other players who do not share in that outlook.

This thread spawned a hardmode boss (obviously regen): I don’t think my current slotting can handle this encounter…

Powers are *nice* but slots are divine! Slots are like getting socks for Christmas, but finding them stuffed with little bottles of whiskey.

@Krimson I appreciate the detailed response. My character has done his time in the farms, and currently has a S/L res and S/L/M capped build. I guess this is more a check to make sure I’m not missing anything before I respec for the (for me at least) new issue. Can’t say I have much of any interest into going back to AE. And like the idea of dropping down to 32.5; remember doing that back on Live with my Claws/Dark. Very sturdy.

Interested players would surely be attracted to a SG with those sort of parameters.

Most solid drummer ever. Like a metronome.

@Uun Scorpion Shield and Power Boost always a good choice. For Bots, another option is to rely on the Protector Bot shield - the mastermind gets one application. Slotted Protector Bot shield: ~ 18% Slotted maneuvers: ~4% Slotted Farsight: ~ 13% Def Uniques for MM: 6% Thats 41% across the board right there, the remaining defense to get across the threshold for regular softcap can be made up by Combat Jumping/Hover/Weave or set bonuses. For the bots, the protector bots will be at 45% if both pet defense uniques are slotted. The Tier 1 and 3 bots will be around 57% since they get both protector bot shields. With Tough and a patron resistance shield, the mm can have at or near capped resistances, at least to S/L. Couple ways to skin this cat, depending on overall build goals.

You’re too scary. Maybe you need a “Hi! I’m totally a friendly, caring person” disguise in one of your costume slots.

This is some philosophy stuff here. (Goes to character created to make a dark/temp blaster named “Philosomancer”…)

I’m trying to wrap my head around the fire armor changes (Burn changes, RotP, native bit of KB protection and some regen, etc…) - all of which look good or at least interesting. But my brain is twisted and close to shutting down from overload. Maybe the holiday season, new job, new kid, long COVID - wtf any/all of the above? Is there a developing consensus as to build priorities for a GENERAL (not farm) fire armor build? I’m running claws/fire. Don’t need a build. Question I’m guessing priority order would be: a. Close to capped Resistance, at least for S/L; energy as high as achievable. b. -recharge resistance. c. HP d. Recharge (not too many critical core, long-click powers - basically healing flames, spin and burn) As always forumites, many thanks.