Mezmera

I want a fresh Hard Mode task force in Praetoria that doesn't need to be super long along the lines of a combined Apex/Tin. It's such a shame those zones are going to waste and what better way to entice people over there than something like this. They'd need to get some of those zones oro accessible though.

Whatever gets you through the day. I'll leave you to your assumptions so we can get this a smidge back to topic.

He says it himself: Some groups have learned to obliterate these groups of minions without bringing along any dedicated healers. A better build would allow for someone to not have to spend time on the ground or watching their health bar and thus can do more pew pewing which in turn sounds much more fun.

Some people quit things because its too hard. Others power through and get better. All of that is perfectly fine. But lets call a spade a spade. Being down on content because its too hard for some and yet others can adapt is more reflective on the ones stuck in the mud. I'm glad there's other content @Excraft can enjoy where it doesn't feel so tedious getting hurt so much, I say bring me more minions!

Straight from the horses mouth.

Ah there it is! The bullies beat you up. Feeling "super" is knowing how capable these minions now are and being able to shrug them off without needing your healer. Maybe if you got a bit better and built your character wiser you'd find it less boring dieing so much...

Dang then the rest of the content must put you into a coma.

Well this is a player run game which after its return the novelty and nostalgia wore off long ago, you're not going to go picking up tons of new players like a new age game would. They don't have the resources to add oodles of content constantly like a studio would be capable of. But that they do have the ability and wherewithal to craft new content like what they are doing will help to sustain this. Heck most any returning players don't even know about the Aeon TF. The new harder content is much less mundane than a 10 minute LRSF which that last fight used to cause people to pause and wait for the team which is now what teams do on Relentless runs. The biggest problem is there's no unique or special rewards you can't gain by just running other much faster tfs, aside from the D-Sync and still you can get that from the minimum runs. It has been almost a year since the last update so when the novelty wore off the most glaring thing that stands out is the reward structure is lacking. There's little incentive for anyone to come out of their shell which is sad because this is quality stuff they're giving us.

Uh the Going Rogue expansion was supposed to be the addition of harder endgame things to do now that you had a crazy decked out incarnated character. Some people like 100's of alts and some like a good workout on their favorite characters. New content is new stuff everyone can enjoy no matter if you want to categorize it as "endgame" or not. If the game stayed stagnant where it was all you'll have is an eventual withering away of people tired of the same mundane content you can only run so much before you venture off to other activities. The vast majority of content is lower level not all too hard to accomplish plug and play entertainment. A lot of us have supported the game through Going Rogue which is yet a 3rd tutorial zone all in the hopes of getting some extra things to do at the end of your favorite characters life, all for one and one for all kinda jazz. To say that it's a "very small group" of people that wanted harder endgame content is insulting, we've just kept quiet while the rest get their 100th power selection they can run through the 1000th Council Radio.

Oh no worries. Between the long wait on a new update and finding other things to do I don't find myself on as much except on the weekend. It just takes a few people to get the ball rolling and taking over once it becomes more commonplace to want to do so. At first most itrials that were run were just a BAF now you have experienced leaders running all kinds of itrials.

Overall yeah this. The effort it takes to organize one of these should be recognized regardless if its an 8 player ready made team or something that takes 30 mins of broadcasting for. It's why Apex/Tin Mage is so well received, not a huge time commitment with great rewards so it's always easy to get a quick team built even if broadcasting solely through LFG.

This is what I did lots on Excelsior back in the first months this was active, less so lately due to some burnout/anticipation of new stuff. Don't go stereotyping people just because this might not have been your cup of tea originally and didn't notice people posting in LFG on Excelsior. When I was frequently making these teams if I was making specific Relentless runs to start I'd ask in a few highly populated chat channels first since I know most of those people have very capable characters to bring, usually I'll get 5 or so of us from these channels and then if its taking too long to organize I will open the floor to fill in the rest of the team from LFG which usually goes well enough. The players I get from LFG have either never run it or ran it only once and had a bad experience which I'll reassure them they have an experienced team this time. There's only been one time organizing one of these myself that we didn't complete it nor did I want to and that is due in part to the quality of player you're rolling the dice on getting from the LFG channel as opposed to mostly people you are familiar with. One Debbie Downer can ruin the whole mood of the team, even when the run is going well, just because they can't pay attention to chat and keep getting insta-killed by the explosion and for some reason wants to perpetuate some bad mojo for the rest of the team to enjoy. So it IS a double edged sword organizing most of the team strictly through LFG rather than specific chat channels, at least the Debbie Downers you'll get from the chat channels you will know and can give them snark if they try to ruin the mood of the rest of the team.

A poll here is an okay sampler but it'd be good to paste that poll elsewheres as well particularly where all of the kids hang out. It's funny, half of the comments here are, to quote the great Sgt. Murtaugh, "I'm too old for this sh*t", and all they like to do is solo. Like okay that's great this game has such vast resources that you never need to team or socialize beyond the forums but this game has some of the best teaming mechanics and that is the intent being a MMO and all which is what these Hard Mode task forces are designed to give more emphasis towards.

They are capable of reaching high resists except for psi per usual by taking all the powers in the set. In place of Unyielding you're getting access to some pretty decent elemental defenses which you can then build on. You can also build in some real nice melee defenses with all of those resist powers and 4 set Unbreakable Guards. You're also getting a nice heal and some endurance resistance. Built right Invuln is a stellar armor on Stalkers. You can build in high melee and elemental defenses, have a heal and some endurance resistance. I see this as good as EA on Stalkers but better because all of the extra high resistances Invuln is capable of at the expense of DDR and the endurance drain.

Agree on all of this. Energy Melee is nasty on everything including Stalkers just dedicate yourself to killing the biggest thing in the area. Electric Melee is nice too because you get one big ST attack that feels like its normally lacking on other ATs. Street Justice is great as well and was the top tier ST king until EM's revamp, which it still has a it better aoe potential. Invulnerability is my favorite armor on Stalkers and I'm not even an Invuln homer. There's just a lot of great all around building you can do with it on Stalkers. It's just so very tanky. I have a bunch of Stalkers and my favorite is my EM/Invuln. You can't go wrong with StJ or Elec melee though. As for armors there's also a few good ones, I like Ice for some unique stuff it can do and its pretty strong all around. You'll want an armor with a potential for high defenses so that you get better use out of scrapping through hidden status for crits and such. Stalkers are one of my favorite ATs and it's mostly how much it has transformed since the end of live to what it is now. I am a villain homer though.

I think if there were a bit more Hard Mode content available that would familiarize people with it more beyond just the Aeon and now the ITF I'd think it would be run a bit more. I get these are actually hard and make teams pause to consider team composition but that's not a bad thing as opposed to running 8 fiya blastas through all of the current content. I like these quite a bit and do my part to organize them when I can. I have no problem with carrying a PuG through one of these, that's why I tinkered with my dom and tank so that I could get teams through this as the point. I'll be sure and not push what I'd like to do with what the PuG that has been built could realistically accomplish so I organize an Aeon at the medium difficulty with the caveat that it could be a Relentless run if we have a team dedicated for it. Another thing I'd like to see is rewards for doing these things to be commensurate with running an Apex/Tin Mage which at worst is a 30 min commitment for 80 merits. And it doesn't need to be just merits, I'd like to see unique costume pieces available for unlock for running these things, especially once they get more Hard Mode content available. Some of those D-Syncs are quite nice though but you can get those at the minimum risk run.

Maybe the Reverberant didn't take too kindly to you telling it to roll over prior. It's likely showing you who the real pet is...

My Mind dom would beg to differ.

I'd say a Regen scrapper would be the best to bring on this. Not only will you net the team constant Vengeance but any Regen doppelgangers that the Hostless hijack will be an easy kill.

It is not. All of those attacks already recharge real fast. Of the best attacks you'll be using you can slot it in Power Burst and Snipe but with Total Focus netting you a big damage bonus with Power Burst you'll have it set to recharge fast to combo with TF. I have the Force Feedback proc in my Snipe only since it has the most optimal recharge for consistent firing. With it in Snipe I averaged it out to be about a 20-35% recharge boost over a minutes time as long as I'm constantly attacking as opposed to that 7.5% constant recharge the Manticore set nets me. Sometimes it fires quite often and sometimes barely fires but on the low end at 20% it still maths out to be better than that 7.5%.

I appreciate there's the ability to be able to build for perma dom without Hasten because it's too hard to watch for an ATs all important ability to show up to activate again. So for the casual players that can't adapt to this I'm glad perma is achieveable without Hasten. On that same token doms are and have always been a race car not suited to the play style of every person that plays this, which is perfectly fine since there's tons of alternatives. You can build a dom for a Sunday stroll or to be the meanest thing on the track. That's the best thing about this AT.

I have not nor have I ever been tempted to. There's far too much you must sacrifice to chase solely recharge that it really ends up gimping your potential. Doms are the most slot starved and bonus hungry creatures already. Hasten just offers too much efficiency in one power, in essence you're getting the value of 7 purple sets of 5 slots (not including other bonuses you'd get). Yes it's doable but the sweet spot is a well built dom with Hasten.

Ah well yeah scrapper of course, can't reach high DDR values on that thing. Might wanna look into the melee hybrid and ageless for a shield scrapper. And put more stank on that Shield Charge.

What are you on about now? You must not be taking the right powers if your Shield tank is weak on this. Take all the powers in Shield, don't just take Shield Charge, and get some bonuses. In fact just delete your Shield tank right nao, bad enough I have to share Mind doms with you.

Maybe they can format it so that every other letter is capitalized and lowercase for league chat. That would look awful peculiar, it'd be hard for people to not see that type...