I did a terrible thing

[Ico]

Blasters being my favorite AT, I make a lot of them. One of the ones I play lot is fire/devices. Total glass cannon, but he one-shots yellow LTs so things melt pretty quickly, and he's good with AVs and giant monsters since he's a huge accuracy bonus to go with the damage. 

 

I found myself waiting for a buddy and decided to solo a couple PI radios while I waited. I had it set to +2/8, and the only way to really stay alive was to thin the herd by stacking a couple trip mines around a corner or something and pull. Bunch them up and then AoE them all the rest of the way down, standard fire blaster stuff.

 

After that, I got to thinking. I had a respec, and If Trip Mine had a little more slotting love, with the recent changes removing the interrupt it might actually be viable to use as a kind of mini-nuke in a group when Inferno isn't up. And maybe I'd only need one on a corner when I'm solo. That'd be nice. I decided that if I'm going to go, I'm going big.

 

I 6-slotted Trip Mine. With purples. And then I boosted each one to +5.

 

It is absolutely friggin' hilarious. NPCs go flying. Minions dead. LTs over halfway dead. And I'm up with a new one about every 15 seconds, so I'm laying mines like I'm paid to do it. I've got Assault Hybrid to T4, so that's helping out too. 

 

I get Armageddon's set bonuses, which was the only other way to get more of the ultimate recharge. The 15% accuracy is just silly since I'm at like 150% +acc bonus.  I suppose anything laying a -tohit on me has their work cut out for them, but the 95% tohit cap is a thing no matter what. But I hit purple NPCs as much as greens, so I'm happy there.  The mez protection has been absolutely wonderful. I used to get mezzed regularly. Now it's way more manageable.

 

So if Inferno is on cooldown, the procedure is to target a boss or LT like normal, run in and plop a mine down, hit Fire Ball once I'm standing up again, jump back for Fire Breath, then snipe anything still standing. It's a little slower than an actual nuke due to the animation time, but the mine goes off right when it's laid down. It actually is a fairly viable mini-nuke.

 

Anyway, it was a wasteful and frivolous thing to do, but I'm loving it. I'm always jumping into the mobs now since Trip Mine is up every 15 seconds, where before I'd always hang back unless Inferno was up. Anyone coming around in melee distance gets a mine. I'm running over to AVs and dropping mines all the time. I'm a primary blapper now I guess? 

 

 

[KaizenSoze]

I like it. I look forward to hearing about your tinkering trip mine.

 

Now, try this with time bomb. 🙂

[Heraclea]

I really hope Homecoming runs the Halloween event.  Trip mines make it much more fun. 

[Ico]

22 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

I like it. I look forward to hearing about your tinkering trip mine.

 

Now, try this with time bomb. 🙂

 

I didn't take Time Bomb as it was more than useless before the newest changes. But I may look into it!

[Ico]

12 minutes ago, Heraclea said:

I really hope Homecoming runs the Halloween event.  Trip mines make it much more fun. 

I totally forgot about that!  My main on live was a /dev blaster and I loved laying "treats" on their doorsteps...

[DocRadio]

Nothing that provides you with entertainment in a game is wasteful. I mean... it's kind of the point right?

[Ico]

10 minutes ago, DocRadio said:

Nothing that provides you with entertainment in a game is wasteful. I mean... it's kind of the point right?

Oh certainly not. I didn't mean to imply that necessarily But I know some blasters don't even take Trip Mine, much less slot it, much less 6-slot with $180 million in purples and boosters in order to make a nuke out of it. So I imagined there'd be some that say I'm gimping my build or not living up to it's best damage potential or I could have had Combat Jump for more survivability whatever.

 

Now that I think about it, what I did is actually the only way that this idea isn't wasteful. Using up five slots and then putting in regular IOs or something in it would actually be a waste since it really wouldn't have enough bonus to make much difference. But with the purples and set bonuses and Incarnate stuff, it actually works!

 

[DocRadio]

10 hours ago, Ico said:

Oh certainly not. I didn't mean to imply that necessarily But I know some blasters don't even take Trip Mine, much less slot it, much less 6-slot with $180 million in purples and boosters in order to make a nuke out of it. So I imagined there'd be some that say I'm gimping my build or not living up to it's best damage potential or I could have had Combat Jump for more survivability whatever.

 

Now that I think about it, what I did is actually the only way that this idea isn't wasteful. Using up five slots and then putting in regular IOs or something in it would actually be a waste since it really wouldn't have enough bonus to make much difference. But with the purples and set bonuses and Incarnate stuff, it actually works!

 

I have every intention of acquiring trip mine and using it. It has way too much LOL potential to pass up. Besides I'm using beam rifle with it. A good set but not exactly AOE heavy.

[Sakai]

I was under the impression that boosting purples gave you no advantage. Am o wrong?

[Apparition]

4 minutes ago, Sakai said:

I was under the impression that boosting purples gave you no advantage. Am o wrong?

 

Catalyzing purples gives you no advantage.  You definitely want to boost them. 

[KaizenSoze]

Trip mines and caltrops are great on Behavioral Adjustment Facility TF. Great for stopping runners.

[Shoulung]

You’re halfway to the old school toe bombing with this; lay smoke, put three trip mines down, caltrops to get them all nice and bunched up for the mines, then jump back and fireball to get their attention.

[KaizenSoze]

4 minutes ago, Shoulung said:

You’re halfway to the old school toe bombing with this; lay smoke, put three trip mines down, caltrops to get them all nice and bunched up for the mines, then jump back and fireball to get their attention.

Oh god, I remember toe bombing. I did not play a blaster back then, but all the half death mob groups everywhere was annoying.

 

To explain, back in the old days after a heavy blaster nerf. The blasters invented toe bombing especially for street mobs, back when that was good exp. This was in the first 2-3 years of the game.

 

I probably got some of that wrong. Been awhile.

[Ico]

4 hours ago, Sakai said:

I was under the impression that boosting purples gave you no advantage. Am o wrong?

 

Boosting purples gives you A LOT of advantage. Boosting a purple damage IO to +5 improves the bonus from 53% to 66.25%. With ED, you want as much bonus as possible.

[Sakai]

Hmmm. Good to know. 

 

So if I boost my Purples it doesnt affect their usage when I exempt?

[KaizenSoze]

Admitting ignorance. What do you folks mean by boosting? I know about catalysis and ATOs, but this sounds like something else.

 

Never mind, I found it, learning something everyday about the game.

 

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Enhancement_Booster_Salvage

Edited September 20, 2019 by KaizenSoze

[HelenCarnate]

19 hours ago, Sakai said:

Hmmm. Good to know. 

 

So if I boost my Purples it doesnt affect their usage when I exempt?

The set bonus stays no matter what on purple sets. If you boost them the boost also applies when you exemp down. You will still have lower enhancement values as you get lower in level but they will be slightly higher vs a non boosted set.

Edited September 20, 2019 by HelenCarnate

[Bloodofcaine]

On 9/19/2019 at 10:25 AM, KaizenSoze said:

Oh god, I remember toe bombing. I did not play a blaster back then, but all the half death mob groups everywhere was annoying.

 

To explain, back in the old days after a heavy blaster nerf. The blasters invented toe bombing especially for street mobs, back when that was good exp. This was in the first 2-3 years of the game.

 

I probably got some of that wrong. Been awhile.

 

 No aggro/target caps either in the early days, it was indeed glorious. Not to mention energy melee wasn't hot garbage.

[GetRidOfWires]

52 minutes ago, Bloodofcaine said:

 

 No aggro/target caps either in the early days, it was indeed glorious. Not to mention energy melee wasn't hot garbage.

Fill a dumpster with Trip Mines while the tank herded what looked like a small city’s worth of bad guys!

[SlimPickens]

im really liking the new trip mine. I slotted the overwhelming force kb-kd IO in it on top of a 5 pc Armageddon, and its a very handy little toe bomb that acts as a pbaoe cast since theres no more interrupt to worry about.

 

This was a very positive change to the /dev set and was probably the most impactful overall on how the set plays in combat now.

[Herotu]

On 9/19/2019 at 7:04 PM, Ico said:

 

Boosting purples gives you A LOT of advantage. Boosting a purple damage IO to +5 improves the bonus from 53% to 66.25%. With ED, you want as much bonus as possible.

Wha?!! I really dislike these not-secret secrets -this info should be in-your-face in-game, imho.

 

I need to go and get more hyphens....

[dmaker]

On 9/20/2019 at 11:57 AM, HelenCarnate said:

The set bonus stays no matter what on purple sets. If you boost them the boost also applies when you exemp down. You will still have lower enhancement values as you get lower in level but they will be slightly higher vs a non boosted set.

I confess that I'm a bit confused. When you say purple sets, this does not include things like Armaggedon, Ragnarok, or Superior X...? I picked up 5 boosters and the only things I seem able to boost are generic level 50 IO's such as Recharge (usually have two on Hasten).When I select a power that is slotted with a purple set, all the enhancements are greyed out and cannot be selected for boosting...

 

 

[HelenCarnate]

41 minutes ago, dmaker said:

I confess that I'm a bit confused. When you say purple sets, this does not include things like Armaggedon, Ragnarok, or Superior X...? I picked up 5 boosters and the only things I seem able to boost are generic level 50 IO's such as Recharge (usually have two on Hasten).When I select a power that is slotted with a purple set, all the enhancements are greyed out and cannot be selected for boosting...

 

 

Sounds like you purchased attuned purples and not regular crafted purples.  Regular crafted purples, including the ones you listed can be boosted, but if they are attuned they cannot.

[the mauler]

gosh - this is problematic. I feel another attack of altitis coming on...

[dmaker]

Thanks for the clarification. I thought attuned were needed for the set benefits while exemplaring? If not, why buy attuned if I'm missing out on more than 10% of efficacy?