Malta

[Call Me Awesome]

3 hours ago, TyrantMikey said:

That's interesting. For something that's in the game since launch, I've never heard or read anyone mention it as "strategy" before.

Well, the zombies tend to be dangerous and they're easy to kill.  Thanks to that they tend to die before the other mobs.  Also, Vahz missions tend to be avoided by most of the players with the exception of the Positron TF.

[boggo2300]

26 minutes ago, Call Me Awesome said:

Well, the zombies tend to be dangerous and they're easy to kill.  Thanks to that they tend to die before the other mobs.  Also, Vahz missions tend to be avoided by most of the players with the exception of the Positron TF.

They are?  I never avoid them, it's not like they're difficult or anything

[Call Me Awesome]

2 hours ago, boggo2300 said:

They are?  I never avoid them, it's not like they're difficult or anything

Many characters have difficulty with Vahz; they're hard for many low level characters to handle before their builds start to mature.

[boggo2300]

2 minutes ago, Call Me Awesome said:

Many characters have difficulty with Vahz; they're hard for many low level characters to handle before their builds start to mature.

Honestly, I find Clocks more challenging at baby levels

[Lazarillo]

Okay, so since this topic is branching out a bit, I'd love to know folks' takes on fighting Nemesis.  I love them as a story faction, but find them soooooooooo tedious to fight on all my characters.

You've got LTs stacking Vengeance on each other ad infinitum unless you pull each mob far from every other mob on the map for massive Defense and ToHit, snipers drawing extra groups' worth of aggro while they're out of range of anything you can do to them, and Fakes doing their whole "untouchable" thing unless they're under heavy control (and I mean heavy, since their inherent force fields when active increases their protection too).

 

Is there anything that doesn't make those guys a chore to fight, short of scaling the difficulty back to x1?

[boggo2300]

12 minutes ago, Lazarillo said:

Okay, so since this topic is branching out a bit, I'd love to know folks' takes on fighting Nemesis.  I love them as a story faction, but find them soooooooooo tedious to fight on all my characters.

You've got LTs stacking Vengeance on each other ad infinitum unless you pull each mob far from every other mob on the map for massive Defense and ToHit, snipers drawing extra groups' worth of aggro while they're out of range of anything you can do to them, and Fakes doing their whole "untouchable" thing unless they're under heavy control (and I mean heavy, since their inherent force fields when active increases their protection too).

 

Is there anything that doesn't make those guys a chore to fight, short of scaling the difficulty back to x1?

Really only Fakes in numbers and Warhulks really give me issues with Nem, however my main is a max range ar sniper, so I have the advantage of death beyond detection range 😄

[Lazarillo]

3 minutes ago, boggo2300 said:

Really only Fakes in numbers and Warhulks really give me issues with Nem, however my main is a max range ar sniper, so I have the advantage of death beyond detection range

Honestly, it's the LTs that are the biggest pains to me.  Get more than one triggering Vengeance, and congratulations, you're going to be whiffing for the next however many minutes Nemesis Vengeance lasts.  And woe be unto ye if you didn't move the mobs apart...

[boggo2300]

1 minute ago, Lazarillo said:

Honestly, it's the LTs that are the biggest pains to me.  Get more than one triggering Vengeance, and congratulations, you're going to be whiffing for the next however many minutes Nemesis Vengeance lasts.  And woe be unto ye if you didn't move the mobs apart...

Pop em one at a time from beyond their detection range, very satisfying (I one shot them, unless vengeance, then it's usually 3-4 depending on numbers) of course if they have a sniper it's a little bit of a pain positionally because the detection range bump from the sniper

[KC4800]

As a melee person, I gather them all around me and pop all the minions first, then LT I whittle down to sliver of life (if there's more than one, switch targets) then one punch as fast as possible the louies before vengence has a chance to affect my to hit.

War Hulks and Fakes are not as bad as say, a Paragon Protector Boss that goes unstoppable. 

as a melee, if there is a sniper I get away from the team, head over to it and kill him first.

[drdread]

12 hours ago, boggo2300 said:

Honestly, I find Clocks more challenging at baby levels

Between levels 1-12 tanks, scrappers, brutes, and sentinels have mostly resistance to lethal and smashing damage. Vahz zombies do toxic damage with their puke, reapers and mortificators do negative damage with their blades. Clockwork switch between punches (Smashing) and electrical blasts (energy). Meanwhile, skulls and hellions still do lethal and smashing (except their bosses). 

 

The difference in damage types is usually why some groups seem tougher than other at low levels.

[Heraclea]

The /electric brute who laughs at Sappers and Carnies struggles with Nemesis snipers, Vahz at lower levels, and even large numbers of Rikti monkeys.  Toxic hole is worse than psi hole, in that while Toxic is rather rare, mobs that have it tend to stack it. 

 

But the most annoying mobs in the game to me are Dark Astoria Tsoos.  These are the new Knives of Artemis.  You clear the group guarding the objective, but then you have to Bo Derek run to click it. 

[Call Me Awesome]

15 hours ago, Lazarillo said:

Okay, so since this topic is branching out a bit, I'd love to know folks' takes on fighting Nemesis.  I love them as a story faction, but find them soooooooooo tedious to fight on all my characters.

You've got LTs stacking Vengeance on each other ad infinitum unless you pull each mob far from every other mob on the map for massive Defense and ToHit, snipers drawing extra groups' worth of aggro while they're out of range of anything you can do to them, and Fakes doing their whole "untouchable" thing unless they're under heavy control (and I mean heavy, since their inherent force fields when active increases their protection too).

 

Is there anything that doesn't make those guys a chore to fight, short of scaling the difficulty back to x1?

Depending on your character there's different methods.  My general purpose strategy is to kill Minions, then Bosses, then LT's.  If I have massive AOE's then just drop everything ASAP.  The Vengeance is a PITA; if you can't drop everything else first then yellows are your friend to put them down.

 

My Fire/EM blaster never has much trouble with them, I'm soft capped to Ranged, have lots of nice AOE damage and I'm still built for the old Fast Snipe with a base 97% to hit.  It takes more than 2 or 3 vengeance buffs to move me off of capped 95% to hit on +2-3 mobs.  Since I'm level shifted Incarnate I never face +4.

 

Nemesis are tough, but by the time you face them your build should be mature and able to handle them.

[HeidiMarquedt]

On 12/25/2019 at 9:00 PM, SaintD said:

Honestly, knowing which enemy mobs are most dangerous and killing them first is Gaming 101 and you should have been doing it since level 1.

 

Gang Choppers can hit annoyingly hard, Buckshot have damage so low they should be entirely ignored until last.

 

Vahzilok Mortifactors have to die first so they can't resurrect their Cadavers. Catch 22, the Cadavers are OP at low levels and will kill you like a child while the Mortifactors are tanking for them.

 

Council Marksmen always die first, their DPS gets ridiculous if you let the rest of the squad tank for them.

 

Sky Raider Engineers can eat shit, if any of us never see one of their stupid shield robots again it'll be too soon.

 

Circle of Thorns Spectral Daemon Lords can feck off almost as much as Tsoo Sorcerers with all the -tohit bullshit.

 

Arachnos Fortunatas, Tac-ops, and Huntsmen exist only to make the entire mission boring with -recharge.

 

If you're not properly prioritizing targets by the time you're fighting Malta, you need to go back and re-learn how to play the game. When you get back you'll realise that Sappers aren't a problem at all; Gunslingers are. Sappers eat your alpha, so Gunslingers get to stand up long enough to use their huge damage.

Thanks for the input.  But thankfully I have learned how to prioritize targets within mobs, including the Sappers or other primary threats within different types of foes.  My question was is there anything specific one could include in their build to resist the endo drainage that can be the thorn in the side when it comes to fighting Malta.  But if I'm reading the replies correctly, and forgive me as I may be just a simple minded gal after all, but there is no power selection that makes you immune to the endo drainage.  And I must confess I never received my certificate from Gaming 101 so I might not even belong here.... 

[boggo2300]

13 minutes ago, HeidiMarquedt said:

Thanks for the input.  But thankfully I have learned how to prioritize targets within mobs, including the Sappers or other primary threats within different types of foes.  My question was is there anything specific one could include in their build to resist the endo drainage that can be the thorn in the side when it comes to fighting Malta.  But if I'm reading the replies correctly, and forgive me as I may be just a simple minded gal after all, but there is no power selection that makes you immune to the endo drainage.  And I must confess I never received my certificate from Gaming 101 so I might not even belong here.... 

You read it right, there is really nothing that will stone cold keep you from the slimy grips of Sapper drain but tactics

[Redlynne]

20 minutes ago, HeidiMarquedt said:

My question was is there anything specific one could include in their build to resist the endo drainage that can be the thorn in the side when it comes to fighting Malta.

Defense vs Ranged

Defense vs AoE

Defense vs Energy (I think)

Endurance Drain Resistance

 

That's about it.

The defenses prevent the attack from landing/connecting with you, preventing the drain from happening in the first place.

The drain resistance reduces the amount of endurance drained from you when you do get hit.

All of that is pretty much Standard Operating Procedure for how to deal with attacks that you don't want to have messing with you.

I'm not aware of there being a 100% permanently effective in all circumstances "IWIN!" button for this though.  It's not like endurance drain follows the "rules" for mez where it's about getting enough protection so that the mez doesn't "grab you" and do whatever the mez type is to you as a status effect.

[siolfir]

9 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Defense vs Ranged

Defense vs AoE

Defense vs Energy (I think)

Endurance Drain Resistance

I'll add Recovery Resistance to this list, just to differentiate it. Most powers that have one have both at the same amount, but Consume from Fiery Aura and Grounded in Electric Armor are outliers by providing Endurance Drain resistance without Recovery resistance. Electric Armor is still fine because Static Shield caps Recovery and Endurance Drain resistance all by itself, but if you get hit with -recovery effects with Fiery Aura your end will bottom out slowly as your powers run through what you have left.

[lokpyrite]

End drain resistance from the base empowerment buff unit 

 

[Snarky]

You can really take any toon AT build against Malta and its nit bad.   Oh one thing.  KILL SAPPERS like they (insert vile act here) to you

[Riverdusk]

I'll add having a confuse power to the list of making sappers easy.  Nothing better than turning them onto your side.  Never had any sapper problems on any of my characters that have a confuse.

 

AS to Vaahz I've found them easy for my lowbie ranged characters who can easily pick them off before all the short ranged puke attacks can hit.  They can be very tough for a melee.  I've learned I can't just jump into a group of them at low levels.  I tend to bring out the prestige ranged attack powers to whittle them down a bit first now.

[eknudson]

14 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Defense vs Ranged

Defense vs AoE

Defense vs Energy (I think)

Endurance Drain Resistance

 

That's about it.

 

If I read the sapper entry at paragonwiki correctly, ranged, energy and actually melee are what you want for sapper defense-- https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Malta_Operatives 

 

Electric is good against sappers, dark does well also. My dark tank has 45% energy defense and 86.5% end drain resistance so he's not too worried about sappers. They don't usually hit and when they do they don't do that much.

[RikOz]

On 12/26/2019 at 2:46 AM, Yomo Kimyata said:

I think I found the objectively worst mission yesterday from Tina Mac.  It was a timed mission, on a large Oregano map, Malta enemies, find 12! captives.  And I couldn't auto-complete it.  I just logged.

I've got one better: Rescuing a whopping 21 hostages on the biggest, most complicated freaking Oranbega map I have ever encountered. I was probably in there for a good 40 minutes, trying and failing to locate the last three. I ended up having to exit the mission, travel from Talos to Atlas, purchase the Reveal power, travel back to to the mission, and Reveal the map to see if there was simply a room somewhere I had failed to discover. Indeed, there was, and I rescued two of the three remaining hostages in there. Unfortunately, I could not locate the last hostage, and this final room was filled with those portals that constantly barf out more demons so they're impossible to completely clear out, and thus the markers for the last spawn/objective on the map could never kick in. I wasted nearly another hour in there before I finally gave up and autocompleted it.

On 12/27/2019 at 7:03 AM, Heraclea said:

The /electric brute who laughs at Sappers and Carnies struggles with Nemesis snipers, Vahz at lower levels, and even large numbers of Rikti monkeys.  Toxic hole is worse than psi hole, in that while Toxic is rather rare, mobs that have it tend to stack it. 

 

But the most annoying mobs in the game to me are Dark Astoria Tsoos.  These are the new Knives of Artemis.  You clear the group guarding the objective, but then you have to Bo Derek run to click it. 

Took me a minute to get "Bo Derek run" 😄 Yeah, those Green Ink Men are a pain.