So when people say they solo at +4/×8...

[Linea]

11 hours ago, Sir Myshkin said:

I know, small complaints to the guy whom others wise runs the rest of the game unscathed. And Crimson Prototype. That "AV" can burn in a volcano.

Crimson Prototype is "Linea Approved". I've soloed him +4x8 on multiple builds, ... usually with extreme difficulty.  He's a Beast.

 

3 hours ago, Werner said:

Builds meant to survive solo need to have a response to every situation. So how do you handle every damage type? How do you handle defense debuffs? Resistance debuffs? Recharge debuffs? How do you handle endurance drains and recovery debuffs? How do you handle giant spikes of damage?  How do you handle to hit debuffs and enemy defense buffs? And so on. Some of those answers may be playing to your strengths. Others will be figuring out ways to overcome your weaknesses. There’s no one right way. I mean, there are the basics of defense, resistance, and healing, but that ought to be the starting point, not the end of the journey for a survival-oriented build. At a certain level of the basics, straightforward damage of common types shouldn’t be what kills you. It’ll be the unusual that kills you. So focus on that. And I suspect that’s a main point of the 801s.

 This is spot on.  There is no one answer.  Every build has it's weaknesses, I've never seen a perfect build.   There is no one answer, same fight same build, I might take it on 4 or 5 different ways each time, adapting as I go.

 

When you get here the build is important, but also what you the player do is just as important if not more-so.  Dancing, ducking, strafing, candy, temps, Parry, Heals, Stuns, KBs, Incarnates, Incarnate Pets, Airburst Void, Target-Teleport-Cone-Reverse, the multitude of choices and active mitigation choices and tactics ...

 

Lucy (SD/RadM):  Sappers, Blinds, Slows, -Fly.   She got corned once, physically surrounded, blinded, and multiple sappers ... SC was on recharge.  She was going down long before SC would recharge.  I had to Teleport out, and phase.  I was going down so fast that The teleport drained me and toggle dropped me.  I had to run for my life and phase.  That's the closest she's ever come to dying.  But we all know she's a beast, literally.  She's a shape-shifter.

 

Skylark (Inv/RadM):  Sappers, Blinds, ... oh god, Sappers.  Oh god, sappers, did I mention sappers?  One walked up to her the other day, she was distracted trying to keep mobs off a blaster... and she just fell over, *Splat*.   ... On the other hand, She walked out of a team run last night having not used even 1 inspiration.  All my other alts are ready to stab her in the back in her sleep.  Someone I know takes this even further with -to-hit and -damage incarnates as well as -to-hit -damage APP, and other things I haven't done, at least not yet.  Those are not choices I would normally take.   I was going to try an alt -damage -tohit APP, but the current build huffs and puffs too hard as is.  I don't think I'll ever do that one.  But, to each their own choices, their own strengths, their own weaknesses.

 

Dahlia (RadA/Kat):  I tried her first on a Res/Def build.  It failed.  I retried her on a pure resist build pushing HP/S as hard as possible.  The latter balances down to -35% defense indefinitely.   I can take spikes of -40 or -45% defense if I'm careful.   -50% defense or more and I'm going down, it's just a matter of time, that time however might be a while, and might be long enough to either dance, duck, run, phase, or kill the target.  More than -35% defense is rare, you probably won't see that more than once per run.  If you do, you better suck down a whole line of Purple Candy and even that might not be enough because you are cascading hard.   *IF* you see it coming, load up on candy and take out the problem fast, then run if you have to.  If it sneaks up behind you while you're already fighting, you are gonna be hurting and hurting bad.

 

Kate (Kat/Bio Scrap):  She can withstand just about anything for short bursts, but if I walk in armor down, I just fall over.   801.3 Solo she has to be very careful and tactical, or suck down candy like a fiend.   A single spawn can strip both absorbs in series and drop her to half health, heal, ... and that's just the alpha.  I've had some alphas drop me to 10% or less and that with the absorb proc in the build too.   Once you survive the alpha and the heal and regen kicks in, you have to go full offense on the most dangerous targets as fast as possible, ... because you are not out of the woods yet.  Nope, I've dropped down to dregs more than once just praying for a heal or absorb to recharge.   I come out of each fight completely exhausted by the skin of my teeth.   Then there are 27 more fights like that to go.   *face palm, head desk, falls over dead in the floor*

 

And I could go on like this for another 20 builds.  Each is different.

 

 

Inv RadM - Prototype E 7c - [i25].mxd Kat Bio Scrapper - Alpha 3 ITF - [i25].mxd Rad Kat Tank - Radicat II - Mu 3f - [i25].mxd SD RadM Tank - Alpha 5b - [i25].mxd

Edited June 25, 2020 by Linea

[marcussmythe]

Its amazing how we come full circle.

 

About a zillion years ago (Issue 4) I was PvPing on the original version of this character.  Worked well enough, but the massive debuffs a defender could put out could basically turn the character off at will.  To mitigate this, I leaned on Unstoppable, and phase shift, to deal with the problem.  This got a lot of hate - but it worked.

 

I wonder if one solution might be to build for straight damage (and unstoppable) and then lean on phase shift to cover the gaps.  Go in, deal as much damage as possible for about 1:50 - then phase and heal through the crash.

 

Even without unstoppable, phase shift plus a self heal would be a hand ‘ahem, lets start this over’ approach - on an invuln thats two pools, though.  Hmm.  Might be overthinking this, but Im trying to find a way to make Invuln survivable in here while retaining offense (SR or Rad would probably be easier...)

[Sovera]

Nah, did it for a little bit until I got to a double spawn and got sapped and killed. Too difficult and unfun to solo at max.

 

I suppose if I used inspirations and waited for Barrier after each spawn, but that's the unfun part. It's the same reason I can't be arsed to solo TFs.

[Frosticus]

This looks interesting. Is there a "no inspiration" recommended setting? The inspiration mini-game is not my cup of tea. 

[marcussmythe]

2 minutes ago, Frosticus said:

This looks interesting. Is there a "no inspiration" recommended setting? The inspiration mini-game is not my cup of tea. 

Im not Linea - but given that the thing is intended to be a challenge at 'every tool in the toolkit full contact play', including incarnates, crafted powers, temporary powers, prestige powers, base buffs, and inspirations - I anticipate that for +4/x8 play everything up to and including 'run out the door while under fire, fill tray with purple candy, come back as many times as necessary' is all fair play.

 

For a 'no inspirations' (and one assumes equally no tempts, prestige, crafted, yadda - just you and maybe your incarnates).. Hmm.  Maybe +1 or +2?  Im not sure.  As was pointed out upstream, the big multiplier is the x8 more than the +whatever.. so Id try to keep x8 and just go down to +1 and see how you do there.

[Linea]

Ran a short 5 minute run naked in test-mode.  2k dps average, 14k dps spike max, with lots of 7k-8k spikes.  You do NOT want to run in there naked.  ... on the other hand it was hilarious watching the Destroyer [Energy Transfer] himself to death.  That's 4.3k damage if it lands vs no resist. 😉

 

Re: Inspirations

Varies by build.  Start +0x8 in 801.0 (easy) if in doubt.  My Inv/Radm hardly touches them +4x8 801.3, meanwhile the Kat/Bio sucks them down hard and fast.  Every build is different.

 

As for rules.  I suggest "If you use it in normal play, it's fair game."   It's not so much about X is better than Y, we are way too far into play-style, player-skill, active mitigation, tactics, etc for any meaningful comparison of builds.  It's "I know my X inside outside upside-down backwards, and I /know/ not only what I'm doing and how, but what I /can/ do.  ... I might not always remember to do it or react fast enough ... !@#$ sapper ... but I know and am capable, even if I didn't.  Push both yourself and your build to be better.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Linea

[East Slide]

801.2

-Don't click to enter then go to grab a drink. 

[marcussmythe]

1 hour ago, Linea said:

Ran a short 5 minute run naked in test-mode.  2k dps average, 14k dps spike max, with lots of 7k-8k spikes.  You do NOT want to run in there naked.  ... on the other hand it was hilarious watching the Destroyer [Energy Transfer] himself to death.  That's 4.3k damage if it lands vs no resist. 😉

 

Re: Inspirations

Varies by build.  Start +0x8 in 801.0 (easy) if in doubt.  My Inv/Radm hardly touches them +4x8 801.3, meanwhile the Kat/Bio sucks them down hard and fast.  Every build is different.

 

As for rules.  I suggest "If you use it in normal play, it's fair game."   It's not so much about X is better than Y, we are way too far into play-style, player-skill, active mitigation, tactics, etc for any meaningful comparison of builds.  It's "I know my X inside outside upside-down backwards, and I /know/ not only what I'm doing and how, but what I /can/ do.  ... I might not always remember to do it or react fast enough ... !@#$ sapper ... but I know and am capable, even if I didn't.  Push both yourself and your build to be better.

Im actually mentally responding by making a third build.  I promised myself that sooner or later I would do 'Incarnate Softcap at 1 foe in range' on my invuln, for utterly tough fights - but nothing in the game really threatened the survival of my 'Exemplar General Play' or 'Lvl 50 Max DPS' Builds - and the few things that do require a team to DPS down, so Im getting buffs anyway.

 

801 has stuff that you can kill alone, but the trouble is surviving (thank you for leaning on EBs, rather than going up into the continual DPS check of AVs).  So now Ive finally got an excuse to sacrifice everything in the name of unkillable!  Thank you.

 

The below is what I'm playing with for a pure survival build.  I doubt it will get built until after Issue 6 - Ive decided to stop fiddling and save up money until we see where Energy Melee is going - but I do enjoy hypotheticals.  Its probably going to be leaning on recovery serum and using Ageless Radial to refill its end every 2 minutes... but I fear debuffs more than anything, anyway.  Wish Energy/Toxic/Psi were higher, but that was the cost of incarnate cap.

 

Spoiler

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Energy Melee
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Flight
Ancillary Pool: Pyre Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Resist Physical Damage -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(3), ImpArm-ResPsi(3)
Level 1: Barrage -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(5), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(5), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7)
Level 2: Temp Invulnerability -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(7), ImpArm-ResPsi(9)
Level 4: Dull Pain -- Pnc-Heal/Rchg(A), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx(11), Prv-Heal/Rchg(11)
Level 6: Resist Elements -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(13), ImpArm-ResPsi(13)
Level 8: Unyielding -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(15), ImpArm-ResPsi(15)
Level 10: Boxing -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(17), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(17), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(19)
Level 12: Resist Energies -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(19), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(21)
Level 14: Tough -- GldArm-3defTpProc(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(21), ImpArm-ResPsi(23), ImpArm-ResDam(23)
Level 16: Weave -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(25)
Level 18: Invincibility -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(25)
Level 20: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(27)
Level 22: Hover -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(27)
Level 24: Energy Punch -- SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg(A), SprGntFis-Dmg/Rchg(29), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29)
Level 26: Cross Punch -- Erd-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Erd-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Erd-Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 28: Bone Smasher -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(31), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(31), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33)
Level 30: Whirling Hands -- Erd-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Erd-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Erd-%Dam(33), SprGntFis-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), SprGntFis-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), SprGntFis-Rchg/+Absorb(34)
Level 32: Kick -- KntCmb-Acc/Dmg(A), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx(36), KntCmb-Dmg/Rchg(36), KntCmb-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 35: Ring of Fire -- Thn-Acc/Dmg(A), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Thn-Dmg/Rchg(37), Thn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39)
Level 38: Char -- SprEnt-Acc/Hold(A), SprEnt-Hold/Rchg(39), SprEnt-End/Rchg(40), SprEnt-Acc/Hold/End(40), SprEnt-Acc/Hold/End/Rchg(40), SprEnt-Rchg/AbsorbProc(42)
Level 41: Fire Blast -- SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(A), SprWntBit-Dmg/Rchg(42), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), SprWntBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(43), SprWntBit-Rchg/SlowProc(43)
Level 44: Fire Ball -- SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg(A), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), SprFrzBls-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), SprFrzBls-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(46), SprFrzBls-Rchg/ImmobProc(46)
Level 47: Energy Transfer -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(48), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(50), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(50)
Level 49: Tough Hide -- LucoftheG-Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(50)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet 
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run 
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(9)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A)
Level 50: Agility Radial Paragon 
Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve 
Level 0: Portal Jockey 
Level 0: Task Force Commander 
Level 0: The Atlas Medallion 
Level 50: Void Radial Final Judgement 
Level 50: Paralytic Radial Flawless Interface 
Level 50: Melee Core Embodiment 
Level 50: Ageless Radial Epiphany 
Level 50: Carnival Radial Superior Ally 
------------

 

Edited June 25, 2020 by marcussmythe

[Sir Myshkin]

6 hours ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Seriously... sometimes I get a big damn grin on my face when I get my ass kicked into the dirt.

Full honesty, as much as it sucked and I joke about the struggle of it, walking into those missions at +4/x8 after countless level 50 missions, Incarnate DA missions, and iTrials barely clicking Shadow Meld or MoG, never using Reconstruction, knowing that the "normal" game couldn't touch me at just 66 HP/s regen with middling 32.5% base defense...

 

And jump into that first mob, aggro the second on accident, and die realizing my regen percent was negative? I was like:

[Hirumakai]

On 6/24/2020 at 1:15 PM, Linea said:

Ok, that's Hilarious.

 

801 is a Series:  801.0 Easy, 801.1 Intermediate, 801.2 Hard (My Benchmark), 801.3 Harder

801.2 is the Standard I judge my builds by, and was the original.  If you can solo 801.2 +4x8 with-in the 2 hour timer or less, you are officially Linea Approved. 

801.3 is because I had some teams just stomping 801.2.   801.3 departs from the "Soloable +0x0 on an SO build" benchmark.  It was rare to have a team steamroll 801.2 like that, but it does happen.  801.0 and 801.1 are for the teams that were struggling too much in 801.2.  If there's need I may or may not work on an 801.4 in the future.

 

Good to know.  So since my tanker was apparently was cool with 801.0 ,I decided to jump to 801.2.  I'd say that more than twice as hard. :)

 

My tanker is sadly not Linea Approved.  Although it was close, and I'm thinking getting all the incarnate abilities to T4 might help.  At the 2 hour mark I was on the last room with 1.5 spawns remaining.  Although I did take 5 deaths to get there on my Shield/Dark Melee/Soul Mastery tanker.  Bumping Hybrid Assault from T1 to T4, and Degenerative Interface from T1 to T4, and maybe Judgement Void from T3 to T4 with damage reduction might get the damage to where it needs to be to break under 2 hours, which in turn might help staying standing in tough fights by whittling down the opposition faster.  Also better usage of inspirations that did drop would probably help.  Certainly this mission is forcing me to up my situational awareness.  I need to be better about making sure my anchor for Darkest Night is still up, make sure Barrier is up on cooldown, and improve my ability to bunch enemies up.

 

Certainly I find myself having to use everything the character has. Heals, End Recovery, debuff.  Although, now that I think about it, I haven't been using One with the Shield.  The end crash isn't that bad, so perhaps I should pull it off IO slot mule duty and actually use it.

 

Thanks for making the missions.  They are in fact quite entertaining.

 

[Linea]

I'm very happy with SD/.

Full T4 Incarnates (can) Almost double your offense.

Grab a P2W:Recovery Serum, pop it a bit before your OwtS crash, or it's pretty long duration, maybe just pop it when you use OwtS.

I use Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic, Owts, Kitchen Sink.  Rune is up I slowly gain health, Rune is down I slowly lose health.

Switching to offensive hybrid would definitely make it faster, but also stress Rune/OwtS more.  I'd have to run it both ways and compare.  I've done both in the past but don't really remember, Lately I'm in 801.3 so much that I just stick with Melee Core most of the time.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Linea

[Bill Z Bubba]

10 hours ago, Linea said:

Kitchen Sink.

H4X!

 

Edit: I never even thought to go for hybrid melee core. The thought of less damage output for more mitigation just never entered my brain.

Edited June 27, 2020 by Bill Z Bubba

[marcussmythe]

For the melee types, who cant CC their problems away, nuke their problems away, or hoverblast the incoming DPS down... youve gotta go for survival.  Youll note that Linea’s ‘I can do this’ tank builds focus very heavily on survival.

 

TBH, I expect my hoverblast soft-cc elec/sr sentinel (I got an AOE Sleep just for YOU, Linea!) will do better in there than my ‘DPS down +4 AVs’ Tank - Big girl just cant handle the incoming well at all, since shes leaning hard on offense (and can afford to in normal content - the 800 series makes things like Tin Mage look trivial in terms of stressing your survival tools)

Edited June 27, 2020 by marcussmythe

[Hirumakai]

15 hours ago, Linea said:

I'm very happy with SD/.

Full T4 Incarnates (can) Almost double your offense.

Grab a P2W:Recovery Serum, pop it a bit before your OwtS crash, or it's pretty long duration, maybe just pop it when you use OwtS.

I use Rune/Hybrid/Rune/Demonic, Owts, Kitchen Sink.  Rune is up I slowly gain health, Rune is down I slowly lose health.

Switching to offensive hybrid would definitely make it faster, but also stress Rune/OwtS more.  I'd have to run it both ways and compare.  I've done both in the past but don't really remember, Lately I'm in 801.3 so much that I just stick with Melee Core most of the time.

You weren't kidding about T4 incarnates being able to double your offense.

 

 I played through the Dark Astoria Arc at +4x8 solo to get some veteran levels for incarnate components and merits and lucked out on a pair of very rares during the mission rewards, which got me T4 Hybrid Assault Radial, T4 Degenerative Core Interface,  and T4 Radial Void Judgement (-50% enemy damage for 30 seconds).  Its amazing how easy those seem to the 801 series.  Anyways, I  also took a look at my build and swapped in the Ragnarok Knockdown IO while taking out the Ragnarok Damage IO (which was providing very little extra damage to Obliteration).  Also bumped up some of the Damage/End and End IOs by +5 levels with enhancement boosters to help tweak the endurance usage.

 

With those changes, went back in to 801.2 (still using Warworks T3 Core lore, everything else was T4).  Apparently the best defense is a good offense as I finished 801.2 in roughly 70 minutes with no deaths this time around.   That or improved pulls (always starting with Darkest Night on an Elite Boss or Boss) with better positioning and more strategic inspiration use sped things up.  Also smarter priority targeting.  So I can proudly say Nanotech Knight is fully Linea approved.

I did take up your suggestion on the Recovery Serum and OwtS but ended up only using OwtS twice in 70 minutes.  Both times were when health was about 40-50%, and Barrier had about 15 seconds left, so I popped it for insurance.  All told, those missions have definitely upped my game play.  Thanks again.

Edited June 27, 2020 by Hirumakai

[Linea]

That sounds about right.   I don't use OwtS often, once or twice here and here when other things are out of pocket at inconvenient times.

[Doomguide2005]

The other option for +Recovery besides (or in addition to) the recovery serum is Geas of the Kind Ones.  I'd often use it in combo with Archmage to survive the Elude crash "back in the day".  Use Geas just before the crash, then Archmage to cover myself while I brought my toggles back up even mid-fight.

[ScarySai]

Pretty much all of my roster is built to solo +4x8 all the time. I only turn it down if I'm in a rush or ouro badging.

 

It's pretty fun, plus, when you join a group under that diff, you just crush it effortlessly.

[Werner]

My new Dark Armor/Martial Arts Tanker finished 801.2 +4x8 no temps, no insps, no Lore, one death in 1:32. That's the second death ever on my Tanker, now level 68. Thanks, @Linea! 🤬😉 LOL. I didn't even see the cause of death. I was trying to reposition myself more centrally in a mob as the fight started, and was suddenly eating dirt. Taking on the same group after a quick trip to the hospital, I saw it was a combination of both defense and resistance debuffs. I just needed to be paying attention to the numbers, as I monitor my defense and resistance, and can hit Barrier to deal with it. Sloppy. General approach was to Taunt the edge of a group and corner pull, Barrier if defense or resistance debuffed, Dark Regeneration if merely taking damage.

 

No surprises other than being surprised to be suddenly dead. My weaknesses were exactly what I expected - defense debuffs primarily, resistance debuffs to a lesser extent. Most other debuffs I'm fine with. 120% perception debuff resistance, 86.5% recovery and to-hit debuff resistance, 80% recharge time and slow resistance. Dark Regeneration lets me ignore regeneration debuffs. I never even had to hit Conserve Power, which is what I have just in case the endurance drains and debuffs overcome my resistance somehow. What did almost get me at one point was confusion. That also wasn't unexpected - most of my builds have Tactics, but I couldn't fit it in this time without sacrificing something I wanted more. It's tempting to drop Taunt for Tactics, but I'm actually tanking for my friends with this Tanker, and I have almost no Tanker experience, so I'm not comfortable going without.

[marcussmythe]

Damn nice, Werner.  I managed about the same time and settings on my Invuln/EM - but I had to eat all the inspirations or either my death count or time would have gone sky high.

 

Awesome work doing it with no candy.  And my guess to what killed you - there is a beam rifle sniper mob in there somewhere that does a long cast time high damage sniper shot - and that long cast time means it comes in right at the tail of his 6 friends that just wrecked your defense and energy resists.

 

The ubiquity of Energy Damage late game is hard on Dark Armor - there are days when it feels more common than S/L once your post 50.

[Shred Monkey]

On 6/25/2020 at 10:44 AM, Linea said:

Linea Approved

OK... I jumped in this little 801 challenge last night to see what the fuss is about.  I'm using my elec/db tanker... soft capped defense to smash/lethal and melee.  Hardcapped resists to all but negative and toxic.  Also has good resists to energy drain which I suspect I was using?  I run both tactics and focused accuracy to make sure I'm hitting since I usually use this toon against level 54s.  My attack chain is blinding feint > attack vitals combo... and I often throw in a Typhon's Edge after the combo if there's a good reason to.  Plus I run lightning field for more AoE.  Generally, in a high difficulty fight, I'll corner pull to optimize the Attack Vitals cone.

 

I chose 801.2 at 4x8 as my starting point.  My first impression, OH yeah!!!  I actually need to use all my incarnate powers and use them intelligently!  My primary danger were the Radiation bosses ( ___- maurauder?) because they'd drop my defenses to -50 which opens up the incoming damage by enough I had to lean on rebirth incarnate to keep me upright.  Once I learned who they were, I could focus on them with my knocks and kill them first.  Thank you for using Elite Bosses.  I've done level 54 AVs on this toon, but it's generally a long, boring, fight where I lean on the Incarnate Lore top push me over the threashhold on damage...sometimes twice.

 

The first run, I died a few times learning my limits and the mobs abilities, and I had to do a full retreat a few times as well.  I think after that first run I'll be able handle it with no defeats but the 2-hour time limit will force me to keep pushing because it's going to be close if I don't.  But this is the level of challenge this game is lacking.  Great stuff!

 

My only suggestion would be to make a short version of this.  I can rarely play for 90-120 minutes with no interruptions.  A 30 minute version would be fun.   Although I guess if I was using a team instead of soloing, this would be just right.

Edited July 13, 2020 by Shred Monkey

[Werner]

10 hours ago, marcussmythe said:

The ubiquity of Energy Damage late game is hard on Dark Armor - there are days when it feels more common than S/L once your post 50.

There certainly are those days, but it's much more noticeable on my Brute with 55% resistance than my Tanker at 78% after a couple stacks of the ATO plus higher defense and hit points. The energy hole is one reason I run Barrier Core rather than Ageless Radial on both, and handle debuffs in other ways.

[marcussmythe]

4 minutes ago, Werner said:

There certainly are those days, but it's much more noticeable on my Brute with 55% resistance than my Tanker at 78% after a couple stacks of the ATO plus higher defense and hit points. The energy hole is one reason I run Barrier Core rather than Ageless Radial on both, and handle debuffs in other ways.

Feel you there.  I managed to get an invuln build that caps out pretty much everywhere - but its totally pillowfisted.  Decisions, decisions...

[Werner]

2 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

The first run, I died a few times learning my limits and the mobs abilities, and I had to do a full retreat a few times as well.  I think after that first run I'll be able handle it with no defeats

If I decide to tackle this more seriously, I'll want to learn all the mob abilities and create a priority targeting macro/keybind like I have for some groups, but I figured a quick and dirty substitute for that was to target the special-looking lieutenants, bosses, and elite bosses. And if I see any green radiation, those die first.

[Linea]

3 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

My only suggestion would be to make a short version of this.

I'd suggest 801.1 Moderate Length, Easier Maps, ... or ... 801.3 Moderate Length, Harder Mobs, Harder Maps ... or 801.0 if you want really short really easy.  Just be aware the shorter versions won't push your dps vs durability, and you won't have to face all the various buff/debuffs.  To be shorter I had to remove some things, so I tried to remove what I felt like were the easier buff/debuff challenges, but that 'easier' may not be true of all builds, players, and playstyles.  I could have inadvertently removed the one enemy you would have otherwise been vulnerable to.

• 801.0 is the shortest and easiest.
• 801.1 Moderate Length, Moderate Difficulty.
• 801.2 Standard Setting
• 801.3 it's harder mobs, but easier and shorter maps.
• 801.4 Hardest mobs, hardest maps, longest maps.

38 minutes ago, Werner said:

I figured a quick and dirty substitute for that was to target the special-looking lieutenants, bosses, and elite bosses. And if I see any green radiation, those die first.

Exactly.  That's why I put them in distinctive armor.  If you play the higher level versions 801.3 and 801.4 watch out for the gold hued armor.  Several of my builds ignore the greenies, and instead have to target the sappers first.  But yeah.

That Destroyer can hit for 4.3k damage for instance.   I pulled a short log in test mode: 15k dps spikes (rarely), 5-8k dps spikes (frequently), 2k dps all day long.

 

Edited July 13, 2020 by Linea

[KaizenSoze]

My Blood WIndow can solo 4x8. I generally run at 4x4 for speed sake, bosses and AVs on of course.

 

Carnies and anything in Dark Astoria are my favorite prey.

Carnies are weak to lethal. AOE defense stops most of the end drain.

 

Side note, I tried AE 801 and got squashed like a bug. 🙂

 

I went too aggressive, will try again later.

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by KaizenSoze