issue 27 Focused Feedback: Advanced Difficulty - Imperious Task Force

[The Curator]

New Advanced Difficulty - Imperious Task Force

• Advanced Difficulty mode has been added to the Imperious Task Force, accessed from the Challenge Settings window before starting the content.
• Playing on Advanced Difficulty adds new elements to the content that make it more challenging but also provides an opportunity to earn greatly increased and unique rewards!
• Advanced Difficulty includes a brand new boss fight and badge for defeating them!

Something seems different, but I'm sure it'll be fine...

• Like the Dr. Aeon's Strike Force that introduced the Advanced Difficulty system, this new mode comes in four higher difficulty level options above default:

Those difficulty names sure seem familiar! Who remembers when mission difficulty was set with Notoriety levels?

• The setting specifics listed below also apply to the Aeon Strike Force, and should be referred to as the most up-to-date advance difficulty mode information:

Heroic/Villainous (Default)

• Normal difficulty, this is what the option is set to by default, and doesn’t change the content in any manner.

Tenacious/Malicious (☆) 

• This content is balanced around everyone on the team having Tier 1 incarnate powers.
• Enemies have access to additional/improved powers.
• Certain enemy groups can sometimes have Elite Bosses/Bosses spawn in place of Bosses/Lieutenants in regular enemy spawns.
• Access to exclusive challenge encounters and mechanics not found in the default difficulty.
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster have Incarnate base hit chance (63.75%).
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters have double base health (with normalized regeneration numbers).
• No additional enemy stats or defeat rewards.
• Players are unable to use non-revive Super Inspirations.
• In addition to all standard rewards, completion of this difficulty will reward 1 Empyrean merit.

Rugged/Vicious (☆☆) 

• This content is balanced around everyone on the team having Tier 2 incarnate powers.
• The minimum mission difficulty is locked at +2 and the team size at x8.
• Enemies have access to additional/improved powers.
• Certain enemy groups can sometimes have Elite Bosses/Bosses spawn in place of Bosses/Lieutenants in regular enemy spawns.
• Boss class enemies and above have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection.
• Access to exclusive challenge encounters and mechanics not found in the default difficulty.
• All enemies receive the following baseline buffs: +10% Resistance[All], +15% Defense[All], +20% Damage[All], +10% ToHit, 66ft Perception radius.
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies have Incarnate base hit chance (63.75%).
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies will reward 1 Astral merit per defeat.
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters have double base health (with normalized regeneration numbers) and will reward 2 Astral merits per defeat.
• All enemies reward 20% more experience/influence.
• Players are unable to use non-revive Large/Super Inspirations.
• In addition to all standard rewards, completion of this difficulty will reward 2 Empyrean merits and an Incarnate reward table containing your choice of a random Incarnate salvage, an Empyrean merit, or two super Inspirations.

Unyielding/Ruthless (☆☆☆) 

• This content is balanced around everyone on the team having Tier 3 incarnate powers.
• The minimum mission difficulty is locked at +3 and the team size at x8.
• Enemies have access to additional/improved powers.
• Certain enemy groups can sometimes have Elite Bosses/Bosses spawn in place of Bosses/Lieutenants in regular enemy spawns.
• Lieutenant class enemies and above have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection.
• Elite Bosses have magnitude 10 Knockdown protection.
• Access to exclusive challenge encounters and mechanics not found in the default difficulty.
• All enemies receive the following baseline buffs: +15% Resistance[Lethal/Smashing], +20% Resistance[All but S/L], +20% Defense[All], +30% Damage[All], +20% ToHit, 66ft Perception radius
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies have Incarnate base hit chance (63.75%).
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies will reward 2 Astral merits per defeat.
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters have double base health (with normalized regeneration numbers) and will reward 3 Astral merits per defeat.
• All enemies reward 30% more experience/influence.
• Players are unable to use Temporary Powers or non-revive Medium/Large/Super Inspirations.
• In addition to all standard rewards, completion of this difficulty will reward 3 Empyrean merits and an Incarnate reward table containing your choice of a random Incarnate salvage, an Empyrean merit, or two super Inspirations.

Invincible/Relentless (☆☆☆☆) 

• This content is balanced around everyone on the team having Tier 4 incarnate powers.
• The mission difficulty is locked at +4 and the team size at x8.
• Enemies have access to additional/improved powers.
• Certain enemy groups can sometimes have Elite Bosses/Bosses spawn in place of Bosses/Lieutenants in regular enemy spawns.
• All enemy classes have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection.
• Bosses and Elite Bosses have magnitude 10 Knockdown protection.
• Access to exclusive challenge encounters and mechanics not found in the default difficulty.
• All enemies receive the following baseline buffs: +20% Resistance[Lethal/Smashing], +30% Resistance[All but S/L], +30% Defense[All], +40% Damage[All], +30% ToHit, 66ft Perception radius
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies have Incarnate base hit chance (63.75%) as well as a +1 Level Shift.
• Arch-villain/Giant Monster ranked enemies will reward 3 Astral merits per defeat.
• Certain powerful Arch-villains/Giant Monsters have double base health (with normalized regeneration numbers) and will reward 1 Empyrean merits per defeat.
• All enemies reward 40% more experience/influence.
• Players will be unable to use Temporary Powers or any non-revive Inspirations.
• In addition to all standard rewards, completion of this difficulty will reward 4 Empyrean merits and an Incarnate reward table containing your choice of a random Incarnate salvage, an Empyrean merit, or two super Inspirations.

[Linea]

SOLO 2-Star Hardmode ITF             (Cryptic 220711)

Angel Hornet EnM/EnA 801 Hardmode Scrapper

 

Tldr:  This is Hard-Mode Content. If you don't take it seriously, it WILL kill you.  With the recent changes it's a little bit easier than when I ran it, and on sum balance a little bit harder to solo than the ASF.  I also recently soloed 3-Star Rommy in test-mode by overloading inspirations, but given you would have to run the entire TF that way, taking 40+ hours, I'm going to say 3-star is effectively not solo-able.

 

Quote

With the new hard mode content coming:

Incarnate:  Assumes +1, but no other unlocks required.

 

Tier 1 Incarnate Arcs:  These are the existing arcs.  They are designed for 50+0 and 50+1, and once you reach 50+3 and Tier 4 Incarnates tend to be considerably easy.

 

Tier 4 Incarnate Arcs (Team):   These are the new incoming arcs.  Assume a full team of +1s.

Tier 4 Incarnate Arcs (Solo):  Assumes all incarnates unlocked and slotted with Tier 4 powers in them.  Hornet slaughtered these mercilessly, but I've also been told they are so difficult as to be completely unplayable.  Hornet is a Tier 4 monster, by comparison at 50+0 these arcs are likely very difficult.

 

1-Star Hardmode:  Assumes 50+1 and all Incarnates unlocked and at least Tier 1 Incarnate powers in them.

2-Star Hardmode:  At least Tier 2 Incarnate powers in all slots.

3-Star Hardmode:  At least Tier 3 Incarnate powers in all slots.

4-Star Hardmode:  Tier 4 Incarnate powers in all slots.

 

*** DO NOT LEROY JENKINS ***

Pull only one, or at most two, groups at a time.  Do not teleport into a room with 6+ spawns and start tossing around judgements.  You’ve been warned.

• THESE ARE EFFECTIVELY PRAETORIAN INCARNATES WITH TACTICS.  Even on 2-Star you can be facing 65 defense cap enemies, and if you pull more than one group that can skyrocket to over a 115+ defense cap.  (Note: The maximum stacking may be tuned down a little.)
• ACCURACY MULTIPLIERS: Depending on the difficulty you pick you can be facing an average of a 1.9 accuracy multiplier vs 4-Star, just call it 2x for simplicity.  That means if the soft-cap is 75, and you only have 60 defense, they mobs will have a (75 + 5 - 60) * 2 = 40% chance to hit you.  4-Star GMs will have a BASE soft cap of 95, and most have tactics as well, for something in the 110 or 115 defense range.  If you have 70 defense all and strut up to a 4-Star Rommy, he's gonna bash you in the head with a 95% chance to hit.  If you're running standard 45 soft-cap, heaven help you, even a 4-Star minion is going to have 50% chance to hit you, for 10x incoming damage, which is closer to 12x incoming damage spread across the entire spawn with the various rank multipliers.
• Beware the EBs, Avs, and GMs with Tactics.  Tactics can Stack!  There were times I had to push Full Armor++.  That means Stacked Overload, Rune, Triple-Stacked Energy Drain, ShadowMeld, Dampeners.  Which is 166+ defense with 75+ resists, my standard 115+ defense with 75+ resists wasn’t enough if those tactics stacked up.  Letting resists slip any at all while facing any thing other than a single ‘generic’ hardmode spawn was instant death.
• Anything that was ‘Dangerous’ before on normal mode, is DEADLY now on Hardmode.
• More mobs have ranged attacks, and some mobs have additional damage types, and even minor amounts of un-resistible damage.  This is no joke, You should be prepared to take at least some damage, if not significant damage as compared to a normal-mode run.
• Try to field a Balanced Full Tier 4 Incarnated Team with 1 or 2 tanks and at least 1 Controller/Dominator.
• USE YOUR INCARNATES.  Even better if you coordinate incarnates.
• BUFF YOUR WHOLE TEAM.  Buff Defense, Resist, Absorb, and HP/S.  These guys are 98% deadly to Defense Cap Only Armor or Resist Cap Only Armor on 75% resist cap ATs. Even your Tank or Brute may need supplemental Defense, Resist and/or HP/S Buffs.
• I very strongly suggest you have a combat teleport bind, phase shift, or something similar.
• Spoiler

  • targetcustomnext alive Romulus$$targetcustomnext alive emerald$$targetcustomnext alive topaz$$targetcustomnext alive sapphire$$targetcustomnext alive Ruby$$targetcustomnext alive Hostless
  • Targetcustomnext enemy alive requiem$$targetcustomnext alive Infused$$Targetcustomnext enemy alive surgeon$$targetcustomnext alive Hostless
  • If you accidentally kill an ‘Infused’ while solo you are dead.  As opposed to killing it on purpose from range, or teleporting away, or phasing, or …

No Holds Barred

• Bring all your toys, ALL YOUR TOYS!
• TAUNT – You Really Really want Taunt and/or Immobilize.  Some mobs will specifically target and take out your support if you do not Taunt and/or Control them first.
• Envenomed Daggers, and/or Rad, Traps, Etc. - These AVs and GMs are no joke.
• If you are Solo:
  • Amps and Dampeners
  • Temp/Accolade Immobilizes
  • Full T4 Lore, as well as Full T4 on all your Incarnates.
  • Hero Alignment Ranged Damage Signature Summons.  Hero Aligned is Positron, hands down the best one you can get.
  • Backup Radio
  • Shivans (for the first/hardest Rommy)
  • Warburg Nukes (for the first/hardest Rommy)
  • Vanguard HVAS (for the first/hardest Rommy)
  • And any and all other pets you can scrounge up

Mission 1

• 1 Hour.  Nothing of particular note other than what is already noted above.
• I cleared both rooms, the intersection, and platform.  I think I accidentally got the ambush too.

Mission 2

• 1.5 Hours.
• Anything that was ‘Dangerous’ before on normal mode, is DEADLY now on Hardmode.
• I ran half of it as clear.  Then half as crystals at 5-10%, then popping them all at once.

Mission 3

• 9 hours.
• Clear as much of the areas you need to work in as possible, or you’ll regret it later.
• Spoiler

  • Separate the Twins, and use two tanks to aim them away from the squishies.  These guys are deadly to unsupported tanks, your squishies will pop like grapes! 
  • BEWARE: These guys can one shot an unsupported tank.  Keep your tanks fully buffed, healed, and supported.
  • TWO tanks are better than one.  Each twin debuffs your resists to it’s sibling’s damage type.
  • The first twin killed me a dozen times, the second at least 4 or 5 times.

Mission 4

• 9 hours.
• Clear as much of the areas you need to work in as possible, or you’ll regret it later.
• *** OH GOD ***.  It’s probably just easiest to bow down, submit, and join your new Cimeroran Overlords.
• Spoiler

  • YOU MUST SEPARATE ROMMY if you are solo.   Otherwise, you’ll have to spend too many resources keeping your pets alive and away from the Auot-Hit Nictus, and not have enough offense left to punch through his massive regen and resists.
  • Rommy is invulnerable while any Barriers are up*, and does not regenerate if 3 or more barriers are up*.  See the Exception for the Emerald Barrier*.  Barriers are currently set to 2.0m or 2.5m and are likely to be adjusted.
  • The Emerald Barrier* can be Controlled instead of killed for a significant regen debuff.  Control it if you can, it’s very much worth it, and the emerald regen debuff may be adjusted to be more powerful than the others.  If you can’t control it, kill it last.
  • Barriers (in the order that *I* want to kill them, 15 seconds each. Your preferred order may vary)
    • Ruby – AoE                        (I miss on average 1 swing per kill on these two)
    • Sapphire – RNG                (I miss on average 1 swing per kill on these two)
    • Topaz – Melee
    • Emerald – All / Hold        (I’m solo, so I didn’t have the luxury of trying to control it.)
  • 79k hp with 163 hp/s regen and additional resists.   This makes him twice as hard vs my offensive damage types as RippleSurge in the ASF.
    • ~400 dps * 0.8 * 0.65 ~= 200 dps – 163 ~= 37 dps * 90 ~= 3300 dam
    • (11588 - .65 * 163 * 15 - .33 * 163 * 15 -  163 * 15)/150 != -10 dps.  AH @#$%!.
    • In-game testing verifies this pseudo math.  These numbers are approximate and conceptual, and numbers are likely to change during additional testing, but the conceptualized results should remain roughly the same.  *I* at least need buffs, candy, and/or pets to make this viable.  Lets just hope it doesn’t change to get any harder, but instead is eased up just a tiny bit.
    • I can barely scratch him without pets or candy.  I dent him, he regens most if not all of it before I can kill all the barriers and continue.
    • I can hurt him with pets or candy, but I’m looking at 2 to 3 hours per kill.
    • With BOTH pets and candy, I can kill him in about 1 hour per kill.  *IF* nothing goes wrong, otherwise double that.
      • You can do Either personal candy or mixed personal/team candy.  The optimal load is probably the mix.  Exact mix will vary by build.  Personal (R/Y, R/Y, R, R, R) for the first minute while you take out the barriers.  Then Team (R/Y, R/Y, R, R, R, R) twice.  You can also mix this around to try for two runs of 2.5m each.  (R/Y, R, R), (R/Y, R/Y, R, R), (R/Y, R/Y, R).  
      • I had very little issue keeping the pets alive.  I had Rommy very ticked and taunted, and using combat teleport to crisscross while killing the barriers kept him mostly away from the pets.  He killed a critical pet only once.  He killed the squishy pets more times than I can count, but they were not critical, just supplemental dps.
      • The real danger is that if you are not careful about your teleports, you can drag the auto-hit nictus into battle.  If you’re teleporting near the nicti, you should manually target behind them so you minimize this risk.
      • Despite Taunt, Rommy still kicked into ‘Run Like a Maniac’ and Ignore-Taunt mode twice.  One time he ran halfway across the map like a moron, the other time wasn’t AS bad.  Just be warned.
      • Pop out and refill candy while your pets recharge.  Just make sure all the healers are dead first.  I missed one once. *face palm*
  • Congratulations, you’ve Killed Rommy.   Now you get to do it 3 to 6 more times accounting for him regenerating to full when you get ambushed and/or killed.

 

Additional Spoilers, Information, and Changes

• Spoiler

  • 1. Cimeroran Traitor LTs had their 50% HP 30-mag mez protection shout changed to instead be a short +DMG, +To-hit, +Crit chance buff, which makes cascading mez immunity less prevalent.
    2. Hostless Nictus that are mezzed immediately fail their body hijacking attempt and are then sitting ducks until death.
    3. In the Nictus Romulus encounter, the Emerald Barrier Nictus can be mezzed instead of killed, which will reduce Rommy's regeneration by 50% without making him invulnerable.
• Spoiler

  4-Star Hardmode ITF Emerald Barrier Respec with Tactics and Kismet
  ---------------
          HOLD
              needs mag 4?
              will drop the visual bubble, but not the beams.
              
          Confuse - DOES NOT DEBUFF REGEN
              needs mag 13?
              will drop the beams, but not the visual bubble.

  
      Set Exemp 23 for 4-Star.
          85% Hold
          94% Confuse
          Vigor, or Nerve to counter.  (Amps in 3-star and down)
          
      Set Exemp 23+16=39 for 4-Star with Enervating Field
          If we assume EF, then that also counters accuracy issues.  But everyone isn't a /Rad.
   

 

Tanks

NO TANK is going to be able to solo a 4-Star ITF without at least very minimal support.  

• Spoiler

  I have an alpha build Stone/Dark that comes close, but needs a tiny bit of healing, vengeance, or some other buffs.   Lots of various small buffs could do it, just not 100% solo.  A Stone/SS might also be a good option, but the loss of healing probably offsets the gain of +to-hit.   The SD/Radm comes the closest, but lacks to-hit so she eventually 5 or 15 minutes later gets whittled down and can't hit the targets consistently enough to vampire back all the health loss.  SD/DM could probably pull it off, right up till an EB with Tactics comes along.  That tactics turning a 10% chance to be hit into a 60% chance to be hit.  Ouch.

  • Look at the 801 Tank builds for defense and durability ideas. One of them is Inv/Radm.
  • 4-Star everything has a minimum of 25 defense, and many have 50+ defense to at least one type of damage.
  • You will need tactics, kismet, and/or (Vigor or Nerve); or similar buffs,  team buffs, Rage, other powers,  builds bonuses, or etc.
  • 4-Star to-hit calculations all have a 2x accuracy multiplier. 
  • If you have a 25 defense gap in your armor, you'll be hit 50% of the time.
  • If you have a 10 to-hit gap in your accuracy/tohit then you'll miss 20% of the time.
  • if you ignore the 25 defense they all gain, then you'll miss 50% of the time.
  • 4-Star everything has a minimum to-hit (defense soft cap) of 75.
    • *IF* there is even one EB with tactics, that defense softcap is now 100 defense!!!  A considerable number of spawns have an EB anchoring them.
    • 4-Star tactics can stack up to 4x.  The defense softcap for pulling a whole room is now 175 defense!!!
  • 4-Star Avs have a base to-hit (defense soft cap) of 95!
    • Most of those AVs also have tactics for a to-hit (defense soft cap) of 120!
    • If you go and pull a whole room, with a 4x stack of tactics, that AV will end up with a to-hit (defense soft cap) 195 defense!!!  (Don't forget to wave to the tank defense hard-cap across the street)
  • Barrier's max defense is very short lived, you'll need 2 to 4 of them cycling.
  • DDR is a massive issue in the ITF, you'll need 2x Ageless Radial cycling to prevent cascade failure.
  • Make friends with a Defender.  Offer them all you can eat free: Fresh from the vein Blood, Dixie Cincinnati Style Chilli, Imported Mexican Coca-Cola, Virgil's Rootbeer, Graeter's Ice Cream, and Krispy Kreme Donuts.

 

Proc Built Tanks 

• Spoiler

  Not really.  For standard content a 350 dps tank is very doable, but that tank in 4-Star hardmode wills squish like a grape.

  Outside of T9s, the below conceptualizes what you're asking.

   

  My scrapper cheats, pushes near the max dps for an armored scrapper build, but uses T9s to get away with it.  As a main-tank on 4-Star you will *NOT* have the luxury of using T9s, you have to be hardened 24/7 no gaps. The T9s can skew things, but also at a cost.   When I solo the 2-Star, I frequently have to wait 15s or so, before engaging the next group.   Teamed I inevitably die because someone dove it too soon, people start dropping like flies, and my T9s have 10 or 15 more seconds to recharge, and take 10 seconds to execute and pull up full armor.  That's 25 seconds total, and if I'm solo, that's 25seconds between each pull.  Meanwhile Leroy has charged in and gotten the whole dang team wiped, I'm pulling up my armors, need 1.5 seconds to finish animating ..... *SPLAT*.   This happens so often it's just not even funny anymore.

   

  "Guys, give me just a second to finish here.  Then I'll show you where to land on the <TEAM WIPE>"

  "Uh, too late.  I was gonna say 'where to land on the beach and pull and separate so they don't insta-wipe us.'"

   

                   Squish                                                    Semi-Immortal

                   700 DPS ................ 400 DPS ................ 100 DPS

  Scrapper   ###################

  Brute                           ##################

  Tank                                               ##################

   

...

Edited August 22, 2022 by Linea

[KaizenSoze]

We had a fun four player two run with Linea. Still took 2:30+. Times will improve a lot once folks get used to the TF.

 

@Linea

Have you tried ASF with the new aggro rules?

Edited July 12, 2022 by KaizenSoze

[Linea]

14 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

Have you tried ASF with the new aggro rules?

No, but it shouldn't really change much.  I don't plan on ever repeating any of these 16+ hour solo runs. Never, Ever.  I just do it

• As a measure of how difficult they are by how far I can get solo.
• That they can in fact be run successfully.   If I can solo a 2-Star then in theory (almost) any random team of 8 (preferably Tier 4) Incarnates of dubious build should be able to do it as well.

 

Quote

We had a fun Four Player Two-Star run with Linea. Still took 2:30+.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Linea

[Vanden]

Probably about 35-40 of those deaths were mine. As a Defender built for +Recharge, I didn't have a whole lot of defense and kept getting pasted. 😬 Phantom Army was invaluable to keep the squishies alive (which was all of us except Linea).

[KaizenSoze]

1 minute ago, Vanden said:

Probably about 35-40 of those deaths were mine. As a Defender built for +Recharge, I didn't have a whole lot of defense and kept getting pasted. 😬 Phantom Army was invaluable to keep the squishies alive (which was all of us except Linea).

I thought you did a good job keeping us upright.  I was happy with my blasters performance, the slow and drain were effective.

 

But yes, the Illusion pets took most of the aggro and possession attempts.

[Linea]

Just now, Vanden said:

Phantom Army was invaluable

Preach It!    You can't say praise Phatom Army enough.  They saved us countless deaths, particularly vs the Hostless.  Those things are pure death.

[Vanden]

10 minutes ago, Linea said:

They saved us countless deaths, particularly vs the Hostless.  Those things are pure death.

 

Indeed, pure death, and we didn't even have to deal with the gangeldoppers they'll eventually spawn.

[Ironblade]

7 hours ago, The Curator said:

New Advanced Difficulty - Imperious Task Force

• Advanced Difficulty includes a brand new boss fight and badge for defeating them!

 

And the description of the new badge is just: "Defeat the new boss encounter in the Imperious Task Force on Advanced Difficulty."

 

Question:  When it says 'Advanced', does that mean ALL FOUR advanced difficulty levels spawn the new boss and badge opportunity?

[Dombloo]

1 minute ago, Ironblade said:

 

And the description of the new badge is just: "Defeat the new boss encounter in the Imperious Task Force on Advanced Difficulty."

 

Question:  When it says 'Advanced', does that mean ALL FOUR advanced difficulty levels spawn the new boss and badge opportunity?

 

It can be done on any one of the Advanced Difficulty settings, and will only need to be done once; it's related to a fight that cannot be avoided in the task force so no need to worry about missing it. 🙂

[Zappalina]

I would recommend that it be possible to get a 'flashback' version of this task force set up or ready to go in the Ourborous without the nictus elements to their attacks, to the villain groups in this task force. 

[AustinSmith]

2 hours ago, Zappalina said:

I would recommend that it be possible to get a 'flashback' version of this task force set up or ready to go in the Ourborous without the nictus elements to their attacks, to the villain groups in this task force. 

Original ITF isn't going away or changing, you just don't set it to a challenge mode when you talk to Imperious

[Ukase]

We ran this at the 2 star mode earlier today. 

Just really one request: 
The hostless nictus dudes, whatever you call them..it's an interesting mechanic, I thought it was clever. 
But, I did find it a bit frustrating for them to seemingly show up within seconds of each other. I would suggest you limit their arrival to no more than 2-3 per minute. I don't know what their spawn rate is, and it may vary with star mode, but there were times when they seemed to be like cockroaches in a Louisiana when you turn the light on; scurrying about everywhere. 

 

[GM Impervium]

They spawn off Bosses and EBs, iirc. If you can somehow blitz large groups without dying, the Hostless will make you pay for it! Slow it down, watch your target(s), and watch your six!

[brattycommissar2]

i know i've been a negative nancy in other threads about changes but this is genuinely a thing of beauty that i want to see more of

[Linea]

4-Star Master of ITF ... I dare ya! 😜

 

This is a good reason to have more than one tank-like character per team.  What do you do when your main tank gets taken out?!?

 

I think there are some visual queues as well?  I can't swear to the mechanic, I just did it first, analyze it later.  If it's a Boss/EB with the black aura, I bounce back after the kill shot and wait a couple of seconds before diving back in.  Of course this is much harder to execute on a team.

 

I think I would prefer them to be named "Infused Elite Praefectus"  or somesuch, so they are easy to watch out for.   Of course they might already be and I just missed it in the giant furballs of the fights we were in.

 

[laudwic]

Just an observation and not trying to derail by focusing on this one area, but what the heck with the 10 Mag Confusion defense? 

 

At two star boss class enemies have have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection

At three star Lieutenant class enemies and above have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection

At four star all enemy classes have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection

 

There has been a repeated theme related to the Mind Control power set being less attractive due to lack of a pet, it's top power being lackluster especially compared to a tier 5 power in Plant Control, and the general dislike of confuse among other player because it 'costs' them xp.  (I know the responses to that argument, and there are great threads about how that isn't really your damage and the speed it adds to defeating foes results in a net gain but it is still something that you run into.  The dislike is still there whether correct or not.) 

 

Now two powers in that set, Confuse and Mass Confusion, are essentially useless at tier 4, a joke at tier three, and almost pointless at tier one by adding the 10 Mag Confusion Defense.

 

I'm all for Mind Control getting a review, I've even made suggestions in the past, but, man, I don't see why anyone would bring a Mind Controller or Dominator in a Tier 4 challenge setting Strike Force with all enemies the 10 mag Protection against not only the tier 4 power but also your top tier power. 

[KaizenSoze]

2 minutes ago, laudwic said:

Now two powers in that set, Confuse and Mass Confusion, are essentially useless at tier 4, a joke at tier three, and almost pointless at tier one by adding the 10 Mag Confusion Defense.

 

I'm all for Mind Control getting a review, I've even made suggestions in the past, but, man, I don't see why anyone would bring a Mind Controller or Dominator in a Tier 4 challenge setting Strike Force with all enemies the 10 mag Protection against not only the tier 4 power but also your top tier power. 

My guess, just a guess, is that this is prevent solo'er using non-notifying confuses to cheese their way through the TFs.

 

There are multiple videos of folks abusing non-notifying confuse to get the EB and AVs to do all the dirty work. Even if it takes 20 mins of continuous re-casting of confuse.

 

I think the devs are going to clamp down on that. Probably the same reason Symphony control's confuse does damage.

 

Still, two casts of Domination Confuse will overwhelming that protection. At least, until the mobs fire, Shout of Command, which itself gives mag 10 confuse resistance in an 30 AOE, but for only 15 seconds.

 

Shout of Command has always been in the ITF. The ITF in general has always been hard on CC ATs.

 

Note, though the mobs are very weak to slows.

[GM Impervium]

17 minutes ago, laudwic said:

Just an observation and not trying to derail by focusing on this one area, but what the heck with the 10 Mag Confusion defense? 

 

At two star boss class enemies have have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection

At three star Lieutenant class enemies and above have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection

At four star all enemy classes have inherent magnitude 10 Confuse protection

 

There has been a repeated theme related to the Mind Control power set being less attractive due to lack of a pet, it's top power being lackluster especially compared to a tier 5 power in Plant Control, and the general dislike of confuse among other player because it 'costs' them xp.  (I know the responses to that argument, and there are great threads about how that isn't really your damage and the speed it adds to defeating foes results in a net gain but it is still something that you run into.  The dislike is still there whether correct or not.) 

 

Now two powers in that set, Confuse and Mass Confusion, are essentially useless at tier 4, a joke at tier three, and almost pointless at tier one by adding the 10 Mag Confusion Defense.

 

I'm all for Mind Control getting a review, I've even made suggestions in the past, but, man, I don't see why anyone would bring a Mind Controller or Dominator in a Tier 4 challenge setting Strike Force with all enemies the 10 mag Protection against not only the tier 4 power but also your top tier power. 

This was brought up in closed beta. It's basically an anti-cheesing method for higher tiers of difficulty (which, after all, won't be so hard if you could get all the enemies to fight each other most of the time). As @KaizenSoze said, Cimmys have always been a bit tougher against CC, so in this case, it's not so bad. However, there's a bit of a bone thrown towards Controllers/Dominators in hard mode ITF: There's a variation of the Recluse Towers mechanic where MEZZING one of the AV's buffers will actually be a better strategy than killing it. Since details weren't stated in the patch notes, I won't say much more than that.

[Bill Z Bubba]

Question: Why isn't Tenacious locked at +1/x8?

[Spaghetti Betty]

I tried soloing 1-Star at +1x8. I am too weak willed. I trudged through group after group, but after helplessly dying to possession for the 2nd time, I gave up.

 

Can't wait to try this with a team though. Cool stuff.

[GM Impervium]

7 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Question: Why isn't Tenacious locked at +1/x8?

There was a bit of push back on that, as it would be needlessly punishing towards non-incarnate/non shifted /small teams looking to get their feet wet. Tenacious is meant to be a window into hard mode, not uber punishing by itself.

[Cobalt Arachne]

7 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Question: Why isn't Tenacious locked at +1/x8?

It was originally, actually, but since it's meant to be the shallow end of the pool of the advanced difficulty we wanted people to have the freedom to play in it and splash around, so they feel comfortable enough to throw themselves into the deeper difficulties later on.

[Cobalt Arachne]

40 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Just did the same. Can't say I'm a fan of a mechanism that can hold a tank through double stacked active defense and breakfrees and then insta-kills you with no hope of escape. What's the mag on that hold? 100?

The hostless Nictus actually have designed counter-measures baked in for soloists.

Defeated Cimeroran Traitor bosses and elite bosses play a very distinct sound and emit a visual cloud of odorous smoke prior to one of the hostless Nictus spawning.

These hostless Nictus can't move from where they spawned, and after 45-seconds if they haven't possessed anyone, will wither and die automatically. Their initial range for the body hijacking chain is only 20ft, meaning a player can notice the Nictus is about to spawn, move away to be out of their range, and they'll die on their own.

The fancy advanced difficulty mechanics like the Golden Brickernauts in the Aeon Strike Force always have a couple intentional methods added in which to deal with them, the Nictus have them too.

You can either:
1. Move away before it appears, then either wait for it wither in 45 seconds or shoot it from outside it's range.
2. If on a team ensure you're somewhere they can respond by either killing the Nictus, or mezzing it (mag 6), which causes the possession to fail and leaves them as sitting ducks.
3. Be a Kheldian; the hostless Nictus can't possess Peacebringers or Warshades since they're already hosts to an energy being.

The reward for killing the hostless Nictus (but not if they wither) is a PBAoE 45 second buff that increases everyone's damage by 50%, recharge by 30%, and 64-95% (depends on the level of the Nictus) resistance to Lethal/Negative which is likely to resist cap you for those 45 seconds. So they're not purely a nuisance, and swiftly dealing with them as they appear grants a really good buff to everyone nearby that is specially tooled to be effective against the ITF's baddies.

Obviously, unlike the Brickernauts where you just die, failing to deal with a hostless Nictus results in the Nictus taking your body, juiced-up with their energy, to use your own powers against your team, so the benefits/penalties equal out.

[laudwic]

16 minutes ago, GM Impervium said:

This was brought up in closed beta. It's basically an anti-cheesing method for higher tiers of difficulty (which, after all, won't be so hard if you could get all the enemies to fight each other most of the time). As @KaizenSoze said, Cimmys have always been a bit tougher against CC, so in this case, it's not so bad. However, there's a bit of a bone thrown towards Controllers/Dominators in hard mode ITF: There's a variation of the Recluse Towers mechanic where MEZZING one of the AV's buffers will actually be a better strategy than killing it. Since details weren't stated in the patch notes, I won't say much more than that.

 

 

Mezzing the henchmen has always been a valid tactic whether it was Skyraiders Force Field Generators or making Tsoo Sorcerers your personal unreliable teleporting healbots.  I remember using confuse on AVs (from illusion control with only a duration SO in it) back on live in the early days to have the AV soften up or clear all the mobs around it.  The problem with confuse is nothing new. 

 

With this being said, I think the 10 Mag Protection on bosses and below is overkill.  

 

Yes, you could have them confused battles to the death, but think about how long that would take to confuse low level mob to fight other low level mobs to completion.  I don't see a team having patience for that, and if someone is going to spend hours to try to make that work, my God let them. 

 

If your worried about cheesing then put some extra protection on EBs and up.  With the advent of the purple triangles, even when you got them confused, it was hard, not impossible with the right builds, to have it for a decent duration.  Adding the mag protection will make it harder to have a longer duration or perma confuse (I haven't seen it but read that it was possible to perma confuse an AV on this forum).  That gives less time of an EB or AV slaughtering everything else in the spawn.   That seems to meet your goal without, essentially, nerfing a power set except we throw them a bone where they can do one thing at one point in one mission of the whole Strike Force that's cool.    Hopefully the player hasn't dropped and is still awake for their moment of usefulness.  Better hope they don't miss.

 

All ATs should be able to be fully involved, not a one trick pony at the end. 

 

To put it another way, how do you think players of Blaster ATs will be that they can't use their nuke until the end, and only against one specific foe?

 

I appreciate the game and all you all do, but I really don't get this change.  (Don't get me started on lack of a Clown Mastermind set, though.)