GRRR... Why I hate Devouring Earth

[RikOz]

I've come to the conclusion that the Devouring Earth are intentionally designed and programmed to specifically counter whatever a solo character brings to the party.

 

When I do a DE mission on a character that does primarily Smashing damage, the map spawns almost entirely plant monsters (resistant to Smashing).

 

When I do a DE mission on a character that does primarily Lethal damage, the map spawns almost entirely rock monsters (resistant to Lethal).

 

Today I did a DE mission on a stalker. Here is a representative screenshot of literally every spawn on the map:

 

 

Yup, those tree monsters that remain motionless and untargetable until they actually see you, rendering Assassin's Strike useless.

[Clave Dark 5]

On the other hand, you can walk right past them.  😃

[Snarky]

6 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

On the other hand, you can walk right past them.  😃

but if its a kill all lol    you can grab some ranged P2W stuff like 'nades or maybe even a pet and let them wake the beasties, then hide/strike   I dont play a stalker...for this and similar reasons.  I find a Blaster kills faster than a Stalker solo.  And team....

[Clave Dark 5]

Solo on a stalker, I rarely use the BU+AS combo, I usually bamf into the middle and let loose an AoE, but that might just be my builds.

[Snarky]

7 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Solo on a stalker, I rarely use the BU+AS combo, I usually bamf into the middle and let loose an AoE, but that might just be my builds.

I think this was why I struggled on my stalker and switched to a Blaster.  I tried to be “traditional” and it was just taking too Fing long lol.  
 

I am enjoying my Corr.  Enough firepower to solo story arcs at +0 comfortably and then so many tricks when they bum rush you

[Glacier Peak]

Pick up the cheaper P2W police pet temporary power and summon that in the mission. They'll pop out of their tree state when the pet runs by. 

[Biff Pow]

This reminds me of an old screenshot I call The Rock Show

[RikOz]

6 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Solo on a stalker, I rarely use the BU+AS combo, I usually bamf into the middle and let loose an AoE, but that might just be my builds.

Yeah, that's what I did on that map. AoE (Rad Melee stalker in this case) to wake them up, then just scrapper them down.

[InvaderStych]

I thought this thread was going to be about those Quartz and Cairn emenator things, because those are really the only thing I hate about DE. 😄

[Yomo Kimyata]

1 hour ago, InvaderStych said:

I thought this thread was going to be about those Quartz and Cairn emenator things, because those are really the only thing I hate about DE. 😄

 

The only thing vaguely threatening about traditional DE is when a group drops 2 cairns and 1 or more quartz.  Now THAT'S interesting.  Sadly, I think Guardians stop dropping pets at 39?  That's totally something that should be fixed.

[InvaderStych]

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Sadly, I think Guardians stop dropping pets at 39?  That's totally something that should be fixed.

 

You know, now that you mention it I am not really sure.  I think I mostly run into DE during the Unity Plague arc (for those sweet RMs), which is before 39. I rarely encounter them after 40 by sheer coincidence I guess. 🤷‍♂️

 

[RikOz]

On 1/8/2023 at 10:24 AM, Supertanker said:

This reminds me of an old screenshot I call The Rock Show

 

I can't find it now, but back on live I took a screenshot of my main planking on the ground after getting slapped down by one of those giant rock monsters in Eden, or maybe The Hive. She's laid out on the ground, with a group of these guys standing over her, so I added a speech bubble to one of the monsters, saying, "Sorry for party rocking!" (timely and relevant joke at the time ...)

[Spaghetti Betty]

On 1/7/2023 at 5:15 PM, RikOz said:

 

 

I'm confused. Why would you want to attack those? They are perfectly normal trees flourishing in a natural environment. I think you are just anti-nature.

[RikOz]

On 1/8/2023 at 10:48 PM, InvaderStych said:

 

You know, now that you mention it I am not really sure.  I think I mostly run into DE during the Unity Plague arc (for those sweet RMs), which is before 39. I rarely encounter them after 40 by sheer coincidence I guess. 🤷‍♂️

 

They show up in at least two of the level 40+ hero alignment missions. Which is where I actually started noticing the phenomenon I described in the OP. My first 50 was a fire blaster, and she's more or less equally effective against both the rock and the plant monsters, and those missions tended to spawn a roughly even mix of the two types.

 

My second 50 was my dual blades scrapper, and that's when I noticed that the spawns had seemed to change to mostly rock monsters.

 

My third 50, a martial arts scrapper, pretty much confirmed it, when she started seeing those same missions spawn with mostly plant monsters. My fourth 40 was a super strength brute, again with the smashing damage, and again with seeing tons of plant monsters in those missions.

[Scientist]

Whereas I hate them because of those mezzing mushroom mobs, but only 4 or 5 of my 20 or so characters have any native mezz protection (I like playing support, what can I say).  And note that their Sleeps go through the FF Generator and similar bubbles that are in some support sets.    Its not till Clarion that I can fight them decently.  

[aethereal]

2 hours ago, RikOz said:

They show up in at least two of the level 40+ hero alignment missions. Which is where I actually started noticing the phenomenon I described in the OP. My first 50 was a fire blaster, and she's more or less equally effective against both the rock and the plant monsters, and those missions tended to spawn a roughly even mix of the two types.

 

My second 50 was my dual blades scrapper, and that's when I noticed that the spawns had seemed to change to mostly rock monsters.

 

My third 50, a martial arts scrapper, pretty much confirmed it, when she started seeing those same missions spawn with mostly plant monsters. My fourth 40 was a super strength brute, again with the smashing damage, and again with seeing tons of plant monsters in those missions.

 

I don't actually believe that this is true.  There's no way they bothered to write code to inspect the damage types of characters (over how many powers? how would they determine which powers you actually use and which ones are just in your build as forced choices or mules?) before spawning a DE mob.  Like, is it theoretically possible that this could be done?  Sure. Would anyone have bothered to do it?  Nah.

[ZemX]

On 1/8/2023 at 11:18 PM, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

The only thing vaguely threatening about traditional DE is when a group drops 2 cairns and 1 or more quartz.  Now THAT'S interesting.  Sadly, I think Guardians stop dropping pets at 39?  That's totally something that should be fixed.

 

Eh.. If you're a defense-based Stalker, you can't sleep on taking out those Quartz the instant they show up, Cairns or no Cairns.  Your defense is effectively zero while they are out there, so it's definitely a kill-them-before-they-kill-you situation.  I'd say that's more interesting than most enemy groups.    Or maybe "annoying" is more appropriate.   Fighting these guys just ends up being a frustrating game of whack-a-mole.

[RikOz]

1 hour ago, aethereal said:

 

I don't actually believe that this is true.  There's no way they bothered to write code to inspect the damage types of characters (over how many powers? how would they determine which powers you actually use and which ones are just in your build as forced choices or mules?) before spawning a DE mob.  Like, is it theoretically possible that this could be done?  Sure. Would anyone have bothered to do it?  Nah.

They'd only need to look at primary powersets, and specifically for smash/lethal, since those are the only resistances being looked at here.

 

Honestly, I think most powersets are weak against certain enemies, depending on damage type. The idea is that you identify these weaknesses and find ways to compensate for them. It wouldn't be unreasonable to think the designers might have said to themselves, "By level 40, players should have been identifying and working on these weaknesses; let's drive the message home to make sure they get it before they hit 50".

 

Still, I acknowledge that it could simply be a matter of perception, or confirmation bias: I only notice it when it happens that way. But those first three level 50 characters I mentioned (fire blaster, dual blades scrapper, martial arts scrapper) have all been at level 40 or above for upwards of three years, and they have each run those specific alignment missions many, many times (I like doing alignment missions). Once I noticed this "trend", I began to pay close attention each time one of them ran those missions, and the spawn results were very consistent. Mixed spawns for the fire blaster, rock monsters for dual blades, plant monsters for martial arts. There were occasional differences, and it was never a matter of 100% of one type of monster (well, until my stalker got that map with the immobile tree monsters--that was literally all that map had).

[TheMoncrief]

I know that whenever I play a character that depends specifically on controlling the enemy, nothing but Fungi lieutenants show up. Defense sets? Crystal lieutenants. The crystals are particularly annoying, because their eminators are called Quartz - the exact same name as the crystal minions. So while I'm desperately trying to find the specific Quartz enemy that is giving all enemies the massive to-hit buff, the entire spawn is brutally mauling me because they can no longer miss me when they attack.

 

I don't actually believe that DE spawns are actually set to counter the specific solo player they are facing - but it does feel that way sometimes. They are probably my most consistently disliked enemy faction to face, at least hero side. Villain side and Praetorian side do have some even more dislikeable enemy factions, I admit.