Aerik
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Posts
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Joined
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Define "dead". Like no one said something for 5 minutes? Or you logged in and didn't see another player for 4 hours running around 10 different city zones?
Yes, we don't have the thriving population of PvPers and PLers that live over on Freedom. We don't have the RP crowd that spawns 6 Pocket Ds every night on Virtue. But we do have a great community of players in LB and LFA and other channels that keep Liberty going day after day. We may not be the most talkative bunch but I know that if the silence is getting to me I can always say something and get a conversation going.
Having been elsewhere that was truly "dead" (other dying games, et al) I can say that I've never been more impressed with the CoH population. Yes, it's not nearly as great as it was 6 years ago, but I'm fine with that. I didn't like wall-to-wall people like the big city of Virtue. I moved to the quiet suburbs of Liberty and found a great group of people here that like to have fun and aren't too uptight about not having your bio filled out ((or whether or not you have this kind of accent)). -
I'm going to take a slightly different approach here...
I'm all for taking time on TFs. Especially if I've never done them before. I actually read the fluff text and like the background stories that get put into this game. Beats constant storyline reboots and rehashes from other comic books. And, no deals with the devil...
However, there is something appealing to a speed run beyond the "getting things done" aspect. Speed runs require you to know your character inside and out. You have to know your limits and be willing to push right up against them. The ability to know a TF inside and out to the point where a normal operation turns into a carefully choreographed ballet makes the game fun for me. Kind of like watching Minority Report, when Tom Cruise is told exactly where to stand to avoid being detected or Paycheck when Ben Affleck has all the right tools to win exactly when he needs them.
Think about it like this: what would comics look like if the Justice League tried to stop a group of bank robbers? Not the super-powered variety. More like Skulls. It would be a total mismatch, right? Flash would disarm them before they drew their weapons. Batman and Wonder Woman would have them tied up before they could turn around. Superman would fly them out to the police before the bank tellers knew what happened. To the rest of the world, it would look incredibly fast because the heroes were too much for their opposition. Now extend that into the game. Thanks to Incarnate powers and IOs, we are now more than a match for many things in the game, especially the original content like Eden or the Sewer Trial. If you look at all the newer content, like the Incarnate Trials or the RWZ TFs, you'll notice they have been redesigned to compartmentalize the experience. No shortcuts, no sequence breaks. You do things the way the devs want in the order they want them done. Not any less fun, but designed to lessen the impact of speeding.
Before you pass final judgement on speedrunning, head over to http://tasvideos.org. That's the console game speedrunning archive. There, you can watch people using every available resource to beat NES games as fast as humanly possible. Watch those videos and ask yourself whether or not speeding can be fun. -
We noticed this on our successful MoLam run. We started calling him "Zombie Marauder". The reason is because he's statistically below 1% health, but when he has 100,000 HP and massive resistances, he's still got a fair amount of HP to work off at 0%. Just make sure to pile on the damage at the last second, including tons of Judgement nukes if that's what it takes.
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A note about the builds above: VEATs have no access to APP pools other than the Patron pools. So Body Mastery is out.
Shatter Armor will cause mace redraw, but if you open the fight with it to reduce resistance, you can go right into your claw attack chain and use the -res effectively. -
I switched mains to my Fortunata after I found out how truly awesome they could be. But what makes Sicaridae so much fun is that she's mean.
- You know how people tell you to go play in traffic? After Sicaridae looks at you, you feel the urge to go without being told.
- After disrespecting Sicaridae, you might find large portions of your childhood memories missing.
- Before you open your mouth to speak, Sicaridae has already slapped you for your comment.
- Sicaridae is so mean that after she glares at puppies, they kick themselves.
- Westin Phipps tells her to chill out. Regularly.
- Sicaridae makes her team fight harder and better out of fear of what she'll do to them if they don't.
- Every gust of wind Statesman feels on the back of his neck makes him turn around to be sure it wasn't Sicaridae.
- Sicaridae doesn't need Fallout or Vengeance. She'll hurl her teammates bodies at her opponents if that's what it takes to win.
Now, as for Aerik...you punch him a lot. He heals. That's about all he's got. -
Mace Mastery does have some decent powers. And Shatter Armor is never bad because it does resistance debuff on top of the damage. The only 'bad' part about Mace Mastery is the mace redraw when you use the power. It shouldn't affect your DPS, but some people are just annoyed by the constant weapon redraws. If you want strong DPS with some synergy, I'd go with Soul Mastery. Gloom is wicked DPS for Forts, and Dark Obliteration is gravy on top of the AoE madness. But, if you want a concept or if Ghost Widow gives you the creeps, go ahead. As long as you don't pick Shark Boy, you shouldn't get a bad patron pick.
As for more global recharge, you're going to need a fair amount to get Mind Link perma or close to perma. You need about 140% global recharge to perma Mind Link. You can get 70% of that from Hasten. If you have slotted 5 LotGs, thats another 37.5%. You can then slot Posi's Blasts or Decimations. If budget is no limit, you can also slot a lot of purple sets. I've got a set slotted in Confuse and Dark Obliteration. If you slot a set in a ranged attack as well as Psy Wail, you should be pretty close to perma Hasten as well as Perma Mind Link. If you're going to try it without Hasten, you're going to need a ton of help. It could be done, but I think you'd sacrifice slotting on non-key powers or be forced to take bad powers for the sake of set bonuses. I'd much rather take Hasten and slot my blasts effectively. -
IIRC, there was one of these during the 5th anniversary event festivities in Atlas Park. I remember that there was a lot of confusion around the event at first due to the large number of people at the AP AE screaming about 'meow' farms at the time.
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Nope, there is currently no power customization for VEATs or HEATs. I think it's on the board, but whether it comes before or after pool customization is anybody's guess.
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Okay, I'm trying to figure out where you were going with this build. Is it straight +def? Are you going to try to be a blastroller, or just a regular troller? Some thoughts:
1. Poison Dart is going to cause redraw. I'm playing around with putting it in my build at some point, but the jury is still out. Slot it with 6 Thunderstrikes or 5-slot with Decimations.
2. Take Subdue at level 2 and slot it with Thunderstrikes. Trust me.
3. If you really are wanting a +def build, change the slotting in Mental Blast. You gain a lot from the first 3-4 pieces, but the last two don't really help you. Lest I sound like a broken record, Thunderstrike is your friend here as well.
4. Dominate is slotted like a hold. I much prefer slotting it with (you guessed it) Thunderstrikes and treating it like a ranged attack that just happens to hold. You keep the same ranged def, and gain a recovery bonus and a run speed increase.
5. Mask Presence is a little overslotted for my tastes. You don't really get much defense out of in in reality, since it suppresses down to 2.5-3%. Just slot it with enough End Redux to keep it up a lot.
6. If you've got purples in your build, you've got enough money to put Membrane HOs in Mind Link. 3 slots is more than enough. 4 if you need a place to put a LotG recharge.
7. Confuse and Aura of Confusion in the same build? Is that just for the set bonuses?
8. Psychic Wail should be slotted with Obliteration. That gives you a recharge bonus and 3.75% Melee. That, along with CT
and Foresight should get you pretty close to the melee softcap.
9. 5-slotted Vengeance? With Numina? You can't get the bonus without the 6th piece, which is wasted in Vengie. If you REALLY want to 6-slot Numina somewhere, put it in Health.
Now, for some of the other things I don't see in the build:
Mez Protection?
Foresight?
IMHO, Lunge belongs on a Night Widow.
Missing Gloom (Great DPS for a Fort)
Combat Jumping?
I'm guessing this is a post-i19 build due to the lack of Fitness. BTW, Stamina 6-slotted is a great place to sink Performance Shifter, which gives you an AoE def bonus for 6 slots.
Since I don't want to seem too picky, I'll share my current live build:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.803
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Sicaridae: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Widow
Primary Power Set: Fortunata Training
Secondary Power Set: Fortunata Teamwork
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Telekinetic Blast- (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
- (7) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
- (7) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
- (11) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
- (11) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (39) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
- (39) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge
- (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
- (3) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
- (3) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
- (5) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (5) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (39) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
- (15) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge
- (15) Red Fortune - Endurance/Recharge
- (37) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge
- (40) Red Fortune - Defense
- (48) Red Fortune - Endurance
- (A) Run Speed IO
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (9) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (9) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (13) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (13) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (34) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Titanium Coating - Endurance
- (50) Titanium Coating - Resistance
- (50) Titanium Coating - Resistance/Endurance
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (40) Recharge Reduction IO
- (40) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage
- (17) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance
- (17) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge
- (19) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (19) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (48) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
- (46) Miracle - +Recovery
- (48) Miracle - Heal
- (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
- (21) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy
- (21) Performance Shifter - EndMod
- (31) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
- (23) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Recharge
- (31) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
- (A) HamiO:Membrane Exposure
- (25) HamiO:Membrane Exposure
- (25) HamiO:Membrane Exposure
- (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff
- (27) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge
- (27) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance
- (29) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance
- (29) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
- (31) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (43) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (50) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Obliteration - Damage
- (33) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
- (33) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
- (33) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (34) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (34) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage
- (A) Coercive Persuasion - Confused
- (36) Coercive Persuasion - Confused/Recharge
- (36) Coercive Persuasion - Accuracy/Confused/Recharge
- (36) Coercive Persuasion - Accuracy/Recharge
- (37) Coercive Persuasion - Confused/Endurance
- (37) Coercive Persuasion - Contagious Confusion
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage
- (42) Devastation - Damage/Endurance
- (42) Devastation - Damage/Recharge
- (42) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (43) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (43) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (A) Ragnarok - Damage
- (45) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge
- (45) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (45) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge
- (46) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance
- (46) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
Level 1: Brawl- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
- (A) Empty
Level 6: Ninja Run
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This one is softcapped to Melee and Ranged with Mask Presence suppressed, and when I fire Mind Link, I'm softcapped to all positions. ML is only down for about 20 seconds if Hasten isn't up, and Hasten is about 10 seconds from perma.
I'm playing around with adding Pool Maneuvers after i19 goes live, as well as changing some slotting around to accommodate a Shield Wall +3% def global. I figure that should get me very close to softcapped to all positions without the use of ML, depending on how I rework the sets.
In closing, it might help you a little to think about what you want to do with your Fort. Do you want to be a blastroller (like Sicaridae above)? Or maybe more of a pure controller/dominator with the AoE hold and Scramble Thoughts? Rather than just picking powers because you can slot +def sets, pick a concept for the character and find out what sets you can work into the powers you took. And remember to have fun with your Fort. I've got two myself that are quite different, and I love them each for what the are. -
The 'new' merits are for staying true to your side (i.e. Hero or Villain) and as such are referred to as Alignment Merits. You earn them by doing tips and morality missions and choosing to stay hero or villain as opposed to becoming a rogue or vigilante. The first time you 'reinforce' your hero/villain alignment, you earn 60 regular reward merits. The next time, you earn 1 Alignment Merit. You earn 1 AM for each reinforcement of your alignment thereafter. You can also buy these merits, but it costs you reward merits as well as 20 million inf. These merits are forfeit if you change alignments.
Why are they better, you ask? Because they have a drastically higher buying power. 2 AMs allows you to buy any recipe that you could buy from a reward merit vendor. LotG 7.5%, Numina unique, Miracle unique, you name it. For 20-25 AMs, you can buy any single purple recipe in the game. For 30-35 AMs, you can buy any PvP recipe in the game. So, if you really need that Panacea proc or Ragnarok set you can finally buy one instead of waiting for it to drop.
The catch with AMs is that you are limited by how many you can earn. Since there is a 20 hour lockout in respect to tips/alignment missions, you can only earn 1 AM every 20 hours, approximately. You can buy one, but the high price means you won't be able to keep cashing money and reward merits in for long. In this way, the market still stays viable as a way to purchase purples/PvP recipes, but at the same time regular players that don't have access to billions of inf can eventually earn purples/PvP stuff even though it might take a month or so per recipe. -
We can't test the new version of Siege since I never saw him in the arc. If he's available as a one-shot mission from Maria I'll have to go back and test.
As for Nightstar, I'm sure it's a model issue. I've noticed the same thing with the Oro badging stuff. If I try to do the old Clockwork King mission from Oro and use the pillar to teleport to the contact, I get an error saying the crystal doesn't know where to send you. I'm guessing it's because the mission is referencing the old contact (which may still be somewhere in the world), and I can't be teleported to that location. Tina did it for the CWK mission, and Maria did it for the Marauder badge mission as well as A Hero's Hero arc. I'm gonna say that's probably because the old arcs have to reference an entity like MariaJenkins.old in order to keep all the arcs straight. Maybe the files are still pointing to Nightstar as a requirement for Dimensional Warder, but the new model is called Nightstar.new (or something to that effect). Neither the one in A Hero's Epic or the Shady badge mission from Tina (which uses the updated Nightstar model) are counting for credit. -
My best guess as to what causes the shields to go back up is a timer started when the first cube's spawns are defeated. This timer also seems to affect the respawn rate. So even if you are able to defeat all the spawns around your cube, if your partner teams can't defeat theirs fast enough, the shield doesn't drop and your cube will respawn. Sometimes you get a full minute or two to beat on Rularuu, other times you get a few seconds. I think coordination is key.
Liberty has completed a hero-side and a villain-side CoP in the last two days. The key to everything is to nullify the Aspect's regen rate. Liberal use of Shivans and Envenomed Daggers is very helpful, along with Lingering Radiation and Benumb. If you can keep his regen debuffed when the respawn happens, you should have enough time to clear the cubes before the Aspect regens back to full.
When it comes to nukes/Shivans/daggers, I would suggest as many people on the team have them as possible. For each raid, we spent two hours prepping for buffs ahead of time. As for finding a way to do the CoP without nukes, it's going to be a tough strategy to figure out. The buff from a bio nuke or 3 is what it takes to survive the initial onslaught from the cubes and the Aspect. You might be able to replicate that with 1-2 Empaths per team, but that would cut down on your damage/debuff potential. Likewise, overloading the teams with Kinetic/Radiation/Cold debuffers cuts into your survivability/damage output. -
Okay, can you let me know who completed the first Liberty CoP so I can send them some congrats and other things? I'll need a full list of all their names and the time the first trial was completed so I can mark it down in my book. After all, I need to know who it was that organized it so quickly this afternoon and pulled it off when it took us about two hours of impromptu planning and buff collection to finish this one redside. We scoured Warburg for every scientist that ever graduated from Paragon University and launched enough nukes into orbit to make Ronald Reagan hum the theme from Star Wars.
And, based on the number of congratulations that the members of the team received in LB after completion, I'd say we were one of (if not THE) first to successfully complete it. Another team started a blueside CoP right after us, and they weren't able to complete it.
As for the clever Seinfeld reference, Desum's never been one for soup. However, he does like people to pay attention and follow the setup, especially on timed 24-man raids that need precise timing and tactics. Considering we had to shift our tactics twice during the raid and Desum was able to pull it back from the abyss of failure, I'm going to defer to him. I might even get him some soup. -
Okay, I won't lie. I don't use ML each and every time it's up on my Fort. I'm already softcapped to melee and ranged. So, when I'm running solo or just goofing off, I'll use ML if I think about it or if I run into something with boatloads of AoE attacks. Otherwise, it just sits there like a kid waiting to get put into the ballgame.
When teaming though, I use it. All. The. Frakking. Time. Even if I don't need the def boost due to 4 Maneuvers and Cold shields and Vengeance. I use it to keep the Invul brute from getting smacked by Sister Psyche when her attacks bypass his defense. I use it to help boost everyone's to-hit just a little when the cloud of rampaging Romans come barreling down the hill and all those copies of Phalanx Fighting are defending them against everything.
In short, when it's just me I don't use ML as often as I should. But when it comes to keeping the other, non-Widow/Fort teammates from dying or being less effective than me, I figure I should give them all the help I can. -
Toxic, I'm going to guess from your signature that you are running a Night Widow build. With the right build, you can have perma-ML without Hasten. It's a little pricey though.
Having said that, my personal preference is to have Hasten on auto and click ML when it's up. Two reasons behind this:
1. With Hasten on auto, I don't have to worry about missing it, therefore making ML recharge even slower. Plus, as Frog said Hasten affects all of your other powers, so it's very nice to have it running as often as possible.
2. I try to fire ML on teams whenever I can get the largest number of teammates in the area. I treat it like I treat AM or other PBAoE buffs. I fire it off and if you're lucky enough to be in the radius, you get the buff.
In the end, it comes down to personal preference. If you prefer to have the defense and not worry about getting hit in the time it takes to click ML, then have that one auto. If you want the sweet recharge bonuses and hate having slow recharge times, have Hasten on auto. Try it both ways for a level or two and see which you prefer. -
There is a price cap. 2,000,000,000 INF for an item. It just happens to be that it's also the cap on what we can carry per toon. I've seen some of the PvP goodies going for that or more, and I can guarantee that the bids on a level 53 Hami-O are in that neighborhood to park large amount of INF.
If you institute a cap for a particular item, say 100 million for a LotG +RECH, then all bids for that particular piece will always be at the cap. Since people will know exactly what someone is willing to pay for an item, there is no reason not to charge the highest possible price. Or, you may run into a situation where people stop putting that particular IO on the market and instead will only trade it with players, conveniently circumventing the market altogether (a 'real' black market). As a general rule, price ceilings on things are a great short-term stop gap measure to deal with inflation. However, when suppliers can't get the full market value for their goods, they tend to either horde supply (as Crusha said) or circumvent the system. Either way, it's bad mojo for the consumers.
For lots of charts and graphs and mind-numbingly boring prose on the subject of price ceilings, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_ceiling
I suggest it right before bed. -
That's a different build I've never seen before. More of a hybrid widow/fort. What do you consider to be your primary attack chain? I ask because you have Dominate slotted as a hold rather than an attack. Most of the builds I've seen or done slot it as a ranged attack that just happens to hold. You were probably going for the +DEF bonuses in Lockdown, but slotting Thunderstrike in there gets you a better ranged def bonus (at the expense of the AoE def bonus).
The only real drawbacks that I can see are the constant redraw from mixing claw and psi attacks and the end usage. Most people are annoyed by redraw, but if you aren't one of them you should be fine with this. As for your end usage, I think you better stock some blues. With all those toggles running, you're at about .75 EPS usage (not counting Darkest Night). You only have about 150% recovery. That is probably going to lead to you getting winded in an extended fight. Claw attacks are more end intensive, as I can attest to using a lot more endurance on my Night Widow build. My live build has about 190% recovery versus 1.01 EPS usage and I still find myself running out of endurance in a long boss or AV battle.
You build would work very well for being a hybrid character, and you've definitely got the 'cheap' part covered. What I would ask is...How cheap is cheap? Are you going for bargain-basement because you are broke? Or trying to purposely create the cheapest build possible? Because certain sets can provide you with great bonuses and can be had for (relative) pocket change. Like Thunderstrike in ranged attacks. And when you factor in merits from story arcs/TF runs, the notion of cheap IOs goes out the window. Even soloing my toons, I can amass enough merits to buy two or three of the most popular IOs (Numina, Miracle, LotG +RECH) by the time I hit 50. So work out what kind of budget you're looking at and try to work a few more sets into your build. I think you'll be more than pleased with the results. -
Quote:Good point. But who needs yucky tentacles when you have mind bullets?Originally Posted by Tramontane
Pfft, whatever.
You know you're just jealous because you don't have tentacles.
PEW PEW PEW! -
The LGTF has been 'fixed'. As in, the mito hold protection has been dropped from 53 to 10. I've run it a couple of times since the last patch and my fort and another controller were able to drop the greens so they could be eliminated.
As long as you make sure to bring 2-3 teammates with a hold of some kind, you shouldn't have any issues. -
You might say that people don't talk about Forts/Widows for a couple of reasons.
1. They are just so awesome that nothing else needs to be said.
2. They are afraid that this much awesome has to be a mistake and if they say something, Castle is going to come rain on their parade.
That being said, I enjoy my Fort immensely. So much so that she has become my go-to villain. I can fill many roles for my team. Damage dealer, non-heal buffs, stealther, light control, and so on. I brought her on a MoLGTF - Hard Mode run several time because I knew that she could contribute on every mission as well as being a toon that wasn't going to die easily.
I read a post somewhere that said that Forts are basically ranged scrappers. We have mez protection and loads of defense along with nice ranged blasting powers. I've tried my widow build from time to time and while I find it a refreshing change of pace every once in a while, I still find myself drifting back to my Fort.
I know my limitations, though. I can't tank. I can't heal. I'm not that great at debuffing anything other than recharge. But, knowing what I can accomplish allows me to fill in wherever necessary to let my team achieve the best possible results.
And, when GR comes out, I'll be sure to head over to the hero side of things and show the capes how awesome a real EAT can be. -
Ah, I remember that. Flying around, noticing that Astoria looked a lot like Steel Canyon, only with a giant graveyard.
As corny as it may be, I think the fog makes the atmosphere a lot more sinister and hides the fact that the zone isn't all that original. Besides, flying through there on a Citadel, hoping I don't smack into building that comes out of nowhere helps break up the monotony of 'arresting' Council for like 30 straight missions. -
On our run previous to the badging run pictured from last night, we hit a wall with our controllers. We had 1 tank, 1 brute, 1 fort, and 5 controllers. However, one of them was an Illusion that didn't take Blind or Flash. So, in essence we had 4 controllers and a Fort. When one of the controllers died, we were unable to hold the greens (we'd already lost the Master attempt, so we were trying new tactics). Only when all 4 holding controllers and the Fort were alive and holding were we able to shut down the mito, and even then it was 20-30 seconds before we established containment.
James, my best guess on your roadblocked run was probably critical containment. While my Fort and my Fire/Kin have similar recharges on their holds and similar slotting (for damage and not hold duration), the difference is the random critical hold that the controller gets. That allows me to pump out an extra mag or 2 of hold on average. Our run last night swapping controllers for dominators showed that the hold bonus from Domination really helped. The greens dropped in about 15-20 seconds. If you were wanting to do a "bare-bones" support run right now, I'd say you'd probably be able to get it done with 2 Doms and maybe a Fort for backup.
Another thought for those wanting to go for Hard Mode, look at other ATs with hold options. Especially multiple ranged holds. For instance, a Cold/Ice defender with the Psi APP has access to 3 ranged ST holds. Dark Defenders with Psi APP have two. Gravity and maybe Plant have access to a targeted AoE hold that doesn't require you to be in PBAoE range of the mito (I'd love to see if Volcanic Gasses worked with the greens, but the chance of the hold patch aggroing Hami would probably give my teammates heart failure). -
Quote:Yes.Originally Posted by Ironblade
Do people not bother reading before complaining?
We know it's too high. The devs know it's too high. Castle has already fixed it. It just hasn't gotten to the live servers yet.
Yes, I know that Castle fixed it on an internal build. Yes, I know that build has to pass QA before hitting Test and going live. Yes, I know that Desum and I are stubborn and wanted to get the badge anyway.
I'm pretty sure that Castle did exactly what I would have in this scenario. He looked at the problem, noticed the minus sign in front of the number, looked at his notes and set it to what he thought it was supposed to be. The person who changed it during i10 testing never bothered to document why exactly they changed the power to a negative hold protection. In the same situation I would have done what he did. I applaud his decision to change it to something more reasonable. Mag 12 is easily doable with two characters that have a ST hold. That makes it so the abberation of having a team of nothing but controllers/dominators isn't necessary to finish one specific mission.
So, then, what we are left with is that my original statement. Am I wrong? Would it be fair to change the Honoree's Unstoppable to grant him 100% resist to all AND give him capped regen? Or how about changing the Madam of Mystery to have something like 80% resists?
I learned quite a bit about different tactics through all of our runs on the MoLGTF - Hard Mode. I also learned that in certain cases, there are mechanics about the game that are very delicate. I would much rather the change happen the way that it did (going from 50 to 12) than the opposite because it was decided that the encounter was just too easy even with the change. That being said, we also need to take into account that certain things need to be balanced around certain encounter sizes. The reason why it's the 'Weakened' Hamidon is that no team of 8 players is capable of taking it on as it exists in the Hive and the Abyss. In fact, on the couple of live Hami raids I've been a part of, 50 people have had issues on the 'real' Hami.
AVs aren't pushovers. Despite what the wunderkinds in the Scrapper forums have shown, AVs are not to be trifled with. But, they are killable because they aren't invincible. Even our powersets are balanced around the idea that max resist and regen should be mutually exclusive. A regen scrapper with Granite Armor resistance levels would be horribly broken.
I like the idea of the Hamidon encounter, don't get me wrong. It makes the whole LGTF seem epic. I mean, our last-ditch effort to save the world from annihilation rests on an 8-person Hami raid? Totally epic. But I also want to be able to finish that raid. Do I want it to be a pushover? No. But, I don't want to have to quit because I didn't bring the right team makeup. Or one of the controllers didn't take Blind.
When the fix goes live (and I'm pretty sure it'll be in the next build that hits test) and everyone is out getting their MoLGTF badges, I'll wear mine with pride knowing that Desum and the rest of our team tried and tried and finally won through with superior tactics and a small amount of luck. And long after the infamous 'invincible green mitos' are nothing but a footnote that gets brought up in LB or VirtueUnited and is mostly forgotten, I'll still disagree with the change as it was. I will still give my congratulations to every team that succeeds, and I'll still enjoy being able to run the Lady Grey for a long time to come.
And, yes, I'll still read the Dev Digest. -
The greens are really only resistant to holds at mag 50. The reason? Holds are the only way to shut off Regenerative Aura, the green glow that caps their regen at 8.33% per second and gives them about 90% resistance to everything under the sun. Unless you can hold them and shut off that aura, you can barely dent them and they'll just regen it back within seconds. So, without holds it's pretty much a pointless endeavor. Other mezzes don't work. So immobilzes, stuns, fears, KB/KD, and confuses are worthless.
I don't know what the hold protection on the greens is in the zone raids, but in a mission where you are limited to 8 players, mag 50 is just too much. In some of our other attempts, 4 controllers couldn't hold it. Even 5 had trouble and took much longer than necessary. While I do understand that the devs wanted to make this challenging and even knowing that AVs have mag 50 protection when the PToD are up, it's a little silly to have that much hold protection on something that regens that fast with that much resistance. Every other AV in the game with insane regen (Madam of Mystery) or a metric ton of hitpoints (Reichsman or Lord Recluse in the STF) have a gadget or a trick to beating them that can be accomplished with a team of 8. Setting the greens to have similar protection to what they have in the Hive or the Abyss just frustrates players. -
Especially right after launch, the theme for most Crabs/Banes/Huntsmen has been Operative <something>. The majority of Arachnos soldiers in the game are named Operative something. I do believe that Arbiter is a reserved word now, so if you try to create a character with that name, it will fail.
As for my Widows/Fortunatas, I decided to work with the spider theme from a slightly different angle. I went to the Interwebs and found the scientific names for some of the spider families. And so, my two Forts are named Theridae (Black Widows) and Sicaridae (Brown Recluses).
Really, though, by now I think I've seen just about any kind of name for them. I'd suggest you start with a good back story. Once you've got all the details of you character fleshed out, it shouldn't be hard to pick out a very nice name.