UberGuy

OK, so this is interesting. It seems that Lady Winter actually has the stats of whatever is appropriate for your mission settings. I just went in on a Corruptor who's settings were +2/x4, and when I looked at LW with the Power Analyzer Mk III, I was surprised to find that she had the HP of a level 52 EB.

Somehow, since she uses the GM scaling code, I assumed that she was a fixed-level entity, like the GMs we meet in zones, or the Rikti and Zombies in the various invasions. She's not like that, though. She's whatever she should be in your mission, based on your level and your settings.

This has some interesting implications. For toHit-roll purposes, you always attack her as though she's +0. Thanks to the way GM scaling works, since she's actually higher level than me, I damage her as though she's one level lower than me - level 49. But that's counted against her level 52 EB HP. That's a lot better than normal. Normally, I would deal 80% of my total damage to a +2 critter. However, thanks to the GM scaling rules, I get to do 111% damage.

A level 52 EB has a whopping 0.6% extra HP compared to a level 50 EB. So if this is really the regular GM scaling rules, and you're level 40+, you're going to be better off setting the mission to +1 and getting the bonus to damage, because your damage will go up way more than her HP will.

OK, the level 32 DM/Regen Stalker took me a few tries, because I was trying to do it without inspirations or Accolades. After dying, I reset the mish because I wanted to start from the top with her having full HP. I think my biggest problem is I am spoiled by my 50s and not proficient with such a slot-starved relative lowbie. Also, some of my powers have yellow SOs.

I got her on the third try, again with the kiting. I actually had a lot more success with a more aggressive approach, using terrain to break line of sight, re-establishing hide, then running a samurai pass at her to get a critical. When Placate recharged, I would use that to get her to quiesce long enough to get an AS off, land one other blow, then jump away. This character is a flier, but that doesn't provide much burst travel speed, so I was actually just doing this with Sprint (and or course, Swift and Hurdle, neither of which have anything slotted).

Something I probably didn't make clear is that I think I have a very good basis for before/after comparisons on the patch. I have a Dark/Dark/Power Defender and a Dark/Dark/Power Corruptor. (Long story, that probably wouldn't have happened if we'd been able to side switch earlier.) With the solo +damage bonus for Defenders, the Defender actually has a slightly larger damage per attack before Scourge, because the solo bonus puts an ED-slotted Defender at the same damage as an ED-slotted Corruptor, both characters have Assault and Assault's bonus is bigger for a Defender. The two characters have very similar slotting, and if anything the Corruptor's is better for DPS. (I need to backport some of the build improvements to the Defender, actually).

I fought a +2 Trapdoor on my DDD before the patch, and he was basically a breeze without any use of Howling Twilight. As all can see, for my DDC, using HT made him very manageable, but I did have to be very active in defeating his Bifurcations to defeat him in a relatively short time. IMO, the difference in having to use HT and not is a pretty big deal.

I too think most of the merit vendors are fugly. There are one or two that I think look OK, mostly because they have most of a full set of some thematic pieces. But most of them look very much like someone hit "random" in the CC, having pieces that have no thematic or textural relation to one another on various parts of their body.

I can deal with the color scheme, though I don't find it especially attractive. But the lack of component coordination is pretty ridiculous.

One of the things I think is bad about it is that the Merit Vendors are one of the most intrusive examples of something game mechanical seeping unexplained into the game environment I can think of. Even if it is a thin veneer of lore, WW and the BM both have a backstory, as do the crafting tables in the universities, and even the "bin of stuff" in Fort Trident or for Cerberus. But no one and nothing explains the Merit Vendors. They just showed up, unexplained (in a lore sense) all over Paragon and the RI. For them to be ugly on top of it just makes them feel, overall, like someone didn't care and/or was rushed to get them in.

And that bugs me.

OK, my demo of my Dark/Dark Corr vs +2 EB Trapdoor finished uploading. The YouTube link is here.

I don't claim it to be any great shakes. I'm mostly posting it so people can see what I was doing, and something about what my character is like. I have lots of stats monitored on screen, but the YouTube version is kind of fugly, so it's hard to read. Let me know if you want to know more.

Here's the character's build.

Also, the snowmen aren't the only source. You got canes for completing the BNY mish and for clicking presents and getting a "nice" also.

I got all my canes last year from speed runs of the BNY mish. I earned them much more quickly than I got them from blasting snowmen.

Sorry then. It was a pretty direct reply to me, and it expressed what seemed to be umbrage at my lack of identifying (something in) the room, so it seemed to be directing something negative my way.

No worries, though.

As of yesterday's patch, I can say with confidence that Trapdoor is noticeably harder. I cannot defeat him as a +2 EB on my Dark/Dark Corruptor without relying on the -regen in Howling Twilight and/or the lava. In fact, I can't keep him out of the lava any more, because I have to spend so much more time running around to defeat his Bifurcations. However, having him off on the side is now actually a significant inconvenience, because you have to go further away (and thus take more time) to find and then get to Bifurcations on the other side of the ... thing he's standing on at the start.

I've faced him twice now on this character, and defeated him once, but I've reset the mission both times to see if I can do it faster without relying on inspirations (I haven't used any yet) or without lowering my difficulty.

My second run basically went to hell because I tried to brute through the Bifurcations. With three active bifurcations, he was visibly healing while I attacked him, standing in lava, and immediately after I hit him with Howling Twilight (-500% regen for 30 seconds). I was getting low on end, and clearly had done worse than my first try, so I went ahead and reset it again.

Difficulty of the encounter aside, it's my opinion that this amount of chasing bifurcations (which I understand is a mix of his upgraded behavior and my difficulty settings) is pretty tedious.

Edit:

OK, third try, I defeated him as a +2 EB in about 2 minutes and 20 seconds. I did rely heavily on Howling Twilight to do it, but I not only didn't use the lava, I intentionally immobilized him on top of the tank (or whatever it is) so that I could go after Bifurcations from a central location.

I think what this suggests as a strategy for folks who are having a hard time beating his regen, is getting your hands on an [Envenomed Dagger]. When he pops a Bifurcation, stab him with the dagger and go running to find and defeat the Bifurcation. Each stab of the dagger that lands buys you 10 seconds where he likely will not benefit from the Bifurcation's existence.

I did FRAPS the fight. I'll see what my options are for uploading it to YouTube or somewhere similar. I don't presently have an account anywhere for it, and it's not a good size to upload for raw download.

I didn't carry that many blues, but I did carry four Tier 3 ones, Geas of the Kind ones / Force of Nature, and usually a Curse Breaker.

The latter two not everyone will have of course. As I've said, I'm not real fond of the Curse's mechanics, or that the simplest way to beat them are to be swimming in Vanguard Merits.