Techbot Alpha
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Quote:I'm always on my toes. That doesn't stop +0/x1 Syndicate mobs from utterly violating my Kin/SR scrapper, despite anything I do bar massive inspiration consumption. That doesn't stop larger than usual mobs of Ghouls from systematically pounding me into the dirt with little or no pause. That doesn't stop Resistance from laughing off my defences in one massive volleyfire, and then flooring me with the P.O.K.E of all Punch-Of-Kill-Everythings. And it doesn't stop Clockwork from having the nastiest array of debuffs since Vahzilok figured out that -recharge and -speed was the perfect ganking tool and gave it to all most his minions and all his LTs.Originally Posted by EvilGeko
Didn't say you did. I don't recall responding to your posts.
Praetoria isn't difficult. It teaches you QUICKLY to stay on your toes. +0/x1 shouldn't be a snoozefest. The only quarrel I have about Praetoria is that it does make the slowest part of the game slower. The fitness changes help with that. There are other things I would do. Lowering the difficulty isn't one of them.
That's not 'Difficult'. That's not 'Challenging'. THAT is the Computer Being a Cheating ******. And, at +0/x1, sorry, but that ain't fun. -
Quote:Maybe I'm not being clear enough here.Originally Posted by Leo_G
I didn't say *they* run, I said *you* run. Lol, if the ambush consist of 3 guys, having your Stalker kill 2 and leave a minion, you just use placate on the last guy then run away.
If you're lucky, the thing'll get stuck in the geometry of the map somewhere and you'll be rid of any new ambushes. If not, the minion will come after you again, but if you're aiming to head straight to the objective, you might finish before he catches up and if not, placate the thing again.
It's a tactic only usable for Stalkers but then Stalkers are so infamous at being hosed by these ambushes, I just thought I'd share that little trick to anyone still taking Stalkers through Preatoria.
For example, the 'Find Shen' missions.
As soon as you enter, he starts sic'ing two seperate ambushes on you. These things are twice the size of normal mobs. There are two of them, so a quadruple mob if you will. They ignore stealth, and will shoot at you as soon as they see you, likely making an AS impossible through shear weight of fire. If you run, they will follow.
By the time you've dealt with one wave, the NEXT has already headed your way. Rinse and repeat until rady to actually stab someone in the face over how damn obnoxious it is. -
Quote:Because Blueside so badly needs more zones that can swiflty become empty and derelict because they have no damn content in them!Originally Posted by McBoo
I've always thought that it would be cool if new zones were added to the game as hazard zones and then after a certain amount of time or player effort they would revert to city zones with new hazard zones added on for further exploration.
Imagine Faultline/Overbrook with gleaming, terraced city blocks built into the cliff walls over looking the newly formed lake below Overbrook Dam. The sparkling waters hide a sinister secret as the newest underwater hazard zone!
Or Dark Astoria being mostly a city zone with the occasional spooky occurrence (strange ghostly laughter, unexplained shadowy figures and a smattering of wandering NPCs drvien mad by the horrors they have seen) and random zombie attacks as the undead pour out of the Moth Cemetery hazard zone with Adamastor leading the charge!
^
Oh, wait... -
/Signed
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Quote:Originally Posted by EvilGeko
I agree. Just say no to easymode.I have nothing against harder stuff. Why else would I solo at x8 on my 50 and run LGTFs and ITFs at +4?Quote:Originally Posted by EvilGeko
Please pass along that some of us relish the added difficulty of the Praetorian content and greatly wish that it would be extended to the upper levels.
I'm not asking for something stupidly pathetic, like level 1-20 Hellions.
I'm just asking that Praetorians don't treat me the same as level 1-6 Vahzilok do, shooting you so full of debuffs you can't move before letting their bosses spank you to death. This isn't end game, this is level 1-20 for pity sakes.
Hard mode is fine...but NOT when your set to +0/x0! That's what difficulty settings are there for. -
Quote:Thats my point, though. Ambushes DON'T run past. They home in on you worse than a pissed of Cyber-Weasel with bloody nuggets on it's mind. And, unlike their Primal Counterparts, Praetorians deliver that in spades and a half.Originally Posted by Leo_G
Hehe, I actually find the Syndicate the easier of the enemy groups to deal with. And by far, too easy on my Kin/EA stalker. I plan to go again when they eventually proliferate another set for me to play a stalker on (or give me some cool animations for current sets).
For a Stalker? If I find the ambushes don't stop, kill the ambush sans the last weak-A minion and placate. Run away and just keep placating when he catches up
It also helps that Ectenic Hood (the KM/EA stalker) picked up Phase Shift to completely ignore all ambushes when he needs to.
I'm not saying Prea is 'easy' just mitigatable if you think outside the box. Those ghoul missions and ambushes tho...uhg....
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Well...after this absolute monster has finally been flattened and purtied up...all I can say is;
Booyah!
Put On Ice
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Quote:Just replying purely to this post;Originally Posted by Void_Huntress
Anecdote. I see a LOT of full teams steamrolling +0/x8 in the communities and PUGs I've been with over the years. It's been pretty common in my experience on Virtue.
(This was supposed to be posted an hour and some ago, but real life intervened)
Since the Alpha slot, I've been on teams that actually get a chance to crank the difficulty up.
Running +4/x8 LGTFs and ITFs is my ideal vision of Incarnates come true. We can raise the threat we're facing to previously unused levels, and still stampede onwards. We faceplant occasionally and sometimes spectacularly (looking at you, Nictus Ambush) but it's still the most fun I've had with my 50s in ages.
It makes them feel like Incarnates! -
Quote:Yeah, putting it politely I'd say that works well.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Praetorians are, what's the word I'm looking for, somewhat overdesigned.
I have other ways of putting it, none fit for these boards *cough* -
Quote:If something genuinely gets done, Zwi, then you are as big a star as Avatea (considering I hold her as the Champion of all things EU, that means a lot (to me, anywayOriginally Posted by Zwillinger
Hi all,
Just wanted to stop in and let you know we've passed this concern along.
Thanks for the feedback everyone! ))
If it was a case of having level 50s facing this...well, even then I'd find the ambushes excessive.
I think the main points, for brevity, are thus;
1) Homing ambushes, which ignore Stealth, effectively negating the entire Stalker AT
2) Overuse of -Def and high accuracy attacks early in the game, when defence sets are low performance anyway
3) I remember people mentioning the Big Dogs negating mez ATs a lot (not a personal gripe, but hey)
4) Overpowered power combinations. Syndicate Kineticists definitely fall into this category (SS/Kin is just wrong on so many levels)
5) Ambushes. Too many ambushes, too fast, too often. They make +0/x0 feel like x8, or even x9
Thanks for the attention to this though, it really is appreciated! -
I realise now what is putting me off Praetorian missions a little.
I love the mechanics. I adore the plot. The characters are great.
But I cannot stand the blasted mobs! They all seem to have ungodly high accuracy, multiple stacking debuffs in the same one enemy, and are just so far detached from the standard difficulty that it's unreal.
Fighting Syndicate just now, at +0/x0, I had to use a small green, small yellow, mid purple and a big green....just to beat one minion and a Pyrokin. The minion has a gun that has high acc and -def. And a sword that has -def. And then the kin hits me with Siphon Power, and then BOTH of them are spanking me around like my defences dont matter and I'm trying to fight +4s!
It's not like we even have SOs before we leave! And this is from someone who, while no powergamer, is far from a bad player. I don't bite of more than I chew. I'm fully slotted on this char (KM/SR Scrapper)
And yet I'm still getting spanked about just for DARING to look at a mob.
The 'Hunt Down Shen' mission from Bobcat is an example of the problem:
1) Endless ambushes
2) Homing, stealth ignoring ambushes
3) Ambushes that drop nothing
4) Add just one Kinetic Syndicate LT and you pretty much insa-die, because thye just buffed about 18 minions. -
Hey, Mondays hate people, and people hate 'em right back
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I hate Mondays.
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Mid level PPD are the devil to fight. Equalizers and Ghosts are E-VIL! I hate them. Hate them, hate them, hate them.
At higher levels the PPD are easy (All Kheldian and Robots which really aren't that troublesome) but by then the Bows have taken up the slack and pack every single flavour of cheaty-godmode Boss available, Officers, Nullifiers are no longer sergeants by another name and even the minions pack enough AoE damage to cause problems. -
Quote:HA!Originally Posted by Arcanaville
- but I usually try to plow through the Nemesis (cheating bastards).
I have my proof. I'm not the only one :P -
All I can say, from experience, is that the new content is swiftly making ATs like Stalkers and MMs suffer the most.
Stalkers stealth in the new content seems to get completely neutered on a frequent basis. Thats their entire schtick. That's like saying Scrappers can no longer crit, or that Brutes have Fury disabled. It' exactly like saying Brutes get Fury disabled in fact. It guts the entire point of the AT.
MMs have it pretty bad too. I spent more time re-summoning Alpha's bots on the Apex TF run than I have in a long, long time.
And not because, y'know, I got sloppy or anything. Not because of genuine challenge.
No, because my pets are -2, -1 and +0 to my own level, vs enemies that are not only purposefully harder (thats fine) but are also perma +4 (not always fine), it means as soon as they step outside the FF gen bubble they die. They get hit by an AoE, they die en masse. Their stupid, stupid A.I. makes them go melee a Warwalker, and when it falls over and does damage they die!
(Whoever programs the Pets in game should be taken out and freaking shot. Because they've been busted since Demons came out. /rant)
So, simply cranking up the level is a piss poor way of doing things in my opinion. If Alpha wasn't slotted to the gills (and still not quite finished) I don't want to think what it would have been like. -
Oh, good. It's not just me then.
Joy! Ambushes that not only know exactly where I am when they trigger, but are unannounced exept for their trigger text, unending waves, and they track you like a rabid bloodhound on speed!
Ye GODS man, whoever thought that ambushes was the way to go insted of actually legitimately fun tech like 80% of the new missions actually USE should be taken out and shot.
Not to mention it utterly, utterly gutting Stalkers. I echo Sam's pledge of never ever EVER taking a Stalker through Praetoria.
Let's have a quick run-down shall we?
1) Praetorian mobs hit much harder than their 1-20 Primal Counterparts. They also seem to have better accuracy
2) Spawn positions either mean that one spawn can be spread over one huge room, making killing the 'Boss Mob' really damn annoying, or they have about three mobs stuffed into one big clump, making it nigh impossible to NOT aggro the others. This is particularly noticeable, and deadly, with Ghouls
3) Certain ATs and sets seem to get utterly, utterly gutted habitually. I get that not every AT should be invincible, and I frankly love fighting Rogue Vanguard and Romans (Except for the Curse of Weariness, but thats a different thread)
HOWEVER; that is at higher levels. THIS is at freaking level 1-20, where defences suck anyway. Picking a defence set, regen or, god forbid, anything Stalker based, should NOT be penalised at this level, to this extent. It's just rediculous.
And at +0/x0. Thats the basic level. Sure, stuff like certain defenders and other ATs might need to make use of that. But when a Scrapper feels like they have to set stuff to -1? Thats taking the mick. -
Quote:From what I've seen, the Cryptic method would be the reverse; start of with literal god-chars, and then nerf them into the dust, while making Bosses ubermench's.Originally Posted by Toony
The cryptic method? (Hit with sledgehammer repeatedly, then fine tool it.)
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Quote:Except it's not true. If anything, MMs suffer MORE than any other AT in the new content. In comparison to (most) others on a team in Incarnate level stuff, MMs have their usefulness flux the most, as high level mobs with hard hitting AoEs disintegrate pets at a rate of knots, forcing a retreat and re-summon that simply wouldnt be needed if I, for example, could keept the damn things INSIDE the FF Gen bubble and within range of my aid other. Instead, I usually lose two drones and a protector bot because a dead war walker falls on them...And I'm not kidding on that, either!Originally Posted by MaestroMavius
I've always heard it was left that way on purpose, as giving our henchmen better AI would make us way overpowered. This way our moronic minions keep us just a tad above all the other AT's instead of lightyears.
That said. I'd be a happy camper if they'd just fix the bug that cropped up with Demons and stop my Robots from brawling everything... Was much more manageable when they would get stuck at range. -
Quote:So it says a lot that that is no longer the case...Originally Posted by warden_de_dios
When Inventions were first introduced pool C and pool D recipes were only available at the completion of a Task Force or Trial. Actually you only got a random recipe from that pool. You weren't even gaurented a recipe you could use, or a recipe you could even sell for a nice chunk of profit.
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Faultline.
Why does it have no Tram, still?
But yes, Hazard zones really need a Hollows style overhaul. Badly. -
Quote:Because that's perfectly in keeping with his past track record of being an absolute, pants-on-head human fruitloop.Originally Posted by Johnny_Butane
A senior developer who has shown comparably little interaction with the community on the forums, possibly risked his job to drop hints in the form of elaborate yet misspelled riddles, to a few players on a single server in a closed channel, and has never spoke of it or was seen there since.
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Quote:It wouldn't be half so bad if the little bleeders didnt insist on running into melee with a War Walker. It's often not even the Walkers attacks that are the problem; I've lost more pets to the damn thing doing damage when it falls over then to their actual attacks.Originally Posted by Arilou
The problem really is that while general survivability goes up, that's not true of MM pets.
Oh, and Battle Maiden's patches of doom. I spent more time running around than I did fighting in that final fight... -
Quote:Yes, because Masterminds need to suffer even more from the Incarnate stuff.Originally Posted by reiella
They could just cheat them like other MMOs do. Give them a ridiculous level of AE evasion if they aren't being specifically targetted with them. It's suboptimal [and would seriously change the mechanics of Tankerminding], and I think the specific mechanics of this game would make it far too much of a bullet buff, but it is an 'easy' solution [that just carries a lot of baggage]. Still wouldn't solve the "WRAA MELEE SLAM TIME", but may help.
Oh, wait, No. Hell freaking NO. -
This has to happen Yesterday. If not sooner.
/Signed, /MegaSigned, /Ubersigned, /C-c-ComboKill Signed, /Ja, /Oui, /Make It So
Every bloody /YESPLEASEGODYES under the sun....