Angelic_EU

I notice there is something not quite right. I have both Judgement and Lore unlocked on my Bane quite easily within days. While he was still working his way on Judgement, on a good team, he could gain about 1/4 of the bar. However on my MM, he does not seem to gain i-Exp as fast as the Bane.

Is there something wrong?


Thanks

Assault Rifle: have the option to shoot with the buttstock against the shoulder instead of shooting from the waist.

Although stalker has lower HP but I still went for Regen since I have never tried it before when KM first came out. Now I hope I had it with /Nin instead. Nevermind.

Steam Jump stacks with Hover can be flying at good speed. With go global recharge, like on my bane it is almost +200%, it can be up again rather soon.

The problem with Steam Jump is the noise... The NOISE!! Phuusssssssssshhhh (for 30s)

My main concern is not so much to do with MM being slow. I am more frustrated about the erratic movement of the pets instead; and the distance they often falling behind when the MM moves.

The defining trait of MMs is their ability to use pets to do their fighting - as much as other ATs using their fists, weapon, etc. I find it ironic that pets do seem to have their own mind when it comes to doing their job; and some of them (ninja, of course) are nigh uncontrollable in some circumstances. It is like a DPs or a DBs left one of its pistols or swords behind and have to go back to pick it up. Or lost it and have to reorder it from the manufacturer again - then wait for the delivery. Or one of the pistols thinks it is better to go in melee range to smack the boss in the face while the other is rather contented to stay back a bit.

Of course, other ATs have their own shortcomings too: for instance, stone armour is inherently slow and some ATs are squishies. And there are ways to get around the problem: stoner are up to the hilt with recharge and speed, and the squishies are soft-capped one way or the other. But that does not mean that improvements are not necessary. Improvement of QoL helps the players to enjoy the contents more instead of dealing with those little bits of nuisances here and there.

The level-shift is going to improve the QoL of MM by quite a bit (and thanks to the explanation above, I now know how it works). But still a matter of movement needs to be dealt with. Tough pets do the MM and the team no good if they are 100ft away out of line of sight and buff/supremacy range attracting the attention of a group of angry mob.

or /Trap

Have it already. The only Booster Pack I do not have is the Science one. I also do not have the party pack, origin pack and the wedding one (which was on sales some time ago).

After the Martial Arts one, will there be more sales?

Awwww, it ended so soon. It would not accept my credit card on my 5th or 6th transfer. But the shop was happily accepting my credit later for the Steampunk pack.

Will the sales be on again?

I have the melee and the AoE whip on my Demon/Therm. I don't seem to be whipping as often as I thought I would. But I need to respec the character anyway. I am going to play with it for bit before deciding what to do. I think I could afford to get Provoke in too.

I suppose every little -res helps. But on a fast recharge build, with the debuff powers recharge up often enough, I hardly notice any different - but that is when I am soloing or in a small team. I would imagine the -res will multiply a lot in a big league.

Great news indeed! Thanks for listening to us, Positron!

May I add to that a suggestion to reduce the auto-summon range from 100ft' to 30ft', or thereabouts? It does help the MM to keep the major part of his offensive powers close to himself instead of spreading thin all over. Also remove the summoning animation when the pets are auto-summoned (like a parcel dropping from the sky as in robots). Better if they suddenly appear from nowhere naturally as though there were there all along - like they just come out of a lift in a multi-levels indoor map.

Something there is another thing I have said elsewhere before: modify the current goto and stay commands into forced-goto and forced-stay commands where the pets will be rooted at a location and will not be moving away at all. Currently, no matter what, the pets still run about whenever pleases them, which can be a bit annoying. Add a 10000mag of Immo to both GoTo and Stay commands should do nicely. With the new incarnate level shift, I am hoping the pets are going to last a bit longer at melee range. But still, this is going to be useful to keep ranged pets and lower tier pets out of harm's way and within heal/buff range.

I suppose all these - if implemented - should cover most of the serious shortcomings of the pets mobility and survivablility.


(... help me to put it in perspective: does a 48+2 pet the same as a regular 50 character without any incarnate slot? Or perhaps what does a 48+2 pet most similar to? A defender? In terms of HP, accuracy and damage?)

Ever since the introduction of Apex and Tin Mage tfs, people often complain about how hard it is for a MM to play in a team. In fact, since people start doing speed run tfs, say ITF and LG, MMs are always having hard time trying to catch up with the rest of the non-MM teammates, who have already been contributing a lot to the mission. In a fast-tempo rapid moving team, while other ATs can still contribute according to their inherent role, the usefulness MM is just below suboptimal.

Please don't get me wrong, I love MM and I have a lot of them. I think it is a very unique AT amongst other MMOs. I am still playing them regularly. The crux of the problems, and others have brought up the topic recently, are the pets' moment and survivability. I really want to keep my pets with me within 15-20 feet all the time; 30ft if I am generous. But those pets are just all over the place. The faster the MM moves, the more chaotic the pets become. So often they end up out of buff range and in harm's way. With their low defence/resistance, particularly the tier one pets, they are causing a lot of headache where in some circumstances it is just not enjoyable to play a MM any more.

Group Fly and Team Teleport are not particularly helpful either. I met one MM with Group Fly recently and he switched it on at the mission door while waiting. I was on a defender at that time. I got caught within the vast aura and could only move verrrrry sloooowly. I almost got killed by the nearby mobs because no way I could run away from them. He got told off almost as soon as he switch the power on.

I have seen on some hugely popular channels actively excluding MM from certain TFs/trials. It is not very often but it does happen from time to time, which ought not to be really. Why a perfectly good and unique AT has to come to this... low...

ATs are getting revamp one-by-one through out the years. Dom's Domination; Defender's Vigilance; HEATs; Stalker's Hide; Brute's Fury (I can't remember the chronological order). I suppose it is MM's turn now. It is, indeed.

2-handed stance for sword, mace and axe - and of course this may have to make those weapon slight bigger to fit into both hands. This has been mentioned before. But still want to bring it up again. 2-handed animations are already in existence: like stone/heavy mallet and Ghost Slaying Axe. It is just a matter of porting those animations over. Shield users might have to make do with the old one-handed version.

But this is something interesting: remove 'rooting' from the power animations altogether. Probably not moving at full speed. May be some kind of slow directional movement while attacking. For example, it is allowed to actually step slightly forward after, say, a stone mallet attack or Swoop. Just a thought. It feels a bit more natural that way.

Oh and of course different MM pets looks. Apart from Demons, all other pets look really dated... Stand a robot next to one of those from Praetoria and you will know what I mean. I suppose they can come in sets: look a set of 6 classic look for option 1; a set of new look for option 2; and so on. These options can be chosen in the power colouring page.

And yes, what is happening to Granite Armour? I thought there will be options to keep the costume visible instead of wear that big chuck of identical, identity stripping, stone suit? While on the subject, do something about Ice Armour as well. The best we can do is to use dark colour to make it slightly less visible. Can we please have a more modern look (for both sets) or make those identical square-shaped armour invisible?

A long standing and somewhat controversial issue of weapon drawing and redrawing animation: is it necessary? After drawing something from behind, can the 'En Guard' position stay until, say, it is interrupted by an emote or a not weapon-wielding power?

Teleportation is another one I can think off. There is really no need to spread the arms every time. Just simply disappear and reappear will do just fine.

I do like the movement of Beast Run very much. Too bad that with Super Speed and Super Jump, the Beast Run animation is no longer available. Likewise with Ninja Run. Can something be done to keep the Run animations while superspeeding or jumping?

Arrr, nope. Stay does not work like that. The ranged pets still run into melee to do their pathetic little brawl then (that is best part) they stay put there at melee range for the rest of the fight. I have just tested it on my bots and thugs: they still run in. Test it for yourself. You might be right if the pets can finish them off fast enough before the ranged powers are all in recharge. Try to fight a bigger or tougher mob. The brawl will always find its way into the attack train. It is the pets attack AI; can't deny it.

So I am not sure what you two are talking there and they STILL run in despite the 'stay' command. They never 'root themselves', unfortunately. Besides, unless they are in Aggressive stance, which you will loss your BG mode, they may stop attacking if they are not getting any return fire. So the pets will simply stand there if there is a good tank in the group holding all the aggro, or the mobs are all being held down by a someone.

Also, pets do not return to the MM as smoothly as you described. That is even more so in maps that are full of obstacles (like warehouse map) and maps that are very narrow (like caves). The pets movement are very erratic. They may jiggle a bit trying to figure a way then soon start to attack.

I know a few of my friends stop playing MM altogether even though they really like the AT. The 'run-in', or more generally pets' movement AI, is so fundamental a problem to MM. It is really upsetting that it is not been fixed yet.


Edit:

I have noticed it for a while now: the Vanguard MVAS can hover. It actually follows the summoner a lot closer than all other MM pets. MM pets have a tendency not to jump over small obstacles: like stair railing for example. If it is not over certain height, they tend to find a way around it instead of over it. They have no problem with the big ones like a wall or a cargo. So oddly enough, they are often struck behind or between small innocent objects.

In typical warehouse map, there a certain corner junction (the 90' turn from one corridor to another) where there is a zig-zag ramp on one side leading up to a small platform half way up that junction. When my pets go up there, quite often it is impossible for them to come back down again: they simply cannot jump pass the railing back to the ground level - they are running around back and forth on the platform. I suppose adding hover to some pets would be a solution (it might look odd on Ninja and Thugs). But after seeing the MVAS simply glide over all sort of big and small obstacles, taking the most nature and direct route to the summoner, I cannot help thinking how good would that be if MM pets can do that. Indeed one of the many salient problems that need fixing is the pets' ability to go over obstacles - particularly the small ones.

Adding def/res to pets, particularly the melee ones, only solves part of the problem. Run-In it might seem the case, running loose is the other part of the problem.

I have a pain/ninja and a zombie/dark, and I think my demons/therm counts too. When I can keep them close, they do fine most of the time until bosses' strongest ST or AoE kicks in. Still they are within my heal/defence range and the fight can go on. The real problem starts when they start to reposition themselves and, as I mentioned before, they don't respond to 'Go To' very well once their attack chains are in place. Ranged pets have the same problem too.

To solve the problem, there are but three things to do: 1) increase the def/res of certain pets (mostly the lower tier ones because they die too easily and don't do enough before then - particularly those melee-focused); 2) replacing brawl from ranged-focused pets with some kind of ranged power of similar level dps - ranged pets do not need (just the one melee power?) brawl anyway: it is far too weak and do more harm to them than good; 3) finally, shorten the auto-summon range and have an 'Go To' command which override everything and the pets must stay at the chosen location.

Many moons ago - I think it was even before the forum merge - some suggested a few things to help the pets to stay at range. Nothing ever materialised, so no one cared to bring up the issue since. And I stopped thinking about it anymore.

Anyway, while we are on the subject, I think some suggested something along the line of a 'Forced-Goto' or 'Forced-Stay'; as in the pets' little feet will glue to the spot the MM wanted them to. So melee pets would stay within the crowd and stop running around chasing runners off the map (ahem, ninjas); and ranged pets would away at some distance. They might get some leeway so they can move within a, say, 15ft radius - but that's all.

I have been away for some time. But I think once in a while, someone would suggest taking away the melee skills from ranged-pets all together. I think that suggestion mainly target bots, some thugs and mercs. To be honest, I think it is a good suggestion given the current AI. Perhaps replacing the basic Brawl with a ranged power of similar DPS. This may just be the best quick fix for the ranged pets.

One other suggestion was made along the line of pet movement in relation to the MM. Pets are all over the place when the MM moves. The 100ft auto-summon is ok but having the option to reduce the range would been much better. MMs are having a hard time catching up in a fast pace team. I remember someone suggested something like a 'Formation March' or something like that where the pets are moving in a fixed formation (perhaps have certain degree of flexibility along an irregular map) trailing behind for no more than, say, 10ft to 20ft. Other games can do it, albeit with fewer pets (like White Lion and Squig Herder in WAR). I do not know how hard it is to code it but pets AI is so long over due.

I hate to see ranged pets running in. I have to use 'Goto' to move them back BUT still rather often their line up the Goto command after their attack chain. Similar problem with melee pets too when they decide to go after a runner. You saw it; click 'Goto' as fast as you can; the pets merrily ignore you and do their business; then they respond. Luckily, they might not be that dead by then.

So which combo does the most -recharge?

I have a thugs/poison at 50 and a ninja/pain at 25+

Fighting a small mob, thugs/poison is a nightmare to be up against. Due to the nature of poison, smaller mob is usually preferred. Up against a larger mob, it starts to fall apart. So I use it only for boss/GM hunt/fight.

With the ninja/pain, I regularly have to stand in melee with the pets. I had provoke on that MM but I ended up being CC'ed or KB'ed quite often. I have tried without using provoke and it was better. Ninja/pain can handle a big group quite well so long as you can keep yourself and the pets close to each other. The patron immo - perhaps the mace one - should help too.

Now, as to ninja/poison, I am guessing it would play very much like my thugs poison but without the ranged element to keep them out of harm's way. Ninja is rather weak up close without constant heals. You do need a great deal of patient to play one.

Some one did the math a (long) while ago showing a sonic/sonic Defender will outdamage a sonic/sonic Corruptor in a fight. I think it was before the change to vigilance too, which would mean that these days a Defender will certainly out-do a Corruptor.

Need to find that post again to varify the claim.

Anyway, other than sonic attack, what goes well with sonic resonance? The reason I ask is because I have a sonic/kin corr already and I prefer to try something other than sonic attack.

Thanks

Please help me to decide whether I should pair Traps with DPs or AR...

By the way, how does Ignite work? Does the enemy have to be on the fire patch to take damage? If he works off, the damage stop?


Many thanks!

I have a Traps/DPs defender. On a small team or even solo, a defender may outdamage a corruptor with the same combo for a defender has higher debuffs and almost +50% damage (with Assault; or could even be higher with set bonus).

On a large (fast moving) team, I still think a defender will do better. In that setting, damage is really not the main concern - other ATs will take care of that easily if not better since they won't need to spend time setting up various traps. Bringing better buffs and debuffs will benefit the team alot more and raise the overall damage and survivability for everyone.

I have not solo a tough target (EBs, AV) yet with that Traps/DPs since it is still at a low level. But I can jump into a sizeable mob and kill them; and the same mob would make a tank or scrapper screaming for 'healer'! Kill by debuffs is what a Traps/ defender aim to achieve.

It might be a long-held misunderstanding of mine. But I kept thinking that DoT powers (like those in Fire Melee) have a big chance of triggering a proc.

Recently I am levelling up a Traps/DPs. I slot a +smashing damage proc into Empty Clips to see the effect. But it does not go off as often I originally thought. I thought as a DoT (with fire ammo too) it would go off almost every time I use it. But it only goes off once in a while.

So, it is not true that DoT powers trigger Procs more often?

Thanks for the clarification.

Ooops, I meant to say Dual Pistols...


Anyway, I have just made two identical builds for both Defender and Corruptor. Their are just rough builds for comparison and need some polishing later. But the points are: damage-wise corrputor is not that much far ahead (until Scourge kicks in) and defence-wise defender is way too much ahead. If both use Incendiary Ammo (DoT), the Achilles' Heel pros should hopeful fire off often.

So, when up against a tough target, I think a Traps/DPs Defender would deal more overall damage for being able to stay up longer and sustain fire longer; whereas a DPs/Traps Corruptor would struggle a bit to stay alive but will eventually catch up and pull ahead in terms of damage when Scourge starts to take effect.


Defender:

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...DBFD0F97EDEEDA


Corruptor:

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...B7FA3F3224FA8E