BAWNG
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Posts
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Joined
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Glad we understand each other
When it comes down to it, enjoying your character is what is most important.
Quote:I see what happened here. I wasn't clear on this tactic. It was like 7AM and I was tired...You mention taking aggro from your henchmen, which is something that typically goes with bodyguard mode. I haven't "built for bodyguard mode;" I simply use it. I am not sure whether I truly need it all the time.
I certainly don't send my pets into the fight and stand back watching them die. I try to get as much aggro as I can, I just don't have taunt to help me do so. Probably unfortunate, but sometimes you just run out of powers. Usually how a fight goes for me is I put my pets in follow defensive until I'm in the middle of the mob with them next to me, then I tell my assaulut bot and battle drones to attack whatever the highest ranked target is that is close to the middle of the enemy group. Once I'm sure I'm not taking tons of damage I hit my secondary attack command and tell my protector bots to attack the target. I have three mouse binds for my pets. One is defense/follow, my secondary attack is Assault bot/Protector bots attack (single target BG mode), and my main attack for mission group type mobs is assault bot/battle drones attack (AoE BG mode[bind is petcom_pow "O" attack aggressive]).
Back in the gold old days, before they buffnerfed the upgrades, I would only give my assault bot the lvl 32 upgrade and he would spam nothing but missiles and didn't have the worthless flamethrower (that, I might add is probably responsible for about 95% of assault bot deaths). I try to do this setup when I can, but it's nearly impossible to maintain. I also used to only give my drones the lvl 6 upgrade for higher single target damage but now with interface debuff/fire DoT the full auto is a decent attack.
Though I do have to admit, I did use BG mode a lot more before I had barrier. -
Quote:I think we're misunderstanding each other here. My point has never been that it's less or more survivable than your way of building. Numbers wise, yes your way of building can take more damage than mine. My point is that my way seems to survive just fine, and has offensive benefits due to the way I play. The main reason is that focusing all the pets on one target seems to decrease the time it takes to kill an entire group.Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
And what are your difficulty settings?
I'm not claiming one way is better than the other because I cannot define "better" for all cases. My claim is that "Leveraging bodyguard mode will always lead to better personal survival, whether you build defense or resistance." Personal experience means very little in an argument like this. Numerically, in ways we can prove, a softcapped MM in bodyguard mode can survive a lot more damage than one that is not in bodyguard mode.
But I can think of a couple scenarios where staying in BG mode will make you less survivable than telling your pets to attack. In a nutshell, any time you come across the certain enemy types that kill henchmen really fast. Things with burn patches/missiles or any similar AoE toon. If you don't tell your pets to attack the threat target the target can end up dropping all your pets. If you build for BG mode, you're pretty much dead as soon as all the pets are gone. I'm not. I don't even run away anymore if all my pets die and the summon skill is still recharging. Just stand and wait to summon again.
Here is the exact fight scenario that made me change my tactics:
I keep my pets in BG mode to fight woodsman. Woodsman summons pets all the time. Since I'm staying in BG mode some of my pets are aggroed to woodsman's henchmen instead of woodsman. Fight takes forever and a day. Pets won't stay on woodsman, I can't tell them to attack because I'll die if I leave BG mode. Woodsman, being an AV with confuse eventually confuses me and my pets, at which point they turn on me, forcing me to put them in passive. Once I do this I get killed with no BG resistance.
Here's how the same fought worked one respec and new tactics later: I tell my pets to attack woodsman. I spam web nade on him to keep as much aggro as I can. Confuse doesn't matter, since my pets have an attack command. Bots ignore his pet moose, I deal with them myself using tripmines. The couple of times that a few of my pets get killed, aid self/triage beacon are able to repair the few hits that do get through my defense. I simply re-summon and keep them attacking.
Lord Recluse would work the same way as well, but by the time I fought him I had already changed my build.
+4x8. Was +2x8 before I had IO sets.Quote:Again, what are your difficulty settings? How well do you handle Archvillains? Giant Monsters?
I've been able to solo literally every GM or AV that I've tried. Here's the list: Deathsurge, Caleb, Ghost of Scrapyard, Stropharia, Quarry, Thorn, Lattuce, Nemsis 54-AV, Black Scorpion 54-AV, Quatrexin 54-AV, Silver Mantis 54-AV, The Radio 54-AV, Lord Recluse 54-AV, Hro'Dtohz 54(I think?)-AV, Woodsman (can't remember)-AV. Just killed Ghost of the scrapyard today actually. Was farming EoE's last night and managed to kill 2 DE monsters at the same time (quarry and thorn). All of these enemies were killed without using temp powers. I've killed more, but that's all I can recall off the top of my head. I've been using a bot/traps as what I call an "ego farmer" (AV/GM soloist) for years now.
I'd say probably not, but I guess it'd depend what difficuty setting is generally considered tough for an ice/emp. I've never played an ice/emp, and I've never had a toon that plays +0x1, unless he's in single didgit levels.Quote:I could play an ice/empathy troller on SOs that "never dies," but if his difficulty was never set higher than +0/x1, is that really a testament to his survivability?
I don't actually need to be out of BG mode, I just have found that I don't need to be IN BG mode all the time and have gotten used to focused damage. -
Granite Armor - lemme change at least the color. An alternate look for granite armor would be nice too.
/traps summon animations. Can I have an animation other than kneeling on the ground and having a trap magically appear? Maybe at the very least alternate with the "pushing buttons on wrist" animation.
Energy transfer - I understand the point of the "new" animation was to nerf the power but it looks like ****. Try again plz. While you're at it pls replace any power that shares the "new" ET animation.
Alternate MM pet skins? Can I make my bots look like clockworks pls?
Incarnate powers that cause fps drops: Don't need new animations for these, but everyone knows which incarnate powers cause framerate drops, everyone also knows that they shouldn't.
Also, can you add the ability to have my character while out of combat stand in the "fighting stance" that /shield toggles on instead of standing at attention like they currently do? The vast majority of my characters would look a lot better if they stood in the way that a /shields running toggles stands. -
Quote:I never use bodygaurd. I never die. Nor do my pets.Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Leveraging bodyguard mode will always lead to better personal survival, whether you build defense or resistance.
I use the same protector/assault bot attack command as well. That's actually the one I use when I do want a bit of pet resistance.
The main reason I didn't like leaving my pets in defense follow was because it seems to take longer to kill large groups when each pet chooses a different target. It speeds things up to focus your damage.
I'm not saying your way is bad or that mine is better. I'm saying that mine seems equally effective, based on personal experience.
You can't die less often than never. Seems that we're both describing methods of playing the game that result in never dying. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Woah! Ack! No! Bad! BAAAAD!
Get Provoke. Leave your pets in defensive follow and learn to leverage bodyguard mode. Bodyguard mode is what makes MMs awesome.
It can help for sure, but I wanted to point out that MM's do not need to be bodygaurd dependent to be effective.
Over the course of many respecs and different builds tried, I found I enjoyed a defense build the best. I've used the taunt/resistance BG dependent build before. It's a great tough build, for sure. I found however, that building for defense is certainly no less survivable and for me personally, was more fun to play because I can set tripmines in the middle of an angry group and tell all my bots to focus on one enemy.
The trick with the defense build is in the seeker drones. Enhance them for recharge and tohit debuff and use them constantly. Combined with the protector bot seekers pretty much nothing can hit you or your pets.
The downside to the build is that its much more expensive than a resistance build. It was pointed out can solo AV's without IO's or incarnates. While it is possible to solo an AV with no incarnates or IO's, it is much tougher than it would be with an SO resistance build. The up side is that once fully IO slotted, a defense built bot/traps can solo pretty much any AV or GM in the game, including heavy AoE enemies that can be a challenge to resistance builds.
A secondary benefit to defense building is the extra recharge from lotg 7.5's. 3 acid mortars will squishify pretty much anything.
Here's my bot/traps current build:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Rainmaker-MX: Level 50 Technology Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Robotics
Secondary Power Set: Traps
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Battle Drones- (A) Sovereign Right - Resistance Bonus
- (3) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage
- (3) Blood Mandate - Accuracy
- (5) Blood Mandate - Damage
- (5) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (7) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Endurance
- (A) Gravitational Anchor - Chance for Hold
- (11) Gravitational Anchor - Immobilize/Endurance
- (11) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge
- (19) Gravitational Anchor - Immobilize/Recharge
- (40) Gravitational Anchor - Accuracy/Recharge
- (A) Pacing of the Turtle - Endurance/Recharge/Slow
- (7) Pacing of the Turtle - Range/Slow
- (9) Pacing of the Turtle - Damage/Slow
- (9) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Slow
- (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal
- (40) Doctored Wounds - Recharge
- (42) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge
- (43) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
- (43) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
- (A) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff
- (48) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
- (48) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Recharge
- (48) Analyze Weakness - Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge
- (50) Analyze Weakness - Accuracy/Defense Debuff
- (A) Edict of the Master - Defense Bonus
- (13) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage
- (13) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage/Endurance
- (15) Soulbound Allegiance - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (15) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage
- (17) Blood Mandate - Accuracy
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (17) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
- (19) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
- (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance
- (A) Lockdown - Chance for +2 Mag Hold
- (21) Lockdown - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold
- (21) Lockdown - Accuracy/Hold
- (23) Lockdown - Accuracy/Recharge
- (23) Lockdown - Recharge/Hold
- (25) Lockdown - Endurance/Recharge/Hold
- (A) Healing IO
- (A) Doctored Wounds - Recharge
- (25) Doctored Wounds - Heal
- (27) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
- (27) Doctored Wounds - Endurance/Recharge
- (29) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge
- (A) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up
- (29) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage/Recharge
- (31) Soulbound Allegiance - Accuracy/Recharge
- (31) Blood Mandate - Accuracy/Damage
- (31) Blood Mandate - Accuracy
- (33) Blood Mandate - Damage
- (A) Absolute Amazement - Chance for ToHit Debuff
- (34) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Recharge
- (34) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge
- (34) Dark Watcher's Despair - To Hit Debuff/Recharge/Endurance
- (37) Dark Watcher's Despair - Recharge/Endurance
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (33) Recharge Reduction IO
- (33) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Endurance Reduction IO
- (A) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage
- (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
- (36) Obliteration - Damage
- (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
- (37) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
- (37) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
- (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
- (39) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
- (39) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
- (39) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
- (40) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
- (42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
- (A) Recharge Reduction IO
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
- (50) Karma - Knockback Protection
Level 50: Barrier Core Epiphany
Level 50: Ion Partial Core Judgement
Level 50: Reactive Partial Radial Conversion
Level 50: Clockwork Total Core Improved Ally
Level 0: High Pain Threshold
Level 0: Demonic Aura
Level 0: Invader
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Level 1: Brawl- (A) Empty
- (A) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth
Level 2: Rest- (A) Empty
Level 2: Swift- (A) Run Speed IO
- (A) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
- (43) Miracle - +Recovery
- (45) Regenerative Tissue - +Regeneration
- (45) Numina's Convalescence - Heal
- (45) Numina's Convalescence - Heal/Endurance
- (A) Jumping IO
- (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
- (46) Performance Shifter - EndMod
- (46) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy
- (46) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Recharge