BugeyeJack

For banes, is it better to just use Huntsman rifle powers for ranged attacks and skipping all of the mace ranged attacks?

I realize this requires lots of redraws, but you'll probably be redrawing to the rifle anyway if you take venom grenade (and I can't think of any reason not to take venom grenade on a Bane).

I'm about to respec this way on my 29 bane. The only thing I'll miss is Venom Ray, but it'd be worth it to lose the sucktackular mace ranged attacks.

My first and only lvl 50 is a merc/traps, and I've played all MM primaries to at least 30, so I think I can field this.

The primary weakness of mercs is the useless crowd-control of the spec ops.

The extreme-recharge, extremely unreliable teargasses and flashbangs are essentially useless. The Spec Ops give up any and all AE damage in exchange for web grenade and, well, that's about it. The Lich and Oni are not exactly reliable with their CC, but they both blow away the sad excuse of the merc tier 2 pet. And nevermind the utility of the Enforcers' leadership auras or the Protector Bots' heals + bubbles. (protector bots even bubble the MM himself, cementing Robotics as the king of MM primaries.)

Even if the teargas hits, it only holds the enemy for a few brief seconds. Certainly nothing worth changing your tactics around. If the spec ops' teargas and flashbang were removed from the game, I doubt I'd even notice.

Mercs do have a bit less DPS than thugs or bots, but I don't mind that in itself because the medic comes in handy. What bites about the set is that it is alone among MM primaries without any real support powers in its tier 2 or 3 pets.

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I'm curious, on an abstract level, what the Demon set specialty would be.

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Maybe a portal that starts pouring out little Imps? Kind of a stationary version of Gang War...

Nah, too much like an existing power. Maybe you could Banish a foe back to wherever you summon your henchmen from. So it would be a form of Black Hole or Detention Shield. (Although both of those are available in MM Secondaries. Eh, I'm out of ideas)

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Here's what I suggested in the sticky thread:

18: Demonic Resurgance. This power is cast on a fallen pet. It will Ressurect the pet with full health and endurance, and supply all other pets and the player with a moderate +damage and +recovery buff for 60 seconds.

Nice little power that has the drawback of needing one of your pets to die, sorta like the Necro lvl 18 power...

The venom grenade from the wolf line is worth it, even with the redraw. I never found use for the others though.

Having personal attacks helps maintain aggro too... although taking your attacks seems to be considered heresy on this board

I'd be happy with any way to make a terra volta-style scenario, where players defend an object against multiple waves of baddies.

I don't think there is, but I thought I'd ask just to be sure.

The bank job in my sig is marred by a lack of a big door to blow up.

Boring. Boring boring boring.

"Oh this must be the last room. Finally! ... wait, there's a doorway in the far wall. Noooooooooo"

It doesn't exactly foster the constantly-moving-foward nature of good maps like sewers.

If you must have a "farm" map, outdoor maps work better.

Boss text: Not much is needed beyond "Aware" so that people know an important mob has aggroed. Maybe "Unaware" and/or "Defeated" text for EBs/AVs important to your story. But the 3/4, half, 1/4 texts don't add much because they're always variations of the same thing.

3/4: Ha! Is that all you got!
1/2: Arrgh! Maybe you're tougher than I thought!
1/4: Owww! How dare you! Now you must feel my wrath!

Even if you do something more creative, like having the villain monologing about his evil plot during the fight, players may miss it. So fight text is a great area to pare down the file size.

Another one I thought of: Pick a reasonable number of glowies, such as 8 crates. The mission display reads "8 crates." The player searches the first glowie and gets a message, "You recovered one of the crates!"

Only, the display still reads "8 crates." So they click on another. Still 8 crates. And another. It doesn't change! WTF! AARRGGH!

In the back is a boss named "8 crates".

Here is a little something I whipped up to see how evil I could get: Arc 73524 *Warning* You almost certainly WILL die if you try this arc

It sells itself as just another Freak farm, but after you release a hostage, a hard ambush of extreme Thug/Illusion minions and Thug/Kin Lt's attack without any dialogue.

I was wondering if it would be more evil to set ambushes to a boss. 3/4 health, 1/2 health, etc. Thoughts?



(edit: unpublished it. Looks like someone actually played it for real without realizing what it was... )

All I want is something that deviates from the 3-2-1 summoning standard. How about a set where each tier is superior to their normal counterparts... but you can only have one tier out at a time? This would add some strategy as you need to decide which set is best for which encounter. It would also allow for a truly mighty final-tier pet since if it's out, you won't have any other pet to back it up.

F'rinstance, using Demons as an example.

1- Summon Imps. You summon a number of level -2 Imps to do your bidding, each before upgrades having two Claws attacks (Swipe and Strike) to fight in melee. Their thick demonic skin grants natural resistance to Lethal and Fire. You start with 1; by level 50, you have ten of these creatures out at a time. You can only have one tier of demons out at a time. If you already have Imps out, this spell replenishes their numbers. If you have a different tier out, the spell fails.
1- Flares
2- Fire Bolt
6- Empower Demon. This can only be cast on ONE active demon and upgrades their attack and defense. Imp: +1 to level; Spin attack; status protection. Winged Horror: status protection; Psychic Scream; Mesmerize. Cacodaemon: Incinerate; Combustion.
8- Fireball
12- Call Winged Horrors. These level -1 coal-black demons attack their foes with Psionic ranged powers, offering ranged damage and light control. All Winged Horrors receive Psionic Dart, Mental Blast, and Subdue, a moderate-damage Psi attack that immobilizes opponents. They are naturally resistant to Smashing and Psionic damage. You start with 1; by level 50 you have four. As always, you can only have one tier of demons out at a time.
18: Demonic Resurgance. This power is cast on a fallen pet. It will Ressurect the pet with full health and endurance, and supply all other pets and the player with a moderate +damage and +recovery buff for 60 seconds.
26: Gate Cacodaemon. This dread Gate will bring in a single Cacodaemon, an equal-level Fire/Fire Brute with Scorch, Fire Sword, natural status protection, Fiery Aura, and good resistance to Smash, Lethal and Fire, plus Incinerate and Combustion from the level 6 upgrade. This is a very powerful entity that one-on-one could eat the Thugs Bruiser for lunch; however, when the Cacodaemon is out, you will not have the benefit of any other pets.
32: Unholy Might. Pet buff; can only cast on ONE pet. Imp: a further +1 to level; Followup; Enhanced Smash/Lethal/Fire resist; Confront. Winged Horror: Psychic Shockwave. Cacodaemon: Fire Sword Circle, Greater Fire Sword, Temperature Protection (+res to Fire and Cold), random small chance to proc Fire Storm on a successful hit

I understand that part of the reason behind the Flamethrowers is that they are a counter to MMs... and they are not much of a problem to, say, solo Brutes...

But brutes have their own problems, mainly, holds that punch through their status defense. Stalkers have the same problem, one AS and then they're held, their toggles drop and it's a free trip to the hospital.

Devs kept thinking up evil tricks to deal with the villain ATs, which is fine, but there was no reason to put ALL of the dirty tricks with one single overpowered group.

Other groups do not have anything coming close to the sheer number of overpowered mobs. Tsoo have, what, sorcs? the "ink" minions with mez? Maybe you could count ancestor spirits out of their sheer annoyance value? That's about it. Rikti have their damn monkeys but beyond that, nothing too bad. Carnie bosses are fearsome but I never had trouble with their lts or minions. Malta have the sappers but are limited to one per spawn. etc. etc.

Compare this to Longbow with overpowered mobs in all three categories (minion, lt, boss) and multiples in each spawn. Gah.

They aren't too bad before 30 but after 30... /cry

Thanks Positron.

One thing about this bug was that it hit some pets more than others. Like, the Spec Ops pet has both of his main attacks as basic (and therefore enhanceable), so he got off easy compared to a lot of the other pets.