Grey Pilgrim

Base, yes. Caps... probably not. I'm guessing part of the move to increase Tanker HP caps was sideswitching, AND the new Incarnate content. Who knows, though. They might make adjustments in the future.

Anyway, I'm not really going to adjust any of my builds for sub-50 play with this. I still want to be able to exemp well. Basically, my Incarnate stuff is to add on to what I already have, or round out parts of my builds that I have now. I've really only gone to the trouble to have one alt build to go to for my main... not really wanting to do that for all of my characters.

I actually don't mind the stealth mechanic per se. It is the strength that I despise. If you don't have +perception, you can't target them when they are right on top of you. That is ridiculous. I don't particularly care that there are +perception IOs and powers in the game, either, as not every character is going to have those. Some of my characters do, some don't. I shouldn't have to be this neutered by a common mob. My blaster has an easier time with all the Maria Jenkins EBs/AVs than he did with these guys.

I like your idea for shifting it, actually. I really don't mind the mechanic, I can roll with it, but to make them be that level of stealth is over the top.

Yeah, that would be a big improvement. As it is, my AR Blaster had a hard time getting Burst, Slug, Burst out on one target, and that's a very short period of time (and needed for the lieutenants).

Again, not every character will have +perception, and mobs that used to hurt your perception before could at least be gotten around with a yellow accuracy. Not really the case with these at the level they are at.

Perhaps I was getting unlucky, but all Resistance in the same mob were stealthing at the exact same time, so the only other people I could target in the area were in different mobs (which I most certainly did not want to aggro as well). And with the new mob AI we have, mobs can get pretty spread out.

As for mezzing, they still stealthed while mezzed. I believe the Resistance Lieutenants are also resistant to stuns and holds (I had a hard time determining this, but I can say for sure that Beanbag did not stun a LT., and probably the same for a Cryo hold). So yay, that makes this encounter even more fun. *sarcastic thumbs up*

I don't mind a challenge, but sheesh, let loose a little bit. Targeting Drone and a more toned down stealth would still make these guys tricky and interesting. The Mez protection and high stealth level is just... lame.

I wish. Master Illusionists are a little hard on a Blaster, but otherwise, I could handle them just fine. For this AR Blaster, I had to drop his difficulty way down to do the mission (and the level it was at was just fine for Malta and Carnies).

These guys make you lose targeting when they stealth, they can shoot you while stealthed, they're mez resistant, and they eat defense for breakfast. I'll take Carnies over that any day.

Yeah, but... this stuff is going to be fairly hard and long to get. I think uncommons had a lot of salvage requirements, so I can only imagine Rare and Very Rare are going to take quite a long time to get.

Now if they're not locked to a character, you could potentially e-mail some of these around between characters that you were playing. I have to imagine they would make that hard to do or not possible (maybe like build shifting, which is on a timer), but who knows... there are still 8 Very Rare levels, which I can only imagine would take an extremely long time to get.

I'm probably going to have to choose on Tank to do this for, one Scrapper, one Blaster, and my one Controller at 50. Still debating if Musculature or Spiritual are going to be better for my Blasters. None of them have Perma Hasten, and most have Aid Self, so Spiritual could be nice. But going well beyond the damage cap on all my attacks (on a Blaster) just sounds crazy good as well.

*added*

After reading some of the I18 stuff more in depth, it sounds like the alpha boosts wouldn't shift around at all (you can slot or unslot them, but not change what character they are with). So no one get your hopes up from me getting my hopes up slightly. Heh.

Mental, from what I have read, the regular salvage can drop from any mob in the 50 range. So this really is casual friendly and you don't have to worry about this being "grindy." Unless you honestly hate to play City of Heroes all of a sudden, and then I'd be confused why you even care about some new end game content for CoH.

Again, they're adding more of what we have... story arcs, TFs, etc. Plus giving more incentive to play any content out there, including Rikti mothership raids. What's wrong with that? I like the content we have, for the most part, and they're going to keep adding to it. Do you suddenly not like the things we have to do in game? (to ask the above question again)

Eh, depends. The Recharge could be good, as could the +resistance and -end. I might slowly work toward both, as you can slot and unslot these without losing them.

Either could work, though, as one makes it so you take less damage over time, the other let's you heal more damage over time. *shrugs*

From the GR site, this quote. "Incarnate abilities are new skills and powers that work with your character's existing power sets." I've always understood the Alpha slot to enhance powers you already have (not your bonuses), so I guess I'm not sure where you got this info from. Not being mean, just saying I've always understood it the other way. Hopefully the in game walkthroughs will be more clear than what they were this summer.

Anyway, this does make a good difference. It's not worth going for the defense boosts on a set with no inherent defense (or only Weave). Same thing for resists, etc.

You can say that at this point. If you follow the OP's link, each level of enhancement can vary in how much it can go beyond the ED cap. At the highest levels, 2/3 of the buff can go beyond ED. At the start, it's about 1/6. That means Blasters can benefit from going for more damage, even though their attacks are probably already at the ED cap. If that benefit is worth it is up to the player.

You can only hit them with AOEs if you target them when they're not stealthed out. I managed to make this work with my AR Blaster by firing the M80 and then Full Auto, which kept hitting them as they stealthed out of sight. After that, however, I was SOL until they came back into sight. Even with an accuracy inspiration fired, I could not target them when they were right in front of me.

If you're talking PbAOE, not every powerset has those, and it's a bit iffy to design mobs with that in mind.

I don't mind a challenge. Targeting Drone in every mob is a little over the top, but I could deal with it. Some Malta mobs have fairly high accuracy, and the Blaster that ran into this was handling Malta just fine (it was a challenge, but he could get through a mission without a defeat).

It's the stealth or phasing or whatever the heck it is that is over the top (I'm sure it's stealth, but for them to be that stealthed--more than a covert ops or whatever from Longbow--means that it is a very strong stealth ability). Being unable to target every mob in the middle of a fight is annoying for everyone to face, and downright harsh for some ATs. That's not really good design.

Obviously, that's my own two cents, but it all does add up. Being able to stealth in and out before a fight is an interesting mechanic, and adds a tactical consideration like when fighting the Carnies (which this Blaster has also faced just fine). But midfight for an entire mob is ridiculous. People already complain about how Illusionists "cheat" and use some powers while phased. This is basically an entire mob phasing out.

I don't know at what level of perception the stealth goes away, either. It has to be pretty high, as a yellow inspiration didn't help at all (and it does when Night Widows toss their Smoke Grenades out).

In the end, this design is a lot of stuff that people don't like facing already in small bunches (Illusionists, Night Widows, Malta, Nemesis with Vengeance stacked, etc.). When people complain about those, I can note that tactics need to change and that it's a challenge. This is far enough along beyond those mobs that I have to question how these are designed.

No, caps are caps, as far as defense, resists, and damage goes. ED is different from that. You will be able to up your offense more on your own than you used to, however. Not sure if that'll be a goal for my tanks or not.

Nope, it's an amount beyond the ED cap, if you look at the print with each enhancement. So you are not going to get a straight 20%, unless you are that far below the ED cap already. That's why this Alpha slot might be better to fill in holes in your build that you didn't slot as much, rather than percentages you already have at the ED cap.

Though after Aett's overview, it might be worth it for my Fiery Aura tank to go for the extra resists. Going from 70-78% resist to S/L won't be shabby (and a bit more for Energy, Dark, and Cold). Might wait and see what kind of damage and mobs we're facing with the new content, however.

Thanks for doing that, Aett. I'm not much of a numbers guy on my own (other than being able to analyze what end numbers can do, heh).

Oh, sorry. Forgot to shout, "Ambush!"

There was a thread on that in the Blaster forums that you could check. I know you asked about Corruptors, but I don't frequent those forums too much. Not sure that a different AT matters much in determining an attack chain. I could be forgetting some obvious thing early in the morning, though.