MTS

Just ATT really. She can be recalled, but I tried it once when nobody on the team had ATT and had issues with losing targeting when I got too far away (/assist doesn't work if the target is out of perception range). In practice I could only recall her from halfway up the corridor on the first floor, meaning she had to be dragged most of the way back anyway.

I remember being surprised that she can be teleported around. Most NPC allies are immune to teleport, to prevent just that sort of shortcut.

My bad, reading comprehension fail. Yeah, I don't think the 1.6 accuracy on the summon power will have any effect whatsoever on the pet.

It depends on how they look at it. To be fair, if Inferno, Psychic Wail, or Full Auto miss a target, they do zero damage.

EDIT: There were too many "except Blizzard"s in the paragraph below, so please just assume I'm talking about every nuke except for that one. It's in a class by itself

Rain of Arrows, even at 1.0 accuracy and 75% to-hit, only has a 1.5% chance to miss an even con target entirely. That's better than any other nuke can do, no matter how much accuracy they have. Granted, if some of the ticks miss it will do reduced damage, but that's better than missing entirely. The other nukes only have a 37.5% chance of doing maximum damage to any given target anyway, except Full Auto which has the odd 10% chance for non-resistable (!) crit. Rain of Arrows is slightly ahead -- it has a 42.2% chance that all 3 ticks will hit. It's also the only nuke that can improve that chance by slotting accuracy.

Yes, they do. Most pseudopets inherit modifiers (buffs) from their summoner, and Rain of Arrows is flagged to do so.

This is why you sometimes see phantom yellow Hasten effects under a lightning storm, or the subtle blue helix of Secondary Mutation when you target ground-based powers like Rain of Arrows, Quicksand, Freezing Rain, etc.

It's also why hitting a large group of enemies with Howling Twilight sometimes results in a deafening Hasten sound. Since a single power can't have two different areas of effect, it summons a pseudopet at your feet to perform the rez. However, because it's an AoE, it ends up summoning a bunch of pseudopets, depending on how many targets it hit (the same thing happens with Fulcrum Shift, but it's more visually obvious there). Each of those pseudopets gets a copy of your buffs, and plays the activation sound at the exact same moment.

That one is actually possible to fix if they moved the Hasten sound effect out of the Continuing FX of the effect and into the Activation FX of the power itself. That's what they did to fix it for Mystic Fortune when HT used to spam a bunch of fortune sounds, but I digress...

The gist of it is, Rain of Arrows should be affected by any accuracy and to-hit bonuses you have, whether they're from buffs like Aim or Power Build Up, or from set bonuses.

If you follow the links, you'll see that those are actually Shuriken powers. When they changed then, they just changed the display name.

Are you sure you play an empath? It's quite possible to make AB perma -- I know, I helped a friend do it on her emp/dark. The math for power recharge is quite well understood, you're barking up the wrong tree with wild claims about how programs like Mids can't possibly be close to what happens in-game.

Also, you're quite clearly missing the point of Fortitude if you think the damage buff is the intent of the power. It's nice, but the defense boost from it is much more significant, especially if combined with power build up. 23-24% without PBU or 37% with it is a LOT of defense to be applied to all positions and types. To put things in perspective, a 23% defense buff to a character with no defense (i.e. a squishy) reduces their incoming damage by HALF. To a scrapper or tanker that isn't already softcapped against the enemies you're facing, it's even more potent.

There's not a single power in the game that works that way. Sure there are a few powers that cannot have their recharge affected at all, but it's an all or nothing affair -- the game engine simply doesn't allow for an arbitrary cutoff. The only hard cap on powers that can have their recharge reduced is the 400% limit on global recharge bonuses.

Are the in-game numbers where you're coming up with this 150 second limit on Adrenalin Boost? You should know that the recharge number you see when right-clicking the power and checking the info only includes enhancements -- it doesn't count global recharge buffs like Hasten or set bonuses.

Even then it's possible to get a little past that. With 3 level 50 recharge IOs it's around 150 seconds, yes. If you put in 6 level 50 recharge IOs you can somewhat push past ED and get it down to 137.5 seconds. That's a huge waste of slots, though, you're better off going for set bonuses. Try it yourself if you don't believe me.

I do this all the time on my support characters in large teams. Some of them are empaths. Many of them are not. When all you need is a moment of "being a hero" to save your team, that's what inspirations are for. Pop 3 purples, an orange or two, and congratulations, you're a tank for the next 60 seconds. Plenty of time to for the team to rez and buff up if you can recall them out of danger.

Hmm, interesting. I'm not sure what issue those tables are from. The minion, lt, and boss numbers match up, but the AV numbers are off.

Oddly, the numbers they have for AVs match the "special case" class for Aspects of Rularuu.

My guess is AV damage got buffed at some point, but the Rularuu class (which started off as a copy of the AV one) didn't get updated.

I'm pretty sure it all exists in the database used by City of Data, but I haven't found a way to coax the frontend to show it to me. Keep in mind that City of Data is a couple issues out of date, looks like issue 18 was the last time it was touched.

Enemy damage tables are based on the combat level and 'class' of the enemy, which is usually their rank, though there are a few special cases. Notably, Incarnate trial AVs are their own class, as are the cathedral of pain AVs, Reichsman, Hami, and a few other special cases.

Also note that combat level for the purpose of damage tables is not modified by level shifts. A 50 (+20) enemy, or player for that matter, will do the same base damage as a plain 50 with no shifts. Final damage depends on the combat modifiers which are determined by level difference (including shifts) between the attacker and the target.

Unfortunately City of Data doesn't have a good way to specify which damage table you want to use, so here's a few values you can multiply by based on what you're facing.

Level 50 Minion

Melee_Damage: 120.48
Ranged_Damage: 72.29

Level 50 Lt

Melee_Damage: 180.71
Ranged_Damage: 108.43

Level 50 Boss

Melee_Damage: 385.52
Ranged_Damage: 231.31

Level 50 Elite Boss

Melee_Damage: 481.9
Ranged_Damage: 289.14

Level 50 Archvillain (including Praetorian AVs)

Melee_Damage: 874.65
Ranged_Damage: 524.79

Level 54 Archvillain (including Praetorian AVs)

Melee_Damage: 949.07
Ranged_Damage: 569.44

Hope this helps.

No it's not.

There are exploration badges that only exist on certain mission maps. There's a whole slew of them you have to do safeguard / mayhem missions for (which means finding someone in the right level range if you're already past it). There's one you can only get during the holiday event. There are exploration badges in PvP zones. There's one hidden on an Arena map, that you can only get by being lucky with the random map selection. There's one you have to effectively complete a trial to obtain.

There's plenty of precedent for exploration badges with specific requirements for them, including ones that you have to team to obtain.

Unabashed is actually one of the easier of those and can be gotten solo -- it's not hard to run in and snag it while a raid is going on if you really want it. For the impatient, as mentioned earlier, you don't even have to do a full raid. A small group can just take out pylons to drop the shield.

I'd be okay with removing it from the zone beacon requirements, but I don't think the badge should be moved.

I bugged this in beta, as did many others. It's even more silly when you consider that a rogue is also denied from entering RV when they attempt to click on the portal, so the elevator check is completely unnecessary.

Fortunately the bug is buggy, and possible to get around. Invite a hero or vigilante to a team and have them recall you down to the area past the elevator. Then you can get the badge

I really wish there was a version of these that show up only when you're moving. The persistent ground effect, especially of the frost and electricity ones, is just too overpowering.

i.e. I want to leave a trail of frost, not be surrounded by a huge mound of it.

Well, Sister Psyche used to have a unique headband. Then she got her body back and got genericed in the process...

Now Mother Mayhem is disturbingly using a bigger version of it as a belt.

That's true, when looking at a system in which Destiny and Lore are the stopping point.

We're only looking at the first part of the system, however. It's still incomplete. Once all the slots exist, getting the level shifts in Destiny and Lore will be a progression tool, to make unlocking and slotting the later slots easier.

The same thing could have been said for the Alpha slot level shift before the trials were implemented.

The BAF lag is definitely server side -- disabling sending of buff info won't really help unless you're getting disconnects or rubberbanding because you don't have enough bandwidth to receive it all. The server has to process the buff info whether it sends it to you or not, so it won't really save any CPU time on their end.

I have a couple theories about the increase in server slowdown problems in the last few issues. One of them is that the powers team is getting more creative and starting to figure out how to use the powers system in new ways that they hadn't conceived of before, to accomplish complex behavior though interactions between powers.

A good example are chain powers, which are fairly complex behind the scenes, involving multiple spawns of psuedopets that grant powers that spawn additional pets.

Interface is another one. It's implemented by the somewhat bizarre method of a power that grants a global enhancement (enhancements are themselves powers). When that enhancement procs, it grants another power (or two depending on the tree) to the enemy. The enemy can end up with several copies of that power -- that's how the stack limit is implemented to be independent of whose interface procced it. It's a bit convoluted, but is the only way to make it work as intended without code changes.

Multiple overlapping ally-affecting auras are another problem (see also: Cimerorans). This is probably because they incur constant range check calculations, which likely happen every server tick, and the number that have to be done increases geometrically the more entities that are active.

Even fairly basic powers like Destiny are getting more complex and pushing the limits. The basic tier 1 Barrier for instance has no less than 71 separate effects. Multiply that by the number of players who are in range of it. On a 24-player league, one click when everyone's in range means that the server has to apply 1,704 power effects; and maintain them for 90 seconds! Depending on how the code is implemented, it may make a speed vs. memory tradeoff that would allow a chunk of those to be discarded after the first 5 seconds when they expire. Then again it may not, and might have to scan the whole list every time a check is made.

All that being said, I'm not sure exactly why the slowdown gets so bad in the escapee phase. They are running the confusion aura, true, but it's fairly short range so the server should be able to efficiently eliminate most of the possible targets right off the bat. And there aren't that many escapees out at any given time. It shouldn't be much more CPU intensive than a big sewer run or the ghoul zone event in Neutropolis.

My best guess is that it's something related to whatever mechanic they're using to force the AI to run along the paths rather than use their attack powers.

I can't speak for Tony and I really don't want to get in the middle of whatever issues you have with each other, but I do BAFs all the time without lag in the prisoner phase (and also many times with lag). It's much less of a problem in 16-player leagues, and nonexistent in 12-player leagues.

If the component conversion costs are any indication, I think you'll find that the rate of transfer will be so incredibly inefficient compared to just running the trials on the character you want to progress, that no one will seriously use it. i.e. the progress you get from converting another character's merits is so glacially slow that it's only a "last resort" use for extra merits once you already have everything else you could possibly want to spend them on.

I mean like in the 1 Astral to 1 Thread, 1 Empyrean to 5 Thread range. With as punishing as all the other incarnate-related conversions are, I just can't see them going with anything more than that.

How does dislike of an 8-hour meat grinder TF apply to trials that are over with in 30-40 minutes tops, win or lose?

I'm genuinely curious.

That's not the only reason. The Steam Punk Pack goes on sale in 6 days. It was also included in this patch. There probably wasn't enough time to decouple the two (or fix the bug for that matter), get it through QA, prepared for download, and in place in time for that launch.

If it had been a game breaking bug, they would have delayed the patch. However it's not. It's inconvenient, and a bit unfair, but in the end it's a minor bit of pain that will be resolved soon.

He probably has access to special dev features and can manually set his position / rotation.

If I were a betting man I would bet very strongly that all the vouchers mentioned are going to be buyable using Astral and/or Empyrean Merits. After all they did kind of hint at it when they mentioned all the 'cool things' we'd be able to eventually use them for.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that there will be rage and disappointment when the exact costs and what you get for them are announced. If you'll excuse me, I have to go make some popcorn.

The autopower uses this one



Which is a fairly standard damage buff icon, though it does have a strange blob of aqua in the upper left part of the arc and a very slight blue tint to the icon symbol.

I've seen that icon somewhere before but I can't quite place it. The Soul Catcher in the SF uses a unique copy of it though, so it could be replaced if you really wanted. Not sure it worth the effort for a one use temp power though.

Well of course, that wouldn't be sporting.

Besides, we still had to rescue Statesman. Never mind that's he's a complete moron for falling for the same ruse, AGAIN, and getting kidnapped the second time, but I diverge...

On the other hand, their dependance on the sonic fences is their own doing, and that's not our responsibility. This is war after all.

Or as Batman would put it, we won't kill them, but we don't have to save them.

City of Data hasn't been refreshed in a few issues, unfortunately. A good place to check for in-depth mechanics information is Mids -- the database editor lets you see the raw power data, albeit in a processed form, but the numbers at least are accurate.

Eagle's Claw uses the new tech for dynamically changing the chance of a particular power effect to go off, that IIRC was first used for Dual Pistols' ammo types.

Here's exactly what Eagle's Claw does:

PvE-only effects:

• Scale 2.28 Melee_Damage dealt with type smashing. (23.37 at level 1 -- 142.64 at level 50)
• Magnitude 3 stun for Scale 4 Melee_Stun seconds. (3.2 at level 1 -- 4.768 at level 50)
• 15% chance of CRITICAL, Scale 2.28 Melee_Damage dealt with type smashing.

PvP-only effects:

• Scale 3.36144 Melee_Damage dealt with type smashing. (34.45 at level 1 -- 210.30 at level 50)
• Magnitude 3 stun for Scale 2 Melee_Stun seconds. (1.6 at level 1 -- 2.384 at level 50), with the usual PvP mez suppression
• 15% chance of CRITICAL, Scale 3.36144 Melee_Damage dealt with type smashing.

Common effects:

• 0% chance of Scale 0.23895 Melee_Damage dealt as fire damage. (2.45 at level 1 -- 14.95 at level 50)
  [ Fiery Embrace raises this to 100% chance while active ]
• Adds 33% to the chance of all effects flagged as ECCritMod for 2 seconds. That affects basically all crits in the martial arts set except for Eagle's Claw itself, not that it would be possible to activate it again in time anyway.

You're correct that once you factor in the flat 15% crit chance, which applies regardless of target rank, the average damage is closer to scale 2.62.

As Arcanaville noted, the effects from this power kick in at 1.3 seconds into the activation, which takes 2.53 seconds total. The crit buff lasts for 2 seconds, which only leaves you with 0.77 seconds to use it after the power finishes activating, and that's without adjusting for Arcanatime.

EDIT: There appears to be an inconsistency in the data for power customizations. If I'm reading this right, and it's entirely possible I may be mistaken about how it works, the "time before hit" for the 'Bright Face Smasher' and 'Dark Face Smasher' alternate animations seem to be set at 1.5 seconds instead of 1.3. If that's true, then selecting one of those customizations may buy you an extra 0.2 seconds to use the crit buff...

Since when do superheroes care about collateral damage to other dimensions?

IIRC, the reactive DoT didn't work with pseudo-pets at all when I20 went live. It wasn't until a later patch that was fixed, and the "rain of nukes" was apparently a side-effect of that fix.