Redlynne

I've started a Praetorian Mind/Nature Controller, and already (at Level 7/8) I'm starting to see some interesting synergies that I hadn't readily anticipated.

The first thing I noticed, in Mids', was the potential for stacking Telekinesis (of all things...) with Entangling Aura while using Lifegiving Spores to keep your Endurance refuelled.

The second thing I noticed, in actual gameplay, is that Corrosive Enzymes draws aggro (because it's a Debuff) but doesn't break Sleep ... which has important implications for deploying and using Mesmerize, particularly in the early going (1-10). Combined with Confuse in Mind Control, there are all sorts of devious things that you can accomplish very early on.

The third thing I've noticed, in actual gameplay, is how "useful" (if inconsistent) the Science Origin Power (Tranq Dart) is in setting up Containment for increased DPS throughput in the early going. Tranq Dart only does a Sleep, but it lasts more than an eye blink when it happens (unlike the Tech Origin power) meaning it can be used as both Containment setup and also for diversionary delays so as to kite your Foes into a convenient string to begin the process of round-robin control/containment damage.

The fourth thing I've noticed is that Regrowth and Terrorize are both 90 degree cones ... although Regrowth is shorter at only 45 ft instead of 60 ft. This means that if you're comfortable with Terrorize's AoE, mapping skillset to Regrowth is relatively trival.



All in all, I'm thinking that Mind/Nature is going to wind up being a pretty potent combination, in part because Nature can shore up Mind Control's few weaknesses in ways that Empathy is hard pressed to rival/replicate. Likewise, Mind/Kin is more of a "rollercoaster ride" combination that is very Click heavy, but Mind/Nature should have a much more "even" performance profile which isn't dependent upon Foes for fuel.

It's been (more than) a month now since your post on 07-23-2012 @ 05:41 PM. Can we please have an update?

Already done ... three days before this thread got posted.

See ... Time Manipulation ...

Given how the "advance scouts" of the Battalion we've seen (Shivans) are less of an "assimilate other species" so much an an extremophile adaptive mutation, I can easily see the Battalion being something polar opposite to the Borg. Instead of being all "Resistance Is Futile Because Death Is Irrelevant" like the Borg, where the Borg add other species to their collective by assimilation into the Borg ... instead ... I see the Battalion being somewhat "amorphous" in a rather "shapeshiftery" fashion, where rather than assimilating other species into themselves, the Battalion simply "adapts" to survive and thrive in whatever environment they come in contact with. Rather than assimilating others into themselves like the Borg, the Battalion instead "evolves to WIN" against whatever they encounter, eventually overwhelming and defeating the "natives" through sheer evolutionary pressure (which the Battalion can survive, but the "natives" cannot).

This would mean that the Battalion would have no fixed and definite form and could (quite literally) *BECOME* anything it needed to be in order to Fight And Win ... which is rather terrifying, actually.

And then consider the "fact" that the Rikti fought off the Battalion in their home dimension ... and look at what that effort cost them!

Costume creator uses a Female avatar type. That's good enough for any ICON Artist to go by.

Range buff would be useful for Mercenaries or Robots (mainly ranged powers), situation depending ... not so much for Ninjas.

Actually, they do. It's Set Bonuses they don't get.

If you could slot Ninjas for Defense Buff, then you'd be able to leverage your Alpha Slot to enhance their entirely pitiful and pathetic Defenses. But as you can see, Genin, Jounin and Oni do not accept Defense Enhancements ... and therefore gain no benefit from Defense Buffing courtesy of the Alpha Slot. Mumble mumble fink grumble ...

The only Recharge benefit that Mastermind Pets get is that their summoning powers recharge faster. Pets themselves "ignore" all Recharge buffing (and debuffing?) because it messes with their already way too fragile AI.

Alpha Slot will have NO EFFECT on these Aura Enhancements.

The Easter Egg Proc can happen on any damaging attack because the Set is a Universal Damage Set. As I mentioned upthread, I'm seeing the NUKE FX go off at levels 20-24 (ie. before Genin can use Crane Kick, their only native Knockback power, becomes available to them). Shurikens and Kicks (Thunder and Storm) all have a chance to Proc the easter egg animation ... and because they're all damaging attacks, they all have a 20% chance to KnockDOWN thanks to the KB-to-KD Proc in Overwhelming Force. The opacity level of the NUKE FX makes it hard to see, visually, if under all that smoke and light if the $Target fell down or not.

As great as it sounds ... it really isn't *THAT* good (on its own) as a "silver bullet" for Ninja survivability issues. It's HELPFUL ... don't get me wrong ... but it's not a "be all/end all" solution in and of itself. I just happen to be running a Ninja/Time build right now that is stacking multiple effects in the form of (PBAoE on me) To-hit Debuff and (Target Location AoE) Movement+Recharge Debuff and (PBAoE on me) Heal+HoT to make my Ninjas far more survivable than they have any right to be ordinarily. When Foes have their Recharge Debuffed down to the Slow Cap, their Movement Speed Debuffed down to the Slow Cap, and their To-hit Debuffed more than halfway down to the Defense Softcap ... in combination, those things make Ninjas "pretty sturdy" so long as they fight in "formation" and don't go wandering off out of range (and getting themselves KILLED like idiots ). Add KnockDOWN to a pile of Genin attacks and Foes are going to be spending even more time NOT ATTACKING your Ninjas (or yourself, if Tankerminding) ... which only improves Ninja survivability even more.

When casually soloing (+0 x1 @ Level 20-24 in Sharkhead) it's actually somewhat rare for ANY of my Ninjas to be defeated and need resummoning, and when they do, it's usually only 1 Genin (who wandered off and got himself smoked). That's because *I* can control the flow of battle, *I* can pick when to engage (and how), and *I* have time to throw around heals and buffs in between spawn groups. I'm also not dealing with situations where my Ninjas are severely outnumbered (and if they are, I can just pre-emptively throw down Distortion Field to prevent my opposition from attacking all that much). As you might imagine, on a team or in a Strike Force, the dynamic is somewhat different. My Ninjas are still "better" than they would have been without the Overwhelming Force Proc ... but the Proc in and of and by itself is not "game changing ENOUGH" to solve all of my Ninjas' survivability issues.

Last night I joined a Silver Mantis Strike Force (which took me from Level 22 to 24) and my Ninjas were surviving "okay" so long as I kept them on a fairly tight leash and didn't get "too ambitious" in terms of what I was up against. The final map on the platform (of course) was a complete DISASTER for me because of how the "terrain" and deployment of opposition basically makes it IMPOSSIBLE to "control" your Pets with any meaningful success (my Ninjas loved "jumping off the platform" to their doom repeatedly). This reinforced the "when Ninjas stray..." principle in how their limited survivability is entirely dependent on staying with me and fighting at MY side because of the stacking of power effects that *I*, as the Mastermind, bring to the battle.

I have not tried it, and given my experience with Ninja/Time @ 20-24 I expect it to "help" but not "solve" the problem of Ninja survivability when in "contact" with Foes while "poorly supported" by Secondary Powers. I expect I'd have to be using Presence Pool Fear powers to shore up my Ninjas even approximately closely to what Time Manipulation can do in this regard, since Trick Arrow offers surprisingly little survivability aids. Glue Arrow is approximately close to Distortion Field (although Distortion Field is *MUCH BETTER*!), and Flash Arrow is "similar" to Time's Juncture (although Time's Juncture is a *MUCH BETTER* To-hit Debuff!) ... so there *is* some potential for transference of strategy/tactics from one to the other ... but without the PBAoE Heal of Time Manipulation, you have to resort to things like Aid Other with Trick Arrow, and that is nowhere NEAR as effective!

The Comedy Value alone makes it worth it, in my opinion ... since Atomic Annie Shurikens are just so ridiculous.

So long as you don't have outsized expectations of "free" survivability courtesy of the Overwhelming Force Proc, you'll be okay. Having a 20% (not 100%) chance to Knockdown in every attack is "helpful" but it isn't "enough" all on its own. You still need both Secondary and Pool powers to "shore up" the inherent weaknesses (which are MASSIVE!) of Ninjas to being attacked themselves (they are *total* Glass Cannons). Time Manipulation gives me the necessary "toolkit" to minimize the weaknesses of my Ninjas "enough" that I can keep them alive and fighting, and the Overwhelming Force Proc is simply the "cherry blowing up the top" of a badly slumping sundae.

The *best* ways to keep Ninjas alive is either the path of NO GET HITSU!! where a combination of Defense Buffing and To-hit Debuffing pushes them towards the Defense Softcap ... so they take very few hits/damage ... -or- ... prevent your Foes from attacking the Ninjas "directly" either through Tankerminding, where you just don't let your Ninjas grab and hold aggro ... and/or Slow Debuffing, where you just don't let your Foes recharge their powers to attack with. Adding (a chance to) Knockdown to every single Genin attack power via Overwhelming Force Proc works as a "force multiplier" for either build strategy since the Knockdowns futher "limit" the number of incoming attacks that your Ninjas will need to defend against, further enhancing their survivability. It "helps" but isn't enough all by itself to be (literally) game changing.

It is however funny as all get out to see Foes getting knocked over by Shuriken hits ... and that sometimes detonate in huge mushroom clouds of light, smoke and fallout ...

Documentation of doing precisely this can be found here.