It's a small mercy bestowed on us the player in a sea of horrific custom creations.
I had an invuln EB that consistently used Unstoppable at 25% health, allowing me to give him a custom line that he'd say as he activated it.
So invuln at least works.
Same here. Word to the wise. Dont make an AV or EB with a tanker's DA. The self heal is ridiculous. On top of that they'll use their tier 9 self rez to rez themselves after you kill them for the first time. That mez it does it strong enuff to stun a tank.
A red name commented on this during (I think) closed beta. The tier 9 powers that are typically used in last-ditch situations by critters, including temp godmodes and nukes, have to be specially coded by the AI to be used at low health. Some existing critters already in-game prior to i14 required those powers, so they'd been given special treatment already; for example, Nova and Unstoppable.
But if a powerset hasn't been used by critters prior to i14 the power can end up getting used oddly and/or badly. Critters tend to open with Inferno, for example, then stand there helpless without endurance (assuming, that is, that there's anything left to attack it). Some of the godmode powers don't get used at all.
I thought that pohsyb was going to address this in the now-near-mythical AI update that he and Arcanaville were planning out during closed beta, but if that update ever happened, it passed me by. As far as I can tell AI still has the same issues it did in closed beta. It's a little frustrating at times, but on the other hand I understand the problem; you can't make an infinitely complex AI or the combat server would grind to a halt during large battles.
And for a while things were cold,
They were scared down in their holes
The forest that once was green
Was colored black by those killing machines
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A red name commented on this during (I think) closed beta. The tier 9 powers that are typically used in last-ditch situations by critters, including temp godmodes and nukes, have to be specially coded by the AI to be used at low health. Some existing critters already in-game prior to i14 required those powers, so they'd been given special treatment already; for example, Nova and Unstoppable.
But if a powerset hasn't been used by critters prior to i14 the power can end up getting used oddly and/or badly. Critters tend to open with Inferno, for example, then stand there helpless without endurance (assuming, that is, that there's anything left to attack it). Some of the godmode powers don't get used at all.
I thought that pohsyb was going to address this in the now-near-mythical AI update that he and Arcanaville were planning out during closed beta, but if that update ever happened, it passed me by. As far as I can tell AI still has the same issues it did in closed beta. It's a little frustrating at times, but on the other hand I understand the problem; you can't make an infinitely complex AI or the combat server would grind to a halt during large battles.
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Actually, the AI was slightly tweaked in the area of attack selection, although you would have to be testing it carefully to notice because the change was not dramatic (I think dramatic changes were shelved to prevent them from delaying the release of the issue if the critters went bonkers).
When a critter uses something like a tier 9 isn't actually an AI issue per se, but rather an issue with the way the power is tagged. I will try to send the powers that be a list of powers that appear to be tagged incorrectly this weekend, or thereabouts (if I have time: might be very busy this weekend). The AI itself is not a culprit here, though (at least, not for the most part: if the AI gets "stuck" a critter could still end up not using a tier 9 because it has stopped using *anything* besides a particular power).
I *think* - I'm not certain - that no "tier 9" attack or defense should literally drain a critter to zero: *most* have been changed to not do that. I'll check all of them when I take my tier 9 pass and see if any of them are still defined to do that and ask the devs if that is intentional: since so many were changed to not do that, my guess is that its likely an oversight.
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I'll just be happy if Melee Allies finally fought correctly instead of often standing just out of range and doing nothing.
I made a custom AV who would always open with aim + inferno. It was hilarious and frustrating at the same time since inferno can one shot you due to the dot tagged on.
yeah i played round with fire blast on extreme too even w/o the aim inferno one shots my regen scrap unless i hit dull pain b4 the fight
From what I've seen custom mobs don't even NEED tier 9 powers. Not like you can't make a tough mob without them and some of those (like Electric) are sooo annoying to fight.
Seems to me the timers on powers are buggered up though. Custom mobs recast powers FAST. As was stated heals come too close together, another though is Holds. A week Earth mob for example will spam Immob and Hold forever until he gets bored and uses his secondary set. If this were a player with only those 2 attacks they would have dead time after casting them both.
It's like everything is 3 slotted for everything. They don't have purples, they have ultra-violets. lol
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You can't please everyone, so lets concentrate on me.
Mastermind critters can resummon all of their pets almost instantly and they come pre-buffed. I was surprised how fast all those robots reappeared after wiping them all out before killing the MM.
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From what I've seen custom mobs don't even NEED tier 9 powers. Not like you can't make a tough mob without them and some of those (like Electric) are sooo annoying to fight.
Seems to me the timers on powers are buggered up though. Custom mobs recast powers FAST. As was stated heals come too close together, another though is Holds. A week Earth mob for example will spam Immob and Hold forever until he gets bored and uses his secondary set. If this were a player with only those 2 attacks they would have dead time after casting them both.
It's like everything is 3 slotted for everything. They don't have purples, they have ultra-violets. lol
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In general, custom critters have the same powers we do, minus changes designed to make them more useable by the AI (for example, radiation toggle debuffs became clicks). But they do not have more aggressive recharge than we do for the same powers, nor do custom critters "slot" anything.
The problem is that most players are comparing custom critters to standard critters, but custom critters are really using player powers at player strengths, and intentionally so by the devs.
Most critters cannot perma-hold out of the box at even con, deliberately so. Carnie Illusionists, for example, have a deliberate gap between cycles of blind, until you get to higher than even con (where the duration increases due to the level scaler). But player powers are often designed to be perma out of the box, or nearly so, and that wasn't altered for custom critters. Again: intentionally so.
The guiding principle on the custom critter powers that was expressed to me was basically: they should have our versions of the powers they get, unless that is provably broken (for the critter) or wildly overpowered (emphasis on "wildly").
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Actually, while I haven't done exhaustive cross-checking, every custom critter mez power I've examined has had at least slightly lower base strength than the player equivalent. Blind, since you mentioned it, is scale 8 on the ranged immobilize table for custom critters, but scale 10 for players (and Carnies). For Fossilize, it's scale 8 versus scale 12 for players. Confuse got hit super hard (probably justifiably), down to scale 5, compared to players' scale 20.
In any case, in all the time I've spent futzing with custom critters I have never found a minion capable of permaholding anything, at any level. Immobilizes, yes; those last nearly twice as long and recharge in half the time.
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The guiding principle on the custom critter powers that was expressed to me was basically: they should have our versions of the powers they get, unless that is provably broken (for the critter) or wildly overpowered (emphasis on "wildly").
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I like that sentiment, but I wish we had a little more fine control over the nature of those powers. For example, I was testing some of my new Assault Rifle toting critters using my Dominator. The catch is that AR uses the Blaster code, which means it gets a copy of Defiance: Burst and Slug can be used while mezzed.
That's a nice effect for lieutenants and bosses, since it makes them a little dangerous while held. But it was a real pain for minions: they only had three AR powers to begin with, so holding them only removes Buckshot. That meant my Dominator was resting a lot, and it made the minions seem vastly more dangerous than they were intended to be.
I realize this is sort of an edge case, since plenty of characters might never notice the Defiance effects. But it does make me wish we could restrict the use of "genuine hero grade powers" to critters that warrant them.
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has anyone else noticed this? ive been testing some possible AV/EB power match ups and when i give them a set like elec armor or energy armor they never use their tier 9 power. is this a current bug or something?