Powersets/settings that should be used sparingly
By
AUTAUMNFYRE,
Posted on: 2009-04-20 10:56 in Mission Architect
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Only a Hard Regen LT can revive. The minions don't get that power no matter what.
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It might have been another powerset (Willpower?) - I had lots of fireworks going off, and at the time, I assumed it was Regen. The last time I ran into the multiple revives, I'm certain it was a group of minions. Very, very annoying.
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Only a Hard Willpower LT can revive. The Rezz powers are tier-8s and tier-9s, Minions don't get those.
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They were minions. I remember checking their difficulty level, and being very frustrated. The powerset I was unsure about, but not the rank.
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You want to know how I'm so sure they were not? A way that is simple for you to check for yourself?
Go to MA.
Create New Character.
Select Minion.
Select whatever primary.
Select Willpower or Regen for secondary, set it to Extreme.
Oh look at that, neither one will give a Minion a self-resurrect power.
Try for a LT.
Regen on Extreme gives Revive.
Willpower on Extreme does not give Resurgence.
Therefore, your self-rezzing foes could not have been minions, they had to be at least LT-rank with Regen.
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I think in large part alot of the issues can be seen and dealt with through proper play testing.
The first Arc I created had characters in it with a slow which didn't bother my DM/SR scrapper so I didn't think anything of it. Then I played it with a SG mate who I watch group after group have to run through that junk and thought "that looks like a pain in the rear" and promptly changed the custom character to eliminate the issue.
Also along with varying classes and levels of the characters you use to test your mission...solo versus group size has an impact as well. I found this out that certain combined powersets for mobs you didn't notice solo or one other person but when the groups got bigger and more mobs were stacking certain powers it got much rougher than I planned.
Generally when creating custom groups I try to keep an even level of melee/defender/controller/blaster types at all the levels so no one thing is overloaded i.e. holds...debuffs and such.
Better and more thorough testing all around I think will yield better results but I'm guessing most people don't have an idea of how to properly test what they've created. Not the fault of the individual just a lack of knowledge in that arena. The creation is the fun part and testing can be tedious so I think Arcs get rushed out on that end.
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Absolutley!! I tested with my lvl 50 Tank and then with lvl 40-50 Sg mates on small teams set to unyielding. Everything semed fine.
When I took a mid 30's team of 4 toons into the mish on rugged it was SO difficult.
I had minions with Claws/SR. A blaster lt. with Fire blast/Bubble and another lt. with Illusion/Emp.
When I originally tested there was usually 1 bubbler popping to make the minions a challenge and the other Illusion lt. would spawn every other mob or as a single. Seemed fine.
In the 30's team the mobs were thick as molasses! 4 bubblers would converge and make all the targets untouchable. It was horrible! I felt so bad!
once the maintenance is done I'm lowering difficulties on the powersets from hard to standard.
Diversifying the testing is critical!
Check out my Published Story Arcs:
The STARBLOOD Trilogy
Part 1: 36381 The Return of STARBLOOD
Part 2: 84623 STARBLOOD: Trail of Blood
Part 3: Coming soon
Despite the 'tude, your read of the MA database is accurate. I'll edit my post to reflect it.
For the record, a Superstrength/Willpower with both set to extreme is just cruel.
Mine is optional, so he's only there if you want to fight him. But if you do, he will give you a hard time and then rez to finish you off.
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For the record, a Superstrength/Willpower with both set to extreme is just cruel.
Mine is optional, so he's only there if you want to fight him. But if you do, he will give you a hard time and then rez to finish you off.
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Really, it seems like any AV with its attack set put above anything but Normal is impossibly difficult except for an extremely well-organized team.
Just out of curiousity, anyone else notice that dominator secondaries (assault) seem to actually scale with difficulty? A Lt with an assault set is decidedly more dangerous on extreme than on normal, they get all but one power from it if you use it as a primary. If you set a Dominator assault set to secondary, even a minion will get all powers from the set when set to extreme.
119088 - Outcasts Overcharged. Heroic.
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Despite the 'tude, your read of the MA database is accurate. I'll edit my post to reflect it.
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Or you could have checked your facts ahead of time and saved yourself any embarrassment.
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And for the love of all that's holy, vary up your custom mobs. I know file space is limited. But even set on Standard, a lot of powersets become problematic when every minion has it.
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This is how I use Ninjitsu: of the 9 types of mobs in my custom group, only one has it. (They're snipers, so it fits). This helps make the group tough, but not overly so.
QR
I would like it if they allowed you to remove powers from a set. An example would be you want a willpower set with all powers but the rez so you just click it and it greys out.
Onibi---Fire/Fire/fire Blaster
I'm ready to burn it all.
Lets Fight!
ParadigmX City help the city.
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For the record, a Superstrength/Willpower with both set to extreme is just cruel.
Mine is optional, so he's only there if you want to fight him. But if you do, he will give you a hard time and then rez to finish you off.
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Haha. When I was testing for my first arc, I had a SS/WP EB set to Extreme for both. The mission gives you an ally of EB level with SS/Inv set to Extreme, in order to take down this enemy EB and several other EBs.
When I got to the SS/WP one though, the Ally managed to beat the crap out of him... then he self-rezzed. I had to help the ally take him down again, which involed a lot of back-and-forth aggroing. Then we got him down again... only, the WP self-rez only takes like, 2 minutes to recharge. So this bugger got up yet AGAIN, destroyed my ally, and then came after me. I gave up and ran away.
It reminded me of an arc in a certain glorified anime involving a lot of failed last resort attempts to destroy the enemy leader.
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Really, it seems like any AV with its attack set put above anything but Normal is impossibly difficult except for an extremely well-organized team.
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Actually, a friend and I have been able to duo a few of the AVs I've come up with for my next arc. These include a Energy Blast/Empathy and a Robotics/Devices, all set to extreme. On the other hand, the Energy Melee/Electric Armor AV seems undoable by just two people. Some sets seem so underwhelming, while others are disgustingly challenging.
Just ran a friends mission where he did pretty much everything in the OP's list. I would like to add, please limit the use of glowie-hunting. Just because a map can have 36 objects to find, doesn't mean you should place 36 objects to find!
Also, I tend to not give my minions armor sets. I find pairing a melee oriented NPC with ranged set, set at standard (or vice-versa), works great. The NPC tends to stick with the primary and rarely, if all uses the sedondary.
My level 50 Dominators:
Madame Mindbender 50 Mind/Energy
Fly Agaric 50 Plant/Thorn
Nate Nitro 50 Fire/Psi
I've found that often when a debuff is being stacked to excess that the easiest cure is to actually not remove it, but instead add an additional custom mob at that level to thin the ranks of the debuffers that show up. I expect the same strategy would work for annoying buff mobs.
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Despite the 'tude, your read of the MA database is accurate. I'll edit my post to reflect it.
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Or you could have checked your facts ahead of time and saved yourself any embarrassment.
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Somehow, I think I'll sleep soundly anyway. Go make another 10,000 posts elsewhere if you really feel the need to prove your manhood.
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Extreme mind control, and extreme dark miasma should also be used sparingly imo, because very little players have fear protection, and fears are quite overpowered when used on players.
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One way I found to get around this is to work in an ally that has the Empathy set, as I find that it spams clear mind quite a bit 
That way I can make the Elite or AV that I want for the story and still make it possible to play with a non-mez protected player or team.
I think in large part alot of the issues can be seen and dealt with through proper play testing.
The first Arc I created had characters in it with a slow which didn't bother my DM/SR scrapper so I didn't think anything of it. Then I played it with a SG mate who I watch group after group have to run through that junk and thought "that looks like a pain in the rear" and promptly changed the custom character to eliminate the issue.
Also along with varying classes and levels of the characters you use to test your mission...solo versus group size has an impact as well. I found this out that certain combined powersets for mobs you didn't notice solo or one other person but when the groups got bigger and more mobs were stacking certain powers it got much rougher than I planned.
Generally when creating custom groups I try to keep an even level of melee/defender/controller/blaster types at all the levels so no one thing is overloaded i.e. holds...debuffs and such.
Better and more thorough testing all around I think will yield better results but I'm guessing most people don't have an idea of how to properly test what they've created. Not the fault of the individual just a lack of knowledge in that arena. The creation is the fun part and testing can be tedious so I think Arcs get rushed out on that end.