What in heavens happened to Malta?

Now, we all know Malta are very tough, right? They have a lot of cheap, nasty tricks, those insufferable Sappers, lots of resistances, obscenely accurate bosses, many, many, many status effects and so on... But it wasn't always all bad. For a solo Blaster faced with stupidly ridiculous amounts of incoming damage, there was always at least one refuge - mid-to-close range. See, Gunsligers would not use their Fire and Cryo bullets or their Sleep Darts (bosses) at anything less than about 30-40 feet and Titans would not use any of their Missile Swarms or, for the Zeus, its Quad Plasma Battarey, at anything less than 50, maybe 100 feet.

Very quickly it became obvious to me that if I accidentally strayed away from a dangerous target, my Blaster would flatline faster than my brain could register what was going on, so I stayed close. Granted, they were never exactly gentle at close range, either, what with Tasers out the wazoo and those amazingly powerful Titan punches, but at least it was bearable. No longer, it seems.

I consider it my infinitely good fortune that I was playing a Blaster when I noticed this, but just a while ago I noted a Gunslinger shooting Sleep Darts at me from what looked like far too close range, but I figured I'd gone too far. Then a Hercules began shooting its Missile Swarms at me in what I could swear was no more than 10 feet away. Finally, specifically looking at it, I noticed a Gunslinger unload both Cryo Bullet and Fire Bullet from not just "effectively" but plain and simple literally melee range, which he'd never done before.

Now, this concerns me greatly. I've seen what those attacks can do. An Incendiary Missile Swarm from a Zeus is pretty much enough to one-shot Blaster, as it does enormous up-front damage and then a LOT of DoT after that, and a Fire Bullet from a Gunslinger can take a Blaster down to half health, and they almost never miss. I guess I should count myself lucky to have taken two Blasters to 50 and not having to trudge through these... These monsters again any time soon, but... Yikes! What happened to these guys? And just what the heck am I supposed to do now that they're this much stronger?

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Do what they did: Get better.

Yeah, I noticed the Malta bump too. Right when 14 went Live, I had the pleasure of running an MArc that had Malta in it. And I gotta say, seeing the Titans using their Missiles for a change kinda threw me for a loop for a bit.

I figured out pretty quick that these guys had gotten tweaked. Maybe it was intentional. Maybe it was just the MA critter AI accidentally migrated over, but Malta got meaner.

Honestly, I like it. The Titans were cakewalks before. Now, they're pretty threatening. Gunslingers were deadly, now they're OMG! level threats for my Blaster.

Sure I grit my teeth against them from time to time. I watch my steps more now. Maybe I'm just slightly masochistic like that, but this? FUN!

Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize

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Sure I grit my teeth against them from time to time. I watch my steps more now. Maybe I'm just slightly masochistic like that, but this? FUN!

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I can't say I agree. Dying from a single Missile Swarm I could deal with when I could cause it to not be fired if I were careful. Getting one-shotted by a Gunslinger duet I could sort of see when I had means to prevent it from happening. But they're shooting their heaviest hitters first now, making it REALLY hard to do anything about it, and that's before we even look at bosses. A Gunslinger boss was always nasty, but a Fire Bullet from it isn't something I even want to consider.

I like my enemies threatening. They were threatening before. Now... They're more than a bit over the top. I'm afraid to test an actual Blaster against them, seeing what they're doing to my Scrapper.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Last few months I've been mostly playing my Fortunata. When facing Malta, I lead off by confusing the Gunslingers from stealth; they're still deadly, but in a good way...

For some reason I predict an inevitable argument about the game being too easy.

FWIW, I haven't noticed particular trouble with Malta, but I also haven't fought them very much since the change/bug.

Ahh you wusses. I just finished soloing almost all the Crimson Arc...with a Human Only Peacebringer!!! haha

Just yankin ya - PBs are a lot stronger these days...

In any case I agree with Rush_Bolt, Malta and Carnies (of which Im now doing the Harvey Maylor arc) are some things in this game that actually are a stronger challenge than usual...and that's fun.

I joined an all-level 50 team the other night on my controller, entered the mission and promptly spent 17 out of the next 20 minutes mezzed.

Next time I'm faced with Malta on a non-mez protected toon, I think I'll just pass.

One side effect, in addition to the greater damage, is that Gunslingers use their status effects a LOT more. Before they wouldn't use them if you approached, which kind of makes sense since they look like they have to take careful aim for them. Now they open with them.

Then again, Tac Ops have ALWAYS been just that horrible with their minute-long stun grenades...

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

The only hard time my Ice/Ice/Cold blaster had from the Malta was with some of the triggered ambushes in the upper 40s. Those could be a pain. But I was playing on Heroic, so I could handle the Gunslingers and Zeus Titans all right. I had a harder time with the Carnival Illusionists, who are very quick with that Blind attack. I wouldn't expect recent Malta changes to make a difference for her, since she can lock them down before they can put up a fight.

I don't really plan to fight the Malta with my Energy/Energy blaster. She may spend most of her time in the Mission Architect buildings instead.

I'm actually enjoying the challenge of Malta on the 3rd difficulty level with my scrapper, but I wouldn't touch them with anything squishier than that.

@SpaceNut - My 50s, AE arcs and current projects at ParagonWiki

This certainly makes me glad I don't play squishies anymore.

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Wait, since when did Gunslingers not use their cryo and fire rounds at close range? They'd constantly hit my Scrapper with that stuff.

Hmm... I'd like to see a battle between Malta and Vanguard Sword. Who would win!?

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This certainly makes me glad I don't play squishies anymore.

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Try an Ill/Rad controller, if you haven't already. Mine beat up Malta nicely (along with most everything else).

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Hmm... I'd like to see a battle between Malta and Vanguard Sword. Who would win!?

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I believe that with the MA, this can be set up...

I'm lucky my only character at the level to fight Malta is a BS/SR Scrapper. He can dodge Sappers, shrug off mezzes and whittle down Titans... but they're still a pain to fight.

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This certainly makes me glad I don't play squishies anymore.

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Sadly, I'm starting to get there. Why play anything other than god-mode mezz protection, after all?

Still here, even after all this time!

Yay for challenge, I say. I totally fight these guys on squishies. I love being able to say "My blaster pwns Malta." Only solo though. On teams you usually end up with seven people ganging up on the lone sapper and then wondering why half your squishies are spending the whole fight doing the drunk-walk. Those ginormous AoE 30-second stun grenades are just...ugh.

This thread makes it even more unlikely that my nrg/nrg blaster will change his badge title away from Master of Olympus.

I've been sporting that title on my original blaster since badges went live - I rarely see people on Victory with it, I always get asked where it comes from. People avoided Malta then and they still avoid Malta.

Posts like this just reaffirm why I keep that badge title up, and probably will forever.

I like the challenge of Malta and KoA =)

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Sure I grit my teeth against them from time to time. I watch my steps more now. Maybe I'm just slightly masochistic like that, but this? FUN!

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I can't say I agree. Dying from a single Missile Swarm I could deal with when I could cause it to not be fired if I were careful. Getting one-shotted by a Gunslinger duet I could sort of see when I had means to prevent it from happening. But they're shooting their heaviest hitters first now, making it REALLY hard to do anything about it, and that's before we even look at bosses. A Gunslinger boss was always nasty, but a Fire Bullet from it isn't something I even want to consider.

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I'm not sure which side I'm on with the Malta and their improved tactical AI. I have a mid 40's mostly solo superspy whom for thematic reasons takes ALL the Malta and KoA missions she can (yeah, I geek like that). But man Malta has for me too in the exact ways you've described been pretty nasty as of late. I now need to do a lot of prep work (read: tons of trip mines and several redoubts for strategic retreats) during many Malta fights.

It's tough. Slow going. And at times frustrating. But when she solos a Malta mission on Unyielding now, I feel she's finally the badass superspy I'd always imagined! This tells me that despite the aggravation, I am having some kind of fun with the challenge.

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Wait, since when did Gunslingers not use their cryo and fire rounds at close range? They'd constantly hit my Scrapper with that stuff.

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I'm not sure when they started doing that. At some point someone discovered that Gunslingers had a Cryo Bullet attack that the AI simply never used and enabled it. I believe it has been since then that they never used it in melee or at short range. My Energy/Energy Blaster levelled up off Malta for this precise reason. This has not been true since I14, however. Whatever they did to NPC AI to enable critters to use player powers seems to have affected Malta, as well, overriding their older AI.

Mercenaries used to have the same problem. Spec Ops would never, ever use their snipes at anything less than 50-100 feet, and if engaged at that range, would get stuck there waiting for Sniper Rifle to recharge unless approached or ordered to goto manually. The commando would, similarly, refuse to use Long Range Missile unless he was standing VERY far away, and would then refuse to use anything other than that while it recharged. Which, at four minutes to the use, was more than a little irritating. He may or may not have done the same with Full Auto.

Both of those have been fixed, I think they were done away with either in I12 or I13 when the various Mastermind changes were being done. This one in particular was a HUGE improvement in the outbound damage Mercenaries were able to lay down, and it HAS made a big difference. Apparently, the same happened to the Malta Group.

I guess I shouldn't really complain, because them not using half their powers due to poor AI was a rather cheap exploit, but the problem remains that fighting them with a squishy suddenly became a LOT harder, and it was never exactly easy to begin with. Fighting them with a non-squishy, however, is still as relatively uneventful as ever. Which bugs me, because I was finally starting to feel like Blasters stood a chance at being at least roughly in the same league Scrappers, but the things seemingly specifically designed to kill them keep on multiplying...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I liked the good old days, when 'high level' meant you stopped seeing the old guys forever. None of this "level 53 council and CoT forever" bullchunks. There weren't any easy fights any more. If you got to 50, you got there fighting in the big leagues.

... I'm alone in this, aren't I?

On topic, there have been a few tweaks upward to just about every badguy group. CoT got nervas, Council replaced 5th, Rikti got gunswords... the Malta Group has finally gotten equipment upgrades. Bring them, say I.

A while ago Castle made changes to mob AI that prevented mobs from effectively using their attacks due to range. Thus, Malta mobs are now using attacks they used to completely avoid.

I was still able to solo my Malta/Rikti arc "Blowback" on a Peacebringer so I'm not too worried.

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I liked the good old days, when 'high level' meant you stopped seeing the old guys forever. None of this "level 53 council and CoT forever" bullchunks. There weren't any easy fights any more. If you got to 50, you got there fighting in the big leagues.

... I'm alone in this, aren't I?

On topic, there have been a few tweaks upward to just about every badguy group. CoT got nervas, Council replaced 5th, Rikti got gunswords... the Malta Group has finally gotten equipment upgrades. Bring them, say I.

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Can't you just go to the Shadow Shard and fight Rularuu to get your kicks?

Seriously, though, I pretty much avoid Malta missions like the plague already. Looks like I will continue to do so.

I really like Malta, CoT, Tsoo and Carnies. Why? Because of just that: they are more resourceful enemies that require some thinking to tackle, instead of the "kick on the door" approach.

Call me masochistic, but when in the correct level range, I actively look for those enemies, to a fault. It's worth to mention I play Villains almost exclusively.

What I really hate are Flashbang Grenades =P