to make things interesting for some people you need a mag 100 hold that lasts for 5 minutes with a 30 second recycle time and 100% acc plus triple scrapper single target damage + triple blaster aoe damage....and a self heal that fires even if stunned.....
Actually thats not a challenge....if you think this games too easy, go solo hami....its out there. Thats the level of unfun that Koa and Malta are.
I also agree with Sam.
I knew about the ranged hold, and would strive not to set it off. Now, all I can do to prevent it is beat the foes down faster or mez them. I find that less interesting, not more.
Did the old cutoff range make sense? Probably not, it seemed much too far. But I actually thought it was cool that they behaved that way in general. I consider this a step backwards.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
I thought the Titans always used the hold? I definitely remember getting pegged by it a few times in the past on my blaster. If there was a bug in the AI, it was that I could substantially reduce the amount of damage they put out by simply standing in melee and tricking them into using only their (relatively) weaker melee smash.
I don't mind beefier Titans, though, since previously the only thing that they did was soak up a lot of damage in an annoying way.
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball
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I think the Titans always had those powers, they just didn't work properly before.
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Ding!
The tinkering with AI that we've been doing has caused some powers that previously NEVER got used to start showing up in the attack rotations.
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PowerS? Plural? Ooooo! I wonder what else is waiting for us? Maybe those D.E. spawning things will actually start spawning D.E.?
Now the question is:
Is it intentional? Titans were always balanced by being murder at range but much weaker up close.
What shall claim a Sky Kings' Ransom?
PPD & Resistance Epic Archetypes
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On the subject of the 30 second stun grenades. I assume that they were intended to stack on tanks and scrappers with their long durations, I always wondered why they didn't just make them higher mag instead, eg Mag 6 for 15 second instead of Mag 3 for 30 seconds.
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With toggles staying up now when held, that would actually be a great solution, I think. 
"I want Johnny Sonata to open his Moon Casino so we can have some damn Wailers on the Moon." - Johnny_Butane
"The vet reward for 1200 months of play is we move the servers into your house." - BackAlleyBrawler
I have been held by a Titan once or twice before i15. And since I don't avoid Malta, that's really not a lot.
Today I was testing my Malta arc (in my sig, shameless plug) and my brute ran into two Hercules Titans who had just happened to spawn next to each other...and suddenly I couldn't attack. Then I saw "HELD" in my status bar. Of course, in retrospect I probably should have known better than to stand in a DoT patch. So I risked dying because I was dumb. I like it.
I don't recall the Hercules Titans having any sort of mez protection either. I've been one-shot holding them with my Malta-pwning blaster forever...unless they got some mez protection as part of i15.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
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My reflexes are trained from the days of "A sapper in every group". I love the titans, the gunslingers, the gun drones, the tactical operatives, but watching my character's endurance drop to zero... eat a blue... drain to zero again... ouch.
It's not that I don't know how to fight them, it's that it's not fun. I kill them first. Forget soloing a defender against Malta. I could do it, I won't. The damage output isn't fast enough to take out a Sapper before he zeroes the Defender's end and *squip*. It would be a perpetual inspiration refill just to attempt it. I never do Malta arcs solo on my Defenders.
Everything else about Malta is fun except for Sappers, IMO.
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Agree totally
AV
Quote:
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by Star Ranger 4 WIN LOSE OR DRAW, WE WILL FIGHT. WE ARE HEROES This is what we DO! |
Decide that this will be another day in which you Walk The Talk.
MA #14724 Operation: Discredit @American Valor
Sentinel Of Liberty SG
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I don't want the AI to be better at killing me. I want the AI to be more interesting to kill.
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this is a nice summary, Sam.
I agree.
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Here is the thing: The AI has to be better for the devs to do more interesting critters to fight.
Here is the bad thing: There are a lot of critters that were overpowered to compensate for horrible AI.
Mix the improved AI with the overpowered critters and you get issues like these. I think it's one of the reasons they avoided tweaking AI for so long, fear of retroactive buffs to these overcompensated critters. I am not sure how willing Castle will be to go back and fix the outlier cases. IF allowed, I can only foresee him doing so for extreme outliers that people bring up and not as an active pursue where he would be forced to decide what is overpowered.
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That's the age-old problem of game design. You can never really make enemy AI as smart as even a relatively dumb human, and most good gamers will be pretty smart. So the only alternative is to make them cheat. That, or script encounters like puzzle battles, which hasn't been done here outside of Trials and end-game raids/TFs/SFs. The AI will be stupid, but it will be incredibly powerful to compensate for its stupidity. However, when it DOES get smarter, it REALLY hurts.
Back five years ago, the Malta Group were designed to be a PITA, along with the Knives of Artemis. Remeber that mad 100, 1 second sleep dart that was purpose-designed to drop your toggles? Like that. After them, the Soldiers of Rularuu were designed to be even worse. Back in the days when Jack was still trying to achieve his 1 hero = 3 white minions, the only way to achieve that without reducing everything down into nothingness was to "buff the enemies." We got the Malta Group of I1, the Soldiers of Rularuu in I2 and the boss buff of I3, at which point the obvious futility of this approach became blindingly obvious. Then we got the GDN in I5 and ED in I6, which finally nailed it. Oh, sure, we also got Inventions in I9, which reintroduced the same old problems, but that's besides the point
There has been a history of providing challenge in this game by plain giving enemies more hit points, more resistance and stronger attacks. It works, on a purely theoretical basis, but it's not INTERESTING. I would generally not mind tough enemies if the only way to beat them wasn't to out-and-out overpower them. There seems to have been some thought given to this, when overpowered enemy groups were introduced, but given a "proper" way to fight them, or when enemies with great strengths, but also great weaknesses were made.
Well, Malta don't have any weaknesses that I'm aware, unless you count "isn't specifically strong at" as a weakness, nor do I see any "proper" way to fight them. Not any more, anyway. They're actually WORSE than the Rogue Vanguard in this respect. The Rogue Vanguard are stronger when it comes to raw power - they just output more damage and more debuff. But they're also highly melee-centric, which gives room for keepaway games. With Malta, you pretty much just have to shoot them all before your health depletes, which... Well, boring. It's boring even when it succeeds.
And worst of all, they don't give any extra experience to account for their being DESIGNED to be some of the strongest foes in the game.
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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.
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Now the question is:
Is it intentional? Titans were always balanced by being murder at range but much weaker up close.
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Judging from my current run of WWR, yes they use the ranged holds close up, but certainly less often than the do so at range. They are still much weaker close in, but aren't quite the patsies they used to be.
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
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I think the Titans always had those powers, they just didn't work properly before.
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Ding!
The tinkering with AI that we've been doing has caused some powers that previously NEVER got used to start showing up in the attack rotations.
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Pssst. That doesn't make it any more fun Castle 
I avoid them like the plague unless I'm on a toon with mez resistance.
@bpphantom
The Defenders of Paragon
KGB Special Section 8
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Everything else about Malta is fun except for Sappers, IMO.
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Actually, while I agree they're a pain, Sappers aren't why I avoid Malta. Especially solo, they seem to have toned down how many Sappers you see in a regular Malta mission.
No, the reason I avoid Malta on characters lacking mez protection is the stun grenades. The Stun of Doom. The "go read a book while this wears off" stun.
I think it's notable the the stun grenade mez from a +2 boss will outlast a single Break Free. "Well don't play on CR:5!" you say? Well, I can against all the other foes and generally not be mezzed all day long. Even Rikti, who are a wild mezfest, don't mez that severely. Does it say anything that I'd rather face +2 Rikti than +2 Malta? I think it does. Oh, and the Rikti give better reward on top of it.
And now, hey, they mez even more. Cool.
Just sayin'.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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I think the Titans always had those powers, they just didn't work properly before.
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Ding!
The tinkering with AI that we've been doing has caused some powers that previously NEVER got used to start showing up in the attack rotations.
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Sweet! I was wondering why I never saw that attack accept on extremely rare occasions. Unless I'm thinking of the Kronos ambush using them due to the fact that its volleying missiles at you from the other side of the zone. 
Still, nice, I love fighting Malta. Though I may have to re-balance my arcs now.
-= idspispopd =-
[size=1]Arc ID: 3155 - Project Prometheus (Seeking Feedback, now with less invalidation)[/size]
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Everything else about Malta is fun except for Sappers, IMO.
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Actually, while I agree they're a pain, Sappers aren't why I avoid Malta. Especially solo, they seem to have toned down how many Sappers you see in a regular Malta mission.
No, the reason I avoid Malta on characters lacking mez protection is the stun grenades. The Stun of Doom. The "go read a book while this wears off" stun.
I think it's notable the the stun grenade mez from a +2 boss will outlast a single Break Free. "Well don't play on CR:5!" you say? Well, I can against all the other foes and generally not be mezzed all day long. Even Rikti, who are a wild mezfest, don't mez that severely. Does it say anything that I'd rather face +2 Rikti than +2 Malta? I think it does. Oh, and the Rikti give better reward on top of it.
And now, hey, they mez even more. Cool.
Just sayin'.
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That drives me nuts. I've had fights where I got mezzed, popped a Break Free, finished the fight then started to move to the next group...only to have the BF end and go loopy. Funny, but a bit annoying. Actually annoying enough that I completely avoided Malta on my Nrg/Kin - she just had no tools to handle that, save for a bucketfull of break frees.
Suggestions:
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Random Merit Rolls: Scale cost by Toon Level
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Forget soloing a defender against Malta. I could do it, I won't. The damage output isn't fast enough to take out a Sapper before he zeroes the Defender's end and *squip*. It would be a perpetual inspiration refill just to attempt it. I never do Malta arcs solo on my Defenders.
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I largely agree with the above...but have to point out that D3s are a very big exception. My D3s hunt Malta. Sappers are no threat when they're cowering in fear, can't hit the broad side of a barn, or are petrified (pick one or more...). Malta require a slight change in tactics (usually opening with Fearsome Stare rather than my usual "snaring" technique), but other than that, good to go. If Fearsome Snare misses the Sapper, it's often possible to get Petrifying Gaze off before he can work his evil. that means you're going to be a bit late with Tenny Tents and Darkest Night, so the un-Feared boss may be a painful problem (since he can actually hit you for a change), but one can usually cope, and it's nice to have some threat! =P
"And in this moment, I will not run.
It is my place to stand.
We few shall carry hope
Within our bloodied hands."
Guysguysguys. You're missing the real point, the one LiquidX already made:
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You know what's Epic Fail? The lack of Speed Suits in the Super Science Booster.
THAT is Epic Fail, my friends.
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If my super scientists can't look like the mayor of Candyland or Santa's magic janitor, then they're not super enough or sciency enough.
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You know, I was wondering why my WP scrapper was getting mezzed fighting big packs of Malta the other day. Yes, I was lead "tanking" for a team of 8--never used to be a problem before. S'cool tho, always like more challenges in an otherwise silly easy game.
An Offensive Guide to Ice Melee
Oh come on! Don't cry about nerfing the Malta! I love killing them. It's what my AR/Dev was built to do. Kill Malta. They were too easy before. Now they're just right.
-Largo
Founder of A.G.O.N.Y. Supergroup on Victory
Member of Thought Sanctum VG on Victory
Member of St0rm Batallion SG on Guardian