Questions for Traps players

Traps had a rocky start for defenders? I jumped in head first and haven't looked back.

Oh yeah I remember that thread now. Personally my only concern was that the devs wouldn't update the pseudo-pets but they came through for me so: Yay! Traps!

As Garent said I think a lot of the concern was over the fact that it's a playstyle people aren't used to. There are plenty of people (myself included) who don't play redside and so had little experience with Traps prior to it getting ported. Add in the fact that it's got a lot of similarities to Trick Arrow a set which is generally regarded as a bit of an underperformer and people get concerned.

Correction: There's usually no reason to use it, not never. I know of two situations in which it's useful. The first is with stealth so you can double-toebomb as an alpha strike (lay down the time bomb, wait, then lay down the trip mine, time it so they both go off at once.) This is not really group-worthwhile, though.

The other is in the rare situation (again, with stealth) where lay a mine, then keep going so that when it goes off you're nowhere around - the only time I've ever used this was on a particularly strange run of the ITF, to soften up the crystals on a devices blaster. I don't see ever wanting Time Bomb on a defender, but it's not quite literally true that there's never any reason to use it.

I tend to find that minefields are more trouble than it's worth, and most groups won't wait around for it (unless you're in one of the awesome groups where everyone is devices or traps, that is), but I can see it being worthwhile when soloing a defender to help make up for defenders' relatively poor damage output.

Lord, I imagine an 8-person mine field might be able to "one-shot" an AV.

My AR/Traps Corruptor made a lot of use of trip mine fields for particularly annoying bosses. It's nice to be able to go "If a few of those Masks of Weakness/Vitiation hit me, I'm toast... which is why I'm behind a wall of explosives!"

I'm also returning with a trial account and testing out the new stuff. I've played Traps on a mastermind and wanted to see how the new Traps worked on a Defender. I went Traps/AR for my little offender and so far I like it a lot.

For faster team play (I seem to solo fine, but teams are more fun) I just alternate powers. Acid mortar first group, then Triage Beacon or PGT on the second, then switch back to Acid Mortar for the third group. I'm only low level still so not much recharge yet. The idea is that you don't deploy absolutely everything on every group, you save some for the next while stuff recharges.


I was wondering this as well. A casual comment in chat: "Defenders who can't heal have a hard time getting teams." Is that really true? I won't have as many teams since I don't have a heal?

I don't mean to high-jack the thread, but I was wondering also if folks think Traps needs a single target heal (for Defenders only, not MMs. MMs already pretty insanely powerful.). Something simple like O2 Boost to just round out the set. The question is where to put it? Well, VEATS have some either/or powers where they make a choice and that closes off part of the set. What if Defenders where given the choice of either Web Grenade or a heal for their Tier one, but not both? That would let folks who like the set the way it is play it that way.

Yes, I'm planning on taking the the Medicine Pool too, but an heal in the set would be useful, I think.

(And if this turns out to high-jack the thread, then I'll just make my own and move the discussion there. Sorry for any disruption, but as long as there was an existing traps/defender thread I thought I'd keep the discussion here for now.)

The "defenders must heal mentality" is a hold over from other games where healing is required for team play. Yes, you will occasionally encounter a person who rejects Defenders that aren't "healers" and very rarely that is the right choice for the team but in most cases those teams are trainwrecks that you're better off not joining.

Traps is made of awesome and while there are a few skills that could use changes *cough*Time Bomb*cough* I'd much rather that they were fixed rather than just replacing them with a generic heal.

So use your traps, don't worry about the lack of heals and /e spit anyone who looks at you sideways.

Regen is a heal, it's just a heal over time. The problem is that Triage Beacon is not a very strong heal over time.

If you've got a high recharge build so you can have 2 Triage Beacons out at once you actually bring a large amount of survivability to the team with all the regen and +def from FFG (and Maneuvers if you take it).

Unfortunately, most fights don't last long enough for this to matter, but on fights long enough, (like AV/GM fights in TFs), its very nice.

I do wish Triage was mobile though.

So everyone agrees that my 4 year old assessment of those two powers was right on, great.

To Silas: Agreed about the roving beacon, it would be cool to take a bit lower Regen rate in exchange for mobility. Also, if the Time Bomb was ditched in favor of.....say....the Gun Drone!! that would be nicer. Highly unlikely, but hey, I can defend you by mowing stuff down with a portable floating gun, right?
Seriously tho, replacing Time Bomb with anything else would be lovely. Smoke Grenade maybe......


-Doc

Or a second brawl maybe. Ok seriously though I think that there are ways to fix Time Bomb without violating the cottage rule. The main problems are the 8 second interruptable cast time and the 30second delay which make the power annoying to use under most circumstances. The core concept of a nuke-level damage power with a long recharge is fine. My solution is to rename it Satchel Charge, give it a short range (20'-30') remove the delay and reduce the cast time to 2-3 seconds not interruptable.

See, I'd go the other way. Triage Beacon is already low enough regen that it's roughly the same as just standing around waiting to heal up. Giving it less regen would just be a nerf, regardless of what else you did.

I would: make the recharge un-enhanceable, and double the regen rate. Same amount of regen over time, but at least when you deploy it, it'll pack some punch. Also, slightly larger radius to make up for the fact that it's not mobile.


Or the whole single target heal thing would help too.

Solid idea in a serious vein. I'd get onboard with this. Definitely remove the delay.


-->Coh101: That's an interesting idea for sure. I've played multiples of every AT, and while i'm not a 'Defender-centric' player I don't think an ST heal is needed. I did just play my TA/Arch to 50 after all, loved every minute of that.

Thanks


-Doc

Yes, Acid mortar draws aggro.It usually happens when your not causing damage to some of the enemies on the screen, or if it hit the mob you set it for.You still get the bulk of the Agro, however, your Acid Mortar can absorb part of it, as well as the occasional Sheild Drone getting pegged.

The best, and most untalked about benifit from being a Traps Defender, is that Vigilance plays a huge roll, and I find my self with a full, if close to full Endurance bar all the time.Mainly because your mechanical pets do get hit, and they count towards your Vigilance.

Even using Seeker Drones gives a momentary boost when you use them up close, because it treats them as a team member death.So you get some Endurance returned after they exsplode in range of your Vigilance.

I first noticed this when I started using my Dark Servant to Tank on my Dark/Dark Defender.When it would get hit, it would give my vigilance a boost, and was very helpful, as long as he got hit on occassion, id get the buff until it spammed its heal.

As for the high recharges?Cant say they bother me yet.They where slightly annoying at lower levels, but now its perfectly fine.

I havnt worked up enough levels to grab up Hasten just yet, but my Acid Mortar, Trops, and Poison Trap, all have a 45 second timmer due to 3 Recharge SOs.Trops dont have any enhancers in it, I worry about that later.

Even on a Full team, not only does the speed in which the traps them selves recharge not become a issue, youll find people dragging a 2nd mob onto your traps because they get up the nerves to face more while im on the team, so the Traps get extra Targets before I need to resummon them, and by the time the Acid Mortar dissapears, im recharged anyhow.

Latley, iv been becomming popular on teams.I get recruited, and they pick up a EMP and a Thermal, and exspect heals, which is fine, its there capability to do so.

I acctually made a Controller that was a Ice/EMP, wanna get another character, because he was, and I quote, "Can I get another character?Im bored, and barly healing anyone."

Normally on a Team, you see the people with AoE heals popping them off very often, but I provided excellent protection from my Traps, and the FF Drone, that I was litterally complimented by 3 members of the Team at the good job I was doing.It was a proud moment!

People that have played with me on a team, have made teams, and recruited me, and didnt bother to look for a healer, because Traps/Anything, is that good!

Now, I havnt reached my Bombs just yet, but im close.If they are anything as easy to set up as my other traps in a fight, or before one, then I have no dout that itll be just beautiful.

What I find my self itching to try is not just Trip Mine, but Time Bomb!

I run a Traps/Rad, and the full damage potential will be realized when i get Time Bomb, and then my level 38 Rad NUKE!

Place all your traps, they come running after you nail someone in the mob with a Proton Volley.They slam into your Trops, you unload Irradiate, then move back and cone them, and then, use your Nuke!Seconds later, the time Bomb Goes off!KA-BOOM!

You dont have to worry about your endurance being drained so much as a Traps either.Your defense is still up because of the Drone, your Mortar is still up, collecting some messure of aggro, and by the time you can gain endurance, itll get full fast due to Vigilance from your summoned mechanical pets.That is assuming you didnt just kill everything.

Really? I know a lot of powers that are based on allies (Phalanx Fighting, for instance) are programmed to ignore NPCs. I'm going to have to do some experimenting now...

*sniffle* I'm going to cry. Our little Traps Defenders are all grown up now!

But seriously, don't bother with Time Bomb. It really is as bad as everyone says.

There are two drones per use of this power, do they both apply the -20% damage debuff for -40% total? (Or -25% x2 for -50% on Defenders or whatever the value is)