So, Cysts are 'underpowered'?

Multiple teamwipes beg to differ.

That is the sort of sight you can expect to see on a full team. And no, there was no way to avoid this. We came down the tunnel, and there was the mother of all fluffy swarms jsut waiting for us. It was actually impossible to see the cyst on first glance. We had to have someone with stealth toggle through to actually select the damn thing.

Seriously. The Cysts on the ITF are working better. Use them as a model on how to do things, not have the 'one shot swarm of doom' to penalise people for playing Kheldians.
No, you dont need to get rid of them. I like the flavour stuff as much as anyone. But multiple team wipes are NOT fun.

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Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

scrapperlock!!!!!!

No, Damz. Seriously. Those things were one shotting people. One AoE volley and three team members were dead, stat. Even our Shade in Dwarf form and with some fender shields on was getting chewed up and spat back out in seconds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Why do I suddenly want to say it was a corprat assassination plot?

Anyway.... I am actualy curious. When have they been said to be underpowered?

You miss out on a lot when you can't play for months at a time.

Even the minions were purple? Sounds like you had your difficulty cranked up...

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

I think a lot of people only have experience with the ITF versions of Shadow Cyst Crystals, and those are much weaker, toned down versions of the ones that spawn in missions with Kheldians on the team.

If that is your only experience with them, it is understandable for you to think that they are no big deal.

In regular missions, they are a significant threat. It's not an insurmountable roadblock, but it is something that needs to be identified quickly and eliminated before you get a room full of fluffy clouds.

I'm not sure why it spawned so many clouds in your picture before anyone was even close. Are you sure someone didn't try to superspeed or stealth by it before the rest of the team encountered it?

They were +2 to the team leader, +3 to me due to being SK'd.
I understand the 'challenge' aspect, but it is not a welcome one. When you are happily dealing with +2 missions are a steady pace, to suddenly run into a roadblock that can two shot you is not fun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

As with everything else in this game, having the team chomp on two or three purple inspirations will make it trivial.

What was the mission set at ?

As a longtime PB player, I've encountered them alot. They've run the gamut of being relatively easy to defeat to so difficult as to effectively end a TF. Higher level teams can usually take them out pretty well, but every once in a while they're a pretty big road bump.

But I don't hate them because they're difficult. I hate them because their appearance in normal missions is a BUG that the Devs have refused to fix for years. These things are supposed to be the Homes/Travel Beacons for Unbound Nictus. Unbound Nictus will die if they're away from them for too long.

The Nictus literally depend on them for their lives. So, you'd think these things are supposed to precious and well guarded. But NO... I see them out in swamps, caves, office building all by themselves. Even seen one in downtown Peregrine Island Parking Lot!!!

Gah!! Leave them in specific arcs/tfs where they thematically fit already!!!

That aspect Socorro mentions is my biggest problem with them. They're supposed to be special, a new threat that high-level Khelds must now face. Yet they're common, it's just a matter of time if there's a Kheld on the team even if they're not long out of newbiehood. Overusing special enemies takes that special part out really quickly.

In my experience, Cysts are only a big problem when a) they spawn in a way that you just happen upon them around a corner and b) the team lacks the immediate coordination to take them on (or spends time gawking).

I see cysts are working as intended. Right on.

Sorry, but my bet is all those Essences are not from a single pop. Rikti Comm Officers are a ***** too, if you let the portal spawn it's full complement.

I'm sorry, but I distinctly remember Cysts being much MUCH worse back in the day and I'm not counting ITF ones. The worst I remember was one that spawned on the balcony above the entrance door to one of the rooms in the Frostfire arc.

Ok, I'll give a run-down then.

Caves map. We came around the corner and there was a dip down, via which we could see a cloud of fluffies. The map was on track with us, so no one had been 'scouting' or anything idiotic.
We ran in to try and get a lock on the crystal, standard stuff. The combination of masses of fluffies and Tuatha (There was about 3 bosses in that mob) faceplanted us.

We ran through it about four times, until we managed to nuke the cyst itself.
My main problem is that these things spawn a huge ammount of Lts and Bosses as well as minions. They also use AoE attacks. So, the entire team gets munched on by AoE -speed -recharge neg energy attacks from about 3 spawns worth of fluffies.
This was around level 32, I think? Team leader was 30, some of us were 29. So, going from 'capable diff as long as we're careful' to 'lol faceplant'...sorry, but that just seems unreasonable to expect EVERYONE to be able to deal with that sort of thing off the bat. There just doesn't seem to be any cap as to how many of those damn things spawn.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Oh, we've no doubt that the Cyst was a surprise. I daresay we've all been in that situation. I recall a full-team mission against CoT in a sewer map, where the darn Cyst had managed to spawn right around the corner of the doorway in one of those bottleneck-type rooms. And of course there was a mass of CoT hanging around too. When you walked through that door you spawned an army. Pure death.

You just got unlucky, that's all. It's like when your team faces a spawn, and another spawn turns out to be a wee bit too close, and then, oh my, when did we trigger an ambush!

Absolutely smoked any Cysts the teams I have been on this week.