So... Behemoth Portals won't spawn Behemoths if they're held? Cool!
By
Balanced,
Posted on: 2010-03-11 04:43 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Yup!
I have tended towards controllers,
so I did find this out a good while back.
But you are right!
This is one of those fun bits of knowledge that should be in one of the "wish I had known" threads!
Rikti portals too, IIRC.
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The portal room has been totally toned down. I don't think the Portals 'spew out' any more than one lot of villains these days. They used to have seemingly infinite hit-points back in the day. Burned out on the Portal Room during the 'wow, you can -farm- this mission!' where people played it for weeks on end, until the devs finally removed XP from the spawning critters.
It used to be a team-death-for-sure room. These days, it's a sad paper shell of it's original ferocity -- and I am NOT complaining.
Ex
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Ex.
Part-Troll, who used to be Excession777, now playing pantomime with people's mindlets.
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The same thing happens with the Vampyrii sarcophogi (sp?) in the Striga mission.
total kick to the gut
This is like having Ra's Al Ghul show up at your birthday party.
Useful to know.
I personally hate those things. Anything that spews out a full mob of heavy hitters is NOT nice.
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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.
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I'm waiting for the next round of nerfs on Behemoth portals; they're a favorite for my Illusion Controllers, because I can hit them with Deceive a couple of times to ensure that they won't trigger when I get close, then I can move in and hit them with Blind two or three times to hold them, and let my Phantasm and Phantom Army chew them up for a nice chunk of experience without having to deal with any of the Behemoths.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Which brings me to the point of this thread - if you hold a Behemoth portal, it WILL NOT spawn Behemoths as long as it is held. Now, I realise that the interval between spawns is so large you may as well not bother, but the funny thing is that you can hold the Portal BEFORE it aggores. This means that the Portal will not spawn anything for some time, potentially until you kill it, if your hold is long enough or if you reapply it. Solo on boss-object Portals, that doesn't work, not unless you coordinate. Solo on lieutenant-object portals, I'm managing pretty well with a basically unslotted Suppressive Fire.
I've always enjoyed Portals on small teams, because they give a lot of experience (less when they scale down, but still) and don't spawn too many demons. This just makes them that much more appealing |
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
Since Holds cause aggro, unless you're under Domination or have multiple Controllers firing at once, Holding is actually not the ideal solution.
Confuse however, is far more handy.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
Note that this can come in very handy when fighting the Praetorian Infernal. I may not be able to hold Infernal, but I can keep that portal next to him quiet while I deal with him.
I've been capitalizing on this for ages--all the way back to the Rularuu Invasion, if I recall correctly. Even if it takes two shots to hold a portal, it's better than letting it continue to spawn rewardless mobs. Confuse is the better option, though, at least if there are no other mobs near the portal.
The Way of the Corruptor (Arc ID 49834): Hey villains! Do something for yourself for a change--like twisting the elements to your will. All that's standing in your way are a few secret societies...and Champions of the four elements.
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Confuse can be enormously more handy in many situations. Confusing Sky Raider Engineers is pure win -- they aggro on their companions, then set up force field generators... that buff you instead of them, then start shooting up their companions. And when you finish them off, you can whack the FFG for progress toward the badge for defeating 100 of them. Almost as much fun as confusing Rikti Guardians so they SB and heal you while you're attacking the rest of the spawn. Unfortunately, Rikti portals appear to be hardcoded to summon hostile Rikti; you can't confuse a Communication Officer and have the portal they summon bring in Rikti that fight on your side.
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Originally Posted by Lemur Lad
Confuse however, is far more handy.
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"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
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I love Confuse and I beg to differ, I have confused many a Rikti Comm Officer. |
Originally Posted by srmalloy
Confuse can be enormously more handy in many situations. Confusing Sky Raider Engineers is pure win -- they aggro on their companions, then set up force field generators... that buff you instead of them, then start shooting up their companions. And when you finish them off, you can whack the FFG for progress toward the badge for defeating 100 of them. Almost as much fun as confusing Rikti Guardians so they SB and heal you while you're attacking the rest of the spawn. Unfortunately, Rikti portals appear to be hardcoded to summon hostile Rikti; you can't confuse a Communication Officer and have the portal they summon bring in Rikti that fight on your side.
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QFT. Mesmerize is good too, since it can one-shot sleep a boss (mag 3.5)
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Originally Posted by Lemur Lad
Since Holds cause aggro, unless you're under Domination or have multiple Controllers firing at once, Holding is actually not the ideal solution.
Confuse however, is far more handy. |
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
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So pretty much you're screwed in that mission without a Controller. Good to know.
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Originally Posted by SwellGuy
The same thing happens with the Vampyrii sarcophogi (sp?) in the Striga mission.
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Heh, I like to confuse them myself. Everything already spawned by the portal attacks it! If you catch it early, the first couple spawned will destroy it before it can spawn more (especially if you help destroy it.)
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
... the funny thing is that you can hold the Portal BEFORE it aggores. This means that the Portal will not spawn anything for some time, potentially until you kill it, if your hold is long enough or if you reapply it. ...
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Originally Posted by srmalloy
Confuse can be enormously more handy in many situations. Confusing Sky Raider Engineers is pure win -- they aggro on their companions, then set up force field generators... that buff you instead of them, then start shooting up their companions. And when you finish them off, you can whack the FFG for progress toward the badge for defeating 100 of them. Almost as much fun as confusing Rikti Guardians so they SB and heal you while you're attacking the rest of the spawn. Unfortunately, Rikti portals appear to be hardcoded to summon hostile Rikti; you can't confuse a Communication Officer and have the portal they summon bring in Rikti that fight on your side.
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Yeah I love confuse for those reasons. I've confused a few Rikti Guardians before and had like 6 or so of their bubbles on me at once
Mmm...way past soft-cap defenses (to most things) 
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Not at all. Mezzing them is the easiest way to deal with them, and the approach I usually use. They don't spawn fast, though, so just smashing them quickly and mopping up the vamps is a viable tactic.
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Originally Posted by Scythus
So pretty much you're screwed in that mission without a Controller. Good to know.
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The Way of the Corruptor (Arc ID 49834): Hey villains! Do something for yourself for a change--like twisting the elements to your will. All that's standing in your way are a few secret societies...and Champions of the four elements.
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Scrappers fare well. Eat a purple, smash 'em down.|
Originally Posted by Scythus
So pretty much you're screwed in that mission without a Controller. Good to know.
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For a blaster, eat 2-3 purples.
Tank probably can handle all the aggro anyway.
Still, the top floor can be annoying. If you know what's waiting for you, then you can move quickly and survive. If it's your first time, God help you.
my lil RWZ Challenge vid
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First time on a Tanker, I wondered where the heck all these Vampyri came from. Died several times before I figured it out.|
Originally Posted by Organica
Still, the top floor can be annoying. If you know what's waiting for you, then you can move quickly and survive. If it's your first time, God help you.
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Subsequent times (couple of Scrappers, one Blaster, and one Controller) I finished that mission without faceplanting, although it kept me on my toes.
I'm still not sure if it's considered good mission design or not. I've never been fond of the idea of learning through pain.
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Just a small note on holding the things:
People have said that holds aggro so they're not a good opener, but I have to remind you - Portals scale down as you disable bosses, so they end up having lieutenant modifiers. This means they can be held with a single application of any stun or hold. I don't believe Fear counts, though.
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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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I was solo on a defender the first time I ran this mission. That floor was the longest 4 hours of my life, but I did it.
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Originally Posted by Organica
Scrappers fare well. Eat a purple, smash 'em down.
For a blaster, eat 2-3 purples. Tank probably can handle all the aggro anyway. Still, the top floor can be annoying. If you know what's waiting for you, then you can move quickly and survive. If it's your first time, God help you. |
�Let there be truth, happiness, and waffles�
-Vagabond, Dark Lord & Avatar of Gnarr
The Justiciars
OK, I know this is pointless and mostly just one of those "I wish I'd known this SIX YEARS AGO!" points, but it's actually very handy once you wrap your head around it. I'd always regarded the things as some kind of mystical death trap that just KNEW I was around and would start spawning Behemoths as soon as I set foot within the same room, but they're like any other enemy - just an NPC with exotic graphics that has a single power which spawns. It activates by line of sight and, most importantly, is prevented from using its powers when incapacitated in some way.
Now, I'll freely admit that I have an easier time of this. I've disabled bosses from my missions, largely because I boosted enemy numbers and also because they tend to spawn all the damn time! This has had the unexpected effect of degrading things tagged "Object" down from boss stats and into lieutenant stats. Destructible objectives (both ones I have to destroy and ones I have to save) may say "Object" in their Target window, but in actual fact, they seem to be bosses with a class swap on them. They even con the part. This actually answers an old question I posted some time ago, as to whether Behemoth Portals scale down if I turn bosses off. Turns out, they very much do. They just scale from Object down into Object, so you can't tell from looking at them. But they die easier and, more importantly, hold easier.
Which brings me to the point of this thread - if you hold a Behemoth portal, it WILL NOT spawn Behemoths as long as it is held. Now, I realise that the interval between spawns is so large you may as well not bother, but the funny thing is that you can hold the Portal BEFORE it aggores. This means that the Portal will not spawn anything for some time, potentially until you kill it, if your hold is long enough or if you reapply it. Solo on boss-object Portals, that doesn't work, not unless you coordinate. Solo on lieutenant-object portals, I'm managing pretty well with a basically unslotted Suppressive Fire.
I've always enjoyed Portals on small teams, because they give a lot of experience (less when they scale down, but still) and don't spawn too many demons. This just makes them that much more appealing