I made a /FF troller just to answer this question. Made her Grav/FF so I could have 2 detention/intangible powers.
My official rating of those abilities - meh.
What I was able to do that made me think "that was cool":
Cage a tower on the STF that my team was not fighting
Cage (for a brief time) one of the patrons on the STF when fighting more than 1.
Make Intangible a bunch of surgeons on the ITF (who were standing out of aoe kill-zone)
Cage the healing nictus (don't think it was for long)
Those are the good things. In no way did I "save the day" or "turn the tide" by using these. If anything, by caging a patron I slowed down the aoe damage he was taking. Also if your ITF team is dealing so little damage to overcome the healing nictus, you're probably better off using other tactics (pulling it away).
If you're looking for a power pick that you don't want to slot and you something else isn't more obviously useful, then hey, what the heck? On the other hand if you're weighing Detention vs something else you think is useful, I'd bet that something else would be better.
My 2 inf, nothing more.
Global = Hedgefund (or some derivation thereof)
Thanks for the info. Good stuff 
. I was kind of thinking it would be something like that. I can see/dream of a situation where detaining a person or object would make all the difference but in reality I figured something odd would have to be in play ( like your damage dealers d/c and suddenly you need to isolate your targets to take them out). Otherwise, I get the feeling most people would just rather dog pile most AVs and objects.
End Game- LVL 50 Scrapper-DM/INV
Ripjak- LVL 50 Defender-Rad/Rad
Extruder- LVL 50 Scrapper-DM/REG
Juicie- LVL 50 Blaster-ELEC/ELEC
Mind Sync- LVL 50 Controller-MIND/FF
Force bubble and TK for the nictus.... maybe try that instead?
Consciousness: that annoying time between naps.
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That reminds me of some fun you can have with TK and Detention Field. Toggle TK on an enemy then hit him with Detention Field. He'll no longer be repelled, but other enemies that enter the area will be held and repelled. It creates a neat little "Don't come near me" zone without pushing the anchor across the zone. Probably of limited usefulness, but it's a neat trick.
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Originally Posted by Donna_
Force bubble and TK for the nictus.... maybe try that instead?
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The problem with intangible powers: duration varies with the rank/level difference of the enemy caged. Can you cage an even-con minion for a long time? Sure, but not so useful. Can you cage an AV? Sure, (with enhancement) but it wears off so fast that it isn't very useful.
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Does not work, don't know why. The AV goes right on healing. Also does not cage the "Fab Four" in the STF. Again don't know why. Against other AVs in the game, it works great.|
Originally Posted by Ripjak
Can a controller use the detention field power to effectively isolate the healing nictus from rommy? Useful? Not so much? I'm curious because I haven't seen anyone use one but in theory I could see some task force uses of this power.
Anyone have any playing experiences to share (good or bad)? |
In both the ITF and the STF, power boosted bubbles for the team are what has a very noticeable effect.
That combo is just seriously sick, and is a perversion of gameplay mechanics. - Excelsio
The Infernal Challenge
Building a WarTroller
Troller Damage
Quote:
I haven't tested for myself, but the first thing that springs to mind is that it might be a problem of magnitude with the Big Four. After applying level scaling for a level 54 AV, a controller should still be putting out a mag 3.6 cage, enough to overcome boss level protection. The immobilize portion would be negated if the PTOD are up, making it seem as if the AV is unaffected. Defender's have a lower mag on Detention Field which may prevent them from caging the AV's. Endoplasm Exposures do increase the magnitude of the Untouchable and Immobilize portion of Detention Field, but I'm not 100% certain that it works on the OnlyAffectSelf portion.|
Originally Posted by magicj
Does not work, don't know why. The AV goes right on healing. Also does not cage the "Fab Four" in the STF. Again don't know why. Against other AVs in the game, it works great.
In both the ITF and the STF, power boosted bubbles for the team are what has a very noticeable effect. |
But that's just my guess on the AV's, I've no idea on the healing Nictus.
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AV purple triangles don't affect immobilize or sleep.
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Originally Posted by ketch
The immobilize portion would be negated if the PTOD are up, making it seem as if the AV is unaffected.
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Culex's resistance guide
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You are correct. I had a little slip of the brain there. I think only Captain Mako has any baked in protection against immobilizes.
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Originally Posted by Pitho
AV purple triangles don't affect immobilize or sleep.
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I'm speaking from firsthand experience that the patron AVs can be caged. I have done it and seen the unaffected message above their head. It had an extremely short duration.
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Originally Posted by magicj
Does not work, don't know why. The AV goes right on healing. Also does not cage the "Fab Four" in the STF. Again don't know why. Against other AVs in the game, it works great.
In both the ITF and the STF, power boosted bubbles for the team are what has a very noticeable effect. |
Global = Hedgefund (or some derivation thereof)
There's a lot of incorrect information in this thread. I've got a pretty fair amount of experience using Detention Field as a FF Defender, including a number of MoSTF runs.
- Detention Field has a fixed duration. It always lasts 30 seconds, regardless of enemy level.
- Plus-level AV's resist the magnitude of the cage power, not the duration.
- The basic magnitude Detention Field will work 100% on nearly all AV's, up until they are +3 to your level, then will stop working entirely. You'll still see the 'Detention Field' message, but they resist the effect instantly.
- The duration of the power cannot be enhanced.
- The magnitude CAN be enhanced however, through the use of Endoplasm HO's.
- Nearly all AV's only have a base mag 4 protection to the cage effect.
- The ITF Nictus all have extreme mag protection against this effect, as well as nearly all status effects. Detention Field is useless against them. The only status effect they are susceptible to, is sleep. They can be perma-slept and removed from the fight, if the team can be disciplined enough to not damage them with AOE effects.
- With two Endo HO's in my FF Defender, which is just under mag 10, I can cage the patron AV's on the STF with no issue, as well as all the Mary AV's during KHTF. Controllers have a higher base mag for their Detention Field, and should only need one Endoplasm HO.
Hope that helps..
Very good stuff guys..Thanks.
Great nugget about the Nictus being able to be slept. I am sure I have done it (it has taken) but my teammates probably woke them quickly (and I didn't know to mention to them that we could sleep them)..
End Game- LVL 50 Scrapper-DM/INV
Ripjak- LVL 50 Defender-Rad/Rad
Extruder- LVL 50 Scrapper-DM/REG
Juicie- LVL 50 Blaster-ELEC/ELEC
Mind Sync- LVL 50 Controller-MIND/FF
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Given an above post, I will retract the term "extremely short" duration. I didn't time it and made that comment based on it "feeling" short, even if it was the normal duration. Mainly my prior post was to correct the info that the patron AVs could not be caged.
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Originally Posted by Deacon_NA
I'm speaking from firsthand experience that the patron AVs can be caged. I have done it and seen the unaffected message above their head. It had an extremely short duration.
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Global = Hedgefund (or some derivation thereof)
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Unless you have that HO in Detention Field (a trick I didn't know about, so thank you Panzerwaffen) you haven't caged the Fab Four AVs on STO. It'll look like they're caged, but if you watch carefully you'll see they're not.
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Originally Posted by Deacon_NA
Given an above post, I will retract the term "extremely short" duration. I didn't time it and made that comment based on it "feeling" short, even if it was the normal duration. Mainly my prior post was to correct the info that the patron AVs could not be caged.
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That combo is just seriously sick, and is a perversion of gameplay mechanics. - Excelsio
The Infernal Challenge
Building a WarTroller
Troller Damage
Quote:
Just as a note Detention Field isn't an intangible power, it's an untouchable power. It doesn't work the way intangibles do. It's duration doesn't change, as Panzerwaffen pointed out. And it doesn't need enhancements to cage your run of the mill AV. Also, you cannot phase yourself and fight foes affect by untouchable the way you can with foes affected by intangible.
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Originally Posted by Greyhame
The problem with intangible powers: duration varies with the rank/level difference of the enemy caged. Can you cage an even-con minion for a long time? Sure, but not so useful. Can you cage an AV? Sure, (with enhancement) but it wears off so fast that it isn't very useful.
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That combo is just seriously sick, and is a perversion of gameplay mechanics. - Excelsio
The Infernal Challenge
Building a WarTroller
Troller Damage
Quote:
If by "it'll look like they're caged, but... they're not" you mean they're not actually caged when I see the "untouchable" (or whatever it is) message while the AV stands taking no action, then my mistake, that sure fooled me. Otherwise, I stand by my assertion.
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Originally Posted by magicj
Unless you have that HO in Detention Field (a trick I didn't know about, so thank you Panzerwaffen) you haven't caged the Fab Four AVs on STO. It'll look like they're caged, but if you watch carefully you'll see they're not.
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Global = Hedgefund (or some derivation thereof)
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That's exactly what I mean. It fooled me too at first. You have to watch closely to see they're still able to affect the players. Whether they do affect the players or not is a question of AI, but Detention Field isn't stopping them.
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Originally Posted by Deacon_NA
If by "it'll look like they're caged, but... they're not" you mean they're not actually caged when I see the "untouchable" (or whatever it is) message while the AV stands taking no action, then my mistake, that sure fooled me. Otherwise, I stand by my assertion.
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That combo is just seriously sick, and is a perversion of gameplay mechanics. - Excelsio
The Infernal Challenge
Building a WarTroller
Troller Damage
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Deacon_NA
If by "it'll look like they're caged, but... they're not" you mean they're not actually caged when I see the "untouchable" (or whatever it is) message while the AV stands taking no action, then my mistake, that sure fooled me. Otherwise, I stand by my assertion.
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What you're describing sounds exactly like what I saw when using DF on plus-level AV's before slotting it for magnitude, except for the standing there taking no action part. It looks like they're caged. It says 'Detention Field' above their head, they get the little egg around them, but that's it. They can still move and affect other players, and be attacked. I'm not sure what to say about the short time you see them standing there. I never noticed that myself.
It wouldn't be the first time for there to be a disconnect between the actual effect and the visual in some powers. Not to muddy the waters, but Dimension Shift and Black Hole are noterious for this. Often times, enemies that are shifted do not lose their collision boxes nor were they are made translucent. Since the Intangible and Immobilize in those powers works they same way, i.e. variable magnitude with fixed duration, higher level mobs would resist them while still being phased. The phase itself carries no visual effect. To my knowledge, there is no protection against the phase status.
It wouldn't surprise me to see the visual effect applied on hit and before magnitude is checked for Detention Field and Sonic Cage.
Can a controller use the detention field power to effectively isolate the healing nictus from rommy? Useful? Not so much? I'm curious because I haven't seen anyone use one but in theory I could see some task force uses of this power.
Anyone have any playing experiences to share (good or bad)?
End Game- LVL 50 Scrapper-DM/INV
Ripjak- LVL 50 Defender-Rad/Rad
Extruder- LVL 50 Scrapper-DM/REG
Juicie- LVL 50 Blaster-ELEC/ELEC
Mind Sync- LVL 50 Controller-MIND/FF