War Walkers

All the tearful scenes of comrades delivering slow, airy monologues as the life drains from their bodies will be replaced by a quick trip to the hospital and a merciless ribbing over coalition channels.

And remember that you're only seeing the War Walkers in level 40-50 content, about the same range you're taking on stuff like Warhulks, Zeus Titans, Rikti Chief Soldiers and Heavy Assault Suits, and the like. You're supposed to be kind of a big deal in that range, or at least tough and experienced enough to deal with some big robots. While I usually grumble about every enemy and it's minion-y brother being taller than a hero can be (it feels wrong having Council troopers bigger than my 8'3" robot guy), I'm fine with Praetorian WarWorks being gigantic next to heroes. You've got ten foot Terminators and giant mechs. That suits them, and you feel like you're a badass doing it.

Mentioning Assault Suits... Those are actually genuine EBs. The... Problem, let's call it, with that is I've only ever seen one. Rather the same one about six times, and it's the one Hro summons as an ambush. Rikti invasions tend to lag my computer and my cognitive abilities, so I avoid them, and... Where else do those spawn, anyway?

My point is that making something an EB makes it incredibly rare, and something this cool should not be that rare. I'm fine with bigger War Walkers, War Walkers with fancier paitjobs, War Walkers with more guns or otherwise "better" War Walkers being treated as elite bosses. In fact, I wouldn't mind a Kronos-size Walker/Crawler that serves as a GM, either. But the "normal"-sized walkers I really want to keep as bosses, because that means they spawn in missions and I can pretend I'm awesome by taking out giant robots.

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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.

They've got slightly different powers, like Recovery Aura and some Kinetics thrown in, along with mental blasting. And I frequently see Assault suits trucking around near the mothership, as regular zone spawns. Albeit at level 53-4 I think. So purty nasty.

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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.

As they are now, I think the War Walkers have been implemented poorly.

They spawn as Bosses and except for their heal dragging out the fight out as long as an EB battle but without the damage or rewards. Flashy attacks aside, they're no more special than any other Boss, just more annoying. I'm sick of the devs definition of 'challenge' being a 'a big sack of HP with regen' or 'throw a bunch of debuffs at players to nullify the abilities they spent 50 levels acquiring'.

The War Walkers, the IDF and the rest of the high level Praetorian mobs continue this 'proud' design tradition in this game of Demonic Spiders.

When scaled up to EB level as demonstrated with the one-off Siege mission, the same War Walkers become nigh-unsoloable without temp powers like Shivans and Nukes even for characters capable of soloing EBs. This is due to their fast recharging self-heal activating when they get to 1/4 health and instantly healing them back to 1/2 health.

I have no reason to expect a AV level "Goliath Class" War Walker would function any different, so I suspect the 'challenge' with this new TF will being putting together the "right" team by discarding characters who can't bring the debuffs and spike damage needed to beat the War Walker's self heal and regen.

Which frankly, sounds like business as usual, except now the devs get to obfuscate the issue with their catch all disclaimer/excuse "This TF recommended for the Alpha Slot".



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Also remember this: Praetorians are supposed to be really, really tough. In fact, they're designed for Incarnates. Remember how they mentioned at the panel that you really want that Alpha slot for the i19 task forces?

Besides. I don't find them that irritating. Challenging? Oh yes. But never the cheap moves of, say, Malta or Carnies. There's a difference between Hard and Shenanigans.

I so need to /e air guitar on top of it!

1. Then don't.

2. Then don't.

3. Then don't.

That way, you don't have to complain and the rest of us can enjoy the game without you. Win-win!

Goliath War Walker + Kronos Titan + Clockwork Babbage = CAGE MATCH EXTRAORDINAIRE!

--NT

I think War Walkers are perfectly fine as normal bosses right now. Even with Boss level HP and damage they are BRUTAL opponents, what with their crazy high resistances to everything and their "ZOMG BLOW U UP FROM SPACE" Orbital Lance power (among other nasty attacks). The thing is? I LOVE fighting them. They aren't like some other bosses (freakin Master Illusionists...) that resort to cheap tricks to gain the upper hand. They just require you to have a good strategy worked out before you jump in.

In fact, that's what I like about the IDF in general. They are challenging, but never really resort to cheap tricks. They aren't like Knives who just annoy the crap out of you with Caltrops, or Malta where you need to kill the Sappers before starting on anyone else. Each individual IDF mob by itself isn't really all that tough, but together they complement each other's weaknesses. Seers and the like are weak on their own but can buff the hell out of their allies, Troopers are of average strength until they pull out the Battle Orbs, and the BCU's and the like are just big sacks of hit points that only become truly terrifying when in the presence of said seers and orbs.

This sort of asymmetrical villain group design with multiple subgroups within one villain group is my favorite kind of group design in the game, as it requires players to work out their own individual strategies for dealing with them that vary from character to character.

But stopping the invasion was Marchand's Plan A, which has failed - the war's started now, so he would need a Plan B - which could quite easily be asking the loyalists who went to Paragon city to try and take out the mediporter system to end the war as fast as possible, and save as many lives of his Praetorian troops as possible.

It'd be another classic "greater good" set up for them - take out the mediporter system so one side gets slaughtered fast, rather than allowing the war to drag on for ages, with huge casualties on both sides.