What in the world is up with Quartz Stone??!?

I have held my tongue long enough. I have died more than enough times on my lvl 40 fire/shield scrapper with 41% Melee def and 36% ranged def in a Devoured Earth mish only because a measly quartz pet somehow phenomenally boosts all mobs accuracy to the point I am hit EVERY single time no matter how many pills I pop. Its crazy, please oh please do something about this devs!

I'm not saying I like it, but it is working as designed. Same with the 64% to hit of Devouring Earth in tip missions. Don't bother with purples when a quartz drops. You either kill it in a couple seconds or you run out of its range.

/bind <key> targetcustomnext Quartz

It will be your best friend in DE missions with a defense based character.

I've taken so little advantage of custom targeting binds. I've done it on one character, so I can only blame the lazy. I really should. They can make some groups so much easier. Devouring earth is one of them.

Given how long Quartz have done what they do, I don't think we should expect any changes. I'm pretty sure the Devs know what they do, and are satisfied with it.

Like Werner said, it doesn't mean I like it, but I'm basically consigned to it.

Hmm. Number pad 1 for quartz and number pad 2 for sappers. Not a bad idea.

Before i18, the last time many of us would see them is in numina TF and the eden trial since the greater devoured and the rocks would be the only thing spawning at level 49+. They have moved those annoying things to higher levels now giving us headaches in the end game. Having to pull for the sake of survival and not just to mess around makes me sad. That bind will be most helpful. I need to write that down.

One question, though. Do I put the chosen key inside <>?

Quartz hurt so good

Against the tip mission DE and their base hit of 64% ... that basically moves the soft cap to 59% so for that pop one small purple and you should be essentially back where you were.

The DE To Hit buff pets, as folks have pointed out, are far far far worse. The To Hit buff all the DE in the aura are getting is +100% meaning your soft cap vs that is now 145% not 45%. You could pop enough purples to counter the buff, but it is far easier to pull the DE away from their aura buff pet(s) then destroy the DE who drop the pet(s).

While popping orange and higher max health will help it's kind of a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of incoming damage you will now take compared to what the build (and you) are used to. On a 'pure' defense based character at the soft cap such as SR the incoming damage will have increased roughly 20 times (5% hit rate vs the now 95% hit rate) so where you were taking 200 damage spawn diving you'll now take 4000 (again very roughly). Popping orange will help (though using one purple will help more) vs the higher base to hit of 64% DE in the tip missions it really isn't effectively going to be doing anything vs the incoming damage while the buff pets are out do to the degree of change in the amount.

Last consider the streak breaker. Normally it's of little to no consequence for the player vs pve foes even though the foes use it as well as the players, the pve mobs by and large die too fast to take advantage of it particularly vs anyone with high defenses. However, when all those DE are now at 95% to hit the streak breaker is causing every other attack (by a single foe) to automatically hit regardless of their to hit roll. Not sure when (or even IF) this becomes an effective change in the incoming damage but I suspect it has the potential to impact a soft capped Tank (or max health scrapper with capped resistance maybe?) whose greatly higher hit point cap combined with resistances may see the effects and live long enough to talk about it, pop greens, use Dull Pain, Earth's Embrace, Dark Regen etc..

Thanks for the responses. The bind suggestions is something I haven't heard of before and I will definitely put it to use. It still makes me sad that DE can be boosted to 150% accuracy, but as many of you have said, its a a part of the game.

I consider it a game to get DE to spawn as many eminators as possible while fighting them. Between the Quartz and the Cairns, it makes the fight much more interesting. Its one of the few things in the game that forces you to play aggressively and pay attention.