Issue 19 - Patch Notes for build 1900.201011102104.23

Erm... my DB/WP scrapper couldn't beat him without lava'ing him, because Trapdoor would regen to full in the time it took for me to *FIND* his bifurcation halfway across the room (often behind an obstacle), move to it, and then actually kill it. And most of the time he would have popped another bifurcation before I could get back to him to start damaging him again.

So no, he's not hard to kill cheaply, but he's still nearly impossible to solo if you're fighting him "straight", as far as I can tell.

So pull him into the lava. That cancels two Bifucations' worth of regen, and should give you enough time to beat him down on anything.

The first time I noticed this was the removal of warburg nukes from the CoP. (Did we ever get any official word on why, and not just speculation)

a MMO is a open ended type game where people are going to solve its challenges in a wide variety of ways, if something is breaking the game I can see making changes but if players solve the challenge is an unforeseen way; celebrate that don't "fix it"

I have a BS/Regen Scrapper who did it too. No issues. So far I've soloed this on the following (with +1/x3+ settings): Dark/Dark Brute, Pistol/Kin Corr, BS/Regen Scrapper, Fire/Fire Corr, Demon/Dark MM, Stone/EM Tank, AR/NRG Blaster.

Squishie folk who don't abuse inspirations to overcome something difficult are dangerously stupid.

If you're dying too much, fill up half your inspiration inventory with purples and the other half with greens. If he's regenerating too fast, stock up on reds. This isn't hard.

I'll bet you a month's sub that an upcoming change is not being allowed to pull him into the lava.

stop being lazy and use what the game gives you for the ultra expensive price of 50 inf

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

This really. Inspirations are there for a reason. If you're not using them it's not the game's or the devs' fault your toon can't complete or sucks at certain things, or everything even.

Still though, I do agree that it's a silly change. The director 11 one even more so.

Except, from what I recall reading of Trapdoor, this doesn't make sense for him.

He's splitting of and duplicating himself in time, thus having extra time to recover, isn't he?

... hmm

have any bubblies tried the knockback bubble yet? That... might have interesting results.

Ty. The two bugs I've been waiting to be fixed.

Okay. When a gamemaster pulls this kind of stuff on me in real life in a pen and paper campaign, I tell him off.

Why? Because it stinks of being a "bad loser". "Oh yeah? Well that ability I let you have no longer works the way it used to! So there! You'll just have to defeat the bad guy the way I want you to, and no other way is allowed!"

This is horrible game design. I'm shocked that, with Bruce Harlick, a professional pen and paper adventure designer on your team, you're not taking his advice and letting players use alternate or unanticipated but valid tactics to complete an encounter.

I want encounters that let me use my brains. If that means a deranged half-Incarnate will follow you out of his own personal "safety zone" let remain a valid tactic.

Seriously. It's *bad game design* to require that everyone follow the same tactics for every archetype in order to win an encounter.

I rate this change, and the thought process behind it, an F. For Failure.

People were (ab)using this method to get the badge before. I'm not sure if it still works with the latest change to the mine layers though, haven't tried it yet.

Bruce "Horatio" Harlick is no longer with Paragon Studios.

But I agree with you, we need a better Game Master making decisions over allowing multiple solutions including, you know... PULLING.

For a game that for years told those who charged into overwhelming force and kept losing and kept complaining that the foe was too hard to 'kite' their foe, to suddenly take away that very tactic of kiting is jarring.

This worries me for several reasons.

Firstly, as others have noted, there's the fundamental "bad GMing" feel to it; this really sounds like "you're not winning the encounter the bullheaded way we wanted you to, clever players will be slapped down".

Secondly, there's the comic book feel issue; a villain in a prepared trap at the heart of his power... while there are probably a few particularly stubborn heroes that would think "I just have to hit him harder!", the majority would be trying to figure out a way to get him out of his sweet spot.

And most seriously, this means that if you're a squishy character who has a bad day, you're totally screwed. Hospital, restock on inspirations, back into mission, run around to the lava room... previously, that was enough for him to pop out about a dozen bifurcations, but he seemed to have an upper limit and would stop. Without a limit, there's nothing stopping him from Agent Smith-ing into enough clones to crash people's clients, well beyond any winnable state.

I have to echo the 'Why?' sentiments here. I didn't have a problem soloing Trapdoor the bullheaded way without any tricks, but while there is a 'well, you can't be helped' threshold for people being unable to complete the encounter, sneaky things like pulling him away from his bifurcations help people who will have trouble otherwise.



.... Until what?


But kicking people off tall buildings is awesome...


Oooh, want to see.

Well, yes, BS/Regen has a hell of a lot more burst damage, which would assist in quickly taking down bifurcations. :P

On DB I have to pop either three decently fast attacks or one really slow attack and one fast attack to kill one reliably (either way, it's around a 5 second attack chain), so. I realize (more) inspiration use would have made it easier, but honestly, if an encounter forces you to stack the deck with inspirations, it's probably a sign that something about the design is off.

(Note: When I say "stack the deck" I mean "walk in with a specific tray full", i.e. not just using what drops)

Oh my yes. That is much sweeter than the old IDF look. I WANT!

Wasn't Horatio responsible for Kahn and Cuda masterpieces?