Trials and ME!

I have jugement! Yay!

Otherwise I feel pretty darned useless.

Although my Force Fields are colored really nice, and slotted pretty awesomely, and I have a new button that AOE bubbles all my friends, I wonder whether or not throwing tissue paper on people might be more effective during trials.

My main is Grav/FF/Psi and well, I dont have a clue as to what her point is in trials at all. Other than firing off the occasional Judgement and lore, all of the enemies are mostly robotic (So Psi is ick) and well my grav seems to do minimal damage. (I know I am a controller and that damage is not my strong suit)

My question is why? Im not denting things, but I can hold certain things, and usually get killed by everything...

But at least I have my bubbles right? Wrong!

Everything goes through em. Even PFF which I have specially slotted! They don't seem to do much in trials, but in TFs etc this toon shines a ton.

I feel sort of lost completely. Heck my dom is mind/mind and well...I don't even know where to begin as to take her on trials, because control is almost negligable, and psi damage is blah against mobs except against some of the end enemies.

I am really frustrated here!

So many people have high defense, and with the Barrier power adding even more defense, that the Devs shifted the "soft cap" for the incarnate trials higher to make it more of a challenge. Instead of 45%, the soft cap in the Incarnate Trials is something like 59% (I don't recall the exact number, but it is probably in ParagonWiki or in one of the guides on the trials.)

Where your bubbles used to provide soft-cap or near to it, now they are providing some defense. HOWEVER, for those characters who were previously at softcap, your bubbles should be providing enough defense to hit the softcap for the Incarnate Trials.

When you became incarnate, you were granted a third build. You may want to consider a different APP set other than Psi for an Incarnate build. It appears that most of the Incarnate content is based upon Praetorian robots, which really makes it tough for characters who rely upon Psi damage (like my favorite Ill/Rad). It is a good idea to have another kind of damage. Your Gravity primary is all Smashing Damage, and robots are supposed to be weak to Smashing, so you should be doing decent damage (even though Gravity is slow). GD-Crush-Propel will still do decent damage even if it takes a while -- many of the foes in the Trials take a while to take down.

You, at least, have an AoE Immob which will work against the Minions during the escaping prisoner phase of the BAF. Plus, Singy can disrupt those escaping prisoners. My Ill/Rad doesn't have even an AoE Immob. Still, I find other ways to adapt. I have Fire Blast to help with damage, my pets do damage and I control the ones I can.

Yes, some of this new content was designed to get around some of the overpowered parts of the game, like high Defense. Oh well, it is time to adapt.

And things will seem better once you get your level shifts for Lore and Destiny.

Yeah...I hope so regarding the level shift.

The constant robot theme though is killing me. ((I didn't realize until today that my mains are (Grav/FF/Psi Controller. Emp/Psi/PM Defender and a Mind/Mental Assault Dominator)) Apparently I must really love Psi powers!

Either way...having an alt damage type would be good. I can see that. It's just getting to the point where I see why people are getting frustrated. Not because of adaptation really, but because the trials really do favor certain AT's and really seem to favor certain powersets.

The only difference is that it's the same powersets over and over that they are favoring.

My honest advice is to reroll. With some imagination, you can usually find other, more effective powersets to represent the same concept. If you don't want to reroll, you'll have to find all the niche ways your character can contribute; interface will increase your damage (make sure to get the 75% chance for DoT reactive), bubbles are useful for keeping your Lore pets alive, you can stop minion-class escaping prisoners with force bubble and help teams save time by knocking warworks away from terminals on Keyes. You won't be as powerful as most characters, but you'll still be able to contribute.

P.S. Psi damage is not so bad now, actually. Warworks don't have the huge psi resist that other robots have, and IIRC, War Walkers' lowest resistance is Psi.

My main is also a Grav/FF but his APP is Energy. I have found the greatest thing about him was that I fully IOed him prior to ever attempting the iTrials. Now, in PFF he has something like 90% Def to Ranged... which helps during Lambda to get from one crate to another. Then once I locate a crate/tank, I get far enough away from it that mobs don't attack me, and start pinging away at the tank/crate while I tell the team I am at one, and should come to me to speed it up.

As for feeling more useful, unfortunately, for me, it comes down to IOs. I have a plethora of Procs slotted into the AoE Immob (including a Ragnarok: KD Proc... which is nice). So, I feel pretty helpful. Also, with the FF Bubbles now AoE, I can make sure everyone is buffed in a few simple button pushes.

Keyes still frustrates me a bit, but I think it has potential to be my most favorite iTrial in time. I just need to do it some more. So, I am unsure how to maximize my effectiveness there aside from plopping Singy in the middle of groups near terminals to blast them away.

As for folks suggesting that you wait to feel useful until T3 Destiny and Lore? Well, while that is true, it pretty much signalled the end of MY iTrial experience. Well, except for simply being on successful runs now to get the iMerits to unlock costume parts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laevateinn My honest advice is to reroll.

That is perhaps the worst 'advice' anyone could possibly give this player! She/he is taking this character who is a lvl 50 through the iTrials for a reason, probably because she/he likes it. And you are saying, hey, guess what, why don't you start at lvl 1 and make something 'viable' so that in a few months, you can start the iTrials all over again, YAY! No, not good 'advice' at all.

That's not what I'm saying at all. That's what you are saying, to try and portray me as some sort of build nazi. I'm saying: rather than staying the course with something that is already causing you frustration, with little hope of improvement in the near future, why not consider rerolling the character with the same name and concept, but using different powersets that will provide a more effective (and hence enjoyable) character?

It's good advice, though perhaps a little hard to swallow for people who hate hearing that their computer game characters aren't the best. And should they decide not to reroll, there are still ways to try and improve effectiveness - as I mentioned in my post above.

One of the things the Devs have tried with the trial was to shoe-horn the ATs. Control ATs are for control, not attacking or buffing. Working in tandem with others, you can hold ambushes so that a couple blasters can kill them in safety. You can single-handedly hold and knock around and immob minion escapees.

FF also has several KB effects, which ARE useful in the trials.... unless things are immob'd.

In short, I'd suggest playing around with other powers and changing up your playstyle a bit. Without seeing your build, i'm going to assume that like a lot of players, you might not have your AoE hold (base stats are too terrible for most controllers to consider taking it) and none of your "offensive" bubbles or FF-attacks.

Also, you may want to consider for Destiny getting the one that gives +recharge and +end/recovery. Very few people seem to take it, and everyone being able to attack faster means the trial will go quicker and more smoothly.

Sorry, Laevateinn, I must have misunderstood the part where you said "reroll" and "more effective" within a sentence of one another.

Consider respeccing or having a second build that switches from Grav/FF/Psi to Grav/FF/Primal for Power Boost for the trials. You can then put PBed shields on your entire league, which is a fairly substantial contribution, if not exactly the most fun thing in the world.

Other than that I can't recommend a whole lot of changes to your build. I think everyone ends up feeling a bit useless in the trials due to their nature. In terms of the powers involved, the battle is basically won or lost based on how many of the team members have Destiny slotted and how many level shifts everyone has. Controllers really can't do a lot of damage due to lack of Containment. Basically put shields on people, throw a power around every so often, and wait for the end.

On the Lambda trial specifically, if you have high personal defenses Force Bubble is potentially useful to push enemies away from the crates, but on the other hand they may just kill you. If nothing else make sure to only turn it on once you actually get to a crate rather than running all over the halls aggroing everything.

Play the Dom or the Defender, both should be pretty sweet for the trials. Doms confuse will be nice, and Emp is good for most of these.

Im suprised you are getting floored with PFF, I am softcapped to normal ranged (45%), and have the stealth IO.I run Lamda without real worries now, as opposed to constant face planting I had before.

I like the extra defense of bubblers, but I can see the frustration you are having. Though everyone jumped on the guy for telling you to reroll, if you like the incarnate stuff, and you dont like your troller, reroll that bad boy. Some people cherish their 50's, I have deleted more 50's than I currently have, and only play two of them. By my quick count, I have deleted 5 fifty's. If they are not fun and I dont play em, out they go.

Good luck

As a grav/FF you will be very useful on the prisoners stage of a BAF. AOE Immob+Force Bubble will stop all of the minions getting past meaning the league just has to take down the Lts on your side of the tennis court.

I'd play a character in Trials the one I like playing the most outside of Trials. The Trials are a means to an end. They will get you powers and E Merits to unlock things for your favorite character and that account. In their own right the Trials are not that interesting, exp. once you're on run # 30. Also, whether your character is a min/max uber one will not make or break the trial. You're one out of 16-26. But playing a character that you don't love JUST because it's good for the Trials will get old fast. Ideally, you have a character that you love to play and also feel useful in the Trial. If you are not level shifted, then I don't think you can even tell really how useful you will be yet. Good luck! It's not WoW, don't let people tell you what you can play...