Jibikao

We did Cap SF last night and none of us got Well. Isn't Cap SF the target of the week?

One of us did TWICE with two different characters and got zero Well.


Is this happening to you too?

I've been reading a lot on Wolf Soldier builds and I couldn't really understand why. Why would you want a Soldier when you can branch out.

Well, recently I respec my Bane's 2nd build and tried to focus on just using Single Shot, Burst, Bayonet (occassionally when a boss gets close to me), Venom and Frag Grenade. Instead of taking Tough, I only took double Assault and Maneuver. Defense-wise, he is weaker than my Bane build but he also doesn't melee much so I think it evens out in the end for survival.


Last night I finally got 85% of the sets that I planned for him and I took him out for a real test. I started a +3x8 ITF run with 5 other friends. Oh man... was he good! I can't believe how fast Soldier is shooting. I thought my Fortunata already shoots fast but this Soldier just cycle attacks nonstop.


This Soldier build is not "flashy" like Crab's energy attacks or Bane's "smashing" mace but he is really strong in debuffing and quick shooting.

His focus is going to be resistance debuff. I already bought two AH procs which I'll put in both Single Shot and Burst. That's 40% chance to reduce another 20%. And I have Surveillance and Venom Grenade. I also put chance for smashing and energy in Frag Grenade for more "burst" aoe damage which has worked really well.


Now I can see the attraction in Soldier. I didn't understand before because when I first made Bane/Crab, I just wanted to branch out as soon as I hit 24. I didn't really think about the potential of Soldier until recently.

AoE-wise... if you are not using any patron attack, then Crab should be a bit better on average especially with Venom Grenade. However, it doesn't mean Fort's aoe sucks. At some point, you gotta do something other than AoE damage, which I believe even Bane can do.


ST-damage wise, Fort may have the upper-hand especially with one attack being a mag 3 hold. Crab, on the other hand, has pets that help adding damage and Crab has decent resistance shields like a mini-tank.

First of all, I DO like i20 issue. I think it brings something very different to the table. I know other big games like WoW have "raids" like this. I've never done a raid in WoW ('cause I quit that game at lvl 41) but I know it requires many people like 16 or 24.

However, some of my friends are quite annoyed with this issue because they feel that they are now "forced" to join a PUG team. Our normal team-size is about 4-6 every night and sometimes we get a full team.

He REALLY hates teaming with he doesn't know. I can't explain what happened because I met him through a PUG team two years ago. These friends have played this game for years and most of them have played this game since beta.


Now before you get angry and start trashing my friend, let me give you his side of view:

1. He has more than 20-30 level 50s. Some he doesn't like that much and some he REALLY likes them. He has two active accounts. He even hired artists to draw cartoon characters based on his toon and costume design. He is THAT into this game for 6-7 years.

2. He likes to team but only with people he knows. We all belong to the same chat that we use every night.


3. He likes challenges. He doesn't like the setting too low.

4. Since i20, he used 40 shards, 5 Wells conversion (this means he used 5 weeks), 3 ITF runs, 1 new Hero SF 20-40 and two Villain SF 20-40 runs to try to get his first Judgment and he is STILL 6 shards away from getting just the FIRST tier power. I haven't converted much from Shard to Thread because I've been teaming in Pocket D (since I don't mind PUGing most of the time) but this conversion looks very sucky. Let's just say he wants to avoid all trials, it will take him 2.5 years to unlock something that those that do trials can unlock in days/weeks. I understand you can let soloers gain threads too easily or else nobody wants to join trials but I think the conversion needs to be better than what we have now. Disagree?


5. We did a Lamba run with 4 other friends from the chat and we almost beat it with 8 people in Lamba. Only two people (including myself) have done Lamba before and know what is going on. I think we did REALLY well and I believe with some practice, we can beat Lamba with just 8 people. This is acceptable. But I am afraid BAF will be much harder with just 8 people especially during prison escapes. Now, are there any news that the future trials are going to have smaller-size trials? I actually prefer smaller-size and with added "Randomness" so each run doesn't feel exactly the same way. Random-ness can be some random events or random AVs that you need to beat.



6. He wants to advance with some of his favorite characters but he just doesn't want to join big trial teams.

Well, I just want to voice his opinions here because he may quit soon and I am going to be sad as he plays a lot and he is one of my long-term game friend in this game. I've been trying very hard to talk him out of it but he can be so stubborn!!! I understand i20 doesn't take away anything he has enjoyed so far but he does want new Incarnate abilities. He just doesn't want to feel like he is forced to PUG with less than 8-12 people.


What's your thoughts on this?

I thought the reward in the end is very well done. So far, I've had 4 Uncommon lists and 1 Rare list. You get to pick the specific Uncommon/Rare from the list which is not really random.

And even if I don't get Rare ones, I still get exp and Thread/Astral Merits. The Uncommon/Common ones will always be needed.

And I believe you can break down Rare ones into Uncommon or maybe Threads? I haven't looked through the whole conversion because I don't have many yet.

Last night there was a new patch and I guess it was for bug fixing?

Well, I did two Lamba trials last night. First one we got kicked out right before 2nd phase (the game did not crash). The second time we were in Pocket D and formed a full 16-men team. During the 2nd phase, my game crashed and so did my friend's. The crash wasn't specific on my end.

Before last night's patch, I did 4 trial runs and did not crash once.

Do you have more crash after last night's update?

I can't stand resummoning all the time so I pretty much shelf all my lvl 50 MMs. And I don't play Robot or Thug. I only like Merc, Necro and Ninja. Of the 3, Merc does ok because most of them stay at range. Necro and Ninja have no business going in if they die in one hits.

I see less of problems for MM in BAF as you mostly fight in the "tennis court".

The second part of Lamba could be a lot more annoying as people run in to kill crates and then move on. Your pets will be lagging behind you (or dead instantly) and you lose Bodyguard. And also, pets are not very good at killing elite Turrets (luckily that part isn't hard with a full team).


I no longer enjoy MM because I believe the mechanism is broken. AoE damage is "supposed" to be Mastermind's counter? What is the counter for Brute/Scrapper and every other ATs that can do so well with set bonuses?

What used to be MM's "advantage" no longer seems like a real advantage. We all start with stamina (which used to be MM's biggest advantage early on with pets doing most of the damage). When other ATs are getting set bonuses, MMs lag behind. Yes, yes, yes...I know how mighty powerful your Robot/Thug are but I prefer Ninja (and they suck hard).

And I've said it many times. I refuse to take Taunt. If I want to taunt, I'll play Tanker/Brute. It's not my problem that my pets just die so fast even with buffs on. Destiny seems like a good team buff but they shouldn't balance an AT based on new Incarnate abilities.

Ok, so the debuff values can only stack up to 4 times.

What about the "Moderate fire" damage? Can you stack the damage and how much is the damage? The guide says "Up to 6 tics"? So each time you trigger it, it only does damage "one time" but you can stack up to 6x?

I finally got my first Interface, Reactive. Looks like the resistance debuff value is very low just for one application. It does seem like I can stack more than one application (up to 4x) by myself. That's why you would want 75% proc chance.

How much fire dot damage from the proc? And can you stack fire dot or the new one overwrites the first dot?

And how long does the debuff last? 10s or longer?

Oh nice.

Man, they make it difficult not to pick Reactive.

I think I am still keeping my Cardiac because trials have long battles that require endurance. I run 8 toggles and one expensive Darkest Night sometimes.

Is Interface debuffs "resistable".