NordBlast

Originally Posted by MTS

It really depends on what you're building for.

The only character that I have significantly "purpled out" (5x 5-piece sets) is my Earth / Storm controller, and the extra recharge made a significant difference. I picked that character because I thought it would benefit the most from the recharge bonuses. It went from adequate for most purposes, to able to solo +4 x8 content (albeit a little slowly compared to softcapped scrappers).

My Energy / Ice blaster on the other hand, is built for survivability and utility. I chose this because I knew Energy Blast would never be top damage, so my goal was ranged defense softcap and focusing on slows / holds. Purples don't help at all with that goal, I don't think there's a single set that gives defense bonuses. Despite my focus in this build, I still find that I do decent damage, and the extra survivability makes the character very fun to play. I remember tanking Scirocco for about 30 scary but thrilling seconds on a MoSTF, after a bad pull when the tank got held by an unexpected GW. We succeeded.

Many characters I find benefit most from frankenslotting to max out more attributes per slot, well-placed procs, and some of the set bonuses on the cheaper and lesser used sets. There are a lot of sets that give accuracy bonuses, for instance, letting you use your slots for other things. The alpha slot can be quite useful here too, especially for attributes that aren't near the ED cap. Which one used is highly build-dependent, but there are a lot of possibilities.

On my Earth/Storm, I ended up going for the endurance reduction alpha boost. Even with all the fancy IOs providing extra recovery, with all that recharge I can still burn him dry if I'm not careful. Purple sets don't have a lot of end reduction in them, and don't leave many free slots to get it, so I find it quite helpful there.

Originally Posted by Pavehawk

I think the warning aura is called by non-movement, and there may be a max number called or available to be called" at any one time. The last two runs we did had several folks trying to keep the swords and champs off the blasters/debuffers and whenever 3 of more folks were in close proximity bingo we ALL got auras. Later I was able to stay in one spot for 12ish seconds shooting before i got an aura, earlier it was abut 6-8. Perhaps there is an aggro list for each entity, her, swords and warning/death auras.

Originally Posted by Airhammer

This is something I would like to see from the Dev's. I would love respecs to take less time and I think a new interface would be key. Oftentimes I am doing a total respec to often move a few slots around, which I dont have an issue doing but just looking at issue 19 and having over 40+ characters to respec and I know others will have a lot more than that.

I would also like to see the enhacement tray increased from ten. This is just ridiculous. In this day of IO's I have often had to burn several respecs to take IO's off one character to invest in another character. There should be a way that these can be deposited in the auction house or in your base or vault from the respec interface.

Also since one of the earlier updates the numbers on the enhancements got really really really small. This needs to be fixed.

Just some thoughts as I prepare to start the huge number of respecs I will start when I get home.

Originally Posted by Zombie Man

Last time I did it, I didn't take any damage from rain of death.

That's way different from the first few times I did it.

You learn. Learn to dodge.

Especially to stop queuing up the next attack so that you can move. *THAT* is what kills people. You get about a 5 second warning. There is no animation in the game that long. The only people who are 'caught' by 'rooting' are those who queued up a second attack or weren't paying attention.

Learn not to do that.

Blasters are adept at that. They fire, run, fire. Melee-ers are not. They plant themselves and queue up an attack chain. Doing that will get you killed. Don't do that.

BTW, I use long casting time sniper fire for that mission.

Originally Posted by ChaosAngelGeno

You take a glancing blow from a AoE, not full damage but then sword comes by and finishes you off, you die. You take damage or use an attack, SS or SJ is suppressed for a bit, you take some damage. Granted yes, you should keep moving. But you honestly believe that someone isn't going to take damage?

Constructive, non-one line thoughts please?

Originally Posted by Shubbie

This is one of the worst missions Ive ever seen in the game, getting held and 2 shotted is not in any way shape or form fun.

This mission is darn near undoable by squishies unless they are bleeding io's from their ears.

Melee's are soloing this fairly easy and dont want or need to team up with the squishies.

And I saw alot of people saying just drop the mission, its not worth it...

whats the point of putting in a mission so many people are just going to drop.

Originally Posted by seebs

Quite possible. But I've never seen it, only seen references to claims that such a thing once existed.

Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex

I do have to say, btw, that one thing that surprises me about the game is the requirement that they do a whole new build to change enemy stats. I don't know if that's standard of graphical MMOs or not, but I always assumed all creature stats would be maintained separate from the user client and could be fixed by rolling out "behind the scenes" changes, which would roll in either immediately or at the next server reset.

Originally Posted by Ironblade

um, what? Do you mean you haven't tested whether damage that does not cut into your base HP is counted? (i.e. inflicted on 'bonus' hit points only) If not, then what are you talking about? That was pretty much *THE* category of damage that everyone complained about not counting.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Thing is, all it takes is one boss-level Gunslinger and pretty much any boss in the game is taking a dirt nap. Especially FrostFire, who isn't all that strong even as an elite boss. And that mission has the potential to spawn multiple bosses.

And even if it didn't spawn bosses, it can spawn over half a dozen lieutenant-level Gunslingers, enough to make even a Tanker cry. And ForstFire is no Tanker, lemme tell ya.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Instead, they'll die from the mass of bosses in the ambushes. Tit for tat.

Originally Posted by Sapphic_Neko

The ambushes themselves are awesome. I love the Maltra actionfigure mission for example.

But the escortees/hostages dying is annoying. There so many instances they die before you can even do anything. They're too fragile, they should be able to die so you fail the mission, but they should be a bit sturdier at least. I recall one mission where i was sposed to rescue Frostfire and Miss Thystle from nemesis, and their aoe attacks killed both before they even got "rescued", so mission never completed. It's annoying :|

Originally Posted by Derangedpolygot

Merits(Her, Villain or regular) cannot be traded. They 'bind' to your character.

Originally Posted by Jade_Dragon

According to City of Data, it is 3.75% which does not suppress, and 3.75% which suppresses. So half, and pretty much the same as all other stealth powers. (In other words, negligible unless stacked with something else)

Originally Posted by Deacon_NA

I took my Ill/Rad over to the vill side to go through Scirocco's arc to go big game hunting.

All the AV/Hero fights went by the usual script: Use your 1-2-3 blast chain and recast PA as needed. Break LOS if there's no Phantasm at the moment you recast.

Then there was Recluse. The fight starts off as any other, he gets to about 1/2 health about as fast as the other AVs. At about this point he summons, which seemed to be managable enough - perhaps a boss Bane that I could Confuse. Even a second wave could be contained - Spectral Terror could Fear the Lieuts and Minions and I could try to Decieve Bosses. Eventually though, there would just be too many summons and PA would lose Aggro and I'd have a spider looking dude in my face (soon to be walking away from my corpse).

I eventually gave up, decided to use overwhelming force and summoned a Shivan, Warwolf and Amy. Pwning resulted.

Still, resorting to temps was unsatisfying. I'm posting this to ask the Ill/Rad crowd what their tactics were for dealing with LR.

Let me just say, in advance, my intention is not to open up an opportunity for chest-thumping here. If you're wanting to say "*shrug* I'm super 1337 and had no problem with LR" then I'm not very interested in hearing it. I do want to hear what strategy someone used to deal with the issues I mentioned, most specifically when PA can't keep all the aggro. I'm trying to abide by the "no insps" clause.

Originally Posted by Elimist

I think so as well. I think i can, with the Vanguard medallion. But time will tell. Might even rework my build and see if I can get energy mastery without sacrificing perma PA. I'm gonna use the temps just to make it a guarantee. Actually..... if I just rolled with it and didn't worry about a death or two, and had the temps as backup, I could test it and see if it's possible without them. If it is, I might attempt it again as an actual master run. Is the Vanguard medallion blacked out as a temp? Do master runs black out accolade temps?