ketch

Legend
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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Amir View Post
    This thread to me feels like one person doesnt like gravity and wants to change it for everyone. I don't think thats going to work:
    Odd. I've noticed several people indicated a few issues. Now I may rail against Dimension Shift at the drop of a hat, but that's because it's broken. It may be broken in a way that helps the player occasionally, by allowing them to phase a GM for example, but it is broken nonetheless.

    The other big issue is Propel. I think some folks have gone a bit overboard in their suggestions for it. Reduce the activation time and we're good. That's all it needs.

    Finally, we come to Lift. As has been already noted this power has been normalized with Levitate for doms. They just need to finish the job and do the same on the controller side.

    If Lift and Propel were corrected then Grav would gain significant single target damage, perhaps enough to justify its early lack of control. While they may never reshape Dimension Shift into something I would like it still needs correction so that it behaves in a clear and predictable manner that is in line with other mez effects.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post

    Getting back to Dimension Shift. Because the effects are tagged Magnitude, you should see the effects you tested in terms of magnitude. Slotting will increase magnitude. Fighting lower levels will increase magnitude. Nothing should change duration. The one thing I cannot explain is why mag 3 immobilize doesn't affect a boss but mag 3 untouchable does. Mag 3 should affect both because in both cases the boss has mag -3 protection. The only thing that makes sense is that its as simple as traditional mez was implemented such that Cur > 0 equals mezzed, while the status flags like Untouchable were coded such that Cur >= 0 equals affected.
    First thank you for the information. You've helped me understand this a bit more. I assumed that it was using Untouchable/OnlyAffectSelf; had I attempted Dimension Shifting and using Phase Shift I would not have misled myself . Instead, I believed that Dimension Shift was erroneously applying those affects. You've cleared that up for me. Now perhaps I can return the favor.


    From what I can guess, NPC's have protection against Intangible, Untouchable, and OnlyAffectSelf. When Dim. Shift hits an even level boss a mag 3 immobilize should have no effect, nor should a mag 3 untouchable. Until the magnitude stacked is greater than 0 the mez should not apply. However, Dimension Shift no longer uses the Untouchable effect as you pointed out. Instead, it is using Phase, which I purpose NPC's have no protection against at all. That is why Dimension Shift used against even a GM will leave it unable to affect the user. Attempting the same with Detention Field, which does apply the Untouchable/AffectOnlySelf status, does not capture the GM because it has protection to those effects.

    Is it possible that the devs forgot to include protection from Phase for NPC's when they implemented it? Or am I swingly wildly in the dark again?
  3. This patch added a feature that I think will become problematic: after leaving LW's realm everyone is transported to AP (I'm not sure of the villian-side location). If you were hunting in Steel, it boots you to AP. So why will people hunt anywhere but AP? I predict multiple instances of AP filled with present hunters for the Winter Event; then you top the zones off with people flooding back from LW's realm. I'd forecast some zone crashes. I hope we don't see it, but to me it seems likely.

    Also, I'm disappointed to see nothing down to make LW's phase state more visible.

    We'll see how it goes when it hits live, but I feel like I may prefer the plain old WL hunts of yesteryear.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Katten View Post
    Another question to add to this, is dimension shift slottable with intangibility enhancements? I know that sonic cage (which I actually use with some regularity as a single insta boss removal) will NOT take intangibility enhancements... which makes me wonder, do intang enhancements actually do anything at all?

    *edit* I see one of the previous posts mentions seeing a change in detailed info about duration... so I assume the area shifts are enhanceable, any idea whether sonic cage (or detention field which I assume takes same rules) is unique?
    It is also worth noting that the single target shifts do not list Intangibility in their detailed information. They are labeled a foe capture and they do not remove the hit box detection like Dimension Shift. I believe they apply magnitude 7.45 immobilize, Only-Affecting Self, and Untouchable status. Also, if I recall correctly from my testing using Sonic Cage or Detention Field against a GM would not capture it, unlike Dimension Shift that grants an untouchable/affecting-self like period regardless of level or rank. I'll have to re-confirm this though, but as I recall the Foe Capture powers seemed to work properly while Dimension Shift (and I assume Black Hole as well) was a mess all over with its magnitudes and what it affected.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Umbral View Post
    I'm not entirely sure about whether the attribmods are set to do that, but the Intangibility enhancements are actually described as "Increases the duration of an Intangibility Power". I'm pretty confident that it enhances duration rather than magnitude (if only from a logical standpoint), but, not having tested it extensively and operating only off of notoriously unreliable descriptions and names, I'm not entirely sure.
    See above. It increases the intangibility magnitude and not duration. The increased magnitude can be seen in the power's detailed information.
  6. I've done a good bit of testing of Dimension Shift. Unfortunately, no one else has ever confirmed the conclusions I drew, but here they are again: Link 1 and Link 2 (The last post of the second thread is where I think I finally got a handle on the mechanics of Dim. Shift.)

    Here's the basic run down:

    Dimension Shift has three effects attributed to it in game: a mag 3 immobilize, a mag 3 intangibility, and a 100% reduction of threat level. Two of these effects are fairly clear (but I will come back to the immobilize because it is treated oddly). Intangibility is a confusing status effect. It is marked by 3 things: the enemy is unable to affect others, the enemy is unable to be affected, and the collusion detection box is removed, allowing players to pass through them.

    Assume a mob of one even level boss, one even level lieutenant, and one minion. All of them are struck by an unslotted dimension shift. The minion and lieutenant will be immobilized, intangible (meaning you can pass through them), and unable to affect or be affected by other entities. The boss also will not be able to affect or be affected by other. However, he will not be immobilized nor will he be transparent. The boss will move toward the player and appear as if he is unaffected, but his attacks will have no effect.

    So what is happening in this case? All mobs have an inherent level of mez protection (minions = 1 pt, lieutenants = 2 pts, and bosses =3 pts). The magnitude of Dimension Shift's intangibility and immobilize are only 3 and, like the standard single-target hold, cannot overcome boss level mez protection. Why then is he still unable to affect the player?

    I purposed that Intangibility is not a single effect in itself, but a combination of three effects: Affecting-Only Self, Untouchable, and a third effect that removes the collusion detection box. The problem is that only the third portion is following the rules of mez protection. The first two are affecting the target any time that Dimension Shift lands. I have even tested against GM's and found that they always enter a period of being unaffected and unable to affect others. However, they are not immobilized nor do they have their collusion detection removed. The problem grows more complicated beyond this. The portions of Dimension Shift that seem to obey the standard behaviour for mezzes are oddly affected by level scaling. Rather than the duration of the effect scaling with level differences, it seems that the magnitude is scaling!

    Taking the example of the boss, lieutenant, and minion but reducing them a level will result in all the mobs being immobilized, intangible, and only affected by themselves and able to affect themselves. Why? The effectiveness against -1 enemies is multiplied by 1.1. So the magnitude on the boss that was previously mobile and retained his detection box is now effectively 3.3, enough to overcome boss level mez protection.

    Furthering the confusion is that fact that Dimension Shift can be slotted for Intangibility magnitude.

    I predicted the level at which an unslotted Dimension Shift would stop affecting minions and lieutenants with the transparent effect and hit box detection in just the same way as the boss in the first example. You can see those predictions in this post.

    I would be eternally grateful if someone more in the know and better with numbers would confirm these tests. So far, no one has had enough interest to attempt it for themselves.

    Also, apologies for the derailment. I just hate this power soooo very much.
  7. ketch

    Animate Stone

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Obscure Blade View Post
    Interesting. I do recall people talking about how the CK would hit Rocky with Psi attacks and nothing but zeros would pop up. I wonder if Rocky was changed at some point, or were they just wrong?
    Unless it was a change instated long, long ago then I'm going with them being wrong. My earth/storm was one of my earliest trollers and I remember throwing him at the Clockwork King to tank; he did alright, but he definitely wasn't unscathed.
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Premonitions View Post
    Used to be?
    BA-Zing!
    Yeah, the hollows has its own hospital now.

    I'd like second Mercy as a fun place for Ninja Run.
  9. Quote:
    Originally Posted by PsyFox View Post
    I don't know if anyone knows the answer to this, but I was wondering: Any new costume pieces to go with the Santa hat, boots and gloves? I'm crossing my fingers for a fur-trimmed cape and/or hood ...
    No new costume parts. A new emote though, Throwsnowflakes. It's pretty.
  10. If you bind keys for target closest, target next, target previous, and target furthest you should be able to target most things fairly quickly without hassle. I like to use Tab, Numpad +, Numpad 0, and Numpad Enter respectively. The only time I have to mouse around is for placeable powers or when there are unusual amounts of enemies like Rikti Raids or some parts of the ITF.
  11. I read Floorshow and immediately thought about selling cars and furniture. I guess that's a show floor though.
  12. ketch

    Ice/Rad for PvE

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by GrandSpleenPART2 View Post
    I've got an ice/rad that I'm building at the moment. He's my first controller, so I feel pretty awkward as I'm trying to get accustomed to it. I'm at 27 and don't have AA yet, as I've heard it's lackluster until you can get it slotted. I'll probably take it next level.

    Without AA, my basic control pattern is to throw down Ice Slick at the start of a battle, apply a hold and then choose an anchor or anchors for RI and EF. Then Shiver (maybe before the Rad powers, depending on how well the mobs are slipping on the ice -- if I've got flying enemies like CoT spirits who don't slip, I'll Shiver right away). I've got Glacier on standby for emergency situations, or just for tough groups.

    I'm planning to skip CC, mostly for endurance reasons. I could be persuaded otherwise, but I haven't heard such great things about it.

    I also took the single-target immob for -fly and for a little extra damage, but I see myself speccing out of it later.

    Right now, with RI and EF mildly slotted for endurance, and with stamina 3-slotted, I am feeling the burn on my endurance while AM is down. When it's up, everything is groovy.

    Also, I am thinking I'll skip Lingering Radiation, because I'm not sure I can make the enemies go much slower than they'll already be going with Shiver+AA+residual cold effects from my holds and other powers. Also, I am level-pacted with a /storm controller who's doing a lot of slowdown from his powers, too, so I think LR would just be overkill.
    While I do use LR for the slows on an Ice/Rad, any other time I play /rad I take it for the -regen. It's just a nice little topper in some cases.

    Also, I have a preference for CC, but it is a skippable power depending on play-style. What really changed the power for me (and renewed life for my ice/rad) was the Lockdown: +2 Magnitude proc. It makes the power so much more effective I would dare say that its like having a second CC.
  13. ketch

    Thanks Virtue

    Thanks to the good folks of virtue, I finally got the last Master badge with the Master of the Statesman task force. Thanks to CienFuegos and all the others (sorry, I didn't note names). It's greatly appreciated.
  14. ketch

    Ice/Rad for PvE

    I have an ice/rad/psi with what I consider a very odd build.

    I couldn't resist the AA/CC/WoC combo, though I wanged its effectiveness as control by loading them all with damage procs (3 in AA, 2 in CC, and 5 in Woc). It's a dumb way to go about things, but I found it amusing. It's a joy to see some mobs simply melt when they get close to you. However, you also have the inverse when procs just don't ever seem to land.

    In terms of control and team safety it's still pretty effective suprisingly. Stacking slows from AA, Shiver, LR, and Psi-Tornado, there is plenty of -recharge in both melee and at range. Throw RI and EF on there and the enemies find a hard time hitting when their powers recharge. A little Ice Slick now and then and AA + CC for works pretty well even when not slotted for max durations.

    Particulary, I've found it as a good build for running ITF's where the mobs tend to ignore traditional controls anyway. It's definitely not what I expected when I rolled up an Ice/rad, but it's been a pleasant surprise.
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Deebs View Post
    whats a weeaboo ?

    Did somebody say weeaboo?
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome View Post
    Now with the zone cap many don't bother trying anymore... and that same zone cap causes problems since you need specific AT combinations, or at least the earlier strategies did.
    I don't understand where people are picking up this notion. I see all AT's welcomed at Hami raids. Somethings are always favored, but I haven't seen a raid where they say "We don't have X, so we'll call the whole thing off."

    I know Virtue has pulled off a raid with somewhere around 30 people before as well. I'm sure with some planning some lower population servers would be able to pull it off. You might have to nit-pick a little bit at what AT's to bring though.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Redlynne View Post
    You make it sound as if such a thing were difficult to do
    Not difficult at all, just ugh.

    First, it doesn't resolve Propel's main problem, its long activation. The complaint that I see most often about propel is that it has landed after the enemy has been defeated. If it was standardized with other snipes it would mean an increasing the cast time to 4+ seconds, escalating the problem.

    Additionally, this butts up against the problem that Dominator's find with their snipes. Where and when do you use a snipe? The vast majority of the time you will be better off opening with an AoE control. After the mob is locked down? Until Wormhole, Gravity lacks an every spawn control and even then the radius is often too small to deal with an entire spawn on an 8-person team. As part of an attack chain? I'd rather re-apply crush for the reliability or even lift for a bit of soft control.

    Also, when does it become a better option (or even an equal option) to applying more control, debuffing the enemy, or buffing your allies? For dominators, with the choice of control or damage, there may be a place for snipes but controllers would almost always have a better option in play.

    Outside of the utility of having an IO mule for a 7.5% recharge bonus, I see no reason to have a snipe in a control set.
  18. How about a look at Gravity a la Arcana?
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Redlynne View Post
    I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Propel would be a better power if it was converted into a Snipe attack.

    Think about it.
    The animation is *already* almost as long as a snipe attack.

    Propel
    Cast Time: 3.5 seconds
    Recharge: 8 seconds
    Range: 60 ft
    Endurance: 9.36
    Damage: 1.96 multiplier

    Snipe (Defenders and Blasters)
    Cast Time: 4.33 seconds (3 second Interrupt)
    Recharge: 12 seconds
    Range: 150 ft
    Endurance: 14.352
    Damage: 2.76 multiplier

    Such a *simple* change would make Propel a FAR more useful power. And it's not like you'd need to remove IO sets from it by making such a change, since Castle would only need to permit Propel to accept Sniper Sets in addition to the ones it already takes.

    S imple.
    E asy.
    E ffective.

    Not even being contemplated.
    You would need to add an interrupt time making it more difficult to contribute damage on the team than it already is. Even solo it would be taking a hit. Unless you planned on letting it bend the rules by circumventing an interrupt period.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fire Kin Master View Post
    KnockBack by 4% which i gave up for DMG!!
    Knockback protection doesn't come in percentages. That's points of protection. Four points essentially protects you from a magnitude 4 knockback. Battle Maiden's minions use crossbow which contains a good bit of knockback (in addition to a number of powers that include knockdown) which will occasionally stack enough to overcome that amount of protection. I find 4 points enough for most things, but I can see how one would want additional -kb for that particular situation.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dispari View Post
    I'm not arguing that mag 100 holds aren't cheap. What I'm saying is, what else could he possibly do to be a challenge to 20+ players? Even if he does totally outrageous damage, it's almost a given that a team of 20 people would have RES and DEF buffs, reducing incoming damage to maybe 5% of its intended value. If he autohits, that's cheap and unfair to DEF users. If he does damage that's unresistable, that's cheap and unfair to RES users.

    What would you suggest he did to make it actually hard and not just fake difficulty?
    I would start looking at damage, reistances, and debuff resistances that scale per person in zone. I don't know if that's possible, but it seems like it should be considering powers like Rise to the Challenge. Still, that essentially creates a big bag of hit points...

    Another aspect I would look at is the number of enemies present. I imagine it's more difficult to adjust the difficulty of a single creature when it could face anywhere from 4 to 40+ players. (Thinking of which, do we know what the player cap is for the Winter Realm?) Spawning more enemies in response to more players seems a bit easier. Of course, you also have to give a justification for the players to not ignore the additional spawns.

    So, here is what I would pitch:
    At the preset intervals Lord Winter summons a batch of snowmen/northern lights/what-have-yous to come running to him. One would spawn for every X number of players in the zone. He would absorb these summons to heal and add to his stats. Players would have to respond by controlling, taunting, or outright destroying the adds before rejoining the Lord Winter fight. This in conjunction with a GM that scales dependent on players in the zone might make for an interesting fight.

    Thinking about this event makes me realize how difficult it must be to develop wide ranging content like this. Scaling for level and scaling for the number of participants while making the event fun and accessible for different team make ups. That's quite a task, and it makes me appreciate their work a bit more.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by ArcticFahx View Post

    2) Dimension Shift's usefulness doesn't occur in early levels. Quite frankly, despite its disuse, I can't get behind the idea of heavily changing it or replacing it, though, because it is really the best flavor-power for Grav. To increase its usefulness, perhaps lock its duration, while keeping it enhanceable for intangibility magnitude. Increase the immobilize magnitude to 10 or so, high enough to ensure it locks anyone it hits in place. Don't make it auto-hit, but give it an accuracy bonus.
    You realize that the duration is locked in? It doesn't scale for resistance, rank, or mob level. What does scale, oddly, is the magnitude of intangibility and the immobilize. Slotting for increased magnitude only allows you to more consistently remove the hit detection box from enemies. However, anything (and I do mean anything including GM's) hit with Dimension Shift will be unable to affect others or be affected for the next 30 seconds.

    Here are the links to two previous threads where I posted while testing Dim. Shift: Linky 1 and Linky 2. At the end of the second, I reached a point where I could predict what would be immobilized and/or "phased" by Dimensions Shift. Unfortunately, no one else has ever bothered to confirm the testing.
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lord Mayhem View Post
    Thanks for the info. Although I don't like a lack of closure/resolution, I can handle it if the ending is done well (e.g. Angel's TV ending I was happy with, but The Sopranos left me feeling empty even though I knew why the writer ended it that way - sorry I don't have anime examples). Having an ending forced by budget constraints doesn't sound hopeful though, especially if it involved a change in the visuals in any way (it always bugs me when comics change artists mid-arc) - I may wait for the remake.
    The series' end is pretty sketchy and it doesn't sound like it would satisfy you. However, there was a good bit of material added afterward with Death and Rebirth and the End of Evangelion and then revised into the Revival of Evangelion. It seems like Anno has really struggled to bring his vision to fulfillment, but I think he may succeed with Rebuild.

    Also, I've got to add that I disagree with Dark One's assessment of Shinji. I found him to be a deeply flawed character whose flaws prevented him from beginning to right himself.
  24. Very interesting reading. I wish I could have seen the old style Hami raid just for the sake of seeing it.

    I've done the new one a few times though I'm not a regular raider. I was part of an evacless raid on Virtue this week, which I found to be an exciting twist. We had to pull out of the goo when our buffs/debuffs started to wear off.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Grae Knight View Post
    I miss the old Hami Raids. It was alot easier to have a Hamidon Raid for your super group since you do not need as many specific power sets. You could have one tanker, a few empaths and a team of Illusion controllers and you were good to go.
    Of all the comments so far, this one stuck out a bit. So you don't need specific power sets, yet these are the ones needed? It seems like the new raid is more open to variation.
  25. I would go with a fire/rad then tint everything to your liking. You'll be able to weaken and bind enemies with your "spells" and summon three little beasties to your aid. It can be quite witchy if you want it to be.