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Exocor

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  1. Sorry, maybe I wasn't quite clear. I was talking about people that are able to clear other Veteran Mode Operations not being able to progress past Revan or M&B VM in most cases.
  2. So, it has probably been brought up in the past, but after the recent Exploit making some Master Mode Operations accessible on the live servers, I would like to bring it up again: Eternity Vault, Karragas Palace, Ravagers, Temple of Sacrifice and the R4 Anomaly all lack a dedicated Master Mode right now. The recent exploit (that I have not taken part in) has shown us that there are some interesting mechanics in those Master Modes that do not appear in the current Veteran Mode - so some work has at least been done in the past. I am not asking for full fledge, mechanically challenging encounters - I personally don't really like boss fights where you have to click lots of items, buttons and such things, even though I can enjoy them. However, after the recent Gear-Upgrade to 344 (and even from the raise to 340 from 330), most encounters have become not really challenging without those kinds of mechanics. The top groups can 7-man those raids, and even for the groups that defeated the most challenging Master Modes - Dxun and Gods from the Machine - 7manning the Old, (we call them Legacy-NiM) wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. What I am asking for is, not to include more new mechanics to those old Veteran Mode (to be MM) Operations - a complete rework would probably take resources you are not willing to invest right now. Instead I'm asking for you to simply upscale those encounters in a dedicated Master Mode when it comes to DPS and Heal-Checks - the release-version of Revan Veteran Mode was much more challenging than today, where you can kill the Machine Core Burn with two DPS alive - you don't even need Healers, if those DPS are Annihilation Marauders. Making those challenges tough for the average Master Mode Operation-player would go a long way in providing us with content for the forseeable future. And not only that, it would also enable you to make Ravagers and Temple of Sacrifice more accessible in the Veteran Mode - currenty, Master&Blaster and Revan are serious roadblocks that cannot be killed by a group that was able to beat the Legacy-NiM Veteran Modes such as Dread Fortress, Dread Palace, Terror from Beyond, Scum and Villain, Karragas Palace or Eternity Vault. I would even go so far and argue that Master&Blaster Veteran Mode are, mechanically, harder than many Master Mode encounters right now. So not only would a Master Mode (and thus indirectly an easier Veteran Mode) provide content for the highest-level raiders, but also for the average not-solo player that's currently pretty much only doing Karragas Palace, Eternity Vault and maybe another Veteran Mode Operation once in a blue moon.
  3. I agree. We have some groups that we're friends with that we passed a lockout over in the past and vice versa. I'm not arguing that it shouldn't be fixed, but if it isn't it's not the end of the world.
  4. On second thought, this actually creates an issue for us, as we're currently "progging" Gods 16m with our main group plus guests. When we get to the later stages the plan is to prepare the lockout in our 8m raids and then take it from the boss we left off in the previous 16m raid. Se we definitely have to be very careful about this. But from what I hear, changing toons for everyone else but the Operations Leader shoudl still be entirely possible. So prog groups should not have a problem as long as they have a dedicated ops lead that stays in the group for the rest of the day. That's annoying, but workable and shouldn't cause an immediate fallout among our mainraid members. So I'd still say, from my point of view, this is "not that big of a deal".
  5. So, solution for now: If you attempt a Timer, have Ops Lead on somebody who stays in the entire time. We're doing it out of convenience in our Gods Timers anyway, because there is a lot of changing characters still and we don't want the lead to pass onto people that don't notice it, resulting in 5 people not having any assistance lead and the rest not noticing that they're the only ones that can move the relogged people into the right spot in the ops frame or mark bosses appropriately. Passing lockouts however should still be possible, if the Ops Leader has the lockout and stays in the group, no? Obviously farming the same lockout only works 8 times, after that you run out of people with the lockout. Either way, there are workarounds if you know what to do.
  6. Similar issue. Launcher (via steam) taking forever to login, when it finally does and the game launches, the server list is empty.
  7. I think first three boss encounters are fine. They're maybe a bit above the usual story mode operations, but that's mainly due to the mechanics not really well known yet. Lady Dominique is a different thing. I pretty much only killed it in a pug group once - when I switched on Tank and basically tanked everything in burn phase on the tip of the corner, with three vengance juggs smashing away. All other kills were with a group that was progging VM or straight up had the boss down in VM. Recursive Blast is just too punishing for story mode, and it doesn't help that being kicked into the central core is an instant death - Storymode shouldn't have instant-death mechanics. If it was up to me, I would either just remove Recursive from Story Mode or nerf it down to a point that you can pretty much ignore it. Either that, or remove the add-spawns in burn - those are the major obstacle that prevent people from concentrating on the recursive mechanic.
  8. So I have tested the changes to the AP/Tactics Tactical. Let's first get the DPS parse values on 10m dummy for other Melee DPS Burst classes. I'm using the tenth best parse in order to get a sample that is executed well, but also not just based on sheer crit luck. Carnage: 31218 Deception: 30783 Concealment: 30812 Rage: 32294 Vengeance: 31876 Considering that AP/Tactics can get up to 15m range for their core rotational abilities, I'd also like to include ranged DPS classes in that consideration: Arsenal: 28369 Marskman: 27611 Lightning: 28754 Current AP/Tactics 10th place parse is 28677. I did a very similar parse of 28698 very recently in live state. It still took me a lot of tries to get that high, so we're already in crit luck territory. I then did one parse on PTS, doing 29769 DPS with current PTS values. With the new tactical, of course after the recent changes. This was completely cold, first try and I already outparsed myself by about 1000 DPS. Putting as much time into it as I did with my live server parse, I would probably be able to squeeze 500 DPS more out of it. That would put as at about 30200 DPS. With that number we would still be below any other Melee Burst class (600 DPS below Deception and Concealment), but also way above any ranged DPS class (about 1500 DPS above Lightning). I think that we are at a good spot with that. AP is still a Melee class and should perform better as Lightning, while at the same time it is much more dynamic than all other Melee Specs, including even Pyrotech (10th place 31117 DPS, ~900 DPS more than my hypothetical AP parse), so it should obviously parse below those. So I also agree with the balance team that the previous buff was a bit too much and the changes made is putting AP/Tactics into a better place overall. I'd also like to defend the Devs intentions of buffing the class in general: AP is currently in a difficult spot in PvE. In most PvE encounters where you need a Powertech to play mechanics (sonic rebounder and hydraulic overrides), you would take a Pyrotech these days. Even for Ignite Core in Scyva Master Mode, or for Turrets in Nahut Master Mode you take a Pyro because it's doing more or at least equal burst damage under Explosive Fuel in the time window that you need to do that damage compared to AP, while also doing more sustained damage in the overall boss fight and additionally coming with more survivability (Kolto Damage Reduction and Cooldown Reduction). This change will put AP back on the table and provides a viable alternative for people like me who only reluctantly rerolled to Pyrotech, but enjoy AP more in general. So this particular change gets a thumbs up from my side.
  9. Are those changes on PTS already? I'm already seeing the updated text, both in the ability tree and in the description of the tactical.
  10. A while back, they changed it that you cannot travel to the stronghold while moving. So in that infinite falling situation, a stronghold won't do you any good. Being invited to one might help though.
  11. There is a more simple solution: Right now, Credits are coming with the mail anyway. You can only withdraw as many credits as the cap allows from the mail. Everything else remains, until you free up your inventory (by putting it into the legacy cargo hold for example). I believe it might even work that way right now.
  12. I've been thinking about this from a pure PvE perspective. And Juggs just need some kind of movement-speed-on-demand in order to become viable for endgame content. For example, on Nahut NiM, the class- and DCD-framework would fit the boss very well - but it's really awkward to play the mechanics properly due to not really having a movement speed ability - a jump to a location of your choosing withing 30 meters would be very helpful - and that's not just for that Boss, but for most of the harder endgame encounters.
  13. You all forgot the oneshotting of bosses like Calphayus, Tyrans, Kephess-Walker, Ciphas and the Writhing Horror we got back in the day? Uncapped Reflect is a really bad idea. Jugg Tank is overall pretty good right now. There are only two things I would change: 1. Give us both, Reflect and Mad Dash at the same time. 2. Give us some kind of fast mobility option that doesn't require an enemy or allied target at where we want to go. My suggestion: Change Intercede into an "AoE"-type ability that you can place in an area, making you jump to that area and giving the Intercede-effect to all allies in that area.
  14. Like many classes, you obviously don't just spam your one AoE skill - in case of Deception, you would replace Voltaic Slash with Lacerate, if there is more than one enemy. However, I can see an argument for deception to teleport to one enemy after another and discharging them out of their misery - the reset on that ability is putting the class in quite a unique position to do that. However, even in this situation you might even consider using the AoE tactical, making Discharge arc to multiple targets. I'm pretty sure doing a Discharge arcing to 4 or 5 targets every 4 seconds for 30 seconds is a pretty powerful AoE. Generally, the introduction of Tacticals have brought many classes new AoE-options. Some are worth taking it, some are not. I don't accept "This class is not doing any AoE-damage" as an excuse for doing stupid things.
  15. "Let me tell you that you are not supposed to write what you have been writing here, because this topic has nothing to do with it. But after I do that, I'd like to have the last word in." What kind of conversation style is that? If we're off-topic, a mod can show up and tell us. Tanking and DPSing cannot and should not be insular topics. They are intertwined. Earlier it was brought up that I was seeing this from the perspective of having a bad tank and trying to compensate. Quite the opposite: I'm saying what optimal tanking should look like and how DPS should act in that case. Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge fan of being able to compensate the mistakes of others, but do we really want to adapt sub-optimal play because of others? Because that's what single target DPSing one enemy at a time is. On high level content, no one would ever have the idea of doing something like that. Every target has to fall - so doing "boss"-damage, while spreading/fluffing/AoEing the rest is the go-to-alternative. Deception and Arsenal both have AoE-abilitites that work in a circle - Lacerate for the Deception Sin and Death from Above and that other thingy for Arsenal. The AoE-Tactical for Arsenal is quite interesting too - the same goes for Deception. Saying those classes don't have decent AoE reveals your lacking knowledge about those classes. On that we can agree. But that wasn't my point of critizism. I guess here we have to agree to disagree. In 90% of situations spamming blindly AoE into a group, so that it hits the most targets, works. Healers in flashpoints do not have the capacity to heal up their group against two DPS doing AoE and a Tank. But they do sometimes have the capacity to heal themselves up against a half-assed single target attack by one DPS, and a tank failing around by hitting each target once, as OP suggested. OP said that DPS can take aggro of some mobs for a short period of time. That's right. So move in so enemies you pull aggro from don't run after you, then place your AoE so it hits everything. Many classes can "prepare" their AoE while moving in (dots and precasts). If you want, you can place a well-timed interrupt on a healing enemy - off GCD by the way, so you don't lose damage - but most of the time it shouldn't matter. I said move - not pull. You can force push mobs with a Jugg. Pushing adds is a form of moving and, no, you don't push a target somewhere where it doesn't help. It's about pushing targets that are "outsid" of the AoE area into it. You have legs as a Tank. You can move to the target, position yourself in a way that the target is between you and the center of the AoE and then push it in. This is, by the way, also a good advice for DPS. Push enemy targets into a position where they can die faster. It's not always helpful, and it's not always necessary, but it helps sometimes. That's why were here, no? To give advice that is generally helpful. Obviously not every solution applies in every situation. I imagine people reading this are smart enough to understand that. I think you're underestimating the players in this game. Most of them have the desire, if not to learn what they're doing and why they're paying more then ten bucks a month for a subscription, at least to finish the content they're doing fast and successfull. That's why corner pulls have been established for example - even though more than 90% of them don't really bring you any gain. Nevertheless, people will do something, find out it's problematic and then don't do it. That's why Tanks should lead by example and play optimally, so the DPS can learn good gameplay naturally, instead of trying to teach them some arbitrary kill order using single target abilitites, while there are five mobs waiting to be bombed around the tank. So, you criticized me for only handing out bits of information. Here is my, very short, guide for DPS: 1. Follow your tank. Like it or not, you can't play against the tank. If he wants to pull mobs around the corner, better let him do that. 2. The best way to kill mobs is to kill mobs: Use your AoE abilitites to hit as many mobs at the same time as possible. That often leads to the most DPS and the fastest time to kill the mobs. 3. If you play a ranged class, still move into melee range. Otherwise mobs will come running towards you if you lay down your AoE abilities. 4. If there is a healer in the enemy group, use a well-timed interrupt to interrupt his casts or - if tanks and healers didn't do it already - use a stun. Interrupts are preferred, as they can be used off-GCD and don't impair your ability do Damage. 5. In boss fights, things work a bit different. If you switch target while the main boss is still taking damage, make sure you do a soft switch - keep for example Dots running on the boss and, if your new target is close enough, prioritize splash damage. At the end of the day, the boss needs to die. 6. And lastly, it goes without saying, don't pre-pull a group of enemies or let alone a boss unless you have sufficient DCD's to survive it until the tank can use his AoE taunt or most enemies are dead. And please, next time someone wants to write a guide, don't start it with "I actually never play DPS". The intention might be good, but if you have no clue what to do, it won't help other people either.
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