Goodhumorboy

I have run numerous tests on many different mobs and the highest debuff that you can get is -72 from the mobs deflect.  If you stack a lvl 9 Chim and a popper, you only get a -72 debuff.  If you put a lvl 8 CLP debuff and a grav link, you can only get to -72 debuff.  A lvl 9 Salamander and grav link can only get you a -72 debuff.    etc....   If the mob starts with a +20 deflect, you can only get the mob to an equivalent of a -52 debuff because of this -72 debuff cap.   Just for you info, the mobs are not limited to a 72 deflect because some are still resistant to the damage even with a full -72 debuff combo.

This has nothing to do with an Explosive debuffing ml.  This is all about making it possible for the explore classes to get debuffs in that are better than the current setup for the lag reduction that explosive, imapact and energy can offer.  Does it make sense that a single lvl 9 debuff can allow that damage type (chem) to out DPS another damage type that is doubled or tripple debuffed (impact, explosive, energy) by numerous classes?   No matter what you do, there is a 72 debuff limit on all debuffs.  The raid mobs on average are more resistant to impact, explosive and plasma than chemical.  Chemical just happens to lag things worst than the other damage types.  One good way to do this would be to move the chilli popper debuff out of the 72 cap calculation and allowing it to stack on the other debuffs past the 72 limit.   I never said that the PS or JE are not effective raid toons.  I think the PS is an equally good impact or explosive debuffer compared to the TS.  They have better shields and have some other nice toys.

I have worked with the public for the last few months in refining our raid methods.  Chemical was the standard ammo type at the raids because it worked and even a lvl 8 Basilisk of a PW could get the job done.  The chem ammo however causes a lot of lag and frustration.  This motivated me to look for alternate methods.  I have performed experiments at the troller raid and will post the results later when I gather more data from the other raids.   The first experiment was to use ALL EMP ammo at the GOBB with an all Terran group and a PW heavy group for the adds at the end.  It was a huge success.  The lag was greatly reduced because EMP hits all at once and does not make as much lag as chem.   One of the biggest changes that we implemented recently was the use of impact ammo at the DT raids while using the Terran Scout as the target selector/debuffer.  I had less than satisfying results with the Progen Sentinel in regards to impact debuffing due to the lvl 5 gravity link bug, and the limited debuff that a Skirmish shield or Cassel's Wither can give.   Using Impact, energy and explosive seems to create a lot less lag than chem or plasma.   Here is a list of ideas that I think would make the explore classes more relevant.   1) Remove the 72 debuff cap of Impact, energy and Explosive debuffing.  This would allow the full debuff of the lvl 9 toys, popper, and gravity link to stack.   2) Make an Impact Debuffer device that is PS only and higher than 39.9.  One idea is to have a "Modified Cassel's Wither" that is refined from the mission reward and something else.  It would be a lvl 9 device with an Impact debuffer of -61.2, PL range buff, and a -15 explosive debuff similar to what the popper gives for the other ammo types.  This would make the PS valuable at the raids for everyone.   3) Make the JE Contemplation skill available in the game.   I think many of the lag problems could be fixed with using the other ammo types besides chem.  It would also require the explore classes to be used at the raids for the better debuffs.

I am going to say 9 minutes and 29 seconds.     My toon's name is Mongothepawn.

I did the build ammo mission for both of my Max lvl Terran Scouts.  They had ALL of their skills maxed.  I decided to call their Beam Weapon skill forward to get the needed skill points for the build ammo.  I should have had 7 skill points left over after calling my lvl 8 beam skill forward.  Instead I did not get all of the skill points back.  I had to call my max hacking back to finish off the build ammo skill.   I think this bug occurs when you call multiple toons forward at the same time like I was doing to my TS toons.

I have been very happy with the current setup of rotating the raids around.  What is discussed at these meetings?  The current setup works well and requires very little change at this point IMHO.

I think that this is a bad idea.  There are too many opportunities for making very BIG mistakes if you allowed items to be sold to a vendor from the vault.  Forcing us to move items to the cargo hold to sell them adds an extra layer of protection from making a big mistake.

How are these raids triggered?  I accidentally triggered something a few days ago and don't know how I did it.  I got through about 6 waves before the spawns stopped and the only good loot was a Solar Sail 8.  Are these raids like the Mordana raids where you kill a mob and it just spawns?

The Zeke raid was triggered.  We are talking about the raid inside DT that drops the Dung Flinger.

Lets restart the server and see if that will fix the issue.

I guess my HU75 will have to wait on my baby PW.  

I am a public raider and I like the system that we have now.  It is so much better than what we had just a year ago.  I have the opportunity to raid if I happen to be on when the public raid is forming.  I would rather leave the current agreement alone because it works and is a lot more functional than having all of us fight over the raids.   The new raid in DT, if there is going to be one, will attract lots of attention.  I have no say in how the agreement works, but I would like to suggest that we take it on as a server.  Have everyone bring their best toon out and make 3-4 groups from the different guilds.  I have no idea what is coming up but we will all have to learn which damage type is best and formulate raid strategies.  Having the big three and the public work together on it would be a good thing for us all for learning the new raid.  Once the first week of this raid is down, we could then spin it off to the "off" week people. 

The TS could use some serious loving from the Devs.  The TS is a class that is limited to lvl 8 shields but does not have the option to cloak.  The afterburn skill does have some attack avoidance in there but it is limited to 5%.  I think that the TS should either have a massive HDC skill that is as good as the PW or a stronger buff for damage avoidance.  If you think about it a second, these TS are supposed to be fast and maneuverable which would give them the ability to avoid the damage in the first place.  They are by far the fastest class in the game.   Currently the TS is my favorite explorer class but fighting with them in a raid is not easy.  As soon as they get agro, they are dead.  The Jennies have the cloak option to get rid of agro and the other classes have lvl 9 shields to take more of a beating.   Could we give up the build engine skill and make a new passive skill called "Damage Avoidance" that would allow you to avoid 50% of the incoming damage?  I think this would be a good compromise between the lvl 8 only shields and lack of cloak.

Ouch, I had three clients up on two computers and it stopped responding.  I typed something in chat hoping to see something pop up in the chat window but it was down and I was flying a ship in a zombie client.

The Terran Scout is by far my favorite explorer class.  They are fast with 4 weapons and 5 devices.  I like to think of them like pseudo Terran Enforcers.  The one skill I wish a Scout would get is rally.  The TS was born out of the ranks of the TE and share many of the same skills.  I would give up build devices for rally in a heart beat.

Try a new class called the Terran Scout.

The Update that was released on September 1, 2014 nerfed the Foedius Vox Redivous reactor. It no longer has the 89.9 recharge rate that is used to have.  It was change to 62.9 U/S.  While this recharge rate is still higher than any lvl 8 reactor that a terran could use, it no longer has the ability to keep up with high rates of weapons turbo.  I would now suggest a Shooting Star as the best reactor for a terran.  The Supernova 8 is very good and easy to obtain.  Instead of using the AWSC and the lvl 6 Agrippa reactor, I am using the Martyr's Heart and lvl 8 Shooting Star.     I am greatly disappointed by the changes to this interesting reactor.  It only had 100 cap and thus was nerfed enough to start with to justify the original high recharge rate.  Using the Agrippa reactor setup burned up a device slot (AWSC) and took away many nice reactor equip buffs (i.e. increased missile range of the SN8).  Is there any way that this can be revisited and changed back to the way it was? 

I have a special place in my heart for terrans.  I run two TEs and the setup that I use it 1 wrath, 1 Dragon rage (for range boost), 1 castor and the rest are Biles.  I will sometimes take the castor out and run a bile in it's place.   Devices:  I run a Sai'li's Circle for HDC. Good Fortune for Critical Targeting, AWSC for my reactor cap, and a Seal Of the Dragon   Engine:  I will use the TA9 if I leave my Dragon Rage at home or the Intent Engine for when I have my DR.   Shield.  Black Power 9 on most occasions or a lvl 9 Bastion for when HDC and an extra device slot is needed.   Reactor:  This is the most important thing to talk about.  I run both my TE at 99% turbo.  This high turbo will eat up all but one reactor.  The only reactor that can keep up with out the use of a Martyr's Heart would be the Agrippa Level 6 Foedius Vox Redivous reactor.  This reactor has a base recharge of 90 u/s which acts more like a lvl 9 reactor.  It also have a very small cap which requires to use of a reactor cap boosting item (AWSC).  Make sure you have a spare normal reactor handy for buffing up and then use the lvl 6 reactor for combat.  This reactor/device combo gives me about 1100 reactor cap with a recharge of 120 u/s using the 30% boost buff.  You can shoot at max turbo and use your skills without fear of running out of power.  You can even spam max bio or hacking skills as long as you throttle back your shooting rate.

Weapons:  Smiter Wrath, Biles and mix in a Hellbore if needed.   Shield:  Bastion Shield for the 150% HDC   Reactor: LVL 6 Foedius Vox Redivus for insane recharge rate of 90 u/s   Engine: LVL 9 Terran Advantage   Device:  Profiler 8 for PSI debuff and Shield Recharge, Advanced Weapons System Controller for the Reactor Cap, NOS, Good Fortune Coin, Black Soul 8   The Reactor power is never an issue for me if I am buffed with 30% recharge.  With a base of 90 u/s and all the buffs, the reactor is fully charged from 0 in only a few seconds.

I understand why you want to get out of this raid business.  At least come out and help take the raids down acting as only a player.  We are always in need of bodies.  Even if you don't want any loot, you can at least have fun in the raid.  You don't even have to bring nice gear out.  If you show up in some old "Gate Raid" gear and PM items, that would be fine by me.  I know people are upset at losing quality on their items but I am kind of proud of my dented up gear because it is a memory of past battles that I have fought in.

RD Base Starts next week.  I will try and organize a Raid on Monday or Wednesday.  If I organize the raid, I will make it know well ahead of time in the General channel like I did last week for the Controller.  I was the only Epic guy there because I did not allow the lack of Epic people online enter into my decision to organize the raid.  I am trying to show by example that these raids are public.  I will also be trying to organize raids later in the day to allow our friends in the southern hemisphere a chance to raid.  I think the thing causing the most friction is the balance between the need to take down the raids and getting lots of people involved.  I like raiding and the public week is a step in the right direction.  Even with all the problems that we have had, I think we are all better off for it.  The public raids keep us from stepping on each other's toes.   I know that some are upset by multi-boxing but I am finding it hard to find enough public people to fill three groups.  I am looking at my notes and see 6 people on my loot list from the last controller that I ran (Thursday of last week).   Many of those people had two toons there.  They are all as far as I know "public" people.  This raid was more difficult than it had to be because we ran with 2 groups instead of the three that I would prefer to have.  The public was given ample notifications the previous day and in the run up to the raid in the general channel.  I would prefer to run only 1 toon because it makes my life easier but this is a necessary evil until more people come out to raid.   To the public raiders reading this: RD base is next week.  I will try and organize something on Monday or Wednesday.  For the RD base you will need Chem for progens, EMP, Explosive or chem for terrans, and EMP/Energy for Jennies.  The most important thing about this raid is ABSOLUTELY NOT using any area effect attacks.  This would be any attack skill that has a yellow icon.  The healers need to bring raid gear unless they don't mind getting dents in their nice stuff.  The TT will get pounded hard.  The best thing I have found to do is hull patch and hope that the Gorilla PW in your group can beat their chest hard enough to draw agro.   Loot at the RD Base:  Level 8 Pride Device (very nice), Hellbores, Tractor Repulsor, Singularity Mortar, and tons of Blacksun devices.  This raid drops some very nice items!

I want to keep the public thing going and work out the issues that we have been experiencing.  I Lead a Controller Raid and advertised well in advance of the raid.  I actually caught the trigger up at 5 am but held off until the noon time as advertised.  I will try to keep the public channels up to date on expected spawn times.  Maybe we can make a new thread and post the times that the last raid was completed along with an expected respawn time.   There is a delicate balance between the need to take the raids down so we are not wasting triggers and taking them down too quickly.  I think another solution could be that the trigger will be taken down at the same time on designated days (i.e. Monday morning, Wednesday noon and Friday Night).  There really is no way to enforce this plan but it would alleviate many of these new issues.  

Controller is up in the next 24 hours.  I want as many public people to show up.  The last one was not very good because we only receive a few responses.  I will say that a public guy won the best item that dropped at the raid ( Drone Energy Amplifier).  Keep an eye out for the trigger and put it in General.

The real challenge will be when the Non-Trade items go up for randoms next week.  There are many drops at the Controller that are non-trade and race specific.  We need to get those details hammered out soon.   On another note, I like how we did GOBB this week.  I organized the first one, Daath organized the 2nd one and Gizardpuke organized the third one.  It was not dominated by any one group.  I want to keep this up.  The best way to keep these public raids going strong is for many to both learn how to do them and organize them.  We will always have someone able to step up and take charge when ever the trigger is up.   Despite some of the challenges we had this week, I had a lot of fun.  Next week will be new to me.  I have not participated in a Controller raid for over a decade.  Any input from the other guilds would be nice.  I know plasma works but I also would like to know if explosive would be better because the Controller Raid is full of drones.  I am thinking that Jennies could bring energy, terrans could bring explosive and progen bring the impact.  If the progens grav link and the drones are debuffed for energy and explosive, they might go down quick.  Input/feedback from the "big three" would be appreciated.

The GoBB that I am referring to was the open raid Sunday where the Devs spawn it over and over.  GoBB was back up just a few hours after he was taken down by VGE and he did not require the Waking Nightmare to trigger.  VGE was aware of it and made no objections to us taking it down.  The Devs have been making extra spawning on Sundays.   The RD base raid that we formed started to kill the SDX when we were notified that the other group could not get in the area due to faction.  Now with another server reset, who knows when we will get another shot at it.