I think the melee mosh pit is not great regardless of size, but can see how a large melee DPS might exacerbate the issue
Tanks there are fewer of and I don't find size to be an issue because they'll be heavily focused by healers using either the raid window or the assist command....as opposed to click targeting
I have specifically asked (hopefully politely) some tanks to switch to smaller costume builds and avoid reciprocating gizmo so as not to be super giant in a fight. It is distracting, and honestly, less fun, to tank vs. a cosmic when I cannot actually see my character sandwiched between giants.
OK I must have missed some changes. I haven't practiced with my dog tank in a week or so and I wanted to take adv of the cosmic down time today, so...
I have a very similar build to Cosmic Girl, FWIW though I don't have Mental Storm and I use AoRP so I can dual role Hybrid for pulling and Support for dog control and healing, which was/is the use for this toon on other cosmics.
Anyway, I go up to 50' from Amaguq and hit Ego Placate. And promptly die. Apparently you can no longer use Ego Placate to build Manipulator stacks. I tried it several times - howls immediately each time. The dogs' health bars are full so they are not once-killed though I don't think that made a difference before (but am not sure). Manipulator no longer mentions placate so I am guessing that is a change. It also doesn't stack when the dogs are slept.
OK fine, I can ditch Ego Placate the next time I want to pay for a @$%^ retcon (grumble). I go with Bear's suggestion of just using Ego Sleep at 2 seconds on the timer. Not 3, as I found out. This would be a "precision timing" method. Not for me as eventually one dog wakes up earlier than the others and violates the 1-second window I have.
So I go back to the stun-sleep-stun-sleep method and again, it works fine for a few cycles and then invariably one dog isn't stunned despite all the hold res. stacks being gone - sleep outlasts all the resistance stacks though not by much because I can't stack Manipulator anymore. It didn't move, I didn't move. It simply chose to not be stunned. I like this method the best because it should have the greatest margin for error.
Something I was thinking about -- I *should* be able to charge the TK Maelstrom stun and let go of it whenever all the dogs are either pre-or post-howl if I want to do precision, right? Not that it matters because I don't have a method that is effective yet. Just a thought.
I am thinking the next time I have the funds for another retcon I ditch Ego Placate and take R3 Manipulator since I will not be getting any higher stacks for that and need the extra hold time. My PRE is 360 and I have the Sentry/Sentinel/PRE tree hold buffs so that isn't the issue. Or maybe I just leave the control tanking to others and go back to his original build of healing/CC without the dog tank specifics.
a guy who actually did something for others just because it made their game a little easier. Kudos!
I say that because lately I've been running into a few jerks and this restores my faith a bit. Thanks.
EDIT: I did the same sort of thing about 2 weeks ago since my healer has wings/is usually in the mosh pit and could have been causing the same issue. I didn't have the same theme issues since I just switched to Phoenix Flight for my 2nd TP and she has one costume reserved that is wingless should the need arise.
Oh yeah -- Can we outlaw millennial flight while we're at it? Turning down every setting I know how and this still blinds me. Max camera distance = "seen from Saturn" helps only slightly.
Not sure if it is stated but it is helpful nonetheless...
As much I hate to admit it, avoid using Giant Growth during cosmic fights. It obscures other's field of vision and pushes other melee into boss' attack range. (Especially during Dino fights).
I'm gonna have to retcon because of this one. So much for big theme.... EDIT: Removed Giant Growth. Plus side, I still have my Super Mag.
So I go back to the stun-sleep-stun-sleep method and again, it works fine for a few cycles and then invariably one dog isn't stunned despite all the hold res. stacks being gone - sleep outlasts all the resistance stacks though not by much because I can't stack Manipulator anymore. It didn't move, I didn't move. It simply chose to not be stunned. I like this method the best because it should have the greatest margin for error.
You can still stack Manipulator. I do it with Entangling Mesh. If you want to stay strictly with Telepathic-ish stuff, you can use Confuse powers on the dogs to stack Manipulator.
Regarding their stuns / timing being off, that's a combination of positioning and the stun you're using. I have found that unless the dogs are all pretty much exactly the same distance from me that they will not be stunned at the same time. It took me a bunch of deaths and practicing pulls before I got them to the right positions reliably.
Also, I've noticed that Maelstrom doesn't hit all of the mobs in its range at the same time. It seems to hit the closer ones first. I have a lot more success stunning everything at the same time with Thunderclap....though Cosmic Girl, Phantasma, and others are able to reliably use Maelstrom in their rotations. Probably due to the way dogs are positioned to be clustered around them.
I'm currently not using manipulator at all, just AoPM, Int, Sentinel, Sentry. My tooltip claims 55s sleep though I actually get something like 63s, not sure what that's about.
As far as stuns being different speed, I never noticed because any variance is too small to matter -- I launch a full charge sleep immediately after the stun and because of how hold resistance works it doesn't actually matter if they come out of stun at slightly different times. Also, I only stun once per fight.
It may be worth getting a single target threat wipe to make dog pulls easier, we were having some trouble last night.
Just thought I would mention something. I tried ranking manipulator to 3 and the results were... disappointing. It has this tendency to, after 20 seconds of being at 3 stacks, to drop to no stacks, and then take a while to build back to 3. The timing of when it does this just happens to line up pretty great with right about the time you would be needing to reapply sleep. I guess what I'm saying is don't waste your retcon on doing that o3o
I have switched from Ego Placate to Confuse. You can't spam it to quickly build stacks, but you can use it to maintain your stacks quite handily, and you don't need fully stacked Manipulator at the start of the fight, 8 stacks is mostly a convenience fur the duration of the fight so you don't have to reapply holds as often. Other than switching from Invulnerability to AoRP that's the only thing I changed about my build since the patch and everything still works quite nicely.
I actually don't use TK Malestrom while dog tanking anymore - now I use Ego Storm to control them on the initial pull, and then I use a rotation of Sleep and Mental Storm afterwards. Ego Storm is great because you can use it just a hair earlier than you would have to use TK Malestrom or Thunder Clap which equals just a bite more safety. I also don't like using a Stun between sleeps because it means a good portion of my Sleeps tick down faster due to double stacks of hold resist - with the Sleep/Mental Storm method you can time it so you never have double stacks of hold resist.
I don't get 2 hold stacks on the dogs with Thunderclap unless I stun them while they're still asleep.
However, since Manipulator is still stackable, I am looking into using holds like Grasping Shadows on the Qwyjibo Hearts (or really anything other than Sleep) which will hopefully make the fight a little more error-proof. I'll try it out vs the dogs as well.
Right now, Psionic Accelerator is working pretty well vs. Hearts since you can angle the attack so that it hits 2 of them at once.
You should be getting a stack of hold resist when Ego Sleep ends, and then a stack of hold resist when Thunder Clap ends. Do you have > 15 second stuns? I'm not sure mine are that long, so that's why I use Mental Storm to wait out the stack of hold resist from Sleep.
I no longer bother stacking Manip. With Support Role, Int Primary (w/hold spec), Sentinel spec, and AoPM, I get about 1 minute 15 seconds on my Ego Sleep. Just having Manipulator active is plenty.
Maybe I could go without Manip at all and take Compassion for survivability, but I am concerned some change will require Manip in order to control the dogs at all in the future.
As I said on the build thread the reliability/duration was good with manipulator at R2 so R3 is just for security. I didnt notice manipulator stacks dropping off so I will test it again. My retcon was/is more than this though - I found thunderclap to be much more even results than TK maelstrom and I am switching up the roles/passives/forms of the build too.
I had switched to AoRP before also but am getting rid of it because no one wants me around at ape or dino with it running. Which is ridiculous that we still have that issue, but I digress. And if I am going to have to have two passives anyway I might as well use invulnerability as one of them. That part is still tbd.
This was a couple weeks ago at least but the last time I had mental storm in the build I was disappointed in the results. Ego sleep was substantially more effective by itself with stuns in between if needed bc mental storm was more random and never close to the tooltip estimate. I will of course try it again on your recommendation though.
As my build says, it is designed to be the most foolproof for me because I can screw anything up due to distraction. The way it is now I hit the same two buttons at the same interval in the same sequence and nothing in-between them unless I'm feeling angry at the dogs and want to whack them on the nose with The Daily Sprite. If I dont end up using stun, it is down to one button.
Of course since kiga is now the "easiest" cosmic I expect a buff so I dont plan on leaving the ph anytime soon.
This was a couple weeks ago at least but the last time I had mental storm in the build I was disappointed in the results. Ego sleep was substantially more effective by itself with stuns in between if needed bc mental storm was more random and never close to the tooltip estimate. I will of course try it again on your recommendation though.
Strange. To me the Ego Sleep/Mental Storm is the easiest method that requires no aggro control or timing, and is the safest most reliable way to just keep the dogs permanently held. And yet, nobody else seems to be able to make it work. I am mystified o3o
OK so I finally got it working smoothly yesterday and went back today (PTS) to check the Manipulator stacks as Foxi suggested. Looks like I am only getting 3 stacks for the initial pull and after that it *never* goes back up to 3, which makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm holding 4 things repeatedly -- nothing comes from that which means the power is not working as described.
Anyway, the hold was apparently good enough at rank 1 yesterday to hold cycle for about 10 minutes or so until I quit. Today I go in and try the same setup and sure enough, a few minutes in a dog wakes up early. It might have been positioning and I have been told the initial positioning is critical. But that practice time will have to come later when I am less aggravated.
Anyway, the hold was apparently good enough at rank 1 yesterday to hold cycle for about 10 minutes or so until I quit. Today I go in and try the same setup and sure enough, a few minutes in a dog wakes up early. It might have been positioning and I have been told the initial positioning is critical. But that practice time will have to come later when I am less aggravated.
Strange. To me the Ego Sleep/Mental Storm is the easiest method that requires no aggro control or timing, and is the safest most reliable way to just keep the dogs permanently held. And yet, nobody else seems to be able to make it work. I am mystified o3o
Why bother with Mental Storm, btw? I only use Ego Sleep. I have TK Maelstrom with something like a 6 or 7 second stun, but I never use it against hounds (very useful for ape hearts and PvE, though).
Why bother with Mental Storm, btw? I only use Ego Sleep.
Pure ego sleep means you have the dogs uncontrolled for a short time between sleeps. If their aggro is messed up they can move quite a lot during that time, and then everything goes haywire.
Anyway, the hold was apparently good enough at rank 1 yesterday to hold cycle for about 10 minutes or so until I quit. Today I go in and try the same setup and sure enough, a few minutes in a dog wakes up early. It might have been positioning and I have been told the initial positioning is critical. But that practice time will have to come later when I am less aggravated.
Pure ego sleep means you have the dogs uncontrolled for a short time between sleeps. If their aggro is messed up they can move quite a lot during that time, and then everything goes haywire.
Ah, fair enough. I suppose I could stun them in between sleeps. I should give it a practice run.
Why bother with Mental Storm, btw? I only use Ego Sleep. I have TK Maelstrom with something like a 6 or 7 second stun, but I never use it against hounds (very useful for ape hearts and PvE, though).
Paranoia. I don't want those dogs moving ever. Even if you do have aggro on them sometimes they'll move to reposition around you and collide with one another and then you have one dog that's around back behind some dogs and ends up out of the radius of something or other. Also sometimes aggro goes crazy, like the other day where the dogs consistently aggro'd to healers while I was CCing them - can never be sure when that is gonna happen. I like to be prepared in case there are legions of people refusing to block the storms, but also healers good enough to actually keep everyone healed O_o.
Also theme. Cosmic Girl doesn't clap her hands, she claps her brain... or something... you know what I mean.
Also also lag hiccups... I don't wanna risk one of them happening when I'm trying to get an ego sleep out at a specific second.
It's basically about safety. We can call my method "The Safety Dance".
Also I just like having lots of holds on my CC character cause it's fun to fling them all over in other content.
I'd like to propose a small tip for melee dpsers. It might be best if melee dps can attack Dinomom from both her sides. We did a successful run with that, although there were only 2 melee at the other end at that time. The baby should be exactly parallel to Dinomom though.
I noticed how cramped the melee cluster is during Dino. Several players always get pushed to either tail or maw range(even more so when there's peeps with giant growth). Hopefully being able to attack on both side could increase successful dps checks.
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I noticed how cramped the melee cluster is during Dino. Several players always get pushed to either tail or maw range(even more so when there's peeps with giant growth).
Chaos, I noticed that being pushed has something more to do with latency and updating your collision with players moving against each other (Low Ping player pushing High ping player aside cause they lag more...) then Giant Growth, cause Giant Growth effect doesn't push anyone, it's a display scale not collision.
I take this quote from a review that I agree with.
"customisation is so linear; everyone is after the optimal dps:survivability ratio with 0 reliance on other players = autonomous gameplay... Players don't need each other anymore... which in my opinion is a bad thing."
Chaos, I noticed that being pushed has something more to do with latency and updating your collision with players moving against each other (Low Ping player pushing High ping player aside cause they lag more...) then Giant Growth, cause Giant Growth effect doesn't push anyone, it's a display scale not collision.
Are you sure? I can't count the number of times I saw and experienced people getting pushed to dino atk range because someone uses giant growth and reciprocating gizmo in the dps cluster.
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Lord Sans (Full Healer FF)/Axel Leonard (Crowd Controller/Off-Tank)
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Chaos, I noticed that being pushed has something more to do with latency and updating your collision with players moving against each other (Low Ping player pushing High ping player aside cause they lag more...) then Giant Growth, cause Giant Growth effect doesn't push anyone, it's a display scale not collision.
Are you sure? I can't count the number of times I saw and experienced people getting pushed to dino atk range because someone uses giant growth and reciprocating gizmo in the dps cluster.
Out of all the times my growth builds push against a target (Follow) stacking enrage, they just stop at it, no matter how big I got, unless they changed it recently, it's aesthetic, so their might be something to do with the server updating collision, one time I've stood completely still when engaging Teleiousuar among the DPS and had suddenly been pushed into breath cone as Gaia when several players stood around me/or moved beside.
Like when someone tries to push you with Teleport...
I take this quote from a review that I agree with.
"customisation is so linear; everyone is after the optimal dps:survivability ratio with 0 reliance on other players = autonomous gameplay... Players don't need each other anymore... which in my opinion is a bad thing."
Is Containment Field useful for dealing with Ape hearts? It's a paralyze that also partially protects the target from damage. Given all the collateral damage that hearts seem to take I wonder if this latter aspect gives it some relevance?
Is Containment Field useful for dealing with Ape hearts? It's a paralyze that also partially protects the target from damage. Given all the collateral damage that hearts seem to take I wonder if this latter aspect gives it some relevance?
The issue isn't with damage to the hearts per se, the issue is holds being broken because of damage, and CF doesn't have any more health than any other paralyze. Paralyzes are more resistant to incidental damage than sleeps; the main reason people use sleep on hearts is (a) sleep holds on tap, and (b) sleep is useful on Kiga dogs so CCers tend to have it.
Hmm, the tool tip describes the CF paralyze as being more difficult to break than normal, but I've no idea if that is reality, or wishful thinking.
Honestly, I've never checked. It could be true, but it won't make much difference, even doubled health would be under 4k and will evaporate if anyone makes an effort.
Sigh, just hopeful thinking on my part that there was some in-game mechanic that would make those ape hearts less pervious to unintended player interactions.
I think CF might be worth a try. The reason people dislike taking it as a hold is because it protects the target from taking damage. So it drives teams nuts because they are unable to harm the held target. It certainly couldn't hurt to try it.
So, there is a lot of debate on how a Qwyjibo fight should play out. "Don't use AoEs." "You can't use this ability." etc. I'm going to go ahead and go through some reasoning and explain why people want to be very specific about what to do against Qwyjibo.
-No AoEs:
So, many people dislike it when others use AoEs during this fight, mostly due to the "mez Hearts" strategy. Damage done to hearts will break them out of the Control effects which prevent them from healing Qwyjibo. AoE attacks are sometimes called out because they can sometimes strike a heart unintentionally when trying to focus down Qwyjibo. Of course, this means that the damage you dealt to the heart, intentional or not, will pull the heart out of its mezzed state and begin healing Qwyjibo. This is especially apparent if the controller's method of mezzing is Sleep. And the last thing we want is for the damage we dealt to be so easily nullified.
Some players may use AoEs more than they use Single Target attacks, or even only have AoE attacks. If you ARE going to use AoEs, position yourself so that they will never accidentally strike a heart. Typically 30 degrees left or right of Qwyjibo's behind and stick at a good 30 to 70 foot range, lava patches willing. It shouldn't be so hard to position yourself safely so AoEs won't tag hearts. This is the most mobile of the Cosmic Fights, after all.
-No Pets:
Pet AI in CO is dumb, plain and simple. Pets, once summoned, act as if they were hit with a Confuse Crowd Control and will target whatever they feel like attacking. This is apparent especially with Uncontrolled Pets like Summon Shadows and March of the Dead. This random targeting issue is problematic as they could lock onto a Heart. And that's bad because they will then attack that heart and break mezzing effects on it. I shouldn't have to restate why that's a bad thing.
In addition to being a hindrance at times, pets are not strong. They are more gimmicks than anything else. They cannot stand up to the attacks of a Cosmic and will likely die shortly after being summoned. The time the player takes to summon them is also better used to just attack Qwyjibo, hell any Cosmics really. In addition, pets will also steal valuable Aura Buffing effects, weakening the capabilities of other heroes. Pets are not worth the time during a Cosmic fight and should not be used at all.
-No AoED:
Now this one is a rather fun one. I'm sure by now you've all heard me vouching for it in the channel. AoED is a passive which boosts overall damage and causes damage any time a buffed ally crits up to twice every 6 seconds. The second part of this is what people like to spout about. A passive that will deal an additional tick of damage for anyone who crits with it. People crit often, that's normal. However, sometimes people see that black lightning of AoED striking hearts. That means that the passive just dealt damage to it. And, of course, damaging a heart during the "mez hearts" strategy is bad.
AoED being bad is mostly a misconception. Most of the time, the lightning will strike down when someone has dealt damage to the target. This part of the issue is moot since, well... someone else dealt damage to the heart in the first place to trigger Ebon Lightning. Now, there is another part to this issue; crit healing. Crit Heals cause the Lightning to strike on the target healed. Whether it's intentional or not, Crit Heal Ebon Lightning functions as if it were an AoE centered on the one healed, damaging one nearby enemy. The distance is random, but it is there. This of course means healing allies near the hearts will likely accidentally deal damage to the heart beside them. This can be prevented with positioning. Just don't fondle the hearts and everything is fine on this front.
kinda late, but on the big chars issue, i would like to point out that (atleast i feel i've noticed) the tanks who are zoomed in and 'want to see their char' (complaining about big chars in the way) are more likely the ones to miss kiga's breath and charge attack animations, dps miss tombs, miss baby's aoe type etc. Not because they are in the way, but because they are zoomed in. I'm not exactly saying big chars fine, but if you are finding it to be a big issue, a bigger issue probably is that you aren't zoomed out enough to observe the entire battlescape in the first place. Ofcourse there are exceptions, it is only 'more likely'. Also the collision box does not increase, one can pass through chars using magnifier for example. If you are getting pushed, you are probably being pushed by a char trying to move, (not by one who keeps growing)( eg. people getting pushed out of tailor) and its worse if you are trying to move at the same time. For positioning, zoom in, position quickly, and zoom back out. Simple as that.
kinda late, but on the big chars issue, i would like to point out that (atleast i feel i've noticed) the tanks who are zoomed in and 'want to see their char' (complaining about big chars in the way) are more likely the ones to miss kiga's breath and charge attack animations, dps miss tombs, miss baby's aoe type etc. Not because they are in the way, but because they are zoomed in. I'm not exactly saying big chars fine, but if you are finding it to be a big issue, a bigger issue probably is that you aren't zoomed out enough to observe the entire battlescape in the first place. Ofcourse there are exceptions, it is only 'more likely'. Also the collision box does not increase, one can pass through chars using magnifier for example. If you are getting pushed, you are probably being pushed by a char trying to move, (not by one who keeps growing)( eg. people getting pushed out of tailor) and its worse if you are trying to move at the same time. For positioning, zoom in, position quickly, and zoom back out. Simple as that.
The biggest toons, especially if they have large back pieces, wings, tails, etc., really can be an issue for seeing what's going on. For instance, I want to see my tank's placement on the ground, and sometimes, if another tank is a giant, I cannot see my toon at all.
kinda late, but on the big chars issue, i would like to point out that (atleast i feel i've noticed) the tanks who are zoomed in and 'want to see their char' (complaining about big chars in the way) are more likely the ones to miss kiga's breath and charge attack animations, dps miss tombs, miss baby's aoe type etc. Not because they are in the way, but because they are zoomed in. I'm not exactly saying big chars fine, but if you are finding it to be a big issue, a bigger issue probably is that you aren't zoomed out enough to observe the entire battlescape in the first place. Ofcourse there are exceptions, it is only 'more likely'. Also the collision box does not increase, one can pass through chars using magnifier for example. If you are getting pushed, you are probably being pushed by a char trying to move, (not by one who keeps growing)( eg. people getting pushed out of tailor) and its worse if you are trying to move at the same time. For positioning, zoom in, position quickly, and zoom back out. Simple as that.
If the problem is being too zoomed-in, you can just max out the camera distance in the Options menu.
Options>Controls>Max Camera Distance
Granted that you still won't fully see Kiga(since he's hella huge) but you will see the most of the altar area.
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Lord Sans (Full Healer FF)/Axel Leonard (Crowd Controller/Off-Tank)
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The biggest toons, especially if they have large back pieces, wings, tails, etc., really can be an issue for seeing what's going on. For instance, I want to see my tank's placement on the ground, and sometimes, if another tank is a giant, I cannot see my toon at all.
I have this problem, too. My tank is very small, and is in the beast stance. I did make a larger costume of her standing straight up that I sometimes use.
(Personally, I have always thought the huge-tank issue is an overcompensation for something...)
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If I can add one very important tip that I believe has not been included. "Patience young [copyrighted term]." Relax and have fun. I see so many people, "IF WE FAIL THIS TIME I'M BAILING." Well, okay, if you need to get to work or whatever, roll out, that's fine, but jeez, otherwise calm tf down and just have a good time. While you are waiting for the fight to get set up, spout some silliness in Zone, throw some snowballs, play hide-and-seek, whatever.
During the fight, let's hear some comic-book style banter. I mean, when, in any comic book or super-hero movie, have you ever seen a fight happen without some stupid commentary by the participants? Oh yeah, I know I know, we all have to max out our ranking to overcompensate from certain SHORTcomings. But, you know what, I don't care, anymore. I'm having more fun tossing out dorky comments than min-maxing every micro-second of damage dealing. Besides, humor is WAY better at overcompensating than pointless numbers are, that's been proven over and over again.
This is your time to play CO, enjoy it. Whether you are waiting for the Kiga tank to get dogs settled or running a lowbie through the stories for the 5000th time, it's all just burning time on a game. You're not here to change the world, so don't make it so much like work!
So, that is my tip.
PS: lrn2play & gitgud, too.
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Apparently, the dino's damage increases the further the baby dino is away from her due to the parental bond buff, and this is not counting the frenzy buff, either.
Apparently, the dino's damage increases the further the baby dino is away from her due to the parental bond buff, and this is not counting the frenzy buff, either.
Well that would explain why the dino's damage went crazy last night.
That's true. All the negativity gets irritating quick, and when I'm irritated I play worse. It never seems to be the people who are contributing the most who are whining like babbies either... so, quite frankly, what I'm thinking in my head when people give their "win or I'm outta here!" stuff is "...you could leave now? :'D". Soon I might just start saying that o3o
That's true. All the negativity gets irritating quick, and when I'm irritated I play worse. It never seems to be the people who are contributing the most who are whining like babbies either... so, quite frankly, what I'm thinking in my head when people give their "win or I'm outta here!" stuff is "...you could leave now? :'D". Soon I might just start saying that o3o
I have to admit I listened to most of the complaints and figured the giant monsters weren't worth the effort, but really they aren't so difficult to survive as a DPS so long as the tanks, crowd controllers, and healers are doing well. Really the only time I really die is when RNGesus hates me with the ape and I get stuck in a giant pool of lava and then get hit by a fireball, or when Teleo and her baby suddenly decide to spam every AoE they got and then some, die trying to squeeze that 1 more second of damage before she heals, or when she or her baby turn around and scream at our faces. Also I died to Kiga in a few stupid ways admittedly, but that was more of my fault.
But it usually isn't the tanks, healers, or CC's fault that these events go badly, there is always at least one of those DPS that attacks the hearts, don't block the snowstorm, attack the dogs, and stop attacking as Dino is about to heal, and generally make life difficult for everyone else. Giant monsters are actually kind of fun, but those people are the pebble in my shoe.
Best tip is probably to have a variety of character types you want gcr/scr on. E.g. have a dps, tank, support/healer and controller that you like and are willing to use against cosmics. I've seen a number of these hunts just fall apart because everyone wants to pew-pew-pew.
Second tip: have a bunch of alerts missions saved up so you have something to do while you wait. Doesn't hurt to hop in and out of Ramapage PUGs either. If you can't do either of those, you might like to have something to read on hand or a video to watch while things get organized
That's true. All the negativity gets irritating quick, and when I'm irritated I play worse. It never seems to be the people who are contributing the most who are whining like babbies either... so, quite frankly, what I'm thinking in my head when people give their "win or I'm outta here!" stuff is "...you could leave now? :'D". Soon I might just start saying that o3o
LOL. That would be funny.
I usually don't speak at the cosmics unless its contributing to cracking jokes in CosmicHQ channel on the waiting times.
But once the actual encounter starts, too busy trying not to die/blocking and listening to instructions and healing/tanking/etc.
Best tip is probably to have a variety of character types you want gcr/scr on. E.g. have a dps, tank, support/healer and controller that you like and are willing to use against cosmics. I've seen a number of these hunts just fall apart because everyone wants to pew-pew-pew.
Second tip: have a bunch of alerts missions saved up so you have something to do while you wait. Doesn't hurt to hop in and out of Ramapage PUGs either. If you can't do either of those, you might like to have something to read on hand or a video to watch while things get organized
This. That and if you have work the next day try to do them on the weekend. You'll be in a better mood if you don't loose sleep over them. The Giant Monsters will be there on the weekend/your days off.
That's true. All the negativity gets irritating quick, and when I'm irritated I play worse. It never seems to be the people who are contributing the most who are whining like babbies either... so, quite frankly, what I'm thinking in my head when people give their "win or I'm outta here!" stuff is "...you could leave now? :'D". Soon I might just start saying that o3o
Heh. Run a parser, point out their pathetic dps/hp/whatever?
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Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
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Spectre beats Eido in an SG run: VIDEO HERE
I have a very similar build to Cosmic Girl, FWIW though I don't have Mental Storm and I use AoRP so I can dual role Hybrid for pulling and Support for dog control and healing, which was/is the use for this toon on other cosmics.
Anyway, I go up to 50' from Amaguq and hit Ego Placate. And promptly die. Apparently you can no longer use Ego Placate to build Manipulator stacks. I tried it several times - howls immediately each time. The dogs' health bars are full so they are not once-killed though I don't think that made a difference before (but am not sure). Manipulator no longer mentions placate so I am guessing that is a change. It also doesn't stack when the dogs are slept.
OK fine, I can ditch Ego Placate the next time I want to pay for a @$%^ retcon (grumble). I go with Bear's suggestion of just using Ego Sleep at 2 seconds on the timer. Not 3, as I found out. This would be a "precision timing" method. Not for me as eventually one dog wakes up earlier than the others and violates the 1-second window I have.
So I go back to the stun-sleep-stun-sleep method and again, it works fine for a few cycles and then invariably one dog isn't stunned despite all the hold res. stacks being gone - sleep outlasts all the resistance stacks though not by much because I can't stack Manipulator anymore. It didn't move, I didn't move. It simply chose to not be stunned. I like this method the best because it should have the greatest margin for error.
Something I was thinking about -- I *should* be able to charge the TK Maelstrom stun and let go of it whenever all the dogs are either pre-or post-howl if I want to do precision, right? Not that it matters because I don't have a method that is effective yet. Just a thought.
I am thinking the next time I have the funds for another retcon I ditch Ego Placate and take R3 Manipulator since I will not be getting any higher stacks for that and need the extra hold time. My PRE is 360 and I have the Sentry/Sentinel/PRE tree hold buffs so that isn't the issue. Or maybe I just leave the control tanking to others and go back to his original build of healing/CC without the dog tank specifics.
a guy who actually did something for others just because it made their game a little easier. Kudos!
I say that because lately I've been running into a few jerks and this restores my faith a bit. Thanks.
EDIT: I did the same sort of thing about 2 weeks ago since my healer has wings/is usually in the mosh pit and could have been causing the same issue. I didn't have the same theme issues since I just switched to Phoenix Flight for my 2nd TP and she has one costume reserved that is wingless should the need arise.
Oh yeah -- Can we outlaw millennial flight while we're at it? Turning down every setting I know how and this still blinds me. Max camera distance = "seen from Saturn" helps only slightly.
Regarding their stuns / timing being off, that's a combination of positioning and the stun you're using. I have found that unless the dogs are all pretty much exactly the same distance from me that they will not be stunned at the same time. It took me a bunch of deaths and practicing pulls before I got them to the right positions reliably.
Also, I've noticed that Maelstrom doesn't hit all of the mobs in its range at the same time. It seems to hit the closer ones first. I have a lot more success stunning everything at the same time with Thunderclap....though Cosmic Girl, Phantasma, and others are able to reliably use Maelstrom in their rotations. Probably due to the way dogs are positioned to be clustered around them.
PARSER USAGE GUIDE: click here for an easy how-to ٩(๑･ิᴗ･ิ)۶٩(･ิᴗ･ิ๑)۶
Spectre beats Eido in an SG run: VIDEO HERE
As far as stuns being different speed, I never noticed because any variance is too small to matter -- I launch a full charge sleep immediately after the stun and because of how hold resistance works it doesn't actually matter if they come out of stun at slightly different times. Also, I only stun once per fight.
It may be worth getting a single target threat wipe to make dog pulls easier, we were having some trouble last night.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Just thought I would mention something. I tried ranking manipulator to 3 and the results were... disappointing. It has this tendency to, after 20 seconds of being at 3 stacks, to drop to no stacks, and then take a while to build back to 3. The timing of when it does this just happens to line up pretty great with right about the time you would be needing to reapply sleep. I guess what I'm saying is don't waste your retcon on doing that o3o
I have switched from Ego Placate to Confuse. You can't spam it to quickly build stacks, but you can use it to maintain your stacks quite handily, and you don't need fully stacked Manipulator at the start of the fight, 8 stacks is mostly a convenience fur the duration of the fight so you don't have to reapply holds as often. Other than switching from Invulnerability to AoRP that's the only thing I changed about my build since the patch and everything still works quite nicely.
I actually don't use TK Malestrom while dog tanking anymore - now I use Ego Storm to control them on the initial pull, and then I use a rotation of Sleep and Mental Storm afterwards. Ego Storm is great because you can use it just a hair earlier than you would have to use TK Malestrom or Thunder Clap which equals just a bite more safety. I also don't like using a Stun between sleeps because it means a good portion of my Sleeps tick down faster due to double stacks of hold resist - with the Sleep/Mental Storm method you can time it so you never have double stacks of hold resist.
@roughbearmattach
what even is your theme, and have you ever tried a Sleep/Evil Shadow Tentacles method? ( I forget the name of the power atm.. )
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
However, since Manipulator is still stackable, I am looking into using holds like Grasping Shadows on the Qwyjibo Hearts (or really anything other than Sleep) which will hopefully make the fight a little more error-proof. I'll try it out vs the dogs as well.
Right now, Psionic Accelerator is working pretty well vs. Hearts since you can angle the attack so that it hits 2 of them at once.
PARSER USAGE GUIDE: click here for an easy how-to ٩(๑･ิᴗ･ิ)۶٩(･ิᴗ･ิ๑)۶
Spectre beats Eido in an SG run: VIDEO HERE
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Maybe I could go without Manip at all and take Compassion for survivability, but I am concerned some change will require Manip in order to control the dogs at all in the future.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
I had switched to AoRP before also but am getting rid of it because no one wants me around at ape or dino with it running. Which is ridiculous that we still have that issue, but I digress. And if I am going to have to have two passives anyway I might as well use invulnerability as one of them. That part is still tbd.
This was a couple weeks ago at least but the last time I had mental storm in the build I was disappointed in the results. Ego sleep was substantially more effective by itself with stuns in between if needed bc mental storm was more random and never close to the tooltip estimate. I will of course try it again on your recommendation though.
As my build says, it is designed to be the most foolproof for me because I can screw anything up due to distraction. The way it is now I hit the same two buttons at the same interval in the same sequence and nothing in-between them unless I'm feeling angry at the dogs and want to whack them on the nose with The Daily Sprite. If I dont end up using stun, it is down to one button.
Of course since kiga is now the "easiest" cosmic I expect a buff so I dont plan on leaving the ph anytime soon.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
OK so I finally got it working smoothly yesterday and went back today (PTS) to check the Manipulator stacks as Foxi suggested. Looks like I am only getting 3 stacks for the initial pull and after that it *never* goes back up to 3, which makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm holding 4 things repeatedly -- nothing comes from that which means the power is not working as described.
Anyway, the hold was apparently good enough at rank 1 yesterday to hold cycle for about 10 minutes or so until I quit. Today I go in and try the same setup and sure enough, a few minutes in a dog wakes up early. It might have been positioning and I have been told the initial positioning is critical. But that practice time will have to come later when I am less aggravated.
PARSER USAGE GUIDE: click here for an easy how-to ٩(๑･ิᴗ･ิ)۶٩(･ิᴗ･ิ๑)۶
Spectre beats Eido in an SG run: VIDEO HERE
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
PARSER USAGE GUIDE: click here for an easy how-to ٩(๑･ิᴗ･ิ)۶٩(･ิᴗ･ิ๑)۶
Spectre beats Eido in an SG run: VIDEO HERE
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
After that, I simply maintained sleep. I am okay with the timing.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
Also theme. Cosmic Girl doesn't clap her hands, she claps her brain... or something... you know what I mean.
Also also lag hiccups... I don't wanna risk one of them happening when I'm trying to get an ego sleep out at a specific second.
It's basically about safety. We can call my method "The Safety Dance".
Also I just like having lots of holds on my CC character cause it's fun to fling them all over in other content.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
I noticed how cramped the melee cluster is during Dino. Several players always get pushed to either tail or maw range(even more so when there's peeps with giant growth). Hopefully being able to attack on both side could increase successful dps checks.
__________________________________________________________________
Alts:
Lord Sans (Full Healer FF)/Axel Leonard (Crowd Controller/Off-Tank)
- - - - - -
Feel free to visit my websites!^^:
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I take this quote from a review that I agree with.
"customisation is so linear; everyone is after the optimal dps:survivability ratio with 0 reliance on other players = autonomous gameplay... Players don't need each other anymore... which in my opinion is a bad thing."
__________________________________________________________________
Alts:
Lord Sans (Full Healer FF)/Axel Leonard (Crowd Controller/Off-Tank)
- - - - - -
Feel free to visit my websites!^^:
DeviantART|FurAffinity|
Twitter
Like when someone tries to push you with Teleport...
I take this quote from a review that I agree with.
"customisation is so linear; everyone is after the optimal dps:survivability ratio with 0 reliance on other players = autonomous gameplay... Players don't need each other anymore... which in my opinion is a bad thing."
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
-No AoEs:
So, many people dislike it when others use AoEs during this fight, mostly due to the "mez Hearts" strategy. Damage done to hearts will break them out of the Control effects which prevent them from healing Qwyjibo. AoE attacks are sometimes called out because they can sometimes strike a heart unintentionally when trying to focus down Qwyjibo. Of course, this means that the damage you dealt to the heart, intentional or not, will pull the heart out of its mezzed state and begin healing Qwyjibo. This is especially apparent if the controller's method of mezzing is Sleep. And the last thing we want is for the damage we dealt to be so easily nullified.
Some players may use AoEs more than they use Single Target attacks, or even only have AoE attacks. If you ARE going to use AoEs, position yourself so that they will never accidentally strike a heart. Typically 30 degrees left or right of Qwyjibo's behind and stick at a good 30 to 70 foot range, lava patches willing. It shouldn't be so hard to position yourself safely so AoEs won't tag hearts. This is the most mobile of the Cosmic Fights, after all.
-No Pets:
Pet AI in CO is dumb, plain and simple. Pets, once summoned, act as if they were hit with a Confuse Crowd Control and will target whatever they feel like attacking. This is apparent especially with Uncontrolled Pets like Summon Shadows and March of the Dead. This random targeting issue is problematic as they could lock onto a Heart. And that's bad because they will then attack that heart and break mezzing effects on it. I shouldn't have to restate why that's a bad thing.
In addition to being a hindrance at times, pets are not strong. They are more gimmicks than anything else. They cannot stand up to the attacks of a Cosmic and will likely die shortly after being summoned. The time the player takes to summon them is also better used to just attack Qwyjibo, hell any Cosmics really. In addition, pets will also steal valuable Aura Buffing effects, weakening the capabilities of other heroes. Pets are not worth the time during a Cosmic fight and should not be used at all.
-No AoED:
Now this one is a rather fun one. I'm sure by now you've all heard me vouching for it in the channel. AoED is a passive which boosts overall damage and causes damage any time a buffed ally crits up to twice every 6 seconds. The second part of this is what people like to spout about. A passive that will deal an additional tick of damage for anyone who crits with it. People crit often, that's normal. However, sometimes people see that black lightning of AoED striking hearts. That means that the passive just dealt damage to it. And, of course, damaging a heart during the "mez hearts" strategy is bad.
AoED being bad is mostly a misconception. Most of the time, the lightning will strike down when someone has dealt damage to the target. This part of the issue is moot since, well... someone else dealt damage to the heart in the first place to trigger Ebon Lightning. Now, there is another part to this issue; crit healing. Crit Heals cause the Lightning to strike on the target healed. Whether it's intentional or not, Crit Heal Ebon Lightning functions as if it were an AoE centered on the one healed, damaging one nearby enemy. The distance is random, but it is there. This of course means healing allies near the hearts will likely accidentally deal damage to the heart beside them. This can be prevented with positioning. Just don't fondle the hearts and everything is fine on this front.
And I will always be @DZPlayer122.
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Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
Options>Controls>Max Camera Distance
Granted that you still won't fully see Kiga(since he's hella huge) but you will see the most of the altar area.
__________________________________________________________________
Alts:
Lord Sans (Full Healer FF)/Axel Leonard (Crowd Controller/Off-Tank)
- - - - - -
Feel free to visit my websites!^^:
DeviantART|FurAffinity|
Twitter
I don't know why no one has posted this, yet.
(Personally, I have always thought the huge-tank issue is an overcompensation for something...)
SIGNATURE:
Used to be coach on the forums. Still @coach in game.
A bump and a link to dino from buffwhateverhisname was.
and ape, again
During the fight, let's hear some comic-book style banter. I mean, when, in any comic book or super-hero movie, have you ever seen a fight happen without some stupid commentary by the participants? Oh yeah, I know I know, we all have to max out our ranking to overcompensate from certain SHORTcomings. But, you know what, I don't care, anymore. I'm having more fun tossing out dorky comments than min-maxing every micro-second of damage dealing. Besides, humor is WAY better at overcompensating than pointless numbers are, that's been proven over and over again.
This is your time to play CO, enjoy it. Whether you are waiting for the Kiga tank to get dogs settled or running a lowbie through the stories for the 5000th time, it's all just burning time on a game. You're not here to change the world, so don't make it so much like work!
So, that is my tip.
PS: lrn2play & gitgud, too.
SIGNATURE:
Used to be coach on the forums. Still @coach in game.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
But it usually isn't the tanks, healers, or CC's fault that these events go badly, there is always at least one of those DPS that attacks the hearts, don't block the snowstorm, attack the dogs, and stop attacking as Dino is about to heal, and generally make life difficult for everyone else. Giant monsters are actually kind of fun, but those people are the pebble in my shoe.
[SIGPIC]http://imgur.com/9gptU4e[/SIGPIC]
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Second tip: have a bunch of alerts missions saved up so you have something to do while you wait. Doesn't hurt to hop in and out of Ramapage PUGs either. If you can't do either of those, you might like to have something to read on hand or a video to watch while things get organized
I usually don't speak at the cosmics unless its contributing to cracking jokes in CosmicHQ channel on the waiting times.
But once the actual encounter starts, too busy trying not to die/blocking and listening to instructions and healing/tanking/etc.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained