[XjabberwockieX]

Please fix the Cpu enemies' ability to detect Doldren's astral body orb. They are aware everytime i try to ambush them. (works great on antagonists though haha)

[LordDraco3]

I haven't rolled it yet, but have you tried his card that shuts his aleph off for some seconds after going astral? I feel like it should work so that they do not detect him, because this has been a common complaint many of us have had since his launch.

[XjabberwockieX]

I did try it, i didnt notice any difference. Every time their awareness goes full red and they attack the moment i appear behind them. The one that shuts it off for 3 seconds or 10 secs with aleph charge.

[Black_Adder_]

The AI detect him just the same as human players should - every time you try to pull this on enemy that isn't occupied with anything else at that time you'll get your face smashed. I did Loaht mission with new players yesterday and even they learned how to beat Doldren antagonist who was stupid enough to attack people that were not distracted.

[XjabberwockieX]

Players dont detect him until they hear the grapple sound or whatever from behind. Im talking head on as I approach in astral ball form they can already see me (The cpu) and their triangles go from yellow to red, even when my body is across the map. I have gotten right in the face of an antagonist and floated around like crazy and they could not see me and didnt react at all.

[Black_Adder_]

Then you would prefer them to have yellow circle above their heads and then smashing you in face when you try to jump on them? Maybe devs can respond better but I think this way you at least know already what will happen if you try to jump on them.

[XjabberwockieX]

I have been lucky I guess using Doldren as anti-antag because 9/10 times i am the one doing the face smashing. Waiting until they are distracted is not that hard. I just have a hard time believing that his ability, rendering him INVISIBLE is sniffed out by the grunts before I ever even appear behind them is working as intended. Last I checked Shae's bewitching ability works great at making herself harder to detect. Astral body orb Doldren should be undetectable as well.

[TheBrentWoody]

They see your aleph

[Level9Drow]

They see your aleph

Yea, but it's a philosophical problem as well. It means it's a useless ability, and it's his CORE ability. It means he is useless in a purely PvE scenario.

I get that a player can see the aleph of his dormant body through the walls, and they're trying to simulate this. But the AI reacts much more accurately and rapidly than a human player. I would suggest fixing this, through card or a general buff, in a few different ways:

1. Make the reaction time of the AI slower. When your body aleph trace disapears to them they DROP all awareness of you and go "solid yellow" for a second (unless you appear in front of them), because they don't have eyes in the back of their heads. I would make mooks flat out drop all awareness, period.

The reasoning is that the ability Doldren has isn't a quick one like Alicia, Ayana, Mika, etc... and therefore he can't make up as easily for errors instantly. It also puts him at risk, much more risk than their quick abilities do. Even other heroes who have slowe CD on abilities like Kuzman, Konstantin, Laoth, etc... don't sacrifice as much of themselves for using it and can always find value in their abilities because they're not a gamble like Doldren's ability.

Doldren's ability has to have some kind of payoff to merit the risk and time invested.

2. They could make it safer. He could appear further away if he wanted, this way he could appear around corners more often, or just appear out of melee more consistently so he could shoot. I know there are cards that do this, but maybe they should extend the default a bit.

3. Make the trigger for coming out of astral form a punch or a grapple. Currently you have to hit the special and THEN the punch or grapple in order to reappear and then CQC. This way there isn't any wasted time that would lead to the advantage of your prey. You would beat them to the punch or grab.

I think this is fair since there is already a sound you can hear to help you.

EDIT P.S.: I didn't realize it was you in groups with Hihasuke in a lot of the videos I watch of his. GREAT videos he has, I love the commentary and conversations, his videos make me laugh a lot, he has some great groups. Also they're all pretty damn good and I learn a lot from you guys. But it was cool seeng your Konstantin healing off the mooks, I was like, "That's...that's BrentWoody!!!....cool!"

[TheBrentWoody]

He has a card for it now where you can just scoop them up. Algor Mortis

[LordDraco3]

He has a card for it now where you can just scoop them up. Algor Mortis

I mentioned that above, and jabber said it did not change their behavior.

[Black_Adder_]

Why do you want to make Doldren a broken character that can one hit kill any elite/player? It's a common sense to not let people simply float around and be able to 100% safely take out everything with a single press of a button.

[XjabberwockieX]

Doldren wouldnt be able to safely take out everyone with one press of a button. If you materialize behind enemy lines targeting an elite you are still vulnerable to getting ganged up on from the other grunts. Doldren only has 60 life so you need to use him as intended, like an assassin/infiltrater getting in and getting out. His pistols also only fire 3 shots so you need to be accurate with him to be effective. I just want his ability to feel powerful outside of sneaking up on antagonists.

[TheBrentWoody]

I'll roll the card later and report back.

[LordDraco3]

Yeah Doldren would still be in danger even if his mechanic worked as advertized and allowed him to grab-kill whatever elite he snuck up on. He can jump into action, but can't disengage very safely. Other aliens are long range, he is very very close range, like Lycus or Alicia but without the health, regen, or shield to keep him alive.

Currently he is useless in all PvE scenarios. I have really and truly tried to give him a chance using all of his weapons, and all I am is a liability to the team no matter how hard I try. So I equip his support cards in an effort to at least do a little bit of help.

If you want high melee damage, there's better characters for that. If you want high damage headshots, there's better characters for that. No matter what role you are trying to fill, there's better choices for what he can do. His current strength is only exploiting the natural deficiency in human reflexes and attention focus, and MSE has removed all of this weakness from enemy AI. I have appeared behind enemies that are literally busy with other things, like shooting at or dodging other raider's attacks, and they will counter whatever I do without fail. Since this update they seem to at least take a punch before reacting, but grabs don't work, and punching is still risky at high MMR because half the time I go for melee, the AI will hit back twice and then shoot, always resulting in a down...the mooks' counter-melee is faster than Raider melee, so they can counter you between strikes. They play by totally different rules which continues to be BS.