New Pink Bean Changes Discussion

Sample size of runs post bug fix is n=1

With how statues are slated to work, if the squad is skilled enough this should be a non-issue. This seems like an overreaction no?

 

I've only been on 1 run so far but I think there are some things a player can do to avoid being jumped into the statue. Just off of that 1 run I think there are at least 3 solutions to this problem that requires no change in the game just in game play. Players should test for themselves though imo and find out what works for them. Personally I think this is the most fun part of the game where the meta isn't solved yet and players are trying to craft some solutions.

 

The best solution here is to play nightlord, because of darksight. Not only can you do top tier damage but also you have top tier survivability. Alternatively, you need to watch and pay attention to the types of seduce coming out. There is walk left, walk right, jump left, and jump right. You usually won't see these twice in a row. So, if you see a jump left seduce come out, you can position yourself such that a jump right seduce won't have you take statue touch damage.

There are most likely some other things you could do as well to survive.

 

There's an ingenious strategy to avoid right bird touch damage, I suspect others will figure it out soon enough

 

I am not worried about right bird seduce as squads can adjust their strategy to not hit it. Place unwashed characters on the top platform/holy shield/sit on chair/ climb on rope.

What I am more concerned about is the New Pinkbean Aggro making me unable to take low-washed range characters (Less than 11.7k HP before HB) to Pinkbean. Without buccaneers being able to skillfully manage aggro, those under that HP threshold must run away whenever Pinkbean faces them.

Compare this to washed attackers who can just attack through the stuff Pinkbean throws at them. Before a low-washed range can still participate (with skill and knowledge) but now the barrier is even higher. I can't imagine the frustration these players have if they are like 1k HP away (after event rings, HP gears, Tier 10, BFC, MoN, Pet HP) and getting turned away because of the new changes.

Also, this is a good chunk of the community because that 8-9k threshold is where a lot of ranged stopped washing cuz Horntail used to be the hardest boss.

TLDR: Low-washed range (slightly under 11.5-11.7k~ HP) is screwed with the new aggro patch and we should provide more HP gear to help them survive.

 

Vengeance cleared PB yesterday with an unwashed person

 

I never said it was impossible to be unwashed and Pinkbeam and I will still take my unwashed friends, but as a host, there is little to no incentive of taking an unwashed person over a washed attacker. Especially even more with the loss of DPM when they cannot attack. Plus statues taking longer, Pinkbean attacking back puts an even greater prioritization on Single Target DPS.

If the intention was to make Pinkbean harder, you got it, but that also means that everything will lean more towards min/maxing. Which means more class exclusion, more gear checks, more washing.

F for Heroes even more

Chair doesn't work as well because you cannot be in the combat stance, so it would have to be hanging on the rope like a SED target.

 

As Akash mentioned 1 strategy I tried to utilize was moving sides of the statue. I only took touch damage once doing this and it was the first run so I think it works pretty well so far at least. From that 1 run it seemed like seduces followed a pattern so I didn't get the same jump sed twice in a row. If it actually follows a pattern every run then seduce should already be fairly easy to handle. This in conjunction with the other 2 solutions should make jumping into statues a non-factor for most runs. The other 2 solutions are based on HT seduce tech that a lot of people should already know. I'll say they probably need more testing before anybody can conclusively say they work for PB though.

I'm not sure keeping things a secret is really the point. I think it's more fun when squads come up with their own solutions and don't get biased from other results. Let knowledge flow around when people figure out what works and what doesn't work is my take on it.

 

It's possible to enjoy the content doing test runs and figuring a strategy out with your squad, if Vengeance decided to spoonfeed us wouldn't it be more boring? It also wouldn't make sense for them to share knowledge if they happen to feel competitive about clears like most squads do

 

After running a few more times my initial thought of using 2 status effects to block sed doesn't really work. For some reason I think it casts reverse more often than weakness but it could just be a small sample size. I was hoping the main strategy would be to keep weakness so that you can't jump anyways and then if you get reversed you won't even get sed. The other idea was to have sed mules enter first (warriors/thieves) which works until people start getting banished because then the enter order gets screwed up. The main strategy people seem to be using is holy shield > TL > holy shield which works well enough if the group is strong to clear in that time frame. Some combination of sed mules, TL management, and hoping for weakness is probably enough to clear statues without taking touch damage. That said I actually think body is significantly worse than statues right now. The bean is pretty hard to control/position properly so there could be times it walks right through the buccs/warriors and ranged might tank touch damage. A hard to control bean also forces more people on the right side which hurts non NL/pally a lot more than other classes. I want to run a few more times before coming to a final conclusion but I think right now body makes NL/pally too good and drops everybody else down at least a tier.

 

PB post-patch is easier than pre-patch overall. The issue is getting people to listen and coordinate well. Having sliding/teleporting bean bug only makes it slightly harder.

EDIT: Now I actually have time to type some shit.
After 1 test run(that didn't even go past stage 4 kekw), statues became a non-issue.
Insights on main body strategy came mostly from watching 1pink bean stream 10hrs before the run and speaking with someone who actually understands aggro. Figuring out a workaround for the sliding bean was slightly tricky, but not impossible.
The actual boss fight is getting your instructions across to runners. There are multiple mistakes that could jeopardize an entire run but are all easily avoidable, more so than before the changes were made.

 

Does weakness prevent jump sed? I know in HT, the jumping in place sed would still occur through weakness, but is it different for jump left/right?

 

I also just thought about what might be happening. If you have 2 status debuffs active already you won't get a third, giving you sed immunity. That could be happening if you're keeping weakness active, and is also a strategy to use

 

Looked at a previous recording and you're right weakness doesn't stop jumping during bird sed. Seems like a bug imo but it's probably intended.

 

I think the new bird mechanic is quite a fun change, sometimes you just die ;D. But this change really affects those 18-20 man squads. It’ll be interesting to see how those squads with fewer bishops handle sed during statue.

 

Weakness doesn't stop from jump sed even in HT.

 

Its not nearly as interesting as you'd think. It just means more bishop mules are brought in and placed in party for their 40 seconds of fame. And combined with mini bean resistance thats practically all a real bishop is expected to do anyways. Right bird getting to play the game is cool, but the statues as a whole are a lot less interactive as they all just wait their turn to die, making the statue freeze even more noticeable.

#JusticeForStatueAggro