Biospark
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Posts
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My case was not so much that these powers cannot be used during combat.
btw I did know that the interrupt can be enhanced (de-hanced ? hehe
).
Its just my feeling that the interrupt seems un-necessary given the lengthy animations.
Snipe is a good example. With the exception of the great Range and Accuracy, certainly you can dish out more single target damage with other powers during the 4+ seconds of snipe. Or am I wrong ? As far as how my blasters start fights, sniping was fun for a few pulls, but if I am serious about taking down a group (after I'd say level 30), it makes much more sense to unleash AoE Hell and deal with whatever is left. Softening up the boss with a snipe could be helpful I guess, but then the spawn seems to spread out and becomes very fluid, making AoE placement more challenging.
AS, on the other hand, due to stalkers distinct lack of AoE power, should always open a fight. I guess a stalker would have plenty of other options (blasters too) during combat that a long animating attack "could" just sit there until the start of the next fight.
Again, I guess that I am just missing the point of a "need" for interrupt as a penalty since the long animation is plenty of penalty. And in the case of the Stalker, AS does considerably less damage out of hide, so would you seriously "use" this in an attack chain if the interrupt were gone? -
Quote:Hmmm, well that certainly makes sense.Originally Posted by Sharker_Quint
... back to your undserstanding of AS, how can you AS someone if they know you are there? you can't. same thing with a Snipe actually.
Score one for concept
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AS and Snipes both seem specifically designed to be used outside of combat.
For what it is worth, they are both quite fun, but I guess my question is from a point of teaming and solo, how much time do you spend out of combat. It seems that a significant percentage of your game time is spent where these powers sit "un-used" on your bar.
I am advocating (I guess), that if you remove the interrupt, that they become more versatile and able to be employed more frequently, without also becoming more powerful, simply because the animations are quite long (in most cases).
hopefully not too much of a "run-on" there.
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I realized the other day that I have tried interruptable powers many times, but with the exception of PFF+Aid Self, I never stick with them.
We all know how DPA and activation times play into most min-max discussions, and with that in mind, I notice most interruptable powers all have noticeably longer animation times as well as being interruptible.
Why not just do away with interruptability. Add the interrupt time to the activation and be done with it. Having a long animation ALONE is a death sentence for a power if your a min-maxxer, but also being interruptable (I believe) will get this power off most player's radar, at least after they realize there are better ways to maximize damage.
This whole thought came to me after my recent experience with Stalkers. AS seems needlessly hampered with an interrupt. It does considerably less damage out of hide, so the long-ish animation alone becomes a limiting factor.
This is just a "what if" thread. Feel free to show me facts that I am overlooking, but be gentle. I am a grandpa now "officially". -
Quote:It's the ole "grass is always greener" scenario.Originally Posted by Leo_G
This is actually the point of my other posts. The game isn't balanced around soloing AVs.
...but then you've got people bragging and boasting about their builds soloing these things. Ultimately, you have the 'haves' (the ATs that can be built to do this) and the 'have nots' (the ATs that are excruciatingly difficult to build for this or impossible).
IMO, those raving about the game not being balanced around soloing AVs yet pocket their AV soloing Defenders and Brutes are as much in the right as those that think it shouldn't matter which AT you're using, you should be able to build to accomplish the same task.
This is why I always tell my close guild/group friends in any of these kinds of games not to do something amazing and then go around bragging about it or making videos. That's a sure way to gain notariety (ugh don't look at my spelling) but also a good way to get hit with a nerf bat. -
My Empathy Electric will pick up Rez, Vengeance ( I already have Tactics, Maneuvers and Assault) and for my final pick, I am thinking of respecing back to the Electric Mastery pool and taking 3 powers there instead of the 2 I currently use in power mastery.
So Electric Fence, Charged Armor and Powersink instead of PBU and TI
Solo Build is gonna need alot of thought because I use Fighting pool instead of Leadership there, but cannot really afford to pick up more toggles without seriously looking at slotting changes. Perhaps, I will pick up Maneuvers and Kick as set mules, and try and find one more easy power that I skipped.
No matter what, my Mid's program will be getting a serious workout over the next few months. -
Quote:This is an interesting way of looking at IOs Psiphon. It makes sense, but you also left off a few other ATs that can get very good mileage out of IOs, like blasters.Originally Posted by Psiphon
Personally I can't seen any AT becoming redundant, Tanks and Scrappers play differently and people will play whichever they prefer.
However the current situation isn't balanced as IOs play to the strenghs of higher damage ATs. The large number of Defence IOs allow these to massively increase their survivability but high survivability ATs aren't able to increase their damage by an equivalent amount.
Bottom line, IOs favour high damage ATs such as Scrappers and Brutes.
One thing that has been a major hope of mine from the time of the games initial release is that thru some means within the game, we can customize our characters and "blur" the lines between AT types. (To some extent this exists)
First I thought Pool powers (First the primary and then the Ancillary pools) would help to blur-the-lines. They did help, but not as much as I had hoped. My Defenders STILL dont have anything resembling a melee attack chain.
Then the IO system came on scene and new hope arose that we could blur the lines a little bit more between ATs and customizing them. I consider the IO system a success but it still fell short of its possibilities. I cannot make my squishies have "real" status protection. I cannot reach any decent levels of resistance over and above what my existing toggles provide, and for the most part +def and +rech are the "cool-kids" on the block.
My newest hope is with the Incarnates system. Knowing very little about it so far, it may be too early to tell how this will "blur-the-AT-lines", but I know better than to expect it to solve all my "hybrid-ization" needs. It will be pretty cool for sure. I just hope after this round of game improvements we can get back into new AT ideas or new ways to blend ATs, like porting some assault sets to Defenders/Corruptors. -
STAVES as a melee based set for Scrapper/Tankers/Brutes/Stalkers
MARTIAL ARTS as a secondary for Blasters
ASSAULT sets ported to Defenders/Corruptors ( I Soooooo want melee/ranged mixed for my defenders)
TOXIC BLAST set for Blasters/Corruptors/Defenders
KINETIC ARMOR set for melee characters ( think Praetorian police )
PULSE BLAST set for Ranged characters ( again think Praetorian police )
BEAST MASTERY set for Masterminds ( Lions, Tigers, Bears oh my ! )
AIR CONTROL set for Controllers/Dominators ( with enough colorization options that this could look toxic, watery, smokey or windy based on color choices). heck if they made DARK CONTROL, I bet the colorization options would do it. we already know that dark can look like sand, smoke, or airy.
Cannot think of any more at the moment, but I am sure there are more. -
Quote:One reason that I suggested removing the single target taunt was that for situations where a scrapper might want to off tank, they have access to a better version.Originally Posted by TwilightPhoenix
Based on some previous comments, I suppose I'm an idiot for tanking Reichsman, Romulus, a number of other AVs, and every blue-side GM on my Scrapper. Awesome!
Anyway, Challenge, while by and large pointless, does have some theoretical advantages over Provoke. Namely, when you want to only taunt a single target. I've worked with Tanks and Brutes on ITF teams that couldn't just dogpile Rommy to split him from his Nictus by me using Confront on him and then them using Taunt to grab the three Nictus. The same could be done with Challenge and Provoke. However, situations like that where a single-target taunt is just as desirable or more so are ridiculously rare.
I had not thought about the idea of a Tanker "off-tank", so this is a good point.
But then again, I also think it makes more sense for both tier one powers to be single target, and then both tier two powers to be AoE. Compromise would have to be taken into account on the taunt powers, if they ever did "polish" up this power pool. -
Quote:Thanks for the LOL !Originally Posted by EvilGeko
...
Peacebringers.....are...umm...pretty, yeah pretty.
It's always good to end a work-shift with a smile
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Quote:Yeah, Confuse is quite a usefull tool. I would hate to see EVERY build using it, but it would require a 3 power investment and it would be at POOL-level strength. Most likely the recharge would be considerably longer and the duration and magnitude much less. Giving something that could perma-confuse a boss would be retardedly good. OTH, being able to confuse a Lt for 10 seconds on a 30-45 second recharge would not be overpowered when you think how much a player would need to invest in the pool and reducing the recharge.Originally Posted by Seldom
Getting rid of challenge? It makes sense, actually. There are no situations I can think of where challenge would do anything better/differently than provoke. But I could be proven wrong.
Placate? It might work as a tier 3, but that is freakishly strong in game practice. Few enemies resist it, as it's rare. (And given to one AT that's built around anti-aggro.) So much so that I can imagine a great many of the game's 'tough' encounters being changed if a team all could placate with ease.
Confuse? No, sorry; confuses are some of the most game-changing powers in game when it comes to dealing with enemy groups. Many have 'problem targets,' and letting anyone recruit those makes things just silly. Tsoo? Sorcerers are no problem. Longbow? Nullifiers are your handy group debuffers! Sky raiders? Order me a shield, please. Malta? Sappers, point your ray gun thatta-way.
Also note that the contagious confusion proc makes any confuse into a possible AoE.
What other powers/effects could be used for the concept of "presence" ?
Taunts, Fear, Placate, .... debuffs ? Like Bill suggested.
How about:
a PBAoE effect called "Battle Cry" creates a 30 second -toHit debuff on anything in the effect and raises your Acc/Dmg for the same duration. Long recharge.
Better than a single target confuse ? -
Quote:Call me strange, but Defender and Tanker were, and still are my top two favorite ATs.Originally Posted by Amy_Amp
Too early, but there seems to be a nice mix so far. If something is on the lower side for being played it's tanks and defenders, but those were the lesser played ATs before anyway. I would even say there is still a decent number of defenders, but defenders numbers drop off more compared to other ATs as you get higher in levels. Right now I have been vastly playing in Praetoria so I'm restricted to 1-20.
Nothing beats the solo-ease of a Tanker or the Team Support of a Defender. Although I also liked Controllers, Blasters and Scrappers prior to GR, my only level 50s are a Defender and a Tanker.
With GR, I seem to be spending all my time in Praetoria trying out new combinations and ATs, so I agree with you Amy that it could be too early to tell.
My personal opinion on most "obsolete" AT arguments;
Tankers/Scrappers being replaced by Brutes : NOPE, definitely not replacing Tanks. no opinion on scrappers really, because they seem to be different flavors, so one will appeal to some folks more than others.
Defenders being replaced by Corruptors : Maybe. Corruptors bring to a team something that I always wanted to bring with my defenders, which is a mini-blaster that also protects the team. Corruptors are REALLY fun on teams and solo pretty well too. I cannot say enough good things about SCOURGE. However, where the defender "niche" will shine is on Exemplared TF runs like POSI. Think about what powers your typical Defender or Corruptor will have at level 20. Not so sure that is the Legacy that Defenders deserve, but its just an opinion.
Dominators/Masterminds : I both Like and Dislike these ATs. Dominators play like Blasters on "easy-mode", at least until you start needing 2 applications of a Hold to stop a Lieutenant. Dominators are too Jekhyl and Hyde for me. I prefer a controller. But they are a total blast from 1-20. I am sure once Domination is perma they get better again.
Masterminds, Love them solo, HATE HATE HATE teaming with them. Especially multiple Masterminds. Those pets can clog up any hallway, blocking the path of real Heroes.
They really should have to make a choice on their pets. Use 3 little ones, 2 medium ones, or just one big one. Once you summon one type, it despawns all the rest. I realize this will probably not happen, but Masterminds, yuck.
Stalkers: This AT will not replace anyone. Its kinda fun to play. The DPS is pretty amazing, but so is their squishi-ness. I can barely handle scrapper's at lower level, but they at least get tougher and are completely survivable by the early 20s. Stalkers seem like an AT that sacrified WAY too much survival for the amount of DPS that they got.
so,
I will not be trading in any of my Tankers, Scrappers or Controllers today. I will not be inviting any Masterminds to join my team, and Don't talk to me about Defenders. I am still working on a public statement.
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Quote:I dont think any change is going to please everyone Bill, just look at how some folks actually are complaining about the Fitness pool going inherent.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Well, then, how about something more radical.
Make them *all* tier1s. No prerequisites at all. (ignoring the added power.)
Nope, your idea makes alot of sense. Point of fact, for every person that takes powers from the presence pool, there are just as many (if not more) that don't. Why ?
For me its simple, tier one is only taunts. Any character I have that might want a taunt, already has access to a better one. Everyone else would rather have the fear, which would require a useless pick to open up the fears. Its the same argument that is being levelled against you here.
Presence is the perfect example of a broken power pool. Your thoughts on making the powers a little better AND changing the access to them is "spot on target" to how this pool could be fixed.
Here is another thought;
Tier One: Single Target Fear and AoE Taunt
Tier Two: AoE Fear and a Placate power (New)
Tier Three: Single target Confuse (New)
What do you think ? -
/signed 100%
I am all for revamping the power pools like this to make more sense.
In fact I suggested something similar for the Fighting pool awhile back.
It never made a great deal of sense to take one aspect of a pool to open up a second, more desired aspect. This may have been the original intent, to force an investment cost to the better powers, however, due to the powers being less impressive than actual primary/secondary picks, this often means players will pass-over many pools and take things from other pools (Flight, Speed, Leaping...) where the preliminary picks have potential use in many types of builds. :::cough::Hasten::cough:::
Its time Devs. You know the power pools have been ignored for a long time. Let's Dooiiiit !
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I believe its 240 merits.
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It will be very difficult to run all of those toggles unless you invest in IOs that improve your recovery. Without IOs, you might be better off without the fighting pool.
My own personal FF/Energy (at level 30) went with Dispersion, Maneuvers, and Hover
This gets you to around 25% defense to all with just generic IOs.
My character has 4-slots of thunderstrike in each of his single target attacks, which puts ranged, and energy a little higher. Since he is a hover-blaster, that works well. And finally, instead of getting steadfast +3% defense IO (like most of my characters do by this level), I used my first pile of merits to get the Miracle +recovery IO for health, and that gets my net End recovery right around 2eps. Thats a number that a veteran told me awhile ago as a good target, and it works very well for all my toons.
As far as steadfast and resistance in general, I will wait for my ancillary shield to get those, and like Pinkpup, I also use the PFF + Aid Self when I get into trouble. But I am tech origin, so the tricoder works for me.
With I19, I will probably pick up leaping and just take Combat Jumping instead of fighting. Gives more defense, without any major increase in end use. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Tatmia
As someone that will soon celebrate 19 years of playing this set, I've been through more respecs trying to get my slotting, DPS just right.
Going on 21 years myself.
Thanks for the ROTFLMAO
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Quote:Originally Posted by Local_Man
Not quite . . . lets see how fast you can run tip missions at 27 with an Ice/FF controller solo.
comon Local ! Ice/Empathy if your looking for a real challenge 
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Quote:Ooops, good catch Dr.MikeOriginally Posted by DrMike2000
For Emp/Archers and an Emp Controller, dont slot for end mod, you don't have any crashing nukes.
Slot for recharge first, and for heals if you have the slots - it also provides between 500% and 1000% regen depending on slotting. You can always find a situation where there s just a little bit more incoming damage and you need that extra regen.
Biospark's advice on Doctored Wounds is excellent, if you're up for acquiring 6 sets of them (for Regen Aura and AB). The End/Heal piece is skippable for these powers, the other 5 give you around 82% heal and capped recharge.
I missed the fact that the Emp-pair was Archery.
Probably would not hurt to slip in an end-mod though, for the times you may join other teams, but like Dr.Mike said, no crash for archery makes it much less important for your dedicated team. -
Quote:Hehe (The above was quoted simply because I found it worth the emphasis)Originally Posted by Tenzhi
I don't know that Fitness as an inherent ability is a good idea, but I'd say it goes a small way towards counter-acting the bad idea of Endurance.
I believe this change is going to be a very subtle and surprising improvement to your toons.
Think about all those "situational" powers that you could not squeeze into your build before now.
My Mind-Rad Controller, is looking very seriously at powers like Mutation, and Fallout.
My Emp-Elec is looking at taking Vengeance and his Nuke.
etc... etc...
Every build can look at squeezing 1-2 situational powers in that didn't make the cut before.
That is very interesting IMO. But it pales in comparison to how much more pleasant the pre-20s leveling is going to be. How much easier it will be to choose powers at those levels, and how your endurance concerns pre-SO will have the edge taken off considerably.
It will not make the pre-20 levels overpowered. If you start taking a whole bunch of AoE powers or too many toggles, you will be dissappointed. Pre-SO is still going to be Pre-SO, but it will be more enjoyable pacing. -
Quote:For Regen Aura, I would consider 5-slots, if you can manage it and put in 5 pieces of doctored wounds. Its an affordable set that gets 5% recharge for the 5-piece set bonus.Originally Posted by Robert_B
I might be able to get away with 3 Heal/2 Rechg. since I have 3 avail to me later on when the troller gets the aura's, same with the END one though I will have to respec later to remove one of the slot's.
Other then 3 recharges, what else for AB? looks like it doesn't need anything?
For AB, I tend to go more minimalist, but my favorite slotting is 3-slotted with cheaper IOs;
EndMod/Rech
Heal/Rech
Rech
This will (usually) raise the EndMod value over 1000% which by-passes the endurance recovery penalty of using a Nuke. Since your are running multiple Nuke-capable ATs, I would seriously consider slotting this power for EndMod and also having Nukes in your builds. The Heal-Recharge is not super important, but since your already enhancing something other than recharge, I always figured, why not. -
Quote:I am a little more cynical in my view of the change.Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
I suspect part of the change was to in some way combat people saying Praetoria is too hard or that is was too boring waiting / resting between fights in it. A few other small changes, like improving Sprint, seem to be aimed at this idea of keeping people moving more compared to older CoH, and perhaps also a nod to the fact that they want people to enjoy the content rather than getting frustrated and aiming to clear the teens as quickly as possible.
To explain, let me ask you a question. If you knew that some changes that were planned were not going to go over so well, would you consider throwing a bone out there that everyone and their mother has wanted to "ease" the pain ?
:::well at least we got....::: <<--- insert Inherent Stamina here
I am not speaking from any knowledge of the upcoming I19, just thinking out loud.
You know, "hope for the best, expect the worst". Its a good plan IMO -
The Inherent fitness debate, If you could even call it that, is a joke.
We have been hearing for years suggestions for making fitness inherent, because just about EVERY toon ever made takes stamina. And now we are getting this "much asked for" change, and there are folks not happy about it. All I can say is WoW !
Just had to say that
Lets examine what this change really is doing for players.
Currently, if you are levelling a character to 22 and you want to fit in a good assortment of primary and secondary powers, plus travel AND fitness, you will be taking a minimum of 5 pool powers, leaving 8 powers from your primary/secondary choices.
By level 22 you will have opened up 7 primary and 6 secondary powers, but serious choices will have been made. Fitness becoming inherent means that of the 13 choices open by level 22, you will only have to sacrifice 2 picks to get a travel power.
More specifically, I always chose fitness, like so; Swift/Hurdle at 6th or 8th, health at 16th or 18th and Stamina at 20th.
Lets see, at 6th your fourth primary opens up, at 8th your 5th primary and at 10th your 4th secondary, and at 12th your 6th primary. Jeez, gonna have to really decide which powers you can wait on.
At level 14 I usually take my travel power, which means that I had to open TWO pool picks (Swift, Hover for example) between 6th and 12th. Thats 2 pool picks that displaced primary powers so far.
Then at 16th or 18th, you open your 5th secondary and your 7th primary picks. These are big time problems. Usually some very good powers open up here, but delaying Health will delay Stamina till 22nd level. hmmm,, decisions
Finally, if you made all the sacrifices to get stamina to open at 20th, now your 6th secondary power opens up at the SAME TIME as stamina. Again this pick is usually damn good, so instead of having this power slotted at 21, you are waiting till 23.
In the long-run, none of this matters, but everyone should plan on leveling a newbie character as soon as this goes live so they can experience the huge difference this change will have on a new character, instead of focusing on how this is going to make you "rework" existing toons. -
Quote:Having run into this kind of problem, there is something folks should be wary of ; that you cannot send emails with attached money/items until level 10. So any toon you create as a mule, will also need to be played till at least that level before they become useful.Originally Posted by enrious2
Two people, two servers.
I suppose you could temporarily create a toon on one server and do a face-to-face, which will more likely than not result in a toon being left on that server for no reason.
Probably not harmful unless you happened to get a great name (and would then be out of circulation) but it is a large amount of kludge.
And remember, the Market is completely 100% voluntary - players should not be forced to use it, nor should that enter into the thought process, IMO.
to the OP, I think this kind of functionality has merit.
I agree with enrious2 that the market is optional, so I don't think there would be any particular reason that the Devs would not want this, other than code-time constraints. -
I would go along with this suggestion. It seems fairly random to get your first tip, but it CAN take extra time just rounding up random mobs in peregrine to get your first tip.
I have noticed you will have better luck getting a tip if you go after Bosses.