BrandX

Originally Posted by Lycantropus

What would I like to see?

For those who remember the not-too-far-in-the-past Justice League animated series, You may or may not remember that after two seasons they changed formats to Justice League Unlimited. While Justice League focused on the 'core' group, the JLU focused on individuals or groups coming together to solve whatever case was up. Mix and match, get to know the whole DC universe and it's miriad characters. I liked both styles, but there's a key here that really hit a chord with me.

I want us, the players, to have the chance to become the "Unlimited" to the Freedom Phalanx. Make us the newest members alongside Penny. Give us the opportunity to take the signature characters as mentors like villains can in Arachnos. Give us story arcs that make us care about each of them and why they believe the way they do, to earn their trust so they may teach us their secrets (like the villain patrons do). Come up with story arcs both hero and villain side to expand upon that relationship/understanding of lore that makes us give a pancake about any of them and why they're in 'our' (the player's) world.

The trick here is to do it without putting words directly in our character's mouths, but by drawing us lines that give us understanding (whether we agree or not) into the heroes passion and/or reasoning for doing what they do in a way that anyone can respect (again, whether we agree or not). Not as easy as villains, but just as possible.

Many have made a lot of 'broad brush' strokes for the various hero's motivations/faults during the SSA, but what else do we have to base on them? Don't tell me comics and novels (though I've read them all myself). Most players, especially new ones, won't get it, and don't know there's story outside of this game.

I see a lot of empathy for the villain Patrons in a lot of these replys (which is funny, since apparently nobody likes to play villain side) compared to the disdain we have for the signature heroes. This, in my opinion, is one of the main reasons for this. We never get to see their story, or ambitions, played out in a way we can get 'in-game'.

I have characters that would be honored to join the Phalanx and finally get to understand the 'premiere' heroes of Paragon. Don't you? Let's join Penny in getting to know the Phalanx and be a part of the team! (disclaimer: This, like the villain patrons, would presume this would be pre-incarnate content.)

That's what I really would like to see.

Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect

Pssst.....your friend can make TWO characters you know.

Originally Posted by Vimes_NA

You get the same % damage bonus for being at FotB lvl 3 (12.75%), and the +damage from using it as a finishing move is proportionally the same (eg, on sky splitter it adds +20% damage).

Originally Posted by eth_Nargy

The thing is, they don't change the shoulders or anything, so they end up looking completely horrible. Like cartoon characters or something.

It was virtue and freedom from what I saw. I probably have a picture of one in my screenshot folder.

*Edit* Looks like I can't find it. Oh well, not missing much.

Originally Posted by Wynele

Ms. Liberty: She's Statesman's only surviving blood relative, and thus his heir. At the very least she should have been considered and/or offered a position.

Aurora Borealis: She was Sister Psyche's sidekick and one time host. Shalice was her mentor and friend. Plus, a reskin of Mommy Mayhem would have been a (assumed) easy way to give her an update.

Back Alley Brawler: Never understood the love for this character. But, hey, old guys that can beat you senseless are cool.

Synapse: No reason to keep him, but no reason to toss him out either. Devs forget he exists half the time. But, he is the token speedster. Needs to mind the 4th wall, though.

Positron: Need someone to do "SCIENCE!"

And since it's a "dream team"

Redeemed Scirocco: As the resident broody, "I most atone for my past, while ironically being morally superior to everyone else." angst bucket character.

Originally Posted by PsychicKitty

I think archtypes dont really need help more then specifc power sets.

but if it where me i would work on Corruptors and Defenders those are serioulsy in need of help....they are like the side kick archtypes....

the characters the main villains ridicule becasue as master healers they cant heal themselves or they can create huge blasts of energy that do absolutely nothing but singe the enemy....or better still the ones who if things go wrong can only watch helplessly as their team dies.

I mean i dont want to sound too mean or critical....but personaly out of all the defenders and corruptors i have played over the years I never felt like i was really making a big difference on my teams....i mean i could see the effect i had when i play a controller or blaster or tank....but just never felt it with corruptors or defenders.

I mean sure when i buff botted on one character there was one mission...but out of 100's of missions...i dont think i could ever really defend myself...nor actualy stop a team wipe...i could with other characters...but not with a defender or corruptor....

Its like the sniper shots doing at the top 150 damage when i play a blaster i do 500...i heal someone for 300 damage they use their own heal power for 500.
I put shields on a group start getting shot at and realize i dont have any personal defense.

Also on every corruptor and defender i tend to die alot more then any other archtype....

And from everyone i talked to....that seams to be normal....and that is just Frustrating and wrong.

So maybe i am just biased, but i think the numbers speak for themselves on this.

Originally Posted by Cyber_naut

Anybody know how good this set would be on a stalker with all the stalker buffs? I would think it would do better dmg than scrappers and brutes due to the fact it gets body for free, and then build up on top of that.

Originally Posted by Telperion

Thanks-i like those two tweaks as well, which would give Spines/ something to use reliably out of hide/placate on hard targets, and boost sustained dps in situations where it'd matter (AVs, trials, lethal-resistant foes.

I'm still interested in animation smoothing so the set feels a bit less...chunky. In leveling my ice/thorn dom, once I built for high recharge and the ice epic, my /thorns use smoothed out to mostly lunge, ripper, and fling thorns. I tend to sigh when I'm locked into the impale animation, lol.

Originally Posted by Hyperstrike

Two words (well, two more): PLOT ARMOR

And guys, I don't care how great you think Buffy is. NOBODY dodges a supersonic round fired from a mile or more out. They're not faster than sound and their head winds up like a watermelon at a Gallagher show before a single sound is heard.

Originally Posted by eth_Nargy

That look is so kawaii desu ugyuu.


What about the horrible looking minimum physique slider/minimum hip slider, cat ear, reaper face detail, belly shirt with long sleeves, huge gloves, and disco (short shorts with thigh high socks) bottoms that was going around a while ago? Now THAT was a stupid look. And the bad thing was, 2/3 of the female characters had it.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

You're making it a lot more complicated than it is. I don't hate Devices because it's "different." I hate Devices because it takes me three times as long to achieve anything as it takes my Fire Mastery or Energy Mastery Blaster, and that's if I'm lucky and my mines don't fizzle. I don't dislike Dual Pistols because it uses Swap Ammo and not Build Up. I dislike it because its overall DPA is horrid and I keep getting killed winding up over-long animations that an AT of such fragility doesn't benefit that much from. I disliked Stalkers before the change because they were forced to play smarter and harder and still only ever match Scrapper and Brute performance, who could achieve the same by falling asleep at the keyboard.

What the goal of game balancing should be is to let every player reach the same level of progression and performance with roughly the same level of skill and involvement. Exactly what the player has to do to achieve this isn't relevant, nor is the specific difficulty of achieving it, what matters is that all ATs and all powersets strike if not exactly that kind of balance, then at least something close to it.

At the end of the day, I will not play an AT or a powerset that constantly makes me feel like I'm working twice as hard to do half as good as most of my other characters. I don't care if its playstyle is an outlier, unique or interesting. If the character can't perform up to par, then there's something wrong with that character. And if I can't fix what's wrong with the build, then something's wrong with how that character is balanced, and something needs to be fixed. It's really just that simple.

I don't believe in "hard mode" characters. Hard mode is easily achievable by increasing your difficulty, and you're even rewarded more for it. If a character is "harder" to play than others at the same difficulty, all that means is that character is levelling up more slowly. That's precisely what got Blasters to Defiance 2.0 - Blasters were dying more, playing less and levelling slower than all other characters by a significant margin. They were clearly and provably underperforming, so they were improved. Not enough in my book, but apparently enough for people to play them again.

Variety and diversity can still exist in a system where most characters using most builds do roughly as well as each other. They don't need to accomplish this in the same way using the same tactics, just so long as they level about equally as fast in the hands of the same player. It's not about preference, uniqueness or technique. It's about performance. Nail that and you can proceed to be as unique about how you do it as you want.

Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill

Psychic Melee should be the most END-friendly set out there. If you know your punch is going to miss, you don't use it...

Originally Posted by daveyj3

for forcefield i'd say up the dmg of force bolt, give repulsion field a little dmg too, and give force bubble a -to hit debuff or something O_O. then it would so be my favorite set evar.

Originally Posted by VoodooCompany

How much clothing are we talking about..........?

>.>

Originally Posted by Lothic

I'll be diplomatic enough to say that Natasha could likely beat Buffy before she had any serious training. But Buffy, once she became the Slayer, literally had superhuman superpowers which included super strength and resistance. Slayers, as envisioned by Whedon, are almost like a version of Wonder Woman - at best Natasha is a very skilled "normal" human.

On average Natasha might get a few lucky shots in on Buffy but I would bet a win for Buffy pretty much every time these two matched up.

Originally Posted by Telperion

I'm grateful for this thread- I've taken a long break, and over the course of two issues a lot has changed. I maintained my sub, and the SBE procs sound like a nice thing to spend VIP paragon points on.

The stalker changes are excellent, and are what got me looking at the game again; I have a concept for a spines/ice, as the son of my incarnate ice/thorn permadom. I think it'll be a great toon, especially with /ice/levi or /ice/dark backing it up, but here's my wishlist for spines/:

-Make Ripper a 100% crit on the main target, keep 50% crit for the aoe, like thunderstrike. ••Edit•• from hidden status ••/edit••
-Trim animation times for Spine Burst and Impale, perhaps Lunge.
-Discard the legacy Barb Swipe animation.
-•Just a thought• Make the toxic dot 100% chance rather than 80%/tick?

I'll play it regardless because it's thematic; spines/thorns could use some love, though.

Originally Posted by Tartyrsause

Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon

You and me both, on both counts. My DP/Kin needs faster animations!

Originally Posted by Tenzhi

If it were boneless I'd give it a try.