ClawsandEffect

But, insane isn't necessarily evil. There's a reason the ruling of "Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity" in court cases exists. If you are sufficiently out of touch with reality, the nature of morality changes drastically.

As far as downright, deliberately, intentionally EVIL?

Phipps wins by a landslide. He knows exactly how terrible the things he has you do are, and he enjoys it.

That's Manson-grade evil there.

Tyrant and Nemesis are tied for second in my book.

There is something to be said for the evilness of a man who does horrible things to the very people he is supposed to be protecting while utterly convinced that he is doing it for the greater good. In my opinion, removing someone's free will and ability to think for themselves is worse than just killing them. If you kill them, they are just dead. Destroying who they are is far worse. Not only have you destroyed the person, but you've also corrupted their loved ones' memories of them. Unforgivable as far as I'm concerned. And Tyrant does that on a massive scale, as punishment for the crime of disagreeing with him.

And Nemesis makes Doctor Doom look like an amateur.

So no one should be allowed to play an appropriately dressed villain then?

It's not just heroes that get costume pieces you know.

The easiest way to go about IOs is to use the common ones.

They are just like SOs, but you will never outlevel them.

At level 30 they are better than SOs because the enhancement is comparable, and you don't ever have to replace them unless you want to.

Slotting Set IOs for bonuses can come later, or not at all if you like, but I do recommend slotting the common IOs instead of SOs at around level 27.

Pssst. My only /Devices character is Sonic/Devices. I get squat from all of this.

Where did I say it fixed any of those issues? I didn't even imply that it did.

My point was that those issues existed, and that players of other secondaries did not have to deal with them. I was illustrating that it is a little messed up to begrudge a set a nice bonus from a new mechanic when it's been getting dirt kicked in its face for 8 years.

Soloists never use Aim or Build Up? Ever? They skip those powers entirely? I find that idea unlikely in the extreme.

Build Up before an AoE is a larger benefit than permanent fast snipes will EVER be. Hell, Build Up before a fast snipe is a larger benefit than permanent fast snipes.

The only sets that cannot have permanent fast snipes can use Build Up prior to firing off their AoEs for +100% damage. They can also use the same fast snipe after Build Up or Aim, getting that same +100% damage. Devices does not, and never will, get the benefit of having Build Up.

I'm still confused about this. Why does everyone seem to be under the impression that because some Blasters cannot have fast snipes permanently, they are getting ZERO benefit from this change? It's not like the devs said "If you have Build Up in your secondary you're excluded from this".

I'll spell it out:

-The fast snipe change works exactly the same for everyone who has a snipe power.

-Blasters who have Targeting Drone can make that change permanent, but they still cannot make that snipe hit any harder than they could before.

-Blasters who have Build Up instead of Targeting Drone cannot make that change permanent, but they can add a 100% damage boost to the exact same fast snipe Devices gets.

So, what you have is: most Blasters can make their snipe fast on occasion, and can boost its damage in the process. One specific Blaster secondary can make its snipe fast all the time, but has no real way of boosting its damage. How is that not a fair trade-off?

In the Blaster's case, those things are also self-contained within their primary and secondary. They do not require pool powers to do.

-Defenders and Corruptors can also make it permanent. BUT...in most cases they will have to make very specific build decisions to do so. Only a couple sets can do it self-contained like the Blasters. I find it difficult to believe that a significant number of people will alter their build to the degree necessary to achieve permanent fast snipes, especially if it compromises their build in other areas.

Maybe a few Corruptor and Defender combos will get a little better at soloing AVs and GMs, and a couple sets might actually be worth playing now (Defender Electric Blast, I'm looking at you).

I really don't see how it is so game-breaking and unfair that only Blaster combos with Build Up instead of Targeting Drone don't get permanent fast snipes. Especially seeing as how they still can use the fast snipe, just less frequently and with a damage bonus attached.

Again, my solitary /Devices character is Sonic/Devices. I don't benefit at all from the changes. Not even a little bit.

My other Blaster is Fire/Fire...he already has too many attacks to use, and is more AoE focused. A snipe power is useless to him, especially since Blaze is going to have the same range as everything else.

Question:

Would people respect Superman if he used his godlike powers to beat up muggers that posed zero threat to him, while balking at the idea of fighting something that can hurt him?

Not likely.

That's what I'm seeing a lot of. People becoming Superman and beating up carjackers instead of fighting something that can fight back.

You're looking at it the wrong way.

How many Blaster secondaries can have permanent fast snipes?

One. /Devices.

Now, how many Blaster secondaries do NOT have a damage boosting power in them?

One. /Devices.

Seems like the devs wanted to give /Devices something special to make up for its lack of Build Up.

Defenders and Corruptors don't get Build Up either. And they can have permanent fast snipes too.

Seems to me that it's a great deal more fair than you're making it out to be.

Permanent fast snipes instead of the ability to add +100% damage to ALL your attacks for 10 seconds? Seems fair to me.

Especially since the sets with Build Up gain that +100% damage bonus AND have a fast snipe while that bonus is active. They just can't do it all the time.

Still consider it unfair?

Not a supergroup. PinnBadges is a global channel.

Global channels are cross-server and cross-side, so if you say something in one, you will be heard in the channel no matter where you are in the game. You could be in Peregrine Island on Pinnacle and hold a conversation with someone who is in Cap Au Diable on Protector.

You can join PinnBadges anytime you like via the Join Channel button that will pop up when you right-click on your chat window. You will be silenced on joining but that can be rectified by asking a channel OP to unsilence you (look in PinnBadges under your Friends tab, channel OPs will have blue names)

I won't be in-game for the next week or so due to going on vacation, but after that I will be happy to lend a hand and answer any questions you may have if you catch me online.

For every player that wants more challenging things to fight.....there will be 3 that whine when their Incarnate character gets owned when they try to button mash their way through something instead of approaching it with caution. Look at how many times people have complained that enemy group X is cheating because they actually lost a fight with them. There is never any question of "what should I be doing different?" it's always "I jumped into a mob and died...they're CHEATING!"

Most players I've seen don't want to become Incarnates in order to fight harder stuff....they want to become them in order to trivialize the stuff they were already fighting.

Sad....but true.

The funny thing is....I believe you're actually serious.

Short end of what stick exactly?

The stick that says we get access to an entire system that a Premium player never can, no matter HOW many points he wants to buy?

The stick that gives us all of the SSAs for free?

The stick that gives us a minimum of 400 points for free every month?

Oh...wait a second....that last one......

We DO get those sets for free.....we just don't get them the day they are released unless we saved our stipend and didn't blow it on other stuff.

For some sets (Electric, maybe Dark) it's a huge boost to their single target damage output.

It sends AR/Devices from the bottom of the heap to the top of it in terms of single target DPS, outshining even Fire Blast. That's because Sniper Rifle still gets the bonus damage from Targeting Drone.

It's actually a good way to boost the sets that need it, especially since the top performer (Fire) benefits the least from a fast snipe.

And this is why we can't target ourselves.

The inability to target ourselves is exactly why our ally-only buff powers are so effective. If we could target ourselves, those powers would get gutted pretty much immediately.

In all seriousness....an Empathy Defender would be just as tough as a Regen Scrapper. And would still have the team utility to bring to the table. Defenders with ally buff powers are generally weaker soloers, precisely because of the buffs they bring to a team. If they could bring those buffs to a team AND be among the best soloing powersets, it would be pretty unbalanced.

What makes you think I was talking about trials?

+2/x8 is the normal difficulty setting in missions for my tougher characters. If you aren't level 50 yourself you will be SKed to 49 and they will be +3 to you.

DFB is bad enough in cranking out players that have no clue how to use powers obtained past level 10. We do NOT need MORE ways for clueless players to reach level 50 without stumbling on how to play the game along the way.

I could tell you some amusing stories about players I've met that leveled in DFB, but I don't have several hours to type them all out.

It isn't that a free player would be able to have 6 pets out plus themselves.

It's that a VIP, or free, or Premium player would be able to play 8 Masterminds simultaneously, using 7 free accounts and their main one. All you would have to do is set the 7 non-active Masterminds to Follow the main one while hovering, and spam a non-targeted power of some kind with their pets set on Aggressive.

Imagine the chaos and lag it would cause in a zone if several people decided to do that all at the same time. There actually isn't anything stopping people from doing it now, but since you have to pay 1200 points to unlock Masterminds, you can't just set up a bunch of free accounts to do that with. It's going to cost more than most people are willing to spend.

Edit: Dominators were not locked because they are a more active playstyle. It's a lot easier to 8-box Controllers or MMs than Dominators, because Dominators don't have non-targeted buff powers that can be put on auto-fire.