Dark One

Well, I didn't exactly TRY to get that lvl46 one.

Kinda a kick in the pants for the first raid that I was on that was successful. Hit the debt cap too that time. No one wanted to trade since it was a lvl46.

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If I am not mistaken a level 45 sked to a level 48 will yield the lowest possible HO drop at 47. Testing this any further as far as I am aware is impossible. It would be nice to know but as said multiple times, it is pretty much a moot point.


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47 isn't the lowest possible Hami-O drop. I got a 46 Tohit Debuff / Defense Debuff / End (or Acc, can't remember which) when I was level 46 (SK'd to a 50). Unless of course, that was a bug. This was also prior to the change of the buds in that they no longer give the H.Os. However, it is entirely possible that there are no longer any lvl45 or 46 Hami-Os, so I may be wrong given the change to the way the Hami-Os are distributed.

Another spot that people might want to stick one of these is in Blizzard. It accepts ToHit Debuffs and to the best of my recollection, End Redux as well. I think Bitter Ice Blast also accepts ToHit Debuffs. Of course, BiB is getting Dmg / Range and Dmg / Acc if I can get them.

Question though. In the Dmg / Mez Hami-O's, does the Mez portion count for holds such as Freeze Ray and Bitter Freeze Ray? How about for powers that slow, such as Ice Storm?

Probably, but I just thought I would ask to make sure.

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• Task Forces and Trials will continue to contain Elite Bosses, ArchVillains and Giant Monsters. There will be no changes here.


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Statesman,

First let me say thank you for rolling back the boss changes. Best thing you could've done.

But I have a question concerning the quote above. Will the TF's and Trials only spawn Elite Bosses now instead of regular, non-pumped up bosses? Mainly I'm asking about the Respec TF in that they will be bumped back down, i.e. the 34-43 Respec with all the Tanks at the end? I just may not be understanding the semantics here and am just curious.

Also will the rollback of the boss changes affect Monsters and AV's? These types keeping the upped damage / health I don't mind at all seeing as how they are supposed to require a group in the first place. Again, semantics of the post, its late for me reading / posting this. Just curious.

I don't remember seeing anything about this in the thread, although admittedly I skimmed through most of it looking for red names.

Thank you again.

Exactly. It seemed the real question was danced around, IMO.

I think the question should have been:

'Why was the boss damage / health increase implemented when the mission difficulty slider was already in the works? Those players who wanted a tougher challenge could raise the slider while those players who were already having a tough time could leave it at default. Increasing the base damage and health does nothing to change the difficulty other than to turn most missions into exercises into futility for other than uber built characters.'

Or something along those lines.

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I sent a PM to Statesman yesterday with a link to some pictures (no I'm not posting the link) showing the mission text from my contact mentioning nothing about a boss in the mission and, of course, the boss standing in front of the final blinkie that was needed to finish the mission.

I doubt he'll respond but hopefully he'll take a look and realize that he was very, very mistaken about his statement with all the anecdotal evidence that's been presented.

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I suggest that we start doing this from now on with EVERY mission we undertake. Maybe that will convince him hes wrong when he sees 1000+ PM's with photos and mission text

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So I got a reply from Statesman. His response was for me to /bug it. BTW he didn't go look at the pictures that I put up for him -- the counter on the page showed "2" when I looked. 1 from me when I put the page up to make sure that it looked right and 1 from me when I went to see if he'd looked at them. I guess that they just love their /bug reports.

I am a bit disapointed with the response. I pretty much indicates that we should bug almost every mission (ok that's an exageration, how about 70% of the missions?). I guess the game is headed for City of Paperwork. Is anyone afraid of having to /insuranceclaim after every hospital visit?

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Wait, you got a response from him? When did you send the PM and when did you get the response? I sent one on Friday and I haven't gotten the read recipt thing back yet (I clicked that because I wanted to know if it actually got read). Of course, I'm not even expecting it to get opened as the title was 'Regarding Recent Changes'.

Well, even the under-25 game has been messed with to 'encourage' grouping.

Just got done running a mission with a SG mate from one of my alts. It was Flux's mission to take out the cave with the 2 bombs. I did this mission prior to I3 with my alt, so I believe I can be fairly accurate. Prior to I3, the bombs could be disabled 1 at a time, no need for a team. Now, the bombs are disable simultaneously. There's only 2 of them, so you only need 1 person, but its that the mission has been changed. Also, both of the final Lts are supposed (or were) to be named Greased Lightning (an Outcast Shocker) and Rundum (a Troll Gardvord), but only GL had a name, Rundum has been downgraded to merely a Gardvord.

Looks to me like forced grouping is becoming the norm, not the exception...

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Considering how many other threads Statesman has been replying on, I think we can conclude the answer to the claim that bosses are now too hard is "It's the VISION tm, suck on it!"

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Agreed... As soon as the complaints come in about this, he's a true superhero... Able to dodge speeding complaints, can leap big issues in a single bound...

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Well, to be fair, he is getting hammered a lot. I expect an announcement about it on Monday.

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Maybe... He NEEDS to get hammered right now, because at least he is giving off the impression right now that he is totally ignoring the pleas of the players.

I hope you are right about an announcement, I'm about at the end of my rope, and it seems like I'm not the only one...

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I sent Statesman a PM yesterday concerning this issue. In it (I feel) I was polite and considerate, no l33t speak, no ranting or raving, and simply stated the facts (from my experiences). I offered some solutions that I had thought of (if I remember right, pretty much all of them included a rollback of some kind, but with variations). I even signed my name to it (not my forum handle, even though he could get my RN easy enough).

Will he read the PM? Probably not. Will my opinion matter in the end to this issue? Again, probably not. Will I get in trouble for sending him a PM? Probably.

I just wish my account hadn't renewed the day before I3 went Live, or at least hadn't renewed for 3 months.

I'm simply not having fun any more. I can't log on for more than 15 minutes on any character, my main (lvl38) or any alt (all under lvl14) without getting tired of it. I haven't even logged the main on since it went Live (after a few too many beatdowns). I took a break for about a week at the beginning of December-ish and it helped renew my playing. Maybe its time for another break and go pick up the new Zelda GBA game and if that's not out yet, get that Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls.

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One thing that seriously concerns me about this issue is how deafening the silence from the devs on this issue is... I see States having no problem replying to a Kudos thread, but on this issue that seems to be causing a huge uproar, and making unhappy many of the people that help provide for his salary I see NOTHING.

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Of course there's nothing from them. This is the Vision (tm) and if people don't agree with the Vision (tm), they are free to cancel their account.

After all, there are always more powergamers than there are casual players, correct? And casual players only contribute a minority amount of income to the corporation right?

/end sarcasm

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And your solution (go find other mobs to kill) doesn't do much for people who have missions with bosses in them, does it? Not everybody street sweeps 100% of the time.


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As I just said in another post and am now repeating, many bosses are NOT integral to completing a mission (I think this was a change that was put in place in I2 because I don't remember any bosses that weren't integral to their missions before then, but my characters in general were lower level then so this may be an invalid conclusion).


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What about those stealthed Kill All missions? The bosses in those are integral to completing the mission. I had a couple of those (at lvl38) that started out a Rescue Hostages mission, but somehow turned into a Kill All.

It seems that the 3 missions I had available post-I3 were ALL stealthed Kill All (all from Cadao Kestrel). No choice but to take the bosses out too.

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Except for the fact that Statesman has said that ALL ATs should be able to solo, that's almost a good point.

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That's actually only part of what I've said. Solo players should always have something to do...I've never said that everything is solo-able (some missions are, others aren't), or that every Archetype can solo as effectively as another.

If a player sees a boss of his level, he should probably get help...

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I'm in a pretty bad boat at this point because of these changes. I'm 2 bubbles into lvl38 and all my contacts give me the 'See me at level 39' schtick. There's hardly anyone on Protector anymore so it's pretty difficult to get a group together for the 2nd respec trial or finding a group for the Sewers or Eden trials. And please don't say 'Find another server' because I have too much time invested on that one and unless a character transfer option is available, its a moot point.

What am I left with?

Street hunting. Street hunting were pretty much every group of baddies that are even anywhere near profitable (I mainly look for blues with white to orange bosses) for me are no longer manageable.

Crey Protectors and PP's are essentially off-limits. No way am I going near these guys with this upped garbage. Take on Force-Fielders with about 50% more health and increased damage? Hah. Take on guys that 99% are able to get off Moment of Glory / Unstoppable / Elude with scrapper damages? I've already got my third debt badge thank you very much.

Freaks? Take on a Freak tank that can ressurect himself after the difficulty increase? Essentially fighting two bosses? Nope, not happening.

Devouring Earth? I absolutely refuse to fight these things. I had enough of them through the story arcs and the contacts. Hate them with a passion.

What am I left with? I'm too low for Peregrine Island, no one will group with a level 38 they think wants Power Levels. About the only things left are bossless 5th / Council and Circle of Thorns. Both of which only net me less than 100 exp per and at ~1.25 million exp to get to 39, that'll take a loooonnnnggg time. The Abandoned Sewers are a deathtrap. Tried that place, tried sniping / pulling and ended up getting spit on to death.

I hate to say it, but I'm losing faith in this game as well as not having any fun. Logged in twice today and just couldn't bring myself to do anything. I'm very close to closing my account and moving on to something else. I've been here since August 31 and had a great time. I REALLY do not like the direction this game is taking.

Unless some decisions are reversed (and soon) I have a feeling a lot of the casual gamers, those who haven't already left the building, will be mosing on. Statesman, maybe you should eat some crow and admit that this wasn't a good change or well thought out.

Maybe I should give World of Warcraft a try. If it's good enough to hook Tycho and Gabe, then it oughta be good enough for me...