Dispari

I for one will probably be going for the +19.5% damage for most of my toons. Let me briefly look at my lineup...

Energy Blaster - Yeah, damage
Plant/Earth/Fire Dom - She has everything I could want already, and a boost to her damage would be great
Widow - She, too, has everything maxed out, and I'm picking up Assault with the Fitness changes, so another +dmg is awesome

Now where things pick up,
Demon/Thermal MM - I'm going with the rech/heal one here, so I can heal, buff, and debuff better
Necro/Dark MM - Definitely rech/heal, so I can debuff faster and my many heals are stronger
Elec/Inv Brute - I actually haven't decided yet, as she already peaks on damage when doing LR. Maybe rech/heal?
DP/Dark Corr - I really don't know at all for this one

The only thing I can say about the incarnate is, if you aren't excited about a free +19.5% damage or +14.3% rech/heal, then you can't possibly be the type of person who's willing to spend hundreds of millions on purple sets to switch from +5% recharge to +10% (if you are, consider that the recharge incarnate is like having four more purple sets slotted).

If you aren't at all interested in stacking bonuses that build up to a larger increase, then you probably aren't interested in the invention system either. And I guess you could be right, and you can stick with the base incarnate bonus if you really aren't interested. In which case, I guess wait for the next incarnate level(s).

To start off, the common does 33% RECH and nothing else. Only 1/6 of that ignores ED. So if you have, say, a Regen Scrapper, slotting this gives you a neat +9.6% to +33% recharge (depending on your slotting) for all your attacks and heals and clicks and whatnot. That's an okay bonus.

Uncommon and up not only gives more bonuses, but it has more ED-piercing. That means both of those +45% enhancements give at least +19.5%, even if you're already at the ED cap. So you can get at minimum, +19.5% recharge for all your powers. So just by jumping to the +45% bonus, you can more than double what the common gives.

On top of that you can also get a bonus to heal, which gives you more heal power and regen, and gives you an extra +14.3% power for all that. So all your heals are nearly 15% more powerful, and you get more regen and +HP and everything else. On top of everything having a near 20% recharge bonus. Plus there are some other random bonuses, like maybe you're MA so you get bonuses to your stuns. Or you take the other one and get a bonus to your Build Up's +ToHit.

Even if the +recharge one isn't that great, consider the +dmg one. Just about everyone can make use of an extra +19.5% damage. That's more than you get with a Defender on the team running Assault. Heck imagine slotting that on a Dom, getting +19.5% for your main attacks as well as +45% for powers like your AoE immobilize that you don't normally slot for damage but are suddenly packing a punch.

We talked about this during the last beta and either a dev or Arcanaville spoke up to mention that they were designed SPECIFICALLY so that they A) can't boost something other than what they're supposed to boost (meaning they don't buff -DEF while buffing +DEF), and B) don't buff something a power can't be slotted for. In theory this should mean that it can't buff the recharge in Domination, and would also mean you can't buff the recharge in Mind Link (anyone feel like testing that?)

If true, that means my faith in the art team (or rather you, David, specifically) isn't misplaced.

You maybe should. For all the people who are complaining that their builds will somehow get tighter, adding powers that don't need slots is the obvious solution. Even if you're only adding things for their base slot as a proc/global.

I've actually put some thought into this. I have no intention of moving a significant number of slots around or changing my builds much. I do however intend to take advantage of the fact that I get A) three new power picks for free, B) an extra power pool on several characters. I have all kinds of powers I'm planning on picking up and adding which I can benefit from even without adding any slots. Not only is this not going to make my builds tighter, it will untighten some of my builds. I always wanted CJ on my Invuln Brute (she has Hover thematically but it's no use in combat), Aid Self on my Widow, and more recharge on my Dom.

Going over a short list of characters in Mids:

Plant/Earth/Fire Dom:
* Take three powers from the stealth pool in order to slot three LotGs

Elec/Invuln Brute:
* Combat Jumping (LotG and +DEF)
* Superior Conditioning (PS proc)
* Physical Perfection (+regen/+recov)

Necro/Dark/Soul MM:
* Recall friend, foe, and group TP

SS/WP Brute:
* SC, PP
* Resurgence

DS/Thermal MM:
* Power of the Phoenix, Thaw (I always skip these powers in tight builds)
* Assault

Energy/Energy/Force Blaster:
* Combat Jumping
* Power Push (just because)
* Group Fly (Hamidon and RP)

Soft-capped Widow:
* Assault (putting her at +60% DMG)
* Aid Other, Aid Self (even at base slot it'll help considering she's soft-capped)

If you think you have to take things like Hand Clap or powers that require a ton of slots, you just need to look more closely at your options. My melees are all growing more durable, my Dom gets more recharge, two characters will do more damage, and I get a few utility powers all around. That's pretty nice.

A person's options for controlling endurance before 20-22 are extremely limited. The "endurance system" is far too severe at this point. Just taking a toggle can totally ruin your endurance as early as level 4. You can't really slot to reduce endurance, or have the ability to get Stamina and ease the pain. It's a harsh, harsh lesson in endurance that's not really fair to players.

Besides, giving Stamina "for free" doesn't allow anyone to have any more endurance management than they had access to in the first place. It's not like everyone will run around without care anymore (unless you believe they can already do that, in which case nothing is changing anyway). The only difference is players below level 20 won't be as harshly punished for power picks.

Pre-SO levels are pretty miserable, especially if you're running out of endurance constantly, missing all the time, doing low damage, and have to fill up half your power picks with prereqs. Free fitness is definitely an improvement to the game experience, especially early on.

I think you're misunderstanding the point of the fitness change.

Fitness is made inherent because there is no real "alternative" to fitness. They checked and showed that the vast majority of characters in the game over level 20 have Stamina. There's really no alternative to Stamina. A few select builds can get away without it, like /Traps MMs and /Regen Scrappers. But heck I even have Stamina on those characters.

Stamina is considered a "necessity" for nearly every build and every AT. There's always someone who speaks up and notes that they can get away without it, but they are the minority. Data mining confirmed that. Nearly everyone has Stamina because it's so simple and all-encompassing and there's almost no way around it. Everyone feels like they have to have it.

Super Speed is not a "necessity." Nobody considers SS an essential part of every build for every character. In fact there are six easy alternatives to SS: Super Jump, Flight, Teleport, Ninja Run, doing local missions (newspapers, AE), and having someone else carry you around. If SS was made inherent, all the travels would. Every character could fly, with super speed, and teleport. Not only would this give everyone the full advantage of complete mobility, but it would also pretty much completely invalidate Ninja Run (except for the few levels between it and when the other powers unlock).

It would also give everyone extremely easy access to BotZ and knockback prevention which is like a whole other thing.

You haven't been paying much attention then. Nobody likes the party pack, and the devs have been boasting super-difficult Incarnate content for the future. Which is how it should be. The game should have a curve, starting easy and ending up as hard as you want it to be. There's no need to force players to pick a bunch of unnecessary powers below level 20. That doesn't make the game easier, it just makes the game boring and repetitive.

Yeah. I'm not sure what all these arguments are about inherent fitness making the game easier. If anything it's going to make it slightly harder for me -- having to figure out what 3-4 powers to fill in those power picks with, and figuring out how I'm going to get slots to use them.

Giving us fitness for free doesn't make the game easier, it just makes it less mechanical. I already take Swift on EVERY character between 6 and 12, and Health at 14-18, and Stamina at 20. Those are not interesting or fun power picks. I'm burning 3 power choices by 20 just to get something to control my endurance.

And because I can't control my endurance (especially if I'm running on TOs and DOs), I also have to put off toggles and other expensive powers. So basically the 1-22 ride is really boring on every character, and why a lot of people rush up to 22 or so. I'd like to actually take the level 20 power at 20. I'd like to take the 16 and 18 powers at the levels they unlock at instead of devoting one of those slots to Health. I'd like to actually take active powers in the early levels instead of a ton of prereqs. Most of the reason I love NR is because it doesn't fill my character up with prereqs and necessary power picks.

My only question is if I get Hurdle for free or if I'll have to somehow pick it. I only rarely take Hurdle on any characters. If I get it free that's pretty cool. Almost all my toons use NR and CJ, so jumping higher and faster will speed me up.

I also worry about slots, especially in the early levels, but not that much. Right now taking Swift at 6 might be boring, but at least I can use my slots at 7 for something else. I can't now though.

And your kin needs a long recharge power that buffs damage rather than an attack?

Are you guys going to address the fact that two MM APPs don't have shields, Controllers have a duplicate PFF and a pointless Soul Drain, and the other numerous issues with APPs/PPPs?

It's not. There's a marker on the map for the difficulty NPC, but there isn't one there. The NPC is missing, but the map clearly shows they intended to place one.

If you think the game is too easy, what's stopping you from upping the difficulty (other than the fact that there's no NPC in Praetoria at the moment, which is unintentional)?

A player who finds the game too hard can only go to -1.

A player who finds the game too easy can go all the way up to x8 as many enemies, and +4 levels of difficulty.

It's far easier to set the base difficulty very low, and allow players to adjust upward when and how they are ready for it. It is not easy to make the game extremely difficult and expect people to be able to play it and enjoy it.

If I think the game is too hard (such as when you're faced with 8 EBs at the same time, ala DeVore arc), there's not a lot I can do. If you think the game is too easy, there is a huge system available to you to make it up to 32x more difficult and challenging.

If you find the new "nerfed" Praetoria too easy, +1 it. If that's not enough, +2 it. Then add more people. I can guarantee you, somewhere between +0/x1 and +4/x8 you will find a degree of difficulty that is suitable for your level 7 Blaster.

So why exactly are you against making the game more accessible to new players if you can still play the game on hard mode if you choose? Do you not think that other people would like to play on a different difficulty than you? Are you so selfish that you want the game to be suited to you, and not suited to everyone? As GMan said, "Your argument is flawed because YOU don't like something and expect that EVERY new player will feel the same way." Do you believe every new player will want to play at this high difficulty that you're enjoying? Because if it's toned down, everyone can be happy. Including you. You can still play hard mode, but others can play the easy mode. You literally lose nothing. But others gain something. Your way means you and people who like hard stuff are happy. My way means everyone is happy. So what's the problem? Please explain why this is unacceptable. Because I really want to hear it.

You keep saying that, even though I just explained that toning down the difficulty but still allowing you to up it with the notoriety system would please BOTH of us. I'm not sure how "only you are happy" changing to "everyone is happy" means I can't see your side of the argument.

Although the fact that you can't understand what I'm saying and just dismiss me instead of trying to refute my argument sort of indicates you can't see my side.