EvilDeathBee

[ QUOTE ]
Gadgets is the internal name of Devices. It's a Legacy issue and it was my mistake when adding the patch note.

As for the change itself, there was an exploit involving TFoe and various stationary entities (like Auto Turret.) In fixing this, the player versions of these entities were locked down as well. I do realise this impacts one of the tactics Devices players used to bypass the limitations of the set. I'll be keeping an eye on this to see if the change hampers the gameplay too severely.

[/ QUOTE ]

In the meantime, can you fix the problem with Smoke Grenade suppressing stealth powers? That change "hampers the gameplay" much more than the Auto Turret change.

To be specific, the problem is that to use Smoke Grenade, you have to be close enough to a spawn that suppressing stealth causes you to be spotted if SG misses on any of the mobs.

[ QUOTE ]
* Ability to drop missions. Coming soon!(TM) I know this will make a lot of players happy that they don't need to contact Customer Service just to continue thier story arcs

[/ QUOTE ]


...provided that it doesn't lead to a drop in your commitment to fixing bugs in individual missions.

Don't get me wrong. It will definitely be good to know a mission can be dropped if we can't complete it, but at the same time we do want to complete those missions too.

Many missions, especially the ones prone to being bugged, have something special inside them that makes them more important to players than a standard one. People will invariably get more upset over not being able to do the 30 Fir Bolg mission, for example, or the last mission of a story arc than a regular "Defeat X and his minions" one. Being able to drop the mission is less desirable than being able to complete it.

At the same time, thank you for working on these issues and keeping us informed.

[ QUOTE ]
Gauntlet is a generic name for a variety of powers which all include an inherent 'Taunt' effect. The text says "Each time the Tanker attacks, he enrages the target, and those around him, enticing them to attack the Tanker."

So, what is an attack?
* Any of your Melee Powers which damage a target, and many that simply apply a Status Effect. Single Target attacks are limited to 5 critters effected per attack. PBAoE's such as Whirling Mace are limited to the number of critters that take damage -- in this case, up to 10 critters.
* Any 'Aura' powers you may have, such as Icicles or Invincibility.

Note that there is no distinction between Primary and Secondary powersets, Epic Powersets or Pool Powers? These all have Gauntlet on them, to one extent or another (Pool Powers version is limited to 1 target, and only the direct attacks have it.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the clarification, Castle.

Question: Are rain powers considered "attacks" for the purposes of Gauntlet? To be specific, does Burn have an inherent Taunt? As far as I know, it is the only damage power in any of the Tanker sets that does not take Taunt enhancements, which leads me to believe it has no Taunt.

Next question: Is it possible that the recent changes you made to rain powers (allowing them to be affected by buffs) made it possible for Burn to accept Taunt enhancements? Part of the problem people have with the power is that the accumulated Taunts you have laid on the mobs can disappear while you activate Burn and wait in the patch. This has led to a belief that Burn actually cancels Taunt.

If the damage from Burn had its own Taunt, a well-slotted Tanker could lay down a patch and be certain that the bosses which just ran out of melee range would turn and fire back at him or her, instead of charging down the nearest Defender when the effect of the Tanker's Gauntlet has expired.

[ QUOTE ]
I wonder what would happen if you walk up to Ghost Widow and start saying "Ha ha! I betrayed you! I betrayed you! nyeah nyeah nyeah!!!"

...probably not a good idea, but darn hilarious imagining it

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't recall anyone doing that, but someone did apologize for killing her.

...and yes. Several people offered her a rez.

Happy Birthday, Posi.

Too bad you got pwned by the villains today.

Who's grey to whom now....?

Congrats one and all!

[ QUOTE ]
What about the "OMG U NERFED X, Y, AND Z!!1!", "We used to be Super.. might as well be City of Pedestrians.", and the "The devs don't care! They hate me and are trying to ruin their own game because they hate money too!"? Where do they get to go?

[/ QUOTE ]

Philadelphia.

[ QUOTE ]
What people forget and the guide can't explain is that the defense it gives isn't remotely comparable to the -aggro you get from the power. That is worth 10x the paltry defense number.

Minimizing Aggro is the forgotten defense

[/ QUOTE ]

Quoted for truth.

Stealth + Snipe = High probability of pulling single minions off of a pack.

[ QUOTE ]
BRB = MOB - attacks - knockback resist + 100% dam resist


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



That still means that only people with Knockback powers would move the ball, and it wouldn't have the physics aspects that you'd want, since it has to follow knockback rules rather than particle movement rules. It would not 'bounce' properly off of objects.

All of that said, it *could* be done, but I doubt we have the free time in the schedule anytime soon, and even at that it would be fairly low priority. My guess is you'll see it around the same time as the Giant Tape Worm.

[/ QUOTE ]

So give Brawl a chance to do knockback.

Also, Accuracy was not showing up at all, as others have said.

Shiver has only the default slot with an accuracy enhancement in it, and no tooltip showed up at all.

[ QUOTE ]
Slow enhancements can effect many different things, and each of them is displayed, even if the final values are the same. I kicked that to engineering earlier to day to see if there is an easy way of condensing things.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



It's not a power/enhancement mechanic issue, _Castle_. It's the same problem that's causing accuracy enhancement values to not appear in the tooltips. Buggy tooltip display. No accuracy values, recharge showing up as slow, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Confirmed this with my ice/ice blaster.

I put a slow enhancement in Frost Breath and it read:

Slow: 33%

Slow: 33%

Slow: 33%

I assume the three things that are being slowed are runspeed, flyspeed, and recharge.

Adding a recharge enhancement, the display changed to:

Slow: 33%

Slow: 33%

Slow: 33%

Slow: 33%

So -Recharge and +Recharge are both showing up as "Slow".

Also, it would be a good idea to distinguish between the three effects that the Slow enhancement itself is doing. I.e. change them to "Slow Run Speed", "Slow Flight", "Slow Recharge".

[ QUOTE ]
Poke her (the NPC, not the dev) for some cute lines

[/ QUOTE ]

Poke her. POKE HER WITH THE SOFT CUSHIONS!!!

[ QUOTE ]
Every AT is better off than most of its proponents portray it to be, and every AT could use more attention than the devs have time to give. Such is life.


[/ QUOTE ]

*joins the Pilcrow fan club*

I'd put this in my sig if I had one. It's worth remembering when a character seems to be having trouble.

[ QUOTE ]
Honestly, I'm not sure the change for the +0/+1 foes is any cause for concern. At the levels where I'm fighting +0 and +1 minions and LTs most of the time, I'm not tossing end-consuming debuffs on them.



[/ QUOTE ]

True. If you can solo on a higher level than heroic, I'm not sure you have much business complaining about a nerf you would have to lower your difficulty level to experience.

To be honest, it's a few particular lieuts that concern me. Spectral Demon Lords for one. Fungoids maybe.

The effectiveness against Elite Bosses may be worth testing, too.

Nothing major, but worth looking into.

I can see, though, why they weren't willing to let the enhancements stay at 33%.

After seeing your edited numbers, it looks like about a 3% nerf at +1, even steven at +2, and about a 3% buff at +3.

For teaming, the numbers look fine, and hopefully testing will bear this out.

Frankly though, I'm a little worried about the way the numbers jump for an even-level lieutenant or boss. Chiefly the lieuts, since you can't avoid them by playing on heroic.

Obviously, the sky isn't falling, but I would recommend watching this as we test I7.

Speaking of which....

*off to test server*

*taps feet*

[ QUOTE ]
Are my dark defenders gonna be even worse? Is that even possible?

[/ QUOTE ]

Only if they follow some players' suggestions and roll your server back to issue 1.

[ QUOTE ]
but after seeing how I4-I6 got handled... im NOT holding my breath for fuzzy bunny time. Im not crying DOOOOOM. But i am QUITE GUNSHY on what is about to drop

[/ QUOTE ]

They're keeping it quiet, but they're going to make the Fitness pool inherent.

... for mobs.

[ QUOTE ]
+2 Level
Minion .6 -.05187 = 13.125%
Lt. .68 -.05187 = 21.125%
Boss .75 -.05187 = 28.125%

+3 Level
Minion .65 -.05187 = 28.125%
Lt. .73 -.05187 = 36.125%
Boss .8 -.05187 = 43.125%


[/ QUOTE ]

I think the numbers you're giving for +2 and +3 (pre-I7) ought to be for +3 and +4 respectively, unless you were factoring something else into those equations.

Maybe you could recheck your spreadsheet?

The numbers I get are:

+2 Minion 8.125%
+2 Lt 16.125%
+2 Boss 23.125%

+3 Minion 13.125%
+3 Lt 21.125%
+3 Boss 28.125%

The post I7 equivalents will be

[ QUOTE ]
+2 Level
Minion 16.25%
Lt. 18.687%
Boss 21.125%

+3 Level
Minion 21.25%
Lt. 24.437%
Boss 27.625%


[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
You owned an Amiga 500



[/ QUOTE ]

I still have it. On March 7th, it entered its 17th year of service, and is still going strong.

The issue isn't how long you've been playing or how skilled you are with the AT. It's that every mission should offer something dangerous.

Presumably, being a skilled player, you can halt yourself when something dangerous is coming and say "Whoa! I'll be killed here if I'm not careful." So you're careful. And you survive.

The newbie learns the hard way. But they do get out of Outbreak.

[ QUOTE ]
Also, I'm going to assume you skip the Hollows...a mind controller soloing Frostfire?

[/ QUOTE ]

Did that with a Mind/Kin, a Grav/Kin and an Ill/Emp. Once you hold him, containment takes over and Frostfire goes down like a Hellion. The one caveat is that I've never done him without having Siphon Speed or Hasten to recycle my holds quicker. Without one of those (or AM or something else) in your build, I could see having some trouble.

Mind actually solos like a demon these days. Illusion is probably weaker until you get your first pets, since you only have one power setting up containment. Mind has two.

[ QUOTE ]
and yet thats not what he was talkig nabout if statesman is banacing toward one death per heroic then their cant be ballance.



[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure Statesman ever said he wanted players to die once in every heroic mission. What he said he wanted was for every mission to offer something hairy that you may have to burn up your inspiration tray to get out of or go down fighting.

E.g. You're fighting Freakshow and finish off a yellow minion and an orange lieutenant, both of whom rez as a wandering patrol comes through the room and spots you. Time to run.

That happened to me during the Freaklympics arc. I didn't die, but that seems to be what Statesman was aiming for. More wandering patrols, wave attacks, ambushes, etc. What they're after is each mission offering a chance of dying rather than each mission offering certain death, like a pair of +1 bosses at the end. No more missions that go kill 3 minions, kill 3 minions, kill 3 minions, etc.

[ QUOTE ]
IF we were to ever add a way to get Isolator post-Tutorial, it would most likely be incredibly hard to get. Annoyingly hard. Irritatingly hard. There-would-be-a-zillion-people-asking-to-make-it-easier hard.

But IF we were to add it, it would be available nonetheless.




[/ QUOTE ]

Harder than soloing a controller to 32 pre-containment?

Don't underestimate your playerbase, Posi.

QuiJon, chill.

Regardless of whether you agree with any of the suggestions in the original post or not, there's nothing wrong with posting a lot of stuff in a brain-storming session. Castle already said a lot of Pilcrow's suggestions won't be put into effect for a variety of reasons. Let's wait and see what they do choose to implement before panicking. If you disagree with anything Pilcrow suggested, point out what problems it causes and suggest a counter-proposal.

Defiance hasn't been forgotten. I suggested a change to it earlier in the thread. Namely, I think Defiance should work more like Vigilance, and damage taken by teammates should count towards a Blaster's Defiance meter in addition to the damage the Blaster takes himself. I like the idea because it not only makes Defiance more useful, but it helps solve a problem being brought up on the Tanker forum: Tankers who forego offense to build a pure meatshield don't feel they contribute enough to the team, so there is no point in building anything but a Scranker. If a meatshield Tank has a greater potential to increase a Blaster's damage than a Scranker, problem solved. (Well, partially.)

How keen the devs are on that idea I don't know, since they would have to completely rework the percentages where Defiance kicks in and how much it boosts our damage, but Positron has said that the devs want to have more powers in the game like Oil Slick Arrow, where a teammate with a fire power can set the slick alight, in addition to the power's native abilities. In Defiance, they have a golden opportunity to do this. I'm holding out hope that they'll take it.

They need to rework Defiance so that it works like Vigilance: damage taken by teammates ups a Blaster's Defiance meter. Pow. Tankers have a definite role on the team and Blasters can be damage juggernauts. 90% of Blaster problems gone.

Resulting balance issues are Geko's problem....

I like your idea of allowing Aim to increase range, but I wouldn't add it to Build Up as well. In fact, I would argue that if the increased range were sufficiently large, you could eliminate the damage boost from Aim and still come out ahead. Assault Rifle would need to have the inherent range boosted somewhat, since that set does not have access to Aim.

Other than that, all that really needs to be done is to have a small number of control powers in the secondary changed from point blank to ranged, and I like the idea of making Time Bomb targetable by the player.

Candidates for increased range in the secondaries would be Freezing Touch in Ice Manipulation, which could be made identical to Freeze Ray. Some of the PBAoEs, like Burn or maybe Ice Patch, could be made location AoEs. I wouldn't change more than one power per set, however. Making Freezing Touch a ranged hold would be great for, say, a Fire blaster, but it would mean an Ice/Ice would have access to three (or even four) ranged single target holds. Yeesh. Fire manipulation might need a little more attention there than the others.

Incidentally, much as I love my Ice/Ice, I've thought for a long time that the second hold should have been put in the secondary rather than the primary. Tesla Cage in the Electric set should probably also have been put in the secondary. Too late to change something like that, though.