EvilGeko

I think this is absolutely necessary. I would add that folks with temps should have a bright aura around them so people can immediately see what's going on. In that case if someone DCs and there really aren't enough temps then we'll know.

wow.

Which makes it all the more sad that they are significantly more fun than the tedious and poorly written Kheldian arcs!

That the stated idea would have many positive effects and not nearly as many negatives as its made out to have. I don't even particularly care whether its implemented but I feel the arguments here don't adequately address the issue.

Why does the game need to be balanced anywhere then?

Not like every AT. My three incarnates are a Cold/Ice Def, Fire/Shield Scrapper, and a BS/Regen. The solo differential is like night and day and this is with a soft-capped defender.

You don't have to prove they can't do the content. Only that they are earning rewards (exp, etc.) much slower than other ATs. There was a differential and that's why Vigilance changed. A buff that some needed others didn't. Do they need more buffs? I don't know, but I don't think an Empath even would be doing +4/x8 even with this change.

While I was using defenders as an example, I fully intended to fold in the others.

Dark and Cold have nothing to complain about now or under this idea. Especially the now trivially soft-capped Colds.

Most of my objections with the slot could be cured by this. I don't think it needs to be perma, but when I compare it to Interface which is always there, always helping or Destiny which is often perma by T3, I feel the power is all but worthless. It's not, of course, but it's not nearly as fun.

No it's still moot.

Trying to wave away Inventions is beyond silly. But they SUPPORT this suggestion they don't detract from it. Allowing defenders the ability to aid themselves evens the playing field with those who have used Inventions to do the same thing.

For example, everyone likes to toss out Empathy, but let's take poor Force Field as an example.

A Force Field defender gets 23.4% defense to all but psi from being able to buff themselves. That's it. Everything else is either already available to them solo. Yes, that 23.4% gets them very close to being soft-capped, but so what? Everybody and their uncle is soft-capped these days. Ask Arcanaville how powerful being soft-capped is without some sort of heal. Given the obvious low numbers of people that use that powerset in normal play, why not give it more incentives.

Saying, "well they can do that with SOs" I still say, "So what?" The fact is a blaster can do it with a few hundred million of influence (supplemented by selective A-merits purchases) but will do conservatively 2x as much damage. The defender will NEVER do as much damage as that blaster. There's no amount of damage buffs in the system that's going to get them beyond the average buff of Defiance.

Another reason to allow this is simply fairness. Defenders aren't equal in the lack of ability in using their powers. Several defenders get full benefit from every power their have including Traps and Trick Arrow. Others get the full benefit from every power except one: Radiation (just the rez), Dark (just the rez), Storm. Among those remaining, it's not clear at all how overpowered it would be except for Empathy.

Force Field - See above
Kinetics - They get speed boost and increase density
Cold - They get the shields and Frostworks
Sonic - They get the shields, better mez protection and the -res aura
Empathy - Gets Fort, their heals, Clear Mind and Adrenalin Boost

Yeah, so there's some nice benefit there for a few sets. But that's corrective IMO. Traps, Radiation and Dark are well known to be extremely powerful solo and only missing the rez at worst is hardly a great burden.

Not really that simple. The defense would be well shy of an SR, although still very good. The HP would be significantly less than a scrapper so that regen isn't that hot. And the damage would be only close to a blaster until defiance starts supercharging the blaster's damage.

Empathy is the best example of any balance problems and it's not that impressive post inventions and post incarnates. The "overpowered" argument is old and all but moot. That said my Incarnate defender is a cold who is already soft-capped so she wouldn't get much from this idea other than some HP.

Brute melee damage scalar is .75; damage cap is 775%

By contrast Scrapper melee damage scalar is 1.125; effective damage with crits is 1.2; damage cap is 500%

.75*7.75= 5.8125

1.2*5= 6

So at the damage cap, Scrappers will slightly outdo Brutes with the same powerset.

The "they would be done on the first day" is only part of the reason. The fact is, and I recognize this bothers people, is that they wanted you to do the trials.

It's that simple. The trials are designed with a certain base level of difficulty and coordination required. For the time being the devs want to give this content a de facto exclusivity in earning rewards.

SOs are worth an avg or 15K inf. Times 10 that's 150K. Since you have no idea how long it would take or what the opportunity cost, I'll just thank you for the bump and say I disagree.

WOOT!

UPDATE: You can sell recipes/salvage at the Arena store, but not the SOs that pile up during the BAF. Just allowing the Arena store to accept SOs would fix this.