Frosticus

You're right, the only thing I've really used from that list is shields and merits, but it might just reinforce what JazMan pointed out.

Like I mentioned though I was primarily pvp'ing at the time, so when the reaper showed up with i13 his shadow overwhelmed the other minimal features of the issue.

lol

Ya if you weren't interested in pvp then i13 was just a long load time for the game (patching) heh.

This arc is a great recommendation. I'd run it before a long time ago, but forgot where to find it.

I'm currently churning out 16-19 min runs on my stone/ela brute and in the lvl and half I've put on it I've earned about 60 mil from drops, not including the lvl 34 lotg +rech I just got from it!!

Racked up 80 or so merits, which is pretty valuable too.

The final mission is one of the more enjoyable ones around, with a big flow of ambushes and 3 EB's to fight at the same time.

I've currently been rescuing Nos and Burk in the final mission and using them, but I'm gonna skip that and see what times I avg.

Thanks Talen!

The main person laughing is Castle. welcome to pvp 2.0.

You are welcome to submit your complaint to the nearest trash bin of your convenience.

As far as I know 100% of the exploits that have been utilized on live were found and pointed out to them during closed/open beta.

It would seem they weighed the cost-benefit of going live with it in a state that allowed the existing abuse and decided to go forth.

I have little doubt they were under a lot of pressure from higher ups to get it out the door.

Since that time though the AE changes seem to be reactive rather than proactive. I'm sure they know most of the possible exploits, but they don't take action until they become a severe issue.

Like it or lump it.


In my opinion AE is the 2nd worst issue. For me the worst was i13 (the one AE was supposed to be) because it killed pvp for me, which at the time was about 85% of my playtime. I don't really use AE much, but it seems like a big waste of resources and hours considering the results.

Most threads with Arcana degrade into the same thing.

1.Someone will post a point of contention.
2.She will post something stating they are incorrect with some obscure reference that has nothing to do with the issue.
3.That person will respond, usually getting a bit aggressive in their position. Citing X precedent, or X related issue, or X work experience
4.She will then retort and insult their intelligence and give more explicit information on the matter while presenting it as her own work, or her knowledge, or her opinion/position.
5.The other person will get upset and demand how she knows what she is saying is correct.
6.She will insult their intelligence yet again and then let on that a Dev told her, or she saw it on the dev spreadsheets or w/e.

There is almost never any point to arguing with her with regard to some game mechanic. She has access to information that you do not. Or else she wouldn't be posting.

Rather then go through the process of her belittling and berating whoever it is that challenges her that day while she builds up her ego, it is far more productive to just stop. Ask if a Dev gave her the information, or if she is using information that no one else has access to. If so, ask her to share it and then begin approaching a solution to the matter.

Should cut down about 4 pages of any interaction with her. Instead of every thread breaking down into a pissing contest something productive might actually emerge.

*please don't interpret this as anything other than it is. An observation of numerous interaction with her. I think she is very smart, very dedicated to the game, and puts in a ton of hours.

I also think there are a lot of other people around here who are very smart, very dedicated to the game, and put in a ton of hours. I believe the main degree of separation between them is that one of them has access to information that few others do. Having "insider knowledge" doesn't have to be a negative thing if you are upfront about it. I've just noticed that it is usually after a heavy dose of berating that the source of the information is revealed.

Anyway, like I said, just an observation formed over time. Feel free to insist that I'm insinuation something I'm not.

You're not alone, I almost hit submit and then remembered it. I think that says a lot about how good troller APP's are where a set as powerful as cold mastery is often overlooked.

Or like when two stock brokers are vying for partnership, but one of them has insider knowledge, uses it to their advantage under the guise it is their own brilliance; only later to reveal that they were actually insider trading. Yet they are rewarded for it rather than reprimanded.

CoX boards are one of the only places I've encountered where it is celebrated.

I'm not going to address the rest because we simply disagree about game balance. That is ok, but an endless circle.

This one however: if I drop freezing rain (35% -res) that will take the teams damage from 100% to 135% of whatever it was. That is a 26% increase. In other words I'm now responsible for 26% of the teams damage*

8 people on a team, equal damage role = 12.5% total damage. So with one power I'm already doing DOUBLE the expected damage on a team and I haven't even used a blast yet.

*This figure does not include the -def, which will push the number higher in many situations.

With a single power I can contribute as much to overall team kill speed as a fireblaster or spines scrapper. Yes my personal damage contribution isn't a heap of orange numbers, but that is being small minded to look at it in only that context. I may very well only end up with half of what the blaster is doing, but through my forcemultiplication powers I've already won the race. Defenders aren't "me me me" they are "us us us".

You should see what my storm/sonic does to AV kill speed for a team lol.

Mind and Rad both mature very quickly. In fact mind is tops for damage pre pets and Rad is good to go by lvl 10 (EF). Additonally in the early levels (up to around the mid teens) the AT scalars haven't fully kicked in (iirc they fully kick in around lvl 18 or 20). So low damage toons are doing more damage relative to what they eventually will. If you double that inflated damage (ie containment) it is very strong.

At the same time emp/elec, which is one of the weakest damage defenders you can make.

So one of the strongest early game trollers (damage wise and control wise) compared to one of the weakest early game defenders.

I feel your pain, but that is not evidence to make any changes to defenders.

Mind/rad is always a decent st mini blaster. But it's aoe damage (what really powers the game) is almost non-existent. Comparatively short circuit and ball lightning both hit 16 targets. But they are such different toons with different strengths that comparing them and making any formal declaration is unsound. That said, elec blast is pretty weak imo. My elec/kin corr stalled in the early 20's and was just brutally painful to play.

Of course the survivability matters. What a silly thing to dismiss. You are effectively saying it is ok for Archetype A to do the same damage as Archetype B that also has 10 times the survivability? hmm

It's not about making blasters obsolete (not sure when that was raised), it is about making defenders stronger than they should be.

Tanks are not precedent in buffing defenders. You can be sure that if tanks had ways of further buffing their damage (and the teams damage) people would complain about them relative to scrappers (ie superstrength already takes heat. Now imagine if footstomp did 20% -res too).


This is a very dangerous way of thinking about game balance. You are effectively saying that as long as it isn't "game breaking" it doesn't matter. That isn't the way the devs balance things and I agree with their approach in most cases.

I certainly wouldn't want it to be a base damage modifier (I don't think it is possible anyway). If they took the approach of more damage solo, more buff/debuff in a team it would be via +dam and +special.

The degree of separation between say a FF and a Rad def would still be large, but not as large as if you were to adjust their base damage modifier.

Your example of a def performing differently in a team versus solo with the example I gave is a gross exaggeration. Think of the rave reviews cosmic balance has gotten.

Here I'll even do a write up of the new inherent:
While alone a defender focuses their power on bringing justice to those that would do wrong. When surrounded by allies the defender turns that power toward their team and leads them through the danger.
Solo: +dam (15 maybe 25%)
Team: +special (again 15 maybe 25%)

I also don't want Castle to get rid of vigilance. I actually like it quite a bit. My storm/sonic loved it.

The thing is defenders really don't need much. They are already very good. What they need is a bit of shoring up of their solo performance and a bit of distinction relative to trollers and corrs in their team role.

And when I say a bit, I sure as heck don't mean taking their damage modifier up to .8. If that is what Castle ends up doing he is going to get a flaming bag on his doorstep from all of my corruptors. Unless corrs go up to .9, but then blasters would need to go up again too. Ahh balance.

If the team is killing that quickly the devs gave us this nifty difficulty slider. I've been on some pretty amazing teams and no matter how good they don't insta-gib +4's before I can contribute on my storm/sonic.

If you are on a team steamrolling that fast your defender damage is not glaringly bad because no one is getting off more than one attack. A good defender, like any archetype, recognizes when their powers are needed and when they aren't. If things are so easy that you don't need RI then don't use it. My blaster doesn't nuke every time I could. I don't use hurricane all the time. I don't use dimension shift all the time...etc.

I might be playing a different cold and kinetics set that you, but mine solo extremely well and very quickly.

granted my cold/dark is not as fast as my fire/cold corr, but it really shouldn't be as it is leagues safer and offers considerably stronger team buffs.

My kin/sonic is sadly not as fast as my plant/kin, nor as safe, but that is almost entirely due to how overpowered controller epics still are (especially stone, I mean perma capped hp, s/l softcap, huge st burst, and good aoe). But pre epics the plant wasn't as fast, but was safer. I don't blame defenders for controllers being too good though.

A bit of a side track, but my storm/sonic kills bosses almost as fast as my BS/shield scrapper. And has the ability to single handedly change the outcome of a battle however I see fit (yes I can wipe a team if I want to haha). That is a very powerful feeling toon.

That said sonic could use some tweaks imo as thermal outshines it. Empathy can make a bad team gods. I just don't see why it should solo as well as other primaries. I think forcefields needs some tweaks as well. I'd give repulsion bomb a 20% -res, call it armor breaking or something.

The three sets that could use a boost across the whole game are FF, Sonic, and TA (imo of course). Sure there are things that could be improved on other buff/debuff sets, but they all fall within a pretty acceptable range of power.