Haetron

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  1. It really only applies in trials, but you know what? I want to turn off every power effect that doesn't belong to me or the NPCs. Heck, I'd even turn off my own.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Xzero45 View Post
    What's wrong with that? Why does all RP have to include heroes and villains being together?
    I don't believe it does, but server activity and trends tend to show places where it can happen are favored.
  3. Fort Trident seems like a hole in the wall. Plus it's limited access. (It's not only Heroes, it's HEROES. No vigilantes or rogues allowed)

    The reason Pocket D remains the popular place is because it's place where villain and hero characters can meet and RP in the same zone. Sure, there's other places this can occur. But they have drawbacks.

    RWZ would be great, but trial gathering/chatter would be disruptive.

    Cimemmememememeora would work, except the fact, well, it is STUPID.

    That leaves...

    Bloody Bay, Sirens, Warburg, and Recluse's Victory?

    Could people RP there? Sure, those zones are as dead as a cadaver now a days. Would be -perfect- except for two minor details.

    1. If they become popular, non-RPrs will show up and *gasp* PVP and "ruin things".

    2. If people started RPing and a conflict occurred, offended party A could attack party B and then all hell breaks loose, because almost no one's willing to accept a defeat IC in this game.

    And god forgive we play Heroes and Villains that have plans that run counter to each other, and thus, fighting emerges.
  4. Just remember to take into account extra endurance concerns if you pick up hasten. I've personally found I performed better without it.
  5. I somehow, mid combat, deleted my primary chat tab so that all I have left is the help and combat tabs. Is there a way to reset tabs? I tried loading from default button in the chat options but that did not work.
  6. Don't pass up the possibility of mixing the two, Elec/EA, or EM/Elec. Especially since you said you'd be doing a "power armor" type, where you can pretty much justify anything with "GADGET!"

    I personally don't recommend Energy Melee anymore unless you'll be primarily soloing. It's got great ST DPS, but it has the drawback that when in a team, you may as well not use your two best attacks unless it's an AV. Energy Transfer and Total Focus take so long to animate that in team play, your target is likely dead and the power is wasted.
  7. So you're fine preaching the merits of IOs to a player who, in their second post in the thread, said they were not interested in using IO sets.

    And you're fine telling people to "Go try this!" because you think it'll prove your point, but aren't willing to do the same.

    But Im the one that shouldn't post because I have a negative opinion of the set after 3+ years of experience.

    Even though said Experience was based on a Pure SO build, which is what was stated by the OP as that was what they were requesting.

    Just to be clear, that's what is being said here?
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by teflonshugenja View Post
    I'm not sure how to say this any other way: you're wrong. What's more, it's clear that you still don't understand why you are wrong. You should go read some of the math that you keep dismissing, because it explains how layered defenses work and layered defenses are what Dark Armor is all about.

    Dark Regeneration contributes to the survivability of Dark Armor, but it doesn't constitute the whole of it. In fact, Dark Regeneration is only as powerful as it is because the rest of the set exists. You say that people sing Dark Armor's praises only because they're stacking defense from IO set bonuses, but that only reveals that you haven't considered why they are doing that. It's easy to get large amounts of defense from IOs, but getting good healing or damage resistance values is hard because IOs suck at that. Since those are the things that DA offers, it stands to reason that of course the set benefits from heavy Invention slotting - IO set bonuses fill the defensive layers not already covered by DA powers almost perfectly. Knockback vulnerability? Handled. Defense softcap? Handled.
    Well... you managed to go a mini-paragraph without bringing up IOs.

    Quote:
    (snipping out more stuff about IOs)

    But hey, maybe you're right. Maybe I'm totally off base. If you think DA's survivability is all bound up in one power, go run a couple missions with the resistance toggles, CC toggles, CoD and Death Shroud turned off and let us know how it goes. You can go ahead and use Soul Transfer all you want, though. My guess is you'll have plenty of opportunities.
    See, now that sounds like a challenge. What server do you play on? And do you have a level 50 /DA Brute where I can lay out a counter challenge?

    Edit: (Actually, server doesn't even matter, we could copy over to test.)
  9. One thing this image points out to me?

    It's kind of funny how Recluse has become an afterthought.
  10. Haetron

    Powerset Respecs

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim View Post
    The best example of this was the AE Baby influx.

    Everyone and their brother leveled Blasters, Scrappers and Controllers (heroside at the time) to 50 within hours. Not like 20 hours either; 8 hours or less.

    I have never seen such horrid playing. A Blaster that drops Bonfire on every spawn? A /Regen Scrapper with all 4 Medicine powers, 3 attacks and Confront? A /Rad Controller who says the "toggles cost too much to use and don't do much anyway."

    I think you're underestimating people's capacity to get frustrated, make mistakes and throw in the towel when it comes to a game like this.
    Now see, this post doesn't seem so much like you're concerned what the person paying for the respec and instead are concerned on what it'd be like playing with the person after a respec.

    But, Red Name statement is "Unlikely." It's a step up from No, but hey. Not by much.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Finduilas View Post
    Just out of curiosity, do you have accuracy slotted in DR in your current build? It really is critical to have it well-slotted for accuracy; I found that out the hard way against a bunch of CoT ghosts. Having lots of targets doesn't help much if you can't hit any of them.
    I have two level 50 Accuracy IOs, two l50 Endurance Reduction IOs, two l50 Recharge IOs. So all three stats aren't quite capped, but they're close.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by FlashToo View Post
    Thanks Muon, Neo, and teflon, that's great advice. Twitchy and nonpassive is fine; I have a lot of support-type characters that have me whaling on the keyboard like I'm playing a Mozart sonata, including two Thermal MMs, so I'm used to it.

    I'm absolutely okay with getting just a few IOs like those endurance procs, but relying solely on set bonuses for survival is not my cup of tea. I'll see what happens when I respec following the advice given here and post a build afterwards.
    I should point out that as much as I rag on Dark Armor I still play it pretty much daily while Im subscribed. It "works" without IOs as long as you keep your difficulty levels fairly close to the default.

    (Actually, the most enjoyable thing I've found with my DA brute now is setting the difficulty to -1 with no bosses, but setting the spawn for a team the size of four. This is on a build devoid of any IO Set bonuses. I have "plain" IOs replacing my SOs so I can maximize slot efficiency and one Steadfast to help with Knock, though it still occurs.)
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fiery-Enforcer View Post
    Oh no doubt it's not the strongest out of the box, but it's certainly not bad like people claim. Also, I was more replying to Haetron as they also mention Elec Armor.

    Once you bring IO's into the mix it simply becomes amazing and you can pretty much do anything with it from tanking hami and regular content.
    Once you bring IO's into the mix, it's not really that Dark Armor is all that great, it's that you're experiencing the joys of capping out defense. That's my main complaint with people that paint Dark Armor as being this awe inspiring great set. I've yet seen anyone that claims it that hasn't decked out for extra defense with IO sets.

    Don't get me wrong, it definitely has it's strengths. I joke about how horrible it is, but it's not unplayable. After all, I got mine to level 50 shortly after Inventions were introduced, but went the entire way on SOs. It just, on an SO build to SO build comparison, underperforms in personal practice.

    And yes, I realize, "MATH!" has determined that it's one of the greatest sets, because it has "the best self heal in the game". But the entire set is crutched up by the one power, in a way few other sets experience. Sure, every powerset has "Must take" powers in common opinion, but Dark Armor's reliance on Dark Regeneration is much more severe. One reason I had a negative experience was because I ran for a long time (longer than I should have) without DR.

    Add in the fact that DR has some unique problems as a self-heal that other sets do not have, and in my own personal experience, the set fell short.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dechs
    Death Shroud is also an anomaly. Blazing Aura does more damage, Electric Field does the same damage but has -endurance. Shouldn't this have a secondary effect? Say... a thematic -tohit perhaps?*
    This is something I absolutely agree with. On a comparison with all other damage aura powers, it just -sucks-.
  14. Haetron

    Powerset Respecs

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim View Post
    Because the people that take advantage of that will be thrown into a totally new powerset that they may or may not have played before. If they've played it, great! They know what they're doing.

    If they don't, they'll fumble around trying to figure it out and the majority of folks will be REALLY mad they paid for a Powerset Change service because "their new powers suck."

    Just trust me on this, you HAVE to crawl before you walk and you HAVE to walk before you run. There is no shortcut, you'll fall on your face.

    I think you're overestimating the difficulty it takes to pick up a powerset and learn it, personally. But this still isn't really an argument against providing it as a paid service, because worst case scenario, if the person was completely incapable of learning the new set, they could always pay for a revert. Or perhaps PS could even include a 24-48 hour buyer's remorse "reverse" change. The ability to just roll back to a saved copy of the character prior to the powerset change. But this would likely be extra work, if I was in PS shoes I'd just sale the service with an appropriate disclaimer and if the person wants to reverse it anyway, let them pay for it again.
  15. I'd pay for powerset respecs.

    Seriously.

  16. Haetron

    Powerset Respecs

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim View Post
    Have a friend with a Claws/Fire Brute AE powerlevel you a Dark Melee/Dark Armor brute. Come back to me once you've got the character's playstyle, IO build, tactics, and preferred enemy group to fight down.
    So what you're saying is people can get a character to level 50 with no clue as to how their powers work with the existing system with minimum effort.

    How is this an argument against letting PS go ahead and make a profit by providing it as a service again?
  17. Haetron

    Powerset Respecs

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
    Look at what you said above. Then think about the limits put in with Free and Premium... *specifically* the limits on the number of characters.

    A powerset respec? One time fee. Respec powerset. *No extra slots.*

    Do you think PS wants simply that one time fee - or would it make *far* more sense to say "Well, you want more characters, we've got this awesome VIP plan that gives you 12 slots on every server... *plus a whole new server!" Plus more powersets! Come, give us a subscription fee!"
    See, I disagree, and there's really no way of knowing if the Devs thought process has changed or not. I personally do not think that the absence of this feature is going to be a driving cause for people to sub. If a premium/F2P character wants more characters, they can simply buy more slots for a one time fee. PS seems happy with this idea.

    And the core source of most powerset respec requests is wanting to keep an active character and their badges. The individual reasons deviate from that core reason, generally speaking. It has nothing to do with wanting more characters. That's the reason it currently comes up quite a bit even now. Do I have the extra slots to just rebuild a character to level 50? Yeah. Could I pay for a name change, or even better, which I've done, just slap a hyphen in there or make a variant of it? Yeah, and I've done it. But that said, there's at least 3 characters on my account that, if I could, I would pay for powerset respecing. And this is money that PS could be taking from me, even with my current subscription.

    The Microtransaction/subscription Hybrid system thrives on providing unique things to subscribed players that are not included with their subscription, and providing the services enjoyed with a subscription to the free player crowd for a one time fee. If this were to be provided, it would be doing both, and should be priced accordingly. Price it above the cost of subscribing for a month, and above the cost of character slot and name change tokens. Then you can have premium players paying a large one time cost to keep a character and change sets, instead of lesser cost to restart in a new slot, if they want the option. Plus, it's a new "VIP" service that subscribed players can either retain and use their stipends on, OR, even better, pay more money for.

    I simply, financially, don't see any reason for NCsoft/PS to not offer this with this transition (or shortly afterward) other than if the cost of developing it would be exorbitant enough to the point it'd be hard to turn a profit on.

    Now, there may be ideological reasons not to, and that's something entirely different, and if it is the case, it's pointless to argue.

    (And a note because I always see this when Powerset Respecs/AT Respecs get suggested. The "Ok, but make them start over from level 1!" option. That would be a great idea for an in-game earned reward, but it would be horrible as a paid service because it'd be just as simple to delete the character and remake it, and not pay PS anything.)
  18. This situation has convinced me to just ignore everything being said and wait for launch. It's too far off, too early, and too much could change. The conflicting information isn't helping. We're just in a situation of who said what most recently.

    I will say that with this backpedal on "Owning Going Rogue and keeping the things you paid for" (or legalese swapping when you have examples like "You still have it, you just can't use it!") that I don't think the premium plan is going to be anywhere as attractive as initially shown.

    Which is fine, it's a business, they have to make money, they can't give the house away for free.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cien_Fuegos View Post
    anyone know what time manipulation set actually does?

    im gonna be disapointed if it looks like gravity set
    Looks, no.

    It's a buff/debuff set, and rumor I heard is it has two "core" powers and then other powers affect the target differently if under one of those two core powers. One buff, one Debuff.

    It's not a control set, but controllers will get it in the secondary.
  20. Haetron

    Powerset Respecs

    Just pointing out, because Im going to be pointing out reasons I think this might be good now, is because of the coming Paragon Points system. It's what's rekindled my interest in the idea, and it's what I think sufficiently changes the game to the point it's a viable and smart business oppurtunity for CoH and Paragon Studios and NCSoft.

    Quote:
    Primary/Secondary

    You're sure to hear this repeated a good bit - Just because you've played one set, doesn't mean you know how to play them all.

    For instance, my namesake tank is a Fire/Superstrength tank. I know how he plays. The most similar powerset to him at the time of writing is Dark Armor. It's resistance based, it has no knockback protection, it has a damage aura, a self heal that does damage - it even has a self rez as its tier9.

    They don't play anything alike. (I can say this, because I also have a version that's DA/SS.) Fire has no Psi protection. It has no stealth. Burn has a far different effect than Oppressive Gloom, and nothing similar to Cloak of Fear. It calls for a thoroughly different style of play. With Fire, I can leave my toggles on and go to town. With Dark Armor, I have to be selective, or the times I have to herd stragglers (for instance) won't work exceptionally well. Dark Armor also does not have anything like Consume to help out with Endurance - that's in Dark Melee.

    With "similar" sets being that different - try Fire vs Stone. Or Invulnerability. You now have a set at or near 50 (when most people seem to mention wanting this - "I have a 50 that...") that you don't know how to slot effectively (which means you'll be doing *at least* one more respec) and don't know how to play effectively.

    That's just changing *one* side of the equation. Now add in, say, going from Stone Melee to Dark Melee. Different effects, with *very* different affects on your survivability. And you won't know how to slot that, either, or how well they synergize.

    Similarly, a Stormie plays vastly differently from an Empath, or a Dark, or a Rad. Earth Control is nothing like Illusion. Combo-chasing with Dual Blades won't help you with Martial Arts.

    How do I know that this ends up being a mess?

    Beta testing. The devs have, on rare occasion, bumped up characters to specific levels. The most notable was when Recluse's Victory came out for testing. Everyone was made level 40 - and it was a *mess.* Sure, people made copies of their own characters, and those worked out. Then there were those (many, many of those) who said "Hey, I've never had a X/Y before, I'll make one of those!"

    Like I said, it was a mess. You could very easily tell who had done that versus making copies of characters they knew.

    Now, yes, over time you'll learn your powerset - but in the meantime, you're not going to be very effective, or very happy.
    It's a long well thought out argument, but it can be pretty easily debunked.

    1. You don't just magically quit learning how to play because a character is 50. Or if you did the respec at earlier levels, the learning process isn't completely derailed, unable to be followed. Are you going to be less effective while you try and grasp the new sets? Quite possibly. (I think that the differences between sets in the same archetype are not quite as drastic as Memphis points out, personally.) The example he pointed out? It was a 48 hour crash test. Some people only hopped on and played for less than an hour. And it was mainly for PVP only. Sure, some people ran off to do PVE content, but most were compounding the difficult learning situation with first time PVP experiences too.

    Memphis himself even debunks the entire difficulty argument later, I'll point out where.

    2. That last line? You can't predict another person's happiness. Honestly, happiness is pretty much a fickle and non-measurable statistic for the most part. (Im sure someone will break out a math example here to prove me wrong.)

    Quote:

    Archetype

    Now, given what I just said about powersets, imagine a *whole different AT.* Your tank is now an Empath? Really? You know how to survive as a Blaster because you played a Scrapper? And don't even get me started on epics.

    If *sets* are that different, Archetype is that times ten.

    Impact on enhancements

    IOs are a big part of the game right now. Think about IO'ing out your character. You get your KB protection, sets and the like, potentially spending millions (or more) on finishing up these sets, or working on merits or whatnot.

    Now, you change your primary - again, we'll take a tank - from a resistance based one to a defense based one.

    Guess what is now useless to you. You *may* have a power to stick that resist set in, somewhere, but now you're defense based - and those resist sets dont' work for you any more. That Knockback set isn't taken any more. It's even worse when you say you want to switch AT - what is a Blaster going to do with a resist set? What is a Scrapper going to do with Sting of the Manticore or Malaise's Illusions?

    This isn't even touching on the fact that *you could only retain ten enhancements.* That's 1 2/3 six-slotted powers.

    And you'd have nobody to blame for all that lost time and INF but yourself...
    Learning Curve Argument is Learning Curve Argument. Skipping that, was addressed above. Sure, AT to different AT WOULD be a big difference. I'd dare say AT respecs, if offered as a Paragon Points incentive, should be double, if not 4 times more expensive than a "same AT" powerset respec.

    The enhancement/IO issue? Where's it any different from respeccing now and losing enhancers because you swapped out powers? It's just a more extreme example. Put shiny warning labels (just like there is with server transfers and losing names) stating that all enhancements will be lost. Some people will be fine with this.

    Quote:

    Origin

    Origin holds a strange place in this list. I'm just going to touch on it briefly.

    Origin used to matter *vastly,* back in pre-beta. It determined how many powers you could learn and how skilled you could get with them. The system was scrapped, and for a long time it was mostly an RP item, as well as determining which enhancements you could use.

    It now has *some* impact in the game with some temp powers - the "helper" power you get at level 1 (throwing knives, taser, mutagen, etc.) as well as some of the vet powers. The main impact, though, would be if you'd equipped with DOs or SOs, with the lost INF. That said, you would be able to get some of it back. Origin's probably the least of the problems with a full respec. Though some would, of course, complain that they no longer get a damage bonus or what have you - and who knows what the devs may do with this in the future.
    I'll be honest. I do not at all see the appeal of an "origin" respec. I doubt it'd hold much marketing appeal. It might be neccessary for an AT respec, just to keep UIs synchronized. That's it.

    The "Problems" it would cause? Easily solved by Disclaimer text: "Warning, selecting a new Origin may affect certain powers that are affected by Origin. You may lose enhancements not appropriate for your new origin. Proceed with caution."

    Quote:
    Gameplay

    There are also three other things to consider.

    1. The game is designed around alts.

    Seriously. If this were Guild Wars, for instance, with severely limited slots, I could see wanting to do a complete respec. But by default, you can make over 100 characters before feeling a pinch - and can purchase up to 24 additional slots per server, if you so choose. Don't like one set, make some others and try them out.
    This is changing. Free players and Premium players will be working with limited slots. Sure, Paragon can and will make money on character slots. But, what's the harm in offering powerset respecs along character slots? Some people will want to keep their current character due to badges, some people will not want to regrind to 50, some people will just want to throw away the money for the fun of it.

    And here's that part I mentioned earlier..

    Quote:

    2. It's just not that hard to level.

    Seriously... it's not. With half debt inside missions, patrol XP, double XP weekends, XP smoothing, XP adjustments (typically up,) debt reduction everywhere... it just *isnt'* hard to level. And levelling "honestly" means you're learning your powersets, how they work with each other and others and hopefully how to use them best - which will only make you a stronger player.
    If it's not that hard, the game isn't that difficult, etc.. Then that debunks the entire "Learning powersets is a hard and long process!"

    And worst case scenario, person respecs, does utterly horrible, and hates the entire experience..

    They can purchase the ability again and respec back to what they knew.

    Quote:

    3. The devs say "no."

    The devs have said no. They devs will continue to say no. The most recent "no" being the 4/2010 Q&A. So this is not just player opinion.
    That's over a year ago. Things have changed with CoH Freedom. Im hoping the devs will change their minds and say "yes." With the switch to a more micro-transaction based system, Powerset Respecs are a valuable service that could serve to increase profit. In the past, when people were suggesting it as some kind of in game reward? Yeah, that would just be an unprofitable hassle for the dev team to institute. But now that it can be sold as an extra service, not just to the new F2P crowd, or the returning premium players, but even VIPs can use their stipends or purchase new points for it. It's pretty much guaranteed to generate money. It all comes down to how much it would cost in coding/work time for the feature to be developed.

    And let's just go ahead and address another argument. "This will cause a negative play experience for other players, as they will have to deal with people that are learning how to play the new set/AT."

    Any player that just can't stand someone "underperforming" on their team/league can always ask the group leader to boot "bad" players. Or if they're the leader, they can do it themselves. You can flag them with the player rating system just in case your memory is faulty. One good thing about this game is, well, if you don't like a player or how they're playing, there's always ways to deal with it.

    In closing, we're entering a new era to the game. Powerset Respecs, (and AT Respecs) are something that could bring in extra cash flow to Paragon/NCsoft. I honestly can only see one reason why they wouldn't do it, and that's if the cost of having a team develop/design the process is so exorbitant, a profit couldn't be made.
  21. Im not bothered with the loss of Incarnate stuff if I have to drop to premium due to financial issues. (Im staring down a layoff in less than a month, and the local job market is.. well, not strong)

    I'm dissapointed with the swapping going around. Was, if you didn't buy GR and kept your sub up, you didn't get Incarnates. After freedom, if you didn't buy GR, you get it for free just for subbing, while people that did pay for GR lose incarnates if they drop sub? It just runs.. counter to the whole "if you paid for it, you keep it" initial statement, but Im not surprised, because there has to be something that gives an incentive to sub.

    What I'm really saddened by is the flat out, "No you're not getting incarnates, and no, as a premium player, we won't let you repurchase access to them." I'd think that if they did it on a per character basis, they'd make quite a bit of money. Oh well.
  22. Im a little dissapointed at the backpedaling/rewording regarding freedom that's occurred the past few days, so Im just going back to ignoring whats going on and playing and let whatever happens happen.
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Johnny_Butane View Post
    People have a really eff'd up perspective.

    NOW:
    You stop paying them money each month, you lose access to your Incarnate powers, Mastermind and...oh...EVERYTHING. Because they cut you off from the server. You can have paid all you want for Going Rogue. You don't pay the monthly sub, you don't get to use it. All those costume Boosters you paid for? Worthless without the game.


    FUTURE:
    You stop paying them money each month you lose access to your Incarnate powers, Mastermind and some other things...but you get to keep access to a bunch of other stuff, including the servers.

    As opposed to NOW where you retain access to NOTHING if you stop paying.

    Having access to some things while not paying is better than having access to nothing while not paying. Period.




    .
    You're absolutely right, but I wish they'd let us purchase Incarnate play for certain characters if we drop to premium. It's a sure way to still get some money as opposed to none.
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Clockwork O1 View Post
    Thanks for catching this Zman, marketing is removing the asterisks from the Underground Trial preview shortly.

    Sorry for the confusion everyone, as you can imagine, we have a lot of moving parts going on here, sadly, a pair of asterisks ended up in the wrong place, consequently delivering the wrong information.

    To clarify this definitively:
    All Incarnate content is restricted to VIP players.
    To be clear, it's just a "Sub or you're out of luck" situation? Not even purchaseable on a per character basis with Points? Or is the jury still out on that?