Lightfoot

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THIS ISSUE HAS NOT BALANCED THE SIDES. IN FACT, I WOULD SAY THE HEROES NOW ARE MORE OPed THAN VILLS. Prove me wrong.

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Prove your right.

Until the issue goes up on test, we have NO CLUE what changes, adjustements, and other things are going to be done to the sets. So until then, nobody has any way to prove how good OR bad the sets will be on the AT's they are being added to.

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I'll go this one further. Prove that a Dev somewhere claimed this Issue would balance PVP or make Villains as powerful as Heroes in PVE. I'll wait.

I'll wait some more.

I'll keep waiting.

Given up yet?

Still looking?!?

I'm going to take a nap, I promise I'll have awoken by the time you find it.

<100 years later> Why didn't you wake me?

That's right, because any Dev post claiming that Issue 13 would balance the sides doesn't exist.

The balance has been off for a long time. Powerset proliferation cannot fix this, no matter which powersets you port over to the opposite side. The imbalance exists because of the way the Archetypes are designed, powers like most of the Blaster Manipulation sets that CANNOT be ported over and the APPs.

The Hero / Villain imbalance can only be fixed by adressing these issues. Powerset Proliferation was not intended to fix any of these issues. The whole point of Powerset Proliferation was to give players more options, not to bring about Heaven on Earth.

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How does empathy not work as a concept for a villain. If you want to get techincal empath, the hellion in the Marvel comics was a villian...The conceptual abilities do not drive good an evil. AB turns doms into perma dom killing machines. How is absorb pain not a villain concept. Perhaps an evil empath would love to absorb the pain of others...Empath buffs are hands down the best buffs in the game - change the color, change the name but give them to the red side.

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As a purely Buff set, empathy is inappropriate for Corrupters. It is not too big of a stretch to make Empathy fit for Masterminds, and I expect to see it eventually, once they solve one problem...

Absorb Pain on a minion + Bodyguard = endless damage loop.

The best solution is to this would be to remove Abdorb Pain and replace it with something else, but what?

This is my guess for why Empathy isn't on the table yet.

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I just had an epiphany while reading all of these "Devs Hate Villains" posts.

The problem isn't the powersets being proliferated.

Let that sink in for a minute....
















Which powersets, exactly, do Villains want that they don't have in some form. Masterminds want /Kin, but Corrupters have /Kin, so it's not like Masterminds don't have access to it.

Aside from the Blaster Manipulation sets, which aren't easily portable, the only portable sets unique to Heroes that Villains don't have in some form after this Proliferation are Illusion Control, Empathy, Broadsword, and Katana. Every single balance issue you are complaining about now would still exist if all of the remaining complete sets were ported over.

So, which powersets would fix the problem of Hero / Villain balance?

I submit to you that no Powerset proliferation will be enough for you, because Powersets aren't the issue. No matter what you get from a proliferation, Blasters will always PWN Villains because they have access to Energy Manipulation and the APPs. At this point, they can't just shoehorn the best powers of the Blaster Manipulation sets (for example: Conserve Power, Boost Range and Power Boost) into any of the Villains sets. Archetype design, Energy Manipulation and APPs are the things that are causing the imbalance you bemoan, not "the heroes are getting our good powers."

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Off topic.

What movie is that in your avatar? That is some seriously cool looking Gun-Fu.

On-Topic

Woo Hoo!! The more they buckle down, the sooner the beta starts. The sooner the beta starts, the sooner it goes live.

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I've played a decent number of MMOs. CoH is the *only* one that regularly sends a new player to a mission/quest where they must run a gauntlet of enemies that are much higher level than the player's character. I don't think that's good design, I think it's bad design and can turn off people just trying the game out. The converse -- having players go to missions where they can reasonably tackle any foes they meet along the way -- is not likely to have any negative effects.

I reckon most players don't want "hard pills to swallow" when first trying a new game. They're playing to have fun, not to prove their manhood or something. There's plenty of time for hard challenges. Throwing them at the newbie is not good design.

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Except for the time wasted finding the enemies of the appropriate level, those gauntlets you speak of aren't actually insurmountable.

I can get across the Hollows without drawing any aggro at level 5 if I'm careful.

I can find and defeat 10 even con Circle of Thorns in Perez Park at level 7.

I can find and defeat 10 even con Outcasts or Trolls in the Hollows at level 5.

Once you have a travel power, most of these gauntlets become much less trouble.

I will admit that finding 30 even con Rikti is the Abandoned Sewers at level 37 can be tough since there is almost no way to avoid the level 39 Hydras in between you and the Rikti. This is one mission I ALWAYS drop.

Learning about aggro distance and knowing how far you can push it against a large mob before you have to run are necessary skills to avoid massive amounts of debt later in the game. I'm kind of happy the Hollows is there to teach it before you reach level 10.

Re: Gameplay issues / learning curve / missions / hazard zones

Granted, when I joined the game, I had a few real life friends who were already playing, so some of these things you learned the hard way were passed on to me by a guy sitting at the computer right next to me or through in game tells when we were at home, away from the networked computers.

That being said, the players of the game are generally nice and helpful. If you had asked in Broadcast about any of these issues ("How do I get around these +3 and +4 mobs to get to my mission door?" "Do the levels of the guys in the area reflect the levels of the guys in the mission?" God, I hate Wincott, why does <insert contact name> always send me to see him? Can't I refuse?" "How do they expect me to beat 10 Outcasts / Trolls when they are grouped together so tightly?" "How do they expect me to get to that mission door through all of these tightly packed, large groups of +6 mobs?" "How do I beat Frostfire?"), odds are there would have been somebody on who would have politely and accurately answered your question, either in private tell or broadcast if they think there might be another newb experiencing the same difficulties you are. Players in other games may play "kick the noob" if you demonstrate any ignorance of the game. That kind of idiocy is rare and frowned upon in City of Heroes.

(The answers, by the way, "Learn about aggro distance and run around them. Experiment with aggro on blue or white con minions first." "No, the mission spawns mobs roughly equal to the level you were when you accepted the mission. Some of the mobs may be +1 or -1 to you." "You can talk to Wincott yourself at level 5 and never get the mission that introduces you to him. you don't have to accept his mission if you don't want to." "The Hollows / Perez Park / Boomtown / Dark Astoria / Crey's Folly / Eden is a hazard zone, it is meant to be taken as part of a team. Two heroes working together should be able to handle an even con group of 6 fairly readily, 8 with some inspirations, and 10 with some luck or really good play." "One thing the Hollows really does force you to learn is aggro distance. With practice, you can make it from the Atlas Gate to alomst any point in the Hollows and only draw fire a couple of times. Avoid Grendel's Gulch at all costs, the Igneous WILL kill you. If you still have trouble, you could always get the jetpack from the Atlas Park Safeguard and come back." "Flux tells you that Frostfire is hard to beat, and recommends you don't tackle him solo. If you absolutely have to solo him, your best bet is to take the mission, gain a level, and then attempt it. Carry break frees and pop them before fighting him, the Ice pet he summons is a PITA, and you will die if it holds you.")

Re: Veteran Rewards

By and large, the veteran rewards are cosmetic. They don't usually make my character any better than yours, they just give me more costume / base options. I can see having "wing envy" for all those people who don't have the 15 month badge, most of the others I could (and did) wait for. Again, the people lording their vet badges over you should be rare, and the people who are going to discriminate against you on a team for your lack of same (also rare) you don't want to team with anyway. I made a character in anticipation of the Boxing costume set when it was revealed, even though I knew it would be nine months before I would get it, I never held it against the players who already had it. I had two other characters who never knew they were missing the set until it was revealed (it fits their origins, but the "wrapped fist" option worked until I got the Boxing Gloves).

Re: The Wedding Pack

We aren't paying for "every little thing." Consider it an experiment. They are offering up bits of purchasable options that they think might appeal to some of the playerbase, but not all. The general consensus from the playerbase is that some of them like the costume set, some don't, and most think they charged too much when the price is considered against the GVE items pack. Purchasable content is not unique to Cith of Heroes. We didn't have to pay for the max level bump from 40 to 50, WoW had to pay for their max level bump from 60 to 70. The great majority of City of Heroes' content upgrades are free.