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Quote:But then you're basically saying that the very skills the Devs gave you to deal with the problem aren't an adequate solution to the problem because the people complaining don't choose to use them.
I don't get how that follows from what I said. If so, I mis-spoke (typed), or used unclear wording.
Quote:That's not a Dev problem, but a player problem, and the Devs aren't required to fix those.
To clarify, what I was trying to say was, if there is an aspect of the game that a large enough % of the population finds frustrating, and the unskilled complain about it, but the skilled do, too, the fact that the unskilled complain doesn't mean that it isn't a potential issue to address. -
For sure, if you have a lot (more than 10) of IOs you want to pull out, I'd get started early. But, if not. While as everyone else has pointed out, if less than 50, you can add slots next level (or in 2 levels depending on where exactly you happen to be sitting at currently) if you happen to be used to 3 slots in Health and 3 slots in Stamina, going a level or 2 without or respeccing twice both seem a bit silly. I guess the best real answer is....
It'll vary on a player by player, and character by character basis, depending on several factors.
I'm doing some now, some later, and some alts won't have to respec at all. Either becuase I don't care enough about it on that alt, or because they don't have fitness now, and won't need extra slotting once they get it for free. -
I'm fairly sure it's not true, but I can test it very easily.
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Quote:Because people that play the game poorly have a problem or an opinion, doesn't mean that it isn't a problem or the opinion isn't valid. Especially if people that are quite skilled at the game agree. Many people feel that scrappers are too fragile compared to tanks and brutes, because of their poor skills at one facet of the game or another. Now, if the devs took all mez protection away from scrappers, lowered the Res cap and HP cap for scrappers (or if all of these things had been much lower all along), these same low skilled players would be making the same foolish mistakes and complaining that scraps were weak. But because they were unskilled wouldn't make them wrong.You make a good point, but I wanted to address this as being basically what I've been saying the whole time.
Most support ATs have multiple means of preventing a mez from ever occurring if it originates from a LT or lower.
I see people complaining about it on a somewhat regular basis, and the conversation goes like this a lot of the time:
"These mezzing minions keep killing me, and there's nothing I can do about it!"
"Well, can't you use the stun in your secondary to stop them from doing that?"
"Oh, I skipped that power. It doesn't deal any damage, so it's useless."
Most of the time, problems with mez would be solved by paying attention to what is in the spawn, and using your powers a little more intelligently.
Too many times I see people on teams complaining about something that is mezzing them, and they turn around and attack something else, leaving the mezzing mob to do it again.
"Oh, the boss is the bigger threat, so I kill them first"
"Well, the boss isn't mezzing you, wouldn't it make sense to kill the mezzer first?"
"No, I shouldn't have to do that, the devs need to give everyone mez protection so I don't have to think about what I'm doing."
(I am of course paraphrasing, and being somewhat sarcastic, but that is the underlying attitude of a lot of the complaints I hear in game)
And then there's the "Melee can solo at +4/x8 because they have mez protection" attitude. No, melee can solo at +4/x8 because they have defense and resistances designed to keep them alive. And not all melee can do it, you need an expensive build to pull it off on most combinations. If your Empathy defender can't solo on +4/x8 to begin with, giving them mez protection is not suddenly going to make it capable of it. -
Quote:I'd say, if there was any real danger of this, your firm defense of the status quo on account of tanks getting marginalized if any change should happen only serves to make matters worse. If you and everyone else instead said, "Gee, I don't think other ATs need mez protection, but it'd be nice for people that play them, so why not? But tanks will still be the kings of aggro control and damage/mez soaking," then the problem you're worried about would be far less likely to occur.Now, keep in mind, I'm not saying that *I* would consider a tank useless on a team, but if their role were marginalized any more than it already is the same thing would happen as happened with Fire/Kin controllers, only in reverse.
Why are Fire/Kin controllers popular for farming? It isn't necessarily that the sets work together well (though they do happen to). It has more to do with word of mouth from other players. When people hear that Fire/Kins farm better than anything else, whether it is necessarily true isn't relevant. They just know that they've heard they are the best farmers and when they decide to farm, that's what they roll.
Now, if the same type of powergamers that discovered that Fire/Kins make good farmers discover that having a tank along lowers the team's damage output (compared to inviting something else in it's place), the people that hear that are going to believe it and not play tanks, under the impression that they are a sub-par AT. Eventually you will end up with tanks being used by roleplayers and old school players almost exclusively.
The same thing can happen with any AT, not just tanks. If enough people believe they are worthless, and tell enough other people, the overall view of them will be altered. Look at the prejudice against Kheldians that still persists to this day for an example.
And second, I don't feel (subjective, I'll admit) the powergamers wag this game as much as other MMOs, or that you seem to think they do. So, I'd not argue against something just because a powergamer might have an incorrect impression of a AT or powers utility.
So, really, who cares if the trend following, uninformed powergamers who just listen to opinion and don't know personally or know how to play an AT or set like an AT or not. The REAL powergamers will still happily use their tanks. The casual players will, too. The old school types will. The RPers. Everyone but the FOTM crowd, and the easily swayed by rumors.
I totally agreed with a lot of your previous thought processes, even if I disagreed with the conclusions based on a different initial value judgement, but I don't agree with this idea at all.Quote:It has more to do with word of mouth from other players. When people hear that Fire/Kins farm better than anything else, whether it is necessarily true isn't relevant. They just know that they've heard they are the best farmers and when they decide to farm, that's what they roll. -
Quote:Have there been any hints at any upcoming free transfers? I resubbed about a month ago and the folks I played with have moved to a higher pop server (so long infinity
). Apparently there were free xfers earlier in the year but obviously I missed out on those.
I have 6 or 7 chars to move and the prospects of spending $60-$70 to move them is notappealing. :/
I've not heard any hints, but I'm hoping for another go around of transfers myself.. -
Quote:I'd wait in most cases. If you respec now, you won't be able to slot fitness powers at all. If you expect the build to only need or want 1 slot in fitness powers, then I guess go ahead.Honestly, through out the beta I never respecced any of my older characters. My main improved so much just with the end reduct/dam resist boost I did not need to. However, I am going to respec him once this goes live. I will finally be able to get some utility powers that he could use and would help him.
But in answer to your question, if you dont play them that much you dont need to resepc them. They will play just as good as before and better once (or if) you alpha boost them.
Of course, as a previous poster said, if you really rarely play them, and they work OK now, no real need to respec at all... -
Quote:Or it would also be a lot like saying melee ATs can't be expected to close the distance as a way of contending with ranged attacks because of a granite, rooted, tank.. Oh, wait......You can't use an outlier example to prove that an entire AT is good at something. That would be like saying that because a Fire/Kin controller deals good damage, an Earth/FF would deal the same.
Sorry, I know, not a valid argument. Just pointing out that we all cite extreme example hoping to leverage the norm, but, even though Stormy's examples were extreme tankers, I'd have to say that tankers aren't all that low as you make it seem. Plenty push out decent levels of damage compared to other ATs. Are they going to eclipse scraps, brutes, or blasters? Doubtful. But, I'd have to say average tanks are at least on par with average defenders and controllers, whose roles are just as unnecessary in most cases, and have low damage on average, yet they still manage to team on occasion, and not from mere pity.
Again, not necessary does not mean not valuable. -
Quote:OK, fair enough. I hear ya. I don't want any AT to be totally worthless on a team either. But, tanks can do a fair amount of damage, and can hold aggro, and can soak a lot of damage and mezzes. And I don't think any of these things will ever be unwelcome. Especially on the tougher end of the spectrum, I think they will always have their value.Not exactly. Traditional role be damned, I want tanks to keep some kind of role at all.
It's already been proven that a tank is not needed for agro control anymore, and hasn't been for a while now. If every AT were given mez protection, it would not be long before people figured out that inviting a tank actually HURT your team's performance.
Look at it this way: If a tank isn't needed to hold agro, and isn't needed to keep the team from getting mezzed, what purpose does a tank serve on a team? Why would you invite an AT that does low damage, and has no role to play on the team, when you could invite another blaster and kill stuff faster? The powergamers would figure it out very quickly, and it would trickle down to everyone else. And eventually anyone playing a tank would have to beg for pity spots on TFs because they are not only unnecessary, but actually unwelcome on teams. It wouldn't happen quickly, but in the era of the game we are in, the speed at which you can do things directly affects your rewards. If all ATs had mez protection, inviting a tank would just slow you down, because you could have filled that spot with someone who deals more damage.
So, I couldn't care less about tanks keeping their traditional role. I just don't want them to become completely pointless to play.
You don't think so, obviously. So your arguments are based on what you fear will happen. Understandable. And frankly, there is no way I can prove or allay that fear, short of the devs actually making some sort of change. However, if everyone feared tanks obsolescence and stopped playing them if such a change should ever happen, that fear could very well become a self fulfilling prophecy. Frankly, I don't think you have anything to worry about because I don't see a change happening, as much as I think it would be a good idea, and even if it did, I'm sure that many people would still play, and enjoy tanks, and value them on their teams. But, I can't prove it any more than you can disprove it, lacking any way to test it. -
Quote:If you're going to give Mez protection to every AT, you might as well do away with mezzes entirely.
This comment to me makes as much sense as stating that if every AT has damage protection (Def) you may as well do away with damage entirely. If anyone had advocated that every AT have mag 30 mez protection from every mez type, I might be inclined to agree, but I don't think anyone was advocating that. -
Quote:More than acceptable, I think it's vital to differentiation of the AT's. Defenders are DESIGNED to help the team and generally be very limited in how much they can help themselves.
I think that giving mez protection to the other AT's would be a terrible decision and very bad for game balance. Fortunately, since this is clearly not part of the design intent, I think it is extremely unlikely to happen.
Very well. If so, your points are all consistent and logical. I disagree with your premiss that the ATs need the pigeonholing that other MMOs are prone to, but if you prefer it, we've just reached a point where it's come to a matter of taste.
Except for your comment about balance. In fact, it would be bad for game imbalance to make the ATs more balanced in what they can do, by definition. But if the imbalances are a fun part on the, "differentiation of the AT's," then it's entirely a YMMV or opinion thing at that point. -
Quote:Of course, some powers are autohit, but one of the effects of the power says "Not auto-hit". For an easy-to-find example, look at any instance of [Taunt]. "Entities autohit: Foe", but "+10.25s Taunt (mag 4) PvP only, Not auto-hit". The taunt requires accuracy in PvP.
Thank you both very much. That's exactly what I needed to know. -
They were releasing schedules ahead of time, and making them fairly easy to find. I don't think they still are, but... If they are, it's no longer obvious to me where such a schedule might be.
I'd love for someone to tell me I'm wrong on this, point out my weak search-fu skills, and post a link to a schedule to rub my nose in it, but I'm not optimistic that will happen. -
If the answer for the support types is, "Learn to play your sets and then equal footing is restored," then your 60-70% success rate seems a tad off, especially if you're referring to baseline or even close to baseline difficulty. Any melee AT would howl if the passive protection was only 60-70% effective. From my experience, it takes huge spawns, and specific opponent types to ever cause a worry to my many melee alts, and by worry I mean that I feel I may only be 90% successful at avoiding mez.
That aside,
Quote:I think this makes my point that the reason you are so against the idea of support types having any mez protection is to protect the tanks' traditional role. You stated elsewhere, though, that it's sheer silliness (I'm paraphrasing here) that a tank should have to rely on a support type for his mez protection. So why not? Why not protect the support types traditional role?It's not so much a matter of protecting the tank's spot in the old trinity. It's because tanks are a low damage, high defense AT. Without the role of agro soaker to play, they become completely redundant and easily replaced by an AT that deals more damage. Who invites a tank to a team for the damage they do? No one I know of, people invite tanks to teams to soak agro, which is what they are built to do. Take away their ability to do that and no one will have any reason to ever invite one to a team.
If every AT in the game were completely self-sufficient the tank would have no role to play at all on a team. In the age of IOs, where any AT can get defense and recharge bonuses up the wazoo, tanks are less relevant than they used to be, and not even necessary on most teams. The only thing they still do, and do well, is protect their non-protected teammates from being mezzed by eating all that mez themselves. If you were to give all ATs in the game mez protection tanks would be even less useful, and would quickly begin the slide toward complete extinction in the game.
I'd rather not see the tanker getting pity spots on task forces because no one needs the service he provides any more.
In truth, I'm not for that. I like that each type brings different things to the table, but not the *need* to build the game to protect notions of who should do what that other MMOs have trained us to expect.
For the most part, all roles are no longer needed, especially if we're talking base difficulty levels. Only in extreme cases are support types ever needed. All tank teams do just fine. Heck, many many melee types in general state that they solo +4/x8. So, we already have a situation where many ATs (and roles) are unnecessary. But just because an AT or role isn't needed doesn't mean it can't contribute, or that what it can bring isn't a big help.
I need to second what Stormy mentioned earlier. It's the prevalence of mezzing in general that makes this more of an issue. Used to be, once every 3 or 4 missions you'd run into a mez situation. Back then, your preemptive defense rate of 60-70% was probably plenty to feel 'more or less' successful. When the amount of mezzing vastly increases, 60-70% per spawn starts to feel like a lot of failure over the course of a session of 6 or 7 missions. For comparison, how would most tanks feel if most spawns had 2 or 3 sappers, at least 1 or 2 of which were Lt or Boss class sappers? They'd start to want the game to have a lot more -End protection available, not to be told to team with Stormy's more for the O2 Boost.
I think that everyone will always like teaming (assuming they prefer to team at all) with tanks and brutes and scrappers, after all, who doesn't want someone else to suck the alpha. So rest assured, I don't think those ATs will die even if some more mez protection is made available to non-melee ATs. -
Quote:Very well stated, but I disagree with some of the value judgments you make. Also, as you pointed out, breakfrees can be used as passive protection, so your argument that they aren't good enough for a melee type because they aren't passive seems to have a hole. Also, all of your arguments seem to be from the perspective of, the main tank of a group must have x level of protection. And that I can almost see and agree with, but those arguments don't extend out to any other melee types. And yet other melee types get passive mez protection. So that really supports the argument that somewhere (even if only in most APPs/PPPs) support types ought have some passive mez redress.Not really. A tank needs to have consistent mez protection, because there is very little he can do to prevent mezzes coming in from outside melee range. If their mez protection were reduced to -3, they would run out of breakfrees after the first few fights.
Think about it. A tank's job is to redirect enemy attacks onto himself to protect his teammates from them. That includes any mez effects they may have. If he jumps into a spawn that has multiple mezzers in it with only -3 protection, he will be quickly overwhelmed by the mez and he will lose the agro of the enemies he is fighting.
As I mentioned, there is only ONE set with a taunt aura that remains active when mezzed. All others either deal damage, or affect the enemy in some way (RttC's to-hit debuff, AAO's damage debuff, the various damage auras). Only Invincibility does not toggle off when you are mezzed, because it only affects you. If a mez breaks through for even a second, that taunt aura drops and there is a very good chance the enemies will peel right off of him, especially if there is a character on the team doing a lot of AoE damage.
I was referring only to primary and secondary powersets, because APPs/PPPs are completely optional. Before level 41 no melee character even has the option of a ranged mez power. And even after level 41, a tank only has the option of a single target mez. That would be fine for one mezzing enemy, but what about the other 5? (Note: This is assuming that a tank is tanking for a team and has no say in how many enemies he will be fighting at once)
If every melee character were forced to take an APP your point would be more valid, but you don't have to take one at all if you don't want to.
If you decide to roll a Claws/Regen/Body scrapper like the one I have, you have zero means of reliably preventing a mez. If I didn't have any mez protection, or if it were reduced to -3, I would be hard pressed to finish a mission that contained any mezzing foes at all.
On the other side of things, there are very, very few support powersets that don't have some form of mez ability available to them. Off the top of my head, only Fire Blast and Energy Blast don't have a reliable mez power, everything else does.
It's a simple case of Active Protection versus Passive Protection.
Support ATs have Active Protection, meaning they have the ability to stop the mez from ever being cast in the first place. If that mezzing foe is mezzed themselves, they cannot mez you. And if your mez misses, you have breakfrees.
Also, and this is something people either don't know or keep forgetting, a breakfree will prevent mezzes if it is used pre-emptively. It is not just a reactive measure, it can be used proactively as well. A breakfree frees you from mez by granting you protection from it. The mez is still there, but the protection granted by the breakfree counteracts it. All 3 sizes give you the same protection (IIRC), it's just the duration of that protection that differs. A small one gives you mez protection for 30 seconds, a medium for 60 seconds, and a large for 120 seconds (that's why when you level the breakfree takes longer to wear off than the rest of the inspirations that are cast on you)
A melee AT, on the other hand, has Passive Protection. They don't have any inherent ability to prevent a ranged mez from occurring, so they need passive protection from it. Without passive protection, a level 35 tank/scrapper/brute is a sitting duck to an enemy with a ranged mez. And even after level 41 (if they chose to take the mez in an APP), they will be a sitting duck to more than one at a time (which will happen quite frequently on a team)
A number of melee sets have melee range mez powers, but that doesn't help them when the problem mob is 60 feet away. Since the game engine cannot differentiate between a ranged mez and a melee mez (as far as the mez effect itself is concerned, the game doesn't see "melee hold" or "ranged hold", it just sees "hold") , they have to be given protection to it regardless of where it's coming from*.
(*This is common sense based on the fact that mez protection toggles and click powers make no mention of the location of the mez they are protecting from. I don't actually have verifiable knowledge of the game engine's capabilities)
Also, since you bring up the differences between passive and active defenses, the same hold true for melee types. I'll point out that the best way to deal with those pesky mezzers at range that melee types have to face, is to close before you get mezzed. Or taunt, which forces them to close by dropping their range. Granted, this can't be done if the melee-AT in question were already mezzed (unless he used a breakfree).
But, this brings me to the value judgment you made that I think most questionable. So what if the tank (or any melee alt) gets mezzed, and can't do their job, and doesn't have a breakfree along to get free. How is this different from any other AT (except to an extent Blasters). Nobody can do their job when mezzed and out of breakfrees (except maybe sorta blasters). So why is it SO much more critical that melee types never (or vary rarely) get mezzed and have to stop doing their job, but it is OK for every other AT?
I can attempt to answer that question myself. Because if the tank goes in first and takes all the mezes that are incoming, then everyone else is free to act. But this seems to be arguing the need to keep the mez situation as is only to protect the tanks' (/melee type in general) protected spot in the old trinity. And as you point out, this game prides itself on not catering to that standard trinity. -
Quote:It's a case by case basis, but in general, if the power doesn't allow for accuracy slotting, and doesn't do damage, then it's likely auto-hit. However, that's not always true.
Chilling Embrace, for instance, is an auto-hit aura. Arctic Air, if I remember correctly, the slow part of it is auto-hit, but the confuse part needs to make a To-Hit check, but I could be wrong on that. There are definitely a few closet cases, but I'd say that you're safe to assume a power is auto-hit if it doesn't do damage, and doesn't take accuracy.
Edit -> If you want to check out certain powers, check out this site:
http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/
If you click on Tankers, then Ice Armor, then Chilling Embrace, you'll see a list of the power's attributes on the left-hand side. Down towards the bottom you'll see a value for "targets autohit," for which the value is set to "Foe." This means that it's autohit. If it doesn't have that value there, then it's not autohit.
Edit: I was just about to ask what your edit pre-answered. Thanks....... -
However, this game does seem to play a little fast and loose with it's own definitions at some points, so....
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Some powers, mostly PBAoE toggles it seems, have an Accuracy score listed, but do not accept Accuracy Enhancements (TOs, DOs, SOs, generic IOs). But the do allow some sets that have Acc components. When the sets are slotted, the Accuracy score shows that it is enhanced.
Now, does the Accuracy really do anything? Or is the power an autohit power? Is it a case by case basis? If so, is there a way to tell when some acc slotting might be needed, and when it's not? Two examples I can think of off the top of my head are Chilling Embrace from Ice Armour, and Arctic Air from Ice Control. I know there are a few more, but those 2 spring to mind.
Many thanks in advance for the help and input. -
Hmm. Just pointing out an incongruity I noticed. The support player complains about mez mucking with his ability to do his job, and the answer is, "Bring breakfrees and eat them." Yet the melee (tank) player says he needs -10 mez protection to do his job. Couldn't the same logic hold? -3 mez protection, perhaps, and bring breakfrees and eat them?
Incongruity #2.
"Melee types don't get mezes, so support types shouldn't get mez protection."
Except that a lot (maybe even most) melee APP and PPP have mezzes, and I can only think 1 support AT APP or PPP that offer mez protection. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the complaints would be far less if some mez protection were available in most APP/PPPs for the support ATs. -
Not to be nit-picky, but I don't think it's double, I'm pretty sure it's x1.5. But, still the main point stands, it's bonus XP that you don't get in a lump, but gets doled out as you earn other XP via normal methods.
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Same problem here. Since the I19 download the game won't shut down, and I have to do the same dance as everyone here who's commented. Also, the game now locks every single time I try to enter an SG base. All other zoning works fine.
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In general, yes, pretty good build for teaming. Details in a few. General comments first.
I agree with Justaris almost 100% on general Rad/Rad playstyle with one exception (or maybe he just didn't comment on this). I'd slot most attacks for damage (and Achilles -Res in aoes). In Neutrino, I'd not slot damage at all, a little Acc, some recharge, and as many procs (damage and otherwise) as I can get in there. Chance for hold, -res, and damage, too. It's just such a great power for that.
Which leads to my opinion for a global build, build for recharge in my opinion. Faster Neutrino is all good. Cosmic Burst is a great single target weapon, and the faster the better. Lingering Rad is your AV killer since it drops regen rates. The more you can keep it up the better. AM too, more the better. It's true that this doesn't help with the toggles, though.
Now for specifics. I'd spend less slots on the heal, but that's just me. As someone said before, you're not really a healer. And, again seconding someone else, the +Regen and +Regen/Recovery really should be moved to Health. I'd swap the +Regen for a Miracle +recovery so you can run your debuffs and fight full out while hastened, but that's my playstyle, too. For Choking cloud a chance for +2 Mag hold will probably serve ya better than the Damage, but.... lastly, I'm not a big Veng fan, as it's kinda pointless if nobody dies, and in my experince, about 1/2 the time when people DO die, they self rez before you can use it, but that's just my experience and opinion on the topic. I'd pick up Assault for a flat extra 18.7% bonus to damage all the time for you and anyone nearby. Or, another power from just about anywhere. Take a power you expect to use every mission, is my advice. Of course, all depending on your playstyle. YMMV
Well, good luck and I hope it turns out well for ya. -
Quote:Ah, very valid point then. Many folks though seem to suffer under the delusion that you *have* to buy things, and tend to forget that the ultimate source of everything is running missions (or street-sweeping etc), either for tickets and merits, or just plain drops. Wanted to clarify for any folks that thought that.Actually, I was just trying to further stress the oxymoron that they aren't free because you buy them. I didn't mean to imply there isn't still a degree of earning for them as well. You'd still have to do tasks to get the money or candy canes to be able to buy them (the holiday respec in particular)... unless of course somebody just handed you those resources.
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