Madam_Enigma

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ultimo_ View Post
    Panzer, you're citing fringe cases, unless you're suggesting everyone can solo AVs and 8 man missions and whatnot. I'm interested in what's best for all (yes, including myself). I will say the problem is far more manifest solo because your team is doing things for you when you can't. Thus you don't notice it as readily.
    So... because only those who specifically build for it can solo AV's and +5/x8 missions you think there's a problem? In normal gameplay endurance isn't a problem unless you allow it to be a problem.

    EDIT to expand: Someone correct me if I'm misunderstanding the argument here. The complaint is that endurance usage is so extreme that people are constantly running out of endurance, and a 3 minute timer (or 1:30 minute timer even) is too long to cover flaw. The insanely high endurance usage in turn causes people to just stand around for large amounts of time recovering endurance instead of actually playing.

    Am I understanding it so far?

    The complaint then further indicates that this overarching problem is so severe it can't be compensated for. Or in Ultimo's own words "It's excessive. It impacts virtually every aspect of the game and can't be sufficiently mitigated"

    Now, never mind all the tools we have to handle endurance usage issues. It is so excessive it can't be surfficently mitigated. So ignore characters who can fight for hours without running out of endurance. Further ignore defenders who DON'T have stamina and have no endurance issues. Ignore people who can solo a mission on +5/x8 without resting excessively. Also ignore people capable of soloing an AV. All these examples of people who solved the unmitigatable endurance usage are aberrant and can't be considered.

    Also ignore people who play the game normally without endurance issues. Furthermore you must ignore any new player who can figure out how to solve their endurance issues. They aren't proof that endurance recovery doesn't create excessive downtime.

    You know all those teams that don't have a kin that steamroll missions? You know, the ones who blitz mission after mission without slowing down? Ignore them too. They can't possibly be doing that. After all, endurance usage is "excessive. It impacts virtually every aspect of the game and can't be sufficiently mitigated"

    Am I still understanding the argument here? Someone correct me if I got it wrong somehow.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Everfree_Fire View Post
    2: Considering the game is, was, and to the best of my knowledge will always be balanced around SOs, how does complaining about an IO'd out scrapper being as survivable as a tanker help your argument in any way. I rolled a tanker because I wanted someone who could be a tanker; She can get aggro, (sort of, she's WP/) hold onto it, and she doesn't die unless I royally screw up with her. Sure, she solos slow, but that's why I only team with her, and I feel that there's no problem with that.

    Now maybe I don't have the same point of view you do. I don't know...But these two just seem strange to me.
    Not to mention that fully IOed out scrapper can't hold aggro as well as a tanker. Even a poorly played tanker holds aggro better then a well played scrapper. Regardless of how survivable said scrapper is.

    When I play a scrapper I flat out can't tank. When I play a warshade I can off tank. When I play my ice/mace tanker... it's gonna take a lot of work for the team to peal enemies off me. And I constantly work to maintain that status. I wont do much damage to any given enemy while teamed. But I'll be at my aggro cap the entire time, and keeping that stuff off the squishies. Sometimes out tanking my fellow tanker.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by UberGuy View Post
    Ultimo, you were doing fine until you got to the last three sentences quoted there, and the last one in particular.

    It can't be sufficiently mitigated? What are you talking about? Apparently, "sufficiently mitigated" should be "can fight forever.
    Which is quite funny. With Madam Enigma endurance isn't the limiting factor of how long I can fight non-stop. Health is. Same for Donna Fae, my TA/A defender. My blasters also have that issue. Only three of my three dozen characters ever run the risk of bottoming out on endurance mid fight. One is a sonic/sonic defender. One is a ice/mace tanker. And the third is a dark/dark scrapper.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr_Body View Post
    My pudding monster is made of butterscotch but runs away from me as I will grab a spoon and try to eat it!
    And that is the nature of pudding monsters. You can't change it. No amount of respecing will change it. Only a complete delete and reroll will.
  5. Steel, I was in part being sarcastic. I find I use Rest more often to recover health. But even then it's not really needed. Just wait a few seconds, 10 at most usually and your good to go. I was here in issue 4 with a dark melee/dark armor scrapper. I remember the dark days when Dark Regen cost 50 endurance to use base, and the DA toggles by level 24 cost exactly as much as one's endurance recovery with a 3 slotted with SO stamina. And that was after slotting end redux in all the toggles. So trust me when I say I've seen the worst endurance usage the game has to offer. Before I got stamina, Slimy Sam was bleeding endurance just walking around. I didn't even have to turn on sprint to lose endurance.

    Sarcasm aside, my point was that there are options for if one feels their endurance usage is too high. One option is to shut off toggles you don't actually currently need. That alone speeds up recovery.
  6. Sadly Luminara, if oil slick is the other -runspeed power that was mentioned with -90% runspeed then I did know what I was talking about. I actually looked at it, and glue arrow. Glue Arrow has a base of -90% runspeed and -3.2 max run speed listed for it's debuffs. Meanwhile Oil SLick has a -3.2 max run speed, and knockdown.
  7. Don't forget about SWG! This is a dramatization of events:

    "The game's failing, we need more players"

    "I know, let's completely revamp the combat engine to make it fun! That'll draw in new players, satisfy the current players, and bring back old players!"

    "That's a great idea"

    *mass exodus from the game after the Combat Upgrade*

    "Wait, what just happened?"

    "I don't know, maybe we should completely revamp the class system, expertise system, and every core gameplay system?"

    "Great idea, that'll bring everyone back!"

    *another mass exodus from the game after the New Game Experience fiasco*

    "What happened now?"

    "According to our forums, everyone's rage quitting because we destroyed the game twice."

    "Oh..."
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steel_Shaman View Post
    Yes I am aware that it used to have a longer recharge than it does now.
    That does not change my view on the subject. Granted it does not happen constantly, but there are occassions like I described in my original post when someone will need to rest and the ability will be recharging, thus forcing the player to merely do nothing for a period of time. This isn't a good idea in my opinion. And no amount of recharge slotting is going to completely eliminate that possibility.

    Can you explain to me specifically why you feel my suggestion would be bad for the game? I'd love to hear it. (And no, that isn't sarcasm, I really would like to hear it.)
    So, you burn so much endurance that you need Rest more then once every 3 minutes? Slot some recharge into it then. I slot one SO worth of recharge in rest at any given time. Need it up more often? Add another slot or two. Yes, you too can get it's recharge down to 1 minute 30 seconds if you wanted. Lower then that actually!

    Or you can take a look at why your burning so much endurance. Are you running nine expensive toggles at all times? Consider if you actually need them all on at any given moment. Having a damage aura on for example when your traveling is a waste. Only turn it on in battle. Try turning off your travel power in combat. That'll save a lot of endurance. Do you chain Headsplitter six times for your attack chain? Try adding some endurance redux to it. Or even try throwing in lower endurance cost attacks which will also finish off the already weakened enemy. Many paths to endurance management exist. The right one for you could be staring you right in the face.

    Yes, you too can solve your endurance usage problems! All it takes is a willingness to think for yourself.

    But in all seriousness, endurance troubles aren't anywhere near as bad as you claim. My level 18 ice/mace tanker has endurance troubles. With all toggles on, I have about .3/sec end recovery beyond usage. But you know what? I can easily solve them at any given moment. All I have to do is *gasp* turn off those toggles between battles when I need more end recovery. Or if I am still fighting, I can turn off the toggles I don't need. If an enemy group has nothing that can mez me, I don't need my mez protection toggle do I? Similarly if there's only smash/lethal damage I don't need my energy defense toggle. If fighting only a couple enemies, do I really need my slow aura or damage aura? Not really. And turning them off slows down the endurance bleed.
  9. My views on the OP's suggestions:

    Entangling Arrow: This power is just fine IMO. It's easily able to stack enough to immobilize some of the more annoying AV's (read ones that love to run). It's no web grenade, true. But then the sets with web grenade don't have a plethora of -run speed and -recharge powers either. By the way, don't all powers with redraw (aka weapon sets) tend to have a small acc mod boost?

    Flash Arrow: Ok, this I could almost agree with. It's a rather meh power. It's unresistable -tohit is the only real reason to use it usually. And that's a small amount. Ideally I would rather the -acc get boosted and the -perception be removed.

    Glue Arrow: Say what?! Are you looking at the enhanced values or unenhanced values? You did know this power use to have a 6 second recharge and either 45 second or 1 minute duration when initially on test right? And the devs (possibly correctly) decided that a self stacking -recharge was too strong. Mind you, I'd love to see it's -recharge boosted. I'm not seeing it happening though. By the way, what is the other -runspeed power in trick arrow that gives -90% to run speed? It's not Oil Slick, that gives -3.20 max run speed but no run speed penelty other then that. Glue does that, plus a base of -90% runspeed.

    Ice Arrow: Yeah, I'd like the debuffs increased. I'm rather doubting it'll happen though.

    Poison Gas Arrow: Say what?! Allow it's sleep effect to stack? And how pray tell are you going to do that? Why would you want it to do that? With a duration that's half the recharge rate, you have to be heavily slotting recharge to get this perma to begin with. You'd then have to have insane +recharge from other sources in order for it to be self stacking to begin with. But then if your doing that glue arrow doesn't need a stronger -recharge debuff. It's self stacking already.

    Acid Arrow: I could aprove of the aoe increase. But why are you asking for a nerf to it's recharge? The devs have stated in the past that it and disruption arrow have lower -resist values because they can stack together. And I'm not sure, but I think acid arrow can self stack.

    Disruption Arrow: Uhm, as far as I know it doesn't have a cap for how many foes it can affect at once. As for adding -acc to it, erm... probably not. See my suggestion for flash arrow instead. Enemies would either run out of the disruption arrow's effect radius quickly (thus lose the -tohit) or die extremely quickly (thus lose the -tohit).

    Oil Slick Arrow: I don't seem to have the problems you do lighting this. There were problems in the past. It use to refuse to light when street sweeping or in outdoor missions. That hasn't been too much of an issue for a while. Mind you, I'd love the recharge timer to be reduced. That's doubtful to happen though.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by that 1 guy View Post
    I never really thought of this, but if GR were to switch the ATs to the side you are joining (which we all know won't happen but pretending if it were).

    So, i'm guessing that ATs will switch if they were to as so:

    Blaster - Corrupter
    Controller - Dominator
    Defender - Mastermind
    Scrapper - Stalker
    Tanker - Brute

    I know that the whole scrapper and tanker part is most likely correct, but I am unsure about defenders, corrupters, masterminds, and blasters. If you know what the correct equivalents are, please post a reply.
    This is irreverent. A mastermind is always a mastermind. Good, bad, your the guy/gal with the minions. There is no mechanic in CoX that switches your archtype on you. And according to the devs, there never will be. Scrappers are always scrappers. Brutes are always brutes. Pudding monsters are always pudding monsters.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by PennyPA View Post
    Although I am in the camp that rest rech should be reduced/eliminated, has it come up ever in discussions or a red name that the reason it has a recharge is to force to use END management?

    In other words, if we could rest quickly between fights, then we would learn to just burn END every fight, rest, burn END, rest and never really plan out how to manage our END.
    Actually, Rest has had it's recharge reduced once already. It use to have a timer of either 6 or 10 minutes. Can't remember which. Now it's every 3 minutes. I find by the time I actually need to use rest again, it's already up. And if you need it more often, slot some recharge.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Riale View Post
    After a few years of the game, My only 50 is a pretty heavy single target character (Ice/Kin Corr) and I want to try something different. However, I also don't want to be as fragile as my /kin was while leveling.

    I have a Shield/SS Tanker that I've leveled up, but I really don't like Shields that much even though I know it's the flavor of the month. I find it very tedious to level with. I also have a DP/Fire Blaster who just shreds spawns, but the rest of the time he's faceplanted on the ground. I'd like a happy medium.

    What would the community recommend (That isn't the generic Elec/SD Scrapper) for a smooth leveling, survivable AoE specialist?
    Did you consider a thug/TA mastermind? Lots of aoe, rather high damage, and pretty dang safe usually. Plus you can always count on the suicidal arsonist to light your oil slicks.
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Biospark View Post

    Think about where we are compared to games like EQ for instance. You want to talk about "resting" ! Endurance constraints exist for a reason, whether we agree with them or not, yet CoX has in it the most extensive tools to alter that constraint than any other game I have played. If this constraint is too distracting to your enjoyment of the game, there are plenty of other choices out there. Some games are just going to be popular for a smaller, select, and discerning fanbase.

    For me City of Heroes is THAT game !
    They will have to majorly screw it up in order to send me packing.
    Preaching to the converted my friend. CoH was my first MMO. And it spoiled me. A single player being able to handle 5 to 16 enemies at a time? Debuffs that are worth while? This spoiled me. Then I tried Everquest. Reading through the classes in that, I picked ranger since it sounded a lot like defenders. You know, ranged damage mixed with buffs and debuffs. A combo that CoH taught me is very powerful.

    In EQ I quickly stopped using my snares because they didn't matter. The enemy would still be upon me before I could get a second arrow off. I equally quickly realized how useless I was. If a second enemy aggroed on me I was dead. If the enemy was even one level above me I was usually dead. If the priest was even a second slow in healing me I was dead. If an enemy even looked at me cross eyed I was dead. And if I dared to challenge a second enemy after dispatching a single foe, I'd dang well have rested enough to recover the 75% of my health I'd lost. And that's at low levels. The tutorial even! I spent more time running to my corpse to recover my gear then I did fighting enemies.

    I've been playing DDO since it came out. You want to hear about down time? Try not healing unless there's a cleric in the party, or you find a 'rest shrine'. And depending on if anyone's putting points in a mostly useless skill, the shrine may barely heal you. Or you could go to a tavern between running missions to heal there. But you need to buy food. Otherwise you recover 1 hit point and 5 magic every few seconds. You have at least 24 health at level one... and you quickly can get hundreds of magic points. Recovering 580 mp at a rate of 5 every 5 seconds takes a long time. Regaining 300 health at a rate of 1 every five seconds takes a long time too. And you had to sit through this after pretty much every mission. Now THAT is downtime.
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ultimo_ View Post
    This game is tedious. Compared to other games, it gets really tired, really fast. I word it that way deliberately, because I'm talking about endurance use.
    I find it is some of the most fast paced combat in MMOs.

    Quote:
    Characters in this game go through endurance way, way too fast. It's especially bad for characters that rely on toggles, such as Defenders and Tankers, but as a general principle, endurance use is prohibitive. That means we spend a lot of time standing around, either waiting for our endurance to recover, or using one or two powers for fear of running out and detoggling (which usually means instant death, at least at higher levels).
    In Vanguard my ranger burns through his endurance bar in every fight that lasts more then 2 attacks. In short, if anything survives long enough to reach melee I'm sucking wind. My mages in Vanguard are equally bad with their magic.

    In WoW my warlock burns magic way faster then even my highest endurance CoH character.

    In AoC my barbarian burns through stamina super fast too. As does my dark templar and bear shaman. Fight 16 enemies at once? No way, I'd never have enough magic OR stamina for that. It's all I can do to fight 3 enemies usually. And 2 enemies give troubles too.

    In EQ2 my necro burns through an entire magic bar fighting 3 enemies, assuming I survive the fight.

    Quote:
    As a rule, it's more fun to be using your powers and fighting the enemy than it is to be standing around, often as a punching bag for the NPCs because you lack the energy to fight back. In no other game is this problem so pronounced. Other games have power usage, but it's prohibitive here.
    Unless something in CoH is doing end drain, rarely am I standing around. Of course, I'm not afraid to take a 3 or 4 second break between each fight if needed to recover endurance. My jedi in SWG just now however was sucking wind for 3 fights in a row, with no real possibility to recover stamina. Why? Because an enemy slapped me with a debuff which was constantly draining it at a faster rate then my recovery. And that debuff was long lasting. I quite literally couldn't effectively fight back. Something in CoH which only happens if I get mezzed.

    Quote:
    I've said it before, I'm saying it again. Endurance use needs to be recalibrated. It should still be part of the game, but it should not be so prominent. It's not in keeping with the source material (when was the last time you saw the Thing gasping for breath out of exhaustion), and it's just not fun.
    The thing? Not lately. But then I don't read FF too often. I have several issues of Spiderman where he's out of breath or tired. Especially after a battle which lasts a long time. During the Darkest Night storyline many of the DC heroes were getting tired near the end of it. Batman has a lot of stamina, but even Bruce gets worn down after a while. So does Superman. And I have several issues of Flash where Wally is exhausted after a long day at work, and still has to fight some super criminal.
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wolfwood82 View Post
    Well two things. First off you are "going rogue" meaning you are still "villainous", just an upper class one that can walk through town without police pulling you over. Think the upper class mafia guys who the cops KNOW are dirty, but can't nab them for illegal activities because they are just that good. I forget the official term for villains going blueside but heros going red become vigilantes like Batman or Punisher.

    Secondly, pain is a joke. I mean the entire set is based around removing/soothing pain rather then inflicting or anything remotely matching it's description. They should have done more then just rename Empathy for that set. But that is just personal taste.
    Sure, the villain is initially still a criminal. But if you go too far along the path to redemption, your no longer an upper crust criminal. Your a true blue hero (ala Pied Piper for a while).
  16. Yeah, wolf spider armor isn't a huge benefit. If you have other things you want, they can be a better choice. Interestingly, while my Crab build (fort and both passive armors) never gets held in PvE, my wolf spider build (fortification and wolf spider armor only) does occasionally get held.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Biowraith View Post
    That'll be where we differ. I found my crab build to be *very* tight on power picks (and a little tight on slots). There's a queue of other powers that I wanted to take but didn't have space for, that all place well ahead of Wolf Armor in desirability.
    Where my build focuses on just Crab Spider stuff, and picking up Stamina. Travel I leave to Ninja Run and Sprint with the jump jet as needed. I'll be able to get pretty much every power I wanted. Wont have an Aim or Buildup type power, but I don't think I'll need one.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by DarchJester View Post
    I agree that a healer is not needed. That being said, they are nice to have, especially if there is no one to buff. But, as i saw on here somewhere, Empathy only has three direct healing powers, the rest are a rez and buffs. So i think there's alot of misconceptions about empaths, that they're solely for healing, when, like most all the other def primaries/controller seconds they're buffers.
    The 'healer' build I've usually seen is the following powers: Healing Aura, Heal Other, Absorb Pain, Rez. Aid Other, Aid Self, med pool rez, maybe if your lucky the two RA buffs, recall friend, too many travel powers, one required blast with nothing slotted...

    So I say again, we don't need a Healer. We want a defender.
  19. No problem. If you wanted, I think Paragon Wiki has a listing of all the powers PPD Awakened have for each tier.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cynical_Gamer View Post
    A Peacebringer may be consistent, but the performance level of said consistency is too low for me. The average performance of a Warshade is much higher and more fun.
    This made me think of...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=MJyS...eature=related
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Biowraith View Post
    If it were 10-15% base, or if it were getting you the last couple % to the resist cap I'd reconsider, but for 3% base to only 2 damage types (ok, 2% to psi as well), it's still not worth an entire power imo.
    It's a nice bonus though. And it's not like I'm short on power picks. Especially now that I don't need a travel power (thanks to Ninja Run). Now I need a respec to pull slots out of sprint, swift, and mental training. No longer need the insane run speed slotting.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Selina_H View Post
    The issue I have is with your phrasing, per this post:



    This makes it sound as though you are unable to derive any benefit from the increases to recharge and recovery. In fact, you could benefit considerably, but choose not to do so because you don't wish to change your preferred playstyle.

    Let me note here, lest I sound overly critical, that I think you absolutely *should* play in whatever manner you find most enjoyable. Some players enjoy optimizing their attack chains, to be able to spam their best, most efficient attacks as often as possible. Some players enjoy cranking up the difficulty to +4/x8. Some players enjoy going after AVs. In my experience, most players have neither a perfectly optimized solo attack chain nor enough extra recovery for protracted battles; they see the opportunity to do so, via Speed Boost, as much win.
    Or rather, you could read it as it's written and realize I said HALF of my characters are built so it provides no real benefit. I've stated time and again it is useful BUT you can build a character so they don't need the boosts. In which case forcing it upon someone doesn't improve their character's performance. It just gives potential control problems.

    People like SiGGy are saying it's a required buff and everyone always needs it, so if a kin doesn't have speed boost they get yelled at then booted. People with this view will use Speed Boost on someone who asks not to be buffed with it, because they think they know what your character needs more then you do.

    I say it's USEFUL but the runspeed component can outweigh the rest. Especially if you build a character so they are self sufficient.

    A common claim is "If your not speed boosted, you can't keep up with the team". Bull, you can build characters which move that fast without any toggles on. In actuality, some people I've noticed have more trouble keeping up with speed boost. Those walls and torches can slow someone down if their constantly getting stuck. Or missing the turn, or running past the enemy and into a second (or third) group of enemies.

    Another common claim is that everyone can use more +recharge to make a better attack chain. Bull, you can build characters who will get minimal benefit from the +recharge, at best.

    Another common claim is that everyone needs the +recovery. Bull, you can (and IMO should) build so that you don't need any outside help for endurance recovery in 90% of the game's content.

    Characters that benefit from SB can really benefit. My DM/DA scrapper for example loves speed boost. Always nice to have a recovery rate that's high enough you can actually run your toggles. So does my ice/mace tank. My sonic/sonic defender really loves speed boost. If I'm running all my toggles my sonic/sonic defender's recovery rate is currently lower then endurance usage.

    My masterminds on the other hand tend to be rather ambivalent about speed boost. Yeah sure it'll get the pet summons to recharge faster. But in all honesty they usually don't need to be recharged faster. And the debuffs for my masterminds tend to need very little recharge to be perma. Sometimes none. Several scrappers also don't need more recharge or recovery. And I've got 4 characters who flat out don't need more run speed. They already get into trouble due to passive run speed. they really don't need to be at the run speed cap in missions.

    In a nut shell, here is what I've been trying to convey:

    Speed boost is useful, can be helpful, but is not by any means a must have power. And even if you do take it, there are situations where speed boost is not recommended to use.

    That's bolded to call attention to it. Several people are trying to say that anyone who doesn't take speed boost is gimped, and those who don't want it are gimping themselves. And that's not true.
  23. The PPD icon is available as a vet reward, along with other faction symbols.
  24. I honestly can't stand playing my peacebringer. My warshade though... Oh my gawd I love that char.
  25. My crab is named Arachnid Huntress. Her backstory is she was a cop with latent psi abilities undercover in the rogue isles. The problem was, she got detected by Arachnos and conscripted/brainwashed. as is standard practice with spider candidates and widows. They had been grooming her for Bane training when she got tired of always being beaten to a pulp by every two bit 'destined one' and hero. The rest as they say is history in the making.