MasterGabriel

[ QUOTE ]
I don't like the idea of Tankers specializing in fighting groups for two reasons.

[/ QUOTE ]

They are not specialized in fighting groups since under this proposal their single target prowess remains unchanged.

[ QUOTE ]
Number one, fighting guys weaker than you seems like the exact definition of being a bully to me. I don't find the idea heroic and fitting for a hero AT. Brutes, it's fine for. That's their concept.
Thematically, I can accept Tankers holding back on the lesser foes; minions, LTs...IF they were able to open up on the Bosses, EBs AVs and GMs.


[/ QUOTE ]

They can its called red inspirations. Tankers also have some of the highest Brawl index attacks out there with heavy hitters like KO blow, Energy Transfer, Greater Fire sword Etc...

[ QUOTE ]
Number two is the time when Tankers NEED offense the most beyond concept reasons, is the early levels BEFORE your defenses allow you to stand in crowds of foes and maximixe any AoE potential. At best you're fighting three guys at a time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Get a team. like it or not Johnny, Tankers are a TEAM based AT.

[ QUOTE ]
As for the idea of Critical Taunt, as I said before it's pointless spashing secondary effects to enemies who are already next to you and are in your taunt aura. It doesn't buy the team anything in a team situation. If you're next to the enemies and attacking to be splashing, they're already NOT attacking the team because of Gauntlet and your taunt aura. Solo, it increaes Tanker survivability, but frankly Tankers don't NEED more survivability solo.

[/ QUOTE ]

So stacking Mez effects to lock down Bosses doesn't help the team. Ok have you ever ran with a team of Controllers and Defenders stacking mez and debuff. I will clue you in, everything dies fast.

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think the idea makes sense on a thematic level, and on another level, it feels like someone is just grasping to give Tankers something, any old thing, that Scrappers or Brutes wouldn't want at all or loose sleep over not getting. Tankers deserve better than the scrapings at the bottom of the barrel that the other melee ATs wouldn't touch. We already have Gauntlet for that.


[/ QUOTE ]

Scrappers and Brutes are not the same kind of beast as Tankers. They serve different purposes.

[ QUOTE ]
Actually increased mez effects would help in team situations by stacking with mez effects from other players to overcome the mez protection of tougher foes like bosses, EBs, AVs and GMs. As far as concept is concerned it fits pretty easily for a hero that is singelhandedly taking on large numbers of foes at once in order to protect his teammates.

[/ QUOTE ]

Since Tankers within the game have always had a bit of a melee controller-ish element this idea would fit in well. In comics there are a great many examples of the Tanker cornering a large number of thugs and dispatching them with ease. Take the movie Incredibles for example, when Mr. Incredible traps the thugs in the RV.

[ QUOTE ]
You state tankers need something better Johnny but all you offer is the same old damage increase as a way to make them more like scrappers and brutes. Whether you choose to accept it or not, the reality is that game balance will not allow tanker damage to be as good as scrappers or brutes. Therefore more damage won't make tankers stand out or more popular because if it's only about the damage than brutes and scrappers will still be able to deliver more damage more consistently.

[/ QUOTE ]

No evidence has been shown that giving Tankers more damage inherently will do anything to make them more popular and such a change would would imbalance the game. I still think Tankers should have Defender or Controller numbers when using the Leadership pool. Some Tanker secondaries might be left out in the cold by this change such as Dual Blades or battle axe I think in those cases an additional effect of defense or resistance debuff might be more appropriate as the Tanker literally rips the armor off their foe with each strike.

My first 50 was a Scrapper BS / Inv. He can tank he can hit and the big orange numbers still impress. I have stuck with him through the highs and lows of Invul and still play him to this day.

I have also been impressed with Fire / Regen. My Gf who had played about a month at this point soloed an archvillain with one before she knew what that meant.

Claws Dark The bag of tricks scrapper. You have a click for every occassion

Spines / Invul or Spines / willpower
Invincibility + spines equals living blender.

I am not Goldbrick but this is the Team oriented 2nd build of my Inv / Em Tanker.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Lord Gabriel: Level 50 Mutation Tanker
Primary Power Set: Invulnerability
Secondary Power Set: Energy Melee
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temp Invulnerability -- (A)(5)(7)(9)
Level 1: Barrage -- (A)(3)(13)(27)(42)(46)
Level 2: Dull Pain -- (A)(3)(11)(15)(15)(27)
Level 4: Bone Smasher -- (A)(5)(7)(34)(37)(40)
Level 6: Hover -- (A)
Level 8: Unyielding -- (A)(9)(11)(13)
Level 10: Taunt -- (A)(33)(34)(45)
Level 12: Swift -- (A)
Level 14: Fly -- (A)
Level 16: Health -- (A)(17)(17)(46)
Level 18: Invincibility -- (A)(19)(19)
Level 20: Stamina -- (A)(21)(21)(46)
Level 22: Hasten -- (A)(23)(23)
Level 24: Whirling Hands -- (A)(25)(25)(34)(43)(43)
Level 26: Kick -- (A)
Level 28: Tough -- (A)(29)(29)(31)
Level 30: Weave -- (A)(31)(31)
Level 32: Unstoppable -- (A)(33)(33)
Level 35: Energy Transfer -- (A)(36)(36)(36)(37)(37)
Level 38: Total Focus -- (A)(39)(39)(39)(40)(40)
Level 41: Resist Physical Damage -- (A)(42)(42)(43)
Level 44: Tough Hide -- (A)(45)(45)
Level 47: Resist Energies -- (A)(48)(48)(48)
Level 49: Resist Elements -- (A)(50)(50)(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- (A)
Level 1: Sprint -- (A)
Level 2: Rest -- (A)
Level 1: Gauntlet

[ QUOTE ]
Again: irony-slice-plop.

[/ QUOTE ]
You become flustered when confronted with arguments of logic and resort to fallacies of logic to try to win the discussion.

Thanks for proving my point have a nice night. Enjoy your gaming.

[ QUOTE ]
Quote:
resort to personal attack...false blanket of discredit...fallacies



The irony is so thick you could cut it with Dual Blades.



[/ QUOTE ]

Still waiting for proof. If you cannot cite evidence leaving the implication of fallacies of logic is also an insufficient response. Is the implication that you are trying to leave that I am discrediting you with personal attacks or quoting out of context.

I think that if a reasonable person goes back and looks at every response I have made to you no quote has ever been taken out of context nor have I directly attacked you as a person on an unrelated issue.

[ QUOTE ]
They already have aggro control abilities. They control aggro so well it makes more than one of them largely redundant.

[/ QUOTE ]

Have you ever done an ITF or an STF? Have you ever considered 2 tanks do an 8 man split, and each take half a team to clear the mission in half the time? heck have you even considered leap frogging tankers where 2 tankers continually alternate grabbing aggro through missions so the mobs are all nice and compact as blaster AoE bait and the team flies along non stop. Multiple tanks have been used in those TF's to isolate key AV's. Multiple tanks in much of the content of the game is redundant but many AT's have redundancy issues so that is hardly a Tanker exclusive issue. The problem is not that multiple tankers are inherently redundant, it is that some segments of the player base under-utilize tankers aggro control and damage mitigation capabilities by a stubborn adherence to inflexible team tactics.

[ QUOTE ]
If you can't tell the difference between me suggesting things like the Tanker Domination proposal and calling for a tank-mage, you're the one failing Game Design 101.


[/ QUOTE ]

Since I don't fully remember the numbers for Tank Domination I cannot say the idea in and of itself was flawed. However in Game design 101 another of the things you learn is that if it isn't broke don't fix it without a good reason. The only cause you have ever shown is that tanking does not match YOUR interpretation of comic book fights. A good designer tries to match the source material but not at the cost of game balance. I can also say that when you brought up Tankomination the Devs had just begun work on MA so they just might have been a little busy with that as a game affecting change for all AT's as opposed to tweaking one AT to match some players views of how that AT should work.

[ QUOTE ]
Here's a little FYI. Brutes have demonstrated you can be more survivable than a Scrapper, and be able to hit harder than them some of the time. A Brute has Tanker resistance caps, more HP than a Scrapper and he's capable of hitting MUCH harder than the Scrapper at times.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wait a minute "Mr. Brutes step on Tankers toes" is trying to use Brutes as an example of perfect design? Brutes have lower Hit points than tankers have the defense numbers of scrappers and to keep their fury bar high have to continually be fighting to achieve higher than scrapper level damage. Scrappers with their up front burst and consistent damage can still out do brutes unless the Brute is able to keep his fury bar at an average of 2/3 full through out the entire encounter. Tankers who have much higher mitigation numbers than scrappers or Brutes are able to consistently deal damage against larger groups than Brutes will ever be able to withstand. and yes their are elements of brutes as an AT that are broke. Those being the higher damage cap and mitigation caps in one AT makes them buff sponges. So I guess if you want to break Tanks we should make them more like Brutes with front-loaded damage with a Tank-Domination direct port.

[ QUOTE ]
How is that any different than my Tanker inherent proposal suggesting Tankers could hit harder than they do now some of the time? It's not.
Few argued my proposal was stright up over powered or unreasonable and I don't think ANYONE thought it was going to turn Tankers into tank-mages. But it allowed them to be heavy hitters.


[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe it wasn't but the Devs were mite busy at that point what with Mission Architect and all being just a little revolutionary. It might be as simple as they had bigger items on their respective plates. And as far as Tanks being heavy hitters have you ever noticed that Tanks generally have 1 or two attacks per set with a higher brawl index than a comparable Scrapper set pop a few reds before unleashing these and look at the the big orange numbers. Have you ever had a Kin drop FS on you before you Energy Transfer. Big Orange Numbers

[ QUOTE ]
And had it fallen on the ears of devs who gave a damn about the AT's conceptual failings, I suspect it would have gotten more consideration.

[/ QUOTE ]

K your still holding a grudge that the Devs didn't immediately drop every thing they were doing to implement your idea for a problem that has yet to be proven exists. I do not feel feel that Tankers conceptually fail their comic progenitors within game balance concerns. So between my opinion and your opinion did it ever occur to you that insufficient evidence has been shown to exist to warrant a programming change such as the one you are suggesting?

So when countering this retort do you intend to use personal attack fallacies or do you intend to quote me out of context. I really would like to know how you plan on showing off your inability to reasonably argue ahead of time.

Post edited for grammatical error in 1st response to promote clarity of intent.

[ QUOTE ]
Still haven't found that Shift key yet?

Keep looking! It can be a tricky little scoundrel!

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice try JB resorting to personal attack when unwilling or unable to invalidate a point of logic is no better. Since you can't invalidate the argument you must try to invalidate the messenger. When an arguer must resort to personal attack to invalidate the speaker and throw a false blanket of discredit over an issue it is a sure sign of the weakness of their own argument. You have to resort to fallacies of logic a lot on these boards, You know that right?

Oh and my grammar is not perfect, I know it already. You don't need to point it out. The credibility of my argument continues to stand.

So if you are capable of validating a point on any of this do so.

[ QUOTE ]
Hey all,

A friend and I are planning on building a pair of tanks which we want to run together. The idea is to choose different powersets so we're covering each other's weaknesses. But we're worried that one of us will end up being the "secondary" tank. Anyone have any favorite tank duos they'd like to share?

Thanks,
Doc

[/ QUOTE ]

I would think a INV/ fire and a SD/fire would work well together if they fought in close proximity and the Inv concentrated on controlling aggro so that the SD/ would have higher damage with less risk. but that is my opinion.

[ QUOTE ]
Quote:
JB has lost sight of the goal of these debates that is making Tankers more useful, and better balanced within the game as the game evolves.




I don't want to be part of a goal to make Tankers better aggro sponges and shove them further into a rut they should never have been designed and forced into in the first place.

These "debates" are anything but. Exactly as I said before, you've got a collection of players here enforcing a status quo. There's no progress to be made from that because they don't want progress.

[/ QUOTE ]

So you don't want Tankers to have aggro control abilities. You just want them to hit hardest and take them most damage. Right you want tank-mages, got that. Game design 101 is never allow Tank-Mages period. Closest you can get is a Scrapper. Go roll a DM / Invul name him Brick and call it a day Johnny.

[ QUOTE ]
Quote:

Since "Going Rogue" was announced and JB made public his decision that he is going to CO as soon as it comes out




Correction. I'm going to try the game the second I can. I'm going to leap at the chance when someone offers me things these devs would never deliver and demonstrates they've been listening to like minded criticism and complaints. I'll greatfully entertain them vieing for my attention and money after being dismissed and insulted by these devs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really good luck with that. We are all hoping you get your chance sooner rather than later and enjoy the game.

[ QUOTE ]
What would you have me add?

"Year 2.5 Despite a lot of talk, nothing's changed with Tankers. Except it seems the devs have done exactly what I've always hoped they wouldn't and now they're going to introduce another melee AT blue side can can tank well enough for 90% of then content in the game and also gets to make Tanker damage look even worse in comparison. Go devs."?



[/ QUOTE ]

I am not going to bother listing all the changes made for Tankers again, since as I stated before it doesn't matter to you if the changes made are an improvement because they are not the changes YOU would have made. Really your arguments remind me more of a child throwing a tantrum because he only got 1 toy instead of 2.

Question for you Johnny. Since Scrappers can tank most of the content of the game and Brutes can tank most of the content of the game. and Brutes are coming to blue side and Tanks and Scrappers to red. Therefore by your own approximations the minority of the game that requires a Tank is still safe blue side since Brutes and Scraps are still a little disadvantaged in these areas. Furthermore for difficult content red side say (LRSF anyone) there is now a heavier tanking option than a /stone brute. Can you explain to us again how Tanks will not proliferate on red-side simply to fill vacuum without losing ground on blue side, due to the small amount of content that necessitates a tank remaining unchanged?

[ QUOTE ]
Johnny might be crazy, but that doesn't make everything he says crazy. Of course, given how much he talks, I can totally understand if you decide to stop listening because you just don't want to try to sift through it all to see which part is worth listening to.

[/ QUOTE ]

I totally understand this point. Once upon a time you could get a useful perspective out of JB discussions if you could get him to identify the core problem. The reason I really can't take any of his tripe anymore is that he still has nothing new to say. He likes to use meaningless fallacies of logic such as "least damaging melee archetype" or meaning less comparisons between comic book design and game design. I also find his tactics of distorting quotes and quoting out of context nearly as reprehensible as his name calling. JB has lost sight of the goal of these debates that is making Tankers more useful, and better balanced within the game as the game evolves. JB merely wishes to be right about everything and if the solution or conclusion is not his it must be wrong and therefore attacked. Since "Going Rogue" was announced and JB made public his decision that he is going to CO as soon as it comes out, he has become even more combative and has stopped adding useful dialogue tho the discussion besides ranting "I'm Right, told you so"

So to save those forum readers who do read all of these threads including JB's posts I want to save everyone a little time and post the ideas from past discussions with JB that arguably MAY have some merits.

1. Tankers (and indeed all AT's) have fewer options or options of poor quality, past selection of primary and secondary power selections for increasing damage. I suggested a while back giving tankers the same level of benefit from leadership pool as Defenders or Controllers. Other suggestions have been made including but not limited to a stacking damage resistance debuff inherent, a Domination style inherent (JB's idea) that would multiply damage and aggro radius when active. Also suggested a battle stance system allowing tankers to lower mitigation to increase damage.

2. All AT's have available a great number of defensive mitigation options allowing increased sturdiness. This decreased sturdiness reduces the value of Tankers defenses

3 Multiple tanks on one team may actually lower rewards per hour due to lost damage that is not offset by the increased survivability. It has been suggested that tankers increase the spawn size of missions by a larger amount than other characters to compensate. I think this came about due to a discussion with Arcanaville but don't quote me.

4. Since this game does not follow the Holy Trinity concept for most instance design tankers are overspecialized and redundant in most parts of the game.

I personally call shenanigans on this one. I have yet to run across one team in all my years of play that did not feel more secure with a good tank leading the charge. Even if the mathematics of the game support tankers redundancy to some degree the psychological benefit of having a Tanker taking the alpha is real, if not quantifiable,

In answer to the original post. I think that going rogue is a great thing for the future of Tankers in this game. Red side Tanks will be a much sought after commodity. I think if going Rogue hurts anyone it is protection spec Brutes and Scrappers. Though I do think that this damage is minimal because you rarely turn down tough damage regardless of AT. I think Redside LRSF runs would love to have a stone tank leading the charge.

[ QUOTE ]
Johnny's arguments are weak:mediocre damage.

His metaphors are laughable:rodeo clown

He thinks all arguments are his personal territory:aggro monkey.

OMG Johnny is a tanker incarnate!!11!!1, which means that he is Statesman, which means that all his posts are a Nemesis style plot to create an mass exodus to his new project. em/faint

Welcome to Johnnyland folks don't bother looking at "real numbers" he contols the world in which you play.

[/ QUOTE ]

And here I thought I was crazy for having the same theory. I thought it was suspicious that a Tanker was defending Jack. Now we know and he will silence us.

It is a Statesman's plot.

[ QUOTE ]
The tank in me thinks the person who picks a potent buff set like kin and neglects to take or apply the teamate buffs is a moron.

The kin in me thinks anyone who picks me to fill the holes in their build, and then demands said buff to optomize their playtime is worse.

FWIW I pugged a kin/rad to 50 and my stone/fire tank is a 46.
I know a little something about both sides.

[/ QUOTE ]

Like you I can see both sides but in the end I prefer to see the fulcrum shifts and transferences going off over the speed boosts. My Stone/Ice tank has never once asked for SB. I just turn rooted off or teleport. Now when she does get SB put on her I use it but I don't rely on it.

[ QUOTE ]
Quote:
Illusion/Kinetic here, and i'm not so bad [censored] I dont need to SB people, I just plain old dont want to be anyones buff bot so they can flex their muscles even harder and be the teams big star. No you do not get to suck up my FS then bemoan how i'm not maximizing YOUR playing.

I simply dont care if your getting the max outta your play because i'm busy getting the max outta MINE.

The sheer entitlement is simply silly. I'm not playing the game to make your pimped out scrapper easy and fun to play, i'm certainly not playing so you can flex and say "See how awesome I am?".

I will simply have to accept I'm a horrible buffer, but then again I didnt make the Illusion/kinetic controller to be a buffer, I made it because "I" would enjoy playing it and maxing out what "I" can do with MY controls and damage.

It simply isnt my job to make your play experience more fun and easy for you any more than its yours to make my controlling and damage better by expecting you to play micromanager with YOUR powers for my explicit benifit reguardless of how much it sucks for you and your fun. PERIOD. No exceptions.



Sorry to burst your bubble, but the main reason why your picked on teams isn't because of your illusion control, its because you chose kinetics.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually the main reasons I choose a kin for the team are
Damage buffs like Siphon power and fulcrum shift.
A melee heal like transfusion that also lowers regen
SB is nice but really not a deal breaker for me on a kin one way or another unless thier is a Stone/ on the team who needs mobility help

[ QUOTE ]
Oh, I forgot to mention that after getting some more of the sets filled out accuracy is much less of an issue. End however still gets chewed up pretty fast. So I was wondering about some of these enhancements like Miracle - chance for + Recovery and I believe the Numina set had a +regen +recovery IO as well. Even though I can't afford them yet, I'm wondering how these work exactly and where and how you would want to slot these...like dull pain or health? Or do they even make much of a difference in regards to recovering your end faster?


[/ QUOTE ]

You want to slot Numina and Miracle uniques into health so the effects are constant. if you put them in a click the uniques are only active when you click the power. and yes these two make a big difference in your endurance recovery.

[ QUOTE ]
You mean the guy who said in serveral interviews between the time Positron took over and the time CO was announced that he regretted Tankers didn't turn out like their heavy hitting comic counterparts and always wanted to fix it, but never could find the time or solution?


[/ QUOTE ]

WTH! Statesman did more AT borking including tanks then Posi ever thought of. I wouldn't believe Statesman if he told me the sky was blue.

Example when Global Defense Nerf was released in line with the "Balance Vision" Statesman promised that this was the end of the nerfing. Next issue Enhancement Diversification. When Statesman was confronted about this nerf his reply was that it was not a nerf from a programming point of view. So either the guy is a liar or an idiot. You want to have a tanker Hero Dev go for it, but don't think Jack always says what he means.


[ QUOTE ]
I don't care about your boogyman. All I care about is someone is offering me a game with a more open power system where hopefully I can pick my role independant of my powersets and build characters closer to what I want. Not just super strong, tough heroes. Things like a gun wielding martial artist. Or a power armored psychic. Or whatever the hell not being as strongly bound to a class will let me. I'm excited to find out what the new system can and can't do. I already know what CoH can't, and I'm sick of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good luck with that. Sony tried it with the original SWG and it FAILED so bad that they switched to an AT system. Lets hope CO does better.

[ QUOTE ]
As opposed to these devs, who I think really don't give a damn about Tanker concept, have done more to damage it than better it, and have done very little to deliver the things I'm interested in a super hero MMO being.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes they don't give a damn about tanks since they.
Buffed invulnerable
added dual blades
added will power
added shield defense
power proliferation
I think Mr. Butane that you see what you want to see. No I don't expect you to agree with me.


[ QUOTE ]
hings like a more open character creation/ power system system.
Not to mention environmental interaction, power customization, a decreased focus on instanced missions, new travel powers, improved travel powers(sonic boom yay!) brand new graphics(with the exception of cel shading which I'll turn off), new enemies, new zones and a dozen other things that interest me that CoX doesn't have, won't have in the expansion, and likely will never have until they get off their butts and make a CoH 2.

[/ QUOTE ]

We got it CO is new and therefore will be better. Right....

Good luck with dealing with the 3 years of ironing out bugs, glitches, and nerfs have fun with that.

[ QUOTE ]
And frankly, its something new. CoX is five years of fluff tacked on a rotting, slanting foundation. If you'll excuse my zealousness for Tankers, is anything else that I've said I'm looking forward to in CO something that's unreasonable to want? I don't think so. And if Positron isn't offering those things, I'm going to at least entertain someone who will.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your right. The Dev team instead of trying to play catch up to the new guy with CO are offering things that the whole player base has asked for, revolutionary tools like MA, Frankly the game keeps getting revolutionary better concepts added to it instead of the CoX wishlist from 3 years ago.


[ QUOTE ]
And whatever Emmert did, or what you THINK he did, he's the only dev here who ever respected me enough to engage me in a conversation, didn't dismiss my criticism of the game and copped to the situation with Tankers.


[/ QUOTE ]

What did he do that for like 5 minutes before he jumped ship. Did it ever occur to you Johnny that you bring this dismissal on yourself. I have and still do agree with you on some design issues but frankly acting rudely to Devs and calling them names is not the way to get your message heard.

[ QUOTE ]
Also he NEVER posted OT comments to one of my threads, derailed it, got it nuked by a Mod and then laughed about it later, unlike some devs here.


[/ QUOTE ]

Get over it already.

Johnny if you are leaving, leave, but leave the rest of us in peace. We are still concerned with making this game better.

Arc Name:Skirmishes in time (Prelude to the Mender Wars) Beta
Arc ID:157672
Faction:Hero
Creator Global/Forum Name:MasterGabriel
Difficulty Level:Hard Designed for team play
Synopsis: Enemies (Circle of Thorns, Nemesis, Custom) Heroes are recruited to perform a task for a mysterious Mender of Ouroborous. They get a little more than expected when they find out who the oppositions is. The custom enemies are rough and a balanced team is recommended. There are a lot of bosses. I designed this arc to tests a teams ability to manage and control aggro as well as to use tactical positioning.
Estimated Time to Play:Most likely 2-3 hours or less.
Link to More Details or Feedback:No special feed back set up. This is the first of 3 arcs telling the story of the Mender Wars (an idea I got from watching the Samuraiko fan trailer for I14)

Note:
Edited custom enemies to increase fun factor and character survivability. Removed -perception powersets and decreased size of boss spawns to manageable levels.

[ QUOTE ]
Arc Name:Skirmishes in time (Prelude to the Mender Wars) Beta
Arc ID:101646
Faction:Hero
Creator Global/Forum Name:MasterGabriel
Difficulty Level:Hard Designed for team play
Synopsis: Enemies (Circle of Thorns, Nemesis, Custom) Heroes are recruited to perform a task for a mysterious Mender of Ouroborous. They get a little more than expected when they find out who the oppositions is. The custom enemies are rough and a balanced team is recommended. There are a lot of bosses. I designed this arc to tests a teams ability to manage and control aggro as well as to use tactical positioning.
Estimated Time to Play:Most likely 2-3 hours or less.
Link to More Details or Feedback:No special feed back set up. This is the first of 3 arcs telling the story of the Mender Wars (an idea I got from watching the Samuraiko fan trailer for I14)

Note:
Edited custom enemies to increase fun factor and character survivability. Removed -perception powersets and decreased size of boss spawns to manageable levels.

Feel free to PM me or email me with feedback regarding this arc @Master Gabriel.


[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately perception goons did not change when I changed powerset on enemy group. They are still there so bring yellows and breakfrees.

Arc Name:Skirmishes in time (Prelude to the Mender Wars) Beta
Arc ID:101646
Faction:Hero
Creator Global/Forum Name:MasterGabriel
Difficulty Level:Hard Designed for team play
Synopsis: Enemies (Circle of Thorns, Nemesis, Custom) Heroes are recruited to perform a task for a mysterious Mender of Ouroborous. They get a little more than expected when they find out who the oppositions is. The custom enemies are rough and a balanced team is recommended. There are a lot of bosses. I designed this arc to tests a teams ability to manage and control aggro as well as to use tactical positioning.
Estimated Time to Play:Most likely 2-3 hours or less.
Link to More Details or Feedback:No special feed back set up. This is the first of 3 arcs telling the story of the Mender Wars (an idea I got from watching the Samuraiko fan trailer for I14)

Note:
Edited custom enemies to increase fun factor and character survivability. Removed -perception powersets and decreased size of boss spawns to manageable levels.

Feel free to PM me or email me with feedback regarding this arc @Master Gabriel.

[ QUOTE ]
Okay, so I know that this comes up pretty regularly, but usually in the form of "GIEV ME STAMINA NAO 4 FREE!!!" threads. I'd like to stay away from that, and instead look at the possibility of making the 1-19 game a little easier on the blue bar. As has been pointed out ad nauseum, there are tons of ways to mitigate endurance usage: accolades, Stamina and other +recovery/+end powers, slotting for endrx, IO sets, etc.

However, most of these tend to be much less effective in the early game. Consequently, I find that when I'm soloing, I am continually having serious endurance problems -- generally seem to have to stop and wait to recover about every other fight, fighting on tenacious or rugged. (I like my bosses to be bosses, thank you.) While one could maybe make a case that there's nothing wrong with this, or that I should lern2playn00b, I doubt I'm the only one that has a problem with the status quo.

(Along similar lines, waiting around for the green bar to regenerate is also pretty aggravating. Quite simply, the downtime that seems to be a necessary part of the pre-20 game strikes me as an unnessecary time-sink, and is for me at least something of a barrier to leveling up lowbie alts. At least for me -- YMMV.)

So, with that said, here are a couple possibilities for ways to make the early game a little more endurance friendly for your average soloist:

1.) Reduce (or eliminate) the recharge on Rest.

I have a hard time with arguments that this would enable exploits, simply because it's impossible to contribute to XP-gain while you're in Rest. Similarly, the long activation time enforces a non-trivial amount of down-time -- to go from blinking-red to full health generally takes 15-20 seconds. I'd argue that this is close to the maximum amount of downtime you can have before boredom sets in.

A short (<30-60 s) recharge on rest would be balanced by your vulnerability while resting. In general, regardless of the recharge on Rest, you're always better not resting, except when not resting would lead to a trip to the ER. So I can't agree with the argument that balance requires a long recharge on Rest.

2.) Zero endurance use for Brawl (and possibly the origin inherents.)

Other MMOs have a free "auto-attack" that you can always use, regardless of whether or not you have any "mana" or whatever left -- WoW always lets you take a normal swing with your basic weapons, for example. One of the reasons why running out of endurance is so problematic in CoX is the fact that you absolutely can't do anything when the blue bar is empty. Making Brawl an endurance-free attack would allow you to maintain at least some offensive output even when you're out of endurance, albeit at a greatly reduced level. While making CoX like other MMOs is not a desirable goal in and of itself, I think this is one area in which it could be useful.

3.) Longer duration on toggle pulses.

Along similar lines, suppose that toggles continued to provide defense for, say, 4-5 seconds after they shut off -- perhaps at a reduced level. (I'm pretty sure there are straightforward ways to implement this with current game mechanics.) In this way, you'd have a few seconds to respond to endurance drain before your defenses shut down.

4.) Endurance discount at low levels.

Basically just like doing for endurance what they already did for accuracy. Pretty straightforward in concept, not sure how easy it would be to implement.

I'm not suggesting that all of these be added -- that would probably be overkill. If it were entirely up to me, I'd use some form of 1 and 2, as I'm sort of less enthusiastic about 3 and 4.

What do y'all think?

[/ QUOTE ]

One accuracy, one Endurance, and one Damage in each of my attacks before I hit 20 pretty much eliminates my endurance problems on anything but the lowest damage of Archetypes. If you are running a Defender or Controller you have to slot your heals, buffs, and debuffs for endurance for a little while. 1 endurance redux for every 2 other enhancements is a good rule of thumb. on defenders and controllers you may have to choose between healing, debuffing, and attacking but that is why you are playing a team oriented AT.

[ QUOTE ]
How? I’ll tell you how.

First, it will deflate the population of potential teammates. Want to run that Sewer Trial for the badge, and for the fun of it, because you haven’t run one in forever? Want to run the 2nd respec task force to re-do your character’s slots or powers? Want help taking down Infernal? Well, guess what? Your pool of participants will be reduced by the MA in a real, and not-insignificant way - those potential teammates who could have joined you are working - whoops! I meant to say “writing” - MA arcs and aren’t playing as characters.


[/ QUOTE ]

The game is already full of exclusive activities that preclude whimsical teaming. Task forces / strike forces, Trials, Ouroborous even PvP are alternatives to the standard mission environment and yet PvE teaming still goes on. Yes MA may keep some people offline working but those people probably weren't in the mood to play CoH anyway. Those people want to write and create not team to take down baddie whoever. When these players want to team and play they will same as it is now.

[ QUOTE ]
Second, it is a gimmick completely disconnected from the CoH game lore. Let’s face it, the MA is a stand-alone “feature” in the game that doesn’t develop any of the CoH backstory. It’s a flashy gimmick intended to sell box sets, and grab publicity and attention from the gaming world. In other words, it’s a marketing tool to get more cash into the devs' pockets.

[/ QUOTE ]

The feature allows people to write out the back story in ways that cannot be done by the Devs. If I want to put out the story of how a hero came into being and send heros back in time through Ouro to make it happen and then create a companion arc through Villains to prevent it I can. I can personalize back story and feel like i am part of the City of Heroes not a passenger in the Freedom Phalanx story.

[ QUOTE ]
Third, the vast majority of “storytelling” will be cringe-worthy. Have you read through the fanfic in the roleplay section of this very forum? No offense to anyone, but it ain’t my cup of tea - I cannot spend more than 90 seconds reading through any of it before I cringe, embarrassed, and click out of it. A lot of my in-game friends cannot spell. A LOT. A lot of my in-game friends have no imagination when it comes to creating an interesting costume (copy-paste the “Enforcer” outfit and change the colors and body size, literally, to a dozen characters). A LOT. A lot of my in-game friends who have actually written character bios have produced only derivative and loopy ones (you have seen that thread in our forum where the person - however mean-spirited it might have been - was copying ridiculous character bios to his website blog, haven’t you?). A LOT.

[/ QUOTE ]

A lot of the stories in the RP Forums try and some are better than others. I dare you to read anything by Dark Respite, Ascendant or the Blue Battler and not be impressed. If these writers take to mission architect I can tell you right now there will be some quality story arcs. and as far as your in game friends having no imagination well ......

[ QUOTE ]
Fourth, the “writing” that will come from the MA is going to be very limited - sure, you can write NPC dialogue, or “begin the mission” dialogue, or “contact dialogue.” But that’s it. If I want to read a great story, I’ll go to Borders and buy a book, not log into City of Frickin’ Heroes! If I want to write, I will launch Microsoft Word and type, not log into City of Frickin’ Heroes! And truth be told, guess how many of my in-game friends RARELY paid any attention to what the actual text was associated with any mission, anyway? A LOT.

[/ QUOTE ]

So why do you care about any of this since it seems you are just going to be scorched earth or speed running through missions anyway? Some people do pay attention to story. My characters go through every story arc in the game just because I want to read the stories and to say I have done it. You play your way, I will play mine.

[ QUOTE ]
Fifth, a lot of people won’t bother creating missions, because it will be too much of a chore. Guess how many of my in-game friends don’t go into minute detail with the costume creator? Guess how many of my in-game friends don't use the SG base editor to either create their own base or revise a current base? Guess how many of my friends log into the game just to have fun by blasting or smashing stuff since this is, in fact, a comic-book-based action video game and they want to unwind and need a break from “work” (whether that is a job, studying, or taking care of the kids, etc)? A LOT.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your right most people in the SG base don't edit the base and some people are not the costume designer others are. The question is how many people enjoy a well designed base, costume, or story arc More than the people it takes to create it that is for sure.

[ QUOTE ]
Sixth, it will be filled with the usual horrific bugs and egregious exploits that will necessitate shutting down the MA entirely, and possibly even the game, for extended periods of time for emergency fixes. Merits. ‘Nuff said.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes merits shut down the game entirely. I was there when that happened. Not! I think there was one less than 4 hour period where the game was down due to an instability caused by I13. That kind of downtime is hardly apocalyptic.

[ QUOTE ]
QR

Trials

Trial: Second Respec Trial
Contact: Captain James Harlan
Merit rewards: 20 (-5)


Trial: Third Respec Trial
Contact: Major Richard Flagg
Merit rewards: 20 (-5)

So Trials now don't even give enough merits for a random trial roll? That's just stupid.

Why call it a trial recipe then?

Break the recipes up into common, uncommon, rare, and unique. Assign a value for a random roll to each catagory.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Trials never gave enough for a random roll, on either side.



[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
True...and that makes no flippin' sense whatsoever.

[/ QUOTE ]

Correction Trials never gave enough for a Pool D random roll. Hero Side Respec trials can and still will give enough for a Pool C random roll. Red Side Respec trials still give 15 which is not enough for a Pool C random roll (but should be).

As far as

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, back to CoH. As mentioned in an earlier post, I no longer play in teams since only the mish owner gets merits. Cooperative PvE, however, is the main draw of CoX for me. And I like RP-while-mishing too, but you'll appreciate it's silly to RP solo.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree totally. On mission teams anyone doing the arc should get the merits and they should be awarded at the end of each mission. Coop PVe is a strength of this game and thi measure hurts that strength.

I have to agree the only time I do my story arcs is when I can't find A TF or I just can't bear to run another respec trial or ITF. I really wish Ouro gave a better merit ratio since it follows all the same restrictions as a taskforce except the team may be of any size.

No these low level farms will not drop purples but they will drop things like kinetic combat, gift of the ancients etc.... If these mid range recipes are as rare as people say and a demand exists for them you could see niche farming for them. Will it happen? I guess if demand reaches that level it well. if it doesn't reach critical mass enough to be profitable it won't catch on. I don't expect to be as prevalent as high level farming. I expect to see niche marketeers acting in fewer or smaller groups to get mid level recipes and salvage.