MindmasterZero

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* Balance: There is only one villian group which has vulnerabilities to psi damage and it's only in the early game when the set is weakest. By the time the set can actually do damage, most villian groups (nemesis, praetorians, Council, Carnies, Malta just to list a few) are not only not vulnerable, but have a high precentage of members with either sizable resists or defense to the entire set, save telekinetic blast, making the set feel underpowered throughout the game. (LadyMage)

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While few enemies are especially vunlerable to Mental attacks, comparatively few have defense against it, either.


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Actually, if you read what they said, youd note that MANY enemies are resistant to it. Psi sucks in PVE.

Super. But you know whats a 100% endurance saver? A cancelled account.

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New note:

All powers that debuff Resistance have less effect than they did before Issue 5. This includes all versions of Enervating Field, Freezing Rain, and Tar Patch.

Dev. Note:

In the Global Defense Decrease, all Controller and Defender powers that modify Resistance were decreased in effect. This global change altered debuffs as well as buffs. While this part of the change was not explained before, it was intentional and it was taken into account during balance testing of Issue 5. With the defensive buffs lowered in effectiveness, the debuffs would have been too strong in comparison if left unchanged, making power sets with debuffs too powerful compared to others.

We apologize for not having this out with the rest of the patch notes.

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Not to hang the messenger, but frankly I'm a little tired of the dev's BS. Telling their testers that they didnt nerf a power, that they were tired of being accused of stealth nerfs, etc? Sorry you had to deliver such an obvious load of lies. That thread was up for months, and you guys couldnt comment on it til now? For sahme trying to sneak yet another one past a client base thats repeatedly shown itself to be more intelligent than you.

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This was one of the hardest sets to define. It falls out of line with the "normal" Defender sets. It isn't a buff set, its a debuff set. Its really a different playstyle than Defenders have had before.


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You mean like dark, rad and storm? 3 out of the 6 excisting sets were debuff centric, I ont know why their debuffs have to be so weak and on such a long timer, soncidering that existing sets already debuff, so its not like they are breaking the defender mold. And those sets all do a MUCH better job than the sorry grab bag TA is saddled with.

My biggest complaint right now with CoH is how we seem leashed to our contacts. We rarely get a chance to proceed without first checking back in them, or taking some manner of knick-knack to Azuria for the umpteenth time. Can missions be re-written so it feels more that we are the ones making the discovery, instead of being lead by the nose by our contacts?

Second question: The Tsoo. These guys are awesome, they have dozens of boss types and tons of powers. Why do they die off at 29? They are certainly more diverse and challenging than praetorian minions. When do we get to face Tub-Ci?

Last question: Why do Consagliere's have gravity manipulation powers? Are any family story arcs coming?

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Just got out of a meeting with Geko...

I completely concur that the Wet Ice Def buff is so slender that it's pointless to slot Def Enhancements...but people already have done so.

Here's what we'll do: Wet Ice will no longer accept Def Enhancements. We'll increase the base def somewhat. Def Enhancements that are currently slotted will continue to have an effect, but players won't be able to slot new Def Enhancements into it.

We're also adding resistance to Toxic in Permafrost to bring it into line with Invulnerability's Resist Elements.

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Good plan. Can you do this with all powers with defense bonuses under 5%? An enhancer should offer at least a 1% return on your investment. With stuff like maneuvers at 2%, its just sad to see people wasting slots. I pity the noob who enhances stealth.

If nothing else, the supression needs to kick in AFTER the attack is completed. Stealthing into a group of mobs to use the flash power was a viable tactic for illusion controllers. Now they see you and shoot as soona s you begin the animation. Superior invisbility needs to also be adjusted.

I dont like these changes one bit overall. 5% defense was hardly breaking the game, and getting rid of this, coupled with movement supression, takes away the dynamic flow of combat. We may as well just stand toe to toe trading blows.

I personally feel that blasters defense should rise in addition to damage with defiance. Thematically, the range fighter guys are quicker and get hit less often.

Any chance to lower the time it takes to complete these task forces? That and let you start them with just 4 people. In fact, all TF's should let you begin with just 4.

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Without getting into details, ALL CoT Thorn Casters have been reworked. The amount of control powers these minions have will be severely reduced or outright removed.

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AAARGGH!

I have to agree with MindMasterZero, here -- very disappointed to see this. This was *finally* a way to differentiate the contributions of a Tanker and Controller as supporting roles. A controller can't get folks out of quicksand, sure. But, a controller *can* prevent ETC's from ever getting quicksand off in the first place....

As things stand right now, the usefulness of a controller is far to often redundant with a good tanker. I was happy that there was *finally* a reason for teams to occasionally say, "oh, we'd better get a controller for this mission". It was the first step towards something that's needed to be addressed for a while. I really hope that, by scaling this back, they don't scale it back so far as to make the controller contributions irrelevant.

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Not every team has a tanker and a controller...

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Here, have an obtuse cookie. You've earned it.

My point was, right now, holds have jack [censored] for value on a team with a tanker. Tankers cc better in general anyways. Making mobs have toggles and dangerous powers other than damage (which the tanker ignores) adds value to controller cc, without REQUIRING it. Did I spell it clearly enough?

You're running a mission with 8 people vs ETC's on invincibility? Yeah, that team should *probably* have some kind of support. Hell, I'll go out ona limb and say you should OPTIMALLY have some kind of CC, in the form of a tank, controller, or even a dark defender. Or is every mob supposed to be so pathetic that we can go through missions on auto pilot?

Make them lts' or tweak how their powers work, but dont strip all abilities other than damage from enemies.

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As things stand right now, the usefulness of a controller is far to often redundant with a good tanker.

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EVERY AT is redundant. One of the major things that makes teaming bearable in CoH is that you don't have to sit around saying "Shoot, we can't really get this team moving without a Controller/Defender/Tanker/Whatever and there are none on." You can pretty much throw darts at the search screen and, assuming the players are reasonably competent, have a viable team. That's a good thing.

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But wopuldnt it be cool to have synergy? The tanker rounds up, the controller locks down (shutting off mob toggle powers). Both can do their job without the other, both benefit from the presence of the other. For the *majority* of mobs, it doesnt matter if they are held or not, so long as they are focused on the (near unkillable) tanker. When I was leveling up my tanker I was grateful for controllers to be around to *help* (read, I didnt *need* them) with mobs like avalanche shamans. As you rise in level, the value of those holds fade out, since mobs powers get more lame.
What I dont want is the thorns going from a faction with tricks up their sleeves to some bland weenies who just have blasts. It seems thats all people want to encounter... fodder that offers no challenge, and exists only to be rounded up and leisurely nuked. Level 50 skuls in different outfits.

Id rather them tweak the ETC's exp up so that people try and build tactically balanced teams than dumb them down and remove their powers altogether. Put a cap on how many quicksands they can drop, have the power go away when the mob dies, etc, but dont remove it entirely just because its difficult.

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1: Personally, when weighing the decision of whether to get rid of earth thorn caster's ability to use quicksand and the small benefit controllers might get by the earth thorn casters having it, I'll nerf the thorn casters.

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Like I said, we're moving towards every single mob being a reskinned skull. Whee! Ive got a better idea. Next, lets dispense with the middle man of a tank herding, and just have them all spawned stacked inside a dumpster. Fish in a Barrel online will be the greatest MMOG ever!

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2. Controllers, if seeing any benefit at all from thorn casters, would only see a very small increase in demand because of them. It's not like everyone in the 35-40 range constantly does CoT missions.

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Actually, Id move to make every faction like this. With mobs that debuff and buff each other. Limit the total % that can be debuffed/stacked, and make them toggles (so a brawl, or any status effect will shut them off). You create a purpose for holds. Right now, a tank provides near 100% protection with taunt that never misses and is largely unkillable. Thats a boring, predictable environment. The game needs more challenge, Id prefer it coming from enemies who arent such pathetic losers they have something to do other than throw a blast. The Tsoo sorcerer is a great example of how to design a mob. It adds difficulty without one shotting. It can be taunted, but you really wish he would just sit still and die. A tanker AND a controller can both contribute on a team. Why do these guys die out only to be replaced by more basic chumps?

If they change anything, they should upgrade the thorn casters to lts, and the behemoths get dropped to minion status.

Make the power a toggle so any kind of hold disorient, whatever can stop it. Let brawl have a chance to knock off enemy toggles in PvE. Problem solved without dumbing the game down. Not every mob needs to be herded in packs reaching triple digits.

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Forgive my laziness, for those who are passionate about this issue; but what exactly is the problem with stacked quicksands? I've done hordes of COT casters, and from a controller's perspective, they've never been an issue that led me to cry "nerf!"

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A single minion auto-casted 2 Quicksands and I honestly believe that one of the casts was, in actuality, Tar Patch with the -Res and Slow.

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earth thorns dont have tar patch

This is somewhat disheartening. On one hand, the amount of quicksands dumped could be rediculoius, but it added variety. Does every single mob need to be nothing more than a reskinned skull wauiting to be mindlessly herded into a dumpster for maximum ae blastage?

Make thorn casters lt's, create some wimpy demons for minions if nothing else. The game needed to get harder in a way other than simply upping damage to one shot squishies (ie, mobs using debuffs and buffs), not dumbing it down so support AT's are needed even less.

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Yeah.. All in all it sounds like Statesman wants to make make enhancments "special", but all he will succede in doing is making them annoy as hell.

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Its loot by another name, with camping to "gear" up to SO level. Will the last person to leave please turn off the lights?

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3) I liked his comment concerning Ghost Falcon: I would replace him with a chalk outline. It isn't that Jack doesn't like stores, he just doesn't like the fact everyone can get the same things at them. If he had to do it all over agin, he would have left all enhancements available thru contacts only, with only certain ones being available thru certain contacts. And not just one kind of origin type, but I got the impression maybe only certain types (like maybe enhanced damage, but no enhanced accuracy).


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I can only assume this is to promote soloing lol. Some builds dont get to do their own missions as easily as others (defenders/controllers). Now we turn grouping into a fight to get your mission done so you can buy your basic enhancements... yay?

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not much in the way in the lvl 35++ content but it looks good

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DUDE! EXEMPLAR!

Jeezus!



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DUDE! NO XP FOR EXEMPLER!

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DUDE! EXTRA INFLUENCE!

Those SG bases in CoV ain't gonna be cheap!

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The influence gained from exempalring is much lower than what you would get on your own, hunting mobs at your level. And you ahve fewer tools to do it. Exemplar is a pathetic way to get influence. They need more content for 35+... I'm astounded they are releasing this for a level rangfe where therer is pklenty to do, and where the grind hasnt set in yet.

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TG's animation time got considerably sped up. AND it works on foes that die during its animation. If the kineticists target drops, they get no love. TG lowers damage, accuracy and regen. Having used both, TG is considerably easier, and considerably better IMO.

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TG used to have the same animation as Bitter Ice Blast (I think), which was four seconds. It was replaced with the same animation as Soul Drain, which is three seconds.

I've used both, too. Each has different drawbacks.

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How much was the kinetics controller outhealing you by? Is your TG 6 slotted for heals? Couldnt have been much, given how massive TG's heal is.

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About 100-150 points or so, actually. I had two accuracies slotted, but I don't think that replacing them with heals would've closed the gap that much.

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Wow, that seems strange. I beat my kinetics controller friend by a decent chunk with my TG and he has an extra heal in there (last I checked). Weirder things have happened.

You sure about that 3 second animation? It really felt more like 1.5 to 2 or so. I noticed it a lot when they dropped the animation time, and I cant imagine myself noticing a 1 second drop. Maybe its just the placebo effect kicking in heh.

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Just a quick thought:

Scrapper defense =~ 80% Tanker Def.
Tanker def. =~ 80% Scrapper offense
Controller secondary =~ 80% Defender (ignoring the fact that in many instances is really 100%)

Defender damage = 66% blaster damage

Why do defenders get so much less benefit from thier secondary than all the other ATs?

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Enervating field, freezing rain, and now tar patch.

Raising the defender secondaries would lead to offenders outdamaging blasters.

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Increasingly I'm seeing that as sham reasoning. Its not as if Fire Controllers, Fire Tankers, and Spines Scrappers don't exist and can't mow things down far faster and at higher rates of damage than a Blaster. One wonders why it was so critical to keep Defenders down, especially when if you factor in setup for the Defender (have to use Tar Patch, Enervating Field, or Freezing Rain) and the limitations involved (only having Aim at best) it is not clear how much of a lead if any those Defenders would have.

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I just said it was a reason, not that I agreed 100% with it. Blasters right now are screwed up mid to late game imo. Perhaps after they are buffed post I5 there will be another look at defender's damage. But given how all blasters have going for them is damage, you'll be hard pressed to convince them to allow a defender to exceed it, even with a setup. I dont think they'll just say "well, fire tanks out damage us, why not defenders too". Maybe they would lol, I dunno. Blasters are gluttons for punishment.

The issue isnt just meeting/exceeding damage, its doing so with the extra protection sets like dark or rad give.

Given how States is "looking into" many AT's, I dont think fire tankers and controllers will be performing quite the same post I5. I could be wrong though.

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Just a quick thought:

Scrapper defense =~ 80% Tanker Def.
Tanker def. =~ 80% Scrapper offense
Controller secondary =~ 80% Defender (ignoring the fact that in many instances is really 100%)

Defender damage = 66% blaster damage

Why do defenders get so much less benefit from thier secondary than all the other ATs?

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Enervating field, freezing rain, and now tar patch.

Raising the defender secondaries would lead to offenders outdamaging blasters. However, granting some kind of damage boos in force field and empathy's primary would help balance things out. Say they add a 10th power.

Empathy could get a sort of reverse absorb pain, where mobs took damage every time they attacked due to experiencing their targets pain.

Force field could get a team damage buff that added a force component to attacks, granting extra smash damage and knockdown.

Bringing those 2 sets up to the others in offense wouldnt require an across the board damage upgrade necessarily.

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Well, if it were auto-hit, and everyone who's standing near me when I start using the power gets the benefit of the heal, then, yes, it'd be unfair. However, it's very easy - and common - for people to run away during the three-second cast, which means I've just spent three seconds spending endurance and not accomplishing anything. Never mind, of course, the number of times that I've been defeated in the middle of the animation because I can't stop to do something else, like get away.

Of all the things one might point to in Dark Miasma as overpowered, Twilight Grasp is close to the bottom of my list. There's no need to reflexively insist that every aspect of the set is overpowered.

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TG's animation time got considerably sped up. AND it works on foes that die during its animation. If the kineticists target drops, they get no love. TG lowers damage, accuracy and regen. Having used both, TG is considerably easier, and considerably better IMO.

How much was the kinetics controller outhealing you by? Is your TG 6 slotted for heals? Couldnt have been much, given how massive TG's heal is.

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FF/* Defender:
. Ins/Def+Dispersion = 43.75% Base DEF, 0% to Psychic

Ill/FF Controller

. Group Invis+Ins/Def+Dispersion = 42.5% DEF, 7.5% to Psychic


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Wow, that other power must come free to cotnrolelrs then? I didnt realize they got extra power slots, and you didnt get anything at the level that they magically aquired GI without spending a slot. Oh wait. You could ahve taken maneuvers or a blast or something. Nice try to slip one past the shortbus crowd though.

FF has problems. Its because half your powers suck. Fix that, and controllers cant do everything a FF can do thats worthwhile in 3 power selections.

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I disagree, MMZ. FS can get the Dark defender killed if the [censored] really hits the fan.

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I havent found that to be the case. They instantly go feared and cower. I can reapply fear, and they stay feared, with no counterattack. I control absurd spawns with this power alone. Situational powers like black hole should be many times more powerful than every fight powers like fearsome stare. This isnt the case. Apparently situational just means "sucky, last resort, need something to throw because nothing else is recharged".

Black Hole isnt even as good a panic button as fearsome stare...