Plasma

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I LIKE Barrage ... if for no other reason than its unique look. Meh.

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It IS okay to have cool looking powers that don't suck.

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Well, it's definitely not the worst attack in the game, but it is a little sucky. Then again, most tier 1 attacks are sucky. Shouldn't it tell them something when the only people who even have their tier 1 attack powers are Tankers and Defenders, because they have no choice?

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Even for a tier 1 power, Barrage is horrible. It has the lowest brawl index all tanker required attacks. In addition, it is slower than the other one it ties with. I'm not asking for it to be great. I don't want to swap bonesmasher into the 1st slot. I just want the BI to be on par with other powers that you get initially which have a 2 second activation.

There's just no excuse for this power to be so lame.

Act: 2
BI: 1.3888 sm/.5 en (1.8888 total)

Horrible.

Let's look at comparable powers, either pool powers available without prerequisites or first powers for other tanker primaries:

Gash is better
Scorch is better
Frozen Fists is better
Stone Fist is better
Jab is better (Although jab is as weak, but has a much faster activation)
Bash is better
Air Superiority is better
Boxing and Kick: both better
Flurry, believe it or not, is better from a dps standpoint (act 3/bi 3.18)

In short: Barrage is the worst attack in the entire game. Fix it, please.

Sweet.

Sweet, I'm totally there. (Unless I'm out of town on business... grr)

Can you be specific about what sort of guidelines the origin stories should follow, as in length and such? And provide a link perhaps to submission guidelines?

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You know the interesting thing is they are saying we're lying by saying that it never had Psi Defense aren't they? I mean I've yet to see a regenner post anything but that it most certainly did have Psi defense and yet here they are saying it never did. Interesting.

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Just popping in to clear up a misconception. This bit is really a semantic issue. We have an Attribute that applies +Defense to Psionic. We usually refer to this as "Psionic Defense" and do not consider other forms of +Defense that MAY cover Psionics. Turning on The Way Back Machine (thanks to Mr. Peabody and Sherman for allowing its use!) to the very first Live version of the data, I see that Moment of Glory did, in fact, offer +Defense to EVERYTHING because it modified Base Defense. Smashing, Lethal, Ranged, Hamidon -- everything. That was TOO effective. So, at some point (I'm not going through hundreds of revisions to fin out when) MoG was changed so that it only covered the bits desired.

So, if we were lying to you, it was an error of omission, rather than an act of malice. When we get a PM saying "Why did you remove Psionic Defense from MoG?" we check specifically for +Psi Def. Sometimes we have the time to do more in depth reseach into changes, but most often we do not.

Whether or not the 'Hole' in Psionic protection makes the power 'gimped' isn't a discussion I am going to get into, however.

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You could just address MoG vs Unstoppable. Seems like they have a similar purpose, except that Unstoppable is completely superior because you can be healed.

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Personally, I'm a fan of shadows.

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Me too.

"After a time, I stopped at a hollow tree that had to be there. I reached inside and drew forth my silvered blade and strapped it to my waist. It mattered not that it had been somewhere in Amber. It was here now, for the wood that I walked was in Shadow."

-- Roger Zelazny, Guns of Avalan

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CoV seems to be awfully buggy and laggy right now. There was a lot of speculation in CoV beta whether it was ready for launch. I suppose they didn't quite get the stability and login issues worked out yet.

Apparently numerous bugs with contacts still exist too. A new one has cropped up, requiring us to log out after doing a newspaper mission in order to get into the next mission.

I'm getting tired of constantly jerking as I'm running around, just after two days of playing. Perhaps people are waiting for issues to be patched up a bit.

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The newspaper bug and one spot that was hard to get out of (sort of a pit you can fall into you can't get out of) are the only bugs I've seen; but I can open up my mission list and hit 'select task' for the next newspaper mission and THEN go in, I don't have to log.

I have experienced absolutely no lag whatsoever playing all through the headstart and a bit since, despite having horrendous lag almost every time I played in beta.

Mine came online from ebgames. Have all 7.

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Great! Now how about a chapter explaining how Statesman looks so young, fresh, and non-wrinkled - seeing how he was superhero-ing back in the 30's?

Was there a time-travel expansion I missed? Has my memory been nerfed too?


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He's an incarnate. He drank from the Well of Zeus (as did Lord Recluse), gained some godlike powers and (partial/total) immortality. At least that's what I've gathered.

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That is correct.

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Now the only question remaining is: when can *I* play an incarnate?

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So we'll be using 13% less end per second, but we'll be regening about 25%(ish) less end per second (going from six-slotted stamina to 3-slotted stamina). Net 12%(ish) nerf.

And while it helps a little, the Defense & Recharge nerfs are the biggest issues here. Try fixing those first.

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Going from 6 slotted stamina to 3 slotted stamina only reduces your end recovery by about 14%. In fact, this basically sounds like, "We just gave back everything you lost over stamina".

Default end rec is 1.67/s..
Stamina adds: .42/s (formerly 1.26/s 6-slotted).

Former total: 2.93/s
New total (assumes 3 slots): 2.489/s (1.67 + (.42 * 1.95))

Total nerf to end rec: 15.06%
Discount: 13.33%

Net nerf to endrec: 1.73%

However, an endurance discount is better than endrec on the balance, because endrec can only recover endurance you are already missing; end reduction kicks in AS you use the power. Plus, if you have 10 end left and want to use a 11 end power, your end recovery won't help you use it (until you tick up); but an end red WILL allow you to use that power right then.

Now, let's keep in mind that the 13.33% is for EVERYONE, not just users of stamina and works FROM LEVEL 1, not Level 20, and does not require 3 powers and 5 additional slots.

In other words on the balance, endurance use/recovery will be buffed significantly for all except /regen - since Quick Recovery is hit by the nerf. The pain of QR is still fairly mild if you were ONLY using QR, but people using QR+Stamina are still facing a fairly significant pinch. However, keep in mind they still have lots of extra slots to burn on EndRed enhancements.

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Over the past 2+ years, I developed The Authority RPG (adapting the DC/WildStorm Comic), a cyber RPG (spanning the classic genre work to post-modern material, called Ex Machina), and the A Game of Thrones RPG (based on George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic).

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Wow. GRRM's masterwork is probably the best fantasy I have ever read. The plots, the characters, the tension, and the merciless realism... truly amazing. That must have been awfully tough to PnP-ify; I'd have been terrified to mess it up.

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You answered most of your questions yourself. The writing is on the wall, all their eggs in one basket as you put it. I5 was the beginning of the transition of turning CoH from a PvE based experience into one focused on the PvP aspects to be introduced with CoV.

A majority of future content, I would wager especially end game content, is meant to be player generated...ie:PvP.

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Erm. No. PvP will be an optional part of gameplay. Always.

The changes in I5 had very little to do with PvP and a lot to do with boring PvE. It's that simple. No conspiracy there - I think I've stated this several times.

As for the supposed "emphasis" on PvP - I think you'll see that it's just ONE part of City of Villains. It has PvE content levels 1 to 50.

We'll continue to add new PvE content (which I5 did exclusively, I might add) in the future.

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I believe you. I wouldn't mind seeing some issues addressed however. I'd like to see a mode in the arena where any 2 people can have a combat that isn't strongly affected by enhancements, even if one is L20 and the other has mostly hami-Os. Fair, casual combat, where skill and not enhancements has more weight. That would actually be worth the time.

From an in-the-trenches perspective, I think I5 is working out great. However, tanks need a long hard look. I can't speak from experience, but Ice Tanks seem unhappy, and I know I now hate my fire tank, because burn is just *so* awful; and now I need 11 powers to be a good tank and there's nothing to make up for it.

I have a solution... I propose you make Burn +res(knockup/knockback).

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Um - I think Geko meant "in the coming updates." I'm not sure whether any of these will make it into I6 or not - so let's not set up any expectations!

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You know, it *is* about time to drop the title of I6 so we can really start speculating, though.

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Invul max on passives should be 17.85 = ((1 + (6 * (.2 * 1.15))) * 7.5)

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7.5% base * (1+ (6 Enhancements * .2 Enhancement increase)) * 1.15 for +3 Enhancements = 18.975.

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Uh, States... you don't get a 15% buff to your BASE defense based on +3 SOs. It's

7.5 * (1 + ((.2 * 6) * 1.15)) == 17.85

Edit: sorry to be the 9 millionth person to correct this

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Wanted to explain the reasons for changing Burn...

It became apparent that Burn was the trump power...with it, a Tanker needed to do nothing else. He could lay down a Burn patch and Taunt foes in and out of it. The damage was so great that the Burn patch itself would do the defeating; the Tanker only needed to hit Taunt.

The question has come up - "what's the point of Burn now?" Well, it still offers Immobilization defense (we're actually going to increase that duration). And Burn does do a lot of damage. Taunt alone might not bring mobs into Burn continually, but stunning, holding, immobilizing mobs in Burn is just plain devastating.

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Sorry, Statesman, but I don't see it. A tanker has to make choices evaluating two questions:

(1) Does this make me stronger for a group?
(2) Does this make me stronger solo?

The answer to question (1) for Burn is an unequivocal no. Most fire tankers take CJ, so the immobilization aid is marginal. Burn drives enemies away from you, causing you to 'spread aggro' around and potentially getting your teammates killed. Moreover, the amount of damage Burn does on a team is fairly minimal unless your team is VERY defensively oriented. My experience with Burn was that it was fun to lay down here and there, but by and large, only sped things up ever so slightly; that's very different from the solo experience where Burn was my bread and butter vs non-bosses.

The answer to (2) is an even MORE unequivocal no. Fire/Ice tankers might answer in the affirmative; they are the exception, rather than the rule. As a Fire/EM tanker, for example, there's very little point to Burn.

A. I cannot hold anyone
B. I cannot immobilize anyone
C. I can stun enemies, but they walk dizzily out of the Burn patch anyhow (or, despite being stunned, they JUMP out)

So with stuff fleeing away, it makes no sense to bother. I have precious little room in my build for fluff; it makes more sense to just take whirling hands sooner, and then take buildup or fiery embrace rather than taking Burn at all.

I've analyzed Fire Tanks and tanks in general at length, so you can review my previous comments; I'd like to add, however, that it is key to note that Fire Tanks have no resistance to knockback, which means to be a strong defensive tank, we need our 2 main shields, plus 5 pool powers - 3 to get Acrobatics, 2 to get Tough; and then the toggles are so expensive, we need Stamina to be able to use them. So that's a 10-power defense, basically, and that's not counting healing flames or burn itself. So their "strength" was their offense; but Burn, frankly, adds almost nothing. When it's useful (teamed), you don't need it, especially now that it has been nerfed; when you're solo, it's just useless.

I suggest you just scrap the power entirely, and come up with something balanced that doesn't conflict with the AI. In fact, if you want to REALLY do something nice:

(1) Change burn to a straight DoT or damage effect; make it whatever damage you feel is appropriate for a power in the slot.

(2) Add +res(knockback) to it.

You're golden. Just start from scratch, make it balanced, make it useful. If you add +res(knockback) even as it is, it might be worth it - after all, better a primary than a pool, and damage is a bonus.

If you leave it as it is currently, you are making a terrible mistake, I feel. And I am not much for saying the sky is falling; I have 11 characters on 2 accounts, from L6-L50 across all ATs. I was fine with most changes. I really think you need to re-address the changes to Ice Tanks and the Burn issue. I know that Burn was too good before. Rather than making it a useful shadow of its former self, start from the ground up and think outside the box a bit.

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

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Why are you adding resist when ice is all defense?

I'll try to be concise.

* Fire is the worst defensive set. Would have been invuln, but you've responded to the issues raised. Why?
- Fire has resists only, and they're not that strong. Effectively, fighting pool becomes mandatory for tanking for groups.
- Fire has no KB protection, so getting to Acrobatics is effectively mandatory if you don't want to get to know the floor real well. Whether that's 1 extra power or 3 depends on your perspective, but it's still a sacrifice
- Where invuln gets unstoppable, stone gets granite armor, and ice gets energy absorption, fire gets to come back from the dead. For that to be useful, well...
- The pool powers that fire must pick up to come up to par are expensive end-wise.

Fire's saving grace was its offense - Burn.

I don't care about the nerf to Burn as the AI stands, because Burn was already useless. Burn would be an afterthought in an I5 world. Tanks would opt for fire sword circle/whirling hands/etc instead.

I want Burn changed so that it is no longer in conflict with the AI. Burn does less damage and recharges more slowly? That's acceptable. Burn was strong enough that it *did* make up for all fire's inadequacy. Fire through the 30s feels like God Mode, I'll admit. However, the answer is not the AI, because burn causing fear wrecks the feel of the set completely, and it was a good feel. Instead:

(1) Reduce damage, reduce recharge. Well done, you've done that. It made sense.
(2) Change the power, or change the AI. This is what needs to happen. If you're uncomfortable with villains standing around in a Burn patch, I can understand that might offend your quest for verisimilitude. Change Burn to read as follows: "You launch a close range burst of flame accelerant around you, dousing any enemies nearby. If there is a source of fire, including fire shield, they catch fire and burn, suffering DoT. Enemies who enter after the burn begins may also suffer damage, but can escape it by fleeing." Problem solved. You douse enemies with accelerant, then set them on fire. They won't bother fleeing because, frankly, it won't help. Or maybe they do flee; it's sort of unimportant so long as they continue to take damage.

If that simply doesn't work for you, I suggest you look at something else entirely for Burn. Maybe you burn some sort of nauseating chemical and have a chance to disorient nearby foes, or you could move Rise of the Phoenix down to the 7th power, move Burn to 9th, and change Burn into a power that was more along the lines of Unstoppable (although I'd think fire should be better, since, frankly, fire is still the weakest set overall).

Of course, I'm really hoping the change to Burn was the first half of the 2 points above, and Burn is being "fixed" on the AI side, but being nerfed because if we were back to I4 or I2 AI, it was still just too good, and I concur; even with the defensive changes, that's just true. But as it stands right at this moment - and I tested my fire tank this morning - you have ruined fire. It isn't quite as bad as the initial changes to invuln, but it is very very bad.

The shard needs something else. Two things:

* Rularuu are hard. Lots of aoe, lots of status effects, some are hard to hit. Probably on the level of devouring earth before the emanator change in how I rank them in the villain groups. More influence/xp would be appropriate.
* The missions are boring. I built a whole character thinking of the shard, and when I got there and started to do missions, I got fairly discouraged after the millions "rescue space marines from rularuu" and "kill X rularuu at point Y" missions. The general lack of story is a bit painful. It has these huge, wide open spaces and trick terrain. How about some "take X from point A to point B, avoiding many ambushes along the way", or "intercept a rularuu caravan heading from Point Sierra to Point Tango", or such.

They're gorgeous areas, and the sheer 3-dimensional feel is awesome. I remember navigating all the way to the Storm Palace with nothing but superspeed and superleap - it was fun exploration, and visually amazing. I just wish there was more to it. If you've ever read Zelazny's Amber books, the Shadow Shard reminds me a lot of the Courts of Chaos; maybe not as ever-shifting but certainly as bizarre. I hope you keep working on it.

It would be nice if group fly were sped up to match fly, and had its -def changed to suppression as well, to help faciliate group travel.

Edit: I also have to agree with some people that the shortcuts deep into the shard feel "cheatish". I'd be much happier with improved group fly/group TP. The epicness of the shard is cool, and the teleporters DO reduce that. Instead, make it worth going to; people aren't going there just because the teleporters are there. They want some good content. Here's a thought: modify the task forces to be 2-3 hours in length when properly done. They have a reputation as being 12-hour-long monstrosities, and that's not real appealing.

I don't really like the sounds, but I don't hate them; I'm only L6 thought. It seems to be a nice set, but the fairly nice -res secondary effect really is a reminder of how badly elec/* stinks.

It's a cool idea, but I don't see using it much past L10, at least not intentionally. I'd recommend you start it around 75%, maybe 60%, and simply make the bonuses more mild. +500% is all well and good, but by the time the cap is 500% (which it certainly is not at lower levels), every power will be slotted with a bunch of SOs anyhow.

How about:

<= 65%
+35%

<= 50%
+50%

<= 40%
+60%

<= 30%
+80%

<= 20%
+120%

<= 10%
+200%

<= 5%
+320%

As it stands currently on test, it's fun to mess with until L10, and then it feels... crazy. As something you use unintentionally, like "omg, I just went red; wow I'm glad my inferno is already activated", it's just going to come into play all of about twice in the average blaster's trip to L50. And let's remember that at 22+, a +40% boost is really more like a +18% boost since most attacks will be have 5 SOs. (And that's not counting the 6th SO that a */dev will have, or aim/BU, which gets a typical attack to 415% of the way to a 500% cap.

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More clarification: Zeb had nothing to do with the Planescape PC game. He created the original setting for D&D (the pen and paper version, that is).

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Both rule. The game was really a classic, though. You should let him take sabbatical at some point so he can write some planescape stuff for dragon!

*drool*

I'm sorry, is that my drool?

AWESOME!

So nice that the dev team still knows how to surprise us with something sweet.

Mission customization sounds awesome. I love the wave attacks from the TV trial. Escort a hostage? Awesome.

To say nothing of the power sets.

*falls over*