Umbral

A 50% +dam bonus for running both CD and TD isn't really what I would consider "balanced". BU provides a 100% +dam buff and has a baseline 11.1% maximum unslotted uptime. That's an average of 11.11% +dam, pulled up to 21.66% with baseline slotting.

The solution I'd do would be to combine the two suggested solutions: a chance for large +dam in Cloaking Device and a straight up +dam buff in Targeting Drone. I would give the Targeting Drone 12.5% +dam, and the Cloaking Device a 1% chance for 100% +dam for 5 seconds. If that 1% seems a bit low, remember that Cloaking Device hits you twice every second. That amounts to a roughly 20% chance for the power to buff your damage every 10 seconds. 20% chance with functionally 50% uptime on a 100% +dam equates to a 10% damage buff over time, especially since I would allow that portion of the buff to stack with itself (if you want other math, a .01 chance with 1000% uptime gives you a 10% overall uptime; 10% uptime on a 100% +dam gives you 10% +dam averaged). If you really got lucky (insanely lucky, honestly), you could get an insane amount of +dam, but, I see that as being part and parcel of the power itself.

The overall numbers would be balanced against the average contribution numbers of BU. It doesn't really address the lack of frontloading capability (somewhat made up by the +tohit), but it at least addresses the average damage loss from not having BU available.

Where the rest of the set is concerned, as a whole, I don't really see a problem. The Time Bomb could probably use a tweak, and I'm a fan of making it a "buff" you put on the target that causes him/her to summon a pseudo pet that causes damage to all nearby enemies, but I'm not sure how close that gets to breaking the cottage rule. Web Grenade might need a bit of love too, though the furthest I would go would be a minor -def or -res debuff to make up for the damage that other sets get (because no matter how much you try to argue it, 50% -rech doesn't really do much, especially the loss of 1.0 damage scale on the power).

The proposed taser fix, however, doesn't break the Cottage Rule. The Cottage Rule applies to removing the functionality of a power. The functionality of taser is to apply a small amount of damage and a stun effect. Changing the power so that it summons a visible pseudo pet that applies the effect over an area doesn't break the cottage rule because it's still the same effect being applied. Of course, I would still be reluctant to do so since AoE control effects are incredibly powerful and there isn't really any precedent for giving such a substantially powerful control effect in a manipulation set, much less at such a low tier, without some heavy tweaks. Taser is already stronger than the hard control powers available to other manipulation sets because it is both ranged and deals damage (however trivial it might be).

The only additional fix that I would advocate would be some kind of Defiance "boost" to the set up powers, such that they provide more +dam than they should for their animation times to make up for the frontloading capability that losing BU causes. I wouldn't make it huge (1.5 times larger than it should be, at most), but I would definitely try to make it noticeable, such that players will want to drop some mines right before they open up on a group, if only to generate a few more points of +dam.

I generally get around much of the fussiness of people leaving immediately by prepping people while we're taking down pylons. By the time we're on the last pylon, I've generally gone over the various roles of the various ATs (Tanks = LoS herd, Scrappers and Stalkers = Magi hunting, everyone else kill while standing in big bubbles), the overall progression (always keep moving forward; if you die, don't wait for a rez, just hosp it; when we get in the bowl, tankers herd back to the center), and the standard bomb warning (call out your bombs before you click them; if you see a bomb call, run far away) twice. I also make sure that everyone got it by encouraging them to send me tells if they have any questions (depending on the specificity of the question, I'll either answer it in request for the benefit of everyone or simply return the tell).

Quite possibly the biggest secret to the success of my raids is simply making sure that people know what to do before they actually get to those situations. While simultaneously demonstrating that you're a competent leader that can handle catastrophic raid death, it also helps prevent catastrophic raid death because people know what to expect and how to avoid having those situations that cause catastrophic raid death (like Magi stunning and killing all the squishies so that tanks and melee don't have any support to keep them alive).

Another suggestion would be to avoid running the team you are on yourself (i.e. keeping it full) if you are leading the raid. Having to deal with sending invites can distract you from issuing orders, so I always manage to simply promote one of my teammates (preferably someone I know and always someone that is 50) and tell them to simply keep the team full. Most of them are happy to do it since it involves a remarkably small amount of work (I transfer leadership only after the forming stage has actually ended and leadership is actually needed for the raid), and, if not, I can always find someone that is willing to do so.

Not that I object to adding more functionality to VG merits, but I think the intention of the temporary powers is to give you something to continually dump merits on after you've bought all of the costume pieces. The Vanguard robot summon is incredibly expensive and quite powerful. If you actually use it, it can be an excellent way to burn your excess merits.

There are any number of ways the devs could make VG merits more useful beyond costume pieces: more temp powers, SOs, recipes, etc. Personally, I'd be happy just getting more temp powers rather than special enhancements: Rikti weapon temp powers (everyone should be allowed to beat someone with a stolen Rikti swordgun...), Vanguard NPC temp powers (why can't they give us a wand or charm with some of those crazy awesome spells in them?), and even some lower cost but weaker summon powers (flag down a Vanguard NPC).

The problem with this viewpoint is that it assumes that people will continue to buy low level IOs for characters when they've already got them. If this occurred, players would likely buy a single set (or enough sets to function for their entire lowbie collection) and then never buy any again (because you would just respec out of them and give them to a new lowbie). The price would temporarily spike as players bought up these IOs (demand increase) and then the price would plummet as players no longer needed to buy any (demand falls catastrophically).

One of the other, more interesting, side effects of the ability to remove more enhancements is that IO prices would actually drop (or, at the very least, demand would drop, ignoring the effects of further currency value loss due to inflation). Because IOs would never be destroyed (unless destroyed explicitly by the player), the amount of any specific IO on the market would eternally rise while demand would remain largely the same (if not smaller because players don't need to rebuy). Whatever currency was on the market would essentially become worthless (meaning that players would probably create an alternate currency or operate entirely on a barter system).

There are 2 incredibly huge problems with this.

1: People are stupid. A vast majority of people have no clue what makes a good game, much less a good MMO. Most people have no clue why creating a balanced risk:reward ratio is the one of the single most integral things that is needed for a game to be successful. Most people have no idea why balance is of such paramount importance. The people that continually ask for vehicles, world PvP, and every other utterly horrible ideas pretty much epitomize this statement. There is a reason that the developers are paid to run, update, and determine the future for this game.

2: Running a successful MMO is not the same as doing what the players ask for, even if it's something that many players ask for. One of the biggest things that is necessary for an MMO to be successful is a well maintained and balanced economy. Even as we're discussing this, the economy is already screwed up miserably because there is too much influence being generated compared to the amount of influence being taken out of the system. The ability to save any enhancements is already screwing up what little influence drain already exists in the system. The ability to save more would just screw it up even more. You'd be functionally removing all but the most token of influence sinks from the game.

Honestly, I'd probably have to agree with you here. 3 pure recharges nets you 99.08% +rech while the LotG and 2 recharges nets you 90.8% (83.32% enhancement and 7.5% global). In general, I'd rather have another 7.5% +rech in everything else than another 9% +rech in MoG.

Even so, I'd much rather just drop another slot in there and end the entire argument altogether. The only time I would only 3 slot MoG would be an SO build.

It's still 15 seconds, there are just a few seconds that you can't attack while you're using the power. I'm not sure about the specific time frame, but I can assure you that it's not the full 2.772 second animation of the power. The effect hits you partway through the animation (meaning there is a delay, just like with virtually all click powers), more than halfway through the animation, iirc, so you're not "losing" as much as you might think. Of course, you can't really treat it like an offensive effect wherein these losses due to animation time are actually eating into the effectiveness of the power because, unlike BU type powers where you lose effectiveness because you're not able to attack, there is no such problem with enemies attacking you while it animates. The 15 seconds is still true, it's just not necessarily 15 seconds after you complete the animation.

Alternate does not equate to equivalent. There is a difference.

If this occurred, then AE farmers would simply create 5 mish arcs with the first 4 laughably simple to get through (grab a blinkie in an insanely easy to stealth mish, for example).

As I see it, I'd much rather see the AE xp largely slashed. The devs never promised that AE would be an equivalent leveling track. Personally, I think that any awards should be functionally half of the awards for dev developed and controlled content.

No. There isn't really much point in getting defense for a */Regen build until you start IOing out heavily (not just frankenslotting).

I'm going to disagree with you here, but it's a qualified disagreement. Eagles Claw is not the big hitter that you think it is because it takes so friggin' long to animate. Storm Kick is your real heavy hitter, thanks to having the best DPA.

The qualification to this is that you're not going to be able to make an attack string with just Storm Kick, Crane Kick, and Crippling Axe Kick without a lot of recharge. You're going to either want to take Thunder Kick (Storm>Thunder>Crane>Storm>Thunder>CAK) or Eagles Claw (can't remember that attack string atm).

Well, it could be because only one of your attacks is slotted with damage of any respectable level. I would also recommend taking MoG at 38, since it's probably no longer the power you remember: it became a crashless defensive build up more than a year ago. It's something you will want ASAP and will use all the time. The only thing that you should really want to slot up is recharge for it.

You probably also want to get Dull Pain earlier, the entire Fitness pool later, and put fewer slots devoted to your transport powers (Hurdle + SJ will put you at the movement cap, and CJ + Hurdle is faster than Swift + Sprint). Defense of any kind isn't particularly useful until you get ~15% defense, so you're wasting that power choice until you start IOing yourself out. Your biggest problem definitely is the lack of damage slotting. That's your biggest problem.

Here's the Claws/Regen leveling IO build I've got. Try it out and have fun with it.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.704
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Mutation Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Claws
Secondary Power Set: Regeneration
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Swipe -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(3), Dmg(5), RechRdx(5), RechRdx(7)
Level 1: Fast Healing -- Heal(A), Heal(50)
Level 2: Slash -- Acc(A), Dmg(7), Dmg(9), Dmg(9), RechRdx(11), RechRdx(11)
Level 4: Reconstruction -- Heal(A), Heal(13), Heal(13), RechRdx(15), RechRdx(15), RechRdx(17)
Level 6: Quick Recovery -- EndMod(A), EndMod(17), EndMod(19)
Level 8: Follow Up -- Acc(A), Dmg(19), Dmg(21), Dmg(21), RechRdx(23), RechRdx(23)
Level 10: Dull Pain -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(25), RechRdx(25), Heal(27), Heal(27), Heal(29)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Jump(A)
Level 16: Integration -- Heal(A), Heal(29), Heal(31)
Level 18: Focus -- Acc(A), Dmg(31), Dmg(31), Dmg(33), RechRdx(33), RechRdx(33)
Level 20: Spin -- Acc(A), Dmg(34), Dmg(34), Dmg(34), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(36)
Level 22: Boxing -- Acc(A)
Level 24: Tough -- ResDam(A), ResDam(36), ResDam(37)
Level 26: Eviscerate -- Acc(A), Dmg(37), Dmg(37), Dmg(39), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(39)
Level 28: Instant Healing -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(40), RechRdx(40)
Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(40), RechRdx(42)
Level 32: Shockwave -- Acc(A), Dmg(42), Dmg(42), Dmg(43), RechRdx(43), RechRdx(43)
Level 35: Hurdle -- Jump(A)
Level 38: Moment of Glory -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(45), RechRdx(45)
Level 41: Focused Accuracy -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(45), EndRdx(46), ToHit(48), ToHit(48), ToHit(48)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- EndMod(A), EndMod(46), EndMod(46)
Level 47: Health -- Heal(A)
Level 49: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(50), EndMod(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 0: Ninja Run

Considering all of the flak that has been thrown around simply because I proposed reducing the resistance and defense values on Granite Armor even though the end survivability was higher, I'm pretty sure that would piss people off even more than

I was purposefully vague with defining potential downtimes. There are too many variables that affect the useful uptime of the enamators such that it's difficult to simply say "between 0 and 90 seconds" (which isn't even necessarily true since the SO grade cycle time is 105 seconds, which was more to the point).

If you would like a definition to what I deem a "god mode", the easiest way to define it is to take Arcanaville's survivability worksheet and look at the Overdrives. If you're looking for a definition, those are the powers that I generally consider to be "god modes".

The survivability capabilities of support based characters are known to completely blow everything else out of the water (especially when you consider that the support ATs get better use out of powers that should, logically, be within the purview of the melee ATs). An FF defender can softcap his entire team with an SO build while maintaining SR grade defenses. A Traps Corr can stack a billion and a half different mechanisms for obscene effect. An Ill/Rad troller can have his/her unkillable tauntbot pets out at all times along with providing hefty buffs and debuffs to everything around it. Don't get me started on some of the sheer "wtf-ery" of the capabilities of buff/debuff sets: they don't set anything even remotely close to a balanced precedent for anything else in the game.

I'm being as generous as people have been to me.

The problem I have with your arguments here is that you continually try to look for example powers that provide a basis for a design that you insist is necessary and then get annoyed when I point out that those examples are flawed. I'm not attempting to win any debate (though, considering some of the names that have found their way into this thread, I doubt it will be inconsequential), I'm simply attempting to spread my viewpoint and defend it against those that poke holes in it so that I can make sure that it can hold water.

You and I arrived at an impasse long ago: you stalwartly refuse to accept any design for the power that does not allow it to be able to be used at all times, regardless of the reductions that need to be made to balance that out; I have a gross dislike of turning the capstone of the set into little more than just another armor toggle. This difference in opinion is probably why we haven't been able to agree on virtually anything about this. We could throw numbers at each other until we're blue in the face, but it won't change the fundamental fact that we have specific design points that are completely at odds. I respect your viewpoint, though not necessarily your arguments. For some people, the entire set is made by being able to have Granite Armor up at all times. For others, the fact that you can have the entire set made for someone by the ability to keep Granite Armor up at all times is a fundamental flaw that should be changed.

As I see it, the ability to alter the root times of powers on the fly is the holy grail of balancing a lot of stuff in CoX. I would love a mechanic that forcibly lengthened Granite Armor's root times because that's a reduction in damage capability (and reaction speed) that you just can't get around: you're reducing the DPA by simply increasing the amount that any damage they deal is being divided by in a proportionate manner.

I will, however, agree that it would probably send BABs into conniptions and open up an entirely new can of worms concerning the malleability of root times, though I would probably make the root time penalty slightly larger (33-50% longer), though it would be largely dependent on whatever survivability numbers Granite was given: higher survivability would necessitate a greater increase to root time.

Except that it doesn't matter whether you're using the old values or the new values: the end effect of the power (your survivability) is still roughly the same. My numbers were simply given to allow for the removal of mutual exclusivity. Whether you're using my values or the old values, the survivability increase is well beyond the increase that would be provided by the powers you're comparing them to because, either way, you're going from standard survivability to god mode survivability. The strength of the power itself doesn't matter so much as the end point of the power when the power is active.

First off, it's not actually between 0 and 90 seconds. It could be anywhere in a larger range because the power has a duration of 90 seconds (which you can choose to leave early) and a base recharge of 200 seconds (which can be reduced up to 40 seconds at cap recharge).

And I would tell you that Tree of Life and Triage Beacon are not valid precedent to be using because they're not the equivalent of god mode powers, which are both intended to have limited uptime and a substantial drawback. The powers you are attempting to draw likeness to are intended to be buffs (which are actually weaker over time than Regen Aura), which are not intended to have any drawbacks, whereas god modes are intended to have drawbacks, as evidenced by every single one having a drawback.

I think most people want to see ablative armor, including the devs, however, I recall a dev (can't remember which, but I think it might have been Castle or pohsyb) saying that it wasn't possible within the limits of the current engine thanks to something on the back end.

Ahh, my bad. I misread your post originally. I read that as "power" rather than "power effect". Even so, since the RevokePower in Nectanebo's Curse Breaker operates by acting on an arbitrary classification of power types, I'm not entirely surprised that it's possible to do the same to specific power effects.

The very fact that Triage Beacon and the Tree of Life don't increase your survivability to the exact same extent as Granite Armor makes the comparison inaccurate. You can say "substantial" but comparing Triage Beacon to Granite Armor is like comparing Integration to Granite Armor: Integration is substantial, but Granite Armor is in a class of its own. Similarly, the Triage Beacon and Tree of Life don't allow you to turn them off whenever you feel like it. They are on specific uptime/downtimes. They do not last for an entire fight, however long that fight may last: they last for discrete 90 second periods. If the fight lasts longer than that, you've got to reapply it (assuming you got it to recharge in time; roughly 132% +rech required), which prevents it from being used in the next fight. A toggle that does that would simply be up for as long as you need it without every threatening to crash (which, is, once again, something you're ignoring about the fundamental balance concerning god modes).

To me, that sounds like it would be a power that has a very high base value that applies a debuff effect that can stack with itself a certain number of times so that the power is initially very powerful upon activation but it grows weaker the longer you have it on, probably until it's only barely stronger than you are without it on.

That might be interesting... Every tick, the power applies a ~.1% -res debuff (affected by enhancements) that can stack up to 150 times (or something like that, the specific numbers would need to be balanced against the new numbers given to Granite). It would take a decent period of time (~75 seconds in the example that I gave) for the effects to dwindle to only slightly more than what a normal toggle would provide (with the mobility debuff still affecting the target, likely).

At that point, the limit on the power is determined by the recharge time of the power in question. If it's the same recharge time as we have now, it's no real penalty: just wait 10 secs and you can turn it back on again. Conversely, even if it were an absurdly long recharge, you'd still be able to keep it on for as long as you need/want without ever having to deal with a crash that causes every other god mode to undergo a phase of substantially heightened risk for a period after. Whereas every other god mode is functionally time limited for how long the fight they are activating it for can last, Granite Armor would simply be able to turn it on and know that they're unkillable as long as they need to be: after the fight is over, they can turn it off without any risk accrued. Having it be a toggle, even one with significant drawbacks, still doesn't equate to the same level of risk that is generated by using a classic god mode, even if it had a crash afterwards: you're essentially giving the player the ability to choose to end it when they are safe rather than risking the loss of all of their survivability in the middle of combat.

By that same token, why should complex changes that require complex rebalancing be used when the exact same results can be used with simpler mechanisms? If the devs don't want the power to be used all the time, why not simply prevent players from being able to do that rather than attempting to generate mechanisms they hope that the players will interpret in the same way they have? Just because there are other ways do things and other things that can be done doesn't necessarily mean that those things are better, especially if they require more work to determine balance and effectivenes.

Well, the problem with that mechanism, one that even you brought up, is the ease with which you can acquire increases to your max end. Unless the devs have some mechanism that can reduce your max end by a percent rather than by a flat amount (which I'm not sure they have, though, once again, I'd like to see a dev weigh in on this if it's a preferred path), reducing max end by an amount that isn't cripplingly debilitating without IOs while simultaneously substantive within the presence of IOs is going to be pretty difficult.

Reducing endurance by 25% (to 75 max end base), would reduce endurance sustainability by roughly 33%, though the passive accolades would allow you to cut that penalty in half. With some reasonably simple IO slotting (Mocking Beratement 2 piece, Impervium Armor 4 piece, GotA 4 piece) could then completely mitigate the penalty more simply than you can get rid of the existing penalties. Even so, because everything operates on a proportional basis, decreasing max end is functionally equivalent of simply decreasing end redux by a comparable amount (in the same way that increases to hp act as functional resistance).

Even if the decent balance point were found or if we found out that i was possible to reduce "total" endurance by a specific percent (to force +max end effects to remain proportional to the base), there's still the issue that, when teaming, the game isn't balanced around end costs in the same way: as I mentioned earlier, there are still powers that completely negate the negative effects of recovery and max end penalties because they can cap recovery rates so easily. These same powers can overcome the effects of nukes, but the benefits aren't as intense when used for nuke recovery as they would be because the nukes don't provide the same degree of improved performance proportionate to base performance. At least with the other endurance crashes, the effects are sudden and cataclysmic rather than averaged so it's more difficult to mitigate their effects because they're forcing you to lose all of your non-passive survivability tools as soon as it drops.

This is one of the big problems with attempting to design crash balnace equivalents for powers that people want to be perma-capable toggles: the primary issue with crashes for the comparable god modes is the sudden and cataclysmic restart that they force upon the player. Any penalty that is levied needs to be similarly limiting in how the power is used. No player can build around the limits of the Unstoppable crash, and it takes incredible amounts of coordination and luck to use buffs to mitigate it. For a toggle, you would have to give it a penalty that is so bad that no player would dream of leaving it on at all times without making the penalty so bad that no player would ever dream of using it or that is easy to get around. Similarly, if people insist that Granite Armor should remain a toggle, the common usage paradigm for all combat toggles (i.e. not Sprint, Walk, transport power, Phase Shift, etc.) is that they be active at all time. If it's a toggle that is perma-capable, players will either choose to have it remain in the current constantly-on paradigm or abandon it because a vast majority of players are unwilling to monitor their toggles (just look at how mutually exclusive armor toggles worked out).