Umbral

If you have to ask yourself this question, you've already answered it.

I've never even dreamed of using the Sandman proc, and I most likely never will. Here's why: the proc has a 10% chance to grant you a 5% heal. That's roughly a .5% heal per attack. Assuming you're using an attack chain such as CI>CB>HP>CB, that would be 3 attempts every 5.016 seconds. A 1.5% heal every 5.016 seconds translates to 20.07 hp every 5.016 second or 4 hp/sec. That's less than base regen and it doesn't scale with +hp. Numerically, you're better off just getting a +regen set bonus that trying to salvage anything from the Sandman proc.

First off, you're thinking of Sands of Mu. Secondly, Jacob's Ladder doesn't have a long animation (1.848 seconds, only .132 seconds longer than Havoc Punch) but it acts like Shadow Maul and Sands of Mu in exactly the same manner with the exception that it actually has a wider arc (50* rather than 45*). Honestly, I've always felt that Jacob's Ladder was infinitely better than Havoc Punch if only because Havoc Punch has such a long animation time for a moderate strength ST attack. Jacob's Ladder has pretty much the same DPA while being able to hit multiple targets. If you only use it for ST attacks and occasionally catch an extra target, Jacob's Ladder is still substantially better than Havoc Punch because of those "free" second targets.

Not really. Assuming you have the recharge of Lightning Rod down to a 45 second cycle (42.228 sec recharge, 2.772 sec animation, 113% +rech required) and that you will always get the proc to occur, it will equate to roughly 11.1% (100*(5/45)) +rech. Of course, when you realize how atrociously bad the proc rate is (5%) and factor that in, assuming 16 targets hit, there is only a 56% (1-(.95^16)) chance of the proc occurring, so that reduces your 11.1% +rech down to 6.2% +rech under the best of conditions. With fewer targets, you're going to get less comparative +rech.

Don't feel too bad. Castle has never answered a single PM I've ever sent him, a number of which had nothing whatsoever to do with debuff resistance or */Regen. One of the more interesting ones I sent him was a numerical analysis based on existing precedent that */Regen should actually be allowed to be numerically stronger than all of the other sets it competes with thanks to its animation time use. I really wish he read that, but I have a feeling he doesn't really care about the opinions or analysis of any other players aside from Arcanaville.

Considering that, in PvP, every melee AT already gets a substantially quite of preexisting debuff resistances, I don't really see PvP being much of an issue, especially if all that is being asked for is a modicum of -regen, -heal, and/or -rech resistance. Every other defensive set in the game already has at least one of those resistances present (and a number have "functional" debuff resistance in the form of decent to moderate +def) so arguing that giving */Regen debuff resistance would imbalance it in PvP just seems impossible to me.

Of course, if that really was what mattered, they could just give the debuff resistance an "if NOT on a PvP map" tag and ignore the issue completely.

I still stand by my position that Castle just hates */Regen (well, that and it pisses off some of the people in the balance community that they haven't found a decent model to express the real contributions of non-defense debuff resistance).

Well, that's the thing. */Regen and */WP have substantially different needs from IOs. */Regen benefits most from +rech and +def while getting virtually nothing from +hp. */WP benefits most from +hp and +def while getting virtually nothing from +rech (which is why you'll actually see most */WP builds run with second or third best attack strings; nothing defensive they have benefits from +rech). Both of them don't get a substantial benefit from +regen because they've got so very much of it already.

This doesn't mean, however, that you should ignore +regen altogether. If you can get more +regen at virtually no cost (such as tangential +regen from specific IO sets or obtaining some +regen at the cost of +recov when you're already past the point of infinite endurance sustainability), then you should go for it. The issue is when you're having to decide between +regen and virtually anything else as the anything else will, almost assuredly, contribute more to your survivability than anything else.

I'm reasonably sure that the devs would be able to tag the IOs to functionally ride in the same categories as a pre-existing enhancement type, such as damage, in order to prevent facepalm slotting (i.e. putting a damage proc into a passive power). It would most likely be much easier (and require going over a lot less code) than generating an entirely new enhancement type.

I'm not entirely sure why they should be limited to one per power. If someone wanted to nerf their own damage by replacing all of their slots with IOs that with a 10% chance to deal 71.8 damage at level 50 (it's the standard proc damage for everything except for purples). That's roughly 7.8 damage per attempt (per activation or 10 second period, depending on the power type), which is only marginally better than a Damage SO in the Defender Neutrino Bolt. I don't particularly think that would be imbalancing in the least. For most powers, it would be a completely wasted slot anyway.

Considering I never said anything specifically about why +regen is largely pointless on a */Regen (in this thread, that is). What I got into earlier was +hp, which is a different beast entirely.

Even so, +regen is of marginal use to both */WP and */Regen. It's more pointless for a */Regen simply because */Regen has more damage recovery capability (~70 hp/sec compared to ~50 hp/sec, w/ SOs assuming 5 targets in RttC), but it's still rather redundant to add another 12% regen when you're already packing more than 500-600% regen already (that's 400-500% +regen, btw). The comparative advantages just aren't present like they are for sets that already have decent natural damage mitigation.

Try out this thought exercise: assume two sets achieve the same survivability. One achieves it through standard regeneration and native damage mitigation, and the other achieves it through 500% +regen and a tad bit of mitigation. Adding an extra 10% +regen is going to increase the first set's survivability by roughly 10% (100% regen to 110% regen is a 10% increase in survivability) whereas increasing the second set's survivability by roughly (600% to 610% is an increase of 1.67%). The comparative benefits are substantially lower.

(And now it's time for me to grind an axe with Castle) For an even more interesting look into the wonderful world of IO design preference, take these same two sets and look into adding an extra 5% damage mitigation. With 60% mitigation (roughly average for SOs), 5% more mitigation is going to generate an 14.3% increase in survivability ((1-.6)/(1-.65)). With 5% mitigation, it's going to generate a 5.55% increase in survivability. Pretty much no matter how you do it, the mitigation set wins out simply because regen has a diminishing real contribution whereas mitigation has an exponentially growing real contribution (until you reach saturation, which is going to give you survivability on par with balls-to-the-wall levels of damage recovery anyway).

I know, of course, that the reason it was implemented like this was pretty much dictated by the game engine but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Ever since I started playing with IOs, I've always felt more than a bit burned by the fact that damage recovery sets get majorly hosed when compared to traditional damage mitigation sets (because Castle hates */Regen).

Pretty much this, though you could always explain away some of the more extreme affects of the other APPs. Blaze and Dark mastery could both be explained by saying that your character learned a little bit of magic from all of his exposure to the CoT. One of the nice things about the APPs is that, because they appear so late in your character's life, they don't necessarily have to be explained by your primary origin.

If you're looking for straight up optimization, Body Mastery is pretty much the way to go though. CP, FA, and PP are all incredible powers and the Scrapper APP ranged attacks all pretty much suck.

We don't know if it's intentional, but, from the actions the devs haven't taken thus far (I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that fixing it would only involve adding a "unaffected by enhancements or resistances" would solve the issue if there was one), I'm pretty sure it's working as intended. The only IOs I know of that benefit from this are the +recov and +regen IOs though I'd be interested in seeing if the +res and +def IOs work in the same manner....

It's not "no cost". It's the cost of 8.32% +recov. Considering that recovery is generally of more importance than +regen (especially where */Regen is concerned), it's better to keep it in PP for the greater level of recovery.

It's very heavily debatable whether it's actually worth it to swap out Doctored Wounds for Panacea. Sure, Panacea has some nice set bonuses (the +recov is nice, 10% +regen isn't much, the +hp is nearly useless when you've got DP much perma-DP, +rech is definitely nice), but you have to remember the enhancement values. Because of Panacea's IO choices, you're losing out on a good deal of +rech (at least 15%). Gaining 2.5% global +rech, a pittance of +recov, and a pittance of +regen isn't really worth losing that much +rech in the powers you want recharging faster.

Getting rid of the LotG: Def is actually a smart idea. It should be an LotG Def/Rech (if you're conforming to the standard I generated for it way back when). I'm pretty sure the OP just got his IOs confused when putting the build together.

Okay, let me put it to you this way: +HP is next to useless. The build has a 10 second overlap on Dull Pain. He's pretty much guaranteed to have it up 100% of the time. Even if he didn't he'd still probably have it up at least 90% of the time. Slotted DP combined with the accolades gives you 1064.1 +hp. Base Scrapper hp is 1338.6, and the cap is 2409.5. DP and the accolades give you a total of 2402.7 hp. That's just 6.8 hp from the cap. With a single Crushing Impact set, you're going to be above the cap. Any +hp past that first set bonus is useless, or, assuming absolute worst case, useless except for during the 5-10 second period in which Dull Pain is down because there were some -rech debuffs thrown around.

Credit where credit is due, Santor. I'm the one that designed Val's build. I'm not trying to be a diva, but it's his only because he uses it. The design was by me (and I actually spent a decent bit of time on it so you can understand why I'd want some friggin' credit).

It's finals week and I got scheduled for 40 hours at mah job, so you'll have to excuse the fact that I took a little longer than normal to post.

The first thing I'm noticing is that you're going to have endurance problems. You generally want to allow yourself at least 3 end/sec for a decent attack string (BS is no worse than the others, in fact, it's easier on the blue bar than Kat because it can't do quite as much on the top end), and you don't have nearly that much. You might want to consider dropping a power, switching from FA to Tactics, and going with CP (or just straight out going with CP). It'll lower your endurance in multiple ways (having CP and Tactics is cheaper than FA) and actually provide you more +tohit. Of course, you won't have any tohit debuff resist, but you're running with enough defense to get around most tohit debuffs and have plenty of acc and tohit besides. Working to get some more end redux into you toggles (like Maneuvers, possibly?) and more recov out of PP (which is actually stronger than QR if you slot it right) would also work in your favor as well.

Concerning exemping, remember that there is no level you can exemp to that prevents you from having your powers 18 and below (the lowest you can exemp to is 14 for the first tier ouros). You'll always have Whirling Sword, Slice, Parry, and Hack, which is more than enough for a rudimentary attack string. You may want to consider getting rid of Slice to free up a power selection and some slots.

Another thing to remember, +hp is largely pointless. You'll actually get better results when you use a generic IO rather than that 3rd Perf Shifter or Numina's.

Here's something more akin to what I'd do. It achieves softcap with a single Parry and is most definitely infinitely endurance sustainable. The damage should be roughly the same, as is the recharge. The only thing that your build has over the one I'm giving you is 6 more hp/sec, which doesn't really matter much within the confines of builds that are capable of putting out nearly 150 hp/sec.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Natural Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Broad Sword
Secondary Power Set: Regeneration
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Hack -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(5), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Achilles-ResDeb%(7)
Level 1: Fast Healing -- Heal-I(A)
Level 2: Reconstruction -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(7), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Dct'dW-Heal(9), Dct'dW-Rchg(11)
Level 4: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(15), EndMod-I(17)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Winter-ResSlow(11), Zephyr-Travel(13), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(13), LkGmblr-Def(15)
Level 8: Parry -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(17), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), LkGmblr-Rchg+(21)
Level 10: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(23), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Dct'dW-Heal(25), Dct'dW-Rchg(25)
Level 12: Build Up -- AdjTgt-Rchg(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(27)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(29), Zephyr-ResKB(29)
Level 16: Integration -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(31), RgnTis-Regen+(31)
Level 18: Whirling Sword -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Oblit-%Dam(34)
Level 20: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(34), RechRdx-I(36)
Level 22: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Tough -- ImpArm-ResDam(A), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(36), ImpArm-ResDam/Rchg(36), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 26: Disembowel -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(27), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(37), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37), T'Death-Dam%(39)
Level 28: Instant Healing -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(31), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(42)
Level 32: Head Splitter -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(43), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(43), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(45), Oblit-%Dam(45)
Level 35: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(42), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(43)
Level 38: Moment of Glory -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(39), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 41: Focused Accuracy -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(42), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(48), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(48), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(48), GSFC-Build%(50)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), P'Shift-End%(46), EndMod-I(46), Mrcl-Rcvry+(50), P'Shift-EndMod(50)
Level 47: Resilience -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 49: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

What the hell? One of the things that people like about */regen is that performs excellently at the low levels when you don't have the slots or enhancements to generate decent numbers from your powers or the endurance to run a boatload of toggles.

If it had a straight stun, you can count on the fact that the recharge would be cranked up to account for it. Even if the mag remained the same (mag 2), you can be sure that the recharge would be more than doubled because of how easy it would be to have that stun permanently with the current duration and recharge. I would predict a recharge increase to at least 45 seconds to account for the ability to stun guaranteed (and that's just balancing it to be equal to Flashfire, not worse, where it would most likely end up).

I agree completely. It's been incredibly fun having this debate with you (I actually kept this entire thing up mainly because it's nice to have someone who can keep up impassioned debate of excellent quality for such a long time), and, honestly, I wouldn't really care all that much if something were done about it (unless they really did downwardly alter the prices to levels the OP was desiring). I'd take it in stride and move on as I am want to do (unless someone decides to start a conversation on the matter that is...).

I wouldn't dare moderate you. I don't take any umbrage at what you've said to me. In fact, I actually enjoyed your "Go to hell count", and I don't think you said anything that is outright untrue. It's true, I'm an ***-hole. I don't take any exception when people act as if I am one. Besides, why would I moderate a post that I so thoroughly enjoyed reading (especially during those times in which it seemed like you were perplexed because we might almost have been agreeing...)?

The ability to absorb damage has nothing to do with the Tanker's other major role aside from survivability: aggro. Sure, Taunt and the Taunt auras are incredible tools, but you still need to do damage to keep enemies interested in you rather than the Scrapper or Brute right next to you. Ever since */SD came out, I've found that my Tankers are actually rather bad at getting aggro back off of targets that Scrappers on my team decide to jump on, specifically because those Scrappers are dealing so much damage that they're capable of overcoming even my level of aggro (AAO and Invinc are crazy awesome threat gen thanks to that nearly 17 second Taunt effect).

Besides, it's well documented that Whirling Hands blows, and it's not like Energy Melee is strong enough now, thanks to the ET tweak, to need downward balancing in AoE capability. People have been asking ever since the ET animation fix for the AoE damage to be upwardly compensated in Whirling Hands for the decrease in ST damage capability (which the set doesn't even excel at any more because Total Focus has such horrible DPA that it pretty much requires ET to do all of the heavy lifting of the set).

Actually, I'm not getting defensive concerning such a reduction. I'm getting agitated (and therefore offensive) about the supposition that it is difficult to get the VG costume pieces. It's incredibly easy to get the VG costume pieces. It's only difficult when you're not willing to raid. People that insist that it's impossible to get the VG costume pieces when they're unwilling to do the raids that make it easy (and you get told specifically in the VG tutorial that raids are the best way to get merits) incense me because they're either ignorant or unwilling to alter their playstyle in the least. They're just like other people I've met/talked to that get pissed off because their Tanker that has only placed token importance in his primary powers is too squishy and doesn't deal as much damage as a Scrapper that is built intelligently.

As to increasing the merit rewards for non-raid content, I'd have no problem with that as long as the raids were still the best method of acquiring merits by a significant, noticeable margin. Within the context of the game design, if you want to encourage people to team up, you've got to have progressively increased rewards for events that require more people and more risk. Considering how salvage and recipe drops decrease as you get more people on a team (because salvage and recipe drops don't increase to reward larger team size like experience does), the only way to encourage these events is to provide a greater continual reward (i.e. merits; the badges are one time and thereby incidental).

Well, first off, Empower doesn't debuff anything. All it does is increase the buff value of Blinding feint by a third at the cost of requiring Nimble Slash (a bad attack). In a low level build, since both Empower and Weaken require Nimble Slash, it might work but, once you get to the point in which you're using Sweep and Attack Vitals, Nimble Slash becomes a complete waste.

I lost my resist spreadsheet a few weeks back when my hard drive got fried, so you'll have to excuse that. I remember going through the numbers a while ago with a number of other number crunchers and determining that Cold was actually the best damage type on a scale weighted by target hp and how often you find certain enemies, but it's been a while. I might be misremembering it though. I do recall that Smashing was right next to Lethal (Psi was actually in the middle on the weighted scale) on that scale though.

I'm not ignoring AoE radius on Frozen Aura, and you're misquoting me. I never said that the AoE radius on Frozen Aura doesn't matter. In fact, I was the one that said that Frozen Aura actually has a larger than normal radius, which is only of the reasons why it's still comparatively stronger (and the fact that it is larger allows you to more easily adapt so as to overcome the difference). Edana was the one that said what you're attributing to me in an attempt to make it seem like I was ignoring it (I'm not), so don't try to put words into my mouth, much less words that someone already attempted to put in my mouth or draw out conclusions that are known contradictions.

Radius does matter. Damage type does matter. Cycle time (more affected by recharge than by animation time except when you're operating at the point wherein you're using an all AoE attack chain) does matter. They're not equally valued, though. I've readily admitted that a power with a large radius, poor damage type, and bad recharge time (20 sec compared to 14 sec) is probably the best melee AoE available. However, it's not the be-all-end-all melee AoE power. Frozen Aura is nearly as good (not arguing that it is as good or better). Tremor is admirably close as well.

Force Feedback doesn't have a 100% chance to proc, much less a 100% uptime ratio. Turn it off and you'll realize that you only have 76.3% global +rech.

If you're looking for the values that each "combo" has assigned to it, check out City of Data. You'll most likely need to learn to read the entries, but, once you figure out how to do that, it's incredibly useful. To determine the values of each combo, you simply go to the power entry of the final power of a combo and check the entry until you find a value with "if Dual Blade XXXXXX Mode 2". The value that this phrase is after is part of that combo.

For example, Typhoon's Edge, the end power of both the Weaken and Sweep combo (for Scrappers, Tankers, and Brutes; the combos are different for Stalkers). Check out the power entry and, after that barrage of mode resets (which are present in all DB powers because of a necessity in how the combo system works), you'll see the effects of the two combos:

Defense -0.075 for 20s If Dual Blade Debuff Mode 2
ToHit -7.5% for 20s If Dual Blade Debuff Mode 2
35.66 Lethal damage If Dual Blade AoE Mode 2
+0.67 Knockback If Dual Blade AoE Mode 2

Dual Blade Debuff is the mechanical name for the Weaken combo, and Dual Blade AoE is the mechanical name for the Sweep combo. The number after is simply the number of powers in the combo, you've already used (1 would be having already used the first power, 2 would be already having used the second).

In general, consensus has arrived at the conclusion that the only combos worth doing are the Sweep and Attack Vitals combos. Empower and Weaken just aren't worth it either because of the low damage of the powers within the combo itself or the pitiful contributive value of combo itself.

Send. Some. Tells. You don't just have the people that are sitting around in RWZ to help you out. Ask some people in your global channels (assuming their resonably active ones) if they're interested in running a raid. Throw out some tells to random individuals of every AT that aren't currently occupied with teams or missions. Once again, you'd be amazed at how easy it is.

Considering it's a pretty swank looking sword based around the story and visual aspects of a level 50 zone, I'm going to have to say that 60 minutes running around with a high level toon isn't actually all that hard (assuming that the high level toon has the badge in the first place isn't particularly reliable).

Completely and utterly ********. If you want to get to level 2, you can use a different sword until you get to level 2. The lack of that sword isn't preventing you from going through the tutorial. The lack of the sword isn't stopping you from defeating enemies. The only thing the lack of the sword is doing is making you ***** and moan about not having the sword at every possible level.

Considering the incredibly variable nature of aesthetics, I'm willing to concede that you might think that some or all of the unlockable costume pieces look tacky. That's the entire point though: you can't outright say that all of the prestige costume items are tacky. You can only say that you believe they look tacky. You're assuming everyone shares the same aesthetics as you do.

And, dear god, restricting people from 1% of the costume pieces in the game that are specifically tied to specific in-game content is going to shoot that concept in the foot? Even without the unlockable costume pieces, we've still got an incredible ability to make costumes.

Actually, that's also completely ********. It doesn't matter if something looks better as long as it looks different. If it looks different, then it's obvious it's not the normal piece so it still has the prestige attached to it. Of course, they can't give pieces that would be really prestigous by virtue of the fact that you and others like you would throw a massive hissy at the inability to actually have insert costume piece that is pretty enough to want, even if the devs wanted to exclude that costume piece just to specific individuals to represent their contribution to the game.

Once again, opinion stated as fact.

You really need to learn what the hell words mean. Nowhere in there did I insult your intelligence, though, apparently, you're insulting your own because you can't apparently read what's in front of you.

And I have made arguments against the concepts and suggestions, none of which you're even remotely willing to listen to. The primary crux of your argument is that everyone needs to have every costume piece available to them at all times because otherwise the game will wither and die because everyone likes making new and interesting costumes rather than simply playing with it on occasion and spending most of their time engrossed in the actual gameplay and social aspects. I'm busy tearing down the crux of your argument while you say "but I'm right and you're rude!".

Value is a completely subjective measure (considering everything we've been arguing is subjective). What you may consider high value may, to me, be considered low value, and vice versa. I, personally, found the value of the VG costume pieces to be identical to the costs of them. They were easy to get, and I think they look rather snazzy (plus, I have the whole collection/completion obsession in game that makes me want to get them on my main). You're apparently finding the costs to be exceedingly high (seeing as you have a hard time getting merits) and the value comparatively low (seeing as you've repeatedly called them ugly). For you, the value isn't equal to the cost (though, apparently, the value is still high enough that you still want them, you just don't want to have to pay the same as everyone else).

Now, on a more interesting note, we could, just as easily, argue that the VG merits are supposed to be a representative currency to demonstrate the amount of time we've spent working for Vanguard. Because you don't use an optimized path to acquire merits, you're spending more time for fewer merits increasing the value of each merit in question. I spend substantially less time getting substantially more merits, decreasing their value in my eyes. The fact that you're trying to tell me that the costume pieces are too expensive (a derivative fact of the high value VG merits have to you) while I'm simultaneously telling you that, if anything, the prices are too low (a derivative fact of the low value VG merits have to me) exists specifically because of the difference in how we spend our time acquiring them. You'd probably get a bit more ground with me if, instead of demanding that unlockable costume pieces are stupid and detrimental and it's impossible to play your characters when they need to unlock a costume piece before you'll even consider playing them, you insisted that the two acquisition methods were more in line with each other (such as increasing the VG merit drop rate when fighting Rikti). I have noticed that VG merits from fighting Rikti are low, but, then again, I've never been at great need of VG merits.

At which point you're not allowed to ***** about the costs being too high when you're specifically avoiding the intended method of acquisition. If there is a road that goes straight to your destination, you're not allowed to ***** to the city planner that the longer, more convoluted path you take to work needs to be improved because you refuse to take the direct route.

What I would be losing would be the enjoyment that I derive from knowing that, in putting forth the work, I have obtained something interesting and generally desired. It's for this very same reason that I despise AE farming (and farming/PLing in general). I actually enjoy the fact that I have to put forth some amount of effort to earn something. I'm very goal oriented.

You're completely misrepresenting my position. It's not, "I can get them, who cares about you". It's, "I can get them, so can you". I'm not trying to convince people to abandon you. I'm trying to convince you that the design doesn't exist just to spite you. You're not being excluded. You're just unwilling to get with everyone.

Because the people that enjoy the reward from unlocking a costume piece or any other piece of unlockable fluff (and all of the systems should be viewed equally considering that it's all available to everyone at all times) should be deprived of the ability to earn stuff just because you don't want to have to?

You've been given arguments. You just dismiss them offhand because you're unwilling to admit that they might have merit. One of the biggest reasons to have unlockable costume pieces is simply that you need to give people more and more stuff to earn. If all that people can earn is badges, then the only people that will remain interested are badgers. If all that people can earn is more effectiveness, the only people that will remain interested are power gamers. By having unlockable costume pieces, the devs have a mechanism to keep costumers interested in the the gameplay beyond just the costume creator. It's a carrot to get you to go out and do something you might not otherwise do. Having the carrot apply only to a single character allows the game to not have the carrot refresh and still have the appeal even after you've got it on one character.

I've actually got a number of costumes that use a piece or several of the Vanguard costume (the "subtle tech" look is actually quite nice for many of my character concepts which assume advanced tech would look more like the iPod and less like an angry flashlight), so I can tell you that at least one person uses them. I haven't memorized what every single piece looks like (much less given to look at every costume that every person I PuG with is wearing to such an extent that I figure out what pieces they are wearing) so I can't give you a number.

Of course, you can't just gauge value based off of how many people you see with VG costume pieces. The value is based off of how many people are willing to get the pieces in the first place. After leading raids, I find many people that end up deciding to have a suit that is mostly comprised of VG costume pieces (generally with some minor modifications). It's not one that they wear all the time, but they have it as one of their costume slots either as something to show to their friends or remind themselves of the fun that they had while raiding to obtain it (or wear when beating down on Rikti in the name of the UN).

I actually already conceded the range advantage that Footstomp has, but you have to realize that Footstomp breaks the rules (really? oh yes! it's substantially too large for the damage it deals on the recharge it has). Frozen Aura still has a large than normal AoE (10' compared to 8'), and you're forgetting that Footstomp uses the single most resisted damage type whereas Frozen Aura uses the single least resisted damage type. Damage type isn't something you can just ignore, especially when you're fighting enemies like robots.

I've never had a problem doing so, honestly, but I've spent a good deal of time getting good at it. It probably helps that I realize that, in the big picture, the ST damage you're dealing is going to be rather pitiful compared to the AoE damage you could deal if you got those 4 other targets in, so it actually behooves you to spend a couple extra seconds manipulating locations a bit to optimize AoEs.

As I said before, when you're considering AoE capability, you'd be amazed at exactly how little animation time matters. Yes, Tremor has a really long animation time, but it's still going to cycle a good deal faster than a 20 second AoE with a 2.1 second animation time. 95% +rech enhancement would generate a 12.5 second cycle in the Footstomp and a 10.6 second cycle in Tremor. Footstomp still has an overall 25% superiority (thanks to having 42% better damage but 17% worse cycle time), but I've already said that Footstomp is top of the tier. Tremor is simply a good AoE.

You know, completely ignoring the fact that Willpower has -regen and -def debuff resist and the fact that resistance is, in itself, the debuff resistance for both -res and -dam. */WP's weakness isn't debuffs. The very fact that it is so heavily diversified and has rather good debuff resistances means that it is actually quite a good performer in debuff intense situations.

Willpower's biggest weakness is the fact that it relies completely upon passive survivability mechanisms. Its biggest weakness is that which is expressly written in its description: burst damage. If you're going to argue that Willpower is weak to debuffs expressly because it can get it to the face from defense debuff cascade, you might as well say that about every set except for Ninjitsu, Shield, and SR because, apparently, the only debuff that matters is -def and the only debuff resistance that matter for -def is the absurdly high DDR that those sets have.

If you want to play a set that is weak to debuffs, try your hand at */Regen. It's the only personal survivability set without any debuff resists (except for those that you get from PvP). Of course, it's also the set that uses the most animation time by a very significant margin and doesn't get any comparative advantage to account for that cost.