What is the philosophy/idea behind set bonus exemptions?

Where is Mother Mayhem's Psychic Friends Network when you REALLY need them?

PumBumbler is right here.

WoW's biggest downfall in my eyes is that it practically requires you to get to the max level before you attempt to do anything. It's not a game mechanic requirement, it's a requirement of other players. If you are not at the level cap, and equipped with the best gear you can get for your class, your chances of getting invited to do something are slim.

If exemping had no penalties at all, you would probably see a similar attitude become more prevelant here.

I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of having to solo up to 50 and get set bonuses before anyone will consider inviting me on a TF.

If set bonuses didn't disappear when you exemped, only max level enhancements would have any value at all, making it very difficult for low level characters to earn enough money to buy them.

That would lead to getting to level 50 ASAP and grinding to earn enough influence to buy enhancement sets. Do you REALLY want CoH to morph into a grindfest? That is part of why it is still around and going strong, it avoided the grindyness of previous MMOs.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

Well, I can't say that I agree with you, on what 'might' happen, if set bonuses could exempt farther than they do.
As someone else pointed out, you don't even need the IO's sets to play the PvE game, and I can definitely attest that you indeed DO NOT need them. (for PvE)

I think it's a pretty big stretch to say that people wouldn't invite you to a TF because you didn't have a specific set bonus. It's almost laughable.

People don't do that now, they certainly wont do it if the rule changed.

I occassionally get asked what my pwer sets are, but I've NEVER been asked 'gee what set bonuses do you have?', nor could I ever imagine someone saying something like: "gee Alexus, you don't have the Numinas +?? I'm sorry but you just can't go on this ITF with us....."



As far as affecting the market? Again - I don't see this happening. At least not in the 'end of days' senario you're describing.
As it is now: IO sets at lvl 50 are the most expensive. Typically.
Recipes that are in the 30-33 lvl range are the 2nd most expensive.

If the set bonuses did exempt down, then suddenly the lvl 34 recipe is a tiny bit more expensive than the 33, because it is more powerful.

As it stands now - recipes between 34 - 49 are less desirable. Change the exemption, and suddenly this group is worth more.

Now I don't have to wait a month for a potentially desirable recipe to hit the market at level 33. I can buy the lvl 35.

It would likely have the opposite effect you predict. The market is about supply and demand. If all recipe levels are viable to achieve a bonus, suddenly you have a bigger supply, and prices go down.

If they wanted to keep the 3 level exemption for PvE - that's fine with me. I'm much more interested in bonuses exempting down in PvP.

The PvE game easily beatable with SO's.

PvP is another party altogether.

What you MEANT is that it has not happened to YOU.
It DOES happen now. It's certainly an uncommon event, but it does happen.

There are also people who won't run scanner missions without a Granite Tank and Kin. I don't think we should build around the bottom of the barrel.

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...&postcount=137

Hasn't happened to me, but what do you expect to get when you invite someone named "The PumBumbler"? Quality?

Part of the reason that enhancements have different desirability is dependent upon their scaling. 34-49 have the same scaling factor numerator as 50 so you are getting less magnitude of bonus on the primary functions of the power and slotting, and not simply the bonus. Level 50s will still be more sensible to add in every case (except if you are aiming not to cross the Minor Bonus Threshold) for a specific exemp level. A level 50 will have more slots and a higher magnitude (even factoring ED) to enhance either multiple facets or pursue things like defense capping.

You see that there is a 1.5% difference between level 40 and level 50? It is negligible but everyone still prefers the 50. Go figure. People like the higher level stuff because the min/maxers feel better about putting that stuff in, not that it does that much more. If you actually wanted functionality, you should buy the level 30 set so you'd get better usage during exemping and other play, so even now, where level 30s can perform slightly worse but still grant the set bonuses at a low level, people still want the 50.

You can always simply roll for merits at your appropriate level, or buy them with merits directly and set/specify the level. No need to wait on the market to provide for you if you are that desperate to get a specific recipe.

With Enhancement Diversification, slotting of most powers for entire sets won't change a lot numerically speaking, but for some reason the pricing will always favour the level 50, because the perception is that the highest is the best. Note that even though a 50 will lose their bonus just as much as a 49, the moment you give a 49 the set bonus when exemped to 30, the 50 will also have the set bonus. Therefore any competitive feature advantage you were hoping to give is already lost, so why wouldn't someone choose the 50 again?

All recipes are viable to achieve a bonus, and the lower ones already do it at the lower levels and UP. You want to change all those Nos to Yeses.

Granting the bonus to exemplaring at lower/mid levels won't have any affect on the supply, and the demand will change to be guaranteed at the highest level, so your opposite effect strategy would backfire. Prices for 50s will go UP and the demand for the lower stuff (level 30) will lower even further, dropping the prices. Yay for the lowbees getting a nice drop that is worth anything in the market...not.

This would be like introducing 'improved' PvP features against the wishes of the PvP population. Ooops.

i13 improvements in a nutshell.

Besides, who cares if the prices come down? You have said the game is easy enough already with SOs, so set bonuses and other factors really don't matter since everyone can earn enough inf quickly enough to buy any non-purple /non-pvp recipe they want at pretty much any price.

I agree. Next thing you know, they'll only want stone tanks for STFs.

I've learned not to expect quality.