Aett_Thorn

While Granite does have some drawbacks, they're not all that bad, especially with IOs in the picture. While other sets will go for trying to soft-cap their defenses, or get more HP or Regen, you can build for Recharge and Movement speed bonuses (which tend to be a bit on the cheaper side right now).

Stone Tanks, once they get Granite, will be the hardest tankers to take down.


And, while WP is nice, it does have some trouble holding aggro, thanks to its weaker Taunt aura. Not to say that you can't hold aggro, just that it is tougher with that set than most others, so if this is your first real Tanker, you might have some trouble.


I would still vote for Stone post-granite armor for the sturdiest Tank out there.

Wait wait wait wait wait. How on earth do I get Total Forcus?! That power sounds awesome!

We are not just defending the status quoe for the sole reason of defending the status quo. I will not speak for the others, but I am worried that, if your change were to be made to the power, that the Devs would change some other factor of the power to compensate.

PvP was NOT the only reason it was changed. Was it a large part of the change? Yes. Was it the ONLY reason? No, it was not. There were some PvE exploits with it as well.

Well, actually, no, it wasn't balanced out of the box. Hence, the reason for the change. No, the change was not to specifically target Ice Tankers, but being able to chain Hibernate -> Phase -> Hibernate was also not particularly balanced, either in PvP or PvE. Certainly, it had a bigger effect in PvP, but it wasn't supposed to be that you could use Taunt, then go into Hibernate, pop out, Taunt, Phase Shift, pop out, Taunt, Hibernate again, either.

You have two emergency powers to use when facing an AV. Use Hoarfrost first, then if you need another, use Hibernate until you are healed back up.

I have never had a problem, using those two powers, even after the nerf to Hibernate, against AVs. Heck, I rarely even have to use Hibernate, especially on an even halfway decent team. As such, I am not really seeing a need for a change like this. I am unsure as to why your tank cannot survive for 45 seconds against an AV with team support, when Hibernate will be back up.

I'm more inclined to want this than the destruction of the city.

This idea, as you describe it, would be very tough for the Devs to create. Mostly because they would involve creating whole new skeletons for each shape that you could change into.

A crab? New skeleton

A dog? New skeleton

A cat? New skeleton (and different yet from the dog one)

An ape? New skeleton

As such, this is likely too much work to really get into this game, when there are other AT ideas that could be realized much sooner.

Well, that's more because the server figured out that it could remain more functional if it just kept drinking, versus stopping when it went for maintenance.

You can't, yet.

And you still don't really seem to understand. These Devs have gone through many headaches to make things work before, and scrapped them because they didn't look good. They aren't in the habit of letting things in the game if they don't at least work for most things.

Motorcycles (you still haven't really addressed how that would make your characters any less tech than a jetpack would) would be one of these items. They aren't going to put it in the game unless it works for most character sizes, and that is only one of the problems.


Others, most already discussed here that you have dodged or just ignored:

1) Animation of powers while on the motorcycle. How do you handle this?

1a) Do you not allow other powers to work while on the motorcycle? If you do that, then motorcycles become the worst travel power in the game, not allowing you to engage in combat, and making you weaker defensively. So, how many people would willingly gimp themselves that much?

1b) Do you make new animations for each power? If that is the case, then let's go through this. Let's say that we've got 5 powersets per AT. This is lowballing it greatly, but I just want to do this as a thought exercise for you. In those 5 powersets, you've got 9 distinct powers. That's 45 powers total. For each of those powers, you've got three different animations to go through. So, that's 135 animations per AT. For the 10 base ATs, that means that you've got 1,350 animations to do. Add the Epic ATs (about 11 powers per set), and we're now at 1,394 animations to do. But wait! We've got ancillary pools, of which each would have to work with motorcycles as well (maybe except other travel powers). Ignoring passives, that's about 7 power pools, with 4 powers in each, times 3 again, for 84 more animations to do. Bringing our total to 1,478 animations. Oh, and then we've got Ancillary pools, too, and temp powers, etc. Basically, there are thousands of animations to be done just to get powers to work on the motorcycles.

Let's say that it works out to about 1,800 animations (still lowballing). In the same time as they could get all of that done, we could make 33 new powersets (9 powers per set, 3 skeleton types, both flying and on the ground animations) from an animation standpoint. Which makes more sense to you?

Also, considering that you may very well be working with a completely different tool than the animators for this game is using, please don't talk like your animation work has any impact on how long it would take an animation to be made.

2) Realistic look while moving. This includes, but is not limited to:

2a) Can the motorcycle go up hills? Right now, your body stays mostly upright while climbing hills, even steep ones. Could the motorcycle go up really steep hills? Would it stay flat, and look like it is going into the hill, with the rear wheel in mid-air? Or would it turn in the direction of the hill, requiring a new animation for each degree the bike was turned (times however many animations for the powers, remember)?

2b) Can you use the motorcycle in water? Other travel powers, even super speed, work over long expanses of water, such as Independence Port and Nerva Archipelago. How would you get there if you were using a motorcycle?

2c) How do you turn on the motorcycle, since this would be completely different from running?

2d) As mentioned above, how do you get the motorcycle to work across all heights on the same base skeleton? Even jetpacks don't really work with this, but since you're mostly behind the character, it can be hard to see. If you were on a motorcycle on a tall character, you'd be able to tell that it's hands weren't on the handlebars by a longshot.


3) Would they be able to work in instances? Every other travel power can, but I've never seen a motorcycle in the elevator before.

4) If, with all of these limitations in play, motorcycles did make it in game, who would take it? It would be markedly gimped compared to any other travel power, possibly to the point that people with just sprint made it to the missions before you. How much return are the Devs going to get from it?

Well, it is decently easy yhese days to get to 50. And the last time I heard the Devs speak on the percentage of players with 50 was a couple years ago. I'm sure that that has changed.

Ummm...I've never heard that, and it certainly wasn't the case in Beta that the more fury you had the more the -recharge worked.

The secondary effects of the powers isn't tied to Fury at all.

Sigh...I've seen this spouted off since the CoV beta, and no matter how many times I post the following, it always just keeps being said:

Yes, that was ONE of the reasons. It slowed down fury generation, but not any more than Dark Armor, as has been said.

It was NOT, however, because originally Fury needed you to be hit. Otherwise, the replacement for Ice Armor, Energy Armor, would have been no good, either.


The main problem with Ice Melee/Ice Armor was the fact that Ice Melee blew chunks back in I6, especially for Brutes. Frost was a short cone, and Frozen Aura did no damage, it was just a sleep. COMBINE that with low damage output from the other attacks, Ice Patch, and the slows, and then it becomes a problem. It was not the -recharge that was the problem, it just didn't help the bigger problem any.

Ice Melee was bad. It was very, very low damage back then. It was okay for Tankers who wanted a control-heavy set. But for Brutes, the lower damage modifier on top of already low-damage attacks was a big problem.

LOL. I usually am too at this time in the morning, but good coffee helps with that.

Just FYI: calling the store won't get you anywhere. You need to contact support, which is much different from the store.

Yes, the system is a little odd, but I do believe that it gives several warnings for people to UPGRADE now.

Yeah, I'm not quite sure on that, but it's worth a try. I know the system was created to try to prevent fraud against the company, but I'm not 100% sure of the specifics, since I've never run against the limitations, myself.