Aett_Thorn

You do realize that the XP smoothing done a while ago helped directly with this issue, right?

Yes, you stop gaining powers as quickly, but you get more slots, which helps out at that point more anyways, since you should have most of your basic powers anyways.

Arcana,

While I do think that, on average, the Blaster will bring twice or more the kill speed to the Tanker, I also know that there are a good deal of exceptions to that.

A Fire/Fire Tanker is likely not going to have his kill speed doubled by adding an Energy/Ice Blaster to the team. A Shield/Elec isn't going to farm twice as fast if he brings along a Psy/Energy Blaster.

Largely, this is irrelevant, because people aren't going to be tracking time down to this fine of detail. But it is possible for a Blaster/Tanker combo to go under the 2x kill speed of the Tanker alone, and not be indicative of large-scale problems of either AT.

And the fact that there's a Vet reward that gives every character 5 merits, just for being made. So if they were tradeable, you could just keep making characters and sending them to your other characters, and repeat ad nauseum.

First off, welcome to the game and to the forums!

Secondly, there are a lot of threads out there right now about dual pistols, in both this forum, and the archetype (AT) specific forums. You might want to check those out.

Well, I don't exactly have the same hostility as Talen (but really, who does?), I'm also not a fan of this idea.

Why? It helps out the AoE-heavy sets, but doesn't do much for the single-target oriented sets.

For instance, Fire Melee, Electrical Melee, and Dark Melee would get a LOT more out of this than Energy Melee would. And since, for PvE, Energy Melee is already seen as one of the under-performing sets, this would further aggravate that issue. I honestly think that this idea would help the sets that don't need it, while leaving the sets that do need some help even further behind.

Discussed often. Basically, it won't really work out that well, especially the back pieces, like a quiver. That is because the back costume node doesn't work that well with non-standard body sizes. You can see this now with the jet packs, and either really tiny characters (where the jet pack floats well off the back) and really big characters (where it's actually IN the back).

As far as just side holsters go, the guns would either need to always be in them, or they would need to be always empty.

And a Tanker with Rage, Build Up, Fiery Embrace, AAO, Shield Charge, and Lightning Rod wouldn't be broken or anything.

I like it. I think that it would probably need a few tweaks, but I think it would be a good idea overall. I'm almost more tempted, from an influence sink perspective, to allow you to do it with enhancements that are already slotted, but I'm willing to bet that's a no go for a couple of reasons:

1) The new enhancements would likely have to be put into your enhancement tray, and not into a power, like when combining SOs, so it would be a way to unstick IO enhancements from powers (maybe that's a good thing?).

2) I'm not sure if the recipes can check on items in your powers, versus your 'inventory' slots.

3) Would really cramp up the crafting interface with a ton of recipes, unless there was a separate tab for upgrades.


If #1 isn't a problem, it might actually help out the market a bit, as I believe that it would allow for more items to be placed back into the market. For instance, if I'm taking a set of Mako's Bite, and wanting to replace it with a Hecatomb, I could modify each of the Mako's Bites, fill in the new empty spots with the Hecatomb, and place the Mako's Bites onto the market. This would almost be a double influence sink, as there would be even more influence lost due to market fees.

1 Tanker at levels 1-10 is going to go at about the same speed as the baslter, if he takes a decent amount of his attacks. Since he can't really control aggro at that point, adding a Blaster isn't going to help all that much. Certainly not 20 times the speed of the Tanker alone for levels 1-10.

For levels 10-20, the Tanker does have the ability to hold aggro a bit more, but isn't able to survive a whole lot of it at this point. At least the level 10-15 point. Without some support, he is going to have to go slower, even with a Blaster friend along, because he'll need to rest up a bit between fights.

At level 20-30, the Tanker comes into his own, and at this point, can really shine with a Blaster friend. The Tanker has gotten most of his defenses, slotted them up with SOs or some IOs, and has had a chance to get a few more attacks. He has the ability to hold and generate aggro, and survive it. Here is the fastest point comparison between the Tanker and a Tanker+Blaster.

At level 30-40, the Tanker has a good amount of his attacks slotted up, and the endurance to use them. At this point, the comparison between the Tanker and the Tanker+Blaster pair begins to level out again, since the Tanker would be doing better on his own than the level 20-30 Tanker. However, at this stage, the Blaster begins to find out that the Tanker needs to hold aggro even more, because a few rogue shots can kill him. This means that the Blaster needs to wait a bit longer for the Tanker to get aggro before he unleashes. This slows down the team vs. just the Solo tanker.

At level 40-50, the Tanker has his attacks and defenses fully slotted, and can tap into Ancillary Pools if he wants to. This will increase his solo speed versus that of the Blaster+Tanker combo. However, the Blaster also gets to use his Ancillary Pools to get some defenses, which help him out. Still, the offense of the Tanker I think goes up more than the defense of the Blaster, so it's still a lot slower than 20 times as fast as the solo Tanker.


ALL of this completely ignores again the combination of Tanker and Blaster, versus what kind of solo Tanker you're talking about.

And yes, I was comparing two Tankers versus a Tanker and a Blaster, because anything else would be comparing apples and oranges. Any other AT brought along will speed up the Tanker than if he was by himself. That is obvious to anyone. However, I was trying to point out that it's not 20 times greater, and that you aren't really making a valid comparison, since at that point, I CAN say that a second Tanker can increase the killing speed just as much as another Blaster. ESPECIALLY when we take a look at various power sets.

A Shield/Elec Tanker, set for +2/+4 for instance, will certainly not increase his leveling speed by 20 times if he brings along an Energy/Ice Blaster. He might not even double his speed there.

Meanwhile, a Stone/Ice Tanker, at level 20, will definitely notice an increase in killing speed if he finds a Fire/Psy Blaster.

Depends on the AV.

In general: both.

They will fire off only when you use the power, and then be active for their 120 second duration.

They will only affect you.

Also adding: the buff amounts would likely drop because you would be applying the buff to yourself, which currently you can't do.

I prefer a nice, mustard-based sauce for my BBQ.

Heraclea, have you taken into consideration the new examplar rules, where you get to keep powers slightly above your exemplared level? I can think of a few cases where a power slightly over the max level of the TF might come in handy, if you're not doing the TF right at the exact max level.

For instance, on Sister Psyche, against the slightly end draining Freakshow, Ice Armor can be okay, but if you're exemped from anything higher than level 26, you've got Energy Absorption, which can both help your Defense and your Endurance.

I think...THINK...that it's because the game can't really tell if you're just over the ground, or whether you're 500 feet in the air, during power activation.

There are actually a decent amount of powers that you can't use while flying, and it's for this reason, IIRC.

I believe that there already is a window like this, though it is a lot shorter than 15 minutes. I think that's a bit too long for something like this. And while I don't know how much space it would take to hold a mission's worth of info for that long, I'd have to say that about 5 minutes would be a bit more reasonable.