Adeon Hawkwood
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I tend to also think that we are very unlikely to ever see a CoH2 for pretty much the reasons other people have stated. It would end up splitting the community so unless it managed to bring in a LOT of new players it is unlikely to be profitable.
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Most of these have already been mentioned but in any case:
Assault Rifle: I'd like to see Full Auto get a 16 target cap since it is a Tier 9 power and it should get to break the rules a bit. The rest of the set I'm honestly fine with, I never found the knockback in either buckshot or M30 to be a problem (since they're very low mag). Similarly regarding the suggestion someone made about a longer cone on Flamethrower, I wouldn't welcome the increase in recharge that would accompany it, personally I just slot for range (plus Cardiac or Radial Intuition for my Alpha) and use that.
Electric Blast: Personally I don't have any problems with this but I play it on a Time Defender which means I can use my Time powers to compensate for the inadequacies of the set. In general though I think it would be good to up VS's damage a bit and change Short Circuit so that it has a shorter cast time and front-loads the damage a bit.
Traps/Devices: Personally I'd like to see both Trip Mine and Time Bomb revamped but I'll settle for just Time Bomb getting a revamp. Other than that I think the sets are pretty decent, I've complained about Devices in the past but with the changes to Gun Drone a few issues back and the upcoming changes to Cloaking Device and FastSnipe most of my issues have been addressed. All that's left is Trip Mine and Time Bomb.
Trick Arrow, Empathy, Force Field, Sonic Resonance: Basically all four of these sets are really starting to show their age. Trick Arrow is a pure debuff set in a game that is becoming increasingly buff focused for mitigation. Empathy is a single-target focused set in a game that is becoming more focused on large leagues. Force Field is basically a one-trick pony and doesn't really do that trick well enough to compete with newer sets like Cold Domination and Time Manipulation. Sonic Resonance suffers from a number of weird power mechanics plus a couple of poor power choices.
Stone Armor: Ideally I'd like to see this set get a complete overhaul but at the very least change things around so that Rooted behaves more like Grounded instead of having a speed/jump debuff. Basically make the non-Granite option appealing so that it's competitive with other Armor sets.
Pain Domination: Personally I think this set suffered to much from trying to be Evil-Empathy. It was a neat idea but Soothing Aura and Painbringer are a poor substitute for Empathy and Adrenalin Boost. I'd like to see the duration of World of Pain increased to 120s (so that it's permanent with SOs) and Anguishing Cry given a shorter recharge (I'd say 90s at the most, and ideally 60s) since it has the worst duration/recharge ratio of any -resistance power in a buff/debuff set and is a PBAoE making it harder to use.
Dual Pistols: The cast time reductions in I24 should help quite a bit here. I would still like to see the -res in Piercing Rounds work with all ammo types and the damage from Hail of Bullets changed to a fixed number of ticks rather than 12 x 60% ticks. -
Quote:You know, it occurs to me that you could probably do a similar effect by giving all electrical attacks a chance to hold which scales based on the remaining endurance of the critter. Make it a short duration (2-4 seconds) and it would be pretty similar to what you're talking about.Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
My longhanded solution to -Endurance would be to make critter AI have a chance to "skip turn" and do nothing if endurance is below a certain value (think of how Scourge works on Corruptors). Part of the value of -Endurance in PVP environments (in this game or in games with "mana burn" type abilities) is the psychological aspect--"I'm close to running out of endurance, so I should run away because if I get drained dry I'm helpless." We'd just bypass the running part because that would just be annoying. -
Quote:Well here's how I'd do it as an instanced mission. Make a new map that has a bunch of small areas based on each of the city areas that you visit and contains a 2-3 spawns of the appropriate enemy types with a named boss (scaled up to level 40 for the groups that do go that high). You kill the spawns and then click on a Longbow Helicopter (or something) to get transported to the next section of the mission. Eventually you exit the mission in Eden. Basically keep the theme of traveling about the city fighting different groups but eliminate the running about and make it so that the enemies aren't all horribly under-level.Originally Posted by MisterMagpie
Am intrigued by the instanced idea and how that would be done.
So it's all one mission with lots of different map sections (sort of like the second mission in Admiral Sutter or Apex). -
Traps and Time are the easiest Defenders to softcap. and both are fun to play. I've got a TIme/Elec Defender who almost feels like a Tanker (my defense keeps me alive until my endurance drain has time to do its work).
For a high resistance Defender I recommend Cold Domination (or Storm Summoning but I prefer Cold). If you stack Arctic Fog with Dark Embrace (from Dark Mastery or Soul Mastery) then you get a Defender with decent resistance to everything except Psi. -
Quote:He's talking about the inf sink that is SOs, not the inf sink that is the market.Originally Posted by Nethergoat
I agree its an inadequate inf sink, but 1: it's pretty much the only one we've got and 2: who, exactly, spends 5-6 million per slot "from 1-50"? I burn more than that in market fees just to slot one purple. I dropped a few hundred K per slot kitting out a level 17 alt with crafted generics the other night.
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Quote:Ewwwww. That's a mental image I did NOT need.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
... at times, that's an exceptionally apt description of the system.
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Quote:I think you mean buffing Short Circuit and removing the endurance drain from the other powers in the set since it's all or nothing.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I reiterate the question: what do you think I mean when I say "make endurance drain work?"
I kid, I kid. In all seriousness I would say that fixing Endurance Drain needs to start with the NPCs. I'll admit I'm not 100% clear on it but based on comments people have made my understanding is that at some point int he past NPC endurance pools were increased to stop them running out of endurance just using their attacks? If so then the logical solution would seem to me to be normalize NPC endurance pools and then given them endurance reduction buffs as needed to allow them to run their attack chains. Once that is done the effect of endurance drains on NPCs can be more accurately predicted.
*shrug* That's not what I got form your posts. But in any case it sounds like you and I are in agreement where snipes are concerned.Quote:Originally Posted by Watchdog
I'm not supporting that, either. Again, I feel like I have to point you to the title of the thread. I'm specifying Zapp because we're talking about Electricity Blast. I think it would be fun to discuss what we might replace snipes with in the other sets, but that's not the point of the thread. -
Quote:It isn't. Personally I'd happily support your change, but not for the reasons you want it. I firmly believe that the FastSnipe mechanic is a poor solution to the problem of people not taking snipes and that changing all of the snipes to a standard attack is the best solution.Originally Posted by Watchdog
And really, given the change they're already making to Zapp, why is what I'm suggesting so outrageous? Why do you feel that my request means that I want the set balanced around some other paradigm?
However I don't expect the devs to actually DO that which is why I've been suggesting other solutions. I also wouldn't support changing just Zapp from a snipe to a single target attack because I feel that would be unfair to those people who like snipes and happen to play electrical blast. So yeah, changing all snipes to single target attacks is fine and something I'd support, changing Zapp alone is not. I don't think either will happen though so I'm looking at alternatives. -
Quote:You pretty much said it yourself, everyone has different aspects that they consider in terms of balance and different agendas. My apologies if I'm misrepresenting anyone, this is simply my view of the points that have been raised.Originally Posted by Watchdog
So why is it that all I'm hearing is that my point is ridiculous, that I should play another set or my idea of balance is wrong or that I want to totally change the way the set plays? Seriously, why is my very simple request met with such steadfast refusal from you guys? Is it completely insane to want to play an Electricity Blaster with a focus on ranged powers; to just want a decent, functional chain to allow that approach?
You feel that the primary consideration in a blast set is that is have at least three non-snipe direct damage single target attacks.
I feel that Electric as a whole is fine overall but that the FastSnipe mechanic in general is poorly implemented and that if it does go forward as is Assault Rifle and Electrical Blast need to be reviewed since FastSnipe is going to make their single target damage very variable except on certain ATs or Powersets and I don't like that.
Arcanaville feels that while the single target damage in Electrical is weak but for the most part it makes up for it in other ways so that's ok. Her primary concern is that Endurance Drain is supposed to be the big draw for Electrical over other Blast sets but that Endurance Drain as a whole has mechanical problems in PvE so she wants to see that looked at rather than just saying "forget it" and buffing the set's damage to make up for it.
Other posters in this thread feel that Electrical needs a general damage buff but would prefer to do it by buffing VS for single target damage and SC for AoE damage.
So what it really comes down to is that most people in this thread are approaching the set form a different viewpoint than you are. As I mentioned in my last post, you may simply be happier playing a different powerset. The reason people aren't giving a lot of support to your opinion is that they believe that Electrical Blast is balanced around a different paradigm than the one you seem to want. That doesn't necessarily make you wrong but it does mean people are disinclined to support your changes since a buff in that direction would move it away from the paradigm that they wanted it balanced around.
You mentioned not liking to use VS in a previous post. That's fine, and completely your decision. However keep in mind that some people DO like using VS and would like to see it buffed. If the direct attack single target damage of the set is buffed instead that decreases the change that those people will get what they want.
Also, as a side note, what secondary do you have? Except for Devices and Energy the Blaster secondaries all have a ranged immobilize as their tier one which has the same damage and recharge as Charged Bolts (although with a higher end cost). If you slot that for damage and use it as a standard attack you can actually make a reasonably decent 3-power attack chain. -
Quote:I suspect the bug was actually with the fact that the associated levels varied. I have a hard time imagining a situation where an item that was not supposed to be given a level at all was accidentally given one (I'm not going to say that it was impossible, but I find it unlikely).Originally Posted by Agent White
That's assuming that the bug wasn't the associated level to begin with instead of 'revealing' it.
The most likely situation I see from a code point of view is that for some reason buried in the original design of the enhancement system all enhancements have to have a level associated with them. So while ATEs were awarded with a fixed level the way the OF enhancements were awarded accidentally set that level to the same level as the character rather than a fixed level. -
Quote:Well for most of the powers i think it makes sense. Smoke Grenade and Smoke are in sets that don't focus on debuff so the -perception is there to help with positioning and choosing your attack timing. Flash arrow is the only one I object to since it IS in a debuff setOriginally Posted by Trickshooter
Well, I'm not one of the devs, so I can't tell you WHY -Perception tends to come with only a tiny -ToHit debuff in powers. It's just an observation that when it comes to -Perception/-ToHit powers, Flash Arrow is pretty much in-line with what the devs have decided are appropriate debuff values
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That's true, I'm just not sure that adding more -recharge is the best way to fix the set overall. Upping the -recharge in Glue Arrow would certainly help the set but it's not the change I'd make first. I'll try to explain.Quote:Well, the issue I have with Glue Arrow is that it's actually a very poor debuff and what it does well, -Speed, already comes in potent amounts in another power. It's just too overshadowed by every other AoE -Recharge support set power.
The sets I tend to compare Trick Arrow to are Dark Miasma and Time Manipulation since all three rely on a combination of -To Hit, -Damage, -Recharge and a little bit of control as their core damage mitigation. DM and Time combine this with a decent amount of healing and a bit of extra damage while Trick Arrow lacks any healing but has a larger damage boost (at least in theory). Now the obvious problem at the moment is that TA is lagging behind both DM and Time in terms of overall damage mitigation and is pretty questionable in terms of whether it is doing its job of increasing damage.
Now speaking for myself if I were fixing the set my primary aim would be to bring the -ToHit and -Damage up to a reasonable par with DM and Time and then increase the damage of the set to above that of DA and Time by improving Acid Arrow and Disruption Arrow (I'd be VERY tempted to give them both -30% resistance debuffs but I acknowledge that that would probably be overpowered). If that were done then I think the set would be reasonably balanced even without changing Glue Arrow.
I'd also aim to put more of the damage mitigation of the set into Flash Arrow to help with the fact that the set is a DeBuff focused set whereas both DM and Time are mixed. You can realistically use two powers for Alpha mitigation Flash Arrow + One Other, therefore loading a larger portion of the set's mitigation into Flash Arrow helps with Alpha mitigation. -
Quote:A Regen Scrapper who isn't regularly using his heals when they are up isn't maximizing his potential, if he only needs his toggles and passives then he could be fighting more or more dangerous foes. Similarly a Blaster who doesn't use Aim and Buiold Up is not maximizing his potential.Originally Posted by Watchdog
Also, the clicky nature of blaster buffs isn't the same as the sets you compare it to. A regen Scrapper doesn't have to click a buff or heal every 30 seconds. Those buffs/heals are needed much less often in general, and arguably even less in most team environments and situations.
No it isn't. Healing Aura is a PBAoE that simply requires them to roughly position themself and press a button. Fortitude and Adrenalin Boost require them to select a teammate to target and then activate the power. Fortitude in particular requires them to keep track of multiple targets since a good Empath will be keeping it up on at least three targets and possibly four or five so they've got to not only keep an eye on it's recharge but keep track of who is next in the rotation. I would say a good Empath doing a Fortitude rotation requires a lot more skill than a Blaster using Aim and Build Up.Quote:For Empathy Defenders, at least what they're doing fits thematically with their powers and roles, and they can deploy their buffs the same way they do their AoE heal (as opposed to the bad/micromanaging Defenders that insist everyone "Gather for buffs!" all the time). The mechanic of their buffs is identical to deployment of their most-used heal. It's not the same thing.
May I suggest rerolling as a AR/Dev Blaster? No need to worry about Aim and Build Up, just turn on Targeting Drone and blast away. Sure it's not a perfect solution but the fact is that Blasters are, and will continue to be, balanced around the assumption that thye are suing thier self buffs. If you don't care for that then you've either got to accept that your Blaster will under-perform compared to others or select sets that minimize the pain for you.Quote:With Blasters, it's non-stop silly animations all the time, now with the random clap thrown in to make it even sillier. And none of it makes sense, and none of it fits into the playstyle of a blaster.
Sure, I've got no issue with that as long as the change is made to ALL snipes. Frankly I'd prefer that to the current FastSnipe mechanic since I don't care for how it affects the balance between Defenders/Corruptors on one hand and Blasters/Dominators on the other.Quote:Convert Zapp to a Tier 3 attack, and MAYBE streamline recharge times for the chain to make it a bit more dynamic and tactical.
I'd settle for just the attack. That's it. That would make me happy.
How many people who play this set regularly wouldn't drop the snipe for a Tier 3? Especially given the unnecessary complexities of the upcoming snipe changes...
Now as for the Charge Up mechanic I suggested, did you take a moment to consider WHY I suggested it? I don't particularly care for the FastSnipe mechanic but I also don't think that the devs are going to do what I'd prefer and simply change all snipes to a 12 second recharge single target attack. To that end suggestions like the Charge Up mechanic and the change to FastSnipe trigger powers I made in a different thread are made with the intent of leveling the playing field where FastSnipe is concerned and addressing what I consider to be the main deficiencies of the mechanic. -
I'm coming in kind of late here but I figure I'll give my $0.02.
In general I think the changes that you propose to Entangling Arrow, Acid Arrow and Disruption Arrow make a lot of sense. I think Acid Arrow should be a little bit stronger, either with a 20ft-25ft radius (so you can hit the entire spawn) or a full 30% resistance debuff. Personally I feel that as the only pure debuff set Trick Arrow should have the best resistance debuffs and even with the changes you propose I don't think it has but YMMV.
On other arrows:
Flash Arrow: You mention that Flash Arrow is on a par with other -perception powers in the game and that is largely true. The question I have is why should that be true? -Perception is one of the more questionable debuffs in the game. It does have some value as a utility debuff but for the most part -perception isn't that critical. Now that being said it does have value to a TA character int hat in a set reliant on debuffs for damage mitigation it allows them to apply 2 debuffs at the start of combat rather than one so I certainly wouldn't advocate removing it but I also don't think other -perception powers should be used as a baseline. Personally I'd like to see the -ToHit in Flash Arrow increased to about 10% to put TA closer in performance to sets like Time and Dark which also make extensive use of -ToHit for damage mitigation (it would still be weaker than them but not by as much.
Glue Arrow: I wouldn't object to the changes you propose but I also don't see them as highly critical. Glue Arrow is a pretty good power as it stands so I'd rather see the damage mitigation in the rest of the set buffed as opposed to Glue Arrow. Still changing it to a chance for hold patch would be an interesting change.
Ice Arrow: Personally I feel that the single target holds and stuns in all Buff/Debuff and Blast sets should have their recharge and duration adjusted (as well as normalizing what attribute they use, I'm looking at you Tesla Cage). I would say Scale 10, Recharge 20s for the Blast sets (same as Beanbag and a couple of others) and Scale 10, Recharge 16s for the buff/debuff sets. Also set them all to use Ranged_Sleep or Ranged_Immobilize as the scaling attribute instead of the grab-bag of Ranged_Sleep, Ranged_Immobilize, Ranged_Stun and Ranged_Ones that they have now (I would suggest Ranged_Stun but for some reason Masterminds and Corruptors have somewhat bizarre Ranged_Stun attributes compared to Blasters and Defenders). For comparison purposes Controllers and Dominators get Scale 12 Ranged_immobilize, Recharge 8s for their single target holds. -
Quote:Right that's "you" plus a corruptor and an enemy with a snooze button. Have the corruptor use a breakfree so that they don't get slept and see if soothing aura wakes you up. The big risk (besides the sleep missing) is the enemy breaking the mez with their own attack so ideally you want a corruptor with a hard mez of their own to assist you.Originally Posted by JayboH
No, the question is if a teammate is mezzed that the non-mezzed corruptor's Soothing Aura would still heal that teammate.
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You know, it seems to me that this should be pretty easy to test. You just need a Corruptor with Soothing Aura and an enemy or two with sleep powers (a custom AE enemy with a control set primary and a useless secondary is probably the easiest way to do it).
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Quote:This is something that I think should be done. No set bonuses/globals/procs and you can't slot new IOs but let premium players at least use their existing IOs as basic enhancements.Originally Posted by TClauss
- Current IO's revert to SO values, avoiding the need to respec.
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Quote:Well considering how long it's been like that I doubt we'll ever see a fix. That being said I didn't think we'd ever see Hamidon Enhancements get fixed so maybe one day we will.Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
This is not beyond the wit of man to fix. If they really can't separate out buffing heal and resistance, then they will just have to change the way the power works all together. For example they could have it work as a heal enhancement like an Alpha.
Frankly I have no clue how easy or difficult this would be to actually fix. I can make some guesses based on how things do currently work and what that implies about the underlying code and those guesses say that it would be extremely difficult. But at the end of the day only the coding team truly knows. -
Quote:Because the people who DO use it are essentially providing free word-of-mouth marketing for City of Heroes. Considering how much money companies spend now a days trying to start viral marketing campaigns having tools to help those fans who want to do it for free seems like a smart move.Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
Why? I can probably count on one hand (MAYBE both hands) the number of people who even use the thing, and it's not like I'm doing anything USEFUL with it, like finding math errors or discovering powers imbalances or anything. I just make videos with it.
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Quote:You're missing my point. The issue with OF shows that Attuned IOs clearly DO have an associated level it's just that for the ATIOs they are all getting awarded as the same level so they show up as one item int he market.Originally Posted by Aggelakis
Nope, that's a result of the level bug with OF (being given a minimum level by the rewards window based on the level of the claimer (note the minimum level thing has been fixed)).
Archetype Enhancements are attuned and are listed as one item in the market. That's how attuned enhancements are supposed to work. OF is still bugged.
Now ask yourself this, if the devs were to switch all existing set IOs to Attuned IOs which would be an easier fix:
1. Change all Set IO items to Attuned IOs while retaining the same "level" (and thus keeping the same item ID or whatever they use internally to track item types)?
2. Convert all Set IOs to a new Attuned IO item?
Admittedly standard code rant applies here but from what I've seen I suspect option one would be a lot easier to implement. -
Quote:A game does not equal a movie. Self buff rotations are common in most MMOs. CoH is actually quite mild compared to some and has plenty of options for people who dislike click buffs.Originally Posted by Watchdog
HeroGuy walks into a CoH warehouse. He does his little wavy-arm thing to summon Voltaic Sentinel. He walks around the corner and spots the first group of enemies. He does the Aim animation. He does the Buildup animation. He does the Lightning Clap animation. All 3 in a row, before he engages anyone.
Now imagine that from the beginning of that mission to the end, he stops roughly every 45 seconds to do ALL of those 4 animations over and over and over again, in AND out of battle.
Realistically even with the I24 changes an Elec/Elec Blaster is no worse off than a */Regen Scrapper (3 defensive clicks and BU), or an Empathy Defender (only three regular buffs but about the same clicks per minute). Heck even on my Devices Blaster I'll drop Caltrops, lob a Smoke Grenade and summon a Gun Drone before most fights when I'm solo.
So yeah I don't really feel much sympathy for you. There are people who like melee characters but can't stand to play Regeneration because it's so clicky while other people hate Willpower because it's so boring. Come I24 I'm sure a lot of Blaster players will end up the same way. Some of them will love Electrical and Energy Manipulation because they find a good self-buff rotation extremely enjoyable. Others will gravitate towards Devices, Fire or Ice which are more dependent on toggles.
In general having different game-play styles amongst different sets is a good thing for the game since it broadens the appeal. Some people like very clicky sets and some people don't so the game provides options for both groups. Yes, it does suck for people like you who want to use a character concept where they don't care for the play-style of the associated set but given the choice between variety in sets or homogeneous sets that are all basically the same with different graphics I'll take variety any time. -
Quote:Neither. I was just pointing out that in general non-melee characters do not "have their entire 2.48 end per second + base endurance to dish out damage".Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Are you suggesting that the endurance costs of those toggles are an equal constraint on offensive output, or are you attempting to contradict the original premise that endurance costs of defensive toggles are immaterial to offensive output by pointing out everyone has defensive toggle endurance costs?
I think in general non-melee characters spend less endurance on toggles than melee characters (ignoring Leadership and Fighting) but that isn't the same as spending nothing. Some specific non-melee sets probably do spend more than melee sets but there's significant variation within melee sets as well, especially if you consider powers like Quick Recovery as being a part of the "toggle cost" of a set. -
I asked for this back when Freedom was new and basically got shot down so I'm not holding out any hope for it now. Still it would be nice.
Quote:Well if the Overwhelming Force IO is any indication you'd still be able to do that. Based on the market it seems that Attuned IOs do have a level based on the level of the character that received them. This is hidden from the user and doesn't actually affect anything but the get separate listings in the market based on this level. The "quick fix" for changing IOs to Attuned IOs would probably be to do something similar and just change all the IOs so that they have hidden levels.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
I don't know, I rather like being able to wander over to the market and save a few million INF at times by buying "off level" (33/34/36/37 instead of 35, for instance) enhancements or recipes. -
Quote:Well, no. Technically it's not a bug it's working as intended. It's just that an unfortunate consequence of how powers were designed (and resistance in particular) means that powers with resistance buffs tend to get screwed over in terms of global buffs.Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
However, if a heal power doesn't benefit from a power that explicitly states that it BUFFS HEALING, then that is a BUG. And therefore a way must be found to fix it.
So I don't consider it a bug anymore than I consider the fact that Power Boost works for the defense in Force Field but not Cold Domination a bug. It's an extremely annoying situation but it isn't, by definition, a bug. -
Quote:I'm wondering if we might end up seeing a general reduction in the secondary effects for nukes. Possibly along the lines of reducing the duration to 10seconds and changing mez effects to chance to mez (similar to Overcharge).Originally Posted by Garent
My opinion now with no testing is that the recharge is going to need to be increased and certain nukes will need to be addressed.