_Starbird_

Originally Posted by Umbral

Actually, when you're talking about a game that prides itself on the ability to customize virtually anything about a character, the ability to color one's powers is actually a pretty big deal. The ability to color your powers as you see fit is nearly as big a deal as the ability to pick your own face, if not more so, because you and others will actually see your powers a lot more often. It shouldn't be downplayed at all. Of course, if you don't really care much about the cosmetics of a character and only care about your effectiveness, then you're naturally going to downplay it because that's an entire portion of the game that you're downplaying anyway. It's exactly the same as diehard PvE players not giving a damn about whatever happens with PvP. Just because it's a change to a section of the game that you don't enjoy messing around with doesn't mean that it can't be a substantive change (especially when it's one that is substantially more visible).



As do I. However, there is a pretty strong correlation between people that farm and people that care more about optimization than cosmetic effects. That's the entire idea behind farming in general: optimization. You'll also notice that I never said it was just farmers. Farmers are simply the most vocal about it, generally because they're venting about the AE xp reductions and drop rate stealth nerf at the same time. Many of those I've heard dislike it simply because it accompanied other things that actually had an effect upon them.



First off, the problem that many anti-AE farmers had was not that it was difficult to find teams (I actually had no problems finding teams, many of which were comprised mainly of players that were thankful to find something other than AE to pass the time). The problem was the AE babies that accompanied such easily available and high reward farming. I didn't have much of a problem with the PI farmers at any point (except when you hit your 40s and it was virtually impossible to find anyone to team with because farmers would grab anyone and everyone possible to anchor/fill/etc), and I still don't (especially since they can't use anchors anymore and have no use for fillers) because they're not generating giant mobs of level 50 characters with players that have never left AP and have no idea what a Task Force is.

As to the question of the population, it's hard to figure out whether the drop in population (of which there is some) is due to players not being interested by the game or by the natural side effects of it being this time of year (re: school). I can honestly say that, if there seems to have been a decline in population, I'm not really noticing it, but that's quite possibly due exclusively to the ability to team with virtually anyone nowadays. It's much easier to make a team than it ever was before thanks to the SSK system.

As to whether the nerf bat was swung too far, I doubt that. Player generated content should, by necessity, be less rewarding than developer made content. Otherwise, there isn't really much of a point to running the developer made (and developer sanctioned) content. The fact that so many people became accustomed to the idea that the content they generated should be just as rewarding as developer content simply displays a highly skewed thought process that completely ignores the fact that, if it were otherwise, the system would be abused (which is already know from recent experience). Sure, some story designers are getting irked because their content is no longer just as good to level on as the developer made stuff, but that's perfectly appropriate. The people that want to run through the AE should be running through it because they want new content, not because they want an equivalent leveling path. If they want to level quickly, they've got all of the existing content that passed developer muster. If they want to level differently, they've got the option.

Originally Posted by GreenFIame

Earth to Crazy guy,hello there good Man,Woman or Man Woman,Defenders are fine as they are,Defenders are Support Toon,not tankers,blaster and Scrapper,if you play them well then you should not have any trouble.They Debuff,Heal and Buff,they only attack if they have no choice.They aren't blaster so they don't have to have alot of Damage outpot and they aren't Tankers or Scrapper and they take draw less Aggro so they be find with out alot of health.

Originally Posted by Radmind

My Arch/MM could probably give any Fire/Kin a run for its money on a solo farm.
At 191% recharge (With Hasten perma) I've got BU/Aim/RoA up every 15 secondsish give or take.

If I feel like using a mez I'll use the Ice APP AoE sleep, Jump in, use Drain Psych, BU-Aim-RoA-Psychic shockwave and the mob is dead. Most of the time I don't even need to do that.

I farm the Cim wall regularly and have had scrappers, Brutes, Tanks, Widows, and Fire/Kins sit and watch because I clear them faster than they can.

Originally Posted by Sailboat

I think the mechanical differences between the two sets are small enough that your opinion of the coolness of particular custom weapon models should outweigh them, and you could pick whichever looks cool for your concept without worrying about the other set being marginally different.