First off, they didn't debug I5 nearly well enough. Sadly, companies such as Cryptic have deadlines (laid out by CEO's that have no clue how long it can take to properly debug a game) that do not fit in designing and perfecting a game before it's released and same goes with the patches. Of course there is never a bug free game with all the different hardware configuarations out there. But, this has got to stop sometime with these updates making things worse every issue.
Can anyone say memory leak again? 750MB RAM usuage out of 1Gig and 1.1 Gig of pagefile to run this RAM hog we call CoH. (Info obtained by using windows task manager in winxp pro)
I've never seen the game at a state where it has been so buggy with very extended load times into zones or missions. AND what's really sad is I'm better off than alot of other people. I have enough resources to keep CoH from crashing me out unless I play for a really long time. My major issue is lag and rubberbanding and not being able to click on my powers for a few seconds, then they will activate. In some cases this can mean my victory or my toons defeat if things are really heated.
On to other things: Things listed by Statesman in his address were quite meaningless when it comes to roles of ATs, powersets and their tweaking.
Tanks = meat shield. I5 Tank = role reduced. With some powersets nerfed more than others and an overall nerf done to taunt, Tanks are no longer as an effective meat shield allowing more mobs to attack their squishie counterparts and they themselves are in need of more assistance in some cases from decreases damage resistance and defenses.
Scrapper = melee support. I5 = role reduced. And anyone using regen as their scrapper defense got the worst nerf with IH becoming a click. Although seeing a 12.5% or so increase in offense, I don't see why some people would want to play a more squishie melee role. Might as well be a blaster and do more damage at range.
Controller = support/debuff/buff. I5 = role reduced slightly due to changes in AoE holds, but increase in damage while mobs are held or immobilized.
Blaster = ranged offensive support. I5 = role increased. There is some good changes with the bump in damage cap and extra health, but Defiance is a waste when you have to be with-in one shot of death to see any marked improvement in damage.
Defender = support/debuff/buff. I5 = role pretty much the same as I4. not much is changed with the exception of any defense buffs, that were a general nerf in I5 to begin with. FF defenders are pretty much a dead bread now as sonic is the superior defensive buff, which is what I thought I5 was suppose to avoid... everyone is suppose to have a role and Statesman has said they should have an equal one.
In conclusion of roles, ever AT had/has a role in a team, you've just made some of them more useful and some less than others with your I5 changes, nothing more. You didn't balance the game out any better than it was in I4.
Pool power defensive sets: nerfs to these sets has made them worthless compared to end cost. What happened to decreasing end as the performance lessons? You increased cost of end while decreasing protection that's just not right. Alot of people spec defensive power pools out as they need more endurance for added offensive powers to make things die faster.
AoE nerf: What can I say about this other than, how can you really justify that? How can I do an attack such as fire sword circle and miss everyone inside it's range that's over the cap?
How can you lay a burn patch down and not effect all mobs inside it's flames? Burn was nerfed in four ways, do you realize that? Four! First the AoE nerf. Then lengthened recharge, less damage and increased fear effect! Thats alot of nerfing to do on one power. Overboard, I say. (And why only that one fire power having fear effect in the first place is beyond me).
Then you have your nova (including all blaster's nukes) from blasters. That's their ultimate power and uses all end, now it only hits a select few. Man I wish nuclear bombs worked the same way so they only hit 16 targets.
If you don't want mobs being herded up for a mass kill try changing the AI of them instead of nerfing powersets. And so what if people like to herd up mobs and mass kill? They pay to play just the same as I do. I'm sorry but it just seems that you guys took the easy way out by changing numbers instead of trying to mess with the AI algorythms to make them smarter.
I5 was for the most part a terrible update. The game is buggier than ever. Radical changes to the powersets aren't the answer to fixing the game. The game wasn't broken. The game is meant to be fun. The game is less fun for me now.
Croatoa has some nice new mobs in it, but the TF is very short and killing the AV 10 times just gets boring after about the 3rd time. Not a whole lot of thought went into that TF and that's very disappointing when this game is in sore need of some solid content.
As to making the game more challenging: If I wanted to have a seriously challenging game I'd have looked elsewhere. Not that I mind a challenge in the game, but I like the game for it's ridiculous aspect. It IS a super hero game after all. And super heroes aren't super if they aren't doing some ridiculous stuff. Now you try to make sense out of things and make it more 'realistic' when the game is completely 'non-realistic'.
That's my two cents about I5 in a nutshell
