AmazingRando

Im sure most of you have picked up on this already and its probably been mentioned somewhere in the 20 pages before this, but for those of you just tuning in maybe whats needed is an explanation of the powers system.

See, the Devs don't code powers for every AT. There isnt a 'defender version' and a 'controller version' of a power. Instead, they code up one power and give each AT modifiers to determine the powers effectiveness.

The simplest example would be something like a force field. There is only one force field power in the game code, not one for defenders, controllers, and masterminds. What happens is, each AT has a modifier for, say, defense (more likely its generalized into 'buffs'), so a player uses Deflection Shield, theres a call to the Deflection Shield power with their AT modifier. I believe Defenders have a 1.25 modifier for buffs (warning, may be pulling number out of rear), so when a Defender uses it, whatever base buff is in the Deflection Shield power code gets a 1.25 multiplier attached to it for being a Defender.

This explains how control powers in Defender secondaries can be more effective for Controllers. Controllers have a higher modifier for control effects then Defenders. A secondary is therefore not weaker then a primary 'across the board' and in fact the whole Secondary = (X%) of a Primary thing is just silly stupidity. Thats not how it works. Any power from any set with a control effect is more powerful in a Controller's hands then in a Defender's. Likewise, any buff from any set would be more powerful coming from a Defender, because thats what they specialize in.

Last example, everyone knows a blast set does more damage for Blasters then Defenders, right? This is because Blasters have a higher AT damage modifier then the Defenders. However, on the blasts that have secondary non-damage effects, like Electricity's end drain a Defender gets more out of the secondary effect, because Defenders have the highest AT buff modifier.

Or, at least, thats how I *think* the Powers System works. I could be wrong.

Good call, from what I've heard the 32 upgrade power takes forever to cycle, and popping Hasten, even if its just at the beginning of the mission, should help you spread the upgrades around that much quicker.

Trust me, once you're behind the controls of your minions, you'll find *plenty* to do, at least if you're the least bit involved with your army. There's coordinating the alpha strike, sending in minions to tank, positioning, pulling back heavily damaged minions before they a'splode, or just letting them die and summoning/equipping more from the rear. Then there's trying to stay in range of your minions for Supremacy to work but not tasting carpet in the process. MasterMind minions are balanced around the fact that you can micromanage them; if you aren't taking active command of the battle, you're gimping yourself.

And of course theres your secondary to coordinate while you're managing your robotic army of doom. You get all the fun and joy of supporting the team, watching the buff bars, the health bars, tossing out debuffs on the enemies, all while *also* coordinating your army. Defenders and Corrupters have it easy compared to the MasterMind.

Trust me, the MM is not a boring AT to play if you're at all active. Of course, if you just want to take it easy on a mission and read a book while occasionally pushing forward that style of play is an option as well - just don't expect to be nearly as effective as the active MasterMind.

Edit: Like the others, Im going to suggest going without Stamina, thats three more power picks freed up (fearsome stare is teh awesome, especially if you coordinate the bots to pick off targets one by one while their comrades look on in mute horror, Pet. Gaze is nerfed to heck, but still situationally useful, and Im sure theres something in the pools worth getting. Acrobatics?) If worst comes to worst and you can't run the toggles, respec into it later.

Also, on Protector Bots, might I suggest leaving out the DefBuffs? The bubble doesn't seem to be all that effective (Ive heard dark rumors that its less then 5%). I'd rather toss some heals in there for better repairs (Protectors tend to keep a better eye on my Robots then I do in the thick of the fight) or another damage, or even an EndRedux (enhancers slotted in the bot powers affect the bot's powers, so the Protector spends less End, which I'm given to understand can be a problem once they become fully upgraded)

Overall, nice guide, though I'd suggest maybe a section on tactics if you ever do an update. I find on my Robo/Traps that good tactics can make or break an encounter.

I agree that some of the powers were a bit much, and the two fairly quick recharge targetted -res debuffs were making me drool, but I think this set got nerfed a little too hard.

The new recharge times are far too long, and practically force the player into taking hasten to compensate. Could the recharges be scaled back a bit and just nerf the duration a little? Or code it so it can't stack from the same player? I agree that the recharge on some powers was much too swift, but going from 30 seconds to 120 seems a bit drastic. And maybe roll back the -recharge nerf on entangling arrow so its useful again. and a little bit on glue arrow, as slowing is part of this sets damage mitigation ability, since it has no healing capability.

Also, if youre going to nerf the -res on acid/disruption arrow to where you need both powers to equal a typical defender -res power, then please consider making only one -res power and coding something new for the other. That or maybe since trick arrow is a debuff only set, maybe it needs a more powerful -res effect then the other defender sets can achieve.

Finally, I haven't tested yet, but is the -acc debuff on flash arrow significant? Flash's acc debuff should be on par with Radiation's Radiation Infection. This is mostly because as a debuff only set, Trick Arrow needs to have some kind of heavy duty -acc debuff to protect teammates. If Flash/Acid arrow have equivalent -acc/-def as Radiation Infection does, then it should be fine. Otherwise, the set doesn't debuff enough to protect without some kind of heal.

If they *really* wanted a heal, you could fire an arrow with a vial of healing potion that disperses like Poison Arrow does so you'd have a targeted AoE heal. Not that Im saying the set needs it, just that its possible.

Also, any chance on increasing the -acc debuff on Flash arrow up to Rad. Infection/Fearsome Stare levels? Right now it feels like an insignificant accuracy debuff, and since the set is completely debuff with no way to provide defense or healing for team mates, some kind of -acc debuff is needed.

Thats all I have on TA for the moment, havent played it up much yet.

Would like to say that TA *as it stands* is not a blaster set, but with some reworking you could give blasters a severely weakened version of it for arch/TA blasters.

Im burning my one response to say this, but since Im overall ok with the changes (though Id prefer mole points to teleporters) I dont mind.

The maps were also supposed to include markings for the stores, but those didn't make it either and Im guessing the guy in charge of that was also in charge of the Shard jump paths. But there was a thread (which Ive lost, sorry) where a red name responded saying the map markings are on the way.

So, the jump paths and store locations didn't quite make it into the Test release of I5, but they're on the way.

Defiance needs to start kicking in earlier. 60-70%. As many have said, at the upper levels the difference between 40% and dead is usually one or two shots. The damage increase should also scale a bit better.

Also, since the theme is defying the odds and blaster survivability, why not add more buffs to the defiance bar? Defiance should give a buff to damage, accuracy, defense *and* mez protection. Like a souped up Vengeance that only kicks in when youre about to die (heh, everyone else has been using the blaster corpse for Vengeance, now its time for the blaster to get the advantage!)

If nothing else though, at least toss in the mez protection as damage is dealt, because blasters tend to die most often when mezzed. For a high level blaster, hold = death, and all they can do is sit, watch, and moan as they get picked off with no chance to flee. With mez protection, the blaster might have a shot at fighting back or at least running when damage pushed the bar high enough to break out of the mez.

In short, like the concept, but think that its not going to make much difference to the higher level blaster unless more buffs then damage are added.

Tanker Taunt power should, as an AoE, be allowed to hit up to 16 enemies. Only being able to hit five really guts their aggro management abilities.

Invuln nerfs went too far. Invuln tanks now get devoured by anything that isnt smash lethal, and even the smash/lethal hurts.

I fully agree with the concept of breaking herding, but this was a kind of ham handed approach to it. Worse, many of the worst herding offenders (fire tanks) can still easily reach the smash/lethal caps and herd (albeit slightly slower thanks to the max hits) because 90% of them already have Tough and will just drop extra slots into it to cap. Why not roll back most of the resist changes across the board by about 75%, then drop the resist cap down to 85/80/75? Or heck, even 80/75/70.

Also: You *nerfed* ice tanks? *boggle* Had you left them alone then nerfed everyone else, they would be 'balanced' in comparison. But you nerfed one of the weaker sets so its still... one of the weaker sets.

Haven't played the set up very high yet, but it seems that the -res debuff is a bit overboard. Each hit seems to do about -17% res, or roughly +20% damage for the first debuff applied (defender version). With no enhancements at all the difference is quite noticeable, and it lasts long enough to stack at least two (possibly 3) debuffs. Id imagine with SOs, the gain from stacking debuffs would be balance wrecking (six slotted with damage SOs would be 300% original damage. One sonic debuff would enhance that by 20% of 300%, or 60%, almost two damage SOs more. And they stack.)

And that doesnt even brush on the 'all sonic' teams that are going to (already have) cropped up.

Either the sonic debuff % needs to come waaay down (5%, and even then it can be abused) or the debuff needs to be non-stackable.

You know, as a member of the Church of Automata, I am highly offended by the way this game - indeed, fiction in general - protrays robots. I worship and work with our benevolent mechanical overlords, and I find their frequent portrayal as heartless engines of destruction (Zenith Mechs, Zeus Titans, Siege, Clockwork, the Mega Mech) more then a little disturbing. Thanks to games like this, when most people think of robots they think of homicidal killing machines barely under human subjugation. The urban myths that have arisen thanks to this stereotype makes things very hard for the acolytes of the Chuch of Automata.

I think we should show our helpful cybernetic masters in a more positive light, focusing more on heroes like Citadel and Luminary. Or have the Cronos Titan give out a handful of deathless steel wildflowers to heroes as thanks for helping out. Perhaps an entire zone dedicated to happy, singing robots that only want to help, as my religion teaches. After all, my religion is tens of minutes old and based on a wide array of holy short stories, shouldn't my feelings and those of my fellow CoA acolytes (over 2!) be taken into account? We need to break the popular bias that robots are heartless maniacal forces of pure doom.

On the other hand, I am quite pleased to see more nature spirits condemned as evil ravening bloodied demons. Soon, people will finally turn away from Crone Nature and embrace the cold hard logic of the robots. Embrace the future! Embrace the robots!

Ah, well, if you get your enjoyment out of keeping someone mind numbingly stupid alive despite their best efforts to get himself and you killed, then teaming in the Hollows should be an endless source of enjoyment for you.

I had never seen the archetype walkthroughs before now. Power sets had waaaay cooler names back then.

Who wouldnt prefer 'icy onslaught' to 'ice manipulation'?

Or 'earth grasp' to plain 'earth control'

Why the change to generic names Cryptic?

Maybe States could strike a balance between the 'epic' fights of 10 minions vs one hero and appropriate difficulty for large groups. Why not set difficulty so 3 minion = 1 hero for 1-15, 4 minion = 1 hero at 15-30, and 5 minions = 1 hero from 35-45, and 6 minion = 1 hero 45 on. At the same time, push back the 'wall' on purples a level or two so large groups can effectively fight small groups of higher level things and enjoy the difficulty.

The small gradual increase in average minion spawns woud give players the sense of becoming more powerful over the course of the game, while not getting utterly ridiculous in numbers. At the same time, the ability to take on groups of higher levels would give people a reason to form big groups.

And to deal with the problem of needing 48 minions in a room for a group of 8 at 45, why not just have every other team member added have a chance at making the mission a higher level, with a correspondingly smaller number of spawns? That was, an 8 player group at 45 might only draw 24 minions, but theyd be +2s, or even +3s if the purple wall was moved back a bit.

I understand States not wanting to trivialize the minion encounter to the point of roadbumps, like they are now, but at the same time it just doesnt feel very heroic to only be able to take on 3 mere minions at a time when Im level 35, even if they are weilding heavy weaponry. Part of the charm of City of Heroes is the large, fast paced fights.

On another note, if minion difficulty/player effectiveness gets bumped to where 3 minions = 1 hero, Id expect to see an increase in XP across the board, because as it is right now, even doing all your missions, the tier TF, and even the Tier trials, just isnt enough XP to advance to the next tier. Some amount of grinding is almost required, and having to fight smaller battles for reduced XP means the grind will take even longer, and the grind is the enemy of every MMP, its what causes people to burn and quit.