WildCard_NA

Looks great so far, I'm looking forward to reading the entire thing.

Nice Job!

Issue 10 is a blast so far. It's got me responding to Rikti warning alerts, and playing my level 50 characters again. Getting more story line is great, especially since it means more content in terms of missions and TF's.

Finally!! you did something in the RWZ! (RCS). Since I was able to enter the zone years ago, I've wanted something to happen with the crashed ship. Good stuff! I am looking forward to spending time in the zone with my 50's.

In short, excellent job, all the additions are great, but most of all, anything you do to enable me to play my level 50 heroes is the best of all. I don't want to play my 50's every day, but this inspires me to dust off my semi-shelved heroes and have fun with the characters I've invested so much time (and money) in.

Wild-

Wild Cards - Founded May 08, 2004.

Leaders: @PhaserWC, @WildCard, @SuperSean, @Watcher2, @Nucleus

Teamspeak: Dedicated Teamspeak server with T1 bandwidth. ( 6:00pm EST - 6:00am EST )

Villain group: Tarot Cards - Protector

Website: http://wildcards.dreamwolf.us

Recruitment: We do not actively recruit, however we do accept new members if they are interested in joining the SG or VG. We never do blind invites. Newly invited players are put on a 30 day trial member period. This helps keep out the riffraff. If a person shows interest in joining the SG / VG we require that they run missions with us for a bit. This lets us filter out anybody that may not meet our simple standard of mature, fun, and "nice to be around". Important traits that we value as an SG are, kindness to others, no griefing, courteous to teammates and players, and being an active member of the SG in game, and in the supergroup forums.

About us: We are one of the oldest Super Groups on Triumph. Most of the "Cards" range in age between 25 and 40, and have a large, full time group of mature players that game with on a nightly basis. We take full advantage of our forums and team speak server, and encourage new members to do the same. This helps greatly to get new Cards into the swing of things quickly. We designate two nights a week as official team nights. Tuesdays is "Coalition team night, and Thursday is "Villains team night". During these selected nights SG leaders form teams by level, coordinated on our forums, and run missions till everybody drops. There no better way to get to know all of the great players in the SG and our friends in the "Super Coalition" than by getting on one of these teams.

Wild Cards are a proud member of the "Super Coalition", which includes Fusion Force and Global Heroics. The combined numbers of the three groups give a very large pool of experienced players to team with even beyond what a single Super Group could offer. The Super Coalition has been a huge success for everyone involved.

If you want more information in joining the Wild Cards, follow THIS LINK to the Wild Cards forums.

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Just a thought....

It seem sthat the I5 results are showing that solo we are at most adequate but in teams we are useless. Would it be possible for the devs to give Ice tankers some kind of boost based on the number of players on a team, for instance a 3%-5% for each team mate in a leadership sized player based area.

21%-35% extra defense in an 8 man team wouldn't seem like too much of a bosst considering the various luck enhancements. This wouldn't encourge herding as you'd be dragging the whole team around with you.

Not sure whether the game mechanics would allow such a thing and I'm pretty certain that the devs don't even see a need for it but I thought I'd make the suggestion anyway :-) I wont hold out any hope though, instead I'll make sure I have contacts in every zone so I can keep stocked up on purples!!

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Actually in the testing I have done, solo is where the problem is, teaming has given much better results so far. I've posted these results in the tanker forum.

Even though Hibernate is still not everything we want it to be I am much happier with the activation time now. It is a much more viable option when we go red than it was before. It is at a point now where I feel comfortable relying on it when I need it, whereas before I didn't expect to live through the overly long activation time. The change to an endurance boost is also a positive one.

That said, we still need more defense. My solo testing in Brickstown against even level mobs has me capping out at around 7 - 8 opponents before I consider it a loosing battle with inevitable death awaiting me at the end. This is not close to what we are going to need when tanking on a team as mob size will be closer to 12 - 16 per spawn depending on team size. Drawing agro against 16 even level foes WILL require outside healing OR buffs in order to stay upright.

We need to be able to floor even level minions constantly. Either slightly increase the defense buff in EA or remove it all together ( don't like this option ) and move FA and GA to 20% base respectively.

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How about in a new passive power?

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I know... Permafrost!!!

oh wait...

I want to add one more time, being a defense based set, I hope when you "Right the Ship" for Ice Tankers, you increase our defensive values 1st, then look to the damage debuff addition second.

Defense is what makes an Ice Tank, lets keep with that line of thinking. Adding the debuff is a great enhancement idea for a set that needed help with the big AV hits. Fixing some of the foe's auto hit or high accuracy attacks is also another great step to take. Please don't make Debuff and lowering of villain accuracy be the focus of getting Ice Tanks back on par with our other fellow tankers.

Defense 1st. Increase the base of FA and GA above the 15% it is currently at now.

Tweak 2nd. With Damage debuffs etc...

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Here's the real numbers (that's what I get for doing stuff from memory).

Wet Ice
0.5% base
1.265% Defence from Wet Ice with +++ SO's.

17.71% Max Defence from Energy Absorbtion (not what I had earlier).

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Well I am guessing your not surprised by the avalanche of people posting that these numbers are "Jaw Dropping".. Sorry that was a bit of personal forum humor on my part, I digress.. Lots of the responses are from people that don't even play Ice Tanks...

There really isn't anything I can say that will add to the already astonished responses for the numbers you've posted. I know you guys can do better... hopefully we'll see some more realistic numbers soon...

Hot off the presses...

Statesman:
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Here's the real numbers (that's what I get for doing stuff from memory).

Wet Ice
0.5% base
1.265% Defence from Wet Ice with ++ SO's.

17.71% Max Defence from Energy Absorbtion (not what I had earlier).

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... In other words you figure those numbers should be within a margin of error from each other of 10% (e.g., 90% - 110%) rather than the 900% we're seeing for S/L as an example.

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900% isn't jaw dropping at all...

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How about some Resistance in Wet Ice instead of defense? I'm sure a small amount--like UNY--would flip the equation mightily for Ice tanks.

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Good idea, I would rather see it in Permafrost though.

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First - I didn't mean it to sound that the Accuracy reductions were the ONLY change forthcoming. It's just that these changes, while global, benefits the Defense builds more than others....

Secondly, I apologize if anyone thought my reference to "crying" meant "whining." What I meant by "crying" was something like "demanding" or "shouting for." That's what I get for starting threads like that without having an editor!

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Thanks States, the clarification is appreciated.


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Yes, Wet Ice and Energy Absorption provide relatively small DEF buffs. This is not a bug and by design. Wet Ice provides a base defense of +.5%; Energy Absorption provides the same buff for every foe within melee range (up to a maximum of 14 targets).

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Wet Ice: One of two things should happen here, give it a fixed, unenhancable defensive buff of 10%, or give it no buff at all. .5% causes more problems than it helps as others have entailed previously.

EA - If you plan on keeping the defensive values where they are, the recharge needs to be lowered, or the duration needs to be increased so both values are equal, at a minimum. I also feel the defense % needs to either be increased to 1%, AND the base % of FA and GA are increased to 20% respectively.

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One shotting by AV's. In a word, you are ALL correct. It's not a good thing for an Ice Tanker to be leveled by a single blow. So we're going back and changing the damage done by AV's so that it's no longer possible for a Tanker to be one shotted.

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This problem is specific to Ice tankers only. There is no need to lower AV damage, although we'll take what we can get. This problem should be addressed by providing a solution to the Ice Tanker in their primary power set. Possibly find a solution in Permafrost for this since you are currently looking at it.

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Yes, I hear the complaints about Permafrost. And I'm...thinking. I've read many suggestions - and gotten more than a few PM's about it. There's a lot of good ideas there. So I'm going to do some pondering there.

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( See above )

The numbers provided by Circeus speak for themselves, jaw dropping to say the least. Please look them over and consider the people playing Ice Tankers; this is what we are looking at when I5 goes live.

Again, thank you for hearing our concerns, and doing what you can to bring Ice Tanks back in line with the other Tanker primaries...

Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor...

Statesman, and development crew,

15% S/L is too low for Frozen Armor
15% E / NE is too low for Glacial Armor

Ice Armor is lacking in a few different areas. We are apparently the defensive tanker set, but we fare no better than some other tanks defensive numbers against like attacks. So we actually don't hold the defensive crown among tankers.

We face inherent defensive build problems, which I know you have made some attempt to address in regard to lowering may foe's accuries. Thanks, that is a welcome change, but not directed specifically Ice tanks, but to all AT's who encountered those mobs. We have no way of improving our Tanking ability above our 2 armors now.

We do get a slow resist. Thanks!
We do give a -recharge to surrounding mobs. Thanks!
We do get Hibernate, not bad, could be improved a little. Thanks!

I don't really want to see resistance added to the set. I know it may be a "quick fix" that many are asking for, but defense is supposed to be our bread and butter. I would like to see an increase to the base numbers of FA and GA. The testing I have done against 10 even level freaks was very disappointing. I didn't feel tanking at all. It felt more like "do whatever I can just to say alive". This may be the goal your looking for, but to me it is not tanking. Ice needs to be able to avoid more attacks than it is currently on test. I still want to enjoy playing this character, and not have my experience turn into a story of frustration and shelving of the Hero.

Defense, especially with how it is set up now, is not getting it done. It is our weak point!

A damage debuff would be interesting and different. A cool feature to add to the weakest tanker set. This or some solution like it would addresses the number 1 problem with Ice Tanks, being 1 shot by ++ acc or AV's & Monsters. I don't have this experience other than fighting Devouring Earth myself, as my Ice tank is SL32. I would however love to avoid this issue as I see so many other experienced Ice Tank players complain and ask for a solution to this issue.

Hibernate: Maybe a shorter activation time on Hibernate? That way if we need it NOW, it can be used. A resistance tanker could get away with the long activation time... but when a defensive build is getting nailed, you need healing or escape ASAP. Also a taunt AoE around hibernate would be great for when we do need to duck into our shelter, at least we could hold some agro still.

Your the game designers. I'll try to play and have fun with what you guys see as a fun balanced game. Thanks for your time.

Best of luck Vyvyanne, we'll miss you and all of your hard work, as I am sure the developers will to.

This isn't goodbye but... see you later

Venarr, terrific post, excellent work with including all the pics as examples. I have a lowly level 6 Fire / Ice tank that I just started playing here and there. I am a "root for the underdog" kinda person and always felt for tankers when they are called useless when being compared to scrappers. So I rolled up Frostfyre so I can find out for myself. So far she is fun to play, and your techniques will help a lot with the learning curve of playing a tanker properly.
When I play a tank, I really want to feel like I fill a unique roll in the group, not just be a version of a scrapper or vice versa. Looking forward to the new challenge.

Great Job!

By the way, could I get your opinion of my choice for a Fire / Ice tanker? I took those pools because I like the look of the power sets. I think they are awesome. I noted your comment on Fire and Ice tanks being weaker thaan their counterparts. How much does this effect my ability to tank? Have I made a good choice with my power sets?

Thanks again!