ArchGemini

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Rularuu (sp?) Spines...oooh...how I could just imagine all those blinking eyeballs on one scrapper!

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I am imagining that now and all I can think of is High-Octane Nightmare Fuel. I am not going to be able to shake that image for a while...

I believe anything not a Primary, Secondary, Ancillary or Pool power is considered a "Temp Power." Anything that is on your character as a passive (such as Accolades or bonuses from Day Jobs) is ok since they cannot be turned off.

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I can't pop an inspiration to make my powers come back faster.

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I've always thought that should be an Inspiration

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I'd trade Oranges for this.

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Seeing as how Oranges are pretty meh next to Purples, I would make the trade all day.

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Just like in real life. The rich would continue to do the things that made them rich and the poor would continue to do the things that made them poor.

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This is new funniest thing I have ever read on these forums.

I do not think anyone here is disagreeing with anything Fulmens or Uberguy have said here. I know I was not even if my last post was interpreted wrongly.

UG's summary is probably the closest we are going to get to the Dev's thought process on this, but does that mean the +Resistance and +Recharge bonuses have to absolutely pale in comparison to the +Defense bonuses? You could go through every set right now, double or triple the resistance bonuses, combine every "type" (Smashing/Lethal, Fire/Cold, Energy/Negative and Psionic/Toxic) and +Defense would still be the preferred (and probably better) method of making a character tougher. At least then those who would want to make a character hardier versus a specific type of damage at least have a viable option, rather than just looking and thinking, "did I make a mistake rolling a Resistance-based character if I wanted to improve what it was already good at with IOs?"

Going to have to side with kendo on this one. Defense across the board is far more favored than Resistance or Recharge, especially in regard to IOs and inspirations. I do not recall there being an inspiration for +Recharge, and a small +Defense inspiration has a much greater effectiveness than a small +Resistance unless you are already pushing toward the cap on a Resistance type, and then you are only getting that effectiveness against one type of damage.

Not only are +Defense bonuses higher in magnitude and more prevalent, but are usually much cheaper to come by. Not to mention differing enough to where you will rarely run into the rule of 5. It is surprisingly easy to knock into the +5% Recharge bonus because many of the Uncommon sets have it and anything other than that requires taking some powers that are purely used to hold a set. I am not saying building for +Defense or +Resistance may not require similar sacrifices, but nowhere near the order you have to do so to slot +Recharge bonuses (I ran into this problem when trying to find places that would hold +6.25% and +7.5% bonuses on my DM/Regen/Dark... fortunately I found them, but not in powers that will be all that useful). The amount of Recharge needed to improve ones survivability comparable to a decent amount of Defense means you have to pay out the yin-yang for LotGs and purple sets. Not everyone is going to try and manipulate the market to make up the difference.

I think everyone here gets what you are trying to say, Fulmens, in that the Devs probably do not want anyone to be capable of driving Resistance and Defense to an AT's effective cap using IOs, but that does not mean a player should not have the option of making their character sturdier with a path they choose because the Devs chose to play favorites when distributing bonuses among the sets.

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So if you ever wanted to see if your Scrapper could take on a map that is populated for an 8 person team, four levels higher than your own, now you can!

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I started crying.

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I couldn't stand up from my desk for a bit. Resubbed as soon as I got home.

There is only one outstanding wishlist item left for this to be a perfect game for me and that's account-wide inf/enh storage.

As it is, I think I'll be sticking around for quite a while just because of the difficulty scaler change.

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WB, old wise one!

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Enhanced Difficulty Options - Players can now fine-tune their difficulty levels by telling the game exactly how they want to be treated. They can choose to be regarded as a specific size team (even if they are soloing), and even have control over the level they are detected to be when it comes to the dynamic spawn system. So if you ever wanted to see if your Scrapper could take on a map that is populated for an 8 person team, four levels higher than your own, now you can! The difficulty settings of the mission owner dictate how the mission is handled, just as before, and you can change your difficulty settings at any Hero Corp.'s Representative in Paragon City or Fateweaver in the Rogue Isles.

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This is the best QoL feature ever, and a great way to ensure you'll get my money, devs. Well played.

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It looks like they made this one for us

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It also looks like the devs called us out.

It is time to get serious, especially with the all-black Subtractive Magic Electric Melee (although the Sisters of the Dark might be more considered Corrupters than anything else).

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Super Strength, Stone Armor and Kinetics are your honorable mentions?! None of these should even be mentioned in an "underperforming" conversation. I am mad at myself for bringing them up again.

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All of them have the "Overpowered Tier 9 propping up an otherwise kind of crappy set" feel to me... the same feel that Psionic Assault just gave up with the nerf of PSW and buff of practically everything else.

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I would have to agree with this assessment of the power sets, except that Kinetics actually has some respectable powers other than just Fulcrum Shift. Stone Armor really is rather mediocre without Granite Armor and Super Strength suffers from having Rage (look at all of the attack powers from a DPA standpoint, you'll be amazed that only KO Blow is even remotely decent).

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I guess where we differ is that I do not mind if a set has to get to its last power or requires constant use of a core power to be balanced or performing near average so long as that power is made of pure Awesome and is available consistently without dragging the character (Psi Assault getting PSW at 38 pre-set change or Kinetics getting Transference and Fulcrum Shift as the last two powers). Just as long as it gets there, or starts off really strong and only has filler powers at the back end, it works for me. Regen pre-MoG change could be an example of this. Everything after Integration was arguably optional, even though some were preferred (Instant Healing).

We can just agree to disagree in regards to Stone Armor. My experience may not mean much, but it tends to hold its own for me so long as I am not trying to do corner-case missions.

Super Strength for Scrappers might need some tweaking to be comparable to the other sets, but Rage seems to be a core power for the set like mez protection is for mitigation sets. iF Rage was just a different name for Build-Up in the set, I would agree wholeheartedly that SS needed love. It does not surprise me that the set would look mediocre without it because of how Rage works. In the interest of full disclosure, I have not tried to peg out and research my SS characters the way I have with some of my Scrappers, but I have never felt like I was hurting for damage while playing them.

Seems like we agree that Kinetics probably did not belong on the list. It could definitely fit the bill for late-bloomer, though.

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I'll add a few power sets to the list I all around don't much care for or find underperforming as well.

First and top of the list are Peacebringers. Before the Kheld enthusiasts come out in arms, I want to state that PBs (human and tri) are capable of doing quite a few things, but are often completely overshadowed by Warshades and most other ATs in the game. They suffer a horrid case of the explosive knockbacks and their damage can be replicated, if not completely trounced, by anything not a defender or tanker (and both of those are arguable). A fully purpled out PB can nuke every other spawn or toss out some good nova damage, but they're just all around lack luster to a degree of "meh."

Next on the list comes the Bane Spider. In both the short term and the long term, the one advantage they arguably have over their siblings is surveillance, which is completely overshadowed by the fact that both crabs and widows obliterate their aoe and single target damage respectively, and fortunata outcontrol the snot out of them. They're as fragile as a blapper and do nowhere near the damage (and blasters get surveillance and power boost to boot). While they do possess killing power, it tends to pale in the face of, again, anything else that can do substantial amounts of damage. The only exception is a heavily purpled out bane that will still underperform when compared to a heavily purpled crab that's a monstrous killing machine or a heavily purpled widow that runs around soft cap and tossing out crazy damage anyways.

Shield Defense is the next on the list and this one's a bit iffy. Tanker Shield Defense is actually a pretty decent, if not good, set because their numbers are fairly high and the damage values and shield charge really do give a boost for the low damage AT. Scrappers get some serious love from Against All Odds and Shield Charge makes the mans fall down. Brutes, however, get the worst of both worlds (horrid defense numbers, low AAO) and their shield charge is capped at tanker values. This means that not only is the set difficult to cap when compared to SR, Shield Charge doesn't actually mature past 300% as far as I remember. Add on the crippling end usage for a brute which already suffers from endurance dysfunction and you have a much worse copy of Super Reflexes and even Energy Aura (which now has a good energy absorption and a much, much, much better tier 9) and it's arguably the worst brute secondary around. Sure you can purple it out, but expect to spend ridiculous amounts compared to anything short of EA.

Pain Domination is another doozy that's just all around a disappointing version of Empathy. There is very little to the set I feel that actually contributes fully to a group and can't be replicated elsewhere. Gone are three of empathy's most useful tools (the Auras and Fortitude) replaced with an aura that replicates Thermal Shields except PBAoE. Gone is Adrenalin Boost instead replaced by a more tame Painbringer that trades the 100 recharge (why?!) with damage. Anguishing Cry gets notable mention for being a near direct copy of Melt Armor except PBAoE and lasts less time. So Pain is a mix of Thermal and Empathy without much of the sets awesome abilities (Forge, Fortitude, the Auras, Heat Exhaustion) that will be easily outperformed by both in any and all situations. The one exception to this statement is the awesome that is Suppress Pain on a Mastermind, which is a suitable replacement to Regeneration Aura. Corruptors get left out in the cold, of course.

Next up on the list is Dark Blast. Having absolutely no tier 3 blast, the set is very plainly cone/aoetastic. What's worse is that most of those cones tend to be overshadowed by anything that has actual aoe damage, leading to a situation where Dark Blast possess one or two useful cones, a self heal, and gloom/dark blast. Toss in a really bad looking tier nine (I just can't get over how terrible it looks, it's like a thunderous fart) and you come out with a vanilla set that does terrible damage and is only worthwhile in the hands of a defender. Yes, obliterating the tohit of a spawn is good and useful, but you may as well have two secondaries. Also, kiss your personal damage goodbye.

This one's going to be confusing, but I also feel Broadsword is a giant underperforming pile of garbage compared to every other weapon set (excluding claws). Yes, it does a large amount of damage, but this is completely overshadowed by the fact that battle axe does more numerically and has more aoe to boot. What's worse is that with IOs and slotting, or even without, Katana puts Broadsword to shame in the damage, end efficiency, and all around use categories. Parry, its only saving grace, is replicated in Divine Avalanche which just further rubs Broadsword's nose in the dirt. There's better sets for doing damage (especially ludicrously high amounts of damage) and better sets for survivability that don't make you suck down end like it's going out of style. Meh.

Honorable mention goes out to Super Strength, as was mentioned earlier, and Stone Armor. Both of these sets suffer from a horribly crippling crutch (Rage and Granite) that, if taken away or balanced will leave each set a floundering and bad shadow of virtually everything else in existence. Kinetics gets a pass because while Speed Boost and Fulcrum Shift are indeed pieces of awesome, Transference, Transfusion, Siphon Speed, and Increase Density are all lovable and huggable pieces of awesome too.

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Next to Warshades, Peacebringers do leave a bit to be desired, but at least their buffs are self-contained. The knockback of a lot of their powers does tend to keep them off teams, though (at least in comparison to Warshades). Warshades also get unique powers to play with and some of those are devastating (Eclipse, I am looking at you). Maybe if Light Form did not lock you in a form it might be more useful. I agree with you on this one.

I have no experience with red-side epics so I am going to leave that one alone.

Wasn't Shield Defense was supposed to be the defense version of Fire Armor? That is, gives up some mitigation for offensive potential. If those are supposed to be comparable sets, then Shield laughs in Fire's face in kicks it in the groin, across all ATs that have access to it. Complete Mez protection (Active Defense > the cluster of powers that are Fire's lack of complete protection), static damage buff that works equally for all melee sets (Against All Odds >> Fiery Embrace), a better passive power (True Grit OR Phalanx Fighting > Temperature Protection, let alone both), better straight mitigation (Deflection and Battle Agility > Fire and Plasma Shield), a better combination of straight damage to inflict on enemies (Shield Charge > Blazing Aura and Burn, and it has a better mitigation tool in knockdown). The few pluses Fire Armor does have are Healing Flames (this is a big one, though), Consume (which is still on that horrific recharge timer), and a resurrect in Rise of the Phoenix (although many would prefer the power that helped keep you alive rather than the power that required defeat to use). If Shield is underperforming, I wish other sets would underperform like it. We won't even go into applying pools, IO sets or inspirations.

Dark Blast would be a lot better if the cone on Night Fall was wider. Then it would have two ST blasts in Dark Blast and Gloom, and two AoEs to deal damage with Night Fall and Tenebrous Tentacles. I have never found use for Torrent, Blackstar or Moonbeam but those could be considered matters of taste and playstyle. Life Drain is not bad but I have no idea why the standard range on it is not 80'. The damage is a bit lackluster and for that I think the Endurance cost and Recharge could be reduced to match Siphon Life (the melee version which has a cost of 10.2 and a recharge of 10 seconds versus the 12 and 15 of Drain). I think if you changed Torrent with Aim you have a winner as far as powersets go even if nothing else is changed, at all. Also ready to be proliferated to Blasters. Is the set overall underperforming? Maybe a little. May not be enough to get the set looked at, though, especially since it is in the Defender and Corrupter sets, where the different buff/debuff sets paired with it can make it look respectable.

Martial Arts may be the sole underperforming set as far as Scrapper Melee sets are concerned (at least with the changes to Dark Melee). If the secondary effect was consistent across its powers or of a decent enough magnitude to be useful, it would arguably not be an underperformer, either. Broadsword? Claws (saw the parenthetical)? Can't side with you on this one...

Super Strength, Stone Armor and Kinetics are your honorable mentions?! None of these should even be mentioned in an "underperforming" conversation. I am mad at myself for bringing them up again.

And now I present my "not-so-fab-5":

1) Fire Armor - Still paying for the sins of its forefathers.
2) Peacebringers - Next to Warshades, even if not in general.
3) Electric Blast - Might be serviceable on draining Blasters and Kineticists but that is about it.
4) Martial Arts - Could use some love, especially next to the other Scrapper primaries.
5) Devices - Could use some speeding up. At least Traps has Force Field Generator, Acid Mortar and Poison Trap.

I suppose I should add, these are just in a vacuum. Some of the ATs that have access to these sets in combination tend not to do too terribly. However, the same player behind the keyboard of a character with powersets closer to average will probably see better results.

What I do not understand, then, is why not just frankenslot for values where the individual value of that enhancement are below the threshold where scaling would take place (25 for Dual-Aspects, 43 for Tris and 50 for Quads, although these might be a few levels lower if one is exemplaring to a level lower than 21)?

Basically, what I mean to ask is, for example, would a Smite slotted at 50 exemplared down to, say 15 or 12:

Mako's Bite (50): Acc/Dam/End/Rch (18.55%x4)
Mako's Bite (43): Acc/End/Rch (19.85%x3)
Crushing Impact (43): Acc/Dam/Rch ('')
Crushing Impact (43): Acc/Dam/End ('')
Crushing Impact (43): Dam/End/Rch ('')
Focused Smite (40): Acc/Dam/Rch (19.3%x3)

so you have:

93.2% Acc/Dam/Rch
77.3% End

which, if I may, is awfully impressive if you are not going for set bonuses and having that available to you all the way down to 21.

be more or less effective when exemplared down versus:

Bonesnap (15): Acc/Dam (12%x2)
Bonesnap (15): Dam/End ('')
Bonesnap (15): Acc/Rch ('')
Pulverizing Fisticuffs (15): Acc/Dam/Rch (9.6%x3)
Pulverizing Fisticuffs (15): Acc/Dam/End/Rch (8.4%x4)
Pulverizing Fisticuffs (15): Acc/Dam (12%x2)

for a total of:
54% Acc/Dam
20% End
30% Rch

Do your enhancements eat the full effect of scaling as soon as you step one level below the "Minor Bonus Threshold." For example, I know in the first Smite example, all of those enhancements would be below the MBT, so I could exemplar to 21 and have full enhancement value, but would I suddenly be dropped to <checks the scale for 20 and 50> 55.3% of total enhancement value just for stepping one level across the MBT?

Bah! The more I look at this the more I confuse myself. I might just blow some influence, slot out a few powers, and see how it works in game.

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Its true that defence is susceptible to the streak breaker and defence debuffs, but it also caps at 90%+ mitigation for all ATs and ignores debuffs.

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I don't understand that last comment. Defense ignores debuffs? Take a run through the ITF and let me know how that goes for you. Stand in the middle of a bunch of angry Cimeroran Traitors and all their shiny swords and then tell me that defense ignores debuffs. I believe there are some power sets with very high def debuff resists like Ice tankers, but for the average character that gets large defense numbers through set bonuses and pool powers, it's easy to get debuffed to hell very quickly once one or two lucky shots get in.

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What he means is Defense in general avoids the secondary effects of powers as well as the damage they would deal on a miss. A Sapper or Carnie Mask is far more likely to hit and do very ugly things to a Resistance or Regeneration based character (even at the Resistance, Recharge, or Regeneration hardcap) than for it to land on a softcapped Defense-based character.

A SG member and RL friend posed this question to me, and even for as long as I have played, it kinda stumped me. Usually when I am making Duos with the Mrs.-to-be, we aim for either the funnest to run or sets that mesh well.

I am not exactly sure what all his requirements for the question are, but I am going to assume a few things even before I take a stab at answering it myself:

1. (Obviously) Lots and lots of Damage.

2. Relatively good survivability for both characters, beyond the primary mitigation tactic of "kill the enemies first." Obviously a Blaster may not going to have the survivability as a Defender or Controller, which may not match up to a Scrapper or Tank, but better than "a boss looked at me wrong and I went down."

3. He does not play Villains (yet). Therefore, while it does not completely put redside out, I am trying to focus blueside.

Here are some combinations that came to mind:
-2 Fire/Shield melee toons (Tanks, Brutes or Scrappers) could pump out a lot of AoE, while being boosted by Grant Cover and Phalanx Fighting on each other, and maybe stacked Maneuvers.

-I have not tried, but have heard some outright scary things about dual Radiation or Dark Miasma characters (Defenders, Corruptors or Controllers). And that they both only get more sick and wrong as you add more of them. May not be the "most" damaging, but gives very good damage while being pretty safe for "squishies."

-Spines/Fire or Dark Armor Scrapper and just about any type of Kineticist. I ran a duo similar to this with a Dark/Shield Scrapper and a Kin/Dark Defender (shameless plug: if you are ever on Pinnacle and see Dark.Enforcer and Dark.Vixen, say hello). Even Soul Drain and Dark Consumption served as respectable AoE when pumped up by Fulcrum Shift and made more frequent with Speed Boost (I could not fit Hasten in the build while softcapping melee and ranged and getting things like Stimulant).

Any other ideas or playstyles I am missing?

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In related news, price of infamy/influence has hit an all time low at $15 for 500 million.

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Any lower and NC might just want to take it over. I mean they do it with the $10 bonus packs and whatever trinket power they do. It would also run the RMTs out.

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Well that's why you need a Dark/Kinetics//Sonic/Fire Defender.

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I play with my fiancee all the time. She loves AoE "bullet spamming." She also has a Repeat Offender in her blood, even if she does not know it. Dark/Dark//Kin/Fire//Rad/Ice. Let it rain, Let it rain.

Ok, to the person I quoted originally, this might be one of the funnest ideas posted so far. Props.

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"Normally", you are correct: lucks are better than sturdies.

There are circumstances where Sturdies are useful, though. If you've already got a lot of (either defense or resistance) getting more of the same thing helps, until you hit the cap. So if you're running a Fire Tank with, I dunno the numbers so I'm making them up for simplicity, 75% resistance to something and no defense:

one Luck gives you 12.5% Defense, and you get hit 3/4 as much.

one Sturdy takes you from 75% to 85% Resistance, and you take 3/5 as much damage (15% of total, instead of 25%.)
Two Lucks produce misses half the time; two Sturdies get you to the 90% Res cap (tanks cap at 90%; almost everyone else caps at 75%) and you take 40% as much damage.

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Agreed, but that is comparing a character with no prior defense to stack on top of to a character with prior resistance to stack on. Additionally, you are using the scenario of tanks, who benefit by being able to even get to the 90% Resistance cap, something only Brutes can do, as well. Everyone is capable of using the 45% Defense number.

Also, there is the issue of Resistance only being that good to the one type the Armor tends to specialize in (Fire damage in the case you mentioned, maybe S/L if the character took Tough). Defense tends to be a bit more inclusive. I look at my above example as a demonstration of this.

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If you have an autohit attack, like the Envoy of Shadows delivers (I think he still autohits; he definitely used to) no amount of Luck helps.

If you are at the defense softcap, usually no amount of Luck helps.

At those points, if it looks bad, eating a handful of big orange pills will give you significant benefits.

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So, then, regardless of AT or starting value (save zero), stacking is usually better than layering until you hit whatever the cap is? Makes sense.

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(Most of the time, I end up taking small insps two or three at a time...)

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Or I plow down a big one. Either way, from the same starting point (I tend to need them more on my Regen character who has little Resistance or Defense after MoG), Lucks are going a lot further for me. Just seemed odd that in a vacuum, 2 Small Lucks are better than 2 Large Sturdies (25% Defense versus 40% Resistance).

All this was discounting or calling it paid for that Defense also means you miss the secondary effects of attacks while sometimes being susceptible to the RNG hating your guts. Those Sapper beams, Carnival Masks, and Vanguard debuffs are evil (although sometimes a Defense player looks at a group of Family or Council with machine guns and thinks, "Dirty son of a...").

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-Level cap would be 1000, every 50 levels you choose another 2 powersets.

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I could only imagine how long it would take to get from level 999 to 1000, even with all the enemies leveling up and giving you more XP. Definitely an idea I could get behind, though.

It would definitely keep people playing. DarkMelee/(Black; yay i16)EnergyMelee/DarkBlast/SR/Regen/Kinetics would be all I need.

And I realize my AoE would still stink.

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The rule of thumb is a Def Buff is equivalent to 2 times a Resist buff.

Reasoning - Assume 50% chance to be hit by critter doing 100 points of damage.

No buffs - 50% x 100 = 50 points of damage per attack.

10% Def buff - (50 - 10)% x 100 = 40 points of damage per attack.

20% Resist buff - 50% x 100 x (1 - 0.20) = 40 points of damage per attack.

Also numerous critters have attacks that debuf defense which leads to as someone put it, "cascading defense failure". The more they hit you, the easier it becomes to hit you again. Not bad against a single critter since they attack slower than the debuff usually last but in groups it can hurt a lot. Fewer critters have damage resistance debuffs.

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Ok, so I did understand that all correctly, including the issue of cascading failure (which I understood as "the more you get hit, the more you get hit"). Is that the only reason Sturdies have roughly half the effectiveness of Lucks?

I am just thinking would 20/30/40% or 25/35/45% be that bad for Sturdies to be? Would that be gamebreaking or something? Or even in the range of Rages, since they would be offsetting (much like how Insights and Lucks oppose each other)? Even at those numbers they would still pale next to Lucks, just not so terribly.

and, by extention, the whole "Defense versus Resistance" idea in general.

I have looked for other threads about this, but either there were none or my search-fu is pitifully weak.

Personal anecdote... I just finished getting IOs on a Shield Scrapper and got him to the softcap (or as close as I choose to get him to that point), so I started swapping out the Lucks I had in my inspiration tray for Sturdies like usual (because I figure the lucks cannot do too much more for me, save help me against groups of Debuffers), and start checking out the numbers.

For Sturdies, it's 10/15/20% Resistance.
For Lucks, 12.5/25/33% Defense.

Now, I am always trying to learn (you know? Forever a student of the game and whatnot), so please correct me if I am wrong, but does this strike anyone else as out of whack?

If I recall correctly, isn't a percent of Defense greater than a percent of Resistance? Also, doesn't being at the softcap (45% Defense to a type or vector) mitigate nearly 90% of incoming damage and completely bypass the negative effects of any attack with that type or vector (For example, if someone has 45% Smashing Defense, they have it against not only attacks like Negative/Smashing/Melee, but also Fire/Smashing/Ranged or Electric/Smashing/AoE). Even at the AT's cap for Resistance, only the damage of the matching type could be reduced (so a character with 90% Smashing Resistance would eat the full Negative, Fire and Electric damage in my above examples, and that is if said character is a Tank or Brute).

If all my following logic is correct so far, then why is the Luck family not only absolutely better in not only magnitude but also the amount of damage mitigation it provides?

Maybe I am looking at this from the wrong angle. I know that even with all that Defense, if an attack gets through, it will hurt. I also know that there are far more things that debuff Defense than Resistance (although the ones that debuff Resistance are heavy debuffs). However, if someone can get 12% Defense on their own (not difficult with the power options for Defense and the disparity between Resistance and Defense IO Bonuses, but that is for another day), that Phenomenal Luck is about to let them get away with something things they should not have any business messing with. For Defense-based Armor sets, even a small Luck could put them in that territory.

For those that like Resistance, even a Robust will usually not drive someone to their Resistance cap unless they previously slotted for it, and then would only give them capped Resistance against whatever type they already had.

So I guess what I am trying to ask is why is there such a disparity between the two inspiration families?

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lets see:

1) no team size limit. spawns keep going up in size with the team.
2) some xp bonus or something when solo. just enough for the times you can't find a team.
3) Love the 'whole world is a mayhem mission' thing. definitely.
4) all contacts can be threatened into giving you more interesting missions. even the non living ones (I'm looking at you, Television).
5) no aggro cap
6) no AOE target cap
7) immobile objects, held, or knocked down enemies can't be missed normally. still can be if your tohit is debuffed.
8) if the mission giver is capable of helping, he or she will help.

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I like this thread... Let's see...
Let's start with 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 from this list. Only exception I have is without the KD (you can still roll around on the floor and be missed).

Also, as far as balance and use issues...

a. Parity between Sturdies and Lucks, because right now Lucks are clearly better. Instead of 10/15/20% Resistance, they should be 20/40/60%. While they would still underperform (by this I mean not mitigate as much damage as its purple sibling), it would not be as bad as going against 12.5/25/37.5% that are the Lucks. I am also sure most of the forum runners know that roughly 1% Defense mitigates equal to 2% Resistance .

b. Resistance bonuses increased in frequency in value in IO sets. I wonder sometimes if the Devs have a bias against Resistance sets. The Defense bonuses are not only absolutely higher, but are spread across more sets. Then they got a bonus when the types were paired with a vector. Every Resistance bonus should be TRIPLED, at least.

c. A true good faith attempt to balance the armor sets against each other (based on "standard" Single Origin slotting). Shield was supposed to be the Defense version of Fire Armor (that is, a bit on the squishy side and trading defense for offensive potential), and is clearly better at not only mitigating damage, but putting it out. Then there is the whole "gets complete mez protection" issues.

d. QUADRUPLE the drop rate and give a substantial, but not gamebreaking XP and INF increase for everything in non-AE content,. Yes, AE should be a fair way to get from 1-50, but maybe instead of nerfing AE to get people back into the rest of the content, they should make the rest of the game more alluring. Carrots>>Sticks. People will still run AE because it is more convenient to access, but more people would probably be willing to jump out of the pool if there was something worth jumping out for.

e. Either double the merit rewards for completing a TF or half the merit price at the vendor. Also, remove the diminishing returns for repeating a fun or rewarding TF.

f. Contacts WILL GIVE YOUR THEIR PHONE NUMBERS SO YOU CAN CALL THEM FROM THE BEGINNING. This one has annoyed me to death for my entire time playing this game. There is nothing worse than getting shipped from PI to some random zone to talk to someone else or deliver a package, then have to run all the way back to the contact because to be sent someplace close to the zone you were in because you did not have their number yet.

g. A full in-game tutorial and help guide for those that want to get into PvP, and warnings that not only might some of your powers be more or less effective against other players, but that your powers, as you have them slotted, may be completely suboptimal. Also, and I know this might be wishful thinking, but a "power rating" system (insert standard "IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAND!" joke here at your leisure) that takes everyone's powers and slotting and other important stats and gives them an overall score. Players would then have a better chance for drops or higher rep rewards for besting someone with an equal or higher score.

h. Opportunities to do long, difficult TFs or Trials to earn additional slots for a character as one of the rewards.

There is more... there is always more. That is just all I can think of right now. Unfortunately, I am willing to accept that a lot of those would only exist on my "dream server" not only because of development time and difficulty, but simply because the game engine might not allow for it.

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I used it for a steadfast mule on my shields character, and it's nice to have available when you're in a tough fight.

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Likewise. The build I'm planning is tighter on slots than it is on powers, so I'll be taking it to save a slot.

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Really? Are you not planning on going deep into a Mastery pool? Every Shield character I plan finds me swapping slots and powers. But I am not trying to kite out everything in Purple, either, which could be the issue.

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Hmmm, looks like I'm not taking an Epic at all. Wonder how I plan to manage endurance without Conserve Power. I need to take a closer look at the build now that I'm level 49.85 and getting close to decision making time. Looks like "only" two purple sets, both in attacks.

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Just wondering. I was using Dark Consumption and One with the Shield to help with my endurance issues. I was also trying to get the +End proc in Siphon Life, but that is going to take some time for me.

Also, I do not have a lot of set bonuses for recharge or Hasten in my build (I pretty much stumbled into the 25% that comes with five 5%s), but what I noticed is that OwtS has a better uptime than Conserve Power for me (120/360 unslotted versus 90/300 slotted). If you are rocking purples or need the drastic reduction instead of the moderately improved recovery (and Resistance and Mez Protection), CP might be the better draw.

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On the other hand, I've been with the game for 4 years and my favorite part of the game is the lower levels where play is more challenging due to power limitations. We also have the more inspiring foe groups and storylines at low level. From 1-20 we get the Skulls, Hellions, Circle, Outcasts, Vahz, and Tsoo (plus the "meh" Council, Clocks, Trolls, Lost, Igneous, Raiders, Freaks, Family, Arachnos and Warriors). Some players may like the foe groups introduced at the higher levels (Malta, Nemesis, Carnies, Crey, Knives), but they seem less enthralling to me.

The later part of the game, after level 30, is where teams trash whole mobs in seconds, then dogpile on the boss/EB/AV. It's like farming. It just doesn't seem as well balanced to me. Also, especially if I'm playing a controller or defender, I've got like 20 different powers to trigger by that point, not counting all the temps.

So I'm not looking to bypass the early levels of play - heck, it goes so quickly anyway now that we have basically zero debt and accelerated xp. I just wish we could get more and better content at the lower levels, from say 1-30.

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Different strokes, I suppose. I am not a big fan of underdeveloped toons. No powers, no slots, few inspirations. To me, that makes getting on a sub-par team or PuG even worse. At least once a character has come into their own they might be able to pull a bit of extra weight for a little bit if someone goes down. The sooner I get passed that point the better. Fortunately, with the exception of my fiancee (unfortunately), the group of RL friends I play with share that view after the amount of time they have played. Guess I got lucky.

As far as destroying mobs and the subsequent Dogpile, I would not fault the players for making use of their powers in the best way possible and that the Devs only seem to make challenges in the forms of "higher Regen, higher HP, higher DPS and the PToD."

As far as the enemy groups, I agree, I like the lower level ones more than the higher level ones for the most part. Outcasts, Skulls, and Hellions in particular I know I tend to miss after 20, but having more powers to play with and being better enhanced far than makes up for it. Not to mention some of the higher level groups just seem to have overpowered debuffs or just general annoyance powers that are all but impossible to get over solo, whereas the lower level groups tend to be more fun because they would attack (Crey is about the only higher level group I like. I would say CoT, as well, but they are pretty much across all level ranges). The Carnie masks and Malta Stun Grenades can decimate some toons in short order, for example.

I suppose that is part of the problem, that some players view even what is standard Dev content as "farming" even though it is simply players progressing through content. AT by AT, I see it as balanced because each AT contributes something that takes an enemy group from the difficulty of "slight challenge" to "cake." Start removing members and that changes.

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I'll completely agree that the devs expletived the players early and often with stupid and useless travel in the original content of the game. However, I don't like AE either. It's a choice between two extremes: spend all your time traveling, or spend zero time traveling. I prefer the middle ground.

I think it would be great if players could take their arcs out of the AE building and place the missions at different doors (vans, helicopters) in the many zones. We'd do it right, too. The travel would be part of the story. I think we lose a lot of the flavor of the game by focusing on play in the AE building.

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Fair enough. But, then again, that is why my favorite zones to do arcs at all are the Hollows, Faultline (yes, I said it), Striga Isle, and Croatoa, and PI in the end (the Portal arcs tend to be kept pretty much in PI). However, this means I tend to miss most of the enemy groups I like fighting (although the ones I end up getting aren't too bad). I do not mind traveling across a zone or maybe to an adjacent zone to do a mission or maybe even a delivery (Talos to Dark Astoria for example). Having to go from PI or Talos to Atlas Park to deliver something, then having to trudge all the way back, is more than enough to make me run AE until they get that changed.

P.S. That arc of zones (AP-Hollows-Faultline-Striga-Croatoa), can usually get a player to about 30. Sometimes even without having to do radios to fill in a level or two. Maybe what the Devs should do is create a few more zones like that and stretch it out to 50. Yes, I know the FBZ and the Shard exist in a similar fashion for the 40-50 group, but that zone is not worth it unless you have your own fly gear (that jetpack is too slow).

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I used it for a steadfast mule on my shields character, and it's nice to have available when you're in a tough fight.

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Likewise. The build I'm planning is tighter on slots than it is on powers, so I'll be taking it to save a slot.

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Really? Are you not planning on going deep into a Mastery pool? Every Shield character I plan finds me swapping slots and powers. But I am not trying to kite out everything in Purple, either, which could be the issue.

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Also, the best way to fix the AE farming issue is to drop a crapload of new lvl 50 content on us in Peregrine and Grandville. Put a new TF/SF in, a new contact with new missions, and have it all based on a new enemy faction and use brand new mission maps. It would get lvl 50s back into those zones where they belong and I bet most of the high lvl farming would migrate back there also. The only other thing needed is a farm channel...or AE channel, even though I'm sure alot of folks would still be [censored] and use broadcast, it would help some.

You can't stop the farming, you can only hope to control it. If they'd just get out of Atlas and Cap Diable, and go back to Peregrine and Granville....I think this whole thing would blow over rather quickly.

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I think this would help a lot, but only be temporary at best, unless this new group was at least in the ballpark of reward-gaining efficiency as the other groups.

My biggest gripes with the game, that have been solved a bit by AE, are in no particular order:

1) The pre-Stamina/pre-SOs game: After almost 4 years, this is an annoying-at-best, painful-at-worst experience even using all the endurance and power management tools I know before this point. AE not only gets teams together relatively quickly (in my expereince), but the leveling speed even through "story-focused content" is higher than the "RL" game. Not only does this mean more endurance fill-ups as you play and level, but simply getting passed some of the endurance choke points faster.

2) Travel between zones for some story arcs: This is primarily a Hero-side issue, and they have been trying to alleviate it somewhat as they add new contacts. There is nothing worse in the game than getting a bunch of "travel to x zone to deliver or pick up y package," then having to go back to z contact to get the next mission and promptly getting sent another 3 or 4 zones away because they do not like you enough for you to call them yet. Not everyone has the convenience of a well-developed SG to abuse the porters and not everyone is a high enough level to be Entrusted with the Secret (the O-Zone portal seriously became one of my favorite temp powers because of how much travel it cut out for me). I do not know specifics off the top of my head (unfortunately), but I highly doubt any of you are going to argue the existence of these instances with me.

Not only does AE all but remove these missions, but since you can use AE to put all the missions in one zone, you can remove the need for a travel power (almost, some of the maps are still more convenient with one), allowing more space in a build.

3) Ticket Speed versus Merit Speed: A decent PuG can run almost any AE arc or mission to get a decent amount of Tickets to use for rolls. Getting Merits at a decent clip tends to require a bit more of a focused team that knows what they are doing. Double the amount of merits on any given real story arc or TF and remove the penalty for repeating it (which I thought was a bad idea to begin with), and I bet people start moving back out to those (or at least the most efficient one). This moves most of the farmers either out to that zone or back to PI or Oroborous, the lowbies have to get to a minimum level to join whatever TF or 25 to get to the O-Zone.

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I'm still waiting for Pyre Mastery for Scrappers.

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