Bill Z Bubba

Defenders are sometimes useful.

DEATH TO THE TANKS!

I lift a Guinness to you.

That's the whole issue right there. I don't see the pre-reqs as a necessary balance point anymore. Not even remotely. Not when I can solo +4/x8 spawns and their bosses.

The OLD balance was lose X amount of effectiveness, say the difference between strike and boxing, in order to add the extra mitigation of tough.

How can that be considered a balance point when I can slam enough recharge, end-reduction and damage buff into my character that I can completely remove both of those attacks from my attack bar, never slotting either of them, and still have a full attack chain dishing out DPS not even dreamed of in the old days?

Does it really matter beyond removing an annoyance at that point?

I'm going to continue taking swift, health and stamina on all of my melee characters regardless of whether the tiers are in place or not. I do realize that many players will take nothing but stamina.

I would never take boxing or kick if I could jump straight to tough/weave. My guess is that this is true for the vast majority of the playerbase.

But I'm left asking, "So what?" What powers will I take instead of the pre-reqs if I'm allowed to do so?

Let's see how many get freed up on my current build:
Boxing
Conserve Power (Maybe)

Ok... that's two.

What can I replace those two powers with? Well, can't be something from a new pool because I'm already using all 4.

I'll replace CP with PhysPerf.

Ok, Eviscerate it is.

So for my ENTIRE build, the complete removal of the pre-reqs from all pools lets me get a third AoE and PP instead of CP. Too bad I don't have any more slots on the character. I didn't have any extras placed in either CP or boxing. I'll have to rebuild from scratch and LOSE effectiveness in other powers in order to buff the new ones.

The balance is in the number of slots we get and the number of powers we get to choose. Pre-reqs I can only consider a balance point for a game that no longer is the game we currently play.

I was just having that argument with myself and decided I was wrong. Meaning that you're also wrong.

The original balance structure of the game didn't include levels 41-50.

It didn't include APPs. It didn't include IOs.

While I completely agree that at one time the devs probably wanted us to, for example, replace a primary power with boxing which would lower our damage output in order to increase our mitigation, that bit of balance flies out the window in the face of the extra damage AND mitigation we can now get at level 50 and tweaked up.

Once upon a time it made sense to take hover for combat flight. That was back when fly's end cost was vastly higher than it is now.

Back then the devs gave absolutely no thought to redraw and cast times. Now we've had entire sets restructured BASED on cast times.

So, yes, the tiers had a point when the game was young. It's not the same game. Now the only outcome of tiers in power pools is annoyance.

And like so many other annoyances of the past, this one as well should be done away with.

Leave the level requirements in place. No tough until 14. No weave until 20. No fly until 14 unless you've got the 60 month vet reward.

Having to waste a power pick on a power that you never slot and delete from your power trays is bad design when placed up against the realities of the game as it is Now.

EDIT: And we'd STILL be locked into 4 basic pools and 1 app/ppp. Want fly, cj, tough, stamina and maneuvers? Tough. You only get 4.

Umbral, how much DPS would you lose by adding in swipe to cover the wait period?

Yup, useless. Does no damage. Waste of a power pick. Adds no personal mitigation.

Of course if you team with players that can't handle what the game throws at them and are in constant need of having aggro picked off of them, then sure, taunt is a fine crutch for inferior players.