Captain_Amazing_NA

This game has a hard time keeping new players because this game is easy to play in the beginning, but the steepness of the player vs mob curve rockets away from players at a rapid pace. There really isn't much for content and everything rests on defeating mobs/succeeding in door missions which becomes very difficult too early in the game. Plus, the anti-soloing makes this game unattractive as well. Add to that the anti-herding and anti-pulling, it's no wonder you can't find a enough people for even a PUG, no one plays this game (competently) anymore.

- Captain Amazing

Sadly enough, mobs with teleport ability going thru walls and basically anywhere on a map (out of LOS) is just another advantage the devs give to mobs to outshine players. It is a theme throughout the game, and it nullifies any concept that development has a checks-and-balance system.

- Captain Amazing

Villains have Mayhem Missions that let them rob banks in Paragon City clone maps. The two sides can visit in Pocket D and the Rikit War Zone actually lets both sides team up versus the whatever bad guy groups in door missions and street hunts.

- Captain Amazing

Sony > Microsoft. Always. Period. Done.

- Captain Amazing

So let me guess, three white minions and they...

Hit 99% of the time, if not more (mob superior Accuracy)
Hit for a relatively high amount of damage (mob superior Damage)
Attack rate was significantly faster than you (mob superior Recharge)

While you...

Hit about 80% of the time, if not less (ED, mob superior Defense and the game has a terrilbe random % generator)
Hit for less than normal (ED, mob superior Resistances)
You didn't do whole number damage (mobs take rounded down damage and if they sit at 1.0 health they just round up to 5.0 health). Oh, incidentally mobs do whole number damage if not rounded up damage to players. Mobs also regenerate and recover at an extremely high rate.

Yeah, that's about a typical, pathetic fight in the game now. I would love to hear other people's opinions on this matter. In fact, I'm dying to know what y'all think.

- Captain Amazing

Not liking the zone-specific-to-your-level thing. As a 50 I'm getting bored with Peregrine Island and PI-only scanner mission mobs. What's wrong with scanner missions in ANY zone? Level 50+ Hellions just might be what we need. Or Skulls, or Freakshow. Why punish us for being higher-level? Doesn't seem like much of a reward to me.

- Captain Amazing

Wait a second. The question is: What do YOU think of it? Quit presenting EVERYTHING to us without any numbers, facts or figures and then turn around and stick it back to us as if WE had any control. YOU only give in to the common denominator, and at the moment is belongs to the WHINERS. YOU deemed Assassin Strike + Build Up + Hide to be SO GOOD that it went straight into PvP. The percentage of US that like it will say and have said so, those that don't will also follow suit. YOU are going to do whatever it is YOU want anyways, irregardless. STOP giving US the notion that we have a say in anything but your paycheck.

- Captain Amazing

A couple of thoughts from a City of Heroes Beta player for Statesman and the rest of the development team:

1. Why is CoH/CoV inherently the most inaccurate game on the market? What do you guys have against us hitting? In both PvP and PvE it seems that accuracy and tohit buffs are relatively worthless, yet accuracy enhancements cost the most. Is ED a way of making us slot more accuracies in attacks? If so, how does this benefit the lowbie that is a little short on slots at the beginning of the game, earning 6 Influence per mugging and saving up for 500 just to buy the first level 5 training accuracy enhancement? I've also noticed that immediately after taking an Inspiration, your next attack misses on a regular basis (even if the Inspiration taken was yellow). Oh, and mobs are very accurate which doesn't quite make this a balanced, or fun, environment especially since now Defense is worth even less than Accuracy...

2. It seems that QA really stands for Quality Avoidance, as I've yet to see a decent issue release. CoV has its visual merits, but is still built on the same nonsensical, mob-advantaged engine that plagues CoH. Let's examine a few examples: Brawl is worthless, yet a minion can Brawl for tens of damage. There are ranged mobs all throughout the game, but not every hero or villain has a ranged attack. Mobs continue to utilize versions of our powers way too effectively, and in combinations that are not available to players. Damage is still calculated with a decimal, to the 1/100th, which clearly shows poor math skills (many games use a damage range. An attack that does 2-5 is better than one that does 1-4. None of this 9.86 when you really do 9 nonsense). The amount of health that mobs possess is unjustifiably too high. Not everyone forms a team of 8, by the way. Is it impossible to scale the mobs themselves, not just the number that populates based on a team size ranging from 1 to 8? This could create a soloable environment, which is one of the things Statesman had originally mentioned. Did you back out of it, Jack?

3. PvP, albeit interesting, really needs some heavy review and fixing. With heroes that have been tested in PvE, even respecing them for PvP puts them at a disadvantage. The very idea that a Stalker can Hide past Police Drones for the 1-shot Assassin Strike on a Defender, Blaster or Controller is idiotic. And being defeated by an opposing drone no longer gives debt? All you've done is provided "free movement" to the Stalker after he demolises a hero "squishy", now he doesn't have to be around for any retaliation. Clearly, another mistake (one of many) made by the Devs.

4. Aforementioned in points 2 and 3, the lack of balance in PvP and PvE. Instead of an earnest attempt to fixing the game, instead we get nerf after nerf after nerf. Are there any ideas on what to do with the power sets? Anymore responses along the lines of "we didn't intend (fill in blank) to..."? That statement alone can be avoided if decent testing was done BEFORE uploading to the Beta where suddenly WE are the ones testing your product. Of course we OOH and AHH at every new and shiny feature. We're not professional beta-testers. I'm also speaking from the experience of having beta-tested games before. It's safe to say that roughly 80% of what is in CoH/CoV would seriously be put to question, and 50% of that would have been fixed prior to showing it to anyone in order to avoid any embarrassments. Was there any testing, and were any of these ridiculous situations that are presently in the game mentioned? Was it allowed to be question? Did the questions merely get glossed over due to deadlines?

I'm sure I will be assailed by flamers, trollers and fan bois. I've elected to ignore them in hopes that a name in red replies. Please spare me the deflections and stock answers. It would be very kind of the Devs to actually provide real answers.

- Captain Amazing

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IMHO, this is only sweeping the problem under the rug.

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Precisely. Rather than address the actual problem, there is an "around the outside turn" fix that only has us scratching our heads wondering why even do this?

18 months after the game originally launched and we are still being served this kind of steaming pile nerf-fix-break-fix treatment. When does it end??? How much more can we take before more and more just stop paying to playtest THEIR product?

Why is there an utter lack of internal, comprehensive testing? These supposed fixes go to the Test server...are WE professional playtesters? I once was, and imagine my disgust at CoH.

Reply all you want, fanbois and trolls, with "doom" and "just quit" responses. I've ignored better that have said worse.

- Captain Amazing

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You are viewing an i5 tanker as being weaker than an i4 tanker

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That's what he's saying AND he's right: they are. Reduced miserably, I might add.

I noticed that you have a level 50 blaster listed. Do you even know anything about tankers/tanking? I'm betting on "no" based purely on what you've written.

- Captain Amazing
50 Invuln/Superstrength

Nice. I respect what you've said and how you've said it. I will not, however, take back MY statement regarding that individual to be a liar. It's the way the game IS for tankers. I would have been more at ease if he had said that he DIDN'T even have Invincibility, but instead he concocts this unbelieveable farce of having it unslotted??? I felt his post was intentionally aimed at making tanker players IRATE. Well, he got ONE!

- Captain Amazing

I don't see a single TANKER on your impressive list of pre-50 toons. Go away and come back when you have more of an idea of what we're talking about.

Who cares about how he/she does whatever? Simple game mechanics apply, that is if you even know how the powersets work.

- Captain Amazing

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I don't know who "we" is, but it definitely isn't all players. My Inv has invincibility unslotted and only uses it against large groups, he doesn't even have dull pain, and has RPD and RE slotted up along with TI and Unyielding.

He has no problem soloing on Invincible (except for the expected snails pace in dealing damage) or tanking for large groups.

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If I read this correctly, then you are by far a liar. You get nothing done. Nice try. Next time, come up with a more convincing statement if you want to counter someone's opinion.

- Captain Amazing

I'm glad to hear that some people enjoy the changes in Issue 5. I, for one, am completely unhappy with it. Different points of views, I'm sure. No one is right and no one is wrong about it. For as many changes throughout the game to gimp Burn and PLing have been excessive, but perhaps necessary. The reduction of defense on the heroes was going too far, all the while continuing to keep the villains (our opposition) at peak efficiency in the name of challenge and fun, are disappointing. The fact that any post on these boards that attempt to point out failures to satisy your paying customers are jumped on by the trolls and fanbois, and are completely ignored by you and your staff marks the beginning of an ugly end. The only posts viewed and remembered are the ones that blow kisses to your efforts at providing sub-standard advancements with every wasteful issue release. What's to say that CoV or even Issue 6 will be any better based on how poorly the game is now? Promises are one thing, the delivered goods are another. We have yet to see any skills, or events that include the dead spaces of certain zones, or content for the upper-end game (read as 36-50), any advancements on Hami-Os or Hamidon as the endgame. Instead we get Issue 5, in my opinion, the worst issue to date.

I recall when in April of last year I first discovered CoH, and appreciated the simplicity, fun and addiction of it. Now it's developed into a nightmare where the voices of the masses remain unheard unless they are singing praises to something that was once great.

- Captain Amazing

Good work on the great post!

I also would like to add two great powers that really help the pure healer: Hasten and Recall Friend.

1. Hasten: brings back Healing Aura, Heal Other, Ressurect, Recovery/Regeneration Auras, Fortitude and Adrenaline Boost FASTER. I've even tried picking up and lightly slotting Stamina to help with the Endurance drain.

2. Recall Friend: the ultimate team pool power. Many a rescue operation has been successful due to the ability to bring a fallen teammate/team from a hot combat zone to a safe rezzing spot (ie mission doors, etc).

I would also like to point out that no matter how good or vigilant YOU are as a healer, there are IDIOTS that play Blasters (not to say ALL Blasters are played by idiots, but y'all know what I mean) that require healing for the entire mission/outdoor hunt generally because THEIR OPENING MOVE IS AN AOE ATTACK. Rather than put up with that BS, politely inform them of the error of their tactic. If they continue, do your best to keep up.

The last cardinal rule: NEVER WITHOLD HEALING FROM SOMEONE NO MATTER HOW MUCH OF A PAIN THEY ARE. I've teamed with healers that do this and this IS a terrible thing. It ruins your reputation and moves you up the whole list.

- Captain Amazing

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From Statesman's recent interview on Eurogamer, it looks like some of it is slated for I6.

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You mean whenever States puts down his hand-held and stops fighting 64-bit bosses? Whenever States says ANYTHING I just roll my eyes. He is clueless, and a liar to boot. His team just nods and goes with whatever he says, whether they just don't disagree with him or are allowed to. It shows in the absolute lack of quality in the game.

They added a graphic to the water in Issue 5. In door missions (ie caves) it looks like crap. Good job team!

- Captain Amazing

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it doesnt seem to matter what our imput is ,changes are coming anyway. since i am not a dev i cannot fathom what this "balance vision" means. i suspect the visions deviate amongst the devs themselves.

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The balanced vision means that Statesman comes up with the worst ideas (eg Defiance) and not a single developer on the team thinks it's a bad idea: they don't have the courage to bring up anything negative. Besides, States is clueless anyways. Keep fighting that boss on your hand-held, States. Maybe one day you'll look up and notice more and more of your customers are GONE. CoH is not the #1 MMO that it could be.

Due to the lack of in-house testing, crap gets uploaded to Test and WE are suppose to "beta" everything whether we do or not: their response will be..."well, we PUT it on test for y'all to look at"...despite the fact that they change about 3% of what we ask to be looked at/changed/added/removed. For CoH Beta over a year ago I asked that Vahz and Clockwork be looked at as they seem a bit overpowered. To THIS day these two villain groups are STILL OVERPOWERED when your hero is small and does not have enough powers. Form a team and there are just more of them.

- Captain Amazing

Interesting thread. I have a 20 S/DA and Issue 5's endurance reduction alone is very nice. The role of the AoE scrapper is best in teams; soloing is a bit harder and tad more tedious. Street hunting or hunt missions seem better, due to the number of mobs standing on street corners. I highly recommend 6-slotting Death Shroud (1 end reducer, 1 accuracy, 4 damage) and Quills (same enhancing); this is also my formula for my burn tanker's Blazing Aura. Spine Burst is all damage (6). I only use Lunge and Impale for utility attacks so they have like an accuracy and some damage between them.

The most important thing about playing this build is: patience! You do a lot of standing there piling on the DPS on mobs, so be patient! LOL

- Captain Amazing

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Why do the missions given by contacts seemingly make no sense or lack in continuity? Contact Tom Bowden in Steel Canyon offers 2 Lost hunts in Skyway, 15 apiece. Doing them both, he then offers a Clockwork hunt or door mission. What happened to the Lost? Why did I just rough up 30 Lost in Skyway? Do a little more work in giving us incentive to do missions other than the xp grab.

- Captain Amazing

Can a thread be created where enhancement drops can be discussed? I'd like to see LEVEL 53 TRAININGS GO AWAY. Training enhancements should stop dropping when we STOP USING THEM AND HAVE MOVED ON TO EITHER DUAL-ORIGINS OR SINGLE-ORIGINS. And, can the level of said enhancements match up a little better with the LEVEL OF THE MOB THAT IT CAME FROM OR EVEN ITS ORIGIN? Why does a CoT mage boss drop a TECH/NAT DO???

- Captain Amazing

Will the Stealth nerf be applied to the Knives of Artemis as well? When will the effects of villain powers ever be BALANCED or will they remain overpowered? It seems that the villains have been given every possible advantage and yet are worth so little for their trouble, xp and influencewise. The miserable state of enhancement drops has never changed, we still see level 53 trainings (do they sell well? i delete them). The accuracy drop for Lts and Bosses barely scratches the surface: coming down from godly accurate to still hitting-you-a-lot isn't an applaudable effort, Dev team. Put more effort into balancing, not AT-to-AT, but the overall game. Why do villains Brawl for so much? Is it necessary? They throw this basic attack every 3 (or is it 4) seconds and it is for A LOT of damage AND they spend NO ENDURANCE ON ANY OF THEIR POWERS. How about reducing the rate-of-attack of villains? That way, maybe the Tsoo Sorcerer running his Hurricane activates O2 Boost a little less frequently than AT EVERY POSSIBLE MOMENT...AND FOR FREE. For as popular as PvP is and how full all the Arenas are, why isn't the focus on improving an otherwise dull, repetitous, ludicrous game instead of making it worse with EVERY ISSUE RELEASE?

- Captain Amazing

This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard for blasters. More health and Defiance? What good is more health when the blaster is held, sleeping or disoriented? Let me guess, the blaster gets in a last, good attack just before the stone prison (or whatever that earthy-crushy damaging attack is called) that he/she is in closes up and completely suffocates them. Is this the BEST the Devs can come up with? I've seen more dead Level 50 Blasters in PI on Test because these changes DO NOT HELP. Weak.

- Captain Amazing

Who uses Dimension Shift? It's a terrible power and you wasted 4 slots on it.