Castle

Nope, not changed.

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So you're saying they'll divy up the Unresistable portion too?
I duno man, that sounds like more coding than it's worth to me...

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It takes the entire block of damage and apportions it by the ratios described. For the Mastermind, he then gets his Resistances applied, while the pets get no resistance to the shared damage.

In the case of unresistable damage, therefore, all damage is apportioned, then resists apply normally -- the unresisted portion is still unresisted, but it is reduced by the Bodyguard.

Well, we found (and fixed) a problem with guantlet and destructable objects today. Not sure if that addresses this specific issue, but there it is. One step closer.

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It looks like the devs finally figured out how to count to one.

Single target attacks now hit only one target no matter how many you have stacked.

There might be a bug though. A couple times when I had a few stacked up, it would say "Readying attack", but then nothing. No hit, no miss, no nothing. Cone/AoE attacks worked fine there, but single target wouldn't do anything. I'll have to play with it some more and see what's going on.

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I think I may cry. I'll have QA test it.

PvE repel is exactly the same strength as before. Yes, it ticks more slowly, which is a double edged sword -- it costs you less endurance to maintain, but it's not quite as good defensively.

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Does it strike anyone particularly odd that when the Arena and PvP first came out that Tanks were king of the mountain. Too powerful and relatively unstoppable. A few minor "tweaks" later here we stand. Castle poking fun at our bottom dwelling state. From one extreme to the other.

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Where did I poke fun at Tankers? Where did I state tankers were 'bottom' of the list. I suspect there is a bit of transference going on in your comments.

FWIW, reduced Toggle Drops and Gauntlet working in PvP should help tankers teaming ability. If those don't set them within the 'acceptable' range, then we'll try something else.

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I think you're letting your ATist rhetoric blind you to the point that Castle's list strictly discusses solo PvP, which he explicitly qualifies. Furthermore, he goes on to vaguely suggest that PvP-performance hierarchy is wholly different on teams -- which is ostensibly what PvP is built around.

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In team play, most AT's are within 30% of one another. The few exceptions should be looked at. Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors and Dominators are NOT at the bottom of this list, by any stretch.

"Release the numbers" -- I can't. It really is proprietary info, and the generalities I'm providing are about as far as I can go.

"OMG! He's nerfing EM!" -- Nope, at least not for I7.

Couple things.

1) I was giving the AT mods, not considering build up/aim or external buffs. I did not specify a given power set. I think everyone who PvP's is aware of how dominant Energy Melee/Energy Manipulation can be.

2) "Damage as a secondary effect" If I don't Stun a person on my TF hit, they can typically escape. I could just be bad at energy melee, though (most of CoX PvP experience is Super Strength, Dark Melee, Claws, or Mind Control.)

3) Datamining -- I looked at Blaster/Scrapper a few minutes ago. In terms of raw kills, Blasters are the better PvP killers, but only if they have Energy Manipulation. Without EM, they are roughly 60% of scrappers numbers. In terms of kills to death ratio, Blasters are slightly behind scrappers with EM, but competing with Defenders and Dominators for lowest value Note, that these are solo values! Things are very different in team play.

Scrappers out damage blasters in melee. Blasters AT mod is 1, while scrappers is 1.125. Scrappers also get unresistable criticals of 2x damage 5% of the time, which can be compared to Blasters 33% unresistable damage.

Energy Melee's Stuns coupled with toggle dropping pretty much make the damage a secondary effect. While the blasters (who have little or no mez protections) are used to functioning with break frees active, most scrappers are not, as they rely on their inherent protection powers to keep them safe.

In other words, despite your toggle powers protections, pretend you don't have them and prepare based on that -- because those protections will be knocked down at some point.

Ok, quick run down:

The AV / Player bonus only applies if your Fury is 80% or more. That's the point where diminishing returns sets in, and this allows you to get to max rage easier. That's not exactly what we wanted, nor is it exactly what you folks were told. I'm sorry for that. I'm uncertain at this time what can be done to improve how this works, but I'll be exploring possibilities.

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This has been a known issue on these boards for awhile. Is it possible no one ever bothered to tell him?

Nonetheless, good news.

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No, I was told before, but when looking at the spreadsheets it SHOULD be working as I described. Apparently, however, something is broken in how the attributes are being applied, which makes little sense, but in my testing it was apparent that this was the case.

No, I'm not done with these sets, this was just a quick update while I was thinking about it.

'Quick' animations -- You guys are right, in the comics, Archery is seen as very fast and accurate. Fortunately, they don't have to animate them...they just draw as many arrows flying as the story warrants (see Manticore in our comic, for an example.) In the game, having all the animations be as quick as snap shot would definitely decrease the visual appeal of the set. If any of you have ever seen a movie called "Hawk, the Slayer" you'll remember how absolutely silly the archer in that looked. A similar effect would happen in CoX if we animated all the shots that quickly.

Not putting the bow away when using other powers. Brawl is the only attack power in the game that allows you to not put your weapon away when attacking with it. Brawl also took more animation time by several multiples than any other power in the game. Doing something similar with every power which could be used in conjunction with Archery/Trick Arrow simply isn't feasible.

Endurance costs. I did a pass on these a few weeks ago. I honestly don't remember which powers were changed at that time, but there were 2 or 3 that were the wrong cost. Trick Arrow is more problematic in this regard, and I've not looked at them yet.

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All MMs were told they would receive a slight buff with i7, aimed at PVP but useful in PVE also. Does anyone on test know what this buff is?

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Actually, it's not aimed at PvP -- it's a general change. Useful equally everywhere.

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How bout working with Oilslick so it works with pets????? this has been reported all over the boards. Being a fire/ta troller using oilslick makes my imps stop working for extended periods of time even if you /release_pets.....!!!!!

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Yeah, that *should* be fixed as well. I've not tested it since the AI guys told me it was dealt with. I have my fingers crossed -- this power breaks if I look at it crosseyed.

I7 changes:

1) Working on Oil Slick. I think I have the 'oil doesn't always light' bug fixed (hard to tell - it never failed on my box, but it was replicatable here.) I refered the 'wrong team in PvP zones' issue to programming.
2) Poison Gas Arrow -- this should work the same for all AT's now.
3) Archery: Fistful of Arrows, Rain of Arrows and Ranged Shot animations shortened.

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I believe many stalkers realize how placate works. The change merely makes it so the non-placated teammates of the placated hero have an easier time attacking the stalker.

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Correct.

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I ask that you point me to a post where a dev has stated that the level differential does not apply in the arena.

Until then, I'm going to believe that the arena is under the same percentages for level differential as the PvE game - just that everyone is granted +25% defense. No matter what, even 5 on 1, you will be destroyed by a +8 opponent - especially one piloted by a human.

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I may have said everyone is "auto-leveled" in the arena, but I was mistaken. Instead, the same code as effects Giant Monsters is in effect -- when you attack a player, your To Hit and Damage is the same level they are. So, a 40 attacking a 50, would attack as if he was level 50, while the 50 attacking the 40 would be roughly equivalent to a 40.

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that got nerfed in the new patch too

have to re-apply GI every time you're unhidden for it to add to -per

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Nope, that's how it has worked since Suppression was added to the game.

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Just a minor aside, how long did it take for you to get a response from Castle after you PM'd him? I send him a couple around noon PST regarding the 75% redundancy of the Dominator Patron Pools and I've still not gotten a peep from the guy.

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Nope, I just don't have a good answer for you. I didn't design the Patron Powers, so I'm not 100% on the design philosophy used.

Also, I tend to not respond to "Why did you guys do XXXX?" PMs because it rarely does anything but get more "But why...." PMs. Perhaps that isn't fair, but I really cannot spend much time justifying things, especially when I'm not 100% conversant on the topic. I *do* read them, but rarely respond.

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That being said, the Grant Invis nerf is kind of interesting and is what I am paying attention to. Though it is a global AT nerf, it will affect pvp stalkers the most I think

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Question: Is this actually new, or are we just being told about this now? It's not recorded in the current patch notes, and _Castle_ doesn't talk about it like a future change.

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It's been there since Suppression for Stealth powers was added.

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PvPTaunt changes: When a player is being taunted, the effect can now be broken by running a good distance away. Additionally, hiding out of LOS of the taunter will cause the effect to expire sooner.


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This is being tested on Test right now...


Yeah...

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Don't know if this is I7 or before but...Guantlet will work in PvP soon.

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Just to parse Castle's response, though... does that mean that GI has to be reapplied every time someone attacks?

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To get teh Stealth benefit, yes.

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75% of Hide is 375 -perception.
Grant Invis is 611 -perception.
Stealth is 390 -perception.

So it just means that a Stalker needs to have a friend or a Buffbot to do the same thing. It won't actually prevent the problem.

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Hide Suppresses for 10 seconds when you attack or are attacked.
So does Stealth.
Grant Invisibility and Group Invisibility cancel the stealth bonus all together when you attack or are attacked (you keep the +Def though.)

EDIT: Additionally, this change was mostly aimed at the Bloody Bay and Siren's Call levels where Stalkers are so far above any other AT in Kill Count vs Death Count that it isn't even funny. In higher level PvP zones, players have plenty of options of dealing with Stalkers, which *should* force Stalkers to Team more.

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Sonics has a lower accuracy than Electric, I recall.

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Charged Bolt: 100%
Lightning Bolt: 100%
Ball Lightning: 100%
Short Circuit: 130%
Zapp: 120%
Tesla Cage: 100%
Thunderous Blast: 140%

Shriek: 100%
Scream: 100%
Howl: 100%
Shockwave: 90%
Shout: 100%
Sirens Song: 90%
Screech: 100%
Dreadful Wail: 140%

Sonics doesn't have *bad* accuracy, in general, but Electric has very good accuracy.

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So, I've been reading around the tanker forums, get a grasp on how things will be. And I've stumbled upon a couple of sayings that there will be no more detoggling.

First, I was wondering if this was true.

Second, I was wondering if it was just Brawl, or all of them.

And third, if it is true, I think its a huge problem. The only way I can beat a BRUTE is through detoggling him. And I detoggle him through Brawl. Wait until Unyielding or wahtever hes using goes down, then hit him with IS. All toggles go down, I pummel him to death.

Granted, this is a huge OK for all tanks, because this is your biggest weak point. But its also the way for many AT's to beat you, and they cant without it.

And although tanks damage isnt te best (Aside from SS), it still can kill quite a few AT's, Brute vs. Tank would be tough. But Tanks still can dish out some insane damage with PVP specced.

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Detoggling isn't going away. But, it is being reigned in by a large margin.