Dr_Simian

Great guide.

Just one little note: Quickness does currently increase fly speed and will take fly enhancers. One SO doesn't really increase your flight speed by a noticable amount but my scrapper, Kid Buzzard, currently has a fly enhancer in his (anxiously awaiting his wings, heh.)

[ QUOTE ]
Does it come with the purple triangles animation?

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha, please include this! I think I may actually get over my hatred of the triangles if this was added to domination.

[ QUOTE ]
I think this change makes Domination truely unique. Dominator (for brief periods of time) are truely the masters of Domination.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty sure it is unique. Are there any other powers in the game (besides insps of course) that can break an existing hold or stun on yourself?

Dominators were not originally balanced around domination but they are now. They are an AT that has ups and downs. Getting the most out of your dom means getting the most out of domination, doing what you can to fill the bar quickly (even while grouped) and knowing when to save it and when to use it.

This means it is just not the class for everybody. If you want consistency then play another class. It really bothered me when they changed regen from a constant level to long time clicks for up and down from gimped to pre-I6 uberness. But I had already played my character for 50 levels and over a year, it was a change in expectation. I went into my dom knowing the situation and accepting it. (By the way my dom currently has domination up alot more than my scrapper has IH up.)

Could Doms use a few tweaks? Sure, low level doms could probably stand a boost and the purple triangle thing is really annoying (someone once suggested making holds and stuns in debuffs while the triangles were up...) But high level doms are great solo or teamed. The only real exceptions are the Recluse SF (where everyone but /rad and /dark corruptors and /stone brutes is gimped) and solo pvp (where balance is nonexistant and likely to remain so.)

Actually I really like the brute/tanker comparison because it has exactly the same problem as the controller/dom comparison. On paper the brute looks like a joke, it has fewer hit points, lower defense and lower base damage. But it also has fury. Because of thier inherent power they are far from a joke, and actually play much more like scrappers than tanks.

Doms have the same issue in that they are kinda of like controllers but have domination. With domination we aren't like any other AT, there is no real comparison so most people ignore domination and compare us to controllers, that's essentially ignoring SMASH and comparing brutes to tanks.

Domination is an incredible power and can be up alot, easily 2 or 3 times in even a short mission if you push it, and more in longer missions. Having marginally less control than controllers 3/4s of the time is a small trade off for having vastly better control the other quarter of the time. At least to me, if it bothers you that much play another class.

Okay, I was waiting for the nerf to come so I could test it out and post and since that was yesterday I think it's time for my comments, heh.

Anyway, my opera singer is up to 22 and I've gotten a fair amount of at least low level experience both grouping and solo. The grouping experience is a bit skewed since most of my groups are mostly composed of sonic and archery blasters and defenders though, heh. Anyway, here are observations from a level 22 sonic/energy blaster:

Overview:
Sonic is a fun set, pretty different from the other blaster primaries. I'm not sure how it will do in the higher levels (40+) but I'm pretty sure it will be playable and not overpowered through the early and midlevels (certainly not overpowered after the nerfs that hit yesterday.)

Strengths:
Sonic has three big strengths. First is a very nice secondary effect, which not only helps us out but also the rest of the group. Secondly, very good single target damage (due in large part to the secondary effect.) And good crowd control, sleeps and knockbacks weren't considered particularly good CC except while solo but I5 is going to change that, and I'm betting even higher level groups will welcome the occasional sleep or knockback.

Weaknesses:
Sonic has two big weaknesses (which are actually the strengths of most other blaster primaries.) First is range, we only have one real ranged attack that does even moderate damage, any other attack we have is either minor damage or requires us to be really close, not a big issue at lower levels but might be later on, especially if controllers and tanks can't keep ahold of the bad guys (i.e. in I5).
The other big weakness is lack of AoE damage. We have three useful cone powers but only one is really damaging and it's pretty weak damage wise (especially after yesterday's nerfs.) Our nova is pretty much it for serious AoE damage and it has the usual nova type problems, no range, high endurance, high recharge.

Anyway, here are my comments on the first seven powers (the only ones I have so far.)

Shriek and Scream:
These go together as a nice one-two punch and our only really "ranged" powers. Decent damage, recharge, range, etc., pretty much both needed for most sonic blasters since sometimes being a blasters means you really don't want to get close.

Howl:
Decent cone attack but especially after yesterday's nerf don't expect much from it since we don't really have other AoE attacks to add to it. In groups AoEs are just far more efficient than single target attacks so still probably a good choice, if for nothing else than an AoE resist debuff. Note though, that damage wise this is more like the lower powered standard ranged AoEs (like ball lightning or fireball) than the higher damage cone ones (like flamethrower or breath fire.) Personally I think the damage for this should be upped some (or at least unnerfed) due to the lack of range.

Shockwave:
The only power I may not get when sonic blast goes live. Nice but pretty situational, neglible damage but very nice knockback. Maybe it'll be more useful in the 40+ world of I5, I'm not sure though. Probably pretty nice if trying to make a blastroller.

Shout:
Very nice power but no range, not quite a melee attack but closer to a melee attack than a real ranged one. Combined with our other attacks gives us great single target potential (got an equal level Dr. Vahz down to less than half hitpoints before my lucks ran out and I had to run, heh.)

Amplify:
It's aim, you know it, you probably love it, doesn't really need commenting on.

Siren's song:
Very nice ability, solo it's phenomenal. Sonic has great single target damage and a large cone sleep turns pretty much every fight solo into one-on-one. Grouping it has the usual problems with other sleeps, though I'm betting that once I5 hits sleeps are going to look alot more appealling. Decent damage for a control ability, more than shockwave, less than howl. Probably worth slotting up for damage if you mostly group, probably not if you mostly solo.

I don't have screech or dreadful wail but assuming these are essentially beanbag and nova they will be nice additions.

Overall I think the set is in good shape, a little different than other blaster sets so the high levels may not work out as well, but it's fun and functional though the early levels.

My only real suggestion for improvement is to increase the damage for howl, at least up to what it was before yesterday. Currently solo it's just not worth it and in groups I use it more as a debuff than a damage.

(Oh, also since I really like the opera singer concept a female sound effects would be greatly appreciated.)

(Edit: Changed power names to the correct ones in spots to reduce confusion, heh.)

[ QUOTE ]
Absolutely nothing is wrong with any sort of Veteran reward.


[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm, perhaps a badge for characters over a year old?

Heh, Dr. Simian was created during the 3-day headstart so is actually over a year old already.

Nothing has happened that would keep me from participating in PvP (I doubt anything would), also nothing has happened that would make me stop playing my alts and continually farm one monster over and over repeatedly (nothing is going to make that happen, heh.)

I am not worried that the top rungs of the ladder would be dominated by a small group of hardcore players, that is already a foregone conclusion on any online game. The people willing to put in the huge amounts of time and do anything to win will win, it's the nature of the genre.

Now, this doesn't mean that PvP in general or the arena in particular can't be loads of fun, I'm quite certain it will be for many (if not most) people for at least a while.

What I am worried about is creating such an obvious line between the haves and havenots, something prevalent in lots of MMOGs but conspicuously absent so far from CoH. What I do fear this will lead to is loads of PvP fights ending in numerous complaints about who had the most HOs, demands of screenshots of enhancement pages, and whining from well known Hami raiders of "I would be higher on the ladder but everyone is afraid of fighting me."

Some complaining is bound to come with any PvP, okay, lots of complaining is bound to come with any PvP but the whole HO vs. SO situation seems like it's going to magnify it massively. I really don't want every friendly matchup to end with accusations that I only won because I had more HOs and I also don't want to turn down matches because I'm challenged by people that have twice as many HOs as I do and know I have no prayer against.

My solution is pretty simple, uses existing code, and should annoy everyone enough to probably be reasonable fair. Add a new merchant/contact like Ghost Falcon. He gives a mission to kill one Hamidon. After you finish the mission he'll sell you HOs. (I wish there was some easy way to make them "No-Drop" but this shouldn't be too big a deal living with them being tradable.) Make them alot more than SOs so they'll act as a nice money sink, but not insane amounts, that'll just cause farming again. (I'm thinking a couple of 100K each, maybe as much as a million).

This way every level 47-50 can be equalized pretty well, virtually all griefing of buds will stop, and you'll get something for defeating Hami without requiring endless farming.

Anyway, just a thought.

[ QUOTE ]
Hamidon Enhancements are killer.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting decision. It just goes to my theory that "average player" vs. "average player" pvp and "hardcore pvp" vs. "hardcore pvp" will probably both be pretty fun, but the "average player" vs. the guy who respects purely for PvP and farms hami like crazy is going to be awefully one-sided.

Any chance that one of the arena Ground Rules will be "no hami-enhancements"? (Or actually even "no enhancements" might be pretty interesting as well and just as balancing...)

Quick Edit: Heh, Frosty, you just beat me to the punch on this suggestion.

(I haven't read the entire post so sorry if someone already said this.)

I remember when personal force field gave complete protection and you could use provoke. Ahh, back in beta when high level groups would use a level 6, unSKed defender to tank...

Thank you Devs!

Thanks for your hard work.

Thanks for being comic fans and understanding the genre.

Thanks for being gamers and understanding fun.

Thanks for being people and actually talking to us and listening (even if we don't always agree.)

I still remember several years ago when I first saw your website, you didn't even have screenshots (I'm not sure you even had a graphics engine at that point, heh.) I thought a superhero based EQ would be the greatest game ever, it's too bad these guys will never be able to pull it off. Thanks for proving me wrong.

Finally, thanks for Striga Isle, best atmosphere, best missions, best TFs of any zone. I'm dying to see the next one (hoping for underwater, and a new EAT to go with it.)

[ QUOTE ]
My point was that DC doesn’t have a Kryptonian standing on every street corner in Metropolis waiting for a crime to stop. If every DCV super team had a Green Lantern on it, people would think they’re being unimaginative.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, in my opinion, some of the most imaginative stories in DC occured when you had several people with common powers and backgrounds. There are loads of great GL corp stories full of characters with the same background and origin, yet good authors flesh out the characters and make them distinct and interesting.

Take Legion of Superheroes, at times they had three or four Kryptonians around (well some were Daxamites but close enough.) Now, there were certainly unimaginative authors that wrote as if Mon-El was just Superboy in a red shirt and Kara was just Clark in a skirt. But there were also great stories, where differences in personality and subtle differences in backgrounds made the characters seems alive and unique.

The same will be true with the Kheldians. Unimaginative players will be Kheldian12324 who is here, like all Kheldians to fight bad guys and get experience. But clever players will be Blargo, the quiet yet passionate Kheldian artist caught up in a war he wants no part of but agrees must be won.

It comes down to the players and how much effort they want to put into the character. Some people prefer to play without worrying about characterization or background, Kheldians will be great for them. Some people like being creative and coming up with a complex background, Kheldians will be good for them as well, they just present different challanges.

[ QUOTE ]
So...because of all the time being spent to make these new powers and ATs, basically I can kiss whatever chance Ice Armor had in being fixed in Issue 3 goodbye?

[/ QUOTE ]

Dynamo, to quote Statesman from the Warcry interview:

[ QUOTE ]
The number one priority is tweaking the mob control abilities of Tankers. Right now, the Archetype can’t quite hold “aggro” well enough without resorting to Power Pool powers. Secondly, we’d like to fix some Tanker Defense sets that aren’t up to snuff either in looks or in power.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds to me as if ice armor is being seriously looked at for a (much needed) fix.

Wow, thanks for the heads up Daedelus.

I especially was interested in this statement:

[ QUOTE ]
But Peacebringers and Warshades desperately need energy to power themselves. As a result, their power level is directly linked to the number of teammates they have.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very cool, weak solo but powerful in big teams. Still loads of questions though, heh.

Do other ATs count or can Kheldians get the same bonus in pure Kheldian groups?

In a full group how much more powerful is a Kheldian than in a small group (twice the people = twice the power?)

By power do you mean endurance/hit point levels, damage/defence, or some combo of both?

Heh, every answer we get leads to five more questions.

Also of note about the epic pools:

[ QUOTE ]
And this Power Pool comes IN ADDITION to the other Power Pools a player has. So a player doesn’t need to sacrifice a Power Pool slot to select them.


[/ QUOTE ]

And epic pools are specifically designed to overcome AT weaknesses, like defence for blasters, ranged attacks for tanks and more damage for controllers.

I can't wait.