Grey Pilgrim

Like it or not, the ability for anyone to softcap isn't going away. However, Castle has been willing to make adjustments when doing so was too easy: hence the lowering of BotZ's defense bonuses.

An adding of slight resistance to defense debuffing isn't really going to shift problems, either... it's addressing a problem that does exist and allows ATs that are supposed to excel at survivability to do so more than other ATs that excel at offense. Currently, there is a lot of defense debuffing in game, and I doubt the devs are going to hold back in that regard, given how many people go for defense.

The devs do not balance things in a vacuum. Castle has noted that while they did not make the game harder to accommodate IOs, he doesn't ignore their effects when balancing, either. So they're hardly covering their ears and ignoring things. Once again, there's that BotZ reduction to show this, among other things (like Tier 9 powers that can't have their recharge lowered).

I also don't think you understand the Cottage rule. This means that you can't make a power do something it didn't before, like making Temperature Protection into an attack, or something. The developers can adjust damage, recharge, etc., on a power that has those attributes.

Running my Earth/Storm Controller through the new Posi yesterday reminded me why I'm not making any more Controllers. I hate it when I can't do damage until the +32 game. Probably going with an Elec/Elec Dom myself.

Castle has stated that he wished he had done something about defense softcaps being equal for all ATs back when he could have (I think he said about I8 or so, but this is from memory, sorry), but that he is going to have to live with it now. The outcry over BotZ's having their defense benefits reduced was huge, even if it was warranted. If some ATs had their ability to softcap removed... I don't even want to imagine how that would be received. Do note that I think not every AT should be able to hit the softcap, however, I can completely understand why it's seen as not worth making the adjustment.

So no, you are not going to get a fix to the ability for any AT to softcap.

However, your Tanker is far more survivable than your Blaster... suggesting a Blaster can be on par with a Tank just because they're both at the softcap ignores other things that the ATs have going for them. Resists, mez protection, an HP make a huge difference in survivability. Blasters trade off for their offense with survivability. And a def-capped Blaster trades off even more offense for that defense. You can't make these comparisons without looking at the whole picture.

Justaris, I tossed out the idea that Tanks and perhaps Brutes should get some inherent DDR protection on the Tank forums recently. Hopefully Castle saw it, as that is a good way for more "defensive" minded ATs to get more benefit from defense than ATs that are supposed to be more offensive. It's worth thinking about, I think.

I said they're not THAT great. Meaning yes, they're useful, but not 285 mill useful. Frack, I have IO builds that cost me that much to put together, rather than just one ehancement in one power. And yes, the build does work very well.

I tend to not read webcomics with a story for long stretches at a time, as I prefer to read a bunch in one sitting to reading one whenver the author breaks it out. Figured that out when I read through the first few hundred Megatokyo strips and had to wait for him to make more. Heh.

Forgot to note the two webcomics that use well-known movies to poke fun at tabletop roleplaying games. First one I read (and maybe of the bunch) was DM of the Rings, which obviously used the LOTR movies and told a complete story. It's done now, so read through and enjoy it all.

Then a group of guys started doing the same with the Star Wars movies. I enjoyed DM of the Rings more, but this is still pretty good. I know some here know about this, but I thought I would throw it out there. I summon bigger fish!

Used to like Megatokyo until it started getting too serious and relationshipy. Pretty much happened when the guy Largo is based on left it, I believe. I still kind of liked it, but I'm not all that keen on a straight relationship tale. That stuff was okay when it was still mixed in with a lot of humor and game references. I still have a "Does anyone here speak l33t? t-shirt, heh. That and the rent your own Godzilla bits were my favorites, I think.

Someone already gave a shout out for XKCD, and I have to agree. Quite excellent... think this one still my favorite.

I also enjoy PHD, aka "Pretty Heavy and Deep," a reference to the other way of translating "BS, MS, and PhD." Been going for about 13 years now, so you can skip around a bit and see if you like what's still going on. Focuses some on teaching and grad school, but there is plenty of other humor... like what to do when you're short of money and hungry: simple! Find a place with free food on a table and pretend you belong!

To say it again, as I did when Dual Pistols was being tested... for all the people wishing the animations were more "westerny" or "realistic," the same would have been true of people wanting the gun-fu look if they had gone with a different style of animations. People like both.

If the devs announced they'd be getting rid of the gun-fu look for more "realistic" animations (not that they're this crazy), the howls would vibrate from every corner of the internet. And then there'd be some people going "that's cool, I like it."

The only option in a situation like this is to make things as well as you can, and add in customization when you can... which is what they're doing.

Indeed. Still confused as to why this isn't part of the Vanguard set you can purchase.

Even if they just gave a few nodes and/or skins to change on Granite form and the Kheldian forms, it would be a great improvement. I know it'd be a lot of work for sets that not everyone plays or has access to, but... that kind of thing does happen fairly often. Demon Summoning took I don't know how much work, and I'm not going to play it at all. I've lost interest in MMs, and I really don't want to boss demons around.

Kheldians are now also pretty much accessible to all. They unlock at level 20, which is not hard for anyone to get to (it wasn't that hard to do back at the start of the game, and it's faster now). We shouldn't hear stories about how it's not worth the effort anymore, as everyone can access them and play them, and adjusting these forms would be a bonus for everyone.

Okay, I was with you in saying that this is setup wrong and something should be done about it, as it is annoying.

But if you want the aura that badly... this is a fifteen minute thing we're talking about. You're still playing the game you presumably enjoy during this time... so I am thrown for a loop by this.

I don't even want to know how you would survive doing work at home or for a job that you don't enjoy and don't want to do... even if it is necessary. I certainly wish vacuuming or doing the dishes was as enjoyable as buying and selling on the market or respecing one of my characters (and those are probably the two activities I find most boring in CoX).

Rarely does a melee set with defense only have defense (Super Reflexes being an exception, but it has higher base defense and DDR to help with this... and I think this is also why it is not yet a Tanker set). Most of the time they have some lower resists added in, some +hp, that sort of thing. So, they can get to the defense cap more easily since they have inherent defense (and DDR... my Fire/Fire tank with some defense wishes he had DDR as well to help out on ITFs and the like), but they also have other abilities to build off of. Invuln and sets with similar powers can make Dull Pain recharge faster, many defense sets can benefit from Tough, etc.

Sets that only have resistance are at something of a disadvantage, actually. They're usually considered as more offensive (elec and fiery aura), so they have lower resists from the start. And having only resists means you will get pasted by every attack out there, as well as their accompanying debuffs. If you don't think this is an issue, try playing a Kheldian in Nova form, a Tanker in Fiery Aura, etc., against Council. Those Marksman and Galaxies will slow you up considerably. Now switch to a character with defense and go up in the same situation: you WILL notice a difference.

Resist sets also cannot do much to help out their resistance. Other than Tough, there aren't very many ways to do this (and Fiery Aura can still only get to 70% resists or so to S/L). So they can't capitalize on their strength very much. Whereas a set with more defense can easily capitalize on their strength, while easily having room to grab tough, focus on recharge bonuses, etc.

And therein is the huge difference. I could bother trying to get to the defense cap to S/L on my Fiery Aura Tanker, but I probably would have to give up the survivability I have built in for him against Psychic foes, have no recharge, etc. Defense based sets have a lot more options in their builds if they want to go for softcap. Builds without inherent defense don't have DDR to back it up, will have to work a lot harder to get to the softcap, and give up something to get to that point.

You can't paint it all rosy one way. Defense sets have their pros and cons, as do resist sets. That's not useless or necessarily an advantage, that's a balanced difference, part of what makes CoX so replayable on different characters.

Your earlier post made it sound like you wanted more "magic stuff" in GR's content, hence my reply. I can understand wanting more magicy costume stuff for certain. I like the magic booster (I think it's my favorite booster so far), but want more stuff in that trend, as well as more fantasy stuff. Could also use some more medieval style armor now, as well as more War Maces. I think with this, we have plenty of high tech armor and tight style sets.

Now, now, be nice. Gate, hero origin ATs get access to Patron sets too... check out that wiki page that got linked earlier.

Fiery Embrace had a lot of wonkiness after all the years, too. I'm guessing Castle could break out changes for that set that he was happy with (I was actually surprised they fit in with GR... now those changes are a big part of what I'm looking forward to with GR), hence their being in GR. I hope Gravity isn't far behind, as it's a great set, too, but I'm guessing a bit more work needed doing than Fiery Embrace warranted.

Cottage rule was already covered by someone else.

Phase powers are presumably working as intended, as they adjusted them to where they are in the past couple of years. Same for Fulcrum Shift on Controllers... it had its effects lowered. Not sure if more is intended, but it did get shifted down for them.

I knew I forgot one. Total Focus, Thunderstrike, Incandescent Strike and... some other ones all use that floating in the air animation. From a performance standpoint, I would love for it to be shorter, but I know that's not what this thread is about.

But yes, an alternate animation would be nice. As I said in my last post, I think the biggest thing that holds me back on some powersets is how many animations are re-used. Part of what I love about powersets that have been added in the last couple years is how they are opening up more animations and feel different. Expand on that!