Grey Pilgrim

Now, Viv. No being silly. You've known of our grumpy and cantankerous for quite some time, and they're obviously just having fun with this thread too. If nothing else, they like that their comments are being posted. As I said, post way... show those fuddy duddies what for!

And yes, Victory would be less fun if you did not post here or play there online. So don't let me hear this nonsense about you leaving again, or I just might get angry!

Please?



*added*

Here's another funny one... probably from Ham. "I reject this thread. __________________ Currently listening to Frank Black's Teenager of the Year" It's gray rep as well... do you get that when someone with rep turned off rates you? *goes to see who this Frank Black is*

*looks at Arcana suspiciously* Are you SURE you don't work for NCSoft? Because statements like these are at the level of what a developer should do when they are looking at their game, not a player. Heh.

It's a pity there isn't an option for the heroes, either. How come villainside gets all the dynamic content? Devs must hate heroes!

Actually, I was kind of wondering if there was a way to get to your double sooner and save him in the heroside arc. I was a little uncertain which way he was, and when I got to the room he was in it blew up and I zoned out before I had a chance to reach him. I didn't know if that was the default when you reach him like that, or if I needed to be faster. Guess there's no option, there.

Really? That's funny... not sure why they joked like that when handing out negative rep, but whatever. This thread certainly did need more cowbell!

We're probably also running into some definition issues. "Tankmage" is usually used to show something is broken and unbalanced, with nothing to challenge it at all... part of me would quibble if a Hibernate cycle or bubble equates to Tankmagery, as you were challenged by something enough that you needed to "hide" for a bit. To my mind, a Tankmage flattens opposition and receives none in return.

But yeah... Paladins. Not sure if they're still that way, but there was an annoying one that kept trying to gank my Troll mage when he was resting. I'd beat him to where he had to bubble constantly, then run off like the cowardly backstabber he was. I'm not sure they are like that anymore, since the one time I played WoW more recently my own Paladin couldn't do the same so much.

I leveled a Shield Tank well before the buff. It was awesome then and I devastated a mob by leaping in with Shield Charge and following up with Foot Stomp. It's crazy sick now. However, as others like me have pointed out, even if it gets reduced to reasonable levels, it is STILL GOING TO BE POWERFUL. Just not broken powerful.

So level up a Shield character whenever you want. It's a fun set and works well all the way around.

I know you're bringing up Oil Slick just because, but it doesn't apply. There are many things Castle is doing, and he does have to prioritize. Hopefully Fiery Aura and Oil Slick are up there on his list, at least.

Except for Moment of Glory, of course. For sake of completeness. That's much more of a moment now, though it is an awesome moment.

This is why people are getting frustrated with you. You completely ignore things that are being told to you. Let me recap what I said before. Fiery Aura wasn't nerfed into the state it was now. Burn was pretty much the only power in the set that was overly good, whereas other parts of the set made no sense at the start of the game (and still don't). Putting most of the mez protection into Burn was silly, and adjusted when the devs wisely moved those mez protection powers into toggles (so Fiery Aura wasn't the only set that suffered from this).

Also, other parts of the set have been improved over time, Healing Flames being the most notable one.

The other points of Fiery Aura that hold it back beside Burn (Consume's long recharge, lack of -kb and -immobilize, Fiery Aura's odd buffing capabilities) still exist from its original design. Yes, Fiery Embrace used to last even longer, but its not being as helpful to non-Fiery Melee users still existed. In a nutshell, it didn't benefit from the work of the current design team. Castle's ability is seen all over Shields and Willpower, as they are overall well-designed, balanced, and don't suffer from powers that no one would want to take (or make people wonder why they don't balance with other powers, like I do with Consume and Burn).

And that's my point. There is a balancing design behind the game with the current devs. I only wish all the sets had benefited from the same kind of setup at the start of the game. To bring it back around to Fiery Aura, it hasn't received any nerfs in years... it's just been slowly improving over the years, and I hope now Castle can finally put it where it needs to/should be.

It's coming, Zammy boy. Look out what you wish for.

Been slowly formulating an idea, and I'll work on it some this week around grading finals, woo.

Thank goodness it isn't JUST a matter of opinion. Castle and co. do have balancing points: it comes out in the game and in their posts. Sure, there are higher performers, but most of the ATs and powersets work quite well with each other. If you're honestly thinking it's just a matter of opinion, that speaks largely to many of the problems you are having.

Fiery Aura had a lot of issues from the start, and has been adjusted positively a lot over the years. It no longer has to get its mez protection from Burn (other than Immobilize, but Combat Jumping makes a lot more sense here), Healing Flames has been buffed, and Temperature Protection is actually choosable now. I would agree that the overpowered quality of Burn made many people forget the other issues in the set, though, and that Burn was overly nerfed.

However, I think Shields as a set works quite well and has none of the issues that Fiery Aura did or currently has. When arguing for improvements to Fiery Aura (Consume's recharge, Fiery Embrace, the state of Burn, KB and immobilize protection), it's quite fair to point out that the newer sets like Willpower and Shields have none of those issues and discrepancies. Seriously, Fiery Aura still shows that it's an opening powerset in the game and that it had an overpowered attack that was nerfed.

The changes to Invuln a few issues back pretty much rounded out its issues (though I do wonder if it could use a little Regen somewhere), but Fiery Aura still needs it. It is not in the same boat as Shields, however.

Elude is not the only part of the equation, however. Ice Tankers can get to the def cap as well, can pick up higher resists, and have higher HP as well. Access to Dull Pain and Hibernate make it even better.

SR pretty much only has Elude to turn to if it starts hitting the fan... Heal Self can only do so much (and if you're at the point where you need it, you may not be able to fire it off). Sure, SR is quite resilient, but it can quickly turn around if you get hit (and it does happen, even at the def cap). Not as much of an issue for an Ice Tank.

And yes, well-played and built Scrappers can survive a lot- but I would still want a well-played tanker for picking up aggro.

Teaching can and does have its rough points, but there are good things, too. I have students occasionally interview me for a class assignment, and they usually ask why I'm a teacher. And I can honestly say I don't feel like many other jobs let me affect the world as much as I can as a teacher. It's not for everyone, but I really do enjoy doing it.

And ha, I had somebody comment on that same post (via rep), incredulously exclaiming over how I said I'm like Castle. I only said I figure he reacts to criticism the same way I do, from what I have seen. Werner said he'd just ignore it, but Castle obviously isn't always able to, nor am I. I would guess it's because he cares, but that is obviously a guess. Ugh.

Another point about SD and SOs to point out is that a Shield Tanker can almost get to the soft cap with SOs and the right power selections (you might even be able to get there and I'm just forgetting a power selection). 42.7% without even using an inspiration. So I doubt the devs are going to up the defense levels on Shields at all, they do want us to work a bit to get to the cap. Not sure how much the devs can separate the numbers for a set between ATs... I forget how the mechanics of that work right now (brain haze from grading).

You could possible argue for a bit more resists to the set, but I doubt it would even get that. Even if Shield Charge gets reduced to what Castle posted earlier (which is what... still the levels it was at for Scrappers and Tankers when it came into the game), SC and AAO are still great offensive options, and they need to be offset somewhere.

It's been around longer than I17, and there have been other threads about it (I would also imagine it's been bugged before, too). I know I have posted about it in other threads. It's a bit awkward looking, too, so it would be better for it to work right as well.