Haecceity

As a Premium player, it should not be possible for me to use up one of my character slots unlocking a character that has multiple locks in place. It should be necessary to remove ALL OTHER LOCKS before one of my character slots is used up.

Why? Because Customer Support has no way to undo the unlock and give you your slot back in the event that you cannot or will not do what's required to remove the other locks.


I would not be surprised if this has been mentioned before, so please don't bother linking me to another thread because I will ignore you. I've never spent a lot of time on the forums, and I don't intend to start now, but CS always tells me to post my suggestions here, so that's what I'm doing.

My whole point in saying LFG isn't working is that the way people find teams has not changed a bit from the way people found teams before LFG. In fact, it's been a step BACK because people have largely stopped using the "Find Members" list, a much more helpful tool.

Let's go ahead and ignore the fact that LFG does a whiz-bang job of forming MINIMAL teams when used as designed. Very few players want to start any kind of TF/SF or Trial with a minimal team. Can we agree on that? So ...

BEFORE LFG:

1. The leader would advertise in /broadcast or a global channel that a team was forming and looking for more members.

2. The leader would individually invite each member to join the team.

3. All members had to gather in the same zone before the TF/SF or trial could be started.

AFTER LFG:

All of the above, except now there is the additional step of joining the queue, waiting for the queue to do whatever it does, then waiting for all members to accept the queue prompt.

So really, LFG has added nothing but extra steps and extra frustration.

And still you contend that it's working as intended? They intentionally implemented a system that makes starting a TF demonstrably more difficult than it used to be? Forgive me, but I have my doubts.

Please do let me know if there's something about using LFG I'm not aware of ... something that is actually different from the way teams were formed in the olden days. Unless you can do that, I'd go so far as to say they should remove the LFG queue altogether, as in practice it accomplishes absolutely nothing.

Thanks for your extremely helpful comment.

However, this is not a suggestion, nor is it a dead issue. This is a system that is not working and needs to be fixed. We've had it for nearly a year now, and it's never done its job properly.

I don't see anything wrong with reviving the call to make this tool function in a way that will actually be helpful to players.

I know you might say it's working in theory, but if you look at the way people actually use it, LFG is 100 percent fail. I may be making a lot of assumptions here, but it seems to me that the LFG tool was built with the intention of helping single players form teams. If so,

LFG IS NOT WORKING AS INTENDED.

As things stand now, people advertise for teams, mostly in /help chat (which clutters up the channel for people who actually want help). Then, only after they've gathered a full team, they queue up and go.

So in practice, LFG has not added any "quality of life" benefit because players still have to advertise for groups, still have to be in the same zone to queue, and it's generally impossible to recruit mid-trial if people drop out until you go below the minimum.

To me, this is the opposite of how it should happen. If the LFG interface did its job properly, a single player would queue up for the trials he or she was interested in, then the server would match people up and send them into trials, cutting out the need to advertise.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN:

1. The queue system should add people to any appropriate team that is below MAXIMUM capacity, not below minimum as it is now.

2. The "lock" button should actually lock the team so that the queue does not add more players no matter what. Add the option to unlock it if the team falls below minimum capacity. I'm not entirely clear what this button does now.

3. I realize there's a concern that people might get badges even though they weren't present for the whole trial. But guess what? People often do trials for reasons other than badges. The correct implementation is to make it so people who join in progress are not eligible for badges. Just make sure you put in a warning dialog when someone has the "join in progress" option enabled: "WARNING: If you join an in-progress event, you will not be eligible for badges. (Continue/Cancel)"

4. Maybe there should be a toggle that lets you wait for a full team. In other words, when the queue is starting a fresh team, it will match up candidates as normal, but if anyone has selected the "full team" option, it will not start the trial until it has collected the maximum number of players.

An alternative to option 4 would be to let it start with the minimum and put the onus on players to advertise for more during the trial, telling people to enable the "join in progress" option.

"Decreasing foes' debuffing abilities" means decreasing the foes' ability to debuff your teammates. It refers to powers that cure or give resistance to Hold, Immobilize, etc. It doesn't mean you have debuffs yourself (though obviously some Defenders do).

I think heal and rez would fall under a broad definition of "buff" as they directly (not indirectly) improve a hero's ability to remain in a fight.

So really, up until now, no Defender power set has had fewer than two buff powers (Storm), and Storm was previously considered to be the least Defender-ish of the power sets. (In my experience, Stormies have a lot harder time keeping teammates alive than other Defenders for this very reason.) The point is, if you don't have any means of directly aiding your teammates, you aren't Defending; you are Controlling.

Also note that when a Defender set is heavy on the debuffs, it always contains at least one toggle power. Toggles are generally more useful than click powers, which is yet another reason Trick Arrow is so ridiculous.

Face it, this set was doomed from its very conception. They are trying to force a square peg into a round hole. People in the Training Room pointed out a more appropriate hole (Blaster Secondary), and the developers agreed, but I guess it was too late, or too much work, or something.

My biggest problem with this set is that Defenders are supposed to be the BUFF archetype. It says so in the manual, right next to the words "Defender Primary."

This set has absolutely nothing to do with buffing; it is a watered-down debuff power set -- actually more of a SUPPORT set, which would place it as a Blaster secondary. Which is where they should have put it ... could have put it, before they pushed this issue live. Now it's too late.

I will never play a TA Defender, and I will do my very best not to group with any TA Defenders. It is a gross misconception, a lie even, to claim that this set has anything to do with what a Defender is supposed to do. If I am looking for a Defender to BUFF my team, the last thing I want is a watered-down Controller.

Even if they "fix" the damage they did with the nerf, it will still not be a Defender power set.

Why am I not surprised to see people actually complaining about this bonus damage Blasters were given without anything having been taken away? Keep in mind Blasters also got a nice health bonus as well, so being below 50% isn't quite as dangerous as it used to be.

True, Defiance isn't something you're going to want to use intentionally all the time. It would be far too powerful if you could do that. As described, it's supposed to be a last-ditch adrenaline-rush sort of thing -- a chance to pull your bacon out of the fire at the last minute.

I don't use it on purpose, but it has saved my life more than once, and I am very glad to have it. My sincere thanks to the developers for a clever idea that has been well-implemented.