Kungas

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It's practical and much more efficient, but it's also much more boring.

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True. But the attacks that can have a slow animation time and still be effective are STILL flamboyant: the aoes. Claws desperately needed a good single target attack chain, and now it has one. I personally think the changes to the two powers are worth that.

And in my opinion, swipe looked less flamboyant than it looked like a participant in a sissy slap fight.

Slash is great. Strike is great. Swipe is even good.

Castle, any other developers who helped with this . . . I thank you. Artisan thanks you. The free people of the claws world thank you.

A buff to Masterminds that also gives some of those who zerg rush as much damage as possible a reason to apply some strategy. (Which isn't to denigrate those many masterminds who already did, mind you.)

I feel for those who fear for their medics, but I think even that will be workable. For the other sets, this should be golden.

I like it.

This will be an interesting tight-rope walk for me.

In terms of theme, origin, and the occasional roleplay - I'll probably be willing to take some sets, not others. No force in this universe will convince me that carrying around an Arachnos mace can be made to "fit" my characters. I would mostly feel like I was changing them to fit IT, which is not the way it should ever work. And it looks stupid. Mako's sets are a little better, but I'm having trouble imagining anything cheesier than tossing around ghost fish. I already hated the Coralax. That doesn't help.

On the other hand, I like most of the sets I hear about with Ghost Widow and Scirocco. They seem a little less thematically constrained, more likely to fit into a character based on that characters own origin rather than this tacked on patron crap. I'd probably take one of these, and slowly flay alive anyone who implies some Arachnos dolt gave them to me.

In terms of balance with heroes and fairness, of course, this is relatively lame. I doubt a gladiator like pet will make up for lacking so many of the best options heroes get AND the inability to switch pools. But I'll take them and hope a chance to change comes along later. Beats adding the leadership or fighting pool to every single squishy.

For the foreseeable future, people are going to be permanently locked into power pools that are by and large inferior to the hero versions - which are fully respeccable.

By this repetition of your usual mantra against whiners - are you implying that you think this is good and fair? Or just condemning all complaints? Or some third option?

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The thing is... Let's face it, the level 40 power pools aren't make or break powers. They're fluff, candy. They don't change the core of your character.

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Whenever an exemplar takes me below the level of Power Build Up, I want to weep. WEEP. Not to mention armors.

The problem is, this patron thing has found a way to get on the bad side of all sorts of players.

1. Content enthusiasts don't like it because they want their characters to complete as much content as possible, and this means there is a significant fraction they can't do so with.

2. Roleplayers and people who build characters by concept or are jealous of backgrounds don't like it because it forces their characters into a certain (subordinate!) mold.

3. Min/maxers and pvpers don't like it because it means they might end up with a subpar set, because the opportunity to test all entire sets is so arduous compared to the heroes ability to respec apps.

Against that, I've seen very few arguments in favor of the ideas. Some people want to be different from heroes, and some want decisions to have lasting consequences. Most defenses are more or less "Wait and see, it might not be that bad."

Me? I'm dismayed by the possible implications of both #s 2 and 3, and I'm wholeheartedly in favor of independent epic sets. I firmly believe that those who aren't willing to lock themselves into a patron and are willing to miss out on the patron content should be able to gain some form of APPS, just as the heroes did. I really LIKED the way hero pools were handled.

If patron pools can't take the competition, I would think it an indication that they were a bad idea in the first place.

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I don't think the choice is something that doesn't matter. By level 41 characters matter a lot. I can see why the devs want it to be this way, but I think they could save themselve a lot of grief if they offer generic, respeccable choices to go along with the Patron Pools.
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Please, please, PLEASE let this path be followed. If the patron idea is strong enough, it should be able to stand the competition - and as someone who likes both the ability to vary my powers and much prefers making my own character paths/concepts - this alternative would be great.

In other words, seconded!

You know, I probably wouldn't have posted in this thread, since I think obsessive badge collecting is the strangest thing CoH players do. I usually just get the acc powers and leave it at that.

But the entire argument against letting people who want this badge seems to come down to two points:

a) It might take development time.

b) You can't have everything you want.

Since the devs have willingly put development time, probably massively greater development time, in on a huge stylish dance club - I can't see how one mission added to one contact would really break their backs. Stick a portal mission at the end of some contacts list of missions, make the map identical to Outbreak, up the levels of the infected. ISn't that all it would take?

As for the latter, as a sometimes substitute teacher, you have my sympathy. But compared to the obviously HUGE amount of feeling the obsessive collectors are holding on this issue . . . it just doesn't justify denying them.

I don't understand why Isolator is so important - or why any badge without a power attached is so important. But the people who care most about badges, and there are a lot of them, want this.

Just let them have it.

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Does anybody have a good reason to play a Defender now? Anybody?

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Because all five of mine are still extremely fun, and two of them join my main corruptor as my favorite characters?

35-45. Other than that, I'm right there with ya.

I don't think they're on the content schedule that they'll maintain once CoV is complete. I always expected this issue to be CoVcentric - they're raising the level cap, after all. Ten new levels needs new zones, missions, and power sets for same. Just to get to anything like an equivalent status with CoH.

Once they can stop with the necessary CoV stuff, I think we'll see a better balance.

What SHOULD CoH be getting btw? I don't know if anyone could realistically expect a new CoH zone, when they have so many and CoV so few.

Newspaper mission tech? I have no idea how much work it would be to port it over, or whether it's planned for later, but would it be a satisfying addition if is possible?

You know, I've complained before. Sometimes, I've complained ALOT. When the nerf tally went on longer than the features list and tanks got kicked repeatedly in the googilies: I complained. Basically, when things came that were not well thought out, did nothing but hurt gameplay and (especially) were unblinkingly defended by the First Church of Cryptic anyway.

What's described here IS NOT THAT.

This is GREAT. First we get the kind of defense changes we've needed forever. THEN we (knock on wood), get the villainy put into City of Villains, as we've needed since that game launched. Third, costume pieces shared between games, which rights a great wrong.

New powersets and zones are GREAT, but just those three changes would be enough for me to check I7 off as a winner. If they're executed well, the Kushan is gonna be a happy camper.

Wait, brutes with havok punch? *swoons*

Break my joy, I break yo' face.

The role described here...

Controllers and Dominators and even Masterminds are much better at doing this (Shaving off part of a spawn and keeping it busy) than tanks are now.

Tanks now get to be horrible at the only job they do well.
Look at what Tankers are stuck with now. The damage dealers SHINE: Scrappers and blasters and stalkers are great at what they do. The buffers and debuffers and controllers shine! While the tank.... fulfills a very limited version of his function. The best tank in the world can't show out to the same extent of the other ATs. He's left with substandard offense, substandard defense (for the role he's asked to fill), and limited aggro controls.

Any regret I had over deleting all but one tank (Kept in retirement for sentimental reasons) just went out the window.

It amazes me that anyone still wants to be a tank now.

Please, please, PLEASE give this to ice tanks.

Paired with the increased damage debuff and the defense debuff resistance, ice tanks might actually be getting somewhere with this.

I've been outspoken and upset about the major league ABUSE that was handed to ice tanks.

For the high level game, I think this and the damage resistance inspirations truly will help. For those reasons, I salute these changes.

I'm not sure the pre 18 paucity of non s/l defense is justifiable. But I've regained some faith that the devs at least see the problems that we do.

At least some of the time.

Good change.

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Level 1 Sonic Siphon: [/color] [/b]By setting up a constant vibration within the body of your foe, you weaken his damage resistance. Affected targets will take more damage from successful attacks.

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Has anyone investigated whether this power is self stacking or not? The duration and recharge seems to allow for stacked castings, with hasten and recharges thrown in. Are the effects allowed to overlap?

It seems like an odd choice for an early game bread and butter power, especially with a GROUP -res debuffer available. But if it's self-stacking, it could be to Sonics what Siphon Power is for Kinetics - kinda cool early, but LOOK what it DOES to *AVs*!!

Unyielding is THE backbreaker for Invulnerability now. It's 5% damage resistance six slotted combines with six slotted passives for 29% resistance - FIFTEEN ADDED SLOTS used for less than ONE THIRD of incoming damage reduced. And the situation is even worse than that, because the absurd level of defense reduction now attached to Unyielding effectively cancels out the Invincibility defense buff unless you're in a VERY large crowd - the kind we're not supposed to seek out anymore.

Defender and Blaster app charged armor seems to be giving better energy resistance than invuln tankers can get now. Similar situations with Shadow Fall, Steamy Mist, and app dark armor.

With the non- Smash Lethal resists at this level and the extreme Unyielding defense debuff, Invuln tankers must now cherry pick smashing/lethal enemies, and avoid large teams at all costs. It is no longer viable to play one at the upper levels - too much non S/L damage, and the NEED For mez protection at those levels requires Unyielding, which then kills the defense from Invincibility that is also needed.

Upper level invuln tanks are now broken. They cannot function with the current Unyielding build. I would genuinely like to think the 5% is a mistake. THings MIGHT be better at 15%. I am absolutely certain I will not attempt to play my invuln tankers any more if this version goes live.