Leo_G

Lol n00bs

I can get a lvl 50 in a week or two and I often don't play the game at all but yeah, I turn off XP so I can farm. Farm content, farm merits, farm tickets, farm badges etc. So it takes longer to get to 50 sometimes.

Speaking of turning off xp, I wanted to try Night Ward on my 29 Rad/Dark Blaster so I turned off xp and farmed First Ward first, doing the whole arc that leads up to NW. My difficulty is set at -1/x4 no bosses which is just enough mobs to get loads of inspirations (and salvage to sell) but when I got to the last mission, it didn't get me to lvl 30.

I still started the intro into NW, doing the mission to free Katie but...it seems those Night Ward mobs don't have a lvl 29 equivalent so...the mission turned out to be +1/x4 >_>

That sucked so bad, it's traumatized me and I'm actually a bit afraid of those mobs now I scared to go in NW

Anyway, sharing aside, I have expressed the desire for 'linked alts' for a while now. Basically they're alternate characters (build, AT, incarnate powers, etc) but with shared/linked accounting status (name, inf, auction, badges, etc). The question isn't is it balanced but how it'd work. Would I only have to log into one and there be an NPC that basically logs one out and another in? Or would I have to log out myself and pick the character from the list?

Either or, I feel it'd kind of harken to my days on FFXI. While the game itself was a painful mess, it did have the ability to roll an avatar and that avatar would be able to do anything; level lots of crafts, be a lot of different jobs and basically be you in the community. But I'd hardly count our alt-friendly environment as such since no one can see your global unless they search for it and it's difficult to actually pin a specific character to a specific player since there's nothing to feel common to.

Not that I'd want to duplicate that feel exactly, but I feel less and less like I have an in-game presence the more alts I make. The closest thing to such a presence is having an account on the forums.

I think the snipe mechanic was targeted wholly at players that either have and use their snipe currently or wanted to take the snipe but didn't have the room in their build for it.

Even with the change, I don't feel if a player's build didn't have the power slots to take snipe before, that this will suddenly require their build to shift. It *will* make it tougher of a choice to skip or take the snipe somewhat, though.

And I say this fully aware that not all Def or Corr take Leadership now and fewer take and fully slot Tactics. Just because a support AT *might* be able to leverage insta-snipe with pool power selection doesn't mean they'd want to or even have the room to or even desire the damage the insta-snipe provides.

Remember, snipes are single target and cost damn near as much as a targeted AoE attack.

Right, because it's rather irrelevant if Def with insta-snipe can push close to a Blaster without...if the Blaster can then take advantage of insta-snipe on teams and put more space between them and other support ATs.

Beside that, usually support ATs aren't focused on DPS which further widens the difference between them.

IMO, even if your defender or corruptor leverages insta-snipe more, it's only because you're supporting the team while doing it. Support have a tough job, you see. They have lots of things to be concerned with in an encounter so giving them an offensive toy to play with is, more or less, making their job just a bit more fun (if they so choose to use it). Saying Blasters should benefit more or equal sounds, more or less, like one expects Blasters to have *ALL* of the toys and have *all* of the fun and equal or more fun on top of all the fun they have now since they have no one to worry about except themselves.

I'm not speaking on the devs' behalf, this is all just my opinion of the reaction to these buffs but I feel they seem fine and better than the alternative (just make the snipes standard attacks) because that would certainly require a change in everyone's build rather than being optional.

If they change the requirement, I have no qualms with either. I wouldn't want it to be trivially easy though, but it'd be nice if equivalent -Def on the target also triggered the insta-snipe. Since -def is the same as ToHit buff, and it'd give -Def a useful purpose in the course of the game.



Firstly, I don't think this is chiefly a buff to ranged sets' single target damage. This is a QoL improvement to snipes and not much else.

Secondly, it's already shown that your stance against this particular change isn't quite there. That this will stifle other justified changes to sets? Well, short ranged blasts are getting a buff...Voltaic Sentinel was talked about getting a buff...nukes are getting a retooling...they even talked about Devices in the threat about the coffee talk and specifically about Time Bomb being retooled. Dual Pistols is having animation work done and the devs mentioned, if the changes to snipes push performance up by a wide margin, the sets without snipes will get a buff to keep them competitive.

If you have concerns or complaints about the snipe change, why bother with arguments like 'this might keep other things from being changed'? That's already been proven untrue.

In the coffee talk that demonstrated insta-snipe, an orange ring appears around the snipe power when the corresponding ToHit requirement is met. All you need to do is have the power in your tray and when you get enough bonuses, you'll see the power is lit up.

You don't have to monitor your attributes to see that you have insta-snipe available.


I didn't say you were over-dramatic, I said *I* can be over dramatic but then I also said it was more or less to make the discussion more enthralling and more likely to elicit response and discussion (perhaps said in fewer words).

I said your stance seems more weighed by emotion and bias. To me, these snipe changes don't sway me one way or the other. It doesn't make them great powers and if it were deemed that blast set snipes *MUST* be very potent and a never-skip power, I feel the devs may have swung and missed. That is to say, I'm not particularly for the ToHit requirement but I'm not against it either. I can see things being changed, like the amount of ToHit, the sources of ToHit (make it so BU gives insta-snipe without needing to slot for ToHit or at least not as much investment as it would currently take) or change the requirement all together. But as they are now, the changes aren't unevenly weighed against Blasters because Blasters were not the target of the buff. People that take snipes were the target of the buff.



That's why your stance is corrupted. Defenders and Corruptors don't get perma-fast snipe for free either. Everyone will have to change their approach if they are going to exploit insta-snipe, so that you think I'm saying Def and Corr deserve more is only valid if you think they deserve more situationally aware powers. Blasters can take and use insta-snipe but they have other non-situationally aware means of doing damage.

The only over-arching balance concern I'd even be worried about is if this change improves Def/Corr DPS leaps and bounds beyond Blasters. Beside that, the only thing the changes should account for is whether the snipes become a more fun tool to use than it currently is.

Well, all things considered, what Blaster blast set has a snipe but also doesn't have Aim (or equivalent)? Assault Rifle. Okay, what about for Defenders/Corruptors? Assault Rifle, Dark Blast, Psychic Blast. If you want to make an argument about equivalency why not bring up an argument like *that*? That actually has more ground than complaining that some Blasters and some Defenders and some Corruptors can get insta-snipe perma while some Blasters and some Defenders and some Corruptors can't. Because whether you can achieve perma-insta snipe is irrelevant to what the snipe changes are there for. Having a means to achieve that state without pools or outside buffs *might* be more a concern.

And I say, people that are unwilling to alter their power usage to the circumstances of an encounter should *NOT* be balanced around and the devs should toss their grievances aside when balancing the game.

The devs should be focused on making a GAME and a GAME is not repeatedly pressing the exact same button configuration over and over again until you get to the point you have to push an arrow key...which even then is looked down upon by so many for no apparent reason but some foolish hunger for fast rewards.

If I could, I'd spit on the quoted opinion and kick sand in its face...Just saying

Points to Dual Blades (where the sequence of attacks grants different effects and misses are not factored in so must be dealt with on the fly), Street Justice/Staff Fighting/Water Blast (where certain attacks grant points that power up other attacks and misses are not factored in), Titan Weapons (where attacks not only animate slower in certain situations but are completely unavailable to use in certain situations) and Stalkers (Assassin's Focus changes the potency of Assassin's Strike if you're not hidden and the status of your Focus will change on the fly within ever 10 seconds depending on animation times).

So that there, that argument of yours, is *NOT* supported by the developer's goals.


Well, they would have to overslot for ToHit + add a Kismet to achieve it which is rather specific and off the wall. I know on the few Defenders I have and the Corruptors that have it, I didn't purposefully slot over ED cap for ToHit just to get close to 22%...then add a Kismet to close the rest.

Frankly, I feel your motives are overly emotionally driven. Yeah, I can make my posts sound dramatic but they're usually to make them more interesting to read. But you seem to express a position far more weighted in emotion than particularly bias.

The point of the changes to blast sets is, they are to help blast ATs. Defenders and Corruptors are included in that and the snipe changes are meant to be a buff for them too. They're still a buff for Blasters, but then Blasters have never needed a high damage single target attack...they have other options for something like that and adding another option, while helpful, isn't their only option. Corrs and Def don't have other options...they only get their 1 attack set. Which isn't to say the snipe changes are for them or they deserve more damage, it's just the snipes will actually make more of a difference for them...similarly to how insta-Assassin's Strike helped Electric Melee and Spines a lot more than it did Martial Arts and Energy Melee.

Your perspective is corrupted because you think the snipe changes are suppose to have weighted buffs for different ATs depending on their state in the game. That is not what the snipe changes are for. Arbiter Hawk even said during that coffee talk that these changes were aimed to make snipes more fun and usable for people that like snipes (paraphrasing: it was more like 'these changes are to make snipes fun'). Although he did not say such: By extension, these changes aren't to buff everyone but to buff people that like and use snipes. Most likely, those aren't the twink min/maxers looking for the highest DPS...that's probably why, if they aim for exploiting the new shiny, the returns probably won't be worth the cost of investment and will be dropped by those min/maxers in the long run.

Other changes to blast sets (sets without snipes were mention, Dual Pistols was mentioned, Electric Blast's Voltaic Sentinel was also mentioned, we now know nukes are crashless) are in the works too. What the goals of those changes are is another question ripe for the next online coffee talk.

Well at least you admit my argument as superior. Thanks!

Yeah, I don't think the majority of the posters in this thread comprehend what the OP is asking for (no surprise...I didn't either).

But yeah, some *variant* on what the OP is asking for would be something I've been asking for myself, or like FredrikSvanberg said, if I could just name characters in slots 4-7 of server X as [insert name]. I'd be happy with that, so long as I can have my character and use his name for my other characters on the same server.

And changes are in the works to improve their survivability.

Also, don't pretend you don't know what the term 'exploit' means in the context of a video game.

And I say exploit, Strato, because it's a meta buff that the player wishes to collect on even in situations where the buff isn't needed. Like double stacked Rage, perma-dom and the like. It's not a game exploit, but it's a gameplay exploit: an attempt to overpower the game even when one isn't required to.

I don't have beef with anyone that wants to go with double stacked rage or perma their hasten, but that's not what those powers were designed for (which isn not the point I'm making) which can trivializing the content and/or bypass other balancing goals of that or other powers/ATs.

It's up to the devs to decide what's an exploit or not, but anyone can see when something is a gameplay exploit...like when someone repeats the same unblockable move over and over in a fighting game...it's just cheap and dumb but the game leaves you the option to be cheap and dumb.

Actually, now I think I know, after reading my post, why people seem adamant about arguing the snipe fix. It's not because they can take advantage of the changes without needing to change their builds, it's that they can't EXPLOIT the changes by twinking their builds.

Key words there: EXPLOIT and twinking.

Or or or...(okay, just hear me out on this...it'll be long and may be rather confusing so bear with me here...)....you can just take the snipe power, slot it as a regular attack and....use it. No change to the rest of the build or powers chosen.

I mean, Snipes are great tools to use for pulling solo...I know I have recently on my Rad/Dark. Sure, you can slot a ranged attack for range to get the same effect or you can 'joust' some distance after a ranged attack, but snipes are still good for when you only one to deal with some of the foes or one of them and want breathing room before they turn and shoot back at you. And even then, if you have Aim, you can occasionally get a quick snipe in mid-combat for some extra fast and good damage.

Then, if you join a team with a SoA or defender or corruptor or tanker or whoever that has ToHit buffs for the team, you suddenly have always-fast-snipe for no extra cost but to take and slot an extra attack. And beyond all that, all those yellow inspirations that you may tend to ignore or just chomp on to get them out of the way (or combine them into something else) suddenly have more a purpose as they can also get you a quick sniping attack.

Seriously, I wonder if some of you people arguing about the snipe changes have any perspective at all. I'm actually looking forward to testing these changes and have rolled multiple new corruptors and blasters in preparation and most of them (namely, not the Arch/Dev) will not have perma-snipe solo...even the corruptors. Why anyone would see this as some travesty is beyond me as, with these changes, more likely than not, you will see more players throwing around ToHit buffs because now they actually matter. Whether it's achievable solo or not seems wholly irrelevant since it's going to require a change in the build to make work (how many Defenders run overslotted Tactics now anyway?). Holding up that change, big or small, as the ignition factor against the change seems dumb when you inherently *DO NOT* need to change anything to take advantage of it.

My post wasn't explaining why Doms were buffed, only that Seeds of Confusion on old style doms wasn't as obviously strong as on new style doms. IOs buffed everyone. Its effects on domination was only an outlier for solo perma-dom. Perma dom was possible before IOs.


I would not agree. To me, what made Doms a different AT is the change from their duality nature. When the Jekyll and Hyde mentality was stripped from the AT is how the AT became something that it wasn't originally.

Now, Doms are powerful all the time. Their damage is high without circumstance and their control adequate to eliminate threats and aid a team greatly with a checkmate button when things get hairy.

Again, IOs buffed everyone and its effects on Doms was just that it gave the devs reason to eliminate the duality nature for equality. If IOs altered Doms, it wasn't because it buffed them more than anyone else but rather gave reason for shifting the theme of the AT from what it once was.

I would have sworn we were long past this whole 'ZOMG PERMADOMZXZ!1' phase. Yeah, domination all the time is nice, but hardly needed. If we're talking about the strength of the AT with IOs vs without, that's an unsolicited 'duh' because that's practically true for any AT. But I've played practically all types of characters with and without IOs and I can say, my Plant/Thorn dom can and has been soloing at x8 since he was SO level thanks to Seeds. Don't need IOs for that.

*sigh* What is it with people like you, anyway? You're so gung-ho to defend anything from any nerf, huh? People like you are just completely illogical to me.

IMO, I'm not requesting the devs nerf this or that, you won't see me PMing devs to get them to listen to my opinions to fix whatever the forums are complaining about. However, I *WILL* speak my mind about the game and I (and many many others) feel Seeds of Confusion, among other powers (Drain Psyche, Rage, etc) are out of line. I don't care *IF* you whine and complain about 'don't nerf me!!', if a power is obviously outside of the scope of balance, you're a two-faced liar if you think everyone should just whistle and pretend nothings wrong.

People like that make me sick. If you see someone is in need of help, is hurting or being cheated you don't just stand by and let it happen. You just. Don't.

He did beat Mr. Roper from Three's Company...

...and almost Bruce Lee.

They're not omnipotent, but they're potent indeed

And I'm incline to think the same way. Most of the upheaval about the Tanker <> Brute balance concerns tend to float around the specific circumstances rather than the actual issue of if they are or not...like people feel Peacebringers are so horrible but they do a good portion of damage with lots of survival options and without the necessity of investing an arm and a leg to do any of it...

Or, for the life of me, I don't see why people are hammering Stalkers' performance. How big a difference is there between them and Scrappers and yet Stalkers are primarily focused on ST rather than AoE and spend more endurance for their ST prowess all while being less survivable on paper.

All in all, it's a wash because nothing is going to be balanced exactly the same way because everything should or does have options and capabilities supplementary to their primary focus. You have to consider *ALL* of the AT's points not just the arbitrary similarities like damage and resistance caps.

*shrugs* I guess people just find it easier that way than to think of alternatives to help or broaden a character's capabilities. I don't care one way or the other...if they lower brute's caps, I won't care or notice as even on my Elec brute, foes that deal energy damage still will practically do nothing to me...heck, if it's adaquate for a Stalker or Scrapper to have 75% res to energy and still feel very sturdy, what makes Brute so special that 85% is unsatisfactory. On the other hand, it will matter next to nothing that my Kinetic Tanker has a bit higher damage cap as my tankers are rarely focused on DPS anyway...they're more often worried about positioning and range rather than clicking the next attack that's recharge...that already lowers DPS more than any arbitrary increase in cap will account for.

Probably true...but the devs did say Tankers are probably a good bet on the next AT to have a look-see. I'm inclined to believe, if the AT needs help, it's to make it more fun and attractive as an option compared to Brutes, Scrappers and Stalkers. Not necessarily in the realm of outright performance, but perhaps in an indirect way. Just take the Snipe changes as an example: Oddly enough, everyone keeps clamoring about how the new insta-snipe doesn't help Blasters enough...despite not realizing outright boosts to Blaster *damage* is probably not the goal of the changes (that's what the secondary remodel is for). The snipe change is to make snipes usable and fun to more players. No, it's not about chasing insta-snipe, it's that, as a situational power, snipes will have more applicable use to a larger group of players. People that take, use and like snipes now will have *more* fun and players that previously did not like snipes will have some avenue to make the attacks more interesting and useful.

Same as a possible buff for Tankers, something to make the job of Aggro manager or possibly give the good tankers another avenue of protecting allies or even outright building mechanics to make them stand out in end-game/trial content. No, they probably won't measure out to as much damage as a Brute in such circumstances, but it'd make a player stop and think twice "Should I really roll this as a Brute over a Tanker?" namely for the options given up.

I'm surprised you used Refrigerant but not Freon, although I'm not sure if Freon isn't safe to use because of copyright issues.

If it's safe, Dr/Prof/Doc/Professor/Doctor Freon. Of course, Freon is one type of refrigerant originally manufactured by DuPont and is known for it's non-toxicity and widely used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

In the matrix, the oracle could tell things about what would happen while the one, someone obviously more powerful, could not.

Like I was mentioning, combat prowess doesn't always equal plot prowess and vice versa.

Unless there's a mission demonstrating your fortunata reading his/her foes' minds into defeat, who's to say who's better at reading thoughts. Reading thoughts is not a combat oriented skill and therefore is not intrinsic to your character's powers because no such mechanics are available in this game.

That isn't to say I'm saying you don't have a leg to argue on, I'm just saying it's a plot-driven point all the same that our characters are in the same 'I always win' plot point position.

Because, when IOs came out in i9, Dominators were the only AT with Plant Control not to mention Dominators were practically a different AT back then...they had lower ranged and melee damage mods, Domination didn't recharge so quickly, it wasn't as easy to build and things like mez protection, being usable while mezzed and the ability to perma it were things that were added features later.

All in all, Seeds of Confusion on old style doms, while a decent signature control power but only moderately above performance compared to the other sets the AT was released with.

The ability to use and abuse domination along with the proliferation of the set and the empowering of Doms helped highlight just how out of line SoC is.

It'd be kinda like if old 'only crit on slept or held foes out of hide' Stalkers got Titan Weapons. It probably wouldn't make any waves in its performance beyond the steep limits of the AT. With all the changes they have now? I'd say Titan Weapons on a Stalker would be *the most* effective melee character, bar none.

Personally, I'd like some solid negative sort of like how we have hard light and solid ki blasts.

Even the Warshade's energy seems somewhat gaseous. Of course, coloring Rad or Energy using the dark palette works visually...

If I were to add to the powers' concepts, I'd promote two sets: Light Steams = Energy and Fire damage with basically laser-like waves (mechanics pending) and Death Sickles = Dark and Lethal damage that take the shape of sharp angular blades of darkness (mechanics pending).

You can probably recolor either to fit various concepts like shadows or even 'sharp wind' in the case of the dark example.

And if nothing else, concept wise, Orbital Satellite Beams for tech guys.

Understandable...but all things considered, Penny Yin came about doing the same thing. Are we going to hate any character that comes along and claims the title of 'Most Powerful [insert]' or are we looking at the circumstances? While Katie may be a particularly strong, headstrong and obnoxious psychic, does that really undermine your Fortunata who can wade through fields of apparitions and come back to tell the tale (while little lady Katie goes *kaboom*(read: dies))?

Ironically, I've been playing First Ward myself namely because I've never gotten around to playing Night Ward and since the one I had planned to play it outleveled it before I ever knew about it, it took a while to come up with a character story reason (and a new character) that explains this.

Playing through FW on a magic robot, I find Katie cynically humorous. Beyond that, with the interaction of the Apparitions possibly affecting the resolve and actions of everyone, Katie herself has the main strength of being a good telepath and a skilled teleporter but she's hardly a fighter (combat prowess, not fist-fighter). I'm okay with that. Some people play 'plot device' because it can make things easier to explain and she dabbles in that field while being somewhat funny while doing it and doesn't take away from my characters who fulfill their own position as 'plot device'...but then that's a whole other beef I'd have with the story...that we can't lose. Even if we had the tech to write such branches into every story, it's the pain-in-the-*** playerbase that would get on my nerves with relentless whining that they don't want their heroes to fail.

Anyway, tangent off: It's fair and all to hold your opinions of the game and the story and the writers. But if you're looking for a remedy or a ray of sunshine to the every gray skies of lore and storytelling, it's near impossible to find and/or keep. I find, looking at media with the eye of a critic can really ruin your outlook on a lot of things. That's why I don't particularly care to critique people's stuff, their art, their writing or whatever if only because it feels like you have to be intentionally *looking* for something to comment on or critique rather than enjoying something for what it is.

A lot of people can and still have fun and/or enjoy things like games and movies, but I find I cannot. I watch a movie, laugh at the funny, cheer at the important good parts, love the action parts and then when it's over, put it down and walk away. I find myself enjoying the old content for what it was (although a lot of time it's more telling than showing) but at the end of the day, it was an excursion designed to burn some time. Burning more time complaining about it feels unproductive to me. Granted, I love discussing stuff and having a back and forth about such things (I can definitely see how Katie could be hated or how her dialog wouldn't work with certain types of characters) as that's more an interaction with those you're discussing with. But it's hard for me to go out of my way to really say if something's good or bad which is different from liking and disliking.

Another tangent: I found Dark Astoria to be 'meh'. I guess it's easier to feel it's so awesome because they put more at stake, but that doesn't automatically make things better.

Sorry, the power names are actuallyPiercing Rounds and Piercing Beam are powers in Dual Pistols and Beam Rifle respectively.

Basically, they're moderately powerful attacks (a notch lower than high damage powers like Blazing Arrow and Power Burst but a notch higher than mid damage powers like Aimed Shot and Power Blast) that also have a narrow cone that can hit up to 3 foes, most likely if they're standing in front of or behind the target you're aiming at.

With the new changes to Blast sets, I'd actually propose giving the set a crashing nuke of the PBAoE variety. I say that because, when all nukes that crash are changed in the upcoming update, crashing nukes will have the penalty removed while normalizing the recharge and damage. Basically, if you consider the tier 9 a crashing nuke now, after the update, it will end up crashless and hit harder than current crashless nukes however it will recharge slower.

I had an idea in the other thread to make the nuke like Shield Charge: a teleport nuke. If it were, it'd be usable at 'range' but do its damage in a PBAoE. Another change to crashing nukes is that, PBAoE crashing nukes will have faster recharges than ranged crashing ones...so Inferno will come up a bit quicker than Blizzard.

So, playing the angles, I'm aiming to get the best deal for this set's nuke

I don't think it's splitting hairs. Street Justice is more splitting hairs than anything and that set was still made.

If a new 'light' powerset were made, there is a lot more that can be done to make it different and attractive as a new set:

Theme:
-Holy, divine or just 'opposite of negative', is all up to interpretation of the user. But you can accomplish either and any of those with mechanics like doing extra damage to 'undead', lowering negative resist and damage or other types of effects vs those opposite the light.
-As such, a damage type can help set the theme.
-How such a set is targeted (is it AoE or ST and other effects mechanics) can make the set unique.

Looks:
-Already expressed how Energy, Rad, Beam are different in looks. A new set can simply look different. Tell me you'd be fine had the devs never bothered with Water Blast and let us keep going with Energy Blast being water. To put it simply, a new set will *LOOK NEW*. The particle fx and sounds will be of a higher quality than Energy or Rad (not that those look bad, but held up to Water, they don't look nearly as pretty).
-We don't have laser light or even 'emitted light' (like the Carnival of Light's staff PBAoE power). We can use a lot more non-hardlight looking light and you can pass them off as other stuff like heat beams or even shadow beams.