Lothic

For most people the only metric they use to decide if a Blaster powerset is "good" or "bad" is raw DPS output, period.

While there's nothing technically wrong with that point of view it does tend to make people think that anything with smaller numbers must be considered broken and/or less desirable. Apparently it's too hard to think "outside the box" and realize that some powersets operate with differing mechanics which minimizes the need for pure DPS.

Nobody said that Electric Blast was a trivial set to play with and I would very much agree that it takes a good, optimized build to make its Endurance Drain strengths become effective. I just think that far too many people either give up too early on Electric Blast or aren't willing to adapt to it and quickly jump to the "it must be broken and needs to be fixed" mindset.

Bottomline I'm simply not convinced Electric Blast needs more that the I24 improvements at this point. People who want to see the "big numbers" are free to play with the powersets that generate them.

The simple argument against improving Electric Blast is that it'd probably make another Blaster powerset become the new "worst" powerset in the minds of the players. Then people will start suggesting that whatever the new "worst" powerset is should be improved as well. It would be a never ending vicious cycle that I'd rather our Devs not waste too much time on - people have to accept there's always going to be a "worst" Blaster powerset no matter what the Devs do. The only logical conclusion to that kind of tinkering would be to make all Blaster powersets effectively cookie-cutter identical.

That's of course assuming you actually accept the faulty premise that Electric Blast is currently too "broken" to play with to begin with. While I would certainly not turn down any reasonable improvements I would also argue that it's not as broken as most people seem to think it is. If it was the Devs would have likely done something with it within the last 8+ years.

There's a difference between not liking something and proving that it's fundamentally broken enough to need Dev attention. If I had to guess the Devs are going to need far more evidence to show that a change is needed here, especially when there are plenty of other powerset options available and they are ALREADY giving us major universal Blaster improvements in I24. Don't like how Endurance Drain works to offset the need for maximal DPS? Don't play Electric Blast. *shrugs*

The only real problem to adding "trump" cards like this to the Super Packs would be that the Devs would probably (for balance purposes) have to make them relatively rare. Then with these cards being rare you'd have the usual complaints of "we don't like having to buy lots of packs to get the cool rare items" or the "we don't want to have to pay for Super Packs to get to in-game content we want" arguments.

I think this all mostly boils down to the age-old idea of "do you play characters for their concepts" or "do you play characters that are geared towards maximizing their in-game stats"? If the main thing that matters to someone is max DPS then they're not likely going to play an Electric Blaster - but then again that same person is probably not going to play most Defender or Controller types either. *shrugs*

Electric Blast not being as good (at least DPS-wise) as something like Fire Blast or Rad Blast is -NOT- necessarily a bad thing for this game. I'd much rather have different powersets have different characteristics in this game than to have all the Blasts be cookie-cutter "equal" to each other. Put another way: if all Blast powersets did as much damage as say Fire then we'd really only have ONE type of Blaster. I personally like having more than one type to choose from.

As long as this game has more than one Blaster powerset there's always going to be one that does something better than another. They can't all be equal to each other across the board. Obviously pure damage output is an important aspect for a Blaster in general. If that's your absolute top priority you can always pick the powersets that work best for that. But if you actually want to play a character for -OTHER- reasons than just simple min/maxing then we have choices for that.

As a longtime player of an Electric Blaster I would agree that the Endurance Drain feature is hard to maximize and is not as useful as pure DPS in all cases.

But it can actually be far more useful (especially against bosses and AVs) than most people realize if you fully optimize your build for it. The key thing to realize is that Electric Blast is actually meant to be played almost more like a soft-mez Controller or Dominator hybrid than a "pure" damage dealer. In D&D terms it's very much a "multi-classed" powerset between a version of this game's Fighters (Blasters) and Magic Users (Controllers).

To be honest most of the argument for changing the way Endurance Drain works usually only comes from people who have not mastered how to use it. Just because some people don't like it or can't play with it doesn't really mean it deserves to be changed.

I understand why some people think that Electric Blast not having a third single target blast is a "problem" that needs to be fixed. I'm certainly not going to sit here and try to claim that it's the "best" Blaster primary, at least from a DPS point of view.

But I've been playing with an Electric Blaster (without VS) for over seven years now and have had good fun with it regardless. Again I realize that on paper there are plenty of other Blaster powersets that can deliver a better DPS than my Electric alt can - I myself have other Blaster alts that can do that. But somehow regardless of the pure numbers it still hasn't ruined the basic FUN I've had with my Electric Blaster. *shrugs*

I have nothing against suggestions like this. I'm just pointing out that some people don't always need to have fully min/maxed characters to still have fun. Besides the changes that are coming in I24 (crashless nukes and faster snipes) are going to more than make up for any concerns I currently have with the Blaster AT in general and even Electric in particular.

It -might- be possible to get CoX to run on a PS3, Xbox or even an iPad. Heck if you tried hard enough you -might- even be able to get it to run on a Commodore 64 as well. Still doesn't really make it worth the effort regardless.

As of 2012 there are plenty of low end laptop computers that could run CoX better than any multi-year old console. Just because you could trick a machine into run something as a sort of "what-if" experiment doesn't really mean it would be worth it for day-to-day playing.

At any rate I'd be completely amazed to see Paragon Studios work on anything like this at this point. *shrugs*

If your playstyle revolves around "must have as much DEF as possible no matter what AT/powerset you play" then please feel free to play that way. I wasn't trying to tell you what you should do to enjoy playing this game the way you want. The point I was trying to make is that while certain AT/powersets are fundamentally based around maximizing DEF/RES to make them work the best Controllers are one of the few ATs in the game that are structured around defending themselves in ways that DON'T involve pure DEF or RES at all. As I said before properly built Controllers practically never even get ATTACKED in the first place - they effectively have no need of DEF/RES enhancement at all.

Sure while it's possible (as UnicyclePeon has shown) to Frankenstein a Controller towards a DEF cap it's basically the literal MMO equivalent of pounding a square peg into a round hole. It's like trying to make a D&D Magic User fight all of his opponents with a +5 vorpal dagger - sure it might be fun to try but ultimately you'd be better off running a Fighter instead because the Magic User was never designed to be the best at melee combat. Apples meet Oranges.

As you yourself pointed out perhaps playing a Controller is not really going to mesh well with the way you like to play. No big deal - nothing says that you have to like every AT in the game. Again I'm not going to tell you attempting to have a max-DEFed Controller is impossible. But I -will- tell you that your max-DEFed Controller will NEVER be as effective as a Controller that is built to fully maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

Basically if you want to have the most fun with a Controller you have to unlearn what you probably first learned with your Scrappers, Brutes and/or Tankers. Controllers do not defend themselves with DEF/RES - they defend themselves with their Mezzes and buff/debuffs.

Well at least it explains why it took the OP 4 years to finally get an alt up to 50.

I've heard of people trying "no enhancement" builds just as sort of an experiment. Obviously it makes things harder but clearly the OP didn't mind if they've been having fun with the game regardless. I hope he/she decides to explore what the -rest- of the game has to offer.

I think this is the main reason why the vet buff pets were made as fragile as they are now. People have to remember that they were introduced to the game many years before things like Incarnate Lore pets or CoH:Freedom and I think the Devs had a very legitimate concern about vets having an "unfair advantage" with them over newer players, especially where PvP was concerned.

In light of how the game has evolved it might be alright game balance wise for these buff pets to be non-targetable now. But changing them to be that way would probably be something so far down on the list of future QoL improvments that I doubt we'll ever see that happen. Besides as Madadh pointed out there are actually some positive uses for them being as they are now, chief among them is their usefulness as "alpha-strike bait" against MOBs.

For what it's worth you didn't really piss me off - I never personally suggested that we specifically get a "Post Apocalyptic" costume set in any shape or form. I probably could have lived happily without it myself. *shrugs*

I suppose I just thought it was interesting that you were so willing to categorically dismiss this set before we've even seen it fully finished. I know even if the complete set doesn't prove helpful to me the CoH:Freedom system will let me cherry-pick any single items from it that may prove useful.

Obviously no one's going to force you to like or buy anything you don't want to. Just realize that unless the feedback on a particular set is close to 100% postitive or negative the Devs are not likely going to be strongly persuaded either way when considering future sets. As long as it's technically within their ability to provide it and they think they'll make some money from it they'll do it. My guess is that Post Apocalyptic set simply fell within the "easy enough to do and enough people have asked for it" range to make it be Dink's current project.

If you were trying this DEF thing just as a "weird gimped alt experiment" then have fun with it. But if you seriously think there's some reason you need extra DEF on a Fire/Rad/Fire then you are quite literally playing it wrong. By the time you get one of these properly leveled and slotted up you shouldn't even be getting -attacked- much less need extra DEF or RES.

Worrying about increasing your DEF on a Fire/Rad/Fire is like putting a bumper-sticker on a Lamborghini or playing tennis with a football - sure you can do it, but it'd be a frightfully silly and embarrassing thing to do.

Heck I'd be happy just with a new version of the female "bikini 2" bottoms (could easily name it "bikini 4") that had the Shiny texture so that I could match it up to the existing Shiny textured tights top to make complete Shiny textured leotards.

Some of us would be very easy to please... without having to burn in the fire of a thousand suns or whatever.

I agree that "one of the great joys of this game has been the tremendous flexibility offered in customization with the costumes." This is why I find it strange you would arbitrarily limit yourself sight-unseen.

I have created many costumes over the years that use 1 or 2 parts from one set, 1 or 2 parts from another set and so on. Oftentimes I find new uses for older items that I never envisioned before. So while (like you) I don't see any pure 100% "post-apocalyptic" outfits in my future I fully expect to incomporate some -parts- of this new set into other costumes that'll probably have little to do with being directly post-apocalyptic.

You do understand the idea that it's pretty much impossible for the Devs to totally please every player with every new release right?

I get that you're apparently disappointed by this latest costume set from Dink, but for every person like you who doesn't like this offering there's probably another person out there who's loving it and/or been waiting years for it. Just be happy that we are still getting new things in general and I wish you better luck next time. There's no real point in "complaining" that this particular set isn't your cup of tea. *shrugs*

Pet users trade "speed of play" in favor of "overwhelming damage potential". Basically pet users as an MMO class tend to be offensively powerful at the cost of having to position their pets correctly to deliver their full power.

My guess is that even if the Devs of this game could make pets "keep up with the person they are following" they would not allow them to do that ON PURPOSE just to maintain game balance.

I don't believe the OP's suggested emote idea is all that provocative. But after looking at it I found myself wanting to have the animated hair being shown more than the emote itself. Since people have been wanting/suggesting animated hair in this game continually since Day One I actually found reasonable merit to this thread afterall.

I've routinely used dozens of keybinds on my keyboards for years now. I'd agree that -some- people probably don't need that many bound buttons, but I'm willing to read more reviews about this new mouse and potentially give it a try, assuming it works better than the Razor Naga - honestly didn't have much luck with the Naga I got and sold it to someone else. *shrugs*

Unlike Snowzone's comment I'd consider the idea that this seems to be a right-handers only mouse to be a legitimate criticism. Too bad they couldn't make a left-handed one, but I guess they figured they wouldn't sell enough of them to make it worthwhile.

For what it's worth I've been suggesting a shiny version of the female "Bikini 2" bottoms periodically for well over EIGHT YEARS now. Much like your desire for shiny gloves and masks I've been wanting to make full shiny leotards (with shiny bikini bottoms that match up with the shiny tights tops) for my girls since CoH launched.

It terms of giving us shiny versions of already existing tights items I couldn't really imagine an easier thing for the Devs to give us. The Devs don't even have to create NEW items for this - just apply existing textures to different existing items to provide new options for us. It sometimes boggles my mind that this has not happened yet.

As always we can thank Arcanaville for doing the leg-work with the numbers. But frankly all it took for me to know the I24 Nuke changes were going to be a net positive is knowing that the "crash" part of the nukes are being removed.

For me the crashes are/were so annoying that I would often not even use the nukes on many average occasions. This means the amount of damage I was generating with them was effectively zero. Thus for me the crashless nukes could have had their damage potential cut in HALF from pre-I24 levels and it STILL would have been a positive to me because even a half-damage crashless nuke is more damage on target than NO damage from an unused power. The fact that the average amount of damage coming from a post-I24 is going to be nearly as much as before is basically gravy to me.

Maybe it's been 8 Issues since the last round of Power Customization, but there are those of us who've wanted things like a "No FX" version of Hasten and Super Speed for what'll turn out to be 24 Issues and 8+ years. Better late than never I guess...

As the others have said the Devs have implemented many of the ideas people have posted in the forums over the years. Many of those have turned out to be great.

But clearly they either can't (or won't) ever be able to do them all for all sorts of reasons. For those suggestions that'll either never happen or might not happen for a very long time this forum basically serves the "give the players an outlet to spit into the wind" purpose you imply.

People just have to be realistic about these things - the Devs could never give us -everything- everyone wants from this game even if they wanted to. As long as you don't assume that whatever's posted in this forum is automatically going to happen tomorrow then you'll be fine.

Having critical disadvantages related to superpowers makes sense to me if you're willing to roleplay something like that in a pen-n-paper based superhero game setting. I honestly believe that's the only place that your type of "fun" in this case is acceptable.

For better or worse it has been shown that the average MMO player absolutely HATES anything that even remotely weakens or reduces the effectiveness of their characters, even if it might make "sense" in certain situations. For example you may recall now much people screamed bloody murder over how relatively vulnerable Kheldians originally were to Quants/Voids. Sadly after their nerfing Quants/Voids effectively pose no unique "Kryptonite-like" threat to Kheldians anymore.

Frankly I'm surprised it took over 8 years to finally have crashing nukes be "nerfed" in this similar fashion. *shrugs*