Moonlighter

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Statesman, the main problem noticeable with super reflexes is that you are the most likely one to get killed by one hit from any Archvillain and this makes it less desireable.

The reasons are the lack of dull pain and real damage resist.

How is taking less damage once you are hurt, going to compete when certain things that only take down *18% of the life of an invulnerable Scrapper, can ultimately kill the SuperR hero with just one single shot?

The precentage was calculated assuming dull pain 40% health boost and 75% resistance are available to the most common types of damage.(140*25%=100*18%)
This of course may change slightly with ED coming.

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You know, I still haven't run into any Archvillian or monster that one shotted me unless it was +3 or above. Two shotted yes. If you fight even level or +1 AVs what the heck is one shotting you so often? And if it's one or two AVs in the entire game do you think you could use an orange pill for that one encounter?

I don't know, I hate to sound like a fanboi because there is plenty still wrong with the game and SR even with this buff (cough*tohitbuffs*cough) but for me the one shot scenario is a non-issue. I have never actually encountered it in game and there is an easy and obvious way to prepare for it.

Getting two shotted has been a threat many times however.

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I just figured out the reason why SR get's this buff but not Ice Armor.

It's because of SR being one of the powersets in CoV but Ice is not.

I bet a lot of Stalkers have complained (and rightly so) that they are dying to much but since there are no Ice Armor in CoV no one can complain about that set...

I thought the devs had a better overview then this but with the recent changes it's pretty obvious they dont.

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Or maybe Statesman has an entirely different dialogue going on with the Ice tankers where he just doubled the resistance buff to the slow field after people pointed out the the previous less-slow-more-resistance change was actually a nerf?

Maybe the devs wants the power sets to feel different?

It seems to me that the devs are changing Ice Armor and they are watching that as well. Did they do enough? Probably not, but they have addressed concerns and posted about within 30 days.

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All I got out of that was blah blah blah we're still going to kick your teeth in with the ED nerf blah blah blah blah I'm a HUGE liar blah blah blah blah pass the Cheetos blah blah blah blah

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Let me try more slowly.

This has nothing to do with the ED nerf.



Look I don't like the ED nerf either but this isn't an attempt to "fix" that. This is unrelated.

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I dont get it . How resisting blows is related to Super Reflexes ? While that solution could make the powerset better , i really dont see how that is making sense .

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Easy: dodge and get mostly out of the way, getting grazed by the bullet. Roll with the punches. Leap and make it most of the way out of the explosion.

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Sure, because it's much easier to get partially out of the way of a bullet, an explosion, or a punch AFTER you've already been shot, blown up, or punched a few times.

This makes sense to some degree, but again, it appears to be a band-aid used to try and staunch the bleeding from an amputation.

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It's easy to get out of the way of a bullet or explosion at any time? Look at what you are arguing. It's a superhero game. Explain it anyway you like. With no change to the special effect I can't see how taking slightly less damage will ruin your in game suspension of belief. There are a billion ways to justify taking less damage.

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Hmm lets see ED lowers you by 40%++ and everyone says thanks Statesman for throw you the smallest of bones?

He is pulling stuff out of his backside now to appease people.

Look what we heard to appease us and throw us a bone:

1. SR gets a SMALL boost when nearly dead
2. Debt cap cut in half! Because you will die more.
3. End usage reduced!

And not one damn thing else.

He is distracting you with minor crap buffs and stealing more than 40% from you and you THANK HIM??????

He is the master of damage control and DO NOT let him off the hook. Make him explain how a 40% loss of powers is not a POWER NERF?

Statesman you are NOT escaping this one. This is garbage.

I will tell you whats next Suppression is dropped. Why? Because it will make you all say thanks Statesman you listened!

He has had someone scour the boards to give you CRAP to appease you. That is what this is a SNOWJOB.

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No one said SR is as powerful with ED, even with this buff. But everyone gets hit by ED. SR is still behind the curve as compared to other scrapper power sets and this still has the potential (gotta see the numbers before I decide) to even the secondaries a bit. And that's good. ED has nothing to do with it.

The End buff is an attempt to appease the ED crowd. This is not. This is a much needed scrapper secondary balance that has been needed for a long time - only the brief time of perma-Elude were SR scrappers equals to peers and even that's questionable.

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This makes zero sense -- why do we become resistant to damage as we get hurt? -- and I can't see the numbers possibly even beginning to make up for what we're going to lose to ED.

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Except everyone loses to ED. This isn't supposed to make up for ED, just make us competitive with other scrapper secondaries.

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I find it shocking and offensive that Jack Emmert has time to post about this but does not have time to address the issue of ED which is obviously the most pressing thing on the playerbase colective mind now. Way to through up some more smokescreen, Mr. Emmert. Now care to explain how ED is going to improve our gameplay?

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Actually he posted three ED posts already. I mean I am not the biggest fan of ED but give him credit - he did respond to some of the ED points. People may not agree with him and people may want him to post more but if you disagree with the change is there really anything else to say?

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My SO played a katana/reflex scrapper into the 20s. While damage taken was certainly starting to be a real issue, their primary complaint about Super Reflexes was not that it let them take damage, but that the defense bonuses died so quickly once the powers shut down due to OOE situations.

When good Endurance Management practice was feasible, it was not so big an issue, but it really came to bear when my SO was trying to make choices about burning down an opponent, or trying to DPS agro an enemy off of a squishy. The DPS was there, of course, but burning the endurance necessary to do so meant that the powers were likely to shut off while the character was in the yellow or red.

To counter this, perhaps the damage resistance could have a short expiry timer so that it lasts just a few seconds after the defense powers shut down?

Just a thought.

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Um, didn't he say it is added to the auto powers? Meaning they never shut off?

Or am I misunderstanding it?

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Why would I get BETTER at rolling with a punch the more I get my face smashed in? Shouldn't the dam-res start high? (I understand that this doesn't quite work with game mechanics, so let's move on.)


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Because we SR scrappers are a cocky bunch until we get bloody.

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Yea, it'll be nice to slow down the incoming damage... a little... but it's doubtful it will stop the 1shot/2shot issue that we deal with, it won't cover the loss of the 3slots of health as some of us 6slot health for a poor man's Regen, we still haven't dealt with tohit buffs and high accuracy negating SR....

What else we got?

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The 1 shot issue is still a problem but the RES will kick in for shot #2 of the 2 shot scenario if I understand it correctly.

Plus what the heck actually one shots us anymore that we can actually face?

I just want to say Whoo Hoo! Can't wait to see the numbers!

I have a suggestion. Instead of reducing the endurance usage for powers could you jack up the natural endurance recovery rate by the same mathematical amount? Then I won't have to wait as long when Endurance does run low. I don't find downtime to be particularly enjoyable.

Thanks.

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Many players complained about the stun at the end of Rage because it turned off toggles and left them helpless. At the same time, hardcore players with perma-unstoppable or Unyielding were able to avoid the Stun effect. Thus the casual player was getting penalized and hardcore player wasn’t getting the desired penalty. We're still looking at the issue - so feel free to post your thoughts & ideas!

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- As it stands, the stun is a big risk even with Unyielding. Most mobs have stuns that will knock off your toggles and 10 seconds is a long time during a raging battle for stun vulnerability. To me the current Rage penalty is perfect - it puts you are risk for a toggle dropping stun. The board is divided on whether Rage is worth the risk. Some people love Rage, and some people avoid it. Isn't that a good thing? Diversity of design and opinion?

- Is SS really a powerful enough build to nerf Rage? To me the SS tanker is so low on the totem pole of power builds that a large Rage nerf seems to me to be unneeded - gratuitous even.

- I personally don't like endurance drop as a penalty for using powers and it concerns me that design is relying more and more heavily on it. With the design of the game based largely on endurance draining toggles an Endurance drop really means being defenseless when the power fails. In addition you end up with boring and annoying downtime waiting for Endurance to come back. If you feel it necessary to use Endurance drain as a downside (which as I said I don't like) then I would prefer if Rage caused a period where all Endurance expenditures were increased instead of a flat out Endurance drop.

- I agree with one of the previous posters that from the numbers it looks like SS is balanced with Rage already in mind. With Rage the effectiveness of SS is comparable to Axe or Energy. Without it SS drops in effectiveness significantly.

- If there are a lot of SS tankers I believe that has much more to do with flavor (since SS is so common and loved in comics) than power level.

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This is a bad idea. A level 2 being on the same terms as a level 50 for basic damage? Bad idea. Why the hell bother with leveling a character if some level one can get lucky and kill you?

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In a system like the monster system, the level 2 would have no chance against the level 50. The level 50 properly build would have slotted out attacks pumped by Hasten and slotted out defenses. The level 2 would have an attack chain of two basic and unslotted attacks.

If you can't take an even con level 2 with that much difference in power selection and slotting then you deserve what you get.

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Auxiliary Power Pools - levels 40 up -------cool
Kheldians - level 50--------------------------kinda cool
Council - all levels----------------------------so sad
Striga Isle - levels 20 - 30-------------------eh
Mission Customization - all levels-----------yawn
Global Chat - all levels----------------------worthless


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I disagree with your sentiment. For me changes have the following importance:

- Bug fixes.
- Class and power balance.
- Content difficulty.
- New content. (This includes mission customization)
- New costume options.
- New power options.
- New ATs or primary/secondary pools.
- Large quality of life features.

I assume bug fixes will always trickle out in minor updates.

The number one issue argued on these boards is class and power balance. For a player with a "problematic" build this is the number one quality of life issue for the game that leads to the most frustration. This, IMO, should be top priority. Not having stacking armor for existing builds for example is criminal. It really affects the everyday quality of life for those players. To introduce a new 50+ only AT that does have stacking armor when you haven't finished it for existing characters is like a kick to the groin for them. Tanks issues are another problem. Things like this should have number one priority since these impact the affected players the most.

Second is content difficulty. The game has a wide variety of players with a wide variety of effectiveness. Everyone wants a fun experience. The second most commented on issue here seems to be mission difficulty. Therefore the difficulty slider is probably the number one feature of this update. I think it is overshadowed by the difficulty increase - fewer people need it now that difficulty has been jacked, and the lack of an option to reduce difficulty is something I personally don't agree with. I also think a mission to mission slider would have made more sense and made the game more playable. None-the-less the ability to change mission difficulty in some form was very important to the game - bigger than anything else in this update.

Striga Isle provides more content and more world. This is always excellent and much needed. This is an important part of the ongoing game. Right now I could almost level up 2 characters and never do the same missions. I would like to see the game provide 4 different mission paths for maximum replayability.

I personally think that *every* update should have additional character costume options. It gives existing characters a chance to freshen up their look and adds visual diversity to characters. This should be generic options in addition to specials like capes and auras. More patterns, or more options on current costume pieces. The fact is that everyone is looking for something that could affect *their* character every update and fresh costume options are one thing that does this - even if I don't use them I will likely spend time playing with them at icon.

The problem is that most players have one or more characters they are already playing. They don't want specialty stuff like the Kheldians. If you want the 50 crowd to revisit content then the devs could have easily added new AT options right at level 1. If you added, say, a two gun character and a staff fighter instead of the Kheldians how many high level players would have rolled one up to check them out? Probably the same number as those who tried the Kheldians, but you are giving more casual players the same options. I don't see what advantage making level 50 ATs gave to the game - better more generic and accessible options would have served the same purpose and added much more to the game. This would have affected the game at all levels and still given a reason for the 50+ crowd to revisit low level content. I am not saying the Kheldians are a bad idea, I just think that they are not an efficient use of the devs time. The impact on the game is too low for the work required. Two new basic ATs would have a much bigger and better impact on the game for the same amount of work.

The new epic power pools are cute. I like them. There seems to be an imbalance in the various sets but I like them. I am really disappointed that they did not offer the blaster/defender crowd some kind of limited statis protection. It is much needed at that level. But they give the high level types new toys which is good.

All in all this is an okay update and the reason people are not enthusiastic is that there is too little that affects the day to day play of the average player. Issue #2 was much better. New katana and MA animations meant that there was a large influx of players rolling new characters to try them out. Everyone 20+ was scrambling to get capes and at higher levels auras. Everyone was rushing to finish the respec mission. There was a huge flood of activity.

Issue #3 has none of that. Quality of life character enhancements fell to the wayside. New character options affect very few people. Other that the mission slider there isn't that much that directly affects my main character or even any of my alts. This was IMO a mistake. Issue #3 have failed to generate the same excitement for these reasons.

If I was to to give the Devs advice on issue #4 and later, here's what is would be:

- Every issue should have new costume options. Generic options like patterns and new hats/heads/whatever. This provides something that every player can immediately play with for any character.

- The game needs new primary and secondary pools in some ATs. The buzz about the current ATs is getting repetitive. Players know how to build most AT combos now. They need fresh new things to design and compare to. New ATs accessible by new players make the character options richer for new players and give long term players reasons to revisit the game. The Kheldians were a fumble because for the same amount of work you could have tripled the impact on the game.

- If you can introduce new power pools. Just the addition of a new power pool means every character has to re-evaluate their own characters to see if the inclusion of the pool is good for them. They have potential new toys. The changes to fear did a bit for this since the Presence pool is now a viable and IMO powerful option to consider but you could add new pools for even more of this.

- Good job on the new zones. These are a much needed part of the game. Continue to add these new zones and new content. Good job on freshening up the missions. Every story arc should end in a specialized mission. FrostFire rocked. The Wheel of Destruction is much better in the graveyard. I would have liked to see the graveyard have fog ala DA though. The low level freshened missions are great. MORE of this!

- We are all waiting for PvP so we can have new topics to whine about and new NERFs to call for when dealing with other player ATs. I am anxiously awaiting the "NERF Elec blasters" posts.

- Although many characters will put their fist in the air, thumb towards the face, and shake it the *really* evil villians will actually keep the hand open with the fingers curled as if clenching a ball but not really closed in a fist. Then shake that upraised hand. I would call it "/grasp."

- Single fist in the air, thumb towards face, shake.

- Double fists in the air shaking.

- One hand thrown up half covering face - like the classic vampire sees sunlight pose.

I respectfully disagree with this design goal. Making us fight the same number and color of mobs the entire game will really reduce the perception of advancement and make the various areas of the game seem even *more* similar. One very visible and simple way to see progress in the game is to face higher color mobs. By retuning the game away from that simple progression you are removing a effective method of demonstrating an increase in capability.

Unless you dramatically rework eps for higher level mobs you are also effectively increasing the time it takes to level at these levels by 3 or 4. I don't know that the game needs or wants higher levels to take even longer.

If you make your design goal as follows:

Low level (training enhancements): 0s
Medium level (dual origin): +1s
High level (single origin): +2s

With this scheme you are much closer to today's reality and players will have a better sense of advancement. Otherwise you never *gain* in power - instead you race to "keep up." Instead of trying to retune all the mobs in the game and remove a simple and effective way of showing player advancement (relative to the game) why not just add a difficulty slider to missions?

Well, after 25 pages of responses this will probably be buried and never seen but here goes.

While I applaud the feel of this change, I believe the execution is lacking. From the description given, the tanker will build damage as they land hits. This concept goes against the tankers schtick - which is to land a few big blows. This will really favor the tanker who foregoes tradition and piles on lots of small attacks which will invariably come from the power pools. If you work the numbers on the "hits = damage" concept I think the overall effect will be less desirable. Tankers will effectively be penalized by using a "fewer big hits" style and their damage will suffer if they waste time hitting provoke and taunt unless those "hits" count.

As an alternate I propose the following:

Tanker damage increases with the amount of incoming damage that *targets* them. Notice I didn't say hits them, or damages them. Targets them. So if 5 mobs all target the tanker with 100 point attacks the tanker gets 500 points of credit towards their damage buff (not a 500 increase - just that 500 is counted toward whatever ratio ends up getting used) even if the attacks miss or the damage is resisted away.

In this way the tanker is slowly rewarded for, well, tanking and the slow heavy hitting attacks are not penalized and the tankers with quick power pool attacks are not overly advantaged. Also taunt and provoke will have the side effect of adding to the damage buff. Lastly the tanker can move to draw agro and intercept without reducing their damage buff.

I really think basing it on incoming (targetted) damage will be more balanced and more tanker-like than requiring the tanker to hit quickly to maximize the damage buff.

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Super Reflexes is also the only secondary set where it *doesent* make sense to have a self heal. I mean... It's Super Reflexes. How does a guy who can move fast enough to dodge bullets manage to use that to heal himself?

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How does Jet Li, Bruce Lee, or Van Dam take enough damage to kill 10 men, reel as if they will pass out, and suddenly "shake it off" as they wipe blood from their face enough to pound the crap out of the villain?

Getting a second wind is a *classic* in the realm of martial arts movies.