NarfMann

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Give the stalkers some more hit points and buff their defensives.

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This idea, if implemented, would cause some very serious issues in PvE. Playing a stalker would become playing in super easy cheat mode. Like imagine if regen scrappers not only had never been nerfed at all, but had also had their crit rate boosted to 50% for minions, 75% for lieutenants, and 100% for bosses. It would be stupidly easy to play the game and thus become very boring very quickly.

In PvE stalkers are already very effective, just about perfect I'd say, don't screw that up for purely PvP reasons. That makes the baby Statesman cry.

/rant

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Cool Handle Luke!

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BRILLIANT!!!

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It doesn't have to give you Statesman's shoe size.

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We demand to be told Statesman's shoe size!


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/sign

Ok, long post, here goes:

I remember thinking of how powerful my blaster was when I first started playing her. The first 30 levels flew by, I could solo very nicely, I worked well in teams, I was loving it. Then something happened in my mid 30s. I started dying in my own missions, a lot. Naturally, I decided to start teaming more to help myself survive. That worked pretty well for a while. Everyone wanted blasters because they were undoubtedly the biggest damage dealers in the game.

Then Scrappers got critical hits. This is a good thing, scrappers had no role in groups. Now they could kill bosses better than anyone, and had a nicely defined role. The problem with this is that since they can kill bosses better, they can kill everything else better, too. Scrappers took over the role of blasters as damage dealers (they also took over for tanks, but this has been fixed) Scrappers are capped at higher damage, which means that they are better at being death factories than blasters. The problem is that they can survive just about anything better than a blaster can, too.

In a small team, a blaster is useless because a scrapper can take down baddies faster, and requires less attention from healers and other buff-based defenders. In a large team, a blaster is useless because they add less damage than a scrapper, can't control very well, can't take a hit, and need to stay further from the team, making defenders' jobs harder. The only time blasters are really useful is in herding situations. They have more AoE and they don't get in the way of the tank that's herding. Since defenders in herding teams only need to pay attention to one person, they don't take attention away from the rest of the team.

I guess the real problem with blasters is that there really isn't anything that a blaster can do that somebody else can't do better. I've seen defenders kill things almost as fast with infinitely better safety at range, plus they have buffs to help the team or debuffs to nerf the bad guys. Scrappers in a team can outdamage a blaster by a lot, plus they can take hits. (some) Blasters can lay down more consistant AoE than (some) scrappers, but they draw enough hate that tanks lose aggro which invariably leads to a dead squishy, unless that tank is doing nothing but generating as much aggro as possible (as in a herding situation.)

So, what's a blaster's role in a team? Judging by what they shine at, nothing other than laying down AoEs in a herded mission, unless you count picking up debt faster than anyone. The problem is in the late 30s and 40s, when ranged damage becomes almost as nasty as melee damage.

So, melee damage is less than ranged damage, right? This is true for the bad guys, but they obviously don't work on the same rules, so why does it have to be true for the good guys too? Sure, blasters take half as much damage as scrappers, but they can only deal with 1/10th as much with the same success (if they're a somewhat gimpy scrapper). In the 40s that half damage that they take turns into 3/4 which isn't bad, but again, scrappers deal with it a lot better. Defenders don't take anywhere near as much aggro, so they survive it better. By the time a controller takes aggro the enemies can't attack back, or if they can, they have a pet begging to be shot instead. So why are scrappers capped at higher damage? An illusion that says since enemy range is weaker than enemy melee, we can create balance by making it the same for players. Looks good on paper, not so much in practice (kinda like communism)

Things don't have to be the same for players as they are for enemies. For instance: If players are stunned, they're helpless; if enemies are stunned, they get to run away, jumping over obstacles and everything, even flying sometimes. This is an ok difference because enemies are generally stupid compared to players. Why can't blaster damage be greater than scrapper damage? After all, that difference would be ok since enemies generally have a lot more teammates than players.

I personally think that the damage cap situation should be reversed. Then scrappers would still have their roles (boss killers with up to 800% damage sometimes) and blasters would become the ones that do the consistant big damage (up to 500% all the time) Maybe blasters should all get a little accuracy boost, too, just to further their roles as the consistant ones. Oh, and a blaster should NEVER be able to out-aggro a tanker's taunt

And here's my take on blaster secondaries. From my perception, it's not that blaster secondaries that aren't devices or energy aren't useful, it's that they are less widely useful, more situational. Devices has a little bit of everything to fill in some gaps that blasters have, while energy manipulation has powers that help you do everything better than you could otherwise. The other sets seem much more narrowly defined. Maybe if they all had some more generally useful powers in them instead. Maybe add a hold here and there, or strengthen existing secondary effects slightly. I don't have much of a problem with blaster secondaries, most of them just aren't as easy to use as energy or devices.

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Obviously one of the most startling revelations is so subtle that most people probably wont notice it:


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14. How does CoV overlap with CoH in terms of geography?


Mostly nearby, although we might have surprise or two up our sleeve.

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Do you see it?

***SPOILER ALERT***



VILLAINS ONLY HAVE ONE SLEEVE!



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More importantly, all villains share one collective sleeve.

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You are a 100% correct. We need to find a way to communicate the story better to the players (not just the mission holder).

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This sounds an awful lot like one of Statesman's subtle teasers.

I may be wrong, but he does crap like that all the time.

As an aside, I'd really like to see more plot advances with the Tsoo, as well as a more in-depth look at their background.

Maybe they'd be a good subject for a Paragon Times article.

I remember when losing a temp power made all of your auto powers turn off.

Are there more pirate hat options? Please tell me we can have a tri-cornered pirate hat. I really want a pirate hat. Please let there be pirate hats.

/em crosses fingers.

The thing here is that putting a timer on the wolf mission still won't solve anything. People will still herd to PL their buddies' alts. They'll just either find another mission or herd in public. If herding in puplic starts up again, I'm not sure I can take it. PI is the only viable place for most people to hunt in the 40s, and is likely to be herded like crazy if people can't find a good mission to herd.

What's more, is that herding wolves is a lot of fun for a lot of people, so States, your excuse doesn't fly with me. Is it an exploit? Not any more, the disorienting boulders of doom made sure of that, now it's tougher than crap to herd those puppies. I think I know the REAL reason they added a timer to the Shadowhunter missions, they want PLers to go out and find an exploit so they can fix another one. It's just been too quiet on the exploit front. Am I right, Statesman? C'mon, you can tell us, we'll understand.

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And thats sad. A whole year of people clamoring for more costumes...and what we're seeing isn't what we wanted.


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BTW, could you wait until April 28th - y'know the launch date of CoH - to continue talking about CoH being out a whole year. Every time you state that CoH has been out a whole year, it makes it difficult to consider anything you write after that, because it's not truth, it's exaggeration. Par for the course for you, but I really do try to take you seriously. You don't come off ignorant, just willfully negative in the face of anything positive. OH! Maybe you're a school teacher and you only work nine months a year. So a nine months really is a fiscal year for you. Is that it? Cuz a lot of us don't get the summer off. Your confusion of what is reality makes for entertaining but head-scratching posts.

Also, I realize some people have been asking about new costume options for some time, but "clamoring" for a whole year? Can we get some made up statistics at least? Y'know, for giggles. I know you haven't because you took several months off to have fun with the new fantasy MMO's out there.

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But if what we've seen is the weathervane of what is in total...then this costume update isn't about rewarding us at all...its about exploiting a new market and thats it.

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Hahahaha... Only on Planet Backagain. You're doing this because you're bored, right? Playing a little 'pull my finger' in the forums to break the monotony?

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I'm just trying to point out that new costumes have been pretty high on the wish list for a long time and they've mostly been ignored, and for all intents and purposes..they're still being ignored.

[/ QUOTE ] They have been high on Planet Backagain's wishlist. I live on a different planet and seen different wishlists, so your assertion seems a wee bit self-absorbed. 'Wee bit', as in the Pacific Ocean is a wee bit of a pond.

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First, while the game has not been out for a whole year, there have been people playing it for a whole year. It wasn't stated that the game has been out for a year, it was stated that people have been clamoring for new outfit options for a whole year. Now let's test the validity of that statement. I, for one, have in fact been clamoring for new costume options for an entire year. If one more person has been clamoring for new costume options for an entire year, the statement is absolutely true. Anyone else want to prove him wrong?

Next, is there really any reason to be so condesending toward people that have different opinions than you? Regardless of what I think about what points you've made, I'd like to state that I am tempted to disagree with you solely out of spite for your ignorant hatemongering.

If you are trying to sway people's opinions for some silly reason, you may wish to go about it another way.

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Is he immune to Burn or just amazingly resistant?

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He's immune to the entire fiery aura set (burn, blazing aura, consume) which I've been guessing is a bug, as he's not immune to fire in general. It makes him one of the few AVs I can't solo, so I'm happy with him that way (I actually have to tank with my tanker, what a shock )

I think that if PvP is half as much fun as pegging other heroes with snowballs, it'll be the best PvP system yet in a MMP.

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I think that I am going to get flamed for this post.

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I think you haven't gotten flamed enough for this post so here's my try:

OMG U R TEH SUXX0RZ FANBOI!!!!!1111!!!!!1!!1!ONE!1!

UR GONA MAEK THIS GAME LAME!!!!1!!111!!

GONE TO THE AMERICANS!!!

I also think you're right on the money.

I think I gave the OP 5 stars.

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I suspect some of the GM ability to help is due to a good toolset created for them. I'd love to see a feature on that someday.

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I'll second this. If we had a feature that explained some of the things they can do, but especially the limitations, it would be nice. Maybe fewer people would complain about the GMs not being able to fix things that they can't. ("My blaster keeps dying, fix the bug!" "That's working as intended." "You suxxors!")

Make it so!

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Not only that, it would be pretty interesting, too.

While I'm at it, I'll mention that I've never had a bad experience with a GM, and I've been around since beta, and haven't been shy with the petitions. I have noticed recently that the vast majority of my petitions for the last few months have been to report conduct, and not to get anything fixed. I think the game is finally starting to get the bugs worked out. I hope the GMs don't get bored (though I'm sure they hope they do)

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These aren't archetypes


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How do you know that Kheldians can't be largely defined by the classifications of "Warshades" and "Peacebringers?"

If you know this, It seems you know much more about Kheldian culture than has been stated on this website. Who's your source? Spill it! Don't make me torture you for the information.

Sorry if I'm saying something that's already been mentioned, don't have the patience to read the entire thread. I do have a question, though.

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2. Fear changes are across the board. Any power with fear will change from "foe running away" to "foe cowering and not moving."

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Does this include powers such as burn, ignite, rain of fire, and caltrops? It seems to me that this would make them a tad too powerful, and by "a tad too powerful" I mean "completely brokenly unbalanced"

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At the higher levels, I saw a (IIRC) 39 BS/Regen taking on a 41 Chief Boss in PI a few days ago (I may have the numbers wrong but it was at least a +2 spread). The Rikti could not win the fight. In the time it took its attack to recycle, all the damage had been healed back. Even if it hit with every shot, it could not win. That's not right. A +2 Boss should be something that puts any soloer, of any AT, any build, to pause at least. It should never be a slam dunk. Nothing justifies that.

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Likewise (though it's still probably too soon for a second big nerf to fire tanks) a fire tanker can easily and quickly solo several +3 bosses at the same time. I think burn needs some more attention from the nerf bat. A little less damage, maybe?

While I'm at it, Adamastor is a joke as it is, though I'm not sure why. I think it's the damage type and painfully slow attack speeds.

I want to see the ability to hover in an upright position with arms crossed.

Stupid falling asleep, made me miss it

That's what I get for playing CoH for almost a whole day prior.

How did this get turned into a "Can controllers solo?" thread? Can we stick to the topic or move to the proper forum, please?

Sorry for stepping on your job, CuppaJo.

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Dear D&D

Hope you had a +1 birthday!

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I hope you had a +5 Birthday of Ogre Slaying. That would rock!

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You only get enhancements for killing a villain if they con Yellow or higher to you. (sometimes white)

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So should I be sending a bug report when I get enhancements from blue-con minions? It happens more often than getting enhancements from yellow-con minions in my experience, so I'm guessing something is wrong.

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By contract, Buffs from the same caster and the same power on the same target do not stack. However, ALL buffs on one target, will stack if they come from a different caster, or from the same caster but a different power.

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Does this mean I should bug Siphon Power?

It is the same buff from the same caster yet it will stack with itsenf for about 2s. And yes, I have confirmed it with damage numbers as well as the graphics. For 2 attacks after the 2nd Siphon Power they will do more damage than the rest of the attacks which have only one Siphon Power applied which, in turn, has more than the base attack.

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Please note that geko said that these were general rules, there are exceptions. Siphon power will always stack with itself (6-slot it for recharge and perma-hasten and nearly cap your team's damage in a long fight)

I think this may be the case because Siphon power is not just a buff, it's a debuff as well, and one that has a chance of missing. Anyone know if Siphon Speed stacks with itself?

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You're going to have to clarify a bit here geko. Enervating field reduces damage dealt by 37.5% to an even level. Does stacking 3 of these cause them to heal you every time they attack?

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You must not have read previous patch notes that stated that all debuffs are capped at 90%

If you reduce a target's damage by 18000000% (through any combination of powers) they will do 10% of their original damage.