Necrotron_RO

To encourage you to skip them and take other powers, no doubt.

I've happily skipped Dark Pit and Pulsar since...forever.

The real reason? I suspect they fear they would be too powerful, although I and likely many others would argue, that would not be the case.

Energy Melee, until it is fixed.

I'm sorry, but a 3.5 second animation times is a bit too long for an underwhelming DPA single target attack.

Everyone is free to make their own decisions, and are responsible for only their decisions.

I could quit because I dislike super packs, or I could merely dissent over super packs and continue to play.

I have no obligation to continue playing and they have no obligation to continue providing service. It's in their EULA, bascially, they can do whatever they want.

Of course, they will consider what we think into their decision process because A) most people are generally good and B) they want to continue to make us happy so we continue to provide them revenue.

I've left behind my sense of moral obligation long ago. Some things may be frustrating or upsetting, but morally obligated? I'm pretty sure they can do whatever they want, and so can I, in a sense. But luckily, we like playing, and they like improving the game. So, as long as continue in that same direction, I'll probably still be here.

It is, as others have said, 'very good'. It is an excellent defense-based set now.

It works as well as other defense based sets, in that it is relatively easy to softcap, and provides a 'fair bit' of S/L Resistance on top of that.

It does, however, suffer from the fate that all defense based sets do in that A) the game has several situations that negate defense (e.g. Devouring Earth Quartz emanators, etc.) B) lucks provide a greater boost to survivability than sturdy, and C) Defense buffs are very common (in both powersets and IOs) whereas resistance buffs are rare.

Once your reach 45% defense (and 59%, is it?, in iTrials), the only thing that will really boost your survivability is resistance. Resistance sets have a huuuge advantage over defense sets in that they can easily achieve the magic 45% defense number with either IOs alone or often they reach 32.5% Defense with IOs (where only one [luck] will achieve the 'soft cap' defense).

Having played numerous armor sets to 50 and beyond, I find my /EA to quite strong, but will never match the performance of my resistance based characters simply due to the nature of IOs having defense bonuses being so common, and lucks being stronger than sturdy.

Well, they still might have double XP weekends, although I am sure those were a bigger 'sales pitch' when you needed to subscribe to play.

No longer any reason for me to use HOs in any of my builds.

The outdated enhancements now serve no purpose for me, although I suppose a very limited portion of the playerbase may find use for them.

Edit: Of course, I take no issue with them fixing their usage.

Time to respec Propel back into all my Gravity Control characters. Gleee!

With this change, they are quite a lot more useful now.

But I don't really see the appeal for paying money to put the game in easy mode. Maybe it will bring in more $$$ from other people though.

Doh, just saw this. Too late to the game for a Glad. :P

I always keep combat numbers for Melee/Ranged/AoE Defense up and Smashing/Fire/Energy Resistances.

When I need to, I pop lucks to soft cap, and if I really need, I'll boost my resistances a bit.

Watching my defense numbers is the absolute most important thing I can possibly do. I usually keep a line of greens, a line of blues, one break free/awaken combo for a quick rez, and the rest, lucks. Nothing will make someone survive faster (in most situations) than popping just enough luck to reach 45% defense.

All extra insps I can get I convert to lucks. I also usually designate two slots of my insp tray to (automatically pop whatever lands here), so I keep a couple slots open for insp drops, and thus, I usually have a few insps that were used on my buff bar at all times. Works pretty well.

I also compulsively sort my insps as I go. Neat and tidy is how I like it.

It used to not suck and have it's nice niche amongst the other powersets...

I don't get people not being able to solo Trapdoor. I have soloed him with literally dozens of characters (Defenders, Corruptors, Masterminds, etc.) and often with SOs.

Set difficulty to -1/1, speed through the base to Trapdoor. Defeat his first 'replication', then smack Trapdoor in about 30 seconds (with any AT).

I could see him causing problems solo at +2 or +3, but he is really easy to solo at -1.

Those complaining about pricing, well, I haven't bought any of the items I consider 'overpriced'. Thus, I haven't purchased the Rocket Board, Magic Carpet, or German Shepard pet. These are 'extra value' items Paragon is hoping to make money off of, and a sort of luxury item. They are there to make money. If you want them and don't mind paying the price, by all means, go for it, it will help support the game. Under this new Freedom model, not everything is going to be a 'great everyday value', they are hoping the super enthusiasts will bring in more $$$ to the game, which is fine. It's a tough industry.

If the VIP subscription isn't giving the value you want, there is always Premium, which is a great value too, especially if you don't play a lot of alts and don't enjoy iTrials. Then, you can simply 'buy points' for what you want ($15 buys you 1320 points versus the meager 400 point stipend for a $15 a month VIP subscription). It's Freedom. VIP is not the best option for everybody.

But we can't expect under this new model designed to generate more revenue from each player for each item put on the market to be a 'great value', some are designed to generate extra revenue. So, buy them or don't. If the price is right, I will, otherwise, I won't. But the game is still offering me great value either way.