NotDoc

Jay,

When the "bare" option was added, something went horribly wrong on the huge model. The "briefs" overlay texture was removed from Monstrous Legs, but the "bare" option was not added. It is now impossible to make a Huge character with bare legs.

Here is my favorite costume, which I am now unable to create either on live or in I8: LINK.

Please either add "Bare" to the pants types for Huge/Monstrous Legs or put the "Briefs" overlay texture back in! Thanks.

Pay more attention to PVP please, thanks.

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"OMG! He's nerfing EM!" -- Nope, at least not for I7.

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DOOOOOOOM for I8! EM is getting nerfed! Start rolling those Ice/Elecs now!

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I had 2 PM's in my box, back to back. The first was "Stalkers are useless in PvP" and the next was "Stalkers are overpowered in PvP". The grass is always greener they say...

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Actually this proves what most PVPers have been saying all along. Stalkers are sometimes overpowered and sometimes gimp, and almost never anywhere in between. Thanks to the AT design (classic '1 trick pony'), they are gods against the unprepared and pussycats against anyone with certain tools, specifically Clear Minds.

Maintaining the PVP status quo just because there's no unanimous opinion is not good for the game. In the U.S. every 4 years we have major disagreements about who should be president... that doesn't mean we elect nobody. Look for majority opinions from experienced players for guidance. Read the PVP forums and you'll see plenty of well thought out arguments with experience and data to back them up.

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We've got a nice tweak to the Domination ability coming down the pipe (it will crank up your Mez resistance while it is active), and are currently data-mining PvP to see what effect our last set of tweaks to the AT have had.

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Oh thank goodness. I read the rest of that post about doing missions and other PVE nastiness and just about lost hope.

Dom damage in PVE is balanced around pet assistance. Dom damage in PVP is weak because the pets rarely contribute (poor AI, no AMT command). While mez protection during Dom will be nice, I'd rather get a straight damage boost. Considering how many powers and slots we spend on attacks, our non-pet damage is pretty sad. Food for thought, Pos man.

Woooot!

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the Heroes in RV take at LEAST 16 heroes to take down (assuming heavy... heavy usage with shivans and nukes following).

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8 man team with enough -regen and -res has no problem taking them now.

Huge model/Monstrous legs/Bare (a.k.a. briefs with real skin color) is still unavailable.

It's a good start.

It doesn't fix anything in situations where you are mezed and left to die at the hands of NPCs, or TPd into them intentionally by other players.

I think "no debt in PVP zones" would have been better. If it made scores of players flock to Siren's Call to hunt mobs debt-free, so be it. More PCs to fight.

cost >>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>> benefit

/agree with all of the above

I tested a few of these firsthand to confirm the failing grade they were getting on the boards and they were worse than I could have imagined.

In what Bizarro world are 20 Salvage worth as much as a 50 Influence Inspiration?

These buffs are crazy bad and need a major... not minor... improvement. At the current levels I could see them affecting the entire SG, but not one person only!

I am changing my vote a little.

Since I7 was gracious enough to stay on Training Room for ages, I've had plenty of time to test the Dom changes. Whereas I previously proclaimed Doms "fixed", I now say they still need better damage.

Playing Corrupters has made me realize how bad Dom damage is. I have a 40 Corr on live, and tried many different Corrs in the RV event. There is a reason Corrupters are so massively popular and Doms are considered a poor choice (especially in PVP). The Corr's base damage is much better than the Dom. He gets access to attacks sooner. Now logically that makes sense since the Corr's attacks are in his primary set, right? Here is the crux: a Corrupter's secondary buff/debuff/heal set is more effective in PVE and PVP than a Dominator's primary control set. The italics are for emphasis because this statement is irrefragable in my opinion.

In the very best circumstances, a Corr's secondary set is AS useful as a Dom's primary. E.g., Rad toggles = Ice Slick for damage mitigation. In most circumstances, though, the Corr's abilities are better than Dom controls. Heals, defensive buffs, offensive buffs, rezes, perception buffs, phase powers... the list goes on. Yet for the superior utility of their non-attack set, Corrs have higher base damage than Doms.

Two factors push the imbalance over the edge. One, resistance debuffs. Most Corrs can increase their own damage and that of their team by debuffing Res. Two, Scourge gives Corrs added damage.

"But what about teh Imps!?!" Ahh, Imps, how I hate thee. These PVE gods make the whole AT look stronger than it really is, damage wise. I know from experience that Jack, Venus, and the Sing do not output great damage. And yet, I cannot help but feel that Dom damage is balanced against Fire Imps. In other words, the Devs won't give us decent damage because then Joe Fire Dom would kill mobs too easily in PVE. Pets don't do a whole lot in PVP, but our Assault sets are kept weak because of them. And that, my friends, is tragic. If they would give Doms and Controllers simple pet commands, it would be a different story, but they stubbornly believe that would hurt MMs somehow.

My final word on Dom damage: I challenge anyone to play a 40 /Ice Dom and a 40 Ice/ Corr. Do some missions. Go to Siren's Call or Warburg. Can you justify Doms doing such poor damage compared to Corrs? Is the Corr's secondary really less useful than the Dom's primary? The answer IMO is a resounding NO.

Dominator damage still needs a buff. And if that's not doable, then Dominators need something else, like an HP increase or Controller-duration mezzes.

((* I always feel the need to give this disclaimer when I ask for Dom damage to be increased... I think Defender damage should be increased, too. ))

Mission Feedback
Last mission of Mako's second arc
"Enact Ritual on Leviathan etc."

This mission is whack in several ways.
- The whirlwind things all over the map are fun and all, throwing people around despite Acrobatics, but there are just too many of them in the big rooms. As a Master Mind, I think I added maybe 10 damage during the entire fight with Calystix thanks to the whirlwinds perma-juggling my pets.
- BUG--Players can't target whirlwinds, and they can't be damaged, but my henchman pets shot at them every chance they got.
- The psychic Fonts do too much damage.
- The location of the "clickie" where you enact the ritual is not real clear. It took us forever to realize it was on the side of the giant tooth.
- Mako and his ambush... well, let's just say Mako was a TOTAL WUSS!!! With the exact same team composure, AV Mako was far easier than AV Calystix, and he was even easier than the EB Fonts! He literally did no damage to our Brute and went down in about 30 seconds. Extremely anticlimactic. Buff Mako!!!

I reached 41 on my Master Mind and tested both Bile Spray and School of Sharks. I went into Mako's Master Mind PPP with an open mind but was very disenchanted after testing.

Bile Spray

I have to say I found this attack pretty sad and redundant. It is a cone attack that does Toxic damage up front and a few DoT ticks. It has no useful side effects like debuffs.

I thought the idea of APPs and PPPs was to give the archetype things it didn't already have? Every Master Mind primary set has an area effect damage attack. Mine is M30 Grenade, which is frankly better in all ways except damage type (better range, radius instead of cone, knockback side effect).

Most MMs never take their personal attacks anyway, relying instead on pet damage. Giving us not just another personal attack, but one so redundant with existing attacks in the primary set, makes no sense to me and was bad design. It's like giving Scrappers another low damage melee attack, or giving Controllers an Immobilize. Heck, even those would probably be more useful.

School of Sharks

Most of my above comments about Bile Spray also apply to School of Sharks. Both are cone attacks that deal damage, with some minor variations. The fact that they are so similar is also bad design... two cone attacks are not expanding my MM into new gameplay options like giving blasts and holds to ATs that don't normally get them.

That said, School of Sharks is still vastly superior to Bile Spray because it at least Immobilizes. The animation is cool for what it is (a bunch of glowy blue sharks). The recharge isn't bad. The duration, range, and damage are nothing to write home about. The fact that the target must be on the ground kind of hurts... spirit sharks can't 'swim' to a jumping or flying target? Guh?

Overall School of Sharks is a fun power to play with, but wholly unimpressive. Master Minds get Immobilize powers already (Web Grenade, Entangling Arrow) as do some henchmen (Spec Ops, Lich). This is, again, redundant with what we already have. Even though my FF MM can't normally Immobilize on demand, I will not be taking this power at any point because it's simply wishy washy and doesn't make me at all stronger in PVE or PVP.

Thoughts

Okay, so the art team has already put time into making these new powers and we are stuck with them. They overlap the existing sets of the AT so much and are so not what the average player would want, they will need a major power upgrade to be worthwhile. Unless I can look at Bile Spray and say "wow, that damage is awesome!" or School and say "wow, that's one nice immobilize!", they're completely skippable and all that programming time was a waste. Possible fixes: Reduce Bile Spray's damage and make it more of a debuff power (-res). Give School of Sharks -jump -fly.

(Putting 40-50 CoV mission feedback here since there's no better thread for it.)

The last mission to unlock Mako's patron powers is full of Knives of Artemis. I fought these plenty as a hero but this was my first encounter as a villain. Let me share with you the experience. I was playing a 40 Merc/FF MM.

KoA boss, whom I can't see even with Tactics on, decides to attack me while I'm flying around. She throws 1 stun grenade and BAM!, I am disoriented even through my Dispersion Bubble. This shocks me because Dispersion offers a good Mag resist on stuns and holds, and I've never been 1 shot mezzed by anything in PVE or PVP before. I drop to the ground.

The next 5 minutes were spent with me mezzed. The readout alternated between Disoriented, Sleeping, and Held as she threw various grenades and darts at me. Sometimes it said all three, whee! Without a Break Free, and thanks to Bodyguard, I literally stood around for 5 minutes as my health slooowly ticked down from the rare shuriken she would throw. This fight took so long my pets actually killed her and I got killed by her caltrops 15 seconds later, still mezzed. I never once the entire time got out of mez to pop insps or take any action.

Complaint 1: KoA boss stun grenade should not be that high Mag!
Complaint 2: KoA bosses should not be able to perma mez like that!

My friend and I did the Founder's Falls mayhem mission for the second time in 2 days. At the end of the mission neither one of us got a new temp power, nor any notification of a new temp power in the dialogue box or flashed on the screen. Our conclusion was that because we both already had Life Insurance, that would have been the power, except because we already had it we got nothing.

This is very unsatisfying, to spend nearly an hour on a tough mission and not get the special prize. At the very least, if the player already possesses the reward temp power, he should get a notification of receiving it again and it should refresh (the timer should reset to max).

Ran a Grandville mayhem mission last night. Here was the team:

41 Corr
40 MM
40 Brute
39 Brute

After we finally beat the mission, the three of us that were 40+ got the temp power (Life Insurance), but the 39 Brute did not. (We checked his autopowers... he definitely didn't get it).

Is this is by design, not rewarding the temp powers to people below the zone level of the mayhem mission (39 is below 40-44)? If so, I have to disagree with it. That 39 Brute fought just as hard as any of us. Harder, in fact, since the mobs were higher con to him. He should have gotten the temp power too.

If this is a mechanic to prevent farming temp powers for low-level hangers on, please change it. It's not fair to decent, normal team PVE play. The 40s should not get a very nice reward while the 39 gets nothing.

Maybe they could put a mez protection power in the Psi secondary instead of that garbage drain it has. I bet we'd see more /Psi Doms then!

Tested Dominator/Poisonous Ray this weekend. Overall I'm very pleased with the power, especially compared to what I view as less useful powers in other sets (PBAoE End Drains for example). If anything I wish we got more powers like this that increase our rather small damage.

My only issue with Poisonous Ray is the different values of its resistance debuff in PVE and PVP. In PVP it increases my damage by <18%, but in PVE it increases my damage by 25%-31% (hard to find even con mobs that don't resist smashing for the test).

So, Poisonous Ray debuffs less in PVP than PVE, but other resist debuffs like Sonic Siphon actually debuff more in PVP than PVE (43% PVP, 22ish% PVE).

I would love for Doms to do more damage honestly. Without Domination's boost our attacks are sad.

Pets (and in particular, Imps) are screwing up the curve and keeping us from getting decent damage though. And we all know how useful/smart those Controller set pets are in PVP. *eyeroll*

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that many doms throwing fast-cycling mag 4-6 (whatever it is) holds will cripple anything - mez protection, BFs, CM be damned.

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Yes, this is the point of Doms now. It's brute force. With Domination (and Power Boost if you've got it) we can drill through any mez protection. I was standing next to a Scrapper last night as he popped 1... 2... 3... 4 Break Frees before he finally escaped a hold.

With mezzing power like that, we tread a dangerous line in PVP. It's well known that these devs don't think being perma-held in PVP is fun. They have taken so many steps to prevent it, from limiting durations to adding BFs to adding suppression. So, try to look at Doms as dangerously close to crossing the line of "making PVP not fun" for those we are mezzing.

If we got any more improvements at this point, I firmly believe the devs would call a timeout and nerf our control in PVP, which is the last thing we want.

As ludicrous as it sounds, I wish Dominators got a Web immob power from BS. In PVP, Web is better control than my entire Ice Control primary, thanks to -jump.

Oy veigh. Even after the costs were adjusted, these Empowerment buffs are a complete waste of time and Salvage. 2% movement buffs and 5% resistance buffs vs. 1 type of damage? That's not even noticeable. Maybe if they affected the entire SG there would be tactical uses for them, but come on, this is for 1 person. The buffs need a massive boost in power to be at all worthwhile.

My evaluation of the AT is based on team PVP, as it should be. Not duels, and not lone wolf style play in the zones. I have been pulling hard for Dom buffs since beta and yes, I'm satisfied.

If Controller APPs are overpowered or villain PPPs are underpowered (and I believe both statements are true) they will be addressed. The core viability problems that Dominators had in I6 have already been fixed.

Here is my final post on this subject.

I think Doms are fixed in PVP in I7. I think that the changes to Domination and melee damage have nudged us firmly in between gimp and overpowered. And I think that we are equitable with Controllers now in PVP. In some ways each AT is better than the other.

The only outstanding request I have for Doms is ability to command pets. Yes, I know this is a MM trait. Pet AI is sad and they are nothing but a distraction in PVP, though; I respeced out of Jack Frost already and don't regret it. Let's abandon the philosophy of "only Masterminds can give commands" and give everyone with pets a decent amount of control, like can be found in most other MMOs. MMs have so many other things going for them now, like Bodyguard, I really doubt they'll be offended if I can tell my little Jack Frost to attack a specific Scrapper in battle.

GJ fixing Doms, devs.