QuiJon

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So where are the devs on this.

States in beta said he would be keeping a close eye on Dom's after all the Dom's are too weak calls.

Then they said in I7 they were still looking and here we are a month later and nothing said.

So where are the devs in all this, it seems like they really dont care much. Its like dom's dont have enough players to be worth spending time on.

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States plays a plant/psi Dom (I think), I don't know what level he is yet. Around the end of April, I started a Fire/Energy Dominator on Justice. I'm level 37 now.

Fun? You bet, and I've played all the AT's in both games at pretty much every level. Dominators are definitely my cup of tea.

States and I -still- keep a close eye on Dominators. Datamining supports SOME of the claims made on these boards, but refutes others. Personal experience with the AT also lends credibility to some of the complaints, while showing others are simply blown out of porportion.

I read a bunch of the posts in this thread, not all of them though (yet). A lot of users hit the nail on the head when stating that you can't think of Dominator as "CoV's Controller". We went through a lot of effort to make sure that the ATs played and felt different between the two games. Dominators give up a bit of control for some good direct damage attacks that Controllers would give their left mouse button for.

Then of course there is the Domination ability, which is the real Jekyl and Hyde of the AT. A mild-manner Dominator with a full Domination bar can, at his or her discretion, become an unstoppable machine of destruction and control. While it never lasts "long enough" (even I am disappointed at hearing the sound effect of it wearing off), I've had missions where I have gotten Domination off four times from mission-entry to having Mission Complete appear on the screen. Good times indeed.

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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Thanks for finally giving some feed back.

Though i will certian take and im sure love having some kinda of mezz protection, i did play mostly a blaster or other Squishies in COH and i am used to rolling with out it. But thanks all the same it does help level the playing feild somewhat.

Just wondering if we can hope to see anything else. The changes for PVP are lacking at best. Our HPs are normally way to low to survive in a direct fight long enough to build up Domination. And in normal Game play im finding my Grav/nrgy dom almost always out of end, even with DC, while my fire dom has consumption and rarely if ever uses it.

This is telling me there is a big difference in the effectivness of a dom based on damage. Fire being known for damage plays really to me well balanced. Sure i would like more damage, but for hold durations to damage to end consumption the pets at level 32 being damage dealers seem to really balance the sets out nicely.

However, in comparision my singularity doesnt seem to help much. Now sure he does help but being he has a wider arangment of abilities then fire monkeys, lets just say i dont count on him since i might want him to hold someone but he wants to immoblize that enemy, i still end up having to do it myself. While i want monkeys to kill someone i can turn my back on the enemy and know the monkeys are doing just that.

But over all i have to say the addition to damage the monkeys give to me is the difference. Its damage, things die faster i use less end. He still takes damage, he still dies from time to time, but atleast he dies fighting instead of having a Super Arachnoid to fight that has out lasted my Domination, dark consumption, and 7 catch a breaths, while i hope to live long enough to get domination going again, when i can only spam my hold to build it due to lack of energy. Once or twice i have even gone into "rest" right in front of these bosses, in order to try and get some end going and hoping i stacked enough holds he doesnt break out while im Immbl.

Over all mez protection is a great FIRST step. Now how about balancing some of that damage. Since you pointed to controllers, i have 2 level 50s and there not jealous at all of my domination since they get a larger damage buff from containment on basicly almost every target they fight.

Take the damage buff out of domination now and give it to us full time. Domination becomes a end recovery, mag/duration boost, and mez protection. Sure you can click domination 4 times a mission, however if you really want it when it counts you save it and use it once.

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oh wahhh, its not like its a huge bug even if it is a bug. Again the only way I was able to make it happen was with 2 rad corrupters, hasten, and the temp power for the crey map "objects". I have a feeling you need a whole arnsenal of /rad or /kin to replicate that temporary power.

It was still pretty freaking cool, just wanted to relate a story is all.


Oh and to all those complaining about the game being buggy and lack of dev response that is trolling. This thread was strictly for the discussion of achieving overlapping domniation.

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That was actually my intended point when i said it would rarely be realized in game play. It would take alot of recharge buff to get it, prob atleast 2-3 speed boosts i would get, however im still willing to bet that if it allows us to have perma Domination for running that Recluse TF and the domination actually stacks allowing us to break the purple triangles, that even though maybe 1 team a day might achieve the effect, it will be in the next patch to be fix.

See devs seem to worry much more about taking "Unintended" benefits away from us, rather then fixing the imbalances in the intended aspects and shortcomings of our archtype.

Look at all the ATs boards. Read the kinda of big issues that they report, problems with end, secondary effects, over powered villian groups, etc. Wanna bet that this is in a patch soon before 99 percent of any issue fixes that would provide players benefit. Even though the ability to do it is severly limited to like all the planets lining up just right.

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Oh cool -- if there is such a thing as double Domination, I suppose we can now expect it to be speedily "fixed."

Anyone see any irony here?

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I'm willing to bet that this is fixed by the next patch, however every other issues that we post as actually porblems to our AT and not a benefit in the form of a glitch gets back burner treatment if even ever making it to the "white board" at all.

Odd thing is they apparently read our boards, yet the continual post of "listed common problems" we maintain doesnt get touched. The glitch that would be a cool little benefit that would barely ever get realized in game play, and instantly we have a response on our boards.

Nice to know where we fall in the pecking order. The only AT that needs real help and they only care about fixing non-issues.

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I just re-read my post, and the way I put it sounds different from what I meant. I believe there should be door missions in PvP zones, just the missions and the mobs in the mission should not give XP, influence/infamy, prestige or debt.

It would seem that the only reason why someone would do a door mission in a PvP zone would be to buff/debuff the sides. And if they are going to go through that much trouble to complete the mission just for the buff/debuff, they will be more incluned to stay and PvP afterwards.

Don't know if anyone took what I said in the other post the wrong way, but just wanted to0 clarify what I meant.

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People do the mission in a PVP zone for badges, and because normally those mission grant higher levels of XP then you can get from doing normal missions. I seriously doubt anyone runs mission after mission just to debuff the sides. Or not alot. I know when leveling my characters i was getting much better xp gain on my MM running the SC doors then i was in the normal PVE zones. Both Longbow and the bonus seemed to be higher.

Right now were in a weird situation. Villians are going to be lower level for the most part then heroes for a while. A level 45 trying to hit 50 that caps there debt in a PVP zone is unlikely to come back for some time, or atleast until the hit 50. The lower PVP zones will remain mostly a playground for level 50s to gank easily on characters will less power enhament then themselves. Basicly having players fighting players with incidental debt accruing is to me a bad idea for people that might want to casually PVP during the progression of leveling there characters. So i say do away with all of it. Accept door missions. If you do the missions you get your XP and the possiblility of debt, fighting in the zone nothing either way.

Seems the easiest solution to me. Allow PVP to be just that PVP. Not a way to level or slow the leveling of characters. Otherwise your looking at several months before there is going to be a widely diverse group of level 50 villians willing to not care about debt.

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I'll tell you now, I didn't read the thread except the first page of posts. I am not here to debate anything that was said in this thread. Just want to give my opinion on the topic.

I have said for months that debt, XP, influence, and prestige should be taken away from PvP zones, as well as the missions in the zones. The emphasis of the zones should be PvP, but it has gotten away from that emphasis.

But sadly, everytime I bring this us, I get flammed to hell, so good luck to you OP on trying to make this happen. It's a rough journey.

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Triox, Go to hell. :-)

Ok that being said i actually would have no problem with that at all. With one acception. Unfortunately the Devs replaced the idea of having fun, huntable harzard zones like RCS, Creys folly, Perez Park, Dark Astoria etc, with the idea of pvp zones it seems. THink there are no hazard zones in COV. Only the city zones that they seemed to have made more densly populated, and the PVP zones.

I personally would love to see small team street sweeping friendly city zones and more difficult, more boss ridden hazard zones like COH has and then remove all xp factoring from PVP. If you dont get xp from mobs in PVP zones, then there is no reason why its unbalanced to not get any debt from them either. The population of the zone can then become legitamately part of PVP with out any complaints.

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Quadruple the debt cap. Then, Only those who really enjoy pvp would play and those concerned with pve debt and playing nice would stay in their safe zones.

Why is it ok to get debt in pve but folks freak out if it is in pvp? That thought process is completely backwards to me.

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I have a stalker and frankly always got the "P*ssy hiding stalker come out and fight fair" in sirens when i was take someone out, and they didnt get debt for it. Now im gonna get even worse because they might be carring damage from a NPC when i do it.

Not to mention there WILL be those stalkers and so forth that can lie in wait around say a pillbox and AS you when your down to like a quarter health. Debt aside its a perfectly legit tactic to use on say a tanker or a regen scrapper that you might not be able to 1 shot AS, accept now they get debt for it. I mean truely was anyone really hanging out with there heroes playing a villian and having there hero buddy take them out when they got close to death? I guess i just dont get the need for the change. I personally think the all or nothing on who gets the kill, player or NPC, was acceptable.

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Just added this patch note to PvP section:

Being defeated in a PvP zone will carry debt if any of the damage to you was caused by NPCs. The amount of debt is directly proportional to the amount of damage you took from NPCs vs. how much was done by opposing Player Characters. The more damage dealt to you by NPCs means more debt when you are defeated.

* This means that you can no longer “escape debt” by being defeated by a PC after taking massive damage from NPCs, nor will you be penalized with a massive amount of debt if you are defeated by an NPC after taking a huge amount of damage from a PC.

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Worst Idea ever.

So now rather then a PC killing me after i have defeated enemies in a PVP zone and getting no debt, they can let the bosses and guns soften me up, now kill off my last few HPs and i get debt when i defeated the NPC but the hero or villian did the finishing damage to me.

Not only that but you have AVs and Heroes now runnign around in PVP zones that are one shotting PCing. my blaster can take at level 50 with Force of nature and temp inv running a 1 hit kill from one of those AVs, Sorry folks sounds like you just killed off pvp in this game for good. Anyone not level 50 is pretty much insane to even try now.

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There’s been a ton of discussion regarding Patron Power Pools, so I thought I’d at least give you a perspective from the design end.

When we release levels 41-50 in CoH, we quickly realized that these levels didn’t offer any new powers. Players would be choosing from powers that were already available. While extra powers are nice, it isn’t very interesting. So we asked ourselves what would players want? All Archetypes chafed under their limitations – Tankers had no range, Blasters no defense, etc. – so we thought we give each Archetype the ability to choose lesser versions of powers that would address their weaknesses. Unfortunately, new powers are incredibly art intensive. Instead of making new sets, we choose pre-existing powers and renamed them as Ancillary Power Pools.

During CoV development, I wanted to make sure that the game offered a different experience than CoH. One case of this was that CoV became far more focused on storyline and background than CoH was. We tried to create a vibrant villainous organization that players would want to be part of. For inspiration, I looked to the world of comic books, which are filled with cool, evil organizations. I also wanted our villain versions of “ancillary power pools” to be unique; with the emphasis on Arachnos, I decided to create the Patron system.

Many have complained that this hinders creativity and roleplaying. After all, not everyone wants to be a villain that works for Arachnos. Certainly, a large strength of the City franchise has always been its customizability. To a degree, the Patron powers somewhat inhibit this by compelling people into “working” for certain Arachnos agents. The powers also do not dovetail perfectly into current power sets.

What fascinates me is how new this discussion is to the MMP world. I’ve played lots of games over the years, and usually customization wasn’t that big of an issue. I won’t use any particular game as an example, but rather I’ll take D&D 1st edition to demonstrate a difference. Magic Users then couldn’t use swords. Just couldn’t. They couldn’t really wear armor, either. The major reason for this was balance: a sword wielding, armor wearing mage rendered any regular ole fighter pretty darn useless. There was certainly some grumbling – after all, didn’t Gandalf wield a sword? – but pretty much it’s been accepted. In fantasy games today (online and other), the same limitations continue to apply…When designing City of Heroes, I remember a lot of people telling me that it was just plain wrong to give people so many costume choices in the beginning. People wanted to earn individuality over time, not receive it. Yet, to this day, I think character creation is the single most praised element of the City.

If I were to wax philosophical for a moment – I wonder whether it’s the genre (super heroes), the medium (City of Heroes) or the nature of the internet which has led to a greater demand for individuality. MMP’s, for the most part, are simply direct descendants of D&D, as described above. The gameplay, the mechanics, have pretty much followed the same pattern for ALL computer RPG’s. There’s certainly some demand for customization in other games (as I read on their boards), but it’s never quite the same as it is here for CoH. Maybe it’s because super heroes, by definition, are unique; thus, to play a super hero game a player wants to have those choices. But then I look at the internet, where we demand customization even down to our e-mail address. No one wants to be given a particular address, we almost always choose our own “handles.” Heck, I use the same name in nearly every MMP game to this day, as if it were my own digital shadow. Hopefully, some academic will look for this in the future.

Positron and I will certainly keep this in mind for the future…oh, by the way, the reason that Electrical Power is reddish is so that it could mesh well with some Patron Powers. That was the intent, at least. And, unfortunately, Chum Spray has been renamed to Bile Spray. Our powers guys’ felt that Chum was just too campy.

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My issues with the patron pools are not just limited to the idea you wanted to introduce role playing elements that are going to be permanent. Though thats a big one. Its that 1st not all sets are getting the same attention to things that they need. Dominators for instance are getting basicly duplicates for the most part of powers that they can already take in some form or another. The pools for COV dont seem nearly as diverse as the aux pools in cov were. Secondly i am taking issue with the fact that over all its requiring my character to be in line with a NPC theme and not my theme.

In your post you mentioned taking inspiration from Comics and all the great villiany that exists in them. However if you truely track the popularity of comic villians i think your going to find its the most idividual characters that are the most popular. Spider-man has Venom, Captian America has the Red SKull, Fantastic Four has Dr Doom, Xmen have Appocolypse or Magneto. My point is that its very rare that anyone say "man did you see that generic thug from Red Skull's organization kick some major butt?"

The patron pools IMO turn all of us wanna be takin' over the world'ers into generic thug Mako1001019. Not just that, and let me say i dont role play my characters at all, but picking insperiation from the thugs of Arachnos is counter productive to my characters.

For example, my first character QuiJon is a energyX2 blasters. When epics came out he was already level 50. I took the force pool on day 1 of epics. I later resecped into the Fire pool cause i wanted the hold. But almost right away i started feeling that i hated the fire pool. Here was this character, that i loved, i worked 50 levels with, built him just as i wanted him, and now suddenly as a energy blaster he was running around on fire half the time. It just didnt feel like the same character anymore. I later took electric mastery, and later again went back to the force pool. He now feels right again. These powers wont allow for that. First none are themed to have similar effects to the powers in our classes. secondly even so, we cant experiment with them. If i go Mako i have to stay mako even if i hate it later on.

Your story/role playing philosphy has two holes, first off we are role playing villians, we want to be the big cheese, not work for one. secondly in the whole "to be a part of a great villianous orgnaization" thing, we will have spent 40 levels working for contacts which by the design of your own game, are giving us story lines and missions in many cases where were fighting against Arachnos and its purposes, to then just suddenly say "yes i want to be a good like thug now"

My understanding of the early game is that the Big A breaks us out of prision but then basicly leaves us on our own so we eventually decide to join him as a "destine one" and be a powerful ally. Unfortunately now, this system of Patron pools takes that choice away from us in the end. If this was the theme you were going for it would have been much more roleplayer ish to develop a faction system, where we could chose these patrons based on joining different organizations. Would have opened up a new aspect for PVP mass battles as well to have a system in place where waring villian factions are constantly struggling to over take each other.

Just my opinion but as you can see, i dont think this system emerses me any more in the game, but button holes me to only 1 story line......i break out.....i run around doing missions......i pick my Arachnos patron. There doesnt seem to be a option to pick anything else.

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When is I7?

Just kidding -- How about talking about the new costume options being available in I7?

There have been mention of a few but then we got a few surprises like the robot shoulder pads, anything else we haven't seen in screenshots, Posi?

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I said no "When is I7?"

Interview over.









Yes, there are more costume options you have not seen.

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Ok OK no when is issue 7......



So when are the servers going tobe done running issue 6?

Seriously though can we get any hints on that "positive" for dominators, is it a damage boost, changes to domination, PVP changes to mag resistances ???????? Just a hint??????? Pretty please?????

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I liked trying to push mobs in corners, dammit. It wasn't as if they couldn't run by me often enough anyways to make it challenging.

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See, this is what puzzles me.

In PvE, mobs cornered with Hurricane will eel out from under it with surprising ease. You actually have to work to keep anything cornered with the power. Disoriented mobs are by far the worst right now, and are practically guaranteed to escape from a hurricane pin. It's been that way since the game was released.

When PvP came along, Hurricane really surprised me (not that I PvP much). I could get people pinned with it and they'd stay that way. I actually did a bit of testing with a friend of mine who also has a stormy on the go, because I couldn't believe that the repel's effects could be so different dependent on the target. However, in practice it turned out that he could easily pin me and there wasn't a whole lot I could do to escape. It didn't seem that the power was working the same way in PvP as I was used to it working in PvE.

So what's different? If the power's the working the same way in both contexts, it has to be the mobs.

Over on test right now, it's a lot harder to keep mobs pinned with Hurricane than it is on live, and it's not all that easy on live. Change the mobs so that they respond to repel more like players and this change could be fine. Otherwise it's just making a difficult set even more tricky to play in PvE.

Cheers,

~R~

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The repel in Huricane is fun yes, but more importantly to me is the debuffing. And though the power hasnt had a nerf to the amount of to-hit duffing it does by numbers, this change worries me cause if enemies arent pinned within hurricane and come free of it easier, then it has.

Huricanes effects were not exactly but closely in radius to its cloud. If mobs in PVE or PVP can escape easier then the debuffing it did is more easily removed. Lessening what to me was the more important aspect of the power, that of keeping someone bebuffed more then keeping them stationary.

A change like this requires a change in the way the power debuffs, one or two things. Either the radius of the cloud should be expanded to debuff well outside teh cloud/repel area so mobs in a wider area are debuffed even if not being repeled, or the power should leave some taint on those it does for a time trap. Meanign if you cover a mob in the cloud, then say for 15 or 20 seconds after they escape the debuff should still be effecting them.

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Hmm, so instead of the possibility of hitting more then one with a single target attack on a stacked mob, we now have the possibility to hit less then one...

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Well doesnt that mean that in another 2 years it should settle right into the middle and be correct? come one people its progress, the glass is half full now folks!!!

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CoX will be a better place with EM adjusted.

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It would also be better if all Controler and defender toggles required per hit chances rather then being Automatic like so much of Rad is.

I wish i could give you the numbers but i really never figured them out exactly. I am much more a "what the hell give it a try" kinda player. I do know that Darkest night makes a noticable difference on the accuracy of your enemies and the amound of damage they deal. Tar patch i think is around 20-25 percent damage resistance debuffing plus slows. Its been atleast January since i played my MM, but i do know that Darkest night i had slotted for 3 acc debuffs and some end reduction (i dont believe you can slot the damage resistance debuff) tarpatch i haev slotted for recharge and slowing. Then i have my heal 3 slotted for healing, i believe a end reduction and like 2 recharges. Its up almost all the time and did somewhere around 270 points of healing a click. But its targeted and as i said if it missed the enemy that is where minions had the biggest threat in that they could be very close to death after just 1 hit, but were pretty well healed after one heal.

Funny thing is i started a traps MM in beta, i said right away with no real heal that the set would be terrible. I deleted it and went dark when live COV started and i made a MM. And i do understand Dark is aheavey debuff/healing set. Almost every power in the set debuffs accuracy in some way, slows the enemies, etc.

But i have seen trap/soldiers MM do very well in PVP, and soldier/dark MM do well in pve, soldier/poison etc. Its really about finding a grove for your team that it seems works the best. For instance for zombies they do great melee damage, but can be hesitant to enter melee. Which is why i started herding with my debuff. The pets would be standing right next to me on passive, until the mobs grouped up then when i started choosing targets they were already in melee range and used there stronger attacks instead of weaker dark blast powers. Also i believe almost all zombies with the level 32 enchanment power get some type of healing on there own in addition to my heals.

Like i said its been a while since i played him. I just knwo the two sets worked very well together, and i just cant believe people are having the issues and crys to be "fixed" that seem to be going on. I, if i liked playing a MM, and after my experiences, would so just be keeping my mouth shut and trying to stay under the devs radar. Cause to me MMs are the most ripe set to see some kinda nerfs coming at some point in the near future. But thats just My opinion, to each his own.

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Since PvP is balanced around teams I don't understand this statement. A Blapper only needs to pop Break Frees proactively if he doesn't have decent buffing. The problem is that a Blapper buffed up has only slightly lower safety and greater killing power than a Scrapper with the same buffs.

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Seems to me that you answered your own question. PVP is team based. With no team blasters have to only rely on breakfrees and other insperations to remain operative. With a team blasters can get some mezz protection, some bubbles, some resistance shields etc. But also keep in mind that though you say that these all allow blasters to work with greater protection then a scrapper with more killing power, that a scrapper also has access to these team buffs when on a team.

A scrapper can enhance his mezz protection with team buffs, he can boost his defense with team buffs, he can boost his resistances with team buffs, his healing his end recovery etc.

So in the big picture in these instances a scrapper playing from the same level of a blaster with the same buffs, same team essentially will always be stronger then a blaster so blasters get the stronger damage for the lack of the buffing to themselves. (for example if bubbles offered 30 percent def buff to both ATs, a SR scrapper gets his inherent power pools defense but adds that bubble to the top of it. A blaster has no defense based powers and only recieves the bubbles buff.) Adding the same buff to nothing is always going to be less then adding the same buff to something.

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I'd be happy with this. I'd also like to see Blasters un-resistable damage component possibly enhanced, and/or a "pierce" component (steady +acc bonus, or +to hit).

Making the ranged damage AT pwn in melee because they couldn't get it to work at range was a big mistake, IMO. The Dev team should expend a few brain cells trying to figure this out, IMO, and stop with the slap-dash fixes.

EM blappers would still end up with high damage/acc attacks, build up, and other tools. Toggle-dropping is being nerfed anyways.


But, as far as I can tell, the blaster community is by far the whiniest community in this game, and definately the one with the least reason to whine.

PS- The "give us mez protetion" thing is old. So old. It's been 3-4 issues and a year + already. I don't think you guys are getting it, do you?

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The least reason to whinne?

WHen this game came out, it was commonly reffered to as City of Blasters. Due to how quickly blasters came off the ground and the issues with things like smoke grenades. It quickly became a blaster waste land as people hit the 30s or so, realized the damage scalled poorly and started seeing what controlers, and scrappers could accomplish as they started getting there top tier powers.

Issue 2 comes along, scrapper get a damage buff and faster animations in some sets. Scrappers if you recall are the ones that started wolf herding back when tankers didnt have the damage for it. Regen commonaly soloed monsters due to monsters not doing enough damage fast enough to over come regen. Perma elude, perma MOG, perma unstoppable all ruled the day. Blasters were being out damaged when damage is what we were told was our thing. We got nothing.

After a while blasters were not that comon but you couldnt throw a halloween rock with out hitting a scrapper or controler. Suddenly issue 4 and pvp come out. blasters have some trouble, some fixes help, and suddenly the once ignored AT becomes a FOTM for PVPers everywhere. I have no complaints about blasters, yes they have problems i would love to see fixed, but thank god every update that little has been taken away from them. The AOE target nerf is about the biggest complaint i would have.

But for a year plus, i read scrappers complaining that they cant do "fill in the blank" they dont have AOEs like blasters, they dont get as much range, blah blah. And yes scrappers have been nerfed, repeatedly. And through all those nerfs what stands out to me is scrappers continueing to use blasters as some type of damage guage for how well they should be doing.

The cry of mez protection.... well i dont think any blaster will truely even think it will be given to us. But frankly most would give up all 4 epic powers to get it if offered. The cry of "then give us mez protection" really comes out when issues like this...Scrappers could out melee blasters" kind of issue comes out. Scrappers are sturdier then blasters. They are to take more damage, requiring you not to do as much damage. The cry is simply if you want to do what you say we an do, then where is our cookie for our shortcomings. We scrap with almost no defense, almost no resistance, lower hps and the biggst of all, no MEZ protection.

When someone says the ole "blasters scrap better then scrappers" and wants either buffs to scrappers or nerfs to blasters, yes we simply reply "fine wheres our mez protection"

And as for the whinniest AT int he game? No thread in the blaster forums ever reached the cry baby 500 page status that the regen thread on the changes back in issue 3-4 did. By far scrappers stamp their feet and whine much more then any other AT at any change. I understand the big changes when planed to make integration and instant healing mutally exclusive sucked. But again, if mez protection wasnt worth crying for, then it shouldnt have required a 500 page thread to have it corrected right?

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LOL Elite bosses are not supose to be solo-able. If your complaining you cant solo a elite boss the devs would be Happy as a clam. There not going to give you a buff to allow for it.

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What on earth are you talking about? EB's are not supposed to be soloable? Are you crazy? Every character I have can solo an elite boss. Where did the devs say EBs were not supposed to be soloable?

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MM are Overpowered in PVE pure and simple.

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No, they aren't, pure and simple.

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At level 33 my zombie/dark had soloed everything including Heroes, when they were heroes in solo missions andnot elite bosses or bosses. He hasnt been below the next to highest or highest difficulty setting since he was level 15.

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So what? And I seriously doubt you could solo Mynx as a hero. Or Backalley Brawler. Or any AV/Hero with an AoE attack of any kind.

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Oh and those AVs and elite bosses keep attacking you through your pets because likely your debuffing them. Same thing happens on my dark, it happens because im running darkest night and tar patch on the AV. Same thing happend to rad defenders and controlers forever also, debuffs draw agro.

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No, it happens to me on my bubbler and I am not doing jack to aggro the EB.

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Perhaps, just perhaps, a class as strong in PVE as MMs are, shouldnt be to worried about being also strong in PVP. And should just be ignoring posts like this rather then complaining that they take to much damage to take out a elite boss solo. I do believe similar threads are exactly how controlers got adjusted in issue 5. And before anyone might point out to take my own advice and remain quite, i dont play my MM anymore it was to cheap and boring. I rolled a dom. And if any AT needs the attention in PVP its Dominators. So count your selfs lucky to get any beneficial change, cause Doms got ignored completely.

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The reason your mastermind seems "cheap" and "boring" is probably because you don't really have to attack, ever, because your pets do, and you rarely will die because you are more than likely smart enough to run away when things go south. In short, you just don't like the mastermind playstyle. The only way to really change how they play now and not completely destroy the AT would be to lower pet damage and up the personal damage drastically, but that would make us into Diet-Corrupters with pets.

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The ONLY hero i have had a problem soloing, before they changed missions and i dont get Heroes much solo anymore, was Infernal. And he was problematic because of the Goatman spawning he does, with the added mobs, he technically then could actually exceed my ability to heal in damage, but even so i would actually get him down to about half health before things went south and end became a premium.

I understand that all MM builds, like all build in any AT have different abilities. Mine is zombie/dark. EVERY fight including Heroes went like this:

1)Drop darkest night on a mob, leave pets on passive.
2)run around a corner or obstical so mobs had to herd to me and gather.
3)When mobs are nice and close and all huddled drop fearsome stare.
4)unleash pets on targets highest rank to lowest choosing the target for all pets of gang bang on.
5)drop a tar patch.
6)spam healing until mobs are dead.

Thats about it. And with darkest night slotted by the time i was 22 on SOs, i could really handle a whole room of mobs in one group. Healing almost 300 points a heal. Keeping mobs all grouped on me, and hand picking targets kept pets from wandering and they would alway catch my heals, and even +2 bosses dont last long with all 6 pets atached to them.

And the same formula worked for heroes. Even heroes with AOE attacks. Darkest night debuffed there damage just enough to make pets survive to a heal. Occasionally if a heal missed i might lose a round of minions but they were easily replaced.

In addition to this build i have seen soldier MMs Solo the Save Ms Vasher mission against freaks, ambushes and all, set to invincible with teams of 3-4 people. Master minds can handle a ton in PVE.

My master mind seems cheap and boring because i was rarely if ever at risk. Fighting a hero class villian was about the only time i ever felt evenly matched. And a hero/AV should be s risk for a team according to the devs. And your right i guess the devs havent said EBs are unsoloable, but did say that soloing one should come with intense risk to your character. Not even one elite boss ever took out my Mastermind, that isnt risk.

Oh and i believe i did solo minx, and Aura Borlealis has AOE attacks, and i soloed her twice before the spawning changes as a Hero. Once i could spawn the Ghost pet from a fallen pet, and would kill my boss zombie spawn the temp pet and respawn boss, between my pets and my own hold, it wasnt even uncomon to be able to hold a AV for a time during the fight.

Simply i am seening no real difference between my a Mastermind can do and what controlers could do prior to the issue 5 changes. They easily take on what is considered team level content solo. (i know i know your gonna say a master mind is never solo) But i dont believe simply being a pet wrangler means your actually on a team. In total your whole spawning and pets shouldnt be any more effective then any other AT build running solo. Master minds are by far.

That being said your right, the play style didnt suit me i wanted to be challenged not by on auto pilot. It might suit some people just fine and thats great. My orignal point was that the basis of complaints in this thread seemed to be on the ability to do things or not do things, that devs consider team based content. Elite bosses, are considered team base content by the devs. They have said several times that they consider elite bosses to be a threat with great level of difficulty to handle solo. Its being mentioned in this thread as if "how dare we not be able to solo a elite boss" in tone.

Also some of the most challenging PVP oppenents i have faced were Master minds. In fact playing from a hero side, i would say The most difficult. If you survive a stalker AS they really are not that difficult to fight. Brutes can be detoggled and at that point not that bad, corruptors are fancy blasters but to me dont play nearly as well, unless teamed with cross buffing with other corruptors, Dominators, well are dominators, even if they hold you there damage sucks so badly that you can almost go get a drink and wait for the hold to wear off rather then wasting a break free. Master minds have pets and can constantly be attacking you, debuffs that can keep you from attacking, holdyou, effect your damage speed accuracy..... And yes the weakness is that when facing real thinking people and not AI, people will know to go after the source of the pets and not be distracted by the pets themselves. Its a weakness, not a complete falling apart of the AT design. Breakfrees are a complete falling apart of a AT design when looking at Dominators. And as i said, i just found it funny, in the same way i used to find it funny when issue 3 came along and regeners complained about not soloing monsters. As much as i would love blasters to rule the world i have to look at my ats in perspective to the game and others. And realilisticly have expectations that are balanced. Expecting a Elite boss to be a win, it would seem every time, is not realilistic expectations to me.

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I still say the best possible solution is to give MMs a 20% chance per pet that is in range of supremacy to intercept any attack aimed at the MM. Any pet that successfully intercepts an attack then gets to apply their defenses and resistances to the attack normally. Of course, any AE attack would still us anyway (assuming we're within the area after it hits the pet).

This would mean:
5 or 6 pets = all attacks aimed at the MM are automatically intercepted by pets.
4 pets = 80% chance of an any attack being intercepted.
3 pets = 60% chance
2 pets=40 % chance
1 pet = 20% chance.

This wouldn't make a huge difference in PvE, since we normally don't get aggro anyway, but in PvP it would be a HUGE survival boost. It wouldn't be overly powerful either, since we aren't able to move around freely with our pets (anyone can outrun our pets, and we'd have to be very careful not to outdistance our pets and lose their protection).

I've posted this multiple times. Just hope the Dev's are reading and giving it consideration.

Suriyama
40 Bots and Bubbles
Justice

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This would be a great boon for the ambushes(after getting a clicky) and Elite bosses where no matter how many attacks my Robots throw, I am still getting aggro. Just recently I could not finish an Arachnos mission with an Elite Boss(+1). I don't remember her name but she was a spines scrapper and everytime I poked my head around the corner to hopefully give my Bots some support it became a case of acupunture gone awry. I could only take 2-3 attacks and then had to run.

I even went and got 5 purples and 5 oranges for all the bots but it only delayed the inevitable. Anyways, the battle was taking too long since the Bots could do little damage and I could not support them with the Supremacy or Acid Mortar. I was just able to keep pumping Bots out to keep her at bay but I did not want to stay there for another two hours while they whittled away at her.

Your suggestion sounds great but for that very reason I doubt it would get implemented.

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LOL Elite bosses are not supose to be solo-able. If your complaining you cant solo a elite boss the devs would be Happy as a clam. There not going to give you a buff to allow for it.

MM are Overpowered in PVE pure and simple. At level 33 my zombie/dark had soloed everything including Heroes, when they were heroes in solo missions andnot elite bosses or bosses. He hasnt been below the next to highest or highest difficulty setting since he was level 15.

Oh and those AVs and elite bosses keep attacking you through your pets because likely your debuffing them. Same thing happens on my dark, it happens because im running darkest night and tar patch on the AV. Same thing happend to rad defenders and controlers forever also, debuffs draw agro.

Perhaps, just perhaps, a class as strong in PVE as MMs are, shouldnt be to worried about being also strong in PVP. And should just be ignoring posts like this rather then complaining that they take to much damage to take out a elite boss solo. I do believe similar threads are exactly how controlers got adjusted in issue 5. And before anyone might point out to take my own advice and remain quite, i dont play my MM anymore it was to cheap and boring. I rolled a dom. And if any AT needs the attention in PVP its Dominators. So count your selfs lucky to get any beneficial change, cause Doms got ignored completely.

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Scrappers should in no way even come close to Blaster damage output.

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Here's the thing: on average, they don't. Can a scrapper keep it up for awhile? Yeah, of course. Can a blaster do twice the damage in a quarter the time? Yep.

Oh, and mez protection:
1) My regen actually gets mezzed pretty regularly.
2) Play on a team? 5/8 of defenders and 5/7 of controllers can give you mez protection.

The whole point is that although a solo scrapper>a solo defender, a blaster teamed with a controller, tanker, or defender can do more than a scrapper in that situation. Like you say, your huge damage ability comes at a price. Just try to make up for your weaknesses.

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Our damage comes early. Scrappers see a late blooming to their damage and that i think gives off the appearance of being lower. I started playing just about the same time as my buddy did. I rolled a energy/energy blaster he made a MA/DA scrapper. Up to around level 30ish he was always constantly [censored] about how much i could do in damage, how fast i could kill etc. But keep in mind where every power i had the ability to pick a attack (at the time i didnt take stamina or fitness i was a total newb) he had to split between armors and attacks. That on top of scrapper get many of their best single attacks in the late 20s to early 30s, blasters primaries are often spread out and we are getting decent single targets in the early teens, and in energy's case crappy AOEs in the upper 20s and a once ever 5 minutes all or nothing for the 32. But my point is by the early 40s his survivablility was way over mine, he was dishing out as good if not more sustainable damage, he had protection, etc.

Blasters have always been told that our ability to kill a enemy fast was our defense. (along with range wich is total BS) But basicly we are damage kings, we kill before being killed. Yet oddly enough scrapper damage has been boosted a couple times, along with for 5 issues a higher damage cap then blasters had. So riddle me this...

If the game was such that a AT that actually has defenses required a damage boost to be competitive, then why does the king of damage, no defense AT not also require a boost?

To look at it in perspective, if scrappers needed more damage to kill fast enough to stay alive, and that is running secondary defenses, then why does a AT that is also all about damage, but with no defenses also not need a primary damage boost in order to stay on par with the game? It doesnt make sense when compared that way.

Blasters dont need secondary fixes as much as they do need a more reliable scalling of the damage from level 1-50. Our attacks should be doing more damage, at the same sustainable levels in range as a scrapper has in melee(or there range). We take damage we die, and i know scrappers die also, but they usally stay upright quite a bit longer then a blaster in a simalar setting.

And Ohms is correct, if you have defenses that are capable of keeping you a strong Solo AT, then you have defenses capable of keeping you a strong Team AT as well. The blasters team scrappers solo argument holds no merit.

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FWIW, the bottom line for me is this...

Scrappers initial role in the game is the solo class, with no team role.

That didn't work out, so the devs made them boss-killers. They received adjustments to two lackluster sets, an inherent to help them in their role, and (eventually) the highest base damage in the game to make sure they were the best at their role.

Blasters initial role in the game was "damage juggernaut" (alternatively King of Damage), the team damage dealer who is a glass cannon in order to need a team.

That didn't work out, do the devs say he is the "ranged damage" dealer class. But unlike Scrappers, Blasters have received almost no changes since this role was announced, and neither of those changes directly improved blaster performance in that role. Further, the secondaries (or at least most of them) have been acknowledged as lackluster without being fixed.

Blasters need buffs to imporve their performance in their new role. Blasters need their lackluster secondaries fixed. Those fixes are going to threaten Scapper's a bit. Scrapper's will simply have to remember that they already received their buffs to be best at their role and already had their lackluster sets fixed.

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Am i the only one that read STates comments that its scrapper testing that is going on. Seems funny to me that in order to fix the blaster sets they are testing scrappers, chances are blasters are not going to get a damn thing, its scrappers that will be buffed or nerfed accordingly to make blasters feel better about themselves. So again, blasters will get nothing accept a more favorable personal glow when making comparisons to another AT.

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and part of our Scrapper testing is aimed directly at this.


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Ouch! Why do i think that collectively a few thousand scrappers just had a mass case of Shrinkage.

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(sorry, I haven't had time to read this whole thread yet.)

What's to stop a disgruntled team member from deleting your whole stored inventory?

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It's a Supergroup Permissions thing.

You need to have the Permission set for your level to put things into the Storage.

You need to have the Permission set for your level to take things out of the Storage.

A log is also kept showing you who put things in and who took things out.

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Wouldnt it have been a whole lot easier and much more functional to have just made 1 bucket to donate stuff to the Group that the leadership can draw from set to whatever SG level your group chose, then have each member have a personal stash that only that member can access? Kinda like Gym locker or something?

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While I think this is probably fine, my only concern is this: Going to the base,and coming back from the base to a mission, is INCREDIBLY inconvenient in CoH.

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I just don't agree with that at all. There are base portals in all of the city zones. Heading back to the base and then to the mission is incredibly easy.

I also don't agree with all this 'give us a temp power instead' business. Not all the benefits in the game should be given when you want, where you want, at the click of a mouse button. I would PREFER something like the Empowerment Station buffs as they are now - a very big buff with a time limit, as opposed to a smaller one on demand. If nothing else, I'd rather PvP wasn't further complicated by people firing their carefully hoarded temp powers and striking from the shadows.

I do wonder, though, whether this isn't why the CoH teleporters all to go hazard zones - to cut down on travel time to the mission in areas without base portals, while the buff runs down.

Anyway, Positron is saying he'll extend the time limit if it isn't enough, so there's always the chance we'll get it for longer.

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Or i know, increase flight speed to compensate for travel time. I dont mind the 15 minute timer if flight say went faster then my old 1972 V'Dub did.

what ever happened to the idea of being able to get a non-sg, non-raidable lair. So that small 3-4 man SG can simple have a hang out or a bat cave so to speak to simply house the slavage, insp crafting, and maybe some type of idividual vault system to keep there loot in?

I mean for a large group this sounds ok, but say i on doing respecs were pulling out some of the 50 or so HamiOs i have on my blaster to spread around to my other toons as they are needed but dont want to keep them all on the characters slots? This update sounds like if i put them in my SGs storage really anyone can take them and use them at will. Or say i have the max number of salavge of a type i can carry, if i drop the salvage in this bin, even though my group was wanting to save it for a specific purpose some other member can just craft it to a 15 buff for themselves with no worries?

Doesnt sound that great. IMO any way. How about finally getting to the point of saying our characters can just rent for influence their own apartments. 1-2 rooms not raidable 1 secret room behind the bookcase that is our Hero/villian vault let us decorate house some useful stuff, stuff our influence inside the matress etc.

bases were a great idea, but fall short of being useful just on a percharacter basis. Not everyone wants to be a part of some medium to large SG and have to worry about upkeep on some mega base.

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Well, let's see what my thoughts have evolved to at this point.

[*]1) Blasters revised role as ranged damage dealer (vs. previous role of best damage dealer) calls for a boost in range[*]2) Blasters need to be able to make a better ranged attack chains (both ST and AE) with their primary and secondary combined, than could be made with just the primary. [*]3) Controls and Debuffs are part of a Blaster's arsenal for a reason, and if they need more protection, that is where it should come from[*]4) Upping debuff and control a bit will lead towards AT homogenization, so a counterbalance needs to exist to keep ATs the best at fulfilling their roles.[/list]
Which leads to the following ToDo list

[*]A) Add range to primaries (Increase range of all ranged attacks there to the average of current range and 80m)[*]B) Make one ST and one AE power in each secondary medium ranged so they improve ranged performance (and without making them untenable for their current uses)[*]C) Make the debuffs meaningful, and make sure every blaster has an "oh crap" control power.[*]D) Apply the irresistible damage (Blaster) and irresistible debuff (Defender) rules from PVP to PVE.[/list]
Now I want to get into the details, because some of these, while they sound simple, can get a bit hinky in the details. How do we make Frozen Fists a ranged attack, for example. That gets into Animation time and can get pretty ugly.

A) Add range to primaries (Increase range of all ranged attacks there to the average of current range and 80')

Here's one we can just do. No changes to animations required, thankfully.

B) Make one ST and one AE power in each secondary medium ranged so they improve ranged performance (and without making them untenable for their current uses)

[*]Devices: Taser - Make this the ranged ST attack. Animation: Use the Taser draw and stance, but steal the bolt and effect from Elec: Lighting Bolt[*]Devices: Time Bomb - Time Bomb is targetable and if it is damaged by Fire, Energy, or Smashing damage, it goes off early[*]Electric: Charged Brawl - Make this the ranged ST attack. Use the second half of Hurl Boulder animation, but instead of Hurling a boulder, you hurl a huge ball of Electricity. (Renaming is probably in order)[*]Electric: Lightning Field - This becomes an enemy targeted Electrical Aura. Put the effect that currently applies to the PC on the effected MOB instead. Nearby MOBs get the same animation as when hit by Ball Lightning.[*]Energy: Power Thrust - Make this the ranged ST attack. We use the Hurl Boulder animation again, only this time we make a ball of Energy instead of Electricity.[*]Energy: Boost Range - Increases the radius and max # of MOBs effected by an AE as well as the range of an attack. Radius increases by 50%. Max Mobs = 24.[*]Fire: Fire Sword - Make this the ranged ST attack. We use something like the spines: impale animation, but throw the sword instead.[*]Fire: Blazing Aura - Becomes an enemy targeted AE. Targeted MOB gets aura that is around PC now, nearby foes react as if they were near a fireball.[*]Ice: Chilling Embrace - Simply change this to Storm: Snow Storm[*]Ice: Ice Sword - See Fire Sword.[/list]
C) Make the debuffs meaningful, and buff controls where they are too weak.

[*]Increase strength of debuffs in primaries by X% (50%?)[*]Add recharge debuff to most AR: Buckshot, Beanbag, Snipe[*]Add regen debuff to AR: M30 Grenade, Flamethrower, Ignite, Full Auto[*]Add recharge debuff to Archery: Snap, Aimed, Fistful, Rain[*]Add regen debuff to Archery: Flaming, Explosive, Stunning[*]Add recharge debuff to most Energy Blast attacks[*]Add regen debuff to most Fire Blast attacks[*]Energy Manipulation: Stun - Causes and AE knockdown around the target[*]Fire: Combustion - Causes run-away fear[/list]
D) Apply the irresistible damage (Blaster) and irresistible debuff (Defender) rules from PVP to PVE.

Here's one we can just do. No changes to animations required, thankfully.


It's not the simplest plan, but it seems to me as simple a plan as I can see that puts the changes where the devs seem open to actually making changes (i.e. - primarily in the secondaries).

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Ok so i read finally the revised plan. Thanks for linking it. Have a couple questions, mostly on energy. Energy thrust, its a way low damage attack with a almost complete (almost) chance to knock back a target a good distance. Your plan to change it to a ranged ball of energy attack would do what? Increase the damage and lose the knockback? I guess what i am asking is other then range this idea seems to change the basis of the power from a control to a damage dealer. And for energy its one of the few real controls there is. And for stun, making it AOE i guess doesnt really matter. But i cant see that happening. But more over energy works well IMO as a single target set. For the most part anyway. It works because it can help limit exposure on teams to drawing agro. A AOE knockdown would sure get me more attention then i would really like im wagering.

The boost range changes... what ever i dont take the power now and dont forsee those changes making me want to take it being that i only really have 1 AOE i commonly use, that being energy torrent. I have nova but with the -regen for 10 seconds i almost never use it now, and explosive blast is really just a total waste. Just seems the idea to increase mobs targeted would be better served in a different set like say fire with its AOEs or devices for full auto.

Over all the new list i can probably live with, but still really dont see alot of that coming to light. I know your general opinion is probably it comes to late, but alot of the effects your looking for are attainable in the epic powers. EMP pulse, for example or a ranged AOE like lrm rocket. A extra cone for electric pool, repulsion field etc. I can recall the devs saying that the epics were ment to fill in the holes of other sets. I would probablly say that the want or desire to pick up a utility AOE power they would say is availible in the munitions pool. To get some resistance or defense from the force pool, An extra hold from fire or elec pools, AOE stun in electric and even fire if you count RoTP.

The one thing i can say i kinda agree on is that PBAOEs and ther effects to me are better served as targeted effects. The lighting field cast on a enemy and hits his near by buddies. This would also to me apply to the slow toggle in the ice secondary and i think its combustion in fire that both effect enemies only when they get near the player. I think it could add alot to these two secondaries to have that changed.

But over all i still think your talking about a very ambitious list, and to me the devs think more quick fix (i.e. Defiance)

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Question though... if we debuff an enemy's range uhm... won't they just close with us? >.> And hurt us in melee?

I could be wrong; I've never used Hurricane myself (I haven't gotten my storm defender high enough yet); but it seems to me that if you end up dropping an enemy's range; all they'll do is get closer. And then you are no longer at range at all. Which uhm... yeah... <~_~> I could be wrong though; not meaning to bash it; just not understanding is all.

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I dont believe i suggested debuffing range. I think you might have my posts mistaken with another. My main point is i really dont want debuffing, debuffing is a corruptor, i hate corruptors. I love the fast damage(melee and range) with no defense(or low).

But I am a firm believer that melee doesnt spell doom or gloom for blasters. Its a matter of picking and choosing, mixing it up so your not the sole point of agro to a mob. In peregrine island my blaster can drop into a group of 8-10 even level minions/lts and off them using a combo of melee and range. (and a insp or two for mezz protection)

People complain about powers like Energy torrent being to situational. But i find it to be a great power, atleast in PVE. with build up and aim energy torrent is quite a viable opening attack, It knocks most of a mob on there buts and does enough damage to take atleast a third to half the HPs from even cons. And frankly when i feel that i can easily be soloing 2-3 times the number of mobs that the 3:1 goal that this game is ment to be centered on I truely dont want alot of attention drawn to the AT. Unfortunately if the COV ATs are any indication of a greater sense of the game balance the devs are currently invisioning, when a massive overhaul of secondaries is completely, i can guarentee we will lose more then we gain.

Blasters are damage, not debuffing, not controling, side effects are in support of our main cause, DAMAGE. we do in my opinion fulfill that role. We could fill it slightly better with few tweaks, but sweeping changes to secondaries will net a negative result in my opinion.