Redlynne

The SOUND of Hasten (in addition to its Visual FX) is one of my pet peeves in this game.

QUOTED FOR EMPHASIS !!!

Demons are such {censored!} *NOISY* Pets! That (nigh) constant howling is enough of a Dealbreaker for me that until it changes, I will *NEVER* even consider rolling up a Demon Summoner, ever.

During the Power Sets and Player Abilities Panel at the Player Summit, attended by Positron, Black Scorpion, Arbiter Hawk, Tunnel Rat, Synapse and Zwillinger (in a room so *small* we had to tell people to leave for fire code safety reasons ... and I enjoyed telling Black Pebble he had to leave when he came in late, which made ALL of the Red Names practically die laughing!) ... I brought up TEH SUCK that is the Presence Pool Fear Powers. I pointed out that "way back when" they'd been nerfed into the ground to the point where the ONLY way to make them viable was to (practically) 6-slot them, and even then you had to take Both Fear Powers and 6-slot them for a miserly marginal performance that just simply didn't stack up to other options with respect to Return On Investment. Essentially, you HAD TO spend and spend and spend and spend on the Fear Powers (plural) in order to get ANYTHING out of them, and that it was such a high hurdle that no one was meaningfully willing to make it for so little payoff.

I invited the assembled Devs to datamine how many characters actually even HAD the Presence Pool Fear Powers ... and Positron (loudly) interjected at that point with what essentially amounted to (and I'm paraphrasing, obviously, since it's been 6 weeks) a very mournful "been there, done that" to indicate that such research has already been done, and that the results of that datamining were ... not desirable ... on the issue of Presence Pool Fear Powers acceptance by the playerbase.

I then made the case that sticking the Presence Pool Fear Powers *after* the Taunts created an extra "layer" of unnecessary investment to be able to access them, which made them even less desirable, even before getting into the fact that they were really only meaningfully useful when double stacked (due to low Mag 2 values) and that their Accuracy, Recharge and Duration values (ie. the entire reason to even use the powers in the first place) had been NERFED SO HARD in the first place that they were practically useless "out of the box" and required ridiculous investment(s) in Slots to even turn them into a minimally usable tool.

I swear I *tried* not to WHINE about the situation ... but it was really hard not to given that the spreadsheet values and requirements for the Pool's Fear Powers were so incredibly NOT USEFUL.

Positron then spoke up a second time on the point that I was making ... and he did so in reference to my previous question (about reorganizing the combo requirements for Dual Blades for Stalkers so that they aren't dependent upon Assassin Strike and Placate for some of them, which basically renders those particular combos "moot" in the current game) that essentially involved what we know of as The Cottage Rule. So a bit more context becomes necessary for his answer.

My previous question about Dual Blades Combos for Stalkers was essentially, "don't change the ordering of the Powers in the Tiers ... just change the sequencing of the powers required for the Combos so as to avoid using Assassin Strike and Placate and Build Up" and would that be possible? Positron invoked the Cottage Rule for not wanting to reorganize the Powers on the Tiers, but then when I clarified that I was only talking about shifting around the attack power chaining (1-2-3) used in combat to actually DO the Combos, rather than shuffling Powers in their Tiers, there seemed to be some interest shown in that idea by Positron, Black Scorpion, Arbiter Hawk and Synapse (ie. The Powers People) and notes were taken (on the spot) as something they should look into.

My follow-up question about "Doing Something" with the Presence Pool's Fear Powers *immediately* invoked the Cottage Rule again ... but Positron said something VERY INTERESTING.

Positron said (and I'm paraphrasing from memory again, since this is 6 weeks later) that the Cottage Rule is far less stringent, and more likely to be "waived" for Power Pools (such as Presence, in this case) which are determined to be Underperforming and widely seen as "Gimped" by the playerbase as a whole, and especially when such negative views are deemed as reasoned and reasonable by the Devs.



What made this exchange all the more interesting is not only the context of the Before And After (as in, you really had to be there in order to appreciate everything being "said" during it), but also Positron's *tone* in how he said it ... which doesn't exactly come across all that well in plain text like this. The underlying subtext of Positron's *tone* in how he was saying that any changes to the Presence Pool and its Fear Powers was not only supportive of the points being made (that the Presence Pool Fear Powers were severely underpowered/gimped) but also of the broader notion that those Fear Powers were further structurally hampered by being "behind" a pair of Taunt Powers which you were required to take (one of) before "reaching" the Fear Powers. He was effectively "conceding" the point that these Pool Fear Powers were both "poorly placed" in the Presence Pool and "unfairly penalized" by a round of nerfs that happened (now) many years ago ... and he was quite supportive of the notion that "something should be done about that" and that that SOMETHING could very easily (as in, more easily than when dealing with a Primary or Secondary powerset) involve *breaking* the Cottage Rule in order to "make things better" than they have been for the Presence Pool. And it was the way he said it that made it sound like he (Positron) was rather in favor (privately, although he didn't come right out and state this at the time, or later, explicitly) of doing just that ... *breaking* the Cottage Rule so as to "liberate" the Presence Pool Fear Powers from the ghetto they've been in for so many years so as to make them relevant and useful again. I could tell, just by hearing him speak, that Positron very much appreciated that bit of Player Feedback at the Player Summit.



Now, to be *CLEAR* ... there was no commitment made at the time (or later on) to "do something" about the situation with the Presence Pool Fear Powers ... and honestly, I'd be surprised if they had, since Black Pebble was in the back of the room being all Frowny Faced and making sure no one said anything they shouldn't (which, to be fair, IS HIS JOB!). But with the *way* that Positron answered the question of "can anything be done for the Presence Pool Fear Powers?" I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that because of that bit of Feedback ... Live and In Person at the Player Summit ... that "doing something" about the Presence Pool gets put on the Development Schedule sometime this next year. Reading between the lines, I wouldn't be too surprised to learn (a year from now) that the Presence Pool is being broken up into Two Pools ... one for Fears and one for Taunts ... with each having a Ranged Single Target, a PBAoE, a Cone and a Target AoE power in them for Fear or Taunt. Or they might do something else entirely ... like combining the Taunt and Fear effects into all of the powers in the Presence Pool, such that they both Taunt AND Fear simultaneously.

My basic point is that I don't have any idea of exactly what the Powers Team *will do* about the Presence Pool ... but I get the idea that they're going to do SOMETHING about the situation, given the way that Positron very positively answered the question about the Pool.



Go Positron!

Go go power of NO GET HITSU!!

Now with more pepper spray acquired from Wal-Mart in the Food section! Don't leave your Base without it!

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It certainly *seemed* that way when I was talking to Arbiter Hawk in the hallway before the Player Summit. I invited him to come to the Kheldian Forum and explain his position and reasoning ... so it could be UNDERSTOOD and ACCEPTED ... but so far, he hasn't done that.

I comprehend perfectly fine that you are incapable of grasping the meaning, let alone purpose, behind what I say. You keep talking about PToD Suppression as if that were the be all/end all necessary to Stalker Buffing which would solve all their problems in perpetuity ... which is, of course, ridiculous on its face. First of all, *I'm* not even trying to pretend that PToD Suppression would "solve everything" and yet you keep trying to make out that it might be seen that way ... hence your (and I quote) just - not - even - close - to - enough (unquote) ... complete misinterpretation and understanding of what it being offered.

You keep looking at ONE IDEA and thinking that's the Whole Solution. It isn't, and you do yourself a disservice by misrepresenting what I say (and have said) the way that you do.

<snippity>

Correction. You don't want to play THIS game ... you want to play a DIFFERENT game.

And now I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you're PROJECTING ...

/em speechless

Do you HONESTLY believe that?

I think your definition of the word "some" doesn't match what's either in the dictionary, or with the vocabulary used in a Production Schedule for a game as complex (and old) as City of Heroes now is.

And now you're just making up excuses. If there ARE better ideas, I'd love to hear some. Better yet, I'd love for the Devs to actually implement some better ideas.

No comment.

Again ... you don't want to play THIS game, you want to play a DIFFERENT game. That's what your position boils down to.

I don't have to explain anything. Some truths are self evident.

It's always on. Just make sure you're within Level+3 of what you've slotted and you'll be fine (ie. slot a Level 10 IO if at all possible for this). Same rules apply to the Winter's Gift Slow Resistance IO.

Let me get this straight ... you're bemoaning a (and I quote) lack of a niche strategic role (unquote) ... and yet when one is offered which doesn't change the entire game, to your liking, you shoot it down? Even better yet ... when a niche role is offered, which doesn't preclude other options for other options in the rest of the game, you still can't resist shooting it down?

I'm becoming more and more convinced that you, Angry_Citizen, don't know what you want ... let alone what you're asking FOR. All you know about is what you're opposed to, rather than what you're in favor of. Endless tirades of "Don't Want THAT!" are not constructive ... especially when you do not counter with concrete and defined proposals for what should be getting done instead.



You *say* you want a defined Strategic Role. I'm hard pressed to think of what kind of a Strategic Role *ANY* archetype can fulfill in the Solo Game ... which means that any kind of Strategic Role can only be relevant in Team and/or League Play. And if we're talking Strategic Role in Team Play, a disproportionate amount (although, admittedly, not all) of Team Play involves Task Forces and Strike Forces as well as Incarnate Trials in the Endgame. Most (but not all) TFs/SFs and iTrials involve AV/Hero battles at their conclusion in some form or fashion ... if not multiple such battles throughout their arcs ... and yet you are (dare I say, radically?) opposed to the notion of doing something as simple (and minor?) as giving Stalkers a way to offensively debuff/suppress the PToD on every AV/Hero as a way to actually give Stalkers at least one Strategic Role? Notice here that I'm not even trying to make a case for an ONLY proposition in this case, I'm merely trying to ADD and not SUBTRACT.

I could understand such a stance, on your part, if you believed that adopting such a suggestion were on the order of a "This or NOTHING!" proposition ... or if giving Stalkers the power to Suppress PToD on AVs/Heroes were some kind of either/or situation with another choice that precluded other options. Since that is clearly not the case ... one has to wonder ... if you even know what you want? And if you're not able to articulate clearly what it is that you want (aside from Big Picture Hand Waving Lacking In Specifics), I then have to ask the obvious question.

What ... pray tell ... are you contributing to this discussion, Angry_Citizen?



Because near as I can tell, your comments are hardly constructive to date ...

As someone who has believed in the Path of NO GET HITSU!! since Issue 2 (on a MA/SR Scrapper no less!), I'm always looking to get to the 45% Defense softcap as reliably, and over the widest Level range, as possible. If you're going to be "staying out of melee" by hover blasting, you should be able to "get away with" 48% Ranged Defense most of the time, no problem. 41% Melee/AoE Defense isn't bad if you aren't planning to stay in Melee range all the time (ie. not playing as a Melee Bane).

Ultimately, it's not up to me to approve/disapprove of your choices. So long as they "work" for you, that's all that really matters.

Shadow Recall is a great place for either a Blessing of the Zephyr KB Protection or a Winter's Gift Slow Resistance enhancement. The only places where you might meaningfully want the extra range on Shadow Recall are Independence Port and out in the Shadow Shard (and even then, the Range Enhancement isn't "enough" to eliminate the problem when traveling corner to corner.

For Shadow Step, I personally prefer a Jaunt End/Range IO instead of either all Range or all Endurance.

According to Mids', Cloak doesn't suppress when attacked. I'd have to check in-game to see if that's true. According to City of Data, it's not true ... so this is probably an oversight/omission bug in Mids'.