Runestar

Defiance is a good attempt at helping blasters. I'll give you that but it's implementation is flawed at best. I would much rather see a timed limit break senario as follows:

Start racking up damage, even if it is healed, your def meter goes up. get to 1.0 and you get 5 seconds of 500% damage. Meter resets.

Mr. and Mrs. Abyss you guys are the Bomp! Good show, and Thank you Cryptic and NCSoft!

While this is a good idea in theory...

There should be one change to the rules all together. No FLAMING <Period>

The way they read right now it is very subjective to whom is the operator at any given time. I also think that if it to be a truly open channel there should be no operators at all. Free Will if someone says something that pisses you off there is a global ignore. This way no one person can take control of the channel and force their domination on that channel.

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D: Defeat CuppaJo in a steel cage match.

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I can do it!

I can do it nine times!

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Did we mention it's a drinking contest? Coffee Mocha Latte's to be precise for Round 1....

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I want to make this very, very clear...these changes are due to not only the "data", but the well reasoned posts on these boards.

I really do read & really do listen! The "devs" aren't cooped up in an ivory tower; we love this game just like you do! In the end, we're all players. I have the privilege of being the lead designer. I want to do what's BEST for the game.

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Thank you Statesman, you've made the game fun for me again!

If I want to keel lots of baddies with my scrapper and tank I will just up my slider.

Thanks Statesman.

I am extremely interested to see what your possible solution may be. Please keep us informed. Communication is a two way street. We try and keep you informed of our issues and its good to see you trying to keep us informed. Too often Developers shut down and don't discuss with their customers, I'm glad your not one of them.

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Boss Changes

In our game, mob (i.e. villain) spawns depend upon the size of a team. The following is a rough approximation of how spawns are calculated:

A minion is worth 1/3 of a hero

A Lt. is worth ¾ of a hero

A Boss is worth 1.5 heroes

Admittedly, these are approximate. A single hero might spawn anywhere from 2 to 4 minions. Or a Lt. by himself. Or a Lt. and a minion.


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Thank you Stateman for moving this here, my thread in General Discussion was getting discoherent. Thank you again for the explaination.

I do have some problems here though, and a suggestion or two for you. First...

When deciding what the stats for a Boss perhaps it would be best to base the 1.5 hero of the most squishy of the ATs and not an average.

Also please consider the attack of the bosses and scale them to 1/4 the hps of the most squishy AT. That way people can widthstand 4 attacks without dying. No blaster will be able to one shot a boss that way.

The reason I solo alot is do to time of play.. usually 1 hour a day at most, and late when there are very few players my level looking for teams. I socialize with my SG both in game and via Teamspeak so I am using the social conventions, but I don't want to spend 10-15 mins looking for a good team in that one hour that I'm playing. I'd rather just run my missions and enjoy the enviroment you are providing for us.

My above suggestion will also make the 24, 34, 44 respec missions, tfs, and trials more doable with large teams that tend to spawn lots of bosses.

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I honestly think we're in basic agreement. You have done enough research to know that your snipe is no longer going to kill a boss, so don't lead with it. Use a different attack, probably several smaller, faster ones, to get the DoT up there. I know the timing is hard, but it can be done! Save that snipe for when the boss is weak, and use it as a finishing move, would be my recommendation. All of this is conjecture, because my defender is very team-based, and I don't have a lot of experience with Blasters, but I can solo.

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The only problem with that is snipe is interuptable. If we don't lead off with it we will not be able to use it against a boss, because he will interupt it. We'll lose build up and aim which used to make the attack an effective lead off attack also.

Okay I've been playing witht his now since Issue 3 went live.

I'm still not very happy. The reason being the bosses and their extreme uberness. As a casual player I don't feel right logging in for an hour or so, spending 10-15 minutes finding a team, and then running the missions whether theirs or mine and then logging off after the mission. When I log in during my work week it is usually after 1am EST till 2-3am EST and finding a large group to do missions at that time is futile at best. Just yesterday I had a mission where I was able to clear the mission except the last boss and then waited 1/2 an hour till a higher level member of my SG could come in and take out the boss for me, which he did, thankfully. How's that fair to me or my SG? By making the game challenging for Scrappers and Tankers, you have crippled the play for Defenders, Controllers, and even Blasters. When a Blaster at level 30 has 692.6 hitpoints, and comes up against an even level boss with 2100 hit points there's a problem. Even with Build up and Aim my Blazing Bolt (The most effective attack a blaster can have at 30 doesn't even put a sizable dent in those 2100 hps. How is that right? My suggestion to the Devs, since I don't like to whine is as follows.

Make bosses scalable just like missions are. Solo bosses should be easier to kill than Bosses for groups of 5-8. Basically if someone enters a mission solo, make the boss 3 lvls below them. The Lt, and Minions can be +1 still those are not a problem. But if the mission is solo make the boss -3, that's simple and will help alot of us out.

I'd also make the bosses spawning on the streets rare. The reason behind this is as it is now you are allowing characters with the ability to solo bosses an easy avenue to gain large amounts of xp. The other day I saw a perfect example in Brickstown behind the tram. On top of the parking garage, there were not one but two crey protectors (Bosses) with victims in tow. It was a double spawn. a Scrapper or Tank could get in there and gobble up the XP easily and move on to other targets. How's that fair to those who can not solo these beings even on the street?

Any Devouring Earth Mission has several Lesser Devourers in it that murder groups.

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Statesman said:

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If a player sees a boss of his level, he should probably get help..

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So what you are saying is that we are not playing comic book superheroes. While Batman and Superman are able to solo the Joker and Lex Luthor, our heroes can only solo street thugs.

We should be able to at least take on unique, named villains once in a while- solo- so we can actually feel like heroes. I had thought that the purpose of bosses was to give us our own Jokers or Lex Luthors, while ArchVillains were the rare ones that required teaming. Comic book superheroes don't find themselves in over their heads when they take on anything tougher than a common street thug.

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And Batman is a Scrapper and Supeman is a Tanker, both better suited to dealing with a Boss. Funny how that works out huh?

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Johny Storm aka the Human Torch is a Blaster, your point? Funny how there are more than Scrappers and Tankers in the Comic books that can take down common street thug bosses.

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*sneers*

The devs forgot how common bosses are. Any given TF with a good sized group is FULL of them.

For that matter... AV's and Monsters are pretty crazy. Go do the Numina TF. Have fun dying in the final mission... That's all I can say.

That said: These are Statesman's changes and with his attitude, he's going to stick with them.

done.

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Well I hope the datamining they will be doing this weekend for the monday morning meeting prove me right. That's all I have to say.

Thank you Wolfen_Infinity...

You stated what I could not state. Again thank you.

Runestar

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Tankers and Scrappers are good solo but we don't do jack squat for a team. In fact in order for us to be useful to a team there has to be a defender or a controller or a blaster there already. The same statement is not true of Blasters, Controllers, and Defenders, they don't NEED a tank to help a team, they don't NEED a scrapper to help their team. We DO need them.

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I have to disagree with you here. Tankers and Scrappers are GOOD in teams. Now espeically with the improved taunt. Sure you need a defender or a controller to buff, but show me a Blaster or a Defender that can sit there and take attack after attack without eating candy like crazy. A Tanker or Scrapper is a front line unit for sure and requires the support of a defender or Controller teamed. But a Blaster 8 person team would get creamed a lot faster than a Tanker 8 person team. 2 Tankers, 2 Scrappers, 2 Controllers could make mince meat of any mission in the game. 2 blasters 2 scrappers and two tanks would not be a good balance. 2 Blasters 2 scrappers 2 tanks, and two healing providers now on the other hand would be great teamed.

That's niether here nor there though. The OP (me) started this thread about Boss difficulties. And I stand by my statement bosses as they are now set in the game are too difficult for someone who is SOLO Street Sweeping. As I said in mission, I've called for higher level support before after clearing a mission and am willing to do it again.

If players have a difficult to hard time hitting bosses two levels above them. Then the new bosses should have a difficult time hitting me when I am two levels above them. This is not the case and needs to be tweaked. To a Boss below my level I should look like a boss, and be as hard to hit as a boss would be.

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Uhm... Relying? I think not.

Listen, do you understand the concept of game balance Concern?

Game balance is not always that every class can perform equally well solo, in groups each class brings something different to tha table.


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Wrong Game balance does mean any class can survive solo as well as in groups. Groups may be needed for tougher mobs but any given sunday Joe Controller should be able to go do as well as Jane Tanker. Infact I think Tankers and Scrappers need damage nerfs not raising the level of the mobs so the other five arctypes have trouble leveling. Yes I know I'll get crap for this but someone had to say it. Instead of raising the damage that Tankers do, they should have left it the same and added the inate taunt effect to the attacks. Scrappers are a melee master, but right now I know a Dark Offender who is nearly as good as my blaster at taking out mobs ranged. That's not right. Perhaps the damage from the Snipper and base range for Blaster attacks should be looked at. If Blasters are supposed to be ranged extreme damage experts make us that way. As it is sometimes I feel like six slotting range increasers into my attacks just to make it that way but then I lose my offensive punch. Yet a Scrapper need only six slot damage into his attacks to get effective use of them.

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Except for the fact that Statesman has said that ALL ATs should be able to solo, that's almost a good point.

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That's actually only part of what I've said. Solo players should always have something to do...I've never said that everything is solo-able (some missions are, others aren't), or that every Archetype can solo as effectively as another.

If a player sees a boss of his level, he should probably get help...

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But a boss two levels below the player that cons white should be like taking out three minons. Should be doable, it isn't States and that's the problem. Like I said in my original post. In a mission I have no problem with named bosses being tough as nails. On the street: Underboss (Boss Class) patrolling the city should not be a challenge if it's a white con. Nothing else in the game is extremely difficult at a white con why should they be?

If it is now impossible for me to solo kill a boss two levels above me with out a lot of candy. How is it a Boss two levels below me (My character should be a Major Boss in mobs eyes IMO) to kill me after a fairly long battle that I got him down to 1/3 his health. Again this boss was two levels below me and actually conned white to me. I should have no more problems killing it as I would a minion of equal level. Please readjust the Boss levels. Major Bosses, IIE Named Bosses in Missions, AVs, Monsters make them as hard as you want but your everyday run of the mill boss on the street and in a random mission should not be impossible to kill. Your taking the fun out of the game for those who like to solo, who only play 1-2 hours a day (Thus not using up valuable bandwidth) these people are the bread and butter of the game. They are the majority.

Again please reconsider the boss level, and just the boss level.

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Colisseum.

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You sure it's not to late to change it to
Issue 4: Tacos

These will either be Universities or Arenas.. My guess is Universities sine, the SSOCS is closer to completion than the PvP stuff.

It's been my experience that game companies take the month of Decemeber off with updates. Too many vactions and the like. If I had to make a guess I'd say it would be dropping next week. But that's purely hypothetical.