Sailboat

Staff Mastery might provide the model for this after all.

Scrapper Staff Mastery grants you three "powers" (the stances) you can put on your power tray and switch between, but they have no "slots" and only serve to make the OTHER powers perform differently. Such a mecahnic might permit Devices to let a character switch between "combat mine" and "pre-combat mine" freely, without giving him extra slots (and thus without letting him get extra set bonuses).

But Stalker Staff Mastery does NOT let you choose different stances -- you're stuck with one, although you do at least get its benefits. So a Trapper could get limited to only the "pre-combat mine" he already has, under this model (should the Devs choose, for balance reasons).

Speaking as a Gauleiter of the Grammar Nazi Party, I have to admit they DID finally fix the infamous "Diffuse the Nemesis bombs" tip mission, probably their most hilarious unintentional text error.

Well, I would say you "want" the Status Protection -- mature Controller builds hardly need it, as they can put out a ton of control, and by striking first, seldom get struck in return. Certainly if it's happening a lot, there's got to be a better way to play the character.

Also, only some of your defense drops when held -- defense from set bonuses will still apply, which is something, at least.

Not knockback, sucktoward!

Sounds more like we're only getting two winds to me.

Rubberlad.

It makes me cranky to see the Immobs go out the instant we see spawns, before the Tanker can gather them, freezing them in their (widely separated) places.

Well, just the one reason. He's playing hardcore -- a single defeat means death.

I know what you're talking about. Agree that it's sometimes embarrassing and not constructive.

But I've engaged in it myself occasionally, despite my better judgment. The reason is two-fold, IMHO.

Firstly, other players often get the impression "L33t" min-maxer players regard themselves as, well, elite -- better, smarter, more cutting-edge. This comes through in some of the complaints. It can be hard to be sympathetic when the guy who always acted like he was God's gift to gaming whines [not that I'm singling anyone specific out as such].

And secondly, the whining itself. I understand nobody likes a nerf, but each and every time, someone is bound to complain about it like it was the freaking Holocaust. Threats to quit are common. For one example, look at the elaborate, 318-post thread, The Enzyme Nerf Cometh, where some players -- you included, I see, upon re-skimming it -- were "somewhat worked up" over a long-foreshadowed change that reduced just one aspect -- DDR -- of the Shields powerset to, well, second-best in the game, still higher than other sets (Invulnerability, for example) whose DDR is considered usefully strong.

It's that sort of "sky is falling" response to any change (that doesn't make a set demonstrably stronger) that loses the sympathy of many players. I suppose even min-maxers who have not engaged in it wind up suffering for the extravagant claims of their fellows.

She's worried -- apparently with good reason -- that some people won't be able to "c" them.

Cooldown ("suppression") is gone as of Sep 2009 -- see here.

Note that Willpower isn't especially good at taking alphas.

Despite this bug, FR is strong enough to still be a great power. But this is an insidious bug, because it's directly counterintuitve (you have to knock the foes OUT of the patch to make sure the effect stays ON them???) and because it's so inobvious. Players who don't know about the bug will THINK enemies are debuffed when they're not.

Also, Freezing Rain deserves to work properly, the way it was intended.

Fixing the bug would make this strong power more effective, in that it would last longer, but it wouldn't make damage numbers bigger, and it would be more reliable and easy to understand (the behavior would match the animation). And it's not like Storm is so overpowered people ask for the set in Broadcast; it could stand the "buff" without breaking anything.

I love Storm and I hate the fact that every time I use its signature power, I have to make a mental reservation that "Of course, it's bugged. Sigh."

Many long-lasting bugs have been quashed recently, several powersets re-visited and improved, and numerous powers re-invented or made more effective. Furthermore, large numbers of things we were told were difficult or resource-intensive have now been added to the game. The game is flowering with Issues, expanded powers, new systems, new art...presumably these are benefits brought by the Freedom economic model.

Can we please, please, please get some resources devoted to tracking down and fixing this bug now? It might be hard, but you guys are doing "hard" and making it look easy these days.

Thank you for reading!