StarkRavingMad2

Jay,

1. When I first made this costume in CoV... the special Arachnos helmet matched the color of my armor perfectly. After Issue 7, the helmet was suddenly a very bright neon red, like 3 shades too bright.

Note the color chosen for the armor and cape in the costume edit screen here.

2. I also noticed that female/hair/low ponytail clips with any sunglasses.

I foolishly assumed that along with this feature came an improvement to AI. But no, pets are still ridiculously slow to fight back when in defensive mode.

When an enemy attacks you, even though the pets are taking damage, it still does not register in their pea brains. I was attacked 4 times --hit by 3 of them-- before my Punk decided to react. I was then attacked 3 more times before my pets bothered to attack again. I know they are faster than that in aggressive mode or given an attack order.

And even when attacked themselves, it's a crapshoot whether or not they will retaliate.

Bottom line: Defensive Mode is still broken. I can't use this feature in tough situations when I need them attacking. If they aren't fighting back, they are worthless to me.

I lost ALL interest in this set by level 2. It uses the superstrength animations for your first two attacks.

Words cannot capture how much I loath those animations. I was expecting something fast, like on that Korean release video. It's bad enough the set not a mixture of kicks and punches, but body blows and overhand clubs make it just laughable visually.

If power customization ends up meaning we can choose different animations, I'll try it then.

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To summarize most of the comments so far:

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The resistances are only slightly above average WITH Toughness. That takes power slots that not everyone wants to give up.

Naming recovery and end drain as separate line items pads the list to make it look like there are more positives. Those minuses are also more significant in and of themselves imho.

I'll hold out for the hope of future patch notes announcing a big boost to ES's base resistances and Grounded requiring you to be on the ground like the Stone set while adding knockback and immobilize resists.

Then I'll try the set. Without those, it's not even worth testing.

I have such mixed feelings about this.

The good news is that this will definitely increase the usefulness of Defensive mode. No longer will they stand there like blind, deaf idiots when their boss is being attacked.

The bad news is that, to take advantage of the feature, you can't concentrate your pet's fire as much as before.

Questions...

Currently Defensive mode means they will just defend themselves or their fellow henchmen. Does bodyguard mode now mean that defending ME takes precedence in their target selection?

Will they go so far as to switch targets mid-combat? Or if they are already attacking one, will they stay on that same enemy?

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I think the patron power pools are EXACTLY what each AT needs.

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In each case, the pool is 3/4 of what any given AT would actually want.

Pet for brutes? No recovery buff and only 1 control?

Snipe for Stalker?

The 4th power of MM's = a single target hold?

Another pet for Dominator instead of a buff/debuff?

No. None of that is what anyone "needs".

Here goes the gamble that a red name happens to read my post...

Questions:

1. Do you have to do a literal TRIAL, or a story arc with an AV at the end to get these powers?

2. How many missions are we talking in either case?

3. With Scorpion's powers, do you get any kind of bonus to compensate for the weapon drawing animation?

4. I can understand the logic behind not giving Masterminds yet another pet for that 4th slot. But the 4th (supposedly most powerful) power is a single target hold?? The additional effects you name do not seem to equate to a level 47 power choice at all. What am I missing?

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You are not forced to do any of the Patron content.

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"Forced" is such a tricky word. But by the sounds of this, if you want to get the arguably invaluable 41+ ancillary power pools on the villains side... you effectively HAVE to do these arcs. Otherwise you are screwed out of powers that may turn out to be so good they are "needed".

I like the Predator analogy, but the thing is... the Predator didn't have to run all the way to the other end of the freakin jungle and back again to stay invisible.

All you should have to do is run out of sight long enough for them to lose the lock.

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Once a hero lands on your trops and takes damage, you will be visible,

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True

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even if you placate that hero, you won't be able to AS him due to the damage dealt by the trops canceling your placate effect.

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Erm... not sure about that one. I team with a stalker on a regular basis and she still gets off AS after caltrops are down when followed by a placate. It holds.

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In other words, it is something I want to see fixed,

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This, to me, is the important part of the reply. It's on a dev's wish-list, not just ours.

I'm a little confused on how adding in the code...

{if hidden(toon) then removeFromHateList(all)}

can't be accomplished at the same time as the other bug Castle talks about, but I don't work for Cryptic.

I fail to see the point of one of the early replies that claimed that a stalker can simply hide, then AS and rinse-repeat, either. He seemed to imply that this would be an automatic process.

Stealth suppression is 8 or so seconds after the last time you are hit or after you attacked. It's NOT easy to re-hide w/o placating. Even if you manage to find cover w/o an enemy chasing you, that's 8 whole seconds of sitting there doing nothing. So that part is already balanced.

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Many effects in the game are actually temporary pets (Blizzard, Fulcrum Shift, Caltrops, Burn, Ice Patch, etc). Since they are distinct entities, they are spawned fresh and buffless. ... So yes, you could potentially Power Boost an Ice Storm, and having Fortitude could increase your Burn damage.

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Hate to be the curmudgeon here, but I can't help but notice this.

To date Defense has not scaled with the enemy difficulty. God knows how many powers, as it turns out, were not getting buffed by inspirations or certain powers. Many of us who don't follow the confusing number-crunching threads were completley unaware of this. Knowing (now) that the powers worked (or rather didn't work) this way really explains A LOT about why certain toons were getting their butts kicked when I tried them out.

IOW... we've been playing a broken game for the past year.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they are fixing these things. They sound like they will definitely improve the game.

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We're tweaking with toggle dropping...mostly decreasing its overall effect.

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W00t! ^_^

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We just received tech that will allow players to pass buffs onto certain powers (such as Blizzard).

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... What? o_0

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Defense powers will now work equally well against critters, regardless of their rank or level...

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Wow. Trying to wrap my mind around this.

Looks like I'm not the only one who needs two points of clarification ...

1. Does this affect ALL Defense powers, including power pools and buffs?

2. Judging by the wording, I'm guessing the answer to this is No, but: Will this affect inspirations?

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If the team size and mission difficulty are ABOVE a certain level, an Archvillain spawns. Below that, players will face only an Elite Boss. If the mission is set on the first two levels of difficulty, it takes 4 heroes or more to spawn an Arch Villain. On the third level, 3 heroes or more. On the fourth level, 2 heroes. On the highest (Invincible), a solo hero will spawn an AV. Note this works in BOTH City of Heroes and Villains.

In order to incentivize larger teams, Positron is going to add a bonus to AV rewards!

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You are such a pardox. I'm floored.

Apology accepted.

Aww Jesse I feel so sorry for you. You are going to be inundated with so much overblown, sappy shipper crap your eyes are gonna bleed.

But it will be worth the pain when you get to mine. I've got something perfect for this theme.

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I am really hoping for a response because I cannot see why would anyone choose these two sets.

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Because the game is about a lot more than dps to most people. The degree of tunnel vision it takes to see the game as nothing but stats is frightening.

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The goal of the game is to make sure there isn't an ideal team composition.

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WHAT!?!?!

I'm not even sure where to begin with his utterly absurd statement.

If that's the goal, you missed it by miles. You've created a sense of "balance" where if you don't have an absolutely ideal team composition, you'll get hosed. Your explanation then goes on to explain how any team can be "ideal" ONLY WHEN YOU HAVE DEFENDERS present.

And what good is "punchvoke" when he can't take the damage it brings down on him??

GAH!

What game are you playing Jack? It's not the same one.

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lol it's not nuclear science. Brutes are so popular simply because they're the strongest AT in the game.

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Actually I think in an indirect way... the balance of the AT is the nature of the AT itself.

When Brutes aren't careful and run too far and too fast... they could easily aggro a whole room to the point where it's too much for them to handle. I've seen it happen. They are very powerful, but no more than most scrappers IMHO. Teams often have to keep an even tighter leash on them.

I really do like my Mastermind. I am a control freak and a strategist when I play. I love ordering my henchmen around, setting up my traps, cackling when someone is trying to run away and gets gunned down by my army.

But every now and then I desparately need to switch toons so I can SMASH my way through a mission. It's almost surreal how different the same missions look with Dark Melee and a fury bar.

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I've seen a lot of complaints about this so I brought it up before we went live. We changed it so certain toggle effects fade out but it didn't make it into live. Dark Armor shouldn't be so bad anymore once this gets updated. The same goes for Mud Pots.

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/EM PRAISE

Guys tell me how lucky I am to have a girlfriend who's into online gaming. They all thought it was unusual, and I had to agree it didn't seem all that common.

But today I'm seeing all these threads talking about girlfriends and wives and now a fiancee (Congratulations!). So maybe we're not as unique in that regard as I thought.

So I'm curious. Do you rl couples make in-game couples like we do? And I don't necessarily mean romantic couples, but characters with joint backstories and themes that go together.

Or on the flipside, do we have couples who don't even team together online?

I agree that an attack would negate the partial-invisibility of stealth. The enemies should now see you. But you should keep your defense bonus.

Themeatically, you are still difficult to see. Stealth fighters use hit and run. Think Batman. He does not give up any advantage by attacking because he ducks right back into the shadows.

From a mechanics standpoint, with the defense bonus nerfed as much as it is, losing what little defense the power still has makes this power a little harder to justify taking.

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Thanks for the tip. Your insight is astounding.

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With responses like this, is it any wonder the devs are so hard pressed to CARE about anything said on these forums?

I can easily see how this power can be used for control. Would it be nicer to have it before 26? Yeah. But at the same time, I can see how this power is so nice, it warrents waiting till 26.

Should Propel get an AoE disorient along with it? Hell yeah. That makes even more sense.

There are many ways to play the game. This change allows for another one that is equally, arguable even more, effective.

In my apparantly astounding opinion.

The problem with the argument of scrappers hating you for wormhole is that's not a tactic you'd use with any powerset.

If you are doing anything else to a scrapper's target besides holding, flopping around on ice or a quake, or laying down a targeted debuff... you're doing something wrong. If you immobilize them, they are attacking you rather than the melee guy. If you disorient them, you're still making the tanker lose aggro and making them walk away from the scrapper. If you phase them, you're sure to be kicked from the group fast. Even if you had an AoE lift, launching them in the air and dropping them with precision, the problem still exists.

Mob control is more for the mobs that your melee guys are NOT handling at that time.

Just don't target the power at the guys near your melee combatants. You shouldn't have been doing that with the old wormhole either.