Straightman
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Stamina is definitely optional if you have QR, but its a nice option.Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
IMO, if you have Quick Recovery, Stamina is quite optional, depending on the rest of your build.
The biggest objection to Stamina is that it has two prerequisites. However, I find that my Scrappers are a lot more fun with Swift and Hurdle. Unlike Blasters, most Scrappers have to hunt down the vermin theyre trying to kill. Getting to the bad guys quickly in the middle of a free-for-all means they have less chance to hurt you and your team. If I decide to take those powers for themselves, then Stamina effectively has no prerequisites. And it doesnt require six slots to function usefully.
True, the extra Recovery from Stamina is overkill in most situations. When you find yourself fighting Cabal or Freakshow, however, the extra Recovery can make a huge difference. You can take Stamina as insurance against Endurance-drainers, or you can take some other power to use in some other situation. Its a nice choice to have.
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Quote:You're right.Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
That should be 'buff their own Tohit', as accuracy takes places later on in the formula. Defense can only impact Accuracy via impacting Tohit. Once 'tohit' is floored, Defense can have no further impact on accuracy. I got Accuracy and To Hit mixed up.
Again. 
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I was just thinking, "I would like to see a Rikti event."
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Quote:The hard cap is a maximum imposed on ATs artificially, if that word means anything in the context of a computer game. The hard caps are so high as to be functionally irrelevant.Originally Posted by SPiNE
What's the difference between soft cap and an actual "hard" cap? :x
The soft cap is a byproduct of the basic mechanics of Accuracy in COH. NPCs have a base Accuracy of 50%. The Accuracy mechanics also include a floor of 5%, no matter how high your Defense is. Thus, if you have 45% Defense, even-level Minions have a 5% chance to hit you (assuming no other buffs or debuffs). If you have 90% Defense, Minions still have a 5% chance to hit you. And if you have 135% Defense, Minions still have a 5% chance to hit you.
The soft cap is thus an effective limit. If youre at the soft cap, you can technically increase your Defense, but it will generally have no effect (unless the bad guys can debuff your Defense or buff their own Accuracy). -
Forget to announce it on the Forums, but Frozen Mocha hit 50 two or three months back. Thanks to Bill Z. Bubba for the invite that got me over the top.
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Cool. Who wants Speed Boost?
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Quote:That and it's not meant to your characters more powerful. It's meant to make your teams more powerful. It's something nice you can do for your teammates, friends you run into at WW or -- wait for it -- strangers you pass on the street.Originally Posted by Golden Girl
I think that the problem with making it a self buff is that it doesn't really fit with the idea behind the power.
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Quote:Ah good. I was just about to report this bug, but I see it's known.Originally Posted by Heart Attack
I can live with the prompt (though I don't like it), the extra graphic is the pain, why does it play the MF casting animation when you receive a MF?
...Kinda hard not to notice, actually... -
Quote:Yes.Originally Posted by Garent
That's Gameplay and Story Segregation. No attempt is being made for this separate solo bonus to fit into the inherent's concept. Or...
Maybe you do less damage because you're vigilant. The more teammates you have to keep an eye on, the more distracted you are & the less damage you do.
Maybe?
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Sarrate says it all.
Quote:Many of the posts on the last two pages have been highlighting one side this equation or the other, but Sarrate marries them well.Originally Posted by Sarrate
QR
There are two reasons why Defenders are so hard to balance:
- Not only are their buffs/debuffs extremely large, but they also all stack with one another. Due to this, Defenders (and pretty much all buff/debuff ATs) over perform on teams. The mitigation and damage boosts they provide can completely outstrip what others can do. It doesn't take a team of 8 Defenders to trivialize content - that can be done with less. For example, with just two Cold Defenders, you get:
1) Soft capped defense for 6/8 memebers of the team.
2) +MaxHP buffs for 4/8 memebers of the team without slotting
3) Res to F/C/E and recharge debuffs
4) Significant recharge, damage, regen, and resistance debuffs along with knockdowns
5) Endurance recovery
6) -Special debuff
That's with just two Defenders. You could push it further by adding a Kin or Rad to the team. (There is also the possibility of making them Sonic Blast..)
A bit of an extreme example, yes, but illustration that you don't need 8 Defenders for things to get absurd really, really quick. - The second problem is the variability of their performance. The Defender primaries vary wildly compared to all other ATs. While the performance between Spines and Dark Melee is pretty wide, it doesn't hold a candle to trying to compare FF and Kin. Suppose the devs want Defenders to perform at X plus or minus 10; so between X-10 and X+10. If ther difference between the top performing and bottom performing Defender is 18, then there isn't a lot of wiggle room. (The ideal in that case would be X-9 and X+9.)
If Defenders already overperform on teams due to their primary, then adding more damage would only do one thing: make them perfrom even better on teams, the exact place where Defenders don't need help because they're already overperforming. (Remember, not only are the Defenders increasing the damage of the team, they are increasing their own damage, as well.)
With the large difference in performance as it is, universally increasing their damage is far more likely to push some combination into "too high" territory.
It is possible, of course, to increase Fender solo Damage while decreasing Fender large-team Damage. - Not only are their buffs/debuffs extremely large, but they also all stack with one another. Due to this, Defenders (and pretty much all buff/debuff ATs) over perform on teams. The mitigation and damage boosts they provide can completely outstrip what others can do. It doesn't take a team of 8 Defenders to trivialize content - that can be done with less. For example, with just two Cold Defenders, you get:
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Quote:When will we hear more about these other sets?Originally Posted by Castle
I'm not ruling out Electrical Control as a set, but it is only one of several sets that are in the wings waiting for the thumbs up to proceed with.
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Epic Archetypes now available at level 20
I dont like the sound of that. If this means that Epic ATs unlock when a player gets a character to 20, then I have to think that 20 is much too low. Level 40 might be okay, or 30 plus a new Task Force, but 20? Im not sure I want to team with a Kheldian whose player has never been to Talos Island.
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Ninja-themed? Katana or DB.
And no Shields. Not for a Ninja. -
Quote:Thanks for a very polite & generous reply.Originally Posted by MonkeySpirit
While I admit my mistake and apologize, I have yet to encounter anyone who does this, opposed to countless "Group hug for RA please" macros. So please excuse me for assuming the usual. I shouldn't have used the word "sloppy", either, since I tend to use RA sloppily myself. Personally, I don't think RA is that vital of a buff to merit the importance of a gathering macro. Endurance is one of those things that everyone has already solved on their own character, unless fighting Malta or Carnies (or Clockwork or too many Mu), and RA mostly just feels like a cherry on top, blue bars that never move. And regeneration is, like someone else said, mostly outdone by the heals. Thus, I really feel that missing someone on the team with the buff is a lot less worse than drawing attention to yourself, stopping the team and making them move in a certain direction, possibly disrupting the normal flow from mob to mob. However, if you've had no complaints you're probably playing very well. Again, I'm sorry.
For my part, I may have been a bit too hard. After all, we all have our own preferred play-styles and you have every right to extol the virtues of your play-style. As a frequent PUG player, I find that flexibility is less a virtue than a necessity.
As I see it, one of the best things about the twin RA buffs is that I can spend the next 90 seconds blasting everything in sight. Granted, my blasts are puny attacks that would barely frighten a mosquito, but I still get to add them to the mix. If youre more into healing, then I can see why Regeneration Aura seems trivial, but for me its a kind of full-offense mode.
P.S.: You forgot Cabal.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Straightman
Take a few minutes to write Gather macros suitable to your play-style so that you buff everyone.
Quote:Originally Posted by MonkeySpirit
Please don't. The AoE on the auras is HUGE, much bigger than it seems from the graphical animation. Empathy is the ideal powerset reducing downtime between enemy groups to zero, don't go around stopping the whole team so that you can get a buff off. Hitting everyone with your RAs is not at all difficult, especially when you've been practising hitting everyone with Healing Aura, which has the same radius, from level 1. There's enough chances to cast it while people are eyeing the next mob anyway.Ya know, I was expecting exactly this kind of knee-jerk reaction, which is why I added the qualifier suitable for your play-style. Maybe I should have put it in bold. If you would like some help writing a macro that can be used in combat, Id be more than glad to help. Something like Gather on $Target for RAs in 5 can be used when you have targeted your lead tank.Quote:Originally Posted by MonkeySpirit
If you really need help, just cast HA to check people are close enough and then shoot the pertinent RA.
A common misconception is that targets need to be inside the area while the animation plays. This is not true, they only need to be there when you push the button. If you do go the sloppy way and resort to a "Gather" macro, at least have the grace to start moving in the direction of the mob as soon as you press the key to give everyone the cue that it's ok to move and GO ARREST THOSE MOBS!
Personally, I dont see anything sloppy about communicating with my teammates. I dont see anything sloppy about being proactive in buffing rather than waiting for everyone to stumble into proximity. I do think it is sloppy or worse to interpret my suggestion in the worst possible light. At least have the grace to be a bit more generous of spirit when considering helpful comments. -
FF is very relaxed in one sense since you can spend almost all your time blasting. Those four-minute-long buffs are fairly easy to maintain.
TA is relaxed in a very different sense. Yes, you have lots of clicking to do in combat, but you never have to buff or heal anyone.
I guess it just depends on what you find relaxing. -
Duplicate names tied to different globals? Please no. What could be more immersion-breaking, clumsy, and ugly? I can only think of one thing, and Im not sure the Devs have enough goats for that.
Name purge? Of course. Why not? Sure, the claim that all the good names are taken is bogus, but many good names are taken and not used. Why not make them available after a time? -
I got my old Emp/Dark up 40+ without even looking at Absorb Pain. Once you get Regeneration Aura, your time spent healing should greatly diminish. Take a few minutes to write Gather macros suitable to your play-style so that you buff everyone. On most missions, you wont need to heal anyone except the occasional victim of the Alpha Strike until the buff wears off. If someone misses the buff
well, the way I see it, death can be a great teacher.
If you need Absorb Pain, it will be for healing Tankers on very tough missions. They have so many hit points that it takes a lot to heal them back up. If you like the more challenging missions, you should consider it. Even then, you should compare it to other power choices. After all, it may not be worth giving up Vengeance. -
Everybody's kung fu fighting.
As in, "Everybody is kung fu fighting." "Everybody" doesn't have a plural. It doesn't really need one since it covers everybody.
This has been your gratutious language lesson for the day.
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Quote:One can hope.Originally Posted by Catwhoorg
Beastly running on all fours!
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Quote:And the point is still wrong. As Dersk and Damz have patiently explained, the tool will tell you that there are X unhidden characters on the server, but if X is larger than 50, it will only list 50. This is what "truncated" means." If a list of 75 characters is truncated to 50, it doesn't mean that 75 is an inaccurate count; it means that 75 names (each with level, AT, location and Comments) are too many to list one-by-one.Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Right but the point was that because of the way it does work, it's not really accurate to use it to get a real count of how many players are on in game at any time.
You're drawing a conclusion which is completely unsupported by the evidence. It's like talking to a sociologist. -
Uh, yeah. The list is truncated whenever it gets more than 50 hits. All you have to do is search by level or AT and you should get everyone in that level range or AT (up to 50 characters). Its not a bug.
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I admit it: Im just not that interested in City of Villains.
Its too easy to get the same feeling in RL. For example, Im just not that interested in wantonly destroying valuable property. If I were, I wouldve taken a side job with the Cash for Clunkers program.
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I was wandering if you guys would have want the devs to make the world of the game open for both factions...
No. -
Hi. I hope everyone enjoyed the Halloween fun as much as I did. Ive meant to replies to several of the comments in this thread, but couldnt seem to get away from Trick or Treat. I also rolled and placed four lowbie Fenders and a Troller in SGs on Pinnacle, my home, so Ive been busy.
Coming soon to a theater near you: Four Fenders and a Troller.
One of the challenges facing any attempt at Vigilance Reform, of course, is the sheer variety of Defenders.
No other Hero AT has as much diversity in Powersets or corresponding play-styles; only Controllers even come close. (Kheldians are a special case.) Blasters blast, Tankers tank, Scrappers attack attack attack kill kill kill where did they go oh look goodie there are some more over there, and Controllers control. Defenders buff, debuff, heal, attack, and even throw in a few controls (usually soft controls), depending on their powers and the situation. No one would really want to play Kin the same way that he plays FF, and neither looks anything like Empathy.
As a result, any sound proposal for Vigilance Reform must be flexible enough to accommodate vast differences in Primary Powersets between Defenders. And so we come to the current suggestions
The suggestion that the Vigilance bonus should be directly tied to mouse clicks (buffs, debuffs, heals, and possibly attacks) is interesting but probably unworkable. It would give buffers (like FF) an advantage over debuffers (like TA) since you can buff without aggroing social misfits carrying guns and knives. It also encourages spamming heals and buffs, a common cause of fistfight and occasionally poisoning.
Rodions suggestion that Vigilance provide status protection is original and very flexible. Im not sure its fair to complain that Vigilance 1.0 lets Defenders literally fall asleep on the job since being put to sleep by a super-powered villain is not quite the same as falling asleep, but the idea still has merit. For example, a click-based power in with a +Recharge based on team size would benefit all Defenders and more or less fit the concept of Vigilance and the primary role of the AT.
From a game-design perspective, however, this approach poses an obvious danger. If PCs have too much status protection, then NPC status attacks become pointless. Scrappers and Tankers have near immunity to status attacks, of course, as befits their role. Blasters have limited immunity from Defiance 2.0, which I personally find weird and jarring. (Our Blasters asleep, but dont worry, he can still aim. Really?) Kheldians can go Dwarf to gain status protection even when mezzed. Again, that seems like a little too much to me, but what someone on Developer Olympus evidently has a different opinion. Controllers are at least theoretically vulnerable, but they can often protect themselves by mezzing the mezzers. Giving Defenders partial immunity may be a bridge too far.
Then again, that particular ship may have sailed. After all, no self-respecting squishy goes anywhere interesting (read: dangerous) without a handful of Break Frees. Still, I would like to think the Devs want us to have to make meaningful choices about which Inspirations to carry into our missions.
For me, though, this version of the power may be a little too narrow for an inherent. It does nothing to help Defenders do their jobs against non-mezzing spawns. Squaring off against Hellions, Skulls, Warriors, Trolls, Outcasts, or even non-Vampyric Council, having this power would be like having no power at all. For that matter, a strong Tanker tends to make this power redundant.
I think Rodions idea is worth consideration, but Im not convinced just yet.
I have to run, but I hope to comments on other suggestions soon, perhaps as early as tomorrow. Thanks all.