Synergy

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But the big three powers in FF will work twice as well as a Controller or MMs bubbles after I7 against bosses and AVs.

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They don't and they won't. The buff to defence against higher level foes works for everyone. Plus a controller is 80% as effective as a defender with regards to the def Buff. Which amounts to about a 4% difference, 8% when stacked, in the level of defence provided. So I'm not sure how you can come to your conclusion.

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After I7, FF Defenders will be able to cap defense to all damage types for their teammates with Manuevers. Controllers and MMs will be able to get them down to 15% or so (which works out to about 22% for AVs and such)


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Correction. They can't cap Psi or Toxic damage and the "capping" of defense, if you mean flooring their chance to hit, is only against minions.

_Castle_, first a big thank you for taking time to go through the the defender list and provide feedback on all the issues. I'm sure it was a big investment of time and your efforts are appreciated and welcomed.

However, I am more then a little frustrated, over the reponses to the Force Field set issues. First of all the whole damage argument with regards to Force Bolt/Repulsion Bomb is just plain silly. You're talking miniscule amounts of damage to begin with and your splitting hairs to somehow justify it not being the same for controller and defenders. Second, while I can understand the need for controllers to control better and defenders to buff/debuff better, I can't understand why the force field set only has only 4 powers that debuff/buff. To me that just doesn't make sense. Why build it at all as a defender primary if most of its abilities don't play to a defenders strenght, buffing/Debuffing. That's like making a controller primary a blaster primary and expecting blasters not to have issues with it. If at all possible could the dev's please look at adding some more buffs/debuffs to some of the other FF powers. I would like to think there's more of a difference between me and my controller cousin then just a 5% defense buff.

Great work as always!

It was neat to see how all the videos fit into the song. For basically a random call for clips it was amazing how many were appropriate for the portion of the song they were in.

Can't wait to see your next video experiement.

First random 10 tunes

1) Berlin - Take my breath away
2) Aerosmith - Walk this way
3) Animaniacs - The Universe Song
4) Jewel - Who will save your soul
5) B-52's - Love shack
6) Avril Lavigne - Complicated
7) Evanescence - Bring me to life
8) Serial Experiment Lain - OP Duvet
9) Nickleback - How you remind me
10) Enya - Orinoco Flow

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AND now...we're changing the way Archvillains spawn. A ton of forum goers disliked adding so many AV's into missions a while back...so we've come up with a solution. 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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Wow! This is great news!

That was brillant!

Wow a red name in the defender boards. Who would have thought it.

Thanks for taking a look at the issues Castle. Nice to know all that time people put into it didn't go to waste.

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It does help.

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Very little, but it does help.

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What it doesn't help, is the lower damage and lowered resistances, people are gonna have cause of ED. While the enemies still do just as much damage, hit just as easily, and have their damage resistance, unaffected.

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What he said.

Thanks for fixing that.

Synergy Front and Back

Protector

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I've heard this mentioned a few times. Are there really that many Defenders without slotted Secondaries out there? Despite the few 'True/Pure Healer/Emp' people I see on the boards and on Broadcast, and admittedly despite some people that seem to think that every Defender should not only bring their Primary Buffs/DeBuffs but also the Teleport, Stealth and Leadership Pools to the table I just never saw the point of not having any proper offence.

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Not really. But I will submit that there are probably defenders out there that slot their secondaries very lightly, just like there are defenders (ie Bubblers) out there that slot their primaries lightly.

It basically just comes down to the utility of the powers in the set. Some primary sets have a large number of very useful powers so defenders heavily slot their primary at the expense of their secondary. Conversely other defender sets have a large number of powers with limited utility in the primary so defenders lightly slot their primary and heavily slot their secondary.

BTW softwarerenderer, thanks for the vote of confidence. I did have fun, I was just suprised by my reaction. An it got me wondering if such reactions are what contribute to this feeling of not being needed. Anyway thanks and see ya on Protector.

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Some one PM'ed me about this issue - and I've talked about Defenders a bit at conventions - so I thought I'd at least post something on them.

Basically, we've already committed to looking at several Archetypes and builds for I5 and afterwards, but I've said nary a word about Defenders. Why? Because of all the Archetypes, we're happiest with them. There are certainly issues with individual sets and powers - and those we're always looking at. Defenders, however, don't have any overarching problems.

BUT....I'm extremely concerned about the perception that Defenders "aren't needed" and thus "can't find a team" at high levels. Defenders should fill a valuable role at ALL levels and help Archetypes achieve levels that they can't reach by themselves. After all, Defenders are all about buffs (and debuffs). Every Archetype should be extremely happy when the Defender provides a resistance or defense buff...

Anyway, just wanted to post our view on Defenders right now.

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Just speaking from a bubblers viewpoint, while I do allow other Archetypes to achieve levels they can't on their own, I
myself am unequipped to go along with them. With maxed out bubbles only, I can grant someone close to a 96% DEF but myself only about 40%. So while they are off happily taking on AV's, +4 and up villians, I'm still struggling with even level villians. This creates a imbalance, IMO, with the team dynamics because it then forces one of two situations. Either the team has to spend more time keeping me safe (Assumming I'm not one shotted, blasted by a AOE or killed before the villian can be pulled off of me), thus slowing down the rate at which the team can move through mobs and thus earn xp, or they ignore me for the most part and I spend alot of time makeing trips back and forth from the hospital. I suppose I could just stand there and just bubble while doing my best not to draw any sort of aggro, thus reducing me to nothing more then a buff bot like a sky raider shield generator or a DE emmantor. But since when is playing shield generator or emmantor fun?

It's also not very practical to do since I either need to be up with the Tankers and Scrappers giving them the extra protection they need or if I'm back protecting the blasters and controllers opening myself up to AOE attacks against them. Plus just what am I suppose to do when the AV or +4 villian comes charging towards the blaster I'm protecting. Simply sit there and watch?

In terms of not being needed, while I'm sure alot of it is just perception, let me give you an example of how that perception can happen. Running a mission the other day against an AV, Envoy of shadows, with a team of heroes. Things are going well, I'm bubbling and draining (elec Secondary) and the team is crusing through the mobs of COT. Get to the room with the AV and run into a bit of trouble. There's a bunch of Earth Thorn Casters along with the Envoy and suddenly everyone got's 6 or more quicksands stacked on them. Everybody slows to a crawl and between the AV and the Earth Thorn Casters myself and the blaster go down. With no way to be revived I go to the hospital and race as fast I can back to the battle, figuring the teams going to need my DEF buffing to see them through the fight. So I get back to the cavern where the battle is taking place and what do I find? All the Earth thorn casters gone and the AV nearly defeated.

My immediate thought upon seeing that, "Oh. I guess they didn't need me after all."

Now I realize this is a somewhat skewed perception and that I did contribute to the fight, but its hard not to think that when you see things like this. In the big fight everybody wants to have something to cheer about, whether its the tanker saying "Did you see how I went toe to toe with that AV and he didn't even scratch me" or the scrapper "Man you should have seen how his hps dropped after my critical." or the blaster "Well you wouldn't have even got close to him if my AOE hadn't cleared out the room" or the controller "Not to mention that It's alot easier to hit something that's held in place" or the defender "Never mind that my buffs and debuffs turned you all uber".

However I think for some defenders, not all mind you, in the big fights or even some of the little fights they fell like all they have to say is "Well... I... face planted alot sparing you all from debt." or "I stood around and looked menacingly while you guys cleared the room.". After a few times of this its pretty easy to feel un-needed or useless. An while this is in no means unique to defenders, since I'm sure there are builds within each Archtype that have the same issue, I think defenders suffer more from this in the latter levels then others do. At least, that's the viewpoint from this bubbler.

Thanks for all your hard work Vyvyanne and good luck at your new job!

Just wanted to say WOW!

That was great. The dancing had me laughing.

Happy Anniversary!

Thanks for making my first experience with a MMORPG a fantastic one! Congrats to everyone involved for making a truly wonderful game!

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I'm guessing that Accuracy will be nerfed.

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You forgot to add Villian before the word accuracy.

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The Deflection Shield would give you 25% Defense to Lethal and Smashing attacks and the Dispersion bubble would give you 18.75% Defense to Lethal, Smashing, Fire, Cold, Energy and Negative Energy Attacks.

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Geko: Are these the actual number or did you just make them up? I was under the impression the percentages were 20% and 12.5% based upon extensive testing from many a FF.

Not that I'm complaining if they are correct.

Edit: Jesterman beat me to it.

First thanks for the explanation. It really helps in understanding things.

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Boss Changes
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A solo player (unless the mission calls specifically for a boss in a spawn override) will create spawns with minions and lts. ONLY.

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In my gameplay experience this is not true.

Two somewhat recent examples:

Rikti Story arc (lv 30-34)
Currently doing this so I still remember the missions I've done.
1) Rescue missing war hero (or something like that). No Boss.
2) Rescue 8 other missing fighters from the war. Boss (There was also no mention of the boss in the descript.)
3) Defend the war wall. Boss. (There was also no mention of the boss in the descript and despite what the mission text said it required defeating the boss to complete.)

Unity Plague Story Arc (lv 30-34)
I forget all the different missions of this arc, since its been a bit since I did it. But most missions had at least one Lessor Devored in it (Boss), one mission had two (Go out and take some blood samples from some DE) and at least two missions had three. Of the ones that had three one mission was to save the facility that was working on a cure and another involved a romp through the sewers. Now I could be remembering wrong but in both cases there was never a mention of bosses or need to bring along friends.


This has pretty much been the standard fare since about the mid twenties. Everytime I take a mission, whether the text says it or not, I encounter at least one boss 80% of the time.