ThePackage

That's not the -point- of it. It's supposed to be a constantly renewing resource you balance between attack and defense, something you have to manage in order to be effective.

I wouldn't abandon them either. They work. You might not think they work, and they certainly are getting tweaked (they're using new mechanics, so that takes time to work out completely) but regardless, they do, in fact, work.

You mean, if they fail to manage their mana efficiently.

Okay.

Because giving costs and challenges make for a better skills based game. If you have everything you ever want handed to you for free and without some form of cost, it no longer becomes a strategic choice to use an ability, but merely an automatic one.

Really? I thought the most effective approach was to find the things that give you the most XP for the least endurance, put your endurance into -that- endevour, and recover less than someone who simply throws his endurance away into the toilet.

DPE for all attacks, sure. But DPE for all attacks over activation time is not, nor is it over recharge time. Some attacks are simply more or less efficient than others.

Else, why would we ever discuss Claws?

Nor have I said it was. However 'Immob or not' -is-. 'Toggle on or not' -is-. 'Stun/Hold or not' -is-. 'Parry or not' -is-. 'Whirling Axe or not' -is-.

There's a lot more to the game than 'turn toggles on, spam attack chain, watch endurance go away'.

Not at all what I am refering to. Refer above.

No, but people can't expect a game to hold their hands and kiss their booboos when they take a grouping powerset or build and try to solo with it. You can't create group dynamics and expect every character created within those dynamics to be awesome at soloing, and the game doesn't lie to you and say so either. Even the character creation screen says -that- much.

Knocking them -into- a taunt aura is an even better option than above. Then unleash hell on weak foes once your debuffs make them easily defeatable.

Knocking them out of a taunt aura has a tendancy to knock their agro off the taunter if they haven't generated damage. When I tank, I don't care, that was your choice and you can handle the agro. If you can't, that's not my fault.

And if you can kill the mob quickly with your Scourge before that is a problem, then you're doing your job well. If it causes you to faceplant, and then they attack someone else who can't take the agro, then you have caused the group problems when I have to clean up your error.

But... then again... if that -was- a problem, after you knocked the enemy off my aura, why didn't you knock him back on after he agro'd you?

I can't make this determination for you, that's a playskill issue.



But, there IS a way to turn knockback into knockdown. Hover. Use it.

Endurance isn't supposed to be a cap on soloing speed, that's not the point of it. It regenerates -really- quickly in comparison to other mechanics. I think that Rest or some equivalent could be up more often, but it's not as big a problem as you think so long as you learn how to manage Stamina.

An interesting comparison is with other games that also have similiar systems. Ever play a Protection Paladin in WoW? You get (and use) your mana at about the same rate as endurance flows in this game. It's hardly a problem if you manage it right. Perspective is in order. You have to spend something to get something, you have to have a resource to manage.

Endurance is supposed to encourage you to either watch your bar, learn to strategize between attack and defense, and cause you to value teammate buffs that increase your efficiency in the same way you appreciate recharge, damage boosts, and regeneration.

And at this point, most people spec out of their low level attacks, just spec the biggest hits they can chain, and go for broke. This is what occurs when you have an endurance-free system.

Seriously, CoH is already easy enough. If you have trouble reaching level 20 in short order, I don't know what to say.

You might want to learn a bit of history on the MMO genre to get some idea of why things are the way they are.

The big game at the time CoH was released was Everquest. Everquest (and games like it) had a mana system that works surprisingly like CoH. You spend mana on spells, and regenerate it over time. Sounds exactly the same, right?

The thing is, EQ's mana regenerated.... very.... very... slowly.... so you'd be meditating (a skill you had to level up by literally staring at your spell book for a few minutes) and then you'd be good to go to unleash your big bad voodoo. As a result, mana-regenerating buffs were literally refered to as 'crack' and if you were a magic-using class, you begged for your crack before you went out to level.

And it took a LONG time to level.

CoH was one of the first games to revolutionize this. It gave the players the ability to regenerate their endurance (same as mana, remember) from lowest to highest in sixty seconds, rather than minutes. You also got this rate of replenishment in battle and outside battle. No looking at a status screen! And on top of that, every so often you could reduce that time down to mere seconds.

Oh, and your powers use about as much endurance for what they do as a mage's spells did in EQ.

And yet, on top of that, you -still- have 'crack' available! You can get buffs from other players, or even supply your own by purchasing some powers.

In this respect, CoH was revolutionary, and was one of the forrunners in minimizing down-time by making sweet sweet endurance flow like water for all classes and builds, by giving melee classes abilities and techniques same as the ranged spell-types do, and by making buffs matter for the level they are cast.

Since then, powers have had their endurance costs cut, and cut again, and still people complain.

Complaining about the flow in of your primary resource for ability use is a mainstay of MMO communities since the dawn of time. People complain in WAR that Power doesn't come back fast enough. WoW players complain their rogues and druids don't recharge energy at near the rate they 'should'.

The only thing I think could stand to change is more availability of some equivalent to 'Water' like they have in WoW to keep downtime to a minimum.

Short of that, seriously. You don't have much downtime as it is. Ten seconds doesn't kill your soloing rate. Learn to manage.

I can shoot my firey arrow of damage at my oil slick of damage. It goes boom. Then enemies fry.

Explosive Arrow should have a fire component tho to the damage, I feel. Then it'd be nice.

Actually it really -isn't- that hard for a newb to figure it out. It's pretty obvious.

I'm using too much endurance.
I have the means to reduce my endurance use.
Therefore: I do that.

The logic is so simple it's obvious. I'm not exactly a 60 month expert and I figured it out right away.

Endurance Redux isn't exactly some arcane thing, an accolade you have to search long and hard for in order to properly apply to your powers. It isn't like 'Go to the Bank Mission, get a travel power' that the game doesn't tell you about. Endurance Redux is not only available at every store, it also drops on a very regular schedule.

Seriously, End Redux -is- a noob answer, because it's the -first- real answer a noob gets. Not 'Stamina' and not 'Whine on the boards.'

I do not see a single drop of Endurance Reduction in your attacks. Those are the main cause of endurance problems. You have, in fact, neglected your endurance reduction.

Do you slot damage into your weak attacks, or your strong attacks? Obviously, the strong, because that's how you get more bang out of them. The same goes for endurance, does it make more sense to slot endred in your small draining toggles, or your heavy draining attacks?

It's not hard.

If you have endurance problems in combat, it's because your attacks are causing you endurance problems. Slot for simple quality of life.