The_Naked_Cowboy

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If changes are made to AoE's such that my time spent online is less fruitful - and it takes me hours and hours to level, I will likely move on.


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For balance reasons there will be changes to AOE. I do however agree with you about how much grinding the upper levels would suck if you go from killing 20 +1 minions at a time to 3 even minions at a time.

One good thing about that change however would be that a mission would be more intersting and rewarding than running around a city zone looking for a group the right size. If you're doing missions you don't feel the 'grind' as much.

I'd like to see them calculate how many xps you would get if you complete all your story arcs (figure in hunting even cons for your kill tasks) and make that how many xps you will need for the next five levels. That way you can get to 50 without ever grinding, and then can try out the other ATs and builds you have been wanting to do. Personaly I play at least one of each AT, and enjoy every toon I have.

As more content gets added you will find that you can't see it all with one hero, so replay value will still be there as you level up again.

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Also, lowering the mob size hurts AE focused powersets like Fire blaster and Spines. Their powers are not all that well designed to only fight 3 guys. This shows that you didn't plan to have 3-to-1 from the beginning, or these sets would not exist.


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I think you'll find that aoe attacks will work better in group situations than while solo in the future. The developers don't want soloing characters to be able to take on large groups with alpha strikes, and that is the only way a blaster can survive those kinds of fights in a post smoke grenade game.

They have to either lower aoe damage or raise all the bad guys hps to compensate for the alpha strike. I know they plan to raise minion hps past 30, but I think that is the wrong way to go. Why punish the single target attackers just to tone down the aoe attackers?

With my 28 ar/dev blaster I can kill a single target with my aoe flamethrower and the weak aoe M30 grenade. If I use my single target slug and burst on the same oponent he will still have a chunck of health left that takes a third shot to finish off. I can take on an entire group with two shots and I don't even have full auto yet. So if they make it so I can only take on three minions they have to up the hps, or tone down my aoe attack, or the size of the group won't mater.

If the only fix for stopping solo aoe hunters is to raise the minion hps, I hope they raise single target attacks as well.

Why do people want the game to get easier as they get higher levels? We should be wanting more of a challenge for our heroes.

We start off fighting street punks, and work our way to giant robots and aliens. I see that as progress. Remember when you took on your first Tsoo in a missions? It was exciting to realize you were ready for the next level of bad guys.

I do agree that some of the upper level content seem out of place. They need to give a reason why a level 20 5th column has become a tier above their level 5 counterparts. Maybe they already do and I just don't know it. I know I did a mission where they had some super soldier serum, but I'm not sure if that was being used by the machine gun toting minion types.

Many others also have problems. A lab worker punching people would be more apropriate if they made some kind of 'Hulk-like' transformation before they started swinging. Machine gun toting mobsters should also be underlings as far as I'm concerned. Maybe the escaped convicts could have been mutated while escaping or something.

Higher level bad guys need to be challenging because of their abilities, not just damage and hps. I think Tsoo are a great example of how villian groups should be progressing to keep the challenge for us heroes. I hate to go from a group that has been challenging me for the last 10 levels to a group that is underpowered compared to my abilities.

I'm all for keeping the challenge consistent as you level. If you want to see progress, try taking on three minions that are three levels higher than you are. If the game is harder and you can't do it, try coming back in three levels and doing it again. If you can handle them easily now, then you're progressing in power with your levels. As you level you can take on things that are more challenging than before, so you are becoming more 'super'.

I do agree with some of the posters about not wanting to see scientist minions at level 30. Perhaps make certain minions into underlings (i'm thinking some Family and 5th column and all Prisoners for sure).

They could also make a new bad guy category called 'elite minion' or someting like that. They can put some of the Tsoo, Freaksow, Rikiti and others in that category. It would be between minion and Liutenant and would properly show the difference between a non-superpowered bad guy like a Family Gunner and a high tech or super-powered bad guy like the Freakshow.

You will not see three baseball bat weilding Skulls that are level 40 and being as hard as they were for you at level 10. If the same Skull minions were to become the same challenge for you at 40 as they were at 10, they would come back with high tech body armor, or with a new strain of Superdine pumping in their veins.

I think 1/3 to 1/4 of a single target damage would be a good thing. They would just have to reduce the recharge time to that of a single target attack.

That way a blaster would be committing suicide if he runs up to a large group and starts using AOE, but if he has a controller or a tanker (and there are three or more bad guys) he can quickly fire off his AOE attacks. That would be doing more damage for the team than a single target blaster.

Ironic thing there is that would move the fire/* blaster from the best solo blaster to the most group oriented one.