Treiste

Just in case it's not said enough - _Castle_ you rock!

Thanks for being upfront about it!

[ QUOTE ]
Hover: We might buff it some, at some point. However, it should never be an effective travel power.

Flight: I'll talk to geko about it. No promises. (I got spoiled by the Holiday Jet Pack, too!)

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, it would be nice if you could still reach the old 6 slot hover speed 3-4 slotted with SO's. I use to love it as a GREAT combat flight. I think I've respec'd out of it on most of my toons now...

And either increase the flight speed of flight the same, or significantly reduce the endo cost. It's a hog. It's slow. The jet pack was a not-so-subtle reminder of that. Sure it was slow... but I removed fly from my trays the whole time I had it because it didn't suck endo... that sure made up for the slowness. And I could afford to fly around with my toggles up, which was kinda nice for a change.

My super leap, TP, and SS characters have a much greater chance of 'running away' with their power. The endo cost isn't nearly as bad. (Ok, TPs endo cost is pretty high, but has a great escape factor.)

Sure, it's hard to PVP a flying toon without another flying toon... but not impossible. There's a heck of a lot of ways to bring a flying toon down...

Yay! Thank you for admitting to and fixing this. That said, could you please post the specifics of it?

[ QUOTE ]
This means that every Defense buff WILL stack to some degree with a player’s defenses, regardless of his power set.

[/ QUOTE ]

I fear the phrase 'to some degree' because... well... who knows what in the heck it actually means. It's subjective.

If some powers don't stack as well with eachother, or have diminishing returns, or miniscule returns, or whopping ones, it would be oh so nice if the player base would be informed up front, with numbered specifics or preferably, something in game that graphs it out for them (like health and endo bars.)

Otherwise it's nothing more than 'well this sounds like it would stack cool...' while the reality is they may be getting little bang for their buck. And frustrated as hell when they get their butts kicked in PVP by someone who scours the boards. Or die repeatedly, when their choice makes their power contribution seem 'worthless'.

Once again, I throw out the idea that much of this could be resolved by some sort of DEF/RESIST summation bar. It doesn't have to give numbers, but if it shows what your cumulative resist/defs are (running at any given time), then a player can say 'THROW ANOTHER ONE ON ME, I'm not topped out.'

So much of our number whining would fade if we had a way to directly gauge our power results in game. AND - nice little bar graphs like that can be read and understood by the majority of casual players.

[ QUOTE ]
I'll have to see the revised numbers to really judge, but I'm going to have to slightly reverse my first post -- I do see a late-game use for Defiance; it's just not as staggeringly powerful as it is in the beginning.

[/ QUOTE ]

And it seems to be, mid to late game is where blasters REALLY need it. That's where the baddies start one and two shotting you, or the lack of mez protection makes you a malta playtoy...

Don't have a blaster that's made it higher than 35, but have SG friends that have, I've seen em struggle, and I've buddied up my other higher level toons with them to help them on their missions (always helps to have a buddy to avoid sapper-cide.) It's scary how quickly they die at those levels. And kinda sad how often they have to avoid using their AoE's to be 'safe.'

Please Devs

Don't tweak Defiance. If it's staying in it's current state, get rid of it. Its interesting, but going in the wrong direction.

Yes, it's nice yer tryin' to give blasters some love. But I don't believe encouraging more potential debt is the way to go. It's not going to be heroic for a lot of people. I suspect its going to lead more often to team arguements / dissentions / more debt (especially in PUG's), or just be wholly ignored.

Blasters are squishie. In the 30+ game, encouraging them to 'remain damaged' for a damage buff is insane, as they can be capped so much easier by the mobs than their lower level brothers and sisters.

So far my attempts to consciously use it with my lvl 35 blaster has been laughable. The best use of it has been an occasional 'oh hey, I think I got some defiance on that shot before I ran.' Nothing big, because when I get at 40% or less, I'm usually running for cover. When I let my health get in the red in an attempt to capitolize on the extra damage, I'm faceplanting ALOT more than normal. Not worth it.

PLEASE consider some alternatives!

Some could be:
* Increasing damage resistance + mez protection as we get hit. When pushed into a corner, the blaster get tougher. While it's still unlikely we'll stay around for very long when hurt badly, it could make us viable scrappy/scary damage generators when pushed into a corner. Just don't make the scaling resist godlike at the 99% damage end or people will TRY and figure out how to abuse it. Just enough so we might stand there and try and take the baddie out before popping greens/running.

In fact, I REALLY like that. Something that scales up SOME level of resistance. After all, most blasters have a lot of melee powers in their secondary. Blapper builds are going to be limping badly right now, with a cut in effectiveness to the fighting pool. But why not give a REASON for giving the uber squishie all that hand to hand stuff in the fire/ice/electrical/energy secondaries? If we had some sort of defiance that made us physically tougher when badly hurt, wouldnt that just make us a little happier with our secondaries? And overall?

*Make buildup an inherant power for all blasters (yes, that means you'd need to replace it in just their power sets, not defs.) Give it more omph. If you really like the defiance thing, make it so that it is increased even more based on what their current defiance rating is. Thus, it's still be possible to go over the cap given the situation.

Last but not least, I'd really like if I had an aura effect going when defiance was 'on' (maybe I do and I'm just missing it because I'm so intent on watching the status bar) and that aura effect should have something to do with my primary power type. Swirling ring of fire, shards of ice, blue flecks of energy, etc. Ideally brighter/broader/thicker so that you could easily tell when the buff/damage is getting good.

Lots of people have posted some good ideas of for Defiance... please consider some of the alternatives.

Problem:
[ QUOTE ]
He could lay down a Burn patch and Taunt foes in and out of it. The damage was so great that the Burn patch itself would do the defeating; the Tanker only needed to hit Taunt.


[/ QUOTE ]

You are going in the wrong direction, States.

You are penalizing Fire Tankers for effectively using a power. Causing fear in this fashion does not thematically fit in with the AT.

It is a slap-patch excuse to force people to NOT use the power.

Rather than nerf the power into a bunch o' crap (because of the fear element), if you want to get rid of it - BE DONE WITH IT AND GIVE US SOMETHING WORTHWHILE. Make the new power 'tanky', please, and fit in with the idea of a Fire Tank.

By the way, what IS your vision of the purpose of a Fire Tank? What should it's strength and weaknesses be?

Is your vision of Burn truly: a power that gives good immobilization protection, that must be used in conjuction with a controller to fully utilize the damage, or you risk losing agro on your team?

If so, I will be respecing out of Burn. What a worthless power.

Consider some alternatives:

Move the immobilize element to temp protection (previously a fairly useless power anyway.) Maybe toss us a few bones in temp protection so more of us take it.

Switch Rise of the Phoenix with Burn (so that Burn is our hi end power.)

Make it so that when you use Rise of the Phoenix, the DEBT of your last death is negated. Man, I LOVE the idea of the hellbent for death fire tanker. YEE HA! THAT, along with some massive damage when I rise from the dead, would make me look forward to a little martyring. Oh! Oh! I died! YES!! Take that you <bleep bleep bleep bleep!!>

Make Burn the high end power. Guess what? We just had to get through 32 levels with other attack powers. We now have our burn 'pet'. Leave it at the longer recharge and reduced damage, remove the fear element. The amount of baddies it can now effect has been reduced, correct? So we can't herd tons of mobs and burn em at once.

Does any other tank power cause mobs to flee, REQUIRING a controller to assist? Ah.. I thought that you were suppose to be able to CHOOSE whether you wanted to team or not? Since when was it required for a tanker? Or a specific tanker power?

Seems to me you're just not happy with the amount of damage Fire Tanks can crank out. So you're penalizing the power. And all of the players.

DON'T.

If you think it's that wrong, do the whole AT a favor and create us a nice new, balanced power to replace it.

I don't want another crappy power in my primary set. That would make three that I don't think are worth taking. Rise of the Phoenix (nice animation but a waste to take), Temp Protection (er, don't really need it just for cold resist), and Burn (wee! Look at em run!)

I'm sorry, I have a problem with the basic 'I attack and all critters in the mob see me immediately'. That's completely unrealistic.

For example... Cassano sneaks into a mob with SS/Stealth running. He hits build up/aim/nova sequence - is seen before nova goes off, and any and all survivors are turning to immediately attack him. No defense, no endo, no SS. Life sucks.

In such a big badda boom, the remaining live mob should have a few moments of 'what the @#$ confusion. Even running. Something came in and nuked them and the first reation for all of them is NOT going to be turn accurately on the attacker and begin to fire.

Taking the same toon and sneaking up with Power Burst, blasting it into the back of a single minion as it's two buddies stand unwittingly by. WHOA. Buddy goes flying suddenly for no reason, chaos ensues, there should be a moment or two where the remaining mob may ATTACK, RUN, or STAND CONFUSED looking for a target.

When my blaster gets sniped or attacked and I don't know where its coming from, I don't turn instantly on the attacker and hit. I have to find them. Sometimes I luck out and it's obvious. Sometimes I freak and run first, look second. Sometimes I take the hits and spin around, looking for them and swearing all the while...

I really feel Stealth powers NEED to initiate some form of non-slottable confusion, that gives you the random chance of not being nailed by all of them when you initiate an attack and are in that '10 second period'. A few seconds - long enough to decide if you're running or committing to take the group out now that you're 'visible'.

And personally, I think the time should be reduced to 5 seconds for stealth suppression. MAYBE just for blasters, eh? (no, I'm not self serving... heh...) After all, since they're 'glass cannons', it seems like they SHOULD be the masters of stealth, sneaking, and using it in combat. Add into that, the Devs saw in their infinite glory to give alot of blasters melee secondary powers (melee range - last place most of them want to be)... seems like they should have some sort of stealthy edge if they try and use them.

As for defense... put it BACK to I4. The uber squishies need it. If you're worried about it stacking with things you don't want it to stack with (can't think of any combo right now personally) then make it not stack AND make sure it's in the description so players will know what they're getting into.

heh. That's probably not too helpful, but I just had to say it. I get really tired of the 'instant spot' effect when I lose stealth and how the whole damn mob starts firing at me, the attcks still nailing me even when I make it around a corner before anything actually hits.

Tested the changes to Burn with my Fire/Fire tank.

Honestly, I can live with the recharge/reduced damage rate.

The fear component to Burn needs to be removed. It's almost unusable as it is, as the mobs consistently scatter. I find it can be quite the hazard to the team, that I'm spending my time chasing them around, and it's honestly easier to NOT use Burn.

For example, soloing, I took on a Death Mage and 2 lts (all level 50). Taunted, threw down Burn. Boss and minions scatter and don't come back. Run back to Boss. Taunt. Burn. Boss runs. I run up to Boss again. Fire breath, Taunt, Burn. Boss runs. Minions stay and fling ranged attacks (apparently out of taunt range from the boss.) I think I got about 6 burns down before I gave up chasing the boss and just cycled through his normal attacks + taunt until he was down, then turned and took out the remaining two without trying to use Burn anymore.

It's... pretty worthless. If you really want to reduce it to 'immobilize only' for usefulness, give us that in one of our other powers and get it over with and give us something 'tanky' in burns place and be done with it.

Oh yeah. And don't forget we already have a crappy situational power in the Rise of the Phoenix. Don't make Burn another crappy situational power.

When I created my fire tank, I built him to have Burn as the cornerstone of his attacks. He doesn't have many attacks (fire sword circle, fire breath, scorch) as I've tried to make him a 'tanky' fire tank rather than a scrappy one. He draws them in, holds them as best he can, and does some damage while the squishies take them out.

I'm perfectly happy to accept less damage in burn, but NOT the loss of control. I risk losing my squishy teammates when I so EASILY lose control. Thus I've found - I just don't use burn.

If the Devs truly believe Burn is overpowered, I STRONGLY suggest they look at other ways to tweak it besides the fear element. Baddies running willy nilly is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what a tank wants.

What other tank powers in other sets cause the mobs to run away?

What other FIRE powers/damaging powers cause fear as a side effect?? Shouldn't my Fire Aura then? A Fireball? Flares? Firebreath? Nova? If it's an AoE power, it only effects X number within its area, you limit its damage output and recharge to what you think is reasonable, then WHY do I have to deal with the fear element?? Why are you forcing that upon the fire tank and not others? Just because you expect that he does damage AND has lots of HP?

The point of the fire tank USE to be - less tough than most of the tanks, but could do some serious damage. What do YOU, the DEVS, think the point of a fire tank is now (in relation to the other tanks?) What is his purpose? PLEASE enlighten me.

I think its a poor 'quick' choice in an attempt to stop people from 'herd and burn'. If it stays at its current level of usefulness (NON), I suspect I will dump it.

By the way, getting REALLY tired about how much time I'm having to spend on test to check out what's been done to so many of my toons in I5.

[ QUOTE ]
Noooo...I want my tough bosses back.
ok. Can't have that. How about something higher than invincible on my mission slider? Currently if I want a real challenge I add a few people to the team and do my Invincible missions. Fine by me, I like teaming.
But make this game as tough as possible!
I love the challenge!

[/ QUOTE ]

Perhaps this has something to do with your build?

Try replacing your enhancements with Training Enhancements (or a % of them). That should raise the difficulty for you at all times, without impacting other players. It may make Invincible an actual challenge for you.

It would also perhaps enable you to enjoy a challenge in someone else's mission NOT set to Invincible.

Remember - for every player who sifts through the boards or monitors their characters numbers to build the perfect toon... there's probably 2 players who don't have a clue and build them based on the little book that comes with the game and their own 'style'. Programmers have to build this game for the people inbetween.

You could always petition the dev's to add in some sort of badge or xp bonus for players at X+ level who ONLY have training enh in all their slots. Not lowering it for everyone else, but if you wanna have crazy fun... do door missions at Invincible with all training enhancements and get a specific xp bonus for it's successful completion... that kinda thing.

Personally, I wanted to cap the last toon that invited me to a PUG without telling me her mission was set to invincible. I always look for it now.

[ QUOTE ]
Before the change, there was a success rate of just under 80%.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am curious - does this statistic take into account all of the teams that fall apart or quit before they receive the 'mission failed?'

If not I'd suggest that to be an important statistic unto itself - how many start it and quit or are booted.