Umbral

The problem is that they can't attach an AT scalar to psuedo-pets because pseudo-pet is the exact same "AT" across all values. The only way to have pseudo-pets that have different AT scalars (as occurs with the healing pseudo-pets and some of the other damaging pseudo-pets, such as RoA) is to create different pseudo-pets that deal the different amounts of damage and have each AT's specific instance of the power call a different pseudo-pet. I'm not entirely sure why they've done this for some powers and not for others, but I'm hoping that they get to it eventually.

So you're planning on that kind of bachelor party. Kinda glad I'm not going now.

The problem with your workaround is that the devs have actually said that they can't (or can't reliably) make entities spawn a certain distance in a specific direction from a target. Every pseudo-pet in the game is spawned at a specific location (generally at the feet of the target or feet of the caster). Unless there was a load of work done to the engine to fix all of the problems with it, you'd have to deal either a heavily bugged effect (re: pushing the target in a completely wrong direction) or do something else. If anything, the most likely effect would be a teleport effect that teleports all foes hit right next to you.

And I'd take that wager and collect my money. The AE babies are specifically the ones that aren't the vets. They're the ones that have no clue how to play the game. They just started, found out that everyone was farming in the starting zone and, poof, in 8 hours of doorsitting they're now the proud owner of their first 50. The AE baby problem wasn't an issue you found in the AE simply because you couldn't tell which ones were which. The AE baby problem hit those of us that didn't spend all of our time in the AE and had to deal with the newbies with level 50s and no idea how to actually play.

It's not oneupsmanship in the least. They're actual experiences. They're not lies or fabrications in the least. When I was forming TFs during the Age of AE, I was constantly finding level 50s that had no clue how to leave the zone. I actually had a number that thought that they got to the other zones by going through the AE portal because they thought AE was the entire game. That fact that it was so prevalent and completely believable simply demonstrates how big of a problem it was.

Either way, had I been told last year that I would soon be kicking level 50s out of teams because they didn't know how to change zones, I would have laughed, as would pretty much everyone else I know. What's most disturbing is not that it happened. It's that it was simply so prevalent. It's not a single person telling the story. It's ranks and ranks of people. If it was a single person telling the story, then it might not have been true, but I can tell you that pretty much everyone that doesn't farm had to deal with it repeatedly.

Interestingly enough, that was actually the design intent of the set: a +def set on par with */Fire for survivability. Of course, because it's defense based rather than damage recovery or resistance based, it gets a massive increase in survivability when IOs are added, allowing it to leave absolutely everything else in the dust (don't even get me started on how borked the disparity between defense power set gains from IOs, resistance power set gains, and damage recovery power set gains are).

Actually, when you're talking about a game that prides itself on the ability to customize virtually anything about a character, the ability to color one's powers is actually a pretty big deal. The ability to color your powers as you see fit is nearly as big a deal as the ability to pick your own face, if not more so, because you and others will actually see your powers a lot more often. It shouldn't be downplayed at all. Of course, if you don't really care much about the cosmetics of a character and only care about your effectiveness, then you're naturally going to downplay it because that's an entire portion of the game that you're downplaying anyway. It's exactly the same as diehard PvE players not giving a damn about whatever happens with PvP. Just because it's a change to a section of the game that you don't enjoy messing around with doesn't mean that it can't be a substantive change (especially when it's one that is substantially more visible).

As do I. However, there is a pretty strong correlation between people that farm and people that care more about optimization than cosmetic effects. That's the entire idea behind farming in general: optimization. You'll also notice that I never said it was just farmers. Farmers are simply the most vocal about it, generally because they're venting about the AE xp reductions and drop rate stealth nerf at the same time. Many of those I've heard dislike it simply because it accompanied other things that actually had an effect upon them.

First off, the problem that many anti-AE farmers had was not that it was difficult to find teams (I actually had no problems finding teams, many of which were comprised mainly of players that were thankful to find something other than AE to pass the time). The problem was the AE babies that accompanied such easily available and high reward farming. I didn't have much of a problem with the PI farmers at any point (except when you hit your 40s and it was virtually impossible to find anyone to team with because farmers would grab anyone and everyone possible to anchor/fill/etc), and I still don't (especially since they can't use anchors anymore and have no use for fillers) because they're not generating giant mobs of level 50 characters with players that have never left AP and have no idea what a Task Force is.

As to the question of the population, it's hard to figure out whether the drop in population (of which there is some) is due to players not being interested by the game or by the natural side effects of it being this time of year (re: school). I can honestly say that, if there seems to have been a decline in population, I'm not really noticing it, but that's quite possibly due exclusively to the ability to team with virtually anyone nowadays. It's much easier to make a team than it ever was before thanks to the SSK system.

As to whether the nerf bat was swung too far, I doubt that. Player generated content should, by necessity, be less rewarding than developer made content. Otherwise, there isn't really much of a point to running the developer made (and developer sanctioned) content. The fact that so many people became accustomed to the idea that the content they generated should be just as rewarding as developer content simply displays a highly skewed thought process that completely ignores the fact that, if it were otherwise, the system would be abused (which is already know from recent experience). Sure, some story designers are getting irked because their content is no longer just as good to level on as the developer made stuff, but that's perfectly appropriate. The people that want to run through the AE should be running through it because they want new content, not because they want an equivalent leveling path. If they want to level quickly, they've got all of the existing content that passed developer muster. If they want to level differently, they've got the option.

Whenever you see someone call our server "Freedumb", just /facepalm and tell them, yet again, that they're misspelling it. It's supposed to be spelled FreedUmbral.

Rule of Cool doesn't matter much whenever it's not really the point of the game to run around in a kewl vehicle. If anything, it runs counter to the game's Rule of Cool because it doesn't allow your character to be cool.

Because forcing everyone to get a vehicle and use pretty much all the same powers would be so wonderful right? I know how well that worked out for Blizzard with all their vehicle raids in WoW (re: it sucked miserably).

The simple expedient of saying "no vehicles indoors" doesn't really address much (especially since it would require a large amount of going through the map database to specifically tag maps as Allow_Vehicles or No_Vehicles, which while not terribly difficult, would be a bit time consuming). As to getting out to use your character's actual powers, you're not understanding the whole "it's more powerful" schtick. If your character is weaker outside of the vehicle, it doesn't make much sense to spend any time outside of it unless you absolutely have to. Arguing that not every enemy is in the air doesn't really mean much either since it's not like you can force the vehicles to only attack targets in the air.

The question of "why?", is, and always will, have an answer. It oftentimes isn't a good answer ("Rule of Cool!"), especially when it's ignorant of the amount of work that would need to be done to get the system in game. Doing vehicles as craftable temp powers with craftable temp powers usable exclusively while in the vehicles would probably be the easiest way to insert them, but you still have to deal with all of the balance issues involved, especially if you want to make them worthwhile without making them overpowered. Limiting them in their use would work, but it's simply asking for an excuse to be more powerful than you should be but only for a tiny subset of the game that the devs don't really see as particularly interesting (re: streethunting; because differentiating missions based on whether you can use your stronger-than-you-are vehicles within them would just create a situation in which some players refuse to play on other maps because they want to use their vehicles for everything).

None of the reasons presented appropriately address the real problems as presented by the devs: how do you make vehicles decent enough to be used without making them better than what is already in game (whether based on transport or damage capability), and, if they're not going to add to the game in a manner at least as substantive as the cost to generate them, what's the point (re: they could either offset existing game functions and detract as much as they add or be completely ignored because they're not strong enough; what's the point of spending the resources to develop them if they don't actually generate a commensurate gain)?

Yeah... If you're complaining about your endurance before DOs and SOs, then you're right up there with everyone else. The only builds that don't have some kind of endurance woes pre-20/22 are */Regen Scrappers because they get super early Quick Recovery and incredibly low endurance costs otherwise.

Agreed. Contrary to what I've heard from many of the die-hard farmers, the AE xp nerfs have actually benefited the game because now people are actually seeing more than one building in the one zone. Plus, as much as I've heard farmers talk down the importance and attractiveness of color customization, that's one of the primary draws of the game: cosmetics.

Since Energize recharges in 120 seconds and lasts 30 seconds, perma-Energize would require 300% +rech to be perma (319%, if you want to be truly perma insofar as having the buff reactivate as soon as it drops thanks to the 1.32 sec animation time). Lightning Reflexes provides you with an extra 20% +rech and basic slotting would provide you with ~95%. This would leave you needing 185% (205%) more +rech. Hasten would provide 70% (Hasten only requires 375% +rech to be perma so it's perfectly fine to assume perma-Hasten before perma-Energize) so you'd need to grab 115% +rech from set bonuses and IOs in order for it to be permanent.

Keep in mind, however, that the duration effects of Energize aren't really the most beneficial parts of the power. The initial heal will provide more hit points than the regeneration ever will (it would require 100% +maxhp in order to equal the initial heal's contribution; the max for Tankers is only 71.4% +maxhp) and, considering that you should already packing Power Sink, the end redux isn't really all that great either. It's still of the utmost importance to get it recharging as quickly as possible so you can benefit from the heal as much as possible, but you still shouldn't view Energize as a power that needs to me made perma. If anything, it benefits more from the fact that you're getting that nice big heal every 30 seconds more than the fact that you're getting to benefit from the buff at all times.

Stone Melee works quite well with Elec Armor if only because Elec Armor allows you to virtually ignore the endurance costs. Of course, you can't do so immediately. You've got to actually wait until you get to a high enough level to be throwing out Power Sink every spawn, but, once you get there, you should never have problems with endurance ever again.

First off, yes. 22% +def to all positions is more than worth what you paid. 22% +def is going to do loads more for your survivability than an extra 18% recharge when you're already packing more than 100% global.

Secondly, you don't need the other positions as much as you need melee defense, especially considering how easy it is to get ranged and AoE defense.

Third, I'm going to assume that you're also ignoring PvP IOs, even though they're not purple. :P

Here's a tweak to that second build of yours that is a bit more optimized. I reoptimized some of the slotting (IH, Tough, Throw Spines, Stamina), finished out some IO sets that you didn't (Multi-Strike, Obliteration), and pulled out slots where they wouldn't have any real negative effect (QR, Weave). It'll net you an extra 5.5% +def(melee) and 5% +rech for a pittance of +def(ranged, AoE). It's also just as endurance sustainable (if not more thanks to putting the Perf Shifter proc in Stamina as well as QR).

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Hookweed: Level 50 Mutation Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Spines
Secondary Power Set: Regeneration
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Lunge -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(3), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(5), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), T'Death-Dam%(42)
Level 1: Fast Healing -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg(36)
Level 2: Spine Burst -- Oblit-Acc/Rchg(A), Oblit-Dmg(3), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(7), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(25), Oblit-%Dam(45)
Level 4: Reconstruction -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(5), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(13), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Dct'dW-Rchg(43)
Level 6: Quick Recovery -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), EndMod-I(7), P'Shift-End%(39)
Level 8: Impale -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25)
Level 10: Dull Pain -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(11), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(11), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Dct'dW-Rchg(40)
Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(45), Zephyr-ResKB(46)
Level 16: Integration -- Numna-Heal(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(17), RgnTis-Regen+(17), Heal-I(43)
Level 18: Quills -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(19), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(19), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(21), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(23), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 20: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 22: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 24: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(37), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(40)
Level 26: Ripper -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(27), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(27), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Oblit-%Dam(48)
Level 28: Instant Healing -- Dct'dW-Heal(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(29), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 30: Build Up -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(31), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(40), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(42), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(43), GSFC-Build%(46)
Level 32: Throw Spines -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(33), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dmg/Rng(34), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 35: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), EndMod-I(36), P'Shift-EndMod(42)
Level 38: Moment of Glory -- LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(39), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 41: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 44: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(45), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 47: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(48), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50)
Level 49: Resilience -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit

This is the biggest problem as far as I can tell (aside from the whole issue of having said fliers be bigger than the existing examples, which are already hard to believe thanks to how they would clip with existing geometry). The Kheldian form powers accomplish this by granting the character the suite of inherent powers at the same time that the Kheldian form power is taken.

Of course, the solution to this could be just as interesting or could be rather blasè. The powers could be granted as unenhancable inherent powers at the time of acquisition of the designs (re: mish completion). On the other hand, the powers could just as easily be craftable temporary powers themselves that are only usable while within the "vehicle" combat stance. I'd actually find this one to be the more interesting variant because it would actually allow you to "customize" your vehicle by choosing the armaments and having to deal with the ammunition issue by actually having to remake the temps on occasion (which would either mean having to buy the recipes for the armaments themselves from the vehicle dealer or simply getting them automatically memorized when you complete the various missions). You could even go further with this and make the vehicle itself be an inherent with almost no movement capabilities and require a series of other craftable/buyable temp powers that provide all of the other "required" capabilities of the vehicles.

Either way, the biggest issue is still that it begs the question of "why"? If the vehicles were stronger, there would be no reason to run around outside of the vehicle unless you're heading to get (another) one. If they were weaker, after the initial shiny factor wears off, no one would really bother with them beyond getting the badges.

I won't get into analysis of the DB/Elec yet (I'm still working out my opinions on how and what to slot it with as I level up my Elec/Stone Tanker), I can already give you some stuff to think about concerning your Elec/Regen.

You're not really managing much in the way of +def while you're managing to get a decent bit of (less than optimally effective) +regen and largely redundant endurance assistance (you've got 3.62 end/sec passive gain; ~3.0 end/sec is the average cost of most attack strings). Of course, I can't really see many ways of using it much more effectively than you already have without breaking some of your rules (no purps, no PvP) unless you'd be willing to take Body or Weapon Mastery instead of Blaze Mastery (freeing up additional slots as well as netting some extra +def from FA/TD), which I'm assuming is part of your concept. As it stands, you could take a slot out of Health and QR in order to give Super Speed 3 piece BotZ (or 2 piece and 1 Winter's Gift proc), but that's not going to generate a substantial increase to survivability. You've done about as much as you can with the restrictions you've given yourself.

What you first need to realize is that the average player is an idiot and has no clue what is actually helping them survive. The "average player" actually thinks that heals are needed past level 10 and that Storm, FF, Sonic, and all of the other sets without a (substantive) heal are worthless (try telling that to the random pugs that I turn into unkillable steamrolling teams with my FF/* fender). When you realize that most players preconceived notion of a set are based on the first 10 levels of play rather than the actual performance of the set at large, you realize how completely worthless the opinions of the average player is.

Having actually played with a number of different Traps fenders, I can honestly say that I love having them around. Of course, most of time that I've spent with said Traps fenders has been spent on my Elec/Stone tanker that has no problem herding mobs into a Traps fender's killzone. And then there's also the addendum that I also love having TA fenders around. Both of them are relatively late blooming sets, but they're both absolutely wonderful, especially considering how easy it is to get a character past level 20 nowadays.

Eh, it doesn't really make much sense, from what I can tell, to have a non-self stackable debuff that has a duration substantially longer than its recharge. If the attack actually dealt damage (as Poisonous Ray does), it makes a decent bit of sense because it's more of an attack with a secondary effect than purely a secondary effect, but as a pure debuff that can't stack, doesn't really make much sense.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "adjustments based on cast time" or "altered due to chopping off the pauses" since both of those are rather vague. I know for a fact that Katana's numbers got tweaked rather extensively when it got the new two handed animations. Energy Transfer for tweaked to the new, longer animation time to make up for its damage. Claws got the revisions to its numbers completely exclusive of the redraw being removed to make some of the powers more in line with their new animation times. Blasters got their tier 1 and 2 blasts standardized with new animation times. All of the "brawl speed" powers got their animation times increased, which actually caused Castle to increase the damage of a couple of them to compensate. Ever since Castle has been in charge, an animation change has either been due to power balance or accompanied by power balance.

One of these posters isn't as knowledgeable as he thinks he is, one of these posters should really quiet down because he's just making himself look unintelligent, especially since I don't even think you understand what a heuristically generated balancing factor is. The real weapon sets were actually considered to be underperforming when BABs did the edit. Spines wasn't, nor has it ever.

That's for one very simple reason: Spines/* isn't actually a weapon set. It uses a specific stance, but that, by no means, makes it a weapon set. What you're completely ignoring is that the Spines stance isn't always self reset. If you've got Quills going, you'll actually remain in the Spines stance without having to do any redraw.

First off, Banes and Widows weren't even out when BABs did the redraw edit, so they never had baked in redraw. Also, the pulse rifle attacks don't have redraw automatically accounted for. Lastly, I don't even think you realize what the redraw tweak did.

It didn't stop powers outside of the set from resetting the stance to the neutral combat stance. It didn't change the animations at all. All it did was remove the short, required animation for redraw that was automatically factored into each attack already. It slightly sped them up when used completely internally, but otherwise left them alone. The animations were no faster when use intermittently than they were already. And, as said before by people other than me, by taking Quills, you don't drop out of the Spines stance at the end of your Spines attacks so you don't have the internal redraw. The removal of automatic stance adoption is actually present insofar as this (re: if you're in the stance, you animate without having to go through the stance readoption animation).

As it stands, ignoring AT modifiers (which simply make it worse because the ATs have horrible res debuff mods), the APP version has half the debuff, less than half of the area, 6 fewer potential targets, and one third longer recharge. Considering that Scrappers and Tankers (and Blasters) have the worst defense debuff and res debuff modifiers in the game and it just gets worse. It's considered bad for very good reasons. With AT mods, it's nearly 5 times worse (22.5% -res v. 9.75% -res, 150 sec rech v. 200 sec recharge, 16 targets v. 10 targets).

I would more than support this change. This would make me actually consider Blaze Mastery (because, as it stands, only Fireball is really worth it), though I doubt the recharge would be 24 seconds considering the 40 second duration of the power as it stands now. Even though the effect isn't self-stackable (which is probably why you support a 24 sec recharge), I'd be more than happy just getting the recharge reduced to 60 seconds so that it's at least internally permanent. If the debuff values get cranked a bit to make up for that, I'd be even happier.

Or, it could, as I'm using it, be meaning "now" as in "the devs we have now are actually trying to address animation as a fundamental point of balance rather than a mostly cosmetic aspect of the game". The Cryptic devs left animation times alone because they saw it as a purely cosmetic value. It actually had a real effect upon the numbers, but this effect was only factored into the heuristic considerations rather than any theoretical or numerical balance consideration. Now, Castle is actively trying to bring animation time into the damage formula (though I'm not sure if he actually is finished with the rework of it) in order to determine how balanced certain powers are with animation time included (such as would need to be addressed with any change to Spines' animation times).

The question is then whether the long animation times of Spines' attacks are actually "bugs". One could easily consider them the heuristically generated balancing factor that makes Spines balanced and therefore not a bug in the least. In this sense, it's not a bug or a design flaw in the least. In fact, it's actually a properly applied design concept because it balances out what would otherwise be an overpowered set. The fact that you're trying to call it a "bug" and labeling it as fact has nothing to do with anything in fact. If anything, it's not a "bug" or "design flaw", it's a "lack of update" with has nothing to do with either design flaws or bugs.

It's not "bugged" in a negative way. It's inherently balanced by the fact that, even though it breaks so many of the normal balance rules that are present/required by new and proliferated sets, it's also got to deal with the fact that the powers have long animation times, which is only just now being addressed as a balancing factor.

While you can probably expect Spine Burst to be weakened (most likely with a reduction in the AoE size or increase in end cost and recharge time to bring it back into the AoE formula) with a likely reduction in animation time and the secondary effects to be more restricted, you'd probably also find that the ST damage would get brought up to not be so laughable (re: Barb Swipe sped up, possibly Impale as well). The set would definitely end up weaker than it is now, but I doubt that it would be weaker in all areas. I'd actually predict a bit of ST damage buffing if Castle was allowed to tweak it as he saw fit.

As I posted before, it really depends on how you're going to slot them and how much endurance you're already burning. PP is actually quite a good power if you devote specific slotting to it because it's one of the only powers that can take both healing and endurance enhancements (meaning that you get to enhance the +recov of the Miracle and Numina procs). It's also more than strong enough (if slotted with procs, as you should be slotting it) to more than make up for FA's endurance costs (.78 end/sec base) as well as having the additional benefit of being a passive power not requiring any attention or animation time costs.