Vicar

So this is still going on. I do not mean that in a negative way it's good to see you guys kept up the good fight. Ive just been absent for a good while, even before champions came out (yes I am playing it) but I have kept my sub here active and I tinker with my tank now and then.

Ive seen a few interesting ideas in this thread though quite honestly I would settle for anything being done to gauntlet to make it useful to an actual tank. Doing something for tanks is about the one thing I know would pull me back to coh full time from champions.

What I would like to ask though is have any of you received any indication that they will look into doing something for gauntlet. The last thing I recall reading was a post by Castle saying something to the effect of him still not seeing the need for a change like this. Thats not a direct quote heck I may have even misinterpreted the post when I read it since I was rather frustrated with the game in general at the time.

It is a change Nightmare. It is a common misconception that the level of the mobs determine if you get xp or not. While true if they are too low it does not matter if they are too high providing you are within 5 levels of the highest member of the team.

So a level 45 (or a person sidekicked to a 46) would get xp if on a team with a level 50. It does not matter if that level 50 is killing level 50 or 54 mobs. You get xp either way. Now though with this system you cant be that much lower. It auto sks you to the 50 so instead of get xp for +9 mobs your getting xp for +5 mobs.

Hope that helps.

Bridging wasnt dead, with ae. You just didnt need a player anymore to do it. There were ways to construct a mission so that the minimum level was level 45 and the max 50. So anyone below 45 was auto skd to 45 and level 50s could be on the mission fighing level 54s.

In a sense AE became the perfect farming tool. You didnt need any mentor's and you could "bridge" up to 7 people if you could manage the mobs. Which, allthough not bosses Fire Kins (as well as some other buuilds thats just one of the best) can easily do. More often than not though you would get 3 or 4 farmers with the rest being xp mooches and that way you could do a level 54 map and pl the lowbies at a retardedly fast rate.

Off topic but had to respond to you Haruu on the whole good getting punished with the bad. When I was a kid and the teachers didnt know who did something they usually punished the whole group hoping someone would rat out the one that did do it, which almost never happened because usually the ones who did it were the only ones who knew.

My answer from the time I was 10 and till this day was to simply get up and walk out the door if I didnt do it (man do control freaks hate that) or if I did it to simply own up to it.

Now allthough I do belive that in this instance this fellow is definately overreacting. However there has been enough changes made recently that definately made me feel similar to the way he does, minus the frothing at the mouth part. In fact the last time I "walked out the door" I had no intention of coming back. However I had enough friends still playing that when they started telling me what was being done it made me curious enough to come back. Not to mention I was not really enjoying any of the other games I tried. Had CO been out at the time I felt that way odds are I would know nothing about I15 or I16 and I would not be making this post.

That being said I have allready pre ordered and bought the life time subscription for CO. I will be playing that game. As to if I will remain playing CoX well the ball is in their court and this is a single step in the right direction. CO will also have to do some good things to keep me. Competition is healthy and I look forward to what both have planned to keep their customers.

I also know one of those friends who is leaving the game after playing with it since release. If I am not mistaken he has never not paid for a month. Yet he is quitting the game. The reason is for something so simple. With his extensive play time he has done virtually all the content in the game. So when he wanted a new toon he simply used the AE to farm it up. He didnt really feel like grinidng through the terrible teens, hes done it, why do it again. He had two characters he leveled this way deleted. . . .

To me that was simply stupid on the developers part. Now he and his wife will be taking their business somewhere else, both accounts. Not because that was such a big deal I think more like it was the straw that broke the camels back. Fix the exploit, in this case the bridging, and move on. Deleting characters is very much a power trip thing to do and it is going to cost you customers. Why should someone who has done it all allready 20 or 30 times have to do it yet again. Maybe that should have been a vetran badge somewhere along the way. Give the vets the option to create a character that starts at either level 1 or level 20. Because after 36 or heck even after 24 months grinding through the levels 10 to 20 became something alot of us REALLY didnt want to do again.

I know with over 54 months I dont have any urge to grind up any new toons. I have a couple I pld to 15 or 20. Mainly for stamina or to be able to do a Cap SF which usually gets you close to 20 and is for me more fun than generic missions. Sometimes I ll make my own map and solo it at low levels with a mobs and mobs of skulls. For me thats about as exciting as the other missions. Not that they are bad missions or bad stories, some of them are very good. (Boccor springs to mind) It's just that I have done them so many times.

Very interesting. One of my primary reasons for leaving Freedom, and ultimately considering leaving the game permanently instead of the occasional breaks I take now was the broadcast spam.

Also over the years Ive become less and less of an alt addict because, well after 54+ months of play time I honestly have tinkered with just about every combination (yes I really do create and delete WAY too many characters).

More often than not now days when I make a new character it is for no other reason than to either team with a friend who is doing something new or going out of my way to teach a new player the ropes (ie met a rookie blaster awhile back that was having no end of trouble soloing, I made a blaster, caught up to her and showed her how to play. I also sent her a suggested build but told her to tweak it as she felt nessesary, I think she copied it but I kinda expected that. Point is I have done a few TF's with her now and you would never think she was a rookie)

Out of all of the good things with this system I most look forward to being able to play my favorite characters with the new players. As far as build layouts due to the common exemplaring Ive always been a bid OCD with my builds. Mainly for TF reasons but my builds are optimized as much as possible for all levels, even the slotting. So for me its no change though I know a few people that are going to groan and moan a bit but they will see it as an improvement, they ll just have to respec their builds and move some things around.

Another thing I love, the no sk range thing. Im a natural tank so I tend to be a bit overprotective of my team. Drives me nuts when I have to keep stopping and waiting for my sk to catch up so they dont get picked off by a random mob. I know alot of people that just move on regardless and say things like "Well they should stay near their mentor". Problem is sometimes its not so much that they are going the wrong way but they are new and cannot navigate caves with SS and SB like many of us can. So this is also another HUGE benefiet.

One thing I would like to see is the ability to sk someone into a taskforce range. For me TF's are bar none the most enjoyable part of the game, and I would love to be able to introduce new players to that a little earlier. Especially to bypass the Posi TF. Im sorry Posi but I really would love to see a MASSIVE overhaul to that TF. I cannot count the amout of new players I have come across over the years that do that TF and never want to do another one again, myself included. I vididly rember the first 3 attempts at that TF back in the day. All of them failed for no other reason than the team quiting because of the endless plodding and tonnes of missions. It was almost a year before I attempted another higher level TF and that was because the SG I recently joined at the time talked me into it. Im so glad they did.

Anyway rambled a bit and got slightly off topic but all in all. Really happy with these new options. More difficult missions is also a nice feature. So now then, when is I16 going live lol.

The problem most people have with this issue is the dev's refuse to actually come out and acknowlege that their is a problem.

I would like to think that if Castle himself started a thread on the subject and said somethin to the effect that "I believe tankers need something so suggest away but I will ignore ideas suggesting more damaget" we might get some new ideas and the community would feel that the problem is being acknowleged.

The problem is in stead we get the answer above where he states that he does not belive that anything like this needs to be done.

Acknowlage the problem and give us a direction you want to go then maybe we can make some progress.

If you dismiss the problem then all you will get is the same suggestions that have been given because we have no idea as a group what you might like.

I honestly stopped reading after the first page where someone said that brutes have the same endurance problems as tanks . . . wrong.

At this point I would like to appologize for the following rant and ask those of you reading this to at least read the following which origionally appeared at the end of my post but I moved up so that people would read it. I tend to get a bit . . . worked up when it comes to tanks. I dont want to be superman ( I actually hate him lol ) but I think tanks could and should be something more.

Add an inherrent, leave gauntlet, its really hardly an inherrent imo. Instead add the following.

Grit : Drawing the ire of your enemies only hardens your resolve to see the fight through to the end.

Use a fury like bar system that increases ONLY through incoming attacks not those you dish out. Have it about as easy to build and maintain as a brutes fury bar currently is. Now instead of having it increase damage, which has been repeatedly rejected , have it decrease the endurance cost of all powers. Something along the lines of .3% end reduction for each percent of Grit. So 90% Grit would give about a 27% end reduction with 30% being the thearetical cap.

I believe this would help bridge the damage gap without actually making them do more damage. While other archtypes are sucking wind and forced to rest the tank could continue to plod on. The old addage of slow and steady wins the race.

Thoughts anyone?

Yes at a glance one could argue that for the most part the endurance consuption of the powers is the same.

One GLARING differance though. By the time the brute takes the alpha strike, even on a small solo mob he is doing more damage than the tank most of the time. Once he is finished with that mob (which he does so much quicker than the tank) he moves on to the next one and starts one hitting minions, for some sets even lt's. Thats before you even reach level 6.

The tankers problem boils down to one thing. Damager per endurance. That simple. If you slot everything for end reduction you can function. At a much slower pace, a brute can do the same thing and still run a nice 70 to 80% rage bar and as I said one shot stuff. If you stock up on blues for at your contact a brute can easily blaze through a mission before those run out. A tank cannot because they cannot do the damage per endurance a brute can.

Oh and dont even get me started on pvp where all the squishies get a free 40% resistance buff that costs them no endurance while tanks have to run 2, 3, heck for some sets 4 not counting tough and weave to get all of their resistance. Brilliant move that. . . .

Ive wanted a buff for tanks in general for a long LONG time. Alot of interesting ideas that would have added some very different strategies to my favorite class have been shot down by the forumites so I do not see anything ever changing.

Now I am going to go read the rest of this thread now so I appologize if the above idea was expressed.

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Stone is quite a fun set to play out of Granite. I have Granite Armor on my Stoner, but I also have all 4 of the other armors. I use Granite primarily in large team situations, AVs, GMs, etc, when straight uber-ness is called for. When I solo, or run in smaller groups, I rarely ever even turn Granite on. Its fun to mix and match the various armors depending on what I'm fighting, and the eclectic mix of resist and def make it a very entertaining set to play.

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Thats pretty much how I am playing my DM/Stone brute. The down side of being out of granite is I have to run rooted and the run speed is terrible.

Sometimes I do run solo out of granite just for kicks but usually I teleport mob to mob with rooted and whatever armors I need on.

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the ratings system sucks. Everyone knows this. A single ratings system just doesn't make sense given that people want very different things from missions.

Put "SFMA" in your arc description (Story focused mission arc) and people looking for stories will find it - although maybe not as many as you would like.

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Thanks, I think I will try that. Im not looking for mass numbers. I could care less about tickets. Loot in this game has no meaning to me. It's not needed for pve and I m not about to bother with it for pvp when it gets changed every 2 to 4 months.

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You know what your problem is? Your problem is that you're even comparing arc ratings. If you're writing for the sake of writing a good story, you should be interested in the work you're doing and not in it gaining mass appreciation. I think it's already well established that the masses appreciate easily digestible material the less mental effort required, the better.

Don't blame people for looking after their own interests and focusing on what's fun for them, simply do the same for yourself.

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Hey like others have said, if they put out an arc they don't mind if someone sends them feeback saying Boss X was too hard/easy. You have lots of typos. The missions seem repetative, any kind of comment would be welcome.

However many people simply click the 4 star option and move on. Ive ran into numerous people who have admitted to that. Im not saying everyone does it but alot do do it.

Also if those who want a farm map take the 5 mins it takes to put some kind of story to it it would not bother me. I have seen a few that were blatant farm maps that I gave a decent rating because the creator took a couple mins to flesh out an amusing story as to why you were killing the mobs.

So yes I will return to my origional statement that I like the MA but am disapointed with playerbase.

Also you said to put it up on the forums. That sounds like the kind of thing someone who was desparate for validation would do.

There are enough flame posts over various topics. I do not need to deal with the forumites and lore hounds ripping apart a story because I might have got a bit of the timeline off by a month or so.

First of all it's not so much that I am looking for validation that I made a good arc. I simply do not see the point in putting effort into making someone that no one is going to enjoy.

It's not often I can even form a team interested in doing other people's arcs let alone my own.

As far as my taking my arc down. Well no one was playing it so I was going to do some work on it and change the name in the hopes that would draw attention. However after making a farm map with a retarded name and it getting recognition where my quality map didnt. . . . well that kind of put me off of the idea of actualy making a decent arc.

I've seen alot of feedback about the MA ranging from its amazing to its complete BS.

For me I believe that the MA is a good thing that has been trashed by the lazy masses.

I do not object to farms in the slightest. I do not blame all of the games troubles on the farmers. I blame it on those people who constantly spam lf ae team. However when you send a tell they are only interseted in an ae farm. It gets a little ridiculous when you join an SG and team with a group of 50's from that SG and not a single one of them has a vet badge. Not even the 3 month one. I have been trying to help this group learn how to play, however at times it does try my patience because if they had played up at least part of the way they might know how to play their toons.

I also find it a bit disgruntling from a writing point of view. I had a few arcs done that I thought were good. However I could never get any outside input (other than my friends who tried it and they might be biased as well) because almost no one seems to be doing the arcs.

One of my friends and myself actually made a really good task force like story arc. I thought it was a blast. I even went so far as to recruit a few teams to do his arc because I know he was a bit saddened by the fact no one was playing it. I was hoping that if a few people would play it word of mouth might spread. . . . but it hasnt.

They all rated his arc well, I even specificly told them not to blindly rated it but to rate it as they felt it deserved it recived all 4 and 5 stars. It currently sits at 4 stars or at least it did. If you wish to check it out its called For the love of Silver, I do not recall the ID though he may have taken it down by now I do not know.

I had hoped that this might get it the recognition it needs however it hasnt. Because I have noticed that many farm maps get rankings of 4 stars. I know one that has upwards of 600 votes and has a 4 star ranking. The guy didnt even bother to put in ANY kind of story. Yet it has a 4 star rating from hundreds of people.

This has actually made me do an experiment. I ripped off the idea of that particular farm, made some minor alterations put it up and ran a couple lowbies through it and told them the arc id. . . . . I started getting votes

So my own arc that I had spent hours on writing and trying to come up with interesting things to do. The arc that I spend several thousand tickets on just so I could unlock everything. Is was sitting at 14 votes and a 4 star rating after being up for weeks. I have since pulled the arc down since I see no reason to beat my head against a brick wall.

The arc that I spent about 5 to 10 mins on after a single evening had 30 votes. . . . and a 4 star rating.

Come on people give credit where its due. I do not believe farms should be banned but rate them what they should be. A map full of nothing but minion only, Lt only or Boss only mobs with absolutely no story should not get a 4 star rating.

Thats all I really ask is people start voting for what the story is, not for if it levels you the fastest.

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The endurance mechanic is simply broken, especially at lower levels.

[/ QUOTE ]That explains how nobody ever gets a character past level 5.

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However not as broken at Talan_Lee's reply button apparently.

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If his reply button really was broken it would sure be nice.

Just wanted to chime in that I also forego fitness powers and respec into them. Also with the raptor and zero G packs I usually skip travel powers as well.

Not so much to try out powers ( I am fairly positive there is not a single power set that I have not leveled to at least 28 though that does not cover the various combos) but to give myself as many attack options at those levels so I can grind them out asap.

After 51+ months pre stamina levels simply do not interest me anymore.

Ah various damage types, dm, ss, fire and em for the tanks. The Defender I think was a energy blast.

I was having less endurance issues with the defender.

Damage types didnt really matter though since they were ae mobs and I gave them two attack powers so they would have no resistance to favor any damage type over another.

The Fire Devices has now soloed too 22. You mentioned that it was something about low levels, well that particular blaster actually outperforms my SS Invuln which is level 50. He gets winded far easier than the blaster does.

Granted if I pace myself and absolutely PLOD the tank can turn up the difficulty and grind through it where the blaster cannot turn up the difficutly yet. The blaster can finish the map twice as fast though on the same difficulty. At 50 I have no doubt he would be able to handle the mobs on Invince and still not have the end issues the tank does.