Werner

Exactly. Rarest does not mean best. Let's take my newest multi-billion influence build project. As currently planned, I have one set of five purples and two single purples. I also have a set of three Nightmares, which are usually vendor trash. I bought crafted ones at buy it nao prices, and they were STILL less than the crafting cost. Purples are just a tool like any other set. Use the right tool for the job, even if it's vendor trash.

I have found purples most useful for three different cases. First, a build that depends on high recharge for performance - perma Dull Pain, high end DPS chain, whatever it might be. Second, in an attack that needs high recharge enhancement. Third, where you're frankenslotting a power and a specific purple offers a big dose of the needed enhancements.

So yes, purples are not as uber as you might think from their rarity. They're just sets. They happen to be good sets for particular purposes, but that's all. Mako's Bite is also a great set for a particular purpose. Gaussian's Synchronized Fire Control is a MUCH more important set for most of my builds. Blessing of the Zephyr are amazing. It goes on and on. Purples are nothing particularly special; they're just rare. If you treat purples like they're BY DEFINITION better than all alternatives, and squeeze in as many as you can, your build is going to be borked.

This is the only MMO that I consider myself a hard-core player of. The rest I've merely dabbled in, and consider myself a casual player. In this game, I'll do whatever it takes to get my Gladiator's Armor +3% defense IO. I know exactly how it fits into my build, why it's there, and what I would lose if I didn't have it. In other games, I frankly couldn't care less what raid gear the hard core players are using. Why should I? It has NOTHING to do with my enjoyment of the leveling up experience and exploring the game, which is all I'm there for.

Do you REALLY think casual players care about high end raid gear? That's just so... well, I'm just one guy, and maybe I'm not typical, but I couldn't care less.

You're right. The quality of the game play is not the same. This game is balanced around SOs, and is therefore the most fun when played with SOs. (OK, maybe a little frankenslotting to take care of endurance issues, which I've never found fun)

Look, I like a challenge. I assume most people do as well. I assume most people want to feel threatened by their enemies. To triumph, yes, but to always be at SOME risk.

Guess what happens when you make an uber build? The challenge vanishes. Ah, but now we have the new difficulty levels so we can add it back! Yes, but do YOU enjoy spending five minutes on each spawn because you cranked it up to +4x8? Do you WANT your missions to take hours? Would that make it more fun for you?

When you make an uber build, the challenge becomes FINDING a challenge. Because the regular game is pretty much RUINED for you.

OK, I see your point about teaming. Any game which allows for a big disparity in power levels sets itself up for teaming problems. If you have an uber build on an SO team, you'll probably be bored. If you have an SO build on an uber build team, you're going to get smeared across the map.

But since there are a lot more SO, common IO and frankenslotted perfectly-average builds out there, chances are you'll find a team that's a better match for you by NOT giving yourself an uber build.

OK, I suppose it could inflate your ego to be BETTER than everyone else on your team, but at that point, you're no longer the casual player struggling to keep up, and you get even less sympathy from me if you complain. You probably get open mockery at that point.

That's how I read it - as "What if we swapped out Shield Charge for a damage aura?" But I'd say that your meaning was obviously not clear to others, since it was so widely not understood.

And Santorican, I don't think he was suggesting that it SHOULD be swapped out. Obviously Shield Charge makes MUCH more sense thematically. It was an argument about whether or not Shield Charge is now OVERPOWERED, not about if we should swap the powers around. Saying that he'd rather have a damage aura wasn't a SUGGESTION, it was a COMPARISON to support the position that Shield Charge wasn't overpowered.

I don't personally have a dog in this hunt. I didn't even review the math. Shield Charge is great. It will probably soon be even better. But it won't be enough to make me IO out my Broad Sword/Shields instead of my Katana/Dark, and it won't affect my Shields/Dark Melee Tank (much).

Of course! But now we have Physical Perfection, and Claws is overall endurance light anyway.

Balance concerns?

Super Reflexes implies avoiding damage, not healing it?

If you lose ALL inf when trading sides, I can't imagine the person that wouldn't just move the inf to an alt before switching sides. If you lose SOME inf, then it would depend on how much, and how much you had on the other side to give the character.