geko

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Defenders and controllers rely on AM for the one attribute you failed to mention, endurance regen. How bout removing the run speed, flight speed, damage add, and then reduce the time recharge back some ?

Read thru the 30 posts on people complaining about the AM adjustment, i dont see a single one complaining about loss of run speed, flight speed, or damage increase. Pretty much every thread is the loss of endurance regen for normal fighting, ans some for the haste effect . Its now used only for a boss fight.

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Yes, I actualy had that, and accidently edited it out. But that is a very significant part of the power. But that sorta is my point. AoE END REcovery is very powerfull. Only Emapthy has another AoE Recovery boost, and its the second to last power and has a 500 second recahrge. Nothing is more powerful than END. It is probably more important than HP. That is what makes AM so powerfull, and why its recharge was increased. Other defenders dont have that advantage. It was unbalanced. But again, the RT tie will be reduced, but not to the way to used to be.

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That is what I was looking for. An explanation (you gave it), an admission that you farked up/were wrong

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I am not too proud to admit when I am wrong. The fact is, every time any game makes a patch, it is becasue a mistake was made, or somthing is just not as perfect as we want it. Maybe its a typo, or something was not anticipated. OR maybe simply a loophole was found. In any event, I dont recall feeding anyone crap.

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For example, the patch notes did not say:

* The timers on Dark Melee:Soul Drain, Dark Meleeark Consumption, and Super Reflexes:Practiced Brawler have been reduced so that by default they can be activated at least once per fight, given average fight durations.

Had you also made that vital change, I wouldn't have batted an eye over the Hasten change,

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Soul Drain RT is 120 seconds
Dark Consumption RT is 180 seconds
Practice Brawler RT is 200 seconds (w/ a 120 dur, thats 80 seconds downtime.

These are all very poweful, yet even w/o Hasten, the longest recharge is 3 minutes. I dont see how you couldnt use each of these pretty much every battle.

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The Devs knew how good it was in beta, because lots and lots of people told them how good it was. They were specifically asked if it was going to be changed for retail because it was just that good.

The answer geko gave? "It is 100% working as intended and will not be changed".

And they nerfed the snot out of it barely 2 weeks after that statement. Why? And why no "we farked up, we admit it"? Why no "Here is why we made the changed, despite what we told you"?

I place honesty from the Devs way up the list on what will keep me paying and playing. It didn't even make Geko's list of things he would do. I hope it was an oversight

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There seems to be a lot of rumors and conjecture about what was said in Beta. To be honest, I dont know what was said, but I remember the train of events. Hasten used to be a Toggle with NO END cost. The Beta testers proved this to be too powerful. I THINK at that point, it was changed to a click, with a standard up front END cost. The duration may have been 60 seconds. In any event, it soon was changed into the way it was when the game shipped (120 sec dur, wiht an END drain at the end). The funny thing was everyone screamed "NERF" and said we ruined Hasten and it was now worthless. They demanded we change it back. It was probably at that point that I said we were happy the way it was and we were not going to change it back b/c it was too powerful. So we let it ride, and we assumed that incarnation of Hasten would ge well balanced. Mind you, there were a FEW (sarcasm) other things on our mind, and lots to balance and lots to do. We moved on the the next thing.

Soon after launch, it quickly became clear that it was still too good. We neglected to consider that Hasten Hated itself, which was allowing players to keep it on all the time. I dont have a problem with it being on all the time, but I do have a problem with it being on all the time with only a handful of DO Enhancements. So we were wrong. It was not working as intended. Accelerate Metabolism was only adding to the problem. So we made a change. If needed, we will be happy to make another change.

Nobody lied, and no promisses were broken. Anything in the game is subject to change at any time. More changes will come. I appologize if I didnt put it in writing that I will not lie, but if that will somehow help, then ok:

I will not lie.
I will not kill (sorry forgot that one too)
I will not commit adultry.
I will not steal.
I will honer my mother and father.
I will not take Statemans name in vain.
I will eat my veggies.

I am not sure what you are looking for, or what can be said that was not already said. Valaie, do you promise to:

*Not to lie
*Not fly off the handle
*To be polite
*To not say someting is teh suck before trying it out
*Admit when something is overpowered
*Not to theaten to hold your account hostage or hold your breath until you turn blue unless we give in to your demands
*Follow the rules of the boards
*Not to scream "stealth nerf" when you miss 4 times in a row
*Not to Grief
*Dont talk to strangers
*Smite evil and fight injustice
*Eat your veggies
*Wash my car


About AM. I hope it has not gone unnoticed that AM is a good buff. It buffs your attack speed AND your run speed AND your fly speed AND your damage output AND protects you from sleep, hold and immobilize. 2 rad defenders could keep this buff on the team permanently. Even 1 could do the same thing wiht a few recharge enhancements. That really is too much buff time for an AoE buff that is this powerful. Again, I negelcted to account for the fact that AM hasted itself, so that added to the problem. We will probably reduce the RT time on it a bit. I am not happy with how long it is now, but it was too fast before.

For those of you who were in Beta, you know I always do my best to listen to the community, as does the rest of the Cryptic team. As always, we are all listening and watching. Nothing is permanent in an MMP. New features will be added, and things will change. Not every change will make your Hero more powerful, but it is our goal to make it more fun. Those are not always the same things. It is not fun if it is not challenging (that is, easy is not always fun).

My point is anything can change. If a change is bad, it can be modified. Many rants about Hasten hit the boards before most people even tried out the changes. Also, many of the upgrades and improvements to other powers were not even considered. So, for now, I am simply asking you to try things out for a while, and we will do the same. I promise things will ebb and flow until we hit a sweet spot. My guess is Hasten will not be reverted, but the pendulum will probably swing back the other way a little bit. The same may hold true for Accelerate Metabolism.

So, with that said, let me give you my 10 Commandments of Geko:
*I will always listen to the community (that goes for the boards, in game, and thru mining data and statistics).
*I will not be scared to be wrong.
*I will react as quickly as possible, but not sooner than needed.
*I will not be scared to be unpopular.
*I will not make a change to the game simply because it is popular.
*I will do my best to continue to make this game fun.
*I will not intentionally stealth nerf.
*I will not reduce Accuracy.
*I will try my best to give you detailed information.
*I will make Statesman wash my car.

(well, 9 out of 10 aint bad)


A few last words…

Please try to avoid rumors. We have no intention to stealth nerf. Once in a rare while a change goes out that falls off a patch note, or a change is made that affects things in an unforeseen way (technically, this is a bug). But it is not in out best interest to try to pull the wool over your eyes. If you think you see a problem, please politely let us know. Long ranting posts full of disrespect often gets ignored and a real problem may get overlooked. If you see a change that is not in a patch note, it may not belong there, but it may also simply have been overlooked. Either way, we will do out best to confirm things for you.

Finally, there are a lot of you, and these boards are huge. We read as much as we can, but we can’t read and respond to everything. But never assume you are being ignored. Remember, for most issues, please use the in-game petition tool.