ketch

Given the hour and the status of my grav controller that's one I'll have to wait to test. I'll transfer him back to Virtue and maybe get a shot at it tomorrow night. If true, then they need to do a sweep of things that should be unphaseable (GMs, pylons, maybe the obelisk in CoP).

What I mean is that there is no magnitude to phase. Intangibility had a magnitude (which was variable with enhancement and level difference). Phase, to my knowledge, is simply on or off. You can DS a giant monster or a Rikti Pylon as easily as you can a minion. I'll have to toss some objects into an AE map to test them as well.

EDIT: Yeah, just checked on an AE mish. You can phase destructible objects.

EDIT 2: I missed the last part of what you said. Can you provide an example of an object that you cannot phase?

First, this is a buff for the vast majority of gravity players. Unfortunately, the needs of the few are sometimes victim to the needs of the many. Gravity in pvp is a subset of a subset of the entire player base. There may be a workable solution to what you'd like to see for PVP, but you'll have to stow the poor attitude and try to be constructive if you want to hold any hopes they'll dedicate the time and effort. Or, as a mantra I've often seen touted by pvpers, learn to adapt.

Magnitude doesn't exist on phase powers. That hasn't been a factor in DS for a long time. And honestly, isn't that a bit of an unreliable trick? What happens when you phase the object you want to destroy?

On another note, will Black Hole be receiving the same treatment as Dimension Shift? It shares all the same problems after all.

We haven't seen any adjusted numbers yet so I'd be hesitant to call out more down time on the new DS. Even so, I have rarely encounted a situation that has needed or even benefited from 30 seconds of phase in the PVE game. In fact, one of the most commons complaints is that DS is far too long at 30 seconds.

As it was, if something was intangible it was basically the same as having the Affect Only Self status and Untouchable status applied at the same time, similar to Sonic Cage or Detention Field but with the removal of the hit collision box so entities could share the same space. It was its own status separate from those found in the capture powers despite similarities. There was no way to affect a target that was made intangible.

Phase, on the other had, allows two entities in the same phase state (phased or unphased) to affect each other. For example, you phase an enemy; it cannot hit you because you are unphased. You could, however, use Dimension Shift and follow it Phase Shift and you'll be able to affect the enemies you hit with DS. Phase was introduced via PVP and was quietly leaked over to PVE without many people noticing.

Yes, they added phased combat first in PVP, but it also already exists in PVE as well.

Players could hide safely within the Phase zone, but they wouldn't be able to affect anything outside of it either. Essentially, it would just deny the enemies the opportunity to attack at range, but would do the same for the players who enter in.

Yes, it is very different. Dimension Shift is, and has been for a while, a phase power which has no magnitude. It works even on Giant Monsters though some of the visual effects don't kick in because they are tied to the old Intangibility. Detention Field and Sonic Cage are Affect Only Self/Untouchable and cannot be slotted for Intangiblity, but can have their magnitude increased by Hami-Os that affect mezzes. Because the Intangibility enhancements enhance the old effect of Intangibility and not Phase, they have virtually no effect at all. I brought this up about two years ago, but so very few people used or cared about the power that no one else bothered to address or confirm what I had observed.

Just for a bit of clarity for anyone that skims that thread, at the time I believed DS was working with Affect Only Self/Untouchable. Only later did I realize it was true phase, allowing for such things as DSing a crowd then using Phase Shift or Ethereal Shift to combat them for a few moments more.

Intangible enhancements... yeah. Part of the problem is that they only enhanced the intangible portion of the power, meaning enemies would break free of the immobilize and start moving around before DS even ended. When they changed DS to a phase, things became even more convoluted as the phase, intangibility, and immobilize rarely seemed to align well.

IMO, making the power look cool is a task for the art department. The Powers folks need to focus on making the powers functional and fun. Making Wormhole aggro free certainly solves some of the problems that kept it from being fun, however, it remains to be seen if that will be enough.

Making DSed targets untargetable creates a problem. When you shift yourself via powers like Phase Shift or Ethereal Shift, you are able to affect the enemies and vice versa. If you made them untargetable, that would cause trouble for anyone trying to utilize this mechanic.

First, "feels/looks a lot cooler" isn't a balance concern and it's a bit disconcerting that it's given weight in this matter. Secondly, the KB only decreases the synergy Wormhole may have with the new DS by making it more unwieldy as a positioning tool. Of course, this has been an issue with Wormhole all along. It fulfills its role as a mez, but is cumbersome, even detrimental, as a positioning tool. While players have compensated for WH's knockback with environment, it still leaves the problem of unsuitable environments and enemy groups that have varying levels of knockback protection in their ranks.

I'm with others in thinking this may just be due to the ITF being the weekly. I've certainly seen fewer speed runs since many people want to acquire shards along with their notice as the end. The nature of those speed runs has changed though; rather than a few solidly built characters solo'ing sybils and crystals, the rest of the team seems as if they can keep up a bit better.

I don't, and probably most others don't, consider it perma-dom if it is sustained by another character.

I wouldn't say that the new Atlas is terrible. (I haven't done Mercy yet.) It's good for what it is, which is an extended tutorial for new players. That leaves little for old timers after running it once. But then who was running the intro arcs before it came along anyway? It seemed like most people ran the old sewers until level 8 or so and then started doing radios in KR.

As for First Ward, I liked a lot of things about it. It had a good atmosphere and the story was initially pretty interesting. About the time the Midnight Master shows up it takes a turn towards being comical and kind of ruined the tone they had built up until that point. Also, there were a few missions in which they hit the ambush button too many times.

Your premise is that a ranged/armor AT would be overpowered. You supported this with two pieces of evidence: A.) They have not been created yet and B.) There are limitations imposed on EATs. Evidenced by your statement here:

One can hardly argue against the omission of a full ranged/armor AT. Though its absence as evidence of the devs' motivations is arguable. There are, after all, many things they've wanted to add to the game that are/were deemed impossible or too much work. Your second supporting argument is one that a fair number of people have called into question and it's hardly unreasonable to be asked to expound on your thinking of it. It hardly seems like any one person's fixation, though perhaps you've had this conversation with other forumites before.

Hold on a second, are you comparing Tactical Training: Maneuvers with Farsight? Shouldn't you be comparing Mind Link to Farsight? In which case, Mind Link offers better defenses in all cases except for Defenders (or when paired with Power Boost). Or compare TT:M with Maneuvers itself? In which case, TT:M is better than even the Defenders' Maneuvers.

You begin the thread on the premise that VEATs have some limitations imposed on them. I'm not quite seeing that anywhere. Aside from some endurance issues, they're quite adept at dealing damage, buffing their teammates, and maintaining high personal defense. Could you elaborate on the limitations you feel they have?

But in order to get it, you've got to pick up a taunt despite have a far superior version in your primary. As for AVs, you'll only being able to fear them during periods when their mez protection is down, at which point someone else on the team is likely to simply hold them. Even assuming you were solo, Touch of Fear and Clock of Fear are enough to stack mag 5 to overcome inherent boss level protection. Basically, you've burned 3 power picks on redundant and scantily useful powers.

NOPE.

If you're going about a character based on fear, this would be the absolute last resort. Roll up a Mind troller or dom, a dark defender or corrupter, even a melee AT with Touch of Fear and Fear Incarnate. There's nothing alright in any sense of the word with the huge endurance cost, low magnitude, poor duration, low accuracy, and opportunity cost to reach the fear powers.

Even with concept on the line, I wouldn't touch these stinkers.

I think this is am important part to note. There definitely are some primaries and secondaries with better slotting options. Ice, for example, can slot the purple confuse and sleep sets, but must slot one power sub-optimally and take another that is lackluster. Overall, however, I think dominators have very good slot options because of the mixture of melee, range, and mezzes available to them.

Given the way that defense works, I'd have to disagree. Smashing/lethal defense blocks more than only smashing/lethal damage. Resistance, unfortunately, is limited to only to the types it specifically covers. Also many of the sources of extra defense also supply extra resistance (inspirations, teammates). Though the tohit cap in Incarnate trials does help out Resistance, but lessen the effects of defense.