macskull

Compared to equal content (read: other iTrials), they are.

Tex hit the nail on the head a few posts below yours. The power that was removed from the set was an AoE, which would certainly not have been taken in a PvP build. The range was reduced to 80 feet because if it had stayed at 100 feet a Blaster would have had a complete 4+ attack chain from 100 feet (plus Boost Range if we're considering that).

This.

Not at all, actually.

I don't get this.

There's a huge difference between an interruptible melee attack (Assassin's Strike) nearly doing one-shot damage, and an 80-foot-base ranged attack from hide nearly doing one-shot damage.

AS doing a lot of damage isn't a big deal because you either have to be good at ASing a moving target or the target has to be dumb and stand still for a long enough period for you to get in position (or be mezzed, but that's another story entirely). Sharks doing that much damage is a big deal because you can't even see who's attacking you before they attack. Sharks doing that much damage is silly even at level 50 but it's downright dumb at lower levels. I think the point here is Stalkers should have the ability to pump out lots of damage, but that means AS should be their main source of damage instead of Sharks. A single AS needs to pose a threat instead of being the joke it is now.

Most efficient? No, probably not. Safe? Very. That's the point.

Yes - if you'll notice there are few, if any, enemies in the game without at least one ranged attack. When creating custom mobs in MA you have to give them at least one ranged attack or they suffer a large XP penalty. They didn't want to disallow attacking while hovering/flying for obvious reasons, so they did the best alternative they could come up with, and it works fairly well.

Unlike kiting with unsuppressed travel powers, SB kiting requires you to have a teammate (or if you're the Kin, a particular power to boost your own speed). Apparently, any unsuppressed movement is a bug (according to I think it was Castle around I13) but they haven't changed this since it 1) requires a teammate, and 2) would cause an enormous amount of backlash. Look what happened with the PvP community when the current PvP implementation of travel suppression was added.

I don't need to, because I already know the answers. The amount of time you've been playing this game is completely irrelevant in the scheme of things, and it's generally a lost cause when you resort to that line to attempt to prove your point.

I don't think you understand how kiting works.

Travel power suppression was not a PvP nerf. It was done mostly so ranged characters could not fire off an AoE and be out of retaliation range of mobs before they could react, thus gaining XP with little to no risk. It's worthwhile to note that Hurdle + Combat Jumping provides excellent in-combat movement which does not suppress. The phase change was also not a PvP nerf - I'd love to hear justification for how being able to interact with glowies while phased, or to be indefinitely untouchable, makes sense.

Uhhh, can you name even one change (other than the Hurricane nerf) that was implemented specifically due to PvP concerns? I'll save you the time and let you know you can't, because that's the only one. I'd swear people that think this are playing a different game than I am.

They fixed a bug that was actually useful and haven't fixed the power-breaking bug in three years...

Or in your case, not posting at all.

And I have no problem with this whatsoever.

I still haven't seen someone provide concrete examples of how AE farming in its current state is bad for the game. The most egregious examples of PLing and loot generation were removed almost immediately after I14 launch, and the devs have been pretty good at stopping new examples as they pop up. These changes have had minimal impact on storytelling - don't try and give me the "my x or y is now worth less XP so people don't play my arc!" garbage, because if you were a good, serious storyteller people would play your arcs regardless of how much XP they gave. Once more, for clarity - less people using the MA for farming does not mean more people are going to play player-written arcs.

I'm also not sure why you think farming is bad, because of the whole part where it provides supply to the market, thus ensuring the items you want are available when you want them. PLing? *Shrug* I don't know about other people that play this game, but I'm intelligent enough to sit down in front of pretty much any build in the game and play it well regardless of whether I've spent time on it before. This game isn't hard. All the "AE babies" this section of the forums loves to cry about haven't affected my gameplay at all.

Nah, even after the change reward rate is still far higher inside MA missions than regular content.

Nice to see that MARTy's promise of not having to tweak things individually is working out, though... lulz.

It is human nature to look for the shortest path to a reward. However, there's a huge difference between RMT customers and farmers. RMT customers make the stupid mistake of giving someone their credit card information to get in-game inf - that's stupid because it's really really really easy to make inf hand over fist in this game. Farmers, not so much. They're looking for drops, or levels, which you can't really buy. For me, I almost never play at levels below 50, so I want the shortest way possible to get to 50 so I can play the part of the game I enjoy.

Don't tell me how I'm supposed to play the game, because my way is no more or less right than yours is.

For, like... the first week I14 was out?

I disagree, though if this were an old-fashioned high-noon showdown, one side's already winning, and it's sure as heck not yours.

No, they'll be out farming regular content again. No one's going to suddenly start running story arcs because farming in MA missions isn't efficient.

EDIT: Actually, I think there won't be less people farming, it's just what they're farming that will change. The majority of players will continue to ignore player-created story arcs.