Ya'll are sure spoiled if something like this is the biggest reason for people leaving (which it won't be, trust me). I've played several mmorpgs (UO, EQ, AO, SWG) and they've all had their share of problems and what not. SWG in particular, poorly designed piece of bloatware. I mean sheesh, there are countless aspects of swg that have been broken since beta testing (which was cut short to get the product on the shelves) and there is still no plan to fix it. The combat system in that game is so horribly broken they have to totally re-vamp it, basically from the ground up and they admitted that. Then the pushed it back another 6 months, leaving the same unbalanced pvp/pve system in place so they can focus on their expansion pack which will no doubt be buggy as hell and probably cause the combat re-vamp to be pushed back even further.
Yeah I'm a bit bitter, yeah that's part of why I left swg. But I really just wanted to add some perspective for ya. This game is way better than swg and any other mmorpg in terms of design, implimentation, polish, detail, etc. Appreciate it for what it is and have faith that the developers will continue their good work and keep the game rocking.
Okay, done ranting. 
AoE is SO overpowered it is laughable. The devs aren't just going to level an overpowered aspect to keep people happy.
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AoE is SO overpowered it is laughable. The devs aren't just going to level an overpowered aspect to keep people happy.
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I think the AoE is fine like it is, the extra damage makes up for our lack of hp/defense/damage mitigation. Scrappers post 32ish are pretty much tanks with more damage so lowering our AoE would just make us weak scrappers.
I think the answer is harder mobs!! The easiness of the battles in this game is laughable. Every AV I've fought goes down in 30 or seconds or less usually. I think AVs and Monsters need to be harder and require a little more strategy then "Blast the hell outta him". Minions, LTs, and Bosses can use a boost to. Make it so there are problems for blasters if they just blast everything in sight, or make it so scappers can't tank like a tank.
Just my thoughts.
Make Build-up and Aim only work on single target attacks.
I think most people are upset about blaster aoe, because blasters do it quick and can do it solo.
Make the larger villain groups scatter more, so much you cannot get them all with the AoEs.
should give more incentive to grouping, but players could still solo the smaller villain groups.
that along with the upcomign change to the level 30+ game difficulty might be nice, don't know, just an idea.
I don't care what they do to AOE as long as you don't have to kill 8-10 thousand minions to get a level in the post 30 game. 
I dont know what you guys are talking about... unless yer talking about Fire or AR primaries. As an Energy primary, in the post lvl 30 game, I CANT take down an entire mob with my 2 multi-target attacks (no Nova yet) --thats with 5 slotted powers, with build up, with aim (which IS the 300% damage cap above base/9 damage SOs in each power). A sliver of health remains and I've got 15 bazillion even or + cons shooting at me. In otherwords, I either need a controller, and/or a tank, and/or a defender, and/or a scrapper with an AOE, and/or another blaster; all with that 3rd AOE and/or hold, and/or debuff, and/or buff, to take 'em all down. Truth be known, I'd rather it be that way, than for the solo blaster to take out entire mobs, alpha strike style. I'd rather have a need to team up. I personally am getting pretty tired of hearing all these posts about the ultimate blaster build that will PL a solo player to lvl 40, based on AOE alpha strikes... in 40 hours or less.
So yeah... If the dev's "fix" AOE attacks, I'm for any "fix" in the game that will promote grouping, and I hope the dev's keep that premise in mind. Add some xp love to group kills and you got a solid winning "fix," IMO.
-Daishiken Lvl 31 Energy/Energy Blaster
If they go through with this I hope they increase our HP a little more.
I actually doubt that any AoE changes will affect combat that much unless people go out of their way to gather really big groups. The only thing that unbalances it is the fact that the overall damage output can be multiplied indefinately as long as you can cram more targets into the area of effect. They just need to put a cap on how many mobs is "enough" (I imagine just slightly less than an average group size) and prevent damage from increasing any more than that. So just picking random numbers, say a max of 7-10 targets worth of damage? Haven't played the high-end game, so maybe groups of 15 or so are commonly found in the streets past the 20s. Anyway, a fix might only affect the people herding and blasting lots of mobs at once, while the people who just take one group at a time might not even notice. That's just speculation of course.
The answer:
Give non 32 aoes a modified accuracy table that lowers the to accuracy cap for things over your own level. Against things 1 level higher than you, the to hit cap is lowerd to 85%, against 2 levels, 75%, against 3 levels, 65% and 4+ 50%.
You can not raise this cap with anything.
What this will do is make AoEs the same against even minions, allowing soloing, and keep them usefull against higher level mobs, but only to thin/damage the group, not to kill it outright. Then single target attacks will be faster and more efficiant at killing the few remaining mobs, giving non aoe blasters/scrappers an important role in team efficiancy. What this will require is tankers/controllers if you want to aoe things over your own level, making them more usefull.
The 32s should not be touched, or if they are they should have their endurance cost and recharge times changed so that they can be used constantly, and also have a built in lower agro generation component.
Give single target attacks a possible 100% hit chance, aswell as an inherant +5% accuracy for each level above their own *so attacking a +3 mob theres a built in +15% accuracy bonus* This will make single target attacks more effective at quickly killing the things the aoes leave, aswell as better at taking out bosses.
Doing this i think will make other ATs more important in an aoe team, while still leaveing aoes with solo-power, but only against even or lower level minions and not yellow and orange.
Further, the new trend in tankers/controllers being REQUIRED to orchestrate current aoe strategies will probibly evolve over time into a more dedicated and balanced anti-red hunting team built around tankers and controllers with blaster/defender support.
I see scrappers are a pointless addition to the game=P They are half tanker and half blaster, good at soloing i guess, but i dont quite see where they would fit into a classical mmorpg group structure with blasters comfortably handleing all damage dealing aspects. They need some group support abilities, regen should have atleast one of its abilities be team based, so should DA, maybe da gives team stealth, whereas regen gives a team end regen. That or their attacks should be given strong debuffing components.
Are there any REAL stats on the number of ATs that are being actively run?
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AoE is SO overpowered it is laughable. The devs aren't just going to level an overpowered aspect to keep people happy.
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I think the AoE is fine like it is, the extra damage makes up for our lack of hp/defense/damage mitigation. Scrappers post 32ish are pretty much tanks with more damage so lowering our AoE would just make us weak scrappers.
I think the answer is harder mobs!! The easiness of the battles in this game is laughable. Every AV I've fought goes down in 30 or seconds or less usually. I think AVs and Monsters need to be harder and require a little more strategy then "Blast the hell outta him". Minions, LTs, and Bosses can use a boost to. Make it so there are problems for blasters if they just blast everything in sight, or make it so scappers can't tank like a tank.
Just my thoughts.
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I agree. AoE blasters are fine the way they are. The devs have already stated that an increase in minion hps is coming. That will solve the AoE question. I do not play one but you will NEVER see me whining about them.
Thought i'd throw my vote in too. From what I've seen, most people that complain about AoE attacks being overpowered are watching low level blasters solo +-2 level minion groups. Even post 32 in brickstown theres minion only groups that exist up to L38.
The game takes a complete U-Turn after L40. AoE is still needed and at its current damage level, it cant be overpowered when a group of 8 with 4 AoE blasters has problems taking down +3 groups (the only way to get good xp gain) when they take turns popping off their most lethal attacks. 40+ level groups way more often than not, contain one or multiple bosses that easily one shot any blaster and AoE attacks, including nova/inferno barely scratch them. Going in with AoE attacks is always extremely dangerous due to all the aggro it attracts. Its not uncommon for 1 or more person to get wasted by a Fake Nemesis once every 10 minutes. Its all risk vs. reward.
If AoE damage is changed, the last 10 levels of play in this game grouping are going to be horrible. Large groups will be useless because of the drastically reduced xp gain and it will take too much to defeat the groups required to make it worthwile for all hero group members. If an AoE blaster cant contribute AoE damage, then he's just a really weak blaster that attracts a lot of attention for nothing. So 1/2 the blasters out there are left holding useless characters.
Then the next step is the single target guys will be king and they will get on the chopping block for being too powerful. You nerf AoE blasters, whats the point to having one and not just rolling up a scrapper? They have smaller scale AoE's or multi target attacks that do great damage without the consequence of having a paper thin skin.
AoE blasters are not solo kings in higher levels and very much require a group to continue on. It really makes no difference to me what they decide to do because they have to keep the game playable. I have 7 characters after deleting countless others trying to decide what I like, only 1 is an AoE blaster. As long as they dont break the game or cause problems that affect all of my characters that make it no longer any fun for me to play then I'll be fine with whatever they do.
I just hope they look at adding to content and to the game as well as improve weak AT powers before cutting existing things out that some people enjoy. There is a balance out there and the people crying about AoE's are upset with their character in some way that makes them envious. Wouldnt we all be better served if suggestions to fix those AT's or powers were posted instead of the same ole, this and that does too much damage? Its old hat and already been beat to death 100's of times on this forum.
I dont think that the devs are going to touch AoE damage or Aim and Buildup just like they arent going to touch Hasten and if they do it will be a pitty pat nerf that has no real impact on anything. They dont have the balls. It would piss to many people off.
AoE damage is to high, if you think it's fine as is your kidding yourself. Sorry but it's true, there is a reason the AoE kings level so fast - the ability to kill large groups of mobs fast.
AoE damage should be 1/4 of any given single target damage if not less. Mob hp should be increased and exp given for said mobs should increase. This leaves the ability to solo, you just can't take on +3 groups anymore without serious risk of debt, unlike now :/
Grouping would be more rewarding with the use of controller/defender/tanker AT's, the exp reward will be better and on par with solo as you'll be killing + con groups effectively (a slight increase in group exp might be needed also).
I spent 220 hours on my rad/rad defender getting to lvl 39 and less than 100 to get my fire/fire tank to 40! That just isn't right, more than double the time and a rad/rad defender is one of the best if not the best soloable defender.
I've all but quit playing my defender because my tank is much more effective while grouping with my SG friends because it's all about killing the mobs fast atm and my tank just does that better :/
1/4dmg lol. Good thing ile be rerolling to a prestige class before any such thing occurs.
well how about a max % against any given target.
example:
even con minion's max 40% damage
even con Lt's max 30% damage
even con bosse's 25% damage
and scale accordingly.
This would only work for the instant AoE's though, you'd have to do something else for the pulsing AoE's, ie the 1/4 of current damage.
A single target blaster for example should be able to 1 or 2 shot minions with his regular attack thus killing a group in about the same amount of time (for arguments sake set average group size to 6) as an AoE based blaster. Understandably there would be MANY variables but as a base this should hold true.
If you minimize the AoE damage, you promote player groups to kill the larger more rewarding mob groups without taking away the solo ability of those that chose that route, it's just not as easy as it is now. You'd level your AoE king at the same rate as the rest of the single target or group orientated players.
why not just increase xp rewards for bosses and Lts so that one boss is equivalent to 10 minions.
Here is what I am betting on. All mob HP will increase after level 20, not just minions. It will not be a small increase either, 50% or more when itÂ’s all said and done. Naturally this will not be a wall at L20 but rather several steps or a continuous rise to that level.
Secondly enh will take a big nerf. Rather then 8% 16% 33% damage enh will be 5% 10% 20%. There may be some fiddling with build up/Aim and the damage cap as well.
I would bet they also hit defenses. Tanks can stand there and laugh at mobs 7-8 levels higher then themselves once they get their defenses slotted. Many scrappers can do the same against mobs 4 levels higher then themselves. I think this could be addressed by reducing the effectiveness of defense enh.
Hasten may or may not take a nerf, but scaling it down would be a convenient way of making the game more difficult across the board.
At the same time you will likely see an increase in mob xp, and possibly more weight put into boss xp and less in minions so the focus of the game shifts from killing lots of minions for xp to killing the minions to get at the boss, which is where the xp is.
I doubt you will see it all at once but over the next year or so I expect to see a lot of these things happen.
/speculation
Well increasing minion hp is already on the table although the bar is at lvl 35 not at 20. I dont think Lts and Bosses will be kicked up.
I dont think enhancements will take a nerf. More likely is that they will nerf inspirations.
I dont think they will hit defenses beyond the invuln line.
I dont think they will hit Hasten. Last time they tried to hit it the playerbase practically threatened them.
I think you will see an increase to Lt and Boss xp relative to minion xp.
I think that mobs at all levels will be given more powerful abilities to use in combat. This is how they will stealth nerf soloing.
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why not just increase xp rewards for bosses and Lts so that one boss is equivalent to 10 minions.
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how does that change the fact that an AoE character will still be able to kill that boss AND all the Lt's AND minions. You just increased the reward for killing the boss.
My fire/fire tank atm kills all but the bosses (PI docks) as it just takes to long, well not to long but in the time it takes to half kill the boss I could kill another group of minions/Lt's so I skip the bosses even at half health. If I was getting 10x the exp I surely would stay and kill the boss as well.
and BTW I DEFINITELY don't want a nerf to soloing, I play alot solo in fact 95% of my 40 levels oon my tank were solo. So a big NO to solo nerf, just make it slower for AoE characters is all I'm saying, myself included.
Well Fire/Fire Tankers are just rediculous, but the main call of AoE nerf is from Blasters, and Blasters generally dont stick around to take there chances with bosses. They just vaporize the minions and run.
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Well Fire/Fire Tankers are just rediculous, but the main call of AoE nerf is from Blasters, and Blasters generally dont stick around to take there chances with bosses. They just vaporize the minions and run.
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agreed, but if I were a fire/* blaster, I'd Inferno, pop a chicklet or 2 and kite the boss if it were worth 10x the exp, after all there are no minions or Lt's left after my Inferno. Wouldn't you do the same? As a bonus, you get a chance to actually kill while you wait for the Inferno recharge.
Well the fact this game is really City of Blasters, I think it would not be a smart move. More people would leave over that one issue then any other. its about quantity. There happen to be more AoE blasters then any other AT out there. Sure many would stick around but it would seem the biggest drop off of any player base would be a result of them touching AoEs.