I agree that I am still having fun, maybe even more. But... there were some power sets (invun in perticular) that were not balanced, they were out-right nerfed. FF are completely worthless compared to sonic, not that its not a valueable power but in comparison to sonics, sound is just better ff's. As an invun tanker I feel like an invun scrapper without critical. But I hope that when you say your working on the def problems you really are. Im not demanding or even asking for an I4 rollback. To be honest tanks, especially invun ones, were a little boring to play and to play along side. I dont really know what I want you guys to do, but there has to be a "balance". I just hope that being the game developers you find the right place for most sets and powers.
The only real serious problem I've got with Issue 5 is that it apparently undid the stability patches from back in July. The 9/15 stability patch made it even worse--I can't get a stable connection to City of Heroes to save my life now, and it was just fine before Issue 5 downloaded.
Well, that and I think the Invulnerability changes went about half again as far as they really should have--ease up a bit, guys...the Invuln heroes didn't take your cookie.*
*Disclaimer: I am not a regular Invuln player, but having seen the changes in action with one of my less-often-played alts, I'm less than thrilled. If I wanted to be that fragile I'd log on as one of my Blasters.
First, your launch hasn't been great. Wide spread player disconnects every 20 minutes blows.
Second, 5 members of my Supergroup quit and went back to WoW. Including my wife. They all tried WoW when it came out, liked CoH better and came back, issue 5 is put on test and they are gone again. "[censored] this", I believe was the most oft termed phrase.
As for me? I've been trying hard to hang in there Jack... My Invuln tank is no longer invulnerable. Now he just dodges fairly well as long as he herds. Yay. I spend more slots for less return and no longer feel at all like an invulnerable super man. There is no resist pool for me but there is a def pool for fire tanks. So I dodge, and when I get hit, I die... You chose to take MY resist based character and out of the [censored] blue make him a Defense based character. I've been playing him since the pre-release and you destroyed him.
My blaster is the same face planting glass cannon he's always been, except now he does better damage 2 seconds before he dies. Which is good. Because you've nerfed his stealth so it's useless in combat and nerfed his phase shift so it's useless outside of combat and while in combat it remains too slowly activated to be of any use. So the added damage is good since I'm dieing more. So, again... that character is no longer my character.
My Grav/kin controller is still fun. Except I can never find a group. Can't contol worth a [censored] past one small group of mobs... And since I'm not sonics...
Everywhere I go, inbetween disconnects, I feel like I'm playing EQ again. Better get the sonic defender, no don't get the grav cntrlr they suck, get the blaster no we dont want the tank, but we can't do the mission without, blah,blah,blah...
And everyone, EVERYONE is now focused on building all the exact same builds... the only builds that work, the only builds without near worthles suerflous powers like phase shift or energy resist because frankly, they are a waste of picks and only the "right" build is an "effective" build.
You know what... screw this. I'm really sick and tired of your Mr. "I see what I want, hear what I want and comment on what I want, isn't everything lovely" load of crap, driveby, grandstands Statesman
As of today my SG had two accounts still active. Mine and my daughters (she used to play with her mother and I) but as I said, her mother has quit and with exodus back to WoW the remainding members are never seen anymore... And now this thread has sealed it for me as well. You obviously do not "get it" Jack.
Your finnished with the changes to the power sets... happy now with them as they are after your little deconstruction and realignment?
Fine. Cio.
I just want to say that I've been with the game since Beta, second wave, and I've never seen such widespread discontent as I have with I5, or even more critical, the loss of faith in the dev team, which as far as I can recall NEVER happened (outside of a few malcontents) until the idea of Suppression came along. Yet now even longtime supporters and COH diehard fans (such as, arguably, myself) are expressing disappointment, frustration, even anger and disillusionment. That's not counting those who have actually left and been banned from expressing their voice because their accounts are now inactive.
I think you folks in the Dev team might want to sit up and take notice of what exactly is going on here. So far, it doesn't even look like it's fazed you.
"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
"Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man."
- Thomas Jefferson
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While I am happy with the performance of Tanker Invulnerability after level 18 (Invincibility), I am not happy with the feel of it. Fire Armor and Kheldian Dwarves have the Invulnerable feel, despite the fact that they both underperform Invulnerability, survival wise, in most situations.
This is due to the fact that Invulnerability has such low non-Smashing/Lethal resistance, and such high +def from Invincibility. When I play my Invuln Tanker in Croatoa against the Fir-Bolg, 90% of her survival comes from Invincibility and Dull Pain, which makes her feel like some kind of weird cross between Super Reflexes and Regeneration in style. It just doesn't feel right.
Invulnerability is one of the most famous of comic book powers. Invulnerable heroes gain the ability to take hits and shrug them off, not dodge or heal them. I really wish you would consider trading Invincibility effectiveness for more effective non-Smashing/Lethal resistance. If you feel we are at the right level of survivability, I don't see anything wrong with trading where that survivability comes from. It would also be nice to have slots in our passives provide something meaningful.
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Thanks liquid. This is exactly my point too. Please seriously consider re-balancing the res/def levels of invuln so it is less powerful than pre-I5 (that part is fine, Invuln is my favorite set far and away, but it was extremely powerful before), but that the passives are worth taking/slotting and Invinc is less over-powered and counter-intuitive to use. We should get hit often but take less damage (i.e. resistance over defense), not this odd dodge monster Invuln is nowadays. We have always been over-reliant on Invinc anyway, it would seem to make more sense to make us rely on our resists from 5 powers over just one power that is +defense.
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can /DA get your old invincibility then, it kind of makes sense, the whole darkness and being hard to hit thing. I liked it when DA was a mix instead of straight resists. also, i want a reason to take cloak of fear again 
I'll agree that things went relatively smoothly, but crash bugs and memory leaks from Test server still went through. I've been tweaking my system as best I can, but there's still more choppiness, lag, rubberbanding, zoning lag, and crashing than I had in I4. Definitely smoother than it could've been, but there are still quite a few bumps.
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First, a big thank you to everyone who played on the Training Room server and helped I5 to be one of our best launches ever! Were extremely happy about how I5 went live.
Second, were still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues, but weve finished making large changes to the power sets. Well still be looking at issues as the arise. For instance, there are issues with Defense builds; were going to look at that problem more carefully (the Damage Resistance Inspirations are a step, but there's a little more to come).
Thanks for all your great feedback!
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So you are happy that most people feel that Burn is useless and are dropping it from their builds? If so then just get rid of the power like has been suggested by many.
My SR thanks you for any help the set will recieve in the near future.
Some points:
[*]The new area is cool, but it's too split up in level-avaialblitiy. By that I mean that I went into the area with my lvl25 and started doing the missions. I had just reached 25. As I reached 26, I finished a contact and discovered that to unlock the next contact I had to be lvl30!
Might you consider changing the level req for the contacts to soemthing like this:
First contact: lvl25
Second Contact: lvl26
Third Contact: lvl28
Fourth Contact: lvl30
So the "downtime" in the zone is partitioned up into smaller blocks? Having to get one or just a healf a level of exp each time you get a new contact would be a lot more palatable than suddenly having to gain 4 levels. I still haven't done the second half of the Croatoa stuff becasue of this. Don't want to grind 4 levels and I've done the normal contact missions too many times to be inspsred to do them again.
[*]The "Stop 30 Fir Bolgs from entering portal mission" REALLY made clear to me how irritating supression is. I hadn't really given it much thought before. It seemed reasonable at the time and didn't really effect me (don't usually fight with travel powers on anyway). But in this mission, the mobs were constnatly running away from me and towards the portal. Trying to keep up with them while attack felt a LOT like bad lag. Constantly slowing down to crawl, then exploding forewards, then slowing to a crawl again...
Don't have any good solutions to suggest here. Just an observation.
[*]Defiance was cool for my lvl25 Blaster. My playstyle really fits to the mechaninc (I'm the guy who refuses to run and survives with no visible HP left in my bar). But that's at lvl25. It might not really be what Blasters need at higher levels. Honestly, the logical inherent power I'd envision for blasters would be som inherent un-enhanchable Ranged Defense.
Range is not defense when your enemies have longer range than you and no melee attacks anyway. Like a lot of the enemies in the higher levels. A simple dash of Ranged Defense would reward blasters for playing into the "Ranged Specialist" role.
[*]I agreed with the overall idea of the Global Defense changes. Hell, I was jubelant when I saw the liist of changes. I mostly play Invuln tankers and I KNOW how overpowered they are. My main (lvl42 Inv/Axe) has been stuck at lvl42 for a long time simply becasue things started getting a bit tedious during normal missions. Fights were either "I'm undefeatable" or "Lots of Psi... oh I'm dead" (was stuck for ages with the Psi Clock King mission trying to get a team).
I fully agree with the overall goal of lowering our overall survivability. Understand that. most of the Invuln tankers complaingin about I5 do agree with this. Please do not lump us in with the people who complain becasue they aren't *litterally* Inulnerable anymore.
The problem is that the difference for me from I4 to I5 is this:
I5: Overpowered but fun. (Sorta godmode fun, but still fun)
I4: Overpowered but irritating.
We're STILL overpowered in my book. It's just not fun anymore. You took a set that most of all considered a Resistance-based set and turned into a Defesne-based set.
Perhaps your vision was this all along: The Invulnerablitiy was Defense-based. But gee, wouldn't it have been nice to inform us of this a year ago?
I like playing big strong guys that like to hit things. It's not complicated. I'm not after unbeatable Hulk/Superman powerlevels and playstyle. I just want a hero that stands there, gets hit hard and then hits hard back.
This was perfactly emulated by Invulnerability (allthough a bit overpowered). So that's why I made most of my heroes Invuln. Now a year later you tell me that I have jsut mis-percived the set and that it's supposed to be a set that I would probably not have played at all?
You've taken away the set that fit about 90% of the hero/villain concepts i want to play and not given me a viable option instead.
I could understand this change if you'd simply concluded that Resistance as a whole was overpowered, but then I look at Fire Armour, Stone Armour (with GA), Dark Armour and Kheld Dwarfs and see them having EXACTLY the playstyle and feel I wanted for my heroes all along.
A lot of people have been complaining that there's no way to play a punchy hero ala Cap America without either pink glowing fists or darkness powers. Now you've made that situation true for TAKING hits as well. You can't be a tought guy that shrugs off hits without beign on fire, wrapped in rock, use darkness powers or turn into an alien.
Please, give me back my heroes. I dont' care about power levels. I just don't want to rely on Invincibility for my survival. We never liked this power. We never wanted it. We wanted RESISTANCE. Invincibility was, and is, what makes Invuln overpowered. And most of us don't even want it. So please, can you cut this down and give us back resistance?
At first, when I tested I5 on test...I didn't find too much of a problem. There were some changes...and some good things: I found myself using all my powers, or more of them.
I found a few powers i was disappointed in....and Ice Slick duration cut to 30 seconds just irked me. I didn't know why at first....
I felt that I5 would bring "challenge back" to the game and hoped the changes would overcome the nerfs to controllers. (Me being an Ice/Storm/Ice.)
Recently, i've been playing my Grav/FF through Croatoa to see the new content...and you know what ? I find playing low level controllers VERY VERY hard now.
We all know gravity has probably the worst controlling set there is....but the absolute gutting of the AE hold was rediculous. The gutting of the Wormhole as well. These powers take, what seems, 5 or 6 minutes to recharge and the effect SEEM to last 10 secs or so. I have them both slotted with ONE ACC and 3 Hold/Stun.
The length of time the hold/stun lasts is crazy...and the recharge. MY GOD....you know what i'm going to do with the respec given in issue 5 ? Take hasten VERY early now. I used to hold off on Hasten til around 28 or so...never could fit all my powers in and Stamina....but now, Hasten is becoming as much a need for me as Stamina.
The AE hold durations is rediculous too. I realized finally why my ice controller didn't notice these problems: He has 29 Hammi-Os. Slightly skewed vision of I5 when I played it.
As I play my Grav/FF moreso, I'm finding more nerfs. I recently played on Invinc with my pal....invinc missions are VERY HARD now. VERY HARD to hit the broad side of a BARN. You nerfed ACC in invincible missions !!! No wonder they are hard. Hard to stop something you can't touch!! This isn't challenging, it's frustrating.
Find different ways to create challenge....nerfing ACC is NOT the way to do it. Frequently, my AE holds in Invinc missions would miss 4/5 mobs. I'm serious, there were runs where I didn't hit ONE mob out of the pack....that's not just a bad luck streak...or the mobs I was fighting.
Pet nerfing: i'm glad we don't see 600 fire imps running around now.....and some of the extreme damage that Fire and Illusion could do needed toned down. However, Containment was a pitifully wrong idea. Now, i just open with Immobilize and start firing off my APP ice bolt. Let Jack run in....I kill things FAST. Who needs control ?
Containment is not a good idea for controllers, and I feel it will be nerfed. The AE hold/stun/sleep nerf was overdone....but SOMEWHAT needed. I understand that AE holds coming back in 30 seconds....kill held mobs....move to next group, AE hold, rinse and repeat is bad.
Nerfing the duration and recharge was not the way to go. I had to reslot so many of my powers, I had to drop some powers, previously 6 slotted, and pick up a useful power that didn't need a slot as I was outta slots. I lost Ice Storm (sad, as it fits my Ice theme) and L.Storm (as it's slow to do damage and not worth it now that Containment doesn't work on it.) I picked up Tornado (for the Stun and DEF debuff as much as the damage) and TP friend (cause I had no slots but needed a useful power.)
Now, I feel my controller is a slot hog. Ice Slick's duration is HORRIBLE. You have to continually recast ice slick before every 30 seconds....then shiver every 10 seconds.....tornado every 30 seconds.....and single hold the biggest baddies there are around.
The Ice Slick duration and recharge was unneccesary as some mobs are immune....and alot can shoot back thru Ice Slick...this was...I feel...one of the more unique powers of the game. Nerfing this power has really made me lose my desire to play the Ice Controller...and i'm a hardcore ice fan.
Also, the time limit on Hibernate is crazy. Stop balancing stuff for PvP. I LOVED that I could hibernate and become completely invincible. It fit my character's insanely strong heat absorbtion/ice powers. He could stand up to anything inside the Ice....but once out of it....he was a dead man 
Sure I got trapped in Hibernate before....but if you waited long enough, you could get out of trouble.
In PvP, I used Hibernate for when a spine immobed me....you use a Breakfree...you can move, but flight is still off due to a bug....I would hibernate and wait til the effect wore off. Or wait til Snow Storm wore off on me. If I was getting ganged up on, I could escape this way.
You don't know how many people on test (for I4) have made the mistake that I was hibernating and OUT of the game. They turned their backs, and more often than not I would teach them why that wasn't a good idea
Summary:
Interesting powers have become nerfed...like I mentioned, Ice Slick (no more multiples, and the upkeep is tedious) when it had it's drawbacks-- open up with Ice Slick in lvl 40 to 50 missions, alot of the time you won't survive the initial volley...Hibernate (time limit and recharge uppage.) Had to sacrifice some of my themed powers for SOMETHING I could use....breaking my "stay in ice theme for powers" idea.
Tediousness level brought up by having to re-upkeep a power. (I LOVE that pets are permanent though, bravo!!)
If it wasn't for my Hammi-Os, my ice controller would be alot worse off...and my alt Grav/FF controller is seriously feeling the heavy weight of these nerfs. The more and more I play my Grav/FF, the more I hate issue 5.
I understand what it was MEANT to do, but, you didn't do it. Challenge and tedium are two different things. Sony (EQ) could never differentiate between the 2....I hope you learn the difference.
Controllers are NO LONGER fun for me....and I was a DIEHARD Ice Controller. Watching the tidbits released from CoV....I see alot of the rehashing of powers we have here....it's disappointing....brutes having 4 powers? Ice/Fire/Earth/Invincible ? Sound familar ? They are all the tank primaries. Tanks need to get more powers added...and here CoV just copies their exact flaw....limited powers.
I hope I am wrong about CoV...but only time will tell.
As for Croatoa, Summary:
I've done the first 3 contacts....and the missions play all the same: kill 10 Fir Bolg...oh kill 10 Tuatha....go save the ghosts...find something out about the cabal. It pretty much is a set rythym i've found, going all the way thru to the Ghost Girl at the pond. VERY similar missions...and I blew thru them all in 2 consecutive nights, I know what I speak of.
I wanted to see the new content....but left it on heroic...easy for my Grav/FF. With containment I blew thru the kill 10 missions (pre-pet, mind you.) When I finally finished up with the Pond Girl (she won't give me anymore til 30) I really thought Croatoa was a rehash of previous junk-- i did BILLIONS of Fir Bolg missions and Tutha missions...and DIDN'T learn SQUAT from alot of them. Suddenly, one mission I piece together some info. Alot of busy work to get to the story in Croatoa.
It sets no new goals except the 30 Fir Bolg. The escort missions are pretty boring....you find the hostage...and walk them out the way you just came in.....pretty much eliminating the "exit" button and making it a tedious task to walk back to the zoneline again.
And again, it feels like an EQ zone....at least making the entrance to Croatoa through a portal...or some kind of other method could "set me in the mind" that i'm elsewhere.
The TF is short...which can be good...but, the Witches hat for killing her 10 times ? And the cave mission with spider webs.....enough cave missions. Enough recycling. We need new tilesets.
Powers summary:
New powers always good, we want more. ALOT more !!! Diversity is great !!!
Ok, I should shut up now. I had to get that all off my chest-- literally. I've been feeling the weight of I5 in the last few days very heavily. I think I need to take a break from CoH (I just came off an extended break...months long....so, no, i'm not "burned out"from overplay...it's to let the new rules sink in....and to come to terms with where COH is heading...which isn't good in my eyes.)
Not to drum up drama...I mean this in the sincerest form possible...i'm not a posting-drama-queen: I *HAVE* lost faith in the Devs. They are keeping us in the dark moreso now than ever before....and releasing band-aid patches to fix bullet holes.
PVP was a big disaster, go back to the drawing board...stop nerfing PVE for PVP.
Stop rehashing old stuff...new graphics/eye candy....new costumes....NEW CONTENT. Something to do other than Missions...or missions so diverse they don't feel like an old "enter warehouse mission." I've been waiting on 50 content since December. If it wasn't for CoV beta invites for staying on with CoH, i woulda (and did for a week til auto exemp came in) quit CoH. Only returning when you guys had added more content and stopped the "easy way out" of things.
Served Cold: 50 Ice/Storm/Ice
Gravaforce: 28 Gravity/FF
P.S.: Sorry, it needed said
***********EDIT*********forgot about Resistance Insps.
Oh yeah: Resistance Inspirations are NOT a solution. Unless you give us 3 pages of Inspirations to carry around.
Good example: I have Ice Armor...DEF based...but lower DEF than SR and Ice Tanks (at least I hope !!!)
When I was doing Hammi alot, *IF* I was detected by ANY monster thru my Steamy Mist......I was dead. One shotted. The ACC of those mobs WAY exceed my DEF....i have YET to be missed by a Monster/AV.
With even lower DEF than SR and Ice tanks....you can imagine how CRAPPY ice armor is for a controller. But, it fits my theme...so I have it.
It does me no good alot of the times....as an example...my friend, Elec/Energy...erm, and his APP is that line Personal Forcefield in it...is that force APP ? I dunno...anyway, he said when the monsters saw him in the Hive....he actually could take THREE hits before he died.
Needless to say that gives him time to pop heals, and run away. He has LESS resistance than an Earth Tank or Invuln tank, but he survived an UNSURVIVABLE mob just by having his APP armor up. He took 3 hits before he died....instead of my one hit. Again....I NEVER got missed by a monster in the Hive.
This is where the problem comes down to in DEF vs RES....so if you are looking to balance DEF and RES, Resistance inspirations are by FAR not the way to go. I need to pop one all the time IN CASE I might be seen in The Hive....and it's only 5% resistance...I need multiple ones to make a good difference. Needless to say they will run out fast that way.
Level 53: Arrows/Devices/Munitions Blaster
....and hopeless Science-Natzi.
How about an real reply in the so called dev-response threads? These have proven to be totally useless; devs hardly responded and if they did it was to make some silly comment on a minor issue.
People have spent a lot of time testing and making intelligent posts about what they feel about I5. This has gone totally ignored. Just a (short) reply about the big issues would have been enough.
People have mentioned Phase Shift in this thread; just confess this change was 99% due to PvP issues and admit the PvE "issues" were pulled out of thin air (or somewhere else, where the sun don't shine).
When I "sold" this game to friends one of my arguments was "the devs actually actively post on the boards and discuss with the player-base!". This has been proven to be wrong. This is an argument I will never ever use again.
Oh, another thing that needs mentioning: the new spacing of spawns in missions isn't much better than what we had before and is actually worse in a number of spots. On a team of three, we were facing 30 Nemesis all bunched up together in one half of a room. For the most part, it seems like any kind of intersection (T, L, trapezoid, fourway, etc.) will have spawns far too close together.
This may also be related to the horrible bug with ambushes. When duoing, a friend and I faced TWO ambushes after I accepted a mission. One right on top of the other and both quite large.
Tonight, I did my Aura mission SOLO and got ambushed by 3 Freak Lieutenants and 6 Minions (all +1 to me). I BARELY survived the alpha strike. If I had been standing still when they appeared, I would have died without any chance to return fire. Then, when the Rikti ambushed me, there were too many to count. I had to run into the train station, firing as I went, but there were too many for the Police Drones, as well.
Those are two big problems that really need to be taken care of.
You know, Statesman, releasing your product to your servers in a stable manner is your job and has nothing to do with the test server or people who played on the test server.
As for the release, yes, it was the smoothest release your team has done, the servers crashed very little, and uptime was around 90% as compared to about 40% with previous releases. This is a great improvment.
Now, as far as the content of I5, it's quite stinky, but you weren't gloating about that one.
You see, there "were" good power sets that people loved to play, and there were not so good powersets that people wanted improved, and like some sick implementation of "Harrison Bergeron" you gutted the great powers and did nothing with the weaker sets.
I guess if you've a vision of balance, that is one way of implementing it; and quite like Vonnegut had suggested, it does lead to balance, but not to happiness.
Honestly, you guys need more professional help in regard to game balance design.
Not that you aren't trying...
but grats on releasing I5, after all, that is what you were talking about.
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First, a big thank you to everyone who played on the Training Room server and helped I5 to be one of our best launches ever! Were extremely happy about how I5 went live.
Second, were still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues, but weve finished making large changes to the power sets. Well still be looking at issues as the arise. For instance, there are issues with Defense builds; were going to look at that problem more carefully (the Damage Resistance Inspirations are a step, but there's a little more to come).
Thanks for all your great feedback!
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Personally, I5 has made the game less fun for me to play.
I believe the damage resistance inspirations are yet another bandaid to try and ignore the real issues.
After having read your posts during I5 I believe that you ignored all of the feedback except those that supported your vision.
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Second, were still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues, but weve finished making large changes to the power sets. Well still be looking at issues as the arise.
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Will you be looking just at bugs, or are there other powers across all ATs that you're still unhappy with? My wife quit CoH because she got tired of the constant tweaking of her Scrapper. She just got to a point where she didn't even feel safe with what powers to pick or how to slot them for fear that you'd change something else.
I know MMOs are constantly evolving, but there's gotta be a point when powersets are finally fleshed out and no more changes are needed.
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For instance, there are issues with Defense builds; were going to look at that problem more carefully (the Damage Resistance Inspirations are a step, but there's a little more to come).
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So that means Invulnerability is being looked at, right? After all, it's more a DEF set now.
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Second, were still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues,
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Or, you could actually read the bug reports those of us who actually filed them on test submitted. I repeatedly bugged the broken ghost ship on test for more than a month, but look - it went live that way.
But eh... why bother?
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For instance, there are issues with Defense builds; were going to look at that problem more carefully (the Damage Resistance Inspirations are a step, but there's a little more to come).
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So that means Invulnerability is being looked at, right? After all, it's more a DEF set now.
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I was so thinking that!
States, IMO you and the team did a FANTASTIC job with this issue. My blaster lives longer, my controller can actually solo, the debt is much more managable, Croatoa is AWESOME as are the fires in Steel. Sure, there were some technical hitches (I actually had to buy a new video card and upgrade my RAM to play post I5... and they're still patching to fix bugs), but in my opinion this was your best update yet.
Keep up the good work... I'll keep playin'!
Statesman,
I strongly dislike I5. Total Lockdown was the reason I played controllers, and the ability to take it on the chin no matter what was why I played Tankers.
For my controllers, the only really positive thing that came out of I5 for me was that containment made my Gravity Controller fun. She was kinda slow in her ability to kill (was level 32) in I4 but containment made snappy and zappy. I ditched all my AoE controls and maxed Crush, GD, Lift and Propel for damage, and quickly enjoyed her up to level 34 so far, more as a blaster. My other controllers, however, while passable with I5 respecs, are kinda lost to me. I used respecs to make them as efficient as I could but being pre-level 41 (fireball) but post 32, my Ice, Fire, and Earth controllers just don't get a lot of mileage from Containment and their control is reduced to the point of being situational instead of always available. They are too different. I feel like the original AT is lost. My Illusion Controller feels about the same as he did, except that Flash is pointless now when you consider the long animation time vs the short base duration. That's OK he gets to save 5 slots if he wants to. All in all, my controllers are totally different, and I don't enjoy them very much. The exception is Gravity Control. I also started a Mind Controller that is fun as a solo blaster too because of containment.
I'll still enjoy 2 of my 6 controllers, at least until Containment is Nerfed.
My tankers ... they aren't fun at all now. I played with them some but they just fail to feel tankish or elicit a smile anymore. My Ice/Super Strength Tanker in particular (level 24) was hit hard and I already viewed him as a weak underdog in I4. The only fun powers he has are his secondary powers at this point. My Invuln tanker can capture the old feel if I max smashing and lethal and tough hide and invincibility or defense and my elemental passives and unyielding and if I totally avoid any foes with any elemental attacks. Of course then I have 2 attacks. Maybe that was the point. Anyway, He is level 38 and I'm just not enjoying. Then again I mostly considered him retired even before I4 was announced. He was fun but I did what I set out to do with him.
At this point both my tankers are off for deletion after this post.
I like the Sonic Blast set. I hate the Archery Set. I Like the Trick Arrow set, it is decent. The Sonic Resonance set is a nice set though the graphics and sounds give me vertigo (same as Force Field Bubbles and Hurricane affect me, no biggie). The new zone is cool. None of it makes up for the total AT changes I was handed (IMO). Too bad.
I do appreciate the effort that went into I5, I understand some of the reasons the changes were made, I just cant say its as fun for me. I5 made the game smaller, less bold, and made the limits less fun to push. Things are more methodical or tedious now. I'm a cautious player so I always build for max defense, max control, max ability to survive, so obviously a paradigm shift to anti-defense was counter to my playstyle. Some people win, some lose. But again, I do appreciate the enthusiasm the devs have even if I dont agree with the direction.
Despite not liking Issue 5, I will continue to play and enjoy COH. It is still a fantastic game. For my money it still continues to be the best MMORPG on the market, because of the genre and the quality of most of the Staff. I look forward to more issues, and I know that the Developer experiences with COH will make COV a great game.
Lewis
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan
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Thanks States. Issue 5 has not been the doomsday that many said it would be and for that I'm thankful.
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You have to be kidding. Paragon is now a ghost town. My friends list is permantly gray.
Sorry but my Tank still hates I5. The Devs had well over a year to make the tanks "work as intended" and these new changes just seem pulled out of their butts. A few inspirations are not going to cut it. Many of us still feel betrayed.
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Thanks States. Issue 5 has not been the doomsday that many said it would be and for that I'm thankful.
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You have to be kidding. Paragon is now a ghost town. My friends list is permantly gray.
Sorry but my Tank still hates I5. The Devs had well over a year to make the tanks "work as intended" and these new changes just seem pulled out of their butts. A few inspirations are not going to cut it. Many of us still feel betrayed.
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DITTO
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...Second, were still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues, but weve finished making large changes to the power sets.
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Um, what about the concerns in the Trick Arrow thread that went ignored for over a month prior to I5 going live?
To sum up:
- Ungodly recharge timers to "fix" self-stacking is a ridiculous response. Make the powers not self-stackable, but actually usable every fight without requiring full recharge slotting and perma-Hasten. Address the self-stacking and revert the recharge times to their original state. It will not be broken then, I promise.
- This is a Defender set, and the to-hit rolls required on the debuff powers is uncalled for. Don't balance our powers as if we were blasters. Our primary function is debuffing, let us do it consistently. The debuffs with to-hit rolls that I have (so far) are Flash Arrow and Acid Arrow. No Defender debuff should require a to-hit roll, period. No other Defender set does.
I am also one of those players extremely dissatisfied with I5 (controller and tank changes specifically.) Though I have cancelled both of my accounts (yes you can post until your account date has been cancelled, try it) my hope is that future changes will encourage me to come back to a game that I once thought was the best out there.
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While I am happy with the performance of Tanker Invulnerability after level 18 (Invincibility), I am not happy with the feel of it. Fire Armor and Kheldian Dwarves have the Invulnerable feel, despite the fact that they both underperform Invulnerability, survival wise, in most situations.
This is due to the fact that Invulnerability has such low non-Smashing/Lethal resistance, and such high +def from Invincibility. When I play my Invuln Tanker in Croatoa against the Fir-Bolg, 90% of her survival comes from Invincibility and Dull Pain, which makes her feel like some kind of weird cross between Super Reflexes and Regeneration in style. It just doesn't feel right.
Invulnerability is one of the most famous of comic book powers. Invulnerable heroes gain the ability to take hits and shrug them off, not dodge or heal them. I really wish you would consider trading Invincibility effectiveness for more effective non-Smashing/Lethal resistance. If you feel we are at the right level of survivability, I don't see anything wrong with trading where that survivability comes from. It would also be nice to have slots in our passives provide something meaningful.
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Thanks liquid. This is exactly my point too. Please seriously consider re-balancing the res/def levels of invuln so it is less powerful than pre-I5 (that part is fine, Invuln is my favorite set far and away, but it was extremely powerful before), but that the passives are worth taking/slotting and Invinc is less over-powered and counter-intuitive to use. We should get hit often but take less damage (i.e. resistance over defense), not this odd dodge monster Invuln is nowadays. We have always been over-reliant on Invinc anyway, it would seem to make more sense to make us rely on our resists from 5 powers over just one power that is +defense.