OMG, OMG, OMG! 
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* Bug: All disorient powers cause enemies with flight to move away at rapid speeds, even while under its effects. Individual powers with this problem are noted within their sets below. I6 has made this less common, but it still does occur.
[/ QUOTE ]
Should be fixed.
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I've noted that it was when fighting Longbow Eagles on my SS/Dark Brute. They'd fly out of range to snipe me. I'd fly up to them and Jab them. They'd get stunned and fall to the ground, and I'd have to chase them again.
Ah, well...
Thanks for looking at this stuff, _Castle_.
With respect to the FF set, you mention that the final three powers are extremely situational by design. I'd be really curious to learn what the motivation is, there; do you guys consider the rest of the set dramatically overpowered, such that you felt it necessary to give FF'ers comparatively weak/useless top-tier powers?
Again, thanks.
So Defender Primary "controlling" powers being weaker than Controller's secondarys is by design?
that's quite possibly the longest post i've ever seen!
Wow - many, many thanks, Castle!
-- War
What about Sonic Buffs not giving protection to Assasin Strike.
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Trick Arrow as a set needs a bit of work. There are a few issues with making the desired changes at this time, but at some point in the future, we will be revisiting this set.
[/ QUOTE ]
"Revisiting" is a poor option when it was supposedly under ongoing monitoring as a new powerset. Please, in the future take the time to balance powersets *as released* before moving on to other powersets (possibly unbalanced themselves). Fix these old problems!
Umber's Hall of Heroes & Villains
If you need help replicating the hurricane repel bug I'm sure some of the stormers here would be glad to meet you on test to show it off.
Thanks for the massive review.
Zapping, 50 storm/elec
Rain King, 50 ice/storm
Ard, 50 NB/SR
The rest of my lineup
Justice, Freedom and Virtue Servers
www.repeat-offenders.net
Avatar by Altoholic_Monkey!
First of all, I'd like to say thank you for sparing your own free time to work on and look at these issues. I'm personally extremely grateful, and am sure that's a feeling shared by most defenders right now. I'm going to focus on some negative stuff, but before I do that, I do want to make it clear that I am VERY happy about things such as the series of fixes that have made it to the live servers so far, and changes such as the reduction to Archery endurance cost.
Just as general stuff...
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* Balance: Single target ressurection powers should not be expended and the associated endurance used unless the target accepts the resurrect. (LadyMage)
[/ QUOTE ]This is an odd one. Endurance is paid as part of the casting of the power, which is calculated before any attributes of that power take effect. So, the power system has to pay for the power to go off then the target gets to choose whether or not to accept the Rez attribute. We can't do this without a lot of changes to the system. Well, technically we could, but then you would not be able to slot for Endurance Reduction.
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That may be a more viable choice. Most players slot their rezzes for recharge at least slightly, while few slot for Endurance Reduction. Would this quick change be able to prevent the rez's recharge from activating?
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* Balance: Currently the last three powers in the FF set are highly situational and generate a great deal of aggro, all of which is drawn on to the least defended member of the team -- the FF Defender. (Telok)
[/ QUOTE ]Drawing Aggro only applies in Teams. If you are teaming, try to get someone with Taunt to be on your team. So long as you aren't hunting +4's, Taunt should last long enough to mitigate this. As far as situational, that is by design.
[/ QUOTE ]
Taunt powers suffer from a relatively low AoE cap. I'm not certain, but I believe this is at 5 enemies, and am sure it's under 10. However, Force Bubble can easily affect an entire spawn of enemies, and even well-timed use of Repulsion Field or Repulsion Bomb can do the same in bad situations. This makes the powers less than viable while in groups with enemies greater than the number that a single Tanker can taunt.
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* Quality of Life: Detention Field's graphic needs to be more obvious -- currently teammates can't tell when an enemy is detained and waste attacks on it. Are there any plans to either make the graphic more obvious, or to otherwise make it more difficult to waste attacks on a DF'd enemy?
[/ QUOTE ]This is something that is a good idea. In fact, it is on geko's whiteboard for "when we get to it." Since it is art time, getting something like this done is problematic -- the artists are overbooked already.
[/ QUOTE ]
Suggestion : as a short (or even long) term fix, grab the bubbles used by Wisp Overlords. While it would leave the power as not being visable against those opponents, this is a better solution than having no opponent being obviously DT Fielded.
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* PvP: Knockback suppressed players, or players with knockback resistance, can stand near a Repulsion Field for a long time without ill effect, draining the Defender of endurance.
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This is by design. It is to prevent Repel from locking enemies in a corner.
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I understand that the suppression is intentional, but could the endurance usage during suppression be looked at? Repel and similar powers have a lengthy (20 seconds) recharge time, and having to choose between losing 20 endurance or your primary protection against Stalkers after every knockback seems a bit extreme of a choice.
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* Bug: Hurricane, when used to push an enemy who is under the effects of a hold by another player, sometimes pulls or pushes the enemy in a different direction than intended. (Theory: Hurricane repels enemies Immobilized by another player as if that other player (caster of the Immob) were the origin of the Hurricane.)
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This is on my buglist, but I've not been able to reproduce it. In any case, it is almost certainly a code issue, which means until I get a reproducable case, it is problematic that it will be corrected.
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**working on producing a demorecord**
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* Bug: Flash Arrow gives a perception debuff. However, when the power is recast from within enemy's normal perception range, the Defender will be spotted, regardless of whether the second Flash arrow hits or misses, and regardless of how much time is left on the first Flash Arrow. (Voiced by Concern, several others)
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I wasn't able to reproduce this. Is it still happening?
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**working on producing a demorecord**
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* Bug: Acid Arrow's -resistance does not stack with itself. It is the only -resist power to do so. (Concern)
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Looking at the other -Resistance powers (Enervating Field, Sonic Siphon, etc) none of them stack with themselves. The only ones that do seem to stack are Sonic Attacks debuffs, which have very short durations.
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This may have changed without our knowledge, then. It's been known information for a while that, pre-ED, Tar Patch can and did regularly stack. Will attempt to test that power, but it's not exactly easy to find enough Kineticists.
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* PvP: Trick Arrow/Archery proves very ineffective in PvP, unable to kill a detoggled and unmoving Regen scrapper.
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Regen Scrappers are very difficult to kill for low damage characters. I *was* able to kill one, but it took several minutes, which is a highly unlikely "real"-world situation. This is a more general concern than just with Archery, but it is most visible here. No solution I can discuss, yet.
[/ QUOTE ]
Just as a general note : this was NOT an issue with Scrapper Regeneration. Another test with a Dark/Dark Defender showed it was possible to kill a stationary and detoggled Claws/Regen very quickly, and to kill an aware one (although not at reasonable speeds). This seems to be an issue with sets performing low damage in favor of a seperate aspect (accuracy, endurance drain) and those without permable debuffs.
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* PvP: Entangling Arrow does not prevent people from jumping (Concern)
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I was unable to reproduce this.
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To state it more clearly : Entangling Arrow has no -jump feature against targets who are protected from the immoblize. Web Grenade does have this aspect. Given that *many* Trick Arrow powers can be jumped/flown out of, permable debuffs regarding -jump seem necessary to the powerset in PvP.
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* Bug: Some defenders have gotten 'trapped' in the Voltaic Sentinel summoning animation, and could not use other powers until Voltaic Sentinel recharged and was cast again. (Reema)
[/ QUOTE ]I put this in the bug database, but I've not been able to reproduce it.
[/ QUOTE ]
Bugged fixed at the same time that it was for Tar Patch, sorry for not updating the issue in time.
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While few enemies are especially vunlerable to Mental attacks, comparatively few have defense against it, either.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's not very true of the 40-50 game. Taken from Guide to Villain Resistance :
[ QUOTE ]
Psy vs. Nemesis humans: 100% (includes Fake Nemesis)
Psy vs. Nemesis robots: 50% (includes Warhulks)
Psy vs. Crey humans: 100%
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Carnival Women: 80%
Carnival Brutes: 80%
Rikti Unarmored: 100%
Rikti Armored Non-Psi: 100%
Rikti Armored Psi (Chief Mezmerist, What Not): 70%
Rikti Drones: 70%
Knives of Artemis: 100%
Malta Soldiers: 100%
Malta Titans: 40%
[/ QUOTE ]
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Crey, Armored: Psi 100%
Rularuu Eyes/Natterlings: Psi 100%
Rularuu Wisps: Psi 80%
Rularuu Brutes: Psi 100%
[/ QUOTE ]
This is a sizable portion of the end-game enemies who actively resist psychic damage, it's also ignoring powersets like Paragon Protetor Moment of Glory (still giving positional or base defense, it seems). Given how significantly changed this balance mechanism changes in the endgame, should it be rethought?
[ QUOTE ]
Actually, the math shows Controllers being slightly more effective with this power compared to Defenders. Since it is a Control power, that is by Design.
[/ QUOTE ]
Many Defender primary powers have Control as their primary or sole function. I was under the impression that secondary powers should not equal or outperform primary powers. That seems to be in direct contradiction with your analysis of Detention Field and Thunder Clap. Can a debuff or buff be added to these powers to at least give some balance toward the defender edge of the mechanism?
Whoops! 
Nearly forgot to add a thanks for taking your time to look at this large list of stuff. It's much appreciated 
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* Bug: Petrfying Gaze power description and combat messages suggest that the power reduces the targets defense, which does not happen. (Dysmal)
This is apparently fixed.
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Yeah, it was fixed when they removed the defense debuff from the combat text, the short help, and the long description...
About Black Hole, the power everyone loves to hate:
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It's a very situational power. It can take an cause havoc on enemy teams unprepared for it -- imagine a group of 6 who suddenly don't have a Tanker and a Defender. It becomes a 6 on 4 battle, assuming equal sides. Basically, if your team is aware of it and works it into a strategy, it can be effective.
[/ QUOTE ]
For 7 seconds (in PvP, it's 15 for PvE)...about half of which you spend in the animation. Not to mention that the immobilize is incredibly easy to resist in PvP. Phasing a tank is great until you realize he's following you around with KO blow on autofire, waiting to unphase and beat the crap out of you.
And when can we get the name of "Intangibility Duration Enhancements" changed? People are thinking that they actually enhance intangibility duration. Can we get the magnitude of these powers a bit more clear-cut, too? Nobody even knows they have magnitudes until they fail at phasing something. Also, when you fail at phasing something, it turns invisible. I brought a lot of this stuff up a little over a year ago in my frequently-necro'd post "Black Hole is Still Broken..."
I believe the best suggestion I've heard for the power is to just take it out of Dark Miasma and replace it with nothing. Dark Miasma would have only 8 powers, and people couldn't mistakenly take Black Hole any more.
[ QUOTE ]
Looking at the other -Resistance powers (Enervating Field, Sonic Siphon, etc) none of them stack with themselves. The only ones that do seem to stack are Sonic Attacks debuffs, which have very short durations.
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Tar Patch stacks with itself from the same caster, as does Freezing Rain. This is probably because both of them are targetted drops, thus dissociating themselves from the user and ignoring the whole not-stacking deal.
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Trick Arrow as a set needs a bit of work. There are a few issues with making the desired changes at this time, but at some point in the future, we will be revisiting this set.
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I'm sorry to hear that this is coming later than sooner, but at least we know it's coming eventually.
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I did a pass on all the End Costs of the Archery Powers and reduced the cost of Snap Shot, Aimed Shot, Fistful of Arrows and Blazing Arrow.
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Hurrah!
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This may have changed without our knowledge, then. It's been known information for a while that, pre-ED, Tar Patch can and did regularly stack. Will attempt to test that power, but it's not exactly easy to find enough Kineticists.
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Ah! Tar Patch is an exception. Well, no, it isn't but it's tricky. A single Tar Patch will not have the Debuff stick with itself. However, multiple Tar Patches, even from the same caster, will stack with one another. This is because each Tar Patch is actually a seperate "source" from the caster, and buffs from multiple sources stack.
and Defenders complained they get no attention by the Devs
This space is intentionally left blank.
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* Bug: When an attack misses its target, aggro is generated when the attack begins. This is problematic when using a power with a long activation time (such as Ice Arrow); aggro is generated and you are subject to "return" fire before the attack is actually launched. The character is rooted in place until the animation finishes. (If the attack actually hits, no aggro is generated until the attack lands; this is when a miss should generate aggro as well). This bug is not limited to the Trick Arrow set, but impacts the set more than others due to its many powers with long animation times. (Concern, Goofy_Parrot)
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This is the way the combat engine works. Fixing this would require rewriting the whole thing. This is not likely to change.
[/ QUOTE ]
There is a way to create long-animation time attacks that don't immediately draw aggro: snipes. Snipes are two-phased attacks that begin with a prelude animation, and then a triggering animation - aggro isn't generated until the snipe actually "fires." Is it possible to consider taking the longest animation times attacks, and convert them essentially into uninterruptible snipes, to defer aggro until deeper into the animation sequence?
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* PvP: Darkest Night debuffs base damage rather than enhanced damage, crippling it in PvP. A power that does a 100 base damage would do 195 with 3 damage SOs. With Darkest Night, the damage would be debuffed to 145, which is a reduction of only 25.6% instead of 37.5% or 50.0%. (LastHumanSoldier, wording by Quason, corrected by WhatRoughBeast, i6 information found by Blueeyed and KaliMagdalene)
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All Buffs and Debuffs throughout the game are applied to the Base effect, not the Enhanced Effect.
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I'm not sure that is 100% true: it seems things like damage debuffs are the exception, not the rule. Or rather, it seems most debuffs don't really modify *either*. For example, a defense debuff doesn't debuff the *base* defense of your defense powers - or really the *enhanced* values either - its a straight percentage point reduction (i.e. -10% defense debuff subtracts ten percentage points from defense regardless of what your current defense is, or how they are enhanced). You could argue that a defense debuff is "subtracting from base defense" or something like that, but that appears to be a distinction without a difference.
In any case, an interesting question is whether this is intended or not, separate from whether or not its easily correctable. There is an interesting inconsistency with regard to damage debuffs and enhancements: attack powers can be enhanced to essentially nullify damage debuffs, but damage debuffs can't be enhanced. I understand that damage debuffs are potentially the most dangerous debuffs to allow to be enhanced - because it can lead to someone being debuffed to zero damage - but if damage debuffs are only going to affect base damage, and that can't be fixed, perhaps the time has come to reexamine enhancing damage debuffs, possibly with a low maximum damage debuff cap (75%?).
[Guide to Defense] [Scrapper Secondaries Comparison] [Archetype Popularity Analysis]
In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile...
(Please support the best webcomic about a cosmic universal realignment by impaired angelic interference resulting in identity crisis angst. Or I release the pigmy water thieves.)
Awesome response, Castle. I wish Cryptic would do a "clean out the closets" Issue where all these "not important enough to fix right now" issues would be fixed, but at least you're aware of them. But there's something specific that needs your reconisderation ASAP:
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* Bug: When Transfusion is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, there is no heal, though the animation fires. However, if Twilight Grasp goes off on a dying enemy, it heals the recipients. There are also reports of the same issue occuring if the enemy moves out of Line of Sight during Tranfusion's animation time. (Rigel_Kent adds: To be more technical, this seems to be a problem with all AoE effects generated around the single target of a power. Illusion Control->Blind's AoE mez effect also has this problem; if the Blind damage defeats the target, the AoE mez will not happen. AoE's generated around the user don't have this problem.)
[/ QUOTE ]
I'll put this on the bug list. I think it takes animation time. See above for problems with that.
[/ QUOTE ]
I want to emphasize just how much of a problem this is for Kinetics users (and others). It means several of the key powers in the set fail a significant percentage of the time, even after we selected a valid target, spent the endurance, went through the animation, and succeeded on an accuracy check! I'm not sure any other set has power bugs this blatant and common.
This is a huge but ignored problem, and it needs to be pushed to the top of the list for the art department (if indeed this is an animation issue, which seems kind of odd to me -- please look into it further). Also, I don't understand how this wasn't already on the bug list. I first /bugged it a year ago and several times since, and I'm certain many other bug reports on it were filed long before that.
Well.. look slike there's no reason to pick up my storm defender again.
First off, thank you very much for looking into all of this for us. Even for things that can't or won't be fixed to our satisfaction, the fact that you invested substantial time and effort into investigating the issue means a lot.
Now, a few specific responses...
Trick Arrow
[ QUOTE ]
* Bug: Flash Arrow's -accuracy does not stack with itself. (Concern)
Correct, it does not. It is functionally the same power as Controller/Smoke and works identically to that power in terms of effect.
[/ QUOTE ]
Except that Smoke--a primary power, like Flash Arrow--is autohit. Ahem.
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* Balance: Entangling Arrow, a Defender primary power, is less effective than Devices/Web Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.
Known issue. The original version of Entangling Arrow was funtionally identical to Web Grenade. This gave the set too many stacking slow abilities. This is one power in the Trick Arrow set that we are looking at improving at some point in the future.
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I'm glad to hear this will be revisited. It nags at me every time I look at my little TA/A defender. The idea that TA would have too many stackable -recharges with the original version is a bit laughable with the current state of the set. With the insane recharge on Glue Arrow, the only -recharge available in most fights is Ice Arrow...and I think the -recharge was reduced on it, along with its duration. Hopefully, this will be addressed when the set gets revamped.
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* Balance: Entangling Arrow and Ice Arrow have 25% longer durations as Controller secondaries than as Defender primaries. (Rigel_Kent, Concern)
As they should. Controllers are better at control type powers. The point you want to make here is that a Controller Secondary power is outperforming a Defender Primary power. We are aware of that and want to correct it at some point in the future.
[/ QUOTE ]
In principle, I have no objection to controller secondary powers having stronger control components than the defender primary version. However, the defender version should get some effect that makes it functionally superior to the controller version, and it takes a lot of debuff to outweigh better control. Please keep this in mind when the set gets revisited. (Aside: Petrifying Gaze in the Dark Miasma set suffers even more from this--it's a primary power, weaker than any controller hold, and has no secondary effect or bonus associated with it at all, making it the least effective hold in the game.)
[ QUOTE ]
* Power Description: Poison Gas Arrow's description is not very clear, making many people believe the 'choking effect' is a hold, instead of the current implementation, which is a sleep. (Concern)
Cleaned up the text a bit.
[/ QUOTE ]
Can you share with us just what the chances of the sleep taking effect are? I've only seen a handful of minions affected by it, ever. It's certainly not anything you can count on--I'd rather see a minor, but reliable, debuff added to the power. A -Regen debuff would make sense, perhaps.
Archery
[ QUOTE ]
* Balance: Archery seems underpowered in groups due to lack of enemy debuff.
* Balance: Archery seems underpowered in solo due to low base damage compared to other sets, largely due to animation times and reliance on lethal damage.
Archery has long animations so that it looksas good as possible while trying to keep the set playable.
I did a pass on all the End Costs of the Archery Powers and reduced the cost of Snap Shot, Aimed Shot, Fistful of Arrows and Blazing Arrow.
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Thank you! Thank you so much for this--I agitated for this fix back before TA even went live, and had begun to despair of ever seeing it.
The Way of the Corruptor (Arc ID 49834): Hey villains! Do something for yourself for a change--like twisting the elements to your will. All that's standing in your way are a few secret societies...and Champions of the four elements.
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What about Sonic Buffs not giving protection to Assasin Strike.
[/ QUOTE ]
just a quick note.
Assassin's strike is made of two damage portions.
The base damage is a 2.7778 BI attack and IS resistable.
The special damage is a 16.6667 BI attack and IS NOT resistable.
if you have 50% resistance to lethal and a ninja stalker uses AS on you, this is what happens.
(2.7778*0.5)= 1.3888 + 16.6667 = 18.0555 BI
The full attack would normally be 19.444.
That is why it appears to do nothing.
Level 50 is a journey, not a destination.
▲Scrapper Issues List - Going Rogue Edition▲
Thank you very, very much for looking at these things Castle!
I do have a concern though; more of a rant, really.
In my opinion, there is no way a secondary set of any AT should outperform ANY aspect of a primary of mine, even if their main focus is 'controlling.' It's a secondary powerset -- by default it should not be as good in any aspect as someone's elses primary.
Again, thanks for looking at it for us! We all appreciate it, I'm sure!
-River
Castle: the Hurricane bug is easy to reproduce if you approach a spawn with a controller and have him/her stay pat while you fly behind the enemy spawn while stealthed, then have the controller mass immob the spawn from the other side, and turn on hurricane and rush the spawn from behind.
Hurricane will push the mobs in the opposite direction of the way it's supposed to be repelling them. As if the repulsion were being generated from the side that the controller is standing on, not the side that you're on.
This bug ruins my "Hurricane Flank" maneuver (wherein I sneak behind the spawn and use hurricane to push them INTO my team instead of away and possibly into another spawn and aggroing them too) on teams with controllers on 'em.
If you hit them from the side, you'll also see them pushed in the direction that the controller's facing rather than the one you are.
Arc Salvo: Okay hold one sec guys, we can't just rush in blindly vs these Nemesis, they've got these ranged aoe's tha-
Teammate1(charging in): Shut up, Arc Salvo, you lame*$% Viewtiful Joe wannabe! What do you know?!
Teammate2(also charging): yeah, ST#& arc salvo u PWR RANGR U!
Arc Salvo: *sigh*
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* Quality of Life: Currently all powers that prevent status effects last between 60 and 90 seconds, making them impractical for team buffing. Is this intended?
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. Things like Clarity and Clear Mind are meant to be used on players as a cure or quick preventative measure for status effects. Maintaining the buff on a full team is not the goal of these powers.
[ QUOTE ]
* Balance: Clear mind's animation (4 seconds) makes prebuffing a large team prohibitive, and using it as a release deadly. (LadyMage)
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See note above.
[/ QUOTE ]
Now hang on a second. I may be misinterpreting which note that's referring to, but both of these drawbacks can't fit into the same design.
I have a level 50 empath, and my experience with Clear Mind is quite consistent - using it to cure a mezzed teammate during a hot fight generally gets someone killed because I'm stuck in a 4 second animation. I usually just buff before fights and hope it doesn't run out.
The power should either have a fast animation and short duration for use on demand (increase density) or have a slower animation and be used between fights to provide a lasting buff. The buff duration and recharge should dictate whether the buff is usable in combat - giving it a 4 second animation practically eliminates the option.
Anyway, I appreciate all the hard work you've done.
Just a general note about the hurricane bug. I'm trying to get a good /demorecord of it, but it works with Earth Control's Hold all the time (when the control is used by another player), but not all the time with Fire Control. The -knockback debuff?
Post deleted by me!
The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
I am absolutely flabbergasted that anybody can say with a straight face that the Defender versions of Repulsion Bomb and Force Bolt doing more damage than the Controller version is any way whatsoever a balancing feature. The damage on both is utterly negligible, and nobody with any experience with the set whatsoever pays the slightest attention to the "damage" of these powers. The *meaningful* effects of both are either identical between Controllers and Defenders or weighted towards Controllers (better mez from RB). This means that we have two powers which are as effective or more effective as secondaries than they are as primaries. Same with Force Bubble and Detention Field. The only powers in the entire FF set for which an FF Defender has any *meaningful* advantage over an FF Controller are the +DEF powers. So what happened to "Primary" > "Secondary"?
First, a quick note. Many things I refer to as 'fixed' in this post may be fixed only in I7. It's taken me long enough to go through this list, that I honestly don't know which fixes are in which builds.
[ QUOTE ]
* Bug: All disorient powers cause enemies with flight to move away at rapid speeds, even while under its effects. Individual powers with this problem are noted within their sets below. I6 has made this less common, but it still does occur.
[/ QUOTE ]
Should be fixed.
[ QUOTE ]
* Bug: When an attack misses its target, aggro is generated when the attack begins. This is problematic when using a power with a long activation time (such as Ice Arrow); aggro is generated and you are subject to "return" fire before the attack is actually launched. The character is rooted in place until the animation finishes. (If the attack actually hits, no aggro is generated until the attack lands; this is when a miss should generate aggro as well). This bug is not limited to the Trick Arrow set, but impacts the set more than others due to its many powers with long animation times. (Concern, Goofy_Parrot)
[/ QUOTE ]
This is the way the combat engine works. Fixing this would require rewriting the whole thing. This is not likely to change.
[ QUOTE ]
* Bug: If the enemy walks well outside the original cone of the power after it's activated, then the cone won't hit. I've been able to reproduce it a lot with enemies that are walking right past me, causing me to turn about 180 degrees during the animation. (MrQuizzles)
[/ QUOTE ]
Fixed.
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* Bug: Power Build Up from the Energy Mastery APP does not appear to effect many powers in the Storm, Dark, and Kinetics primary sets. (MagPie)
[/ QUOTE ]
This should be resolved.
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* Balance: Single target ressurection powers should not be expended and the associated endurance used unless the target accepts the resurrect. (LadyMage)
[/ QUOTE ]
This is an odd one. Endurance is paid as part of the casting of the power, which is calculated before any attributes of that power take effect. So, the power system has to pay for the power to go off then the target gets to choose whether or not to accept the Rez attribute. We can't do this without a lot of changes to the system. Well, technically we could, but then you would not be able to slot for Endurance Reduction.
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* Quality of Life: Now that rez effects give XP debt protection, is it possible to rethink the rez confirmation process? This can be removed entirely, or made an option, as with team gifts and team teleports. (Rigel_Kent)
[/ QUOTE ]
It's going to have to remain as it is for now.
[ QUOTE ]
* Quality of Life: Currently all powers that prevent status effects last between 60 and 90 seconds, making them impractical for team buffing. Is this intended?
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. Things like Clarity and Clear Mind are meant to be used on players as a cure or quick preventative measure for status effects. Maintaining the buff on a full team is not the goal of these powers.
[ QUOTE ]
* PvP: Slows and -recharge from Lingering Radiation and Snow Storm have been shown to be resistable in PvP. Conflicting evidence suggests that defense debuffs may be resisted in PvP, as well. Aren't defender debuffs supposed to be unresistable?
[/ QUOTE ]
Looking at the power, your observation is correct. It seems to be by design, though I've added it to my list of things to be reviewed.
[ QUOTE ]
Primaries:
Dark Miasma
[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
* Bug: Petrfying Gaze power description and combat messages suggest that the power reduces the targets defense, which does not happen. (Dysmal)
[/ QUOTE ]
This is apparently fixed.
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* PvP: Darkest Night debuffs base damage rather than enhanced damage, crippling it in PvP. A power that does a 100 base damage would do 195 with 3 damage SOs. With Darkest Night, the damage would be debuffed to 145, which is a reduction of only 25.6% instead of 37.5% or 50.0%. (LastHumanSoldier, wording by Quason, corrected by WhatRoughBeast, i6 information found by Blueeyed and KaliMagdalene)
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All Buffs and Debuffs throughout the game are applied to the Base effect, not the Enhanced Effect.
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* PvP: Darkest Night is debuffing 50% of base damage, as opposed to the 37.5% it debuffs in PvE.
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Yep. Handy, no? In other words, by design.
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* PvP: Using Black Hole is effectively the same as giving your enemy phase shift for a few seconds if he or she has any immobilization protection or break frees. Given the short duration, high endurance cost, and long recharge, why is this power so weak?
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It's a very situational power. It can take an cause havoc on enemy teams unprepared for it -- imagine a group of 6 who suddenly don't have a Tanker and a Defender. It becomes a 6 on 4 battle, assuming equal sides. Basically, if your team is aware of it and works it into a strategy, it can be effective.
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Empathy
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* Bug: Absorb Pain inflicts the user with the inability to be healed, even if the target had been defeated before the power could go off. (Rigel_Kent)
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The two effects are only linked in the fiction of the power. In reality, each effect is put on its target (Healer for Self Damage, Heal for TargetPlayer) as soon as the power is 'paid for.' It probably won't change, since we would have to do some fairly major gymnastics with the powers system to get it to work properly.
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* Balance: Clear mind's animation (4 seconds) makes prebuffing a large team prohibitive, and using it as a release deadly. (LadyMage)
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See note above.
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Force Fields
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* Bug: Knockback enhancements have no apparent effect in knockback powers in some powers of the FF set and in other sets. The effect is very random. Are enhancements/powers working as intended?
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The amount of Knockback generated is modified by Level, Resistances and Rank of the Target. That said, there was a bug in the system which should now be resolved.
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* Bug: Detention Field's Immobilization effect is easily resisted. (Rigel_Kent)
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There isn't much that can be done about this.
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* Balance: Repulsion Bomb has an approximately two to three second animation time thus generally failing to save people from any melee attacks unless it is acitvated/chained before it is needed. (Telok)
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It's about 3 seconds (a tad over, actually.) That probably won't get changed. We made functionality changes to the power not too long ago, and reactions seemed very mixed about the results.
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* Balance: Currently the last three powers in the FF set are highly situational and generate a great deal of aggro, all of which is drawn on to the least defended member of the team -- the FF Defender. (Telok)
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Drawing Aggro only applies in Teams. If you are teaming, try to get someone with Taunt to be on your team. So long as you aren't hunting +4's, Taunt should last long enough to mitigate this. As far as situational, that is by design.
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* Balance: Force Bolt has the exact same effect for Controllers as Defenders.
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Not true. Defenders do slightly more damage, unless the controllers Containment is in effect. Knockback is not a Debuff, and Controllers have the same modifier as Defenders for this.
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* Balance: Detention Field has the exact same effect for Controllers as Defenders.
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Actually, the math shows Controllers being slightly more effective with this power compared to Defenders. Since it is a Control power, that is by Design.
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* Balance: Repulsion Field has the exact same effect for Controllers as Defenders.
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Knockback is not a Debuff, and Controllers have the same modifier as Defenders for this.
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* Balance: Force Bubble has the exact same effect for Controllers as Defenders.
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Knockback and Repel are not debuffs, and Controllers have the same modifier as Defenders for this.
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* Balance: Repulsion Bomb has the exact same effect for Controllers as Defenders.
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The knockback portion is the same. The Damage is higher for Defenders. The Stun lasts longer for Controllers.
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* Balance: Enhancement Diversification will leave Force Fielders with only three powers with effects generally considered worth slotting, totaling to 6 non-base slots. Is it part of 'The Vision' for Force Fielders to have more slots in a single Power Pool than in their primary?
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With ED, Force Field Defenders have a greater role in teaming than ever before. It is also arguable that they only have three powers worth slotting.
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* Balance: The ForceField powerset does one significant thing in battles - provide damage mitigation through defense buffs or knockback. Without any heals, debuffs, or secondary buffs, it should do this one thing remarkably well compared to other Defenders in all situations. ForceField Defenders should also not be obligated to take the Medicine Pool just to complete a normal team's Heroic mission. Both of these do not currently seem to be the case.
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No other Defender set provides the level of Defense as a Force Field Defender. The built in Status Protection is invaluable, especially with Scrapper and Tankers Status Protections reduced. Also, Defenders are more than Healers -- consider your 'Healing' the fact that your team is taking considerably less damage as a result of your protections. I do know that many of you will disagree with this, but short of rebuilding the powerset completely, it is not likely to change in the near future.
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* Graphics: The power icon for Detention Field does not match its effect. The icon suggests this power buffs an ally's resistance to energy and negative energy damage.
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Added to the bug list. We'll get to it, but it is low priority.
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* Quality of Life: Detention Field's graphic needs to be more obvious -- currently teammates can't tell when an enemy is detained and waste attacks on it. Are there any plans to either make the graphic more obvious, or to otherwise make it more difficult to waste attacks on a DF'd enemy?
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This is something that is a good idea. In fact, it is on geko's whiteboard for "when we get to it." Since it is art time, getting something like this done is problematic -- the artists are overbooked already.
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* PvP: Knockback suppressed players, or players with knockback resistance, can stand near a Repulsion Field for a long time without ill effect, draining the Defender of endurance.
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This is by design. It is to prevent Repel from locking enemies in a corner.
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Kinetics
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* Bug: When Transfusion is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, there is no heal, though the animation fires. However, if Twilight Grasp goes off on a dying enemy, it heals the recipients. There are also reports of the same issue occuring if the enemy moves out of Line of Sight during Tranfusion's animation time. (Rigel_Kent adds: To be more technical, this seems to be a problem with all AoE effects generated around the single target of a power. Illusion Control->Blind's AoE mez effect also has this problem; if the Blind damage defeats the target, the AoE mez will not happen. AoE's generated around the user don't have this problem.)
* Bug: When Transference is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, there is no endurance regained for those in the AOE, though the animation fires. (Dark Pyroblast)
* Bug: If Fulcrum Shift is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, you get the single 50% caster buff, but NOT the 25% effect from the dying mob OR any mobs around him. (Quason)
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I'll put this on the bug list. I think it takes animation time. See above for problems with that.
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* Bug: Fulcrum Shift and Siphon Power. If a mob has a resistance, or vulnerability, to a certain type of damage AND that mob has an attack that is based on that type of damage, the amount the damage will be debuffed is altered by the mobs resistance. For example -- a villain has a 25% vulnerability to energy attacks. His energy damage is debuffed an extra 25% beyond the base 25%, making the final debuff 31.25% (25% of 25 is 6.25). This works in reverse as well. A mob, such as Hamidon, with 90% resistance to all attack types would only be debuffed 2.5%. (Ladioss_Sopp)
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Hmm. Yeah, I can see that. It is not fixable without major changes, though.
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* Quality of Life: Inertial Reduction, when expiring in mid-air, will drop all players like rocks, causing falling damage. (MadScientist)
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A partial fix to this is coming in I7. Can't say much more than that.
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* PVP: Siphon Power and Fulcrum shift debuff base damage rather than enhanced damage, crippling them in PvP. A power with a base damage of 100 would do 195 damage with 3 SO damage enhancements. Using Siphon Power or Fulcrum Shift would only reduce this damage to 170, a decrease of 11.5% rather than 25%. (LastHumanSoldier, wording by Quason)
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See note above.
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Radiation Emission
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* Graphics: The power icons for Radiation Infection and Enervating Field are reversed. (Rigel_Kent)
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It's on the bug list (and has been for quite a while.)
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* Quality of Life : Neither Erratic nor the Defender community have been given an apology, formal or informal, for the Developer behavior regarding the I5 Enervating Field changes. (Concern, Blueeyed, et all)
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That was my mistake. Statesman asked me to look into it so I looked at the powers. The power itself did not change, so I told Statesman that and he then told you. When you folks pressed on the issue, I went back and found that the Archetype modifier had been reduced. I told States, and he passed it along to you guys.
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* PVP: Enervating Field debuffs base damage rather than enhanced damage, crippling it in PvP. A power with a base damage of 100 would do 195 damage with 3 SO damage enhancements. Using Evervating Field would only reduce this damage to 165, a decrease of 14.5% rather than 30%. (LastHumanSoldier, wording by Quason, corrected by WhatRoughBeast)
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See above note.
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Storm Summoning
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* Bug: Hurricane, when used to push an enemy who is under the effects of a hold by another player, sometimes pulls or pushes the enemy in a different direction than intended. (Theory: Hurricane repels enemies Immobilized by another player as if that other player (caster of the Immob) were the origin of the Hurricane.)
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This is on my buglist, but I've not been able to reproduce it. In any case, it is almost certainly a code issue, which means until I get a reproducable case, it is problematic that it will be corrected.
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* Bug: If another hero is under a Disorient effect but protected by 02 Boost, and I re-apply O2 Boost on that hero, the Disorient graphics appear over that hero's head for an instant. During that time, the hero is detoggled. (Rigel_Kent)
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This should be fixed.
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* Bug: Lightning Storm will target enemies under the effects of Dentention Field.
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Pet's aren't very smart. I've reported it to our AI guys, but I am uncertain if any change is forthcoming.
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* Balance: Snowstorm's recharge debuff is more effective for Controllers than Defenders. ( It appears the defender version is 80% as slowing as the controller version, seems they were reversed. Dark_Pyroblast)
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Controllers AT modifier for Slows is higher than Defenders. I'll talk to geko to make certain this is by design.
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* Balance: Freezing Rain provides a greater resistance debuff for Controllers than it does for Defenders. (Stormbringer, Dark_Pyroblast)
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This should have been fixed a while ago. Retest, please.
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* Balance: ThunderClap's disorient lasts the same duration for Controllers as it does for Defenders, and may crit.
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This should not be the case. The Disorient value is the same for both ATs and the Controller has a 1.25 modifier, while the Defender has a 1.00 modifier. Controllers Disorient should last a bit longer by default.
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* Balance: Tornado does the exact same damage and secondary effect for Controllers as it does for Defenders.
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Defenders should do slightly more damage with Tornado, while Controllers Disorient should last a bit longer. It sounds like a wash, but I'll run it by geko to see if we want to change this.
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* Balance: Lightning Storm does the exact same damage and secondary effect for Controllers as it does for Defenders.
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Fixing now.
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* Balance: The hero version of O2 Boost cancels its own buff, even though it does not grant +def or +damage resistance buffs. Its function and duration are similar to Clear Mind and Clarity, so it should be allowed to self-stack. The villian version of 02 Boost does self-stack, and is not overpowered for doing so.(Rigel_Kent)
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Fixing now.
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* PVP: Hurricane does not debuff the ranged attacks (APP, Claws/Focus) of Scrappers and Tankers as it should. (Stormbringer) It also debuffs the range of Blaster melee attacks to zero. (Soyuz)
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The current system is working as designed. We may eventually get code put in that more adequately handles Melee AT's with Ranged attacks and Ranged ATs using Melee attacks, but it is fairly low on the priority list.
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Trick Arrow
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* Bug: When keying up a TA or Archery power that targets an enemy while moving, if you land out of reach of that power (ie. too far away from your target), your character will perform an animation of drawing the bow, though without an arrow and the power will not trigger. Annoying since it locks you in place for the duration of the animation. No other set behaves like this to my knowledge. Keying powers outside of their range only readies them until you move into range for all other sets. (Eisregen)
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Known issue. It is on our bug list but requires a lot of animation work to fix. It's fairly low on the priority list.
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* Bug: Flash Arrow gives a perception debuff. However, when the power is recast from within enemy's normal perception range, the Defender will be spotted, regardless of whether the second Flash arrow hits or misses, and regardless of how much time is left on the first Flash Arrow. (Voiced by Concern, several others)
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I wasn't able to reproduce this. Is it still happening?
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* Bug: Flash Arrow's -accuracy does not stack with itself. (Concern)
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Correct, it does not. It is functionally the same power as Controller/Smoke and works identically to that power in terms of effect.
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* Bug: Acid Arrow's -resistance does not stack with itself. It is the only -resist power to do so. (Concern)
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Looking at the other -Resistance powers (Enervating Field, Sonic Siphon, etc) none of them stack with themselves. The only ones that do seem to stack are Sonic Attacks debuffs, which have very short durations.
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* Bug: Pets (such as Phantom Army) will often attack the Oil Slick target. (Concern)
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This *should* be fixed. Let me know if it is still happening.
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* Bug: Oil Slick causes knockBACK on underlings, making it hard to use the offensive aspect of the power on them. (Somberero)
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If the target is lower level than you, or if it has a weakness to knockback, then knockdown powers will knock the target backwards. Knockdown is a low magnitude Knockback.
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* Bug: Oil slick seems to have gotten a boost to defense. (Concern)
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I've removed the erroneous help data.
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* Balance: Entangling Arrow, a Defender primary power, is less effective than Devices/Web Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.
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Known issue. The original version of Entangling Arrow was funtionally identical to Web Grenade. This gave the set too many stacking slow abilities. This is one power in the Trick Arrow set that we are looking at improving at some point in the future.
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* Balance: Flash Arrow, a Defender primary power, is no more effective than Devices/Smoke Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set, and has a toHit roll.
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Smoke Grenade requires a To Hit check. Flash Arrow has a greater base range, can hit 60% more targets and has a greater To Hit debuff than Smoke Grenade.
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* Balance: As a general design issue, too many Trick Arrow powers have been balanced directly against similar Control powers. They are intentionally weaker than their Control counterparts. This makes it appropriate for a Controller secondary, but it underperforms as a primary in its own right. (Rigel_Kent)
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Trick Arrow as a set needs a bit of work. There are a few issues with making the desired changes at this time, but at some point in the future, we will be revisiting this set.
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* Balance: Entangling Arrow and Ice Arrow have 25% longer durations as Controller secondaries than as Defender primaries. (Rigel_Kent, Concern)
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As they should. Controllers are better at control type powers. The point you want to make here is that a Controller Secondary power is outperforming a Defender Primary power. We are aware of that and want to correct it at some point in the future.
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* Graphics: The area of effect for Acid Arrow does not match the animation graphic when firing at a normal sized target. Please fix the Area of Effect to match the graphic. (Concern)
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Filed as a bug for Art dept.
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* Graphics: Oil Slick's description says that it provides a defense debuff, however, there is no enemy graphic to indicate this. (Concern)
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The Defense Debuff was removed before the power went live. The referrence in the short help is a mistake.
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* Power Description: Poison Gas Arrow's description is not very clear, making many people believe the 'choking effect' is a hold, instead of the current implementation, which is a sleep. (Concern)
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Cleaned up the text a bit.
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* PvP: Trick Arrow/Archery proves very ineffective in PvP, unable to kill a detoggled and unmoving Regen scrapper.
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Regen Scrappers are very difficult to kill for low damage characters. I *was* able to kill one, but it took several minutes, which is a highly unlikely "real"-world situation. This is a more general concern than just with Archery, but it is most visible here. No solution I can discuss, yet.
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* PvP: Entangling Arrow does not prevent people from jumping (Concern)
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I was unable to reproduce this.
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Secondaries:
Archery
[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
* Bug: When keying up a TA or Archery power that targets an enemy while moving, if you land out of reach of that power (ie. too far away from your target), your character will perform an animation of drawing the bow, though without an arrow and the power will not trigger. Annoying since it locks you in place for the duration of the animation. No other set behaves like this to my knowledge. Keying powers outside of their range only readies them until you move into range for all other sets. (Eisregen)
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It's on the bug list, but very low priority.
[ QUOTE ]
* Balance: Archery seems underpowered in groups due to lack of enemy debuff.
* Balance: Archery seems underpowered in solo due to low base damage compared to other sets, largely due to animation times and reliance on lethal damage.
[/ QUOTE ]
Archery has long animations so that it looksas good as possible while trying to keep the set playable.
I did a pass on all the End Costs of the Archery Powers and reduced the cost of Snap Shot, Aimed Shot, Fistful of Arrows and Blazing Arrow.
[ QUOTE ]
Electrical Blast
[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
* Bug: Voltaic Sentinal does the same damage for Defenders as Blasters.
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Fixed.
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* Bug: Some defenders have gotten 'trapped' in the Voltaic Sentinel summoning animation, and could not use other powers until Voltaic Sentinel recharged and was cast again. (Reema)
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I put this in the bug database, but I've not been able to reproduce it.
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Psychic Blast
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[ QUOTE ]
* Balance: Mental Blast does little damage for its animation time. It costs more end, does the same damage, and has 150% of the animation time of charged bolts. It is 1/3 the dpa of Dark Blast for the same cost. Its animation time should be reduced significantly.(LadyMage)
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Charged Bolts is a bit over twice the Activation time of Dark Blast. Mental Blast is ~25% longer Activation Time than Charged Bolts. All do the same base damage. Mental Blast, however, does Psionic damage, which is among the hardest to defend against in the game. Mental Blast also has a 25% longer Max Range compared to the other two sets. Is this 100% balanced? Possibly not, but we don't want to simply make every power a complete clone of another.
[ QUOTE ]
* Balance: There is only one villian group which has vulnerabilities to psi damage and it's only in the early game when the set is weakest. By the time the set can actually do damage, most villian groups (nemesis, praetorians, Council, Carnies, Malta just to list a few) are not only not vulnerable, but have a high precentage of members with either sizable resists or defense to the entire set, save telekinetic blast, making the set feel underpowered throughout the game. (LadyMage)
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While few enemies are especially vunlerable to Mental attacks, comparatively few have defense against it, either.
[ QUOTE ]
* Graphics: An enemy immobilized by Subdue will have the Psychic Blast debuff sticky graphic on his head, complete with the generic green tinted -recharge cloud. Subdue does not appear to actually have any debuffing effect.
[/ QUOTE ]
I've bugged it, so it will get fixed at some point in the future. It is very low priority, however.