<blockquote> I know just a quick jaunt through the forums can suck up over an hour of my work day.
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Considering how Castle (and other developers) cull feedback from the forums, it would take up a good amount of their day anyway.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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I appreciate your candor, but at the same time, I'm not being a time thief as I'm done work... are you? 
j/k, but seriously.
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Yeah, I woke at 3am or so and was unable to go back to sleep -- a formula I was working on yesterday had "issues" and I figured out why and could not go back to sleep until I fixed it. So, I came in *REALLY* early. Now, I'm just killing time waiting for traffic to die down so I can go home and pass out.
Not all community types are "mouthpieces" -- and fortunately, we here at Paragon don't really have any like that. But, as I've said, I've worked with them before and it isn't pleasant.
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THIS, Castle, is what makes you cool. But I feel for you. I think it was Cassandra (I never remember for sure) who was doomed to foresee the future, but be powerless to stop it no matter whom she told.
If you truly love your work, so much that solving the problems and making it better can keep you up at night (or wake you very early), then the labor of love is a beautiful thing. The only problem is that there will always be people out there that will decry your work as wrong and evil. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
So take the praise where you can get it, and try to develop a thick skin for the criticism. If you truly love the game, and love trying to make it better-then you'll probably never please everyone. But you will please yourself through the effort of the attempt at making it better, and making yourself happy is one of the rare true joys in this world.
Keep at it. I personally like...oh, I'd say a good 80-90% of the changes you and the team have made since the dark days of Jack. Keep at it.
Basically too many 50's to count, but I'm generally a brute/scrapper/tank kind of guy.
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Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
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I think this should be in any game developers office as a motto
I don't think Castle, nor the other Devs, would be doing their jobs to the fullest of their abilities if they didn't keep track of threads and topics that pertain to their areas of the game. For one, we don't need our requests or gripes filtered through a representative. Things get lost in the translations, and neither side wins. There is also a lot of dead time, as projects that need to be dealt with by several departments get passed around, so it's not unreasonable for Castle, et al, to be on the forums during normal working hours, killing a few min while they wait for someone else to do their job.
Thanks for choosing to spend your downtime with us, Devs. The vast majority of us appreciate it, though some have a hard time admitting to it.
Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.
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I appreciate your candor, but at the same time, I'm not being a time thief as I'm done work... are you? j/k, but seriously.
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Yeah, I woke at 3am or so and was unable to go back to sleep -- a formula I was working on yesterday had "issues" and I figured out why and could not go back to sleep until I fixed it. So, I came in *REALLY* early. Now, I'm just killing time waiting for traffic to die down so I can go home and pass out.
Not all community types are "mouthpieces" -- and fortunately, we here at Paragon don't really have any like that. But, as I've said, I've worked with them before and it isn't pleasant.
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Had a similar thing happen to me this past week. Only to me it was Thursday afternoon. Friday had guests, code never left my head. Saturday went to visit wife friends in KY, code never left head. Get home Sunday, go toilet, and guess I pooped out the solution. At that point I was barely able to sleep thinking on getting to work next morning and implement that fix... only I had to go to the doctor first....
Grin of satisfaction when it worked without a single error once I sat down at the computer, though!
And people say we nerds don't know how to have fun.
(in all seriousness, I'm not making fun here)
Don't take me wrong, that was an amazing grill we had on friday with a load of Heinekens and some amazing Megruli Khachapuri (wife and friends are Georgian) eaten on saturday and sunday!
I came this close to going on about how awesome Ukranian folk music is. Gah. But yeah. I know that feeling - that intense satisfaction obtained from when things. just. work.
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When reality doesn't match the expected value people start to ask why. Admittedly not always in the nicest way 
Silence on the matter then butts heads against society's need for instant gratification and things start ugly and escalate from there.
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Honestly, I think this sums it all up.
Sometimes you have to sit down and think about it, though. Like realizing that Electric Assault had much higher damage and recharge times on its melee attacks than other Assault sets. Then you see that Electric Assault gets lower damage and faster recharge, and everyone else gets it the other way around, and it falls into place.
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this confuses me. I see the direction the melee attacks went for elec assault. Clearly a faster set now and it would have been doing close to blaster damage had it not been adjusted. Aim, bu, defiance says not that close, but perhaps too close for comfort.
Then I look at /eng and saw every attack was turned into a heavy hitter, even the tier 1 (which was later changed). I especially looked at new total focus which does hit harder than the blaster version.
At a glace it looks like /eng is the new /elec with thumping attacks and elec is fast and zippy. Not sure how I'd feel if I specifically rolled elec for its dpa and wasn't concerned with the longer recharges.
I know volt sentinel is a pet, but maybe its blasts should have been buffed up a bit too. Or was it:
a/ too good before and fine now
b/ fine before and is too weak now
c/ doesn't matter to anyone.
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Not sure about others but lowbie doms are GREAT! I basically just save my domination for full endurance bar for more killing = less down time.
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Just to play devil's advocate; do we all believe the changes were intended to make domination primarily and endurance management power?
Looking at domination's effects being +mag/+duration on outgoing mez, +mez protection, and endurance refill I can't help but think that endurance refill is intended to be the tertiary effect in terms of purpose and usefulness. Basically, just to ensure that you have ample endurance to take advantage of the main purpose of domination - being more powerful.
From what I've read and experienced now, the end bar refill is the MAIN purpose of domination now. I'd honestly be surprised if it is he intended design for such a dynamic and powerful inherent to be nothing more than a supped up version of vigilance.
Don't get me wrong +mag and mez protection are still awesome, but I find myself primarily using domination as an endurance tool. I would imagine it was originally designed (and still carries this intention) that it is supposed to be a "power up" for tougher encounters, when you need more kapow!
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At a glace it looks like /eng is the new /elec with thumping attacks and elec is fast and zippy. Not sure how I'd feel if I specifically rolled elec for its dpa and wasn't concerned with the longer recharges.
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The thing is Elec will now hit harder than it hit before unless you were perma dom.
Other than that, there is also the thing that Elec has extremely fast animations, and these were the ones that made Elec extreme damage, not the high recharge. Making Energy high recharge didnt turn it into "The New Elec" because it has rather slow animations that perpetually prevent it from being "The New Elec"
Guys? You REALLY just do NOT get it. ANY of it.
Suffice it to say if the changes make more happy then the changes accomplished their goal. After all? If you don't know what you missed out on then it really doesnt't matter. Does it?
A change that reduces the power of a very small minority and increases the power of a very large majority is generally considered a good change. I think it is you, Ditsy, who does not get it.
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A change that reduces the power of a very small minority and increases the power of a very large majority is generally considered a good change. I think it is you, Ditsy, who does not get it.
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/Electric doms were a small minority? Overall the changes did what Castle set out to do. Dom's have been brought into a fair equilibrium. High End performers were brought down a notch (or two) and low performers (lol energy) were brought up. So all the sets perform about as equally well. I don't begrudge electric and psi dom wincing though..we had a good thing going . The only odball I can't figure out is Ice. I think /Icey Assault really needs a review. The end cost seems very high for the damage its putting out. Hopefully that's something the team is looking into.
My level 50 Dominators:
Madame Mindbender 50 Mind/Energy
Fly Agaric 50 Plant/Thorn
Nate Nitro 50 Fire/Psi
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At a glace it looks like /eng is the new /elec with thumping attacks and elec is fast and zippy. Not sure how I'd feel if I specifically rolled elec for its dpa and wasn't concerned with the longer recharges.
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The thing is Elec will now hit harder than it hit before unless you were perma dom.
Other than that, there is also the thing that Elec has extremely fast animations, and these were the ones that made Elec extreme damage, not the high recharge. Making Energy high recharge didnt turn it into "The New Elec" because it has rather slow animations that perpetually prevent it from being "The New Elec"
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As a long time player of the game I doubt I'd play any build that isn't at least maximized a bit. 72% global recharge+hasten is child's play when it comes to IO'ing for an experienced player.
I'm glad if casuals are enjoying the set more, but ya, elec would definitely do less damage for me. I'm glad I never rolled one though it was next on my list, but I held off awaiting the dom changes. Happy about that decision.
Eng has slow animations?
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Eng Elec Fire Ice Psi Thorn
1 1 1 1 1.33 1.33
1.5 0.83 1.67 1.33 1.17 1.63
1.1 1.67 2.67 2.67 2.07 1.63
1.67 1.5 1.2 1 1.67 2.43
1.17 1.17 0.73 1.17 2.67 1.17
2.5 snipe 3 2.67 1.33 3
3.3 2.07 2.03 0.73 1.67 1.63
snipe 3.3 snipe 1.83 snipe 2.17
2 3.1 1 1.07 1.97 2
</pre><hr />
That's a slow set? It is almost identical to /elec
The thing that made /elec high damage compared to the other melee centric sets was entirely the high dpa based attacks which are a combination of them being relatively fast and having long recharges and thus higher DS.
If I want a set that has thumping melee I'll take /eng now. /elec needs buildup just to make TS hit as hard as TF.
From what I can see is that thunderstrike has been "adjusted" right into a position where it is entirely skippable. It has such a long animation that you can do more during that time. That was the case before as well, but not nearly by as much and with the longer rech on the old charged+havoc using TS still made a lot of sense.
I'd skip TS on an /elec dom, just like I ended up doing on my ice/elec blaster.
This is NOT the case for new Total Focus.
all well, everyone enjoy.
You may not notice it but there are two subtleties to it all:
1) 1.5 to 0.83 is a world of difference.
2) Energy is mostly ranged attacks that do 10.5% less damage than melee attacks.
As for Total Focus, it's 3.3 second cast time! That is snipe slow!
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Guys? You REALLY just do NOT get it. ANY of it.
Suffice it to say if the changes make more happy then the changes accomplished their goal. After all? If you don't know what you missed out on then it really doesnt't matter. Does it?
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How about you explain yourself/position without the vitrol and adolecent insults?
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You may not notice it but there are two subtleties to it all:
1) 1.5 to 0.83 is a world of difference.
2) Energy is mostly ranged attacks that do 10.5% less damage than melee attacks.
As for Total Focus, it's 3.3 second cast time! That is snipe slow!
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Last time I checked (which was today) havoc punch and bonesmasher are now identical damage for doms and both 1.5 sec just that /eng gets it at level 2 and /elec gets it at lvl 10.
Not sure why you are comparing charged brawl to bonesmasher other than that they open up at the same level.
Of these 4 attacks: bolts, charged brawl, blast, havoc the /eng pairings would be: bolts, powerpush, blast, bonesmasher
So the correct comparison is actually charged brawl to powerpush.
Powerpush does more damage, is ranged and has way better mitigation factor. 1.056 sec vs 1.32 sec is pretty insignificant. That ~0.3 seconds is easy offset by not having to ever move to use the power.
Yes total focus is 3.3 seconds. Which really makes me wonder have you ever played /elec? Thunderstrike uses the exact SAME animation and does a lot less damage. Only 58% as much damage Yes that means TS is not a very good attack anymore for anyone wondering.
10.5% less damage than what melee attacks?
powerpush does more damage than charged brawl
powerburst does the SAME damage as thunderstrike, recharges faster, faster cast, cost less end...hmm. You REALLy gotta love that 18 splash damage that TS does cause it is a really crappy attack now.
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Thunderstrike uses the exact SAME animation and does a lot less damage. Only 58% as much damage Yes that means TS is not a very good attack anymore for anyone wondering.
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Um, isn't Thunderstrike an AoE?
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We didn't start the flamewar
But when we are gone it will go on
and on and on and on and
Post deleted by Moderator 08
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Skarmory, that sig made me laugh out loud... and then I watched the linked video 
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Thunderstrike uses the exact SAME animation and does a lot less damage. Only 58% as much damage Yes that means TS is not a very good attack anymore for anyone wondering.
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Um, isn't Thunderstrike an AoE?
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IMO you pay a heck of a lot to get 18 splash damage. Isn't that about how much brawl does?
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Communication is a powerful tool when used. Word selection is an actual art and a science. Given the polarization of responses the dev's elicit I think it would be asinine to suggest they couldn't use some help in that department.
Then again, I've made it clear that dev's shouldn't be posting, they should have community reps that specialize in doing that. There is a reason our CFO doesn't address the public. Speaking to the public is as much a skill as programming code or ensuring the financial viability of a company.
I don't feel right even bringing up such obvious things, but when you don't have the skills to address the public you end up with 748+369 pages of forum fallout, and a handful of outside sites picking up the story.
A specialized person making that address would have had us thanking them.
*Thankfully Sunstorm did actually explain the issue with dom's pvp damage, but then a bunch of people misunderstood the explanation and created more confusion. Clarity and communication, it's what's for dinner.
Silly conversation to even get involved with. Definitely a case of "old dog, new tricks".
Take care. I'm off to find a dom combo that I feel "buffed" on because my /fire isn't it.
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Actually I think it's the players who really need the "course" in communication. The last thing this world needs is more mouthpieces and useless "word selection."
What really needs to happen is that the devs need to post more often in their own voice and the players who overreact to those posts needs to be banned. A lot.
And maybe, just maybe if a bullet point from the test server release notes isn't 100% clear then people should, you know, go and test how it works.
Things that really should be banned:
~ If your response makes assumptions on what the devs are thinking instead of the changes they implemented you need a break.
~ If your response is more about the devs and less about the change you need a break.
~ If your response is driven by self righteous indignation you need a break.
~ If your response word smiths or twists the devs words when my 8 year old nephew understands exactly what they mean you need a break.
~ If you waste time actually fabricating a fictional exchange in the Paragon office then you *really* need a break.
Moonlighter
50s include MA/SD, MA/SR, DP/Elec, Claw/Inv, Kat/Dark, Kat/Fire, Spine/Regen, Dark/SD
First Arc: Tequila Sunrise, #168563
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Communication is a powerful tool when used. Word selection is an actual art and a science. Given the polarization of responses the dev's elicit I think it would be asinine to suggest they couldn't use some help in that department.
Then again, I've made it clear that dev's shouldn't be posting, they should have community reps that specialize in doing that. There is a reason our CFO doesn't address the public. Speaking to the public is as much a skill as programming code or ensuring the financial viability of a company.
I don't feel right even bringing up such obvious things, but when you don't have the skills to address the public you end up with 748+369 pages of forum fallout, and a handful of outside sites picking up the story.
A specialized person making that address would have had us thanking them.
*Thankfully Sunstorm did actually explain the issue with dom's pvp damage, but then a bunch of people misunderstood the explanation and created more confusion. Clarity and communication, it's what's for dinner.
Silly conversation to even get involved with. Definitely a case of "old dog, new tricks".
Take care. I'm off to find a dom combo that I feel "buffed" on because my /fire isn't it.
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Actually I think it's the players who really need the "course" in communication. The last thing this world needs is more mouthpieces and useless "word selection."
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I don't see the majority changing when the minority could much more easily. By that logic doms probably would have remained unchanged because the majority were the ones whining for changes.
If we took the position that something needed to change do you think it would be more successful asking a by-in-large casual subscription base to learn new language (developers speak differently and when they make posts in dev speak it invariably leads to confusion)? or do you think it would be easier and more efficient for the 5 people doing it to just make a slight adjustment?
Someone should go back through the history of the forums and figure out how many times Arcanaville (and others) have immediately had to follow up a dev post stating the same thing with more reasonable language. I bet the number is very high for their actual information posts (ie not when one of them tries to be funny).
I find it interesting that they already employ my exact suggestion, but elect to get the service for free through the very helpful form goers. I don't know if that is particularly fair to those people, though they don't seem to be complaining, so w/e.
If you are saying that the devs should take extra time to be more clear on technical specifics then I can't say that's a bad thing, but honestly I rarely have an issue understanding direct dev posts. Sometimes the patch notes are obscure, but that *is* coming from those same people who are hired to do that.
And yes, I really believe the only way to start changing the forum population at large is to start to demand more of them.
Edit: The forums for this game are actually far better than most game forums I read. I don't mean to imply otherwise. I just think that the mods should give people a break when the Nerd Rage meter (on a scale from 1-10) rises to 3 or higher.
Moonlighter
50s include MA/SD, MA/SR, DP/Elec, Claw/Inv, Kat/Dark, Kat/Fire, Spine/Regen, Dark/SD
First Arc: Tequila Sunrise, #168563
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Dominator's got a pvp only damage buff back in one issue or another. It was definitely over 2 years ago. I looked for the patch notes regarding the difference in damage in pvp vs pve today and the search doesnt go back that far. Before anyone starts crying"bug" please do remeber the extra damge in pvp was added intentionally. That the dev's forgot they implemented that isnt a "bug".It's an understandable oversite and will be corrected.
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Ya it kind of bothered me that Sunstorm called it a bug as well. They sure love to label things as bugs and exploits even though it was WAI just a few days ago.
It's an oversight that they forgot to adjust for during the dom revamp, there is no bugged code or bugged powers everything is working exactly as designed and implemented.
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The "bug" is the bonus not being removed before these changes went live. Those responsible have been beaten about the head and shoulders with a wet noodle, repeatedly. Not that that will prevent the same sort of thing from happening in the future, but hey, it was fun!
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Lol. Either those were large noodles, or not much of a beating..
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Pool noodles are pretty big.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.