What is the philosophy/idea behind set bonus exemptions?

By this I mean, what is the purpose/philosophy/design decision to nerf / eliminate set bonuses that are above the PvP zones level?

If I've got Posi's blast level 40's slotted and enter Sirens, I no longer get those bonuses, but If I slot Purples, or Gladiator sets, I still do??

This seems rather unfair, if you ask me.

Not to mention it creates an imbalance in the lower PvP zones. I mean, what is the point of entering Sirens when I hit lvl 30 if I'm actually fighting lvl 50's, with purple and gladiator sets, that I simply cannot and do not have??
I can't truly be competitive if you've got elite procs firing off that I don't even has access too.

It practically forces a player to max their character, in order to be competitive in lower level zones, so what is the point of the lower level zone to begin with??

Why is my lvl 40 set bonus eliminated (Sirens) but the level 50 purple isn't?

Why are set bonuses eliminated when you exemplar down 3 levels, to begin with? When you 'can' (provided you can afford them, or have enough time to grind for them) have set bonuses that DO exemplar down??

Isn't the purpose of DR to try and level the playing field? If so, when 'why' eliminate the set bonus if it's still subject to the DR rule?

Purple sets are DR'd, Gladiator Sets are DR'd, set bonuses below the level cap are DR'd, but set bonuses above the cap that aren't Purple or Glads are just eliminated altogether??

That just doesn't make any sense.

There isn't a radical game breaking difference between a lvl 33 IO and a lvl 38 IO, but there IS a big difference between a 33 IO and a Purple or Gladiator IO.

I thought the point of all the PvP nerfs and changes was to make it more fun, and more competitive for a larger group of players, but in reality you just made true competition and equality harder to obtain.

At any rate: I AM looking forward to 'going rogue'. It should be interesting running around pvp zones that appear deserted because everyone on both sides is a stalker at invis cap.

Because that way Purples and PvP recipes are MORE valuable... since, you know, they are much more RARE than normal set IOs.

If you could just use normal set IOs at any level... why would you need/want Purples and PvP IOs? What would make them more desirable?

You could dual build and have a second build with IO set bonues that are set for the lower levels. These sub IO's are often very cheap, and a dual build with them much less than Purples/PvP sets.

I know I had 'fun' first time I SSK'd down with my Dom without knowing this Went from near permadom to no recharge at all.

So now I have some purples, but also some sets at lvl 30 to give a better range of bonuses at all levels. There is very little difference , less than a couple of % (should recheck that in mids) doing so.

People who have invested time and effort into getting better gear will have the advantage over those who haven't, plain and simple.

It's to reward how hard to get they are - Purples you can't even slot until you are fifty, as well.

i just wanted to make sure that OP gets that the losing of set bonuses below the level of the IO's -3 is not a directly PvP-related design choice since it applies to all reductions in combat level in both PvE and PvP. It's one way to make lower level IO's of a given set more desirable for certain purposes and increases the amount of planning and choices that goes into slotting out a build.

Players who have purple sets and PvP sets spent HUNDREDS of hours collecting them or collecting enough money to buy them.

If you ask me, anyone who has spent that much time and energy on ONE character deserves to have an advantage when playing that character. The balancing point here is that purple sets and PvP sets are EXTREMELY hard to come by (by any allowed means anyway). Since they are so difficult to acquire, it follows that not everyone has them. True, those who DO have them have an advantage, but they went to a lot of effort to get them.

The outlier here is people who purchased money from RMT sites, they skip the whole process of acquiring them.......but they stand a very good chance of having their account stolen or banned, or stolen AND banned when the RMT site uses their character to spam people. And those people don't have much of an advantage anyway, because a good player with a decent build will beat a bad player with an awesome build 9 times out of 10.

And just for the record: Cramming as many purples and PvP IOs into a build as you can does not automatically make it a good build. I've seen builds that were chock full of those things and were absolutely atrocious.

It seems like we are mixing two different things here. PVP IO's and Purples are different beasts. It's pretty much the same difference between regular IO's and Purples. With the differences being you can get PVP IO's at a lower lvl(although rare) but you have to be 50 to get purples(not quite as rare because there are so many 50's).


OP: I agree with you that the purples probably shouldn't work in lower PVP zones, but the PVP IO's.....well that's what they were designed for...PVP, all PVP. While most would say that people have worked hard(or just been playing 5 years) to get their purples and deserve the right to have them, IMO it seems a little unbalancing for the lower level PVP areas(purple out PVE by all means). While you can PVP IO out your lvl 30 you have more choices for enhancement at 50 because you can use the PVP IOs and the Purple IO's. I don't think it is a monsterous thing because PVP talent can most likey overcome the enhancement gap, but it's an unbalancing issue none the less.

First off - let me say thank you to my fellow posters for engaging in a healthy debate/discussion, instead of the tired old flame war.

I sincerely appreciate it.

That being said, let me address a few issues, because I think perhaps I did not make my position clear.

I'm not contesting, or complaining about the difficulty of getting Purples or PVP recipes.
My 'main' complaint is that 'other' recipes do not exempt down beyond those 3 levels, as well.

In addition: I think 'most' would agree that other recipes exemping down, would NOT adversly affect pvp. In reality, it would level the playing field a little, and would make lower level toons more viable, and perhaps even encourage more casual pvpers to participate, UNTIL they too are able to get and slot the higher end recipes and rule the world.

Something to work for, and look forward too, if you will.

Restricting lower end io set bonuses to a 3 level exemption doesn't make sense in terms of encouraging true competition. At first glance, it simply appears to be nothing more than a money sink. A means to remove trillions of dollars of infamy/influence from the game.

I don't have a problem with that, but I feel the un-intended side effect is it imbalances the pvp playing field more dramatically than it should.

Case in point: A blaster and a corruptor go toe to toe in Sirens. The blaster has 3 pvp prox slotted in their tier 1 power. The corruptor has say... a devastation lvl 40 set in their tier 1.
Neither toon as any other set bonuses.
Who will win this fight?
The blaster, no doubt in my mind. Spamming only their tier ones, the blaster has 3 30% chances, every 1.5 seconds, to get luckly and have a prox fire off, doing a substantal amount of additonal damage that the corruptor doesn't have.

A pretty significant advantage, imho, which I'm sure the blasters deserves having recieved or purchased those prox, and presumably worked for them.

I DO NOT fault the blaster.

However, where is the harm in giving the corruptor the mild set bonuses they have earned?

Does it 'break' pvp? No.

Does it create a massive imbalance in the game? No.

Does it discourage the corruptor from getting the PvP io's, or the purple sets? No.

Does it diminish the blasters accomplishments? No.

Does it make the corruptor more competitive at a lower level? Yes, I think it would.
Granted, in my example 1 set bonus would not radically change the outcome, but hopefully that realization will drive home my point.

Giving us our set bonuses in PvP, regardless of level of the IO set, WILL NOT BREAK PVP!!

If ANYTHING, it might actually encourage more people to casually engage in pvp. The min/maxers will still be kings with their 'leet' gear, and I'm not trying to take that privilage away from them, by any stretch of the imagination.

It will not radically alter the playing field, but it WILL allow lower and mid level toons to be more competitive.

Will they still get ganked? Of course, there isn't much you can do when you zone in, and promptly get sniped and all three prox slotted in the power fire off. Your dead before you even know you were attacked.

I can't speak for everyone, but typically, by the time I hit the mid 40's with a toon, I've got set bonuses with IO's ranging from 25 - 40's. The bonuses help round my character out, and make them more survivable.
Some are drops, some I've purchased, but nobody can argue that I didn't work for, or earn them.
We all know that 'some sets' are much harder to get, and cost 'nearly' as much as the purples and pvp sets.

Yet, suddenly losing those bonuses because I didn't get the last 2 IO's of my set until lvl 38, makes me feel like I"m being punished.

Is that REALLY the feeling the devs want to promote??

Even getting those bonuses would not diminish my desire for some of the purple and pvp sets, but at least on my long road to acquiring them I wont feel quite so brutalized and abused.

It is EXACTLY these kinds of imbalances that frustrate me, as a player, and cause me to cancel my account, periodically.

Yes, I've cancelled my account at least 4 times now. (will be again in a few days)
I leave for several months, and usually come back when a new expansion is released to check it out. (can't help myself - this is STILL one of the best mmo's I've ever played)

Despite my frustrations.....

Never the less - Cryptic has lost around $300 worth of subscription services from me over the years. I punish them the only way I can. I show my frustration and disapproval of their design decisions the only way I know how.

I ***** here.... quit... and come back in a few months to see if they've changed anything.

I guess I'm a sucker for punishment.

No seriously now... I do appreciate the incredible work those guys have put into this game, and it has set a standard by which I judge all other MMO's.

I think that says a lot.

I just happen to feel that PvP could be SOOOO MUCH BETTER, and as a result, much more popular.

Will my idea change 'everything'??? No, I don't think it will, but I do honestly feel it's a step in the right direction.

So what do you say Devs? Give us casual and fence sitting pvpers some love!!

Must..... resist.... urge...

Ah, so now we come to the heart of the matter... simple jealousy towards those that spend hours farming to get purples and PvP IOs.

You wish all IOs exmplared down because you have either no desire or no time to put in the effort to get the "good stuff".

I'm not sure why you think 1000 merits would suggest you should ever have seen a purple.

The most optimistic numbers I've seen suggest that, on average, a purple drops once every 1500 mobs. (This is a very round number, as it treats all mobs as a kind of aggregate, even though drop rate varies by mob rank.)

When you run on a TF, you are almost certainly doing that on a team. When a mob drops something, it drops one thing. When you play on a team, that one thing a mob drops is randomly assigned to someone on the team. So if you are playing on a team of 8, you're reducing your odds of getting any given drop by a factor of 8. That takes that (possibly very optimistic) on in 1500 chance of a drop and makes it one in 12,000.

Frankly, I'm not at all sure the teams I play on would come close to putting down 12,000 mobs in the number of TFs that it would take me to earn 1000 merits. On a very conservative number of 25 merits/TF that's 40 TFs, meaning we'd have to defeat 300 mobs on every TF just to hit the average number of mobs for me to get one drop. And of course, probabilities don't work such that you're going to get a success just because you did the number of tests to get a result on average.