What can the other secondaries do better than /Shield?

Originally Posted by mauk2

Come on. Don't treat me like an idiot if you aren't sure about it.

Or here's an idea: Don't treat people like idiots. It's a bad habit and doesn't reflect well upon you.

Originally Posted by mauk2

In recent months I've noticed a lot of bad guys getting bumps:

Originally Posted by DR_EVIL_NA

You are so right, me.
Lets slow down and take a breath here. Lets talk up some positives about secondaries kids.
I'm tired of constant worry of my beloved powersets being nerfed, so why not rather concentrate on what we love.

Originally Posted by Ironblade

And you know what? They nerfed accuracy!

Originally Posted by mauk2

I know for a provable fact that the standard factions are getting far tougher, because I designed a custom AE faction to fight and handily defeat Carnies. A few months ago, it was a slaughter. Now, the Carnies crush them.

Same with Banished Pantheon, for that matter.

Originally Posted by Castle

Several folks have suggested via PMs and in this thread that I look at Fiery Aura again; to bring it's performance up a bit. I'll see what I can do.

Originally Posted by Frosticus

I hope the people(s) responsible for the series of separate and distinct errors that have resulted in SC being what it is today get the wet noodle beating they deserve or however PS doles out reprimands to prevent such future easily avoidable mistakes.

It is a big disconcerting though, the "clients" have been sending in reports that should have been "audited" for a long time regarding Shield Charge. If the issue had just gone unattended that would be one thing, but it received green light for a major change and wasn't "audited" at that point either.

Is there a lack of communication at PS where the QA team doesn't have access to proper information on how the power designers have implemented powers to function? Something is amiss internally because this issue was easily preventable and is now either going to result in a massive nerf or at the very least another ill afforded time sink from an overworked power design team to rectify the issue.

What the old saying? "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". Test stuff better before it goes live please and at the very least please don't authorize changes to powers without some form of audit performed on said power (this is honestly what is bugging me most). You're a busy guy and now look at the mess that has been created. We all want the game to succeed, but players have a right to be upset in this case. You strike me as being overly defensive about this issue, but regardless of where you want the blame to be placed it is not in the hands of the players. We have performed our due diligence with regard to Shield Charge and the same can not be said of PS. If you are getting upset at what players are saying now just wait until you go through with the necessary (and large) reduction to the power, it will be worse than ever because it was approved for a massive buff. And All in a short time frame relative to the evolution of other powers in this game.

We all understand that this may not be your fault directly, but you are the one addressing the issue and afaik you oversee the powers team. You are welcome to throw an underling under the bus if you want, some managers do that, or you can accept the responsibility inherent with overseeing a team.

I'm not interested in the forthcoming apology that has accompanied many of the power changes recently. I couldn't care less if you guys are remorseful about changing things. I personally think it is pretty tacky to attach emotion to the process and seems manufactured actually. I care about the specific breakdown in the process that allowed something like this to happen and making sure it is corrected so that future development is more efficient and productive. If the limited time card is going to be played constantly then I'm interested in making that finite resource stretch further.

Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards

Yo Scrappers. I'm really happy for you, I'm going to let you finish talking about Shield Defense nerfs, but Castle said one of the best things of all time. OF ALL TIME.

Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards

I personally wouldn't mind if Castle left the numbers as they are, or if he reduced them to their proposed numbers.

Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards

Yo Scrappers. I'm really happy for you, I'm going to let you finish talking about Shield Defense nerfs, but Castle said one of the best things of all time. OF ALL TIME.

Originally Posted by Cyber_naut

Yeah, I doubt many people will mind.


"Yo Scrappers. I'm really happy for you, I'm going to let you finish talking about how much you hate the fact Shield Charge doesn't even kill elderly poodles on life support now, but whirling hands is one of the best powers of all time. OF ALL TIME.

Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards

Man, that would be awesome if Whirling Hands got a buff. Maybe when they do a proliferation over to Scrappers, the set will get another balance pass.

Originally Posted by mauk2

In recent months I've noticed a lot of bad guys getting bumps: Cimmy's, for example, now seem to buff each other quite a bit more when you herd them up so they're much harder to hit

Originally Posted by Castle

That was actually a simple bug fix. They were supposed to be buffing one another all along, but due to a last minute change in timing, the buff wasn't applying properly.

Originally Posted by Castle

That was actually a simple bug fix. They were supposed to be buffing one another all along, but due to a last minute change in timing, the buff wasn't applying properly.

Originally Posted by Warkupo

I like how you attack the guy in what was once a productive discussion about a possible problem, then proclaim he's emotional when he defends himself against all your negative assumptions upon his character. Your entire argument against him is based entirely on your assumption of what his motivation is, and that's crap. I usually respect your opinion, but you're really letting your emotion get in the way of your intelligence with this one.

Originally Posted by Frosticus

In fact, I'm not convinced dumping more hours into this set is worthwhile because it sounds like a redesign of the power is what will happen. It won't happen for many months still and by then everyone will have grown accustom to how it functions and it is just going to be another nightmare when it goes down.

Originally Posted by Silas

Well this thread went down the toilet in a hurry.

Cyber_naut: As fond as I am of frothing hyperbole, if Shield Charge used the correct values it would still blow Whirling Hands out of the water.

Castle: Looking forward to the FA changes. I am curious though, do you have a rough idea whether you'd be buffing its offensive or defensive capabilities? I know the changes earlier in the thread were mostly about Burn, (removing fear, making it a DoT rather than a placed patch, etc), but given what you said about SD softcapping not being an issue because it'll be needed, I would think FA could use a defensive buff too.

Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards

The last round of buffs for Fiery Aura were more damage mitigation related. I am not opposed to seeing more mitigation for the set, but I'd rather Fiery Aura be able to shine in generating more damage, whether it be directly (a better Burn) or indirectly (such as buffing Fiery Embrace.) Or we could have an increase for both mitigation and offense.

Originally Posted by Silas

Castle: Looking forward to the FA changes. I am curious though, do you have a rough idea whether you'd be buffing its offensive or defensive capabilities? I know the changes earlier in the thread were mostly about Burn, (removing fear, making it a DoT rather than a placed patch, etc), but given what you said about SD softcapping not being an issue because it'll be needed, I would think FA could use a defensive buff too.

Originally Posted by Frosticus

IMO the set needs more slow resistance, like upwards of 60%+, it still relies very heavily on its heal, the 20% added to temp protection was mildly pacifying, but is still easily overwhelmed by pretty much any and all -rech thrown at it.

Blazing Aura is just a tiny bit better than other damage auras. I think it needs to inherent the standard chance of additional fire dot. Obviously pretty low value, just ticks of like an extra 2 damage. Does two things: makes BA better and gives it the impression of setting things on fire cause even if they leave the aura they can still take a small amount of damage. Increase radius to 10ft (this can happen to all auras imo)

FE needs to be improved a lot. 30 duration for fire damage (to match brute/dom), 20 duration for non-fire. Reduce rech to 150. It provides no tohit buff so it should be a bit better than buildup at boosting damage.

Love to see Rofflecopter of the Pheonix made usable while alive. Even if it comes with a heavy damage reduction down to 150-200 base.

Some great ideas for burn have been presented in this thread already. Back when we were all happier about life I'm still a huge fan of making it into a firewalk kind of drop pet, but that is probably a pipe dream.