Buffers rejoice!

I know no one should feel like they have to take a certain epic for definite but you can powerboost FF and everyone will love you for it.

Pain, Poison and Empathy have been somewhat snubbed and I don't see why.

I don't think most people would even notice.

It's not uncommon for my dom with all of CJ's +def to cruise to 40% def in trials, with gusts up to the hard cap as people tap Barrier. Adding more def past 45 / 54 isn't doing much.

No, the increased prevalence of of damage mitigation and mez protection have eroded FF's niche to the point where there's little performance reason to bring a bubbler along versus bringing, well, almost any other buffer that can bring some combination of mitigation / mez protection and a handful of other goodies. You can't even trot out the old argument that having a passive primary like FF leaves lots of time to blast versus a clickie set like kin.

You're upset because you think people will be asking you to play your shield characters more often?

Before this change - possible to keep 7 people shielded at all times
After this change - possible to keep 7 people shielded at all times

It's a convenience change and nothing more. It will just take less time and endurance to do what you already did.

Explain the "snub" to me, and if you say, "Well, fortitude should be getting the same treatment as the shields!" I will reach through the internet and smack you for your stupidity.

wow.

Have you ever got this backward.

let me get this straight.

The ability to buff all your team-mates, and pets with your mastermind, with a 4 minute, non-degrading, constant Defense buff, that also offers toxic-resistance and end-drain resistance..

Doing all of that... with two clicks...

is somehow making the set... less... let me repeat so I understand it... LESS... desirable to play?

... Are you even playing City of Heroes?

I get the impression you aren't logging into the same game I'm logging into.

Last time I checked all of those incarnate-buffs players "Claim" to be killing Force Field with only can be gotten at level 50.

If you are playing Force Field as a secondary you can get both shields by level 10... meaning that as a Force Field, you can do all of that buffing... you know... for ALL THE CONTENT IN THE GAME.

No matter how you cut it, for 95% of the game, Force Field, Sonic, and now Kinetics, are the ONLY sets that can give an anti-mez AOE...

And last time I checked, Increase Density's timing wasn't changing... meaning it's still going to run out.. meaning Force Field and Sonic are STILL the only constant anti-mez aoe affects available.

NO, U!

Originally Posted by Hyperstrike English does not borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, hits them over the head, and rifles through their pockets for loose grammar.

It not really only a convenience factor. It requires a different style of play for certain power sets, like Kinetics. You will have to get within 30 feet of your targets, which means that if your targets are more than 60 feet away from one another (happens all the time in big AV fights) you can't get them all.

You also can't be sure you hit all targets with an application of an AoE buff (if a previous casting of the buff is still on a character there is no noticeable difference in graphics or buff icons).

A buffer will now have to bounce around the battlefield a lot more, getting within range of AoE attacks and mezzes that you wouldn't previously have needed to expose yourself to.

I personally dislike AoE buffs because of the annoying "Gather" mentality they promote, in which players demand all action stop and everyone flock to them. "Gather" players also tend to use their buffs long before they're actually needed, so that by the time you're fighting they'll have worn off and the caster will not remember to reapply them because they're occupied elsewhere.

Increasing the duration of single-target buffs would reduce the annoyance factor of having to rebuff, while keeping the same play style, and allowing much more selective buffing, to make it easier when players don't want SB or don't like the graphics effects of Force Field.

The most annoying part of using single-target buffs like SB is that some people don't want to be buffed. If I could buff people once at the beginning of the mission and not have to remember who all wanted what, that would be a tremendous QoL improvement. A short-duration AoE buff doesn't do that for me, and while it's a slight improvement, it's still got a lot of the same old problems while introducing a bunch of new ones.

Yeah...that looks like they didn't quite think that one through....PBU shields on the whole team...wow...

Double ownage! Now Cold can buff just as quick and has more time to do other more important things!

I think the aoe buff thing is great for FF and Sonic but I think it's a bit too much for kinetic and maybe cold. I've always thought the balance point for speed boost is that you have to keep it up and it can be chore. Oh well... it's a great buff really. It just makes certain sets look even worse by comparison.

No. You are wrong. It has already been confirmed that nothing about the buffs is changing except for the 30 yard radius. The range, recharge and costs are the same. You still target people and click the power, but now it applies the buff to everyone within 30 feet of the target instead of only to them. There is no need to make "gather" macros. You will not have to change your positioning. The powers have not turned into PBAoE auras. You can continue to play exactly the same way as you do now, it will just be easier and faster. Ugh.

Sorry if I sound irritated, but the number of people complaining about this based on a flawed idea of the actual changes is way, way, way too high.

No where, I repeat, no where did I say that 2-click buffing a team would make FF less desirable to play. I challenge you to find that quote.

What I did say is that changing other ST buffs, specifically mentioning ID, to being AoEs would continue the long process of eroding FF's niche of providing AoE mez protection and damage mitigation. I singled out ID because, as it stands, it's impractical to keep on more than a couple people.

Yup, since about day 1 or 2 with my other account, Burning Chick. Hundreds of hours spent playing a FF defender, also. And probably close to 2k playing (de)buffers of various stripes.


Again, you're deliberately misreading me. And, again, I challenge you to find the quote where I say "Incarnate buffs are killing FF." What I did say is that they are, along with a handful of other changes to the game, marginalizing FF. But "marginalizing" is a whole different word than "killing".

And your point? All sets with shields and, IIRC, mez protection buffs get them early.

Traps? Sorry, how long have YOU been playing for?

Again, Traps?

FWIW, ID is on a one minute timer with a 3 second recharge. Making it perma and, unless the devs have changed the mechanics of ST mez protection buffs, STACKABLE.

So, yeah.

I've actually thought this one through, and it wasn't a knee-jerk reaction on my part.

Technically, it's more complete mez protection than FF offers since it covers everything Dispersion Bubble covers, as well as KB and Repel. With 50% more magnitude.

As for the trash heap? Again, not my words. Maybe je-saist's, but not mine.

My words, for the record, amount to "increasingly marginalized".

Which means exactly nothing. Nobody is going to throw your FF toon off a team because Kinetics got a buff. Your gameplay is not negatively altered. The only legitimate complaint you could possibly have would be if this change somehow made FF suddenly, genuinely bad. Since you admit that's not the case, you're just complaining for the sake of complaining.

You expected different? When I made this thread, I said to myself "Let's count how many posts it takes for someone to call this a nerf." And inevitably, someone came in and said it's a nerf to force fields because it's more of a buff to other sets than it is to them.

My attempt to get this conversation back on track:

1. These are being turned into TARGETED area of effect powers, not POINT BLANK area of effect powers.
2. If you think force field needs a buff, complaining about kinetics being able to apply its status protection click power as a targeted AoE is not the way to do it.

No, on the entire league, apparently. 40% def to 23 people with 3 clicks. And then you can switch on your pbaoe aura...

Sort of. It also means Controllers can blow past the softcap for the whole team (and their pets?) as well, leaving very few reasons to take the set on a Defender. This change is excellent, but it doesn't mean Force Field is making out quite as rosy as the Power Boost argument makes it sound. It will help the set somewhat, but the biggest beneficaries are probably going to be Ill/Colds and those sorts who normally wouldn't have bothered to shield anyone. Now they can do that in one cast and take down anything they want. This isn't a complaint, just an observation of the facts. In all cases the sets will be more fun to play though, so the change doesn't bother me.

And I am giving a hearty hallelujah for the second one. After years of having to drop from teams because I ran into a kin who simply would not believe that SB triggered my motion-sickness, I can finally pug again. To be clear, most kins were understanding. But I ran into enough jerks to make it a real problem to team.

Wow. And only about 20 issues after it should've happened.

I think the game would get easier if the same treatment was given to fortitude.

With some sets, whilst making time to shield someone, something else can happen, something in which a defender might wish they did something else in that moment. Empaths can be busy forting or as it was more likely CM'ing someone at a moment when it would of been good to use AP. Being able to do everyone in one cast time reduces moments like them. Pain, Empathy and Poison could do with a buff too, as to what buff, I am not suggesting any but I'll know already from playing all the sets which are more challenging and which are less challenging and as it stands I know which ones I'd let three year olds play.

Once again the Ill/Cold may as well be the Super AT all on its own.