End of Cottage Rule? Please?

The only time I remember this 'cottage rule' being broken was when Energize was added to Electric Armor.

Honestly, the problem with the cottage rule as far as players are concerned is that what's good for one player is phenomenally terrible for the next. Balance is a gray area that has different definitions for every person, and the cottage rule only seeks to make it so that people can use it as a goto argument for any given situation. The ur example is obviously Black Hole and Dimension Shift, they should never change (or change so little) because the cottage rule dictates it be so. Yes, the powers are altogether questionable in use and yes they can be changed to maintain original purpose while becoming more useful, but the problems there aren't simply with the powers, but with their place in the set as a whole. Gravity is seen as a mediocre set, with dimension shift as a knock against it, while Black Hole arguably seems out of place with Dark Miasma.

In lieu of this, I'd like to give an example of a power that I feel needs to have the cottage rule broken to allow a full length change for the good of the set. I will use the format provided earlier in the thread.


Power: Granite Armor
Set: Stone Armor
AT(s) affected: Tankers, Brutes
What is wrong with the power: Granite Armor as a whole invalidates the vast majority of the rest of the set. It is one of the true god mode powers that allows near invulnerability for most as long as it's on, but prevents active use of over half the set on top of weakening the user beyond little more then a taunt bot. Balance wise, this limits choice rather then promotes it: creating a situation where the only legitimate time to not use granite armor is when you need purple rocks (Minerals) or you would be otherwise fine without toggles in general. One could argue that you could keep it off when you simply wish to do damage, but Granite Armor in general doesn't have the true choice that virtually all other T9s have.
Why an adjustment cannot fix it, so it needs replacing: Adjusting it to make it so that all toggles can run and supplement granite armor simply makes it a T9 toggle that removes any and all flavor it originally had, essentially destroying the original intent of Granite Armor (a mode you enter).
What my fix would be: Make Granite Armor into a Dual Pistols Ammo clone, where you can shift what type of Stone you're currently focused on, creating choice and allowing the user to shift as need be. The types of rock would be "Crystal, Granite, Gems" and a visual appearance (toggleable by Null the Gull) would cover the user. The user would also be allowed to utilize all toggles in question.
Granite Armor would then perform as follows:
While in Perfect Crystal Form, Defense is increased dramatically and Damage is given a slight boost.
While in Perfect Granite Form, Resistance is increased dramatically and Regen is given a slight boost.
While in Perfect Gem Form, Resistance and Defense are increased equally and Recharge/Speed is given a slight boost and/or user becomes immune to Rooted's root.

The problem in the aforementioned example is that many people like and appreciate Granite Armor BECAUSE it's a no effort god mode. While the above change could make it so that while in form, defenses are close to original Granite Armor, the change still promotes choice and utilizes the rest of the set at the same time, creating a much more interesting and unique power set, while retaining the uniqueness of Granite Armor as a T9. It's because of the cottage rule that the above example would never be considered (Nobody complains about Granite Armor, it's OP, etc etc), and while the devs can choose to ignore it at absolutely any time they want, players will often times actively try to squelch a change simply because of the cottage rule; regardless of its merits.

Something to realize is that the devs have not and will never be bound by the cottage rule; if they felt like it, they could change every power set on a whim for no rhyme or reason. As it stands, the cottage rule is merely a belief that the player base has as a whole that persists and promotes a lack of change or even consideration of good ideas by many individuals, and that mindset needs to go away immediately.

Energy Aura's dramatic change (adding a taunt aura which also gives scaling recharge) is a great step in the right direction, since Entropic Aura sure as heck didn't do that before, and now Energy Auras are FORCED to taunt as opposed to having it linked to Energy Drain. This is a big change and could easily and arguably be heralded as an example of the cottage rule being shattered once and for all, but people are stubborn creatures, and I imagine someone will find a way to justify it as still obeying the cottage rule.

Well, the main problem with that idea is you want to fundamentally change a stalker's role. Lots of people play Stalkers like a Scrapper but to want to give them more AOEs might not be the best idea considering how much squishier they are in comparison.

As someone who has a Granite Armor tank, I can understand you're thinking. But personally, if I don't need to be in Granite armor I tend to run the tank outside of Granite. Stone could use some tweaks, but I think your proposal is more complicated then it needs to be.