Pay To Win: Performance Shifter

Could we get a confirm on what this will be reduced to? 2.0? 1.5? 1.2 like the normal would not be worth buying but /shrug.

I might be interested in these if we got a confirm on their reduction.

They're also free on the beta server, which for the moment at least is running the exact same build as live.

I have plenty of Kheld and MM ATO procs, but those are really set bonuses. I don't have many of the others, so I would specifically have to buy them. But after Enhancement Converters go live I plan to convert the 1000+ cheap ATOs I have to random ones, and should end up with a full set of procs. I've got enough to do now, so there's no reason to spend the time or Inf to buy the procs now.

I have over 300 ATOs stashed away... I was going to ask where you could possibly store a thousand of them, and then I remembered, CEBR, base on every server.

Anyway I don't even use my base on Freedom to store stuff. I'm too lazy. ^_^

Not quite every server. I only leveled up CEBRs on the servers where I didn't already have a 50, so that's 11. But I also have about a half dozen other large personal bases from my years of playing. I can store a lot.

I ran a simple test Friday.

20 Minutes with a regular on a 110 point endurance toon.
0-5 min - 10 procs, 5-10 Minutes - 8 procs, 10-15 min. 2 procs, 15-20 min. 11 procs.
31 triggers- 341 endurance/1200 seconds = .284 end/sec
Somewhat higher than the .22 you would expect, and with two significant voids. These voids can be a real pain in actual play.

Then swapped in the Store bought PS Proc. for a 20 min test.

0-5 min. 13 triggers, 5-10 min. 14 triggers, 10-15 min. 15 triggers, 15-20 min. 12 triggers.
54 triggers - 594 endurance/ 1200 sec. = .495 endurance/sec, and the longest void was no more than 40 seconds during the 14 trigger 2nd time block.
I think that lack of any significant voids is what makes this PPM version a super winner for now, as the endurance is much much more reliable. Immediately running the newly equipped toon for a couple of hours was so much smoother. Buff the old IO and leave this thing Exactly as is.

Jak

Well, if anything is to be changed it should not be the proc itself but rather the way PPM works in non-damaging passive/toggle power, similar to how AoE has a different calculation.

Eventhough Stamina is the most popular choice for this SBE, it can be used in other powers. Nerfing the entire SBE just because it's too good in one power is unfair to how it performs in elec-based attacks, for example.

I personally like the new PPM formula because it makes procs more viable in multiple powers and not just your quick recharge spam powers. Scaling % chance based off recharge just makes more sense.

Just look at the Stalker proc, guaranteed hide everytime you use AS? Everyone loves it, but how much would you love it if it was originally in game as a 30% chance and then the PPM version was introduced? Would the reaction be similar to what we're discussing now? Or is the main problem that you have to spend real money? If the Perf Shift PPM proc was available in game like ATOs would it be a problem?

One of my biggest gripes about Freedom is, despite some good features, it is unapologetically, full-on pay-to-win. One of the reasons why Freedom only garnered 18%ish revenue increase where other freemiums double or tripled theirs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba 3 times a minute. WTF. Are they seriously selling for real money better versions of enhancements than we can get in game? Really? No, surely Paragon Studios wouldn't stoop this low.

They've been charging for the highest tier of power (Incarnate) from day 1, so why would this be at all surprising?

WARNING: I bold names.

I don't think labeling incarnate content as pay to win is, well, at all correct. It's subscriber content and has been structured as such since the beginning of Freedom, yes, but that's one of the few large incentives to subscribe (I'd say unrestricted number of active characters would be the other, with most everything else being available to a high enough tier of premium account with no further investment ever).

This is to be expected in any hybrid model - there must be good incentives to subscribe if you expect anyone to remain on the subscription service at all. Where you diverge into pay-to-win territory is when your microtransactions and/or your subscriber incentives so overshadow the rest of your content that there doesn't seem to be any way to contribute in a meaningful way without spending significant volumes of real money.

Incarnate content is very specifically gated and completely turns off below level 50, which is clearly a protective measure to keep incarnate content from trivializing the lower-level game. Microtransactions are carefully balanced and, like the one in this thread, obviously monitored to keep them from being overpowered since this is particular example is getting changed.

My understanding of the Market proc IOs is that they are normalized around an average recharge power. I don't know what they are using as a baseline, but the idea as I understand it, is that powers with long recharge and perhaps activation times won't be punished vis a vis quicker recharging powers.

The set proc rate makes standard procs significantly better in faster powersets. For example, it has long been know that one of Katanas many advantages over Broadsword is that procs fire more often.

My suspicion is that the listed PPM rate is based around a 4 second recharge Tier 1 attack. I also suspect that it's a straight ratio increase in chance to proc based on recharge. Because the passives check every 10 seconds, that's the baseline recharge the proc is using.

10/4=2.5
2.5*20=50%

Now while that's probably too good against the standard version, I don't necessarily think the idea itself is flawed. Just that it's flawed in this instance. I will note, that you can use this to make certain procs have a 100% chance to fire.

I don't get it why did they change market IOs and even the new atos procs to proc per minute? why couldn't they just leave them like 20% to fire or whatever?