Enhancement Proc Changes

Synapse, and whoever else over there at Paragon has participated in this decision, thank you for considering our concerns on this and communicating the decision. I'm sure I personally will have things to say about the exact implementation when that goes into beta but the communication right now is important, and addresses most of what worried me about this.

As Synapse stated, this is a change in game design with the intent of bringing parity to both SBE's and Crafted IO's. The intent of the change addresses a very real concern and complaint that has been voiced.

If you have concerns regarding your purchase, those should be addressed with customer service. In this thread, I would ask that you please discuss the mechanic changes specifically as it effects *all* enhancements, and not the nature of your purchase. Should you have additional thoughts, you are encouraged to PM myself (don't PM Synapse as he has nothing to do with Store policies) and I will be more than happy to pass along your concerns to the appropriate parties.

Thanks.

-Z

I say things in another thread and then thread gets deleted. Me sad now.



But I am looking forward tot his new change. It makes balancing things easier.

Well thats a kick to the groin after spending 2k points on Hecatomb procs for My characters specifically with KO blow and Concentrated strike since I greatly enjoy Kinetic Melee and Super strength. As it stands now because of my desire to have high recharge I'm going to be screwed out of procs with the asinine changes to make the chance to proc based off of modified recharge.

Yeah not happy about this at all and not buying any Attuned Enhancements from the store again at this rate and may have to reconsider giving Paragon Market $250 a month just to show my support with these kind of screw job nerfs to things I've paid for.

...did you read the part about how 1) PPM will be increased, thus compensating for most/all of the penalty from recharge except in extreme cases, and 2) how this is not even slated for next issue, but the one after that, and thus highly subject to change?

Express your discontent, by all means, but it's a bit early (and misinformed) to start a boycott over nerfs.

I did read it thanks. But regardless it is a flat out nerf as the Hecatomb procs have a 100% proc rate as their current 4.5 PPM form in the two powers I listed. The very fact there is a 90% cap is a nerf and now unless Synapse changes his mind about proc rate being affected by modified recharge instead of base recharge it may very well be lower than 90.

So as it stands its a small nerf 90% down from 100% with potential to be an even larger one.

TBH, I'd rather they just make it so both SBEs and normal IOs both used flat % proc rates.

While some of the SBE's are pretty awesome (I bought a couple SBE decimation procs), I think that the system is overly messy, complicated, and unnecessary. The normal IO procs have worked just fine for years now.

I wonder how the Force Feedback proc will affect things with this change. Take this proc with this low chance but great buff that'll now nerf your other procs including itself!

I currently find it fun to put all manner of procs into low-damage, low-recharge, low-endurance powers. It's part of the fun of making a build. I mean, what else am I going to put in those six slots that don't need more end reduction or recharge reduction or range enhancement? The other powers NEED more slots of that stuff, so I won't be wasting their slots on procs.

So I'd prefer you keep crafted IOs as they are instead of shifting to this newfangled PPM system which makes my brain hurt.

I don't really care what you do with SBEs because I don't have any. It befuddles me, however, that they were designed to work any differently than crafted enhancements. Boggles the mind. This is me. Boggled.

thanks for asking for our feedback!

Thanks, Synapse. I am much happier now.

My opinion, for what it's worth:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synapse 1) All IO procs will have their flat percentage chance to trigger updated to use Procs Per Minute.

I'm ok with this, I never liked the disparity in the first place. Regardless of whether this means specific cases may be better or worse, I think this one should be done.

Quote:

2) Proc chance will cap at 90%. This means that there is always a small chance for the proc to not trigger even if slotted into a power that would previously guarantee a proc.

Not sure about this. Honestly if #3 goes ahead I don't think this is necessary even from a balance perspective. There's no real reason for it that I can see, 90% is in the perceived "penalty when it doesn't happen" range, as opposed to "bonus when it does".

Quote:

3) Procs Per Minute will use modified recharge instead of base recharge. The reason for this is that the whole idea of Procs Per Minute goes right out the window when we keep the base recharge even though that value can be dramatically altered. 4) To compensate for this, the Procs Per Minute on all enhancements will be increased.

I guess it depends on how the numbers eventually fall out. Maybe it will be for the best balance-wise. I just don't like the potential for +recharge buffs to actually reduce your throughput when you're at the upper end of the scale. A lot of high performance builds are constrained as much by animation times as recharge times, but animation times can't be buffed. Design-wise, I think buffs from other players should either be beneficial (even if only slightly) or redundant, there should never be a case of people balancing around threshholds based on external buffs that are beyond their control and may or may not be present depending on group makeup.

I haven't seen the code, but: would it be possible for the PPM to vary on the power's slotted recharge instead of the total recharge that affects the power?

I'm not frothing mad or anything, but I am very disappointed by the complete train wreck this has turned into.

The company may have the right to alter the content to maintain "balance" or quiet vociferous complaints, but they also have a responsibility to do so professionally with a minimum of shenanigans or churn, and are wise to do it in a way that does not antagonize their customers...particularly the "good" high-roller customers who spend more than the minimum on the game. The described approach does not seem to take this into account.


So, I'll wait and see what the outcome is after its been coded and put out for us to test before passing judgement, but it _sounds_ bad as explained and seems to intrinsically create problems. "Solutions" that spawn new and significant problems are rarely a great idea, in my experience.

But while I'm waiting and seeing, I will _not_ be buying further SBE's, or more Paragon Points other than my subscription until this is all sorted out and I can tell exactly what my money is buying. I certainly wont be picking up the 3 or 4 sets of hecatomb I was initially planning on getting.

It wont break the bank for the studio if I stop spending in their shop, but at the level of one long time customer and fan, the impact of this debacle is a loss of revenue for Paragon of an average of $100 a month. Likely I am not the only person who will curtail their spending, based upon the ambiguity this decision engenders.

So in summary, this is a bummer.

Found out something interesting today. Apparently, brute claws spin has the same animation time as scrapper claws spin, but does more damage and has a longer recharge time, making the scrapper version considered the weaker of the two.

But that's where fixed rate procs came in, and what I really liked about them. Fast recharging attacks often come in lower on the DPA scale. Fixed rate procs helped give the fast, light hitters a little parity by boosting them disproportionately. I thought that was part of the intent. Now, PPM procs don't penalize the slow, big hitters at all, so won't this be another reason to be a claws brute rather than a claws scrapper?