MTeague

Insert the cast of "Fiddler on the Roof" doing "Tradition!" 🙂

While the point has been made multiple times, it's also worth re-iterating... The crowd saying "It's too easy!", are not people I often see running First Ward and Night Ward while exemplared down to the 30's still at higher difficulty levels.

I want Stalker War Mace where the Assassin's Strike is a giant wind-up and you KLONK them over the head.

@Joshex, In four pages worth of posts, not a single poster has upvoted a single one of your posts on this thread. Not one. Not one other poster has supported the idea of Afterburner offtering you in-combat defense. Not one. As @Blackfeather pointed out, Invisibility was formally changed by the devs to drop ALL of it's defense when you attack. Whether your old version of mids shows it having defense is immaterial. You have been offered many ideas on how to make your blaster less squishy within the existing framework. So far as I can tell, you have disregarded all of them. if you want to keep arguing for an extra defense pool power that honestly would make characters even more overpowered than they already can be, you do that. I have sufficient faith that the devs know what they're doing, and will decide this idea is a bad one. I do not concede. I believe your idea is a bad one from every angle of game design. But since you do not seem to care what is posted or what arguments are raised, I will make no further replies to this thread for any reason.

Spines stalkers currenty have three AoE attacks. Spine Burst, Ripper, and Throw Spines. And that's evne AFTER giving up Quills for Assassin's strike.

I do not see any need to break any stalemate. I do not even recognize a stalemate since my position is "Working as Designed, Change Nothing". You have articulated your desire, several times, over the course of this thread. I find it extremely unlikely that the devs will agree with you. However, I am not a dev, and who knows. Stranger things have happened. If you are looking to get other posters to agree with you, I think it should be blindingly obvious by now that your stance is in the DISTINCT minority, and we're not talking about "well maybe" softly-held-opinions. You're trying to get people to agree to changing a fundamental principle of characters design that's been in place since issue 0. Quite simply, good luck with that. Blasters are meant to be squishy. Pool powers that provide defense, generally fall into 1 of 2 categories toggle powers that provide a very SMALL amount of defense (Manuevers, Combat Jumping, Hover, etc) click powers that provide a LARGE bonus to defense, but come with a LARGE cooldown and literally by design cannot be made permanent. (Rune of Protection, Unleash Potential, etc) There are a few other outliers. Vengeance provides a very large buff, but requires a human teammate's character to DIE. This is it's limiting factor. Afterburner provides a very large buff, but limits you to Only Affecting Self. This is it's limiting factor. I completely disagree with your vision for Afterburner. Many reasoned arguments have been presented in this thread and I agree with ALL of them that oppose your idea. Again, you can appeal to devs, and who knows, maybe, they'll agree with you instead of everyone else. I wouldn't bet on it though.

QFT. When the set bonuses line up, absolutely, purples are worth it. When they don't.... well.... you judgement call it. Sometimes on a melee power I'm much happier with Touch of Death than Hecatomb, but it depends what I want to stack.

When to start a new thread or do the "Rise from your grave!" on an old thread is definitely a judgement call. Esp in a suggestions forum. My personal cut off is 2 months, but that is admittedly quite arbitrary and I have NO expectations that there's a real consensus around when to let old threads rest in peace vs not.

REFLECTION, I love the idea of. I have no idea if the engine supports anything like that , though. EDIT: though I think for simplicity's sake, we'd probably need a "you can't reflect a reflect" rule to keep infinite chaining

Fair enough. I'll acknowledge, I don't have a better idea myself. I just do think it's likely to be a subtle effect that most players won't even notice, and FF will still be treated as "doesnt' do anything" by the same players who already don't notice it. But maybe I'm just not seeing the other half of the equation since I tend to exemplar a LOT and only rarely run incarnate content.

I'm willing to work with changes. But I have to ask, if only to throw the monkey wrench.... What is +Absorb going to really DO for force field? I agree, thematic. I agree, would not face the "but I don't need any more +Def" you see from max-kitted-out-players at lvl 50. HOWEVER... if said lvl 50 softcap players are not being hit in the first place.... are they even going to NOTICE an Absorb Shield? Are you just trading one defensive bubble they don't need for another defensive bubble that they don't need? I'm fine with "well the current model has too many issues we have to try something" but... I'm far from convinced this will make people say "I have a fever, and the only cure, is more force fields!"

Virtually anything that can be suggested is technically possible, given enough time. The devs will choose what to act on, and what not, based on what they think is the best use of their time, AND, based on what they think is the best direction of the game, AND, how long it takes the changes to happen is impacted in no small portion by thier own real life demands on thier time as well. For what it's worth, you've made your stance very clear, and IF the devs agree with you, you've clearly articulated what you want and what you don't want. I think what you're asking for is a gargantuan lift. Perhaps I'm wrong. I don't have the code, and I'd likely need weeks at a minimum (more likely months) to get up to speed with it even if I did. But I do think @Without_Pause is spot on with the issues for adding a +5 difficulty. And honestly, just cranking up the numbers on existing enemies to make them more "bullet spongy", to me, is a Boring As Hell way to increase difficulty. What I prefer is something like First Ward / Night Ward. Where enemies have access to many more powers, and many more effects to ruin my day, and where I need to actually be strategic in how I handle them, and careful not to grab too many at once. I personally would LOVE to see most mobs get First Ward / Night Ward treatment. So that you'd think twice and three times about charging into a big pile of Crey or Circle of Thorns or Council. But that, I also think, would be a gargantuan lift. Rewriting all the enemy mobs to have access to more powers, keeping a thematic feel, and still making it possible to beat them with good tactics would require tons of meetings, tons of discussions, tons of testing, etc. I want it to happen. But I don't expect it to happen. So when asking for things on that scale, I label them accordingly.

Brief Off-Topic: I would love to see "Kick" from the Fighting pool have an additional option for animation, to look like Thunder Kick. no boost to performance of Kick, but just look different. On Topic: absolutely love @Redlynne's suggestions. /signed if for whatever reason you did not want to do that, then it might make sense to look at where to squeak in some more AoE. I do not think it needs additional AoE with Redlynne's suggestions. A melee-control by stacking low-mag stuns would be great, but I can see that more AoE plus stacking stuns would be a bit much.

That's a fair point. I don't like what the wider industry has done with them. But Paragon Studios did maintain the subscription option the whole way through.

CoH is unlikely to forever vanish, given that the code is on the web, and a number of people have squirrelled away copies of it for safekeeping. Me personally, I can only allow myself to play here, and only because Homecoming is trying to become legit, in talks with NCSoft. If those talks fall through, I have a serious moral quandry to deal with. I am a programmer. I make bank because of copyright and intellectual property. I can justify playing here to myself because Homecoming has NOT received a cease and desist, and telling myself (and talking very very fast as I do....) that as long as the talks are ongoing, it's aboveboard enough. If they failed... by principle I'd have to stop playing. I don't know I'd be able to follow through on that. And I hope I never have to find out. I'm really really really hoping the talks either succeed or remain in limbo for at least a few more years. But it would be the right choice for me to make. Anything else really stretches any plausible "How can I earn a living as a programmer and still justify this?" too far.

I would say rather, if the people who are running this game have already made the decision to look at Titan Weapons and adjust it in a manner that they see fit... this evaluating has already been done by the available coders, and they have chosen a path closer to that laid out by @Twisted Toon than your own proposal. You have every right to feel disappointed, you have every right to ask that another path be taken. But at the end of the day, if the HC devs choose to nerf it, it's their call. Not mine, not yours, not @Twisted Toon's.

Exactly. This right there, is why I will never buy any game with microtransactions ever again. It's why I set aside City of Heroes in the last year it was up (and then KICKED myself severely for missing out on it's last year....) Microtransactions are never neutral, it always ends up driving the playstyle and game balance to hit your wallet instead of being fair play. I'll gladly play games with a one-and-done cost, or with a monthly subscription, or with a donation model. But never microtransactions.

Ultimately, it's your call. And me personally I would take any set that I think fit the character concept, regardless of performance concerns. However. If you are aiming for max performance... consider Psi. Link Minds should get you a nice 6% (or more!) defense to all to your entire team. That will mesh quite nicely with Energy Aura, making it much easier to softcap your defenses at high levels. Or just giving you some leeway for defense debuffs. I can't quite get Link Minds perma'd on my Plant/Psi/Psi Dominator, but it's very close. Even if you build less for recharge, and have say.... only 60% uptime with it... that's not bad.

I'd rather spend my money sugar-daddying my alts with IO's and particular uniques vs buying them temp status protection. Plus, and okay this is personal opinion only.... I just feel... cheesy / cheaty... using things like Defensive Ampliefier. Like, my squishies are to supposed to have to deal with things like holds / sleeps / etc from enemies. But generally speaking, I'm often illogical. Also, yes, I typically set my notoriety and would never consider adjusting it downward as I flashback, not unless I convinced it was Simply Not Possible to defeat via any other means. Lowering difficulty on missions, for me, is a Giant Hit to Ego / Pride. (again, I'm often illogical)

Unleash Potential is one of the 10 minute cooldown / lasts about a minute buffs. It's by no means meant to be up all the time. It's meant to be an "Oh-Sh**" button, or something you pop right before an AV. You may also want to check out Adrenal Booster in Experimentation pool. (Just be aware you can't have both)

Conceptually interesting. I like that it has no pet (though others may despair at that). it may be a bit limited with darn near everything being melee range. Somethign would be needed to make up for that hassle. On the other hand, you have almost every power as a damaging power, which is quite unusual for a controller. So maybe that's what makes up for it. I'd certainly want to pick up fly or super jump pretty early to handle things that stay airborn.

Epic Pools are a wierd mixed bag on Sentinels. So far I very much like them. But they have a different assortment of options than most other epic pools. I am a slave to character concept, so for my Fire/Fire sentinel, I could only take Fire epic pool. But it fits him. I'd really WANTED a sentinel on live but they didnt' exist. So on live, he was a corruptor. Using the Fire epic pool gives him a decent melee attack, and Fire Cages and Warmth, which he'd had in his prior incaration as a corruptor. (pretty sure on the cages anyway....) Psi epic for Sentinels: Mass Hyp is situational; better for soloing / bypassing trash than for groups. Mind Probe is a solid strong melee attack. Dominate is an excellent hold, and Quite popular for Proc-Slotting. Psychic Shock Waive, I'm guessing is probably a weaker version of the Psi Assault T9 power, but it's very nice. Fast recharging, Fast animating, very strong -Recharge, decent Stun effect. Link Minds is not quite the Fortunata Mind Link, but, it's STILL a very nice gift of +Defense to yourself and to your entire team.

This is good advice regardless of AT or powerset. You will burn more endurance attacking many times during a fight than will EVER be consumed by your toggles over the duration of that fight. My rule of thumb is: Get your bread-and-butter powers up to (around) 4 slots each. Depending on AT that might be only 3 powers, or that might be 5 powers. Really depends what is your bread-and-butter. For my Fire/Fire/Fire sentinel, it was Flares (Which I later respec'd out of, Fire Blast, Fire Ball, and Blaze) For my MM's it's the Pet Powers, and a FEW supporting powers in secondary For my Mind Controller, it's Mezmerize, Dominate, Confuse, Levitate. etc Once the bread-and-butters are decently slotted, then start alternating 1 slot to a secondary, and 1 slot to a primary, OR, 1 slot to a pool power, and 1 slot to a primary, to gradually build up a little bit of depth. When you hit the 30's and start getting 3 slots per level, and more levels that are slots vs powers, that's when you really start to backfill.

Now, I do think Teleport pool is overdue for a rework. Unless they plan to totally remove the Base Teleporter slash command / macro, and NOT put anything in it's place, then Long Range Teleport is entirely obsolete. No one is going to spend THREE power choices to get what a macro can do for free. Teleport, I have no issue with the End cost. My controller can zip north/south across Independance Port without running out of end (although, admittedly, it's pretty close). But I do have an issue with the animation time, and the enforced hover effect. I think that's a holdover from the days of Dial-Up Internet and really bad connection speeds. I'd love to see regular teleport just BAMPH you more along the lines of Jaunt from the Experimentation pool. (only, able to just keep casting no cooldown) Teleport Other is very niche. Can be useful when soloing to thin minions away from a boss before aggroing the boss. But no team will ever wait for this. Recall friend is similarly niche. It would become more useful if the Base Teleport macro were removed, but I have given up hope that that will ever happen. Still useful to yoink people across the Shadow Shard, or to grab the team leader if he was busy recruiting other people while the rest of the team moved to the next mission door, etc. I would like to see a "Teleport Attack" power, similar to "Burst of Speed" from Martial Combat, added to the set. Long Range Teleport seems a prime candidate to sacrifice for this, given its redundancy to the teleport macro.

I think you mean "I've made choices to mule LotG 5/5 and I've made choices to add hasten and weave and I can't even concieve of my character relying on team buffs for recharge and defense, so I only ever pick these choices". Only 40% of my characters take Hasten. No more than half of my characters touch the Fighting pool at all. Not all of my characters take Combat Jumping. Really there is quite a bit more choice involved than you seem to think there is. It's easy to work in Medicine for /SR. I have a Dark/Dark corruptor with the PRESCENCE pool for the self-rez option. I have a Mind/Kin with the Concealment pool. My Plant / Psi dominator does not use the Fighitng Pool at all. My Fire/Fire/Fire sentinel does not use Leaping OR Speed pools My Invuln/SS tanker so far has only Leadership from your list... No Speed, No Leaping, No Fighting. He has Leadership and Experimentation.