Greycat

Honestly, Adamastor's not worth 10 merits. I could understand the "bonus" back when you had to get the recipe to summon him, as it was something extra, but now you just go there, click, remove hit points for 30 seconds, bam , 10 merits. That's pretty much the entire "special" draw for him. Flip side of that? Lusca should be worth more than 6 merits. That actually takes time and some effort to take down. (And, relevant to the discussion, can't really be camped - she has multiple spawn locations in a large zone, after all, *and* moves during the encounter.)

Badges. And it used to have more of an impact. It used to be the same inside a mission or out in the open world. It used to have a cap twice as high as it went now. (I had a blaster back in I3-I4 who went on a hami raid after hitting 50 and went from 0-1.1 million.) The slowing penalty used to be fairly bad when we didn't have more content - same blaster spent entire levels in debt in the 30s, it seemed, and ran out of content at 38. That said, as far as a cost for dying, even early on it was a "cheap" penalty - we have no equipment to lose, we don't have any debuff other than slowing leveling for a little bit (or losing some patrol XP.) Other games have equipment get worn out or lost, or have annoying "OK, you died, now y ou have to run back to your equipment at -20% damage/health/speed, even though what killed you is still there." Would you *like* it to do more?

First reaction is it "feels" like too many tornado-alikes, but a second browse through.... they're all doing something different, and would at least have visual differences, which would offset that, feel-wise, I think.

I seem to recall there being jetpack vendors...

I would *not* make them incarnate zones. Put in some incarnate content, sure, but leave the range as it is. Personally, even though they're *large* zones, I like the Shard in general, and think it's a shame that (a) there's not much to do there and (b) people don't use the geysers to get around more. Possibly because everyone's in such a rush to do things. The task force design can use a little updating, sure, but it really needs *missions* and *arcs* to explore while there. I generally don't like "make it a coop zone!" but... yeah, there's not really any reason this wouldn't be. (Just have to explain why SuperHeroDude isn't punching EvilVillainGuy in the face when they cross paths.) So, what I'd do: - Go over the TFs, streamline a bit where *absolutely* needed (sometimes you *do* have to defeat a bunch of stuff in a bunch of places, after all.) - Create missions, both regular and incarnate. Give people reason to go and keep going besides a WTF. - Let Kora fruit give something special. They got nerfed back on live, as I recall. - Badges for travel-by-geyser. And for falling. >.>

I'm thinking more long term. Short term, yes, they should be booted (and if possible, merits after some period removed. Don't leave them with their profits.)

... more extensive rework if this is becoming an issue - Instead of summoning, it pulls the team into an instance where you fight Adamastor. When finished, you appear back on the platform. But yeah, it's lousy that people are AFK-"farming" him.

Can we talk about how ridiculous it is to necro a thread this old instead of making a new one? Christ, people. What's next, asking if the beta's going to run on your 8088? Responding to a newspaper article mentioning the Barbary pirates? Giving your opinion on that William guy from Normandy?

No, it isn't. Not as a general rule, in any case. Someone like Keith Nance? Yes. You take a mission from him, you're on the arc. He only *has* one arc, then passes you to Jenny Adair, who also only has one arc. However, others will offer multiple missions. Like so: First time I talked to Jose Escalante. Neither of those will start you on an arc. They're one off missions. This is this contact's intro. None will give you merits or (if they show up while an arc is underway) count towards completion of said arc. The ones that will start an arc? Will (typically, I can' tthink of ones that don't do that) have the arc title above the mission.

Tends to be annoying for RP as well. (Honestly, there are a lot of things I'd like to see, RP-wise... like actually sitting in a chair instead of hovering over it or sitting partway through it. But that's a different discussion and a whole lot of other work.)

*shrug* Depends on the power as to if that's reasonable or not, I guess. Most are stackable, I believe. Looking at the attacks in P2W, most are 5000, some are 50,000 (Envenomed daggerx30 and Smoke Grenadex20) and one' s500,000 (smoke flash, 10 charges - which... uh... ) and stack from 10 (smoke flash) to to 30 charges (most.) (So for instance, st louis slammer, the bat, you pay 5000 for 30 charges, and can have up to 300. Costs you 50,000 to fill up.) The "combat" ones (kinetic shield, power analyzer, etc.) are already more expensive - all 50-500,000 each - and let you purchase 10 sets of them (like Ethereal Shift, 5 charges for 500,000, you can stack up to 50 total charges) Summons are the most expensive, with backup radio (5 charges, stack up to 50) at 500k per, and the signature summons being 5 charges for 10m, you can have up to 99 charges (... has anyone done this?) Travel all measures itself in terms of hours - 30 minutes per purchase, up to 5 hours, so 10 charges. I don't think anyone's mentioning travel or summons being perma in this case... though 200 million for a perma temp Statesman or Recluse... >.> That does seem like the inf sink area though (aside from, indirectly-ish, the xp boosters.) So, the pistol (Revolver, 30 charges, 5000 inf) you can *currently* get to 300 charges (stack of 10) as a temp power for 50,000. 20x its power would only be 100,000. Which, granted, it's not a super hard hitter. It'd still be in range of someone wanting to pick it up early for a character. I don't know that it'd cover the inf sink... I'm kind of curious how many people pick it or the grenades up (I do know I do with some. Even Plasmatic Taser.)

Well, at least the quickplay for that is still out for download...

Oof. I look on Evilbay every once in a while when I remember the CCG existed 😄 but I don't know of any sites that would really have them.

I wouldn't call it "Magic control." Not unless you're tying it to an origin. What your description sounds like, though, could probably fall into an "Elemental control" (or assault) though - names inspire themes and usage ideas, after all, and "elemental" doesn't feel as restrictive. Either that, or with the rather small list of powers you mention, perhaps an ancillary pool (since it can vary what's in it by the AT taking it - said pools don't tend to give Controllers another hold, for instance, but you could - say - have an Ice controller with fire and electric blasts and earth armor.)

More P2W powers could be interesting, sure. I know I have a few that carry thinngs like a backup pistol and such that aren't available in their powersets. Going temp to perm, though... I think would depend on the power. No, you can't enhance them, but some (like envenomed dagger) have a bit too much of an effect. With a high enough cost, things like the pistols or whatnot may still serve as as much of an INF sink as they do now. Something like the jetpack might still need to have an expiration to serve as that, though.

I've got to say, I keep forgetting that one has repel. It frequently catches me off guard when I hop back onto one of my Fire Blast sentinels. I'm ... ehh... about it, honestly. There's really nothing about the power that says "this is going to do a repel." But... it's there. *shrug*

... sorry, just found this funny, to be clear 😄

*makes alt.*

No. From the person who came up with it, no, /jranger should not be an emoji, and frankly, shouldn't be allowed on the boards.

So if you don't need it (edit: weave, to be clear,) take fly instead of the power pool (fighting) you yourself said you don't need on your softcapped scrapper. You obviously don't need the fighting pool, from your own admission here. Problem solved. You now have fly. Hover, too, if you want that +def and/or LOTG mule, since you're not taking boxing or kick. And nice (well, tired) dig at people who disagree. There is no "cartel," but hey, you do you.

No, your assumption is incorrect. I do mostly solo or small group stuff. I'll join in on an mothership raid (for instance) since, frankly, it's usually time spent BSing with up to 47 other people - the raids are mostly an excuse to get together. Also, I think you missed the "I'll be off mowing through enemies when the team turn left five minutes ago." As mentioned, I don't "do builds." I'm not in any way a min/maxer. And yet I can still sit there and fight a team's worth of enemies solo for a while. That's a sign it's too easy. As far as "before level 50?" You talk about taking a MM through Mercy... what would your suggested changes do to fix that? You definitely DON'T want tough/weave (for instance) at super low levels - the END cost on them is too high for nearly no benefit. And, frankly... yes, the game *is* still easy at that level if you pay the slightest bit of attention. It's more annoying than difficult, since you don't have many powers and might sit there waiting for *something* to recharge... but that's why we have Brawl and the P2W vendor's attacks. It's not that "it takes 3 minutes less" (and tough/weave wouldn't affect that, by the way - hami's attacks ignore that. You need the inspirations that drop from fighting monsters beforehand... which I counted in that time.) You seem to have missed the point that *they're run twice in 30ish minutes, three times a day,* when they used to actually take time and have risk. It's trivial now. It's not "put an hour aside for a single run." Hami was the end game raid. Now he's a merit/hami-o/incarnate component vending machine. That's the point which you seem to have missed. Content has *already* been trivialized, it doesn't need to be trivialized further. Especially for people who want to min/max, which isn't needed to begin with. Because the "hard" content isn't interesting, *as I said,* and the rewards for it aren't particularly interesting to me either, *as I said.* I don't need merits. I'm not interested in prismatics for either costumes or money. It'd be a tedious grind (or rushing along following someone on a speed run, which I also don't find fun) for something I don't care about. I'll bump up rep regularly. But that doesn't make general content harder. Just more tedious. Content that's interesting to me? Even that's been made trivial. For instance, the "Prevent 30 fir Bolg from escaping" mission. I have an actual *goal* there. I used to feel good about zero escapes there - which, granted, I got fairly regularly. Now, with the power level availability changes? I get top tier powers from my primary to deal with it, which makes them even easier. Now I just expect zero escapes, because that's what happens. "More HP" or "More stuff piling on you" isn't that interesting. Most of the little gimmicks that get added... aren't that interesting. Oh, you now have four whatevers buffing? Take 30 seconds to wipe those out, keep beating on the bag of HP you need to take out to finish the mission. And you're also ignoring part of what I said in my *original* post. I *want* content that I have to pay attention to. I play Kheldians. We *used* to have to pay attention to Quantums and Voids. We *used* to have Cysts spawning - live ones, as in they'd spit out Nictus in quantities related to team size. *THAT WAS TAKEN AWAY.* I no longer *have* my actually interesting, throughout-the-game hard mode, because people didn't want to actually have to pay attention. Voids and Quantums are now basically "oh, look, some extra XP from an extra mob." Even at low levels. Khelds used to *be* a hard mode - an actual one. Now they're just slightly trickier to slot than a normal AT. "Which buffed certain powersets..." Are you sure that's an argument you want to make in *favor* of these when talking to someone who says the game is *already* too easy? And other than FF (with personal FF,) I've never really understood anyone saying the T1s on MM secondaries would be "useless," especially low level where they tend to be healing (typically the AOE, so you're healing yourself and your pets,) slowing/stopping enemies and/or debuffing them. Single target, sure, but they're still quite useful. But, no, they're not as good for "I need to min/max and need to fit a LOTG in and ..." And stalkers... the T1 in the secondary is *hide.* Part of the trio of powers that define a stalker. Part of what gives you the ability to control what and when you want to crit. You skip *that?* Let me reiterate... as someone who played stalkers from the COV beta on, you skip *hide.* At that point, make a brute or scrapper instead. You'll have your armor powerset then. Tough/weave is not required. People like bringing up fitness to compare. It's not even apples and oranges. It's apples and lug nuts. Tough/weave is not required. Tough/weave is a "I want I want I want" to min/max. Which isn't something that's needed to be done by default for anything in this game. So there 's *zero* reason to make it easier to get by skipping powers. So don't hold your breath. Also I see the nice, insulting "Are you playing at -1" nonsense in other replies. Such as... Mayhem missions on low level are insanely easy. I don't know how to even start thinking of them as difficult. Mayhem missions at *high* level are insanely easy. Even on a stalker, yes. Yes, even with ambushes that "know where you are." (Are you aware there are three types of ambush "logic?" There's go-to-location, go-to-player-location-at-spawn, and the player tracking one. Takes me moving all of a few feet to see which it is. It's *hilarious* to watch a "rescue" ambush run past you because you moved a few feet down the hall, in plain sight.) All you have to do is pay attention to what's going on. The people I see having trouble with them tend to just expect to rush through and ignore *all the clues about what's happening.* There are almost no missions "At appropriate diffilculty" (have to throw that bit of insult in, huh) that are "tricky" in any real way. Ambushes are not "tricky." Controlling your aggro is not "tricky," it's a basic game skill. Protip: Put your NPC dialog in another window. Ambushes are almost never stealth ambushes, and will typically announce themselves with a line or more of dialog, which can give up to *several minutes* warning. For my own amusement on mayhem missions, I'll often do exactly what Longbow says - "Stop right there, villain!" So I'll stop. And wait. And let them take the first shot. Then tell them "Thanks, that video footage of my compliance and you shooting anyway will be appreciated by my lawyer" before beating them down in "self defense." Which I can do without a min/max build at "appropriate difficulty" because the game's just not that hard to require one for that. But if your response is this sort of nonsense, you don't want a conversation.

Kind of funny you mention that. On live, I made a bots/FF. Why? Theme. Yeah, it could be untouchable, too, but - especially after the change of buffs to be AOE - it was *boring.* To the point it nearly turned me off masterminds entirely. But it does very much depend on the secondary. I went to the forum and said, basically, "I can't stand playing this. I feel like an observer, not a participant. Is this just masterminds, or is there something that would work better?" Wound up with a Thugs/Poison that I absolutely loved playing. Hell of a trip to 50. Some people like them, some (like me) just ... no.

Oooh. Granted, I have that on several platforms... still have a CD around somewhere. Hope folks got it if they never played it. It's one of those must have games.

None.

1. It's a touch hyperbolic, sure. But that's because the suggestion is silly with the state of the game. So it's only a touch. 2. Fitness is not "gone." If you open up your enhancement window, you'll see it *right there,* all four powers. Fitness was *very* hard to get around not needing (actually needing - let me tell you about my BS/SR Scrapper or Fire/Storm controller running out of END *every fight* on SOs... with endurance reduction slotted frequently,) and getting TO that required two other power picks from a pool, so it was made inherent. Given IOs, I half wonder if it could be made non inherent. That said, yes, I had characters at shutdown from before that change was made that still had a build with non-inherent Fitness. They could have gone another route - like massively reducing or rebalancing END costs and/or adjusting recovery - but the route they took was taken on live, and it's part of the game. 3. Never said anything about "not hardcore enough." That is the exact opposite of (a) what I said (it's already sleepwalk-easy) and (b) isn't something your suggestion would move the game towards, anyway. 4. "Are you doing no inspiration +4/x8 ITF solo then? I've seen a guy on youtube to that. Looked impressive." Given how *simple* it is for people to farm up a character and run +4/x8 ITFs, especially with incarnates and level boosts? No, that's not particularly impressive these days. Look around some. The ITF *used* to take time to run. It *used* to be difficult. People, even at 50, *used* to have a hard time fighting Romulus. Hell, even respecs had an even-odds chance of having team wipes at every level. Now? They're run in, what, 15 minutes? 20? They might as well have a Romulus vending machine at the end that just dispenses merits. Apex/Tin Mage is run as a duo in less than an hour - less than half an hour, as I recall, to finish both in total. Hamidon? Big end game raid that used to threaten team wipes? Everlasting runs pairs of them three times a day, day in day out (with, I believe, another one earlier on Saturday.) They're usually done in about half an hour. There's almost never a problem with them, certainly not with *finishing* them. Usually the biggest problem is Hami taking longer to spawn than usual. *The game does not need to be made EVEN EASIER.* 5. " Why would this change make the game easier? " ... are you *even serious* asking that? Have you thought through what these suggestions would do? "Oh, no, I have to take Boxing or Kick and probably not slot it." And take... what, Adrenal Booster with no prerequisites, as well as Hasten? (+Tohit +Dmg +Rech +Special.) That took all of two seconds to think of. No prerequisite, after all. Rune of Protection? Quick one pool, one power pick. One pick Fold Space. Of course, then we'd "have to" get rid of the limitation on the number of power pools, I'm sure. And no, I'm not reaching or making that up. That's *already* been suggested a few times. I'm sure we'd get people complaining about "wasted picks because there's nothing else good in the pools" once they've taken the "must have" (hint, they're not) powers. 6. " Are you ok with other changes that made the game easier?" Depends which changes. Some, sure. Stone Armor's movement penalties were thematic, but overdue to be reexamined and/or removed, for instance (or have them be granted an inherent teleport, because that was pretty close to a must-take.) Frankly, I'm not with quite a few of them. I positively hate the power level availability change that was put in recently. It's made leveling *less* fun to me, because... surprise surprise, I'm able to take top tier powers and wipe out enemies that weren't designed with them in mind. I think set bonuses should be reduced to a "rule of 3" from a rule of 5 to try to veer back into having *some* semblance of default challenge. I think Incarnate powers should be toned down outside of Incarnate content. But, I've pretty much resigned myself to the state of the game. I know those changes won't happen, so I play in the reality that the game that exists is the game in the current state. I don't make "builds," I don't really use Mids, I don't aim to perma-this-cap-that, and I'll still find myself going "Oh, wait, the team turned left five minutes ago" while blasting through mobs without much of a care. I *Prefer* the game having people have to make choices, yes. I feel *much* more satisfied if I have a good build knowing I had to decide "is power X worth a pick of a pool and these other powers?" and that I'm not just cramming every nuke, shield and godmode trick in that I can. Yes, I even prefer having dangerous Cysts and unresistable Nictus damage from Quantums and Voids on my Kheldians. It made me have to pay attention. And yes, I preferred actually having crashing nukes and T9s, so using them was something you had to think about - instead of just ignoring the T9 armors because you're already untouchable thanks to set bonuses and don't need them. The game's already sleepwalk easy. It's certainly not any sort of *challenge* that keeps me logging in. It's because I love the world, the character creator, and the RP with my friends. And yes, I know there are "hard modes" for some TFs. I don't care. I don't need the rewards, and the ones I've done have been more tedious than challenging or fun. Prismatics? I don't care about the costumes, and don't generally need the INF. Merits? For what? I used to chase those (or, before, recipe drops from TFs) because, again, there was *some* challenge that needed them. There isn't now. And merits drop freely. And yes, I *do* have characters on SOs only - with other restrictions. I know how they used to play. Even with that, the game's nowhere near as challenging and requires nowhere near the thought. (No, I don't run them with characters with IOs. It'd make the point of running them that way moot.) (Edit) Or, hell. How about soloing GMs? First person that did it, it was an *accomplishment.* Illusion controller - I *believe* on SOs. Took a long time (though they were tackling Lusca.) It was something to brag about. Now? You can probably point out multiple people who do it regularly when bored. A team - not even a full team - can go GM hunting and rack up a pile of merits without much effort, a few minutes per GM. So, no. The game does NOT need to be made even easier, which yes, this would do, you shouldn't even have to pretend to have to ask that. You do NOT need even less standing in the way of a beyond-godmode build. And no, from someone who *does* do RP builds and makes non-optimal choices (for instance - picking Leviathan mastery because of a character's backstory... or because they're a cat and a cat throwing fish around amuses me) and still can sleep through missions, RP is not a reason for it either and I'm personally insulted that that was even thrown in as a reason. If I want the sort of godmode this'll give access to, I'll create an AE, throw the toughest mobs I can in, go in in test mode, turn invincibility on and walk around clicking the "Kill target" button. I've done it. It's amusing for about a minute. Maybe two if I've had a particularly annoying day. As far as I'm concerned, the game's about a quarter inch away from that as it is. Aren't you glad you asked for my position? Trust me, *this is toned down and not even close to everything I think.* Oh. Yeah. You had a thing on extra slots. As I'm recalling, it was tested and broke things badly. Though at one point, there was a bug in respecs for Kheldians that one person took advantage of back in the day - as I'm remembering (might be slightly mistaken on exactly what they did as far as slotting,) they put all their slots in one power and one-shot Hamidon. That - obviously - got fixed.