Greycat

Well, there's restoring and there's restoring... or, rather, restoring and reverting. Sounds like you're against reverting, which - yeah, I can get. "WHAM" ooh, it's back now is a bit jarring. Restoring, a la Faultline (though that was a little sudden) - I've been suggesting stuff like that for, say, boomtown since live. Something that literally builds it back into the game. Lot more work, though.

Except you: - Can't start there. - Have no contacts there. - Can't run missions there. - Can't even train there. So... "You can see the echo zone in Ouro" is missing the point of this.

Because they all need to be run in 5 minutes or less? Do we really need *more* speed runs on yet more content? Also, as general feedback - quite frankly, even as a longtime player who's well aware of power pool availability and the like, while making other characters to test other things, this... let's call it "compressed availability tree" of powers has felt rather like being told "NO! LOOK HERE, YOU MUST TAKE THESE POWERS NAO!" The lack of breaks in that leveling progression feels to me like it's going to dissuade people from looking at pools and diversifying builds earlier on. (No, not everyone uses MIDS and pre-plans every half-second of their character's life.) I don't see that as a positive. I really don't like the direction this is pointing. Edit: I should also add the point I made elsewhere. Our legacy content - IE, *most of the game* - was built with the expectation of certain power availability at certain levels. Yes, the +5 from exemping breaks it a little. But this runs over it even more, frankly. Are we going to see low level mobs "boosted" in difficulty, damage, HP, resists, etc? Or is there just going to be no reason to do more than PL past the old, "might as well all be grey to me" content? Should we drop XP for defeats thanks to the much lesser challenge? Example: I *like* the content in the 20s-mid 30s. Running Keith Nance, Jenny Adair, Croatoa - they all have challenges that feel fully appropriate to the level I'm at. I don't tend to ouro back so I'm at max-level-plus-five-powers-and-slots to them because it eases that challenge too much. With this change? I'll be running (say) the "Prevent FIr Bolg from escaping" mission with all my T9s available to me. I've been able to keep this at 0 escapes for some time, and felt like that was a (minor, granted) accomplishment because of what I've had to work with. With these? It would be far less satisfying. Might as well be a 50 punting Hellions in Atlas.

Except those first few levels, even without XP boosters and the like, *fly* by, and the enemies you face aren't exactly giant bags of HP. Besides, what would you do in their place? "Earn" nothing? Put the other power picks even earlier still? Should we be firing off nukes at 20? (Level picked randomly.) And, as a general feedback note: As I've been trying out other power sets and such... yes, this *has* felt very off. It feels like I'm being told YOU MUST PICK THESE POWERS NOW! versus "Hey... there's a break in the order now. How about looking into a pool power, or maybe catching something you wanted but skipped earlier?" They're highlighted in a way that just doesn't give a break that encourages exploring. Not everyone uses MIDS and plans down to the last picosecond every hundredth of a percent of everything in advance. I feel like this change is going to impact the "I just want to hop on and play" player's experience, frankly. Hell, I've played since I3 and this is impacting my experience.

... why? It's a confuse animation. It's the same confuse animation Controllers have for Deceive. It's a ranged control, not a melee attack.

Yes, because they don't need it and I, for one, don't think it's good for the game. The content was designed with certain levels and power availability in mind. Overpowering that makes the content trivial - which people are already bothered about on the high end - which doesn't lead to maintaining interest.

And my care about it is that it *is* here and I want it to be the best it can be, even if it does disappear tomorrow. If on (say) February 1st 2023 we get shut down, I want to say "It had another good run, felt good and I believed it was in good hands" rather than "Well, probably better it got canned now before it kept going the way it was." I've put in my reasons and an example of previous content that was affected by powers availability being earlier (and not, IMHO, in a good way) in the specific thread, if that hasn't been hidden. I don't think we need more of it. There's nothing about this game hard enough, 1-50, that moving power availability earlier solves. I do not believe it's good for the game, period. But, as I've also said, by the time it's at this stage, I have zero faith that feedback's going to do anything at all, short of having some gamebreaking bug (similar to when we initially got five powers in pools and it screwed up Kheldians and Dominators 'til they could fix it - but those were the days on live.)

Wouldn't argue with it (I liked starting in Galaxy when it was an option,) but ... probably more work than you think.

... the one where people could take invulnerability and flight, and be an invulnerable flyer with no attacks? ;)

About the only quibble I have is not *really* liking the name Vulnerability. I kind of miss the choice of buff or debuff on the T1 or T2, but not enough to really argue (yet.)

Some people actually *play* lower level content. I find myself preferring low to mid level content because I'm not going to be in the middle of "Cap this, Judgement that, Perma the other thing." This *is* pretty much literal power creep. And the game doesn't need it, quite frankly. There's no glut of oh-so-difficult low/mid range content or any problem this solves. Though, it's going in to the game anyway. I have absolutely zero faith that this is not going live no matter what's said. Didn't run into any bugs creating a character to test other things, so...

I'll second this. I tend to be a proponent of knockback. I think it's underrated, and mostly has a bad rep by people not bothering to learn how to use it (or not thinking before they do.) The one place I *will* put KB-KD IOs (well, two, bonfire's just insanely good with this) are pets, because the AI proves it's far more A than I and obviously *doesn't* use knockback well. I'd be fine with *every* pet that does KB having it dropped down to KD - not *player* powers, just pets.

Personally, I've always *appreciated* those gaps, I have to say. Usually because there's been something else picked up (say, a travel power) and those levels have let me "catch up" if I needed on the primary and secondary. Or it's let me finally have a place to grab a pool if I've felt like I've had so many required picks up to those points. This just ... kind of feels like "yay, people can min/max more easily now because that was so difficult before...oh, wait..." (Yes, I'm one of those who finds shoving power availability down to be *even earlier* frankly guts some content. We've *already* had this happen on live once. When we had the auto-exemp giving +5 levels of power? Took some of the fun out of Siren's Call, for instance, and made Bloody Bay have an even bigger level/power disparity. So... yeah, generally not... actually all that thrilled about this.)

Really not fond of the Force Bubble / Repulsion Field changes. I use Force Bubble to reposition things. I use it: 1. To affect things that are not affected by knockback, such as bosses, which often can be repelled just fine. 2. To reposition bad AOE immobs/holds. These *also* do not tend to resist a repel. You can gather things up again. You can move them onto burn patches, tar patches, ice patches, etc. 3. In places I do *not* want to do knockback. 4. In places I want a continuous effect (repel,) not a pulsed one (KB/KD.) 5. I use the *size* of Force Bubble to keep various dangerous things at a farther range, out of the (usually) more dangerous (to me) melee range. Now, I have: - A shorter range field, which - Also does knockback, which I may not want in various situations (and note, I'm a proponent of using KB, because I know and want to show others *how to use it responsibly and as a benefit to the team,*) and which - if I slot for KB->KD because of that, loses that very handy repel. And yes, the 10 second recharge on force bolt is *far* too long.

Power descriptions for the holds: Your audience falls into deep despair, incapacitating them. Hymn of Dissonance causes pain on its listener, the pain can be disruptive enough to hold them in place. Stronger foes might persist, but will still attack at a reduced speed. I don't think either would cause a reaction of "woo, party on, dance the night away..."

100% "Whatever looks interesting." I know I could min/max. I don't because it's boring to me. (And yet some characters still get to the point of "can stand in the middle of a mob napping and be safe." If they get there 'naturally' it's fine.) Reasons I'll make a character: 1. Character concept. I want to be this person, or this person would fit a story in my head. What AT/sets fit best? (Backstory first) 2. "Ooh, I want to try that powerset." 3. "Oooh, I don't think I've tried that combo." Sometimes a "for the lulz" reason, like stone/MA flipping around while attacking sounds funny. 4. A name comes to mind, is available, I like what ideas come with it. (For instance, Rock Yew is still waiting for sentinels to get stone armor. Til then, earth/TA.) 5. SG reasons, which is kinda-sorta 1 but externally prompted. 6. Mix of the above. The times I've made a character to deal with something specific in game... are rare (introduction of the purple triangles, IIRC, prompted me to make a rad/rad, and that felt forced. Got her to 50, she was (and is) a fun character, but ... eh.) I'm pretty much 100% either "What sounds fun today?" or being a smarta** in naming (*Rez dispenser waves from the RWZ.*)

Mm. The recharge time wouldn't hurt, certainly. And yeah, I'm iffy about the damage. Primarily because (a) you're setting up containment on a group, now, and (b) Dominators don't really need it. (And I'm a little "eh" about ice and elec getting gimmicky.) Not saying it's bad or broken, just that I'm "eh" about it. Gut feel.

Here? Most people don't PVP. It's pretty easy to avoid the three people who do. >.> (Just teasing, PVPers. :) )

(No, that's not a typo.) Blueside, when you earn a respec, you're still told to go see Jack Wolfe to use it. Which, of course, you don't need to do now. Having this text removed and replaced with just "type /respec" would cause a bit less confusion, given I still see people looking for Wolfe in Help. Of course, that's not quite as fun. Maybe a hint of "Type /respec, or do it the old fashioned way" and leaving it at that might lead to something... Say, a badge if you visit Wolfe and do the legacy cape and aura missions? (you know, I'm not even 100% sure they're still available. Pretty sure, but....) Do all three for the badge. "Old timer" or "Stuck in the past" or something. Oh, sure, and do the same with redside, I suppose. >.> :)

Incredibly minor, but longstanding. Every once in a while I'll go ahead and check NPCs to see what they have for time and number of times on patrol. The "M" NPCs supposedly give (basically) total time played. Except that time gets "stuck" one way or another on occasion. For instance, back on live I had a character in a foursome of shield users. We only ran together. Their 1-50 time was in the 80-ish hour range. Me, with the same logins, other than perhaps an occasional auction house check.. 300+. Currently, I was checking on a level 38 sentinel. NPC reports 14 times on patrol. The "M" NPC reports 306 hours - which means I'd have to be playing an average of 21.8 hours *each time* I logged that character on. Which ... no. Again, incredibly minor, but it's there.

Ahh. That I know is a .. bug? ... with several Shadow Shard maps. Annoying as hell.

I'd take it just for the always slow snipe. Hell, I'd convert the other pieces to always slow snipe.

... About the only time I see things not render is in the middle of MSRs. I don't think I've ever had that happen in a mission in HC.

Well, the concept's part one of others not wanting to be around, part "sandpaper" thanks to the acid - haven't run as bio, but dark/SS fit quite well when that got released to tanks on live.

I mentioned this back on live... probably from a naming question thread. The "root" of my first main/forum namesake/etc (Memphis Bill) was back in Marvel's New Universe days - Dennis Cuzinski, part of D.P.7, aka "Scuzz." Some friends of mine were starting - not Champions, but Tristat Silver Age Sentinels. I wanted to make something more interesting than just the "tough guy," and my mind went to that character. So, I had a pretty decent tank - without the original's attitude - whose skin just constantly oozed acid. Played hell with the clothing budget, but had some interesting side effects (copying the "spitball," basically... but when I used it in a sort of entrance exam IC, I needed two handfulls of dice to deal with the various effects - yay tristat - and managed to make a bunker into rubble. Also had an AoE effect he discovered where he just described himself as "smelling real bad" - but the acid could disperse into the air around him and knock out most minions and such.) Tried to remake him in Freedom Force, but ... never really got too far into that game. Then COH came out, I figured my first runthrough should be with something resiliant. I thought of that character, and the closest thing I could get to it was a fire/ss tanker at the time. So I rilled with it.