Glacier Peak

This is the kind of insight I was lacking on the Freezing Rain connection! Thank you for sharing.

I'll count myself as one of those who were confused on what the stacking meant. Thank you for enlightening me and the rest of the thread. In your second paragraph, I pointed to as much in my original thread - regardless of the reason, the change was made. I'm still seeing a consensus that this change did not make a substantive negative impact on the performance of the power (for Corruptors specifically, though mac mentioned it hit Mastermind's harder).

Adding additional context for the lay person: Sleet used to apply it's debuffs on every tick on target in the area, which meant that it could apply the debuff over and over to the same target to extend its duration past the actual pseudopet. With the Page 7 change, it now applies once per target in the area.

Thank you for your post - I also agree the change is barely noticeable in my experiences, especially when added to the context of a full rotation of Cold Domination powers to a mob or GM/AV.

Like @arcane pointed out, this is a slight downward tweak overall. Looking at Sleet in game (see below), I noticed that it can still stack multiple times on the target (Rikti Pylon). Can anyone clarify what is meant by "pet effect set to ignore stacking?" I thought Sleet was made in to a true pseudopet.

Thus far, I'm seeing that for the sake of balance, powers for Archetypes should be tied to the inherent values of said Archetypes. I think this is correct and I would hope this continues for future power development. I'm also reading that how a power behaved over two decades has no bearing on how a change should be made, in this very specific case of Sleet. Perhaps a less reductive approach could have achieved a similar desired balance - for example, on Corruptors - allow Sleet to Scourge enemies.

This is interesting to me because looking back at the patch notes for the legacy days, there were various passes across many powers that were eventually proliferated across other Archetypes. If a stat was reduced in some way, there was another stat that compensated for the change to ensure parity to the Archetypes. I could not find an outright change to Sleet in any patch note since Issue 6. I may be speculating, but I believe this change was brought up because of the change to Tar Patch previously and because someone pointed out that the values were all the same across all Archetypes with Sleet. Why the devs chose not to find a way to ensure parity and instead make an across-multiple Archetypes change was not explained during testing (though it was requested).

I appreciate your input and I see this as a bug fix as well. However, I'll point out that in my post at the top that those "overpowered " versions of Sleet you mentioned didn't apply to the Corruptor version, as it has been the same value since Issue 6, which persisted for nearly twenty years before a change was deemed necessary.

For all of you Corruptor Cold Domination powerset players out there and others who discussed this during alpha/beta (@macskull, @Vanden, @Draeth Darkstar, @America's Angel) I've got something to add about one (of the two) changes made to the Cold Domination powerset (Sleet and Heat Loss). I appreciate @Captain Powerhouse giving their explanation during testing, however, I think this change now prompts discussion post-implementation. For those not aware of the change, please see below for context. Background on Sleet: This power was modified in to a real pseudopet, inheriting Archetype modifiers in the Issue 27, Page 7 release based on the explanation (see quote below) that non-primary powerset Archetypes (Corruptor, Controller, and Mastermind) were doing primary powerset values (Defender) inadvertently boosting it's performance beyond what was intended. Once the real pseudopet inherited the values of the Archetype, this would be considered balanced. During testing, there was a discussion of a scenario where a player had the ability to drop Sleet, then Heat Loss, Burnout, then Sleet Heat Loss again to stack more than 60% -resistance on a mob which persisted for 45 seconds (now 30 seconds post-patch) (though that was not considered an exploit, instead working as intended). There were also comparisons during discussion of other targeted area of effect powers like Tar Patch. I added those last two sentences for context if the reader was not aware. Lastly, I want to point out that Sleet does not Scourge. If I missed anything or incorrectly identified the wrong values, please let me know. Realizing this is the way it is now and asking why a change was made is irrelevant, I wanted to look back at the power to see what exactly were the values for this Cold Domination powerset power Sleet, a staple when it was released, (then subsequently proliferated). For context, below are the Issues aligned with the aforementioned action: Cold Domination Powerset History: Issue 6: Cold Domination was first added when City of Villains launched to Corruptors only as a Secondary Powerset. Corruptor Sleet had been doing -30% Defense and -30% Resistance on target since Issue 6. Issue 12: Cold Domination Primary Powerset was proliferated to Defenders. Defender Sleet had been doing -30% Defense and -30% Resistance on target since Issue 12. Issue 16: Cold Domination Secondary Powerset was proliferated to Controllers. Controller Sleet had been doing -30% Defense and -30% Resistance on target since Issue 16. Issue 18: Epic Pool Power (Sleet) was added to Ice Mastery (formerly Cold Mastery) for Dominators. Dominator Sleet had been doing -30% Defense and -30% Resistance on target since Issue 18. Issue 25: Cold Domination Secondary Powerset was proliferated to Masterminds. Mastermind Sleet had been doing -30% Defense and -30% Resistance on target since Issue 25. Edit: Stacking Effects: (thanks to @macskull for the clarity!) "The previous behavior was the debuff was set to “replace,” so every tick of damage that hit would refresh the debuff for an additional 30 seconds (which realistically resulted in a 45-second debuff). It is now set to ignore new applications, so it will never last for more than 30 seconds after the first tick of damage. Multiple applications of the power from the same caster still stack because different pseudopets are considered different “casters.”" Freezing Rain tangent: This next part is a bit speculation since I don't have access to original power data, but Sleet was likely a port of the Freezing Rain power from Defender Storm Summoning, which at the time I believe was doing -30% Defense and -35% Resistance. Freezing Rain itself was also available on Controllers, so in Issue 4 the developers increased the duration of the power for both, but also increased the slow debuff for Defender to distinguish it between controllers. Beyond that it remained the same until Issue 27, Page 7. Edit: Further Tangent on Freezing Rain (thanks to @Uun insight on this thread!): "Freezing Rain was scaled for defenders and controllers. While controller secondary values were supposed to be 75% of defender values, Freezing Rain was designed with 35% -res on defenders and 30% -res on controllers (85.7% of defender value). When Cold was created for corruptors in I6, Sleet was a direct port of the controller version of Freezing Rain. When Cold was proliferated to defenders in I12, the corruptor version of Sleet was copied (they didn't even match the slightly higher values for defender Freezing Rain. This imbalance wasn't addressed until p7. In the case of Freezing Rain, the defender version was increased to 40% -res and the other ATs were left at 30%. In the case of Sleet, the defender version was left at 30% -res and the other ATs were reduced to 22.5%. Per Captain Powerhouse, this was an intentional buff to Storm Summoning." Note the similar values at the time of City of Villains launch until the Issue 27, Page 7 update. How do others feel about the change post-implementation? Good or bad, happy to discuss.

Being able to swap builds on the fly - going from my Night Widow build to my Fortunata build - is why my Arachnos Widow is my second favorite character I've made. No other AT beside Kheldians can do that, but Widows can not just do it - they can do it well or even better than other ATs.

No feedback, but I'm supportive.

That Ice APP though! Got it on my main and it's got Build Up down to a minute recharge, capped HP thanks to the heal, and more +Cold def. I even went four deep and grabbed the Ice pet, which works really well with Frostworks and my Ice shields buffs.

Those are fun stats, thanks for sharing the article! Not only do I play on Indomitable, the lowest population North American server, but I also play an Arachnos Widow, one of the least popular Archetypes. And I created it years ago, before any of the sweet recent changes were implemented. Fortunata Non Grata

Oooh and maybe name the specific mobs that grant less XP than baseline. The Freakshow for example.

How did you defeat 450 Giant Monsters in one day? 😳 Edit: Also note the below - Giant Monsters Adamastor Adamastor's Monstrous Aether now shares cooldown with their merit rewards. Ghost of Scrapyard Ghost of Scrapyard's Reward Merits and Monstrous Aether now have an 18-hour cool-down to reward on the same character.

Sounds like the problem identified by the original poster is already solved. Nice work community!

Ninja Run, like other S.T.A.R.T. purchased travel powers, cannot be slotted with enhancements. Edit: @ZorkNemesis got to it first!

I think badges themselves are reward enough. I don't mind the extra stuff added on top, but I'm not beholden to it for dopamine.

There's the instant gratification way, just read the enemy group listing in the Homecoming wiki kindly assembled by volunteer scholars. Then there's the play each mission from every contact and read every pop up, mission text, dialogue, and souvenir - along with every badge, enemy info description and cutscene. The former is nice to do since the old user manual is dated. The latter is nice if you have time and really enjoy the story. Oh and there's this too: Know your adversary

I appreciate that Hydra have Toxic attacks at that specific level range. It taught me to pay attention to typed damage when I first started playing. I don't mind updating visuals and adding in a few surprises to these enemy groups, but I'm also a big fan of how they were introduced to players.

This is not correct. I am a Villain. Why are they conning as enemies to me?

The real trick is to load up a brand new character on Indomitable (1.0x), have them log out for 10 days for a full bar of patrol XP (1.0x), log back in and purchase the Double XP boost from the S.T.A.R.T vendor (1.0x) and then join a team and defeat the Avatar Seed of Hamidon floating in First Ward (0.25x). That's 3.25x XP! Seriously though, I support this suggestion.

Another color of red and Knight? Try these