Maxzero
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Posts posted by Maxzero
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5 hours ago, Frosticus said:
Well in truth, they bumped pylons to lvl 54 out in the zone. Those will wreck the majority of pylon builds that have ever been posted in the scrapper forum too like all those paper tissue /bio builds and spirit ward won't be keeping any pets alive against them. We will see a lvl 54 pylon thread? idk.
The old pylon test was arbitrarily punishing to certain powersets.
It is not uncommon in team play for my doms to be able to put the pedal all the way to the floor. I think if nothing else this competition probably showed a lot of people that doms can have some serious power under the hood even if they have a hard time putting it down sometimes.
Additionally @Koopak is simply saying what is permitted (not entirely unlike the scrapper version, just a bit different), he isn't saying you have to use all of the tools available and his spreadsheet has a lot of detail letting viewers glean what is or is not useful to them.
Dom's issue was never output. They can hard AoE CC packs of enemies instantly and do very respectable damage. The main issue was surviving the damage coming back.
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12 hours ago, Ston said:
In my opinion, a big takeaway from this challenge is that the assault sets are very well balanced. I saw a lot of 30-40s results between myself and others with a variety of builds. I don't think you'd see this tight of a grouping with as many sets on any other ATs. This can probably be credited to Assault sets having more balance between recharge / animation times of their attacks. Other AT's should take notes, this is something I've harped on for years now. Procs aren't the problem, it's the gaps in recharge / animation times between sets.
The range of attack sets generally is fairly narrow. I mean you have often have very similar power setups (weak attack, less weak attack, AoE, Build Up, etc) and often just one or two powers that really set them apart.
Its when you get into the really broad power sets (Buff, MM pets, etc) that numbers can really vary.
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On 2/22/2024 at 2:03 AM, Frosticus said:
Could you imagine a version of the game where burnout affected the power pools. That would change some of my builds for sure.
Ymmv, but the AV fights back against you, not the pets with the dominator version. I won't disagree that the intangibility of PA is a benefit though.
It's true Dom's have always had issues taking s hit rather the dishing them out at least PA won't die.
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13 hours ago, Frosticus said:
Regular gameplay means so many different things to different people though. In truth most of these builds would be humbled pretty quickly if we just zipped halfway across the zone and tried these shenanigans against a lvl 54 pylon that fights back 🙂
/nrg is good, but for me you want a good amount of aoe and solid single target. If you don't have strong aoe then you want some way of facilitating good aoe like /fire boosting rain of fire and fireball so well. Or a ton of utility like /psi offers in drain psyche. But everyone wants different things and I think most assault sets are pretty nice.
For this competition my gut said /thorny and that's why I ran that ill/thorn back at the beginning of the month. I honestly never considered /nrg in the running because it has no opportunities for -res and the self boosting is not on par with the likes of thorn, fire, (or as we learned from @VertigoIguana) martial. At the end of the day, -res procs play a big role in killing even con pylons as has been demonstrated so many times in the scrapper thread.
If someone swaps in burnout (double FE) and uses geas on the fire/fire/mace build I put up earlier it may well be in the running with that astounding ill/ma time.
Still time for someone to get creative and come up with something different though!
Ya definitely an interesting mechanic. Perhaps not particularly applicable for an ill/ma in game, but if it works as he suggests then something like a fire/ma could see tremendous benefits to their imps over time (if you keep them alive of course). If nothing else I've added that for a potential combo to look at later and I would have not come up with that on my own 🙂
If you are really getting into Burnout abuse Dark Mastery may be an option to double stack Tar Patch.
For regular gameplay I think Soul and Leviathan are pretty solid. Good attacks, good armour power, Probably like Soul more since the AoE, res shield and pet are better.
Illusion is one of the best primaries if you are fighting a lvl 54 AV that hits back.
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On 2/19/2024 at 2:53 AM, VertigoIguana said:
Pets inherit Envenomed Blades eh? Learn something new everyday. Would Creepers also inherit if you summoned it while Blades were active?
I have thought for a while that the Dom's version of Illusion is better then the Controller one.
I still see the melee Phantasm bug is still there.
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12 hours ago, megaericzero said:
I'm not here to appeal to authority; I'm just voicing my thoughts or opinions. I do think it's a mistake for reasons others and I have already gone over - it's counter to team play and support sets should not be useable as pseudo armor sets. If this change were implemented, I'd still think it's incorrect. Even if it's to throw a bone to soloing, I think keeping the door shut to prevent the potential problems to groups is more important.
Don't get me wrong. I hate aggressively Gaigaxian design too. I just don't think a support being largely unable to buff themself is a paradigm to shift. It's a fairly standard practice, at least in the games that I've played. I think it's sensible both in lore and mechanically.
As for disclaimers, I'm with you but I don't think it's as profound a point as you do? Like, yeah, players should be fully informed before they make decisions. I can see more warnings integrated into descriptions such as Energy Melee saying "Energy Melee offers more single-target damage but has less AOE than other sets" (last I played with this set was before the update so maybe this has changed?) or Controllers saying "the most powerful foes (EBs, AVs, GMs) may be nearly impossible for you to lock down on your own."
The thing is with later buff sets this 'can't buff self' was done away with and its probably made the 3 strongest/popular support sets overall in Time, Dark (esp Affinity) and Nature. I have heard everything from:
"Its always been this way!"
"Play something else!"
"It will be OP!"
Only the 3rd of which is concrete enough to generate possible responses. The other two basically being variants of: "I don't want Empathy to be able to solo because I just don't."
For some reason Empathy being able to solo terrfies some players. Like all the healbots in teams will suddenly vanish to play solo challenge content.
I must admit I was surprised but how some posters seem to take personal offence to just the idea of Empathy being able to self buff like the idea of a Emp Defender casting Fortitude on themselves makes them wake up in cold sweats.
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11 hours ago, TygerDarkstorm said:
Erm, you are aware that every buff /Kin provides to others it also provides to itself, yeah?
So /Kins can now Speedboost and ID themselves when those abilities were made AoE?
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45 minutes ago, Rudra said:
As long as you and the others debate the Empathy set? I'm going to sit the debate out. Like I said, I have no stake in it. If you are going to post nonsense? I'm going to reply.
And for crying out loud, how many times do I have to say the warning is already there? I even showed you where the information is in game. Any player that wants to know what their chosen power set offers can see it at character creation. And that information is there so that any player, even new ones, can get the information they need to make more informed decisions for their characters. If you want something more? Fine. Just please stop pretending the warning isn't already there.
I don't think the current information is sufficient.
If we are going to make 2 tiers of support sets I think the limitations should be made clearer.
Since you said you a fine with that this conversation should be over.
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14 minutes ago, Rudra said:
Why are you asking me that? I'm not arguing against you. The sole purpose of my comment was to respond to your comment that only Scrappers could solo decently when CoH first launched. And I'm saying that is nonsense. Every AT was good at soloing. (Except for Controllers because of how long it took them to do anything, but by god they were safe while slowly making their way through the missions.)
You want warnings for sets and their powers? Like I said, that information is already available on the character select screen if you click the green exclamation point that says Info. If it says "Friendlies"? Then it is ally only. If it says "Self"? It affects you too. And obviously, if it says "Enemies", it needs enemies to work.
Edit: Players can also use Mids, go to City of Data, or go to the wiki to get this information.
Its a bit rude to reply to a post and only respond to one point. It looks like thats the only point you are comfortable responding too. Especially when its not even the main issue.
Whats the issue with just a warning saying this power selection is 'team focused and poorer in non team activites?'
Its better then someone creating a character and finding out later on. Its not like it will take a lot of effort to implement.
The new player experience being a focus and all at the moment.
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36 minutes ago, megaericzero said:
Protecting people from themselves is in reference to them being able to build bad habits - to lose sight of what a support set does and try to use it as an armor set. Even if allowing them to do it solo, it opens up the possibility to do it on teams - mistake or not. The best way to prevent something from happening is to make it physically impossible.
>reduce the effectiveness when cast on self
To discourage the behavior, it would have to cut the values so much it wouldn't even be worth casting on yourself anymore anyway. Then we start the slippery slope of "but Time/Dark/etc. doesn't lose effectiveness!" which puts us right back here.
>only let people use it solo or on small teams then
Then people complain that they're being punished for teaming because it locks them out of self-buffing.
You act like buffing themselves is a mistake, that it is the wrong way to play. Who decides that? You may say the developers. So does that mean if it is changed to become self targetable you would agree that its now the right way to play?
>Then people complain that they're being punished for teaming because it locks them out of self-buffing.
As opposed to being locked out because you 'picked wrong' on the character select screen? I glad you agree with the warning because if you are going to create two tiers of supports sets then players should be fully informed before they make their selection.
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6 hours ago, megaericzero said:
Or when the option opens up the possibility for players to neglectfully use the powers when the existing standard prevents that. Sometimes you have to protect players from themselves.
If you want support sets to have a disclaimer that they may not be ideal for soloing or new players, I'm one-hundred percent game. Heck - put it in big, red letters. There's an entire category - shared by five archetypes - that specialize in buffing yourself.
Now if only there was an armor set for people who wanted healing/regeneration-based survivability and mez protection for themself, maybe even with a little extra recovery...
How does it protect Empathy players to be not able to buff themselves?
The thing is some support sets don't need the disclaimer. Its just some supports have just been labeled "have never soloed and never will be able to!"
How does it improve the gameplay experience for Empathy players to be very poor at soloing?
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12 hours ago, Rudra said:
Please tell me you are joking. The only AT at launch where I heard any complaints about soloing were Controllers. And that was mostly due to how long it took them to clear maps.
Yet to answer my question:
Why does Empathy have to be bad at soloing? How does that improve the gameplay experience especially for the Empathy player?
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8 hours ago, UltraAlt said:
Meanwhile, others rant on about the "Holy Trinity" of gaming.
CoH actually was very holy trinity on release. Tankers did hardly any damage but were tough, Scrappers were melee DPS, Blasters were ranged DPS, Controllers and Defender did crap damage but of course were the only ATs with access to support power sets (including Heals). Scrappers were the only AT that could solo decently.
Its only when Jack Emmert left that we actually started getting more flexibility in ATs.
Empathy, Kinetics and Forcefields were the products of that time.
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8 hours ago, UltraAlt said:
No. It isn't.
You are arguing semantics to try to prove your point.
If you take pets into account then your argument is moot. You can use "ally only powers" on pets.
Okay. The point of the discussion is to get approval of what you want from other players and possibly the DEVs, but, apparently, you think that other people don't have a right to express their disapproval.
You want to discuss something you have to accept that there are those that aren't going to disagree with you.
Empathy was one of the first sets released for the game.
I'm going to say it again that I'm on the side of leaving it alone other than "Absorb Pain". There is no other self sacrificing Primary or Secondary power that promotes a for player character becoming a martyr for the team.
The shields and buffs are a huge power-leverage for a team. The team in turn should be looking out for that character.
If you want to solo, fine. Deal with the restrictions you have as a solo player.
I don't recall ever running into a thread like this on Homecoming before. I'm pretty sure their were little to none of them before the Sundown.
Playing as a solo player is on you, and doesn't require changing the game for everyone else.
There are plenty of archetypes, power sets, and power pools that don't affect allies only.
"It's not fair that I don't get credit for the kills by enemies that I confuse."
"You could try another power set."
"No. I want to get credit for the kills made by enemies that I confuse. You are being prejudice against me because I want to get XP."
That is pretty much what I see your point to come down to.
Or we could leave it alone as it isn't something that has caused an issue since the game was created.
My point was some people were talking about how it was great to have power sets that were team focused and not very good soloers because it gave options. My reply was my suggestion takes away no options. Why does Empathy have to be bad at soloing? How does that improve the gameplay experience especially for the Empathy player?
I group and solo. Why is it some supports sets can be fantastic at both yet Empathy has to suck at one? That isn't freedom thats a restriction.
Where did I say people couldn't disagree? I just want a mechnical and gameplay reason why Empathy has to suck for soloing not: "but its always been that way!."
Your analogy also sucks you do get XP from enemies you Confuse as long as you deal at least one damage. The XP calculation is actually quite generous you only need to do 25% of the damage to get 100% XP. Confuse is liked because it greatly accelerates kill speed giving you more XP overall since you go through missions faster.
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13 hours ago, UltraAlt said:
Yes and Yes.
One player is not a team. One player is not a "group".
Two to eight players are a team.
Leagues can have more than 8 players and have multiple teams.
I solo sometimes, but the game is built around team-play dynamics.
The different archetypes are supposed to synergize to create a greater result than a character can when soloing.
The DEVs drew the line. I didn't.
Also teams are generally 4 or more on a team.
I do spend some game play as duos for up to 6 hours a week, but most of my teamplay is on teams that have 4 or more players.
Well actually the line is blurred when you take into account pets and such.
It just seems everyone like options unless one of those options includes gameplay they don't approve of then suddenly that option is not okay.
Some of the team focused sets getting better soloability does not diminish their group viability at all.
Or we could put warning labels at character creation saying: "this set is focused for team play only and is not designed to play alone" so that everyone is on the same page.
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13 hours ago, arcane said:
Yeah I don’t assume you understand the numbers. Self-buffing Empathy would have far more mitigation than Time of Dark.
Well yeah because it has no debuffs or CCs it has to be good for something.
But hey if it turns out OP they can have a weaker version when cast on self. My goal is to make some of the weaker sets better at soloing any improvement is better then what they have now.
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12 hours ago, Psyonico said:
I'm going to remind you that what others and I are talking about is on SOs only, Empathy my not scale as well as other sets when it comes to IOs, but a self-buffing Empathy defender doesn't even *need* IOs to do the things we're talking about.
This isn't live anymore how many players actually use SOs in endgame? If you are running SOs what do you care about OP anyway you are already playing vastly sub optimally?
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10 hours ago, biostem said:
Nice moving the goalposts there. Fort & CM, if castable on yourself, are better than many armor sets, and that's not counting the 2 RAs you already have available.
What moving of the goal posts the whole point was to make Empathy better at soloing? Some claim it would be OP so the obvious question is after the changes would Empathy be better then the current best Support sets for soloing.
Judging by you avoidance is answering its pretty clear that its not.
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46 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:
It shouldn't be.
This is an MMORPG and not a 1-player game.
The game is designed for teaming.
The DEVs over the years have done somethings to make the game more solo-player friendly, but that doesn't need to be taken to extremes.
You have plenty of options and don't need to play a set that has powers that only affects others.
46 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:It shouldn't be.
This is an MMORPG and not a 1-player game.
The game is designed for teaming.
The DEVs over the years have done somethings to make the game more solo-player friendly, but that doesn't need to be taken to extremes.
You have plenty of options and don't need to play a set that has powers that only affects others.
So the issue is the solo part? A group of 1 are a problem but group of 2 casting the buffs on each other are perfectly fine?
Seems a rather arbitrary line to draw.
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56 minutes ago, MonteCarla said:
One of CoH's real strengths is that you're rewarded for teaming.
You get more XP for being on teams, but teams also naturally reinforce each other and perform better than the sum of their parts.
This is important because forming teams is a little bit hard and requires social energy. If the game doesn't reward it and everyone's solo-capable, no one bothers.
If you ever played Champions Online - this wasn't the case. The support powersets are OK, but not team-changing in the way that CoH's are. And nobody teams up to run missions beyond the Alerts there.Ally-only buffs play a big part in keeping CoH team friendly. This totally exists still - I play it most days and I'm not the only one. If it's not your cup of tea, that's cool.
You make a whole bunch of decisions when you make a character. One of them is the Team/Solo axis.
Team (Defender, Controller etc) or Solo (Scrapper, Stalker, Sentinel etc)
Say I choose Defender.
Team (Empathy, Sonic, Thermal) or Solo (Dark, Rad, Time, Storm)
Say I choose Empathy.
Team (Leadership, Res and Clear Mind) or Solo (Fighting) and so on.
What's wrong with having these options available?
My change won't remove any of your options but will add others.
Whats the issue?
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31 minutes ago, Clave Dark 5 said:
"But he gets results you stupid chief!"
But to repeat: team-only powers because this was and very much still is a game for teaming. Just because you don't want to team doesn't make that untrue, and we certainly don't agree with you deep down or otherwise.
31 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:It shouldn't be.
This is an MMORPG and not a 1-player game.
The game is designed for teaming.
The DEVs over the years have done somethings to make the game more solo-player friendly, but that doesn't need to be taken to extremes.
You have plenty of options and don't need to play a set that has powers that only affects others.
My change wouldn't affect teaming. Its for solo ability.
If you guys are so cut up about you can do a weaker version if cast on self.
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Make pets just the same level as the MM at all levels. Simple and effective.
"But it would make MMs too good at leveling!" So what? They are already the most popular class at low levels but least popular at high levels and pet levels is a factor in this.
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3 minutes ago, Rudra said:
As a soloist player, I get that. Which is why I avoid sets like Thermal Radiation. However, this is a multiplayer focused game even if we have progressed to the point where we can solo pretty much everything because of all the power creep and the incarnate powers system. So I at least understand why there are team focused sets. I've long since given up on them becoming soloist sets, because this is meant as a multiplayer experience.
Mate, I know what I am asking for is a long shot. These 'team only' powersets are a relic from a game that no longer exists. Of course the nostalgia fanboys are not going to like me targeting one of the few sacred cows left.
But I still think its bad design and will call it as such. So far no one has shown me how having team only powersets is good for the game because deep down they know that it isn't.
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24 minutes ago, Rudra said:
Was editing my post, but you replied while I was still looking things up. So!
Fortitude (120s duration/60s recharge) Fade (60s duration/240s recharge) Shadow Fall (maintained toggle effect)
+11.25% DEF (All) +9.375% DEF (All) +3.75% DEF (All)
+25% damage +9.375% damage resist (Smash, lethal, negative, and psionic) +15% damage resist (Smash, lethal, negative, and psionic)
+15% ToHit +34.6% resist defense debuff +35.5 feet Stealth radius
Considering how easy it is to cut a power's recharge in half? That would make Fortitude permanent without having to consider Hasten or other such measures. Yeah, I'd say that is rather strong for an affects self too power.
Anyway, this is what I wanted to add to my previous post. The rest of you can go back to discussing this among yourselves.
I'm okay with strong buffs for Empath. It has no debuffs, no real proc opportunities, no utility (pets, CC, etc). It has to have something going for it for soloing.
The idea that some sets are just 'designed to fail' for soloing just seems like bad design to me.
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Dark Miasma or Darkness Affinity?
in Archetypes
Posted
Darkness Affinity basically works with everything since it does just about single support function you could want: Healing, regen, endurance, Def/res buffs, -res/-dam/-hit/-recharge/-regen debuffs and gets a great pet too.