arcane

Perhaps you missed the deleted posts?The bizarre differing opinions on display about the meaning of support were pretty self-evident.

Well, that’s all true, which is a shame, because it leaves us open for such tremendously confusing debates, such as those with people sincerely believing “support” in the game doesn’t have the meaning of the English word “support” and that implying that it does is an act of high bigotry.

Could we make CM and its clones targeted AoE like the shields/SB/etc.? Would that be a fair start? Give Resurrect an effect on a living ally too like Rebirth?

Do you understand how “Devs haven’t stated a reason because there is no good reason” can be reasonably extrapolated as “I almost definitely won’t be happy with whatever reason a Dev gives me”?

I like the ET change and the Arcane Bolt change, FWIW..... I highly doubt I’m the only one.

KM is widely considered to need buffs as a whole, not just as a Stalker set, so hopefully you will be made whole eventually by an update to that one.

They *did* talk to us about the RoP change though - that was my point. And that extra effort had little impact on nearly everyone who claimed to want answers, from what I saw. That’s all I’m saying. Not that they should never talk to us. [EDIT: though I will say that I don’t think it’s correct to believe that a properly functioning game is necessarily democratic.] I don’t consider the addition of combo mechanic to be a nerf either - not sure how you call an additional mechanic a nerf unless said mechanic has potential for some of its outcomes to be detrimental like, say, Repel.

Are you prepared to accept their answer if they give you one like they did with the RoP change? It seemed to me that giving a detailed justification did nothing to sate the angry mob on that one, so it could be that such things could justifiably be seen as a bit of a waste of time for a limited volunteer team.

About #1, I think it could be a good change, but inspirations are extremely powerful, so I think you might have to compromise a tad bit on effectively applying 7 inspirations at once for the cost of one. I would suggest beta testing where the pets receive 50% of the inspiration value and tweaking from there.

To be clear, my Sorcery characters that were running this setup were indeed very slightly nerfed in net terms: Spirit Ward, not in tray, just a Preventive Medicine mule; Mystic Flight; Rune of Protection with several slots. Not significantly noticeable in practice to me, but yes - a nerf by the numbers. Meanwhile, the build I set up to make use of changes to all 5 powers (Arcane Bolt/Enflame/Spirit Ward heavily slotted, Rune of Protection just two Res IO’s) experienced a *massive* buff overnight.

Right.. I think the presumed need for a fix only actually exists if the answer to “should all powerset combos be able to solo any content at +4x8?” is yes. Perhaps we could try to solicit a very direct answer on this from the devs and get some resolution.

I think it’s completely reasonable now to say that what started as a slight Sorcery nerf was feedbacked (yes I’m making that a verb) into being a nice overall Sorcery buff..

It’s not entirely devoid of risk, especially if you’re constantly trying to solo +4x8 against harder enemy groups so no one else has mezzer aggro and you’re chewing through break frees like mad..., but I have 6 level 50 poisons that have never taken RoP, Melee, or Clarion and am always going to be that guy reminding others that no mez protection is not an instant deathwish. Team. Mez the mezzers. Nuke the mezzers. Burst the mezzers. Use break frees strategically. Pop a luck too when you can. Combine the inspiration categories you don’t need. Etc. Etc. I promise it works. 🙂 Oh and don’t expect that you have to be able to solo carnies or rularuu or arachnos at +4x8 with ease at all times on all characters. That one will help a lot.

Between poison’s massive -tohit and options like defense bonuses, melee, clarion, break frees, etc., I promise you poison is still more than playable. Give it a try.

That is true to an extent for the fraction of players who either (1) play so casually that they consider tactics to be a waste of time or (2) never ever vary their build strategies from SS/SJ/Fighting/Leadership and maximal defense bonuses/etc. such that all characters are tankers to some degree or (3) both. It is certainly NOT the nature of the entire game, and entering melee range is your choice and your’s alone. Even if you shoot a mob and it gets right in your face, it was your conscious decision to not back away or kite out of melee range.

Nevermind that, now all I want are TREES.

I still want lawyers/politicians with shrieks and screeches and deceives/confuses, but yes I’ll happily settle for just any new MM set. Thinking more logically here... magic, natural, and technology seem to be the themes most clearly represented so... maybe we need some mutants/freaks/lab accidents?

Fair and true, yes. Acknowledged.

And it’s my opinion that implying that a slight downward tweak - to what will inevitably still be your best single target attack by the numbers - renders the power worthless is approximately as rational, as, say, if someone said Inferno would be rendered worthless if it’s base damage were hypothetically adjusted from like ~400 to ~380. That is to say, I find it so utterly detached from numerical realities that the statement can’t logically have had any real purpose but that of a blind tantrum.

I do think an occasional long animation is justified - Bitter Freeze Ray comes to mind due to the surrounding set already being top tier - but yes, IMO, they should be directing these tweaks at the sets in need as they did with Assault Rifle. And as we’ve discussed, Force Field should just about top the list of sets in need.

That’s absurd. You can dislike this change as many do, but to claim your most damaging attack is unusable if it has the same exact range as all of your other attacks is an utterly ridiculous statement. There is no logical/rational reason that would render any meaningful snipe actually bad - only slightly less amazing. You guys need to at least try to base hyperbole in a hint of reality.

Agreed. Peace, then.

Well, they needed buffs at some point, yes. Specifically, I think that, after already having buffed the Nukes to such a level, the sustain toggles were just downright egregious. I recall thinking very specifically that whoever implemented those was just throwing gold at their favorite AT and that balance went out the window on that one.

Right. Simply changing all ally only buffs would overcorrect Cold or Thermal when maybe only Emp/FF/Sonic need a buff.

Well, it’s more subtle in that you have to go off of what you really think needs buffs. For instance, IMO, Stalkers needed their buffs. Tankers maybe needed a tweak but they overcorrected a bit. Blasters did not.