Neiska

Personally I have mixed feelings about the deluxe costumes. To me it feels like a carrot on a stick or bribe to try and entice people who don't usually run that content into running it. But as long as its special or unique costumes I don't really have any objection. If it was special costume parts, like special weapons, helmets, gloves, boots and the like that you can mix with other costume parts then I would have issue. As far as the currency itself, I think we have too many currencies as it is, but I do understand they needed "some" way of reward/barter. And as long as they can't be turned into merits or something, there shouldn't be any massive issues aside from people selling them on the AH. The prices are bloated now, but I expect them to come down in time once the "new shiny" effect takes over, but that also depends on how much supply is listed as well. If it was up to me, I wouldn't have gone the costume route though for rewarding hard modes. I would have suggested a temporary power or perhaps a new accolade to earn. Or perhaps something new entirely. The hard modes are hard after all, and the costumes feel more for fun/rp/holiday to me than epic level play reward. I mean cosmetics are always nice, but in my experience they have always served elitist ego more than any other use or context. Although they are tradeable and sellable now, so I suppose that will be less of an issue here.

Go try a 4 star hardmode on a Mastermind, and you might understand why it feels that way to some.

Respectfully, I don't see how my pets on my most durable MMs getting one shot on harder difficulties arises from me being "bored." There is a difference between "challenging" and "I am not going to bother re-summoning, because they will instantly die before the power is even off cooldown." It's just straight up 1 shot mechanics as far as pets are concerned. And no I don't think it was designed that way on purpose for pets, I just think it was an unintended consequence.

This is just me musing here but, what if the different servers actually had different rules, that way people who favored whatever activity could go to what they enjoyed? Make one server hardcore, with regards to incarnates and things. Incarnate mats only from X or Y activities Make another one where farming is allowed and permitted. another server can be the circus. Full on pvp, zero control measures. Let chaos reign baby! Another server gets Ragnarock'd. Armageddon'd. Relevation'd. The End times. Everyone starts over from zip, with its own independent isolated economy and such. etc. These are just examples off the top of my head. But it did occur to me that we DO have more than 1 server here. But I don't possess the technical knowledge to know for sure how hard it would be for them to have different server playstyles/rulesets for different servers. I mean, isn't that sort of an everyone wins scenario? I know this would likely take a LOT of work to pull off, but lets say that it did. Would this be an "everyone has their place" situation?

I am sorry to hear about your friends, truly. But you aren't the only one's who lost friends here either, I suspect we all have to some degree. I have lost friends for the opposite reason - not that thing's are too difficult, but because we lost things we used to have. And some of my friends are far less flexible than myself when it comes to "play your way," and that includes things like roleplay mind you. More often than not my global friends is full of "offlines" unless its an ITF or rp night or something. On any other night? Just me soloing. Anyway, point is that just as many people have left because of changes, not because things were not changed enough.

For me the ultra feeling of satisfaction is finding that perfect badge title that fits my characters powers, theme, name, roleplay, and costume. When everything aligns it is pure Nirvana. 🙂

Sure, but not every AT has even durability or strong DPS. I can think of many ATs that I have never heard soloing a GM. But I do want to say that I don't think we should use "soloing GM/AVs" as a measuring stick either, because honestly it is kind of unfair to some powersets, and represents a minor aspect of the game. Off the top of my head, you need ST dps, with -regen debuff. And most people who do open world content seem to favor AoE damage which is favored for mission activities and what have you. I mean, for context to my mind it would be the same as if trying to balance the game around the notion that everyone was multiboxing accounts, which I hardly think represents any kind of large number of the player community. The people who multibox are a small part, just as the ATs who solo GMS, or even players who solo gms/avs, are all a small part of the whole. Just my opinion.

And what, pray tell do you think they should do about it? Lets mull over the options - 1. Reset button? - make everyone start over and make those purples way more rare like you suggest. I imagine folks would leave in droves if this was done, and things would certainly be rare all right, players included. 2. Band-aid fix it? - make purples even rarer? That will only make them go up in value. And given time, they will still be just as common. It really depends on how quickly they are picked up and used (or how quickly alts are made.) But this is still only a temporary or bad fix, and do more harm than good. People rarely react well to having things they used to have suddenly taken away, in order to artificially make the game harder or character advancement longer. 3. Add difficulties? - this seems to be the option they have added, and its something of a poo-show. Some ATs and powersets are completely useless or even worse, actually a detriment. This new content is pretty harsh on Sentinels, Stalkers, Brutes, and Masterminds in particular. I see many scrappers, blasters, corruptors, and dominators doing it though. If you want "balance" I would look at those. Realistically, it is sort of a no-win situation. Any sort of fix will either piss people off, or only make things worse. Now you could balance things back to "ye olden times," but I would also expect a massive drop in community numbers. Now that might be all right with you, but I for one prefer things how they currently are, rather than a balanced but dead server.

Oh, I think its possible, just not at a level everyone would be happy with. Personally I try to see as +2/8 difficulty at level 50 as the goal post/finish line, and anything after that as bonus/extra/new game +. Why +2/8? Well, because first off that's something that every AT can manage, with just about any power pick available. Secondly it doesn't require being all purpled and incarnated out, so anyone on a budget can compete. Beyond that is a bonus difficulty. Personally I like redlining builds, pushing them, seeing what's possible, trying new things, and the like. I usually play on +4/8 whenever I am able. So to my mind, we already sort of had a hard mode already, with more difficulties stacked on top of that. I also admit not everyone shares the same opinion, but that's all right.

With respect, I disagree with both of you, but I respect your opinion. I think when we get to the heart of the matter, it comes down to essentially what each person thinks is "overpowered." I mean, if some things are "too strong" as things stand, then why can only certain AT power combinations with certain outside buffs do things like Solo GMs? Not everyone can, in fact, most cannot. But I hasten to add that I am not suggesting everything be boosted to that level, I bring up the point to highlight that people don't agree where the finish line or goalpost stands. I mean, by what metric do we want to try to balance things? Is it Soloing TFs? GMs/AVs? Not even all builds/ATs can solo +4/8 difficulty, no matter how much INF you put into them or how high of an incarnate you have. I think it is more important that we as a community should find a rough idea of where the "goal post" is, before we attempt any creative discussions about balance, because right now not everyone agrees on what overpowered or underpowered is. Over/under powered compared to what? What frame of reference here? And the issue gets even more complex, when you take certain scenarios into consideration. As an example, lets look at a robot/traps mastermind, one of the best soloers to date. Sure it can perform amazing feats if you are patient. But on the new hard mode? I don't think anyone is going to plead the case that a robot/trap is OP and needs to be nerfed. And it gets even more complicated in addition to those above points, when trying to compare different features, such as a tanks durability to a domi's debuffs, or a scrappers DPS to a defenders support power. I think there is a lot of "line drawing" that needs to happen before any real sense of balance can be achieved, both by the community and perhaps by the GMs. My two cents

Meanwhile, that shiny new prismatic salvage is selling on the AH for 22 mil a pop. Considering it takes 10 for one of those special costumes, that's 220 million. I expect the prices to drop as time goes on. But I do think its kind of funny. Or will it only be a matter of time before topics of "nerf prism drops" pop up in the forums?

Same here. For reasons I won't go into, I don't want it to become yet another flame war. Summarized - I feel less and less welcome. Punished even. In my head I know that isn't the case, but its certainly how it feels.

This patch sure has brought out the best in people and the forums. 😆 But yea, this patch sure has affected some ATs more than others.

Afraid it isn't just you hon. The only team I was able to semi-manage it on was my all t4 3 robot team - EA, Time, Kin, but even that was rough, and I didn't finish. It simply wasn't worth the time investment going spawn to spawn, resummoning everything, rebuffing, popping destiny, power boost, chrono, farsight, felcrum, then trying to get the 2-3 groups that would aggro down before stuff began to wear off. To put it into perspective, I regularly farm on with that team on +4/8 with EBs, I've hunted GMs, I've solo'd some TFs, etc. Even if you use every trick, tactic, and get every kitchen sink from Walmart into the mix, it simply isn't viable. 😟 I just hope the GMs notice and do something. Because it really sucks having a favorite AT completely borked for any new content.

First off, I personally use movement powers. My usual go-to is flight, but sometimes its mythic flight or teleport, depends. So this isn't "me" here. Secondly, it is the principle of the matter. If that is allowed by the community as a sort of unspoken rule, then what else might slide? Would a petless MM be welcome? How about a weak or non min-maxed powers pairing defender? A melee focused blaster? Or whatever else we want to imagine for context? As an example, what if the leader goes "meh, whatever's clever" and doesn't make a deal out of it, and then one of you go "zomg no travel powers!" What then? Its suddenly not your team. See my point here? I agree they "Should", but I disagree that it should be some sort of unspoken rule. And I still say the rude ones are the ones making demands. If a person shows up unprepared, then it's really on them to make changes. If not, then maybe that activity isn't for them. That said however, expect some /popcorn moments when it's harder and harder to fill teams as time goes on, particularly when team leaders go "all people must have X Y Z" attitudes. And I for one shall point and smirk. People are allowed to play for fun. You might see TFs as super serious business, I assure you, not everyone takes the pixels on the screens so seriously. I just disagree with the general concept of "players must have X Y Z" unspoken rules. This isn't Wow. Not everyone is in your raiding guild who must show up with flasks/food/raid supplies, and what you are doing is more or less turning CoH into that. If it was your PRIVATE Supergroup run, then yes by all means use whatever rules you guys agree on amongst yourselves. But the community as a whole made entirely from randoms and the lfg? Respectfully disagree. Or at least advertise whatever stipulations you might have when creating the group. Don't go "Citadel TF LFM" then get upset when you get people who might not meet your expectations, particularly when you didn't state them beforehand.

Atlas: "A wizard did it." Mercy: "They didn't pay the property tax. Lord Recluse was unamused."

Sure. And it's a pet peeve of mine to have the difficulties of being deaf just being handwaved away or told they don't exist. More importantly, I do agree with you - using terms poor form. But I didn't fire the first shot here, and the person in question is on ignore now. So, all's well ends well, I guess. I think the big takeaway here is that 1. The forums can be pretty heated at times. 2. This patch really brought forth some passion/emotion on all sides. And I take a pretty dim view of one group of players all but doing the mocking jig when another group of players playstyle suffered.

But I am a woman, with an opinion. And yes, it's so wonderful to see a patch bring out the best in the community. 😆

For my robot MM team and my tanker/brute teams, I run S/L asteroid map or fire, depending. For my Demon MM team, I run night at the movies without EB's.

Frustrating to the point where some MMs are just flat sitting out of the new content.

And it is also patently rude to demand or make terms or conditions of others in order to play, even if they aren't teaming together. Which is what this whole thing is turning into if you want to break it down into a nutshell. Personally, I use travel powers. But not everyone does. As far as the Karen thing goes, a good part of the internet uses it as a byword for narcissistic, bossy people who use any excuse or abuse any option available to simply get their way. And going "take X powers or else" Certainly, falls under Karen-hood.

Hehe, well it was a good poopiepost. I am fine with the AE changes personally, and the aggro changes. I am more bummed at the state of MMs in the harder content. Incarnate content was rough enough on MMs what with the level shifts and all, but with the increased difficulty each MM build I have tried has faceplanted. So yea, wondering how that one slipped by. I am wondering if they intend to do anything about it, or if its going to be a case of - "If you roll MM, you are omitting yourself from harder difficulties."

Yep I had thought about that too. Pretty certain it still happens though. 😆

Same. MMs are my favorite class but they just don't hold up on harder content. At least with the incarnate stuff before it was doable. Rough but doable. Now? Expect anything 3 or 4 star to just be resummoning pets, or just go illusion controller. It just really sucks how much of an oversight this was. I tried every trick in the book I know as an MM player and nothing works. The difference between the pets and npcs are just too wide to be circumvented by clever engagement.

Nope. I asked this in Discord too and nobody replied. There is so much purple on the harder difficulty, the only time my pets hold up is spamming heals and buffs on them nonstop, even on a full team the pets faceplant. Even with my Demons/EA or Robots/Time, the toughest MMs I have, pets just don't cut it on the higher difficulty. Full T4's etc, doesn't matter. Pets need boosting for harder content, but I don't expect them to do anything about it.