PeregrineFalcon

You know exactly what the argument is about. It's about not ruining a beloved IP and wrecking canon by shoving your Current Year Ideology into it. I don't think that anyone really has a problem with Galadriel wielding a sword. The problem is that people are really good at spotting patterns and, to most people, seeing her in armor with a sword says "the Twitter people who've ruined a bunch of other beloved IPs in the name of Current Year Ideology are now going to try to ruin Middle Earth." Now maybe they won't. Maybe it'll have diversity and girl power and still be an awesome series. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was! But the recent history of beloved IPs being wrecked shows that that is pretty unlikely. People who love Middle Earth don't want to see this series go the way of the SW: Rise of the Clownwalker, fem-Doctor Who, or the recently failed Cowboy Bebop series.

So? What's your point? Gandalf did fight with a sword, in the books written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Galadriel never did. Is there something wrong with people wanting stories that say "Middle Earth" on them to stick to the rules written by the actual author of the books set in Middle Earth? You know how cranky Trekkies get when something new breaks canon. Why is it a problem with Tolkien fans do the same?

What Apparition said is completely true, except in a specific case. I played SWTOR during beta, at launch, was subscribed for the first year, and have subscribed for a month here and a month there 3 or 5 times since then. I go back about once a year to play for the stories and level a couple of characters to max before going off for another year. I just started playing a few days ago after the latest expansion went live. Playing free-to-play is so not worth it unless, like I have, you've subscribed and purchased specific unlocks. In my case, I was able to purchase the unlocks nearly for free since I got a bunch of Cartel Coins (the cash shop currency) just for being a subscriber. TL;DR: Subscribe for one month and play. If you like it then purchase the specific unlocks you want and then play for free.

I haven't played STO since... some time around the 3rd Anniversary. I went back and played briefly right after the launch of Romulans. Haven't been back since. Did they ever add exploration to STO?

Yeah, I was off work yesterday, so I was doing stuff instead of posting on the forums. 😁 As I said, not in this thread people haven't. But I have read stuff like that on these forums. I guess I've just been annoyed lately by the constant "game too easy, bruh" threads, especially when followed up by threads suggesting more power creep. No. Thanks for asking though. Sorry. I shouldn't have been a jerk to you. I has been two days though, as you said. Maybe I misunderstood or misremembered the points of your posts. Perhaps I should just say that I'm against this suggestion and stop bumping the thread.

Yeah, and in the long run he's probably right, but he's not talking about 2030. He's talking about 3030. If we're talking about 2030 then we should be talking about the moon not an Oneil cylinder. If you're talking about 3030 then I'm out. I won't be around then. And yeah, F Mars. It sounds neat, but the low gravity would be catastrophic for humans living there.

🤬 (j/k) Ok, so the problem isn't that your character doesn't have enough mez protection. The problem is that you're soloing above your weight class. You understand that, right? Sorry, you don't get to use "I can't handle a mission difficulty specifically designed for 8 people while I'm solo!" as an excuse to buff your powerset or AT. Power creep may be inevitable, but that doesn't mean that we have accelerate it on purpose. I wonder how many people in this thread arguing for this solo on anything under x8, or even play the game with other players. Am I the only person on this forum that actually uses SO? That never solos on +4 x8? That actually teams up with friends who also only ever have SOs (or maybe a Performance Shifter End proc, but if I give it to them)? I see a lot of the folks in this thread in other threads complaining about any character that can't solo at +4 x8, soloing GMs, soloing Lord Recluse, etc. I honestly think that the point of view of the 100 or so people that regularly post on this forum is very far removed from the vast majority of people who actually play this game.

On live I had a Fire/Fire brute named Legionette. Now I know who stole my name. How are you getting constantly held, slept and stunned? With 10 points? My blaster has a single KB protection IO, which provides only 4 points, and I get knocked maybe once a week. And that only by certain EBs/AVs. Agreed. But that's not what's happening here. Or at least not with me. I'm not afraid of change, when it's change for the better, but I'm against any more power creep. And that's what this is. Even if it's just Mag 3, it's still power creep. It's not "quality of life." A quality of life change is something that makes things nicer and less tedious for a player that doesn't have a game mechanic effect. Adding something like this would be more power creep.

Exactly. Because, as I said, people (not just you) are basically talking about being immune to mez most and/or all of the time. Bill, Lumi, I understand your math and your points. I really do. And I don't entirely disagree with either of you. However, Squishies at 50 can already solo, thanks to IO sets and/or Incarnate abilities. If squishies under 50 gain the ability to solo then I guess I should just retire my now worthless tank. And FF defender. And Controller. When you allow Blasters to solo all the time you basically destroy any reason for those characters to even exist. Also, if squishies under 50 can solo then you've now removed all reason to team up for anything except a couple of Task Forces and iTrials. Not requiring people to team up is one thing. Not even giving them any reason to is a whole 'nother thing.

Ok, so if being invulnerable to mez isn't the issue then why not just take Rune of Protection?

I was against damage buffs for tanks when it came up on the retail forums, and I would have been against it here had I known it was going to happen. Personally I preferred Bruising to a damage buff. There's a big difference between a bit of a damage buff and a "let's give everyone mez protection so that no one ever gets mezzed, ever!" And yes, that is exactly what we're talking about, because if this mez pool gets implemented then it will become just as mandatory in peoples' minds as Hasten is. What's the point in even having mez in the game if no one is vulnerable to it? I've asked this question many times, but no one has ever even tried to answer it. It just gets ignored. What's the point in having mez in the game if no one is vulnerable to it?

I agree. And it is optional. For players, not necessarily for characters. Play one of those stalkers, dominators, Kheldians, Soldiers of Arachnos, controllers with Indomitable Will and/or pets which hold aggro exceptionally well, blasters with their triple-stacking mag 1 status protection ATO, and masterminds who let their henches do the heavy lifting. But if you play a Defender, whose literal job it is to defend the team, then I don't believe that it's unreasonable to expect that you'll want to be on a team.

There's another possibility that may be factoring into the developers' thoughts on mez. A great way to avoid being mezzed is to invite a tank to your team. Squishies pretty much never get mezzed when a tank is holding aggro. I know, I know. How dare I suggest teaming up with other people in an MMO as a way to solve issues. Brutes, Scrappers, Tanks and Sentinels can solo well due to being able to ignore mez for the most part. Other ATs can't. I just don't see why this is an issue.

I'm sorry to hear that your life has been miserable, and that it's caused you to view life as mostly misery. I've worked hard, and been through a lot of hardships, but my life has never really been miserable. It's been a learning experience. And, even when times were tough, I always had friends and family. Perhaps that's why I'm loyal my species and wish to see it survive.

The only problem I see is that if all ATs have a way to deal with, or ignore, mez then why bother having mezzes in the game? A complete rebalance of the game involving giving everyone access to temporary mez protection, along with reducing how common mezzes are, would work. As I mentioned before it works in SWTOR. But, that would mean that the devs would have to go in and change the powers on every single AT and every single enemy group. That would be a massive undertaking. As it is currently, every AT has access to Rune of Protection. And while I personally don't take it on many characters, because of thematic reasons, there's no reason that you couldn't if you really want the mez protection.

And they say that I'm a pessimist. 😃 Having read a lot of history I see that, over the years, we've come to accept and allow the bad parts of human nature less and less and engage in the positive things more and more. This leads me to believe that by the time we have FTL travel we, or at least a large part of us, will believe in those positive aspects of humanity that you agree are good. Plus, I have children. Anyone who thinks that humanity isn't worth saving also thinks that my children aren't worth saving. For obvious reasons I can't agree with that point of view.

🙄 I swear, it seems like I'm the only sci-fi fan on the internet that actually wants humanity to survive. I often wonder why that is.

Let's not forget that when Star Trek Online launched there was a mez effect, Viral Matrix, that could be stacked in duration. People would come out of a PvP match with enough stacks of Viral Matrix on them that their character would be mezzed for AN ENTIRE HOUR after the match ended. These were the same people who designed and built City of Heroes.

People complain that FF defenders suck in comparison to other Defender types. FF being able to give out defense and mez protection is literally the only reason people are willing to put up with an FF character taking up a valuable team slot. So let's give all of the other Defender powersets mez protection too and put FF squarely in the trash bin right alongside Assault Rifle and Mercs. Now that being said, having a mez protection click, with the same stats as Rune of Protection but with different FX, being added to other pools, is not something that I'd be opposed to. Let someone other than wizards have a mez protection click in their pool. I actually did not know all of that. Thank you for the info! 😃 Since I'm on the subject, the way I'd like to see the mez system done is the way it was done in SWTOR. Every class has a click breakfree power that also makes them immune to all mez for 10 or 20 seconds afterward. Certain classes also have conditional mez protection. Several of the tank classes have a gap closer - a "jump to the enemy" power - that also gives them mez immunity for 4 seconds after they land. This actually works very well because mezzes in SWTOR are pretty uncommon. This means that tanks occasionally get knocked back by certain named task force bosses, and squishies get mezzed more often, but still not often, and the NPCs cannot perma-mez any character. Yeah. This is the kind of thing in game design that makes me wonder how these people can possibly still have jobs in this field. I had something similar happen to me on my Invuln tank happen the first time I took her into a PvP zone. A lot of games have a thing where if you've been mezzed then once the mez is over you have immunity to that kind of mez for a little while, usually 5 or 10 seconds or something. This allows you to escape and prevents the situation that you've just described from happening.

But we currently have easy access to mez protection in the form of Inspirations, IOs, Combat Jumping, Acrobatics, and Rune of Protection. And, if this pool idea gets added to the game, people will start posting that this pool should be made inherent, just like Fitness was. We know this is true because of the threads proposing that Hasten be made an inherent. Besides, I thought you were against Power Creep.

And what happens to Sentinels if Blasters can perma mez protection? I completely agree with you on this. Mez was done horribly wrong in CoH. However, and I'm sure I've said this before, this is something the devs should have addressed back in 2004. I don't think that the Homecoming devs can "fix" it and still have a game that resembles City of Heroes come out the other end of the process.

When the argument is correct, and the factors haven't changed since the last statement, there's no point in changing arguments. And they are used for farming because they have the highest AoE damage output. That's their strength. Their weakness is that they are the least tough of the armor sets. That isn't broken, that's by design. The entire game is balanced like this. This does not mean that Fiery Aura is underperforming. Fiery Aura's entire schtick is that it's weak armor but high damage output. Arguing that Fiery Aura needs to be tougher is like arguing that Blasters need some defense and a mez toggle. Really? What did farmers do before damage procs? Oh yeah, they farmed with Fiery Aura Brutes. Just because it's the weakest set doesn't mean that it needs a buff. In a game where not every set is exactly the same, one is going to be the best and one is going to be the worst. Yes, that one enemy was brought up as an example. So bring up a different example to prove your point. If Fiery Aura really does underperform that badly coming up with a common example should be easy.

I'm dismissing the idea that Fiery Aura should be given KB protection because the given reason was that it can't tank ONE ENEMY in the entire game. But ok, let's talk about underperforming sets. Let's remember though that it's highly possible that the sets that underperform may be closer to what the devs think is supposed to be the baseline. So if the devs decide to go and balance all of the armor sets then they may decide to nerf the newer ones, as they did with Titan Weapons. So, be careful what you wish for. Every set should have 1 weakness. Also, not every set should have damage amplification. If the AT needs every set to have damage amplification then they might as well just up the AT's damage across the board. They recently did just that with tanks. So, as far as I'm concerned, tanker Invuln did get a damage buff. Energy Melee was deliberately broken by the live devs as a response to something. Don't say it was because of PvP though, because certain people on this forum will turn green and go berserk. It has almost no AoE output, which is the PvE meta, so the only place that EM was the meta was PvP. But that can't possibly be why it was nerfed, no sir! Ok, I'm better now. Anyway, I suppose the other possible reason was that they didn't want it to overperform in comparison to the powersets they were selling on the market. Of course that would have required the developers to be procognizant, as EM was nerfed in 2008 with issue 12 or 13 and CoH didn't go free-to-play until 2011 with Issue 21. Yeah, that must be why the live devs nerfed Energy Melee. They had precognition. Oh, I completely agree. The devs really should do something to motivate people to pick Fiery Aura more often. Oh, wait! Fiery Aura Brutes pretty much outnumber all of the other characters in existence. Well, there goes that argument.

Yeah. I've been following this for years. Everything I've read says that it's not possible to scale the Casimir Effect up. Which means that even if they can figure out a way to project and move a microscale Casimir warp-bubble, it will be useless unless they only want to move objects smaller than a grain of sand.