PeregrineFalcon

Yes. This development team has habit of sweetening nerfs with buffs. That's a good thing, but it doesn't change the fact that once this team has decided to nerf something they ignore feedback against it. 1) We gave feedback against adding a combo system to Energy Melee. Ignored. 2) We gave feedback against adding a combo system to Sorcery pool. Ignored. 3) We gave feedback against decreasing the range of fast snipes. Ignored. 4) We gave feedback against the Rune of Protection nerf. They didn't ignore our feedback this time. They responded by nerfing it even harder! Look, I'm not saying these decisions are wrong or that I disagree with them. I'm just saying that anyone who claims "the devs listen to feedback" is cherry-picking minor details while ignoring the big issues where the devs did ignore feedback. Yes. Who cares what the angry mob has done? The angry mob is always going to act like the angry mob. Using the angry mob as an excuse to refuse talk to those of us who are reasonable adults is ridiculous. Once again. If the devs aren't even going to talk to us then why have feedback threads?

Agreed. Also, I'm always amazed when a big patch goes live and people suddenly show up to complain about stuff like this. My question is always "We were testing stuff on the test server and talking about this for weeks, why didn't you mention this then?" This is why it's important to test stuff and discuss it while it's still on the test server and more likely to be changed. Good luck getting the developers to change it now.

Bite your tongue good sir! I love running Safeguards for the weapons deal side missions. The reward for that side mission is a random temp power, many of which aren't sold at the P2W vendor. Some of them, like Kinetic Shield, are really good powers too.

Agreed. And this, rather than your emotion laden walls of text, has convinced me that you're right and I was wrong. The numbers you provided do support your assertion that at least some of the sets need some improvements.

Your wall of text reads like you're angry and blame me personally for all of the problems that you feel support AT's have. Just so you know, I'm not now, and have never been a game developer. I've never held your favorite AT back or prevented the devs from implementing anything. I agree with you in that any quality of life improvements that can be given to support AT's should be. For instance, I loved it when my bubble defender no longer had to bubble each teammate separately. Huge improvement in fun for me but not a buff to the class. Yes, I acknowledge that Blasters and Tankers have been buffed multiple times since I first started playing in Issue 6. I don't think that power creep will become a problem if support AT's are buffed, I think it's already a problem and further buffing of any AT's will only make it worse. And I think that the Repeat Offenders SG folks would disagree with your apparent assessment that support archetypes are in a bad place now. You can't honestly tell me, Luminara, that support AT's haven't been buffed. Vigilance got a big rework, you yourself mentioned that Controllers were given Containment. Just yesterday, right here on Homecoming, Singularity got a pretty hefty buff. So no, I don't agree with your assertion that support AT's are "held back" (your words) and forced to play by pre-power creep rules. My opinion is simple: add more challenging content to the game. Measure performance there and then buff support AT's accordingly if needed.

I voted for Stealth because the power doesn't make your character appear to be invisible. I know, I'm dumb. Imagine wanting the name and the visual effect to match.

So, first of all, difficult stuff has to be optional or players will just quit playing. You try forcing people to play difficult incarnate content and you'll turn Homecoming into a Ghost Town. Secondly, you motivate people to do the optional, difficult, content by adding in cool rewards. This was also listed in my post. Third, if the content is difficult, but people want to do it, they'll recruit support AT's to join the team. This makes support AT's more desirable, thus more common, and more fun to play. I'd call that an improvement, wouldn't you?

Instead of making the entire game harder, how about: "Make challenging content for the level 50s that want it"? Maybe add it a bit of: "Add in good rewards to be worth the challenge". I honestly believe that this would be the best way to "improve" support classes. Make them necessary again.

There's a big difference between enabling something and improving something. And this isn't just semantics. The retail developers realized that some defenders can solo and others can't, and that Vigilance was nearly worthless. So they basically killed two birds with one stone. Improved Vigilance and added the ability to solo (barely) in the form of more damage when solo. But there's a big difference between giving an AT the ability to barely solo and adding the ability to solo well on top of all of their heals, buffs and debuffs. You cannot improve the damage output of Defenders or Controllers without destroying the Blaster AT as a viable choice. And you can't improve their defenses without destroying Sentinels. You know, not everything needs to be improved. Not everything is broken. That way lies power creep.

Looking at the suggestions in the OP it appears to me that you're trying to improve their ability to solo. I submit that that goes against the entire purpose and spirit of those ATs. Look, Scrappers can solo quite well, and you'd expect them to. Tankers, Brutes, Controllers, even Blasters can solo ok given some work. But Defenders are "the AT specifically designed to buff and protect the team." I'd argue (and I am arguing) that it's literally against the entire purpose of the AT to improve their ability to solo.

This is, word for word, almost exactly what we said when the Energy Melee changes were on beta, but the developers were bound and determined to add their cute little combo mechanic to Energy Melee. I honestly hope that they don't ignore you like they ignored us. My MA/SR Scrapper is one of my favorite characters.

I remember the days of yore when Televangelists had all the power and D&D was verboten. We had to hide that we played D&D from everyone. I read an article in the newspaper then about a guy who got fired when the owner found out he played D&D, they interviewed the owner and cast him as a hero. I saw a friend get kicked out of college went they found out he played D&D. The Satanic Panic was very real and cancel culture isn't a new phenomenon.

My launcher hasn't updated. Do I need to download it again, or can I force the current one to update?

I love how this discussion about Tier 9 Armor powers has degenerated into bickering about Blasters and PvP. Please remember that we're all here because we love City of Heroes. And most of us are even mature enough to post on the forums without childishly insulting people. Let me know when you all want to actually start talking about Tier 9 Armor powers again. Peace.

If I were in charge of working on the tier 9 armor powers I'd change them to be like One with the Shield. 120 second duration, 360 second recharge, ignores all recharge. This makes them work great as Oh ****! powers, but prevents them from being "abused" by people who've built for perma-Hasten. As for the effects, I'd have them be the opposite of what the rest of the set is. So like Elude would only add 10% or 15% defense, a bunch of defense debuff resistance, and something like 50% resistance to all damage types. Because the best types of armor sets are the ones with multiple layers. That's why Willpower works so well on Scrappers, but Super Reflexes is brittle. So like Power Surge would only grant 20% damage resistance but also 30% defense and 50% defense debuff resistance. Or something like that. I'm just spitballing with the numbers. You get my point.

Why even have mez in the game if all characters are immune to it? I agree that mez is handled poorly in this game, but that's something that the developers should have fixed back in 2005. I don't know if it's something that the current developers can even address and still end up with a game that resembles City of Heroes.

Yeah. Something most people don't realize is that we're cavemen who were born in the modern era. Our minds and bodies are the same as humans who lived in 10,000 BC. We're better educated and less violent than we were in 10,000 BC, but our basic nature hasn't changed one bit. We're still the same people we were back then.

My main is an Invuln/EM Tanker. Was also my main on the Freedom server going back to 2007 or so. If your tank isn't holding agro and keeping the squishies from getting mezzed then either - 1) no, your tank isn't any good or - 2) someone's pulling more enemies in and the tank is over the cap and can't hold all of the aggro. Either way, someone's screwing up. If you have a decent tank, and teammates aren't deliberately drawing excess aggro, there's exactly zero reason that your squishy should ever get mezzed.

While I do agree that people shouldn't try to speak for other people, unless they're employed in an official capacity to do so, I'd like to point out that a developer did say this: "A single power should not be able to bridge a gap that results in entire parts of the game being obviated." So while I think he certainly could have worded his post better, it's safe to say that the developers do, in fact, intend for some classes to get mezzed.

Or a good tank who can hold aggro off of you. You bring up a good point. I'm firmly convinced that all of the people who are complaining about the Rune of Protection buff are people who refuse to team with other people. They've spent so much time soloing at +4/x8 that they've forgotten that that's not the base game. It's nice that they can do that, but that's not the standard that everything's measured by.

Sadly this isn't anything new. Celebrities have always gotten death threats, and they've always had their crazies and stalkers. We're pretty stable as a species, but it's a matter of percentages. If just .1% of the population has mental health issues, and you're living in a small town of 1,000 people, then you have 1 guy who's known as the village crazy. But, if you have a world population of 7 billion, that .1% is 7 million people who are hearing voices. And now days many of them are on Twitter having arguments about what the voices really want. Sad? Yes. New or unusual? Unfortunately not. The world is harsher than most people realize.

If I stood around doing nothing they'd occasionally have an opportunity to get a shot off at me. If I used any of my controls at all then they had none. I have Rune of Protection on this character and only used it once. When a Super Stunned slept me.

I just logged off of Brainstorm where I was running around with my Gravity/Storm Controller. This feedback specifically concerns the changes to Singularity and Arcane Bolt. Note, I have a Sudden Acceleration KB to KD slotted in Singularity. So first I would drag, or teleport, Singularity into a group. Then I would cast Tornado right on top of Singularity. The entire group would be flying away, because of Tornado, and then pulled back in because of Singularity. So I would just stand there watching while the entire group was constantly flying out and then back in, while Singularity and Tornado killed them. Sometimes I would lock a group down and use my controls until Arcane Power flashed over my head, then I would use Arcane Bolt. When it's empowered it's the highest damage attack my Controller has. While I didn't monitor damage numbers, using it obviously increased my damage output. Overall, I'm very happy with the improvements to both Singularity and Arcane Bolt.

Any chance I can talk you into dropping the whole combo mechanic for Arcane Bolt? Why does every powerset need a wack-a-mole combo mechanic? Why can't the Council just up the damage and call it good?

Thank you! I did not know that there was a discord poll about this. I actually do appreciate your taking the time to let me know. However, you missed the obvious point that I was making in that post. If you have a moment could you answer the question?