DrRocket

Only correcting my original post... Take any 4 tier one to create a tier 2; then combine any 4 tier 2 to create a tier 3; and lastly take any 4 tier 3 to create a tier 4 The math behind this... A tier 1 cost 20 threads or 1 empyrean A tier 2 cost 60 threads or 3 empyreans A tier 3 cost 8 Empyreans A tier 4 cost 30 Empyreans Thus 4 tier 1 would effectively cost 4 empyreans to get the 3 empyrean cost tier 2 salvage The 4 tier 2 would effectively cost 12 empyreans to get the 8 empyrean cost tier 3 salvage The 4 tier 3 would effectively cost 32 empyreans to get the 30 empyrean cost tier 1 salvage At one time I considered the three for 1, as it it was done in Diablo, but the effective costs would render the conversions way too cost effective, and would lend itself to abuse

Good points, the ratio is already established since you can convert empyrians to reward merits, I only suggest to make it reversable. trying to get the tier 4 salvage by lock of the draw is simply insane, so II was looking for another method to allow getting there less fastidiously. Take care

This is only a suggestion to assist in the creation of higher tiered incarnate items, and only as a quality of life suggestion ... As I been leveling my alt's tier incarnate abilities, I do all the incarnate TFs religiously and go for the luck of the draw salvage drop. It should not come as a surprise that I wind up with a bunch of redundant or useless salvage that I can not transfer to another alt that could use it, sell it on AH or convert them into empyreans merits where I could craft what I need. But it occurs to me, how you could combine 3 inspirations of a kind to manufacture another, why not use the rule of four to build up? Saw take any four tier 1 salvage and convert them into any tier 2 of your choice, subsequently take any 4 tier two salvage and combine them into a tier 4 of your choice, and finally combine any tier 4 salvage to get a tier 4 piece. Ay thoughts or alrternate suggestions?

This may be just an odd QoL request of sorts, I tend to have a thing for symmetry, so please forgive... I noted that I could trade empyrean merits into reward merits, but not the other way around, I suspect there might be a reason, but it would be nice if you could go back and forth. Thank you

I been now very often participating in hammy raids, quite possibly my favorite pass time with BAF right next to it. It pains me when I see 2 people not being able to join the raid group, because the zone limit is 50 and 6 teams of 8 adds up to 48. it would be nice to maybe make leagues to be as large as 7 teams of 8 to incorporate those last 2, but suspect that could really tear-up the balance for normal TFs. Thus it seems simpler to me to just reduce the limit at the hammy zones to 48 This is a bit of an odd QoL

In my server I play blue, and when a hammy raid at the Abyss occurs I have to bolt to PI to catch a ride. It would be nice if more ways to access or get smuggled to the abyss were available, for example, I recommend adding the Abyss to the tunnel system. Any other ideas out there to make this quality of living improvement?

When you are upgrading your incarnate slots, you open the create tab to determine what salvage is needed to create the item, then you go to another tab and make each ingredient one by one. It would be nice, if the system could realize that all the salvage ingredients needed to make that particular tier item are present, and we could simply press "Create" and it would automatically consume the materials without having to go back and forth. As I said, its only a QoL

I simply can't support this, status effect has disproportionate effects on classes, especially status effects where support classes were made totally vulnerable, this suggestion simply adds insult to injury for makes the uneven effect of the challenge even greater.

I can understand those who wants to experience more challenge in the game, it can make sense. On the other hand, I equally understand those who finds the challenge and enjoyment of the game just fine. An there are those who want to make the game easier, by adding lot of conveniences. The issue here is that there are there views that are not compatible. I would feel if the author and other minded folks are truly tired of the no challenge, that there is no problem with them not using IO sets and limiting themselves to SOs. The characters are actually quite effective and the game can provide a lot of challenge, I also recommend when doing this do not play a melee and play instead a support type, they have greater challenges to overcome than melee. And lastly do not take advantage of the incarnate powers as well. The usual issue I have with adding challenge to the game is that it usually provides a disproportionate impact on support types, which is hardly fair to them to take the hit while the challenges are nearly non-existent for the melee types. Sample of developers adding challenge was the introduction of status effects being massively used and the system itself, in which the support classes were given absolutely no protections and the melee types were given more than ample protections against them, thus the ones being challenged and doing all the dying were the support classes. While I am for challenge, I am not for uneven challenge. I do encourage you to give a practical example how would you would like to increase the challenge in the game, without taking away from others, nor having uneven challenges. I am sure you will find this challenge not easy

It is an interesting thought The issue is how to entice players to actually play the content rather than using the much more efficient leveling means available. Obviously badges and accolades will not cut it at all, the missions do give merits when the thread is completed, if the mission support an accolade such as rescue the mystic for spelunker badge, the player would much easily just go to Oro and not deal with doing the threads that would eventually would lead to the mission. So how to persuade in a positive manner? I would think that the mission completion bonus needs to be dramatically increased, say by a factor of 100 at low levels and decreasing to say 50 at higher levels, same with the influence gain. At this rates, they at low levels may have a chance to compete against a DFB! The difficulty is that a DFB takes all 15 min and your character can get on the average 3 levels, wow! A mission in a thread will take those 15 minutes if you are lucky, and you are not going to get 3 levels from it from their normal pay-out. At 100 times the exp from completion bonus, it may just make up for the 3 levels, it may turn out the factor increase may have to be larger; but I have not done the math. V/R

Just remember that what is good for the goose is good for the gander Your suggestion would really sock-it to the support archtypes as the mobs would naturally gain from your suggestion. While your suggestion makes sense to an extent, it really has a very disproportionate effect on support classes, their life is tough enough without making them even more vulnerable. Because of this, I can't suppor you concept as is, maybe work around it where it does not backfires on support classes. V/R

Fully support it, Kudos for the Suggestion DrRocket

Only if it is at a personal level and not team or public information source. My potential objection is that there are the min/maxers and soon will start noting that some classes or players do better than others and the game experience becomes a cruel judgment day process. The benefit is of course it would high light leechers, but in general they are easy to spot during game. V/T

I support change, but adding difficulty must be balanced across all archtypes and not impact some more than others. For example, the present concept of challenge is the spam use of Status Effects, which has a disproportiante impact on support classes. Other forms of challenge is bountiful debuffs usually against defense which again has a disproportionate impact on support classes who depends on defense to survive, then lastly the attack types may be coded type/positional or positional only or type only which once more has a diproportionate effect on support classes who can't get enough defense to everything and resistance to all forms of damage in sufficient amounts to make a difference can be difficult at best. So increasing difficulty in my opinion is going to be tough if being arbitrary about it is something to avoid. I have tanks, brutes, scrappers, infiltrators and all of them can get outstanding defense and resistances, so usually defense debuffs and spam status effects provide little concern to me, and the positional vs type attacks once more are of little consequence to my melee types since they have reasonably good resistances. As it is, playing a support class I have all the challenge I can get, not sure I would cherish making it tougher on my support classes. The challenge I experience in the game is a stark contrast between my melee and my support alts. Perhaps the increase in challenge should be aimed more towards how to make melee players' experience more challenging? For example, support has to acquire Clarion to have a chance against Status Effect, while a melee has absolutely no need for it because of how the game was designed. It would be interesting to allow melee to experience what support has to contend with Status Effects and thus have melee types develop new survival skills, for instance have certain "new" groups or specific groups say carnival of shadows whose status effects ignore standard status effect protections, and the only way to overcome them is by them using Clarion, or have a support class remove/protect from the effect such as a Storm Defender's O2 boost. This challenge would make a terrific change on game play mechanics, for a melee without support would simply have a very tough time surviving just as it is now for support archtypes. Same pattern could go to have certain mobs such as Tsoo instead of debuffing defense, they debuff resistance instead and thus the melee would depend on the support giving them back their resistances or plenty of back up healing. Perhaps the new challenge would be to make the melee and support inter-dependency for mission success and survival be truly two way, as it now in general (there are always exceptions) support has a greater dependency on melee than otherwise (proof of this can be see in farming, check the various class statistics, and it will be evident which classes dominate). But no matter what, I would strongly prefer if this is to be done in a way were there is an option at the beginning of a mission/TF to have them or not. V/R

Good point, but farmers are (I think a small percentage of the population) and usually operate in their own AE world. As a whole, I really don't care if a person's sense of fun is leaving their alt doing their thing and be AFK. What I do care, are those people that are actually playing the content and enjoying the game with the folks they are playing it with and thus the suggestion to relieve the click-o-logy of essential powers which at times I tend to think should be toggles rather than buttons (I digress, that is another topic, my apologies) As I said, I sought a QoL that would allow me to keep up with the needs of the team rather than staring at my power trays to rengage key powers as they refresh.

If one could wish upon a star The Mastermind through demon lore can have the use of the "Whip", would it not be cool if a Scrapper could use a whip to fight, and soon after we could see a bunch Indy Jones knock-offs (I would be among them), but is till would be so cool. Another cool power set for them could be "Chain Saw" which would give us memories of Doom, lol Lastly another cool power would be "Nunchaku" would make another cool looking Martial Artist, think of a Nunchaku/SR build. I have not figured what the powers in each set would be, perhaps you all would contribute. I can see the whip having holds, immobs, knockdown (never seen a whip knock back anybody), which could make the Scrapper a reasonably a one mob controller like build (No area effects for holds).

I usually don't go crazy on new Archtype class additions, but this one is truly cool and very well thought out Signed

At this time one can only set in auto a single power, which in the early days of the "Live" era was sufficient, and usually Hasten was the most favored one to put on auto queue. As the game evolved, especially with the incarnate system, there is a strong desire to have a number of powers on auto, to allow th eplayer to actually focus and enjoy the game as opposed to be mechanics or click button oriented. This would be in my opinion a nice Quality of Life improvement. A sample of powers that would be of interest to have on auto at the same time would be Hasten + Status Effect Protection (Scrapper builds) + Incarnate (Destiny) I do realize that some scrapper secondaries provide the status protection defense as a toggle, but that is not all of them. I researched, experimented with macros via the powexec_ (Auto, Toggle_On, Name) to try to get to non-interruptable/non toggle powers, but could not get the two powers to fire-off, also the macro icon could not be placed on auto, which also defeated the intent of the macro. Of course if anyone of you figured this, then please post what the command would be or how to accomplish the concept of putting on auto upto 3 non-toggle/non-interruptable powers, so I could very gratefully apply. V/R

The comment of the controller not really seen as a solo class, has been with other support classes a deep philosophical issue since the early live days. A lot has to do with personal gaming preferences, and thus the begining of inter-personnal conflict. There are the team oriented perspective, and thus intolerance towards the Solo perspective; and the reverse is true. I dare say, both sides can make rather valid and interesting cases, incidentally. For myself, I like to both play in teams and to be able to solo effectively. I don't see the reason or why they have to be mutually exclusive. Lately the Defender's vigilance a semblance of compromising in this philosophical trend. Here is an Archtype that it's best primary powers does not affect the character, imagine a tank who gets no armor/resistance bonuses but the team gets them instead? And then the secondary is nurfed by 50%! Are there any other Archtypes whose secondary is nurfed in this manner? So enter a band aid fix, Vigilance, if the Defender is alone their damage is nurfed by 20%, its a start towards solo effectiveness, and in a full team they are nurfed by 50%. I have an issue with it all together, there should be no nurfing at all, for instance I have a Storm/Dark defender, the main contribution is debuffing the enemies' accuracy, please explain how nurfing the dark attacks by half is beneficial to the team? what is the rationale or logics behind such a nurf? how does this encourage the storm defender to be more team support oriented? I would think, if they could do full damage they would be supporting the team a heck of lot better! Since this is a controller and friends thread, there is a solo and team component to the issue. From a solo or even on a team perspective, there has to be some kind of adjustment. With bosses having mag 12 ( I think) resistances to effects and controller attacks have in the norm mag 3 attacks with slow recharges, while mag 1 have quick recharges, it would take many rounds before a boss is held. So far the math is elementary. When solo this math is deadly, for the boss can with a quicky MAG 1 status effect take the controller out of action not sure there are any strategies and tactics that can consistently overcome this situation (yes an inspiration addict to play the game solution, is a band aid not a real fix, if this is so good, why not reduce the tanks resistance and make them dependent on tough inspirations to survive?). Staying solo, the damage is so comically low, that a poor controller is out of endurance after hitting and hitting a LT and really sucking wind with a boss! In teams, it is not as bad, given you have a tank or brute with strong AGGROE abilities, lately these tanks/brutes there is an increasing trend to augment their damage at the expense of aggroe magnitude, this results with the poor controller and friends drawing aggroe. The controller has zip for inherent power status effect protection, and not much in the area of defense and damage resistance (these massive handicaps are mitigated at higher levels through the IO and incarnate system though) but while leveling, it just means that your controllers are going to bite the dust a bit too often, when playing take alook of who is dying and you will see it's the support classes doing most of it, and it is very unfair to accuse those players of not knowing what they are doing. Incidetnally when I play my Scrapper, I tend to remain away from the front lines and hang somewhere in between the front and support to provide protection to the support classes as I often see them stun/held/immobilized/disoriented, etc. and makes them incredibly vulnerable to any mob attack, the coverage becomes more critical if the main tank has weak aggroe abilities. For Soloing the Controllers need the real ting damage, and the endurance to make good use of it. In teams, tank/brute aggroe holding is simply not a given, they must have better MAG level powers, with lesser recharges if they hope to hold a mob before it closes the distance in between the controller and the mob, otherwise is what you see all the time, death for the controller. Usually the mobs even minions are spamming some kind of hold, immob. or what not. It is hard as a controller to survive in either solo or team environments, and because there is a group expectation (and solo need) for area effects, the opportunity to get huge aggroe is al too good even if the controller waited for the tank/brute to engage first. I do beleive the controller types do need help

I think the incarnate powers as they are provides incredible capability to any Archtype, which has the effect of making your character actually feel rather super in general. Adding more incarnate powers, would be cool, but would there be a chance that our super characters be a bit too super? There are many thoughts in my mind on how to make an Archtype better, but truly what is the end goal? Is it that any Archtype through the appropriate incarnate slotting can do anything as any other archtype can? I think we are almost there already, in fact. What would be next to improve? Give tank devastating ranged attacks, even a snipe? Give support types inherent status effect protections? Even though they can get "temporary" meaningful protection already through the destiny slot? A real risk with the incarnate system is that with any archtype being able to essentially do anything, is that it may be blending them in such a way that differentiation becomes difficult. Let me take a Brute for example, you can truly boost their damage (making blasters a bit redundant as proven by farmers every day), you can also choose to make their Status Effects much more powerful that they can easily rival a controller, all through incarnate slotting. Adding more boosters, would make this blurring across teh lines even that much heavier, i would fear. V/R

Good point, also the suggestion affects Archtypes disproportionally. The melee types are endowed with good resistances, so if they hit more often, so what? The support classes can get some resistances but never as great for obvious reasons, so when you apply this to a support type, not only they loose defense (their primary form of survivability) but you also hit hard the modest resistance they have, which is far more devastating to what would happen to the melee types. Maybe, the table shown with dfense and resistance penalties only affects melee types and a more "lighter" version used for support types? Once again the two table format, and use the OPs suggestion as a difficulty choice setting with badges would be appealing, and a good topic to be discussed by team members. V/R

I agree this would be a nice Quality of Life improvement

Darn it, I hate to be in the no side of arguments, even when they actually make sense. A recommendation like this would spell disaster to tankers/brutes holding aggroe for a team, and the end of farming all together. If a tank for instance in a full group is doing any TF, the number of enemy mobs attacking would reach saturation as described above and the tank will go down fast, very fast. The support archtypes are already very vulnerable, now you made them even more vulnerable when the AOEs are spammed in a normal battle. I am not sure an empath defender could keep up with heals for the tanker, and that is assuming that they are not mezzed by the flurry of AOE holds or what not. Today I enjoy the freedom of teaming we are experiencing today, have we forgotten in the "Live" days when the group composition for a mission was very much cookie cutter, you got to have a tank and defender or you have no team? I can remember the old days, when the team leader was begging for a defender to join the team and all of us waiting and pleading for example. Today we don't even have to have a defender or support at all to be successful, it sure helps make it more comfortable, but is no longer a must have. I, groan, remember being denied a group invite because I was a Storm Defender and not a real support type class. I do not want to go back to those days. Now that said, I don't disagree with the concept, but I would propose to have this as a difficulty option to be chosen at TF start and have special badges that recognize the achievement. V/R

This is a Quality of Life suggestion: When selecting the type of incarnate slot and item to fill it with, you have a choice of what type of ingredients needed to build it, but then you switch to convert and move away from the window, which either you write what you need or hold in your memory. I am old, so the memory thing is not a swift one. So why not when you get to the window that tells you the ingredients, next to it, it opens the convert GUI so that both GUIs are available? Its only convenience, not a do or die thing.

While I applaud the concept of greater challenge... Note nurf can be achieved by reducing what a player can do, or increasing what a mob can do. I do not support nurfing players, usually the nurfing tends to hit certain archtypes much harder than others, so the nurfing thing is just not a good idea. I do not support mobs that essentially either breaks the rules or exploits game imposed vulnerabilities. I do not support increase on challenge by taking it out on the support classes, for instance in the old days, the introduction of mez was that in the then days developers concept of challenge. This challenge was very uneven, especially for support classes that were left totally vulnerable/helpless to these attacks. Scaling the mobs, seems interesting, but the problem is the mixed composition of player levels, experience, and slotting evolution. Also how the scaling works or buff? Suddenly the mobs have better accuracy? Does condemming the support classes whose only practical survival mechanism is not getting hit? and yet have no impact at all on the resistance based classes? I believe trying to do this kind of adjustments to be very difficult, if not downright impossible in such a complex game. I would suggest difficulty could be done by actually having more different maps, so people have to figure their way thru. Another way to make things more complex are the uses of ambushes whose prevention requires careful planning to avoid (ITF) for example, instead of having defense debuffers, maybe having resistance debuffers may give a few archtypes something to fear, etc.