[Save/load power monitor windows]

 

[Ouro Missions Created at Wrong Levels]

I was running through the 25-29, 30-34 and 35-39 Accomplishment badge missions this afternoon and noticed the same thing.  Almost everything was +2.

[One more thing, as Columbo would say: show chat communication to all in bubbles]

2 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Not sure why you wouldn't want to be in voice chat with friends, but that's your choice.

 

Voice chat destroys illusions.  For instance, in text, you sound like R. Lee Ermey to me.  I don't want to know that you actually sound like Joe Pesci having an orgasm.

[Stealth Enh. Suppression - Blinding Powder - Coercive Persuasion]

Happening with Possess (Darkness Control) and Stealth (Concealment), too.

[One more thing, as Columbo would say: show chat communication to all in bubbles]

Is this because you need to know what your teammates might be saying because you're convinced that you're the only thing they talk about, or is it because you want an iron grip on teammate activity at all times?

 

I really need to know whether this is a drama queen thing or a fascist thing so I don't shout at you for the wrong reason.

[Missing set bonuses]

Okay, the +Regen discrepancy is because you have 3x Impervious Skin: Status Resistance/Regen IOs.  The +Regen is Unique.  It only counts once.

 

Replacing the LotG Def/End in Combat Jumping with a Def/End/Rchg accounts for the 0.05% difference in Defense between the live build and the Mids' build, so that's probably what you did on the live build.

 

The status effect resistances are correct.  The math is 1 (the base value of the status effect duration) / 1 + % = adjusted duration.  Mids' shows the stat, Combat Attribs shows the result of that stat.  Example: Hold Resistance 70% means 1 / 1.7 = 58.82% duration.

 

And the Regen Debuff Resistance is higher in-game because it's enhanced by the IOs you have slotted, which Mids' isn't doing.  25.95% * 1.8332 = 47.57154, truncated to 47.57.

 

29.24 Immob protection in Mids' is likely because you're using an old version with a bug.  I'm guessing, but it's only 20.76 when I look at the build with the latest version, which supports the theory.

[Missing set bonuses]

Impossible to be certain, because you've collapsed all set bonuses in those screenshots, but it's likely that you've used more than 5 of the same bonuses.  Can't do that.

In Mids', click the View Active Sets button, next to the archetype selection menu.  That opens a new window with a complete list of all of your set bonuses and the totals.  On the right, if you see >Cap, you're over 5 on at least one bonus.  Scroll down in that section to discover which bonus is over the limit and in which power it was slotted.  You do not have to change the slotting in that power, but you will have to change the slotting in one of the powers with that bonus.

 

If, for instance, you had six Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Global Recharge Time Reduction enhancement slotted, you'd need to remove one from any power in which they're slotted.

 

Again, 5 is the limit for any set bonus.  So go through your build using that window, note any/all powers with the warning and make the appropriate adjustments.

[20th Anniversary..]

The traditional gift for the twentieth anniversary is china.

 

NEW MISSIONS IN CHINA CONFIRMED!  WE'RE GOING TO BEAT UP COMMIES!

[Xp Booster Question...]

1 hour ago, BjorJlen said:

And @Luminara, your reply actually confused me a bit until I read @Hedgefund's edit, so yeah now I understand. It was in regards to the Anniversary Xp Booster being released, but as was pointed out, it was released yesterday so no testing needed. Thank you for your input just the same though. 🙂

 

Thought it was going live in a week.  My apologies.

[Xp Booster Question...]

No-one can answer questions about what's currently being tested in closed beta.  If you have closed beta access, you can answer the question yourself with a quick test, or ask in the closed beta forum.  If you don't, you can ask to be a closed beta tester, then test it yourself or ask in the closed beta forum.

[Some more poses for Hover and Flight]

16 hours ago, temnix said:

He is a Water Blast/Storm Summoning Dominator

 

Not in this game.

[Range increase of TT ?]

20 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Team Teleporter is refered to as TT. Team Transporter is refered to as TT. Toxic Tarantulas are refered to as TT. Hence you need to be specific when making posts.

 

I thought it was Tenebrous Tentacles or Teleport Target, and was about to suggest putting Range enhancements in the power.

[Possibly Sentinel?!!!?]

9 minutes ago, Snarky said:

But why is Sentinel damage half, when I can clearly see the ST DPS (on paper) looks very close to a Blaster ST DPS?

 

Sentinel cones are limited to 5 targets, instead of 10.  Sentinel AoEs are limited to 10 targets, instead of 16.  Sentinels are scrappers with ranged attacks.  That's why they have the same AoE restrictions as melee archetypes.

Pay the complaint about damage no mind.  It's bullshit, because a blaster clone with 96% of blaster damage, full-blown damage mitigation, including status protection, and the same target limits as blasters would so utterly and completely obviate blasters that no-one with more than two brain cells would ever play a blaster.

[Possibly Sentinel?!!!?]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

Okay... What am I missing?  I know they buffed Sentinel damage a while back.  But the MiDs numbers I am seeing do not make sense. Unenhanced MiDs values:

 

                          Blaster     Sentinel

Dark Blast           62.56       61.17

Gloom                110.1       107.7

Umbral Torrent   60.06        58.72

Abyssal Gaze      132.7       129.7

Life Drain            102.6       100.3

Blackstar             250.2       194.6

 

Am I being catfished by MiDs?  These are fresh open no hidden buttons clicked "naked" MiDs numbers....     

 

Umbral Torrent is 78.3 for sentinels.  The rest is correct (amazingly).

 

What happened to your Dark/Invulnerability sentinel?

[Remove Domination's cast time]

22 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Inherents or not, Practice Brawler and Active Defense cause the exact same issue and the exact same arguments were used by the players to try to convince the devs to convert them into toggles.

 

You're not required to execute a number of attacks or use an alignment-restricted power to reactive them if they drop.  You don't have to do anything, you can stand there with your thumb up your ass and they'll recharge normally and be ready to use again at will.  It's a completely different set of requirements from what Domination currently imposes.

 

Nor do PB or AD represent archetype-defining or -shaping powers.  Click status protection powers are in a few melee archetype primaries/secondaries, not an inherent ability which affects every tanker, scrapper, brute, stalker, SoA, Dwarf-form Kheldian or Sentinel.  The fact that my Shield/Elec tanker has a click status protection power is utterly irrelevant to my Energy/Energy scrapper, or my Staff/Willpower brute, because those powers aren't impacting entire archetypes.  But I can't make any dominator that isn't affected by Domination's flawed design.

 

27 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

And, almost every power in this game has a recharge time. Looking at the UI to see if you can activate the power, if it's still recharging

53 minutes ago, Luminara said:

my goal is to set the game up so I can press keys without having to look at the icons.  Press 1, press 2 while 1 is activating, press 3 while 2 is activating, et cetera.  The UI is what I use to interface with the game, but it's not the part of the game I want to see.  The game is what's happening in the middle of the screen, not at the top, not at the right edge, not on the bottom edge, not on the left edge.  Watching my character's animations play.  Watching the graphical effects.  Watching enemy reactions.  Immersing myself in the game.

 

 

29 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

or if it's not activating because you're held, is part of the game play.

53 minutes ago, Luminara said:

that's why we have graphical effects like shields with downward chevrons to indicate Defense Debuffs and blackish-yellow stars circling for ToHit debuffs

 

 

35 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

You think I love having to monitor my damage so that I don't Footstomp right after Rage has crashed?

 

The Rage crash that the game signals to players graphically by turning off the "I'M A LIGHT BULB WHEEEEEEEEEEE!" graphic and replacing it with the Damage Debuff graphic (red-colored downward-pointing arrowheads), so they know what's happening without looking at the UI?

 

 

1 hour ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

You think that I enjoy constantly looking at see if Hasten is back up so that I can activate it again?

 

Do you spend a lot of time rebuilding the Hasten meter?  How much, on average?  Sixty seconds?  Ninety?  Three... hundred?  You can tell me, I promise not to laugh.

 

1 hour ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Yes, having to constantly look at the UI is annoying. I agree with you on that. I would also argue that having to look at the UI is an intended part of the gameplay.

 

At the market.  In a league, when players have to be moved around to different teams.  When you're accepting a mission.

 

Not in the middle of combat.  For fuck's sake, there isn't even a status bar for NPCs, we're utterly dependent on graphical effects and animations to know what our powers are doing to them, so the "UI is part of the game" argument doesn't cut it.

[Incarnate threads, shards etc.]

Luna in Ouroboros sells top end inspirations for threads.

 

Shards can be converted to threads.

[Remove Domination's cast time]

1 minute ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Ok, let me put it this way. Practiced Brawler (SR mez click) and Active Defense (Shield mez click) both have cast times. So why shouldn't Domination have a cast time?

 

PB and AD aren't inherents.  How many times do you have to click Defiance in order to activate T1/T2 attacks through mez?

What?  None?  Well, it would seem that status protection isn't the defining factor for determining that something should have a cast time, wouldn't it.

 

11 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Isn't that the real reason that you want the cast time removed?

 

Faintly, but not fully.  It's been itching in my mind for me for four years, but it's because of that constant niggling that I started looking at it more closely.  Why does it bother me?  I've built all of my dominators so well that Domination recharges in ~67s, so I have plenty of leeway for it to activate, but it still gets under my skin.  Why?

 

Because it forces the player to watch the UI, to pay attention to the icon, not to the game.  And the cast time is the root of that, because it's the cast time that necessitates monitoring the UI.  There's no tray with one slot that we can float next to the character's head so we don't have to look at an edge of the screen (yes, i tried a tray set to maximum transparency, and in different configurations, it was still extremely distracting).  There's no middle-of-screen warning that Domination is about to expire (not quite as likely to set me off as the tip notification spam did, but it would definitely put me on the warpath sooner or later).  There's no chat message, no unique sound at 10s... the only ways the game notifies the player that Domination is about to drop is the tiny blinking icon in the status window, and Domination being recharged, and if you're not staring at one or the other, you have no idea when to give Domination that 1.32s to activate.

 

When I build an attack chain, my goal is to set the game up so I can press keys without having to look at the icons.  Press 1, press 2 while 1 is activating, press 3 while 2 is activating, et cetera.  The UI is what I use to interface with the game, but it's not the part of the game I want to see.  The game is what's happening in the middle of the screen, not at the top, not at the right edge, not on the bottom edge, not on the left edge.  Watching my character's animations play.  Watching the graphical effects.  Watching enemy reactions.  Immersing myself in the game.

 

Domination breaks that by forcing my attention away from the center, by focusing my attention on the UI instead of the game.  I have to watch the Domination icon so I know when to react to that, rather than watching the Master of Death so I know when to react to him.  I have to watch the timer so I know when to interrupt my immersion, rather than watching my characters do their things and enjoying my immersion.

 

Yes, losing Domination because I scrapperlocked irritates me, but that's only my reaction to the problem, not the problem itself.  The problem is that the cast time on Domination mandates attention to the UI, not to the game.  It's contrary to the design of every other inherent (even Vulnerability, which has a giant fucking reticle that disappears when it expires, immediately informing the player of that expiration without requiring him/her to look at the UI), and it's contrary to the design of the game itself (we're supposed to be looking at our characters and the NPCs to know what's going on, that's why we have graphical effects like shields with downward chevrons to indicate Defense Debuffs and blackish-yellow stars circling for ToHit debuffs).

 

That 1.32s is where the problem hinges.  If it weren't there, the dominator archetype would be as immersive as all of the others.  But over and over again, no matter how well I build my dominators, I'm playing fucking UI Bingo instead of City of *.  The cast time isn't a balance point, it's a design failure, and it needs to be removed.

[Remove Domination's cast time]

3 minutes ago, Greycat said:

 

With the recharge time shortened by being on a team *and* by global recharge.

 

Domination's recharge time isn't affected by teammates.  Dominators receive a Rage bonus when teamed so they can build Domination faster, but the power can't be activated until the recharge time has elapsed, even if the bar is full.

[Remove Domination's cast time]

2 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

This is better because it allows you to choose when to use it and it allows you to make it perma.

 

Removing the cast time wouldn't make it an auto power, or remove the ability to select when to activate it.  It would still be a click with a 90s duration and 200s recharge time.

[Remove Domination's cast time]

1 minute ago, Greycat said:

Meanwhile, Domination gives mez resistance and +mag. Doesn't sound like a bad tradeoff for a quick boom-flash-go.

 

Which is balanced by a 90s duration and 200s recharge time.

[Remove Domination's cast time]

4 minutes ago, Saiyajinzoningen said:

Hi @Luminara

can you explain what the problem is?

 

Powers with cast times can't activate while another power is animating, even if they're set to auto.

[Remove Domination's cast time]

28 minutes ago, biostem said:

OK, but only if they make it ignore recharge reduction bonuses.  🤣

 

Are you implying that Domination's recharge time is balanced by distracting the player from the game?

 

Because that would imply that any power's recharge time could be fairly balanced by having a cat who wants attention, or needing a drink of water, or having to go to the bathroom.  And that would be... stupid.

[Remove Domination's cast time]

When was the last time a blaster had to pause to activate Defiance?  How frequently does a stalker have to interrupt his/her attack chain and wait while Assassination activates?  At what time has a tanker had to stop to turn on Gauntlet, or brute Fury?  Does Scourge require a break in activity before it's functional?  Hell, the only other manually activated inherent in the game is Vulnerability, and that doesn't have a cast time.

 

Set Domination's cast time to 0, like every other archetype's inherent.  1.32s wasted activating Domination every 60-200s isn't balancing the power, it's not giving NPCs a tactical advantage that they can leverage, it's just making the archetype more annoying to play and distracting the player from the game itself, forcing him/her to stare at an icon instead of everything else happening.

 

We build attack chains so we don't have to stare at icons, so we can just press keys and watch the pretty, pretty light show.  Watching the UI instead of the game is boring.  Losing Domination because we were playing the game is infuriating.  Penalizing players for playing is counter-productive and counter-intuitive.  So get rid of the cast time.  Burn it.  It's bad.

[Max amount default to sell during auction house sales]

59 minutes ago, lemming said:

if you type in numbers after dropping your item into the auction  window, it will replace with the max value.  No need to deal with the slider.

 

This also works with trade windows.

 

That.  Tap a number twice, maxed.  

 

Also, salvage can be sorted by amount in the salvage window.  Bottom right corner.

[Leaving the alts alone...how?]

Put out a bowl of food and some fresh water, make sure there's a clean place for them to go boom-boom, leave something for them to entertain themselves with while you're away.  You know, an automated laser pointer, some string hanging from a ceiling fan set on low speed, a crate of grenades, fun stuff that they can play with.  They'll be okay for a while