Luminara

Kind of hard to miss anything with a 25' radius, though. I'm not aware of any critters which don't idle within a set distance from their central spawning point.

It's also single-target and relatively situational. The damage debuff might be useful on everything, but the other debuffs aren't necessarily as utilitarian, and realistically, instead of trying to pretend to be an AoE by firing Ice Arrow every time it's up, it'd be faster and more efficient to just attack and move on. So yeah, I think it's okay as is, too.

Necro is the real test.

Then we're looking at the resistance debuff for-ToHit only really being applicable to minions, which we can already manage quite well without it, and extremely situational cases (a boss with a ToHit buff, for example). If the debuff can't be applied meaningfully, in the situations where it's actually needed, it should be removed entirely and replaced with something more useful.

That's not what she said. Or implied.

It would be fine the way it is now, if the recharge time were reduced to 30s. Then players wouldn't have to pull to the Glue, they could take the Glue to the spawn.

Those stupid little pop-ups that were added for events in specific areas, like the prisoners breaking out in front of the Zig. That's obtrusive. They can't be minimized enough to remove from visual presence, they can't be closed, they can't even be permanently moved to an out of the way location because they change size with different events and work their way across the screen. I've only been playing again for a few months and I'm already at the point of deliberately avoiding any area with an event just so I don't have to stop and futz with that annoying window. I want it gone. G O N E gone. If I want it, I should be able to pull it up from one of the menu options littering the windows, and if I don't want it, I shouldn't have to deal with it.

The hit calculation used for critters used to be based on ToHit. The Purple Patch was probably where this comes from, since the goal of that change was to make not only +X foes harder, but also to make higher ranks of critters harder.

... @Captain Powerhouse, did you remove Glue's pseudo-pet and replace it with a redirect?

I'm saying that it's irrelevant. It doesn't matter if this net arrow has -Res and that net arrow has Energy damage that one over there has neither. Powers don't have to be directly comparable simply because they have similar graphics or names. That train left the station in 2003. There are so many powers that have been copied, slightly modified and re-introduced as new powers that it would take me a week to find and list all of them. Electrified Net Arrow is a copy and modification of Entangling Arrow, which is a copy and modification of Web Grenade, which is a copy and modification of the base Immobilize power used for all blaster secondaries, controller/dominator primaries, etc. That's how powers have been designed and implemented in Co* since 2003. Entangling have -Res added as a secondary effect is just standard operating procedure for creating or reworking powers in Co*. Also, sets should have differentiation. That's also standard operating procedure in Co*. No-one wants the sets to be clones of one another with the only difference being the graphics. No-one wants powers to be clones of one another with the only difference being the graphics. Part of what makes this game worth playing, despite its age, is that there are so many different things in it to play with. Every set has an identity which isn't replicated by other sets. Every set does its own thing. For years and years, TA's identity, TA's thing, was just being copies of powers from other sets, plus OSA. It's finally being differentiated in ways that should've been done fifteen years ago. It's finally something more than bits and bobs thrown into a box and given a bow and arrow graphical effect. That's a very good thing. I'm not overlooking that, either. What I am trying to help you understand is that it won't be nearly as onerous as you imply, because the debuffs are stronger and the durations are longer. Entangling's -Res lasts 30s. Acid's only lasted 20s. That's ten extra seconds of doing anything but debuffing. Disruption's effects persist for 45s, it used to be 30s. That's 15 extra seconds, presuming you were re-applying Disruption at the end of its duration, plus the time you're not spending re-applying Acid's original -Res. PGA's -Dam lasts for 60s now. It used to be 20s. And the debuff value is doubled, with half of it being flagged irresistible. You not only don't have to spam it, you're actually getting something out of using it now. Flash Arrow's duration wasn't changed, but the debuff value was more than doubled, and even the irresistible half is higher than the entire debuff was previously. Better, without being more burdensome. Glue has more -Recharge than Glue + Entangling applied before, the duration is twice as long as it was before. More effective, less spamming necessary. Even Acid Arrow, despite having a different type of -Res in it now, lasts longer than the live version of Acid. 30s versus 20s. You have less work with the changed Acid. Yes, you have to spend the extra 1.188s applying Entangling once every 30s in addition to using Acid if you want the extra 20% -Res, but Acid's animation time is 1.98s, and you were having to re-apply that every 20s, rather than every 30s. Even with just these changes, putting the AoE -Res in Disruption, adding extra single-target -Res in Entangling and changing what resistances Acid debuffs, you're actually saving several seconds in a 30s window, because Acid has the longest animation in the set (shared with EMP Arrow). Additionally, not having to use it in conjunction with PGA in order to achieve the full 40% -Res we're currently capable of applying is a not-insignificant improvement, especially for solo play. No more of that DoT breaking the Sleep, which has always been a major QoL issue. All of the changes are moving TA toward less spamming, more focused debuffing. Every one of these powers requires you to use them 1/3 to 1/2 as frequently to maintain optimal efficiency, and together, the changes shave off huge chunks of time we used to have to spend re-applying powers with short durations. Let's take an AV fight and break down the time spent using TA now. Open with Flash, Glue, Acid, Disruption, PGA, OSA, EMP - 10.428s. At 20s, re-apply Acid and PGA - 3.3s. At 30s, re-apply Disruption and Glue - 2.64s. At 40s, re-apply Acid and PGA - 3.3s. At 45s, re-apply OSA - 1.32s. At 60s, restart the cycle (EMP Arrow isn't usable again at this point, will come back up in 25-30s) - 8.448s. That's 30s of your minute spent debuffing. New TA AV fight timing: open with Flash, Glue, Acid, Disruption, PGA, OSA, EMP, and Entangling - 11.616. At 30s, re-apply Acid and Entangling - 3.3s. At 45s, re-apply Disruption and OSA - 2.64s. At 60s, re-apply Flash, Glue, Acid, Entangling and PGA - 6.996s. In the same 60 second window, you're only spending ~24s debuffing. You're being required to spam TA powers for 6 fewer second, even with Entangling in your rotation. You could throw Ice Arrow into your rotation and still save 3-4s over the previous rotation. This TA is numerically less spammy than the other TA, even if you're using the Kitchen Sink Arrow. That is wrong. No sugar-coating, it's just wrong. TA was created two issues before corruptors or masterminds existed. It is and always has been, first and foremost, a defender primary. It was made and balanced for defenders. What controllers, corruptors and masterminds receive is a defender primary appropriately scaled by archetype modifiers, not the other way around. It was created from powers in Devices, Sonic (which was being worked on at the same time that TA was), Rad and Earth, plus a couple of new powers. But it has a theme. It's always had a theme. It may not be a theme that fits everyone's taste, but it's still thematic. For the record, that theme was copied in the very next Issue after TA was released. The copy had better powers across the board, and replacements for under-performing powers. It was named Traps. I disagree. The whole point of different sets having different powers with different effects is to provide different experiences when playing. That's the core idea behind this game. No two sets play exactly alike. The addition of -Res to Entangling doesn't create dissonance, it creates differentiation. Here's the problem with that - Entangling isn't going away. The original development team had what we refer to as "the cottage rule". You can look it up, but basically, it means powers aren't removed outright unless they're so drastically broken that they're unworkable and impossible to improve. Once something is in the game, it's in the game. @Captain Powerhouse is sticking to the cottage rule, so Entangling isn't going to be replaced by a different power. That means it has to have some value added to it, because it's pure, utter, unquestionably crap as it stands. Yes, it has some utility in the very early game, yes, it's useful for controllers to set up containment, but realistically, it's a bad fucking power that adds nothing worthwhile to the set. If I had my druthers, I'd rip it out and replace it with anything more useful. An arrow that fired cat poop and crashed the game would be more palatable, as far as I'm concerned. But it's in the set, we're stuck with it, and @Captain Powerhouse made an effort to give it some more utility and value by sticking an additional 20% -Res into it so TA players could have both a bonus to stack with Disruption and a reason not to despise the power with the entirety of their souls (yeah, i really hate it that much). So it doesn't really matter if you or I or anyone else thinks another power would be appropriate in place of Entangling. We have Entangling, we're always going to have Entangling. If the -Res is taken out of Entangling and crammed into another power, like back into Acid as a single-target effect on the primary target, it puts Entangling right back where it was before the change, a bad joke for every TA who can't skip it (everyone except defenders). It's at least moderately worthwhile this way, especially for the three archetypes who can't skip it, and that's miles ahead of where it stands on the servers now. I hear all of that and I'm completely on board. But I'm also approaching this from the perspective of someone who understands the mechanics, the limitations, the mindset of the original development teams, @Captain Powerhouse's thoughts and approach, and more. I don't have to exchange PMs with @Captain Powerhouse to understand why he did what he did, because I can look at the changes and it's obvious to me. I understand a lot of things, because dug into the mechanics with various characters, I tested and experimented, I spent years discussing these things with Castle, and I understand them better now than I did in the past (and if you know who i am, then you know i understood them pretty well back then). I know that there are things which absolutely will not change. I know there are things which can be wiggled a little. I know which powers can be tweaked and which ones can't, and the whys and wherefores of these things. I know what the balance goals are and how they're being met. And while there are ways I, or you, or anyone, would've approached this revamp differently, I know the end result is the same - TA is better across the board. Am I thrilled at the prospect of "having" to take Entangling on my TA defenders, at the thought of "having" to use it every time I want to fight an AV because I know that not doing so would be lazy? No, of course not. But it's still a better power than it was, and I still have the choice to take it, use it, skip it, whatever. And I'm also not just settling for whatever hand-outs might be offered. I'm expecting the absolute best that can be done, nothing less. I'm either going to be amazed, or I'm going to be beating down @Captain Powerhouse's front door and waving a chainsaw in his face.... and thus far, I've been amazed. TA has always been too spammy. It's also always been too weak. We can move toward being grossly over-powered with two or three powers and cut the spam entirely, or we can move toward having more utility spread among more powers, reduce the spam to a manageable level and still allow the player to feel effective. We're doing the latter, and I honestly feel that it's the better approach. All of the major issues with TA are being addressed, and even changes that have some people scratching their heads or outright disagreeing with, have a purpose and help move TA in the right direction. But there are some things that just aren't going to change. Every power has to have some purpose beyond existing to fill a tier slot. In order to make TA more effective and less spammy, some powers have to be improved, and others have to be repurposed. None of them can be outright changed, but they can be given new use and utility, and that's what's being done now. I'm really, truly not being dismissive of anyone's concerns or disagreements with what's being done. But I see things from a very different perspective than the average gamer, the average Co* player, or even the average power-gamer. I didn't need to be in the closed beta, and, in fact, was only in it for the last two weeks, in order to see exactly what's going on with TA and what every aspect of these changes entails. I know what's going on with these changes, even if I'm not expressing myself as clearly as I try, and I am making an effort to share that perspective with everyone, just as you're making an effort to share your perspective. By all means, complain about everything you don't like with the changes. But realize, some of them are necessary, and all of them make sense when you look at them as part of a whole, and some of the things you don't want to happen are going to happen simply because they have to if TA is to move out of the sub-basement closet and into the bigger world. This isn't a "last word", this is an invitation to discuss, to ask questions, to debate merits. That's what I've always been here for.

Are you saying that the -ToHit was only reduced by 0.24% when you used Flash Arrow, or that the resistance to -ToHit was only reduced by 0.24% when you used Acid? If it's the former, there's something horribly wrong. If it's the latter, then I have to agree with your assessment of the -res -ToHit debuff. A 0.24-0.33% increase to a -ToHit applied wouldn't make any difference. It needs improvement.

Rectum? Damn near killed 'em!

All of that is normal for OSA. The two procs you used were exclusive to the OSBurn pseudo-pet, so they couldn't activate until OSBurn was spawned. Try Defense Debuff procs if you want to see something happening before the slick is ignited. The -Def procs should check at cast, then once every ten seconds until the power expires (cast, 10s, 20s, 30s followed by immediate despawn, if it checks at 30s at all), including when the slick is burning.

No, he was an ordinary businessman. I think I remember that he did it to win a bet. Or because he lost a bet. Pretty sure it was the former, but it really has been a long time.

What I have in mind doesn't really fit with your suggestion. I'd go the other way entirely, changing the way status effects are applied, using debuffs instead of hard mez (Slows would stack or scale to become Immobilizes, -Recharge would stack or scale to become Hold, -ToHit would stack or scale to become Stuns, -Damage would stack or scale to become Sleeps, and so forth. these are just examples of possible ways it could be implemented) by critters and every archetype except controllers and dominators, effectively reducing status effects throughout the entire game. I'm looking at from the other side of the fence, from the critters side, not the archetype side, as a means of reducing the over-use of status effects by critters while still keeping them challenging and interesting, and giving players more opportunity to deal with status effects, rather than making half the archetypes nobles and the other half beggars. Really, it's never going to go anywhere. It would be a complete rework of every critter with mez, and a new mechanic (well, almost a mechanic) to create the change from debuff to mez, and removal and replacement of existing mez in power sets outside of controller and dominator primaries and secondaries. The HC team will never have the time or resources to do it, and I'm on a refurb laptop in an off-grid cabin, so I definitely don't have the resources to do it. So... I'm just not a fan of increasing the strength of status effects on any archetype, not even controllers, because it's just escalation. The more there is, the more there will be, and the more will be needed later. I'd rather see status effects diminished in prevalence and controller/dominator status effects be more meaningful. That is to say, instead of making a way to overcome the PToD, make the PToD less necessary. I think the control archetypes could be more unique this way, and have full usage of their powers, instead of being penalized for doing what they were created to do.

I didn't. My responses were considered, polite and in earnest. You dislike specific changes and want them changed again. I'm pointing out to you that even if you choose to use TA the way you outline after these changes, you're still ten times better off than you would be with the current version of TA on the servers, and that your preferred changes aren't necessary. Look, at no point is a beta feedback thread about proposing complete power redesigns. We're not here to rebuild the set according to our preferences. Yes, your feedback matters and it's important to post it, but asking for effects to be moved to different powers so you don't have to change your rotation isn't feedback. And that is what you're doing. You're insisting that using the powers as they exist in the beta will cost you more time, but they won't unless you choose to spend that time. You're ignoring that you have that choice. You're ignoring the duration changes. You're ignoring the debuff strengths. You're focusing entirely on "I have to use all of these powers to do this and it's going to cost me time", and not admitting that you don't have to use all of those powers and that it could save you time. You responded to my post in less than five minutes. That suggests that you didn't stop to digest what I said, you just decided I wasn't listening and you closed yourself off to anything further. I am listening. I am discussing. I'm emphasizing things that you aren't addressing or accounting for in your comments about the changes. Read them again, please, and spend more than five minutes so I can at least have some assurance that you're considering what I'm saying.

This is true. I've been kicked by a quarter horse. She sent me flying almost 15'. Sleep is definitely better than being knocked back.

Find bugs, tweak numbers, consider reverting changes back to original. That cycle you're using is 3 powers, not 7 or 8. And that's what it used to be for TA. Fighting an AV? Well, Flash every 45-50 seconds, Glue for the tiny -Recharge and slight bit of -Movement every 25 seconds, PGA for a little -Damage every 18 seconds, Acid every 18 seconds, Disruption every 25-28 seconds, OSA when it's up so you can feel like you're adding something more than eye candy, EMP when it's up so you can actually say you brought -Regen to the fight... oh, and some attacks when you can, if you're not too busy shooting Entangling so there's a giant freaking net to announce to the team that, despite what it looks like, you actually are using powers and trying to contribute. That's AV fights as a TA now, right now, today. We're shooting everything we have, then looking around to see if there's a kitchen sink to shoot. That's not exaggeration, it's the reality of being a TA on the servers right now. Every single one of us who's been playing TA since 2005 can attest to this. We'd rather bring a petless mastermind to an AV fight than a TA, because at least then, no-one would be disappointed or resentful of how little we're contributing, despite working our asses off. You're not doing more work by adding Entangling to your rotation. Your rotation before these changes is "is it recharged? use it". Several powers have longer durations in these changes, which means you don't have to use them as often. Several powers are significantly stronger, which means you don't have to use every power. And if those three powers are all you need to contribute and be effective as a debuffer in an AV fight, you shouldn't be complaining, you should be shouting in joy. You used 3 powers, instead of 7 or 8. Break out the champagne and caviar, you just made the big league. And the stat improvements and/or additional debuffs added to Flash Arrow, PGA, Disruption, Acid and Ice completely reverse that defeat. You don't have to use every power now. Not on little +0/x1 spawns, not on +2/x4 spawns, not even on AVs. You have more flexibility than you had before. You don't have to use Entangling. It's extra. You don't have to use Flash if you use PGA, or PGA if you use Flash. Either one will provide sufficient mitigation to allow you to get on with the business of kicking ass. You don't have to use Acid on PGA-Slept critters and break the Sleep in order to reach 40% -Res, you can just Disruption. You don't have to use Acid + Disruption when you drop OSA, you can just use Disruption. You say you're going to have to spend more time debuffing to compensate for having different effects in different powers, but I'm seeing less time spent. I'm seeing half as many power usages necessary to stay alive. I'm seeing half as many to increase DPS. I'm seeing half as many to bring the pain to AV fights. I'm seeing more choices in how I use my TA powers, less requirement that I use more of them to do almost as much as other sets do with fewer powers, and a hell of a lot more time I can spend blasting or controlling or monitoring my pets. And I definitely don't see a need to use all of my TA powers as soon as they're recharged, like I see when I'm playing my sub-50 no-set-bonuses TA characters now. I'm sorry, but I can't agree. I've played TA for too long, and know the mechanics too well, to overlook the enormous improvement to quality of life these changes will bring, to feel that "having" to use Entangling to stack 20% -Res on top of the 40% I can apply with one power is a bad thing, to consider it a bad thing if I can throw in with a team going up against an AV and actually contribute, maybe even with only 3 powers instead of 7 or 8 (i'd go 4, maybe bump it up to 5 if people are struggling). You're being saved from having to use every power at every opportunity because the debuffs were too weak, the durations too short and the recharge times too long, and still having your ass handed to you. You're being saved from feeling useless because you brought TA instead of anything else. You're being saved from having to wait for OSA or EMP to recharge because nothing else in your quiver does much to keep you or your team alive. But you can view it at as net loss, that's your prerogative.

Good gynoids go to heaven. Bad ones go everywhere.

-Range was tested in a previous round of TA changes. It's brokenly easy to game. Definitely not happening with TA, or likely any ranged set of any kind.

We're at a point at which it doesn't matter if it would be appropriate. The reason for that is simply that TA has always required players to put more work into playing the set than they would have to invest in playing other sets, and that's kept it at the bottom of the barrel. People don't want to play TA because it's always been too much damn work for too little reward. That's why the -Res was moved to Disruption. There's no loss of AoE debuff, and it does it in one power usage instead of two. That's what @Captain Powerhouse is aiming for with his changes to TA. Cut down on the amount of work the player has to do and increase the reward for what they choose to do. The -ToHit in Flash Arrow was increased so TA players wouldn't have to use two or three powers to provide mitigation comparable to other sets. The -Damage in PGA was increased for the same reason. Disruption being allowed to stack was removed to balance it against other sets after the -Res from Acid was moved and the target cap increased to 16. The -Res in Entangling was added to compensate TA players for losing the option to stack Disruption. Acid had -Special added to give it more utility and versatility in place of having one purpose in the eyes of players, that being little more than a second AoE source of -Res (and a poor one at that, with a pitifully small AoE radius). The radius was also increased so the power would have more impact in-game, rather than being an AoE with such a small radius that it only affected whatever was humping the primary target's leg. The -Recharge from Entangling was moved to Glue and increased, and again, this was done so players wouldn't have to use multiple powers to achieve their goal. Ice was modified to make the power more than a bog standard Hold, which lacked flavor or versatility. The Hold duration was reduced accordingly to maintain balance, and to promote its use as more than just a proc mule or just a Hold that you use until you have enough slots and other powers to remove it from your tray. EMP Arrow was changed in multiple ways because it's never been particularly useful as anything more than a panic button, whereas now it's useful as much more. Every change to TA went through multiple iterations and months of work, all with the goal of making a TA player's life easier and more enjoyable. Less work, more reward. I doubt the -Res is going back to Acid, even in single-target format. I doubt the -Res will be removed from Entangling. There are still some improvements which could be made, such as the -5 Endurance in Disruption being replaced with anything useful, or taking another look at EMP Arrow and possibly doing something other than a copy of Faraday Cage for teammates/pets only. But most of what's here is going to go live, because the changes @Captain Powerhouse made accomplished the goals he set, those being less work for the player and more parity with other debuffing sets. What matters is that the set is vastly improved from what it always had to settle for. It's stronger, more versatile, more capable and easier to use. Good job, CP.

Yeah, I know they're good spiders. As I said, I respect them. I just don't want to sleep with them when they're the size of a turtle. Good housemates don't intrude on one another's personal space. Furry cats in my home - GOOD! Furry spiders large enough to give me the willies - NOPE! No scritches for them. They go outside, where they belong.

I don't use any travel powers, temp or pool, on most of my characters, and there are always areas that are slightly annoying to navigate. I've trained myself to instinctively detour around them or into them from the "right" direction. But I've been liking everything I've seen in regard to Combat Teleport, and I like your feedback about using it without travel powers to bypass speed bumps in places like Steel Canyon. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of respecing, between Combat Teleport and the changes to Trick Arrows. I'd be annoyed, but actually having too many good choices for once, instead of trying to figure out how to squeeze in mules for set bonuses, is a really nice problem to have.

No, those are just the resistances they have to the debuff. The lowest possible value that can be applied with a -resist -ToHit. The real question is, what is their base resistance to -ToHit? Is it the floor, in the case of standard bosses, or do they start with a specific resistance to -ToHit that can be subsequently lowered to 20%? What do they start with and how does -res -ToHit impact that number? At a guess, any boss not specifically coded, meaning generic Bossname bosses encountered in standard mission content, would have just the 20% resistance to -ToHit, and Acid's -res -ToHit would simply have no impact. The same should be true of lieutenants and minions, if it's true for bosses, with minions at 0% and fully capable of being debuffed to -300%. AVs still leave a hell of a lot of room for -res -ToHit to work, though, even with that 30% floor.

It's a leftover from when critter hit chances used ToHit instead of Accuracy, I suspect. It might even be pre-Purple Patch, or part of the Purple Patch.