Luminara

A non-hypothetical way. Meaning, you're asking me to look into the future and tell you what's going to happen. I can't do that. But I can, and will, use examples of boogiemen from the past. Tanker and scrapper tier 9 powers. The recharge times on those used to be so short they were easily made permanent. Tankers and scrappers didn't need to team. Teaming began to be seriously affected, so for the sake of balance, those tier 9 powers were changed to have 1000s recharge times. The balance, in this situation, was in countering player-created homogeny and ensuring that all roles were valid, rather than only two roles being valid and the others being window dressing. Aggro caps. Prior to the implementation of aggro caps, it was possible for tankers and scrappers to herd an entire map to one location, then wait for someone with AoEs to burn them down. All of them, potentially a few hundred foes, with 1-3 AoEs. The balance affected here was two-fold - first, the rate of XP gain was so far out of proportion that it made any other activity pointless, thus affecting both teaming and content experience; and second, single-target powers were beginning to be regarded as utterly useless, because AoEs were capable of defeating entire maps of critters at once. Creating aggro caps for powers allowed the developers to exert a tighter control over the rate of XP gain (at that time, considered a means of ensuring player retention), give players a reason to team up and play through the content rather than avoid it in favor of one map or zone, and ensure that single-target powers had utility. AoE control power recharge times. There was a period when players referred to this game as City of Statues, because AoE status effects were so heavily used. And due to that, there was little need for tankers or defenders. Why bother with either of those archetypes when controllers could ensure that nothing was capable of moving, much less fighting back? Consequently, AoE controls were given much longer recharge times and much shorter durations. The same balance problem that had been addressed by changing tanker and scrapper tier 9 powers had to be addressed again when controllers became the supreme beings. Dumpster herding. Enhancement Diversification. Global Defense Nerf. Purple Patch. Purple Triangles of Doom. Co* is rife with examples of the boogieman rearing his head, and having to be shot in the face with a bazooka, sometimes double-tapped with an '88 just to keep him at bay. Over and over again, we've found oversights, loopholes, bugs, and exploited them to such a degree that the game itself was suffering. There are a lot of different mechanics which affect balance in Co*, and each of them has been abused in some way over the years. And different types of balance were affected in different ways, at different times. Each time, it had to be fixed, for the good of the game and the greater satisfaction of the majority of players. None of the changes, the nerfs, were fun or leave us with fond memories, but they were all necessary. They all restored balance in some way. They made teaming viable by reducing player-created homogeny and ensuring that all archetypes served a function. They ensured that we were all gaining XP at roughly the same rate, dependent on our own preferences and abilities. They kept the game from becoming completely pointless due to an absence of content or developer-created challenge. I can't tell you what the boogieman will look like when he reappears. I can't tell you when he'll reappear. I'm just a person, like you, with one way to move through time, by putting one foot in front of the other and soldiering on. But I can tell you that the history of this game alone has shown, conclusively, that we will do everything in our power to break any and every rule, to throw balance into such utter and complete disarray that it will seem like a lost cause. We're swimming in examples of balance issues and redresses. It's in our nature to invite the boogieman in, offer him a cup of coffee and bear claw and suggest that he make himself comfortable and stay for a while. And we will do it again, some day. The HC team will overlook something, or introduce a bug, or create a new power which leverages a previously unknown bug or under-used mechanic, and we'll go hog wild with it. It is inevitable. I can't say that he'll show his face tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that. I can't say that it'll be this year, or next, or within the decade. What I can say is, we've seen him too many times to believe he's gone forever. History has taught us to expect him to pop in from time to time. The question should not be whether or not balance matters, or whether or not nerfs are necessary, but whether or not we've learned from the past. If you want to know what the future holds, use hindsight, not foresight.

Hey, now, I just made an innocent comment expressing my appreciation for a particularly nice phrasing, and next thing I know, I've got Johnny Carson asking if my bad nipple does any celebrity impersonations and Walter Cronkite trying to get an exclusive interview. I'm the victim here! 😇

Okay, thanks. Today I learned that attuning also allows sets to retain bonuses the way purples and PvP IOs do. Awesome. It's a good day when I learn something. 🙂

I've never seen anyone, in my entire life, so fascinated with his own nipples. Look at him! He can't take his eyes off of his nipples! He's deliberately not blinking so he doesn't miss a moment of nipple action! @Jimmy, we need to talk about your nipple problem. Stop by my office before you leave.

Attuned set IOs which cap at any level below 50 still show the enhancement value at whatever level you're currently at, but it's a bug. Attuning the enhancement hasn't allowed it to level beyond it's cap, it's just the game engine being slightly too stupid to realize that the enhancement is capped at X. The maximum enhancement value will actually be whatever it would be at it's level cap. So, for set IOs capped at 30, even if it's displaying level 50 enhanced value, it's actually only providing level 30 value. And here's some general information (and my personal rules for slotting) for anyone who's still curious... Attuning is excellent for leveling, and exemplaring, and attuned sub-50 cap IOs are useful enough to warrant having them for a long time in a build. But you'll benefit from replacing them at some point, unless the specific set bonuses they're providing are necessary for a build and can't be replaced easily (or at all) by using other sets. Once you're at 50, you can keep your level 50 attuned set IOs, or replace them with identical but unattuned IOs and boost them if you prefer. I keep my attuned set IOs at 50 because I don't like the possibility of exemplaring down and losing set bonuses. I lose some value from the IOs themselves if I do exemp, but keeping the set bonuses is usually worth that trade-off because set bonuses are global, not power-specific. For frankenslotted IOs, I boost those, +5. There's no set bonus to lose, and I frankenslotted them because I wanted maximum efficiency, so kicking them a little higher is a good move for me. If a set caps before the level at which I acquire a power, I boost. Meaning, if I take a power at 44, but the set I'm slotting caps at 30, I'll boost the IOs to 30+5. I'm going to lose the set bonuses when I lose the power anyway, so I might as well get the most I can out of them. I prefer to slot purples in powers I take later in the game, since the set bonuses are always on, even when exemplared. PvP set bonuses behave the same way, but when I use PvP sets, rather than specific uniques, I tend to slot them in lower level powers, basically treating them like a normal IO set so I'm benefiting from more than just the bonuses. ATOs and Winter IOs, I put wherever they make the most sense. For me, that's typically lower level powers because I can start using them at level 10. It's an easy way to get some good bonuses early in the game without sacrificing anything. For Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge, I always attune those if they're in defense toggles I'm using. The extra Defense provided by the LotG is very worthwhile, especially if I'm frankenslotting my defensive powers to save slots. The Steadfast Resistance global is another good candidate for attuning and keeping attuned if it's in a Resistance power you actually use. It's Resistance/+3% Defense (All), and a lot of people forget the Resistance part of that. You can shave a slot off of a Res power that way. Most of the other uniques don't need to be attuned or boosted, and that includes procs. Exceptions are uniques which also provide an enhancement value, like Recharge Reduction or Endurance Reduction. I'll usually attune those, if they aren't attuned by default (ATOs and Winter IOs are attuned by default. when you use a catalyst on them, you're turning them into the Superior versions). If you'll never exemp, swap out all of your attuned IOs with unattuned and start slapping the boosters on. But look at your build and consider running it through a few variations in Mids' first. 50+5 IOs are pretty powerful, and you'll end up with a lot of wasted potential if you're just boosting willy nilly. I've found that taking a close look at a build, with the intention of moving slots around and changing which sets I'm using to pile up specific bonuses, can have a significant impact. I'm now on my 17th variation of my Archery/Energy Aura sentinel's build, counting the leveling build, the level 28 respec build, the level 38 respec build and the two aborted Archery/Ninjitsu builds, and I'm only now feeling that it's "right". Also, some IOs have a lower level requirement when attuned. Not many, but some very good ones. They don't show up in Mids' as having a different level requirement, but in-game, they do. That opens up some options when slotting sets and uniques.

Homogeny is unavoidable, and it's not caused by developers, it's caused by players. People want to succeed, to excel in games, and it's not typically easy or fun to succeed or excel when your choice of class or set within a class is fifth rate. Sure, you can be the best fifth rate <whatever>, but excelling at not being particularly useful, or not being particularly good at killing foes, or not being particularly good at keeping a team alive, isn't really much of an achievement. As a result of that, players create homogeny when they gravitate to the classes/sets which are seen as "the best". Look at the popular selections players here make in archetype and sets within archetype. Blasters are a good example. More than 21% of the blasters being played as of March are Fire/*. There are, in fact, as many Fire/* blasters as there are of the 5 least popular primaries combined. Why? Does Fire/ offer increased survivability over what's available in other blaster primaries? No. Is it because Fire/ has special mechanics which make offer additional team support? No. Do we have an incredibly high proportion of players who fantasize about being Johnny Storm or Firestorm? Very unlikely, because if that were the case, /Fire would be as popular as Fire/, and it's actually less popular than /Energy. It's because the secondary effect of Fire/ is "MOAR DAMAGES PLZKTHXLOL". Fire/ is "the best" in the minds of players who select it, because it fulfills the purpose of the archetype most completely, doing damage and nothing but damage. Side note - this is not a call to nerf Fire/* blasters. This is an observation, nothing more. Nor is it a commentary on the mentality or intelligence of people who play Fire/* blasters. Observation, not attack. Unknot your knickers. And that's player-created homogeny. 1 in 5 blasters are Fire/*. There are 13 blaster primaries, with a wide variety of secondary effects, and this one primary comprises 21% of all of the players playing blasters. That's homogeny. The natural inclination people have to focus on "the best" has caused the lack of diversity that those same players claim to fear if classes/sets are homogenized. They say, "Don't change this stuff, it'll just be everyone playing the same thing with different colors and sounds", then they go play the same thing with the same colors and sounds (though we are lucky enough to have different colors here). The development teams didn't do that, that's the players' fault. They homogenized themselves. And it highlights an important point - even when people say they don't want homogeny, they pursue it, create it, and subsequently, enforce it by threatening to quit if their homogeny is upset. The very same people insisting that homogeny is bad for a game are homogenizing the game when they're all playing the same class/set. Diversity is good. We don't have homogeny complaints in Co* because we have an incredible costume creator, the ability to change the look (and even animations of some) of our powers, and enough archetypes and sets within the archetypes to allow us to create our own diversity. And the game supports diversity by having a comprehensive array of difficulty settings, so people can opt for less than "the best" and still feel good about what they're playing. Teaming also allows less than optimal builds and play styles to work well, because they're working in concert with other builds and play styles, and the whole is something greater than the individual parts. We have a good game, and it can tolerate a great deal of homogeny. Other games aren't so fortunate. They have fewer options for classes, fewer options within classes, and a stricter approach to how teaming works and what player roles are. When player-created homogeny rears it's head in those games, the developers have to deal with it because that homogeny actually hurts the game significantly. If no-one's playing support, if no-one's tanking, no-one can experience the content. If players aren't experiencing the content, they're not going to keep paying subscription fees or buying gacha boxes. Player-created homogeny has to be countered, even if it means nerfs or developer-created homogeny to equalize classes and abilities, or the game dies. The only other option is to reinforce the homogeny, which means flipping the bird to the majority of players and praying that those remaining don't grow bored, or worse, irate because the game's too homogenous.

That is correct. For sets with a minimum level, going more than 3 levels below that turns off the bonuses. Attuning just allows your IOs to level in concert with you, not to bypass the level restrictions.

All drops work that way, with the exception being when you're in a level range during which drops can be rolled from different tables. For example, at level 22, your drops might come from recipes which have a level range of 10-30, or you might get drops from the recipes in the 20-40 range, and you can even begin getting recipes for the 25-50 range. A drop will always be at your level, with that exception. If you get a 25-50 drop when you're 22, it will always be level 25, never higher. Critters below your level can drop recipes which are normal for their (the critters') level range, but if the drop is within your level range, it can be at your level rather than at the critters' level. To get recipes or enhancements above your level, use the market. To get enhancements which are always at your level (up to the enhancement's normal maximum level), use attuned enhancements. 25-50. Sometimes. It depends on the set bonus and what the character in question needs. IOs have no expiration. They don't lose effectiveness like TOs, DOs, SOs or HOs if you level higher than their native level. There are two easy ways to bypass having low level IOs that you don't want to replace. Either attune them so they level with you, or focus on IOs around level 30, where they're comparable to SOs in value. You can use level 30 IOs from level 27 onward, and you won't have to replace them unless or until you want to, they'll be as effective as SOs in all of your powers even at level 50 (slightly more effective, in fact, due to set bonuses or frankenslotting (frankenslotting is using IOs from different sets to achieve specifically targeted stat improvements in powers without set bonuses.))

And spotted dick! 🤣 Yes, I'm incredibly juvenile. I'm refraining from posting half a page of spotted dick jokes because I'm also incredibly mature. 😛

All of the purple sets use the same enhancement design outline. Primary Effect Primary Effect/Recharge Accuracy/Primary Effect/Recharge Accuracy/Recharge Primary Effect/Endurance Reduction Proc None of them are really good for toggles, from an endurance management perspective, unless you only slot 5 of the set and use the sixth slot for more endurance reduction. You can push Damage, Hold Duration, Sleep, whatever, and Recharge back up to the red line if you +5 the Primary/Recharge IO. You can do the same to the Primary/Endurance (more applicable in your case) for slightly better endurance reduction (41% instead of 33%). Boosting the others doesn't really pay off much. The single effect enhancement can then be dropped in favor of a different IO, or the power left at 5 slots if you're only pursuing the recharge bonus.

It is known as blood sausage in different places. British "chips", Americans "fries", same thing, different regions.

Pudding? Red? BLOOD PUDDING CONFIRMED! ... I've never tried blood pudding. Does it go well with coffee?

DO NOT INTERCEDE BETWEEN ME AND MY DREAMS OF DELICIOUS CHOCOLATEY GOODNESS. And the pizza is a given. So we're getting pizza AND chocolate pie. They're going to have to rename the release to Page Sex.

It's a PvP set, so it provides set bonuses even when exemplared, the same way that purple sets do, as though it were attuned by default. In regard to boosting, I haven't tested it on a PvP set yet, so waiting for a more informed response would be wise before using boosters.

Ah, fame before I hit 50. All thanks to a nipple. 🤨

She doesn't care. Her interest isn't in where the money is going, she's asking the HC team to engage in criminal activity by increasing the donation cap, falsifying the records and pocketing the difference, so, in her mind, they'll have justification to work on the game full time. She's asking them to be transparent with her, but lie to NCSoft, to their families, to the U.S. and British governments so she can have a new shiny to play with. The fact that such an action could lead to drastic changes in the negotiations with NCSoft, that they could lose their jobs, their freedom, their homes and even their families, is irrelevant, as long as she doesn't have to be patient or understanding.

Pie? 0_0 We're getting pie? Is it an Edwards Hershey Chocolate Creme Pie? I LOVE THOSE! 😄 ❤️

If you read their finance reports, you'd know the answer to that.

Stop. They can't accept payment for what they're doing. Not at this time, in the middle of negotiations with NCSoft. It's not only not on the table, it's not going to be anywhere near the table until the negotiations are concluded, for better or worse. Furthermore, you don't understand how the money they are getting is being used, why their server expenses are higher than other groups', and you don't seem to be willing to educate yourself. That's a very poor position from which to launch snippy comments and weak insults. You're also being ungrateful for the time the HC team has invested and continues to invest in this, at their own expense, at the expense of spending time with their families and other hobbies, and that's an even worse position. Take a breath, calm down, read up on what you're shouting at them, and me, about, and come back when you can discuss it rationally.

*reloads catapult* FIRE IN THE HOLE!

I beaned her with a pineapple. Just loot the corpse. 😉

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/59-finances-donations/ They aren't hiding anything from anyone, they aren't taking money and laundering it through some obscure off-shore bank, they aren't doing anything shady. They set a hard limit on the amount which they'll take in donations, cut it off the instant the goal is reached, and tell everyone exactly what they spent the money on every month. They very clearly lay out where the money goes, breaking it down by different expenses, explain why something might change from the previous month, they even point out any overages in donations and apply it directly to the next month. They not only list where the money goes, they say why it went there, why spending it there was better than spending it elsewhere, what we're all getting out of that expenditure, etc. They're open and honest about the finances coming in or going out, in every way possible.

*loads a catapult with pudding* ... *throws a pineapple into the middle* INCOMING!

All of the content that was on the original servers was balanced around SOs. The changes and additions made since the HC team started their server... I don't know. BUT, my experiences leveling characters over the last couple of months (i started with absolutely nothing, a functionally new player, when i bought this laptop), coupled with my experiences on the original servers and what I know about the game, suggest to me that the SO balance point has not moved. SOs are still the gold standard, and IOs, at any level, even frankenslotted and common IOs, put us well above that standard. The goalpost is still where it was, but the much greater availability and accessibility of IO sets, for those who make use of them, gives the impression of the goalpost falling over and disappearing into an oubliette. IOs open up so much freedom with builds, even if it's just allowing us to improve powers more efficiently while spending fewer slots. It used to take months, up to a year, to fully kit out a build with IOs and set bonuses. It can be done in a day now, by someone starting fresh and just leveling for the first time. That changes perspectives, creates the impression of ease where it didn't exist before, and probably wouldn't exist today if set IOs were more difficult to acquire, the merit system were more restricted, etc. For me, no, though I do believe everyone can be wealthy and have IOs from level 10 onward, based on having done just that on my first (and every subsequent) character. Balance isn't what IOs can do, it's what Set/Set can do, and can't do, in normal content. Balanced is my TA/Dark being capable of leveling without leaning on inspirations just to survive every mission. Slotted with DOs or IOs doesn't matter because the game provides options like the difficulty settings to adjust the balance for my personal experience. Unbalanced is my TA/Dark not bringing anywhere near as much to a team as a Rad/* or Storm/*, despite being the same level and providing similar tools. There are no tools in place to address that. Even IOs don't really address it. The imbalance isn't caused by what type of enhancements are slotted, but by the stats for TA's powers. Even with fantastic IO set bonuses and Hasten, TA has a lot of powers with recharge times which prohibit them from being used on every spawn, and the powers themselves have sufficiently low debuff strength that the player needs to use multiple powers on every spawn to provide half of the mitigation that other sets provide. The concert of power inavailability, and the necessity to use every power, creates a set at odds with itself. It's not balanced, in comparison to other sets or even within itself. That's where I'm coming from in a discussion about balance. It's not what enhancements do, but what the powers do, what the sets do and what players can do. IOs can change some aspects of balance management by allowing under-performing sets or combinations to do well, but they don't change the powers themselves, and that's where balance should be targeted, whether it's for idle conversation on the forums, or under the scrutiny of whoever's got Castle's hat now.