Naraka

Having expectations is reasonable but it hasn't been a wholly enforced expectation for workers to act "professional" on open public social media. Only in the last handful of years has it become customary to censor so draconian that the censorship itself causes untold animosity that terms like "toxic" are widely used to describe simply disagreeing. But further still, user enforced professionalism when there is no actual accountability (no one would be getting fired or lose money or thrown in jail) seems as pompous as a power tripping volunteer dev just with less dignity. tl;dr your standards aren't everyone's standard so stop pretending like you're setting the bar, of indeed you feel you are.

Did you try taking it on at a lower level of difficulty? Or turn AVs off?

I'm glad someone else is talking sense. It's odd that people assumed AF meant you always crit AS or that you can only fast cast crit AS if you have 3 focus. If that were the case, AF would be an all-or-nothing mechanic like dual blades combos or psi melee insight. Even if AS doesn't crit, people have obviously forgotten where they came from when before you couldn't even use AS without the interruptible animation. I guess it's just terrible if you use a moderate damage 1sec animation with only a 66% chance to crit. Such terrible! Lol

The funny thing is, I completely understand your perspective, probably better than you do. At the end of the day, players like me that liked stalkers as they were had the AT practically taken away and given a Scrappers version instead. We had to accept that the way stalkers were was inferior to the style of the scrapper because they are *peak*. And it's unreasonable now to take Stalkers as they exist now away to replace it with a more Stalkery version nor would it be feasible to just fudge it into the current AT without either failing to accomplish the goal or making them OP.

Lol if you're going to tune it out, you're not doing a good job of it by acknowledging it. I don't think I was being a dick about it. Snarky? Sure, but having to deal with people irl should make you more tolerant, not less, of minuscule comments on a forum. And you still can't bring yourself to disagree with the OP's stance of Stalkers. It's fine. Apparently you also agree with my initial post but you don't want to admit that either which is also fine but don't go calling people dicks while also being extremely petty as to not just say what you mean. I mean, technically you can, it's just a tad hypocritical.

Firstly, you're way too defensive for just sharing an "opinion". You must be treating it with more gravity than a mere opinion. Secondly, just discarding an opinion when it strongly affects the point of someone's criticism is going to get you throwing yourself off a cliff trying to understand someone. What I mean by that is, in the past, they already tried adding stuff to AS to make it more valuable but guess what? The player base settled on assassin's Focus. You are going to just ignore that the *trend* is how that happened? Asking for even more on top, especially when you're talking about the *trendy* things (Ani speed/rech, damage, AoE/AoE range) is going to get you criticism. Learn to take criticism.

Lol I guess I'm one of those "up in arms" too? I think the funny thing is, the OP asked for me to elaborate but wanted me to respond his way. There's a saying about beggars not being choosers or some such... And when people say "OP", it's likely being used broadly or hyperbolic. Even if Stalkers are OP, there are a lot of other OP factors across other powersets/ATs that should be addressed before stalkers. And even if Stalkers aren't literally OP, that isn't a damned free pass to add stuff for practically no reason besides "that'd be cool". You can suggest it all day, but don't call foul when you get a dissenting opinion.

I'd actually argue to have them suppressed while in stealth, so you can stealth up to a group, cast Darkest Night on something in the middle but has no effect until you drop a Tar Patch or an attack. Of course, this would only be the case for special stealth powers that have an "on" and "off" flag and not unsuppressed stealth powers like Shadowfall.

I like to assume the way they brainstormed powersets is similar to how we do it: they come up with a power theme and as they are creating some of the powers, they think of unique mechanics to make it different from other sets. Sonic Dispersion is similar in make-up as Force Field? Ok, what other effects could we try and implement? Well, instead of a personal barrier (PFF already has +res in it) how about a debuff toggle to lower resistance...and let's make it an ally toggle. Sonic Dispersion is a fairly old set, back before they added combos and charge mechanics to any sets.

It's on the first page.

So you're not going to actually engage any points I made. Understandable.

No, I'll admit to having charged posts. If you have a problem with it, don't complain about it. Report it. EDIT: Also, to double down on something, you'd have to refute it first.

That's an odd way to thank someone for answering your request. But no, it's not about being annoyed or having this conversation about Stalkers over and over. This is moreso about the overall balance that you're not seeming to understand. If you hadn't yet, try looking at any other AT forum and spot the thread asking for buffs to that AT. It's not so much about fixing problems with ATs (for example: I said I don't think it would be the end of the world if they made Assassin's Focus refresh the oldest stack) but rather the rationale used to try and justify their suggestions. Go ahead. Look on the Scrapper or Blaster forums and they too will have thread asking for buffs. One has to wonder, they can't all be right, right? But it's more plausible that they are all wrong for similar reasons. And yes, take my post as an opinion. I never state it as fact. At best, it's bringing you the talking points that have long been debated right to you rather than just patting you on the back with a "sure, kid" and a thumbs up. Your hearts in the right place but I feel this debate is wholly for another thread (talking about adjusting defense/hit chances). Also, probably no one here will engage your post because of that, but I feel it does touch on a large aspect of the game that is going to limit balance and thus will only exacerbate the problem (which is why I said "Stalkers don't need a buff"). If the enemy has no teeth and you just have to push out as much AoE as possible, you devalue a lot of game mechanics to include tanking, healing/defensive support, control, and burst damage/ST DPS. When no one cares how they're going to survive because the foes die too fast or barely do anything to you, suddenly any defensive secondary effects have less value, everyone is a tank, only offensive support is necessary and the most valuable metric (damage) is going to be hyper-compared to every other AT with no/little context. Hopefully, OP, having someone countering your points will get more of a discussion going than just jumping on your bandwagon. You can passive aggressively thank me later.

Since you're new here, sure. I'll catch you up. Frankly, I don't have a particular issue with this point but it's very minor. At best, it's merely an inconvenience and a lot of powers/ATs have their "less than stellar" points but that doesn't mean they all have to be completely ironed out to make them as smooth as possible. Why? Because the overall game, as is, is very simple and very gamable. Think of those issues as being curves in a track that you have to then keep adjusting to while you cruise through the course. You don't live curves in your course? Scrapper is a straight NASCAR "just turn left" AT. Not every player wants a (more) braindead gameplay loop in this regards. If they change it, it's not going to be the end of the world, but neither is it if no change is made. While I can sympathize with you, no one cares. Even at 5x damage, it likely would be a DPS loss because of the cast time/interrupt possibility. AS from Hide is still a very useful tool if you want to reduce an alpha strike with demoralize. You *might* be able to get the -ToHit or the fear chance increased, but increasing the damage is only asking to shake the boat on damage which is not something that needs to be done on a mere whim of "I think we should have this" argument. You start adjusting damage numbers in a fashion that starts shifting gameplay and you upset the delicate/already turbulent quadfecta of melee ATs. But overall, it's just not needed. Yup, if you have a problem with that, you should just play Blasters. And not all Blasters are going to delete single targets as well as a Stalker can (see: Dark, Sonic, Archery, DP and Water Blast). Beam Rifle just so happens to be one of the more pominent options for Blasters to obliterate STs from range easily and it pays for that proficiency. Another aspect of altering damage tends to get Blaster into the mix as well since it is the damage king period AT. The prominence of Stalkers lies in their efficiency and their predictability. On my Psi/Ice Stalker, I don't worry about doing the most damage or killing the most targets. I only care that *MY* target dies and when it's dead, I already have another target in mind. You can let the AoEs fall because you're prioritizing trouble enemies that you know will outlast those AoEs or that can extend the confrontation longer. He can go in and BU+AS his target and it's most likely going to die pretty quick then use Mass Levitate to get his +rech proc going as well as likely get his BU back. He then can start picking on other hard targets using BU+Insight+Placate+Greater Psi Blade for another massive punch or just go into a normal chain. When everything looks like it'll be cleared up, I can skip out on the cleanup and start using Boggle on the next opponents then get ready for another AS+BU. Others will tell you about specific attack chains for max damage, which is dandy, but you don't have to lock yourself into just attack chain DPS rotations/benchmarks in this game. You can do other things with this AT, you just have to be willing to swallow your pride in order to do them. Well that's just dumb (talking about hide+AS being an "overkill: the button" part). Stalkers are no longer special. They fall under similar aspects of DPS as other DPS ATs. Now there was a point where Hide+AS was being tested to do a % of the targets' HP, which would make you a big killer of hard foes but you now how standard DPS rotations. Your special toy is no longer going to get polished because of that. It's more like "Stalkers tend to have more melee sets where they do better DPS than other ATs using the same set" type of OP. For a while, Savage Melee was just disgustingly OP on Stalkers, and now it's just regular OP on Stalkers. This is a *YOU* problem, btw. If you don't like the old powersets, then play the new powersets. As for not seeing a lot of Stalkers around, you do. Most of them solo, for obvious reasons. There was also a stigma on Stalkers for quite a while but don't base levels of OP on popularity. The main reason Stalkers aren't doing Fire Farms is because they don't excel at the premiere aspect of the game that everyone is looking to exploit: AoE. That isn't to say all Stalkers are terrible at AoE. Just like there are Blasters that excel at deleting bosses, there are Stalkers that excel at AoE (see: Savage Melee, Spines, Elec or Rad). Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you don't have the ATOs, Stalkers are still great. It doesn't matter about new players not knowing about the ATOs, they will learn. This is not a subscription MMO or an MMO that is building players. If you want to play Stalkers, play Stalkers. You shouldn't have to be handed a golden scepter to play an AT. Just play it. I did the same with Masterminds, not knowing what the fuck I was doing but I wanted to give them a good college try and I have 3 in the 40s and they are different. There is no point in trying to build "retention" or trying to solidify a subsection of the playerbase. Go play a Peacebringer because it's different, not because it has x,y and z better than everyone else. I think Stalkers get the upperhand on plenty of sets, ST or otherwise. Electric Melee is a good example. Dual Blades isn't a bad one either. And one of the main reasons I say just give Stalkers BA/WM, Super Strength, Titan Weapons, etc is because those sets tend to have hard hitting attacks and hard hitting attacks is the premiere of what Stalkers do best at. Besides SS needing to be rebalanced to have Build Up, being able to 50% chance to crit Whirling Smash or Arc of Destruction or 100% crit Shatter/Cleave or Knockout Blow is going to be devastating when combined with Stalker's tools.

Stalkers do NOT need a buff. They're better than fine. The only thing Stalkers need is Battle Axe/War Mace, Titan Weapons, Super Strength and Stone Melee.

Nope. It should literally be baked into the notoriety system at +3 or above. If you'd want to opt out of rebalanced stronger foes, you turn your levels down. I also made that suggestion. Giving enemies abilities that raised their HP, def, res, damage, ToHit, etc via toggle-like powers so that you'd want to shut them down or decently improve team efficiency by shutting the powers off would be how I'd make sleeps better. I'd also rebalance toggle dropping as a mechanic so that things like Holds and Stuns only have a chance of dropping toggles (maybe add a suppression mechanic that lowers/halves the effectiveness of their toggle powers when under such mez) while Sleep *will* shut off those toggles.

Empathy already is proactive. Empathy is ALSO reactive.

It is "fine" in the context of what "fine" actually means. The problem is, what you define as "fine" has shifted because the set is not "best" at something when that is NOT the definition of "fine". Now bookmark the other 3 paragraphs I quoted there for later in my post... Bookmark most of this quote as well. Another interesting point you make is about Absorb being criminally underutilized. One issue with that is, Absorb is hardcapped at, I believe, the target's max HP to which then only absorb is going to have any kind of affect on them. If you have capped or a prominent amount of absorb, why would you need heals or regen? Same usually goes with capped def, why do you need -ToHit if the target is already at the ToHit floor? Or why would you even need absorb if hits are so heavily resisted and rarely ever hit at all? You don't make something more valuable by inflating numbers. You're moreso making an argument to nerf Arachnos double leadership toggles or overperformers than you are for buffing Empathy. But bookmark this quote along with all the others above for later. And finally, along with this quote, bring all those bookmarked points back to this final point: Nothing you guys are suggesting changes a damned thing. It won't make Empathy better, or competitive with the overperformers or make them valuable or give them an easier time with their trouble spot (soloing). And because of that, none of these suggestions are necessary and in fact, just clutter up the game with more pointless power creep that will ultimately push for more buffs to this and other sets in an ever perpetuating loop. So no, your ideas aren't good, they're unnecessary and are extremely aimless in their execution. Could I see Empathy getting some help? Sure, in the solo department since only 3 of their powers are even usable solo and 2 of those are on long recharges. Why not change Clear Mind to be targetable on the enemy as well and when used, lowers the target's resistance to mez and their protection to mez by 2pts and does not aggro so for soloing, you have a 1-shot (technically 2 shot since you're using Clear Mind first) method of dealing with trouble targets like bosses and on Controller, you've got an even easier time juggling bosses thanks to the -mez resistance. But all this expanded durations, faster casting, absorb shield mess is just fluff that doesn't accomplish much of anything.

Playing the game, for me, is partly an exploratory experiment and partly a mental exercise in interaction with the story elements. On the exploratory part, that comes with looking at power combinations, slotting and expertise that I've not played with and working that character into a limited lore of my own character comic universe. To dissect that a bit, I usually look to powersets I haven't played or have interest in (if I've played a set before, try combining it with something I haven't played) on top of utilizing pools/epics that I have not used much or exclude pools that I use more often. Then, creating a workable build using that template forced some out-of-the-box build crafting that tends to not be meta but very functional in typical play ranging from +2 to +4 and x2 to x4 with certain exceptions. So I might end up with a stalker that uses most of the Presence pool or a Tanker that has the whole magic origin pool or even a character who has 4 different PBAoE cone breath attacks that are his primary source of damage or a tanking defender with near capped def/res and lots of CC. The story element side is done mostly solo (teaming is partly to break up the monotony, get extra rewards, etc). Reading the various portions of a story, I then form a lot of my own narrative about how my characters react and interact with what's going on dependent on the character's personality and how it could fit with the characters' backstory or the lore elements that bind them with my other characters. When a character has flaws and blindspots, it makes them much easier to fit within the confines of the world but also makes them more interesting as the stakes of the story get bigger (usually talking redside). tl;dr version: much of the "playing the game" part is done outside of the game or within my own personal view of my characters. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this with their "silent protag" characters in other games/MMOs. It makes creating multiple characters still somewhat engaging when doing the mostly solo story and exposing yourself to the various aspects of the game you were told was underpowered.

I've seen this suggestion before. Curious how many read this: There's some interesting ideas in there.

I don't care about what you perceive as their trajectory. It doesn't change the fact that that IO messed up the balance of those powers and powers like it and I won't use it because I think it's broken. For extra context: Earthquake - 90sec recharge, 30sec duration, -10%def, -10%ToHit, no damage Ice Slick - 90sec recharge, 30sec duration, -90% speed and -jump, no damage Bonfire - 60sec recharge, 45sec duration, pulse fire damage If nothing ever happens then enjoy your broken toys. If they do, perhaps wrap your mind around the fact that you've been exploiting things that should not be.

I'm sorry, I have no idea if it would ever get nerfed. If rebalancing of the control sets were being considered, I'd nominate IO'ed Bonfire and Seeds of Confusion as some targets. If rebalancing of IO procs were being considered, KB>KD would likely not be spared among the rest.

Then that would mean that, without the KB>KD IO, Bonfire would just knock the target out of the patch regardless of the immobilize.

Bonfire has been like it is for a while. If it does change, it probably won't be anytime soon but even if it does change, if you find it fun, use it while you can. I remember when the P2W proc enhancement that knocked down was 100% chance and I played my Shield/DM with that enhancement slotted in Shadow Maul and abused it for the lolz all the way from level 1 to 38.

As a positioning tool, that can seem like a punishment to control ATs that bury foes into a corner and keep them popping in a corner using Bond Fire.