drbuzzard

If you were on the forums, the derived numbers were available. I played the game for a while before I went to the forums. Once I did, the effect on my builds was night and day. Yes, the devs didn't give out the numbers for a long while but people still figured things out. The fact that the devs didn't anticipate people using every tool at their disposal to increase defenses shows they were rather clueless. To be quite honest I don't think 'intended' existed. The design philosophy seems closer to 'throw crap at the wall and see what sticks' rather than something coherent. Their vision of how things would work and how it did work had very little in common.

Bah, you and your damned facts. Though in defense of Soul Tentacles, you don't need to take anything else in the set to get it.

I'm a bit of a partisan of Soul Tentacles from Soul Mastery. It has the highest damage (52 base) of the PPP AOE cone options available. It does have lower DPAS, but I don't tend to worry about that as much with AOEs.

You have a partial memory. It wasn't that number in the time you were talking about. It was 7.5^% for scrappers before GDN and you could six slot it for 16.5% defense. You could toss in combat jumping for another 5% base up to 11 six slotted. Throw that on a regen scrapper and you're effectively doubling your regen since half of everything misses . With numbers like that who wouldn't take it? Yes, builds were much tighter due to fitness as a pool power, but people found a way. There was definitely a lot of opportunity cost in the optimization game in those days.

I think the hard mode content is a fine addition to the game. It gives the people who like challenge something to enjoy. I've done a number of runs at them (mostly ITFs). The main thing I've learned is that a PUG 4* is a recipe for frustration. Of course because people have run too many disasters of those leaving too many people utterly uninterested. It's a sad example of people wanting to fly before they can crawl. PUGs should be doing the hard mode step by step starting at the lowest setting so people understand the hazards. Of course them being difficult means people want coordination via discord, which I dislike, so I don't do many. Suppose I should address the questions: At the lower stars they are reasonable places to learn and get a feel for it. However people never seem to do 1 star, and 2 stars are rare. Every wants to dive into the deep end and do 4 star. I actually missed when the system burst on the scene as I was taking a break, so I missed the initial rush. I've seen people with all manner of builds do them, and short of gimmick teams of a bad sort doing 4*, it's generally not an issue as long as the play is good and the build is well done. They do tend to encourage a solid stock of buff/debuff on the team to make it likely to succeed. I don't. I certainly have no interest in the no enhancement route since it basically tosses my build out the window. The others I have played on teams using them, and they can make it interesting. Might as well do Apex and Tin Mage just to take it to 11. They are already hard, so make them possibly stupid hard. I'd also do the other high level TFs, so Kahn, MLTF, LGTF. I'd also consider the Shard TFs, but only after they get cleaned up. They do tend to encourage (as mentioned above) T4 barrier as mandatory, which on a PUG is probably prudent since you cannot anticipate builds. Though a good bubbler on the team does half that already. Add in a sonic, and you're there and people can have other options. I've even seen people get uptight about which interface people use, but that was only on runs where they were trying to beat a record time. In general people don't seem to care which Lore (though even there I've seen calls for BP or Longbow in particular). Judgement and hybrid seem to be left to the individual as not important enough to matter (or perhaps they figure you're smart enough to make the right choice).

I have tried starting KM characters before, but deleted them once I got a good look at the numbers. If it doesn't get buffed, perhaps just a name change to gentle melee.

On a live game, this may well be a valid analysis. On a zombie game of 20+ years ago origin, not so much. People play this for nostalgia and hanging out with friends. It is no longer there for driving normal standards of MMO consumption (more time spent=better stuff=more income for developer). I fully agree that the reason much of the game isn't balanced is that the top shinies are too easy to get once you know what you are doing and put in some time. However there's still hard stuff if you want to do it. I don't see a supply nerf being overly popular (as in only for a select few). Also, doing that will have zero effect on the people who already have piles of stuff amassed unless they decide to nerf IOs. That would be an interesting amount of howling (and I'd probably howl too since I have so many builds which would have to be fixed).

Is that out before or after Clown Masterminds?

I know about +4x8 ITF. I've seen that done plenty even with debuffs. I'm talking 4*. That's a completely different ballgame.

Fair enough. I don't like AEON so I don't play it much (in any version). I'd be shocked as hell if a 4* ITF ever happened solo.

Yes, they were damned rare. I certainly admit that, but if we're talking extremes, that's certainly an extreme. IOs were damned rare before the snap. Scarcity is the issue, and I don't see introducing scarcity to a small geriatric game as a solution.

People seeking the path of least resistance is not new nor unique to this game. It is in fact a universal part of the nature of gamers. Not all gamers, but I'd venture a majority. I'd say AE farming really trivializes farming, but there was no shortage of dreck farms, wolf farms, ninja farms, council farms and any other repeatable map which could be easily cleared. This is a very old game played for nostalgia as much as anything. People being powerful makes them happy, and making too many hurdles to get there would drive the population even lower. What you want fixed could well shut things down as it becomes a ghost town. There are hard options. Play them. Wait for more as I expect they are being worked on.

Back in the day (again, pre GDN, Pre ED). Take a blaster. Give him fighting pool. Weave was 10%. Six slot it with hamiOs. You have 30% defense. Add in combat jumping six slotted with the same. You are at 45% and there's softcap. That blaster could nuke a map full of things if they were close together. They could also be running their nuke at 400% accuracy and damage. You want to know why it is easier today? Because they balanced across sets and ATs, and then because of the snap and the low population of the survival secret server, they made IOs easy to get. If someone didn't know about IOs, I'd bet the game was actually harder. If they didn't find the forums or MIDs they would have a hell of a time in the game. Before the snap up to the shutdown date, I had one character with appreciable IOs, and almost all of those were uncommons because I couldn't afford better. I played every day, and I still had only sparse rares. If I got a purple I sold it immediately because I needed the influence. If you were not a dedicated farmer, you did not have the best toys. Now I have 100+ characters decked out with IOs including purples and whatnot. Honestly the economy makes it easy if anything. Then again we now have 4* ITF and AEON. These are not trivial. I can't imagine we'll see anyone solo those. You need a good team of competent people who can follow directions. I've inflicted the nightmare of 4* PUG ITFs on myself before. I won't again. Is the easy stuff easier for more people? Probably, but that's as much an artifact of us playing a near dead 20 year old game as anything. It is not inherent to the game rules beyond economic calculations. Hard stuff can still be hard, and the hardest stuff is harder than anything ever was. Before GDN and ED people had builds which trivialized the game. It took a lot of time and effort to get there, but it was certainly possible. Game breaking builds (a subset of all, but there were quite a few) were easier to achieve then to be honest. All you had to was read the forums and follow a cookie cutter build with SOs. The only window of hard that you describe was post those nerfs and pre IOs. That isn't that many issues. Issue 5 was GDN. Issue 6 was ED. IOs appear in Issue 9. You're talking a mighty small window of that weak time. There were three issues where it was pretty hard, and if you joined Repeat Offenders (like I did) it was still trivial without any trinity.

Also going to cite the sentinel buffs. They are now not so far behind blasters in damage (scalar of sentinel is 1.1 vs 1.125 on blasters. and the debuff inherent was made good). They are still behind blasters in damage, but you get solid defenses so you're no longer the red haired stepchild AT.

You specifically cherry pick the low levels when even now it can be hard if you're not rich. When I can again herd a map of wolves into a dumpster and they all get nuked at once, I might believe you that it's easier now. What has changed with IOs is that fewer classes are gimpy traps than used to be. There are still uneven points, but the highs and the lows are closer together. That makes it seem easier since you have a much harder time finding that extreme loser. Oh, I even forgot the top silliness of the old days- original Hammidon enhancements buffing two abilities to+50%/+33%. You pump someone to +300% damage and +300% accuracy by six slotting. A fire tank could be capped to all resistance but psi at 90%. Yeah, it was so hard back then.

Yes, at low level the game was hard. What a shock. You have minimal powers and no enhancements. Your build is barely started. As I said before, try the 30s. Back in the time you claim that things were hard, before GDN and ED, it wasn't hard if you had two clues to rub together. It's only easier now than then because IOs are so easy to get. Before the snap, it was harder even with IOs. Let me think back to the old days when it was 'hard' Perma unstoppable. perma elude burn +provoke = win Toggle IH unlimited AOE target cap unlimited aggro cap unlimited debuff target cap six slotted defenses (heck weave was 10% before GDN, CJ was 5%) Six slotting hasten got you perma, not a lot of IO planning and expense You could not actually set difficulty any higher than base. If you wanted things to be hard, you had to arrange teams carefully to make sure there was a level gap. Todays SK system is probably the only thing which is easier, and that can be compensated for with the difficulty settings. You cite Positron? Yeah, wonderful example picking the lowest level TF. Try a Manticore back in the day. It was a cakewalk. As for the trinity nonsense beyond low level take a stone or invulnerability tank, herd the whole damn map into one spot and then 7 blasters reduce everything to paste. Buff? Debuff? Control? Why? Fast forward to past GDN/ED then you go the Repeat Offender route and you blitz through the game without a care in the world. You might want to take a look at your own memory gaps before you cast aspersions.

The mythical harder game didn't exist anywhere but in your mind.

You have amazing persistence. I could not have done this. It would have driven me mad.

There's a whole lot of silly going on here. Did the game every require the 'holy trinity'? Not really. At low level? Sure, before you had slots and SOs (though a pure buff/debuff team was amazing from minimal level). Once you started getting to the 30s and you have your slots and SOs, then not at all. All tanker teams could crush everything. Scrappers could solo maps. All defender/controller teams were gods. Before GDI then ED, there were plenty of godly routes in the game (and there were traps as well, but that's why you had multiple slots for characters). Any memories of a time of the 'holy trinity' is just personal nostalgia about when a person didn't know how the game worked or didn't have the resources to build the optimal choices (and as it was simple back then, only influence and information were required).

There is great irony in the discussion of 'moment' of glory where people seemingly have forgotten that after one of the regen nerfs, the optimal build was perma MoG. Yes, regen was a defense build for a while there.

I have a few BR sentinels (5 iirc). My routine depends on the target. If there's a big group and the nuke is up, that starts things. If not, I usually disintegrate the boss, and then refractor beam and cutting beam. By then it should be down to bosses. All my BR sents (OK, all my sents) are perma hasten so the nuke recharges in about 22 seconds so I don't need to wait much for it. For single target (hard ones like AV), I do disintegrate-charged-lancer-charged repeat. This chains smoothly.

I often find Fold Space users to be annoying as they snatch targets out of my AOEs unless I'm perfectly in sync with them. I don't bother to complain as I don't wish to sound whiny. Being polite on my part doesn't make what they are doing helpful. Given that it can't be used every spawn due to high recharge, it is hard to sync up.. It certainly can be used well, but I don't really know that it's worth it. It definitely requires a team focused on following the tank/brute who uses it, and is slow enough that it's up comparatively often.

The sentinel version of regeneration is pretty solid. The trick they used there was turning IH into a quick replenishing absorption shield called 'instant regeneration'. This works pretty damned well. It gives a lot of the feel of old regeneration, but without being over the top. Personally I think just porting that version over to the ATs would be the best solution. Well, other than nerfing regen for the sake of tradition.

Actually it's not weak. That provides a good bit of healing.

Oh, that's a pretty compelling reason. Didn't notice that.