EPGAH2

This unfortunately. And again, it would do ZILCH to make regular missions any less tedious or more attractive.

How is this "not good for the future health"? People have limited time now (not that it was ever unlimited, but some started the game in their teens when other concerns were substantially less), so doing whatever is fastest--and not having to run across several Zones--makes more sense. What is "better" about regular missions? Why should that be the "correct way"? Please note the whole discussion hinges on making AE less attractive, rather than making non-AE MORE attractive, or even less tedious! Not dialog, that's for sure. Not convenience, in fact I would say Twinshot goes out of her way to send players out of their way, including to KR before they're high enough. If people want to Level the most in the least time, nothing can beat AE. If players were given access to /gotomission, that might change. Of course, then people would complain that they're skipping most the zone, ignoring that's explicitly the idea, and those who don't want to can waste time traversing Zones. Just because content exists, does not mean people want to do it. How many people want to do the Jonathan St. John Smythe Arc? Or even know about it? And if we do feel like going back and doing lowbie arcs, there is Oro. But not everyone is a completionist of that scale. Some only do the ones required for Accolades, some just jump right into RWZ raids. What AE do you do that you get all 6 Incarnates T4 in 5 hours? I had all 6 Incarnates T1 in 1 day, and I thought I was doing great.

The EXP/Inf changes will make it worse, whether it "kills" it or not. I'm still trying to test how far they can see. BUT the open map I usually farm, they're wandering around anyways in tight packed groups, so it doesn't matter. They will happen upon you and attack. Remember though in the beginning, there was no aggro limit--but also no target limit. You could gather a whole Zone to one place and dispose of them. Slowly by yourself, or with a Blaster casting Nova!

Can we have another change to aggro that stops them from RUNNING AWAY? Alternate: Have enemies that run away get killed by their own side for desertion or something, and I get only partial EXP. This would be very lore accurate to Council, Fifth Column, Family, Warriors, and especially Arachnos as well as all Pratorian content. Not sure about the others.

I like this idea, but we'll need to take off the target limits as well. I would LOVE to be attacked by an entire enemy army--then slaughter them. The best way to FEEL like a One-Man Army is to slaughter an enemy army. Instead we can get attacked by an army--but only hit back against a certain number of them!

Crystals and Minerals are Defense, the rest are Resists. So what makes THEIR Builds "cheezing" but yours legit? This is a game about superheros, so you're SUPPOSED to be overpowered. But you have to build toward being overpowered and either struggle your way up TO that, or farm (Or have someone else farm for you). If it's a nerf targeted at ONLY the players who built their characters the best, that's literally even worse! Why punish those who did the best at buildcrafting (Or whatever it's called now)? As to the way mechanics work in the game, the main problem to me is you can get attacked by more enemies, and with nerfed defense, you will get hit by more OF them, but you are still limited how many you can hit back! If they're raising aggro limit, why not raise the target limit to? Make it a big of' Free For All!

I asked the same thing--twice--but never got an answer. Have gotten some weird defenses of this nerf, though. From "It doesn't make much difference" to "The players will deal with it"! And even people complaining that they're "too powerful" or that support classes are "marginalized". If the latter was the problem, they could change the EXP system to gain EXP for healing or buffs somehow, but that would be gamed more than AE!

Your Stone Tank, are you running Granite, or some combination of the formerly lower Armors? Do you take Tough and Weave? Have you tried going up against Lord Recluse? Or Arachnos in general, to a lesser degree? They pack a lot of nasty powers in their "kit" including the rarely defended or resisted Psi. There's a reason I'm the only one that made a Rikti farm, and there are no Arachnos or Carnie farms. (That I know of) As a Mastermind, though, if you get Superior Command of the Mastermind, you get some heavy resists to Toxic and Psionic damage. Superior Mark of Supremacy resists Energy and Negative. Is that why you're having less trouble on Beta? You're playing Resist instead of Defense? I fully agree that Resist Powersets won't feel the change asd much. You take everything on the chin, but you have armor over it. However, with the changed aggro, more attacks coming in, Resists can still be overwhelmed. A lot of attacks, regardless of element, will overcome any Resists. THAT still works for both sides. As to the slotting and Opportunity Cost, that's exactly what I was talking about. I use Apocalypse instead of Thunderstrike for ranged attacks. Because my last slot is the Javelin Proc, though, I don't get the Psi Defense. The way slotting is now, it's a lot easier to get S/L defense than any other Element or positional. But it took a long time and a lot of Inf to get there. Even if this change "only" makes you slot for positional, that's a huge waste of resources. If you do slot for positional, then Psi attacks will still get through, because most do not have a positional. Which is probably an oversight (I HOPE)? And again, if it "doesn't amount to much" why go through it in the first place? It's a lot of effort, and depending who you ask or whom you test against, it'll either melt the players' armor which is ruinous change, or do nothing, which is a waste of effort that could be spent fixing things or adding to the game. Remember they're not just changing how the powers hit, they're changing the powers of the monsters to make them mostly NOT Smash/Lethal (And in the Council Vampyr Shadow Punch, no Smash at all somehow!), which makes no sense, but makes the change actually do something. And what's the point? To make orange Insps useful, or force players to change builds to Sets that are less effective or don't even exist yet? There is no assurance they will nerf monsters similarly. PS: How much do you play in the Combat Tab, with or without Hit Rolls showing, so you can tell what attacks are doing how much of what Element--yours and theirs?

What do you mean "marginalized"? The game is designed around damage. You do not get EXP for heals or buffs, you get EXP for kills, whether yours, a teammate's or a summon's. The games that reward EXP for heals are Disgaea (Above #2) and the Shining Force series--most of which were never ported to America. Toward the end of Live the devs even seemed to lean into this, providing missions with large numbers of enemies to slaughter. People like feeling powerful via mass-kills. Dying over and over hurts, even if some people are Dark Souls masochists. Even support characters, if they solo, rely on S/L Defense--usually Boxing->Tough->Weave, possibly Maneuvers--to stay alive. There is no "overperforming" in a superhero game. What kind of idiot would let themselves get hit because the incoming damage is mostly NOT Smash/Lethal? "Oh, there's a bullet coming toward me, but because it's ice, I think I'll facetank it instead of dodge!"?

This! Plus, no Powerset or Enhancement Set should be de-facto required either.

Please reread your own link. To get exotic defenses, you have to 3-6 slot (Mostly 6, especially to partly close the Psi hole), your slots are limited. Some of those Sets aren't used much because they underperform. Take Calibrated Accuracy, 3 slots vs. Dark Watcher's Despair or Gaussian's Calibrated Accuracy. Will you choose damage or defense? This is even MORE Crippling Overspecialization.

But here's the thing: If you dodge sharp or blunt objects for a living, why would you suddenly NOT dodge them if they're made of Ice or Darkness? "Whichever one you defend against the best" seems like a better rule than "Whichever the attack consists most of". Yes, Psi has no location, so you can't defend against it. But that's been a problem since I1. Psi is not really defended against, it's resisted. Those that can resist it, resist it quite heavily, those that don't die easy. This change makes S/L defense--which is easy to get, from Weave, Maneuvers, or even Set Bonuses--a lot less worthy if not worthless. I don't see a buff to cold defense's importance as a good thing. Only a few Powersets have it innately, and those that don't, you don't have enough slots to go around. So you think it just changes the meta to positional instead of S/L? That still makes winners and losers. Hell if you really wanted to twist a negative into a positive, you could say that it makes Resists more important. Defense has been better since Issue 1. Various movies have even pointed out the best way to survive a fight is not to get hit. For Positional defense, you have to 3-6 slot Sets that most people do not use or want. Because they underperform compared to the sets everyone wants. How much damage or recharge will we have to give up to defend against other types? Please note /Maxslots does not work on this Server, you cannot 6-slot everything. And even if you slot the "important" powers--whichever those may be to you--will you go for defense or will you go for damage? TLDR: If it changes the meta this much, it IS a big nerf! If it's not a big change, why do it at all, rather than direct limited manpower to fixing things? If it's really that minor, why waste the effort? Opportunity Costs and all that. Not only that but they are retroactively changing the monsters' attacks. Vampyr's Shadow Punch packs so much shadow that they forgot to put the punch in--NO SMASH anymore! And they added Confuse to Crey to my chagrin. I am trying to respond to your points in order, I don't know how to break the quote into multiple blocks. I agree with saying everything.

I did test it, that's why I'm bringing these particular points up. That's why I'm able to point to particular groups and even powers OF those groups? I will turn your question inside-out: Why should S/L defense be ignored if an attack has more than one component? Let's take the Cold Bullet: It has to pierce you first. Somehow you can't dodge it anymore because it's mostly Cold damage? Does that make any sense? As to the player base adapting to the changes: HOW? What IO Sets give Defense against something OTHER than Smash/Lethal? You have to six-slot for those right? Or should everyone just abandon their long-term characters and go for ones that are protected against attacks? Some have even suggested this will "force more diversity in teams", as if that's a good thing, let alone something people wanted. Let's say you need more support characters. How many people want to play those vs. a damage-dealer, or even a Tanker?

Who said they would be getting the same treatment in a later pass? And why nerf players first? Why do this at all instead of fix things that actually are a problem? This is a "solution" without a problem to fix. Pathing is a non-starter, so let's not go there, but there is the complete weakness of AR and Dual Pistols vs. pretty much every other Blaster/Corruptor Powerset. OR put IH back to a toggle so Regen is viable again? As to enemies with defenses against particular damage types, Sky Raiders make FFGs (If you leave them unmolested long enough for that) which boosts S/L, and Carnies defend against Psi but are surprisingly weak to Lethal. There was a spreadsheet that I can't find now that said who was weak against what.

I am not OK with it, it is a nerf to player defense without a corresponding nerf to monster defense. If they're going to put this much effort into changing the way defense works, why not both ways? Or why make this change at all, rather than raise up weak powersets? There isn't even the IO "We had to make you weaker to make you stronger" argument here. You're right, I "misunderstood" because you were arguing with me, I thought you were taking the stance that you want this nerf, you want everyone to be less powerful.

But it is an example and a good one, it is a nerf only to PLAYER defense, not to enemy defense, against enemies using non-standard damage. Crey is another good "exception" and even everyone's new favorite punching bags, the Council, use freezing bullets and a punch with so much Darkness in it that it has no Smashing component anymore! The problem is, players spent hundreds of millions of Inf to dodge these attacks that previously always had a S/L component, now it ignores that hard-earned defense.

What part am I "misunderstanding"? You survive because enemy attacks are dodged with your S/L defense. You put a lot of time, effort, and Inf into that Build, right? Do you want it to be negated by these sudden changes?

Are you complaining that you're surviving too much? Do you want to be forced to take along a Tanker player to take alpha for you? Unfortunately, COH does not (And probably cannot) have Diablo II style hireling tanks. They would be forever getting lost in the straightest of corridors. But remember your "near scrap survivability" was bought by hundreds of millions of Inf worth of sets, right? Or do you have that much unslotted? If the former, you earned that. OR another character earned that and gave it to you. If the latter, please show me what I'm doing wrong.

This is a superhero game, we're supposed to be OP. But this will not change how much damage you can DO but rather how much you TAKE. Kudos on making a Blaster that does lots of damage. Do you have Tough and Weave? They'll be useless if the enemy attacks are MOSTLY non-S/L. Previously attacks checked for types of any damage involved in the attack, then would check whichever Defense you had that was highest. Now it will be based on the defense against the attack's highest damage type. Ice Blast or Ice Bullet are mostly Cold Damage, and your S/L defense will be ignored. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/category.html?pcat=event Here's some hard numbers just for Christmas Event monsters. And that's ignoring that Red Caps do far and away more damage than player Archer Blasters, even though they're both allegedly Archers. As someone else pointed out, this does NOTHING to change your outgoing damage. The outgoing damage will still be dodged or not based on damage types present, not which is highest. This is a nerf only to the players, not the monsters.

Why is this even being done? This seems like a "solution" with no problem to solve, and in the end weakening players, especially in the Christmas Event.