macskull

In my mind there are two barriers to faster updates: There's a single point of failure in the process for pushing patches during closed and open beta. Right now the entire patching process is handled by one person, so if that person has to drop off the face of the earth for weeks at a time to find the Ark of the Covenant or whatever... everything stops. I've lost track of the number of times a closed beta cycle has sat without patches for literal weeks. That's fine for the live version of the game, but when a lot of the closed beta patches (specifically on the powers side) are pushed with bugs that make it impossible to accurately evaluate the changes, having to wait 1-3 weeks before the issue is addressed with another patch contributes greatly to tester fatigue. Hell, closed beta for page 2 had a whole bunch of changes to [redacted powerset] which ended up not making it to release, but there was not a single closed beta patch for those changes that wasn't broken in some way. The way the closed beta process works on Homecoming leaves it susceptible to schedule slip and feature creep. Cryptic and Paragon would drop the entire update at once on closed beta and tweak things from there, so testers could jump in wherever they wanted to start. On Homecoming, things are added piecemeal to closed beta and it can often take upwards of six months between the first changes showing up on closed beta and the update going to open beta. It makes it hard to keep track of what's changed, what hasn't, and what's new when the process is stretched out over such a long period of time. The extended timeline is also probably seen as an excuse for a dev or two to go "oh we're nowhere near launch for this update and I have this feature that's almost ready to go, let's throw that at the testers and see what happens." If Homecoming isn't going to wait until they have the entire update's worth of content tester-ready before they push it to closed beta, they should at least have a clear and transparent cutoff date for new additions or major changes so the process isn't stretched out across several months. There's also a third barrier which has more to do with a subset of the dev team than the Homecoming team as a whole: The approach to powers balancing and tweaks is "numerical changes are boring." Numerical changes might not be the most exciting, but they're also the quickest to implement and easiest for testers to evaluate. Homecoming's powers team design philosophy results in changes no one asked for getting thrown onto closed beta, going through several wildly different iterations, and ultimately getting pulled completely in many cases, which is a waste of both tester and dev time.

It's pretty straightforward - if enhancements increase duration then magnitude is a fixed number and level differences affect duration, and if enhancements increase magnitude then duration is a fixed number and level differences affect magnitude.

Ehhh, on their own they’re not great unless you have stuff to stack them with, and they tend to have a shorter duration and longer recharge than control set holds.

FWIW this is still a thing, but it's mag 100. It very much still exists, but teams these days have so much defense flying around you're not likely to get tagged with it - but if you do, you're at the mercy of your teammates for the 15 seconds or so it lasts since you'd need half a tray of breakfrees to get out of it.

If people enjoy using knockback because it lets them fulfill some sort of power fantasy by watching things go flying, I'm totally fine with that, but they can do it on their own time. On the rare case I'm running a team and run into someone using indiscriminate knockback I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and ask nicely for them to stop doing it. If they choose not to, my second ask is just me kicking them from the team.

IOs are optional and there isn't any content balanced around their existence, so I don't buy this argument. At any rate, one of the devs has already come out and said that players are expected to use the market even if all they're doing is upgrading their SOs as they level.

If this were true, the lead powers dev wouldn't have pushed back so hard on letting Sudden Acceleration be non-unique, or we'd have an option at Null the Gull to convert all KB into KD. If you dig around and find Galaxy Brain's old Blast set comparison charts, you'll find that Energy Blast goes from almost dead last to solidly middle-of-the-pack when you add KB/KD enhancements. AoEs with guaranteed KB are the exception, not the norm. No matter how good your intentions, if the AoE you're using doesn't have guaranteed KB you're almost certainly going to cause scatter unless you slot KB/KD.

I was being literal. I'm not the type to make a claim without evidence though, so as I was working on this post I loaded in a fresh level 50 with some patrol XP and zero debt. From the time I first died to the time I got The Unbroken Spirit (the 200k debt requirement for the accolade) was a grand total of... 38 seconds. Here's the chat log to prove it. [11:19:08] Congratulations! You earned the The Unwavering badge. [11:19:21] Congratulations! You earned the The Unyielding badge. [11:19:46] Congratulations! You earned the The Unbroken Spirit badge. I'm confused here. In one sentence you're saying you agree that it's a waste of time and energy to cherry pick stuff from zones, but in the very next sentence you talk about an optimal path and popmenu which does exactly that.

Getting the debt badge takes all of two minutes on a level 50 character provided you have some patrol XP stored up, and even if you don't you'll get enough from getting the exploration badges that die/repeat/die/repeat is quick. The OP's thought exercise here is "how do I get <insert accolade(s) here> as efficiently as possible?" Whether someone likes doing a certain thing (such as dying for a debt badge, or side switching to do the easier of two equivalent accolades) is irrelevant in that context. Sure, if you're doing the TFC task forces you'll make progress towards those defeats, but the only time I've got TFC on a character on Homecoming is the time I did it before I knew about the mayhem mission contact.

Just give us the option to disable salvage by rarity. It doesn't need to be this ridiculously complicated.

If all you're trying to do is get the passive accolades and you don't care about the merits for getting the exploration badges, going to every single badge and plaque in zone is the inefficient play. You've already got to get some explores and a plaque in Atlas Park for the accolades. If you're starting the Spelunker badge mission from Ouroboros, exiting Ouro into Atlas Park is the play since it puts you in a good location to quickly get those clicks and you can then head through the gate to Perez Park, where you can get your badge on your way to the mission door. While true, if you're already a higher level it's far faster to just blow through gray-con mobs in open zones. Tankbuster in Crey's Folly Gearsmasher in Echo: Faultline Unveiler: the arc you mentioned is still probably the fastest way to get this All this being said, the defeat badges for Freedom Phalanx, and specifically Unveiler, are the reason I do High Pain Threshold instead. This is the guide I've been using to get the four passive accolades + Demonic Aura for years now. It is a little outdated since it was written while /enterbasefrompasscode was still a thing and doesn't account for some of the streamlining of travel between some zones, but it's still my go-to.

The “code limitation” of being able to convert HOs is that if they were convertible they’d be power-unique so you’d only be able to slot one of a given enhancement type in a given power and you’d likely lose the ability to combine them. Given these limitations I’m fine with the system staying how it is. The small percentage of players who absolutely need that extra couple percent enhancement value in their powers can pay more or wait, or just run the content that drops the stuff they want.

There’s no way this is a serious post, right?

I think it's also worth pointing out why the enhancement exists in the first place - the initial "fast snipe" implementation tied fast snipes to having at least 22% extra tohit. If you had less than that, you always got the not-generally-useful slow version. This implementation worked but favored some ATs and powersets over others, so the change was made to have snipe behavior based on your combat status, and the fast snipe sliding damage scale was added so that some amount of extra tohit would still be meaningful for those who'd chased that 22% number under the old implementation. Anyways, while that change was overwhelmingly seen as positive, it broke some PvP attack chains (specifically Beam Rifle, where the standard 8v8 attack chain was Penetrating Ray -> Lancer Shot). When Experienced Marksman was added to the game, PvPers were asked which behavior they'd like the proc to force, and they agreed they'd rather have it force fast snipes for the reason I just stated. It isn't particularly relevant for most PvE builds since if you're using your snipe power as part of an attack chain you're already going to be engaged in combat.

Is it really that time again already? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say OP is playing a low-level character with few or no enhancements in which case yes the set's not going to feel good. Almost no sets in this game feel good at low levels, especially without enhancements. Oddly enough though, I find myself agreeing with at least a few of the points. Traps is not a great set for keeping up with a fast-moving team because it's just not mobile enough. Trip Mine needs to get the Devices treatment and Detonator needs to be replaced with the updated version every other AT got. Detonator's better now than it used to be, but that's... not saying much.