macskull

Spines/Fire Scrappers were the FotM non-AE farmers pretty much the entire time from when Scrappers got Fiery Aura in I16 to when GR let you roll any AT on any side in I18.

I mean, apparently there was data back on live that suggested something like 80% of characters had no IOs slotted. We don't have the metrics to make any truly informed decisions here but it would be really nice if we did. cough cough nudge nudge devs are you listening That being said I think it's still very likely that most players don't get into the IO system that much.

Ha-ha, quoted! Common IOs don't level with you but they do not change in effectiveness as you level. With schedule A numbers a level 25 generic IO provides 32.0% enhancement whereas an even-level SO provides 33.3%. If you're constantly running around with +3 SOs (so you upgrade every level) you're looking at 38.33% enhancement which gets matched by generic IOs at level 40. The big appeal of generic IOs was once you hit 22 or 27 you'd slot level 25 or 30 generic IOs as you could afford them and then you'd never have to upgrade that slot again. The funny thing is, spines is sorely in need of a buff but it's unlikely to get one because of its popularity as a farm set (even though it's mostly Quills that makes it popular).

I think adding content balanced around IOs is a bad idea because it means that the IO system is no longer optional for at least part of the game. Besides, how do you balance it around IOs? There are so many different potential ways to build characters that it'd be impossible to decide what to balance against. Also, yeah, what @Coyotedancer said. I'm not about making things more difficult when most players are running around on SOs thinking Empathy is the best support set because it puts green numbers above peoples' heads. And if a build can solo a GM or AV without incarnate powers... who cares? It's a slow process that doesn't offer any extra reward other than bragging rights. I'd hardly call that unbalanced.

The point being made isn't "haha no one knows what that power is," it's the change was so obscure no one noticed it happened. The entire point is to act as a direct counter for the myriad posters who jump into a thread at the mere mention of PvP and blame PvP and PvPers for everything that's wrong with the game.

Power Boost has a couple issues: 1) there are several important buffs/debuffs it doesn't affect at all, which means 2) it's mostly only useful for long-duration click buffs, most notably defense. In most cases aside from that boosting buffs or debuffs with PB is simply overkill.

I think the best thing to do with IH is to reduce its recharge so it's up more often. You'd probably have to reduce its regen bonus as well but combined with the other proposed changes it seems solid. Maybe give Resilience a bit more resistance as well.

My post was more directed at the person asking "how fast can you do it in normal content?" It seems a bit weird to be asking how quickly you can get to 50 and then put artificial limitations/qualifiers on that statement. I'm pretty much the opposite of you. If I have friends playing the game I'll occasionally level a character the "old fashioned" way just to play with them but that's pretty rare these days. I've played through the game so many times that I'm totally over the low-level slog of not having enough powers, slots, or enhancements for the game to not feel like a total drag. Most of my gameplay happens at or near 50 so levels 1-49 are just a hurdle I want to get over.

Okay, now I know you're trolling me. That or you're being intentionally obtuse. I think I'm done here.

So at face value +dam is more useful than -res because the purple patch exists. You'd think that all things being equal a 30% damage buff would be just as good as a 30% resistance debuff, right? Well... not exactly. Damage buffs only boost your base damage while -res effectively boosts your enhanced and buffed damage. If I had a power that did 100 base damage and I had it fully slotted for damage (call it 100% for easy math) with another 30% damage boost I'd be dealing 230 damage. If I had a 30% resistance debuff on a target and I was using that same attack with the same slotting, I'd do 260 damage. In this case -res is more valuable than equivalent +dam until the purple patch causes a break-even around +4 (where my debuff is reduced to 48% of its normal value).

I mean, have you been on a team full of debuffers? AVs absolutely melt. Yes, after factoring in the purple patch and AV resistance buffs are better than debuffs but the debuffs are still useful and some of the best support sets are the ones that offer a mix of both. There are both explicit and practical limits to buffing after which more buffing doesn't matter and the only way to increase team effectiveness is with debuffs. Empathy's schtick at endgame (since we're talking about that apparently) is "cool, I can keep a small damage bonus on 3-4 teammates at a time." A Kin can effectively damage cap an entire team with one or two clicks and solve the endurance and recharge problems. Oh, and that Kin can also bring -regen, -rech, -spd, -dam, and -end to the fight.

Other than "just to be different," why would I want to do that? If my goal is to get to 50 as fast as possible or with as little effort as possible normal content doesn't meet either of those.

Your argument of "more people play these sets so they're better" doesn't really hold up to scrutiny when looking at the rest of the charts. Four of the ten most-common Scrapper builds are Regen and Regen is arguably the worst Scrapper secondary. Broadsword, Ninjitsu, and Ninja Blade all make appearances in the top Stalker builds but again, those are some of the worst sets on that AT. Regen is the most popular Sentinel secondary but it's still the worst secondary that AT gets. Some of the top Blaster powerset combinations are pretty bad too. Popularity does not necessarily mean a set is better than the other options, it just means more people play it. The most popular Tanker combination is Invuln/SS but that definitely isn't the best Tanker - it just thematic so of course more players are going to gravitate toward it. Claws/Regen was one of the most popular Scrapper combinations when the stats were first published last fall because, you guessed it, Wolverine. In the same vein, Empathy is the most popular Defender primary because people see "support AT = heals = Empathy." The very fact that Force Fields is the 5th-most-popular Defender primary should tell you that people aren't necessarily playing sets for their effectiveness.

It's like the players who insist Sentinels are fine because they like playing them.

This is a joke, right? Surely I'm being trolled?

I'd think a percentage-based value would be the best answer.

There's only been one time in the history of this game that a power has been nerfed in PvE solely for PvP reasons and I'd bet a billion inf you don't know what it is.

To be fair Ice is only better than Fire in the AoE department in an environment where you're constantly at or over the aggro/target cap, which is why it's so good for fire farms.

I think the crux of the argument is something like "Controllers (or insert X low-damage AT here) shouldn't be able to do that much damage" while completely disregarding any sacrifices that are made to allow that to happen. Homecoming has been out in the open for almost a year and a half now, and the PPM system existed in its current implementation the entire time Resurgence was hidden from the public view. I'm of the opinion that there's no real reason to go after the PPM/proc system and any efforts to nerf it are a solution to a nonexistent problem. I think the only legitimate argument that can be made against the PPM system is PvP balance, but the simplest solution to that is simply reduce the amount of damage procs do in PvP.

Okay, I'll bite. Cold: Hands-down the best support set in the game. In two clicks you've provided as much defense as Fortitude, but for the entire team, and you get some bonus resistance buffs along with that. You can stack absurd amounts of -res on a target, thereby increasing your entire team's damage. Anyone near you has 60% slow resistance. Heat Loss makes Recovery Aura look downright awful by comparison. You can also shut down a target's regen, effectively increasing your team's damage even further. Dark: Best AoE heal in the game (not super relevant but still a point). Easily stackable -res. Darkest Night has some pretty silly -dam/-tohit numbers. Howling Twilight is an AoE rez/stun, something other sets have to dip into Incarnate powers to get. Fearsome Stare is one of the best CC powers in a non-control set. If you're talking the Controller version, Fade and Soul Absorption are really good. Elec: Okay, maybe not this one. It does bring Fortitude-level +dam/+tohit to pretty much your entire team and Amp Up is pretty nutty if used on the right person but this set overall is pretty "meh." Sorta like Empathy. Kin: Speed Boost, Transference, and Fulcrum Shift. 'Nuff said. Nature: The single-target -res/-dam isn't anything to write home about but it's relatively spammable. It's got -dam, -tohit, -regen, a "drop it and forget it" heal/end patch, absorb, +dam/+tohit/+end discount, +res/+regen, and a little bit of healing thrown in there plus the Bloom mechanic means heals from any source are more effective (again, not super relevant but still a point). Sure, you said something about needing lots of recharge to make some of those buffs last longer but... they're better buffs. Pain: Ehh. World of Pain is a PBAoE +dam/+tohit/+res buff so you can at least keep it up on the entire team. You've also got some -def/-res in there. Not great, but the debuff ability combined with the buff ability edges it out over Empathy. I'd give the nod to AB over Painbringer though. Poison: One of the better debuff sets in the game. You can put out some ridiculous -def/-res/-tohit/-dam regardless of the AT you're on. Rad: I feel like I don't need to talk that much about this one, it's been a staple "Really Good Set" since the beginning. Sonic: Resistance buffs are always welcome and Sonic does well there. Also has that nifty "set it and forget it" -res toggle. Liquefy is pretty bad but that's the biggest downside of that set. Storm: A DPS set disguised as a support set. What's not to like? Therm: More resistance buffs, Forge is better than Fortitude, and it's got hefty -regen. Also -def/-res on a long cooldown but it's still helpful. Time: The very existence of this set pretty much makes Empathy irrelevant. It does almost everything Empathy does, minus the +tohit. Traps: The lack of mobility severely reduces the utility of this set, but it does well in encounters where the user has time to drop a few of the debuff powers, namely Poison Trap and Acid Mortar. Outside of those sorts of encounters, the debuff utility isn't particularly relevant since most teams will be moving fast enough anyways. Trick Arrow: Reasonable ability to stack -res, some decent -dam, and Oil Slick Arrow. Also, good for soft control with powers like PGA and Glue Arrow. If your argument is debuffing sets aren't as useful as buffing sets because the purple patch exists, 1) you're wrong, and 2) Cold, Elec, Kin, Nature, Rad, Storm, Therm, and Time are still better than Empathy. TL;DR: Once again, Empathy isn't a bad set, but almost every other support set is better.

Something something making vet levels harder to attain to keep incarnate powers harder to access (Real answer: XP boosters worked post-50 on Resurgence but got nerfed for the reason I said above.)

That reason is because when a player sees Healing Aura, Heal Other, and Absorb Pain they go "ooh a healer!" and roll Empathy. If I had 5 inf for every time I saw an Empathy Defender who took all the heals but skipped Fortitude and only had one or two attack powers from their secondary I'd be at the inf cap. Don't get me wrong: Empathy is a useful support set, at least in the early/mid levels where characters don't have many powers and the powers they do have are usually un- or underslotted. Healing is valuable at that point because it's the most useful form of mitigation. As you move into the upper 20s and beyond, and especially into the 40-50+ range, direct healing becomes less and less important as mitigation because of the prevalence of defense and resistance buffs. Sure, Empathy has Fortitude, the RAs, and AB - but the RAs are on a stupidly long timer, AB is a really good buff that can only be reliably kept on one teammate at a time (and if your RAs are up half its bonuses are redundant anyways), and Fortitude's nice but... at the end of the day in mid-to-high-level teams Empathy basically brings AB and Fortitude to the table and those two powers alone aren't enough to make the set good. I mean, I won't say no to an Emp, but I know I'm not alone in saying I'd rather have a Cold, Dark, Elec, Kin, Nature, Pain, Poison, Rad, Sonic, Storm, Therm, Time, Traps, or Trick Arrow filling that spot.

I mean, sure, but the option is still there to form your own team to run it the regular way if you're so inclined. The powergaming crowd is going to be looking at merits per time and if doing it with "Master of" rules isn't worth the extra time for the merits, they'll still be running it the regular ol' way too.

I am intentionally not addressing the second part of your post because like you said, that's you, but I'll at least look at this. In short... so what? Unless they're doing it for the first time and really want the badge, they still get the normal merit rewards even if they don't complete the challenge. At this point it's just gambling on getting extra merit rewards for the extra risk. Same with the Ouro flashback limitations - those should be worth more merits as well. It's not like if you failed the challenge you'd get no rewards so you're not really losing anything.

what