Yomo Kimyata

I rebooted my system and the End Mod/Rech DSO disappeared from the new character and the D/E DSO showed up in the first character's inventory. So no problems, but strange stuff.

I find it difficult to believe it is the former, since this is so incredibly niche. And as for un-convertability, I just printed a bug report because I created a lvl 53 D/E DSO on one character from lvl 50s, emailed it to myself, pulled it off email and suddenly it is a lvl 53 End Mod/Rech DSO. Definitely not human error, mainly because I had specifically double checked it because I had deliberately decided to use the email system rather than trade it to myself on the /AH. So maybe you can make Provocation DSOs after all! EDIT: Interestingly the End Mod/Rech DSO disappeared and the D/E showed up on original character after rebooting. Odd stuff.

I double checked this both before and after sending it. I created a level 53 D/E DSO out of 4 lvl 50s (slotted it in Brawl on one of my 50s, combined, removed with unslotter). Replied to myself on email and dragged the level 53 D/E DSO into the email interface. Switched characters and pulled out the DSO from the email and to my wonder it was now a lvl 53 End Mod/Recharge DSO. Not the end of the world by any means, but there is a zero chance that this is human error on my end. I deliberately used email rather than sell it to myself through the /AH interface since I did not want to print a trade, but now this has me questioning all kinds of things about DSOs and email.

Things that are great about HOs: lvl 53 gives you 38.3% enhancement (schedule A) in every category. Whether that's a double or a triple. That enhancement scales down to level 1 if you exempt. You can slot as many of each one in a build or even in a specific power as you have room and/or budget for. Things that aren't so great about HOs: no set bonuses. On the surface, this may not be a big deal, but there are a lot of really good set bonuses, and there are often really cheap or easy replacements for HOs that imo provide better overall characteristics. I stopped using Mids a while ago, and I'm currently only mentally categorizing HOs and DSOs as which came first (I accept that there are Empowerment DSOs, but they will always be Nucleolus HOs to me; vice versa with Stereolabcilia HOs and Deceleration DSOs -- the second is the standard to me even though they are bucketed as the same thing in the /AH). I always want to make something work with some of the unpopular HOs, but meh it often doesn't seem worth it. There are definitely some exceptions, but maybe one out of a few dozen of my characters? not enough for me to make a living on.

An interesting thing that I personally keep forgetting is that this is not a business. The GMs and devs aren't getting paid, have no interest in player retention, have zero responsibility to keep the greatest number of players happiest the greatest amount of the time. This game was a secret underground poker game for seven years, and frankly I think a few of the decision makers wish it was still that way! Heck, I don't even know who in the game or on these forums is a decision maker or just some clown like me who likes to tell other people why their stupid ideas are stupid and why their good ideas are good. Personally, when I post a suggestion I don't give a flying goose caboose about when someone says they don't like it because they don't like it, unless they've got a big bolded name as a decision maker. I'd like to see more feedback from them about whether or not they think an idea is worth their time or not than from some chucklehead in a basement in Sheboygan. No Wisconsinites were harmed in the writing of the previous sentence.

This is a part of it that doesn't get a lot of discussion, but it's dead on. If you look through city of data, every kinetic melee power has an extended animation time before effect. It's very annoying in a fast paced environment and you'll see a lot of anecdotes of people saying that their opponent is killed by someone else while they are still winding up. Even solo, it's annoying in a psychological manner: if you are locked down for three seconds for a power, it's much more satisfying damaging your opponent after half a second then waiting for 2.5 seconds than waiting 2.5 seconds before your damage hits and then only being locked down for a half second. It was an odd stylistic choice by the original creators of the power set.

Yes! That would be a great name for it. We could keep a different forum for arguments and disagreements in playstyle and such. At the risk of over-repeating myself, I want to be clear that my issue/objective here is to be able to give suggestions and feedback to the developers, ideally without having to run the gauntlet of running it past dozens of rabid gamers who want nothing better to kill all my pets just because they think someone on the internet is wrong. Pie in the sky, I know.

I guess now I'm wondering if anyone else has found the magic slot machine in St. Martial that gives out discounted Winter Packs...

I didn't even know what I didn't know!!! Although I did know these. The thing that was life changing for me when I eventually found it was was that when you have items in your Character Items menu (from opening packs) the default order is useless, but if you click once on the title, it alphabetizes it for you. Mind blown.

When I think of the name Suggestions Forum, I think of a Suggestions Box where people anonymously suggest ideas that are examined by management. Sometimes the slot in the box leads directly to a shredder, but at least the people who post feel some level of agency. The current Suggestions Forum is, in my opinion, not working for me. It's a great way to enflame people and stir up the pot if I want to get some stranger's blood pressure on the rise, but it is terrible for making suggestions that are intended to improve the game, either for my own personal play or for the population as a whole. What I would really love is some sort of input or direction from those who command. If someone makes a suggestion that is blatantly self-serving, some sort of comment like, "We will take that under advisement, but it doesn't seem to advance our goals at this time." If it's a really good interesting idea, how about, "That is an interesting idea." If it is technologically unfeasible, how about, "That is currently technically unfeasible." Or even a plain /jranger from a bolded name, so we know it's a non-starter and we can move on with our lives. Also, unless we can work in some sort of feedback mechanism, how about changing the name of the Forum to Opinions Forum? Nobody expects feedback on our opinions, and that way we know we are walking into an interweb fight when we post. I'm just spitballing here, and I'm trying not to be snarky or Snarky. And maybe I'm in a tiny minority of feeling unheard (and I understand that Discord might address some of this, but I cannot use Discord for various physiological reasons, and if Discord is to be the be all and end all, maybe we should shut down these forums to keep things fair and consistent?)

I found this worth reading for a couple of reasons. I cannot disagree with you here, and the irony of the curators moving it to Suggestions within a few hours is sharp. This subforum is generally a morass, and seems almost always to lead to more conflicts among players. What it does not ever have is any dev input -- not one lick or it. This will soon lead to a Suggestion forum post of mine that will probably be ignored and will almost certainly lead to more conflicts among players. And here I like to ask myself "why?" you made the suggestion and "how?" it might be implemented. Your suggestions seem to make sense to me on the surface to an extent, and I don't see it as you asking/begging "Give me more than what I already have". If you have a character without stealth and with no aggro powers active and walk past a purple, it will attack and kill you, but that same character can stand in a pack of greys and tell jokes with the bat-flipping Hellions for hours. Why shouldn't some of your powers not affect them if they are coded to completely ignore you? They are not giving you any rewards in terms of inf or xp. I can see blowback from people who want to get easy defeat badges, and maybe that's reason enough to say no. And then I like to ask myself "why?" we are where we are. When CoH sunset, and this game was played and evolved for seven years before re-emerging, one of the things that has been consistent is that the developers like MORE (and especially more for tankers). Aggro cap? Screw that noise, let's change powers so that it's easier to attract/distract enemies, do more damage to higher numbers of enemies, make gathering them together and defeating them quicker and easier, presumably to get more shiny rewards more quickly. And frankly a very vocal part of the player base likes it exactly like that and would painfully kill every pet you've ever had just because you suggest otherwise. I don't see anything getting instituted that will *reduce* any sort of aggro, even against greys. Would it be better for the overall game either way? I don't really see a compelling argument one way or another.

I'm totally down with that. Heck, I keep Kick in the rotation because sometimes it is satisfying to finish off an enemy while keeping on truckin'. I'm not advocating for the smallest amount of spells/powers, not by any means. However, for me, who partly finds beauty in efficiency, I look at my powers like: hmm, I've got two single target damage powers and I'm ok with the animation of both (I still mostly avoid fire/frost swords unless they really mean the character concept) and I can alternate between them with no down time and there are three other single target damage powers and none of them are superior in terms of dpx or aesthetics, so I'm good not taking any of those other powers because they simply aren't doing me any good. Me. Not doing ME any good. You play how you want, because I am certainly not the one trying to enforce a most optimal path on anyone except for me.

Sometimes I feel I'm playing a different game. Why wouldn't you only use your best rotation? My most effective scrappers are those that only *have* to take maybe 5-6 from their primary, tops. Those power picks and slots get funneled into other powers that make them more survivable and deadly.

I just took my 50 out for a spin, no incarnate stuff but pretty solid build for the meta about two years ago. I thought I would like this combo better than I do, but I think that's because I don't love the look and feel of stone melee. Endurance is always going to be a bugbear, even after you get Energy Absorption. EA is a great power, but it's awful against just one or two opponents since you don't get enough endurance back to keep running at 110% until it recharges. Using Icy Bastion as a doubleclick solves that problem, but it's not up all the time so you'll still have to slot out Health and Endurance sufficiently. I would think that Musculature T4 with endurance modification would help a lot as an Alpha.

I think we are seeing from the discussion of @battlewraith and @tidge that strong opinions are had both ways on this.

No, they should add some really nice 8 or 9 piece bonuses, and then people will lose their minds because they can't get them.

I do wish there was some sort of enforceable framework to make a lot of these self-imposed challenges stick. Not just, "eh, that death really didn't count" but more along the lines I run across old alts and rarely can remember exactly what challenge I was running with them and accidentally ruin it.

Tradeoffs exist in order to dissuade min-maxxers from zeroing in on one optimal framework. You can frankenslot to whatever you are looking for in particular. Example: generally, when I am looking at a standard defense power like Weave, where the two relevant enhancements are defense and endurance reduction, how I look at it will depend at least slightly on what is going on with the rest of my character. I find most of the defense set bonuses underwhelming, and I don't want to "waste" slots on a power to six-slot something like Reactive Defenses unless that character really could use a single example of that set bonus. So I usually go with LotG proc (attuned) and 2x lvl 53 Cyto. But not always. I remember a Energy Armor scrapper I had that simple had too many slots, so I found myself doing things like 5 slotting defense powers for a tiny tiny incremental bonus.

This is not what you are asking at all, but my favorite/best scrappers lean heavily into stun and knockdown and I let that influence my choices when playing other ATs as well.

That's actually not accurate! From my understanding (and testing) you can indeed get effective knockBACK from the OF proc. The way the proc works if I recall correctly is that it takes the inherent knockback/down value of the power and divides it by ten. Effectively, this reduces any value of knockback inherent to a power to under 0.75, which functions as knockdown. However, procs are additive with respect to knock*. I know from testing experience that when the Avalanche proc and the OF proc both trigger in a melee AoE, the knockdown value is over 0.75 or thereabouts and it will cause knockback rather than knockdown. I do not remember from my testing whether the order in which the procs are slotted affects this, but I don't think so. Also, you can get both knockup and knockback on a power, since they are different effects. This probably means you can get knockup and knockdown on a power, but I don't know how you would recognize that visually.

I think @Troo said it nicely in page 1 of this thread, and I will paraphrase, there are a lot of mini-games within this metagame. Some people find some aspects of some mini-games more enjoyable than others.

Spite.

This is generally why I tend to craft in bunches of 50 or 30. Honestly, I don't mind that this is a bit of a governor to slow down crafting slightly, but I do find it interesting that you get 150 salvage slots at level 5 (I didn't bother to look when I mentioned 30s earlier) but can only increase that to 200 at the max through pretty significant effort. That said, the ability for one character to hold, say, 500 or 1000 pieces of salvage would probably make it easier to manipulate the salvage market over the short term.

I think my progression with character play and development went something like this (no specific timeline): 1. (Re)discover game. Joy! Remake old characters, make new characters, play (mostly solo). 2. Learn more about the mechanics of the game (all hail @UberGuy) and try to make my existing characters better. 3. Learn even more about the mechanics and then get way into min-maxxing. Joy fades. 4. Try new ATs and power sets, rejecting them when they are not as good as what I have already developed. Alt list grows. 5. Take break from the game. 6. Stop using Mids or planning characters at all. Play at regular xp instead of zerging through levels. Joy builds a bit. Understand that good enough is good enough and even my crappiest level 50 is totally fine for any content that I want to play on a team, and is conditionally fine for anything I want to solo. Still a work in progress, but I still enjoy this game for now.