Bill Z Bubba

They're the same sentence. Regen was nerfed so bad it's in negative values now so any nerf or buff will be a buff.

All the more reason to fix them.

I dunno, man. Self-Destruct + RotP is always pretty funny to see.

Human nature. We rank things. I've lately been forcing myself to play characters that I know are going to disappoint me regardless of how I build them. Luckily, now living in a state with legal pot, I'm finding that I *am* capable (only when high) to turn off my number crunching brain and just watch the show which makes me able to enjoy these characters anyway. Course, soon as I sober up I'm right back to omgwtfbbq this sucks so bad why the hell am I dying at +1/x3? (Again, side-eyeing my Bane SoA at the moment but I could respec him right now to fix some of his squishiness.) Beyond all that, when it comes to game balance, the sets that cause me ill are the ones too far out of whack from the mid-line (shield being too good, regen being too bad) or, more specifically, powers that are either just plain wrong (based on the equations they should be built on,) or that are actually broken and allow for performance way outside their design, (see burn and irradiated ground and how they utilize procs.)

But incarnate powers, rune of protection, shadow meld and set bonuses are a thing. So while that Nin user might have an easier time on the way up, in the end, all that +damage and -resist coming from Bio means that it ends up with enough mitigation to survive while killing enemies far faster. And, I know, I know, I almost never use it, but Defensive mode also exists for tough spots. Nin, SR, Nrg are all great sets but have to be because their kill speed is so much slower. I will, however, also note that none of my Bio users can solo a max diff ITF. They'd be fine against the AVs but the Khels rip them to shreds thanks to all the -recharge and -defense. Another edit: In my defense, it's because I don't build my Bios for that. I build them for slaughter. More damage *should* mean less mitigation. Yea, I'm side-eyeing YOU, Shield Defense. And all tanks.

Been soloing a Bane SoA the last few days. Got him up to the low 30s and realized he was still getting his ass kicked by some enemies (granted, we're talking Vanguard Sword and the one mission with 3 Crimson Revenants, but even Family and Carnies are giving him trouble,) and he JUST moved from +1/x2 to +1/x3. I'll admit, I'll be shocked if he can run at max diff fully tricked out at 50 based on his performance now.

Just remember that Touch of Fear's terror portion is only single target.

Ya know... I've actually been pondering this a lot lately. Why does it seem that most of the coolest looking powers/archetypes are also the worst performing?

Correct. RDR is a function of Damage Resistance. Why the OG devs didn't make DDR a function of Defense is beyond me. But the rub is that it doesn't matter how much DDR you have, it caps at 95% so 5% of all Defense Debuffs do get through. This is unlike RDR which doesn't cap. That Invul tank may cap at 90% SL Resist but if it is actually over the cap to 100%, then it actually has 100% RDR. NO resistance debuffs can leak through. On top of that, resists function at full strength all the time. Defense, on the other hand, no matter how much you have, you're still left with at the very least a 5% chance of getting hit, and if facing a +4 AV, they'll have a much higher minimum chance to hit you. In other words, resist based sets are already in a more stable situation than defense based sets and have access to vastly more powers that grant defense than defense based sets have access to resistance.

Not this particular combo, no, but I did go presence pool on my literally skinless Skinless Scarlet, a dm/bio, blood magic brute. Also thinking I'm going to have to at least get provoke for my dm/stone scrapper due to EVERYTHING running away from her. Cloak of Fear is only Mag 2 but Invoke Panic is Mag 3, so stacking Mag 5 terror does sound pretty awesome.

The fact that I knew this once but forgot about it completely shows how often I use those pools.

We're allowed 4 power pools. You have 4 listed. What's the problem again?

SR should be the only set with capped or even near capped DDR. All sets with resistance automatically resist resistance debuffs. They get nothing. Shield has extra damage, higher HP and solid static damres. DDR stacking should be blocked from AD. Bio has two absorption shields and a pbaoe heal on top of the best overall +damage from a secondary. It deserves nothing and probably should be nerfed. WP... I could actually argue for a bit more of something but only if I ignore the fact that it has a non-worthless T9. Regen should have the highest regen/recharge debuff resistance in the game.

Well, duh, it's got a T9 that doesn't suck. Honestly, I've had little experience with the set. I had slapped together one and tested it in an ITF where it felt weak but looking at it now, I'd build it very differently than I normally would. Guess it's time.

With the vast majority of it just being more power creep. I see no reason for buffs as a balance for this bug fix.

This implies that FA wasn't fine and/or balanced before IOs. If burn's ability to doubletap procs is all that gets fixed, then nothing needs to be done to bring the rest of the set up because all that's happening is bringing burn back to where it's supposed to be.

Toggle armors are made useless due to form shifting. Human clicks don't work if you have mez stacked on dwarf form and you shift down. Toggleoff macros fail if you're in a form animation when you click them. Limited power selection while in the forms forces constant form hopping just to have decently paced attack chains. Yes, it was even worse before the T1-T2 human blasts were made available to the forms. But hey, at least cosmic balance buffs the kheldian now instead of just partially relieving the debuffs they once had for being solo. And they're sometimes fun to watch while high. They were horribly designed at go live, damn near completely unplayable solo, (which I did anyway,) but they got better with the overhaul and with ample IO usage. Here on HC, I've already built and deleted fully IOed and lvl 50 human only PB and WS. I rebuilt the PB as a triform and soloed her up into the 30s and have now run a couple TFs with SG mates. Ran her through another solo mission this morning. Her WS counterpart sits at lvl 7. They are still a horribly designed AT and they need a hell of a lot more of a ground up redesign than just a change to the toggles. Personally, I'd dump the toggles completely. Make them passives that carry over to the forms. Do something else entirely with the E/N power since the T1 already covers it. Maybe a slottable sustain passive. Allow human form clicks to work in the forms. Yes, that means the black dwarf gets two mires and the white dwarf gets two heals. So what? Even a fully cranked dwarf can't come close to matching a tank just as a fully buffed nova ain't gettin close to being a blaster.

Any fix/nerf to burn and irradiated ground or any other power that allows procs to fire off more than their PPM should allow for will not come with associated buffs. Any overall reduction to the efficacy of damage procs will not come with associated buffs.

You should probably look at my times vs others. Compared to what's being pushed these days, my builds and performance are nothing to write home about. Both pylon times and the trapdoor thread have proven that. I'd say that alone puts my min-maxing credentials in question. I love claws because of its balance point between ST and AoE and its (to me at least) fluid and quick animations. Is it a great set? Yes, of course it is and it's actual ranking probably is higher than the 50% mark but it's no king of the hill on anything while being the 2nd most resisted damage type. That said, due to all the changes it's received over the years, it's a numerically screwed up set and could be corrected just like everything else.

Claws needs no nerfs or buffs. It's perfectly in the middle of the pack on both ST and AoE output. And since most of my tanks are defense based, nerfing the MotT Res proc will hurt them moreso than the resist based tanks. Hell, by splitting it up the buff into res and def instead of just being a res buff, resist based tanks will actually benefit.

Baby steps. We'll have War Machine soon enough.

You should. They're fun. On topic, I enjoyed the ITF more when I didn't have to load up on acc/tohit buff due to the last fix patch for Cimerorans. It's still my favorite TF.

If I'm not allowed to judge regen by how bad it sucks in the ITF, then yea... judging anything by how well it can handle a 4-tower backed LR is stupid.

If they split the value between defense and resists, they'd be more likely to defend the decision.

This. And grab another AoE from epic pools. Power Crush is heavy on the meh side as AoE goes.