golstat2003

I guess the question is . . . how many folks actually care about this anymore? Would be an interesting question to ask. From what I've been seeing with how teams form on HC, I would bet not many.

As far as I'm concerned they've spent enough time tweaking Tanks and Brutes. There was actually discussion and rounds for months on this on these forums during the last time they were tweaking tanks (with some tweaks for Brutes) . They have better things to do. With other ATs needing help. Time to move on.

My gain is not expecting to be a taunt bot when I don't want to be. Teams are more accepting of Brutes not having taunt. I can't say the same for tanks without it.

Pretty much agreed. There is no "fix all" for the balance issues in COH. It's why I'm always for focused changes based on numbers, testing, datamining. Thankfully seems like the HC devs are too.

I think the first step would be to get Common IOs dropping first. EDIT: This would get folks who hate or swore off ALL IOs (of which there are probably few admittedly) to get a sense of how much better they are than SOs. Of course they would only start dropping in their level range of 25+. I don't think it's worth the effort to have them drop from level 1 or even level 10, etc. I think it would be a bit complicated (and might make future changes an issue) if you have identify which are normie and not normie (and have to keep that database maintained over time as you add more IOs--especially since some sets like the Miracle you mention have both "normie" and special specific Unique (and sometimes non-Unique) IOs) As a future enhancement maybe. If the devs want to then be responsible for balancing against that/maintaining that. I'd think though it would make more sense to start simple with Common IOs (fully crafted) dropping first then data mine what effect that has. Then in later Issues or Pages they can go with the more advanced combos of Enh that enahnce two or more aspects like Dam/Acc and Dam/Acc/Rech etc. I'm all for anything that DOES NOT allow this to turn into yet another time/coding time suck of work for our small dev team.

The only shift is now you can get SOs early. @Galaxy Brainmetioned if common IOs were now as easily accessible as SOs are now, this would be a different discussion. (And I would be siding more with @Galaxy Brain). The original introduction of Inventions was that ALL parts of it would continue to be optional. (I include AH/Crafting/etc in that and suspect the original devs and SCORE devs aimed for that). However this is a different age as others have pointed out. Does that need to change? As I mentioned sure, IF fully crafted common IOs started dropping, sure. As mentioned SetIOs should always be optional.

Funny enough I have the exact same opposite feeling about procs. I don't like RNG-based things in games. I . . . just don't find procs fun. I'd rather know that if I slot this, I do this much more damage every time. It's interesting how different people feel about different game mechanics. Neither is wrong. 😃

Also as a Brute I'm not expected to hold aggro as well as a Tank. A Brute not having taunt I think is seen as more acceptable than a Tank not having it. When I want to be a team protector I play a Tank. When I want to just SMASH I play a Brute. Even with the buffs that's the position they hold in my mind. Plus I find tanks to be boring as dog s&%$ on a sidewalk on a hot summer day, when leveling them.

Yeah my PB doesn't even bother with Light Form. It's . . . just not needed. As for the crashes being removed or edited from the tier 9s, sure I might actually take those tier 9s. It would be an improvement similar to how they improved blaster actually taking their nukes. Cause prior to that a lot of blasters didn't.

I think I've done it to death enough that when I go back to do lower level content once a year I find myself easily noting what the next mission in the chains will be. I was actually recently able to do this with 8 contacts back to back. At that point I just decided I'm . .. just no longer interested in lower level content. But others can have at it if they still enjoy it. Rather than spending time needlessly revamping large parts of the game cause folks like to steam roll newspaper/radios perhaps they could spend time revamping lower level content and modernizing some things. I don't know. . . just seems like a better use of time to me.

I . . . don't consider using threads to T4 for the very reason you stated. Also there is an inf cost with that. LOL

I don't consider newspaper missions/radio missions to be end game. Especially since they grant 0 end game level rewards (incarnete nor merits). Newspaper/radio missions are meant to be quick throwaway missions of no consequence. It's fine if teams breeze through those. Though if they want to buff council IN TFs/SFs/Trials, sure.

/shrug. Still not seeing an issue here. I'm fine with one class of mob being the training wheel mob. There's more important things to worry about.

They're fine for what they are. If a team wants to hop on a quick mission and rush through trash that's fine. That's pretty much COH tradition. Those who want to run harder mobs and missions can.

Nah. Leave the easy missions for the majority of players who like to play COH for 15-30 minutes, then dip out.

Yeah pretty much the ONLY thing I use merits for. Hell if I have extra incarnate emps lying around (that I haven't converted to Trans Merits and sent to other characters) I convert them also. Buying things directly with merits . . . just does not seem all that useful to me. But I'm glad it's there as an option for those who HATE the AH.

The answer to the bolded for me most of the time will be no. If I wanted more of the drastic changes some other servers are doing I'd be playing on them. In fact I'd argue some of the changes the other servers have made are more divergent form CoX than things here. Everyone's Milage May Vary (EMMY)

You guys and ladies have me wanting to act up. (Acting up meaning making a A/TA blaster.) 😉

This . . . doesn't surprise me. Those are the three places I'm least likely to want to go if I'm playing COH most nights. Very rarely do I want to deal with some of the nonsense in missions in those zones. (With the DA missions that give components being the exception). Let's face reality, that a majority of COH players aren't here looking for challenging gameplay. There are other (more modern) games (and in some senses better rpgs) on the market for that.

I . . . don't think incarnates even matter in this convo of who can or can't be mezzed. It's level 50 content, end game. The End Game League you're on is making you better in ALL aspects: Damage, Recharge, Defense, Resistance, etc. Mez Prot being there via Clarion isn't a big deal compared to all the other ways your League is making you overpowered (a good thing, that's one of the major selling points of teaming in COH). If we're talking about mez protection, makes more sense to come at from the 1-50 game, which a majority of players are going to spend their time. Interesting discussion though.

Nothing. The mez system as is fine. I don't think you could actually improve it, but you could make it worse if you make the wrong changes. I say leave it alone, the devs have more important things to focus on. Trying to change a system that old at this time is NOT a good use of dev time. I don't think it would be that big a deal to move mez protection out of domination and onto dominators directly. Do I want them to do that? No. Would I care if they did? I'd just /shrug, say "neat" and keep playing my Doms when I do.

I'm fine with this. If it didn't feel like that I would say they wasted their time gathering that inf. /shrug.

It actually makes AOEing them to death much easier too. lol

I was . . . very happy when that certain Dev was no longer with the game for various reasons accumulated over the years he was there. Will be forever grateful he helped get the game out of beta . . . just as I will be that he left the project well before he could do any further damage to what he created.

Bottom line: The market on HC is 100 times better than what we had on live. A build that cost me 1.3 billion the other day would have cost me several times more that on live. I think all the sinks we have (including the fee) are fine as is. Nice thought experiment though OP. Got us to see how many people in General Chat don't know jack s&(#e about how the Market works. (Which has been proven time and time again, don't ask General chat if you want a serious, thoughtful answer. You're more likely to be mis-informed or trolled to death).