golstat2003

Eh, just ask the leader or team if they would not mind running at a lower level.

I wouldn't. The dev team we have is completely volunteer and not nearly the size of what we had on live, and such an endeavor would be an epic waste of time. They have so many other requests from this community that focusing on this would be an epic mistake. Balance one or two powers or sets (like they recently did with TW) with targeted nerfs or buffs. And eventually make the harder incarnate content folks have been asking for.

The most relevant point in this thread. Also who the hell cares. We're here to have fun. If Mr. IO'd to the billions gills makes missions or tfs go faster, great. No issue.

No thanks.

Yeah I don't deal with advanced IOs until 50. Until then it's just common IOs, SOs and regular set IOs. I seriously doubt most players are dealing with ATOs until much later in their superhero/villian career. (The stalker one being the exception probably). EDIT: It would be an interesting thing to datamine.

Yeah I've seen a couple of these builds now and .. . they just seem not fun to me. I don't like my damage relying on RNG. But that's just me. But yeah I can see WHY some folks love this AND why some are saying they are ridic. LOL

Ughhh, is this even fun to play? That sounds very not so. (But I hate most things that involve RNG). I think I better go take a look at these builds as folks are continuously referencing Proc Monsters. Want to see what the actual fuss is about.

I agree. I would leave both procs and defensive set bonuses alone for now.

Hmmm, balance issues notwithstanding (cause you're right I can think of a few ideas that would outright break the game post 35 . . . well even more so LOL) but I think things LIKE the stalker one, would be great. It could change how some ATs play. One idea I always had was Corrupter ATO Damage to Heal for Scourge. Basically a percentage of scourge damage would come back to the Corrupter as a heal over time. The longer scourge goes the more potent the heal over time, to the point where it becomes an AOE heal for the team, and eventual adds an absorb shield to the Corrupter. Obviously it would help more in longer fights like AVs, for both the corrupter and their team. (This ofcourse sounds like a nightmare to code and possibly something game breaking as I type it. LMAO). But you get the idea. new ATOs that add uniqueness to ATs, or improve their inherent in some way, as you also mentioned.

Yes, as THOSE actually seem more useful to me than procs. But I'm biased against RNG-based things in mmos, so ignore me on THAT front. 😛 But seriously, additional ATOs would be great. Not sure they could make any as game changing as the Stalker one was. But who knows. HC devs be crafty. LOL

Yeah true. At level 35 and up I've seen less, "wait for the tank to aggro then go" (though there is admittedly WAY LESS of than on HC than on Live for obvious reasons LOL). At that point folks got their nukes and have gotten some end management, and it's teams rushing from spawn to spawn. Less waiting for the tank, less waiting for lockdown from the dom/controller, less waiting for debuffing from the defender, corrupter, etc. Hell in most AV fights, some one just yells "I found the AV" and fight. I suspect . . . thought that this started long before HC. I think the exact time when AT roles became less and less important was the issue they made it possible to switch sides, followed by the additional change to be able to make ANY AT on ANY side. After that role became less important when you have multiple ATs on either side that can fill a role. (Some, multiple roles at the same time LOL). Now the question is . . . is that a bad thing. I'm . . . not really sure. I'd argue with the history of COH and it's anti-trinity history, PROBABLY not. Interesting side discussion.

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.