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Copied from the 'knockbad, amiright?" thread, in response to a 'maybe a post was reported': ----- I don't know that someone-else-reporting-a-post is always the reason for a 'warning'; I have it on good authority that occasionally warnings are given to 'both sides' of certain arguments almost entirely because of a sense of 'fairness'. FWIW I don't think I've every 'reported' a post. I have had an entire thread(*1) deleted/hidden, presumably because it made certain people uncomfortable, and based on the user who posted in that thread (rather than contacting me directly) I can guess that the user reached out to a moderator because passive-aggressive open requests to lock threads seems to be their MO. In (the 'knockbad') thread? I do think that a couple of the posts went past the point of 'snark', into rather direct insults of a specific individual... and (again IMO) it was multiple times. Based on what *I've* gotten warnings for? I am not at all surprised. ----- (*1) Frankly, IMO that thread should have just been locked if discussion was past the point of utility... because my request/suggestion was one that could come up again in a slightly different context... and the specific context for why I brought that up in the first place has only gotten more sour with age, so it isn't as if it wouldn't be on nobody's mind.

I don't know that someone-else-reporting-a-post is always the reason for a 'warning'; I have it on good authority that occasionally warnings are given to 'both sides' of certain arguments almost entirely because of a sense of 'fairness'. FWIW I don't think I've every 'reported' a post. I have had an entire thread deleted/hidden, presumably because it made certain people uncomfortable, and based on the user who posted in that thread (rather than contacting me directly) I can guess that the user reached out to a moderator because passive-aggressive open requests to lock threads seems to be their MO. In this thread? I do think that a couple of the posts went past the point of 'snark', into rather direct insults of a specific individual... and (again IMO) it was multiple times. Based on what *I've* gotten warnings for? I am not at all surprised.

There is a pretty large level gap between when a T9 can be chosen/slotted and a Destiny Incarnate power being available!

I have a Dark/Temporal, I'll embed my page 5 build in spoilers for completeness. This is an older character. Some of the secondary power synergize very well with this primary, some do not. Chronos fires every 22 seconds with an almost guaranteed %BuildUp. The melee (single target and PBAOE) are rarely used. I should note that this character was intended to be "mystical", this is the reason for the Arcane Bolt.

And how often does this scenario actually play out w.r.t. to knockback? Sometimes knockback annoys me for some characters I play... but I never say anything about it....because the stakes are so small. Sometimes I see a teammate make a comment about knockback, but it is nine-times-out-of-ten because the critters we are fighting are weak to knockback (typically clockworks). Much of this threads reads to me like an over-reaction because the critters aren't exactly where some players want them to be at all times, and players are being mindlessly categorized because of some sins. It is silly and mean-spirited.

You are also ascribing willfulness to hurt others, when: a) I question how the 'harm' merits such vitriol, and b) not everything everyone does in the world that you don't like is intending to upset you.

You made a HUGE leap form someone playing with a knockback set to someone willfully disrupting team play. everything else in your post is rationalization for your own prejudices.

Here is some classic "othering" that I'm sure we can all get behind! If only we catch 'em while they are young, we can get them to rightthink. /s

I'm somewhat surprised that this isn't the default tactic in Hamidon raids. I know that not every character in a raid has Lores, and that it is hard to coordinate use of Lores, but it has always struck me as the absolute quickest way to defeat Hamidon. Having written the above, one of the things that sours the Hamidon raid in my experience is that an entire league will "give up" after a triple bloom (which is a possible outcome of this strategy). The villain in me sneers at the noble heroes who refuse to consider redside because they have only noble intentions of protecting their precious city who give up because 'the juice isn't worth the squeeze.'

"Your honor, the sandwich bit me first."

I posted my preference above. As for %mezz procs... I usually skip them, because the base durations are relatively short, and the magnitudes aren't great. Typically I find a better use for the slot, such as improvement in something like Accuracy/Endurance Cost/Recharge or an alternate %damage. For a 5-piece Very Rare set bonus, I will usually consider them in place of the pure control piece, because of the ED margins. The one %control piece I fluctuate on is the +2 Magnitude Hold... it crosses the threshold for controlling (most) bosses, but a fast recharging Hold can often do that, and would also have a poor proc rate.

I'm in the "absolutely no rush" camp. There have been plenty of times where I felt I couldn't match colors exactly as I wanted (mostly on costumes, occasionally on powers) but more common than that bummer is that the art asset I want to use doesn't allow changing the color of the specific part I *want* to change. Again, no big deal for me. If I had to identify the most common issue I have with the Homecoming (and previously, Live) color palette: For colors of skin that no earth humans naturally have, the same shading pretty much never exists in the non-skin elements of the costume creator. Some are close, but usually it is easy to see where "skin" is used and "costume" is used.

For Plant? I put the 6xWill of the Controller in Vines. Most of the Controller AoE holds have ridiculously long recharge times. Carrion Creepers keeps %procing!

I should have written "it doesn't matter to me if both players and critters get the same floor." Missing kinda is lame. Obviously if a player is ALWAYS at an enemy's chance with 5%, yeah... that player would take more damage. I happen to think that one of the things that makes the game duller than it needs to be is when enemies only have a 1-in-20 chance to hit players. Players can still "soft cap", it is just that there would be diminishing returns for exceeding it... just like now.

I doesn't matter if everybody gets a floor of 10%. There is no "base defense maximum", the suggestion would only affect (players) when facing opponents that have a ToHit chance between 5% and 10%, after that everything would be the same. Congratulations if that is you for 100% of all content! If anything, this is something of a 'nerf' for players (and critters) who debuff Accuracy/ToHit... but those debuff scales are already a little on the weak side IMO. EDIT: As for "most affected players", I think it would very likely be certain Masterminds, more than other AT.

I wouldn't be quick to repeat any combo you already have played... it is just MHO but I think it is hard to judge the strengths and weakness of a set or combo without playing them (especially for MMs). If you want to eventually feel really powerful... I think /Marine and /Time secondaries are probably the best choices for whichever primary you pick. Marine will probably remind you of Nature.

This isn't exactly a fair summary of the (somewhat deep inside the linked thread's) 'dev post'. In that post, I did agree with the general comment that some power sets ought to have a feel to them, beyond "lol enemy green go down". I don't think the (admittedly, in that post) casual comment relating to 'maximize defeats with minimum effort' (my wording) is 100% on point for the discussion, except of course that such thinking is almost certainly the source of a majority of players complaints... just as it is for "AoE controls leave enemies separated" and "Teleport foe stole my target", etc.

I am not a great fan of 'gimmick' fights. I don't mind if the enemy has some sort of attack that we have to account for, but once the defeat mechanism becomes something other than Damage-over-time > (Regeneration + Healing), I start to think that this fight belongs to some other game. I don't completely object to 'puzzles', because I know that sort of thing appeals to some players. The one element of basic CoX combat mechanics that has led to 'easy-mode' type thinking is player's "Defense soft-capping"(*1). Auto-hit powers and mega-DDR have obviously been implemented, but I think a lot of what makes the game easy-mode is basically the ability to stand in place and button mash. I don't envy folks trying to bring some game balance because I think the limited toolbox available is being leveraged reasonably well (including -MaxHP, enemy healing, etc.) (*1) Would it be the end of the world if enemies had a chance-to-hit floor of 10%?

I haven't player Marine on a MM... but I love Whitecap on my Controller. Despite how much fun it can be, my initial thoughts for a MM would be to deprioritize it, or at least slot it differently, for reasons. Mileage varies of course. The absolute best thing Whitecap has going for it IMO as far as MMs go is the AoE -Resistance effect... 30 seconds is an eternity for henchmen. Looking at the build I posted above (Robots/Traps) I'd find it hard to sacrifice a primary -Regen attack, so I might give up an Epic pool completely to fit in all the good stuff that Marine has to offer.

Yes, it should read as "henchmen CAN'T take single-target hits" (at least not when not at full Health). Typically, once I have all three tiers of henchmen: I don't worry about losing a single henchmen. I'll do what I need to do on the MM cycle, and then resummon. If the thing I'm fighting is problematic with cones, I try to reposition the henchmen out of the cones, but rarely does that make a big difference. My Robotic MM has crazy good defenses for itself and the henches, so for almost every fight against a big baddie, I somewhat know how long before the critter gets an auto-hit against something. The slightly more problematic times are when: The critter gets a 'lucky' AoE hit against everything in my arsenal The henchemen haven't all quite server-registered as 'within range' for Bodyguard (or the Global Uniques), so only a fraction of the henches take a blow given to the MM The critter hits the MM with a relatively long-duration control, delaying the MM getting/keeping aggro There is nothing to be done about #1, and #2 is more about being patient. #3 isn't that much of a problem if fights are going smoothly.... but there are some regular enemies like Jack in Irons that will sequence AoE as well as debuffs and controls that can sour a fight. I think his fear lasts for 20 seconds on my main MM, and while (one of?) his stun is a shorter duration it isn't trivially short. Keeping the aggro (on the MM, to leverage Bodyguard mode) is pretty important... at least in my experience. FWIW, I don't like the 5-max-target Provoke from the Presence pool as it has too few potential targets. I rely on MM AoE attacks with a %-Res debuff and/or knockdown (which also helps with patches). Traps happens to have Caltrops and Acid Mortar that can also distract enemy critters over time, plus the Poison Trap's AoE control potential.

Playing Energy Blast is more-or-less it's own reward. FWIW, I only slot a KB->KD in Nova, because the 4π scatter is where I draw the line/circumference/surface/whatever.

We already have complaints from (some) players who don't want to visit Null the Gull so that Group Fly doesn't affect them, can you imagine the vitriol because (some) players wouldn't visit Null the Gull to "turn off Knockback"?

I was initially hesitant to suggest faster recharge times for T9s, but I think the existence of Destiny Incarnate powers (available at levels 45+, sure) somewhat exposes just how BAD most of the T9s are: Most (all?) T9s only affect the character using it, Destiny powers have team/league effects. Destiny powers are on a 2-minute timer, T9s unenhanced base recharge times can be greater than 15 minutes. In my head, since the days when the Incarnates were introduced, I've seen the Incarnate tiers beyond Alpha as the way to let some ATs get the sorts of powers that other ATs get... basically offering a taste of what it can feel like to have a different AT; AoE ranged attacks, Pets, Debuffs, Defenses/Resistances/Heals, blah blah fishcakes. But I think the Destiny powers are more of a taste of what a good Armor T9 should be... if the Destiny powers exactly copied actual armor T9s, attitudes towards them would be very different.

One of the things I like best about /Traps (and synergizes well with Robotics) is that with a number of AoEs in the secondary it is possible to keep a LOT of attention off of the (ranged attack) henchmen. Robots with the FFG are possible to defense cap, but zero attacks against them can be even better. Obviously I appreciate that /Traps has a number of very skippable powers too, as it allows for more expansion into power pools. The one weakness I think Robots/Traps has is this: even with high defenses, excellent resistances and the Maintenance Drone, plus whatever heals the Protector Bots may toss out, it is possible in some fights to get into a sort of cascading loss of henchmen leading to cycles of summoning/buffing. By my crude estimate, this is something like less than 2% of all fights, and it almost always involves something like a single AV/GM that uses a quick sequence of AoE attacks which include some sort of debuff and/or control. The control bit is more problematic for the MM itself, because if the MM loses the aggro most of the henchmen can stand up against the extra single-target attacks from the enemy. Nearly all of the time, 'good driving' of the henchmen is enough to avoid/recover from this sort of cascading situation... but it can be busy. In early (pre-50) levels, and especially on live, I believe this is one of the things that made /Dark such an appealing secondary (especially for Robotics)... there are a couple of different ways to have spam healing as a completely secondary effect. /Time continued this... but /Marine takes it to an entirely different level! /Marine is essentially offering (for MMs) everything I find appealing about both Traps and Time secondaries.