Infinitum

Also to be fair, most of us - the 1 percenters arent really asking for any special treatment. I and others have come up with advanced enemies and advanced mode because theres a lot of topics popping up about the game being too easy and there's limited requirement for buffs on those teams. It doesnt bother me any from a melee or a buffing perspective and im a 1% in every sense of the term. I would play advanced mode but I personally dont need it to have fun. I'm not the one crying foul about the game being too easy either. But I am trying to offer an equitable solution to make everyone happy that doesnt involve nuking a good portion of the player base. I dont think I have succeeded by the response here.

In a lot of ways everything you say here is accurate, but you will never sell nerfing top end builds, and from a right vs wrong stand point that wouldn't be right to do that. As many gave noted there is content that pushes top end builds, and there is content from 1-50 that tests all builds. Advanced difficulty just takes it one step further and puts a new twist on content to further push top end builds if it's selected to do so. I think the genie has been out of the bottle too long to make content that has been rehashed to death by veterans like myself to suddenly make it prohibitively harder and the only way to play the game across the whe spectrum of the game. With advanced option everyone wins. For that matter I'm sure a restricted option could be cooked up to turn the top end builds off if so desired.

This is in ADDITION to that - free stuff. Fun stuff. Making the game more diverse at nobodys expense.

Agreed

ok again, just because something would take effort doesnt exclude it from being attempted.

I would suggest visiting the tanker forums, I believe it was Caulderone, and also RedLynn that are the experts with SR but there are lots of ways to make that very strong.

this has nothing to do with any of that.

Well sure SR isn't a traditional farm set, but neither is 80 percent of the sets avail. To run a farm map especially with a non traditional farm set you need an optimized build. I bet if it were optimized you would fare better. Also ageless is your friend.

lol I like it

Yeah thats fine too, and I get what you are saying, we are actually saying the same thing. Elite was just the first thing that popped into my head, but it can literally be named anything.

Ok do you know a lot about SR tanks? They are one of the most survivable tank sets you can make. I didn't realize it either until Caulderone showed me the numbers on them. They have high DDR can cap defenses early, but its also important to build on that with defense set bonuses. They also have a very healthy resistance scalar that makes them nigh unkillable. god mode is very much a thing with SR tanks.

Its ok, in the grand scheme of things its not all important either way. I think it would be interesting to have that option.

I probably didn't convey that in the description well enough but I would like to see that in elite mode also.

I'll strike the influence comment because that is another can of worms entirely for another discussion.

But in general would you be for or against an additional mode?

Well I figured out polling, and added one so you can go vote no now if you want. Haha

Basically Additional Difficulty Mode would be a selectable option to increase difficulty by enemy groups with increased abilities, aggressiveness and also frequent, random EB spawns. It would also include new badge opportunities. It would entirely be optional and directed at the need to fully explore the capabilities of top end builds.

And I still think they do not based on what they are saying. Its easy to say this number is too high in a vacuum. Its the equivalent of a horsepower number in a car - doesn't always equate to best performance or optimal, or undefeatable. What I am saying is having SIGNIFICANT game time multiple ATs, the defense number isnt as OP as anything else in the game, and to lower it would have a detrimental effect across the entire game that would then force a revamp of the whole system. A system thats working fine currently that allows diversity that would not be attainable if those changes were made. If You want to kill homecoming thats how you would do it, because it affects I would wager at least 70 percent of the game population in one way or another. If Elite mode is added, everyone wins. I'm sure you will disagree there again. But I believe you are incorrect in your assessment there too, just from all the people I know that would use that system. As far as the burden of proof, ive given several examples of why it's a bad idea. And im sure thats not good enough and you will disagree with that too, and thats ok because at that point just like your not favoring the elite mode idea is just that - your opinion.

So... By playing only this game and no other MMO that invalidates me because I have never played another MMO and validates them because they have played other MMOs? Makes perfect sense Aside from the fact this is unlike any other MMO as Many others keep stating in here. I'm not claiming to be an expert on OTHER MMOs I don't want this game to be like other MMOs Balance for one MMO does not mean that same balance cookie cutter style will work here. It's not arrogant, it's based on nearly a years worth of non stop play, including testing new changes on beta every time they are released. That's where the disagreement is, it's not a prpblem. I see it as functioning as it should. Most of the high defense can't be achieved until level 50 when you catalyst the ATO and winter sets. Their bonuses are reflective of the other defense bonuses that exist in other sets - including the NEW ONES HOMECOMING JUST RELEASED. I caps that for emphasis - I'm not yelling at ya. Its ONLY end game builds that achieve these numbers because of the catalyst issue at lvl 50. Can you get close with normal sets, yes - close but you will have to give something else up to do it, that you are already doing while you are pushing to 50 to convert them. You gain a lot more power at 50 at that point. None of this is an issue prior to lvl 50. the extra difficulty I believe would give all these post 50 uber builds a chance to stretch their legs. I am all for it and explore it as much as I could. I actually love it when I meet a worthy enemy group/s that tests me. I'm not all for making the rest of the game harder by nerfing defense or any other way because why would I want to rerun content that I'm 50% bored with only to have it last longer and have to wait on precise team make ups just to play content im already bored with? Now if that same content had revamped enemies and elite bosses in it - and it was selectable as an option and not mandatory - that's interesting to me. I think it would be for a lot of other people also. I get it that you disagree here you habe been clear, and that's your opinion - you haven't given any data to back your opinion up though. Ok so can someone help me here with one thing. I suck at forum fu - have no idea how to start a poll, and don't care to learn. Cam someone start a poll on who would like an Elite mode with enemies with greater to hit, exotic damage, and regular and random EB spawns. Let's do that and see who is interested, if someone could help me with that please.

Haha what page is that?

No I dont think its arrogant, I think its true. As many has stated this isn't like any other MMO and you are I think somewhat misguided into thinking it should be, and that is where you don't understand how this game functions. Just because you have played many other MMO and are a game designer does not immediately make you any less misguided with what you are proposing here and now. Me and others have given you many reasons why it's a bad idea here, and now you are touting your expertise so as to invalidate what I just said. This proves you absolutely do not at least understand how tankers function and what each is capable of, or how they mitigate incoming attacks. As I just stated before, resistance tanks will not be affected by defense set bonus nerfs at all, and currently can stand toe to toe with anything im the game indefinitely - mez doesnt matter they have mez protection you said they take mez effect but lolz at mez it doesn't happen.. Ever. Elec and Rad also have end drain protection, I can literally stand in front of a malta sapper with my Elec armor and they cant sap me, so yeah that counterpoint you made goes out the window also. Defenses mitigation against these is that it needs these attacks to miss. Resistance doesn't care that they hit - it doesnt do anything to them anyway. Your proposed changes to defense bonuses on a shield tank for instance would lower their defenses enough to put them at the soft cap, but not the incarnate soft cap - meaning they can do most content unscathed but will get shreaded in any incarnate situation or even content in the shadow shard because their resistances while still high aren't capped like the resistance tanks, and the defenses are no longer high enough to mitigate in concert with the resistances. I'm a die hard tanker, trust me rad is a top armor set for a reason, and so is shield. What you are proposing would destroy shield as a top armor set. i know. I've done it thats when your team pitches in hopefully, right? Or at that point lower your difficulty level so it can be done. on certain types yes, as it should be. Its the way the game functions. With mitigation you have four ways Defense Resistance Attack Controls I always build to what the AT is sting at first - Res tank resistances Defense tank - defenses Controllers - controls Blasters - attacks Scrappers - mixed bag - attacks defenses resistances. Many avenues exist. Your proposal removes one in essence. My proposal adds more avenues.

You don't really understand this game though, that's what me and a few others have been trying to get you to understand. The defense values allow blasters, Scrappers, stalkers, brutes, and some tanks to be stronger and do what they are supposed to do - while not completely eliminating risk because defense values still leave the door open for massive attacks to penetrate said defenses - especially without DDR so its really just a temporary security blanket that helps us in a lot of situations but its not this indomitable stat you keep alluding to. Thats the reason resistance bonuses arent higher because those are in the long run stronger and more reliable than a defense stat. You cant really look at defense bonuses compared to accuracy, to hit or others because its competing directly with resistance bonuses. Thats another reason you see resistance scaled vs heath in reactive defenses - thats one of the best IOs in the game your resistance gets stronger the lower your heath gets. Resistance tanks like rad and Elec are pretty much 99% unkillable so nerfing defense bonuses wouldn't affect them at all, but it would destroy what a shield tank can currently do - and to a certain extent Ninjitsu and Invul. On most resistance tanks I have i bypass defense bonuses unless they happen to be on a set in going for another stat on. Nerfing defense would create a huge imbalance in melee classes that are currently pretty even across the board and all perform pretty darn good under most circumstances. With the few holes each respective one has. What would nerfing defense set bonuses do to CC types? Not a darn thing, I can literally hold the group, control them by knocking them on their butts, then wade in sapping all their endurance as my now 2 lightning storms 3 gremlins 3 energy fonts and repeated tornadoes rip them to shreds. I dont need much defense to do that. I have it, but man I don't need it. lol. If I had an option to slot IO bonuses for Mez that would perform like indomitable will I would be all over that so I could use another pool power other than psychic. Nerfing set defense bonuses would affect melee and to a certain extent blasters way more than any other group. I primarily play a majority of defense and hybrid resistance/defense based characters, and fully realize what it would do to my builds. That may be selfish but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one - especially knowing what OP controllers can do without defense. That's why there is no perceived defense set bonus imbalance - just because its higher than res set bonuses, becuase its not indestructible, and still has risk even if you are at the incarnate soft cap. You cant just look at the number like you are doing and arbitrarily declare its too high without understanding it has to be high to even bother with it in the first place. My point is you can add bonuses like they just did to create build diversity without nerfing defense - what would be wrong with that if you could legitimately have both. There's only a set number of slots any way so you would have to choose which avenue to take. Thats why adding set bonuses wouldn't lead to power creep. Increasing pool powers as you suggested would increase creep though they should definately not be increased any. At least With set bonuses you have to potentially sacrifice another stat to achieve a goal. Just out of curiosity what AT do you play most?

That's entirely your opinion, you are entitled to it but I'm going to agree to disagree with ya on that one.

High level Family is the worst IMO take forever to kill and can slip up on the best tank build if you get lazy.

But you are assuming that, you are basing your opinion on an assumption. People might try it, love it and more people end up playing that than normal content. There is no way to know unless its tried though. All the complaining about things being too easy, then shooting down every productive solution to increase difficulty without mass decimation, is getting a bit old though.