Lex Talion

You're angry, and I actually understand, maybe even share, that grudge over what it has become, but as long as the mez system is what it is I gotta deal with it and the game is no better for me, if I let myself get beaten. I run a lot of self-imposed difficulties, but the mez system in its current form is fucked up, punishes squishies while melees can practically ignore it and I don't wanna deal more with it than I have to.

Replacing actual time with uptime percentages makes it look much nicer, but doesn't do the subject justice. Just like 40% defense versus 45% defense doesn't simply mean '11% less defense', but 100% more hits/damage, the new minimum time without mez protection of 60 seconds, compared to currently 30 seconds, means twice the time to be shut down completely. And that can become crushing quickly.

Most of the changes leave me indifferent. Fine if they come, just as fine if they don't. I find myself playing less and hardly ever logging in to the boards anymore, mostly because I found the last Page disheartening. But a couple of things really irk me and I start questioning whether the people that come up with these ideas are actually still playing the game or just managing it. On casual gameplay, or in a buddy team, these points may look unimportant, but if you're a soloing squishy they become vital and potentially decisive. I have plenty of AR toons and Full Auto's cast time hardly ever bothered or hampered me. Is it nice to have it shortened? Certainly, but that doesn't help with the true offender in that power - the number of targets. All the improvements to other blast T9s and Judgement powers (yuck), lack of Aim and the narrow cone width (which IS fine in my book) are more than enough to justify changing it to 16, cone or not. Full Auto is THE iconic AR power, and AR is punished enough with its damage type and Archery as direct competitor already. This is a completely unnecessary nerf to all blasting squishies. I can start a fight from maximum snipe range but I can't continue it? What's the point? Snipes are one option to plan and/or control the flow of battle for squishies. Finally blast users aren't automatically outranged anymore and that is so terrribly gamebreaking that it has to be nerfed? 100 ft would be the bare minimum for fast snipes, so the range buff gets them back to 150' when, or IF, the initial snipe hits. It took a decade til Snipes finally became useful, reliable and satisfying, and there's absolutely no reason to nerf them for squishies. (Well, at least AR users could keep attacking with Slug after the initial attack. The irony.) Seriously, please stop 'normalizing' stuff just for the sake of it. Balancing means to equilibrate things, not to hammer everything into the same homogenous shape with total disregard to its distinct characteristics or use. That doesn't balance things, it just makes them boring at best and useless at worst. Same as snipe changes: this does nothing to reestablish game balance on any level and hurts build options for squishies across the board. At two prerequisites and a steep requirement to global recharge the power does not come cheap, but the Melee Core/Rune of Protection combo is the ONLY build alternative to the lackluster Clarion Destiny, which in addition is no use when exemplaring. ATs without mez protection from their sets are already very restricted in their build choices, requiring much more power and slot investment to fortify against high level content than ATs that have access to it. Especially blasters literally become more surviable the more set powers they skip in favor of pool powers. What RoP in its current state does is at least allowing squishies to maintain their basic functionality, which actually should be a given, without relying on outside means like Break Frees or amplifiers. If you want to normalize Rune of Protection buff the other powers, instead of nerfing RoP. Who knows, maybe they eventually become useful and new options, instead of nice choices and mule powers. THAT is something I would be looking forward to.

That sounds like DDR is the decisive factor in this context, which it isn't. In case of the ITF it is just one factor, on par with active mitigation or range. In an environment where being insta-killed is a possible and challenge-ending option for every AT it is Resistances and Max HP that carry a toon in the long run. I beat the challenge with a non-hover blaster using Taser and toe-bombing Trip Mines and none of the tight spots would have played out differently with any amount of DDR for me. On the other hand I bet the first challenge (without Players Debuffed) with an SR/ Tanker and all that DDR didn't prevent double- or even triple-hits that, without sufficient Max HP and Resistances, would have killed me before I could have reacted.

Enemies buffed: Accuracy, Damage, Status Resistance ( excl. KB, Terrorize) x1.5 Players debuffed: Accuracy, Damage -0.5, Status Resistance ( excl. KB, Terrorize) +1.0 Shield's sustainable DDR is only second to Super Reflexes. Its taunt toggle counters the player's Damage debuff and in combination with Shield's +HP and +Res it counters the enemies' Damage buff. I don't think any armor set is better suited for this challenge. On top of that, though irrelevant on an ITF, its mez protection counters one of the game's two major idiot cards - Terrorize. I've completed the challenge on a Fire/ Tanker and Rad/ is sturdier than Fire/.

No, it's not, but what you are describing is an FPS, not an oldschool MMORPG. If an animation/rooting time of 1-2 seconds is too long for you you're playing the wrong game, maybe even the wrong genre. (I'm not familiar with current MMORPGs)

post deleted, brainfart, nothing to see here Oh look, a squirrel!

That's correct. And for those (like myself) who have a memory like a sieve: Heal, Aura, Spawn - Rommie HAS Nictus. 😉

With your current build Hasten does not help your ST damage and is unremarkable for AoE, only Serum benefits from it in any significant way. I think there are more useful ways to spend that power pick, let alone pool pick.

Base tohit chance against +3s is 48%, and Cimerorans, Phalanx Fighting and Shout of Command, which provides not only mez protection, but DDR and up to 15% +Def to all typed damage but psi. Looking at the Attack Mechanics shows that those 15% +Def directly oppose the base tohit chance, so I just assume 48% - 15% = 33% as my base tohit right away and go from there in Mids. For comparison: the (stacking! goddamnit..) Protection Shields, buffed by Rikti Guardians

While non of the sets are power houses RadBlast's -Def and /Devices' Targeting Drone did at least help with the Players debuffed part, since that includes a 0.5 modifier to Accuracy which is disastrous to regular builds, that usually are calculated to hit regular +3s, but not self-/buffed ones, like Cimerorans or Rikti. My builds all assume a base chance of 33% instead of 48% and still I often had to tag enemies with Neutrino Bolt before I was back to a 95% ToHit chance.

That sounds like you've never seen a single target immobilize, or do I misunderstand this? (Almost) Every Blaster secondary has that as mandatory pick, you even have a /Devices blaster in your sig. Was my wording odd? (foreign language and all that)

I didn't have to, because I have an alternate ST chain built around spamming Toxic Web Grenade. Not exactly increasing my DPS normally, but against AVs it does

HAHAHA Your Gif game is strong

~225sec recharge 67.5% global recharge and an FF proc in Trip Mine, but my Rune / Melee Core rotation does not rely on FF procs