Captain Fabulous

Intangibles, like sleeps, are really useful while soloing or in small groups, especially at larger team size settings. Not so much on big teams where you have enough damage, control, and/or support to keep everyone alive. Definitely niche powers, but useful nonetheless.

Glad it's working for you. You can't delete posts, but you can ask a mod (Crumpet or Moogly) to hide it.

Prior to adaptive recharge you'd get the full amount of recharge regardless of whether you hit anything or not. So yes, this is a huge improvement.

We can always count on you to look on the sunny side of things!!! 🤣🤣🤣

What VPN are you using and why? If things work fine without the VPN but crappy with it then there's your culprit.

If you genuinely think unhinged rants about proposed power changes are useful in any way shape or form there really isn't much I can say that's going to change your mind.

Saying that someone should test changes before going on an unhinged rant based solely on patch notes is not being dismissive. It's just common sense. It's the whole reason why there are multiple closed and open betas, for people to test the changes to ensure they aren't too extreme. Ranting about changes without having played them is not helpful in any way. I will even go so far as to say that posting an unhinged rant even after testing is also not particularly helpful.

Have you played any of the changes? Even bothered to read the EXTENSIVE dev notes? If you did you'd ask a mod to delete this ill-informed screed of nonsense.

It's mostly a pain in the ass simply because of how complex our builds can be. On "regular" builds it's not that big of a deal honestly. The process is largely unchanged since issue 0, long before sets. Any addition or rework that would make it easier for complicated builds would of course be welcome. Being able to import a Mids build would be EPIC. Even a button that moved all the extra enhancements into your trays would be great. There's a lot of room for improvements.

The thing is, Tanks, Brutes, and Scrappers were never meant to occupy the same spaces in the game, much like Corruptors and Defenders (the latter of which has been made largely superfluous by the former). The balancing problems are a direct result of proliferating Villain ATs to the Hero side.

You heard it here first folks, a true Hammer powerset coming for Brutes!

Sounds like an issue with Nvidia's OpenGL implementation. The 'very high' texture quality is likely being reported by the driver as not supported in windowed mode which is why it reverts back. I expect this is something you're going to have to live with.

Yep!

IIRC the "cottage rule" got its name because Castle's example of a violation would be changing Build Up from a power that gives you +dam and +tohit to a power that builds a cottage around you. Castle and I rarely agreed on anything in regards to power design, including the Cottage Rule.

AoE heal, +recovery, +end, +damage, +mez protection, +damage resistance, +movement speed... Yeah, nothing of value for MM pets. 🤷‍♂️

True, but it's also a delicate endurance-balancing act, especially with an end-heavy set like Titan Weapons.

Prior to IOs each AT had a role and sets within that AT were balanced with each other in regard to that role. It's one of the reasons why nearly every OG powerset follows the exact same pattern. IOs threw all that into a blender, with the ability to make godly any AT with any combination of powersets. I know I'm high. Are you high? 🤭

Controllers are gaining the ability to control their pets.

But what in this patch is hurting those people? The Tanker changes are a wash IMO, Controllers are getting a huge buff that will be great for "normal" players (the only big nerf here is Seeds), Regen will be playable again for the masses, lots of little changes and buffs for a myriad of other sets with a few small nerfs. Lots of changes in the way some powers work (which arguably will make those power better), so people will have to adjust. But that's not necessarily a hurtful nerf.

Because this is what the development team, both live and HC, have repeatedly told us thru the years, and why the game has always been balanced around SOs, because that's what the majority uses. If this has changed recently and someone from the dev team wants to chime in and confirm it's no longer the case I'll happily issue a mea culpa. Writing a "review" based solely upon patch notes and not having actually played the beta is like reading the list of ingredients off the menu and deciding the omelet is going to taste like shit without even trying it.

They are what created the power divide that's plagued the game since their introduction and made true balance impossible so they absolutely are part of the problem. How does a dev team, any dev team, balance around players using SOs and maybe a few common IOs with those who have full IO set builds? You can't. All you can do is try to reign in powers and sets that are overperforming and shore up those that are underperforming. Sometimes that means the meta gets buffed, sometimes it means the meta gets nerfed. And it also means having to introduce new mechanics and update old ones that have become obsolete. Games have to evolve. The endgame in every MMO including CoH is grind, so it's really no surprise the focus is on doing as much damage as quickly as possible, because it's not about doing ITF for the 10000th time because you enjoy it so much, it's because you want the reward. This is really basic MMO 101 stuff that seems to have gone over the author(s) heads. What keeps getting lost in this conversation (and by the author(s) of this "article") is that majority of the playerbase are not high end speed runners with fully optimized IO builds steamrolling thru +4x8 content. The majority still use SOs and common IOs and are playing at +0 to +1 at the default team size.

Bro, can you take it down maybe 100-150 notches and stop insulting everyone who disagrees with you? Mmmkay, thanks.

Oh, that's me. His opinion and "article" are trash. Period. If that makes me an asshole I'll own it. If he doesn't want his opinion criticized then maybe he shouldn't have written an uninformed, nonsensical, and grossly biased hit piece. If my being critical of his "article" is a personal insult, then his being critical of this patch is also a personal insult to the developers and closed beta testers who worked on it, of which I am one. But this was less a design choice and more a economics one. In a for-profit MMO there is every incentive to slow progress in order to keep people coming back and hopefully paying money. When there is no profit there is no need to artificially hinder progression. In fact there is every incentive to make progression easier, which is why it's been the trend over the past decade. Despite the game being 21 years old it still needs to be reflective of modern gaming if you want to retain your playerbase. And no one is forced to speed run anything. It's not necessary or required to play and enjoy the game. If you loathe speedruns start your own team, make your intentions clear, and progress at whatever pace you desire.

Exactly. Plant got rebalanced with the emphasis taken off Seeds, which has always been grossly overpowered. Controllers are getting massive buffs in this build with deep sleep, adaptive recharge, expanded containment, and pet control. To read all that and think "oh Controllers are getting nerfed" means you're either completely unfamiliar with the game or 10000% disingenuous.

I have no idea who she is and frankly don't care. I speak only of what she's stated, which is just plain wrong and just as reactionary and toxic as the shit she claims to rail against. The game can be played in any manner one likes. No one is forced to play "the meta". No one is forced to do anything they don't like or enjoy. The majority of the playerbase aren't the hardcore meta players, they're people who have suboptimal builds with SOs and common IOs, who either solo, play with small groups of their friends, or hop on to do a quick TF every now and again. Moreover, it sounds like neither one of them have actually PLAYED the beta, only read and reacted to the notes. Which is wholly unacceptable for a "journalist". Their uninformed conclusions also spit in the face of those of us who spent MONTHS in closed beta testing all these updates and changes. It's a garbage hit piece by people who clearly have an axe to grind.