Saikochoro

Childish behavior is not solely unique to those who don’t like changes. I agree that it does happen, but that is not always the case. There have been many times when people test a change, provide thoughtful feedback without any “childish behavior” and then proceed to get ridiculed for it. So they defend themselves and it turns into arguments. The assumption that childish behavior is unique to those expressing dislike of a change or even always starts with them is completely false. And yet you lump the whole group in with that false accusation and summarily dismiss them and their concerns.

Obviously my post went over your head. That first sentence was rude, but keeping it there to acknowledge that it was rude. Let me try to clarify. The changes themselves don’t actually matter. The way the discussion is handled is the problem. Most people will get on board with just about any change as long as they feel they are being heard rather than just tolerated at best and more often than not antagonized. Someone doesn’t have to agree with you or even accept your opinion for you to feel that your voice is respected and heard.

People absolutely have been shouted down for disliking a change. I’ll be honest and say I was even one of those people in the beginning of the game and for that I am ashamed. Sometimes it takes drinking your own medicine to see what you are doing to others (the “you” I’m talking about is me early on in the forums). I remember I think I was actually shouting down @Bill Z Bubbaat some point. I know I definitely shouted down the tactical arrow dissent. And yes, those people were actually testing things. And they expressed their dislike of it. My eyes were finally opening with the rune of protection changes. I experience what I did to others and finally saw what was happening. I had very thoroughly tested the changes and tried my best to put up meaningful feedback. Then I, along with several others, where repeatedly challenged and basically told to stop complaining. And honestly, after that, I realized it’s not really even the fact that things change that bother me. I can easily get over rune changes. If they nerf shield to the ground will I complain about it? Hell yes. But will that make stop playing the game? No. Nerfs happen. Big deal. If they nerf tankers to the ground will I complain? Yes. Will it make me stop playing? No. In the grand scheme of things nerfs and buffs and changes don’t really matter. It sparks debate for sure. What really bothered me was how certain portions of the player base heavily invested in testing and the homecoming team very much felt that they were not respecting all voices being heard. I know I am not the only who felt that way or continued to feel that way. Whether they are intending on that or not, it IS coming off that way for some people. And that does drive people away a lot more readily than ANY nerf or buff will. At the very least it heavily discourages them from doing any testing in the future. I can take just about any change to my favorite sets that you can throw my way. I, however, do not like feeling like I’m being relegated to the reject group and not respected just because I complained about something. My biggest regret on these boards was that I also did that early on. That’s why I bring it up again because people still do it. Maybe they don’t even realize they do it. But I know that several people feel that way including me. And honestly, that alone has made me feel like not logging in anymore.

People expressing discontent with the direction of the game aren’t drumming up drama. The drama does generally ensue from that, but expressing dislike of changes itself isn’t drama. Players have taken time to thoroughly test changes, post detailed feedback, and then get shouted down by the forum police in every beta. All the usual suspect happen almost every time. Someone tests and posts they don’t like something. Forum police come and say one of the following general ideas to antagonize those who already dislike something happening with the game: - devs are volunteers and don’t owe anyone anything -stop posting negative feedback back and go test. If you actually tested you would like it. -stop being negative -etc Then arguments ensue. GMs moderate and remove posts. Some posts on both sides get removed, but they clearly moderate those expressing discontent more strictly. They even have told people to stop talking about a change they don’t like and test other stuff. @Bill Z Bubba said it perfectly when he said that people can either agree with the devs/gms/forum police or STFU. People doing real testing get shouted down and discouraged from doing further testing. So it all eventually becomes an echo chamber. That is not a community coming together. That is beating a subset of the “community” into submission or driving them away.

I enjoy my ma/Regen brute immensely. It quit live before the power proliferations. Ma/Regen brute was what I had always wanted to make and I am not disappointed. It’s not a top tier performer, but it gets the job done without much fuss and is a lot of fun. I made a super strength/energy aura brute that I was really excited about since that is a combo only available to brutes. I was actually disappointed. It performed great. Both sets are very good. It was very tanky, and did great damage outside of rage crash. But I just hate the rage crash. Despite what I just said about hating rage crash, I still like the classic super strength/fiery aura brute. Hits like a freight train. You can proc out to be able to do something during the crash and it’s fun. Lastly, I also very much enjoy savage melee/bio armor brute. It is fast paced and really feels like a crazed brute on a frenzy. I think for the fun factor, since that is what makes me go back to characters, my ma/Regen is my favorite brute.

That beta was where I finally caught on to how the devs treat feedback threads. I did some very thorough testing and stated my opinions on the matter. Yes, I was against the change. But then putting the change through is not what ultimately bothered me. It was the dev response to negative feedback, clearly biased moderation, and how’s the devs decided to obtain and weigh feedback the really bothered me. Bothered me to the point that I just had to take a break from the game for close to a year. Fanboys can be annoying, but they honesty don’t bother me to much. Other forum users can fanboy, spout doom and gloom, fun police, or just straight up troll. It can be annoying, but it doesn’t really get me to reconsider spending time in a community. If that were true I wouldn’t last more than a couple minutes in the overwatch cesspool of forums. I know I mentioned the direction of the game in my post. I don’t even have a problem with that. It’s how the devs engage in feedback threads that I have a problem with. I felt, and continue to feel, that the way the devs ask for and respond to feedback is very poor. This extends to moderation. It is very clearly biased against negative feedback. Those supportive of a change will get in arguments with those against. It will get heated and often both sides will become antagonistic. Those against a change will be heavily moderated and those for a change will not. I even recall that in the rune thread. I had comments deleted that said almost the same thing as those supporting a change and the support was left up. The devs also discourage negative feedback from threads telling people to stop discussing a change and that stating you don’t like the change is not feedback. That over simplifies peoples concerns and brushes them aside. Telling someone to stop caring about what they care about and go test something else isn’t helpful. The devs have also been straight up rude at times. Not saying players haven’t. And honestly, that’s fine. It’s their game. They can conduct themselves and their betas however they see fit. I, however, feel “feedback” threads are not actually feedback threads. Sometimes they roll a change back, true, but the track record has been to generally discourage negative feedback and encourage positive feedback. If they just want a bug testing thread, then they should call it such. If they want an echo chamber of positive affirmations, then they should call it such. I don’t expect the devs to change to suit my preferences. Again, it is their game. But I am not going to waste hours testing something just to get backlash from the dev team who supposedly wanted feedback. It’s not worth my time. So I’m not invested in the game or the dev team. I still like the game and play it. The devs are still doing a great service keeping it alive. But their behavior in betas has muted my interest in trying to be a part of its development via feedback. And because I’m not invested in how the game changes, it just overall lessens my interest in the game. But that is just me. I don’t claim to represent how anyone else feels. The devs should continue to do what they feel is best. I will also continue to do what I feel is best with free time.

100% agree. Early on I joined in with the nothing being done is bad crowd. I then felt what some of the others felt in being shouted down for having unfavorable opinions. I then observed that there is a double standard applied especially in beta testing. Those that agree with all the devs decisions often get a pass even when being antagonistic. Those that disagree with the devs are moderated. It’s really not the actual changes that have caused me to scale back my interest in the game. It is the double standard that is applied and the backlash from part of the community and the devs themselves when people express discontent. That and the fun police mentality. To each their own though. I’m genuinely happy for the people that still very much enjoy the game and the direction it has taken.

I used to vehemently disagree with this statement. However, I have to say I now agree based on experiences in beta and whatnot in the last couple years.

I run ITFs every time I play. I always advertise in chat that it will be a kill most. I usually set it to +3 or +4 depending on the team composition and may adjust after the first mission. Once the team is full, I reiterate that it is a kill most and not a speed run. Once we get inside the first mission, I once again say it’s a kill most and not a speed run. Then if anyone tries to start speeding through I just kick them. I have only ever had to kick someone once. Usually players are more than happy to do a kill most. In almost every run, when I do the first reiteration of “this is a kill most” I get a response along the lines of “Yes! Those are the best anyway!” Don’t be afraid to advertise your own groups and let people know it’s a kill most. In my experience, people enjoy them.

You are right. There is no real behavioral difference. The only difference is farming task forces/trial/radios is acceptable to others while farming AE is not. The fact that there is difference in reward/minute is a smoke screen. The same is true with task forces/story missions/and radios. Some task forces are vastly superior in reward per minute and travel time and ease to others. Some enemy groups in radios are vastly easier. It’s easy enough to get the same group every time. Same with travel time. There are always these differences regardless of the farming activity. However, the core of the argument is that some people have an idea of the right way to play the game. Farming is farming is farming. Doesn’t matter if it’s in AE or not. It is still the same behavior. Someone can solo the heather townsend arc forever to get all their incarnates unlocked/slotted and make a ton of influence. Someone else can kill a bunch of mobs in an AE fire farm. It is exactly the same behavior. Just a different venue as you described. You can invite or not invite in either mode as you want. People who prefer to solo farm aren’t suddenly going to open up team invites in other venues. They will just solo a different location. The only potential caveat being afk farming. However, there are other ways to combat this that doesn’t hurt other farming. And honestly, other than my own opinion that afk farming is bad, it really isn’t hurting anything. Yeah, people get levels, incarnates, and influence for just sitting there. I don’t like it. But in all honesty, how does someone else doing that hurt me? It doesn’t. Other than me thinking they are playing wrong. Again, this change will barely affect me. Once I get to 50 I go straight to ITFs and other group content anyway. However, I am very against removing options and trying to enforce a “correct” way of playing the game. That only serves to alienate players. But the devs are free to do as they wish for whatever reason they want.

Quoting this for emphasis and truth. I was honestly super happy and excited when reading the patch notes, especially ITF challenge modes, until I read the changes to AE. This change makes it clear that the devs have an idea of how to play the game correctly and are trying to enforce that opinion on the player base. The reason I played and continue playing homecoming is because of the freedom to play how I wanted to play. I don’t even use AE much past 50, so it doesn’t strongly affect me. I would go to task forces and itrials. However, the fun police mentality of trying to make people play the way you think they should play is a seriously concerning implication of this change. People earning vet rewards in AE hurt nobody except for those that take offense at other people for not playing how they think they should. I don’t play to give the fun police a sense of purpose. I play to have fun. Everyone should play how they like to play and not be corralled into playing “the right way”. What else is going to be changed in the future to make sure people play the right way? I have a hard time believing this will be the only manifestation of fun policing through development.

Only only voted for two: shield defense and energy aura. Those two are easily the best with SR being an honorable mention. I believe shield defense to be the best armor in the game. It’s only real weakness is that it restricts attack sets. I don’t consider lack of native healing/recovery to be a weakness. Those are easily covered. It has great defense, great ddr, great resists, + hp, and great damage. Energy aura is a very close second in my opinion. It has better healing and recovery. Has similarly good defense (sans psi) and similarly good resists. It has + rech instead of + dam. It does have a psi hole, but that can be plugged or healed. Its ddr isn’t as good, but still serviceable. The biggest advantage it has over shield is not locking out attack sets. Both are incredibly solid armors that won’t disappoint.

I use it because even on live I didn’t care for story arcs or the slog to 50. I get my enjoyment by making tons of different characters and seeing them at the max potential from my point of view. It honestly doesn’t matter why people use it. Only that people do use it, and at least part of the reason is for farming. The real answer is that people need to stop trying to dictate how others play.

This sums it up for me as well. Though I’ll go a bit further and say that I just don’t like social media in general. Though I won’t go on my soap box about that.

Shield Defense (Tanker primary) & Empathy (cor, cont, MM). It’s not like I’m going to be attacking anyone in real life. So I want the best set and forget defense as well as being able to heal myself and my family. Shield also grants cover so that’s a plus. I would want the shield to be able to be an emblem though (maybe like a watch with a shield face or something like that). If I had to actually carry around a shield though, then switch that to SR.

I personally get annoyed with tanks who are timid and slow. I would much rather the tank aggro a mob, hold enough of the aggro to tank the alpha while the squishies kill most of the mob with their nukes and aoes then move on. Stalkers and scrappers and the like can easily mop up any stragglers quickly. I think a team should be able to handle some aggro overflow. Waiting until every last enemy is dead before moving on to the next is a recipe for a slow slog and is boring. The only real duty should be to describe how you expect the run to go if you see the organizer or to comply with the organizers request. If going ahead to keep the pace going was against the organizers flow, then yes, that was wrong. However, keeping a decent pace and holding just enough of the aggro to tank the alphas is not in and of itself an incorrect way to play the tank.

Here are three builds: note all three builds rely on force feedback and base buffs to supplement global recharge. Defense Build Resistance with Rune: better mitigation, less procs. Resistance no rune: more procs, less mitigation options. Take the following with a grain of salt because it is anecdotal. After testing them out, the defense one wins hands down on the mitigation side. I was really excited to try a resistance based one, but scorpion shield is just flat out better. Even without DDR. I tested them by fighting the mobs (tried to get large groups with multiple bosses and LTs) in Cimemora and the defense based build consistently survived way better than the resistance ones. It could easily kill the entire mobs with multiple bosses and still have lots of health left, but the resistance based ones would often die trying the same thing. I think in a group though that the resistance ones might be better because I feel that defense buffs are more common than resistance buffs.

I’d say its likely one of the more popular combinations. It is my personal favorite blaster and the owner of my global handle. It is one of my favorite characters overall. On live I mainly played melee (mostly brutes). I barely dabbled in ranged with corrupters mainly. When I got on homecoming I still mainly did melee at first, but decided to try my hand at something else. DP/MC is what broke me out of the melee armor shell. It is amazingly fun. I find that it still does great damage and have honestly never been disappointed with it. Fun factor is top notch though.

I personally would go katana. Honestly katana has pretty good damage too. Katana can also buff up your defense if you are in dicey situations or if you are shooting for some melee defense to supplement your resists. That said, I have no issue with war mace. Which one sounds more fun to you?

Favorite: Freakshow Hated: Caves

Im against this because it’s just throwing a bone to the crowd that wants to control how other people play. People just need to accept that they can’t control others nor should they be able to. People have fun in different ways and thus approach the game and focus on different parts of the game. Some people will pick the game up, realize often some time, that it’s not for them and quit. And honestly that is fine. It happens with any game. Also, even if AE were nerfed/removed farming would not be mitigated. Farming is an extremely common activity in the gaming genre in general. People will find a repeatable activity that has good rewards/time spent and do it until they get what they want. If AE were removed people would just move to the next best activity with the same exact behavior. People also absolutely farm task forces and story arcs for merits and levels. This doesn’t seem to have the same stigma as AE because at least to the controlling crowd task forces and story arcs are in their opinion “part of the game”. They seem to ignore the fact that it is the same behavior. End of story: people need to stop running around the play ground screaming at all the other kids to “STOP HAVING FUN!!! YOU ARE PLAYING WRONG!!! YOU CAN ONLY HAVE FUN MY WAY!!!”. Players don’t own the playground. Nor do they control the others on the playground. People should play how they want to play. Playing is playing even if it’s not playing the way others are playing.

I will repeat what I always say when regen is being discussed: 1. Regen/recharge debuffs resistance (high) 2. Same sort of scaling resists that SR gets. That would make me very happy.

Nope. Pretty much all of that is just wrong. It is the same basic rhetoric spewed by players that think there is only one correct way of playing the game. That notion is unequivocally false and toxic and is a disservice to the community. Saying that it is the correct way of playing for you is 100% fine. I have zero issue with that. Saying that your one narrow view of playing the game is the only correct way of playing for everyone is just plain wrong. If someone has logged into the game and are spending time in the game, then they are playing the game. If someone sits in one spot and just plays the auction house whenever they are online, then they are playing the game. If someone explores the character creator for hours and only logs in briefly to see the end product before going back to the character creator, then they are playing the game. If someone doesn’t nothing but power level, then they are playing the game. If someone just plays their one brute farmer in fire farms, then they are playing the game. If someone just street sweeps, they are playing the game. If someone only teams, they are playing the game. If someone only RPs, then they are playing the game. It doesn’t matter. It’s all playing the game. Playing the game is playing is playing the game. There is no one right playing. There is no “this is the game” and everything else is “add on”. It is all the game. It is all playing the game. You end by saying “you don’t have to agree with me”, but in reality your opinion and how you present it is that players have to agree with you because only your way of playing is correct.

Snipped to just address one part: For many players, farming and power leveling is playing the actual game. The actual game does not consist of only task forces and story arcs. That is just one subset of the game. Power leveling and farming is extremely common with most mmos and CoH is no exception. I point to the second paragraph the I quoted. You are 100% correct that CoH has one of the most diverse character creation and power selections of any game. There are more combinations than the mass majority of gamers could ever even put a noticeable dent into. Some players like to make tons of Alts and play them at their max power because thar is how they enjoy the game. So they power level and farm for levels and influence and then deck out their new character. Play it for a bit and then attack the next combination they are itching to try. Rinse and repeat for the thousands and thousands of possibilities they have before them. This can keep players engaged for a very long time even if they never even go back to the characters. There isn’t a correct way to play the game. There are many different preferences and people play according to their preferences. Playing the game is playing the game is playing the game.

Blinding feint and follow up can also miss and require animation time each time they are cast. I did not say they were all equal or that one isn’t better than the other. I also understand that soul drain is different than the other two. The main point is that all three provide a constant damage increase with enough recharge that drive their respective sets and should be factored in to their performance.