Auroxis

I suppose my primary concern isn't the manual testing, it's rather the Homecoming community at large being disconnected from design decisions up until after quite a few people have spent time working on the new feature. You can keep the testing of potentially bug-inducing code in closed beta (though i wouldn't unless you have professionals), but the Homecoming community should be in the loop regarding concept and design before time is spent developing and testing. Right now the only community in that loop is the same community that kept the game hidden from us for years. Take the Dark Melee changes for example. If Captain Powerhouse simply stated his intentions for Dark Melee and opened up a dialogue before putting the time into adding it into the game and testing it, a lot of time and effort could have been saved.

For the same reason you don't hire family and friends to critique your work. Very narrow feedback resulting in development cycles often disconnected from the userbase. Also, if (big If) Leandro is still recieving donations to run his SCORE server, he's essentially providing early access to Homecoming code for money, incentivizing people to continue playing there and donating to SCORE instead of leaving completely to Homecoming. This could result in code staying there for a while to maintain interest rather than being deployed to HC beta. Anyway, I don't want to derail this topic into conspiracy theories. Jimmy can clear things up if he wants.

As far as I'm aware, development and the internal testing server is still being led by Leandro and the SCORE team. My concern is that the same people who played on and financed the SCORE server are the ones being given exclusive access to the early development pipeline, not just the SCORE devs and the Homecoming team.

How long have these tests been ongoing? On what criteria are these internal testers being selected by?

What these tests will end up showing was already discussed while the changes were in beta. A buffed (or fully built) Tanker will be pretty much the same as a buffed (or fully built) Brute. This could have been avoided by focusing more on buffing the tanker's "team anchor" role as I requested, but that didn't end up happening.

Holy Light is great. However, TSpy would never give their permission and it would create more drama than it's worth to copy it. If you want Holy Light just play on TSpy, you're not limited to a single dev team nowadays.

In the past I've suggested making Placate use the Focus mechanic, where it consumes 3 stacks and deals PBAoE damage(with a pseudopet) at full stacks. That way you can choose between burst DPS or burst AoE, which makes primaries with high DPS but almost no AoE (common Stalker issue) more relevant.

To make Clear Mind AoE exactly the same as Dispersion Field you'd have to remove it stacking from the same caster, which is actually a useful function in the ITF (and in the GW fight in STF, though power creep made that mostly irrelevant). Also let's not try to make Force Field a lot worse in comparison, the effortless league-wide CC protection is one of the few things it has over other defense buff sets (one of which is Empathy).

For all those wanting RA's to turn into Passives or Toggles, please be aware that Hamidon raids heavily rely on RA stacking before spreading to succeed. If you wanna make Empathy less clicky, buff CM and Fortitude's duration to 4 minutes so you could apply them to the whole team without casting every 15 seconds. It would also let you apply PB Fort to the whole team if you invest into it, rivaling Time's Farsight.

Well Homecoming isn't really making the game harder with the veteran levels system and the Tanker buffs. That being said, let's not turn this thread into a server war please. We as players (who can enjoy all these servers) deserve more than that.

From my experience playing a Tanker with doubled aggro cap on TSpy (they added it for Tankers only), I can say that it's a welcome addition and definitely not game-breaking. However, with Tankers being essentially Brutes AoE damage-wise in this server i could see it being a balance issue.

It's mostly for mobs, but it can handle hard targets (and there are always lore pets if you're struggling).

Due to having two damage auras (which benefit from Fury but not crits) I'd say yes.

I like Hasten being a long recharge power that adds a goal to strive towards when planning your character, much like reaching the defense softcap, endurance stability, and resistance hardcap. These type of "breakpoints" add depth to the end-game, as your decisions advance your character exponentially and thus feel more impactful. Thunderspy even added more such powers that you can only perma if your build has constantly capped recharge (which is possible there, with sacrifices). What I dislike about Hasten is that it takes up an auto-execute slot. I don't like that I can't auto Rage/Domination/Accelerate Metabolism/Mind Link/etc with it. I think the correct approach would be revamping the auto-execute system by adding a couple more auto-exec functions, with the restriction that you can only automate "very long" recharge powers with them and a priority system(for example green>teal>blue) in case they conflict.

I have no idea why you keep spouting this misleading nonsense. You keep ignoring stackability, achilles' heel (and the two other procs) do not stack from multiple casters while the sonic attacks stack from the same caster. In reality there's a very high chance that rad blast build using achilles' heel applies zero -res since it's such a popular proc, while Sonic can easily stack up to -80% and go even higher. You keep forgetting that Sonic DOES have a Fury of the Gladiator proc (with Dreadful Wail), and CAN get an achilles' heel if it wants (with weaken resolve, which isn't even that beneficial for reasons stated above).

You should try it on tspy, it targets defeated enemies instead. Absolute insanity.

Obvious cottage rule breaking aside (and a nerf to Regeneration Aura for some reason?), you managed to make Empathy even more clicky. Where-as before you could use just Fortitude at the end-game with the occasional heal, with your suggestion you'd have to use heals as well as Fortitude instead of getting to blast. You effectively turned Empathy into a heal spam set, with cottage rule breaking and nerfs on top of it.

You're elevating the importance of achilles' heel and debuff duration to really high levels, and completely ignoring stackability. -res procs (which sonic can have, in dreadful wail) do not stack from multiple casters, while Sonic Attack debuffs can stack from the same caster. In a team scenario against an AV, your Achilles' Heel procs are likely to do nothing due to how commonly they're slotted, while Sonic can stack up to about -100% res (before resists+level difference of course). Or you know, play with teammates on your team-oriented class.

Nature+Time would be a pretty powerful combination, both sets are really strong and have almost no overlap, covering each other's slight weaknesses nicely.

Don't forget about Knockout Blow, which using your formula gains even less of an advantage than before in comparison. Spitballing numbers as i don't have time for exact math at the moment, but a proc in KoB is worth like 0.5 damage SO's while a proc in Char is worth like 4 damage SO's.

Regarding "mathematically justified", I think the low damage power use cases need to be taken into consideration. After all, abusing procs in a slow recharging high damage power isn't the same as abusing procs in a slow recharging low damage power. I think the most egregious example is a hold power like Char(Epic pool), which can be beefed up to have about the same DPA as a fully enhanced and decently procced Knockout Blow on the same Brute with Rage and Fury.

@BopperI believe the reason that proposal didn't go through was because external recharge buffs like speed boost could lower your DPS.

Defenders can often-times get the same amount of damage a Blaster can get out of an SO just by slotting a proc. Whether or not it "matters" is all about perspective. Also it's not just about AT's. One can argue that it shouldn't be possible to turn a slow recharging, minor damage hold power into an extreme damage power that can also hold.

They aren't intended to? Sentinels are due for a buff, and proc-fu builds are due for a nerf. How about we see where Sentinels and Proc builds end up before we resort to nerfing Time? Let alone removing one of its most popular features from the game.

To be fair, ANY nerf to procs would have the same effect in the grand scheme of things. But yes, it depends on the formula.