Lost Deep

So... while I do applaud all the changes to Arachnos Soldier, I feel like they're not addressing the issues I have with the archetype. For context, I've yet to try IO set slotting. I just don't feel like it yet, and to that end I don't sweat over not being the best. I usually play on -1/x2 and have fun in that band (recently I've been flirting with -1/x3, which feels daring!) My point of view is not endgame and not optimized, I have lots of characters in the mid levels and with basic IOs. Within that admittedly narrow band, here's my experience with Soldiers: I feel like Soldiers of Arachnos don't work. I slot the control powers and they don't control quite enough to work. I slot the defense powers and I feel squishier than sentinels. I usually run -1/x2 when playing solo, up to and including with the Blaster, but with the Soldier I sometimes have trouble with -1/x1. Leveling up an Arachnos Soldier is Not Fun. You're constantly having problems, constantly hoping that the next power in the list will solve the problems, and then either it doesn't or you instead get new, worse problems. Despite having a passive that is +regen and +recovery, I always have survival and endurance issues. The resistance bonus from Crab Armor and Wolf Armor are both so bad that they feel less like a viable choice and more like a tax. They have good mez protection by all means, but really if there's one thing a soldier has plenty of it's Mez protection. Bane Armor is better about that, but ultimately whenever I feel like being sneaky I play my /ninjitsu stalker. Web grenade is a great control but it's the only one in the set so if it doesn't work your only option is pop clickies and pray. Other people in this thread say that Soldiers are just better Sentinels, but my experience is the opposite: sentinel has all the upsides of soldier and none of the stress. If Soldiers of arachnos are great in the endgame... that's great and I hope you have fun, but I have trouble seeing people getting soldiers there short of boring, optimized exp farming. And it's great to say that Set IO slotting will fix my problems, but from my point of view that's not a solution; that's giving up and accepting it as broken. I don't have a solution. I don't fully know what the problem is, all I know is the feel that I'm consistently getting, and it is that I've never been able to get Arachnos Soldier to feel good. It's been close many times, but there's always something that makes it frustrating. Do I really need to get tough and weave on an archetype with defensive toggles? Do I need to get Aerial Superiority to get enough controls? All I know is that Soldiers of Arachnos make me frustrated, and these changes (while, again, definitely nice!) aren't enough to change that,

Initial low-level test gives me mixed feelings; it feels like the most distinct parts of Assault Rifle have been replaced with melee attacks. I don't think that's bad, per se, but it's an odd choice and feels less distinct than the original.

Initial low-level testing is... not impressive. For my part, I don't hate sleeps; they're fine. They're not great, but as someone who solos a lot any CC, even the situational CC of sleep, is appreciated. I do like how Gas-grenade re-applies the sleep on a regular basis, I like how the tick rate is optimized so that if you do wind one with an AoE they reliably get one attack off before sleeping again; it's a nice bit of risk vs reward. That said, having two sleeps at first level is too many... and then you get access to cryo freeze ray, which is like tranquilizer but better. And then you get liquid nitrogen which is like sleep grenade but better. Yes, the recharge is limitingly slow, but when that's the only way it's lesser why bother slotting gas grenade at all? Even without worrying about synergies etc, this isn't a good setup for the first few tiers of the power set; it comes off something of a mess. (That said, I don't play Controllers or Dominators much so I don't know how much of this is an assumed part of the sets or essential to synergies.)

Today I learned that Signature Arcs start at level 10. I have been playing this game on and off for a long time now, I have multiple characters in the thirties, and I was wondering when the signature arcs start. Today a friend informed me that they're available at level 10. Why is this information not available in game? They're not in the contact finder, they don't have pop-ups when you reach the relevant level (unlike twinshot and the gong rogue contacts) and to my knowledge they're not even in the maze of contacts in the old CoH contacts! Unless they're in the pillar of ice and fire somewhere I have no reason to believe that there's anything in the game that directs you to the signature contacts other than their spots on the map, which does not inform you of the level requirements or whether they're in continuity with any other plots. Yes, the information is on the wiki, but that's not helping most people. The fact that you need to go into a web browser and look up the information to find it is only an indictment of how poorly it's presented in game. This is, arguably, the main plotline of City of Heroes. Why aren't they given more emphasis? While on the topic, I feel like the contact finder needs to be fleshed out in general, because there's plenty of contacts that are really easy to miss, either from the contact reference maze or from old content. This game has so many plotlines! Why are they buried?

I'm testing the DP changes, and... with new Suppressive Fire, why would I want Executioner's Shot? Suppressive fire does slightly less damage, true, but it also has a faster recharge time, less endurance, and a useful rider. Executioner's Shot's bonus accuracy isn't bad, but I'm already slotting Accuracy on everything anyway. What's to gain from Executioner's Shot? I'm honestly not sure whether I'm missing something or if new Suppressive Fire is starting to crowd Executioner's Shot's niche.

It's important to remember that no experience is universal. Some players only do basic IO slotting, some only do SO slotting. I myself have some issues with Endurance slotting, and I try to keep that in mind whenever I'm giving feedback. It was while investigating this endurance slotting that I noticed that Mastermind attacks baseline cost more endurance than most comparable attacks. If you propose that mastermind attacks are properly scaled to the correct damage output of the mastermind character, which I do believe, you're still paying more endurance for it.Demon Summoning and Beast Mastery justifies these costs by giving the attacks powerful utility that isn't seen in other sets: a way to increase the value of the attacks and make them worth taking without increasing the literal damage output of the Mastermind. In addition, in CoH high-end +4x8 play is COMPLETELY different than +0x1 play in the beginning or mid-game. My understanding is that leveling up a character usually needs about 2 respecs, or at the very least one at 50 to set up your slots right for high-end builds. If a Mastermind attack is great at the high-end for some specific reason, that's great and I hope you have fun, but you unlock the attacks at levels 1, 2, and 8. In these early levels you're low on powers and slots, and things are starting to ramp-up into being actually baseline challenging. Having to pay more endurance for less results in a tight economy for slot choices doesn't feel good. My personal experience is that every time I have End trouble with a mastermind, the first step is to get rid of the mastermind basic attacks. Thus far that has never left me worse off. I understand that this isn't going to be universal, but I want to understand why this is happening to me and according to official data Masterminds do, in fact, pay more endurance baseline for the basic attacks. I'd just like those attacks to either receive reduced endurance costs to bring them into line, or improved utility so the endurance tax is on actual, broadly useful mechanics.

(Accidental doublepost, sorry)

This! I'm very much a mid-game player, and I was commenting in the Mercenaries thread that I wasn't using Serum because due to the mix of long duration and super slow recharge that it almost always felt wasted or too precious to use. Necromancy has much less of that problem (a mere 300 seconds of recharge compared to Serum's 500) but not none. And some power sets are fine with that being a mechanic, maybe expert usage of that power is intended to be what separates the greats, but it's worth pointing out and discussing; I personally generally prefer having better general options and a mid-end panic button instead of a godly panic button.

How many slots are you putting into your aimed shot? Those numbers are along ways away from the baseline: the baseline end is 6.5 and baseline recharge time is 4.0. Especially while leveling slots are at a premium and putting a lot of slots into a Mastermind attacks feel bad. In my own experimenting, they feel much better if you put even a 30% end reduction in them... which is, of course, taking a slot that would normally be reserved for accuracy or damage. Bow and Arrow has a baseline endurance cost of 1.64x the cost of aimed shot, recharge time of 2x aimed shot, and damage 5.74x snap shot. Comparing a raw Bow and Arrow to a no-slots Aimed Shot gives the victory to Bow and Arrow without question. In addition, the second ninja attack is using the first attack profile for other sets, with the first attack being even faster. Which I don't think is super relevant to the balance argument, but an interesting note. In other words, are you sure you don't want to play petless mastermind? By all accounts you'd be very good at it.

A little more testing, and I noticed something: I'm not using Serum. Serum is a massive buff... once every eight minutes. Some missions won't last that long. With a duration of two minutes, it can cover several fights. It's often still running the next time I change maps. But then you spend 8 minutes with it not even an option: a detectably long time. The result? I forget I have it. And then when I have it, I'm nervous about using it: it's too precious to use. If in 3 minutes I have a bigger crisis I'll be sad I used it now! The classic RPG fallacy. I think Serum would be better if it had a duration of 30 seconds and a cooldown of two minutes.

I REALLY like new Sentinel. I have some character ideas that fit in the sentinel space, but I never liked opportunity: I wound up just ignoring it and taking whichever result I got (most often the T1 one, since my play flow uses T1s a lot). Managing it purposefully was too disruptive to game flow for it to be worth it to me. This Beta changes that entirely. Sentinel now has a definite gimmick and a feel: You have a 'I hate that guy' button. It encourages target priority. You can use it back to back if you really need to, but the gauge mechanic means that if you do it's liable to be a while before you use it again. It makes you gauge threats, prioritize targets, and think while you fight. This is both very on-brand for the sentinel fantasy as it has been defined, AND what I was already doing without any distinct mechanical benefits outside of just... good fight control. Sentinel now encourages that same kind of playstyle through its mechanics, and (MOST IMPORTANTLY) feels good to play. Thank you, I love it.

The start of the game is when henchmen can do the least. As you go on, henchmen do more (especially damage), you have more from your secondary, and even unlock ancillary pools. All these, for the reasons I went over in the original post, make the basic attacks less relevant in a great hurry. And -Regen isn't for mid-game: it's for Archvillains, Giant Monsters, and other high-end things. It's effectively nothing against the vast majority of the game. When it does matter, it's felt: -200% regen is nothing to sneeze at. But adding something that is admittedly situational to a basic attack like that puts it in an odd situation. When you'd normally use these attacks the most, low- to mid-level, you're never actually going to benefit from the -regen. When you're up against something with notable regeneration, they're not notable damage: they're only useful for the -regen, the damage they deal is largely negligible. I'm not saying this setup is somehow innately wrong, but it IS strange and I wonder if these attacks would be more effective with a different focus.

This is specifically about the attacks in the pet sets, Such as Burst in Mercenaries, Dark Blast in Necromancy, etc, not the effects of the pets themselves.

I DID! I discussed these changes in the original post! My angle is that while Ninja and Necromancer are the right direction and likely only need refinements, the Mercenaries attacks offer very little in comparison to the existing stand-outs of Beast Mastery and Demon Summoning! In addition, the -regen on the robotics attacks is really only notable in high-end and late-game play which is a strange choice on attacks that that should be biased toward the start of the game!

My angle is that I am adapting: I'm adapting to not use them because I see no reason to. That isn't necessarily good for build variety, these are notable parts of the powersets but there's so little reason to take them. This isn't just about endurance economy, it's about the actual ideas behind why they are designed this way. I'm arguing that making these powers baseline better, by adding utility, not damage, will improve the quality and breadth of builds for the sets in question. It will also make them better appreciated by beginners and mid-end players. Why not put forth the effort for that? There's only things to gain.