Lockpick

Glue Arrow is not usually part of an attack chain either. ENA is mandatory, but at least it had decent range and damage, so it fit into an attack chain of ENA, Snap Shot, Aimed Shot, repeat. I've played it with the reduced range and while I certainly don't like it and it affects the character I am sure I will learn to live with it. Or actually without it, since it now gives me an excuse to try out Archery / Devices.

They did; I didn't see the latest update until after I made this post. It looks like the reversion may be temporary though, so taking Ninjitsu now with the expectation that Shinobi-Iri will have good movement speed may not play out long term.

Thank you for these adjustments!

Shinobi-Iri is nerfed on Beta as are a number of secondary powers with movement speed...

I don't recall saying "How dare they". I merely stated my opinion agreeing with Tore and stated that there will always be a set that is stack ranked #1. I don't find balance changes in general to be very good for the health of the game, although I do agree that in very rare instances there might be a need to tune a power or set. However, IMO, it should be extremely rare. Right now TW is on top, next week EM will be on top, the following week something else will be on top. Balance changes beget balance changes and that leads to picking winners and losers. Some people are going to be happy and some are going to be not happy with the changes. The TW change doesn't mean much to me since I played the set to about 17 and did not like the mechanics. However, a lot of the Blaster secondary and movement changes do affect me and will definitely have an impact on whether I play those sets. By the way, I don't know what has happened to these forums. I recall the old forums as being relatively friendly without much drama. People were able to state their opinions without vitriol and animosity. These forums it seems like people are attacking each other all the time (which I admit I have fallen prey to occasionally). It's a bit sad how far we have fallen, especially since we are all here because of our passion for the game and we are all stating our opinions so that we hopefully get an improved experience.

I pretty much agree with this in the main. I'm not a fan of any of these power set changes and saw no real need to do them. I could see some minor changes here and there, but in the overall scheme of things all these balance changes are not needed because we are a small private server that is predominately PVE. Who cares if TW over performs a bit in PVE? I very rarely see them when playing and I know I shelved mine early due to the clunky mechanics. However, there are a number of other changes in this release that do affect me negatively. I just feel like this release was a "let's make change just to make change" release. There are some good changes like a new power set, story arcs, stances, TP changes, and maybe the EM changes, but for the most part I find all the balance changes to TW, Blaster secondaries, and secondary movement powers have really missed the mark from a "fun" perspective. I'm curious how they will be received when they go Live because I am sure a number of players are going to get an unwelcome surprise. What I really fine a bit ironic is that TW is getting nerfed, but EM is getting buffed. I expect that EM is going to be the new FoTM and is likely over tuned. Does that both me? Nope. One power set is always going to be on top and players that care about that kind of thing will adapt. These types of changes don't change that behavior, so why make changes that are not needed and likely not wanted?

Just tested the stances: Non-Default Stance (Does not seem to be working as intended) If I choose any stance but Default and then toggle on Athletic Run the inherent stance does not change. I choose Ninja Stance and my stance changes. I toggle on Athletic Run and I continue to run in Ninja Stance. I choose Beast Stance and my stance changes. I toggle on Athletic Run and I continue to run in Beast Stance. I choose Slide Stance and my stance changes. I toggle on Athletic Run and I continue to run in Slide Stance. Default Stance (Seems to be working as intended) If I choose Default Stance then toggle on Athletic Run the stance is standard run stance If I choose Default Stance then toggle on Ninja Run the stance is Ninja run stance If I choose Default Stance then toggle on Beast Run the stance is Beast run stance

I think you also missed my point. They could have gotten rid of the GM functionality without giving us any replacement, since we were not supposed to be using it in the first place. How would you react if they basically said "we are removing this power because it was being exploited"? You would probably be upset for a little while, but you would understand the need to do it because: They have stated months ago it was going to be removed It needed to be removed now due to an exploit After a few months you would be used to playing without it and if they added additional functions to the P2W vendor you would probably be grateful, right?

I'm having a hard time understanding the push back on these changes. We had a power that was supposed to be GM only, meaning players were not supposed to use it at all That functionality is being removed and it has been known this functionality would be removed for several months We are getting multiple options as semi-replacement, despite the fact that we are not entitled to the functionality since we were never supposed to have it in the first place I am happy to argue and persuade for things that I think are not logical (blaster TA secondary range adjustments and non-stacking movement come to mind), but I think the HC team has gone well above and beyond the call of duty for these changes. Think about this: They could have just removed the GM functionality as an exploit 3 months from now they could have provided some of these alternatives In this case everyone would be extremely excited to get these options, but because it is happening at the same time as removing the GM functionality there is an outcry I wouldn't mind lower recharge, but it isn't a major issue since I can pretty much always Oro to Talos and from Talos go to SG portal or Train or Tunnel.

Rapid Response Portal Yesterday I had transferred a character over with Rapid Response Member Accolade, but I didn't automatically get the Rapid Response Portal power. I logged off yesterday at my SG base and logged in today 24+ hours later. I had the Rapid Response Portal power with 30 charges. I used the portal and it worked fine. Seems to be working as intended.

Making changes for only PVP would seriously rile up some players. Why would it be good for PVP and not PVE? Movement Buffs On the changes as a whole I am not sure what the issue is. We have capped movement, so why does stacking matter? You will never go faster than the cap. I never understood the rationale to not allow CJ and SJ to work at the same time. I think Ninja Run, Shinobi, CJ, SJ, etc. should all be able to be toggled on at the same time and they should stack. What is the rationale for not allowing it to stack? It would be nice if someone could provide an explanation.

Good point, thank you.

Tactical Arrow ENA - I still do not think that lumping ENA in with other T1 immobilize powers is a good idea. TA is a ranged power set and all other Blaster secondaries have melee attacks, so are able to cope with melee better. TA has zero melee attacks and is better played at range, so I think it is legit to request that ENA have a slightly longer (80') range than other T1 immobilize powers. Gymnastics - While the additional Jump is nice the suppression with other powers is an unwelcome nerf. I would prefer to be able to stack Gymnastics with CJ, SS, NR, etc. I haven't really seen a good explanation as to why stacking is OP. There is a cap on movement speed, so why does it matter how you hit the cap? Devices TWG - I don't have a problem with TWG having a 50' range because Devices has melee attacks. I think the point that is being missed on ENA in TA is that TA has no melee attacks, so TA Blasters need to stay at range. FO - I tested the No Fade option and it works fine. I was thinking it didn't work and then realized I had Sprint toggled on with a Stealth IO, which was fading me out. Nice work. Martial Combat I confirmed that Reaction Time does not aggro mob when stealthed. Thank you. This is a huge plus for my DP/MC. Ninja Training Immobilizing Dart - I don't have a problem with Immobilizing Dart having a 50' range because Ninja Training has melee attacks. I think the point that is being missed on ENA in TA is that TA has no melee attacks, so TA Blasters need to stay at range. Shinobi - See Gymnastics above. These powers should stack; not suppress each other. Christmas - I played my DP/NT on test for quite awhile yesterday while testing LRT and didn't see the Christmas gift defect, so looks like this was fixed.

This is intended. They nerfed being able to stack movement powers in the latest patch. I'm not clear why and think they should actually allow all of them to stack, but this was an intended change. Movement Buffs The following travel powers will suppress Primary/Secondary equivalent power travel buffs: Pool > Leaping > Combat Jumping Pool > Leaping > Super Jump Pool > Force of Will > Mighty Leap Pool > Speed > Super Speed Pool > Experimentation > Speed of Sound Prestige Travel > Ninja Run Prestige Travel > Beast Run Primary/Secondary powers impacted by this: Scrapper Defence > Ninjitsu > Shinobi-Iri Sentinel Defence > Ninjitsu > Shinobi-Iri Blaster Support > Ninja Training > Shinobi-Iri Blaster Support > Tactical Arrow > Gymnastics

@Jimmy Can you answer a question around activating and canceling LRT (and other TP powers), but still having to wait for the cooldown? Is there a way to make the cooldown start after the TP is complete, so you don't wast a cooldown when canceling the activation?

I have the Rapid Response Member accolade on this character and used to have the Base Teleporter power with 30 charges on Live. When I copied over I lost Base Teleporter, but now have Monitor Duty Teleporter with 30 charges. The Rapid Response Portal is separate and I thought it would be issued automatically if you had the accolade. I'll log off at my SG and check back in a while to see if it is awarded.

Been doing some testing on the travel powers this morning: I copied a character over and logged in and was awarded LRT. This is good as it recognized I already had some exploration badges and gave me the power. I went from DA to Talos and worked fine. I noticed that I was missing some locations like FF and Bricks, so went to get those badges I got exploration badges for Bricks, FF, and KW. I then decided to check the menu to see what was missing. I activated LRT and took a picture. I then selected Cancel, because I wasn't going anywhere and I wanted to test if it would cancel the power and allow it to be immediately used. LRT was activated and was on a 10 minuted cooldown even though it wasn't used. I'm not sure if this is working as intended or not. It seems like if you cancel you should not be stuck waiting for the power to recharge. Is there a way to tie the recharge start time from when you land at your new destination? I had used the LRT power in previous testing and when going to a zone and doing a mission the 10 minute cooldown felt okay if the mission took some time. If not, the cooldown seems pretty long. I would suggest that the cooldown be reduced, especially if canceling the power is going to start the cooldown. I like the LRT menu. It looks clean. I only have 13 destinations available, so not sure how it will look when I get all. Curious if it will be to big or cluttered. If anyone can post a screenshot I would appreciate it. I added a number of locations and the list stays the same size, but adds a scroll bar. I like the Fast Travel power. This will save a lot of room in the trays. Very nice. Base Transporter - Has the same issue with LRT in that if you cancel you have activated the power and need to wait on cooldown. I assume all these powers will have this issue. The reduced activation time is very nice. Thank you. Rapid Response Portal - I'm not sure how to earn this power. Is it logging out at the base? I tried the freebie menu and didn't see it, so might be nice to add it there so we can test it. I added additional locations and getting a zone exploration badge is relatively easy as there is generally a badge near the SG portal in a zone. If you ave a SG base with the zone portals you will easily be able to use your base to get the zone exploration badges. I'll try to get a few more locations and see how the menu looks, but all in all I would say these are some nice changes.

Okay, I went back and did some more testing on the movement speeds. I was having a hard time with trying to capture as bullets, so put in a table format. Looks like in my earlier test when I thought they were stacking it is because the power was showing up for a bit before disappearing. I have to say I'm not a fan of this change. I loved my Sentinel being able to stack NR and Shinobi-Iri as a travel power and when I created my DP/NT Blaster I was expecting to stack NR with Shinobi and was disappointed when I couldn't stack them. I thought it was a bug. I did see a post earlier about stacking of these travel powers, but I really didn't understand it and the need to limit the stacking. I hope the table below makes sense. I am trying to show what is active based on different power selections. Movement Buffs AT Powersets Action Running Speed Flying Speed Jumping Speed Max Jump Height Blaster A/NT Only SS Activated SS No No No Only CJ Activated No No CJ CJ Only NR Activated NR No NR NR Only Shinobi Activated Yes No Yes Yes Shinobi + SS SS Neither Shinobi Shinobi Shinobi + SS + CJ SS None CJ CJ Shinobi + CJ Shinobi None CJ CJ Shinobi + NR NR None NR NR Blaster A/TA Only SS Activated SS No No No Only CJ Activated No No CJ CJ Only NR Activated NR No NR NR Only Gymnastics Activated Gym Gym Gym Gym Gymnastics + SS Gym + SS Gym Gym Gym Gymnastics + SS + CJ Gym + SS Gym CJ CJ Gymnastics + CJ Gym Gym CJ CJ Gymnastics + NR Gym + NR Gym NR NR Sentinel DP/Ninjitsu Only NR Activated NR No NR NR Only Shinobi-Iri Activated Shinobi-Iri No Shinobi-Iri Shinobi-Iri Shinobi-Iri + NR NR No NR NR

Does this mean I can no longer stack Ninja Run and Shinobi-iri on my Sentinel for movement? Movement Buffs The following travel powers will suppress Primary/Secondary equivalent power travel buffs: Pool > Leaping > Combat Jumping Pool > Leaping > Super Jump Pool > Force of Will > Mighty Leap Pool > Speed > Super Speed Pool > Experimentation > Speed of Sound Prestige Travel > Ninja Run Prestige Travel > Beast Run Primary/Secondary powers impacted by this: Scrapper Defence > Ninjitsu > Shinobi-Iri Sentinel Defence > Ninjitsu > Shinobi-Iri Blaster Support > Ninja Training > Shinobi-Iri Blaster Support > Tactical Arrow > Gymnastics Edit: I copied my Sentinel over to Test and took a picture of the Movement speeds. I had NR and Shinobi-Iri listed with movement speeds. I then logged into Live and had the same numbers. Is it supposed to be this way? Not sure what to test. I logged into my A/TA Blaster and tested Gymnastics with NR and CJ. When CJ is activated the Jump movement from Gymnastics is suppressed (removed) under the Jumping Speed and Max Jump Height headers. Gymnastics movement speed is still available under the Running Speed and Flying Speed Headers. Seems to be working as intended. When NR is activated it is mutually exclusive from CJ, so toggles off CJ. When NR is activated it is listed under all the movement headers (Running Speed, Flying Speed, Jumping Speed, and Max Jump Height) along with Gymnastics (so stacking). I'm not sure if this is working as intended or if NR should be suppressed when Gymnastics is active. I logged into my A/NT Blaster and tested Gymnastics with NR, CJ, and SS. When CJ is activated the Jump movement from Gymnastics is suppressed (removed) under the Jumping Speed and Max Jump Height headers. Gymnastics movement speed is still available under the Running Speed header, but is not listed under the Flying Speed Header. This is different from the A/TA blaster above, so I may have made a mistake above. Will look again. When NR is activated it is mutually exclusive from SS and CJ, so toggles off both powers. When NR is activated it is listed under the following movement headers (Running Speed, Jumping Speed, and Max Jump Height) and Gymnastics is suppressed. It looks like NR stacks in some cases and not others.

I disagree about the "patting each other on the back" comment. I don't disagree about self nerfs being a new concept. I didn't advocate for @Dragon Crush suggestion, although it seems like a new suggestion to me as I had never seen it before. I merely said it wasn't a bad idea. I don't think it is a bad idea because it provides players more choices and I believe more choices are good. People like the ability to freeze XP; maybe they would like the choice to reduce their damage. I would likely never use it, but I don't think it hurts to have more player choices. I have advocated for adding additional levels to the notoriety system (+5/9, etc.), but adding notoriety is adding a challenge and choice to the game. I suppose it could be considered a self nerf, but I never thought of it that way before. I have also advocated for adding selections for things like No Incarnates, No Judgement, No Lore, etc. which all provide more choice for players to leverage. I don't agree with the Devs putting more AoE in the game and am absolutely against wholesale re-balancing (nerfs or buffs). I think the base game is fine as is and we need to find methods of providing more high end content that provides the challenge that players want. My beef has mainly been with the players that min/max their builds with IO sets and incarnates and then complain the game is to easy. They then want to nerf existing powers, so they aren't as powerful. This makes the overall game harder, which impacts the entire community. I expect many in the community like the game as is where it is somewhat easy, but they can make it harder if they choose to do so.

I don't agree it is true. I haven't advocated for self nerfs and have explained my position. My position is simple: I am advocating for more player choices and for players to own their own play experience. I certainly haven't patted anyone on the back. I may agree with some posters some of the time and disagree other times. I'm trying to understand your point in regards to this thread and am having a hard time. No one is stopping you from discussing the meta. Go ahead and have fun discussing it. Feel free to discuss the nature of AoE in the game. No one is stopping you. I also don't advocate for power set re-balancing, so I am not sure what to make of you comment about buffs. I think power set adjustments should be done very rarely because they impact the current players playing the game. IMO, balancing should only be done in situations where there is clear and substantial imbalance. I am pretty much against all the power set adjustments in the new issue because I do not think they are warranted. I haven't advocated for keeping the settings at the top. I have no idea what you are talking about. I have advocated for the HC team to provide more settings to give more players choice because I think choice and owning your own player experience are critical, especially with a small player base and HC team. The current settings are fine for me since I generally run on the default settings except when I want to do something outside my norm.

The fact that you started your post off by calling people out specifically by name and demeaning their contributions negatively impacts any points you may try to make. The challenge I have is that people min/max their builds with IO sets and incarnates and then complain the game is to easy. They then advocate to the HC team to make the entire game harder for everyone, including those that do not have min/max builds, do not have incarnates, and want a more casual friendly game. These people refuse to own their own play experience to get the challenge they want for themselves. This doesn't require self-nerfs. You can create hard mode content. You can team up with like minded people and all of you can create hard mode content. If you and 9 other like minded people created hard mode AE story arc content every 2 months at the end of the year you would have 60 hard mode story arcs that would benefit the entire community. My suggestions have always been for players to own their own play experience and that can take multiple forms: Use the existing mechanics to make current content harder Notoriety Non min/max builds Challenges and challenge functions Create harder content via AE Advocate for the HC team to make player created content more accessible and rationalize rewards across all content including player created content

Does that include Reaction Time in Martial Combat?

Nice video, thank you. I needed the generator.

Join which? The discord or the channel?