Blackbird71

I'm saying pick a side, have it one way or the other. This halfway-done stuff just feel like an unnecessary annoyance at best.

I get that there are lore reasons, and I'm all for lore where it make sense. But this ignores the practicality of the matter and the nature of players. With this change, no one is going to go through content to get exposed to time travel in order to get this portal, they're just going to get someone to drop one for them at level 1 and be done with it. At least with a higher level lock, there was a chance some people would take the time to seek out missions that had them cross paths with time travel and thereby unlock the portal naturally. So if the intent was to keep the power restricted for lore reasons, I think it's still a failure in that regard, because no one is going to care about the lore in the face of the travel convenience of having the power at level 1.

If the only obstacle to getting the power is getting someone else to open the portal for you, then you might as well just put it on the P2W vendor and be done with it. It would save a lot of "can someone drop an Ouro?" spam. As it is now, yes, mechanically it is just a speed bump.

The disconnect here is deafening. You need to talk to Jimmy and figure out what page the two of you are on, because my comment was in response to his, and it was a mechanics/design philosophy discussion, not lore.

Having someone else (or one of your own alts) drop a portal in front of you so you can jump through and then get the portal yourself is not "earning" it. It's a speed bump at best, and a pointless restriction that does nothing.

Did you mean to quote me in this response? Because I really have no idea what your post has to do with mine. My comments had absolutely nothing to do with lore and everything to do with the intended functionality of the Ouro portal. Is it intended for level 1 characters to have easy access to the power or not? If so, just give it to them; remove the pointless speed bumps. If not, keep level restrictions intact.

OK, taking some time to delve into the TA changes a bit more. I'll echo what others have said: reducing the range of these powers is a huge nerf to /TA blasters. Remember, this is "Tactical" Arrow; and it plays like it's name. Generally you have to use tactics to control and direct the flow of a fight to survive and win. Two big parts of that are 1) maintaining range, and 2) planning and controlling the beginning of an encounter. These powers are often used as openers to help with #2. By reducing the range, these will either no longer be usable as openers, reducing /TA blasters' ability to plan their fights and therefore their survivability, or they will require the /TA blaster to get into closer range before using them, increasing the risk of aggroing mobs prematurely and therefore also reducing survivability. Either way, it's a major change to how the set plays. I'm not thrilled to see the damage reduction, especially when compared to the existence of Build Up. I'd be interested to know why the TA version of BU specifically is considered too strong, but BU on other sets is fine. Is it because of the included recharge buff? Even with that, if the damage had to be reduced, could not the extra +ToHit remain to compensate? This one is probably low on my list of complaints, and a little insight into the reasoning might be all I need to change my mind here, but there it is. Oh, and the OCD in me says that if you have to reduce the damage, can it at least be a flat 80%, because round numbers? This kills my /TA blaster right here. The -ToHit on this power is negligible; you could take it off and I probably wouldn't even notice. But the -Perception was critical to the survival of my /TA blaster as it allowed me to set up the fights and maintain range. Making it resistible makes my tactical approach no longer playable, period. The core of the fun in playing a /TA blaster was rooted in this approach, so by taking away a key building block of that it kills the set for me; no exaggeration or hyperbole here. As I've said before, I have mixed feelings about this one. Put back the jump bonus and it will probably be fine though. WHAT??? You've taken a staple of /TA and made it so that it can only be effectively slotted against one type of enemies at a time?!? Why would you ever do such a thing? ESD Arrow is a major piece of /TA survivability; it's the go-to when things get out of control and you need to lock down a situation to either regain control or retreat and regroup. By splitting up the effect, and therefore the slotting options, now /TA blasters will have to initially accept that they will only ever take missions against one type of enemy or the other according to how they are slotted, or they will have to accept that the power can now only be used situationally. This really feels like a nerf to make OSA look better by comparison, and that's the wrong way to do this. /TA blasters may as well drop ESD Arrow now in favor of something more reliable. For a T9, Tactical Arrow gets a worse version of Trick Arrow's T8. How does that make sense? I can't say that I have any interest in taking this on my /TA blaster. I haven't had a chance to look over the other blaster secondary changes in any kind of detail, but my general assessment so far is this: The TA changes have gone beyond reducing the set's power level and instead will fundamentally affect how the set is played, turning it into something it was not previously. If these changes go into effect as is, I will have no further interest in playing my /TA blaster character. And that is coming from someone who enjoys archery as a RL hobby, was incredibly excited when archery was added to CoH, and doubly so to find TA as a blaster option on HC. Also, if these changes are implemented then we need something else added to the game: a new type of respec to be made available for one-time use after this and similar patches that allows an affected character to respec not just which powers they have, but also which power sets they have. It's not fair to change the overall functionality of a set on characters that players have invested in without providing them the option to change those characters to something else more suitable.

On a different note, the close-up of that icon looks rather, um, NSFW.

Not at all; I'd personally prefer it if they moved more in the direction of keeping Ouro as it was intended; something unlocked through play of the content instead of just passed on to others through gimmicks. But I also don't like half-measures, or the sense that the devs aren't sure what they're doing or why they're doing it. They need to make up their minds and pick a direction, not try to straddle the middle; it just results in pointless restrictions that are effectively worse than no restrictions at all.

And that's a viable position, but do there need to be so many powers that do this? Certainly some of this mess could be consolidated and simplified.

This is sending some mixed messages. You're effectively saying, "You're not supposed to have it at level 1, but we're going to make it possible for you to have it at level 1, but we're going to add some minimal speed bumps that will add minor complications to getting it at level 1, but aren't going to actually deter anyone from getting it at level 1." Please, either keep it locked at level and/or to content, or just open it up. As Mr. Miyagi said, walk on the left or right side of the road and you're OK. Walk down the middle of the road, "squash, like grape."

That this is a considered a reasonable rationalization for anything is a concerning sign of the logic being used to justify these changes. Whether your own or not, this still requires another character to open the portal for another to use in order to gain access. If the goal is for everyone to have access to Ouro at level 1, than you may as well grant the portal to all characters on creation, or make it a freebie in the P2W vendor. Not that I think that's the right way to go, but the way it's been proposed is just adding trivial yet tedious (i.e., worthless) hoops to avoid this reality.

Speaking as an engineer, I simultaneously take offense at this comment and agree with the assessment. Seriously, this is a whole lot of "fiddly" to replace one simple command. You don't like players having the command, or the way that it works? Fine. But there has to be a more elegant solution to this problem than this colossal mess of powers.

I don't power level, at all. I play through the content, and have done so on many alts. But I don't bother with exploring locations just for the sake of exploring or getting a badge; I don't chase after "shinies." I don't care how much of a burden you think it is, the fact remains that the power has been removed and now requires additional tedium that I have no interest in to regain. You may be OK with this change, and that's fine, but you also have to be able to accept that not everyone will feel the same way.

*facepalm* LRTP is literally being taken away from people who chose it as a pool power. There is zero disputing this fact. The only way to regain it is through accolades, which not everyone wants to do, and then its usefulness is limited by getting even more accolades.

(Underline added for emphasis) Exactly my point.

Which does nothing to change any of the points I made. And yes, it grants LRT, but if I understand the mechanics correctly, LRT can then only be used in Atlas Park. To use it anywhere else, you have to then explore each and every zone where you intend to use it. This is unnecessary tedium to get back what we already had through our pool power choices. I'm not a badge hunter; accolades mean nothing to me. Taking something away and locking it behind this mechanic is unwanted.

Did I say anything about that command? No. Don't make assumptions. Sorry to be blunt, but jumping in and accusing someone of "cheating" is quite rude, especially with no basis in the comment you quoted and responded to.

To each their own I suppose; the way I play Tac Arrow OSA is just another T9 I won't waste my time on.

Maybe I'm missing something. From what I understand, you get it for free if you have the accolade, and then you have to get the accolade for each zone to be able to use it. That is not "free." This 1) takes the power away from people who already use it, and 2) ensures that in order to get it back they have to do additional grindy work that they may not otherwise be interested in. A cardinal rule of customer service is that once you've given someone something, you can't go and take it away. There seems to be an awful lot of taking in this patch.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. Consolidating Agility and Gymnastics could be useful, but it messes with some slotting options and I've never felt that Tactical Arrow needed more crowd control, so losing options in favor of CC I'm not going to use is disappointing.

Fair enough. I'm still not crazy about these changes though; taking Long Range Teleport away from those who have spec'd in the Teleport pool and instead locking it behind exploration badges that I never bother to get intentionally just seems like an all around bad idea.

I'll be honest: I haven't read through all the fine print yet, but of what I have seen, there's much more I'm disappointed about with these changes than I am excited. Overall it feels like the cottage rule may not have been broken, but it's definitely bending a fair bit.

Wait, if I understand this correctly, Warshades will no longer have an inherent travel power? Is that right?

Boot to the head.