Marbing

What do you mean? You have an example?

Great attitude! Very refreshing.

I agree. That is why I made the point about if they quadrupled rewards everywhere else (or raised them past farming) would people still be upset. A few said no. Which begs the question, why then would you be upset with the lowering of rewards from AE Farming (which is essentially the reverse of boosting everything else)? That argument seems to be met with "because I need emp merits to move to other toons". The issue is they don't want to lose access to emp merits in farming. It isn't (as some say) that they can't farm anymore. It is that they want easy access to emp merits. That is what I am gathering. It was even suggested that AE tickets unlock Incarnate stuff and that was still met with "but emp merits". I think identifying this as the core issue here is important. If this is wrong, call me out and explain (without using emp merits) why this change negatively affects you and what workaround would you suggest?

Yeah just showing the debuff values is a bit misleading. What is your TTK on the Pylon before and after? There have been tests on this and clear times with sonic on regular content (Council for example) is faster than before. Not a little, but quite a bit faster than before. So I agree, as some said in here, Pylon results don't matter AS much but, if you are going to post Pylon stuff, show the times so we can see the WHOLE picture. I will have to refer to @Galaxy Brain for the before and after clear times because I cant find them. Unless they were posted on this thread earlier and I am being to lazy to search for them. Which is definitely not the case! PS: It is the case.

This is a good point. Possibly something that person (if they are able to) should work out with a trusted friend, kind of like asking someone to take care of a pet for you. Just have said friend log in for you. I know that isn't a perfect solution but it is something to consider to cover some of those cases. Though, getting the toon to 50 would also work. As is, I know that also isn't a perfect solution.

Not saying it would happen. But if AE tickets gave you Incarnate Mats would that work for you?

While I understand the frustration, this would be abused to cheese game mechanics like master runs and cheating death in general. Edit: Also, the timer is zero if you are in a rest area I believe (like Pocket D for example).

Overall these Sonic Changes have me VERY excited for the set. Before it was realistically a defender only set, with a few niche applications outside of just being a debuff set. Yes you will stack less -res than last time, but if we are being honest, that isnt going to affect a whole lot considering the MASSIVE overall dmg output from the set. This set went from the worst blast set in the game to an actual decent blast set with a sustainable attack chain while still retaining a large portion of its -res for teams. I have played Sonic Blast a ton on live and on HC and I liked how it was before, but this is just SO much better overall. In fact, I just created a Sonic/Poison Corruptor to stack the -res and see how the new DPS on Sonic will work with Scourge. I anticipate it being much better than past attempts at a Sonic Corruptor.

But the only thing that is changing is Vet levels/rewards. So... you can still farm for Influence, Incarnate XP, levels 1-50, etc etc. And some have found that farming is actually a little faster now with the aggro changes so that is actually better. You can still do what you want to do, farming just wont be the end all be all of nearly everything in the game that it is now. Which is actually a healthy change. Also, if you weren't joining TF's or Trials because farming was better then you are better understanding why a change like this was necessary. Or maybe the devs have another reason (I do not speak for them). Lets flip it around and say that, instead of this, the devs quadrupled the amount of merits/xp/inf (or just one of those) you got from regular game content (outside of AE). Would you still be upset? Would you still farm?

Yes there is. When everyone is stuck in AE because it’s the best way to get anything, then other players have a much harder time filling teams to do the content they want to do, and thus get sucked into farming or simply quitting the game. There are two sides to every coin. It’s about creating a balance and right now there is very little, as AE is the best way to do pretty much everything, so large portions of the current game population do nothing but that, thus making it harder (especially on the lower population servers) to get anything else done that requires a team.

How about I ask you, why do YOU farm?

I think though we are supposed to be providing feedback to devs and not one another. Let’s let the devs answer our questions before this turns into a flame war. 😃

Good, they are over performing anyways. 😃

As a Psi/Rad/Dark main I welcome this change, thank you! 8 seconds seems high but I will take it. Because, being held is going to be a killer anyways, but the annoying ones are the 0.4 second sleeps (for example) that sneak in and you end up with all your toggles off for like 10 seconds before you even notice to turn them back on because you never saw the status effect hit you.

My widow smiles, as does my altitis!

This change doesn’t have as far reaching affects as you think. It’s been tested. Go test it yourself on brainstorm. S/L is still going to mitigate a ton of stuff. This is a very positive change imo. A lot of people are looking at this the wrong way. S/L defense vastly over performs to the point where other defense types are nearly useless. This is just tuning it down a peg to buff the importance of a more diverse defense spectrum.

Sonic’s -res is great for a team, but the set still lacks punch on its own. It has no snipe and no extreme/superior attack. Instead it gets -res and a sleep AoE… Screech being turned into a lesser snipe wouldn’t be a bad move for the set. When I say lesser I mean less damage than a traditional snipe since it also stuns and applies -res, but give it the same range and special sniper damage tick when used out of combat. Maybe like 80% the damage of other snipes? That being said, not every blast set needs a snipe. Perhaps just make Shout do more damage to justify its long animation time. It should do Superior or Extreme damage, imo.

The problem with this approach is that it explains nothing about the game and there always ends up being heroes that are hard to reproduce in game. Also, sure… you can ask what kinda of heroes they like but that may have nothing to do with the play style they prefer. So you simply give them an overview of the different roles and ask what they are most interested in. This approach has seemed to work the best for me to get new players interested. Regardless of your approach, the idea is to start a conversation. Both your way and my way do that. I’ve found my works best for me, you do you though.

This is what I do under the same situation: Ask them what play style they are most interested in. (Doing damage, supporting a team, healing, tanking, controlling, etc). Explain to them the ATs that do that best. (Pros/Cons, don’t get too deep into the weeds, just basics) Let them pick what they want. Play.

If you need a person to team with, @Marbing is my global. I am usually on every night between 7pm-11pm. GOAT (the greatest SG of all time) runs all kinds of fun teams: AV’s, Patron Arcs, Task Forces, Radios, RWZ, DA, GM smashing, Accolade runs, AE stories, Farms, etc etc all with our signature hilarity and we would love to have you!

Clever out of the box idea. Similar to ones I have seen in other posts.

There is already a tutorial for this. This change is a solution in search of a problem IMO. No it wouldn’t really hurt anyone, but I don’t think this is a problem since we already have the tutorial that every new player is asked if they want to enter.

Did you see my suggestion above? I think technically its possible in a way. Though admittedly maybe not practical.

See my Edit, it may actually be possible, in a way. Though, still admittedly a lot of work.

I like the out of the box thinking, I REALLY do. But, I don't think this would work mechanically. EDIT: ACTUALLY... you could possibly do this like Spectral Wounds in reverse, sort of. Have an ability that, when hit with a power that has the Lethal flag (for example) you trigger a small HoT (heal over time) to heal a portion of that damage back. I am not saying this is practical, but it could be the easiest way to accomplish what you are talking about.