Let's roll back the purple patch

[Dark Bot]

Here are some suggestions to appease both sides of the argument, and bring back game balance to what is often considered the prime of the game. Homecoming exists as a sort of capsule of City of Heroes, which is much easier for returners as a result. I think that reinstating some of the difficulty from before, and adding new options will benefit everyone. What do you guys think? Discuss new options below.

[MunkiLord]

I can't think of a good reason to change enhancement diversification either way. More difficulty options though, I'm in on that. 

[Dark Bot]

6 minutes ago, MunkiLord said:

I can't think of a good reason to change enhancement diversification either way. More difficulty options though, I'm in on that. 

It will help to minimize the gap between IOs and SOs, creating greater balance. You will focus between the raw heightened stats of the single type ordinary IOs/SOs and the set bonus + multi stats of IOs. We will see possible 200% bonuses in damage powers, but at the sacrifice of recharge or endurance. 

[biostem]

2 minutes ago, Dark Bot said:

It will help to minimize the gap between IOs and SOs, creating greater balance. You will focus between the raw heightened stats of the single type ordinary IOs/SOs and the set bonus + multi stats of IOs. We will see possible 200% bonuses in damage powers, but at the sacrifice of recharge or endurance. 

Perhaps you could clarify something for me;  With ED, enhancement values drop off sharply around the 95% mark for schedule A, and 56% for schedule B enhancements.  If we removed ED, and stuck with the value of IOs, then someone slotting level 50+ IOs, (or even IO sets), would far outpace someone with just SOs, even if you were no longer effectively limited to 3 of any particular type/value.  How would removing these "soft caps" benefit the non-IO/set user?

[SwitchFade]

Hm. So some flavor of this post gets thrown up often. With little content and the obligatory "pie>cake, discuss."

 

Ok. So, I'll keep it short:

 

No vote on role back

No vote on rebalance

Open to YOUR suggestions on improvements, that are not a rehash of numerous other threads

 

The game before ED, GDN, purple patch, aggro caps etc was not harder, it was wonky easy.

 

I get you, late game were all... SUPER. But it IS city of... You get me.

 

So, in short, the game is really at a good place and I'm always open to well researched and though out proposals, but not so keen on beating a dead horse.

Edited February 4, 2020 by SwitchFade

[MunkiLord]

23 minutes ago, Dark Bot said:

It will help to minimize the gap between IOs and SOs, creating greater balance. You will focus between the raw heightened stats of the single type ordinary IOs/SOs and the set bonus + multi stats of IOs. We will see possible 200% bonuses in damage powers, but at the sacrifice of recharge or endurance. 

I'm not sure minimizing the gap between IOs and SOs is a desirable goal though. IOs, especially sets, were created to be significantly more powerful than SOs. Acquiring the necessary IOs has been made significantly easier in Homecoming as well, so the gap only exists for people that either don't want to put in the effort or some people that just don't know/understand the system. For those that don't want to put in the effort, that's fine, that part just may not appeal to them. The ones that lack the knowledge will find it if and when their ready. Though I'm a fan of making the information even easier to acquire(not that I think it's a 'problem' now, but in the context of knowledge, more is better).

 

Plus at this point in a game's life such radical changes should generally be avoided. I'm not sure such a huge shift in balance and slotting would sit well with very many players at all. Plus if all the proposed changes were to be implemented it would only result in the game being made magnitudes easier, and I think that is the wrong direction to go, I just don't see any long term benefits.

[Dark Bot]

29 minutes ago, biostem said:

Perhaps you could clarify something for me;  With ED, enhancement values drop off sharply around the 95% mark for schedule A, and 56% for schedule B enhancements.  If we removed ED, and stuck with the value of IOs, then someone slotting level 50+ IOs, (or even IO sets), would far outpace someone with just SOs, even if you were no longer effectively limited to 3 of any particular type/value.  How would removing these "soft caps" benefit the non-IO/set user?

It would provide them the option to gain substantial values from say putting 3 /3 +50% increase enhancements for damage and accuracy. They would gave no set bonus values or mix values, but they would get automatic +150% dmg and acc in a power.

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by Dark Bot

[biostem]

15 minutes ago, Dark Bot said:

It would provide them the option to gain substantial values from say putting 3 /3 +50% increase enhancements for damage and accuracy. They would gave no set bonus values or mix values, but they would get automatic +150% dmg and acc in a power.

I'm not understanding;  +3 SOs only give up to about a 38% increase.  Are you talking about level 50 generic IOs?  Hami-O's?

[Dark Bot]

7 minutes ago, biostem said:

I'm not understanding;  +3 SOs only give up to about a 38% increase.  Are you talking about level 50 generic IOs?  Hami-O's?

Yes. Invention Origin generics.

[DSorrow]

Going to have to say no to ED rollback simply because I believe it will actually just widen the gap between SO and IO set users. Why? Well, most IO sets come with far more than the ED cap's worth of the main effect it's enhancing (Damage, Defense, etc), so in many cases you'll get both your set bonuses and far better enhancement value than you'd get with SOs. 

[Bossk_Hogg]

Definitely YES on purple patch with regards to debuffs.

 

Debuffs are flat out inferior to their corresponding buffs when hit by the purple patch wall. Look at to-hit vs defense buff. At even cons, a to-hit debuff of 10% and a defense buff of 10% both effectively lower the target's to-hit by 10%. Against +4's, the to-hit drops to 5%, while the defense buff keeps right on chugging at 10%. Against AV's they're truly pointless. Same with defense debuffs vs to-hit buffs. WHY?

 

Debuffs cause aggro, take more time to set up, require clumped enemies etc, and animation time each fight/target. Buffs tend to be fire and forget toggles or longer lasting clicks.

 

It's why debuffs are generally undervalued end game aside from -resistance. This needs to be addressed for debuffs and controls if we ever see higher difficulty settings. 

[Grouchybeast]

This is an odd combination of suggestions, because you're simultaneously proposing making the game a bit harder and much, much easier.  I think implementing all three would come out at 'much easier', while just the last two would be 'hilariously much easier, oh my God, any easier than this and people will be posting about how their cat accidentally soloed the MsLibTF while sleeping on the keyboard'.

[Razor Cure]

No thanks to the removal of ED from me. I didn't play back then, but as others here have said..it was basically super easy mode, all the time, for everyone. Perma hasten, double Stamina, attacks doing 200% damage.. I kinda compare that (roughly) to playing Warframe, where most 'enhancements' can go way way over 100% boosting, and the enemies can just scale up and up. Which really (in the context of WF) makes zero sense, since you are meant to be a super awesome space ninja, and yet are Maxed out at level 30 (sorta, since theres other stuff giving you more slots etc etc, so its more like a cap of 60+) while baddies can get to level 500! Same thing with CoX difficulty posts..we are, at 50, meant to be a super rare (sorta rare) Incarnate..and yet people are wanting +8 baddies..who would just BE the normal level 50 guys, but a higher level than we, as Incarnates, can actual;ly get too. So how do they get to 58?