[Beta] Patch Notes for February 29th, 2020 (Issue 26, Page 5 - Build 2)

[The Curator]

Issue 26, Page 5 (Build 2)

Testing Notes

• Changes from the previous build will be listed in green.
• Any changes or fixes that are only relevant to the beta builds (as in, not changes relevant to the live version of the game) will be listed in blue.
• Known issues that will be fixed in a future build will be listed in purple.
• Be sure to read the Homecoming Beta FAQ to get started!
• The beta server is now called Brainstorm and will be joined by Aeon once testing starts next week so we're able to ensure comparability with Homecoming's multi-shard live environment (remember when a patch caused character transfers to break everything? never again!).
• Cheats have been re-enabled. All characters on Brainstorm and Aeon will be granted badges to unlock Accolades, Epics, Incarnates, Ouroboros access and Vanguard merits; in addition, the Salvage ingredients have been removed from all recipes.
• The Safe Mode client is now gone from the Beta shards. If you are unable to play the game on the 32-Bit or 64-Bit clients, please post in the relevant support threads for it (Windows support thread, Mac support thread) as Safe Mode will no longer be available when Page 5 hits the live servers.

Please use these focused feedback threads:

• Focused Feedback: Experimentation
• Focused Feedback: Electrical Affinity - Powers
• Focused Feedback: Electrical Affinity - Name
• Focused Feedback: New IO Sets
• Focused Feedback: Dark Melee Update

Please note that Focused Feedback threads are heavily moderated to ensure they remain on topic. Any off-topic posts in these threads will be removed without warning.

 

New Origin Power Pool: Experimentation (Feedback Thread)

"Experimentation gives you access to poisonous ranged attacks as well as powers that boost your attack power and the survivability of your allies. This pool's travel power is Speed of Sound. While active, this power allows you to run at incredible speeds and also gives you access to the Jaunt power. Jaunt allows you to quickly teleport long distances once every so often."

• As a reminder: Only one Origin Pool (Sorcery, Force of Will, Experimentation) can be active in a build at any one time.

Powers

•  T1: Experimental Injection (Melee Ranged, Ally +Regeneration, +Recovery, +Res(Status))
  • You inject an ally with a compound that greatly boosts their regeneration, recovery and resistance to status effects for a short time. Recharge: Long
•  T2: Toxic Dart (Ranged, Minor DMG(Lethal), High DMG(Toxic))
  • You fire a toxic dart at your target causing an very minor amount of immediate lethal damage followed by a High amount of toxic damage over time. Recharge: Moderate
•  T3: Speed of Sound (Toggle: Self +Speed, (Special))
  • Your experiments have yielded incredible results. By activating this power, you're able to run at incredible speeds. In fact, while this power is active, you gain access to the Jaunt power. Jaunt allows you to teleport to a distant location once every short while.
  •  Jaunt (Click, Self Teleport)
    • Clicking on this power and then selecting a location will cause the caster to vanish and reappear at their target location. Recharge: Moderate
•  T4: Corrosive Vial (Ranged (Targeted AoE), High DoT(Toxic), -Defense)
  • You hurl a vial of toxic fluid that explodes upon impact leaving a corrosive puddle at your target's feet. Any foe that stands within the puddle will take toxic damage and have their defense reduced for a short while. Corrosive Vial requires you to have 2 powers from the Experimentation power pool. Damage: High (DoT), Recharge: Slow
•  T5: Adrenal Booster (Self, +To Hit, +Recharge, +Damage, +Special)
  • You inject yourself with a concentrated experimental serum that boosts your damage, recharge, chance to hit and secondary effects for a short time. Adrenal Booster requires you to have 2 powers from the Experimentation power pool. Recharge: Very Long

 

New Support Powerset: Electrical Affinity (Feedback Thread - Powers, Feedback Thread - Name)

"You are able to control and manipulate electricity to aid your allies and weaken your enemies. Some Electrical Affinity powers build Static, which increases the number of targets your Circuit powers can chain to. Others consume Static to increase their effectiveness."

• A shocking new support powerset brought to you by @Cipher, @Jimmy, @GuyPerfect and our resident powers guru @Captain Powerhouse.
• The set has been built around chaining powers and a stacking / combo system that's similar to those found in many of the more modern melee and ranged damage sets, with a focus on wide variety of buffs for the whole team as well as damage and endurance debuffs for your enemies.
• Electrical Affinity also introduces and makes use of a brand new mechanic which allows powers to dynamically change the number of targets they can hit - in this case, the four Circuit powers hit more targets for every stack of Static that you currently have.
• The set is currently available only as a Defender Primary. It will be ported to other support ATs after testing and feedback.
• Known issue, fixed in an upcoming build: Several "Shock Therapy" powers are appearing in the powers under Inherent Fitness.

 

---

 

Thank you for all the incredibly helpful feedback on this new powerset! We've heard your concerns about Circuit powers not being able to hit the caster and the set requiring a bit too much clicking, so we've gone ahead and made some changes:

1. Circuit powers can now jump back to the caster
2. Discharge has been replaced with Galvanic Sentinel, a debuffing pet

This is actually something of a rewind for us. Earlier versions of this powerset had summons and allowed Circuits to jump back to the caster, but we opted to remove the summons as they were taking over the identity of the set. This resulted in there being no reliable way to have Circuits jump back to the caster, so we then balanced the set around that not being possible (which included things like having a reliable Static spender in Discharge, and having Static heal you when consumed).

 

Now that Circuits are able to jump back to the caster again, we've removed the heal on Static consumption and have been able to replace Discharge with Galvanic Sentinel (a cute little ball of electricity that's BFFs with Voltaic Sentinel) which aids the overall identity of the set instead of eclipsing it.

 

Galvanic Sentinel helps us solve our two key problems:

1. It reduces the number of powers you need to regularly fire off to effectively use the set
2. It enables any AT / Powerset combo to reliably loop Circuit powers back to themselves (by targeting the Sentinel)

Galvanic Sentinel has a very simple function: It casts Discharge - yes, the power it replaced. The Sentinel will now fire this off at regular intervals so you don't have to. The lifetime of the Sentinel is determined by the number of Static stacks you consume when summoning it - from 30 seconds with no stacks to 80 seconds at 5 stacks.

 

Additionally, we've made Faraday Cage easier to use by halving the cast time and increasing the radius and duration, and Circuit powers will now intelligently prioritise jumping to specific targets depending on the circumstances.

 

Lastly, we've renamed the set from Shock Therapy to Electrical Affinity. We feel this new name is more in-keeping with the current roster of support powersets. If you wish to discuss the name change, please use this thread.

 

---

 

Changes to all Circuit Powers

• Circuit powers can now bounce back to the original caster
• Each jump will now prioritise the entity type of the original target
  • If you target a player, all jumps will prioritise players
  • If you target a pet, all jumps will prioritise pets
• The number of targets Circuit powers can hit is doubled at 5 stacks (increasing to 12 total)

Powers

•  T1: Shock (Ranged, Foe -End, -Recovery, -DMG, Self +Static)
  • Strike a single foe with a highly-charged electrical shock, draining some endurance and moderately reducing their recovery and damage output. Shock grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Moderate
•  T2: Rejuvenating Circuit (Ranged (Special), Ally Heal, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of healing energy between two nearby allies, healing them for a small amount. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to an additional ally, and the number of jumps will double at 5 stacks. Each successive jump along the chain will heal the next target for less. Rejuvenating Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Moderate
    • Rejuvenating Circuit will now prioritize jumping to low-health targets
•  T3: Galvanic Sentinel (Summon Galvanic Sentinel: Ranged Debuff Special)
  • Summons a Galvanic Sentinel to your aid. The Galvanic Sentinel shocks and weakens your foes. The duration of the Galvanic Sentinel scales with the number of stacks of Static you have. Galvanic Sentinel will consume all stacks of Static. The Galvanic Sentinel can be buffed and healed, and may be targeted with your Circuit powers. Recharge: Slow
    • This power has replaced Discharge
    • Known issue, fixed in an upcoming build: The Sentinel is inheriting +recharge, +range and -end cost from the summoner
    • Known issue, fixed in an upcoming build: The Sentinel is playing its on-the-ground VFX whilst in the air
    • Known issue, fixed in an upcoming build: Dark theme summon VFX isn't playing correctly
•  T4: Energizing Circuit (Ranged (Special), Ally +End, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of pure energy between two nearby allies, restoring a small amount of their endurance. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to an additional ally, and the number of jumps will double at 5 stacks. Each successive jump along the chain will restore less endurance to the next target. Energizing Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Slow
    • Energizing Circuit will now prioritize jumping to low-endurance targets
    • This power has been moved from T8 to T4
    • Known issue, fixed in an upcoming build: Energizing Circuit does not chain back to the caster
•  T5: Faraday Cage (Location (PBAoE), Team +Res(All DMG but Toxic, Status, Knockback, -Rech, -Rec, -End))
  • Create a large energy barrier at your location which provides all allies within resistance to all damage except Toxic. They are also protected from status effects, knockbacks, endurance drain, recovery debuffs and recharge debuffs. Casting this power again will move the energy barrier to your location. Recharge: Slow
    • Duration has been increased from 30s to 240s
    • Cast time reduces from 2.07s to 1.03s
    • Radius increased from 20ft to 25ft
    • Now grants resistance to all damage types apart from Toxic (instead of just Energy, Negative and Psionic)
    • The VFX has been softened up a bit to make it easier on the eye inside mission maps
    • The cage will no longer fall to the ground if cast midair
    • This power's icon has been updated
    • Known issue, fixed in an upcoming build: +Resistance enhancement are not functioning
•  T6: Empowering Circuit: (Ranged (Special), Ally +DMG, +Special, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of empowering energy between two nearby allies, increasing their damage output for a short time. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to an additional ally, and the number of jumps will double at 5 stacks. Each successive jump along the chain will empower the next target for less. Empowering Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Slow
    • Empowering Circuit no longer grants +special
    • This power has been moved from T4 to T6
•  T7: Defibrillate (Melee (Targeted AoE), Ally Rez, Self -Static)
  • Strike a defeated ally with a highly-charged jolt of electricity, reviving them and any other nearby defeated allies. The amount of health and endurance allies revive with scales with the number of stacks of Static you have. Defibrillate will consume all stacks of Static, and each stack consumed in this way will restore a small amount of your health and endurance. Recharge: Long
•  T8: Insulating Circuit (Ranged (Special), Ally +Absorb, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of protective energy between two nearby allies, granting them a small protective shield. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to an additional ally, and the number of jumps will double at 5 stacks. Each successive jump along the chain will shield the next target for less. Insulating Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Slow
    • Insulating Circuit will now prioritize jumping to low-health targets
    • This power has been moved from T6 to T8
    • This power's icon has been updated
•  T9: Amp Up (Ranged, Ally +Special, +Recharge, Self -Static)
  • Empower an ally with raw energy, causing all of their abilities to unleash chained bolts of electricity at nearby foes. These bolts drain a small amount of endurance and have a chance to knock up the target. Amp Up also moderately increases their attack rate and greatly boosts the secondary effects of their powers. Their power effects like heals, defense buffs, endurance drains, disorients, holds, immobilizes and more, are all improved. The recharge bonus of this power increases in strength with the number of stacks of Static you have. Amp Up will consume all stacks of Static, and each stack consumed in this way will restore a small amount of your health and endurance. Recharge: Very Long
•  Static (Circuit Boost, +Movement Speed)
  • Every stack of Static you have increases the number of targets your Circuit powers can chain to, as well as increasing your movement speed by a small amount, up to a maximum of 5 stacks. Casting Galvanic Sentinel, Defibrillate or Amp Up will consume all stacks of Static.
    • Consuming stacks of Static will no longer restore a small amount of your health and endurance.

 

New IO Sets (Feedback Thread)

•  Synapse's Shock (Endurance Modification, Rare, 21-50)
  • The first of two new Endurance Modification sets with a damage focus, designed to be useful in endurance-draining attack powers.
  • Enhancements: 
    • Endurance Modification
    • Damage / Recharge
    • Endurance Modification / Recharge
    • Damage / Recharge / Accuracy
    • Damage / Accuracy / Endurance Reduction
    • UNIQUE: Endurance Modification / 15% Increased Run Speed
  • Set Bonuses: 
    • 2: 7.5% Movement Speed
    • 3: 10% Slow Resistance
      • Reduced from 15% Slow Resistance
    • 4: 8% Regeneration
      • Increased from 4% Regeneration
    • 5: 6.25% Recharge
    • 6: 4.5% Energy / Negative Resistance + 7.5% Mez Resistance
•  Power Transfer (Endurance Modification, Rare, 21-50)
  • The second damage-focused Endurance Modification set.
  • Enhancements: 
    • Endurance Modification
    • Damage / Recharge
    • Endurance Modification / Damage
    • Damage / Accuracy / Endurance Reduction
    • Damage / Recharge / Accuracy / Endurance Reduction
    • UNIQUE: Chance to Heal Self (2 PPM)
  • Set Bonuses: 
    • 2: 6% Regeneration
    • 3: 1.35% Max Endurance
    • 4: 1.875% Max Health
    • 5: 9% Accuracy
    • 6: 7.5% Recharge
•  Preemptive Optimization (Endurance Modification, Uncommon, 21-50)
  • An Endurance Modification set with a focus on ally buff abilities that don't require accuracy or deal damage.
  • Enhancements: 
    • Endurance Modification / Recharge
    • Endurance Modification / Endurance Reduction
    • Endurance Modification / Recharge / Endurance Reduction
    • Endurance Modification / Recharge / Range
    • Recharge / Endurance Reduction / Range
    • Endurance Modification / Recharge / Endurance Reduction / Range
  • Set Bonuses: 
    • 2: 1.8% Max Endurance
    • 3: 1.5% Max Health
    • 4: 3% Toxic / Psionic Resistance + 5% Mez Resistance
    • 5: 3.75% Recharge
    • 6: 3.75% Ranged Defense + 1.875 Energy / Negative Defense
•  Bombardment (Targeted AoE, Rare, 30-50)
  • Enhancements: 
    • Damage
    • Accuracy / Recharge / Endurance
      • Swapped from Accuracy / Recharge
    • Damage / Recharge
    • Accuracy / Damage / Recharge
    • Accuracy / Damage / Recharge / Endurance Reduction
    • Chance for Fire Damage (3.5 PPM)
  • Set Bonuses: 
    • 2: 5% Increased Range
    • 3: 2.25% Smashing / Lethal Resistance + 3.75% Mez Resistance
    • 4: 7% Accuracy
      • Reduced from 9% Accuracy
    • 5: 5% Recharge
      • Reduced from 6.25% Recharge
    • 6: 3.75% Ranged Defense + 1.875 Energy / Negative Defense
• These sets are not yet available for free from the merit vendor for testing purposes. This will be rectified in an upcoming patch.
  • In the meantime you can use the /boost_set command with any of the following names to get a copy of the set:
    • Synapses_Shock
    • Power_Transfer
    • Preemptive_Optimization
    • Bombardment
  • For example, to get a level 50 set of Synapse's Shock:
    • /boost_set Synapses_Shock 50

 

Dark Melee Update (Feedback Thread)

• Dark Melee was seriously underperforming in the AoE department. These changes are aimed to increase the AoE potential of the set whilst having minimal impact on the single target potential.
• Shadow Maul (Tanker, Scrapper, Brute, Stalker) is now a much larger, faster cone that's actually capable of easily hitting multiple targets - especially on tanks!
  • Arc increased from 45 to 120 degrees
  • Recharge increased from 8 to 11 seconds
  • Cast Time reduced from 3.07 to 2.35 seconds
  • Damage lowered from scale 2.156 to 1.6184
    • DPS reduction is minor, it has only been lowered from scale 0.653 to scale 0.645
  • Target Cap increased from 10 to 16 for Tankers
  • Target Cap increased from 5 to 10 for Scrappers, Brutes and Stalkers
  • Changes from previous build:
    • Recharge reduced from 14 to 11 seconds
    • Endurance cost lowered to 11.024
    • Damage increased from scale 1.588 to scale 1.6184
    • Fixed a bug with Tanker and Brute versions of Fiery Embrace damage
    • Fixed a bug where Scrapper Boss Criticals were using PvP damage tables doing too much damage
• Dark Equilibrium (Tanker, Scrapper, Brute) has been reworked into a mini-nuke with a portion of its damage scaling based on your current Endurance percentage. At full Endurance, Dark Equilibrium will now deal similar damage to other melee mini-nukes (such as Lightning Rod).
  • Recharge lowered from 180 seconds to 90 seconds
    • This brings the cooldown in line with Lightning Rod
  • Endurance recovered per target lowered from 25 to 12.5
    • This maintains the previous endurance/recharge ratio
  • Damage for this power is now variable, with half the damage now scaling with the caster's current Endurance percentage
  • Changes from previous build:
    • Renamed to Dark Equilibrium
    • No longer crits for Scrappers
      • This brings it in line with other melee mini-nukes (Lightning Rod and Shield Charge) which also do not crit
    • Damage bonus to enemies within 3ft has been removed.
    • Damage formula adjusted:
      • Half the damage will now always apply, and is impacted by buffs and enhancements
      • Half the damage is now bonus damage that scales off of your Max endurance

 

General

• Powers with redirects will now display numbers properly in the detailed information window.

• Standardized combat spam for heal and endurance modification attributes.

• Standardized the text description denoting the recharge time of player powers:

  • Less or equal to 3s: Very Fast

  • More than 3s, less or equal to 6s: Fast

  • More than 6s less or equal to 10s: Moderate

  • More than 10s, less or equal to 60s: Slow

  • More than 60s, less or equal to 240s: Long

  • More than 240s, less or equal to 600s: Very Long

  • More than 600s: Extremely Long

• All players can now move through Mastermind henchmen and push them out of the way, not just their owners.
  • You're welcome.
• Chain powers now have a unique border, courtesy of @GuyPerfect:
  • Beam Rifle (Sentinel)
    •  Refractor Beam
  • Electric Control
    •  Jolting Chain
    •  Synaptic Overload
  •  Electric Melee
    •  Chain Induction
  • Electricity Mastery (Sentinel)
    •  Rehabilitating Circuit
  • Martial Assault
    •  Trick Shot

General Chat Channel

• A new 'General' channel has been added to the game.
• This is a new shard-wide channel like LFG and Help. The goal with adding this is to ensure that LFG and Help remain focused on their specific topics, with everything else being discussed in General.
• /general, /gen and /z can be used to send messages to General.

Mastermind Henchmen AI Updates

• Mastermind Henchmen set to Go To which are flagged as melee (Beast Mastery, Demon Summoning, etc) are now free to move within a 30' radius of the selected position in order to attack foes.
• Mastermind Henchmen set to Go To strongly prefer targets closer to the location they are supposed to be guarding.

 

Bug Fixes

• Fixed crashes relating to backend costume storage changes
• Fixed even more crashes relating to backend costume storage changes
• Alpha > Vigor Boost: Icon replaced with a colour corrected version that matches the rest of the Vigor powers
• Sorcery > Rune of Protection: VFX no longer persists after the power expires
• Potentially fixed an issue preventing some power customisation files from loading properly
• Fixed an issue that caused the General chat channel to not send messages without using one of the /slash commands

[WindDemon21]

Please reduce soul drains recharge to 90 seconds so that it lines up with dark equilibrium. Having more upfront buff of the first target would also be good for AV/ boss fights.

[WindDemon21]

Meant more loaded. And this forces the player to put all focus on doing so which is never good. At any rate how absurdly annoying it is how it's off by that few amount for literally no reason when it could be balanced at a 90 base recharge to line up with DE.

[Troo]

There likely will be another bounce before this is finalized.

 

See individual threads for feedback or to comment. They are linked in the original post by @The Curator and.. I guess this won't hurt:

 

Please use these focused feedback threads:

• Focused Feedback: Experimentation
• Focused Feedback: Electrical Affinity - Powers
• Focused Feedback: Electrical Affinity - Name
• Focused Feedback: New IO Sets
• Focused Feedback: Dark Melee Update

[Jimmy]

Please use the focused feedback thread if you wish to discuss the name, and please remain civil.

[BrandX]

Dark Equilibrium should Crit for Scrappers.  The reason those other mini nukes don't Crit, is because they're teleport attacks.  This isn't a teleport attack and it's damage is based on how much Endurance you have when you use it.

 

It should Crit.

[Troo]

/e facepalm

 

and laughing a little

[BillyMailman]

36 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

Please use the focused feedback thread if you wish to discuss the name, and please remain civil.

The patch notes say "If you wish to discuss the name change, please use this thread.". If that was meant to be a link to a specific thread, you didn't get the link in place.

 

Minor thing I noticed going through the patch notes: the big note about the Elec Affinity changes says that "we've removed the heal on Static consumption", but then Defibrilate and Amp Up both say "and each stack consumed in this way will restore a small amount of your health and endurance.", so I think those powers' descriptions need updating. Might just be in these patch notes, though, as I haven't been on the beta server to check the actual powers.

 

Oh, and as one last critique of the patch notes themselves: The changes to Dark Consumption now only refer to it as Dark Equilibrium. It's not a big deal, but probably something in there should actually say that it's a rename of Dark Consumption. Even having read the previous patch notes, I had to take a moment to make sure I knew which power was being renamed.

[EmperorSteele]

2 hours ago, The Curator said:

 T7: Defibrillate (Melee (Targeted AoE), Ally Rez, Self -Static)

• Strike a defeated ally with a highly-charged jolt of electricity, reviving them and any other nearby defeated allies. The amount of health and endurance allies revive with scales with the number of stacks of Static you have. Defibrillate will consume all stacks of Static, and each stack consumed in this way will restore a small amount of your health and endurance.

emphasis mine

2 hours ago, The Curator said:

Consuming stacks of Static will no longer restore a small amount of your health and endurance.

 

So, is that sentence in Defibrillator an accidental hold-over from old patch notes, or is it an exception to the second part I quoted?

 

[EDIT] Ninja'd by Billy while I was typing, grr!

Edited February 29, 2020 by EmperorSteele

[Novacat]

No experimentation changes yet?

 

The Electrical Affinity changes though seem really nice. Especially the sentinel usage.

[Donkyhotay]

The changes to the chain heals look good. Being able to chain back to yourself, along with prioritizing pets/players are going to make them more useful. 

[Bionic_Flea]

4 hours ago, The Curator said:

General Chat Channel

• A new 'General' channel has been added to the game.
• This is a new shard-wide channel like LFG and Help. The goal with adding this is to ensure that LFG and Help remain focused on their specific topics, with everything else being discussed in General.
• /general, /gen and /z can be used to send messages to General.

I'm not a fan.  I currently "live" on help channel and provide assistance when needed and chat when not.  If my chatting on help is going to be policed, I'll end up going to general and helping less.  I didn't even monitor the help channel and LFG channels when the game was live.  Petty?  Perhaps.  But it's accurate.

[Bopper]

5 minutes ago, Bionic_Flea said:

I'm not a fan.  I currently "live" on help channel and provide assistance when needed and chat when not.  If my chatting on help is going to be policed, I'll end up going to general and helping less.  I didn't even monitor the help channel and LFG channels when the game was live.  Petty?  Perhaps.  But it's accurate.

The problem with the general chatting on Help and LFG channels is that it often causes requests for assistance to be missed/overlooked as 5-10 conversations bury those requests. Personally, I'll probably still monitor all of the channels and will simply tab over to the help channel when responding to someone's question.

[Bionic_Flea]

On Excelsior I personally think that we've done a pretty good job of answering questions when asked while still continuing to have a conversation or goof around.

 

 

[Apparition]

15 minutes ago, Bopper said:

The problem with the general chatting on Help and LFG channels is that it often causes requests for assistance to be missed/overlooked as 5-10 conversations bury those requests. Personally, I'll probably still monitor all of the channels and will simply tab over to the help channel when responding to someone's question.

 

One of the very first things I did when Homecoming started was to remove the Help channel from my chat tabs so I can't speak to Help specifically, but yeah, every once in a while the LFG channel gets a bunch of spam that can drown out actual teaming requests.  I am all in favor of this change, so I can remove the General channel from my chat tabs as well when it goes live. :P

[Bopper]

8 minutes ago, Apparition said:

 

One of the very first things I did when Homecoming started was to remove the Help channel from my chat tabs so I can't speak to Help specifically, but yeah, every once in a while the LFG channel gets a bunch of spam that can drown out actual teaming requests.  I am all in favor of this change, so I can remove the General channel from my chat tabs as well when it goes live. 😛

Hopefully you'll return the help tab now that it will remove some of that dreadful spam.

[Bionic_Flea]

*Shrug*  Things happen.  People (and insects) adjust.  I think it's unfortunate.

 

Or maybe people will ignore general . . . we'll see what happens.

[Dropout]

Thank you to the HC team for all the time they volunteer to give us cool new stuff, and for listening to the community every step of the way.

[Neogumbercules]

3 hours ago, BrandX said:

Dark Equilibrium should Crit for Scrappers.  The reason those other mini nukes don't Crit, is because they're teleport attacks.  This isn't a teleport attack and it's damage is based on how much Endurance you have when you use it.

 

It should Crit.

I agree but CP explained in the other Focused Feedback thread that psuedopet powers can actually crit they are just designed not to. 

 

Of course I haven't had a chance to test yet but the new Dark Equilibrium sounds pretty underwhelming on paper now. 

[JayboH]

Brought over from the Alpha Server:

 

I don't think Empowering Circuit is hitting the caster, when I try it on the pet.

 

I noticed (I think) that Corrosive Vial, when corpse-blasting (target dies before animation finishes) might not appear which is a problem since it is a lingering AOE.

 

Can confirm that Faraday Cage is not granting enhanced resist values.

[Neo Nocturna]

9 hours ago, The Curator said:

General Chat Channel

• A new 'General' channel has been added to the game.
• This is a new shard-wide channel like LFG and Help. The goal with adding this is to ensure that LFG and Help remain focused on their specific topics, with everything else being discussed in General.

I'm not a fan of this addition either. A big problem with Help chat requests is that people ask vague questions or questions that can't be understood, either due to bad english or some other reason. These questions usually end up being ignored by most people regardless of whether or not people are having other conversations in chat, but if there are other conversations in chat, the people asking those questions immediately blame the non-responsiveness on the conversations. Too many times I see a question that isn't answered due to one of those reasons, the person asking follows up with something like "stop spamming Help chat, I need help", people actually stop to help this person, only for the person to just repeat their question unchanged and still nobody answers, or ends up being answered "I don't know, sorry" or "can't help you". Long story short, there are other reasons why questions go unanswered in Help chat, but it's always blamed on other conversations regardless.

 

Some people don't care about staying on topic either way because they're just looking to advertise as much as people and repeat their messages across multiple channels. I've sent tells to people using Help chat like it was LFG asking them to please use LFG, their responses being "more people see it if I put it in both channels". Adding a General chat just means they'll spam their messages across all three instead. Unfortunately, this is just the nature of global chat channels anywhere on the internet. People will use them however they please unless there's some heavily enforced policing going on.

[Grouchybeast]

51 minutes ago, Neo Nocturna said:

Some people don't care about staying on topic either way because they're just looking to advertise as much as people and repeat their messages across multiple channels. I've sent tells to people using Help chat like it was LFG asking them to please use LFG, their responses being "more people see it if I put it in both channels". Adding a General chat just means they'll spam their messages across all three instead. Unfortunately, this is just the nature of global chat channels anywhere on the internet. People will use them however they please unless there's some heavily enforced policing going on.

Perhaps it depends on the server?  On Reunion, the vast majority of the help requests go in the Help channel, and the vast majority of group requests go in LFG.  I have seen help requests get swamped in general chat sometimes, even though people are very determined to help (sometimes to the point where I wonder if the enthusiastic avalanche of information ever scares people away :-).  But based on how people already use the existing channels, I think a Group chat will be used and be useful.

[MetaVileTerror]

I mean . . . my attempts to get people to chat in /ac or /ma instead of /h and /lfg has never really took root on Everlasting, and I believe the reason for that is those two channels aren't typically enabled for most players.  So, unless the /z (General) channel gets forcibly inserted in to players' existing chat tabs, there's a good chance that it will go unused simply because people will not be seeing the messages being sent there.

[Bionic_Flea]

30 minutes ago, MetaVileTerror said:

my attempts to get people to chat in /ac or /ma

Pardon my ignorance: what channels are those?  Arena maybe? I have no idea on the /ma.

[Jimmy]

7 hours ago, MetaVileTerror said:

I mean . . . my attempts to get people to chat in /ac or /ma instead of /h and /lfg has never really took root on Everlasting, and I believe the reason for that is those two channels aren't typically enabled for most players.  So, unless the /z (General) channel gets forcibly inserted in to players' existing chat tabs, there's a good chance that it will go unused simply because people will not be seeing the messages being sent there.

It will get automatically added using the same mechanism that added /lfg to existing characters when it was added. (note that this has a minor bug and general chat will not show up until your second log in with a character, but it's a one-time only issue).