Focused Feedback: Power Changes (Release Candidates)

[Mezmera]

2 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

 

I actually misread that post originally, so I hid that response. It's possible, but it's not exactly an easy thing to do for a non-time character.

 

I just find it humorous that some people think they're the arbiter of what's a deserved nerf and what's not. If I wanted to, I could make a fire/fire blaster and destroy the entire game by pressing burn with perma hasten, high resists, softcapped defenses and all the standard pool choices.

 

But if someone has high rune of protection uptime, it's now a problem? Get real. This game isn't balanced, it never will be balanced, let people try different things.

 

Sorry I just logged into game and tested it so I wasn't blowing smoke up your you know the thing.  

 

Anywho it recharges at 154s so juuuuuussttt over the mark so I AM a liar.  I do have Agility alpha so recharge is well overslotted internally on this power plus all of my global recharge.  

[ScarySai]

7 minutes ago, Mezmera said:

 

Sorry I just logged into game and tested it so I wasn't blowing smoke up your you know the thing.  

 

Anywho it recharges at 154s so juuuuuussttt over the mark so I AM a liar.  I do have Agility alpha so recharge is well overslotted internally on this power plus all of my global recharge.  

 

Yeah, I have an old min/maxed fire/time build that has it at 145s that I double checked just now.

 

Hilariously broken? Yes. Something so outstandingly broken that it had to be reigned in? Eh, no.

[Dahkness]

I really like the MM update! The pace of it seems like it’ll be a little bit faster! 

Edited March 24, 2021 by Dahkness

[America's Angel]

After testing out rooting changes on Mighty Leap, I would like to suggest that [Takeoff] have the foe knockdown element removed, so that it can then in turn have its rooting removed.

 

It's a movement based power. It rooting me feels counterintuitive. (Also having to be grounded to activate it kinda sucks. None of the other popup tray movement powers have this restriction.)

 

Edit: Wrong thread.

Edited March 24, 2021 by America's Angel

[SwitchFade]

2 hours ago, ScarySai said:

 

I actually misread that post originally, so I hid that response. It's possible, but it's not exactly an easy thing to do for a non-time character.

 

I just find it humorous that some people think they're the arbiter of what's a deserved nerf and what's not. If I wanted to, I could make a fire/fire blaster and destroy the entire game by pressing burn with perma hasten, high resists, softcapped defenses and all the standard pool choices.

 

But if someone has high rune of protection uptime, it's now a problem? Get real. This game isn't balanced, it never will be balanced, let people try different things.

No one thinks they are an arbiter, this is a bit heavy handed, dontchathink?

 

Difference of opinion is grand, but perhaps a bit more tact would be in order?

[ScarySai]

I wouldn't call it heavy handed, it's just the truth. People are so convinced this is outrageous and needs to be nerfed, yet haven't ever used the power and don't understand the limitations of it. 

 

Meanwhile, I could just do a bunch of other OP things with the slots that would have otherwise been used to take rune.

[nihilii]

12 hours ago, arcane said:

Powergamers tend to settle on things they have calculated to be maximally optimal. In this game, they’ve pretty much decided that is limited to pool options with optimal +defense and +recharge utility. 
 

There is a vast gulf between “not maximally optimal” in that sense and “not potent, useful, or worthwhile”. You may only realize this when you actually bother to forego some of the powergamers’ choices once in awhile; some people will never see it because their brain simply throws an error when you tell them they don’t need soft capped defense and all 5 LotG bonuses to do exceptionally well.

 

EDIT: saw your mention of Poison builds with RoP. I have 6 level 50 Poisons and I would be completely comfortable scrapping without Clarion, Melee, or RoP. So... not sure how that’s meant to be convincing.

There is an age old forum subculture of pretending to be somewhat better than the riffraff of "powergamers" by virtue of doing things differently. But difference for the sake of difference does not make one clever. A truly open mind evaluates all choices, and does not settle on something unusual for the sake of being a special snowflake. It takes much harder work to genuinely strive for the best option in a particular combination, than to be a surface contrarian and avoid the perceived best option.

 

Doing exceptionally well has little value because it is subjective. Anyone could do exceptionally well using a Defender with no other powers besides unslotted Brawl, if their definition of "exceptionally well" is "soloing most content available at base reputation". It's better to reach for quantifiable metrics; an imperfect figure beats no figure at all. Does this power let me do task X under conditions Y? Does this other power improve my time or my survivability at said task under said conditions? Those are points that can be compared and discussed.

 

The RoP nerf will affect Poison builds who incidentally don't rely on softcapped defense at all, and instead opted for an unorthodox approach of resistance + damage debuffs. Repeat for emphasis, this WILL push more builds into cookiecutter territory. So to sneer at implied low brow powergaming and cheer for the RoP nerf in the same breath is somewhat bizarre. It's a "pick one" situation, not a "have your cake and eat it too".

 

Especially as if performance doesn't matter, then there's no need to nerf the performance of RoP!

 

I will happily don the mask of the low brow "powergamer" here. This change makes things easier for me. I won't consider Sorcery anymore, and instead stick to the 4 mentioned pools above. So slightly easier building. Less diversity. Boring.

 

[Replacement]

6 hours ago, nihilii said:

There is an age old forum subculture of pretending to be somewhat better than the riffraff of "powergamers" by virtue of doing things differently. But difference for the sake of difference does not make one clever. A truly open mind evaluates all choices, and does not settle on something unusual for the sake of being a special snowflake. It takes much harder work to genuinely strive for the best option in a particular combination, than to be a surface contrarian and avoid the perceived best option.

 

Doing exceptionally well has little value because it is subjective. Anyone could do exceptionally well using a Defender with no other powers besides unslotted Brawl, if their definition of "exceptionally well" is "soloing most content available at base reputation". It's better to reach for quantifiable metrics; an imperfect figure beats no figure at all. Does this power let me do task X under conditions Y? Does this other power improve my time or my survivability at said task under said conditions? Those are points that can be compared and discussed.

 

The RoP nerf will affect Poison builds who incidentally don't rely on softcapped defense at all, and instead opted for an unorthodox approach of resistance + damage debuffs. Repeat for emphasis, this WILL push more builds into cookiecutter territory. So to sneer at implied low brow powergaming and cheer for the RoP nerf in the same breath is somewhat bizarre. It's a "pick one" situation, not a "have your cake and eat it too".

 

Especially as if performance doesn't matter, then there's no need to nerf the performance of RoP!

 

I will happily don the mask of the low brow "powergamer" here. This change makes things easier for me. I won't consider Sorcery anymore, and instead stick to the 4 mentioned pools above. So slightly easier building. Less diversity. Boring.

 

 

And if we buff the others to 90 seconds, does that mean we roll back the change to the Resist condition? Do we make reactive users continue to not gain Resistance?

 

If no (do not roll back, keep unconditional resistance), that's a buff to a power that's already providing a lot of benefit many builds cannot get elsewhere. 

 

If yes (roll back, you only gain resistance if you were not mezzed at the time of activation), it's a punishment for weak builds in the quest for "build diversity" only felt by the power gaming minority.

[nihilii]

1 hour ago, Replacement said:

If no (do not roll back, keep unconditional resistance), that's a buff to a power that's already providing a lot of benefit many builds cannot get elsewhere. 

 

If yes (roll back, you only gain resistance if you were not mezzed at the time of activation), it's a punishment for weak builds in the quest for "build diversity" only felt by the power gaming minority.

To me, your "if no" argues performance matters, your "if yes" argues performance doesn't matter. My opinion remains the same: consistency is needed here.

 

If performance doesn't cause any build diversity for the greater portion of the playerbase, then there is no harm in giving RoP an added boost (that could qualify as a bugfix).

[siolfir]

For all of the "squishies shouldn't get full-time mez protection because of all of the other things they get for being squishy" talk, I'd like to point out that RoP is a build decision that locks you out of other choices and doesn't provide full-time protection even at the longer duration. APP Indomitable Will provides 90 seconds of mez protection on a 360 base recharge instead of 600 seconds, but I guess it's fine because it's only available at level 35 with no prerequisites and "only" provides 22.5% psi defense?

 

Other actually full-time "squishy" options are perma-Dom, Sonic Resonance, Force Fields, Traps, and Electrical Affinity. Trick Arrow also gets mez protection, Radiation Emission can significantly reduce duration for themselves (permanently at high recharge), and Blasters can ignore mez for their low-tier powers.

 

Why shouldn't squishies who heavily invest in a pool get a nice uptime on RoP, given the full-time options available to many other "squishy" sets?

[Replacement]

16 minutes ago, nihilii said:

To me, your "if no" argues performance matters, your "if yes" argues performance doesn't matter. My opinion remains the same: consistency is needed here.

 

If performance doesn't cause any build diversity for the greater portion of the playerbase, then there is no harm in giving RoP an added boost (that could qualify as a bugfix).

And 90 seconds on those other powers will be sufficient to improve diversity? Or do they need further buffs as well?

 

If we buff them further, will origin pools thus become more or less mandatory?

 

--

 

I take strong issue with the suggestion that "Performance doesn't matter" for lower end builds.  It matters that options are fun and impactful with 0% global recharge and SOs as readily as when fully enhanced.  I won't endorse a claim that performance doesn't matter to a player still not fully Setted out or - gasp - leveling.  Kneecapping that experience for the benefit of a high end build doesn't seem like a winning strategy. 

 

Of course, "the best of both worlds" is an option (90s and no resistance penalization) and I think ultimately where we'll end up. My first half of this post is asked earnestly - will the 90s bump to the others be enough and will there be negative consequences to player expectations?

 

[Sidenote: the "no resistance if used as a break free" was initially a design decision and is not a bug.]

[EnjoyTheJourney]

Regarding poison builds, there was an alternative build posted to defender forum to the RoP / melee core hybrid build mentioned by Frosticus in his guide on poison. IIRC it was based around clarion, the fighting pool, hasten, and leadership powers. In other words, it's a cookie cutter build. That's where most poison builds would move if the RoP duration nerf finds its way out of beta and into the core game. 

 

To echo an idea mentioned by ScarySai, "different" doesn't mean "better." My poison build gets defeated more often than several other builds I have. For example, my more cookie-cutter, hover blasting stormies survive better and also help teams move noticeably faster. Hell, my storm / water / electric defender has often solo'd one side of the final ITF mission at +4x8 while 7 other teammates run the other side. It's a race to see which one can make it to Rom faster. The team usually, but not always, wins that race. Even when they win it's usually not by much (in truth, when racing a stronger team some mobs get left behind to stay closer to even with the team, but in a 1 defender vs 7 teammates race that's still not a bad result). I regularly get comments along the lines of "I've never seen a defender do that much damage" because that character is usually ahead of the tank decimating spawns with a FR - nuke - other AOE - two-tornadoes-in-tow, then-drop-a-lightning-storm-to-help-with-cleanup-combo before the team arrives. I seldom get such comments for my poison defender; she's also usually ahead of the tank, but she doesn't destroy spawns at the same rate my storm defender does.  

 

Part of why I like my poison / fire / soul defender isn't because she's mechanically my strongest character, but because she isn't a cookie cutter. A lot of the fun and yes, even joy that comes from playing a build like that comes from the experience of needing to think differently when playing them. The two characters I have that would have their plan for mez protection gutted by the RoP duration change would probably just get shelved if the change on beta goes live. They'd probably be replaced by other cookie cutter builds, if they're replaced at all. 

Edited March 24, 2021 by EnjoyTheJourney

[nihilii]

45 minutes ago, Replacement said:

And 90 seconds on those other powers will be sufficient to improve diversity? Or do they need further buffs as well?

To be fair, 90 seconds is your suggestion, not mine. If we're getting on that topic, I personally feel we need to buff everything to 120 seconds, not 90. Then datamine and see if it moved the needle on the overprevalence of Speed/Jumping/Fighting/Leadership.

 

But that's my personal and possibly extreme opinion on balance. My main take here was it's absurd to cheer for a nerf to a rare power on the basis "munchkins" enjoy +defense and +recharge bonuses. Exactly the things you give up, at least in part, when you switch things up and go for Sorcery.

 

45 minutes ago, Replacement said:

I take strong issue with the suggestion that "Performance doesn't matter" for lower end builds. 

You and me both! That suggestion would be the opposite of my perspective. I believe performance always matter, and that it's illogical to invent arbitrary exclusions to the notion performance matters based on a supposed and ill-defined caste of low brow powergamers.

There is nothing about nerfing RoP that specifically penalizes high end builds and specifically benefits low end builds. The duration should matter even more to a low end build, who doesn't have the benefit of high recharge or possible synergies with T9s and Hybrid. There is a much longer antimez gap to bridge.

 

It's likely a non-zero number of players have picked RoP as a reactive breakfree to be used rarely enough the duration change wouldn't matter, and it's possible a non-zero number of players within that previous population would enjoy the extra resistance more. But I'm not sure it's plausible that final number of players outnumbers the number of players who use RoP preemptively and/or prefer the resistance than the antimez and/or would prefer longer duration rather than resistance.

 

If anything, my level 20 on SOs is much more likely to want everything he can get out of RoP. I'm going to milk that 90s duration for every second to take down an elite boss or to beat up a large group. Whereas the few level 50s running RoP/Hybrid/RoP/gap will, in practice, quite often NOT click the rotation religiously, content in their many other tools to deal with situations either proactively or reactively.

 

I hear you on impactful choices. That's the thing. Unleash Potential and Adrenal Booster hardly qualify, as is. Maybe RoP at 120s would be too strong. I don't know, I don't particularly care. Let me rephrase the entire point actually... We're factory workers arguing about who got a salary raise, while Hasten and his buddies are funneling billions to their offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands.

 

The power pool balance tends to go something like this:

 

A+++ tier COMBAT JUMPING

A++ Hasten

A+ Tough/Weave

A Maneuvers/Assault/Tactics

...

B Rune of Protection (MIGHT sometimes bump to A in specific conditions)

C/D Everything else

 

So yeah, RoP is significantly better than AB or UP right now. Buffing RoP can sound crazy in that microcosm. But in the greater land of power pools, you will not convince me the RoP buff is going to impact choices any. AB and UP don't even give mez protection anyway, so if the catch for you is mez protection (which is likely if you want to use it reactively, which is where the buff will benefit you), you're getting RoP regardless.

 

I'm good with buffing AB and UP to 120s and leaving RoP to 90s. I'm good with any experimentation upwards with these underpicked picks.

Let's move the needle, and let's not destroy builds players are attached to.

 

(I'm honestly indifferent to the nerf on a personal level. I shy away from my few RoP/Hybrid/RoP alts because I don't like to manage my mez protection so actively. It's easier to just chomp on amplifiers, or heck, just play a Scrapper/Tanker rather than a squishie which is honestly my choice 90% of the time. Nerfing RoP duration will just cement that playstyle for me.)

Edited March 24, 2021 by nihilii

[SwitchFade]

So, why exactly is 60 seconds not enough? Why does it have to be 90? Why do squishies need nearly complete mez protection? What's the issue with not steamrolling? Why is the gap so bad? Why should that 1 power by so overtuned?

 

Is it absolutely necessary to faceroll everything on a blaster with no fear of status.... And then half the community complains about how afkeasy the game is? What's the issue with changing tactics when it's down for 60 seconds? When a blaster nuke is down, should the player changes tactics? Perhaps we should reduce nuke recharge to 10 seconds so we can just spam it? RoP is part of a build, not the overriding defining facet that makes a squishy ignore mez in whole.

 

Status effects are part of the game, squishies should be affected by it, they get many benefits that balance that fact, this is an MMo where teaming is a core concept, and not every build is supposed to be solo facetank lol no-mez blaster level damage 100% of the time. RoP at 60 seconds up is an incredible part of a build. Now, uptuned other pools to match.

[SwitchFade]

I do understand the feeling that 60 seconds is short irrespective of recharge or uptime.....

 

So @Captain Powerhouse and @Jimmy, here's a scenario under which I would, as a humble player, advocate for a return to 90 seconds:

 

1. Move the power to tier 2 of the sorcery pool

2. Set duration to 90 seconds

3. Set to ignore recharge enhancement from all sources

4. Set recharge to 220 seconds.

 

There. We get 90 seconds up time and then it's down for 130 seconds (total of 220 from click}. 40% uptime with a longer duration. Willpower T9 ignores recharge, yes?

 

I would yes vote a return to 90 seconds in this scenario, otherwise, 60 seconds is a good balance point, where one can reach 40% up time.

 

Edit: oops fixed maths 😄🤯

Edited March 24, 2021 by SwitchFade

[arcane]

1 hour ago, SwitchFade said:

I do understand the feeling that 60 seconds is short irrespective of recharge or uptime.....

 

So @Captain Powerhouse and @Jimmy, here's a scenario under which I would, as a humble player, advocate for a return to 90 seconds:

 

1. Move the power to tier 2 of the sorcery pool

2. Set duration to 90 seconds

3. Set to ignore recharge enhancement from all sources

4. Set recharge to 220 seconds.

 

There. We get 90 seconds up time and then it's down for 130 seconds (total of 220 from click}. 40% uptime with a longer duration. Willpower T9 ignores recharge, yes?

 

I would yes vote a return to 90 seconds in this scenario, otherwise, 60 seconds is a good balance point, where one can reach 40% up time.

 

Edit: oops fixed maths 😄🤯

Rest is fine but not sure I like the idea of moving it to T2. 

[Jacke]

13 hours ago, SwitchFade said:

So, why exactly is 60 seconds not enough? Why does it have to be 90? Why do squishies need nearly complete mez protection? What's the issue with not steamrolling? Why is the gap so bad? Why should that 1 power by so overtuned?

 

Is it absolutely necessary to faceroll everything on a blaster with no fear of status.... And then half the community complains about how afkeasy the game is? What's the issue with changing tactics when it's down for 60 seconds? When a blaster nuke is down, should the player changes tactics? Perhaps we should reduce nuke recharge to 10 seconds so we can just spam it? RoP is part of a build, not the overriding defining facet that makes a squishy ignore mez in whole.

 

Status effects are part of the game, squishies should be affected by it, they get many benefits that balance that fact, this is an MMo where teaming is a core concept, and not every build is supposed to be solo facetank lol no-mez blaster level damage 100% of the time. RoP at 60 seconds up is an incredible part of a build. Now, uptuned other pools to match.

 

So it's either steamroll or perma-Mez to death?!?

 

If squishies should be affected by Mez, why not all ATs?  Reduce all status protection on all ATs so if they get two mob Mezzes, they get affected.  Have them enjoy their agency in the game suddenly taken away and having few tools to deal with it.

 

Or how about taking the solution for Blasters and give it to all squishy ATs: T1 and T2 Blasts on Defenders, Corruptors, Controllers, and Dominators can be used despite Mez and give them an ATO Enhancement that builds a Mez shield allowing them to burn their way out of Mez when it stops them cold.  Instead of just having to suck it up and die.

 

The problem is Mez.  Players want a better solution than paying up to 2.5 million Inf/hour for Defensive Amplifiers.  Nerfing Rune duration weakens one of the main Mez mitigation tools.

 

Fixing the issues with Mez even partly will be hard.  But that's an area that should be addressed sooner rather than later.

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Jacke

[GM Kaiju]

Stay on topic and constructive folks.

[ScarySai]

4 hours ago, SwitchFade said:

Is it absolutely necessary to faceroll everything on a blaster with no fear of status.... And then half the community complains about how afkeasy the game is?

 

Most blasters that do this would laugh at the notion of taking rune to begin with?

 

Rune isn't popular, I really can't stress this enough. This forum would be a firestorm right now if it was on the same level as say, hasten or CJ.

 

You could remove the power from the game entirely and this would have no impact on the high end meta.

 

But it would lower build diversity, one of the game's strongest selling points.

Edited March 24, 2021 by ScarySai

[Moka]

As someone who one of their main chars is a blaster, the RoP change is a long time coming. My blaster is absolutely godmode at level 50 and sturdier than even some of my tankers in dealing with things like +4/x8 Arachnos with the sturdiness and DPS combined. 

[ScarySai]

You are seriously overestimating the power of rune. I don't really understand this contempt for the power.

 

As has been pointed out to you already, there's a myriad of ways to avoid status effects without rune. Of the two builds I have with it, I'm more interested in the resist because the mez protection does nothing for me.

 

Hell, if you could pull me a build that uses rune of power, I 100% promise you I could remove the power and make it just as, if not more OP than before.

 

Again, this power isn't meta. High end blasters don't need it. It's a nice off-meta ability, nothing more.

 

(quick edit: this isn't replying to Moka, the original post was hidden.)

Edited March 25, 2021 by ScarySai

[AerialAssault]

Mez Protection is not a system of 'haves and have nots'. The Live Devs didn't roar in mocking laughter as they decided that Defenders do not get inherent Mez Protection. Nor did they absent-mindedly forget. It was an informed decision backed up by game design theory.

 

City of Heroes has clearly defined classes, in clearly defined roles. A Tanker cannot buff to the same degree a Defender can, and a Defender cannot take the heat in the same way a Tanker can. There are exceptions, but these are usually exceptions backed up with a lot of character investment and a canny player at the keyboard. This is the way the game has been constructed since Issue 0.

 

Ask yourself this; why is it in D&D that a Wizard doesn't get heavy armour training? Wouldn't it be considered unfair that Fighters get something (Armour Class) that is required to survive in a fight while Wizards do not? No, they're designed that way because Wizards can do things that Fighters cannot, and vice versa. In CoH, it is much the same way. 

 

As I usually say in these topics, if you keeping getting defeated, it's not a fault with the game, you're simply punching above your weight and getting smacked for it. Max difficulty solo is not a requirement for any character to be playable. If you keep finding yourself faceplanting, consider how you can change your approach rather than demanding the game make up for your own failings.

 

I want to be honest, a reconstruction of Rune of Protection was in order. As with Titan Weapons, these were artefacts of the Live devs development, and late development at that. As such, they hadn't been put through any type of rigorous testing, and if we're honest with ourselves, the Live Devs were encouraging power creep. Most of the post-GR powersets are clearly better than their predecessors i.e. Titan Weapons & Bio Armour, and I would like to see them brought in line. Rampant power creep leads to more people, ironically, coming to the forums and complaining that there is no challenge left in the game. Challenge comes from two places; the player's limitations and the abilities of their foes. Removing player limitations creates a massive imbalance, and we can see by the Live Devs attempts to bring up the latter that you end up with enemies whose power far exceed those of the players just in order to challenge them.

 

Wow I didn't intend this to be as long a post as it ended up being but there you go. I hope people read it and earnestly take into consideration what I've said.

[Moka]

1 minute ago, AerialAssault said:

 

I want to be honest, a reconstruction of Rune of Protection was in order. As with Titan Weapons, these were artefacts of the Live devs development, and late development at that. As such, they hadn't been put through any type of rigorous testing, and if we're honest with ourselves, the Live Devs were encouraging power creep. Most of the post-GR powersets are clearly better than their predecessors i.e. Titan Weapons & Bio Armour, and I would like to see them brought in line. 

 

 

I whole heartedly agree. Matt "Positron" Miller had stated himself in one of the AMAs that he was wanting people to stop making alts and focus on one character. If you're to take that design philosophy in mind with a linear experience, they truly were trying to reel in the amount of powers that would be viable. Radiation Armor is nearly uncontested as a resist set, just as Bio Armor is as an all-around set. Titan Weapon's pre-nerf AOE damage was bonkers. I think they truly were trying to bring the game into a "Play it this way or else" mindset, which is where City of Heroes awkwardly fell off on and it's up to Homecoming to undo the mess Paragon started. Unfortunately, in the two years Homecoming's been active, it's become something people are used to and the idea of being slightly less "good" is terrifying to them. But I have to applaud that Homecoming rarely does nerfs without also buffing something about whatever they're nerfing, too.

[scottocamp]

Seems like three different debates playing out here:

 

1.  Should certain AT's (like Blasters) have access to as much mez protection as RoP currently offers?  Does offering a 90 second RoP to squishies throw the game out of balance?   Is RoP "over-tuned"?  My personal opinion (and one others have stated better than me) is that the ship has long sailed on this debate.  I have proc'ed out tanks that do insane damage, blasters with capped defense and resistance, controllers capable of clearing maps faster than brutes, and so on.  Set bonuses, temp powers, amplifiers, epic pool powers, incarnate powers and more long ago blurred the lines between AT's.  Some may consider that a bad thing.  I honestly feel it is one of the best aspects of CoH.  The ability to create something unique - a concept and toon that no one else has.  I think that is what hooks people on the game.  Your character is not just a dwarf with an axe that has the exact same powers as every other  dwarf with an axe.

2.  Should pool powers by design be inferior choices?  My personal opinion is that the game is improved by giving players more choices, more opportunity for creativity and allowing for more build diversity.  So I favor strong pool power options.  I don't really see the point of a power like Aid Self as it currently stands.  You have to dedicate two power choices to add it to a build, it is interruptible, it takes 4.33 seconds to cast, you have to basically 6-slot the power to make it marginally useful while there is an inexpensive temp power that does roughly the same thing that is not interruptible, has a 3.33 second cast time and does not require any dedicated power choices.  And there are many pool powers like Aid Self.  I don't believe the game would be harmed by offering pool powers as powerful as the existing primary, secondary and epic powers one would have to forego to be able to choose such pool powers. 

3.  How should pool powers be balanced?  The only way to balance pool powers, in my opinion, is based on usage/popularity.  It is naive to think powers are chosen or not chosen independent of the utility of that power.  Players prefer and choose strong and useful powers and avoid weak and less useful powers.  There is a huge correlation between the relative strengths of pool powers and the relative usage/popularity of those pool powers.  If you want to balance pool powers and reduce the likelihood that nearly every build has Hasten and Combat Jumping, then you need to make other pool powers desirable.  The Sorcery Pool, at present, is not especially desirable.  No evidence has been provided, at least, to demonstrate that it is very popular.  Comparing Arcane Bolt, Mystic Flight and Rune of Protection against Maneuvers, Tactics and Assault demonstrates why.  RoP is better than any Leadership Pool power but you have to take three Sorcery powers to access RoP.  And three Sorcery Pool powers *as a group* does not compare especially favorably against three Leadership Pool powers as a group.  And those three Sorcery powers as a group are almost never going to compare favorably against any three primary, secondary and epic powers.  Reducing the utility of RoP just makes the Sorcery Pool even less desirable.  I fully support Nihili's proposal to increase the utility of pool powers like Unleash Potential and then data-mine to see the effect.  Raise other powers up so that Combat Jumping and Hasten are not such obvious choices.

For me - only about 10% of my builds even use RoP.  My melee-centric toons will be largely unaffected.  But I strongly feel it is does not help the game to reduce build options.  Continue adding strong powers like Fold Space instead of reducing the utility of a pool power like RoP.  I would honestly be fine if RoP was nerfed if the rest of the Sorcery Pool was improved.  Anything to offset the current Hasten/Combat Jumping/Tough/Weave/Maneuvers/Tactics stranglehold.

Edited March 24, 2021 by scottocamp

[Moka]

Martial combat's entire set purpose is that it has a break free and tons of survivability/debuff potential for survival. If blasters got inherent mez protection, martial would need a complete re-work as it lacks a build up to balance the fact it's probably one of the sturdier blaster secondaries.