Focused Feedback: Pool Powerset Revamp: Sorcery

[Wavicle]

6 minutes ago, Flask said:

 

Comparing a level 20 option to a level 50 Incarnate as an alternative shows a fundamental disconnect.

It’s not a disconnect. The fact that Clarion is not available until 50 demonstrates why it is OP for RoP to be available as is at 20.

[Carnifax]

 

1 hour ago, Bopper said:

There seems to be a big fuss over a normal small sample polling. The folks who participated in that poll are the same folks participating in these forums so it's not exactly a separate source of input. It's not practical to poll absolutely everyone, even those who participate on the forums are not a majority of the game's population. So no matter where you perform a poll, it will always be a subset of the population. But that's fine, you take enough of a sample from the population and you get a general feel for preference.

 

Folks also seem to be overreacting over the lack of context to that poll. It was simply a question of wanting to try something different (based on feedback from the forums) and polling the audience on which option it preferred. C was to leave the changes as they currently were on Beta, B was to cut the duration and cooldown in half from what was currently on Beta, and A was to set the duration and recharge to a fixed value that would be usable more frequently but without as long of a duration. From those 3 options it was caveat that it was experimental only and whatever would get tested on Beta could immediately get reverted.

 

So option A won out, and we've been testing it on Beta. Everyone on the forums has had a chance to try the new changes and provide their feedback. So if you missed out on a poll, it doesn't matter. You can still test and provide feedback and tell the developers what you prefer. It's not like it hit Live yet, things are clearly still being worked on.

^ This. In the original thread I was one of the people banging on about the rest of the set being trash and needing a buff. And there was changes made to try and do that. I appreciate that.

 

Arcane and Enflame are definitely better.

• Arcane is worthwhile now on certain chars (Controllers for one). I still think it's overcomplex but hey.
• Spirit : I'm ambiviant about. Another toggle is a bit arrgh and it's not doing the job I got it for, the role has changed to make it less effective as a reactive tool, its more of a surivival buff now. It also drops every time you change floors / maps. It also has a weird sound loop issue if you switch targets. 
• Enflame I'm still not sold on but it is better than it was. I'll do a test & parse later with a 6 slotted version. 
• RoP changes I still don't like but I've said that enough now. FX are a bit much, NoFX doesnt seem to be working and the NoRecharge was done like Widows Mind Link, not OWTS. I would say that the state of it now probably means it's now a "throw one of the Resist uniques into it and forget about it" rather than something you'd bother slotting. 

 

Would I take it ahead of something like Fighting? Actually yes, for certain builds. Probably mainly low damage controllers it's a decent alternative. Not sure how many others would need it.  

Edited April 8, 2021 by Carnifax
Forgot the looping sound issue with Ward

[DreadShinobi]

1 minute ago, Wavicle said:

It’s not a disconnect. The fact that Clarion is not available until 50 demonstrates why it is OP for RoP to be available as is at 20.

RoP is a mid-late 20s, get it by 30 before your t9s open up power pick. Most powersets fill all their power slots up to 20 with primary/secondary choices, a slot for Hasten, a leadership toggle, combat jumping and/or super speed (which is also +stealth).

 

Clarion is perma mez protection. 

Clarion affects your entire league.

RoP only affects yourself.

RoP with a very high recharge IO build (which the game is not supposed to be being balanced around IOs) pre adjustment is 60% uptime. Not Perma.

A SO build provides ~35% RoP uptime.

Clarion does not require precious power slot choices, pool power selections and lockouts from other pools, and can also be swapped out between other destiny choices at will based on the type of content you are running.

 

So yeah I'd say if you compare RoP directly to Clarion it makes sense that RoP would be something available to your character sooner than Clarion.

[PirateCrew]

To avoid future distraction here & elsewhere, can / will there be an update to the Beta FAQ to mention this use of Discord for testing purposes?  A few hints about what types of feedback are most likely to occur there, in contrast to the forums, would be useful -  e.g. rapid prototyping of a short list of options & survey on which to try in next test build, versus the forum being better for bug reporting or long-form testing commentary, etc.

 

Those parameters for RoP would be extremely helpful to know, as soon as they get formulated.  Please aim our feedback by setting the bounds on what is negotiable.  Should we consider 60s to be the max uptime possible per cast, regardless of the resistance and mez protection values?

 

I also understand that RoP's boundaries might be dependent on the buffs elsewhere in the pool, so a given build for Sorcery may act as a package deal.  But in hopes that the powers have been decoupled for simplicity of discussion:

Is the previous build's 60s Uptime : 600s Rech still acceptably tuned, if combined with the changes elsewhere in the pool in the current build?

If so, can the most preferred means of acceptable tuning (e.g. uptime % on SOs, or max duration) and its target value or range be mentioned, to guide us?

[Puma]

2 hours ago, DreadShinobi said:

RoP is a mid-late 20s, get it by 30 before your t9s open up power pick. Most powersets fill all their power slots up to 20 with primary/secondary choices, a slot for Hasten, a leadership toggle, combat jumping and/or super speed (which is also +stealth).

 

Clarion is perma mez protection. 

Clarion affects your entire league.

RoP only affects yourself.

RoP with a very high recharge IO build (which the game is not supposed to be being balanced around IOs) pre adjustment is 60% uptime. Not Perma.

A SO build provides ~35% RoP uptime.

Clarion does not require precious power slot choices, pool power selections and lockouts from other pools, and can also be swapped out between other destiny choices at will based on the type of content you are running.

 

So yeah I'd say if you compare RoP directly to Clarion it makes sense that RoP would be something available to your character sooner than Clarion.

Exactly.  RoP is only "overpowered", at least from what I've gathered through both threads, in that high recharge builds could make it permanent -when stacking with other powers-.  So while available at level 20, you can't even come CLOSE to getting that until you've fully IOed a character and unlocked incarnate +recharge powers. 

So it's a completely invalid comparison.  An SO or even set IOed RoP isn't going to "negate large portions of the game" for the player that has it at anything below level 50. 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Puma

[Puma]

13 hours ago, Arbegla said:

 

A controller with softcapped Def is still vulnerable to -defense attacks, and cascading failures. They have zero DDR, and No way to get it. So, while its a durable build, its not pure immunity, and there is HUGE holes within the build that cause significant issues.

 

While you are right that you can not perma RoP itself, you can perma the mez protection, but chaining RoP with Clarion, and/or the Melee Judgement will give you permanent Mez Protection, available to literally every single AT in the game. And that is what makes it really that simple.

_then later_

 

Multiple Mind Control powers have no positional tag, and Psi Defense is hard to come by (even when you softcap, most ATs can only get Ranged, or just Ranged/Melee/AoE, and don't have Psi also covered) Those also have mez (sleeps, holds, etc) so there's your hole in your defense. Go fight some Carnies with just Ranged softcapped, lemme know how well you do when you get chain held through your defense.

 

Defense is limited by the combat equation. And cascading failure happens a lot. Literally every single enemy group has -defense. Higher ranking enemies have Accurary boosts, which makes their 'tohit' floor higher then 5%. Also, there are plenty of autohit attacks, which defense does nothing to stop.

They aren't changing anything with the resistance aspect, they are actually making the resistance more useful, as it will benefit you when you use RoP while under Mez (it currently doesn't do that) so what exactly is the problem?

 

 
 So I'm confused. You've said that the game is now so easy that you personally have seen many people leave because of it. 

Did they ALL have RoP somehow magically able to fill 100% of the gap between clarion and melee hybrid so they would never be mezzed and could withstand the brutal onslaught of carnies, Malta, and rikti?  Something that is, mathematically, impossible even with live's version of RoP?  Is the game so hard that even with def cap on a toon that literally mezzes every mob they come against you STILL end up dying easily, or is it so easy if you have RoP that it becomes boring and you quit? 
 
Also...if RoP is the key to the game becoming OP why do the VAST majority of players (ESPECIALLY blasters and defenders) build for defense and not just take RoP and suddenly become gods? 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Puma

[Jimmy]

1 hour ago, PirateCrew said:

To avoid future distraction here & elsewhere, can / will there be an update to the Beta FAQ to mention this use of Discord for testing purposes?  A few hints about what types of feedback are most likely to occur there, in contrast to the forums, would be useful -  e.g. rapid prototyping of a short list of options & survey on which to try in next test build, versus the forum being better for bug reporting or long-form testing commentary, etc.

It's not an official platform, and we won't advertise it as such. It is in fact incredibly useful as-is because it's an unofficial platform. Giving it a spotlight and more structure will damage the casual, informal environment (and at the end of the day, it's also not our platform to make decisions about).

 

These feedback threads exist for the sole purpose of aiding the development team in creating the best update possible for everyone. We use these threads and every avenue at our disposal to do that - and that includes the official Discord, various unofficial Discords, this forum, reddit, in-game, and the closed beta server. In the nicest possible way, neither you or any other specific player is entitled to be consulted about any particular change. We'll go where we think we'll get the most helpful thoughts and answers in the timeframe we have in order to create the best possible update.

 

And to be entirely honest, these threads are frequently not the most helpful place because certain individuals, despite being asked not to, will continually repeat their points over and over again, which makes it harder for us to see feedback and answers from respectful players who just post their thoughts once. At a certain point filtering through that just becomes a bad use of a volunteer time.

 

We do still read every post here, and it is the single biggest individual source of feedback. And despite the problems mentioned above, it's still incredibly useful to us and very influential in our decision making.

 

But... there are very good reasons why we also go elsewhere, and outbursts of indignation will only cause those reasons to grow (this comment isn't directed at you, PirateCrew, but I can't quote the pages of hidden posts...). I don't think I've seen a single complaint on any other platform about us paying so much attention to the forum.

 

(These threads also get continually derailed by pages of off-topic posts, like this 🙂 )

 

1 hour ago, PirateCrew said:

Those parameters for RoP would be extremely helpful to know, as soon as they get formulated.  Please aim our feedback by setting the bounds on what is negotiable.  Should we consider 60s to be the max uptime possible per cast, regardless of the resistance and mez protection values?

 

I agree it would be helpful for us to provide more context for these changes, and we will be doing that soon.

 

Something I do want to make clear though: This isn't really a negotiation, it's a collaboration. We aren't selling or trading anything with the playerbase here. We're not trying to one-up you, we're not nerfing things just because we have a deep desire to upset people, and we're not doing this out of spite. We're all working together to try and create the best end result possible. The highly combative us vs them attitude held by some posters simply isn't helpful, as it just gets in the way of that collaboration.

[Wavicle]

2 hours ago, DreadShinobi said:

RoP is a mid-late 20s, get it by 30 before your t9s open up power pick. Most powersets fill all their power slots up to 20 with primary/secondary choices, a slot for Hasten, a leadership toggle, combat jumping and/or super speed (which is also +stealth).

 

Clarion is perma mez protection. 

Clarion affects your entire league.

RoP only affects yourself.

RoP with a very high recharge IO build (which the game is not supposed to be being balanced around IOs) pre adjustment is 60% uptime. Not Perma.

A SO build provides ~35% RoP uptime.

Clarion does not require precious power slot choices, pool power selections and lockouts from other pools, and can also be swapped out between other destiny choices at will based on the type of content you are running.

 

So yeah I'd say if you compare RoP directly to Clarion it makes sense that RoP would be something available to your character sooner than Clarion.

I’m not comparing the two powers. I’m saying that for toons that don’t get Mez protection earlier clarion (and melee hybrid) is available at 50.

 

Personally, having played the game in its various states over the years (except during the Dark years) I don’t think squishies need a long duration Mez protection pool power available at 20. That’s what break frees are for. But I also like the idea of a 60/180 unenhanceable uptime.

[Bionic_Flea]

21 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

we're not doing this out of spite.

But Jimmy, why can't you collaborate with me out of spite?  At least it's some kind of motivation.

[Blackbird71]

Just going to lay down some general thoughts on the changes to the Sorcery Pool at this stage in the review process.

 

First, I appreciate the efforts to look over the entire pool and attempt to improve the balance of powers.  This is very much a better approach than just nerfing RoP without considering the context of the powers required before being able to take it.

 

However, I question the wisdom of changing an entire pool this late in the beta process.  Granted, I don't know what the dev's timeline is for releasing Page 2, but this appears to be a rushed change that likely will not get the amount of testing and productive feedback that it deserves.  Going off of past experience, when Build 3 of Page 1 went out, the first Release Candidate was imminent, and much of the Build 3 feedback seemed to get cut off prematurely.  I can only speculate that Page 2 is rapidly moving toward its first Release Candidate, and the dev posts here highlighting the need for quickly evaluating these changes would seem to support that.  I fully expect that these changes to the Sorcery pool may only get this one iteration before going into release mode, and I really don't think that's giving something as big as changing an entire pool enough time and opportunity for proper testing and feedback, especially given the volunteer nature of both devs and players doing the testing.

 

I'd much rather see all the Sorcery pool (including RoP) rolled back to the live version for Page 2, and the changes pushed off to Page 3 when they can be given the full development cycle for vetting, instead of having this crammed in at the end and likely pushed out without the opportunity for sufficient development iterations.

[PeaceMack]

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

It's not an official platform, and we won't advertise it as such.

Yet it's being used to create polls and discussions that lead to official decisions. There appears to be a disconnect here.

 

I realize anyone can join if they know about it, but since you don't want everyone to know about it that makes it sound like the infamous smoke filled rooms in dirty real life politics.

 

And hiding responses simply because they disagree with your decisions isn't a good look either.

 

This process renders forum threads asking for feedback largely moot.

[Jimmy]

3 minutes ago, PeaceMack said:

And hiding responses simply because they disagree with your decisions isn't a good look either.

I know you've read the thread because you've reacted to several posts in it, so to try and make this claim is incredibly disingenuous and is the exemplification of why we go places that aren't this forum. Thank you for proving my point.

 

Anyway, let's get back on topic - which is Sorcrery, not Discord.

[Jimmy]

12 minutes ago, Blackbird71 said:

Just going to lay down some general thoughts on the changes to the Sorcery Pool at this stage in the review process.

 

First, I appreciate the efforts to look over the entire pool and attempt to improve the balance of powers.  This is very much a better approach than just nerfing RoP without considering the context of the powers required before being able to take it.

 

However, I question the wisdom of changing an entire pool this late in the beta process.  Granted, I don't know what the dev's timeline is for releasing Page 2, but this appears to be a rushed change that likely will not get the amount of testing and productive feedback that it deserves.  Going off of past experience, when Build 3 of Page 1 went out, the first Release Candidate was imminent, and much of the Build 3 feedback seemed to get cut off prematurely.  I can only speculate that Page 2 is rapidly moving toward its first Release Candidate, and the dev posts here highlighting the need for quickly evaluating these changes would seem to support that.  I fully expect that these changes to the Sorcery pool may only get this one iteration before going into release mode, and I really don't think that's giving something as big as changing an entire pool enough time and opportunity for proper testing and feedback, especially given the volunteer nature of both devs and players doing the testing.

 

I'd much rather see all the Sorcery pool (including RoP) rolled back to the live version for Page 2, and the changes pushed off to Page 3 when they can be given the full development cycle for vetting, instead of having this crammed in at the end and likely pushed out without the opportunity for sufficient development iterations.

 

This is a fair concern, although I will say it's somewhat the other way around - Page 2's release is dependant on us being happy with Sorcery, rather than us rushing the Sorcery changes because of an arbitrary timefame. No shareholders or marketing department here, we release when we're happy it's good enough!

 

There's at least one more set of changes for Sorcery coming, and I think with those changes it's going to be in a really good spot.

[Blackbird71]

6 minutes ago, PeaceMack said:

And hiding responses simply because they disagree with your decisions isn't a good look either.

 

I'll back up the HC team on this one; the stuff getting hidden is a lot of useless back and forth between players arguing rather than any sort of productive feedback or conversation.

Frankly, I'm surprised a good portion of pages 4-8 of this thread weren't nuked for just that.  I'm guessing they did as I did and just tuned out that whole mess.

[Blackbird71]

1 minute ago, Jimmy said:

 

This is a fair concern, although I will say it's somewhat the other way around - Page 2's release is dependant on us being happy with Sorcery, rather than us rushing the Sorcery changes because of an arbitrary timefame. No shareholders or marketing department here, we release when we're happy it's good enough!

Then please tell Powerhouse to stop skipping meals to get things out the door.  If there's no release deadline, there's no need to endanger one's health over it.  ☺️

[Captain Powerhouse]

1 hour ago, Blackbird71 said:

Then please tell Powerhouse to stop skipping meals to get things out the door.

 

I did that on myself, simply because my original plan was do work on the other powers did the set after page 2 (be it a 2.1 patch it page 3. I just wanted to get it into the test cycle ASAP. This does not mean releasing the page ASAP, just getting it out there so we could gather feedback. 

 

1 hour ago, PeaceMack said:

Yet it's being used to create polls and discussions that lead to official decisions. There appears to be a disconnect here.

 

That was litterally the only time that has happened, to my knowledge anyways. The people on the discussion. Are just a subset of those commenting in these threads, and I assure you we have the same ratio of dislike for RoP among them, and the fact that they had a similar ratio is why I personally opted to do that quick inquiry there. It might happen again in the future, but any survey done there is simply meant to get a gutt reaction feel to things. 

[Crysis]

On 4/6/2021 at 6:04 PM, ForeverLaxx said:

 

 

Now, on to the sticking point: Rune of Protection. While I'm glad the power's base recharge was dropped significantly, enforcing a 1/3 uptime for the power just makes it a glorified Break Free that comes with 2 small Orange Inspirations attached. Is that the intention?

 

While I remain firmly in the camp of “not happy with RoP changes” the logic behind the way they are coding it makes some sense.

 

On most of the AT’s that have RoP it serves two purposes:

 

1) An “OS!” Button in case I’m taking cascading Defense failure and need to survive, or in some cases a “Hold my Beer” button if I’m going to run into the fray to trigger a PbAoE and know stuff will be aggroing on me.  In either case, it’s for the +RES effect more than the status protection.

 

2) As a pocket break free, but in those instances I need it to function as such, I’m usually detoggled on one of my primary powers and/or I’m taking fire WHILE mezzed.  In this situation, while it’s purpose is a break free the added “couple of small oranges” is a nice benefit as that gives me time to escape after shaking the mezz and retoggle, counter with my own attacks or whatever.  

 

So honestly, reducing cooldown makes it more available for both of those duties and the 40s duration -typically- gives me enough breathing room to survive....as long as I retreat and/or am not otherwise Endurance constrained.  

 

But as a cornerstone of a +RES build, or as a means of alternating between Hybrid Melee or gap-filling Barrier....not likely going to suffice any longer.  

 

I also wonder if by taking away ability to slot +RECH enhancements it also takes away ability to slot any IO sets that include +Recharge components in the set?  But it still allows me to slot in stuff like Steadfast I’m guessing?

[Carnifax]

6 minutes ago, Crysis said:

I also wonder if by taking away ability to slot +RECH enhancements it also takes away ability to slot any IO sets that include +Recharge components in the set?  But it still allows me to slot in stuff like Steadfast I’m guessing?

As I said earlier in the thread it's currently like the Fortuna Mind Link power. It won't allow Recharge SOs / IOs but frankenslotting Resist/Recharge IOs works.

 

I logged in as my Fire/Nature Corruptor and it was still affected by recharge I'd already got slotted in there (4 Unbreakable Guard and a +5 Recharge IO). That gave me a 62 second recharge on it. 

 

I assume that'll change and I'll have to respec him (again. Sigh). 

[ForeverLaxx]

2 hours ago, Jimmy said:

The highly combative us vs them attitude held by some posters simply isn't helpful, as it just gets in the way of that collaboration.

What collaboration? You've made a declaration that the power is getting nerfed despite your reasoning not holding any water to how the game is played. You're essentially looking at all the runners in a race, seeing all the people long-distance running around a track, and charging up to the one guy who is power-walking and telling him he's taking this too seriously and needs to have a leg amputated. Then you tell him it's fine because he gets to choose which leg or where the break is and he's supposed to be happy about that?

 

For what it's worth, on my characters with RoP, this is a straight buff to how they use it. I'm not looking at this from my personal gain because I never used the power in the manner others did to avoid being cookie-cutter Defense Global chasers. I'm looking at this as the nerf it is for those people who stepped outside the box, found a build that worked for them that was still numerically inferior to the standard, but could at least stand next to them and get the job done. I'm fighting for build diversity at the end of a character's career, where most characters start to converge on the coveted Defense Caps and Perma Hasten. All you're doing is taking a demonstrably weaker option away from people and pushing them to build just like everyone else already is.

 

My problem is the reasoning with the change and the result of that change. I'm aware I've stated this often, so I'm sure I'm one of those "annoying, repeats themselves posters" but you can't tell people that something is broken when it's very easy to prove that it isn't, and then back it up with "just trust us bro". It just doesn't work that way. What exactly makes the power "broken" in the context of what the players can already do in the game? Dominators are practically expected to get permaDom so that takes Mez out of the equation for them. Force Field/Sonic Dispersion/Trick Arrow characters all have solo answers to Mez, some of which are up 100% of the time. Controllers get access to Indomitable Will, which can be perma'd, providing complete Mez protection. Emailed Breakfrees exist and they're super-cheap. This is the disconnect we're all talking about.

 

RoP is one tool in a handful of tools that are all actively managed to provide character safety that doesn't overcome the passive safety of building for Defense Caps. It doesn't need nerfed because it's not strong enough to need nerfed. Continually telling me that it is doesn't convince me, just as us telling you it's not broken, with evidence, doesn't convince you. You already made your decision: now it's just a question of how "severe" that decision is.

 

To the severity of the undeserved nerf, I'm in the camp of 60s duration and 180s recharge if it's going to retain its "immunity" to recharge buffs. At least that way it plays better with how people actually use the power in a high-end build, and those that don't (like me) can rely on it to get them through a tough fight instead of having it drop off at the last moment.

[Blackbird71]

57 minutes ago, Captain Powerhouse said:

That was litterally the only time that has happened, to my knowledge anyways. 

 

I think this was part of the problem and why the Discord poll got such a negative reaction here.  It was outside the norm, and no one expected or knew to look for any such poll on that platform, and so it gives the appearance of trying to go around the official feedback discussions to "shop" for a more dev-preferred response.

I'm not saying that's what happened, I'm saying that's how some here may have interpreted the move.  In the future, I'd suggest that such polls be linked or referenced here before the results are compiled and considered; that would avoid making people here feel like their voices are being ignored.  Like it or not, the HC team isn't just developers; you're all in a PR position, and a big part of that is managing the appearance of what goes on just as much as the reality of what goes on.

[Number Six]

2 minutes ago, Replacement said:

You know, the one that basically says "I'm not saying we'll do this, but I'm up in the air on which one we should test first."

 

The whole thing is moot since the duration/recharge timings that are going into the next build weren't even one of those 3 options at all.

 

Let's not waste any more time on it, please.

[UberGuy]

2 hours ago, Crysis said:

I also wonder if by taking away ability to slot +RECH enhancements it also takes away ability to slot any IO sets that include +Recharge components in the set?  But it still allows me to slot in stuff like Steadfast I’m guessing?

 

No, and this is normal for all powers. You can still slot sets that have +recharge in them.

 

Various powers that don't take Accuracy, for example, will still take Hold or Slow or Damage sets, that include accuracy boosts, where the sets are otherwise appropriate to the main effect(s) of the power.

 

In brief, what enhancement types a power takes is actually completely independent of what sets it takes. It'd be dumb, but a pure hold power could be configured to accept heal sets.

Edited April 8, 2021 by UberGuy

[PeregrineFalcon]

4 hours ago, Jimmy said:

There's at least one more set of changes for Sorcery coming, and I think with those changes it's going to be in a really good spot.

Any chance I can talk you into dropping the whole combo mechanic for Arcane Bolt? Why does every powerset need a wack-a-mole combo mechanic? Why can't the Council just up the damage and call it good?

[Arbegla]

2 hours ago, ForeverLaxx said:

What collaboration?

 

Weren't you leaving?

 

You, and many others like you, have a very set idea of what you see as overpowered, and therefore refuse to see anything else as overpowered.

 

Yes, Defense and Recharge as typically used in high end builds. Because fights last literally seconds, so you want your powers up as much as possible, and you're not letting the mobs survive long enough to debuff you. But they aren't the only ways to make builds over powered. Its just a certain angle. And there are MASSIVE holes in that build, things just die too fast to have an impact.

 

Rune of Protection is:

 

1) a power that was intentionally designed to be overpowered so it would sell for REAL money on the paragon market.

2) Available to everyone. Regardless of AT, powersets, anything. You can literally take the Sorcery Power Pool on anyone, to STACK with the things you're currently arguing about. You want Indom Will on a controller? You can also have RoP. You're a perma-dom? You can also have RoP. Its a HUGE force multiplier, with NO substantial crash.

3) a power that didn't get a large audience to test before being released to the public. You've tried to argue that 'It was tested before HC!' But it simply wasn't. Not at this scale. And at this current scale, it was deemed overpowered, because it really is.

4) a power that didn't encourage build diversity, as it boiled down to 'Are you having mez problems? Take RoP!' 'Are you a squishy? Take RoP!' 'Are you already defense softcapped, with max recharge, but want more surviveability? Take RoP!' It was a catch all power that was abused repeatedly, and allowed entire aspects of the game to be ignored for ATs that shouldn't have that immunity. And it is available at level 20.

 

The fact that so many people are saying "Its garbage, I'm not going to take it anymore" literally shows you that it was a very niche power, with a very specific use case and now because the overall uptime of the power is being adjusted, (adjusted up for SOs and mid-range builds, adjusted down for high-end builds) the power itself is actually BETTER at base values, by a HUGE margin (over double the uptime) and it gives the resistance boost when used as a mez-breaker. I really don't understand all the hate for this change, when its very obvious RoP was not being used for build diversity, it WAS being used to circumvent Mez, and was a catch all to solve a problem that has many other solutions, most of which have been presented here already.

[Faultline]

7 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Any chance I can talk you into dropping the whole combo mechanic for Arcane Bolt? Why does every powerset need a wack-a-mole combo mechanic? Why can't the Council just up the damage and call it good?

 

Damage formulas dictate base damage, bonus damage on powers has to be tied to gimmick mechanics.