Sins of the Devs are visited upon the players

[Ukase]

12 minutes ago, Neiska said:

Page 4 cut about 38 seconds off my map clear time. And I hear some people have below 3 minute clear times now.

I snipped a lot out of the post so it doesn't take a lot of room, but this is confusing to me. 

Are you afk farming? If so, how can you possibly know what your clear time is? You're not there. You're afk. You tab out - do something else, play, watch netflix, whatever. And you come back whenever. You have no idea when it's completed, and who would care? I mean, if it's an asteroid map, it makes no difference to an afk-er if it takes 3 minutes or 30 minutes. 

[Blackbird71]

3 minutes ago, Ukase said:

[...]

Respecs are annoying, and I detest them. It's almost easier to just camp the character and re-roll. Any change that requires a respec should just never happen, period. Never. 

Better to not be so quick to make changes and ensure things are done properly in the first place. As I learned in college working for UPS - "measure twice, cut once".  And sometimes, you need to measure things more than twice. 

Granted, sorcery pool was out of the bag before the HC devs came along, but there was no pressing need to change it. They just felt like it. I'm just a guest here, but if they'd asked me, I'd have told them there were better things to pay attention to. It wasn't broken, so there was no need to fix it. (at least, it wasn't broken for me) Now, purists will chime in how blasters should never have status protection because of their dps, and I would counter - what of the scrapper and it's status protection and dps? A blaster plays in melee every bit as much as a scrapper, so that argument falls short on merit. It's preposterous to say such a thing, in my opinion. Other opinions are also valid, but my point also remains. A respec should never feel necessary. It should be an option to fine-tune, or perhaps acquire a given power earlier to exemplar more easily, resolving a player's mistake. It should never be used to remedy a development change. 

 

(boldface added for emphasis)

 

I cannot overstate how much I agree with these sentiments.

[Neiska]

3 minutes ago, Ukase said:

I snipped a lot out of the post so it doesn't take a lot of room, but this is confusing to me. 

Are you afk farming? If so, how can you possibly know what your clear time is? You're not there. You're afk. You tab out - do something else, play, watch netflix, whatever. And you come back whenever. You have no idea when it's completed, and who would care? I mean, if it's an asteroid map, it makes no difference to an afk-er if it takes 3 minutes or 30 minutes. 

 

I do both, afk farming and active farming. I do agree that my afk time isn't as fast as my active time. But it matters to me how fast my afk farmer can kill things. If it takes 3 minutes then I can do 10 maps in the time it takes to do a 30 minute clear. Honestly, the biggest effect on time required for afk farming is which map I use. Smaller maps tend to have faster clear times. But if you are "slow-mode" and you don't care about clear times, then maps where mobs can move or path is also advantages. But to answer your question, my fastest farming setup is my 3 mm team which is right at 3 minutes now, lower if I use Lore Pets but I don't consider having to use Lore Pets as a good frame for reference.

[ivanhedgehog]

2 hours ago, Astralock said:

 

Prior to Page 2, there was literally no reason to have a Controller on the team.  A Mind Dom or Plant Dom, sure.  A Controller?  No.  Why would they when Blaster's controls were nearly as good, and they do a ton more damage?  I've also literally seen multiple Advanced Difficulty ASF leaders state that Controllers were a "carry" slot only on their respective teams because their controls were considered useless and they didn't do enough damage compared to Blasters and Dominators.

another forced respec...concealment pool. I took the concealment pool, didnt take stealth, took invisibility. they change it. and all of a sudden I dont have the ability to be invisible. I just have what used to be stealth. The ability I NEVER took. have to respec to bring back the functionality I had. Dont get me wrong, I like to have invisibility without having a wasted choice. but having to repec, yup I do.

 

And yes, there was a reason to play a controller....they were fun. And I have never ever ever ever had a blaster give me speed boost.

Edited September 2, 2022 by ivanhedgehog

[Grouchybeast]

2 hours ago, Astralock said:

Prior to Page 2, there was literally no reason to have a Controller on the team.  A Mind Dom or Plant Dom, sure.  A Controller?  No.  Why would they when Blaster's controls were nearly as good, and they do a ton more damage?  I've also literally seen multiple Advanced Difficulty ASF leaders state that Controllers were a "carry" slot only on their respective teams because their controls were considered useless and they didn't do enough damage compared to Blasters and Dominators.

 

I love blasters.  My main is a blaster.  All my favourite characters are blasters.  (Except for a few defenders and corrs.  I do like those, too because they also have blasts.)  One of the reasons that I was so upset by the sunset was that the I24 Blaster changes looked amazing, and then suddenly I was never going to get to play them.  And still I can't deny that the HC changes to blaster powers were more than fair.  Blasters are still pretty damn awesome.

[PeregrineFalcon]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

Now, purists will chime in how blasters should never have status protection because of their dps, and I would counter - what of the scrapper and it's status protection and dps?

I agree with you on this. However, one of the developers posted that that's exactly why they nerfed Rune of Protection. They felt that squishies should not have a power that gives them near perma status protection. I can probably dig up the post if you really want to read it.

 

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

A respec should never feel necessary. It should be an option to fine-tune, or perhaps acquire a given power earlier to exemplar more easily, resolving a player's mistake. It should never be used to remedy a development change.

I get what you're saying, but that's just not possible. That would prevent the developers from changing powers at all. They can't possibly know what powers you take and why. If they nerf a power by only 2% that may be enough to make you no longer want to have this power and so you'd want to respec so that you can have a different power instead.

 

That's why the live devs would hand out free respecs whenever they made any significant power changes. I don't remember if they also do this on Homecoming. If I had to guess I'd say they do because they do seem to be pretty good at going out of their way to not screw the players over.

[Ukase]

5 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I agree with you on this. However, one of the developers posted that that's exactly why they nerfed Rune of Protection. They felt that squishies should not have a power that gives them near perma status protection. I can probably dig up the post if you really want to read it.

 

I get what you're saying, but that's just not possible. That would prevent the developers from changing powers at all. They can't possibly know what powers you take and why. If they nerf a power by only 2% that may be enough to make you no longer want to have this power and so you'd want to respec so that you can have a different power instead.

 

That's why the live devs would hand out free respecs whenever they made any significant power changes. I don't remember if they also do this on Homecoming. If I had to guess I'd say they do because they do seem to be pretty good at going out of their way to not screw the players over.

No need. I remember it. It's simply that my opinion is different. It doesn't make me right, but I would offer that it doesn't make me wrong. Further, it doesn't mean they're right, either.  

I remember the burn nerf - when they put fear into it. A fire tank, with fear in fire powers. What a colossal goof by the Paragon devs. So, I got a respec when they put the fear in burn, and I got another one when they took it out. 

Again, don't change powers. I mean, why would they? Just because some HC dev believes a squishy shouldn't have near perma status protection? The ONLY thing that makes that opinion better than mine is their ability to make the change in the game. If I'd been paying attention to what was going on in the beta threads, I promise you, I would have debated that view quite assertively. They have a right to that view - but it doesn't mean that my own view doesn't also have merit. And frankly, their logic is flawed. They should have left it alone. Now I have to spend hours figuring out how to respec this dozen characters. Which I still haven't done, because it's my hope that the change will be reverted back - because it was wrong. At least, that's my view. Don't worry, I'm not going to hold my breath. And really, this is a bit off point. 

I just think any changes in powers need to be considered for quite some time. More effort should be made (like pop up screens when we log in) that bring attention to these proposed changes when they hit beta, not when the patch drops. 

 

[MoonSheep]

1 hour ago, Grouchybeast said:

 

I love blasters.  My main is a blaster.  All my favourite characters are blasters.  (Except for a few defenders and corrs.  I do like those, too because they also have blasts.)  One of the reasons that I was so upset by the sunset was that the I24 Blaster changes looked amazing, and then suddenly I was never going to get to play them.  And still I can't deny that the HC changes to blaster powers were more than fair.  Blasters are still pretty damn awesome.

 

bring back old school defiance!

[Erratic1]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

Granted, sorcery pool was out of the bag before the HC devs came along, but there was no pressing need to change it. They just felt like it. I'm just a guest here, but if they'd asked me, I'd have told them there were better things to pay attention to. It wasn't broken, so there was no need to fix it. (at least, it wasn't broken for me) Now, purists will chime in how blasters should never have status protection because of their dps, and I would counter - what of the scrapper and it's status protection and dps? A blaster plays in melee every bit as much as a scrapper, so that argument falls short on merit. It's preposterous to say such a thing, in my opinion. Other opinions are also valid, but my point also remains. A respec should never feel necessary. It should be an option to fine-tune, or perhaps acquire a given power earlier to exemplar more easily, resolving a player's mistake. It should never be used to remedy a development change. 

 

A blaster plays in melee every bit as much as a scrapper? Clearly I have been playing my blasters incorrectly. 

 

What sold me on Seismic Blast as a set?  When I copied to the test server, whipped up a level 22ish character and took out a spawn of Warriors without them ever getting to launch an attack at me...while at range. Scrappers don't ever do that.

 

[Ukase]

9 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

 

A blaster plays in melee every bit as much as a scrapper? Clearly I have been playing my blasters incorrectly. 

 

What sold me on Seismic Blast as a set?  When I copied to the test server, whipped up a level 22ish character and took out a spawn of Warriors without them ever getting to launch an attack at me...while at range. Scrappers don't ever do that.

 

You're not playing it wrong, just differently. 
Historically, I will chime in and rebuke those who use the word "blapper" to refer to playing a blaster in melee. It's ludicrous, as blasters very often go into melee, particularly a fire/fire blaster. 
Firesword circle - melee
burn - melee
Inferno - melee

Fire sword - melee
hotfeet - melee
Combustion - melee

Consume - melee

These attacks do not make the blaster a new AT. No, they are simply a way you need to play it to make use of many of the attacks you get. 

It can take some familiarity with your character, and some defensive stats to be comfortable playing in melee. You get used to it. Of course, you can always "joust" your melee attacks and only be in melee for a fraction of a second. It's all a matter of playstyle, and working with what the powerset gives you. And what's fun for you, of course. 

I know a number of folks who love their blasters but despise being in melee. That's why Rune of Protection was so great for some of my characters. I could use that to drop inferno without having to worry about a mez or a stun or kb. And yeah, I'm well aware of how awesome blasters still are, despite this change. 

So, no, you're not playing wrong, just differently. But it's still the same AT. It doesn't need a new name to make the distinction. A spines scrapper doesn't get called a blapper because it has impale and throw spines. And it's not playing wrong for being at range when it uses them. 

[PeregrineFalcon]

40 minutes ago, Ukase said:

Again, don't change powers. I mean, why would they?

Because some sets (Mercenaries & Assault Rifle) are garbage and need to be fixed. How do you do that without changing powers?

 

41 minutes ago, Ukase said:

I just think any changes in powers need to be considered for quite some time.

Ok, so which one is it? They should never change powers or they should only change them after due consideration? You can't have both.

[Ruin Mage]

Leaving powersets as they are is not good design choice. Especially when there are clear underperformers (I point at the ENTIRE AT known as Masterminds) versus more recently released sets (stuff released post-Freedom/Going Rogue onward) - that's just not a Good Call.
 

[Erratic1]

22 minutes ago, Ukase said:

You're not playing it wrong, just differently. 
Historically, I will chime in and rebuke those who use the word "blapper" to refer to playing a blaster in melee. It's ludicrous, as blasters very often go into melee, particularly a fire/fire blaster. 
Firesword circle - melee
burn - melee
Inferno - melee

Fire sword - melee
hotfeet - melee
Combustion - melee

Consume - melee

These attacks do not make the blaster a new AT. No, they are simply a way you need to play it to make use of many of the attacks you get. 

It can take some familiarity with your character, and some defensive stats to be comfortable playing in melee. You get used to it. Of course, you can always "joust" your melee attacks and only be in melee for a fraction of a second. It's all a matter of playstyle, and working with what the powerset gives you. And what's fun for you, of course. 

I know a number of folks who love their blasters but despise being in melee. That's why Rune of Protection was so great for some of my characters. I could use that to drop inferno without having to worry about a mez or a stun or kb. And yeah, I'm well aware of how awesome blasters still are, despite this change. 

So, no, you're not playing wrong, just differently. But it's still the same AT. It doesn't need a new name to make the distinction. A spines scrapper doesn't get called a blapper because it has impale and throw spines. And it's not playing wrong for being at range when it uses them. 

 

Very nicely stated.

[Coyotedancer]

2 hours ago, ivanhedgehog said:

another forced respec...concealment pool. I took the concealment pool, didnt take stealth, took invisibility. they change it. and all of a sudden I dont have the ability to be invisible. I just have what used to be stealth. The ability I NEVER took. have to respec to bring back the functionality I had. Dont get me wrong, I like to have invisibility without having a wasted choice. but having to repec, yup I do.

 

And yes, there was a reason to play a controller....they were fun. And I have never ever ever ever had a blaster give me speed boost.

 

Oh, don't even get me started on how much I hate what The Powers That Be did to the Concealment pool...

 

I still absolutely LOATHE the changes there. It's a pool I take on the majority of my gang, and honestly? The changes ought to have forced me into respecs for every damned one of them. I'm just too stubborn to have done it yet, because respecs annoy me. Much less the idea of doing 70+ of them just because some dev or other had a solution in search of a problem they just couldn't wait to implement. <_< 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Coyotedancer

[melancholicmoods]

On 8/31/2022 at 5:14 AM, Ukase said:

With every patch that comes out, I am against it. It still riles me up that they change the game. It's like that line from Guys and Dolls: "You women, as soon as you find a guy you love, you gotta take him in for alterations." 
They love the game so much, they gotta change it. Maybe they didn't love it as much as they thought. 

That said, eventually, generally about 2-3 months after, when I've adapted to the changes, I usually come to terms with the changes. I still think the "leak" of the SG macro was the best thing that's happened in the HC Dev reign. And the adjustment to it was clever, but needless. (from my perspective - I know, pvp, master badge runs, yada, yada) 
 

So, as much as I might gripe, bitch or moan, I eventually come around. 

 

It had to be difficult for the original devs and I'm sure continues to be with the HC devs (maybe even more so) to find a way to introduce new features into the game without screwing up the existing game's balance and enjoyment. I agree though that some of the changes are real head scratchers and seem like they could easily have been implemented better. I wasn't in the game's original beta (and I've learned to never believe people who say they were, waaaayyy too many people have claimed they were to make it believable) but I did start playing the first week the game was release, I'd gotten it as a birthday present to myself. A lot of the early changes and additions were great but some were truly awful and made zero sense.

 

Many of the changes came as a result of PvP being added to the game and the devs being unable or unwilling to make the necessary code changes at the time to have powers work differently in PvE vs PvP. I'm still upset about the changing controllers so they couldn't have multiple pets out at once. All the reasons given made no sense. They were worried that high level controllers were too powerful yet a good Tank could literally herd an entire map then destroy every villain on their own, Controllers were still weak in comparison. Besides, controllers were specifically described in the original documentation as being a difficult class to play early on but with mastery became one of the most powerful. So they worked as intended until hit with the nerf bat. Travel power suppression is another one that still drives me crazy and should be removed. Enhancement diversification I'm on the fence with. I sort of understand why they did it but then they went and introduced the IO system which largely negated it anyway, just made it more expensive and difficult to get to the same end result.

 

With HC I think most of the changes have been largely for the positive but totally agree with you on the SG macro leak. I agree it was one of my favorite things about HC and to take it away seemed more about someone's ego than logic. They were forced to introduce a bunch of changes into the game to keep people from getting too angry about it and for no reason, having it there didn't hurt anything and made a huge quality of life difference, made using SG bases way more enticing, and made sense from a story perspective. If teleportation technology exists in this world, and your SG base can have teleporters that can send you to any zone AND can initiate a medical teleport directly to the base if you're "killed", it doesn't make sense that you can't also teleport to your base just to go there. 

 

It also doesn't make sense to me that effort is being put into creating new powersets when there are still powersets that need some serious improvement (I'm looking at you mind control). Now, mind control on paper isn't terrible and can be fun to play but one of its signature powers is a group sleep. As much as I love using sleeps when soloing they are next to useless in group play, especially with pick up groups. You sleep the whole group allowing everything to safely get picked off one by one and the next thing that happens is someone with a big AoE can't stop themselves from using it and waking everyone up again. Then you have the final power in the set. A power that literally costs you and your group to lose potential xp by using it. Not to mention that with the introduction of plant control they get roughly the same power early in their progression.

[Astralock]

6 minutes ago, melancholicmoods said:

With HC I think most of the changes have been largely for the positive but totally agree with you on the SG macro leak. I agree it was one of my favorite things about HC and to take it away seemed more about someone's ego than logic. They were forced to introduce a bunch of changes into the game to keep people from getting too angry about it and for no reason, having it there didn't hurt anything and made a huge quality of life difference, made using SG bases way more enticing, and made sense from a story perspective. If teleportation technology exists in this world, and your SG base can have teleporters that can send you to any zone AND can initiate a medical teleport directly to the base if you're "killed", it doesn't make sense that you can't also teleport to your base just to go there. 

 

The base macro was an exploit.  It was never intended for players to use.  It allowed people to cheese Master of * runs, and PvP.  More importantly, what few people knew up until the exploit was closed, was that because the command was never meant for players to have, it let you literally go anywhere in the game.  Including other people's missions and Incarnate trials.  The base macro exploit had to go.  And yes, some people did use it to do exactly that.

[Redletter]

I thought this was a meme thread, based on my tendency to curse the 'COWARD DEVS' for pedantic and meaningless things, ironically for a fun laugh over silly things, like moving Castle to the phantom zone and refusing to give us butt capes, or, to port the labaeux thong to HUGE character models. Things that aren't actually pressing problems, things that don't really mean anything? Because it's funny to act really entitled sometimes, especially when you preach to the minor sentiments many people have.

 

But this isn't that, and now I'm sad...

 

 

DAAAAAAAMN YOU, COOOOOOOWARD DEEEEEVS!!!!

[Ukase]

16 minutes ago, Astralock said:

 

The base macro was an exploit.  It was never intended for players to use.  It allowed people to cheese Master of * runs, and PvP.  More importantly, what few people knew up until the exploit was closed, was that because the command was never meant for players to have, it let you literally go anywhere in the game.  Including other people's missions and Incarnate trials.  The base macro exploit had to go.  And yes, some people did use it to do exactly that.

Say wut? Nobody ever entered my missions, and I wish I'd known about that FEATURE before it got shut down. That would have been fun! Just popping into some level 10's mission and causing havoc? 

That actually happened to me once on live. I was level 8 and a level 12 was in my mission, and not on my team. I just left, because all the mobs were +4. I do wish I'd known about it, and I am struggling to know how someone else discovered you could do that. My best guess is a player who became a GM saw something and told someone else and then the secret was out to a few folks. It certainly wasn't widespread, because this is the first I'm hearing of it. And I get around! I know people! 

Now, I get that some folks might be irritated if you're doing pvp and they just zone out with the macro. Hard to believe there wasn't a way to disable it in pvp land and let it fly everywhere else. As for the master badge runs...I get that some folks work real hard on those and would be a bit irked if someone avoided defeat using it, but honestly - that kind of thing is none of my business. I remember being on a master lady grey and a dominator still blew it not using the macro when it was available. Wouldn't have hurt my feelings if they'd used it then, and wouldn't now, even if I wasn't on the team. 

Still, I liked it. And I never used it in a master run or pvp. Didn't seem sporting. But then, nothing seems sporting in pvp with all the changes going on there. PvP is just putrid in concept and execution. You cannot expect people to pvp when the rules change in pvp zones. You level a character to 50, recognizing it's strengths and weaknesses, only to change zones and really not know what your character can do. You don't know how your endurance works there, you don't know how your regen works there, you don't know how your defense works there or any other attribute. You spend time making your character at the resist cap and the defense soft cap, only to enter a zone and lose 1/3 of your resistance. That's just stupid. No other word for it. Stupid. You cannot expect people to play one way for 50 levels, and then change the rules in a pvp zone and be any good at it. Now, if you leveled up for 50 levels with those restrictions, then maybe you'd have something. But the way it is now, stupid and putrid. Oops, I digressed a lot! 
 

Please never say things like "It HAD to go". Because honestly, they could have left that in, and nothing would have happened. Sure, some dope doing pvp might not get ganked. 
Sure, some idiot on his level 1 might get the valet badge in market crash. At the end of the day, it didn't HAVE to go. It could have stayed. Sure, some folks might have been upset with it staying. But probably more are upset about it going. 

To the HC Devs credit, if it was going to go, they did soften the blow with the lrtp. It's a nice feature, and they should really sell all the zone unlocks as another inf sink. 
Again, it really didn't HAVE to go. I mean, it was with us for quite some time, and the servers didn't shut down, no real negative impact from it. At least, not from where I sat. 

[Riverdusk]

4 hours ago, Neiska said:

 

Honestly, the only way they are going to completely nuke AFK farming, is if they get rid of the autocast option. But that will change everyone's gameplay, so it's really a question if they consider that benefit worth the change.

 

 

 

Well, I'd say that isn't the only way.  The much less disruptive way would be to just completely remove xp and drops from AE no?  There are farming maps among regular content, but I think you have to actually move around group to group for them, so that'd rule out AFK farming?  I'm no farmer though, and kind of making assumptions about how afk farming even works since I've never even tried it, so maybe there's a way even without AE.

 

Not that I see them ever actually doing that of course or actually advocating for it.  

[Riverdusk]

1 hour ago, Coyotedancer said:

 

Oh, don't even get me started on how much I hate what The Powers That Be did to the Concealment pool...

 

I still absolutely LOATHE the changes there. It's a pool I take on the majority of my gang, and honestly? The changes ought to have forced me into respecs for every damned one of them. I'm just too stubborn to have done it yet, because respecs annoy me. Much less the idea of doing 70+ of them just because some dev or other had a solution in search of a problem they just couldn't wait to implement. <_< 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the new concealment pool.  Infiltration is my new favorite travel power that I now take on the majority of characters I make.  Stealth now has better stealth than it did and doesn't have a movement penalty.  Good stuff. 😁

[Coyotedancer]

31 minutes ago, Riverdusk said:

 

I love the new concealment pool.  Infiltration is my new favorite travel power that I now take on the majority of characters I make.  Stealth now has better stealth than it did and doesn't have a movement penalty.  Good stuff. 😁

 

How many of your characters suddenly found that their former invisibility power was no longer invisibility but stealth? How many of them had their Stealth turned into a redundant travel power that they didn't need because they already had Superspeed or Flight?

[Redletter]

5 hours ago, Ukase said:

You're not playing it wrong, just differently. 
Historically, I will chime in and rebuke those who use the word "blapper" to refer to playing a blaster in melee. It's ludicrous, as blasters very often go into melee, particularly a fire/fire blaster. 
Firesword circle - melee
burn - melee
Inferno - melee

Fire sword - melee
hotfeet - melee
Combustion - melee

Consume - melee

These attacks do not make the blaster a new AT. No, they are simply a way you need to play it to make use of many of the attacks you get. 

It can take some familiarity with your character, and some defensive stats to be comfortable playing in melee. You get used to it. Of course, you can always "joust" your melee attacks and only be in melee for a fraction of a second. It's all a matter of playstyle, and working with what the powerset gives you. And what's fun for you, of course. 

I know a number of folks who love their blasters but despise being in melee. That's why Rune of Protection was so great for some of my characters. I could use that to drop inferno without having to worry about a mez or a stun or kb. And yeah, I'm well aware of how awesome blasters still are, despite this change. 

So, no, you're not playing wrong, just differently. But it's still the same AT. It doesn't need a new name to make the distinction. A spines scrapper doesn't get called a blapper because it has impale and throw spines. And it's not playing wrong for being at range when it uses them. 

 

What's weird is that blasters are the only ones that get this treatment to my knowledge. Like, we don't call dominators "domiappers" whenever they go in to throw hands. It's just blasters. Scrappers who pick up ranged powers don't become scrasters.

 

ONCE AGAIN! BLASTERS! GETTING ALLLLLLLLLLLL THE SPECIAL TREATMENT! AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIN!

[JasperStone]

2 minutes ago, Redletter said:

 

What's weird is that blasters are the only ones that get this treatment to my knowledge. Like, we don't call dominators "domiappers" whenever they go in to throw hands. It's just blasters. Scrappers who pick up ranged powers don't become scrasters.

 

ONCE AGAIN! BLASTERS! GETTING ALLLLLLLLLLLL THE SPECIAL TREATMENT! AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIN!

I think Doms who hands should be called

....

Dappers

[Riverdusk]

4 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

 

How many of your characters suddenly found that their former invisibility power was no longer invisibility but stealth? How many of them had their Stealth turned into a redundant travel power that they didn't need because they already had Superspeed or Flight?

 

Yeah, not taking away your pain that you have to respec.  I hate doing it too.  Just overall to me I think the improvements were worth it.  

[biostem]

9 minutes ago, Redletter said:

What's weird is that blasters are the only ones that get this treatment to my knowledge. Like, we don't call dominators "domiappers" whenever they go in to throw hands. It's just blasters. Scrappers who pick up ranged powers don't become scrasters.

First, when CoH was young, there were only Blasters, Defenders, Scrappers, Tankers, and Controllers.  Blasters were the only ones who had extensive access to both ranged and melee attacks via their primary or secondary sets.  Instead of calling them a "ranged blaster" or a "melee blaster", the term "blapper" was coined for the latter.  I do recall the term "scranker" being used somewhat for a scrapper who invested more in survivability and the presence pool, however.  After CoV was introduced, there were some people calling themselves "tankerminds", and controllers who slotted their primaries more for damage were sometimes called "blastrollers"...