Focused Feedback: Power Level Availability Changes

[The Curator]

Level Availability Changes

Primary Sets (non-Epic ATs)

• Tier 8 powers moved from level 26 to level 22
• Tier 9 powers moved from level 32 to level 26

Secondary Sets (non-Epic ATs)

• Tier 2 powers moved from level 2 to level 1 (character creation)
• Tier 7 powers moved from level 28 to level 24
• Tier 8 powers moved from level 35 to level 28
• Tier 9 powers moved from level 38 to level 30

Epic Pools

• Tier 3 powers moved from level 41 to level 38

Hero Epic ATs

• Nova moved from level 6 to level 4
• Inner Light and Sunless Mire moved from level 12 to level 10
• Incandescent Strike and Gravity Well moved from level 18 to level 16
• Glowing Touch and Gravitic Emanation moved from level 26 to level 20
• Solar Flare and Unchain Essence moved from level 26 to level 22
• Photon Seekers and Dark Extraction moved from level 32 to level 24
• Dawn Strike and Quasar moved from level 32 to level 26
• Shining Shield and Gravity Shield moved from level 2 to level 1 (character creation)
• Quantum Acceleration and Shadow Slip moved from level 24 to level 26
• Restore Essence and Stygian Return moved from level 25 to level 30
• Light Form and Eclipse moved from level 38 to level 32

Arachnos Soldiers

• Placate and Frenzy moved from level 26 to level 22
• Crowd Control and Omega Maneuver moved from level 32 to level 26
• Call Reinforcements moved from level 38 to level 30
• Surveillance and Serum moved from level 28 to level 24
• Web Cocoon and Summon Spiderlings moved from level 35 to level 28

Arachnos Widows

• Eviscerate moved from level 26 to level 22
• Placate and Confuse moved from level 28 to level 24
• Psychic Scream moved from level 32 to level 24
• Psychic Wail moved from level 32 to level 28
• Vengeance moved from level 35 to level 28
• Aura of Confusion and Elude moved from level 38 to level 30

[Vanden]

🤯

[Riverdusk]

Pretty much my reaction.  As someone who never power levels and only does it the "slow" way, this is amazing.  Love it.

[electric_emu]

Wow.  First glace this is much, much more friendly to "traditional" leveling.  Especially secondary T8 and T9 no longer competing with APP/Patron unlocks not to mention easing the woes of late blooming sets significantly. And then there's now a choice of T1 or T2 in secondaries, which is huge.

[Parabola]

This is huge.

 

Apart from anything else this might be the change that finally makes dominators a viable proposition for me. And so many other builds. Put this live now!

Edited October 4, 2022 by Parabola

[LQT]

1 hour ago, The Curator said:

Tier 2 powers moved from level 2 to level 1 (character creation)

This is already a thing, do you mean tier 3 powers? Scratch that, misread.

Edited October 4, 2022 by LQT

[Sovera]

Holy guacamole! You magnificent bastards, you did it! You finally did it! Something that stumped devs for so many years but you did it!

 

[Lines]

14 minutes ago, LQT said:

This is already a thing, do you mean tier 3 powers?

 

We're talking secondary sets. You will now be able to select your T1 OR T2 secondary power at character creation instead of just the T1.

[LastHumanSoldier]

Honestly, I get to rebuild all my dominators and get rid the first attack that I never slot.
Thank you so much.

 

[PeregrineFalcon]

Ok, I totally get the change for the tier 2 power in secondary sets. It allows people to chose to not take, or delay taking, a sub-optimal power. That's a great change.

 

Other than that, can I ask what the point of changing the power availability for the non-Epic & non-Arachnos ATs? Maybe I'm being dumb here, but it seems to me like this is only going to add to the power creep.

 

Yeah, I know it's not really feedback, and I'm not criticizing. I'm just wondering if we can get a little insight into the thought process here.

[Riverdusk]

I'm not sure a little bit of pre-level 38 "power creep" is going to really matter much.  My own personal reasons for loving it is that it makes leveling the "normal" way as someone put it, more smooth and fun.  For level 40+ it makes zero difference.  For those that power level of course it also makes zero difference except for when they exemp down.

 

However, I wouldn't be against them changing things with this to where when you exemp down you no longer get up to +5 your level in powers.  That'd make things about equal to where they are now when you exemp, but make it easier when actually leveling.  

[Sovera]

Tried to respec in Brainstorm. Consume (level 😎 only became available at level 16 at the same time as Crane Kick (also a level 16 pick) forcing me to choose. This forced to either pick Plasma Shield (normally level 12) or Dragon Tail at level 20.

 

This is a respec, not leveling.

[LQT]

2 hours ago, The Curator said:

Tier 2 powers moved from level 2 to level 1 (character creation)

Ok second attempt now that I've read the post properly. Will Defiance affect t2 powers in this way?

[electric_emu]

So I was checking on a few things and realized that Stalkers can opt out of Hide now.  Which is... hilarious.  I imagine almost every well-optimized build would want Hide eventually, but I suppose we can expect a few "Hideless" Stalkers.  It might even be attractive on some of the more streamlined Stalker sets (Invuln, for example) if you really want to see your character all the time.

 

 

 

 

[Riverdusk]

Just now, electric_emu said:

So I was checking on a few things and realized that Stalkers can opt out of Hide now.  Which is... hilarious.  I imagine almost every well-optimized build would want Hide eventually, but I suppose we can expect a few "Hideless" Stalkers.  It might even be attractive on some of the more streamlined Stalker sets (Invuln, for example) if you really want to see your character all the time.

 

 

 

 

 

That is funny.  I guess they could just depend on the ATO proc to hide them.  Wouldn't do it myself either, but yeah, some probably will try it.

[Captain Powerhouse]

21 minutes ago, LQT said:

Ok second attempt now that I've read the post properly. Will Defiance affect t2 powers in this way?

 

No. If you want that benefit you still will want to take the T1 from your secondary.

[Faultline]

1 hour ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Other than that, can I ask what the point of changing the power availability for the non-Epic & non-Arachnos ATs? Maybe I'm being dumb here, but it seems to me like this is only going to add to the power creep.

 

The live progression has gaps at levels 22, 24 and 30 where you can't pick any new powers from the primary and secondary. They now are 22 = Primary T8, 24 = Secondary T7, 30 = Secondary T9 so you always have something new from the main pools to pick. Moving the T9 created a similar hole at 38 where you weren't offered any new powers, so the Epic T3 was put there instead. I'm not a powers dev, but the goal, as I understand it, is that every level where you can pick a power, you have the choice to pick a new power from Primary, Secondary or Epic.

[SentaiLavender]

As much as I appreciate the ability to pick either of the first two powers from one's Secondary at character creation, I'd like to echo the concerns @PeregrineFalcon mentioned earlier concerning power creep.

 

The mid-40s have become my least favorite level range for team-play on Homecoming because it's simply too much of a mindless steamroller -- with all the exemplared-down Incarnates, set bonuses out the wazoo, etc. I enjoy running small teams in the 20s and 30s because the combat still has a nice "dance" to it, there's a good pace, you can really tell that your particular character is contributing to a fight, there's still the remotest possibility that you might fail and need to adjust your strategy. 

 

Getting Primary capstones 6 levels earlier and Secondary capstones 8 levels earlier is going to change that. Probably not much. I admit it will be very minor. But was anybody complaining that levels 20-30 were too difficult? I really just don't understand the logic behind this decision; I don't see what it accomplishes other than making the game even easier. I know it's not the end of the world, but little things like Blasters firing off nukes at level 26 strike me as another inch downhill on that slippery slope.

 

EDIT: I see from @Faultline's post above that the goal is to smooth over those three awkward "gap" levels where you can't select any new powers, but my concern about slight power creep still stands.

Edited October 5, 2022 by SentaiLavender

[Doc_Scorpion]

19 minutes ago, SentaiLavender said:

I know it's not the end of the world, but little things like Blasters firing off nukes at level 26 strike me as another inch downhill on that slippery slope.

You're still slot bound though...  So that offsets getting that nuke early just a little bit.

OTOH, it's going to considerably change late 20's play for MM's - because their T9 is useful even without slots.

[Booper]

Everyone, standard rules for Focused Feedback still applies. Test the changes and provide your feedback from those tests. Don't argue with eachother, otherwise the GMs will have to start mass-hiding posts.

[Captain Powerhouse]

9 minutes ago, SentaiLavender said:

I think you misread my post. I'm saying Incarnates and set bonuses made the mid-40s boringly easy to me, which is why I now enjoy running level 20-30 teams. Now I'm worried this change will make the 20s-30s easier by giving players earlier access to capstones.

 

I understand your concern. This thought did not escape our minds. For the most part, though, players at those level ranges are still limited by power slots. Someone that decides to start taking many of these powers earlier is likely going to have to make a harder choice by taking those instead of many actual sources of power creep, like leadership, hasten, fighting pool, and so on.

 

Some builds will indeed become a bit more powerful, but this mostly applies to ones that were comparatively weaker to their peers in progression. 

 

Picking many of the capstone powers by passing on many of the other powers in the path there will also result, at those level ranges, with plenty of idle play due to not having enough abilities nor the recharge to make those abilities cycle fast enough. Either way, we will be monitoring things. Difficulty is something we have been looking at for a long time and trying to adjust over time, even if not directly, we always are trying to create foundations for future changes that will get us there.

 

If you do find some situation that becomes game breaking, potentially some thing that was never meant to be (maybe nukes become usable in a task force that was obviously never meant to have anything nuke things away) please bring up those situations so we can evaluate the content. Might not change immediately, but we will look at them.

 

As for everyone else, please respect others opinions.

[LQT]

50 minutes ago, SentaiLavender said:

 

I think you misread my post. I'm saying Incarnates and set bonuses made the mid-40s boringly easy to me, which is why I now enjoy running level 20-30 teams. Now I'm worried this change will make the 20s-30s easier by giving players earlier access to capstones.

I foresee Penny Yin being especially quicker since it's now the lowest TF you can use nukes on being 20+ so level 25s will have access to them regardless of whether they are Blasters/Corr/Sents or Defenders.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Was this an intended side effect of the new power pick changes? I went to respec my Mercs/Traps MM on beta and now I don't even have the option to pick anything from my primary as my first pick? o_O

Edit: It helps if I actually go through the respec process: The first pick at level "0" is from the secondary, and my second pick was also at level "0" where I chose my desired primary. Then it continued as normal.

 

Edited October 5, 2022 by TygerDarkstorm

[Riverdusk]

3 minutes ago, TygerDarkstorm said:

Was this an intended side effect of the new power pick changes? I went to respec my Mercs/Traps MM on beta and now I don't even have the option to pick anything from my primary as my first pick? o_O

 

 

Just tried it and same issue, but still seems to work out.  You'll notice you are still at "level 0" after you pick the secondary and the primary options light up.  

You just end up picking your secondary power first, which is unintuitive but it still works out.

[Captain Powerhouse]

Not an "issue" as much as just the way that screen works. Its worked this way for years for VEAT respects, they always been able to skip their T1 from their secondary.