New Changes suck for blasters, corruptors, defenders and dominators.

[Scarlet Shocker]

1 minute ago, Psyonico said:

I feel like at level 40 you should have some sort of ability to handle a challenge

 

Given how easy it is to get to 40 without barely stepping outside of the AE and/or doing the easy boost missions (DFB/DIB et al) I disagree. Especially when it's so difficult to get a lower level team in the current game.

[Snarky]

27 minutes ago, Ceejer said:

What are the sets  of the Blaster??

damage/damage

 

[Greycat]

2 hours ago, lemming said:

It's a complaint about already released.  Way past beta

 

Eh, they mention "the new changes." Vague as far as which changes, how new, etc. *shrug*

[Ukase]

2 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

Maybe there's a need for a caveat warning to alert newer players to the fact that some missions are meant for more experienced players and they can then choose whether to accept it

 

I like the idea, but if they're in the midst of a story arc, that kind of puts them in a situation where they lose out on time investment if they don't finish. Maybe at the start of an arc. if applicable. 

[lemming]

21 minutes ago, Greycat said:

 

Eh, they mention "the new changes." Vague as far as which changes, how new, etc. *shrug*

Figured since they complained about Council & Circle. So it's been a few months, but not the clearest of rants

[Scarlet Shocker]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

I like the idea, but if they're in the midst of a story arc, that kind of puts them in a situation where they lose out on time investment if they don't finish. Maybe at the start of an arc. if applicable. 

 

That would work

 

The point of the warning is that they are then able to make an informed decision. If they read (or skip) the warning, they have nobody else to blame but themselves if they run into trouble and fail.

 

I believe some missions Gold side already come with such warnings - so it's very unlikely to be a difficult thing to implement.

[Without_Pause]

19 hours ago, Elvsrad said:

This was supposed to be balanced against level 25  enchancements

1. What are enchancements?

2. That would still be a no.

3. It was balanced around SOs.

 

My Rad/sonic on Live using level 25 common IOs which are not even equivalent to +3 SOs soloed just fine. Give that build IO sets? (Laughs)

[Neiska]

On ATs themselves - 

Last time I checked, Blasters, Dominators, and Corruptors are actually pretty good at soloing, I have seen Dominators in particular do some pretty insane things. Defenders I can't really comment on, never played one. But you can't just load up for damage and faceroll every enemy type at max difficulty anymore. You have to have a few other things to or be very skilled at being glass cannon.

 

As far as the other point of "them changing group dynamics" -

Personally, I haven't found these changes difficult or challenging, only time consuming. I neither like nor dislike them, but I do agree that I suspect the powers that be here on Homecoming want to slowly weed out Farming and PI Power leveling and the like. I doubt they will come out and say it. But between several changes over the years, it certainly feels that way. I also find a little ironic, as solo farming/playing now is not even the fastest way to level or get money anymore. I do fear a few certain number of these changes may have actually backfired Which I find kind of funny. Which ones? If "you know" then "you know," and I am not going to point them out because the last few builds/methods I shared got nerfed to oblivion. So I won't be sharing any further loopholes or shortcuts that others and I discover.

[Erratic1]

5 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

I know from my own experience some missions are much tougher than others. Maybe there's a need for a caveat warning to alert newer players to the fact that some missions are meant for more experienced players and they can then choose whether to accept it

 

Chernobog can be quite unfriendly at the level you would naturally encounter him and has been in the game from before the changes being complained about.

 

5 hours ago, cranebump said:

After rolling through Protean numerous times, I was shocked last week to find my Sent (who has L25 IO's in virtually everything) couldn't take out Protean by himself. I could get close using insps, but came up short. I asked for help, got a Troller partner who mezzed the guy, and he went down fairly easy. Saved me from having to spend on large insps.

 

It being my favorite arc, I do it on every character. Always interesting to me which ones can take him solo and which cannot--and the varies even within each AT.

[macskull]

Me reading through this thread, trying to figure out WTF “new changes” the OP is talking about, then seeing they have exactly one post and it’s this absolute gem…

[skoryy]

OP has gone to the Americans.

[Scarlet Shocker]

5 hours ago, Erratic1 said:

 

Chernobog can be quite unfriendly at the level you would naturally encounter him and has been in the game from before the changes being complained about.

 

 

Ok?

[Erratic1]

2 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

 

Ok?

 

Reiterating and supporting what you wrote.

 

 

Edited July 7 by Erratic1

[Crysis]

On 7/6/2024 at 3:14 AM, Elvsrad said:

The new Changes are practically painful for anyone trying to solo and play the game as a blaster, corruptor defender or dominator.  Seriously, dudes, pull your head out of your asses trying to appease all the people screaming they want their tankers, brutes, and scrappers and nerf them properly.  The rest of us are struggling to fight at +0/ 1 person team for all the stupid ass changes you made to the council, circle and other  villains while we constantly die to a +0 or +1 boss that then dies and rezzes as another plus one boss.  A Challenge is one item, but you need to nerf them and the villains so the rest of us can actually feel like we're accomplishing something.  Don't give me crap about inspirations or using "special enhancements".  This was supposed to be balanced against level 25  enchancements and it seriously sucks and is painful to try and complete. I have died over 7 time in the last story arc in Colleen Neslon at level 39, literally moving it from +1 for blasters to +0, and I am still getting defeated when bosses die and transform into warwolves after being defeated the first time. Fix this bs, as it's not just frustrating to me, but all the other players who don't min/max the bs like the player base you're sucking up to.

 

 

I've continued playing past the changes to these critter groups, and while yes I've noticed they present more challenges than they used to, I think that's sort of the reason they were given more offensive capabilities.  Overwhelmingly, Radio missions in PI are COT, Council and/or Carnival.  They were farm missions.  Since it's pretty obvious the HC Dev team wants to curb farming (likely for longevity reasons), it makes sense they'd buff up the critters.  And bluntly, I'd rather they -always- buff up the critters than swing the nerf bat at the players because we have full control mission difficulty settings.

 

But to somewhat look at the world through your lenses, I pulled one of my oldest HC toons, a DP/Martial blaster, out of mothballs.  I did a respec on it since most of its powers had outdated slotting and/or I'd just flat out used a weaker build.  The new build is S/L/E/N/R softcapped, and since it's a retired 50, I had Clarion for my Destiny.  Everything else is heavily 6-slotted for damage output, both primary and secondary, and high recharge/accuracy.  I set myself up for +4/x8 and start soloing Radios in PI.  Council, COT, Carnies....just took every mission offered.

 

In 15 missions, I came -close- to death one time.  Definitely walked away from many spawns at half health, and Preventative Med +Absorb proc went off a bunch of times as I'd get a beatdown from a spawn or multiple bosses at once.  I never dropped it to +3, and I made it a point to not use Hybrid or Judgement.  

 

It's just not an issue if you have a well slotted toon and when faced with overwhelming odds not in your favor, learn to use basic stuff like strategic retreats, pulling, jousting, etc.  And if I ever did run into a situation where I couldn't handle the mission, I always had the option to reset it at +3/x7 or whatever.  Didn't have to do that, but I could have.

 

So while definitely more challenging, not impossible.

[LastHumanSoldier]

I am not commenting one way or the other on the difficulty front, but I want to note that this thread is *REALLY* coming across as toxic.
Instead of being friendly, or helpful a lot of you are nasty and taunting.

Not a great way to grow the community.

 

[Akisan]

On 7/6/2024 at 9:45 PM, Erratic1 said:

Chernobog can be quite unfriendly at the level you would naturally encounter him and has been in the game from before the changes being complained about.

 

And?  That entire arc should have been flagged as higher difficulty content anyways (just like most of Praetoria), or at the very least, not actively pushed by the contact pop-up system.  I can't count the number of times I've helped people clear either Chernobog or the very heavy-handed ambush mission (3x player-seeking, door-camping ambushes, and a double boss fight is way more than a lot of solo level 7-11 toons can handle).

 

3 hours ago, LastHumanSoldier said:

I am not commenting one way or the other on the difficulty front, but I want to note that this thread is *REALLY* coming across as toxic.
Instead of being friendly, or helpful a lot of you are nasty and taunting.

Not a great way to grow the community.

 

Sorry about that - there's a few issues/topics that the community's pretty divided over, and, unfortunately, game difficulty's one of them.  I'd much rather players ate a few well-deserved, high-end nerfs (like diminishing returns for set buffs, or crippling Incarnate powers in non-Incarnate content, or doing something about Fighting/Hasten, or keeping us off the soft caps, or <rant continues...>) instead of continually buffing enemy groups, as simply buffing enemies makes the game that much harder for newer (or non-meta) players (and really reinforces the gap between them and the "elite" group of players that have mastered - and thus trivialized - all the game mechanics).  That's rather unlikely to happen though, but hey, a girl can dream.

 

That said, I am a fan of the Council and CoT buffs - they really needed them!  Those two groups were really stale at 50. Not a fan of the buffs for Arachnos and Crey, though. Arachnos was already either pretty dangerous (way too many of them have CC Protection now), and while Crey needed a refresh (they were a slog to wade through, with no variety), their buff felt a bit targeted towards countering Lethal-centric builds.

 

As for handling the refreshed groups, Council and CoT don't do well against hard CC.  Holds/Stuns keep Council Lts./Bosses from transforming (and stop most of the Nictus shenanigans), and take most of the buff/debuff capability of CoT Bosses/Lts. away, and both groups go down pretty easy after that.  I'll get back to you guys on proper handling for Crey/Arachnos... right after they get off my Do Not Engage list. (They're rather unfun to play against right now - even Malta's a better choice of groups to fight, and they're supposed to be one of the more obnoxious groups. Your mileage may vary, though - just because they're counters to my build, doesn't mean they're counters for yours!)

[cranebump]

6 hours ago, LastHumanSoldier said:

I am not commenting one way or the other on the difficulty front, but I want to note that this thread is *REALLY* coming across as toxic.
Instead of being friendly, or helpful a lot of you are nasty and taunting.

Not a great way to grow the community.

 

I just reread every single post. Not seeing what you’re seeing (unless I REALLY missed something). What I am seeing is disagreement with the OPs assessment of the situation, as well as some advice (and maybe a bit of implied, “buckle up, buttercup”). I would also point out that the OP started with “get your head out of your asses,” which set a certain tone right there.  Whatever the case, I’ve seen way worse than what’s here. 
 

WAY worse…

[KC4800]

Any blaster just using lvl 25 IOs is like a low flow shower head. It doesn't get all the soap off. Especially that nictus infused soap.😜

[Erratic1]

2 hours ago, Akisan said:

And?  That entire arc should have been flagged as higher difficulty content anyways (just like most of Praetoria), or at the very least, not actively pushed by the contact pop-up system.  I can't count the number of times I've helped people clear either Chernobog or the very heavy-handed ambush mission (3x player-seeking, door-camping ambushes, and a double boss fight is way more than a lot of solo level 7-11 toons can handle).

 

And some content is harder than others, particularly depending on AT and that has always been the case.

[tidge]

8 hours ago, LastHumanSoldier said:

Not a great way to grow the community.

 

I did not get the impression that this thread was started by a new player, although it could have been started by someone with a very narrow perspective and a somewhat hostile opening line.

 

Specific to Blasters... I think there is a case to be made that Blasters are the AT that has received the most TLC over the development of the game. Jibber-jabber follows.

 

Setting aside the entire concept of how in-game rewards are biased toward as many defeats as possible in as little amount of time, Blasters have an inherent mitigation for enemy controls, they can work towards defense "soft caps" just like every other non-armor AT, and they pretty much all have a way of not worrying about Endurance consumption through the "sustains". Blasters can get debuffs through Pool choices, and can get pet summons though at least one Patron pool (Mu, at level 38! Mac, at level 41... other AT need to be level 44 to get a summons!) Did I mention the controls and/or debuffs that are in the Blaster secondaries?

 

All of the above is available without thinking about enhancement slotting for set bonuses. This is my experience when planning Blaster builds, YMMV: Because Blasters have easy access to so many different types of attacks (ST range, ST melee, AoE Range, AoE Melee) and all those types of attacks have enhancement sets with an excellent selection of set bonuses, I find it pretty easy to take Blasters in a multiple number of different ways that I don't usually have (or must work harder at to get that variety) for other AT. For example: not every AT has the option to be able to slot ATO in both (or even most) Primary and Secondary powers! The point I'm trying to make here is that Blasters are among the most flexible AT in the game, and it is pretty trivial to make them effective, no matter what direction they are taken in.

[Scarlet Shocker]

21 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

I did not get the impression that this thread was started by a new player, although it could have been started by someone with a very narrow perspective and a somewhat hostile opening line.

 

 

Seems to be the OPs first ever post.

 

Allowing for upset I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt. Yes, it is a rant and could have been articulated much better but the underlying critique does have some validity, even if you disagree with much of the rest of their post.

 

If we want this community to be as good as it can we need to recognise that people can post in the heat of the moment and may not always express themselves amazingly.

 

Not pointing my finger at anyone but berating posters for their content is not generally a good way to build inclusivity and harmony.

[PeregrineFalcon]

11 hours ago, LastHumanSoldier said:

I am not commenting one way or the other on the difficulty front, but I want to note that this thread is *REALLY* coming across as toxic.

Oh no, it's the TONE POLICE.

 

Whatever. Log in to your moderator account and close the thread or stop wasting my time with your crybaby nonsense. Isn't it time for your HOA meeting?

[Go0gleplex]

I've noticed the mobs being a bit tougher to put down over the last few months...but nothing insurmountable. The biggest thing of note is even buffed my shots are whiffing a lot more than they had been. (I seem to lose accuracy when burning an Acc Insp even rather than gaining anything) I solo on default game difficulty all the time and even with the tweaks am not having much difficulty. I just have to take a little more time and make sure I take down the 'key' enemy in the group of mobs. Like nailing the Sky Raider Engineers first or burning the Vampyr or Galaxy down ASAP if present. Once the key guys are down, the rest fold like wet paper usually...so the mob boosts being made are seen only in me having to make three or four hits vs two or three. That said...what's a real drag for me is the long arsed level grind as the missions seem to give less return for the amount of time needed to beat them. But that's a different kettle of popcorn. 😉 

[Sovera]

I read the entire thread. Our one post marvel does not specify what irked them so much and some educated guesses have had to be made by other players. Two pages later and two days later and our one post marvel has not returned to clarify or add to it.

 

I'm not one for theory conspiracies but...

[PeregrineFalcon]

2 minutes ago, Sovera said:

I'm not one for theory conspiracies but...

We talked about this already... didn't we?

 

Long time posters are using alt accounts to troll the forums with hot button topics. This has been happening for awhile now.