QOL Request: Allow for Universal Travel IO's to be Slotted into Prestige Sprints

[barrier]

So, I'm generally pretty conservative when it comes to proposing changes in this game, so keep that in mind as I make this request.

 

Back on live, it made a lot of sense to only allow for certain things to be slotted into the Prestige Sprints. Not everyone had access to them, and allowing for things like KB IO's to be slotted would have effectively created a required loot box that PVPers would have had no option but to buy.

 

That's not the case anymore. Everyone has access to those sprints through the Pay to Win vendor.

 

PVP has suffered from the binary nature of KB attacks since i12 or so when the developers nerfed acro and removed KB resistance from it (Mag 9 protection only). PVPers reacted by building these monstrosities with 41-44kb resistance built-in through the use of -KB IO's. The introduction of universal travel sets and PVP IO sets with knockback protection somewhat helped, but as it stands right now, everyone effectively builds for knockback protection. Literally everyone.

 

In the past couple of weeks, I've been messing with a few builds on Pine's. They're pretty unusual pairings; things that used to work before i13, but now are pretty hard to build. Specifically, two dominator builds - I could not make them work. I could not get to a respectable amount of +hp with decent recharge while also having the required mag 41 kb protection without effectively limiting myself to 3 attacks (one of them a primary hold). I'm sure that I'm not alone here. Try building a ninjistsu sentinel or stalker and then an EA or regen toon and you'll find yourself in the same hole. Compare any character with fire armor to the current meta armor sets and you'll find yourself in the same hole again.

 

As it stands right now, KB protection requirements are limiting diversity. Nobody is playing without enough KB protection; we just aren't playing sets that have to make huge sacrifice to achieve the required KB mag protection.

 

How can the Homecoming Team fix this? Allow for Universal Travel IO's to be slotted into sprints. It essentially means that you'd be starting off with 20 kb protection (4 sprints + standard sprint) and would only really have to add in an extra mag 21 kb protection to your build to make it viable. That may sound like a lot (acro + 3 x -4 kb IOs), but that's 4 slots that you are now free to build into your character. While it does help ALL characters, it helps close the gap between sets that don't provide KB protection and those that do. It's a general buff with disparate effects (the best kind of buff!).

 

It would be a huge QOL upgrade for PVPers. Having to build for mag 41-44 kb is kind of ridiculous. Once every couple of days, the question pops up on the PVP discord, and it's such a ridiculous thing to state that most newbies do a double take (and some even PM asking if they're being trolled).

 

Would the Homecoming team be open to such a change? I know you guys have been able to figure out that part of the game, given the fixes that allowed for slow IO's to be slotted into powers that weren't allowing that.

[Firi]

Ya this should be a thing.  :) :) :) :) :) :)

[bigtricky]

+1 for this post this needs to happen.

[Phoenix']

Builds are too tight with the 41 KB protection everyone is trying to reach. This is a very good solution. +1

[Vanden]

This can’t really be a serious suggestion? Players being able to get 20 KB protection with absolutely no build investment is why Universal Travel sets aren’t allowed in the sprint powers.

[barrier]

5 kb ios x 4 million inf = 20 million. That's literally an investment. (And FYI, that price was 15 mill on live).

 

Third edit: and the real reason was that kb ios aren't unique and you'd basically be paying cash on live to get kb protection. This isn't live.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

Just as a point, this isn't a Quality of Life suggestion, this is a huge buff request. Personally I don't really care one way or the other since it's not that big a deal for PvE but I do feel that calling it a QoL suggestion is a bit disingenuous.

[barrier]

Just as a point, this isn't a Quality of Life suggestion, this is a huge buff request. Personally I don't really care one way or the other since it's not that big a deal for PvE but I do feel that calling it a QoL suggestion is a bit disingenuous.

 

The reason it's a QOL request is that every single novice that steps into the world of pvp is shocked to learn that they need mag 41 kb protection just to avoid becoming a farm target in an arena match. Like, I can keep making my builds work and avoiding sets that don't perform well because of the build sacrifices associated with that kb protection requirement, but it does suck to tell a newbie that his ninjitsu stalker is going to have a hard time getting as much of a +dmg bonus as an EA stalker and that they should consider re-rolling or that his fire brute won't make an adequate disruption toon because it won't be able to get enough +hp given how much kb needs to be built into the toon just to get up to spec. That feels like QOL. PVPers have already figured the system out; this simply makes the system more accessible to more builds. Hence, I call that a QOL change.

[Banana Man]

I don't really see anything wrong with this. People are already building 46 anyway. All it does is free up a few slots, and get you 8 KB protection you wouldn't have otherwise (people are already slotting at least 3 botzph KB IOs, so you're only slotting two more than you were already).

 

KB wasn't a thing in PvP, then the devs randomly made it one. It's a skill reducing mechanic without counter-play (other than just build over it, which also doesn't require any real skill), and really just serves as a barrier for new players who don't know they need to build around it yet.

[Vanden]

5 kb ios x 4 million inf = 20 million. That's literally an investment. (And FYI, that price was 15 mill on live).

 

Third edit: and the real reason was that kb ios aren't unique and you'd basically be paying cash on live to get kb protection. This isn't live.

 

Influence is unlimited. Slots are not.

 

Anyway, if having so much kb protection is so important to PvP, it should get a solution that won't unbalance PvE, like putting some kb protection into the PvP resistances everyone gets for free.

[Epsilon Assassin]

Influence is unlimited. Slots are not.

 

Anyway, if having so much kb protection is so important to PvP, it should get a solution that won't unbalance PvE, like putting some kb protection into the PvP resistances everyone gets for free.

 

This doesn't unbalance PvE. KB is a literal non-factor in PvE. One KB IO nullifies like 98% of PvE KB. Acrobatics nullifies 99% of the remaining 2%. The 4k inf base buff for +10 KB Protection invalidates the rest of it.

 

This is a change that retains some investment in KB Protection in PvP, while making it significantly less impossible for several builds.

[Sunsette]

A question, since I'm curious: so KB Protections -40-something is for sets that don't get KB resistance, too? Or does -everyone- need to build for it?

 

While I don't PvP myself, I'm fine with such a change for PvE purposes. As said above, there are very, very few situations in PvE where more than -4 KB protection is useful. Does seem like the better solution though would be to just... reduce the amount of knockback in PvP, or maybe reintroduce KB resistance to Acrobatics and Hover. I play Energy Blast and I don't think I could even get in that neighborhood of KB without building for nothing but.

[Banana Man]

-Most- melee characters don't need to build for KB protections, because their KB protection powers also provide KB resistance.

 

Reworking mechanics in PvP would be a better, but also far less feasible and more complicated solution.

 

You'd be surprised how much KB protection you can work into builds. Most of mine sit at about 43, with the potential to hit 47 with an unslotter to swap one enhancement. For most builds what this change does is make getting 8 more KB protection much easier, and free up 5 slots - which really isn't a radical change

[Sunsette]

Understood, I appreciate the explanation. And I agree with your assessment.

[Vanden]

Influence is unlimited. Slots are not.

 

Anyway, if having so much kb protection is so important to PvP, it should get a solution that won't unbalance PvE, like putting some kb protection into the PvP resistances everyone gets for free.

 

This doesn't unbalance PvE. KB is a literal non-factor in PvE. One KB IO nullifies like 98% of PvE KB. Acrobatics nullifies 99% of the remaining 2%. The 4k inf base buff for +10 KB Protection invalidates the rest of it.

 

This is a change that retains some investment in KB Protection in PvP, while making it significantly less impossible for several builds.

 

20 KB protection for, and I can't stress this enough, absolutely no build investment or compromises is absolutely unbalanced. Getting KB protection on characters without primary or secondary powers that provide it still has an opportunity cost of slots or powers, by design. This change would simply throw that design out.

[Robotech_Master]

Well, if we want equivalent protection to Acrobatic's mag 11 Knockback protection, you need three mag 4 KB protects--Karma, Steadfast Protection, that universal travel power, or a set like Overwhelming Force that provides mag 4 KB protection as a set bonus. I have that many slots in there on both my Tanker and my Brute, who don't want to have to run yet another toggle but don't want to get knocked on their keister all the time.

 

Letting the Prestige Sprints take Knockback protects would immediately free up those 2 or 3 slots even in PvE builds. Which seems to me like it would make Acrobatics effectively worthless--no one would take it if KB protection was effectively free. (Or a few million Inf, which might as well be free as easy as it is to make.) That seems a little unbalancing to me.

[Banana Man]

what's the build compromise of buying the super cheap base buff that gives mag 10?

[Robotech_Master]

The base buff runs out, so you'd need to be running back there all the time to get it.

[Banana Man]

Acrobatics is 9 KB protection in PvP, and also hold resist. You'd still be taking acro in PvP.

 

I already don't take it in PvE. Between the base temp, defensive amp, basically having perma elude on every character because of how easy soft capping defense is, and how rare KB that matters is in PvE (one botz will usually suffice for anything), acro really isn't a high priority power on most things as it is, unless you're taking it for the hold protection, in which case its worth would stay the same.

 

Going to your sg base every 1.5 hours really isn't that inconvenient imo, either.

 

For the record, I'm not necessarily advocating for this change, but I really don't see a significant downside.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

20 KB protection for, and I can't stress this enough, absolutely no build investment or compromises is absolutely unbalanced. Getting KB protection on characters without primary or secondary powers that provide it still has an opportunity cost of slots or powers, by design. This change would simply throw that design out.

Well, 16 KB Protection and 20% Slow resistance, I think I'd use one of them for the Winter's Gift IO instead. 16 points of KB protection is sufficien.

[Vanden]

20 KB protection for, and I can't stress this enough, absolutely no build investment or compromises is absolutely unbalanced. Getting KB protection on characters without primary or secondary powers that provide it still has an opportunity cost of slots or powers, by design. This change would simply throw that design out.

 

Well, 16 KB Protection and 20% Slow resistance, I think I'd use one of them for the Winter's Gift IO instead. 16 points of KB protection is sufficient.

 

You get 6 sprint slots. You could throw a Stealth IO in there too and still have 20 KB protection.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

20 KB protection for, and I can't stress this enough, absolutely no build investment or compromises is absolutely unbalanced. Getting KB protection on characters without primary or secondary powers that provide it still has an opportunity cost of slots or powers, by design. This change would simply throw that design out.

 

Well, 16 KB Protection and 20% Slow resistance, I think I'd use one of them for the Winter's Gift IO instead. 16 points of KB protection is sufficient.

 

You get 6 sprint slots. You could throw a Stealth IO in there too and still have 20 KB protection.

Sure, but I'd rather have 16 KB protection (4 BotZ IOs), 20% Slow Resistance (Winter's Gift) and a Stealth IO. Sure 20% slow resistance isn't much but I don't really need those last four points of kb protection either.

[Banana Man]

Giving 20% slow res to everything actually is sort of questionable. Then again, you can slot like 80% slow res into every character now without that much commitment.

 

What are the characters specifically that are having issues building into adequate KB prots for PvP?

[barrier]

Hey man, like... Did you oppose the stamina changes too? Serious question.

[Epsilon Assassin]

 

20 KB protection for, and I can't stress this enough, absolutely no build investment or compromises is absolutely unbalanced. Getting KB protection on characters without primary or secondary powers that provide it still has an opportunity cost of slots or powers, by design. This change would simply throw that design out.

 

As far as PvE goes, the one slot provided in one travel power already gives, effective, as much protection to KB as the potential 5 KB protection provided by this change. So while, yes, it does throw the design of arbitrarily difficult KB protection IOs out the window, that is not a bad thing. neither does it unbalance PvE as you specifically said early. Yes, it is "Unbalanced" in general, but it doesn't change anything PvE wise except making it so I dont have to spend 4k inf on salvage every 2 hours on a KB Protection buff. Thus, that being said, since all this change does is remove pointless tedium that adds nothing to the game in any way, shape or form.

 

Is it bad?