Well, Belwen, I think you still have to level a Fed toon to 10 to unlock the others, but if you haven't run the Klingon tutorial yet, I advise it. It's fun. You start off at lvl 1 as second officer of a B'rel-class bird of prey, then you find out the captain is about to betray the Empire. You inform the first officer, who confronts the captain; in the ensuing duel, he kills the exec, which automatically promotes you to her position. When you get past invading Fed troops to the bridge and find out what's going on, you challenge the captain, kill him, and assume his seat, with your old buddy K'gan as your exec. Now you just have to finish repairs, defeat the various Starfleet ships that thought they were supposed to pick up Drake, and escort him back to Qo'noS, where he promptly escapes and you have to pursue...
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
Oh, not in the least. That's just the beginning of a plotline in which you eventually help bring down one of the Great Houses, as well as redeeming the spirit of the ship's former first officer from Gre'thor.
It's a massive improvement over the original setup for Klingons, in which you had to grind your way to level 20 before the game really started for you, or the second version, in which you actually started at 20.
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
So CO and NWO are two of the most generous F2P MMOs there are. As for OP complaining about not getting enough free... "Give em an inch and they'll take a mile"?
Funny you'd say CO and NW are generous when really, they aren't unless you're comparing them to most of PWE's other games, like Forsaken World. STO is by far the most generous game of the lot.
As someone with a memory that isn't complete garbage, I can still remember what my time on CO was like as a new F2P player:
1) Limited AT selection and not all of them are good.
2) Silver Freeform can be an utterly atrocious experience unless you absolutely know exactly what you're doing. If you make a mistake, respecs are extremely expensive and cumbersome, especially to those trying to throw something together without some kind of plan.
3) The respec system in general is pretty punishing/terrible and should probably be reevaluated. (But it probably won't happen) The easiest approach would be to just slash the costs by 90%.
4) Premium ATs are like playing Russian roulette with your wallet. A new player doesn't know if one is going to fun to play/good or something they hate/terrible until after they've paid. If I was playing this game for the first time and sprung for an AT that turned out to suck, I doubt I'd continue playing. I'm legitimately confused about why there isn't some sort of try-before-you-buy system for these. Or why they aren't just all free to begin with.
I don't like grinding a currency then having to refine it at a set limit.
The refinement cap is actually pretty important. Without it, the value of questionite on the questionite-to-zen exchange would take a sharp nosedive, making it no longer practical to exchange it for zen.
(Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
Maybe players could be more inquisitive about the Archetypes before getting too invested in one. I've seen plenty of players ask around if this or that Archetype is any good, and there's often really good and helpful advice given to them. They could maybe also try YouTube to see how each one actually plays, though I can't say for sure that these videos even exist.
I've found all the ATs to be playable, and none to be bad. Some have been improved greatly by the AT reviews that came with their respective power set reviews.
Same forum also has freeform guides. This forum is also a good place to get build advice, and several players here will happily build something to spec.
If new players are stumbling over either figuring out what AT to play or how to build a freeform, it's for nothing other than the lack of effort of doing some research. CO isn't different from most other MMOs in that regard.
As someone who was a F2P player for longer than I've been a Gold player, and who played nearly every AT ( yes including the Impulse ), my opinion is that all of the Archetypes are fun and playable. Hell, people talk down on the Impulse but I had a lot of fun with it. Will everyone enjoy every archetype? Probably not, since that's subjective - there's really no objective way to say "This AT is bad, this AT is good" because anytime you say that someone will come along and say "I enjoyed the thing you didn't like" or "I hated the thing you liked". ATs give plenty of information about themselves, and like Smackwell pointed out asking in zone is as easy as hitting enter and asking a question.
When it comes to "FF slot is hard!". Well if you mess up your build you can always delete the toon and start over. I did that quite a few times when I only had slots. :P
I only had two issues with the Impulse - the fact that almost every attack is also a knock, which tends to annoy teammates in Alerts and other team content, and Force Pull, which in my experience was pretty useless - most of the mobs charge toward you, not away, and by the time I got Force Pull charged up, they were already in my face. Other than that, I had a blast, if you'll pardon the expression.
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
If new players are stumbling over either figuring out what AT to play or how to build a freeform, it's for nothing other than the lack of effort of doing some research. CO isn't different from most other MMOs in that regard.
Unfortunately, as devs for multiple game companies have mentioned over the years, only 1/10th of MMO players ever visit forums. This is why Facebook & Twitter get better announcements than the main web pages. (And why atrocities such as the ARC client exist.)
-
Formerly @Seschat pre PWEmerger. @Seschat on the Titan boards.
I only had two issues with the Impulse - the fact that almost every attack is also a knock, which tends to annoy teammates in Alerts and other team content, and Force Pull, which in my experience was pretty useless - most of the mobs charge toward you, not away, and by the time I got Force Pull charged up, they were already in my face. Other than that, I had a blast, if you'll pardon the expression.
The Impulse has several problems, most of which aren't actually it's fault. Running through it by level:
It's a hybrid (necessary to allow it a choice of passives). Hybrids are poor performers in CO at the moment.
(Level 8) Both choices are problematic. Personal Force Field is the worst defensive passive in the game, and Kinetic Manipulation has a buggy interaction with Force Cascade.
(Level 14) Its form passive doesn't synchronize well with the needs of the build, as it doesn't give damage or energy and has poor synergy with personal force field (it works better on a defense that provides mitigation). IDF is mostly useful for support builds.
(Level 17) Neither of these choices works particularly well without Presence.
(Level 25) This is the level most builds get energy unlocks. Instead it gets... the worst active defense in the game. The only energy generation on this build is force shield.
(Level 30) Not a melee build, why do I want to knock people towards me?
(Level 40) Making force cascade work well requires massive energy generation and a non energy form passive (it has a bug that basically permanently disables energy form passives). This build is, as noted above, energy starved.
I suppose I wasn't specific. I meant all of the ATs available to a new player. The free ones and the unlockables. None of them are terrible, IMO.
Automaton is a free unlockable and it's basically garbage. Any of the Hybrid types underperform because they're stuck in hybrid role (unless their DR is messed up in favor of the player--something the devs have been fixing as they get to each set so don't count that as an offset). The Glacier has a complete lack of self-healing. The Marksman kind of sucks because the whole set is currently undertuned. And so on.
Edit: And for premium ATs, don't forget The Inventor.
(Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
Automaton is a free unlockable and it's basically garbage.
I feel comments like these are really unhelpful. Yeah it's not the best build, it doesn't have synergy, its passive sucks, blah blah. But could a new player find it fun? I'm an old player and I found it fun, so I don't see why not. What I found fun about it was that it put powers together in a combination I'd never used before (and I'll just take this moment to let everyone know I'm not good at building characters), and I found the play style fun and different. Lining up shots for Rocket Fist was fun, using reconstruction circuits at the correct times, etc. It was interesting and different, and at no time did I feel put out while leveling it up to unlock the powers. My only complaints were that it could use more energy so you could maintain Chainsaw.
Do I feel like it's perfect and has no room for improvement? Of course not. But it's not "garbage". If they could update it without fundamentally changing how it plays, I wouldn't complain.
Glacier was one of my favorites. Beastly tank. That was the first AT where I started my habit of pulling entire Grab maps for lulz. Certainly never felt like it needed any healing powers.
Glacier has limited self-healing from ice barrier, but really...self-healing on a tank only matters in content that is both difficult enough to need heals (or need heals beyond what consumables will give you) and not difficult enough that you can expect to have someone healing you. It's nice to have, but really not essential on a tank AT, especially one with invulnerability (as invulnerability drops a lot of foes' damage down to trivial levels).
Do I feel like it's perfect and has no room for improvement? Of course not. But it's not "garbage". If they could update it without fundamentally changing how it plays, I wouldn't complain.
I suspect this is the main guiding principle of ATs. Give people a set of powers and let them go and play with them. It's like "Hey! try this out!" No AT should be expected to be able to beat a Freeform character that was built to do the same thing.
I've come to suspect that I'd have done better when I was learning the game if I'd tried more than just one play style.
I suppose I wasn't specific. I meant all of the ATs available to a new player. The free ones and the unlockables. None of them are terrible, IMO.
Automaton is a free unlockable and it's basically garbage. Any of the Hybrid types underperform because they're stuck in hybrid role (unless their DR is messed up in favor of the player--something the devs have been fixing as they get to each set so don't count that as an offset). The Glacier has a complete lack of self-healing. The Marksman kind of sucks because the whole set is currently undertuned. And so on.
Edit: And for premium ATs, don't forget The Inventor.
I suppose I wasn't specific. I meant all of the ATs available to a new player. The free ones and the unlockables. None of them are terrible, IMO.
Automaton is a free unlockable and it's basically garbage. Any of the Hybrid types underperform because they're stuck in hybrid role (unless their DR is messed up in favor of the player--something the devs have been fixing as they get to each set so don't count that as an offset). The Glacier has a complete lack of self-healing. The Marksman kind of sucks because the whole set is currently undertuned. And so on.
Edit: And for premium ATs, don't forget The Inventor.
------ Response begins below, forum quoting goofed ------
I leveled the first iteration of Automaton, and it was playable. Not a good build, but playable. The current version is better. All of the hybrids are playable. Glacier is one of the better free ATs and is plenty durable. Inventor was my first paid AT unlock, and it was actually very decent, with the only issue being excess healing aggro from its passive when grouped.
I think you may have unrealistic expectations for ATs, including not realizing (or caring, since they don't build them to your preference) that they are designed for trinity play, and not meant to be as powerful and self-sufficient as a freeform. My assertion is that they are all playable. Some are obviously better than others.
Even if many of them were pure crap, there are still good free or easily attainable ATs available to play. The selection is wide enough that most players should be able to find something that suits their preferences, just like any other MMO. We're talking about 20 "classes" in most other MMOs. Most FTP games don't come close to that. Both the additions of Specializations and the power set / AT reviews have strengthened the ATs.
If you were to say that the ATs should have certain minimum things common to their builds, like some form of self healing outside the spec trees and an energy unlock, then I'd agree. But saying they're pure garbage or unplayable simply isn't true.
If new players are stumbling over either figuring out what AT to play or how to build a freeform, it's for nothing other than the lack of effort of doing some research. CO isn't different from most other MMOs in that regard.
Unfortunately, as devs for multiple game companies have mentioned over the years, only 1/10th of MMO players ever visit forums. This is why Facebook & Twitter get better announcements than the main web pages. (And why atrocities such as the ARC client exist.)
I don't care, nor do I have sympathy for the laziness of players. If they don't want to take the time to go to Google and type "Champions Online (insert topic) guide" or the like and hit "search," then they are in the wrong genre.
Blizzard is the PRIME offender with abandonment of the forums, and lacking in game presentation of necessary information for new players. Know what their solution is? Point players to an ad-infested fan site.
MMOs have always had this issue of reliance on gathering outside information to ease the learning curve. At the very least, the confused new player can simply ask questions in general chat in the game. I've seen and answered and have seen answered by the community, literally hundreds of new player questions. I haven't seen anyone shut down for seeking basic info in general chat, despite the spates of trolling that have taken place in general chat from time to time. Most often, when I answer a player, we go to whispers and I answer their questions or look stuff up for them and send them the info if needed.
So, no. No excuses accepted. Find a new genre if you're too lazy or have too much social anxiety to do some basic research.
Players wouldn't need to hit the forums anyways. Power descriptions give you all you need to know what to do with a given AT. I only ever started getting information about stuff from the forums this year, and I've been awesome in this game for years.
Oh also, hybrids are some of the best ATs. When asked "which is the easiest AT to level" people quite often name hybrid ATs. It'd actually be pretty strange for someone who says that they want their ATs to have both damage dealing potential and self healing to then say they like hybrids the least since the hybrid category is where you'll find the best combinations of that.
[Random stuff from people about my opinion-based list of crappy ATs]
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I guess some people are just easier to please with inferior products. Just remember, "playable" and "good" aren't the same thing. Technically, this is playable.
Blizzard is the PRIME offender with abandonment of the forums, and lacking in game presentation of necessary information for new players. Know what their solution is? Point players to an ad-infested fan site.
Blizzard is much bigger and has a colossal playerbase to contend with compared to CO. Any time a staff member makes a post, it gets dogpiled with replies which makes it difficult to manage. That combined with the fact that, as stated, most players just don't care about the forums, it's logical for them to focus other outlets to reach their audience. Facebook, Twitter, their main site, Bloathead, etc. The goal is to put your stuff in front of as many players as possible, so in that regard, what they're doing is pretty much what they should be doing.
Besides, wow's forums are pretty cancerous as per norms. It makes sense that they'd want to retreat from that.
Edit: I almost forgot wowhead even had ads.
(Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
I guess some people are just easier to please with inferior products.
Well I guess this says a lot. Do you think the Unleashed is a "good product" because it does good damage, even though the water drinking bird could do as good a job playing it? To me that's boring, despite it doing good damage. Engaging mechanics are fun, not the numbers floating above my enemies' heads.
Also the snobbiness is unnecessary. I get that different people have different ways of measuring fun, but there's no reason to try and put others down for it. You could have said "different strokes for different folks" just as easily.
I guess some people are just easier to please with inferior products.
You don't have any actual counter arguments, do you?
Your real problem is that you don't agree with the design goals for the ATs, because they meet the design goals for the most part. (Quality of the individual builds varies, obviously.)
[Random stuff from people about my opinion-based list of crappy ATs]
When you follow your opinion with "and anyone who doesn't agree with me is too easily pleased by inferior products" it moves you from "woah I'm just giving my opinion" to "my opinion is a fact".
Glacier has limited self-healing from ice barrier, but really...self-healing on a tank only matters in content that is both difficult enough to need heals (or need heals beyond what consumables will give you) and not difficult enough that you can expect to have someone healing you. It's nice to have, but really not essential on a tank AT, especially one with invulnerability (as invulnerability drops a lot of foes' damage down to trivial levels).
Glacier doesn't need much healing. But spec Adrenaline Rush and the AT should pretty much be unkillable in anything but Cosmic/QZone stuff.
In my experience, the Glacier doesn't really need a self-heal, because once you crank up the Invulnerability a couple of levels, it doesn't take a lot of damage. If you feel the lack, however, Karneeki the Great will happily sell you all the MARS Stims you could want for a very reasonable price. (The only drawback is that they only stack to 6.)
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
Scream value all you want but if no ones buying your pitch your product is dead no matter what the sales reps. say. I enjoy all the free content and feel good about what I have spent but that doesn't mean I feel things are perfect. Just my opinion.
My lvl 40 champs in random order.
=Pieces of Stuff=Knock Dead=Cruel Yule=Cremator=Toys from the Attic=
=Gnosis Arcanum=Twenty Seven=Kama D=Critic=Creep Freeze=
=Mangled Man=G.I. John Doe=2D.=Lung the punch drunk monk=
=By the sword=Scild Truma=Shadow Puppet=Lu-7=Erysichthon=
=Nimravid=Buzzard Kill=Lorenzini=Schema=
Scream value all you want but if no ones buying your pitch your product is dead no matter what the sales reps. say. I enjoy all the free content and feel good about what I have spent but that doesn't mean I feel things are perfect. Just my opinion.
Do you have some data that indicates that "no ones buying the pitch" and "the product is dead"? Cause the fact that these things have been available for sale for years would indicate otherwise.
Yes CO player base is huge with lifer subs just lining up to throw down 300 bones on a game. I own IWD diamond .... 10 bucks ... whole game and all its content. Knights of the old republic? I own the whole game with bug free content for 10 and change. Now i understand the online thing and access to other players and what not but come on .... need I go on? Is it possible to count life subers on 2 hands? 10 fingers? Personally i think FF would be far more profitable if made more affordable but again its all my opinion as I stated before.
My lvl 40 champs in random order.
=Pieces of Stuff=Knock Dead=Cruel Yule=Cremator=Toys from the Attic=
=Gnosis Arcanum=Twenty Seven=Kama D=Critic=Creep Freeze=
=Mangled Man=G.I. John Doe=2D.=Lung the punch drunk monk=
=By the sword=Scild Truma=Shadow Puppet=Lu-7=Erysichthon=
=Nimravid=Buzzard Kill=Lorenzini=Schema=
Yes CO player base is huge with lifer subs just lining up to throw down 300 bones on a game. I own IWD diamond .... 10 bucks ... whole game and all its content. Knights of the old republic? I own the whole game with bug free content for 10 and change. Now i understand the online thing and access to other players and what not but come on .... need I go on? Is it possible to count life subers on 2 hands? 10 fingers? Personally i think FF would be far more profitable if made more affordable but again its all my opinion as I stated before.
So then you don't have any data? I didn't ask what other games you've spent money in.
On not in and as I stated clearly before it was all my opinion.
My lvl 40 champs in random order.
=Pieces of Stuff=Knock Dead=Cruel Yule=Cremator=Toys from the Attic=
=Gnosis Arcanum=Twenty Seven=Kama D=Critic=Creep Freeze=
=Mangled Man=G.I. John Doe=2D.=Lung the punch drunk monk=
=By the sword=Scild Truma=Shadow Puppet=Lu-7=Erysichthon=
=Nimravid=Buzzard Kill=Lorenzini=Schema=
Well I guess this says a lot. Do you think the Unleashed is a "good product" because it does good damage, even though the water drinking bird could do as good a job playing it? To me that's boring, despite it doing good damage. Engaging mechanics are fun, not the numbers floating above my enemies' heads.
Yeah, I think The Unleashed is actually quite good because it has a lot of tools at its disposal. Sure, fun is relative, and in particular, I find it fun to have ways to respond to situations rather than managing stacks of X before using Y and repeating the process. Functionality over button dances.
Meanwhile, The Automaton, which I criticized, has a weird mix of mostly weak single target attacks, an EU that works poorly with most of its other abilities, and unreliable AoE options. I didn't mean to come across as rude/snobby/whatever because I've never been good at sugar-coating things, but if people find that fun, I honestly don't know what to say.
You don't have any actual counter arguments, do you?
Your real problem is that you don't agree with the design goals for the ATs, because they meet the design goals for the most part. (Quality of the individual builds varies, obviously.)
Sure I have counterarguments, but are they worth typing out for people who already seem to have their minds made up on the matter? The answer to that is "no, not really." Anyway, if the design goals are "create a random selection of character templates, some of which perform significantly better than others," then...mission accomplished! ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
(Hopefully) Useful CO Resources: HeroCreator (character planner), Cosmic Timers/Alert Checklist, Blood Moon Map, Anniversary Cat Map, and more (eventually, anyway).
I had fun playing my automaton with all the other automatons running around as people rushed to unlock the new powers during the first week in was introduced. That sort of mad dash to level 40 was certainly part of the fun for me and even though the combination of powers were a bit odd and not at all optimized that didn't really take away from the experience and leveling up never felt like a slog. I've barely touched that character since however and do not imagine I would have much fun trying to get properly geared up for endgame content.
I had a Glacier.... I got bored of it. It is still level 33 and has been since 2015 and I don't think I will ever get it to 40. Maybe I don't like tanking?
I havent looked too much at AT's since I was a silver waay back in 2012. I can tell you based on what I don't see anymore. The Master, for instance.
Ah, now I do have a Master AT. And it was great fun - perfectly matched against all the levelling content. That type of build has no place in Cosmics, etc, but I still take it out to run general dailies, and it's still good to play there.
The Automaton isn't that bad, its just a bit half hearted by the devs. What you have to do is just toggle on the energy builder so that it attacks everything within range regardless of intent and try and plough through everything in a blur of kill-death-maim stacking mechanisms.
They're fun, tbh. Sometimes I don't want to be bothered about builds and the like, I just want to play a character, and ATs let me do that. Some are meh (but that's a challenge) some - like the new Burning AT - are actually very good.
Ah, now I do have a Master AT. And it was great fun - perfectly matched against all the levelling content. That type of build has no place in Cosmics, etc, but I still take it out to run general dailies, and it's still good to play there.
You could use a Master as a cosmic tank, it's got sufficient tools to hit 100% dodge.
I didn't mean to come across as rude/snobby/whatever because I've never been good at sugar-coating things, but if people find that fun, I honestly don't know what to say.
Well I guess what you say would depend on your objective. If you're trying to make them stop having fun doing things you don't like and get them to agree with you, then there really is nothing you can say..so say nothing. If your aim is to find out why they have fun doing that thing, ask them ( and don't immediately criticize their response or try to imply there's something wrong with them for giving their answer ). A third alternative is to say to yourself "people sometimes like things I don't like and that is completely normal".
Comments
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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My super cool CC build and how to use it.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My characters
It's a massive improvement over the original setup for Klingons, in which you had to grind your way to level 20 before the game really started for you, or the second version, in which you actually started at 20.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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As someone with a memory that isn't complete garbage, I can still remember what my time on CO was like as a new F2P player:
1) Limited AT selection and not all of them are good.
2) Silver Freeform can be an utterly atrocious experience unless you absolutely know exactly what you're doing. If you make a mistake, respecs are extremely expensive and cumbersome, especially to those trying to throw something together without some kind of plan.
3) The respec system in general is pretty punishing/terrible and should probably be reevaluated. (But it probably won't happen) The easiest approach would be to just slash the costs by 90%.
4) Premium ATs are like playing Russian roulette with your wallet. A new player doesn't know if one is going to fun to play/good or something they hate/terrible until after they've paid. If I was playing this game for the first time and sprung for an AT that turned out to suck, I doubt I'd continue playing. I'm legitimately confused about why there isn't some sort of try-before-you-buy system for these. Or why they aren't just all free to begin with.
The refinement cap is actually pretty important. Without it, the value of questionite on the questionite-to-zen exchange would take a sharp nosedive, making it no longer practical to exchange it for zen.
Seriously. The main thing to dislike about an AT right now is if it doesn't match your preferred play style.
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My characters
i thought there WAS at one time...didn't they used to rotate in a different free premium AT every X days or so several years back?
Pretty decent AT guides here:
http://champions-online.proboards.com/thread/3351/silverwolfx11s-updated-archetype-guides
Same forum also has freeform guides. This forum is also a good place to get build advice, and several players here will happily build something to spec.
If new players are stumbling over either figuring out what AT to play or how to build a freeform, it's for nothing other than the lack of effort of doing some research. CO isn't different from most other MMOs in that regard.
When it comes to "FF slot is hard!". Well if you mess up your build you can always delete the toon and start over. I did that quite a few times when I only had slots. :P
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Formerly @Seschat pre PWEmerger. @Seschat on the Titan boards.
Supporter of the Titan Project.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Edit: And for premium ATs, don't forget The Inventor.
Do I feel like it's perfect and has no room for improvement? Of course not. But it's not "garbage". If they could update it without fundamentally changing how it plays, I wouldn't complain.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
I've come to suspect that I'd have done better when I was learning the game if I'd tried more than just one play style.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
My characters
Edit: And for premium ATs, don't forget The Inventor. Automaton is a free unlockable and it's basically garbage. Any of the Hybrid types underperform because they're stuck in hybrid role (unless their DR is messed up in favor of the player--something the devs have been fixing as they get to each set so don't count that as an offset). The Glacier has a complete lack of self-healing. The Marksman kind of sucks because the whole set is currently undertuned. And so on.
Edit: And for premium ATs, don't forget The Inventor.
------ Response begins below, forum quoting goofed ------
I leveled the first iteration of Automaton, and it was playable. Not a good build, but playable. The current version is better. All of the hybrids are playable. Glacier is one of the better free ATs and is plenty durable. Inventor was my first paid AT unlock, and it was actually very decent, with the only issue being excess healing aggro from its passive when grouped.
I think you may have unrealistic expectations for ATs, including not realizing (or caring, since they don't build them to your preference) that they are designed for trinity play, and not meant to be as powerful and self-sufficient as a freeform. My assertion is that they are all playable. Some are obviously better than others.
Even if many of them were pure crap, there are still good free or easily attainable ATs available to play. The selection is wide enough that most players should be able to find something that suits their preferences, just like any other MMO. We're talking about 20 "classes" in most other MMOs. Most FTP games don't come close to that. Both the additions of Specializations and the power set / AT reviews have strengthened the ATs.
If you were to say that the ATs should have certain minimum things common to their builds, like some form of self healing outside the spec trees and an energy unlock, then I'd agree. But saying they're pure garbage or unplayable simply isn't true.
Blizzard is the PRIME offender with abandonment of the forums, and lacking in game presentation of necessary information for new players. Know what their solution is? Point players to an ad-infested fan site.
MMOs have always had this issue of reliance on gathering outside information to ease the learning curve. At the very least, the confused new player can simply ask questions in general chat in the game. I've seen and answered and have seen answered by the community, literally hundreds of new player questions. I haven't seen anyone shut down for seeking basic info in general chat, despite the spates of trolling that have taken place in general chat from time to time. Most often, when I answer a player, we go to whispers and I answer their questions or look stuff up for them and send them the info if needed.
So, no. No excuses accepted. Find a new genre if you're too lazy or have too much social anxiety to do some basic research.
Oh also, hybrids are some of the best ATs. When asked "which is the easiest AT to level" people quite often name hybrid ATs. It'd actually be pretty strange for someone who says that they want their ATs to have both damage dealing potential and self healing to then say they like hybrids the least since the hybrid category is where you'll find the best combinations of that.
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I guess some people are just easier to please with inferior products. Just remember, "playable" and "good" aren't the same thing. Technically, this is playable.
Blizzard is much bigger and has a colossal playerbase to contend with compared to CO. Any time a staff member makes a post, it gets dogpiled with replies which makes it difficult to manage. That combined with the fact that, as stated, most players just don't care about the forums, it's logical for them to focus other outlets to reach their audience. Facebook, Twitter, their main site, Bloathead, etc. The goal is to put your stuff in front of as many players as possible, so in that regard, what they're doing is pretty much what they should be doing.
Besides, wow's forums are pretty cancerous as per norms. It makes sense that they'd want to retreat from that.
Edit: I almost forgot wowhead even had ads.
Also the snobbiness is unnecessary. I get that different people have different ways of measuring fun, but there's no reason to try and put others down for it. You could have said "different strokes for different folks" just as easily.
Your real problem is that you don't agree with the design goals for the ATs, because they meet the design goals for the most part. (Quality of the individual builds varies, obviously.)
Which is fine. No need to be snide about it.
But feel free to keep trying o3o
When you follow your opinion with "and anyone who doesn't agree with me is too easily pleased by inferior products" it moves you from "woah I'm just giving my opinion" to "my opinion is a fact".
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Frostbiter (Freeform Ice DPS)
Battle Hazard (Unleashed AT)
Glacial Tyrant (Glacier AT)
Silver Mantra ( Freeform Single Blade DPS)
Magnetros (Freeform Heavy Weapons/Lightning Hybrid)
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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My super cool CC build and how to use it.
42 40s, LTSer.
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My super cool CC build and how to use it.
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My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Meanwhile, The Automaton, which I criticized, has a weird mix of mostly weak single target attacks, an EU that works poorly with most of its other abilities, and unreliable AoE options. I didn't mean to come across as rude/snobby/whatever because I've never been good at sugar-coating things, but if people find that fun, I honestly don't know what to say.
Sure I have counterarguments, but are they worth typing out for people who already seem to have their minds made up on the matter? The answer to that is "no, not really." Anyway, if the design goals are "create a random selection of character templates, some of which perform significantly better than others," then...mission accomplished! ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
I havent looked too much at AT's since I was a silver waay back in 2012. I can tell you based on what I don't see anymore. The Master, for instance.
Ah, now I do have a Master AT. And it was great fun - perfectly matched against all the levelling content. That type of build has no place in Cosmics, etc, but I still take it out to run general dailies, and it's still good to play there.
The Automaton isn't that bad, its just a bit half hearted by the devs. What you have to do is just toggle on the energy builder so that it attacks everything within range regardless of intent and try and plough through everything in a blur of kill-death-maim stacking mechanisms.
They're fun, tbh. Sometimes I don't want to be bothered about builds and the like, I just want to play a character, and ATs let me do that. Some are meh (but that's a challenge) some - like the new Burning AT - are actually very good.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
That's good to know. I don't do Cosmics personally but if the potential is there....