First off I'm not one for posting, but I often read the forums. I have been playing this game for almost a year and half now, and my main character is TK blades. I have really been looking forward to this update, and I'm extremely underwhelmed. I don't want this to be gripe session, but I would like to get my two cents in because I'm heavily invested in this seeing as 90% of the time I play TK blades.
First off the good... I really like TK Assault, the maintained ranged power, I like the way it looks, and the damage is decent. The new Ego Reverb is nice, and I'm not hurting for energy as much as in the past.
For the bad, I absolutely hate the change to Ego Blade Annihilation. On the live server now I am able to do 6k of crit damage on enemies under 25% health on tap (with setup of 3 quick taps of EBB). Now testing with the exact same setup I am only doing around 4.5 K of damage. And the setup for maximum power out of EBA takes much longer now, gaining 5 stacks of Ego Leach. So all in all, I think EBA should stay the same as it is on Live now.
Personally I don't like the fact that now with Mental Discipline and any passive you can wield ID blades. It may be cheap, but I thought that it was unique to have them, seeing as I rarely ever see any other level 40's using Ego Form. I would like to see it stay that way. I just think now we will see a ton of characters running around with Seraphim and Shadow Form using Dual Blades. The uniqueness will go away for me. I do run a defensive passive (Lightning Reflexes) as well for when I need high survivability or don't have a great healer in the party. And I wouldn't have an issue if I still couldn't use ID blades while running a defensive passive.
Strength: No longer states that it provides additional break free strength to "Tangible" holds, as the concept of Tangible vs. Intangible holds was removed during the Hold Review.
Strength: No longer increases Ranged Knock Back strength. (This is now provided by the Ego stat)
Strength: Melee Knock strength provided by this stat now also increases Melee Knock Up strength, though to a lesser degree than Knock Back.
Strength: The tooltip now shows how much bonus Melee damage you are receiving from your Strength. This is just a tooltip change, no change has been made to the bonus Melee damage scaling from Strength.
Strength: The tooltip now states "+ X% all Knock resistance" instead of separate entries for KnockBack and KnockUp resistance, as it also includes resistance to KnockTo. This is just a tooltip change.
Dexterity: Now provides less contribution to your critical chance, but also provides a bonus to your critical severity.
Ego: Now provides less contribution to your critical severity, but also provides a bonus to your critical chance.
Ego: No longer states that it provides additional break free strength to "Intangible" holds, as the concept of Tangible vs. Intangible holds was removed during the Hold Review.
Ego: Now provides some amount of Hold Resistance.
Ego: Now increases Ranged Knock strength. This affects Ranged Knock Back and Knock Up.
Presence: The tooltip now shows how much bonus Healing you are receiving from your Presence. This is just a tooltip change, no change has been made to the bonus Healing scaling from Presence.
Recovery: Now also provides a slight increase to your maximum Energy, at the rate of 1 Energy every 10 Recovery.
EDIT - Updated the list to make it a bit more legible. -Ame
We've yet to be able to lift the Titanic weight objects with TK. Even using five stacking AoPMs and palliates stacked on the teammember with highest Pre, boosting an Ego-statted character to 610 Ego. And that's with R3 Telekinesis.
Kien mentioned that the thresholds are double the Str ones. I think the Str threshold for Titanic stuff is 310, so by that formula, Titanic stuff with TK would be 620.
Needless to say, that's pretty ridiculous. It's not possible to get that much in any normal situation.
Could we maybe get some changes to the scaling made?
Stats Change Feedback:
I like the consolitadion of mez resistance into ego and i also like the change for ranged knock powers. However i would have stopped there.
I do not like the changes to the way crit chance and crit severity and heres why:
1. I run a AOPM/form of the tempest build with protection field/bionic shielding for defense and might melee attacks. LINK TO BUILD
I rely on tempest crits to help with the massive energy consumption problems this build has due to spamming attacks and spamming protection field constantly in melee to survive. I cant really afford ANY less energy output with this build and the increased DPS doesn't do much for the energy problems that i spent so much time carefully balancing.
Because my energy use is split evenly between active defense and DPS powers, this puts me in a compromising position when winning depends on me keeping my protection field up while doing decent damage over time. I already have enough DPS. (the more dps i do the less i can protect my self and thats all a function of how much endurance i have.)
2. I prefer the simplicity of having crit chance all tied to one stat and severity tied strictly to another stat. This made it ez to plan out my dex ego ratios at a glance without having to deal with fractions. Stated another way, when one attribute is spread across multiple stats, it makes it harder to eye ball the optimal way to gear and stat your toon. That may not be a big deal for some but for math retards like me, it adds needless complexity.
3. I don't recall any one complaining about dex so im not sure why there was any need to "fix" it. I'm all for EGO being improved but at the cost of Dex being made more cumbersome/ less useful? Surely you can make Ego useful without siphoning usefulness away from other stats.
I think the goal of this stat change should be to make Ego useful while forcing the least amount of respecs possible for non Ego players.
4. And while we are on the subject of respecs, what plans do you have for respecs in relation to the stat changes?
The hold resistance applyed from Ego doesn't do anything...
Tested 3 types of holds and each one did the same as without any hold resist.
Also like Sage said above, if its true and 620 ego is needed to throw the Titanic stuff, that really needs to be ajusted to something resonable. I don't see why this isn't 320 like STR is
New telekinesis is really fun but seems a little sktchy. Either its spawning props or it always seems to choose props behind me to throw. Possibly due to the sheer amount of ego you need for small objects compared to str.
Telekinetic assualt and telekinetic burst are amazing damage wise and visually. I can't wait for these to hit live.
The bad:
The SFX for telekinetic Lance seem to have the same texture or whatever as defile. Colouring your lance gold / orangy results in a green defile version of the lance.
Is it just me or is Telekinetic assaults damage way too good to be true :O
Phantom damage? Failure? Rip open a dimensional pocket to the cardboard box universe?
Currently, it will fail and cost you Energy, which is obviously no good. The intent is for it to not be usable in those instances. We're still working on getting this in.
The hold resist seems to not be doing anything, that I can tell. I may be testing it the wrong way. It doesn't help break out of maintains or charged holds any faster, nor does it seem to lower their duration.
Hmm, it should be reducing the duration of Holds applied to you. I'll have to see if something broke.
He comes out nerfed, but not by much. If my math is correct (and that's always an iffy proposition), on live he's doing 11.18% extra damage due to crits (13.99% w/Audacity), while on PTS he's doing 10.12% (13.08%). Min/maxers will probably scream bloody murder. Personally I can live with it.
Heavy Weapons build, SS DEX/EGO, level 31
DEX 149, EGO 158
LIVE
25% Crit, 80.3% Severity
PTS
25.4% Crit, 79.8% Severity
It's a wash as far as I'm concerned. Live is 20.08% while PTS is 20.27% -- a teeny weeny buff.
You can't get good crits without a fair amount of dex; the bonus for ego is (despite what you might think) dependent on Dex, and vice versa.
There are many ways to stack+crit chance tbh even w\o dex.
And question for devs: Are knock-to powers like shuriken with adv, might lariat and infernal lariat considered a melle knock? Because if not you should change it, no point for all of them to be ego based, well, exept force one.
My concerns for the DEx change in the reduction in Crit chances are for the builds which depend on the crits for an energy unlocks. Sword Cyclone is hard enough to maintain for a full duration as it is. But I'll wait on commenting more until I see the new numbers.
The hold resistance applyed from Ego doesn't do anything...
None of the resists actually prevent effects. The only effect I've been able to see in testing is that STR will slightly reduce knockback distance. Other than that, you always get knocked until you get 3 stacks of knock resistance.
Hold resistance has the same problem. Nothing helps except getting those three stacks. This is why NPC maintained holds are effectively unbreakable. And, since some NPC holds don't give stacks, if the NPC's get spammy, you're locked down until whenever.
Anyway...quick look on test...
The new ego leech mechanic works better. Could readily figure out how to get stacks and see that I was getting energy.
TK Burst's description in game still talks about it applying ego leech to each target hit. It's actual functionality is to provide a single stack of ego leech no matter how many targets it hits.
TK Lance isn't becoming available for 5 TK powers. You cannot take it until you have the 8 non-eb powers.
TK Lance consuming ego leech stacks for a really short buff is a really bad trade.
TK Lance charged is a waste of time. TK Lance on tap is pretty solid DPS.
TK Assault is a rock solid power. I suspect it's right near lightning arc in damage but until I run it through a spreadsheet, won't know for sure since it's so dependent on criticals. The advantage is actually one of those that will really make people think since AoE is nice, but r3 is too.
Telekinesis would be fun except it's so much weaker than strength for throwing things. Not saying it should be the same given that it's automatic, but it should be better than it is. Also, doesn't seem to be any point in leveling it up.
Telekinesis also seems to fail at finding stuff at times, at least in the training room. Even standing right on top of the box you want to throw doesn't always seem to work. Other times, it finds stuff fairly far away.
Telekinesis is also a great power for killing objects. Just TK them onto themselves and they go boom.
Ego Blade Breach and Ego Blade Annhilation are both okay on damage if they crit. Both were in the 7k range on a dex/ego toon. However, they both suffer from being split into two hits which means they get hit twice by things like IDF and Invuln.
TK as a set is basically locked into DEX/EGO for exactly the same reasons it's been locked into DEX/EGO all along. The tiny tweaks made to EGO still do not make it a stand alone power.
Not a big fan of the stat changes.
EGO still is not a stand alone stat, and gimping DEX to try and fix EGO is a waste of time since all it does is ties the two of them together further. It also hurts Quarry users who are pretty much always DEX/INT. In fact, it's a flat out nerf of DEX in every case except DEX/EGO. So the end result is that EGO isn't fixed, and now DEX is bad too except in one single case.
EGO as a knockback buff to ranged also makes no sense unless you want force users to all be DEX/EGO now as well. Personally, if it stays like this I'll just take the nerf to knockback distance on my force user rather than dropping STR/INT because knockback distance isn't as important for force as rage buffing and cost reduction.
REC isn't fixed by increasing max energy. REC happens to be the only superstat I do not, and still will not, use in a toon because energy return is handled much better by matching up your energy passive with an actually useful stat (ie. MSA and INT, thermal reverb and PRE, etc). Once you get the return down, you simply gear just enough END in to make sure you can fully charge powers and tada...done with energy.
This does seem like it makes Strength a stat that only someone using Enrage would choose as a a Super Stat. Otherwise, just get 80 (or is it 70) through gear and Talents and be done with it.
Perhaps Ego could get Paralyze and Stun resistance and Strength could get Root and Snare resistance. This evens it out a bit more and makes Confuse and Sleep a little more enticing.
This would make it so you couldn't take one stat to get resistance to all types of holds.
Telekinetic Assault - Oh look, a Magic Missile/Arcane Missiles/Photon Lancer/whatever power! Er, uh... solid T0 power with a nice advantage. I think it's the only T0 range 100 maintain power at the moment. Love it. Wish it didn't self-root, but then again, already promising as a T0 power. I think it looks better with darts (like Kinetic Darts) or spheres than swords.
Telekinetic Burst - Ooh.. swords! So... it's a ranged TK Maelstrom but with disorient instead of stun? And a 100% Ego Leech! You can pro Ego Reverberation easily. Tap spam away! The disorient gives it some nice setup with some TP and HW powers. The animation is pretty. Think we can get a "rain" maintain attack with those swords like Conflagration and Lightning Storm and make the swords linger on a bit like Storm of Arrows?
Telekinetic Lance - It's a weaker ranged Reaper's Bite... or Ego Blade Annihilation now. The Id Infusion mechanic is potentially interesting. Will have to play with that some more and see... The animation is rather mundane compared to the others.
Mental Discipline - Not very competitive against Form of the Tempest. It could buff all ego damage like how Aspect of the Infernal does for toxic and how Aspect of the Bestial does for slashing (theoretically anyway; there are no ranged slashing powers if I recall). It's a small loss for someone using focusing on Ego Blades, but I think the increased synergy with the rest of the TK framework and even with TP would make the power less niche, which is something I like very much.
Ego Leech - After Ego Form's discount to all Mentalist powers, yes! MOAR DISCOUNTS AND SYNERGIES! Melee/TK blades could use a 100% Ego Leech on tap power a la TK Burst.
Ego Form - Needs some stuff to buff its defensive side and to differentiate from Shadow Form.
I have questions about some existing TK powers.
Kinetic Dart - Now that Ego Form is now more like Shadow Form, will Kinetic Dart's Incisive Wit advantage be made to work while Ego Form is slotted? It also needs a chance to proc Ego Leech like the melee EB.
Telekinetic Maelstrom - Can we get this to do ego damage instead of crushing? Or is this due to its pseudo-Telekinesis (the power) flavor of flinging "nearby objects"?
Also for stat changes, can we get a display on +X% energy returned on block for Ego? That seemed to be left out. Or is the energy return mechanic on a block more difficult than that? The stat display for talents need to be updated as well but I'm sure you guys were going to get around to it.
For those thinking REC could use something more, how about the following increased energy gain to equilibrium and decreased energy decay to equilibrium? END could probably get increased resistance to energy damage, as in attacks that drain energy (the tasers used by ARGENT Counteragents, Ego Weaponry's advantage, etc.).
I'm not entirely sold on blurring DEX and EGO. I understand it was to divorce Ego from being tied to Dex. I'll have to think about this a bit more before responding more on this.
Some of this looks good but I've got a couple of concerns (that others seem to share)
Reducing Dexterity's Critical chance hurts people who don't take Dex and Ego. Such as anyone who might have been doing the suggested setup for Archery (Dex/Int.) Quarry's Ego Bonus doesn't really offset the hit to critical chance.
As an example. My level 40 With Quarry has about 295 dexterity. On live I've got 35~% Critical chance with this. On Test it's down to 27.9% and only goes up to 30% with three stacks of Audacity.
The extra potential damage might be nice, but having less of an overall chance is hindering. It is especially harmful for builds that might just have Form of the Tempest to help maintain energy, yet don't have Ego. Hunter's Instinct is also hurt by this as the Archery set and Marksman archetype rely mostly on Dex/Int rather than Dex/Ego
Ego, on the other hand might actually be getting more of a boost out of this, as some one who had Ego and not Dex will see increased critical chance for a little less maximum output. Higher frequency trumps the lost damage.
As for the powers, The only major complaint is perhaps with Telekinetic Lance. Too set-reliant, and in general has much lower performance than other t3 ranged powers (Cascade, Defile, Ebon Ruin.)
* Dexterity: Now provides less contribution to your critical chance, but also provides a bonus to your critical severity.
* Ego: Now provides less contribution to your critical severity, but also provides a bonus to your critical chance.
Ha awesome! This is just what I advocated a long time. Liking the rest of it too!
I'm reading lots of reservations about it and honestly do not know or have time to analyze whether it was the correct decision, but it is cool to see nonetheless.
Since mez can be overpowered in PVP, overpowered by mobs in PVE, and underpowered by players in PVE, it may help to add an inherent mez resistance to everybody. Ego could increase the inherent resistance.
Starting to play around with the new Tk so far love what im reading. But as I am in game seems the Mental Discipline ZPA for ID blades isnt working for me. Take Ego form with the ZPA and its working fine. I was under the impression Mental Discipline would proc ID with the adv. Anyone else having this prob?
Starting to play around with the new Tk so far love what im reading. But as I am in game seems the Mental Discipline ZPA for ID blades isnt working for me. Take Ego form with the ZPA and its working fine. I was under the impression Mental Discipline would proc ID with the adv. Anyone else having this prob?
I was having the same issue while I was testing Mental Discipline with Lightning Reflexes.
He comes out nerfed, but not by much. If my math is correct (and that's always an iffy proposition), on live he's doing 11.18% extra damage due to crits (13.99% w/Audacity), while on PTS he's doing 10.12% (13.08%). Min/maxers will probably scream bloody murder. Personally I can live with it.
Heavy Weapons build, SS DEX/EGO, level 31
DEX 149, EGO 158
LIVE
25% Crit, 80.3% Severity
PTS
25.4% Crit, 79.8% Severity
It's a wash as far as I'm concerned. Live is 20.08% while PTS is 20.27% -- a teeny weeny buff.
Dude. Testing with way below normal stats and getting tiny differences is the least surprising thing in the world. More importantly, it completely invalidates the test. Just FYI, 32% is the approx. point of diminishing returns on damage buff from superstats, and it happens to be easy to hit using nothing but ordinary drops and mission rewards. I'm not sure exactly where a level 31 toon should be for stats, but my level 27 toon has 148 for 32% which means your toon is ~4 levels behind in gear.
Those differences will scale up as you get higher in level and get your stats back in line with your level. Still prolly not enough to matter to casual players, but it will be noticeable
In fact, using my DEX/INT and DEX/EGO toons... (admittedly, stats are above normal, but I wouldn't consider them out of line with the addition of elite algo gear since neither of them are using any)
Zykshi - DEX/INT quarry LIVE
DEX 327
INT 282
EGO 57
crit % 37.8
severity 39.8
after audacity stacks INT 370 EGO 146 severity 63.3
Zykshi - PTS
crit % 31.3
sev 55.3
after audacity stacks sev 70.7
Plastic Army Man - DEX/EGO LIVE
DEX 296
EGO 268
crit 35.7
sev 85.9
PTS
crit 35
sev 86.8
In both cases, severity got a buff on PTS, although the DEX/EGO toon might as well have been a wash. They also took a hit in critical percentage, again with the DEX/EGO build almost a wash.
However, while that tiny hit to crit chance won't matter to casual gamers, it's actually a double hit for an archery toon. First, lower damage since you will be getting a few less criticals. Then, less energy return since the archery energy passive is tied to criticals, as is munitions which can also be built fairly well using quarry. Less energy is a second DPS hit.
At first glance I do not like the DEX/EGO changes. At least in terms of how they work with crit chance and scaling. One character I have uses it primarily for extra energy from Form of the Tempest, and to boost Laser Sword damage. He has no Ego, just Dex, and it cut his crit chance down from around 25% to 17% which is really nasty for that build. Looks like this might be the last nail in the coffin for Laser Sword unless I move stats from somewhere else and into EGO.
My other character is a DEX/INT Unarmed Martial Arts Quarry character with guns. Also using Form of the Tempest because it procs on ranged attacks (letting me build stacks with SMG and Assault Rifle) and not a tank so picking up the Unarmed form isn't the best idea in the world. This character has about 100 EGO with 3 quarry stacks and around 210 DEX, also saw a reduction in crit percent from live. While it's not alot, it still hurts energy generation on a character that was already kinda hurting.
I have no doubt this also hit my gunslinger, but I haven't really checked him out yet. He's another DEX/INT quarry build, and he's already comparatively weak compared to some of my other characters.
I'll need to do more in depth testing for a better analysis of this, but it's looking like DEX/EGO are now completely stapled together, even for DEX/INT builds. The other EGO changes I like, and I like the idea behind this, but the execution is kinda lacking and will probably end with me rebuilding if not shelving several of my characters, one of which has been off and on the shelf since launch and at one point deleted completely out of frustration.
considering I have 2% less crit severity on test rather than live, they nerfed ego too!!
What they did, as far as I can tell is:
On live, crit chance is based on Dex, severity is based on Ego
On test, crit chance is based on (Dex*2+Ego)/3, severity is based on (Dex+Ego*2)/3.
If you have balanced dex and ego on live, your crit chance and severity should be about the same. If you only superstat Dex, your crit chance will be substantially worse, your severity will be slightly better (crit chance and severity follow different curves). If you only superstat Ego, your crit chance will be pretty horrible but better than on LIve, your severity will be worse than live.
We're aware that it is abnormal. This change was largely to clarify why Power X turns off when you turn on Power Y, as that wasn't immediately apparent to everyone, since it did not say so. We need to look at Form powers as a whole, and they probably all need some minor tweaks, but now is not that time. It is on our list of things to do.
... It's a pretty big list.
You should also make note to change the damage bonus of Aspect of the Bestial to match other melee forms, because it's giving a much lower value then say, Aggressor (18% at r3 compared to 22%, 2% per stack compared to 3%). I understand that it technically can buff ranged slashing damage...but there aren't any ranged slashing damage powers in Bestial, or the game.
The changes to dex/ego really should not go live as they are now. It's just an overall nerf to dex and a pretty nominal buff to Ego. Really, the TK changes are awesome but the stat changes are... well, they need work. If you want to get the TK review out the door quicker, please separate it from the stat revision and keep that on the PTS until they're more balanced and don't universally nerf everyone who superstatted STR, Ego, or Dex?
I posted this elsewhere but thought I'd add it here:
/Repeated Text
The new "TK" ranged powers all have Blade effects, which ruins any hope of not using force to simulate Telekinesis for me. Telekinesis is NOT energy blades, it's the ability to manipulate objects at range. In the comics this is Jean Grey (Marvel Girl or taken to the extreme Phoenix) or on TV Sylar from heroes, or in the movie Push the various telekinetics there. It is NOT Psylocke, a single character who could manifest her power as telepathic blades (TELEPATHIC) which is ego damage, NOT Telekinesis which is Impact damage.
>sigh<
/end repeated text
I really wanted to like the TK pass, really. TK is my favorite power in comics and other media. When I get the question "What power would you want?" My answer is always Telekinesis. From the movie Modern Problems to Push, to freakin' STAR WARS, to Gary Mitchell in Star Trek's "Where No Man Has Gone Before." TK has been presented in the way I've described above.
How would I fix this obvious discrepancy? I'd fold the current TK powers (All the freakin' blade ones) into Telepathy (where they do EGO damage) and the rest like Telekinetic Malestrom and the actual TK power into Force since they do Crushing damage. The name Force is fine for the framework and now there won't be any confusion from having a Telekinesis power and a Telekinesis Framework.
Either that or give me a blast in TK that doesn't shoot freakin' swords/blades. I can't tell you how excited I was to see a 100 maintain (like lightning arc) for TK only to be crushed (heh a pun) when I saw BLADES flying out of my hand. AGH! Not every telekinetic is a PsiBlade character.
I'll try to give a more detailed review of the changes after I get past this. But for now, I'm really disappointed. My TK Blade character is happy, my main is not.
You should also make note to change the damage bonus of Aspect of the Bestial to match other melee forms, because it's giving a much lower value then say, Aggressor (18% at r3 compared to 22%, 2% per stack compared to 3%). I understand that it technically can buff ranged slashing damage...but there aren't any ranged slashing damage powers in Bestial, or the game.
It buffs bleeds, which aren't classed as melee, but that's not exactly a big deal.
The changes to dex/ego really should not go live as they are now. It's just an overall nerf to dex and a pretty nominal buff to Ego. Really, the TK changes are awesome but the stat changes are... well, they need work. If you want to get the TK review out the door quicker, please separate it from the stat revision and keep that on the PTS until they're more balanced and don't universally nerf everyone who superstatted STR, Ego, or Dex?
I think this might be a good choice. But don't throw out the Hybrid DEX/EGO crit scaling! It's a good idea, a little different than how I would have done it but with a bit of playing with how the scaling works I think we're onto something brilliant here.
Edit: Also, going by some other stuff said here, it might be a good idea to make the aspect style toggle also buff ranged EGO damage. The Infernal one does, so I don't see why this can't, it will help out the people who want to play a traditional Telekinetic character by allowing them to mix ranged and melee Ego attacks.
And this might be a stretch, but possibly other forms of paranormal damage too?
<--- Wants to combine Celestial and Ego Blades. >_>
Telekinetic Assault - A really nice maintain. Not a big fan of the root but its nice. not sure if the +3%crit chance i got from 5 stacks of leech matters that much
Telekinetic Burst - The root on tap made it feel clunky but its nice for building up some ego leech fast. Could tk wave be changed to a maintain though?
Telekinetic Lance - I like it on tap but it's only okish compared to other heavy hitters, not getting that much damage out of the consumed part when charged.
Psimon has it, and I know about , oh, prolly every person would want this power on one of their heroes or another if they could get it.
4 armed fighting attack powers, awesome graphic. Please, oh please, add this as a power(s)!
My goal is only to plant this idea (ala Inception) into the minds of Cryptic "power-that-be" in the hopes it may someday, become a reality.
Make it a regular power, or a T4 power, just make it AVAILABLE
/plea done
Hytech
(Didn't want to detract from the TK thread and the analysis of changes therein), but if there are others who would like to see Ego Titan Form added, please chime in! (Or, if there are other Villian powers that you think that are also simply awesome, list them too!)
TK Blades in general: Can we get some weapon customization to these? I don't dig the toothpick swords much. I'd like what's pictured in the actual tk blade images - a straight beam of energy.
TK Assault: Tends to skip it's animation if you try to use it in succession with another power.
Cool changes to Ego and whatnot but what about attacks in strength based ATs and Frameworks that are ranged with knocks such as Earth Splitter from Heavy Weapons and Iron Chain (w Meteor Hammer adv.), Iron Lariat, and Shockwave from Might. This is effectively nerfing them on any normal might build that usually doesn't involve Ego.
I luv that ranged KB scales with EGO.
I always thought it shouylda been that way since the beginning with my first Force char, give reason for Ego being a Force stat.
Although, I was kinda hoping Ranged TK would go back to Crushing... and that the new Ranged TK powers would be of the smack-critters-about-everywhere variety... take adv of the new Ego KB!
I do luv the amount of attention the framework is getting tho!
I see now that with Ego forms new functionality in that it buffs dimensional powers as well, why should I pick TK Lance when I can just take Ebon Ruin? It's better in many ways.
a suggestion to buff TK Lance would be to make it never consume your Ego Leech stacks and increase the buff time for that ego buff that TK Lance has. (a bit similar to Ice Blasts Hard Frost advantage.)
EDIT: Oh and I forgot, what about the T4 power any word on that?
Dude. Testing with way below normal stats and getting tiny differences is the least surprising thing in the world. More importantly, it completely invalidates the test. Just FYI, 32% is the approx. point of diminishing returns on damage buff from superstats, and it happens to be easy to hit using nothing but ordinary drops and mission rewards. I'm not sure exactly where a level 31 toon should be for stats, but my level 27 toon has 148 for 32% which means your toon is ~4 levels behind in gear.
Those differences will scale up as you get higher in level and get your stats back in line with your level. Still prolly not enough to matter to casual players, but it will be noticeable
In fact, using my DEX/INT and DEX/EGO toons... (admittedly, stats are above normal, but I wouldn't consider them out of line with the addition of elite algo gear since neither of them are using any)
Zykshi - DEX/INT quarry LIVE
DEX 327
INT 282
EGO 57
crit % 37.8
severity 39.8
after audacity stacks INT 370 EGO 146 severity 63.3
Zykshi - PTS
crit % 31.3
sev 55.3
after audacity stacks sev 70.7
Plastic Army Man - DEX/EGO LIVE
DEX 296
EGO 268
crit 35.7
sev 85.9
PTS
crit 35
sev 86.8
In both cases, severity got a buff on PTS, although the DEX/EGO toon might as well have been a wash. They also took a hit in critical percentage, again with the DEX/EGO build almost a wash.
However, while that tiny hit to crit chance won't matter to casual gamers, it's actually a double hit for an archery toon. First, lower damage since you will be getting a few less criticals. Then, less energy return since the archery energy passive is tied to criticals, as is munitions which can also be built fairly well using quarry. Less energy is a second DPS hit.
My stats are perfectly in line with what they're supposed to be (~145 @ level 31), but thanks for your concern. If I had wanted your opinion of my stats I would have asked for it.
And funny, but your numbers come out almost exactly as mine did -- a nominal difference for the DEX/INT build (you have a horrendously low EGO on that character, you might want to look into that): 15.04 (23.93 w/Audacity) vs 17.31 (22.13). Your DEX/EGO character is nearly identical: 30.67 vs 30.38. So what exactly was your point? Do you really think you're going to notice 1.8% less damage (or 2.27% MORE damage without Audacity)?
As for energy unlocks that work on crits, correct me if I'm wrong but don't all EUs have a 3-second tick? I'm not entirely sure you're even going to notice a difference on your energy return with 4-6% less crit. Statistically the difference is going to be irrelevant.
So wait... does Strength still provide resistance to holds?
It never did. Or hasn't since the Hold Redo ages ago. Depends on which answer you want to follow.
Overall, I'm not really a fan of the changes to Dex/Ego (by stapling them together). I can see why you did it, and I can see that it's a drastic improvement to Ego (which was very lacking before), but yes, the Dex/Int builds (which is what Quarry is entirely built around) will be hurt quite a bit.
I know that from Live to PTS, my 232 Dex (29.9% Chance), 91 Ego (50% Sev), gets hit hard, going down to 24.4% Chance, 57.7% Sev. And it was a DPS build (offensive passive via Ice Form and loads of Fire attacks), which means that any DPS loss will hurt it as CO is flat out designed to be able to resist incoming damage, not deal it out faster.
But that's another problem entirely and not part of this overall review.
It never did. Or hasn't since the Hold Redo ages ago. Depends on which answer you want to follow.
Overall, I'm not really a fan of the changes to Dex/Ego (by stapling them together). I can see why you did it, and I can see that it's a drastic improvement to Ego (which was very lacking before), but yes, the Dex/Int builds (which is what Quarry is entirely built around) will be hurt quite a bit.
I know that from Live to PTS, my 232 Dex (29.9% Chance), 91 Ego (50% Sev), gets hit hard, going down to 24.4% Chance, 57.7% Sev. And it was a DPS build (offensive passive via Ice Form and loads of Fire attacks), which means that any DPS loss will hurt it as CO is flat out designed to be able to resist incoming damage, not deal it out faster.
But that's another problem entirely and not part of this overall review.
The difference for you is minuscule. On live you're doing 14.95% more damage from crits. On PTS you're doing 14.08% -- a difference of 0.87%. That 5% loss in crits looks really huge, but statistically the extra severity makes up for it.
i have to say i'm not too keen the change for dex. it may not seem like a big difference to some, but losing 4%-5% in my crit chance is not something i'm looking forward to- especially when it wasn't by choice. i shouldn't have to make up for my lost crit chance with crit severity.
the changes to ego (excepting the one in regard to crit chance and severity) are fine, but imho dexterity should be left alone and not be made interdependent on ego.
My stats are perfectly in line with what they're supposed to be (~145 @ level 31), but thanks for your concern. If I had wanted your opinion of my stats I would have asked for it.
And funny, but your numbers come out almost exactly as mine did -- a nominal difference for the DEX/INT build (you have a horrendously low EGO on that character, you might want to look into that): 15.04 (23.93 w/Audacity) vs 17.31 (22.13). Your DEX/EGO character is nearly identical: 30.67 vs 30.38. So what exactly was your point? Do you really think you're going to notice 1.8% less damage (or 2.27% MORE damage without Audacity)?
As for energy unlocks that work on crits, correct me if I'm wrong but don't all EUs have a 3-second tick? I'm not entirely sure you're even going to notice a difference on your energy return with 4-6% less crit. Statistically the difference is going to be irrelevant.
No. Your stats are below normal. Just like I said they are.
And no, I wasn't concerned about you, just the fact that it screws up your testing methodology in exactly the way I said it did. You got lower results because you used smaller numbers.
(and ya, Zykshi's stats are off cuz I just grabbed cheap stuff off the AH until I can get around to farming elite algo gear for her. Once she's done, she'll be approx 300 DEX 270 INT 130 EGO. Gear is the single biggest challenge resulting from having a ton of alts)
Archery and munitions are both critical-required powersets because they were designed to do less damage in their attacks without them, and because their energy passives are tied to criticals. They are also both underperforming versus other ranged sets, but that's a fight for another day. So they really don't need to be getting nerfed at all.
The stat changes are a DEX nerf. This means they are a nerf to any toon that tries to use DEX without EGO...like archery or munitions or MA toons running quarry. It's even worse for MA tanks running combos like DEX/CON who already are giving up some damage for surviability. Now they'll get to give up even more damage and energy return (tempest stacks are on critical which provides energy) and in return they get nothing.
Before the stat change, EGO was not worth taking by itself. After the change, DEX and EGO become not worth taking by themselves. To me, that's worse.
I'm evidently running the only fully geared EGO/REC main in the entire universe. I keep both around 220 and have an interchangeable set of +50% restance to damage type X purples to slip into my Primary Defense slot - giving me about 44% mitigation on top of my regen passive.
My attacks are either taps, pets, or independent toggles (like malevolent Ego Storm) so basically I can and do let my energy builder fire quite a bit since it doesn't interupt my other abilites. Alternatively I can block while still dishing most of my damage. Recovery works fine as a superstat without Endurance under those circumstances. Not all of us spend our time trying to completely circumvent the core energy building mechanic .
Having Ego actually provide the mez protection I took the stat for almost 2 years ago is going to be a nice change. That I trade some crit magnitude for crit chance is a direct boost to my DPS. Having Recovery add a bit more max energy is unnecesarry for my build, but I won't sneer at it.
So, heck, for the build like no other, this is pure win. Looking forward to it.
I need to ask...are the current graphics on tk lance a placeholder? It looks like defile to me, and it has the same sound. Doesn't really -look- like it fits in tk.
EGO hold resist was working just fine just a couple minutes ago. 271 EGO giving 41% hold resist made a 12 second hold last ~8.15 seconds.
Mental Discipline needs to work with ranged and melee. In a mixed ranged/melee set it makes no sense to make it only buff melee powers.
TK the power is much improved, however the fact it takes energy away even if you don't throw anything is annoying. Something I'd like to see is instead of throwing a nearby object, the power creates an object that fits the environment and throws it. I believe that change is necessary as many environments do not have many (in any) objects to use.
EDIT: TK Lance animation and sound seem little more than a Defile clone...
EGO hold resist was working just fine just a couple minutes ago. 271 EGO giving 41% hold resist made a 12 second hold last ~8.15 seconds.
Mental Discipline needs to work with ranged and melee. In a mixed ranged/melee set it makes no sense to make it only buff melee powers.
TK the power is much improved, however the fact it takes energy away even if you don't throw anything is annoying. Something I'd like to see is instead of throwing a nearby object, the power creates an object that fits the environment and throws it. I believe that change is necessary as many environments do not have many (in any) objects to use.
EDIT: TK Lance animation and sound seem little more than a Defile clone...
How about TK picking up your enemy, holding them for one second, and then flinging them away with the distance based on ego.
...As usual, I'll mention that we don't like 0-point advantages as solutions, but it worked very well in this case.
Ideally, we'd be able to let you just choose whether you were Ego Blade or Id Blades from
(some awesome place like the tailor or a drop-down menu)
However, the current implementation of the powers, FX, and animations requires that the Id Blade and Ego Blade version of each power is actually a separate power
(which is why they all show up as combo powers in Advanced Descriptions)
And we don't have a great way to switch between that other than the current ZPA implementation...
Question?
Until Id Blades becomes a Tailor function, what are the chances of applying the new ZPA to the individual Blade powers themselves?
For a fully customizable Blade build?
(Ego Blade on some "blade" powers, and Id Blade on others?)
Telekinesis: This power has been reworked. It is now performed by targeting a nearby foe, and the power will automatically grab a nearby object and launch it at that target.
Which target of origin (you or foe) does this now use to determine LoS (line of sight)? (That was a BIG problem with the old TK)
Ego Form: Now increases all of your Paranormal (Dimensional, Ego, Magic) damage, instead of just your Ego damage
About friggin' time...
Dexterity: Now provides less contribution to your critical chance, but also provides a bonus to your critical severity.
Ego: Now provides less contribution to your critical severity, but also provides a bonus to your critical chance.
...It's also worth mentioning, if you are someone that has equal amounts of Dex and Ego, your crit chance/severity numbers should be unchanged.
I mean exactly equal in this instance, if one is slightly higher than the other
(which is pretty likely even when going for parity)
you will see slight numbers changes.
However, you will of course now have the other advantages Ego brings as well...
I'd guess that the ratio is now 66/33% with this info.
Confirmation?
Ego: Now provides some amount of Hold Resistance
About friggin' time x2...
Strength: No longer increases Ranged Knock Back strength. (This is now provided by the Ego stat)
Ego: Now increases Ranged Knock strength (this affects Ranged Knock Back and Knock Up)
Currently, it will fail and cost you Energy, which is obviously no good.
The intent is for it to not be usable in those instances. We're still working on getting this in...
This would be a great time to impliment "Grab/Throw" tech on foes wouldn't it?
It would also be a great time to change dmg. done with TK from "Object Size" to "Ego Stat".
If i can do dmg. with STR, but require an object i can live with that limitation.
But as a player, if i buy a power to do the same thing STR does, i damn well want the limitation removed.
Why can't TK use the tech from "Hurl" and just generate a random (liftable) object, then do dmg. based on your EGO? (Call it "Hurl 2.0" :cool: )
...Kien mentioned that the thresholds are double the Str ones.
I think the Str threshold for Titanic stuff is 310, so by that formula, Titanic stuff with TK would be 620.
Needless to say, that's pretty ridiculous.
It's not possible to get that much in any normal situation.
Could we maybe get some changes to the scaling made?
Comments
First off the good... I really like TK Assault, the maintained ranged power, I like the way it looks, and the damage is decent. The new Ego Reverb is nice, and I'm not hurting for energy as much as in the past.
For the bad, I absolutely hate the change to Ego Blade Annihilation. On the live server now I am able to do 6k of crit damage on enemies under 25% health on tap (with setup of 3 quick taps of EBB). Now testing with the exact same setup I am only doing around 4.5 K of damage. And the setup for maximum power out of EBA takes much longer now, gaining 5 stacks of Ego Leach. So all in all, I think EBA should stay the same as it is on Live now.
Personally I don't like the fact that now with Mental Discipline and any passive you can wield ID blades. It may be cheap, but I thought that it was unique to have them, seeing as I rarely ever see any other level 40's using Ego Form. I would like to see it stay that way. I just think now we will see a ton of characters running around with Seraphim and Shadow Form using Dual Blades. The uniqueness will go away for me. I do run a defensive passive (Lightning Reflexes) as well for when I need high survivability or don't have a great healer in the party. And I wouldn't have an issue if I still couldn't use ID blades while running a defensive passive.
The stat changes are awesome.
Good work!
Kien mentioned that the thresholds are double the Str ones. I think the Str threshold for Titanic stuff is 310, so by that formula, Titanic stuff with TK would be 620.
Needless to say, that's pretty ridiculous. It's not possible to get that much in any normal situation.
Could we maybe get some changes to the scaling made?
I like the consolitadion of mez resistance into ego and i also like the change for ranged knock powers. However i would have stopped there.
I do not like the changes to the way crit chance and crit severity and heres why:
1. I run a AOPM/form of the tempest build with protection field/bionic shielding for defense and might melee attacks. LINK TO BUILD
I rely on tempest crits to help with the massive energy consumption problems this build has due to spamming attacks and spamming protection field constantly in melee to survive. I cant really afford ANY less energy output with this build and the increased DPS doesn't do much for the energy problems that i spent so much time carefully balancing.
Because my energy use is split evenly between active defense and DPS powers, this puts me in a compromising position when winning depends on me keeping my protection field up while doing decent damage over time. I already have enough DPS. (the more dps i do the less i can protect my self and thats all a function of how much endurance i have.)
2. I prefer the simplicity of having crit chance all tied to one stat and severity tied strictly to another stat. This made it ez to plan out my dex ego ratios at a glance without having to deal with fractions. Stated another way, when one attribute is spread across multiple stats, it makes it harder to eye ball the optimal way to gear and stat your toon. That may not be a big deal for some but for math retards like me, it adds needless complexity.
3. I don't recall any one complaining about dex so im not sure why there was any need to "fix" it. I'm all for EGO being improved but at the cost of Dex being made more cumbersome/ less useful? Surely you can make Ego useful without siphoning usefulness away from other stats.
I think the goal of this stat change should be to make Ego useful while forcing the least amount of respecs possible for non Ego players.
4. And while we are on the subject of respecs, what plans do you have for respecs in relation to the stat changes?
Tested 3 types of holds and each one did the same as without any hold resist.
Also like Sage said above, if its true and 620 ego is needed to throw the Titanic stuff, that really needs to be ajusted to something resonable. I don't see why this isn't 320 like STR is
TK Malestrom is a quick 5 stack ego leech WITH stun WITH no recharge time!
Edit* there is a 10 sec recharge time on it!
Ok, first impressions:
The good:
New telekinesis is really fun but seems a little sktchy. Either its spawning props or it always seems to choose props behind me to throw. Possibly due to the sheer amount of ego you need for small objects compared to str.
Telekinetic assualt and telekinetic burst are amazing damage wise and visually. I can't wait for these to hit live.
The bad:
The SFX for telekinetic Lance seem to have the same texture or whatever as defile. Colouring your lance gold / orangy results in a green defile version of the lance.
Is it just me or is Telekinetic assaults damage way too good to be true :O
Currently, it will fail and cost you Energy, which is obviously no good. The intent is for it to not be usable in those instances. We're still working on getting this in.
Hmm, it should be reducing the duration of Holds applied to you. I'll have to see if something broke.
PA build, SS DEX/INT, level 31
DEX 138, EGO 58
LIVE
22.9% Crit, 48.8% Severity
w/3 stacks of Audacity: EGO 92, 22.9% Crit, 61.1% Severity
PTS
18.4% Crit, 55% Severity
w/3 stacks of Audacity: EGO 92, 20.4% Crit, 64.1% Severity
He comes out nerfed, but not by much. If my math is correct (and that's always an iffy proposition), on live he's doing 11.18% extra damage due to crits (13.99% w/Audacity), while on PTS he's doing 10.12% (13.08%). Min/maxers will probably scream bloody murder. Personally I can live with it.
Heavy Weapons build, SS DEX/EGO, level 31
DEX 149, EGO 158
LIVE
25% Crit, 80.3% Severity
PTS
25.4% Crit, 79.8% Severity
It's a wash as far as I'm concerned. Live is 20.08% while PTS is 20.27% -- a teeny weeny buff.
There are many ways to stack+crit chance tbh even w\o dex.
And question for devs: Are knock-to powers like shuriken with adv, might lariat and infernal lariat considered a melle knock? Because if not you should change it, no point for all of them to be ego based, well, exept force one.
None of the resists actually prevent effects. The only effect I've been able to see in testing is that STR will slightly reduce knockback distance. Other than that, you always get knocked until you get 3 stacks of knock resistance.
Hold resistance has the same problem. Nothing helps except getting those three stacks. This is why NPC maintained holds are effectively unbreakable. And, since some NPC holds don't give stacks, if the NPC's get spammy, you're locked down until whenever.
Anyway...quick look on test...
The new ego leech mechanic works better. Could readily figure out how to get stacks and see that I was getting energy.
TK Burst's description in game still talks about it applying ego leech to each target hit. It's actual functionality is to provide a single stack of ego leech no matter how many targets it hits.
TK Lance isn't becoming available for 5 TK powers. You cannot take it until you have the 8 non-eb powers.
TK Lance consuming ego leech stacks for a really short buff is a really bad trade.
TK Lance charged is a waste of time. TK Lance on tap is pretty solid DPS.
TK Assault is a rock solid power. I suspect it's right near lightning arc in damage but until I run it through a spreadsheet, won't know for sure since it's so dependent on criticals. The advantage is actually one of those that will really make people think since AoE is nice, but r3 is too.
Telekinesis would be fun except it's so much weaker than strength for throwing things. Not saying it should be the same given that it's automatic, but it should be better than it is. Also, doesn't seem to be any point in leveling it up.
Telekinesis also seems to fail at finding stuff at times, at least in the training room. Even standing right on top of the box you want to throw doesn't always seem to work. Other times, it finds stuff fairly far away.
Telekinesis is also a great power for killing objects. Just TK them onto themselves and they go boom.
Ego Blade Breach and Ego Blade Annhilation are both okay on damage if they crit. Both were in the 7k range on a dex/ego toon. However, they both suffer from being split into two hits which means they get hit twice by things like IDF and Invuln.
TK as a set is basically locked into DEX/EGO for exactly the same reasons it's been locked into DEX/EGO all along. The tiny tweaks made to EGO still do not make it a stand alone power.
Not a big fan of the stat changes.
EGO still is not a stand alone stat, and gimping DEX to try and fix EGO is a waste of time since all it does is ties the two of them together further. It also hurts Quarry users who are pretty much always DEX/INT. In fact, it's a flat out nerf of DEX in every case except DEX/EGO. So the end result is that EGO isn't fixed, and now DEX is bad too except in one single case.
EGO as a knockback buff to ranged also makes no sense unless you want force users to all be DEX/EGO now as well. Personally, if it stays like this I'll just take the nerf to knockback distance on my force user rather than dropping STR/INT because knockback distance isn't as important for force as rage buffing and cost reduction.
REC isn't fixed by increasing max energy. REC happens to be the only superstat I do not, and still will not, use in a toon because energy return is handled much better by matching up your energy passive with an actually useful stat (ie. MSA and INT, thermal reverb and PRE, etc). Once you get the return down, you simply gear just enough END in to make sure you can fully charge powers and tada...done with energy.
Perhaps Ego could get Paralyze and Stun resistance and Strength could get Root and Snare resistance. This evens it out a bit more and makes Confuse and Sleep a little more enticing.
This would make it so you couldn't take one stat to get resistance to all types of holds.
Anyway, feedback...
Telekinetic Assault - Oh look, a Magic Missile/Arcane Missiles/Photon Lancer/whatever power! Er, uh... solid T0 power with a nice advantage. I think it's the only T0 range 100 maintain power at the moment. Love it. Wish it didn't self-root, but then again, already promising as a T0 power. I think it looks better with darts (like Kinetic Darts) or spheres than swords.
Telekinetic Burst - Ooh.. swords! So... it's a ranged TK Maelstrom but with disorient instead of stun? And a 100% Ego Leech! You can pro Ego Reverberation easily. Tap spam away! The disorient gives it some nice setup with some TP and HW powers. The animation is pretty. Think we can get a "rain" maintain attack with those swords like Conflagration and Lightning Storm and make the swords linger on a bit like Storm of Arrows?
Telekinetic Lance - It's a weaker ranged Reaper's Bite... or Ego Blade Annihilation now. The Id Infusion mechanic is potentially interesting. Will have to play with that some more and see... The animation is rather mundane compared to the others.
Mental Discipline - Not very competitive against Form of the Tempest. It could buff all ego damage like how Aspect of the Infernal does for toxic and how Aspect of the Bestial does for slashing (theoretically anyway; there are no ranged slashing powers if I recall). It's a small loss for someone using focusing on Ego Blades, but I think the increased synergy with the rest of the TK framework and even with TP would make the power less niche, which is something I like very much.
Ego Leech - After Ego Form's discount to all Mentalist powers, yes! MOAR DISCOUNTS AND SYNERGIES! Melee/TK blades could use a 100% Ego Leech on tap power a la TK Burst.
Ego Form - Needs some stuff to buff its defensive side and to differentiate from Shadow Form.
I have questions about some existing TK powers.
Kinetic Dart - Now that Ego Form is now more like Shadow Form, will Kinetic Dart's Incisive Wit advantage be made to work while Ego Form is slotted? It also needs a chance to proc Ego Leech like the melee EB.
Telekinetic Maelstrom - Can we get this to do ego damage instead of crushing? Or is this due to its pseudo-Telekinesis (the power) flavor of flinging "nearby objects"?
Also for stat changes, can we get a display on +X% energy returned on block for Ego? That seemed to be left out. Or is the energy return mechanic on a block more difficult than that? The stat display for talents need to be updated as well but I'm sure you guys were going to get around to it.
For those thinking REC could use something more, how about the following increased energy gain to equilibrium and decreased energy decay to equilibrium? END could probably get increased resistance to energy damage, as in attacks that drain energy (the tasers used by ARGENT Counteragents, Ego Weaponry's advantage, etc.).
I'm not entirely sold on blurring DEX and EGO. I understand it was to divorce Ego from being tied to Dex. I'll have to think about this a bit more before responding more on this.
Reducing Dexterity's Critical chance hurts people who don't take Dex and Ego. Such as anyone who might have been doing the suggested setup for Archery (Dex/Int.) Quarry's Ego Bonus doesn't really offset the hit to critical chance.
As an example. My level 40 With Quarry has about 295 dexterity. On live I've got 35~% Critical chance with this. On Test it's down to 27.9% and only goes up to 30% with three stacks of Audacity.
The extra potential damage might be nice, but having less of an overall chance is hindering. It is especially harmful for builds that might just have Form of the Tempest to help maintain energy, yet don't have Ego. Hunter's Instinct is also hurt by this as the Archery set and Marksman archetype rely mostly on Dex/Int rather than Dex/Ego
Ego, on the other hand might actually be getting more of a boost out of this, as some one who had Ego and not Dex will see increased critical chance for a little less maximum output. Higher frequency trumps the lost damage.
As for the powers, The only major complaint is perhaps with Telekinetic Lance. Too set-reliant, and in general has much lower performance than other t3 ranged powers (Cascade, Defile, Ebon Ruin.)
Ha awesome! This is just what I advocated a long time. Liking the rest of it too!
I'm reading lots of reservations about it and honestly do not know or have time to analyze whether it was the correct decision, but it is cool to see nonetheless.
Since mez can be overpowered in PVP, overpowered by mobs in PVE, and underpowered by players in PVE, it may help to add an inherent mez resistance to everybody. Ego could increase the inherent resistance.
considering I have 2% less crit severity on test rather than live, they nerfed ego too!!
I was having the same issue while I was testing Mental Discipline with Lightning Reflexes.
Dude. Testing with way below normal stats and getting tiny differences is the least surprising thing in the world. More importantly, it completely invalidates the test. Just FYI, 32% is the approx. point of diminishing returns on damage buff from superstats, and it happens to be easy to hit using nothing but ordinary drops and mission rewards. I'm not sure exactly where a level 31 toon should be for stats, but my level 27 toon has 148 for 32% which means your toon is ~4 levels behind in gear.
Those differences will scale up as you get higher in level and get your stats back in line with your level. Still prolly not enough to matter to casual players, but it will be noticeable
In fact, using my DEX/INT and DEX/EGO toons... (admittedly, stats are above normal, but I wouldn't consider them out of line with the addition of elite algo gear since neither of them are using any)
Zykshi - DEX/INT quarry LIVE
DEX 327
INT 282
EGO 57
crit % 37.8
severity 39.8
after audacity stacks INT 370 EGO 146 severity 63.3
Zykshi - PTS
crit % 31.3
sev 55.3
after audacity stacks sev 70.7
Plastic Army Man - DEX/EGO LIVE
DEX 296
EGO 268
crit 35.7
sev 85.9
PTS
crit 35
sev 86.8
In both cases, severity got a buff on PTS, although the DEX/EGO toon might as well have been a wash. They also took a hit in critical percentage, again with the DEX/EGO build almost a wash.
However, while that tiny hit to crit chance won't matter to casual gamers, it's actually a double hit for an archery toon. First, lower damage since you will be getting a few less criticals. Then, less energy return since the archery energy passive is tied to criticals, as is munitions which can also be built fairly well using quarry. Less energy is a second DPS hit.
My other character is a DEX/INT Unarmed Martial Arts Quarry character with guns. Also using Form of the Tempest because it procs on ranged attacks (letting me build stacks with SMG and Assault Rifle) and not a tank so picking up the Unarmed form isn't the best idea in the world. This character has about 100 EGO with 3 quarry stacks and around 210 DEX, also saw a reduction in crit percent from live. While it's not alot, it still hurts energy generation on a character that was already kinda hurting.
I have no doubt this also hit my gunslinger, but I haven't really checked him out yet. He's another DEX/INT quarry build, and he's already comparatively weak compared to some of my other characters.
I'll need to do more in depth testing for a better analysis of this, but it's looking like DEX/EGO are now completely stapled together, even for DEX/INT builds. The other EGO changes I like, and I like the idea behind this, but the execution is kinda lacking and will probably end with me rebuilding if not shelving several of my characters, one of which has been off and on the shelf since launch and at one point deleted completely out of frustration.
ohsnap. Looks like there's a problem (that probably won't be fixed)
On live, crit chance is based on Dex, severity is based on Ego
On test, crit chance is based on (Dex*2+Ego)/3, severity is based on (Dex+Ego*2)/3.
If you have balanced dex and ego on live, your crit chance and severity should be about the same. If you only superstat Dex, your crit chance will be substantially worse, your severity will be slightly better (crit chance and severity follow different curves). If you only superstat Ego, your crit chance will be pretty horrible but better than on LIve, your severity will be worse than live.
You should also make note to change the damage bonus of Aspect of the Bestial to match other melee forms, because it's giving a much lower value then say, Aggressor (18% at r3 compared to 22%, 2% per stack compared to 3%). I understand that it technically can buff ranged slashing damage...but there aren't any ranged slashing damage powers in Bestial, or the game.
/Repeated Text
The new "TK" ranged powers all have Blade effects, which ruins any hope of not using force to simulate Telekinesis for me. Telekinesis is NOT energy blades, it's the ability to manipulate objects at range. In the comics this is Jean Grey (Marvel Girl or taken to the extreme Phoenix) or on TV Sylar from heroes, or in the movie Push the various telekinetics there. It is NOT Psylocke, a single character who could manifest her power as telepathic blades (TELEPATHIC) which is ego damage, NOT Telekinesis which is Impact damage.
>sigh<
/end repeated text
I really wanted to like the TK pass, really. TK is my favorite power in comics and other media. When I get the question "What power would you want?" My answer is always Telekinesis. From the movie Modern Problems to Push, to freakin' STAR WARS, to Gary Mitchell in Star Trek's "Where No Man Has Gone Before." TK has been presented in the way I've described above.
How would I fix this obvious discrepancy? I'd fold the current TK powers (All the freakin' blade ones) into Telepathy (where they do EGO damage) and the rest like Telekinetic Malestrom and the actual TK power into Force since they do Crushing damage. The name Force is fine for the framework and now there won't be any confusion from having a Telekinesis power and a Telekinesis Framework.
Either that or give me a blast in TK that doesn't shoot freakin' swords/blades. I can't tell you how excited I was to see a 100 maintain (like lightning arc) for TK only to be crushed (heh a pun) when I saw BLADES flying out of my hand. AGH! Not every telekinetic is a PsiBlade character.
I'll try to give a more detailed review of the changes after I get past this. But for now, I'm really disappointed. My TK Blade character is happy, my main is not.
I think this might be a good choice. But don't throw out the Hybrid DEX/EGO crit scaling! It's a good idea, a little different than how I would have done it but with a bit of playing with how the scaling works I think we're onto something brilliant here.
Edit: Also, going by some other stuff said here, it might be a good idea to make the aspect style toggle also buff ranged EGO damage. The Infernal one does, so I don't see why this can't, it will help out the people who want to play a traditional Telekinetic character by allowing them to mix ranged and melee Ego attacks.
And this might be a stretch, but possibly other forms of paranormal damage too?
<--- Wants to combine Celestial and Ego Blades. >_>
Telekinetic Burst - The root on tap made it feel clunky but its nice for building up some ego leech fast. Could tk wave be changed to a maintain though?
Telekinetic Lance - I like it on tap but it's only okish compared to other heavy hitters, not getting that much damage out of the consumed part when charged.
Not liking the dex change.
4 armed fighting attack powers, awesome graphic. Please, oh please, add this as a power(s)!
My goal is only to plant this idea (ala Inception) into the minds of Cryptic "power-that-be" in the hopes it may someday, become a reality.
Make it a regular power, or a T4 power, just make it AVAILABLE
/plea done
Hytech
(Didn't want to detract from the TK thread and the analysis of changes therein), but if there are others who would like to see Ego Titan Form added, please chime in! (Or, if there are other Villian powers that you think that are also simply awesome, list them too!)
TK Assault: Tends to skip it's animation if you try to use it in succession with another power.
I always thought it shouylda been that way since the beginning with my first Force char, give reason for Ego being a Force stat.
Although, I was kinda hoping Ranged TK would go back to Crushing... and that the new Ranged TK powers would be of the smack-critters-about-everywhere variety... take adv of the new Ego KB!
I do luv the amount of attention the framework is getting tho!
a suggestion to buff TK Lance would be to make it never consume your Ego Leech stacks and increase the buff time for that ego buff that TK Lance has. (a bit similar to Ice Blasts Hard Frost advantage.)
EDIT: Oh and I forgot, what about the T4 power any word on that?
My stats are perfectly in line with what they're supposed to be (~145 @ level 31), but thanks for your concern. If I had wanted your opinion of my stats I would have asked for it.
And funny, but your numbers come out almost exactly as mine did -- a nominal difference for the DEX/INT build (you have a horrendously low EGO on that character, you might want to look into that): 15.04 (23.93 w/Audacity) vs 17.31 (22.13). Your DEX/EGO character is nearly identical: 30.67 vs 30.38. So what exactly was your point? Do you really think you're going to notice 1.8% less damage (or 2.27% MORE damage without Audacity)?
As for energy unlocks that work on crits, correct me if I'm wrong but don't all EUs have a 3-second tick? I'm not entirely sure you're even going to notice a difference on your energy return with 4-6% less crit. Statistically the difference is going to be irrelevant.
It never did. Or hasn't since the Hold Redo ages ago. Depends on which answer you want to follow.
Overall, I'm not really a fan of the changes to Dex/Ego (by stapling them together). I can see why you did it, and I can see that it's a drastic improvement to Ego (which was very lacking before), but yes, the Dex/Int builds (which is what Quarry is entirely built around) will be hurt quite a bit.
I know that from Live to PTS, my 232 Dex (29.9% Chance), 91 Ego (50% Sev), gets hit hard, going down to 24.4% Chance, 57.7% Sev. And it was a DPS build (offensive passive via Ice Form and loads of Fire attacks), which means that any DPS loss will hurt it as CO is flat out designed to be able to resist incoming damage, not deal it out faster.
But that's another problem entirely and not part of this overall review.
The difference for you is minuscule. On live you're doing 14.95% more damage from crits. On PTS you're doing 14.08% -- a difference of 0.87%. That 5% loss in crits looks really huge, but statistically the extra severity makes up for it.
the changes to ego (excepting the one in regard to crit chance and severity) are fine, but imho dexterity should be left alone and not be made interdependent on ego.
No. Your stats are below normal. Just like I said they are.
And no, I wasn't concerned about you, just the fact that it screws up your testing methodology in exactly the way I said it did. You got lower results because you used smaller numbers.
(and ya, Zykshi's stats are off cuz I just grabbed cheap stuff off the AH until I can get around to farming elite algo gear for her. Once she's done, she'll be approx 300 DEX 270 INT 130 EGO. Gear is the single biggest challenge resulting from having a ton of alts)
Archery and munitions are both critical-required powersets because they were designed to do less damage in their attacks without them, and because their energy passives are tied to criticals. They are also both underperforming versus other ranged sets, but that's a fight for another day. So they really don't need to be getting nerfed at all.
The stat changes are a DEX nerf. This means they are a nerf to any toon that tries to use DEX without EGO...like archery or munitions or MA toons running quarry. It's even worse for MA tanks running combos like DEX/CON who already are giving up some damage for surviability. Now they'll get to give up even more damage and energy return (tempest stacks are on critical which provides energy) and in return they get nothing.
Before the stat change, EGO was not worth taking by itself. After the change, DEX and EGO become not worth taking by themselves. To me, that's worse.
My attacks are either taps, pets, or independent toggles (like malevolent Ego Storm) so basically I can and do let my energy builder fire quite a bit since it doesn't interupt my other abilites. Alternatively I can block while still dishing most of my damage. Recovery works fine as a superstat without Endurance under those circumstances. Not all of us spend our time trying to completely circumvent the core energy building mechanic
Having Ego actually provide the mez protection I took the stat for almost 2 years ago is going to be a nice change. That I trade some crit magnitude for crit chance is a direct boost to my DPS. Having Recovery add a bit more max energy is unnecesarry for my build, but I won't sneer at it.
So, heck, for the build like no other, this is pure win. Looking forward to it.
Can the TK Lance animation be the shuriken/throwing star animation?
Nothing else in the game uses that and it is such a cool look.
Mental Discipline needs to work with ranged and melee. In a mixed ranged/melee set it makes no sense to make it only buff melee powers.
TK the power is much improved, however the fact it takes energy away even if you don't throw anything is annoying. Something I'd like to see is instead of throwing a nearby object, the power creates an object that fits the environment and throws it. I believe that change is necessary as many environments do not have many (in any) objects to use.
EDIT: TK Lance animation and sound seem little more than a Defile clone...
It strikes me as a power that would probably use a larger version of the ego darts graphic, but at the moment it uses the infernal EB/defile graphics.
How about TK picking up your enemy, holding them for one second, and then flinging them away with the distance based on ego.
That'd be seriously funny in PvP
Until Id Blades becomes a Tailor function, what are the chances of applying the new ZPA to the individual Blade powers themselves?
For a fully customizable Blade build?
(Ego Blade on some "blade" powers, and Id Blade on others?)
Which target of origin (you or foe) does this now use to determine LoS (line of sight)?
(That was a BIG problem with the old TK)
About friggin' time...
I'd guess that the ratio is now 66/33% with this info.
Confirmation?
About friggin' time x2...
Oh, Force users are going to LOVE this...
This would be a great time to impliment "Grab/Throw" tech on foes wouldn't it?
It would also be a great time to change dmg. done with TK from "Object Size" to "Ego Stat".
If i can do dmg. with STR, but require an object i can live with that limitation.
But as a player, if i buy a power to do the same thing STR does, i damn well want the limitation removed.
Why can't TK use the tech from "Hurl" and just generate a random (liftable) object, then do dmg. based on your EGO?
(Call it "Hurl 2.0" :cool: ) W.U.R.Da.
/signed
"Make it so Number 1!"