I'd like to also point out however, that CoH didn't see such sweeping nerfs after enhancement diversification and the global defense nerf, it saw buffs instead. It survived for seven years because the developers instead developed challenging content...
Yeah, from what I'm told by my friends and fam that played CoH and that play CO now the CoH teams nerfed overpowered mechanics and then developed challenging content after the baseline was made more equalized so that the challenging content added later could actually be based on sound mechanics and not cheap gimmicks like big bags of health stacked on top of one hit kill shticks . This sounds familiar, I think I heard a dev or four say this same exact thing about what's going on here right now...
I'd like to also point out however, that CoH didn't see such sweeping nerfs after enhancement diversification and the global defense nerf, it saw buffs instead. It survived for seven years because the developers instead developed challenging content rather than just up the difficulty via global nerfs, we only saw a few nerfs here and there, they also didn't blindly buff everything but just the stuff that underperformed after IO's came out, the customizability and options expanded so much that this games freeform system still had nothing on it.
City of heroes to be honest, should NOT have been shut down.
Yeah, from what I'm told by my friends and fam that played CoH and that play CO now the CoH teams nerfed overpowered mechanics and then developed challenging content after the baseline was made more equalized so that the challenging content added later could actually be based on sound mechanics and not cheap gimmicks like big bags of health stacked on top of one hit kill shticks . This sounds familiar, I think I heard a dev or four say this same exact thing about what's going on here right now...
Would be nice if they actually did that. My gripe with the Dodge nerf is mostly due to the gimmick mechanics Cryptic implement (high dmg, high HP) to give us a challenge.
If this trend persists it should be obvious how badly it will affect everyone who uses an Offensive Passive. Take for example Gravitar, Forum Malvanum, Cyber Mind, Warlord etc... Those are examples of places where incoming dmg is quite high. In some of the cases if you die there's a lockout mechanic. Those gimmick encounters are highly skewed towards being able to survive the dmg output. Forum Malvanum is even worse, it requires Very High dmg output as well as mitigation (the glads are not really a joke, they do dmg and thy kb spam a lot).
Point is, if they continue to buff HP and DMG of mobs there's no way Offensive passives can survive that and if you can't survive and get locked out you are useless to the team.
Would be nice if they actually did that. My gripe with the Dodge nerf is mostly due to the gimmick mechanics Cryptic implement (high dmg, high HP) to give us a challenge.
If this trend persists it should be obvious how badly it will affect everyone who uses an Offensive Passive. Take for example Gravitar, Forum Malvanum, Cyber Mind, Warlord etc... Those are examples of places where incoming dmg is quite high. In some of the cases if you die there's a lockout mechanic. Those gimmick encounters are highly skewed towards being able to survive the dmg output. Forum Malvanum is even worse, it requires Very High dmg output as well as mitigation (the glads are not really a joke, they do dmg and thy kb spam a lot).
Point is, if they continue to buff HP and DMG of mobs there's no way Offensive passives can survive that and if you can't survive and get locked out you are useless to the team.
No more gimmick Extreme DMG/HP encounters.
We'll see I suppose. One thing that gets said often is that 'Cryptic' did this and Cryptic did that but the problem is that we've had several development teams over the life of this game at this point. Several of the encounters in this game were not designed by the team working on the game right now.
So I'm in wait and see mode with what direction the current team goes and not holding anything against them that was made before they jumped aboard the CO ship.
We'll see I suppose. One thing that gets said often is that 'Cryptic' did this and Cryptic did that but the problem is that we've had several development teams over the life of this game at this point. Several of the encounters in this game were not designed by the team working on the game right now.
So I'm in wait and see mode with what direction the current team goes and not holding anything against them that was made before they jumped aboard the CO ship.
Well they did make Cyber Mind no? That pretty much follows the gimmick formula of absurd dmg + high HP + lockout. Not exactly what I'd call a challange.
Well they did make Cyber Mind no? That pretty much follows the gimmick formula of absurd dmg + high HP + lockout. Not exactly what I'd call a challange.
..Cybermind is actually a good challenge and brings back the days of strategy to avoid deaths.. something TSW is doing now. Albiet, it's a nightmare for those who have no idea how to do the fight (SOCRATES isn't exactly clear on the process.. and I admit I've died a good amount of times before I learned how it works.).
Welcome to Not Having Your Hand Held 101. Next week you're being sent into the Stygian Abyss to find some lord's daughter and kill a demon.
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..Cybermind is actually a good challenge and brings back the days of strategy to avoid deaths.. something TSW is doing now. Albiet, it's a nightmare for those who have no idea how to do the fight (SOCRATES isn't exactly clear on the process.. and I admit I've died a good amount of times before I learned how it works.).
Welcome to Not Having Your Hand Held 101. Next week you're being sent into the Stygian Abyss to find some lord's daughter and kill a demon.
You are just condescending and ignorant by nature aren't you? Look here buddy, I know how to do Cyber Mind. I never said I don't. I suppose you can't read or your comprehension is selective.
I was talking about gimmick mechanics and that's what Cyber Mind is. Once you get the "trick" it's all about getting his HP down. There is no challenge to Cyber Mind it's all about a "gimmick" that once you get that's it, end of challenge.
You are just condescending and ignorant by nature aren't you? Look here buddy, I know how to do Cyber Mind. I never said I don't. I suppose you can't read or your comprehension is selective.
I was talking about gimmick mechanics and that's what Cyber Mind is. Once you get the "trick" it's all about getting his HP down. There is no challenge to Cyber Mind it's all about a "gimmick" that once you get that's it, end of challenge.
And that's what I was referring to. Not once did I even hint at an insult to you nor the idea you didn't know how to do it.
The class comment was to anyone who doesn't like the gimmick fight in general and thinks they all should just be "smash the big guy as hard as you can".
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So I played a game City of Zeros for a long time, and I remember the nerf bat came out about issue 2. Then Jack "Statesman" said no more major changes.
As of issue 3 plenty of players quoted his earlier post with a date and time attached. Jack's reply was sobering it essentially read "this is game designed to make the owner (then NCsoft and less Cryptic) money, and that would ultimately decide how the game would develop.
I read it and appreciated his candor, and I also knew that NCsoft would eventually lose or give up interest in it's it's audience, as the audience would fall away from the developers interest. I had taken 5 years from that point, but it happened. NCsoft was no longer interested in maintaining a game that still made a dwindling profit margin.
Champions online as of this post has met City of Zeros issue 3. PWI is in effect in the position of that NCsoft once was and is adopting the same answers that NCsoft and its crony company once did.
There post here is glossing over the problems and saying "but we will add this to help out how we are gonna nerf bat you".
I like the idea of getting rid of "ratings" all togather and just listing things in simple percentages, BUT don't be fooled they have hidden their language here, you won't get back the grandeur you had with out giving up twice as much somewhere else.
Pity, but my Champions buddies have already moved over to SWOTR, I guess I was holding out.
SWTOR? And you thought CoH and CO were all about making money off the players... :rolleyes:
"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!"
Only on the CO forums would you have so many people complaining that we're gonna see less variety, because they're nerfing a single mechanic.
I think it's flat out hilarious how most of the pre-on alert people, who remember when we had 2 super stats and about half as much power as we do now, are pretty much shrugging at it all. Because even if this is a nerf, we're still WAY below how powerful everyone was for a large portion of the game's life. And let's be clear: it's not like they buffed the mobs to compensate.
But, I might be odd. My main character ran around non-dodge stacked and non-crit stacked for like a year and a half, with an offensive passive, and more than held her own. Tanked, in fact, most of the time.
I don't wanna hear it can't be done. Much ado about nothing, etc... The player base will adapt, like we did for on alert and the super stat changes. I remember when everyone was freaking out that removing crit severity from ego, and taking ranged knocks away from strength, was also gonna be a deal breaker. Guess what? We're still here.
In game, I am @EvilTaco. Happily killing purple gang members since May 2008. RIP Caine
Only on the CO forums would you have so many people complaining that we're gonna see less variety, because they're nerfing a single mechanic.
I think it's flat out hilarious how most of the pre-on alert people, who remember when we had 2 super stats and about half as much power as we do now, are pretty much shrugging at it all. Because even if this is a nerf, we're still WAY below how powerful everyone was for a large portion of the game's life. And let's be clear: it's not like they buffed the mobs to compensate.
But, I might be odd. My main character ran around non-dodge stacked and non-crit stacked for like a year and a half, with an offensive passive, and more than held her own. Tanked, in fact, most of the time.
I don't wanna hear it can't be done. Much ado about nothing, etc... The player base will adapt, like we did for on alert and the super stat changes. I remember when everyone was freaking out that removing crit severity from ego, and taking ranged knocks away from strength, was also gonna be a deal breaker. Guess what? We're still here.
BROTHAS AN SISTAHS OF THE CONGREGATION, BROTHA TACO SPEAKS THE TRUTH!
It's pretty much what we've (the people who are fine with the nerfs (FINE! not necessarily for)) been saying for the longest time.
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Haven't tried Endbringer lately, but Happifun is equipped only with stuff that dropped from encounters, and that boosted his main stats (that's, I think, INT, CON, and REC for Invincibles). Out of curiosity, I tried soloing one of the Crypts during this Bloodmoon, something I've always failed at miserably. I thought I might at least put in a good showing, now that he's finally hit 40.
He walked through the whole thing, wiping out every mob in the place, and barely got scratched. I saved Fire All Weapons for the boss at the end, too.
So no, you don't need to stack Dodge and Crit Chance and get yourself up to OVER 9000! percent chance. Just the normal gear works fine. Y'all are getting all het up over nothing, essentially.
"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!"
..Cybermind is actually a good challenge and brings back the days of strategy to avoid deaths.. something TSW is doing now. Albiet, it's a nightmare for those who have no idea how to do the fight (SOCRATES isn't exactly clear on the process.. and I admit I've died a good amount of times before I learned how it works.).
Welcome to Not Having Your Hand Held 101. Next week you're being sent into the Stygian Abyss to find some lord's daughter and kill a demon.
What strategy? The difficulty of the alert was based on your teammates proficiency. While I'm happy to use more use of the environment, the mechanics themselves are very simplistic. What really hurts is that as simplistic as they are, I lost count of how many players saw defeat whenever one of us didn't land an ice grenade and interrupt the rain.
Only on the CO forums would you have so many people complaining that we're gonna see less variety, because they're nerfing a single mechanic.
I think it's flat out hilarious how most of the pre-on alert people, who remember when we had 2 super stats and about half as much power as we do now, are pretty much shrugging at it all. Because even if this is a nerf, we're still WAY below how powerful everyone was for a large portion of the game's life. And let's be clear: it's not like they buffed the mobs to compensate.
But, I might be odd. My main character ran around non-dodge stacked and non-crit stacked for like a year and a half, with an offensive passive, and more than held her own. Tanked, in fact, most of the time.
I don't wanna hear it can't be done. Much ado about nothing, etc... The player base will adapt, like we did for on alert and the super stat changes. I remember when everyone was freaking out that removing crit severity from ego, and taking ranged knocks away from strength, was also gonna be a deal breaker. Guess what? We're still here.
I remember both well. And indeed, gear has allowed us to achieve numbers not possible pre-alert. But I wouldn't say we had "half the power".
Pre-alert we didn't have alerts, and the only time you saw tough rated mobs was in a lair. Tough rated mobs do hit harder and survive better than their normal counterparts. And now they've become a part of the norm, not just the occasional Lair hunt.
We also didn't have one-hit kills. The hardest hitting boss I can recall was Therakial, and his spinning sowrd of doom allowed people plenty of time to react and block. Sure, Vik could toss you around the lava, but once you learned to avoid his pbaoe after being disabled, the challenge (frustration really) was gone.
Now we have Gravitar, who can kill you at full HP while blocking. We have warlord, who basically can create patches of fire that kill in seconds. We have cybermind who has the health of someone that normally fights a team of 10 (Grav hp) and can attack with hits that bypass defenses.
I didn't even run crit on the majority of my alts pre-alert, as most couldn't fit enough dex to make crit chance worthwhile.
However, the best gear could all be obtained without ever spending a dime. Now we rely on someone gambling to either sell the gear or gamble ourselves.
But really, if you were able to run around for as long as you claim without dodge/avoid or solid crit chance/sev, tanking regularly - you'd be a shining example of why dodge/avoid or crit chance is not overpowered. If that's the case, you no longer have any evidence to claim dodge/avoid or critical chance/strike is creating imbalance.
Lastly - bottom line is people invested heavily into gear, some spending hundreds of dollars even. You want to suddenly take away their investment and expect no consequence?
Interrupt the rain? Never did that, never needed to. The Cybermind fight is all about the colors. You don't need to interrupt anything if you pay attention.
Lastly - bottom line is people invested heavily into gear, some spending hundreds of dollars even. You want to suddenly take away their investment and expect no consequence?
I don't understand this statement. How are the changes taking away their investment?
I'm expecting that anyone invested in top-tier gear will still remain potent when the changes go live. As on offset, the blog states that many powers will start giving a flat dodge chance and not rating that suffers from DR when it comes to dodge. Avoidance doesn't look to be changed in any way.
But really, if you were able to run around for as long as you claim without dodge/avoid or solid crit chance/sev, tanking regularly - you'd be a shining example of why dodge/avoid or crit chance is not overpowered. If that's the case, you no longer have any evidence to claim dodge/avoid or critical chance/strike is creating imbalance.
What was being addressed in the blog about Dodge being a superior defensive mechanic compared to others is spot on. How many times have yourself or others suggested "Masterful Dodge" to others for Active Defense suggestions? Let's be honest here, because the rest of the ADs are inferior to it. A full 15s of absolute damage reduction compared to a spike heal or flat shield points that can be nullified in a matter of seconds is really superior. Heck, how many times have you seen people make suggestions about getting your dodge up to a decent level of 40 - 50% (something remarkably easy to do) even though you already have a Defensive Passive? That's precisely how good Dodge is, considering that it's the first layer of defense over every other defensive mechanic.
That fact alone is enough to make a case about Dodge creating imbalance. I'm interested to see how the changes will come about and help to promote build diversity.
As for critical chance / sev, even at a measly 30% crit chance I find myself crit'ing more often than I would expect, so I'm guessing that's why they've decided to tweak things down a little.
As a sidenote I didn't see any mention of players getting free retcon tokens when the changes go live. Those had better be issued.
I don't understand this statement. How are the changes taking away their investment?
I'm expecting that anyone invested in top-tier gear will still remain potent when the changes go live. As on offset, the blog states that many powers will start giving a flat dodge chance and not rating that suffers from DR when it comes to dodge. Avoidance doesn't look to be changed in any way.
From my testing, Avoidance does have a slightly steeper DR curve. But it's quite small.
What was being addressed in the blog about Dodge being a superior defensive mechanic compared to others is spot on. How many times have yourself or others suggested "Masterful Dodge" to others for Active Defense suggestions? Let's be honest here, because the rest of the ADs are inferior to it. A full 15s of absolute damage reduction compared to a spike heal or flat shield points that can be nullified in a matter of seconds is really superior.
From my testing on the PTS so far, I think Masterful Dodge will still be a very good AD to grab.
As for critical chance / sev, even at a measly 30% crit chance I find myself crit'ing more often than I would expect, so I'm guessing that's why they've decided to tweak things down a little.
Yeah, I seem to crit a lot with crit rates around 30% - 35%.
Interrupt the rain? Never did that, never needed to. The Cybermind fight is all about the colors. You don't need to interrupt anything if you pay attention.
I wasn't interrupting the rain for my benefit, it was more to prevent other teammates from dying in pugs. It did help keep pets alive though. It doesn't bother me that people don't know how it works their first time through. But lockout hardly creates difficulty, just makes it easier for people to leech off more capable teammates.
I don't understand this statement. How are the changes taking away their investment?
I'm expecting that anyone invested in top-tier gear will still remain potent when the changes go live. As on offset, the blog states that many powers will start giving a flat dodge chance and not rating that suffers from DR when it comes to dodge. Avoidance doesn't look to be changed in any way.
What was being addressed in the blog about Dodge being a superior defensive mechanic compared to others is spot on.
If you were to tell me that 3 months or so later my legion agility would stop granting 54% dodge chance and would be half of that... I wouldn't have bothered investing at all. Some people have had their agility(s) for the better part of a year. Some people are just buying one for the first time.
You haven't been paying attention to the numbers, and are trusting in good faith that balance will be there by the time of release.
Dodge/avoid is strong - but when used in particular combinations. Dodge/avoid does not make a kill immune to death on its own. MD is effective because it guarantees dodge for its duration. But don't worry, I'm almost certain the cooldowns are next for the nerfing block, so you will no longer see people running ADs as frequently.
The Blade AT is quite weak in defense already. If the dodge is lesser, won't it be too difficult to play with him?
Blade has Way of the Warrior as it's passive, which will provide direct Dodge % instead of rating after the changes. Yes, Dodge % will be lessened, but not as much as others who get their Dodge solely from gear.
For a comparison, my level 40 WotW using toon went from about 50% Dodge to 40% Dodge when I took a look at her stats within the past week. She pulls Dodge from WotC, Dex specs, and gear. The passive is direct % added, everything else is rating, which is where the diminishing returns hit is going.
This, annoys me even more. It's like they WANT to make this game a holy trinity by making it so freeformers still have to have someone else healing them all the time by increasing the damage we'll be taking. Annoying, why even bother if we cannot get around the holy trinity, why even bother if we cannot make something reasonably well rounded and solid at the same time like we've been able to ever since this game came out?
After the nerfs FF characters will still have access to better defensive numbers than when this game came out. If you consider what we had when the game came out to have been "solid" then the numbers post nerf should delight you because they are much better than was the case up until On Alert.
My grip is that, the holy trinity, even ONE thing goes wrong, like the "tank" dying or the "healer" getting an unlucky AoE and dying, and the whole thing falls appart, it's not fun, either. I don't have ANY fun at all in holy trinity teams, never have, never will. Because it's not true teamplay to me, but a bunch of people relying on everything going perfectly to plan and dying when it doesn't. It's not challenging, it's fake difficulty and fake balance at the same time.
These changes do not push Trinity play onto anyone (with the caveat that squishy ATs have always benefited from having a tank and healer around). Quarry with 20+% dodge is much better than the Quarry we had before (and it was viable then) that provided 0% dodge.
My point is that reducing the previously applied buff to dodge so that we merely have significantly more dodge than we had originally when offensive passives were quite viable does not kill offensive passives or dodge.
The biggest issue with this right now is that I don't exactly know how much this will impact myself.
I'm a Blade AT. I'm pretty good, even for an AT. I have frequently placed high on Open World Boss Fights (ie. Tako, the Mega Ds from the Event, etc.), and I like to think that I'm proof that an AT CAN be good. Though, I rely quite a bit on Crits, and (to a lesser extent) dodges.
Now, what will this update mean? Although my Gambler's Lucky Gems may not be as effective, will my Ratings really drop? My Passive, 'Way of the Warrior' currently grants a bonus Dodge and Avoidance Rating (though I forget exactly how much, though it is substantial). Now. will that Dodge Rating turn into a Flat Dodge Rate?
Now, I don't think Way of the Warriors' Dodge/Avoidance Rating grows with ranking up the power, only with SSs. Now, will this game change prove beneficial, or not? It could either replace the Dodge Rating with a Flat Dodge Rate, which could either end up giving me a better Dodge Chance or a lesser Dodge Chance (though most people seem pessimistic about it, perhaps it'll turn out better after all), OR just lower the Dodge Rating, or not change it at all. Still, I don't know which powers will be overhauled.
Anyway, if you read the News Post, it says, and I quote,
"Reducing Dodge Rating: Reduced how effective Dodge Rating was as a stat. Much less of your total dodge will come from Dodge Rating."
It's saying there that Dodge Rating, as a stat, is becoming less effective. BUT, it also says:
"MUCH LESS OF YOUR TOTAL DODGE WILL COME FROM DODGE RATING."
See, they're putting Dodge Bonuses into Passives, Powers and Blocks (like Fluidity, and so on) to replace the vague and awkward Dodge Rating system. I mean, really, what does +200 Dodge Rating mean? Without a scale or context, you're not really sure what that adds to.
All in all, the WORST thing I'll think we'll see is the price of Gambler's Lucky Gems to plummet. And since I haven't invested in them, I shall care not.
It makes sense, if you don't think about it.
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Most often Slice N Dice@zap-the-eradicator in-game.
You won't get as much out of dodge and crit before, but you won't be at least too reliant on crit since your damage will be higher if you balance between dodge and offense gear.
Their idea of "diversity" is you either hit hard all the time or you have a chance to hit harder. That's not diversity. What about the diversity of power choices based on theme? That's getting butchered right now. That's the loss of diversity not whether you are a crit type or an offense type.
The reason why dodge/avoidance still worked for many themes was because anybody can dodge/avoidance or use it as a counter to how lucky the character is in not getting hit or just taking a glancing blow.
Here's an idea:
1. Put Dodge Chance at a soft cap at 35%-40%, anyone that takes Lightning Reflexes or the other dodge increasing powers can go past the soft cap.
2. Stop making so many Specializations reliant on Critical Chance and leave Critical Chance cap alone (because this will trivialize Dexterity as a stat). It's these Specializations that should work for other methods rather than always Crit.
And with all honestly to the people saying their "survivability is fine." You are using freeforms taking SPECIFIC powers, the SAME damn powers everyone will be choosing and almost the SAME kinds of stats depending on whether you're ranged or melee and the SAME maxed out mods and gear. Diversity my ****. It's just cookie cutter time. Everyone will be using the same powers, thematic builds will be taking one power out of that cookie cutter build than switching it for another one. That's the diversity... one power substituted for another.
This, annoys me even more. It's like they WANT to make this game a holy trinity by making it so freeformers still have to have someone else healing them all the time by increasing the damage we'll be taking. Annoying, why even bother if we cannot get around the holy trinity, why even bother if we cannot make something reasonably well rounded and solid at the same time like we've been able to ever since this game came out?
My grip is that, the holy trinity, even ONE thing goes wrong, like the "tank" dying or the "healer" getting an unlucky AoE and dying, and the whole thing falls appart, it's not fun, either. I don't have ANY fun at all in holy trinity teams, never have, never will. Because it's not true teamplay to me, but a bunch of people relying on everything going perfectly to plan and dying when it doesn't. It's not challenging, it's fake difficulty and fake balance at the same time.
And that's one of the big faulty I've seen in all these MMORPGs. People think that's the only strategies that exist. They don't know the "have two tanks passing aggro back and forth" strategy? They don't know the use holds on some of the enemies strategy? I mean come on there's tons more strategies than get a tank to hold every aggro there is and have one healer heal him while they're all killed. Games like that bored me quickly. Because it's the same gameplay.
And with all honestly to the people saying their "survivability is fine." You are using freeforms taking SPECIFIC powers, the SAME damn powers everyone will be choosing and almost the SAME kinds of stats depending on whether you're ranged or melee and the SAME maxed out mods and gear. Diversity my ****. It's just cookie cutter time. Everyone will be using the same powers, thematic builds will be taking one power out of that cookie cutter build than switching it for another one. That's the diversity... one power substituted for another.
And that's one of the big faulty I've seen in all these MMORPGs. People think that's the only strategies that exist. They don't know the "have two tanks passing aggro back and forth" strategy? They don't know the use holds on some of the enemies strategy? I mean come on there's tons more strategies than get a tank to hold every aggro there is and have one healer heal him while they're all killed. Games like that bored me quickly. Because it's the same gameplay.
Gatling Gal's survivability is fine. How cookie cutter is she? Honest question; I don't PvP so I have no idea what the cookie cutter build looks like.
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That Dork In The Suspenders, signing out.
My survivability is fine. I don't look for Dodge or Crit gear; I don't use Gambler's Gems. I'm stacking the stuff that boosts my important stats - that is, the ones that show up in italicized yellow on the item description. Oh, and sometimes I look for stuff that'll boost my HP.
And I'm not using some special uberbuild - I'm running ATs. Happifun Security System X-4 is an Invincible, and he's 40 now, because I finally buckled down and finished up the Apocalypse with him. Spider-Bat is a Master, and he's hanging at 38 because I've been focusing on others (mostly Honey Badger and Sharknado recently - I was kind of surprised at how powerful the Squall actually feels).
Overall, I think this is going to turn out to be another tempest in a teapot. (And the Tempest is a pretty strong AT, so that teapot is toast!)
"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!"
I have the feeling the dodge nerf would have been welcome if it had come right after On Alert. IMO, the nerf itself is not the problem- it's the timing. Dodge gear has been stupidly overpowered since On Alert, and I don't remind Cryptic ever saying they were taking a nerf into consideration. People tailored their builds and gear to a status quo that seemed permanent- should it come as a surprise that they are upset? Add to it that r9 mods are absurdly expensive and that new shiny gear is on the way, and people are obviously going to rage.
Maybe measures should be taken into consideration to minimize that rage- for instance, giving anyone with a r8/r9 dodge mod a chance to convert it into another mod of their choice. Yeah, that means selling less stuff- but it also means respecting the player base, and it's something that is BADLY needed.
And then that passive will get nerfed so you tell me, move to a different one and that gets nerfed? Seriously, I can only put up with it for so long. When one gets nerfed and the crybabies get there way once, they continue to convince the devs to nerf other things, eventually we'll have citizens online again.
Citizens Online...now that is funny! I am against the dodge nerf also. I am just putting my 2 cents worth here.
i feel only some people feel it's overpowered, because unfortunately those people are jealous others are getting survivability they are not because they refuse to use something that is "cheap". It's not just the timing but it's also to much of a nerf, far to much. I'd have support a small reduction in effectiveness of dodge gear so it retained 75% of it's effectiveness, instead it's down to not even half that. So it's useless, and because it's being rendered useless for most people, it's in reality, taking away variety from this game, not adding to it.
And, just for my own personal curiousity, how do people who easily bypass what most "others" are getting in survivability and yet still do not share your opinion fit into all of this? I doubt they are "jealous." Also, as you kind of mention further down in the post, what about people who take this new "useless" mechanic and still make it work? How "useless" is it if it works?
In the end(well the beginning of your post the end of mine) you feel that only some people think it's overpowered and I would counter that only some people feel it's underpowered, and some feel it's fine. Forum usage vs. Game population as well as people having differing opinions on the subject means that, in most cases, not everyone is in agreement. This is simply how things work. For myself, the only person I can definitively speak for on this matter, I have felt that On Alert did more destruction than positives and I felt this way from the earliest versions that hit PTS. On Alert, to me, is a classic example of well meaning ambitions(as well as some pretty publically known blunders, let's not sugar coat things) that fell upon the shoulders of too few people to make into a reality. From my own knowledge the majority of this project was done by one person with certain aspects being handled by roughly 2-3 other people(possibly more but unable to confirm). The weight proved to be too much and when it came time to correct things a certain other game was in jeopardy so most hands were whisked away to the rescue and we were left in the wreckage.
Shockingly enough Cryptic North was introducted into the equation along with a few of the Cryptic Devs. They needed some time to train and ease into their newfound project but I enjoyed Fatal Error(except Cybermind has a few too many hp just as a matter of gameplay flow IMO) and I applaud the undertaking of bug repairs, balancing, and the beginning steps of sifting through the wreckage of On Alert. My ONLY real concern is if this project is completed before another "Cryptic CO Vacation to <Fill in new project>" happens.
This dodge/crit thing is a piece of the puzzle and while it looks fine/doomy to people it's still part of a process. The same can be said for specs, superstats, def, CD, Cost reduction, and a myriad of other aspects. To me the largest three pieces of this equation are...
-Baseline White Hit Power/Standard Adjustment accross the entire board with a likely cut off of the top end of roughly 25% and application of said loss to the bottom end : The powers now exist on two very different standards which only prove to expand the gap between the underperforming nature of older powers vs. the raw almost unchecked power of most things from F2P until now. IMO, balance must be established here as the main priority but I am also understanding that this is likely the largest piece of the puzzle when it comes to sheer manpower, labor, and resources.
-Actual Real Estate Expanding Perminant CONTENT: I've heard many many people say this and I can see where they're coming from because, "Balance is nice and all but what's a balanced system when you have nowhere new and exciting to go with things to do?" STO has New Romulus, NW has Feywild. These two Campaign System zones are, IMO, perfect for what I feel CO needs for it's future. They offer things to unlock, dailies, real estate, and(probably most importantly) an Alternate Advancement System which allows players who wish to expand their 40s the chance to do so without the perils and mistakes attached to a outdated notion of LvL Cap Increases.
-AT Restructuring to come inline with balance/power changes: I do not play ATs(it's my choice). I do not like ATs. I feel that ATs have somewhat missed the point due to improper leveraging of the incentives and motivations to convert to Gold/LTS. I understand that ATs are supposed to be limiting, restricted, redundant(in places), and not ideal. I get that. But on the other hand, they cannot be so horrible and nonadaptive to the progress of the game as to live in a void and still be expected to function "fine and dandy." ATs are the introduction of the game from the perspective of most froob/newbies. Newbies are important to ALL MMOs. It is for this reason alone that I believe that the system needs some updates in reguards to how the game is currently(and I've made posts outlining how I, personally, would handle this for whatever that turns out to be worth). Also...Referral Program Return...just saying.
So, in closing, I do not think the doom is coming at this momment. I do not think the mass exodus will be because of the dodge/crit changes. I actually believe STO will lose more people due to the forced introduction of Arc than CO will over this(and even that won't be all that bad I believe). We're at the point now where some people feel there was some magical "Statute of limitations" on the correction of mistakes(heck I hope not, there are beta bugs here for crying out loud). Where the cry of, "It's been broken this long, why fix it?" is becoming more and more commonplace and to that I say hogwash. Fix the broken. If Cryptic does nothing then some people will leave. If Cryptic does something then some people will leave. Overall, some people will leave. It's the nature of the almost forgotten neglected beast but I say if Lordgar, Raven, Splosions, Crush, Radio, and Cryptic North want to give it the old college try than let them. Better to burn in the fires than fizzle out in the ashes.
And I am longwinded. Ok, enough for now. If you took the time to read that then good on you and thanks. Until next time. :cool:
i feel only some people feel it's overpowered, because unfortunately those people are jealous others are getting survivability they are not because they refuse to use something that is "cheap".
Speaking for myself, I'm not jealous, not at all. I had a ranged Regen toon who was always running with 50+ dodge and 60ish adv. thanks to r3 EM and gear alone- and it was nothing fancy, just Heroic stuff and r5 mods. That's a lot of mitigation at almost no cost to the build. The nerf may be eccessive, but I stand by my statement that dodge, and especially dodge gear, was overpowered.
AT Restructuring to come inline with balance/power changes: I do not play ATs(it's my choice). I do not like ATs. I feel that ATs have somewhat missed the point due to improper leveraging of the incentives and motivations to convert to Gold/LTS. I understand that ATs are supposed to be limiting, restricted, redundant(in places), and not ideal. I get that. But on the other hand, they cannot be so horrible and nonadaptive to the progress of the game as to live in a void and still be expected to function "fine and dandy." ATs are the introduction of the game from the perspective of most froob/newbies. Newbies are important to ALL MMOs.
Truer words were never spoken. IMO ATs don't need to be min/maxed or cookie cutter builds, but they do need to be functional and decent builds. It's the basic things that need to be looked into, like outright dumb superstats and the lack of crucial things like self heals and/or energy unlocks in favor of redundant attacks or otherwise useless powers.
IMO, there are at least two archetypes Cryptic really got right: Savage and Disciple. They are nowhere near as strong as the average FF, but they are pretty solid and could be taken as a reference for restructuring archetypes in general.
It would take work, but not as much as implementing new powers and areas: nothing "new" should be developed after all, and I feel the community would be glad to help as well.
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This explains even more!
Deliciously nutritious!
I love you sarcasm fish
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Don't eat me kitty. D=
[Stacks dodge gear to avoid Nepht.]
Deliciously nutritious!
Yeah, from what I'm told by my friends and fam that played CoH and that play CO now the CoH teams nerfed overpowered mechanics and then developed challenging content after the baseline was made more equalized so that the challenging content added later could actually be based on sound mechanics and not cheap gimmicks like big bags of health stacked on top of one hit kill shticks . This sounds familiar, I think I heard a dev or four say this same exact thing about what's going on here right now...
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Blame Guild Wars 2 for that.
GET THEM! They mentioned the game that shall not be named! :O
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Would be nice if they actually did that. My gripe with the Dodge nerf is mostly due to the gimmick mechanics Cryptic implement (high dmg, high HP) to give us a challenge.
If this trend persists it should be obvious how badly it will affect everyone who uses an Offensive Passive. Take for example Gravitar, Forum Malvanum, Cyber Mind, Warlord etc... Those are examples of places where incoming dmg is quite high. In some of the cases if you die there's a lockout mechanic. Those gimmick encounters are highly skewed towards being able to survive the dmg output. Forum Malvanum is even worse, it requires Very High dmg output as well as mitigation (the glads are not really a joke, they do dmg and thy kb spam a lot).
Point is, if they continue to buff HP and DMG of mobs there's no way Offensive passives can survive that and if you can't survive and get locked out you are useless to the team.
No more gimmick Extreme DMG/HP encounters.
At least, you know for what the CoX servers are being used for, now.
We'll see I suppose. One thing that gets said often is that 'Cryptic' did this and Cryptic did that but the problem is that we've had several development teams over the life of this game at this point. Several of the encounters in this game were not designed by the team working on the game right now.
So I'm in wait and see mode with what direction the current team goes and not holding anything against them that was made before they jumped aboard the CO ship.
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Well they did make Cyber Mind no? That pretty much follows the gimmick formula of absurd dmg + high HP + lockout. Not exactly what I'd call a challange.
..Cybermind is actually a good challenge and brings back the days of strategy to avoid deaths.. something TSW is doing now. Albiet, it's a nightmare for those who have no idea how to do the fight (SOCRATES isn't exactly clear on the process.. and I admit I've died a good amount of times before I learned how it works.).
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You are just condescending and ignorant by nature aren't you? Look here buddy, I know how to do Cyber Mind. I never said I don't. I suppose you can't read or your comprehension is selective.
I was talking about gimmick mechanics and that's what Cyber Mind is. Once you get the "trick" it's all about getting his HP down. There is no challenge to Cyber Mind it's all about a "gimmick" that once you get that's it, end of challenge.
And that's what I was referring to. Not once did I even hint at an insult to you nor the idea you didn't know how to do it.
The class comment was to anyone who doesn't like the gimmick fight in general and thinks they all should just be "smash the big guy as hard as you can".
As of issue 3 plenty of players quoted his earlier post with a date and time attached. Jack's reply was sobering it essentially read "this is game designed to make the owner (then NCsoft and less Cryptic) money, and that would ultimately decide how the game would develop.
I read it and appreciated his candor, and I also knew that NCsoft would eventually lose or give up interest in it's it's audience, as the audience would fall away from the developers interest. I had taken 5 years from that point, but it happened. NCsoft was no longer interested in maintaining a game that still made a dwindling profit margin.
Champions online as of this post has met City of Zeros issue 3. PWI is in effect in the position of that NCsoft once was and is adopting the same answers that NCsoft and its crony company once did.
There post here is glossing over the problems and saying "but we will add this to help out how we are gonna nerf bat you".
I like the idea of getting rid of "ratings" all togather and just listing things in simple percentages, BUT don't be fooled they have hidden their language here, you won't get back the grandeur you had with out giving up twice as much somewhere else.
Pity, but my Champions buddies have already moved over to SWOTR, I guess I was holding out.
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- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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I think it's flat out hilarious how most of the pre-on alert people, who remember when we had 2 super stats and about half as much power as we do now, are pretty much shrugging at it all. Because even if this is a nerf, we're still WAY below how powerful everyone was for a large portion of the game's life. And let's be clear: it's not like they buffed the mobs to compensate.
But, I might be odd. My main character ran around non-dodge stacked and non-crit stacked for like a year and a half, with an offensive passive, and more than held her own. Tanked, in fact, most of the time.
I don't wanna hear it can't be done. Much ado about nothing, etc... The player base will adapt, like we did for on alert and the super stat changes. I remember when everyone was freaking out that removing crit severity from ego, and taking ranged knocks away from strength, was also gonna be a deal breaker. Guess what? We're still here.
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It's pretty much what we've (the people who are fine with the nerfs (FINE! not necessarily for)) been saying for the longest time.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
He walked through the whole thing, wiping out every mob in the place, and barely got scratched. I saved Fire All Weapons for the boss at the end, too.
So no, you don't need to stack Dodge and Crit Chance and get yourself up to OVER 9000! percent chance. Just the normal gear works fine. Y'all are getting all het up over nothing, essentially.
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I was thinking Civil War... "Whose Side Are You On?" It's actually made for some strange bedfellows.
Also, when was Endbringer the standard? I thought it was still Gravitar, Vikorin, and Teliosaurus.
The relevance is moment. You blink and you missed it.
Not to have been taken seriously. XD
Meanwhile the rest us are like:
What strategy? The difficulty of the alert was based on your teammates proficiency. While I'm happy to use more use of the environment, the mechanics themselves are very simplistic. What really hurts is that as simplistic as they are, I lost count of how many players saw defeat whenever one of us didn't land an ice grenade and interrupt the rain.
I remember both well. And indeed, gear has allowed us to achieve numbers not possible pre-alert. But I wouldn't say we had "half the power".
Pre-alert we didn't have alerts, and the only time you saw tough rated mobs was in a lair. Tough rated mobs do hit harder and survive better than their normal counterparts. And now they've become a part of the norm, not just the occasional Lair hunt.
We also didn't have one-hit kills. The hardest hitting boss I can recall was Therakial, and his spinning sowrd of doom allowed people plenty of time to react and block. Sure, Vik could toss you around the lava, but once you learned to avoid his pbaoe after being disabled, the challenge (frustration really) was gone.
Now we have Gravitar, who can kill you at full HP while blocking. We have warlord, who basically can create patches of fire that kill in seconds. We have cybermind who has the health of someone that normally fights a team of 10 (Grav hp) and can attack with hits that bypass defenses.
I didn't even run crit on the majority of my alts pre-alert, as most couldn't fit enough dex to make crit chance worthwhile.
However, the best gear could all be obtained without ever spending a dime. Now we rely on someone gambling to either sell the gear or gamble ourselves.
But really, if you were able to run around for as long as you claim without dodge/avoid or solid crit chance/sev, tanking regularly - you'd be a shining example of why dodge/avoid or crit chance is not overpowered. If that's the case, you no longer have any evidence to claim dodge/avoid or critical chance/strike is creating imbalance.
Lastly - bottom line is people invested heavily into gear, some spending hundreds of dollars even. You want to suddenly take away their investment and expect no consequence?
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I don't understand this statement. How are the changes taking away their investment?
I'm expecting that anyone invested in top-tier gear will still remain potent when the changes go live. As on offset, the blog states that many powers will start giving a flat dodge chance and not rating that suffers from DR when it comes to dodge. Avoidance doesn't look to be changed in any way.
What was being addressed in the blog about Dodge being a superior defensive mechanic compared to others is spot on. How many times have yourself or others suggested "Masterful Dodge" to others for Active Defense suggestions? Let's be honest here, because the rest of the ADs are inferior to it. A full 15s of absolute damage reduction compared to a spike heal or flat shield points that can be nullified in a matter of seconds is really superior. Heck, how many times have you seen people make suggestions about getting your dodge up to a decent level of 40 - 50% (something remarkably easy to do) even though you already have a Defensive Passive? That's precisely how good Dodge is, considering that it's the first layer of defense over every other defensive mechanic.
That fact alone is enough to make a case about Dodge creating imbalance. I'm interested to see how the changes will come about and help to promote build diversity.
As for critical chance / sev, even at a measly 30% crit chance I find myself crit'ing more often than I would expect, so I'm guessing that's why they've decided to tweak things down a little.
As a sidenote I didn't see any mention of players getting free retcon tokens when the changes go live. Those had better be issued.
From my testing on the PTS so far, I think Masterful Dodge will still be a very good AD to grab. Yeah, I seem to crit a lot with crit rates around 30% - 35%.
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I wasn't interrupting the rain for my benefit, it was more to prevent other teammates from dying in pugs. It did help keep pets alive though. It doesn't bother me that people don't know how it works their first time through. But lockout hardly creates difficulty, just makes it easier for people to leech off more capable teammates.
If you were to tell me that 3 months or so later my legion agility would stop granting 54% dodge chance and would be half of that... I wouldn't have bothered investing at all. Some people have had their agility(s) for the better part of a year. Some people are just buying one for the first time.
You haven't been paying attention to the numbers, and are trusting in good faith that balance will be there by the time of release.
Dodge/avoid is strong - but when used in particular combinations. Dodge/avoid does not make a kill immune to death on its own. MD is effective because it guarantees dodge for its duration. But don't worry, I'm almost certain the cooldowns are next for the nerfing block, so you will no longer see people running ADs as frequently.
Blade has Way of the Warrior as it's passive, which will provide direct Dodge % instead of rating after the changes. Yes, Dodge % will be lessened, but not as much as others who get their Dodge solely from gear.
For a comparison, my level 40 WotW using toon went from about 50% Dodge to 40% Dodge when I took a look at her stats within the past week. She pulls Dodge from WotC, Dex specs, and gear. The passive is direct % added, everything else is rating, which is where the diminishing returns hit is going.
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After the nerfs FF characters will still have access to better defensive numbers than when this game came out. If you consider what we had when the game came out to have been "solid" then the numbers post nerf should delight you because they are much better than was the case up until On Alert.
These changes do not push Trinity play onto anyone (with the caveat that squishy ATs have always benefited from having a tank and healer around). Quarry with 20+% dodge is much better than the Quarry we had before (and it was viable then) that provided 0% dodge.
My point is that reducing the previously applied buff to dodge so that we merely have significantly more dodge than we had originally when offensive passives were quite viable does not kill offensive passives or dodge.
If 0% dodge works why is 40% non-viable ?
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
I'm a Blade AT. I'm pretty good, even for an AT. I have frequently placed high on Open World Boss Fights (ie. Tako, the Mega Ds from the Event, etc.), and I like to think that I'm proof that an AT CAN be good. Though, I rely quite a bit on Crits, and (to a lesser extent) dodges.
Now, what will this update mean? Although my Gambler's Lucky Gems may not be as effective, will my Ratings really drop? My Passive, 'Way of the Warrior' currently grants a bonus Dodge and Avoidance Rating (though I forget exactly how much, though it is substantial). Now. will that Dodge Rating turn into a Flat Dodge Rate?
Now, I don't think Way of the Warriors' Dodge/Avoidance Rating grows with ranking up the power, only with SSs. Now, will this game change prove beneficial, or not? It could either replace the Dodge Rating with a Flat Dodge Rate, which could either end up giving me a better Dodge Chance or a lesser Dodge Chance (though most people seem pessimistic about it, perhaps it'll turn out better after all), OR just lower the Dodge Rating, or not change it at all. Still, I don't know which powers will be overhauled.
Anyway, if you read the News Post, it says, and I quote,
"Reducing Dodge Rating: Reduced how effective Dodge Rating was as a stat. Much less of your total dodge will come from Dodge Rating."
It's saying there that Dodge Rating, as a stat, is becoming less effective. BUT, it also says:
"MUCH LESS OF YOUR TOTAL DODGE WILL COME FROM DODGE RATING."
See, they're putting Dodge Bonuses into Passives, Powers and Blocks (like Fluidity, and so on) to replace the vague and awkward Dodge Rating system. I mean, really, what does +200 Dodge Rating mean? Without a scale or context, you're not really sure what that adds to.
All in all, the WORST thing I'll think we'll see is the price of Gambler's Lucky Gems to plummet. And since I haven't invested in them, I shall care not.
__________________________________________________
Most often Slice N Dice@zap-the-eradicator in-game.
Their idea of "diversity" is you either hit hard all the time or you have a chance to hit harder. That's not diversity. What about the diversity of power choices based on theme? That's getting butchered right now. That's the loss of diversity not whether you are a crit type or an offense type.
The reason why dodge/avoidance still worked for many themes was because anybody can dodge/avoidance or use it as a counter to how lucky the character is in not getting hit or just taking a glancing blow.
Here's an idea:
1. Put Dodge Chance at a soft cap at 35%-40%, anyone that takes Lightning Reflexes or the other dodge increasing powers can go past the soft cap.
2. Stop making so many Specializations reliant on Critical Chance and leave Critical Chance cap alone (because this will trivialize Dexterity as a stat). It's these Specializations that should work for other methods rather than always Crit.
And with all honestly to the people saying their "survivability is fine." You are using freeforms taking SPECIFIC powers, the SAME damn powers everyone will be choosing and almost the SAME kinds of stats depending on whether you're ranged or melee and the SAME maxed out mods and gear. Diversity my ****. It's just cookie cutter time. Everyone will be using the same powers, thematic builds will be taking one power out of that cookie cutter build than switching it for another one. That's the diversity... one power substituted for another.
And that's one of the big faulty I've seen in all these MMORPGs. People think that's the only strategies that exist. They don't know the "have two tanks passing aggro back and forth" strategy? They don't know the use holds on some of the enemies strategy? I mean come on there's tons more strategies than get a tank to hold every aggro there is and have one healer heal him while they're all killed. Games like that bored me quickly. Because it's the same gameplay.
Last hair pulled.
Last keyboard smashed.
The tantrums have simmed down.
After people's brains pop back to reality.
Then.
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Gatling Gal's survivability is fine. How cookie cutter is she? Honest question; I don't PvP so I have no idea what the cookie cutter build looks like.
That Dork In The Suspenders, signing out.
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And I'm not using some special uberbuild - I'm running ATs. Happifun Security System X-4 is an Invincible, and he's 40 now, because I finally buckled down and finished up the Apocalypse with him. Spider-Bat is a Master, and he's hanging at 38 because I've been focusing on others (mostly Honey Badger and Sharknado recently - I was kind of surprised at how powerful the Squall actually feels).
Overall, I think this is going to turn out to be another tempest in a teapot. (And the Tempest is a pretty strong AT, so that teapot is toast!)
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Maybe measures should be taken into consideration to minimize that rage- for instance, giving anyone with a r8/r9 dodge mod a chance to convert it into another mod of their choice. Yeah, that means selling less stuff- but it also means respecting the player base, and it's something that is BADLY needed.
Really ?
Disagreeing with you is a character flaw now ?
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
Citizens Online...now that is funny! I am against the dodge nerf also. I am just putting my 2 cents worth here.
And, just for my own personal curiousity, how do people who easily bypass what most "others" are getting in survivability and yet still do not share your opinion fit into all of this? I doubt they are "jealous." Also, as you kind of mention further down in the post, what about people who take this new "useless" mechanic and still make it work? How "useless" is it if it works?
In the end(well the beginning of your post the end of mine) you feel that only some people think it's overpowered and I would counter that only some people feel it's underpowered, and some feel it's fine. Forum usage vs. Game population as well as people having differing opinions on the subject means that, in most cases, not everyone is in agreement. This is simply how things work. For myself, the only person I can definitively speak for on this matter, I have felt that On Alert did more destruction than positives and I felt this way from the earliest versions that hit PTS. On Alert, to me, is a classic example of well meaning ambitions(as well as some pretty publically known blunders, let's not sugar coat things) that fell upon the shoulders of too few people to make into a reality. From my own knowledge the majority of this project was done by one person with certain aspects being handled by roughly 2-3 other people(possibly more but unable to confirm). The weight proved to be too much and when it came time to correct things a certain other game was in jeopardy so most hands were whisked away to the rescue and we were left in the wreckage.
Shockingly enough Cryptic North was introducted into the equation along with a few of the Cryptic Devs. They needed some time to train and ease into their newfound project but I enjoyed Fatal Error(except Cybermind has a few too many hp just as a matter of gameplay flow IMO) and I applaud the undertaking of bug repairs, balancing, and the beginning steps of sifting through the wreckage of On Alert. My ONLY real concern is if this project is completed before another "Cryptic CO Vacation to <Fill in new project>" happens.
This dodge/crit thing is a piece of the puzzle and while it looks fine/doomy to people it's still part of a process. The same can be said for specs, superstats, def, CD, Cost reduction, and a myriad of other aspects. To me the largest three pieces of this equation are...
-Baseline White Hit Power/Standard Adjustment accross the entire board with a likely cut off of the top end of roughly 25% and application of said loss to the bottom end : The powers now exist on two very different standards which only prove to expand the gap between the underperforming nature of older powers vs. the raw almost unchecked power of most things from F2P until now. IMO, balance must be established here as the main priority but I am also understanding that this is likely the largest piece of the puzzle when it comes to sheer manpower, labor, and resources.
-Actual Real Estate Expanding Perminant CONTENT: I've heard many many people say this and I can see where they're coming from because, "Balance is nice and all but what's a balanced system when you have nowhere new and exciting to go with things to do?" STO has New Romulus, NW has Feywild. These two Campaign System zones are, IMO, perfect for what I feel CO needs for it's future. They offer things to unlock, dailies, real estate, and(probably most importantly) an Alternate Advancement System which allows players who wish to expand their 40s the chance to do so without the perils and mistakes attached to a outdated notion of LvL Cap Increases.
-AT Restructuring to come inline with balance/power changes: I do not play ATs(it's my choice). I do not like ATs. I feel that ATs have somewhat missed the point due to improper leveraging of the incentives and motivations to convert to Gold/LTS. I understand that ATs are supposed to be limiting, restricted, redundant(in places), and not ideal. I get that. But on the other hand, they cannot be so horrible and nonadaptive to the progress of the game as to live in a void and still be expected to function "fine and dandy." ATs are the introduction of the game from the perspective of most froob/newbies. Newbies are important to ALL MMOs. It is for this reason alone that I believe that the system needs some updates in reguards to how the game is currently(and I've made posts outlining how I, personally, would handle this for whatever that turns out to be worth). Also...Referral Program Return...just saying.
So, in closing, I do not think the doom is coming at this momment. I do not think the mass exodus will be because of the dodge/crit changes. I actually believe STO will lose more people due to the forced introduction of Arc than CO will over this(and even that won't be all that bad I believe). We're at the point now where some people feel there was some magical "Statute of limitations" on the correction of mistakes(heck I hope not, there are beta bugs here for crying out loud). Where the cry of, "It's been broken this long, why fix it?" is becoming more and more commonplace and to that I say hogwash. Fix the broken. If Cryptic does nothing then some people will leave. If Cryptic does something then some people will leave. Overall, some people will leave. It's the nature of the almost forgotten neglected beast but I say if Lordgar, Raven, Splosions, Crush, Radio, and Cryptic North want to give it the old college try than let them. Better to burn in the fires than fizzle out in the ashes.
And I am longwinded. Ok, enough for now. If you took the time to read that then good on you and thanks. Until next time. :cool:
Join Date: Aug 2009 | Title: Devslayer
IMO, there are at least two archetypes Cryptic really got right: Savage and Disciple. They are nowhere near as strong as the average FF, but they are pretty solid and could be taken as a reference for restructuring archetypes in general.
It would take work, but not as much as implementing new powers and areas: nothing "new" should be developed after all, and I feel the community would be glad to help as well.