Looks like COH is being rewritten

[Lyrical]

---------------------------
"Issue 5: Forest of Dread

New Zone: Croatoa
Croatoa is a 3 hour train ride up state from Paragon City, and was the favorite lakeside vacation spot for city dwellers. For the past 3 years, the train service has been closed due to the Rikti Invasion, but recent happenings have gotten the government to open it back up.

To get to Croatoa, heroes can take the Green Line.
Locals are asking for heroes of security levels 25 to 34 to investigate recent strange goings on.

New Powers

Sonic Blast (Blaster Primary and Defender Secondary)
Sonic Debuff (Defender Primary and Controller Secondary)
Archery (Blaster Primary and Defender Secondary)
Trick Arrow (Defender Primary and Controller Secondary)
Electric Mastery (Blaster Ancillary Power Set)

Mission Customization

Many existing missions have been updated with hostage escorts, friendly heroes who fight by your side, villain wave attacks and more.

Updated Zone: The Shadow Shard

Shadow Shard Maps show the location of each Jump Pad. A dotted line connects the Jump Pad with its end point.
A teleporter on Firebase Zulu takes players to any of the other three zones in the Shadow Shard (works both ways).
Dr. Scott Wachhorst, a prominent xenobiologist and Portal Corp. leader, willingly purchases Enhancements from players in Firebase Zulu.
A renegade Brute, Kallarn, purchases Enhancements with the hope that he might gain enough power to overthrow Ruladak. It can be found in the Cascades.
Slarrah, a Wisp who has been converted by Faathim the Kind relieves players of excess Enhancements in the Chantry.
Nameless Mystic. An interdimensional mystic feeds off the energy kicked off by the dreaded Lanaru. He happily accepts Enhancements. Found lurking near the Storm Palace.

Updated Zone: Rikti Crash Site

The military controls a teleporter in Peregrine Island that connects to one in the entrance of the Rikti Crash Site. Heroes can go back and forth from this point.
Col. Barry Woodhouse works for Military Intelligence, gathering info on the Rikti activities. Players can sell excess Enhancements to him.

Updated Zone: Outbreak

The tutorial has been modified.

New Badges

In addition to new badges associated with Croatoa, many new Achievement badges have been added for those who have exceeded the existing ones.

Experience System Changes

No experience debt until level 10.
Half experience debt in missions.
Experience awards for defeating enemies level 25+ increased.

New Zone Events

Steel Canyon: The Hellions are living up to their name and have taken to arson.
Skyway City: The Trolls start a Rave (Troll-style) when they find a new supply of Superadine.

Powers - General

Blasters have a new Inherent ability called Defiance. As a Blaster reaches the end of his health, he starts to dramatically increase his damage.
Makes the Blaster into a more comic-booky Archetype to play. As he begins to lose a battle, his power increases dramatically, giving him the edge he needs to defeat powerful foes.
Blaster hit points increased.
Overall increase in the survivability of Blasters.
Blaster damage cap increased.
Overall increase in the damage output (and thus survivability) of Blasters. Blasters may need Buffs from other Archetypes in order to reach the new caps.
Scrapper damage increased for all powers.
Our goal is to increase the overall 'Scrappery' nature of Scrappers, making them melee combat masters, but not having Tanker-level defense. This change counters some of the general reduction in defense that Scrappers are seeing with this patch.
Controllers will do double damage to a target (non pvp) that is Immobilized, Disoriented, Slept or Held.
Increasing the non-Pet damage potential of all Controllers. This change is intended to give them a more balanced and even game-play experience throughout all of their levels.
Controller AoE Holds, Disorients and Sleeps (and a few others like Quicksand and Ice Slick) recharge times have been doubled and duration cut in half. AoE Immobilize and Phase Shift powers were not affected. Volcanic Gasses duration was not affected.
Game balance change due to the new increased damage of Controllers.
Controller Pets (and Defender/Dark Miasma/Dark Servant) can no longer stack. That is, casting these summon powers before your pet has expired will remove the old pets and spawn new ones.
Illusion Control/Phantasm can still summon multiple decoys.
Fire Control/Fire Imps now always summons 3 Imps at your level.
Illusion Control/Phantom Army now always summons 3 Decoys.
Pet powers were never intended to have multiple instances out at once. Due to the change in the power, we removed the randomness in the number of pets you get with Fire Imps and Phantom Army.
Set a maximum number of targets that can be affected by most offensive powers:
AoE Debuffs, Ranged cones, and Melee AoE (PBAoE) are set to 10.
Some Large PBAoE (like Nova) are set to 16.
Melee Cones are set to 5.
Ranged AoE damage powers are set to 16.
Taunts (including Tanker inherent Taunt - 'PunchVoke') is set to 5.
Buffs are unaffected.
This will limit the amount of 'herding' done by players to a more reasonable and realistic level.
Slightly reduced the non-enhanceable health regeneration buff of Regeneration/Integration.
The health regeneration component was slightly too high when combined with the other effects of the power.
Changed Regeneration/Instant Healing from a Toggle Power to a Click power. Gave it a new animation so it activates faster.
With almost unlimited Health Regeneration, this power was always intended to be used sparingly. The high Endurance cost was intended to accomplish this, but in the end, only lead to frustrations of running out of Endurance. As a click with a long recharge, its Endurance cost can remain low, and its Regeneration boost can stay high.
Fixed Ice Armor/Energy Absorption so it no longer grants less Endurance and Slow protection if used against a higher level foe.
This is a bug fix. When used against a higher level foe, your buff was lower than normal. Your Endurance Buff and Slow protection will now always be the same, regardless of what foe you use this power on.
Increased Super Reflexes/Evasion Defense buff.
This will help Super Reflexes Scrappers against foes that tend to use AoE powers, like Bosses (who typically have a higher accuracy than minions).
Reduced Dark Armor/Cloak of Fear’s Accuracy Debuff.
With the previous changes to Fear effects, Cloak of Fear's Accuracy Debuff was too powerful.
Increased the recharge time and decreased the duration of Pool/Presence/Intimidate. It only affects Lieutenants on a Critical.
Originally, the recharge and duration of this power were balanced against the old Fear effect (run away). Fear is now more of a control power and much more effective (targets are essentially Held). As such the old recharge time and duration were too powerful.
Reduced Duration on Dark Miasma/Fearsome Stare. Increased its recharge time.
Originally, the recharge and duration of this power were balanced against the old Fear effect (run away). Fear is now more of a control power and much more effective (targets are essentially Held). As such the old recharge time and duration were too powerful.
Reduced Duration on Dark Miasma/Petrifying Gaze and increased its recharge time. (Dark Servant version as well.)
This power was stronger than most Controller Hold powers, and thus too powerful for a Defender power.
Added an f/x to Regeneration/Moment of Glory when it expires to indicate your Regeneration is debuffed (this is a visual f/x change only).
Quality of Life feature.
Added an f/x to Elude when it expires to indicate your Recovery is debuffed (this is a visual f/x change only).
Quality of Life feature.
Fixed missing sticky f/x for Radiation Blast/Cosmic Burst Defense Debuff (visual f/x only, no power change).
Quality of Life feature.
Controller/Gravity Control/Lift now does extra damage in PvP.
Bug Fix.
Fixed Ice Blast/Frost Breath damage in PvP (it was set too low).
Bug Fix.
Removed Debuff Defense Enhancements from Spines/Impale (this powers does not debuff Defense, so Debuff Defense Enhancements were not doing anything).
Bug Fix.
Removed Range Enhancements from Spines/Spine Burst (this powers is a PBAoE and has no 'range' to increase, so Range Enhancements were not doing anything).
Bug Fix.
Fixed Warshade Stygian Circle so it no longer gives you less Endurance when you drain and enemy that is higher level than you. Also, it no longer accepts Accuracy Enhancements (they were unnecessary because Stygian Circle is an auto-hit power).
Bug Fix.
Marked Quicksand summonable to not show duplicate icon in the buff tray.
Bug Fix.
Fixed excessive long immobilization effect when casting or getting hit by Transfusion, Transference, Twilight Grasp, and Howling Twilight.
Bug fix.
Updated Energy Blast/Power Burst help (text only, no power changes).
More accurately describes the power.
Some Combat system chat message fixes for Spines powers (text only, no power changes).
More accurately describes what’s going on.

Powers - Global Defense Decrease
In order to facilitate a more balanced game for the higher level characters (Level 25 and up), the defensive abilities of several powersets has been adjusted so that they are more in line with one another. Lieutenant, Boss, and Elite Boss villains have had their To Hit values reduced accordingly to work with these defensive changes.

Reduced all Archetypes’ base ability with Damage Resistance and Defense powers.
Reduced Defense rating of Force Field powers (Deflection Shield, Insulation Shield and Dispersion Bubble).
Reduced Defense bonus from Pool/Concealment/Stealth. Defense bonus suppresses if you attack.
Reduced Defense bonus from Pool/Flight/Hover (and Kheldian Combat Flight).
Reduced Damage Resistance bonus from Pool/Fighting/Tough. Increased its Endurance Cost.
Reduced Defense bonus from Pool/Fighting/Weave. Increased its Endurance Cost.
Reduced Defense bonus from Pool/Leadership/Maneuvers.
Reduced Defense bonus from Pool/Leaping/Combat Jumping.
Increased the Recharge Time and Decreased the duration of Pool/Presence/Invoke Panic.
Pool/Speed/Hasten no longer buffs Defense.
Reduced Ice Armor/Frozen Armor Defense Bonus.
Reduced Ice Armor/Wet Ice Defense Bonus.
Reduced Ice Armor/Glacial Armor Defense Bonus.
Reduced Ice Armor/Energy Absorption Defense Bonus and set its max number of affected targets to 14. Added an Endurance Buff to the Caster for each affected target.
Reduced Invulnerability/Temporary Invulnerability Damage resistance bonus.
Reduced Invulnerability/Resist Physical Damage resistance bonus.
Reduced Invulnerability/Resist Elements Damage resistance bonus. Added resistance to Toxic.
Reduced Invulnerability/Resist Energies Damage resistance bonus.
Reduced Invulnerability/Unyielding Damage resistance bonus. Increased its Defense debuff.
Reduced Invulnerability/Invincibility Defense and Accuracy bonus. Increased its max number of affected targets to 14.
Reduced Invulnerability/Tough Hide Defense bonus.
Reduced Stone Armor/Rock Armor Defense Bonus.
Reduced Stone Armor/Brimstone Armor Damage Resistance.
Reduced Stone Armor/Crystal Armor Defense Bonus.
Reduced Stone Armor/Mineral Armor Defense Bonus.
Reduced Dark Armor/Cloak of Darkness Defense bonus.
Reduced Super Reflexes/Focused Fighting Defense buff.
Reduced Super Reflexes/Focused Senses Defense buff.
Reduced Dark Miasma/Shadow Fall defense bonus.
Reduced Storm Summoning/Steamy Mist Defense Bonus.
Set some of Illusion Control/Superior Invisibility Defense bonus to suppress if you attack. Reduced its overall Defense bonus.
Reduced defense bonus of Illusion Control/Group Invisibility.
Increased Ancillary Pool/Force Mastery/Force of Nature recharge time.
Reduced Ancillary Pool/Psionic Mastery/Mind Over Body damage resistance.
Reduced Ancillary Pool/Electric Mastery/Charged Armor damage resistance.
Reduced Ancillary Pool/Munitions Mastery/Body Armor damage resistance.
Reduced Umbral Aura/Absorption damage resistance.
Reduced Umbral Aura/Shadow Cloak Defense bonus.
Reduced Luminous Aura/Incandescence damage resistance.
Reduced Defense and Damage Resistance values of defensive Temporary Powers appropriately based on above changes.

Powers - Villains

Reduced Lt. Accuracy (ToHit).
This is to limit the severity of defensive adjustments made to some powersets.
Reduced Boss Accuracy (ToHit).
This is to limit the severity of defensive adjustments made to some powersets.
Reduced Elite Boss Accuracy (ToHit).
This is to limit the severity of defensive adjustments made to some powersets
There is a new low level Circle of Thorns minion, The Guardian.
Power sets for CoT minions slightly redesigned.
Higher level Circle of Thorns Minions should no longer repeatedly cast the same debuffs over and over, nor should they stack them on top of already existing Debuffs of that type.
Bug Fix.
Some higher level Circle of Thorns minions are exhibiting new powers.
Power sets for CoT minions slightly redesigned.

UI

Contact names now appear a different color from other NPC names.
There is now a new option to disable dragging powers around in the power tray.
New slash commands:
/reply - replies to the last person who sent you a /tell.
/tell_last or /tl - sends a tell to the last player you sent a /tell to.
Improved text editing on Character ID screen.
Options menu rearranged slightly for ease of use."
----------------------------
Here's some good info on the archer (defender ) set:

"Trick Arrow

Entangling Arrow

Short Info: Ranged, Target Immobilize, -Recharge, -Fly

Description: Upon impact, the Entangling Arrow releases a strong net that can Immobilize most targets. THis non-lethal device deals no damage and does not prevent targets from attacking, although their attack rate is Slowed. The Entanglign Arrow can bring down flying entities and halts jumping. Recharge: Fast

Ice Arrow

Short Info: Ranged, Moderate DMG (Cold), Foe Hold, -SPD, -Recharge

Description: This arrow cna freeze a single foe in a block of ice. The target is frozen solid, helpless, and can be attacked. More powerful foes may not be Held, but all targets will be slowed and take some Cold DamageDamage: Moderate, Recharge: Moderate

Glue Arrow

Short Info: Ranged AoE, Foe - Speed, -Recharge

This arrow carries a cartioridge of sticky glue, which explodes on impact. The glue Slows the movement and attack rates of any foes in the area. Recharge: Slow

Flash Arrow

Short Info: Ranged Targeted AoE, Foe -Visibility, -ACC
This arrow explodes in a dazzling flash of light and sound. The targets are so blinded that they can hardly see a thing. Most villians will not see past normal mele range, although some may have better perception. If the villians are attacked, the will be allerted to your presence, but will suffer a penalty to accuracy. Recharge: Slow

Poison Gas Arrow
Short Info: Ranged AoE, Foe - DMG, -Recharge

Description: This arrow carries a capsule of posionous gas, which explodes on impact and weakens all foes in its vicinity. Some foes will be rendered completly helpless. Recharge: Slow

Acid Arrow

Short Info: Ranged AoE, DoT (Toxic), Foe - RES (all), -DEF

Description: This arrow explodes in a shower of acid on impact. This acid eats through armor, causing damage over time. It reduces the targets Defense as well as his Damage Resistance. Damage:Minor, Recharge: Slow

Disruption Arrow

Short Info: Location AoE, -RES (all)

Description: This arrow plants a sonic resonator at a targets location. The vibrations of the resonatorweaken the Damage Resistance of all nearby foes.

Oil Slick Arrow

Short Info: Knckback, - Speed

Description: On impact, this arrow creates an oil slick that Slows foes in the area and may cause them to slip and fall. The oil is very flamble and may burst into flames if fire is used near it.

EMP Arrow

Short Info: PBAOE, Foe Hold, Special vs Robots, Self - Recovery

Description: This arrow can release a massive pulse pf electromagnetic energy on impact. This EMP can affect machines , and is even powerful enough to affect synaptic brian patterns. It will incapacitate all foes in it's radius. Additionally, most machines and robots will take moderate high damage. However, power uses a lot of Endurance and leaves you unable to recover Endurance for a while. Recharge: Very long"


-----------------------------
And here is some on the archer blaster set:

"Archery

Snap Shot

Short Info: Ranged, Minor DMG (Lethal)

Description: A quick attack that fires an arrow at your foe after only minimal aiming. Fast, but little damage. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Fast

Aimed Shot

Short Info: Ranged, Moderate DMG (Lethal)

Description: Though it takes longer to execute, your aimed shot deal more damage then the Quick Shot. Damage: High, Recharge: Moderate

Fistful of Arrows

Short Info: Ranged Cone, Moderate DMG (Lethal)

Description: You fire a fistful of arrows at foes in a cone infront of you. Good at close range. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Moderate.

Blazing Arrow

Short Info: Ranged, Minor DMG (Lethal), Moderate DoT (Fire)

Description: You fire a BLazing Arrow at your foe, dealing some lethal damage and causing him to catch fire and burn. Slightly less accurate then pther Archery attacks. Damage: Superior, Recharge: Slow

Aim

Short Info: Self +ACC, +DMG

Description: Greatly increases the Accuracy of your attacks for a few seconds. Slightly increases damage. Recharge: Long

Explosive Arrow

Short Info: Ranged Targeted AoE, Moderate DMG (Lethal/Smash), Knockback

Description: You fire a grenade-tipped arrow at long range. This explosion affects all within the blast radius, and can knock them back. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Slow

Ranged Shot

Short Info:Sniper, Extreme DMG (Lethal)

Description: A long range shot that blasts your foes. Link most sniper attacks, this power has a bonus to Accuracy, but is best fired from a distance as it can be interrupted. Damage: Extreme, Recharge: Slow

Stunning Shot

Short Info: Ranged Disorient, Minor DMG (Smashing)

Description: You fire a blunt weighted arrow at your target's chest. The stunning shot has a good chance of stunning your foe. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Slow

Rain of Arrows

Short Info: Ranged (Location AoE), Extreme DoT (Lethal)

Description: You unleash a Rain of Arrows on a targeted location, damaging foes within a large area. Damage: Moderate (DoT), Recharge: Long "


Areas of concern:

- AE no longer affects more than 10 targets at once. No more herding. This is going to make the huge grind from 30 to 50 even longer.

- Defenses of all classes are going to be nerfed! This is far reaching, across all the archetypes (tanker, blaster, scrapper, defender, controller). My inv tanker does pitiful damage, but soaks up a ton of abuse. Now he'll have his defense nerfed along with his pathetic offense.

- Controllers take a hit with their pets. This class already somewhat gimped.

- Why would they nerf the sr scrapper, which data shows to be the weakest secondary scrapper, in terms of mitigation?

- Why make all of these changes to core gameplay one year after the game has been in effect? I believe its because they want to balance the upcoming pvp for when Cov comes out, even though they deny this. It seems like they are basing their future game on pvp, even though there is a statistic that only 15% of the playerbase likes pvp. No one is using the much-hyped arenas that they added in last issue. right now - why ruin your pve game to enhance a pvp game that only a small minority of players want?

[Mkopec1]

Untill they add some loot and reward system that game will always be a dud.

WHERE IS MY LOOTZ?

[Lyrical]

Info on sonic powers:


Sonic Debuff:

Sonic Barrier

Short Info: Ranged, Ally +RES (Smash, LethaL, Toxic)

Descritpion: This shield dramtically reduces damage an ally takes from Smashing, Lethal and Toxic attacks for a limited time. You cannot stack multiple Sonic Barriers on the same target; however, the shiled can be improved by another ally using the same power. Can also be used in co0njuntion with your Sonic Haven. You cannot use this power on yourself. Recharge: Very Fast

Sonic Haven

Short Info: Ranged, Ally +RES (Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative Energy)

Sonic Cage

Short Info: Ranged, Foe Capture (Special)

Sonic Siphon

Short Info: Ranged, Foe -RES (all)

Disruption Field

Short Info: Toggle Ranged (Target Ally AoE), Foe - RES

Clarity

Short Info: Ally +RES (Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Terorize, Confusion)

Sonic Repulsion

Short Info: Toggle, Rang (Targeted Ally AoE), Foe Knockback

Sonic Dispersion

Short Info: Toggle, PBAOE, Ally +RES (All Damage except Psionic, Hold, Immobilize, Disorient)

Liquefy

Short Info: Ranged (Location AoE), Foe Knockback, -ACC, -DEF

Sonic Attacks:

Shriek

Short Info: Ranged, Mnor DMG (Smash), Foe -Resist

Description: You let forth a quick Shriek , damaging your target andf weakening his Damage Resistance.

Scream

Short Info: Ranged, Moderate DoT (Smashing), -RES

Description: Your Scream can cause serious damage to a target, while weakeneing his resistance to further damage. Damage: Moderate(DoT), Recharge: Moderate

Howl

Short Info: Ranged Cone, Medium DMG (Smashing), Foe -Res (all)

Shockwave

Short Info: Ranged (Cone), Minor DMG (Smashing/Energy), Foe Knockback

Shout

Short Info: Ranged, Heavy DMG( Smashing Energy), Foe -Res (ALL)

Amplify

Short Info: +ACC, +DMG

Siren's Song

Short Info: Ranged Cone, Minor DMG (Smashing/Energy), Foe Sleep

Screech

Short Info: Ranged, Minor DMG (Smashing/Energy), Foe Disorient, -Res (all)

Dreadful Wail

Short Info: PBAOE, Extreme DMG (Energy/Smash), Foe Disorient, -Resist, Self -Recovery.

[Kasonic]

Tankers can only taunt 5 mobs, and their tanking power is grealy reduced?

What the fuck?

The herding change I can live with, but why nerf defense in general?

[Iannis]

Yeah. Figgured this was gonna be the direction they were heading. It's too bad. CoH is such a NEAT game. Well, was.

These "nerfs", along with many of the I4 changes (most notably suppression of travel powers during combat) really do detract from the basic appeal of the game. They're intended to enhance it over the long term I think... but they've really, really misjudged their own playerbase on that one. Nearly anyone who was interested in the long term health of CoH left it 6 months ago. It's a case where they could be well served rolling up a level 1 and playing their own game for 6 weeks on a LIVE server. Or hell, better yet on a few different LIVE servers. You know, just to get a more personal idea of who their customers actually are.

What's ironic about it all is that it's hands down the one mmo i've played where the devs and support staff honestly and obviously do care about the game itself and interact most with the community that supports them. I think the messageboards have given them a skewed view on how people are actually enjoying their game, it's easy to get distrated by pissing contests I guess. It's really hard to badmouth those guys, even when I disagree with them. All that makes this newest direction they're heading even more of an O'Brian "Hyuuuah?".

I don't think they have a super-sekrit "All will be well in CoV!!!" plan on this one. I believe I see exactly what they're thinking. They're just plain wrong this time. I doubt I4 and I5 will manage to kill CoH but they sure enough killed it for me.

Oh well. Sucks!

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by Mkopec1

Untill they add some loot and reward system that game will always be a dud.

WHERE IS MY LOOTZ?

I really thought that they made nerfs to Hamidon enhancements to make room for other enhancements post-COV. Since Hami-o's got you to the point where your powers were totally capped, it seemed like a logical decision. They really can't have traditional MMO loot, but I thought that they would add in a more robust enhancement system, that could give bonuses like loot.

From Statesman's comments, that is still a long way off. Like in 2006, because the team has stated that COV is the focal point this year, followed by account services like Sony has.

[Nevergone]

I'm reading those changes and thinking: Why are they trying to make City of Heroes a normal game?

The whole appeal behind CoH, for me at least, was that I was a super hero. I could defeat huge amounts of enemies at one time because I was that bad ass. With these changes, there's nothing really heroic about heroes anymore. Tankers can only keep five enemies taunted? Can only damage ten at a time? When did the Hulk ever encounter 20 henchmen and say, "Ok, I better come up with a plan so I can split these guys in half, because there's no way my whirlwind-smash-attack will damage them all at the same time..." Good job totally losing sight of your vision Cryptic.

The changes to pets I don't mind so much. When controllers were able to summon as many pets as they could, it was way out of balance. Sure, it was fun to watch a horde of fire imps destroy everything in their path, but that is a little insane. So fine, make it so you can only have one summoned pet (in the case of imps, 3) out at once. They still need to be compensated elsewhere, such as buffing the pets total hp to make them a bit more sturdy.

I'm all for giving controllers more damage while enemies are held, it should've been that way since the beginning. However, the nerf to hold duration and recharge time is absolute bullshit. The name of the archetype is "Controller", yet Cryptic seems to be hell bent on eliminating control. It's a pity really, I thought crowd control was very well handled in CoH. The system was something I wish more games would've adopted, albeit on a much smaller scale.

[masteen]

Jesus, what a fucking nerf patch

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by Nevergone

I'm reading those changes and thinking: Why are they trying to make City of Heroes a normal game?

The whole appeal behind CoH, for me at least, was that I was a super hero. I could defeat huge amounts of enemies at one time because I was that bad ass. With these changes, there's nothing really heroic about heroes anymore. Tankers can only keep five enemies taunted? Can only damage ten at a time? When did the Hulk ever encounter 20 henchmen and say, "Ok, I better come up with a plan so I can split these guys in half, because there's no way my whirlwind-smash-attack will damage them all at the same time..." Good job totally losing sight of your vision Cryptic.

The changes to pets I don't mind so much. When controllers were able to summon as many pets as they could, it was way out of balance. Sure, it was fun to watch a horde of fire imps destroy everything in their path, but that is a little insane. So fine, make it so you can only have one summoned pet (in the case of imps, 3) out at once. They still need to be compensated elsewhere, such as buffing the pets total hp to make them a bit more sturdy.

I'm all for giving controllers more damage while enemies are held, it should've been that way since the beginning. However, the nerf to hold duration and recharge time is absolute bullshit. The name of the archetype is "Controller", yet Cryptic seems to be hell bent on eliminating control. It's a pity really, I thought crowd control was very well handled in CoH. The system was something I wish more games would've adopted, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Wow, I 100% agree with you for once. Want to hear something outrageous? Regen scrappers are complaining about this line:

"Changed Regeneration/Instant Healing from a Toggle Power to a Click power."

Supposedly on test, they are saying that this has a recharge timer of 500 seconds and works for 60 secs. So a regen scrappers only way of defending himself only works 20% of the time. The rest of the time they are as squishy as a blaster. I remember what the game was like before I got instant healing. Lots of debt. After I earned level 28, my regen scrapper was probably second in survivability to invulnerability.

What the hell are they thinking? More and more data from test shows that the numbers are worse than the above verbiage.

[Nevergone]

As I understand scrappers, they're supposed to be the optimum solo archetype. I don't think a solo archetype should ever really compete with tankers for the role of a viable tank, and I think that Cryptic stupidly went about balancing that fact through the wrong means. They decided, very early on, that while scrappers are able to be very near the survivability of a tanker, they can't taunt for crap. They get a single target, resistable taunt, along with power pools if they decide to take them.

In my opinion, it should've been reversed. They should be really good at acquiring aggro, but they shouldn't come anywhere near the defense ratings of a tanker. To compensate, they should have incredible melee damage, possibly even higher then they already possess. Deftly stabbing your opponent in the head with a katana should outright kill them in most cases, merely taking 40% of their health is not enough. They should still remain a great soloing archetype; hell their kill/hour rate should even be raised a bit, but they should always remain a cautious bunch. Think along the lines of a necromancer in EQ.

The fact of the matter is, scrappers are an odd archetype with their current design. They rely quite heavily on their secondary powerset when they should be like everyone else, reliant on their primary first and foremost.

[masteen]

What pisses me off, is that rather than just fixing MOB AI so that they won't stupidly follow you FORVER if you keep the correct range, they did ALL THIS SHIT. How the fuck is nerfing EVERY class in the game easier than adding a leash to the bad guys?

EDIT: I'm going off the assumption that these changes are to prevent the massive herding burners and other AOE classes have been doing.

[Zarcath]

CoH would be interesting a lot more interesting if you could loot different costumes/fluff to wear.

I'd reactivate right now if I could dress up like a pirate or panda, or a pirate panda.

[masteen]

Pirate is totally doable with the new pants added in the last patch.

[Arbuste]

Uh, the nerfs
I sometimes wanted to reactivate and have a couple weeks of fun with my Fire controller's imps... Mass imps was awesome.
It's too late for those changes... it will only piss off the people who are still playing and certainly not motivate anybody to reactivate. It's not a game where balance was really a problem in my opinion.

[Mkopec1]

But it will be once the PvP shit goes in.

Seriously, that game was never tuned for having good and evil and PvP, so obviously some changes need to happen to have any type of semblance of balance.

Look at woW and how carefully they are approaching itemization and upgrades. Do you think that if Wow was not 1/2 PvP you would be seeing this type of careful consideration on lootz?