NC Soft Downsizing

[Pilsbane]

I'm back to playing CoX again (bored with WoW, bored with EQ2, etc.). I'm having a lot of fun. The last time I had this much fun in an MMO was the first 4 months of WoW before it became farm Molten Core ad naseum.

I really enjoy Brutes in City of Villains. Brutes aren't tanks; they're tough melee damage-dealers, and I get the pleasure of knocking enemies all over the place. Mayhem missions add some variety to the missions available, breaking up the leveling grind a little. At the rate I'm playing CoV (~3 hours a day) I should be entertained for the rest of the summer at least.

[Dyscord]

Brutes are the greatest class in the history of MMO's. The highest dps in CoV, highest defense in CoV... I just stand in wonder as I rip though everything, an unstoppable juggernaught, and wonder. What the hell were the devs smoking when they designed this class. Then I remember how much fun it is, and happily go back to SMASHing things.

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by Pilsbane

I'm back to playing CoX again (bored with WoW, bored with EQ2, etc.). I'm having a lot of fun. The last time I had this much fun in an MMO was the first 4 months of WoW before it became farm Molten Core ad naseum.

I really enjoy Brutes in City of Villains. Brutes aren't tanks; they're tough melee damage-dealers, and I get the pleasure of knocking enemies all over the place. Mayhem missions add some variety to the missions available, breaking up the leveling grind a little. At the rate I'm playing CoV (~3 hours a day) I should be entertained for the rest of the summer at least.

A brute has a quandary. They don't do dmg til they get fury, but they get fury by being attacked. So it is our job to keep em alive enough til they get full fury, at which point they do more dmg than the rest of the group (at least mine does). I don't know, with my inv brute, I heavily slotted all defenses. He is able to tank, and it builds his fury up fast. I enjoy getting full fury, and two shotting everything. His attacks are one slotted for end reducers only. Brutes are pure fun, and I make sure I get a smashgasm weekly.

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by Dyscord

Brutes are the greatest class in the history of MMO's. The highest dps in CoV, highest defense in CoV... I just stand in wonder as I rip though everything, an unstoppable juggernaught, and wonder. What the hell were the devs smoking when they designed this class. Then I remember how much fun it is, and happily go back to SMASHing things.

Thing that pisses me off is that fury was an idea submitted to the devs way back before Cov was launched. It was an idea that was supposed to be for tanks. Statesman said they were going to do it, then a month later said it was too hard to do technically. Six months later, brutes have it. That's how much this team used to lie when States was running it. Every statement they made had some degree of lie. For awhile there, they could have given SOE a run for the money in the lie department.

[Tingteng]

Originally Posted by Dyscord

Brutes are the greatest class in the history of MMO's. The highest dps in CoV, highest defense in CoV... I just stand in wonder as I rip though everything, an unstoppable juggernaught, and wonder. What the hell were the devs smoking when they designed this class. Then I remember how much fun it is, and happily go back to SMASHing things.

If the remaining devs at NCsoft see your post they'll be sure to "fix" your class

/cough Fire tanks
/cough Devices Blasters
/cough fill in the blank because they nerfed me and I said ok bye

[Iannis]

A brute is like a scrapper before they lost the tanker resistance cap. Early scrapper was SMASH!
Resub'd my Villain account to check out issue 7. I like being a stalker. Being able to plan my criticals really makes me happy. Every time my scrapper pulled a crit off on a mob that was at 5% hp I got annoyed.

The Radio and the Television are probably the greatest contacts CoV will ever have. You hear secret messages from them that no one else does.

It really started to seem like statesman would've been happier making a card game rather than an online game, though. I got sooo pissed off when they finally admitted the out of combat skills system was never going to happen after Emmert had been talking it up for so long in interviews and forum postings. On paper it probably worked fine, but then they realized they couldn't get it to work in reality. You'd also get powers which seemed great in theory but awful in reality.

[BirgittePovar]

Especially with the advent of Bodyguard, Masterminds are the best defensive class in CoV, they trump Brutes by a good margin.

Stalkers kill single targets faster than Brutes.

Corruptors kill groups faster than Brutes, and have some sick buffs.

Dominators need help.

This is why Brutes don't get nerfed. They are well rounded, but not overpowered in any way.

Poor Dominators (and even at high levels Dominators can do some impressive things. Pets/Mass Confuse help them immensely).

[Pilsbane]

I found mastermind to be a very powerful class, but a combination of pets getting hung up on terrain and having to resummon/rebuff every single time I changed zones made me go back to my smashing brute in a hurry. I just smile when I punch, air superiority, and haymaker to pop the enemy up and down while taking zero damage and then turn to knockout blow one shot the mob next to him (who also flies up in the air in the process). I actually feel mighty. I feel like a superhero(villian) not dwarf warrior_9274892374239.

[Pren]

Originally Posted by Iannis

It really started to seem like statesman would've been happier making a card game rather than an online game, though. I got sooo pissed off when they finally admitted the out of combat skills system was never going to happen after Emmert had been talking it up for so long in interviews and forum postings. On paper it probably worked fine, but then they realized they couldn't get it to work in reality. You'd also get powers which seemed great in theory but awful in reality.

What did it turn out to be?

[llaph]

Stone/Stone Brute + Ice/Kin Corruptor = massive destruction.

Stone brutes are crazy tanks. Herding is massive fun too.
20 or so mobs + fulcrum shift + soul drain (patron power) + blizzard, then pop a blue + aim + transference = lol!

[ilian]

Not a single developer was laid off. It was all customer support/QA

[Iannis]

Originally Posted by Pren

What did it turn out to be?

Supposedly the half-assed salvage system that you use in bases to construct stuff is one of the parts of the OoCSS that they managed to work in and they're going to be revisiting the university campuses that they stuck around and turn those buildings into something "soon".

[Cantatus]

They are blaming the declining subscriber numbers for City of Heroes/COV which has slowly dropped to just over 100k total.

I don't see how that could be even remotely true. NCSoft regularly publishes their subscription numbers. The last time they did was in May for Quarter 1 of 06 (since Quarter 2 is just ending.) At that time, CoH had 182,000 subscribers worldwide. So unless CoH has dropped ~80k subscribers in just three months, their information is highly inaccurate.

[Iannis]

It could meaning declining subscriptions in the NA audience. CoH also launched in Europe and Korea..eh. Dunno.

[Magnum PI]

Originally Posted by ilian

Not a single developer was laid off. It was all customer support/QA

MMO's are all about margins and volume. If an MMO can keep the lion's share of its subscribers paying they don't have to give a fuck about the minority who complains. Even at 100K subscribers if they cut salary overhead they can walk away with a nice profit. Again, it's about making enough money to pay for that house, car, hot wife and the 2 to 3 rugrats and be able to retire in 10 years. All of that can be done without people staff CS; they can use the forum boards to find out what people want. Live CS has no place in an MMO.