Game Update 36 and Balancing DCUO

You put it well Spytle and I understand what you are saying but I've lost all faith in you guys at this point. You destroyed a fluid combat system that promoted players to push themselves to the extreme in the name of balance yet there will be no balance achieved from the GU that you did this in. It will be achieved with following updates that will "be a while" hinting towards months of work while the game is Live. You guys should have never went down this path until everything was ready.

I was hesitant about letting my sub expire in May because I truly do love this game but I will at this point. Not saying "I quit" DCUO but I will be taking an extended break and not supporting you all until this "balance pass" is finished. Maybe in 6-8 months you all might have it worked out and everything will be grand. But until then I will focus my support and finances elsewhere. With that I promise you, since I won't have a stake in this discussion anymore, I will refrain from posting anything in any of the Testing Feedback section directed towards the "balance pass".

You are rewarded for being melee... You get to use melee moves which btw are clippable so there is another reward.

I went back and reread and found what I missed earlier. Thanks though.

Mepps do you think you guys could elaborate a bit more on what exactly are those mechanics? I assume you mean the combos (and earth's aftershocks) right?

Does this mean that you plan to buff HL's chained combos so as to make them more desirable over the jump cancelling combos which apparently weren't originally inteneded? That's the only thing i can think of that would make HL post GU36 remain a top 3 power. Without JC light is very slow and it hits like a feather pillow. I assume you guys will at least improve dmg even if the speed is lost forever

Some powers that are already lesser powers are getting nerfed i don't know how that is balance?? I've been on test everyday trying things out and 2 powers really stand out and are going to be far better than light, celest or rage ever were compared to everything else. So how is whats going on balancing the powers??

I just hope your master plan works out in the end. I'll def be looking forward to testing it.

I'm lost, nothing in this update is making sense anymore. I can't grasp what's particularly risky about using those 3 powers, you can interrupt anything with a cc effect so that logic is flawed.

Alright, I'll just say it. It looks like the devs are simply playing favorites with the powers at this time because any dramatic changes to the powers that need it most will cause a greater stink because those are the power sets that make up the bulk of the community.

It basically comes down to you not being able to do two things at once. If you are doing a weapon mastery combo then at that same time you can't be doing a power combo from Rage, Light, or Celestial and therefore only get the benefits of one of them during that time frame.

missquote

You don't see the problem here? Allowing certain powers advantages unavailable to the rest has been everyones beef all along and now you're just magnifying it 10 fold.

How strong will these weapon mastery combos be?

From watching the preview, the combos seem to take a while, and even a celestial can hit retribution to wither at least twice before the weapon mastery combo can finish.

So I was COMPLETELY and UTTERLY RIGHT when I said Fire needed a W.I.P.?

How else are we going to brainstorm this new power mechanic?

I really think that the game in already balanced except for earth and electricity....even though some powers now can jump clip and front load some damage....hard light doesn't have any power interactions so the speed and jump clipping help them keep up with other powers....gadgets has fear gas that they can jump clip and photon blast as well as all there power interactions that help them keep up with other powers.....nature u can't jump clip anything but there dots and carnage as well as there burst damage updated moves really make them keep up with other powers....celestial has there 2 awesome combos...plague into divine light and retribution whither combo that make them keep up with other powers....mental has all there dots and a great 35 or below power as well as power interactions that help them keep up with other powers.....quantum has a lot of burst damage and power interactions as well as a good 35 or below move to keep up with other good powers....fire and ice are slower but have 60 percent move and heavy aoe damage as well as a good 35 below move and good power interactions to keep up with other powers....the problem with fire and ice sometimes is if the adds die before u get of ur frost blast or mass det ur damage will suffer....but still are great powers....all these powers are already pretty much balanced....all have different things to make them good DPS powers and all are really unique....the problem is that electricity and earth...all they need are better power interactions or more power interactions and some buffs to some of there powers....I think that people think there is imbalance in the powers cause u don't know how to use the powers to there full potential and really haven't mastered them....some powers are easier than others to master and that's why I think a lot of people aren't really playing fire ice mental and quantum on the DPS side....while rage celestial are easiest to master and a lot of people play them....for hard light this power is unique in itself....the faster u can jump clip and combo the better ur gonna be since there are no power interactions and they don't have a good 35 or below.....with all this being said I do understand that u can balance all the powers like u are spytle but I think a lot of the players like the gameplay the way it is now....like the jump clipping...and like the fast paced and unique way each other powers can be mastered....if u get rid of jump canceling and slow down and speed up all the powers from all the powersets it gets rid of the uniqueness of the powersets and kinda dulls things and slow the fast paced damage that we all like to do....well...I love the game spytle and have been playing since day 1...and have never played a game better than dcuo in my life....I give u guys a hard time a lot...but I'm just really passionate about the game and put a lot of time money and effort into the game....I just think that u guys need to make all these changes to every power in the game to achieve balance....I think they are already balanced...except for earth and electricity obviously....I think u guys could achieve balance through what ur doing but it's gonna take a long time and a lot of work and a lot patches....I'm my opinion all u really need to do is revamp earth and electricity and make them up to par with the others like u revamped sorcery and nature recently....that was a great revamp and really put sorcery and nature up there with the other powers....finally I think that the precision based mods and might based mods should be adjusted...if u buff the might mods just a little bit I think that we will have even more balance....thanks for listining to this long rant and I hope that everything works out with the balancing and weapon mastery in the end....

What about using powers that combo?

For example - if I do a weapon mastery combo and decide to use Outrage at the end of it, will I be able to combo it into the precision based second hit and if so, will that second hit still get the critical buff?

Great post! IMO all powers but earth and electric were all around the same lvl dps wise. Some could have just use tiny buffs here and there and they would have been great and then a revamp to earth and electric would have brought up those to powers to par. But then the devs decided to listen to the bad players on the forums and have gotten them selves in so deep changing everything in the game basically when there could have been a few buffs and it would have been over by now.

Devs stop listing to the forums so much and go out and play the game. don't take peoples words for it, learn it and experience it for yourself. Most people on here are so biased you will never get any good feedback and you'll just dig yourselves in a hole like you currently are. You need a whole different panel of people to bounce ideas off cause the people you guys take advice from now are just yes men or bad players. All this balance could have been achieved already if you just listened to the rite people or played the game as much as some of us did.

Can you guys patch up the test server version in where HL is awesome. I still can't combo minigun and the animations doesn't match the dovetails

So... will someone explain to me why Earth is suppose to be on "Awesome" level execution yet its probably the single worst DPS in the game?

Does that imply that this wasn't always the initial view of power balances and that it is a fairly recent strategy?

I like it though btw. Nice

This is kinda how I feel....it's gonna be a long process to achieve balance and I don't really know if I want to go through all the hardships....I too will stop with all my balance rants on the forums as I got my final rant out a couple of minutes ago....I hope I find the game fun while going through these long balancing patches....cause I love the game and still don't want to find another game and I've been playing 3 straight years...

As it seemed to me, WM is not likely to benefit Celestial, Rage, and HL as much as the others. Reason being, the buffs will only apply to the might portion of combos and the WM mechanic itself is a combo system which is not likely to flow well with another combo system. So, I think the other powersets will be able to utilize it better.