GU50: Are Elec, Light and Nature being shafted?

I have this growing concern that elec, light and nature are going to come out of this update wanting for balance, and I hope I can draw some attention back to those powers. Generally the test-to-live cycle runs about three weeks give or take a few days. I'm concerned that under a three week cycle elec, light and nature may not be adequately tested.

The initial builds for all three of these powers' buffs in this update turned up weak in comparison to what other recently updated powers can do. I'd point you to the respective feedback testing threads for those numbers. Personally I tested light and found considerable imbalances. A lot of folks put in some extra time last weekend to get good tests results in front of the Dev team Monday morning knowing that time is a factor. Well, to date, no action has been announced on those numbers. The HL thread specifically hasn't even had a developer comment in it other than the original one-line, vague post. Meanwhile we've shown that the numbers are off and raised questions as to whether some parts of the AM are working properly.

Next week, I'd hazard a guess that after the holiday weekend any update in the week will come later than sooner, which may mean again that we'll have another round of testing and questions raised over the weekend, with fixes maybe to come before the GU goes live, maybe not.

Personally I'm just concerned. Some of us have been holding out for awhile for these powers to get brought in line. I can honestly say that, after three-plus years with the game, I'm getting to the point where I'm looking at other titles and if I can't play the power I want to play and have it perform as well as any other power generally, then I'm ready to move on and take the hundreds of dollars I spend ever year on this game with me. Really, it's been more than a year since GU36. Fix the powers already please.

Well said Mighty... And yeah, Mepps did mention briefly somewhere recently that various Devs were going to be out this past week. I'm going to assume, like yourself, that it is for the holidays.

They have been putting some work in on the powers overlapping section, and there was another mention by a Dev that, that was their priority at the moment. I'm hoping that they hit the road running come Monday though, because you're right that a lot of players have put in a lot of time to make sure they don't get short sighted with the last of the powers they plan on "balancing".

This, and considering they decided to add the Removal of Counter Immunity in PvP into the same update... Maybe we get lucky and they don't hurry the release of the update, knowing they were not able to work it all out with the players very well in the first week of its release.

A lot of people are on vacation so changes have been slow. They also said fixing the stacking is priority over buffing damage when necessary. I forsee this update not going out for at least a week and change. They have a small team so more than one person being on vacation is probably crippling.

I would rather gu50 stay on test for much longer. GU50 has a lot to it and a lot to test. Hopefully they give us ample time to continue testing before it goes live.

I let my subscription lapse because some powers i just don't like, and i hate having to play power musical chairs to be decent in content. If i loose in dps, i want it to be because the other player was better skilled, not because of his power choice.

Saying that i believe the devs will boost up the revamp powers in a test server hotfix next week

Just to clarify, I'm totally fine with taking an extra week to get these powers right and balanced. My concern is that the pvp changes foreshadow more on the horizon and a bigger project in the works which may push the release on GU50 to the regular three-week timetable. My hope is that we either get a good fix next week, test it and find the powers good to go, or we take an extra week to fine-tune things given that the power stacking project is a bigger fix and the powers touched with it in the update deserve their fair consideration.

I'm pretty sure they'll get to it, I know a few are out so its possible they've been missing key members this week/weekend.

I think Elec and Hardlight should be much easier to balance and really only require quick fixes for now.

Nature seems complicated to work with from all the feedback I've read and I could see that taking up the most time. Just from a damage perspective, they need to balance the power around 2 form changes, DoTs, some semblance of Burst for short term encounters, and using a WM or clipping rotation.

Most powers are much easier to streamline compared to that.

I know i might be alone with this, but i think the devs should buff weapons more. When SK was being used i had fun on my elec/nature/sorcery/earth toon. Weapons buff imo will balance the game right out. Buff elec/nature up a little more, take hl to ice/mental/quantum/gadget level, and give wm and hold clip combos a buff, imo this will balance out pve. Don't know how strong cele is

What makes me mad is the ONE person that goes into the threads and says the powers are working perfectly when there are multiple pages saying otherwise with facts and numbers.

I've been following the test forums closely and chatting with some people testing. I think you guys are doing a great job telling the devs about the problems you see. I really hope the devs end up listening to you guys.

They really need to wait with this update and fix things properly. I really don't want a bunch of HL updates like the ones after the first AM. I don't know who they talked to about powerback am for hl the first time but that person/s never played HL. 65 pages of actual HL players suggestions went down the drain that time.

Same goes for Electric and Nature.

Keep up the good work.

I don't want to use my weapon.

Why is everyone against weapons now?

Powers should always hit harder than weapons, no one builds a two handed alt

I kinda feel the same way. I've heard people say they have some guys out on vacation and things like that and that's cool I just really hope that when they get back they put the time in and listen to the feedback we have all given and do these powers justice. I also feel the power updates and HoTs and DoTs not overriding should have been two different updates. The main focus should have been the power rebalancing. When you try and do to much things get rushed and or not tested correctly.

Some of us are really looking forward to this power update cause the powers we love just don't cut it in high end content and things like survival mode. there is nothing I would like more then to beable to play the power I love so I really hope this turns out good. Don't let us down DC.

Exactly ! I'm very concerned That HL won't compete with other AM when it goes live , I have been waiting for this update forever yet I'm very disappointed

Wer not against weapons

Look at HL for ex, we use WEAPONS as constructs , so we don't need to use our wm.... All am hoping that one day I'll be able to dps with HL without using my WM yet still can compete

There's no point in campaigning for balance, in my opinion. The cycle of nerfing and buffing powers will never end. It's one of the main ways they make money (power tokens). I mean, the game has been out for over 4 years. They're still trying to balance powers? Is it really that difficult?

Yes, I know they have released WM, AM etc, which impacts the balance between powers. It's all part of their hustle though, imo.

Earth says hello.

Remember when WM just hit the game........

A lot of people was complaining about WM said and I quote here "My weapon actually hit harder than my power.... we are SUPER HEROES, why would we need weapon to does a lot of damage"

Then we got introduced to AM because of those complaints.....remember?

Not every powerset should be 100% play from the ability tray. Diversity is a good thing. If you're a Nature player that doesn't want to use a weapon, switch to a power that is already like that. I love that Nature AM has a weapon aspect (even though the powerset balance is complicated by weapon imbalance).

Electric and nature should be your choice ! You will get about the same result with or without weapon a tad better with weapon ! Now hard light shouldn't need a weapon your a green lateen they construct there own weapons ! I'm just not happy, this isn't a great sign let's say they buff hard light , electric and nature to match ice , fire and gadgets ! And they say there done with balance .We're still back at square one ! ice and fire are doing 30 k plus on 8 targets at cr 126 and then mental , quantum, munition and rage are around 28 k Now earth and Sorcey are bottom again around 24 k . We're going in circles ice , fire and gadgets should of been brought in line with mental , quantum and munition then electric ,nature and hard light . Then we all be pushing for them to be about 28k wow this is all confusing and I seen when we all tested ice and fire we we're saying it's doing more then quantum and mental and it still went live and earth and sorcery we we're told they will come back and it wasn't done and ready now it looks to be the worst again all said and done !

I know I said a lot but this is the merry go round we're in

I hope and believe they can get it right and soon !
Let's hope my guy feeling is right