Game Update 36 and Balancing DCUO

Quantum and Electricity would like to be able to jump into that statement please.

*Edit* Can Quantum get a W.I.P Thread? like prettty please?

Okay, had some time to relax and think. I've been sick home and just meh for a couple of days.

I want to believe what the devs are doing is right, but I'm so confused right now it's rediculous.

My questions are:

If the 3 that is said to be in the top catagory are amazing, why didn't you wait until you could add the special mechanic to the powers that could actually compete with them instead of doing the normalization? I understand that it takes time to create balance, but what you are doing is creating this massive hole that keeps players from being on equal terms. I doubt it is to sell respect tokens and/or WM. It just seems like you put way too much work into something that should have been developed before implimenting.

Timeframes? Can we have a timeframe please? A lot of people look at the last two years and see how long it took for things to come out. A lot of people will see this as another thing that will just push things back. We all know what the PS4 did last year and don't want that again. Lack of content is the biggest thing for us, combat balance is secondary. If I have half the content but now can compete on the same level as the next guy, that kills replayability. Sure, I wont feel inferior, but now I have nothing else to do.

What kind of special mechanics are we thinking about adding per powerset? Mepps said they aren't necessarily going to be Precision based combos. But the ones listed in the OP are ONLY those types. So can we possibly get the ideas of these changes/additions? This is quite a big step for the game, but it just seems like way too much on the plate and again, don't want the PS4 thing to happen again.

Thank you.

From what I can see people are misunderstanding what the Devs mean by difficult or challenging powersets.
What they mean (from my readings) is that powerdets which do not have 'fire and forget' powers are potentialy stronger overall to make up for the extra time/inputs required. It is an extension of the mechanics in the game already where powers with longer animations hit harder and oft-times can be interupted somehow.

Yes, and those 3 have many vulnerable to interrupts and blocks such as Rage and HL, Celestial is just slow with it's channeling phase that is easy to CC and just make them waste power for little damage... Chances are Weapon Mastery will make the "fire and forget" powers better and safer than those 3 anyways

So is it safe to say that since you all feel HL is still at the awesome level that Earth will have its balance pass first since it is a power that should be "awesome" but currently is far from it?Wink once if yes. Wink two times if yes.

BB wrote what I was thinking (questions #1 and #3 above), so I'm taking the lazy way out and quoting him

I'm looking at that chart and I can't help but think that it confirms what many have suspected that Clipping was 'balanced' so that WM would be the best option.

So things aren't balanced right now and they still won't be balanced after gu36 and the next DLC. Only difference now is that we'll be working with a slower, clunkier combat flow. Meh, very disappointing.

Only good news out of this is that the non DLC powers will be getting an upgrade, bad news is that it will take a while.

I'm not misunderstanding that portion of it. What doesn't make sense is how irrelevant that is to the rest of the power sets. Just because certain power types are more vulnerable because they lean heavy on one rotation doesn't make them any riskier than the others and do not warrant any handicaps. If those rotations are so easy to disrupt then the player using them might want to change up their loadouts when it's not working out so well.

This is poor investigative technique. What you are doing is selecting a predetermined outcome and looking for only the data that will support your chosen outcome. What GOOD researchers do is analyze the DATA and let it then show all likeliest conclusions. Spytle and Tunso don't need you to show them the way when they have access to all the data from Testing and Internal sampling.

Photon blast is one of the best ranged attacks in game isn't it? Napalm Grenade is also a decent ranged option. Both are 50% damage modifiers and NG also sets up a Burning PI. Granted, Fear gas and Cryofoam could use range increases.

Their testing is only as good as their testing methodology. The data could easily be skewed in the favor that they are wishing as well. All im asking for some transparency, because whatever theyre claiming is truly not matching my actual in-game experience. theoretical means nothing if its not matching up with real world.

Naw but them suggesting what they are using could be used to confirm their thoughts. They don't have to provide their evidence, but many will continue to not believe them as they can't find anything that matches what they say. Good experiments are repeatable. If they are right and they share some info the players should find the same results.

I always had faith that U36 was just the first step in a long process, but it sure is nice to see some of the specifics of the road ahead.

I'm very much looking forward to what you have planned for both the DPS and the Controller sides of Mental and I'm patient enough to wait until you get it right.

Well, here's my two cents.
Weapon Mastery is a scam to get players to spend real $ on getting enough skill-points on alts so that they are able to perform tasks that were once accomplished by clipping. I left for quite a while when "Home Turf" came out because I thought it was incredibly stupid, and a sham to get players to spend real $ on things like the, "bunker" style base.
Since I've returned, I've noticed that elec is very slow and clunky compared to what is used to be. I wondered why this was...until I read up on what weapon mastery is, and how it will work. My main has 108 sp, not the most, but not the least either. I like the innates, I like the bonuses they give. why in hell take away clipping and force us into weapon mastery? Money, that's why.
Well, I have been legendary for many years now, but that's changing now due to these types of changes. I will still play the game, but I will not be spending the big bucks on it anymore. $45 per three months is allot to pay for changes I don't like. However, when I first started playing I thought it was a deal. Oh well, I'm voting with my dollars, and my vote says these new changes suck.
jmho, now bring on the hate!

Spord - This was my thinking as well. So jumping WAY ahead (and most likely incorrectly) at first blush this just means any Powerset with the strongest/fastest DOTs will become Top DPS after weapon combos become fully realized.

I'm sure i'm wrong. But if you could address that theory it might help the community understand the final goals in balance in DCUO.

-Zurr

How so? almost all of Rage's moves are either vulnerable to interrupt or block. Half of HL's moves are also vulnerable to block and Celestial relies on taking a very long time to cast their powers due to the channeling phase where they can be CCed and effect their damage out. Any of those Vulnerabilities affect the damage out greatly. Instant cast powers do not have this risk of this

Rage and Celestial can not change their loadout to fix this problem, that is just the risk you take when playing those classes. It would be very unfair for those classes to have all that risk, yet do the same damage as instant cast powers who have no vulnerabilities and whose abilities cast in less than half the time . It's all risk vs reward no matter how you put it

Nothing has really changed in terms of balancing. We already knew the process would be long. So why are we as a player base fretting about how long will it take. As long as it is within the year. I am fine. ideally, I would like the core balancing to be done by summers end or before. I would like the new power mechanics to at least be implemented in the fall.

I have a question about the overall balance more than anything.

After you guys finish off this first part of balancing(Animations,JCing,Splitting) whats the next step for us?

You have the WiP powers on the table already, so when can we expect to give feedback on the next step of it all?

The "risk" is that by having to combo powers you are potentially less able to react to a block, interrupt or boss tell. Additionally combos can be missed if they are poorly timed or incorrectly applied.

So risk is probably a bit of a stretch more what I think they are saying is that you aren't guaranteed to complete the combination that would normally make these powers more advantageous.

If Nature isn't Top 3, it's such a close 4th that you might want to start talking Top 4.