The Glory (and Menace) of Armories

Don't get me wrong - I'm over-the-moon excited about Armories.

But I'm also not exaggerating when I say it's going to change the way the game is played. And any time there are huge changes in the system, there are always going to be opportunities for exploitation.

Since I'm a PS player, I'm not going to have access to the Test Servers (or even the Test Forums) once Armories are ready. These are the kinds of things I won't be able to test myself ... so I figured that since I have to rely on the PC players, I'd get my list of concerns in early.

No trinket.

It's going to be accessed by depressing the L2 & R2 buttons at the same time and then using the D-Pad (for those using a controller).

Trust me, I am too. Beyond excited for the same reasons.

And another thing I've been thinking:

Since they seem to be so very insistent on getting Armories in before DLC9, are the devs designing content with Armories in mind for War of the Light and future DLCs?

I'm thinking situations like the 'split' in FOS2 ...

Oh the chaos this is gonna cause. Hopefully we have a much better understanding of this in the coming weeks ahead of this being launched..

Maybe by in combat they mean in the instance and not while actively engaged in a fight. So after a mid boss you can switch but not during.

The reason I say this cuz if you can change mid combat then the entire game will be broken and unbalanced. Both PvP and pve

I did mention in my own thread *coughIwasfirstcough* that it opens up content that can actually create a challenge and not be just the same burn based simulated challenges. That there can be content that creates unification of all roles and powersets if this fully goes through like I think it will. And since it is a free GU, you wont have to rely on buying a single DLC to use it. (Unlike utility belts.) So they can use it for the basis of all future content. The only thing that would of an issue is premium players that wont want to buy a second slot. Which makes me think they should give 2 free to premium/legendary, not 1 (which would be just for f2p.) So not to hinder themselves (the devs) from fully utilizing this gameplay that is opening up.

I hope they change the in combat thing as well...Seems like it would cause too many problems/imbalances

Is it really? I was hoping it would have to be accessed through a menu rather than a quick change thing...I just hope it cant be used for clipping

If this was a mistake, the devs have at least learned from it. No more PvP lockouts after GU32.

I know they're fixing it, but that's precisely my point. Bad decision making is becoming a trend and cleaning it up doesn't undo damage done in most situations in this game or in life. It doesn't change the fact that soe clearly makes decisions that they don't even seem to know will negatively affect their playerbase. It's an odd disconnect. I know you may be the biggest fan of this game on these boards, so ill not try to sway you. The fact remains, most aren't as easily pleased as you, and most people you knew at launch are hardly as enthusiastic as you are.

I'm looking for proactive climate control, not reactive damage control. I'm looking at it from a business perspective, not as just a customer.

Not to mention there is a lot I can put up with, and usually hate when people say things like I said "ill probably walk away, etc". I play thru the bugs and now the ps4 bugs and I have a good time. But I can see in combat armory swaps ruining this game for tons of people and adding to the leetism in a bad way. I'm hopin soe is wise enough to limit in combat changes to weapons only, and adding massive cool downs that can't be worked around by relogging (since relogging on ps4 takes about 15 seconds.)

If they let you swap mid combat they might as well just scrap their PVP changes, it'll be worse than HT ever was. There is no good reason you need to swap all that stuff mid combat.

They might lock this feature out of PvP Arenas. Though I can see use of it on both fronts. Of course, our forums are good at being up in arms in everything.

I hope they just lock it out of pvp arenas. I can see situations where it being useful to change stances while in combat in PvE content. If that is the intent of the feature, I'd hate to see it scrapped and made a little less handy because of the complaints of some PvP players.

To be honest, I've already been doing #2 and #3... I've been switching roles, telling my partner to go ahead and let me know what roles are there, if I'm out of combat, I throw PoT, etc.

But the biggest issue you've brought up is you can do the armory role/gear/style swap IN COMBAT?

And if my partner feels tankish or can heal, I use more PvE gear and just rip them to shreds.

Guess I'm a hipster lol. Doing those things before they were cool!

But seriously devs, get it together. We can't swap ROLES in combat. Why are we going to be able to swap EVERYTHING in combat now?

I don't think armories will let you change roles, just loadouts. Changing only loadouts in PvP will be a little bit less unfair than starting to change roles to:
1. Damage you almost to death, then, if needed, change to healer and heal self.
2. Go into the fight, throw power over time, DPS for a while, switch to troller again to throw another PoT, re-DPS...
3. Tank? Seems the least unbalancing from the 3 support roles.

YES!
F2P get 1 armory to test for free
Premium get 2 for free to dual spec for both roles... or for PvP and PvE gear... ranged/melee... or buy more
Legendary get 3, to let the real fun begin, with the ability to buy more...

Thinking out loud, and selfishly, I wonder what this will do for controllers. Will the second controller now have to DPS until the first troll drops? Will Primary trollers now be frozen out unless they have 2100 vit?

Should be interesting.

And why would anyone think you could swap powers?

Switching mid battle in theory sounds potentially game breaking but I'm almost positive there will be a set of restrictions placed around it. Or at least I'm hoping.