Scrappers Nerfed, Tankers get a little love

[eldaec]

A month or so back Statesman indicated he wanted to take a look over regen and possibly give it a 'small tweak', because internal playtesting had suggested there 'might be' a 'small concern'.

Short version:

 - Non-tanker resistence cap lowered from 90% to 75% (big effect on invul scrappers and Moment of Glory (Regen) users who will take up to 150% more damage)
 - Tanker damage increased 70% to 80%
 - Tanker primary Taunt replaced with an auto-hit Provoke (aoe taunt)
 - Latest Burn nerf reversed. Mobs can be taunted into ground targeted aoe powers once again.
 - Regen nerf: Integration (cc protection) will not work with Instant Healing (uber health regen), this effectively removes IH from the game past about lvl 35. Integration given undisclosed amount of health regen in compensation, regen players are in maximum whine mode - but still no solid numbers on how much the change will reduce regen rates by in practice.


Scrapper Regen and Invul can probably stand a nerf, how reasonable the regen nerf is depends entirely on the health regen added to Integration, the invul nerf seems to be pitched about right to me.

Here's a list of changes that came out of our Tanker playtesting. These will be going into the Training Room server shortly.

o Reduced Max Damage resistance of all archetypes except Tankers.

o Increased Tanker Damage.

o Changed Tanker Taunt to an AoE Taunt. Increased Recharge Time, and increased duration of taunt effect. Tanker Taunt is an Auto Hit and does not require a ToHit roll.

o Pool/Challenge no longer Auto hits. Gave it a 20% Accuracy Bonus.

o Slightly Reduced Accuracy of Provoke.

o Made all Tanker attack powers (secondary set) generate hate from all nearby foes. The more damage the power does, the greater the affected area. This effect does not kick in until after level 5, and slowly ramps up from there. The intent is to reduce a tanker’s reliance on Taunt powers, and encourage the use of attack powers to keep villains attention on them.

o Renamed Scrapper Taunt powers to “Confront” (This is a single targeted Taunt, so the name change is to differentiate it from Tanker Taunt). Scrapper “Confront” is an Auto Hit and does not require a ToHit roll.

o Reverted villain AI behavior towards Burn and Ignite. As before, they will be afraid of Burn and Ignite, but can be taunted back into it.

o Scrapper Integration and Instant Healing can no longer be used at the same time (they are now mutually exclusive). Instant Healings recharge time has been reduced from 60 seconds to 15 seconds. Integration now offers some increased Regeneration, and can accept Healing Enhancements.

o Moment of Glory now lasts longer (120 seconds). Additionally, resistance to Healing has been reduced, so you can now be healed more from healing powers (not 100%) while MoG is active. Regeneration rate will still be zero and will not increase with powers that boost HP regeneration rate. Also, fixed some gaps in MoG Mez protection.


Currently, Tankers have a 90% Resistance Cap. Scrappers will have a 75% cap. Tankers damage cap, which was at 70%, is now 80%. Scrapper damage remains at 100% (not including the criticals). The goal was to make Tankers as good in Resistance as Scrappers are at damage (and vice-versa). Playtesting has shown that these changes bring the Scrappers and Tankers into line with one another...

[HaemishM]

Sounds fine to me, and I am a scrapper. Just not a regen scrapper. I always felt that regen was probably a little better than it should be and was probably going to get nerfed in some way.

[kaid]

People are really whining about it on the boards but I would withold any real comment on the regen changes until people can see how things play out.

As for all the other changes they are all fine and should work out very well.

kaid

[ClydeJr]

I like the tanker love, especially changing the tanker taunt to an AoE. Alway thought it was silly that the best taunt was in a power pool. Really isn't that many other archetypes that would need an AoE taunt. Also like how every attack is its own AoE taunt.

[kaid]

Yup it never made any sense why to do their stated job they were required to take provoke which was a power pool power which should be weaker than their innate abilities.

Glad they are getting that changed.

kaid

[eldaec]

News from test server...

Regens with 6 slotted Integration have regen equivalent to unslotted IH.

Which is perfectly viable up until around lvl 40.

Moment of glory has been enhanced, to last longer and to allow healing (but not regeneration) while on. As CoH people will know, MoG reduces your HP to 10% of max, prevents regeneration, but significantly boosts reisistence, defence, and endurance.

So, regens in future will find 16-mid thirties easier, mid thirties-40 harder, and 40+ they turn into perma-MoG invul/SR hybrids.

[kaid]

Ah sounds pretty good so they took a bit of a nerfing but in the end the change is not that bad.

kaid

[eldaec]

Turned out the change made regens more uber than before.

PermaMoG (capped resists and capped defence) turned out to be overpowered. Who knew?

So they backed out the 'allow you to be healed under MoG' bit, and when they saw everyone simulateneously respec out of IH on test, they backed out the mutally-exclusive-with-Integration thing as well.

IH is now just slightly less powerful than it is on live.

Probably a better fix, though I was kinda looking forward to being an all powerful god without the need for fitness under the 'nerf' rules. ;)

Boards regen posters seem largely happy with the new arrangements.

Invul got an all new nerf though. They aren't happy.

Interesting times.

[Rodent]

Greatly looking forward to Issue 3, I can't wait to drop the presence pool and give my Fire Tanker my dream setup of Leaping, Speed, Fighting and Fitness.

Regen scrappers are still whining their asses off at the official forums even though the changes have proved to not be all that bad, and with the free christmas re-spec everyone will be able to build a good setup for the new changes.

[Llava]

Worth noting for those who didn't follow the Invuln changes:

The accuracy and defense bonuses to Invincibility were lowered, and the defense bonus was changed to "melee only".  So you can have 500 guys all standing in melee range, but if they used ranged attacks Invincibility won't do crap.  This isn't a bad change by itself.  Invincibility was a godlike power that required no slotting at all to reach amazing effectiveness.

Unyielding Stance had its root component removed and was renamed Unyielding.  To compensate for the uberness of resists and status protection all in one power, it now gives a defense penalty.  Unfortunately, they used the same guy who messed up the Smoke Grenade accuracy penalty so big.  The defense penalty was 50% or higher, meaning that anything that was a white minion or tougher had a 100% chance to hit against anyone using Unyielding.  That was a bug.  The defense penalty is supposed to be 5%.

Invuln scrappers are currently complaining because Statesman said that scrapper offense should equal tanker defense.  That is not currently the case.  However, given the vast amount of damage that tankers can avoid and absorb, to make scrapper damage actually equal would allow them to take out AVs without flinching (which some scrappers can already do).

In reality, things are good where they are.  Perhaps Regen needs some tweaking still, perhaps not.  I don't have enough experience with the set to say.  Invuln is still quite effective for scrappers, but not as good as it was (basically at 28 or 38, depending on build, Invuln Scrappers became tankers with way more damage).  Invuln works well for tankers still, but is no longer the "no-brainer" choice that it was.  Stone and Ice changes are still on the way.

[Rodent]

Stone and Ice changes are still on the way.

Ice tanks are reporting that their armors now stack on test, they can now happily join the crowd of tanks who do not have to choose between status-protection, defence or resistance.

I'm starting to get worried about my poor firetank though, since the changes to invuln everyone and their mother seems to be making a firetank.

[Llava]

Oh?  If Ice is stacking, does Dark Armor do the same?

[Shockeye]

Oh?  If Ice is stacking, does Dark Armor do the same?

Yes.