Another informative post at COH:
I'd like to open the discussion about the lower levels. You know the levels this patch was aimed at? I understand there are problems with Rikti swords and Terra Volta Respec Trial, but this patch has really hurt the low level game.It darn near eliminated soloing missions as well.
Trolls - Lots of Super Strength / Stone Melee Powers. So much so that Buckshot and Gunner mobs don't even use the weapon anymore. These guys IMO are the most balanced of the villain power additions. Tough but Survivable.
Outcasts - Whoa, these can ruin your day. Why give them so many powers? What was the point?
Shockers
Now have a Debuff (whirlwind) and O2 Boost? Why? First the debuff is a killer, because while a "ranged" architype they hover and park themselves over the top of the melee and turn it into a whiff fest. And every hit you do land, they heal anyway. They are actually more difficult now than the Tsoo Sorcerer.
Bricks
They get stone armor, fine. No real issues here.
Cooler
Nice to see some Ice Melee mobs. No big deal.
Torch / Scorcher
Park themselves outside of melee and rain Flares until the cows come home. Annoying but survivable as a melee.
Outcast Base Missions - Hollows
Really freakin difficult, but survivable up until the bosses. Why does "Electric Eel" have a sleep that he can attack you through without you waking up? The bosses regen health pretty quick too, too quick. I spent a full tray of inspirations against him got to 1/3 health, and no end. THat was with run and rest tactics. Even as a tanker he has a melee attack that hits for 105 with Fire Shield fully slotted Green DO's. You need to fix these missions.
Tsoo
Too many caltrops. And how come I can toss caltrops with my Fire/Dev blaster at mobs and while they run around for a few seconds get to jump out of it? My tanker or scrapper wasn't able to leap at all when they used them on me? Definitely a good for the goose should be good for the gander here.
Missions In general
They are way too difficult now. I did "unlucky pete" mission. Survived it barely but took 1.5 hours? As a casual gamer I rarely have that much time to devote in a single sitting. They need to be adjusted. Seeing Unlucky Pete used to be a Front Loaded realtively easy/passable mission.
I just think a mid level casual gamer really got hurt by this patch. Taking away the soloing in a reasonable time frame where old missions took 15-30 minutes, and now can take upwards of an hour. Don't get me wrong I like the occassional group scenario, but most of my gaming time comes in short sections. I bought and play CoH based on the experience of jumping in for a quick few and actually accomplishing something meaningful to my character and hero concept. Now it doesn't seem like that will be as possible or plausible as it used to be.
Some of my characters (one with * are ones I examined the new patch with)
Fire/Ice Tanker - Lvl 14 - Justice*
MA/Regen Scrapper - Lvl18 - Pinnacle *
Emp/Rad Defender - lvl14 - Pinnacle
Fire/Fire Tanker - lvl20 - Pinnacle
Fire/Dev Balster - lvl30 - Pinnacle
Ice/Storm Controller - lvl 7 - Pinnacle*
BTW - HUGE Thanks for the MA changes. I was seriously impressed with the new animations.
