Tank armor - email to funcom
Here is the email I sent to Funcom concerning this issue (slightly edited to remove late night typo's)....
Tank armor is now useless for Enforcers. We cannot use 75% of the Challenger line of nano's while using tank armor, in addition to some other combat oriented programs. Buffing is also a nice 5 minute affair. Perhaps, I shouldn't over equip so much? Fair enough, but what about my combat specific nano's? Take Challenger to Gargantua for example. I worked hard raising my nano skills to use this program, as it is very useful for various reasons. It has an NCU cost of 509. Before the patch, I was able to cast it with a full nano pool, draining ALL of my nano. That was fine, I didn't mind paying an already huge penalty in nano costs for a fairly useful nano. Now however, I cannot even execute the program because there is no way I can get a 1018 pool. Enforcers are "tanks", tank armor is made for tanks... why should we be unable to use our most basic tools together?
The use of Enforcer nano's and tank armor together was perfectly suitable and caused no gameplay problems... ever. Tank armor is now at best a 3rd rate option to Senpai Coats and Nano Cloaks. WHY ON EARTH should a Nano Technician have better "class specific" armor than an Enforcer? Why should even a Martial Artist have vastly superior armor targeted for it to a class that has nothing going for it other than its ability to take damage for a group? Tank armor accomplished its "penalties" very effectively previously, without making it impossible to use nano's of the same QL as the character's cLvL. As of the 13.0 patch, I am stuck using a QL 20 Challenger nano, and a QL 47 Damage shield, or losing 500+ AC. That is totally unacceptable for someone of my level and my nano skill.
Furthermore, think about what this does to Enforcers using weapon type other than 2HB. The Challenger line of nano's is a great way to help 1HE and 2HE Enforcers over-equip weapons. Since there is no Headcracker or Brutal Thug for non-Blunt users, 1HE and 2HE Enforcers are punished for their weapon choice. 1HE and 2HE Enforcers must now choose between using far lower QL weapons than their 1HB and 2HB counterparts, or they must remove their tank armor to equip their weapons. Why is this a problem? Because once you equip your weapons, you cannot use pillows to get tank armor back on. 1HB and 2HB Enforcers can still get a large bonus to their weapon type without worrying about the loss of higher QL Challenger nano's. "Oops"... super nerf of 1HE and 2HE Enforcers created.
Think of what this does to the in game economy now as well. Coats already cost a huge amount. Now that tank armor is incredibly inferior to Coats, the prices of tank will drop to all time lows, and Coats that much more. Only players with high level character making twinks will be able to afford coats. That's a great why to alienate new customers. Imagine how a new player to the game is going to feel when they realize they have no chance of beating someone in PvP because they were unable to fork out 1 million credits for a Coat and had to use tank armor instead. Not good.
Fix for this? Obviously the easiest one is to restore tank armor to its former state, with the nano penalty, that still allows you to execute the program if you don't have an impossibly large nano pool. I suppose you could also give 1HE and 2HE Enforcers the same Brutal Thug and Headcracker buffs that the Blunt crowd has (Why don't 1HE and 2HE buffs exsist anyway....?).
In closing, I have noticed a lot of people are unhappy about this and I think it is obviously an issue that needs to be considered in more depth. Please take the time to look at this issue with the time and thoroughness it deserves.
Thanks,
<insert name here>
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Anyway.. i received a response saying that the issue would indeed be looked at further, but that for now tank armor was "fixed". I have since removed my QL 125 Medium Tank armor and am running around in a QL 58 Coat. Pretty bum deal, especially for those of us that bought tank armor for our characters before we could use it. Guess that tank armor of QL 130-180 I have will sit in the bank until they change something.
I'm sure soldiers are suffering through the same unpleasant situation. Bummer for us...
This nerf was not needed...
I think the balance was good already without a need for this nerf or bug fix, whatever you want to call it.
My agent, soldier and enforcer who are using tank armor have maxed agility too so it is no problem me to switch to decus cloaks BUT IMHO it is stupid that everyone will look same and it hides the armor you are using etc.
Even now cloak would be better option for me but for RP reasons I have selected to use tank armor this far (and it looks better than decus) but in the future... I prolly just switch to decus if this is not changed back to way it was or something equal and yes, I can remove/equip my tank armor with my own buffs thank you BUT I simply do NOT have time to de-equip it when its time to use Mongo, Challenger or Mk shield. Those nanos are used as last ditch reserve when things start flying into fan.
Next time your NT dies because I didnt mongo... Well you know the reason why it happened. Have fun :)
Blah stupid ass "fix".
Zarch and bunch of other chars.
CPU Upgrades no good anyway...
Even if CPU upgrades were working properly.. what's the comp lit req on a -5% Upgrade? I think is something like 240. What's 5% really matter by the time you get to lvl 50 or whatever takes to get 240 comp lit? Your nano's already have a 400-500 (meaning 800-1000 with tank) nano cost. A 95% penality as it is now is nothing worth talking about either unfortunately.
-Gnada