FupDup

Manticore literally has Stunning Shot (Stun) and Ice Arrow (Hold) equipped, but that noob forgot to use them. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/powerset.html?pset=v_freedomphalanx.manticore_rv

The thing is, these universal sets have a thematic tie-in with the events that grant them, as opposed to getting a random generic set piece in a regular story arc. I think giving them out in any random story arc would make this type of reward feel less special, but I could see it as an alternate reward choice at the end of something like SSA's or incarnate arcs.

First thing, I've seen someone else suggest the name "Warden" for an AT like this, so I think we should go with that to keep it separate from Rebirth's Guardians. Second, I think they should get an actual full melee set, not some assault/hybrid thing. Even though we're not using the name Paladin here, part of the point of the AT is to fulfill that very specific fantasy, so big weapon-based sets like TW, Baxe, etc. need to be usable on them. Ranged attacks can be saved for epic pools like the other 4 melee classes.

That indication is telling you that its -res debuff is inactive and is thus basically telling you to re-apply it.

In regards to Chilling Ray and other Sent snipe replacements (I'm counting Freeze Ray as a snipe here due to its uber damage and unlock tier), I made a spreadsheet to compare just how much each one of them lost: Chilling Ray lost the most compared to its Blaster counterpart, and by a pretty extreme margin. For reference, the majority of Sentinel attacks only have a 2.5% lower DPA than their Blaster counterparts (nukes and snipers being the main outliers, plus the stun attacks like Tesla Cage).

Adding a small bit of -res to each attack might start to step on the toes of Sonic Blast, especially after that set got revamped to have much lower -res than it used to. It also might end up dethroning Fire ammo as the go-to type. I don't think it would be overpowered in any way (no way it would come close to Fire Blast, let's be real here) but it would still feel kinda weird. I think there's better ways to go about making DP better. For a To-Hit bonus, maybe that could be lumped into the toxic bullet mode to give that ammo type some sort of extra niche. Sentinels already get a range bonus when using ice bullets, so adding some other global bonus to toxic probably isn't asking too much (also make Suppresive Fire deal the same damage with toxic as it currently does for ice bullets, there's no reason for it to be lower). As for lethal bullets, they could perhaps just increase the KD chance so it becomes a more reliable form of soft control (and for Sentinels, restore the old damage that Suppresive Fire used to have with lethal bullets because that nerf was really stupid).

Vanguard isn't limited to only fighting the Rikti. Their charter is to protect the Earth against any kind of extraterrestrial thread, which is usually the Rikti but not exclusively. They get involved against Praetoria a few times during the story arcs from MJ and/or Tina and they even get involved against the Banished/Mot during the Dream Doctor's arc.

I'm more concerned about that guy's electric bill and the heat generated by the computer being left on 24/7.

Extremely Soon(TM)

That fool Neuron didn't know what he had. Anti-Matter most definitely simped for the wrong woman.

I had issues with it not displaying by default, but you can go back into the costume editor post-creation to force it to show. It's pretty janky though with very massive clipping issues and weapon FX coming out from the center of the player model instead of the weapon barrel (I briefly tried AR/Shield). Hand blast sets seem to work okay with Shield, or at least a few Fire Blast powers did (I didn't test much).

I'm guessing that it's probably a design choice rather than a coding limitation, to limit how many different factors they had to consider while balancing the sets. In all three cases of stance-swapping sets, what we see is one stance typically being the best choice (Bio Offensive, DP Incendiary, Staff Body) so I fear that a 5th bullet type for DP (the default ammo counts as the 4th option) would probably wind up pretty similar. I'm guessing that its secondary effect would be sapping endurance, but the amount of sapping it does by itself would probably not be enough to bottom out an enemy to prevent them from doing stuff (unless you paired it with other sapping tools like Power Sink etc.). Electric Blast at least gets the Shocked effect to reward sapping but I doubt that it would be given to DP. That, and DP does already have Suppressive Fire as a tool to prevent enemy actions with the Hold effect. I get that it would be thematically kinda cool to lean into the sci-fi feel, especially with some of the new DP models that are futuristic looking, but that could also be solved by alternate FX for the regular ammo (which is probably about as likely to be added as a 5th ammo type). A really wild spin on this idea might be to change the default ammo to the taser type to make it a more viable (or at least cooler) option.

What base stats does it use, like for example if I choose an armor secondary do I get Stalker values or do I get the Brute caps? Does ranged primary use Blaster or Corr values, etc. Do they let you pick the inherent too, or is not having an inherent the price for that customization?

You can use Vanden's IO Set Designer Tool to help visualize new IO sets: Here's a new Sleep set that I just slapped together on a whim for demonstration purposes: I didn't think too hard while making it so maybe it's too strong or weak or whatever, it's just to break the ice.

30/70 is likely a bit too far, but definitely 60/40 at minimum (so that typed lethal defense still works against it, and they're still bullets after all so being mostly lethal makes sense).

There was a planned Gadgetry origin pool in the same vein as Sorcery, Experimentation, and Force of Will, but it never got finished by the time the game shut down. I'd like to see that pool get finished up (along with Utility Belt), perhaps making power substitutions if necessary for animation or w/e reasons.

The issue with new slots is that this would likely require a rebalancing of stuff like Advanced Mode, since that was designed with the current incarnate tiers in mind. I'd rather we get additional abilities within our existing slots, so that it's more of a horizontal power expansion than a vertical one. Stuff like a a Smashing/KD Interface, or Malta and DE Lores, a +Damage Destiny, etc. There's a lot of holes to be filled in just with the current slots. Beyond that, a potential oddball idea could be to add those "new" ability types like Genesis and such as alternate choices that compete inside existing slots. For example, I remember hearing that the originally planned Genesis slot was supposed to be a debuff patch, so maybe those powers could be added as alternate choices in the Destiny slot so there's a trade-off.

Perhaps as a replacement for Electric Armor's T9 power, which currently doesn't get much use because most of its resist bonuses are redundant and it practically kills you when it expires.

If by snappy, you mean that the second power's animation is cut shorter than usual, I have noticed a similar thing in several other powersets. I think it has something to do with the holstering system?

The issue is that redside has a lot of broker-gated contacts, which really cuts into the variety you can pick from if you don't go the paper route. I think a lot of them should just be opened up like the hero ones. There's a few special contacts like Veridian and such that have special badges/unlock conditions and those make sense to be exclusive, but more generic and mundane contacts really don't need that extra gate.

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I'm mostly on your side here but I have some nitpicks: Kuji gives DDR, which Nin is very much lacking in by default. Overload provides more DDR as well, and a max HP boost. One with the Shield gives max HP too. But then on the other hand, there's stuff like Power Surge and Unstoppable that are almost suicide buttons due to their 90% HP crashes and what they give it mostly already covered by the other powers in their respective sets.

If we include all types of procs, that adds the obvious Force Feedback proc to all KB powers but otherwise that's about it (Sudden Accel isn't really a "proc").

I'm referring to the non-snipe single target attacks like Power Burst and such. The ones I see are Apoc, Explosive Strike, and Gladiator's Javelin, and the only one of those unlocked by the KB category is Explosive Strike. The sniper attack gains an extra toxic proc, but so does every sniper attack in every set. The ranged AOE and PBAOE powers also gain more, but again those are available to every set. The one bonus damage proc that Energy Blast can slot that can't go into most other sets is Explosive Strike, unless I'm missing something.

In regards to procs, the only proc besides FFB that you can slot into Energy Blast is Explosive Strike: Chance for Smashing Damage. So that's 1 extra damage proc compared to sets like Arch or Fire that lack secondary effects (which are mostly limited to the PvP toxic proc and the unique Apocalypse proc, at least in their regular ST attacks). Aside from the whole KB vs KD debate, it kinda stinks how the number of procs a set can slot has such an outsized impact on a set's standing in the meta (aside from Fire Blast but that's an outlier). At this point I say we just go whole hog and add enough procs to every category so that any powerset can slot 6 without secondary effects, then we can get a more accurate baseline.