FupDup

Besides the recharge debate, could we be given control of Storm Cell's movement like a Mastermind pet? That might also help with keeping it where/when you want it to go.

Beanbag isn't even unique. There are lots of stuns in blast sets. BB just happens to be the worst of them.

Those powers really just need a cone angle increase to at least 45 degrees, then they'll be fine. I wouldn't personally get mad at replacing them with other AOE's but other people might, as we've seen with Beanbag and Ignite.

It's less about Aim specifically and more about wanting a power that is generally useful (Beanbag is only chosen by around 20% of Assault Rifle users per one of the devs). Preferably one that contributes to damage directly or indirectly, but even a utility power would be fine as long as it's stronger than the bag of beans (which is a pretty low bar to clear).

The announced beta changes to Assault Rifle (beanbag and ignite replacements) have generated some controversy between people who feel emotionally attached to those powers and other people who want more raw performance out of the set. The devs have specifically said that they won't do something like Sentinel Super Reflexes where you have mutually exclusive options, so I believe a "new" powerset could help appease those of us that just want a stronger blast set while keeping the dakka dakka gun guy theme. I hereby propose Submachine Gun, which basically takes the powers from SOA Huntsmen and makes a full set out of it. Some grenade attacks are included because I'm not creative enough to make 9 different bullet powers: T1: Single Shot T2: Burst T3: Heavy Burst T4: Frag Grenade T5: Aim (or equivalent*) T6: Headshot (Sniper Rifle reskin with KB replaced with Stun since getting shot in the head will mess you up) T7: Incendiary Grenade (or other AoE ability*) T8: Focused Burst (single-target) T9: Full Auto I didn't give them Venom Grenade because that might be too stronk and it would detract from SOA uniqueness a bit. *As for Aim, this might be a place where we could try something a little different to make the set not a complete reskin. My ideas are either a sort of "ranged follow up" called Double Tap, or a Target Designator laser that acts like a mini-surveillance (resist and defense debuff). Or just having vanilla Aim works too. *I'm also torn on what to do as the T7 AoE attack. My main ideas are either an AoE burn patch (Incendiary Grenade) or a Ricochet Round (chain attack). Alternatively, if we think the set has enough attacks already, we could throw in a utility power like Glue Grenade instead to help it stand out more. I understand that it's not the most unique or original set by any stretch, but it would help solve this debate in a similar way that Willpower was introduced to replace Regen.

That was actually considered early on but they ran into issues balancing it on AoE powers or something like that. So now we've got Memebag back.

The enhancement applies directly to your powers like Alpha Barrier and Tough. It's not a global set bonus so that's why it's not named in the combat attributes. So basically, compare your resist values with it equipped and then un-equip it. You should see them all go down.

Here's another kinda wonky idea: Target Designator: You point a laser beam at the selected target for a few seconds and it debuffs their defense and resistance (basically surveillance). Accomplishes a similar thing as Aim while being very unique among blast sets. It also applies a mag 3 stun to the target because laser beams are very bright.

How about some alternatives: Teargas Grenade (hold) Flashbang Grenade (area stun) Glue Grenade (area slow, -fly, -jump, would have high synergy with Ignite if that ever came back) Liquid Nitrogen Round (hold, borrowed from Malta Gunslingers) Add the stun to Slug or Incinerator instead

That name is already used as an exploration badge in Kallisti Wharf, unfortunately.

Artillery has 25.5% range enhancement in it, but your point still stands.

Allowing smaller characters using sliders is unlikely because the devs deliberately wanted to limit the number of tiny characters going around (hence why the mini mode costs so many prismatic aethers).

Just give the stun effect to slug. Or even Incinerate. Let's just say that the heat is so intense that the target gets stunned by it. We don't need a dedicated (damage-less) stun power in a ranged blast set, especially one like AR.

In terms of defining the "problem," I think it's mostly rooted in nostalgia for the "olden days" of street sweeping and when the hazard zones were considered much scarier. To that end, I have a weird idea. In each of the hazard zones, set up some kind of "Street Sweeping Trial." Like any trial/TF, you get exemplar'd to the appropriate level range. When you start it up you get put into an instanced version of the appropriate zone and you just get to murderize all of the different groups that live there. And I guess that's it. Maybe after you kill everything a final boss shows up or something, or maybe not.

Mechanically, Ignite is basically the same as any other "rain patch" power like Rain of Fire but with a smaller radius and a way stronger afraid effect, and no speed debuff like most of them get. If anything I think Full Auto is the truly unique power of the set because it's the only T9 blast that is a cone.

Beam Rifle is kinda similar to a plasma rifle, but it would be nice to have hand blast and eye blast animations for the set.

It would free you from having to chase recharge bonuses so you could focus on other stuff like defenses without losing perma-hasten in the process (usually the sets that give mega recharge aren't giving mega defenses or w/e). Basically you could have your cake and eat it too. But honestly, my hot take is that I think permahasten is a bit busted in either case and the power should probably be reworked somehow.

It's basically indisputable that stuff like Hasten 6-slotted with Recharge is just pure bullshit and should never be allowed, but not all powers/attributes would end up causing problems like that. For example, if someone 6-slotted an attack power with nothing but endurance reduction or accuracy that would actually be pretty awful. I think an interesting experiment would be to loosen up or remove ED only from certain specific attributes and/or specific crappy powers (like brawl, boxing, etc). Obviously the "important" stuff like damage, recharge, defense, resist, heal, endmod, etc. should still be capped, especially on strong powers.

The issue is that Claws already fills the combat role of "fast attacks with low endurance cost," even if the theme is drastically different from what you're looking for. Dark Melee already has to-hit debuffs and Energy melee already has disorientation. An alternate idea could be to add alternate animations for various melee sets that make it look like you're throwing a whole bunch of punches in the same time span that the default animation only punches once, but IDK if we still have the old issue where the game can only handle a predetermined number of animations and we can't add any more.

Sad Sentinel noises. 😞 Rain of Arrows is the same way but with an even bigger damage gap.

On one hand, it's pretty funny being able to point out that Sents did indeed have some design advantages in their sets... But on the other hand, now Sents don't have these unique advantages anymore (not an "advantage" if everyone gets it). 😕

Counterpoint A: Sentinel Willpower doesn't have scaling regen like its melee counterparts. This, plus the lack of melee IO sets to boost your S/L/M defenses makes it not translate very well. Counterpoint B: Sentinel Regen has some unique changes that make it more palatable compared to its melee counterparts, and hover-blasting can help with survivability.

Storm Cell converts the repel to knockdown without needing to pay the slot tax. The issue then circles back to Storm Cell's slow recharge/janky follow mechanics. A Storm Cell fix would nip both complaints in the bud.

Assault Rifle can already do this, provided you're not using a chest type that prohibits it. But yeah adding Beam to the list would be neato.

Incinerator's base stats aren't impressive, I admit, but from a mechanical/design standpoint it is at least more workable and doesn't have anti-synergy with its own set like Ignite does. Incinerator just needs some numeric adjustments. Ignite would need almost a complete redesign to work.