Carnifax

(I should have said AT rather than set but hey) Ranged Damage is the lesser of the two Sets for Defenders (who are a support AT). And quite often I build / choose my defenders on the Support aspect of the "blast" set rather than the DPS. That's why I have a Time/Sonic and a TA/Elec (for the sappage, which was improved in Page 3). So claiming they're "Blast sets" is misleading to be honest, they are both due to the fact each has some form of debuff attached (except Fire). But like I said I'm not calling for the changes to be scrapped. Just rejigged a tad because for Defenders at the moment they aren't great overall, but they could be fairly easily.

This is also also me. 22 or 27 are nice starting points for me, I can start slotting up the build with set IOs. I just use my Fire Tank to PL them to that point.

I went with So 5 damage procs + an Acc. Personally I didn't worry about the Lockdown.

Dear sweet jebus no. Need that to slow the scatter and keep things in AA as long as possible. I don't think the -Slow from either needs to be removed personally. "Slow as molasses" should be Ice's thing.

Also a member of the "Before it got buffed" fanclub. On Homecoming it's a fantastic set now. It's happy at range or in close (you can just fire debuffs point-blank as I do on my TA/Elec or from afar as I do with my Grav/Trick Arrow Controller). Even if they scatter (Warwolves) they'll still be carrying the Flash Arrow debuff. Plus it's got lovely quick animation times. You can very quickly debuff things to hell.

Not sure solo killing time is that useful a metric for a Support set to be honest. Soloing pylons isn't something I'd consider on my Time/Sonic. A team vs a GM or something would make more sense.

No doom from me, just think it needs some tweaks. Personally I think the Res numbers need a little tweak (switch the 8/12). For me now after respeccing a Sonic defender and running them through a few missions it's the Power Placement that sucks for Defenders (with the Tier 2 power sharing all of its debuff with the Tier 1, making taking both unattractive) and Screech and Sirens both coming in so late.

*Has a bit of a fight with AE since the Group now contains an invalid Lieut, but wins eventually* On Live I allowed myself to be held, waited for it to expire and was able to get Entangling back up and them locked down easily. So essentially the "This will save me" power "unsupressed" by recasting in 2.03 seconds. So a flat nerf for Squishies, especially those relying on Entangling, Choking or -ToHit debuff toggles to save them. So either 4 seconds or 2.5 seconds per power (if that's possible) is my recommendation for this.

So some testing with Crom Cruaich, my Fire/Nature/Sorcery Corruptor. To test I used my own custom AE mission with the Lieuts being given the new Symphony hold as their only attack. All other mobs in the map are attackless. Bug : Lifegiving Spores is still shutting off, not supressing. It's a toggle, it's (allegedly) offensive. It should supress. Although personally I think it should be treated as a Defensive Toggle and just supress while mezzed and then come immediately back once out. Feedback : The counter starts from when I break out of the mez, whether via it expiring or via Rune of Protection (which I have) so that's good. Feedback : 8 seconds is way too long. One Lieut could easily chain hold be before my Entangling could come back. 4 seconds, as I thought earlier, seems about right. On old systems if you're mezzed Recharge starts from the start of the mez (because the toggle goes off), so the "supression time" = "power activation time" so 8 seconds makes things worse for me overall. Either make it a flat 4 Seconds, or that one power unsupresses every 2.5 seconds after breaking free (how you'd decide the order is beyond me though).

In Blast sets / melee sets I'll generally have one "hard hitter" 3 frankenslotted for enough Acc/Dam and then try and fill it with procs. Tier 1 and 2 powers I usually slot a set. It also depends a lot on the global recharge my character has. If that's lowish I'll probably drop procs in favour of not waiting 30 seconds for the good blast / power to come back.

Polar Lights because they're small and unannoying. Unlike the giant stompy BPs (which are they best overall for AVs etc I believe).

Normally 1 KB2KD and 1 Forced Feedback. Spend the rest of the slots elsewhere.

Also can I ask what the expected behaviour is vs Malta and other groups with ridiculously long mezzes? I mean generally the only way to cope with those is Break Free / Clarion / Rune. Does the timer start counting when those are popped? (one would assume they should be) or does it tick away in the background waiting for the mez to expire? 2nd : Is there anything in the Logs recorded when a power unsurpresses after mez?

It's not the easiest thing to test solo since most offensive togglers worried about this change are squishies. Getting deliberately mezzed on a x8 solo will get you killed most likely. I'll see if I can create a custom AE map where Lieuts have Soul Storm or something and the minions have nothing and try with my Fire/Nature. He also has Rune so I can test that interaction too.

Nice work (I was using your office map for testing various powers like new Ice Slick yesterday too). Problem is this is great for Blasters but at the expense of Defenders. Personally I like some sets being more "supporty" so I think the balance needs to swing back to support a bit more. I ran a respecced Defender build yesterday and Sirens is good now, as is Screech but the -Res nerf still hurts, as does the placement of "good powers". It definitely needs another pass for Defenders.

Just respeccing now and as it stands now the power order given the changes is very late for Defenders. Early level Sonic Blast defenders soloing will either need to respec at 35ish to re-optimise or struggle. Urrgh. Could be powers be rearranged to Shriek, Scream, Howl, Siren's. Shout, Amplify, Screech, Shockwave, Dreadful? At least it would give them something earlier on.

Still don't understand why Ice Slick was given damage. It's pretty meaningless even in an solo x8. If it was to provide some IO flexibility surely Slow would have made more sense? Here's an attackless x8 AE mission (Galaxy Brain's Office Simulator) on my Ice/Traps controller. Arcane Bolt outdamaged it and I only cast that 11 times.

Why did Ice Patch get Damage? Seems a weird choice, especially if you're also giving them a Terrify power which is woken up by taking damage.

From a triform Warshade pov these are great changes. Love popping back into human form with my 5 toggles back up. most are mules but makes the difference between 27% def and 38% def + stealth when popping back into human form. Wish a little review of powers which could transfer to forms had happened (Pool powers toggles and some clickies with no weird animations along with maybe Orbiting Death for Lobster and that cone stun for Nova) but liking this change. Havent tried offensive toggles yet but 8 seconds does seem very long (especially considering if you're just getting out of a mez you'd really like your hold / debuff aura back quickly). I'd halve it to 4 (~time to cast 2 powers)

Like I said I'm a defender. Who cares about my AoE damage output on a team of AoeTanks and Blasters? Personally I'd : Switch Short to 8% and the rest to 12% Give Scream it's own debuff so it can stack its new 12% with Shriek (so Scream & Shriek have a reason to both be taken if desired) *Maybe* swap Amplify or Sirens with Screech. Maybe

Okay. Some power analysis on good old Pylon #17 and I'm still in the meh camp. The longer debuff durations are welcomed but it feels like the 8% and 12% are the wrong way around. Not sure why the tier 1 & 2 have to share a debuff as well. Just means Scream is hugely skippable on Defenders now unless you've the power pick available to treat the Tier one as a dead power., *Edit : That means really you're waiting for Screech at 35 for a decent single target chain on a Defender which is the sort of late-build power pressure Domis Assaults suffer from, which suck.

Tried a brief, unrespecced version of my Time/Sonic soloing some Council. Bear in mind I don't have Sirens, the KB cone or the Stun so can't test those yet. Overall a slight damage buff solo but the -Res nerf is going to make him much less useful on teams. So seems like a buff to Sonic Blasters and a nerf for Sonic Defenders (who picks Defenders for their damage output?) . Meh.

That looks good to me. Never realised Ice Minstrals is so good for Hotfeet, good damage and better End reduction than something like Oblits. Nice! Only meh would be Bonfire. 1.25 Ranged Def isn't amazing for 5 slots and it's nice to have a Forced Feedback in there, But that's a tiny niggle really.

This. FF will try and proc when you drop the mine. Any which trigger as the mine/seeker/bomb is exploding and dying don't work

Yup. 801s feature a lot of debuffs. Dark Affinity Controller is probably more useful than a Time Defender for 801s simply because there's a lot of -def flying around. Ageless radial is also excellent for the debuff protection (saved my Rad tank soloing one of the lower 801s multiple times, gave me time to beat a retreat to a choke point and regroup/recharge). +resist, absorb and heals are really useful. RDR is built into resists. Nature's healing patch is useful too because the fights tend to be more prolonged and based on choke points (you really don't want to just charge into a room, they've +perception and there's plenty of patrols wandering around). Personally of my rota of supports I'd bring Carni (illusion/dark) with an Ageless radial if I was asked to bring a defensive support. Mind you watch out for the odd Tar Patcher in 801s. Mob tar patch is still the unresistible version for some reason. Dropping from 85%/90% to ~60% hurts like hell. Thankfully Tar Patch debuffs only last while you're standing on one.