Bartacus

Martial Combat for blasters has an 'automatic' version of buildup! It's not as intense but it's always up and procs when you attack I believe!

I agree that Time Bomb and Trip Mine need updates in the Traps variant as well. I dont care if its the SAME update, but Time bomb is useless on my traps and honestly trip mine kind of is too.

I actually really like that idea. I know absorb is the popular option. I think that's a good buff idea, but again I've never felt like my FF defender was lacking in giving people defenses so it feels redundant. But a smashing damage proc seems cool!

Yeah, I understand the sentiment of wanting it to be exclusively a buff/soft control set. Problem is the soft control is the most useless control in the game in team settings, and FF being a buff set means you generally WANT to be in a team. Anyway, if we're keeping that theme I think that's fine. It just needs a +ToHit or +DMG or something in their buffs in order to keep up with other sets. Other sets just have way too much packed into them and it honestly just makes FF obsolete. My Nature Corr runs circles around my FF defender in terms of usefulness.

It says that Time Bomb's changes are only for devices on blasters. Is Trip Mine's change proliferated to traps sets then? Honestly, I'm no devices expert but I'd guess that Time Bomb (while better now) is probably still not terribly useful in most teams. Maybe that's ok. But I think the trade off for having to wait for it to go off should be more damage or some other effect (like a debuff). Doesn't have to be strong or overpowered, but if I'm in a group and I'm a devices player I can't imagine very many scenarios where I waste time using Time Bomb.

The problem is that FF isn't lacking in what it does well (providing defensive buffs). So, adding absorb honestly would certainly differentiate it from cold's buffs... but it would not make the set very much better IMO. With all these sets that came out much later than FF, the reality is far too many sets have far too many tools and FF was left behind due to the power creep. Sets like Time, Cold, Nature, etc. all outperform force field. It's because those sets offer both offensive and defensive abilities. And, in some of the sets, heals too. Not every set needs to be that versatile, but if you want to keep FF mostly the same for the "Cottage Rule" but also bring it up to speed... I think adding some sort of debuff that increases offensive ability (like -res) OR adding some sort of offensive buff would make it a much more useful set.

I'll admit I only read the first 2.5 pages of text on this thread. But I agree that Force Fields need to be buffed. Cold Domination is, essentially, a better and more useful set. Offering the same defense and a whole plethora of debuffs. I'm on board with force bolt changes (please dont remove it, I like it). I'm on board with any force bubble changes recommended too. And honestly you can toss out detention field entirely and I'm game for that. But my suggestion is this: Give Repulsion Bomb a debuff effect such as -res/-defense. Do that and the set becomes much less useless. I love force fields. The set is cool and has a lot of unique aspects to it. But the way this game works... you are basically gimping yourself by choosing force fields. Give it a useful AoE debuff and the set functions much better.

Why? Are you speaking purely from a balance perspective? I.E. it's balanced as is without enhancements? If so, based upon what? I mean, I guess to be clear, I realize I'm asking for a balance change and not a bug fix. It just seems like it wouldn't make the ability unbalanced, and it would offer more build diversity for using IO sets.

Yeah, I mean you can also slot the BU proc into tactics so even if it was a balance thing of not wanting people to be able to slot that enhancement into abilities that are always on then that's sort of silly. I mainly just want to be able to buff the to hit bonus. I'm not even sure any other type of enhancement would apply since it's a passive with no end/recharge. I mean, I understand that. But, if they make it slottable it's not any worse off and you theoretically still wouldn't need to USE any slots on it.

So, Reach for the Limit (Martial Combat's buildup ability) evidently can't be slotted. It's a really good ability without slotting, but I also don't totally understand the reasoning for not allowing us to slot To-Hit buff in it? It only gives 15% to-hit (tactics gives 10% for reference) and being able to boost that to-hit with enhancements would by no means make the ability OP. It honestly almost seems like a bug that you can't slot it. This seems similar to if you had an auto ability that gives +Res but you can't slot Resistance enhancements in it. I wasn't sure where else to give a suggestion on this. Martial combat is a fun set! But i'm at a loss as to why this ability can't be enhanced. Edit: to be clear, nothing can be slotted into this ability. It has no slots. But, no other slot really makes sense to add except if you're enhancing to-hit (which makes a ton of sense). Other blasters can enhance the tohit on their buildup.