biostem

My take away from most of the OG devs' comments is that, in order to meet deadlines and such, they basically hard-coded many of the game systems - great for getting stuff out quickly, but horrible for long-term flexibility...

Agreed as to the real-money trading aspect, but I believe the OP was asking in terms of influence/infamy/information for a commission... Still, better to err on the side of caution. OP - You could always PM a moderator...

IMHO electric melee is actually quite good, whereas electric blast was rather lacking...

Powers like this exist to a limited extent, (see Omega Maneuver and Glittering Column). They tend to be very powerful since they can essentially be used with zero risk. That latter part is the lynchpin - having a power in a set that kind of breaks the rules is ok, but an entire set? That'd be too overpowering. As for the MM pet thing - enemies actually will aggro on your minions instead of you, if you send them in first and don't out-aggro them with your own attacks or buffs/debuffs...

FFG grants more defense than dispersion bubble precisely because it is vulnerable. You also don't have a constant end drain while it is deployed. I could see, perhaps, giving it a bit more HP or resistances, but the entire point of the power is that it is external to you...

But they did conspicuously remove the stealth from energy aura when they ported that over to tankers... Still, I'm not against the idea - maybe just replace shinobi with a taunt & damage aura - imagine if they kind of periodically spawned caltrops around them...

A few of my most recent Gravity/Force Field Controller - "The Attractor":

"The Attractor", my latest Gravity/Force Field Controller:

After seeing her in action, one person commented, "She's a wizard with that thing!", to which she innocently retorted, "Oh no honey, I'm a sorceress!"... "The Chainblade Sorceress":

The key, IMHO, is to look at those benefits the archetype-origin enhancements grant that no other sets have to offer. In that regard, the 3 key benefits are the bonuses to pretty much all control types, (most other sets, if they do grant a bonus to any control effects at all, generally only improve 1 type), then the chance for psionic damage from the Will of the Controller set, and the chance to summon an energy font from the Overpowering Presence set. The other effects they grant can be found, to varying degrees, in other sets. If you are looking to soft-cap defense or attain any of the other buffs those sets have to offer, then by all means pursue them. To be frank, though, I don't think those unique effects are good enough to justify the cost, (if you are trying to outright buy them off the AH), or the time investment, (if you are trying to earn enough merits to buy them that way). My general approach is to look at how that character has been performing and using set bonuses to compensate for areas they were coming up short in, (maybe I needed some better end management, so might pursue additional recovery, max end, an end discount, and so on), or to further leverage those areas where they were performing well, (extending mez effects longer, maybe see if I can eek out a few more points of magnitude, etc).

These - the generic IOs. Use and slot level 25 ones to cover your basic power needs. They're relatively inexpensive, are about as good as SOs, and never expire. They'll get you where you need to until 50, and then you can start focusing on set IOs, uniques, ATOs, and so on...

They could do a little tweak in the leveling scheme, to go from... 44 power 45 slots 46 slots 47 power 48 slots 49 power 50 slots To... 44 power 45 slots 46 power 47 slots 48 power 49 slots 50 slots

That acc is unenhanceable, though, right? They get 10% tohit w/ tactics, which can become about 15% w/ enh's, and IIRC tohit is a lot better than acc, and if you're having end issues to begin with, that extra cost really matters...

I never understood these broad "can you solo as a(n) X" threads - the answer, if they don't clearly state under what specific circumstances they are talking about, is always "yes" - Frankly, (and unless it is some outlier mission with something like an EB or AV that doesn't scale down), if you can't solo at x1/-1, then it's a player/build issue...

Only if they are all automatically added to the "Lonely Hearts Club Band" SG...