biostem

Maybe you could make the build using lower level generic IOs so you suffer a minimal degradation in enh effectiveness...

Between the poison animations and the slime aura, a blast set should be pretty easy to accomplish. Maybe give the attacks very watered down version of the poison debuffs, in addition to the toxic damage. I wonder if, (besides mez protection), an all-debuffing armor set could work. It'd definitely be something interesting to try. As for toxic melee - do something similar to savage melee, only much heavier on the debuff side effects than on the "blood frenzy" mechanic. Alternatively, maybe you have to "expose" or otherwise render the target vulnerable, (vis some of the powers), before you can infect them with the toxins...

And for reference, here's a sample with the hp/end bar visible above the character, as well as the combat attributes for both: *Note - You can place the combat attributes window pretty much wherever you want, but the HP/END bars are fixed in their location.

Maybe even an optional texture overlay on the HP & End bars would help.

Very clever idea!

OK, so Dark Miasma is a good starting point, then. The biggest advantage is that the heal ability is centered around you, and even if the target is killed mid-animation, the power will still go off. The disadvantage is that the heal does require a tohit check, so make sure to put a fair amount of accuracy in it, so you don't constantly miss. Besides that, here are a few quick tips that I think will help you out: 1. Make sure to slot some acc in twilight grasp, the heal power, (I'd recommend at least 2). 2. Tar Patch is a very potent ability - it slows enemies that pass through its AoE, and reduces their damage resistance, so they end up taking more damage. I like using the below bind for such powers, so I simply just alt+left click to place it where my cursor is: /bind lalt+lbutton "powexecname tar patch" 3. Shadow Fall is a very useful utility power, as it grants stealth to you and anyone nearby. It costs a steady amount of endurance to keep toggled on, so consider an end cost reducer enhancement in it to start. It also grants some defense, damage resistance, and selective status effect protection, so read the power effects carefully. 4. Fearsome Stare is an extremely useful "soft control" and debuff power - very few enemies have protection from fear effects, so you'd basically lock down large groups with only 1 application. They do get to retaliate if they take damage, though, so getting a handle on the timing and positioning of the power is crucial. 5. Petrifying Gaze is a hard control power, (hold). It's good as a fallback power, but IIRC it has a fairly short duration and longish recharge, so I wouldn't consider it a mainstay of the set. 6. Phase powers, like Black Hole are a bit of a contentious subject. I tend to just avoid them, as while they make the enemies unable to affect your team, you can't affect them either. Some see it as an annoyance, though it can save your team's butt if used carefully. For now, probably best to set it aside. 7. Dark Servant is a power that really distinguishes this power set for others - I don't think any other support sets get a full-on pet. "Fluffy" is very useful, but just pay special attention to the various powers and effects they possess, to guide how you slot them. 8. Howling Twilight is your ally resurrect power, but it also applies a bunch of debuffs to enemies, and can, IIRC, be used even without any downed allies. Of course, doing so puts it on cooldown for a bit, so if you think you may need that rez, it's something to consider. 9. Darkest Night is probably the only power you'd need a bit of practice with using - it's an "anchor power", meaning that you target an enemy then toggle the power on. It costs a steady amount of endurance to use, and applies a sizable tohit debuff and damage debuff to them and any enemies near them. The catch is that the targeted enemy must be alive for the power to continue to apply its effects. For normal enemy groups, they probably won't last long enough for you to get much benefit, even if you use it on a boss-tier enemy. Where this power really shines is against much tougher enemies, like elite bosses, archvillains, giant monsters, and so on. But consider the stacked tohit debuff from this and fearsome stare, and the enemies will have a hard time hitting anyone! Other thoughts: If combined with ice blast, you'd get a total of 3 single target holds, (freeze ray, bitter freeze ray, and petrifying gaze). Bitter freeze ray has kind of a long animation, so I tend to just take freeze ray and petrifying gaze for a quick 1-2 punch, or start with bitter freeze ray, then follow up with the other 2 to stack the hold effect. Dropping a tar patch on a group, then following up with ice storm and blizzard can devastate a group, especially if you also pop aim beforehand or stack on some other damage buffs. Nothing like stacked patch powers all scourging an entire group! Keep in mind if you hit a group with fearsome stare, then drop a DoT power, it'll basically negate the fear effect, so you might want to consider the needs of your team, and use it to lock down the group, then switch to single target attacks and holds to isolate only certain enemies. Fearsome stare also has a sizable tohit debuff, so you may also want to leverage that to make the enemies less able to hit you and your team, and this effect remains even if said enemies aren't cowering as a result of taking damage. Hope that helps!

In regard to this question, how much MMO experience do you have? Are you comfortable with the notion of keeping track of your teammates and reacting to their needs, or would you prefer power that you can just kind of fire off whenever? Also, are you familiar with the concept of keybinds or macros? Setting a few can make your life a lot easier! There are also aspects of the game that can make things a bit easier for you. For instance, if you target a teammate and fire off an attack power, it'll target whatever enemy they are targeting. Similarly, if you select an enemy and attempt to use a healing ability, it'll be directed at whatever friendly unit that enemy was targeting.

I couldn't find a specific colorblind feature, but what may help is you can change the window UI border color, which may permit a better separation between the health bar on top and the end bar just below it, (unless you're playing a brute, dominator, or sentinel, who have an additional resource bar). You can also choose to see character health bars above the actual character models themselves, which may be of some use.

Ice leans more into control abilities, having 2 hold powers and almost all powers slowing the target. I really like how it has 2 AoE powers that you can trigger at a location of your choice, and they'll damage and slow any enemies that pass through that area. Water blast is a much newer set, and incorporates a special mechanic called "tidal power", where most powers generate this "resource", and a few use it to gain additional effects. The set also has a self heal in one of the attacks, but since you're going with dark miasma, I don't know if that redundancy is needed. Personally, I prefer ice blast, but both are great sets. Consider giving the sets a look at in more detail here and here. Also, when creating your character, you can click the little 'i' symbol or "More Info" options to see further details about what each power does, and some of its stats.

Well, consider how gravity control is more "blastery" than other control sets, and this could be a more "controllery" blast set...

It's not supposed to specifically be about summoning ghosts, though. I chose "Ethereal" because of the old concept of "ether", a hypothetical material that kind of made up space. I want a degree of vagueness, so it could be spirits, hard light constructs, nanotech, whatever you want. I don't want to tie it too strongly to any particular origin. Maybe you *do* summon spirits, maybe you form these temporary entities from your own psyche. You coalesce blasts and temporary "things" from the ether that fight on your behalf...

@Rudra have you actually played the set? Try it out. It's a fun gimmick, but not ground-breaking, and if you further stripped away any -tohit or other such effects in lieu of the pet summoning, (not to mention that the pets this proposed set would summon wouldn't be the same as the specters), you'd realize that what a spreadsheet or data entry says does not necessarily translate to how the set or power plays out in-game...

Honestly, I really only use 3 basic binds/macros for my MMs: /bind lalt+lbutton "petcomall goto passive" - makes all my pets go exactly where I alt-click, whilst ignoring everything else. I use this for positioning them, to make sure they don't block doorways, and so on. /macro Atk "petcomall attack aggressive" - I treat this like any other attack power, so I just target the enemy I want dead, and hit the macro to give the command. /macro Flw "petcomall follow defensive" - Makes all my pets follow me, only attacking if they get attacked first, and enabling bodyguard mode.

I just miss the absurdity of everyday objects being made very small or much larger than we're used to seeing them, like the Thomas the Tank Engine toy in the first movie, or the ant being made dog-sized...

Because your premise is built upon faulty reasoning - what extra penalty do any of the other blast sets incur for having their special effects? The answer is "none". This all plays upon the second part of your statement, namely the "to balance this out" part - that's where my contention lies. No extra end cost to "balance this out" is warranted in this case. The specific damage numbers, temporary pet duration, and so forth, would be the variables taken into consideration...

Your logic doesn't follow - you don't see everyone using sonic blast for its -res, you don't see everyone using seismic blast for seismic shockwaves. You don't see everyone playing necro for the temporary pets, either. The temporary pets are a cool feature, and one I would like to see ported over to a new set, but they certainly aren't game breaking, nor are they uber effective - they're just different. Heck, bio armor is often touted as way better than other armor sets, yet it certainly hasn't supplanted them all. "Crabberminds" can summon tons of pets, and suffer none of the extra end costs of MMs. Also, Thugs don't get an extra penalty for having gangwar...

Right, and the MM blasts already had the extra end cost before that update, so obviously said extra end cost is not to take into account the ability to summon those temporary pets. Further, if this hypothetical blast set had no secondary effect besides the temporary pets or other effects based upon them, then there still would be no justification for the tradeoffs you proposed.

Not necessarily from an effectiveness vantage point, but I just cannot get into thorny assault on dominators - there are no primaries that prevent you from constantly having to pop your spines back out every time you want to use one of those abilities...

That doesn't hold true for every other blast set that MMs also gain access to, only for the MMs themselves, and such costs didn't go up when these new abilities were added.

Inspired by the changes made to the MM blast attacks in the Necromancy set, how about an entire blast set whose gimmick is that said blasts can summon temporary pets! I imagine that not every single attack power would summon pets, but most probably would. Some could, however, have some interaction or benefit based upon the number of temporary pets so-summoned - perhaps extra damage, KD, or so forth. To differentiate it a bit from the existing dark blast powers with the effect, how about repurposing the Peacebringer light attacks, and instead of the ghostly apparitions summoned by Necromancy, use the apparitions from Night Ward. I don't have a specific breakdown of the set in mind, besides wanting the temporary pet summons and using brighter animations. Your input is welcomed. Thanks!

A bunch of giant demons fall before our mighty hero, and the lone archer continues to plink at you with complete conviction that his dinky little bolt may do what all the claws and magic could not!

The separate sections would have to be coded off as metallic. Look at the elemental order pants, for an example - the waist band and leg stripes are metallic, the pants themselves are more like leather, and there's an additional stripe down the front of the legs that glows. You couldn't have the pattern be metallic and the rest matte or just leather-like, unless the pattern was hard-coded into the piece. I'm not against the suggestion, but it'd need a separate implementation for each pattern...

If you want a powerful duo, and want to avoid melee, here's an interesting combination to try: 1. A Soldier of Arachnos going the Crab Spider route. You get some great team buffs, powerful attacks, solid debuffs, and you also get a bunch of pets! 2. A sentinel of some variety, (I'm partial to dual pistols/radiation armor or assault rifle/invulnerability). Alternative to 2 above, a defender or corruptor could be very powerful with the "Crabbermind" to watch their back. Pick something like pain domination/sonic and you won't be disappointed - good buffs, debuffs, heals, and ranged damage to boot!

I think the Primalist was a proposed AT that never got fully fleshed out before the game shut-down...

Another approach that could be very interesting is to go straight support/melee, with the class' schtick being that the buffs also benefit the caster, (either in full or at a slightly reduced effectiveness). Then, you'd get your resistances and all the other stuff you'd basically need to survive whilst in melee...