arcane

I would be ok with reasonable nerfs. I don’t know that that is a feasible thing to do because of immensely repetitive and tiresome backlash to nerfs, but I personally have no qualms with pursuit of balance sans power creep. I have been through every nerf in this game since launch. A few were tough, but I’m still here. How mind numbingly easy and repetitive the game has come closer to making me leave than any nerf tbh. But not close enough.

And that is precisely because the number of complicating factors goes self affecting buffs > ally only buffs > debuffs. Your statement is a feature of elegant design, not a bug. Seriously, a bunch of the power gamers here have had a ton of recent conversations about how easily the value of debuffs gets mitigated in high end continent. Both that and debuffs = best can’t simultaneously be true, people. I’m a middleground guy and recognize they all have pros and cons though.

Debuffs are not supposed to be directly compared to buffs as I have already said because they have their own pros and cons. Debuffs have higher base values because they come with more baggage - including aggro, accuracy, highly impactful resistability, often shorter durations, etc. Your criticism accounts for none of this and is thus misguided, misleading, and nigh meaningless. Your analysis is univariate and lacking any subtlety, which is almost always a sign of incorrectness.

I like that types of support sets are apples and oranges while still all contributing (yes a couple sets need a slight upward tweak like FF and Emp). It gives the feel that there are at least three mini-AT’s to play within one AT. That would maybe be a problem if any of them actually struggled to be effective, but that is simply not the case, excluding the aforementioned sets that could use slight tweaks. And the idea that ally-only buffs have not had their values balanced around being ally-only does not hold up logically with a quick glance at the numbers. So talk about self-buffing all you want, but if the values are not tweaked downward, it’s a non-starter from a balance perspective. Clear example: FF ally shields vs. FF AoE shield. A nearly no end cost, immediately permeable, nearly no recharge, does not require allies to remain in radius, shield is supposed to affect you in a greater way than a taxing high end cost, requires allies to remain in radius shield? That is absolute nonsense. For the FF target shields to affect you, knowing all that, it would need to affect you even less than Dispersion Bubble, logically. At least the OP is proposing scaled down versions of the effects rather than suggesting these sets should just have their cake and eat it too. I don’t feel the need to compare to a debuff set because buffs and debuffs so clearly have their own sets of pros and cons. It’s just straight disingenuous to pretend like debuffs are better in every usage case. I don’t feel the need to compare to more user-friendly buff sets because those numbers already prove my point. Farsight affecting you where FF target shields do not is already balanced by it having higher recharge, lower defense, higher endurance cost. Although I say Farsight is balanced with hesitation because it really isn’t; it’s way too powerful with power boost.

Kind of agree. I tested it last night and also thought to myself that this thing might be hard to see with other patches around. Also, might help if we could color our trick arrow effects like nearly every other set 😉

I’m down for (1). It’s a no from me to (2).

You will never get so much additional self defense for so little investment on another squishy character, tbh. Well, not counting the discrepancy between MM values vs. defenders. It is really that good. A Time defender with power boost has about as much raw defense as an SR tanker (I know - no def debuff res or scaling res but I’m not talking about that) for a similarly minimal amount of investment. It’s obscenely powerful and both my Time characters sit comfortably within “easy mode” territory. (Sorry for not directly answering. The answer is yes. The highlight being its boost to the defense buff though, specifically.) (Also, be warned, it’s so powerful it’s easy to imagine it getting nerfed in a few months.)

Post of the year tbh.

Adding that these are probably my typical approaches: Non-proc monster attack: 6 slotted set or 5 slots + 1 proc - IE 6 ATO’s or 5 Apocs + 1 Glad Jav. Proc monster attack: 2 IO’s with no recharge enhancement, 4 procs - Winter sets are useful here because they all give an Acc/Dam and Acc/Dam/End option and a useful bonus. Also other IO sets where you can go Acc/Dam, Acc/Dam/End, Proc - like Annihilation or Positron’s Blast, etc. All in proc monster build attack: 6 procs or 1 IO (Accuracy or Acc/Dam/End most likely) and 5 procs if 6 procs aren’t even an option. This option is only ideal to you if you have adequate Accuracy/+ToHit from set bonuses, Tactics, etc. All of my builds will have at least one-two of option 1 (with non proc monsters having many) as that’s your set bonus bread and butter. Most of my builds have at least one of option 2. Only specialized builds that do not need a lot of set bonuses will try option 3, but those builds will have mostly options 2+3 and as little option 1 as possible.

There is a “too many” point, sure, but I think it will be intuitive when you reach it. For Dominators, it will be about perma-dom. For others, it will be about when you just start to see really pitiful bonuses/stats like low recharge or accuracy. For instance, a non-proc monster build is probably getting 80%+ in recharge boosts, and you’re free to cut into that.. but I start to really question it if it dips below 50%. For accuracy, you should at least have 95% chance to hit against +3’s (assuming most if your +4 runs are occurring at 50 with a level shift). My most proctastic builds seem to wind up somewhere around maybe 25 damage procs and a few -res/+rech procs. Any more than that and your build really starts to have nothing else - assuming you’re also loaded up on all the defensive procs. I recommend Vigor Alpha (if no Ageless) or Nerve Alpha (if Ageless) if you really want to go all the way with procs. My DP/SR sentinel has 3 or 4 attacks with 6 procs each, for instance, so you can certainly take it pretty dang far.

Invisibility makes most sense to me. Isn’t Superior Invisibility still superior for not having all its defense suppressed?

I promise I would empathize with this if I thought it were the truth.

Well, last night’s live run of several changes was a success across the board with one small exception. My newly leveled Grav/Sonic/Mace ran through some easy outdoor maps at +4x8 like the Council Empire mission with very pleasing results. Sure, a super easy enemy group, but I was more interested in flexing my powers than doing some needless proving myself against Carnies or Rularuu or whatever. And that toon has no Fighting or Leadership and hardly any defense bonuses so get over it 😉 . My strategy was to quickly zoom up and Teleport Target my Singularity with 4 ally toggles (2 Sonic / 2 Sorcery) into the middle of the mob before I caught too much of the mob’s aggro, and then apply Crushing Field / Disruptor Blast to wipe most of the mob, and Sonic Siphon / Poisonous Ray (4 Procs) / Gravity Distortion (4 Procs) / Arcane Bolt to clean up bosses. Every new piece of the puzzle from the patch worked like a charm, from the interrupt-less Teleport Target, to the Singularity’s thick absorb shield and tight vacuum pull, to Enflame and Arcane Bolt buffs. The mobs did not last long at all (had that feeling of the mobs just “melting”) and this feels like one of my more successful non-FotM experiments. Regarding the little exception I mentioned, I think this goes along with the stealth complaints from other posters. Before, when I was running meteor map fire farms for this guy, I could safely fly overhead and toggle Disruption Field with just a Stealth IO. I tried to do the same thing last night, but also adding Spirit Ward, and I couldn’t seem to avoid taking aggro even though I was up near the map ceiling - telling me my stealth was suppressing in a way that it never used to. Now that’s over, my next goal is to slot up my new Granite-less Stone tanker. I’m kind of agonizing over two build drafts. One has substantially more proc damage but less fire defense and regeneration than the other, and even falls about 3% short of E/N soft cap. The other addresses these issues with a couple Aegis bonuses, a couple regen procs, and Maneuvers, but has very little proc damage outside of the Epic pool attacks and the main purple set procs. EDIT: I also very briefly logged into my Traps/AR to try the new Full Auto. Made me want to roll up an AR blaster to really flex that thing. Then I very briefly logged into one of my flyers to try with Hover/Evasive Maneuvers. Beyond the unfortunate stealth weirdness, I have yet to find anything to complain about 🙂 .

Yeah I wasn’t intending to count NPC’s or crits - just the raw number a player gets reliably on any ole try. And the fact that we can’t just think of several examples off the top of our heads tells me the word “Extreme” belongs there 😉

“It’s broken so no harm in breaking it more” is a fundamentally bad argument on principle IMO that I will never support.

This new Singularity change is frankly amazing.

Luminara, still need support for your bizarre claims that seem to more or less amount to “every support player reporting success is either lying or stupid.”

Yep I thought of Distortion Field too 🙂

Grav/Sonic Sorcery junkie and Graniteless Stone tanker have already been leveled to 50 in anticipation of this set of changes. But they still need so many purples :/.

I think that would be reasonable for a subset of the powers - specifically ones (1) deemed either immediately permeable or almost right out of the box. Would not be appropriate for Oil Slick/EMP Arrows or Liquefy for example (though word on the street is Liquefy should be buffed a tad). And also (2) that do not allow stacking in current form. I.E. you obviously will not take my three Lightning Storms or Bonfires from me.

Is it possible the clock is literally going slower at work on major patch days? 🤔

I rarely soft cap either. Usually between 20%-30% is my preference. I like procs too much and that tends to cut into my ability to reach for most defense set bonuses. So I usually grab the defense from procs, pool toggles, and then maybe some ATO’s or Winter sets, but don’t go much further than that (you know - things like Artillery, Mako’s Bite, Expedient Reinforcement, Thunderstrike, etc. that are typically needed to round out the soft cap). I also don’t typically like to forego an epic/patron resistance toggle in favor of a defense toggle. Sometimes because resistance, but most often because I just want the other goodies that come with resistance shields more than anything (Dominate, Soul Drain, Power Boost, Indomitable Will, Bonfire, etc.). I will totally make do with ~10-15% defense even if I really want to try something else in my pool picks, etc. Defense is just a component of survival. Being careful and tactical will keep you alive better than nearly any set bonuses.

Quoted for emphasis. Please apply comment globally to the fair number of long but unique animation powers. 🙂

But you are neglecting the fact that not a single support set has no powers that help the caster, and therefore all support characters have, at the very least, more self buff or enemy debuff potential than blasters or dominators. Dispersion Bubble, Healing Aura, etc. These powers are no slouches! Yes, those classes quickly get more durable *when buffed by the aforementioned support classes*, but hey, if we’re relying on that argument, that must mean we’ve refuted the argument that support classes are useless! ...Not that I think any of them are particularly squishy if played tactically.

Right.. I thought someone might just prove me wrong, and it was the middle of the night, but I thought about adding “can anyone even tell me a single power that does more base damage than Judgements?” Since the OP was also asking about percent chances for secondary effects, which are already plainly visible with a simple “Right Click -> Get Info”, I assume this was just an error in his perception, likely based on comparing slotted/buffed attacks to Judgement base damage, aka apples and oranges. To the OP: to give you a little more information about Core vs. Radial, I will say that I personally always take Core on damage-centric AT’s, but I consider Radial on Support AT’s *if* the secondary effect synergizes with my build. AKA Ion Radial would be more attractive to pair with Electrical Affinity, Cryonic Radial more attractive with Ice Control/Cold Domination, etc. Void Radial and Vorpal Radial are reasonably attractive if you want to shore up your defenses in tough fights. But for the majority of all cases? Core (Damage) is king.