arcane

I also don’t really agree that teams in which everything dies in 2 seconds really present a support-specific problem. If everything is genuinely falling to the ground that quickly, why would that specifically be a problem for support players? Yes, they are not getting to apply their controls or patches to everything, but you can easily argue that no AT is getting to use the full range of their powers in that scenario. The damage AT’s are getting to execute the beginnings of their AoE chains but not getting to brawl with much after that. I do see how it is annoying for a team to be so successful that you don’t get to really flex your powers, but it’s just not a relevant point to a conversation specifically about support AT’s. Be like everyone else in that situation - focus on your -res, +dam, and nukes, enjoy your xp and loot, and go join a smaller or more difficult team if you’re still not having fun. It’s not a defender/corruptor/controller/mastermind problem, it’s just a CoH endgame problem.

+1 to FF, Emp, maybe Sonic likely being the ones needing help, and in that order IMO.

Yes Clarion exists, and IMO you should have to invest in Clarion if you want that level of complete status protection. Investing in Clarion has immense opportunity costs in the form of the other four extremely powerful Destinies. Adding passive protection to a power like Clear Mind wouldn’t have half this cost. If a Defender wants to play a Tanker and ignore a huge part of the game, I vote they should still have to pay a huge opportunity cost and get Clarion.

No - it literally does hundreds of points of damage to every single target. Extreme damage to every single target. The only reason it seems slightly less extreme than, say, Inferno, is that it is not benefitting from enhancements and aim/build up. Nothing weak about Judgements at all.

It could be taken too far but I really do think a measured attempt to implement something like this could incentivize a lot of players to revisit neglected content. I’m looking at you Shadow Shard. Though one thing that would definitely be “too much” would be to make the groups in Dark Astoria worth much more - considering you have the option to fight 54’s as +1’s. DA missions on a decent melee character are already super lucrative in spite of their enemy groups being harder than Council.

They certainly do Extreme damage. Remember they do those hundreds of points of damage without any enhancements...

I was too busy looking at the defense/resistance values to notice! Yeah - no from me on the status protection bit. Change it to status resistance for the user and maybe though.

Basically you couldn’t simultaneously run Temp Invulnerability and Unyielding on a Scrapper or Tanker, for example. Yes you could easily say support sets lost meaning to those AT’s when that exclusivity feature was removed, but rounding out the defenses of melee characters was never the only purpose of a support AT to begin with. Just because my main, a Scrapper, no longer needed to choose between S/L resistance and mez resistance does not mean that (1) I did not benefit from even more resistance and defense and (2) the other three AT’s at the time did not benefit from mez protection ally buffs.

I saw that post but saw no evidence provided to support its claim - the claim that support sets were designed the way they were specifically because of toggle exclusivity - and that the removal of toggle exclusivity diminished support’s value too much. Seemed like a vague correlational observation sans causation type of thing to me. Unless I remember incorrectly, toggle exclusivity was almost exclusively a scrappers and tankers issue, meaning the support AT would have maintained the exact same value to Blasters, Controllers, and Defenders (and still quite a lot of value to scrappers and tankers until IO’s and incarnates allowed them to round out their shortcomings to reach nigh invincibility).

There was a pretty good amount of chatter in the Sorcery threads that told me all of my support characters supposedly suck. I too wanted some guidance as to how all support AT’s could simultaneously be as gimped as some were saying and yet I could be feeling so effective on my dozens of support characters.

Appreciate the clarification. But it was certainly also a much welcomed change for people who wanted to play an Earth based armor without committing to neutered offense/mobility and I’m sure you recognize the significance of the change from that angle too 😉

Well, presumably they mean for you to have the option to not run Granite some of the time or else the change is meaningless. But presumably you mean the two modes are still intended to compliment one another. In which case, they would need to look at toggle suppression as opposed to toggle dropping at the very least to make that a viable concept. That being said, I don’t believe any power should be considered mandatory in any set even if things like mez protection toggles are treated as mandatory by the player base. I think the powers that are directly comparable with no differing bells and whistles should be balanced as such - IE Brimstone Armor vs Temp Invulnerability. Two armor toggles with two resistance types with no other noticeable distinction (unless Brimstone has a lower end cost in which case forgive me I’m not at my computer).

I think there need to be some very modest bumps in the values of Rock/Brimstone/Crystal Armors. I’ve built up something for a Granite-less Stone tanker, and it may be work fine, but it’s very obvious if you compare apples to apples that the values on these powers are a hair too low. If you look at Invuln/Rad/Elec and then you look at Brimstone, there’s no reason it shouldn’t at least get 30% res on a tanker instead of 25%. Likewise if you look at Ice/EA/SR then look at Rock/Crystal, it’s clear you’re being shorted a couple of percentage points on Stone. I’m not saying they need huge buffs, just a slight upward tweak.

Repel as in the Kinetics power which ironically does not use the repel effect.

Anyway, thanks for the reminder that my grav/traps has a problem and has to change a slot now. But my Grav/Sonic with Sorcery and Teleport Target is already built for optimal usage of these changes 🙂 reverse repel singy with four ally toggles that I can drop mid-mob at will! (Makes use of singy change, changes to all 5 sorcery powers, and teleport target interrupt change all in one little gimmick character)

KD is a superior effect to KB outside of very tactical circumstances. You receive a strong buff from converting KB to KD in many different dimensions whether you like it or not (AoE DPS, ability to keep mobs in CC patches including powers like Bonfire). You may not want the mileage out of that IO for some private reason, but it is nonsensical to claim you get nothing for it besides happier teammates.

Perfectly fair to not like the -repel effect for this reason. Just saying it’s completely within your power to turn your problem with the new Singy into a massive boon at a relatively small cost. I am willing to pay that cost for that buff, so I like the change where you do not.

Cut the defense buff powers down from 10% to 5% and I’d call this a reasonable compromise with the folks that see a problem. 10% auto defense is too much. I disagree with the premise that support AT’s are struggling at all though. EDIT: I’m willing to even say 5% *enhanceable*, even though, damn will that make Cold Dom OP.

A single set bonus is a perfectly reasonable cost for turning a power into a KD patch IMO. Sure it will disrupt a few existing builds, but that’s just... tough.

I do not test as rigorously as others but it seems to perform like the category of patch powers that have a chance to proc every 10 seconds. I would recommend you visit the Proc Monster threads where Sir Myshkin has detailed his tests on a number of powersets - that’s my first reference for most of my weird proc questions about toggles and pseudopets. I followed his analysis on Traps (Caltrops/Poison Trap good, Acid Mortar ok, Trip Mine only good with Force Feedback, others bad) and a few other sets.

PPM - the thing that’s been out for a long time - certainly works well for Caltrops. My last testing wasn’t THAT long ago.

I think a lot of us have been speculating since that “internal recharge” change to epic snipes that was rolled back, but yeah... is OP about something besides speculation? Have two Traps characters with the proctrops and have not observed an issue (but have not been looking for one).

...what nerfs?

I understand the desire for a snipe but I’m also a firm believer that the cottage rule (queue eyeroll) was actually a good rule because every power has fans as is. That being said, Sonic needs some kind of buff along those lines. Shout needs a buff at the very least. Ice and Water do not. Ice would frankly have to be nerfed in some other way because it’s already top tier s/t damage without a snipe. Water has enough utility/cc, awesome AoE, and double water jet that its slightly lower s/t damage is needed as a balancing factor. DP *probably* does but only really *definitely* does if they nerf PPM. If you want monstrous damage from DP, all you have to do is proc it. It’s not unreasonable to say you shouldn’t have to... but, just sayin’, the option is right there.

Somehow never even thought of power boosting it. Good call.