arcane

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.

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.