arcane

I’m not convinced that the number of people that never get to 50 is significant once you factor out things like inactive accounts that played a couple days and then gave up. I’m also not convinced that it’s very important to balance characters around incomplete rough drafts. The only exception here is that it’s presumably at least important for the GM’s to consider what level powers are available and whether or not a set is too front/end-loaded. But I would be against balancing “out of context”. The level 50 possibilities HAVE to be considered IMO.

I just plain don’t agree that the bonuses are currently ineffective or that comparing ratios of types of powers to types of bonuses is conclusive or even relevant. I’m certainly in the “10%” that notices bonuses as is, I guess. I don’t even consider them the least noticeable set bonus.

So like the SR effect for support, gotcha. Fair. Would help FF, sure, but I still disagree that self sustain is the way we should be boosting support sets. I would probably join in and make the SR defender were it a thing though.

This doesn't feel consistent with your OP. The OP made me think you think FF needs the additional personal defense/resistance, but this post seems to tell me that was not the case?

I am now becoming more and more convinced of the existence of "Forum PvP'ers" that know the game's mathematics but the game not so much. "There's never really been a time when support characters were all that great" - Jesus Christ...

Yeah I often play farm maps on non-farm toons just because I prefer the outdoor fights. And tend to slot a little endurance reduction but never very much (20-30%). And like things like stormies and so on. None of which is a problem with incarnates now and I’ll just drop some toggles at lower levels. No one really needs to run their leadership toggles at low levels for instance.

On the contrary, I find myself typically 4 slotting both health and stamina and still having to slow my roll on occasion. But between the options of Vigor, Cardiac, Support, and Ageless, there’s no longer any excuse for letting that stop you 45+. Below that? Maybe, but since when are lowbies supposed to be optimal.

Hard no to any support set receiving a personal-only armor power (PFF being more of an oddball pseudo-phase as is). That seems like a no brainer to me. ...Only posted twice because I think I replied to a reply to an offended person or something.

This totally-new-to-me narrative about debuff sets being weak is really making me wonder what game I’ve been playing.

Not an outright no, but, nowadays literally any endurance problem can be 100% mitigated if playing at level 45 or higher due to incarnate options. I have yet to run across a combination that Ageless Core fell short of fixing entirely with a decent build. For lower content, I just pick a couple toggles not to run if I have to. It’s low level content after all. Just commenting that damn is endurance easier than ever to put up with.

Man I hope trick arrow doesn’t get a self heal. This forum has an epidemic of players that think characters are unplayable without self heals and/or self defense in their primary/secondary that, to me, signifies players not learning to use other tools at their disposal.

No change needed because all they require is the slightest forethought to fully counter. Simply target them first and mez them or burst them down. Since they’re minions, nothing’s stopping you from doing this. Only thing I find difficult about Malta is how their stun grenades last a couple decades...

A slight tilt towards tanking/melee is pretty much the meta in every MMO I've ever played. Even the slightest squishiness tends to come with a slight learning curve, which the most casual players shy away from. Doesn't mean squishy/support/etc. characters aren't capable of being overpowered - just that the "average" player is not in it for a challenge. Not that there's much challenge left to PvE in this game.

I haven’t been following all this but it sure feels like you’re grasping at straws for some kind of win, Ral. Acting like we don’t all know exactly why fiery aura brutes were excluded also feels like a real eye roller.

No other archetype has a powerset that is used in a remotely similar way on a remotely similar scale to brute fiery aura.

It has actually never been a better time in Paragon for casual participation. Top tier builds have never been as accessible as they are now. I was just telling someone last night that I remember when one purply build felt like my life’s work, not a week’s work.

Just want to add to the force field discussion thatI consider myself quite a rebel when it comes to not playing the defense soft cap meta, but not bringing my own ~15-30% defense on every toon sounds like major slacking.

I’m pretty sure force field doesn’t need power boost to give everyone excessive defense? Or do I play in another universe.

My guess is maybe the power could be made to only boost click defense powers for as long as power boost is active, like it does with defense toggles. But that’s probably not how the coding works.

But why do you need the help of the next tick if you’re not even taking enough damage to break through the first tiny tick?

In my experience, of all of my level 50 blasters, the ones with absorb are sturdier than the ones without, with the exception of mental being sturdier.

We do play blasters and we’re fine?

I didn’t argue it wasn’t powerful without power boost. Just that it was absurdly powerful with. It will remain very powerful without, plus I look forward to justifying different epic pools lol.

Doesn’t reflect my experience at all either. Seems more like someone is having trouble playing blasters with the ease they can now be played.

Right, but no other AT gets such a thing so consistently across all sets. Blasters should be very grateful 🙂