Captain Citadel

The Fighting power pool should definitely be tweaked to not require taking Boxing/Kick to get Tough/Weave. I hate having to take one as a melee character and then work it into my attack chain so as not to completely waste a power slot. The synergy is there for people who want to voluntarily invest in the entire pool, but Tough and Weave are as commonly used as powers like Hasten, CJ or Hover which don't require any pre-requisites.

Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere before and already discussed, but I didn't find anything when I tried searching for it. So here goes. How would people feel about giving Air Superiority a gap-closing teleport effect, similar to Spring Attack? This might necessitate switching its position in the pool with another power to keep it balanced with the investment required in Leaping for Spring Attack, but perhaps it could also be added as a bonus effect that only applies if you have other Flight pool powers selected. To differentiate it from Spring Attack, I would propose making it a single-target ability rather than a targeted PBAoE. Just seems like a good thematic addition to Air Superiority, even if you only got the teleport-to-target effect by using it while having a flight power toggled on. Flying characters should have a way to zip towards their target to deliver a melee strike, just like Leaping characters do. Super Speed has (or will have) Speed Phase to dash directly into a pack of mobs, and Teleport already has Combat Teleport.

Adding onto this suggestion, a "hover" stance for the Walk power would be cool too. Not capable of actual flight, just an option to show your character moving at Walk speed using a pose that floats off the ground. Would be ideal for all sorts of character concepts.

It's unfortunate that coding issues prevent the flight powers from being fully customized. I like the "Magneto flight" pose, but only while I'm hovering because it just doesn't look right to me at Fly and Afterburner speeds. I'll just have to keep toggling between Fly and Hover like before. Having a tailor setting to make Fly override Hover while toggled would be perfect, but I'm glad it works for people who wanted it the other way.

You're assuming I can afford to slot LotG in every +Def power I have, which is unfortunately not true. It's not a purely Defense-based build, I've set it up so that I can achieve perma-Rage without using Hasten (it's much simpler for me to just set Rage on auto-cast and not have to worry about keeping two powers up) while also devoting a considerable amount of slotting to improving my resistance to all damage types, including Toxic and Psionic to the point where they no longer pose a threat. I have between 72% and 79% resistance to everything that's not S/L, which as I said is already overcapped. Hover, Afterburner, and Tough Hide hold my 3 LotG global recharge IOs. Invincibility is 5-slotted for 4 pieces of Shield Wall and a Gaussian's Build Up proc. Weave is 4-slotted with the same Shield Wall 4-piece set. The rest of my recharge comes from other miscellaneous set bonuses, plus my Agility Alpha slot Incarnate power.

I already have Hover, Combat Jumping, and Weave in my build. Plus the few defense powers in Invulnerability, which is of course a resistance-based set rather than defense. I'm fine with Afterburner being a mule as it exists on Live because I'm constantly using it to fly fast, obviously. EM is less useful because I've already got -Fly debuff protection from Hover, albeit not as much. EM also gets around the usual in-combat travel suppression, but since I'm generally only using Hover while fighting anyway, that suppression effect barely impacts me as it is. Hover can't exceed the speed Fly is normally reduced to while being suppressed. Lastly, EM also provides some +Def outside combat, more or less like Afterburner does on Live, but I can't think of a situation I've been in where that +Def actually helped, because the one time I could use a bit more of it is when I'm fighting, meaning I have Afterburner toggled off and am not getting any +Def from it. Now, if EM were to be tweaked to provide slightly less +Def in combat rather than having that effect completely suppressed, that would make it a genuinely attractive power choice and provide a tangible active benefit to my build. It would be somewhat similar to Stealth in that regard. As it stands, I'm just going to take Afterburner off the extra tray it comes in and put it where EM is and pretty much forget EM is there at all.

I think you misunderstand the portion of my post that you quoted. I don't have additional slots in Fly, Swift, or EM. I have to keep the single LotG global recharge IO in EM because my Live build needs it in Afterburner's single slot. I put a single 50+5 generic +FlySpeed IO in Fly and a single one in Swift, because...well, what else would I put in there? I don't need endurance reduction in Fly, I use Hover while fighting. I don't need extra run speed in Swift if I'm never going to use my legs to get around. EM is barely increasing my Fly speed because of how high it already is due to those two simple IOs and my Alpha slot's 33% travel speed bonus. Basically I was explaining why EM was of such limited benefit to me compared to the Afterburner power currently in that slot. I know we're getting Afterburner as a bonus power now, which is fine. But I need that power slot to have a LotG global recharge set bonus in it because I only have 3 of them in my entire build and I've set it up to achieve perma-Rage without Hasten. EM has effectively turned that power slot into a dead mule, which is disappointing. Like I said before, I already have Tough from the Fighting pool 6-slotted for set bonuses but I never actually turn it on because it only increases S/L resistance, which I'm already overcapped on. It's nice to have Afterburner for free now, but it doesn't feel great to have a recharge timer on it, and it also doesn't feel great to have Afterburner replaced by a power that I can't really swap out for something else, but also won't benefit much from actually using. Sure, it's one less button to push, but I'm not playing a very demanding build to begin with so that wasn't an issue. I have like 8 active buttons and a whole bunch of toggles as it is.

EM looks really good on paper initially, but unfortunately that +19.04 mph is largely being wasted. I have two 50+5 generic +FlySpeed IOs, one in Fly and the other in Swift. Combined with Agility Radial Paragon in my Alpha slot, this is what I'm getting with Fly after EM is turned off. Basically, the only beneficial effect I'm likely to notice from having EM on in combat is the removal of Fly suppression, but it's not very often I'm going to need to switch to Fly in a fight for a short burst and then back to Hover. Or in Page 2 terms, switch Fly on and then off again. Even with the forthcoming vastly reduced endurance cost, it doesn't really seem worth it to turn on EM at all. It does increase Hover's speed to around 58 mph, but that's so fast it's more of a hindrance in indoor maps, which is where most fights take place. Makes EM feel like a dead mule. It's bad enough that I have Tough 6-slotted for set bonuses but will never actually turn it on because my S/L resistance is already overcapped, and it only gives S/L resist. That's why I'm strongly considering dropping EM for Maneuvers, because my build is only partially def-capped. Though that extra 3% +Def isn't pushing any specific defenses over the 45% line that are currently below it, so it's probably not worth the end drain. Sure, it's helping my team, but they probably don't care about a measly +3% defense. On that note, I think it would be nice if EM could retain some small percentage of its +Def while in combat, but I see how that would probably be considered OP. It just doesn't feel great to have another mule power that I may as well never turn on, that's all. It's not the end of the world if I just wind up forgetting EM is even in my build once these changes go live, because it's still giving me all the same benefits that Live Afterburner does when switched off.

There's no need to get snarky. I was simply trying to explain that the Live version of Afterburner is only useful to me as a speed boost and LotG mule, and I always shut it off upon arrival to a fight. I'm glad that EM has the same IO slotting, because it means my build isn't affected. But EM is dead weight compared to the old form of Afterburner. For my money, the -Fly debuff resistance is a pretty niche benefit. It's probably much more useful for ranged characters who are using it to fight in the air. I use Hover in combat so I have on-demand 3D movement, but I'm a melee character with Foot Stomp and Mighty Judgement, so I'm generally glued to the ground as long as I have something to punch. That's why I'll most likely have to replace EM with Maneuvers when this goes live, because it's not worth micromanaging EM to the same degree I currently micromanage Afterburner when EM's relative benefits have more or less been baked into Fly and/or rerouted into the new Afterburner. Again, I'm sure EM is going to be a boon to other people with entirely different builds and playstyles, Just giving feedback that after testing it, I've concluded that it's not a power I'd benefit from keeping. Achieving perma-Rage without Hasten has stretched parts of my build very thin, so I'm depending on Afterburner to provide a 3rd LotG recharge bonus. Once it becomes EM, the benefits of constantly activating and deactivating it are vastly reduced, so I'd rather replace it with something I would get more use out of. This means I have to swap it for something with equivalent IO slotting, and Maneuvers is literally the only other option I have for an extra +Def power given my current powers and pool choices.

I understand EM has conditional +Def because the Live version of Afterburner has it with an OAS condition, so it's effectively only working out of combat, but it doesn't feel good to fall short of the (non-AB) Fly cap without it while only benefiting from the -Fly resistance in combat. I know Hover already has +Def, but would it be unreasonable for EM to have its +Def simply reduced in combat rather than eliminated? With two 50+5 generic +FlySpeed IOs slotted in Fly and Swift, I'm 1.95 MPH short of the base (non-AB) Fly cap. That means EM is barely increasing my flying speed, and as a tank the +Def only out of combat isn't very beneficial because I'm going to be in the center of the fight all the time anyway. I know the endurance cost is going to be adjusted, but even setting that aside, EM is still offering very little benefit. I realize this is just the perspective of one player with a very specific role and build, but I just wanted to provide my feedback that EM is turning out to be a very underwhelming power pick. I'm more than likely going to drop it in favor of Maneuvers and keep using that slot as a LotG mule. Hopefully the animation issue can be resolved somehow. I like both of the animations but it would be nice if we could choose between "Magneto flight" and regular flight on Fly, and just have that override Hover as long as it's toggled. I'll have Hover on 100% of the time for the +Def and air control, but when I'm going full speed with Fly, (especially Fly+AB) I'd like to override Hover's animation to reflect the difference in speed.

I wouldn't even mind if Super Jump got buffed to put it more firmly in the middle between Fly and Super Speed. I just think not having 100% uptime on Afterburner sucks when Fly becomes 33 mph slower than Super Speed 66% of the time. Thing is, most people are still taking SS/SJ together, right? And even someone only taking Super Speed is still getting a Super Jump once every 4 seconds, plus 100% uptime on their new Speed Phase ability. It doesn't feel good to get an overall speed boost and then see that people with Super Speed and/or Super Jump are not just still faster, but way faster compared to my flying character than they already used to be, and now I can't even enjoy 100% uptime on my maximum speed. If Super Jump's jump speed cap got upped to 110 mph, this would maintain the pecking order of Fly < Jump < Speed while allowing us to have full-time Afterburner back (even if we had to take 3 Flight powers to lose the 30-second recharge, I'd call that an acceptable "tax") while still having a larger difference in speeds (relative to Live) that is less than that 33 mph gap.

I appreciate that aspect of the change, but that's also why I've repeatedly suggested a compromise that no one seems to want to acknowledge. If someone is currently deeply invested in the Flight pool on Live for reasons beyond just having Afterburner, and doesn't mind continuing to give up those power slots in the Beta version, could the 30-second timer on Afterburner be conditionally removed? The Fighting pool already has a similar feature. It would be nice to have the recharge time taken off of Afterburner if you have 3 or more Flight pool powers.

You're saying I shouldn't be dissatisfied with this change because the gap between Fly without Afterburner and the run speed cap got smaller. The only time Fly's speed becomes close to that of Super Speed's run cap is when Afterburner is running, for 30 seconds. The rest of the time, the best most builds can afford without giving up something else is 87 mph without Afterburner. That means more than half the time, Fly is lagging behind Super Speed by 33 mph. This is a greater disparity in speed than what currently exists on live, with 100% uptime on Afterburner. Because again, currently on Live there's almost no comparison between Fly and Super Speed without it. Just because I'll fly faster on Beta without Afterburner turned on, doesn't mean I should be happy about being 33 mph slower than Super Speed characters most of the time when I used to be just 5 mph slower all of the time. Even with Afterburner turned on, I'll be 18 mph slower. No matter how you slice it, I'm relatively a lot slower than a Super Speed character compared to how much slower I am on Live. That's why I previously suggested a compromise: Could the changes to Afterburner be tweaked so that the 60-second CD is eliminated if you have 3 or more powers from the Flight pool? This would preserve the significant speed disparity between characters that have only taken Fly or Super Speed, while softening the blow for those of us who would like to remain invested in the Flight pool. -18 mph is a lot bigger of a gap than -5 mph, but if I had to choose, I'd rather keep 3 powers in Flight like I have on Live and suffer that -18 mph if the alternative is a -33 mph difference instead.

Snipping this from @Bopper's post because I can't figure out how to quote two posts on two different pages in one post: The disparity is not less, it's greater. The numbers don't lie. Afterburner is now 10% slower than the run speed cap in Beta compared to Live. Fly's speed cap is closer to the run speed cap than it was, but still not close enough to be comparable. And now Afterburner only works for 30 seconds, with a 60 second recharge. That's a significant loss, if you ask me. But I keep being told it's meaningless.

Lagging behind Super Speed by 18 mph all the time, and 35 mph two-thirds of the time feels pretty relevant to me. That's a significantly wider disparity than the current flight speed vs. run speed caps. It's awesome that everyone with a full travel power gets to go faster, but I don't want to be lagging even further behind. Travel powers don't need to be perfectly equal, but they should be more or less in line with each other.

I think what they're asking for is to have equal or slightly reduced disparity between travel powers as we have now. The proposed changes will leave Flight at least as far behind Speed and Leaping as it was before Afterburner was created specifically to try to reduce the huge gap between flight speed and running/jumping speeds. But it seems the present consensus against this proposal amounts to "Your travel power is the easiest one to use, so sit down, shut up and be happy that Fly is faster on Beta than it is on Live." The fact that Fly's speed relative to Super Speed on Live has gone down in Beta is apparently immaterial, and we're not allowed to be unhappy about that.

I'd be perfectly fine with bumping up the new effective jump speed cap to sit anywhere between 102 and 120. Say...112? Then it's still faster than Flight and not as much slower than Speed as Flying would be. In exchange, leave everything like it currently is on Beta, but allow players who have taken Fly, Hover, and Evasive Maneuvers to have an unlimited toggle on Afterburner. Keep the Only Affecting Self limitation, it doesn't bother me. All I want from this update is for Fly to be not as much slower than SJ and SS than it is now. With the current proposed changes, Fly will end up being even slower relative to SS and SJ than it was before Afterburner was created specifically to address that gap.

Even while AB is in effect, Flight will be even slower than Speed and Jumping than it already is right now on Live. Stop talking down to me like I'm some kind of slow-witted child just because I'm not jumping for joy over the flight speed cap being flatly higher on Beta than it is now. Everyone's travel speed caps are going up. Relative to the other buffed travel pools, Flight will now lag further behind than it did before the original version of Afterburner was created. That's the part that I'm complaining about. All the travel pools are getting buffs, and the net result of those buffs is that Flight will be relatively slower than it is on Live. That's why I suggested a compromise: Allow the Beta version of Afterburner to be toggled on indefinitely if a player has slotted Hover, Fly, and Evasive Maneuvers together. Much like how the Fighting pool gains increased effectiveness for investing more deeply into it. Those players who have only invested in Super Speed or Super Jump without reaching further into the Speed or Leaping pools would still be faster than players who have only selected Fly. Those same players will still be faster than a flyer who has taken Hover, Fly, and Evasive Maneuvers and who is theoretically flying with perma-Afterburner, because the new flight speed cap is still lower than the run speed cap by a significant margin. Speed will still be the fastest travel power, it just wouldn't be as much faster than Flight than it is now.

"It's faster in Beta than it is on Live, so you have no room to complain" is kind of a moot point when the other travel pools are being upgraded to the point where they will have a greater speed advantage than they do now.

I'm not missing that fact. But the new Afterburner will not be a permanent toggle, and the net result of all these changes has effectively widened the speed gap to where it was before Afterburner was initially created to mitigate it. I'm suggesting a compromise for it to be permanently toggleable if we have Hover, Fly, and Evasive Maneuvers in our builds. Speed and Leaping are going to be even faster than Flight than they already are without requiring a deep investment in their pools. It seems fair to me that people who do choose to invest in Flight should be able to narrow that gap even a little bit.

Could we perhaps get permanent access to the Afterburner toggle if we have taken Hover, Fly, and EM? That way there's some incentive to invest in the Flight pool to get the most out of it. Even with permanently capped flight speed, characters using flight as their preferred mode of travel are going to be slower than the jumpers and speedsters. And now Super Jump has been buffed to the point where they can reach all the same places as flyers and teleporters. I don't see the harm in making the speed gap between Flight and Speed/Leaping narrower without outright removing the advantages of the latter two pools. Just because Fly is faster in Beta than Fly + Afterburner on Live doesn't mean these changes to Flight should be held beyond all criticism.

I'd really like to avoid re-rolling with entirely new powersets. I said that in my OP. Telling me my chosen powersets are completely non-viable is really not helping.

Build Link I'd like to have someone actually versed in Dominators look over this build, because it seems to perform really poorly on paper compared to other builds I've seen here. Not sure if that's because I built it wrong or because I just picked bad base powersets. I was going for high recharge and perma-Domination but it seems sorely lacking in defense/resists. I primarily play a Tanker so I don't know if that's because it's a Dominator, or because I built it wrong. I know the resistance soft caps are considerably lower, but still. It seems utterly useless in solo play. The only real stipulations I have for pool powers are to keep Sorcery and Fire Mastery for concept reasons. I like the Barrier and Reactive Incarnate powers but if they're bad I'm fine with axing them. I'm not keen on re-rolling with entirely new base powersets, however.

I appreciate it. 😀 I know conceptual constraints are stupid and lame but unfortunately the only power that I think might work would be Toxic Dart, from Experimentation. Sort of a "hey, I brought along this stun gun to incapacitate people I shouldn't punch through a wall" thing.

That's true, but I had no idea how to build a character back on Live because I started playing this game when I was just a kid. Now that I have a general idea of what properly built characters are capable of, it's fun to try to get as close to that level as possible within the constraints of a concept build. Playing a Tanker that can just stroll into huge mosh pits of enemies and not die is awesome, I don't have to worry about memorizing boss mechanics or managing defensive cooldowns or anything like in other MMOs. Tanking in this game is fun because you actually feel super-powered.