Puma

As someone who tried hard to take part in beta testing Storm Blast, and for brief second having it seem like the Devs were actually listening to concerns of the players, I have to say, this whole system on this server needs an update. I know there's the Alpha testing server first hand. But I also know how small that group is. They're great people, but they're a tiny fraction of players. So when a new powerset gets to Beta here, and is largely "done" without some minor tweaks, it's really frustrating. Frankly, with the problems identified with Storm Blast and having it pushed out the door like it was with no real warning, it makes me feel like there's no real point in beta testing. The decisions have been made by the gods of this server, praise be their name. I would REALLY prefer it if, for future powersets, you change your approach. Frankly, if the next set you're planning on doing was, say, Wind Control, I'd REALLY like it if you actually took your idea, polled the players on their thoughts of the direction before development, and after development, brought it to Beta here WITHOUT a firm commitment to have it launch "soon" and have the concept locked down in stone. There were some real problems identified with the design of Storm Cell and Cat 5, and some good solutions posed. There were so many posts by a couple of other players attacking people for daring to point out those problems on a set "so close to done" that deletions had to occur, then a few minor tweaks to numbers and animations that don't address those concerns brought up, and then no warning that it was about to go live so further testing and brainstorming solutions was a waste of OUR time. This is NOT the way things used to be. I remember when Savage Melee was being tested and the Devs really listened, tweaked, and fixed what a lot of the problems with the set's design. It didn't become a tier 1 set, but it became better. And they took their time and listened. The approach I saw here with Storm Blast is also a different approach from what I see of the writing and contact development here too, where feedback seems to be listened to much better. Well, this time, I don't know what the rush is, but I feel like I just wasted a week of my free time testing something for no real reason. Cool. You could have had one of the most beautiful sets in a long time be actually playable. Now, it's a slog fest that is a chore to play at LEAST until the 30s, and then once you hit the high levels really struggles by its design against the kinds of enemies you face. But hey...it's out, so I guess it doesn't matter. But I'm disappointed and annoyed at how this whole thing was handled.

Removing the lockouts would help, but it doesn't alter the "tax" this set imposes on the use of your secondary powers, which no other set in the game has. The fact that the set is relatively weak without Storm Cell and Cat 5 at full strength only makes that tax heavier. Lemme show you a comparison between this set and Ice Blast: Side by Side comparison Power (Ice) Cast time DMG Power (Storm) Cast Time DMG Ice Bolt 1 sec 62.56 Gust 1.17 75.07 (DoT) Ice Blast 1.67 102.6 Hail Stones 1.67 102.60 (DoT) Frost Breath 2.67 87.59 (DoT) Jet Stream 1.67 50.05 Aim --- --- Storm Cell 2.03 Dependent on cont. attacks from primary Freeze Ray 1.0 137.64 Intensify ---- ----- Ice Storm 2.03 116.78 (DoT) Direct Strike (snipe) 3.33 281.53 Bitter Ice Blast 1.07 142.64 Chain Lightning 1.17 76.45 (DoT) Bitter Freeze Ray 172.67 2.5 Cloud Burst 1.67 142.33 Blizzard 2.03 417.8 (DoT) Category 5 2.5 316.98 (Dependent on cont. attacks from primary) As you can see above, Storm Cell has a lot less direct damage potential, especially in regard to hard hitting attacks, outside of Storm Cell and Cat 5. It does include the snipe, but otherwise, it only has -ONE- other attack that does over 110 points of damage, and only has two other "AoE" powers (Chain Lightning and Jet Stream), both of which aren't big damage numbers themselves outside of the storm cell. That really means you need to up the damage of Storm Cell and keep it up and get Cat 5 amped up as quick as possible. Which makes using your secondary powers a detriment. So lets look at that in real world action against an AV or Pylon, etc. We'll go with Dark Manip Secondary. With Ice Blast, I can toss Ice Storm And Blizzard which immediately start dealing their full damage potential and debuffs, and then cycle through Freeze Ray (137), Bitter Ice Blast (142), Bitter Freeze Ray (172.67) and then throw in Midnight Grasp (180) . When necessary for end or damage boost, I could use Soul Drain and Dark Consumption. In cycles where I'm not using Soul Drain or Dark Consumption, I'd do a total of 631.67 dmg per cycle OUTSIDE of my AoEs with no penalty to their total damage/debuff output. And honestly, the SMART attack chain would be to START with Soul Drain because then ALL of those attacks are doing a TON more damage in the fight. With Storm Blast, I can toss Storm Cell and Cat 5, which don't start doing thier real damage until I start attacking with primaries. So I start...But I really only have three attacks over 100 dmg points to cycle through: Direct Strike (180 since it would be fast cast), Cloud Burst (142.33), and Hail Stones (102). I cycle through those but then if I add in Midnight Grasp (180) that weakens my Storm Cell since it doesn't trigger the additional attacks. And I assume three primary attacks are enough to full ramp up Cat 5? I dont quite know how to tell. Oh, and lets not forget that if I'm fighting an AV, there's a lock out between attacks from the cell anyway, so while Ice Storm continues to pelt away at him, Storm Cell and Cat 5 may not. Now, If I start with Soul Drain after I drop the Storm Cell to boost the damage of the rest of my attacks up front, my storm cell isn't doing anything, and Cat 5 isn't amping up either. So I probably won't do that, because I'd be aggroing the whole mob then stand there for 5 seconds dropping Storm Cell and Cat 5 with no real damage going on. So I take Soul Drain out of the equation till later in the fight, at which point it is, again, seconds where I'm not getting the full benefit of Storm Cell as I use it. So in this method I have somewhere around 30-40 less pts of dmg per cycle, but also less AoE damage going because unlike Ice storm and Hurricane, my AoEs require me boosting them with my other attacks, and I'm taking time out of that to use the heaviest hitter I have from my secondary since my primary really only has 2. I suppose, theoretically, you could use the secondary powers during the "lock outs" where those powers cant hit the AV, but it's impossible to tell when that is or plan for that since the powers are, by design, "chance of" anyway. The point is, the set is already mild WITHOUT Storm Cell and Cat 5 being full strength, so if you go into your secondary for anything it feels like it just makes you weaker. And based on my experience, while this is OK against normal mobs and the visuals and chaos are fun, against harder targets like AVS it really suffers. This is why I REALLY think the primary attacks boosts to Storm Cell need to "linger" even after the attack, giving you a chance to do other things without feeling like it's wasting potential there. I really think an "Intensified" effect like "bloom" would help, and get rid of the lockout. Now...there are some archetypes (Sentinels) and some secondary sets (Storm) that can make up for this but doing their thing on their own and freeing you up to totally focus on boosting Storm Cell and Cat 5, but I don't think we want a powerset that really locks you into a very limited set of options to perform as well as most other sets can generally, do we?

Ok, so I rerolled, thinking maybe my concerns with end and complexity were due to being a Corruptor with a secondary that really didn't offer any passive buffs. I decided to try Storm Blast/Energy Manip Blaster, because I thought it had the best ways to mitigate my concerns with the set from previous testing: it offered excellent endurance cost reduction, allowed for an AoE Stun that would help with the Cat 5 mitigation issue, and even allowed for Boost Range so I could stay far away from Storm Cell and Cat 5 and blast from a distance where it should lower incoming damage. I levelled it up to level 50, fully slotted with sets that I would usually slot with, used Mace Master patron pool for the added defense which would pair well with power boost, and had alpha slotted to tier 4 so I was actually 50 (+1) and ran the first Maria Jenkins mission at +2x4, which is a very normal for even a mid tier build at that level. The end cost of Storm cell WAS better. It didn't bother me much at all at that level. So that's good. And I was able to clear through the mobs rather easily by starting off dropping Storm Cell, then using boost range +power boost and stun to stun the mobs, then dropping Cat 5 and attacking with storm cell attacks. It wasn't "fast" but it worked, and relatively safely. Slower and more difficult than most blaster primaries, where you quickly nova and then clean up the stragglers and hard hitters, but it was working and I could see me doing it on a character on live. When it came to the AV, I faceplanted twice. I never got him below about 80% HP. But it's an AV, and I wasn't as experienced with this set as normal, so maybe I just needed to slow down, right? So...I lowered the difficulty to +1x4, so even con with me. And I still faceplanted twice. I really couldn't handle the AV. The problem I kept finding was the same as before: there is a DEFINITE tax on Storm Cell AND Cat 5, and it goes beyond the Endurance cost which is the problem at low levels. There is also a tax on the use of your secondary powers. Storm Cell and Cat 5 require you to keep spamming your primary attacks for them to really do damage, which you need desperately against higher level enemies since none of the single target attacks are actually very powerful. They look AWESOME, but they're almost all DoT and not really heavy hitters. Every time I went to use a secondary power like Stun or Total Focus, I felt like I was losing damage because then Storm Cell wasn't doing anything but minor debuffing. "But how is that different than ANY powerset" you ask? Easy. If this were a normal AoE, I'd fire and it would do its full damage, regardless of what I do next. If I fire off Explosive Blast it does its full damage even if I switch to Ice Sword afterward, and then drop an Ice patch. If I drop Rain of Fire, it does its full damage even if my next attack is The Lotus Drops. With this set, if I take time to fire off a secondary attack, then Storm Cell's total damage output is lowered. It makes using secondary powers of ANY kind cost more than just their end cost. They cost damage loss from the AoE attack in your primary. And if you have Cat 5 going too, it's even worse. That's a problem. A big one, for me at least. Defenders, who struggle to do damage as it is, now have a primary that does even less damage if they stop to heal someone or buff them etc. :My final thoughts: as of now, anyway, are that the set's design is really cool, but really flawed. If it was either cat 5 OR storm cell that had the weird mechanic tied to the other attacks it might be bearable; but with BOTH of them requiring your other attacks for THEM to really function to their potential, it makes the set more difficult to utilize fully and makes your secondary powers feel like a burden to use that costs you. Right now, I'd skip this set on live for anything other than a role player toon, or maybe a sentinel that has a secondary armor set that doesn't require any active power use. Changes I suggest are needed: 1. Storm Cell REALLY needs to be different in how it functions. If you really want to have it tied to your other attacks, have an attack in storm cell work sort of like "bloom" in Nature. Each attack in the cell creates a stack of Intensity that lasts for 5 seconds, which triggers the storm to start attacking. Each stack increases the storm's attack rate, accuracy, and debuff power. The more stacks you have the higher the damage/debuff of the storm. Have it cap at 4 stacks of "intensity" which gives maximum attack rate and debuff, and I'd suggest making that maximum be about 10-20% higher than current levels would be if you spammed attacks. Then have Intensify version of AIM grant the normal To Hit and Damage bonus, and 4 stacks of Intensity to the player. This way you still can lay the storm without aggro until you start attacking, but once you start, you can still throw in secondary powers as you fight without the storm then becoming useless while you do. This would also allow lower levels to use things like blue insps, or end boost powers, etc. while the storm keeps attacking so you aren't feeling like you've left some of the damage on the table or let mobs get away while you do. You can pace your attacks better without feeling like Storm Cell is weakening instantly. 2. Some of the single target attacks need to hit harder, and it needs fewer DoTs. There is no way to take down an AV with this set right now, which is crazy to me on a blaster. When you have a lock out on the attacks from Storm Cell and rest of your attacks attacks aren't hard hitters, the AVs can just regen faster than you can dish out damage unless you're using powers your secondary which deal more damage, only as discussed above, that means storm cell isn't doing any damage while you do so, so you basically end up with NO heavy hitters in your primary against these kinds of targets. I think if you did these two things, it would probably be OK. Right now, for me, it really just isn't fun...and damn do I want it to be, because I love the visuals and concept. I'm sorry, I'm sure this is frustrating to hear this this close to launch, but it's my experience, and I've tried it now on several combinations and multiple archetypes and keep coming back to the same problems.

That worked, thanks. I just went ahead and made a macro for it.

Hi all. Im currently beta testing and Im finding that I dont have any access to the Freebies menu. Anyone have any ideas?

I'd be down for testing with some other storm blast characters in a team up to see how they interact if anyone wants to try and pick a time and level.

I just wanted to publicly say thanks for being open to the feedback here, from all sides, and trying to find a balance. I know it isn't easy to do.

I think I was the first one to bring up the end cost, and while what you say above about recasting is true, that wasn't even my primary concern. My concern was that by set design, you're forced to drop a high end power from your blast set that does NO damage, and won't DO any damage, until you then start using your other attacks, and even then it's not "reliable" damage. And this is assuming you don't have a secondary that also requires you to drop a power as set up, like tar patch, etc. So you're starting off a fight with less end, and in a set that requires you to keep spending end constantly to get that power that cost end up front to even have a chance to do much. And if you skip it, your other powers aren't as effective since they're balanced around it. And this was something I didn't even consider until testing and finding I couldn't even get through minimal fights without being winded. I had to rest several times as I played this character, even at higher levels with IOs (no procs though). That, to me, is a bug, or a design flaw that they really should be aware of. Like I said, the concept for Storm Cell is fun, but the end cost needs to get reduced down to something like tar patch, OR you alter Intensify so it grants a slightly longer buff that also includes giving end back to you. Make it a targeted AoE version of Power Sink called Intensify where "You leech electricity from the bodies of foes, draining their endurance. This energy is transferred directly to you, granting a temporary to hit buff and damage boost to both you and your storm cell, and granting you end over time. Duration: 20 seconds." That or just change it that you "Use the static electricity in the air around you to boost the power of your storm attacks and granting yourself more endurance. +To Hit, +Dmg, +Max End" or something. SOMEHOW offset the heavy up front endurance costs of this set. If they don't want to do this change, a simpler one would be make Intensify last longer naturally, with a slightly lower boost, or give it a sort of Reach for the Limit effect, adding a proc called "intensification" to the +To Hit, +Dmg. The proc fires every time you hit an enemy during the 10 second buff, and each proc increases the accuracy of Storm Cell's attacks for 30 seconds, stacking three times. This fits thematically: your fighting amps up the storm, intensifying your own attacks and the chance your storm cell will hit targets. It would give the player a way to make the storm cell more reliable with harder targets for a reasonable amount of time, while still giving them a way to get burst damage for attacks like snipes, etc. If they did that and upped the base acc of Storm Cell slightly, they could just add a line in the power description that says "this power's accuracy can only be improved with Intensification" and avoid the entire confusion among players, while still giving a way for it to hit higher level foes and deal with end game content. I honestly believe right now if they lowered the end cost of Storm Cell or gave the set some way to get end back, and then found a way for Storm Cell to reliably hit harder targets, the set would be ready to go. I still think Cat 5 needs some upfront direct mitigation, but that won't be a deal breaker by itself if the other issues are fixed. The concern with Storm Cell's visuals is better, and I haven't seen it shoot off to other mobs yet like it did on me before, so HOPEFULLY that issue is resolved or at least mitigated now too. The devs have been listening to concerns, and making adjustments. I'm not sure why others are so upset. Nothing has been drastically altered, or nerfed. It's just being smoothed out.

I mean, they don't get amped up by their own lightning either, but that's how this version of a hurricane works. I think we can suspend disbelief a little. You could even make it so "foes are so terrified of the storm, they rush to the center, hoping the eye will be safer" if you have to have it make sense. Also, I did some more checking. On a corruptor, Tar Patch costs less than half the end of Storm Cell. While you could argue that's because Tar Patch doesn't do damage directly on its own, it DOES do -res, which adds to the damage of your other attacks do similar to Storm Cell. Tar Patch also slows like Storm Cell...only it does it better, so could we at least get maybe an end cost of 10 instead of the 15?

Edit: It looks like Storm Cell's base accuracy was bumped to 1.64 with this patch. That should help with the defense concerns at higher levels. It has a shorter recharge, but still costs 15 end each time you cast it, the same as Ice storm and other rain powers, which do higher percent debuffing out of the box and do damage on their own. I'd rather see the change swapped. Since it's relatively easy to get it recharging fast enough to be perma, keep the recharge as it was but lower the end cost and up its travel speed. That would be a huge QoL change for power. Right now Im still sucking end having to drop it every fight and then use my other attacks to get it doing much damage. Sure, it's nice that it's ready to be dropped right away if it goes down in the middle of a fight, but since you're already dying for end because of the set's design, you don't have 15 end to spare to drop it mid fight, and if you do, you don't have end to keep attacking to get it to do much. And without it up, the set REALLY struggles.

Hmmm Random thought that I haven't given much time to, so take it for what it's worth: What if you changed Intensify? Instead of an Aim variation, you made it a T or PBAoE storm version of Soul Drain/Drain Psyche? You use the enemies within the storm cell to power up your storm powers, granting you increased recovery, and boosting all your storm powers' to hit and damage for 25 seconds. This buff would ALSO apply to Storm Cell and Cat 5's procs. You could cap the number of enemies affected or the max buff you receive from it to keep it from being too powerful. This would help a few of my concerns: the end cost of this set, the difficulty of buffing Storm Cell's accuracy especially against higher def baddies, and still give you a Aim ability to buff your own damage and acc briefly. Allow it to be slotted for acc/recharge/end drain/to hit buffs. This would ALSO give people who slotted the end mod chance for stun proc a way to set storm cell (and later Cat 5), then stun minions while they go about ramping up the damage on the entire mob.

That's fine. As long as your debuffs and buffs don't cause any aggro. Otherwise? You're kinda screwed.

Sure! It's tied to the same problem I'm finding with using the secondary: Since Storm Cell is slow but limited duration, but does no damage on its own, I feel like any second I'm not "attacking" is a wasted chance for it to proc. And since it's just "chance to proc" damage and not an actual guaranteed amount of damage the way another AoE would be, that feeling is amplified. In a normal encounter with another set, I could throw in secondary debuffs, heals, self buffs etc. more fluidly and easily. With Storm Cell, I can't...without feeling like I'm sacrificing even more damage from a set that already feels light on damage. A normal opener for a Blaster/Defender/Corr when solo is some sort of group mezz or debuff and a nuke to clear large parts of the mob so you can survive the rest of the encounter. Sure...that eats a ton of your end, but you pop a blue or use a secondary to restore end while they get back up and that's enough that you can pick off the remaining baddies in the fight. With this set? You drop 15.6 end for Storm Cell, 21 end for Cat 5, and you still haven't even started making a dent. If you want to use intensify to up the proc chances, you're down 5 more end, for a total of 41.8 end before you launch your first attack and do any actual damage. You THEN have to keep spamming attacks to actually get the damage ramping up. You don't have time to do end management, debuffing, etc. You NEED to keep spamming attacks, but you're already almost half way through your end. And it's not just with nukes. Take Ice Storm or Sleet, even, and compare. If I drop Ice Storm, IMMEDIATELY enemies are debuffed, running slowly and attacking slowly, while suffering damage. If I take a second to then use a non-damage power, they are STILL suffering that damage and debuff. I'm still clearing the mob somewhat. And if I have to rely on a few less end heavy powers like my tier 1 or 2 or a secondary attack because I'm getting winded for a second, I don't feel a change in the damage and debuff from Ice Storm. It's still working optimally. But with Storm Cell? The proc chance isn't happening at all unless I'm attacking with my primary, and the more end heavy the attack the more chance it has to proc. None of this may be mathematically accurate. It may all even out somehow on paper. But it doesn't feel that way, and it's not at all enjoyable to me.

OK, so I officially just don't understand the set's design. I'm running level 28 missions at +1x2 which is the minimum diff I ever run, even on brand new characters. I cant get through a single fight without being utterly winded. Granted I'm using only IOs, but man. Dropping Storm Cell costs 15 end right off the bat, and does no damage. So I'm already starting -every single fight- with an end debt of 15, because I have to recast it all the time because it doesn't follow fast enough. Then I have this feeling like I need to immediately start spamming attacks to try and maximize its added damage. Only that drains me through end far faster, too, and honestly, I don't see a ton of added damage from it. Even when I drop Cat 5 (right now just slotted with 3 scourging blast) I am having to try and knock out damage while avoiding the agro it caused before things die. That's something no other tier 9 makes happen. Even blizzard works so fast it tends to take out a bunch of the minions before I suffer agro. And I know someone earlier said that was by design: This set is designed for higher level, longer fights, and that's where it shines. Only...there's a serious flaw there. By nature in this game, higher level drawn out fights are things like AVs...and this set's acc checks for its core mechanic, and the lock outs on a target every 5 seconds, mean that its LESS effective in those situations. You'll be spending a bunch of end to drop these powers and have their procs just miss, or hit once then be locked out for 5 seconds until it can try again. This set is feeling more complicated than any set I've ever played, except perhaps Dual Blades, and yet still feels anemic in the damage I'm putting out overall. At least with Dual Blades I could ignore the mechanic and still have a really nice damage output, but not with this set. I've face planted twice in this mission, which at +1x2 is insane. I'm barely able to use my secondary because the makeup of Storm Cell and Cat 5 demand me to focus so heavily on my primary, which only makes matters worse. Right now, I'm almost ready to walk away and give up. If this were live this toon would be shelved. I think I'm going to wait for the next build before I do anymore testing. Right now, here are my thoughts where it stands: Overall: C-. The set is BEAUTIFUL and I want to love it. The concepts are cool, the powers looks great, and it shines. But actual playstyle is terrible. It's slow. Way too slow. I don't like having to wait back for Storm Cell to catch up, and I REALLY don't like the idea I can just drop it again with its massive end cost. It's also a slotting nightmare. Cat 5 is a cool concept, but it needs direct, upfront agro management. When you first drop it, a loud thunder crack should cause momentary terrorize or something. Right now, it's the opposite of what a nuke should feel like to me. I know, I know...it's not a nuke. But that just makes this set even more anemic. I actually am using Oil Slick Arrow more than Cat 5, if that says anything. But if it just had a strong, up front short duration mez while you begin building up the damage I think it could fix it, and become a unique, fun power, even though it's still less useful than a normal nuke. Storm cell needs to be reworked: It needs to be faster, or not follow at all. It needs to cost far less end, and it needs a higher base acc, lower natural recharge, or make the damage un-enhanceable with a slight damage increase so you can focus your slots on those other issues. one other recommendation I have? Make the procs auto-hit. With the lock out in play, the damage still wont be crazy overpowered, but it would help with both slotting AND feeling like the power has some pay off for its quirks. It could help with things like MoGs on paragon protectors, etc and suddenly feel worth it. Personally, I'd rather see this power go and be replaced entirely with something else. I feel like it's ruining the set as is. The rest of the set is OK, but because it's balanced around those two powers triggering procs in Storm Cell and Cat 5, the attacks all feel mediocre on their own. And since those two powers are not good as is, the set feels that way to me overall.

On a Storm Blast/Trick Arrow Corrupter. And I would guess maybe 30 feet? But that's a guess. Distance has always been weird to me in this game, Far enough away he wasnt aggroed by my fighting the mob I WAS in battle with, if that helps.

Can you give me some math on this? How is it MORE significant a damage boosting mechanic than simple rain of fire? Or a standard AoE attack? Under OPTIMAL conditions how much damage can be expected with one cast of Storm Cell? What about AVERAGE conditions? Because I'm not ever seeing an amazing damage boost, but that could be perception issues and not actual numbers. If it IS actually doing significant boosts to damage more than, say, Rain of Fire or having a faster recharging added AoE attack, maybe we should have that damage a different color so players are more aware of it. Because right now I'm not seeing it.

I had the same question, which is another issue. With this set's weird dynamics, there needs to be better explanation of how these powers interact.

Im sorry but the more I play it the more I disagree. The set's damage was clearly balanced around the added damage from Storm Cell. It feels relatively low on the damage output outside of it, and even inside of it it isn't anything special, and is less reliable than actual straight up damage you get from a normal rain or AoE. A rain going down for a bit is no big deal because it impacts no other powers' effects or damage output. This does. Yesterday I had a situation where I laid it on a mob at a cross section in a warehouse. It decided to stay there a second, then proceeded tp;eave that entire mob to focus on a single boss located far ahead next to several crates. The mob then overwhelmed me because they were no longer debuffed and I was killed. Now this is a one off, and one offs happen. But it's a one off that ONLY happened because, if people in here are to be believed, a mechanic was added to this set purely for "flavor". And this mechanic is bothering several of the people testing, while adding nothing of value to the set aside from "flavor." So you have a set that they've worked very hard on, has BEAUTIFUL animations and a well liked concept being negatively impacted to the point it can occasionally faceplant players and leave the set's overall performance lacking compared to other sets. All for "flavor." That's kind of a big deal.

I didn't analyze closely, but could you tell us how much damage was coming from your storm powers as opposed to your storm blast powers?

To be fair, neither is "I like it so you all should just shut up because it's fine." I can tell you that as of right now (I'm still a lowbie) Im finding the set fine, but hate storm cell. I'd much rather just have an aim/build up proc power. It's way too slow and its effects way too unreliable for my taste. But Im open to part of that changing as I level up, but the "slow" part, I think, will be even worse.

OK, so hear me out. Instead of swapping Bean Bag for aim, give players a choice: Target Lock or Stunning Rounds. Target Lock: Aim, basically, with a -def proc to your attacks for 10 seconds. If you take it, you get normal aim's Tohit and DMG boost, and -def to your attacks, with a slightly longer recharge than regular aim. Cool, and it makes AR fit with other weapons sets that give -def. On a set like AR that would hardly be overpowered. Stunning Rounds: When you activate stunning rounds, your attacks have a guaranteed stun affect for the next 10 seconds. The duration of the stun depends on if it's an AoE or single target power. Single target has longer duration than AoE. So you can take that and instead of the added damage and -def boost of Target Lock you get some crowd control like bean bag, only better because it can be AoE for a short duration. Then have Ignite work this way: If the foe you attack is suffering from -def, they panic, spreading the flames to others nearby (making it a splash damage AoE). If, they are stunned, they are unable to respond to the damaging flames and suffer additional damage over time. So the cottage rule is saved: those who want Bean Bag's stun can have it. Those who want aim's burst damage boost can have it. Those who want keep ignites AoE affect can keep it, and those who want stronger single target damage can have it.

I'm sorry but you keep talking about "perma" when for most people a main complaint is it not being predictably where you want it when you want it. It's the "creeper vines" movement that's the biggest issue for most of us. I want to echo Sovera in that it follows behind you slowly, which makes it engaging the second mob...awkward. If there was a way to either have it move fast enough you stayed reasonably in the center of it when it was targeting you, OR a way to nudge it ahead of you, that would help a lot. Right now, the key power of the set feels like it's designed to purposefully slow you down instead of speed you up. *shrug*

Two things: 1: But if a critter with a toggle anchor runs away from the group you can very easily detoggle and within a few seconds set it back on someone else in the group, so you never really lose control over it. And Im running it right now at level 10, and it still struggles to keep up with me, so I'm not sure how you could possibly expect it to be better as I get actual, strong powers and move even faster. My issue is that it's recharge length and duration make it so when it's time to move on, it's both slow enough AND short enough that I assume 1/4 of the way through the fight it will fade and I'll be stuck without it for the whole fight. Which means I cant really plan on it, so I don't worry about it that often. Im not sure that's the best design idea for a power that's meant to be the backbone of a set. 2: I don't know a single defender/blaster/Corr who doesn't use rain of fire and ice storm every single mob. Most peopl get it perma easily, and lay it as soon as it comes up. You'd be really dumb not to since it's by far the most damaging power in the sets outside of your nuke, given its huge AoE and its fast tics of damage, not even getting into its slow effects. But again, those sets don't have key components of the rest of their attacks tied to their use, either.

That's awesome! FYI Im a little confused by what Intensify means by "slightly increase your storm strenth" as well. I assume it means "will also increase the chance of damage from a Storm Cell" but I'm not quite sure.

So you know how Dark Control can turn characters who suffer from their effects dark? Could you add a trigger for NPCs affected by Storm Cell that gives them a mild blue tint from being cold? That way it would be easier to see who is being affected, and give us a visual cue where to focus our storm attacks, and it would also be unique and look very cool without having crazy overpowering mist etc. for everyone to deal with.