Luminara

If the TA has the gumption to stand within the AoE radius, he/she should gain the same benefits as the other players in the radius. I'm not sure what prompted @Captain Powerhouse to exclude the caster.

Those numbers should be listed twice in the power info window. One is the unresisted value, the other is the resistible value.

Yes. The unresisted flag doesn't bypass the Purple Patch, only other forms of resistance. Target - level 54 Arch-villain Radiation Infection: 4x Dark Watcher's Despair (57.52%), 49.22% -ToHit (49.22 * 0.48 (Purple Patch)) * 0.13 (AV Resistance) = 3.07% -ToHit applied Flash Arrow: 4x Dark Watcher's Despair (57.52%), 29.54% -ToHit (29.54 * 0.48 (Purple Patch)) = 14.18 14.18 / 2 = 7.09 7.09 * 0.13 = 0.92 0.92 + 7.09 = 8.01% -ToHit applied Flash Arrow's debuff isn't taking a back seat here. Even if a Rad defender has an opportunity to use Fallout, and has that enhanced to the same 57.52% (70.13% diminished by ED), Flash Arrow still leads. The same is going to occur with -Damage. The unresisted flag has TA leading Rad in -Dam in AV fights. And Slows/-Recharge, because TA has more, plus Acid. The -Regen issue is slightly more complicated, but someone else did the math on the closed beta forum and TA, even with a ~40 second down time on EMP Arrow, still came out as only slightly lower than Rad. Over the duration of a long fight, TA's effective -Regen is less than 10% lower than Rad's. When coupled with TA's new higher -Res total, the difference should be negligible. Outside of AV combat, yes, TA is going to have lower -ToHit than Rad. Rad also has a continuing toggle cost to maintain Radiation Infection, Radiation Infection can move with a target (meaning, the toggle target can run out of the area where combat is occurring, leaving 0% -ToHit on the rest of the spawn. it can also run into another spawn, unintentionally pulling multiple other critters to the Rad defender, none of whom are debuffed), and it can toggle off when the corpse despawns or the toggle target moves beyond the leash range (the distance at which the toggle shuts down). This is a balance trade-off. TA has a a lower value, but no on-going toggle cost, no chance of the debuff wandering out of leash range and shutting down, no potential for additional aggro. And, realistically, 14.18% is not a negligible amount. It's not as much as Rad could apply to +4 critters, but it doesn't have to be in order to be effective when used in concert with the other debuffs in TA's quiver. There's more to the game than +Def/-ToHit. TA's not supposed to match Rad, or Storm, or any other set, it's supposed to do its own thing while still being effective. It's not "as good" as Rad in some ways, but Rad isn't "as good" as TA in other ways. That's exactly where the set should be. It's competitive. It's different from every other set, but it's not numerically inferior to everything else in every other set with these changes. It does some things better than other sets, and it doesn't do some things as well as other sets do, and it does some things differently, but comparably. Numerically, TA is actually right where you say it isn't, at the middle. It doesn't debuff some things as well as Storm or Rad, but it also isn't sitting at the bottom of the barrel on anything, in comparison to any set, and it debuffs some things better than any other set. Where comparisons can be made, apples to apples, it's middle of the road with the current changes, and in no case is it too low to be viable in anything. But all of what I've said is presuming defender values. TA needs to be tested on masterminds to ensure that it's truly where it needs to be. If it passes there, it's solid. If not, then I'll wholeheartedly agree with your assessment and start shouting at CP.

I wasn't dismissing them. I was suggesting that he investigate the changes personally and draw a conclusion from direct evidence. Test. Poke. Prod. Tear it apart and find out what works and what doesn't. Ask questions, then go to the test server and find out the answers. I did offer my opinion on what the final impact would be - an notable improvement, but not dismissively, and if that was how it came across, I apologize. Lastly, I can guarantee that you'll see an Ill/TA. Mine, if no-one else's. She's parked and waiting for the changes to be finalized so I can redesign the build, along with all of my other TA characters (TA/Dark defender, Beasts/TA mastermind, Plant/TA controller, Fire/TA corruptor, Grav/TA controller, Elec/TA controller and TA/Water defender). As you might surmise, I'm not approaching this from the perspective of a casual observer. 70% -Damage, 25% of that can't be resisted. 18.75% -ToHit, half of which can't be resisted. Those two alone are massive improvements over their original values and do exactly what the set needed to provide sufficient mitigation as a defensive support set, at every level. 40% -Special, 60% -Res and half of EMP Arrow's -Regen lasting 45 seconds instead of 15 seconds adds significantly to TA's combat versatility and bring TA up to par for end-game content. It's strong now. But don't listen to me, go test it. Find holes. Look for problems. Debating the numbers on the forums won't lead to anything, testing is necessary. So go to the test server and see what it can do. Then post, so @Captain Powerhouse can fix what's not working or tweak what needs to be tweaked, before it goes to the live servers and sits for another 15 years unattended. I say that not dismissively, but objectively.

Start a TA team on the test server and find out. I think TA's contributions will be more evident than they were in the past. I can't address the likelihood of TA overshadowing any other support set, but the strengths of the debuffs alone will make for a notable play experience.

We can do that now. Creating the sounds and finding what needs to be replaced (substituted in the correct folder, which functions as an override, doesn't delete the existing sound) is the hard part. I think it's @Solarverse who has a thread dedicated to sound mods. I'm just not going to ask him to make a mod out of Lo Pan saying, "Indeed!" in Big Trouble in Little China, or "Yoink!"... not out of copyright concerns, or because I don't want to waste his time, but because I'm down to one good lung and I'd probably die laughing.

I want it to say "Yoink!" when it's used. I really, honestly do.

Thanks, @Coyotedancer. A lot of the comments in this thread are more comprehensible now. @Jimmy, are you and the rest of the crew noting this? She's raising some valid points. So has @CrudeVileTerror. This is some solid feedback on how the removal of the slash command is going to affect players, and the ways the replacement options need to fill the gap.

I suspect that's going to be a no, due to the potential for griefing. Being on the same team doesn't necessarily equate to being friendly with one another.

I can understand that, too. You Fly people are slower than my Hurdle bunnies. 😜 What about the other options, though? The Base Transporter P2W power, the two base portal day job powers, the SG Portal P2W power, the Team Transporter P2W power, the Mission Transporter P2W power? Even with 5-10 minute recharge times and limited charges, there seem to be a plethora of options, enough to allow you to go anywhere in the game any time you want without enduring multiple load screens, or having to pick up every exploration badge in every zone on every character. The Pocket D VIP pass, Ouroboros, or the multiple AH teleporters would save you at least some travel, as well. Is that not sufficient to compensate for the loss of the slash command? If not, in what way do they come up short? I know there's a concern for power tray slots, but what else is lacking here to give you enough travel options to make it palatable without forcing you to turn to the LRT accolade if you don't want to?

I'm not a badger either, so I understand. What's not necessary can be left for later, or never. My question, then, is, are the existing options unpalatable in some specific way? I know it takes a few seconds for the tram to roll over and send us to other zones, but we've also got the TUNNEL, several portal and base portal options, so what makes the LRT accolade and accompanying zone unlocks the primary issue? The recharge times on the portal/base portal options? The movement from, to give an example, the transit system to the TUNNEL system? Is it just not being able to go anywhere on a whim, or is it a specific need that all of the combined options fail to address, yet the LRT accolade would address? Too many load screens, too many transport hops, what?

I don't understand why it doesn't have a brief Confuse or Stun. Teleporting right into melee range of something is bound to be unsettling. A 3 second status effect would appropriately reflect someone's behavior if it occurred in reality, wouldn't be overpowering, and would open up a few more slotting options (both of those have IO sets with X/Range enhancements, so they could also improve the range of the power while adding utility). I was also expecting Fold Space to Stun. I still like it, but I think it would be improved by the same option I just proposed for CT, and remain thematically appropriate.

That was all worth quoting. I'm not going to address it line by line, but it was definitely worth quoting. Okay, so the RPG part of this game is important, people like to fulfill their RPG wishes with multiple characters and they're less interested in other aspects, like exploring, traveling through zones, using the existing transit systems (which, true, don't go everywhere, despite all of the connections), and not having rapid access to zones is a hinderance to that. That's notable, and I, speaking only for myself, understand your position a little better. You've got a lot of RP characters, you never really know what you're going to play until you log in, and you may or may not have the necessary badges, and having to fulfill the badge requirement on those which don't have it will cut into the time you could spend doing what you enjoy. How do the currently existing options fail to fill your needs? You can reach most of the zones in under a minute using any combination of rail/ferry, TUNNEL and portal. Is that insufficient for most of your characters? How frequently do you need to travel to different zones, or to zones off the main transit options, like Crey's Folly, Boomtown or Terra Volta? More frequently than the other options would allow, thus requiring you to get the LRT accolade and zones?

No-one's trying to be an ass. There's a lot of communication that isn't happening in this thread, despite all of the talk. People are saying that they have hundreds of characters and the LRT accolade is a bad thing for them. Some of us don't understand why anyone needs the accolade on that many characters. Explain it to us. Help us understand. People are saying that it's going to take too long to acquire the badges. Those of us who disagree are seeing it from a different perspective, we're either picking up the badges as we go, or we're taking our end-game character back to zones to get them later, and not finding it difficult to complete the set for every zone. Yes, it's going to take longer to do that with multiple characters, but were those exploration badges skipped initially on all of those characters because they were difficult to acquire? Was it because they weren't worth the effort to pick up on the way to missions, even if they were right next to the line of travel? Were the badges skipped because the characters were power-leveled? What? People are saying that it's going to take too long to get the full usage of the LRT accolade on every character they have. If a player has more characters than they can play if they played a different character every day for a year, why are they trying to get the accolade on all of them? We don't comprehend having to chase the accolade for that many characters, why it's necessary, why you (plural, not singling you out, @Zeraphia) can't just let some of them go until you circle back around to them, rather than trying to get the accolade as soon as possible. Tell us. Give us your (plural again) perspectives so we can understand what's really going on from your side of the monitor. Just telling us that you don't like it because it means you'll have to get badges on a lot of characters doesn't communicate the problems you're envisioning. So communicate with us.

That's a good compromise. Well, that almost sounds like you're expecting some of these changes to lead to players stepping out of the AE and/or bases and actually be present in the game world. Ha. HA, I say!

It actually does make sense. It existed in the original version of Gravity, but it was removed for precisely the reason you indicated above, giving a squishie with no status protection a "come kill me NAO" power didn't work well. As a pool power, it's viable. It can be used by melee characters safely. It can be used by squishies to bring runners back into a debuff that's helping them survive. It can be used by squishies who have access to powers which can be used to complement it, like PBAoE controls and debuffs. In the post-Incarnate world, it's potentially even more utilitarian, something even the squishiest of squishies can use safely. It makes sense from the perspective of allowing anyone to use it, whereas it didn't when it was restricted to Grav.

So... you're saying that the sad face response from @Jimmy means he wants me to post that picture more often and celebrate his obsession with his own nipples, and you support that? Okay! 😄 Also, I'm only messing with him because he was leering at his nipples. Not casually glancing, not even staring, leering. Those eyes, and that grin... 😨

According to the notes, no. It can be enhanced, but not buffed or debuffed in any other way.

I'd agree with your proposal, but Glue has a long recharge time, and despite my personal dislike of having Entangling as the T1, it has proven to be useful enough to make me question the viability of a change which limited the player's ability to Immobilize a target the way moving it to Glue would. Would I like to see Entangling set on fire and thrown into the Laurentian Abyss? Sure, but not if it means players have an Immob on a 60s recharge, it's too disruptive to lower level play. It also wouldn't provide any additional utility with the single-target Immob, as Glue's Slow is already sufficient to floor the movement speed of anything except specific critters (Warwolves, Crey tanks, etc), and it's not going to do much on AVs either with the recharge time being what it is.

It doesn't seem to be an issue, based on the feedback here. You're the only one complaining about it. Those powers were deemed better as location-targeted powers by Castle, working in concert with alpha testers, approved by beta testers and accepted by players on the original servers and here. There's no argument to fall short. You're dragging this way off topic. Are you going to test anything?

He/she is saying that any of those travel powers will speed up the process, not that all of his/her characters have all of those travel powers.

Wow. The HC team is downright amazing. They actually travelled back in time. I suppose I should stop picking on @Jimmy for staring at his own nipples, or he'll erase me from the universe. 😮

No, it isn't. It's your perspective. You're perfectly comfortable with requiring every other player to alter play style to suit you, because from your perspective, how you want things is better. Other players may not agree with your perspective, or how you want things. From my perspective, Glue is better as an enemy-targeted debuff because it doesn't require players to find, learn and use slash commands, and it allows the player to fluidly move between debuffing and attacking without using those commands. You want it your way. I think everyone comprehends that. But the way it is has worked magnificently since TA went live in '05, and you have yet to provide a rationale for altering the functionality of the power. If you can provide legitimate reasons for changing Glue, please do so. Legitimate, not "Because I want it this way and everyone else can suck it".

Movement suppression isn't the same thing as debuffs. -Jump will still completely shut down someone using CJ, -Fly will do the same to Hover.