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Surely you'll at least agree that a teamwide 250% damage increase is too much for one person to provide, and that toning it down would help, if only slightly, with the problems this game has with excessive damage dealing potential.

Fair. Though kinetics would still be a strong set without FS IMO. Siphon power can stack three or four times for a 75-100% damage bonus as well as -dmg, Speed Boost provides teamwide +rech and +rec, Transference provides teamwide +end, Transfusion is a very strong heal, and Siphon Speed gives the caster a lot of +rech which helps their other powerset. It's generally just really strong, though obviously FS is its best feature.

Context doesn't fix the ambiguity you've created. Are you saying kinetics is overpowered because FS is overpowered, or are you saying FS is overpowered, but kinetics isn't because FS is balanced against the weakness of the rest of the set?

It does most of the things teams want, it just does them in very small amounts because it also does a lot of things teams don't really need. -res, +dam, -regen, +rech, and +rec are all things teams are always happy to have more of, and Time doesn't provide much of any of them, except +rech, because what it provides the most of are things that quickly become unnecessary in teams like +def, +tohit, -def, -rech, slows, and healing. Don't get me wrong, it's a strong set that will always be providing something meaningful, but it's not strong enough to be disruptive like a lot of people here seem to think, because the things it does really well, one of which is the topic of this thread, provide a lot less value in practice than they appear to on paper.

Time does not do what FF does except better, it does what FF does worse, but lets the caster take advantage as well. Not being able to shield yourself is, frankly, a very small price to pay in exchange for a significantly larger teamwide defense buff, teamwide Mez protection, and freedom to take Ageless if necessary, especially given FF does absolutely nothing to generate aggro and has a readily available "I'm invincible" button in PFF. FF is worse than Time, and most other support sets, primarily because the one thing it does tends not to be particularly valuable in teams after level, I don't know, 25 or so. But guess what, that applies to Farsight + PB also. Most teams don't want for defense buffs, which is why Time, despite being incredibly powerful on paper, is not actually a highly desired powerset. It does very few of the things teams really, really want, and the things it does well tend to be things most teams don't care very much about. Without the -res from Slowed Response and the +rech from Chrono Shift it would be nearly as "bad" as FF.

Well we disagree on that front.

I wasn't suggesting it was poorly named (though it is), I'm simply pointing out that the control and assault sets are poorly named, and that "this name would be fine if it was a control or assault set" is therefore not a compelling argument.

Just because other sets are named poorly, doesn't mean it's okay for new sets to also be named poorly. And this new set isn't a control or assault set, it's a support set, which for the most part are uniquely named. It's a shame they pivoted, because all the alternative names are, IMO, way better than the generic ones. It's also very odd to me that only some of the names were changed to be generic. If they were going to pivot one way or the other they should have at least been consistent. Shock Therapy was suggested by the dev team too. Did those opposed to it coalesce around Electrical Affinity? My vote would be for Electrical Conduction, which actually fits the naming convention for support sets.

As does Cold Domination, but neither are good names; Cold Domination sounds like it should be a control set (and probably would have been if the control sets were named properly), and Darkness Affinity shouldn't have been named differently than its defender counterpart. And Force Field only sounds like a power set because it is a power set, it could just as easily have been a power in Devices or Traps. It would actually sound significantly more like a power set if it was called Force Fields, but it's not. This is a perfectly civil conversation, but we don't have to keep having it if you don't want.

Okay, well lots of people do think they matter to character design. And when I say "literal," I'm referring to names like Electric Melee, for which the underlying concept is just "this is a melee set that uses electricity." Force Field, Traps, Poison, Storm Summoning, and Trick Arrow don't fit that mold. I'm honestly shocked you put Storm Summoning in there given that I just explained its thematic underpinnings. Like... did you even bother to read that? Force Field sounds a lot like a power to me, as does Dark Miasma. But they're not, they're support sets. Convention dictates that support sets be given unique, evocative names. Neither Electrical Affinity nor Electrical Support would fit; the former because it's too similar to Nature Affinity and the latter because it's too literal. Edit: To elaborate a bit more directly (in case any of the HC folks see this), Electrical Affinity actually breaks the naming convention of the support sets because of its similarity with (or rather derivation from) Nature Affinity. Support set names aren't derivative like control sets (Fire Control, Electric Control, Plant Control, etc.), they're unique, though several are named with the convention of Element Noun, where the noun is related to the element. Affinity for nature -> Nature Affinity Heat radiates -> Thermal Radiation Sound resonates -> Sonic Resonance If following convention is the goal, the new set should be named: Electricity conducts -> Electrical Conduction Or something similar. But not Electrical Affinity.

I can't really tell whether you're arguing that power set names should be purely literal or that they don't matter at all. I want to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the former, but the fact that you don't see a difference between Electrical Support and Electrical Affinity makes me think it's the latter. And since you've made convention a meaningful part of your argument, I'll point out that with support sets the convention is for names that are evocative, not literal. Both Electric Affinity and Electric Support would stick out like a sore thumb among the support sets, as they're all very uniquely named.

"Completely generic to the point of not communicating what the set does" and "so specific I can't pick it without feeling like I have to build my entire character concept around it" are not the only options here. Quite the contrary, many of the game's best names manage to capture the best of both worlds, evoking surprisingly specific imagery while remaining generic enough that they aren't prescriptive toward your character concept. Titan Weapons. Big weapons. Weapons used by titans, which could mean big strong fighters, or ancient mythological figures, or just important figures in general. Captain America's shield could be a titan weapon, as could his devotion to justice. Evokes pantheonic themes - heroes of ancient times, great powers working in far away places, pillars of things beyond our immediate reach. Or maybe it just means big weapons. Generic, but exciting. Storm Summoning. Using storms to destroy things. Controlling forces ordinarily beyond our reach. Awesome destructive power. Duality; sometimes wrathful, sometimes indifferent; sometimes terrifyingly sudden, sometimes slow but inexorable; sometimes serene, sometimes catastrophic. Evokes images of power, reverence, humility. And the mechanical design of the set reflects all these concepts: a high damage set with strong soft control that ramps up over time, for which all the offensive capability is directed only broadly. Willpower. Fortifying oneself through sheer force of will. Shrugging off pain, defying unfavorable odds and coming out on top, not through luck or anger but through sheer determination. Evokes a very clear character profile, but isn't prescriptive about the details; maybe the character is exceptionally disciplined; maybe they're ideologically driven; maybe they're too stupid to recognize when things don't go how they expected. These are all excellent names that manage to be both generic and evocative at the same time, and I'm sorry, but Electrical Affinity doesn't stand next to them. Neither do Electric Melee and Electric Control, but at least those convey the literal function of the power set, and while I don't think they're good names for a super hero game I can at least respect that they adhere to a coherent naming philosophy. But Electrical Affinity? All you can really pull from that is "something doing things with electricity." I assume it's supposed to be inspired by Nature Affinity since they're both support sets, but Nature Affinity stands on its own conceptually by virtue of affinity with nature already being a thing. Electrical Affinity not so much; I don't think I've ever heard anything described as having an affinity with electricity. None of this is meant to disparage whoever though of the name Electrical Affinity - names are very, very hard. I trust the team to come up with something good, I just don't think it's there yet.

Let's be honest though, both of those names are terrible. Naming an electricity-based set Electric Category is as low effort as you can get without actually failing to communicate the purpose of the set, and they're both still better Electric Affinity, which fails to even clear that bar. Electrical Conduction is way better than Electrical Affinity IMO, as it plays into both the theme of electricity and the set's focus on arcing powers. Electrical Support is conceptually just as generic, but it at least communicates the purpose of the set, and it fits better with Electric Control and Electric Melee in that it's fundamentally Electric Category (not that fitting in with the other bad names should be a goal).

Why shouldn't they be exciting? A name doesn't have to be overly specific to the point of obstructing otherwise viable character concepts in order to be exciting. In this particular case I think the problem is that the concept of the set evokes a lot of really interesting ideas and themes, but the name is generic enough that without context you wouldn't really have any idea what kind of set it was describing. Electric healing is novel idea, and people don't feel the name lives up to it.

If the purples you're referring to are the ATO sets (Command of the Mastermind and Mark of Supremacy), there are non-purple versions you can use before 50.

I play at 240hz and don't remember having to do anything besides pick the right refresh rate from the resolution drop down, but FYI, this game is so poorly optimized you'll rarely be much above 60 fps anyway.

You can do this by sending yourself an email

This isn't giving players a reason to not use defensive stance all the time, it's forcing them to use aggressive stance when they don't want to. Defensive attack my target already doesn't benefit from bodyguard mode, there's no reason to make this change. (Edit: I think I misread you on this part. If you're suggesting some kind of bonus for being in the other stances, that's an interesting idea that I think could have some merit. Defensive stance has bodyguard mode, so the other stances should have some benefit too. Though personally, I would prefer bodyguard be toned down and made to work in every stance, and maybe the stances be given some new bonuses. I still don't think attack my target should require aggressive stance, as it means you'd have to manually put them in defensive after the target dies if you want to replicate the current behavior.) And I disagree with the suggestion that there's never any use for aggressive stance. In a team with a good tanker leaving your pets in defensive means they won't be doing anything upwards of half the time because nothing is attacking you. Ultimately, bodyguard mode just needs to be completely reworked. I shouldn't have to open myself up to massive damage spikes to get my pets to stop ignoring the mob right next to me because it's attacking the tanker rather than me. I get the potential for abuse, but the way it works right now is just... dumb.

Buffing underperforming primaries and auto upgrades are things I would love to see here, but I don't want to see hacky compromises in the game just for the sake of getting the feature out. If they can't figure out a proper way to make pets customizable, they shouldn't make them customizable. The HC team has been absolutely right so far to focus on doing things correctly rather than quickly.

Yup, absolutely. Just wanted to call out that it should be automatic for respecs.

I like this idea. I do think that for respecs the ideal solution is for the respec to try to put powers back in the same spot on its own rather than for the player to save their trays then reload them.

Any thoughts on allowing leash radius to be passed as an argument to /petcom so we can set it to whatever we want?

Maybe this is just a quirk of how you worded it and you're not actually suggesting this, but changing the fundamental focus of an existing AT is a complete non-starter. Add a new AT that behaves this way if you want, but don't touch MM.

They didn't phrase it that way...

I'm not 100% sure of the mechanism, and I haven't verified it myself, but my understanding is that using Clarion Radial before using Power Boost results in a much larger +special than the other way around, so I'm assuming there's some unintended interaction there.