Parabola

This may just be a wording issue but this looks like you are saying farsight is only boosted by power boost for 15 seconds? That isn't how power boost interacts with click buffs. Any click buff cast while under the effects of power boost will carry the boost for the entire duration of the buff. So in the case of farsight and fade their effects are boosted for their entire duration rather than just 15 seconds. It makes the downtime on power boost irrelevant as long as it can be brought up ready for the next cast of the buff.

It is with the support classes firmly in mind that I make this suggestion. The core issue as I see it is that too often in the late game the need for support is diminished by the general power level of their teammates. Often +damage is the only worthwhile buff because that's not something that can be built up with IO's and incarnates. The idea of buffing the enemies specifically in the team environment is that it would bring more buffs and debuffs into relevance. Bear in mind also that as this would only kick in while teaming the same support character would still be able to solo as well as before, all that would change is that they would be more useful on teams. The point about slotting evolution is true. This idea is making an assumption that people are slotting IO's and the level threshold for the buff to start kicking in would be set based on when on average IO's start to have an impact on the power of characters. Bear in mind though that the buff would be scaling up from nothing so it would have a small effect initially. I would argue that even for a character that only slots SO's and doesn't incarnate this would still be of benefit to their game experience. They will still be able to solo as well as before and on teams they will be likely to have more to do than just standing back watching everyone else faceroll with nukes and judgements. Sure, if someone was dead set on running an SO only, no incarnates tank in teams of 8 people and they didn't have much support with them then this would make life a little rougher, but I doubt many choose to play that way.

Yeah it seems hard to argue that these numbers aren't a bit much. And I say that as a player of a time/dp proc monster.

I could see there being mileage in adding extra capability to boss class enemies at the top end certainly. I think it's important that any changes do not limit the ability of even the weaker AT's to solo (hence the scaling to team size aspect of my idea above). As facing bosses is entirely optional solo it would seem safe enough to give them more capability. We could give boss class enemies versions of the leadership toggles or a version of the mastermind supremacy inherent? Make them truely able to inspire greater performance out of their minions.

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the current balance of the game. It is generally accepted that over time the game became easier, at least since the purple patch/gdn/ed rebalances. The IO system gave players a vast amount of extra power and incarnates have layered more on top of that. In addition newer powersets have tended to outshine their older counterparts pulling the general level of power ever upwards. Now some will say that there isn't a problem with this. This is a superhero game after all and superheroes (and villains of course) are by definition supposed to be superpowered. To an extent I agree with this but there is one important area where it causes a big problem; teaming, particularly at high levels. This is an mmo after all, a genre built around the shared experience. It probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise that it's difficult to have a satisfying teaming experience when individual members of the team would be able to solo the content (albeit possibly a bit slower). There are various places we can point the finger for this (more specifically than just IO's or incarnates). Is defence too freely available? The same for recharge? Are individual incarnate powers too strong? Is the level shift a good idea when the difficulty slider doesn't go any higher and the actual incarnate content is sadly limited? I would say yes, yes, yes pretty much all of them, and no... But, we are where we are and the kind of nerfs that would be necessary to bring these systems back under control would be ... unpopular. So I've been giving a bit of thought to whether there might be alternative ways around the problem and have come up with the following. This is far from the finished article but it might be an approach worth discussing. What if we introduce a global enemy buff that scales to both level and team size. The level side would have the buff kick in at a threshold determined by when IO's start to have a significant effect on peoples builds (32?) and scale upwards to 54. The team size side would scale the buff to the team composition rather than the settings (so solo even set to x8 the buff wouldn't come into effect). The buff would only kick in when both factors were in play; in a team and over the threshold level. The buff itself could be to whatever factors were deemed suitable but to-hit, damage, defence and resist might be the places to start. But in addition as a sweetener the xp/inf/drops could also be buffed alongside these. The idea is to incentivise teaming while making it more challenging at high levels without changing the lower level or solo experiences at all. Crushing +4x8 solo will be exactly the same but take some friends into the same mission and the enemies will be harder and more rewards will be available. This may have the potential to address various issues. There are powersets (and arguably entire AT's) that have been completely sidelined in the high level team environment. Support of all kinds would be more welcomed without making it impossible for those same AT's to solo. There would be more space in the power landscape to bring underperforming powers up to scratch without further weakening the teaming experience. And the best part of all is no-one would actually be nerfed! As I said above this isn't completely thought through. There aren't any numbers in this because I wouldn't know where to start... I suggested this in another thread but thought it might be worth getting it more visibility. As I said there I'm probably going to be told 101 reasons why it wouldn't work, but thank you for taking the time to read all this all the same!

I'm wondering whether it wouldn't just be easier to buff the enemies than try to rebalance the players. The idea that I'm kicking around would be to introduce a sliding scale buff that enhanced things like to hit, damage, resistance and defence (whatever was deemed appropriate) but have it scale to both level and team size. Have it kick in at whatever level is established to be the 'most players have some IO's threshold' (I'd say 32 give or take) and scale from there up to 50+. But also have it scale to team size (actual membership of team rather than the settings) so that when solo there is no buff regardless of level but when there are more of you the buff increases. And as an incentive also buff enemy xp/inf/drops alongside this. This might solve a few problems. People like high level IO builds and crushing the game solo at +something×8; as the buff is ignored when solo nothing would change here. Before IO's people are rarely pushing the difficulty all the way up anyway and at those lower levels the buff wouldn't apply there either. But in the high level game this would both incentivise team play and make it harder so relieving some of the faceroll we currently have. Effectively no-one would be nerfed by this but space would still be opened up in the high level team environment. Like I say, just a thought I'm kicking around. I'm sure there are 101 reasons it wouldn't work!

All along I have been focussing on the design ideal that no power should be completely skippable and arguing that that aoe holds are very close to being so. You are absolutely right, we don't need more power creep and controllers don't in general need more control. However I still think it should be possible to improve the utility of the aoe holds without too much further imbalance. One suggestion from earlier was to improve their uptime but reduce the area of effect and max targets. I'm not saying that is exactly the answer but I think it might be the right kind of thinking. Another thought is that the aoe holds have been described as a kind of control nuke, we could look at going a different way with them and leaving (or even reducing further) the uptime but increasing the magnitude and accuracy. The idea being to say that if they are supposed to be emergency powers lets at least make them reliable emergency powers.

Classy. I would argue that those softer controls that are available every spawn are better described as the bread and butter powers in their sets. It does make sense from a balance perspective for the hard control aoe holds to be of more limited use, making them for special occasions. I think those of us arguing for changes feel that their use is so limited however that they have become completely skippable. I make exactly the same argument about the crashing tier 9's in the armour sets. It's fine to have a power that is only for occasional use but it should be useful enough to justify taking for those occasions. In my opinion they currently aren't useful enough and so are automatically skipped in my builds. The aoe holds are in the same boat.

Yeah interesting. Would an aoe hold be more worth it with double the duration, half the cooldown but a target cap of say 6 in a small area? They would be very different powers that's for sure! To be honest I'm not really saying that control sets need more control, I think they are doing ok. It's just that the aoe hold seems like it should be something of a crown jewel in the set and at the minute they seem quite skippable. Indeed. It's just odd that they went to the effort of nerfing all the aoe holds, but then leaving volcanic gasses alone which is arguably the best of them. It's just a weird decision. It would be like the current devs deciding all melee sets needed a nerf apart from titan weapons. Not these days with ppm procs but that obviously isn't the original balance point.

I think you've misunderstood me slightly. My comment was specifically about the aoe holds. I'm tending to leave them out of builds in favour of the softer but 'available every spawn' controls. I'm certainly not leaving all controls behind, although I can be guilty of slotting them as attacks that mez rather than mezzes that do a bit of damage! It's the aoe holds that just look a bit redundant with their very limited uptime. It's interesting that the earth control mass hold was left alone in that original balance pass. It is arguably the strongest hold mechanically anyway due to it's ability to self stack and it's part of arguably the strongest controlling set. Why that was the one that got left alone is beyond me.

To my mind the aoe holds have become very optional powers, emergency use at best. I'm tending to leave them out these days favouring powers that can be used on every spawn. If that fits the design intention then that's fine but if not perhaps they could do with a tweak.

1. The crashing tier 9's are all a little suspect as they stand. I expect they are on the devs list for a look at sooner or later. 2. This topic has been done to death in other threads. There are some benefits to click mez protection; ability to double stack and no loss of mez protection with toggle drop due to end crash. This is unlikely to change. 3. The taunt aura is one of the major selling points on scrapper shields for many of us. I find it very hard to convince myself to play other scrapper secondarys that don't have taunt auras. So it's going to have to be a hard no from me for this suggestion I'm afraid.

Love the idea of a power that makes enemies show up on the map. If it would also display glowies it could become a must have.

Villain side this one is a little quicker - approx 15 mins depending on settings. Villain: Master of Destruction. 3 missions: defeat all; destroy objects; destroy objects.

My guess is this is a big part of it. I've often been bemused by the caution shown to content I know I can plough through single handed. There just isn't enough really hard stuff to breed caution (which is a shame). Also in the fight mentioned the temptation to go after ones own clone first is pretty much overwhelming. I know I'm always thinking I better get him before he uses power x, before remembering that 90% of the time the ai is too dumb to use the best powers first.

I was thinking of melee characters in particular when I asked the question (in response to an earlier comment). My brute main has solo'd a bunch of gm's but only because of a pile of envenomed daggers which as I say feels just slightly like cheating. There is something awesome about standing toe to toe with a gm and saying 'right big guy, just you and me, let's do this', but it would be nice to be able to do so entirely on the merits of the primary/secondary/tertiary. Ah yes, I had forgotten that the answer to almost any question regarding melee is now /bio ☺️. I still don't love the set though but that may simply be lack of familiarity.

Are there any that can solo a GM with no temps/pets? Somehow using envenomed daggers feels ever so slightly like cheating.

A few comments on some of the other ideas from the op: Yeah would be nice. Cold Dom waits a long time for such a set defining power. Would be lovely but not sure how how feasible. I'd want a balance pass over the ranges and arcs first. Dark blast is a particular offender where each cone has a different range and arc and nightfall is a pitiful 20 degrees. There seems no real need to make cones awkward to use (I enjoy using them but I still get frustrated), would it really unbalance things massively to settle on single values for range and arc within a set and have all it's cones use that? Drain Psyche is pretty powerful as it is. It doesn't put all other secondaries in the shade quite like it used to but still - does it really need a buff? I could see doing the first target weighting thing though for a bigger buff in one on one. I wouldn't be looking at the crashes, I'd be looking at what these powers provide overall. In many cases they are simply redundant within the set, providing extra defence or resist to sets that generally already have these well in hand. I would look at redesigning them to fill the gaps in the rest of the set on a temporary basis - so provide resists to a defence only set or vice versa. They could also patch up the holes to psy or whatever else and provide exotic resists to things like energy drain and slows. With all that they would become worth taking even with a crash.

No. No. As someone with both EM and SM doms, no. I LIKE being in melee, and that blapper style of play, on a dom (a squishy AT) is fun as hell and a rush. With no melee at all, the assault sets would just become blast sets..which are already shared by 3 ATs. Yeah agreed. Doms are a range/melee hybrid and should remain that way. How would you even start removing the melee from earth assault? What would you be left with? I feel Doms could do with *something* though. I keep wanting to start one and not getting much further than planning out a build. I get that they are late bloomers but even so they just seem to lack a little bit of something. The powers that stick out to me are the cones in the assault sets, I imagine overall these are the most commonly dropped powers as they are just a bit clunky to use alongside the pbaoe and melee attacks. Swapping/replacing these with targeted aoe's (swapping with a tertiary power where the appropriate one exists, simply replacing where not) would seriously improve the flow of the sets. Just a thought - haven't spent a huge amount of time analysing the balance aspects of it but feels like it's worth consideration.

Yeah I like this - the power to be put back would need to be analysed on a set by set basis as some didn't lose much if any aoe in the first place but this would be a massive boon for the likes of martial arts which ended up with no aoe at all (what were they thinking?!). Dual blades would probably need the combo that uses placate looked at but that seems like a win almost regardless of the way it's redone. Also Redlynne, that little dancer you have in your sig is seriously distracting. I keep just staring at her for ages...

For sheer mob clearing speed it's hard to beat plant as long as what you are fighting doesn't resist confuse. Plant/storm and plant/kin both work very nicely. I also find plant considerably safer than fire. One thing about plant/storm is that the combo has actually been very slightly nerfed on homecoming by the change that allows immobilized mobs to still be knocked down. Typically you will confuse the mob, drop freezing rain on them and spam roots. In the old days they would be held in place attacking each other with effectively boosted to hit and damage and so wipe themselves out quicker. Now their attack rate is slowed as they are also bouncing around. They still kick lumps out of each other but I'm pretty sure it's a slightly slower process.

Yeah, gets my vote.

Just firing powers off is boring. Other players on your team like to be informed of everything you do so the creation of macros that add a message into the team chat alongside firing off a power is a good idea. Taunt is the classic example for this but don't let yourself be constrained; any power is a good candidate with particular focus on anything that you use a lot. Some players have wasted energy making complicated stacks of bind load files for this that vary the messages; completely unnecessary, the more repetitive the better. Team buffs. If you are going to ignore the sage advice given above about the relative worth of heals vs buffs, perhaps simply to demonstrate to others how worthless buffs are, then there are a couple of simple rules to follow. The most important is that when an aoe team buff is recharged everyone needs to stop what they are doing and gather around you to bask in your generosity. This is best achieved by creating another macro that in the team chat shouts (you are using all caps aren't you?) some witticism about coming and giving you a hug. You should stop dead wherever you are and start spamming this until everyone comes to you. A buff is pointless if everyone doesn't get it so if some idiot teammate hasn't come and found you simply wait continuing to spam the macro. Insults and kicks are perfectly reasonable follow ups if players still won't fall into line, maybe next time they will 'lrn 2 play'. The second important rule that applies to team buffs is that players like to be sure that a buff is affecting them and of course they should be able to easily identify that it's your buff they have received. This is achieved by having a quick play in the powerset customisation options and picking the most opaque and glaring colour combination possible for your powers. Ally buff shields are prime candidates for this; if your teammates can see any part of their own costumes from the moment they join your team to the moment they leave then you've done something wrong. Also remember to spread the love around, shields are for everyone you come across not just your teammates. A crowd of people standing around Miss Liberty are going to be just as grateful for the benevolence. Remember in this case to apply them several times to make sure that everyone has been affected. Powerset customisation is certainly not just for buff powers though. In team play battles can easily become a confusing mess of colours and power fx. The way to cut through this is to make sure that your powers are the most bright and glaring, again clear identification of your own contribution to the team is key. This also provides a huge opportunity to demonstrate your subtle and sophisticated sense of humour, colouring water bast white and making endless references to bodily fluids for example. Playing a mastermind correctly deserves it's own entire guide but a few quick pointers. Only a wimp takes their pets off aggressive mode, they are doing the team a favour when they drag extra groups to you and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Some people talk nonsense about micro-managing your pets, this is clearly crazy talk when the time could be better spent using your attacks; to this end make sure to take all your attacks, slot them heavily and use them as much as possible. Any single target buffs you have, fortitude or forge for example, are for your pets only, no-one else on the team is more important or could make any better use of them. Similarly with heals, it's way too much work to try to pay attention to both the team and your pets so I think you know where your focus should be.

That's the spirit ☺️. Beyond simply hoping to be able to continue playing I'd mainly like to see small tweaks and adjustments to what we already have. The game has so much content in terms of missions, character options and costume options that I don't really feel we desperately need more stuff added but some of what we have could be improved. Some old missions and tf's could be tweaked to give more variety and flavour, plenty of the old costume pieces could benefit from a resolution upgrade and more balance passes to various sets and AT's. Oh, and more difficulty options for high level play. Something along the lines of player debuff and/or enemy buff settings with some kind of reward mechanism attached to it. High level team play needs some added spice.

I'm a big fan of energy cloak as it is. The defence doesn't suppress and I find the stealth useful. I also really like the aesthetics of it, fading out leaving a maelstrom of orange glows looks awesome.