Naraka

If the mechanic that "makes the set worse" is circumvented by literally just standing on the ground, is it really making it worse? I mean, I can't use Hurl while flying. I can't use Footstomp while flying. I can't use Stone Spears while flying. There are certain times when a hardcore RPer just has to give ground from their immersion for the sake of the game's QoL and at the same time, a hardcore meta-gamer just has to give some ground when the objection isn't that limiting for a bit of near-harmless flavor. This is one of the latter times.

What about a caster based PBAoE -threat effect on teammates? I suppose you'd have to give certain ATs immunity to this effect, like Tankers and Brutes. If you combine Hurricane's effects with an immobilize, you then have the freedom to slide around foes. You can technically stack foes *tighter* since they will stop being repelled once they reach the limit of Hurricane's range. The only other power that could do a better job at that is Wormhole.

Personally don't mind improving old sets a bit but I'm against making them all the same. Improving sets like Fiery Aura wouldn't be bad, but upping its resists and giving it KB protection is rather boring. What if instead, a power the power Temperature Protection were changed to give KB resistance (not protection, so you'd still get knocked around) but pulse a buff on the user where, if they get knocked back, the explode in a PBAoE minor fire/smash attack + KU. Call it Temperature Check or Backdraft or Backblast Area. I also feel some sets are clear outliers and should probably have some of their specialities reigned in. Sets like Time Manipulation, Bio Armor, Titan Weapons and possibly sets like Shield Defense and Nature Affinity too. Maybe shifting some of their advantages into their mechanics rather than outright removing them. Having more of the utility of Bio tied to the different mutually exclusive toggles, for example. My main worry is that every set will play like every other set and I will feel less inclined to make alts at all.

I don't think they're that bad. My 2 MMs (Demons/Pain and Ninjas/Shock) started doing +2/x4 around level 20 to which I bumped them up to +3 once I got to 30 and they had earned some of the relevant pet auras (the 2 resist and the +regen one for the demons, and all them except the taunt/placate one for ninjas). Some enemies can be a slog though, but I figure fights aren't suppose to be easy when you up the difficulty. I don't see anything about transportation. I think one of the most annoying parts of the AT is that you cannot stealth unless you dismiss them or pack grant invisibility which isn't even a full stealth and will still draw attention. That and pets have a tendency to get stuck, either through pathing or because they might start attacking stuff or getting knocked into geometry could render them inert until you dismiss them. I think, if you want to improve MMs by a large margin, giving them a pet stow command that basically puts them all on standby and out of sight so that when you deactivate it, they appear around you with all their upgrades. If it was multifuntional as a recall, that would help a ton. Make it so you can only activate stow while out of combat and deactivate at any time you wish. As is, I think a lot of the misgivings of the AT can be worked around outside of altering how some powers can slot certain enhancements. They're the only AT with a slot crunch of 18 slots for all their unique enhancements.

In Hide's defense, it may be "the same" for every Stalker when you pick it, but it also modifies all your primary attacks so every time you get an attack, you're kind of getting a unique effect to combine with hide. Getting your first AoE or finally getting BU or combining BU and AS or BU and an AoE all with Hide is what gives Hide the variation you're saying it lacks.

I'm in agreement with this. Having the END costs shaved would decrease the likelihood that an appreciable addition to the set could be made, like ToHit debuff resistance and maybe adding utility to Soul Drain. That and just conforming every set to be built the same makes the sets mechanically perform the same. As is, DA kind of already performs very similarly since it's mostly just some toggles and a click, but what you're doing while you're playing can change and how you're stacking the effects with outside buffs, debuffs and controls is the main style that makes DA different. Build considerations don't always require IOs though. The powers you don't choose can also be as defining to your build as powers that you do. You don't *have* to run Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom at the same time, you can run one, the other or neither depending on how you build and synergize your powers. I didn't take Genetic Contamination on my Bio/Fire Tanker because he mostly wasn't using it and while the -dmg would be useful, the extra damage tics go to waste because he's built to use breath attacks a majority of the time. He kept Evolving Armor for tanking purposes though. Ultimately though, I'd rather have something that I can benefit from vs having no use for and END is one of those buffs that, when on teams, is either a waste or a godsend. I prefer things to have utility and I prefer build options to have meaning. Just because an option is an IO doesn't suddenly put it off the table completely for consideration. They can be a goal like getting a new power or getting a new costume option. That being said, while I don't advocate for IOs to be the standard build balancing metric, I find it amusing how this is the only MMO where what amounts to as "gear" is supposed to be completely ignored...but at the same time, we're making comparisons to difficulty settings meant to be for advanced builds. You can't isolate IOs from the discussion while also setting the bar at +3/x4 and above.

Would personally like this judgement to have weapons animations, just swing the sword/axe/hammer. That's all.

Defense Debuffs are a thing too. I suppose, since they aren't meta, they are wholly overlooked in the grand scheme of things over something like +ToHit when they are actually the same overall value (foe resistances withstanding). It's one of the fun aspects of my FF/rad defender, making it so foes are super easy to hit while making my allies harder to hit. Irradiate does a hefty -25% or so defense without slotting for 20sec (same as its rech). My earth/earth dom didn't slot for accuracy until nearly level 30 since Quicksand is -25% def and is auto-hit as well as Earthquake being -10% def. Ever consider how much -def are in Peacebringer attacks? 1 volley of a few attacks is putting around -30% def on foes in an AoE. Even smaller amounts of -def stacked can add up when a team is throwing around a few -def powers as well. So I'd say, it's not that the settings need to cater to specific meta-building strategies, it's just you need to think outside of the box if you're going the non-meta route. You've got +ToHit, extra accuracy slotting or defense debuffing as your options...or just lower the difficulty. I feel that's fair. Making it so foes just don't require those effects just invalidates the need for those effects which I don't think is fair. EDIT: I just looked it up, but Irradiate says it is -37.5% def on Defender? Is that right? On Blasters it's -21%def so 1 slot of -def in it pushes it to -28% or so and -50% def on Defender. And that's just attacks, they have a slew of other powers that can floor def. Blasters also have Atomic Manipulation or Plant Manipulation. Thorn Burst also does -21%def. Stack that with Irradiate and you're at -42%def.

Sure sure. The main reason I pointed it out was no one else bothered. Funnily enough, I suffer the same mistakes at times, replying to a post and stating it as such that it's directed at a particular side of the argument but not clearly affirming it's not at the quoted individual because I didn't realize fully the stance of the quoted individual didn't completely align with the OP or their side of the argument. But so long as no one actually points that out, I don't have to always admit that mistake.

Not clearly at all. The person you quoted didn't ask for advice or provided a response that would validate feedback, much less the feedback you provided. Which convinces me you didn't realize you were responding to a unique individual who was making a jab not at what you responded to the OP with but how you went about it (big words). Asking such a responder to give you what you want then being perplexed by their lack of cooperation is what convinces me.

I think there could be more variations than just that though, like rather than just standard "debuffs", why not a grant power ability that then infuses enemy skills with buffs that apply effects to you and your allies? Sort of different from just standard debuffs or aura powers that just benefit the user. Or another idea I had a long while back: an armor set made mostly out of passive abilities that created different bonuses depending on effects you are under. I don't mind low-hanging fruit either. I think my issue is partly that as I make more characters, I'm noticing the similarities more than the differences and a lot of the suggested changes is pushing for more of that sameness. I think that was covered by the smart prioritizing of the chain skills moving to players before pets. At worst, it wouldn't be support not wanting to play with MMs because their chain skills would get diluted but rather MM players not wanting to team because they'd have trouble buffing all their pets since the buffs would skip over them and jump to players instead. I think the set worked, it just didn't conform to the meta and now the set performs notably similar to a standard AoE buff set.

You do realize you aren't replying to the OP, right?

Firstly, a basic rule of combat aid is to not put yourself in the same situation as your casualty while trying to save them. In the context of this game, you have to assess your own survival just like everyone else with perhaps the exception of the tank who is more or less putting part of their trust in the efficacy of their team...but a tank understands their job is to faceplant before those they are protecting, not the other way around. If you're unable to summon your pets mid combat for some reason, you then assess if you currently need all your pets and to what capacity. Maybe just summoning them is enough for the current situation and you can upgrade them when things die down, or maybe you aren't in danger at all so you can just focus on the powers that are of the most aid to the situation. But ultimately, if you and your pets are having trouble surviving and the team's survival hinges on your support, then it's the tanks job to make sure you *don't* die. If that isn't happening then *you* escape and come back to pick up the pieces (preferably with your pets in tow). If a PUG is marching forward without you and those that fell, then the likely situation you are in is as follows: YOU ARE BEING CARRIED! If you're in a team that you're being carried by, you need to take into consideration that likely your contributions are minimal and your best bet is to make sure you don't hinder the others' efforts. Falling back to keep yourself upright would be considered "not being a hinderance". The rest of your hypothetical really doesn't make all that much sense to me. If people are struggling, then they aren't pressing the movement forward through the mission so you won't be left behind. If people are pressing the movement forward in the mission, then likely your support is only supplementary and not critical. If your support is critical then *you* control the pace of forward movement. If people are dying and struggling, you certainly *DO* have time to tell the team you need to resummon and to slow down. If they don't slow down but don't die then that is your window to restock your pets thus the hypothetical dichotomous situation really isn't as clutch as you're making it out as.

Something else I thought of while reading some of the posts: I hear a lot of requests to reduce END costs and what not and it made me think of the changes to Tankers during Beta that was repealed, i.e. the +10 MaxEND (or was it +20?). Thinking about patterns and such, who has the highest HP modifier? Tankers. Who has the lowest HP modifier? Wouldn't it make sense for the AT with the lowest HP to have the highest base END? And having the highest END isn't really going to enable them to outpace other ATs since they generally aren't needing to monitor their END consumption to stay upright (they just need to have some pets around). I suggest this because it actually synergizes with both END redux slotting and +recovery.

That effect is called Demoralized. It is a, I want to say 20ft radius -ToHit that cannot be resisted so even on AVs, it's -5% ToHit. Not major but stacked with defense or other debuffs, it can soften an alpha strike a bit. The fear chance I think is 25% and the mag is high enough to affect Lts. Can't recall the durations off the top of my head. I think this is also exclusive from the team +crit chance. Basically, you get +crit chance to NPCs when allies are around and +crit chance to Players when they are affected by certain mez. I could be misremembering though, but there's a lot of things to remember.

Small Thrown = Projectile Blades Large Thrown = Trajectile Weapons Kind of synonyms but Projectile is focused on the "missile" as described as being a blade while Trajectile is in context of the trajectory of an object flying through the air which, if mechanically supported, changes after striking a target.

Yeah, or try walking up to a KoA boss using hide. You'll quickly have your throat lodged with caltrops.

Seems like "havoc" just has multiple meanings here.

Instead of having 3 AoEs (2 being Targeted AoEs at that) I would ditch one of them and likely 1 of the ST powers (probably Throwing Daggers) to add a combination of new mechanics to it. I realize the conceived set is meant to require the least amount of work to implement, but that doesn't always present an interesting product. In those 2 spot's place (and also replacing Aim, so 3 extra powers), I'd introduce "Preparation" clicks and the "Throwing Stance" toggle. Preparations would merely be 2 self-buff powers, one from Martial Assault called Envenomed Blades (so a standard +Toxic Damage to your attacks) and Tranquilizers which increases your damage and triggers debilitating debuffs to your attacks depending on the attack (like Trick Shot could have -movement, Masterful Throw a high mag sleep and -rech, etc) and Throwing Stance would be a toggle that further altered the secondary effects. With it off, your attacks would have knockback and do standard damage but with it on, it lowers your damage, removes the knockback and grants you a def bonus to ranged.

What do you think of really unique powerset mechanics? Just curious since I've been reading through some of the old powerset suggestions and a lot of them tend to stick to strict formulas. Like melee sets tend to run the gamut of 3-5 ST attacks of varying power levels and/or secondary effects and 2-4 AoEs of varying varieties. Some have ranged attacks too but the sets that stand out are Spines, Radiation and Staff Fighting which have self-anchor toggles that either change your powers or affect foes and Electric Melee which has a target placed AoE. But what if a melee set had a foe-anchored toggle? Or a blast set having multiple interruptible snipes? Looking at buff sets, that is a really wild frontier with some sets having only buffs, some having only debuffs, some having foe anchored toggles, some having placed AoE debuffs, some having placed AoE buffs, and practically every mechanic available under the sun. I guess it's still missing a Dual Pistols/Staff Fighting/Bio Armor-esque multi-mode set up to change what your buff powers are doing (imagine that in a buff set where you can choose to improve team efficiency or assist primarily to stay alive or a selfish-mode that's more aimed to keep you maybe a select single other teammate safe at the expense of stronger team-wide effects). Or a control set that uses combos (I don't recall any control sets that utilize combo sequences or combo points)? I was thinking of a concept for a blast set that had 1 extra interruptible attack and a "toggle" nuke that moreso triggered extra damage when struck by one of your other powers. It's just you don't ever hear those kinds of suggestions ever which makes me assume people are just more interested in the well-worn and paved paths than things that are exploratory. I liked the chaining effects of Shock Therapy, for example, but I think they pandered a bit too hard when they vastly increase the chain amount to make it "feel" like just any old AoE buff set. Having to prioritize targets and sometimes use the same power multiple times to get every target you intended to should have been the direction to make the set feel truly unique.

Seems the activation times are the same so I can see either animation being proliferated to the other set.

So you're saying Stalkers, a non-epic AT, should get a free slot then. As for options for selecting tier 2 powers for the secondary, there is a whole other issue that messes up the game buried in the code. That seems like a whole other can of worms than asking to make Hide inherent. And as for the missing +recovery in sets like Regen or Willpower, I feel that could be resolved by just adding that effect to an already existing power in the set Fast Healing and High Pain Tolerance. But as is, there are already nearly no skippable powers in the early tiers of armor sets so I don't see how inherent Hide helps that except giving more freebies to an AT that is arguably one of the better melees in the bunch.

Some question: 1. What armor set powers have a tier 1 you want to entirely skip? And why? 2. What AT inherent power has an enhancement slot or is slottable with more? 3. What do you have slotted in Hide and would you be okay losing that? But that first question is really the kicker. I cannot think of *any* armor powerset that wishes to skip the tier 1 and would rather the choice of picking the tier 2 at the start that this suggestion would fix. The 2nd question really is more pointing out how good Hide is. To just add it as a consolation to the AT and with a free slot in it with no END cost and enhanceable defense with a sizable buff to AoE def when not suppressed is *very* good. And the last question, proposing losing that option to slot this power in exchange would upset more builds than it helps. There are so many defense unique IOs that fit nicely in that slot or just putting a defense enhancement for non-def sets to not get knocked out of hide.

I like this line of thinking, myself. I'm pretty noob at MMs as I only recently started playing them to any capacity so my knowledge of the AT is overall lacking but I do have ideas and said ideas are kind of free of the direction of meta-game variants of MMs which can be bad since I don't know personally how the AT functions in late game builds (I've got 1 MM in the 30s and 1 in the 40s). It could be a good thing when coming up with ideas outside the box though. I made this post after getting my 1st MM into the 30s: It's a suggestion for a Mastermind primary that uses Animus Arcanum as pets but I went a little off the beaten path by exchanging the 2 upgrade powers for something unique. Instead of upgrade powers you cast on your pets, you get a passive that randomly pushes out a *short term* upgrade to some of your pets. Of course, the pets are meant to be balanced so they function without the upgrade (just adding attacks/summons to them for a time) but also, those pets buff your attacks. It's a far reach from your standard idea of a Mastermind primary with it's fluctuating style. You occasionally boost your pets with extra attacks, your pets upgrade your personal attacks from the set, you using your upgraded attacks increases the chance you boost your pets. Or at least that was the intent behind the idea. It would be a unique flow of combat compared to other primaries. That all said, I think it would have been cool if all of the primaries had unique flows of combat, relying on the different pieces of the primary (pets, pet upgrades, personal attacks and utility effect power) to more varied degrees than they are now. Probably too late for that now but would have been cool.

I'm sorry? Just because the tier 9 is a melee ranged debuff doesn't mean you're safe to use it without some sort of consideration of how you're using it. It's the same thing with Force Bubble, you don't just go waltzing around with it on, you're just going to spread foes out and get ranged down. You don't go waltzing up to a spawn and Fulcrum Shift them either unless you want those buffs to quickly disappear once you soak up the alpha. Or try walking up to a group and casting Lightning Storm and see what happens. Basically, you have to actually *think* when you're playing these types of characters. Use tactics. Combine your powers. And if that's a problem for you, there are IOs so you can get around this limitation. I didn't ignore this fact when I decided to make a Poison/Dark Blast Defender. The very reason that its debuff is melee range is why I maximized Blackstar to recharge as often as possible. FYI, Blackstar is the Dark Blast nuke that is PBAoE, 25ft radius with 20sec of -60% ToHit. Since Defender isn't big on damage, I decided to slot it for rech moreso than to defeat foes but Venomous Gas does help by debuffing ToHit, Res, Def and damage to make it slightly safer to cast but it still requires tactics and teamwork to use. That's why I picked up other powers like Phase Shift, stealth, and Oppressive Gloom to stack with my other effects. I also have Life Drain to help a bit with HP. If you're so concerned with alpha strikes, then pull. As a ranged character, you're not designed to run into a group and absorb alpha strikes. If you want to do that, play a /poison Controller. Then you have nothing to complain about there. That's really all I can help you with there. Blasters, Defenders and Corruptors are *NOT* meant to absorb alpha strikes. The End. If that's what you want, you can create a build that maximizes your survivability. I'll reiterate that: Ranged ATs are not meant to absorb alpha strikes. There are plenty of support sets that protect the user far less than the team. There's Force Field, Sonic Resonance, Empathy, Pain Domination, Cold Domination, etc etc. Like I said before, Poison is relatively safer to solo and on teams primarily because you benefit nearly as much from your powers as your team. You get the benefit of reducing the target's ToHit, dmg, def, resistance as well as controlling them. You only have to really focus on debuffing the harder targets because Poison Trap can mitigate the weaker ones. You can also stack Poison Trap if you slot it for recharge. Rad's and Nature's holds require you stick around while Poison Trap can technically have multiples set up and foes drawn into them if you really want to absorb alpha strikes. I think what you're highlighting here is the differences between the sets. You just haven't embraced any of those differences but instead hold that against the set without highlighting the advantages the set has. For example, what happens when you get mezzed while playing Radiation Emission? Bye bye to your debuffs. If you get mezzed on Poison? If you cast them, your debuffs are still there...and the mez doesn't last as long either.