Naraka

The context of the thread was the early levels which was why I brought up AoE damage. With the context of the OP saying that the set will get a pass over with an eye for balancing the set, I'm not opposed to changes to the set, but I will mention this part of your post sounds a lot like homogenization of the set. Just sand everything down until everything is just a different visual for the same effects moreso than it is now.

??? I'm not advocating for anything. I wasn't even tracking there was definitive word that they are working on changes to TW. I'm just saying it doesn't really *need* to be made "faster" or "user friendly" as it already is rather straight forward in its utility and function. And even if they do some "givebacks" I was merely stating don't expect much when they do...and I mostly say that because givebacks that people want are most certainly aimed at DPS. Few would care about increasing the KB chance or an increase to the -def debuff numbers. Most would likely only care if it had shorter animations, decreased costs/recharge or more -res. You can advocate for whatever, I'm merely saying curb your expectations. And Spines is pretty meh at low levels, especially solo when you don't have many powers thus you can't leverage the AoE. Spine Burst is very much a mediocre AoE. For comparison, Fire Melee's Combustion has the same cast time but does more damage (and it's fire damage) as Spine Burst (same level). Same recharge too. Not saying Fire Melee is bad but few people clamor over Combustion. Now Spines on Stalkers is a bit of a different story. The added ST damage is a large help to shore up Spines' woes in early levels. As for exemping down, I've not argued anything about that primarily because if you don't indicate what levels you're exemping to, it's hard to form any kind of argument. And frankly, I don't care as it's what you make of your build that determines if you're going to optimize that period or not. You're not wrong. I don't particularly advocate for nerfs (discussing things that I consider over powers, that could be considered power creep or the like is different from calling for nerfs), I advocate for balance. A lot of people ask to have powers buffed which isn't a bad thing and no one chastises people for doing that, but when asking if things are too strong, apparently that's just not right. If you want things buffed, expect things to be nerfed. You seem to be focused on some dev comment about nerfs coming to TW so you want some compensation for the nerfs, I would say curb your expectations. You might get some smoothing out but I don't think they should change the feel of the set for that.

Right back at you. While your criticism isn't wrong, you're unjustly exaggerating my claims while completely ignoring specific aspect of your own argument to try and get ahead. For example: This is an underestimation. While the AoE isn't amazing, it's rare for a set to have amazing AoE pre-lvl 20 but my criticism is specifically targeting the portion of the leveling career *BEFORE* you can get more 4 attacks because that was the criticism brought about ("don't even have 4 attacks to chain during momentum" was the specific statement). Also, you say "piss poor" in quotes, but in early levels, any damage will add up, even the mediocre accuracy of the P2W powers and brawl. Not only that, but you also get free +dmg/rech +proc damage enhancements you can shove in those powers so the more procs you pile into them, the less "piss poor" it will be. I can't believe you actually tried to pass lvl 26 as half the game. I'd hardly call Whirling Smash as being "locked" behind anything when you literally just have to hit something (anything! you got 2 AoE attacks, just land a hit on something!) and boom, you have *UNLOCKED* Whirling Smash lol. Whirling Smash pays the tax for being "locked" behind momentum for a reason...it has a relatively fast cast for a PBAoE, doesn't rely on DoT, does high damage (Spin does more though) and recharges relatively fast. It also recharges pretty slow (16sec) and has a slow animation (slower than every animation in TW). Again, TW has access to 2 proc-ladden AoEs that can be belted out as fast while you have momentum. See the above 2nd quote reply. Also, need I remind you of the massive amount of control TW can put forth. That is also an advantage...also, it get access to a +def tool as well. Oh, and later a -res/-def power (they love to shove those in every new set, huh?). I don't think TW is hurting for utility. Well, at best, I can say you set up a strawman to attack. I only stated that TW has access to more AoE early. I didn't really touch on other aspects that give TW an edge but the point I was making is, for the benefits that TW has, it shouldn't get clemency just because it might not be "user friendly" for the first 12 levels...and by user friendly, I'm talking about specific stuff like corpse blasting, low accuracy, needing to finish off something so you have to use a no-momentum attack to do it, etc. EDIT: I'm not crapping on Spines, btw. None of this has to do with trying to argue for TW having better AoE than Spines or what not, this is moreso about the package as a whole (like, Spines gets exactly 1 KD power...how many does TW get? TW also get -def/res and +def as well).

You can have 3 attacks by level 4 (on a Tanker), one being Defensive Sweep which recharges in 4sec which you can slot to get a little bit of recharge in to get slightly under 4 seconds so you can open with Defensive Sweep and then chain into your other 2 attacks and either chain another Defensive Sweep or just hold off to use Defensive Sweep to get you some momentum again. The way I see it, they obviously designed Titan Weapons with a certain concept in mind, that concept being it's not suppose to feel smooth and graceful like Katana, or stocky yet brutal like a Broadsword. TW is supposed to feel heavy and clunky like an over-sized improvised weapon or huge slab of metal. It's why so many of the attacks are AoEs and have so much control effects tied into them. I suppose someone could say smoothing the early early levels out to feel less clunky would make it "user friendly", but when do you acknowledge that you're also gaining undue advantage with the amount of early AoE? By that same level, the only AoE Spines has is Spine Burst, a really slow animating, not boosted by Gauntlet AoE. By then, most sets are only working with 1 AoE. There should be a tax for things and TW suffering a few feelsbadman moments before level 6 when everyone is throwing out Brawls and P2W attack powers to fill in gaps seems very minor in the grand scheme of things.

That the extra mez power is reserved in a click that you have control of using is what makes Dominator's inherent (domination double-mag mezzes) different from Controller's inherent (containment chance for +1 mag). As for having mez protection baked into the powerset, in what way? Having mez protection granted upon casting a mez? As for not having a situation where global recharge of certain magnitudes having drastically different outcomes, I think that's what the OP is trying to push to iron out. Problem is, the only way to make progress is to admit there is a problem. Having armor-level mez protection at all times and an effect that causes click mez powers to completely eclipse any other control AT at all times on top of mid-to-high levels of damage output layered ontop of other goodies like free endurance bar if you just get the magic number of recharge bonus is a problem? Eh...I'm sure it's fine. I mean, Blasters can get capped defense and stuff and Controllers get OP effects from stuff like Time Manipulation/Nature Affinity, right? And Tankers/Scrappers/Brutes have been unkillable for years so it's aight...

That's just Realism and immersion right there.

Or you can just extend the synergies to include Super Jump. Super Jump doesn't have to receive any synergy benefits from other powers but it could contribute to the synergy count for the other powers. Also, some melees might want to get the benefits of some synergy attacks but have no use for Acrobatics. Even Dark Armor/Fiery Aura might want to skip out on Acrobatics for KB protection but including SJ might still give them the opportunity to utilize Jump Kick/Spring Attack.

Jump Kick needs a good amount of help, IMO. Spring Attack isn't bad but it's got a monster recharge. Some other possible synergies that might make them more enticing than a mere 15% increase in damage or reduction in cost: Give Jump Kick and Spring Attack a short duration +def bonus (you are flipping around, after all) upon use. Not huge, just like +8% for 10sec (does not stack with same power). Stacking them both for +16% def to soak up an alpha (on top of the AoE KD from Spring) would be a really nice tool for the non-IO'ed peasants. Afterburner is already similar as it's recharge is 30sec and provides 15% def (slottable), you just toggle it on, slide in, everybody whiffs you with their 1st volley, you turn it off and proceed like nothing ever happened. Another oddity, if you want Acrobatics or Spring attack, you have to take an additional Leaping pool power. It's not like the Fighting Pool where you can just take Boxing and Kick to get Cross Punch for all the synergies, you have to take Jump Kick AND Combat Jumping/Super Jump to be able to get the next synergy attacks, so to get full synergies, you'd need 4 of the powers.

I'm not in disagreement but I can also say a compromise might be a better offer than just outright gutting it. You know, players adapt and so the game evolves and all that jazz. Back a few pages, I suggested allowing for perma-Domination but to keep the "burst power" feel of the AT, put separate modes within domination: upon clicking it, you get the full powered domination with a free END bar, mez protection, double mag mezzes/increased duration mezzes but this is fueled by the domination bar that will slowly deteriorate. Using attacks and controls will slow down the decay but the max duration will be 90sec. Once the bar is dry, you lose the double mag mezzes/increased duration and only get the mez protection. If Domination is available before it expires, you can click it again for more END and continued mez protection but without the bar, no double mag mezzes. Ideally, if you wanted to leverage the higher control, you wait until the bar is full to click Domination, but if you want to stay protected, you click it on recharge. Those that don't have perma-dom sort of don't have a choice, they can only click it when it's available. I've heard people say Dominator without perma-dom is garbage and just have to wonder, what about all the powers that aren't affected by domination? Earthquake and Ice Slick can still neutralize a spawn, Arctic Air Conductive Aura can still mitigate foes while you attack, Carrion Creepers and Singularity can divert mobs' attention and none of those are affected by Domination. Heck, if there's another control AT on the team, you can just stack your efforts to duplicate double mez and focus on damage. I can see the mez protection being the ulterior motive in all this (which is why I kind of would like go keep that as the prize here) but even that is pretty OP, all things considered. What other AT gets mez protection that effective with all those other benefits and no downside? Tankers, the guys that mostly don't have multi-spawn AoE mass mez/nukes?

I had this mentality when I was reading about the set on the beta forums. A clicky set like this aimed to support a medium-sized team most efficiently would favor a MM moreso than a Corruptor or Defender. It's not that it's worse on those ATs, it's just the power prioritization favors a set that already uses AI pets and/or doesn't have that many other powers to manage. My Ninjas/Shock Therapy MM is quite fun and rather offensive in nature. I'm moreso using Energizing Circuit to as an END return than for the recharge. Giving pets KB protection is a great help. As for supporting a team, it's pretty much the same deal but since your pets are your damage, you can just go full Shock Therapy and occasionally issue pet commands at the same time. Some have said that having a powerset that doesn't favor a Defender/Corruptor playstyle is antithetical but it's not, it just takes the player prioritizing their powers, for example, you might not need to constantly move Faraday Cage all the time, or you might be better off not spamming Energizing Circuit or just throwing out Empowering on your Blaster or Stalker to give their attacks extra oomph and the chains are just icing (personally don't even care about the +dmg, I'm just trying to keep my pets' hit rate high). You can use all those powers, but if you also want to throw out blasts or controls, you likely have to pick an order of operation that works for you.

The efficacy of perma-dom isn't the point I'm making. There are mixed commentary on that to include players hating dominator before they can keep domination up 100% to players that will repeat similar rhetoric about the AT being garbage if you're not perma-dom to individuals baffled that people would ever say such at all. My point was directed at the AT and its mechanics and those mechanics include the Domination button, the effects it has, the Domination bar and its own speed of deterioration. The Domination bar doesn't deteriorate nearly as fast as Fury, even after the various changes to its gain and deterioration (off topic, but Fury is more about *gains* than it is about preventing it from decaying). It's possible that QoL prospects to the Domination bar are being held back merely because the meta focus on eliminating the bar itself. That's not a subject I was aiming toward with the initial comment but it does spark some interest in that regards to the Dominatior AT as a whole. How much of the AT is being held back because of the effectiveness of the perma-dom? To take notes of the comments here, enough that non-perma doms won't be able to receive as much benefit from their global recharge until they join the club.

I do understand. I was making a tertiary observation that, as you demonstrated, wouldn't be acknowledged as a distinction within the whole of the AT. Part of the AT is building the domination bar and perma-domination as it currently stands circumvents that. The AT itself is not merely the result of building the bar but the process itself. But then that's also kind of signing off the differences of fury and the domination bar, one that deteriorates at a very retarded rate vs the hyper fluctuating fury bar...but to the unobservant participant of perma-domination, there is no distinction which is what I was trying to illustrate. To those, Dominators = Domination and any distinction outside of that is "tosh".

Just to comment on some of your criticism but you're free to have your own opinion: I think you're overexaggerating. If the team is too fast paced to keep up with stacking FC on them, likely they're not going to benefit from it in the first place. In that case, FC is more for *your* purpose of having mez protection. Since static stacks can stack so high and lasts for quite a while, it's not necessary to sit inside FC purely for the static. The circuit powers themselves give you static and they recharge so quickly, you can nearly spam them for extra static. The set overall is very busy but it's also not necessary to micromanage every power to benefit the team. The extra business is likely to benefit the support oriented players that actually enjoy using ally support powers often, in which case they likely will not mind moving around their FC. FC is quite small, I'll give you that...but it's also extremely effective in what it does. It has comprehensive mez protection that covers almost all of your bases to include sleep, KB and repel which a lot of mez protection support powers do not. Thirdly, having it as a toggle may seem convenient to keep teammates covered, but it also requires the user to actually stick around the targets they are using it for. There is utility in being able to leave it behind and do something else or back off to keep yourself protected or if you get drained (or run yourself out of END) still having it around to keep you protected. Are you also using Defibrillate too? It's a decently potent endurance drain power without needing dead allies to use. I don't deny the draining powers can be rather underwhelming by themselves but it's all about the package and the heal, +absorb, +res and -dmg, it's a nice means of keeping your allies standing while the foes are slowly drained and unable to attack. You're going to get a bit of pushback on this, including myself. As a Shock Therapy MM, I prefer the circuits as they are more easily targetable to the target that needs them. That they are targeted and chain is why they sit between single target and PBAoE in terms of potency so turning them into PBAoE means their effects would also have to be nerfed. That all being said, have you tried the set on MM? I think it's one of the few cases where the set is actually getting a slight leg-up on the other support ATs rather than getting crapped on for having significantly weaker effect. The effects are still weaker but with the micromanaging nature of the AT, giving them the tools of this set means they will squeeze more effect out of it compared to an AT that has other click powers to worry about. It does that already, and it puts them to sleep. Them's the breaks. It actually used to not have Galvanic Sentinel and just couldn't use some powers solo at all...but static stacks gave you some healing. On a Controller, and if you're not Mind Control, you can respec out of the power and just use your controller pet instead. Targeting the user is not possible, though. I would again, recommend Mastermind. You start getting big benefit from those circuits right from the start with no extra pet to worry about (they actually get the power that Galvanic Sentinel casts, not the pet itself). There is an icon. Not sure about what your settings are in options but you can set it to show stacks, numbers or not show at all. Well, quite a few are underwhelmed by Amp Up primarily because the +special doesn't affect some things like +def. It's more of a secondary effects boost like for -END drains, mez effects, etc and has the effect of getting shock procs that KU foes when they attack. Overall, I would suggest keep at the set and write another review after you finish your character (or at least the Shock Therapy portion of it) to get more feedback. Personally speaking, Shock Therapy is actually quite good compared to most support sets. I think it outpaces sets like Force Field, Sonic Resonance, Pain Domination, Empathy, and is on par with sets like Cold Domination, Thermal Radiation and Radiation Emission. It may not outpace sets like Kinetics or Time Manipulation, but few sets do.

Or just reapply it before it expires because the duration is long enough to cover the recharge, especially if you have global recharge >_>

I do enjoy reading write-ups of people's ideas for new powersets or powerset reworks. I tend to hold contrarian talking points as well to spark discussion more often than not. On this topic, I'd like to outline some rules I like to follow when creating new powersets or reworks. With regards to new mechanics, it's important to describe them in full detail or in enough detail that you can filter through different variations of a specific idea to get people understanding where you're coming from. I think you did that well with regards to the bonded ally mechanic. For powerset reworks or using existing powersets as a framework for a new set, I do believe keeping close to the original is as important as making the rework justified and a new set unique. If a powers' mechanical function is going to drastically change, keep such changes to the absolute minimum. This is something you kind of went overboard with. The idea with Clear Mind being a modifier to your other powers is an interesting change, it could actually be a great shift for the set...but you've also changed several click powers into toggle powers (1 even having its function completely altered) which is going to get you into territory of disfavor with more and more readers. If I were to try to combine some of your ideas with current Empathy, I'd use the bonded mechanic as a kind of add-on to some specific powers: Keep Absorb Pain but add onto it a "bonded" effect that lasts for 20sec, give Fortitude and Adrenalin Boost the same bonded effect that lasts for a longer duration (like 60sec) and limit the amount of bonds you can keep active to 3. Making a new bond will make the oldest bond expire. Make it so that allies you don't have a bond with gain +absorb and ones that you do have bonded are just healed by your various heals with the exception of Absorb Pain which will always do both. Allies that you have bonded will return a portion of the effect back to the user. Healing bonded allies give the user +absorb, granting them clear mind will return some +mez protection and +perception to the user, granting fortitude to a bonded ally gives the user a portion of the defense, etc with the exceptions being Recovery Aura, Regeneration Aura and Resurrect. All in all, the set would perform the same except it'd be a blend of +absorb and +healing and the user would get a moderate benefit if he's boosting all 3 of his bonded allies.

For teleport, I'd just give a minor global recharge and global endurance reduction for the concept that you, as a teleporter, don't have to try as hard to do what you do because you can teleport. That all being said, you'd still want to rebalance some of the pools (teleportation being one) so that you could properly adjust individual powers. You might even be able to throw in a global +range buff for every power you pick. For Leaping and acrobatics, I'd like a slight addition to various powers to make them all kind of interchangable. For every power pick in Leaping, Combat Jumping give resistance to immobilize and a minor amount of KB/repel protection (2 other powers = 1pt of KB protection) so if you pick all the powers, CJ would grant 2pt of KB protection. SJ would give non-slottable defense while activated for every power in leaping, Acrobatics can grant resistances to damage types and immune to fall damage while spring attack could gain longer range and debuff to defense. Unrelenting I don't understand. It says it's a self resurrect but I've never been able to get the effect. Use it just before you die? Die while having the effect at all? Use it after you die (it's grayed out)? But if taking powers in presence could drastically reduce the endurance cost and increase the accuracy of the other powers in the set (maybe some amount of global accuracy as well), would be a nice boon for this set. As is, powers in the pool require some slotting just to be adequate. Outside of suggestions to nerf Hasten, you could remove the endurance crash after it expires if you have 2 other speed powers.

The inherent is the domination button AND the domination bar. The argument I was making is more a distinction of fury vs domination in that people don't like fury because you have to pay attention to it...basically, some don't want a change to domination because they don't want to pay attention to it.

I feel what makes Titans Weapons so effective isn't merely the damage, it's the AoE and part and parcel of removing the momentum mechanic, the set should feel slower for its AoE (since I doubt people are advocating for a reduction in AoE of the set). Spines is also an AoE focused set (and an END hungry set) and it also performs highly on the scale...and it also has slow animation times with Throw Spines being one of its speediest attacks to help smooth it out. I'm basically saying don't expect it to be all that "user friendly" (with regards to animation speed since that seems to be the crux being argued here) when changes roll out since it is an AoE intensive set.

"User friendly" implies complexity and function are easily graspable. What you're describing is effectiveness and specifically effectiveness with regards to the power curve of the set. Some sets are very good at lower levels but start to fall behind other sets after a certain point similarly to some sets having greater potential at high levels but mature slowly. Are you saying Titans Weapons needs to have a smoother power curve? I feel one of the difficulties the set has to deal with is very low levels which seems justified by its overall effective power, utility and mitigation. Then what of powersets that are decent to great in the lower levels but have a more stunted performance overall in comparison? Should we iron out all of these "discrepancies"?

Define "user friendly". Titan Weapons is quite simple to use. It can even get momentum off of hitting corpses as well as a "free momentum" click that you probably want to recharge as quickly as possible. Endurance costs are proportional to damage and recharge numbers unless the mechanic of a set is defined by reducing endurance or recharge costs.

So then you don't really like Dominators, you like domination which is likely a distinction no one will outwardly acknowledge as being a distinction at all.

When you put it like that, it's basically the same premise people had with snipes. I personally had no issue needing a couple Tactics bonuses to get fast snipe w/ max damage but apparently that wasn't fair or simple enough so the devs chose to just give fast snipe in combat but gauge the damage up with ToHit.

Have you taken my advice and sought assistance from fellow players that can create mods and/or remove certain sounds/animations? https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/60-tools-utilities-amp-downloads/ EDIT: FYI, if you want to get in touch with individuals fiddling with animations, look in this thread: Apparently, it is possible to change some aspect of animations for your client only but you just have to find where the animation is, all variations of it and then swap something appropriate in its place.

Going to go with a no on this one. That would either be a ridiculous buff to BU or an unnecessary nerf to Boost Range as BU is 10sec duration and 90sec rech while BR is 30sec duration 60sec rech. So are you going to have fewer BRs or more BUs? Or longer BUs or shorter BRs? That and I don't think they need that many bonuses. It already has TF, the best sustain click in all the blaster secondaries, and enough blaps to catch a boss off guard then sweep them off their feet. Personally speaking, I think they should change Stun and all its incarnations into a cone or something so you can have AoE mez, including blasters. I don't feel they need Whirling Hands, especially if it's getting the treatment that Dominators got. Again, they get access to quite a bit as is. I think the Charge mechanic Doms have is all you need. No bar necessary but I do like the concept of using the Charge mechanic to grant the various spender powers in the set different effects. I'd like it even more if the Charge mechanic were something like Shock Therapy's Static mechanic and you could get multiple stacks and spend them individually, although the stacks would have to be harder to come by if they can be spent individually rather than all at once....of course an all-at-one spender mechanic could also be an approach, I'm just throwing other ideas in the mix.

Firstly, you didn't answer any of the questions, you just made the assumption that I'm dictating what the right way to RP the concept is rather than taking note of the referenced concept of the AT itself. Again, no one argues that the basis for the concept for Stalker is an assassin or the basis for the concept of the Brute is the mechanics of the Hulk. The point of the questioning was to isolate the game mechanics based on the concept and rationalize being limited by or circumventing the concept itself which has nothing to do with what I view the RP concept is and how others should view it. Another harsher example is, should Mastermind just be as strong without any pets or with maybe just 1 pet as they are with all their pets? You can't circumvent the ATs concept by taking set bonuses without also taking a penalty. Same as Stalkers, you don't merely ignore hide and assassin's strike and assassination without removing features of the AT that give it benefit. If the concept of the Dominator took into account having a Jekyll and a Hyde but set bonuses bypass this concept (rather than minimize it), is that okay? Secondly, what you make of the concept and what the concept is are going to be two different things. You can make a Brute that has nothing to do with anger or just ignore the fury mechanic as a whole for the RP concept of a character...but one doesn't simply remove fury from Brute or grab a few set bonuses to get max fury all the time. There will always be a build up phase. There will always be a deterioration situation. There will always be a difference between high fury and no fury.