Naraka

Then read the second damned paragraph.

Glad you didn't bother reading the rest of the post.

Variety. Unlike some, I actually don't have that many characters as I don't powerlevel, I don't join teams merely to get exp so no radio mission repeats unless I'm aiming for the bank mission at the end, I turn exp off at times so I don't level up too fast doing TF/SF and I linger in "sweet spots" to finish out mission arcs. That out of the way, the variety I seek usually involves playing powersets I haven't tried before or only played minimally also coupled with pools/epics that I haven't tried much of or only took a select power from. Overall, I vary my power picks as often as possible given the limited amount of characters I usually roll and play. Skipping some powers in a set for one reason or another keeps open an opportunity to make another character that does take those powers. I don't really have that many SR characters primarily because the character I have that does take it has all the powers so running it again likely wouldn't change much...however, if there is a nominal difference between, say, a Scrapper SR character and a Sentinel SR character, that changes the replay opportunity a bit. But it's not only variety, it's also theme and personal RP where I create heroes with rouges galleries or villains with targets of interests/henchmen/associates. That being said, why I pick Dark Armor is purely dependent on the concept of the character that will develop from the power choices I've picked for him, specifically my Spines/DA/Weapons Stalker with teleport and presence. Since Stalker DA is somewhat different from other melee's, I have been looking for an avenue for a new melee and it's likely going to hinge on leveraging Oppressive Gloom (and skip Cloak of Fear and Cloak of Darkness) since that was a skipped power on my Stalker and feel very different from my Stalker.

Looking at making some builds with DA, it's a pretty fun set to work around with because of its varying effects. The main thing leaving me wanting is Cloak of Fear and Cloak of Darkness. With CoF, the only things to game it with to stack is either the presence pool which is mostly bad and slot hungry to make work or using some -ToHit powers to get nearly -20% ToHit if you're playing a Tanker or Brute. Having more fear powers or perhaps a feedback loop to enhance other fear powers could be the synergy that power needs (for every foe within the cloak that is actually feared (so synergyzing with teammates that use fear powers too), you get a boost to the duration of your fear powers for 8sec stackable up to 5 with the 5th stack giving you a 45% chance of +1mag to Cloak of Fear. Cloak of Darkness has some nice effects but it's just a bummer you need it for immobilize protection. I'd rather that be pushed into Obsidian Shield so that Cloak of Darkness becomes another optional toggle effect. Add to it -ToHit protection along with its +perception and you then have the option of turning it off when you don't need its effects or keeping it on if you have a build that utilizes the +def. Oppressive Gloom is a cool power that people often sign off because it only affects minions...but Tankers, Scrappers, Stalkers and Brutes have a plethora of powers that stun either very reliably on a single target or liberally in an AoE. This is a power that, if leveraged in your build craft, can feel like a cool payoff for its minor HP drain. I mean, MA can keep some hard targets stunned, EM is another option for lots of ST and AoE stuns, Kinetic Melee, the near entirety of War Mace, Stone Melee has some AoE stun. Despite what meta-builds tend to aim for, having a Stone Melee Tanker using OG and just Faulting stuff sounds quite entertaining. Then comes the endurance management. There are options. Outside of IOs, Tankers/Brutes can get Conserve Power. Those that like the Leadership pool can take Victory Rush. Some sets like Savage, Dark Melee and Staff can get you some bonus options. All of them can take Physical Perfection. Needing to take aspects of your build into consideration to aid or synergize positively is what makes building characters fun...but if you don't actually need anything and extra stuff is just a perk, it's perceived as less rewarding.

I usually only bother with set IOs until after level 30 so I can start getting attuned but even then, it's more a matter of crafting, converting, playing the market a little to earn everything as I go so some sets won't be filled out until well past lvl 38. But it's really what you make of it. The most draining effects on a build are likely the clicks anyway, not the armor toggles. Ice Armor has it's quirks too, primarily being light on healing and that bit of a Fire damage hole (practically no defense and a smidgen of resistance to fire...I say a smidgen because even with multiple saturated Energy Absorptions stacked, that will be what you don't cap on a SO build) which is a relatively common damage type. Its mostly name to fame utility is its slow resistance so no worrying about those psi attacks slowing the recharge of your heal... ...oh yeah, it seems Ice armor has a psi hole as well with no defense or resistance to it. There's also the tier 9 which I actually like (I take it on my Stalkers if they take Mako) but some see it as a hinderance. DA on the other hand has moderate to good resistances to everything, even psi and toxic. It's main hole is KB, weaker to energy, strong -recovery and -ToHit. I wouldn't mind the -ToHit hole being filled as the other aspects can be overcome either by smart play, build considerations or IOs. As for preferences to run, I'd rather run both. And I'd rather running both not feel the same.

Because the set can perform just fine with the costs it has. Someone else mentioned players pushing to have all sets perform and be built the same way. I ask, why should every set be made to require all the same build considerations? If running all the toggles burns through your endurance too much, why not seek out specific build options rather than homogenize all counteractions of each set? There are armor sets that have practically zero use for outside endurance assistance and even more sets that can be made to just ignore endurance consumption outside of END draining/-recovery situations. Pretty similarly, Dark Armor can nearly ignore outside healing assistance because it's heal is so strong and recharges decently fast. Since there are methods outside of IOs to assist in mitigating endurance, why not use them? And then you have the comments saying how niche the mez toggles are so why run them all at the same time? To bloat your endurance consumption so you have something to complain about? Which then feeds into my other reason: I'd rather be given a reason to run all/more toggles than to just have it made cheaper to do. I've read some pretty interesting ideas and arguments for buffing the mez toggles to provide extra utility to deepen the differences of the set vs checking off another set that, with IOs, completely circumvents another avenue of team assistance and build synergy.

Saying DA is an END hog and thus needs a reduction is like saying Regen is click intensive and so should get a +rech bonus. That isn't how this works. And the justification is Dark Regen. It always has been and you know it. I think the only reasonable request here I read was moving the immobilize protection out of Cloak of Darkness into Obsidian Shield. In and of itself, DA's toggles are no more expensive than other sets, it just has a couple of optional toggles you can use if you have the endurance and need for them. I might even see a good reason to add a -ToHit debuff to Dark Regen (or a -dmg debuff) for flavor. But the set's endurance hit comes mostly from Dark Regen which you can whittle down with slotting. The other is Death Shroud which is likely the culprit of requiring a lot of endurance and needing a lot of slots. For a Tanker, you can choose to forego using Death Shroud completely in favor of CoF or OG (or both). On a Brute or Scrapper, it might be the reverse and running Death Shroud but not CoF or OG. If we're talking about SO slotting, that is an important and viable option to consider, taking and/or running all the toggles at once or not. You can choose to ignore that option in favor of your personal opinion but I feel you're wrong in doing so. EDIT: Isn't Stone Armor a more needy set to be talking about here? Or maybe how we can get Energy Aura or Regen on a Tanker?

I wouldn't mind more varied set bonuses and uniques primarily because so few variations exist to stack and capitalize on. More +end discount globals would have been nice rather than all the +recovery uniques..or even just +END max. Exchanging the +fear set bonus to perhaps +fear protection (maybe shifted to the 4-6th slot) would be a better consolation than the +fear duration. Was trying to grab some +range bonuses for my Blaster to eek out a bit of distance from Speed of Sound/Jaunt but there aren't as many bonuses as you'd think. ATO has one, one of the new TAoE sets has it too...I want to say a couple of others but would be nice to get some +range from KB sets while leveling up to 50.

It's more a consensus of opinions. If a set of new ATOs/IOs were theoretically being constructed or a set of changes being considered for some offensive set like Assault Rifle or Martial Arts to add some utility, what effects do you think will be suggested the most?

One reason why Stalker has such a fitting set of ATOs is because the AT itself is rather uniform. Every set has Hide, Assassin's [Attack], Build Up and Placate. It's much easier to set up for them to have an effect that affects one of those powers. Would be great if Blaster's ATO was a "get +10 mez protection for 15sec when you use Aim and a chance to instantly recharge Aim if mezzed" but not every set gets Aim or an Aim equivalent. Scrapper's ATO is as bland as milk toast. It's only good because the AT itself is rather good. If it was just damage procs on every attack instead of +crit chance, it wouldn't really be that different. If I were changing the ATOs, I'd probably aim for the inherent too but that wouldn't always be beneficial overall to every build: Defender - Extending the END discount to solo and the +dmg to teams could be an option Tanker - +range special for 5sec after using Taunt (basically a flat increase the the Gauntlet effect for a short time) but an increase to the cooldown of Taunt Controller - a small chance for containment damage on top of their regular damage (that stacks with Containment damage) Dominator - chance for double mag mez in the power it's slotted in ...but some inherents are just too passive to actually have any meaningful effect and the powers spread are not uniform to be balanced to affect all sets evenly.

I call it the "meta-gaming singularity". It pushes balance to aim for specific meta-game favored effects, in both new sets and old, so that all sets eventually perform the same but with different visual effects. Of course, that conclusion is the extreme and likely something we won't ever get to but it's the overarching goals of such changes: +rech, +dmg, extra damage, -res and more targets. Also +def if you haven't reached the cap already. That is what will be requested for every set, every inherent and every IO set and why you won't hear requests for +range, +resistance to debuff/mez, +regen, +acc, -def, -ToHit, etc etc.

Regarding the assault side, the global recharge can be an added boon to proc builds so that you get the benefit of higher proc chance and faster recharging assault powers, so it has its benefits on assault side too. As for the double mag, it's more icing than it is cake as some sets get less benefit from from it but the high rech will still bring up those powers faster. I know, on my Grav/Energy dom, I don't really care about double mag stun on my Wormhole. The important part is the teleport and the knockdown. Everything is going to be dead before the stun matters most of the time and the set has so much KD and stun, doubling the mag really only matters if you're soloing to which then domination *IS* available if you actually need it because Singularity isn't doing its job.

This is definitely one reason I'm semi-against just granting support sets self-targeted buffs. It shifts balance in wonky ways and it's better to aim for individually targeted changes to assist instead. As quoted, Masterminds already have a lower scale on their buffs than other ATs and still obtain a large benefit since technically their buffs are usable solo already but only some buffs actually help (+rech buffs don't help pets, for example). There's also the aspect of support buffs vs armor sets in that the numerical values of each don't match and one potentially has access to both. Should a FF Defender have access to better than Scrapper SR defenses AND a resist toggle later on? I personally don't think so. While this is a comic book *inspired* game, it is not a comic book simulator. This is a game first and a power fantasy comic book character creator second and thus needs to take into account balance considerations and the support ATs are balanced around increasing the potency of a whole team (force multiplier). That being said, considerations on aiding individual sets I wouldn't be against...like if they added +absorb to the FF set, like a periodic +absorb to those within the range of Dispersion Bubble, they could make it cap out on allies at about +15%absorb while capping at 30% absorb for the defender to give it a bit of boosted protection. Or someone suggested before, a passive ability that just gives the user a small boost to defense/debuffs that's just always on (like 7%) that would be granted upon choosing one of the shields. That stacked with slotted dispersion bubble and maneuvers gets you around 28% def to all. In the circumstances where you could cast both ally shields on yourself, a FF defender is at 39% defense to all with only 3 powers (deflection/insulation shield and dispersion bubble). In context, a Tanker gets 40% defense to melee, ranged and AoE only with 2x as many powers and slots...and the defender can also grant that to allies.

I'd assume the thumb is the non-perma dominator and the hammer is the circumstances that make non-perma dominator seem like "utter trash" as some would describe it. But then I'd wager those that describe the AT as such are merely exaggerating to make a scene. While perma-dom is amazing and even better with some sets, it's not really the end-all shift some make it out to be. If anything, it's the high +rech required to get to perma-dom that makes the dominator amazing, not having domination on all the time. Makes me wonder if the best solution would be to just give the Dominator a 20%-75% recharge bonus depending on level and domination level that is suppressed while under the effects of Domination. It wouldn't benefit anyone but the "utter trash" anyway while also filling the gap for those near perma that desire it while those that choose a more staggered use of the button get better control opportunities but less potency while not using it but slightly suffer from less control opportunities but higher potency while under the effects of domination.

I'm wary to reply to this post primarily because I know it's an unpopular opinion... ...but when I read that, all I hear are excuses to mutilate the game, justify bypassing features/content and introducing power creep. "Oh, it's not our fault that we played the story arcs to death so just make it so we just powerlevel through and fill out incarnates and farm up a heap of purples with reckless abandon that compounds problem after problem." "Since we don't get steady content flow, you owe us insanely fast progression, min/max builds and patching all old powersets to fit our meta". No restraint. No perspective. No consideration. Like I said before, if the game was overall dialed back to make the incarnate system more of a means of shoring up builds, there probably wouldn't be as big an issue with incarnates. Or if the rest of the game wasn't being irrevocably pulled into the event horizon that is the meta-game builds, perhaps dealing with people pushing their builds to the limit wouldn't feel like pandering.

I don't expect anything. I literally just explained how I accept a loss so not win win.

Kind of presumptuous to assume we already aren't. I know that I often turn xp off at certain times to slow the leveling experience because I simply don't team in the 40s unless I'd rather just do whatever because it's just more of a slog to pre-qualify every teammember joining or introduce drama when people don't adhere to some restriction. Leveling up is the content and I'll slow myself before level 10 so I can get all the DFB temp powers, slow at level 18 on a Stalker until I earn enough rewards to slot my chance for BU rech proc, slow at level 28 so I earn the rewards for the pet auras I want on my MM build, slow at lvl 33 so I can change alignments to villain so that I'm doing the patron arcs by lvl 35 and all the SF/TFs in between. That all being said, I don't really consider it a win win. I'm accepting a loss so I don't have to deal with crap. If this were an actual win win scenario, maybe if people weren't so laser focused on the "end product" and played overall more casually instead of pushing the meta, then there'd be less focus on what is messed up about the balance. People would have their overpowered perma-everything characters solo'ing itrials and what not and I can enjoy teaming on normal story arcs without bloody drama brought about by people trying to one-up someone else or using a tactic they don't like.

I can see another set of A-holes being people who take armchair game designers tossing out ideas or criticism for a game they played a while back entirely too seriously and going around telling people to shut up. I'd hardly point to just one group and tell them they are the only A-holes around when another obvious group would be ones shouting "No, you!" but then there could also be the group that float around waiting to make snarky comments about obviously wrong statements so they can "flex" on someone as being another possible group of A-holes (clarification: I'd be in that last group).

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.