America's Angel

Procs every 10s.

Tell the casuals to build for defense softcap, buy the p2w mez amplifier + put the blaster mez ato in their sustain. (Or any toggle that will take it. They should have a damage aura.) This should give them enough mez protection. Tell the hardcore to do the same, but build for recharge and procs instead of defense. Have them chug purple and red insps until they are softscapped for def and hardcapped for damage. (They can email themselves insps to do this. Also remember, you can buy bigger insps in the market/from luna in Ouroboros.) My fire/fire blaster can solo AVs in like 60 seconds, solo the ITF in 20-25 minutes, and has never used rune. Your friends should be okay. 👍

Well Unstoppable doesn't have the -recovery crash so it's not so bad. I didn't know that about stalker ninjitsu though, lol. And yeah, would be nice if the flashing icon prior to the crash had a 10s countdown or something.

It's an Inv/MA with one enemy in range of invincibility, double-stacking the tanker res ATO (I have it 2x 100% of the time), whilst also using the P2W +res/+def amplifier. So no accolades/destiny/barrier/saturated invince/insps/other stuff people in this thread are suggesting. ^^ It does use Alpha, though. (Cardiac.)

Melee epic ranged attacks are currently doing 33%-50% of the damage they are doing on live. Laser Beam Eyes on Brainstorm: Laser Beam Eyes on live: This is due to the damage scalar still being set to ranged for these powers. It should be switched back to melee.

Elude's -recovery is especially problematic because, unlike Energy Aura or Ninjitsu, Super Reflexes has no +end power. I like the rest of your post. But it's important to remember this game is not balanced around IOs or Incarnates. Things like being able to chain T9s with Hybrid/Barrier shouldn't matter from a balance POV IMO.

I'm not looking to build an echo chamber. I welcome being proven wrong. But the feedback I've received has been: This would make armour sets too powerful! This would do nothing for armour sets! I'd rather the devs focus on other stuff. Removing the crashes sounds good. #1 & #2 cancel each other out. #3 is personal opinion that can apply to any suggestion. Which leaves me with only #4. I'm sure there is a coherent counter-argument to my proposal, I have yet to hear it. And this isn't because my proposal is especially good. But is because most people in this thread aren't actually responding to it. The vast majority of exchanges in here have been: Angel's OP: I know what you're thinking. "What about X?" Well, luckily there is solution Y. Poster: What about X, though? My annoyance stems from people raising something my OP already addresses (X), rather than my solution to it (Y). It is frustrating when people want to both argue with you, and yet not respond to what you've written, at the same time. But I certainly welcome disagreement, it's how you test whether an idea is good or not. On my scrapper, these are the average amount of time it takes me to kill the following opponents: Invuln Brute without Unstoppable: 1-2 minutes Invuln Brute with Unstoppable: 6-7 minutes Energy Aura Scrapper: 7 minutes Regen Scrapper: 4-7 minutes Regen Brute: 7-15 minutes As you can see, an Invuln Brute without unstoppable doesn't need to "learn to play". They are just mathematically, objectively, inferior. Removing the crashes would go some way to allow people to prove you wrong. One thing I've learned in my many years with CoH - players are always finding unexpected ways to make powers more useful than they first appear. Also worth remembering, as I mentioned in my OP, that this would be a buff to SO builds/players. (The majority.)

Giving the blinking dot a 10s countdown indicator on the icon under the toolbar would be very helpful.

Invuln isn't meta in PVP. Regen, EA, and Rad Armour are. Invuln is B+ at best, and that is with Unstoppable, a power essential to its survival. Even with the changes in my OP, those other sets would still outclass it. (It would go from a B+ to an A in a land of people playing S.) As someone who plays Invuln in PVE and PVP, I would find the changes in my OP to Unstoppable useful in both.

Yeah I like those ideas.

Can confirm fast snipes are working properly in arena instanced maps in PVP, too.

They are needed. Especially versus enemies that do -deff, -recovery, and -end attacks. Such as: -The kheldian ambush in the ITF doing -def attacks. -Cimerorans doing -def -PPD doing -def attacks -Lord Recluse's -recovery and -enddrain attacks -Carnies (with their death endurance attacks) To use you as an example - Kheldians don't get DDR. So versus a +4/8 mob that is spamming you with -def, you'll be at the -def floor. The DPS of a +4/8 Kheld ambush or Cim mob is ~2000. So your 85% res perma lightform peacebringer, assuming 200% regen and your two heals firing off, is lasting around 13-14 seconds. This is why DDR matters. An Invuln can stack the DDR from ageless with its native DDR to survive those spawns for much longer. Due to peacebringers having no native DDR, Ageless does much less for you in these situations. My Invuln tank ALREADY has 100% uptime of 90% resistance to everything, INCLUDING psy. So the thing you're saying is "too powerful" at 66% uptime, is something I -ALREADY- have at 100% uptime. Again, here are my invuln tanker's numbers: This is WITHOUT unstoppable or any incarnates. My invuln right now, using all the toggles in the set, is MORE powerful than an Invuln using just unstoppable.

All of those things are hugely needed on an invuln. It's how the set is balanced. Being able to cap res via unstoppable rather than temp invuln + unyielding doesn't suddenly make Invuln not need DDR, end drain resist, or defense. Yup. Like it said in my OP.

Resist Physical Damage provides DDR. Dull Pain provides +HP and a heal. Resist Elements provides slow resist. Resist Energies provides end drain/-recovery resist. Invincibility provides defense and tohit. Tough Hide provides defense and DDR ...why wouldn't you use these with Unstoppable? It provides none of these benefits. The only power you wouldn't need outside of the downtime is Temporary Invulnerability. (And possibly Unyielding.) And if all that wasn't true, I'm not sure I agree with the idea of adding absorb. I don't think Invulnerability needs a buff in PVE. It's already really good.

Please don't suggest nerfs.

@Carnifax @Troo @parabola Made a thread for the T9 chat so we don't clog up this one:

Okay so there's been some talk recently about tweaking the T9 Armour powers (Specifically: Unstoppable, Power Surge, Elude, Overload, Kuji-in Retsu). As one of the few people who actually uses these powers, I thought it time to make a thread on it. But first, a brief primer on the state of play: T9s in PVE: Useless T9s in PVP: Essential Because of this, reimagining T9s will damage Invulnerability, Elec Armour, Super Reflexes, Energy Aura, and Ninjitsu in PVP. And while PVP is always secondary to PVE, ruining a bunch of sets in PVP for a change that isn't really needed in PVE would be a terrible decision. So, let's try and avoid that as we put our heads together with PVE ideas. (It doesn't have to be our focus, but there's no reason it can't be a consideration.) So...how to make T9s useful in PVE? First of, fix the obvious downsides: Remove the 20s recovery debuff in Elude(!) Overload, Retsu, and Power Surge Remove or reduce the -HP in the Unstoppable and Power Surge crash Remove or reduce the -end in the crash of all T9s. (Fix the "psy hole" they all have in PVP! Psy Melee players shouldn't have this weird advantage!) Okay. That has fixed the bad parts of the powers. And it has improved their PVP performance, too. (Woop!) If this is all that is changed, this would be a net positive for the game. Similar to how blaster nukes were improved back in the day. (This is all that "needs" doing IMO. Everything beyond this is just meddling. But for the sake of discussion, let us continue.) Okay so even though the downsides have been removed... why would my PVE invuln tank use unstoppable? This is what her (incarnate-less) stats look like: If we're looking to improve PVE...then I need a reason to want the power in PVE. And yeah sure you could say it'd make the game easier levelling 1-50, but there's no real need for it there, either. Invuln plays fine in regular SO content. (And while some of the other sets might not be so hot in regular SO content, that speaks more to the sets as a whole, rather than their T9s. Super Reflexes, for example, does not underperform due to Elude being undesirable.) So, what to do? Maybe take a step back and change how we look at this? T9s obviously cannot be ADDITIVE. We can't use them on top of our existing builds. But what if they existed as an equally-viable ALTERNATIVE to our current builds? (I.e. You pick powers, or make a build, based around the T9. And in doing so, achieve the same level of relative performance as you would currently without them.) This would be an ideal solution, as it would give players more building options, and lead to less homogenization at level 50. To do this, I'd take a leaf out of the recent Rune of Protection tweaks. That power now has: Rune of Protection: 60s Duration @ 180s unenhanceable recharge for an uptime of 33%. Now, that's a pool power everyone has access to. For an armour T9, the cornerstone power of each set, we should look for a higher number. Maybe...66%%? As the current 180s duration of the T9s are good/what the playerbase is used to since 2004, then I'd suggest... Unstoppable: 180s Duration @ 270s unenhanceable recharge for an uptime of 66%. Power Surge: 180s Duration @ 270s unenhanceable recharge for an uptime of 66%. Elude: 180s Duration @ 270s unenhanceable recharge for an uptime of 66%. Overload: 180s Duration @ 270s unenhanceable recharge for an uptime of 66%. Kuji-in Retsu: 180s Duration @ 270s unenhanceable recharge for an uptime of 66%. 3 minutes on, 1.5 minutes off. (Still affected by Burnout, obviously.) This would allow PVE players to "hulk out" when they need to, and use their other tools (heals, origin T5s, Unrelenting, insps, etc) to survive in the 90s off. It would also allow PVE players to have an abundance of defense or resistance in those rare instances where they need it, as well as have a means to a +recovery buff for tough boss/AV fights. Even with these changes, players wouldn't have to use T9s. (They could still build for the softcap.) But cycling a tweaked T9 with a small downtime window would likely make your tank/brute/scrapper/stalker "tough enough" to tank all content in the game. So, with less slots needed to be "tough enough", you free up slots in a build to build for other things. Hell, it might help remove the need to take the power pools we always end up taking (Looking at you Fighting), and let us fit these cool origin powers into our PVE builds. (Looking at you Gadgets and Utility Belt.) There's a few objections I can already see forming to this... "You keep talking about builds! This game is balanced around SOs!" True, but this is a buff to SO builds, too! Casual players will be able to tank well without having to rely on inspirations so much. Also, thanks to the +recovery each T9 offers, it will also give casual players a way to help mitigate some of the end drain found in the 38+ content. (Something they typically struggle with.) "This would be OP with incarnates!" I think you have that the wrong way around. Incarnates make everything OP. Incarnates should not be considered when talking about game balance. (Except alpha, maybe.) "Insps would make this OP." Again, you got that the wrong way around. Insps (purple ones especially) are insanely OP right now. "What about Shield? It's T9 only has an uptime of 33%" Maybe shield should get some love, too. But One With The Shield has a different duration/recharge to the other T9s listed, so that's a potentially separate conversation. "Wouldn't this make the sets OP in PVP?" Invuln & Elec - No. You can still kill through the T9s. This would just make them more viable options for fights that last longer than 6 minutes. EA, SR, Ninjitsu - Not on Scrappers. Possibly on Brutes/Tanks. Would need to test. It may turn out the downtime window needs to be longer than 90s. This is only something we'd learn in testing. If paired with Dark Melee/Rad Melee? Quite possibly. But that speaks more to Dark Melee / Rad Melee than the T9s. If testing shows these two attack sets are providing too much mitigation, despite requiring a tohitcheck for their heals, then that's something that can be looked at separately to T9s. There's no reason an EM/EA should suffer because a DM/EA is really survivable. "Wouldn't it be cool if [insert idea to completely revamp the T9s]" Thunderspy is that way ---> Let me know what y'all think. I'm not married to the 66% uptime number. Was just to illustrate the idea more than anything.

I tested Targeting Drone from /devices and that was working properly. (I.e. only giving the damage buff when OOC - meaning the game knew when I was in combat.) Also, I just jumped on Cryptic and noticed snipes were working properly on there. So whatever is causing this snipe problem, it's a recent tweak that caused it.

It's also happening on blaster snipes. Just checked Moonbeam and Blazing Bolt.

Can confirm. Just tested this on Moonbeam. The ring does appear but is inconsistent. And soon vanishes after 1s-15s. (Often before the current attack finishes animating.) With the Experienced Marksman proc slotted, Moonbeam was perma-fast. (Had the yellow ring around it constantly). I know the snipe changes were reverted. But when I compared the live and beta versions, I noticed the beta version has this power effect that is not present on live:

I know this isn't 100% sorcery related. But I've seen a few people comment about armour T9s being given the same treatment as Rune, and I have to object strongly to that. Invulnerability, Elec Armour, Energy Aura, and Ninjitsu are not in need of buffs. (Super Reflexes possibly is, although plenty of people manage it fine in PVE.) PVP players of those sets completely rely on the T9s to survive. So, giving PVE players a buff they don't need, by changing powers that PVP players absolutely need, seems pointless at best, and actively harmful at worst. There are some parts of the T9s that could use tweaking. But this is not the place for that conversation. I just wanted to point out that while I love the new Rune changes. (Both in PVE and PVP). I'd hate to see them ported over to the armour T9s.

Well that's the Soaring set. But yeah 2 flight IO's should cap it. (Doesn't need the IO in swift, either. I just left that in because I was duplicating a friend's build to show them they were still at the flight cap with no need to respec.)

I think you're confused. Stress testing these powers in farms/pvp/minmax environments was done after they were found fit for purpose in casual play. This was to check for exploits. So far, no-one has found anything game-breaking at the high end. The idea that any of these changes were done with min/max, farming, or PVP in mind is objectively incorrect.

Ah sorry I removed Unrelenting from my post. (Didn't mean to include it!) Was only intending to compare it to Unleashed Potential.

I count three: First Pass: 60s duration @ 600s recharge Second Pass: 40s duration @ 120s fixed recharge Third Pass: 60s duration @ 180s fixed recharge --- Enflame: Copied my Rad/Fire Brute over to Cryptic, picked up Sorcery, and ran a bunch of farms on Cryptic with Enflame slotted like this. I cast it on an NPC ally and had them follow me around. It only shaved off ~15s from my cleartime. So the power doesn't seem unbalanced in regular farms. It helped out a lot more in an EB farm. But those are an inefficient way to farm anyway, so that doesn't matter IMO. Spirit Ward Being able to give a squishy 25% more health with one click? Sounds good! (Also helped keep the NPC ally in the farm alive!) Arcane Bolt Does decent damage at the damage cap: Mystic Flight Easily cap-able: Rune of Protection Mitigation numbers vs Unleashed Potential on live: Unleashed Potential - 20.88-64.81 HPS over 90s Rune of Protection - 25.75-128.75 HPS over 90s Mitigation numbers vs Unleashed Potential on beta: Unleashed Potential With 3 IOs for healing and 3 IOs for defense Unleashed Potential mitigates: 1897.8 damage mitigated vs 100 DPS over 60s 2886.2 damage mitigated vs 200 DPS over 60s 3894.6 damage mitigated vs 300 DPS over 60s 4893 damage mitigated vs 400 DPs over 60s 5891 damage mitigated vs 500 DPS over 60s. ...So it adds 31.63-98.19 HPS over 60s Rune of Protection With 3 IOs for resistance, Rune of Protection mitigates: 1545 damage vs 100 DPS over 60s 3090 damage vs 200 DPS over 60s 4635 damage vs 300 DPS over 60s 6180 damage vs 400 DPs over 60s 7725 damage vs 500 DPS over 60s ...So it adds 25.75-128.75 HPS over 60s ...so rune is still better. Add in that Rune's fixed recharge doesn't DR in PVP. (A good thing). And this is an all-around buff. Love everything you've done with the sorcery revamp. Every power feels useful.