Arbegla

My mistake, I was thinking Weaken Resolve, but I called it Experimentation. You named it right. That's what I get for being on the forums at work.

Old RoP had a 600 second recharge, and 90 second duration. The absolute best you could get, at the recharge cap (400%), which is impossible to get without outside buffs is 1/5 of that time, so 120 seconds. Even a very heavy IO build can only squeeze about 300% recharge counting global recharge, and enhancement slotting, giving you roughly 150 seconds of recharge. Most places I've seen high end builds say between 160 and 150 seconds on recharge. With a 90 second duration, yes, at the recharge cap, you're sitting at 75% uptime. But at the highest IO build you can get, you're at ~150 seconds, giving you a 60% uptime. Now, you get the same power, with a 33% uptime, without any slotting. Before, without slotting you had a 15% uptime. (90 second duration, 600 second recharge) So, overall, this is a buff to base RoP, a buff to low to mid tier builds (as you still needed 222% recharge to get OLD RoP to have a 33% recharge, meaning 100% in enhancements, and still over 100% in global recharge) and a nerf to the VERY high end builds. The other powers getting turned into toggles actually helps the powers out more than it hurts them. You can slot enhancements in Spirit Ward, and being a toggle means you can now effectively permanently have an absorb shield on someone, which refreshes constantly. I'm not sure why you're so upset over an overall BUFF to the entire power pool.

When you say testing in RWZ, do you mean on the target dummies? with a power analyzer?

Pets die when you're sidekicked/Exemplared/flashbacking and have always died that way. Do the Ouro Pilgrim mission on either side as a MM, and your pets will die at least twice, possibly even four times. Its annoying, but I understand why they did it.

While I can understand the want for additional aggro caps, 1 or 2 stray mobs isn't going to murder a squishy. Usually the 'tank' is focused on the boss/EB/AV/GM or whatever big bad is out there, and if he can't grab everything, that's probably ok, because a minion or LT isn't going to last that long, even if it does target a squishy. Masterminds already break the aggro cap, in a pretty massive way. ALL of the pets ignore aggro caps, which was added to compensate for the iTrials, so if you have a mastermind on the team, especially one with provoke, you can basically an unlimited aggro tank, as any aggro the MM gets the pets can shed off, and while they might not be able to hold it forever, they can hold it enough to protect a squishy.

Didn't Shockwave get an animation change so now its much faster, and therefore worthwhile to put even in the single target attack chain? With the KB->KD proc, its really good mitigation too.

No true actually. If you're mid-way through the arc, you can complete the arc even if you out level it. The mobs may or may not spawn at your level, but you will still get the rewards merits for finishing it. As long as you have the 'story book' attached to the contact, you can finish their arc anytime.

It'll be more efficient to use Villian (or even Gold side) missions for some of the badges. I think the guide needs to be updated honestly, as some of the praetorian missions are MUCH faster then the H or V side options.

There are also binds you can make to feed your pets Inspirations, also, the Hero Alignment Power is like a mini-Build Up for your whole team. Bots/FF is just hard to boost damage on, mainly because /FF doesn't have very much offensive power. Depending on what Power Pools you took, you could get some debuffs going, and then use those as well. (Experimentation has a single target debuff in it, that you can proc out to make pretty nice)

That makes sense, I wasn't sure how the existing enhancements would be affected. Changing the level ranges seems like the best fix, and it gives more options for frankenslotting for lowbies.

Would changing the attuned from a minimum to an average help be a temp fix?

Reserve Power is Soul Transfer? Super Stunner Self Rez power has the wrong description.

I would disagree that /traps is not good on speed runs. Poison trap is insane control, and FFG follows you around. With enough recharge you can get acid mortar up every 18 seconds, and the first mortar debuffs in a group. It doesn't matter if you run away, the debuffs lasts a long time. Seeker drones can be used to soak an alpha when you don't have a tank, so /Traps can be very very fast, it just takes a lot of recharge. I'll agree entirely that bots have no AoE at all until level 26, and the flamethrower hurts cuz the animation is really long. The AoE on the dual plasma blast is tiny, so it might as well be single target. However, bots are very durable, with the double forcefields, and the heals. They also get seeker drones as well, which they use is a very bad way, but the debuffs of them stack really well. Bots are energy/fire/smashing damage and they have a decent amount of additional -regen built in. They do have a lot of knockback, so the kb->kd IO is very useful. Thugs have good AoE once you get arsonist, you just got to keep the Arsonist alive, and he tends to pull a lot of aggro. But I think the other thugs even get some cones before 32, so it's nice. It's also mostly lethal/smashing damage outside of the arsonist, so it's a bit on the resisted side. The enforcers provide a lot of +def/+damage/+to hit, but just for the pets. The BU proc (gaussins) is very nice in the enforcers, and the soulbound BU proc is good in the T1 thugs. So you can get a lot of damage if you can keep them alive. Also Gang War is just amazing. The other primaries don't quite have the complimentary nature with /traps.

The big issue that I've noticed with the beta changes is that it really encourages refreshing the pets as a full heal instead of keeping the pets around when you try to resummon things. You should be encouraged to keep your pets, regardless of the shape they are in once your recharge is up.

This got the gears in my head turning a bit, and I thought of an idea. What if there was a timed based buff that MM pets got to longer they stayed alive? Or after X number of kills? Something small, like 1% tohit/2% damage that stacked say, 10 times? That way, if you manage to keep your pets alive longer, they hit more often, and do more damage, but if you're constantly refreshing your pets, you don't receive that bonus?

So I've stepped out of this debate a bit, mainly to cool my head, and also cuz life got in the way. Having caught up on the posts, I do generally like the idea of Mez Resistance instead of just granting Mez Protection. Reducing the duration of the mez, or giving a 'short-cut' way out would go a long way to prevent the 20 minutes of watching your character die that @Luminara experienced. And we already have a 'hard' mez that have a 'short-cut' to it, be it Sleep. If you are healed, or take damage while under the effect of a Sleep mez, its broken immediately. Why doesn't Hold or Stun have a 'short-cut' option to them? Immobilize, Fear, and Confuse aren't used that often, and already have some mitigation built into them. You can still attack while Immobilized, Fear gives you the option to run/attack/do something every time you're hit, and Confuse does the same thing. There are also powers within the Power Pools that grant immunity or resistance to those (Combat Jumping, Tactics, Assault, etc) I'd push hard for a method to reduce the duration of the true hard mezzes (Stun, Holds) and/or give a short-cut option so you can escape from them immediately. Something like after so much damage you escape from a Stun, and become immune to them for awhile, same could apply to a Hold. Or just give us higher Mez Resistance values that correlate to the Mez badges, so the longer we're mezzed, the more resistant we are to it.

So, you're argument is basically 'The game is already brokenly unbalanced, so why do we care if squishies can get Mez Protection ~50% of the time?'

Ok, you got me on the T9 defense powers, like Elude, and whatever /Nin gets. However, both of those powers have pretty nasty crashes, and RoP doesn't. Also, those are available at 32/38. The resistance is affected by modifiers so you're right there as well. Though, even 16.25% resistance to all, (remember including Psi/Toxic) when enhanced can still get you to 25% resistance, so you're taking a lot less damage, from a power you can get at level 20.

I doubt it. Judgement powers are: 1) Unlocked via the Incarnate System, which is designed to literally turn you into a God. 2) Only available to slot at level 50. 3) Only available to be used down to level 45. 4) Usually end up corpse blasting and/or having wasted targets. Even Ion, with its bouncing has a hard time hitting the 40 person target cap.

Now that Mercs got their Full Auto fixed and standardized, and its been sad that the Robots will get their powers (Full Auto Laser and Flamethrower) reduced eventually, what will that do for the DPS values? Can anyone run the numbers with hypothetical animation times?

The window hardly lasts an hour to be fair...

You can't actually perma RoP.. its not possible now on live. Best you can get is 1/4 reduction, at 400% recharge, giving you a recharge of 150 seconds, with a duration of 90. But what you get is complete immunity to Mezzes for the duration. That is a MASSIVE boost and you're simple intentionally undervaluing. You also get a pretty nice resistance bonus to EVERYTHING. All Damage types. Including Psi. Rune of Protection is best compared to Strength of Will, the Willpower T9 power, which ironically enough, doesn't accept any Recharge enhancements. And you get pick it up at level 20, on ANY AT.

But Easter has a full moon. Zombie WereWolf Jesus rises!

That goes back to the "But What is Balance?" argument. Do we balance around +4/x8? or not?

Blasters have the highest damage scalars for both melee and ranged attacks and are arguable the most squishy. Controllers deal double damage when something is mezzed. I'll give you Defenders and Corruptors, though they do have solo bonuses (30% damage for defenders, and Scourge for Corruptors) They also have MUCH higher buff/debuff values. Except Blasters, who have the weakest. AoE mezzes exist, kiting is a thing. Jousting is also a thing. Line of Sight tactics pretty much wreck the AI in City of Heroes so badly isn't not even funny. There are plenty of other ways to deal with Mez then popping an origin power pool and pretending you're a tank for 60-90 seconds.