Riverdusk

Sounds like what corruptors are supposed to be. If there were differences in sets like that I'd think it'd be kind of neat to give defenders one version and corruptors another to help mix them up a bit more instead.

At the same time it can be nice to have one that is different. Another place to put a different purple set if you are chasing recharge. You miss out on that if they are all melee aoe, unless you take an epic that happens to be ranged aoe. Myself I probably wouldn't mind either way for cleave.

Yep, the level 35/38 secondary vs. epic choice is the crunch I find myself in with a lot of my characters. Pretty much EVERY dominator I might want to play as you finally tend to get the hard hitting snipe in your secondary at level 35 previously. Yay, finally a good single target range attack chain that you had to wait until level 35 to get!....and then it comes at the same time you can take something like sleet. This change will make it so much better both in actually getting a ST attack chain at a decent level for a dom, and also being able to take the epic you want when they actually open at 35. Same really for a lot of support secondary sets. I play a lot of controllers and this will make things a lot smoother for most of them as well, without making them overpowered that I can see.

The controller versions don't get any of the special effects related to their powers (their ice doesn't slow, their power bolt doesn't knockdown, etc.), so I can't see them suddenly getting -def in their fire sword attacks. Dom versions are getting all the special effects, which is what makes it very different. Edit: Looks like damage type is still psi though from CoD, think that might have changed from when I last looked.

Was wondering about this as well, so went on test. There are no ranged aoe flagged powers with this change. Pendulum, Cyclone, and cleave all still take melee aoe IO sets per the power tooltip. Just to make sure, slotted an obliteration into each, no problem. Pendulum works the same as touch of fear now and ToF is also still melee aoe, so I see no good reason why that one would change. Only one I could see maybe changing would be cleave if they decide to actually change it. Considering the range part of cleave is unenhanceable I could see that one also staying melee aoe though.

Might be the best underappreciated part of serum. There are very few ways to provide knockback protection to MM pets. Mercs now has one built in.

A change for everyone imo shouldn't be based on whether or not you have a blaster on your team. As said before if that is what makes the difference the issue is with how a blaster plays, not how this change plays. Testing should also be done with no blasters. Edit: decided to just emphasize the one point.

Also agree not a big fan of extra clicks. I'd rather it just happens randomly when you attack (like how crits work). Or a small stacking debuff as @PeregrineFalcon mentioned. If a "power-up" bar has to be kept, then maybe it just automatically applies a non-stacking debuff for the next few attacks after it is full. That way you still have enough time to realize it is active and have time to "choose" a specific target for it if you want. A brief debuff version of "domination" in a sense.

Does it add to power creep? A little bit in the mid levels I'd say yes. Enough to matter? I'd say no, especially if they got rid of the exemp level bonus like I've suggested. And your two options don't leave room for those "in-between". I don't want an "I Win" button (and never powerlevel or farm), but I also think it'd be nice to have better access to more interesting powers during the early to mid levels on the way up. I think it will make leveling up new alts (the slow way) more fun and interesting. This all reminds me of when they made SO's available to lower levels, same arguments. "It is going to ruin the low level game" heard several people say. Honestly it didn't really make much difference and as someone who doesn't power level, it helped smooth out the early levels a bit is all.

I "tested" this with my MM's on test server in that I ran missions with a couple of them at level 30 to get a feel for some of the set changes. It definitely made level 30 a bit easier as a MM, and I think MM's are probably one of the AT's that will benefit most from this change. My opinion though, they are an AT that needs the help, so it was welcome. My "compromise" on this change is still that it should go forward (I very much love it), but get rid of the getting up to +5 levels worth of powers when you exemp. Then this change makes it a bit easier to level on the way up, but for exemping it actually works out to about the same as it is on live. Can't say I know what the reasoning was for the extra powers given to exemping in the first place, but it seems an odd choice anyway. Exemp'd characters already tend to be more powerful compared to natural level characters, so why do they need a +5 power availability boost? Other option would be to cut it to +3 so that it is the same as the buffer you get for IO bonuses? At least then it'd be consistent. Also, that would then make some of the higher level tf's actually a bit tougher. No more incarnate powers on the level 45 ones. Let the downvoting begin. 🙂

The AoE holds recharge should be reduced at least as much as blaster/defender/corruptor nukes were imo. To me aoe holds are the controller version of nukes, although considering they just hold things instead of just flat out deleting things, they wouldn't be as overpowered like nukes currently are. So, we're looking at going from 4 minutes down to about 2.5 minutes base (145 seconds to be exact is the "standard" nuke recharge time). Yes, accuracy being set to at least 1.0 would be nice as well. Not sure they need more than that, although some of the activation times could also use a look. Flash is a perfect example between its horrendous activation time and it being melee based, it is as likely to get you killed using it as it is to be useful. A hard skip on almost all my illusion controllers.

The one that gets me is when you miss a stationary box or door or something. I have to say it usually makes me laugh more than get frustrated though.

Actually a little noticed change it seems, radiation infection's animation time was reduced in the last page (down from 3.13 seconds to 1.5 seconds). I've found that change alone makes the set much smoother. And I wish they'd give Nature's spore cloud, and dark's darkest night the same treatment. Enervating field has always been pretty quick, also at 1.5 seconds. I still tend to use EF more often on my rads while in a team though just because -res tends to be more useful in a team setting than -tohit and -def....usually anyway. Sorry for the sidetrack.

Definitely. Big ones for me are controller /traps with control sets that already have immobilizes, which is most (bye bye web grenade like you said). Also psi assault for doms, psi dart always felt so pitiful. Mind probe is so nice instead.

About to get even better.

The proc bonus only lasts 3.25 seconds so you'll only get the crit bonus for the attack right after it or maybe two if you are quick. I tend to slot it my 2nd hardest hitting attack. They tend to be long enough recharge to proc more often and it then sets it up to get the extra crit chance on the hardest hitting attack. Can't say I've studied it extensively to know what is the dps ideal spot. I'm just going for the big number. But yes, Follow-up and feint should work well for those sets,

I ran both a necro/time and merc/time through a +1/x3 radio council mission at level 30, bosses on, and just used auto enhance with SO's only. Was interested to see how both did after buff in a sort of standard test. Damage wise they both seemed decently close, mercs seemed to kill a bit faster. Didn't actually time it and ended up with different maps, so can't be totally objective on clear speed. Survival wise though I can say merc did very well and only lost a couple of tier 1 soldiers on average per mission. Necro did not do nearly as well and I lost all 3 tier 1 zombies a couple of times and a couple of grave knights as well. I can say I still think necro needs a bit more survivability imo. Probably a lot of it was that council of course do a lot of lethal damage, and zombies have none whereas mercs have good resistance there. But lethal is the most common in the game, so I think that is going to carry over on average. As previously mentioned as well, at times necro now has a LOT of pets out at once, which is very cool, but the new ones aren't pushable and are solid. I can see them getting in the way and blocking doors, narrow passages, etc. as probably an issue on a team. As it stands I'm very excited to start a merc MM on live. Necro is better and the buffs are nice, but still would like to see them (leaning toward both tier 1 and tier 2 pets after testing) get some lethal resistance, even if it is a lower amount than their other resistances. Anyways, thematically why wouldn't a zombie be able to at least somewhat shrug off bullets/sword slashes? (unless you take their head off with it). As @Lazarillo mentioned, I also had more endurance issues on the necro.

I like Spectral wall and would take it because I like to be able to assure sticking an AV in place so they aren't running all over, which they will likely do without phantom army taunting them. Of course some dom secondaries also have an immobilize, so for those I could see skipping it. I also know some don't mind or seem to have an issue with the running, but it drives me crazy. Agree with you that it looks cool, but pretty specific, it's a lot of skulls. I'd actually like to see an alternate animation for Wall. Using dark color version seems to tone it down okay though. On a lot of powers the "dark" version doesn't really tone it down, so was happy to see it kinda worked out okay for this one, to me anyway.

Minor issue, but the power description text on all the tier 3 epic powers still says "you must be level 41", even though it seemed to work fine picking them at 38 when I tried it. Data from while respecing a scrapper. I'll assume you probably are just not bothering to update those until you decide this change is final, but wanted to point it out just in case. 🙂

Just tried it and same issue, but still seems to work out. You'll notice you are still at "level 0" after you pick the secondary and the primary options light up. You just end up picking your secondary power first, which is unintuitive but it still works out.

Didn't match my experience when I tested it before and just tested it again to make sure. At level 50 running just stealth (confirmed in combat attributes 55 foot pve stealth radius). Ran right into the middle of a level 54 mob of council including bosses. They did not react.

That is funny. I guess they could just depend on the ATO proc to hide them. Wouldn't do it myself either, but yeah, some probably will try it.

Or just a misc one for "other changes". Seems like there usually was in the past.

I'd be all for that as well. I love infiltration (much more than super speed anymore anyway). I typically end up running/jumping around 80mph with it and find it much easier to use than SS. And you can't slot a LoTG in super speed.

Yes, they are mentioned separately near the end of the overall patch notes. They get it as well.