macskull

It probably helps that most of the changes were reverted or seriously dialed back at the 11th hour so the net effect is a lot smaller than the initial versions of the changes.

Black Hole applies "only affecting self" so yes, you're stopping their buffs from affecting anyone.

Then you take the L and you only get to cage one of the towers instead of two, and it takes you a little longer to finish.

I can think of one encounter where intangibility is extremely useful provided the entire team is on the same page, so not something you'll run into with a PuG.

Eh, I’m not opposed to the idea at face value, or at least the idea of a better potential reward for spending more time on the content. I’d rather see that happen than have the encounter’s rewards nerfed, which to be entirely honest I’m surprised hasn’t happened by now.

This is not, and has never been, true. It's an idea that was floated by one of the devs. More on-topic: the ASF D-Sync rewards table was tweaked slightly sometime last year(?) so that the D-Sync enhancements which previously did not have a corresponding Hami/Titan/Hydra-O had roughly double the chance to drop compared to the ones that have the equivalent. When the hard mode LGTF was added the corresponding Hami-O's were created and those also have a higher weighting. It's part of why Provocations have dropped from 500m to 300m - there's more content that drops them and the weighting has gone up.

When discussing unresisted heals, the heal resist cap is completely irrelevant. It doesn’t matter all that much in practice either, since there are virtually no critter powers that affect heal resistance, and in the one common instance where there is, Absorb/Share Pain will cover anything the unresisted self-heals won’t.

No? The set was already functional, if not particularly amazing, as a control set. Where it stood out was letting people clear through groups without having to roll yet another Blaster or Scrapper.

That’s not at all obvious. Clear speeds are slower than they used to be. The set is getting rebalanced to no longer be reliant on two powers to achieve its maximum performance, that much is true, but the result is the set’s maximum performance is lower. It’s an unfortunate set of changes that removes options for players.

Why, though? The only reason these changes are happening in the first place is because tester feedback said making armor set heals resisted would complicate certain content (namely Hami raids). Kheldian self-heals staying unresisted means nothing changes for them.

The funny thing is Plant Control wasn't even a good PvP set pre-Issue 13 when Controllers and Dominators were significantly stronger in PvP than they are now.

If you think the Plant Control changes (or any other changes in the entire history of this game save one) are because of PvP, well... lol.

Canonically it's at least 2023 in the game universe, so it looks like we already know what the city looks like 21 years later.

You could completely remove Fulcrum Shift and Kinetics would still be one of the better support sets for the reasons I outlined above.

While true, Faraday Cage is location-based and will require continuous re-casting every 15ish seconds if the team is moving.

I'm like 99% sure you're trolling at this point but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Siphon Power: eh, sure, this one's kinda meh aside from stacking -dmg against a single target. I see a lot of people skip it and I don't blame them. Transfusion: it's not much -regen but it's something. It's also a pretty solid heal and a decent endurance drain. Repel: yeah, you got that one. Easy skip. Siphon Speed: an unresisted -spd/-rech power that gives the caster completely unsuppressed run speed. What's not to like? Increase Density: the only ally knockback, repel, and teleport protection power in the game aside from Clarion. A great mule for the resistance IO set uniques. Speed Boost: even if I don't need the +recharge I get recovery, slow resist, end drain resist, and unsuppressed run speed. Discounting SB because "I already have enough recharge" is crazy talk. Inertial Reduction: unsuppressed jump speed and height and the best jump control power in the game. A great mule for some KB protection. Transference: the other half of your end drain kit, and since you can't SB yourself it's what you use to keep your own endurance topped off. Fulcrum Shift: no explanation needed. So, yeah, only 2 of the 9 powers in the set are skips and you can probably even argue that one of those two has a place.

I am not at a computer to check numbers, but if the magnitude is affected by purple patch then the duration is not, and vice versa. It might be worthwhile to consider allowing immobilize enhancements if the actual succ duration is too short to be useful.

It would seem like you already are learning how to use it, and you’re learning there are some critters it doesn’t work with… which means in those few situations the power isn’t more useful than it used to be, but in every other situation… it is.

If you think FS “nullifies the rest of the set” I have a bridge to sell you.

Yeahhhhh I think people who look at Kinetics on an MM and then go “oh this looks like it would be really good” need to put me in touch which whomever is supplying whatever’s got them stoned out of their gourd. It can be fine when paired with melee-heavy MM primaries but most of the strongest powers being enemy-location-based means it takes an insane level of micromanaging to ensure the pets that need the buffs actually get them. The reality of the situation is pets don’t benefit from recharge buffs, they don’t really need the movement speed buffs (if they’re in a position where they need to run that fast either they’re going to get teleported back to the MM via tether distance or they’re getting dragged through mobs and will probably die), their damage caps are low, and Transfusion and Transference can be tricky to utilize when needed.

Thanks! You shouldn’t be, there are very few critters immune to repel outside of AVs and GMs. In other words, if you cast new Black Hole on almost any cluster of critters you’re going to get the new succ behavior while those of us who use the intangibility effect on specific targets will continue to be able to do so. Everyone wins except the people who go through the game without bothering to learn how it works, and we shouldn’t really be catering to the lowest common denominator now, should we?

It’s also a useful tool for removing specific targets from a fight.

Sorry, you can pry the intang out of my cold, dead hands.

I think it's time we readjusted IO scaling for IOs below level 27, since they were originally scaled based off an enhancement system that doesn't really exist anymore.

Checks watch Is it time for another Ultimo thread already?