macskull

To be fair, the only thing that has a 5% minimum chance to hit is an even-con minion or lower enemy since all enemies get accuracy bonuses from their rank or relative level, to the point where, for example, a +4 AV actually has more than double that 5% chance to hit and there is nothing you can do to lower it. An interesting thought exercise would be to implement elusivity (currently a PvP-only mechanic which is basically "anti-accuracy") for PvE. This would mean for the most part defense remains entirely unchanged but if you run powers that give elusivity (almost every armor set toggle and the APP/PPP shields that give defense) you'd be able to actually reduce enemy chance to hit. That being said, I feel like this is a solution to a nonexistent problem since players are very rarely fighting against enemies that actually have a 5% chance to hit and it isn't possible to lower that minimum hit chance anyways.

Set bonuses got a pretty significant overhaul in Issue 24 - resistance bonuses were increased across the board and coupled with mez resistance, defense bonuses were tweaked to provide both typed and positional defense, and debt protection was replaced with endurance discount. Prior to I24, sure, defense and recharge were probably the most important things to build for simply because of how those interact with the game as a whole and you'd have to significantly alter the game mechanics to make that not the case. These days, yes, I think recharge is more important than it used to be but it comes at a tradeoff - you build in lots of procs and build for global recharge to help your proc rates but then you're missing out on other bonuses because you're slotting procs or hunting for slots to fit more recharge in. The changes to resistance bonuses mean it's easy to help shore up weak areas in builds (especially S/L/F/C) with IOs, and you've always been able to focus builds around damage, regen, and HP if you choose to do so. For example, most PvP-oriented builds already focus on building for max HP and range instead of recharge and defense.

Really? The additional damage proc is one of the reasons I'd roll a Corruptor over a Defender in many cases. There's only one non-unique ranged damage proc so every bit you can get helps and this is one of my chief complaints with the Defender and Sentinel ATO sets.

I think at that point it becomes a delicate balancing act and there's no guarantee there'd be any rhyme or reason. I guess if damage procs were flat-rate and non-damage procs used PPM, it might be okay, if the concern is how much extra damage things do now? Full disclosure: I don't actually think there's anything wrong with PPM in its current form and quite frankly it should just be left alone because whatever changes end up getting made are going to be immensely unpopular. The only scenario I think PPM is questionable in is PvP and even that could be solved by tweaking diminishing returns curves for damage resistance instead of messing with PPM.

I'm of the opinion that the current PPM system is more fundamentally flawed than the old flat-rate system if you're looking at it from a damage standpoint (and I think that's what most of the discussion revolves around). Sure, the old system favored fast-recharging powers and AoEs but the as-implemented PPM system doesn't actually result in that much of a damage loss in those same powers now while also providing a disproportionate boost everywhere else. The PPM system also has some pretty bonkers implications in PvP builds, to the point where damage procs are now resisted in PvP (they generally weren't back on live). Honestly the simplest thing to do from a balance standpoint is just to go back to the flat-rate system.

Enabling PvP in an SG base would be a potential nightmare with the current base editor. Back on live (before I13 when base raids were disabled) bases had to meet strict layout requirements to be able to be used for base raids to ensure base designers couldn't do things like have enemy players spawn into a room full of defensive items with no exits, for example. If any further development time is going to be spent on PvP I think the PvP community would like to see bugfixes and balancing passes first. EDIT: Obligatory plug for Phase Shift still being broken in PvP

VEAT leadership toggles have used the new cast times since VEATs were introduced in Issue 12. Every power that buffs or debuffs you has the same VFX you're talking about here. By default non-arena temp powers are disabled in the arena. The powers on this list are non-arena temp powers that have been bugged since time immemorial and have been available for use in the arena.

The lack of damage procs in the Sentinel and Defender ATO sets kinda sucks since the higher-damage ranged ATs get them (though that's really more an issue with the fact that there's only one non-unique ranged damage proc).

It's of some use defensively, I use it on my Grav/Emp as a kind of mini-phase if Phase Shift is down but it's tricky to get right because it'll detoggle if you get mezzed and if you run out of the bubble after you've cast it you lose the phase. It isn't really worth using offensively because the immobilize only lasts for a few seconds.

Keep in mind that the base value of any debuff is affected by the purple patch before any resistances are applied which makes debuffs less and less useful against higher-level-than-you enemies.

Plus, it's like... this is supposed to be a mini-nuke. The entire point of mini-nukes is to "remove hostile units."

Combustion's DoT is 7.1 seconds but it's also skipped by most Tankers and Blasters who have the opportunity to take it because it's got one of the longest animations of any power in the game and its DPA is pretty bad. (Nevermind that it has almost twice the radius as Dark Equilibrium.) Rain powers tick fast enough and (if slotted well) will be rolling close to 95% on each tick so that's pretty much irrelevant. Rain powers also have the unique ability to basically bypass the target cap - if one target dies another will start taking damage instead. The solution to "this power is advertised as high-damage but because of the realities of gameplay will rarely ever see most of that damage on a target" shouldn't be "use IOs."

Okay, fast-ticking DoT is nice. But... fifteen seconds is way too long for a power like this. I think the only other 15-second DoT powers are the rain-type powers and those are all location-based patches with higher radius and target cap and since they're location-based patches they can technically hit an infinite number of targets over their duration. Five seconds with a slower tick rate and more of the damage being frontloaded would make more sense, I think. If the original intention was to turn Dark Equilibrium into a sort of mini-nuke, these changes are getting further and further away from that.

Well... okay. But given the choice between a power that's more useful solo or on teams, or a power that's useful in any situation (because its damage is delievered up front, or at least mostly upfront) the upfront damage is the clear winner. EDIT: Dark Melee already has Shadow Maul as a DoT and having a set deliver most of its AoE output as DoT is a great way to run into the "punching dead things" problem on teams.

Back Alley Brawler is still a trainer in AP, isn't he...? EDIT: I am the dumb, nevermind. I misread the OP, or something like that.

There's a balance between teaming and soloing and the same powers won't perform the same way in both environments. DoT powers are fine when solo or on small teams because odds are good you'll get most of the damage out of them, but on larger teams most things just die before most of the DoT can take effect because of all the AoE flying around. I appreciate the attempts to bring up DM's AoE, but I don't think this is the right way to do it. If you keep the damage calculations mostly the same way they are now and increase the radius or target cap, you'll have a more useful power that contributes more meaningfully to AoE output. EDIT: Also while I have your attention (I assume) please please please please fix Phase Shift suppressing while mezzed in PvP. It's incredibly frustrating to the point where people are changing builds around to take Hibernate because of a bugged power.

That may be an improvement but generally speaking DoT powers are less useful than their numbers might show, especially on teams. It's nice if you can land Dark Equilibrium but if the mobs are dead before half the damage has landed then it's only doing half the damage is should be. Again, if the intention is that the power rival other mini-nukes, the damage should be consistent and delivered up front. If there's some DoT in there, great, but that shouldn't be where the majority of the damage is coming from. It seems like you're balancing this around edge cases of Scrappers near damage cap, or Brutes with tons of Fury and outside buffs and... I don't think that's a super-common scenario to be balancing around. Yes, the original version of this changed power could do lots of damage but that was only under very specific and uncommon circumstances. And if it can clear minions on an SO build... so what? On an SO build you're looking at 45 second recharge outside of Hasten/other buffs and even then you're probably giving up acc or damage slotting to get there. It is still far worse than other 45-second PBAoEs even on SOs. EDIT: I feel like when you start messing with the power that much you're removing it too much from its original form to the point where it's not even the same power anymore aside from the fact that it's doing +end (and only sometimes).

The problem with this point of view is that if you're using Dark Equilibrium to refill your endurance, it's not going to do nearly as much damage as the numbers upthread have shown, and those are showing that even at best case when you're near 100% endurance (so it is effectively just a PBAoE attack at that point since you're getting little to no benefit from the +end) it's mediocre compared to more spammable PBAoE attacks from other sets. I don't think anyone here is having an emotional response, I'm just trying to point out that the power is basically being sold as and balanced around being a mini-nuke when today's changes have made it more of an okay PBAoE even in the best of cases. You don't skip Lightning Rod or Shield Charge or Savage Leap, but in its current form I'm betting a lot of builds will skip Dark Equilibrium.

While I would normally agree with you, the rub here is how it's been presented in the OP (emphasis mine): That, and the justification for removing the ability to crit because the other mini-nuke powers don't crit, leaves DE in a weird spot. It's now basically an okay AoE power with a recharge time that's far too long and in reality has no similarity to the other mini-nuked powers except its recharge time. It's got a smaller radius, it's got a smaller target cap, and the extra damage within a 3ft radius was removed, and it does appreciably less damage than the other mini-nukes. While it may be true that the original version was overtuned, this latest patch has swung too far in the other direction and is trying to change too many things at once.

The +special was 32.5% with Defender numbers, about 1/3 of what Power Boost normally does for Defenders. To be honest, +special has extremely limited utility in PvE and can be kind of overtuned in PvP so without the extra +special it's easier to balance. It's just that now there's nothing going for that power except a small damage boost.

Since the justification for adjusting the Dark Equilibrium’s damage calculation and removing crits was its comparison to other mini nuke powers, can its radius and target cap be increased to match those?

Two points: Now that Empowering Circuit doesn’t grant +special (I am very much okay with this) the only thing it does is boost damage. I feel like there should be some secondary effect especially given its short duration, whether that be a tohit buff or a recovery/regen buff. Call me old-fashioned but I don’t think a pet that’s targetable and affectable should have duration associated with it. Galvanic Sentinel is going to be one of those powers that is a pain to use because of how often it needs to be resummoned. This might be a good time to revisit all pet summons that behave like this (Dark Servant and patron pool pets come to mind).

I don't know the exact design formula changes for making the jump from normal to epic/patron power, but there are plenty of inconsistencies even between similar powers (some holds have 16s base recharge, some have 32s, and so on). Soul Drain is just the most egregious one.

A lot of the hero epic pools were not properly balanced for being epic pool powers, compared to their patron pool counterparts. For another totally asinine example of this, check out Defender/Corruptor Dark Mastery and Soul Mastery - they both get Soul Drain with identical buff values but the Soul Mastery version has twice the base recharge.