Trickshooter

The first set of ATOs was added in the Heroes and Villains Super Packs on 2/14/12, so about Issue 21.5. Weird, the patch note specifically called out that they were added to Hazard and Trial zones. I will change the post to say "most zones."

I think Serum could benefit from an effect similar to Fortify Pack in Beast Mastery, where just having the power grants all the Mercs some passive bonus in addition to the effects from using it. Maybe having Serum grants all Mercs a small amount of +Damage/+ToHit/+Resistance(All but Psi)/+Recovery, and then as part of the crash (which I would also suggest reducing), whichever Merc you used Serum on is exempt from this passive buff for 20 seconds. That would help Mercs overall, in addition to making Serum worth taking, without approaching cottage rule-level changes.

Like you said, Gravity's (and Elec's) Immobilizes never had this -KB effect to begin with (to prevent Elec's Jolting Chain and Gremlins, and Gravity's Lift, Propel, Wormhole and Singularity from working as intended), so there was nothing to change in regard to the issue that was being addressed. The intent wasn't for all Immobilizes to convert KB to KD, but rather any Immobilize that previously caused KB to stop working to instead reduce it to a very low amount. That was done because the -KB effect actively worked against other powers in those sets (Bonfire, Ice Slick, Earthquake, Carrion Creepers). Edit: Reworded for clarity.

FF offers both typed and positional defense. Every +Defense buff in the Buff/Debuff sets was changed to make sure they could stack with either category of Defense. I think it was as early as either Issue 5 or 6.

Archetypes have been able to switch sides since Issue 18 in 2010, and all Archetypes have been available to start as either a Hero or Villain at creation since Issue 21 in 2011. This wasn't a SCoRE change. The introduction of Praetoria in Going Rogue made this necessary. If the Villain ATs always became evil and the Hero ATs always became good, the entire point of Praetoria would've been lost.

Some powers have a cost per enemy affected, like Repulsion Field. I honestly can't recall a list of such powers off the top of my head, but IIRC a couple of them take that cost in % rather than flat. Which is... a pretty niche area, and probably a deliberate choice for those powers. If they exist. I'd like that screenshot too. Yes, but those effects don't show up as endurance consumption for combat attributes or as endurance cost in the power info display, as they're actually set up like self endurance drains in the power effects, so they wouldn't explain what the OP is seeing.

Do you have a screenshot to show this in your combat attributes? Also, what is your AT and powerset? To the best of my knowledge, all endurance costs are already a static cost.

This is the part I wasn't sure about in my example about Nature. It looks like it would give 25% Absorb, and that would be 25% of your allies' HP bar, but then the Max Absorb looks like it's based on the caster.

I can see what you're getting at with Defense and Resistance on a character with Absorb, but I also feel like Absorb benefits just as well from +MaxHP when it's granted as a percentage based on current MaxHP.

That's fair. I'm mostly just trying to avoid changing anything from a click or toggle or adding or removing allowable enhancements. The further away you get away from how a power already functions, the more you tend to get "GOD PLEASE NO" as a response from other players.

My personal ideas for updating Regen a bit: Fast Healing +75% Regeneration +25.95% Res(Regeneration) -----> Fast Healing (Unchanged) +75% Regeneration +25.95% Res(Regeneration) Reconstruction 334.66 Heal +15% Res(Toxic) -----> Reconstruction (Unchanged) 334.66 Heal +15% Res(Toxic) Quick Recovery +30% Recovery -----> Quick Recovery +30% Recovery +25% Res(Recovery, Endurance) Dull Pain +267.724 MaxHP (Unenhanceable) +267.724 MaxHP 535.45 Heal -----> Abate Pain +267.724 MaxHP +40% Absorb (after 0.25 second delay) Integration Res(Knock*, Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immob) +50% Regeneration (Unenhanceable) +100% Regeneration -----> Integration Res(Knock*, Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immob) +50% Regeneration (Unenhanceable) +100% Regeneration +20% Res(Speed, Recharge) Resilience Res(Disorient) +9.375% Res(All Damage) -----> Resilience Res(Disorient) +9.375% Res(All Damage) +267.724 MaxHP (Unenhanceable) Instant Healing +600% Regeneration (Unenhanceable) +200% Regeneration -----> Instant Healing (Unchanged) +600% Regeneration (Unenhanceable) +200% Regeneration Revive 1003.97 Heal (while dead) 50 Endurance (while dead) -----> Revitalize 1003.97 Heal (while dead) 50 Endurance (while dead) 535.45 Heal (while HP>0) 50 Endurance (while HP>0) Moment of Glory Res(Knock*, Repel, Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immob) +71.25% Defense(All but Psi) +71.25% Resistance(All but Psi) +100% Recovery -----> Moment of Glory (Unchanged) Res(Knock*, Repel, Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immob) +71.25% Defense(All but Psi) +71.25% Resistance(All but Psi) +100% Recovery I'd also reduce the recharge and duration of Abate Pain to increase it's uptime, and then reorder the powers: Fast Healing Lvl 1 Reconstruction Lvl 2 Resilience Lvl 4 Revitalize Lvl 10 Integration Lvl 16 Abate Pain Lvl 20 Quick Recovery Lvl 28 (I know everyone is gonna really hate this) Instant Healing Lvl 35 Moment of Glory Lvl 38 My thinking here is that moving some of the MaxHP to Resilience improves performance during Dull Pain/Abate Pain downtime. And since Revive/Revitalize has better recharge than old Dull Pain anyway, it's ability to be used while alive means we can remove the Heal from Dull Pain/Abate Pain and give it something else more defensive/preemptive, like Absorb. And unless someone insists that the MaxHP moved to Resilience become enhanceable, this would also not add or change any sets or enhancements the powers already take. However, I do realize that this makes the set feel even more click-heavy, and I'm really sorry about suggesting moving QR to level 28, I really am, I just could not figure out how else to get more powers that actually contribute to survivability to be available earlier. I honestly hesitate to suggest changing power order at all, but it makes more sense this way.

I don't know if it fits the scope of this thread, but in addition to their outfits, I'd LOVE to get the music note effects from the Talons' Siren added as GFX options for the Sonic powersets,

I hate to say "Blame Castle," because Castle was a nice guy who was very willing to work with players, but from what I remember the nerf to ET's animation was something he pushed for almost immediately after being hired because he felt it was too much of an outlier. I can only assume that was based on whatever previous game design experience he had.

For Total Focus, I would make it's Smashing portion an AoE and also give it an AoE KD (but not on your main target). Beyond that, I think Stun could probably use a Cobra Strike-esque makeoever (ie recharge reduced to 10s, damage scale set at 1.96, could maybe even be given the old ET animation, unless anyone really really loves the baseball windup). Or maybe a small -Resistance could be added to all the attacks; it's one of the few debuffs not in melee sets.

Before "it was because of PvP" gets too far again, let me try and clear some things up. Since Issue 4, the devs had the ability to make any power that targets a foe function differently depending on if the target is a Critter or a Player. That's how we had things like unresistable Defender debuffs, and triple damage Controllers, and unresistable Scrapper crits, etc. If PvP was really where Energy Transfer did too much damage, it could have done less damage to players since the introduction of PvP to the game. Even later on when the tech was introduced for one power to be able to redirect to different powers, Energy Transfer could have been left a long animation power in PvP, and had it's shorter animation time returned back to PvE if that was the issue. Knowing that, it's probably fair to say that PvP was not the cause. I'm not saying the animation changes to Energy Transfer were right. Far from it, actually. I like the look of Energy Melee, including the long ET animation, but the set no longer really excels at anything. Even as a concept pick for punch-y characters, Street Justice fits better. So I agree the set needs some work. All I want is for the story to stop being that PvP was to blame, because it really wasn't.

I think Vanden meant Paragon Police Department OR Praetorian Police Department, but looks like you mean Paragon Police Department. I was too slow. Sounds like you kind of just want Cop or SWAT pets, but if we were going to get PPD, I think it'd be cooler to have a power armored unit, an enforcer drone and a Psi-Lieutenant as the buffer.

When I read this, I thought it was about some special Arachnos Mace only carried by the 1960s Arachnos guys, in which case I was gonna be like "Yes! And let's also make those 1960s outfits available to Arachnos Soldiers!" I can't remember which one you're talking about, do you have a picture? I'm sure it could be made available if it's still in the files somewhere, though it might have been completely replaced/removed.

I don't know anyone that would consider them useless, as they're one of only two status effects that will affect an Archvillain through their Purple Triangles (the other being sleep), so for Controllers it's incredibly useful for setting up Containment. Which is the main reason I wouldn't suggest buffing Trick Arrow in this way. Improvements to the set for Controllers should be incidental, and giving the set another AoE control is a direct improvement to the set for them, while not really improving the set for the other ATs who have it as a secondary, Corruptors and Masterminds, whose control mods are only 64% of Controllers. It's much more useful for all ATs with access to Trick Arrow to buff the debuffing aspect of the power. That improves it significantly for Controllers, Corruptors and Masterminds. You might say you still wouldn't take it, but upping the debuff to the strength of Web Grenade would make it very potent, if you've ever been hit by that power.

This argument always rang hollow for me. It is incredibly rare for enemies to stack enough mezzes on you to overcome toggle mez protection from a primary or secondary set, so click mez protection being stackable just doesn’t seem like a real advantage. And it’s still useless against powers like Ghost Widow’s Soul Storm, because those mezzes are intentionally overpowered to make them nearly impossible to resist. On top of that, click mezzes use up your only auto-exec power, they can go off unexpectedly and root you when you’re trying to escape, and if you get real bad Scrapperlock you can queue up too many attacks, preventing it from going off and leaving you mezzable. So what, practically, are we getting out of click mez protections to justify those downsides and extra slots they need to achieve parity with their toggle counterparts? I think it's more useful in the lower levels, especially on non-Tankers. At level 22, Scrapper's mez protection powers only give a little over mag 7 protection (for comparison, Tankers exceed mag 7 protection at level 11), which is much easier for some enemy groups to get through than their mag ~10 protection at level 50.

To everyone that's given feedback, thanks! I really want to stress two things with these suggestions, though: First, like I said, I do not want to drastically change any powers. I don't like the idea of logging in one day and a power you enjoy no longer works like you expect. I know A LOT of people feel like now that the game is more in the players hands, the cottage rule can be thrown out the window, but I feel like a lot of people misunderstand it's purpose. Arcanaville once described it pretty well, though I can't find the exact quote: the cottage rule doesn't exist to hamper players; it exists to protect players from the other players who think they know what everyone wants. Second, I would not try to improve Trick Arrow with more controls. The set already has an AoE Hold, AoE Sleep, two AoE -Speed, with one of them a KD patch, a ST Hold and a ST Immobilize; if it had one more AoE Control, it'd practically be a Controller Primary. It probably already performs best as a Controller Secondary, which I don't mind, that's the nature of the set, but I'd prefer to focus on the debuff aspects of the set so that it's equally improved for all ATs, rather than doubly improving it for Controllers.

I would also love to have an Energy Aura Tanker! However... Have you ever done the math on how the set would translate to a Tanker? Way back when it was buffed in order to improve it's performance as a secondary, there was a bit of a lack of foresight on how that would translate to a primary. As of right now it'd be insane on a Tanker and would likely need a bit of tweaking. On just SOs, you'd be looking at: 43.68% Defense(Smashing/Lethal) 48.36% Defense(Fire/Cold) 52.26% Defense(Energy) 39% Defense(NegativeEnergy) 7.8% Defense(Psionic) 19.5% Resistance(Smashing/Lethal/NegativeEnergy/Toxic) 35.1% Resistance(Energy) 64.875% Resistance(Defense Debuff) That isn't to say that tweaking couldn't be done and the set could be ported. I assume it's just about the time necessary to do that amount of work. Simplest way would probably be to drop Energy Cloak for Tankers, add a passive with Fire/Cold Resistance, and lower the Fire/Cold/Energy Defense of Power Shield to match the Smashing/Lethal Defense of Kinetic Shield. That would make the set look more like: 35.88% Defense(Smashing/Lethal/Fire/Cold) 39.78% Defense(Energy) 31.2% Defense(NegativeEnergy) 19.5% Resistance(Smashing/Lethal/Fire/Cold/Negative/Toxic) 35.1% Resistance(Energy) 64.875% Resistance(Defense Debuff)

Says the guy with an Energy Melee avatar. It's not EM, it's Vanden's old suggestion for improving the appearance of SS!

I think straight up removing it would have to come with some other downside. The thing we want to avoid is it becoming a "just set it on auto and forget about it" power, as that runs counter to the intent of both the original design and Castle's redesign of it. Even removing the damage penalty (due to the mentioned smashing resist issues) isn't out of the question if we can come up with some kind of alternative mechanic. If the -Defense has to stay, it seems simplest to let it be resistable. I firmly disagree with this. I would point to the suggestions I made in my post on page 5 instead, and the reasoning behind why a defense downgrade at all would be completely unacceptable. There's many other options. I don't think making Rage only viable for defense-focused sets that can easily overcap is a good idea. I think if it was -Str(Defense) at least, it wouldn't affect set bonuses (which I assume is where your Fiery Aura user is getting their +Defense from), as I believe they are flagged to ignore buffs and enhancements, but I would need to double-check. But the problem there I guess is that it would have no penalty for anyone without +Defense powers.

I think straight up removing it would have to come with some other downside. The thing we want to avoid is it becoming a "just set it on auto and forget about it" power, as that runs counter to the intent of both the original design and Castle's redesign of it. Even removing the damage penalty (due to the mentioned smashing resist issues) isn't out of the question if we can come up with some kind of alternative mechanic. If the -Defense has to stay, it seems simplest to let it be resistable. However, that might make the effect negligible to sets with high defense debuff resistance, so if that's a problem (and I'm not sure it would be), would it make more sense if the -Defense was instead turned in to a -Str(Defense) instead?

If you run the numbers, they actually do the correct amount of damage for their recharge timers. Jab: ((2*0.16)+0.36)/(1+0.75*0/5-(0.011*0/6)*(360-0)/5)=0.68 Punch: ((4*0.16)+0.36)/1+0.75*0/5-(0.011*0/6)*(360-0)/5)=1 That's not to say they can't break the damage formula; there's already precedence for that in SS, as Footstomp already does more damage than it should. But if Punch and Jab are a problem, it would be simpler to move up their recharges to either 3 and 5 seconds (0.84 DS on Jab, 1.16 DS on Punch) or 4 and 6 seconds (1 DS on Jab, 1.32 DS on Punch).