Coyote

I'm doing Rad/Atomic. Fire is going to be the best PBAoE DPS, but... it does nothing but DPS. Atomic helps you survive better with an AoE Hold. My thinking is that Rad has a PBAoE nuke with a Hold, and Atomic has a PBAoE Hold, so I can just alternate those go spawn to spawn and have every fight start with a PBAoE Hold to allow me to clear off the minions and get started on Holding the Bosses for safety. On a team, that's less important, so for a team-only character, the controls are less important and you may prefer the DPS of Fire.

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To be honest, leaving aside any other changes and proposals, it does seem that Shiver has a pretty poor duration for its recharge and animation time. If Mid's is right, Neurotoxic Breath is longer (20 vs 18 seconds), both have a pretty long animation, and NB at least has a chance to Hold as an extra benefit. And to be honest, NB is a pretty weak power also... both should be at least 30 seconds in duration, and IMO that's on the short side. I wouldn't want to shorten the recharge, as the animation time for both is quite long, and also Ice Control (and Poison) both work better in melee range... so stepping out to proper cone range on a 2.4 or so animation is not something that I would want to do more often. I don't think 60 seconds is necessary, as 30 seconds should be enough to handle AoE debuffing for a spawn, and after that the amount of targets should be small and handled with single-target attacks... between AA, Frostbite, Chillblain, and BoIce, you floor Recharge without Shiver. My basic argument here is this: WITHOUT Shiver, Ice Control floors Recharge as an AoE, leaving aside single-target powers. Or secondary powers like Lingering Radiation or NB that might get stacked. So primary debuff effect of Shiver is often irrelevant, regardless of duration, duration-recharge ratio, animation, and so on. It really needs something else added to it, otherwise do I really need an inconvenient cone -Recharge power rather than using Frostbite (with weaker -Recharge, but stackable), which also does damage, Containment, maybe summons an Energy Font, and completely prevents movement while still allowing flopping on an Ice Slick? I don't think I do, but if the power adds a Hold component, then all of it sudden it goes from "total skip" to "pretty good even if nothing more than AoE damage". Add some other effect, and it can become a major power. As a -Recharge power, it's just so extremely superfluous.

I like the idea of a Freeze mechanism. Be careful to balance all of the damaging options... if Shiver get a potential damage component via procs, and Flash Freeze already does, and we add more damage via ice formations to FF, and also more damage via a Freeze, that may be adding too much damage. All of these are actually good ideas, I just think that it should be design where some get implemented but not all of them together. Regarding Shiver's duration and -Recharge: I don't see any reason to add in more -Recharge. Remember that Frostbite has a 25% -Recharge that is, I believe, stackable. And it's easily stacked twice. Add in 62.5% from Arctic Air, and you floor -Recharge for mobs all around you just by being in the middle of them and using AA and Frostbite. Shiver's debuff is already superfluous except as an alternate means of adding -Recharge... but really, you have enough time to go in with AA if all the mobs are Sleeping, drop Ice Slick and then use Frostbite before mobs shoot even once, so getting a strong -Recharge right at the beginning of the fight is only occasionally useful. The power really needs a different effect so that it's not just a tertiary source of -Recharge. Granted, increasing the duration would make it more convenient to use on Sleeping targets, but I think that it needs a different use... a chance to Hold, or a Shatter mechanism, or something. Probably both, so that you're not stuck into using it only in a specific way for Shatter.

On a teaming character, I'd go with Ice/Cold Corruptor (or Cold/Ice Defender). On a soloing character, Ice/Ice Blaster.

Personally, I would like to see every set type that has only 4 sets (Fear, To Hit Debuff, etc) get at least 2 more sets added, a 10-30 and a 30-50 set. Maybe skip on groups like Accurate To Hit Debuff, Accurate Healing, etc, since they can always take the no-Accuracy sets also, but everything else that has only 4 options should get new sets before we get more like Artillery and Bombardment, which are nice but are added to a set group that already had a good amount of options (once you include the Winter, Purple, Universal Damage, and so on).

1: Psy Scream is a good ranged cone with 60' range that does good damage and -Recharge, while Crushing Field does very little damage. I would take the former first for damage, since you don't have damage patches that need mobs to prevented from running out of them, so you don't really need an Immobilize. 2: I'm not sure if it's a good concept to pair a long-ranged hover blasting plan with Drain Psyche, which is by far the reason to go with Psy Assault.Granted, you could start a fight with Wormhole, use DP and Shockwave, then back up to shooting range before the Stun effect fades. On my Fire/Psy Dominator I went with Mind Link to cap Ranged/AoE defenses. Mobs near me should be mezzed.

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While you're considering this, let me put in some possible clarifications... with the caveat that I have not tested these myself. But I have seen posts from posters who generally know what they're talking about, giving two important details: 1: Mobiles take up a set space, depending on the model, but usually a 3' circle (I'm not sure about the height... if it's a cylinder then how tall it is, etc... so let's stick to ground area). 2: A mobile only has to touch, not be wholly within, an AoE in order to be affected. Now, assuming the radius is correct, a 3' diameter mobile who is the target of ToF "eats up" 1.5' of the power's radius with its own radius. So, the radius extends 4.5' outside in all directions. However, this radius only has to touch another mobile, not encompass it. So, if you have 5 mobs in front of you, all packed together side to side, and you target the centermost mob, you should be able to hit all 5 mobs since the innermost mobs on each side eat up 3', the center mob eats 1.5', and that still leaves 1.5' of radius left over to touch the outside mobs on each side. Assuming they're "packed", in other words, with no space in between their cylinders. So it seems that it should be able to affect a good amount of mobs in a packed situation. If it's not, then perhaps mobs have an "effective radius" larger than 3', perhaps by the AI trying to keep some distance between each other to make maneuvering easier.

Some secondary attacks benefit from Domination on their mez effects, weirdly. Seismic Smash gets +1 Mag... Total Focus gets +3 Mag and for a longer duration... Midnight Grasp isn't affected... Fissure gets +1 Mag but Whirling Hands doesn't. This is all from Mids, I'm not logging into the game to confirm all of the powers with the in-game stats, though, so it may not be fully accurate.

I think Dehydrate is a major power for Water/Storm (or Storm/Water), because by putting in a +End proc IO in there, it can help with endurance management more than using other attacks that don't have a chance to bring back Endurance. And it brings back health, and it can take an Achilles Heel to help the Storm powers do more damage.

Solo only. Once in a while, especially on a small team, it's useful for fighting multiple AVs. Once in a while, on a team, it's useful for intercepting an ambush while the team is fighting a lot of other mobs. Those are pretty niche situations for it. If you solo a decent amount, it's useful, and you can mule a purple set into it for when you're on a team, so it's not a terrible choice if you're going to team and solo. If you're going to only be a team character... I'd skip it. There are better options for muling, I think.

See, I think this is the basis of the argument, and why our arguments seem so incompatible with each other. I agree that Blaster attacks are meant to kill mobs, of course. And Dominator controls are meant to shut them down. And for both, having +ToHit powers (or lots of set bonuses) make them more accurate so that they are more likely to land. So we're in agreement so far... ... but where we diverge is that I don't see that the powers, or Aim, are advertized as "being capable of becoming auto-hit in some situations". It wasn't like that in Issue 1, and it's not like that now. They've always had a chance to miss, so I don't really them as not working as intended, if there is a small chance to miss. Now, I've said already why I think this is a good thing, so I'm not going to rehash that... this is just to say that "as advertized", to me, does not say that high-accuracy powers, even boosted with +ToHit powers, were ever and in any way advertized as not having any chance to miss in some scenarios. Quite the opposite, the game has always been very open about a minimal possiblity of missing of 5%. The point of the powers is to kill mobs, or mez them... they don't need 100% accuracy to be effective at what they do. Honestly, I always thought that there should be a bonus for having a ToHit higher than 95%... like a small chance of a critical hit or something, with the critical chance based on the excess to-hit, to show that 150% base chance is better than 100% chance. And I would support most methods of achieving this (with the caveat that we have to be careful to not make slotting for Accuracy be effectively a replacement for slotting for Damage)... but while rewarding bonus accuracy makes sense to me, I don't see why it's necessary or implicit in the combat design, to allow attacks to become auto-hit.

I didn't think so, until Vanden pulled out the Thread Referees, but then it turned good 😆

After combat begins. But my arguments have been about a Blaster hitting BU, then EMP Arrow, and then being guaranteed that no mob gets missed as they proceed to AoE the spawn with no risk for the next few seconds. Or worse, a Dominator (some of whom have access to Aim or an equivalent), who can do the same to a spawn even if it has Bosses. Right now, the chance that someone important is missed turns each spawn into a risky event that makes you pay attention. But allowing some builds to start a fight off with guaranteed AoE mezzes and/or kills on everyone within their mag limit or damage limit removes certain difficulties from the game without a chance of failure. Say, for example, Sappers... Rikti Guardians... Sorcerors... Sky Raider Engineers... etc. Over several spawn in a mission, you would normally have to deal with a miss, and have to have a way to handle the difficulty when one of those important mobs survives and shoots back, or summons something, or buffs the allies with a mez-breaker, etc. It's not mid-fight where the problem would lie, it's the ability to start off with a pre-determined sequence of attacks that cannot fail. And it wouldn't be every character who can do something with this, but for some it would be a great buff to the playstyle, for what appears to be merely a 5% increase in damage, mez, or debuff output.

Of course not, you have the right to them. But for a suggestion to be taken as a serious suggestion rather than as frustrated venting... you should establish why it would benefit the game, and you should establish arguments against reasons why it shouldn't be changed. You've seen some of those reasons posted above, and basically handwaved them aside just because you don't agree with them. Is it, then, unreasonable for those who have made the arguments to just handwave your feelings aside?

And not clamping the max chance to hit at 95% would increase DPS for a few builds by about 5%. Is that really worth removing all risk for some builds that can reach 100% chance to hit with a large-area control power? For a 5% DPS increase?

I've had very playable characters before they were perma-Doms. As I said, having Domination available, plus Power Up, plus Hasten, means that even with low recharge, there is always some buff available to make tough fights easier. And Domination can be hoarded, as you don't really need the double Mag, until you get to a boss fight. So unless you're in a team where the spawns are large enough to always have bosses, you're still effective, then you boost up to kill the boss spawn. And then when it drops, you use Hasten. And so on. It's quite effective, enough so that I'm not greatly worried if Domination were to be changed so that there is less of a jump from non-perma to perma-Dom. Actually, the only times I've had problems are when mobs are resistant to some major control that I depend on, like Plant going against Rularuu, or when I'm facing missions with multiple ambushes so I get shot before I get to throw out controls. A lack of perma-Dom hasn't really been any major problem.

Same... binds for all location drops including PA. With drops from Illusion, Storm, and Ice Epic, it's just too hard to keep clicking locations. Although, I do have several binds set up so that Ctrl-click drops Freezing Rain, Ctrl-right click sets up PA (and left click then drops it), then the same for Alt-click and Alt-left click, so I have to move my fingers less to find different keys.

Controllers and Dominators would love this argument, if you mean to give -Def and -Res to Held or Stun/Immobilized opponents. But it seems like a really major change to AT balance.

No, he didn't say mezzed targets. He said targets that don't normally move, like destructible objects in a mission. And also, if out of combat, which the AV wouldn't be.

The chance of a debuff or controll missing an enemy and leading to death, is exactly what makes the game more interesting. Because it's extremely rare to be in a situation where missing gets you killed without a chance to remedy the situation... throw another control, or debuff, or use an inspiration, or just retreat. But the difference where you need to remedy a dangerous situation, versus not having to worry about a dangerous situation arising 5% of the time (or more, if there are multiple dangerous mobs in a spawn), is a huge difference in playstyle, far more than a 5.3% increase in damage. Basically, if you can AoE control with 100% guarantee of success, followed by several other AoEs that also can't miss, then you can set up a push-button situation at the start of every fight knowing that it will work as planned. And then if the situation leads to enough damage to kill all the minions, then you know that you can start every fight with a number of powers used, and no minions left. No pressure, no risk. With a chance to miss, you might miss an important mob, and get punished, which makes you pay attention and react... a game where we kill as many spawns as we do, and doesn't introduce at least a very small element of risk, is a game that will become stale due to a lack of risk.

Not sure what it is, but it's pretty creepy. The game functions better with a chance to miss, so that you cannot guarantee that all mobs in a spawn get affected by a major debuff or control, so that you can't plan an attack sequence in complete safety. Allowing 100% chance to hit on attacks that aren't deliberately designed to be auto-hit will have lot and lots of ramifications, and I think it's not worth the time and effort to look into what they might be just to avoid the very occasional miss.

Hehe, it' s not a long trip: What a long strange trip it's been

Yes. My Plant/Savage erases things to a degree I never imagined. The damage you get from Plants + Creepers, added to Unkindness (with 2 -Res procs) then Feral Charge then a 5-stack Blood Frenzy is just unreal. Spawns evaporate. That's usually true with any set that has a mass confusion power, but adding in the damage from all the other sources, the -Def/-Res fron Unkindness, just takes it over the top. The only downside is that Plant really is a one-trick pony, so fighting things that are Confuse-resistant is a pain... I still recall one spawn of Rularuu with 3 eyeball bosses at +3. That was harder than an AV (but I didn't take the AoE Hold... maybe I should have ). And Savage doesn't have much in the way of defensive abilities, it's all about the damage. But leaving aside the fact that it doesn't have multiple tools for defense, on offense it could be the most destructive Dominator available. I liked it enough to make a Dark/Savage also, and I usually try to avoid repeating sets.