Coyote

Come on, it had to be at least a bit amusing when 2-3 EA characters were zapping each other by Lady Liberty. All of the zapping with all of the other characters around could probably have replaced the Terra Volta reactor 😆 I kinda wonder why don't they just do that. The Freakshow keep attacking TV? Some Vigilante group should set a trap for them, catch like 50-100 inside there, use a Force Fielder to keep them in place, and then have a few EA characters on a rotating basis keep them all permanently electrocuted for the Greater Good. We could replace a leaky radioactive reactor with leaky over-staticked cyberpunk walking, talking, complaining, batteries. "H3y m@n, s+0p z@pp!n6 u$ !!!" "N0+ c00| !!!"

I have to say, that I like the proposed changes to Flash Freeze, mostly in the fact that they're pretty complex and turn it into an interesting power that is a draw to the set. Consider, otherwise, how rarely Sleep powers are taken. IMO, the details of how the proposed ice formations work, and exactly what controls/debuffs they provide, are necessary in the end to finish the concept, but in the beginning, the first two thoughs should be: 1) make the power interesting 2) make the power worth taking. Right now, Sleeps generally aren't except for Static Field, and that's because it's pulsing. And it's worse on a set that uses a knockdown patch so it pretty much breaks one of its controls with another.

I'd add Earth to the list of top Assault sets... and definitely agree that Electric is at the bottom. I also don't see much synergy between Dark and Electric. Savage really works great for Dark, Dark Assault is a nice pairing, Psy is good and also works, and Earth Assault is good in general and stacking more Force Feedback activations allows you to bring up the PBAoE stun more often, slot it for damage, and get a 300 pts PBAoE instead of just a stun power. But Electric... is poor on its own, and doesn't really work well with Dark at all. Earth also adds a Power Boost-like effect, with works great to get the ToHit debuffs to be really strong at the start of a fight.

Just to add a different topic to this topic 🙂 ... if you want to play a Healer and concetrate on Healing as your main purpose, I strongly suggest running a MM. You can be free to heal while you're still contributing to the team's damage. Also, if you're in a situation where the team doesn't need defensive buffs like Fortitude, the henchmen can always use them, so you don't end up with buffs that are useless because so many team members are softcapped in Defense or hardcapped in Resistance. Whenever I make a character that has a lot of team buffs, I try to make them as MMs, so that if I'm soloing or on a team that doesn't need them, I still can get mileage out of them by throwing them on the henchmen.

Thanks for the clear answers, CP. I'm quite fine with the rationale as stated... especially given that the power can be slotted pretty well with 4 slots since it doesn't need Recharge given its short Recharge, so spending 1-2 slots for Range is doable. Builds at tight and not everyone would want to do it, but it's an option. And I'm very excited to hear about the feature freeze... I'll clear up time for this weekend 😆😝

I don't think the snipe range buff was in the game when Psy Blast was ported to Blasters and some changes were made. Also, I'm not sure what is the relevance, but Psy Lance has 150 range for Blasters and 175 for Defenders. So the snipes themselves are also in the same "why not increased range for Blasters" scenario as the other blasts in the set. On the other hand, Mental Manipulation does get the increased ranges, including 60' on its cone. Just to add more data points, Psy Assault also gets the boosted ranges.

I believe that it is, in general, better to balance powers and sets with formulas rather than by feel. So I do like the idea of setting all similar attacks to a similar range. However, Psy attacks consider bonus range as part of their secondary effect. If the range is such an important aspect of the power, I do not see why it wouldn't be reasonable to request that it gets a bonus range in return for lower duration, or longer recharge (but without getting greater cost and damage), or some other way to make it balanced against other Tier 1 Immobilizes that are 60'. Asking to be 60' just because "that's how it's been" doesn't fly with me, if it's an unfair benefit to a power. Historical bias is not a good reason for a power to be unbalanced. But historical bias could be used to argue that this particular statistic is more necessary to /TA Blasters than to, say, /Ninja or /Rad, and it's worth giving up or weakening some other aspect of the power.

Necroing because I have the same question. I was soloing the mission, went through the AVs, started fighting it, and got it to the 30% HP threshold. Then it respawned in place as the upgraded version (Much Too Jaded Spider), and proceeded to ignominiously erase the few "Heroes" who had survived through the fights. Then somehow it kept hitting me... maybe I was in the area of its cone, but I was actually flying above it, with PA below it. But somehow I was targeted, and boy, does it erase HPs fast. I tried again with Lucks to try to survive and move out of the cone, but it didn't take long before it again stacked enough hits on me to wipe me. I just read that it has a Mind Link power so I would have needed 50% Defense to AoE, maybe that would have made a difference, if I used Phenomenal Lucks or stacked weaker ones. But before I go through a mission with like 7 AVs plus this monster again, has anyone soloed this? If so, what were your tactics? What did you use? I think I could see a SR Tanker handling it, and I think Ele has high Psy resists and also some Regeneration to handle what goes through, plus resistance to the -Recharge effect. But it would take a pretty high damage Tanker to beat its Regen. Maybe Earth/Cold (Stoney can cap out Psy Resists while also capping or almost capping Defenses) might also have a chance.

You mean, epic? I like Earth for this combination. You're in melee range anyhow to take advantage of the healing and Fulcrum Shift, so may as well use Fissure and Seismic Smash. And you do get a solid armor that you can improve with set bonuses and get soft-capped against smash/lethal damage.

EM's rotation automatically damages you, although I think Scrappers may have a way to avoid it sometimes. But for that reason, I would avoid it with a set that only mitigates incoming damage like Invuln, SD, SR... and run it with a set that's build to take damage and heal or regenerate it. Regen, Willpower, Electric, Fire, Dark, etc. Basically, any set where a good build either has high Regen, or regularly uses a heal.

Wait a minute here. On the one hand, you're completely right... something actually unique as the T9 would be GREAT. But... OSA is already made. They don't have to develop a new power and test it. Combining Gymnastics and Agility saves a power pick for those who don't want OSA. Those who DO want OSA are getting a very nice useful power. This is really a good change for the set. Sure, it could be better, but the argument "It would be better if it were a new, better power"... is one that could almost always be applied to almost all major set changes. Frankly, Tactical Arrow was already a good set, and combining Gym/Agil and adding OSA is clearly an improvement. Especially given how well OSA works with a damaging Glue Arrow... and more-so if you run it with Ice, Fire, or Water Blast for the added DoT patch, and how Bonfire is available at that level to stack with the "slow and burn" effects.

Call it parkour

Absolutely agree. It's a minor hassle to set up, for a great improvement in flexibility. And it especially multiplies when you have multiple powers... my Ice/TA Blaster would love to be able to drop more and more powers out of LOS. Blizzard, Ice Storm, Glue Arrow, OSA, Bonfire... it's like Indirect Fire in Battletech. Now, if I only had the option to reskin attacks as missiles, and I'd totally make a mecha-style missile suit 😁

This is why I honestly am not getting the "I'm quitting my TA character because my SINGLE TARGET Immobilize has had its range reduced". I'm using AoE Slows more than a ST Immob, because there are hardly any situations where I have only one target I care about, and when I do, it's Freeze Ray + Ice Arrow, which means the Immob is irrelevant. Honestly, the only time it matters is if you're trying to keep an AV in place, and there the range isn't very important.

That makes sense, I think. So if I understand correctly, the power: 1: Sleeps and does damage in an AoE. 2: Also summons non-damaging pets under each target mob that was hit, and these pets have a small-radius Immobilize/Taunt effect, in effect holding the mobs in place and making them spend 1 attack freeing themselves from it. That sounds pretty decent, though be aware that the footpads are likely to get AoE'd all at once and cleared. But that may not be unreasonable to allow... you could give them high AoE defense and poor other defense, but then you run the risk of a mob not being able to free itself if it attacks with an AoE power.

1: As you say,, Ice Control excels in drawn-out fights. Conversely, it's extremely weak against the alpha strike, which is why I always advocate for taking it with a secondary with a -ToHit debuff to mitigate the alpha. Sucks to be an Ice Control Dominator, I guess... they're left out in the cold. Haha. But to get back to the point, we should ensure that we don't make Ice Control as good as an average Control set against the alpha... while also allowing it to be exceptional in longer fights. Or, this could be balanced by having it be a low- damage set (which it is now, so if we go this way, we need to make sure we don't open up too many options for additiona proc damage). Now, to power changes specifically: Shiver... I like the idea of having it break the Alpha strike. Due to its low recharge, the Hold component also needs to be low in duration. And I don't like the Mag 3 on it... I would prefer how I've seen other powers, with 50% chance for Mag 2, making it mostly an anti-Minion power, but an additional chance for a Mag 1... maybe another 50% chance. This gives it 50% chance against Minions, and 25% against LTs. Otherwise, the concept isn't bad. It could also be run as a Sleep effect, similar in concept to the target freezing in place like Flash Freeze. Either would work, I'd prefer the Hold so it's different from Flash Freeze. Be aware that allowing Hold would give it option for 3-4 damage procs. Maybe this isn't a bad thing, but be aware of it. Ice Slick... agreed on both counts. It has a huge -Slow effect anyway, if it's a power that has a major debuff it usually makes sense to allow it to be enhanced. And while I don't see why Earthquake allows Knockback enhancing, if EQ can slot Knockback sets, it seems quite reasonable to allow Ice Slick to slot them also. Flash Freeze... I'm always wary of adding more proc damage opportunities to powers. Not that I'm against it, I heavily proc out my Controllers... but I like to be careful about it. So, a few things: First, do we want to give Flash Freeze the option for 2 more damage procs? I don't think it's too bad, but we need to consider it. Second, what is this about the Taunt effect? I assume you mean taunting pets, not tauntable, but what's the point and concept? That mobs see these ice formations as especially dangerous and need to destroy them first? I don't buy it, the usual Taunting pets are highly dangerous or appear so (PA, Animate Stone, Gun Drone, the Crab "come close to me" hypnobomb). These don't feel to me like they should be so highly dangerous, mobs would be more likely to leave their area than attack them. I think I would prefer to give these formations a 2x or higher, up to 5x,, Threat Level. Since they're debuffing, they'll pull some aggro, and since they have a high Threat Level, it will be reasonably strong and overcome some debuffs from actual characters... but not hold aggro against high damage, which seems more reasonable to me than a true Taunt. Also, it would remove the option for one of the damage procs, which I like... adding the option for one damage proc feels like enough, to me. Glacier... maybe, for now. I mean, okay, if nothing is going to be revisited about Control Set AoE Holds, then it's a reasonable change. I don't see why not, but I'm not sure I like how the AoE Holds are balanced right now. There are too many times when I feel that they're some of the most skippable powers in a set.

Lots of powers have their effects conditioned on enemy rank. It seems like it should be safe to apply a Mag 3 Teleport on Minions (and other types of smaller mobs like the remnants of Rubbles and Quartzes), 4 on Lts, 5 on Bosses, and nothing to any other target. That feels like it should have a pretty low chance to create some exploit.

I will also be taking and slotting OSA on my Ice/TA Blaster. Alternating OSA+Bonfire and Blizzard on alternate spawns will stack with Ice Storm and Glue Arrow and clear spawns of minions very nicely. Also, for that reason, I'm not in the slightest bit bothered by the range modifier on Entangling Arrow. Could be because Frost Breath is already shorter, could be that I'm already worrying about denying movement for multiple mobs so they can't get out of damage patches, but slotting up Glue Arrow with Dam/Slow and stacking the other powers on top really takes care of mob movement. Sure, they can move around at 10% speed. That's very, very slow... and 60' is easily enough range to Immob a target that's at the movement floor. Well, unless it's a Warwulf or other Slow-resistant mob (but many of those are often resistant to Immobs anyhow, so... still not a big loss there).

Savage is really good in melee, and works very well with Dark, but.... Earth Assault has a very good argument that it can lay the hammer down (pun intended) in melee better than Savage.

I think that the phrase "whilst also" implies that crowd control and lack of incentives to get into melee range are two separate items. The fact that later it is stated that "both of these factors", implying that they are different factors makes it more certain. So... logically, these sets were overtuned in the crowd control department. AND ALSO BUT SEPARATELY didn't have incentives to get into melee range. Tactical Arrow still doesn't, but how is that related to having a 60' range on the Immobilize? Several of the other changes were about melee attacks for the secondaries, but that didn't affect TA. But that's not the same thing as saying that TA's Immobilize had its range shortened in order to incentivize getting into melee range. And it makes no sense, to argue that 60' = melee range. Now, if the Devs would state that Immobilizes had their ranges shortened to 60' in order to encourage the use of 7' melee-range attacks, heh, okay, you'll be right. But otherwise, they look like separate items to me. 1: incentivize melee range with better attacks, and 2: fix their crowd control.

I really REALLY just want a 1% Knockdown chance on it. Well, actually, I want about a 33% chance, but I'd settle for 1% so I can put a Force Feedback in there 😁

Is it? It's still lacking dependable status protection (now you can have it in the fight with EMP Arrow, but that's not up all the time unless you're clearing very slowly), and it's lacking healing or regeneration buffs. Most Tanker sets that are Resist based (or all, I think) have a +Regen or Heal power so that the damage that DOES go through can be healed up. A TA Defender may limit incoming damage nicely, but doesn't regenerate/heal it nearly as well. I like the new values on TA, and it looks pretty strong, but I think it's pretty far away from the damage mitigation of a Resist-based armor set. That's especially true at +3 where the debuffs are down to about 70%, and it's also limited to mobs in the debuff area, which will not always be the case if there are adds, mobs at the edges who back out of the debuff, or ambushes. Considering that it has many more points of failure than, say, a Scrapper's resist-based armor set, forget even a Tank's, I wouldn't worry that it's "too tanky". Edit: and it requires a lot of power activations to get all that tanky-wanky strength. Armors sets are toggle-up and go, with occasional heals. Not regular use of debuff powers to maintain the damage mitigation. I think that it deserves being strong when you can manage to put all of pieces in place, considering all the failure points and the organization of the animation limitation (sorry, couldn't resist :p)

Ice for AoE damage, which Controllers are usually short on. Or Earth for less AoE damage but an AoE that can slot Force Feedback, which is good for Illusion, and Seismic Smash. For Controllers, I generally consider that their defenses are overly strong, and their offense is overly weak, and therefore try to get damage from the APPs. There are a few exceptions, usually Fire or Plant builds, but generally I want damage from APPs and that means Ice is best, and Earth is quite good.

Frozen Armor. Defense to S/L is useful, it takes a LotG IO, and it can slot unique IOs from both Defense and Resist sets. You should be using slots in earlier power like CJ, Maneuvers, or Stealth to get the Defense IOs in so they're available earlier, but since you didn't take the Fighting pool, this is your only place to slot the +Resist IOs. 4 slots in it gets you LotG +Recharge, LotG Def/End, and the two +Def Resist IOs.

Savage leap works best, I think, heavily procc'd out. Procs don't care about Hidden status, so I wouldn't try to AS then Leap... AS should always lead into Hemorrhage since Hemo gets a huge damage bonus when used from Hidden status. Also, Savage Leap does more damage and gets more stacks of Blood, up to 3, if you use it at longer ranges. I would open with that to get 3 stacks, then AS for 2 more stacks, and that sets you with 5 stacks which increases the range of Rending Flurry so you get more AoE. Open like that, follow with Shield Charge (or you could Leap-Charge and then go to AS-Hemo), and it will do a great AoE opener.