Burnt Umber

I agree with you. And, if I may, I draw a distinction between player guides/advice, like those you linked to, and the actual Developer articles/advice like the old "Dev Diaries" where a design philosophy or powerset strategy might be explained. I don't mind if a player suggests filler attack or whatever (e.g., taking boxing/kick to get access to the fighting power pool's defensive powers) because that is not a mandate and I may freely disregard it should I so choose. In contrast, I do mind if an actual Developers were suggesting as such (e.g., that my AoE damage should be coming from epic/patron power pools) because then I must adopt/adapt that design decision into my build. I'm fine with changes being made to powers, sets, and even archetypes. In fact, I'm thrilled that DM may have a real AoE ability, but I think ToF, as it is now on Test, feels very anemic for that purpose. And I wonder why it is that way as well as if there is room for improvement.

Having played with these Dark Melee changes on the Test Server, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I normally skip Touch of fear on my build, so making it into a damage power renews my interest in taking it. However, on the other hand, Touch of Fear as it is on the Test Server doesn't function very well in my opinion, hitting too few critters and taking too long to deliver out the full damage to them. As it stands, the small radius of the power makes hitting more than a few (3-ish maybe?) of the critters surrounding me difficult, if not impossible;. The Damage over Time aspect makes the unhelpful in clearing the spawn (I feel as though I have to fall back on my single target attack chain to achieve this). And, the lack of the mez/debuff affecting all of the hit targets limits the power's utility. I would be much happier with the power if it were either to have a larger radius or to be a PbAoE, thereby enabling the power to be reasonably able to affect the target cap's worth of critters. I would also prefer that the power and some upfront damage attached - similar to the changes that were made to Midnight's Grasp back on Live. And while I wish that the mez/debuff affected all of the hit targets, I can live with foregoing this for balance concerns. Yet, if the point of the changes is (as other posters have suggested) to create some sort of stop-gap AoE damage power, then that is an unprecedented and unique design decision for this game. (I cannot think of any power being designed to be useful on during the leveling up process and to be respec'ed out of later on.*) But more importantly, I think that would be an unwise direction to go: it creates a tax on Dark Melee players for leveling up by making them have to respec at whatever level the new Touch of Fear loses its efficacy, or else forgo the power altogether. And, to me, that seems to run counter to the goal of making Dark Melee a more even set through this rework.

I follow you on the reasoning, but I remain a bit skeptical that players, on the whole, are willing to slowly pick-off individual critters with little risk to themselves. For instance, I think the changes to make instant-snipes suggest that players generally weren't taking/using a power that allowed them to do exactly that. At the same time, I have to concede that unorthodox/irregular playstyles is something the player base thrives on and players will certainly try to cheese scenarios given the chance. So, you are probably right that there would be a glut of tele-sniping characters were Teleport Target to be less aggro-inducing. I actually would love to see such a change: maybe not scattering the critters to the four winds so much as sending them away from the spawn point similar to how a critter will run when sufficiently demoralized but wander back (albeit sometimes very slowly). In contrast to the old fear powers (or at least what I remember of them), I would hope that searching behavior wouldn't be a status effect overwriting the normal AI behavior for the duration, causing them to flee to the farthest parts of a map/zone.

To elaborate on my prior feedback a bit, I was already familiar with how the live version of Teleport Foe works, and was already similarly dissatisfied with it. But I was hoping that since the power on Test is labelled as "not notifying nearby enemies" in the power info description, the new Teleport Target power(s) would end up operating similar to Smoke/Confuse/etc. That hope was dashed upon testing. Ideally, teleporting an critter would cause other nearby critters to become alerted to the existence of an enemy and to go searching for the player; that is probably impossible within the confines of the AI in this game. I'm just not a fan of the critters having the extrasensory ability to zero in on the player after the power's use. I've never been a huge fan of the teleport pool as it was on live. I have Recall Friend on a few of my characters yet I don't think I use it outside of the rare circumstance such as dragging a fallen ally out of a death patch or the like. I've tried and respec'ed out of Teleport Foe, finding it too clunky and unhelpful to use. (Why delay myself to use this power when I have probably better powers to use on a troublesome critter?) And I've scarcely taken Teleport as my travel power because of its twitchy nature. So, all in all, I do happily welcome most of these changes. They are revitalizing a very limited and dated power pool. However, I also want to note that given the current changes being made, Warshades are uniquely disadvantaged by the changes. They have to sacrifice a power pick to get the better entry level teleport power after being given a lesser power for free. Admittedly, this might be little different than other archetypes who have to sacrifice a power pick - alongside a power pool option - to get the Teleport pool powers. Nevertheless, if Warshades were supposed to get the key powers in Teleport as inherent powers then I think Warshades are being penalized by getting the niche Teleport Target power but having to pick Combat Teleport. This is unlike Peacebringers who get Hover and Flight for free.

I've been playing with the changes to teleport with my Warshade's equivalents, and for the most part, I really like the changes. My impressions are as follows: Inherent / Umbral Aura > Shadow Recall Frankly, I'm not really a fan of this power. I don't think the "Teleport Foe" part of the power works very well because it alerts nearby enemies when used on a individual (even outside line of sight) and because the interrupt time prevents it from being useful during combat to grab runners or enemies staying at range. And so, I will probably treat this power exclusively as "Recall Friend" for the foreseeable future. On my characters who will have the pool power version of this, I may in fact respec out of it entirely since those characters mostly took it as a stop-gap for Assemble the Team during its cooldown or as a niche power to complement a rez/Vengeance. Umbral Blast > Starless Step I really enjoy this/"Combat Teleport." Although I kind of wish that this power gave +Def rather than +ToHit, I think I can live with it as it is now, especially if it works a place to put the Gaussian's Build-up Proc. On my Warshade, it gives a quick follow-up to Grav. Emanation to get him into melee range for his PBAoE powers. On my other characters, it works wonders a way for my stalkers or controllers to jump into melee range before using their openers, and I'm debating swapping out normal Teleport for this on my Stone Armor tank to lessen the pain of Rooted/Granite. That said, I have something of a problem with this power specific to Warshades. I wish that this power were the inherent rather than Shadow Recall. Such a change would bring it inline with Peacebringers getting a hover equivalent as an inherent, and given my above gripe with Shadow Recall, doesn't force me to have a less desirable power. Umbral Aura > Shadow Slip This power is absolutely phenomenal. It let's me gather up a host of nearby foes for my Warshade to fuel his Mire-Eclipse-Quasar combo. My only wish would be for it to have a slightly shorter cooldown, but it's so good as is, that I'd rather not sacrifice anything to get that reduced recharge. I wish I could fit this power into more of my other melee builds but I don't see many ways to make the power sacrifices to get there, which I think does a good job of indirectly balancing this power - it's great for those who can squeeze it into their builds but that takes enough effort that I don't think were going to suddenly have teams competing to use/chaining "Fold Space."

Sorry about any ambiguity. You can't use mighty if you are in mid-air. You have to be on the ground. The only way to activate mighty while hover is toggled on is to hover at ground level and having your character touching the ground.

True, "fun" is subjective. I guess a better way to phrase it might be "these builds aren't a chore for me to play or failing basic gameplay." I've tried some builds in the past that were more annoying than it was worth, like when I tried a regen scrapper back in its hay-day in Issue 2/3 or my experimenting with Khelds on Homecoming. I've also seen some ways to play that just cause me to scratch my head, like so-called "pure" empathy defenders or petless MM. I realize some people might think of those builds as "fun," so one's mileage may certainly vary. I feel like one of the amazing synergies of Necro/Traps is that you can get your pets to pull enemies into traps so you don't have to be nearly as meticulous. And even then, while teaming, I'll definitely lean toward toe-bombing with selective traps that recharge quick enough. At the same time, all of my traps can be great when the team hits a speed bump or just an AV that needs to be turned to jelly.

Ooh, I'm a fellow Sonic/Cold Corruptor. It's rare even though it's super fun to play. Seems I actually have a few rarities: I also have a rare Water/Sonic corruptor; somewhat rare (or at least uncommon) Grav/Rad and Ill/FF controllers; a rare Stone/Fire tank; a rare Dark/Elec; brute; and a really rare (there's only 5 of us!) Necro/Traps MM. All of them are very fun to play so it's a little surprising that they're as rare as they are.

I have this on my PB. You can't really use Mighty while hovering. You have to be all the way on the ground to activate the power, so although you might be able to trigger the power with hover on, you effectively have to be on the ground to do it.