Maelwys

This. IIRC Endurance Cost was (for most toons) very much the main limiting factor in how quickly you could trigger attacks. And Recharge Time was a pretty big secondary factor. So unless you had a pocket Kinetics or Empath buffbot; you were SOL and had to fire off attacks much less frequently than their animation time limitations allowed. ...then they gave us Inherent Fitness; IOs, and Incarnates.

OK. It's time to Throw The Cat Amongst The Pigeons. Like most of us, I've played all the ATs. A LOT. And I like to think that I have a fairly solid grasp of CoX gameplay and most of its complex underlying mechanics (including those pesky IOs). But there are some RATHER GLARING (to me anyway) balance issues and performance problems and even a few sheer "WTF that's utterly overpowered/pointless!" things that spring to mind whenever I consider each AT and how its Inherent and its available ATOs improve (or clash with) that AT's typical role and/or playstyle. So I'm going to list what *I* think the state of each AT is, currently, and what *I* think could/should be done to improve matters. ... But before I get into it: (i) I realise a lot of people might disagree with some/most/all of my thoughts here; however I suspect that at least certain bits of what I highlight below may get a few people nodding... and I think that having a discussion about overall AT balance that doesn't focus on one particular aspect (like Blaster Nukes) or one particular powerset (like Super Strength) might be beneficial. This is more of an "Invitation for discussion and/or telling @Maelwys how wrong he is"; hence my putting it here in General instead of in the Suggestions subforum. (ii) I appreciate that some powersets could really do with being rebalanced (like Kinetic Melee) and/or are better on one AT than others (like Staff Melee). That's a discussion for another thread. (iii) ... Now, with that out of the way; here comes the flame-fodder: - [BLASTER] - Inherent: Defiance (Short-duration stacking damage buff for every power activated; T1/T2 attack from the primary and T1 attack from the secondary can be used whilst mezzed) ATO1: Blaster's Wrath (PPM damage proc) ATO2: Defiant Barrage (PPM stackable low-mag mez protection) Summary: IMO this AT is in a good place. The Inherent and ATOs notably raise its damage output and also help to reduce the impact of hostile CC effects without completely negating those effects. The ATO2 is "skippable" at endgame (due to Clarion Destiny) but otherwise can be particularly useful if slotted into one of the T1/T2 powers, so that they can be triggered whilst the Blaster is mezzed... however it only grants Mag1 protection per stack and the stacks expire fairly quickly. Also since the T1/T2 powers have a fast base recharge time, lower-PPM procs have a very low likelihood of activating in them. Recommendations: Increase the duration of each stack of the ATO2 proc (from ~10s to ~20s) and/or substantially raise its PPM chance. - [CONTROLLER] - Inherent: Containment (deal double-damage to enemies that are held/stunned/immobilized/feared; or that have been slept within the last 3 seconds) ATO1: Will of the Controller (PPM damage proc) ATO2: Overpowering Essence (PPM chance to summon a very short-duration pet with a PBAoE damage aura) Summary: IMO this AT has gotten substantially better recently (after i28p2's changes to allow Fear and Sleep effects to set up Containment) but their ATO2 is bad. Just like Dominator's "Fiery Orb" ATO2; the Controller ATO2's "Energy Font" pet spawns at your location (not your target's), has a slow movement speed and is extremely fragile. Therefore unless you're already within melee range of multiple foes it can take several seconds (of its 20s maximum duration) to actually start dealing any damage and it is very prone to getting one-shot. Recommendations: Tweak the ATO2 "Energy Font" pet to be immune to damage ("untouchable") and increase its movement speed. - [DEFENDER] - Inherent: Vigilance (30% Damage buff when solo, reduces by 10% per teammate. Endurance Cost Reduction when teammate HP bars are low) ATO1: Defender's Bastion (PPM PBAoE Heal) ATO2: Vigilant Assault (PPM PBAoE Absorb) Summary: The ATOs both add a useful non-damage-oriented effect; although their ATO1 is slightly overshadowed by the Corruptor ATO2 (which also grants some +Endurance in addition to +Health). Vigilance is a useful inherent whilst solo; however its effect whilst teamed is downright pathetic - essentially when teamed with at least 3 people it has no appreciable benefit unless the team is constantly sitting with less-than-full HP bars. Recommendations: Add +Recovery/Endurance to Defender's Bastion. Rework Vigilance's effect to let Defenders keep a little more of their current damage buff on medium-sized teams; and on larger teams have the endurance always apply instead of being HP-bar dependant (as the current implementation rewards Defenders that reactively heal and punishes those that preemptively buff). My suggestion would be to leave the solo damage buff at +30%; then for each teammate reduce that damage buff by 5% whilst adding a flat 10% Endurance Cost Reduction... capping out at 0% damage and +60% Endurance Cost Reduction on a full team. - [SCRAPPER] - Inherent: Critical Hit (5% chance to deal extra damage vs a Minion/Underling; 10% chance vs anything else. This is usually but not always double the attack's base damage; and unlike Stalkers there is no additional penalty for AoEs) ATO1: Scrapper's Strike (Global Critical Hit rate buff) ATO2: Critical Strikes (PPM chance to add +50% Critical Hit rate for a short duration) Summary: Scrapper damage is "spikey" by design. If the dice fall in your favour then you can get a constant string of critical hits; and the ATOs help make this more likely. However their ATO2 proc is very likely the most complicated thing in the game to "optimize". The buff window is short but doesn't cancel after the first hit; so a min-maxed Scrapper has to work out how to make that buff window appear frequently and also how to cram as many high-damage, low-activation time attacks into that window as possible. Animation Time Before Effect values; Arcanatime roundups; which attacks gain full benefit from Critical hits and which don't (including 'additional damage' combo effects and DoTs). It very much rewards detailed knowledge of the game mechanics and basic math skills; but unfortunately it means that the performance disparity between an "optimized" and an "unoptimized" Scrapper is like night and day. Recommendations: Make the ATO2 proc effect far less complicated; without overly reducing the AT's achievable average damage. My suggestion would be to have the ATO2 buff simply cancel after the first hit; and then increase the Scrapper inherent BASE Critical Hit chance by a small amount (e.g. 5%) to compensate. The goal here is to lower the current drastic performance disparity between an endgame Scrapper being piloted by a regular Scrapperlocking button masher; and that same Scrapper being piloted by someone with OCD and a spreadsheet. - [TANKER] - Inherent: Gauntlet (AoE Taunt effect when attacking targets. AoEs have a larger radius and can hit additional targets) ATO1: Might of the Tanker (PPM stackable Damage Resistance buff) ATO2: Gauntleted Fist (PPM Absorb) Summary: The Tanker ATOs are, IMO, both in a good place even though neither ATO increases Tanker damage output. The ATO1 proc in particular is very effective. However Gauntlet is IMO a bit lacking. The recent changes in i28p2 drastically decreased Tanker AoE damage potential - Cones are no longer wider/longer and cannot hit more targets; AoEs are still a bit wider and can hit more targets but in practice the overall damage output of a Tanker vs 16 targets is now less than a Brute hitting 10 targets. The Developers have stated an intention for the Tankers to be "AoE Specialists" amongst the melee ATs but currently they deal less AoE damage than the others; so the most they're able to do is tag a few extra enemies with a "Taunt" effect. Recommendations: Recent i28p2 adjustments have reduced Tanker AoE damage without notably reducing their Single Target damage. However the Devs have stated a design intent that Tankers should be "AoE specialists among the melee ATs". If "AoE specialists" is intended to refer to "damage output" then IMO their 'overcap' damage reduction should be lowered a bit (so that damage on additional targets is reduced by at most -50% instead of -66%) in order that a Tanker will deal a little bit more damage vs 16 targets than a Brute does vs 10 targets. If it is instead intended to refer to "aggro control" then IMO there should be an increase to the duration of Gauntlet's AoE Taunt effect and/or the Tanker aggro cap (say ~24 instead of 17) in order to allow Tankers to quickly claim aggro over a Brute and/or maintain aggro control on more enemies. In addition; I would also suggest taking another look at Tanker Cone attacks. A number of Tanker powersets have multiple Cones and fewer pure AoEs - so IMO allowing cones to be widened by the Tanker Gauntlet once more (even if it's just "up to a certain arc size"; like ~120-180 degrees) and keeping their base damage the same as it is currently may make sense (perhaps their target cap could also be increased and appropriate "overcap" damage reductions introduced as well; but even just having Cones gain any benefit at all from the "Tankers are AoE specialists" notion would IMO be appreciated here!). Finally... IMO there is also an issue with Brutes and Tankers both currently occupying (and constantly clashing with each other over) the same "niche" on teams, which I'll cover in the Brute section below. - [BRUTE] - Inherent: Fury (stacking damage buff; effectively maxes out at roughly 85 Fury which is a +170% damage buff. Single Target Taunt effect when attacking targets) ATO1: Brute's Fury (PPM increased Fury generation) ATO2: Unrelenting Fury (PPM stackable increased Regeneration and Recovery for a short duration) Summary: The Brute Inherent is in a good place. However both their ATOs are total rubbish and a complete waste of an enhancement slot - chasing the Set Bonuses is IMO the only reason to use either of them. Fury generation is already fast and caps out at ~85 regardless of the ATO1 proc; and the +regeneration/recovery granted by the ATO2 proc when the stacks are maxed out provides less benefit than a Panacea Proc in Health. In practice Brutes are one of the "best" ATs whilst levelling up; especially whilst the player is short of enhancement slots, because Fury reduces the need to prioritise slotting their attacks for damage aspect. However after IOs they become overtaken by Scrappers in terms of damage output (and DRASTICALLY overtaken in the case of an optimized ATO2-using Scrapper). Survivabilitywise Brutes sit in a "sweet spot" between a Scrapper and a Tanker. Due to their inherent Taunt effect they are also almost as good as a Tanker at aggro control; and currently due to Tanker's recently nerfed AoE damage output (see: i28p2) they have begun to become the most popular endgame Tanking AT. Unfortunately a lack of clear Developer Intent makes it very tricky to propose a solid balance for Tankers, Scrappers and Brutes. In practice; providing that aggro control is sufficient, whichever of these three ATs can inflict the most damage is always going to be the optimal choice for filling an endgame Tanking role. (Disclaimer: whilst all Scrappers have access to "Confront" and some have Taunt Auras... traditionally it is very unusual in CoX for a Scrapper to fulfil a team "Main Tank" role. At most they might situationally hold the aggro of an AV or "off tank". However I am aware of a few cases, including in 4-star "hard mode" runs, where a Scrapper Tank is now seen as the preferred option because they can contribute substantially more on-demand damage than a Brute whilst maintaining a sufficient level of aggro control for that particular scenario!) IMO Brutes need a Niche on a team that doesn't simply boil down to "keeping aggro whilst dealing damage". Because sometimes the damage a Brute deals will be higher than a Tanker; and sometimes it'll be the other way around (depending on whether Tankers have been buffed or not recently!). CoX having two melee ATs that are effectively both continually competing for exactly the same niche on a team is less than ideal. Tankers having better Survivability than Brutes is mostly irrelevant on mature teams; so unfortunately that's often a non-factor. Recommendations: Overhaul both Brute ATOs to allow each to provide a mechanically worthwhile boost. And give Brutes a better niche on teams so that Brutes and Tankers are not always competing over the same role of "Survivable Aggro Magnet that deals the most raw damage". I've suggested a few ideas for this niche separation previously - letting Tankers hold the attention of more mobs (via an increased aggro cap); giving Brutes an ATO which grants a PBAoE damage buff based on their current Fury; etc. however the exact shape/form it might take doesn't overly matter. The main thing IMO is that something definitely needs to stop the current situation where as soon as Brute or Tanker damage overtakes the other (due to AT buffs or nerfs) that AT becomes "always the best choice" on teams and the other AT effectively gets dustbinned. - [CORRUPTOR] - Inherent: Scourge (scaling chance to inflict double damage once the target's current HP drops below 50%) ATO1: Malice of the Corruptor (PPM damage proc) ATO2: Scourging Blast (PPM PBAoE Heal and Endurance) Summary: IMO the Corruptor ATOs are in a good place; and Scourge can potentially be a very powerful inherent. However it often drastically favours fast-cycling lower-damage-per-hit powers (especially "Rains", which perform multiple "checks" of the target's current HP over the course of their duration and so begin benefitting from Scourge as soon as it drops below the 50% threshold) over single-hit-high-damage powers like traditional AoEs and Nukes (which only check the target's HP once; and in practice typically trigger before the target has taken any noteworthy damage at all). This means specific powersets (Ice Blast, Fire Blast, Water Blast) tend to benefit from Scourge more than others. Recommendations: Realistically Corruptors are one of the most powerful classes so I'd be loathe to buff them; but PERHAPS it'd make sense to alter the Scourge chances for non-rain AoEs so that they gain a small % chance to inflict Scourge regardless of the target's current HP; or maybe even scale it based on the number of teammates. In order that Ice Blast Corruptors aren't always the automatic Gold Medalists. - [DOMINATOR] - Inherent: Domination (long recharge Clicky buff that refills your endurance bar, provides mez protection and grants additional CC effects for 90s, and a ToHit buff for 15s) ATO1: Ascendency of the Dominator (PPM stackable Damage Buff) ATO2: Dominating Grasp (PPM chance to summon a very short-duration pet with a PBAoE damage aura) Summary: IMO this AT's inherent is amazingly good (it's a very rare Dominator player who doesn't strive for enough Global Recharge to make Domination permanent) and their ATO1 is decent (if a bit attack chain dependant); however their ATO2 is very bad. Just like the Controller's "Energy Font" ATO2; the Dominator ATO2 "Fiery Orb" pet spawns at your location (not your target's), has a slow movement speed and is extremely fragile. Therefore unless you're already within melee range of multiple foes it can take several seconds (of its 20s maximum duration) to actually start dealing any damage and it is very prone to getting one-shot. Recommendations: Tweak the ATO2 "Fiery Orb" pet to be immune to damage ("untouchable") and increase its movement speed. - [MASTERMIND] - Inherent: Supremacy (PBAoE Damage and ToHit buff for Henchmen. Mastermind Henchmen can be issued orders and when in "Defensive Follow" or "Defensive GoTo" mode, a portion of any damage inflicted on their master will be redirected to each henchman) ATO1: Command of the Mastermind (Global PBAoE buff to "AoE" Defense for henchmen) ATO2: Mark of Supremacy (Global PBAoE buff to Damage Resistance and regeneration rate for henchmen) Summary: IMO this AT is in a very, very good place. Whilst I personally do not like taking the ATO1 global (I prefer focusing on all positional defences rather than just one) it definitely has a place on many builds. The only "generic" issue I have is that the T1 and T2 pets spawning at lower-levels compared to the MM themselves means that the Purple Patch hits them very hard whenever you're fighting enemies higher than +3 to you. Recommendations: Allow the T1 and T2 henchmen to spawn at even-level to the MM themselves in all content. The base damage of their powers could be reduced by ~20% and ~10% to compensate if required, but realistically these pets already spawn at even-level to the MM in Incarnate content, so it's likely that just leaving their damage scalars as-is will not overly upset things. (Some specific Primary powersets could also do with a balance pass; but that's beyond the scope of this thread!) - [STALKER] - Inherent: Assassination (When "hidden" - Critical Strike 100% activation for Single target attacks and 50% for most Cones and AoEs. When NOT hidden; 10% base Critical rate plus 3% for each party member. Primary powerset attacks also grant "Assassin Focus" stacks which drastically increase the Critical hit rate of Assassin's Strike; becoming guaranteed with 3 stacks) ATO1: Stalker's Guile (PPM chance to enter "hidden" state. Can activate at most once every 10 seconds) ATO2: Assassin's Mark (Global that gives most attacks a chance to make the "Build Up" power recharge) Summary: Stalkers are IMO in a rather good place. Their Assassination inherent looks complex but in practice works well to boost their damage beyond the first whack from a hidden state (especially whilst teamed). Their critical chance is reduced for AoEs and Stalkers in general also have less AoE abilities and Cones available to them; so they tend to be better at Single Target Damage - IMO combined with the Stealth and Placate mechanics it makes their playstyle sufficiently unique that Scrappers and Stalkers are both valuable to a team without always stepping on each other's toes. Their ATO2 is powerful and does not require any complex calculations or build tweaks. Their ATO1 is powerful but has an annoying lockout period that means you really need to plan the duration of your attack chain cycle to get the most out of it. Recommendations: Lose the 10s lockout period on the ATO1 proc; in order to reduce the need for a "perfect" attack chain cycle. - [SENTINEL] - Inherent: Opportunity (Slight resistance to ToHit and Perception debuffs. Bar builds up over time and when >50% full "Vulnerability" can be triggered, which inflicts a large damage resistance debuff, defense debuff, status effect resistance debuff and stealth debuff for 15s) ATO1: Sentinel's Ward (PPM Absorb) ATO2: Opportunity Strikes (PPM increased Opportunity generation) Summary: Sentinels have come a long way since their original implementation; and their inherent is now decent; but their ATOs are not. Recommendations: Change the ATO1 to work off your current "maximum HP" rather than be a flat value; and raise its activation chance (the Tanker ATO2 is very similar but uses MaxHP and is a substantially higher PPM). The ATO2 should either have its increased Opportunity generation value drastically raised or become a Global (can be triggered by all attacks) rather than a PPM (can be triggered only by the attack it's slotted in) so that is is less dependant on specific power placement and/or attack chain cycles. - [PEACEBRINGER / WARSHADE] - Inherent: Cosmic Balance/Dark Sustenance (Buffs to Damage, Damage Resistance, CC protection and recharge debuff resistance based on the Archetypes of their teammates) ATO1: Kheldian's Grace (Global that applies a short-duration buff to damage when in Nova Form, damage resistance when in Human Form; and MaxHP when in Dwarf Form) ATO2: Essence Transfer (Global that grants most attacks a flat 18% chance to heal you) Summary: Kheldians are broken. There is a well-known exploit (which tends to be referred to as "Changeling") that lets them drop out of one form into another and trigger a new attack before the previous attack finishes animating. However WITHOUT leveraging that exploit; their damage output can IMO be generously described as "mediocre". Many players do not enjoy taking all (or even any) of the additional non-human forms; and so will not gain the full benefit from their ATO1. The Cosmic Balance/Dark Sustenance inherents can be powerful but unfortunately both require a specific (and different!) team composition to really shine. Recommendations: Rework Cosmic Balance/Dark Sustenance so that it is less dependent (or not at all dependent) on specific team compositions. Prevent the "Changeling" exploit (my suggestion would be to prevent shifting out and then back into the same form immediately - a lockout period of ~5 seconds before being able to reuse the same form should do it!) whilst at the same time adjusting the AT's damage scalars upwards in all forms (particularly Human) and reviewing some of the animation times (e.g. Incandescent Strike; which is effectively Total Focus with a 24% longer cast time) - these ATs should IMO cap out at very roughly the same average damage ballpark as a Brute. Allow Epic and Patron Pools. Amend the ATO1 so that if Dwarf Form and/or Nova form are not taken then a smaller bonus is granted to the other form(s). - [ARACHNOS SOLDIER / WIDOW] - Inherent: Conditioning (Regeneration and Recovery bonus - this is baked into the AT's base attributes and it's a flat +5% to each.) ATO1: Dominion of Arachnos (PPM Terrorize and Damage debuff) ATO2: Spider's Bite (Global that grants most attacks a flat 12% chance for additional Toxic damage) Summary: VEATs are very powerful; particularly since the changes to Fortuna and Night Widow Lv1 powers in i27p7. Whilst their Inherents aren't mechanically striking; they do slightly increase overall sustainability (VEATs tend to gobble endurance) and their various specialization trees each provide Lv1 Auto abilities that are effectively more powerful inherents ('Fate Sealed', 'Pain Tolerance' and the Bane and Wolf spider 'Armor Upgrades'). Their ATO2 is EXTREMELY good. The ATO1 provides a useful damage debuff; although the Terrorize only affects minions. Recommendations: IMO not much is needed here. Perhaps tweak the ATO1 proc so that it effects Lieutenants out of the box (Mag3 rather than Mag2) or so that it can stack with itself rather than overwriting. And MAYBE buff the "Conditioning" inherent slightly so that it provides a larger boost to Regeneration/Recovery (+10% base rather than +5%; for example). I would also quite like to see them being given access to Epic Pools - having only Patron Pools might be thematic; but more choice is always good. Really though the main thing is that I think they need some kind of Recovery/Endurance buff to be available to them (likely via their Inherent or Epic Pools) in order that optimized VEATs (especially Widows!) don't need to rely so hard on Ageless Destiny. "Crabberminds" not having control over their pets is IMO a feature, not a problem! (Heh-heh-heh-hee-hee-hee-heh-heh-heh-heh...)

*Enemies proceed to stand back up again because the numpty had their Nuke slotted for KB distance instead of damage aspect (let alone any procs) and never bothered to pop Aim+Build Up (with a Gaussian proc in it) before nuking* Melee: "Great, so now we still have to kill them slowly but they're scattered over half the map!" Tank: "And all of them want to eat the Blaster's face off because I've just taunted a fresh set of 17 enemies. This is what we call a self-correcting problem."

It grants a scaling 0%-10% resistance. But it also grants a flat constant 3% resistance. It will therefore end up providing between 3%-13% resistance depending on your current HP. (Note the "13/100" instead of "10/100" in its CoDv2 entry)

FWIW Endurance Drains and Recovery debuffs (mainly sappers) routinely annoyed my original i6 /Regen Scrapper at higher levels. Sure; since then MoG has become useful... but the +20% Recovery debuff resistance from Quick Recovery plus another +20% Recovery debuff resistance and 20% Endurance debuff resistance from Ailment Resistance allows a Regen to be much less likely to "bottom out" via Endurance drains. I make the achievable Regeneration debuff resistance right now +20% from Fast Healing, +20% from Ailment Resistance and another up-to-45% from Reactive Regeneration. That's 95%; AKA 5% short of the cap. If you run Ageless Radial then yes; you can drop FH and still hit >96%; but personally I'd probably sooner drop Second Wind or Reconstruction.

I think this point is worth highlighting. Most of us here are capable of critical thinking and considering the other person's point of view; or at least (occasionally) reading and processing what another person wrote. On PUG teams there is no such prerequisite. I did rather a lot of PUG Master-of-Statesman;s Task Forces back in the day. Untamed Knockback and Repel affecting the Lord Recluse buff pillar repair crews (reviving previously destroyed pillars) was a royal PITA and caused several total failures. To be fair, that's still by far a footnote in my CoX gameplay experience though. Most of the time I just get a little annoyed by having to spend more effort chasing down mobs in order to melee attack them (whilst I can just manually follow them or trigger a Combat Teleport; doing so can mess up my careful cone positioning so can be a slight PITA) or by having AoEs and patch powers affect less targets (which admittedly can frustrate me a bit more depending on how long those powers take to recharge. Fine, they're your problem now Captain Pinball - I'll run three mobs ahead...)

Instant Healing.

IIRC it's that way intentionally because of issues "resetting" the pet's AI - whatever attack they might be in the middle of inflicting or recieving needs to complete fully and the henchmen reach a state where they're not attacking anyone... THEN they can build their aggro list up again based on the new orders. In practice I'll still need to tap Follow-Passive occasionally to get them to heel, but it's not anywhere near as bad as on live (whenever you could switch from Attack-Aggressive to Defensive-Goto... and at least half of the stupid feral kittens would either outright ignore you or start doing cricket runs between the goto point and the enemy they were previously engaged with!)

It's rather obvious: "Stop scattering mobs". Position themselves better, Pick their targets more carefully, Slot KB>KD IOs, Wait for (or themselves use) an AoE Immobilize. Heck... even something as simple as jumping can often drastically cut down on scatter distance. Again, I very much realise that KB can be used "for good" - to clump mobs rather than disperse them. However AoEs with a less-than-100% percentage chance to cause KB inevitably cause random scatter unless the caster is flying directly overhead or using KB>KD. To flip it around: I don't think it's reasonable to expect multiple teammates to adjust their playstyle to suit a "bad" knockbacker. Single Target Ranged damage dealers might not overly care... but anyone with melee attacks, AoEs and "patch" effects can be negatively impacted by mob scatter. On many toons it can feel eerily similar to having to tolerate a disruptive co-worker who keeps sabotaging the group project.

If/when I'm on a melee toon and someone repeatedly punts half a dozen mobs out of my PBAoEs, you better believe that someone has just claimed ownership of those mobs. So I'll happily just leave them to it and go tackle the next pack... 🙂

For me it's a question of disruption. Combine a knockback user and a knockback hater together on a team and only one of those parties is disrupting the other and spoiling their fun. (And yet when the person being disrupted asks the disruptor to stop - which yes, would potentially disrupt their enjoyment - they're apparently the the bad guy because they were polite about it and asked first?) I get that knockback is a part of the game. But lots of knockback effects have become knockdown over the years because it's simply not mechanically effective to throw logs away from the woodchipper. There are still many KB powers left in specific powersets but the Devs gave us non-unique KB->KD IOs to let the players of those sets choose. So personally I'd just like there to be less opportunity cost for someone who wants to make that same choice across multiple powers. If Person A's playstyle is overly disruptive to Person B, then there's a problem. It's on the Team Leader to listen to the whinging complaints and ultimately call the shot... but I've personally observed a great many instances over the years where multiple team members have become so annoyed by the actions of one person that most of the members just drop (and often immediately reform, without the offender or the leader). I think I mentioned "Intangibility/Cage" powers earlier, and they're by far the worst offenders I can remember. But Speed Boost (slotted for run speed) and Team Fly/Team Teleport before Null the Gull was a thing are in there too... so it's definitely not just down to bad usage of AoE knockbacks and Fold Space. (And if someone's determined to troll then spamming an AoE Immobilize isn't likely to stop them...)

It is, however, still annoying. If someone is playing a game and gets annoyed by something in that game, then their enjoyment is negatively impacted. Different people have different thresholds obviously... and I personally will typically put up with a lot of frustration before I get to boiling point (those old "Nintendo Hard" console games were good for something!!) but I can definitely sympathise with the melee user who sees red after getting their targets taken away from them the upteenth time.

i) You can convert 50 Empyrean merits to/from 1 Transcendent merit at the merit vendors. It makes it substantially easier to transfer large quantities of them between your alts via email. ii) As others have mentioned, convert any unused salvage into threads then use threads to buy Super inspirations from Luna in Ouroboros. The Rez and Ultimate insps she gives out tend to sell well on the AH - you can usually get at least 500k-1m inf per 10 threads (double that if you're prepared to wait for new bids rather than use "sell now" pricing!)

Nope. KnockBACK and KnockUP are two different things. It's just that most effects in the game that grant resistance or protection for them grant it for both instead of just one. https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=controller_control.fire_control.fire_cages&at=controller https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=scrapper_defense.regeneration.integration&at=scrapper https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=pool.leaping.leap&at=defender https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=corruptor_buff.kinetics.increase_density&at=corruptor That said, KnockUP can often be a little bit annoying for melee users too (e.g. Soaring Dragon tending to momentarily knock things out of range of my Scrapper's other Katana attacks, which slightly disrupts the flow of their attack chain and reduces their real-world DPS a bit compared to what it should be on paper) but it's much less problematic than knockback. And IMO by far the worst offender is "AoE knockback with a less-than-100% chance to kick in" because that inevitably always causes mob scatter unless the source is flying directly overhead or the targets have substantial Knockback resistance.

To be fair, it didn't "arise" as much as... "Bounce Back" 🏀 💥 🥁

I don't often Necro (even on a MM!) but a recent thread about people enjoying/not enjoying knockback got me thinking about the viability of the "Big Red Ball" idea; or at least the potential effort involved in implementing it on Homecoming. AFAIK no new code would need to be created; aside from creating a new character model for the ball itself they could just reuse existing tech. Within First Ward, there is a mob called the Seed of Hamidon. Whenever you approach it, you get granted a Temporary Power (Buoyant Membrane - effectively "Group Fly"). In fact there are a few other instances where merely being in the vicinity of something grants you a temporary power (like the First Ward/Night Ward "Shunts"). And Temporary powers don't have to be "clicky" abilities; or even toggles. They can be completely passive "autos" that in turn grant other powers and set bonuses. So... (i) Make a new Big Red spherical critter. (ii) Give that critter Mag 100 immobilize; immunity to all damage and -10000% resistance to Knockback and Repel; plus a passive large-radius PBAoE ability that only affects players (and their pets if you like). This passive ability grants any target affected by it a Temporary passive auto power; which in turn adds a 100% chance for Knockback (or repel) to all their attacks - exactly the same way as Interface Incarnate ability status effects and the the Stupefy: Chance for Knockback IO currently functions. However this Knockback effect will only kick in if the target of an attack is the Big Red Ball (using the same mob-specific targeting code as other powers like Thug Enforcer Maneuvers ).

OK. Can we have a Big Red Ball yet? ⚽ 🦶 ❔ ❔ ❔ (https://forumarchive.cityofheroes.dev/topic/114967 for anyone that doesn't get the reference...)

I've always liked the Vanguard Katana as a Lightsaber; despite the fact they've since added "proper laser swords". Unfortunately I think the only way you can get access to it on a non-melee AT is via the Ninja Training Blaster secondary or the Weapon Mastery Sentinel Epic pool.

...and just like in the movie, it's imaginary food! 😹 AFAIK there are definitely some build combos and some situations where Stalkers will be sitting on a higher average ST damage than Scrappers. Team size boosting crit rate and specific powersets (like Energy Melee and Staff Melee) really benefitting from Assassin's Strike; for example. An "average" Stalker versus an "average" Scrapper however is tougher to call. So I'm going with "it depends (tm)" Can we get back to Brutes now? Poor guy's currently face down in a trifle.

I did wonder if an effect that reverses radial knockback might be viable... so that instead of being hurled away from the central point of an AoE mobs would instead get pulled towards it. The revamped Battleaxe PBAoE has something similar (Axe Cyclone - essentially "knockback plus inverted repel") even if it was recently nerfed. There's probably a Spaceballs meme in there somewhere...

Pretty much. The main difference is that there'll be a (small!) chance for procs to kick in twice in a row without running up against the typical pseudopet 10s lockout window. Binomial Distribution suggests a 30.92% likelihood of a 3.5PPM proc kicking in "at least once" over 11.264 seconds... but a 2.85% chance of it kicking in twice. And in the (admittedly unlikely!) event that happens; an Achilles Heel Proc will refresh its own duration and a damage proc will just deal damage again. It's one of those very minor differences that most people will never notice or care about but my OCD demands that I highlight with a "well, technically..." 😛