zenblack

I want to take this opportunity to STRONGLY SUGGEST the change on Prestige Sprint Slide change the color. This would be a great change that could affect a lot of builds because of the animation change. PLEASE ENDORSE

I want to throw my support behind this. Having the wrong Origin isn't a game breaker and it would give your character a sense of change through the experience of the mission. Possibly add enemy heroes (Elite Bosses) who are complaining how everyone treats them for X because of their origin. (Super-group members constantly think they are magic and asking them to do things magically (like order pizza)).

Turn on your combat attributes, elongate and set your hit/damage/combat window to main with timestamps and see if it matches what you find when you put in the values for the power here. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MbHy4j2tRvscNQjDlsQ4etPkEk50csUhKXpKQXkFgQs/edit#gid=1785533621

Fire just happens to have a better snipe than everyone! Go fire!

Shadow Fall. Fire farmers won't even do the decent thing and color it, so it looks like garbage in every raid.

I'd like to request that Blaster's Plant secondary Wild Fortress visual effect have an option to have the leaves stay on the character. Currently it's a no-fx only and the visual effect is actually pretty good and non-invasive on your costume and decently color able. Please and thank you!

Let's not be sly. Bio Armor is the best of the armor sets overall (not that there are not other sets who do certain things better) and the only one to offer a lot of great things in one package. Adaptability (play how you want or the situation demands) with Offensive being a huge factor of why it pairs well with anything. -Res included, not just available by proc is good no matter where it is. Hybrid defenses, allowing it to be actually decent across all 3 AT's instead of lopsided to Tanker builds (who want defense too, but at least they can leverage their Resist bonus). Heal. Universal secondary defense in more than 1 power (Absorb). Combo Endurance/Max HP power, most are not so lucky. End Drain resistance (very valuable) and good slotting with a good T9. Most armor sets can boast a few of these, only Bio can do it all. Some are closer than others, EA for example, but Bio is king.

So I read the initial post and I believe I get the idea you are going for. I like how you are trying to layer in the capability of affecting resistant/invulnerable enemies but I don't know if I agree with the direction you want to take your control. The reason is that the hard control is so binary. It doesn't just cut the effectiveness of an AV, which is trying to compete with a 8 man team in terms of actions per second, survivability, and threat (by damage or other), it does too much. Which is why I think most AV/GM's come with nearly all forms of resistance (debuff, endurance, etc) to the point where it doesn't matter if you are inflicting those types of debuffs, they do comparatively little against an AV because it cannot be in those states or they crumble instantly this is why -Res and raw damage are much more effective. ---- RANDOM INITIAL Perhaps not well thought out?IDEA I think in addition to your stacking/force multiplying effect you need to consider "lesser" status that inflict a more minor unresistable effect for each type of control. This affect could have certain levels of effectiveness that improve but require the application of control to maintain/progress. I would perhaps suggest that it requires different types of control to maintain and progress this effect and even has an impact of it's progression. For example. Say you apply the immobilize status. It effects the AV theoretically (though does no immobilize) and you have this minor Overpower 1 debuff lets call IMPAIRED that does -X% defense for X sec. Depending on how the mechanic works, lets say you hit the AV with a hold power that meets whatever criteria that it needs to to change IMPAIRED to HINDERED which provides a different debuff type or combination and perhaps lowers the AV's Stun Protection by X. Alternatively, perhaps you hit the AV with a Disorient while they are IMPAIRED that changes this debuff to DAZED which provides a different debuff type/combination and lowers the AV's Fear Protection by X. So you had control of how you wanted to impact the AV. While on the other hand perhaps if you hit a HINDERED with a Sleep it changes it to SLUGGISH which again provides a different debuff type/combination and affects it with a noticeable recharge debuff and perhaps -Res for X sec This is all very rough and it could work with or a blend of your amplification idea but it would allow a Controller to contribute with their control on those AV fights. All names and effects are just placeholders for options. ---- *ALTERNATIVELY* Instead of all that gobbldygook I said use your system but have each Status have a defined soft control effect instead on AV/GM's. So you are able to apply your control but at the same time it's effect can be fine tuned. Thus providing the same effect without going heavy into work with more mechanics. Nice thing about this is you could see your visual control effect on the AV as well.

Pretty sure my 1st post got eaten by the forum software. To quickform it: I wish people wouldn't lump Sonic BLASTER's into Sonic Defender/Corruptors. They will never get a fair shake in their own AT if they are carrying around the excuses of other AT's. As a Blaster set, Sonic is atrocious. My suggestion would be to replace the terrible Siren (or Screech) with a Snipe. You could also modify the power so the Initial target takes damage while some sort of semblance of Siren is allowed to stay though this is putting a lot on the plate of one power. This alone would catapult it from the depths of despair to middle of the pack and allow it to be an average set power wise to a degree. To clarify. There are things that you could do to make the set over all better by mostly looking at animation times, but it won't be enough to move it's place in the Blaster world.

I think there is a lot of things going on to make that happen. It doesn't hurt that the set has defensive options (and extra LoTG slot), a significant -Res, a low cooldown fast "in Momentum" damage skill to abuse and of course the super over performing Whirling Smash 🙂

You're right. I got sucked into the far-away land of Tyranny and balance before I could correct it. Deafening Wave is what I was refering to. Though that T9 could be very interesting depending on how long it takes to animate.

I like this idea but I think it would introduce some issues to match the power of Winter IO's (for what they are). I think a good idea would be to have a "Seasonal" set limitation. So you can use one set of the 4 Seasonal Sets at a time, but you would be able to fill that space with different configurations to give variety. I won't go as far as to propose exact numbers and such, but it could be very interesting to be able to allow different defense buffs (my primary usage of the set) to be available without flooding the AT balance with mass defense IO's that would unbalance available IO's or make it easier to homogenize the game with added defense. A step further could be a limit of 6 Seasonal IO's (Base or Superior), mix and match. That could be very interesting if they are designed with that option. Though I don't know how hard that would be to implement.

TYRANNY

Bureaucracy for balance is one of the worst methods. Having feedback and then allowing it to inform your decisions (if you need more eyeballs on a problem) is a much better method.

I just want to say my Inferno is on a 30sec timer. Where Ice really lacks is it's consistant AOE and it can't make up for Fireball, no set really can. Fire is very much the TW of Blasters. I like Ice too, but it doesn't come close to Fire and that shouldn't be. Not Ice in particular, but there is no set that is coming close and until Damage is no longer as heavily weighted as it is, this won't change.

I don't need that thread to determine if it is or is not what it is. I've tested it myself. You can build an Ice and a Fire separately and see how well their ST performs.

You can fill the powers you need with procs and damage modifier so that the damage it is outputting is probably 25%+ any of those sets with the exception of Ice ST which is comparative.

This is only for optimal damage/slotting. Blizzard is bad at doing damage comparatively to Inferno. Fire does outdo every set, by a large margin. You may or may not take my word on it, but I've tested it extensively.

This doesn't matter for the most part. As a Blaster you have enough places to proc in Fire on the powers that do the heavy hitting that it drastically outpaces all other sets but Ice on the ST (Nowhere on the AOE because Ice is bad at AOE). As a Corruptor you have the same options. It's only on a Defender or (bleh) Sentinel that this comes into play a little, and for the Sent it's only because they are neutered of their snipes.

TW is the best performer on Tanks and probably on Brutes (since they are basically Scrappers with a Damage Bonus).

Problems I feel that need to be overcome as balance is strived for. 1.) The Incarnate system rigs 35+ stuff to obsolescence. There is no scaling, just full blown Incarnates destroying content intended to be 1/3(ish) of the game. This should be looked at and modified so that either the inclusion of unbounded Incarnates is considered or how much of the game needs to be operating under full Incarnate status. 2.) Raw Damage vs Mobs needs to be looked at, or more precisely the time it takes to kill certain types of enemies needs to favor more options (Debuff/Buff, Off-tanking). This can be done a few ways, but it needs to be addressed. 3.) Movement to a more tactical approach to encounters. This has a lot it needs to deal with, considering the hard control the game offers and it's tanking/aggro mechanism, but more importantly it needs to be in encounter design. There needs to be a reason to use control on select targets. There needs to be a variety of potential points of attack. There needs to be an addition and proliferation of different types of thematic units that provide these opportunities within each faction. It would also not hurt to have a look at some of the stealth mechanics and how they interact with mission goal(s) and what should be able to overcome them (this will probably need a finer gradient of perception/threat levels. 4.) A look at status and status protection/resistance to better enable interactions in party and enemy threat to a party. Having the greater majority of all status effects not matter is not good design and it doesn't allow enemies to leverage any advantage by giving them status attacks unless they are impossible to resist (see Mighty Roar). All in all, this is a very large undertaking and I am glad HC team is communicating with us their desire to make a more enjoyable game that makes you feel heroic but at the same time earn that heroic experience.

So just to clarify, since I didn't see it mentioned. Doing Message Man missions are completely optional, correct?

So, I hope you balanced all other Secondaries with this template, because this is just ridiculous to get on a Blaster. This is without knowing the numbers but a +Res, -Res, High Damage AOE as just highlights it's got all the toys.

Hmm. Just some feedback regarding Sonic Manipulation. A lot of the game you're fighting robots, aliens, etc and other things which may or may not get "Migraines." Perhaps this could be renamed to "Disruption", "Pressure", or "Hum" that can be applied to anything as it's more universal.

Interesting to note there is also a Stalker entry that coincides with most Scrapper entries though I do not know exactly what it is doing there. The Stalker ATO's as far as I can tell set the normal status of Hide and Build-up and the Hide is utilized with the Assassin (Strike of your choice), though maybe it can be used to lesser effect with other abilities in some way.