Redlynne

In terms of basic concept ... yes ... that's where the set ought to be. The problem comes in with the execution of that "vision" which wound up being badly UNbalanced relative to competing powersets, with unnecessary hindrances and obstacles to self-synergies thrown in all over the place. Things like not being able to ignite Oil Slick without reaching OUTSIDE of the Trick Arrow powerset for an ignition source attack power (which is just Derp By Design).

Yeah, it was a vain hope. I tried. 😂

Interesting question for framing the "balance" of expectations for the set. I'll give you my take (since you asked). DPS vs Support Single Target vs AoE Buff vs Control My impression of what I'd want Trick Arrow to be is ... it can't be a One Trick Pony™. I say that because my default approach to conceptualizing the powerset is that it ought to be (to use the vernacular) ... A Bag Of Tricks ... so to speak, rather than being a single concentrated purpose built "does only this" kind of powerset. That means it ought to be eclectic in what it can "do" as a powerset, rather than having singular focus, but at the same time it needs to be something that synergizes/harmonizes with itself, such that you can put two things together and realize a combination that is more than just the sum of the two parts. So using the parameters you've queried about: More Support than DPS, but not exclusively Support without DPS. A mix of Single Target and AoE, although given how the game actually works/plays the bias will necessarily be towards AoE. Buffs (as buffs) not really ... but Control AND Debuffs, most definitely. To get more specific about that ... I'd need to work up a City of Data(-ish) layout of powers and parameters to more fully answer the question in ways that can speak to specifics rather than to generalities.

Tidal Forces has the additional benefit of giving you a "free" 3 buff stacks for use in powers like Water Jet and the like, so it has additional utility beyond just "merely" being a Build Up/Aim power. Those combo points can allow you to do some rather amazing things "on demand" (so to speak).

Maybe you should be looking at Ignite as less of a damage patch (heresy!) and more like it's a Caltrops patch that does more damage than Caltrops. That way it's less about doing max damage with the power and more about HERDING with it. You could use it at choke points (like doors and such) as a ...

GRIEFERS AHOY! Not recommended. The real problem with Group Fly is that it doesn't allow formation flying by default. The way that people want Group Fly to work is that everyone in the PBAoE needs to "move in sync" together ... at the same speed and in the same direction ... so you don't need to coordinate in order to "herd cats" and keep everyone together inside the limits of the PBAoE. The basic concept/idea is that the caster "brings everyone along with them" in a PBAoE and that they'll keep their relative positions with each other (formation flying) while moving so that only one PC needs to have the power for a group. The power would need to be configured to affect Team (and League) but not random people you fly by (because, griefing). For movement control, the way that you rig it is that everyone in the PBAoE is subject to movement identical to the Group Fly caster ... but if individuals other than the caster use their own movement keybinds then their individual movement is "vector added" to the movement direction being granted to them by the Group Fly caster. Basically if you're flying in formation and you want to "peel off" onto a different vector (or just drop out of the PBAoE) you can do so individually. So if everyone besides the Group Fly caster remains "idle" for movement while inside the PBAoE then everyone "flies in formation" with the movement of the PBAoE caster, but as soon as anyone who is not the caster initiates a movement they will "break formation" and move relative to the caster's motion, which can take them out of the PBAoE if they move far enough away from the caster. Now, rigging all of that at the programming level might be a challenge ... but that's the basic functionality that I think we all wanted (and expected!) out of Group Fly. The reason why it doesn't work that way is because at the game mechanical level Group Fly is a PBAoE that can (and often is) subject to differentials in Flight enhancement values for different $Targets affected by the power, causing them to fly at different speeds (Swift is merely one of the causes for this). When flight speeds are different, you can't maintain a flight formation and hold positions relative to each other while in motion. You wind up being limited to needing to fly at the speed of the slowest flier (who is often NOT the caster!) and then put everyone on Follow for whoever is Not The Caster so as to not have PCs and NPCs affected by the power falling behind (and falling out of the sky). The way the power was structured from game launch is just too ... clunky ... to function elegantly in the way that people WANT to use the power. The practical upshot is that Group Fly winds up only being "useful" in a STATIC context, where you need to keep multiple people off the ground but stay in the same place for a while (Hamidon Green Mitos anyone?) but the power is next to useless for actually "towing" an entire team through the sky anywhere (like, say ... the Shadow Shard?).

That's difficult to do when the guy with this avatar keeps claiming that I was advocating for the position articulated by the guy with this avatar and the first guy refuses all attempts to correct the error of his attribution. I challenge to either quote (without edits) where I ACTUALLY WROTE THAT ... or failing finding that in the record of the thread, offer an apology for attributing responsibility to the Red avatar something said by the Green avatar. And just in case it will help, my position has consistently been that altering the T1 power to enable it to light the Oil Slick created by the T8 power, via adding an Energy DoT to the T1 power that already EXISTS in the game(!) in a proliferated version of the powerset, is a desirable outcome that will resolve ONE of the problems with how Trick Arrows powers synergize internally within the powerset.

Currently Level 12 in Praetoria ... Short answer ... FLEXIBLE ... depending on what the situation calls for.

DEPENDS ... First of all, if you attack $Targets with Knock Protections (Cimerorans) that tactic won't work the way you're thinking it might. I'd rather rely on -ToHit combined with +Defense to achieve the necessary NO GET HITSU!! you'd need to "neutralize" an alpha strike and that you'd want to use Knock as the "backup plan" for that, rather than the primary plan for how to mitigate that incoming damage.

ANY Crab powers taken EVER on the character will add the Crab Backback irrevocably FOREVER on EVERY costume slot on the character. I'm mystified why this is so hard to understand ... since it is such an absolute.

Counter-proposal. The main problem with these Events is that on Homecoming the Devs have configured them to simultaneously happen in multiple zones. This necessarily DIVIDES the population that wants to be doing these events across multiple zones in a way that reduces the opportunity to create the necessary concentration of PCs to take on the events in a SINGLE zone rather than (unhelpfully) spread across multiple zones. Right now, whenever there is one of these events going on, I see the announcement channel simply SPAM the number of these events in the channel because it's basically happening everywhere at the same time. If instead it happened sequentially in DIFFERENT ZONES ... one zone at a time ... then people who wanted to do the event would travel to that zone and be able to reach the necessary critical mass to take on that event, and then when they win they can move on to the next zone where the event happens next ... as a group. You then basically wind up with a "tour group" of PCs doing the event who rotate through the zones chasing the event(s) with people joining and dropping out rather organically.

I'm thinking that one way to program this would be that when you open up a menu for sets, you'd basically just check checkboxes for each IO, so as to be able to pick and choose which IOs from the set you want to put in the power, and then have another element that allows you to choose the Level for each IO (in case you want to use different Levels for different IOs, like I tend to do) and then put in a button to allow all of the Levels to be linked to the same Level for all of them. When you click the OK button, it will basically "fill" the available slots with the choices from the "menu" window for picking IOs from the set. Does that make sense? The idea being that you can pick a set as a SET of IOs instead of having to pick them one by one.

Nice strawman you're bearhugging there and refusing to accept responsibility for making up YOURSELF and accusing me of (projection much?). Yes ... there is ... and you're resolutely missing it ... deliberately?

Would have been funnier if you'd named him Agent of Aquariums ...

You say "makes more sense" ... while the rest of say "Gimped By Design" ... There's a difference.

Scrapperlock A state of mind where the player (most commonly a Scrapper or Brute) dashes from foe to foe without regard to surroundings. Similar to berserkers, players in Scrapperlock may fail to notice damage being taken by themselves or their teammates. It should be noted it's considered bad form to wipe out the 8-man spawn that killed everybody else on the team. Common symptoms include going the other way than the team, surviving going the other way than the team, and the words "You guys go ahead, I'm waiting for my rez to recharge."

Oh ... okay. Dishonest questions it is then. It reduces the ... "purity" ... of the powerset in terms of being helpless to exploit its own powers in a synergistic way? /em thinks Vanden doesn't understand what Acid Arrow does ... or EMP Arrow vs Robots ... or Oil Slick Arrow when lit ... ............................................________ ....................................,.-'"...................``~., .............................,.-"..................................."-., .........................,/...............................................":, .....................,?......................................................, .................../...........................................................,} ................./......................................................,:`^`..} .............../...................................................,:"........./ ..............?.....__.........................................:`.........../ ............./__.(....."~-,_..............................,:`........../ .........../(_...."~,_........"~,_....................,:`........_/ ..........{.._$;_......"=,_......."-,_.......,.-~-,},.~";/....} ...........((.....*~_......."=-._......";,,./`..../"............../ ...,,,___.`~,......"~.,....................`.....}............../ ............(....`=-,,.......`........................(......;_,,-" ............/.`~,......`-...................................../ .............`~.*-,.....................................|,./.....,__ ,,_..........}.>-._...................................|..............`=~-, .....`=~-,__......`,................................. ...................`=~-,,.,............................... ................................`:,,...........................`..............__ .....................................`=-,...................,%`>--==`` ........................................_..........._,-%.......` ..................................., They do ... however Immobilizes that can also do DoT damage have MORE USES. This shouldn't be all that controversial. So you want something THAT ISN'T TRICK ARROW (or Tactical Arrow) ... or at least doesn't even pretend to attempt to adhere to precedent. You want something "new" and "different" and "never been done before" ... and sticking with the theme we've got and what actually works in game right now so there doesn't have to be an enormous development effort to implement it all, well, that's just got to GO. Yeah, I see what you did there.

Aid Self ... DEFINITELY!! Tough ... eh ...

It's seriously misunderstood by people who aren't cool ...

So the whole point of wanting to add either Energy or Fire damage to Entangling Arrow in order to light an Oil Slick ... you're just going to ignore that and pretend it isn't a problem for the powerset overall. Okay ... But to answer your question in a more forthright manner ... Entangling Arrow (or the Electrified Net Arrow version) has more Range than either Taser Dart or Apprentice Charm does. The Origin Attack Powers all have a pretty short range on them, and it's a range that cannot be enhanced, so you're stuck with short range forever (sucks to be you). Also, Entangling Arrow ... as is ... is nearly useless because simply Immobilizing $Targets doesn't stop them from attacking. According to the build planner app: Entangling Arrow can slot Immobilize and Slow sets (plus ATO and Universal). Electrified Net Arrow can slot Ranged, Immobilize and Slow sets (plus ATO and Universal). That addition of Ranged damage sets opens up a MUCH wider array of possibilities for how to slot ... including the use of the Decimation proc(!) and the Devastation proc, in addition to all of the other damage procs and allows the T1 power to be used for (and I shouldn't have to say this because I thought it would be pretty obvious, but here goes) ... MORE THAN JUST AN IMMOBILIZE. And if that still "doesn't compute" for you ... there isn't much I can do to help you with the comprehension about why that would be useful.

MAG 6 ... I think ... so double stacked Mass Hypnosis (with sufficient duration) from a Controller will do the job. Or maybe it was MAG 7-8? I forget ... but double stacked Mass Hypnosis from a Mind Controller can do it, if the power has been enhanced to increase duration and stack for extra MAG. It just takes a while to "get them all" because of the Accuracy penalties.

I think you want to be paying attention to This Thread instead for that ...

Interesting ... Which then begs the question ... what is the distinct difference between Summons powers that can Mez and powers such as Choking Cloud and Hot Feet that allows the Energy Fonts to spawn from some powers when used, but not others? Is it the case that the power has to be "cast" by the Controller and not by an "independent" entity (who isn't classified as a Controller?)? It's starting to look that way.

How does giving some single-target damage to Trick Arrow solve the problem of it being a weak Buff/Debuff set? Swapping Electrified Net Arrow in for Entangling Arrow is ONE ... I repeat for clarity ... ONE piece of the puzzle for what to do for Trick Arrow to bring the set up to par (instead of keeping it at its current "triple bogey" status of underperformance). And I say that in the context of "what to do about Entangling Arrow?" since it is a simple, easy and effective solution to the problem of what to do with the T1 power. T2-T9 is the rest of the conversation beyond what to do about T1. The fact that this change to T1 in and of itself increases the internal synergy of the powerset so you don't need to outside the powerset to ignite the T8 power is merely the FIRST step ... not the last.

I love it how people can be handed an answer that ALREADY WORKS ... called Electrified Net Arrow ... and they just DROP IT ON THE FLOOR as if they weren't handed the answer on a platter while they reach for the WRONG answer With Confidence™.