Replacement

Make sure the character is Street Justice. They love missing everything in Praetoria and losing their combo count without (functioning) enhancements.

Yeah just for the record: when everyone is routinely skipping content, and there's so little endgame that alting is the endgame... you've set up an unsustainable loop. I love these changes because they help make often-skipped portions of the game fun again. Thank you so much, all involved.

30 seconds, actually ( just corrected my earlier post). It's 45 seconds of 500 + 15 seconds of 500, which works out to 1000 for the first 15, then 500 for the last 30. I don't see anything that indicates the effect is suppressed for the duration of the animation, indeed that would be completely new to me anywhere in the game. 1.6 seconds into the animation, the hit occurs. This is when the 15/45 second clocks should start. To my eyes, the final .23s of the 1.83s (I'm guessing your 1.98 figure is Arcanatime?) is just padding to add to the Recharge until it can be used again.

While there may be something similar with Ice Arrow's -Special, Acid Arrow specifically doesn't affect -ToHit debuffs. The Ice/Psi/Electric examples are correct, though.

FYI: I worked this out while trying to explain my problem to Bopper: Acid Arrow debuffs enemy resistance, which is entirely different from buffing your own debuffs. So "IgnoresStrength" tag is fine and WAI. tl;dr: EMP Arrow should give a whopping -1400% Regeneration (assuming target has 0 starting regeneration resistance) for the first 15 seconds, followed by -700% for 30 seconds afterwards. Strong AV Combo, with a bit of recharge.

@TrooI meant the part about enjoying your hijinx in other threads so, /salute and no hard feelings when we're out of EM waters. Deal? -- To attempt to stay on-task: I did some more "feel" testing last night. This time level 40 Shield/EM Tank, moderately-IO'd. I built this character about like I would on live, meaning mostly cheap sets that are self-funded by a dude who doesn't do a lot of playing the market, but probably sent a wee bit of money to afford the 2 PvP survival mods (the 5% resist and 3% defense). This feels like I have two choices when I enter combat: surgical strikes to immediately reduce incoming damage, or just beat on everyone with PC and WH. I find Power Crash to be pretty disappointing for damage, but having it hit an entire room with Focus up is easy and feels good. On this power combo, I found myself erring on the side of an aoe focus when Shield Charge was up, and otherwise attempting to assassinate large threats first. I think the Assassin Tank angle is definitely different from everything else in the game. I was playing in +2/x6 without much issue* but I imagine in full team scenarios, I would aim to start fights by eliminating LTs (leaving Bosses to Stalkers, Scrappers, or generally anyone on the team I deem ST-oriented). *Strangely and surprisingly, my largest issue was actually Endurance. I did not expect to regularly be under half End at level 40, but I realized at the end of the night that I forgot to slot a performance shifter. EDIT: I liked 40 because it's a point where you can be "build-complete" while still understanding the flow of leveling. The final ride to 50 would mostly explore adding in Epics, and then 50 begins to become a lot more about high-end building, incarnates, and generally not the territory I stick around long ("alting is the end game" is certainly more of my speed.)

You were doing fine but you just had to try to slide in one more barb, didn't you? Hint: I'm not the one in this thread people are reading as petulant. Analogy: For your good behavior, I have decided to reward you with dessert. You can choose a slice of cake or a donut. You may only have 1, as I do not think it's healthy for you to have both. You, in the post chain you are quoting, were making the argument that bone smasher is worse because getting the stun means losing fast-ET. I was merely pointing out to you how that is not a "cost" relative to Live, which has no fast-ET at all. You are getting your choice of dessert, above and beyond what you already had. To go back to my analogy, it was the equivalent of saying "this isn't a reward, it's a punishment. Evidence: I cannot have both." Now, that simple clarification out of the way: I look forward to your hijinx in other, non-EM threads. But we are done here. I will only respond to you for mechanical inquiries.

I really love this change, but I do mind the Influence cost. I would like to see the price scaling change, so it starts out more or less the same but increases in cost slower. It's not that I can't make the money; it's that every dollar spent on an SO that will decay isn't being spent on an evergreen IO. Feels like paying rent instead of mortgage.

Yeah technically immob and the KB/Repels are both only truly effective vs melee (leaving aside niche +range kiting techniques), so this is all my opinion. But my opinion is that it's far easier to push someone away who's already in melee ("stunned by a Freak with hammers for hands" comes to mind) than to proactively immobilize folks. The proactive approach means you're spending animation time that could've been attacks, and then there's a high likelihood you'll still close to melee with them for other Manipulation attacks anyway.

TF crits for around 40% of damage, iirc, but it gives you an additional stack of Focus. Captain Powerhouse outlined why this is the case earlier in the thread. Personally, I prefer this -- a crit TF is usually going to overkill something even at +40% damage. Instead of wasting that additional, I get to carry it over into the rest of my attack routine.

EMP Arrow still possesses a strong Regen debuff: it appears to be -1000% for the first 15 seconds, followed by 30 more seconds of -500%. The only thing I'm not sure about, so I'll @Bopper, is that both Regeneration entries are flagged to IgnoreStrength -- would this result in them ignoring the +debuff effect of Acid Arrow?

Please pause to appreciate how hilarious and ironic it is that the stealthy ninja power is resulting in confetti and noise. Ninja Surprise bug is best bug.

@Luminara the max end debuff (when it is made to work) on DA should affect overall Recovery, since end recovery is a % of max per tick. ... But it's pretty obvious it's just there to provide some sets the power can take. @Jono265 - the -resist on Entangling wasn't taken from Acid Arrow. AA's resist went to Disruption Arrow (and thus gained triple the radius in the process). We went from 40% in 2 powers (one with a terrible 8' radius) to 40% in 1 power. The additional -20% in Entangling is just bonus, clearly intended for additional boss+ debuffing, and that's plenty. @Hopestar - poison gas arrow's sleep is a recurring field, so it should be doing a pretty effective job at chopping up alphas. Please do not also forget the -50% damage debuff (-60% once Disruption Arrow is placed in the same location) it also brings to the party. I understand Luminara's bedside manner is not great, but they are right on the money: this set is intentionally being pulled away from damage (because it's a support set), away from control (because it's a support set), and hyperfocused on strong debuffs.

When looking at GalaxyCharts (tm), I also think it's important to not simply numerically rank sets based on time. Several of those sets are within margin of error from each other (EM is within 10 seconds of 4 other sets), so it's better to note the performance clusters and determine which one Energy Melee falls into.

I've filed this in some other places but since we now have an open beta that is actively changing this power, I figure we'll put it out there again: Blaster > Darkness Manipulation > Touch of the Beyond's Regeneration effects are both missing IgnoreLevelDifference flags, which appears to be causing them to grant the user lower Regeneration if used against higher level targets. Ostensibly, this also means you can pick off those Council Interns (those random grays that show up every once in a while? Especially in Citadel?) to get a greater-than-intended Regeneration buff, but I wouldn't go declaring that a "feature." Thank @MindOverMatter for first mentioning this.

I thought my statement felt a little light. All T1s can be used while mezzed, but an immob is unlikely to stop much incoming damage while mezzed. A KB/Repel attack handily makes melee opponents disappear.

Additional Info: If it's what I think it is, you will find yourself stopping to pop confetti when under the effect of many "granted" powers - but ONLY while Shinobi is active. Example scenarios that will result in you playing the emote: Activating Inner Inspiration Crossing into the region of a Day Job You may also receive it when entering certain neighborhood or badge volumes.

So this is probably minor but I wanted to mention it in case it points to some sort of weird data thing that's going to melt Canada... Steps to reproduce: 1: enter character creator as ANY body type. 2: mouse over the icon to enable asymmetrical shoulders. Result: You can hear a soft constant noise for as long as you're mousing over. It's the same sound effect as when you mouse through the list of options, played very fast over and over. EDIT: This does not occur when mousing over the Gloves or Boots Asymmetrical toggle. It does occur when already "expanded" out to left/right shoulder view.

@Zepp Did this happen on a character that was not a /ninja blaster? It's a thing for them - specifically, the Shinobi toggle is probably doing it. Please post if you were getting it in a different circumstance.

@Troo I apologize for not making that part more clear -- yes, there are visual cues everywhere so you'll know when EF is up without looking at your bar. That's why that was being interpreted as an overstatement.

@Homecoming, thank you so much for this change! Here's some feedback: Here's what I've played so far: Stalker: bad-ass. I'm seriously concerned we may need to soften some numbers here. I'm going to take another run through with this soon though and hopefully I'll have a better understanding of my thoughts here. The big thing is on-demand crits play with the two final powers in very strong ways. Tanker: This was fun, and I enjoyed hitting all of the things and not even noticing the HP hit of ET. Scrapper: tbh, I found this a bit flimsy with a low-grade IO build. The lower HP pool means that, even with ET hitting myself for less, it's still a more meaningful hit to your own health. I have not played with a Brute. So to summarize my experience so far, this whole set feels very powerful, but the 10-second base Energy Transfer is pretty punishing for low-end builds. High-end builds and armor sets with more healing than bad guys won't notice, but I'm a bit concerned for the SR/EM Tanker I have parked on Live (yes, that would be an uphill battle even without ET...)

2 notes on Sonic Thrust (both of which also apply to Ki Push) They can be used while mezzed, due to Defiance. This makes them often superior to other Manipulation t1s. I don't know about you, but I could take my t1 immobs off my tray after about 30 or so and not even notice. Whereas my /Martial blaster uses Ki Push at 50 and beyond. The Repel is probably intentional to ensure the player doesn't just KB>KD it. It's likely seen as a balancing mechanism that you can't turn this into an easy stomp-delivery mechanism.

I am quoting the same portion Infinitum quoted to help explain the overstatement for you. Hype #1: insisting on calling this a combo mechanic. You use this wording because it makes it sound more complicated than it is. This is you saying something simple and factual but relying on connotation to make it sound like a large departure. Hype #2: Declaring this wacky convoluted combo system requires the user to stare at the power tray. I really don't need to say any more on that.

Hey man, every melee set has ideal attack chains.

It's location targeted, so it's usually going to be subject to powexeclocation rules. Using the "target" parameter should end with you bumping your model up against theirs. As a power, it activating would drop a different power from the queue (such as a readied melee attack). Because of the low activation time (.67s iirc), it's a bit harder than most to queue your next attack goes off, but that's not a point against the power.