Troo

Randomly started to think about the control hierarchy. It might look something like this quick example or something totally different: Defeated > Hold > Disorient (Stun) > Confuse > Fear > Immobilize > Sleep > Knock Up > Knockback > Slow Added: Taunt Placate / Misdirect wife-aggro.. wait what?! Phased Maybe multiple targets have a different order than a single target. Sleep better than Knockback? Is Confuse better or more valuable than Stun? Is a Held target sometimes more valuable than a Defeated one? (a debuff anchor)

'easier' just does not equal 'doesn't have a component some dislike'. I do get what you're saying and I'm giving it a solid chance. Trying multiple ATs at various levels of play with different build make ups. It's early for my absolute opinion. That doesn't change the fact that I keep thinking: Couldn't we do this without the combo, why the combo, what is the combo doing that makes it necessary. There does appear to be a bit of overperforming potential at the top and while not doing as well lower down the food chain. This is kind of the rub with high damage sets. This is partly what made GB's rankings a bit startling.. maybe it's not performing as well as it seems to be. I hope they have a similar EM specific post that's in the works. (I'd expect mid pack ranking for the amount of change)

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. That was meant as lighthearted. I didn't actually think you were stomping your feet. Apologies. I'll remove it if you like.

The rankings were NOT for pylons. It did awesome on pylons. It was more for overall performance in a controlled study compared to other powers sets.

Yep, yep. You get my point though. (I only have enough experience with some sets to say "not for me" which never stopped me from trying again a year later and saying the same thing)

Pylon times are a good indicator of hard target performance. You did great on a max build. Your times are usually really good. I'd be just or more impressed if you'd done an average build so successfully. However, pre-nerf I could take on entire groups solo. Stuns were a big component. Being able have powers available on demand in various orders was also key. I totally agree on the preference for a variety of powersets. The more unique the better. To me the Energy Assault power set felt too much like other sets I didn't like. I would love to play Dual Blades but don't like some functionality. So "okay, I guess thats for other folks that like it". Titan Weapons.. /em pukerainbows... Battle Ax! Nice, I guess that's my style. If the reason for the big change is to shoehorn in a smidge more AoE for meta reasons or a different functionality for playstyle.. Maybe we are getting too far from what Energy Melee is. Kinetic Melee and Street Justice exist for a reason. *Steps down from soap box* I like and appreciate some of the adjustments!!

Agreed. The low ranking was surprising given what people were saying. The highest EM score (#12 out of 20) seemed to be a reasonable spot. Still a bit of a challenge correlating it with the reports that leaned toward something that could jump further up the list.

[sniped lol] Yes that's the one. I didn't want to copy and paste charts here if there was going to be a similar EM specific post.

The SO IO combined results placed it #15 out of 20. There is a lot there with the final ranking blend.. so grain of salt. That said, solid intel with controls in place and nice sample sizes.

I don't disagree. But #18 out of 20 is not what I would expect after such an effort. Somewhere in the middle of the pack.. maybe If #19 and #20 are likely to be addressed, that could leave EM dead last. That just doesn't match with what folks are saying. (these results = SO builds, other scores with IO and combined SO IO scores)

Did @Galaxy Brain post his test numbers already in the thread? With beta EM coming in I believe third to last (#18 out of 20 sets). How do we reconcile that compared to the anecdotal reports? ( I dislike the word anecdotal, don't anyone take it negatively, I'm not discounting anyone's report ) Was that not the current beta version of EM? Is it just the difference between Live and Beta is so great that we're not looking at performance comparisons to other sets? I was thinking maybe beta EM was a tad over powered.. 3rd to last in overall performance not what I expected though.

Nice catch. It is the other powers that are displaying without respecting the pvp toggle.

Oh my, it seems so cordial over here.

That makes sense. The Total Focus Info seems to deviate. Likely it's the same 2 sec.

Doh you're totally right @Vanden (fixed. I did say they were rough notes 😃 ) Anyone know why the stun is listed twice? The beta Bone Smasher info is long

My notes have a similar thought @BrandX: The change might boil down to the switching Stun to add AoE created ripples that had to be addressed.. - If someone wants to AoE they may not be interested in losing the fast single target attack for a round or two round. - If someone is looking to Stun they may still be likely to want to use the fast ET. ?? Drop the TF > BS and maybe I'm okay with the combo mechanic being a way to switch between single target focus to AoE focus for a round of attacks. - Dang, but Stun was removed. Maybe bump up the BS stun to >60%? - Is the (-special and -regen) too good to lose? (above snippet from rough rambling notes) Total Focus has a good stun in it. (that's still there, right)

I'm not sure what you meant: "You didn't have fast ET as an option at all." Do you mean on the Live version? That's a little obvious. (Now I'm imagining you stomping your feet while saying it) On Beta: Total Focus primes the combo mechanic. Then Bone Smasher is used to Stun a target. "If used with Energy Focus: 100% chance for stun and applies a weakening (-special and -regen) effect to the target" Therefore the fast Energy Transfer would not be available. (This was an option when Total Focused activated the combo mechanic) If a player uses the dependable stun sometimes, then fast ET might not be available even 50% of the time. This is all I was saying.

Is it because portals are not in combat areas? (apologies, I have not read all the pages)

Seems to be a pretty good compromise. Plus a bag of goodies. The new accolade is kind of an awesome concept. If we're fairly familiar with a zone we can teleport there.. is that right?

Are you saying the beta version feels spicier or boring? I may have missed some context.

My main is and has been a Energy Melee/Regeneration.. Change sucks. Nerfs suck.. but alas, change does happen. All we can do is hold out hope that a dev might fix something that got broke.. but more often that not, we got a different sub optimal change. No offense to the current devs, we love you.

Cottage Rule isn't a rule. It's like power creep, something to be mindful of. 85% of the game is pre level 50. That some people skip that content is no reason to ignore it exists and to break things there. Shorthand = Balance around SOs Should that be shifted to balance around regular IOs.. sure I'm on board. Just know that may have the opposite effect. Example: Two +5 rech / dmg / heal doing essentially the same work as three is a shift and has power creep that might need to be addressed. [sniped but I'll leave it]

@ForeverLaxx kind of have to separate what peeps be saying from Devs. It definitely discounts some of the anecdotal arguments. They got an idea, ran with it and this is where it's at.

yeah the total damage just out weighs the animation time. I'm still working it out. I formerly had multiple small attack chains that involved multiple targets that were applied situationally depending on a target group makeup. It seems I leveraged the stuns more than many folks. Bone Smash, Energy Transfer, Air Superiority, Stun could do a lot of control on multiple targets pretty quickly.

Thanks! I've been looking at the TF > ET chain with the combo. There is something fishy there I can't quite pin down. I keep ending back at: If fast ET needs TF then fast ET animation time is really TF animation time + ET animation time which isn't really fast.