AgentForest

So toxic damage isn't common, and not many power sets have the primal aesthetic of Poisons and Savage Melee. I wanted to try my hand at something of a "Poison Melee" idea. Venomous Melee (Scrapper/Brute/Stalker Primary, Tanker Secondary) Baseline Mechanic: Every attack applies stacks of "Venom." This debuff is a weak toxic damage over time effect with a mild slow. Each new stack adds to the total, and resets the duration. This stacks up to 10 times, increasing the damage and slow additively. After 10 are in effect, instead of gaining new stacks, your attacks will deal bonus toxic damage equal to the amount that a new stack would have done over its full duration (lump sum). The attempt to apply a stack over 10 also causes a short, weak immobilize, though the target becomes immune to that particular immobilize effect for several seconds to keep the set from permanently locking people down. Infected Claws: Weak single-target Lethal/Toxic damage Venomous Fangs: Moderate single-target Lethal/Toxic damage, small heal for each stack of Venom a target has. This heal isn't as powerful as Radiation Siphon or Siphon Life, but it's on a shorter cooldown ability, so it's more spamable. Corrosive Bile: Cone Moderate Toxic DoT, -Def, -Res. Being a cone, this does not benefit from Infectious Presence, but it DOES benefit from Hemotoxin. Hemotoxin: Passive that causes all Venomous Melee attacks to apply 2 stacks of Venom each instead of 1, while increasing accuracy slightly. [Stalkers would get a build-up version instead, though grabbing the power would give all attacks a 50% chance of applying Venom 2 stacks instead of 1.] Infectious Presence: Toggle that causes all single-target attacks to apply Venom to 1 additional target you didn't hit that is within range of this aura. Once you have also taken Hemotoxin, this spreads Venom to 2 additional targets instead. This can also cause attackers within this aura to have a chance of gaining a stack of Venom when they hit you. This aura also extends the duration of your Venom stacks on any enemies within range, allowing you to change targets without losing progress on the first target's stacks, so long as you maintain close proximity. Since this power set has only one area attack, this is how you provide area damage, much like how Beam Rifle relies on Disintegrate spread for its area damage. [Stalkers would get Assassin's Fangs instead, and the quick-cast "in combat" version of this ability would spread the number of stacks on your Assassin's Fangs target to one nearby enemy.] Challenge/Taunt/Placate: Self Explanatory Spit Venom: High ranged single-target Toxic damage that lowers enemy perception and to-hit. Septic Slash: Severe melee single-target Lethal damage that deals bonus damage for each stack of Venom, and can stun a target who is at 10 stacks. Lethal Injection: Extreme single-target Lethal/Toxic damage that applies a hold immediately upon activation, holding the enemy in place for a powerful bite that pumps them full of venom. The hold is short (activation time duration) but high magnitude. It immediately applies 10 stacks of Venom, and if you have Hemotoxin, the immobilize duration is extended and you deal 5 additional stacks of Venom damage (since these are over the 10 threshold, they would apply as instant damage instead of damage over time).

The only change I'd make to Triage Beacon is making it follow you hovering like some of the other pets. As a toggle, or a regularly summoned pet, but not a stationary tool. In that case, I'd lower the regen bonus it grants to make Spirit Tree still have a use. For being a much higher-tier power that doesn't make sense being able to move, Spirit Tree needs a buff far more than Triage Beacon does.

Honestly, with the fact that we can now change our "stance" in the costume editor, and specifically choose what our stance is during travel powers, I think we should have the option of picking our pose when changing the colors of Flight, Hover, and Mystic Flight. These poses should include the various flight pose emotes as well as hoverboard options.

I think the biggest problems with Mind Control are: Levitate, unlike Lift (Gravity Control), has NO synergy with the set. It wakes up sleeping foes, undoing a lot of containment sources you have, and doesn't gain damage if used on a held foe. Lift is worth grabbing for your damage rotation. Levitate is not. Sleep moves are largely underwhelming for controllers, as on teams they often just get woken up by AoE damage, and you can only get containment damage once if you hit them before people wake them up. There should be some sort of lingering debuff or bonus that you get even after sleeping foes wake up. Earth Control's Salt Crystals have a lingering defense debuff. Mind Control gets nothing. This isn't to say that sleep moves are bad, but that their uses are so limited compared to what other controllers tend to get. Honestly, I feel like any enemy woken up forcibly from a Mind Controller's sleep effects should take psychic damage immediately, and if the controller woke them up, containment damage should apply. Mass Confusion and Seeds of Confusion could stand to be made more similar in duration, recharge, etc. I'll give you that. Make it an earlier move in the set for sure. Mind Control does deserve a pet. Pets provide bodies on the field and utility without throwing away your party's experience points. Confusion is definitely a powerful condition defensively, but that power comes at the cost of experience gain, which can be problematic. The T9 power should definitely be a pet like other sets have, but make it unique somehow. Like, a phantasmal force that takes over an enemy's mind temporarily and uses them as your pet, any damage they deal counting as your own for experience purposes. This pet could be a floating extension of your mind, targetable and vulnerable like any other pet, that rips free will from enemy targets and turns them into expendable pets. Telekinesis suffers from several issues. No other toggled hold effect in the game is this expensive for your endurance, nor do the others shove enemies out of range. Personally, I feel like this ability should work more like Entangling Aura or Choking Cloud. It should have similar costs and magnitude, and not push enemies away. If nearby enemies just sometimes lifted off the ground useless for a moment, that could be really fun and useful.

I think one of the best and easiest solutions to Infiltration is: Make Stealth go back to 35-foot stealth range instead of 55. Make Infiltration 25 or so, but let it stack with ANY other stealth powers in the game. This solves two problems. For starters, it lets you activate both toggles, like with every other travel power set in the game, without forcing the other to shut off. Secondly, Stealth is still the stronger stealth value, letting you grab it in builds where you'd like stealth but don't have access to it. Infiltration is still weaker, so that the Stealth move itself isn't completely obsolete within its own power pool. Thirdly, the effects of both moves at once stack to 60 stealth radius. This is 5 better than existing Stealth, making getting both worthwhile, but not game-breaking. Fourth, there is now build synergy for grabbing Infiltration on classes who already have a stealth power like Cloak of Shadows or Steamy Mist. This makes the power far more desirable than Stealth + Ninja Run, which is currently the optimal choice. Imagine if Combat Jumping + Ninja Run was just inherently better than Super Jump in every way. That's just bad design. Lastly, it maintains all the current uses existing builds have, such as using it as a LotG mule, while also making it worth turning on. At worst, it leaves existing builds alone, and at best, makes them all better.

I don't see it in the cumulative list, but I want to see a tech-based Controller Primary Set. Tech Control: Electrified Web Grenade Taser Dart Adhesive Grenade (basically Glue Arrow with a chance to immobilize) Smoke Grenade (with a flash grenade alternate power customization choice) Micro-Mines (small "targeting drone" models appear hovering as a minefield over an area, each exploding on proximity to stun and deal damage) Cloaking Field (AoE stealth, +def, and allies in your field deal bonus damage to any targets CC'd by any Tech Control powers) Singularity Grenade (targeted AoE knockback, but it knocks enemies toward the center, not away) EMP Grenade (basically EMP Arrow as a thrown grenade on-par with other controller AoE holds) Suppressor Drone (a persistent version of the Devices T9 power, but it also has the ability to release [Traps] Seeker Drones for more utility)

I agree. The move sounds amazing until you use it and see just how much they overcompensated with the recharge time. Plus, it's the only snipe move that doesn't have an in-combat version that can't be interrupted but deals less. But at this point, that's the least of its problems. Fix the rest, and I'd happily debate a quick form, lol.

I'm actually a huge fan of Surveillance for that reason. Not AoE, but a better debuff. The one thing I'm not sure about is whether it breaks stealth. I can't remember. I think Stalkers or VEATs got Surveillance as an ancillary option, and because stealth was important to some of their builds, they made it not break stealth when used. I don't know if the Blaster version is the same or not. Anyone know?

I never said Spectral Wounds stored a percentage in a buffer. I said that having a separate heal after the fact could be used to have a SIMILAR EFFECT to Spectral Wounds, as a work-around for my first proposal, which was regarding an entirely different method of calculating the damage. It would definitely be easier than using a Mastermind style method of separating out some damage to go elsewhere. Instead of the MM Defensive method, it would be possible to just have a heal arrive immediately after the attack that scales with the damage of the attack. This wouldn't be as clean and pretty, but would effectively be doing the same thing mathematically at the end of a fight. Enemy dealt 100 damage to you, but it has Hunter's Mark on, so it's attacks are flagged to heal anyone with Survival Tactics on for, say, 25% of the damage dealt, so you take 100, heal 25, and ultimately took 75 damage. Again, it's not pretty, but it's functional. Regarding the Mastermind Pets, I did say I'm not sure specifically what method was used to split up the damage. There are several ways you could code it. I only suggested how a similar mechanic could be used for Survival Tactics + Hunter's Mark. We already know that the game has a way of splitting damage up so that a player gets less of it than they were supposed to, if certain conditions are met. It isn't outlandish to make it so that anyone marked by this ability who attacks someone with Survival Tactics on has the damage they deal split off into a separate location that is just dumped. So if the Hunter's Mark target hits the person with Survival Tactics on for 100 damage, they take 75 damage, and the other 25 is just lost to the ether. Yes, "special damage resistance" mechanics could be used here too, and might work better. I was just giving a few possibilities for how to implement it, not all the possibilities, and not necessarily the best ones. Just the first that came to mind. If a "special damage resistance" mechanic exists in the game, perfect. Use that.

Well, the only thing that would be challenging would be Survival Tactics + Hunters Mark that changes how much a single enemy does to you specifically. But we already have a mechanic essentially doing this, though indirectly: Mastermind Pet Defensive Stance Whenever an enemy attacks you while your pets are in Defensive Stance, a portion of that damage (based on the number of nearby Defensive pets) is immediately removed and stored in a buffer variable. This damage reduction is ONLY for you (not when those enemies attack your pets or other players). Then, the amount of damage stored in that buffer variable is divided among nearby Defensive pets. (NOTE: This is partially speculation on my part, as the mechanic, code-wise, could just be that each pet is subtracting a set percentage of damage from enemy attacks onto itself, but mathematically the result of each pet in Defensive taking a set percentage away from the damage and giving it to itself is the same as just dividing the damage stored among all Defensive pets equally. Either way it's coded, both algorithms could be repurposed for this mechanic.) You could essentially just steal from that algorithm. Mark an enemy, and if they attack you, a portion of that damage is whisked away to... nowhere. Coding-wise, have a buffer like for MM Defensive Stance where the damage reduction is stored, but don't actually give it to any pets. Just wipe the buffer. If one wants to be really lazy, the easiest way to code it would be a tad more risky but workable: Simply make it so that if a player with Survival Tactics on takes damage from the Hunter's Mark target, that player heals for X% of the damage dealt immediately. So a strong enough move could still power through what's left of your HP, but if you survive that burst, a portion of the damage is undone, sorta like Spectral Wounds, but instant.

For Technology Origin, I feel like you could theme the set around being a battlefield commander, using shouts, targeting optics, recon, leadership, communications, and other utilities to enhance your team's effectiveness. You could theme the bond with an ally as a "brothers in arms" sort of thing. Not as blatantly obvious as the other origins, but definitely workable.

Yeah, my inspiration for this was how Dual Pistols and Bio-Armor have toggles that may not be as useful to all classes in all situations. A Defender won't get a lot of scaling out of Incendiary Ammo, but at least it's there when they need it. Their Chemical Ammo damage debuff will be pretty solid though. A Blaster's Chemical Ammo won't be that impressive, but at least it's available to them. A Stalker may not care to use Defensive Adaptation much, if ever. But at least it's there if it's needed when soloing, or if the tank dies and aggro is all over the place. A Tanker will love Defensive Adaptation, but if their team has a lot of buffs from supports, they may just switch to Offensive Adaptation and be just fine. But it normally won't help with their role. The whole point is that the versatility is there. So for a support set, I tried to figure out what a support would try to do. On the one hand, they help the team survive, so Herd Tactics came to mind. They also tend to help defeat enemies, and I incorporated a Pack Tactics toggle. Then I was like, "What would the third toggle be?" Something more situational, meant to help you when other strategies may not be working. Like a Stalker switching to Defensive when the tank is down, what would a support do? Panic mode. Focus on keeping themselves alive so they can fall back and maybe teleport the team to safety after they get out. Or maybe when they're the only one left and they're backed into a corner, they just have to fight it out. So I built the Survival Tactics idea around a support cutting off the foot to save the body, lol. They start focusing on themselves when threatened. This could also be used for soloing, opening up some fun options.

Yeah, I was cautious of giving exact numbers to things, as this set has so many small boosts all piled up that it would probably need playtesting to figure out amounts. That said, yes, I wanted it to be a very broad support set that can tweak how well it does something in particular. Bio Armor is also similarly complex, with some powers doing new things if a different Adaptation is active, but usually just changing the values of existing effects. So I ran with that idea. It's definitely complicated, and I can't fault the devs if this is a bit too much for a fan-made set, but I know that mechanically, it could be done, and it would need very few new assets, if any. But it would be a pretty large undertaking for any programmer, heh.

I was thinking about how there are several sets that have different "modes" to switch between, like Dual Pistols, Bio Armor, and Staff Fighting, but there wasn't a support set operating the same way. So I came up with one. These powers could probably be rearranged, but I tried to match the general pacing of other sets, having "Adaptation" or "Swap Ammo" come toward the middle of the set. I also really wanted a support set that didn't feel like magic, technology, or over the top "super." Something to match Savage Melee, Beast Mastery, and Archery as more natural origin sets, but something uniquely for supporting teams. Wild Inspiration (Defender Primary, Controller/MM/Corruptor Secondary) Hunter's Mark: You mark a single enemy, debuffing most of their stats a small amount. Damage, ToHit, Defense, Resistance, Recharge, and Regeneration. These debuffs are all rather small unless you have a Wild Tactic in effect. If Pack Tactics is active, the target is singled out for hunting, lowering Defense, Resistance, and Regeneration significantly. Whenever you or an ally damage the target, they take some minor lethal damage-over-time (stacking). If Herd Tactics is active, the target is singled out as a threat to the rest of the team, granting awareness of the danger, and lowering the enemy's Damage, ToHit, and Recharge by a far greater amount. Whenever you or an ally attack the target, the attacker gains a weak heal-over-time (stacking). If Survival Tactics is active, the debuffs remain small, but you personally take vastly reduced damage from the target, and deal far more damage to them. Mighty Roar: You inspire nearby teammates with boosted Speed, Recharge, Damage, and Resistance. These buffs are small, but increase based on which Wild Tactic is in effect. Pack Tactics increases the Speed, Recharge, and Damage boost. Herd Tactics increases the Resistance boost, and causes a heal-over-time effect. Survival Tactics increases all of the effects, but only applies them to you (including the heal-over-time from Herd Tactics). This boost only lasts a short time, but is usable fairly often, like Temporal Mending. Establish Territory: Location PBAoE that creates an area that buffs allies inside. This would work much like Faraday Cage, dropping an area for several minutes that only has a 10 second cooldown or so, allowing it to be repositioned often but not constantly. This grants a small boost to Defense, Resistance, ToHit, Damage, Recharge, Recovery, and Regeneration while inside. Under Pack Tactics, the Damage, ToHit, Recharge, and Recovery boosts are larger. Under Herd Tactics, the Defense, Resistance, Recovery, and Regeneration boosts are larger. Under Survival Tactics, the boosts are all stronger, but only for the caster. Everyone else gets the weaker buffs. Wild Tactics: Picking this power grants you access to 3 "stance" toggles to modify your other moves. I could see possibly moving this to the first power selection, but then each toggle would need to do something of its own, outside of altering other powers, otherwise it would be useless at level 1. Not that people are level 1 for long. Pack Tactics: Toggle that increases offensive prowess of the team. Herd Tactics: Toggle that increases defensive prowess of the team. Survival Tactics: Toggle that allows the user to focus on themself in a time of crisis. Instinctive Bond: Toggle that links you and a single ally, granting them increased stats based on which Wild Tactic is active. Pack Tactics grants Damage and ToHit. Enemies near the target also have reduced Defense. Herd Tactics grants Regeneration and a steady trickle of Absorption over time. The regeneration is granted in a small aura around the target, but the Absorb shield is only for the bonded target. Survival Tactics gives this person increased Threat, while lowering your own Threat generation and granting the caster Regeneration and a steady trickle of Absorption. It also causes both you and the bonded target to lower the damage of all enemies around yourselves, and if you damage an enemy, they are marked for bonus damage from the bonded ally, consuming the mark. Cornered: Grant someone an absorb shield. If Pack Tactics is active, the ally gains a large boost to Damage and Recovery. If Herd Tactics is active, the ally gains a larger shield, with a bonus based on how much HP they're missing, and a Regeneration buff. If Survival Tactics is active, you gain the absorb shield as well as the ally, but they get no further bonuses, while you gain Damage, Regeneration, and Recovery. If you have no ally to target, this effect will still be cast on yourself, but only if you have Survival Tactics active. Alertness: A toggle allowing you to hone your senses and alert your allies to enemies. This grants a bonus to ToHit and Perception for you and nearby allies. If Pack Tactics is active, the ToHit bonus is larger. If Herd Tactics is active, the Perception bonus is larger, and the move also provides basic Stealth (does not stack with other stealths, blah blah). If Survival Tactics is active, the ToHit and Perception bonuses are small for others but large for you, and you gain significant stealth, as you are aware of enemy line of sight and can keep to the shadows. Posturing: Grant yourself and your ally a buff based on which Wild Tactics are active. This effect will remain EVEN IF you change your tactics, basing the buff on the toggle active at the time of casting Posturing. Pack Tactics grants Damage, Recharge, and ToHit. Herd Tactics grants Defense, Resistance, and Regeneration. Survival Tactics grant you and only you Recharge, Recovery, Regeneration, and Resistance. Tooth and Nail: PBAoE Toggle that grants weak but stacking bonuses to allies around your character. Under Pack Tactics, every time an ally in range attacks or is attacked by a target, they gain a small, stacking bonus to Damage for a short time. If an enemy dies within this area, allies gain additional Damage stacks. Under Herd Tactics, every time an ally attacks, they gain a small amount of Absorption, and every time they are attacked, they gain a small amount of Resistance. If an enemy dies within this area, allies heal over time (stacking). If an ally dies within this area, remaining allies gain more Absorption and some Defense. Under Survival Tactics, any time an ally takes damage, you personally gain Damage. Any time you take damage, gain Regeneration. Any time you attack an enemy, gain Damage and a small amount of Absorption. If an enemy dies within this area, gain additional Damage stacks and a heal over time (stacking).

I'm not sure if this would be fully "recycled" in that it isn't made from existing powers a la carte thrown into one power set, however the assets themselves already exist. So at least it would be a lot less work than making new assets, but a tad more than just building a Dominator Assault secondary out of existing powers. I was thinking about how there are several sets that have different "modes" to switch between, like Dual Pistols, Bio Armor, and Staff Fighting, but there wasn't a support set operating the same way. So I came up with one. Most of the animations could be taken from emotes and Beast Mastery Mastermind or Savage Melee/Assault powers. Others could utilize something like the Sentinel Opportunity crosshair for Hunter's Mark (perhaps over their head instead of on the ground). If this doesn't really fit with the goal of this thread, let me know and I can post it elsewhere, but it seemed doable with existing assets. Wild Inspiration (Defender Primary, Controller/MM/Corruptor Secondary) Hunter's Mark: You mark a single enemy, debuffing most of their stats a small amount. Damage, ToHit, Defense, Resistance, Recharge, and Regeneration. These debuffs are all rather small unless you have a Wild Tactic in effect. If Pack Tactics is active, the target is singled out for hunting, lowering Defense, Resistance, and Regeneration significantly. Whenever you or an ally damage the target, they take some minor lethal damage-over-time (stacking). If Herd Tactics is active, the target is singled out as a threat to the rest of the team, granting awareness of the danger, and lowering the enemy's Damage, ToHit, and Recharge by a far greater amount. Whenever you or an ally attack the target, the attacker gains a weak heal-over-time (stacking). If Survival Tactics is active, the debuffs remain small, but you personally take vastly reduced damage from the target, and deal far more damage to them. Mighty Roar: You inspire nearby teammates with boosted Speed, Recharge, Damage, and Resistance. These buffs are small, but increase based on which Wild Tactic is in effect. Pack Tactics increases the Speed, Recharge, and Damage boost. Herd Tactics increases the Resistance boost, and causes a heal-over-time effect. Survival Tactics increases all of the effects, but only applies them to you (including the heal-over-time from Herd Tactics). This boost only lasts a short time, but is usable fairly often, like Temporal Mending. Establish Territory: Location PBAoE that creates an area that buffs allies inside. This would work much like Faraday Cage, dropping an area for several minutes that only has a 10 second cooldown or so, allowing it to be repositioned often but not constantly. This grants a small boost to Defense, Resistance, ToHit, Damage, Recharge, Recovery, and Regeneration while inside. Under Pack Tactics, the Damage, ToHit, Recharge, and Recovery boosts are larger. Under Herd Tactics, the Defense, Resistance, Recovery, and Regeneration boosts are larger. Under Survival Tactics, the boosts are all stronger, but only for the caster. Everyone else gets the weaker buffs. Wild Tactics: Picking this power grants you access to 3 "stance" toggles to modify your other moves. I could see possibly moving this to the first power selection, but then each toggle would need to do something of its own, outside of altering other powers, otherwise it would be useless at level 1. Not that people are level 1 for long. Pack Tactics: Toggle that increases offensive prowess of the team. Herd Tactics: Toggle that increases defensive prowess of the team. Survival Tactics: Toggle that allows the user to focus on themself in a time of crisis. Instinctive Bond: Toggle that links you and a single ally, granting them increased stats based on which Wild Tactic is active. Pack Tactics grants Damage and ToHit. Enemies near the target also have reduced Defense. Herd Tactics grants Regeneration and a steady trickle of Absorption over time. The regeneration is granted in a small aura around the target, but the Absorb shield is only for the bonded target. Survival Tactics gives this person increased Threat, while lowering your own Threat generation and granting the caster Regeneration and a steady trickle of Absorption. It also causes both you and the bonded target to lower the damage of all enemies around yourselves, and if you damage an enemy, they are marked for bonus damage from the bonded ally, consuming the mark. Cornered: Grant someone an absorb shield. If Pack Tactics is active, the ally gains a large boost to Damage and Recovery. If Herd Tactics is active, the ally gains a larger shield, with a bonus based on how much HP they're missing, and a Regeneration buff. If Survival Tactics is active, you gain the absorb shield as well as the ally, but they get no further bonuses, while you gain Damage, Regeneration, and Recovery. If you have no ally to target, this effect will still be cast on yourself, but only if you have Survival Tactics active. Alertness: A toggle allowing you to hone your senses and alert your allies to enemies. This grants a bonus to ToHit and Perception for you and nearby allies. If Pack Tactics is active, the ToHit bonus is larger. If Herd Tactics is active, the Perception bonus is larger, and the move also provides basic Stealth (does not stack with other stealths, blah blah). If Survival Tactics is active, the ToHit and Perception bonuses are small for others but large for you, and you gain significant stealth, as you are aware of enemy line of sight and can keep to the shadows. Posturing: Grant yourself and your ally a buff based on which Wild Tactics are active. This effect will remain EVEN IF you change your tactics, basing the buff on the toggle active at the time of casting Posturing. Pack Tactics grants Damage, Recharge, and ToHit. Herd Tactics grants Defense, Resistance, and Regeneration. Survival Tactics grant you and only you Recharge, Recovery, Regeneration, and Resistance. Tooth and Nail: PBAoE Toggle that grants weak but stacking bonuses to allies around your character. Under Pack Tactics, every time an ally in range attacks or is attacked by a target, they gain a small, stacking bonus to Damage for a short time. If an enemy dies within this area, allies gain additional Damage stacks. Under Herd Tactics, every time an ally attacks, they gain a small amount of Absorption, and every time they are attacked, they gain a small amount of Resistance. If an enemy dies within this area, allies heal over time (stacking). If an ally dies within this area, remaining allies gain more Absorption and some Defense. Under Survival Tactics, any time an ally takes damage, you personally gain Damage. Any time you take damage, gain Regeneration. Any time you attack an enemy, gain Damage and a small amount of Absorption. If an enemy dies within this area, gain additional Damage stacks and a heal over time (stacking).

I have a Poison/Sonic Blast Defender named Plaguebat, and he's actually really strong. Not just on damage output, but in terms of how much he can help a team melt down bosses and AVs. He often hovers into the fray just to keep his Venomous Gas on everything and place his Poison Traps. Enemy stats become near worthless, sort of like when you have a Trick Arrows or Radiation Emissions teammate. It feels like some halfway point between those two sets. But Venomous Gas is the key there. If Envenom and Weaken are your bread and butter moves, Venomous Gas is the main course. The Mastermind version Noxious Gas is just... awful. Relatively speaking. It's a similar effect, but instead of being centered on you, the last person who wants to wade into the thick of a fight, it's centered on a pet. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately it's temporary and has a long cooldown. Why? No clue. It's not like Poison was too strong a power set to let Masterminds use the default version or anything, lol. But unfortunately, for a set so heavily focused on debuffing instead of healing/buffing (which are hard enough to play on Masterminds as it is), Poison just doesn't really have the tools to feel like it works at all on the Mastermind class. I really hope the Homecoming devs look into this and try to address it. I wouldn't mind Noxious Gas having a long cooldown if, like Enchant Undead, it just gave your pets a permanent (but smaller) Venomous Gas aura of their own until they died. Make you reapply it if you summon new ones. Problem solved. They could make the AoE smaller, lower the stat debuff and make them stack, or any number of things to try to balance it, but it really should be a persistent effect like it is for other classes.

I've been having issues since the latest Issue 27 updates. My enhancement sockets are all showing up to the left of where they actually are, and to affect them, you have to click to the right of the socket picture, making it almost impossible to change anything regarding my builds. Here was an attempt to start a new build, just to show what the problem looks like. Anyone else run into this problem or know a solution?

I was toying with an idea for a power set that just plays a little differently than most in its category, while doing the same job. Like Forcefields and Empathy. Both protect teammates, but in different ways. So I tried to think of a way to do that for a tank build. Moves probably need rearranged to different tiers, but it wouldn't be hard to animate, as most of the moves would use short Build Up and Aim style animations. Or the animations for activating toggles. Adrenaline: Deadened Nerves: Passive Self +Max HP, +Resist (all) | Pretty basic. Permanent increase to max HP and damage resistance. Spacial Awareness: Passive Self +Defense (melee, range, AoE) | Permanent increase to positional defenses. Determination: Click Self +Resist (all) | You dramatically increase your damage resistance for 30 seconds or so, gradually fading over time. Higher resistances granted than a typical toggle armor, but for a duration, with diminishing effect. Just A Scratch: Click Self Heal Over Time | You gain a powerful heal-over-time effect that gradually diminishes over 10 seconds. Stronger overall heal than Reconstruction, but not in a single lump-sum. Shrug It Off: Toggle Self +Mez Protection, +Special | The mez protection of this set is the only thing that comes as a toggle, but it provides a unique "damage staggering" mechanic as well. Incoming damage is lowered by 25% (unenhanceable), but most of that damage you ignored (20%) is taken over time for the next 10 seconds. Damage is only slightly reduced in the long-run, but it allows time to deal with it. The numbers here could be tweaked. If this is too hard to program, the easiest way would be to just do the opposite of Spectral Wounds. Heal for a portion of damage received immediately, but then apply a DoT effect based on how strong the heal was. Bob and Weave: Click Self +Defense (melee, range, AoE) | Like Determination, you click to activate a powerful defense buff that fades over 30 seconds. Just Breathe: Passive Self +Regen, +Recovery, +Recharge | Not a huge recharge bonus, but it's meant to help the set scale into the late-game. Daunting: Click PBAoE Foe -Damage (all), Fear, -ToHit, Taunt | Your presence and unwillingness to fall in combat intimidates your enemies, causing those around you to suffer a decrease in damage and chance to hit, with a chance of applying fear every second. The strength of the debuffs fade over 30 seconds as enemies overcome their initial fear and get lost in the flow of combat again. No Time For Pain: Passive Self +Absorb over time, +Special | You gain a weak damage absorption barrier every few seconds, up to a max amount (like some Sentinel armor sets have). Selecting this power also grants all of your click abilities for this power set to also create a small chunk of damage absorption when activated. This effect isn't enormous (10% enhanced to 20% of your HP) but they stack, and they don't fade over time. They just end when the click buff's 30 seconds are up, or when they've taken enough damage.

As much as I was a sucker for the old Defiance, I do find the concept problematic. It encourages really dangerous gameplay and can be unpleasant to team with. Healers end up feeling conflicted about whether to even heal dying teammates because of possibly messing up what they're trying to do. I could see coming at the idea from a different direction though. What if the toggle drained health from you to increase damage. The amount drained is higher if your HP is higher, and also increases your damage output well. As your HP drops, it drains less from your body, but the damage boost also fades. Another possibility could be to incorporate a stack-based damage buff each time something attacks you, working like a mini-Fury resource. That way HP doesn't necessarily have to be low for the toggle to be worth turning on. And healers won't be yelled at for healing you, lol.

Not that any of your idea is bad, because it's not, but personally, I always imagined any attempts at a "Pain" damage set to include illusory damage. Like, give all the powers a higher base damage scaling, but have them heal off a portion of it a few seconds later. Like Spectral Wounds and Phantom Army, but baked into an entire blast set. That way you hit like a truck, but have to finish things off fast or you'll have lower damage output than other blast sets. Higher damage if you're efficient about focusing down targets.

I actually really like the idea of a power with gradually diminishing benefits that eventually ends. As a toggle or click power, either way, it's neat. I toyed with the idea of a Tanker primary with a similar concept. The powers you choose grant a passive boost to your durability in some way, but grant you an active ability that gives a huge bonus to that stat, but it fades over time. So instead of needing endurance reduction, you want recharge reduction, to keep your boosts up more often. One power gives you a huge amount of resistance that fades. When it's getting low, activate your heal-over-time. When that's running out, use your defense boost. Then a regen boost. One move could be an AoE damage debuff that fades over time as you intimidate your enemies. Not exactly cloning old moves, but the assets and animations for the power set could easily be sourced from other existing powers. I'll have to draw up a full set...

That too. It just didn't really mesh well with what Dominators do, or how they do it.

Probably because Dominators, unlike Controllers, have access to lots of damaging moves already. Making the pets more of a utility would help fulfill more of a need than damage would. I could see dramatically lowering the damage still work, but leaving it as a primarily damage/taunt power is just kinda overpowered on someone like a Dominator. It's one of the main reasons the power set was never ported to Dominators.

Sort of along the same lines, I had an idea for a Support power set using firearms as the animation. They aren't clones or modified versions of existing powers necessarily, but the animation and assets should all still exist in the game. The set would focus on being an aggressive support and helping allies by shooting things. If it's possible to implement, I was hoping to have the powers all add some effect to your other attacks. It could even be possible to have two different animations for everything too, letting you choose a pistol or rifle as the firearm, but I'm no expert on how hard that would be to implement. Fire Support: Kneecap: Ranged single-target Lethal DoT, -Speed, Immobilize, -Defense (all); Passive (-Speed to all attacks) | Shoot someone in the knee, disabling and weakening them. Upon picking up this move, all of your attacks gain a weak slow effect (if that's possible to implement). Camaraderie: Passive Self +Damage (all), Special [Ally +Damage (all), +Regeneration] | You gain a small passive damage boost. Upon damaging an enemy with an attack (only once per attack, regardless of number of targets hit) allies gain a small regeneration and damage boost for a short time. This effect stacks. Brandish: PBAoE Fear, -Defense (all), -Resist (all) | Fire your weapon into the air, terrifying nearby enemies and causing them to be distracted from protecting themselves in their haste to get to cover. Fire Suppression: Ranged Cone Lethal DoT, Foe -Damage (all), -ToHit (all), -Recharge; Passive (-Damage to all attacks) | Spray bullets in a general direction, causing enemies to seek cover rather than press their attack further. All of your attacks that deal damage gain the ability to lower enemy damage slightly as well. Reconnaissance: Toggle PBAoE Team +ToHit, +Perception, +Stealth, +Damage | You bring back information on enemy plans and equipment. This allows your team to know the weak points of the enemy's defenses, allowing greater perception and chance to hit, and stealth from knowing the enemy's movements. Everyone gains a small damage boost as well, which is increased on the first attack out of stealth (every X seconds). Concentrate Fire: Toggle Single-Target Lethal DoT, -Resistance (all), -Defense (all) | You focus your attacks on a single target, repeatedly hitting them for minor lethal damage. You also tell your teammates to focus fire on this target, causing that enemy to have reduced defense and resistance to your combined efforts. Hostage: Toggle Single-Target Hold; Targeted AoE Terrorize, -Damage (all), -Resist (all); Special (AoE fear if target dies) | You focus your sights on an enemy, causing them to stop everything. Their allies, noticing the standoff, flee the immediate area around the held target, dropping everything to get to safety and lowering their guard. If the hostage dies during this toggle, nearby enemies (in a larger area than the terrorize) will be feared. Duel: Single-target Taunt -Damage, PBAoE and Targeted AoE Placate; Special (PBAoE HoT) | You single out an enemy and challenge them to a duel. Your boldness intimidates them and lowers their damage immensely, and placates all enemies near you and your target. If you manage to kill the target before the duel ends, inspire your allies with an AoE heal over time. Vengeance Pact: Single-Target Toggle Ally +Damage (all), Self +Damage (all); Special | Form a bond with an ally. Both of you gain increased damage during this effect. Every time your ally takes damage, you gain a small amount of damage. Every time you take damage, your ally gains a small amount of damage. These boosts stack. If one of you is defeated, the other gains a massive damage and recharge rate boost, and the enemy that killed them is marked. If that enemy dies within 10 seconds, the defeated ally is revived at full health.

I'm noticing the sonic shields are on the person casting a sonic attack, despite the fact that you can't cast the support barriers on yourself. I think they're making an armor set for Tankers/Brutes/Scrappers/Stalkers/Sentinels themed around sound-based abilities, and are showing a sentinel using it. That's my guess.