Wavicle

There is a solution, making harder enemy groups worth more xp.

I wasn't around before i3, but it sounded like a very likely history based on what I am aware of.

I definitely don't think they suck or are gimped. But I don't think Blasters were gimped or sucked before i24 or the latest round of changes, yet they got a buff. What changed my mind, because I used to agree that support sets were fine as is, was this history shared by @Luminara in one of the beta threads: "Support archetypes are forced to adhere to a rule set which was modeled around and based on toggle mutual exclusivity being the standard in the game. The purpose of support sets containing ally-only buffs was specifically to complement toggle mutual exclusivity, and the purpose of toggle mutual exclusivity was to promote teaming. Toggle mutual exclusivity was removed and the game was redefined around an entirely different set of rules, except for support archetypes. The archetypes with the lowest HP, lowest damage output, no status protection and slowest progression were left with the legacy restriction of not being able to use their own powers on themselves, for no reason beyond Cryptic's determination that they weren't unplayable as they were, so there was no reason to bring them into the new rule set unless or until they reached that point."

Defenders and Corruptors in particular, less so Controllers and Masterminds, suffer a little from having both low base damage and low hitpoints while having buffs that take time away from attacking and in many cases buffs that don't help the caster. Are they bad? No. Could they be better without breaking the game? Yea, I think so.

You can’t ignore that granite exists. The changes are not intended to mean you just don’t need granite anymore, afaik.

Kb>Kd slotted in Singularity should make it pretty useful. Gather up mobs and knock them over.

They aren’t Completely being left behind. They still get level scaling removed, and Dwarf step gets 15 seconds Hover and movement cancels the Hover, but other than that... yes. OTOH we already have free travel powers, so I think it’ll be ok.

This thread is for people to discuss possible different ways to improve the Support ATs. Some folks have suggested letting buffs that have previously been ally only be cast on themselves, there are many different suggestions all over the place. I'll start it off with an idea of my own (not saying it's the best way, just something off the top): I'm not sure if the technology even exists in the game to have powers effect Either caster or ally, so my idea is to bypass that. Instead of allowing ally buffs to effect the caster, we could give the owner of the ally only power Passive buffs with similar (scaled down, unenhanceable, unbuffable) effects. I wrote a non-comprehensive list with made up numbers. Cold Domination>Fire Shield: Owner gets 10% Smash/Lethal Def and 10% Fire/Cold Res Cold Domination>Glacial Shield: Owner gets 10% Energy/Negative Def and 10% Cold Res Cold Domination>Frostwork: Owner gets 10% +Max HP and 10% Toxic Res Empathy>Clear Mind: Owner gets +Perception and 5 points protection against Stun/Sleep/Hold/Fear/Confuse/Immob Empathy>Fortitude: Owner gets 15% ToHit, Damage, and Def All Force Field>Deflection Shield: Owner gets 10% Smash/Lethal Def and 20% Toxic Res Force Field>Insulation Shield: Owner gets 10% Energy/Negative/Fire/Cold Def and 40% Endurance/Recovery Resistance Kinetics>Increase Density: Owner gets 10% Smash/Energy Res and 5 points protection against Hold/Immob/Stun/Knock/Repel Kinetics>Speed Boost: Owner gets 20% Recharge, Recovery, and Resistance to Slow Pain Domination>Enforced Morale: Owner gets +Perception and 5 points protection against Stun/Sleep/Hold/Fear/Confuse/Immob Poison>Alkaloid: Owner gets 10% Toxic Res and 150% +Regen Poison>Antidote: Owner gets 10% Toxic/Cold Res, 20% Resistance to Slow, and 5 points protection against Stun/Sleep/Hold/Fear/Confuse/Immob Sonic Resonance>Sonic Barrier: Owner gets 10% Smash/Lethal/Toxic Res Sonic Resonance>Sonic Haven: Owner gets 10% Fire/Cold/Energy/Negative Res Sonic Resonance>Disruption Field: Owner gets 15% Damage Sonic Resonance>Sonic Repulsion: Owner gets 5 points protection against Knock Sonic Resonance>Clarity: Owner gets +Perception and 5 points protection against Confuse/Fear/Sleep Storm Summoning>O2 Boost: Owner gets +Perception, 5 points protection against Stun/Sleep, 40% Endurance/Recovery Resistance and 150% +Regen Thermal Radiation>Thermal Shield: Owner gets 10% Smash/Lethal/Fire/Cold Res Thermal Radiation>Plasma Shield: Owner gets 10% Fire/Energy/Negative Res Thermal Radiation>Thaw: Owner gets 10% Cold Res, 30% Resistance to Slow, and 5 points protection against Stun/Sleep/Hold/Fear/Confuse/Immob Thermal Radiation>Forge: Owner gets 10% ToHit and 15% Damage Time Manipulation>Temporal Selection: Owner gets 15% Recharge, 15% Damage, and 75% Regen Feel free to comment on my idea or suggest your own!

You now have what was after burner speed all the time with just fly. The new afterburner kicks you up even faster than that. It’s a buff not a nerf.

The replacement power evasive maneuvers still accepts luck of the gambler.

Well the damage resistance toggles do activate very quickly. However I think the design of Kheldians is currently basically that they don’t have to use those toggles once they have their level 38 power. So in theory a high-level warshade should only be activating shadow cloak, orbiting death, and inky aspect. It still feels like a lot though.

It’s a technical issue. It’s not a rule. In most cases you don’t, you happened to be at a specific point in a specific team set up that screwed you over. It’s a bummer but I don’t know how they would fix it. No one is conspiring against you though.

Could you possibly look at the Warshade damage aura?

Still hoping that one day Warshades might get their own version of Team Teleport...although I probably wouldn't take it, but they should have it available! That's the only Fly/TP power that Kheldians don't have their own version of (I think).

My teleporters have always 3 slotted teleport. Now most of my toons will do similarly.

And there wasn’t any point to doing so, but now there is.

I wonder if the fixes for the disappearing swords and bows also fixed the same problem when it impacts mobs, such as Rikti Soldier bosses?

We're way off topic now. I'm happy with where Sorcery is now on Beta. Any repercussions it has relevant to AT balance need to be addressed at the AT/Power Set level.

I was not aware of this history, and it sounds super plausible given the Cryptic/NCSoft history of which I AM aware. I'm inclined to agree with this line of reasoning despite my misgivings.

1: Obviously we're not sticking to what was on live, but as has been pointed out, the existence of power creep does not mean that adding more power creep is therefore fine. 2: Over selected does not necessarily mean overperforming. Fire Brutes are overrepresented also, but it's not because they're SO GOOD. It's because they've got a particular niche. 3: Me too. I expect it will come, but it's going to take time. The devs have said they want to get the "under the hood" stuff done so that they CAN implement more and harder endgame material. The tanker changes, the blaster changes of the previous patch, the MM changes of this patch, are all part of that.

Sorry Mez, this is not a reasonable argument. 1: They didn't say anything like that. In fact, the opposite, they acknowledged that we CAN'T just walk everything back. But that isn't a reason to abandon the concept of balance, when the devs themselves have acknowledged that endgame balance is out of whack and is something they intend to address. 2: Fire (which has NO secondary effects, unless you want to count the scatter from Rain) is not comparable to TW which has KD, Stun, -Res, and +Def. 3: See 1. The current devs still intend to address endgame balance.

People are complaining they don’t have enough slots in their build to spare to add to their travel powers to take advantage of the new caps. Two slots is an investment. I didn’t ignore anything you said.

Except now it takes no investment at all. Leaving that out doesn’t make your case.

Or they can use RoP reactively and get more mileage out of it than they did before with less investment.

they can use clarion or melee hybrid or break frees or amplifiers or have high defense or hold the enemy. Squishies do not need mez protection.