Dispari

Okay, just did some testing with a few people (up to 5 at one point) in PI radios fighting all kinds of baddies. So we had time to test more stuff and get a feel for the set. I'm going to go through all the powers and basically just break down everything I feel and think. Some of it might be crazy or controversial, who knows. * SHOCK. I don't really have many problems with this power, but it could be better. It does have a good -DMG debuff. It's reasonably comparable to other t1 powers like Infrigidate and Corrosive Enzymes. However, I think it's weaker than both of those. Both of those have strong numbers and the whole debuff is useful (-DMG/-DEF or -RES/-DMG). And Infrigidate's -DMG is higher. I don't think the rather small (even slotted to +95%) -END is as good. It'd take 3 or more applications to fully drain a minion, and by that time the guy is definitely dead. Maybe if it did -regen, -DEF, -RES, or something else? Though it does also build Static so that's something. * REJUVENATING CIRCUIT. This power is fine, I don't really have anything to say about it. I'm okay with it and how it works. * GALVANIC SENTINEL. Okay, I do have several problems here. Besides the stuff I said above about how names don't stick, I found that in a team setting I just stopped using it. It seems great for solo or small teams, but the hassle of having to resummon it constantly is a real distraction. Even spending Static on it to extend the duration just feels bad, because I'm spending all my time building Static just so I don't have to summon the pet as often. I would MUCH rather it just last forever, with a longer recharge. Alternatively it could just be like Dark Servant where you only have to resummon it every 4 minutes or so. Having to click it every 30 seconds? I get to a point where I don't feel like it. What it provides other than a target to bounce things off (which isn't needed once you're not solo) just isn't worth that much effort. * ENERGIZING CIRCUIT. This power is good, though I'm not sure it needs to be tier 4. Something comparable like Speed Boost is tier 6. Though I guess AM is tier 3. * FARADAY CAGE. Love this power, nothing I really want to see changed about it. Since the bug with the +RES is fixed, it's probably great. * EMPOWERING CIRCUIT. First off, small 'probably doesn't matter' comment here, it has the same acronym as Energizing Circuit (EC) so when we were discussing powers in chat we were tripping over some of the names. Anyway. I don't like this power. I feel like it should work more like Fortitude or Forge. It recharges in 15s base and only lasts 25s. This leads to me using it constantly. All the time. Every few seconds. Because I feel like I'm wasting it if I don't. Reflexively, I want this to be a power that I use every minute or so, not every 5 seconds. It chains and can hit multiple people, so maybe it could have a base recharge time of 120 or even 240? And obviously it should last more like 90s, not 25s. This is one of the powers that contributes to the overall "oh man I have to spam powers as fast as I can" problem that I'll touch on more below. Also final note, while testing it seemed like this power wouldn't stack from multiple casters? It was hard to confirm but maybe it should be checked. * DEFIBRILLATE. Love this power, love the animation, no complaints here. * INSULATING CIRCUIT. This power is good. Maybe too good, if I'm being honest? It's a lot of absorb you can spam on a really short timer. I can give almost half of my max HP as absorb every 6 seconds? Really? Dang. Maybe it should have a longer recharge. I think the only real comparable power to this one is Wild Bastion, and that starts at 240s. This has less benefits and hits fewer targets, so maybe 60s? 120s? 15s is really short. And of course this also contributes to the spammy playstyle the set has. * AMP UP. I like this power. I don't think the benefit stacks from multiple casters? But I suppose that's okay. * STATIC. Okay, this might be the most controversial opinion I have. Does this set even need a mechanic like this? Static only does a few things. One is make the pet last longer which, like I said, just isn't fun or rewarding and probably shouldn't need to be done in the first place. It boosts the rez which, okay neat but how often are you using that? It boosts Amp Up which is probably the one place you'd want to actually spend it. And it ups how many targets your powers chain to, which... okay let's talk about this. Your powers constantly changing how many targets they can hit? Not fun. It's confusing, it's hard to keep track of, and it's unreliable. I don't like having to check my Static to think about how many people I can heal. Other support sets don't have to deal with that. It's like a tax on the set. And leaves me feeling like I need to spam powers to keep my Static up. This resulted in me using powers I don't really need to use, just to gain Static. Just in case I need it. And that didn't leave me much time to use my blast powers. As a heal/suport set, I felt like I was lagging behind and needed to work especially hard just so I could actually conceivably heal the whole team if I need to. The fact that the whole set has tons of powers that don't last very long, and recharge very fast, means I have tons of powers I can use all the time. And you need to keep your Static up, so of course you use powers fast. It becomes very spammy very fast. Using a heal even when people are full on HP. Using Shock on a minion for no reason other than you want Static. As-is, it's a very demanding set, leaving you little time to use your secondary set. Or you just end up ignoring a lot of your powers, which isn't really better. That said, I like the set! I actually do. I know I was pretty hard on it, but it just needs some improvements. It's very unique, I like Faraday Cage, I like the idea of having a pet, I like the unique buffs it gives like Amp Up. But there are certain aspects that are a bit much to deal with, and I feel like I'm constantly struggling to catch up to where basically any other support set would be. Whew, I think that's everything. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am about everything. Thanks!

EC definitely doesn't chain back to the caster. Whether solo or with a couple people around, 0 or 5 Static. I noticed this very fast because I'm having end problems (not using any IOs right now)

Haven't had much time to play around but: * The new pet is simple and doesn't do a lot, but I definitely understand why it exists. It's so your powers can chain back to yourself while by yourself. Suddenly, FOUR of your powers that weren't usable on yourself can now be used. That's a useful change. That said, all my feedback for this pet below. 1) The duration is too short. Like obnoxiously short. The duration is 30 seconds, and I know it's longer for each stack of Static, but that seems like a bad use of Static, frankly? It's hard to tell, but it seems like each stack gives an extra 10 seconds to the duration, just from playing and guessing. I'm not sure what suggestion I have here for the -Static, but duration is... well, annoying. I don't want to spend a quarter of my time just resummoning the pet. 2) The pet doesn't have any base resists, so it's likely to get killed since it's targetable. High resist to S/L/E/P/T would make a lot of sense. 3) Currently, the pet doesn't "take" name changes. On resummoning, the name is always wiped. Its faction is "Pseudopets" and rank is "Defender." That may not be a problem, but it's worth mentioning. 4) It does... very little. All it does is one single power that does a single target -End/-Dmg. And the -End it does is very small. Is there anything else it could do that would make it more worth summoning when you don't need it for the extra target? * New Faraday Cage is really good, although it still doesn't pass on the +RES to the pseudopet, so it's stuck at 15% RES all. I almost feel like 15% RES all is a bit too much? But it does really carry the set and makes it a lot more useful. The size is larger, it sticks around more, it's quicker to cast. All good adjustments. * Maybe it's just me, but I'm not sure Energizing Circuit is that important a power to be bumped up to a high slot. All it does is +End, which is neat, but like, am I really gonna be spamming this all the time? I feel like it should do something else too, or just weakened and combined with the heal. I dunno, I'm not sure how I feel about having a power just to give people endurance. Maybe others have a different opinion. I'm going to go test the set in a more team-focused setting to give more feedback.

That I won't deny, Faraday Cage is one of the most unique and valuable powers in the set (although it needs to be fixed for how it doesn't position itself properly in the air). The rest of the set however can't be carried by one power. If it worked like Lifegiving Spores, it could only be placed on the ground. I'm not sure I'd want that limitation.

So 0.1 second duration mag 12 stun?

To add to what I was saying earlier, soloing with this set is REALLY hard. It offers almost no benefits of any kind. I can't heal myself, don't have any DEF or RES (except to a couple exotic damage types, and only in Faraday Cage). The only thing it offers is the -end/-DMG from the two enemy target powers, which definitely isn't enough.

Faraday Cage recharges pretty fast by default, and it has a very distinct visual effect. As an anchor power (like Lifegiving Spores), it's probably one of the better ones. And if you decide not to stand in it... I guess it's your own fault you died, dude.

Oh! I forgot to mention this earlier. Empowering Circuit and Amp Up have a +ToHit component but they can't take ToHit enhancements.

After toying around a bit, I think I have 3 main comments for the set I want to put out there. Some of these are pretty minor, I know, but still. #1 is that the color of the power icons is identical to electric blast. Having both sets just makes a sea of blurry icons that I have a hard time telling apart. It'd be great if they were distinct. The elec powers tend to have a bit of a purplish tinge to them, so maybe something more like a lavender, indigo, maroon, or mauve would set it apart? #2 is that I wish more of the powers actually did something for the user. It's true not every set does this, or even barely does this, but most sets let you benefit from nearly all the powers. The heal and absorb, even though they say the power jumps from you to other people, don't do anything for you at all. There are two more buff powers that don't do anything for you (okay Amp Up gives you a bit of HP and end), an end restore power that doesn't work on you, and a rez which you obviously can't use on yourself. So basically all you get is Faraday Cage and the end drain you might cause with Shock and Discharge, which doesn't feel like much. It would be great if, at the very least, the heal/absorb powers hit you too, though with the target other nature of those powers I'm not sure if that would solve anything in a solo scenario. #3 is that it'd be great if there was a way to rapidly generate Static if you feel like you need to. Sets like Savage Melee and Water Blast have a power that maxes it out for you, and it'd be nice if Shock had something like that. I could see a scenario where you need to rez a lot of people with Defibrillate but don't have any Static.

Faraday Cage is a bit buggy when used in the air. If you're a bit off the ground, the ring that's supposed to be around it ends up disconnected and floats over the cage. The ring itself doesn't grant the bonus. There is a certain height at which the cage will float in the air, but when it does it spawns a fair bit below you. You end up being at the top of the ring, outside the range of the actual cage.

Stuff like that is excellent for pulling.

These changes are all really fascinating and exciting. The dark melee changes will be interesting to see played out, and I love the theme of the new support set. Even the little chain icon border is cool. I need to hop in and see what the animations are like with Experimentation too. I liked the ones for Force of Will. Minor gripe, I do wish the new targeted AoE set had more endurance reduction on it, considering it looks extremely similar to Posi in the important bonuses and stats it gives. Buuut, that's just a small thing. Slotting Posis and Ragnarok tends to leave AoEs expensive and it would be nice to have a recharge bonus set that does a better job in that department. That's just my 2 inf though.

Yeah, can't even view any of my saved files except for the most recent 3 I made. The files are all still there on my HD. Even if I create a new file, it won't show up.

Darn! I was enjoying running around with +80% damage!

Always drove me up the flippin' wall that the Heat Mastery epic for Mastermind doesn't have an armor toggle. I think it's the only APP in the entire game (not for a melee/sentinel) that doesn't have one. It's driven me away from playing MMs that would have the fire epic (like, y'know, a demons/thermal MM).

By the way, small thing... Mystic Flight has a setting to turn off the extra power tray by talking to Null the Gull. It would be nice if Mighty Leap had this as well, since the mechanic is the same.

Thank you very much for this! I know what I'm doing today.

This is all really awesome. Kudos to all the hard-working devs.

Is there a help window or anything that lists all the keyboard shortcuts? Like the shift+click stuff to remove slots and whatnot.

Surprised the beast mastery sounds aren't on here, I've heard a few people complain about my MM -- not that it bothers me any. Sonic is also a good idea for being super noisy, and I hate that constant humming from elec control (gives me a headache). Cool pack though.

It was only like 2 merits, no worries. Lesson learned though, don't put procs in RttC! It seems to behave oddly. I doubt the result is intentional, but I have no idea of it was like this on live or not.

I had to buy some unslotters (because I already changed her build to work around it), but if it makes it easier,

So I've been working on this WP scrapper and I put Numina's in Rise to the Challenge. It's given some unexpected results. For one, it only procs when enemies are near to be taunted. I guess that makes sense, and I can live with that, but... The buff is also being impacted by the purple patch. According to combat attributes, lower level enemies give a larger boost (level 3s were giving me +70% recovery) and higher level enemies give less. Is this for real? Is this a bug? Is it a weird side effect of how RttC works? I'm guessing if nothing else I should move it to Health/FH instead. But I get the feeling it's not supposed to do this.

If anything this implies that Upshot should have its damage reduced. It's typical for BU and Aim type powers to give a smaller boost if they also have an additional effect. Some more examples: Fusion (Radiation Melee), Blood Thirst (Savage Melee), Combat Readiness (Street Justice), Build Momentum (Titan Weapons), Tidal Forces (Water Blast). When those powers are ported to a class that needs BU specifically (like Stalker), they're turned into classic Build Up. The damage buff is normalized but the secondary effect disappears. Based on that, Upshot is the one out of line, not Chronos.

I was curious, since I imagine a lot of people have artwork and would love a place to show it off or find artists in the community. And I'm sure there are people producing YT content about CoH right now. Is there a chance we could get a board for this sort of thing?