Dispari

I think the idea is it's more of a SWAT/riot control type set. You're shooting teargas and stun grenades, to neutralize large groups of enemies that might be powerful metas. You can always play a Dom and pair it with a set that does just shoot bullets.

In a way you're right, Burt. Cryo Freeze Ray and Tranquilizer already existed. Liquid Nitrogen is basically Ice Slick. Cloaking Device is just the Illusion stealth. Flash Bang and Tear Gas are just your typical AoE stun/hold, though AFAIK Tear Gas is the only one with a -DMG. And Gun Drone is just copied from Devices with few changes. Aside from Gun Drone though I don't think that's a problem really. The powers still have some good synergy, and Smoke Canister is reasonably unique. Also as Fup said, it's the first time we've really gotten a good Natural/Tech themed control set.

This would make a lot more sense and be easier for players to understand (instead of having to learn that Corrs aren't a support AT). It could even be 6, 7, or even 8 different ATs for all I care. Simplicity is best.

BTW not sure if it's Arsenal Control or Arsenal Assault doing this (or both), but having the old bug where my weapon is reset every time I go into the character editor. I have it set to Celestial Rifle on my back. But every time I open the editor it's reset to default, which would cost me money if I said okay.

Second role for each archetype is a good idea, but I'm not sure what Scrapper, Stalker, and Sentinel would be. They only do one type of damage and don't really tank. Doms and Masterminds also fit into more than two roles because of the wide variety of their powers. Doms get both melee and ranged attacks in addition to control, and Mastermind pets are all over the place and can count as anything.

Traps and Devices versions of Trip Mine are different. Devices is non-interruptable and so animates much faster. It can be used in combat and under fire. The downside is a longer recharge of 30s compared to Traps which is 20s. However, Dom version seems to be a hybrid? It's non-interruptable like Blaster, but has a 20s recharge. And the damage reported is quite low. The power does seem to be significantly weaker. For one it has no lethal component, and it has no random fire damage on it. The details for the Blaster version are shown as a pseudopet with a self-destruct power, while the Dom version just reports damage as an attack. The fire damage also seems quite low on top of that. Blasters and Doms should have much closer damage values. (Also minor bug apparent in these screenies, the powers are being reported as Assault Rifle and not Arsenal Assault, even the ones that have no crossover like Power Up)

If the ice slick power actually immobilized people and the AoE sleep was moved down so it could be skipped, I would like this set a whole lot more. It would address pretty much all my concerns with the set's performance. Only thing left is... the Gun Drone is boring, even if he attacks faster. It's still just an obviously ported Blaster power.

Maybe so, but being able to run content with a tank and 7 corruptors is kinda what makes City cool. I've done all Scrapper TFs and all MM TFs. Do we need to encourage people to float closer to a "correct" team makeup? Even if the vast majority of people ignore it and decide they don't need Prismatics, it's going to come up and insert some amount of chaos into teams forming TFs. It also kinda breaks down when you can just bring 2 EATs and somehow that counts as a diverse team, but 8 completely different archetypes (Tanker, Stalker, Peacebringer, Soldier, Blaster, Mastermind, Sentinel, Corruptor) might not.

To be fair, Absorb stacks as far as I'm aware, and Spirit Ward doesn't give that much. The designs are also different. Frostwork would be a good emergency "HP stopper" whereas Spirit Ward tics small amounts of it over time, to shave a little off incoming damage here and there. I'm tentatively in favor of the power being changed to Absorb, but it definitely has its pros and cons, and I think it could be slightly better. For me, being able to track it as actually doing something is a big bonus though. Though I will admit losing it as a unique bonus that no other set has is a downside. Though maybe it's rare for a reason. Absorb is a very good effect and basically every set that has it is super strong. MaxHP is harder to quantify if it's doing something or not.

Just thinking about hypothetically if normal ATs fit two categories while VEATs fit three, you could make a pretty decent spread. The problem ATs end up being Scrapper, Stalker, and Sentinel because their secondary isn't exactly tanking and it doesn't really fit anywhere else. Dominator actually does control, melee, and ranged so is problematic to fit in just two slots. Mastermind you could make a case for being under tank, since I wouldn't say it necessarily fits as melee or ranged damage. Or maybe it fits every category since MM sets can be just about anything. You also come across the problem of control really only having two ATs that definitely fit. You could make a case for Warshades or Fortunatas or heck even the right dark Scrapper, but it's really just not a role that a lot of characters are designed to fit in. You can force some other ATs in there, but it becomes obvious you're doing it to fill out the role and not because they truly undeniably belong there. When I form teams for a TF I look for a tank of some sort, some support (all VEATs and Corrs definitely count; hell Doms are even half a support IMO), and the rest doesn't matter. I don't try to break down melee or ranged damage as if they're significantly different things. And control basically is support so I don't go out of my way to look for that separately either. Just not sure this system is going to make sense without shoving a few square pegs in round holes. And then if we do get it all baked down to diversity for all the roles... congrats, we reinvented the holy trinity.

Definitely a bit messy to have every AT only fill one role, when some are specifically designed to straddle the line between two. Like, most redside ATs are designed as a hybrid, instead of the holy trinity versions bluesiders get out of blaster, defender, and tank. Net result is you shoehorn ATs into roles that only halfway make sense (or not at all, in some cases). Because you need to somewhat balance out what roles each AT fits into. Which... just results in making stuff up and being inaccurate and arbitrary. Not sure it's a great system TBH.

What do you mean? I don't see any problems with Arse Assault.

Let people make their own power choices! It's not like drawing a different weapon really changes the strength of the power. We already changed the redraw system and have established that redraw doesn't really change anything in the long run. So it's definitely not for a balance reason that it can't fire a Frag Grenade. All you're really doing is messing with people's visual aesthetic and theme. Don't do that.

Even if I did agree that the power was OP (it's not), endurance cost is a poor way to balance something. Because some builds will just get to use the OP thing without any problems, and be OP. The change just brought it to a reasonable level. Anyway, resistance to -ToHit is a pretty narrow edge case, not to discount it entirely; it's handy against Circle sometimes. But basically Tactics does more for the same cost, and benefits your whole team. The only time I could see going Targeting Drone over Tactics is not wanting to take the Leadership pool and another power before it, or you just want a little floaty boi over your head.

Frag Grenade does seem like an oversight.

I've always thought Circle were balanced upside down, with powerful units with a lot of variety at the low level, and then on the high end they basically do nothing. I like having the new variety of units, and not seeing critters like succubi just dying out and no longer existing. OG game had a weird habit of putting tons of effort into new/unique creatures and then just not utilizing them at all.

Unlockable costume parts ARE evil. Nobody needs to be made to do content they don't want to do. I have over 80 characters and it doesn't matter how quick/easy it is to kill 50 Snakes, that's just a waste of my time no matter how you slice it. HC put a lot of effort into making all costumes and emotes free and available for everyone, and now we're reversing course on adding pointless grind? No. Absolutely not. And as was said above, this just opens the door for more later. 50 Snakes "isn't that much" right now, but how's it look like when there are 30 different things to unlock from all over the place? With as much forethought as this one had since, as people pointed out, it's basically locked redside. Another problem I'd like to point out, there's no way to track or learn about this unlock in the game. There's no progress bar, no sign telling you you can earn it. So most people won't even know it exists or how to get it. So it doesn't even exist as an incentive for people to go earn. You won't know it's there unless you read patch notes or a friend tells you. Which is a pretty good reason not to do it at all.

Fair enough. Either way the net result is it was reduced from an INCREDIBLY high cost to equivalent to Leadership powers.

Actually I had to test this because those numbers are off, unless they're calculating it as... end per half second? It says it's reduced from 0.39 to 0.195, but it's actually been reduced TO 0.39 FROM 0.78, which is what it is on live. 0.78 is ABSURDLY expensive for a toggle, more than twice what even penalized extra cost of armor toggles like Tough (0.33) and is now just as expensive as something like Tactics. Honestly it's been ridiculously expensive since it got nerfed from 20% ToHit to 5% (with 20% ACC), as ToHit is significantly more useful and accuracy is easy to get. Even then, at 0.39 it's strictly worse than Tactics, which gives more ToHit and buffs your team. So I'd still say it's actually not very good. But at least it's not laughably expensive anymore.

Yeah but slotting it makes it around 7.75% or so depending on ED 😄

Having a Widow as my main and having done a bunch of testing of the Bane changes, I'll say all the stuff here is very very good. The new powers for NW and Fort are nice to have. While I don't think the Fortunata one is a must-have, I can see some people using the power if they want to be slightly more mez-focused. Pain Tolerance however is a huge buff. It scales up to +30% maxHP (something Widows struggle with) and around 7% RES (all but psi). It drastically increases the durability of Night Widows and gives them a viable existence alongside Forts, which are usually considered strictly better. The alternate animation option for Bane/Crab is a great QoL change and keeps most of the power animations snappy. If I might suggest anything else, I would say offer an option for Build Up to also have a gun (or no weapon) option, for Huntsmen builds. I believe it's the only power that still forces drawing a mace after these changes (...except the mace attacks, ofc). The animation changes for Bane attacks are VERY good. The AT went from being very sluggish to feeling powerful. Nearly all of these powers were 2 seconds or longer, and now they're much faster. Some of the long animations for Crab and Widow were also brought down. Overall these are all great changes and I have no complaints.

Just a small conversation here, but about Cold Domination's Frostwork changing: On live it currently does +maxHP. AFAIK outside of Rebirth Destiny it's the only power in the game that grants other people a +maxHP buff. That makes it pretty unique, but is it good? MaxHP is a bit odd. It does "heal" the amount it adds, and so in a way it's like absorb. It does make you more durable but in a way that's hard to quantify. It's also a bit invisible, since there's no indicator unless you're tracking HP. There is also a limitation in some edge cases, where some characters will be near their maxHP cap, and adding more will actually be wasted. This is easier to accomplish on some ATs/sets than others, but it is possible to be HP capped already. Testing on live, my Cold Controller gets +930 maxHP out of her buff. Remaking that character on beta, I get +930 absorb. So the value is the same. Technically speaking I think absorb, while a very powerful effect, is worse than maxHP. Absorb disappears as it gets used up, and maxHP actually increases values you get from regeneration. But... due to the limits with HP capping and the much more usable visibility aspect of absorb, I think this change is probably for the better overall. People can more easily see that absorb is there and that it's doing something, and absorb is and has always been good. If I had any suggestion it might be to increase the value it gives by a bit? Just to make up for the fact that it's strictly less powerful than maxHP and might be a slight nerf to the power otherwise? Wild Bastion on a Controller slotted the same way gives 511 absorb; that power can easily hit all 8 players and all their pets, whereas Frostwork can likely only be upkept on 4 targets. Just a thought.

From playing this set a bunch, my observations on it are as follows: #1: The set relies on no less than 3 area-targeted patches, but has no way to keep enemies IN those patches. What it needs most is an AoE immobilize like (almost) every other set has, to keep enemies pinned in location. Otherwise, if enemies move, many of your powers are no longer contributing. #2: The AoE Sleep is a terrible contribution to the set. Sleep is just not good, at all, even in the case where it tics periodically to put people back to sleep. It also makes the level one choice between a sleep and another sleep, so for people who do not care for sleeps at all, they have no choices to make here. It also conflicts with the confuse in the set, and obvious pairings like Arsenal Assault leave DoT patches so even ticcing sleep is not likely to contribute. And I have noticed, powers like Liquid Nitrogen are flagged not to tic on sleeping targets, which is clever, but it means they contribute less as a result. Even its secondary effects could be accomplished by another power (like an AoE immobilize). The set already does KD, confuse, stun, and hold. The sleep is not a good addition, and it fights the entire rest of the set, making it perform worse. I would say drop it for the AoE immobilize, but if something else has to go, possibly the Cloaking Device as it isn't contributing much in the way of support for the team (though, I like the equivalent power in Illusion and would welcome its inclusion anyway). At the absolute minimum, I would move this down so you can take Cryo Freeze Ray at level 1 and skip all sleep powers. #3: The Gun Drone is boring and unfun. It's literally just a copy of a power Blasters can get, so it's nothing novel or interesting. If it was some other kind of robot, or had different powers like missiles, or you got two of them (with pushable hitboxes like gremlins/imps get), it would be at least somewhat unique. This isn't to be entirely negative. I like the idea of a weapon-based control set, and adds more character customization options. It (mostly) pairs well with Arsenal Assault, and should be good at dealing with multiple mobs given all its options. The mez powers the set offers are generally good, especially the smoke grenade. The set does a combination of useful effects from -ToHit to -recharge, and even -DMG. It could definitely be improved though.

All the new emotes are cool and I like the updated smart phone. I will probably start using some of these new food emotes in RP. As an aside, while we're messing with emotes and fixing sits, could we possibly get gendered sit emotes proliferated? Girls get majorly shafted on sit options, using the same emote SIX TIMES across their options. (Okay to be fair one leg on the stool emote is slightly farther back). As a result girls basically have 2 sit emotes where guys have 7. LedgeSits are okay though. Below are SitChair emotes 1, 2, and 3. For male and female. Bench 2, 3, and 4 (1 is the same between genders). For male and female. Stool. For male and female. I'm thinking they could be ported and swapped as sitchair4, 5, 6. And bench5, 6, 7. And stool2, respectively.

Regarding the roles here, I do have a question/comment. Why is Widow listed as Control but Soldier as Support? Control: Fortunata has control powers yes, but Night Widow has none. If you're a Night Widow, you're not contributing any control whatsoever and your role is completely inaccurate. In fact, Banes and Crabs have more mez powers than Night Widows do, because they at least have access to an immobilize. Support: If Banes count as support, why don't Widows? Widow numbers for DEF and ToHit are higher across the board, they grant psi RES, and they get access to VEAT Vengeance (which stacks with normal Vengeance). Realistically both VEATs should be melee/range/support, because that's what they are, objectively. I realize it was probably varied so they fall into different categories, but this feels forced and inaccurate. The game even agrees; when you go to make a new character, both Widows and Soldiers are listed under Support, and neither are listed under Control.