Auroxis

From what I gathered seeing what Captain Powerhouse wrote about this topic, his direction will probably be more towards how damage procs interact with class and/or power damage multipliers.

The Power Boost +Def interaction was my favorite feature for the majority of my time spent both on Live and on Homecoming. My Empath was utilizing PBU/PB for Vengeance and Fortitude for years, and naturally when Homecoming came out I used that interaction with a Time Corruptor (with Clarion). If Farsight gets its interaction removed, I could probably manage by using Barrier instead of Clarion and shifting some slots around since I don't use PB on my Corr. If Fortitude(my avatar for almost a decade) gets its interaction removed I'd probably quit HC, so if any devs are listening and want to get rid of me that's the way to do it.

One thing that came to mind, the Preventive Medicine proc makes perfect sense as an inclusion in Regen.

There's nothing radical about it. It's radical to think removing the most popular functionality of a power is somehow an acceptable nerf when so many other options exist. And who the hell uses Scorpion Shield with Time?

You're making the classic mistake of ignoring use cases, when the very origin of the cottage rule itself comes from a use case (replacing something with a dropping a cottage on a target).

Oh those don't really matter and not worth mentioning. And it doesn't boost +End, Chrono Shift's +End is not affected by buffs or enhancements. The cottage rule is pretty basic. A power shouldn't have its main functionality removed in favor of another, with the agreed-upon caveat that if the removed functionality is sufficiently replaced with something similar that it's passable. Power Boost's main functionality to the playerbase on Time is buffing Farsight. That's its primary and by far the most popular use-case scenario.

Power Boost's benefits to Time outside of Farsight are minimal. A better heal and ToHit debuff, and a longer hold. The point remains that the vast majority of people who took Power Boost did it for its interaction that you're advocating to remove. One day Power Boost is fulfilling its purpose of making Farsight stronger, and the next day it doesn't.

Unnecessary? Weren't people calling this an OP must-nerf power? And yes, I'd rather do something like lowering Slowed Response down to -20%, making it still a good power pick but less competitive with debuff sets. Better that than literally nullifying a power pick on many builds, making people respec, and breaking a cottage rule in the process.

Maybe that should be addressed then instead of making most time players respec? Why not just nerf its -res numbers for instance? And FF is due for a buff.

I agree that Absorb treads too much into Bio territory. Also, a few of your suggestions break the cottage rule. Buffing powers shouldn't involve removing existing functionality, but rather adding upon them or buffing their numbers.

Well redraw doesn't delay cast time anymore if that's what you're referring to, it just delays your impact. On a high recharge build and an FF proc you're still firing them in rapid succession, might not be seamless but i did say near seamless. You have room to fire web envelope in between to mitigate the lack of threat generation. Or a procced out Disruptor Blast if you really wanna maximize AoE DPS. Well some of the comments ITT put banes in a fairly negative light. I just wanted to chime in from my experience to put things into perspective, not shut the thread down. I even said I wouldn't mind the suggested buffs.

Are you referring to the grenades? Since while they're not melee powers, their targeted AoE(not cone) nature acts much like other AoE's in melee range. Bane Spider isn't my main, no. But i did run high performance tests on it (AE farming and Pylon killing) and was overall impressed aside from a few caveats like redraw. Banes are good, and while they have some room to improve there are lots of powersets/AT's that are in more dire need of a buff. I'd hate to see the devs focus on buffing what is a fairly well performing class when stuff like PB's, FF, TA, and more exist.

RIP combo mechanic, maybe remove that wording from the OP? The set looks to be less spammy now though, need to give a lot of the changes a spin before the final verdict.

Stalkers don't get the -res power in Mace Mastery, and they don't get the other -res powers banes have (total -60% resists, before procs). Banes also have far stronger team buffs and are just as tanky if not more-so depending on the scenario. Bane's AoE is superior as well, having venom grenade+frag grenade+crowd control as a near seamless attack chain that reaches a lot of targets. Night Widows are just DPS queens with some defense buffs, their AoE is lacking and they don't offer much outside of DPS and +Defense. Bane on the other hand multiplies your team's DPS while having better AoE.

Banes are still pretty flexible when compared to most classes, and they contribute a lot of different things to a team (especially -res) while being fairly tanky. As for lacking DDR, just a small amount of it won't help much, and the AT still has 85% resistance caps which you can reach (for S/L at least) on a high-end build alongside softcapped M/R/A defenses. I wouldn't mind making the mace ranged attacks viable, but seeing as Huntsman covers that role already, the lack of a no-redraw option bothers me more.

Bane is very strong, its only issue is the redraw which while doesn't reduce your DPS, feels clunky and reduces your burst damage.

I'll just post my dream changes: T1: Shock (Ranged, Moderate DMG (Energy), Foe -End, -Regen, -Recovery, -DMG, Self +Static) Now also deals moderate levels of damage (similar to a Tier 2 blast) T2: Rejuvenating Circuit (Ranged (Special), Ally Heal, Self +Static) T3: Galvanic Sentinel (Summon Galvanic Sentinel: Minor DMG (Energy) Ranged Debuff Special, Self -Static) Now lasts 60 seconds regardless of static, and deals minor damage when attacking Casts a powerful PBAoE -End and -Recovery debuff on its summoned location. The radius of the debuff depends on the number of stacks consumed T4: Energizing Conduit (Self +End (Special), Self +Static) Now restores your own endurance and chains it to others. This lets you generate static without a target Changed name to Energizing Conduit to reflect that T5: Faraday Cage (Location (PBAoE), Team +Res(All DMG but Toxic, Status, Knockback, -Rech, -Rec, -End)) T6: Empowering Circuit: (Ranged (Special), Ally +DMG, Endurance Disccount, Self +Static) Empowering Circuit now stacks with itself from the same caster Cooldown has been doubled Now grants a small buff to Endurance Discount T7: Defibrillate (Melee (Targeted AoE), Ally Rez, Self -Static) T8: Insulating Circuit (Ranged (Special), Ally +Absorb, Self +Static) T9: Amp Up (Ranged (Special), Ally +Special, +Recharge, Self -Static) The endurance drain proc has been replaced with an energy damage proc The proc only applies when the buff is used at five stacks of Static Static (Circuit Boost) Generating Static now refreshes the duration on all active Static stacks

I have to say I was hoping for a LOT more changes than that. The -regen to Shock (does it stack from the same caster?), while nice against AV's/GM's isn't that impactful against anything else. I agree with what others have said about Galvanic Sentinel, it shouldn't be so squishy or have such a short duration. I also still think it shouldn't be a -Static power. The removal of +Movement is slightly disappointing as it catered to Hover builds, but It's far from my main concern. The main issues with the set still remain, though I'm not gonna just repeat what I've said at this point until I see a change in direction.

I get your point about Ice/Time and holds, but this thread is about Fire/Time. I'm also a big fan of Power Boost, but the Soul Mastery version of Soul Drain is inferior in multiple ways (cast time, radius, recharge) that make Soul Mastery less appealing than Dark Mastery for this particular combination, due to the AT's damage modifier+damage cap and the fact that we can softcap ourselves without it while having a strong PBAoE ToHit debuff. Also, contrary to popular belief, teams don't automatically come with zero defense buffs and tons of damage buffs. And soloing is a common occurrence in top-performing teams where you often split up to maximize completion time.

One other issue I'd like to raise is the time it takes to build up five stacks. That's a LOT of time investment for a finisher, and right now only the mass rez utilizes stacks for a powerful effect. To go together with our "Nuke Rez", Amp Up would make for a nice "Nuke Buff". Give it a shorter duration, but make it chain and add another buff component to it. And for our third finisher, instead of the pet(which can stay, but not as a finisher) I'd like to see a new power to be our "Nuke Debuff". Bring back Discharge with a longer cooldown, give it -recovery/-res/-regen, and scale its radius(we can do that now) and debuff values on the amount of stacks spent.

It doesn't seem different on the surface level, but it's a major step behind the scene that made me worry about bugs a bit. From my tests (playing around in power selection/enhancement menus when it turns off) it didn't cause any crashes but I'm still not sure if it's bug-free.

Optimal chain is CI - CB - JL - AS JL is the weak point, but you can place a lot of nice procs into it (including -res). HP deals its damage early in its animation but has a lot of trailing animation time which lowers its DPA below CB and JL. Attacks from pool powers like Moonbeam and Cross Punch don't generate Focus stacks from what I recall. As for Thunder Strike, it's definitely meh but when your LR is recharging you might need that extra AoE. If you pick it up I recommend slotting a FF +Rech proc into it.

Empathy is fine when played to its strengths, and it's quite powerful when paired with Sonic Attack. Please don't trash the set when you can educate players instead:

At that point @Dispari you're kind of giving up on the "combo" aspect of the set. Edit: To be clear, you only need to use five +static abilities in a minute. If the game doesn't encourage you to use some +static or a single -static power within a minute of active gameplay, then there's a major problem. The only issue you're addressing here is that none of the +static builders are self target-able, so you can't sustain static while traveling to a location without slowing yourself down with the pet. My preferred solution to this problem would be: 1. Making just one of the +static powers a self buff/heal that chains to others. 2. Make the +static powers refresh all active stacks, so you only need to use the above power once per minute if you're traveling. Or keep it up indefinitely like you suggest. This still wouldn't fix the main issues of the combo system, but it would let you build up and conserve stacks for a good opener (like a rez) without a hassle.

I see no mention in the OP about Amp Up not buffing an ally's defense buffs. I tested it again and it still reproduces.