Hopestar

Yes, that's exactly what it does actually if your secondary is mostly melee like /Dark... 🤨 Energy/Energy or /TA or /Dev, etc. can actually be helpful in your survivability keeping enemies away indefinitely without getting in the way of your secondary...

It's not about "do not want to move around", it's that your powersets want you to simultaneously be in melee range and far away for the cone and moving back and forth is obviously a loss in effectiveness. Sonic/Dark gets a special mention because as I mentioned previously, it is mostly long activation cones which you need to be at considerable range for them to be effective. "So I am not sure where the notion comes from that it is lacking in area damage." Oh I don't know, maybe it's the fact that every attack is single target and disintegrate spread is not the same as AoE damage. "But not workable? Not appealing to someone?" These are 2 different things both of which are not the premise of this thread, nor anything I said. Obviously if a set did not work it would be a major problem unrelated to the topic at hand. Obviously appealing to someone is subjective and unrelated to the topic at hand. I do feel like I'm talking to myself though a lot on this forum because I know people aren't reading what I wrote and just forcing their opinion upon it especially when you say "subjectively not to your tastes" despite me giving a great example of a set that actively works against itself. So I reiterate: "Most of this thread seems to be in agreement that there are no bad builds, but anyone that says that clearly hasn't cared to think of reasons a combination of powers would be bad."

Not true, the most extreme case being Sonic/Dark/Munitions; This would be awful to play because it counters itself in the worst ways wanting you to be in close range but far for all the cones and all while dealing very little damage. This is also not the only one of it's kind, Assault Rifle is also mostly cones, Beam/Energy would have a difficult time clearing anything more than 1 at a time. Most of this thread seems to be in agreement that there are no bad builds, but anyone that says that clearly hasn't cared to think of reasons a combination of powers would be bad. As per this thread, I tried to make a list of builds in everything, but they were never stickied, nor the best way to do it. What needs to happen is a build-sharing website which has been in the works for more than a year now, which can have a rating system to show what people think is the best builds. Even then it's flawed. If you want a really good opinion on how a build will function, try the Homecoming Discord where the min-max veterans tend to hang out.

1) One could argue that your ST hold can stack long enough to work on AV/Monsters, but that's a question of build so generally true. 2) Most teams I've run with that were end game (probably at least 100 teams by now), were pickup groups where it's not very organized, enemies are easily spread around, and lesser enhanced teammates tend to go down trying to "kill things at a speed that renders control inefficient" making the job of crowd control very helpful. Of course no one realizes it until you aren't CCing every pack of mobs and they're face-down. I'd say probably half the 'end game teams' are not actually prepared for endgame, though it's a bit easier to be now with the enhancement QoL patches. 3) Generally ST though where your primary generally gets a lot of AoE damage + control is just a bonus. Looking at you Plant/ 4) Corruptors are superior to everyone. 5) Sure and holds and roots assist with that by preventing, for example, your Bonfire maniacs/Nova users/Fear-inducing teammates from scattering enemies all over the place.

Sure it does fire damage too, but the nuke is the worst nuke of all, the cones are extremely narrow, and sure this can be overcome with /Energy as a secondary, but that only means relying on 1 secondary powerset to make your primary viable. Of the highest DPA cones on a fully IO'd AR, it goes Ignite > Flamethrower / Buckshot > Full Auto in which your best aoe combo is just using Ignite > Buckshot > Flamethrower > Buckshot provided you can get your recharge high enough. That's completely removing your nuke power from the equation and even then you're locked into 2.33 - 4 second attacks that won't hit anything if they all charge into melee range on you. Then you have to include some form of crowd control to keep them in the cone, but what's this? The only means of CC you have is knockdown which doesn't even last as long as Flamethrower, nevermind Ignite. Oh and did I mention that this entire time, your Ignite (your real nuke, lets face it) is a teeny tiny radius? Before you say anything more detrimental, please be advised that my first 50 on the original servers was a AR/Devices and I have a AR/Energy on Indom that is 50. I have plenty of experience with the primary and I'd like it to be good, but it is currently the worst primary aside from Sonic. Why am I writing this when I know people that will completely disregard facts and numbers and spreadsheets will completely disregard anything I wrote and only listen to their own echo chamber of "I like it do lots pretty numbers" as gospel? I don't know.

Personally I find Street Justice and Energy Melee fun and both are pretty much the best as far as damage goes; of the ones you listed, Savage is very good, Stalker has the best version of Staff, and EA probably is the best secondary to put with Dual Blades. Other than that, I'd avoid Broadsword, Spines, and Dark, as they're all pretty bad on Stalker, much worse than Psi. But again, if you think you'll like Psi more than worrying about it's middle-grade damage, I say go for it.

For your first stalker I'd say Psi/Energy would be good as energy is so forgiving, psi melee isn't great because of the terrible mechanic it has, but if you like the look, go for it, it's just not anywhere near top DPS is all. SM/SD is pretty tops on damage, but as you know, shield does take awhile to get off the ground since it's entirely defense with a little resistance (2/3 of the amount ever other shield AT gets) thrown in at low health.

They never did, they always die fast if you aren't careful with your placement in the fight.

I think the major issue being overlooked is not the "dedicated healer" aspect as much as the choice of Controller over the more potent Defender where your healing is stronger. People will expect you to bring the control aspect with the controller symbol on their team and of which even an illusion has several controls (fear, stun, taunt, group invis), if you bring none of that, why would they want you on the team? You're shooting both yourself and your team in the foot with this decision, so advertising as a ill/emp controller would be wrong as you're more of a petless MM with your gimped healing and no control.

Assault Rifle is weak on every AT, the numbers are small, it's highly resisted damage typing, and its mostly cones that can't hit a whole group. There's other reasons, but I can't think of them for the moment. Lots of numbers fly, but they're small. Also see the testing Galaxy Brain was so gracious to spend time making:

@Jimmy & @Captain Powerhouse Still happening in RC1 and outside of the character creator, It looks like the arrow firing animation starts directly after the bow animation finishes. The Oil Slick is still created at the right time, as the arrow lands. Additionally it does not leave an arrow on the ground if it is supposed to.

Sorry I ended up getting busy. Combat Teleport, Starless Step, and Shadow Step are all having Line of Sight issues (and I think this extends to anything using powexec_location really) when using powexec_location currently on Beta. Been testing it on a mission box truck where I should be able to get to the other side no problem, especially with powexec_location forward:max, but it just hits the truck and goes nowhere. EDIT: As I surmised, it also happens on Lightning Rod, Team Teleport, and Shield Charge. Seems to be a /powexeclocation issue rather than Starless Step issue.

They both seem to be doing it for me, I can't port through one of those mission trucks in AP with Powexec_location forward:max and instead just smash my face into it. Not using powexec_location allows me to teleport though it without a problem and the same goes for buildings like AE as well. Tested on Beta RC1.

@Jimmy & @Captain Powerhouse Can confirm this still occurring in RC1, no graphical or sound FX are played and it just moves you.

135 degree cone still wouldn't be absurd as there's still a target cap. Mercenaries, Stone Armor, Broadsword, All Electric primaries, Assault Rifle, Robotics, and Sonic Blast need the most love I think. Mercenaries just don't function as anything but vengebait that you can't use vengeance on.

Here's my squid costume, so when do I get my prize?

Thanks for this tutorial, sadly PiggViewer 1.61 doesn't seem to work on Windows 10 apparently. I even tried every compatibility mode there is (XP SP3 works best but it still locks up for hours every time I click a texture).

Wormhole needs a buff that's all. It still has a lot more control going for it than Fold which just teleports anything in 100 radius LoS. What the real problem is here is Teleport itself not getting buffed to cast faster and use less endurance to match the other travel powers, and Warshade's Teleport not even getting the phase part...

Handclap is best because you can have it before Rage, but likewise use Earth Mastery Salt Crystals. Earth Mastery is so great in general. None of these can mitigate Bosses and AVs though, so you're still screwed there. One cool trick for them: Pray you can land Knockout Blow and a epic/patron Hold, but purple patch? Run.

As a T9, EMP Arrow still really needs a boost. 300 seconds is too long for what it does and doesn't do. I'd go with what @Monos King listed and a shorter cooldown because enemies will inevitably get out of it in a team environment.

It's not going to stun long enough to make a difference and you'd employ the same strategy most people do at level 1, stun one, kill the other.

Yeah totally understandable, I too shelved my Dark/Dark for a Dark/Savage because like you say it just rips face. Demons/Dark should work out well, though I don't know how it compares damage-wise to Dom.

Make room for it, it's not that large of a game. 😛 Anyway, just wanted to echo that Shadow Maul while I understand the reasoning behind 10 targets reduced to 5 to be like every other cone like it, Touch of Fear is still really bad and doesn't make up for it in the slightest. With the activation time, half the DPA of Shadow Maul which is only OK for a Flurry power, it's not enough to help with the AoE damage for sacrificing Shadow Maul. Maybe if the -tohit wasn't single target and the damage wasn't only slightly above Soul Drain while being smaller radius than Shadow Maul AND a DoT, it would be acceptable to hurt Shadow Maul, but in it's current state, no. Even with all the procs it can have it's still only 66% of the damage of Shadow Maul for a 20% faster cast at 1 less range and I was under the impression that procs were something you wanted to change so they didn't make up most of the damage. I appreciate another AoE in Dark Melee that's severely lacking, but I think you can implement it better without crippling other powers in the already crippled set. 🙂

@brasilgringo Dark is very melee-centric so I don't think it's the right set for you if you want to stay at range and I don't see really how you can when your AoE damage is all melee. Most of the ranged attacks in the set are quite weak, Gloom and Moonbeam being the strongest, so Moonbeam -> Dark Grasp -> Gloom -> Dark Blast -> Dark Grasp is optimal if you're set on staying ranged.

I think your problem with dominator might be the that it's all about the build as well, I get ~290 DPS and capped defenses with -tohit out of my Dark/Savage Dom and a Plant/Savage could push about 400 and be even more survivable with the right build (I even scrapped mine because it was just a boring cakewalk). Don't bother with the fiery orb pet, it does barely anything.