Frosticus

What purpose do pool attacks even serve? If pool attacks are so ostensibly bad that no one uses them in an attack chain then to what purpose do they even exist? Air superiority at least has some function as a control power. Cross punch is pretty good, but pays out the nose with 2 other useless attacks required. Flurry? Jump Kick? New Attacks: arcane bolt? so slow project will? so slow Even my trollers barely ever use them and you get double damage and trollers have no "attacks" for the most part. I'd say pool attacks are in the same realm as petless MM's.

Fair enough. That's unfortunate because when external buffs are present corrs deal a lot more damage. I'd harbour a guess that defender popularity has more to do with ease of making them tough due to higher values on defensive/resistance shields. Plus you can shoot up to lvl 30 so fast now. It used to matter getting bitter ice blast at 18 vs 28. not so much anymore . The latter two are why I've learned toward defenders lately. Combos I wanted to try were just too time intensive previously. At any rate. I've petitioned for a larger scourge range in the past and continue to.

Except defs and corrs have almost the exact same number of characters in the march 2020 stats. If you take out empathy (defs #1) and kinetics (corr #1) there are more corrs than defs being created. Neither emp or kin have anything to do with procs. So either the player base hasn't gotten the memo that defs>corrs, or it isn't actually true outside of a very small number of scenarios. Sonic blast might be an exception sometimes, but probably not all the time.

TW is actually the most endurance efficient attack set (maybe more so than claws)... on paper. In reality it can crush your blue bar almost as fast as it crushes EB's. I gave up on my tw/fire scrapper at 46. Momentum causes hit strikes to land at the wrong times (hello whirling smash) and slow mode attacks feel ultra slow compared to the overly exaggerated hyper speed of momentum. It is so annoying that I won't even finish off a couple minions to help my team out when momentum drops. I just move on to the next spawn. I'd be inclined to play it if the set wasn't so bipolar. Maybe trim the slow animations and have momentum increase speed by like 40% instead of of the current 200%+ increase in speed that it has now on some attacks. It's numerical advantages are vast. I find myself comparing every damage dealer I make to TW and ultimately falling short. My last several stalker projects have been specifically geared to unseat TW scrappers in st damage. Haven't gotten there. Stalkers are awesome though in and of themselves. Bio Armor is currently tougher and adds more offense than Fire armor. While in offensive mode. Something needs to change. The -res applied to yourself in offensive mode probably needs to be unresistable as it is meaningless once you factor in that your resistances resist it. Probably scrap the -res aura and just give it sleep or something (hey it's good enough for stalkers right?).

Yes HL was originally 30% -res for corrs .I had a 50 fire/cold corr that I pvp'd the hell out of long before /cold was available to anyone else. Unless it was just listed as 30% but was actually 24% ingame. But I'd bet real money that it used to be 30%. I don't know when it was changed. edit: posted same time as Trickshooter. There you have it :)

I like retaliatory damage too. I cant think of it being used anywhere else. a poisoned target could take some damage everytime they attack (ala energy transfer).

Duration on live, WAI and passed through beta tests aren't flags I'd plant personally. I think I may have even shed a tear or two over the pvp changes of i14 screaming those same sentiments. They dont really mean anything. All that matters is how the power(s) are in the current game environment. And that doesnt mean incarnate trials, or dfb's, but everything.

If this happens, no one has the right to complain. The powers literally state "does not stack from the same caster" Yah I play a lot of storm and cold, it will be a hit in long static fights for sure. Someone could try it right now with tarpatch though if they were so inclined.

Getting ( former )psuedo pets to correctly follow AT modifiers is a change I've been petitioning for since about i8. You cant really look at improving/nerfing sets until they work correctly across all the ATs that access them. As to why didnt former devs do it when implementing each psuedo pet? They used a butt load of copy paste back then for a "good enough" result. If they had the tech this team has now it would have been done then by default as the powers no longer use custom psuedo pets.

No, like I said it was a silly idea, but it was in response you you saying there is no way for them to make Farsight a click that only gets buffed by powerboost for 15 seconds. I don't think psuedo pets is a real solution, just that it would solve that particular "problem" as something like lightning storm is buffed by PB for 15 sec and then goes back to normal. I think we have all taken powers and tried them in the hopes that PB might affect them. Let me tell you the dissapointment my trapper felt...yay webnade is affected 😛 I don't think trial and error is the best way to figure things out in a game with such a cumbersome respec process. I wish the original devs had spent more time creating a system that works the way one would expect with things like +special, but here we are with some powers benefiting (17 pages of) arguably too much, and some powers not working at all that probably should. It's probably too time consuming to rectify everything now.

True none of my melee characters give a hoot about "gather for" buffs. My squishies still value most of them though. I dunno, I'm sure you could turn it into a bunch of pseudo pets that stick to your allies or something. There are definitely powers that last awhile that only receive +special for the duration of PB. That sounds silly, but there isn't a lot of indication that something like Lightning storm will behave different than farsight. I guess it just seems strange to me that time can buff about as well as any set AND buff itself too. That is a very exclusive ability. I can't tell you how many times I've wished my stormies could cast o2 on myself. Maybe an alternate direction is to let squishes cast most of their buffs on themselves even it is required some kind of invisible target to allow st buffs to bounce back to the originator. That would even up most sets significantly. No one really talks about the tohit, or the perception. I have tactics on every single build for tohit to cut down on acc slotting, and because blindness, while rare, wipes teams. I think those values are of less value at end game, but very valuable in the 18-45 range. ya faraday is a neat power. That will be a pretty sturdy set if a bit slow at killing things. It's been mentioned a couple times that casting pb+farsight eats up a not-insignificant amount of time and can get bothersome Definitely cuts into dps if you are recasting it while everyone is fighting the spawn (so you can tag most of them). While nowhere near as time consuming as the Fade trick was it is about 3% of your time.

I certainly didn't say farsight should only last 15 seconds. Don't start being like Infinitum haha. zero risk + large reward is a questionable design choice and usually hasn't held up against the test of time in this game. fwiw I don't care about pb+grant invis. It isn't in the same league as farsight, it's single target, low value, and locks you into a pretty subpar pool for most builds (but not all). You'll realistically get it on maybe 4-5 people in a single powerboost if you focus on it and they don't move around much. Farsight can hit 255 if they like sardines. One and done. A powerboosted hold, still has to hit and carries at least a tiny risk. It might not seem like much of a difference, but it is. Risk vs reward has always been something that at least holds a bit of water in terms of balancing in this game. I'd change farsight to a wide area toggle. There isn't any compelling reason it should be a click other than that's what it was implement as. As a click it only exasperates the +special issue by being immune to mez. That isn't a luxury that any other buff/debuff set has for any self defense power as they all either suppress or detoggle -(but we've seen time is afforded a lot of luxuries). The exception being ff gen, which carries its own unique limitations (and isn't affected by +special either). Toggle would let it fully benefit from powerboost still and you'll do more dps. who doesn't love dps? I guess we'll see what cpt powerhouse eventually does to it as he said it has been on their radar for awhile. I think he is aware of what other sets have access to and he is definitely wary of def enhancement in +special.

Procs: Blaster - both good and helpful Controller - damage proc is welcome, font is junk Corruptor - both good, need something to expand range of scourge. Defender - both good, but I'm playing poison so they keep me alive Dominator - both junk, +dam would be good but it needs to be able to slot in attacks. That whole set would need to be reworked though Stalker - both great. chance for buildup recharge isn't great unless you have aoe attacks though Scrapper - both great. Critical strikes is bonkers on some builds. VEATs - toxic proc is good, fear proc is ok No feedback on the rest.

I guess my question is what makes time so special that it gets to have 2 mins of +special while so few other sets get more than 15 seconds of +special. 8x the value of +special...which is already one of the most powerful effects in the game. Time gets 8x as much out of it compared to just about every other buff/debuff set. I don't see that as "a fun bonus interaction" as others have put it. A bonus interaction/synergy would be like 1.5x if we were being objective. Not 8x duration. Like if you were accelerated, you could extend the duration of +special. That is what a bonus interaction would be. I don't use any power and expect to get more than 15s of +special w/ PB because that what powerboost says it will do. It is how the vast majority of powers work. I don't click aim and then scratch my head when it fails to give me 2 minutes of buff because it says it will buff me for 10 seconds. And it does. Always. But right now there are some powers that go way beyond and there are some powers that don't work, that probably should be altered to work.

It would be interesting to see the stats on how many people take tough/weave vs maneuvers/tactics You are right, but most people don't really seem to think about how they will play in a team, or what they will contribute to team success beyond dealing damage. I"m always happy when I get on a team and see some leadership buffs stacking. It is a clear indication that the team will likely play well

Poison requires melee play to be effective but offers very limited tools to survive there. Poison is my favorite set apparently. I have 2 lvl 50 poisons now. I have no other repeats and only 10 50's in my stable. This game is very easy so I think I enjoy the challenge that poison presents. I feel the set plays quite well with mez protection and about 20% def. At that point I really start to feel confident and capable of playing aggressively. You have to play aggressive for poison to do well. If you leave melee the enemies get much stronger. if you lay off spitting venom around they pummel you. Getting mezzed is a real sore spot for the set. I dont mind the small aoes. I'd add some delayed chaining to them to help them spread. neuro breath and paralytic are good opportunities to add some -regen or something. Some mez protection would be nice but I dont expect it.

it can definitely stack a lot of -res. I had a 50 storm/son/power back on live. it could make a very large impact in longer fights. rain+howl is nice for each spawn on teams. It is pretty back loaded though amd it isnt often that you get to use it to it's full potential. web envelope is super slow and you will struggle to plant a +level AV. If they get free they will flee far and wide

Indeed, what I actually like about proc builds (or at least mine) is that the sacrifices you make result in some very tangible holes in the build. You spread yourself pretty thin chasing procs. So when a buffer shows up, their impact is felt to a large extent. Counter that to my more traditional builds that really couldn't care less if someone gives me some defense, or tohit, or recharge, or endurance. Just put down your -res and get out of the way. My proc builds love buffers because they are usually just hanging on by a thread with just enough recovery, acc, etc to get by. I'd be sad to see that go, but would ultimately just switch back to more solo-centric do everything exceedingly well builds if neccessary. It will be interesting either way though.

The logic and way you guys debate is why things like the changes to dark melee were abandoned almost immediately. I feel bad for cpt powerhouse. At any rate my takeaway is: 1. defense doesn't matter because everyone has it 2. dont touch the defense of farsight because it matters to some people (see 1) 3. Procs tho!! (does anyone put procs in farsight?...I thought not) 4. Buff sentinels - even though they apparently buff/debuff as well as support ATs and do nearly blaster damage according to Infinitum (this must be specific to /nin? cause my beam/bio definitely doesn't) I'm not sure you will convince everyone, but I'm sold. Have fun guys, that's the main thing.

probably dark/nrg might work for you. dark works well with or without domination up. Nrg offers good ranged and melee damage. Power up (a few sets have this) does wonders for your controls and boosts the tohit debuff.

exactly. sav offers up a few good spots for ff +rech as well. And blood stacks contribute good rech over time. my dark/sav was a very easy perma by the late 30s and probably my cheapest character for that amount of power.

both are really solid pairings. dark is a bit slower and methodical but has a ton of control as well as soft control. It has an answer for nearly everything and enough control to answer everything again on the next spawn. plant is fast. It is sort of a one hit wonder set, but it is a great hit. If you miss with seeds you might not do well. Plant has other tools but you can become so dependent on seeds that you either dont take them (aoe hold, aoe sleep) or forget you have them haha. Savage is a ton of fun.

True. Good thing time has strong self healing ability, an aoe damage debuff, can floor an entire spawns recharge and movement speed and also stagger their output with an aoe pulsing hold. But yes, if you just expect to cast farsight and pew pew like a sentinel you might run into issues at times. Not sure if most of you play other squishies, or have at least looked at them, but few get to softcap def to everything. Let alone with just SO's. Even less get to softcap def and also get a resistance epic. Even less get to softcap def, have strong resistance, plus layer that with an auto hit aoe damage debuff to further their resistance and get any kind of self healing ability. I'd counter with saying that if you feel you "need" pb+farsight to play a support character then your expectations might be set too high for the buff/debuff AT's. Force multipliers are a tricky subject. Before time manipulation (and dark affinity) they have historically taken on some harsh restrictions because of their ability to affect so many people/enemies in such drastic ways. That's what makes them a lot more unique than the "damage" AT's. I don't want my empath to be able to cast fort, cm and adrenaline boost on myself. That seems silly to me I get that everyone builds for solo and then teams together with all the cohesion of a charity all-star game, but that isn't how forcemultipliers are balanced throughout the history of this game. I'm not sure if you are being serious, but if you are... A beam/nin sent brings literally nothing to a team compared to any buff/debuff set aside from mediocre damage. I would hope that it is more hardy than a character that can drastically improve 1-255 allies and drastically weaken 16 enemies at a go. All while being able to stack multiple mobs to improve team kill speeds. They are worlds apart in their capabilities. A sent may well solo better than x/time. It probably should because that's all that sents do well. There isn't a team configuration that wouldn't benefit more from having a /time join than a beam/nin sent. So to correctly answer his question - no sentinel can compete. They aren't intended to. The fact that any buff/debuff can approach a sentinels' survivability (and time can, maybe not yours, but it can) should be concerning to anyone that understands why that creates a problem. Can you make a sentinel that could even hold a candle up to the buff/debuff capability of any set, let alone time? What's next? pb+farsight doesn't hit as hard as headsplitter so that makes it ok?

I know this is "common forum knowledge", but I can tell you it simply isn't true. What is true? - yes defenders are much easier to build due to higher defensive modifiers - yes some (and this number is much smaller than people think) defenders can out-damage corruptors in a solo setting in some scenarios -defenders can self buff better, but external buffs and even shared buffs, help corrs more What is also true? - corrs do way more damage on teams with a much higher damage cap at their disposal and scourge. Oodles more sometimes. Oodles - In low buff teams, corrs do more damage than defenders as vigilance drops to 0 - corrs get access to attacks much earlier. I know nobody thinks sub 50 matters, but it does. Some of the lower level task forces see corrs eclipsing defender damage. I'm down for improving corrs a bit and have advocated for it with clear examples in the past, but their issues have almost nothing to do with procs, or a handful of solo builds where defenders edge them out. With regard to procs: -I've build a lot of proc builds, imo the only issue I have with them is how they behave with some epic powers due to their longer base recharges. That I can turn epic dominate into as high a damage power as a t3 attack could be problematic at a glance. Again though, I can't touch the recharge on dominate, whereas I can fully enhance the t3and get it cycling 2- 3x as fast as dominate. I forgo all set bonuses in the epic hold, but not in my attack. Plus, as soon as buffs start flying around t3s greatly overshadow epic holds as the hold has negligible base damage to enhance. So epic holds are a knee jerk reaction imo, that shine while solo, but fall behind quickly when buffs stack up.

Yes, that's the thing. Most "traditional" builds are objectively stronger than proc heavy builds in many measurable ways like having more global recharge, better attack chains, requiring less attacks to fill attack chains, and often way better def/surivability overall. Proc builds definitely hit harder though, but often do similar dps. Of course when a proc build gets buffed up by outside sources well that is when they greatly exceed tradition build conventions. Corrs just need their ATO to improve scourge and maybe a tiny bump to their base damage (like 0.05). Scrapper and Stalker ATO's have improved those AT's tremendously (not that they needed the power increase heh, but the ATO's make them more fun) and play super well into their inherents. Corrs just need more scourge. The AT shines so bright when you start to get into that sweet spot.