Zeraphia

Aww! Way to go you for telling all the juicy secrets!

What a wonderful idea! Thank you for all the hard work this must be to produce such an interesting event!

No. Stop trying to police others and how they enjoy their content and farming.

I've said this so many times. We. Need. More. Difficult, Incarnate-level, Content.

Or perhaps now that you know it's level 24 when it happens, not just some "random" event, you can time it and not join a task force during it?

I'd personally substitute "well" for "fantastically" and "quintessentially." The -res that Sonic Blast brings to Defender is unequivocal, a thing of beauty IMO. It does its "magic" not as a "seen" force or really something you'll necessarily get "thanks" on, it's silent but always there. Having 10 Defenders in my lineup now with Sonic Blast, and reading your post I'll give my feedback on it. I really do like this idea, and it is one of the issues that I have with this set a little bit personally, it takes so long to kill things by yourself. While still amazing in group play, it takes so much longer to say, destroy cables in MLTF than any other secondary (or get weapon caches in Lambda, etc.) To be quite honest, if procs didn't exist the only "real" attack I'd feel out of the set was the T9 (thankfully they do and an Apoc + Glad Jav proc in Screech helps a bit.) I find the tick damage would go a bit toward improving the set's personal DPS without really turning Sonic Blast into the monstrous territory, especially as a DoT unlike an upfront chance of proc damage because it can possibly "miss" the better window for -res applications. Overall, a wonderful suggestion and something I think that would go a ways to improving the set. Oh speaking of Sonic Blast, in addition to this, we really need to get the alternative animations shortened. Their cast rates are unbelievably long and definitely need to be addressed. This is a known bug and sincerely deserves attention.

This is an unpopular opinion... but I agree with it. Gale really to me hasn't proved itself worth the slots as described like you said, and I've done the same slotting. The issue lies in that Storm Summoning has enough knockdown and CC along with damage that Gale kind of gets "lost" in most situations to me. I wouldn't describe it as "bad" but I would honestly skip the power altogether because that's a few spots that could be used for something more valuable (maybe more endurance/health/resistance/defense/procs/etc.)

This is sort of circular, but I actually completely agree with what you've said despite it being pretty controversial for a lot of die-hard Controller supporters. I think another detail here is that these powers (judgements and nukes) kill enemies too fast for controls to be viable, thus there needs to be more difficult content that would nullify the "roflstomp" of judgements to make controls worthwhile for teams. And I think this is the root of the issue with controls, the content presented is not difficult enough for min/max'd 50s who have these powers. Today I exemped down in a Night Ward mission arc as a level 37 and I played a Dominator. I was at first just playing how I normally would in fast-paced teams who don't need the actual controls, I just go through my normal ST damage rotation on bosses and my more "regular" AoEs on minions/lieus. However, I soon came to realize how valuable my Dark Controls were to the team when they actually started having people die less and the content genuinely progressed much faster by turning enemies into "statues." This is an example of how more difficult content without judgements giving the ability to just nuke everything into nothing make controls for a lot of teams genuinely very beneficial. So this is an interesting and IMO, a fair analysis. I do view Taunt as a form of CC, because that is what it is, you're controlling the crowd and how it behaves/interacts with you and your teammates. I do think Taunts actually belong to controllers, and I can indeed agree with this actually to make them stronger. I would like to see this done in a way that doesn't "out class" or "out shine" Tankers/Brutes themselves, but I think giving them some actually beefy resistances/defenses, the ability to taunt/group properly would indeed be a wonderful buff for them. I personally don't see Defenders/Corruptors slipping into this "slippery slope" category, their role is damage with stronger supports (for Defender) it is exceptionally clear where they are with their nukes and support capabilities, therefore I do not see the argument contending with them as much as I do with Controllers. That said, Dominators would be in sort of a "weird" spot, but IMO their actually great damage will still make them welcomed/fine.

Love this idea 100%. Although, I'd be lying if I said this thread wasn't rooted in a lot of "power creep."

You totally ignored the part where the topic was changed and edited to become more clear... the next several posts show how this has progressed to become more clear...

So this is an interesting point, I'd also state that Wolves are melee, thus are in a more dangerous situation, thus deserve higher DPS, it is also comparing an early set to a polished one without any improvements. I have said, they should be improved numerous times. I've never once said they're "fine" but if the solution is to nerf how Mercenaries get okay-decent damage, I am not for it and I don't deem it as a "fix" or an "improvement." There are as I've said, multiple ways to improve it without taking away their ability to proc. As you point out, why can't Mercs just get improved damage WITHOUT taking away their procs (as you've pointed out, other sets get this novelty)? Please stop acting like I'm AGAINST direct improvements to the set. I am not. What I am NOT for is trying to "buff" something but inadvertently nerfing it in the process.

I'd really like to be able to create Macro Images with the powers to display the cooldown time that the power has. I don't necessarily mean it actually displays like "14 sec remaining" like normal powers, but to have the macro slowly become bright again like a normal power would as an option with macroing would be very nice. I am also aware you can just create a power and the macro as it is right now, but the power still has to retain its original icon appearance. If the first could not be done, creating a system that allows for macros to display with the "14 sec" remaining option with normal powers would be nice. I understand how this could be tricky though with macros that do more than one action at a time, and it may not be able to work with say two powers at once or a power with an emote, but I'd still use this macroing feature to actually have the icons that I personally want to see for the powers. Although if this feature exists somehow as a mod or something in the addons, please let me know!

There are still ways to go about fixing them rather than actually killing one of the few good parts of Mercenaries, to which I have a remake of a pre-sunset toon of mine (Mercs/FF) for nostalgia. I never said they were "above average" or even "good" I actually agreed they needed fixing, but giving them a practical nerf to key powers that make up easily double-triple their damage output via procs is not the way to go. I play this toon, I like that effect and I stand by cottage rule with this in this case. Sorry. THIS I can get behind, so that I can still see the enjoyment of the procs I put into my Mercenaries that is one of the few redeemable parts of Mercenaries not utterly shattered.

Because of the presence of procs (the majority of damage for minions by their bases given their damage will probably never be *that* great) you're actually causing a massive nerf. Currently both of those two soldiers, are identical. Which is a good thing. Why? Several of their powers have a -def component. So what? Well that means they can run Lady Grey's chance for Negative Damage proc, Shield Breaker's Chance for Lethal Damage proc, and Achilles' Heel Resistance Debuff proc. Those procs end up being far more damage than the minion's basic damage itself by quite a lot, and there are 3 of them. Giving the medic legitimately no attack, and losing its attack that would've taken all of these procs is going to NEUTER their DPS. You're NERFING it (hardcore...) rather than helping it. Hard vote no. Hard /jranger to this idea. Sorry. Aside from that and looking at the rest of these changes, the Spec Ops idea is interesting, but truth be told, I'm not sold on improved tohit debuffs as the "way to go" for them. Quite honestly, tohit debuffs suffer a lot from purple patch, and given they're not your highest-level minion, their debuffs will be resisted, and many enemy groups will have an "answer" against these debuffs. Defense is a better route to go, giving them Maneuvers like Thugs or shields like the FF from robots is a much better route overall in terms of effectiveness for them. However... a big change to your idea that keeps it to a "degree" would be to have the minions' stuns recharge more often and have it only used during certain mob parameters to be more effective instead of just spamming the stuns against useless singular minion targets then being on "lockout" unable to protect the group. The Commando idea I can get behind.

I see, I guess I misinterpreted the question as "why do we still have it now" not "we should implement this suggestion." I think there are a lot of specific variables to this idea, particularly the balancing on many key powers and it would result in a huge change to many characters possibly in terms of the effectiveness of certain procs (sounds like a really "duh" statement). But it may be a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" situation where the system works functionally fine right now even if it isn't perfect, but there are a multitude of bugs right now and other suggestions that are taking precedent over refining this system (I'm not at all saying your suggestion isn't valid, I'm saying that might be why it isn't implemented right now.)

You answered your own question. No seriously, you really did. That's exactly why it was put into place. When you have a power that is on say like a 240s base recharge, and it only has a 20% chance to proc the particular effect, why would you ever slot procs in these powers? It would be far too unreliable. Also, it makes powers that have multiple ticks and chances to fire that are static like Rain of Fire / Sleet possibly overpowered by being a fixed % on a lot of its ticks. Further, it gives further advantage to high DPAS sets (Fire Blast) because of what you just said, fire more often, more procs. The PPM system imo is much better overall and fairer than the old system. Also, many builds have already been made specifically designed with PPM procs in mind. It would be a huge nerf to several characters (especially Controllers/Doms).

I'm all for the options, but a million times this. It's one of the reasons I've been less supportive/interested in a kb->reducing toggle lately in comparisons to my earlier posts. It would impose the "you must run this toggle or we're going to kick you" mentality on players which I think is awful.

I can see this being an excellent way to introduce "weaknesses" for example, let's say Tyrant is allergic to peanut butter, but we throw a ton of PB&J sandwiches at him and he just starts melting! That would be hilarious!

Hmm... I wouldn't call it a "compliment" as much as people have found my playstyle very interesting. So I have a fire/fire blaster named "Anita Rez" that was very known for dying constantly in many missions because well... I didn't have IO's when I first made her and when I'd join things like Positron TF at early levels... I'll say it was an "unforgettable" experience, the amount of dirt baths I've taken on this blaster... oh dear lord... So, with this amount of information armed, I had begun to just anticipate the serial number of deaths I would endure. Therefore, I slotted a lot of recharge when I was able to into my build and I would intentionally throw myself into mobs (much to the "dismay" of the Tankers that would try to save me) and I would intentionally kill myself to use Rise of the Phoenix. Some mobs took longer than others, if this happened to be the case, I would use the Self-Destruction power on mobs, "nuke" them, and then follow that up with Rise of the Phoenix to damage the mobs. I've gotten many "compliments" and just "wow"s for my suicide-bombing techniques. One time, a leader for a Tinpex I didn't even know that I knew, when I said "sure!" to his LFG message told me "oh, you... well I have vengeance!" After receiving it, I proudly wear the "Immortal" badge on her for... obvious reasons heh.

You know honestly that would be a fabulous suggestion, I think a "food blast" could still be a viable idea, but I really created this thread more so to hear some interesting "food"-related suggestions such as this! As you say, One Size Fits All answers to ideas and suggestions rarely ever work out in reality! I would be more than happy with this if they can implement a "food-themed" object version of the animations in Gravity Control!

I do not support the second fix, but I do support the primary fix wholeheartedly and this addresses what a lot of people feel about the set. I'd also like to add a reduced animation time for Sonic Siphon.

Water Blast is probably the closest overall, but I really don't think it's the same sort of "idea" with animations, as you know most food is solid, the "beverage" concept is certainly there. I'd be all for new animations for Water Blast that include food as possibly even an April Fool's edition joke possibly? Except realistically, there is no way to really introduce "food" itself as given with the tools available. Beverages, sure. I personally didn't love Electrical Affinity at all, actually if I'm being extremely blunt, I thought it was a completely missed opportunity. Electric-themed sets are extremely abundant featuring several Electric-themed epic pools, the loosely-related Storm Summoning already being here, Electric Control, Electric Melee, Electric Blast, etc. yet, I did not bash it in the recommendations. I understand looking out for developer resources, but at the same time, you probably shouldn't aim to shoot other's suggestions down due to that reason alone. This is meant to a fun, different, and interesting concept that is jovial and unlike many of the other sets. I think we have a lot of serious themes in this game, however we don't have enough "jovial" or "natural" themes. How about let the devs decide that element as to whether they find it's worth it?

So, I read some interesting replies to a topic in the Beta forums, and one user mentioned a "tropical fruit punch" powerset, I knew that this suggestion was obviously a joke. However, I think there may be indeed a basis for theme and interest in an actual food-fighting based powerset that actually throws things like pies, tomatoes, water bottles, etc. at enemies to damage/hinder them. I think actually a "Shaggy" from Scooby Doo or possibly... oh dear... a bit of a Toon Town-ish vibe with the pie-throwing (obviously not along the lines of copyright infringement, but this idea is used in many cartoons and Toon Town, while probably most salient, is definitely not the first or last to use pie-throwing). I think this could be a very interesting and viable idea... now I understand this is rather silly, but I don't think every powerset should be themed around "I'm such a god look at me!" And there are a number of appreciable natural approaches that could be jovial/fun.

I really don't think it's fair that it totally renders a lot of sleep powers useless, I think sleeps like Mesmerize probably just shouldn't take interface at all to avoid the breaking of sleeps (you know, the primary function of the power). I'm not saying sleeps are the most useful thing in the world, but it would be nice to have them not totally rendered obsolete by "beneficial" incarnate choices.

It would be nice, as I've asked, for the 5,000th time, to have the option to remove that god awful Crab backpack and give alternative animations for Crab powers. I think possibly one (default) costume with the Crab backpack is fine, but EVERY SINGLE ONE? No. Another point, please allow Widow costume pieces to work on more than one outfit and have easier integration with other costume pieces. I really don't see how this is a crazy idea, but it would allow people to create a lot more interesting SoA costumes. Also buttcapes for men!