Zeraphia

Honestly, I would feel more inclined if as @Saiyajinzoningen said, having this content actually scaling to my level. Honestly, I'd be much more "open arms" to Synapse if I was able to actually do this TF as a level 50 with my AoEs and ageless. I think possibly keep the TFs as a bare minimum level, but scale up to the user's level with enemies scaled as well. That would actually be a great way to introduce a lot of variety into the palette of what my 50's generally end up doing. I'd love so many more task forces if this were the case, and it would be very enjoyable! It would be very nice to see Synapses, Citadels, Positrons, etc. into more of my task force rotations other than the (now getting a little stale) MLTF/LRSF/LGTF/ITF/Khan/Tinpex combination that I typically run because I enjoy using my powers to the fullest and being able to actually have my character feel powerful. I think this would also go a long way toward helping people in the lower levels to team with people at higher levels and help each other out! Really love this idea! +1!

I think most of all if I can take anything from this, it's that we as human beings can all be kinder to one another. Bashing others, using "entrapment" tactics, and being ungrateful for the immense amount of work that these volunteers spend each day of their lives to improve the game is disheartening. Even through our disagreements and different backgrounds, treat each other with respect and decency. R.I.P. George Floyd.

I think you're also missing the point of Mike's post to a degree, I don't think he was saying anything on the premises of "needing" a support set to help carry people, he was trying to say that it doesn't provide as much of a benefit toward players as opposed to other sets. Kinetics and Cold are considered two of the top sets right now, and that is because of their ability to offensively neuter mobs and AV's in seconds with how hardcore debuffed the enemies or, or how buffed your teammates are offensively. I also don't consider this answer totally accurate, you can theoretically get by +4/x8 on some builds, but does that mean the build is actually good or effective for teams (the reason support sets exist in general)? I have seen many of these people who can "solo extremely well" not contribute so much on my teams, because they lack bringing either heavy-duty offense (via blast or melee set) or any meaningful form of damage improvement toward the team (in the form of -res or +dmg buffs, or even holding enemies so they can't use their heals or "lol kthxbai" hits). He wasn't wrong at all with what he said, people aren't dying to the point where these sets are "justified" offensively, even on low level teams. I hate sounding bitter but it is the truth. EA provides a very weak +dmg buff, and absolutely no -res to speak of which are the key reasons that other sets are picked over it even in regular gameplay.

I'm all for adding something to Sonic, but I think possibly allowing it to stack may create a big problem... you can probably get Sonic Siphon down to like 4.5s recharge with the current cast it's about 6.67s (both factored in the cast + recharge time) and that can be done 4 times with the 30 second duration which makes for -120% res against a single target, in addition can be used in conjunction with Disruption Field for -30% more so that quickly goes up to -150% res... and that's no procs added or needed. I think that's overpowered, especially when paired with Sonic Blast, you're looking at possibly getting -200% or less resistance that is 100% stackable from one team member alone. However, I could see maybe a small heal, resistance, recharge, or something being "siphoned" as the name implies. Or possibly just changing the name and the cast rate and calling it a day would be fine.

This is actually a point I never thought of. These types of images and messages conveyed through the "creativity" to use as tools to offend protected groups of people are exceptionally classless. Now, I am known to be a "troll" occasionally but lightly (I don't go around and make awful combinations to grief teams or anything like that but I'll occasionally say something like "hey guys, Synapse is the best task force in my opinion!" in general chat or "help! I made a robots/empathy MM and I can't manage to solo anything, even a minion!") but there is a very clear line between that and these types of abrasive behaviors. Wow, just wow... you are right though, like I said, I really didn't even think about these systematic abuses via providing the outlet to do things like this. However, I do realize that offensive names/costumes already do exist, I think the same rules for personal character costumes are fine, and I'm really not bothered by the stripper-themed ones (it is what it is, you're an adult, I'm an adult, most are adults, and there are legitimate reasons why women these days feel obligated to "strip" unfortunately for one reason or another) but I do feel as if most of the community wouldn't actively try to offend large segments of the population like this. However, I can definitely see this turning into a hot bed for trying to get someone banned... I think as others have stated, that there should be some notice that racist, misogynistic, or offensive costumes to specific community members rules still apply even to the customized minions.

I have to agree to an extent that when I played EA it wasn't that it wasn't powerful and didn't have its uses... it was just that it was way way way way too clicky for me to play on anything other than a mastermind to really get the "shine" out of the set. It's just too busy trying to build up Static, I have to agree with the feeling of being a "healbot" and the Sentinel I wish was just an non-targetable (for enemies) debuffer like Voltaic Sentinel but still allowed you to gain Statics with it if needed. I understand the appeal it has now, but that's just how I personally feel with it. (IIRC) as you build more static, the more the power/heal chains. I felt like Ampped should've probably given the secondary effects/defense/proc damage to one target, the the proc damage spreads to the entire group and it would've been excellent! I hadn't noticed the Defib, but I'm sure it is as much as a problem as you say. The final thought, yes 100%. This is the main issue with the set, it is too clicky due to feeling constantly pressured to build Static over and over again. Combining this with a secondary that has a "combo" mechanic like Water is horrendous and needs to be investigated IMO.

I know I'm going to sound a bit "bitter" here but... Electric-themed things are IMO getting too much focus. We have Electric Affinity, Mu Mastery, Electric Armor, Electric Melee, Electric Blast, many ATs have an Electric option outside of even Mu Mastery. I feel like the Electric themes in this game have gone overboard in favor of other themes. Earth/Natural/Nature based sets are much rarer by comparison and I'd rather flavors that are totally unexplored right now get added to introduce more variety and options.

So, my main is fire/fire/flame, this is the 5th build I've done with her, and I've finally made what I feel is her "perfect" build. It is meant to ensure extremely high DPS (pylon downed at pure range in under 1:40) and extremely good AoE (you get Burn, Caut Aura, FSC, Fire Ball, Bonfire and Inferno!) 35% E/N defense and 35% Ranged defense (which IMO is the "sweet spot" to where things rarely hit her and she can stay purely at range for hard AV's/long battles). She solos 54 AV's like a champ due to actually turning Ring of Fire into a high DPA attack that sinks enemies in place and they never hit her! She also possesses perma bonfire so she has the soft control to keep herself alive for soloing. She is a bit of an end hog, but with the P2W recovery serum and Consume and her end procs she can definitely last awhile before burning herself out and she can often prevent burning herself out easily. She exemps down very well (I do use the defense amplifier when exemping down for mez protection) and at high level she has Clarion Core to never get mezzed again! She also possesses a great deal of S/L resistance (75%), higher recharge, no need for Agility, proc'd out Char for the situations that need mez with a high amount of damage in her rotation! She can also stealth through whenever she wants to, there is no annoying Hot Feet to deal with. This build has no "cheap tricks" like Rune of Protection / Melee rotating, she goes full damage for everything whilst still retaining excellent survivability thanks to Bonfire and the high ranged defense, on teams, she easily reaches the softcap with jsut enough maneuvers and hardly ever dies! She can stay at *pure range* with Blazing Blast, Blaze, Ring of Fire, Char, Fireball, and Pyronic Judgement used occasionally without having any real gaps and does well over 500-600+ DPS. She can go into Melee and use Burn and get her aura to hit the enemy for even more damage. Hero Plan by Mids' Reborn : Hero Designer 2.6.0.7 https://github.com/ImaginaryDevelopment/imaginary-hero-designer Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Blaster Primary Power Set: Fire Blast Secondary Power Set: Fire Manipulation Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Leaping Ancillary Pool: Flame Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Flares -- Empty(A) Level 1: Ring of Fire -- SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg(A), SprWntBit-Dmg/Rchg(3), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(3), SprWntBit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), SprWntBit-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(7) Level 2: Fire Ball -- Bmbdmt-+FireDmg(A), Bmbdmt-Dam(9), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech(9), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech/End(11), Bmbdmt-Acc/Rech/End(11), PstBls-Dam%(48) Level 4: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(5) Level 6: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(7) Level 8: Boxing -- Empty(A) Level 10: Fire Sword Circle -- SprBlsWrt-Rchg/Dmg%(A), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg(13), SprBlsWrt-Dmg/Rchg(15), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), SprBlsWrt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17) Level 12: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 14: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), Ags-ResDam(48), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(48), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(50), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(50) Level 16: Build Up -- GssSynFr--Build%(A) Level 18: Blaze -- Apc-Dam%(A), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Apc-Dmg/Rchg(19), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Apc-Acc/Rchg(21), GldJvl-Dam%(31) Level 20: Cauterizing Aura -- NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(A), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(37), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(40), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(40), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(43), NmnCnv-Heal(46) Level 22: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(23), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(23), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg(25), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(25), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(31) Level 24: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), Rct-ResDam%(34) Level 26: Blazing Bolt -- StnoftheM-Dam%(A), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), StnoftheM-Acc/Dmg(27), StnoftheM-Dmg/EndRdx(29), StnoftheM-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg(29), GldJvl-Dam%(31) Level 28: Tactics -- AdjTrg-ToHit/EndRdx(A) Level 30: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 32: Inferno -- SprDfnBrr-Rchg/+Status Protect(A), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg(33), SprDfnBrr-Dmg/Rchg(33), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), SprDfnBrr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34) Level 35: Burn -- Arm-Dam%(A), Arm-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Arm-Dmg/Rchg(36), Arm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Arm-Acc/Rchg(37), FuroftheG-ResDeb%(37) Level 38: Bonfire -- OvrFrc-Dam/KB(A), OvrFrc-Dmg/End/Rech(39), OvrFrc-Acc/Dmg/End/Rech(39), OvrFrc-Acc/Dmg(39), OvrFrc-End/Rech(40) Level 41: Char -- NrnSht-Dam%(A), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%(42), UnbCns-Dam%(42), GldNet-Dam%(42), GldJvl-Dam%(43), GldJvl-Acc/Dmg(43) Level 44: Fire Shield -- Ags-ResDam(A), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx(45), Ags-ResDam/Rchg(45), Ags-Psi/Status(45), GldArm-3defTpProc(46), UnbGrd-Max HP%(46) Level 47: Consume -- PrfShf-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(A) Level 49: Vengeance -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Defiance Level 1: Quick Form Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(17) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(50) Level 50: Musculature Radial Paragon Level 0: Portal Jockey Level 0: Task Force Commander Level 0: The Atlas Medallion Level 0: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 50: Assault Core Embodiment Level 50: Degenerative Core Flawless Interface Level 50: Banished Pantheon Core Superior Ally Level 50: Pyronic Core Final Judgement Level 50: Clarion Core Epiphany ------------

I think that's just too early to judge, I also think that betas exist for this reason. SS should be powerful, it is Super Strength, it's sort of in the name. Now that doesn't entitle it to be Titan Weapons, but it does mean if it performs better than average in some aspects, well it is what it is and it does have a Crash that is well deserved from time to time on it. Also, "cottage rule" is still very much a thing and I do agree with it to an extent. People do truly enjoy aspects of a power (i.e. Detention Field) and despite how it may often be viewed objectively negatively, it would be wrong to yank it from FF and replace it with something entirely different because said people do actually really like this power. I'm all for changing secondary effects on powers to make them into something they should be, I'm all for breaking cottage loosely for cases like Telekinesis from Mind, but I'm not for completely gutting the entirety and purpose of a power into something that is totally outside the bounds of what the power was. This is also why people should engage in beta testing and online discussions when ports are being made, because if you don't, you end up with these sorts of dated sets. This is exactly what I was trying to say, many people seem to have glossed over the fact that in addition to what CP stated, he's also looking into giving the entire set a damage tweak to make it at baseline competitive while having just only one Rage allowed to stack. I do think it would be powerful if it was directly ported to Scrappers, perhaps even #2 to TW, but I don't think it grants every single additional great secondary effect that TW has on multiple of its key powers. There's still lots of utilities and ways to justify other sets in favor of SS. I highly doubt that double-stacking Rage is going to be a "thing" for Scrappers without severe dev oversight.

These are some fabulous suggestions! I'd be very happy if these were implemented! 🙂 Really well reasoned, but I do think possibly keeping Detention Field as is solely to not break cottage rule! Excellent ideas!

I don't disagree, but what would you like to see FF turn into in order to differentiate itself from Time or Cold?

I agree with this actually, but I do wish it was tankier for what it is. I've found it to have great utility when you're getting stomped on a hard EB/AV (solo) and need an escape/breather.

I think there are four powersets in particular that most people identify as underpowered or at least "needs work": Sonic Resonance, Force Field, Poison and last but certainly not least, Trick Arrow. I think possibly starting a dialogue as to what people want to see improved from each set just in general may be nice to see. I'll open with some of my thoughts about each set individually: Sonic has the bones to be a great set. It just needs some tweaks to help get it there. I think Sonic Siphon could have its animation time sped (2.17s is very long for a single target debuff), Sonic Replusion is pretty unilaterally seen as a "skip" power, but most of all, Liquefy is on way too long of a CD for what it does. I think bringing Liquefy's CD down to a more reasonable recharge time might help the set a bit overall. Force Field in particular is a "dated" but not "bad" set. Its trick (defense buffing) is sort of seen as more "meh" over the years due to how easily people are accruing defenses and how many other sets give defense but also substantially more "benefits" (time/cold). I don't think the way to go for this set is to make it more like Time, I think perhaps adding something like -def/-res on Replusion Bomb may be a decent idea (make sure it doesn't stack), and would make it stand out from Time. Even with that change it's not likely to become "S-tier!" but it would at least feel more powerful for teams. Trick Arrow is getting buffs, but what in particular do you guys think should be buffed and how do you think this set should go in terms of its buffs? There are numerous takes on this set, and I don't think even breaking cottage rule for this set is out of the question given how poopoo'd its performance has been. 😞 Poison... probably seen as the best of these 4, also to some the most vulnerable of these 4. This set prones itself to dying, it doesn't offer much against alpha strikes unless you're willing to faceplant horrendously. It does excel at debuffing AV's, it does have many different specialty aspects which are appreciable, however many of its debuffs are extremely short in radius, really hurting and weakening the set in general against mobs for your time. I think improving the radius of some of the powers, reworking the heal to be better (in its current version it is a super slow to cast single target, weak heal, with an extremely slow projectile), while (possibly?) offering greater user protection would make this set play a little more forgiving or have greater overall utility rather than just being for single hard targets.

As I've said before, do not base much of your opinion on Rage being overpowered or assume a direct port of SS will be going to Scrappers. There are huge changes to Rage coming very soon, double stacking in fact may not be a thing. Would one-stacked rage with a crash be that overpowered on a Scrapper with only Foot Stomp as a 10 target AoE? I don't think that's convincingly "overpowered." Refrain from shouting from the rooftops about SS possibly being OP until said changes are seen. That said, SS is a fun flavor that definitely belongs to many "Scrapper-like" combinations in comics and popular literature, and I do think it has basis. As for EM, again, changes to the set are incoming. We have no idea what is in the pipeline for this set, but I see no problems with granting it to Scrappers, only that its single target is going to make them a little "Stalker-y" but I don't think every powerset should be a homogenization of every other powerset, giving a player a way to experience a cool flavor is never a bad idea in my book.

What a necro, and what a hell of a response that this has gotten so far. And so far off-topic... I fully support being able to customize your pets toward your liking, this is 2020, Thunderspy is able to do it albeit in a much less structured and thought-out way, I'd appreciate a way that has a more streamlined experience for the MM, and if some sets can't be redone, then fine. But those that can, I think it should be an option. Just because one kid at Christmas doesn't get their shiny new toys doesn't mean the rest of the children should suffer. I honestly would expect just one set at a time getting this option given the limited resources HC has. On a side note, if anyone from the team reads this, thank you for the committed hard work that you've done for our community. Even the small baby steps are appreciated.

Interesting responses here, I don't even think of Shadow Meld even as an LotG mule sometimes, I think of it for Stalkers as the extremely cheap "battle opener" that basically gives me Elude from SR for Scrappers and combined with a high-resistance secondary... it just takes the cake. If I can Hide, break it when I want to, then "open" with an AS with Shadow Meld on, I'm just flat out unkillable, it won't take long before whatever it is is dead and I'm sitting there with way over the softcap to all damage. Shadow Meld is one of my favorite PPP picks ever, and I use it constantly on my TW/Bio Scrapper as well to open fights. It is a long animation, but that animation still lets you travel while putting it on. Further, Moonbeam is also the least resisted of all the snipers, so it's a pretty easy pick for me as to which I'm going to end up using.

Going to echo some of these thoughts here, Stalkers are a damage-first toon even more so than Scrappers. Their primary focus really lies in the ability to be a single target assassin that has the main goal of "killing it before it kills me." Really, Hide itself is the greatest damage mitigator you have, opened up every fight with the first hit unless they have extremely high perception. I would definitely not avoid Radiation like another poster mentioned. Radiation actually can shore up the AoE weakness even better than FA can given it can proc out both Ground Zero and Rad Therapy into massive damaging AoE hits, granting high resistances to the ones that matter most, and also giving them a high absorb and helpings with endurance management. Bio is also extremely solid because it grants additional damage components to Stalkers and grants them high defenses or high resistances (you can softcap E/N/F/C and cap S/L resistance) and gain an absorb and decent regeneration as well as a heal that can also be proc'd into being a decent AoE, so again, not a bad set at all once you build it. /Shield /Bio /Invul /Rad /Ice /Ninja seem to be the most durable to me.

Defender: Nature/Sonic... this one in particular has become one of my favorites, can boast perma OG with high recharge along with assault to give over 100% damage buff to all teammates, also gives hefty resistances (rarer to see), strong overtime heals that are very appreciated in "harder" iTrials (MoM, Magi, etc.), holds enemies pretty well with the pbaoe hold toggle, can do well over -100% res, -regen, a huge absorb heal that will serve as massive aoe "wake up." This combo just doesn't cease to amazing. Corruptor: Fire/Cold or Fire/Kin... Both of these combine really well, cold applies -res which will greatly reduce enemies and pairing it with fire gives it high DPS and high effective team damage buffing with some mitigation through the shields. Kinetics improves the already high Fire damage and just pushes it on to new heights along with everyone on your team, excellent combinations to warrant going Corruptor over Defender. Scrapper: TW/ Rad/ or Mace/ are the strongest primaries overall, TW/ being of course the most supreme. A lot of secondary choices are very viable including /Shield, /Bio being the two "best" ones overall. That's not to say other combinations can't work but those are the highest performing combinations for a Scrapper given they don't have native inherent taunts and the primaries have a solid mixture of ST and AoE DPS and other specialties. TW/Bio Rad/Shield Rad/Bio Mace/Shield Mace/Bio are all extremely good and extremely solid. Blaster: If you want supreme damage (you don't mind using inspirations when needed and having to build for it), Fire/Fire. If you want utility and safety, Ice/ Water/ Beam/ paired with /Time /Martial /Ice and /Atomic are all great in their own rights. Stalker: Primaries: StJ and Rad are the top performers, and honestly, overall Rad is the best for Stalkers right now to me. It has very hard hitting ST, an extremely hard hitting follow up after AS, good AoE, and solid overall DPS with lots of -res proc potential, even over StJ, although StJ is definitely less of an animation trap. /Bio and /Shield are top tier again for secondaries. StJ/Shield Rad/Shield StJ/Bio and Rad/Bio are all extremely good and extremely viable. Controller: Illusion/ (overall reason I'd go Controller) or Plant/ paired with /Dark /Time /Rad /Cold. Illusion is a unique powerset to Controllers that is honestly the most fun and the reason I'd pick Controller over Dominator, it also is the best set at soloing extremely hard targets due to PA, and provides a decent amount of damage personally. Plant is also very good at actually controlling, Illusion is more about the soft control of PA, Plant has the AoE confuse SoC and this is going to continue to be an extremely solid set because of this even in the later levels and beyond. The secondaries that stand out are /Dark for its immense survivability and actually reworked to fit Controllers best, Cold for its debuffs and lots of LotG mules, Rad for its debuffs and recharge time buff, and Time for being amazing at everything and granting softcaps to all damage types. Dominator: Mind/ Dark/ Plant/ are imo the best ones for primary, and /Fire /Energy or /Martial for assault. Mind is considerably better on Dominator given that every single power is laced with Domination-prone goodies. Dark is also extremely solid and actually has no bad picks for control, it can lockdown several groups at once with ease. Plant is great here as it is on Controller, SoC is godlike. The secondaries are closer to what you prefer, the best one to me is Fire because once an enemy is locked down, just go straight at them with damage, and Fire allows you to just never enter melee range at all and deal tremendous damage with Fiery Embrace. Energy is excellent with the Energy Release mechanic, it's glorious in Whirling Hands where you can technically "crit" that AoE and it can sometimes stun your enemies, you can even force the crits to happen by using Total Focus. Martial has excellent AoE and probably the best of all Dominator secondaries. Mastermind: Please do not go off and make a Bots/FF off of charts/hype, it WAS really good... before we learned more about Thugs and about Time. Both totally eclipse this combo in a variety of ways. Time will softcap you the same that FF would, but it provides an actually good heal that also heals over time, grants recharge bonuses for the caster, among several other very key features, Time is very well established as a top-tier MM secondary for literally every single pet primary (I'm not kidding it really is that good). Thugs was thought of as squishy until the literature caught up more about them. Thugs actually has the best survivability overall out of the gate given the fact that both of its enforcers use a Maneuvers-type power granting high defense bonuses overall than even the Robots' FFs do, in addition have much higher damage in both AoE and single target even comparing against the Assault Bots' -regen. There are lots of viable MM combinations, honestly too many to list, but Thugs/Time is going to be a top performer if not the top performer overall. Brute: I genuinely cannot come up with many combinations that justify in a PvE environment being rolled as a Brute over Scrapper vs. Tanker in a lot of situations. One of the standouts is TW/FA. Unlike being rolled as a Scrapper, the Brute version gains the inherent taunt to keep enemies in and keep damaging them, which overall makes for a much nicer feel, and TW deals massive damage to out-DPS a Tanker where it would matter, this becomes one of the justified cases... That does NOT mean that anything rolled as a Brute would be bad (or even EXCELLENT!), but numerically a lot of cases will be won with a Scrapper/Tanker rolled instead. You can get this to softcap S/L/M damage and cap S/L/F resistance and it'll be very durable and excel extremely well at +4/x8 soloing and AV soloing, extremely good on teams and solo, could tank fairly well too. Tanker: Lots of viable combos here, but the "best" I've ever found was Rad/TW... Rad is extremely durable, the only hole it has is Cold, and Cold damage is the rarest form of damage in the entire game, also comes in DoTs, and the hardest fight you'll encounter with lots of Cold damage is Ice Mistral on MLTF (she's pathetic at best). You can also proc out Ground Zero and Rad Therapy to be extremely damaging AoE powers along with your TW AoE hits, this combination is hilariously good. Then you have /TW just being flat out broken and giving you the defense when you need it to cap S/M defenses. I've soloed MoLRSF and MoMLTF on this combination due to its sheer toughness and damage. That said /WM and /SS are both extremely good with Rad. Rad is of course the top-tier primary atm, but /Dark /Invul /Elec /Ice all stand out in their own unique ways. It's harder to make a bad Tanker combo than it is to make a good one, all of the primaries are viable in some way shape or form.

That is my main gripe with this set that stops me from picking it in a lot of cases, however I understand that sometimes you have to pick a "dud" power to get the gems of the powerset (much the same as boxing/kick for tough/weave/crosspunch).

Giving phrases and meanings more power than they should by not speaking them often leads to said phrases having more importance than they once would. I saw the poster as more "memeing" the phrase, and the phrase existed long before the rise of the George Floyd protests. This was just a bit unnecessary. Please remember that online jokes can fall flat and humor can get lost in cybernetic translation, the same tone and inflection a voice can give doesn't always translate online. Also, what one finds offensive is often purely subjective, policing people's ideas and thoughts so critically goes against our first amendment and I speak as someone who is more sympathetic toward said causes and more affected by this geopolitically than most people.

You are 100% correct, but I have to chime in with this unfortunate fact: The game is not balanced around DPAS. If they started balancing around that, this game would need so many different things to be balanced from the ground up that it would be a patch so sweepingly massive that CoH wouldn't even be the game recognized as what it is anymore. For that particular reason, I don't think they can balance around it for momentum. Now that said... Speaking from Scrapper base damage perspectives: TW's base attacks not factoring momentum are egregiously higher than every other set in a variety of places. Rend armor is on the high end for a ST heavy hitter but not unprecedented... GPB and Devastating Blow are higher than this power. Whirling Smash is on the higher end for a PBAoE (not the highest) but it is locked behind momentum not just free to use to open a crowd without Build Momentum therefore I think it's fine. TW's Defensive Sweep being OP, to which I agree but I don't know how to go about that in "balancing" because it's rather unprecedented and is a mixed bag where some characters (particularly those with an armor secondary) will appreciate it while those who are already min-maxed def incarnate softcapped (SR) may not view it as that big of a boon... although I can definitely see a decrease in its defense values or making it so you can only stack it 1-2 times. Crushing Blow is on the higher end for a T2 but it's not completely crazy it is close to Rad's, but I could see this being taken down to ~100 damage base. Follow Through is locked behind momentum and only about 10-50% higher than other secondary harder hitter ST hits (Shin Breaker 0 combo, Crippling Axe Kick, Jawbreaker, etc.) I can see this being tuned down to 120-130 damage though. Titan Sweep is on the higher end again for a cone but it's not stand-out for another other than its radius, it is higher than most cones, but not by a ton, I think this one is fine. AoD... it is the highest damaging high-end cone in the game by 30% to the next comparable cone, however, it is does have a higher recharge (Frost 146 damage and 11s versus AoD 186 damage 20s) (Crowd Control 100 damage and 12s versus AoD 186 damage 20s) so I'd say it should be reduced to approximately 140-150 damage. Those two IMO need the "balancing" the most statistically compared to other sets, now as a whole, the "goodies" TW has are definitely innumerable, but from the damage perspective that is what would need tweaking based on what they can by criterion balance around without having to rewrite the game from ground-up.

I've noticed that Siege is a very slow guy, he seems to have some robotic inefficiencies with mobility. In contrast, his companion Nightstar appears amply adept to squish you without any hesitation and zoom with fly all the way across the map to you. I think giving good old Siege some Rocket Boots would be hilarious and nice for pulling. My even more favorable idea is to have the good robot look like he's farting out rocket fuel from his rather large diaper. That would be hilarious!

I believe you are speaking of... Illusion Control? heh It really is as close to a control-less controller you get, you do spend most of the time on the secondary with it too is from what I've seen (you kind of dump PA off and then start the gravy train).

Petless Robots/Empathy Mastermind... Good luck! You my dear will absolutely need it! My friend attempted this as a solo-only experience and he made it to about level 21 before rage quitting the character completely even at the lowest settings possible. You have some of the weakest attacks with no inherent benefit at all to help you, and then you have a set that does nothing for you except healing which isn't great mitigation for a lot of situations and doesn't provide any benefit to downing an enemy whatsoever! Very (un)honorable mention: Assault Rifle / Ninja Blaster... This is just terrible. There is nothing redeemable, its damage is lackluster, the survivability is awful, enemies will run away from you due to ignite so you can't even properly use your Ninja capabilities... it's a monstrosity. Bon Voyage!

It seems others are closed off for what a direct port right now would be if you kept Rage the exact same. I agree that a Scrapper with permanent double-rage is flat out broken but just one rage with improved base numbers (as in you could never double-stack and when you use Rage there is a "penalty")? Maybe a lot less so. I think a lot of my initial issue with this is what you could do with Scrapper if you double-rage'd and used something like Moonbeam from Soul Mastery with Fast Snipe IO... that would surely compete with TW/Bio, although it may still be a few leagues behind it. It may be too early to judge if it is too OP for Scrappers until we have seen what the newer Rage changes will be. I would earnestly wait until they announce that first. Also, Rage would not be the only set with a built-in permanent Build Up power, there is Soul Drain from Dark Melee. Sure, not the same thing, Rage requires no targets, Soul Drain requires targets but still gives you a hefty damage bonus at base (even if there are none) and can get even higher than single-stacked Rage if there are enough enemies in range, in addition does AoE damage. Their AoE isn't far off given your only AoE in SS is at the very end, and Shadow Maul while not as good as FS, is still a serviceable AoE now (both of them have only one AoE). Dark has a lot more utility built in compared to SS with its heals and -to hit it is much Tankier overall, although to be fair SS has knockdowns so not a complete 1:1. But I am just saying that I think people should wait for the Rage changes before screaming it'll be too OP to ever port over. Please do not grill me for comparing DM to SS, I'm not saying they're equivalent, I'm just pointing out that there are sets that have similar elements to what SS could provide, I'm not saying DM is better than SS or vise versa. What I am saying is wait for the Rage changes to make a judgement and don't assume Scrappers will get the ability to double-stack.