Thezanman

Even if the other changes they made were bad, that's no reason not to implement good ideas.

Agreed, that would be really nice.

No, the LETHAL damage was increased from 86.64 to 103.5. It still does extra damage from the toxic DoT. On live the impact lethal damage + the average damage from the toxic DoT sum to about 103.3, now the total is about 119.86.

They are separate.

Trip Mine is working as intended. Now that enhancements actually apply to it and Time Bomb, they both feel pretty good to use. Gun Drone stacking works as well.

I like the idea, but requiring enemies to kill the bomb probably wouldn't work very well. That means that if there's a tanker/brute taunting enemies more strongly, or a controller/dominator stunning or holding the enemies, you wouldn't actually be able to do damage with the power. Making it a relatively short countdown like Omega Maneuver already is or like the 5 second Time Bomb currently in testing should work just fine.

I imagine that if they wanted the set to be melee-themed, they would have given it more than the minimum three melee powers that all assault sets have. A few of the sets have four, so they definitely could have given it one or two more melee powers if that was the intent. Realistically, the target cap change for Spinning Kick doesn't matter, since it is a relatively small AoE that would rarely hit more than 5 targets anyway.

I like this phrase.

It could be changed to Electrified Web Grenade and do energy damage. I don't really see the problem either way though.

The point is you won't be facing multiple minions. Since you don't have taunt auras or as high a base threat as a Scrapper, enemies won't aggro on you, just like a Stalker. As for solo, Blasters can solo just fine without the defensive buffs and debuffs that the Regulator would have, so the Regulator should have no issue. There's already precedent for fully AoE based support sets. Nature Affinity is a great example: all of its abilities are AoE except for Corrosive Enzymes and Rebirth. It could pretty much be used in my idea of a Regulator unchanged, since I don't think revives should generally be AoE anyway (Howling Twilight excluded). Corrosive Enzymes doesn't even necessarily need to be AoE, since it already has a long enough duration to spread it to multiple targets. Just change Corrosive Enzymes to be melee and you have a perfectly fine Regulator set.

I don’t think it’s that hard to stay alive in melee when you don’t have taunt/damage auras like most of the melee ATs, but it is inherently more dangerous. That’s why I thought of the panic button Barrier, like how Stalker has Placate. I think this is a more straightforward solution than trying to merge two sets, and like I said, my main goal is to create a melee AT without having armor secondary. As for the buffing sets, I believe making a lot of the powers into PBAoEs with reduced values so they can affect self would go a long way to making Regulator feel right, like I did with Antidote and Alkaloid in the example Poison set.

I know there have been plenty of ideas for melee/support ATs, but none of them really seemed right to me. The main thing which I feel like I'm missing when playing CoH is a melee AT which doesn't have armor as a secondary, but most of the concepts I see try to combine armor with support, and/or add crazy new mechanics. What I would really like is to just make this new melee/support AT in the same way Sentinels were made: simply take a Corruptor and replace its ranged powerset with melee, making small tweaks to fit the theme where absolutely needed, and changing the inherent power of course. So, I tried to envision the Regulator with that ideal in mind. It would be mostly damage focused with support being secondary, like a Corruptor. As a melee AT without armor, it doesn't make sense to have Confront. At the same time, simply being in melee range inherently poses more danger than attacking from a distance. So, Confront would be replaced with Barrier, a sort of counterpart to Build Up with the same 90 second cooldown and 10 second duration, but instead granting a moderate resistance and defense buff for that time. The idea is to have an active defense mechanic to mitigate alpha strikes and other bursts of damage, without being able to consistently tank like the current melee ATs. The inherent power, Regulation, would function similarly to Domination but instead have two "modes" to pick from, allowing you to regulate (get it?) the situation as required. Defensive Regulation provides an aura for a moderate duration which both grants a small resistance buff to you and nearby allies and applies a small damage debuff to nearby enemies. Offensive Regulation is also an aura, but with a damage buff and resistance debuff instead. In order to use either Regulation you need to build up Power either by attacking or by using your support powers, just like Domination. Your Power builds up quickly, and even builds while you have a Regulation aura in effect, but using either Regulation while the other is in effect will cancel the current aura, preventing you from gaining both benefits at once. This means that while you may be able to make the effects of Regulation permanent, you will always have to decide which one is more important at the time. Beyond those two large changes, the Regulator's support powers should be changed to mostly PBAoEs or short cones to fit the theme better, lowering values when needed to make up for the power becoming AoE. Ideally, personal status protection should be added to one power in each support set, as the Regulator will be right next to the enemies and relies on toggle powers staying active to survive. Here is a rough idea of what the Regulator's support sets should look like: Poison: T1: Alkaloid: Less healing, higher recharge, becomes PBAoE T2: Envenom: Shortened range to melee (7), increased radius (the radius should be higher on other ATs anyway) T3: Weaken: Same as Envenom T4: Neurotoxic Breath: Lower range, wider cone T5: Elixir of Life: Unchanged (it's pretty much melee already, and I don't think it would be a good idea to make it an AoE revive) T6: Antidote: Changed to PBAoE (I think status protection powers are currently limited to only affect one target at a time, but I honestly don't see why that's needed) T7: Paralytic Poison: Shortened range to melee (7) T8: Poison Trap: Unchanged T9: Venomous Gas: Unchanged So, with all this in mind, the Regulator would skirt the edges of a fight, debuffing and then defeating priority targets while staying out of the direct line of fire, making use of Barrier to endure unexpected attention from enemies (sort of like a more support-based Stalker). When the situation calls for it, the Regulator will run to the teammates that need help, applying buffs and auras to anyone nearby. Please feel free to give constructive criticism. I don't really care too much about the details of a theoretical melee/support AT, so long as it is a relatively simple addition like how Sentinel was made. This is only a first draft, so I am definitely open to suggestions about the Inherent power, Confront replacement, and the specific tweaks that would be made to the support powersets.

If epic pool powers can already beat the DPA of Impale, then there is no reason not to buff it. It wouldn't increase the overall power level, but would prevent people from being forced into those specific pools.

That would certainly explain the much lower damage I was seeing. Good to know.

You can ignore the melee attacks if you want, I'll just be here doing more damage in a wider area with the powers that are still incredible even after being nerfed.

It's definitely referring to the defense granted by Invisibility, not global defense.

Weird, Trip Mine seemed to work just fine for me dropping it in a group of stationary enemies. And the tooltips are correct, I was referring to live damage values.

It's a 9 radius 90 degree cone, which is incredible compared to the 7 radius 50 degree cones that are standard for most melee powersets. And guess what? Those melee cones are still used. They aren't meant to hit entire crowds, hence the 5 target cap. If you seriously think that you need multiple seconds to hit even two targets with Spinning Kick, you're either bad or lying. Not to even mention the fact that you called Dragon's Tail a "small range" AoE. It has a 15 radius, which is standard for Assault PBAoEs, and almost twice as large as melee PBAoEs, which usually have 8 radius.

I have a very hard time believing you've ever played a /martial dominator, at least seriously. I have never managed to hit zero enemies with Spinning Kick, and frequently hit 3-5 very easily. What makes you think that Martial Assault doesn't have a reason to stay in melee range, exactly? It has three very good low cooldown melee powers, compared to other sets which generally have 3-4 melee powers, some of which aren't worth using.

Thunder Kick is ridiculously good right now and the nerf is entirely warranted. Even after the change, it has about 75 DPA which makes it on par with if not better than the other T2 melees. And yes, Spinning Kick takes some getting used to the range, but that is no reason it should be stronger than anything else. It doesn't matter if the enemies are moving since targets are determined at the start of the cast, not the end (this is how all AoEs work), and I have personally played a /martial Dominator and never once ran into a situation where the enemies were too far above or below me to hit. Maybe if they're literally flying on top of you, but at that point no melee cone would be able to hit them and other enemies at the same time.

Also, both Time Bomb and Trip Mine seem to do significantly less damage than before, which is probably fair, but it is not mentioned anywhere in the patch notes. I do think that the damage was nerfed by too much, as now Trip Mine seems to do about half as much damage as Frost Breath, whereas before it did twice as much.

I'm not sure if it is related to the beta changes, but Time Bomb and Trip Mine slotted with Sudden Acceleration: Knockback to Knockdown still knock targets back, rather than down.

Again, martial assault is by far the best assault set in terms of melee. Thunder Kick, Spinning Kick, and Dragon's Tail all have the best DPA out of their respective categories.

Weak in melee? It has by far the best PBAoE, T2 melee, and melee cone out of all the assault sets. There's no reason to treat Spinning Kick any differently from other cones; in fact it's generally easier to actually hit multiple targets with it due to the fact that you can precisely aim it to cover all of the mobs rather than being restricted by having to target it on an enemy. Either way, the target cap change is mostly for consistency as the small cone would rarely hit more than 5 targets anyway, and the damage change is completely fair. You shouldn't be able to hit 5 targets with single target damage (barring special powerset mechanics), regardless of how the cone works.

It's a 6 minute cooldown.