Kaika

I said it before and I'll say it again, no stalker/Scrapper would ever want a cone over a PBAoE, please give them Consume Psyche instead of Devour Psyche. I don't care if it technically covers a larger area, it requires you to reposition which cuts into DPS on the more DPS focused AT who are going to be in the thick of it anyways. If it remains like this, it's another set I probably wont bother with as it's central to the whole set(lack of taunt means it's already dead to me on scrapper but it could be fun on stalker). Honestly It's just a bizarre choice

Having already tested it, I can confirm it's still very worth it to proc bomb if that's your thing, it hits for very respectable damage with 4 procs and no recharge. It's just no longer a pocket nuke that heals/recovers end. Rad kinda needed a nerf and honestly this feels rather well directed. I do agree though ground zero could use a slight reduction in it's activation time here, but I feel the set isn't exactly hurting for AoE presence.

ALL of my builds use LoTG, it's simply one of the best enhancements in the game, really should have been unique like the unbreakable guard Max HP proc, but it was one of the first IOs so hind sight is 20/20. Unfortunately it's too ingrained to change at this point as it would practically require most high end builds respec, or if they grandfathered it in, suddenly you can't respec the character without losing it so it's here to stay. Honestly as someone who plays every toon with perma haste, I actually wouldn't be all too sad to see it go, it would make reaching that harder for sure, but it would not inflate the value of +Def powers more then they already are with+def as strong as it is. In the grand scheme of things though, it's not that big deal, Def as a stat is insanely strong on practically all builds and even without multiple LoTG def has some very good sets and procs. This is just how a complex gearing system usually works, the best stuff gets used the most, if something is universally useful everyone will use it. Not every build has 5 of them though, not every build will have enough powers to fit 5 of them and there are other procs that can be more useful but are single use like sheild wall, reactive defenses or Kismet For the record it's not even just LoTG btw, quite a few procs are practically universal in builds: Performance shifter +end Panacea end/HP Steadfast protection and gladiators armor 3% def In just about any high end build these are practically a guarantee just due to the usefulness they offer for only one slot,. You don't HAVE to use these btw, you can make a perfectly functional and even good build without utilizing any of these enhancements, it's just it's alot easier to do with them.

Pretty sure, the devs already mentioned they intend to buff kin melee at some point, unfortunately this is a entirely volunteer dev team and these things take time and they want to do it right the first time to not cause more work down the line. Melee is fine btw, good even, they tend to have some of the best raw single target damage in the game that's realistic and good sustained AoE, you just need to learn to move. This isn't even bringing taunt into the equation which tanks/brute/scrapper get alot of or them having the best damage mitigation. Oh and yes, blast sets CAN farm better then melee, it's however ALOT harder and usually you bring a tank or brute anyways as taunt stops enemies from running, and while you can, you don't normally do that solo. Honestly if a blaster couldn't out DPS a brute that would be a way bigger issue thats kinda the point of blaster. Oh and as someone who both plays a changeling PB and plays with alot of changeling PBs, they aren't that busted beyond what you can do with say a scrapper, they are also REALLY damn hard to set up and play properly. Seriously I've seen some wild takes in this game but "Melee is underpowered and needs buffs" is one the of the wildest.

Hah I appear to be mistaken, though I know you can do the same with Time, either way getting def up to the point of practical immortality isn't all that hard so I still stand by my points.

Honestly I was kinda just getting my thoughts out on the subject but I figured it would add to the conversation. More to the point though It's why I agree with the statement that Stalker/Scrapper tend to have the best ST damage realistically, at least from my bias viewpoint simply because as pure damage dealers I feel they have the least amount of caveats twords accessing that damage, and tend to not rely on support powers that would give others the same DPS boost. While I don't want to belabor this point they are simply alot easier to reach those damage values as well, specialty for the kinda person to ask "whats the best DPS" in the general forums, not to throw any shade at the OP of course. Either way though, this is one of those things where I feel everyone will have a different opinion of where the line of judgment is drawn, but a interesting topic none the less. And yeah SAME, I completely get why people specialize but if my character feels weak in any situation it's usually back to mids for me.

Yeah Division 2 is around where I would consider it, temps just feels bit cheap in the grand scheme and I general don't include things like lore pets due to inconsistency, cooldown. Not to say it's not already very valuable but I find lores/temp pets cause -res to get overvalued. Not to discount the effort that goes into these, they are certainly a useful resource but most of the builds used are tailor made for just pylon testing, optimizing everything for shear single target damage with little to no AoE, sustainability, or utility and often aren't realistic in many ways like having crabs pets actually all attack the same target and survive or abuse things like assault incarnate transferring to MM pets if summoned after activating. While I think pylon testing is still a useful benchmark at a certain point it's only really checking how quickly you can burst it down rather then some level of overall performance. It's still obviously worth noting and something to account for I just often don't think it's realistic specially outside of coordinated situations. It feels more like a "whats possible" rather then a "What will work the best". On that note though I don't have a better benchmark to replace it with and I'm not even gonna try to argue my opinion is right because it's very up to interpretation, just kinda how CoH is. Either way just my two cents

Invun is a solid stalker secondary, not meta, but not far from it, I play it on my main and she can solo basically everything at 4x8 fairly quickly, only having to really try with some of the harder groups. Dull pain is very powerful, but high recharge so you are somewhat vulnerable to getting whittled down if you don't have any other tools for sustaining yourself, but its not nearly as bad as shield or SR on that front. Build wise it's pretty flexible and slots out pretty well, you can end with most res maxed and most def types at 40-45% without having to go too hard. It can have end issues though, but thats just stalker in general and it is possible to get it under control without having to slot hard into it, this lets you be fairly flexible with your Destiny slot, as just about every pick has it's niche if you want to go through the effort of getting all them.

In the origin of power arch, if you are a mutant, Yin specifically states that she IS NOT a mutant, and has no specific powers, she's a extremely powerful psychics by nature, just like some people are naturally talented athletes. She isn't alone either the PPD has a full division of psychic police and widows are natural origin as well, it even used to be forced on the VEAT. So a there is a ton of room for a natural origin psychic to play with the big leagues. At the end of the day, it's whatever you want, CoH has always be extremely open to any interpretation of power source and power level. There are plenty of examples of characters with really goofy lore at even the high end (Shout outs to my boy Bad Penny in the Miss Liberty TF) the game is a creative sand box and it's crafted to allow just about anything.

While I do think empathy is currently one of the worst support sets atm. That's not the worst place to be given how absurdly strong support sets are. At high end it still has some incredibly powerful buffs, mainly in fortitude and adrenaline boost. Fortitude is pretty damn powerful being a combo To-hit/Def/Damage buff, all of these things can have alot of value in the right situation, and generally one of them is always going to be useful, with enough recharge this can be maintained on the whole team at once, though with decent effort. AB is IMO the strongest single target support buff in the entire game, 50% recharge is massive anywhere, endurance basically gets removes as a mechanic, and it gives IH to anyone practically making them immortal (especially when paired with fort) and you can maintain this on two target with high recharge. This is to say nothing of the RAs which basically give infinite end and regen to the team. I find there are 3 major issue with Empathy. 1: Healing simply is not needed in large quantity, making much of the set redundant, many set are capable of filling the role of healer with a single power and powers for self sustain are a dime a dozen. Why have 4 (arguably 5) abilities that all do the same thing in slightly different ways when 1 or 2 get the job done just fine. It doesn't help that powers like regeneration aura if used well practically invalidate 3 of your other powers while active. To add to this preventing damage in the game is currently much easier and far more effective, a single cold can negate the need for healing in the first place with 3 buttons (Powerboost + ice shield + Glacial shield)(Whoops apparently that does not work) and brings far more to the table then Emp does offensively. 2: Empathy is far too active. Everything empathy does needs to be maintained constantly, even if you are not healing all 4 of your buffs need to be constantly cycled in order to have a real supportive impact, nothing is passive or really long lasting in this set, and the abilities that are need to be constantly cycled onto other teammates in order to do your job. Keeping fort on 7 people takes quite a bit of time, and you constantly want to be maintaining this , AB and the RAs are a bit easier but just add to this, and then if you DO need to be healing thats more time spent on pure defense, NOTHING in this set is passive. Remember CoH is a game where taking a action takes time, time you could be spending doing other actions, such as attacking enemies. Time spent healing other could be spent doing other things had the damage simply been prevented in the first place. Even if we some how reworked the game to make healing far more valuable somehow, this would likely still hold empathy back, trying to play empathy optimally takes far more effort for generally less reward then other support sets, it's the reason why buff sets had their buffs changed to apply in AoE. 3: It's simply outclassed by several more popular options that do what it does but better. As I said before support sets tend to be very powerful these days, one skilled defender can practically turn off damage in about 5 seconds, outside of combat that they only need to worry about every 4 minutes. That's before bringing IOs or incarnates into the mix, which can allow a team of blasters to reach immortality levels of sustainability without any support. Support these days tends to be defined more by the offensive benefits they bring to the team, while survivabilty is important, it's not difficult to achieve effective immortality before supports even get involved, and practically effortless the moment they do. It's hard to justify taking Emp over something like kin when kin can max out damage buffs perma with a single press of a button, can maintain a recharge boost on the whole party, maintain mez protection much easier, and in practical terms is just as good of a healer, if not better. On top of that, sets like nature do healing better and still has far more of a impact when healing is not needed. That said, I don't think empathy as a whole is terrible, the set still can hold its own as a support and bring alot to the table, especially if its the only support. None of these issues are deal breakers, they simply hold the set back. Fort, AB, and the RAs basically pay the price of admission on all but the most sweaty of teams, and while a abundance of healing is redundant in the very rare situations where it is needed it makes for nice insurance. I feel when people can identify a imbalance easily, they tend to blow it wildly out of proportion. I would still rather have it over a set like, traps for example which, while powerful, suffers from long activation times and cooldowns, and only really can perform it's best in more drawn out fights, which tend to be rare (though TBF I don't have a ton of experience playing/playing with traps but I feel there's a reason for that ). Do I think it needs a rework: DEAR GOD YES Do I think it has a place in the current game: Yes of course it can carry it's weight just fine and only loses in a value comparison to other sets, that to be honest, I feel are quite a bit over-tuned. Seriously support in the game is insanely powerful and I think most people don't notice because it isn't required. TLDR: It's kinda just not meta, too specialized for something not highly valued and outclassed by other options on what it does do, but it can get the job done just fine and even has its own valuable benefits, there are just better options for most situations.

EM/Bio stalker or scrapper if I recall, at least with most builds. Though it depends on what situation you are looking for. Solo vs team with buff/debuffs or even just raw damage and what limitations are put on it when looking at its DPS and how long it can maintain it. Believe it or not, its not a easy question to answer. Likely though you're looking at Em/Bio anyways, TW got a nerf though TW/Bio is still a absolute monster and comparable when built right, honestly I think its better for general play, but thats a different discussion.

I'm sure it will get ported eventually. Not that it's bad but I feel like super strength is one of the most overrated sets in the game, I don't even think it would be OP if directly ported to scrapper and stalker right now. Sure rage is strong but outside of Foot stomp and Knockout blow, which are both just a bit above average, the rest of the sets attacks are ok at best, terrible at worst. Even with and power/epic pools you would likely struggle to put together a high DPS rotation, while other sets have little issue. Rage is really the only thing that keeps it relevant and even thats not really that big of a deal outside of solo play with things like Kinetic support existing. Sets like claws can already reach comparable +DMG numbers with better attacks. Do I think it would be bad on scrapper? Far from it, but I doubt it would be better then the current top end. On stalker, unless the attacks get buffed, it would be likely bad to lower middle of the pack at best, as losing rage for BU would could the set to be pretty under-powered. My guess for the reason this isn't getting ported is specifically because they are planing to rework the set. Why go through all the work of porting a set to another AT if you are just gonna have to go back and change it all. The team is volunteering their time, so time saving measures like "proliferate the set as you rework it so you only have to do it once" seems like something that would make sense.

Oh hey, this is LITERALLY the back story of my Natural origin stalker "Fio Rune" everything she does is something that she can naturally do because she is a demon, she is just really good at it, basically the demonic equivalent of a martial arts master. Really though, there is no hard lines and it all comes down to interpretation. Depending on who's writing him, Batman could be consider of both Tech and Natural origin, and while I personally would lean more on the natural origin, with all the gadgets and vehicles he uses I could see a argument for him being a tech origin. It's a issue I've had when making a few of my characters, I usually just end up settling on what feels the most "central" to their abilities or character.

Placate in my experience is worth it on a lower recharge build and not really worth it on a higher recharge build. While it's certainly received some fairly significant buffs you have to remember that all it grants you offensively is a crit, this is something you can already get from two other sources: The Rehide ATO and random crit chance. With the rehide ATO taking care of most of your force crits needs, you usually would only need it when its on its internal 10 second cooldown, which sorta limits the use of placate to when its down or the rare instances when it does not proc. On top of that if your recharge is high enough to get a tight rotation of strong attacks placate, even with its short animation time can often cause you to either drop one of your attacks, losing a possible stack of assassin's focus, or delaying AS, your strongest attack by far, neither of which are generally good options. You also have to take the procs and the random crit chance into account, people tend to think of placate as 100% damage boost on the next attack but in reality its a 90-70% due to scaling random crit chance to even less if you are dealing with attacks with damage procs in them, as the procs are unaffected by crits. In lower level, or low recharge builds, placate is amazing but in higher end builds its only really that useful as a utility tool. I could certainly see some scenarios where it could be possibly be a gain (Total focus for the double ET, come to mind but I haven't ran the math) but in my experience it isn't really worth it as a damage tool in most high end stalker builds. As utility though, the ability to "turn off enemies" can be very nice, but on the higher end it's generally best as just a utility, at least from my expirence. And to answer the question about placate-> AS: NO it's bad. AS from hide deals about the same DPS as quick AS does when it does not crit, meaning that any chance of quick AS critting puts it well above AS from hide and thats before adding placate into the mix, the assassin's focus mechanic is there for a reason. Still worth using to start a fight if you have time, or if you REALLY need the fear effect.