Kaika

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 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.

No, this would wreak havoc on any semblance of balance the game has, even if the DPA was kept the same, attacks do more then do damage, speeding up attacks means they apply their secondary effects faster and allow you more time to do other things. Lets not even talk about how this would even work with procs, as proc rate is effected by animation speed. Not to mention would likely be pretty difficult to do on the back end. Sets like Titan weapons had to be designed from the ground up to work like this. Battle Axe and War Mace are both very effect sets that are practically defined by being a bit slow, If you want to play a fast animating set, play a fast animating set. This is a game released in 2004 held together with duct tape, chewed bubble gum and miracles, what you're asking WAY more complex then you seem to be thinking, and would basically required full reworks of all the sets in question just to add that functionality.

I agree people need to relax a bit when this badge get missed. But it serves a important purpose for new players adding a challenge with a failure state and making sure they understand the context of a "AoE". It forces players to learn just a little bit about how their early powers function and how to figure that out. It also teaches players the importance of listening and considering how fast things move and how much trouble it can be to get players to listen to something as simple as "please don't attack" these days, I'm gonna say this is a VERY relevant lesson. For MM's in particular it teaches them the importance of maintaining control over their pets and not letting them run off and do their own thing, which is also a very important lesson

Not at all defending someone for doing this, but there is SOME validity to the exclusion Controls in general tend to be very weak in high end 50/incarnate play, it very common for enemies to pose no threat to teams so stopping them from attacking doesn't really accomplish much A very bad controller/Dom can make things take longer then a empty slot of the team just due to keeping things apart, even when using hard controls like holds or stuns. Most sets come with uncontrollable pets which can cause further chaos Controllers tend to be very low damage, and Doms just get outclasses by other DPS. HOWEVER this practice is still.... REALLY stupid because Player >>>>>> AT ALWAYS even if they aren't meta a good controller/Dom is an absolute force to be reckoned with Support is the strongest thing in this game, even if the control effect is useless, Controllers are still a fully fledged support with access to stuff like Cold and Kinetics, which just amplify group effectiveness to the god damn moon This is more of a observation but, Dominator players, particularly at 50, tend to be absolutely crazy at the game, Dom is not a easy AT and almost requires a high end IO build to feel complete, less experienced players tend to bounce off doms due to how hard they can be early on. While Controllers/Doms generally are lower damage that isn't ALWAYS the case at all. Doms in particular can get some pretty crazy damage output with some builds. A good dom will wipe the floor with a mediocre scrapper or blaster damage wise. While a bad controller or dom is very noticeable ANY bad player can slow things down significantly. Many sets have KB, tanks/brute/scraps can spread out groups by taunting things away, support in general can also spread things out. This isn't something exclusive to control sets, ANYONE can make things take longer if they play poorly. You could always just.... ask them to not immob until enemies are gathered, you know.... use your words I think the worst part of all of this is that None of this really matters since the enemies in ITF are very resistant to control What we have here is a wonderful example of the Dunning Kruger effect. Where people with a bit of knowledge about a subject overestimates their competency and knowledge. This person knows that "control is bad" because it isn't meta, so they think they are being smart by not bringing any. Since they think that they likely extend that to the idea that "Control players are bad because they choose a bad AT" and hence feel justified in not including them. While the reality is that they are probably shooting their team in the foot by not allowing them. At least that's my read There are definitely valid reasons to go for specific team comps, or not want to bring a specific AT but IMO thats only in REALLY extreme cases like 4* Speed runs or specific challenge set ups, and even then in those situations you're probably only bringing very specific set ups anyways

I recall people bragging about how many names they had gotten and were sitting on "for later" in the early days of the server. Tons of people knew how the naming system works in this game and wanted to get everything they could before they got taken for use later. I'm guessing for these people later never came, and they just made everything more annoying. Even beyond that, I think people underestimate how many people, picked up the game, made a ton of characters in the creator and just... left never to return, especially in the early days and after we went official. Alot of folks got caught up in the "CoH is back" hype, made a few toons, barely got past the character creator and immediately moved on to something else. Either way I feel like this system should have been put in place ages ago, but I can understand the hesitance. I'm just happy I got my old blaster's name back.

I'm gonna review this with the same amount of effort OP put into writing the suggestion /jranger

Fair, It's fine, I have a habit of getting defensive quickly these days. Honestly that would be a solid compromise if there was some way to confirm what type of map the mission takes place on before selecting it. Actually I think I'll mention that in the original post, its a very good compromise, everyone wins. On the note of dev time, yeah that's sorta the tradeoff of implementing anything I personally think its worth the development time, but I trust the devs to decide on what should or should not take their time, if they feel the system is fine as is and/or not worth the dev time to update, it is what it is.

I mean, its my Suggestion and Feedback on the Suggestions and Feedback forums, I'm not demanding anything, just giving my feedback and making a suggestion on a still widely used system that I think could use updates and how I would go about that. Alot of these are complaints I've heard echoed in many radio teams. You can suggest anything you want here, up to the devs if they want to listen to, ignore or implement any ideas. Again I understand the "Lore" or radio/paper missions but I also think is very flexible, wouldn't be the first time lore has changed and I don't think anyone is super invested in the deep lore of radio/paper missions. Hell it could even be written in as the systems changing in lore, they done this before. I'm going to agree to disagree with you on caves here, but I can understand where you are coming from, I don't think they are worth keeping in radio missions, but I can understand why you or someone else would. If the devs updated the system and keep caves in, I would 100% still consider that a win. All I'm advocating for is a update to a very widely used system in this game, to expand it and make it a bit more user friendly. Seriously though? Immaturity of this statement aside, What would you rather have suggestions be, this is a MMO there is no need here. If you don't like my suggestion that's fine, but no need to belittle.

Um.... yes? I do not like these things.... that's why I made this suggestion. Lore reasons I think are already pretty thin considering tips can be done in mostly any zone, and the already disposable nature of the missions. If you like cave missions, power to you, I think they should still be in the game, just not in radio content. Just because we have a work around doesn't mean we shouldn't make things better. I think the system is really flawed by today's standards and could be made better. Your point seems to be "This is just your opinion" and yes it is, that's basically what suggestions are.

"Instantly" is a very odd way to put it when you have to spend about 10-15 seconds minimum summoning and buffing them, maybe more if you have a buff heavy secondary. I love my MM, they can be absolute monsters and very fun to play, but you lose so much effectiveness waiting for your pets to show up on teams that aren't slow. Group fly and group teleport can help with this but it's also a wonderful way to end up on many black list. Speed boost helps but you have to go kin for it or just hope someone else has it. I think increasing the base movement speed definitely will help but I'm not sure it would solve the issue considering how common it is for minions to get stuck on stuff. I would like a button thats instantly teleports your pets too you, if you get far enough the game already does it, it would also serve as a nice way to counter pets running off without having to micro too much.

Oh, honestly let me give you more praise, it's definitely not optimal and a bit rough but this is still a solid and very functional build all things considered, and shows that you understand alot of the core fundamentals of a good build. Jumping into end game builds like this and making something still fairly solid is no easy task, especially when you haven't reach end game yourself. And yeah its easy to accidentally do that in mids, even experienced builders have that issue from time to time. I think support is automatically active when you add it so thats probably why its on, honestly as a stalker I would recommend assault core over support anyways as you are a DPS so adding to your own personal damage will likely carry more value then adding damage to the team, though its nice to have support in your back pocket for league content where it can effect all 24 players, or for teams lacking any support. To make hide show the effects when not hidden Options->Configuration ->Effect &Math -> suppression-> Check "Attacked". Everytime I have to reinstall it, it always takes me forever to find.

At a glance. Those defense numbers are incorrect btw, and quite a bit off as its displaying the values while hidden and you also have support active which is only up 50% of the time, both inflating those numbers by quite a bit( about 13% I would guess ). Still honestly you could probably drop quite a bit of elemental defense to pick up more recharge. 130% is kinda low for a high end stalker build, and is far from perma haste. More global recharge means more AS, lightning rod and everything really. I would also drop Jacobs ladder for Chain induction. It back loads your powers slightly but chain induction is a FAR better power and offers much more realistic AoE and is your best single target damage power oddly enough, just a amazing power over all. I would also drop the 6 slotted superior conditioning as you likely will rarely be using your positional defenses, the recharge bonus is pathetic, and end mod ehancments have very little effect here since SC's base recovery is very low. I would replace it with a performance shifter proc and maybe one or two of the healing +recovery procs as they will give you way more value and free up 5-3 slots for use elsewhere. Oh and while you at it put the Panacea proc in health, its the best endurance gain enhancement in the game due to it's very high proc rate. You can probably also drop the 6 slotted Build up as well, since the main benefit of that set is positional def, which you will likely not be using as it will rarely be higher then your typed def. On top of that stalker ATO gives a random chance to BU reset meaning that recharge in build up does not provide much of a benefit, slotted recharge lowers the rate the proc goes off as well so it even plays against you a little, you can comfortably slot BU with just the Gaussian's proc and puts those 5 slots to use elsewhere. You could probably also drop placate, its not a bad power to have or anything but electric gets little benefit from it since, its strongest AoEs can't crit, and it lacks a reliable heavy hitting single target attack you would want to use it with, even then it tends to lose value in high end builds over just attacking more due to a high base crit chance on teams, assassin's focus mechanic, and damage procs. Still nice to have for utility, but just wanted to mention if you had any other power picks in mind. This is all just at a glance, it sounds like you are fairly new to building toons like this and this is still fairly solid.

I don't disagree thats its a bad combo, but I think you're looking at the set entirely from the lense of a solo player, it would still be fairly good as a support, I'm not trying to say that emp is a great support set I agree with your sentiment that its the worst support set atm, but I don't think that particularly makes it bad. Being the worst set in arguably the strongest type of sets still makes you plenty good. Emp has fortitude, which while it needs to be applied to all teammates individually is still a very powerful buff and AB which IMO is the best single target buff in the game(100% recharge goes hard) and can be maintained on two players. Due to a ton of Illusions effectiveness being tied to autonomous pets, you actually end up with alot of time to manage these buffs and the occasional reactive heal while still providing the full benefit of your primary, there is some synergy. This is just talking about max level where empathy is at its weakest, the set tends to do alot better at lower levels where most players are on SOs or unenhanced as reactive healing tends to get more use. I'm not saying its a good combo, but its not awful as a support focused toon. I still wouldn't roll one though. As to what I think the worst combo is, MA/Regen Stalker, and I say that as a stalker main. MA on stalker comes with 0 AoEs, none, nadda, and before people say that "Stalker isn't AoE focused" even with a single AoE most stalker can output fairly OK to even very good AoE damage, without really sacrificing single target damage. Lacking one really holds back the set as it's forced to take out enemies one at a time in a game where its more common for enemy numbers to be in double digits. On top of that, the single target damage MA brings is only about average*, slightly above at best, falling well behind of sets like EM, Fire, StJ, DB and likely a few more, all of which have at least one or multiple solid AoEs, and the same if not better damage typing. Regen needs no introduction here but stalker regen is the worst type due to stalkers having the lowest base HP of the melee and as regen is percentage based this holds it back quite a bit. Just as the cherry on top, stalker regen does not provide any auto recovery unlike every other variation and it's very common for stalkers to have endurance issues in general. If you can't rely on team buffs in order for a high end regen stalker to reach the same level of surviablity that other sets can manage it needs to rely on rotating IH, MoG and Shadowmeld, which limits you to soul mastery which also lacks a AoE. Both MoG and Shadow meld have long activation times and need to be activated enough that it can cut into the DPS making the combo actually lose DPS as opposed to other sets like invun which do not have to rely on constant actives. On teams, at best you can kill bosses and thats really it, and EVERY stalker already excels at that. You bring no AoE, no utility, no support, at best you can be a alpha taker, and the only real thing you have is single target damage which every stalker has and you aren't even the best at, all with the worst version of the worst armor set in the game. Can you make it work, sure, but you can do that with just about anything. *Edit: I took a bit of a closer look and I wanna correct myself by saying MA stalker is a little bit more on the high end of single target then I initially thought, it still loses to sets like EM/StJ/Fire pretty handedly but I wouldn't put it too far behind them. I still feel my point stands regardless.

Just the nature of the beast in most ITF runs today. If its KM people tend to gather as much as they can and the melee are usually always at agro cap, so unless you play exceedingly safe, or have so many buffs that your level doesn't matter, if you are being side-kicked you are probably gonna be seeing the floor alot.

Yes. Not sure why you think they wouldn't they are entirely different things. Choking cloud is a hold not a debuff and corrosive vial is a AoE DoT with some -def. But to awnser the question further. In about 99% of scenarios, unless we are talking incarnate interface or IO procs, all debuffs stack.