Most underrated power sets in game

[Scarlet Shocker]

I'm curious.

 

I see a lot of posts saying X is fantastic, Y is crap compared to Z(ed) etc.

 

There are a billion and one opinions out there and I'm never quite sure that the data backs up those opinions. (Wait for it... it's coming)

 

But there are some sets that are a shed tonne of fun to play even if they don't necessarily perform numerically as well as some other set (which may actually be quite boring to play.)

 

So with that preamble over, what sets do you think are excellent to play but don't necessarily get the love they deserve. Maybe their performance value is low, they don't fit your play style, you dislike them because you hate a certain type of AT but maybe you love it and wish it would just do one thing a tiny bit better?

 

Yes, it's an open question: Go to it!

[Snarky]

Every time I bring up a certain AT powerset I get told there are so many things better.   And I laugh.  What is better than effortless fun? I speak of Willpower Armor on a Sentinel.  I got addicted to Willpower on Brutes when it first came out.  I ran a LOT of pre 50s and mostly SO builds.  There was no inherent fitness.  Willpower was a dream come true.  With I/Os being (relatively) cheap for me now Invul on Brutes is the way to go.  But on Sentinels?  It is just back to what it was on Brutes for me.  effortless lulz.  You always have health, you always have endurance.  You are not a Tank.  You have to play smart.  But if you play smart your green and blue bar will require no eye contact.  ever.  

 

[biostem]

45 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

what sets do you think are excellent to play but don't necessarily get the love they deserve

I love gravity control - making enemies your toys, summoning junk from god-knows-where and firing it off - it's great fun!  In a fast paced environment, its longish animations and less flashy graphics means you don't get to appreciate it if completing missions as fast as possible is priority #1.

 

Similarly, I think energy blast has some some of the coolest, most iconic animations among the various blast sets, but I do not like the unpredictability of the knockback and having to "waste" a slot to make it knockdown instead.

 

From a slightly different perspective, I enjoy playing masterminds, but in end game content, I seem to play the role of "cannon-fodder-dispensary" or fall back on my secondary set, more than I am able to enjoy commanding my minions to wreak havoc upon my enemies...

Edited March 15, 2023 by biostem

[Black Talon]

Don't know if this really qualifies, but for me, it's Storm Summoning.  While this power-set comes across as almost disruptive in group settings - many have been the times with my SS/EB Defender that I've done not much more than hang out at the back, dispensing O2 Boosts and running Hurricane as a constant in order to prevent being jumped; that and the required biting sarcasm commentary so that Villain Group X can go to prison with another layer of blistering humility - I've found it to be extremely effective when working solo, with the Hurricane/Snow Storm/Freezing Rain combo serving as a great warm-up for Lightning Storm.  Haven't seen too many others handing out decks of compliments to Storm Summoning, but would certainly like to know if others have experienced much the same with this power-set.

[SaintD]

Psi Melee ignores damn near every resistance in the game, while robots with the res to psi tend to be filler mobs who don't feel any worse to deal with than.....damn near everything resisting your smash/lethal battleaxe or whatever.

[TygerDarkstorm]

2 hours ago, Black Talon said:

Don't know if this really qualifies, but for me, it's Storm Summoning.  While this power-set comes across as almost disruptive in group settings - many have been the times with my SS/EB Defender that I've done not much more than hang out at the back, dispensing O2 Boosts and running Hurricane as a constant in order to prevent being jumped; that and the required biting sarcasm commentary so that Villain Group X can go to prison with another layer of blistering humility - I've found it to be extremely effective when working solo, with the Hurricane/Snow Storm/Freezing Rain combo serving as a great warm-up for Lightning Storm.  Haven't seen too many others handing out decks of compliments to Storm Summoning, but would certainly like to know if others have experienced much the same with this power-set.

I don't think Storm Summoning qualifies as underrated. It's an extremely popular set, and in some cases, a top-tier set. If anything, it's almost overrated, not underrated.

[Biff Pow]

44 minutes ago, SaintD said:

Psi Melee ignores damn near every resistance in the game, while robots with the res to psi tend to be filler mobs who don't feel any worse to deal with than.....damn near everything resisting your smash/lethal battleaxe or whatever.

 

And it has Boggle! Confuse powers are so much fun.

[Captain Fabulous]

Stone Melee and Earth Control. Back on live I rolled a Stone/Fire Brute (when CoV first came out) and I was genuinely surprised how fun it is. Same with Earth Control on both Controllers and Dominators. Very rarely see these sets despite them being really fun to play and very effective.

Ice Armor is another one that's really good but you don't see too often.

[Mjolnerd]

Kinetic Melee. I don't care if it only does 95% (or whatever) of the damage some other sets do -- it does enough.

 

And I like the animations. People complain about the handwaving and "gathering energy" motions, but I love them. You just have to create the proper justification for them in your head, is all.

[biostem]

14 minutes ago, Captain Fabulous said:

Earth Control

I have an earth control/pain domination controller that is a lot of fun on teams.  Solo, it's very safe but slow going...

[Captain Fabulous]

1 hour ago, biostem said:

I have an earth control/pain domination controller that is a lot of fun on teams.  Solo, it's very safe but slow going...

Yeah, there's a ton of control but not a lot of damage in that combo.

[PoptartsNinja]

Stone Melee hits like a truck and has really pleasing sound design, it just needs an extra single target attack to weave in between the mallets. Tremor just needs to have its animation time cut down like Total Focus did.

 

Forcefield was always really good, save for the mob-scattering Repulsion Field. I miss you, Force Bubble.

[Tarrquinn]

Thermal Radiation is the obvious pick for me. Its a jack of all trades that has +res shields, mez protection, -def debuff, a crazy -regen/-recovery debuff, a rez, a great +dmg/tohit buff, and some strong heals. I picked it up on an MM and then went all in with on a Defender and fell in love. Really surprised its not a more common pick.

[Scarlet Shocker]

some interesting answers with a few surprises.

 

30 minutes ago, Tarrquinn said:

Thermal Radiation is the obvious pick for me. Its a jack of all trades that has +res shields, mez protection, -def debuff, a crazy -regen/-recovery debuff, a rez, a great +dmg/tohit buff, and some strong heals. I picked it up on an MM and then went all in with on a Defender and fell in love. Really surprised its not a more common pick.

 

I am a huge fan of Thermal - increasingly so. I rolled an Earth/Thermal on live that rocked (pun intended) called Magma Mage. He doesn't kill fast but he kills everything with the controls from Earth (which does come with a very solid -Def component remember) and the magic of Thermal that keeps Rocky alive with shields and then literally melts your opponents.

 

I'm also a fan of Kin melee - it does seems slow in attack but I've never noticed it doing less damage than others - but that said my experience of melee is limited.

[Uun]

7 hours ago, PoptartsNinja said:

Tremor just needs to have its animation time cut down like Total Focus did.

This was done for Stone Melee in I27P3 and in 2019 for Earth Assault. It has the same animation time as Total Focus.

[Snarky]

12 hours ago, Mjolnerd said:

Kinetic Melee. I don't care if it only does 95% (or whatever) of the damage some other sets do -- it does enough.

 

And I like the animations. People complain about the handwaving and "gathering energy" motions, but I love them. You just have to create the proper justification for them in your head, is all.

I love concept toons.  I built THE TANK MAGE.  An invul kinetic tank.  All ranged.  Or almost all. Okay damned short range but ranged lol.  All done up in mystical outfit.  It was lulz. The animations were perfect for the concept

 

oh, Kinetic Melee still sucks

[Yomo Kimyata]

Not power sets, but mechanics:

 

Knockdown/up/back (in that order)

Debuff damage resistance (which is generally far less resisted by hard targets (AVs/GMs) than other debuffs since it uses their inherent damage resistance.)

Debuff damage (I don't think damage debuffs are resisted at all, but I could be reading it wrong.  This helps you and everyone on your team, if you have one.)

[PoptartsNinja]

2 hours ago, Uun said:

This was done for Stone Melee in I27P3 and in 2019 for Earth Assault. It has the same animation time as Total Focus.

Oh right, it was 3s before wasn't it? I saw the 2.772 Arcanatime and forgot it used to be even worse.

[starro]

I like controllers and dominators, but lately a savage scrapper has been fun to play.  

[Zeraphia]

Nature. Does. Not. Get. Anywhere. Near. The. Credit. It. Deserves.

 

Absolutely insane utility. Absurd AoE damage boosts, more healing than empathy, much better buffs, and those buffs are exotic and hard to find in many support sets. Fantastic AoE hold aura. It is practically the most useful defense set for 4* content, amazing on iTrials, and great for pugging with friends. 

 

Some may argue it's a little more mainstream than other options, but relative to how often I don't see them, I would say that set is massively underrated. 

Edited March 16, 2023 by Zeraphia

[Astralock]

2 minutes ago, Zeraphia said:

Nature. Does. Not. Get. Anywhere. Near. The. Credit. It. Deserves.

 

Absolutely insane utility. Absurd AoE damage boosts, more healing than empathy, much better buffs, and those buffs are exotic and hard to find in many support sets. Fantastic AoE hold aura. It is practically the most useful defense set for 4* content, amazing on iTrials, and great for pugging with friends. 

 

Some may argue it's a little more mainstream than other options, but relative to how often I don't see them, I would say that set is massively underrated. 

Considering that many hard mode groups only allow support characters with either Cold Domination, Nature Affinity, Kinetics, or Thermal Radiation power sets on their teams, I wouldn’t call Nature Affinity underrated.

[Zeraphia]

1 minute ago, Astralock said:

Considering that many hard mode groups only allow support characters with either Cold Domination, Nature Affinity, Kinetics, or Thermal Radiation power sets on their teams, I wouldn’t call Nature Affinity underrated.

Yes, but I rarely ever encounter anybody running a Nature. I've seen plenty of Kinetics and Cold, some Therms, but rarely ever Nature. It's very underrated IMO even without taking into account 4* content. The set was amazing even before then and was definitely a staple for me to keep my Nature/Sonic Defender. 

[LegionAlpha]

Empathy set.

[SteelRat70]

14 hours ago, PoptartsNinja said:

Stone Melee hits like a truck and has really pleasing sound design, it just needs an extra single target attack to weave in between the mallets. Tremor just needs to have its animation time cut down like Total Focus did.

 

This.  All of it.

My stone / fire brute, Volkanik was my main on live for the longest time, even though it took a double xp weekend to truly get him off the ground and past the very painful end management issues of the early levels,   He also exists on HC (although someone's pinched his name before me on Excelsior) and is so... much.. fun.. to play whether solo or in a team, especially with Cardiac and Pyronic Incarnate powers slotted.  So visceral, it's almost therapy.

Currently working on a Stone / Lec version.

[Scarlet Shocker]

8 hours ago, Snarky said:

oh, Kinetic Melee still sucks

 

Incorrect.

 

Imperfect, yes

 

Unfinished; agreed

 

Needs some love: Definitely

 

Doesn't suck.