Are there any underpowered power sets you'd like to see buffed?

[Trickshooter]

Underperforming

Trick Arrow

Electrical Blast

Energy Melee

 

Not underperforming, but in need of one or two improvements

Force Field

Sonic Resonance

Regeneration

Ice Control

Mercenaries

[jack_nomind]

My list of "in need of one or two improvements" is very long indeed, so I left all those off.

[Elthenar]

Underperforming

Trick Arrow

Electrical Blast

Energy Melee

 

Not underperforming, but in need of one or two improvements

Force Field

Sonic Resonance

Regeneration

Ice Control

Mercenaries

 

Personally, i'd move Mercs to underperforming.

[justicebeliever]

I'm not nearly clever enough to evaluate if a set is underperforming (I use the "Fun" factor - and I think they are all fun), but I was curious just how many sets this thread felt were underperforming - I went through every post and added in each set that mentioned as underperforming AND the number of unique posters who "voted" for that set.  Then I grouped the suggestions and compared it to the list of powers in Paragon Wiki (which I realize is missing the i25 powersets, but none of those were suggested as underperforming).

 

Out of the 75 primary power sets listed on PW, this thread feels that 25 of them are underperforming (33%).  That might seem like the right #, maybe not - I really don't know - just seems like a large percentage to me.

 

I wont post again here, because I know I don't add value (and this was probably valueless) but since I did the work for my own curiosity I thought I'd share...

 

Here's the breakdown (clearly Energy Melee is in need of some love)

Blaster/Corrupter (5 suggested/13 total on PW)

Dual Pistols

Dark Blast

Archery

Assault Rifle

Electrical Blast

 

Controller/Dominator (2/10)

Gravity Control

Electric Control

 

Defender (3/13)

Force Fields - 3

Trick Arrow - 2

Empathy

 

Mastermind (3/7)

Mercenary - 2

Beast Master - 2

Ninjas

 

Melee (7/21)

Energy Melee - 9

Broadsword - 4

Battle Axe - 3

War Mace - 2

Dark Melee

Katana

Claws

 

Tanker (5/11)

Ice Armor - 3

Stone Armor

Regen

Invunerabilty

Super Strength

[Galaxy Brain]

My list of "in need of one or two improvements" is very long indeed, so I left all those off.

 

Jc, but what sets are those?  :)

 

 

Also @Justucebeliever, that is super helpful. While about 1/3 of sets are "underperforming" based on that, it isnt really saying by how much aside from the number of mentions.

[Ghostpilot]

I don't want to comment on powersets I don't know anything about, so I'll stick to what I know.  But first some blanket changes that could help.

 

Controllers / Dominators.

 

Tier 1 Immobilizes: Their damage rating is rather misleading because the DoT's are over a long period of time (9 seconds), so the damage ends up being far lower than what's listed in real world applications.  The damage takes so long to apply, the skill could be cast two additional times before the first DoT finished.  Keeping simply changing lowering the time of the DoT's from 9 seconds to the usual 5 seconds would help the early game and would make the single target immobilizes (that are generally skipped) more appealing in general.

 

AoE Controls received a blanket nerf to their Accuracy, Duration and Cooldowns long ago.  With the -20% to base accuracy and 4 minute cooldowns, this makes most of them - ironically - some of the more skippable powers in a Controllers arsenal and a real letdown when picked up.  Given how the game has changed since the early days when this nerf took place, I think that the affected AoE controls being brought back to 1.00x accuracy and perhaps a 3 minute cooldown would go a long way to letting Controllers and Dominators do what they're designed to do.

 

Pet Melee Bug: There were mentions of it on the Live forums back in the day.  It was a problem the devs knew about and had on the table to be fixed, but never was before the game went down.  Ranged pets will run into melee even when they didn't have any melee attacks.  This caused many pets to die prematurely.  This being corrected would help several under-performing powers.

 

Now, that aside, here are some things I'd like to see with some power sets that I have experience with.  Some are QoL changes, others are suggestions to bringing up some underperforming sets.

 

Quality of Life:

 

Gravity Control: The changes to the knockback protection on Immobilizes helped this set a good bit, especially with regards to its Impact mechanic which previously.  However, Singularity's controls still apply the knockback protection that gets in the way of this.  I suspect this might be the case for some other pets as well (e.g. Fly Trap, Umbra Beast).

 

Levitate (Mind Control) and Lift (Gravity Control): These powers have a 2-second delay before applying their damage that was intended to line up with the time that the enemy landed.  However, this was before ragdoll physics were implemented.  Now, the damage applies well after the enemy hits the ground.  This delay often causes the user (as well as pets / party members) to waste additional attacks on enemies that would have been defeated by the damage from Levitate / Lift that hadn't applied yet.  The fix for this would simply to have the damage apply at the start of the knockup.

 

Illusion Control:  While certainly not a weak set (aside for Flash, as per the AoE controls mentioned earlier), it would be nice if the Phantom Army could fly in the way Phantasm does so that they may better keep up with the Illusionist (especially those with Jumps / Flys).  This minor, however.

 

Electric Control: A decent set overall; it would benefit from having the damage of its Single Target Immobilize (Electric Fence) being up-front damage (to match its AoE Immobilize) instead of a DoT.  Static Field is a pulsing Sleep power which will be disrupted by a Damage Over Time power, especially as Static Field is a core power of the set.

 

 

Undertuned Powers / Powersets:

 

Overpower:  A Controller inherent 20% chance for +1 Mag on some forms of control makes this an inherent that cannot be relied upon as it has an 80% chance to do nothing.  Additionally, it triggering on minions, LT's and pets is the same as it not triggering at all.  As such, it is only really meaningful on Bosses on up.

 

Gravity Control:  Gravity is one of the two control sets (the other being Mind) that lacks a secondary effect that Earth (-Def), Ice (slow, -Rec), and other sets have.  While it does have the Impact mechanic that added some damage, prior to the knockback protection changes, meant that Gravity had to sacrifice damage for control (or vice versa), and only applied to a few powers. It would be nice if the Gravity Distortion Field set up Impact the same way that the single target Gravity Distortion does (likewise with Singularity's Gravity Distortion) and that Crushing Field took advantage of Impact the same way that Crush does.

 

Dimension Shift is a power that - even in ideal situations - is of marginal use and ends up leading the party yelling at you.  This was a power that's had it's functionality changed at least once in the past.  That said, I don't know how to correct this short of replacing it entirely.  There has been the wish of players since Live for Gravity to have a Mass Lift (i.e. Reverse Gravity).  Though this idea might be somewhat redundant with Wormhole.

 

 

Mind Control: Mind Control was perhaps the set hit hardest by the blanket nerfs to AoE controls in Live. The flavor text of the set says that it is very accurate, but a third of the set has accuracy penalties.  This is combined with a lack of a secondary effect, long cooldowns, no pet, and a power as awkward and expensive as it is unique: Telekinesis (which used to hit 16 targets; now hits 5).  Also, as two of the powers are Sleeps, they end up being virtually useless in group scenarios.  It all adds up to a Control powerset that's not terribly effective at controlling and sacrifices a secondary effect and a pet with nothing to show for it.  Even its level 32 power is surpassed in virtually every way by a power Plant receives at level 8, and Electric Control's Synaptic Overload at 26.  Electric Control also has a far better AoE sleep in the form of Static Field.

 

The one unique aspect of Mind Control is that it is the set that can best make use of Controller's Overpower / Containment and Dominator's Domination in 8 of its 9 powers.  Sadly, this doesn't save the set.

 

Now this is a hail Mary, but to borrow from an idea I'd posted elsewhere on the forums a month ago: as Telekinesis and Total Domination largely overlap as being AoE Holds, it would be interesting for Total Domination to allow the permanent control of an enemy LT or lower, giving it the same equivalent stats of a typical Control set pet.  I am unsure if such a thing is mechanically possible, but it would be a unique capstone ability.

 

Also, Mind could benefit from a secondary effect that (most) other Control primaries have.  I'm just unsure of what it might be.

 

 

Storm Summoning:  A strange, unfocused set that would make more sense as a Controller primary than as a Defender Primary.  The #1 Powerset to frustrate a group; Storm Summoning even has effects that don't synergize with the power they're attached to (e.g. Tornado and Lightning Storm knocking enemies out of their own areas of effect) as well as scattering them from the other powers in the set (the areas of Freezing Rain, or away from Thunderclap).

 

Speaking of Thunderclap - for as beautiful as it is - is among the worst powers in the game.  It's a relatively small PBAoE stun with a long animation, a -20% accuracy penalty, and is only a mag 2 (meaning it will only stun Minions).  And it is in a set that doesn't have any means of getting the user in position to use it.  The closest power to facilitate it's use would be Hurricane, however the repel of which would push the enemies out of radius of Thunderclap.  My idea for it would be to remove the accuracy penalty, make it mag 3, and enable Location-type targeting ala Tornado (something I would give to Lightning Storm as well).

 

The set is lacks any buffs, the debuffs are behind that of most other sets, a mediocre heal; no means of applying -Regen, all while being one of the most endurance-intensive sets (Lightning Storm is among the most expensive powers in the game).  I struggle to think of anything meaningful it could contribute to most raids, especially Hamidon.

 

Thankfully, Sudden Acceleration's (and Overwhelming Force's) Knockback to Knockdown greatly enhances the usability of this set (as do some accompanying Controller Primaries) to help keep it from working against itself (or a group).  I would venture to say they are borderline essential to the sets usability and viability.

 

 

Fallout:  This power, from Radiation Emission, is simply unusable in most situations as it not only requires a dead teammate, but for enemies to be in range of that teammate.

 

 

Anyway, thanks if you've ready this far!

[Primantis]

While Traps as a set is pretty well off, Time Bomb and to a lesser extent Trip Mine, could use some lookin' at in my opinion.

 

At the very least let us put interrupt reducers in them xD

 

 

[Harrow]

Out of the 75 primary power sets listed on PW, this thread feels that 25 of them are underperforming (33%).  That might seem like the right #, maybe not - I really don't know - just seems like a large percentage to me.

 

I think there are degrees of "underperforming," and given that, I don't think that number seems too high. You have sets that are "underperforming" in that they're not quite as strong as their competitors but are still strong and feel good to play. But then you also have sets that are noticeably weaker than similar sets in a way that can make them less satisfying to play, and those are the ones that I'd consider in real need of attention. If a power set is weak enough that it's noticeable and might make it less fun or satisfying to play, I think that's worth addressing.

 

I don't have nearly the expertise to determine which sets are just kinda undertuned versus which sets are weak enough to be made less fun, but it's worth discussing, I think.

[Hallibel]

While Traps as a set is pretty well off, Time Bomb and to a lesser extent Trip Mine, could use some lookin' at in my opinion.

 

At the very least let us put interrupt reducers in them xD

 

What would you do with time bomb? I agree it could use some looking into. But I can't think of anything. Maybe having it attach (as in "anchor") to a mob that detonates after some time (like a sticky bomb). That way you can target the boss and it will go off. It still wouldn't do too much AoE damage, but it'd see some use. Then again, I'm not even sure if that's possible.

[SwitchFade]

I don't want to comment on powersets I don't know anything about, so I'll stick to what I know.  But first some blanket changes that could help.

 

Controllers / Dominators.

 

Tier 1 Immobilizes: Their damage rating is rather misleading because the DoT's are over a long period of time (9 seconds), so the damage ends up being far lower than what's listed in real world applications.  The damage takes so long to apply, the skill could be cast two additional times before the first DoT finished.  Keeping simply changing lowering the time of the DoT's from 9 seconds to the usual 5 seconds would help the early game and would make the single target immobilizes (that are generally skipped) more appealing in general.

 

AoE Controls received a blanket nerf to their Accuracy, Duration and Cooldowns long ago.  With the -20% to base accuracy and 4 minute cooldowns, this makes most of them - ironically - some of the more skippable powers in a Controllers arsenal and a real letdown when picked up.  Given how the game has changed since the early days when this nerf took place, I think that the affected AoE controls being brought back to 1.00x accuracy and perhaps a 3 minute cooldown would go a long way to letting Controllers and Dominators do what they're designed to do.

 

Pet Melee Bug: There were mentions of it on the Live forums back in the day.  It was a problem the devs knew about and had on the table to be fixed, but never was before the game went down.  Ranged pets will run into melee even when they didn't have any melee attacks.  This caused many pets to die prematurely.  This being corrected would help several under-performing powers.

 

Now, that aside, here are some things I'd like to see with some power sets that I have experience with.  Some are QoL changes, others are suggestions to bringing up some underperforming sets.

 

Quality of Life:

 

Gravity Control: The changes to the knockback protection on Immobilizes helped this set a good bit, especially with regards to its Impact mechanic which previously.  However, Singularity's controls still apply the knockback protection that gets in the way of this.  I suspect this might be the case for some other pets as well (e.g. Fly Trap, Umbra Beast).

 

Levitate (Mind Control) and Lift (Gravity Control): These powers have a 2-second delay before applying their damage that was intended to line up with the time that the enemy landed.  However, this was before ragdoll physics were implemented.  Now, the damage applies well after the enemy hits the ground.  This delay often causes the user (as well as pets / party members) to waste additional attacks on enemies that would have been defeated by the damage from Levitate / Lift that hadn't applied yet.  The fix for this would simply to have the damage apply at the start of the knockup.

 

Illusion Control:  While certainly not a weak set (aside for Flash, as per the AoE controls mentioned earlier), it would be nice if the Phantom Army could fly in the way Phantasm does so that they may better keep up with the Illusionist (especially those with Jumps / Flys).  This minor, however.

 

Electric Control: A decent set overall; it would benefit from having the damage of its Single Target Immobilize (Electric Fence) being up-front damage (to match its AoE Immobilize) instead of a DoT.  Static Field is a pulsing Sleep power which will be disrupted by a Damage Over Time power, especially as Static Field is a core power of the set.

 

 

Undertuned Powers / Powersets:

 

Overpower:  A Controller inherent 20% chance for +1 Mag on some forms of control makes this an inherent that cannot be relied upon as it has an 80% chance to do nothing.  Additionally, it triggering on minions, LT's and pets is the same as it not triggering at all.  As such, it is only really meaningful on Bosses on up.

 

Gravity Control:  Gravity is one of the two control sets (the other being Mind) that lacks a secondary effect that Earth (-Def), Ice (slow, -Rec), and other sets have.  While it does have the Impact mechanic that added some damage, prior to the knockback protection changes, meant that Gravity had to sacrifice damage for control (or vice versa), and only applied to a few powers. It would be nice if the Gravity Distortion Field set up Impact the same way that the single target Gravity Distortion does (likewise with Singularity's Gravity Distortion) and that Crushing Field took advantage of Impact the same way that Crush does.

 

Dimension Shift is a power that - even in ideal situations - is of marginal use and ends up leading the party yelling at you.  This was a power that's had it's functionality changed at least once in the past.  That said, I don't know how to correct this short of replacing it entirely.  There has been the wish of players since Live for Gravity to have a Mass Lift (i.e. Reverse Gravity).  Though this idea might be somewhat redundant with Wormhole.

 

 

Mind Control: Mind Control was perhaps the set hit hardest by the blanket nerfs to AoE controls in Live. The flavor text of the set says that it is very accurate, but a third of the set has accuracy penalties.  This is combined with a lack of a secondary effect, long cooldowns, no pet, and a power as awkward and expensive as it is unique: Telekinesis (which used to hit 16 targets; now hits 5).  Also, as two of the powers are Sleeps, they end up being virtually useless in group scenarios.  It all adds up to a Control powerset that's not terribly effective at controlling and sacrifices a secondary effect and a pet with nothing to show for it.  Even its level 32 power is surpassed in virtually every way by a power Plant receives at level 8, and Electric Control's Synaptic Overload at 26.  Electric Control also has a far better AoE sleep in the form of Static Field.

 

The one unique aspect of Mind Control is that it is the set that can best make use of Controller's Overpower / Containment and Dominator's Domination in 8 of its 9 powers.  Sadly, this doesn't save the set.

 

Now this is a hail Mary, but to borrow from an idea I'd posted elsewhere on the forums a month ago: as Telekinesis and Total Domination largely overlap as being AoE Holds, it would be interesting for Total Domination to allow the permanent control of an enemy LT or lower, giving it the same equivalent stats of a typical Control set pet.  I am unsure if such a thing is mechanically possible, but it would be a unique capstone ability.

 

Also, Mind could benefit from a secondary effect that (most) other Control primaries have.  I'm just unsure of what it might be.

 

 

Storm Summoning:  A strange, unfocused set that would make more sense as a Controller primary than as a Defender Primary.  The #1 Powerset to frustrate a group; Storm Summoning even has effects that don't synergize with the power they're attached to (e.g. Tornado and Lightning Storm knocking enemies out of their own areas of effect) as well as scattering them from the other powers in the set (the areas of Freezing Rain, or away from Thunderclap).

 

Speaking of Thunderclap - for as beautiful as it is - is among the worst powers in the game.  It's a relatively small PBAoE stun with a long animation, a -20% accuracy penalty, and is only a mag 2 (meaning it will only stun Minions).  And it is in a set that doesn't have any means of getting the user in position to use it.  The closest power to facilitate it's use would be Hurricane, however the repel of which would push the enemies out of radius of Thunderclap.  My idea for it would be to remove the accuracy penalty, make it mag 3, and enable Location-type targeting ala Tornado (something I would give to Lightning Storm as well).

 

The set is lacks any buffs, the debuffs are behind that of most other sets, a mediocre heal; no means of applying -Regen, all while being one of the most endurance-intensive sets (Lightning Storm is among the most expensive powers in the game).  I struggle to think of anything meaningful it could contribute to most raids, especially Hamidon.

 

Thankfully, Sudden Acceleration's (and Overwhelming Force's) Knockback to Knockdown greatly enhances the usability of this set (as do some accompanying Controller Primaries) to help keep it from working against itself (or a group).  I would venture to say they are borderline essential to the sets usability and viability.

 

 

Fallout:  This power, from Radiation Emission, is simply unusable in most situations as it not only requires a dead teammate, but for enemies to be in range of that teammate.

 

 

Anyway, thanks if you've ready this far!

 

Not every set must be boss in a vacuum. For instance, I would argue you're dramatically off base on storm. Pair it with earth, and the scale of it's capability is exponential. Perhaps considering that when evaluating the sets would unveil hidden aspects that render them potent. For example, thunderclap should be paired with other items. Additionally, you're not supposed to spam all these powers on top of each other, with all of them synergizing. One might spread rain in one area, and hold tornado out if additional aggro comes into play.

 

The point here being that these powers are very powerful, when used properly. Another example would be the supposed team frustrating hurricane, one of the single most potent powers in game. There's nothing wrong or underperforming with storm, just incapable players who use them ridiculously, like trying to hang a nail to put up a picture with a sledgehammer. Or trimming nose hairs with a chainsaw.

 

My earth/storm is truly epic and can turn any team into a steam-rolling machine that takes virtually no damage, all by herself. And I skipped the heal as it is completely unnecessary.

 

I think you may not be considering that these powers are used tactically, that they are area denial and aggro mitigation, not spammy-stacky attack chain powers.

[Sunsette]

I feel that Sentinel Energy Blast is somewhat underperforming and rather boring, as the attacks are nearly undifferentiated but for their activation time, and knockbacks don't play nicely with the Sentinel's short range. Furthermore, Power Burst and Focused Power Bolt really don't have any effects that make them differentiated.

 

Were I able, I would make the following changes:

 

- Power Bolt: Change chance to knockback to chance to knockdown

- Power Blast: Change chance to knockback to chance to knockdown

- Energy Torrent: Change chance to knockback to chance to knockdown

- Explosive Blast: Change chance to knockback to chance to knockdown

- Aim: Makes all primary attacks that normally have a chance to knockdown always knockdown.

Rationale: When knockbacks happen, they should be purposeful rather than random. Requiring an IO to fix this is taxing the power, and these powers are not good enough to be taxed. Aim allows you to have on-demand soft control.

 

- Power Burst: Drop this attack's range to 10 feet, make it always knockback with melee damage similar to that in the Epic Power Pools.

Rationale: The power description literally says it has a short range. This is not true in any pool that I can find. Power Burst should be a high damage 'get out of my face' escape skill that also places the caster at risk for using it as part of a standard rotation. Power Push is meant to be the usual 'get out of my face' skill, to be fair, but if the set is going to be knockdown driven then you can get away with having two of them.

 

- Focused Power Bolt: It can no longer knockback or down. However, it deals an additional 100% damage against a target who is recovering from a knockback or knockdown.

Rationale: This gives energy some of the "set 'em up, knock 'em down" popular in newer sets. Since it's very rare for hard opponents to be subject to knockbacks and controls, this avoids giving a huge permanent DPS buff on hard targets, but it makes Energy swifter at clean up after making a bunch of guys explode all over the place.

 

- Power Push: Unchanged.

- Nova: Unchanged.

Rationale: These are already good attacks that reliably do their functions. While the knockback can be inconvenient, they're good enough that if you want to use the attack without the knockback, it's reasonable to say 'okay, I need to slot KB to KD instead". For Sentinels, Power Push is a major part of their damage cycle; for non-Sentinels, this is a 'get out of my face' card.

 

-----

 

Furthermore, I'd like to see the 'more choices in this pool increase the damage of attacks in this pool' mechanic proliferated to all Utility Power Pools. I would love to be able to use Flurry as a reasonable attack but it needs to have about twice the damage it currently does. Jump Kick and Air Superiority could get 50% boosts and I wouldn't flinch.

[Yikes]

t it seems (anecdotal evidence) that there are too many sets that can solo +4/x8s, which Im not sure if anyone should be able to do.

 

I don't see why nobody should be able to do this, it's a massive part of the superhero fantasy to escalate to near-godhood.

[SwitchFade]

I feel that Energy Blast is somewhat underperforming and rather boring, as the attacks are nearly undifferentiated but for their activation time, and knockbacks don't play nicely with the Sentinel's short range. Furthermore, Power Burst and Focused Power Bolt really don't have any effects that make them differentiated. Many of these issues exist in the Blaster/Defender/Corruptor versions of this powerset as well.

 

Were I able, I would make the following changes:

 

- Power Bolt: Change chance to knockback to chance to knockdown

- Power Blast: Change chance to knockback to chance to knockdown

- Energy Torrent: Change chance to knockback to chance to knockdown

- Explosive Blast: Change chance to knockback to chance to knockdown

- Aim: Makes all primary attacks that normally have a chance to knockdown always knockdown.

Rationale: When knockbacks happen, they should be purposeful rather than random. Requiring an IO to fix this is taxing the power, and these powers are not good enough to be taxed. Aim allows you to have on-demand soft control.

 

- Power Burst: Drop this attack's range to 10 feet, make it always knockback with melee damage similar to that in the Epic Power Pools.

Rationale: The power description literally says it has a short range. This is not true in any pool that I can find. Power Burst should be a high damage 'get out of my face' escape skill that also places the caster at risk for using it as part of a standard rotation. Power Push is meant to be the usual 'get out of my face' skill, to be fair, but if the set is going to be knockdown driven then you can get away with having two of them.

 

- Focused Power Bolt: It can no longer knockback or down. However, it deals an additional 100% damage against a target who is recovering from a knockback or knockdown.

- Sniper Blast: It can no longer knockback or down. However, it deals an additional 100% damage against a target who is recovering from a knockback or knockdown.

Rationale: This gives energy some of the "set 'em up, knock 'em down" popular in newer sets. Since it's very rare for hard opponents to be subject to knockbacks and controls, this avoids giving a huge permanent DPS buff on hard targets, but it makes Energy swifter at clean up after making a bunch of guys explode all over the place.

 

- Power Push: Unchanged.

- Nova: Unchanged.

Rationale: These are already good attacks that reliably do their functions. While the knockback can be inconvenient, they're good enough that if you want to use the attack without the knockback, it's reasonable to say 'okay, I need to slot KB to KD instead". For Sentinels, Power Push is a major part of their damage cycle; for non-Sentinels, this is a 'get out of my face' card.

 

-----

 

Furthermore, I'd like to see the 'more choices in this pool increase the damage of attacks in this pool' mechanic proliferated to all Utility Power Pools. I would love to be able to use Flurry as a reasonable attack but it needs to have about twice the damage it currently does. Jump Kick and Air Superiority could get 50% boosts and I wouldn't flinch.

 

Oh goodness, emphatically /jranger.

 

Energy blast is extremely powerful, and the animations are awesome.

 

Energy blast should not have it's knockback changed, because solo it's very survival friendly. On teams, it's transformed by proper use, and there's a KB to KD enhance for explosive blast and torrent, if you choose.

 

Nerf the range? No thank you.

 

Nerf the solo safety? No thanks.

 

I'm all for improvements, but these are honestly not improvements.

 

Your statement that the powers are not good enough to rationalize the io, is a non-starter, very sorry.

 

Em blast is extremely powerful, the knockback has great use when solo, and is a non-issue on teams if tactical play is employed.

[Sunsette]

I'll keep my criticisms towards Sentinel Energy Blast in that case, because frankly it's extremely apparent in Sentinel. It's more of a hindrance than a help in virtually any scenario with the archetype.

[Yikes]

just add an IO that doesn't have a one-per-character limit that's knockback to knockdown. That'd be a huge buff to a ton of sets with more than one knockback power that serves as more of a detriment in normal use than an asset.

[Sunsette]

Such an IO already exists. However, it's a huge enhancement tax to essentially reduce the randomness from potentially destructive to purely constructive.  It doesn't make sense to have "disrupt all formations" as a 20 to 50% chance in every attack; when you make an attack, the important parts should be reliably happening, and random chance should be for pure bonus.

 

I am fine with it on moves that are very powerful and reliably KB.

[SwitchFade]

Such an IO already exists. However, it's a huge enhancement tax to essentially reduce the randomness from potentially destructive to purely constructive.  It doesn't make sense to have "disrupt all formations" as a 20 to 50% chance in every attack; when you make an attack, the important parts should be reliably happening, and random chance should be for pure bonus.

 

Sure, and in targeted aoe, posis blast only needs 5 slots...

 

In single Target, ene blast kills so quickly knockback is a non issue

[Sunsette]

If you're claiming Sentinel kills anything fast, especially energy blast Sentinel, I'm going to shut that one down quick. If you are fine with casino slots on the other archetypes -- I disagree, but I don't have significant investment in those anymore, so I'll concede the point.  As I said, I'm keeping my criticism to EB Sentinel.

[Legree]

I don't see why nobody should be able to do this, it's a massive part of the superhero fantasy to escalate to near-godhood.

 

The problem of a character like Superman being able to fix almost any problem instantly - and do so faster than just about any other hero - is one that DC writers have struggled with for decades.  When every character is Superman it's hard to keep things interesting unless every enemy is Superman too.

 

Personally I think the "I can solo +4x8" is worthless as a brag.  Solo what?  Council?  Freakshow?  Custom enemies in AE?  I'm guessing it's not Malta or Carnies...

 

On the other hand I do think the Incarnate system that has enabled this has also coarsened some discussions comparing the relative strengths and weaknesses of ATs and powersets - often boiling down to "how does it perform at 50+3?" as the ultimate measure of whether or not it's good.  Hence the emphasis on AoE capability and the bizarre flip whereby Masterminds have gone from being seen as one of the strongest ATs in the game to one of the underperformers.

[zolinar]

OMG traps are totally USELESS. They power set neeeds a serious revamp. The bombs to me more concise they are weak and unreliable and worse can be interupted. Ive never gotten a time bomb off  in a group.

[Primantis]

While Traps as a set is pretty well off, Time Bomb and to a lesser extent Trip Mine, could use some lookin' at in my opinion.

 

At the very least let us put interrupt reducers in them xD

 

What would you do with time bomb? I agree it could use some looking into. But I can't think of anything. Maybe having it attach (as in "anchor") to a mob that detonates after some time (like a sticky bomb). That way you can target the boss and it will go off. It still wouldn't do too much AoE damage, but it'd see some use. Then again, I'm not even sure if that's possible.

 

 

Well a "quick fix" in my opinion would be to make Time Bomb function like Crab Spider's "Omega Maneuver". Every time I use or see that power being used I think "That's what Time Bomb should be". I like your idea as well!

 

I also feel it overlaps too much with Trip Mine. They feel kind of redundant. So maybe some sort of extra debuff attached to the Time Bomb could help distinguish it.

 

 

[Vanden]

While Traps as a set is pretty well off, Time Bomb and to a lesser extent Trip Mine, could use some lookin' at in my opinion.

 

At the very least let us put interrupt reducers in them xD

 

What would you do with time bomb? I agree it could use some looking into. But I can't think of anything. Maybe having it attach (as in "anchor") to a mob that detonates after some time (like a sticky bomb). That way you can target the boss and it will go off. It still wouldn't do too much AoE damage, but it'd see some use. Then again, I'm not even sure if that's possible.

 

 

Well a "quick fix" in my opinion would be to make Time Bomb function like Crab Spider's "Omega Maneuver". Every time I use or see that power being used I think "That's what Time Bomb should be". I like your idea as well!

 

I also feel it overlaps too much with Trip Mine. They feel kind of redundant. So maybe some sort of extra debuff attached to the Time Bomb could help distinguish it.

 

All the people who take Omega Maneuver say it's not very good, either. Too slow.

[Heraclea]

All defense sets, across the board, that provide a level of immunity to Hold, Sleep, and the like ought also to provide a comparable level of immunity to Confuse and Fear. 

[marcussmythe]

All defense sets, across the board, that provide a level of immunity to Hold, Sleep, and the like ought also to provide a comparable level of immunity to Confuse and Fear.

 

Oh god this.  Maybe also -PER, because 'blind' is enough to make me avoid Arachnos missions.

[Zepp]

Interesting, I see Storm Summoning, Traps, and Trick Arrow (even Kheldians) far more often than I thought I would. These, to me, seem like they are the more strategy/thought intensive sets that require a little more finesse to use well. I don't think they are underpowered at all.

 

That being said, the one I am surprised to have not seen come up more is Sonic Resonance. Not that it is overall a bad set, but its resistance bonuses do not seem in line with the comparable defense bonuses from Force Field.

 

No powerset is taken in a vacuum, some require more skill and thought than others, and I guess what I am asking is for people to consider this when making suggestions.