Archetype: Bulwark

[Nayeh]

After years of avid gaming, I have often found myself gravitating toward characters that fall under a Support category.  The Support role shines where they can grant their team Buffs, Heals, and Debuffs necessary to secure victory. It's not about quick kills, it's about outlasting and adjusting to incoming assault. City of Heroes carries the roles of Defender, Controller, and Dominator that have the ideal Support lines I am referring to. These three archetypes all have something in common - They're all ranged roles. Where is the character that has been usually refereed to as something like a Paladin in other games?

 

Yes, I am referring to a Melee variant to join frontlines. Unlike the Caster perspectives playing safe in position. Unlike the Tanks, Scrappers, Brutes, and Assassins. The Bulwark role will enhance combat whilst standing in the heat of battle. The damage may be sub-par, but that is the trade-off for being the Team-oriented Melee Support.

 

Primary Lines:

• Cold Domination
• Dark Miasma
• Empathy
• Force Field
• Kinetics
• Nature Affinity
• Pain Domination
• Poison
• Radiation Emission
• Sonic Resonance
• Storm Summoning
• Thermal Radiation
• Time Manipulation
• Traps
• Trick Arrow

 

Secondary Lines:

• Battle Axe
• Broad Sword
• Claws
• Dark Melee
• Dual Blades
• Electrical Melee
• Energy Melee
• Fiery Melee
• Ice Melee
• Katana
• Kinetic Melee
• Martial Arts
• Psionic Melee
• Radiation Melee
• Savage Melee
• Spines
• Staff Fighting
• Stone Melee
• Street Justice
• Super Strength
• Titan Weapons
• War Mace

 

As you see, the lines don't offer very much for the user of the Archetype themselves in terms of the Defense. It's not an expert in combat, nor is it an expert in tanking itself. The Bulwark could potentially provide a bridge between Supporting your team and bashing skulls in.

 

Let us build the Robin Hood Trick Arrow and Dual Blades Bulwark. Perhaps a thunderous Kinetic and Katana Shinobi. Let us make our Empathy and War Mace Paladins!

[malonkey1]

A neat idea. Something of a "Paladin" style melee support. What kind of Inherent would it have?

[Voldine]

1 hour ago, Nayeh said:

After years of avid gaming, I have often found myself gravitating toward characters that fall under a Support category.  The Support role shines where they can grant their team Buffs, Heals, and Debuffs necessary to secure victory. It's not about quick kills, it's about outlasting and adjusting to incoming assault. City of Heroes carries the roles of Defender, Controller, and Dominator that have the ideal Support lines I am referring to. These three archetypes all have something in common - They're all ranged roles. Where is the character that has been usually refereed to as something like a Paladin in other games?

 

Yes, I am referring to a Melee variant to join frontlines. Unlike the Caster perspectives playing safe in position. Unlike the Tanks, Scrappers, Brutes, and Assassins. The Bulwark role will enhance combat whilst standing in the heat of battle. The damage may be sub-par, but that is the trade-off for being the Team-oriented Melee Support.

 

Primary Lines:

• Cold Domination
• Dark Miasma
• Empathy
• Force Field
• Kinetics
• Nature Affinity
• Pain Domination
• Poison
• Radiation Emission
• Sonic Resonance
• Storm Summoning
• Thermal Radiation
• Time Manipulation
• Traps
• Trick Arrow

 

Secondary Lines:

• Battle Axe
• Broad Sword
• Claws
• Dark Melee
• Dual Blades
• Electrical Melee
• Energy Melee
• Fiery Melee
• Ice Melee
• Katana
• Kinetic Melee
• Martial Arts
• Psionic Melee
• Radiation Melee
• Savage Melee
• Spines
• Staff Fighting
• Stone Melee
• Street Justice
• Super Strength
• Titan Weapons
• War Mace

 

As you see, the lines don't offer very much for the user of the Archetype themselves in terms of the Defense. It's not an expert in combat, nor is it an expert in tanking itself. The Bulwark could potentially provide a bridge between Supporting your team and bashing skulls in.

 

Let us build the Robin Hood Trick Arrow and Dual Blades Bulwark. Perhaps a thunderous Kinetic and Katana Shinobi. Let us make our Empathy and War Mace Paladins!

I will agree with this on one condition only: All Buffs Must Be PBAOE Powers so the player isn't instantly smeared on the floor.

 

Ideally they'd be working with a team and buffing everyone, but a core tenet of CoH design is that EVERY AT must be capable of soloing. Defenders have range as their primary mitigation, and a melee class with buff/debuff sets as their primary are going to need to benefit from those buffs due to the higher risk situation of always being in melee.

[Zepp]

I added them to the compilation list. My two questions would be, what do you see as their inherent? & How are they differentiated from The Warden, The Captain, Defiler, Exemplar, Interceptor, The Paladin, Guardian, & Zoomer ?

 

[Nayeh]

1 hour ago, Zepp said:

I added them to the compilation list. My two questions would be, what do you see as their inherent? & How are they differentiated from The Warden, The Captain, Defiler, Exemplar, Interceptor, The Paladin, Guardian, & Zoomer ?

 

I noticed a few of those put focus on Self-sufficiency by taking lines from other pools together and creating an entirely new Hybrid pools. Though they do propose fun concepts, I see a deviation toward Self-targeted abilities which are not in line with a Support role.

 

With Power Sets already completely fleshed out, less resources could be dedicated toward developing such a role. The idea behind matching an entirely Defensive poolset with a Weaponry poolset brings the user to the decision during encounters and building their characters. Do I want to build more toward fortifying my team or toward damage?

 

bulwark

[ bool-werk, -wawrk, buhl- ]

• noun fortification, support

 

Inherit Ability: "(Positive/Negative) Reinforcement"

The balance between choosing to be more Offensive (Weaponry) or more Defensive (Support). As a player continues to invest into one side, their abilities will enhance in that direction while the other falters. As battles ensue many players may find themselves within a happy medium. For anyone that has played "SMITE", this is basically Hel's passive meter.

Ex) As you spend more time wracking up damage, you will deal enhanced damage so long as you neglect to use Defensive abilities. Invest more into Defensive action, your (Heals/Buffs/Debuffs) will enhance in value and your Offensive action will deplete with each usage.

[Pbuckley818]

I personally find that a middle ground can easily be struck between just recklessly throw the support powers on a Melee AT ( Making some powers clearly better than others: Kinetics, Poisons, Time, while many of the more thematic and fun idea will suffer: Empathy, Storms, ect.) and gutting the utility of the support powersets to place a bunch of armor powers on an AT. Yes it would be more work, but their already adding a new AT and it's better to do something right the first time around than to do it in the laziest way possible. 

 

Turning many of the group defensive buffs into PBAoE Toggles would be enough to have a immediate positive impact on the AT, on top of that the removal and replacement of many of the AT's more "Skippable" abilities for more pertinent ones isn't to hard to envision. That being said I do like the Support/Melee Momentum Passive idea, it's like an inversion of the Protector's Glory mechanic. I mean if your focusing on group support obviously the group needs more group support, and if your focusing on Damage obviously the group needs more damage, But at the same time it feels really punishing It would need to be really fine tuned to prevent, "Ok I spam Melee now, now I spam Buff/Debuff" just so I can snowball for an important ability, which could feel vary frustrating and not tactical in the least. (Almost like a modern MMO)

[Leogunner]

2 hours ago, Pbuckley818 said:

I personally find that a middle ground can easily be struck between just recklessly throw the support powers on a Melee AT ( Making some powers clearly better than others: Kinetics, Poisons, Time, while many of the more thematic and fun idea will suffer: Empathy, Storms, ect.) and gutting the utility of the support powersets to place a bunch of armor powers on an AT. Yes it would be more work, but their already adding a new AT and it's better to do something right the first time around than to do it in the laziest way possible. 

Is it necessary to put down a possible configuration like that? 

 

I can understand not agreeing with the prospect of "recklessly throwing support powers on a melee AT" but you ignore WHY it might be a good path. For example, you may not want to overshadow other support ATs by basically putting the new AT in direct competition for role/purpose. Or you may want to seek to fill a different role that a support is proposed for (for example, if you want the AT to be a tank more so than an DPS type). 

 

Also, we are doing the laziest form of developing: typing up words. No need to be aiming accusations of lazy at anyone. 

[Pbuckley818]

42 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

Is it necessary to put down a possible configuration like that? 

 

I can understand not agreeing with the prospect of "recklessly throwing support powers on a melee AT" but you ignore WHY it might be a good path. For example, you may not want to overshadow other support ATs by basically putting the new AT in direct competition for role/purpose. Or you may want to seek to fill a different role that a support is proposed for (for example, if you want the AT to be a tank more so than an DPS type). 

 

Also, we are doing the laziest form of developing: typing up words. No need to be aiming accusations of lazy at anyone. 

I am simply saying that not every power would translate well, their is a reason we never got a Melee Support AT to begin with, and that's because the powers would not translate well. Secondly I am not knocking any of the tankier builds, but a lot of them remove essential support abilities while leaving unnecessary powers intact, the second part was me countering the notion that concessions would need to be made to make a Melee Support AT functionally survivable. I wasn't calling the OP Lazy either I was saying that just slapping a Support secondary on the scrapper would a lazier alternative than doing the work to adapt the powers for a Melee AT.

 

Everyone seems to forget that with a few exceptions almost every powers in the game can be very different based on the AT in question I mean just look at the Scrapper and Stalker. Finally how would a Melee Support AT overshadow other support AT's it is literally a support AT except it cannot fight from a distance or kite it's opponents? It needs defensive options to survive at all, and as things are some Powersets would work, but most (especially the older ones) would not.

 

Maybe I used somewhat strong language but I do believe my point still stands. I'd strongly prefer that the effort be put in to do it right. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't be happy to just get something like the Bulwark, but I also feel It is correct to critique it. I am not just putting down the idea, but pointing out the logical flaw in it, maybe a solution can be found to it's glaring problem, but nobody is going to fix the ship if nobody points out the gaping hole in it's side. (See what I did there... because Bulwark refers to a ships armor plating and... never mind.)

[Leogunner]

On 8/2/2019 at 2:48 AM, Nayeh said:

Inherit Ability: "(Positive/Negative) Reinforcement"

The balance between choosing to be more Offensive (Weaponry) or more Defensive (Support). As a player continues to invest into one side, their abilities will enhance in that direction while the other falters. As battles ensue many players may find themselves within a happy medium. For anyone that has played "SMITE", this is basically Hel's passive meter.

Ex) As you spend more time wracking up damage, you will deal enhanced damage so long as you neglect to use Defensive abilities. Invest more into Defensive action, your (Heals/Buffs/Debuffs) will enhance in value and your Offensive action will deplete with each usage.

While it's a neat idea that has worked in other game types, have you considered how this would work in actual CoH gameplay?

 

Consider if you went to the extreme and put this mechanic on a character in a turn-based environment: the circumstances of such a mechanic's usefulness would then be decided how quickly turns occur thus how long it'd take to go from one extreme to another.  The likely outcome to best utilize such a character then is to just abandon one side of the character unless you have no other choice and then it takes several turns to ramp up.

 

Or in a similar environment, but instead of shifting between offense and support, it's offense and defense: FFXIV kind of has this with Blackmage using Astral Fire and Umbral Ice.  The "fun" of the mechanic is how one uses them to shift quickly and seamlessly from offense to sustain and back again.  No one actually likes spamming ice to get into full Umbral or spamming fire to get back into Astral.

 

With those considerations, I believe if implemented the way you say, many would find it tedious or just aggravating to need to use the inherent to shift between the two and you'd either have to tone down the effect to be nearly imperceptible or make it so it drastically shifts to the extremes you'd get from Scrapper offense and Defender support...and with that, it likely would be actually played in a min/max format that abandons one side of the character the majority of the time.

 

I came to this conclusion by putting myself in the headspace of playing on a normal PUG with this AT and picking a likely point of contention: Cold Domination as support and Kinetic Melee as offense.  So I'm in the middle of a lvl 31 mission, my team is coasting pretty good and I've gone to offense mode but my shields are starting to blink.  Do I just cast them to get everybody good?  Or is it best to use a few support powers to get my support effects up and *then* cast them?  What if we're between spawns?  Likely, I'd just end up casting the shields multiple times to get the best effect (fun?) or I can wait until the next spawn, throw out some debuffs and Frostworks and then cast the shields maybe with just a bit of a gap of shields down.

 

The problems I see with the playstyle is it might seem engaging to describe but it's actually just a limiter.  Most inherents enhance the AT, not limit it.  Another is, it's doesn't seem fun to me.  Another is, there could be situations where a team could dictate your play instead of yourself ("Stop using your attacks and just use the heals").  And yet another is concept-wise, it's also limiting as it's pushing a very specific type of character concept on the AT...it's not quite as concept limiting as the Stalker but if you really don't want to be sneaky, you can just turn off Hide.

[Leogunner]

Just now, Pbuckley818 said:

I am simply saying that not every power would translate well, their is a reason we never got a Melee Support AT to begin with, and that's because the powers would not translate well.

And I'm certain you know this for a fact...

 

Just now, Pbuckley818 said:

Secondly I am not knocking any of the tankier builds, but a lot of them remove essential support abilities while leaving unnecessary powers intact,

Possibly by design.  Imagine if you took a Kinetics support set, replaced Inertial Reduction and Repel with a PBAoE mez protection and a moderate -DMG PBAoE debuff to foes?  That's just a suped up Kinetics that's objectively better at support than a /Kinetics Corruptor or Controller.  I'd say, compromises that are made, aren't because it's melee, but rather not to replace other ATs completely.

 

Just now, Pbuckley818 said:

I wasn't calling the OP Lazy either I was saying that just slapping a Support secondary on the scrapper would a lazier alternative than doing the work to adapt the powers for a Melee AT.

I wasn't defending the OP, more other people (like myself) that suggested adapting the support set by "gutting the utility of the support powersets to place a bunch of armor powers on an AT" as you would say.  I'm not suggesting the OP use that line of idea but then I'm also not going to label him or others lazy for it either.  

Just now, Pbuckley818 said:

Everyone seems to forget that with a few exceptions almost every powers in the game can be very different based on the AT in question I mean just look at the Scrapper and Stalker. Finally how would a Melee Support AT overshadow other support AT's it is literally a support AT except it cannot fight from a distance or kite it's opponents? It needs defensive options to survive at all, and as things are some Powersets would work, but most (especially the older ones) would not.

But making powers that aren't PBAoE into PBAoEs is objectively more work.  You say it's lazy if they don't do that but it could just be more clever to try and utilize a more ergonomical to use a different solution.  Doesn't mean PBAoE buff conversion isn't clever or ergonomical, it just might not be as much so as something else.  And how does a melee support AT overshadow a support?  Well, if they are melee, they likely do either more damage (because it's melee) or more support (because it's short-ranged attacks need it).  You're either going to overshadow the support or be overshadowed by support.  Probably better to try something different instead.  Being a bulky support would likely be it's niche since support alone are known to be glassy compared to the team they support.

 

 

[Pbuckley818]

40 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

And I'm certain you know this for a fact...

 

Possibly by design.  Imagine if you took a Kinetics support set, replaced Inertial Reduction and Repel with a PBAoE mez protection and a moderate -DMG PBAoE debuff to foes?  That's just a suped up Kinetics that's objectively better at support than a /Kinetics Corruptor or Controller.  I'd say, compromises that are made, aren't because it's melee, but rather not to replace other ATs completely.

 

I wasn't defending the OP, more other people (like myself) that suggested adapting the support set by "gutting the utility of the support powersets to place a bunch of armor powers on an AT" as you would say.  I'm not suggesting the OP use that line of idea but then I'm also not going to label him or others lazy for it either.  

But making powers that aren't PBAoE into PBAoEs is objectively more work.  You say it's lazy if they don't do that but it could just be more clever to try and utilize a more ergonomical to use a different solution.  Doesn't mean PBAoE buff conversion isn't clever or ergonomical, it just might not be as much so as something else.  And how does a melee support AT overshadow a support?  Well, if they are melee, they likely do either more damage (because it's melee) or more support (because it's short-ranged attacks need it).  You're either going to overshadow the support or be overshadowed by support.  Probably better to try something different instead.  Being a bulky support would likely be it's niche since support alone are known to be glassy compared to the team they support.

 

 

What's the point of playing a support At that's not good at supporting it's team, or a Melee AT that can't survive in melee? Yes the powers might be objectively better in that they will have more useful options to pick from, but in the long run it just means that the class will have more difficult decisions to make when picking powers.

 

Furthermore I am not saying the PBAoE solution is the only one, their are simpler solutions for instance you could simply choose to replace two to three of every support powers powers with defensive buffs, I'd prefer PBAoE toggles just to spread the love (as it is a support class) but that's not even necessary, just a taste thing. But it is essential that the powers a Powerset looses are those it can afford to do without. The core of a Powersets identity and utility must remain intact, otherwise why not just play a scrapper?

 

Regardless, not even that is the only solution, just the only one I can come up with off the top of my head.

 

Even though I have yet to completely update the Power (Though I mostly did) I have all but surrendered on the PBAoE changes on my own AT concept actually (Except on O2 boost I argue that change needs to be made to Storm Summoning as a whole.) You'd also be surprised the sort of Defensive Powers you can dig up if you look, did you know Chilling Embrace is already a PBAoE Snowstorm with an attached Def buff, because I sure know I didn't. Furthermore If you look at many of the Support AT's you will notice powers that where clearly intended to be ranged survival tools that can be replaced by a Armor Power without any real issue, as that is what would be needed to begin with.  Some powers wouldn't even need changes, especially the new ones (Melee/Time looks like a lot of fun) while others might even need a bit of a nerf for a Melee AT (looking at you Kinetics, you slimy basted).

 

Also not got a problem with people wanting a Support Tanker, either. (Though I do wonder if that could simply be achieved by new Tanker Powersets designed to facilitate the playstyle) I actually like the Idea behind the Paladin AT even if I find the execution a tad clunky. Again these choices need to be made carefully and deliberately, I am glad to see all the idea's being thrown around they mean a lot, but what's the point if we can't expand on those idea's through critique and contemplation?

Edited August 15, 2019 by Pbuckley818

[Leogunner]

Just now, Pbuckley818 said:

What's the point of playing a support At that's not good at supporting it's team, or a Melee AT that can't survive in melee? Yes the powers might be objectively better in that they will have more useful options to pick from, but in the long run it just means that the class will have more difficult decisions to make when picking powers.

But it's just power creep.  You can do that if you want to, but sometimes, maybe look through the idea from another perspective and consider that maybe that's the intent: to not create a better revision of another AT.

 

Just now, Pbuckley818 said:

Furthermore I am not saying the PBAoE solution is the only one, their are simpler solutions for instance you could simply choose to replace two to three of every support powers powers with defensive buffs, I'd prefer PBAoE toggles just to spread the love (as it is a support class) but that's not even necessary, just a taste thing. But it is essential that the powers a Powerset looses are those it can afford to do without. The core of a Powersets identity and utility must remain intact, otherwise why not just play a scrapper?

It's a different balance consideration, IMO.  If it's a toggle, it either can't stray too far ahead in effect from what a defender gets, has to have a restrictive range or must have different effect values on the user vs the team.  If it's a click, recharge plays a role in how effective and restrictive the mitigation the AT has and if it'd be effective.  I'd have to see some speculative numbers.

 

That being said, a Scrapper has little to no support so your final point there is baseless hyperbole.  Not sure why you even put that there.

 

Just now, Pbuckley818 said:

Even though I have yet to completely update the Power (Though I mostly did) I have all but surrendered on the PBAoE changes on my own AT concept actually (Except on O2 boost I argue that change needs to be made to Storm Summoning as a whole.) You'd also be surprised the sort of Defensive Powers you can dig up if you look, did you know Chilling Embrace is already a PBAoE Snowstorm with an attached Def buff, because I sure know I didn't. Furthermore If you look at many of the Support AT's you will notice powers that where clearly intended to be ranged survival tools that can be replaced by a Armor Power without any real issue, as that is what would be needed to begin with.  Some powers wouldn't even need changes, especially the new ones (Melee/Time looks like a lot of fun) while others might even need a bit of a nerf for a Melee AT (looking at you Kinetics, you slimy basted).

 

Also not got a problem with people wanting a Support Tanker, either. (Though I do wonder if that could simply be achieved by new Tanker Powersets designed to facilitate the playstyle) I actually like the Idea behind the Paladin AT even if I find the execution a tad clunky. Again these choices need to be made carefully and deliberately, I am glad to see all the idea's being thrown around they mean a lot, but what's the point if we can't expand on those idea's through critique and contemplation?

I had to look it up, as to make sure why I couldn't slot -res procs in my Chilling Embrace.  I think you meant -DMG debuff?  Or did you actually mean a defense buff?  But Snow Storm has a few of its own control aspects, namely the -fly.  But that's another topic.

 

Also, your final point doesn't make sense to me.  Who is limiting people's critiques?  You can call people lazy if you want, I'll just critique your critique.  But you've already seemingly withdrew that part of your statement.

[Pbuckley818]

28 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

I had to look it up, as to make sure why I couldn't slot -res procs in my Chilling Embrace.  I think you meant -DMG debuff?  Or did you actually mean a defense buff?  But Snow Storm has a few of its own control aspects, namely the -fly.  But that's another topic.

Yeah, I was referring to the -DMG Debuff somehow that keeps getting mistranslated in my head. Regardless while the difference is significant, it essentially does what we need it to which is good. It's ok to loose useful bits of utility like -Fly so long as the core utility remains intact. I am not saying their should not be trade offs, I am saying that those trade off need to be considered and allow the AT to still function within it's role.

 

As far as the PBAoE toggle element goes, I was only applying it to fire and forget buffs like the team defensive buffs from Thermal for instance. (You know the ones that hit pretty much everyone in front of you and last forever and a day while recharging fairly quickly and costing little to no end?) The idea there would be the need to keep do End management, when normal you would not really need to worry about End on those abilities as you'd just refresh them when the time comes. If anything that could be argued to be a significant of a Debuff to the power except now it also effects you, so in theory it should be balanced. The only power I can think of this being an issue with is Density Increase which is also a Break Free effect, that acts as a cc resist (and I think either damage resist or Def buff but I cant remember off the top of my head) . Ideally that would remain untouched and the Kin would get a similar self toggle instead of their repulsion power, that gives the same (or a very similar) buff (Though maybe a bit weaker?) but not the break free effect.

 

You seem to think that a little survivability buff is going to massively unbalance a Melee Support AT if not for a large Support trade off. (Or at least that is the impression you are giving off) This is a large misconception. Melee classes typically don't need to loose damage or utility in exchange for their survivability based abilities due to the fact that this is already compensation for being a melee class. Defenders and Corrupters will remain more popular based purely on the fact that they are ranged and will be in less danger, so unless the Melee/Support is balanced to take hit's like a Brute, their probably won't be an issue. Having them be at or just below Scrapper/Stalker level with damage output around or just a bit higher than a tanker/corrupter is not going to break the game or make them more preferred to the ranged AT's. If anything it's going to make them an dubious pick, due to the inherent danger of hanging around in the mosh pit that is Melee.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Pbuckley818

[Leogunner]

Just now, Pbuckley818 said:

You seem to think that a little survivability buff is going to massively unbalance a Melee Support AT if not for a large Support trade off. (Or at least that is the impression you are giving off) This is a large misconception. Melee classes typically don't need to loose damage or utility in exchange for their survivability based abilities due to the fact that this is already compensation for being a melee class. Defenders and Corrupters will remain more popular based purely on the fact that they are ranged and will be in less danger, so unless the Melee/Support is balanced to take hit's like a Brute, their probably won't be an issue. Having them be at or just below Scrapper/Stalker level with damage output around or just a bit higher than a tanker/corrupter is not going to break the game or make them more preferred to the ranged AT's. If anything it's going to make them an dubious pick, due to the inherent danger of hanging around in the mosh pit that is Melee.

When talking about prospective powersets, the logical means to obtain boundaries within which you'd build the set is to take a measure of what a set outputs on foes, on the user and on the team.  I wouldn't make a suggestion for a boon here and there without a trade-off not because I think it'd unbalance an AT but rather because it's not fair.  For example, if I'd propose adding in a PBAoE team+self buff to a set with moderate defensive or offensive numbers, it should be at the cost of something especially if a similar support AT with the counterpart set outputs a limited amount of the effect or not at all.  For example, if Cold Domination's shields were made PBAoE to include the user, that is a significant defense buff to the user and should come at the cost of something.  The PBAoE should be balanced to be long recharging with shorter range, or another utility Cold Domination has should be put on the chopping block because you're providing more buffs with those powers, the user.  With this increased buff effect comes different needs for the user, i.e. they don't need things like Benumb or Heatloss to make up for the fact that the CD user themselves are the most frailest member of their team.  Either that or just make the aspect of personal defense have a cost, i.e. a power choice slot.

 

There are many possible roads to retain parity.  The act of mashing powers together to cut down on power costs or trimming "useless" powers to make room for better choices doesn't.  Since there are so many powers already, it'd be like having free-form ATs that can just choose any power...of course players will chose the best ones.  That is an aspect you have to actively reject.  The things I said above are some of the ways to do that.

 

Also, balancing by mods is trickier than you'd think.  For example, you'd put the AT below Stalker in damage or just above Corruptor but layering some support sets on that can shoot them past Stalker.  In survivability, if they retain that advantage, they will just be better.  But you can limit the support instead which can put them above a Corruptor but missing certain support utility aspects, still leaving room there.  There's a lot of possibilities there.