Adeon Hawkwood

Interesting, can you give us any numbers? Currently the single damage resistance types have a base value of 1.25% and the duals have a base of 0.63%. So with this change will the new duals copy the old ones or are they getting upgraded to 1.25% (as was done when the defense bonuses were all made triple type)? What about the status resistance portion of the bonus? Currently the general "status resistance" set bonus has a wired progression compared to other set bonuses, are we keeping that or getting different values?

It's hard to know if I should get excited about this without values in front of me .

That isn't quite how rule of 5 works. The Rule of Fives works off of the set bonus name and not the amount so if all mez and damage resistance bonuses are being changed they'll probably have the same names.

The following is speculation based on very little information, it's worth exactly what you paid for it.

Now admittedly we don't know for sure what Synapse is doing but considering he said that all mez resistance and damage resistance set bonuses are being changed to provide resistance to two damage types and mez I think it's a safe bet that we'll end up with four resistance bonus types:
<Size> Smashing/Lethal/Mez Resistance Bonus
<Size> Fire/Cold/Mez Resistance Bonus
<Size> Energy/Negative Energy/Mez Resistance Bonus
<Size> Toxic/Psionic/Mez Resistance Bonus

So any set that provides a single damage type resistance bonus will likely be changed to the equivalent dual type (as was done when the defense bonuses were changed) and any status resistance bonuses will be changed to a new triple resistance bonus of indeterminate type.

It varies a bit by server and channel. A lot of global channels have been abandoned in favor of the LFG channel.

I'm guessing either general damage resistance of (dare I hope) mez protection. But probably the former.

How do you figure? They released the Nature Infinity Intrepid Informer this week which probably means NA is coming out in a week or two.

The rumor is that I25 is when Battalion will attack. Since that is the big thing that been hinted about since beofre Issue 9 if it's true then I25 will be pretty big.

Indeed. Not washing regularly helps to perpetuate the negative stereotypes that people have about gamers.

On the plus side we'll be able to start busting out the "wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey ball" image macros.

I misread your post and thought that you were saying that Clarion was the go to choice for ALL blasters .

Well maybe and maybe not, all we know for sure is that the game can now distinguish between them in enhancements. It doesn't automatically follow that the game can distinguish between them in terms of global buffs (which was always the issue before). It's a logical inference but considering how finicky the game is at times it's not guaranteed .

Still it's a good point, it might be worth asking Synapse if they can change that now.

I'd love to see this as well but I don't think that it will happen. By my count there are currently 97 powersets in the game (with at least 6 more on the way) so making an Incarnate slot to do this would probably cost as much as making 12 new powersets.

Of course this is a situation where I would love for the dev team to prove me wrong but I just don't see it happening.

Yeah, I think that would be the easiest way to add Absorb to FF. They seem to have the tech to do this now and it makes a power that is extremely situational into an easy to use power without taking away the situational use form those that like it. Of course the slotting would be interesting.

Unfortunately setting it not to stack doesn't really solve the core issue which is that either the shield is hideously overpowered or you create a situation where a FFer has to spend basically all of their time spamming shields.

Think about how Absorb works from a practical viewpoint, it is a shield on your HP saying that you have to take X amount of damage before your HP gets damaged. Now from a balance point of view what matters is absorb is the size of the shield and how often it is being reapplied.

It's also important to understand the actual mechanics of Absorb. Absorb is actually two different mechanics applied in parallel. First the power applies a Max Absorb buff which increases the maximum amount of Absorb your character can have (this is 0 by default). Second the power increases your current Absorb which basically functions like a heal only to your absorb points instead of your hit points. Now the Maximum Absorb portion of the power has a duration and is associated with the caster while the Current Absorb portion is not (similarly to how Frostwork is a lingering buff increasing your MaxHP but Healing Aura doesn't remain in your buff bar once the healing portion is done). All Absorb powers provide equal amounts of current Absorb and MaxAbsorb and while this isn't strictly speaking a requirement it would require some odd synergies to make a useful power that provides one without the other.

Now assume that both Deflection Shield and Insulation Shield have an Absorb feature added. What time frame do you balance it around? The shields last 4 minutes which would be the obvious time frame to balance around but a Force Fielder alternating the two powers could be adding a new Absorb shield to a character every two seconds if that was all they focused on. So this no becomes the problem. If you gave the powers a decent sized Absorb buff then having an FFer spam them would make a target nearly invincible. If, on the other hand, you base it around the assumption that the FFer is spamming them then you setup a situation where an FFer is almost forced to spam them to really use the absorb.

Remember, you can make the MaxAbsorb not stack but you can't stop the FFer from spamming powers to refill the absorb shield as it gets used up.

EDIT: Ok, I did think of one possible option which would to be to add it to both shields with a low MaxAbsorb but then make the actual absorb an Absorb over Time on a 2-second pulse duration where the absorb granted each pulse equals the same as the non-stackable MaxAbsorb. That being said I would be concerned about the impact of pairing FF with a set that has a long-duration MaxAbsorb buff such as Nature Affinity since it allows the FF pulsing Absorb to refill the long duration MaxAbsorb. Additionally FF is already a set that gets by on three powers. If the set were to be buffed I'd prefer to see one of the less useful powers buffed rather than adding more functionality to the few good powers int he set.

I think the OP may have been operating under a misconception and assuming that character names are global and not per server (i.e. if I have a character called Adeon Hawkwood on Virtue no one else can have it on any server).

This attitude really, really bugs me sometimes. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a character spending powers to support the team. Now I'll admit that Aid Other isn't a particularly good power but skipping it just because it doesn't directly aid you seems like a poor reason to me. Besides, as a Dominator you can use it to heal your pet.

On the general subject of Medicine for Dominators I'd say that come I24 it's well worth looking at if you can spare three power picks. Having Field Medic means that Aid Other will have a short un-interruptable cast time so you get a decent self heal and a semi-decent ally heal for teammates and your pet (you could take Injection instead of Aid Other but that doesn't strike me as a hugely useful power for Dominators).

Similarly with the I24 revamped Presence Pool might be worth considering for some Dominators. Most Dominators won't get much bonus from it but for primaries that are a bit lacking in hard control (such as Ice) Invoke Panic will offer a reasonably decent AoE Fear power and Unrelenting looks like a decent self buff.

Yep. In fact my experience with Radial Rebirth is the reason my first reaction to the changes was "that is AWESOME" whereas a lot of other people seemed to feel that it was a useless change.