BaronZealot

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* Balance: Entangling Arrow and Ice Arrow have 25% longer durations as Controller secondaries than as Defender primaries. (Rigel_Kent, Concern)

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As they should. Controllers are better at control type powers. The point you want to make here is that a Controller Secondary power is outperforming a Defender Primary power. We are aware of that and want to correct it at some point in the future.

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This is INCREDIBLY unfair. What makes Controllers special enough to get two primary sets? Half each of Storm, Force Field, and Dark (if it were availble) and most of Trick Arrow are better as secondary power sets BY DESIGN? That's messed up. Move this to the top of the bug list.

Any chance of getting someone like you on the squishy side (Def/Cont/Blaster and CoV equivalents)? What you've done for the melee'ers is great.

Any chance of Regen getting something like this (resistance to -regen)?

I suppose the biggest question in my mind that has been brought to the fore of my mind by I5 is the the seeming abondonment of the primary/secondary/pool categorization, especially with regards to Defenders.

Why are Defender secondary powers so much less effective relative to the secondary powers of other archtypes (much lower primary effectiveness, i.e. damage) as well as additional endurance cost?

Why are some Defender primary powers at secondary strength (or lower) relative to equivalent powers in other archtypes (Dark, Trick Arrow, and Storm)?

Defenders aren't the only ones with this issue, just the most obvious. Cloak of Darkness and Cloaking Device should be pretty similar (both are secondary powers), but Cloak of Darkness is much better because it's in a "defensive" power set.

Prediction: Tar Patch and Freezing Rain get both duration and recharge nerfed rather than the devs admitting they made a mistake and fixing EF's balance with the other two in a positive manner.

Since you bring up Auto-exemplaring, is there any news on the bug being fixed? As is if you arrive at the maximum level of the TF you auto-exemp. This means you don't get the SO enhancement reward or any more xp. Add to this the fact that the Main TFs are all having the max level reduced and it makes the TFs unappealing, especially the Positron TF. As is, if I start Positron at just barely level 14 (doing it before then is undesirable due to the lack of a travel power), I have to die a few times at the end on purpose so that I don't reach level 16 and am denied my SO. I think trying to finish the Positron TF before hitting level 15 is impossible unless you start at level 11 or 12 and stay side-kicked the entire time.

In the "info" on Eidolons, it says that they are augmented by super-human parts which is why they have varying powers.

Nit-pick: Hmongs are from the mountain area along the border between Vietnam and Laos. I substantial number of them fled to the United States because they were allied with the US in the Vietnam War.

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I've never actually seen a resaonable explantion for why defenders can't use some of their primary buffs on themselves. I seriously can't see it making them overpowered, esepcially in the case of the defensive buffs.

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Two reasons: The Devs would then have to 1) think up a new name for "Heal Other" and 2) Speed Boost would make Siphon Speed irrelevent.

The problem with an all debuff set (and primarily debuff sets like Dark, Rad, and Storm) is that the AoE limits make them the second-class citizens of the Defender AT.

Imagine this: You can buff all your teammates only if you play on Heroic. Play on a difficulty that spawns more? Then you can't buff your 6th or 7th team mate. In addition, even on Heroic, we'll occasionally remove the buff from your 7th teammate. The gung-ho scrapper agro too many? Half your buffs disappear. Task Forces and Trials? Even on Heroic you can forget about buffing teammates 6 and 7, maybe even the 5th. Hazard zones? Good luck.

This doesn't even take into account that debuffs are area based. They were already at a disadvantage if the geometry wasn't right. The AoE limits make a challenging problem impossible.

What's the point in having a defense power that supresses when you attack or are hit when the defense is so low. 3% defense is practically worthless in the short term. It only makes a difference over a long period of time. Chances are you're going to get hit the first time someone tries unless you already have a great defense and then you don't care. If you're going to make it so that defense suppresses when hit, you need to make it so that it will significantly improve your chance of avoiding the first hit. If you insist on keeping defense suppresion you should make it so that it is something like (rough numbers) 90% unsuppressed, 5% suppressed. That way the unsuppressed defense is actually useful. Otherwise it's useless. Just decide what you want the combat defense to be and leave it that way all the time. That way players won't worry about something that will never help them.

Also the differentiation between "defensive" sets and "non-defensive" sets seems quite artificial. As a devices blaster, I use my secondary to defend myself. I mean that's what it's for, right? Most blasters use their secondary as a defense unless they're the strange creature known as a "blapper." And the Controller Illusion powers should be the premiere invisibility powers.

Stealth should not suppress before an attack is finished. What does waving your arms around in preparation for an attack do to alert your foes? I mean you're invisible (or almost). If you can't code to make it suppress after the attack, please add a 1-2 second delay into suppression.

10 seconds is too long. Make stealth suppression end when travel power suppression does. Since foes don't "un-agro" when stealth suppression ends, having a long suppression doesn't make sense.

Others make good points about having multiple tactics available. Most players won't care about stealth suppresion because they don't use it tactically. But I would think (and I've heard you quoted as saying) that having multiple tactics available for players to use is a good thing. Stealth pulling and the alpha strike are good tactics, not exploits. Not everyone uses them and not everyone that usess them uses them all the time. By naming them exploits and closing the "loop holes" you cut down on player's tactical choices.

It's also worth considering that the graphical and UI limitations of the game really limit the "real" use of tactics, but this is a role playing game. While it's easy to say that a foe knows right where you are because you're right there pummeling on him even though you're stealthed. This is only because the game engine can't show real stealth combat. Batman would not just walk up to some one "stealthed" and hit them. He'd hide in the shadows, hit, disappear, and then strke again from the shadows. Just because the game engine can't show that, doesn't mean that the gameplay should be limited to what "logically" follows based on what it can show.

Added: The difference between the use of stealth in tactics and someting like large-scale herding is that large-scale herding is indicitive that at least one player has very little risk of ever being defeated and because it limits the inputs of of other players on a team (small scale herding is fine because it's essentially using the tank as bait for a trap). Stealth as used in tactics, on the other hand, while making battle less risky (as all good tactics do), is not on the exploitive level. It also is used mainly in soloing or only on the small scale in teams, so it doesn't take the fun out of things for your teammates like large-scale herding can.

Thanks for the information on the way you guys are planning on taking this set, Positron. I'd like to make a few comments though.

Net arrow needs something more to it if you are taking away the recharge debuff. Single target imobilizes aren't particularly useful, except for kiting while soloing. To make this power useful in team play it needs something more, either a pretty strong debuff or (my personal suggestion) knockback.

Trick Arrow is a debuff only power set, so it's debuffs when taken as a whole should be the strongest in the game. Rad and Dark, which are also debuff heavy sets, also have a buff and a heal. Couple this with the fact that most of the debuffs can't be enhanced due to a lack of -recharge, -resistance, and -damage enhancements and you need to be careful on how much you reduce the debuffs.

Why the decrease in the effectiveness of Defender holds? Especially when Blaster holds appear to be unchanged. And please don't take this as a request to nerf Blaster holds. The fact that Controllers can critical hold and do double damage to hold victims should distinguish them enough. Please reconsider most of the changes to Petrifying Gaze and Ice Arrow.

Lastly, thanks for fixing Flash Arrow to allow Accuracy enhancements? But is it my imagination or does the debuff on Flash Arrow go away shortly after you attack the villain?

This is a fun powerset. It's reminicent of Dark Miasma or a Devices as being somewhat controllery. Allowing it to be a Controller Secondary might be too much.

(To others. I don't have it but Entangle Arrow reduces recharge rate, so that could be a use for it, but I don't know how much it does so.)

I have noticed that the effect icon for Flash Arrow ends shortly after you attack the villain. Does that mean that the accuracy debuff is gone once you attack that villain? That seems pretty worthless for a defender. Does Smoke Grenade act like this?

Haven't gotten any higher powers yet.