Blueeyed

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Force Bubble has Repel, and according to the description a defense boost, no toggle drops.

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Force Bubble does NOT have a defense boost. Or a tohit debuff. Or an accuracy debuff.

It hasn't since release.

I swear, whoever decided to put out that manual needs to be forced to proofread.

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Also, if Controller can take care of their oppenent by using mainly mez effects, shouldn't dominators be able to do the same, especially now that Domination is there way more often than it use to?

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Dominator mezzes are shorter in duration, and thus harder to stack. They may also not benefit from the critical mez feature of some powers (have not confirmed).

Given their lack of survivability, they do need to present some risk outside of Domination or they'll just be used for free rep.

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ForceBubble: I thought, in PvP, ForceBubble was supposed to have a chance to drop toggles? Was this never the case, or has this been changed?

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Force Bubble has never detoggled. Only Repulsion Bomb, Repulsion Field, and Force Bolt have had that mechanism.

Well, Entangling did get buffed, but it's still worse than Web Grenade - Web Grenade has the same Immobilize duration, but also has a significantly higher recharge slow. In fact, this is true before you even consider the effect AT modifiers should have.
Web Grenade lasts nearly 12 seconds, and turns the Contaiminated Rebarb Club attack from a 10 second recharge to a 14 second one. WG activates in 1.37 seconds, recharges in four, and costs 7.8 endo.
Entangling Arrow lasts 14.5 seconds. and turns said attack from 10 seconds to a 10.9 second one. It activates in two seconds, has the same recharge, but, thankfully, does cost slightly less, at 5.2 endo.

For those interested, a Defender using Web Grenade would immobilize an enemy for 15 seconds, and slow the attack from 10 to 14 seconds (yes, it's screwed up - Defenders are just as good at recharge debuffs as Blasters are.

Can someone explain why this is still worse than what we'd get with Devices as a secondary?

Hell, while we're at it, I'm happy that they buffed Trick Arrow, but why did they buff the mediocre control powers, rather then the undeniably horrible debuffs? Flash Arrow still underperforms compared to the defense bonus Fortitude provides, nevermind debuffs like Radiation Infection or Darkest Night.

Kali, very mature. Really. I guess I shouldn't have expected more.

Vidszhite, I'd suggest against using TF to drop toggles. A three plus second animation in melee range against melee players isn't going to do wonders. You'll be Stunned before you're even half-way through the slam dunk.

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do they have a single massive target attack like KO blow?

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Swoop does 6 BI quickly, and Cleave does nearly 8. Axe doesn't need a high BI single power when it's got a string that powerful. Mace, well, mace is just weak. That's like me bringing up Dark Blast and saying Defender ST damage is weak.
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Maybe the #'s are a bit low but with these new numbers maybe my fire/axe tank will actually stay toggled long enough for me to do some actual damage to someone before im detoggled and held

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Yes, such a pity that Tankers are immune to Clear Mind, Clarity, O2 Boost, and Break Frees. Such a pity that, despite running upwards of seven toggles, Blasters can manipulate probability and chaos to always drop Fire Shield first.

Placate is autohit. The only time you'd be able to see them is if a) you have addition +perception, or b) you hit them before they finished the placate.

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Those mob-affecting powers should do something in PvP other than pseudo-griefing (detention field).

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Don't worry. I doubt we'll benefit from even being able to pseudo-grief. If it ever becomes that popular, we'll have people whining and getting Detention Field nerfed..

Okay, i7 is now officially on test, and here's what I've yet to find , or have found to not yet be fixed. If you notice otherwise, or have time to test the others (such as Oil Slick's text, or Flash Arrow's perception debuff bug), feel free to comment :

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* Bug: All disorient powers cause enemies with flight to move away at rapid speeds, even while under its effects. Individual powers with this problem are noted within their sets below. I6 has made this less common, but it still does occur.


[/ QUOTE ]Should be fixed.

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STILL fecking happening.

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Quality of Life: Detention Field's graphic needs to be more obvious -- currently teammates can't tell when an enemy is detained and waste attacks on it. Are there any plans to either make the graphic more obvious, or to otherwise make it more difficult to waste attacks on a DF'd enemy?

[/ QUOTE ]This is something that is a good idea. In fact, it is on geko's whiteboard for "when we get to it." Since it is art time, getting something like this done is problematic -- the artists are overbooked already.

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Good thing the art team had enough time to go over both Force Field and Gravity Control (I wasn't even away of people complaining about Grav Control), but sadly, leaving Detention Field as the exact same shade and size as the rest of the bubbles makes this problem remain.
Make it bright white. Make it opaque. Take the golden bubbles from the Shadow Shard. Take the Sonic Cage animation. But whatever you do, make it noticably different from the other eight bubbles already on the screen.
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Bug: When Transfusion is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, there is no heal, though the animation fires. However, if Twilight Grasp goes off on a dying enemy, it heals the recipients. There are also reports of the same issue occuring if the enemy moves out of Line of Sight during Tranfusion's animation time. (Rigel_Kent adds: To be more technical, this seems to be a problem with all AoE effects generated around the single target of a power. Illusion Control->Blind's AoE mez effect also has this problem; if the Blind damage defeats the target, the AoE mez will not happen. AoE's generated around the user don't have this problem.)
* Bug: When Transference is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, there is no endurance regained for those in the AOE, though the animation fires. (Dark Pyroblast)
* Bug: If Fulcrum Shift is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, you get the single 50% caster buff, but NOT the 25% effect from the dying mob OR any mobs around him. (Quason)

[/ QUOTE ]I'll put this on the bug list. I think it takes animation time. See above for problems with that.

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Still occuring, in case the art team thought they fixed it.
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Bug: When keying up a TA or Archery power that targets an enemy while moving, if you land out of reach of that power (ie. too far away from your target), your character will perform an animation of drawing the bow, though without an arrow and the power will not trigger. Annoying since it locks you in place for the duration of the animation. No other set behaves like this to my knowledge. Keying powers outside of their range only readies them until you move into range for all other sets. (Eisregen)

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Known issue. It is on our bug list but requires a lot of animation work to fix. It's fairly low on the priority list.

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Nice to remember that bugs every player experiences with a whole powerset are fairly lower on the priority list...
That said, not fixed.
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Balance: Entangling Arrow, a Defender primary power, is less effective than Devices/Web Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.

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Known issue. The original version of Entangling Arrow was funtionally identical to Web Grenade. This gave the set too many stacking slow abilities. This is one power in the Trick Arrow set that we are looking at improving at some point in the future.

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Well, Entangling did get buffed, but it's still worse than Web Grenade - Web Grenade has the same Immobilize duration, but also has a significantly higher recharge slow. In fact, this is true before you even consider the effect AT modifiers should have.
Web Grenade lasts nearly 12 seconds, and turns the Contaiminated Rebarb Club attack from a 10 second recharge to a 14 second one. WG activates in 1.37 seconds, recharges in four, and costs 7.8 endo.
Entangling Arrow lasts 14.5 seconds. and turns said attack from 10 seconds to a 10.9 second one. It activates in two seconds, has the same recharge, but, thankfully, does cost slightly less, at 5.2 endo.

For those interested, a Defender using Web Grenade would immobilize an enemy for 15 seconds, and slow the attack from 10 to 14 seconds (yes, it's screwed up - Defenders are just as good at recharge debuffs as Blasters are.
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Bug: Flash Arrow gives a perception debuff. However, when the power is recast from within enemy's normal perception range, the Defender will be spotted, regardless of whether the second Flash arrow hits or misses, and regardless of how much time is left on the first Flash Arrow. (Voiced by Concern, several others)

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I wasn't able to reproduce this. Is it still happening?

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Yes.
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Regen Scrappers are very difficult to kill for low damage characters. I *was* able to kill one, but it took several minutes, which is a highly unlikely "real"-world situation. This is a more general concern than just with Archery, but it is most visible here. No solution I can discuss, yet.

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No solution, yet.
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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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Oh, and not fixed. In fact, with the changes to Trick Arrow, it's starting to look like Controller Secondary POWERSETS are outperforming their Defender Primary counterparts.

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Reducing the toggle-dropping doesn't really make things all that much worse for them, and might put /energy into the same ballpark.

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So... many... bad... assumptions.

The other powersets were just as reliant on toggledropping for what they did. They did not benefit from it as much, but, hell, ask half the Tanker forum - if they died, chances are it was from toggledropping. It makes things worse.

Still won't put Energy into the same ballpark, either. If the only thing you can do as an AT is run, Permaboost range is suddenly going to be a must-have. Hm, which powerset has that? Does a Taser compare? Caltrops people can hover over? Oh, I know, Time Bomb! That'll redeem the /Dev! Just like FCS will redeem /fire in PvP!

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It's also a kludgy mechanic designed to get around capped resists and 15-point mez protection shields, neither of which really exist anymore thanks to the combination of ED and the global defense reduction.

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Wow! It's a good thing that defense sets haven't gotten stronger in PvP since i6 came out. It's a good thing that Tankers can't still easily find themselves with upwards of 50% damage resistance. And it's a good thing every Blaster and Defender combo can get through the 11- and 9= point mez protection still in game, just as quickly as a Tanker can blow through a Blaster or Defender's mez protection with KO Blow. Because, otherwise, that arguement would be completely misleading.
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This will also make it easier to balance blasters as a whole to be more functional in PVP than they are now.

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Scheduled for : after secondaries get looked at.
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Toggle-dropping itself is an arbitrary mechanic grafted onto PVP to reliably deprive (at the time) two ATs of their defenses.

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So, I take it that you and the Tanker forum ilk will demand getting rid of mez suppression, knockback suppression, and while we're at it, the PvP-only changes to Hurricane, the PvP-only changes to Controller damag, all designed to reliably deprive characters of their defenses?

Strange. It's been, what, nearly three days, and I don't see a ten page post crying that knockback suppression should be removed so that Force Bolt - one of my only remaining personal defenses - can be used more than once a fight, against the rare enemy that isn't completely immune to it. No posts describing how their i4 level Holds no longer exist except in the memories of Controllers.

Oh, it only matters when it buggers real ATs, like Scrappers or Tankers?
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Also, I doubt these are going to be the final numbers. They're on the test server, and these things can change.

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I mean, look how great of a track record the Developers have on such things. They reversed the change to... stealth! And... er... STEALTH.
They wouldn't allow something crippling like Tanker attacks not even working right against moving targets onto the live servers. Or Kinetics powers not working even when players pay the endurance and the recharge and hit their opponents. Or Hurricane being utterly useless in PvP and easily reduced in PvE.
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Of course, I guess it is more fun to sit around and unconstructively whine about how the other guy whined to murder your fun. I guess that could be cool, like it was for the other six issues.

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Yes, because, as we all know, whining never gets things changed. I mean, after all, the 1-shot kill protection didn't come from whining. And neither did Tankers getting constantly more powerful attacks. Or the change to Hurricane.

These i7 nerfs to toggledropping? They're not around because people whined. _Castle_ just noticed that non-EM blasters had no chance in PVP, and decided that they needed to share the love.

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I meant conceptually, not technically. There is a fine line I understand, but using DEF is more elegant and in line with the game, and not YAM (Yet Another Mechanic) - this game has too many mehcanics.

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Seems firmly in line with the power's description and concept, and given that no other mechanic exists which allows a player to have some degree of freedom from taunt, I don't think it's going to go away.

The change to make it more reliant on Defense seems more like a fix for sets who give up resistance in order, partly, to be protected from status effects - before this change, only Taunt ignored such defense. Without giving all ATs a lot of access to AoE defense, you're going to need a seperate mechanic.
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1v1? How can you test multiple targets in that case? Or are you specifically discussing that AoE DEF worked against it? That would require a few thousand to-hit rolls to be certain. Do you have that data?

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Regen scrappers don't have AoE defense. I don't believe it can even be found in power pools, although I haven't tested that.

We had a Fire/Storm Controller named Tribal Boogie (I hope I got the name right) in with us, and when Kali's Ice Tanker tried to taunt me, she had a chance to get him as long as he was nearby.
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Okay, but is that because its a single target, or multiple target? Was this Taunt the power? Or an AoE attach, like Whirling Hands or Tremor?

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Was with Fault, I believe. One of the Earth Melee AoE knockdown powers, I can never get the animations straight.

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I do wonder if this makes specific Taunt Resistance redundant, but I guess there is room now for people to have Taunt Resistance where appropriate, when they do not otherwise have appropriate DEF.

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Taunt resistance is available to more people, as you noted, and also shortens the duration of taunt effects, as opposed to allowing you to avoid some of them. As Taunt Resistance remains uncounterable (while DEF can be countered by inspirations), I doubt Resistance to the power will become redundant.

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Also does this mean that Taunt (the power, not the effect) is AoE in PvP (5 Target), whereas it wasn't before? Otherwise I couldn't see how AoE works against Taunt the Power, only ranged. This needs clarification.

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At least when Kali tested her Ice Tanker against my Scrapper, taunt was an area of effect power, although the area was short and the chance to work kinda crippled it. Was that changed?

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Or, are they trying to say, when an AoE hits a target, it has a chance to Taunt its targets as well?

If so, does the Taunt from an AoE require a separate to-hit roll per target?

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From some very short testing yesterday, this seems to be the case.

When the area of effect power hits a target, the target has a chance - independent of yellow inspirations or Build Up = to be hit by the Taunt effect. Each target rolls for him or herself. At least, it was possible to taunt one Brute but not the Brute next to him/her, when neither had a toggle active.

Of course, it may be affected by +acc or +tohit and the streakbreaker's just broken, but I hope that isn't the case.

I'll still use it when my bar's below 25% and everything else isn't recharged yet... but, yes, this power is far too situational in a set that's already got situational powers coming out it's backside.

Hell, even a half-Rage style power wouldn't be missed.

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Actually; you'd pay the same monthly fee anywhere else... and likely wouldn't get as many free updates (you'd still be paying for expansions; you just wouldn't get half the free stuff we get).

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World of Warcraft got (before I left) a new dungeon and two new raid areas, in similar time as it has taken City of Villains to just get their last ten levels.

Guild Wars has no price.

There are certainly other options for us.

Wow, that's scary. I think I just agreed with Foo.

Ew...

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So does the new box expansion mean the end of free issues? Or will there continue to be free issues between the boxes?

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End of? Doubtful - the letter seems to say we'll have another normal Issue coming out after the box.

Damage to? I'd wager. I can't see these boxes making Cryptic enough money to reclaim the time and money they'll be putting into the content coming with 'em.

Threat Rating appears to include archetype (enemies will attempt to kill Defenders, Controllers, and Blasters first in that order, before moving onto Tankers and Scrappers, if all other metrics are equal), distance from the enemy (enemies don't like running thirty feet if someone's close by), and level (lower level characters make nicer targets).

Hitting Inertial Reduction is like hitting SuperJump, but without suppression (and as a click rather than a toggle). You can both IR and CJ on at the same time, but if the heigh bonus stacks, it's not hugely noticable.

Well, this guide is from Issue 1. A few things have changed since then.

For more detailed information on powers since then, look here. For Storm Summoning mentality, check MightScourge's Guide.

Tested : an attack against a Fire Thorn Caster got him to turn around, throw Flares, and stay in the debuff patch.

Comparatively, I couldn't get a DE Boulder to stop moving and stay inside Freezing Rain for any length of time longer than his attack animations.

They appear to react significantly differently, and thus, we can not assume that they are the same mechanic. Obviously, the 10 seconds of no available attacks will overrule this and cause 'feeling', of course.

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Stupid question: Do your own siphon powers stack, if you get another one off before the first vanishes?

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Yes. Siphon Power will self-stack, both on the debuff, and the buff. Same with Siphon Speed, too. Even Fulcrum Shift will.

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Right. Tar Patch comes to mind.

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Tar Patch does not cause this effect, because it does no damage, and thus the villains do not fear it.

Only damage and knock* location AoEs seem to trigger it by themselves. Debuff AoEs will cause some scatter, but this will be overridden by the next enemy attack phase, nevermind aggro tools like Taunt or Guantlet attacks.

Foo, "Feeling" doesn't really override Taunt, not anymore than Confuse does, or the old "Fear" did. It's just a status effect - no other target suddenly becomes more important than the Tanker, the enemy just can no longer stand near the tanker to attack him/her.

It is strange to me that Burn doesn't have Gauntlet or a Taunt effect. At the very least, putting it in would allow the power to be used to 'blockade' certain sections of the area, without overriding "Feeling".

And, yes, a more complicated system, like Taunt being a temporary or even permanent source of 'percieved' damage, would probably be more interesting to players. However, given that the game's mechanic places a very high value on the distance metric in aggro calculations, such a change may not be percievable.

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(Except, of course, for "feeling", which is hazy and, apparently, under-represented outside of Burn and fighting very grey enemies.)

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It's also represented in a few other powers. Freezing Rain, for example, or Blizzard. Lots of patch damages seem to express it. It, or something like it, can also be expressed when attacking enemies in a way so that they can't fight back for 10 seconds (ie : slows on enemies with few powers, staying at range).

Ouch... according to Iakona's info, the potential time between aggroing an enemy and actually having the enemy be debuffed has increased by up to three quarters of a second.

That's going to hurt. That's going to hurt a lot.

Half a second can easily mean death if you're trying to keep a team alive. It won't be as bad for mature stormers - by the time you can combine Freezing Rain, Snow Storm, and Hurricane correctly, the debuff and repel aren't your primary damage mitigation tools - but newer ones will be finding themselves faced with a pretty big problem as half their damage mitigation tools are becoming less effective. Least it'll be less expensive, or will be until the cost gets quadrupled to be brought in line with Force Bubble.

I really find it funny how this change has progressed, though. A plainly PvP change... that will have a significant negative effect on PvErs (despite there being an alternative - _Castle_ already commented on Hurricane having different values for Knockback in PvP than in PvE)...

But, hey, Defender are the most balanced Archetype, if by quantity rather than quality, and it's not like we're supposed to be good at debuffing.

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I know it did with Dark Miasma when they added the Tar Patch -DAM RES. It's a -30% Damage resistance, then *another* -40%. It got really ugly on the third application, as the mobs DR was only at about 30% and end up being debuffed another 60-70%.

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Well, either it's changed, or your testing was faulty. I just booted up a TA/A, and using the two -res debuffs there gave me 140% of base damage, which would correspond to the two +20% buffs.
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It does work... but not as well as it is 50% resisted. I think I remember testing that and it's where I noticed that debuffing DR could be resisted.

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Damage Resistance Debuffing is only resisted by damage resistance by resistance typing, not by any 'type' for the power.

Tar Patch works *better* against Banished Pantheon than Warriors, for example, when all you're interested in is Energy damage. It works worse if you're looking for Negative or Smashing damage. The same is true for Disruption Arrow, Freezing Rain, Enervating Field, and Acid Arrow That wouldn't be the case if your methodology was correct.