Delirious

This may have been stated by others (and possibly better), but am I the only one that think it's screwy that controller secondaries can in some way function better than defender primaries? Isn't this unfair to the Defender AT? Is it untrue to say that, across the board , blasters primaries are stronger than defender secondaries, tanker primaries are stronger than scrapper secondaries, scrapper primaries are stronger than tanker secondaries, and controller primaries are just plain unique and incomparable. Yet somehow, a controller taking a defender secondary can use certain powers to better effect. Not only that, but their primaries allow them to use certain powers to better effect as well! (i.e. tornado, freezing rain, etc). Do the devs just dislike defenders, what's up with that?

I get the dev's fuzzy logic on making controller-esque powers more powerful in a controller's hands, but where's the balance? Why give defenders controller-esque powers at all, then?

I thought I read way back when that defender secondary mez-type effects were more powerful than the blaster primary mez effects. Is this the trade-off? Why do I still feel like it's the short end of the stick?

Thaw has a cold resistance along with the mez resistance. It's not much, to my understanding, but I three slotted it for resistance for ha-ha's mostly. I'm sure those two slots would be better served in other powers, but I like making the toon thematic and knowing that any character I buff is getting the best possible resistance I can provide.

Note that I said "probably", and I'm basing that assumption on my own playtime as a battle axe/fire armor tanker, as well as my fire/fire corrupter. It's purely subjective.

Quick amendments:

Heat Exhaustion affects on an AV are almost strictly limited to the damage reduction (and possibly the health regen). I've noticed that AV's, at least the one I recall using this on, had so much endurance that it didn't really drop when using this.

Melt Armor Personal Note Update:

I've used it for a couple weeks now, and I definitely adore it. AOE damage/resistance debuff is awesome in large groups (or even soloing, AFAIC). The way I play, it's usually ready after three groups-ish.

Quick amendments:

Heat Exhaustion affects on an AV are almost strictly limited to the damage reduction (and possibly the health regen). I've noticed that AV's, at least the one I recall using this on, had so much endurance that it didn't really drop when using this.

Melt Armor Personal Note Update:

I've used it for a couple weeks now, and I definitely adore it. AOE damage/resistance debuff is awesome in large groups (or even soloing, AFAIC). The way I play, it's usually ready after three groups-ish.

Annihilation's Fire Blast/Thermal Radiation Corrupter Guide

The following is a partially objective, partially subjective guide to Fire Blast/Thermal Radiation Corrupters. My character build has been included, along with notes and reasoning behind decisions. The build is a PURE build, meaning this is a no stamina build. The idea is to incorporate all 18 powers from the primary and secondary, as well as two powers from a travel pool. I’ve included numbers when and where I can, but I’ve not verified the accuracy of such numbers, however I will amend the guide with numbers that others may post. Also, I three slot Rest for recharge, as with the recent changes to its recharge, I very rarely need to wait for it to recharge when I need it.
Without further ado…

PRIMARY: FIRE BLAST
Fire’s secondary effect is extra DoT on top of the initial hit. In my opinion, I’m not sure how useful this is given that Fire is probably the most resisted damage type in the game. The Fire Blast primary has many AOE’s, and has a tendency to draw a great deal of agg. I, personally, only solo on Villainous, as anything harder ends up leading to a lot of debt. Duoing and in groups, though, makes murder FLY!

Flares
A quick attack that throws Flares at the target. Little damage, but very fast.
Damage: Minor (Fire)
End Cost: 3.692
Cast Time: 2.17
Recharge Time: Very Fast (2.18)
Area of Effect: Single Target
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, Damage, End Cost, Range, Recharge

Personal Note: This power is a good, basic, quick attack. It doesn’t do much damage, but assuming a build without recharge enhancers, it’s the attack most often used while other powers are recharging.
Personal Enhancing: 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage

Fire Blast
Sends a blast of fire at a targeted foe and sets the target on fire for a short period of time. Slower recharge rate than Flares, but more damage.
Damage: Moderate (Fire)
End Cost: 5.2
Cast Time: 1.2
Recharge Time: Fast (4)
Area of Effect: Single Target
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, Damage, End Cost, Range, Recharge

Personal Note: More damage than Flares, until you get Blaze and/or Blazing Bolt, this is the attack used most often to begin a chain against single targets. Pretty good damage, and a pretty fast attack to boot.
Personal Enhancing: 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage

Fire Ball
Hurls an exploding fireball that consumes targeted foe, and all nearby enemies. Anyone in that explosion is burned and set ablaze.
Damage: Moderate (Fire/Smash)
End Cost: 15.184
Cast Time: 1
Recharge Time: Slow (16)
Area of Effect: 15’ Sphere, 16 Targets Max
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, Damage, End Cost, Range, Recharge


Personal Note: This is the power that I use to initialize AOE attacks. It’s quick, it’s large, and it’s a good way to piss off a lot of enemies. Compared to the other AOE’s, it doesn’t do as much damage, but it has a quick trigger.
Personal Enhancing: 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage

Rain of Fire
Summons a rain of fire over a targeted location, burning foes within a large area.
Damage: Moderate DoT (Fire)
End Cost: 26
Cast Time: 2.03
Recharge Time: Long (60)
Area of Effect: Location
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, Damage, End Cost, Range, Recharge

Personal Note: As an AOE, it’s a doozy. It covers an enormous area, and does some massive damage. The downside is that mobs scatter as soon as the rain hits. I could swear that there’s an unenhanceable slow component to it. RoF is a good “oh crap” button, since if enemies are running away, they aren’t attacking you. In a pinch, throw it down over yourself and you’ve given yourself a good zone of zero melee. Generally, I only use this if the mobs are locked down or near death already, otherwise it just scatters them all to crap. In an ideal situation (mobs locked down or already suffering), this is the third power I use in an AOE chain.

Personal Enhancing: 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage

Fire Breath
You can breathe forth a torrent of fire that burns all foes within its narrow cone. Very accurate and very deadly at medium range.
Damage: Moderate DoT (Fire)
End Cost: 15.184
Cast Time: 2.67
Recharge Time: Slow (16)
Area of Effect: 40’Cone, 10 Targets Max
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, Damage, End Cost, Range, Recharge

Personal Note: This is the second power in my AOE chain. I just position myself for maximum effect and let loose. Fire Breath has some great damage, I would almost say double of Fire Ball. I occasionally use this to take down single targets when I have endurance to spare.
Personal Enhancing: 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage

Aim
Greatly increases the accuracy of your attacks for a few seconds. Slightly increases damage.
Damage: -
End Cost: 5.2
Cast Time: 1.17
Recharge Time: Long (90)
Area of Effect: Self
Accepted Enhancements: End Cost, Recharge, To Hit Buff

Personal Note: Aim is a godsend. Unenhanced, it provides a huge buff to accuracy, and with three recharge enhancers, I can use it at the beginning of every fight, just about. It’s an excellent way to begin an AOE chain. I also slotted mine with To Hit Enhancements, when I’m in a group with mobs substantially higher than myself, I like to hit them. After all, it’s my job.
Personal Enhancing: 3 Recharge, 3 To Hit Buffs

Blaze
A short range, but devastating flame attack.
Damage: High (Fire)
End Cost: 10.4
Cast Time: 1
Recharge Time: Slow (10)
Area of Effect: Single Target
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, Damage, End Cost, Range, Recharge

Personal Note: If I don’t have the room to snipe, this is the power I use to begin a single target attack chain. The damage is very slightly less than the snipe, you just need to be near the mob to strike it. When performing an AOE chain, I usually end it with a Blaze on the closest enemy, as Aim lasts just long enough to get a single strike in if you opt to not use Rain of Fire.
Personal Enhancing: 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage

Blazing Bolt
A long range beam of fire that blasts your foes. Like most sniper attacks, this power has a bonus to accuracy, but is best fired from a distance as it can be interrupted.
Damage: Extreme (Fire)
End Cost: 14.352
Cast Time: 1.67
Recharge Time: Slow (12)
Area of Effect: Single Target
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, Damage, End Cost, Range, Recharge, Range, Interrupt

Personal Note: Sniper attacks are tricky things. They’re near impossible to use in large groups, as AoE damage inevitably interrupts the attack. For soloing, though, there’s no better power to start a single target attack chain. Even con minions will generally die with the chain of Blazing Bolt, Fire Blast and Flares. Natural resistances and scourges will change that, but you get the idea.
Personal Enhancing: 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage

Inferno
Unleashes a massive fiery explosion to devastate all nearby enemies and set them ablaze. Inferno deals massive damage to all nearby foes, although the damage does vary. Activating this power leaves you drained of endurance and unable to recover endurance for a while.
Damage: Extreme (Fire)
End Cost: 20.8
Cast Time: 3
Recharge Time: Very Long (360)
Area of Effect: 25’ Sphere, 16 Targets Max
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, Damage, End Cost, Range, Recharge

Personal Note: I have mixed feelings about the ninth tier powers after ED. I can’t really even kill even con minions without using extra damage inspirations. Leaving a corrupter enduranceless for 10 seconds isn’t fun neither. I generally only use this power under two conditions, the first being a last resort KABOOM, the other being that I have enough buffs/inspirations to do the job right the first time, that includes defense inspirations to survive long enough to get the Inferno off, as well as run away from survivors. I don’t slot it for accuracy, I ALWAYS wait for Aim to recharge before I use this bad boy.
Personal Enhancing: 3 Damage

SECONDARY: THERMAL RADIATION
TR has its ups and down. My initial thoughts about Thermal Radiation is that it is a primo grouping set. The AOE heal and single target buffs are a welcome addition to any large group. It’s not so hot for soloing, with one minor exception (I’ll get to that in the personal notes).

Warmth
You can use Warmth to heal some of your wounds, and the wounds of your group. This power has a small radius, so your allies need to be near you if they wish to be affected.
End Cost: 13
Cast Time: 2.03
Recharge Time: Moderate (8)
Area of Effect: 25’ Sphere
Accepted Enhancements: Recharge, End Cost, Heal

Personal Note: Warmth is one of the few powers that a Thermal Corrupter can use soloing, that alone makes it an important power. Fully enhanced, I believe it will heal a little less than 1/5 of a corrupters life bar. It’s not much, but it’s saved my rump on more than one occasion. Something to note, activating Warmth roots you to the spot during the casting time. This is unlike Radiant Aura in the Radiation Emission set. Masterminds will love you for this power.
Personal Enhancing: 3 Heal

Fire Shield
Casts a fire shield on one of your allies and grants him damage resistance to Lethal, Smashing and Fire Damage. Fire Shield also provides minimal resistance to Cold Damage. You cannot stack multiple Fire Shields on the same target, however the shield can be improved by another ally using the same power. Can also be used in conjunction with your Plasma Shield. You cannot use this power on yourself.
End Cost: 7.8
Cast Time: 1.17
Recharge Time: Very Fast (2)
Area of Effect: Friend
Accepted Enhancements: End Cost, Recharge, Resistance, Range

Personal Note: Fire Shield is quick and easy to use. It lasts for, I believe, about 4 minutes. I could be wrong though. I usually just stack Fire Shields on allies as soon as time permits. It looks pretty neat, to boot. In fact, why the hell can’t I make this aura on myself in the tailor shop? The fire aura in there looks like crap!
Personal Enhancing: 3 Resistance

Cauterize
Heals a single targeted ally by cauterizing their wounds. You cannot use this power to heal yourself.
End Cost: 13
Cast Time: 2.27
Recharge Time: Fast (4)
Area of Effect: Friend
Accepted Enhancements: End Cost, Heal, Recharge, Range

Personal Note: Cauterize is approximately double the heal strength of Warmth, though it’s single target, but rapid fire. This power will make you a Brute’s best friend, since it takes some of the edge off of the damage they take maintaining Fury.
Personal Enhancing: 3 Heal

Plasma Shield
Envelope an ally in pure plasma. The Plasma Shield gives your ally resistance to Energy, Negative Energy and Fire Damage. You cannot stack multiple Plasma Shields on the same target, however the shield can be improved by another ally using the same power. Can also be used in conjunction with Fire Shield. You cannot use this power on yourself.
End Cost: 7.8
Cast Time: 1.17
Recharge Time: Very Fast (2)
Area of Effect: Friend
Accepted Enhancements: End Cost, Recharge, Resistance, Range

Personal Note: Plasma Shield is the natural progression after Fire Shield. It has the same duration, just resists against different damage types.
Personal Enhancing: 3 Resistance

Power of the Phoenix
Revives a fallen ally. The fiery resurrection blasts nearby foes with an explosion and knocks them down and disorients them. Your ally will revive with most of his hit points and endurance. He will also be invulnerable for a brief time, as well as protected from XP Debt for 90 seconds.
End Cost: 49.4
Cast Time: 3.2
Recharge Time: Very Long (300)
Area of Effect: Dead Friend
Accepted Enhancements: End Cost, Heal, Recovery, Recharge, Damage, Stun

Personal Note: The XP Debt Protection alone is worth taking these rezzes now. I personally experienced, while duoing an Elite Boss, watching this power very briefly mez the boss. Not too shabby at all. This is the one power I regret not having more slots to spend on. The heal and recovery is pretty good for corrupters and other squishy AT’s, but Brutes and such are only marginally restored. I figure I can just Cauterize them after rez, but being rezzed with half endurance can be painful. Still, Debt Protection is Debt Protection, no one should complain. Anyways, I always keep a blue on hand for this one.
Personal Enhancing: 1 Heal, 1 Endurance

Thaw
Warms an ally and frees him from any Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Slow and Immobilize effects and leaves them resistant to such effects for a good while. Thaw also grants the target some resistance to Cold damage. Some of the effects of this power will improve with multiple applications and as you advance in level.
End Cost: 5.2
Cast Time: 2.17
Recharge Time: Fast (4)
Area of Effect: Friend
Accepted Enhancements: End Cost, Recharge, Resistance, Range

Personal Note: Thaw can make another corrupter into a relatively safe mez magnet. The anti-slow component is pretty darn good, but this power, coupled with the Fire/Plasma Shields and Forge, makes Thermal Radiation Corrupters solid duoers. Just make sure to let your partner/lackey go first. I’ve LK’d another corrupter before, kept the shields, Thaw and Forge on them and then duoed my missions on Relentless. Liberal use of Cauterize, but nary a death. We BLEW through the missions, a good time was had by all. Important note – Thaw only lasts for about a minute though, make sure to consistently reapply the power.
Personal Enhancing: 3 Resistance

Forge
Forge a single ally into a killing machine. Forge immensely enhances a single ally’s damage and accuracy.
End Cost: 10.4
Cast Time: 2.27
Recharge Time: Long (60)
Area of Effect: Friend
Accepted Enhancements: End Cost, Recharge, To Hit Buff, Range

Personal Note: This power pushes any lackey into a damage/accuracy range above yourself, even unenhanced. I highly recommend this power to anyone that duos a lot. Unenhanced, though, this power lasts long enough to keep about two people forged continuously.
Personal Enhancing: 3 To Hit Buffs

Heat Exhaustion
Overwhelm a single foe with waves of exhausting heat. The initial effect will drain the target of some endurance, but the heat is so overwhelming that the affected target will be weakened. His damage output, Endurance Recovery and Hit Point Regeneration wil all be reduced.
End Cost: 13
Cast Time: 2.07
Recharge Time: Long (120)
Area of Effect: Single Target
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, End Cost, Range, Recharge

Personal Note: Heat Exhaustion is the only other power in Thermal Radiation (besides maybe Melt Armor) that is useful soloing. And OH WHAT A POWER IT IS! With three recharges in it, you can keep it on one target almost constantly. You can seriously hamstring one tough lieutenant, boss, elite boss or AV. My powerful memories of using this come from tough boss fights soloing. The damage reduction component makes the boss more of a sissy, but the kicker, is that it prevents endurance recharging. On more than one occasion, I’ve had a boss use up all of his high end draining powers on me and then sit there for the remainder of the fight while I whale on him. Beautiful! The end drain component isn’t much to speak of, but the end prevention is well worth the price of admission. It only lasts for 60 seconds, so be sure to reapply it when you can. I use Aim previous to applying this power, although I’m not 100% sure that Aim affects this power, based on a couple of experiences I’ve had. Anyone out there know for sure?
Personal Enhancing: 3 Recharge

Melt Armor
The searing heat from this power is enough to melt the armor and defenses of all targets in the affected area. Melt Armor significantly weakens the defense and damage resistance of the affected targets
End Cost: 18.2
Cast Time: 1.5
Recharge Time: Long (150)
Area of Effect: 15’ Sphere, 16 Targets Max
Accepted Enhancements: Accuracy, End Cost, Range, Recharge, Defense Debuff

Personal Note: I’m 5 pills away from this power, so I can’t comment on it just yet, but I’ve heard some great things about it thus far. As soon as I have some definitive input and experience with the power, I’ll post it.
Personal Enhancing: 3 Defense Debuff

For the records, I also have three Flight Enhancements in Fly. Therein lies the last of my slots.

All in all, this build works fantastic when grouping with Brutes, as many of the secondary powers are geared towards single buffs, and they draw the aggro. My two bad experiences, however, were with a Stone Brute and another Fire/Thermal Corrupter. The Stone Brute moves to slow and doesn’t keep enough of the agg to keep me alive. The Fire/Thermal Corrupter I was duo’ed with was group centric, and since I had to draw all the agg and maintain the heat, as it were, I ran out of endurance a lot. Soloing and in decent groups, endurance is rarely an issue. It’s all a matter of applying the appropriate pressure where necessary. Don’t waste a Fire Ball on something you can kill with Flares, etc, etc.

I try to scour the boards for numbers, but so many get lost in the threads, it’s hard to keep up. Those with hard numbers on powers, feel free to PM me and I’ll amend the guide to be as comprehensive as possible.

Pinnacle:
Annihilation 37 Fire Blast/Thermal Radiation Corrupter

Coming soon:
Radiation Blast/Radiation Emission Corrupters with our friend A-Bomb…

I always felt that Burn was overpowered. It definitely needed tweaking. Now let me share MY vision.

I have a dream. I dream that all AT's should be able to excel in their primaries, and accomplish their intended goals by focusing on such. I have two high level Defenders, both of them have filled their roles by not blasting, and generally speaking, people love it. I also have a fire tanker. The fire tankers reputed role is to be more offensive at the cost of defense. Burn filled that role, perhaps too well. With the exception of Taunt being in the secondary sets, every tanker could fill their role in the party without needing to slot their secondary. Any invuln, earth or ice tanker can do their job with all their powers in the primary. A fire tanker, on the other hand, used burn as their trump card BECAUSE it was what made them offensive, and powerfully so. You have spayed the power that made fire tankers...well, fire tankers. Unfortunately for the powerset, you also cut off the legs of the set during the neutering process. I've loved this game from day one, and I accepted the differences in the sets, that some were more powerful than others, especially when people min/maxed. It seems to me that the people being hurt the most with I5 are those that break from the norm. Now, fire tankers are forced to rely on their secondaries to be offensive tankers, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER TANKER POWERSET. At the very least, get rid of Rise of the Phoenix and put another useful offensive power in there. I've heard it stated before that the tier of the power is in no way related to the utility or strength of the power therein, and yet Fire tankers seem to be the only ones that have to be duly punished, first with death before the activation of said power, and second with the sheer uselessness of the power. The few times I've used it, I immediately died afterwards because the power gave me a few seconds of respite before restoring me to the state I was before I died in the first place. Something was wrong for the tanker to die to begin with, how useful is a power that gives them 5 seconds to have partial restoration before their life is beaten in again.

On the whole, I'm drastically disappointed with the potential changes, so much so that I don't look forward to playing anymore. I've pretty much lost faith in the developers to deliver on what I paid for, and I'm too afraid to start playing characters for fear of the incessant cutbacks, over a year after launch. SEVERE cutbacks.

Instead of making each of the powersets equal, give each of the powersets a defining power! Make it a power that any group can say "Oooo, so and so is an ice tanker, so they probably have (insert defining power here)." Then they become welcome additions to any group. Instead, you have powersets that desperately need tweaks for group play *ahem, storm, force field* and the only thing I see are negative changes to other AT's. So, is the point of these changes to make all of the AT's suck equally?

Jack, I trusted you. I trusted in your experience as both a gamer and a comic book guru to deliver an incredible super hero MMORPG. Because of the overwhelmingly negative changes, especially in comparison to the minor positive changes, I feel like I can't trust you anymore. Make me believe that this game is where I should be.

Wow, if City of Heroes cost me $50 for the beta version with a $15 monthly charge, I wonder how much the game will cost when the real version is released!

/em Wipes the sarcasm oozing out of the corners of his frothing mouth.

Seriously, I understand that there are game balance issues, but if you had told me that the game I bought a year ago would be nearly completely different than the game I played a year later, I probably wouldn't be playing it right now (and probably won't be after August). I suppose it all boils down to economics at this point, if the projected profit from the number of new and retained people from a balanced CoH and CoV is greater than the projected profit of the number of new and retained people from an unbalanced CoH and CoV, then the decision is obvious. I hope the mystics and seers you consult are playing with the right tarot cards this time.

Yep, I realize this post is unrelated to Burn, but this is the thread that shattered my psyche.