Dr Harmony

My current stable of characters include a Energy/Elec Blaster and a Fire/Cold Corrupter.

I'm in raptures with these proposed nuke changes, and can't see any downside to them at all.

I remember my first nuke. Circling Brickstown on my Elec/Elec Blaster thinking "this power must be awesome - its on a huge recharge and drains all my energy." Finding groups of ten yellow/orange Crey minions and zapping them, and quickly getting disappointed with all its limitations. Eventually I just stopped using it.

The new nukes will be a big improvement.

Two general things to make you love Defenders (over the equivalent Corrupters):

1) Sonic Blast. Each attack does -20% Res. This stacks up to more res debuffing than most support primaries do against a hard target. This more than makes up for the low base damage.

2) Defenders Bastion IO set. Its cheap, and provides a self heal to support sets that typically get their health chipped away due to lack of one. So this pairs very well with Force Field, Cold Domination, Storm and Sonic Resoinance, for example.

I loved FF/Sonic way back, and had a good time recently with a Storm/Sonic Defender with the new ATIO set. The self heal is small, but you're rarely getting hit due to Hurricane and all the knockback of Storm, it works like a charm.

I'd recommens Storm or Cold. Storm if you solo mostly, Cold if you team mostly. Pair either with Sonic Blast.

I'll second Teleport.

The enforced immobilise and hover make what could be a flashy, awesome combat power into a grind.

Peacebringers and Warshades have had their form-shifting freed from a lengthy animation and now play much more fluidly - I'd like to see Teleport get similar treatment.

A very nice analysis.

Is this all assuming even-con enemies?
By the time I've got Nova I'd usually be fighting +2s and +3s, which would up the damage of old Nova a bit, due to less overkill on leiutenants and bosses, right?

Purple patch means 80% damage against +2's, which is roughly equivalent to discounting Aim
(Aim boosts damage from x2.95 to x3.6, ie slotting + Build Up does 81% of the damage that slotting + Build Up + Aim does).
Also, to counter this effect, I guess the best nukers eat a couple of reds beforehand.

The main thing is, the new Nova is going to be a massive improvement.

Do you know if the buff from Healing Medic affect self-heals like Reconstruction?

I suppose the oddity I'm seeing here is that the Medicine pool may go from being the pool used by people lacking a self/ally-heal (Super Reflexes, Shield, Force Fields, Sonic Resonance) to a very desireable choice for those with innate heals. (Empathy/Regen)

"Healing Medic" - the new Medicine pool ability grants a passive buff to healing abilities?

Are Empaths and other support characters being encouraged to take the Medicine pool now?

Ditto with the Concealment pools new area Placate - I can see that being useful for Stalkers.

I wonder if these new powers don't require redundant pre-reqs from the pool in these cases.

Oh, and yay for pool customisation, especially if it allows us to tint our epics too! I'll be incredibly happy to not have that conversation about flaming hands ever again.

The mass holds all stack with the single target holds, so you can use them to quickly disable a boss as well as takle out a crowd in one go.

I've always assumed that this is the reason that you get a quicker area stun/knockdown/ etc that can be up per spawn, and then the hold as the special long recharge ace-in-the-hole.

I'd suggest keeping the 4 minute base timer. Even on a SO build, this drops to 2 minutes, less with hasten, and in the case of Mind Control means a hard control is up every minute (since you can alternate with Mass Confusion). Many controllers and dominators do build for recharge on top of this, and at those levels these holds come up pretty quickly.

I would however advocate restoring base accuracy instead of the 0.8.
At high level play, this doesnt matter - you'll have global accuracy bonuses from positron's, Crushing Impacts and maybe Thunderstrikes coming out of your ears, and enough innate accuracy from the Basilisk's Gaze you've stuck in there. But this low acc really makes these powers stink at lower levels or SO play by demanding the 2 Acc, 2 Rech, 2 Hold slotting to make them even do anything relaibly.

The Blaster version is better in my opinion, because Neutrino Bolt and X-Ray Eyes are standard Tier 1 and 2 attacks instead of faster, lower damage ones that eat animation time.

Its not a bad set - 3 AoEs instad of two and a combined Tier 3/mez instead of two separate powers.

But as has been said above, the -Def secondary effect really isn't that great compared to -To Hit, -Res, or even Knockback.

Poison will not keep you alive very well.

It allowed you to apply a substandard To Hit debuff one enemy at a time - now it allows you to splash an ally or two with half of that.

I tried it on a Ninja MM and it was an exercise in frustration.

It probably works OK on a Controller, but even then I'm having a hard time seeing it as being better than anything else. There are other sets that provide better offensive debuffs.

I'm trying it on a Thugs MM now, and hope the innate Defence of the pets keeps them alive.

So for a Corrupter, it probably works better with primaries that provide some defensive abilities like Ice rather than Fire. But I'd still say you're better off taking Radiation and colouring it green for most posionous character concepts.

A self-buffing Empath would be as tough as a Super Reflex Scrapper and a Regen Scrapper. And have +100% Recharge. I've played in an Empathy duo and its obscenely powerful.

The "Only Affecting Allies" limitation is as important as say the "7 foot range" limitation on most Scrapper attacks - removing it completely unbalances the powerset.

If you go down the route of reduced self buffs, what do you get? Fortitude giving you 5% base defence maybe? Probably less effective overall than the Kinetic Dampener temp power, which is accessible to any solo buffer with an invention license.

Even with a reduced Recharge self-buff, any Empath would be quite justified in only ever AB-ing themselves ever again, since it would mean better Aura uptime and maybe another teammate Fortituded.

If a FF Defender could bubble themselves (and they already can, with Dispersion Bubble), what value would they get on top of that? Its probably best not to give them SR Scrapper level defences (6 powers worth) to everything for just 3 powers, so maybe 5% base again at most.

I'm not completely against self-buffing, but it isn't straightforwards. Ally only powers are there for a reason.

One time, while helping out SG-mate and thus exemplaring from 50+1 to 12, I had the flu in game, and was thus operating way below usual efficiency.

Thats the only time I've tried to explain it though.

The Sport boots and gloves already have built in knee and elbow pads, although they look sort of future-sport rather than anything contemporary.

I can see elbow pads working as a shoulder item possibly, judging by items like the Barbraian rings, which sit halfway down the arms. I dont know if they maybe wouldnt scale with arm length though?

Yeah, I'd call Spidey a Tanker definitely.

My simple test - if they're better known for surviving damage than dishing it out, they're a Tanker. Spidey exhibits softcapped Defence to all positions, a general kind of muscly stringiness (Tough from Fighting pool) and an ability to really surprise you when the tide turns against him (scaling resists in SR). His defining moments are often him getting beaten up and keeping on going.

Yeah, he can pick up streetlights as bats, and pull vault doors off their hinges with one hand, but he's not the first thing hero you think of for packing a punch.
(I'd disagree about thim having the SS powerset, because he doesn't Footstomp. The Martial Arts of Street Justice sets can just as easily be explained as superhuman strength as they are skill. )

Iron Fist in contrast, is good at dodging blows, but doesn't have any spider sense or superhuman elasticity. But he does have an incredibly powerful punch. Now HE's a Scrapper. (OK, so scrappers dont have Energy Melee yet...)

Yeah, I agree. Just a texture to suggest toes would be fine, similar to our hand mittens having painted on fingers.

Yeah, this needs fixing. I'd say its possible to say start a task force late at 26 (with level 25 SOs) and hit 29 (when they expire) if you're running at +2.

Instead of expiring completely, have SO's remain at +23.3% indefinitely (and DO's stay at half that or whatever they are).

The early game DO to SO balance seems about right, what with all the other factors like Beginner's Luck and ramping up of AT modifiers.

I remember the first time this happened to me, and I was puzzled as to why levelling up made me move so slowly - back in the days of 3 slotting Hover.

Ice Slick also has 5% chance to knockdown every 0.2 second, which amounts to a 40% chance every 2 seconds.

This doesn't seem right still, Bonfire goes from being "Better than Ice Slick with damage" to "Ice Slick with damage".

In contrast, Ice Slick with a damage proc will do nowhere near the same amount of damage as Bonfire.

Blasters in general have great burst damage, low-ish survivability, but pretty active secondaries.
If you're used to say x/Willpower characters, you'll find yourself running out of power keys and tray slots pretty quickly on a Blaster.
Dominators are similar with two active sets, but trade some damage for safety.

Sonic Resonance is a good passive set for a Corrupter and pretty much fire and forget. It also gives you mez protection, which is nice if you're used to melee characters, but doesn't really do a whoile lot else for you solo. Combine with any Blast set.

Force Field is similar, but much better solo. Its Defenders only, but you're focusing on a single powerset as active clicks, even if its technically your secondary. I found FF/Sonic Blast a pretty good combination, with Sonic Blast boosting team offence nicely through the -Res in the attacks.

Thermal, Cold Domination and Traps may also be worth considering as low-ish maintenance support sets. Of these, Traps is the best solo-er.

I'd hesitate to write khelds off as low DPS without trying them. They rule the teens for area damage once you unlock squid form, but do tail off at higher levels a bit.

I usually go 1 accuracy, 3 damage with both dual origin enhancemnets (starting at 12) and single origin (starting at 22) as the basics, and add more on top.
As a Blaster, you'll be getting some help from Aim and Build Up with hitting difficult targets, eg taking out a Sky Raiders Force Field Generator.

I also highly recommend Thunderstrike - I plan ahead so I have 6 slots in 3 blast powers by level 27 when you can first slot them.
A set of these at level 30 is like 3 damage, plus 1.5 acc, end redux and recharge (ie 7.5 enhancements in total) and give great set bonuses.

Do you know you can sort of monitor your hit rate?
Powers (above your enhancement tray) ->Combat Atributes, and then choose "Last Hit Chance" in the "Base" section that pops up. Its handy to check if you've got enough accuracy.

Only if the Capos get Jump Kick.

Rad/Energy allowed for a close up stun-stacking play style.

Creep up to the most dangerous boss you can find. Power Thrust, queued up Stun or Total Focus, followed by Cosmic Burst means they never get a chance to fight back.

I lover knockback, but I'm going to go Power Thrust in Energy Manipulation.

Its a quick activiating status effect that takes out a Boss, available at level 1, and useable while you're mezzed!

It was a staple for my last Blaster (Wundastar - Radiation/Energy). Send the boss flying, then apply Cosmic Burst and another stun from my Energy melee arsenal and they never got a chance to fight back.

You can keep your single target immobilises!

Fair enough, Cap, and thanks for taking the time to explain your point of view.

I play the game pretty much for the same reasons as you, and have often avoided taking mechanically sound powers because they look wrong.

Fire Swords, Ice and Earth Armor, and so on, are way too visually intrusive for me to take without a very good in character reason to do so.

I even skipped mez protection on my non-powered MA/SR stalker just to get that sense of real danger that she should have.

For Dr Harmony herself (think Firestorm from JLA), I did take Hasten. It allowed me to pursue both recharge and defence bonuses and achieve perma-Domination, all of which were quite important to my character concept. She's invulenrable, and this feeds back into her overconfident personality. The additional flashes of light around her hands weren't a deal breaker, and I'd hate to think that someone saw this as "nothing short of a complete creative separation of one's character from one's powers".

Roll on the day we get to choose what our powers look like more, and can turn off inspiration effects. Till then, lets not look down our noses at each other for where we each draw the line.