Sets are going to be classified into three categories based on their level of effectiveness.
Seriously Underperforming: Sets that need to at least be brought up to the level of viable
Mediocre: Sets that need some slight buffs in order to be brought up to average
Average to Good: Sets that are fine overall, but have a few weak or useless powers that can be buffed. The goal is to make all powers in the set be usable without too seriously impacting the entire set’s performance.
Trick Arrow
Seriously Underperforming
Here are the facts about trick arrow:
1: Many powers in the set were made significantly weaker because of overlap. For example, acid arrow and disruption arrow are each only 20% resistance debuffs, while 30% is standard for a defender.
2: Every power in the set is an enemy targeted click debuff. There are no ally targeted abilities, passives, or even enemy targeted toggles.
3: Some of trick arrow’s powers have low durations. For example, the debuffs of poison gas arrow and acid arrow only last 20 seconds.
There are two problems that stem from each of these facts. Because of point 1, even if trick arrow is taken as a whole, it is only numerically average compared to other sets that contain debuffs. Because of point 2 and 3, trick arrow users can spend a significant amount of time in fights not only applying all of their debuffs, but also having to reapply them as they quickly wear off. The end result is that trick arrow users spend more power picks and more time to debuff enemies by similar, if not inferior, amounts as more well rounded sets do.
The proposal is to overturn the design decision that trick arrow’s debuffs should be significantly weaker individually so that, combined, they become equivalent to the average value of debuffs found in other sets. Trick arrow should, at the very, very least, be competitive with the most powerful debuff sets currently in the game. These changes mainly focus on improving powers to bring them up to par, focusing on varied effects in many places in order to avoid the redundancy that brought about the nerf in trick arrow’s beta phase. There are also a few changes aimed at specializing powers for a specific situation without removing functionality, so that not all powers have to be used in every fight.
Entangling Arrow has 1/5th the magnitude -Recharge and -Movement than Traps’ Web Grenade (scale 0.1 for the Arrow and scale 0.5 for the Grenade), even though the only other difference they have is rather small Endurance Cost difference (5.2 for the arrow, 7.8 for the grenade). Raise the endurance cost and debuff amounts to match.
Flash Arrow is currently a fire-once-and-forget power, quickly recharging with a debuff that lasts an entire minute, but doesn’t stack. The problem, though, is that while it allows for aggro-management on the part of the Defender, there are weirdnesses in the NPC aggro mechanics that can cause this to generate aggro for the Defender in a team environment. Increasing the range of the power to 100’ and adding in a small -Range component (-30% for 60s, does not stack from the same caster) would allow for an extra bit of defense on the Defender, as well as synergizing better with their other powers since the -Range would encourage the mobs to clump together (like Acid Arrow with its small AoE).
Glue Arrow is currently a massive movement slow and a minor -Recharge (20%), which makes it more of a situational annoy-the-mob power than it should be. The -Recharge should be increased in order to provide a bit more damage mitigaiton (to -40%), and should have an additional debuff effect attached to it. It currently is very similar to Tar Patch, but without the massive -Resist. Given the other -Resist in this set, scale 1.5 -ToHit would be a good choice, keeping in theme with it as a power that is hampering the enemy’s ability to take action.
Ice arrow is a scale 8 duration mag 3 hold that recharges in 18 seconds and has an animation time of 1.67 seconds (and has a small -Recharge effect of scale 0.1). Dominate from the defender’s ancillary pools (which often have their recharges doubled) is a scale 12 duration hold that recharges in 16 seconds, has an animation time of 1.1 seconds, has a 20% accuracy bonus, and does scale 1 damage. In light of this, Ice arrow needs a reduction in recharge time to no more than 16 seconds, and either scale 1 ice damage or an increase in its recharge debuff to be at least scale 0.5.
Poison Gas Arrow is significantly less powerful than conceptually similar powers of Poison Gas Trap and Poison Trap, and slightly confusing to most people since it appears that it is a location base patch effect, although the actual debuffs and sleep chance are only applied when firing the power. Unlike many other powers in this set, the recharge and duration are such that there is little reason for the effects to be flagged as unstackable - that flag should be removed. Furthermore, the sleep is a mere 66% chance for mag 2, so it is both rare to apply, rare to affect (minion only), and easy to break, meaning this power is mostly useful for the -Damage on team environments. Preferably, this would be changed to a guaranteed mag 2 stun, similar to powers like Thunderclap; this would change the slotting of the power, though, making that a complicated decision. As such, adding in a chance for the vomit animation, a la Poison Gas Trap, would be a nice boon, say, 10 or 20% (it is a mere 1% in PGT, but that power uses a pulsing pseudo-pet to deliver the effect and so has multiple chances to fire). As a final fallback, simply changing it to 100% chance for mag 2 sleep with 66% chance of additional mag 1 sleep would be a useful buff.
Acid Arrow’s low radius makes it best used against small groups and AVs. The power is rather underwhelming, since it only lasts for 20 seconds and has a relatively low amount of -resistance. Adding a -100% regeneration debuff effect would help make the power worth it. Also, consider increasing the duration of the effects to 30 seconds. As it is, the power is already perma out of the box and doesn’t stack, so increasing the duration would mostly give the archer a bit more breathing room in terms of using his other powers, instead of having to remember to fire this every 20 seconds.
With acid arrow focusing on smaller groups, disruption arrow is the power meant for softening up large groups of enemies. However, with a target cap of 10 and its only effect being a small 20% resistance debuff, the power has difficulty fulfilling this purpose. Increase the target cap to 17, which is standard for area debuffs. Increase the resistance debuff to 30% as well. Trick arrow having two resistance debuffs should be an advantage for it, not a penalty. Making disruption arrow significantly weaker than other resistance debuffs because it has another source of -resistance is an unfair penalty, especially when the other source is a very small AoE. Additionally, disruption arrow is an opportunity to help with trick arrow’s problem of having to spend so much time applying and reapplying its powers in every battle. Adding a trivial amount of energy damage at the start of disruption arrow will allow a trick arrow user to ignite their own oil slick. This allows them to bring out a significant offense with only two powers, and helps trick arrow play better with partnered sets that don’t have fire or energy damage.
EMP Arrow does not need the self -Recovery. The 6 minute recharge is punishing enough.
Force Field
Mediocre
Force field is unquestionably a defensive powerhouse, but suffers from many redundant or highly situational powers, making it a one trick pony. The following are some buffs intended to increase force field’s defensive utility and offensive options in the hopes of making its playstyle more interesting and rewarding without increasing its overall performance by too much.
Compared to its main competitor in Defense buffing, Cold, Force Field relies far more upon its Defense buffing to contribute to the team. As such, some amount of Defense Debuff Resistance should be considered for the set. Consider putting scale 0.4 Res(Defense) in Dispersion Bubble, similar to what Grant Cover provides for allies.
Force Bolt's damage should be increased to scale 1, making it similar to powers like Levitate and Lift (except knockback instead of knockup).
Detention Field is a horrible power, but since we want to be careful in replacing it, it should add a massive -Regen, -Recovery and -Recharge effect while it is on to truly arrest the victim. Theoretical programming solution to the issue of debuffs applying even if the target is immune to phasing: have Detention Field apply a GrantPower effect that gives the target a passive power, and that passive power has the debuffs on it with a “if target is phased” flag.
Repulsion Field is less useful at protecting the user than Hurricane, but costs more endurance and covers a smaller area. Reduce endurance cost to 0.65 end/s to match hurricane. Remove the cost for repelling an enemy.
Repulsion Bomb's stun chance is only 40% for a mere mag 2, the animation time is way too long, and a recharge of 30 seconds is rather high for a power that only does slightly more damage than a 16 second recharging aoe blast. I’d suggest reducing the recharge to 20 seconds.
Force Bubble is far too situational, given its large radius and overlapping effects with other powers. The big difference between Repulsion Field and Force Bubble is that Repulsion Field is meant to protect the Force Fielder, while Force Bubble protects an entire team or league by disrupting the enemies. As such, this would be an excellent place to put in some of the debuffs that this set is lacking. Since this power is about protection, and since this power tends to generate a lot of aggro for the Force Fielder, defensive debuffs like -ToHit and -Damage would be a good choice. Comparing this power to Hurricane, which has a smaller radius, something like scale 1.5 -ToHit and scale 1.5 -Damage seems good.
Sonic Resonance
Mediocre
Sonic is a below average set overall, but it has a few niches where it stands out that still makes it useful. Its largest problems are its absurd endurance costs and severe lack of soloability (even compared to empathy). It also has a slight problem in that its resistance buffs are inferior to comparable defense buffs, due to the design decision that defense should be numerically superior to resistance due to resistance’s more reliable nature.
These changes are focused on vastly improving sonic’s flexibility in battles so that it can do more than simply increasing or decreasing resistance values. Many powers are given new utility and features to make the set more dynamic and interesting to play.
The damage mitigation provided by the shields in this set is much lower than that provided by those in the defense sets (FF and Cold), and it is also incapable of increasing with Power Boost effects. The defense shields are all scale 1.5, while the sonic shields are only scale 2.0, a ratio of 1.33:1, strange given that resist and defense operate at a 2:1 ratio for non-Incarnate Trial gameplay (where the ratio is 1.5:1). The singular shields need to have their magnitude raised to 3, and the aoe shield to mag 2. Furthermore, defense sets prevent things like mezzes and debuffs from hitting the target, essentially giving them extra mitigation to those effects, so consider adding in additional effects to the shields, especially resistances to debuffs (compare to Force Field which adds Toxic resist of an amount higher than Sonic as well as resistance to endurance drains).
There is a further issue in that this set contains two different ally targeted toggles. These powers are both punishingly expensive and weaker than their foe/self targeted counterparts, as if the ability to target allies with them was a bonus, though most players find it to be a hindrance (you can’t use it solo, you might not have a meleer on the team, etc). Furthermore, these two powers are mutually exclusive, since one is meant for a meleer who keeps foes around him, and the other for a ranged character who wants to keep foes away from him, thus necessitating that you be teamed with a character of each type. As a result, these powers wind up being rather poor options.
Sonic Siphon is massively underpowered compared to similar debuffs. Siphon Power, which it shares its name with, recharges in 20 seconds, lasts 30 seconds, stacks on itself, and provides both the caster and everybody around them with a 30 seconds +25% damage buff (also stackable). Sonic Siphon should live up to its name and provide a +Resist(all or all but psionics) effect with each cast (non-stackable mag 3 to self would mean that the Sonic bubbler will have the same amount of resist for himself as for his allies given the shields he can use on them). This kind of personal survivability boost can make soloing easier, given the fact that two of their powers require allies to use. It is likely that this would have to be unenhanceable, but that’s okay.
Sonic Barrier: Add 86% endurance drain resist (scale 2). The same as is found in insulation shield from force fields
Sonic Haven: Add 60% slow resist (scale 0.6 Ranged_Ones). The same as is found in arctic fog from cold domination.
Sonic Cage: see Detention Field.
Disruption Field should be allowed to target any mob, not just allies. When targeting mobs, it would thus debuff the mob and those around it, like Enervating Field, and when targeting allies, it would function as today. It has the same -Resist as Enervating Field, and its endurance cost is the same as Enervating Field, a punishing 1.04 end/sec (leaving me to believe they were meant to be thematically similar), but without the -Damage. If it is possible to allow it to target either a mob or an ally, then do so and leave its endurance cost as is, otherwise reduce its endurance cost to 0.78 end/sec. Either way, a similar scale 2 -Damage effect should be added.
Sonic Dispersion has a psi hole, while the various +Defense(all) powers that exist in other sets do not. Consider adding it or providing some other benefit to the power.
Sonic Repulsion costs far more endurance than the powers that it mimics (Repel and Repulsion Field), and is harder to use on top of that (generally, you only want to use this power on a squishy party member, and you might be the only one that is). This is definitely a power worth changing completely, but if it must be kept (cottage rule), then the endurance cost needs to drop in terms of the toggle and removed for per foe hit to be more inline with other powers. Furthermore, some additional debuff effects would be helpful to keep it on par with powers like Hurricane. Given the difficulty of leveraging this power at the same time as Disruption Field, putting a scale 3 -Damage effect here fits (matching the scale 3 -ToHit of Hurricane).
Clarity comes far too late in the powerset. It should be swapped with Sonic Repulsion. Either way, this would be a good power to throw in some of the extra damage mitigation that Sonic needs. Frankly, it would make a lot of sense for this power to include scale 2.0 Psi Resistance, given the name. Furthermore, it means that this power will be able to provide something to melee ATs that don’t need the mez protection (see Thaw, which provides both Cold Resist and Slow Resist). Note: Given the changes to shields to supply their non-status protection portions in an AoE, that means Clarity would provide the Psi Resist in an AoE.
Liquefies recharge is way too long. Freezing Rain, Sleet, and Tar Patch all have similar strength of debuffing, similar or longer (Freezing Rain lasts 15 seconds, but the debuff can linger up to 30 seconds after that) duration, but recharge in only 60 seconds (allowing all of them to stack on themselves with even recharge). Those powers have lower magnitude debuffs (but only by a small amount, and the -Recharge in the rains is much stronger) and have the generally considered more useful -Resist. Comparatively, Rad Infection has similar -Defense and -ToHit values and has a much better uptime (100% against AVs, much lower through normal mob runs due to it being a mob targeted toggle, but still way higher than Liquify’s unslotted 10%). This implies that either Liquefy needs to have its recharge reduced, or to have its effects increased to make it worthy. If going the first route, it’d need to be dropped to 180 seconds (giving it an uptime of ⅙); if going the latter route, I’d suggest upping the duration of the pet to at least 45 seconds (or increasing the duration of the debuff effect of the pet to 15 seconds) and adding in an additional -30% Resist(all).
Poison
Seriously Underperforming
Poison has an odd mix of ally support and enemy debuffing abilities. However, this ally support is focused almost exclusively on utility. Meanwhile, the set’s bread and butter debuffs are single target. Their low recharge and decent durations seem like they would be useful in a protracted battle, but this advantage is lost because these debuffs do not stack.
These changes focus on improving almost all powers. Its enemy affecting powers become much more universally useful, and its ally support powers become respectable, though still not amazing.
Alkaloid: The small toxic resistance buff isn’t enough to justify the healing strength being reduced, especially when it’s unstackable and unenhanceable (and given that toxic damage is rarely encountered). Either some kind of status protection should be added, the heal strength increased, or some debuff resistances (slow and regeneration come to mind as fitting) and a slightly increased toxic resist (scale 3 instead of the 2 it is now, to make up for being unenhancable).
Envenom should be made an AoE power to match the AoE debuffs provided by other sets, which are both stronger in magnitude and, for some of them, stackable. Upping the recharge to somewhere between 30 and 60 seconds would be fine for this.
Weaken: See Envenom.
Neurotoxic Breath: This power is basically a copy of Shiver from Ice Control and Ice Manipulation, except that Shiver can stack on itself (and the Ice Manipulation one has an amazing 12 second recharge for the same potency). Given its recharge value, the fact that it exists inside a debuffing set, and the fact that it is one of the few AoE debuffs this set has, it needs to (a) be able to stack on itself, and (b) gain an extra effect – I suggest -100% Regeneration for 20 seconds (this set is surprisingly lacking in -Regeneration powers, for a Poison set).
Antidote: Apply the AoE treatment to its cold, toxic, and slow resistance.
Paralytic Poison's recharge should be reduced to 10 seconds (like Ice Arrow and Petrifying Gaze) or have some extra debuffs attached, such as scale -0.5 regeneration and recovery. It deals no damage and should not be penalized so harshly.
Poison Trap should be what it is supposed to be, a complete copy of Trap's Poison Gas Trap. It has the same duration and recharge but no effects at all. Change the numbers and effects to match and you're done.
Noxious Gas has a recharge of 300 seconds with the debuffs lasting 20 seconds (I am currently uncertain, but it looks like the power lasts for 45 seconds, for a theoretical max duration of 65 seconds). The power itself is basically a weak combination of Enervating Field and Radiation Infection all rolled into one (for some reason, the Hold chance is 0%, so it won’t ever happen). Given the rest of the set's mediocre debuffing and absolutely terrible AoE debuffs, this should have the recharge reduced significantly - somewhere from 120 to 180 seconds. Additionally, the power should be usable on allies as well as henchmen. This increases the power’s flexibility and simplifies the process of porting it to other powersets, if that ever becomes an issue.
Pain Domination
Solid Set
Pain Domination has a few relatively weak powers that can be buffed to make them more viable without significantly impacting the set’s performance.
World of Pain’s recharge is far too high, given that its effects are already set to be unable to stack. Up the endurance cost slightly and reduce the recharge to 180 seconds (or, conversely, increasing the duration to 120 seconds).
Anguishing Cry, like World of Pain, is far too weak compared to powers of similar debuffing potential (it cannot stack, and even with 3 Recharge SOs has only 50% up time). Increase the duration to 45 seconds and reduce the recharge to 90 seconds.
Thermal Radiation
Solid Set
Thermal’s combination of resistance and healing make it, at the very least, a serviceable set. However, its enemy affecting powers are extremely weak.
The goal of these changes is to apply the same changes to its resistance shields as was applied to sonic resonance, and to increase the usefulness of its enemy debuffs, allowing them to stand aside the set’s healing and buffing without overshadowing it.
The resist shields in this set have similar issues as Sonic, so read above and apply them here. In addition, Thermal has both a Psi hole and a Toxic hole.
Cauterize is a good place to patch the Toxic hole by applying some toxic resistance, similar to Poison’s heal.
Plasma Shield is a good place to put in debuff resistance to endurance drains.
Power of the Phoenix’s recharge and endurance costs are incredibly high for a power that can only be used situationally. Other rez powers have 180 second recharge (except for Empathy, which is 90), and that includes Howling Twilight, which has an AoE stun, -Regen, and mass rez. Power. Given that Soul Transfer and Rise of the Phoenix, the two analogous armor versions of this power, have the same recharge time, there is no reason for Howling Twilight and Power of the Phoenix to be different. Power of the Phoenix’s recharge should drop to 180 seconds, and endurance cost to 26.
Thaw would be a good alternate place to apply psionic or toxic resist.
Heat Exhaustion’s recharge is far too high given that it is a single target power that requires an accuracy check in a powerset that has up until this point no offensive powers at all. Lingering Radiation, a similar -Regen power, is an AoE with the same uptime of 1/3rd. Either change this power to an AoE, or decrease its recharge to 90 seconds (and theoretically up its duration to 60 seconds).
Melt Armor is completely outclassed by Freezing Rain, Sleet, Enervating Field, and other powers with similar effects (-Resist and -Defense). Up the duration to 60 seconds, lower the recharge to 120 seconds, and increase the magnitude of the -Resist and -Defense..
Dark Miasma
Solid Set
Dark Miasma is in no need of buffs, but two of its powers stand out as being almost completely useless. Some minor buffs could make these powers viable without impacting the set’s overall power.
Petrifying Gaze’s recharge should be reduced like similar powers mentioned above.
Black Hole should have the -Regen, -Recovery, and -Recharge effects mentioned above for similar powers. The power’s immobilize should ONLY affect those that are phased. See Detention Field above for a possible technical method for this.
Storm Summoning
Solid Set
Storm Summoning doesn’t need buffing, but thunderclap is useless outside of specific set combinations, and is inferior to copies of it found in other sets. A buff to thunderclap would not affect the set’s potential performance, since it cannot be used at the same time as hurricane. It would only increase the set’s options.
Thunderclap needs to be buffed to be brought into line with similar powers in other sets (Lightning Clap, Fault). Lower the recharge to 30, give it a 50% chance for an additional mag 1, and a chance for knockup.
Empathy
Solid Set
It has a few powers that are clearly inferior to similar powers. The goal of these changes is to bring these powers up to par without significantly affecting the set’s power level.
Resurrect: In the past, the benefit of this power over other rez powers was that it healed the target to full and gave them full endurance, while the others needed enhancing to accomplish it. Over time, they all got buffed to recover the target to full, leaving this power comparatively weaker. Suggestion: Lower the recharge to 120 or 90 seconds. Alternatively, provide the target with some kind of buff, probably +Regeneration and +Recovery, to match the theme of the set.
Clear Mind: Except in the edge case of dealing with Ghost Widow on the STF, this power has no use whatsoever for teammates who already have mez protection, except to fill in certain gaps if their mez protection is not complete and you happen to be fighting an enemy group that uses those rare Confuse and Fear mezzes. As such, I suggest adding some kind of additional buff on top of the mez effect (similar to Thaw, Antidote, and Clarity - if the above suggestion about it was taken). Given that the set does very little to prevent your allies from being hit (Fortitude is the only defense power, and it can only be maintained on a limited number of allies at once), some forms of debuff resistance would be a good fit.
Recovery Aura: The recharge on this power is punishingly high (the same 500 seconds as Regeneration Aura, a much more powerful power), considering that Kinetics can give the entire group infinite endurance all the time with minimal effort, and Heat Loss from Cold Domination can provide capped endurance for 90 seconds out of 360 seconds without recharge. The recharge on this power should at least be brought down to 360 seconds, putting it on par with Heat Loss, and possibly to 240 seconds, given that it provides no debuffing like Heat Loss does.
(BTW - according to Positron, video footage exists of him singing Def Leppard karaoke at a PS party...)