Kioshi

Well snarky responses can happen when you simply ignore all the nice ones you got first saying how mobs run when the power is used (since after all the people mentioning they like it for the afraid effect you insisted mobs will attack as often). If I ask what fire blast does, people reply that it burns mobs and I answer "no it doesn't" I wouldn't be surprised if I got some sarcastic reply

The only reason for that is because we're afraid the kin will get mad and stop sb'ing us

Well who wouldn't...

But that's why I said I like them when the team is facing really hard mobs, like a 6-8 man team facing +4s so that they end up keeping the anchor and the boss takes long to die. Of course that's not the case in speed or even normal +0/+1 TFs or even iTrials (a lot of players, debuffs flying all over, judgements and pets) so debuffs like Dark's or Cold's can be used more efficiently. I like the Anchor concept but these days with the newer sets people are AoEing a ton even on Posis (which I completed a lot of times in 40 minutes or less with unslotted toons on lvl 10-15 teams).

Sleet/Freezing Rain is awesome in basically every scenario, and better than Tar Patch imo because the -def is great on the lower levels and against some mobs in the higher ones, saving the teams' endurance since they hit more often.

But at least I still find Rad way better than lolPoison on teams

I know, but since I wasn't taking the number of people you can buff in consideration.

Anyway I still think highly of AB as the best ST buff for a single toon (except for extreme cases like top io builds). Sure some ATs/powersets benefit more from it, but I can't think of any other that made a SO'ed ss/wp brute 'solo' half the ITF while the rest of the team was working on the other mobs. Or my Do'ed spines/dark scrapper chain spine burst/lunge/spine burst and 'tank' (well as much as a non-taunt scrapper can tank) in mobs on a 30's team. But sure it depends, even considering a single toon only, some of mine would benefit more from fulcrum or fort than AB due to already having enough recharge, survivability and no end issues (was gonna put painbringer there but I checked, only 50% dmg bonus while defender fort is 31% plus def and tohit, kinda sucky since PB has the same 300 sec recharge as AB - I had to see in Mid's because I don't see people playing Pain anymore).

On debuffs I really like the rad ones, especially on teams that 'respect' the anchor (usually when they're a bit over their heads so the boss is hard to kill). I've had a team running on +4 wipe because I thought we were steamrolling and decided to nuke and blast on my rad/psi defender... Bad idea

Can't argue that Sleet is easier to use and better than the rad debuffs on iTrials and most ITFs since people obliterate the mobs so fast.

I'd totally play a ninjitsu tanker - 'wait blasters I'm herding this ITF mob' - 'Ok it's safe come here' *Smoke Flash*

Didn't you read all the 100 posts mentioning how Caltrops has an afraid effect and screws mobs AI?

You could roll a traps defender and get it at level 1 to see and all.

Lol that's gotta be a bug, the 'original' Shocking Bolt for Blasters accepts the usual sets (hold, ranged dmg, endmod) but the Corr version accepts PbAoEs from what I see in Mid's. Certainly not intentional

EDIT: Oh wait the Defender version also accepts PbAoE, but isn't the Defender version the newer epic power for Electric? I only remember Blasters having it before, but I don't have a high level def.

Funny I discovered freakshow do that when I started playing in i9.

Seriously, try to play a brute and tell me you're not doing more damage than any scrapper at level 10. Till 25-30ish you can only slot your attacks for end reduction, have great damage and aggro control, plus more hp.

In the endgame, unless you're an av soloer/DPS maniac or whatever, you will have to struggle to find that some scrapper is outdamaging you on a team with a noticeable margin. And you get aggro control, so good you may strip it from the Tanker due to doing a lot more damage. So you can be a great off tank too.

Sure in some scenarios (prisoner phase in BAF) you won't be with more than 50% fury unless you're AoE heavy and camp on a door, but on most others you'll have so much aggro on you (I personally pick taunt on all my brutes) that fury is a non-issue.

Hell I did the 1st costume mission killing grey tsoos on my TW brute and scrapper last week, the brute was 1 or 2-shotting them after the first mob because fury doesn't decay fast like before so I could run to the next mob and do plenty of damage and have more end since the scrapper really needed some damage SOs in her 20s, the brute can wait till I get more slots and use only acc/endred/rech.

The problem is that Dark Servant does a lot more and lasts 240 secs with a 240 base rech. And don't tell he dies easily.

Lol true. While dark/dark is a fine pairing on a corr, dark miasma already offers so much protection and debuffage that I like to pair it with a higher damage primary with less utility (fire/darks are awesome since level 6, tar patch + RoF <3). Ok fine on defenders too but defender damage makes bunnies cry.

Yeah I know, I play plenty of toons that require some work compared to other primaries. Just wanted to point out to the OP that since Dark Manipulation is all PbAoE and melee (Shadow Maul, D. Consumption, etc, well except the lolstun) and dark blast is good with cones it's not as easy going as 'lulz fire blast' which kinda goes well with anything, although I do prefer blaster's dark blast by miles compared to the corr/def versions - I like my dark/mm blaster but my dark/traps corr was rerolled to fire/traps because I didn't like the damage, maybe my impression, I got sick of DoT'ing everything - when I saw Nightfall was another DoT I gave up on the toon

Both blaster powersets are well designed, I just don't like much how they complement each other (or not). Bad design imo is Ice Control espeially on doms since they don't debuff and rely on Ice Slick a lot, I took the AoE immob on my ice/psi just because the purple set was cheap at the time lol.

And I'd trade BU for Soul Drain in most of my toons like my kat/regen, or a fire/fire blaster/scrapper, it's a great power.

Skyrim actually has a MLP mod.

You can even have a My Little Pony bed!

Oh I thought he was saying TS doesn't need a target since we have TONS of powers that need a target and use PbAOE sets - Shadow Maul, Crowd Control, the TW cones, Headsplitter, etc. I know those are usual melee cones unlike TS and Spinning Strike but thought the discussion was around needing a target or not.

And as you said, all the other powers that need a target and have more range than the normal melee one (breath of fire, shockwave, throw spines, frost) use TAoE sets which is logical since they are powers that work just like say, Psychic Scream, Frost Breath and Umbral Torrent, only the range is shorter.