Leo_G

Follow up suggestions:

Sleeps- I think the main issue with Sleeps isn't that they don't provide control. It's that, the control it does provide doesn't synergize with the team but rather works against the team in a way. The team's goal is to hit everything until the enemy is done but Sleeps basically tell you 'not' to do that.

Solution: New effect, Prone (the enemy ends up laying down on the ground until the effect wears off). When a target is put to sleep and a Knockback power is used on them, there is a chance to knock the enemy prone which basically leaves them unable to use their powers (same effect as a hold) and floors defense.

The chance to knock a slept foe prone increases with the mag of KB (so powers like Earthquake or Ice Slick have a small chance for this (maybe 10%) while something like Force Bolt or Power Push have a higher chance (like 35-50%)).

I'd even change enemy AI so rather than letting a player sleep soundly until they wake, but will switch to use a KB power instead. It may not be a guaranteed effect but you can at least try to synergize tactics for an effect greater than the effects alone.

Snipes- all in all, I don't think there's anything wrong with snipes. They are what they are. I may not take them on many characters (only did on my Archery Blaster and Defender) but it's not because I don't like then but I just don't think it fights a lot of my character's concepts (another fact: I don't have any Assault Rifle characters). That players expect something more out of this power is beyond me.

Possible changes?: -Well, they could give it the AS treatment and make it so missing with a snipe draws no aggro. Maybe even give it a chance to draw no aggro when it connects too (like a 25% chance the enemy isn't notified).
-Add a utility to it. Starting the Snipe animation could give you the Power Analyzer effect in that, you can now see the stats of the target. Make it so you don't have to actually finish the attack, you can just start it, interrupt it and then look up their data.

Cage Powers- There is absolutely nothing wrong with them. Now that we can customize colors, it's very easy to tell what is and isn't caged. Making a caged foe untargetable is fine too.

Idea: IO sets for Cage powers.
Power Siphoning Prison (lvl 10-50); Acc, Acc/Rech, Acc/Endredux/Rech, Rech/Rng, Acc/Rech/Endredux/Rng, Proc self +8% resist for 1min(100% chance, unique)
Bonus=
2. +2.5% Max HP
3. 3.75% Recovery
4. +3.13% res vs psi
5. +7.5 rech bonus
6. +3.5% def vs range

Ziggurat Warden (lvl 10-50); Acc, Acc/Rech, Acc/Endredux/Rech, Rech/Rng, Acc/Rech/Endredux/Rng, Proc self +2 points mez protection for 1min (100% chance, unique)
Bonus=
2. 1.88% energy/neg def
3. +res vs immobilize
4. +5% Recovery
5. +res vs fear
6. 2.5% res vs smash/lethal/fire/cold

Infernal's Demon Binding (lvl 50 purple set); Acc, Rech, Acc/Endredux, Rech/Endredux, Acc/Endredux/Rng, Proc self Build up (+60% dmg, 5% ToHit) for 30sec (100% chance, unique)
Bonus=
2. 2.5% res vs fire/cold
3. +10% Acc
4. +10% rech
5. +4% recovery
6. 2.5% res vs neg energy

The uniques would be exclusive to eachother so you'd only ever get to slot 1 on a power (and 1 on a build since it's impossible to get 2 cage powers, AFAIK).

Phase Powers- I've always been under the opinion that phases are underused as a mechanic. We should spread these out more among the enemies and give them more a use as a tactic.

Solution:- Carry over the Phase-attacks-phase mechanic from PvP to PvE.
-Differentiate the 'Phased' status and the 'Intangible' status. Phase should be self induced while Intangible should be foe induced. Intangibility should give the victim a 'Temporal Disruption' passive temp power that stays suppressed unless you're Intangible and the power should debuff you in some way (like Max HP, regen and ToHit or something...). Using a phase or intangible power will overwrite the previous effect. So casting an intangible on a phased foe (if you're in the position to properly target them) will overwrite the 'Phased' status as 'Intangible' and vise versa.

Basically, you can Phase the enemy then phase yourself which will result in fighting a weakened foe. If a foe does the same, then you're weakened. The way to escape this is a phase power (either from the pool or the temp power). If phasing was more widespread through the enemies, this would make the Phase Shift power more viable as a power choice and possibly synergize with other player's power choices if they choose an enemy phase power too.

Stealth- This is another mechanic that I feel is very underused in PvE and of limited effect when it is used, mainly because once you attack, the only thing you're getting is a bit of defense.

Solution: I think adding a 'chance of placate' upon being attacked would be interesting form of defense without actually granting +def/res/etc. Basically, if a foe swings or shoots at you, they have a chance of 'losing you'. The chance could be dependent on the power granting the stealth and the AT that uses it.
-Stealth = 15% chance of placate for Stalker/Blaster/Defender/Corruptor; 10% chance of placate for Scrapper/Brute/MM/Dom/Controler; 1% chance for Tanker
-Hide/Cloaking Device = 15% chance of placate
-Stealth Buffs like Steamy Mist or Grant Invisibility could be a 5% chance for everyone but Tankers
-Stealth IO = flat 5% chance of placate for everyone

You'd basically end up with Blasters and Stalkers with the higher chance of simply losing the enemy's attention (Stalkers obviously even better at this because they can stack stealth) and, gives a possible reason to take these stealth powers and stack them in PvE. It possibly balances the survivability differences between the melee ATs and Stalkers who could build to shed aggro like water off a duck's back...Could be an interesting build direction.

Other mechanics that could use some possible discussion: Damage over Time, Meleeing with flight, umm, I'll think of something else later >_>

Oh! I love these kind of discussions!

Claws too. Mine is a Claws/EA and I have to say, it's my most enjoyable Brute but I only have a few (Elec/Elec, Axe/WP, Stone/Shield). The bread&butter attack (Focus) pretty much means you can melee a ST without it fighting back. I use minions as fodder to feed the inspiration flow. Keep popping orange, red and green inspirations and keep the blender spinning.

Muon,
Why would Stalkers have to drop Frost at all? It's just a cone and other sets like Ninja Blade/Broadsword get a cone (a larger one at that) in the 3rd slot.

As for the godmode, maybe keeping in line with the 'Cottage Rule', the tier 9 should do something similar but with an 'extra' added to it?

Using a Stalker like theme: What about something like 'Ice Clone'? Kind of like Hibernate (freeze yourself in a block of ice) and buffs regen/recovery while making you 'phased'. But you have a short window (like the first 10 sec) where, if you turn off the toggle manually, it basically placates all aggro on you, spawns a pet (basically, just leaves the block of ice there) that draws the aggro and you slip out the back, hidden.