MustachedHero

I totally agree with the OP. On my current build I immediately specced out of cloak for this very reason.

Solution:
When stealth is suppressed, stop the transparency effect COMPLETELY. If it means losing those 1.75% or something combat +Def, then so be it!

This way I can easily tell when it is on or off, my team can see me when it is important (in combat) and I can see myself most of the time (in combat). Out of combat I can turn it off to see myself.

Could it be that the problem with IO (set bonus) for blasters is that they cannot effectively buff damage?

Recharge increase damage, but one quickly runs into the activation time limits and the result of super recharge is that you need only 2-3 attack powers. Direct (global) damage bonuses in sets are minor and rare. So instead of going glass cannon all the way, blasters are trying to max defense and loose their natural edge.

Blaster secondary should not be about defense. It should be a variable mixture of blaps (few!), power ups, and controls. There should be plenty of soft controls with a damage component in them - examples are caltrops and subdual. Lots of Slows, root+debuff and knocks, all of which do damage in addition to the status. The hard status effects should be the territory of Dom/Controllers.

A big part of the reason that the pool fear powers are so weak is that they do not carry the usual -ToHit of fear powers. The debuff makes such fear useful even on targets it cannot mez due to low mag. It also makes it more useful when a lot of AOE is being thrown around and the feared mobs do get to retaliate.

The other part is the excessive endurance cost of the PBAoE fear.

The low accuracy and recharge I can understand because this is potentially a very powerful power (even at mag 2) and should be less effective than similar primary/secondary powers (ignoring the no debuff and end cost).

A melee controller. Aggro is a kind of control - YOU decide who the mob will be beating on and make sure that it will be the member of the group least effective to be beating on.

Most sets include control tools. Yes they are with the same effectiveness as the Brute's and Scrapper's, which is wrong, but in any case, the tanker has more incentive to focus on applying status effects. It meshes well with the aggro controller because first you make them want to hit you, then you make them suck at it or completely unable to.

The way to make tankers more distinct is to improve control tools. This archtype should have longer duration, higher % to proc and perhaps higher mag status effects in the secondary than the Brutes and Scrappers primary sets.

Spread is not something you should work for - consider it like a crit that happens occasionally. Disintegrate is a damage booster on a hard enemy, which you can apply reliably. If you get lucky and splash it on the minions, rejoice.

However, this mechanism favors multiple beams on the team. With 3+ BR it becomes insane. Go ghostbusters!

I dont think that Brutes were even intended to be teamed with Tankers, which is why their aggro catching ability was not balanced against each other. Brutes were supposed to be the Tanker equivalent of the red side and the scrapper of the red side at the same time.

In order to make them more fun and different from the other melee AT I'd like to see tanker more geared towards a melee controller. Just buffing damage is too much like a Brute and buffing armor/HP is boring - I want active mitigation as extra armor. Increase the multiplier for the secondary's secondary effects - /DM on a tanker should give more -ToHit, /ice should slow more, KD and stuns in secondary powers should have higher % to proc / longer duration, etc.

This gives tankers more survivability than Brute/Scrapper and a different role.

Why isn't there "armor" armor set? that is quite an obvious option and one that natural and technology origins can use in concept (magic and science can as well of course). It could be geared more towards the technology origin if it included many "powered armor" powers.

The short answer is that EM is not bad, in the sense that it does what it needs to do. However, as a package it is inferior to all the other sets, so if you look at it from a min/max point of view it is bad.

What I find disappointing are 3 things:

1. The secondary effects - this is the biggest. The only effect is stun, which I personally like very much (on my tanker). BUT most powers have it with low % to proc and with a short duration. Except for a low probability to stack it to high mag for a VERY SHORT moment, other sets will produce more controls (stuns, holds, KD) with higher frequency and more reliably.

2. Stun power - related to #1. This is the typical low damage control power and the only one to produce a decent duration stun (11.9 s). However, it is slow for such a power (not horrible though) and on a set full of stun powers, it feels out of place. The irony is that I do find a use for it just because all the other stuns are low mag, low % and short duration. It needs something extra to be interesting - a siphon something, knock up or a buff/debuff added to it.

3. Total Focus - 3.3 second animation kill it completely. It pales in comparison to most tier 8-9 powers of other sets.

Against the opinions of most players, I find ET and whirling hands to be perfectly fine. ET is a wonderful burst damage, which should be used on hard targets. This is not part of an attack chain. The animation time is NOT too long for the damage. The AoE attack really does less damage than similar power in other sets, but it is also faster to recharge. 30% mag 2 stun is unimpressive, but useful. It is an aggro and minor control tool, not an AoE damage monster. Again, I am speaking from a tanker POV.

I am leveling a DA/EM stun master now. By that I mean that his focus is on having as many drunk baddies as possible wobbling around him. Efficient or not, it IS hilarious and fun.

I find EM to be a weak version of MA. Even if what you want is to stack stuns, it is not efficient in that, despite the fact that it has a stun effect in every power. The reason: low % to proc combined with short durations. Hitting 1-2-3 tier attacks of EM (fast, good animation, me like) give only a 10% higher chance to stun (combined) than the single T3 attack of MA. Not only that, the MA stun has a much longer duration. The only benefit is that you have a low probability to stack the mag to >3 and stun a boss for a VERY short duration.

Whirling hands I love even though it is a meh AoE. Damage is low (I dont care, it still generates enough aggro), but what is agqain crappy is the low % to stun: 30% and the short duration: 6 sec. Compare this with MA Dragon tail that has 75% to knock down. The good new is that the recharge of WH is relatively fast, which makes it more effective than most people give credit for. I also like the animation.

The Stun attack is the most disappointing power I took so far. It is 11.9 sec, mag 3 stun and negligible damage for a 1.8s animation. Whoopee. MA's T3 combra strike will give you the same stun at 75% for 1s animation plus some serious damage. It is nice to have and I use it only because it is the only stun in EM that give a decent duration to the stun. It is really weak for a T6 power.

I will post some review when I finish leveling him up, but one of the suggestions for improving the set that I see forming is that Stun is replaced/combined with a nother secondary effect. A cool one that comes to mind is a weak version of a power from the Blasters Energy Manipulation: Power Boost. With lower % effect and a short duration this is an "energy fitting" siphon effect. MA T2 power for example gives a significant defense boost. Other sets give siphon effects for health and endurance. EM has nothing, BUT a power boost will improve the stun durations and the defense toggles. It is just that the typical 100% effect is way too much.

Energy transfer is effective and the animation duration is not that bad. It is not an anti minion power, unless you want to crush them like bugs for the risk of crushing an already dead minion. For the damage it does it is well worth the 2.5s animation.

T9 I did not get yet. It used to be the crown jewel of the set, but with 3.3s animation I can see the lack of appeal. The secondary effect is nice, but plenty other sets will give you a better one and even higher mag one.

Over all I love my DA/EM tanker. It is my favorite, but definitely not for min/max players. DA/MA would have been better in every way including in stunning single targets, not including the other great secondary effects it adds (+def, KD, KB). It is just that EM feels more super heroic to me and I like the dark/light in my powers combination.

Currently (and slowly) working on DA/EM stun master. It is a min/max toon - maximizing stuns and fun for a minimal investment

More of an amuzing idea that turned into a concept build. My other tanks are definitely "better" that this one, but I enjoy leveling him the most.

Power with random knockback which is also high magnitude are the real problem. They can't be relied on when you want the KB and if you ignore it, KB hits on random and throws the mob a long way.

High mag knockback is a tactical tool on normal teams, which means it should not be spammed. 50% mag 2 KB on a cone is a terrible thing since it simply cannot be controlled and is unreliable. Again, I am talking about teams, solo it is always awesome and fun.

The rule of thumb in powers should be that under 75% chance KB should always be under 1 mag. Slotting for more mag is always possible for those who want it.

If I take Provoke I'd use it, but squeezing in 3 power picks with the added end cost of yet another toggle is too much - especially for leveling. 50 respec I may reconsider just for the heck of it.

My hero is still low level, but so far I start to see some of the "issues" with EM. The first 3 attacks are quick, do good damage and I produce a lot of stuns. I ran the numbers and in a 1-2-3 chain I have an 84% chance to get some stun applied (mag >= 2).

True, that in itself is entirely unimpressive since MA for example has 75% for a mag 3 in a single T3 attack that is even longer in duration that the T3 Bone Smasher. Slower recharge of Cobra Strike is the only redeeming factor for EM's Bone Smasher.

The place where things get better for EM is mag stacking. I get about 23.4% chance to stack mag>3 on the first 1-2-3 attack cycle and stun a boss. It then increase rapidly an allows to maintain a stacked mag nearly 50% of the time. This is good initially, but again MA with a single attack will rack up similar percentages once Cobra Strike enjoys some +rech.

In the context of the stun master I am yet far from the main point of combining whirling hands 30% AoE stun with Opressive Gloom. Again, when comparing with MA this will look unimpressive as Dragon's Tail has 75% chance for KD, executes faster and does more damage (even though I can less about the damage). KD instead of stun is not what I want for a stun master, but the 75% vs. 30% is a huge difference, only partially compensated by a stun duration of 6s vs. shorter knock-down recovery (3 sec?).

I start to see the direction this is heading. As a tanker set, I don't think that damage is what will hold this set back - it is the weak secondary effects. As with Defender vs. Blaster, for the tanker vs. scrapper the secondary effects are more important than the damage of the attacks.

The powers are loaded with low-probability short-duration stuns as the only effect. Combining all of them will produce a nice up to very good single target chain/stack stuns - and that is all. MA set will get a result almost as good stacking stuns on a single target from just two fast recycling, high stun% attacks (T3 & T9).

Versus multiple targets, EM will proc a stun often as a result of many low stun% attacks. Other sets will put status effects and knocks on surrounding targets at still a higher rate simply due to higher % to proc.

I will still play this toon to its 30s to see how it plays out once I get the key powers (I just like his concept). I also have a Will/MA tanker only a little ahead of him so I can compare. Perhaps SO's will allow stuns to overlap and stack more and the DA/EM stun master will come ahead.

###### SUGGESTION #########

To me it stats to look like the way it "fix" this set (if it even needs fixing) is to improve its secondary effects - either by tweaking the numbers or by giving them added value. e.g.: this is energy melee, so why not some "siphon energy" effects? DM heals in "Siphon life". Elec siphons End. Kinetics siphons Dmg, Cold Siphons Rech

SO, how about this:

"Energy siphon" (overloaded on the T6 "stun" power, or the weak T2 "Energy Punch") could act like "power boost" that increase the secondary effects of your powers. This is a unique effects that already exists in the game in the Blaster energy manipulation set, so it fits perfectly with the theme!

Energy Punch is in every way better than boxing: better damage type, 30% stun instead of 10%, longer stun, splash taunt.
The only reason to take boxing instead, is if you have a problem in power selections and must free one slot (you'll likely get in anyway for the tough and weave).

With EM 1-2-3 punch sequence, which is quick, you get 84% to put at least mag 2 stun on the target. 60% to get stun mag 3 (just land bone smasher) and a 29% to end up with mag 4-7 which means to stun a boss, at least for a few seconds. Boxing drop these % significantly, in particular the chance to stack mag stuns, but you may not be interested in stuns at all.

Thanks for the replies.
I love stone melee and have a SD/Stone tanker as my first tanker. Even on that one it is end heavy so DA/Stone seem almost impossible until very high levels.

I started a DA/EM for testing. Too low level to tell yet. One of the reasons I went with /EM is that I see so little of it. In the context of this idea, it does not seem to be a bad set and I can even afford to skip T9 power. I even have a fun concept for it. If I manage to level him quickly I'll report back on how it plays out.

It is now extremely tempting to fit in the Fear aura together with the fear from the power pool. The latter is lousy with very long recharge and high end cost though, but PBAoE mag 4 fear combo on top of all the stuns and -ToHit thrown in sounds sweet, even though not practical and costly: 3 power picks (AoE taunt, st fear, AoE fear). The taunt I can use, but the st fear will get no use.

I have a fascination melee controls. Scrapper/Brute mindless DPS does not interest me and so I have developed a Tanker altism (Taunt is a kind of control). Looking for a primary/secondary combination that offers a lot of active controls instead of simply defense resist and heal, I started to think about DA/EM.

DA is one of the more interesting tank primaries. Hit required heal, damage aura and two control auras makes it more than just stacking defense and resists. EM is one of the rarest tank primaries that I see. Except for the activation time of the tier 9 power which completely ruins it (3.3 sec for a ST attack is a bit much), the rest I find completely acceptable (even the PBAoE). The unique part of this set is that practically all attacks have stun effects.

This got me thinking - what happens if I combine EM with DA's Oppressive Gloom? Minions are basically out of the way and Lieutenants/Boss mobs have a constant mag 2 stun on them waiting to be stacked with EM attacks. The first 3 attacks are quite fast and do 10,30,60% mag 2-3 stuns and the maligned PBAoE does 30% chance mag 2. Combined with the aura it means mag 4-5 on every stun that procs and the PBAoE can becomes valuable just for the mag 2 (+2=4) procs. And then there is the mag 3 guaranteed stun attack and energy transfer (mag 3 high probability + blaster snipe level damage) to take out bosses immediately out of the fight.

If not efficient, at least I'll turn the mob into a what looks like an alcohol saturated party just before dawn. Can this work? Any pointers how to make it work? Will it be fun?