New Dawn

What I normally do providing I am not looking at a combination I already have is take 5 mins to knock up a build for people. At the time of posting I think I didn't realise how close I was to needing to disappear to work. However what I said powers wise, you only need say Blinding Feint and the 3 attacks to make up attack vitals (plus any exemplaring made easy attacks), fight pool and haste to be alot better off. You could throw SOs into them.

I don't follow market prices of whats expensive and whats not expensive. I tend to rule out purples as a guideline to kind of have an idea but then you can still end up with a build with plenty of kinetic combats suggested. What I would do is possibly too expensive for you, I can get billions in a single day. Then there is what your emphasis needs to be about, how you would play it, which is why I would normally not change peoples powers on them but in your case you could be using low dpa attacks as well as having limited passive survivability.

I'll see how you evolve something for yourself then look at tweaking it.

I don't remember "wrangling" with you. I march to the beat of my own drum. Which means I have to prove or disprove things to myself and only myself and live with it.

I admit I looked at your build and thought "what the hell?". Without gutting all of your attacks and expensive spends haste and tough will make a huge difference to your survivability. You can in do better with your slotting in the process, not necessarily be more expensive. You don't need leaderships, you could concentrate on a Blinding Feint Attack Vitals and end up with 4 attacks that pretty much provide you with satisfaction and concentrate the rest of the build on other stuff slot wise, slotting them better.

If any of that attuned set goes in then doesn't that mean the kheldian grace set can't be used?

This set is the similar type of thing I have been expecting/hoping for as an answer to Solar Flare and anything else people have problems accepting KB with in "their" toons. As for other people, anyone being a princess against constructive/acceptable knockback might just need to be ignored.

Constructive KB is to walls, corners, floors. Acceptable KB is inconstructive but in self defense.

A brute once complained about me using gale. I used gale to prevent a mob from being in melee and hitting my toon. Now had the Brute not lost the aggro I wouldn't of had to use gale ergo it was his fault.

Yes I use it; Regularly if solo; First Strike to minimize fight duration to self; Almost never in teams.

The almost never in teams is why I think perhaps it could change by making it a toggle. You can let it off at the more appropriate time.

You actually do not need a tricked out build with Trick Archers, a build full of SOs can still work. Perhaps power pools such as leaderships and med pool are a little bit more enticing to round the character off enough for teams that do not play right around a TA and that's pretty much it. There is a little gulf between those that know what to do for a Trick Archer in order to help the Trick Archer help them best. I put this down to sheer laziness or apathy. Too lazy to work the game out or too apathetic to care about other concepts and how they work.

Some people can't adapt themselves to something, they need that something adapted to suit them. Incarnates are still being developed and I find that they can help with slotting issues and aid in flexibility which can solve problems. I put much down to players seeing problems but none within themselves.

I think with the above comments we can all agree to disagree based on what we get about the sets. I kind of get the differences between Entangling and Webnade myself but I am kind of thinking why not when it comes to the above. I never got why firing an EMP arrow affected endurance recovery. Glue Arrow arrow hitting a target is going to not so much get everywhere but where ever line of sight is. Just doesn't work out physically in my head.

I'll throw doubt in there. I'd consider; one of the nicest, most popular, best badged, great player, but have always been dubious of one person on some random server being the best unless it's best on server.

The primary can make a difference to the secondary and it can bring about a distorted subjective view. I am not sure if you even know all the full pros and cons to a powerset as you give your opinion or even if you've ever played them.

I play every powerset ingame, some more than once, make no mistake oh except earth assault. I am very intolerant of someone not grasping the full scope of a powerset and then waylaying it at every opportunity hoping to change the powers within a set, powers that belong to my toons. I play these things and I am not wandering around going this is weaker than that because I do see the relevence and importance of why things are the way they are.

You are like a kid in a sweetstore when it comes to changes. I play all the sets you talk about and don't agree with you but that's okay most people disagree with me but atleast I am not the one either struggling or clearly failing to read what was said on the box when I bought my new toy.

I want Arbiter Hawk focusing on new changes rather than make balance passes over what's already had umpteen balance passes.

This Staff might need adjusting, I don't doubt that but when it comes to everything else that's been about for years I am highly doubtful unless its PvP whereby in that case, may as well start from scratch and have power trees.

All of the secondaries are meant to be a bit more of this and a bit less of the other. One set may have X whilst another has Y. Someone with one toon may then be encouraged to play another without deleting the toon they're currently on because they want to experience both flexibilities. I don't expect to Excel TW, STJ or Staff and find something I can conclusively say is an inbalance. They do lack qualities. The value of these qualities differ from person to person. When certain traits are given, they are in place of other traits. The value of each trait is rather subjective but that's just to provide different courses for different horses because we will appreciate different things.

I don't believe in this copy and paste comparison. There is a design intent for the whole of the build. As you play a TA you should be using your powers as and when needed, there is an optimum state of play. Each power should stack not directly but indirectly quite quickly. There isn't some of the long cast times other defenders have, there isn't the need to worry about whether or not the anchor gets killed or runs off. Then there are controls as part of the set. The Trick Archer in a team should be defending differently to other sets. Teams should be able to survive with the help of a Defender, whatever the Defender can potentially do not as a complete result of one. People seem to look at the debuffs till the cows come home completely ignoring the potential aoe dps over time of Oil Slick or the level of control a TA can knockout.


There are pros and cons to each defender type. I know it, I play a Dark Defender, then play a Rad Defender, Forcefield, Empathy, Kinetics etc. Anchorless debuffing can at times a much desired thing with some teams or moments. Different teams can have me wanting to be on any one of my other defenders because of how they, the team plays, not because of some other defender being superior. Oil Slick is not on its own for holding the set up as there is also EMP of which can have enormous potential, particularly on controllers. In an all defender team amongst other types of defenders a TA can soon stand out, I tend to scout, be the first to a group and EMP the group, beat that for damage mitigation, then go and Oil Slick them.

In what way or ways is the player version unworkable for the mobs?

I don't have time to get into a long post, but I have never found it proper to compare one power of one set to another power of another directly. The entire set has to be compared. It's the combination of effects that can be applied to a number of groups over time. The -tohit mixed with the -rechg and the -dam matters. Then there is specific advantages like anchorless debuffing, Oil Slick and its DPS overtime potential versus 16 mobs and EMP. Some powers can become OP on some archetypes if you're not careful. We all know TA works well on Controllers when it comes to control.


As for Devices, regarding peoples last couple of posts. Changing Timebomb maybe the only fair change left. /Devices has its niche as Blaster sets go, some people are well why not make a /Traps as it's better. I am less likely to use Mines or Timebomb with a /Traps because I am less likely to need to when solo, so despite having the two, my playstyle isn't the same, my experience against a faction isn't the same and so the way I have to go about things isn't the same.

What's better is a matter of opinion, are things better because they make life easier? Are things better because you don't have the trapper mindset, never liked rogues in some DnD game or simply from comparing one power to another? I like to jump on as many different characters and be challenged differently myself. As long as I can see something as having the means to provide adequacy for a thinking mans team then I'll be alright.

I'd expect to tank the entire inner circle together using a TA for support. It's not something I can say when it comes to all defenders. I'd call that a Pro whilst some other defender gets a Con for me not being able to suggest that. I am more interested in what can and can't be done than figures.

Sometimes that undervalue is a case of "can't find value" in which case I can only agree but what people intend to get out of something doesn't necessarily equal the design intent of the powerset of which must differ to all others yet be equal to all others ideally. No matter how hard you try to get a cat to fly and a bird to swim down to the bottom of the ocean it just won't happen. So you look at what can happen and make that happen. It's not meant to be a plug and play character in my mind, some team work is required.

As someone who made a TA so that I could easily tank the game for one, it's not a slap in my face. I have always been reasonably happy with the set and even made another three. It does do things my other defenders can't and for that I am grateful. I do not feel that I need to replace my TA for any particular task, but sometimes I might because of how a team chooses to play. I have been on teams as a Rad and thought "my Bubbler would be better for these guys" so that is nothing new.

I got both AR/Dev and AR/Nrg. They take two different mindsets. Devices I'd suppose it will have to come down to gadget love, patience for making traps solo but relying heavily on AR mostly in teams. NRG, ya can afford to skip melee attacks I guess as ya was considering /Dev and be able to take power pools to beef you shieldwise and buff you offensively.

I don't think that's a solid statement to make.