Oedipus_Tex

Searching for a clue to what you are talking about specifically, I looked at your post history, and found this post from you in the "Most Overrated Powerset Combos" thread:

That pretty much explains why I'm not going to continue this conversation with you. You are welcome to your opinion but I'm not going to convince you of anything.

And 100% better support. Because they, you know, get a support set.

You're comparing apples to #2 pencils.

I'm not trying to pick a fight, but I actually have two versions of the same character, one a Mind/Cold Controller, the other Mind/Icy Dominator. The Controller was my favorite of the two until recent changes made it so the Dominator can have many of the endurance advantages the Controller previously had a lock on. The Controller version can still do things the Dominator can't though.

Yeah.

Uh, no.

That's fighting words on these boards.

Controller <> Dominator. You just have to know your reasons for picking one or the other.

I was thinking about that, and you're probably right. (Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to create an AV ambush--if someone knows how, let me know, because I actually have an arc that calls for one.)

If you wanted to make life painful for a bunch of Defenders, you'd probably need something weak to melee but difficult to deal with from range. I don't know if that something exists.

Incidentally, I have been on AE arcs where there WERE ambushes of Ninjitsu Stalkers, and I was able to detect them because of Arctic Air. However, I think ranged AE mobs still get the massive bonuses when they lob projectiles at you from hiding.

Actually, one hilarious (or maybe just irritating) way you could seriously annoy a pack of Defenders would be to create swarms of enemies with Arctic Air. The confusion effect is completely random, and undodgeable. Any bonus damage you provide teammates could end up back in your face, damage auras become a huge liability, and your big bubble is now protecting the enemies...

Some of the most fun I've had in the AE was when I created 1 pack of minions with Bonfire, and 1 pack as a Rogue ambush with Arctic Air. The result is a battlefield where some of the Bonfires knock you back, some knock the enemies back, and everyone is constantly pinballing all over the place. Giving the enemy Ice Slick also means anyone caught in it can't jump or fly out of it once they get batted inside.

What you're probably noticing is that Elec/anything is actually pretty decent AoE damage by Controller standards. The extra damage from Jolting Chain is actually not far behind Hot Feet. It costs a lotttttt more animation time, but Fire Controllers don't have any other AoEs early on anyway.

IMO Dominators lose a lot more from Jolting Chain than Controllers do, because they have much more damaging attacks they typically would be spamming. Elec/FF, specifically, does not, and for this reason can output enough damage to solo to some degree.

This is somewhat debatable. Ice Slick lacks the -ToHit debuff of Earthquake, but has a 1% greater chance per tick to knockdown. That doesn't seem like much, but the power ticks at a rate of 5 checks per second, so actually means about 5% greater KD chance per enemy per second. This means greater overall chance per enemy for a back-to-back knockdown lockout (where the enemy falls down a second time before being able to stand up and fire from the previous knockdown).

Ice Slick (and really, Ice Control in general) also has the benefit of extremely communicative graphics. It is very easy for you and teammates to see the boundaries of the power in order to keep enemies inside it. The graphics thing is actually why I like Ice Control so much as a set; the high animation priority means everyone knows which enemies are locked out and which still need to be handled.

In any case, I agree with everyone else. Earthquake is absolutely unskippable.

[EDIT: Tried to add clarity to some jumbled thoughts]

Despite it's problems, the AE is still one of my favorite things about this game.

But I think criticizing the devs for the AE is a little hard to do (not that you are, just saying in general). We players really haven't done a lot to capitalize on the system. In fact, IMO a lot of general complaints and expectations can be reflected in the AE. For example, one basic kind of complaint about it seems to be that "the player base doesn't love everything I build, but gives 5 stars to farm missions, it's not fair!" If that's not a solid reflection of the daunting task in front of the developers of our "real" content, I don't know what is. Players like me probably frustrate game developers especially; I skip through any kind of long expository text at the beginning and end of missions and expect the objectives and in-game action to explain the scenario at hand.

Getting back to the subject of the Lore spot, does it surprise them that I tend to skip through "story" elements but still care about how my own character's concept fits into the game? I can't say, but the issue is pretty difficult.

I will say that on the plus side of pets, it could potentially give heavy support sets a boost. One thing I've always said about power balance is that it depends almost entirely on the context of the game you're playing. Cold Domination, as a specific example, would probably not enjoy such a good reputation if it weren't a tacit assumption that all major Task Forces conclude with a difficult fight against an Archvillain, and this was the most likely spot for the team to fail.

For a game about heroes supposedly saving victims all the time, there are actually relatively few instances where the game doesn't hambone the "victims" into invincible status. This is part of why a set like Force Field takes a major beating. The set would be more useful if preventing harm from coming to citizens were a major game concern (see Freedom Force for an example of this at work; in that game, the objective was to defeat enemies, but to do it while avoiding accidentally harming citizens or tearing down too much of the city). Anyway, this relates back to pets, because a "support character" is so much more effective at protecting them, and if having pets is now a major game concern, this is a relatively large "buff" to the sets that are good at it.

Obnoxiousness is not reflective of position. Meaning that you don't really need to be pro or con any particular issue to act uncivily. The message boards are a tough place to live. Even the mildest posters eventually get ganged up on for their opinions, and it's also easy in the heat of conflict for otherwise rational people to become more volatile than they might otherwise be. I'm as bad as anyone, and though I feel like I should know better, still catch myself posting un-nice things when I let my guard down and (in particular) respond emotionally to what I perceive as an attack (and, in fairness, sometimes is).

One particular place I think we should be cognizant of how our attitudes come across are in making comments on people's builds; if someone asks for a sample build they are often told to stop being lazy and make their own, and when they do post one, are often told how terrible that build is and how they must not know anything about their AT. I know I personally have gotten into blood matches with people over builds, sometimes in regard to a specific power.

Stating that you are disappointed in a game development is not the same as "whining." I understand why you might see it as such, but IMO the statement "If you want to change this, I'm willing to wait" is the furthest possible thing from whining. It's a statement of fact. If they don't change it, I'm not going to lash out and post something like... well, like what I'm quoting above.

They did that to us with the last power proliferation. I think we found out almost as it was hitting the test servers. And they even prolif-created the Earth Assault set.

Same thing kind of happened with the APP/PPP handoff, which was, if I recall correctly, completely unannounced outside of the beta test until the day GR went on sale.