Oedipus_Tex

I highlighted a portion of your statement to draw attention to the main place we differ. Part of my issue with the STF and "challenge" in general is that these challenges feel built to deal with overpowered characters like the Ill/Rad you mentioned. I feel like if you want more challenge, it's already ready available in the dozens of combos that aren't among the best at minimizing the game's challenges. The reason the game feels so easy to you is the design of AVs severely penalizes some characters and greatly rewards others.

I do happen to like the Apex Task Force, but that's because it breaks the rules a little bit and lets a few different sets shine. IMO if they want to introduce more "challenge" they should find some way for AVs to get around the cheesiness of Illusion Control as a whole.

I don't know whether I'm an introvert or extrovert, but I think that song sucks. That's ok because there are plenty of songs I don't care for that seem to be popular with other people. My personal dislike of it is probably less connected to brain chemistry than individual taste in music. Altho in my case it also has something to do with this comment on YouTube: "This was in a Mary Kate and Ashley movie, Holiday in the sun "

Now, all of this said, I don't consider myself much of an "extrovert" even tho I am someone who likes to team most of the time. I don't have personal discussions with my teammates, or keep them on a friends list for future reference. I don't belong to any super groups, or regularly interact with anyone in particular. I just tend to pick up and go with whoever is around.

I said previously that I am not a fan of AV mechanics. The STF, to me, is a "brick wall" style challenge that is more annoying than challenging. It's the sort of thing I'm fine with when it's some remote activity we don't have to deal with too often, but when it's recentered as a "must do to further advance" piece, does not stand up well. I am hoping something in Issue 20 addresses this. In particular, the final fight against Recluse is a showcase of how incredibly broken unlimited inspirations are. When potions/inspirations no longer "assist" the fight but instead "define" it, you've got a broken system. Broken systems can be fine--but not as center pieces.

I would love for this to be true just so I could see what a cow looks like when it gets knocked back.

Definitely griefing. This was happening on Virtue too, with the person recasting the portal each time it expired. Sometimes there was also more than one portal.

EDIT: BTW my ideal fix for this is for the Ouro portal to load a transport screen identical to the one when you actually get inside Ouro, with one of the options being Ouro itself. That way you could warp directly to whatever zone instead of having to go to Ouro, then warp to the next zone. I always wonder whether the game servers take a hit from us zoning around like that, but regardless it would save us a loading screen.

Whoah no wonder you're not liking the combo. You're casting a power that does like base 10 damage (20 contained) at level 50.

Yep, looks like you're right. It shows up for my Mind/Cold troller now. Now if they would just "discover" the "bug" that is FF not having DDR...

I find the inclusion of Storm interesting. Storm and Force Field to me are about even. Storm is a little less redundant at high levels but I don't feel like I could take a team of "7 anybodies" and run radios at +3 and come out without a scratch. Storm can solo some stuff FF would struggle with, but FF isn't a set I'd want to solo with a lot anyway (although my Elec/FF Controller, my second FF character, has turned out to be very capable of that).

In any case one definite solo advantage of FF relative to many other sets is that they can shield PPP pets. My Elec/FF's eventual strategy will revolve around that. My FF/Ice Defender I play less often, less because he sucks but because concept (him being the Pinball Blizzard) makes me feel compelled to take FF's knockback powers, which I think are not very useful.

I have a 50 Force Field Defender. It was the cleanest ride to 50 of any character I've played; Controller, Defender, whatever. I played "radio team taskmaster" and just recruited 7 people to run around in front of me. With only 1 Scrapper exception, every one of my characters over 40 is a support set. Cold is great, Traps is great, Force Field is ok. It's not the darling of the ITF or STF so people think it sucks. Their call. I have so many support characters that I truly no longer care which one of them is the best, because all of them outshine each other in various circumstances.

Pretty sure s/he meant for teammates. Both Traps and FF give excellent foundations for ridiculous personal defense potential. I have to admit it does kind of chap my hide that Traps has better personal defense at less endurance cost than the set that specialises in such things, but so it goes. Maybe one day FF will get the defense debuff resistance it deserves.

Correct, but with a few clarifications. Cold and FF for various reasons have been compared over the years but aren't really directly comparable. FFs team shields are only half the story. In the same way that "heals suck" on the boards "ff sucks" has kind of take root over time.

[What follows is not necessarily related to the above quoted post.]

IMO Force Field is properly looked at as a version of Super Reflexes that you happen to be able to share with teammates. The major difference, aside from not getting defense debuff protection, is you that you can put people at SR levels of reflex with minimal power investment. It takes 4 powers to cap people's defenses to everything but Psi, and you can do it from level 22 on.

Now, there is a whole lobby of players who essentially think FF is terrible because 1) IOs exist and 2) Cold exists. It turns out though that the FF player him/herself can IO to the highest echelons of tank-magedom. Traps gets a slight lead here, but Traps is also not SR for the team, but something else altogether. Cold Domination meanwhile is not nearly in the same class as (on a Defender) it will always lack mezz protection, and lacks baseline elemental defense.

[EDIT: Actually I may be wrong about Cold lacking baseline elemental defense. Mids and the game detail text say it's there, RedTomax says it isn't. I'm almost positive that on Controllers, at least, it's not actually there despite the game text, not sure about Defenders.]

I am not saying FF is perfect or that Cold or Traps suck, but that comparing them side by side is sort of pointless. There is good reason that Castle hesitated to buff FF. I do think it needs a nudge, but anything more than a slight increase could very well send the set into overdrive.

Meanwhile for anyone who wishes to leverage FF on a Defender in a traditional support role, I recommend FF/Sonic. For single target, an individual /Sonic Defender has more stackable -Resistance than any of the primary sets brings on its own. I have no doubt people will continue to reject FF based simply on primary powerset, but no one said player decisions had to make sense. You will still have to be content with not being the perfect min/max pick for very late game activities.

Now there's a quality I look for in a support character.

So any pet the caster summons gets the buff? And you can slot both +Defense IOs for a total +10% buff? If so, any lvl 50 /FF troller can more or less soft cap his or her pet(s) as long as they stay within the big bubble, even without Power Boost or alphas.

+17.67% (Basic Shield)
+12.06% (D Bubble)
+04.18% (Manuevers)
+10.00% (IOs)
=43.00% Defense

Very close to capped. And capped by the defense alpha.

There isn't anything specific to Force Field that makes this work. Blizzard is just a good power. Several of the other blast sets also have things to recommend. (I wouldn't bother to say that but I have an adverse reaction to attempts to prematurely end a thread, joking or not.)