Power_Bunny

So one thing I have noticed is how little some of the status duration sets get used. Presumably this is because most people choose to enhance Damage over say, Sleep duration when given the choice in order to get set bonus powers. I propose adding new recipes to each invention set to allow a more varied usage such as adding a recipe increasing damage. Think Trap of the Hunter. It's one of the few "status effect" sets that also has at least one recipe in the set in the style of "Dam/(insert status effect here)". I believe doing this would encourage using more set types across the board, possibly evening out the demand we currently see in the market for straight damage sets versus effect sets. I would also say this would finally give us the option of adding range increase recipes for the "Ranged Damage" sets.
Of course, we know that right now each set has exactly the number of recipes to obtain the set bonuses. I can't be the only one who looks at some of the sets and thinks I would love that bonus, but a particular recipe availabe produces an enhancement that does nothing for me. Adding new recipes to the existing sets would also help alleviate pointless enhancements in a power just to get a set bonus or reach a desired set bonus level. I would suggest leaving the set at its current bonus schedule so if the set currently only provides 4 bonuses, it would still ony provide 4, but you would have more recipes in that set to choose from eliminating superfluous enhancements giving a bonus to something that power doesn't even have to enhance.

I, for one, love the new accessibilty of the Invention temp powers these days. It has totally changed how I do my alternate builds, and I highly recommend looking into it for anyone who is looking to make normally attack powerless Defenders, Corruptors, and Masterminds. Anyway, on to the actual suggestion:
Currently there are two types of "attack" powers offered by Inventions, temp and proc. Temporary obviously only have a set duration or charges and procs only have a chance to go off every so often. What about actual permanent powers? Just like a proc, one would be sacrificing an enhancement slot to gain access to a power that could say be on an extremely long recharge timer.
My basis for this suggestion is the Crey Pistol accolade power. It is a single target minor damage immobilization power that recharges every 20 or so minutes and in my experience misses 30-40% of the time and otherwise seems to be pointless. On the rare occassion it has been useful, well...it was useful. Why not have a few unique enhancements that are like that? A new power icon shows up once slotted, and it recharges like self-destruction from the tech booster once used. In my mind, this would actually be in keeping with the whole invention concept really. Maybe some of the invention powers could be super effective but in an extremely narrow target base like the vet reward Ghost slaying axe? I also think this could help RP-wise for certain concepts. Maybe explain why a Corruptor like Scirroco has access to a powerful melee weapon when his typical powerset would never offer that?

This is possibly my craziest suggestion yet: Invention enhancements that don't benefit you, but instead benefit your teammates/pets. Imagine recipes that produce small PBAoE auras similar to leadership, but obviously much reduced and could be odd things like, reducing end cost for teammates, or add minor cold dam to others attacks or other crazy things like that.

Okay, the big one! I propose a new type of invention enhancement. This one actually takes away from your stats in order to increase something higher than usual. Say you want a blaster who is a little more survivable in certain encounters. You would have the option of slotting her ranged damage with enhancements that increase her defense and/or damage resistance while decreasing the range and/or damage of her attacks. Or perhaps a tanker whose melee attacks increase in range slightly but decreases her defense or damage resistance as a result. Interesting, eh? And controversial no doubt, lol!