QDoggie

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Ok, this set is currently undergoing a revision.

The fact was that it was too "Controllery" for a Defender power. There were also a lot of redundant debuffs that made the set VERY powerful.

Here are a list of changes that are currently being made. They are not in a patch yet, so I don't know when they will make it to the Training Room server:

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Net Arrow: Removed Recharge debuff from Net arrow (Set already has many recharge debuffs)[/list]
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Making this power weaker than Web Grenade from blaster&gt;devices is not a wise move. If this power is going to be just an immob, at least give it -jump and -fly too, since even web grenade has those on it and I don't think anyone ever felt it was overpowered.

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Ice Arrow: Ice Arrow is now available later (swapped availability of Ice arrow and flash arrow). Increased recharge and decreased duration of Ice Arrow. Reduced Slow debuff. (To bring it in line with similar hold powers like Petrifying Gaze). Reduced base Accuracy of Ice Arrow. It was 120% of normal and should not have been.[/list]
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This is actually understandable. At level 1 having a hold as a defender (and level 2 controller with 2 holds) was a tad bit much...100% agree with this change.

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Poison Gas Arrow: Increased Recharge of Poison Gas Arrow to 60 seconds from 24 seconds to prevent multiple stacking. Removed Recharge debuff from Poison Gas Arrow. Reduced its duration/lifetime. Reduced its chance to sleep. Fixed Poison Gas Arrow visual f/x.[/list]
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Personally the Durration was fine before, the recharge was fine before. The better solution instead of increasing recharge and decreasing durration is to code it for only one use by each user. On test right now the arrows show up like pets (green named Poison Gas Arrow, with the defender/controller's name below)...why not just make the first one go away when you use PGA a second time?

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Acid Arrow: Reduced Damage Resistance debuff of Acid Arrow. (Set has 2 damage resistance debuffs that could stack)[/list]
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Currently it is 20% resistance debuff (from my testing)...so how is that too strong, even when combined with disruption arrow? If it needs to be lowered I can understand dropping it to 15-18%, but really any lower and it starts to become much less useful than comparable powers form other sets.

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Disruption Arrow: Reduced Damage Resistance debuff of Disruption Arrow. (Set has 2 damage resistance debuffs that could stack). Increased Recharge rate of Disruption Arrow to 120 for Defender and Controller to prevent multiple stacking[/list]
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Same as suggestion for PGA...don't increase the recharge time, just make it so only one disruption arrow can be out at a time.

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Glue Arrow: Reduced Duration of Glue Arrow from 45 seconds to 30 second and Increased Recharge time from 20 seconds to 120 seconds to prevent multiple stacking. Fixed Glue Arrow visual f/x.[/list]
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Ack! Lets see, we now go from not needing hasten to be able to slow the bad guys consistantly...to needing hasten. Hasten + 6 +3 level recharges gets Glue to 30 second recharge...but leaves no room for other slotting. True you don't need to have it up every 30 seconds, but a better solution would be to make it have a 45 second recharge, with 30 second durration...and then make it not stackable (just like pet summons). Then if I want it back often I can put recharges or take hasten. But if I want to enhance it's slow I can slot slows. Not to point at other sets, but defender&gt;dark miasma&gt;tar patch is a similar power with far better affects and recharge time than glue will be with these changes.

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Flash Arrow: Added the ability to add Accuracy Enhancements to Flash Arrow. Fixed Controller version so it no longer AutoHits.[/list]
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Flash Arrow should be auto hit for defenders and need acc for controllers. In comparison look at controller&gt;fire control&gt;smoke (auto-hit, -acc, -perception, primary power) and blaster&gt;devices&gt;smoke grenade (needs acc, -acc, -perception, secondary power)....why can't we use the same exact setup for defender/controllers using TA? Just makes sense that the Defender would auto-hit, since this is a staple way of keeping damage down in a team. Where as a controller's secondary should never do as well as defender's primary...thus the need for acc on controllers. Also, is the -acc sticking after the target gets attacked? I know the -perception goes away, but it does feel like the -acc is not sticking.



Overall I am happy with the set, and I do think it needs some changes to make it a bit more balanced. But saying that it is too "controllery for a defender power" is way off. Dark Miasma is more "controllery" to me than TA is, yet nothing has ever happened to make it less "controllery". Dark Blast (a secondary) is very "controllery"...what with its AoE Disorient and Cone Immob...yet again, nothing is ever done to make it less that way.

Please don't make TA just a patched together, weaker version of other sets. Please.

[/ QUOTE ]Agreed. You saved me a lot of typing.

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Over in the Tanker section of the forums someone noted that inspirations also play a part in the desirability of Defenders.

If you can pop 3 or 4 Luck inspirations and be relatively safe from being hit, do you need a Defender to buff your Accuracy?

The idea of restricting how many inspirations can be used (of a type or total) is being bounced around.

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That is an interesting idea...

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BUT....I'm extremely concerned about the perception that Defenders "aren't needed" and thus "can't find a team" at high levels.

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So a team will always chose to take someone onto the team who brings the most to the team. To me that looks like a controller and if you really want the firepower you want a blaster.

Defender primaries just are'nt good enough in many cases in the high end world with heroes with epics to warrent them being needed/wanted.

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This, sadly, must be rectified someway. I truly hope that some epiphany from above bestows the devs with the answer to this dilemma without causing undue angst among other ATs.

There are some extremely good suggestions in this thread and in others. My fingers are crossed...

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"Level 43 Storm Defender LFT"

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"chirp, chirp, chirp"

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"I guess only the crickets are out tonight. Time to go see what's on Leno." &lt;click&gt;

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"He He He" comes from the tanks, scrappers, and controllers hiding in the bushes. "He's gone, lets go lay the smack-down."

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Next night, in Perigrine Island...

"Level 43 Storm Defender LFT"

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Level 8 Inv Tank sends tell "Will you PL me? Please?"

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Replies "Sorry, I don't do that. Plus, don't you know that a defender can't PL anybody? We don't really do much damage."

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"Maybe there's a good movie on HBO?" &lt;click&gt;

"Level 43 Storm Defender LFT"

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"chirp, chirp, chirp"

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"I guess only the crickets are out tonight. Time to go see what's on Leno." &lt;click&gt;

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"He He He" comes from the tanks, scrappers, and controllers hiding in the bushes. "He's gone, lets go lay the smack-down."

What is still broken with defenders in general?

For all of them, the lack of mez resistance and the low-base HP. When I die, it's ALWAYS because of a mez or chain of mezzes.

Many times, I die and it begins the chain of the rest of my team getting wiped out. Defenders should NOT be the weak point in the team. It is happening WAY too often at higher levels(36+). We need some survivability.

Some primaries still have problems as well:

Storm: drop the dmg/fear stuff from freezing rain and the set is pretty good.

FF: Currently the one that needs the most help. One of the last three powers should be modified to help boost team damage.

Dark: Finally good. No changes(even though Black Hole seems useless)

Rad: A couple lesser powers still, but very strong as is.

Kinetics: Need to consider speed boost and or increase density as AOE powers. This would reduce all the buff spamming required and would help your build.

Empathy: Not sure, never played it. Seems pretty good as is.


I also agree with some posters that you should modify the controller secondary to make it less buff/debuff centric and make it do some damage instead. This would create that differentiation we need.

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After all, Defenders are all about buffs (and debuffs). Every Archetype should be extremely happy when the Defender provides a resistance or defense buff...


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Jack, let me hit a nail on the head:

So long as ANY archetype can hit a resist or defense cap (or equivalent) on their
own, merely by their own power choices and slotting, you will never achieve this
goal.


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Congratulations, you did hit a nail on the head.

I don't know about your solutions, but you nail the problem brilliantly.

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Maybe defenders are your key to exceding the caps?

If having a defender on the team adds 20% to def, res, and dmg caps for the whole team and the defender has powers that can help get you to that new cap. That would seem to be very helpful at high levels where builds are capping-out.

In conjunction, I think that all Def primaries should be able to boost damage in some way, be it a buff or -res debuff.

These changes would allow defenders to be loved for making the game go faster, even at high levels.

That video is just awesome. Great job.

I think all COH players should see that.

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Producers - Where would we be without producers? Nowhere. I mean that. You have to have someone to coordinate all of these separate parts and make everything come together and out the door. Someone has to talk with the publisher. In the non-entertainment field these are called project managers or product managers. There are levels to this. If you can't stand stress, do not choose this path. Most producers have less hair than anyone I know from pulling it out all the time.


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I have over 7 years project/product management experience in the tech industry and I have been trying hard to move over to the game industry. No bites in 5 months, sigh...at least I still have my hair.

Thanks for the write-up Cuppa. I agree with the previous poster that you should consider submitting this to Gamasutra, they could use a straight-forward pitch like this on their site.

-Q

Any hope for Tornado to get changed to something useful? Storm needs a little help.

Thanks.

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My other option at 35 is Scramble Thoughts. I would want this to disorient bosses, however the post above notes that it doesn't work on bosses. The question is: If I used thunderclap in near the boss to stun the minions, then applied scramble thoughts to the boss, won't that disorient the boss for the overlap time?

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I haven't personally tried this combo, but it certainly seems like it should work. Typically hold/disorient/mez effects stack, so a disorient from Thunderclap and another from Scramble Thoughts should stop a boss. Of course, that's assuming you don't miss with one or the other....

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I've tried it, and it does work. It's one of the only reasons why I have Psychic Wail and Scramble Thoughts in my current build. I can use Scramble Thoughts on a boss, then run up to it (and the rest of the group of mobs my team is engaging) and release a Wail. The boss is then stunned, just like the lieutenants and minions.

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Thanks for the info. I was thinking that it would work.

Far as I know, T-clap is a Mag1. Sounds like scramble is a mag 2. I know it takes a total mag3 to stun a boss, so the stacked affect should be Mag 3= boss is stunned. Of course, accuracy comes into play here, but two acc SO's in each and a stun duration SO or two, and you have a nice mezz that can snare minions in an AEO and a boss too. Then, Wail on top of that should do big damage and leave em stunned for a good while if they are not yet defeated...

Great to see a Psy guide. Thanks for the post Soulhealer.

At level 32, here is what I have and my experience with psy:

Mental blast: at this point I use it only a few times per level. I am close to removing it completely. I just cant afford to be locked into the 3 second animation when I have to defend my team.

Psy Lance: 6-slotted. I co-pull with blasters(assisting) and with one interrupt redux SO, I can use this behind will domination and get the blast off. It's a nice snipe with awesome range(runners beware).

Psi Scream: This is my favorite. In every fight, this is the first blast I use once I apply Freezing rain. It has got to have some inherent accuracy bonus, because I can hit cons 8 levels above me with this(debuffed by rain), while all the other blasts miss. The size of the cone is sweet, and the moment hesitation that it causes on what it hits helps me keep the mobs in the rain longer. Being a stormy, AE damage is king.

TK Blast: My second favorite. I wish I had gotten this one before will domination. Both are good, but the quick fire and faster recharge on this one win-out over the higher damage of WD.

Will Domination: Nice too. The sleep is just long enough for me to get off lance against a tough con.

That's it thus far. I have tried Tornado on the test server. It's OK, and I will likely get it at 35 or 41. I do wish it would cast faster and last a bit longer. From my standpoint, it is another tool to keep the MOB in place to max my debuff and AEO.

My other option at 35 is Scramble Thoughts. I would want this to disorient bosses, however the post above notes that it doesn't work on bosses. The question is: If I used thunderclap in near the boss to stun the minions, then applied scramble thoughts to the boss, won't that disorient the boss for the overlap time?

As for Wail, I see it as a sweet thing for storm builds: Approach a tight mob with mist up, cast your lightning storm, freezing rain, psy scream the mob, and, if they are still in range, Wail away. Your lightning cloud will fire at any MOB still standing. If you are teamed, have your teammates instructed to work on the mob at the edges of your scream. Another option is to start with T-clap(stun duration and acc enhancers) and roll through the same cycle. If you have psy tornado, use that behind T-clap?.

I must say that Psy has some great powers. I have defenders with energy and rad blasts, and I would take psy over these for my storm defender anyday. Now, if I can just respec out mental blast...