Seldom

One good fulcrum shift can get you near the damage cap. Two will, period. More debuffs can lower enemy resitance more, but in all but .1% of the game, that becomes superfluous if you reach the damage cap. Of course, this is just paired with kinetics. But in all but AV killing, a boosted blaster will level things so fast with just about any buff/debuff saturation that an extra rad/kin/cold/dark playing their tricks couldn't be missed. Heck, I can tell you from experience that they might 'complain' that their debuff setups are wasted when you kill everything in seconds.

This is true. I was on a team with 2 kinetics players, controller and defender. I was playing my archery blaster. Forget rain of arrows, with two fulcrum shifts fistful+explosive arrow just about killed the next couple spawns.

Actually, if you have a tanker/brute, some support and/or control on the team, I'm trying to think of a situation where in a pure number perspective a blaster isn't better than a scrapper. :-/

Dominators: To borrow from comic book mythos, these are not the 'superman' characters, who simply shrug off any damage. They are more the 'batman' types: If you could land a hit, they'd go down and fast. But you won't because they can out-think you, using their tricks and abilities to incapacitate and gain the advantage. They also can lay you out pretty darned fast.

Blasters: These tend to verge toward the vigilant/rogues for a reason for me. They seem to be the no-holds barred, 'scorched earth' characters. Enemies are the problem, and the solution is taking all of them out without questions.

Brutes: The unstable fighters. These characters usually have some sort of mental instability that drives them to fight on, harder and harder.

Controllers: These are the manipulators. They don't just jump in, they find/make opportunities to gain an advantage, then strike down their enemies when it's to their advantage, usually waiting until the enemy is helpless through control, debuffs, or overwhelmingly strengthened allies.

Corruptors: These characters tend to verge toward being either sadists that enjoy finishing off those that are wounded, or the callous that have no qualms finishing off a target that has become increasingly vulnerable.

Defenders: These tend to be the thoughtful characters, more interested in finding/making advantages than in outright combat. They aren't afraid to blow stuff up, but their priority making certain the fight is to their own/ the team's advantage first before they start taking down foes.

Masterminds: These vary a lot. From the leaders, to the manipulators, to the oppressors. They go from those that persuade/inspire undying loyalty by their character and/or charisma, to those that hold unwilling servants that they can send to their demises without remorse. Do they command others because they value teamwork, or because they don't want to get harmed and could care less for their unlucky compatriots? It changes quite a bit, from character to character.

Scrappers: These are the warrior/brawler characters. They fight. Complexity is rarely there, they solve problems by killing things with sheer force, and are usually determined/brash enough to simply approach their foe and hit them in the face as hard as they can.

Stalkers: these tend to be the strategic fighters that dislike blatant 'jump in and pound' combat, and think a more measured/thoughtful approach is better, and are able to spot weaknesses to quickly eliminate a target.

Tankers: These flip between the selfless characters that will stand between a foe and a weaker target, prone to self-sacrifice, or the overwhelmingly stubborn character that simply won't give up and die, and thinks (perhaps rightfully so) that nothing is tough enough to take them out. In some of my characters' cases, it's a combination of the two.

VEATS: These usually verge toward the mercenary side. They are usually canny characters that use their abilities, awareness, and training to their advantage, overcoming their own vulnerability through shrewd decisions and finding weaknesses in their foes to exploit. They are more than willing to use allies to do this, imparting their canny tactics and observations to their team to get their way.

Sorry, the buffs are coming with issue 21. (which might be early fall or so.) "Perma" means permanent. In other words, the +defense effect is assumed to be something you will have at all times, on top of all the normal defense toggles.

Huh. This should be interesting.

A brute with:
all normal energy aura defense
Raised passive resists
Scaling +recharge, that makes foes 'stick"
A non-suppressing stealth so that the foes outside those 'sticking' don't notice.
An endurance drain/refil that boosts defense by the number of foes nearby
An endurance discount that also heals, gives +regen. This has a long timer, but the set has a scaling +recharge.
A godmode if you want it.


Put those all together, you have a very interesting set.

Insert shameless plug for sonic resonance (as well as forcefield) improvements here.

Heh. whatever the recharge, making powers "perma" will be easier on /energy due to the +recharge.

<--is looking forward to the changes. A new +defense? A bigger heal? A +regen? a +recharge? Higher resists? yes, please!

They are reversing the addition of the heal to energy drain, and changing conserve power to a heal just like they did on electric armor. This is understandable, because two heals would be overdoing it a bit. To make matters better, energy drain is almost like a click invincibility now, giving more defense per nearby foe. (Though we don't know the defense values yet.) As it's still labeled energy drain, and the original version was ONLY an endurance drain, the +end part stays.

Heh. I've had one waiting in the wings for a while now, name reserved and all. "Fidon't:" Evil Dog mastermind tired of being told to sit and stay, who has a crowd of thugs he's putting through obedience school and controls with his howls.

That change happened a couple issues back. They suppress when hidden, and have for a bit.

As to the proliferations: Yay!
As to EA changes: Yay!
As to poison getting buffed: yay, I hope!

<--Is happy.

I agree to some extent, that some estimates of the set are a bit harsh, and that the set certainly does have its strengths. I enjoy the idea that a poisoner has a very focused use of debuffs, rather than the more traditional "Turn them ALL to putty!" role. It means you have to be more strategic. That said, my suggestions for /poison base around they way it is NOT the clear winner against a single target. As has been brought up, the stackability of other sets' debuffs/mitigations and similar values on poison's single target powers do make it so that what a poisoner is does not stand out, especially in larger encounters, such as vs. an AV. This is exacerbated by the fact that additional layers of the timed debuffs does nothing, yet an AV resists all the effects by up to 87%.

This means, without noxious gas present here's what a poisoner can do to a level 50 AV:
-3.9% res
-4.68% def (max slotted for debuff)
-2.36% tohit (max slotted for debuff)
-8.45% rech
-16.9% speed (max slotted for debuff)
-22.5% damage
-65% regen, every 6 seconds. (SO max slotting, 30 second duration, leading to a -325%, best case on SO's)
Note: every single power that does the above can miss.

Here's kinetics:
-65% regen, every 4 seconds. (max SO slotting, 20 second duration, leading to a -325% regen, best case on SO's and not including +recharge from siphon speed.)
-20% dam, every 10 seconds. (max SO slotting, 30 second duration, leading to -60% damage, best case on SO-s and not including +recharge from siphon speed.)
-40% dam, every 30 seconds. (max SO slotting, 45 second duration, leading to -40 to -80% damage, best case on SO-s and not including +recharge from siphon speed.)
-20% rech
-100% speed (max slotted for debuff)

Here's dark miasma:
-65% regen, every 4 seconds. (max SO slotting, 20 second duration, leading to a -325% regen, best case on SO's)
-7.5% dam, every 4 seconds. (max SO slotting, 20 second duration, leading to -37.5% damage, best case on SO's)
-22.5% dam, toggle
-2.34% tohit, toggle (max slotted for debuff)
-3.9% res, every 45 seconds. (45 second duration, best case on SO's)
-65% regen, every 90 seconds. (max SO slotting, 30 second duration, best case on SO's)
-6.5% rech, every 90 seconds. (max SO slotting, 30 second duration, best case on SO's)
-13% speed, every 90 seconds. (max SO slotting, 30 second duration, best case on SO's)
Dark servant:
-65% regen, every 10 seconds. (20 second duration)
-10% damage, every 10 seconds. (20 second duration)
-2.34% tohit, toggle (max slotted for debuff)
-30% dam, toggle
-3.12% tohit, toggle (max slotted for debuff)

Poison is a jack of all trades debuff set that would compare favorably with others if it were AoE. It is single target. I prefer single target. But if it is comparable, even outdone in some ways, by other sets that are also AoE I'd say it might need a look.

NOTE: numbers taken from red tomax, assuming the level 50 87% resistance of av's, and taking into account that AV's do not resist -damage or siphon speed.

Fair enough. I guess I'm just looking too much at the "bigger picture" comparing the overall aesthetic approach. Which is admittedly hard to define, especially when not doing an 'inspired by' or 'homage' character. Thanks, I hope to see what folks whip up for the event!