Seldom

It pushes minions, but not any others. As it's a long recharge, 5 target repel, to be functional at all you need to target a minion. (a fleeing lt/boss will just cause chaos as a target- as they move, the direction minions are pushed changes.) As it is so changeable, and so much is going, it's really not worth it. Better to use mass hypnosis/dominate/mesmerize/total domination/levitate. Levitate is particular is fun. Yank runaway minions skyward while killing them in bits.

Too bad terrify has no effect, and confusion is useless.

Let's look at the means of balance. I do not see a "judgement vs. nuke" so much as a "balance vs. balance" thing.

Judgement powers:

Minuses:

• You must be level 50.
• You cannot enhance the effect, except through alpha's. (minus spiritual)
• For full potency you need to use alpha enhancements on the power
• For full potency you need to do a huge ammount of time and/or in-game resource investment.
• Cannot be buffed
• You must do incarnate trials, or burn a LOT of shards+Inf.
• High Endurance cost.
• Minute and a half recharge.
• Limited by target cap.

Plusses:

• High AoE damage
• High potency out of the box.
• Can be layered onto full abilities of any archetype
• Avoids AT modifiers, so low damage archetypes get high damage.
• Do not require a power pick
• Do not require Slots
• Can easily be swapped
• Do not crash
• Exceeds the target cap of any other powers.
• Huge damage at base rank
• At highest rank, these are the most damaging player powers in and of themselves bar none.

"Nuke" Powers:

Minuses:

• You must be 32, or 38 if you have a blast secondary.
• For full potency you need to use slots on the power
• For full potency you need to use enhancements on the power
• Uses a power slot
• Modified by archetype modifiers, so low damage archetypes get less mileage out of the box. (minus Blizzard)
• You must have a blast set.
• Only available to archetypes with lower hitpoints, so large burst AoE is a survival consideration.
• Uses all endurance
• Player cannot use any powers for 10 seconds out of the box
• Turns off all toggles
• Can only be used every six minutes, out of the box.
• Can only hit 16 targets** (-Blizzard, if you count blizzard ticks)

Plusses:

• Can be buffed
• High AoE damage
• Highest damage powers available within respective blast sets
• Can be acquired fairly early on, if you have a blast primary.

**Note: this was not part of Nuke's original balance. Nukes with their original crashes were implemented at a time when they could be six slotted for damage, and could hit unlimited targets.

The only reason I put in Judgement is because they are another example of Burst AoE in this game. They have different plusses and minuses, so of course their balance is different. However, the similarities are enough, I would argue, that one can look at them, then at the list of balancing factors of "Nuke" powers and ask the question: are all the minuses necessary to balance the power's plusses? I would argue that there are too many downsides present on nuke powers. Especially since they were balanced for a pre-ED and pre-target cap performance.

I very much agree. Nukes haven't had much attention, correct me if I'm wrong, since the target cap was implemented. A nuke that can level a ZONE's worth of foes in a dumpster? Worth a crash. A nuke that can take out one group of foes? Not seeing it. Heck, I wouldn't mind if they left the -recovery and just removed the -end.

C'mon devs, I have rain of Arrows and it isn't 'overpowered.' Let the other sets feel the fun of toasting foes and not having to hang back!

Also, while you're looking at tier 9 blasts- full auto. Narrow cone, max. 9 targets. C'mon, guys- some extra spread and the 16 target treatment would help assault rifle a LOT.

I've been on teams with judgement being thrown around, and you know what? We still would've done better in the damage department with a blaster. Judgement powers are very cool 'burst' abilities, but between the bursts things still need to be done, which is where powersets come in.

A team of 8 with a healing destiny power won't replace someone with a 6 second recharge heal. A team full of interface-flinging -regen won't match a -500% regen debuffing powerset. A team with a huge +defense power every 90 seconds can't cover the team as well as someone with constantly available everywhere, every time forcefields. A tank with a huge blast can't match the damage a blaster puts out.

In my experience, it just means that there's far less "wait, we need a 'X'!" And that's a welcome change. Yes, I know you never needed an empath, radiation emission character, stone tanker, etc- but now it makes the entry point for incarnates' teams to be far less formulaic. Characters enter the ring with all their normal strengths, and the team benefits from them. When The team comes into a situation the player usually couldn't cover, they now have an incarnate wildcard or two up their sleeve to play in the team's favor. I doubt most teams will disregard players on a wildcard basis.

The Doms I've been using:

Mind/Psi/Soul: Jack of all trades, master of control. Has literally every single hard and soft control available in the game, debuffs, single target and AoE damage, 3 damage types, invisibility, the whole package. The only weakness is lack of burst damage. Minions? Lock 'em. Lieutenants? Lock 'em. Bosses? Lock 'em. Elite bosses? Lock 'em. Archvillains? Lock 'em. Giant monsters? *calls buddy dominator* Lock 'em.**

**this with lotsandlotsa +recharge, of course.

Fire/fire/fire: Blaster that happens to have imps and a few controls. Very limited lockdown, but you don't need to lockdown much WHEN YOU CAN BURN THE VERY WORLD TO ITS CORE!! AHHAHAHAHHAAHA! >eherm< Excuse me. *Gets clocked on the head, dying yet again.* What did you just do? I will BE REBORN IN FLAMES! LET MY GRAVE BE YOUR PYRE! AHAHAHA!

Plant/earth. Throw in the seeds of confusion, plant my little vines, pull a mallet from the earth and crush skulls in my fresh little forest of death. /Earth gives some extra control to plant/ and the seeds help bunch up foes for /earth's focused AoE.

Fire/Ice- Still maturing. It took it for the dual slow auras- Ice is middle damage, less upfront, so you won't notice all of it you're doing until all lies dead about you. Oh, and hit power boost to watch them craaaawwwl away in panic.

Mind/energy- Hard controls layered with soft controls. Very satisfying up front damage, and many ways to play with enemies' heads. One of the the lockdown masters. Limited AoE, but darned good at smacking stuff down.

Elec/elec- soft controls with sapping, with so very many layers to put down. The controls are not sudden, and take a bit to reach full power, put once they're down, there is no escaping them.

Just to note, Judgement is awesome. But please, don't let the power go to your head.

I had someone on a low damage TF team last night assure us that we didn't need to worry about extra groups, all people should hit the boss at all times because their judgement power would kill all else that came near the boss. It really didn't, and the squishies kept getting hammered because the extras were not dealt with. Remember, kids! Judgement: awesome AoE, NOT an "I WIN!" button.

On an AV, assasin strikes are not as huge, but the bosses/Elite Bosses/Objects? Yes, please.

Heck, the stalkers still can have a whopper of a critical bonus for normal 'scrapping,' where there are so many team members.

Hm. I wonder, the +crit bonus for nearby allies is not improved by league mates, is it?

For all that stalkers get talked down, (particularly on the forums) when doing the new incarnate trials, I caught myself thinking- "Man, I wish we had a bunch of stalkers!" Yes, all archetypes can do their thing at one stage or another, but with the Lambda grenades/acid, the BAF commandos, and the big bosses on both, 3-4 assassin strikes on the side would be very welcome.

I'm not sure this is coincidence- even if it is, it seems a newish turn of events. "Incarnate trials forming, a couple more stalkers would be nice?"


Anywise. Just a random thought.

I and my team of 8 were assembled into the Lambda using the turnstile last night on Champion. I explained the strategy, we defeated the 60 praetorians necessary for the 1st stage- rather than rushing the boss inside, we started to clear the walled court. We all started on the first mob inside the walls, and...loading screen.

I checked the chat log, and every single member had 'quit.' As I had given the lowdown, but wasn't leader, all members asked me what happened- none had purposefully quit. And yet the game said we did. I tried to rejoin the last event, only for the game to say it was abandoned or completed.

Fire/ is fun, but the early levels are a doozy. Even later on, it plays a lot more like a blaster because you only have two 'shutdown' powers commonly available- your ST Hold, and your AoE stun. As such, your focus will more often be 'kill it nownownow!" as your lockdown is a bit more thin. The faster these powers recharge, and the longer they last, the more safe you will be. On the upside, you will have a lot of +regen from drain psyche to recover quickly when damage does get through.

Hm. Because of drain psyche, the other more close-focused sets are also good pairs. Elec/ drain close up, so the +regen recovers from pre-sapped foes- that and the HUGE -recovery means they stay sapped. A less common suggestion? Ice/. It's got low damage, but pairing the close confuse with +regen seems pretty safe. That and the ice/psy pairing will have incredible -recharge it throws around.

I'm not seeing psy scream. When Psy Shockwave was reduced in damage, psy scream was raised- as such, those two powers are the 1-2 AoE of the set. Taking it will help you fight larger groups more easily. *Edit* Just had to check to make sure, but it seems psy scream does even higher damage than even psychic shockwave. It has a lower target cap, but damage is damage. That and a nifty -50% recharge to all targets hit.

TK thrust is a good attack now, (equal to subdue/mental blast) so at least some accuracy/damage in it will help you, as long as you are taking it.

Since you've gone with the Mu pool, I'd also look at surge of power. A very good defensive power, especially since you might be able to combine its high +res with high +regen from drain psyche.

Not entirely sure why you need both superspeed and superjump, but that's your call.

P.S. since you are a mind/ dom I'd still look at the sleep/confuse purple sets, as they can be very affordable, compared to other purple sets. But that's hardly a necessity.

*remembers seeing what shadow maul was like when the range in 3 damage/range Hami's worked*

Ahhh, that was a funny oversight while it lasted.

...yeah, there's a reason why they can't become ranged.

*edit* but to the topic: I would like to see more AoE sets, and do wonder about the dearth of ST ranged sets, (many seem pretty meh) but the procs were balanced my single chance rolls, and I have a feeling the bonuses were too. The simplification in straight enhancement would be nice, but the procs/bonuses work against this. So, it has balance issues, and would cause a lot of build shakeups. I'm not seeing much impetus for any merge.

I'd very much hoped for this when I saw that they had alignment-specific dialogue options. Since all contacts are shared, the contacts could simply list content/respond based on faction.

It would be tricky to have some teams start ouro arcs, as a hero on the team could not get to the red missions. (and same for red to blue) This is currently already possible: see how some hero/villain missions do not allow opposite factions to join. This seems simple enough, but co-op zones often paint rogues 'red' and vigilants 'blue.' I'd hope they get the TF/SF treatment for these arcs, but it's all complicated when there's no 'true' grey alignment. Rather, the game switches faction based on zones, and allows all factions for co-ops. You get what I mean, it has to include those that are red/blue 'lite,' while excluding the pureblooded ones.

Then there's the zone lists to come and go. A shared zone would need all points of access, for reds to go redside, blues to go blueside. It would have to 'lock out' travel options to 'pure' alignment characters. But that doesn't seem huge, as other co-op zones can handle this. Hmmm...the easy solution would be two ouro points of access, perhaps split. Rather than the center entry, have one on the right, one on the left of the stepped platform. If you want to make it obvious, make the center starlight thing glow blue/red for the different sides, with the gold strands and symbol.
I mean in this:
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/File:Ouroportals.jpg
Eh. Or keep the single, and just grey out those you cannot access.

It is a bit complex, but much of this has been done in other parts of the game. It would need redoing the contacts with some new code/dialogue, but would end up being a great QoL feature for their customers that bought Going Rogue and prefer the greyside.

Welcome! Champion is HIGHLY concentrated in Global channels. I believe the largest are BMT, Champion United, there's also Champion Redside and several others. Those running the channels would know better. BMT is invitation only, so you'll need to talk with a channel leader on those.

If you select your tabs above the chat window, you can click 'add' the add global chat channels to them, and right click your chat window to chat to the various global chat channels.

Currently, many players are running 50's, so there are fewer lowbies to be found.

Praetoria has a lot more options, but is far more difficult, so many who wish to breeze through early level content they've done many time prefer a the far simpler Paragon city.

As far as groups go, there are none in Praetoria, but I hope you can find one once you finish up there.

To be honest, the "team soloing" happens with more than melee characters- any really strong character from any archetype can handle a large spawn. Melee just have easier access (at times) due to the armor, but dominators, controllers, and masterminds can do it on SO's pretty easily as well, with little to no danger.

When your character CAN do this, it's a temptation to show off- but let's look at this from both the pragmatic and player perspectives. Pragmatically, if you can kill a mob and boss or two in 5-6 attacks, your team can attack while you do, so you are spared that last one or two hits. Also, you are limited to one power activation at a time, possibly with a toggle or two running. A full team can activate eight-numbers wise, there is no way even the best solo can outdo 8 players working concurrently.

Player wise, you can prove you are 'better' (stronger defensively/offensively) than your team members, but this can easily become a jerk move. Those members are other people, playing characters they like. If you have to have the spotlight, prove how much you don't need your allies, they don't get time to shine. Relying on a team is never a sign of weakness, it's a way to let everyone feel needed. This way, when the team achieves something they share in the sense of accomplishment, instead of feeling like they simply tagged along. Even if the win is 60% all you, you uber player you, that 40% makes the other players a lot happier than if you make it all about you.

Agreed on many points.

One thing I'd add-know your limits. If you are playing Mr. toughguy to your friend's squishiness, it's easy to think of oneself as being stronger. But every armor set has a weakness, so when you see something that can kill you, think of what your team can do to cover it for you. You pretending there's no problem, then faceplanting can slow the team down, all the more silly if your team could've had your back. If a certain foe does psychic damage to my invulnerability tanker, I ask the control/damage department of my team to take them first. If my brute has endurance problems, I give the dominator time to hold/confuse/etc. the sapper before jumping in.

An aside: not sure where you heard the AV taunt not being autohit. Source? From all documentation etc, all classes of PvE are autohit with taunt, it just sometimes affects them differently. I have had AV's get skittish and start target hopping even after being taunted, (Reichsman) but that seems an AI thing as it worked until he was low health. Also, you might being seeing something stealing aggro by having a higher threat level from some action.