Thremaine

I wouldn't pick /shield as a secondary for first time scrapper like Nemeros is suggesting, unless you are ready to invest heavily on IO sets and also pick aid self. I've currently level 35 broadsword/shields scrapper and it's pretty rough going with just standard IOs and no heals (no medicine pool since tricorders don't fit to concept).

Of the combinations you listed I'd probably pick fire/regen or elec/regen. Regen is good early on as long as you don't plan on jumping into huge groups of enemies. Fire is more versatile than Elec (imo) but I just like the elec effects - and lightning rod is awesome.

Hmh, and it also seems I can't claim items (salvage) mailed to myself after the patch. Well, actually it seems there is some sort of mail delay now as I could claim them after waiting for a bit (between edits).

Oh and hitting back while respeccing causes the game to freeze.

Aw, I lost one enhancement to offline emails when I sent the mail before I realised whole mail thingy was down. The funny thing is that I don't even remember anymore if it was impervious skin: +mez resist or impervium armor: +psionic resist so I can't probably even ask support to help with this.

Teaches me to pay more attention. Still, annoying.

Luckily I didn't try to mail the +kb prot enhancement that the guy also has.

Someone ask about CoH2 - not that they would give any answer.

I'd appreciate if someone pasted the Q&A here after it's complete because I am among those who have no plans to get a Facebook account. Thanks in advance!

If heroes wore sensible clothes they would either go fully armored if that's their only defense or then go naked. After all, a hero may be invulnerable but their clothes are not and considering how often heroes get doused in fire, acid etc. it would soon get expensive. Actually most tech based heroes are probably filthy rich to be able to replace all damaged power armors.

To OP... boys go bare too! Most of my guys walk around half naked or in "fetish straps". I even have a satyr character who wears trench coat but no pants.

PART 2

Missions in CoX are currently rather bland and the primary reason why I have hard time to muster will to stay. Even task forces rarely require you to do anything else but focus on slaying everything on sight. My greatest hope is for interactive missions which adjust themselves to character's strengths and weaknesses, and subgoal driven missions where you can complete the mission without doing any of the subgoals but doing so would be very difficult, and would reduce from the overall reward.

Zone events are also of great interest for me but should include more than just killing some critter that spawned there. In fact I think most open world missions should be centered on zones similar to current PvP zones where you can earn additional zone wide benefits by doing tasks within the zone. I'd love to see missions with goals that work towards triggering some zone event.

Story arcs and other ”personal” missions should be instanced. I mean one of the things in CO I hate are missions where you are sent to fetch a clicky, then a few moments later it pops back for another hero to pick it up. At least in CoX I can pretend it was just me doing the mission.

Lame enemies are also something that kill CO for me. I mean I don't mind humor in my games and I think Foxbat is a funny character and fits well to the game. However when I'm facing a group of literal clowns (maniacs in CO), men in bad hairdo and purple suits (purple gang) and these actually pose a challenge... something is wrong there. This is yet again one of the primary reasons I don't play CO – every time I try I immediatelly lose my will to fight stupid battles.

Mob smashing is also where CoX beats CO. Bashing huge amount of mobs is fun. This alone makes you feel like a superpowered being (even if it's not quite enough to feel like a superhero). This is also something I'd like to see in CoX2.


If I had to name four things that keep me playing a superhero mmo they would be:

• Good looking graphics (none of that CO cartoon crap, please! Albeit STO has nice graphics)
• Fast paced battles where you don't have to stand idle because all your powers are recharging
• Subgoal driven mission system applied to both personalized story arcs and zone missions
• Tiered power system where all powers have use through all levels

Of them the most important part are missions. They make or break the game for me.

I've actually put a lot of thought to this after being dissapointed with the Champions Online and after now returning to CoX and remembering again what I liked and what I dislike. Power section is modified from a post I wrote in a CO beta and the fire manipulation I give as an example is just that - it's lacking powers but the idea is there.

ARCHETYPES AND POWERS

Artchetypes should grant a bonus to types of powers instead of actually limiting which powers you can pick. For example tankers should get a boost to any self defense powers, blasters should get a boost to any ranged damage power, scrappers to melee damage, defenders to buff an debuff powers, controllers to control powers and so on. Expand this slightly to include specialities so for example stalkers get a bonus to striking from stealth like they currently do.

Tiered powersets. Instead of having primary and secondary powersets all thematic powers should be rolled into one set and tiered. First tiers should mostly include new powers where as later tiers should enhance existing powers but should also contain some new powers! So there are powers you can pick only if you have reached certain level (i.e. 20) but once you have met that restriction you can pick any powers within the tier. Powersets should still exist though.

Power Pool should take place of your current secondary powerset. You should be able to build your own pool by picking powers from the other sets. Since openers and finishers are not powerset specific this should work just fine (see power chains below).

Power chains is a system that concists of openers and finishers. If all greater powers were controlled merely by endurance, we would have a CO like situation where people just spam same powers. I suggest powers called "openers" that both build endurance and unlock more powerful attacks called finishers. There could be even bridge powers.

Combo powers as openers would be ideal. This is actually one of the good things about: You can tap certain powers which alternates between animations and then usually finishes with slightly more powerful strike. This reduces the unnecessary power bloat where we have basically identical powers, only the other one is slightly more powerful.

Freedom of movement for powers you use often. Basically this is openers and perhaps finishers. Heavy hitters could again easily root you.

Freedom from timers for powers you are using often. Basically this is openers and finishers. There certainly should be powers with timers: these are the nukes, build up powers, rezzes and other powers that don't depend on openers.

Endurance as booster rather than as a limiting factor. I feel endurance should only apply to finishers and heavy hitters, and in a manner that it only adds on top of base effectiveness. Use timers and chains as limiting factor.

Diminishing returns for powers so you can have higher base values.

Power Customisation for not only colors but also for emitter points.


SAMPLE POWERSET

Below is a sample powerset. It's in no way meant to be complete but serves to illustrate my point by using CoX powers... of which some I altered.

Basically the idea is that lower tiers have more active powers where as higher tiers have more powers that buff lower tier powers, and highest tier has nukes and other long timer situational powers (all which are rather badly presented in the sample I admit).

Each powerset should also have something it does well - a trait. For fire it's DoT as part of offensive powers, and you can get "smoke" upgrade to debuff perception and accuracy. Fire is also best at providing protection against cold and fire. If you wish to have a tank you are most likely going to mix fire shield with invulnerability to get also physical protection.

Fire Manipulation
Fire Trait: all non DoT fire powers have a chance to inflict DoT effect

Tier 1 powers (levels 1-20)

• Fire Bolts (ranged damage, opener, +end, combo3): three tap combo power where after first two taps you can either use a finisher or tap third time which has X% chance for a small targetted AoE blast. Basic ranged attack.
• Fire Sword (melee damage, opener, +end, combo3): three tap combo power where after first two taps you can either use a finisher or tap third time which has X% chance for critical hit. Basic melee attack.
• Heatstroke (ranged debuff, opener, +end, combo3): three tap combo that drains target's endurance, inhibits regeneration and recovery, and reduces damage. Third tap has chance to disorient foe. Basic ranged debuff power.
• Ring of Fire (ranged control, opener, +end): surround target with fiery cage that immobilizes it and deals fire damage over time. Basic ranged control power.
• Cauterize (ranged heal, opener, +end): heal target including yourself and grant resistance to cold damage. Basic heal.
• Fire Ball (ranged AoE, finisher, -end, minor charge): guaranteed AoE fire damage. Damage scales by endurance and consumes all built endurance.
• Fire Sword Circle (PBAoE damage, finisher, -end, instant): guaranteed PBAoE fire damage and DoT.
• Fire Cages (ranged AoE control, finisher, -end, instant): encases multiple targets within fiery cages immobilizing them. The more targets affected, the more endurance it consumes.
• Warmth (ranged AoE heal, finisher, -end, instant): all allies around target are cauterized with the amount of healing scaling with the amount of endurance. Consumes all endurance.
• Breath of Fire (cone AoE damage, -end, maintained, recharge): inflict fire damage within cone area of effect. Damage scales with consumed endurance (really, this should have both hands and heads as emitter points).
• Fire Shield (toggle): +good resistance vs fire, moderate vs cold, and minor resistance vs smashing and lethal. Inflicts minor fire damage to enemies within small PBAoE. Fire toggle should specialize in resistance vs fire... you should be able to get other protections from other powersets. I.e. Combine this with invulnerability if you want a true tank.
• Temperature Protection (passive): Improves your cold and fire resistance as well as resistance to slows

Tier 2 powers (levels 21-40)

• Incinerate (melee damage, finisher, -end): contagious melee DoT and fear
• Blazing Bolt (ranged damage, finisher, -end): high damaging ranged fire attack
• Char (ranged control, finisher, -end): hold target instead of merely immobilizing it
• Rain of Fire (maintained ranged AoE, -end, recharge): maintained ranged area of effect power which damage improves the longer you maintain it.
• Combustion (maintained PBAoE, -end, recharge): maintained PBAoE power which damage improves the longer you maintain it.
• Fiery Embrace (build up, recharge): increases damage of all fire powers
• Power of the Phoenix (ranged rez with damage, -end, recharge): revives target ally and blasts nearby foes with fire damage. Damage and healing scales with endurance. Consumes all endurance.
• Rise of the Phoenix (self rez with damage, -end, recharge): revive yourself and blast nearby foes with fire damage. Damage and healing scales with endurance. Consumes all endurance.
• Smoke (passive): all fire powers have chance to add accuracy and perception debuff
• Blazing Aura (passive): improves damage and radius of fire shield's damaging aura.
• Thaw (passive): cauterize also provides mez resistance (not protection)

Tier 3 (levels 41-60)

• Flashfire (Ranged AoE control, -end, recharge): targetted area of effect disorient
• Inferno (PBAoE damage, -end, recharge): massive fire damage that inhibits your endurance recovery
• Consume (PBAoE damage, +end, recharge): damages enemies and restores your endurance
• Greater Fire Sword (passive): replaces your regular fire sword with a more damaging one

[ QUOTE ]

# 60.55% Resistance(Confused) to Target for 0.75 seconds [Non-resistable]
Effect does not stack from same caster
# -5.19 Confused to Target for 0.75 seconds [Non-resistable]
Effect does not stack from same caster
# 60.55% Resistance(Terrorized) to Target for 0.75 seconds [Non-resistable]
Effect does not stack from same caster

That's almost mag seven from a defender, this is the corrupter version of tactics.

Defenders do about 75% resistance. And it stacks, too

[/ QUOTE ]

Apparently tactics seems to be pretty effective countermeasures already.

[ QUOTE ]
Spectral Terror does, afaik, cause -15% tohit to anything within 20 feet.

[/ QUOTE ]

I stand corrected there.

[ QUOTE ]
The description of World of Confusion SEEMS to imply that it can self stack to overcome Boss level mez protection. Conceivably Scare could do so as well, but more importantly Scare MAY have a -ToHit portion that would be useful in one application. Big emphasis on SEEMS and MAY.

[/ QUOTE ]

World of Confusion is somewhat curious to me. I believe it is damage aura toggle but it could be ranged toggle like darkest night. Regardless, I'd say it's more chocking cloud (percentage based) than arctic air. The description seems to say that also the damage portion is percentage based?

I don't see scare having -to hit. The only fear powers that have -to hit are in dark miasma and the -to hit is debuff associated with dark. Terrify, spectral terror or the pool fears don't have this.

[ QUOTE ]
I can't argue with that until the numbers are dropped so, I see your point.

[/ QUOTE ]

Admittedly numbers may affect my perception a bit as well but I dare to make a few guesses based on how blasters work right now and how we know existing powers work.

I believe there is only one power in all blaster secondaries that can get a boss by one shot - not including kbs. This power is total focus. Everything else is mag 2 (minions) or mag 3 (lts). Basically this means that to get a boss you must stack the power, and unfortunatelly you can not stack confuse, and fear is stackable only if you pick pool power.

Fear alone is a soft control that is wasted on minions and lts who die too fast for it to be effective and basically doesn't prevent them from getting their one attack in anyways. Personally I'd rather pick mag 2 aoe fear (i.e. cone) than mag 3 single target fear. I'm also expecting this to have 'stun' level recharge (20s) instead of a few second recharge - I hope I'm wrong here.

[ QUOTE ]
a fairly easy 'fix' to the imbalancing factor of fears and confuses - put a little protection in some pool power buffs.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm wondering how effective the existing confuse and fear resistance in tactics are? Maybe these should be increased instead of turning them to protection?



[ QUOTE ]
Since these are non travel power pools, and PvP'ers like to take two travel powers, there would be a sizable tradeoff for taking both.

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, I'm wondering if some of the problems with PvP could be solved by limiting people to one travel power at time (I probably get lynched by saying this ).

[ QUOTE ]
That was never in dispute. Effectiveness aside MM is based on the concept of mental control, so I am not really sure why you are disqualifying it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I suppose there are two different ways to look at it: MM is thematically controllerish based on the powers it has when you actually ignore how effective those powers will be in controlling enemies.

From efficiency point of view it is less control heavy than elec, energy or ice by having less powers that can stack/efficiently control enemy. If I wanted to create a blaster that specializes in controlling I wouldn't pick mind due its lack of efficient control.

[ QUOTE ]
Considering it has controller elements I would certainly consider MM controllerish. Is it overwhelming? More than likely not no, but I would not call it weak by any means. I am waiting for beta before leaning towards either side of the fence completely however.

[/ QUOTE ]

Erm, but by that standard most manipulations are controllerish.

Energy has stuns and kb
Electricity has sleep, hold, disorient, immobilize and kb
Ice has sleep, hold, immoblize and aoe knockdown
Devices, while not manipulation, has immobilize, disorient and kb

A lot of those have elements that are very effective and easily stackable by primaries or within the secondary itself (hold, stun).

[ QUOTE ]
Many people will use the OMG, you have not seen the numbers excuse which is in itself erroneous because Blasters are an attack heavy AT. Psi will be increased in order to perform at the level of its brethren sets if only adequately so. Mind Manipulation is control heavy with some serious holds and a regen. It may not be Dominator impressive, but clearly, it is far from sub par. But Castle said, Castle also said the numbers were not final.

[/ QUOTE ]

Personally I am expecting psi to perform as well as other blaster primaries in PvE or then there's something seriously amiss. After all, blasters recently got a boost because they were one of the lowest performing sets in PvE.

As to mind manipulation. I believe its control value is somewhat questionable. It has 1 immobilize, 1 kb, 1 confusion, 1 fear and 1 stun of which most likely all of them will be lt level.

The strengths that some other manipulations have come from stackability which is something that */psi lacks. Compare the stacking of holds that other sets can do either through primary alone (ice) or combination of primary and secondary ( */elec, */ice) and those lock the mob down completelly.

Fear? You may have to dip into presence pool to actually make it stackable immediatelly. Also in PvE this is rather weak as it allows enemies to attack back.

Confusion? Nothing in any of the blaster primaries or pool powers allow you to stack confusion.

Immobilize? This probably stacks on its own like for the other sets.

Disorient? Perhaps if you use stunning shot, beanbag or screech before launching psychic shockwave - that or use it before dreadful wail.

I don't think mind can be said to be very controllerish. Not when ice, elec and energy all have powers that are either more effective on their own, or more effective when stacked.

Oh and whoever said about blaster power animation normalization and snap shot. Seems I forgot that small lil' detail so yeah, snap shot and aimed shot recharges were increased and so was their damage.

This also made me wonder if subdue and subdual actually *are* different powers after all. Subdue already follows the 1.67 activation and 6s recharge where as, I believe, mental blast does not and tk blast activates faster.

[ QUOTE ]
My thoughts (PvE only, too.)

Subdual != Subdue (from Primary) probably? So Psi Blasters have two ranged immobilizes? Both doing moderate damage? Nice, I guess. But! Subdual should probably do [u]minimal[u] damage (and not moderate, this makes blasters with two moderate [and ranged] attacks to use when mezzed) as most Blaster immobilizes, I guess. But²! If Subdual is supposed to be Subdue from Primary, what did replace the power in the Primary? Guess we'll need a Primary set power list soon.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, like some people have already pointed out, this most likely *is* subdue. It makes sense it to be subdue and places psi dart as tier 1 for psi blast set.

FYI in general: the immobilizes in manipulations generally do the same damage as tier 1 blast. The difference is that ring of fire, chillblain and electric fence do it over time (dot) where as subdue does not. They are one of those exceptions that do pure damage without lethal component I mentioned in my previous post.

DISCLAIMER: ALL BELOW IS SPECULATION

I presume psi blast will look something like this but not necessarily in this order:

psi dart, mental blast, psionic lance, aim, telekinetic blast, will domination, psionic tornado, scramble thoughts, psychic wail.

I believe psi dart will be around 38 dam blaster side and mental blast 55 as is the case with archery. Basically this means psi blast has two tier 1s - again comparable to archery.

Tk blast is in fact the "standard blast" of the set such as ice blast, fire blast, lightning bolt and power blast. It has exactly same recharge and exactly same damage on defender side as those powers - and also has smashing component.

Will domination gets left behind by other higher damage blasts like power burst, shout and bib. Especially since its recharge is longer than that of those powers.

I.e. sample chains:

ice bolt (55) + ice blast (90) + bib (125)
power bolt (55) + power blast (90) + power burst (115)
flares (50) + fire blast (80) + blaze (170)
snap shot (38) + aimed shot (55) + blazing arrow (145)
psi dart (38) + mental blast (55) + tk blast (90) + will domination (100)

These numbers give psi blast second highest single target damage if we don't take stuff like recharges into consideration. I also happily ignored snipes - ice gets none, fire has highest and for the rest it's all same.

Curiously this also leaves it the weakest set in aoe damage when relying on the primary alone as without psychic scream, you have only psionic tornado to rely on - a power that has longer recharge than fireball, ball lightning, explosive blast, explosive arrow and most likely - if defender numbers is of any indication - lower damage than those.

So if this data is of any indication: good for single target, *very* bad for aoe. However, we will see once it goes to testing.

I did some quick comparisons between dominators and blasters where applicable. These are based on mid's hero planner numbers so as far as I know, they might be terribly off. Furthermore, this is all just fun speculation for me so take it with a grain of salt.

If subdual is similar to other single target manipulation immobilizes we can expect its damage to be 55. Only fire has higher. This might also be replacement for standard lower melee attack that has damage value of 110 (i.e. charged brawl, energy punch).

Mind Probe damage for Dominators is listed as 70. So is Bone Smasher. Blaster Bone Smasher is 145 so we can presume Mind Probe has same value.

Tk Thrust on domi side does 35 damage. I expect it to compare Power Thrust damage for Blasters which is 45.

Psychic Scream damage for Defenders is slightly above damage of Energy Torrent. I wonder if this will use melee modifier? It should be around 50-60 then. I did comparison to Defenders instead of Domis because they lacked comparable power in other sets.

<snip>

For comparison:
Fire: ring of fire (60), fire sword (125), combustion (70), fire sword circle (100), burn (165)

Elec: efence (55), charged brawl (110), havoc punch (145), tstrike (165), shocking grasp (100)

Energy: pthrust (45), energy punch (110), bone smasher (145), total focus (200)

Ice: chillblain (55), frozen fists (90), ice sword (110), freezing touch (65)

Psi: subdual (55/110?), mind probe (145?), tk thrust (45?), psychic scream (50?), psychic shockwave (???)

Edit: removed the psychic shockwave speculation part. Castle confirmed it doesn't work as the dominator version so I'd rather not throw around damage numbers that I know are not correct. :P

Some consideration probably needs to be placed on DoT nature of some of the attacks - is Subdual a dot too? Err wait, is it Subdual or Subdue? Same power or different?

We can also expect psi assault to be pure psi other than for tk thrust which is not true with the other sets that generally have lethal component - except in their immobilizes and few other exceptions.

Looks a bit different than what I expected personally, but a few were easy guesses.

Subdual – single target immobilizes are pretty common in all manipulations so the only surprise here is that the first power wasn't telekinetic thrust. I wonder if this is actually supposed to be treated as single target attack like charged brawl, frozen fists etc and not comparison to single target immobilizes? Is this ranged or melee?

Mind Probe - This one was expected as all manipulation sets have at least one single target melee attack (devices is not manipulation).

Telekinetic Thrust – I honestly expected this to be the first power in the set. This is basically power thrust so no biggie.

Psychic Scream - Now this is strange. I thought it would be in the psychic blast?

Drain Psyche – Woot! This one rawks. I hoped this would pwoer over since most other manipulation sets have similar - only theirs restore only endurance! *happy dance*

World of Confusion – Hmm, is this PBAoE aura like Chilling Embrace or actual ranged toggle? I was actually expecting single target confuse here.

Scare – I expected fear to show up. Only I hoped it would be short range cone fear. This one is probably skippable for PVEs as I doubt it will get bosses with one shot.

Psychic Shockwave – This one is curious. I don't see the recharge part being a biggie in PVE and I believe the stun mag is only 2 so it won't get even LTs. I personally believe the damage will be comparable to FSW but I wonder if the aoe radius will stay in 25 ft or if they drop it to FSW radius. Furthermore, I wonder if the recharge stays the same.

I get a somewhat mixed feel of the set. It doesn't seem to have enough melee to make good blapper. Also its control value is somewhat questionable - ice has slows and holds, energy has stuns etc - a single target fear does not a hold make.

I find it slightly ironical that specifically debuff components are removed or altered in most powers. Isn't that what defenders are supposed to do, debuff enemies? For me Trick Arrow set looks more like a controller set. I figure the only reason why it wasn't made to be a controller set is due the fact that they can't have "blast" power and the set is obviously meant to go along with Archery.

This is again one set I'm not touching even with a long stick. The main reason are recycle changes. I personally want to add other things to my powers than recycle enhancements. Basically this powerset reeks of Hasten and I hate it. Why not write somewhere within the set description "You are adviced to pick Hasten if you don't want to dedicate all your slots to your primary powers" and "Warning! Not for low level people!". If you think I'm wrong in this conclusion, then lets examine powers that the set has:

So, what powers we have in the set now:

Entangling Arrow: A fast recycling immobilize that, frankly, is not very useful. I mean, it only immobilizes one foe and if you wait a few levels, you get Ice Arrow at level 6. Lower level enemies really don't hit that hard for me not to wait for more useful power. You might want to pick up this anyways if you are actually planning to try the set without Hasten.

Flash Arrow: -ACC and Perception debuff. Says slow recycle so I assume it is same as Glue Arrow's was, that is, 20 seconds. This is still usable for non-hastened character.

Glue Arrow: Good news to everyone! Because with Hasten and six +3 SO recharge reducers you can have this up the moment it drops. If you have trouble sparing slots, then drop two for 7s downtime and if you want to go without Hasten, six slot it for 6s downtime!

Ice Arrow: Ironically this suffered a Petrifying Gaze hit. I hear that with two recharges, two hold durations and hasten is is still useable power. No idea what the recycle changed to, but it can't be much past 30s... I hope.

Poison Gas Arrow: I'm sure you are all happy to know that with Hasten and one +3 SO you can reach ~29s recycle or optionally you could use three +3 recycle SOs to reach same goal.

Acid Arrow: Again debuff reduced... are you also planning to reduce debuffs from sonic? It already has slow recharge, though I'm not sure exactly how slow. Lets hope for 20s because soon the set has no fast recasting power.

Disruption Arrow: Sonic still has two -res powers in the set. Definite six slotted to reach 6s downtime or perhaps pick Hasten and only four slot it for that 7s downtime.

Oil Slick Arrow: No idea how long recycle this has, so maybe it is a set saver and recycles in, say, 20 seconds. However, if it is anything like Ice Slick after change, then it recycles in 90 seconds.

EMP Arrow: If this is anything like EMP pulse, it's recharge is 300 seconds. This means that if it is six slotted with +3 SO rechargers, then the downtime is 91s or 75s with Hasten.

Quickly thinking a nonhastened slotting:
Flash Arrow: 1 or 2 recharge (1/2 slots)
Glue Arrow: 6 recharges (6 slots, it is autohit, isn't it?)
Ice Arrow: 1 acc, 2 hold, 2 rchr (5 slots)
Poison Gas Arrow: 3 recharges (3 slots, again autohit?)
Acid Arrow: (?)
Disruption Arrow: 6 recharge (6 slots)
Oil Slick Arrow: (?)
EMP Arrow: 6 recharge or if no acc boost, 2 acc, 4 recharge (6 slots)

A few observations:

I'm sorry to say but the changes represented here make it a controller secondary set, since controllers are already supposed to pick Hasten. It's the first defender set that is wholly dependant on Hasten. All other sets have toggles and fast recharging powers to offset the long recycles, but this set has exactly two relatively fast recharge powers: Entangling Arrow and Flash Arrow.

I'm curious to know what exactly is a Trick Arrow defender supposed to do his first 20 levels when he has neither SO enhancements, nor reliable Hasten? Spam entangling arrow and flash, I suppose? This set has the longest low level recharge powers that I've seen in any defender set and it really doesn't get any better on higher levels. It looks semi- good material for offender builds, though, except the set doesn't have self heal and zero defense powers.

For all 60s powers the best you can do with six slotted DOs is 28s. For all 120s powers the best you can do with six slotted DOs is 56s recycle. A level 15 char has exactly 14 slots to spare both for his primary and secondary powers; two six slotted and one five slotted power. Lets assume he three slots his long recycle powers and those 60s powers now recharge in 38 seconds and 120s powers in 76 seconds.

I suppose you could build a defender that picks only a few key powers and six slots them because for me, it seems that Trick Arrow is a slotting nightmare, especially for low level players. It gets worse if you have to slot for something else besides recharge - I wonder how many of those powers are exactly autohit powers and many of them seem also quite endurance heavy based on my tests. This is probably a set that number crunchers like, because they can start optimizing it - like or hate, I'm a number cruncher and I hate it.

- Thremaine

My post is mostly from defender perspective since I didn't try sonic blaster.

I'd say the base damage for the set's attacks is a bit too high. It seems to be the most endurance efficient even for its base damage and then the -res buff hits in.

The -res component needs to be different for defenders and blaster if it isn't already. Currently for my defender it seems to increase damage by 21% which is a bit high since it stacks with other resistance lowering powers and with itself. It is unenhanceable though.

Personally I'd give 10% debuff for defenders and 5% for blasters. Additionally I'd lower the base damage by 20% for defenders and perhaps small adjustment to blasters as well. I'd also remove stacking from same power so that for example Scream doesn't stack with itself, but still stacks with Shriek. Currently it is way too easy for defenders to enhance the damage by stacking -res component from both attacks and primaries. Even if this drops the debuff lower than similar blasts from other sets, one must remember that -res component is the most powerful debuff in the game since it helps you to defeat enemies faster. We all know damage is the king in this game.

As to endurance costs. My suggestion is that rather than upping end costs for this powerset, decrease end costs for other powersets to get into line with this. It makes living pre-stamina much more easier. Increasing endurance cost would only hurt lower level characters and become pointless to higher level characters who can 6 slot stamina.

- Thremaine