Vel_Overload

Dark Miasma for sure.
Traps is also very fun.

What exactly in Invuln would need a nerf? Nothing really. Expecially since it's designed to have a critical weakness to Psionic.

Just nerf Shield Charge. :P

While they are both close after factoring in Scourge and multipliers, I'd say Corruptors are better suited for soloing AVs due to being able to Summon a pet from their PPP. I know the pet isn't a huge source of damage but it does add up.

yes, once you get the option of changing the colors, make both colors on the color palettes the darkest grey. That'll really tone it down.

I'm not going to break down Doc's post because his points aren't exactly solid, and others have essentially already done it. Instead I'll pick out certain points. Thermal's Resistance isn't 5%. It's right up there with Sonic so don't make silly arguement that Thermal's resistance capabilities aren't good if not great. Infact, it's roughly 2/3rd of what Sonic's is. Which is still good. Also, it has those other, more useful abilities behind it.

A lot of people (even the pros) tend to forget that the knockback bubbles do NOT scatter targets. Knockback is applied towards the enemy with you as the point of reference. They are knocked away from you. so Force bubble will knock all enemies that enter it away from YOU in a linear path. This means that force bubble -is- better mitigation than liquefy as long as the Force bubble is continously pushing the enemies agaisnt a wall.

The more I think about it, the more I want a Force Bubble on the team than the entire Sonic Resonance set. In an open field, Sonic Resonance may have an arguement. But Force bubble is better in an enclosed space. Which is 95% of the time.

Fortitude can hold 6 slots. This doubles it's recharge and doubles its defense.

Sonic requires, at the bare minimum 3 in each of it's ressitance powers or else your not getting the maximum amount of mitigation.

Fortitude = +5 extra slots.
Sonic Barrier/Haven/Dispersion = +2 +2 +2 = 6 extra slots.

This ofcourse isn't including the fact that most people put an extra slot into Dispersion for endurance reduction. Also, thats 3 powers compared to 1. Please try not to leave out key information when making a counter arguement.

Also, people have to be in the Dispersion bubble. Doesn't always happen. Expecially with those crazy scrappers. But this is a very specific example and should be taken with a grain of salt.

and lastly, yes -Recharge is good mitigation. You don't notice it because your still being hit, just more slowly. Naturally we don't compare a non-slowed enemy's DPS compared to a slowed one. But we do compare damage taken when under the effects of resistance and defense. This is almost insulting.. expecially from someone as experienced as yourself, you should know that -Recharge, while not the best defense, is still good secondary defense.

True: Knockbacks are the same as Holds. Enemies cannot attack while being knockedback. Enemies cannot attack while being held. a Knockback is essentially just a traveling hold that lasts for roughly 2-4 seconds.

You keep bringing in skill when it comes to Knockback. If we wanted to bring in skill, we could say that noob Sonics don't always apply their -res powers or use Liquefy properly or slot their powers to the fullest. Skill is a terrible example when making a point, it makes things messy.

I see a lot of people bringing up an interesting arguement for Liquefy.

It's a good power.. when compared to most tier 9 powers available for support sets. It's the only one of it's kind. We don't include Earthquake because it's not only in a different Set but in a different catagory all together. Liquefy may sound nice. But it doesn't make up for the fact that Sonic Resonance's main goal (Which is providing a Res buff) is completely subpar when compared directly to Thermal, and is also Supbar when compared indirectly to Force Field and Cold. It sadly doesn't provide as much damage mitigation as any of these sets. This is of course assuming they are all on the same multiplier.

Before anyone says 'oh, but liquefy provides a large burst of mitigation in a pinch'. Yeah well Force Bubble provides a large burst of mitigation indefinantly (or atleast until the bubbler loses endurance).

So, lets compare these 'burst mitigation' powers from each of the mitigation sets (including Empathy)

Sonic:
1.Liquefy. We've discussed it. It's a weaker, longer recharge Earthquake with a -tohit property.
2. Sonic Cage. These powers are a joke. Nobody in their right mind uses them. I'm sure there are some (1) godlike wielders of these powers but most teams move too fast within a mission to wait around for 30 seconds.

Cold:
1. Snow Storm: Cold already provides +Defense but combined with -Recharge helps prevent Cascading Failure. Great power.
2. Benumb: A single target -DMG power. Not too shabby. Argueably the best single target Debuff in the game.
3. Frostwork: Single Target HP Boost. Thus increasing amount of HP Regenerated and amount healed. Great for Alpha-weak tanks.

Force Field
1. Personal Force Field: A Self inflicted status of God-mode. Selfish power, but is still better than sonic cage..
2. Repulsion Bomb: AoE Knockback. I typically wouldn't put this here because nobody takes it (sadly). Knocking back 3-4 enemies is the same as holding those enemies for a short duration. Thats 1-2 hits from each diverted.
3. Force Bubble: Perma Liquefy essentially, except without the -tohit or -defense. Only 0.69 endurance cost. Amazing.

Thermal
1. All the heal powers: Healing + Resistance is immediately better than just +Resistance. There is no arguement here honestly.
2. Heat Exhaustion: Debuff that reduces the affected Target(s) with a -50% DMG debuff. This power alone laughs at Liquefy.

Empathy:
Regen Aura: A MASSIVE Regen boost. This is shear mitigation. People should seriously only use this in the middle of combat instead of wasting it at the beginning of the mission. Recovery? Sure go ahead but this power is a 'burst' power.
Fortitude: +15% defense to all. Thats 30% mitigation against minions. Mathematically, thats MORE MITIGATION than an unbuffed sonic haven+shield. Those two only provide 20% mitigation. And not agianst psionic. Note: Thats only against minions.

I could probably argue that Storm summoning has better mitigation than Sonic due to Snow Storm's -Recharge, Hurricane's Knockback and -37.5% Tohit, Thunder Clap (not nearly as good but still) and Steamy Mist.

Sonic Resonance needs a buff. Plain and Simple.

I mean, FORTITUDE provides MORE MITIGATION than Sonic's Two shields on a single target.

It's all subjective. There is no right answer here because every Archetype works differently.

Personally, I take out minions and LT's first. Why? Because an enemy at 1% life does just as much damage as an enemy at 100% life. While your slowly (or more slowly than killing minions/LTs) taking down the boss, those minions and LTs get more hits on you than you'd expect. These stack up over time and eventually and quite quickly become problematic. So why not kill the easy ones first. Just so they don't get the chance to attack at all?

This is expecially true due to Cascading Failure. Once an enemy hits you with a -def power. Those minions and Lts will start hitting you more often, thus dealing more damage, thus reducing your defense even further. Thats very scary.

(Ignoring the Cottage Rule because it's existance is nothing but a burdon)

I say we replace -all- phase powers from all sets. They are chosen 0.5% of the time. They are properly used less than that. They can be replaced by pretty much anything. And they take up space that could potentially help a powerset be productive.

Now, I don't care what fills these slots but the Phase powers are essentially a wasted slot. After all these years of people saying they are 'barely even marginally useful', I think it's time to finally replace them with new powers that help powersets with them be more productive.

To be truthful (And I know how much this forum hates the truth), Defenders bring very little to the table now-a-days.

Lets look at this from a few different view points:

lvl50 team. No IO sets. Basic SO/IO team.
Controllers and Defenders are fairly equal. Controllers are a tad bit better, but not by much. Defenders provide slightly stronger buffs/debuffs are are slightly more dedicated.

lvl50 team. moderate to fully IO sets. Dedicated players of their Archetype, the best IO sets money can buy.
Controllers completely and utterly outclass Defenders. My first Hero was a Kinetic/Energy Defender and have never played a Controller past 20. So this isn't favortism. This is straight up truth. Now let us think about this..

IO Sets fill in gaps in team weaknesses that Defenders originally did. What are the top three bonuses to slot for when slotting IO Sets? Defense, Recharge and HP/Regen.

1. With Defense softcapped, Force Fielders have very little use on the team. As well as Sonic and possibly Empathy if the Team is killing fast enough. Which they will be since they are completely IO'd out.

2. Recharge replaces offensive Defenders. Kinetics, Radiation, Dark Miasma to name a few. Kinetics may be able to fulcrum shift and Speed Boost. But their effectiveness is deminished by the +Recharge allowing people to use their more powerful attacks more often. Thus reaching the damage cap isn't even necessary a large portion of the time, heck, it might not even require a Fulcrum Shift if your allies have things like Rage, Sunless Mire, Build Up+Aim etc. -Resistance sets such as Radiation and Dark Miasma aren't affected as bad due to -res not having a natural cap. But it becomes overkill.

3. +HP/Regen. This ruins Empaths and any set that attempts to give their team longevity during a long fight.

This game has never required a 'healer' but it does suggest bringing a 'support' class of some kind. IOs essentially fill in that role. But everyone isn't IO'd out with 6 purples and softcapped defenses. But a large portion of this game's players use IO sets to some degree. They may not have perfect Defenses but they sure are on their way. Even for those of us that don't use IO Sets, we still ask the OP's question: Why use a Defender at all when the Controller does what the Defender does and then some?

Now-a-days the only thing you need on a typical team is a Fire/Kin controller (or 3) and your ready to roll. What do you need a poor little Trick Arrow Defender for? Don't sugar coat it with 'oh, he provides -res'. He isn't providing anything. I don't mean to offend Trick Arrowists but people let's face the facts: you don't need that -res. Infact, you won't see a single increase in speed. So why not replace that Trick Arrowist with something that will? Like a Blaster.

Luckily, this isn't another Worldy MMO that has essentially turned their craft into a science. Where people of specific classes and creeds are never invited to teams based off of the powers they pick. But when I want to make a new character, when new people make a new character, when veteran players make a new character, what is their incentive to playing a Defender over a Controller? Nothing except a Nuke that could probably cook a hotpocket better than a Rikti. And as a Kin/ Defender, I have to team with a billion or so Fire/Kin controllers. How would you feel if you saw someone else playing a Different Archetype doing your job just as well as you and then providing something else to the team on top of it? You feel like a fool for picking the 'wrong' archetype. And that's not fair.

Dark.

Dark has all the essentials you need.

Shadowfall and Darkest Night provide all of the defensive support you'll need. Fluffy is just more support. You get a very powerful AoE heal in the form of Twilight's Grasp -and- you get Tar Patch. Tar Patch recharges faster than Melt Armor and provides more -resistance.

Second you have more control powers. Fearsome Stare is amazing. and the Hold isn't too shabby (although most people skip it).

Thermal will get you far but a ??/Dark Mastermind will usually take you a little bit further.

As a Brute, your main job will most likely be getting punched in the face more so than your friends.

Let your friends handle the buffing while you handle the 'fist-to-face' aspect. You very well may take Leadership. But your probably more useful to your team taking Weave and Tough from the Fighting pool.

Pretty much anything. Therm/Pain like vernichterhelge said. Dark is great too for simply Tar Patch stacking with the -res from Hellfire pets, same with Poison.

Pretty much whatever you want. I like Storm personally. Freezing Rain is wonderful and naturally Hurricane's -tohit makes your pets very durable.

No, it's defense is positional only. Not typed. It's working as intended. Sorry dude.

Taking both powers is unnecessary.

See guys? It's easy disagreeing with someone and being polite about it.
This isn't a 'different' MMO's forum that always acts extremely negatively towards people.

Sonic is the most obvious choice, but anything will do really.

Infact, you want to go alittle further:

Kin/Sonic/Dark

.....

I demand a Crossbow!

Right but does every 'tick' of damage the Carrions make have a chance of proccing?

These are classified as Giant Monsters but their mental classification is Somewat-tougher-than-AVs. I ment by size.. not classification..

Theres a word for people like you.. just don't remember it.

This is an excellent idea. I would take it a step further and allow people to use any attack animation thats greater than or equal to the the animation time of the existing power.

If it takes 2.66 seconds to use an ability, you can replace the animation of that ability with any other animation thats 2.66 seconds long or higher.

Naturally some wouldn't be allowed. Like using a Ranged Animation in place of a melee move.

Now, I love the Zombie attacks, Rikti assaults and whatever that other event is.. But theres a problem! There is no actual GIANT monster. Nothing massive actually attacks the city thats so freakishly huge that it requires more than 8-12 people to kill it/banish it back to the Shadow Shard (HINT HINT WINK WINK).

While I'm not going to suggest a super specific giant monster with a super specific strategy to beating it or how to spawn it. I will implore the Devs to atleast look into creating a massive monster that attacks a part of the world. Not Shadow Shard (Because sadly.. nobody goes there..). Perhaps an area with a large amount of space?

I know how hard it would be to create such a massive, mobile monster without destroying everyone's FPS. But who said it had to be 1 entity? Why not a monster that you have to attack specific parts for to kill it? Such as Left leg, Right leg, Arms and Head?

I dunno, I'm simply speaking my mind.. something I take medication not to do. But considering we're in a Super Hero game.. why aren't there Giant Monsters like the Leviathan attacking Independence Port... or The Giant Robot from ITF attacking Striga Island? Perhaps a Super Jade Spider attacking Atlas Park?

No big deal if nobody likes the idea, but I honestly like the ingame events. They are something special thats been copied by other games that I will not mention here.

I like the idea of a Debuffing/Melee Archetype. Dominators almost have that niche filled, but it would be nifty. I don't like the Hero idea though. There are plenty of ATs and even powersets that gets pets (Or Psuedo Pets)..

Electric Blast (Voltiac Sentinel)
Dark Miasma (Dark Servant)
All Villain epic pools have a pet.
Storm Summong (Tornado, Thunderstorm)
All Control Sets bar Mind Control
Warshades (Dark Extraction)
Masterminds
And the list goes on to include Traps and Devices.

So ba humbug to you pet-lovers. I eat puppies.

Back in the day* I listened to a Disturbed song (10,000 fists) just as I hit lvl50 on Velocity Overload. My first hero and 50.

So, naturally, everytime I hear Disturbed I think of my first Hero.