The problem is people keep saying that It depends on the player, (how skilled). But what is the HERO just got that power and it totally sucked for them. I even tested it in test server and i found it very harmful to my tactics.
It does not appeal alot. It scatters everywhere. and Aggroes them to you. and based on it, it s not effective or as much active.
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... I have to strongly disagree with how Spectral Terror is being treated the stepchild of the fear powers. While I do see that it has the potential to be very powerful, I believe this can be balance with end cost and recharge rate rather than random fleeing of villians. This random fleeing is what got the fear powers changed in the first place. Let's not take 1 step forward and then 2 steps back approach to this power.
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That's not a bad idea at all. The problem with Spectral Terror isn't that it does Fear. The problem is that with its base duration, you can keep 2-3 out without even slotting it... and if you slot it up a bit including an Endurance Reduction or two, the endurance cost is minimal.
That's why they changed it to a "flee" behavior. Because having a power that was like an 8-tick stacking Fear, and that was inherently permanent without even considering the Fear durations, was way overpowered.
Change the effect back to cower, and make its duration 4 minutes. People want to use it all the time? Great, force them to slot it for recharge. Then it WOULD be a great power (ranged area lockdown as well as debuff), and on the other hand it wouldn't be the overpowered 1-power, 0-slots, perma-lockdown that it was right after I3.
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Change the effect back to cower, and make its duration 4 minutes. People want to use it all the time? Great, force them to slot it for recharge. Then it WOULD be a great power (ranged area lockdown as well as debuff), and on the other hand it wouldn't be the overpowered 1-power, 0-slots, perma-lockdown that it was right after I3.
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I totally, totally agree with you: Make it work like they did right after it was released in I3, but make the power less available. Here are a few suggestions, including the one prior:
* Increase its recharge time. I'd say 2 minutes so that it's on a similar cycle as Flash
* Reduce its accuracy. Give it a -10 or -20 penalty so that it requires some slotting to be effective
* Reduce the number of fear ticks.. maybe 4 or 5
There's a lot that can be done to balance the power without making it frustrating to use.
Lady Deacon, 50 ill/ff
Cinder Imp, 50 fa/wm
and many more!
Scatter? Scatter? why would I want the mobs to scatter, I have a time finding groups that are big enough to be worth the time... Sure I guess small groups or 3-5 are okay, but they disappear in seconds...I prefer large groups 8+ or more...now they are worth it, so I dont want them to scatter, so I only use ST rarely, like when I have 3-4 sets of mobs that I want to get to.
Grams
Yeah I second the call for Consistency.
SpectralTerror has such a wide AoE range, that it's just like Freezing Rain which has also become useless in many circumstances because of the scatter it causes.
Consistancy has always been this Studio's weak point IMO. ...Not just on Zones and mission bugs, but also on the functionality and basic efficiency of way too many Primaries or Secondaries within Each AT/Class itself. I would really LOVE to see Geko focus on that consistancy over some of the other things they've been focussed on. Because the last step I remember him taking in that direction to actually give a power more UTILITY, was the EXP change to Confuse and Decieve. ...Wasn't what we really were expecting and waiting on either, but atleast it helped make those two sets a little more Team-Friendly.
For Starters, one Basic simple Easy to follow rule... ANY Power that causes Fleeing, Nomatter what else it does, should HAVE to do Moderate/High AoE, or Superior/Extreme AoE-DoT. Any power that causes fleeing, and does not do those things, is only putting off the inevitable and dragging the fight out longer, In ADDITION TO breaking aggro and redirecting it to the last place we want it. And if they don't want to give a power that kind of damage, then they shouldn't make it cause Fleeing ... it's just fair trade off, nothing else.
[There's a lot that can be done to balance the power without making it frustrating to use.]
That's the best way to put it. The power needed to be balanced, but they did it in a way that makes it frustrating to use. There are other ways to balance it so that it's not an uber power... consider EMP Pulse, for example. Great hold, but 4 minute timer and -Recovery for a while. That's not unbalanced. Powers can be rebalanced without giving them frustrating effects like scatter.
I agree and disagree with many opinions stated.
I just need to test it now. Let's get the new version out on test before throwing out any more speculation.
At least that's my plan. 
Basicly anykind scatter effect in power makes it "useless" in teams. Players don't wanna enemies to run away, because it makes they life harder. If I would start using Spectral Terror in teams a lot, I would be kicked out of team. So is power good if other players would kick You out?
As long Spectral Terror cause enemy to run away, _most_ Illusioinist will avoid using it. Sure it may look funny, but that does not make it usefull. If it's not usefull, players don't take it or don't use it so much.
Since I'm in a mood to complain...
Just turned 38 and before choosing a new power, I copied Sandy over to Test to try out ST. I would really like to have another aoe control ability, but sadly ST is not it. Went to Brickstown and tried the power on many different mobs of differing levels. In every case, ALL mobs scattered (orange con and down). I mean every member of every mob I tried it on scattered and ran...FAR. Even an orange boss (freak tank) ran after attacking me, once the mag was overcome.
This power is just not viable the way it is currently, at least to me. I have never ever wanted mobs to scatter. It's very disappointing, after the experience I've have with my Mind controller and my DDD's fear.
Perhaps I'm missing something, maybe my tactics are lacking or I don't understand how Geko wants us to use this power. As it is now though, ST is less than useless to me. It has no place soloing, infiltrating, in teams (instant kick material!), or anyplace I can come up with.
Please fix this (and Superior Invisibility...my other current annoyance). Thanks in advance Geko!
-Sandolphan
"When heroes fail, the Angels will save you."
MASTERMIND NUMERIC KEYPAD PET CONTROLS
HAMIDON NUKE RAID GUIDE
Oh man superiour invisibility for sure. The only benefit(I know only snipers can see you or something) it has over group is you can turn it off which I can do just fine without.
But what does it need? Make it so you can use powers with lessened aggro? Damage protection?(moreso)
Sorry not wanting to hijack the thread but it's been almost dead for about a week now.
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That's not a bad idea at all. The problem with Spectral Terror isn't that it does Fear. The problem is that with its base duration, you can keep 2-3 out without even slotting it...
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Might I point out, that Fearsome Stare costs 1/2 the endurance, recharges in 1/3 the time, affects a larger area, has a very significant debuff, and lasts 30 seconds. Thats right, it lasts twice as long as recharge... before hasten.
But hey, lets accept a weaker ST, because we're controllers and we're trained to be complacent wimps. The devs could serve you guys a poop sundae and you'd gobble it up, and urge everyone to keep quiet about the sprinkles...
Just a note to Geko,
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The affected foes should only run far enough as to get out of range of the ST Terrify attack, so ST will switch to another target.
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This is not true as of 3/1/05. I had X-5th columns and Freaks (on another mission) Running all around. Way way out of range for the ST to be effective.
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Once the affected foes run out of range, they will tremble in Fear (even those not affected by the cloak of fear).
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Also it was spaming constantly on to the 5 mobs, Keeping all but 1 running at all times (the one left was held).
I did repec into Spectral Terror based on Geko's report in this thread. It just doesnt seem to be the same power that he is talking about. Just thought Geko would like to know.
But it did keep me from dieing 
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It just doesnt seem to be the same power that he is talking about. Just thought Geko would like to know.
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This change is not on Live - this change is not on Test. I'd guess that it'll go on with the Issue 4 stuff since it's about that time anyway.
Phantom Rose: Ill / Kin / Psi
Soleau: Ice / Icy / Ice / Core: Ice / Fire / Pyre / Wind / Eclipse / Flare / Corona
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Solo Space
We really have to wait for the change to happen in I4. Why? PvP! If PA won't get some sort of decent change then we can just fall back on Spectral Terror. I'm thinking using it as "Static Defenses", placing a couple around me so if a Scrapper/Tanker tries to come near me they will run away. Can't imagine a super-speeded feared hero. =) Or teleport! Hehehe... sorry just trying to be positive. =/
Geko,
Would it be possible to get an update on Spectral Terror. Not to be a thorn, but I think it is reasonable to believe that the controller community is against the scattering of enemies. In fact, I believe that 'scattering' is kind of opposite of the purpose of the Controller AT.
To me the spectral terror argument is similar to the regen armor change you tried to push through in I3, i.e. mutually-exclusive powers. I believe the scrapper community (mostly regens) was very opposed to the change. Seeing it as extremely weaking the set. I think the same argument holds for spectral terror in Illusion. As a level 8 power, I believe it does not provide controller as intended by the Controller AT. Further, the power is inconsistent with other fear powers. Though the power is in the form of a pet, I believe that can be balanced through recharge, end cost, etc to still function as new version of 'fear'. I also believe that tweaking recharge, end cost, etc would be a much faster coding fix than trying to clutter the power with other things like taunt, cloak of fear, etc.
Added a second slot last night to ST. 2 slots both for fear. Horrible results.
1st use: On a mission (mission slider set to unyielding) 5 groups of 10 - 15 yellow and orange Nemesis mobs standing around. Cast PA to gather aggro, cast the ST on the edge of first group (away from 2nd so as not to aggro) and everything in the 1st group turned fired at me all of them must have landed a hit because death followed. BAD BAD BAD! Came back from the hospital tried again but this time I was ready for it and survived but everything in the group turned, fired in my direction landing a hit and then took off running. I did not see anything cowering it was as if it just pissed them all off. Those that ran, ran just to the edge of the cone and turned to fire. grrrrrrr Horrible power as far as I am concerned. I only hope that after I4 is released the power is made useful again.
2nd use cast ST as the opening power in a group of 2 yellow Nemesis. Neither ran or cowered both continued to fight.
Fear dosen't work on nemesis from my expierence.
Fear doesn't work on the little Nemisis robots. The others have a higher mag but it does work.
Phantom Rose: Ill / Kin / Psi
Soleau: Ice / Icy / Ice / Core: Ice / Fire / Pyre / Wind / Eclipse / Flare / Corona
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Solo Space
My primary is a 40 lvl DA scrapper, and Cloak of Fear almost never makes Nemesis cower, both robots and soldiers. It still provides the end debuff I believe, but they are extremely resistant to fear effects in general. Not a good group to test out ST on, try another group.
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Fear doesn't work on the little Nemisis robots. The others have a higher mag but it does work.
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Jaegers make me cry. Can't Disorient em, can't fear em, and they blow up on death... grrrrrr
And yes, Nemesis just have a higher resistance to fear. It takes 2 applications to make a minion and LT. cower. Dunno about bosses.
No bots in the groups and 2 ST's out during the battle at one point nothing was cowering, everything ran and I did not see any type of ACC debuff.
Also tried on CoT's & Banished Panth missions again nothing cowered most things ran everything else put up a good fight. If there was an ACC debuff it was slight.
You have to summon ST in the middle of the mobs to get them to cower otherwise the cone will hit em all. You won't see the acc debuff stacking because they are running out of range of the debuff. The single debuff on it's own isn't super significant.
The more STs the more stuff will run. Terrify (run) overrides CoF (cower).
Phantom Rose: Ill / Kin / Psi
Soleau: Ice / Icy / Ice / Core: Ice / Fire / Pyre / Wind / Eclipse / Flare / Corona
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Solo Space
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You have to summon ST in the middle of the mobs to get them to cower otherwise the cone will hit em all. You won't see the acc debuff stacking because they are running out of range of the debuff. The single debuff on it's own isn't super significant.
The more STs the more stuff will run. Terrify (run) overrides CoF (cower).
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hmm thanks gsolo I will try the place in the middle of the mobs again tonight and see. If they could fix it so the enchancements you slot on it would override or subdue what's not enhanced it might be worth keeping. As it stands I am willing to try any method anyone has to offer up for it being a decent power. I like the look of it and would really like to keep it in my build but the running is just a big ole pain in the hiney! Might work fine for other Illusions but as an Ill/Kin I really do not want everything running from me.
I am honestly not seeing any of the ACC debuff at all. Might have something to do with having 2 out at once 3 for a couple of seconds or even placements. Again something I am willing to play with if someone has a good way to get the effect I am looking for out of it.
If anyone can tell me the best way to slot it and use it in order to see the "cower" and "Acc Debuff" then please post it or send a PM. Thanks much!
certain villians resist fear so be mindful. But I have managed to fear Banished Paths with just one ST.
I have to this date used every fear save two: Panic and Cloak of Fear (which I will have CoF soon). I have to say that the new Fear is very nice and a great addition to any hero that uses it. That being said, I have to strongly disagree with how Spectral Terror is being treated the stepchild of the fear powers. While I do see that it has the potential to be very powerful, I believe this can be balance with end cost and recharge rate rather than random fleeing of villians. This random fleeing is what got the fear powers changed in the first place. Let's not take 1 step forward and then 2 steps back approach to this power.
My suggestion is this. If you are going to make villian flee from Spectral Terror, then add a damage component to the Terrify power it casts. Currently, the terrify that ST uses and the Mind Set uses are different (ie one does dmg and roots and the other just causes fleeing). Let's be consistent here. What is the power that Spectral Terror uses? Because it isn't Terrify.