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-Much as I hate suggesting this idea, defenders need to be able to survive just as long as the buffed teammates in order to ensure the safety of the team. Adding the ability to self target would be an incredible boost to defender sets like EMP, FF, Storm, and Kin. This would be a defender only ability and would bring these sets further into line with the capabilities of rad/dark.
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I know a lot of people might roll their eyes at this one, but I've been playing a lot of GuildWars where all Monks and Mesmerists are allowed to use Party Buffs on themselves as well(You simply target an enemy or pick no target at all and the buff is automatically targeted at yourself instead of a teammate). It's actually a lot more balanced than you'd expect and the only questionable ones are the Self-Heals. But then self-healing is actually something CoH already shares with GW.
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I've called for self-buffing for defenders before. It makes sense. When controllers get pets they get to buff the crap out of them, why not let defenders self-buff as one of their AT specific perks and to differentiate them from controllers more (defenders get to take advantage of all their buffs right away, controllers have to wait for pets).
As others have mentioned, you can lower the strength of the buff when it is self directed if it is really overpowering. I like the idea of the self-buffs conforming to the "no self-stacking" rule that bubbles follow and then having them automatically apply to the defender each time he applies the buff to a teammate. This has the added advantage of encouraging teaming, since if you have no-one to aim the buff at, you don't get it yourself either.
I just don't get why they don't do this.
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I made a thread in the Scrapper forums, altough I should have put one in both the Blaster and the Tanker too where I asked if people could tell the difference between certain powers.
What I got out of it and was happy to see my own personal feelings reflected the majority of the Scrapper community who responded was that people don't distinguish between Controller and Defender powers. They're just happy to have any Buff/DeBuff along for the ride. At 80% efficiency (those powers that actually aren't 100%) over the course of normal play most people aren't able to discern a Controller from a Defender Buff.
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I think this is very important. Too many people seem to be losing sight of the problem for defenders in the high game. It's not one that 'defenders aren't needed'. That's simply not true. Almost any power combination from any AT will find use from aslmost any defender in some way. The issues, at least as I see it, is not the lack of desire for buff/debuff, but the fact that a controller is viewed to deliver the same power to the team as a defender. Meanwhile, a controller's primary is almost certain to be more effective than a defenders secondary. It may well be a perception, but it's one that I know I fall to and my main's a defender.
Most teams will gladly welcome either a defender or controller, but most will take the controller first. The perception problem seems to stem from the fact that defender secondaries just aren't usually considered whereas many people consider the controller's secondary to be more defining. Do you really care if that /emp is Ice/Earth/Fire/Grav/Mind primary? They all do the same basic things, only Illusion really mixes things up for controllers. Defender primaries, and therefore controller secondaries are all over the board in utility however, in fact as someone else mentioned, we're the only AT that really is a grab bag, which I think is positive.
Since defender blasts are generally viewed as a non-issue in my experience, defenders become only their primaries, which if you're not dark become replaceable by a controller. However, the blast powersets can't really be ramped up without blasters being boosted as well. Blasters really need the boost but that's another forum. I don't think defender damage is bad, but in the high game most defenders will only out damage a very few other powersets.
Solutions that I've seen that make some sense to me are the self buffs. That alone would make defenders radically differerent but wouldn't really change their teaming attributes for the most part, which is the problem. Do we really want to just turn Defenders into solo toons? Letting my bubbler protect himself better would be nice, but it doesn't make me any more useful to my teams than that /FF controller.
Adding more debuffs, armour-piercing mob types, etc isn't the fix for us either. It's likely the non-nerf fix for tanks but really, in the current game if you know you're fighting Malta all day long, do you want a defender or controller to deal with Sappers? I'll take the lockdown guy please. Specialized mobs favour the AT that can take them out of the battle completely, which while some defenders can do that, all controller can.
A terrific idea I read here was allowing defenders to bypass caps. Whether that's the answer or not it brought one thing to my mind. If defenders are a hybrid which overperforms/underperforms with it's powersets. How about making the defender AT itself extremely beneficial to a team. I'm sure I read somewhere about letting a defender do something like a Kheldians Cosmic Balance/Dark Sustanance effect to the team. To the point where you don't look for a defender for their powersets but for the fact they are a defender. There are many possibilities there but it could simply help the defender AT as a whole become something special rather than focusing on what we can do individually.
I see a lot of dark jealousy in here as well. I don't really understand that one. As dark is the only defender exclusive set and one that I think everyone will agree is an excellent set, we should be dancing in the streets. I choose to view things that Dark is what the devs feel a defender should be. Is that bad? If Trick Arrows and Sonics are what Dark currently is, I'd say it's a great thing for defenders, although without some changes in how shared sets work, the older sets would have the same issues as we do now.
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I see a lot of dark jealousy in here as well. I don't really understand that one. As dark is the only defender exclusive set and one that I think everyone will agree is an excellent set, we should be dancing in the streets. I choose to view things that Dark is what the devs feel a defender should be. Is that bad? If Trick Arrows and Sonics are what Dark currently is, I'd say it's a great thing for defenders, although without some changes in how shared sets work, the older sets would have the same issues as we do now.
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Amen, brother.
I was one of the Scrappers who answered the "Can you tell the difference?" thread.
I can tell. . . for some of them.
I also said "I pick Defenders first."
Controllers _might_ have a chance on my teams. .. if "/em kick the pet out of the way" actually did anything.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.
The issue with pets is a player one though, and not a powerset issue. As my Earth Controller I only pop out Animate Stone when the team needs either damage or we don't have melee players, or as a disposable tank for psi opponents. KB is annoying to melee which I understand from my tanks and scrappers. Controllers who choose to use pets when they are not necessary are simply making thing harder for their teammates.
People like to use their 'uber' powers, and I'd wager half the time it isn't really needed in a team situation. One of the biggest issues with the player population in general is that many folk have a lot of problems switching from solo mode to team mode. Probably why we have so many nightmare stories about rogue blasters and scrappers, tanks who do everything, and defenders that never use their primary/secondary.
That's why I recommend everyone to make a bubble defender. You'll quickly learn both team and solo aspects and as an added bonus you're not going to get any 'uber' final powers that you feel the need to fire off constantly. 
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As to any additional form of damage, I would be highly surprised to find that a tanker and, say, a lone blaster took down one of the more serious AVs. It's possible that they could, but I would be surprised by it, and I would be inclined to say that it's not the norm.
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This may come as news to you, but Tankers can solo the more serious AVs. They don't even need the Blaster.
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EDIT: I'm assuming that by "heals" you mean "heals and defenses", since anyone with your experience would know the mantra "defenders do more than heal" by heart already. I'm just spelling it out for the peanut gallery.
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Sorry, I still think in the Kinetic mindset where I don't have any defenses...
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Chickenchow, just so we're all clear here, you did the entire infernal mish solo, with this being a even level or + mish, and took down Inferno by yourself in 3.5 minutes, I have a regen as well, I'm quite interested how inferno and his posse managed not to overcome your regen rate, w/o anyone else there to provide crowd control or shotting down the portal of never ending behomoths. Also how you managed to get in that much dmg that quickly w/o being slowed down by his regen rate.
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Well, part of that is easy. I'm DM/Invul... not Regen. 
I went in and beat up whatever was between me and Infernal's room. Then I aggro'd Infernal and everything else before stepping back to the enterance of his room. Minions streamed out of the portal and Infernal impressed me with his halitosis. They all stood around me at the door providing crazy +def and making me untouchable. With SoulDrain I maintained my damage cap for those 3.5 minutes and easily over-came his regen. He might even have a Negative Energy vulnerability... either that or Smash resist. I didn't really bother to find out.
And he was only +1. I tend towards Unyielding rather than Invinc.
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This may come as news to you, but Tankers can solo the more serious AVs. They don't even need the Blaster.
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Not any of the tankers I know. Are you talking about one specific type of tanker build?
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Chickenchow, just so we're all clear here, you did the entire infernal mish solo, with this being a even level or + mish, and took down Inferno by yourself in 3.5 minutes, I have a regen as well, I'm quite interested how inferno and his posse managed not to overcome your regen rate, w/o anyone else there to provide crowd control or shotting down the portal of never ending behomoths. Also how you managed to get in that much dmg that quickly w/o being slowed down by his regen rate.
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Well, part of that is easy. I'm DM/Invul... not Regen.
I went in and beat up whatever was between me and Infernal's room. Then I aggro'd Infernal and everything else before stepping back to the enterance of his room. Minions streamed out of the portal and Infernal impressed me with his halitosis. They all stood around me at the door providing crazy +def and making me untouchable. With SoulDrain I maintained my damage cap for those 3.5 minutes and easily over-came his regen. He might even have a Negative Energy vulnerability... either that or Smash resist. I didn't really bother to find out.
And he was only +1. I tend towards Unyielding rather than Invinc.
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So do you think you could pull the same trick with the clockwork king or mother mayham?
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BUT....I'm extremely concerned about the perception that Defenders "aren't needed" and thus "can't find a team" at high levels.
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Where DO you get these ideas?
I'm probably reiterating what's already been said, but I enjoy throwing my hat in the ring, and I think if I'm restating, then it probably needs it. I will also open this, before someone brings up the PvP arguement, that I don't PvP, and never plan to. This is a purely PvE assessment.
I love defenders. I play them more often than any other AT. Thus I would have to agree with the general statement that defenders are pretty good. But that's not to say that there aren't issues. And being a frequent poster on the defender forums, I've seen these complaints.
The biggest complaints are player centric. I don't expect the devs to go beating on every player who sends "r u healer" tells, or drubbing into people's heads that defenders are not just magical green number producers. It's not your fault that people don't learn to play the game to its fullest, nor should we expect you to fix it.
People do complain that defenders lose their role somewhere around the late 30s when the controllers now have access to all the defender's powers via the secondary (darkies excepted of course). One could argue that something similar happens to blasters at the same time, but I don't think it's as pronounced, due to the large gap between blaster and defender base damage. The gap between defender and controller buff/debuff sets are too close, and often non existant. Add to that the people who finally figure out around that level that the defender AT's name is misleading and that controllers can actually defend their teams better than defenders can, and the defenders start feeling neglected.
The root cause of this? Defender's role is hybrid. We're not, contrary to the name, the last best defense of the team. That's a controller or a tank. We're not damage dealers. Some of us can come close with tailored builds and special circumstances, but all in all that's not our primary function. We're somewhere in the middle, not the best at any one thing that commends us to teams. Everyone knows what to expect when they get a tank, or a scrapper, or a blaster, and to an extent a controller. They're never sure what they're getting with a defender. A darkie brings a whole different dish to the party than an empath, an offender slanted kinetics build is a whole different bag from one slanted to teaming primarily. And this doesn't even go into playstyles. A defender isn't a defender isn't a defender, there are so many variations that it hurts the brain. I don't think there is a more versatile AT out there, save perhaps khelds.
That actually doesn't sound that bad, and it isn't. Versatility is one of the things that draws me to the defender AT. But people tend to think in absolutes. "Why would I want a defender? I need someone to protect me and someone to deal damage, so I'll take this earth/rad controller and this electric blaster." Meanwhile there's a Rad/elec soloing while LFT.
What would be a cure? Less overlap from the other ATs to start. As long as we're playing second fiddle to blasters for ranged damage, and Controllers are nipping at our heels in the buff/debuff arena and boasting better team defense to boot, there is always going to be this identity crisis among defenders. Widening the gap on the buff/debuff would help, but I'd like to see more sets of ours that they don't get, or the powers work differently for a controller than a defender. Mixing up some of the ranged sets with the odd melee attack since several of the primaries can survive fairly well in melee wouldn't hurt my feelings either.
Then there are the individual set problems. I've played all of of these sets, so I can comment on them with some authority.
Empathy: The gripes with empathy are mostly minor, a tweak here, a tweak there. Clear mind's animation is horrifically long, too long really for the set's largely reactive nature. Absorb pain is either in the same boat or the effects need to be reverse, heal first then harm. Resurrect needs to be looked at and brought back into balance with the recent changes to the other revive ally powers. The adren boost cast bug is still there. Other than a few odd pipe dreams like clear mind and fort made into auras (please, no...), most agree that empathy is pretty good.
Forcefield: It makes a great secondary, since you don't have to take many powers from it to fill the role, but as a primary it's lacking. Something, I'm not sure what, but when the general consensus is you can throw away about half of the set and most of the FF defenders/controllers wouldn't notice, that speaks of a problem. Force bolt and repulsion bomb are rather poor attempts to give some reactivity to a proactive set, repulsion field and force bubble are really variations on the same melody, and PFF is relegated to a simple "poor man's phase shift". On top of all that the primary role, the only thing that people are happy to have in their team, has two rather massive holes in it, sleep and psi. Of these two, I'd have to say that Psi is the bigger problem, as sleep can be easily mitigated, but in a fight against a psi using enemy, the FFer feels useless.
Possible solution: replace one of the lesser used powers (I would humbly suggest repulsion bomb) with a third targetted field specifically for Psi. Sure, it would be situational, and wouldn't protect the caster, but at least it would keep the FFer from feeling like they should throw in the towel when some baddie procs pink bubbles.
Dark Miasma: It's looking pretty sweet these days. I have to admit that of the 6 defender primaries, this is the one I have the least experience with, empathy being my forte, but if there's an issue with Darkies other than black hole, I'm not aware of it, and I'm not even clear on the whole black hole debate. Since controllers can't have dark miasma, it's sitting prettier probably than your other sets.
Kinetics: Contrary to popular sentiment, there is a fond place in my heart for kinetics. The issue that most people can't get past with kinetics that I've seen is that kinetics is not a defense primary. It's an offense primary. It greases the wheels of a team, bringing them to new speeds, and new heights better than any other primary. But that's not to say it doesn't have its issues.
The death bug for one. Nothing more annoying while playing then trying to heal an injured teammate, only to have him kill your heal target while panicking because his health is low, resulting in pretty green aura, but no heal for you. The same problem plagues Transferrence. We've learned to get around it, but it would make what defense kinetics have far less frustrating were it fixed.
Second would be the fact that, since kinetics is very melee oriented, controllers can take advantage of it with less fear than defenders because they will have controlled the mobs before attempting to wade into melee. Kinetics defenders, lacking self defense from their primary live in melee, and do so at very high risk. Adding some defense/resistance to inertial reduction, or making siphon power/fulcrum shift do an accuracy siphon similar to the damage one they already do are some ideas that I like.
The third problem is the damage cap. The current scheme of slotting as many damage as you can into your attacks makes it difficult to really let kinetics shine in teams. I've seen both tankers and blasters self cap even before hammi-os, and special enhancements exacerbate the problem. My suggestion is to make a second cap which only outside buffing can bring you to. Build-up, insps and reds will take you to the first cap, after that you need a teammates help. This means that the kinetic can only get him/herself to the first cap, which actually makes room for other defenders and their damage buffing powers.
Radiation:Rad is pretty solid. While Fallout isn't a universally loved power, it's pretty good at what it does, as is choking cloud. I think few would argue that rad doesn't need much in the way of love.
Storm:Storm is a really fun set to play. The problem is, it's really best to play solo, unless you're a controller. It gets rather frustrating to play in teams because control through chaos, that playstyle you love solo, isn't well liked in teams. Controllers don't get this because they can control in a more conventional manner, and then unleash havoc. If some of the defender versions caused less scatter, most of storm's woes would be a thing of the past.
Blast sets: The only one of the blast sets that has significant issues really is psi, and those issues can be summed up really by looking at the first two powers. Mental blast and subdue are the first look that people get of the set and both powers need work, expensive, slow, low damage and the immob on subdue is inconsistant. Scramble thoughts should probably do more damage or be AoE to bring it in line. Different people have different ideas as to other things that need doing to the set, but honestly those would cover it for me.
If these changes weren't implemented, and I going to curse the devs and take my money elsewhere? Heck, no, I love the defender AT and I love this game. But I'd like to think this is a pretty accurate portrayal of what woes defenders have. If you don't talk about a problem that doesn't make it go away. And what else are these forums for?
I think the problem is the big gaps. Defenders are definitally on their own in proportion to the other classes.
I think the biggest problem with the 'defenders not being needed' is honestly that they can't compare. They spend 1/2 their lives needed in most teams/missions but when they get to about 36 they aren't needed.
Lets use my experience as an empathy defender as an example:
Melee characters of the lower levels need empathy for buffing, Clear Mind and healing.
Past 36, Mellee characters have their own mez resistance, self heals (mostly) and some sort of super power for when they get in trouble
Controllers teaming with Defenders:
Before at the low levels, controllers needed defenders on teams to do the damage (when no damage dealers can be found) and support the controllers (heals and status protection).
After 36, controllers have a good handle on their summon and have phase shift/invis to save their [censored]'s.
My empath after 36 wasn't needed on teams (although I really didn't need a team). Everyone had full end thanks to stamina, and people have some sort of strategy/power to save their own arses.
I think the main problem is that 36 don't need as much support and the difference between the classes squishs out the need for defenders.
(Not sure of the numbers on this one)
I.e. Controllers defender 75% as well as defenders
Tankers do damage at about 20% less then scrappers
but Defenders do 40% less damage than blasters secondaries (from what I read.. I don't pay attention to this).
The problem is that a controller with it's summons and holds are more valuable to a team than a defender. The defender is mostly precieve as a buffing but nerfed blaster.
We don't do enough damage to be precieved as helpful to a team and a controllers 2ndary's (with summons) can do enough damage and just enough buff/debuffing that a defenders presence isn't missed.
As far as I can tell.... a controller is an ubber class @ 36+ compared to a defender which maintains it'd mediocrity.
The short version:
Controllers rule the roost for support. Their little buffing/debuffing is enough to make up for the loss of a defender.
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So do you think you could pull the same trick with the clockwork king or mother mayham?
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I didn't try the CWK... but yes I defeated Mother Mayhem on my own.
3 Large Kora Purples = Defender.
LadyMage, this pretty much sums up all of my defender observations and general issues, so rather than repeat what's been said, I'll just
/agree
If we look at the defenders who are in the highest demand in the 40+, who incidently are the same ones who have the least problems soloing, they are
Dark & Rad. Kinetics are also in a fair demand, but do have notable defense issues, Storms I think would be in more demand if there was more storms in the 40+, as it is, among defenders, Storms are the ones people have the least idea to know what they do.
Giving Defenders the ability to use single target buffs on themselves would go a long way to bring them all up to Rad & Dark's lvl. Rad & Dark's BTW, I'd say are compariable to average scrappers, tanks, controllers in effectiveness.
Controllers as stated before, can benifit from single target buffs via their pets, where as defenders can't. And if you were to get down to it, what truely seperates the majority of controllers from the majority of defenders are pets. Controllers are generally picked for two reasons at the high end game, one is the debuffs/ buffs, the other is pets, with the red light-green light hold system with AV's, AV's holds are generally hard to come by, or to put it another way, if it was choice between an illusion and a mind controller, the illusion would win every single time, in terms of being picked( as a side note I really wish the <Search> function, you'd be able to search by primaries/ secondaries are at least they would be automatically be displayed). If for instance Voltiac Sentinal was made into a true pet, */electricity defenders would see a higher demand. The only other alternative I can see is giving defenders a 10th power, on their primaries that would be pets based on the dark servant model, can you imagine a Kinetic Servant spamming heals, speed boost, siphon speed/ power, & increase density?
The 2nd thing I see are mezes, in comics( DC & Marvel), the individuals that tend to have mez resistance would be closest to Defenders or Controllers in classification. I'm not saying to take away resistiance from the melees, but give it to the defenders as it was to the controllers in their epics, to be honest I'd much rather have mind over body to be essentually a Obsideon Shield clone and sacrifice the smashing/lethal resist. Also it seems the dev's idea's for making 40+ mobs tougher is adding mez effect after mez effect, which generally messes their primary targets( melee's), rather than that approach, have mobs that debuff hero's, for instance what if mobs were able to -regen, -resist( more so than now), or -defense instead of mezzing, I mean as much as I hate them, Sappers are a good example of an equal oppurtinity threat to all AT'swith their end drain.
The fundimental problem why some defenders have hard times finding teams in the 40's is that controllers have all but 1 of the buff/debuff sets and none of their own, a very different situation that you see among the melee types, in that despite both having access to the defense & melee sets, share only a single powerset. Had the situation been where they shared almost all of their powersets you would see a similier problem there, be it a Regen/ Ax tank or a DM/ Fire scrapper. Giving us two more unique primaries is a step in the right direction, and I would expect controllers at some point get their own unique secondaries. I'll agree with States that some defenders are where they should be( Rads & Darks), and some others aren't far of where they should be( Storms & Kinetics), but I think Storms, Kinetics, Bubblers, & Emps could all get to the same lvl if they could apply those single target buffs to themselves, and have that ability exclusive to defenders. And maybe in addition to that, make stacking debuffs/ buffs by mutliple defenders/ controllers, exclusive to defenders, that is, Fortitude( I'm not an expert here, but I think a single emp can stack fort on the same toon), only emp defenders would be able to stack it, or deflection shield only a ff defender would be able to stack it on another ff defender/ controller deflection shield, and two ff controllers would not be able to stack shields, RI, EF or whatever, granted this would require a big programming change in logic.
Or some other extra benift in defender primaries, ie a scrappers critical's, a controller's critical holds, or a tanks 90-95% dmg cap.
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I think the problem is the big gaps. Defenders are definitally on their own in proportion to the other classes.
I think the biggest problem with the 'defenders not being needed' is honestly that they can't compare. They spend 1/2 their lives needed in most teams/missions but when they get to about 36 they aren't needed.
Lets use my experience as an empathy defender as an example:
Melee characters of the lower levels need empathy for buffing, Clear Mind and healing.
Past 36, Mellee characters have their own mez resistance, self heals (mostly) and some sort of super power for when they get in trouble
Controllers teaming with Defenders:
Before at the low levels, controllers needed defenders on teams to do the damage (when no damage dealers can be found) and support the controllers (heals and status protection).
After 36, controllers have a good handle on their summon and have phase shift/invis to save their [censored]'s.
My empath after 36 wasn't needed on teams (although I really didn't need a team). Everyone had full end thanks to stamina, and people have some sort of strategy/power to save their own arses.
I think the main problem is that 36 don't need as much support and the difference between the classes squishs out the need for defenders.
(Not sure of the numbers on this one)
I.e. Controllers defender 75% as well as defenders
Tankers do damage at about 20% less then scrappers
but Defenders do 40% less damage than blasters secondaries (from what I read.. I don't pay attention to this).
The problem is that a controller with it's summons and holds are more valuable to a team than a defender. The defender is mostly precieve as a buffing but nerfed blaster.
We don't do enough damage to be precieved as helpful to a team and a controllers 2ndary's (with summons) can do enough damage and just enough buff/debuffing that a defenders presence isn't missed.
As far as I can tell.... a controller is an ubber class @ 36+ compared to a defender which maintains it'd mediocrity.
The short version:
Controllers rule the roost for support. Their little buffing/debuffing is enough to make up for the loss of a defender.
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While I agree there needs to be somesort of of look here, I wouldn't descibe my rad/dark medicore, nor most Dark/*, Storm/*, or Kinetic/* . My Rad/Dark did quite fine, it's just that some primaries do better at this range than others. As I stated before, I think our fundimental problem is that controllers share too many powersets with us, Just looning at the disparity, my rad/dark( now 50) had no trouble with the issue 3 bosses, I actually liked that they were tougher with the extra xp, my wife's emp/rad on the other hand, can't solo a non-issue 3 boss, much less the issue 3 bosses. Rather than nerfing powersets, what i'd like to see is some sets buffed to the same lvl as others of the same AT( I'm not talking only defenders here, but classic examples such as Ice Armor, Mace, Dark Armor), rather than nerfing HO's( keep in mind the amount effort it goes into getting one), create more oppertunities to get HO's( lvl 50 content mish anyone with rewards = HO's), lord knows I can force myself only to a single hami raid once a week or two, since after your first few, its gets old.
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That's why I recommend everyone to make a bubble defender. You'll quickly learn both team and solo aspects and as an added bonus you're not going to get any 'uber' final powers that you feel the need to fire off constantly.
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Damnit the glass is half EMPTY, not full, EMPTY!
Over in the Tanker section of the forums someone noted that inspirations also play a part in the desirability of Defenders.
If you can pop 3 or 4 Luck inspirations and be relatively safe from being hit, do you need a Defender to buff your Accuracy?
The idea of restricting how many inspirations can be used (of a type or total) is being bounced around.
Under construction
I mentioned that earlier in this thread as well.
Ignored again. 
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I mentioned that earlier in this thread as well.
Ignored again.
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Not ignored, lost. Things get overlooked when trying to take in a thread this long.
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I mentioned that earlier in this thread as well.
Ignored again.
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27 pages and more like I missed it.
Under construction
I know. I was just poking fun at the length of the thread.
Of course, not being able to use as many inspirations would hurt defenders plenty as well.
"Experience is the mother of good judgement. Bad judgement is the father of experience."
Bah, I was crazy. I'd mentioned it in a previous thread. The one about "Since when are Defenders not needed" or whatever it was called. The two threads are nearly identical though, so that's the story I'm going to stick with
From that thread:
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Part of being so self-sufficient is how many inspirations you have to work with as you get higher in levels. Inspirations can cover for the lack of a support class in many instances, although certainly not all of them. Inspirations can't debuff mobs, but they can raise your damage, defense, accuracy, replenish your endurance and can even mitigate status effects. Now, I love inspirations for soloing, but it almost feels like people can have way too many of them for a given situation.
/shrug
Just an off the wall observation.
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Wow, that seems strange. I beat my kinetics controller friend by a decent chunk with my TG and he has an extra heal in there (last I checked). Weirder things have happened.
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I don't know, the margin was much wider than it should've been if I had 2xAcc, 4xHeal and he had 1xAcc, 5xHeal.
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You sure about that 3 second animation? It really felt more like 1.5 to 2 or so. I noticed it a lot when they dropped the animation time, and I cant imagine myself noticing a 1 second drop. Maybe its just the placebo effect kicking in heh.
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It uses the same animation as Soul Drain, which is 3 seconds (or so it appears to me). Given how many times the animation has been too slow to catch teammates, I'm inclined to believe it's 3, maybe 2, but no less than that. It's still a big improvement over the original.
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