Ok, now that TA is live, i have one observation. Presently TA is the weakest def set. Even more sadly its not even the best debuff set. I thought the whole point was to make it stand out as THE debuff set. The only reason it stands out now is because it has alot of debuffs in it, but none of them has the effect that would be expected.
Let me put it this way: Even sonic has a toggle (A TOGGLE) aoe debuff, and i get (for my debuff set) 30 second debuffs that take 3 minutes to recharge. If you dont see something wrong in that, then im wasting my time (ok, duh, i already was, but its the principle).
My biggest problem with this set is that Defenders are supposed to be the BUFF archetype. It says so in the manual, right next to the words "Defender Primary."
This set has absolutely nothing to do with buffing; it is a watered-down debuff power set -- actually more of a SUPPORT set, which would place it as a Blaster secondary. Which is where they should have put it ... could have put it, before they pushed this issue live. Now it's too late.
I will never play a TA Defender, and I will do my very best not to group with any TA Defenders. It is a gross misconception, a lie even, to claim that this set has anything to do with what a Defender is supposed to do. If I am looking for a Defender to BUFF my team, the last thing I want is a watered-down Controller.
Even if they "fix" the damage they did with the nerf, it will still not be a Defender power set.
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My biggest problem with this set is that Defenders are supposed to be the BUFF archetype. It says so in the manual, right next to the words "Defender Primary."
This set has absolutely nothing to do with buffing; it is a watered-down debuff power set -- actually more of a SUPPORT set, which would place it as a Blaster secondary. Which is where they should have put it ... could have put it, before they pushed this issue live. Now it's too late.
I will never play a TA Defender, and I will do my very best not to group with any TA Defenders. It is a gross misconception, a lie even, to claim that this set has anything to do with what a Defender is supposed to do. If I am looking for a Defender to BUFF my team, the last thing I want is a watered-down Controller.
Even if they "fix" the damage they did with the nerf, it will still not be a Defender power set.
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I think I might have already posted here once, but I gotta point this out. Copied strait from the manual:
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The Defender's powers focus on healing allies, increasing their buffing abilities and decreasing foes' debuffing abilities. The Defender has little offensive or defensive punch of his own, but can radiclly increase the effectivness of even the smallest team up, and he and the Blaster have the only ranged attacks.
The Defender is a suitable archtype for grouping, though soloing is possible. However the tremendous usefulness of Defenders' powers should guarantee that they will always be able to find a team up to adventure with.
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Ok, so the manual is saying defenders debuff too. Hmm, empath defenders can't debuff, so why is a power set that only debuffs so out of place? There are other ways to defend then healing and buffing.
It was a decent defender primary before they increased all the recharges and removed half the debuff componants. It does great at defending, for one fight at a time now. Then wait for all the powers to recharge before it can do great at defending again. In teams that will be hard since few teams want to wait around. And as for it saying in the manual the primary sets are called buff sets, Rad emit and Dark Misma are not really buff sets. They focus on debuffing mostly already. In fact Rad emit only gets one buff if you don't count the rez power. The rest are 1 heal, alot of debuff, and a few damage powers.
"The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Lord Acton
Madam Enigma's History
"Decreasing foes' debuffing abilities" means decreasing the foes' ability to debuff your teammates. It refers to powers that cure or give resistance to Hold, Immobilize, etc. It doesn't mean you have debuffs yourself (though obviously some Defenders do).
I think heal and rez would fall under a broad definition of "buff" as they directly (not indirectly) improve a hero's ability to remain in a fight.
So really, up until now, no Defender power set has had fewer than two buff powers (Storm), and Storm was previously considered to be the least Defender-ish of the power sets. (In my experience, Stormies have a lot harder time keeping teammates alive than other Defenders for this very reason.) The point is, if you don't have any means of directly aiding your teammates, you aren't Defending; you are Controlling.
Also note that when a Defender set is heavy on the debuffs, it always contains at least one toggle power. Toggles are generally more useful than click powers, which is yet another reason Trick Arrow is so ridiculous.
Face it, this set was doomed from its very conception. They are trying to force a square peg into a round hole. People in the Training Room pointed out a more appropriate hole (Blaster Secondary), and the developers agreed, but I guess it was too late, or too much work, or something.
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My biggest problem with this set is that Defenders are supposed to be the BUFF archetype. It says so in the manual, right next to the words "Defender Primary."
This set has absolutely nothing to do with buffing; it is a watered-down debuff power set -- actually more of a SUPPORT set, which would place it as a Blaster secondary. Which is where they should have put it ... could have put it, before they pushed this issue live. Now it's too late.
I will never play a TA Defender, and I will do my very best not to group with any TA Defenders. It is a gross misconception, a lie even, to claim that this set has anything to do with what a Defender is supposed to do. If I am looking for a Defender to BUFF my team, the last thing I want is a watered-down Controller.
Even if they "fix" the damage they did with the nerf, it will still not be a Defender power set.
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The set needs to be tweaked a bit, that much is certain. But to complain that it's not a buffing set? Debuffing a villain is the same thing as buffing your teammates. Sonic gives you damage resistance, making your teammates take less damage. TA debuffs villains' damage, making your teammates take less damage. Force Fields increase defense, TA decreases accuracy. The end effect is the same. Rather, the end effect should be the same, which is the only problem with TA... the debuffs need to be equal to the buffs in other defender sets. But that's just tweaking the power set. Considering that all of the other powers are version 5 right now, and TA, Archery, and Sonics are version 1, it's understandable it has a bit of catchup to do.
Defenders, whether buffing or debuffing, are the true support class. Trick Arrows belong in the Defender archetype and shouldn't be squeezed into other archetypes because some feel Defenders should be limited to just a single type of action.
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
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"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens
I am a big fan of the set so far. The set itself does have a more controller type feel but it is not comparable to a controller set really. It is more about debuffs with some control. Like people have said, debuffs may not be as good as buffs so the debuffs get a little control to help them out.
Smoke is much more about the debuff to vision than blinding arrow which is more about the accuracy debuff IMO. They stack well too, but not too many controllers would use smoke as a debuff to acc unless they are stacking it.
Overall the balance is good imo, and it is more likely that the set is overpowered rather than underpowered. A TA Defender will fit in well with other defenders while not being redundant. They will also fit in well with controllers and as a controller secondary as it compliments controllers powers very well.
TA offers a different approach to the Defender primary and the Controller Secondary powersets without breaking the theme. I was fearing that the set would be too much a copy of other defender sets but I don't see that as the case at all. Big thumbs up from me.
So I had this idea for how to improve Trick Arrows. I'm not sure if someone might have suggested this before as this thread got way too long.
Anyway, so they recently changed some toggles to time-limit toggles, and I think something like that could seriously improve Trick Arrows. Instead of firing out an arrow and then having to wait a really long time to prevent stacking, how about making them time-limit toggles?
It would go something like this. My team and I are in a mission and there's a group up ahead. I fire off glue arrow and my team tears through the enemies before the 30 second timer runs out. My team wants to move on to the next group already. I click glue arrow again, shotting off the toggle (almost like dismissing my pet), wait a few seconds (a FEW seconds) and then fire Glue Arrow at the next group.
Oh no! My team's not done with this group, but I know the 30 seconds are coming to an end. I can either A) Wait for the timer to end and fire again, or B) end the toggle now and then fire again. Either way prevents stacking from the same Trick Archers user.
How exactly one would explain an arrow being a toggle, I dunno, but this is a fantasy world so we can stretch, I think. Something like this could really improve the Trick Arrows set. It stops stacking of really useful powers, but also allows them to be used when they're needed, not just when they're available.
The powers that could work this way would be Glue Arrow, Poison Gas Arrow, Disruption Arrow, and maybe Oil Slick Arrow (if stacking was a problem with that).