agreed,
I seldom spend much time on test. just figure what will be, will be and I will adapt to the changes when they go live. but I have spent many hours on test with I5 because I was so looking forward to bow sets.
was having a real tough time trying to choose between making a bow blaster or a bow defender. thank you for helping make that decision. R.I.P bow defender cuz with these changes you will never be played.
devs - would you please answer 1 question. you already know how to keep powers from stacking, you do it already with things like FF bubbles. so why can't you just say that things in this set, like glue arrow can not stack from the same source?? let me have it available and let me decide when to use it. if you feel that stacked glue arrows are too powerful, fine, just code it like a FF bubble and make them not stack.
all this does is make the low levels before 6 slotted hasten and SOs way too painful and forces us even more into having to have hasten. something I thought you said you didn't want to have to be "mandatory"
oh well, it was fun for a week on test :-(
[ QUOTE ]
I knew these changes were planned, so I've held off on posting to this thread until I could try them out.
[ QUOTE ]
Removed Recharge debuff from Net arrow.
[/ QUOTE ]
Huzzah. Entangling Arrow is now officially worse than Web Grenade. A primary power should be better than a secondary power, at least if they're at the same tier, and this one was weak to start with. Give it something else. It could be a narrow cone, so you can get two or three mobs in it, maybe. Or it could cause knockdown--an automatic knockdown on impact, and a minor chance to cause knockdown throughout the duration (as they try to move and trip on the net). It still wouldn't be much of a power, but it would help out the */TA controllers, who are forced to take it.
[ QUOTE ]
Added the ability to add Accuracy Enhancements to Flash Arrow.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, it's a start. It would have been better to make at least the defender version autohit. If the defender version were autohit, and the controller version took accuracy enhancements, it would nicely differentiate the two sets. It would also be consistent--Smoke (which is very similar, except that it's a debuff in a controller primary) is autohit, while the equivalent secondary power, Smoke Grenade, is not.
[ QUOTE ]
Reduced base Accuracy of Ice Arrow. It was 120% of normal and should not have been.
[/ QUOTE ]
Correcting the accuracy is fine.
[ QUOTE ]
Increased recharge and decreased duration of Ice Arrow. Reduced Slow debuff.
[/ QUOTE ]
The duration/recharge ratio was decreased drastically. It will no longer keep even a minion out of a fight; I have expressed my opinion on this in the Petrifying Gaze thread. My reservations are, if anything, stronger in this case; Ice Arrow is the only tool a TA defender has that can actually neutralize a foe. That ability was absolutely necessary for my bowfender, at least until Acid Arrow became available, because the only way he could finish a fight with a lone +1 lieutenant (a common foe in his Heroic solo missions) was to freeze it repeatedly while his endurance slowly recovered.
The new version functions more like a single-target -Recharge. It doesn't prevent attacks, it just delays them a few seconds.
Of course, it's still better than Petrifying Gaze, because it has a secondary effect (however minor). However, it's no longer worth having before SOs become available.
[ QUOTE ]
Swapped availability of Ice arrow and flash arrow.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have no objection to this. The original version of Ice Arrow was a bit more control than a defender should really have at level 1. And, of course, there's not much point in taking the new version until around L22, anyway.
[ QUOTE ]
Reduced Duration of Poison Gas Arrow's debuff to 20 seconds, and the duration of the cloud to 20 seconds.
[/ QUOTE ]
Any basic debuff--and this is a core debuff of TA--should at least last for the duration of a reasonable solo fight. 20 seconds seems to be just a bit short--it will typically last if I'm fighting 3 even minions, but not long enough to finish a minion+lieutenant pair, even with their resistance debuffed. 30 seconds is a reasonable duration for this power, I think.
[ QUOTE ]
Removed Recharge debuff from Poison Gas Arrow. Reduced its duration and reduced the chance to sleep.
[/ QUOTE ]
This change was particularly painful with Glue Arrow unavailable most of the time. Can we get something to replace the -Recharge? Otherwise, this power is going to look awfully shabby next to the likes of Enervating Field or Darkest Night. Thematically, -Regen would make sense, but it may be overpowered if -Regen is all-or-nothing. -Recovery would be interesting, too, and offer some interesting combo opportunities with Electric.
I couldn't tell if the chance to Sleep a foe was reduced, because I've only seen the "choking" emote about 10 times in 17 levels to start with. Did something that unreliable really need to be reduced? Why not just remove it and make the debuff better?
[ QUOTE ]
Reduced Duration of Glue Arrow from 45 seconds to 30 seconds.
[/ QUOTE ]
Again, I think 30 seconds is not unreasonable. It should last through a typical solo fight. I did have it lapse a few times before a fight ended last night, but it wasn't unmanageable. However, see my comments on recharge times.
Can we pretty please have a -Fly on this power? Flyers apparently ignore the -Speed on it, which reduces its utility considerably in some cases. Wiith part of a spawn slowed, and the rest moving at full speed, it actually makes scatter worse--the opposite of its intended effect. I'm really coming to loathe clockwork oscillators now.
It'd be nice if it had the same range as Poison Gas Arrow, too. I don't care which range you choose, I just find the "Out of Range" message annoying when I'm trying to lay down debuffs.
[ QUOTE ]
Reduced Damage Resistance debuff of Acid Arrow and Disruption arrow.
[/ QUOTE ]
OK, so now we have to stack the two powers to get a -Res approaching that of Enervating Field. In itself, that's not so bad. Was the recharge time on Acid Arrow also increased? I found myself having to wait for it much more often, but I didn't time it. It wasn't too onerous, but it would be a bit much on top of the other changes.
[ QUOTE ]
Increased Recharge rate of Disruption Arrow to 120 for Defender and Controller.
Increased Recharge time of Glue Arrow to 120 seconds from 20 seconds. (Dev note: balancing)
[/ QUOTE ]
These are the changes I have the biggest problem with. I have no objection to preventing these powers from stacking. That's perfectly reasonable. After all, the core debuffs from Dark and Rad don't stack, right? Of course, Lingering Radiation and Tar Patch can stack a bit if you make a point of slotting for it...but those are completely different, right?
My objection is to the approach taken to prevent the stacking. These are not "they all fall down" nuke powers. They're debuffs. They're the heart of a TA defender's job. These changes prevent us from doing a substantial part of that job 75% of the time. Even with the slow, endurance-strained pace of my TA/A, Glue was only available every second or third fight. As a result, a substantial portion of my damage mitigation was gone, and I had nothing to take up the slack. In teams, it was even more pronounced, because teams tend to go from one fight to another faster; more often than not, I felt reduced to what other ATs have often accused defenders of being--a gimped blaster.
If you really feel that the debuffs should never, ever be allowed to stack, then make them not stack. Fix the code, for the love of Knuth! You've changed pets so that a new activation replaces the old pet. Most buffs have always had a mechanic that prevented a single hero from stacking them on the same target. Apply one of those mechanics to the debuffs--just pick one. Either would be far better than these interminable recharges.
TA is a debuff set. It doesn't buff. It doesn't heal. Its control elements are matched or exceeded by other debuff-heavy primaries. If a set is going to be this focused on debuffing, then it should debuff better than any other set. If it doesn't, then why would anyone ever want a TA defender on a team? Look at the set in light of these changes and try to come up with an answer for that.
[/ QUOTE ]
/WHOLE HEARTEDLY AGREE
HEROES:
Fusion Girl lvl 50 rad/rad defender NON PL'd
Gamma Orionis lvl 42 WS
Ten Bears lvl 42 fire/eng tank
Allura Ven lvl 38 mind/kin contrllr
VILLAINS:
Mechanima lvl 36 robot/trap MM
Blood Reaver lvl 36 DM/FA brute
Satyrus lvl 33 SS/DA brute
more to come
God, DEVs, I ask you; WHY?!
"Cupcake cupcake cupcake; Cupcake. Merry_Mint is the best." - Abraham Lincoln
[ QUOTE ]
I knew these changes were planned, so I've held off on posting to this thread until I could try them out.
[ QUOTE ]
Removed Recharge debuff from Net arrow.
[/ QUOTE ]
Huzzah. Entangling Arrow is now officially worse than Web Grenade. A primary power should be better than a secondary power, at least if they're at the same tier, and this one was weak to start with. Give it something else. It could be a narrow cone, so you can get two or three mobs in it, maybe. Or it could cause knockdown--an automatic knockdown on impact, and a minor chance to cause knockdown throughout the duration (as they try to move and trip on the net). It still wouldn't be much of a power, but it would help out the */TA controllers, who are forced to take it.
[ QUOTE ]
Added the ability to add Accuracy Enhancements to Flash Arrow.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, it's a start. It would have been better to make at least the defender version autohit. If the defender version were autohit, and the controller version took accuracy enhancements, it would nicely differentiate the two sets. It would also be consistent--Smoke (which is very similar, except that it's a debuff in a controller primary) is autohit, while the equivalent secondary power, Smoke Grenade, is not.
[ QUOTE ]
Reduced base Accuracy of Ice Arrow. It was 120% of normal and should not have been.
[/ QUOTE ]
Correcting the accuracy is fine.
[ QUOTE ]
Increased recharge and decreased duration of Ice Arrow. Reduced Slow debuff.
[/ QUOTE ]
The duration/recharge ratio was decreased drastically. It will no longer keep even a minion out of a fight; I have expressed my opinion on this in the Petrifying Gaze thread. My reservations are, if anything, stronger in this case; Ice Arrow is the only tool a TA defender has that can actually neutralize a foe. That ability was absolutely necessary for my bowfender, at least until Acid Arrow became available, because the only way he could finish a fight with a lone +1 lieutenant (a common foe in his Heroic solo missions) was to freeze it repeatedly while his endurance slowly recovered.
The new version functions more like a single-target -Recharge. It doesn't prevent attacks, it just delays them a few seconds.
Of course, it's still better than Petrifying Gaze, because it has a secondary effect (however minor). However, it's no longer worth having before SOs become available.
[ QUOTE ]
Swapped availability of Ice arrow and flash arrow.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have no objection to this. The original version of Ice Arrow was a bit more control than a defender should really have at level 1. And, of course, there's not much point in taking the new version until around L22, anyway.
[ QUOTE ]
Reduced Duration of Poison Gas Arrow's debuff to 20 seconds, and the duration of the cloud to 20 seconds.
[/ QUOTE ]
Any basic debuff--and this is a core debuff of TA--should at least last for the duration of a reasonable solo fight. 20 seconds seems to be just a bit short--it will typically last if I'm fighting 3 even minions, but not long enough to finish a minion+lieutenant pair, even with their resistance debuffed. 30 seconds is a reasonable duration for this power, I think.
[ QUOTE ]
Removed Recharge debuff from Poison Gas Arrow. Reduced its duration and reduced the chance to sleep.
[/ QUOTE ]
This change was particularly painful with Glue Arrow unavailable most of the time. Can we get something to replace the -Recharge? Otherwise, this power is going to look awfully shabby next to the likes of Enervating Field or Darkest Night. Thematically, -Regen would make sense, but it may be overpowered if -Regen is all-or-nothing. -Recovery would be interesting, too, and offer some interesting combo opportunities with Electric.
I couldn't tell if the chance to Sleep a foe was reduced, because I've only seen the "choking" emote about 10 times in 17 levels to start with. Did something that unreliable really need to be reduced? Why not just remove it and make the debuff better?
[ QUOTE ]
Reduced Duration of Glue Arrow from 45 seconds to 30 seconds.
[/ QUOTE ]
Again, I think 30 seconds is not unreasonable. It should last through a typical solo fight. I did have it lapse a few times before a fight ended last night, but it wasn't unmanageable. However, see my comments on recharge times.
Can we pretty please have a -Fly on this power? Flyers apparently ignore the -Speed on it, which reduces its utility considerably in some cases. Wiith part of a spawn slowed, and the rest moving at full speed, it actually makes scatter worse--the opposite of its intended effect. I'm really coming to loathe clockwork oscillators now.
It'd be nice if it had the same range as Poison Gas Arrow, too. I don't care which range you choose, I just find the "Out of Range" message annoying when I'm trying to lay down debuffs.
[ QUOTE ]
Reduced Damage Resistance debuff of Acid Arrow and Disruption arrow.
[/ QUOTE ]
OK, so now we have to stack the two powers to get a -Res approaching that of Enervating Field. In itself, that's not so bad. Was the recharge time on Acid Arrow also increased? I found myself having to wait for it much more often, but I didn't time it. It wasn't too onerous, but it would be a bit much on top of the other changes.
[ QUOTE ]
Increased Recharge rate of Disruption Arrow to 120 for Defender and Controller.
Increased Recharge time of Glue Arrow to 120 seconds from 20 seconds. (Dev note: balancing)
[/ QUOTE ]
These are the changes I have the biggest problem with. I have no objection to preventing these powers from stacking. That's perfectly reasonable. After all, the core debuffs from Dark and Rad don't stack, right? Of course, Lingering Radiation and Tar Patch can stack a bit if you make a point of slotting for it...but those are completely different, right?
My objection is to the approach taken to prevent the stacking. These are not "they all fall down" nuke powers. They're debuffs. They're the heart of a TA defender's job. These changes prevent us from doing a substantial part of that job 75% of the time. Even with the slow, endurance-strained pace of my TA/A, Glue was only available every second or third fight. As a result, a substantial portion of my damage mitigation was gone, and I had nothing to take up the slack. In teams, it was even more pronounced, because teams tend to go from one fight to another faster; more often than not, I felt reduced to what other ATs have often accused defenders of being--a gimped blaster.
If you really feel that the debuffs should never, ever be allowed to stack, then make them not stack. Fix the code, for the love of Knuth! You've changed pets so that a new activation replaces the old pet. Most buffs have always had a mechanic that prevented a single hero from stacking them on the same target. Apply one of those mechanics to the debuffs--just pick one. Either would be far better than these interminable recharges.
TA is a debuff set. It doesn't buff. It doesn't heal. Its control elements are matched or exceeded by other debuff-heavy primaries. If a set is going to be this focused on debuffing, then it should debuff better than any other set. If it doesn't, then why would anyone ever want a TA defender on a team? Look at the set in light of these changes and try to come up with an answer for that.
[/ QUOTE ]
I would agree with most of what Balanced said. Although some of the fixing I can see (lots of -recharge is too powerful in PvP but...don't really see it affect PvE that much)....my TA/A defender is only lvl 10 so I can't say anything beyond Poison Gas Arrow.
I would think that making the debuffs not stack from the same person easy/somewhat easy since you can't stack bubbles on someone from the same FF'er. *shrugs*
Leader of The LEGION/Fallen LEGION on the Liberty server!
SSBB FC: 2062-8881-3944
MKW FC: 4167-4891-5991
As many people have pointed out we have been looking forward to Trick Arrows for how fun it will be 
, however it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Why was it decided to make it a defender primary/controller secondary in the first place?
Defenders already had the greatest choice in powersets of all AT's and the other 7 (6 for 'troller secondaries) actually defend your team in some way.
Trick Arrow has no team buffs at all and while looking like a fun set to play as is, would be much better off as a Blaster secondary, sure it's a little more controlling & a less damaging than other blaster secondaries, but prior to I5 blaster's had the option of taking the same type of power set as primary & secondary (Fire/Fire, Ice/ice, Assult rifle/devices).
Now blasters have 6 primary sets & 5 secondary sets, while defenders have 8 primary & 7 secondary, and controllers 6P & 7S. By moving T/A to a blaster secondary, you would give Blasters a more fun choice, even up the AT sets a little (B= 6P & 6S, D= 7P & 7S, C=6P & 6S) and let Defenders (and controllers) concentrate on Defending
If the set stays the way it is now, then I will probably make a TA/A defender simply to play around solo, but a team player he won't be.
I don't know if anyone actually reads these dev-wise, but here goes my first shot. The 120 second glue recharge is wayyy excessive. It WAS the primary defense for your defender against groups (ice is nice and so is web, but too limited). With the reduced duration and, again, excessive recharge its a nice trick but sends a defender back to the secondary pool. Nice way to ruin a cool set, before it even goes live.
I was one of the ones who wanted to "unnerf" Trick Arrow and turn it into a Controller power, but after reading this thread, I've changed my mind. I want to be an archer. JUST an archer. I agree with the summation posted by others: Make Trick Arrow a blaster secondary power and leave it at that. You can make it functionally similar in power to Devices and be assured of play balance. Right now, Devices is the -only- secondary power that really makes sense with the Archery Blaster power -- but who wants to use a taser or a grenade? The current Trick Arrow set could be easily made to fill this role in a unique way.
Archery/Trick Arrow Blaster -- it's the way to go!
regards,
Cap
I just did some testing of Tar Patch (me) vs Disruption Arrow (a friend).
Disruption Arrow improves damage by 20%, has a 2 min recharge and lasts for 30 seconds.
Tar Patch improves damage by 30%, has a 1 min 30 second recharge and lasts for 45 seconds. On top of this Tar Patch has a -Speed and -Fly component.
The DA graphic seems to be a bit larger than TP but with the max 10 target rule this is almost completely irrelevant.
We have been playing a lot together in I5 with me as a Sonic/Sonic and my friend as a T&A, both Defenders. We can take out a Heroic mission spawn without waiting for the Trick Arrow debuffs, but we usually have to chuck more than a few inspirations. With the debuffs things go a lot smoother so we usually wait for them which leads to a much slower pace. I sometimes manage reading through a couple of threads in the time it takes for the TA debuffs to come back up.
My suggestion would be to lower recharge of almost all drops in all powersets (Blizzard and similar powers excepted) to 30 seconds or so and make them all obey the new pet rule of maximum one out at a time. That would keep the game flowing, which is fun, without letting a single player stack multiple versions of the same debuff, which can be bad.
Turbo Ninja Edit:
Flash Arrow needs a more visible fx on the affected targets, if you aren't the user you have to guess which mobs have been hit.
[ QUOTE ]
My suggestion would be to lower recharge of almost all drops in all powersets (Blizzard and similar powers excepted) to 30 seconds or so and make them all obey the new pet rule of maximum one out at a time. That would keep the game flowing, which is fun, without letting a single player stack multiple versions of the same debuff, which can be bad.
[/ QUOTE ]
Good call, stars for you.
Trick Arrows was marginal in its effectiveness before the 7/28 change. Most of the power effects were recycled from other Powersets, but it offered a different 'feel' than other defender sets. This round of adjustments makes the Trick Archery set sadly underpowered for a defender primary. As it stands you could put Trick Archery in as a Blaster Secondary with very few changes. I was looking forward to the Archery sets, but since the defender primary is "dah gimpzorz" and no Bow based Blaster Secondary I'll be giving it a pass. At least the Sonic sets are ok.
Very disapointed when I think of all the labor hours spent on the animations and creating whole new powersets that will only be used by misdireded Fantasy gamers and hard-core Green Arrow wanna-be's. If Trick Arrows does not get some love before it goes live TA Defenders will be about as common as Ice tankers.
Wasted time and wasted money.
[ QUOTE ]
As many people have pointed out we have been looking forward to Trick Arrows for how fun it will be , however it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Why was it decided to make it a defender primary/controller secondary in the first place?
Defenders already had the greatest choice in powersets of all AT's and the other 7 (6 for 'troller secondaries) actually defend your team in some way.
Trick Arrow has no team buffs at all and while looking like a fun set to play as is, would be much better off as a Blaster secondary, sure it's a little more controlling & a less damaging than other blaster secondaries, but prior to I5 blaster's had the option of taking the same type of power set as primary & secondary (Fire/Fire, Ice/ice, Assult rifle/devices).
Now blasters have 6 primary sets & 5 secondary sets, while defenders have 8 primary & 7 secondary, and controllers 6P & 7S. By moving T/A to a blaster secondary, you would give Blasters a more fun choice, even up the AT sets a little (B= 6P & 6S, D= 7P & 7S, C=6P & 6S) and let Defenders (and controllers) concentrate on Defending
If the set stays the way it is now, then I will probably make a TA/A defender simply to play around solo, but a team player he won't be.
[/ QUOTE ]
I agree COMPLETELY. TA is not a Defender powerset. It's an AWESOME powerset. But it's not a DEFENDER powerset. There are gonna be TONS of Arrow/Arrow defenders running around that I am NOT going to want to invite to my team. Why? Because I invite BLASTERS for range damage. I invite Defenders for protection. And I invite Controllers for holding. Having Arrow/Arror defenders are gonna mess up my team dynamics a lot. PLEASE just switch the powerset over. everything else about the new power sets are so, so, utterly and entirely awesome. But I feel like this was caused by some sort of miscommunication or oversight.
Okay... I have to shout out my agreence with all those who think Trick Arrow is more of a control set than a Defender set.
I am having a REALLY hard time with this set as a defender set. It is... from beginning to end all about control. And with the proposed changes to controlers for issue 5, it may end up being a more effective 'lock down' set than ANY controller sets... and that just isn't fair to the controllers out there. I think this set needs to be moved to a blaster secondary set or a controller primary set... I feel like it has no business being a defender set and if it remains as is I think it's really goint to hurt the controllers out there. Now if the Developers wanted to give a control option to defenders... fine... here it is.... if not... I am having a hard time seeing why this exists at all. Program with Purpose folks... otherwise it's hollow. Sorry if this seems harsh... but as the release of Issue 5 approaches, and the more I play this set on the test server... the more fearful I get about it. PLEASE reassess the appropriateness of this set for Defenders!
-- Tolen
P.S.
Why are the defenders and blasters getting more power sets when the Tanks and Scrappers have the fewest power set options to begin with? Shouldn't the priority be to level out the number of options available to the various archetypes? It goes back to the idea of Programming with Purpose... don't do it because it would be cool... do it because it fulfills a need -- I'm having a hard time seeing the need it is supposed to fulfill -- though I do say it IS cool!
I've been playing a bit on test this weekend with my wife, who is playing with Trick arrow, while I play a sonic blaster.
First off, to those who say it isn't a defender set, I have to disagree. The debuffs were extremely useful, and kept my sorry blaster butt feeling a lot safer. I think the current cycle times and debuff lvls need some tweaking. Right now she has to much idle time waiting for powers to recycle, however when they 're up and working I didn't need any heal or buffs from her, I rarely had to pop a green because she kept things away from me.
I do agree that Tankers and Scrappers needed a set all the more, but I can take a guess as to why they focused on the ranged classes. My theory would be that it's because they can make 4 powersets (the 2 defender primary and secondaries) and do to the power structures of defender/blaster/controller they can service 3 AT's with them. More serviced AT's makes for more happy customers. This may make some in the neglected AT's feel a little sad, but cryptic has limited programmers, and art guys and this gave them the most bang for there buck.
Net Arrow: I really think that since it's single target there's no need to remove the minus recharge, although I agree that multiple AOE -recharges are overpowered. I think removing the minus recharge from this turns a so-so power into a bad power. Also why should their primary power be stricktly worse then the Devices Web Grenade?
Ice Arrow: I think the changes to the duration are good, shouldn't be as powerful as Controller's holds. I really think it's a bad idea moving this to the 4th power in the set, by moving it I see it as you have to take one of the powers you don't want as your first power in the set (I view Net Arrow, Flash Arrow and Poison Gas Arrow and worthless powers).
Glue Arrow: The duration change is fine but did you really have to up the recharge that much? Couldn't you instead do the same thing that was done with burn (pre I5) where when you make the new instance of burn it removes the old instance first. This would allow you to move the patch around without having to take perma hasten. Also Glue Arrow is still bugged, it's listed as a location AOE but is instead working as a targeted AOE.
Flash Arrow: Seems pretty worthless due to the high miss chance and relatively long recharge. If autohit would be overpowered cause of the debuff make it non-self stacking too.
Poison Gas Arrow: 25% Damage DeBuff is pretty worthless alone, this arrow could really do with some love or just become one of those powers you fit in if you've got room. Chance to Sleep seems so low it's worthless for that and the toxic damage is bugged so it doesn't do any (you get the numbers in green in your combat tab). Also this arrow can be slotted for slows even though it doesn't slow.
Acid Arrow: I had this 6 slotted for 5 Dam and 1 Acc before, it was overpowered before and the changes to it seem fair.
Disruption Arrow: See Glue Arrow for opinion on change to recharge. Aside from that I think it's a bad idea to nerf it's DeBuff based on there being another of the same in the set is just rediculous because you're nerfing it based on that and making it weaker then powers much earlier available in other sets (Like Enervating Field, almost always useable and does more debuff and a damage debuff).
Oil Slick Arrow: Only problem with this is that there seems to be certain places where it won't catch fire. An energy or fire attack will hit it and it'll be "defeated" but nothing will happen with it.
I had a lot of fun testing this set out. I feel it's perfectly fine as a defender set, just not *the* best, but still a great addition to any team.
If I could change anything though, it would be net arrow. It's a tad useless. If you say, gave it a knock back or made it cone or something I think it would have it's use.
Also I feel you went just a tad overboard with the recharge on the powers, but other then that I enjoy the set. Can't wait to play it on live.
I think 'entangling arrow' really needs...something to make it stand out as a power worth taking. Personally, I feel a modest cone, so you can net 2-3 badguys at once, maybe with a little knockback too would help the power. It would make it more useful, as well as adding the feel of the power.
Always remember, we were Heroes.
[ QUOTE ]
Why was it decided to make it a defender primary/controller secondary in the first place?
[/ QUOTE ]
To fit into the conventional braindead pattern, of course. It would make far more sense as a blaster secondary, but that would mean that there would be TWO non-blapper blaster secondaries, that that could NOT be permitted.
[ QUOTE ]
Defenders already had the greatest choice in powersets of all AT's and the other 7 (6 for 'troller secondaries) actually defend your team in some way.
[/ QUOTE ]
Had you noticed that statesman is very much prejudiced in favor of defenders? Which archetype gets the least nerfing? Defenders. They have some kind of protected status--daddy's little darling doesn't get held to the same standards everyone else must meet.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Why was it decided to make it a defender primary/controller secondary in the first place?
[/ QUOTE ]
To fit into the conventional braindead pattern, of course. It would make far more sense as a blaster secondary, but that would mean that there would be TWO non-blapper blaster secondaries, that that could NOT be permitted.
[ QUOTE ]
Defenders already had the greatest choice in powersets of all AT's and the other 7 (6 for 'troller secondaries) actually defend your team in some way.
[/ QUOTE ]
Had you noticed that statesman is very much prejudiced in favor of defenders? Which archetype gets the least nerfing? Defenders. They have some kind of protected status--daddy's little darling doesn't get held to the same standards everyone else must meet.
[/ QUOTE ]
I think you are mistaken, Statesman appears to be swinging the nerf bat with equal fervor. If you think he wiffed on a particular build, please rest assured he will continue to swing until it stops twiching.
-Sebastius
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My own observations of Trick Arrow/Archery, added to the pile.
Solo, facing 3 +0 level minions. Trick Arrow/Archery defender.
If I use my Trick Arrows (Flash, Glue, Poison Arrow, Ice) and archery attacks I finish my fight with 0 endurance and 20% health.
If I ignore my Trick Arrows and just use my attacks (Snap Shot, Aimed Shot, Blazing Shot and the Fistfull of Arrows thing), I finish the same fight with 25% endurance and about 60% health.
The difference is that my Archery attacks drop targets quickly, reducing my incoming damage by significant amounts. They also cost me less endurance overall, I guess. I've repeated this test quite a few times, with pretty much the same results.
To my mind, there's a problem when a Defender is more effective not using the primaries at all.
In groups, I find I use my Trick Arrows more often, but after my initial volley I rarely get to use them again. Instead, I become a subpar blaster. It's so bad that sometimes in groups no one even bothers to wait for me to debuff the enemies, and they just charge in.
This experience is counter to my previous experience with Rad, Dark and Empathy defenders. In those builds, I found I focused mostly on effective use of my primary powersets and that people waited for my buffs or debuffs to recycle before proceeding.
I can only conclude from my experience that Trick Arrows currently have minimal impact on the outcome of encounters and are, for the most part, less effective that other Defender sets.
On the other hand ... I really enjoy playing the Archer. I don't find myself stuck feeling like a Blaster or Defender or Tanker or any "archetype". Before 7/28 especially, I felt like I had broken out of the MMORPG archetype morass of Tank, Blaster, Healer and was instead fulfilling the role of a Green Arrow or Hawkeye. There's still some vestige of that left post-7/28, but not much.
Just my opinion and observation.
How about this...leave the rest of the set as-is, but replace two of the Controller-main type powers (Ice Arrow and EMP arrow, for example) with some buff beacon arrows? This would help bring the set back from the "Controller Mainline set" the controllers have been complaining about, so the other powers could be strengthened a bit again.
Mechanics: Defender aims at a spot on the ground (Targetted area) and fires the power. The arrow flies to the target point and sticks upright in the ground and starts glowing. The one replacing Ice Arrow would have the same effect as the COT Green-Beacon-Gem, but only about half as strong unenhanced (Enhancable of course) = +regen, Interrupts constantly
The one replacing EMP arrow would have the same Targetted Ground AOE, but with +recovery, Interrupts constantly (Just like the blue COT beacons, but half as strong, enhanceable)
Both would have a VERY LONG recharge (6 minutes) and a duration of 3 minutes.
These would fulfil a longtime dream of mine...to grab one of those dang COT crystals and carry it around with me!
And to those who insist that "arrows can't heal"...so what, this is a game about comic book superheroes, not an archery class.
The Optimist says the glass is half full.
The Pessimist says the glass is half empty.
While they argue about it, the Opportunist comes along, drinks what's left, and removes all doubt. - Redwood
Alvays remember, schmot guy...any plan vere you lose you hat...is a BAD PLAN!