A Guide of Powers not suited for newer players.
By
AstroLad,
Posted on: 2006-08-28 17:50 in Player Guides
I have to disagree with your judgement on Rain of Fire, it's not a great power, but it has it's uses. For the solo Blaster, it's a great tool for disengaging from foes. Toss down the RoF, and escape while the bad guys are running from the rain.
Also good when teamed with any users of slow powers. Get the bad guys mired in tar or quicksand, pop a red (or two), hit BU, drop your rain and watch the mobs melt away.
And it's fun! My highest (and only F/F blaster) is L33 EbonFlame on Victory.
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Mass Hypnosis - Mind Control
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Very useful solo. Somewhat useful on teams. A no aggro sleep that allows you peel off a spawn, set up AoE containment or set your debuffs. Excellent for turning around a situation gone bad.
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Inertial Reduction - Kinetics (While it is useful as a personal travel power, there is no other effect. Just jumping.)
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Unsupressed Super Jump without opening up a power pool. Love it.
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Thunder Clap - Storm Summoning
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Not everyone's cup of tea, but hardly a worthless power in the hands of a storm defender.
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I felt this is a needed post to inform new players of some rather useless powers.
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There are no useless powers. There may be powers that see less use than others, or that are not often used properly, but posting a totally subjective list of powers you find "useless" isn't helping new players in any way.
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I will not be commenting on new power sets like arrows
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Well, if the rest of the post didn't kill your credibility for me, that certainly did.
I have to disagree with a lot of your choices. I have experience with almost all the powers you listed and have found great value in all of them at some time or another. Let me highlight some:
Rain of Fire - A smart Blaster (or Corrupter) knows when to use this power to get the maxium benefit. Rain of Fire + Tar Patch, Ice Storm, Lingering Radiation, Sleet, Quicksand, or Freezing Rain? Wow.
Lightning Clap - "Oh crap, I'm surrounded and they're all pummeling me!" *POW* Most of your enemies are now rolling around on the ground and/or disoriented. This gives you breathing room to get away or pick your targets to finish off before the disorient wears off.
Stun - A very useful power for disabling an annoying enemy long enough for you to either dispatch them or their pals without worry. You need not worry so much about mez effects on your blaster if you have this power handy. Sonic's Screech is the same way.
Salt Crystals, Flash Freeze, Mass Hypnosis - any AoE sleep is a great power to have handy, especially if you solo any. Suddenly giant mobs of enemies are not as much of a threat if you sleep most of them and pick them off at your leisure. "Oh no, we've aggrod that other giant mob of foes and we're not finished with this mob set yet!" Time for an AoE sleep on spawn #2!
Black Hole - Same idea as with the AoE sleep powers. BH has been invaluable the few times I've had to use it. The best thing you can do is have a Macro or Bind ready to go when you use this power, so your team knows what's going on and hopefully doesn't expend too much power on unaffectable mobs.
Inertial Reduction - one of the things I love about Kinetics is the inclusion of travel powers within the set. Why bother taking pool powers when you have an unsuppressable one at your command? Unless you're going for the benefits of Combat Jumping and Acrobatics, Inertial Redux is Super Jump without a prerequiste.
Thunder Clap - Disoriented Enemies don't fight back.
Confront (Scrapper Taunt) - No Srappers are not Tanks, but I can't count the number of times I have saved a teammate some debt by having my scrapper taunt on hand. It's also nice to catch runners without having to chase them down.
Fire Breath - it may be only moderate damage, but if you know how to line up your cone well, being able to hit multiple enemies in one shot with a lesser-resisted damage type can really mow down a spawn.
As for Hurl - well it's certainly nice for a melee toon to have some kind of attack to keep a fleeing enemy from fleeing.
A lot of these powers are situational. They're not used in regular battles as part of a normal attack chain. It's why they are often passed by or scoffed at. If you plan on being able to use these abilites all the time you have the wrong mindset for their purpose. I bet most people would think that Detention Field was worthless, until you face an Ascendant Boss who puts YOU into a DF and takes you out of the action.
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Inertial Reduction - Kinetics (While it is useful as a personal travel power, there is no other effect. Just jumping.)
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Unsuppressed super jump for your entire team, with better control than the pool power, awesome for PvP. Also, great for the mito clearing phase of Hammi raids, get those landbound scrappers up in the air without the -ACC of group fly. And it'll also remove the inertia from flying, giving you hover like control with full flight speed.
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Oddly, every single power that you list has a use.
Rain of Fire, now that it can be buffed, is a solid choice for blasters. Not something that should be thrown around randomly, but great for controlled enemies, or as an area denial attack.
Taser, Stun: Can be stacked with another disorient to take a boss out of the fight, like, say, beanbag or stunning shot. Also useful for removing things like Tsoo Sorcerors from the fight.
Lightning field, Blazing Aura: As a tank, I've never had my aggro stolen by these powers. Lightning field slotted for end drain can be very useful, combined with other end-draining powers.
Burn: Great against controlled enemies. Drop it on an immobilized, debuffed Archvillain sometime.
Salt Crystals, Flash Freeze, Mass Hypnosis: Set up containment. Locks down a dangerous spawn. Sleeps last longer than holds, so this is useful. Debuffs do not break sleeps. May require some communication with the team.
Black Hole: Certainly situational, but not useless. Taking an enemy out of the fight is never useless.
Thunder Clap: As a disorient, it stacks with other disorients. Takes minions out of the fight. Hardly useless.
Inertial reduction: Also removes the gliding effect from flight, making it more like Hover. And if a one-slot unsuppressable travel power isn't good enough for you, well, I don't know what is. It may not be perfect, but kinetics is one of the few builds that can get away without taking either Stamina or a travel power.
Confront: Making the boss attack the scrapper rather than the squishy is useless? Just because one plays a scrapper does not necessarily preclude being a team player.
Revive: A curious inclusion, when Soul Transfer is also not included. And being able to jump right back into a fight that is going bad is useless?
Temperature protection: Fire and Cold are not rare. Tsoo, Outcasts, CoT, Sky Raiders, Council, Malta, Carnies... the list goes on...
Rise of the Phoenix: As revive, but also does damage and knocks enemies down. Getting the tank back into a fight going bad is not useless.
Breath of Fire: Perhaps not as useful as combustion and fire sword circle, but it does have range, and is an AoE.
Hurl Boulder/Hurl: Both have a -fly component, and range. Range is not useless on a melee class.
Now, would I include every power here on every build? Hardly.
However, I do believe that there is no power that is useless in the hands of a player who knows what they are doing. This is not to say that there are not powers that underperform.
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First, this really is not a "guide." It is a set of personal opinions, most of which are not shared by most players. It should be in the one of the discussions sections, not here.
Almost every one of the powers you list, I can see a valid reason to take under the right circumstances. Some of your opinions are clearly shared by only a small minority of players familiar with these power sets. How can you possibly say that Rain of Fire is useless? Inertial Reduction? Mass Hypnosis? Even Hurl Boulder is very useful for a Stone/Stone Tank with limited mobility.
OK, if you wanted to just start a discussion, that's fine, but it does not belong in the Guides section.
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I'm gonna have to disagree with you there, for much of the same reasons everyone else has said. those powers can be good.
Hmmmm...there are a lot of pretty darn good, stand-alone damage mitigation and offensive combo powers in your list of powers to be avoided. I'd read the commentary of some of the respondents and sleep on it.
Well, back when I could be have been considered a newbie, I would have found the list very useful. Quite frankly, I think that's what the poster had in mind. These are very tactical, situational powers, by and large, that require a person to have at least a decent understanding of how powers inter-relate.
Particularly when in a team, a new player's not going to have that. There's a certain expectation, based on community norms, of what each AT is going to bring to your average PUG. If the player is griped out for using a power poorly, then that player's going to stop using that power, there-by creating a "useless power". Though more properly, it should be called an Unused Power.
Now, a lot of readers have already stopped and hit reply and are implying that, of course, they are never like that. They are always helpful and courteous and so forth.
Well, then, in these cases, I prescribe playing a melee fighter a team with a newbie gravity controller who just got Dimension Shift. Take two hours and reply the next morning.
Luerim
Well maybe instead of listing powers the OP thinks are the !!!SUXOR1!1!, he could have listed these powers with a brief guide to what each one does with maybe the best time to use during solo and team. Just telling a "newbie" this power sucks, dont take it with no backing info does not a guide make. I also agree this is probably the wrong place to be posting this info.
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One more note, first re: the two self-raises for scrapper and tanker.
True, you're not 'supposed' to die - but it happens from time to time. Sometimes being able to come back even with just partial health can make a difference between a team rally and a team wipe - and half health is certainly preferable to a general awaken.
Second, being able to raise on the spot (even with only half health) can be preferable by far than having to wait for a raise or having to go to base or hospital. Hamidon raids and missions in the Shadow Shard definitely come to mind, since I know people who have respec'ed to take those powers just so they *could* raise on their own out there.
Last but not least, Hurl for Super Strength is *anything* but useless. It can be used for a short-range pull (thus saving the squishier ATs from a barrage of damage or damage of types for which they have no resistance) and it can also be used to pull aggro away from a teammate without having to move over and bring the aggro already on you over to them.
The effort is definitely well-meant, but I'd agree with Dragon-King that this really probably shouldn't be with the guides. A situational assessment of each power would, however, be useful to those not yet in the know.
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Taser - When I was a newb, I had the same reaction. I have to be in melee to use this? Ew! Today, it's a staple power for my Blaster. Enhanced, Taser can make minions, lieutenants, and sometimes even bosses stagger around looking stupid for quite a long time, usually the rest of their lives. It can effectively keep one foe out of the fight, too.
I wish Traps had the same power. If you're a Blaster, you might be able to blast down an enemy that insists on meleeing you, but an unprepared MM or Corrupter might well lose too much health or get disoriented first.
I disagree with your opinions of Rise of the Phoenix and Hurl.
RotP is a very helpful power to a tank. When the going gets tough and the tank goes down, a team wipe isn't far behind. However, when a member of a team can get back up on his or her own without the help of rad or emp player, you can turn the tide to your favor. I wish there was some debt protection with RotP though, something like 120 seconds. It's not a power for everyone but I found it to be very helpful, especially to fire tank who has some of the lowest resists.
Hurl, while not a melee power, does fit within the theme of super strength. I just want to scream, "BECAUSE ITS A SUPER HERO GAME." Some powers are included in the game because it fits the theme and not just the game mechanics.
To the OP:
Your power choices seem haphazard to me. For example, you called out Rain of Fire as a power not to choose, but you omitted the other, nearly identical rain powers.
Furthermore, you singled out Black Hole, but didn't mention the similar or identical Detention Field and Dimension Shift. Why not? These omissions cause me to question how comprehensive your analysis really was. It seems not to have covered "all power sets except the new ones and epics".
Luerim12 wrote:
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Well, back when I could be have been considered a newbie, I would have found the list very useful. Quite frankly, I think that's what the poster had in mind. These are very tactical, situational powers, by and large, that require a person to have at least a decent understanding of how powers inter-relate.
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I'd be much more comfortable with this list if it was entitled "List of Situational Powers for New Players" or, better, "List of Advanced Powers for New Players to Avoid."
The current title suggests that these powers are never useful. I think it's better to teach a new player that, while some powers are more obviously and less situationally useful than others, the more difficult powers can actually be tremendously powerful, but they usually require some combination of experience, other powers used by a skilled teammate, or a particular rare concurrence of events.
I'd actively endorse this list if it went further to demonstrate how each of these "advanced" or "tricky" powers can be used to potent effect, but also illustrate why those situations are probably best avoided by new players.
Scrap
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Well, back when I could be have been considered a newbie, I would have found the list very useful. Quite frankly, I think that's what the poster had in mind. These are very tactical, situational powers, by and large, that require a person to have at least a decent understanding of how powers inter-relate.
Particularly when in a team, a new player's not going to have that. There's a certain expectation, based on community norms, of what each AT is going to bring to your average PUG. If the player is griped out for using a power poorly, then that player's going to stop using that power, there-by creating a "useless power". Though more properly, it should be called an Unused Power.
Now, a lot of readers have already stopped and hit reply and are implying that, of course, they are never like that. They are always helpful and courteous and so forth.
Well, then, in these cases, I prescribe playing a melee fighter a team with a newbie gravity controller who just got Dimension Shift. Take two hours and reply the next morning.
Luerim
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Point taken. If the list had been presented in a context that at all resembled what you describe, I would agree with your analysis, but you are reading something into the OP that is simply not present.
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I felt this is a needed post to inform new players of some rather useless powers. A ruined build without a respec is never a good (unless your going for a concept character)."
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This statement of purpose does not resemble the kind of helpful commentary that you are describing that would include the qualification that some powers do not stand alone or that others require experience to master.
If someone with a mindset similar to your own had written a carefully-considered, "beginner's guide to linear building and how to avoid being a danger to yourself and others" then we would be talking about strategy, tactics, and communication rather than trying to figure out whether or not the OP knows what the heck he is talking about.
As I've been only playing a year, I've yet to start repeating myself in terms of primary/secondary selections by AT. And as such, I make it a point to take *every* power in the primary set, no matter how "useless" it might seem.
Do some get used more than others? You bet. Some are highly situational powers that, if you have a specific build in mind, or there's something you really want elsewhere and you have to sacrifice a primary power to do it, you could skip that power and be none the worse for it. No argument here.
But that's speaking less to the merits of the power and more to your chosen playstyle or theme.
Because, I've *used* Black Hole. It lasts just long enough to rest and get my endurance back.
Sonic Cage? If I'm soloing with my wee defender and I've got one more minion that I can handle, or a Sorcerer that heals faster than I can damage, or one of those Sky Raider Force Field Generators that bubbles the Raiders, I can take it out of the picture until I'm ready to deal with it.
Rain of Fire with a completely held or immobilized spawn so they can't flee is a sight to cheer any hero.
Yesterday, in fact, I used Mass Hypnosis against Crey with a team. Do you know how happy the Blaster who Nova'd was that she could waltz into their clumped midst completely aggro-free??
And when she wasn't Nova-ing, and we had no tank, the scrappers could pick and choose their targets without drawing aggro from everything else?
Part of the challenge to the game, for me (your mileage may vary), is to come up with interesting ways to use all the nifty powers we're given, no matter how "useless" they seem.
On the other hand, I think you've picked a fairly representative list of powers that take a bit of thought, communication, and tactical consideration to employ well. Because . . . ill-used, they *can* mess things up or cause frustration or be pointless.
But what I think the list fails to consider is the synergy that powers have on teams, when you've got thinking players coming up with tactics to best leverage a team's strengths. It can take experimentation, communication, and, above all, patience to work this out, and understandably, not every group you're in will be willing to indulge you. You'll have to adjust your playstyle, and that too is part of the challenge.
Just as I wouldn't prescribe that every player take every primary power, I'd be equally wary of someone who told me not to take a power because it's "useless." Ironically, I've rolled up two defenders with the specific sets you didn't want to address, Sonic Defense and Trick Arrow, specifically because I wanted to see if I could make them work since I didn't see many of them around. Answer: they work fantastically.
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To the OP:
Your power choices seem haphazard to me. For example, you called out Rain of Fire as a power not to choose, but you omitted the other, nearly identical rain powers.
Furthermore, you singled out Black Hole, but didn't mention the similar or identical Detention Field and Dimension Shift. Why not? These omissions cause me to question how comprehensive your analysis really was. It seems not to have covered "all power sets except the new ones and epics".
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A very valid question. Why did i skip out on Ice Storm, Blizzard, and Freezing rain?
Ice storm, has more damage and a slow effect that keeps the enemies in the rain longer. And if Shrek~Silver's builder is correct does far more damage and ticks than Rain of Fire. Blizzard + Build Up + Aim is an insanely powerful combo that has a massive slow effect. Freezing Rain, one word, knockdown. If their on their back, they cant hit you.
Dimension Shift, this one i actually meant to put in. Now Detention Field, that is a single target phase if i am not mistaken. Taking out a key enemy for a while (boss/AV/EB) is a great tactic.
Edited it because i realized what you guys were pointing out. Thanks for the feedback, tell me what you think of the new guide.
Rain of Fire is useful for getting baddies away from you.
Same is true of Burn.
Taser and Stun are both handy, Taser especially in combo with a power like Beanbag, Stun pre-lvl 38 and post lvl-38 against a Boss that resists Total Focus.
AoE sleeps (at least the Mind one...) are great for limiting Alpha Strikes, and for setting up Containment, or for getting close in for PBAoE effects.
Confront can be useful as a pull, and since it is single target, can be used to get a baddy off a squishy, and will not aggro more than the one foe it is used on.
Self Rezzes can be very handy...saves Def and Troller rezzes for other folks, lets you get back into the action quickly.
Fire Breath has a HUGE DoT...3 BIG ticks.
so...on the whole, I disagree with a lot of your assessments...
and many of the others you mention are situationally useful, which is fine, since most of those sets have what they need for every spawn in just a few powers...the rest of the set is for the situations where the basics aren't sufficient.
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i only agree that one power there is useless, that being Temperature Protection, i mean cmon, on a fire tank? u r already capped for fire resist thru the other shields, so all it gets u if THREE slotted for resist is ~15% cold prot...whoopee
Your point about Revive for a Regen Scrapper is pertinent if and only if the Scrapper does not have a full attack chain yet. Once the Scrapper has enough attack powers so that there's always an attack recharged and ready to use, then any other power, no matter how situational is useful.
Also the point about Revive being only half health and endurance is a minor concern to a Regen who can recharge both rather quickly.
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Note to the OP: Perhaps this post could have been described as "powers that a new player should know arent absolutely necessary to be effective". These are powers I can see myself substituting for pool powers. You kinda set yourself up for a flaming. People like these powers. Actually any tanker I build with super strength or stone melee will always have hurl or hurl boulder. Those 2 powers are good in pve and any range is good for a tank in pvp. Its win/win
I disagree with most of your choices. New players need to take "bad" powers as a learning excercise. People don't always pay attention when things are going smoothly, but they tend to ask some questions when a certain power is getting them killed or kicked off a team. These questions are the things that teach newbies how the game works, and you telling them not to take certain powers does them a huge disservice.
Massive thumbs down. 
Alright, these are my thoughts of powers that would may not be suitable for newer players. Mind you these are in a team situation, many of these are far more useful solo. These powers tend to be very situational or take a lot of skill to use effectively. Now you may ask, "Gee fluffy, why does Rain of Fire get put in but not Ice Storm?" Well my friend, some powers, though seemingly identical, have different effects. In that case its that Ice Storm has better damage and a slow effect that will keep baddies in the rain longer. I will not be covering new powersets or epic ATs, my knowledge to them is limited.
Lets break it down by AT.
Blaster
Rain of Fire-fire blast (While a very cool power, the scattering effect it gives is just not worth the minimal damage)
Taser - Devices (A disorient is nice, but getting in melee range does not balance it out)
Lightning Field - Electricity Manipulation (It drains a lot of endurance, not a lot of damage, you have to be in melee range, could take agro from the tank....)
Lightning Clap - Elec Manip (While an AoE disorient is very usefull, you have to get into melee range, you have to wait for the animation, if there are any non-stunned, you're gonna be taking some serious punishment. It also deals no damage.)
Stun - Energy Manipulation (While good for PvP, there isnt much use in the PvE world. See taser for reasons)
Blazing Aura - Fire Manipulation (A low damage, short range PBAoE aura that could steal agro from meatier ATs)
Burn - Fire Manip. (A patch of fire that scares away the enemies, requires you be in melee range for a few seconds, only mild damage, long recharge...)
Controller
Salt Crystals - Earth Control (While sleeps last a long time, teaming with this is not very affective. The instant an enemy is attacked, they break free. This power is very tricky on an AoE heavy team)
Flash Freeze - Ice Control (See salt crystals, same basic power but in melee range)
Mass Hypnosis - Mind Control (See salt crystals)
Dimension Shift - Gravity Control (An AoE phase shift for the enemy. While useful in a situation such as a new group of patrols comes running in when your not done with the first spawn, your team may get mad for making the main spawn untouchable.)
Defender
Black Hole - Dark Miasma (See Dimension Shift.)
Thunder Clap - Storm Summoning (See Lightning Clap in blaster section)
Scrapper
Confront - all scrapper sets (A taunt. Scrappers are damage dealers not aggro holders. Thats the tanks job. Useful for taking enemies of squishies, its possible to get too much agro.)
Revive - Regeneration (Your not meant to die in the first place. Not to mention this only gives 1/2 life and 1/2 endurance back. Death is a part of the game, but an attack would be better for the health of your scrapper.)
Tanker
Temperature Protection - Fire Armor (You have other powers that resist much more than this, not to mention fire/cold are very rare damage types)
Rise of the Phoenix - Fire Armor(See revive for regeneration scrappers)
Breath of Fire - Fire Melee (A VERY narrow cone, only moderate damage. While multiple enemies are good, this cone is as narrow as it gets. If you dont see the flame animation hit an enemy, he wont take damage. It also uses a lot of endurance.)
Hurl Boulder - Stone Melee (A ranged attack with a long animation, mid damage, short range. A tank is not a ranged machine, its not meant to be. While cool for "WOW! Now thats super-hero-ish" there isnt much other use. As for using it as a pulling method, use taunt.)
Hurl - Super Strength (See hurl boulder)
Those are my opinions. If you have any questions, comments, ideas, arguements, or anything else. Feel free to post them. If they make sense to me ill edit my post.