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The devs long ago discussed why this couldn't happen, even if they were inclined to implement it. My recollection is it went something like - toggles work by pulsing every XX seconds, but det field makes the target unaffected by all powers so when it pulsed, the target would either not be affected by the Det pulse or they would have to be made tangible before the pulse, which would mean they could attack you before the next pulse.
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That's pretty much how I remember it too. It's not a dev post though, so grain of salt and all that.
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Darn.
Well, maybe we can find some way to put the damage boost there after all. 
QR
Ignoring my previous joking post about detention field, what many of you are basically asking for is a sleep.
What do you want with your complicated toggle that puts them intangible until you detoggle? You want them not attacking you until you decide you want to attack them.
This is exactly what a sleep is. You put them to sleep. They can't attack you now. They stay sleeping until you decide you want to interact with them again by attacking. There are some differences, but the basic idea is the same even though it would obviously play out differently in different scenarios.
So you could just make detention field a mag 4 (so it would still affect bosses) sleep and get much of the utility people seem to be asking for.
Yes, you'd get the disadvantage that you can accidentally awake them, but you get the advantage that you can debuff them while asleep and not wake them up.
If you feel this isn't "powerful" enough, you could always up the mag on the sleep effect, or add a little damage a la mesmerize.
I apologize if this has already been brought up in the thread. I read much of it but by no means all of it.
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
I'd rather leave the power as it is right now than to change it to a sleep. I think sleep is one of the most useless powers in the game, unless you play mostly solo or stealth through missions. There's just simply too much AoE damage on most teams for that to work.
I personally LIKE the Glass Bottle of Doom. I just wish people wouldn't waste their attacks on it. I think a Placate type effect is just the thing for it.
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I'd rather leave the power as it is right now than to change it to a sleep. I think sleep is one of the most useless powers in the game, unless you play mostly solo or stealth through missions.
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Tell that to all the mind doms on the LRSF with mass hyp. A sufficiently high mag sleep effect (whether higher mag because of the power or because of stacking or domination) is demonstrably useful.
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
And how many FF Defenders would have the ability to GET that high a mag? None, unless they sacrifice other slots and/or power picks specifically to get it. Then they might as well just roll a Controller, because it would be easier.
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And how many FF Defenders would have the ability to GET that high a mag? None, unless they sacrifice other slots and/or power picks specifically to get it. Then they might as well just roll a Controller, because it would be easier.
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So you're whining because:
(a) Some defender primaries work better as controller secondaries. Old news.
(b) A power might require slotting? lol. FF now requires very minimal slotting.
Edit: This change also has the advantage that you *could* spread it across all the FF sets, which is what devs like to do. It would be giving control to controllers, which is fine. And it wouldn't be helping MMs much at all with all of the random fire of their pets. Plus it still thematically keeps detention field as detention field, because you are still putting them in detention, now with the added flexibility that you determine when they wake up.
"Hi, my name is Ail. I make people sick."
A partial selection from my 50's on Freedom: Ail = Ice/Traps, Luck = Street Justice/Super Reflexes Stalker, Mist = Bane, Pixy = Trick Arrow/Archery, Pure = Gravity/Energy, Smoke = Fire/Fire Dominator
You know, a Defender can make a pretty good Scrapper too if they take all of the Fighting pool along with Leadership and Fitness. Does that mean that they should? Probably not. Because then they would no longer be a Defender.
As far as whether or not it makes a better secondary than primary, I can disagree to that with the numbers alone, I don't need anything other than that to prove that idea wrong.
And FF only requires minimal slotting if you want to be a "buffbot". REAL FF Defenders use just as many slots in their primaries as any other set. And makes GOOD use of them.
Forums ate my post because apparently I cancelled my subscription. My game time card fueled subscription. But anyway.
PFF, Deflection/Insulation/Dispersion, and Detention should stay the same.
Force Bolt should be a -20% DMG -20% RES, with the recharge increased.
Repulsion Field, maybe a negative Power Boost effect? Would lend FF something completely unique, at least to hero side.
Repulsion Bomb should be a mag 3 disorient with 100% chance to work if it hits.
Force Bubble should do -range. Maybe 40%.
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Force Bolt should be a -20% DMG -20% RES, with the recharge increased.
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Nonononononono. No.
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Repulsion Field, maybe a negative Power Boost effect? Would lend FF something completely unique, at least to hero side.
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Not quite sure what that means exactly, can you explain?
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Not quite sure what that means exactly, can you explain?
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Pretty much does Power Boost, except it reduces all of the effects rather than increases them. Mez durations, defense buffs, heals, etc., are reduced. Like Weaken from the Poison set.
Probably a lot more useful for AVs or PvP than for typical PvE, but better than the current incarnation.
Sounds interesting. Are you talking about adding this as another effect or changing the power to this exclusively?
Adding as another effect.
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Secondly, as usual, I agree with BurningChick.
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At least someone does!
FWIW, what would be a thematic way, I think, to add damage to FF is to give one of the powers a buff that gives a proc to one's teammates for a chance to do energy damage and / or low mag KB (i.e., knock down).
<QR>
I PMed Castle to see if he would look at this thread and consider it. Here is the PM I sent him:
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Could you please take a look at this thread and maybe pop your head in and say something there? Even a "No" would be something. We just want to know that YOU know that we're alive! 
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And here is Castle's response:
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Read through it, just have nothing to add at the moment. Some nice ideas in there, but nothing I can immediately work with (not for lack of ideas, but the datawork on buff/debuff sets takes a LOT longer than making alterations to damaging sets.)
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So he HAS read through the whole thread, he HAS seen the ideas, he KNOWS what we want and he has plenty of things to work with. Now it's just a matter of time before he and the other devs can get around to looking at it. Even when they GET the time to look at it, it looks like it will still take quite a bit of time for internal testing and programming before we see anything even on the Test Server.
Thank you all for your input, I think it was a very constructive conversation. And now you know that the "seed" is planted. We might just have to wait till next season for harvest. 
Note: I did get permission to post his PM here before doing it
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You know, I see a lot of suggestion that don't address a specific problem. Adding secondary controlling effects to various powers doesn't add something a FF defender actually needs...which is to say, a FF defender already provides awesome protection to his team, so why should he cut in on the troller's territory, too?
The only thing I think a FF defender -does- need is something to help him solo and contribute to the team's damage as a whole when he's on a team that doesn't really need his bubbles. Because there are, after all, teams that are already well enough protected, and adding a FF fender is just overkill. What we need is something to make us attractive to teams that are already surviving well...basically, teams at high levels.
Just my 2 infl.
~Gabriel
Well, since Castle has taken the time to read through this, let me toss this out even though I know it's a cottage. (I think you just came up with a new forumism Philo!)
Since about I2.. yes, I2 people! I've been advocating Force Bubble be changed to a -res, -acc, -speed PBAoE with a radius identical to Dispersion. I see that someone on the first page had a similar idea.
I've always thought this would be in-line with the FF concept, since a bubble of force, that causes enemies to push their way through, lowering their ability to defend themselves could easily be seen to fit within the FF powerset.
I recognize that Force Bubble and Repulsion Field use different mechanics, but the reality is these powers are, for the majority of time, redundant. Keep Repulsion Field for the PBAoE foe knockback power and let Force Bubble give us something to help boost team damage.
The name of the set is Force Field; not Force Defensive Field. Using powers to direct and amplify force is still within what many people would consider true to the set and the superhero genre.
Anyhoo, good job on the discussion Philo. It's been a while since we had a good FF discussion going. We've just about got the whole crew of oldtimers here again!
P.S. How did you get that spiffy forum title? I want one!
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P.S. How did you get that spiffy forum title? I want one!
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Cause I'm "special". Well, at least that's what my Mommy says.
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Cause I'm "special". Well, at least that's what my Mommy says.
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Hahah, she didn't make you take the short bus to school did she?
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Cause I'm "special". Well, at least that's what my Mommy says.
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Hahah, she didn't make you take the short bus to school did she?
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She drove the short bus. :P
Why, is there something wrong with that? She told me that it made me even more special because MY bus was different from everyone else's!
If we want dev attention to FF, we should do what the Stalkers did; get a consensus on what we want. So far, I sense nothing like that here. Only further discussion can get us there.
To aid in this, I made a list of issues and a list of powers: these are what I think could be a basis of a consensus, bit its by no means a poll or truly representative of anyone but myself.
Issues
* Two-Trick Pony - Knockback and defense is not enough
* Lack of offensive boosting
Powers in Doubt
* Force Bomb - most agree its useless in its current form
* Repulsion Field / Force Bubble - Redundant in effect (I know PhiloticKnight doesn't agree, but most everyone else does)
Is this a good basis for further discussion?
I must say I like the idea of a damage add, it fits the FF idea much better than -Res, but the issue with that is that you need to add a LOT of damage to compensate even a small -Res modification. This is because the average super has about +100% damage in enhancements and often add +25 more through self-buffs etc. This means that 10% -Res is approximately equal to +25% damage.
-Def is basically worthless in PvE. Except against the very rare high-defense enemies, by the levels we are talking about most toons have 90%+ accuracy already. Certain powers, like Choking Cloud, could benefit from it. But Choking cloud happens to be one of the powers a FF toon will never have.
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If we want dev attention to FF, we should do what the Stalkers did; get a consensus on what we want.
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Stalkers were "broken", FF is FAR from "broken". I started this thread to get some ideas collected and get them in the devs' collective heads. They will get around to it when they're done putting out the fires elsewhere. I don't think we have a real EMERGENCY here, it more of a "nice to have". That's why we were looking at tweaks rather than cottages. Because they would be the fastest and simplest to implement.
For us to get any OTHER kind of attention, we would have to prove to the devs that the set was "broken", and I don't think that we can do that.
What would I tweak? Change the animation of Repulsion Bomb to a much faster cast, reduce the recharge by one-third. Add more damage to Force Bolt and increase its recharge by half. Change Repulsion Field so that it has a larger radius but pulses less often.
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I'm playing a Sonic now, and it's fun, but my team feels ALOT squishier and less safe then when I'm playing my FFer. And I really don't like that.
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Well, I think that's what I was basically trying to say. I was trying to use understatement, and not insult Sonic, but my own experience is that it NOT that much of an improvement over Force Field.
The honest truth is, Force Field is somewhat a victim of its own success. What it does well, it does VERY well.