As of December 7, 2011
Issues Affecting Multiple Sets
Balance Issues
- Archvillains currently resist a large percentage of debuffs with very few exceptions (such as -Damage, -Resistance and the occasional non-resistible debuff). Their debuff resistances are the same as Giant Monsters, who are typically faced by large numbers of heroes, while Archvillains aren't usually faced by anymore than 8 heroes. Consequently, debuffs are not as large a force multiplier against Archvillains as they typically are against Giant Monsters. This creates an imbalance in Archvillain fights where buffs are much more useful than debuffs when it comes to team survivability. It also perpetuates the belief that the only debuff worth using on an Archvillain is -Regeneration, and thus there’s no reason to bring a debuffing Defender that lacks a reliable source of -Regeneration.
- Vigilance is almost unanimously seen as a poor inherent. It benefits very few of the Primary powersets and, despite an attempt by a developer to explain why it’s “defender-y,” there is little about it that genuinely feels that way. All other inherents assist or reward the AT for performing their role. Vigilance rewards the Defender that is not performing their role well enough.
- If a mob has a resistance, or vulnerability, to a certain type of damage AND that mob has an attack that is based on that type of damage, the amount the damage will be debuffed is altered by the mobs resistance. For example -- a villain has a 25% vulnerability to energy attacks. His energy damage is debuffed an extra 25% beyond the base 25%, making the final debuff 31.25% (25% of 25 is 6.25). This works in reverse as well. A mob, such as Hamidon, with 90% resistance to all attack types would only be debuffed 2.5%. Note: This Issue is a consequence of the current way Resistance and some debuffs work and would not be easily resolved.
- Under the Issue 13 toggle changes, team toggle buffs suppress on teammates when the teammate is mezzed, not when the user is mezzed. This seems unintuitive. Note: This Issue is a consequence of the current limitations of the game and would not be easily resolved.
- When an anchored toggle debuff is activated, multiple identical combat messages are displayed, one for each enemy within the debuff's initial area of effect.
- Regeneration debuff powers use the Res Boolean table in PvP, but the Ones table in PvE. This results in defenders being better at regeneration debuffs in PvP but not in PvE. This affects Twilight Grasp, Transfusion, Lingering Radiation, and Benumb. (Howling Twilight uses the Ones table in both PvP and PvE.)
PvP Issues
- Damage Debuffs in PvP debuff base damage rather than enhanced damage. A power that does a 100 base damage would do ~195 with 3 damage SOs. A Damage Debuff of 50% would debuff the damage down to 145, which is a reduction of only ~26% instead of 50%. While some Damage Debuffs have a higher value in PvP (Darkest Night and Enervating Field), most likely to compensate for this limitation, not all do.
- Slows without the -MaxRunSpeed debuff have very little effect against anyone with movement buffs, and even less against Melee ATs now that they all get Slow resistance in PvP.
- Usually, the longer the recharge of a power, the greater the buff/debuff/control it offers. Under the Issue 13 PvP rules, these powers values are greatly reduced, leaving them as just poor to mediocre buffs/debuffs/controls with lengthy recharges (and negative effects to the caster in a few cases).
Quality of Life
- Now that rez effects give XP debt protection, is it possible to rethink the rez confirmation process? This can be removed entirely, or made an option, as with team gifts and team teleports.
- Currently all powers that prevent status effects last between 60 and 90 seconds, making them impractical for team buffing. Is this intended?
Graphic Issues
- Vigilance's icon suggests it is a compound buff affecting the team. An inherent endurance self-buff icon exists but is unused, and would be a better fit for Vigilance.
Primary Powersets:
Cold Domination
Bugs
- Frostwork's HP buff value is incorrect in the detailed info screen. It displays as giving a set number of extra hit points that is usually much higher than what is actually given.
- In PvP, Benumb grants Endurance to the target. This was fixed for the Corruptor version in Issue 12, but not before the power was ported over to Defenders, it seems.
- Heat Loss has no Attack Type listed for Typed or Positional Defense powers to check against to see if they can dodge. If the caster has slotted for enough Accuracy, the only way to dodge the power is to have a buff to Base Defense (of which there are few) or to get lucky and have the power affected by the constant 5% chance to miss. Is this intended?
- Benumb drains endurance, but does not accept Endurance Modification enhancements or Invention sets.
- Frostwork buffs Toxic resistance, but does not accept Resist Damage enhancements or Invention sets.
- Frostwork is not flagged to ignore outside buffs and it's Toxic resistance isn't flagged to ignore enhancements. Combined, this allows for the caster to increase the amount of resistance the power grants by buffing their damage before casting.
Balance Issues
- The -Resistance values in the Defender versions of Sleet and Heat Loss are exactly the same as the Corruptor versions.
- The +Defense shields in Cold Domination aren’t affected by buffs, namely Power Build Up, while the Forcefield shields are. At the same time, this means Cold’s shields aren’t affected by debuffs like Weaken, while Forcefields would be.
Quality of Life
- Infrigidate's debuff doesn't stack, and if the caster uses it on the same enemy twice, it allows for a moment of normal movement and recharge speed, reducing its effectiveness against single targets.
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Snow Storm suggests it only slows recharge rate, instead of movement speed and recharge rate.
- While not technically an incorrect icon, the +Defense icon for Arctic Fog is not consistent with similar powers like Shadowfall or Steamy Mist, which use +Stealth icons.
Dark Miasma
Bugs
- Fearsome Stare is not flagged as AoE_Attack, just Negative_Energy_Attack. While there are some powers with no Typed flag, there are only supposed to be a few that have no Positional flag, and most of these are Psionic powers from Mind Control and Illusion Control. Is Fearsome Stare really supposed to have no Positional flag?
- The Pet Combat text for Dark Servant's Petrifying Gaze says "Dark Servant: Your Petrifying Gaze Immobilizes [DS's target] and reduces their defense." Petrifying Gaze doesn't immobilize or reduce defense.
Balance Issues
- Defender Twilight Grasp summons the same healing Twilight as corruptor Twilight Grasp. This results in Defenders and Corruptors healing for the same amount.
PvP Issues
- Petrifying Gaze gets an extra 0.98s base duration than other non-Controller/Dominator Holds in PvP.
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Tar Patch suggests that the power is a normal summon, instead of a summon that affects an area.
- Since the root time was removed from toggle buffs, activating Shadow Fall while moving in flight will cause the graphic effect to appear tilted.
Empathy
Balance Issues
- Regeneration Aura, Recovery Aura, and Adrenalin Boost offer the same buff values for Controllers as Defenders.
Power Customization Issues
- When choosing the Color Tintable theme for Fortitude, the 'starburst' glow around the target's head remains its original red/pink color. Only the graphics on the caster will change colors. Note: BackAlleyBrawler commented that some graphics would not change because they represented certain buffs and debuffs, such as the purple head glow of Clear Mind and Break Frees or the swirling purple shields of Luck Inspirations, but the graphic of Fortitude is not used for any other similar power. In fact, similar powers such as Forge, accept customized colors for all it's effects.
Forcefields
Bugs
- Dispersion Bubble uses the Ranged_Res_Boolean modifier, which is higher for Defenders (0.433 at level 50) than Controllers (0.346 at level 50), but Controller's Dispersion Bubble grants more Mez protection because the base value (before modifiers) is higher for Controllers (-30 to Defender's -20). In no other case of grantable mez protection do Controllers offer more protection than Defenders with the same power.
Balance Issues
- Force Bubble is an incredibly situational power. While it's not uncommon for sets' Tier 9 power to be situational, Force Bubble seems more difficult than most to find a time when it is truly a benefit to the team for it to be toggled on.
- Repulsion Field has the exact same effect for Controllers as Defenders.
- Force Bubble has the exact same effect for Controllers as Defenders.
PvP Issues
- Because of the bug with Controller's Dispersion Bubble granting more Mez Protection than Defenders, in PvP Controller's Dispersion Bubble offers them and their allies greater Mez Resistance than Defenders.
Quality of Life
- Detention Field is referred to as a Capture, not an Intangibility, and so can't be slotted for duration or mag.
Graphic Issues
- The power icon for Detention Field does not match its effect. The icon suggests this power buffs an ally's resistance to energy and negative energy damage.
- The power icon for Repulsion Bomb suggests that the power still does knockback, when it now does knockdown.
Kinetics
Bugs
- Fulcrum Shift has no Attack Type listed for Typed or Positional Defense powers to check against to see if they can dodge. If the caster has slotted for enough Accuracy, the only way to dodge the power is to have a buff to Base Defense (of which there are few) or to get lucky and have the power affected by the constant 5% chance to miss. Is this intended?
Balance Issues
- Increase Density, like Acrobatics, provides Knockback Protection without Knockback Resistance. Unlike Acrobatics, Increase Density does not allow for increasing the Knockback Protection with slotting.
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Transfusion suggests that the power is a single-target heal, when it’s actually a targeted AoE heal.
- The icon for Transference suggests that the power is a single-target +Endurance power, when it’s actually a targeted AoE +Endurance power.
- The icon for Inertial Reduction suggests the power only affects teammates, when it is a standard PBAoE buff that affects anyone within the radius.
Radiation Emission
Bugs
- Mutation buffs the target's ToHit, but does not accept ToHit Buff enhancements or sets.
Graphic Issues
- The power icons for Radiation Infection and Enervating Field are reversed.
- All targets affected by Radiation Infection are surrounded by a "red tinted cloud" sticky graphic, which suggests a -damage debuff.
- The icon for Mutation suggests it's a PBAoE Rez, when it is actually a single-target rez.
- The icon for Fallout suggests it's a PBAoE, when it is actually more like a targeted AoE.
Sonic Resonance
Bugs
- The "ShockDef" pet summoned by Defender's Liquefy does Smashing and Energy damage, but is only flagged as an AoE_Attack, not a Smashing_Attack or Energy_Attack. This means that foes with Energy or Smashing Defense, but no AoE Defense are less able to avoid the damage and
Hold.
PvP Issues
- Sonic shields now seem less beneficial in PvP since most ATs they previously benefitted are either less affected by them or are already being affected by Diminished Returns from their inherent PvP damage resistance.
Quality of Life
- Sonic Cage is referred to as a Capture, not an Intangibility, and so can't be slotted for duration or mag.
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Sonic Cage suggests the power is a Hold. While not as inappropriate as Detention Field's incorrect icon, it's still not right for Sonic Cage either.
- The icon for Liquefy suggests the power causes knockback, when it actually causes knockdown.
Power Customization Issues
- When choosing either the Bright or Dark themes for Clarity, the pulsing rings around the target's head remain orange.
Storm Summoning
Bugs
- Gale's double tick of knockback is incompatible with ragdoll physics. In most circumstances, the second tick will never affect targets subject to ragdoll physics.
Balance Issues
- In an attempt to balance the PvP performance of Hurricane, the power was changed to ‘tick’ less often. This makes placement incredibly difficult for a Storm user. Hurricane’s repel combined with its ToHit debuff used to work well in corners or dead ends, where the user could keep enemies inside its AoE. With the slower ‘tick,’ it’s common for an enemy to charge in-between ‘ticks’ and either attack the Hurricane user or suddenly be repelled in a completely new direction or in to other teammates.
- Tornado does the exact same damage and secondary effect for Controllers as it does for Defenders.
- Thunder Clap is inferior to nearly all other non-Controller PBAoE Disorient powers. It is Mag2, like most, but offers no chance to cause an additional Mag1.
- Freezing Rain and Tornado do not debuff defense better when used by Defenders compared to the other ATs.
Quality of Life
- Snow Storm causes many mobs to run away if the altered versions of their attacks take more than 10 seconds to recharge. Don't Stormers already have enough scatter?
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Snow Storm suggests it only slows movement speed, instead of movement speed and recharge rate.
- The power icon for Freezing Rain does not match its effect. The icon is missing the solid ring that suggests this power is a drop/summon that affects an area.
- The icon for Steamy Mist suggests the power the power only affects teammates, when it is a standard PBAoE buff that affects anyone within the radius.
- Tornado will appear tilted or sideways if summoned from above, until it moves.
- Since the root time was removed from toggle buffs, activating Steamy Mist while moving in flight will cause the graphic effect to appear tilted.
- Summoning Freezing Rain directly beneath yourself, while hovering away from the ground, causes the raindrops animation to be displaced to one side. (The ice slick animation and debuff/damage power effects are placed correctly. Hovering or standing at ground level does not have this result.)
Thermal Radiation
Bugs
- Thaw grants Cold and Slow Resistance, and these aspects should be made AoEs, while leaving the Mez protection single-target, like similar powers.
- Because Power of the Phoenix uses the Ranged_HealSelf modifier, instead of the Ranged_Heal modifier, the Corruptor version grants more HP than the Defender version.
Balance Issues
- While powers are balanced within their set as a whole, a 150s recharge on a power with values like Melt Armor seem a little excessive. Slowed Response from Time Manipulation has the exact same debuff values (without Time Crawl), but for less endurance, in a larger area, and on a shorter recharge timer.
Time Manipulation
Balance Issues
- Chrono Shift grants the same amount of Endurance, Recovery and Recharge for Defenders as it does for all other ATs.
PvP Issues
- Distortion Field's Hold effect only lasts for 0.3s in PvP. Similar powers still stick to the 2s/4s rule in PvP.
- Time Stop gets an extra 0.98s base duration than other non-Controller/Dominator Holds in PvP.
Quality of Life
- Time Crawl's debuff doesn't stack, and if the caster uses it on the same enemy twice, it allows for a moment of normal movement and recharge speed, reducing its effectiveness against single targets.
Trick Arrows
Bugs
- Glue Arrow only applies its -Fly effect for .5 seconds, but the power activates every 1 second. As it turns out, that half second it's not causing -Fly is plenty of time for someone to escape the glue patch.
- Enemies that are debuffed by Glue Arrow, but do not leave it's Area of Effect before the glue disappears, are immediately freed of all debuffs. Debuffs will only persist if the enemy leaves the AoE before the glue disappears, in which case they'll last the full duration from the time they exited the glue.
- Poison Gas Arrow is no longer autohit and cannot be slotted for accuracy. Either way, this means the debuff can now actually "miss," and that the Sleep effect now must go through two seperate tohit checks in order to activate (or normal tohit roll, and the 66% chance to take effect).
Balance Issues
- Glue Arrow, once considered a unique, staple power of the Trick Arrows set is nearly completely outshone by a power from the Time Manipulation set: Distortion Field. Distortion Field does over triple the Recharge debuff, has a chance to hold up to Lieutenant level enemies, and causes -91% RunSpeed, compared to Glue Arrow's -90% RunSpeed.
- Disruption Arrow has a target limit of 10 enemies. Similar location AoE -Resistance powers have a target limit of 16. Why is Disruption Arrow singled out?
- Disruption Arrow has twice the endurance cost of Tar Patch, and is just short of the endurance cost of Freezing Rain, despite having less effects and a smaller debuff value than both.
- Entangling Arrow, a Defender primary power, is less effective than Devices/Web Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.
- Flash Arrow, a Defender primary power, is no more effective than Devices/Smoke Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.
- As a general design issue, too many Trick Arrow powers have been balanced directly against similar Control powers. They are intentionally weaker than their Control counterparts. This makes it appropriate for a Controller secondary, but it underperforms as a primary in its own right.
PvP Issues
- Previously in PvP, Trick Arrows relied on slows, controls and debuffs to make foes easier to defeat or just to disrupt their plans. In Issue 13 PvP, there is little left for Trick Arrows to offer; slows have become all but useless, its controls are set at 2 second base durations, and now all melee ATs have resistance to every kind of debuff it can put out. No other Defender set suffers under the I13 PvP rules the same way because no other set is just debuffs, slows and control.
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Glue Arrow suggests it's a standard location drop/summon, when it's actually a combination of a summon and targeted AoE.
- The icon for Glue Arrow suggests it only slows recharge rate, instead of recharge rate and movement speed.
- The icon for Oil Slick Arrow suggests it's a standard drop/summon, when it's actually a location drop/summon.
- The icon for EMP Arrow suggests it's a Stun/Disorient, when it's actually a Hold.
Traps
Bugs
- Acid Mortar's Defense Debuff is too high. Assuming Corruptors' version uses the "base" value, the Defender version should be -25% ( 2.0 * -0.125 = -0.25 or -25% ). The current -26.6% percent seems to have been made with the thinking that Corruptors' modifier was -0.075 and Defenders' was -0.10 ( 2.0 / -0.075 = 26.7% ), when Corruptors' modifier is actually -0.10 and Defenders' is -0.125.
- Seeker Drones' Damage Debuff is too high. Assuming Corruptors' version uses the "base" value, the Defender version should be -25% ( 2.0 * -0.125 = -0.25 or -25% ). The current -26.6% percent seems to have been made with the thinking that Corruptors' modifier was -0.075 and Defenders' was -0.10 ( 2.0 / -0.075 = 26.7% ), when Corruptors' modifier is actually -0.10 and Defenders' is -0.125.
- Seeker Drones' ToHit Debuff is too high. Assuming Corruptors' version uses the "base" value, the Defender version should be -6.25% ( 0.5 * -0.125 = -0.0625 or -6.25% ). The current -6.65% percent seems to have been made with the thinking that Corruptors' modifier was -0.075 and Defenders' was -0.10 ( 0.5 / -0.075 = 6.67% ), when Corruptors' modifier is actually -0.10 and Defenders' is -0.125.
- Web Grenade reduces targets' movement speed and accepts slow enhancements, but does not accept slow IO sets.
- Force Field Generator summons a flying pet but cannot be targeted in mid-air.
- Poison Trap's initial hold rolls a to-hit check, but the power does not accept accuracy enhancements. The Pet Hit Rolls channel incorrectly reports the power as being autohit.
- Damage dealt by Acid Mortar after it despawns (due to damage over time) counts as non-teamed damage, reducing XP and inf rewards.
Quality of Life
- Web Grenade's debuff doesn't stack, and if the caster uses it on the same enemy twice, it allows for a moment of normal movement and recharge speed, reducing its effectiveness against single targets.
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Time Bomb suggests it's an Extreme Damage PBAoE, when it's actually a Extreme Damage Drop/Summon that affects an area.
Power Customization Issues
- When choosing the Color Tintable theme for Poison Trap, the gas summoned by the trap is not actually the custom color chosen. No matter what color is selected, the gas cloud summoned is blue.
- When choosing the Color Tintable theme for Triage Beacon, the glowing rings are not actually the custom color chosen. The color seems to 'mix' with a green/grey color, rather than taking on the actual color. For example, choosing a red color for both color selections will result in a mustard yellow Triage Beacon, while choosing a blue color will result in a turqoise Triage Beacon.
Secondary Powersets:
Archery
Bugs
- Fistful of Arrows is classified as a "Ranged Attack," not an "AoE Attack" like other Ranged Cone powers.
Balance Issues
- Archery seems underpowered in groups due to lack of inherent enemy debuff.
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Rain of Arrows suggests its damage is Moderate/Medium, and not Extreme like other Tier 9s.
Assault Rifle
Bugs
- Ignite does the same amount of damage for Blasters and Defenders.
Beam Rifle
- No known issues.
Dark Blast
Bugs
- The endurance costs for Tenebrous Tentacles and Night Fall appear to be reversed.
Balance Issues
- Moonbeam's secondary effect is the standard value of all other blasts in the set. Most Sniper powers' secondary effect is greater than the other blasts in their respective sets.
- Dark Pit is a ranged AoE stun power with a target cap of 10. All ranged AoE mez powers have a target cap of 16.
Dual Pistols
Balance Issues
- The secondary effect of Pistols (defense debuff) is removed when changing to fire, cold, or toxic ammo, but no replacement secondary effect is added. This results in Pistols having no secondary effect when using fire, cold, or toxic ammo.
Electrical Blast
Bugs
- Defenders have the highest Endurance Drain modifier of all Archetypes with access to Electrical Blast (1.25 to Corruptors 1.1 and Blasters 1.0), but at some point in time, the set stopped using the EndDrain tables and started using the Ones tables for its PvE End Drain values. As a result, Elec Blast (along with many other powers with End Drain components) are now equally strong for any AT sharing the same power. There is no longer an advantage to playing Elec Blast on a Defender over a Blaster if you want to focus on Endurance Drain.
Quality of Life
- Voltaic Sentinel targets enemies trapped inside Force Field/Detention Field. Would this perhaps be fixable by making Detention Field (and Sonic Cage) cause -Threat?
Energy Blast
- No known issues.
Ice Blast
Bugs
- Blizzard and Ice Storm do the same damage for Blasters and Defenders.
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Ice Blast's Aim suggests it is a Build Up power, not an Aim power. A correct icon exists, but the power does not point to it.
Psychic Blast
Balance Issues
- There are only 3 groups of enemies that have vulnerabilities to Psi damage: Clockwork in the early game, Cabal in Croatoa for a small level range, and CoT Spectrals. By the time the set can actually do damage, most villain groups (Nemesis, Praetorians, Council, Carnies, Malta) are not only not vulnerable, but have a high percentage of members with either sizable resists or defense to the entire set, save Telekinetic Blast, making the set feel underpowered throughout the game.
- Psionic Lance, unlike most sniper blasts, has a side effect (-recharge) that is significantly weaker than other blasts in the set.
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Psychic Wail suggests its damage is Moderate/Medium, and not Extreme like other Tier 9s.
Radiation Blast
Graphic Issues
- The icon for Irradiate is too big and is off-centered.
Sonic Attacks
Bugs
- Shockwave's double tick of knockback is incompatible with ragdoll physics. In most circumstances, the second tick will never affect targets subject to ragdoll physics.
Graphic Issues
- The graphic for Siren's Song continues to play even after the animation has ended and the caster can move or use another power.
Ancillary Powersets:
Dark Mastery
Bugs
- Oppressive Gloom's self-inflicted damage increases if affected targets are lower level, decreases if affected targets are higher level.
- Defender's Oppressive Gloom has no MaxTargetsHit cap, unlike all other versions. This could make it potentially very powerful and very dangerous for the Defender since it also has the largest radius of all versions.
- Dark Consumption's endurance recovery increases if affected targets are lower level, decreases if affected targets are higher level.
Electricity Mastery
- No known issues.
Power Mastery
Bugs
- Power Build Up does not boost Toxic Damage.
- Force of Nature accepts Endurance Modification enhancements, but the +Recovery is flagged to ignore Enhancements.
Graphic Issues
- The color of Power Build Up and Temp Invulnerability's icons do not match the rest of the set.
Psychic Mastery
- No known issues.
Leviathan Mastery
Balance Issues
- Spirit Shark Jaws has a recharge time of 32s. APP Defender Holds have a recharge time of 16s.
Mace Mastery
Balance Issues
- Web Cocoon has a recharge time of 32s. APP Defender Holds have a recharge time of 16s.
Mu Mastery
Balance Issues
- Electric Shackles has a recharge time of 32s. APP Defender Holds have a recharge time of 16s.
Soul Mastery
Balance Issues
- Soul Storm has a recharge time of 32s. APP Defender Holds have a recharge time of 16s.
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# Bug: Absorb Pain inflicts the user with the inability to be healed, even if the target had been defeated before the power could go off. Technically not a bug. Remove?
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Remove. Not a bug, working as intended.
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# Balance: Clear mind's animation (3.1 seconds) makes prebuffing a large team prohibitive, and using it as a release deadly.
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I don't think this is a balance issue. Power is working just fine. Just stop stacking it on everyone and prebuffing large teams with it, which 99% of the time is a total waste of time.
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# Bug: Absorb Pain inflicts the user with the inability to be healed, even if the target had been defeated before the power could go off. Technically not a bug. Remove?
[/ QUOTE ]
Remove. Not a bug, working as intended.
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# Balance: Clear mind's animation (3.1 seconds) makes prebuffing a large team prohibitive, and using it as a release deadly.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think this is a balance issue. Power is working just fine. Just stop stacking it on everyone and prebuffing large teams with it, which 99% of the time is a total waste of time.
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Those were both listed on the only copy of the original list I could find, and I have very limited experience with Empathy to make a call about them, so I included them.
I'll remove them, making Empathy practically perfect in every way. 
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# Bug: Absorb Pain inflicts the user with the inability to be healed, even if the target had been defeated before the power could go off. Technically not a bug. Remove?
[/ QUOTE ]
Remove. Not a bug, working as intended.
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# Balance: Clear mind's animation (3.1 seconds) makes prebuffing a large team prohibitive, and using it as a release deadly.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think this is a balance issue. Power is working just fine. Just stop stacking it on everyone and prebuffing large teams with it, which 99% of the time is a total waste of time.
[/ QUOTE ]
Those were both listed on the only copy of the original list I could find, and I have very limited experience with Empathy to make a call about them, so I included them.
I'll remove them, making Empathy practically perfect in every way.
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To be honest I don't think there are any current bugs in Empathy. So maybe perfect in a buggy since, but not perfect. Hell, I could make a list asking for CM with a 1 second animation, a 20 s recharge on RA, etc. Nice for a wish list, just not something I think belongs in a a current issues thread.
Aware you didn't make this list, just providing feedback on the sets I am most familiar with.
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Balance: Entangling Arrow, a Defender primary power, is less effective than Devices/Web Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.
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Entangling arrow has inherent extra accuracy, is cheaper to cast, has longer range, and lasts longer (according to city of data)
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Balance: Flash Arrow, a Defender primary power, is no more effective than Devices/Smoke Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.
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Flash arrow has a slightly longer cast time, but again has inherent accuracy and a slightly higher acc debuff. Also entangling arrow is a level 1 power, while smoke grenade is level 16
MA Arc:
Overload (Arc ID #405822) | Status: Final | Last Edited: 5th Nov 2010 for text fixes.
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Balance: Liquefy has a very long recharge in exchange for too many effects. The -ToHit/-Defense debuffs arent that much stronger than lower tier debuffs in other sets, so it seems the addition of low damage, a weak hold, a tiny chance of knockdown, and an undocumented Recharge debuff are all supposed to justify this long timer, but it is not seen that way by many players. This is all on top of the fact that none of these effects are synonymous with liquefaction.
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This has been brought up a number of times and from what I can tell the sonic defender community is far from agreed on this. Some of the points stated are vague. e.g. "The -ToHit/-Defense debuffs arent that much stronger than lower tier debuffs in other sets." How much is "not that much"? According to the in game stats the base for these two are -44.63%. With my current slotting (hamidon enhancements) Thats a -69.61% to-hit and -87.02% defense. In addition to the weak hold/knockdown/damage with a 2 min 32 sec recharge time. I've always felt thats pretty good. Its certainly useful on cutting down incoming damage. How many other powers debuff both those stats that much and how much faster then 2.5 minutes would it have to recharge to be considered worthwhile?
Did they fix the animation bug for anchor toggles? As in: try to toggle on when you cant (out of range/LoS, no End, mezzed, etc) and still play the animation?
Also, last I heard, Vigilence would actually increase your end use if allys had more than their max base hp (from bonuses/accolades/powers). Did that get fixed as well?
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# Balance: Archery seems underpowered in groups due to lack of inherent enemy debuff.
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Ranged criticals would be how I would do it conceptually but that would be a bit too much probably. Maybe a Toxic DoT with the concept being poison tipped or maybe just a damage increase because it's lethal damage?
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Balance: Entangling Arrow, a Defender primary power, is less effective than Devices/Web Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.
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Entangling arrow has inherent extra accuracy, is cheaper to cast, has longer range, and lasts longer (according to city of data)
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Balance: Flash Arrow, a Defender primary power, is no more effective than Devices/Smoke Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.
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Flash arrow has a slightly longer cast time, but again has inherent accuracy and a slightly higher acc debuff. Also entangling arrow is a level 1 power, while smoke grenade is level 16
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I believe these two issues were brought up regarding the debuff values, and whether powers with those relatively values belonged in a Defender Primary set, even with the bonuses like extra accuracy and lower endurance costs.
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Balance: Liquefy has a very long recharge in exchange for too many effects. The -ToHit/-Defense debuffs arent that much stronger than lower tier debuffs in other sets, so it seems the addition of low damage, a weak hold, a tiny chance of knockdown, and an undocumented Recharge debuff are all supposed to justify this long timer, but it is not seen that way by many players. This is all on top of the fact that none of these effects are synonymous with liquefaction.
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This has been brought up a number of times and from what I can tell the sonic defender community is far from agreed on this. Some of the points stated are vague. e.g. "The -ToHit/-Defense debuffs arent that much stronger than lower tier debuffs in other sets." How much is "not that much"? According to the in game stats the base for these two are -44.63%. With my current slotting (hamidon enhancements) Thats a -69.61% to-hit and -87.02% defense. In addition to the weak hold/knockdown/damage with a 2 min 32 sec recharge time. I've always felt thats pretty good. Its certainly useful on cutting down incoming damage. How many other powers debuff both those stats that much and how much faster then 2.5 minutes would it have to recharge to be considered worthwhile?
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Regarding the "slightly higher" part, Liquefy's base values for -Defense/-ToHit are 35.7%. Radiation Infection's base values for -ToHit/-Defense are 31.25%. The issue is, is a 5 minute base recharge balanced for that 4.5% difference, even with the low damage/hold/knockdown. I'm not making a judgement, this was a suggested additional note, so I added it.
Edit: The base value isn't 44.625%, the display is showing the hard-coded Defender version of the pet's value, and multiplying it by 1.25 again.
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Did they fix the animation bug for anchor toggles? As in: try to toggle on when you cant (out of range/LoS, no End, mezzed, etc) and still play the animation?
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Last I heard, this was fixed. I'll test later today to make sure.
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Also, last I heard, Vigilence would actually increase your end use if allys had more than their max base hp (from bonuses/accolades/powers). Did that get fixed as well?
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This I forgot about, and will add.
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Heres a few to make empathy less perfect:
Balance: Recovery Aura, Regeneration Aura, and Adrenaline Boost all function at the same values for controllers as they do for defenders. (I don't think this has been changed anyway)
On the vigilance end cost increase, I'm not sure if it actually makes the powers cost more or if it just displays that, going to try to test that soon. (Along with a different theory on the cause of the negative buffs)
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Heres a few to make empathy less perfect:
Balance: Recovery Aura, Regeneration Aura, and Adrenaline Boost all function at the same values for controllers as they do for defenders. (I don't think this has been changed anyway)
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Didn't know about this one. Thanks for pointing it out!
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On the vigilance end cost increase, I'm not sure if it actually makes the powers cost more or if it just displays that, going to try to test that soon. (Along with a different theory on the cause of the negative buffs)
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Alright, well let me know!
P.S. That "The form is no longer blahblahblah" thing when you post is killing me today. 
[ QUOTE ][*]Quality of Life: Detention Field's graphic needs to be more obvious -- currently teammates can't tell when an enemy is detained and waste attacks on it. Are there any plans to either make the graphic more obvious, or to otherwise make it more difficult to waste attacks on a DF'd enemy?"Detention Field" float text was added, is this enough of a change to remove this?
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It's an improvement, but the graphics are still far too low for such a major effect to team play.
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[*]Quality of Life : Neither Erratic nor the Defender community have been given an apology, formal or informal, for the Developer behavior regarding the I5 Enervating Field changes. Still worth mentioning?
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It's been almost three years. I don't even think Erratic is around anymore, and half the dev team of that era is gone. There's no point in holding a grudge like this.
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[*]Quality of Life : Neither Erratic nor the Defender community have been given an apology, formal or informal, for the Developer behavior regarding the I5 Enervating Field changes. Still worth mentioning?
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It's been almost three years. I don't even think Erratic is around anymore, and half the dev team of that era is gone. There's no point in holding a grudge like this.
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It was Positron who said it if I recall correctly. And he is still around.
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
An apology for what?
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Storm Summoning
Balance: In an attempt to balance the PvP performance of Hurricane, the power was changed to tick less often. This makes placement incredibly difficult for a Storm user. Hurricanes repel combined with its ToHit debuff used to work well in corners or dead ends, where the user could keep enemies inside its AoE. With the slower tick, its common for an enemy to charge in-between ticks and either attack the Hurricane user or suddenly be repelled in a completely new direction.
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Personal Opinion:
It's fine that the Storm user can be attacked through the Repel ticks; Storm shouldn't offer 100% protection from melee and it still does its job pretty well. The problem is really that Castle's idea of a sweet spot for timing with regards to PVP will often cause an enemy to run past the Stormie and be flung in the opposing direction than is the Stormie's intention. Which usually means it will land in a gaggle of squishies. The last place you want it.
We can't reasonably expect a level 12 power to be perfect. It should however not be detrimental to our gameplay experience either.
Moreover, I feel that the original reason for the change, the fact that you could pin player enemies in PVP without Repel Protection into a corner forever and a day, has since been amended due to the addition of 50% Repel Resistance to even the lowliest of Break Frees. This affords anyone roughly the same level of Protection from Repel as the ranged ATs are afforded to Mezzing in general. If the excuse that you can carry Break Frees is sufficient to justify Defenders and Controllers not having any inherent Mez Protection (though some builds can pick up powers to bridge that gap), then it should be just as sufficient when applied to melee ATs struggling with Repel effects.
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
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An apology for what?
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Erratic was the first player to bring a report from the Test Server that Enervating Field's Res DeBuff had been lowered from then 37.5% to now 30%. When he did so, the Dev reply he got was along the lines of, 'this has been brought up time and again - it's still not true'. This is heavily paraphrased, but the general implication the community got out of the comment then was Erratic was not just mistaken, but lying.
Only, it later turned out they'd really lowered Enervating Field's performance to 30%. They'd just 'forgotten' about it.
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
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# Bug: Absorb Pain inflicts the user with the inability to be healed, even if the target had been defeated before the power could go off. Technically not a bug. Remove?
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Remove. Not a bug, working as intended.
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# Balance: Clear mind's animation (3.1 seconds) makes prebuffing a large team prohibitive, and using it as a release deadly.
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I don't think this is a balance issue. Power is working just fine. Just stop stacking it on everyone and prebuffing large teams with it, which 99% of the time is a total waste of time.
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Those were both listed on the only copy of the original list I could find, and I have very limited experience with Empathy to make a call about them, so I included them.
I'll remove them, making Empathy practically perfect in every way.
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To be honest I don't think there are any current bugs in Empathy. So maybe perfect in a buggy since, but not perfect. Hell, I could make a list asking for CM with a 1 second animation, a 20 s recharge on RA, etc. Nice for a wish list, just not something I think belongs in a a current issues thread.
Aware you didn't make this list, just providing feedback on the sets I am most familiar with.
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Clear Mind has a 3.1 sec activation time.
Clarity in Sonic has 1.5 sec, Thaw in Thermal radiation has 2.17s.
Since the devs have admitted that they didnt factor in animation times in their early balancing equations, and have corrected this for Tier 1 and 2 Blaster primaries and Defender secondaries, there's no reason not to raise this as an issue with Clear Mind.
I dont think its clear that the long animation time is intentionally there to stop or discourage you from using it pre-emptively, more because the animation looked right at the time.
Ahh, gotcha. I wasn't around then, so I was curious.
Energy Blast
Technically speaking, Energy Blast, like Archery, underperforms by Defender Standards. A long long time ago, when we first noticed the similarity in the performance of many Controller and Defender powers, Castle mentioned that no AT got an AT Modifier for Knockback. As such, Energy is another set that doesn't benefit from the supposed Defender Blast Paradigm of 'Stronger Secondary Effects'.
Maybe it would be fair to give Energy Blast a (tiny) boost in Damage output or an End cost reduction. As it stands right now, there are no reasons to choose Energy Blast except aesthetic ones; Sonic Blast does the exact same things Energy Blast does, and the pronounced -Res from Sonic Blasts Defenders enjoy makes it several times more desirable for any situation imaginable.
(But then it could be argued that Sonic Blast is overpowered as a Blast set.)
"If you're going through hell, keep going."
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
It appears Defenders Ranged_Knockback modifier is higher than Blasters. Power Push for example is about 16 knockback for Defenders, and 13 knockback for Blasters.
Edit: But I DO remember being told that no AT had an advantage with knockback. So that's some interesting news.
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It appears Defenders Ranged_Knockback modifier is higher than Blasters. Power Push for example is about 16 knockback for Defenders, and 13 knockback for Blasters.
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That is very interesting. And I remember the same thing - no AT supposedly has a higher KB mod than any other.
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It was Positron who said it if I recall correctly. And he is still around.
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I thought it was Geko? Either way, seriously. It's been several years. The horse is dead. If it was going to happen, we would already have gotten the apology. It's a distraction and a detriment to the list as a whole to have it focused on bug fixes and balance issues, and to stick in one single instance of a non-mechanical, non-balance issue that's years past and really of a fairly minor note.
Should we have gotten an apology? Sure. Would it be nice to still get one? Sure. Does demanding one belong in a list of balance issues? No.
Please feel free to make suggestions about what to add or remove or any rewording suggestions.