Wow. Good luck, man.
Issues Affecting Multiple Sets
* Graphics: 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.
(Another way to talk about AV debuff resistance)
* Balance: Archvillains have the same debuff resistances as Giant Monsters. Archvillains are typically faced by eight or fewer heroes, while Giant Monsters are typically faced by large numbers of heroes. Consequently, debuffs are not as large a force multiplier against Archvillains as they typically are against Giant Monsters.
Storm Summoning
* Bug: 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.
* Graphics: Tornado will appear tilted or sideways if summoned from above, until it moves.
Dark Blast
* Balance: The endurance costs of Tenebrous Tentacles and Night Falls appear to be reversed.
Psychic Blast
* Balance: Psionic Lance, unlike most sniper blasts, has a side effect (-recharge) that is significantly weaker than other blasts in the set.
Sonic Attack
* Bug: 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.
* Bug: Screech is a ranged attack but does not accept range enhancements.
Dark Mastery
* Bug: Oppressive Gloom's self-inflicted damage increases if affected targets are lower level, decreases if affected targets are higher level.
* Bug: Dark Consumption's endurance recovery increases if affected targets are lower level, decreases if affected targets are higher level.
* Bug: Soul Drain's damage and tohit buffs increase if affected targets are lower level, decrease if affected targets are higher level.
<ul type="square">[*]Force Fields: Working as intended. 
[/list]
I kid, I kid!
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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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In Radiation emission, that debuff is the core of your team protection. Everything else hinges on or relies on it. It covers a smaller area, is subject to anchor kills, and anchor positioning.
Enervating field dulls alpha strikes, but does not provide the same magnitude of protection. It serves best as an offensive, not defensive tool.
Lingering radiation slows the waves of incoming damage, but does not reduce the damage, making it a poor opener.
Choking cloud takes 5 to 10 seconds to establish it's hold, and is less likely to hold leutennants.
Radiant Aura will not protect a team sufficiently alone.
EM Pulse isn't up often enough to be considered core to rad's protection strategy.
Mutate and Fallout are emergency powers, not core tools. They prevent MORE people from dying. RI prevents the first casualty.
AM is an offensive buff, primarily.
For Rad, RI is better compared to Sonic Haven and Sonic Barrier, not Liquefy, in terms of the role it fulfills.
In Sonic Resonance, Liquefy is your "The team will no longer take any damage" button. They are already buffed with +Resist shields, Mez protection, you have a large-area -Resist field in play and spot application of single-target -Resist. Giving a single powerset "every spawn" capability to grant Scrapper level damage/mez protection in combination with Elude level avoidance power would be a questionable move.
Liquefy's paralell in Rad is much more likely to be EM pulse: A power that goes "outside the set" in it's abilities, providing a "solution button" to problem situations. Casting it every fight would be like having both an FF user and a Sonic at the same time.
Am I against a recharge reduction? Maybe, maybe not. I like my sonic/sonic a lot, and wouldn't mind if he was stronger. But the set is very solid as is, and I question the call for an "every fight" power of that potency. Further, I reject trading potency for availability. I took the power to stop spawns cold, and that it does. A weaker tohit debuff would become inconsequential in the +3/+4 range: Even as is, it doesn't floor enemies of that power level.
As for this:
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Balance: Sonic resonance users are extremely weak as far as self defense. Every other defender primary has powers in their primary to help with self-defense of some kind, even if that's just a heal or a slow. Sonic Cage seems inadequate for this.
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With Sonic dispersion, Liquefy, and Sonic Cage, I would suspect that Sonic Resonance is actually better off than this quote shows it to be. A personal anti-mez toggle with nearly global +Resist is potent.
While not as inpenetrable as the debuff sets, my suspiscion is that Sonic fares at least reasonably in comparison to the more buff oriented sets.
I will admit that it probably doesn't compete with Forcefield or Kinetics, but I'd be surprised if someone tried to paint it as worse off than solo-empathy. After all, "heals are the worst form of mitigation", right?
Right? *crickets*
Mission Arc: Metatronic Mayhem (Id 1750): A tale of robots gone wrong, rogue robots gone right, and madmen gone every which way but loose.
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Balance: Archvillains currently resist a large percentage of debuffs with very few exceptions (such as -Damage, -Resistance and the occasional non-resistable debuff). This creates an imbalance 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 AV is -Regeneration, and thus theres no reason to bring a debuffing Defender that lacks -Regeneration (such as Storm, Sonic, and Trick Arrows).
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Trick Arrow does actually have a -regen component in EMP arrow.
City of Data link:
http://coh.redtomax.com/data/powers/...rrow.EMP_Arrow
-Kirov
"To be violent at first and wind up fearing one's people is the epitome of ineptitude."
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Alright, I'll be adding a few more issues soon (mostly from Rigel_Kent).
Regarding the Sonic Resonance issues, the note about Liquefy was a requested addition. Since the only feedback I've gotten from this thread about it has defended the timer on Liquefy, I'll move it under a new header for debatable issues.
The second issue about Sonic's self-protection was already on the list I started working from. Again, if anyone else feels that Sonic Resonance does better than this issue suggests, I'll move it under a debatable header. I do have a Sonic Defender, and I know that in the lower levels, even with Sonic Dispersion, there wasn't much I could do to increase my survivability besides keep attacking. With my Forcefielder, I had Force Bolt and Personal Forcefield for when things went bad. I wouldn't have a problem with something like adding another effect to Sonic Siphon (KD, KB, Slow, Stun, etc.) for those times when there's one too many enemies than you can handle.
I've also reworded the AV resistances issue to say a "reliable source of -Regen." I know Trick Arrows does have -Regen, but it's a 15 second duration on a power with a base recharge of 5 minutes. The point is, many players assume that -Regen is desperately needed for every AV encounter and will willingly wait around until a Defender/Controller with -Regen joins their team, even if there are Defenders without -Regen (or a reliable source of it) who would be willing to join.
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The second issue about Sonic's self-protection was already on the list I started working from. Again, if anyone else feels that Sonic Resonance does better than this issue suggests, I'll move it under a debatable header. I do have a Sonic Defender, and I know that in the lower levels, even with Sonic Dispersion, there wasn't much I could do to increase my survivability besides keep attacking. With my Forcefielder, I had Force Bolt and Personal Forcefield for when things went bad. I wouldn't have a problem with something like adding another effect to Sonic Siphon (KD, KB, Slow, Stun, etc.) for those times when there's one too many enemies than you can handle.
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I also have a 50 sonic/sonic. Throughout most of the character's career, the degree of self protection is likely the lowest on any character I have played (at least from my primary), and the only character I felt was a chore to solo with in the teens and twenties, and that was with taking aid self.
Compared to force fields, sonic dispersion offers a lower % mitigation than the equivalent, which also offers protection from end drain.
Additionally, PVE wise, resist is generally worse than defense, as more attacks hit. While they do less damage, any secondary effect (slow, to hit debuff, defense debuff, etc) lands for full effect. If sonic's resistance offered resistance to debuffs it would be less problematic, but it doesnt (as far as I was able to test). I'm not even sure if the shields offer resistance to damage resistance debuff.
Sonic also has a glaring hole to psi, which force fields do not. Its not a huge issue, but if issue 13 does involve a shadow shard revamp, wisps are one group a sonic defender is more or less useless against. Lastly, force field gets protection from sleep in the form of raw defense, something sonic does not.
I think the sonic primary could use a small boost. If sonic siphon was changed to actually SIPHON resists and grant the user (or even the team) a 10% resist all buff or something, I dont think it would be overpowered.
I think the -regen issue is still relevant. Despite the inclusion of the cold set with the -regen in benumb (and -regen in /thermal in controller, and /mind in blaster *shudder*), the CONSTANT application of -regen is much more useful vs AV and Giant monsters.
I would love to see a small but UNRESISTED -regen on poison gas arrow. For instance, a -6.25% regen debuff, unresisted, would give as much -regen on a lvl 54 AV (assuming caster is lvl 50) as most of the big hitters, without getting crazy. Howling twilight and Benumb both give a -500%, but after the AV resist and the purple patch, it gets knocked down to 6.25% for 30s. Lingering Radiation gives the same values but for 15s, albeit with a MUCH faster recharge timer. EMP and EMP arrow thus give a 13% -regen for only 15 sec, on a long recharge timer with the -recovery to self cost.
By doing it as a small but unresisted debuff, it makes the power great for AVs, but doesn't really alter the power against normal foes, thus leaving TA almost unchanged for normal play. However, I think that this 1 small change would make TAs 'less weak', more loved AND increase the number of defender power sets that enhance the playability of AV arcs. This would be a nice double tap as far as 'defender issues' go.
...and I don't even HAVE a TA yet 
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Force Fields
<ul type="square">[*]Balance: Currently the last three powers in the FF set are highly situational and generate a great deal of aggro, all of which is drawn on to the least defended member of the team -- the FF Defender.[*]Balance: Force Field defenders rely on only two methods of Defending -- adding Defense and use of knockback. Considering the multiple ways all other Defender sets have of Defending their teams within each set (heals, buffs, debuffs, holds, etc.), is it intended for FF to be a two-trick pony?[/list]
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In direct gameplay I have found the damage mitigation offered by the FF set is not lacking. I realize it is only to ways of accomplishing that goal but if it can do the trick using only two methods how does it matter, the job is done. as per the high tier powers my style I never liked KB so I avoid them but force bubble is an immensely powerful tool, situational yes, but effective in those common situations.
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Kinetics
<ul type="square">[*]Quality of Life: Increase Density duration is far too short for practicality. The fact that it has a damage resistance buffing component indicates that it was intended to be used regularly and preemptively, but with a duration of 60 seconds, it's nearly impossible to maintain and still carry out the rest of our primary functions, even on small teams. [/list]
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ID protects KB, Holds and Immobs as well as grants a resistance ... if it lasted as long as say Sonic Haven it would be very overpowered, the short lifespan seems to be set so that if you want the whole team to have that great buff you can't do much else ... seems balanced
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Storm Summoning
<ul type="square">[*]Quality of Life: Snow Storm causes many mobs to run away, if the altered versions of their attacks take more than 10 seconds. Don't Stormers already have enough scatter?[/list]
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Storm Summoners Scatter ... its the set but played well they have controlled scatter, its a little difficult at times but diffent powersets require different tactics, Storm is no different
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Sonic Resonance
<ul type="square">[*]Balance: Sonic resonance users are extremely weak as far as self defense. Every other defender primary has powers in their primary to help with self-defense of some kind, even if that's just a heal or a slow. Sonic Cage seems inadequate for this.[/list]
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Sonic Dispersion - +res and mez resist, not as good as a tank but if work hard its enough (It is better on a Controller but Controllers are like that)
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Trick Arrow
<ul type="square">[*]Bug: Flash Arrow gives a perception debuff. However, when the power is recast from within enemy's normal perception range, the Defender will be spotted, regardless of whether the second Flash arrow hits or misses, and regardless of how much time is left on the first Flash Arrow. Limitation of the engine. Remove?[*]Bug: Oil Slick Arrow does not light every time it's attacked with a fire or energy attack, despite the target dying.[*]Bug: Poison Gas Arrow summons a pet that serves no purpose except to appear as a brownish-green gas cloud. This graphical pet sticks around for the duration of the debuff, causing many people to believe that enemies that enter the cloud after PGA is activated will be debuffed, when it actually does nothing. [*]Balance: Flash Arrow, a Defender primary power, is no more effective than Devices/Smoke Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.[*]Balance: 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. [*]Balance: Trick Arrows lost most of its original -Recharge debuffs during I5 beta, citing that there were too many in the set. Now we have Cold Domination which can stack much higher -Recharge than Trick Arrows ever could when it was in beta. Perhaps it's worth testing how Trick Arrows performs with Glue Arrow, Ice Arrow, Entangling Arrow, and Poison Gas Arrow having their original -Recharge values back?Worth mentioning?[/list]
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I have played a TA def to 37 and two trollers over 40 and have never seen this Flash Arrow bug ... I JUST tested it I cannot get this bug to occur. when comparing Flash Arrow to Smoke Grenade also consider Flash Arrow is Second tier power and Smoke grenade is tier 5 ... thats available at around level 14/16. Should they be identical?
The Description in Oil Slick Arrow States it may burst into flames if fire is used near it. So it seems to be working as intended although I have found through lots of usage Oil Slick Arrow lights less often outdoors and almost never when mixed with quicksand (maybe even never)
PGA is -DMG I have seen this first hand scrapper goes in and I hit PGA and they start taking less damage ... but it doesn't mean this shouldn't have a -regen but I also realize TA runs a close line to being overpowered
As per balance TA is a late blooming set, with Oil Slick Arrow and EMP Arrow DRASTICALLY outperform every other arrow, but it is a set that relies on stacking as many arrows as you can, PGA alone is a little weak, but glue + PGA + Acid + Disruption + Flash give an entire spawn a complete debuffing. TA is an AoE based Set and requires a lot of practice to get the most out of it when you get there it has proven to be more than enough. and as a side note, Look at EMP Arrow, just about the best single power in the game, I have compared it in City of Data many times to many powers. EMP does make up for any shortcomings the set my have
Secondaries:
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Electrical Blast
<ul type="square">[*]Bug: Voltaic Sentinel targets enemies trapped inside Force Field/Detention Field.[*]Balance: While Elec Blasts damage numbers arent lower than similar powers in other sets, it feels like a weaker damage set. It trades a heavy-hitter (such as Will Domination or Blazing Arrow) for a theoretical advantage in its end draining utility. The problem is that End Drain is not that powerful in the PvE portion of the game (unless combined with Kinetics), where many NPC powers are cheap and backed up by an increased recovery rate.[/list]
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Power Build Up + Short Circuit ... end drain all the sudden becomes a magoe issue in PvE ... granted I did level my Kin/Elec but I also levelled my Elec/Elec Blaster the stacking end drain is an excellent damage mitigator
I will admit my points are not all numbers and I may have missed some things but my observations come from playing the powersets and using a keen eye for detail as things unfold. When considering balance also consider there is probably one or more player who can make any powerset shine above all the rest ... its all about style (tactics)
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Force Fields
<ul type="square">[*]Balance: Currently the last three powers in the FF set are highly situational and generate a great deal of aggro, all of which is drawn on to the least defended member of the team -- the FF Defender.[*]Balance: Force Field defenders rely on only two methods of Defending -- adding Defense and use of knockback. Considering the multiple ways all other Defender sets have of Defending their teams within each set (heals, buffs, debuffs, holds, etc.), is it intended for FF to be a two-trick pony?[/list]
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In direct gameplay I have found the damage mitigation offered by the FF set is not lacking. I realize it is only to ways of accomplishing that goal but if it can do the trick using only two methods how does it matter, the job is done. as per the high tier powers my style I never liked KB so I avoid them but force bubble is an immensely powerful tool, situational yes, but effective in those common situations.
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It's not that FF isn't good at it's job. It's that the limited way of protecting a team offered to Forcefield makes the set undesirable to play, despite how desirable they are to teams.
And while Force Bubble's uses should be limited like most Tier 9s, it's almost TOO limited. It's hard to find reasons to turn it on 95% of the time.
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Kinetics
<ul type="square">[*]Quality of Life: Increase Density duration is far too short for practicality. The fact that it has a damage resistance buffing component indicates that it was intended to be used regularly and preemptively, but with a duration of 60 seconds, it's nearly impossible to maintain and still carry out the rest of our primary functions, even on small teams. [/list]
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ID protects KB, Holds and Immobs as well as grants a resistance ... if it lasted as long as say Sonic Haven it would be very overpowered, the short lifespan seems to be set so that if you want the whole team to have that great buff you can't do much else ... seems balanced.
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Nobody's specifically asking for it to last as long as the Sonic Shields, but it doesn't even last as long as Clear Mind and Clarity, both of which are already considered to have too short durations.
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Storm Summoning
<ul type="square">[*]Quality of Life: Snow Storm causes many mobs to run away, if the altered versions of their attacks take more than 10 seconds. Don't Stormers already have enough scatter?[/list]
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Storm Summoners Scatter ... its the set but played well they have controlled scatter, its a little difficult at times but diffent powersets require different tactics, Storm is no different.
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Storm is supposed to have controlled scatter, yes, but Snow Storm is supposed to be one of those powers that help control it by slowing mobs. I think the problem here is that mobs run out of attacks and their AI tells them to run away when that happens.
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Sonic Resonance
<ul type="square">[*]Balance: Sonic resonance users are extremely weak as far as self defense. Every other defender primary has powers in their primary to help with self-defense of some kind, even if that's just a heal or a slow. Sonic Cage seems inadequate for this.[/list]
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Sonic Dispersion - +res and mez resist, not as good as a tank but if work hard its enough (It is better on a Controller but Controllers are like that)
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Until the epic shield, 15% resistance is basically the only self-defense option Sonic Resonance users can rely on. Even Forcefield Defenders and Empathy Defenders have more ways to help themselves.
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Trick Arrow
<ul type="square">[*]Bug: Flash Arrow gives a perception debuff. However, when the power is recast from within enemy's normal perception range, the Defender will be spotted, regardless of whether the second Flash arrow hits or misses, and regardless of how much time is left on the first Flash Arrow. Limitation of the engine. Remove?[*]Bug: Oil Slick Arrow does not light every time it's attacked with a fire or energy attack, despite the target dying.[*]Bug: Poison Gas Arrow summons a pet that serves no purpose except to appear as a brownish-green gas cloud. This graphical pet sticks around for the duration of the debuff, causing many people to believe that enemies that enter the cloud after PGA is activated will be debuffed, when it actually does nothing. [*]Balance: Flash Arrow, a Defender primary power, is no more effective than Devices/Smoke Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set.[*]Balance: 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. [*]Balance: Trick Arrows lost most of its original -Recharge debuffs during I5 beta, citing that there were too many in the set. Now we have Cold Domination which can stack much higher -Recharge than Trick Arrows ever could when it was in beta. Perhaps it's worth testing how Trick Arrows performs with Glue Arrow, Ice Arrow, Entangling Arrow, and Poison Gas Arrow having their original -Recharge values back?Worth mentioning?[/list]
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I have played a TA def to 37 and two trollers over 40 and have never seen this Flash Arrow bug ... I JUST tested it I cannot get this bug to occur. when comparing Flash Arrow to Smoke Grenade also consider Flash Arrow is Second tier power and Smoke grenade is tier 5 ... thats available at around level 14/16. Should they be identical?
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It's not really a bug. Like I said, it's a limitation of the engine and does happen. Find some even-level or higher mobs, Flash Arrow them, move closer towards them, fire Flash Arrow again, and the old -Perception is removed, allowing for them to see you before the new -Perception is applied. All non-stacking debuffs work this way, but it's most obvious for -Perception debuffs.
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The Description in Oil Slick Arrow States it may burst into flames if fire is used near it. So it seems to be working as intended although I have found through lots of usage Oil Slick Arrow lights less often outdoors and almost never when mixed with quicksand (maybe even never)
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Castle has stated the power is supposed to always light and is balanced around always lighting (which is why it's recharge is twice the length of similar powers like Ice Slick).
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PGA is -DMG I have seen this first hand scrapper goes in and I hit PGA and they start taking less damage ... but it doesn't mean this shouldn't have a -regen but I also realize TA runs a close line to being overpowered
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I know PGA is -Damage. The problem is that it leaves that gas cloud on the ground, which is only a graphic. But because it sticks around, many new TA players think the gas cloud left on the ground works like Glue Arrow, where a mob is debuffed when they enter the cloud, but that's not how it works. Poison Gas Arrow works like a standard targeted AoE where only those hit when the power was activated are affected.
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As per balance TA is a late blooming set, with Oil Slick Arrow and EMP Arrow DRASTICALLY outperform every other arrow, but it is a set that relies on stacking as many arrows as you can, PGA alone is a little weak, but glue + PGA + Acid + Disruption + Flash give an entire spawn a complete debuffing. TA is an AoE based Set and requires a lot of practice to get the most out of it when you get there it has proven to be more than enough. and as a side note, Look at EMP Arrow, just about the best single power in the game, I have compared it in City of Data many times to many powers. EMP does make up for any shortcomings the set my have
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Trick Arrows is a late-blooming set, and no one has said that it's not powerful at those later levels. But you can't balance 7 powers in a set around the last 2 available in the set. Even if you wanted to, the second to last power is bugged and the very last is only a ranged version of EMP Pulse, the final power in Radiation Emission which is not balanced as a late-blooming set in the slightest to compensate for it's tier 9.
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Secondaries:
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Electrical Blast
<ul type="square">[*]Bug: Voltaic Sentinel targets enemies trapped inside Force Field/Detention Field.[*]Balance: While Elec Blasts damage numbers arent lower than similar powers in other sets, it feels like a weaker damage set. It trades a heavy-hitter (such as Will Domination or Blazing Arrow) for a theoretical advantage in its end draining utility. The problem is that End Drain is not that powerful in the PvE portion of the game (unless combined with Kinetics), where many NPC powers are cheap and backed up by an increased recovery rate.[/list]
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Power Build Up + Short Circuit ... end drain all the sudden becomes a magoe issue in PvE ... granted I did level my Kin/Elec but I also levelled my Elec/Elec Blaster the stacking end drain is an excellent damage mitigator
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End Drain only becomes powerful when you can fully drain a foe or group of foes AND prevent them from recovery. Many NPC powers are very endurance-cheap and they can start attacking again within seconds if their recovery isn't completely halted when they're drained.
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Alright, I'll be adding a few more issues soon (mostly from Rigel_Kent).
Regarding the Sonic Resonance issues, the note about Liquefy was a requested addition. Since the only feedback I've gotten from this thread about it has defended the timer on Liquefy, I'll move it under a new header for debatable issues.
The second issue about Sonic's self-protection was already on the list I started working from. Again, if anyone else feels that Sonic Resonance does better than this issue suggests, I'll move it under a debatable header. I do have a Sonic Defender, and I know that in the lower levels, even with Sonic Dispersion, there wasn't much I could do to increase my survivability besides keep attacking. With my Forcefielder, I had Force Bolt and Personal Forcefield for when things went bad. I wouldn't have a problem with something like adding another effect to Sonic Siphon (KD, KB, Slow, Stun, etc.) for those times when there's one too many enemies than you can handle.
I've also reworded the AV resistances issue to say a "reliable source of -Regen." I know Trick Arrows does have -Regen, but it's a 15 second duration on a power with a base recharge of 5 minutes. The point is, many players assume that -Regen is desperately needed for every AV encounter and will willingly wait around until a Defender/Controller with -Regen joins their team, even if there are Defenders without -Regen (or a reliable source of it) who would be willing to join.
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I would be eternally grateful if they would just make sonic repulsion a self applied repel. this would make Sonics more survivable in general we really don't need more team buffs. Sonics have no real self protection save dispursion but that has loads of holes too. For many including myself find Liquify, Repulsion and Cage utterly useless the only thing we've got going for us is siphon at least for solo play.
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Power Build Up + Short Circuit ... end drain all the sudden becomes a magoe issue in PvE ... granted I did level my Kin/Elec but I also levelled my Elec/Elec Blaster the stacking end drain is an excellent damage mitigator
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Taht's great, except Power Buildup is not in the electric blast set. When you pick electric blast as your secondary, it doesnt automatically reset your primary to kinetics. Electric blast has problems, your fortunate pairing just hides its shortcomings.
Similarly, energy aura's issues should not be addressed by forcing them to take stone melee for mitigation, and martial art's low damage shouldnt be "fixed" by having them take fire as a secondary to add extra damabge.
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End Drain only becomes powerful when you can fully drain a foe or group of foes AND prevent them from recovery. Many NPC powers are very endurance-cheap and they can start attacking again within seconds if their recovery isn't completely halted when they're drained.
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Psst! When slotted properly for recharge (just using SOs), Short Circuit recharges BEFORE the -Recovery period wears off.
Translation: Once you've got them drained after the second blast, you can KEEP them drained by continually using SC as soon as it's up. I've never had a problem using it to tank 8-man spawns solo.
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Power Build Up + Short Circuit ... end drain all the sudden becomes a magoe issue in PvE ... granted I did level my Kin/Elec but I also levelled my Elec/Elec Blaster the stacking end drain is an excellent damage mitigator
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Taht's great, except Power Buildup is not in the electric blast set. When you pick electric blast as your secondary, it doesnt automatically reset your primary to kinetics. Electric blast has problems, your fortunate pairing just hides its shortcomings.
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Power Build Up (or Power Boost, one of the two) is available to Defenders as an Epic Power Pool. And any Defender with Electric can pick it up OR Power Sink which drains a full mob and gives you back all your endurance. I see no issue here.
[ QUOTE ][*]Balance: Trick Arrows lost most of its original -Recharge debuffs during I5 beta, citing that there were too many in the set. Now we have Cold Domination which can stack much higher -Recharge than Trick Arrows ever could when it was in beta. Perhaps it's worth testing how Trick Arrows performs with Glue Arrow, Ice Arrow, Entangling Arrow, and Poison Gas Arrow having their original -Recharge values back?Worth mentioning?
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IMO, not really. TA comes with a number of debuffs so there isn't really a primary debuff. Ice based powers primary debuff is -speed/-recharge. Give TA a -tohit debuff worth a damn instead.
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Power Build Up + Short Circuit ... end drain all the sudden becomes a magoe issue in PvE ... granted I did level my Kin/Elec but I also levelled my Elec/Elec Blaster the stacking end drain is an excellent damage mitigator
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Taht's great, except Power Buildup is not in the electric blast set. When you pick electric blast as your secondary, it doesnt automatically reset your primary to kinetics. Electric blast has problems, your fortunate pairing just hides its shortcomings.
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Power Build Up (or Power Boost, one of the two) is available to Defenders as an Epic Power Pool. And any Defender with Electric can pick it up OR Power Sink which drains a full mob and gives you back all your endurance. I see no issue here.
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So picking a weak secondary forces you to pick another power from a different set to actually use it? Gotcha. No balance issues there!
I'm fine with end drain being hard to pull off. What I disagree with is elec's damage being penalized because of it.
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PVP: Darkest Night debuffs base damage rather than enhanced damage. A power that does a 100 base damage would do ~195 with 3 damage SOs. With Darkest Night, the damage would be debuffed to 145, which is a reduction of only ~26% instead of 50%.
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I don't think this is a bug since there seems to be a work-around of sorts already in place -- the PvP value of the power, 50%, is higher than the PvE value, 37.5.
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Power Build Up + Short Circuit ... end drain all the sudden becomes a magoe issue in PvE ... granted I did level my Kin/Elec but I also levelled my Elec/Elec Blaster the stacking end drain is an excellent damage mitigator
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Taht's great, except Power Buildup is not in the electric blast set. When you pick electric blast as your secondary, it doesnt automatically reset your primary to kinetics. Electric blast has problems, your fortunate pairing just hides its shortcomings.
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Power Build Up (or Power Boost, one of the two) is available to Defenders as an Epic Power Pool. And any Defender with Electric can pick it up OR Power Sink which drains a full mob and gives you back all your endurance. I see no issue here.
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So picking a weak secondary forces you to pick another power from a different set to actually use it? Gotcha. No balance issues there!
I'm fine with end drain being hard to pull off. What I disagree with is elec's damage being penalized because of it.
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Hard to pull off? No. You can drain a whole mob with just Two Short Circuit blasts, no other powers needed. The epics just let you do it INSTANTLY.
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Hard to pull off? No. You can drain a whole mob with just Two Short Circuit blasts, no other powers needed. The epics just let you do it INSTANTLY.
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Assuming a definition of instantly which is actually multiple power invocations over a period of 3-5 seconds.
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PVP: Darkest Night debuffs base damage rather than enhanced damage. A power that does a 100 base damage would do ~195 with 3 damage SOs. With Darkest Night, the damage would be debuffed to 145, which is a reduction of only ~26% instead of 50%.
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I don't think this is a bug since there seems to be a work-around of sorts already in place -- the PvP value of the power, 50%, is higher than the PvE value, 37.5.
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Not listed as a bug. It's a PvP issue. And while the higher PvP value might make up some of the difference lost, not all -Damage debuffs for Defenders work that way. Poison Gas Arrow and Benumb, for example, both do not have a higher PvP -Damage value.
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Hard to pull off? No. You can drain a whole mob with just Two Short Circuit blasts, no other powers needed. The epics just let you do it INSTANTLY.
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Assuming a definition of instantly which is actually multiple power invocations over a period of 3-5 seconds.
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When you play an FF Defender to level 50 three times.... 3-5 seconds IS instantly. 
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Power Build Up + Short Circuit ... end drain all the sudden becomes a magoe issue in PvE ... granted I did level my Kin/Elec but I also levelled my Elec/Elec Blaster the stacking end drain is an excellent damage mitigator
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Taht's great, except Power Buildup is not in the electric blast set. When you pick electric blast as your secondary, it doesnt automatically reset your primary to kinetics. Electric blast has problems, your fortunate pairing just hides its shortcomings.
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Power Build Up (or Power Boost, one of the two) is available to Defenders as an Epic Power Pool. And any Defender with Electric can pick it up OR Power Sink which drains a full mob and gives you back all your endurance. I see no issue here.
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So picking a weak secondary forces you to pick another power from a different set to actually use it? Gotcha. No balance issues there!
I'm fine with end drain being hard to pull off. What I disagree with is elec's damage being penalized because of it.
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Hard to pull off? No. You can drain a whole mob with just Two Short Circuit blasts, no other powers needed. The epics just let you do it INSTANTLY.
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Base recharge of 20 seconds, long activation time. Most spawns are dead by the time you can pull it off twice on a team, and those that arent die soon after, resulting in a very small benefit actually gained from end drain.
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Power Build Up + Short Circuit ... end drain all the sudden becomes a magoe issue in PvE ... granted I did level my Kin/Elec but I also levelled my Elec/Elec Blaster the stacking end drain is an excellent damage mitigator
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Taht's great, except Power Buildup is not in the electric blast set. When you pick electric blast as your secondary, it doesnt automatically reset your primary to kinetics. Electric blast has problems, your fortunate pairing just hides its shortcomings.
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Power Build Up (or Power Boost, one of the two) is available to Defenders as an Epic Power Pool. And any Defender with Electric can pick it up OR Power Sink which drains a full mob and gives you back all your endurance. I see no issue here.
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So picking a weak secondary forces you to pick another power from a different set to actually use it? Gotcha. No balance issues there!
I'm fine with end drain being hard to pull off. What I disagree with is elec's damage being penalized because of it.
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Hard to pull off? No. You can drain a whole mob with just Two Short Circuit blasts, no other powers needed. The epics just let you do it INSTANTLY.
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Base recharge of 20 seconds, long activation time. Most spawns are dead by the time you can pull it off twice on a team, and those that arent die soon after, resulting in a very small benefit actually gained from end drain.
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Then you're not running at a high enough difficulty. 
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Sonic also has a glaring hole to psi, which force fields do not. Its not a huge issue, but if issue 13 does involve a shadow shard revamp, wisps are one group a sonic defender is more or less useless against.
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If your going to compare it with force fields and in conjunction to the shadow shard it should be pointed out that force fields is next to useless vs the Rularuu eyeballs which have a huge accuracy bonus.
In the original design the reason storm defenders did not get a self heal was because of the strong melee protection hurricane offered. When hurricane was nerfed + the problems with the game engine that allows for jousting and totally circumventing its defense, it would only be reasonable to suggest as a balance issue if they are not going to un-nerf hurricane than 02 boost should allow self targeting.
No other repel power was nerfed that could accomplish the same "problem" that hurricane had in PVP. The nerf was unwarrented and was largely done because of stalkers IMHO. They feel it is their inalienable right to kill any toon easily and without needing strategy or tactics. or say a teammate.
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Balance: The +Defense shields in Cold Domination arent affected by buffs, namely Power Build Up, while the Forcefield shields are. At the sametime, this means Colds shields arent affected by debuffs like Weaken, while Forcefields would be. Is this difference intentional?
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I know a easy way to fix this...
<starts chopping off the Power Boost effect on Power Buildup with an Ice Axe>
<carefully cuts away some excess recharge>
<bandages up the wound and puts in an IV of +DMG>