A decent guide, though I find Range to be only one of several factors when considering synergy between sets.
Also: There are a number of factual errors and misconceptions there. For example, you mention that Blaster's should avoid melee at all costs. That is not really good advice, especially when you consider the number of really good melee range abilities that Blasters can access. Among other things, Toebombing is not as useless as you make it out to be, Gravity's Immob does not prevent knockback, most Defenders are more than capable of soloing, and...
Well I don't want to discourage you, but your guide could use a rewrite. Keep at it though, gather some info from the boards/CoD and have at it again!
Ah, now along the lines of Blasters should not avoid melee range, and toebombing being useful, what we have is a differing matter of opinion. Yes, melee range can be effective, but it's not safe unless you're in a special situation (being screened by a team or have adequate control in play). Yes, toe bombing does good damage, but it's really an unnecessary risk considering what else you could be doing with that 4/8 seconds. Consider who this guide is likely going to benefit, and you can see why I'm not going to quibble over these differences.
Also, I didn't say Defenders were incapable of soloing, only that you'd need to be patient unless you have a way to boost your damage or weaken the enemy's resistance.
Aside from that, good catches. I'm surprised it was Gravity's Immob that doesn't prevent knockback, but I knew one of them didn't. Gravity Distortion field does, so I'll be leaving that in, just clarifying it wasn't an immob.
I, too, consider "several factors" besides positioning when matching power sets, and it should be clear from the current state of the guide that position isn't everything. However, it's nonetheless a great point to start, and that's why I made it the basis of the fusion guide: trying to be two places in once will thwart you more than anything else. That's probably enough detail - I sure wasn't going to get into establishing synergy through building 'combos' because I'd never be done.
Well, you are talking about synergy (Fusion is a term I've never heard in this context) so , using the example of Blaster /Energy Manipulation,it would be worth mentioning things like the way Boost Range power dramatically increasing cone length. This can boost the effectiveness of sets with lots of cones (Assault Rifle comes to mind). Power Boost is another factor to consider, sets like Energy/ and Fire/ aren't affected by it all while Sonic/, Ice/, or Psi/ can get a lot of use out of it. Also, consider Stun stacking with the Primary sets. There is also Ancillary Pool and regular pool synergy to consider. Although that greatly increases the complexity of the guide, a short summary of any notable synergies would be nice (like the super survivability that Power Boost, Aid Self, and Personal Force Field provide). Also, you briefly touch on the advantages of stacking mezzes to affect bosses but you don't mention which sets have synergy in this respect. Ice Blast and Energy Manip can take care of them by themselves, Mental Manip can stack Scare with Intimidate. /Ice and /Elec have melee holds, and they have nice synergy with the primaries with holds (Ice/ and Elec/) while Archery/, AR/, Sonic/, and Psi/ all have stuns that can stack with //Elec's EM Pulse or /Energy's Total Focus.
Toebombing, in particular, is a playstyle choice and can be very effective if the player chooses to go that route. For a guide on Synergy you might want to mention that Sonic/ can completely shut down a spawn with Siren's Song making it the premier toebomber.
Other assorted Blaster synergies: Assault Rifle's Ignite works well with an Immob or Caltrops, but it works even better with Ice Patch from Ice Manip. You mention the synergy between Elec/ and /Elec, but /Energy can use Power Boost to increase Short Circuit's drain high enough to sapp effectively. Fire can synergise with either a high damage secondary (for an all out offense team-oriented blaster) or with a high defense secondary (for a safer more solo/small team blaster). /Elec provides an inexhaustible supply of endurance and a damage aura to create a fragile but damaging form of synergy. /Mental has lots of AoE damage to go with Fire and Drain Psyche can provide some safety as well. There are other synergies, but that should give you some ideas.
Ah, good additions, I'll go ahead and roll those synergies in there. Some of those latter ones I find a bit too common to be really remarkable synergies. (Roll Fire with More damage to do More Damage or More Safety for More Safety? Well yeah, duh.) However, I agree with most of them.
I'll go with you about as far as "use Power Boost to Boost Power" and "use Range Boost to boost Cone Range" because the implication are not immediately evident, but at that point I'll have to break off and say you're getting a little too anal.
If you were paying attention to my regged date, you'll see I've played this game even longer than you have, so the truth of the matter is I just didn't bother considering every single possible synergy so much as provide a general recommendation guide.
Frankly, if I did that, I think it'd take a lot of fun out of the game.
I actually edited in the control effects on the blaster sets before you mentioned them.
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Ah, good additions, I'll go ahead and roll those synergies in there.
If you were paying attention to my regged date, you'll see I've played this game even longer than you have, so the truth of the matter is I just didn't bother considering every single possible synergy so much as provide a general recommendation guide.
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Well, as a general guide you miss a lot of important points. You should probably explain what makes good synergy, and how to pick sets based on design goals. Building a solo toon requires different synergies then building a teaming toon. Building a Tankermind requires different synergies than building a Blastermind, etc, etc.
Also, I don't generally look at Reg dates, since they provide only the most basic ideea of how advanced the player is.
Feel free to write your own if you want to write one written with every single barely conceivable synergy in the game. I'll even link it off my Blog if you want. However, mine was written with generalization and ease of finding a comfortable playing character in mind.
In fact, I might go back and perform a rewrite that rips out a lot of these little details. I think this guide is too detailed for what I was trying to achieve: a simple reference to avoid bad power set synergy.
[Ah, in retrospect I probably brought this elitist "Who's More Veteran" bullsnot on myself by writing a Guide that talks about potency. Methinks I'll just roll up Assault/Devices and enjoy it. :P ]
Props for important omission corrections:
http://dsob.wordpress.com/2009/02/14...-fusion-guide/