Most Underperforming Powersets.
By
Aces_High,
Posted on: 2009-07-09 21:48 in Archetypes and Powers General Discussion
[ QUOTE ]
If someone says; "The sky is green, but that's just my opinion." Or if they say; "Humans have 3 hearts and 2 brains, in my opinion." Or; "Gravity doesn't pull down, it pulls up. In my opinion." Guess what? That person is wrongity wrong wrong wroooooooooooooooong! Also if a person says; "I think that Defender Electrical Blast does more damage than Blaster Fire Blast. But that's my opinion." Am I not allowed to tell that person how wrong they are just because it's their opinion?
Opinions aren't facts, but opinions can be wrong.
[/ QUOTE ]
See, the thing is, those things aren't really opinions, they're just wrong facts, with you saying "it's my opinion" at the end.
"The sky is green" is not an opinion, because you can prove conclusively what color the sky actually is.
Now if you said "the sky is pretty", that would be an opinion, and that really can't be wrong. Someone could disagree with you, and say that they sky is, in fact, not pretty. But that would just be THEIR opinion, not a concrete fact that refutes your statement.
So sure, you can say something is an opinion when it's not, and then you can be wrong, but when you truly offer an opinion about something, it isn't possible to be wrong.
[ QUOTE ]
Notice that the buffs that Invuln got were resistance to debuffs.
[/ QUOTE ]
Actually, the more substantive buff was to Unyielding which had the -def removed. The debuff resistance was added to make the historically unpopular passive resistance powers more popular, but the big increase to survivability was the removal of the 5% -def (3.75% for tanks and brutes) that had to be counteracted by taking Tough Hide (which logically should have been a straight buff rather than a simple counter).
[ QUOTE ]
Given that the set's had a good reputation long before IOs, I really doubt they're 'necessary'.
[/ QUOTE ]
To solo AVs and do the RWZ Challenge successfully like the previous poster was saying?
[ QUOTE ]
Dispari:
[ QUOTE ]
It's impossible for an opinion to be wrong. That's why they're opinions and not facts.
[/ QUOTE ]I've always found this phrase to be very annoying. Almost as annoying as that stupid phrase everyone spouts if you dare to ever use the word assume. It is very possible for an opinion to be wrong.
If someone says; "The sky is green, but that's just my opinion." Or if they say; "Humans have 3 hearts and 2 brains, in my opinion." Or; "Gravity doesn't pull down, it pulls up. In my opinion." Guess what? That person is wrongity wrong wrong wroooooooooooooooong! Also if a person says; "I think that Defender Electrical Blast does more damage than Blaster Fire Blast. But that's my opinion." Am I not allowed to tell that person how wrong they are just because it's their opinion?
Opinions aren't facts, but opinions can be wrong.
[/ QUOTE ]
You're confusing opinions and facts. You can't tack on the word "opinion" to any statement and turn it into an opinion. "I think the sky is green" isn't an opinion, because anyone could look up and see that it's not green. For it to be an opinion it would need to say something like "I think the sky would be prettier if it was green."
You can't say "1 + 1 = 7, in my opinion." Well, you can, but that doesn't make it an opinion. It's just a statement. An INCORRECT statement. For something to be an opinion, it would have to be a subjective topic that can't be proven, such as "cooler," "better," "more useful," "more interesting," "uglier," "smellier," "weirder," or "stranger."
Mathematic and clearly defined things are facts. Things based on likes/dislikes, emotions, and subjective things you can't prove are opinions. Misusing the word "opinion" doesn't turn any statement into an opinion. In all the examples above, the person was merely stating an incorrect statement. It's still impossible for an actual opinion to be wrong, because an actual opinion is based entirely on things that by definition cannot be wrong, because they're subject to interpretation and personal bias. You can't dash to a lab and pour stuff in tubes to prove that the sky would be "prettier" if it was green. Because not everybody likes green.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
|
Two parallel lines run into each other, in my opinion (non-euclidian geometry)
Chicken McNuggets are green, in my opinion (red color blind)
everything can be an opinion. Facts are merely agreed upon opinions.
[ QUOTE ]
Two parallel lines run into each other, in my opinion (non-euclidian geometry)
Chicken McNuggets are green, in my opinion (red color blind)
everything can be an opinion. Facts are merely agreed upon opinions.
[/ QUOTE ]
Those are still facts, but from a different system or perspective. To the colorblind person, it WOULD appear to be green. So as long as "the person is red/green colorblind," the statement will remain true for them. That doesn't turn it into an opinion.
In the same way, I can say that 1 + 1 = 10. That's in binary, not base ten. I'm using a different system, and as long as other people are using the same system, the outcome will always be the same. It's not suddenly an opinion just because there are scenarios where the answer is different with different variables.
For another example, to say "The dog is brown." WHICH dog? All dogs are not always brown, but "the dog is brown" doesn't become an opinion just because not every dog is brown. Given the correct variables, "the dog is brown" would occasionally be true and occasionally be false. But "the sky is pretty" is not true or false in any scenario. It's an opinion.
Confused yet?
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
|
[ QUOTE ]
QR
Really? Super Reflexes is underperforming? I know it's personal opinion but two posters noted this set. I'm a bit confused. :/
[/ QUOTE ]
2 pages in and i don't get it either. my /sr brute pwns in pve. i love it. in a lot of instances i out-tank tanks. pvp though makes me cry. i hate, hate, hate the def nerf in pvp.
The validity of your statment does not increase in direct proportion with the frequency and volume at which you speak it.
[ QUOTE ]
You're confusing opinions and facts.
[/ QUOTE ]Actually I'm not, but you are correct in that many people do.
Opinions are essentially non-factual statements or preferences about subjective topics. They can't truly be wrong, but they can be against the agreed upon norm. Far too often many people will make a statement or a claim about something and then attempt to shrug off logical arguments with "well that's just my opinion." This usually happens about 5 seconds before I tell them to get out. I'm too old and cranky to deal with idiots like that anymore.
Anyway, opinions can be "wrong." As an example there are quite a few people in prison who do not believe that they should even be in prison. In their opinion their actions were acceptable, society however has collectively decided that their opinions are "wrong."
I would like to add that while I realize certain sets are team oriented I simply hate the fact that FF and Sonic add little to help the player do things solo.. Does it makse any sense that I cant bubble or protect myself ????
The hard things I can do--- The impossible just take a little bit longer.
If numbers are so much more important than a teammate who is fun to play with, forget about the game altogether and go play with a calculator instead. -Claws and Effect-
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't think it's underperforming for anyone, some people just don't like playing straight Defense sets. It's not Supposed to be for everyone. All three ATs that get SR can get Dark Melee. All 3 can IO for soft capped Def. All 3 get Elude. You don't need Parry to get good results out of SR.
[/ QUOTE ]
It's not that it underperforms on any specific AT. It's that it underperforms:
1) Without IOs
2) At lower levels
Playing a low level SR was one of the most frustrating things I've ever done. It was basically like playing a Brute with no secondary, but still using up endurance anyway. Every enemy was still capable of reducing me to negative defense, and I had no RES, regen, or HP to fall back on. I just simply died to everything. Eventually, somewhere around 35+, SR starts to do better, and can eventually soft-cap fairly easily with IOs, However, the ride and the non-IO path isn't very fun.
[/ QUOTE ]
You're nuts.
EVERYONE is weak until SOs. Not All sets develop at the same rate, that is by design. EVERYONE gets super awesome when IOd out.
Your standards are too high for low level toons. Also, you need to l2p if you're dying all the time regardless of what set you use.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
[ QUOTE ]
Sonic Resonance is a lot like Force Fields (actually more like Cold). It's not as defensive as Force Fields (about as defensive as Cold, though), but it supposedly makes up for that with some offensive-boosting capabilities. It really doesn't completely make up for it, though.
[/ QUOTE ]
That is an opinion that I have to say I STRONGLY disagree with. The debuffing in Sonic MORE than makes up for what it lacks compared to FF.
[ QUOTE ]
Electric Blast's problems lie solely in its secondary effect. The problem is that, most of the time, it does exactly nothing.
Returning a bit of endurance to the user is kinda useful, but it's neither reliable nor very effective. It's not enough to free the user from endurance worries to the point where they don't have to implement another solution (such as Stamina). So really, the endurance situation of Electric Blast is no different from that of any other blast set, and it, in fact, does pretty much nothing.
Draining endurance is a whole other can of worms. It's completely useless unless you have enough of it to utterly drain the foe you want to disable, and then you have to constantly apply a -recovery effect to them or else they'll just use endurance as they get it and, essentially, attack as normal.
[/ QUOTE ]
Electrics problem is NOT in its secondary effect. The problem is the lack of strong single target damage.
The numbers have shown that the end return effect is approximately equal to having an End Reducer in every attack with the effect. That means you can slot for other things instead, or if you slot for End you will be Even More efficient.
End drain IS useful even if you can't keep enemies at 0 permanently. If you keep them NEAR 0 they will only be able to slowly use their weakest powers. Pay more attention to how fast they attack and what attacks they use when you have an enemy hovering around 0-10 end.
Also, extra damage IS Fire Blast's secondary effect.
Almost every example in this thread of underperforming sets is followed by a playstyle example that demonstrates the poster doesn't know how to best leverage the abilities of the set in question.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You're confusing opinions and facts.
[/ QUOTE ]Actually I'm not, but you are correct in that many people do.
Opinions are essentially non-factual statements or preferences about subjective topics. They can't truly be wrong, but they can be against the agreed upon norm. Far too often many people will make a statement or a claim about something and then attempt to shrug off logical arguments with "well that's just my opinion." This usually happens about 5 seconds before I tell them to get out. I'm too old and cranky to deal with idiots like that anymore.
Anyway, opinions can be "wrong." As an example there are quite a few people in prison who do not believe that they should even be in prison. In their opinion their actions were acceptable, society however has collectively decided that their opinions are "wrong."
[/ QUOTE ]
Your last example still doesn't make an opinion right or wrong. The people are free to believe they don't belong in prison; that their actions don't warrant that punishment. And other people are free to disagree with them. However, neither of those things make "I don't belong in here" true or false.
Facts aren't determined by a majority vote. Even if 100% of the people in the world believed that the sky was pretty, it still wouldn't be a fact. It would still be an opinion. It's still not true or false. And it doesn't matter if the majority of society as a whole has decided that the guy should be in prison. That's still their opinion. It's also their opinion that he is wrong in his opinion. It's not, however, and never will be, a fact that he "should be in prison." His opinion absolutely cannot be "wrong." It can be discussed, and disagreed with, or even outnumbered by people who share the opposite opinion. But that will not and can not ever make an opinion into a true or false statement.
It's also my opinion that this conversation has gone on for way too long. Sheesh!
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
|
[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, opinions can be "wrong." As an example there are quite a few people in prison who do not believe that they should even be in prison. In their opinion their actions were acceptable, society however has collectively decided that their opinions are "wrong."
[/ QUOTE ]
Barack Obama is more qualified to be the president than John McCain.
What's that you say? You disagree with me? Well, obviously you're wrong?
What's that? It's just a matter of opinion, so you can't be wrong?
Oh, but I have the majority on my side, and that means your opinion CAN be wrong.
/sarcasm
Yeah, sorry, doesn't work that way. An opinion is still an opinion regardless of how many people share it. An opinion cannot, by definition, be right OR wrong. If it could be proven conclusively right or wrong, it would no longer be an opinion.
Also, I'm not trying to make a political statement with the above, just using it to illustrate the fact that just because a majority holds an opinion doesn't mean the minority opinion is "wrong"
In PvE,
Corruptor: Sonic Resonance
- I've tried almost all Corruptor secondaries and I think /Sonic is the weakest and it can get boring. This is just based on my experience anyway.
Mastermind: Trick Arrow
- The debuff values are quite low on MM's modifier and it has bad synergy with melee pets even though Ninja/TA has a "good" theme. You'll be resummoning a lot with Ninja or Necro/TA. I have yet to see a high level Necro/TA!
Stalker: Martial Arts
- The set is not broken but in terms of single-target damage, I see both Energy Melee and Dark Melee being better and serving more purposes. Martial Arts just has style.
Stalker: Electricity Armor
- I am sorry but this secondary is pretty awful on Stalker any way I look at it. Stalkers have much better choices than /Elec. /Elec on Brute makes much more sense.
The two most under-performing sets I say are Stalker's Electricity Armor and Mastermind's Trick Arrow.
Oh, honorable mention: Mastermind's Poison. Yes, yes, yes I know it has two SPECIAL SINGLE TARGET debuffs in the game. I don't need to be reminded 1000x times. I have a lvl 50 Merc/Poison (my very first 50 MM)!!! Comparing to Merc/Storm, Merc/Poison truly sucks. I didn't list it as the "most" under-performing only because the special debuff has its place in the game and that is about it. /Poison sucks in pretty much every other area (minus soloing but which MM can't solo??).
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
Oh, two THREE powers in the game:
Time Bomb: I am not spending 8s to set up a bomb... I am sorry. That is just not going to happen. And if I want to pull mobs to me, I'll set several Trip Mines instead!
Poison Trap in /Poison: Hello?? 4s interrupt with a lousy Sleep trap??
Merc's Serum: 60s of so-so god-mode with endurance crash and no psionic protection and 1000s recharge. I might just save some purples for my Commando.
Hell, I even had a little fun with Stalker's Repluse in Energy Aura.
What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
... like changing auto turret to a mobile pet?
[/ QUOTE ]You mean like they did 2 or 3 issues ago?
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes.
[/ QUOTE ]
That didn't break the cottage rule because the basic function of the power didn't change. It's still a summonable pet that does ranged damage, it just follows you now.
[/ QUOTE ]
I wasn't talking about the "cottage rule". Just the part before "or", where he says "I hope the folks railing on and on for Devices change will allow those of us that enjoy the different playstyle to keep our version".
I need a rolling eyes emote.
[ QUOTE ]
Given that [super reflexes] had a good reputation long before IOs, I really doubt they're 'necessary'.
[/ QUOTE ]
Very long ago. Perma-eldue-long-ago.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Given that [super reflexes] had a good reputation long before IOs, I really doubt they're 'necessary'.
[/ QUOTE ]
Very long ago. Perma-eldue-long-ago.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, between the end of the Perma-Elude and the introduction of IOs, SR was generally considered a rather poor set.
Branching Paragon Police Department Epic Archetype, please!
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Given that [super reflexes] had a good reputation long before IOs, I really doubt they're 'necessary'.
[/ QUOTE ]
Very long ago. Perma-eldue-long-ago.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, between the end of the Perma-Elude and the introduction of IOs, SR was generally considered a rather poor set.
[/ QUOTE ]
No, it was considered poor (rightfully so) between perma elude and the introduction of Defense scaling.
Since Defense was made to work equally well against mobs up to +5 SR has been quite excellent (in PvE), even befpre the introduction of IOs, adding scaling resistance to the passives was icing on the cake.
Wavicle, Energy/Energy Blaster, dinged 50 in Issue 4, summer of 2005.
@Wavicle, mostly on the Justice server.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, opinions can be "wrong." As an example there are quite a few people in prison who do not believe that they should even be in prison. In their opinion their actions were acceptable, society however has collectively decided that their opinions are "wrong."
[/ QUOTE ]
Doesnt mean that using politics wasnt a really frigging horrible idea.
Barack Obama is more qualified to be the president than John McCain.
What's that you say? You disagree with me? Well, obviously you're wrong?
What's that? It's just a matter of opinion, so you can't be wrong?
Oh, but I have the majority on my side, and that means your opinion CAN be wrong.
/sarcasm
Yeah, sorry, doesn't work that way. An opinion is still an opinion regardless of how many people share it. An opinion cannot, by definition, be right OR wrong. If it could be proven conclusively right or wrong, it would no longer be an opinion.
Also, I'm not trying to make a political statement with the above, just using it to illustrate the fact that just because a majority holds an opinion doesn't mean the minority opinion is "wrong"
[/ QUOTE ]
Want comedy and lighthearted action? Between levels 1-14? Try Nuclear in 90 - The Fusionette Task Force!
Arc ID 58363!
Blah blah blah semantics blah arguments blah pigheadedness blah blah boring blah blah whatever blah poop jokes blah blah boogers blah blah blah blah doesnt look like a word anymore blah blah blah trolling blah blah machismo blah blah veiled insults blah highandmightiness blah BLAH.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that not only are there sets that are underperforming via general falling-behindness, but that *every* set that has a couple "must-have" powers among piles of things nobody cares about is underperforming. Oh yes I went there. I know, I have crazy ideas and different ideals of entertaining game design, and it is scary. But that's just how things are.
Let's call it Gimmickperforming
So, by that long sentence above, Force Fields is underperforming. GOTTA have Deflection, Insulation, and Detention, but one could care less about the rest of the set. I am aware of the occasional successful build without those three powers, but those are an exception made by the super-skilled player peoples. Just cause someone soloed Onyxia doesn't mean hunters need nerfs, it just means he's [censored]ing insane. Old old analogy and for the wrong MMO, but you get the idea, right?
Anyway, back to actually what I was going to say instead of just defending myself over and over.
One gimmick shouldn't have to carry a set that is mostly meh, though. Take Gravity for example- it doesn't have anything special going for it, but if it were to gain a power with the beefiness of Ice Slick or Earthquake (or even Quicksand or Shiver! Whatever! ), it would probably not be underperforming anymore by the standard definition.. And yet it also wouldn't be gimmickpower-performing either! Take that how you will.
So, what else would I say is gimmickperforming? I'm glad you asked!
Already mentioned ForceFields...
Kinetics gets my vote. Speed Boost and Fulcrum Shift are strong enough and frequent enough to fart around as their own two-power set, and they overshadow the hell out of the rest of Kinetics. I mean, kinetics is all good in my opinion, but... Yeah, I don't know where I stand on it. I am sick of being asked for Speed Boost.
Gimmickperforming is sort of par for the course with most Melee sets. I hear people [censored] me out for saying Super Strength has terrible AoE. The reasoning is always "footstomp is the best power evar1191" which makes me sad because that's the only freaking reason. But really, melee sets are all the freaking same thing except for like one or two shining glorious powers- Crowd Control, Parry, Divine Avalanche, Siphon Life, Rage, Footstomp, ET and Total Focus.. Apart from their little powers of epic beefiness, most melee sets go "Hit, Hit Harder, Hit More Harderer, Also Hit, Mez..." Dual Blades and Electrical Melee (and I guess Spines is weird enough) are at least *slightly* different overall, which is good and they're solid sets. But then we look at a Melee set without an I-rock-button to its name- Martial Arts, and we go "oh [censored] this is what most of the other melee sets would look like without their key powers, how [censored] is that!
Yeah, for melee, the one big gimmick is generally what sets the sets apart on the set. Set that in your mind or you'll feel the fury of Set as soon as the setting sun goes down.
Plant Control doesn't really count, cause while Seeds of Confusion is friggin sweet, the rest of the powers in the set are still pretty good and the set is just fine without. I <3 Carrion Creepers. (carrion creepers are not for everyone. Ask your doctor if carrion creepers are right for you.)
Yeah, most Control sets seem to escape the Gimmickosity crap. Good.
Psionic Assault suffered from extreme Gimmickperformance. Remember, it was "the best" assault set you could pick, ONLY because of one power. I'm so happy that got changed- I want a powerset, not a "forefeit lots of powers just to get one totally unbalanced stupid thing"
Stone Armor gets an honorable mention here, because it is very very weird. Granite is a shameless gimmick. With it toggled on, you are simply not allowed to use like HALF of the rest of the set. Without Granite, stone armor is... possibly underperforming.
You have an impressive display of defenses- Respectably high Defense to all but Cold/Hot, and Resistance to those two.. not to mention a healthy heap of Regeneration that meshes well with your Dull Pain clone.. but the price is far too steep.
Without stamina, turning on all of your toggles will make you lose endurance each second! If you slot 33% endredux in your toggles, you *barely* regain endurance. And turning on your toggles make you laughably immobile.
On the other hand, all of the toggles have a four-second recharge and almost all your armors have a quick cast time, which seems to encourage the toggle-management playstyle, flicking each one on and off as needed. Still, the drawbacks are a bit too agonizing to play without that silly Granite gimmick. I'm wordy, aren't I?
And with that, I conclude yet another post. Don't get mad, get thoughtful!
Can you tell that I really hate it when one power is that much stronger than the rest of the set? At least in some cases (Kinetics) the rest of the set is okay without it. Except not. [censored], I'm making myself sound indecisive again.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I agree with your "number 2", but "number 1" I disagree with. I have an MA/SR who doesn't have anything beyond basic IOs slotted in his powers and he doesn't underperform. 33ish% Defense isn't exactly bad defenses. There's too much emphasis on minimizing your chances to be hit that any numbers that don't reach that point are seen as underperforming.
[/ QUOTE ]
A regular SR Scrapper gets hit about 20% of the time (1/5 hits) while an IOed SR Scrapper gets hit about 5% of the time (1/20 hits). You're about 4x more durable once you get IOs.
Base SR mitigation is pretty decent, but once you take IOs it's practically ridiculous. So, not that base SR is bad, but that it becomes crazy-good with the addition of IOs.
Level 50 IO SR is a huge leap from level 50 SO SR, which is a huge leap from level 25 SO SR. Soft capped SR is really powerful, while base SR is fairly decent, while lower level SR is atrocious. It's huge leaps and bounds, and suffering through all the early grade stuff kinda sucks a lot.
[/ QUOTE ]
Extremely late reply to this, but this is where you contradict yourself. You first claimed that SR without IOs "underperforms", but then in this post you seem to admit that the set is "decent" with just SOs. So which is it? Of course, you did use the word "decent" to attempt to downplay the set when running it with SOs, but I'm seeing through that attempt.
I am confused how you came up with 20% when 45-33 is 12. Defense is taken in such a way that it subtracts directly from ToHit the last time I was paying attention. Yes, you're getting hit a bit more than twice as often with what you're calling "base" SR defenses compared to the soft-cap, but since when was 12% hits coming in terrible? Even ignoring the scaling resistances, that's nothing to scoff at.
Methinks that you've just shifted your expectations into the realm of dreams (IOs) and anything that doesn't "wow" you without them suddenly underperforms.
Main Hero : Annilixxion -- Lv50 Blaster
Main Villain : Menkaura -- Lv41 Mastermind
@Laxx
"You will bend to my will, with or without your precious sanity." --Dragon Mage
Heres my 2 inf.
First, there are no unplayable sets, like many others have said. just sets that feel so blah they cant hold your interest, or just feel "not as good as my awsome other guy!" IMO, that feeling of blah and lack of awsome should be dealt with.
Also, lol at people saying SR is underperforming. at some point in the past, I would have agreed with this to some extent, but the scaling def change pretty much balanced it and IO's have made it borderline overpowered. to the point of this thread....
#1: elec blast. raw numbers show this set is fine. like so many other things in this game over the years, raw numbers do not factor in player skill nor player experience while using the set. The hardcores will prop this set up with /elec and /nrg and of course situational uses and poor comparisons, but if this set was as good as the others there wouldnt be weekly threads asking why it is so poor. The raw numbers are there, the player skill and play experience is not. It is just too meh.
#2: elec armor. this is a bit more tricky, as it doesnt feel meh, and it is relatively easy to find workarounds for it. Io's help, but more then that is the primary it is paired with. Unlike elec blast that only has 2 options to make it fair, /elec armor gets good synergy from most primary sets. Especially if the primary has abundant soft control, like stone mellee. Overall the set can benefit from player skill and other workarounds quite well.
For Brutes.
For stalkers, it flops. Stalker primary sets do not synergize like brute sets, and the caps in place make it hard to use workarounds. IMO, when this set gets ported to tanks, the shortcomings of the raw numbers will be more apparent. Stalkers are hard to datamine survivability off of i would think when considering a set, and brute play is not like tanker play at all in that regard.
#3: Martial Arts. This set offers reasonable damage- that gets resisted just enough to make it feel too wimpy. On certain targets, like early level CoT mages, MA feels good. On robots, it feels totally smashtastic. On many, many, other mobs, it feels t3h g1mpz. Fighting rikti or those crey mob specialist minions or a host of other 20% res to smashing damage foes makes MA feel so meh as to make many players put the character on the shelf. My MA/regen is like this, but I got around a little of the boring feeling by slotting knockback procs into powers(which is truly, truly hilarious IMO) but he still only gets on again/off again play time depending on my mood.
#4: Blaster Psi blast. The king of mediocre play. Little AoE, and after having played defender version, the blaster version feels like all the cool toys were removed. no subdue, or cone attack took away a useful tool and some aoe, and one of my favorite sound fx for the set. removing the range buff the set has in the defender version further removes Psi's uniquness. Whats left is lots of similar looking and sounding ST powers that mostly work the same way and benefit little from diverse building through power choice or slotting. Litterally, just push the single target attack buttons as they recharge, both solo and on teams. I actually did this with a mid level blaster i have since deleted on a team. I put myself on follow on a SG team mate, and pushed my 1-2-3-4 keys with one hand in random order while turned away from the screen and watching tv. When I realized i did a whole mission that way and no one noticed, I deleted that character.
#5: mastermind ninjas. I know MM in general are not underperforming in any way, but comparitively, ninjas just die, all the time. i named my genin " I will die" "me too" and "watch this" a stiff breeze kills the genin. green con minions can kill genin if i dont heal them in between fights, or if i send them off on their own solo.
I have not tried mercs, but I have heard there is issues with that set as well.
now, how to fix!
Elec blast: change voltaic sentinal. how:
change his avatar into something besides a little fuzzball graphic from launch. it needs an FX update. give it more powers to cycle. powers i would give it: lightning field, tesla cage, elec fence, elec fences. this list of powers could vary depending on AT using it. defenders should have access to more compared to blasters for example. giving the blaster version an aoe immob might be too much. lastly, give it HP, and let it take aggro and die. changeing sparky in this manner makes elec blast not only totally un-meh, but gives it that damage boost and removes that "sparky is an useless aggro machine". After all, who cares if he aggroes on himself, and who cares if he switches targets all the time if he is randomly firing out damage, immobs and holds on different targets.
elec armor: add some regen/heal. this set is hard to nail down until testing it on the tanker AT is possible.
martial arts: eagles claw needs some kind of tweak. prefereably, a small damage boost and a minor reduction in animation. not a full out change, but maybe cut some off the very end of the activation time to allow the next attack to start. I do not think it would make the animations in the set look wierd to allow them to sort of partially interupt the end of the previous one. think of storm kick. the pose at the end is skippable if you use another power. eagles claw and crane kick need that. also, up the damage by about 5-10% to compensate for the mob resist. dmage in MA is spread out amongst more attacks thenother sets, and IMO tends to need that one additional attack to finish off a mob compared to other sets. that slows play down too much. speeding up the set activations rather then re-assign damag and rebalance all the powers feels like a better solution to how the set plays out.
blaster psi blast: give back the range boost. it would give psi the edge for ST ranged style of play over other sets. right now, i can build an ice or fire blaster that will outperform and also out-entertain me for that style. both of those sets also offer something else, control or more damage. frankly, all sets for blasters are eighther more visually interesting, or have more tricks or variation in them. giving Psi range would allow for for that variation.
MM ninjas. this one, hard to say. if genin didnt die all the time i think ninjas would outdamage other sets by quite a lot. long ago i suggested changing one of the genins into something different, like a shaolin monk, sort of like the merc medic or thug arsonist. it would give the set more flavor, and could be tweaked as seen fit- if it provided a means to allow genin to survive it could cost the set some damage,(monk would not attack as much or something) or it could add aoe, or, well, most anything.
anyway, thats my long post. I wonder if devs even read threads like this, or dismiss them out of hand?
Liberty server
Eldagore lvl 50 Inv/ss, co-founder of The Legion of Smash
3.5 servers of alts....I need help.
May the rawk be with you.
Arc #'s
107020 Uberbots!
93496 A Pawn in Time
Mercenaries does seem to be bland compared to other MM sets. If they'd just replace Serum with something actually USEFUL, I'd be happy.
[ QUOTE ]
Mercenaries does seem to be bland compared to other MM sets. If they'd just replace Serum with something actually USEFUL, I'd be happy.
[/ QUOTE ]
Or if not replace, at least either increase duration or cut recharge.
Or if you want super crazy, cut the values a bit and let us use it on teammates too.
Head of TRICK, the all Trick Arrow and Traps SG
Part of the Repeat Offenders
Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize
Sorry for jumping in so late.
Dispari:
[ QUOTE ]
It's impossible for an opinion to be wrong. That's why they're opinions and not facts.
[/ QUOTE ]I've always found this phrase to be very annoying. Almost as annoying as that stupid phrase everyone spouts if you dare to ever use the word assume. It is very possible for an opinion to be wrong.
If someone says; "The sky is green, but that's just my opinion." Or if they say; "Humans have 3 hearts and 2 brains, in my opinion." Or; "Gravity doesn't pull down, it pulls up. In my opinion." Guess what? That person is wrongity wrong wrong wroooooooooooooooong! Also if a person says; "I think that Defender Electrical Blast does more damage than Blaster Fire Blast. But that's my opinion." Am I not allowed to tell that person how wrong they are just because it's their opinion?
Opinions aren't facts, but opinions can be wrong.
Monkey_King:
[ QUOTE ]
Then why did Invulnerability get buffed?
[/ QUOTE ]Invulnerability got buffed despite our asking for it to be buffed for years, despite Castle saying it didn't need any help, despite Castle saying that he was not going to buff Invuln. It got a buff because Willpower Tankers were surviving better in the Imperious Task Force better than Invulnerability Tankers were. That is the only reason that Invulnerability got buffed. Notice that the buffs that Invuln got were resistance to debuffs. Yes, I do know that the passives got a slight buff to damage resistance, but the purpose of that was to add a bit of psychological push so that people would actually take the passives again.
At one point I had links to Castle's forum posts that would back up my statements, but due to the great forum purges those posts are now gone. That's ok though because you cannot argue with me. It is impossible for me to be wrong, because the above is my opinion!