Fault vs Hand Clap vs Lightning Clap

I think there is an inherent problem with how these powers work compared both with eachother and analyzed in conjuction with the rest of the Primary they belong to as well as specific synergies with the Defensive powersets which they're usually paired with.

Fault: I think this power is excellent for what it is supposed to do and I don't think it requires a change. I think it should be used as the benchmark to which the other two mitigation powers should be judged. Just for the record, Fault is a power that does Knockdown and Stuns with an AoE focus in exchange for doing no damage.

Hand Clap/Lightning Clap: Both of these powers are identical to eachother, however, unfortunately, they are not identical to Fault. The things they share with Fault are the same Radius, the same Stun magnitude and duration. They way they differ are that they both have a higher endurance cost, are PBAoE as opposed to TAoE, are KnockBACK instead of Knockdown and (in my opinion, the only benefit) they both have a shorter animation time than Fault.

As we can see, these things make it so that the mitigation powers from Super Strength and Electrical Melee are inferior when compared to a similar type of power from Stone Melee. Now, while that's one comparison, it's not the whole story. Let's take a quick look how the powers fit within the theme and the feel of the sets they are part of.

Fault: A lot of Stone Melee attacks do KD which makes Fault thematically fit in. Since it keeps everything near you, the fact that Stone Melee is, well... Melee focused, it doesn't detract from your damage potential.

Hand Clap: Seeing as the set has some KD mitigation in its powers and a large radius AoE in Foot Stomp as well as one ranged attack and a long range melee attack in KO Blow, the KB does not affect SS as much as it would other sets. However, with that said, the mitigation that the low magnitude Stun gives does not, in context of the set it's part of, make up for the potential mitigation you'd lose from your Foot Stomp, combined with the very significant loss in damage. It is at odds with the rest of the set and therefore is almost universally shunned.

Lightning Clap: This mitigation ability suffers more from the Knockback than Hand Clap does when contrasted with the rest of the set. There are no ranged abilities in the set and the only ability that can be used to stack stuns to actually make the low magnitude stun useful is a melee AoE with a really short radius.

Finally, when you add defensive Secondaries (or primaries) into the picture, you come out with something that looks a lot less impressive.

For Fault: It adds mitigation and doesn't detract from the mitigation abilities of the Defensive Secondaries (or Primaries in the case of Tanks.)

Lightning Clap and Hand Clap: In all Secondaries and Primaries available to Tanks/Brutes/Scrappers, the only ones that are not affected negatively by the PBAoE Knockback of the ability would be Super Reflexes and Regeneration. Super Reflexes for Brutes would even be partially untrue because you'd be knocking enemies out of your taunt aura. What I mean by negatively impacting your secondary (or primary in the case of tanks) is that knocking enemies away from you will either hurt your direct mitigation (in the case of Shields [Against All Odds], Invulnerability [Invincibility] or Willpower [Rise to the Challenge], for example) or your indirect mitigation (Examples include Endurance Recovery and heal powers that need nearby targets and Damage Auras that allow targets to be defeated faster [or even drained of endurance, in the case of Electric Armour]). This is DIRECTLY contrary to the nature of the powers.

So, I propose we change the powers slightly in order to make them more useful as well as more thematic within the sets they reside.

Hand Clap: My suggestion for this one would be added a small damage component to it, as well as maybe a small -5% Resistance Debuff. This would be more in fitting with the theme of Super Strength, with the damage and the resistance would help counter the DPS loss of the scatter. I chose not to suggest changing it to Knockdown as I think that it would just make it a clone of Fault but that is an alternative suggestion.

Lightning Clap: I think this power should be changed in one of two ways. The first way I could see changing it is keeping its effects as is but add a -End/-Recovery component to the targets and a +End component to the power to keep it in the theme of Electrical powers. The second suggestion would be to just take away the KB and instead change it to a Sleep, much like the Sleep in the single target attacks, where the targets spasm until hit, in which case their stun takes over.

Thanks for everyone who actually read through this post of mine.

Well put, all of it. And I agree with your suggestions too.

No.

I like my Lightning Clap on My Elec/Elec brute. The only thing I'd want is an increase chance for the stun to kick in (or perhaps making it a targeted AoE). The KB is easily dealt with by positioning the foes so they go the same direction and/or thrown against a wall. Using it at opportune times (like *before* you simply jump in) offers you mitigation in the form of a weakened alpha and beta strike.

The fact that it can knock foes out of certain auras isn't a disadvantage to those sets with the mentioned auras, it's an advantage to sets that aren't effected by such things. Because their mitigation doesn't scale with the amount of foes.