Buff Trick Arrows!

I know I've made posts like this before (and I know some people may by sick of them), but I plan to keep it up until some attention is brought to this underplayed, undervalued set. After all, sets like War Mace, Dark Melee, Claws, Ice Melee and Electric Armor didn't get the way they are these days by players just accepting them the way they were before they were buffed.

In this post, I plan to go through each power, explain what I feel is wrong with it, and offer my opinion on solutions to improve them.

Before I start, I should say that I love the Trick Arrows set. I played on Test every other day while Issue 5 was in Beta. The day Issue 5 went Live, I immediately logged on after patching and made Trickshooter, my Trick Arrows/Archery Defender who is my main, my first 50 and my namesake.

Now, I feel that by around level 35 or so, it's a decent set, though others may disagree. But either way, the trip there is the one of the most frustrating that I and many others have ever experienced while leveling characters.

That said, I'll start with my feelings on the first two powers in the set.

Generally speaking, the first two powers in any set are seen as the "bread and butter" of a set. However, in regards to Trick Arrows, that statement couldn't be less true. No other set has two powers as situational as this set does in the first two tiers. Also, given the developers' feelings that every power in a set should be a difficult choice to skip, I think it says a lot that the only difficult part of choosing to skip these two powers is that you'll always be forced to take one of them. If it was possible, I'd say most people would want to skip both.



1) Drop the Endurance Cost and Accuracy bonuses on this power
2) Increase the debuff values

Trick Arrows, as a set, puts out less -Recharge with three powers than most of the other sets can with a single power. So why should this power be so inferior to it as a debuff?

It's not uncommon for sets to be able to floor or nearly floor the recharge rates of a group of enemies. Would buffing Trick Arrows' Recharge debuffs really push the set in to having "too many"?

Honestly, I don't think it would. Yes, Trick Arrows can speed up the rate at which some enemies die, but it has few tools to deal with sturdier foes who generally have several high damage attacks or have mezzes that recharge almost as soon as their duration ends. Increasing the set's ability to slow down a foe's recharge rate would go a long way towards helping the Trick Arrows Defender to defend his teammates from these kinds of enemies.

Since the increased Accuracy and Endurance Cost discount were given when this power's debuff was originally removed (and then later readded, at a much smaller value), I feel it's warranted that they be restored to their normal values if the debuffs are increased.

Decrease AccMod to 1.0
Increase EndCost to 7.8
Increase SpeedDebuff to -62.5% (-50% for Corr/MM)
Increase RechDebuff to -62.5% (-50% for Corr/MM)




1) Swap availability with Glue Arrow

My only real suggestion for this power is to swap it's availability with Glue Arrow as the second tier power. Would it make sense for Smoke Grenade to be the second tier of Devices? Or for Smoke to be in the second tier of Fire Control? Flash Arrow is a very situational power throughout most of the game, like many -Perception powers, and has no place in the first two tiers. As I said before, this is not a "bread and butter" power; no -Perception power is for their respective sets.

Other than that, there's not much you can do with this power; it works exactly as every other similar -Perception power. But I do have a suggestion to improve it's usefulness, involving changes to Disruption Arrow, that I think will keep to the "theme" of Trick Arrows (that the set works best when several arrows are used together on the battlefield). I'll get to that part further down.




1) Lower the Speed debuff
2) Increase the Recharge debuff
3) Swap availability with Flash Arrow

Speed debuffs can be useful, but offer little support for Melee ATs, who only use -Speed to keep enemies near them for AoEs, and it's not as if Trick Arrows is lacking in -Speed, having a second power that also already sits at the -90% cap. Recharge debuffs on the other hand offer much more of a benefit in combat to all Archetypes, but the meager value in this power just can't cut it.

It seems like the debuff value of this power was made with the assumption that "stacking" it would make it too powerful. But again, stacking Recharge debuffs to higher amounts isn't something new. In fact, it's typically a large part of how some sets defend a team.

Decrease SpeedDebuff to -60%
Increase RechDebuff to -30%




1) Increase the debuff values

This is the third worst Hold in the game, only above Poison and Dark's debuff-less Holds, both of which are in sets already seen as better than Trick Arrows. Also, sticking to the Ice theme, this power's debuffs should at least be comparable to debuffs in similar Ice Blast and Ice Control Holds.

Increase SpeedDebuff to -25% (-20% for Corr/MM)
Increase RechDebuff to -25% (-20% for Corr/MM)




1) Allow Sleep effect to stack

I can understand the Damage debuff portion of this power not being allowed to stack, but it seems crazy to see any Mezz flagged to not stack, as that's generally something allowed, and even encouraged, in order to Mezz higher ranking foes. Is this potentially left over from it's Alpha days, where its effects were cast by a pet?

Wish List Item!*
This is the perfect power in the set to add a new -Regeneration effect to. Most people see -Regeneration as an effective way to help defeat AVs, and while that's only somewhat true, it would definitely go a long way towards improving the image of the set in many people's eyes, especially when compared to sets which are often seen as better debuffers, eventhough they also feature buffs and heals in their sets (*cough*Rad, Traps, Cold, Storm and Dark*cough*). For balance concerns (this is an autohit power, afterall), give it a similar 66% chance to occur, like the Sleep effect, so that it goes along with the "some foes may react badly" line in the description.

Remove "Does Not Stack" Flag from Sleep
*Add RegenDebuff -100% (66% Chance)




1) Increase the resistance debuff value
2) Increase the radius of the AoE
3) Increase recharge timer

Not too long ago, I would have considered this power working just fine. Then came the Defender version of Acid Mortar, which is vastly superior in many, many ways. It debuffs defense more, it debuffs resistance more, it has longer range, it fires faster than Acid Arrow recharges, it can stack, and it can keep aggro off the caster. It even does more damage! Acid Arrow, once a unique power in the Trick Arrows set, is now overshadowed by a similar power, as most of Trick Arrows is.

Increasing the resistance debuff value would not only improve Acid Arrow compared to Acid Mortar, but it also improves the whole set for Controllers, Corruptors and Masterminds.

One of the benefits to choosing Trick Arrows as a Defender, is that you get Acid Arrow and Disruption Arrow; two sources of Resistance debuff that allow the Trick Arrows Defender to cause a higher value of -Resistance than other sets for more of the time (-40%).

But this doesn't really translate over to the other ATs' versions. They sit at the values they should, but because of issues with "psuedopets" in other sets, Acid Arrow and Disruption Arrow tend to be at equal or lower values by comparison with no compensation for the loss of something that is intended to be a reason for choosing Trick Arrows over the other sets, i.e. greater offense through more Resistance debuff.

Increasing the debuff of these powers restores that benefit to playing Trick Arrows on all ATs.

Increasing the radius of the AoE, well... 8 feet as a debuff radius is incredibly small. It's almost funny that the power has a 16 foe target max, because well... is it even possible to fit 16 enemies in to an 8 foot radius?

What good does having two Resistance debuffs do Trick Arrows if one has a small radius and the other can only affect 10 enemies at once? At best, Trick Arrows can debuff resistance by 40%, but only to 10 enemies, while other sets can get close (30%-35%) with a single power that can hit 16 enemies, and that can typically stack with itself (Tar Patch, Freezing Rain, Sleet).

If increasing the radius a bit means the recharge has to be increased as well, then so be it.

Increase Radius to 10ft to 15 ft
Increase Rech to 30s
Increase ResDebuff to -25%(-18.75% for Con/Corr/MM)




1) Decrease the endurance cost
2) Increase MaxTargets limit
3) Increase resistance debuff
4) Add -ToHit effect

This power has always been one of the most frustrating for me because of how poor it is compared to any other similar power, but how necessary it is for Trick Arrows to feel effective, especially while teaming.

Like Acid Arrow, increasing it's -Resistance debuff improves the set's effectiveness, while also restoring a benefit to the set that's been missing from the other ATs' versions.

The endurance cost has long been out of whack with it's effects: it's twice the cost of Tar Patch, which has a higher Resistance debuff, as well as a Speed debuff, and it's just short of the cost of Freezing Rain, which also has a higher Resistance debuff, as well as a Speed debuff, Recharge debuff, Defense debuff, and damage. Disruption Arrow does nothing that warrants a 14.56 endurance cost.

It's also limited to hitting only 10 enemies. The only other buff/debuff AoE powers that are limited to 10 targets are Fulcrum Shift and Heat Loss (both for obvious reasons), neither of which Disruption Arrow is even remotely comparable to.

In addition to fixing those inconsistencies, I also feel this power is a good place to add a small -ToHit effect to. Trick Arrows as a set needs more defensive debuffs, namely -ToHit, and Flash Arrow's debuff alone can't cut it. Adding -ToHit to Disruption Arrow not only fills that hole in a bit, it also:

A) Gives incentive to take Flash Arrow in order to stack both effects

B) Fits thematically with the Trick Arrows set, which works best when multiple arrows are used at once

C) Fits along the lines of Liquefy and Earthquake, which also reduce ToHit

D) Offers invention set options to a power which currently can't really be slotted for much

Decrease EndCost to 10.4
Increase MaxTargets to 16
Increase ResDebuff to -25% (-18.75% for Con/Corr/MM)
Add ToHitDebuff -6.25% (-5% for Con/Corr, -3.75% for MM)




1) Reduce recharge timer

Now, in a perfect world my suggestion would be to make it correctly light everytime the OilSlickTarget pet is defeated, but I understand that's not easy, and maybe not even possible.

What I'M asking for is... a temporary rebalancing of this power.

Without it's ability to create a large burn patch, Oil Slick Arrow is sort of like Ice Slick, except with less Knockdown, higher endurance cost and at twice the recharge (though, it does have an added -Defense debuff). With the ability to create a large burn patch, it's a beast and completely worth the 3 minute recharge.

Unfortunately, this power is bugged, and has been for 11 issues now. Yes, when it works, this power is great, but what about the times that it doesn't?

Why should a power that doesn't work half the time be balanced around the half of the time that it does work?

With that in mind, this power should have it's recharge time reduced. Not to Ice Slick's timer, but less than what it is now. Should this power ever be fixed, then by all means return it to 3 minutes, but for now it's just unfair.

Decrease RechTime to 120s to 150s




This power has the Mary Poppins syndrome; practically perfect in every way. It's just a shame that it's the only power in the set that really feels that way.

Trickshooter's Characters | @Trickshooter @Brightside

I'm not sure I like the decrease in -RunSpeed for Glue Arrow and the addition of -ToHit in Disruption is a little Wut?, but overall I think these are good ideas.

Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize

I like most of these Ideas but I'm also concerned that these buffs make /TA controllers much too powerful. /TA paired with any controller primary gives you an Uber Controller capable of locking down entire spawns. Buffing TA may fix the TA/ defender but will also make the /TA controller even more potent where control is concerned.

That said I'll go on to say that you have your finger in the sore where TA's first 2 powers are concerned.

All the other Defender primaries have either a very potent single target buff:

Force Field - PFF (soft caps defense and gives 40% resistance to all but toxic)

A very potent single target debuff:

Cold - Infrigidate
Sonic - Sonic Siphon

An AoE team buff:

Dark - Twilight Grasp (which also debuffs the target but is balanced by a to hit roll)
Empathy - Healing Aura
Kinetics - Transfusion (which also debuffs the target but is balanced by a to hit roll)
Radiation - Radiant Aura

or an AoE soft control

Storm - Gale

The only other Defender primary that is this hampered in the tier 1 is the newly added Traps and the recharge debuff value from web grenade is quite large in comparison.

As far as the tier 2 goes. It should indeed be glue arrow.

All the other primaries (including traps) excluding Storm have either a potent single target ally buff in tier 2:

Cold
Empathy
Force Fields
Sonic

an AoE ally buff in the case of Kin

A potent enemy AoE debuff in the case of Radiation.

or their AoE slow power in the case of Dark and Traps.

The only clunker here is Storm but Storm makes up for it by having their massive AoE debuff power available at tier 3.

Told you, Castle.

No, I had nothing to do with this.

I find that "other" Trick Archers and people teaming with them do not gain/offer enough damage mitigation from Trick Archery entirely through the actions of their own.

I'd also trust Castle enough just to ask him to go over the figures.

I would love any or all of the changes trickshooter suggested. While I have long been a fan of TA for controllers that is mostly due to the fact that a controller tends to have enough mitigation in thier primary that the lack of decent ranged damage mitigation in the secondary (prior to L35 at least) didn't hurt. That and the fact that the extra control in TA works very well when stacked with a controllers primary.

While I haven't played TA on defenders, mostly because I can't play defenders (they solo far to painfully for me to be able to stand them) I have tried it on a corruptor - leveling an archery/TA side by side with a similar archery/traps and the difference was like night and day. Oh, at lower levels my A/TA corruptor was ok as long as he stayed away from anything that did significant ranged damage, glue arrow + entangling arrow works fairly well to prevent enemies from closing to melee. But Council and CoT with all thier ranged attacks and resistance to immobilizes (spectral's) just slaughtered my TA corruptor. While my traps corruptor had some problems with them getting acid mortar at 10 and FFG at 16 made a huge difference and the -recharge in web grenade demonstrated just how bad the -recharge in TA was (That ONE power in traps has as more -recharge than 3 powers in TA)

I ended up abandoning my archery/TA at 21 as acid arrow, while very nice, did not up my kill speed enough that I could handle a simple council paper mission without ending up nearly dead after every other group of minions. Poison gas arrow was nearly useless - the damage reduction was not noticable and the sleep, while it helped some, was not enough (it was basically the sleep that let me get though 2 groups before having to rest/stand around and let my health regen). I just didn't have the patience to push on to see if disruption arrow made up the difference. While the set is probably very solid once you get OSL level 35 is way to long for me to wait for a decent soloer.

So, I heartily approve of all trickshooters suggestions - even half of them would improve the set greatly.

EDIT: looking back at things I have to agree with rush bolt - you could leave glue arrow alone, it actually has a decent amount of -recharge (not great but decent) and it's primary purpose, to prevent melee enemies from reaching you, is better with the 90% speed debuff. Upping the -recharge in entangling arrow and ice arrow would probably be more than enough.

This is the list I sent to Castle four and a half months ago.

• Entangling Arrow - January 31, 2006, you stated that you would be revisiting Entangling Arrow in light of the dissatisfaction that players have with the power. It's been almost three and a half years and it's still inferior to Web Grenade. Time's up. You said you'd address it, so address it.
• Flash Arrow - While I, personally, am satisfied with this power, many feel that it's underwhelming as a defender debuff, especially in a primary powerset with only one other pre-32 power to mitigate the alpha from spawns. The general opinion is that the ToHit Debuff is too low in value. I do believe it wouldn't be overwhelming to increase the base debuff to... 8%, which would bring it up to ~12.5% when slotted for 56% +ToHit Debuff. This would be an incremental step toward reducing the alpha mitigation problem with TA, a big step toward appeasing the dissatisfied players and slightly improve the strength of the entire powerset.
• Glue Arrow - 20% -Recharge could be higher. Should be higher. Most of the Recharge Debuffs were stripped from the set before it ever left the test server, now what little remains is so low that it provides too little useful mitigation. Buff it up.
• Glue Arrow - Placement in set indicates that this power is intended to be used as a primary functional source of mitigation, but 60s recharge is too long for the level at which it becomes available. Simply put, it's not useful at level 2 (or 4), it's not usable frequently enough to be considered a primary source of mitigation with this kind of recharge time until the player has access to SOs (or the equivalent) or takes Hasten. Quicksand (Earth Control) applies all of the same debuffs except -Recharge, instead having -Def (25%, compared to Glue's 20% -Recharge), has a 30s recharge time and 45s duration. Why is a debuff in a controller primary functionally superior to a debuff in a defender primary? Reduce Glue's recharge time to 30s. This would make it much more useful and usable for lower level play and bring it closer to parity with similar debuffs.
• Ice Arrow - I hate to belabor a point, but this power... sucks. It's not "black hole at the center of the galaxy" suckage, like Petrifying Gaze, but it's slow to animate, it's broken, it's weak... at least add -Fly so it can be used like Entangling Arrow... and so we're not staring at Flying ice cubes.
• Poison Gas Arrow - 45s recharge, 20s duration, flagged as "does not stack from same caster". Why? Is there a point to disallowing stacking and having a recharge time more than 2x the duration?
• Poison Gas Arrow - 45s recharge time makes it difficult to use on every spawn prior to SOs (or equivalent). This is inappropriate because the power is one of the primary sources of damage mitigation in the set, and one of only two powers which can be used to reduce alpha damage prior to 32. Recharge time needs to be lower to make it more usable at low levels.
• Acid Arrow - Other than the radius, this power is relatively well balanced. Radius really does need to be increased, though, now that critters no longer have to bunch up to attack a melee target.
• Disruption Arrow - See Bugs. Fix Bugs. And reduce the recharge time to 45s.
• Oil Slick Arrow - I believe we're at a point where we have to consider that some of the bugs may never be fixed. If that is the case, then it's time to consider making some other changes to compensate. The description already states that it "may" ignite if attacked with Fire or Energy, so the groundwork is in place to reduce the recharge time and wave off the bug as "working as intended". 120s would be a good compromise, yes?
• EMP Arrow - This is the best Hold in the game. It can be used from range, it has no Accuracy penalty, it has a chance to stack an additional mag 1 Hold... I hate to say it, but it's too good, especially as a defender primary power. On the other hand, I never actually use it on my masterminds because it comes so late that by the time it is available, there are so many other ways to deal with spawns that it has nothing to offer, except that brief Regeneration Debuff, so for masterminds, it's of very little use at all. So we've got both ends of the balance spectrum here, ridiculously overpowered at one end and of no practical benefit at the other. How can we find a good middle ground for this power, something that remains useful for defenders but which also makes it useful for masterminds?
  
  Oh, my controllers, of course, use this as a replacement for the AoE Hold in the primary. It's even better for controllers than it is for defenders.
  
• TA in general - Still facing that alpha mitigation issue, especially if the powerset is paired with a secondary which is doesn't offer additional mitigation, like Archery or Electrical Blast. It needs to be better at alleviating the alpha strike from spawns, because it requires the player to risk that alpha strike. As I've previously stated, no other debuffing primary has the same level of risk attached. Darks, Rads and Storms can completely neuter a spawn with 45% or greater -ToHit, and that's just one of the ways they can do it, and they have buffs to back that up in the event of unexpected critter hit roll success. And every other primary offers buffs which allow another player, one more appropriate for the task, to take the alpha with much lower risk. TA's design forces the player to choose between mitigating the spawn and risking defeat or allowing someone else to take the alpha with little or no mitigation. Bottom line, the total alpha mitigation is insufficient and needs to be increased in some way. Flag PGA to generate no Threat. Add a Placate to PGA or Glue. Put an animation in somewhere, which cannot be overridden and gives the defender 2 seconds to get out of the line of fire. Something. Anything.
  
  Anything except a "heal arrow".

Never got a Trick Archer up to a high level. I always end up a bit disappointed in the set for one reason or another.

My thought...

Flash arrow gives a bigger -tohit that is noticable. Really, I never found it's -tohit noticable.

Give Acid and Poison arrow a -Regen Component...they can then stack them.

With that, I'd be pretty happy with the set.

However, I wouldn't mind seeing...

Giving Ice, Poison, and Disruption arrow given a small DoT damage component, would also be nice, imo. And fit with what they do.

Ice Arrow can give a DoT that equals Block of Ice's damage.

Poison Arrow can give 5 ticks of 5 toxic damage. A really small DMG component, not worth really enhacing for damage, but added for flavor.

Disruption arrow 30 ticks of 1 (or 2) energy damage. Really small amount of damage. 1 tick every 1 second (power has a duration of 30 seconds, that's how I came about 30 ticks)...that is basically like the sonic disrupters int he Sister Psyche TF. So it's not like it would be out of line.

That would be my suggestions for the set.

Mind you, I've never (and personally never will), use this with a troller, so I have no idea if it would be overpowered when mixed with a troller. Then again, I'd never pair it with anything other than Archery either.

So that leaves TA/Archery Defeneders, Archery/TA Corrupters, and Ninja/TA MM's for all I'd ever combine with this set.

I agree that EA should be better than Web Grenade for -Rechg. Glue Arrow should do more -Rechg. I'd love it if PGA didn't attract aggro and had -regen. Ice Arrow with -Fly would make EA even more skippable. However a smaller -fly is fine.

But I will say that I've had seriously little problem with it.

I've had some experience with /TA on a controller, and I'm now working on a Fire/TA corruptor - He's up to 30 now - and I have to say that I agree 100% with this. Especially with my first villain 50 being a /Traps corr, running with /TA just feels weak.

There's too little mitigation, particularly early on, so my character feels like he's made of wet toilet paper. I know it gets quite a lot better once you can finally whip out OSA, but you're still looking at having to grind up to 35 to get it on anything other than a Defender. I've always played my /TAs sort of like a blaster, with a kill-fast-or-die mentality, but the powers that help with that, like acid arrow and disruption arrow, don't come until level 20 and level 28, respectively, unless you're a defender.

There's also the fact that a lot of /TA's mitigation seems to be along the lines of "You're safe, unless you want to actually attack." The sleep in Poison Gas arrow would help a lot in minimizing alphas. Except that it breaks the second you try to use an AoE. It also doesn't last very long, certainly not nearly long enough to keep you safe until you can reapply. The -perception in flash arrow is the same. It might stop that group over there from beating you into a bloody smudge until you're ready to play with them, but once they're aggroed, it doesn't do a hell of a lot.

It really feels to me that the devs sort of took Traps as a way to redo /TA, only right. Virtually everything that /TA does, /Traps does either better, or safer.

• Acid Mortar Vs. Acid Arrow- faster, stacking debuffs from Acid Mortar, as well as being able to absorb an alpha.
• Poison Gas Trap vs. Poison Gas Arrow- Hold/choke vs. a Sleep, -rech vs -dam, -regen
• Web Grenade vs. Entangling Arrow- much larger -rech, though more end use and shorter range
• Seeker Drones vs. Flash Arrow- Smaller radius, but summons two drones that have -tohit, -damage (20% each, for corrs, stackable), and a chance for disorient. They can also absorb alphas.
• Caltrops vs Glue Arrow- Ok, Glue arrow wins here.
• The others: Ice arrow, Disruption Arrow, OSA, and EMP arrow vs. Triage Beacon, FFG, Trip Mine and Time Bomb. They don't really have a good one on one comparison, so I'll just do it lowest to highest level.
  • Ice Arrow vs. Triage beacon is kind of a "lesser of all evils" scenario, but I'll take TB simply because traps already has a decent AoE hold in PGT,plus it's handy to have high regen on a defense build, which /traps provides handily because...
  • FFG vs. Disruption arrow. FFG is frankly one of the best status protection bubbles that corrs get- it provides huge amounts of defence, and doesn't suppress if an errant sleep gets through. Plus, any -res that Disruption arrow contributes is made up for by stacking debuffs from acid mortar.
  • OSA and Trip Mine compare pretty favourably, Trip mine doing a bit more damage than OSA, and frontloaded damage, but having the debuff in OSA and a shorter recharge puts them fairly well on even keel- if OSA lights.
  • EMP takes Time Bomb with no contest

I've played a /TA controller to 50 and a TA/ defender to 39. While I generally agree with many of the suggestions presented, my short list would be:
- Increase -rech in Entangling Arrow to 0.5 scale (matching Web Grenade)
- Increase -tohit in Flash Arrow to 0.75 scale
- Increase radius of Acid Arrow to 15 feet. Reduce max targets to 10. Increase recharge to 30 seconds.
- Add -regen or -tohit (or some other effect) to PGA or Glue.

Good list. Every change is welcome.

I personally think it is time for an overhaul of OSA. 11 issues and counting. hey if you can't make it work accept it and do something about it. That's my stance anyway.

I knew this was coming when Traps got ported to defenders, since the two sets have such similar powers. If you play Traps/ after having played TA you can't help but feel cheated when going back to TA. I have a TA/AR gathering dust now that I have a Traps/Dark defender. PGA should be as good as PGT. I will grant that Emp Arrow trumps time bomb by a long shot..but Traps other mitigation powers more than make up for that.

I do hope someone takes a look at TA/ works on making it comparable to Traps/.

I approve of the suggestions.

Good suggestions all round.

Having played a TA/A duo I was quite amazed at the lack of damage mitigation that two Defenders could apply using this set, both duo-ing and on larger teams.

Um..... you're a fish?

Why would anyone argue with you when you have it nailed?

The only thing that I note is that the problems that Defenders have with TA/ are compensated nicely by ANY controller primary (that's one reason that /Dark works so well as a pairing for a defender TA/). It's also the reason that I love TA on my trollers and don't care for it at all on my defenders.

For the record, I stand by nearly all of the recommendations made by Trickshooter in the OP. That doesn't however mean I have no ideas of my own to counter-propose with! ^_-

Also for the record ... Luminara ... YOU GO GIRL!
/em cheer

But first ... a note for Back Alley Brawler and the animation team:

BABs ... it is my sincere belief that NONE of the Archery, and NONE of the Trick Archery, animations should involve holding a nocked and drawn arrow for more than 0.8 seconds. Period. It is quite ridiculous to see our archers ... leisurely ... nock and draw an arrow ... and then WAIT ... standing there ... admiring the arrowhead for a full second or more ... vibrating in place, straining to hold back our awesome power we're about to unleash on the enemy.

Ideally, BABs, the amount of time spent on the nock-draw-release portion of the attack animations should be between 0.4 and 0.8 seconds. Specifically, I'm talking about the length of time that the notch of the arrow is in contact with the string of the bow. This does not include the portions of the animation concerning motion of the arrow to the bowstring, nor the portions of the animation concerning recovery to a "rest" position after loosing the arrow into flight. Part of the reason that the current animations *look* so ridiculous is that they animate in a way that implies that the archer is "choosing their target" *after* the player has already chosen which target to attack, which results in a cause-and-effect disconnect between the action on screen and the user interface commanding that action to take place.

Now ... on to Castle's area(s) of expertise ...

Quote:

Trick Arrows, as a set, puts out less -Recharge with three powers than most of the other sets can with a single power. So why should this power be so inferior to it as a debuff?

Agreed.
In my opinion, the Recharge and Speed Debuffs are far too anemic to even be detectable in actual gameplay ... let alone appreciated. Compared to other similar powers elsewhere, the debuffs are almost non-existent on paper as well, as if they were merely afterthoughts.

Increase Speed Debuff to -25% (Defender) / 20% (Controller, Corruptor) / 15% Mastermind.
Increase Recharge Debuff to -25% (Defender) / 20% (Controller, Corruptor) / 15% Mastermind.
No other changes necessary.




The problem with Flash Arrow is that it lacks a compelling *purpose* beyond being a "stealth" Debuff via its -Perception property. I can understand the desire to keep the To Hit Debuff property anemic due to the possibility that it might be stacked high enough by a full Team-8 of Trick Arrow artists to debuff everything down to the to hit cap without even trying (6.25*8=50) due to auto-hit. Furthermore, it needs to remain non-damaging if it is to retain its aggro free property.

What is really needed to make Flash Arrow "shine" as a worthwhile power is to give it something it has needed ever since CoV went to beta.

Flash Arrow needs ... PLACATE.
Yes ... I know what I'm saying here.

Furthermore, the Damage Debuff property of Poison Gas Arrow ought to added to Flash Arrow.

Reduce duration of PvE To Hit Debuff and Perception Debuff to 30 seconds.
Add Placate (Mag 4) for 15 seconds (Defender) / 12 seconds (Controller, Corruptor) / 9 seconds (Mastermind)(PvE).
Add Placate (Mag 4) for 7.5 seconds (Defender) / 6 seconds (Controller, Corruptor) / 4.5 seconds (Mastermind)(PvP).
Add -20% Damage Debuff (all types) for 20 seconds (effect does not stack from same caster).
No other changes necessary.




My problem with Glue Arrow is that it works as a target on hostile to spawn effect, rather than as a target on location to spawn pseudo-pet ala Disruption Arrow or Oil Slick Arrow. I ought to be able to target any ground location to spawn the Glue Patch. By not anchoring the effect on a mob, the utility and skill necessary to deploy this power most effectively will dramatically increase ... resulting in a much more enjoyable playing experience.

Target (ground) Location instead of target Foe to spawn Sticky Arrow pseudo-pet.
Reduce recharge time to 45 seconds.
Increase Recharge Debuff to -25% (Defender) / 20% (Controller, Corruptor) / 15% Mastermind.
No other changes necessary.

Quote:

Increase the debuff values

Agreed.
And Luminara is right ... this needs a -Fly property added to it to prevent flying ice cube syndrome.

Increase Speed Debuff to -25% (Defender) / 20% (Controller, Corruptor) / 15% Mastermind.
Increase Recharge Debuff to -25% (Defender) / 20% (Controller, Corruptor) / 15% Mastermind.
Add -10 Fly for 15 seconds [Non-resistable] Effect does not stack from same caster.




An unreliable sleep effect against minions that doesn't even last 10 seconds (in PvE) is remarkably pathetic ... especially for a power that isn't even aggro-less and which does NO DAMAGE, even though it's auto-hit.

Poison Gas Arrow is another power that I *wish* was running on Target Location (any surface) rather than Target Foe! Again, utility and player skill would dramatically increase as a result of such a change in deploying a pseudo-pet to deliver this power.

I would also want to see the Damage Debuff moderated a bit, to synergize better with a Damage Debuff in Flash Arrow (see above).

Target (ground) Location instead of target Foe to spawn Poison Arrow pseudo-pet.
Change to 100% chance for Sleep (Mag 2) for 20 seconds (Defender) / 16 seconds (Controller, Corruptor) / 12 seconds (Mastermind)(PvE).
Add additional 50% chance for Sleep (Mag 1) for 20 seconds (Defender) / 16 seconds (Controller, Corruptor) / 12 seconds (Mastermind)(PvE).
Add additional 20% chance for Sleep (Mag 1) for 10 seconds (Controller)(PvE).
Change to -20% Damage Debuff (all types) for 20 seconds (effect does not stack from same caster).
No other changes necessary.




Glue Arrow has a 25 ft radius of effect.
Poison Gas Arrow has a 25 ft radius of effect.
Disruption Arrow has a 25 ft radius of effect.
Oil Slick Arrow has a 25 ft radius of effect.

Clearly there is "no problem" with deploying debuffs via arrows that affect a 25 ft radius. Why then is Acid Arrow's radius so ... miserly? Is it because of the low recharge (at 20 seconds)?

Furthermore, as everyone knows ... Resistances inherently "resist" being debuffed. This means that against high levels of resistance, any resistance debuffs have a laughably small "throughput" of effect ... while against targets with no resistances, the resistance debuffs are absolutely devastating. What ought to be happening is that Resistance Debuffs ought to be cutting through high resistances, while having a comparatively lesser effect on targets with little to no resistance. The way to do that is to make the Resistance Debuff effect small ... but Unresistable.

Also, if any power in the Trick Arrow set ought to be gaining Regeneration Debuffing, it's Acid Arrow.

Increase recharge time to 60 seconds (ie. same as Disruption Arrow).
Increase Toxic Damage, Resistance and Defense Debuffs to 30 seconds duration (same as Disruption Arrow).
Change Resistance Debuff (all types) to -10% (Defender) / -8% (Controller, Corruptor) / -6% (Mastermind)[Unresistable].
Increase radius of effect to 25 ft.
Add Regeneration Debuff of -1 for 30 seconds.
Increase Endurance Cost to 14.56 (same as Disruption Arrow).
No other changes necessary.




Same rationale as above for making the Resistance Debuffs unresistable ... and to the same degree.

Change Resistance Debuff (all types) to -10% (Defender) / -8% (Controller, Corruptor) / -6% (Mastermind)[Unresistable].
Increase Max Targets to 16.
No other changes necessary.

Quote:

Reduce recharge timer

AGREED.

Quote:

Decrease RechTime to 120s to 150s

Quote:

This power has the Mary Poppins syndrome; practically perfect in every way. It's just a shame that it's the only power in the set that really feels that way.

Agreed again.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...