Force Field/Detention Field

Please replace this power:

Detention Field (Ranged, Foe Capture (Special))
+5.96 Untouchable, OnlyAffectsSelf for 30s PvE only
+5.96 Immobilize for 30s PvE only
+4 Untouchable, OnlyAffectsSelf for 4s If target is a player
+4 Immobilize for 4s If target is a player

With this power or one very nearly like it:

Abrading Field (Ranged, Foe -Regen)
Regeneration -5 for 30s PvE only
Defense -0.313 for 30s

The details and format are stolen from Red Tomax, but the purpose should be pretty clear: Detention Field is not, and has never been, a very useful power. One of my oldest characters (my first 50, in fact) is a Force Field Defender. I do love the bubbles. FF has been improved somewhat over the years. For example, once upon a time Repulsion Bomb was remarkably annoying. These days, it's not a half-bad power.

Speaking as a long-time force fielder though, the one thing the set has always lacked, and continues to lack, is any kind of regeneration debuff for AV/GM targets. It's always been an unfortunate omission, but more so since well-rounded sets like Cold and Thermal were designed. FF certainly does have its area of expertise; nothing else can quite match it in terms of sheer glorious defense. However, a Cold Defender or Controller can provide the vast majority of the same defense, and make up for the remainder with debuffs/controls, and also round out the package with regen debuff for the AVs/GMs.

Sometimes, it's a little awkward being the FF in a group. Most experienced players love the bubbles. Everyone knows the team will be in generally good shape. It's perfectly fine for a power set to be heavily specialized for team buffing over enemy debuffing. However, everyone also knows that if there will be an AV/GM in the TF/arc/etc., that FF can't help. If you're a rad or a cold, there's no such problem. If you're a dark or a kin, things will usually be fine unless the team/AV level disparity is huge. If you're a sonic, there's still the same issue but at least you've got your -RES debuffs to help things along.

On top of that, Detention Field is, as stated, simply not a good power. It can be used, yes ... but like all Intangibility-type powers, it will rarely accomplish anything more than causing confusion for a team. Perhaps it could be argued that it's of slightly greater utility when solo, but let's be serious: if you're really talking about soloing a FF Defender (Controllers have other tools to work with), Detention Field is not going to be the Most Important Thing that determines your viability. I'd like to see the Intangibility powers entirely phased out (ha!) of the game, but in this particular case the presence of the single-target Intangibility power is especially egregious.

Remove the "capture" aspect. It was a cool idea way back when, but never a good idea. Call it Abrading Field, or Abrasive Field, or whatever. Keep the same animation. Replace it with a single-target power of roughly the same -Regen strength/duration as Benumb. Present it as a field composed of tiny, impossibly thin force shards that constantly nick and wound the target to prevent fast regeneration of damage, or whatever theme appeals to you. Then when you're finished, do the same thing for Sonic Cage.

Thanks,
FCM

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Please try MA arc ID 351455, "Shard Stories: Scavenger's Hunt." Originally created for the Dr. Aeon contest, it explores the wild potential of one of the City's most concept-rich but content-poor settings: the Shadow Shard.

Only one problem: Cottage Rule. Castle has stated that he is not going to completely replace a power with one that doesn't fulfill roughly the same function. Intangibility powers would need to be replaced with powers that have have intangibility. Energize, even though it's pretty much considered exclusively a heal, still has end redux, allowing it to maintain the Cottage Rule. When Castle changed MoG, he didn't suddenly make it do something different, he made it do the same thing but on a faster cycle and removed the completely pointless -regen, -hp, and crash aspects of it.

The Cottage Rule is one of the primary problems with changing the intangibility powers: to make people take them more often, they need to be completely revamped, but they're not going to be completely revamped because Castle doesn't completely recreate powers because someone likes it the way it is (just look at the attempts to change the powers in the APPs/PPPs).

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No. You may not like it, others do, and do use it. A capture takes an enemy out of the game completely for a while. If I need to make an enemy stop, *now,* adding -regen won't do a thing to help me.

Flat out replacing powers with powers that are completely different is a *bad* idea, something the devs learned the hard way when they first unveiled the PPP changes (which completely replaced powers.) You'll note they *added* powers instead after player backlash.

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