World of Confusion

My only Blaster is Elec/Elec but I've been curious about the [World of Confusion] power from Mental Manipulation. However, I've heard that it sucks. I'm wondering why and then in a secondary nature wondering in "what if" mode what needs fixing.

- The confuse is not very strong
- The damage is very low

It does have one advantage: The damage from WoC does NOT alert enemies to your presence, nor does it generate any aggro. If you're invisible, you could stand in the middle of a spawn, damaging them and confusing minions, and none of them would attack you. (Does not apply if you include a damage proc)

Frankly, all of the aura powers are dubious (at best) on a blaster.

1) They are all PBAoE powers that do a minor damage over time effect plus a minor other effect (-recharge/-speed, low mag confuse, low end drain, or a little more damage).

2) You're a blaster.

You are either attacking from range - rendering the PBAoE worthless.

Or you are blapping in melee and defeating things so fast that the minor extra damage from the aura is STILL more or less worthless.

And, being toggles, they really aren't even a good place for a proc (once every 10 seconds and all that).

While I hesitate to say never take them, as I'm certain there are situations where they are useful (especially the -recharge/-speed from the cold aura), overall imo the auras are very skippable for a blaster.

The only reason to take it is to mule the purple confuse set.

Then never turn it on.

Its that bad.

I think the proc from the confuse set is actually more useful then the aura itself anyways...

It's an indirect defense power. Most minons that run up into melee range will take a second or two to turn to hit another foe--an attack not used on you. It even better if that enemy runs away from you to attack--all time not hitting you. It may not seem like much, but it has served me very well.

If you solo a lot, World of Confusion is potentially-useful. As Derangedpolygot mentioned, if enemies stay in your melee range, they'll also likely stay confused and attack each other.

HOWEVER, even then, it's usefulness is dubious. At higher levels, more and more enemies start getting holds or sleeps and stuns and what-have-you. All these powers actually turn your WoC toggle off. Whenever I log into my Psionic/Mental Blaster I turn WoC off, but soon into any gaming session I'll be hit by a hold and completely forget I ever had WoC and forget to turn it on again.

Now, if you team up a lot, you're likely to have meatshields to soak up damage for you. WoC still might be kinda-sorta potentially when-the-stars-align-correctly useful, but honestly, it's a power that I often forget I even had. Really, "fogettable" is a good word describing the power.

As for fixing it? If they made it so that the toggle doesn't get turned off when you're mezzed, that might be a good first step. That might be considered broken, though. I'm no game designer so I don't dare say anything on matters of game balance.

I'm not a big fan of Blaster damage auras (they don't have the benefit of Fury to make them dangerous); however, I'm trying out an Elec/Elec as well and applying EMod Stun procs to almost all of my -END attacks; including E Aura... so I'm willing to give E Aura a go (plus I plan on putting in the EMod +END proc in it).

WoC, I probably wouldn't take; it's only an 8' radius that I don't think works on Lts and above... but it can slot the AoE Confuse proc.