Dark Manipulation for Blasters

All valid points, and after reading this I can agree why. I almost never play blueside, and as a dark/dark corruptor fan, mearly trying to understand why it was never implimented, wanting to see it done so. So thank you for clarifing.

Looking back on general blaster builds, I can see that this is most likely a headache for devs to combine the two that won't be overpowered. Alas we will have to wait until such time has arrived.

All of this. This is why we don't -have- Dark Blast/Manipulation for blasters.

My suggestions to make it more palatable? Drop Tenebrous Tentacles Immob component, transfer it into a Slow effect.

Make Life Drain into Soothing Aura. On a hit the power grants a temporary effect which heals you once every 4 seconds for 1/5th the value and have the power last 20 seconds. Make it not stack with itself and give the power a long recharge (to avoid players who drop their recharge to spit having a constant and powerful self-heal). Alternatively split each of the five ticks of healing into two components, enhanceable and unenhanceable. Or just make the heal unenhanceable. If you use this power while low on health (like Drain Psyche) it's not gonna keep you alive.

Or, if even that much healing is abhorrent, have it deal normal damage and apply it's -ToHit debuff, then grant a regen (and or recovery) buff similar to Drain Psyche.

As for the Dark Pit up it's damage greatly and make it into a "Fireball" power with a mag 1 stun for 4-5 seconds. Stackable with a controller or dominator, possibly even an Nrg or SS tank, but on it's own it only stuns minions and underlings.

Opinions?

-Rachel-

I like it....with one exception: Dark Regeneration.

Even on a 2 minute timer a heal that potent would be too much for blasters to get. Change it to function more like Drain Psyche minus the recovery bonus and add a significant to-hit debuff to it and you've got a winner.

I still highly doubt blasters will ever get a real self healing power outside of Aid Self or Epic pool powers. And with as awesome as Dark Regeneration is on scrappers, asking for it on a blaster is asking WAY too much in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

I actually went into the logic of putting it in back in the thread I linked.

Suffice it to say that I personally feel differently about the precedent that Drain Psyche sets. To get the most out of Drain Psyche, you're supposed to use it when you're still at reasonable health. +Regen powers are proactive survivability mechanisms. Heals, on the other hand, are reactive. Functionally, they do the same thing, from where I'm concerned.

What you have to remember about Blasters is that, while heals seem like they'd be crazy strong, they're not really when you consider the AT that would be using them. Blasters don't have any substantive damage mitigation mechanisms and they don't have a substantial amount of hit points. Heals are going to be nice, but they're not going to have a spectacular effect until you stack them with mitigation.

Even so, your suggestion of making it +regen as opposed to a straight heal, I can agree with. Of course, if that were done, I'd recommend a reduction in the endurance cost to provide some functional recompense.

I was looking at it combined with the sheer amount of to-hit debuff a dark/dark blaster would be throwing around. When stuff isn't hitting you very often the ability to heal yourself becomes VERY potent. Look at the performance of an SR scrapper with Siphon Life or Aid Self to see what I mean.

On a Fire/Fire, I'd agree that a healing power wouldn't be especially overpowered, because it simply wouldn't be enough to overcome the amount of incoming damage. But Dark/Dark? That's a lot of mitigation, especially if they leave the Tentacles+Dark Pit combo in the primary.

I agree with an end cost reduction if converted into a +Regen power. Even a +Regen version of DR would probably be borderline overpowered, but no more so than Drain Psyche would be if combined with Dark Blast, so I see no reason not to do it.

Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately.

I'll bet there are a lot of dark/dark corruptors just to get close to having it.

I had already considered that. The biggest point is that -tohit is substantially weaker than you're giving it credit for being. Purple patch and lower AoE debuff capability both lower the affect by a considerable amount. Consider just how much defensive benefit a DM/* Scrapper is getting from the -tohit. It's not that much at all.

This is one of the reasons why this suggestion went hand in hand with a tweaked Dark Blast that was much more damage focused than mitigation focused. I laid out that set design as well, in the thread I linked, specifically to address the problems of giving Blasters such a potent control primary. Dark Blast, in its current incarnation, works fine for Defenders because Defenders have lower damage and higher support demands on the AT. Blasters, on the other hand, need more damage to be effective.

1. An immobilization as a Dark Manipulation implies either redundancy with Tenebrous Tentacles in Dark Blast, or that the devs remove TT - the gem of the set - when the set is proliferated. Let's hope Blasters get to keep TT and that a melee KB power replaces your suggested immobilization power.
2. Ok.
3. Replace with Cloak of Darkness. Damage auras for Blasters = suicide. Stealth ease usage of Soul Drain and other powers best used in melee.
4. Ok.
5. Replace with Soul Drain. Defender version for radius and effect. Scrapper version for damage.
6. Extend range from melee to 40'.
7. Ok.
8. Change into +regen/-regen power similar to Drain Psyche without the recovery boost.
9. 15' radius, 45 sec recharge and 9.5 sec duration would be more blasterish.

Originally Posted by PapaSlade Rangle's right....this is fun.

Holy necropost batman!

I doubt there would be a melee KB power simply because there is only one set that gets a melee KB power at level 1 and that's largely because it doesn't make sense for there to be one. In the thread I referenced, I went into the reasoning behind the choice of an ST immob at level 1. I suggest you read it.

Which is why there are 3 sets with damage auras and only 1 set with a personal stealth power right? Stealth powers are remarkably low on the utility scale for Blasters, where their primary methods of survivability are range and killing things quickly. Stealth doesn't allow for either of those. A damage aura allows for the second one.

First off, there is a very good reason why I went with BU rather than Soul Drain. BU is a mechanism for frontloading damage. It allows you to get in a very hard hit from range right at the very beginning of a fight, before your enemies have started beating you in the face. Soul Drain requires that you lose that advantage by making an attack while in melee in order to gain the benefit of it.

Secondly, you do realize that the Defender and Scrapper versions of Soul Drain are identical with the sole exception that the Defender version has 2.25x the area of effect, right? The differences in damage and buff values are due exclusively to AT mods.

Because getting a better version of Scare makes so much sense, right? Ranged mez/debuff powers don't really have a place within a manipulation set. I went into the reasoning behind this in that same thread. I once again recommend you actually read it.

Once again, I went into the reasoning behind those numbers which were taken explicitly from existing power designs in the linked thread. You can try to claim that it's more "blasterish" based on whatever you arbitrarily decide, but I've actually got the numbers that blasters are already using supporting the numbers that I came up with, so I'm pretty sure that mine is more "blasterish" simply because I'm using what blasters already have/get.

Actually there are four -4- auras with damage available to Blasters. You rather handily neglected to differentiate between primary/pure damage auras and other auras with significant benefits besides damage. Both Hot Feet and World of Confusion have significant effects other than damage and can be useful. Blazing Aura/Death Shroud is the type of aura you advocate and which is absolutely horrid on Blasters. Instead of allowing the Blaster to arrest faster they will in most instances wind up getting the the Blaster defeated faster. Blasters lack of defenses means they cannot stay in melee range long enough to benefit from a pure damage aura or on teams survive the added attention for trifling amounts of damage. There's a very good reason almost no Blaster ever picks these powers (Blazing Aura, Lightning Field) you know. I wanted to put conventional wisdom to the test and found out the hard way.

Cloak of Darkness would be infinitely more useful as it allows the Blaster to line up cones effectively (of which Dark Blast have a great deal) without getting aggroed. Combined with Super Speed, Stealth or even stealth-IOs? it will become true invisibility which is EXTREMELY useful for any squishy. Cloak of Darkness would also provide the Blaster with typed and positional defenses which would work in synergy with Dark Blast -ToHit debuffs generating significant survivability (for a Blaster). That there's only one other stealth power in Blaster secondaries is in my book an argument for Cloak of Darkness rather than opposed it as you seem to think. We need new sets to provide actual tangible differences rather than regurgitating the same old news, or even worse - the same old mistakes.

In addition to Cloak of Darkness, something a kin to Chilling Embrace toggle aura would be useful and provide something new to the Blaster arsenal. Call it Essence of the Night or some such and have it provide -ToHit and -DmgBuff debuff in a minimum 10' radius. That or introduce a Blaster version of Chill of the Night (-ToHit and Dmg). Anything but a pure damage aura. I repeat; pure damage aura for the Blasters archtype always was and still is an exceptionally BAD idea. They are remnants of an archtype the Blasters lack of defenses never could become, less useful than the human tailbone. That mistake should NEVER, EVER be proliferated.


Front-loaded damage OBVIOUSLY won't be that much of a point with Dark Blasters given that a significant amount of the damage is by the way of DoT (Gloom, TT, Night Fall) while also potentially lacking a tier 3 big hitter in the blast set. Soul Drain has three times the duration of BU/Aim, and the longer duration allows the buff in many cases to be carried over to the next spawn providing front-loaded damage. Besides, a Dark Blast set for Blasters will more than likely include Aim to expedite arrests.

With all the control and mitigation potentially in Blaster Dark sets, such Blasters wouldn't be as dependent on front-loaded damage as more conventional Blasters. Soul Drain is a formidable AoE attack on it's own and would provide better DPS over time than BU. Cloak of Darkness would let the usage of Soul Drain be more forgiving. It's a risk versus reward thing that meshes particularly well with the thematic primary set and a couple of other sets. Besides, making every set virtual clones of each other isn't good design. Dark has a real chance of becoming a breath of fresh air, something different and interesting for Blasters, a little bit like Shield Defense for melee classes.


Incorrect. If that was the truth, then why does Scrappers have the same +ToHit as Defenders while having superior +DmgBuff? Normally a Defender would have higher +ToHit and lower +DmgBuff compartment to that of the prime damage dealers. OBVIOUSLY, it's not "due exclusively to AT mods". What you simply term as "the sole exception" is a rather tremendous difference which more than likely is part of the balancing equation. Blasters would need the added radius of Soul Drain even more so than Defenders. The modifiers themselves are rather insignificant and a moot point if kept at that level.


Yes, it does make sense. The Blaster is mainly a ranged archytype. Ranged mez/debuff powers do have a place within manipulation sets, as the devs clearly have indicated giving Taser range and making Scare which is a ranged Foe Fear power (which few ever takes simply because there are better - some much better - alternatives). The only non-damaging melee mez/debuff in manipulation sets is Stun in Energy Melee (the damage is so low it might as well not be there), an eminently skippable power, nobody takes despite it being easily stackable with other stuns.

Let me be totally clear about this; I'm opposed building a set with clearly superior and inferior powers and then calling the set balanced. That kind of approach promotes cookie-cutter builds and lessens diversity. It is simply lazy and unimaginative. Why so hellbent on perpetuating the design flaws of the past? Fix the old underachievers (of which Blaster sets have many) rather than introducing new ones out of a warped sense of balance.


If you were less abrasive and actually seemed to have an exceptional grasp of the Blaster aspect of the game, then I just might have bothered tracking up your full and complete reasoning. Brandishing about empty rhetorics to justify your own completely arbitrary numbers doesn't impress me even in the slightest though. Nothing in the Blaster arsenal has a 10' AoE radius. Nothing in the game has 40 secs recharge. And no Blaster primary or secondary have hard mez (hold/stun) durations even remotely like what you suggest. Blasters have without exception shorter durations on mezzes than Defenders, your suggestion breaks with that staple. Let alone the small melee range pure damage aura (Death Shroud) and ultra strong heal (Dark Regeneration) which you also rather ludicrously claim to be more blasterish than my suggested alterations.

I disagree. I find my blaster damage auras fun and effective. If some blasters can't survive while using those powers then perhaps they should practice and get better.

You might find them fun, but that is only due either to masochism combined with a love of Rise of the Phoenix nuke/self-rez or, more likely, an expensive defensive IO-build at endgame level. "Practice and get better" is just your flippant way of saying you value a power that is ONLY useful for hard-core players at level 50 with expensive IO-builds over something that could potentially be fun levelling with for all, but at the end not provide the same amount of destructive overpower/farming potential (with a particular expensive IO-build only) you prefer. Could you be any more transparent?

And you'll note that I didn't claim there were 4 damage auras. I said there were 3 sets with damage auras. Please, learn to read.

So because almost no blaster ever picks those powers (which is a bit of a joke; I see plenty of blasters taking those powers explicitly because they're exceptionally cheap AoE damage and the sets they're in make excellent blap sets), you don't think that those powers should exist anywhere else? Seems to me you're assigning an arbitrary definition of value to those powers when they're actually quite good when used in the right hands.

So all */Dark Blasters are going to have Dark/* as their primary? That's an awesome design mentality to use! Secondly, you're talking about allowing Blasters to get a single attack lined up. Stealth isn't going to help lining up any attack other than the first and, honestly, how hard is it to line up the first attack with a blaster cone anyway? Enemies won't aggro that far away from me regardless.

[quoteFront-loaded damage OBVIOUSLY won't be that much of a point with Dark Blasters given that a significant amount of the damage is by the way of DoT (Gloom, TT, Night Fall) while also potentially lacking a tier 3 big hitter in the blast set.[/quote]

Like I said before, all */Dark Blasters are going to be Dark/* blasters as well? Are we designing an entire AT or a secondary? I'm designing a secondary. You're apparently designing an entire AT because you're assuming that all dark manip will never be used without dark blast.

That's a joke. It's a scale 1 damage attack on a 120 second base recharge time. The damage aspect of Soul Drain is a joke. And I know this for a fact: I play a DM scrapper.

Except that it wouldn't. As soon as you went into melee and used Soul Drain, you'd expose yourself to a full volley from the entire enemy group around you. Soul Drain draws aggro and you have to survive that aggro to get any benefit out of it.

Except that Shield Defense is actually very similar to Fiery Aura so it's not really a "breath of fresh air". It's more like "we wanted an offensive defense set" and went with defense and +dam rather than resistance and damage.

Learn what you're talking about before you try to "correct" me. Do you even know what AT mods are? Soul Drain uses the melee_buff_tohit and melee_buff_dmg attributes. Defenders have .1 melee_buff_tohit and .1 melee_buff_dmg attributes. Scrappers have a .1 melee_buff_tohit and .125 melee_buff_dmg attributes. This is why Scrappers get 25% more +dam from all self damage buffs than Defenders do.

Now, you may be thinking that just because Tactics and Assault provide more for a Defender than they do for a Scrapper that I don't know what I'm talking about. This isn't true. Both of those powers use the ranged variant of that attribute, which Defenders have a .125 to both and Scrappers have as .7 to both. Soul Drain uses the melee version (i.e. the self buff version) whereas the powers you're probably thinking of use the ranged version (i.e. the team buff version).

Want some more evidence to support my claim that you don't know what you're talking about? Go in game and check [Darkness Mastery.Soul Drain] and [Dark Melee.Soul Drain]. Change the AT on each to Scrapper or Defender. They'll have the exact same values.

Right, because those are AoE control powers? You're also ignoring the substantially more common melee mez powers (like Stun, Shocking Grasp, Lightning Clap, Ice Patch, Frozen Aura). There are a lot more melee control powers than there are ranged ones, and you're also ignoring the fact that ToF is also a very strong debuff power as well. You could make the claim that ToF should be ranged by bringing up Scare, but that doesn't really make much sense since all that Scare does is fear whereas ToF also has a very substantial debuff attached to it (oh, and it's also on a 20 second recharge compared to an 8 second recharge and has less than half of the duration when modified for AT mods). Of course, I only know this because I actually play Dark Melee and have seen and used Touch of Fear enough to know that it's substantially too strong to be given to a non-support AT as a ranged power.

And I consider your definitions of superior and inferior to be jokes. You don't even know what a good power would look like in function, nor do you have any idea what you're talking about when attempting to assign efficacy to a power.

How am I perpetuating design flaws of the past? I'm looking at what already exists in game in an effort to design a build that would actually be balanced and functional. You're simply asking for things while operating under a laughable lack of understanding concerning the use of powers while being completely oblivious to the actual attributes of other powers and completely ignorant of the fact that the devs might want to design a set that doesn't expect to be paired with a specific primary as a point of design (more than half of your arguments have assumed as much).

I would be less abrasive if you knew what you were talking about and didn't force me to talk down to you or teach you things that you should know before entering into a debate on design simply because you operate under delusions of competence.

Oh, right. My numbers are arbitrary because they're based on existing precedent and research whereas yours aren't because you said "well, that looks right". I suggest you actually look up the definition of the word before you accuse my numbers of being arbitrary.

Frozen Aura. Look it up. I'll also bring up Fire Sword Circle and Drain Psyche too, if you want.

Stun powers have twice the recharge for the same area and duration as sleep powers do. I used the same basis for assigning a recharge to my version of Dark Pit as was applied to Frozen Aura (I essentially built a stun version of Frozen Aura because it was the closest power of comparison). You would have known this had you read the linked thread.

First off, AT mods. Defenders have better mez attributes than Blasters do. Secondly, duration doesn't mean squat compared to uptime ratios. Thirdly, melee mez powers have better uptime ratios than ranged ones with very few exceptions. My version got a better duration and uptime pretty much explicitly because it's a melee power rather than a ranged one. Bigger reward for the bigger risk of being in melee.

Where did I claim that making Dark Regen into a +regen power was somehow "less blasterish" than simply providing a straight heal (which wasn't actually your suggestion first, it has been made numerous times by other people when I made the suggestion and I defended it quite well; personally, I don't care which: I think having a recharge that is 4 times longer and forces the Blaster to be in a situation (melee) that they are generally not wont to be in makes it rather well balanced (not to mention the fact that damage recovery mechanisms aren't particularly spectacular without damage mitigation mechanisms to bolster them, especially with the low level of Blaster hp))? I challenge you to find where I said that, unless, of course, you're hallucinating such things because you are operating under some ridiculous delusion that I care enough about contradicting you to abandon all notions of intelligence to blatantly claim something contrary to reality.

The only claims I've made are that you have no idea what you're talking about which I then supported with evidence (that you then proved true by interpreting incorrectly; thanks!). I continue to say that you have no idea what you're talking about, and I will continue to do so until you start, especially since you have shown a laughable inability to actually read the thread where I explained all of what you're asking about in detail. I heartily suggest that you either remedy this situation or leave before you make yourself look like more of an idiot.

These powers are very rarely seen in Blasters because they are very situational, meaning useful only in certain fairly rare instances. Expensive, end game, IO-builds is a common denominator and this game isn't supposed to be balanced after IOs. As a matter of fact, it seems to me your whole suggested design virtually screams of someone looking for an alternate farmer/IO-ed out demi-god. I'm more preoccupied with making a set fun to level and balanced beyond.


Did I ever say that? Cones are a very common power type though. Dark, AR, and Sonic have three each. You do seem to have an exceptional liking for stating the obvious, clearly stealth isn't going to help lining up attacks after the initial engagement - but Cloak of Darkness will always provide both positional and typed defense which is useful in all combat situations.


Of course not. However, thematic sets should be made to mesh well together. A PBAoE through Soul Drain goes particularly well with sets like Radiation and Electrical which already have PBAoEs. The stealth from Cloak of Darkness will be particularly useful for sets with cones (all but Psychic Blast). That you attempt to pigeon-hole me as one attempting to build a narrow set, even AT, is pretty astounding feat of self-deception considering you're attempting to build a set purely for blapping/melee.


I didn't say the direct damage Soul Drain contributes over time is formidable now did I? Seems to me someone should take their own advice and learn to read. However, it is an damaging attack comparable to other Blaster AoEs while simultaneuosly acting as a damage booster and as such provides better DPS over time than Aim or BU. Not to mention both Aim and BU have their damage boosting effect lowered due to having to take time out from attacking to boost self unlike Soul Drain.


But of course it would. Firstly, the stealth would help a /Dark blaster get into the middle of the spawn for a target rich drain/damage without getting aggroed prior to the act, and very possibly mezzed before you even get a chance to do anything. Secondly, Cloak of Darkness provides defense (how many times do I need to say this before it actually begins to sink in?) that also has a very nice synergy with the ToHit debuff particularly in Dark Blast (and before you drone on and on again, yes I know not everyone will be Dark blast Blasters).


Shield Defense is similar to Fiery Aura only in that they are both offensive sets. To argue against SD being a breath of fresh air is pointless. It's been flavour of the month ever since the set was released. Yes I know, partly because a bug making the tier 9 overpowered, but even when fixed the set will provide the melee player with something very different and therefore fresh.


I stand corrected. But as I said, it's a moot point. The 25% additional +dam Scrappers get and Blasters would get is nothing compared with the +225% area of effect (damage and drain) Defenders get and Blasters probably would get now is it? Knowledge without insight is wasted.


Didn't I indicate that Stun and Scare are underachievers that shouldn't be a yardstick for balance? As previously stated, there is a reason for so few Blasters actually picking these powers.

As for Touch of Fear being substantially too strong for a non-support AT as a ranged power you shoot yourself in the foot. Scrappers have significantly better survivability even in melee than Blasters have at range, thus the natural conclusion of your statement is that you also feel that ToF is even more grossly overpowered on Scrappers than it ever could become on Blasters in a ranged version. Touch of Fear is clearly too strong compared with regular Blaster control powers though (not to mention Scrappers), I'd agree with that. I never suggested the same insane duration or recharge as Scrappers are blessed with though, I'd have such a power mesh well with similar mezes, but be given the additional debuff because fear cannot be stacked as easily as stun (and because of less range if kept melee). Having Cloak of Darkness (see, another nifty usage of a stealth power?) in the set would make range in such a power not as needed or, indeed, warranted.


...as I find your tone of voice that of a punk that hides behind the anonymity of internet. That sets in the past have included obviously overpowered powers and equally obviously underpowered powers only to call the set balanced is a fact you're just to anal to acknowledge. For most ATs this isn't a big deal (other than losing diversity), Blasters on the other hand cannot afford as much to do the "wrong"/inferior power picks.


Why even bother to ask? I've clearly made my case against (esp. short radius) pure damage auras. I can also mention I have a beef with snipes and old school nukes with drain as design flaws. A fact the developers themselves seem to acknowledge by changing how new nukes work.


You're simply too precious for words. Don't delude yourself, you're abrasive simply because your own inflated ego makes disparaging others come natural, coupled with the anonymity of internet allowing you to get away with it. In my eyes, that is the behaviour of a rude punk.

I'm not a native speaker of English, but my grasp of the language is more than sufficient thank you very much. I can even do a Texas drawl if forced to. I won't deign comment this sort of garbage beyond that.


Our disagreement on your suggested Dark Pit Blaster version stems from me not noticing you changing it into a PBAoE. I have no objections with the numbers in that case and can understand you found my "blasterish" claim rather arbitrary. That's still no excuse for your snotty personality though.


I added that comment as a response to your matter-of-factly claim that "you simply use numbers based upon that Blasters have/get". That claim doesn't really play nice with some of your other suggestions.

Giving Blasters what amounts to a instant and complete heal every 60 secs with SOs and half that time with a solid IO build seems a little bit too much for an AT without any such powers in their primaries or secondaries. A +/-Regen power would probably be more palatable even though +Regen generally can heal significantly more over time than a pure heal (neither being extremely good without significant amounts of mitigation). It will give the Blaster a fair boost in survivability while also giving the Blaster a little but very welcome situational support utility.

Your parting shot in your last paragraph shows your anal retentive lack of character and class. Please get over yourself and stop making the internet an even more obnoxious place to reside.

This is hilarious because none of my blaster builds are IO'd. I take and use the pure damage auras because they're a source of exceptionally cheap damage and save me large amounts of endurance over the long run, something that few top end IO builds actually have to care about. I've met many players that do the same thing. Just because you don't use it doesn't meant that it doesn't see use.

Let me help you with something here. The +def in Cloaking Device is a joke. It provides the same +def as Combat Jumping while in combat for 4 times the endurance cost, or did you not know that? Were you operating under the faulty assumption that the entirety of Cloaking Device's +def operated all the time (only half of it is active if you've been attacked or have attacked in the last 10 seconds)?

This also ignores the fact that defense is largely useless unless you have a substantial quantity of it. Reducing your chance to hit from 50% to 47.25% (1.75 * 1.56 = 2.73, 50-2.73 = 47.27) will do jack and squat to your survivability. Defense does virtually nothing for you unless you're packing on 10-20% because it only provides a chance at avoiding damage. The amount of defense that a Blaster can pack on with an SO build (CJ, CD, Weave, Maneuvers) is a joke (14.47%) considering the cost that is required to get that much defense and how little returns you actually get for all that you took. The only time that personal defense actually matter to a Blaster are heavy IO builds that can actually pack on meaningful +def. To any Blaster that isn't willing to spend multiple billions of inf on a build, the +def in Cloaking Device (or an clone thereof) is going to do virtually nothing. The only reason that Cloaking Device is considered useful for Devices is because they actually have a reason to become invisible and sneak up on their enemies (Trip mine, Time bomb) because they can actually sneak away after they drop them.

Well, if you actually look at every set except for Mental Manipulation, you'll see that those sets have a vast preference for melee performance. Even mental manipulation has 2 very good reasons for closing to melee (Drain Psyche, Psychic Shockwave) or did you miss all of that?

And before you attempt to tell me that I'm trying to build a pure blapping/melee set, remember that you're the one that wants the frontloading capability of the powerset to be melee oriented. If anything, I'm the one trying to build a set that actually fits with the existing sets and you're the one trying to make a set that completely breaks the mold.

No, you said "Soul Drain is a formidable AoE attack on it's own", which is the exact same friggin' thing or did you forget that? Try reading what you wrote yourself before saying I didn't read it. Everything you've said about Soul Drain has pretty much proven to me that you have never played a set that used the power. You have no clue how laughable the damage is and you are completely ignorant of the difference in animation time that exists between the two powers (which means that BU actually takes up substantially less time out from your attacking to get things accomplished).

And then you'd immediately get gibbed before you have a chance to actually make the attack because you're going to be rooted for 2 seconds before you can even make an attack with it. You seem to be completely overestimating the damage that Soul Drain deals, even moreso the fact that, in order to get the massive +dam benefits from the power, you need to be surrounded by enemies (which further lowers your chances of survival). Go play a DM Scrapper, turn off your entire secondary except for a Stealth power, and just into a reasonably large spawn to use Soul Drain. You'll laugh at how quickly you get gibbed and that's with a Scrapper that has higher base hp and better defense contributions. Seriously, you have no clue what you're talking about. Blasters are about as likely to get Soul Drain as they are to get Follow Up.

Actually, it's gotten all of that player attention because it was horribly borked and will remain popular because it still provides massive untoward benefits, especially when IO'd heavily (and will continue to do so unless Castle grows a pair and brings AAO down to a more sane level of contribution). If the "breath of fresh air" argument actually held ground, sets that are actually substantially different from the "classics" without being numerically overpowered (like Dual Blades and Dual Pistols) would be ridiculously popular even after their initial release. Oh wait, neither of them are.

Actually you did. The only change you suggested to my version was to make the range on the power 40'. My version would have the exact same stats as the Scrapper version, or did you misread "Direct clone of Scrapper version"?

I act just like this in real life as well. Idiocy perturbs me as much in normal life as it does whenever I have a keyboard in front of me. If you hang around long enough, you'll likely learn that I do this kind of thing to anyone that acts like an idiot where I see it. There's a reason that second line is in my sig.

Seriously, research anything I suggest. I'll give you a few minutes. You'll find that one of the things I outright despise is designs like that. I go out of my way to avoid designs like that. The only reason you think I'm building a set antithetical to a comprehensive balance design is because you have no idea what you're talking about. Stealth powers are not the massive boon that you are attempting to make them out to be. Soul Drain would get more Blasters killed than it would help kill faster. Touch of Fear as a ranged power is simply ridiculously overpowered and, if you remove the debuff, there isn't much point to it existing.

Do not get me started on snipes or crashing nukes. A vast majority of players have a beef with them. Comically though, not many have massive beefs with damage auras on blasters or many of the other things you seem to be complaining about. You can complain about the utter uselessness of snipes and the large scale lack of use of crashing nukes and I'll agree with you, but I'm going to laugh myself blue if you think that anyone other than you thinks the same thing about damage auras or that anyone honestly believes that stealth powers are as valuable as you seem to make them out to be.

And you're a great joke! Do you honestly believe that I'm just like this because I have a massive ego (a point I don't contest; intelligence has a habit of breeding self-superiority)? I'm amused that you attribute everything I do to the anonymity of the internet rather than simply being smart and not suffering fools at all (much less suffering them lightly). I treat everyone that acts like an uneducated idiot like this. You can say I'm hiding behind the veil of internet anonymity but if you confronted me in real life I'd treat you the exact same way: stupid people don't deserve to be coddled simply because they're stupid. If you want me to stop treating you like this, stop trying to talk about things that are well above your expertise and I'll consider it.

Seriously, how many of your errors have been due to an inability to read? It was written there quite explicitly.

The internet would be less obnoxious if people used it for things other than spouting their mouths off and claiming expertise where they obviously have none. I'm actually quite a nice guy to be around when people aren't being stupid. I only act like a jackass when people deserve it, and I think the internet would be a much more obnoxious place to be if people like you were actually given the credit you think you deserve regardless of the fact that you have a lot to learn.

Once again, I suggest you actually look at what you're reading, learn about what you're trying to talk about, and do some research before you start opening your mouth or letting your fingers touch the keyboard. You can call me classless, crass, or a jackass all you want: it won't change the fact that you're a bumbling fool that's not even capable of reading an entire post without screwing up vital information.

Well, you're full of crap. I don't IO out my blasters, ever. I only do that with Scrappers. But keep making stuff up, it helps your credibility sooooo much.

This is a prime example of someone who doesn't know how to play trying to dictate how other people should play (while claiming that this is actually how other people do play, which is a total farce).

I have two characters with set IOs, even though they're both only half-built (I'm a lazy crafter/marketer): a scrapper and a controller. Everyone else lives on SOs and generic IOs (well, my main is fully slotted with HOs and generic IOs and a couple special IOs). Every single one of my characters that has access to a damage aura takes it, no questions asked. Every single one of my characters - and I have over a hundred characters, more than one of most archetypes (only two stalkers and only three tankers - all five basically gathering dust - I just can't get into 'em) - lives in melee range, so why the hell would I question getting basically free damage (the endurance cost is pathetically small compared to how fast I empty out my end bar with actual attacks)?

No, I don't question it. I take it, and I love it.

My main character, Aggelakis, an Empathy defender has and uses Total Focus at every available opportunity. I would wet myself with glee if she could ever get a damage aura.

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.