Why is it that Full Auto does less damage than Rain of Arrows?

> They both have the same damage type, lethal.
> They both same recharge, 60 seconds.

However...

> Rain of Arrows is Location AoE, which is much more versatile and safer to use than Full Auto, which roots you for the entire duration.
> Rain of Arrows has a higher base accuracy than Full Auto, by roughly 19%.
> Rain of Arrows has longer range than Full Auto, by 10ft.
> Full Auto has a 20 degree cone, which makes it harder to hit an entire group.
> Full Auto costs about 5 endurance less, which is the only thing that's better compared to Rain of Arrows.

As a whole, these little differences add up to a lot. If anything, Full Auto should deal MORE damage than Rain of Arrows, not just equal to.

devs hate AR.

they especially hate AR/Dev

Well, FA has a 10% chance for an extra 62.56 damage (unenhanced, Blaster numbers) which alone puts it above RoA's base damage... but that extra spike of damage is also non-resistable.
(Also: that extra damage is checked against each target individually, so you've got a fair chance to hit at least one opponent with it each cast)

Edit: Also also, Corruptor RoA can't Scourge, while Corruptor FA can.

another thing thing to consider is that each set is balanced against itself, not against other sets direct powers.

Assault Rifle gets 5 very powerful mob attacks: Buckshot, M30 Grenade, Flamethrower, Ignite, and Full Auto.

Archery is primarily single target damage, with only 3 AOE's to it's credit: Explosive Arrow, Fistful of Arrows, Rain of Arrows.

Granted, M30 Grenade and Explosive Arrow do pretty much the same thing... but Assault Rifle gets the Grenade at 6, while Archery gets Explosive Arrow at 12... and come on... lets be honest, at 12 you are looking at a sub-travel power...

And Beanbag and Stunning Arrow do pretty much the same thing. But, Assault Rifle gets Beanbag at level 8, while Archery does not get that stun until level 26.

Assault Rifle also gets an additional attack, as the level 8 slot that's an aim on everything but Dual Pistols, is the aforementioned stun, Beanbag.

So... Assault Rifle. Superior overall mob damage and more attacks are why it's nuke has lower damage than Archery.

Another thing to remember is that RoA's damage doesn't actually hit until a few seconds after you target the power, so unless you're using it on a mob that's standing still (i.e mezzed or not aggroed yet) you may well hit nothing at all.

Don't forget Full Auto has the longest animation of any power in the game. IMO, Assault Rifle is at least a bit subpar (before the Ignite nerf, I would have said it's par just a bit situational and niche-y). IMO, a set that's AoE heavy should be able to out AoE ST "heavy" sets, not lose on ST and AoE.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

as someone who's been playing an ar/dev an awful lot lately, I like FA. Taken out of context it's a solid fast-recharging fairly big AoE that's up often enough to be part of my regular attack chain.

that said, when we widen our perspective to encompass other sets it starts to lag (which is true of AR as a whole, actually). At the very, very least it could use a bump up from 10 to 16 targets.

I definitely agree with the bump up from 10 to 16 targets. All other Blaster nukes hit a maximum of 16 targets...so why not FA? It's already sub par in every other aspects, including the fact that it deals lethal damage, which is mostly resisted.

RoA can be cast out of direct line of sight. With FA, you have to be in LoS.

RoA >>> FA

Devs hate AR.

RoA's pseudopet also has to cast the damage power 3 times this allows for some interesting things to occur:

Certain enemies in the 16 targets can be missed by 1 or 2 of the damage ticks.
If you are firing at an extremely large group you could hit 48 different targets for 1/3rd of RoA's maximum damage.

I have seen both of these things happen.