"Gadget Mastery" Ancillary Power Pool for Defenders?

With Trick Arrow and Traps for Primary sets and Archery, Assault Rifle and Dual Pistols for secondaries, there are now a lot more options for making a simply human Natural origin Defender since the addition of Ancillary Power Pools. Unfortunately, none of the Defender APPs really lend themselves to a continuation of that theme. Power isn't a bad choice, with most of the powers in the set being decidedly un-flashy, but I think with the aforementioned power sets, many people would be interested in something like a Gadget Mastery APP that borrows powers from Devices (ones that Traps hasn't already borrowed) and Munitions Mastery. I'm not about to imagine up new powers for this idea, though I would welcome anyone else's suggestions, and if the Devs ran with this idea it's be fabulous if they decided to come up with something shiny and new for it.

Suggested powers (just one idea, I know this isn't perfect):

Taser - Short-range ST disorient from Devices.
Body Armor - Auto S/L resist From Munitions Mastery.
Sleep Grenade - Ranged AoE minor smashing damage and foe sleep from Munitions Mastery.
Surveillance - Ranged ST -defense, -resist (all) from Munitions Mastery.
Cloaking Device - Toggle stealth and +defense with no movement penalty from Devices.
OR Targetting Drone - Toggle +to hit, +perception and +resist to to-hit debuff also from Devices.


The above suggestion is just a jumping-off point for more ideas. I definitely think Body Armor should stay, as all the other Defender APPs have some kind of defense or resist power for the player (I made it available at 41 like Munitions Mastery does as it is an Auto rather than a toggle and not as strong as the other shields). Crowd control, debuffs and other self-buffs are common in the other Defender APPs as well, hence my suggesting Sleep Grenade, Surveillance and the toggles from Devices. The toggles are also good as they shouldn't need to be repeatedly fired and can minimize re-draw for the weapons in the player's primary and secondary sets.

My biggest problem with my own suggestion is that I feel like the top power is a bit underwhelming, with the other Defender APPs having something more impressive like Telekinesis or Total Focus. I think some kind of high damage attack would be nice. Were Trip Mine not already in the Traps set I would suggest that, or Hand Grenades, but Assault Rifle has the M-30 Grenade. If we were to go with LRM rocket the entire APP would basically be the Blaster Munitions APP. Personally, if anyone comes up with a better suggestion for the level 47 power, I would cut Taser first and bump Sleep Grenade to one of the level 41 choices, and make one of the Devices toggles the power that opens at 44.

Thoughts, comments, ideas? I apologize if this has been brought up before but I did search and didn't find anything similar.

I'm always for new options.

I would put the gun drone and/or the LRM in there though.

The big issue for me with a Defender Gadget based APP is the shield. You used Body Armor, is a pretty poor power for a squishy character (I'll explain why in a bit). Cloaking Device is an awful power in devices and I don't see it getting any better in a Defender Epic. The value of the stealth with no movement penalty is pretty minor (especially with the increase of speed for Sprint and Swift becoming inherent in I19) and since any Defender can take Stealth a Defender taking the Gadgets APP isn't really getting any benefit form Cloaking Device. I would actually like to fix both issues by changing the defense of Cloaking Device to be a 1.5 scale Ranged Defense bonus only with no suppression (personally I think they should do this to the version in Devices) and making that the epic shield. Other options for a gadget epic shield: make a renamed clone of Scorpion Shield, just copy Body Armor, make a renamed clone of Temporary Invulnerability.

Option 1 - A Ranged Defense only Cloaking Device
This basically gives the set a Ranged defense version of Scorpion Shield. I'm just not sure how that would play out in practice. In theory the two should be equivalent after all one provides a bonus to one out of three positional tags while the other provides protection to 2 of the 7 typed tags. In practice however there is a valid argument that for a Defender Ranged defense is a lot more powerful than S/L defense. The fact that this would make it trivial for a Traps Defender to softcap range is also a consideration (although they can do that with S/L now so maybe it wouldn't be as big a problem).

Option 2 - Scorpion Shield Clone
Pretty obvious really. It's, presumably, not unblanaced and it gives an option for Defenders who want a S/L shield without having to go redside and do a patron arc.

Option 3 - Body Armor
The obvious solution. The problem is that Body Armor is a pretty poor power for a squishy character. In armor sets passive resistance powers provide about one third of the resistance that toggles get. This isn't a huge issue there since they are intended to stack with other powers to provide good overall resistance. However for a squishy character who only has one shield this minuscule amount is not that much use (Body Armor actually has a slightly higher than normal value because of this, but it's still tiny). I guess it might be a nice option for a Defender with endurance issues to get some resistance but that's about it.

Option 4 - Temporary Invulnerability Clone
Basically the idea here is to fix the issue of a passive resistance power sucking on a squishy character by making a power (Powered Body Armor, maybe?) which gets increased resistance but becomes a toggle.


Of the options 1 and 4 are my preferences although I'll acknowledge 1 might be a bit to good.

Regarding the other powers:
Taser - Personally I'd prefer a hold like Cryo Greeze ray, but Taser would work.
Sleep Grenade - Not a big fan of sleep powers personally but definitely a possible option.
Surveillance - not really a Defender Epic power IMHO, Epic powers are supposed to be things that the character doesn't normally get and resistance debuffs are present in a lot of Defender sets. The ability to stack Surveillance with other resistance debuffs might be a bit to good.
Targeting Drone - Honestly the Epic pool version of Targeting Drone (and Focused Accuracy which is a clone of it) is awful. It has two advantages over Tactics: first it doesn't require you to take Assault of Maneuvers and secondly it provides resistance to to hit debuffs. Tactics provides a much stronger buff for half the endurance cost.

With that in mind here's how I would do it:

1. Cryo Freeze Ray
2. Wide Area Web Grenade (as the power Arachnos Soldiers get but with a "fire from assault rifle" animation and a 15ft radius)
3. Shield (whichever one makes sense)
4. Either Sleep Grenade or think up something new.
5. LRM Rocket

The problem with this is that it's a pretty close clone of Mace Mastery.

Great ideas, Adeon. Thanks for the response!

I'm definitely all for stepping up the protection of the Body Armor set, and you just gave me an idea. I really like the idea of something like a TI clone (power body armor, as you call it) but how about a toggle that does S/L defense instead of resist? Firstly, this differentiates it from TI and the other shields in the defender APPs, so that's nice. Secondly, it meshes nicely with the FF generator in Traps, the -to hit in Flash Arrow in TA, or any other +defense or -to hit powers in other primaries like Deflection Bubble, Hurricane, Radiation Infection, and Darkest Night. Of course, that risks making it THE choice for Defender APPs, but that's far from the biggest problem in the world.

I agree with you as far as hold>stun for the first power, but I tried to choose powers that weren't too high-tech, but either could work. I kinda thought something like a taser that holds, kinda like the power Malta Sappers have, would be kind of cool.

As far as Sleep Grenades I chose it because I'm fond of Mass Hypno on my level 50 defender; it's very helpful in drawing more aggro than we want to when mobs are close together. Another idea for the grenades could be to make the AoE web grenade you suggested, and then make possibly the 4th or 5th power an AoE stun grenade. Pair them up and you effectively have a group hold, which is nice.

My new suggestion:

1. Taser - (I'm sticking with this as a ST stun for the first power with the 2 AoE grenades later)
2. AoE Web Grenade power
3. "Powered Body Armor" - S/L defense toggle.
4. Gun Drone - I'm choosing this over LRM rocket because I can't help but think the Rocket is an overpowered choice for a Defender APP, plus a summon pet power would be unique to the defender APPs (short of going red side and choosing a patron pool).
5. Stun Grenade - AoE Disorient.