Powersets that need review

My 2 Inf:

Ice Control: It needs better soft control than ice slick. Someone mentioned earlier they eat alphas a lot with Dark Control. On Ice it's even worse. My Ice/ is the only Dom I've taken stealth on for just that reason. Makes it easier to position ice slick from around a corner so I don't get my face smashed in every spawn.

Ice Armor: Endurance maintenance before level 26 is a huge pain. My first 50 hero was an Ice/Ice tanker, and had I not known what was coming with Energy Absorption he probably wouldn't have made it to 20. Maybe move EA earlier in the set?

And then there's Gravity. It's the only Control set I truly do not enjoy playing. It needs something even with the recent changes.

Mind Control: the power Telekinesis needs to be *UN-GIMPED* so as to actually be useful more than once per playing session or in PvP only. Telekinesis is an anchored Target AoE *Repel* that also happens to be a Mag 3 Hold, has a ridiculously ruinous Endurance Cost that is among the 5 highest in the game, and has a Max Targets limit of ... *FIVE* ... for reasons which are not only unfathomable but also almost certainly lost to the mists of time. Telekinesis can be completely "salvaged" through pure Powers Team spreadsheet editing by simply reducing its Endurance Cost and increasing its Max Targets limit from 5 to 10 or 16.

Gravity Control: change Wormhole from KnockBACK to KnockUP and a substantial portion of the "requires terrain" hassles with this power go away.

Mercenaries: too many issues to list, but excessively bad powers synergies in the Pets heads the list, followed by the absolute stinker that is Serum.

Ninjas: glass cannons that are all glass (labeled "break me, I'm easy!"). Ninja survivability is bottom of the barrel unless SERIOUSLY aided by secondary powers and Aid Other from the medicine pool. And why do only the Tier 2 Pets have a "Hide" power natively? Shouldn't *ALL* Ninjas be able to "Hide" their presence? Speaking of which, why isn't Smoke Bomb a PBAoE power that affects the Mastermind and the Ninja Pets within Supremacy Range? Do they have only the one Smoke Bomb, and they have to take turns using it or something?

Peacebringers: lousy powers synergies makes for a poor progression structure. So many of the Peacebringer powers don't "work with" other Peacebringer powers in advantageous effects stacking ways that it really isn't funny. Unfortunately, Peacebringers are somewhat "yoked" to Warshades, where there is a somewhat legitimate expectation that if you do anything to one, something similar really ought to be done for the other.

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

Removing KB from Wormhole (by use of this mentioned enhancement) will fix one of my problems with Gravity. I would like to see the intangible changed to something else. Thematically, I think a PBAoE toggle that causes enemies in its radius to be lifted (like Psi Tornado) x times/minute would be nice.

I would like to see the absorb mechanic added to older sets like FF as mentioned in one of the i24 scoop videos. In Empathy, Absorb Pain could add a "protective shield" in the form of +absorb, making the set more of a preemptive approach.

In general, I think many players would be happy if KB were completely altered to KD across the game. If it were given as an option for players with KB, it could be another nice option for power customization.

SR needs something other than Quickness and DDR to separate it from Shield.

I would love to see what Regen gets if it ever gets moved to Tankers, and if those changes will get implemented for everyone else.

Most of the Manipulation sets are getting a little help, as are a lot of the Blast sets, so I am looking forward to rolling a new-age Blaster.

I look at my Peacebringer and smile fondly. I put some coin into him and he turned out nicely. Then I look at the Soldiers I have rolled and I think, "ok, they used the knowledge from making the HEATs to get to VEATs. The HEATs deserve another look now that everyone is all wizened up." I do not know the comparison to Warshades, as I will not roll a Warshade until I have a daughter (the PB was in tribute to my son).

Great Thread ! Here are my powersets that should be reviewed;

SONIC RESONANCE : Needs major help. Lots of ideas have been discussed on this one (here and elsewhere). The following powers should ALL be reviewed and improved ; Sonic Siphon, Disruption Field, Sonic repulsion, Clarify, and Liquefy.

FORCEFIELDS : Needs a modernization. Back in the day, being a one-trick pony was.... ah heck, it has never been a good thing. The same still holds true. I would like some kind of de-buff added and/or additional damage. The following powers should ALL be reviewed; Forcebolt, Force Bubble, Repulsion bomb.

EMPATHY : Needs something to help with Solo-ing. Too many ideas have been discussed on this one so I will just say that Empathy suffers the most because ONLY 3 powers are helpful solo. Without breaking the Cottage rule, this cannot be changed. But something SHOULD be done to update this powerset.

THERMAL RADIATION : So if Empathy needs help AND both Sonic and Forcefields need help, then it stands to reason that this set would need major help. Not having played this set very much, I cannot offer suggestions. The extensive amount of Empathy, Sonic and FF experience that I have, makes it true that I will NEVER play this set unless it gets some help.

ELECTRIC BLAST : Like many folks in this thread, I would like to see Electric Blast get a look-over. Kind of hesitant for that to happen at the same time since I build my Electric characters to "sap", so any re-vamp could likely "break" this in order to "fix" something else. In the end it is worth the risk, because Electric is simply not as good as other blast sets. The powers that should be looked at are ; Short Circuit, Tesla Cage, Voltaic Sentinel.

MIND CONTROL : I don't understand why this powerset seems so good, but then as you get towards the high-end of the levels 35+ it starts to really "under perform". Love this set, but cannot get into the 40s with it on any combination that I have tried. One major change that could really turn this set around though would be a fix for Telekinesis. Here is an idea ; what if TK was a chain hold (ala Synaptic Overload). Have it target one enemy and the cost increase for each enemy held, and each tick would check for "un-held" targets in the area of effect. In general, I also believe that controllers 4-min recharge holds need to be re-vamped. ED is still haunting many powers, but none more-so than these. I would change them all from 240sec to no more than 180sec.

Agree with the above poster on reducing the recharge of the AoE holds.


Mercenaries:

- Spec Ops: Improve ST damage. Give them a stealth strike capability when they attack from Stealth. Greatly reduce the recharge of their AoE controls and add Glue Grenade to their arsenal.

- Third Upgrade bestows Ignite (with aforementioned radius buff) to T1 Soldiers. Reduce/Remove KB from all of their powers.

- Commando: Third upgrade bestows the power "Leadership" a Damage, To-hit and defense buff for all other mercenaries.

- Serum: Large Damage, Damage Resistance, Regen and Recovery buff, also boosts the effects of healing powers cast on user. Applies level shift. Reduce recharge to 90 seconds. Applies a condition that prevents you from re-casting it on the same Henchmen for 180 seconds after it wears off.

- Medic: Increase the range of all of his powers to be greater than the Soldiers, give him the ability to cast a reduced version of fortitude which recharges fast enough to be maintained on all other henchmen.


Oh and here's the truly impossible request: Adjust power recharge times across the board for -all- ranged henchmen so they always have another ranged power ready to fire regardless of what upgrades they are using. I find that they are more likely to run into melee when they have nothing else ready to shoot. They often run right up to an enemies face, then by the time they get there they have a ranged power to use, so they cast it from point blank range (you can see how a cone heavy set like mercenaries would find this highly unfavorable).

Yes, I do consider unmitigated chaos fun. This is a super hero game after all, I should be able to punch someone across the room or blast them into the neighboring time zone.

For those that want KD, there is the KB2KD proc, which is going to be followed up by non-damage variations. So wormhole will be fixed without messing it up for people that like to fling stuff around.

Mercs need a lookin' at. Spec ops have ridiculously long cooldowns on their crowd control, and do poor damage as well. Reduce the charge time on their CC, increase the damage on their attacks. ESPECIALLY Rifle Butt, there was no reason for them to leave that at so low damage, especially after they buffed the VEAT version.

Ninja's need a balance. I suggest adding a Pirate mastermind set.

Energy Melee suggestions (from someone who has played the set to 50 and enjoys it, but also sees its weaknesses):

Total Focus: shorten the animation (use say, Knockout Blow or Knockout Blow's alternate animation)
Energy Transfer: shorten the animation (to simply a shorter version of its current animation, like the changes to Dual Pistols, though Sweeping Cross would work, too). I don't think it needs the self-damage messed with.
Stun: The big change. Basically, make it into a second AoE attack. Give it Total Focus's animation, increase its damage, and give it and a splash AoE effect - basically, turn it into a copy of ElM's Thunder Strike (but with 100% Stun as its only secondary effect, rather than TS's 50% Stun / 80% KB / 40% End Drain).

I know Whirling Hands' radius is usually complained about, but it's the same radius and target cap as most other melee sets' PBAoE, at least ones that explicitly hit with the character's body or weapon (except for SJ, which has a smaller radius). SS and SM hit with an explosive shockwave rather than with the character's fists, and Staff Melee and Titan Weapons are using long-reach items, so it makes sense for them to have a larger radius. (In fact, the PBAoEs whose radius should probably be increased are the weapon sets - Claws, Katana, BS, WM, BA, and DB should be increased to match Staff Fighting's 10' radius).

It shouldn't be as much of an issue anyway, with a second AoE in the set to back it up.

Really, what makes the set work for me is that every attack has the same secondary effect - Chance For Disorient (with some attacks having that chance be 100%) - letting you stack it. I think that's the set's greatest strength (moreso than even ST damage), and I don't think they should mess with that synergy, whatever they wind up doing.

Adding gimmicks to existing sets that didn't previously have them is a bad idea. Not everyone wants gimmicks.

However, I can think of something that isn't really adding a gimmick, but making use of one that is already there. That would be Stone Armour. This already has a sort of "offense/defense mode toggle" in that with Granite on it is low damage high survivability, with it off, it is average damage, average survivability. There are changes that could be made to make frequent switching a viable option - reduce the recharge on GA, have toggles suppress rather than turn off, and so on.

Stone Armor isn't exactly low survivability with Granite off. I get 35% S/L Defense and about 40% S/L Resist with just Rock Armor, Stone Skin, Tough, and Weave, and I could probably get it up to the softcap with better IO Sets. My Psi defense is already at the softcap with just Minerals and Weave. (And I'm considering respeccing to replace Recall Friend with Maneuvers, for another ~5% or so)

I think all they'd have to do to make the set much more playable is to take the -Jump out of Rooted (but only have the status protection and boosted regen work when you're on the ground, a la Elec Armor's Grounded). I can deal with the -Run, even, but the -Jump is crippling.

All the powersets in the game require review, all the time.

That's what you do with a persistent world - everything is under constant review and nothing is sacred. You nerf what you have to, and you buff what you have to. I don't care about anyone's opinion in the matter. ED didn't offend me, for instance - I thought it was 100% required and not nearly enough.

In this particular case, when the game was created the development team had no clear goals about comparative set performance when most of these sets were created. When Castle took over, his overriding objective was to make sure that underperforming sets were brought up to a minmal par, and he blew off any other requests to fix things. This current dev team appears to see the value in comparative balance, but they are too timid to roll out the world-shattering changes that are necessary to fix the game, because they fear the subscriber base crying like the immature children that they are. Ultimus's Blaster Nuke post is a perfect example of that reaction. Comic book fans fear change as a rule; this community is composed of comic book fans.

Don't hold your breath on fixes.