Haetron

The first notable change is switching hide to Physical Training, and having it mimic Field Operative, as the original hide was intended to mimic devices Cloaking Device.

The second is the change to the first power and changing Crane Kick out for Cobra Strike. Im not completely sold on this change and think the original CAK at level 1 and Crane Kick unaltered later would work fine, but this brings it closer to other blaster secondaries in structure. Thrust Kick should simply use the Crane Kick animation, with the difference in damage justifying the change in name.

The original intent behind the proposal of this power set isn't changed, as there would still not be a requirement for new animations.

Actual numerical values of the powers may need to be adjusted for balance reasons, but the text descriptors of the damage levels keep it on par with existing blaster secondaries.

Sad indeed. I've never seen the power used at all, outside of one friend taking it to goof off with it on test.

Does this mean the Stalker snipes in their PPP pools are also not going to get this benefit? I've heard mixed answers on this.

Bolding the wildly unlikely part here. Assuming you're a Ninja/Storm MM like your char was in that AE arc awhile back (Symphony of Madness?), even if you made that char the first day it was possible to do so, Devilfish is still about 2 years older than your character.

Granted, I dunno what "length of character playtime" matters -at all- but Devilfish isnt just some new plot NPC made up for stuff, if thats what you're implying.

The idea of someone trying to repeat Darrin Wade's success to make a city wide psychic bomb is fairly non-SG specific and I'd assume any hero that hears about it would want to stop it, and any villain wanting to profit from it would try and do so, at least, I would think so.

Really, what was your first clue.

The second I saw this NPC I trashbinned the entire arc in my mind. It's like, whoever wrote this didn't even -try-

Im sad it took this long for this to be said.

At least you're honest about it. The reason PVP isn't getting looked into is because it's not something that can be microtransacted for extra cash. Makes sense.

1. Pedoriffic backstory involving the Clockwork King, rendered not quite so pedo by way of age retcon. (She's 18 in that Faultline arc, HONEST)

2. Sudden emergence of her in the SSA1 at the end of the arc completely and totally overshadowing the player presence, to the point one part of the arc is dedicated purely in elevating her NPC status and eliminating the person she is to replace.

2a. Kneejerk reaction to the fact Sister Psyche was killed as an "also-ran" and the percieved reasoning being her ties to Emmert.

3. In the players crowning moment of awesome, she has to be present because ONLY SHE CAN PROTECT YOU! from the Rulawades beam of immaculate destruction. (funny, tho, some ATs can flip her the bird and ignore her presence anyway)

4. Sudden acceptance by all of Paragon as a new great hero after appearing twice as a hero, and being brought into the Freedom Phalanx, and being escalated to being A SIGNATURE HERO.
((In my opinion, the boat here was -completely- missed. I know they -had- to have a psychic character, but this kind of character arc was where Frostfire was actually logically headed, and had they had him appear in the SSA and take a spot on the phalanx, it'd have seemed much more natural. I would have lol'd if they didn't update his costume, but from a character arc, it makes more sense.))

5. And for me, this is just the final straw. She was never an interesting character, and was basically some writer's clever attempt at homaging THE PERILS OF PENELOPE PITSTOP. Seriously. This would be like, if Ambush Bug joined the JLA, and then was actually MARKETED as the Flagship character of the DC Universe and demanded to be treated seriously at all times. Not only does it disregard the character's original comedic intent, but it also by extension, puts the entire cast and brand into a bad light.

I know, back when that was possible, the game nearly collapsed.

Over the... five year period.

Favorite. Dev. Ever.

Will never happen. I just wish we'd they'd look at the rest of the set so there's -some- reason to play it now.

They also reserve the right to change the goalposts for what is "Imbalanced" at any time, which is, you should essentially never get attached to anything. You have almost no control or input into the game ever.

4-5 years of Energy Transfer "Working as Intended" followed by the crappiest, overall powerset balance destroying nerf ever, IMO, convinced me of this fact.

And I still guarantee that as soon as they can figure out a way to sell it as a "positive" change like they've done with this PPM change, IO Defense bonuses, particularly S/L and Melee will get -slashed-.

So no set bonuses? That's your problem, right there. I mean, not meaning to sound snarky or condescending, but without -any- incarnate abilities, you'll have to have something to cover the loss of level shifting and extra abilities.

What AT and powerset are you, might I ask?

I haven't run the mission with the helpers, to be honest, and I think it's meant to be the second hardest mission of the DA process (Which is why it has a specific badge).

It's not hard at all, for my character, its just long BUT Im also "soft capped" to Smash/Lethal damage which is what you face in that mission. (Im not "incarnate" softcapped, but its high enough I can survive)

Radiation Manipulation is a good choice, thematically, because you can then pair it with Radiation Blast, but your power choices stray a little too far from the control aspect of the manipulation pool and get into buff/debuff too much. Of course, this is the problem with any Radiation option, especially attempting to use existing resources.

Earth Manipulation seems fine on paper, but has the issue of not having a thematic "match" in a blast set, and I don't see "Earth Blast" ever really happening.

Actually, the error was that you could get the pack, even if you didn't buy the Titan Weapons set. It was supposed to be free "bundled with" Titan Weapons. Instead, anyone paying attention was able to snag the resource for free, wether they bought TW or not. This was in contradiction to how the actual promotion had been worded and makes -zero- financial sense, which is why Im fairly sure it was an error, and is why we won't see that repeated unless they can force you to own a weapon set, before seeing additional weapon bundles.

Cobra Strike would work just as well as Crippling Axe Kick, either power would need a damage adjustment. There's actually -less- attacks in this secondary than in several existing blaster secondaries, and it has less "melee" attacks than Energy Manipulation.

Your set suggestions are fine and great, but the entire point of my own suggestion here was a set that does not require any new animation/art time, as it has been pointed out repeatedly lately that time for such things is scarce. Your suggestions have multiple new animations/fx that would need to be created, and then would see little use in being proliferated to other ATs.

I did consider an option of using Ninja Blade instead of MA attacks, but the MA attacks won out because they include alternate animations and involve less weapon redraw.

A -toHit effect or an endurance reduction in it's PBAOE damage aura would be a nice start, to standardize it with other amor sets with damage auras.

It's also not casually accessible and is one of the more difficult armor sets to use effectively when there's multiple sets out there that can and do better on a consistent basis. It's overly reliant on one power, Dark Regeneration, and the nature of the power is one where no serious "buff" can be made to the set overall without that power multiplying the effectiveness. That power also has several limitations that hinder it's actual in game effectiveness and suffers from issues that are compounded by the very nature of the set.

A lot of my old complaints with the set oddly have been dealt with not by changes to the set, but to the game as a whole. It's functional on Tanks and Scrappers due to different baselines on how the set works, and pre-going rogue, it's flaws were tossed under a magnifying glass under the brute AT. But, traditional team roles have changed now to the point those flaws aren't as penalizing, so ultimately it's "ok".

TL,DR version: It doesn't really need "Help" because it's a working set, but it could certainly use a revamp to make it more casual friendly and forgiving of build mistakes.

On topic for the subject: Tankers need help. Unfortunately, they're in the same boat as Blasters, where all the obvious avenues of "helping" are just overkill on something they're already capable of doing just fine.