Happy_Thoughts

[ QUOTE ]
Also according to Cuppa on the w00t radio interview when asked about community input affecting dev decisions, she mentioned it was more likely to occur if many people were in agreeance with a specific issue, without any real challenge to that.

I really expressed the TA situation in generalities, maybe you have specific ideas on how it could be improved as a better debuffing set. Who knows...

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The problem here is that when TA was still on test, there was an "official dev response thread" about it. Community response to the set was pretty unanimous after they "balanced" the set. All this feedback was ignored.

Side note: The devs felt that the set was overpowered due to the ability of a single TA defender to stack his own buffs (i.e., multiple glue arrows, etc.) by using Hasten and slotting for recharges. Yes, self-stacking was overpowered. However, rather than address the self-stackability, they took the cheap way out and introduced unprecedented recharge timers. At that point, the set became woefully underbalanced. Following that, ED was introduced, causing the TA defender to spend inordinate amounts of time without the benefit of his debuffs. After all these changes, the huge recharge times remain.

Now, it's been over six months since the cheap "fix" was implemented. In that time, every single post and PM to the devs (that I'm aware of, at least) on the subject has been ignored.

So far, the only dev response has been from _Castle_, bless his heart, who bravely administered the news that TA will be revisited some time in the future, which is quite different than Positron's initial "we'll keep an eye on it once it goes live" statement.

There has been only one dissenting opinion that I've seen; the rest of the community that has voiced their opinions agree that the set is severely lacking as a defender primary.

So, yeah, I'd love to agree with you here. But it's rather exhausting to post genuine concerns, experiences, and suggestions while the people at the other end put their hands over their ears and go "lalala I'm not listening."

Maybe if there's ever another "dev response thread" and it's genuinely listened to, rather than used as a repository for feedback that will be shrugged off, I'll contribute to it. But they've made it clear that player-generated feedback on the subject is meaningless.

[ QUOTE ]
Don't forget Oil Slick Arrow, which gives Trick Arrow the best damage in a Primary of any defender.

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I believe Storm still holds this title. Oil Slick isn't up nearly enough to compete with Lightning Storm, and doesn't always ignite (even if you manage to not miss the Oil Slick target). True, Oil Slick is area effect, but my stormie almost always has things pinned so tightly that Lightning Storm is whomping two or three per shot with respectable numbers.

When it's up and it ignites, yeah, it's definitely nice.

[ QUOTE ]
Oil and Disruption Arrow have the same recharge.

[/ QUOTE ]
I haven't played my TA defender in a long time, but the recharge on Disruption was 2 minutes, and Oil Slick was 3. Did that change?

Also, I'd defitely use Poison Gas Arrow whenever it's available. It knocks about 31% off of incoming damage from enemies affected by it (which is WAY more damage mitigation than Flash Arrow will ever do).

Oil Slick is great fun, but there are...issues...with igniting it. There are multiple points of failure. The knockdown field is nice, though.

[ QUOTE ]
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* Bug: All disorient powers cause enemies with flight to move away at rapid speeds, even while under its effects. Individual powers with this problem are noted within their sets below. I6 has made this less common, but it still does occur.

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Should be fixed.

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Hurray!

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* Bug: When Transfusion is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, there is no heal, though the animation fires. However, if Twilight Grasp goes off on a dying enemy, it heals the recipients. There are also reports of the same issue occuring if the enemy moves out of Line of Sight during Tranfusion's animation time. (Rigel_Kent adds: To be more technical, this seems to be a problem with all AoE effects generated around the single target of a power. Illusion Control->Blind's AoE mez effect also has this problem; if the Blind damage defeats the target, the AoE mez will not happen. AoE's generated around the user don't have this problem.)
* Bug: When Transference is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, there is no endurance regained for those in the AOE, though the animation fires. (Dark Pyroblast)
* Bug: If Fulcrum Shift is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, you get the single 50% caster buff, but NOT the 25% effect from the dying mob OR any mobs around him. (Quason)

[/ QUOTE ]
I'll put this on the bug list. I think it takes animation time. See above for problems with that.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is something that really needs to be fixed. Technical reasons aside, the issue is that if a power is used, endurance spent, and recharge timer started, the effect should be granted.

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[ QUOTE ]
* Bug: Hurricane, when used to push an enemy who is under the effects of a hold by another player, sometimes pulls or pushes the enemy in a different direction than intended. (Theory: Hurricane repels enemies Immobilized by another player as if that other player (caster of the Immob) were the origin of the Hurricane.)

[/ QUOTE ]
This is on my buglist, but I've not been able to reproduce it. In any case, it is almost certainly a code issue, which means until I get a reproducable case, it is problematic that it will be corrected.

[/ QUOTE ]
This happens each and every time, and is very easy to reproduce. Team with a controller, and position yourselves so that an enemy is between you. Have him hold or immobilize the enemy, then you move in with Hurricane from the opposite direction. The held/immobilized enemy will be repelled away from the controller, rather than away from the Storm user. This also happens with Telekinesis, and presumably any power with the "repel" effect (not to be confused with the Repel power).


[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
* Bug: Flash Arrow gives a perception debuff. However, when the power is recast from within enemy's normal perception range, the Defender will be spotted, regardless of whether the second Flash arrow hits or misses, and regardless of how much time is left on the first Flash Arrow. (Voiced by Concern, several others)

[/ QUOTE ]
I wasn't able to reproduce this. Is it still happening?

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Tested this morning (2/1/06) and this bug appears to not be happening any more.

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* Balance: Flash Arrow, a Defender primary power, is no more effective than Devices/Smoke Grenade, which is in a Blaster secondary set, and has a toHit roll.

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Smoke Grenade requires a To Hit check. Flash Arrow has a greater base range, can hit 60% more targets and has a greater To Hit debuff than Smoke Grenade.

[/ QUOTE ]
Um, Flash Arrow also requires a To Hit check. Unlike every single other Defender accuracy debuff (not counting Twilight Grasp and attacks with secondary -accuracy properties, of course).

Also, when you say it debuffs more than Smoke Grenade, are we talking by 1% or 2%? Flash Arrow is nowhere near the effectiveness of other Defender -accuracy powers, and really should be improved.

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* Balance: As a general design issue, too many Trick Arrow powers have been balanced directly against similar Control powers. They are intentionally weaker than their Control counterparts. This makes it appropriate for a Controller secondary, but it underperforms as a primary in its own right. (Rigel_Kent)

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Trick Arrow as a set needs a bit of work. There are a few issues with making the desired changes at this time, but at some point in the future, we will be revisiting this set.

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Castle, I and the community are very appreciative of the time you're investing, but I don't really know how to take this statement gracefully. There were concerns voiced regarding the set when it was still on the Training Room, and those concerns were never acknowledged. To this day. The last word on the set was almost six months ago when Positron said the dev team would be keeping an eye on the set and making changes if it continued to perform sub-par. Since then, the set has proven itself to be the joke of the Defender archetype, yet no developer feedback has been given until now, and all posts and private messages on the subject have been ignored. Please pass along that "some point in the future" isn't acceptable after six months of silence. (I hate to put you in the middle like that, but as noted, all player-generated messages have gotten zero response).

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* Balance: Archery seems underpowered in groups due to lack of enemy debuff.
* Balance: Archery seems underpowered in solo due to low base damage compared to other sets, largely due to animation times and reliance on lethal damage.

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Archery has long animations so that it looksas good as possible while trying to keep the set playable.

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The animation times are very, very frustrating in groups. Too often, I'll fire on a foe and it will be dead before the arrow lands (or leaves the bow in some cases). This results in a power wasted (endurance used and recharge timer started, with no actual effect) and a bit of frustration for the archer.

Thanks for the answers, Castle.

One thing that was asked but not addressed is the difference between fighting enemies +5 and +6 levels above your character. Will the defensive adjustment for a +6 under the new system be equivalent to a +1 under our current system (scaling up from there with +7 relating to current +2, etc.), or will there be a six-level difference in +defense effectiveness between +5 enemies and +6?

Thanks,
GP

Wow, that's certainly a nice change!

Is that strictly for +defense powers, or will -accuracy powers be included in this also?

EDIT: Also, under the new system, if you're fighting a +6, will you have the defense value as if you were fighting a +1 today, or is there going to be a steep defense dropoff between +5 and +6 enemies?

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Does Flash arrow hold villians for double controller damage like Blind and Flash in the Illusion set does?

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Flash Arrow is not a hold, so no. All it does is debuff accuracy and perception.

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Apologies if this has been said...I just don't understand why players where asking for a fix to herding! What do you care how other people play the game. There I had to get it off my chest.

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You misunderstand. When the I5 changes were announced, the reason given for many of the global changes was that the devs wanted to prevent herding.

What many of us suggested at the time was a way for them to address herding (since they were going to do it anyway) without impacting non-herding play. Things like preventing NPC stacking, aggro range limits from their spawn points, etc. In other words, solutions that would address the problem without nerfs to the heroes themselves.

What's happening now is that we get the global nerfs and an AI change, when a properly thought-out AI change would do the trick by itself.

Apparently it's too hard to implement AI changes without first nerfing the player characters. <boggle>

[ QUOTE ]
Yep - this is the AI change to "fix" herding...

[/ QUOTE ]
So you'll be rolling back the global defense nerfs that were explicitly put in place to prevent herding, right?

Silly me.

I'll go back to my support group for sub-par Trick Arrow Defenders now, don't mind me.

Clarification on Flash Arrow

The 8% number I listed as the debuff value is a result of my testing vs. an even-con minion, and is the end-result difference of how often I was hit (comparing two series of 500 attacks).

Assuming the formula provided—and my subsequent math—are correct, the base accuracy debuff would appear to be somewhere between 10 and 20 percent (meaning an even-con minion will hit 5-10% less often with an unslotted Flash Arrow applied than without).

Trick Arrow: GP's Guide for Defenders

Since there is a fair amount of confusion—and a great lack of information—regarding the Trick Arrow set, I've decided to put my testing to good use and compile the information here. Please note that all data is a product of my own testing; all information is as accurate as I could make it, but if there are any mistakes please do point them out.

I should point out that this is written from the point of view of a Trick Arrow Defender. Numbers and observations may be different for our Controller cousins.

All testing was done using even-con minions. Durations and effects will vary based on whether your targets are higher or lower level than your character.

I am only concerning myself with the Trick Arrow primary set. Most secondaries are already covered well in other guides, and the ones that aren't (Archery and Sonic) fall into the category of "I haven't had enough experience with these to write on the subject."

Lastly, please be aware that this is not a "how to build your character" guide. There is no one right way to do things in City of Heroes, and what works for one person may not work for another. What this is intended to do is shed some light on the Trick Arrow set, based on hard numbers and personal observations.


Trick Arrow: The Hard Numbers


Entangling Arrow

Effects: Immobilize, -fly (long description mentions that it halts jumping as well)
Area: Single target
Duration: 5 seconds
Recharge: 19 seconds


Flash Arrow

Effects: Perception debuff, accuracy debuff
Area: Large area, centered on target
Duration: 60 seconds
Recharge: 18 seconds
Accuracy Debuff Value: ~8%

Notes: There is an accuracy check on this power; it can (and does) miss. The to-hit roll is made separately for each target in the area of effect.

The graphic goes away when the target takes damage, but the accuracy debuff still lasts the entire duration even though the graphic is no longer present.

This power cannot be self-stacked by the same Defender.


Glue Arrow

Effects: Movement speed debuff, recharge debuff
Area: Large area, centered on target
Duration: 30 seconds/60 seconds
Recharge: 2 minutes
Movement Speed Debuff Value: -unknown-
Recharge Debuff Value: -unknown-

Notes: The duration bears some explanation. When you cast Glue Arrow, the area effect glue remains for 30 seconds, and is stationary. In other words, if the target you cast it on leaves the radius, the glue splotch remains in its original location. If the original target dies before the 30 seconds is over, the glue goes away and nobody entering the original area will be slowed. However, those who were already affected by the glue will remain slowed for up to 60 seconds from when you cast Glue Arrow.

With Hasten and six recharge enhancements (SOs 3 levels above me) I was able to get the recharge down to pretty near 30 seconds. Currently, with Hasten and six recharge SOs 2 levels below me, the recharge is 36 seconds.

Unlike other "slow" powers, Glue Arrow does not prevent flight or jumping. Additionally, if your target is in the air when you cast the power, it will not activate.


Ice Arrow

Effects: Hold, recharge debuff
Area: Single target
Duration: 10 seconds
Recharge: 20 seconds
Recharge Debuff Value: -unknown-

Notes: With 5 recharge enhancements (SOs 2 levels below me) I was able to just about perma-hold an even-con minion. There was less than a second between holds during which he could move.

The recharge debuff seems to last only as long as the hold; there is no graphical indicator to show otherwise.


Poison Gas Arrow

Effects: Damage debuff, minor chance to hold
Area: Medium area, centered on target
Duration: 20 seconds
Recharge: 45 seconds
Damage Debuff Value: ~31%

Notes: Show your work! Damage dropped from 69.22 to 47.59 (same enemy, same attack) after applying Poison Gas Arrow.


Acid Arrow

Effects: Damage resist debuff, defense debuff, minor damage over time
Area: Very small area, centered on target
Duration: 20 seconds
Recharge: 20 seconds
Damage Resist Debuff Value: 20%
Defense Debuff Value: -unknown-

Notes: There is an accuracy check on this power; it can (and does) miss. The to-hit roll is made separately for each target in the area of effect. The area on this is such that if you get more than two or three enemies in it, you've succeeded wildly.

Show your work! Damage done by Snap Shot went from 39.24 to 47.09 after applying Acid Arrow. (It went up further to 54.94 when combined with Disruption Arrow; yes, that's 40%)


Disruption Arrow

Effects: Damage resist debuff
Area: Large area, centered on ground target
Duration: 30 seconds
Recharge: 2 minutes
Damage Resist Debuff Value: 20%

Notes: Show your work! Damage done by Snap Shot went from 39.24 to 47.09 after applying Disruption Arrow. (It went up further to 54.94 when combined with Acid Arrow; yes, that's 40%)


Oil Slick Arrow

Effects: Persistent knockdown, movement speed debuff, defense debuff
Area: Large area, centered on ground target
Duration: 30 seconds
Recharge: 3 minutes
Movement Speed Debuff Valule: -unknown-
Defense Debuff Value: -unknown-

Notes: If a fire attack is used on the Oil Slick (which shows up as a targetable enemy), there is a chance of igniting the Oil Slick. If ignited, it does minor but rapid damage over time to enemies on the Oil Slick. Reportedly, energy attacks can also ignite the Oil Slick.

From my (limited) observations so far, this seems to do less knockdown than Ice Slick.


EMP Arrow

*** These are the numbers from Radiation Emission's EM Pulse ***
*** I am using these numbers as I do not yet have EMP Arrow ***
*** If the powers differ in some way, please let me know ***

Effects: Hold
Area: Huge area, centered on target
Duration: 26 seconds
Recharge: 5 minutes


Trick Arrow: The Personal Observations

Everything from here on is strictly my opinion and should be treated as such.

As of this writing (9/26/05), I am hoping this guide has cause to undergo serious revision. I say this because, though it is a fun set, it plays less like a Defender and more like a Blaster who mixed up his primary and secondary power sets. The specifics of why are beyond the scope of this post; rest assured that I will be sharing my opinions on the subject (backed up by the data here) with the game developers very shortly.

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...Second, we’re still scouring the boards for bugs and other issues, but we’ve finished making large changes to the power sets.

[/ QUOTE ]
Um, what about the concerns in the Trick Arrow thread that went ignored for over a month prior to I5 going live?

To sum up:

- Ungodly recharge timers to "fix" self-stacking is a ridiculous response. Make the powers not self-stackable, but actually usable every fight without requiring full recharge slotting and perma-Hasten. Address the self-stacking and revert the recharge times to their original state. It will not be broken then, I promise.

- This is a Defender set, and the to-hit rolls required on the debuff powers is uncalled for. Don't balance our powers as if we were blasters. Our primary function is debuffing, let us do it consistently. The debuffs with to-hit rolls that I have (so far) are Flash Arrow and Acid Arrow. No Defender debuff should require a to-hit roll, period. No other Defender set does.

Well, here I go breaking the rules. However, I invoke the statute of limitations here. It's been 35 days since Trick Arrow was broken via the implementation of insane recharge times. It's been 20 days since we got a red name response in this thread, and that response didn't even respond to any of our concerns. In fact, the implication was that it was going live as-is, and might be changed at some later date, "If the set continues to prove itself sub-par on the Live servers." Clearly, that quote acknowledges that it is currently sub-par (otherwise it couldn't continue to be so). Step up to the plate and fix it now.

So, delete this post if you absolutely must, but before making that decision at least acknowledge that 35 days is too long to wait for meaningful feedback after such drastic changes, and tickle Positron until he comes back and lets us know we haven't wasted our time testing and posting our feedback here.

It's quite possible that the set might be workable at higher levels, with Hasten, and with heavy slotting for recharge. However, at low levels this is a painful set to play. My wife and I play a duo on test, myself a Trick Arrow/Arrow Defender and she an Arrow/Devices Blaster (both level 10 currently). The absolute best tool I have for keeping her alive is Aid Other, and that's just not right (Glue Arrow helps significantly when it's up, but that's not often so it's usually reserved for emergencies and boss fights; Ice Arrow helps a little but has a really long animation time).

Glue Arrow is simply not available often enough. For a power that only slows movement and recharge, a two-minute wait is absurd. As I have said before, make the power available as soon as the duration wears off, or close to it, and fix the actual problem of self-stacking effects. Also, I can't think of any logical reason why this power does not have -jump and -fly like all the other slow powers (hell, even Caltrops has -fly, and I can't figure that one out).

Flash Arrow reportedly doesn't have any noticeable effect on enemy accuracy. I haven't had the patience to test this, but enough people have that the devs and testing team really should, and report back to us. Also, having a to-hit roll on this power puts it at a complete disadvantage to all the other -acc powers that Defenders and Controllers have access to. Consider removing this and making it auto-hit (with the actual effect scaling to hero vs. villain level difference, of course). And please don't justify doing so by adding to its recharge time, that would be insulting.

Web Arrow ... I can't imagine any TA/ Defender taking this power. It's currently a worse power than Web Grenade, which I have not seen any /Devices blaster use in a long, long time. This set is a Defender primary; if the power is too unbalanced for Controllers, address that directly without impacting Defenders.

As has been said before, Trick Arrow is strictly a debuffing set. Currently, my Dark Miasma and Radiation Emission characters can debuff better than this set due to the hellacious recharges imposed upon TA. Those sets can also heal and buff. I'm not asking for heals and buffs in TA, just that it actually be balanced to the other debuff sets in terms of usefulness.

No response at all to the many of us who suggested leaving the recharge times as they were, and coding the powers to not be self-stackable? What, exactly, would be the problem with a power like Glue Arrow being on its original recharge/duration cycle if a single Trick Arrow user could not stack the effects?

By taking the cheap way out, this "fix" is yet another game change that adversely affects those players who were not participating in the problem behavior. Please, Positron, fix the actual problem of self-stacking, rather than force all Trick Arrow users to have perma-Hasten and slot heavily for recharge on all of their staple powers.

Also, one concern regarding Flash Arrow. Why is there a to-hit roll involved with this power? The only accuracy debuff that currently has a to-hit roll (that I am aware of) is Smoke Grenade from the Blaster/Devices set. Obviously I'm not counting powers where accuracy debuff is a secondary effect, such as Scrapper/Dark Melee, Defender/Dark Blast, and Defender/Dark Miasma/Twilight Grasp. All of the Defender and Controller accuracy debuffs are autohit (scaling effect based on level difference, of course); namely Smoke, Darkest Night, Radiation Infection, and Hurricane. I realize the effect comes from a bow, but as part of a Defender/Controller set, the to-hit roll should be removed to bring it in line with its cousins in the other Defender/Controller sets.

Positron, please rethink taking the "easy" route of increasing recharge times to prevent stacking of powers.

This was done with Tar Patch, and the only thing it did was make the power less useful for those who weren't self-stacking the resistance debuffs. It's still possible to self-stack with slotting and Hasten, so the goal wasn't even accomplished.

Instead, consider leaving the recharges as they are and making subsequent uses of these powers remove any previous applications (not dissimilar to the new pet rules). That way the powers can still be used as originally intended, and no combination of slotting, Hasten, Speed Boost, Accelerate Metabolism, and Adrenaline Boost will allow self-stacking. Problem solved, and players are happy.

Regards,
GP

[ QUOTE ]
Kins and Dark Defenders get better healing abilitys and buffs then a true emp does.

[/ QUOTE ]
In my 43 levels of being a dark defender, I've never buffed anyone. Silly me!

Regarding healing, that comparison only holds true for the actual heal numbers of Twilight Grasp and Transfusion compared to Healing Aura. Take into account that most of us dark/kin folks dedicate at least two slots to accuracy, and none have Heal Other or Absorb Pain ... there's really no need for an empathy defender to have "heal envy" of us. Feel free to have "no need to heal" envy of us dark defenders though!

I won't even touch that "true empath" comment. Nope. Not me.

<runs and hides>

[ QUOTE ]
All this mess about Defenders feeling unneeded at high levels... how? I don't have a high level defender, so I can not comment on it personally, but I mean... huh?

[/ QUOTE ]
Chris, this post says volumes. I'm not picking on you, in fact what you're saying answers your own question if you know how to read it.

[ QUOTE ]
If I'm going against a tough AV, I'm going to want some Defenders with me - and since the last 10 levels are predominately AVs... Rad Defenders sure do make things die quicker, as do Kineticists, and Darks. Force Fields and Empaths allow the team to last longer... I just don't see why they would feel useless...

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As someone who doesn't play a defender, you may not know that Radiation, Kinetics, and Dark also allow the team to last longer, by way of Radiation Infection (Rad), Siphon Speed/Siphon Power/Fulcrum Shift (Kin), and Darkest Night/Fearsome Stare/Dark Servant (Dark). Empaths also have some ability to make fights faster via Fortitude and Adrenalin Boost. Note also the lack of any mention of Storm, which also adds killing speed and safety, especially in AV fights.

It's overly common that non-defenders don't fully understand what many defender sets do, especially the multi-faceted ones. In fact, your post is a perfect snapshot of what many of us experience: people have some idea of what we can do, but not the whole picture. This leads to not-entirely-correct generalizations about our capabilities and often exclusion from teams based on that misunderstanding.

[ QUOTE ]
My only guess at the problem would be, that a Controller can replace a Defender with most of their secondaries... but, a Controller's primary focus is to Control the mob, not let it run rampant and just heal the team.

[/ QUOTE ]
And neither is it a defender's goal to just heal the team (generally speaking, though there are some players who do revel in this). Even many high-level empathy defenders, the most healing-oriented of the defender primaries, will tell you that their buffs are more important than their heals.

As for the defender/controller comparison, I submit this: It doesn't take long to get the lockdowns in place; once that's done, there is plenty of time to throw around the secondary powers. My earth/kinetics controller happily applied controls to every fight and kept my teams in more buffs, endurance, and health than they knew what to do with. And, I provided a heck of a lot more safety (i.e., defense) than my kinetics defender ever could.

With friends, supergroup teams, and smart players who "get it," controllers and defenders don't exclude each other from group spots. But in the scary land of pick-up teams where groups are formed based on one person's definition of "optimal," it does become a problem. Many people prefer to have extreme amounts of safety plus buffs/debuffs/heals plus damage (via pets) that a controller can offer rather than buffs/debuffs/heals and damage. Speaking for myself, the most important attribute is the person at the other end of the keyboard, not anything coded into an in-game character. But I'm not the majority of the player-base, and so this discussion is taking place.

Then again, a lot of people expect my defenders of all levels to just heal (still using my power explanation macros at level 43) so maybe I'm putting too much thought into this.

Anyway, to answer your question of how defenders can feel unneeded at higher levels: It's a combination of a lack of specialty and a general ignorance of the capabilities of the sets.

[ QUOTE ]
Controllers are NOT as good as defenders at defending. Not only is there the matter of strength of powers, there's a different mindset. Just as defenders normally start with their buffs/debufs then worry about maybe blasting some things, controllers first worry about getting all the bad guys mez'ed then worry about maybe buffing/debuffing some folks.

[/ QUOTE ]
You've stated my point exactly, though not the point I think you intended to make. Controllers aren't as good as defenders at defending. They're better.

There is absolutely, positively no better defense than completely incapacitating your enemies. Once I get the bad guys locked down and not attacking at all, what other defensive action can possibly improve on that?

A lot of people say that because controller secondaries aren't as effective as defender primaries, that defenders can "do the job" better. It's my considered opinion that crowd control adds far more than the power level differential of the shared sets takes away.

Now, I'm not saying controllers are inherently better than defenders. I play several controllers and defenders and enjoy them all. They have different playstyles. What I am saying is that a group looking for defense will often do better with a controller than a defender.

Defenders just don't have their own niche, since they share many primary and secondary sets with other classes. I rarely see teams advertising for a defender; nearly always they want either "healer" (a term I don't believe truly belongs in this game, but that's a whole 'nother topic) or "defender/controller."

So what's the solution? I don't know. I'd hope it is something that does not involve scaling back the capabilities of other archetypes, but does involve each defender primary having something unique and useful to bring to teams that nobody else can.

[ QUOTE ]
a quick question, how do I bind a key to open chat in a certain channel or the active tab?

something like /bind [key] team

(oh and does anyone know how to take care of the fact that if you open chat this way, your first keystroke isn't recorded?)

[/ QUOTE ]
This is how I do it:

bind <key> beginchat /send <channel>

Make sure to add a trailing space at the end, to separate your message from the channel name. Otherwise you'll have to begin each message with a space, which I suppose you could do if you really wanted to. Me, I'm just lazy.

If your channel name has a space in it, you'll have to put double-quotes around the channel name (put the trailing space outside the quotes in this case).

This has probably been brought up already, but just in case it hasn't...

There's a tendency for the global chat channels to remove themselves from the chat tabs. Channels which I have not left or been kicked from will sometimes just not be on the chat tabs when I log in and enable global chat.

This is fixed by editing the chat tab and re-adding the channel to the tab. However, this gets tiresome doing it for every channel on every tab I have them on, for each character. I suspect that interruptions in the global chat server cause this, as it always happened early on when the chat server went down a lot; when it came back up we always had to adjust the chat tabs to include the global chat channels again.

The tab settings for global chat channels should be made persistent and automatically re-activating, without user intervention.

A minor correction: The recharge time on Dark Mastery/Dark Consumption is 6 minutes, not 2.