Redlynne

Ninja Primary: Smoke Flash
Single Target, 100 ft range, 30 End, 20s Recharge, 10s Duration

... change to ...

PBAoE, 60 ft radius (ie. Supremacy radius), 30 End, 60s Recharge, 10s Duration, Affects Self(!) and all MyPet Ninjas within AoE

This change would make Smoke Flash much easier to use for Ninja Masterminds, which would be a tremendous QoL improvement for many players (not all, granted), in addition to creating some rather unique battle tactics possibilities. An interesting side effect of making this change is that it would give a(n additional) reason for Ninja Mastermind to take (and use) their personal attack powers since the Player would be able to "partake" in the benefits of the power, which is currently restricted to Pets Only. Considering the lackluster options in IO Sets for Snap Shot, Aimed Shot and Fistful of Arrows, being able to damage boost those powers through use of Smoke Flash would promote a whole new orientation of player attitudes towards these powers.

I'm thinking that the amount of Spreadsheet editing necessary to implement this idea would be considered "simple" and the QA/Playtesting necessary to vet it "fairly straightforward" should the Powers Team decide to put this on the schedule of Things To Do.



And if something like this can be done for Ninja: Smoke Flash ... I'm wondering if something similar can be done for Mercenaries: Serum so as to (also) turn Serum into a Mastermind+Mercs PBAoE buff effect too, which could be used more frequently (I'm thinking 60s base recharge per 10 seconds of duration again) and transform Serum from being "craptacular" into being an "enabler" of unique strategies and battle tactics for Mercenaries.

Time Crawl, as currently configured, is "excellent" at what it does ... and only lacking in what it does not ... stack effects from same caster.

I propose that Time Crawl be given additional power properties keyed to whether or not the target is Delayed so as to provide a reason to be stacked onto "hard targets" (such as EBs, AVs and Heroes and Hamidons) so as provide a small, Unresistable Debuff, to targets which have been Delayed. I'm thinking something along the lines of -10% Recharge/Mobility (Unresistable, if Delayed, effect does not stack from same caster) and -20% Regeneration (Unresistable, if Delayed, effect does not stack from same caster).

Against Minion/Lieutenant/Boss grade opposition, these effects of stacking a second Time Crawl will be "minimal" simply because the base power alone is already approaching the Recharge Debuff cap, and the additional Regeneration Debuff is proportionally "minor" when throughput-ed to calculating Regen per Sec with their Max HP totals. But against EB/AV/Hero class opposition, which have significant Resistance against Recharge Debuffing, having an Unresistable effect when stacking Time Crawl on an already Delayed target would make for an interesting "resistance piercing" effect which would be (somewhat) unique to the Time Manipulation powerset.

In the grand scheme of things, something like this would (I imagine) be relatively "cheap" to implement, QA and playtest for balance.

I have an Incarnate Ninja/Trick Arrow Mastermind, who was my main villain for years (plural), and I can honestly recommend to anyone else who is thinking of trying this combination ...

DON'T

Ninjas are practically defenseLESS and fold like origami paper when breathed upon by hostiles. For this reason, when using Ninjas as your primary powerset, it is of paramount importance that your secondary powerset be something that actively promotes the survival of your Ninjas. Trick Arrow simply doesn't do that to any useful degree. In the late game, it felt like Trick Arrow was my Primary Powerset, and Ninja Summoning was my Secondary!

Secondaries which can actively promote the survival of your Ninjas are going to be Dark (big surprise), Force Fields (no surprise!), Storm (for Herdicane's To-hit Debuff and O2 Boost Healing), and Time Manipulation.

Pain Domination simply doesn't "do enough" to prevent your Ninjas from taking damage.
Poison simply doesn't "do enough" to help your Ninjas survive the damage they take.
Trick Arrow does almost nothing to help keep your Ninjas alive.
Thermal and Sonic don't "do enough" to mitigate the damage that your Ninjas will be taking to make them worthwhile since they're Resistance powersets.

Simple enough question ...

Does Street Justice's Fear Finishers give the Presence Pool Fears a reason to exist?

My point being that Presence Pool Fear powers hardly ever have anything to synergize with, rendering them underpowered, lame and useless ever since they got nerfed into oblivion (years ago) to prevent them from being useful to anyone.

But now ... Street Justice delivers Fear effects too, which could be combined with the Presence Pool PBAoE Fear to ... well ... maybe not "Great" effect, but certainly to better effect than can be gained by trying to work with any other powersets (including Mind Control, Illusion Control and Dark {fill in the blank}).

That proc has been specifically coded to not affect the Player owning the power (for somewhat obvious reasons).

Very very VERY few people in the world are capable of doing THE VISION THING like Steve could. Even fewer people are capable of selling other people on that vision, and bringing it to everyone we know.

Good job ... Steve.

Now to get this new ATI driver out for OS X Lion machines ...

Something I find amusing about all of the Time builds I'm seeing is that very consistently the Distortion Field power is 4 slotted with Basilisk's Gaze for the +7.5% Global Recharge set bonus ... despite the fact that hold duration is almost entirely wasted in Distortion Field due to the 5% chance to Hold. My point being that even with enhanced duration, there's an absurdly low chance to double stack the Hold (to nail Bosses and LTs).

If you really want to boost the effectiveness of the Hold power in Distortion Field, you basically just need the Lockdown Proc. For one thing, the Lockdown Proc has 4x the chance to Proc than the native 5% chance to Hold Distortion Field has natively.

Don't get wrong ... I know that +Recharge set bonus is hard to pass up, but I'm thinking that people ought to be more aware of what they're "giving up" in order to get it.

The way to deal with Frag Grenade KB is to simply use your Web Grenade. No really ... it's that easy.

My "lock, stock and smoking hot barrel" standard operating procedure to open up on a pile of mobs is:

Wide Area Web Grenade (1.67s) > Venom Grenade (-1.67s) > Frag Grenade (-1.67s) > Heavy Burst (2.67s) = 7.67 seconds

Fully slotted out, you'd be amazed at just how much damage throughput you can achieve with that on piles of mobs. Minions and Lieutenants just "wither and die" under that opening combo ... and Bosses are "not feeling too proud" either and can often be "convinced" to run away (which only means they "die tired" from getting shot in the back) with not too much more damage getting thrown downrange. I've been quite surprised at just how ... demoralizing ... the above combo is on NPCs, simply because it crushes them SO HARD in such numbers with such reliability that it prompts quite a few Runners, which are just Easy Pickings for you.

My personal Huntsman build has so much +Recharge built into it that I only have to use one Burst, or one Burst and one Single Shot (at lower levels) before I can repeat my Web/Venom/Frag/Heavy Burst series of attacks a second time for mop ups.

Time Manipulation: Time's Juncture
Slot: Dark Watcher's Despair Proc (-25% Recharge), Pacing of the Turtle (-20%)

Due to the way that Mids' programs its powers, this is probably unavoidable ... but when placing the above two Procs into Time's Juncture, and toggling the power ON in Mids', the debuffs will be applied to Self.

Request in-game confirmation that these two Procs do NOT actually take effect On Self as Mids' implies due to the limitations of its programming and user interface (ie. only one "toggle on" button which also activates Procs).

Precedent:

Increase Density in Kinetics applies its Mez Protection only to the (Single) Target of the power ... but also has a Target AoE Damage Resistance Buff.



Request:

Concealment: Grant Invisibility applies its Defense Buff only to the (Single) Target of the power (which is 1/2 when attacked) ... but also has a Target AoE StealthRadius Buff.



Rationale:

Applying Grant Invisibility to EVERYONE on a Team/League (especially if there are any Masterminds with Pets!) is not only a very time consuming, but also a very exhausting exercise ... at 15.6 END per target (unmodified) ... in order to provide a dispersed "grant of invisibility" to allies and/or pets. Furthermore, since it is now possible to "terminate" unwanted Buffs, it is extremely simple for people who don't want to be granted invisibility to end the StealthRadius Buff at their own discretion, if they so desire, before the end of the power's duration.





Your move ... Synapse.

Personally, I'd recommend remapping the QWE/ASD keys on key to the right so as to be the WER/SDF keys instead. That makes it easier to reach the ~123456 keys directly above and the F1 through F5 (or F6, depending on finger reach) with relative ease that can be managed by muscle memory alone (ie. eyes front, full time). You then have the Q and A buttons free for things like Follow and Autorun ... can use ZXCV for various functions as preferred, and can assign the TYU/GHJ keys for even more common/repeat tasks as needed by AT.

I use the TY/G keys on my Warshade for Nova/Human/Dwarf forms, so as to be able to be able to form shift while moving.

I use the TYU keys as my Ammo Types on my Dual Pistols Defender, so that they're "handy" while moving around in combat.

I use the TYU keys for Summoning Ninja Pets on my Mastermind, and the GH keys for the Train powers.

I would recommend against your friend playing a Mastermind since even with the Keypad Bind Files, that's a "handful" to control even for someone with two fully functional hands! There have been many times playing my Mastermind when I wished I had three hands in order to control everything!

Sounds like Melee Monsters and Blasters/Dominators would be the best ATs for your friend to "drive" given his physical limitations on User Inputs.