Seldom

I suggested this elsewhere, but basically I'd like for sniper attacks to have two modes: one as a fast, high damage long range power and one as a higher damage but interruptable power.

• The gist is this: the power is interruptable.
• Once activated, the snipe is still interruptable.
• If interrupted, either by enemy attack or player movement, the power fires a current-damage snipe, causing the power to charge the appropriate endurance cost, and causing the power to go into recharge as it has been used.
• If NOT interupted, the power fires a far higher damage attack (I'm thinking x3 current damage in PvE) that also causes the power to go into recharge- but also causes an unresistable recharge debuff to the snipe power.

So basically you can use it quickly as a bit hitter, even in combat, or you can use it as a big hitter from range at the cost of using it again soon.

Good progress so far, and very faithful to the theme.

I hate to nitpick, but it looks like the blue areas are the glowing areas on the male outfit, yes? I liked the glowing piping of the elemental order, as the areas made sense as a highlighted element.
Here though you have the rubber flex of the shoulders, the fingers, the soles, the back of the bots...I'm just not sure why those areas would glow. Maybe if the glove panels that seem to be glowing had some detailing to show why, like that they are a data panel, or tech vents or something, but right now I just can't discern why those areas would need to light up. Glowing piping serves as a highlight. Large areas of glowing fabric? It just highlights the back of boots and the half the gloves, and honestly I'm not sure these areas need to be highlighted.

I would not keep any nukes changes/buffs unique to blasters. One can make the case that the crash is actually more detrimental to defenders and corruptors, as the nukes are less likey to kill, but leave the defender/corruptor just as open, and also disallows them to use team support abilities. This in a way spreads their penalty to the team's performance/longevity.

I would offer instead that blasters receive a higher max target cap on both nukes, cones, and other AoE's. This alongside a revision to nukes for all archetypes. Some suggest heightening the damage to be worthy of the present penalties, others that the penalties should be diminished. I'm in the latter camp, saying that it should cause no endurance crash or recovery debuff, rather a slight additional endurance cost to powers afterward and a minor -rech/-defense/-resistance debuff.

As for the target cap increase, I would specifically match all cone target caps to AoE caps on blasters, and have both be higher, like at 20 rather than 16. While the benefit of the higher cap would be less useful in many circumstances, (though a matching cone/AoE caps on blaster WOULD be more noticeable) it would mean that in circumstances where other archetypes would be overwhelmed, blasters could blow everything away more easily.

My first brute, my second villain, and my second 50 is an energy melee brute. Call me biased, but I still love the set. That said, I do feel it has suffered a bit of "Flavor of the month smackdown." It was, and still is, the best at single target stun, and very good at burst damage. What has changed is that it no longer has any instant stuns for high rank enemies, and has no 'burst' burst damage. You can do huge chunks of damage but require a big windup to do them.

Issues I have:

1.Total focus

It has a longer cast time, higher endurance cost, and lower damage than total energy transfer. Yes I know, it's a lower tier attack that doesn't damage you. But still the long cast time means the foes is dies while casting in fast teams, and solo you are 'locked' in an animation while you can't do anything else. This used to be countered by its mag 4 stun, meaning even if you are left hanging in the animation, the offset was that the target, even if a boss, would be left stunned. Heck, this has a longer cast time and recharge than stone melee's seismic smash, which has better damage, control, cast, and recharge. A couple ways this could be fixed:

(A) Restore the mag 4 stun
(B) Reduce the cast animation.
(C) Add splash damage, making this into a thunderstrike clone.
(D) Add splash stun, giving it better crowd mitigation.

I like (A) because the set is unique in being so control focused, but am equally intrigued by (D). I NEVER want (C), sorry. Clones=meh. Actually, I'll come out and say that I like (D) best. This is the longest, thus most dangerous animating attack to use, might as well give some protection from the crowds that plink at me while I'm trying to slam their one buddy. A splash blast of stunning energy also would make this attack look more powerful too.

2. Whirling hands

The only AoE in energy melee. It can be handy to soften up a group, but it is slow so you cannot use it consistently to either kill or control a group that is on you. So should all the AoE damage that energy melee lacks be concentrated into one AoE, (ala superstrength) or should this one AoE provide better soft control, giving the set the multi-target mitigation it lacks elsewhere? Ideas:

(A) Increase radius from 8 feet to 10 feet, giving the one AoE better reach and coverage, causing its likelihood of hitting things to go up.
(B) Leave the radius small, increase the damage scale. This fits with the overall theme of concentrated damage.
(C) Increase the stun chance- while your ST attacks may neutralize the specific focus of your attacks, giving this better AoE mitigation would increase the survivability of the set against multiple enemies.
(D) Layer in addition soft control- knockdown, -recharge, something like that.
(E) Layer in an additional +1 mag chance to stun

I actually would lean towards both (B) AND (E). Nothing drastic on (B)...bumping its 25~26 (smash)/16~17 (energy)damage to ~30(smash)/~25(energy). This is similar to kinetic melee's burst, but skewed more toward the energy damage side. For (E) It's throw in a 50% chance of mag 1 stun...which may seem odd with the given 30% mag2 stun, but this would mean that IF it did stun with the 30% chance, it would be rather likely to hit lieutenants as well. If the mag 1 hit but not the mag 2, nobody would be stunned but it would assist in stacking stuns.

3. Stun

This is the second guaranteed stun in the set, but for a 1.8 cast stun, you do a tiny bit of damage...all the while delivering an effect that all other attacks already give. I couple ways to fix this:

(A) Shorter delivery. While it would stay a low damage effect, a faster delivery wouldn't impact overall damage much, while improving survival by removing damage from on target.
(B) Better magnitude: even if it's slow, if it's guaranteed to stun one high rank foe, it becomes a more unique tool.
(C) Splash stun: make this into a small group control power
(D) Add better damage, further strengthening energy melee as a single target damage dealer.

I actually lean away from (C) and (D), and towards (A). (C) just seems weird for a simple, low damage punching power, and (D) gives energy melee more of what it already has- high damage, slowish single target stunning powers.

4. Energy Transfer.

I loved the old fast cast mechanically, but the new animation does seem more powerful. The problem is that in most cases the damage is overkill, and with the slower animation things that can be one shot or already damaged on teams, exacerbating this. Overkill with a fast attack was cool when you just pop a minion to death in one shot...less cool when you are animating a long attack that hurts you as a team mate knocks them down to 20% health, leaving you to take out a sliver. Through target selection you can mitigate this, but at that point you are reserving burst damage because it doesn't burst well enough. Solo this is another long animation that you are locked into while other foes damage you, and to add onto that you damage yourself. Solutions:

(A) Reduce cast time
(B) Keep cast time, but deliver damage quickly upfront.
(C) Heighten stun chance, so that it is more likely to remove the fight for a bit.
(D) Add splash damage
(E) Add a small AoE splash stun

I actually like (B) best, speed up the two arm punch 'windup' portion, but slow down the 'wind down afterwards' part of the animation. This way you get burst damage upfront quickly, even if your character has to do a wind down animation. If I could, I would add (E) as well, for the feel of power and for survival.

So to summarize my personal preferences for tweaking Energy melee:

• Give total focus a splash stun effect
• Heighten whirling hands' damage to about the same range as kinetic melee: burst, but with more of an energy portion. Add a 50% mag 1 chance stun in addition to its 30% chance of mag 2, allowing better stun stacking.
• Give "Stun" an incredibly fast cast time.
• Keep energy transfer's cast time, but put the damage upfront. If possible, give it a splash stun effect.

I actually originally put the proc in dominate, but moved it to subdue as that 6th slot was a freebie and I just use subdue more. But as noted in another thread, the proc still works with a +5 boosted purple damage along with a basilisk's gaze in just about any ST hold from the primary. This way you get decent control slotting, (also boostable if you desire) decent damage, (~66%) and boosted damage for everything else.

It just takes getting used to using the hold as an attack too, unless that's been your thing already. I'm just more used to using holds as intermittent controls, but to each their own. This proc is basically just best used in your most often used power that it can fit in so you can get all spammy with it.

I put the proc in subdue on my mind/psy, and I can say this does help damage pretty well. I'm more surprised when it doesn't go off than when it does, and as subdue is part of my attack chain, the proc has a constant triple stack. I am looking forward to catalyzing it, but haven't done so yet as I need 5 of those for the AT set first.

Other uses I have found:

• When you want a set's bonuses, but can't spare a slot and the set doesn't provide full enhancement. This is especially true for exemplar friendly builds, using things like 4 basilisk's gaze @level 30, call to arms at 4 slots @level 30, kinetic combat's accuracy, etc.
  
• Frankenslotting the pure damage purples. Damage purples over enhance damage, so you can 5 slot with the proc and boost up that set for the 5 slot bonuses, then use the single damage elsewhere. A pure damage purple with +5 boosts it to 66% damage in one slot. For control characters with decent damage in their holds, I like using 4 basilisk's gaze, one +5 purple damage, and a dam/acc HO. This caps damage, and gives really good hold, really good accuracy, and good recharge.

I'm a fan of Archery/Energy blasters. Archery is all ranged, and many of /energy's abilities work from afar. Plus /energy past its glow-handed melee attacks is pretty visually innocuous, letting you be a 'pure' archer easily. The cream on top is boost range, so you can get some pretty decent reach.

• Never quit a team until a mission is over, unless (a) real life responsibilities require attention, or (b) everyone else quits.
• If a friend (note: friend, not team member) needs something, (salvage, recipe, inspire, etc.) and you have it, give it.
• If the team has a plan, follow it. Give suggestions, but a team working together is usually better than people doing things your way. Don't confuse things by following your own plan.
• If you are on a team, watch their backs.
• Don't die unless it keeps somebody else alive.
• If somebody does something cool is does a great job, recognize it and makes sure others do do.
• If you do something cool/well, you can have fun with it, but don't make it about you.
• If it bugs somebody, don't do it.
• If somebody else is bugging you, politely ask them to stop. If they won't stop, go elsewhere and do something else.
• Don't get in the middle of an argument. Both sides will turn on you.
• If it's not fun anymore, stop. Changing things up is better than feeling burnt out/bored.

To Dink, I say thank you.

I will also say I have no regard to a 'fair' level of exclusives between genders. If someone else can have something, that doesn't make what you have more/less valuable. What is far more important to me is that all applicable characters have access to items.

If they added a nun habit costume, that should be female exclusive. A (American) football costume? Male exclusive. A trenchcoat? either. A long coat? Either. The truth is that 'female' clothing often has items that only females wear, while 'male' clothing is actually far more often unisex as far as to what people wear.

I very much agree. As diverse as the stories go, the maps almost all come down to: office, warehouse, sewer, cave, tech lab.

C'mon.

The new praetorian tiles sets are cool, but even those office/warehouse ones are reskins in many spots.

What I'd like to see:

• Mansion tile sets: pristine/run down variants.
  They have something along these lines already for manticore's mansion/the Halloween trial, but I mean full multi-floored sets for missions.
  
• Museum/government building/grand public building tile set: night/day versions.
  I'm sorry, with the number of magical artifacts that get stolen, dignitaries that are threatened, and all of that this just makes sense. Maps would have high white ceilings and walls, marble floors, grand stairways and ornamental statues, relics, etc.
  
• Manufacturing plant: chemical/mechanical variants
  For stopping a villain group's plot to make a chemical weapon, create a terror device, etc.

I've been too busy to test again, and when I wasn't there was a bug that locked the dark powersets again. But looking at it as-is, it looks like /fiery's step cousin:

1. Dark blast (ST, Ranged)
2. Smite (ST, melee)
3. Gloom (ST, Ranged)
4. Night Fall (Cone AoE: narrow, bonus range)
5. Gather Shadows (Power boost/built up hybrid, just like 'power buildup')
6. Engulfing Darkness (PbAoE)
7. Life Drain (ST, Ranged+Heal)
8. Moon Beam (ST, Ranged-Snipe)
9. Midnight Grasp (ST, melee+immobilize)

It gets less damage in 'Gather Shadows' than fiery gets in 'embrace of fire,' but gather shadows boosts all control,and the secondardy effects of every single /dark power. (-tohit, heal, immobilize) /Dark also has one more attack than /fiery, and is the only dominator secondary to have a true heal. Also, /dark is a second option if you are going the 'ranged dominator' route. While /fiery has its three ranged attacks and one cone, blaze is medium ranged. Dark has three normal ranged attacks, all with full range, and its cone has long range as well. The downside with /dark at range is that its tier 9 is melee...so while /fiery has to skip using combustion & incinerate, dark at range can't use Smite, Engulfing Darkness, or Midnight Grasp. /Dark does get a lot more reach, though.