StratoNexus

That seems a bit angsty over a Forum Game in the For Fun! section? Although I do not frequent here, so maybe that is normal in these parts?

They took perma AoE holds out of the game for a reason. If Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast were KD, you could prevent entire spawns from acting for a long time.

Energy blast seems very popular to me as is. Its hard to resist the pew pew pew and SMASH of energy blast. I see them all the time in pick up groups and quite a few of the people I play with regularly have some as well.

Experienced players and inexperienced players alike love and play energy blast.

RttC is not a tanker's only method of generating hate or the taunt multiplier. If things are knocked out of the taunt aura and they lose aggro on the tanker, it means the blaster attacked too soon, not that KB caused problems. A Fire blaster would be in danger under those conditions just as much as an energy blaster.

Inexperienced play is inexperienced play. People who cause scary KB are no more dangerous to the team than the tanker who stops at the front of the spawn and does not switch targets. Or the scrapper who jumps into a 2nd spawn and then runs back to the group trailing a herd of enemies. Or the emp who rocks the aura and fails to buff or the bubbler who does not position his DB well. Or the controller who uses his AoE immob while the spawn is all spread out.

It is just that KB is very visible and obvious to most people. It is harder to realize that a team wiped because the back of the spawn was shooting the squishies. Or because the secondary aggro managers were not paying attention to their team. Or because the spawn failed to die fast enough becasue they were spread out (something KB can cause too). Or because the spawn failed to die fast enough because blasters were mezzed.

I also think a lot of melee oriented characters get upset when their beautifully packed group gets scattered. I know it makes me sad when I play my fire/fire blaster.

Do you really want to curb those Tanker instincts? How often do you team? How often do you team with people you trust?

Here are some possible changes. I got a bit more recharge and a lot more end recovery. It slots the Hot Feet for damage or it gets the hose. I'd consider Hurdle instead of Swift. Ring of Fire, unlike other blaster secondary tier 1 powers, does great damage.

I like to have some Heal slotting in RotP, but I kept all 5 Oblits for the 5% global recharge (I was thinking maybe 3 Oblits and 2 Numinas).

I think that was added with I15, but it might have been later. It is a great feature. I use it twice in The Better Part of Valor and its a real help for setting stuff up sometimes. Sadly, the last mission will still occasionally fail to spawn one of the boss objectives, even though that map is set to empty, with just a few spawns placed and the triggered objectives. I am well under the objective limit, that map just has a bad spawn point (or multiple bad spawn points).

Make an extreme/extreme EB and then play vs. it at level 10. How many powers does it actually use?

Short Circuit stops recovery. Tesla Cage stops recovery.
Some other attacks have a small chance to stop it very briefly.

Maybe hadda?

I hadda go to da store.

Isn't this changing? I thought I read that on test the procs no longer benefit from slotting in the powers.


I knew this, but I figured the DPA wasn't much different so I stuck with HP for looks. However, I forgot that you can't seamlessly use a 6 sec rech power both before and after CI ever. CB over HP, CB over HP.

When I first made the build I had CB over CI because I knew CB was so good (and did not know CI was sooooo good). Then when I was reminded I had to have CI, I should have swapped out HP instead of CB.

Link fixed. TY for pointing it out.

FYI (although you may know this), if no chunk or link exists, you can copy the build and import it into MIDS with very few or often no errors. This build loses two enhancers in Boxing, for some weird reason, but everything else remains fine.

The boss fight was fine mechanically, IMO.

Nadya, for sure. Roy gets just enough. I wouldn't want to see more added, they are at the right level of development, IMO.

I felt like a major driver of the plot. I really like how you added in the parts where Nadya gives up but we give her hope and where Roy tries to go it alone, but we be the hero.

I was not offended and I run with my filter on to avoid profanity because my kids watch me play.

The name is great; a good choice for a name a troubled young woman might take on in order to make herself seem more important (especially considering how she got her powers and her ethnicity). I did not really like the short form. I kept trying to figure out who they were talking about when they said Panty (I thought maybe it was a Petrovic brother until it was revealed Panty was female). I like the idea of a short form, but the ones I think of either depart too far or sound awkward to me: Pants, Pantly, Zomp, Zompa (long or short a), TZ (TeeZee), Tiz, Tizzie, Pan, Panny

I found the level of named peeps to be fine. I did play after you removed at least one.

I was fine with it as is. It does look odd having the mission text just start, but I cannot say for sure if its a problem.

I was happy with the amount of information given. Not overwhelming but nothing felt lacking (except maybe a bit more info about the final boss could be given earlier to make her eventual involvement more clear).

While there are times where helping the rest of the team stay up may not involve doing things that could draw aggro, I find that doing things which probably will draw aggro is often the best way to help a team when something unfortunate has begun to happen.

Adds, ambushes, crazy teammates are often countered well by:
Freezing Rain, Hurricane, Tornado, Lightning Storm, Thunder Clap, Enervating Field, Radiation Infection, Fallout, Choking Cloud, EM Pulse, Darkest Night, Howling Twilight (before or after someone dies), Fearsome Stare, Snow Storm, Sleet, Heat Loss, Repulsion Field, Repulsion Bomb, Force Bubble, Repel, Fulrcum Shift, Liquefy, on a practiced team Sonic Repulsion, Caltrops, Seeker Drones, Poison Trap, Glue Arrow, Oil Slick Arrow, Poision Gas Arrow, EMP Arrow, Rain of Arrows, Explosive Arrow, Full Auto, Buckshot, M30 Grenade, Flamethrower, Ignite, Dark Pit, Tenebrous Tenetacles, Night Fall, Blackstar, Short Circuit, Ball Lightning, Thunderous Blast, Energy Torrent, Explosive Blast, Nova, Frost Breath, Ice Storm, Blizzard, Psionic Tornado, Psychic Scream, Psychic Wail, Electron Haze, Irradiate, Neutron Bomb, Atomic Blast, Siren's Song, Howl, Shockwave, and Dreadful Wail.

Oftentimes, a few seconds where some aggro is on you instead of someone else can make a big difference, not to mention the other things those powers can do. Many of those powers use a fair amount of endurance and due to the fact that +End Reduction has a larger effect on more expensive powers, Vigilance has an outsized effect on them (for a few, the Nukes, no amount of Vigilance is going to help that end bar, ).

The statement, IMO, still applies generally. If playing a defender well means that your teammates never take any damage, then they don't need a buff.
Trying to add qualifiers that are less common than the norm or just don't matter all that much doesn't make that statement untrue. Yes, obviously there are situations where things are different,exceptions, but the statement is not misleading, it is generally true.

First, controllers are designed as the "top" support AT, not defenders (although, I really like the philosphy that all ATs are support ATs).
Second, once you get to the point where more mitigation or more damage buffs are unnecessary, controllers are in no way more desirable than defenders, because defenders do better AoE damage (with a few exceptions late game). Stating that higher defender buff values are not useful while at the same time arguing that controllers bring more to a team after max mitigation is reached is silly. Who the hell needs to mez enemies when the enemy can't hurt us anyway? Why would I want animation time spent on Flashfires and Stalagmites when I could instead have highly buffed (and enemy resistance debuffed) Ball Lightnings, Irradiates, and Energy Torrents?
Third, I find value in the greater defender buff/debuff values in many cases, although certainly not enough that I would reject a corruptor, MM, or controller to take a defender instead (although it is enough to make me look for defenders as a preference).

Damage buffs do indeed yield less percentage increase as you approach the cap. If an attack deals base 100 damage and is unenhanced, a 35% defiance buff increases damage of that attack 35%. If the attack is now enhanced 116%, a 35% defiance buff only increases damage by 16%. While Build-Up is active, that defiance buff only increases your damage by 11%. The harder you work, the more you enhance and develop your character with IOs (and even just SOs) and powers, the less defiance does for you.

Actually even at +2, on the type of teams you are discussing, I find that enemies die very, very fast. Sure, solo or on a small team, +3s take a bit to kill, but we have been talking about teams here where the better defender buffs are rendered irrleveant and corruptor buffs would do just as well. Most teams like that have high order damage on top of great mitigation, IME.

On small teams, those better defender buff/debuff values matter more, just like defiance might matter more on a small team.

I am not entirely convinced that simple IO slotting that gets you to ~12%-15% defense to a few types all of a sudden makes controller bubbles as good as defender bubbles.

I also contend that defender secondary powers provide significant levels of contribution to a team. You cannot just say that controllers buff good enough and on top of that they can control stuff too! Defenders buff better and on top of that they shoot stuff too!

The only place I have seen this even attempt to be argued is with Defense and even then I am not convinced. These comaprisons always include Dispersion Bubble. If a teammate (heaven forfend!) wanders out of DB, the increased value of the individual buffs from a defender is actually magnified due to the mild IO slotting.

My experience with defense debuffing leads me to believe otherwise. I have seen 70% defense drop below cap often enough to not discount any extra benefit.

This fixation on Defense is noteworthy. Defenders do other things besides give out defense buffs and to-hit debuffs. You brushed aside my point that defenders bring higher resistance, defense, and damage buffs, stating that once you get to X point, it doesn't matter. Allow me to brush aside higher corruptor damage and controller controls the same way.

Once spawns are dying fast, who cares that corruptor base damage and scourge make them do slightly more damage? Why lock down spawns that can't hurt your team? Usually, those lockdowns just keep spawns spread out and less susceptible to AoEs anyway.

While I agree the devs could consider making an improvement to defenders, I have no problem with vigilance as it stands. It is not conceptually backwards, unless you also agree that Mutation, Fallout, Self-Rezzes, RttC, and Vengeance are conceptually backwards.