The Elemental Themes

I've seen plenty of lists, charts and spreadsheets around here detailing the thematic links between powersets that share styles- Fire, Ice, Dark, etc- but I just came to thinking, while there's a lot of talk on the styles and how they match up, there's not so much on the themes they share- the damage types, secondary effects, and strategies that the powersets all have in common no matter what kind of set they are (control, blast, melee, defense). For instance:

Fire: All damage, all the time. That's really how I'd put it- every single set in this game with Fire in the name (or something similar) is marked by having lots of damage to go with whatever its main function is (in the case of damage sets, MORE DAMAGE), at the expense of secondary mitigation or pretty much anything else.

Cold: The opposite- Cold sets are characterised by slows, -recharge, and hard and soft mezzes.

Energy: Knockback. Nuff said. Though the melee version has Stuns instead, presumably because plenty of other melee sets have knockback galore.

Dark: Best way I can put it- Dark sets are weird. -tohit and Disorients are common, but Dark sets all seem to be very different from other sets of their type, with unusual types of powers, multiple effects, and layered defenses. They all seem to end End suckers though.

Electric: Endurance drain, and complaining that it doesn't do anything worthwhile

I could use one of those theme spreadsheets to help think it over.

Dark sets have an "hp drain" motif. Several dark powers harm enemies to restore hp. Twilight Grasp, Howling Twilight, Life Drain, Siphon Life, Dark Regeneration, Soul Transfer.

So what is it you wanted to discuss here? I suppose I could put my 2 cents in to add to your OP though.

Fire: It's a fully themed element, meaning there is a melee, blast, control, buff and armor set for these powers. There's really no other set themed around fire that could be added except MM pet set but I consider them outside the norm. There's also Assault and Manipulation sets but those are more amalgamations of big 5 sets. Like it has been said, it's theme is burning things with fire (i.e. doing additional fire DoT). Since the extra damage is considered it's secondary effect, it usually has no mitigating effects added to its powers.

Ice: Another fully themed element. It's all about mitigation, which is opposite of fire. It slows, holds, debuffs, sleeps and slips up foes, making it hard for them to hit back. At the cost of all this additional mitigation, the sets usually sacrifice damage somehow, either by smaller AoE dmg or just having powers added that don't damage the foe. For offensive sets, it can be a conflict of interest, for armor or buff sets just makes them more solid and for control...well it's alright unless someone (or yourself) starts spamming AoE immobilizes.

Energy: Kind of all over, IMO. Energy is so broad an element, it's one of those elemental dmg types that covers more than *just* energy. Then you've got Energy Aura, Force Field and Kinetics. There's knockback in the blast and stun in the melee and, IMO, is suppose to simulate "crushing kinetic force" that visually manifests in the form of energy. EA and FF do the same but instead create barriers that do the opposite. Kinetics...does something else...

Electric: There's really only Elec melee, blast and armor. All of them drain endurance. While only the melee set sleeps, the offensive sets can make the foes spasm as if unable to control their bodies. IMO, electric's theme needs to be expanded while energy needs to be more defined (but energy is fine as it is if not). Mob tags need more use, specifically robotic. Electric damage should be more harmful to robots, not energy damage. So an added theme could be Elec does added damage to robots or foes with robotic parts. Just thinking about it, it'd be awesome if there was an added stat called Robotics on foes and higher levels of them caused more damage when electric damage is received. As for control or buff sets, other added effects to fit within the theme could be added along with the above.

Dark: Is more grab bag, IMO. It has varying effects with only HP drain being one shared by them all. You can almost say Dark is a completed elemental theme because the buff set is almost a control set at the same time. It's the element with the strongest and well defined/balanced themes, IMO. It uses a netherworldly fog or haze to hinder foes and is usually weak in AoE but strong in ST with hard controls with stuns and fears. Immobilization is also in there to varying degrees.

Earth: Missing the buff/debuff set, which would work great as a Sonic replacement (as Ice is a FF replacement) as a +res buff set with controls. The theme for this set I'd guess is defense over offense. The armor set is a strong example of this as is the control set. The melee set though, while very controlly, does fast and overwhelming damage too. It just doesn't do amazing AoE. Overall, the sets have defense in mind either with buffs or controls.

Radiation: Another energy set. It's only sets are blast and buff/debuff but can easily be expanded to other sets. Only problem I see is it lacks the theme being discussed. It just does -defense (an offensive debuff) with some control sprinkled on. Whenever I think of radiation, I think radioactive leak or cancer or toxic. Why can't rad powers have a chance of 'leaking' damage to nearby foes? Or toxic DoT or something....think about that when you make rad melee, armor and control.

Sonic: ANOTHER energy set but it also does smashing damage. You got a buff and blast set but not much else. It's theme is resonating at a target's frequency, making it easier to shatter them like a crystal champagne glass by lowering their resistance or doing the opposite and increasing your resistance. It's actually a good theme if not a bit narrow. Add to it, might be interesting if sonic powers had low accuracy but had no position set for its debuff. I mean, you can't dodge or block sound no more than you can dodge or block air...because sound is air.

Lastly, I think there is room for NEW themes. Of course not new damage types but mixed damage types. Additional effects depend on how you approach the set though. A 'Holy' or 'Light' theme can be emulated by energy/fire damage mix with less overall damage with an added -ToHit and perhaps extra fire DoT vs undead or demonic foes. If not holy/light, then lasers could be the energy/fire mix.