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[Force Field Revamp and Force Composition]

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Force Field Revamp and Force Composition

Force Field is one of the oldest sets in the game, dating back to the original launch of City of Heroes, but this classic set hasn't quite been able to keep up in today's game. In Rebirth Issue 5 this iconic powerset will be getting a long-deserved set of improvements to let it shine as the support set it deserves to be. As a bonus, Force Field is also being proliferated to Corruptors in Rebirth Issue 5. Elements of this revamp are also part of the new Force Composition set, letting Guardians play around with force fields too!

Force Field Revamp

Unlike many other Issue 0 era powersets, Force Field has remained substantially unchanged since its release. This power set dates to a time when the original Cryptic Studios developers were first getting their feet under themselves, and before the many early revamps that settled the game on a final vision for the types of capabilities different categories of sets 'ought' to provide.

As a result, many of the set's powers have designs and effects that don't really fit in with the 'modern' understanding of how a support set provides benefits to its team. Due to this, even in the cases where these powers are quite effective at what they do - for example, controlling enemy positioning - the things that they do don't really add up to the same level of contribution to the team's effectiveness as other support sets. This has left the set leaning heavily on the few powers that do provide 'standard' support effects - the three main defense-granting bubbles - with the other powers relegated to novelties or niche use cases.

Yet, at the same time these unusual powers are what grant the set its own unique identity. Trying to simply shove Force Field into the same mold as everything else would be a gross disservice to the set and to the players that have enjoyed it over the years. The challenge of revamping Force Field is to make its underused powers more viable and improve the set's support capabilities while still preserving its unique playstyles and legacy.

This revamp rests on several core pillars:

• Improvements should be directed towards the powers that are currently considered most lackluster and skippable - every power should be able to compete for a spot in your build.
• These changes should act to improve the support capability of the powers, relative to their current state where many are good at things that just aren't very useful for supporting the team.
• Whenever possible, these changes should mesh with, augment, or complement those powers' existing playstyles rather than replacing them, particularly in terms of the set's secondary theme of controlling enemy positioning.
• Whenever possible, these changes should not remove those powers' current capabilities, and existing uses of those powers should remain.

Deflection Shield, Insulation Shield, Dispersion Bubble

• No changes

These powers are already good! The only problem they have is that they've been unfairly expected to carry the set's entire load by themselves. With the improvements to the rest of the set, they can step back and continue to do their job as well as they have always done.

Personal Force Field

• No longer has OnlyAffectsSelf, allowing the user to buff and attack normally while active
• Does not have OnlyAffectsSelf for 30 seconds after activation, allowing the user to buff and attack normally. After 30 seconds OnlyAffectsSelf will activate.
• Personal Force Field cannot be activated more often than once every 120 seconds
• Activation time reduced from 2.03 to 1.03 seconds
• ]Recharge increased to 140 seconds

Personal Force Field is a strong self-protection power, but fundamentally a selfish one - to take advantage of it the user must withdraw their support from the rest of the team, which is a tradeoff a support set should not have to make. This change reverses that - by allowing the user to 'bubble up' while still affecting enemies, it lets them temporarily gain strong survivability in a dangerous situation so they can focus on helping salvage that situation for their team. The activation time has also been reduced to make it a more responsive panic button.

Obviously one cannot allow near-invincibility in toggle form without OnlyAffectsSelf indefinitely! The original version shut off after 30 seconds, but after discussion and feedback from players, the ability to leave PFF on indefinitely was restored and it simply regains the OnlyAffectsSelf status after 30 seconds. This gives the best of both worlds - the new ability to use it for a burst of in-combat invincibility while still attacking, and also the ability for long periods of use for travel or emergency use.

Force Bolt

• Now does splash knockdown on up to 3 secondary targets within 15 feet of the main target
• Now inflicts a stacking magnitude 1.5 stun (main target only)
• Damage increased to scale 1.0 (main target only)

Force bolt is an effective power at what it does - single target soft control - so this update rewards and expands on this support capability while also broadening the power's overall usefulness. Since it is often used repeatedly to juggle targets, the stacking stun effect (which disorients minions in one hit, LTs in two, and bosses in three) rewards this while allowing you to perhaps cut back on how many times you have to hit things to keep them under control! Increasing the damage of the power to match a standard tier 1 blast also means that this repeated use doesn't represent as much of an interruption to your attack chain. Finally, the splash knockdown gives the power additional usefulness against groups as well as single hard targets, or you can slot a knockback-to-knockdown enhancement in the power to convert it to a small-area group knockdown attack.



Barrier Field (formerly Detention Field)

• This power has been renamed from Detention Field to Barrier Field, and may now be used on either enemy or friendly targets
• When used against a friendly target, it grants that target a large amount of absorb over time for a short time, without hindering their ability to attack
• When used against an enemy target, it functions as the current Detention Field power
• Detention effect increased to mag 6, allowing it to affect standard EBs, and it will also more reliably Immobilize the captured target
• Knockback, Attract, and Repel effects from other Force Field (or Force Composition!) powers can now move the captured target

Detention Field's effects were powerful, but only useful in very niche cases. We don't want to change or remove these effects since they are useful in some situations, so instead we are broadening the usefulness of the power by adding an alternate support function. The original function of the power is also being made more reliable, while also allowing some interaction with the detained target so you can have them right where you want them when it expires.



Repulsion Field

• This power is no longer purchased independently, but rather is automatically granted by purchasing Force Bubble
• Ongoing endurance cost removed
• Activation time reduced from 2.03 to 1.03 seconds
• When used alone, acts as the current Repulsion Field power
• When used while Force Bubble is active, has no effects itself but enables Force Bubble's repel effect

Repulsion Field and Force Bubble are too conceptually similar, and Repulsion Field is not a strong enough support power, to take up two independent slots in the power set. This change frees up a slot for us to broaden the set's variety of available support powers, while still preserving the use of Repulsion Field for those who like this power (particularly now that it does not have a cripplingly high ongoing endurance cost when it isn't even doing anything), and also lets us lean into the conceptual similarities between it and Force Bubble with their toggle interaction. Since the user will likely be toggling it on and off more frequently than before, the activation time has been reduced to make this gameplay more fluid.

Containment Shell

• New power, takes Repulsion Field's old slot in the set - if you previously had Repulsion Field, you will now have Containment Shell
• Location targeted persistent patch that immobilizes targets and Attracts them inwards
• Prevents repel and converts KB to KD on affected targets

Containment Shell gives the set a new type of support ability that uses the new Attract mechanic to contribute to Force Field's theme of controlling mob positioning. The repel protection and KB-to-KD conversion also allows it to act as a 'sticky trap', where the player can use the set's other positioning tools to knockback or repel targets into it and it will keep them there.



Repulsion Bomb

• Chance to stun minions increased to 75%
• Now has a 50% chance to stun LTs

Repulsion Bomb was already an effective attack, so this is simply a touchup to increase the power's support value by making its stun more reliable.

Force Bubble

• Now automatically grants Repulsion Field on purchase - if you previously had Force Bubble, you will now have both Force Bubble and Repulsion Field
• Now inflicts significant -damage debuff and movement slow
• Repel is no longer permanently active - toggle on Repulsion Field to enable repel, or leave it off to inflict only the debuffs with no repel
• Endurance cost decreased from 0.69 to 0.52 end/sec (0.86 to 0.65 for Masterminds)

Similar to Detention Field, Force Bubble's effects were strong in specific cases but overall had a relatively niche use. Adding additional debuff effects makes it a more broadly useful general support power, the slow makes the repel more reliable and controllable, and the repel effect being optional allows for the power's original use to still exist without forcing an effect which can be disruptive in other situations.




Force Composition for Guardians



Revamping Force Field also allows for Guardians to join in on the fun! Force Composition melds classic Force Field-throwing shenanigans with Invulnerability's resiliency and the Guardian's self-and-allies-alike take on support powers. Both stalwart bastion and battering ram, Force Composition will allow you to bowl over your enemies in style.

Temp Invulnerability
Toggle: Self +Res(Smash, Lethal)
When you toggle on this power, you imbue yourself with force to become highly resistant to Smashing and Lethal damage.

All Guardian secondaries open with a basic armor toggle, and Force Composition is no different. Temp Invulnerability gives the set a solid base of Smashing and Lethal resistance to build on.

Force Bolt
Ranged, Moderate DMG(Smash), Foe Knockback, Disorient, -Fly
Discharges a bolt of force that deals a decent amount of Smashing Damage and knocks foes back a good distance. If the target is currently Flying they will also be knocked out of the air. The target may also be disoriented by the impact, though stronger targets may require multiple impacts to be affected. The force of this attack is so strong that it can also knock down other nearby enemies, though they will not take any damage or be disoriented.

The second power in a Guardian secondary is always the set's most basic support power, and ideally should be one the player can rely on from level 1 to 50 to give a solid, reliable core of support capability. The newly revamped Force Bolt is perfect for this slot, providing a solid multifunctional version of the set's support capabilities in the areas of enemy positioning, knockdown, and mez effects.

Force Affinity
Auto: Self +Res(All DMG but Psionics), Endurance Discount
Your affinity for manipulating force enables you to redirect and streamline the forces in and around your body, allowing you to weaken the impact of attacks and make your own motions more efficient. This gives you a small amount of Resistance to all damage except Psionics and reduces the endurance cost of your powers.

Force Affinity brings in a portion of Invul's broad-spectrum resistances, borrowing from Unyielding to build on the base provided by Temp Invulnerability. As mez protection is covered by Dispersion Bubble below, those effects are replaced with an endurance discount effect to help keep endurance use under control.

Dispersion Bubble
Toggle: PBAoE, Team +Res(Hold, Immobilize, Disorient)< +DEF(All), Self +Res(Knockback, Sleep)
Creates a large bubble which protects all allies inside. While active, the Dispersion Bubble gives all allies within increased Defense against all attack types. The Dispersion Bubble also protects allies from Immobilization, Disorient, and Hold effects. The user is also granted protection from Knockback and Sleep, but this additional protection does not apply to allies.

Giving a good amount of protection of varied types to both the user and allies, Dispersion Bubble is a classic 'Guardian-style' support power and a natural choice for the set. For teammates, this iconic power gives a portion of the defense and mez protection expected from a Force Field style set. For the user, this power both acts as the set's mez protection and mimics the role of Invul's Invincibility by providing the user with solid layered mitigation of defense on top of resistance.

Force Barrier
PBAOE, Team +Absorb
Projects a strong protective Force Barrier over yourself and nearby allies. This grants you and all nearby allies a significant amount of damage absorption for a short time.

Force Barrier is the conceptual child of Invul's Dull Pain and Force Field's new Barrier Field, with a Guardian-style PBAoE twist. This provides the user with a measure of health sustain, while allowing that mitigation to extend to allies in standard Guardian fashion. It wouldn't be a Force Field set if you couldn't cast some sort of bubble on your allies, after all!



Containment Shell
Ranged (Location AoE), Foe Attract, Immobilize, -Jump, -Repel, Knockback to Knockdown
Projects a Containment Shell to pull in and capture foes in a targeted location. This hollow force field shell immobilizes and exerts a strong attractive force on any foe that attempts to cross its boundary, pulling them into the shell's interior, though more powerful foes may be able to resist. The attractive force also prevents foes from being pushed out of the shell, preventing jumping, making affected foes immune to Repel effects, and causing Knockback effects to be reduced to Knockdown.

Containment Shell is another power from the new version of Force Field that naturally makes the jump to the Guardian version of the set. Controlling enemy positioning is not a strong support theme in any existing guardian set, so this adds to the variety available to the archetype.

Repulsion Bomb
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Moderate DMG(Smash), Foe Knockdown, Disorient
A powerful Repulsion Bomb is hurled at your foes dealing a moderate amount of damage and knocking them off of their feet. Foes struck by Repulsion Bomb have a good chance to become disoriented.

Repulsion Bomb's nature as a combination offense-and-defense power makes it another natural choice for inclusion, as this sort of melding of support and offense is a microcosm of the archetype as a whole.

Force Shielding
Auto: Self +DEF(All but Psionics), +Res (Debuff DEF)
Your abilities allow you to surround your body with a protective layer of force, causing some attacks to deflect away from you. This grants you Defense to all types of attacks except Psionics, as well as resistance to Defense Debuff effects.

Force Shielding is a renamed version of Invul's Tough Hide, and rounds out Force Composition's take on that set's signature layered mitigation, giving the set two resistance powers and two defense powers.

Suppression Field
Ranged (Location AoE), Foe -Speed, -Jump, -Fly, Hold, -DMG(All)
Projects a debilitating Suppression Field at a targeted location. This semi-solid force field greatly hampers the movements of all enemies caught in it. Affected enemies will have their movement greatly Slowed and will not be able to fly or jump, and will sometimes be completely Held for brief periods. Their movements will also be weakened to such a degree that their attacks will deal less damage.

Suppression Field takes the revamped Force Bubble's debuff effects and builds on them in a form more suited to the Guardian's nature as a hybrid melee and ranged archetype. A repel effect would not be appropriate for an archetype intended to frequently engage in melee combat, so instead this power allows you to glue opponents in place while mitigating their damage through debuffs and mez.



Check out the revamped Force Field and Guardian Force Composition, along with many more features in Rebirth Issue 5, this week on our Public Test Server (PTS)!

[Travel Pool Powersets Revamp]

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Travel Pool Powersets Revamp


City of Heroes Rebirth Issue 5 is around the corner. This update includes a comprehensive Travel Pool Power Set Revamp. We're excited to share this detailed rundown of exactly what to expect!

Before we get to those details, I would like to share some of our thinking and process leading to these changes. Planning and staging for the Travel Pool Revamp began over a year ago. Our team set out priorities to encourage build diversity, to allow for depth of concept, to appropriately reward players for investing deeply in any particular pool, and to make certain that every power is worth taking while no single power is ever deemed so essential that it becomes ubiquitous.

In preparing for this revamp, we collected data on what powers players were selecting and in what combinations, we looked at both PvE and PvP play. We learned a lot while completing the code and power balancing of Gadgetry, Force of Will, and Experimentation origin pools. And we laid the foundation for this more significant role for pool powers, giving you all more slotting options via progressive leveling slots awarded to Health and Fitness with Rebirth Issue 3.


Our investigations lead to three key findings:

Finding one: Travel should be fun!

From launch, travel has been one of the basic joys offered by City of Heroes. While there is nothing wrong with enjoying a firefarm in AE, we also want you all out there flying, leaping, porting, and dashing through the beautiful scenery of City of Heroes again like we all did during year 1. We don't want your need to travel from one zone to another between door missions to feel like a drag. We wanted to bring the pleasure of travel back.

Since launch, when travel was new and exciting, a lot has changed. The game world has grown significantly. Train and ferry lines were consolidated. Universal and convenient means of fast travel were added, first for veterans and premium players, and then later for everyone. All trying to make it easier to get from A to B, without making travel itself significantly faster and enjoyable.

With this in mind, our team felt it was time to increase the caps for all movement types. We have done so with care and consideration. We felt so strongly about the importance of travel in City of Heroes, we decided that hitting the new caps itself should be woven into the metagame. If you want to hit any of those caps, you will need to work for it in your build.

Finding two: All powers should be desirable!

Whether it be via singular performance and utility or via shared synergy, every power choice should offer something to your build. We took a look at highly situational powers and explored creative means to give more function to those powers.

One design solution we've embraced is to reward players who decide to "build deep" into a pool. We want selecting 4 or 5 powers within a pool to effectively increase your character's mastery over that pool. You will now find that many travel powers play some role in that meta-game of trying to hit those elusive speed caps.

We also took a look at monopolies that certain pools had on build choices, such as the need for many archetypes to seek defense and resistance via the fighting pool, and worked to build in balanced alternative routes to give you more options to reach the same goals. In the case of the fighting pool, leaping's Acrobatics and the new flight pool power Aerobatics have been added as new defense-granting options that are mutually exclusive with fighting's Weave, offering more varied thematic options to reach the same goal without increasing the maximum amount of defense stacking or forcing you to make cookie-cutter build selections.

Finding three: Damage matters!

Damage matters, even when it comes to pool powers. While this is arguably a subtopic of our second finding, we felt it was important enough to rise to its own listing. In part because it reverses some design decisions dating back to the Cryptic years.

Prior to this revamp, by design, many travel pool attacks suffered from chronic weakness and if selected as prerequisites are often left out of player attack chains. We have changed this. While primary and secondary attack powers will still outperform pool attack powers, all have been brought into much closer parity. From here forward, players should be able to integrate pool powers into their attack cycles without hindrance or regret.

This concludes our preamble of how we arrived at the changes detailed below. We hope you players are as excited to experience them in-game as we are! Please join us next week on our Public Test Server (PTS) in vetting the changes for bugs and balance concerns.



Running, Jumping, and Flying speed caps have all been raised by 400%!

Speed

Flurry
Melee (Cone), High DoT(Smash), Self +Def(Melee, Lethal), Special
You unleash a super fast Flurry of punches to pummel your foe, moving so quickly that you can dodge incoming melee attacks, thus boosting your Melee and Lethal defense briefly. Note: Activating Burnout will cause Flurry to instantly recharge for a brief time while Burnout Acceleration is in effect.  Damage: High(DoT), Recharge: Moderate

• Attack type changed from single-target melee to narrow melee cone. It now accepts PbAoE enhancements instead of Melee enhancements.
• Added a short duration +Def(Melee, Lethal) similar to Parry.  Flurry now accepts Defense enhancements.
• Increased damage from .143 to .2695 per tick
• Increased endurance cost from 5.46 to 14.01
• Increased recharge time from 3s to 14s
• Removed chance for stun
• Burnout Special Effect: Flurry instantly recharges for 10s immediately after Burnout is activated

Hasten
Self +Recharge, +SPD
You can reduce the recharge time of all powers and gain increased run speed for 2 minutes. Although Hasten does not cost any Endurance to activate, you can tire easily since your Endurance does not recover more rapidly. After Hasten wears off, you become tired and will lose some Endurance. This crash can be avoided by training Unrelenting from the Presence pool.

• Added moderate move speed increase.  Hasten now accepts Run and Universal Travel enhancements.

Whirlwind
Toggle: PBAoE, Moderate DMG(Smash/Energy), Foe Attract, Knockback, Stun, (Special)
You spin around at an amazing speed to create a Whirlwind around yourself. Any foes that enter Whirlwind's radius will be pulled towards its center, and upon reaching the center will be pummeled and tossed into the air, leaving them very briefly stunned. You must be at least level 14 and have two other Speed Powers before selecting Whirlwind and not have trained Blink Blitz, Dive Attack, or Spring Attack. Note: Activating Burnout will cause Whirlwind to instantly recharge and cost no endurance per foe hit for a brief time while Burnout Acceleration is in effect.

• Expanded PBAoE radius to 25 and added Attract to pull enemies into the center
• In PBAoE center added Moderate Smashing/Energy damage
• Foes that enter the center will also be Knocked back and be very briefly stunned (~2s)
• Reduced additional endurance cost per foe hit from 1.5 to 1.0
• Whirlwind now automatically shuts off when your endurance reaches 25% or less
• Recharge Time increased to 105s
• Burnout Special Effect: Whirlwind costs no endurance per foe hit for 10s immediately after Burnout is activated
• You may not train this power if you have already trained Blink Blitz, Dive Attack, or Spring Attack

Burnout
Self +Recharge, +SPD, Res (Slow), +DEF(All), Special
Burnout allows you to instantly recharge Flurry, Whirlwind, and all of your Primary and Secondary powers, as well as resist slow effects for 60 seconds. Additionally, your running speed and jump height will greatly increase, while also providing a high amount of defense for 60 seconds. This power places the Burnout Acceleration effect on you. While this is briefly in effect, Flurry will recharge instantly and Whirlwind will cost no endurance per foe hit. Burnout is very expensive in terms of endurance and reduces your maximum endurance slightly for 60 seconds after use. You must be at least level 14 and have two other Speed Powers before selecting Burnout.   Recharge: Very Long

• Added a large move speed and jump increase for 60sec.  Burnout now accepts Run and Universal Travel enhancements.  The jump height increase is not enhanceable.
• Added 40% resistance to slow effects for 60sec
• Added moderate Defense(All) for 60sec.  Burnout now accepts Defense enhancements
• Reduced recharge time from 1800s to 600s
• Added Special effect: Burnout Acceleration.  This effect grants brief bonuses to Flurry and Whirlwind for a short time immediately after Burnout is activated.

Leaping

Jump Kick
Melee, High DMG(Smash), Foe Knockdown, Stun Self Teleport
A good jumping-kick attack that may knock foes down or stun them. Using this power allows you to jump to a nearby foe to deal heavy smashing damage.

• This power can now be used slightly out of melee distance.  When activated while out of melee you'll leap toward the target while attacking.
• Range increased from 7 to 30.  TPs to target when distance is further than 7 ft.
• Now has a 20% chance for a Mag 2 Stun
• Increased damage from 1 to 1.64
• Increased endurance cost from 5.46 to 10.66
• Increased recharge time from 2.8s to 8s

Combat Jumping
Toggle: Self +Jump, +Def(All), Res(Immobilization)
While active, Combat Jumping increases your Defense to all attacks and adds resistance to Immobilization. Moderately increases your jump height and distance while providing good air control. While Hover is active, Combat Jumping will suppress.

• This power now stacks with other Jump powers
• Increased endurance cost from 0.07/s to 0.16/s
• Effects will suppress while Hovering or Flying

Super Jump
Toggle: Self Long Jump

• New fast travel switching mechanic: Activating this power automatically switches off Fly and vice versa

Acrobatics
Toggle: Self +Jump, +DEF(All), +Res(Knockback, Hold)
While this power is active, you are very nimble and Acrobatic, increasing your Defense to all attacks. Your jump height and distance become moderately increased, and you can avoid most Knockback effects and are resistant to Hold effects. While Aerobatics is active, Acrobatics will suppress. While Acrobatics is active, Weave will suppress. You must be at least level 14 and have two other Leaping Powers before selecting Acrobatics.

• Added moderate Defense(All) on par with Weave.  Acrobatics now accepts Defense enhancements.
• Added moderate Jump height/speed.  Acrobatics now accepts Jump and Universal Travel enhancements.
• Increased endurance cost from 0.26/s to 0.33/s.
• Effects will suppress while Aerobatics (Flight) is active.
• While Acrobatics is active, Weave will suppress.

Spring Attack
PBAoE High DMG(Smashing), Foe Knockdown; Self Teleport, +Jump
You leap into the air and smash down among ranks of foes in the blink of an eye.  Using this power allows you to jump to a selected area to deal significant smashing damage to all foes near the location you teleport to, most foes that are struck by your Spring Attack will be knocked down.  The impact of this power launches you for a short time which significantly increases your Jumping Speed and Jump Height.  You must be at least level 14 and have two other Leaping Powers before selecting Spring Attack and not have trained Blink Blitz, Dive Attack, or Whirlwind. Damage: High, Recharge: Slow.

• Using this power significantly increases Jumping Speed and Jumping Height for 30s.
• Reduced recharge time from 120s to 34s
• Increased endurance cost from 13.52 to 14.352
• You may not train this power if you have already trained Blink Blitz, Dive Attack, or Whirlwind

Flight

Hover
Toggle: Self Fly, +DEF(All)
For hovering and aerial combat. This power is much slower than Fly, but provides some Defense to all attacks, offers good air control, costs little Endurance, and has none of the penalties associated with Fly. Switch to this mode when fighting other flying foes. While Hover is active, Combat Jumping will suppress.

• This power now stacks with other Flight powers
• Added the original Fly pose as a power customizable option.
• The Hover pose will always show over the default fly pose due to having a higher priority.
• Decreased endurance cost from 0.19/s to 0.16/s
• While this power is active Combat Jumping will suppress

Air Superiority
Melee, High DMG(Smash), Foe -Fly
This two-handed overhead melee attack can knock a flying target to the ground.

• Increased damage from 1 to 1.64
• Increased endurance cost from 6.5 to 10.66
• Increased recharge time from 4s to 8s

Fly
Toggle: Self Fly
Fly allows you to travel large distances quickly. If you attack a target while this power is on, your flight speed will be temporarily reduced to Hover speed.  Your top Flight speed increases with your Level.

• New fast travel switching mechanic: Activating this power automatically switches off Super Jump and vice versa

Aerobatics (formerly Group Fly)
Toggle: Self +FlySpeed, Res(-Fly), +Def(All), +Flight Control
Aerobatics moderately increases your flight speed and provides a high amount of defense, flight protection, and additional flight control. If however, you are not flying, you will lose some of your Defense bonus. If you have also trained Fly, this power unlocks Group Fly, a power that endows your nearby teammates with Flight when active. While Aerobatics is active, Acrobatics and Weave will suppress. You must be at least level 14 and have two other Flight Powers before selecting Aerobatics.  This power only grants flight protection while Hover or Fly is active.

• Aerobatics now occupies the former Group Fly power in the Flight pool.
• While Aerobatics is active, Acrobatics and Weave will suppress.
• Group Fly


• Obtaining Aerobatics now unlocks Group Fly mode for Fly.
• If you previously had Group Fly you will now have both Aerobatics and Group Fly powers.

Dive Attack (formerly Afterburner)
PBAoE Superior DMG(Smashing), Foe Knockdown; Self Teleport
You dive in the air and smash down among ranks of foes in the blink of an eye. Using this power allows you to dive to a selected area to deal significant smashing damage to all foes near the location you teleport to, most foes that are struck by your Dive Attack will be knocked down. If you have also trained Fly, this power unlocks Afterburner, a power that greatly increases your maximum fly speed. You must be at least level 14 and have two other Flight Powers before selecting Dive Attack and not have trained Blink Blitz, Spring Attack, or Whirlwind. Damage: High, Recharge: Slow.

• Dive Attack now occupies the former Afterburner power in the Flight pool.
• You may not train this power if you have already trained Blink Blitz, Spring Attack, or Whirlwind.
• Afterburner


• Obtaining Dive Attack now unlocks Afterburner for Fly
• Transferred defense to Aerobatics and while not quite as high it can now be used in combat
• Removed Only Affect Self
• Afterburner toggle now has a 30s duration and 120s cooldown
• If you previously had Afterburner you will now have both Dive Attack and Afterburner powers.

Teleportation

Recall (formerly Recall Friend)
Teleport Target
You can Teleport your target, be they friend or foe, to yourself. You can also rescue a fallen teammate who may be in a hostile location, as long as they are on the same map. Range is not infinite, but it's long and can be enhanced.  Allies can be teleported from near Zone-Range distances.  However, foes must be much closer. This power can be interrupted.

• This power has been renamed Recall.  It can teleport either an ally or an enemy to you.
• Depending on whether your target is a friend or foe this power will either function as Recall Friend or Teleport Foe.
• Training both Recall and Blink will enable you to teleport NPC foes without any interruption window.
• If you previously had Recall Friend you will now have Recall

Blink (formerly Teleport Foe)
Ranged, High DMG(Smash), Self Teleport, +DEF(All)
You can Teleport nearly instantly to a single foe and launch a surprise attack on them for minor Smashing damage. Blink is so quick that your enemies will find you harder to hit, thus boosting your defense briefly.  Damage: Minor, Recharge: Moderate

• This power has been replaced with Blink.  An extremely quick teleportation power that attacks the foe in the blink of an eye.
• Damage Scale 1
• Endurance Cost from 6.5
• Recharge Time 4s
• This power also grants a short-duration Defense(All) buff.
• If you previously had Teleport Foe you will now have Blink

Teleport
Ranged (Location), Self Teleport
You can Teleport long distances. Teleport has no recharge time, and can be reactivated without pause, as long as you have Endurance.

• Added a passive Endurance Discount if you have trained Team Teleport
• Added a passive Range buff if you have trained Long Range Teleport

Blink Blitz (formerly Team Teleport)
PBAoE High DMG(Smashing); Self Teleport, +DEF(All)
You Teleport yourself to a targeted foe and launch a barrage of attacks on any foes near the target's location.  You teleport around the area so quickly that your enemies will find you harder to hit, thus boosting your defense briefly.  If you have also trained Teleport, this power unlocks Team Teleport, a toggle power that expands the capabilities of your Teleport power allowing you to Teleport yourself and your nearby teammates when active.  You must be at least level 14 and have two other Teleportation Powers before selecting Blink Blitz and not have trained Dive Attack, Spring Attack, or Whirlwind.  Damage: High, Recharge: Slow

• Blink Blitz now occupies the former Team Teleport power in the Teleportation pool.
• You may not train this power if you have already trained Dive Attack, Spring Attack, or Whirlwind.
• Team Teleport


• Obtaining Blink Blitz now unlocks Team Teleport mode for Teleport.
• This power has become a toggle. While toggled on it that turns Teleport into Team Teleport.  Enhancing Teleport also enhances Team Teleport power.
• Team Teleport also provides a passive Endurance Discount to the solo Teleport power mode.
• If you previously had Team Teleport you will now have both Blink Blitz and Team Teleport powers.

Mass Translocate (formerly Long Range Teleport)
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Teleport
Mass Translocate allows you to teleport a group of foes in close proximity to each other to your location.  If you have also trained Teleport, this power unlocks Long Range Teleport, a toggle power that expands the capabilities of your Teleport power when active.  You must be at least level 14 and have two other Teleportation Powers before selecting Long Range Teleport.  Recharge: Long

• Mass Translocate now occupies the former Long Range Teleport power in the Teleportation pool.
• Long Range Teleport


• Obtaining Mass Translocate now unlocks Long Range Teleport.
• Long Range Teleport also provides a passive Range buff to the normal teleportation range of Teleport.
• If you previously had Long Range Teleport you will now have both Mass Translocate and Long Range Teleport powers.

Peacebringer

Combat Flight
Toggle: Self Fly, +DEF(All)
For hovering and aerial combat. This power is much slower than Energy Flight, but provides some Defense, offers good air control, costs little Endurance, and has none of the penalties associated with Energy Flight. Switch to this mode when fighting other flying foes. While Combat Flight is active, Combat Jumping will suppress. This power can be used while in Bright Nova or White Dwarf form. However, activating it while in either Bright Nova or White Dwarf will transform you back into your original form.

• This power now stacks with other Flight powers, sans Hover
• Added the original Fly pose as a power customizable option.
• Combat Flight's hover pose will always show over the default fly pose due to having a higher priority.
• Decreased endurance cost from 0.19/s to 0.16/s
• While this power is active Combat Jumping will suppress

Energy Flight
Toggle: Self Fly
Energy Flight allows you to travel large distances quickly.  If you attack a target while this power is on, your flight speed will be temporarily reduced.  Your Energy Flight speed increases with your Level. This power can be used while in Bright Nova or White Dwarf form. However, activating it while in either Bright Nova or White Dwarf will transform you back into your original form.

• Reduced endurance cost from 1.0/s to 0.36/s
• New fast travel switching mechanic: Activating this power automatically switches off Super Jump and vice versa

Solar Glide (formerly Group Energy Flight)
Toggle: Self +FlySpeed, Res(-Fly), +Def(All), +Flight Control
Solar Glide moderately increases your flight speed and provides a high amount of defense, flight protection, and additional flight control. If however, you are not flying, you will lose some of your Defense bonus.  Taking this power also unlocks Group Energy Flight, a power that endows your nearby teammates with Flight when active.  This power only grants flight protection while Combat Flight or Energy Fly is active. While Solar Glide is active, Acrobatics and Weave will suppress.

• Solar Glide now occupies the former Group Energy Flight power.
• While Solar Glide is active, Acrobatics and Weave will suppress.
• Group Energy Flight


• Obtaining Solar Glide now unlocks Group Energy Flight.
• If you previously had Group Energy Flight you will now have both Solar Glide and Group Energy Flight powers.

Starfall (formerly Quantum Acceleration)
PBAoE Superior DMG(Smashing), Foe Knockdown; Self Teleport
You dive in the air and smash down among ranks of foes in the blink of an eye.  Using this power allows you to dive to a selected area to deal significant smashing damage to all foes near the location you teleport to, most foes that are struck by your Starfall will be knocked down.  This power also unlocks Quantum Acceleration, a power that greatly increases your maximum fly speed.  You may not take this power if have trained Blink Blitz, Dive Attack, Spring Attack, or Whirlwind.  Damage: High, Recharge: Slow.

• Starfall now occupies the former Quantum Acceleration power.
• You may not train this power if you have already trained Blink Blitz, Dive Attack, Spring Attack, or Whirlwind.
• Quantum Acceleration


• Obtaining Starfall now unlocks Quantum Acceleration
• Transferred Defense to Solar Glide
• Removed Only Affect Self
• Afterburner toggle now has a 30s duration and 120s cooldown
• If you previously had Quantum Acceleration you will now have both Starfall and Quantum Acceleration powers.

Warshade

Starless Recall (formerly Shadow Recall)
Teleport Target
You can Teleport your target, be they friend or foe, to yourself. You can also rescue a fallen teammate who may be in a hostile location, as long as they are on the same map. Range is not infinite, but it's long and can be enhanced.  Allies can be teleported from near Zone-Range distances.  However, foes must be much closer. This power can be interrupted.

• This power has been renamed Starless Recall.  It can teleport either an ally or an enemy to you.
• Depending on whether your target is a friend or foe this power will either function as Shadow Recall or Starless Step.
• Training both Starless Recall and Starless Charge will enable you to teleport NPC foes without any interruption window.
• If you previously had Shadow Recall you will now have Starless Recall

Starless Charge (formerly Starless Step)
Ranged, High DMG(Negative), Self Teleport, +DEF(All)
You can Teleport to a single foe through a dark matter wormhole directly and launch a surprise attack on them for high Negative Energy damage. Starless Charge is so quick that your enemies will find you harder to hit, thus boosting your defense briefly.  Damage: High, Recharge: Moderate

• This power has been replaced with Starless Step.  An extremely quick teleportation power that attacks the foe in the blink of an eye.
• Damage scale 1.64
• Endurance cost from 8.528
• Recharge time 8s
• This power also grants a short-duration Defense(All) buff.
• If you previously had Starless Step you will now have Starless Charge

Shadow Step
Ranged (Location), Self Teleport
You can Teleport long distances. Shadow Step has no recharge time and can be reactivated without pause, as long as you have Endurance. This power can be used while in Dark Nova or Black Dwarf form. However, activating it while in Dark Nova will transform you back into your original form.

• Added a passive Range buff if you have trained Shadow Slip

Extinguish Light (formerly Shadow Slip)
PBAoE High DMG(Negative); Self Teleport, +DEF(All)
You can Teleport to a targeted foe through a dark matter wormhole and launch a barrage of attacks on any foes near the target's location.  This teleports you around the area so quickly that your enemies will find you harder to hit, thus boosting your defense briefly. Training this power unlocks Shadow Slip, allowing you to Teleport yourself long distances. You may not take this power if have trained Blink Blitz, Dive Attack, Spring Attack, or Whirlwind.  Damage: High, Recharge: Slow

• Extinguish Light now occupies the former Shadow Slip power.
• You may not train this power if you have already trained Blink Blitz, Dive Attack, Spring Attack, or Whirlwind.
• Shadow Slip


• Obtaining Extinguish Light now unlocks Shadow Slip.
• Shadow Slip also provides a passive Range buff to the normal teleportation range of Teleport.
• If you previously had Shadow Slip you will now have both Extinguish Light and Shadow Slip powers.

Look for all these and many more features this week on the Public Test Server (PTS) when we unveil the full Rebirth Issue 5 Clockstoppers.

[Trick Arrow Revamp]

Trick Arrow Revamp
The Trick Arrow set has been revamped. Many of its powers have had their effects improved, and new set-internal synergy effects have been added.

Power changes:
- Entangling Arrow: Slow increased from scale 0.1 to scale 0.4 (50% for defenders, 40% others), added scale 2.5 damage debuff (31.25% for defenders, 25% corruptors/controllers, 18.75% masterminds)
- Flash Arrow: Added additional scale 1 tohit debuff (total of scale 1.5, the original 0.5 remaining irresistable - 18.75% for defenders, 15% corruptors/controllers, 11.25% masterminds)
- Glue Arrow: Increased -recharge from 20% to 40%
- Ice Arrow: Slow increased from scale 0.1 to scale 0.4
- Poison Gas Arrow: Added -150% regen, increased duration to 30s to match the set's other persistent location aoes
- Acid Arrow: Increased resistance debuff from scale 2 to scale 3 (30% defender, 22.5% others), increased radius from 8 feet to 10 feet
- Disruption Arrow: Increased resistance debuff from scale 2 to scale 3 (30% defender, 22.5% others), increase target cap to 16
- EMP Arrow: Recovery crash reduced from -10000% to -100%
- The range of all TA powers has been standardized to 80 feet

Synergy effects:
- Flash Arrow: Places 'Dazzled' effect - dazzled enemies have a small accuracy penalty and suffer 20% increased defense and resistance debuffs from Acid Arrow, Disruption Arrow, and Oil Slick Arrow, plus an increased knockdown chance from OSA.
- Glue Arrow: Enemies slowed by Glue Arrow take 20% increased damage from a burning Oil Slick Arrow.
- Acid Arrow: Places 'Acid Burn' effect - acid burned enemies suffer 20% increased -tohit and -regeneration debuffs, slows, and endurance drain from Entangling Arrow, Glue Arrow, Ice Arrow, Poison Gas Arrow, Oil Slick Arrow, and EMP Arrow.
- Disruption Arrow: Enemies suffer reduced mez resistance, increasing mez durations (-40% for defenders, -33% for others). Additionally, Entangling Arrow, Ice Arrow, Poison Gas Arrow, and EMP Arrow gain +1 magnitude to their mezzes against affected targets.

New Force of Will Power Pool

Weaken Resolve - Ranged, Foe -Resist, -Defense, Self +To Hit
Project Will - Ranged, Moderate DMG(Psionic/Smash), Foe Knockdown
Mighty Leap - Toggle: Self Long Jump, (Special)
--- Stomp - PBAoE Melee, Foe Knockdown
Wall of Force - Ranged Cone, Moderate DMG(Psionic/Smash), Foe Knockdown
Unleash Potential - Self, +Regen, +Recovery, +Recharge, +Defense

Power & Archetype tweaks

Peacebringer's and Warshade's Max Hit Points have been increased from 2409 to 3212.  This brings their potential Max Hit Points from Scrapper level up to Brute level.

Peacebringer:
- Conserve Energy has been replaced with Renew Energy.
--- Renew Energy is a Self Endurance Discount, Heal, +Regen.  It functions like Energize.
--- This power can only activated in Human form.

Warshade:
- Gravimetric Snare had its cast time sped up from 1.67s to 1.2s.  This applies to Umbral Assault for Guardians as well.
- Gravitic Emanation had its Recharge Time reduce from 45s to 30s and its Stun Duration was lowered from 9s to 7.2s.

Electric Armor - Surge of Power (Tanker, Scrapper, Stalker, Brute)
- This power no longer has a hard crash.
- It's recharge time was reduced from 1000s to 540s.
- The duration of its effects was reduced from 180s to 90s
- Energy Resistance scale was reduced from 8 to 4.56.
- Negative Energy Resistance scale was reduced from 6 to 3.36.
- All other Resistances scale were reduced from 7 to 4.
- Psionic Resistance was added at scale 3.36 for 90s.

Bug fixes
- Peacebringer Incandescent Strike now can correctly slot Stun enhancements and IO sets
- Warshade Gravimetric Snare can now correctly slot melee IO sets, since it transforms into a melee power in Dwarf form
- Ninja Assault attacks should no longer animate without the katana visible under certain circumstances.

[Power changes]

Trick Arrow is finally getting its long-awaited revamp in Rebirth Issue 4! Trick Arrow has long been overshadowed by other support sets in many ways, but in Rebirth Issue 4, Trick Arrow will finally be getting the love it deserves.

One issue with the set currently is that many of its powers are weaker than similar powers in other sets or are otherwise low-impact, resulting in the set's total contribution simply being weaker than other sets. This is being addressed with a set of improvements to the base capabilities of a variety of the set's powers, to bring Trick Arrow's total support capability up to par with other sets. In particular, Flash Arrow becomes a useful tohit debuff power, helping address the set's lackluster every-spawn mitigation. These changes are detailed below:

Power changes
.
[spoiler]

.	Entangling Arrow: Slow increased from scale 0.1 to scale 0.4 (50% for defenders, 40% others), added scale 2.5 damage debuff (31.25% for defenders, 25% corruptors/controllers, 18.75% for masterminds)
.	Flash Arrow: Added additional scale 1 tohit debuff (total of scale 1.5, the original 0.5 remaining irresistable - 18.75% for defenders, 15% corruptors/controllers, 11.25% masterminds)
.	Glue Arrow: Increased -recharge from 20% to 40%
.	Ice Arrow: Slow increased from scale 0.1 to scale 0.4
.	Poison Gas Arrow: Added -150% regen, duration increased to 30s to match the set's other persistent location aoes
.	Acid Arrow: Resistance debuff increased from scale 2 to scale 3 (30% defender, 22.5% others), radius increased from 8 feet to 10 feet.
.	Disruption Arrow: Resistance debuff increased from scale 2 to scale 3 (30% defender, 22.5% others), target cap increased to 16
.	Oil Slick Arrow: none
.	EMP Arrow: Recovery crash reduced from -10000% to -100%

The range of all Trick Arrow powers has also been standardized to 80 feet.[/spoiler]

Additionally, Trick Arrow suffers from drawbacks that stem from the set's signature property of being entirely enemy-targeted. This is an important distinguishing feature of the set - it's a playstyle-defining property and helps contribute to overall playstyle diversity in the game - and will not be changing. However, because of this, a Trick Arrow character only gets full potential by activating a whole bunch of powers on the enemies, usually at the start of each fight, while sets with buffs and heals can often activate them outside of fights and still gain benefit. This means Trick Arrow puts a bigger burden on the combat animation time budget of its user than most other support sets, meaning they take longer to output a similar amount of support than other sets and have less time to use their other non-support powers.

This property of the set is not going to change, so instead we are making other tweaks to mitigate its downsides. Making Flash Arrow useful is part of this, because its no-aggro nature means it can be used before a fight starts. The main change to address this, however, is adding set-internal synergy between powers. Using two or more Trick Arrow powers in a row now can give bonus effects, making them more than the sum of their parts and ensuring that Trick Arrow users are properly compensated for their investment of animation time. The synergistic effects are as follows:

Synergy effects
.
[spoiler]

.	Flash Arrow: Places 'Dazzled' effect - dazzled enemies have a minor accuracy penalty and suffer 20% increased defense and resistance debuffs from Acid Arrow, Disruption Arrow, and Oil Slick Arrow, plus an increased knockdown chance from OSA.
.	Glue Arrow: Enemies slowed by Glue Arrow take 20% increased damage from a burning Oil Slick Arrow.
.	Acid Arrow: Places 'Acid Burn' effect - acid burned enemies suffer 20% increased -tohit and -regeneration debuffs, slows, and endurance drain from Entangling Arrow, Glue Arrow, Ice Arrow, Poison Gas Arrow, Oil Slick Arrow, and EMP Arrow.
.	Disruption Arrow: Enemies suffer reduced mez resistance, increasing mez durations (-40% for defenders, -33% for everyone else). Additionally, Entangling Arrow, Ice Arrow, Poison Gas Arrow, and EMP Arrow gain +1 magnitude to their mezzes against affected targets.

[/spoiler]

None of the synergy effects stack in any way. The synergies are designed so that every power either gains a synergy from another power or gives one (or both). Synergies also tend to go from offensive powers to defensive powers or vice versa, so that you get the most benefit from mixing both offensive and defensive powers.

These changes will be available on the test server following the weekly server maintenance tonight (June 19th). Go forth and have fun with newly sharper, pointier sticks!

[less than 2 stacks]

I can add a bit more detail on exactly what pressure does.

First, you can actually have 6 stacks of it, not 5. Stacks of pressure do nothing on their own, they exist only to modify the effects of other powers.

On Breathless, in addition to pressure increasing the (negligible) damage, the power has a stronger -dam effect when used with less than 2 stacks. It does inflict -recharge (but not -movement), but it only inflicts +endcost in PvP.

On microburst, it has the -def effect if you have 5 or 6 stacks of pressure. If you've got 6, the -def is slightly stronger than with 5.

Vacuum is complicated. The field lasts 8 seconds plus 2 seconds for each stack of pressure. The field ticks once per second, dealing its damage and applying a weak but long lasting stacking tohit debuff and slow (thus, the longer they are in the area, the more debuff they stack up). All targets in the field take a small amount of extra damage if you have 6 stacks of pressure. If you have at least 5 stacks of pressure (a total duration of at least 18 seconds), an autopower possessed by the field has enough time to tick a second time, applying a second copy of the hold effect. (Just from looking at this it also might be bugged to double-apply the hold on the initial cast for a mag 6 aoe hold, but I'd have to test that.)

Vortex is very complicated. This pet has several things it does. It flies and is immune to smashing, lethal, and psionic damage. It shares your pressure level, but unlike what its description might suggest it does not add or consume pressure itself. All of its powers have a 5% chance to critical for each stack of pressure. It has the following powers:

Blast of Debris: a moderate ST ranged attack with -fly and -jump.

Whirlwind: a permanent PBAoE aura autopower with a 20 foot radius that is simultaneously a damage aura and a 15% tohit debuff. This power doesn't slow targets but is otherwise IMO better than your own wind shear power.

Crash of Thunder: an 80 foot range, 25 foot radius TAoE with minor damage and an 80% chance for a mag 2 stun, with an accuracy bonus and a 10 second recharge - in other words a quite powerful minion level aoe stun with good stacking potential and a short recharge.

Hail of Debris: an 80 foot range 20 foot radius 'rain' style TAoE/DoT attack. The patch persists for 12 seconds, doing moderate DoT over the duration along with a significant slow, -fly, and a 20% resistance debuff - on just a 30 second recharge! This power is quite strong but has the limitation that the pet loses access to it if you have more than 3 stacks of pressure.

IMO vortex is better when you keep pressure dumped, I don't think the extra crit chance makes up for losing access to the powerful hail of debris. I suspect this actually might explain the otherwise pretty useless pressure dumping effects on breathless - IMO that power was probably made a consumer not for itself, but to give you an easily-available way to dump pressure to keep vortex going. It's gonna be hard to enhance this thing, though, given that you want accuracy, damage, stun, *and* -tohit ideally.

My biggest complaint is that the illusion secondary may have too much control in it. I am no expert when it comes to balance, but that can be a bit strong. I would have to see it in action to say for sure.

As for the interface styled buff that you want in Glamour, there may be a buff that helps with that. Martial and Hellfire Assault have a power that gives +toxic damage to each attack. I assume a similar thing can be done for an interface style proc.

I did intentionally design the set to have a lot less control than illusion control, with phantasmagoria being much weaker than spectral terror, hall of mirrors summoning randomly and so not being as reliable as PA, and also the confuse having double recharge and of course not having the holds. So I am trying to avoid that, but for sure you would still definitely want to test it a bunch to make sure it worked out that way in practice.

The existence of martial's special buildup is definitely one of the reasons I'm hopeful this can be done, for sure. If or when I actually get the chance to try to build this set on a local dev environment or whatever that is one of the powers I'll be looking at as an example.

[Illusion Composition]

Illusion Composition is a speculative proposal for an illusion-based Guardian secondary set. There is no pressing thematic hole for this set to fill, but it would still broaden the thematic variety available to the archetype and I believe it would be a mechanically interesting set to play. This set is thematically inspired by Illusion Control but contains several new powers, plus a couple of illusion control powers and self-defense powers mechanically borrowed from ninjitsu. Part of this set's goal is to experiment with the idea of granting interface-style proc effects.

This is a much more speculative proposal than the ones above. Mechanically speaking I don't fully understand how interface procs function, and so some of the things I want to do in this set might not actually be possible. This proposal assumes that powers can grant interface-style procs, which seems reasonable given the existence of the interface powers themselves but isn't guaranteed. Additionally, unlike my proposals above, this set would require new FX work (or, at the least, imaginative enough reworkings of existing FX as to probably amount to the same thing). This would therefore require significantly more work, and may not be feasible with our current level of understanding/capability for working with FX in City of Heroes.

As such, I acknowledge that this set would be much more difficult to implement than the ones above. I am putting this proposal out there partly to get comments, but mostly just for fun.

The power listing for Illusion Composition is as follows:

Code Select Expand

Illusion Composition
1 Misdirection Melee defense toggle
2 Illusion Ward Ticking absorb aura
4 Displacement Ranged/AoE defense toggle
10 Slippery Mind Mez protection toggle
16 Glamour PBAoE ally buff, +res +fear/psi proc
20 Group Invisibility PBAoE click stealth
28 Phantasmagoria Self summon patch, foe -tohit %fear %confuse
35 Deceive Ranged confuse
38 Hall of Mirrors Self buff, grant proc chance to spawn duplicates

Powerset description:
Illusion Composition
You can manipulate light and sound to create bewildering illusions, concealing and protecting yourself and your allies while inflicting fearsome and debilitating confusion on your foes.

[1] Misdirection
Toggle: Self +DEF(Melee), Res(DeBuff DEF)
You create subtle illusions around yourself that mask your movements, causing enemies to mis-aim their attacks. Misdirection effectively grants you Defense versus melee attacks and also allows you to resist Defense DeBuffs as long as it is active. Recharge: Fast

Cast time: 1.53 sec
Endurance cost: 0.208/sec
Recharge time: 4 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Defense
Allowed sets: Defense

Effects:
13.875% Melee defense
+17.3% Defense debuff resistance

(Notes: Mechanically identical to the 'Ninja Reflexes' power from Ninjitsu.)

[2] Illusion Ward
Toggle: PBAoE Team +Absorb over Time
Your illusory power flows over the area around you, subtly warping your enemies' perception of you and your allies' movements and causing incoming attacks to go awry. For as long as Illusion Ward is active, this effectively grants all nearby allies a minor amount of absorption every few seconds as your enemies' attacks do not strike with full force. Recharge: Slow

Cast time: ? sec
Endurance cost: 0.32 end/sec
Recharge time: 10 sec
Area: 20 ft PBAoE
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Healing
Allowed sets: Healing

Effects:
+53.55 Absorb (every 6 seconds)

(Notes: intended as an aura counterpart to the AoE heals/absorbs in other Guardian sets. Applies as much HP as a guardian heal used on a 12 second cycle, accepting reduced output and a smaller radius in exchange for a lower endurance cost.)

[4] Displacement
Toggle: Self +DEF(Ranged, AoE), Res(DeBuff DEF)
You project flickering false images that cause your enemies to perceive you as being somewhere other than your actual location. Displacement effectively grants you Defense versus Ranged and Area of Effect attacks and also allows you to resist Defense DeBuffs as long as it is active. Recharge: Fast

Cast time: 0.83 sec
Endurance cost: 0.208/sec
Recharge time: 4 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Defense
Allowed sets: Defense

Effects:
13.875% Ranged, AOE defense
+17.3% Defense debuff resistance

(Notes: Mechanically similar to the 'Danger Sense' power from Ninjitsu, but missing the perception effects.)

[10] Slippery Mind
Toggle: Self +Res(Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Confuse, Fear), +Perception
Long experience with deception and trickery has made your mind slippery and able to wriggle free of debilitating effects, and your perceptions cannot be fooled by concealment. You gain a resistance to Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilization, Confusion, and Fear effects as long as this power is active, as well as a bonus to your perception and resistance to perception debuffs. Recharge: Fast

Cast time: 0.67 sec
Endurance cost: 0.208/sec
Recharge time: 4 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge
Allowed sets: None

Effects:
10.38 mag protection (Stun, Hold, Sleep, Immob, Confuse, Fear)
+60% Perception
+60% Perception debuff resistance

(Notes: Mechanically, similar to a toggle version of Ninjitsu's Kuji-In Rin, but with the psi resistance replaced by the perception effects that were removed from the ranged/aoe defense toggle.)

[16] Glamour
PBAoE Team +Res(All), +Chance for Fear, +Chance for Minor Damage (Psionic)
You cloak yourself and all nearby allies in a terrifying Glamour, causing you to appear to your enemies as their worst fears. This causes your foes' attacks against any affected allies to be weakened, effectively granting you resistance to damage, and your attacks will have a chance to terrorize your enemies and can cause them to cower in fear briefly or even take minor psionic damage from the shock.

Cast time: ? sec
Endurance cost: 15.6
Recharge time: 180 sec
Area: 25 ft PBAoE
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Resistance, Fear
Allowed sets: Resistance, Fear

Effects:
15% Resistance (All) for 60 seconds
Grant interface-style proc for 60 seconds:
- Mag 3 Terrorize (20% chance, 4 seconds)
- Scale 0.5 Psi damage (20% chance)

(Notes: This is the set's 'staple buff', with good uptime and a mix of defensive and offensive benefits. The values and percentage chances on the procs are highly tentative and should be tested and changed for proper balance.)

[20] Group Invisibility
PBAoE, Team Stealth, +Def(All)
Makes you and all teammates around you Invisible. While Invisible, you and your teammates are almost impossible to detect. Even if discovered, Group Invisibility grants a bonus to your defense to all attacks, though you will lose some of your defense bonus if you attack. Group Invisibility has no movement penalty. Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 2.03 sec
Endurance cost: 10.4
Recharge time: 240 sec
Area: 25 ft
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Defense
Allowed sets: Defense

Effects:
+6000% Stealth for 120s
-1 Threatlevel for 120s
1.875% Defense (all) for 120s (suppresses in combat)

(Notes: This is mechanically identical to the same power in Illusion Control.)

[28] Phantasmagoria
PBAoE, Foe -ToHit, Fear, Confuse
You cloak the area around you in a bewildering array of shifting illusions, hampering your enemies as they struggle to distinguish between true and false. For as long as the illusions last, all enemies in the area will suffer a penalty to their chance to hit as they waste some of their attacks on false images. Additionally, some enemies may become confused by the mirages and accidentally attack their allies, or be temporarily overcome with fear at the horrifying images and briefly cower in terror. Recharge: Slow

Cast time: ? sec
Endurance cost: 14.5
Recharge time: 90 sec
Area: 25 ft
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Tohit Debuff, Fear, Confuse
Allowed sets: Tohit Debuff, Fear, Confuse

Effects:
Location patch summon (self), 30 second duration, 2s activation period
-7.5% Tohit
Mag 3 confuse (15% chance, 4 seconds)
Mag 3 terrorize (15% chance, 4 seconds)

(Notes: This is the set's 'staple mitigation power', with a decent uptime and relatively quick recharge. It is mechanically significantly weaker than Illusion Control's Spectral Terror, with the inability to be summoned at range, a shorter duration and longer recharge, weaker -tohit, and only having a chance to mez instead of a guarantee. The upside is a slightly larger radius and having a chance to confuse as well as terrorize.)

[35] Deceive
Ranged, Foe Confuse
You can Deceive an enemy into believing their friends are not who they appear to be. If successful, the enemy will ignore you and attack their own allies. If you Deceive someone before they have noticed you, your presence will continue to be masked. You will not receive any Experience Points for foes defeated by a Deceived enemy. Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 2 sec
Endurance cost: 8.528
Recharge time: 16 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Range, Confuse, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Confuse

Effects:
23.84s mag 3 confuse (scale 20)

(Notes: This power is mechanically similar to the same power in Illusion Control, with the Overpower effect removed and recharge increased.)

[38] Hall of Mirrors
Self +Chance to summon Decoys: Ranged Minor DMG(Energy/Special)
You imbue your attacks with your illusory power, causing distracting Phantoms to manifest as you smite your foes. While Hall of Mirrors is active your attacks are slightly more accurate and each attack has a chance to create a short-lived illusory Phantom near your targeted foe. These Phantom images are not real and cannot be damaged, but they will distract your enemies and draw their attention. The damage of the Phantoms' attacks is also illusory, and much of it will heal back if the victim survives long enough. Recharge: Very Long

Cast time: ? sec
Endurance cost: 26
Recharge time: 240 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Accuracy, Damage, Tohit Buff
Allowed sets: Pet Damage, Recharge Intensive Pets, Universal Damage, Tohit Buff

Effects:
+7.5% tohit for 60 seconds
Grant self interface-style proc for 60 seconds:
40% chance (non-stacking) to summon a phantom army clone at target per attack. These are identical to PA's clones, but have a lifespan of only 15 seconds.

(Notes: This is a Guardian twist on Illusion Control's signature Phantom Army power. This has the same uptime and recharge, but the key difference here is of course that the clones are summoned by attacking, which IMO fits very well with the archetype's theme of blended damage and support. The intended proc rate is to have an average of two to three clones out at a time, which requires summoning a new clone every 5-7.5 seconds - at a 40% chance per attack, that is a required attack rate of one attack every 2.0 to 3.0 seconds, which is IMO reasonable. The proc should be flagged not to stack so that AoEs do not multiply the proc chances.)

Relative to illusion control, this set intentionally sacrifices alpha strike mitigation. Where illusion can mitigate alphas by summoning phantom army or spectral terror into a spawn, illusion composition cannot, since phantasmagoria is summmoned at self and the clones from hall of mirrors can only be summoned by attacking (and hence aggroing the spawn). Between this lack, the weaker stats on phantasmagoria, and the less reliable summoning on Hall of Mirrors, the set is intended to overall have weaker control mitigation than illusion control, balancing out its other support capabilities.

[Ninja Assault]

Ninja Assault (alternatively, Shinobi Assault) is another proposal for a 'natural' themed primary. This set is based on the Katana/Ninja Blade set with additional ranged attacks, and is specifically intended as a counterpart to the existing Martial Assault set.

In my view, sets can be divided into (among other categories) standard and non-standard types, where 'non-standard' in this case means either a) sets that have a specific set-wide gimmick like a stacks/combo system, or b) that simply have a larger fraction of powers that operate in mechanically unusual ways or are otherwise not 'regular' attacks/controls/support powers/etc for their set type. (Note that many sets have a couple of 'non-standard' powers, what would make a *set* non-standard is if it has significantly more of those than usual.) Martial Assault is an example of a non-standard set, in that 6 out of the 9 powers are non-standard in some way (chain, facing cone, snipe, ranged attack with splash, non-standard buildup, caltrops). The existence of sets like these is not a problem, and in fact many (though by no means all) of the sets released later in the game's lifespan fall into this category. However, it is IMO important to have a variety of both types of sets so as to fit different playstyle preferences; standard sets fill an important playstyle niche, and the game should not only contain non-standard sets any more than it should only contain standard ones.

As such, I think that there should exist a 'standard' natural/ninja themed counterpart to the non-standard Martial Assault, and this is what Ninja Assault is intended to be. This set includes only two non-standard powers, and mostly contains relatively straightforward attacks. This set also fills somewhat of a thematic counterpart niche; where Martial Assault is martial arts plus shurikens, Ninja Assault is katana/ninja blade plus throwing knives, covering the 'other' stereotypical ninja weapon and giving more thematic variety in the available sets. Like Gun Fu, the non-katana attacks in this set are intended to animate with the katana still held in the off-hand, so as to avoid redraw.

The power listing for Ninja Assault is as follows:

Code Select Expand

Ninja Assault (or Shinobi Assault)
1 Flashing Blade T1 ranged attack
1 Gambler's Cut T1 melee attack
2 Steel Wind Ranged cone
6 Soaring Dragon T2 melee attack
8 Scorpion's Sting T2 ranged attack
12 Chi Strike Buildup variant
18 The Lotus Drops PBAoE
26 Caltrops
32 Golden Dragonfly T3 melee attack

Powerset Description:
Ninja Assault
Your mastery of the ways of Ninja Assault allows you to dispatch opponents with lethal grace, cutting down foes with the razor edge of your Ninja Blade and delivering death from afar with throwing knives. Your attacks often carry additional poison damage over time, and can also knock opponents down or reduce their defense.

[1] Flashing Blade
Ranged, Minor DMG (Lethal), DoT(Toxic)
You quickly strike a distant foe with a throwing knife, inflicting minor Lethal damage with a chance of dealing additional Toxic damage over time. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Fast

Cast time: 1.0 sec
Endurance Cost: 5.2
Recharge Time: 4 sec
Range: 80 ft
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Ranged Damage, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
52.83 Lethal damage (scale 1.0)
4 * 5.28 Toxic damage every 1s over 3.1s (after 0.5s delay, 80% chance, cancelonmiss) (4x scale 0.1)

(Notes: Basic ranged attack, similar to martial assault's shuriken throw. The DoT secondary effect scale from shuriken throw is used as a template for DoT secondary effects elsewhere in the set. Uses the 'Throwing Knife' origin power FX and the right-handed-throw-with-katana-in-left-hand animation that power uses when you have a katana drawn.)

[1] Gambler's Cut
Melee, Moderate DMG (Lethal), DoT(Toxic), Foe -Defense
You perform a quick slash with your katana. This attack is very fast and deals moderate damage, with a chance of dealing additional Toxic damage over time. This attack can reduce a target's Defense, making them easier to hit. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Moderate

Cast time: 0.67 sec
Endurance Cost: 6.84
Recharge Time: 6 sec
Range: 7 ft
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Damage, Accuracy, Defense Debuff
Allowed sets: Melee Damage, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
77.07 Lethal damage (scale 1.32)
4 * 2.92 Toxic damage every 1s over 3.1s (after 0.5s delay, 80% chance, cancelonmiss) (4x scale 0.05)
-4.5% Base Defense for 6s (scale 0.6)

(Notes: Standard 6s melee attack based on Katana's Gambler's Cut. Effectively has two 'half strength' secondary effects.)

[2] Steel Wind
Ranged Cone, Moderate DMG (Lethal), DoT(Toxic)
You fling a volley of throwing knives in a single motion, striking all enemies in a cone in front of you. This attack deals moderate Lethal damage, with a chance of dealing additional Toxic damage over time. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 1.33 sec
Endurance Cost: 15.18
Recharge Time: 16 sec
Area: 40 ft / 30 deg cone
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Targeted AoE Damage, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
64.45 Lethal damage (scale 1.22)
4 * 5.28 Toxic damage every 1s over 3.1s (after 0.5s delay, 80% chance, cancelonmiss) (4x scale 0.1)

(Notes: Ranged cone with dot secondary effect. Uses the 'multiple throwing knife' FX from the cone attack that some snake minions have, and uses one of several right handed wave animations such as psi melee's psi blade or broadsword's hack or slash.)

[6] Soaring Dragon
Melee, High DMG (Lethal), DoT(Toxic), Foe -Defense, Knockup
You perform a powerful Soaring Dragon maneuver that deals a great amount of damage, with a chance of dealing additional Toxic damage over time, and can also knock a target up into the air. This attack can reduce a target's Defense, making them easier to hit. Damage: High, Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 1.33 sec
Endurance Cost: 10.192
Recharge Time: 10 sec
Range: 7 ft
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Damage, Accuracy, Defense Debuff
Allowed sets: Melee Damage, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
114.44 Lethal damage (scale 1.96)
4 * 2.92 Toxic damage every 1s over 3.1s (after 0.5s delay, 80% chance, cancelonmiss) (4x scale 0.05)
Knockup (mag 4.15, 75% chance)
-4.5% Base Defense for 10s (scale 0.6)

(Notes: Standard 10s melee attack based on Katana's Soaring Dragon. Effectively has two 'half strength' secondary effects.)

[8] Scorpion's Sting
Ranged, Minor DMG (Lethal), Moderate DoT(Toxic), Foe Slow, -Damage(all), Hold
You take aim and strike a target with a throwing knife coated in a larger amount of debilitating poison. This attack inflicts minor Lethal damage on impact before inflicting moderate Toxic damage over time. The poison additionaly will weaken the target, Slowing their movement and reducing the amount of damage they deal, and may even briefly Hold the target paralyzed and helpless. Damage: High, Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 1.33 sec
Endurance Cost: 10.192
Recharge Time: 10 sec
Range: 80 ft
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Damage, Accuracy, Hold, Slow
Allowed sets: Ranged Damage, Hold, Slow, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
52.83 Lethal damage (scale 1.0)
5 * 11.62 Toxic damage every 1s over 4.1s (after 0.5s delay) (5x scale 0.22)
-24% slow (run/jump/fly) for 15s (scale 0.3)
-11.25% damage for 15s (scale 1.5)
7.45s Hold (mag 3, scale 5, 50% chance)

(Notes: Ranged attack based somewhat on spines' impale. Uses the 'Throwing Knife' origin power FX and probably the broad sword hack animation.)

[12] Chi Strike
Self +DMG, +To Hit, Special
You concentrate your Chi to allow you to channel your soul into your strikes. For a short time you will gain a moderate increase to your damage and chance to hit. Additionally, for this period your sword and knife attacks will have a portion of their Lethal damage changed into Energy damage, with a small amount of additional bonus Energy damage added. Recharge: Long

Cast time: 0.73 sec
Endurance Cost: 5.2
Recharge Time: 90 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Tohit Buff
Allowed sets: Tohit Buff

Effects:
+8.5% ToHit for 20s
+34% Dmg (All Types) for 20s
Special: For 20s, converts 50% of lethal damage on the set's other attacks to energy, with a 5% bonus (i.e. 50% lethal, 55% energy, 105% damage total). Uses the same mechanics as fiery embrace.

(Notes: Modified buildup. Half strength, double duration, with special effect.)

[18] The Lotus Drops
Melee (PBAoE), Moderate DMG (Lethal), DoT(Toxic), Foe -Defense
You perform The Lotus Drops maneuver, attacking all foes in melee range. This attack has a chance of dealing additional Toxic damage over time and reduces their Defense. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 1.83 sec
Endurance Cost: 18.152
Recharge Time: 20 sec
Area: 15 ft radius
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Damage, Accuracy, Defense Debuff
Allowed sets: PBAoE Damage, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
64.229 Lethal damage (scale 1.1)
4 * 2.92 Toxic damage every 1s over 3.1s (after 0.5s delay, 80% chance, cancelonmiss) (4x scale 0.05)
-4.5% Base Defense for 10s (scale 0.6)

(Notes: Standard assault set PBAoE, based on katana's The Lotus Drops. Effectively has two 'half strength' secondary effects.)

[26] Caltrops
Ranged (Location AoE), Minor DoT(Lethal), Foe -Speed
You toss a handful of Caltrops at a targeted location and spread the tiny metal spikes over a large area. Any enemy that passes over the Caltrops will be forced to move at a slower rate. They will also take some trivial Lethal damage over time. Damage: Minor(DoT), Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 1.07 sec
Endurance cost: 7.8
Recharge time: 45 sec
Range: 25 ft (summon range)
Area: 15 ft (effect radius)
Allowed slotting: Slow, Endredux, Range, Recharge, Damage
Allowed sets: TAoE Damage, Slow, Universal Damage

Effects:
Summon Caltrops (2.78 lethal damage/sec, -80% runspeed, -3.5% max runspeed, -50000% jumpheight, mag 50 avoid)

(Notes: Carbon copy of standard caltrops power.)

[32] Golden Dragonfly
Melee, Extreme DMG (Lethal), Foe Knockdown, -Defense
You perform a devastating Golden Dragonfly attack that deals a massive amount of damage, has a chance of dealing additional Toxic damage over time, and can even knock a foe down to the ground and reduce it's Defense. The power of this attack can actually extend a short distance through multiple foes. Damage: Extreme, Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 1.83 sec
Endurance Cost: 13.52
Recharge Time: 14 sec
Area: 8 ft / 35deg melee cone
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Damage, Accuracy, Defense Debuff
Allowed sets: PBAoE Damage, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
151.81 Lethal damage (scale 2.6)
4 * 2.92 Toxic damage every 1s over 3.1s (after 0.5s delay, 80% chance, cancelonmiss) (4x scale 0.05)
Knockback (mag 0.67, 60% chance)
-4.5% Base Defense for 10s (scale 0.6)

(Notes: Slightly modified version of katana's golden dragonfly. Effectively has two 'half strength' secondary effects.)

[Military Assault]

Military Assault is another proposal for giving guardians more 'natural' themed powersets, a primary this time. Unlike secondaries there are a few primaries for this already (Gun Fu, Martial Assault, and Mace Assault), but more thematic variety is desirable, especially given the fairly specific theming of those sets. This set draws from a mix of the Arachnos Soldier primary set, Street Justice, and Assault Rifle, for a brutal mercenary or military style combat theme. This set is slightly tilted towards ranged attacks but still contains a good mix. Like Gun Fu, the melee attacks in this set are intended to animate with the rifle still held in hand, so as to avoid redraw.

The power listing for Military Assault is as follows:

Code Select Expand

Military Assault
1 Single Shot T1 ranged attack
1 Pummel T1 melee attack
2 Burst T2 ranged attack
6 Heavy Burst Ranged Cone
8 Build Up
12 Shin Breaker T2 melee attack
18 Spinning Strike Melee AoE
26 Sniper Round Snipe
32 Incendiary Round T3 ranged attack

Powerset description:
Military Assault
Your mastery of Military Assault allows you to destroy your enemies with brutal precision. Blast your foes with powerful attacks from your military grade Assault Rifle and pummel them with brutal close quarters combat techniques. Your attacks can also inflict a variety of debilitating effects on your foes, including stunning them, reducing their defense, knocking them down, or slowing their movement.

[1] Single Shot
Ranged, Minor DMG(Lethal), Foe -DEF
A quick single shot from your Assault Rifle. Quite accurate and can also reduce the target's defense. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Fast

Cast time: 0.9 sec
Endurance Cost: 5.2
Recharge Time: 4 sec
Range: 80 ft
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Range, Recharge, Def Debuff, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Ranged Damage, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
52.83 Lethal damage (scale 1)
-7.5% Base Defense for 5s (scale 1)

(Notes: This is a carbon copy of the Single Shot power from the Arachnos Soldier primary set)

[1] Pummel
Melee, Moderate DMG(Smash), Foe Stun
You can smash your opponents in close combat with the butt of your Assault Rifle to deal moderate smashing damage. Pummel has a high chance to disorient your foe for a brief time. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Fast

Cast time: 1.67 sec
Endurance Cost: 6.86
Recharge Time: 6 sec
Range: 7 ft
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Stun, Recharge, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Melee Damage, Stun, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
77.08 Smashing damage (scale 1.32)
7.152 sec Stunned (mag 3, scale 6, 66% chance)

(Notes: This is a modified version of the Pummel power from the Arachnos Soldier primary set)

[2] Burst
Ranged, Moderate DMG(Lethal), Foe -DEF
Quickly fires a Burst of rounds at a single target at long range. Damage is average, but the fire rate is fast. Can also reduce the target's defense. Damage: Moderate(DoT), Recharge: Fast

Cast time: 1 sec
Endurance Cost: 8.528
Recharge Time: 8 sec
Range: 80 ft
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Range, Recharge, Defense Debuff, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Ranged Damage, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
3 * 28.90 Lethal damage every 0.3s over 0.7s (3x scale 0.547, scale 1.641 total)
-7.5% Base Defense for 8s (scale 1)

(Notes: This is a carbon copy of the Burst power from the Arachnos Soldier primary set)

[6] Heavy Burst
Ranged Cone, Moderate DMG(Lethal), Foe -DEF
Fires a Heavy Burst of rounds at foes in a long cone in front of the user. Can also reduce the targets' defense. Damage: Moderate(DoT) Recharge: Medium

Cast time: 2.67 sec
Endurance Cost: 11.858
Recharge Time: 12 sec
Area: 50 ft / 30 deg cone
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Range, Recharge, Defense Debuff, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Targeted AoE Damage, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
7 * 8.24 Lethal damage every 0.3s over 2s (7x scale 0.156, scale 1.092 total)
-7.5% Base Defense for 12s (scale 1)

(Notes: This is a carbon copy of the Heavy Burst power from the Arachnos Soldier primary set)

[8] Build up
Self +DMG, +To Hit
Greatly increases the amount of damage you deal for a few seconds, as well as slightly increasing your chance to hit. Recharge: Long

Cast time: 0.73 sec
Endurance Cost: 5.2
Recharge Time: 90 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Tohit Buff
Allowed sets: Tohit Buff

Effects:
+17% ToHit for 20s
+68% Dmg (All Types) for 10s

(Notes: Standard buildup)

[12] Shin Breaker
Melee, Superior DMG (Smash), Foe -Speed, -Defense
You execute a quick but powerful kick targeting your foe's leg in an attempt to cripple their movement. Shin Breaker deals Superior Smashing damage and moderately reduces your target's movement speed and defense for a short time. Damage: Superior, Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 1.33 sec
Endurance Cost: 8.528
Recharge Time: 8 sec
Range: 7 ft
Allowed slotting: Slow, Endredux, Recharge, Defense Debuff, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Melee Damage, Slow, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
95.76 Smashing damage (scale 1.64)
-40% SpeedRunning, SpeedJumping, Jumpheight for 8s (scale 0.5)
-1.6 Fly for 8s
-7.5% Base Defense for 10s (scale 1)

(Notes: This is very similar to the Shin Breaker power from the Street Justice set, with stacks effects removed.)

[18] Spinning Strike
Melee (Targeted AoE), Heavy DMG (Smash), Foe Knockdown
You execute a spinning attack that first strikes with your fist and finally your heel hitting your foe and all enemies immediately nearby. Spinning Strike deals Heavy Smashing damage and has a high chance to knockdown foes. Damage: High, Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 1.8 sec
Endurance Cost: 20.176
Recharge Time: 22 sec
Area: 7 ft range / 10 ft radius TAoE
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Knockback, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Targeted AoE Damage, Knockback, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
90.62 Smashing damage (scale 1.54)
0.67 Knockback (65% Chance)

(Notes: This is very similar to the Spinning Strike power from the Street Justice set. It has had the stacks effects removed, and the radius, endurance cost, and recharge increased as is common for melee AoEs in assault sets.)

[26] Sniper Round
Sniper, Extreme DMG(Lethal), Foe Knockback
You load and fire a high-velocity Sniper Round from your Assault rifle. This round is very accurate and has a very long range, and deals Extreme Lethal damage and can knock down its target. Like most sniper attacks, you must take your time to aim, so this attack can be interrupted. If you have more than 97% To-Hit, this attack becomes instant-cast. Damage: Extreme, Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 6.37 sec
Endurance Cost: 18.51
Recharge Time: 20 sec
Range: 150 ft
Allowed slotting: Interrupt, Endredux, Range, Recharge, Knockback, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Sniper, Ranged Damage, Knockback, Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
188.07 Lethal damage (scale 3.56)
1.163 Knockback (scale 0.7, 50% chance)

(Notes: This is a standard assault set snipe power, based on Sniper Rifle from the Assault Rifle set.)

[32] Incendiary Round
Ranged, High DMG (Lethal/Fire), Minor Splash DMG (Fire DoT)
You load and fire a blazing Incendiary Round from your Assault Rifle, dealing High Lethal and Fire damage to your target. The burst of white-hot shrapnel can also set ablaze all foes in a small area around the target, causing them to take Minor Fire damage over time. Damage: High, Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 1.67 sec
Endurance Cost:  11.856
Recharge Time: 12 sec
Area: 80 ft / 6 ft TAoE
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Range, Recharge, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Ranged Damage (NOT TAoE, precedent Martial Assault's Exploding Shuriken), Universal Damage, Archetype Origin

Effects:
69.74 Lethal damage (single target only) (scale 1.32)
33.81 Fire damage (single target only) (scale 0.64)
5 * 5.28 Fire damage every 1s over 4.125s (after 0.5s delay) (5x scale 0.1)

(Notes: This power should use the animation from Assault Rifle's Slug power, and the 'yellowy tracer streak + fire hit' FX from the fire DoT attack that some council rifle minions have. Secondary effect DoT is balanced based on the DoT from blazing arrow and standard aoe factors.)

[Infiltrator Training]

Because I am an inveterate systems tinkerer and designer, I fiddle around with powersets and balance and the like basically all the time. Rampant overanalysis is just what my brain does. And since we're private server now and we could totally make our own powersets, well, my brain has a bunch of ideas for powersets it wants to mess with, especially with the impending release of guardians giving a whole new place for new sets. For now I don't have the ability to actually develop these (I hope to remedy that this summer), so for now I just want to put these sets out there for comment.

I have four sets I'm going to put in the initial set of comments here, all of them guardian sets. The first will be listed below in this post, and the others in subsequent posts. If you have any comments or feedback, please do give it!

Sets:
Infiltrator Training (guardian secondary - this post)
Military Assault (guardian primary)
Ninja Assault (guardian primary)
Illusion Composition (guardian secondary)




Infiltrator Training is a set proposed to help fill the gap in terms of the lack of good 'natural' secondary sets for guardians, in the sense of 'a set that could easily be justified for a standard non-powered human without comicbook-level supertech'. The set is a combination of Ninjitsu and Traps, with a focus on using the less obtrusive and bulky gadgets, in other words not the ones that are mobile, persistent, and targetable. It is also intentionally designed as an 'enemy only' set, in the sense that it has no powers that affect allies, following in the pattern of sets like Trick Arrow. Note that, as that example shows, one can still 'do support' without ally-affecting powers; debuffing and hampering enemies can benefit the team as much as healing or buffing teammates can. This allows for further broadening of the playstyles available to the archetype.

The power listing for Infiltrator Training is as follows:

Code Select Expand

Infiltrator Training
1 Combat Reflexes Melee defense toggle
2 Web Grenade Ranged immobilize
4 Danger Sense Ranged/AoE defense toggle
10 Trained Mind Mez protection toggle
16 Poison Trap Hold/-regen trap
20 Intrusion Stealth toggle with +regen
28 Seeker Drones Ranged debuff trap
35 Blinding Powder Debuff/mez cone
38 Shredder Mine Damage/debuff trap

Powerset description:
Infiltrator Training
You have superb training as an Infiltrator. Your intrusion skills allow you to deftly evade attacks and move behind enemy lines unseen, while your weapons training gives you mastery of a variety of debilitating tools and gadgets to wreak havoc on your unsuspecting foes.

[1] Combat Reflexes
Toggle: Self +DEF(Melee), Res(DeBuff DEF)
Activating your Combat Reflexes enables you to be more evasive to melee attacks. This will increase your Defense versus melee as long as it is active. Combat Reflexes also grants you resistance to Defense DeBuffs. Recharge: Fast

Cast time: 1.53 sec
Endurance cost: 0.208/sec
Recharge time: 4 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Defense
Allowed sets: Defense

Effects:
13.875% Melee defense
+17.3% Defense debuff resistance

(Notes: This power is mechanically identical to the 'Ninja Reflexes' power from Ninjitsu.)

[2] Web Grenade
Ranged Target, Immobilize, -Recharge, -Fly
Upon impact, the Web Grenade expels a strong, tenuous, and very sticky substance that can Immobilize most targets. This non-lethal device deals no damage and does not prevent targets from attacking, although their attack rate is Slowed. The Web can bring down flying entities and halts jumping. Recharge: Slow.

Cast time: 1.37 sec
Endurance cost: 7.8
Recharge time: 4 sec
Range: 70 ft
Allowed slotting: Accuracy, Endredux, Recharge, Immobilize, Slow, Range
Allowed sets: Immobilize

Effects
17.9 sec immobilize (mag 3)
-100 KU, KB for 15 sec
-10000% KU, KB for 15 sec
-50% runspeed, flyspeed, recharge for 15 sec
-50000% jumpheight for 15 sec
-10 fly, for 15 sec

(Notes: This power is identical to the version from Traps.)

[4] Danger Sense
Toggle: Self +DEF(Ranged, AoE), +Perception, Res(DeBuff DEF)
You become more evasive against ranged and area attacks while you have Danger Sense activated. This will increase your Defense versus ranged and Area of Effect attacks as long as it is active. Your Danger Sense also allows you to perceive stealthy foes and resist Defense DeBuffs. Recharge: Fast

Cast time: 0.83 sec
Endurance cost: 0.208/sec
Recharge time: 4 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Defense
Allowed sets: Defense

Effects:
13.875% Ranged, AOE defense
+17.3% Defense debuff resistance
+60% Perception
+60% Perception debuff resistance

(Notes: This power is identical to the version from Ninjitsu.)

[10] Trained Mind
Toggle: Self +Res(Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilize, Confuse, Fear, Psionics)
Your intense training in mental discipline allows you to keep your head in dangerous situations. You gain a resistance to Disorient, Hold, Sleep, Immobilization, Confusion, and Fear effects, as well as resistance to Psionic damage as long as this power is active. Recharge: Fast

Cast time: 0.73 sec
Endurance cost: 0.208/sec
Recharge time: 4 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Resistance
Allowed sets: None

Effects:
10.38 mag protection (Stun, Hold, Sleep, Immob, Confuse, Fear)
22.5% Psionic resistance

(Notes: This power is based on the Kuji-In Rin power from Ninjitsu, converted into a toggle because there are too many clicks in this set already. In implementation it could use the animation from Willpower's Indomitable Will, since the original animation doesn't really fit the set.)

[16] Poison Trap
Place Trap: PBAoE Foe Choke, Vomit, -Regen, -Recharge
You can place a Poison Gas Trap on the ground. Any foes that pass near the Poison Trap will cause it to detonate and release its toxic vapors. The poison is a very noxious gas, and any foes in the affected area may start to choke or even vomit. Affected Foes Regeneration rate and attack rate will be reduced as well. The trap is almost impossible to detect, but it is fragile and may be set off by an enemy's explosion. Even if destroyed, the Trap will detonate. Recharge: Long

Cast time: 2.77 sec
Endurance cost: 13.0
Recharge time: 90 sec
Area: ?? ft sphere (effect radius - whatever the original has)
Allowed slotting: Hold, Slow, Endredux, Recharge
Allowed sets: Hold

Effects:
5.96 sec Hold (mag 3)
-1000% Regeneration for 30 sec
-30% Recharge for 30 sec

(Notes: This power is identical to the version from Traps.)

[20] Intrusion
Toggle: Self Stealth, +DEF(All), +Regen, +Run Speed, +Jump
Your infiltrator training enables you to move quickly without being spotted and recover quickly from injury. You will only be seen at very close range or if you attack, though even if discovered you will retain a Defense bonus to all attacks and a bonus to your Regeneration. Unlike some stealth powers, Intrusion has no movement penalty, and in fact slightly increases your running and jumping speed while active. Intrusion's stealth will not work with any other form of Concealment powers. Recharge: Slow

Cast time: 0.73 sec
Endurance cost: 0.208/sec
Recharge time: 20 sec
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Defense, Heal, Run, Jump
Allowed sets: Defense, Healing, Run, Jump, Universal Travel

Effects:
+35 foot Stealth
1.88% Defense (Melee, Ranged, AoE, all types but psi)
+125% Regeneration
+25% Runspeed
+60% Jumpspeed, Jumpheight

(Notes: This power is mechanically similar to some existing partial stealth powers, with a few extra effects. Visually it could use the hide animation and FX, with less complete transparency.)

[28] Seeker Drones
Summon Seekers: Ranged Disorient, -DMG, -ACC, -Perception, Low DMG(Energy)
You create two Seeker Drones. These Seeker Drones will follow you until they detect an enemy and then they will zero in on their targets and detonate on impact. The small explosive flash of energy does only minor damage, but the concussion can weaken foes. Affected targets will have reduced Damage, Accuracy and Perception and may even be Disoriented for a short while. You can only ever have Two Seeker Drones out at one time and they can be destroyed by your foes. Recharge: Long

Cast time: 2.03 sec
Endurance cost: 15.6
Recharge time: 90 sec
Range: 60 ft (summon range)
Area: 15 ft sphere (detonation radius)
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Range, Stun, Recharge, Tohit Debuff, Damage, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Ranged Damage, Stun, Tohit Debuff, Accurate Tohit Debuff, Universal Damage (+ATO if/when they exist)

Effects (per seeker):
13.9 Energy damage
8.94 sec Stun (mag 2, 25% chance)
-5% Tohit debuff for 40 sec
-20% Damage debuff for 40 sec
-90% Perception for 40 sec

(Notes: This power is identical to the version from Traps.)

[35] Blinding Powder
Ranged (Cone), Foe -To Hit, Sleep, Confuse, -Perception
You throw a handful of Blinding powder in a wide arc at your foes. Most foes will be blinded, and unable to see. Some affected targets may be overcome by the powder that they may start attacking their own allies. If you attack the blinded foes, they will be alerted to your presence, but will continue to suffer a penalty to their chance to hit. Recharge: Very Long

Cast time: 1.07 sec
Endurance cost: 7.8
Recharge time: 120 sec
Range: 30 ft
Area: 50 degree cone
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Tohit Debuff, Confuse, Accuracy
Allowed sets: Confuse, Tohit Debuff, Accurate Tohit Debuff

Effects:
11.92 sec Sleep (mag 2)
-7.5% Tohit debuff for 15 sec
23.84 sec Confuse (mag 2, 50% chance)
-90% Perception for 20 sec

(Notes: This power is almost identical to the version from Ninjitsu, with a slightly increased area of effect to fit with the archetype's wider range of positioning options.)

[38] Shredder Mine
Place Mine: PBAoE, Superior DAM(Lethal/Fire), Foe Knockdown, -Res, -DEF
You can place a Shredder Mine on the ground which will explode if any foes pass near it. The blast of armor-piercing shrapnel inflicts moderate Lethal damage on nearby foes and briefly reduces their defense and resistance to damage; foes nearer to the center of the explosion will also take moderate fire damage and may be knocked down. The Shredder Mine is almost impossible to detect, but it is fragile and may be detonated early by an enemy's explosion. Setting a mine is delicate work and can be interrupted, but if you are unseen due to Intrusion's stealth you can plant the mine more quickly and without risk of failure. Damage: Superior, Recharge: Long

Cast time: 5.0 sec (4.0 sec interrupt, redirects to Poison Trap's 2.77s non-interruptable animation if stealthed with Intrusion)
Endurance cost: 19.0
Recharge time: 60 sec
Area: 15 ft sphere (explosion radius)
Allowed slotting: Endredux, Recharge, Knockback, Damage, Accuracy, Defense Debuff
Allowed sets: PBAoE Damage, Knockback, Defense Debuff, Accurate Defense Debuff, Universal Damage (+ATO if/when they exist)

Effects:
83.42 Lethal damage
83.42 Fire damage (10 foot radius)
-20% Defense Debuff (all) for 20 sec
-20% Resistance Debuff (all) for 20 sec
Knockback (mag 0.67, 50% chance, 10 foot radius)

(This power is a mutation of Trip Mine intended to turn it into a hybrid support+damage power. Relative to trip mine (corruptor/mastermind version as the closest comparison) it does 15% less damage overall, with a slightly wider outer radius but half the damage (and the knockdown) restricted to a smaller inner radius (roughly the innermost half of the area). It also has three times the recharge and a higher endurance cost, but in exchange gains its (somewhat smaller than usual) defense and resistance debuffs. The special animation redirect is intended to make it a quicker and more effective opening move, since this set likely will be tossing out at least two traps each spawn.)

One reason why I feel some sets are disappointing while others feel powerful may be how Guardians were designed. I think they were mostly focused on trying to not outshine the original sets and not enough focus was put into comparing them with each other.

Overall I agree. I do think that both considerations are important, the sets *shouldn't* outshine their parents and it's good that this is a design rule. But they do need to be reasonably balanced compared to each other as well, and while honestly the archetype as a whole has fewer problems in this regard than I might have been worried about at first glance, I think Fiery Composition definitely is an example.

Regarding power replacements, the set actually did have Burn in its original version a year ago, that got replaced by Reforge in the current version of the set. I actually don't think just giving it Burn would be the fix, though. Partially this risks running afoul of the 'don't obsolete the parent sets' thing, because Burn is one of the last significant things Fire Armor has that this set doesn't. But also partially I don't think Burn would be enough, it's ultimately just a decent PBAOE attack, but I think the problems with the set extend beyond just 'not enough offense' to also include 'not enough support' and also 'not enough defense'. I thoroughly do agree that this is the time to contemplate changes, though, since the cottage rule indeed doesn't apply yet at this point.

Anyway, on to the giant huge long wall of text second part of my overall guardian feedback!




Having continued playtesting, I have more feedback on various guardian ~things~ and sets and animations and stuff.

First, as I noted on discord, the more I test various guardian secondaries, the more I feel that Fiery Composition really is underperforming. It is consistently far less survivable than every other secondary I've tested (which is all of them except reconstructive, because tbh I don't understand or have any real interest in that set) and honestly does not feel significantly ahead of most of them in terms of offense.

One way of looking at this, I think, is to note that a full third of the set doesn't significantly contribute in normal play, either because of being a naff power (temperature protection) or just highly situational (power of the phoenix, heat exhaustion). None of these powers are a problem by themselves, but when you put them all together it adds up. Meanwhile, other sets like organic (or, honestly, *most* of them) have every single power doing something pretty useful most of the time. Even if the remaining powers *were* as good as the best from other sets, this would still leave the set worse off. And when you look at the remaining powers, you've got three self-only powers (shields, consume), which are alright but not the important part, and three team powers which just don't cut the mustard by themselves. Reforge is a not-very-strong buff on only a 60% uptime after slotting, melt armor is as previously noted probably the worst -resistance power available to guardians, and soothing flames is a standard heal but not enough to carry the set. Ultimately the set just doesn't have the tools to keep up.

Fiery is pretty clearly the squishiest of all of the secondaries both in a personal and team sense, having only moderate resistances and no special tricks for the guardian and just one relatively weak heal for the team. A set like that ought to be top of the heap by a good margin for offense, but it is IMO not only pretty clearly *not* top of the heap, honestly it doesn't even feel better at offense at *all* compared to many of the sets. Energy blows it out of the water, atmospheric/ice have a *stronger* -res debuff that is available twice as often and brings mitigation to boot, temporal also has a better debuff and adds recharge, radiation has its debuff as a toggle up as often as it needs it and then adds both recharge and damage in AM and even has an AoE attack too, and even pain has a bigger radius on its debuff and a better uptime on its offense buff to partially offset the smaller numbers. For offense the only sets I'd put fire *clearly* ahead of are dark, organic, reconstructive, and stone, or in other words it's middle of the pack at best. That isn't where the hands-down-squishiest set should rank.

One of the reasons that I'd advocate for both the decreased recharge on the heal and the replacement for Power of the Phoenix is that, while the set being a bit squishy does make sense, I don't think fiery necessarily has to be quite *this* squishy. Fire armor is squishy, sure, but even it isn't *this* fragile, and thermal is a relatively evenly balanced support set between defense and offense. As such I think there's room to make the set slightly less frail while still remaining within the envelope defined by its parents, and this also means any improvements to the set's offense don't need to be quite as drastic as they'd have to be otherwise. This is also why Phoenix Renewal being a multifunction offensive and defensive 'nuke' would be IMO a good thing. And by this point I imagine I'm probably annoying you with how much I've been going on about this, so I'll stop now. ^^

(Also, as an aside, why does consume have to be this bad compared to power sink etc? It's got a larger radius and less upfront end cost, which aren't very important because it only takes a few targets for either power to give a full bar anyway, and pays for it by not being autohit *and* giving less end per target (even counting the trivial recovery) *and* having triple the recharge? Seems a bit much. Maybe make the recovery bit last as long as the debuff resistance? Or just drop the recharge to 2 minutes instead of three? And this question applies to the regular version of the power too honestly.)

Exploring the various other secondaries, my previous thoughts on endurance usage are a bit modified, mostly because a few of the other secondaries ended up being even more endurance heavy than I expected just from looking at their power lists. Notably, Ice has a *gigantic* total toggle cost, and while heat loss is great it's got a long downtime so it spends a lot of time running dry. And while Radiation has AM, it also has Enervating Field and that is just a great big 'no endurance for you' button. Dark isn't bad if you don't use Cloak of Fear, which is alright with me because I wouldn't touch that power with a 10 foot pole, but if you're one of those silly weird people who likes it then you're also gonna have a fun time with that endurance bar. And as expected stone is almost as bad as temporal. So in other words the problem, if there is one, extends to more sets than just temporal.

I'm *still* not sure if this is a bad thing or not. I think it's probably intended that endurance is a limiting factor, and in the abstract I think I'm ok with that. The thing that worries me though is still how some sets really don't have the tools to deal with it nearly as well as others, which makes me worry about imbalance between the sets in the AT. It also makes me worry a bit what happens when you IO and/or incarnate enough to remove that constraint. I mean, yeah, IOs and incarnate stuff are meant to be powerful, but I have a feeling they'll make an even bigger difference on guardians than on most ATs. Removing the endurance leash from Temporal at endgame would be a big boost to that set, for example. Again I'm still undecided what I really think about this whole issue, but I'd be a lot less conflicted if it were at least more uniform across the AT.

On the level of individual sets, I have a few other comments in addition to my general ones above. First, Stone and Ice need power order changes, both for the same reason - it's ridiculous to make them wait until level 28 for their E/N shield. For ice, I'd simply switch Glacial Armor and Arctic Fog - 20 is still a bit late for the last major shield, but a lot better than 28 and it's a simple change. For Stone, I'd rearrange a bit more - I would move Quicksand to level 4, Crystalline Armor to level 16, and put Stone Skin at level 28. This gives a bit more support capability early on, especially as that's when the -def of quicksand is most useful, gets the E/N shield in at a good time, and leaves the much less important minor resistance auto as a later choice. Both of these are already quite late blooming sets with their best two powers coming last, so *also* having to wait until level 28 just to finish out their basic self protection is especially grating.

I was thrown for quite a loop when I saw that Stone's version of quicksand has a 90 second recharge. That seems rather extreme to me, I don't think stone is a top tier secondary to start with and quicksand in particular is a good power but does not seem to warrant tripling its recharge. Quicksand is a 'sauce' sort of power IMO, it's a good power to make everything else you do a bit better, but is not actually *that* strong of a power in the long run. It's an aoe slow and -def, it's helpful but it doesn't actually bring any direct mitigation or killspeed increase. And making it such a long recharge hurts the power particularly when it is most helpful - at low levels, where the -def is actually quite useful but when it's harder to get a good amount of +rech in it. Having it available more often wouldn't really increase the performance of the set at high levels, as the power will end up available more or less whenever you need it at those levels anyway and having it stacked isn't really adding much, so I would prefer shortening the recharge to make it more useful at low levels, perhaps to 45-60s. This is especially relevant with my suggestion to move it to level 4, because having it on a reasonably short recharge at a low level would give the set much more useful support capability early on (which is a thing that many guardian sets are lacking in IMO) when the set is otherwise very late blooming.

Energy composition is still very top tier, I would have to get more experience with it in a team setting but I could see it being perhaps a little bit too strong. It's basically kinetics with self protection, which is really quite good. It is very endurance heavy for sure, but transference really steps up to the plate there as long as you don't miss or mess it up, plus energize helping as well. If it's 'too good' one possibility might be to shave a few off the target cap for fulcrum. It does a 40% boost from self plus 20% from each target with a current cap of 10, so 240% maximum. If it had a cap of, say, 7 instead, that'd be a max of 180%. This would also be a 'rein in the extremes' sort of nerf rather than an across the board nerf, which I tend to like better.

On the topic of energy, inertial siphon is also honestly *too* much movement increase IMO. If you get a capped hit (which you of course are always trying to do, for the recharge) it's more movement increase than having both siphon speed and speed boost on you at the same time. It makes trying to control your character honestly kinda obnoxious and not fun, especially on uneven terrain where you suddenly find yourself shooting off at 9999999 mph because the game decided you were in the air for an instant. It's worse than speed boost. I'd personally do the 'frontloaded buff' thing here that many other buffs do. Assuming it operates by summoning a stacking pseudopet at self for each target hit that applies the buff, I'd make a copy of the pet with no recharge buff but twice as much movement increase and have it summon that once non-stacking, and then cut the movement increase on the stacking pseudopet by a factor of 3. That would mean you'd have a larger movement buff if you hit only 1 or 2 targets, the same if you hit 3, and less if you hit more, keeping things more controllable.

For the other sets in general, Dark is solid and also IMO slightly boring. I don't think it needs my proposed modification to howling twilight in a balance sense (which is fine because it's not as big of a difference as fire's), but it'd be a fun power to play with. Atmospheric and Radiation kinda both feel like 'baseline' sets to me, solid and with a good variety of tools. They've each got staple mitigation, a few different options for additional mitigation or utility or team buffs, and the ability to ramp it up and go all out in extreme situations. Ice feels... erratic. It's like atmospheric that swaps some of its more staple powers for more situational or longer recharge ones, and as mentioned it's got major endurance issues. It still functions, I just don't care for the design as much. Pain is deceptively good, mostly because of the regneration aura I think. Its direct mitigation feels a bit weak up-front, but the aura adds up to a surprising amount of health over time. I don't think it's too strong or anything, just that it might look weak at first glance but isn't. Stone is definitely a bit of an oddball with the short recharge aoe 'heal' being an absorb instead, it demands playing differently but I think it can definitely work and it's got a good amount of mitigation. And its 'nuke' t9 is actually pretty fun, it's kinda like what I was envisioning for fiery, though stone's is actually even stronger so maybe I was a bit conservative in the numbers on mine, though better to start low and adjust up if needed rather than the other way around. (Regarding the nuke, the fact that the DoT lasts so much longer than the fire FX is a bit disconcerting, it feels weird. I'd personally make the FX last longer or the DoT happen quicker so they're the same duration, having them still be taking damage after the fire vanishes just feels off.)

I don't have as many comments on primaries, but still a few. For starters, there's still a couple of attacks with bad DPA that imo need looking at. For Earth Assault, Stone Spears moving to a 6s attack helps its DPA a lot. It's still mediocre, but it's not as terrible and the 80% knockup is nice. I still think hurl boulder should move to a 10s attack as well, though. It's currently the same DPA as stone spears with a longer animation and a much less useful secondary effect, and given the entire set only has two ranged attacks of any sort I feel they ought to be at least half decent. (I still wouldn't take it even then because I hate the animation, but it would be an easier sell.) Meanwhile, Mace Assault still has an even worse problem in Mace Beam, which is afaik the lowest DPA (single target) attack available to the entire archetype by a significant margin. Making it a 6s recharge attack wouldn't be as good of a solution here since the set then wouldn't have a 4s attack at all. I personally might just give it a 'free' energy DoT secondary effect, noting it would *still* be fairly mediocre even if it had a full 6s recharge attack's damage for free. One of those 80%/4x scale 0.15/cancelonmiss DoTs would raise its average damage to scale 1.35 and its DPA to 35.6, which is still poor but not quite as abysmal. (It'd then be the same DPA as stone spears, i.e. still poor, and imo the shorter recharge would balance out not having stone spears' pretty good secondary effect. Neither of them would really be *good* attacks still, but more passable.)

I still despise Dark Assault, mostly because of how obnoxious Night Fall's super narrow cone is to use. I would note that the guardian version of the set doesn't have to worry about an aoe immob competing with a control primary so having tentacles wouldn't be an automatic no-no... Really though this is more personal preference, similar to how I dislike Gun Fu because it IMO chose the dual pistols attacks with the most annoying animations. On the topic of pure aesthetic preference in animations, I'd personally prefer if Bitter Freeze Ray swapped its animation for the one that's used for Energy Transfer. They're almost identical (holding up the hands while powering up and then shoving them forward), but Fitter Freeze Ray has the character looking at their hands all goofily while Energy Transfer has the character looking forward at the enemy the whole time and looks much less silly. Finally, I don't like that in Psionic Assault subdue is almost a carbon copy of Mental Blast, I think subdue should be a 10s attack instead. Or, like, make one of them 7s and the other 9s, or something.

And lastly, Hellfire Assault. I like this set, it's cool, but I still think that the set would make more sense and feel more consistent if the whip attacks were all short ranged and the long range attacks were all 'normal' hellfire ones. Right now the set is really all over the place in terms of types of attacks and secondary effects, which really makes it feel like the cobbled-together patchwork it is. Even switched around it would still be a bit of a patchwork, but it would feel more like an intentionally designed cohesive set.

If I were able to wave a wand and rearrange the set, it'd go something like this. Corruption would become a 20 foot range, 8 second recharge melee attack (with appropriate changes to damage/end/damage modifier - note the FX still looks just fine when used at that range) and replace Hellfire Smash. Wrath of Hell would become a 20 foot range melee attack, also gaining slightly more damage thanks to shifting to the melee damage modifier and so being a bit more worth its very long animation time. And then I'd add a 'Hellfire Blast' ranged attack to take Corruption's former spot as a 6s ranged attack. The set would still have almost the same basic setup of attacks, overall shifting one ranged attack to melee but still having a good number of both types (and a set being a bit melee or ranged biased isn't a bad thing anyway - see energy and earth assaults). And this way the set would have a lot more thematic consistency, and honestly the whip attacks *look* better as melee anyway.

I'm not saying that this has to be done just because I say so or something, of course, especially at this late date. The set is perfectly functional the way it is, and I actually like it a lot, the unique t9 especially. This is mostly just my design OCD/sense of order protesting at something that feels messy and inconsistent.

I'm sure I will have more comments at some point, but that's it for now. I will close with some minor bug reports.

Minor bug reports. Some of these I've already reported on discord, but putting them here as well for completeness:
Stone Composition, the SFX for both Volcanic Armor and Crystalline Armor do not properly fade away after activation, instead continuing to play indefinitely.
Dark Composition, Shadow Fall has the same problem as above where the SFX does not properly fade away.
Guardian Psi Assault, Telekinetic Blow does not play an animation.
Guardian Ice Mastery, Ice Storm does not accept accuracy enhancements like it should.
Hellfire Assault, Hellfire Smash and Hellfire Burst do not play SFX.
Super Reflexes, Practiced Brawler still has the same 'SFX does not properly fade away' issue, though its animation works now.
Super Reflexes, Practiced Brawler - the absorb expires after 10s and has a 2s gap until it refreshes at 12s, this is due to the absorb having a duration of 10s and a 'non-stacking, does not replace' flag on a toggle with a 2s activation period. To fix this the activation period and the duration on the other effects should be set to 10s (with appropriate change to the endurance cost) and the absorb's stacking flag changed to 'non-stacking, replaces'. This also affects Temporal Reaction's version.

Regarding the archetype in general, resolve is still a bit meh feeling. It's just hard to notice it doing anything, even when it actually is. This might not necessarily be a *problem*, after all it's not like vigilance or the damage buff portion of defiance are immediately visible either, but it's still worth noting. The other thing I notice about resolve is that it's a rather snowbally mechanic. You get stacks of resolve for killing things, which means that it helps you win harder if you can already kill stuff but doesn't help at all until you get those first few kills. As a result I've noticed a distinct tendency when pushing the pace solo, where I can jump into a spawn and either die before killing anything or wipe the floor with them and finish healthy depending on whether I can manage to get the first couple targets down quickly. In other words it's a mechanic that pushes encounters away from stability, it takes winning and amplifies it by giving you absorb, and it takes losing and amplifies it by not giving you any help at all. Again I'm not sure if this is a bad thing or not, and in teams it may not work out quite the same way, but I almost wonder if having resolve, in whatever form it ends up being, as a simple on-hit effect instead of triggered might work better. I still like that resolve is a team defensive thing triggered off of the guardian's offense, that seems very thematically fitting for the AT, I'm just not sure about being triggered off of kills now that I've had more experience with it.

Another general AT thing I've noted is that guardians are endurance hungry. The combination of a full slate of attacks (including epic AoEs with their usually high costs) with both armorset toggles (also often including tough/weave) *and* often-endurance-expensive support powers leaves them with high usage overall. This is not necessarily a bad thing, endurance limitations can be a valid balancing tool after all (e.g. energy composition's high costs on inertial siphon and fulcrum flip are definitely necessary IMO). What concerns me a bit is that the ability to cope with these costs does not seem even across the archetype.

Specifically, almost all guardian secondaries include some form of endurance support, with the exceptions of stone and (partially) temporal. (Temporal does have chrono shift, but between its high cost, long recharge, short duration on the recovery effect, and likely lack of room for endmod slotting in most builds this power is by far the weakest among the secondary sets from a net-endurance-over-time standpoint, to the point where I wouldn't really consider it to count.) Having experience contrasting temporal with other guardian sets this does seem to be an issue in practice - I am *constantly* out of endurance on my /temporal guardian to the point where I am converting everything to blues if I don't want to be forced to stop and wait between spawns or forgo using some of my stronger powers, where my other guardians also frequently run low but have the tools to bounce back. On the other hand temporal is very strong when you do have all your abilities in play, I'm just not sure I like this form of balancing is all.

For specific (secondary) sets, I've tried out fire, energy, organic, and temporal composition with various primaries.

Temporal is very strong both defensively and offensively. I paired it with umbral for the heal and ended up basically never needing it, because between the native defense, farsight, the -tohit and -dam in time's juncture, and the absorb in PB I almost never actually took significant damage. Given that it also brings good offensive support with slowed response and chrono shift and provides most of its benefits to the team as well between debuffs and team buffs, I wonder if this set might perhaps be slightly over-tuned. As noted above it's also even more endurance hungry than most, so I personally might consider de-tuning a little bit in exchange for some reduced endurance costs. Perhaps as a start knock the defense in farsight back from scale 1.25 to scale 1 (which I think should be done to the regular version of the set too TBH), and then drop the endurance cost on time's juncture to 0.3 end/s or something like that.

Organic and energy I rate fairly similarly, namely strong but I'm not as worried about them. Energy is powerful but is held back by basically needing to never ever miss with transference. Organic is beefy but also clicky and reactive to stay alive. I would guess they're on the high side of the average performance level of guardian secondaries, for sure, but I wouldn't consider them as needing significant changes.

Fire is, frankly, pretty disappointing. It's extremely squishy and doesn't feel like it has enough upsides to make up for that. Compared to fire armor it is even *weaker* defensively - at least fire armor has an above-average heal - and doesn't bring any of the set's personal offense. Compared to thermal it loses almost all of that set's defensive contributions, and I don't think the team offense that's left is enough to make up for it. Melt Armor is arguably the worst -resistance power available to guardians, with either the worst or tied for worst -resistance value, radius, and recharge. (Heat loss has a longer recharge, but is only partially a -res power and is extremely powerful in other ways.) It's not *bad*, but it's not as good as what other sets get either. Reforge is alright, but is actually not a very big buff on guardian numbers - compare to Overgrowth, which is 66% stronger with close to the same uptime and has an endurance discount as well. And Heat Exhaustion is a fine power that is simply irrelevant 95% of the time. Ultimately this set is extremely squishy on a personal level, brings minimal team defense, and its offense is arguably worse than at least a couple other sets and IMO definitely not strong enough to make up for it overall.

I think fire definitely needs work. One simple possible change would be to knock the recharge on Soothing Flames down to 12s or so, mimicing how fire armor's Healing Flames has a faster recharge than something like Reconstruction. This would help somewhat with both the personal squishiness and minimal team defense issues, but would still be held back by animation time and endurance usage. I don't think this would be nearly enough by itself, but it could help. Another option might be to swap out the junk power of temperature protection for something else - not sure *what*, exactly, and one would want to be careful to abide by the rule of not obsoleting either parent set, but it's an obvious candidate for change if need be. And lastly, well, I already sent in that overly-wordy proposal for a replacement/modification for Power of the Phoenix, but I want to elaborate a bit on how and why I think that would be a particularly good fit here. Looking back at fire armor, that set is also squishy, and so Rise of the Phoenix is a particularly well-fitting and thematic addition there - not only giving the set an option to recover from defeat, but even to turn it around and *use* that defeat to blast the fuck out of the baddies and fulfill the set's theme of offense. Guardian fire composition, as it stands, is even squishier than fire armor but yet is missing the tool that set has to deal with that. And the set is also currently not really as high on offense or defense as it IMO needs to be to make up for its drawbacks relative to thermal or other guardian sets, and swapping out Power of the Phoenix for the Phoenix Renewal power I proposed also gives the set something that would be a big splashy offensive and defense tool when you're not using it as an omni-rez. And of course it's also just thematic as fuck for a fire set. (Yes I know I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record about this idea, but darnit I really like it. ^^)

I'm sure there's more I could go on about (like primaries), but this is probably enough for now and I'll probably come back later. But yeah, fire composition totally should get that Phoenix Renewal power, yo. ^^