Yay, change!!! while you're at it...

Mental is still good and far cry from rubble IMO.
It hasn't been nerfed in PVE
and as for arenas all they did was take away the 1 shots.

You still have grandure and can spam your AM.
And they didn't touch your stuns
Just know that a lunge in incomming, but the mechanic still gives you time to block/lunge without loosing your resonance buff.
Now instead of spam spam spam you have to actually pay attention.

But mental is not reduced to rubble.

They will never go for HL be careful man! Asking for a nerf of HL is like wearing a Liverpool shirt in Manchester! You just don't do it... This game is all about lantern powers now that's where it's going I picked that up from the update on rage.... Out of all the powers which powers AMs are the only viable ones in PvP at the moment? Mmm lantern universe online

I'm acting hoping they don't make fire to good... Or if they do they need to make it interruptible like celestial or else they will nerf it because it isn't a lantern power...

Most of the powers are viable. Nature does a similiar DPS in wolf or human form as does HL and Rage, with very limited vulnerability. Fire tanks can heal upwards of 70% of the damage they take in. Sorcery and Elec are great healers. Sorcery is also a viable DPS, as are gadgets and mental and quantum all in the right hands. Fire and Ice with their channeled BBs are also very frustratingly tough DPS.

WM and the increased strength of regular weapon combo finishers have closed the gap some between HL and Rage DPS wise. Really, HL's issue is safe damage. Rage is just a tad strong. Those powers are still great, to be sure, but that doesn't make the other powers not viable DPS-wise. Weapon mastery and counters, man. Smokebomb hits harder than Grasping Hand. Home Run mastery is deadly in the hands of an experienced ice or fire DPS whose going to make you want to block the big weapon hit only to eat an AM block-break. There are some very viable, dare I say strong, options with other powers if only folks will spend less time pouting about not being able to one-shot with practically zero consequence anymore, and more time exploring powers and weapons and testing them out in friendly scrimmages and duels.

I get the feeling like there's this expectation among some people that they should be able to PvP DPS the same way they PVE DPS, and when that expectation is rightfully punctured, they go into hissy fit mode.

Learn to pvp guys.

Finally an experienced player, look I know you probably took a shot at me for that post but I'm not even mad about it I agree with u 100 percent in the right hands other powers have their time to shine, outside of DPS your healing powers do shine and that's always has been, but I'm talking strictly DPS wise, all those powers that you mentioned do have their strong point but if you look at it all those people who you mentioned who are able to use those powers effectively have a much harder time getting the numbers or the effectiveness of let's say a HL user, if those same people where to use rage or HL they would be even better and that's a fact, people in my league will use their favourite power but if we end up in a scrim against another talented league they will switch to HL or rage just for the scrim just so they not a detriment to the team, you will never see a celestial or ice DPS running in a scim unless they are confident that their teammates can carry them a bit... PvP is highly unbalanced and that's just a fact that we must all deal with... If one day they take AMs out of PvP arena's then we will see a more balance...

The only time i've had crits below 5k were when I was out of range. Are you sure you're not out of range, were interrupted midway through or just didn't ramp it up to three resonance stacks?

Sharing a node is definitely in range, I'm absolutely 100% positive in my ability to sequence 123-BAM! I even tried different points in the resonance cycle and still, crits below 5k happen. Doesn't matter where in that 6 seconds you amp and finish, it's all the same.

I'll get a parser up tonight comparing the AM to my old PvP loadout, I'm getting just as much done without the AM in half the hit count... So much for "advanced" mechanics.

I don't think anyone would disagree that several powers can do the same or a little more DPS/healing/power out. The biggest issue I find is the ease of access. For example a Celestial healer CAN pump out 2-3 million heals in a 5's match, however will have to work much harder and be more experienced in the knowledge of counter mechanics, CC's and timing than say electric, sorcery or nature. Some powersets are currently designed to do things much easier than others.

Now saying that I'm not asking for a overhaul on mechanics, however I think the risk should be worth the reward. AMs don't work perfectly in PVP and many of the counter windows appear slapped on instead of well timed and making sense. Capping damage per second as a % of max HP and then looking at the counter windows on AMs and ensuring that the type of counter makes sense would be a great first step in balancing Arenas.

Now lets talk about player preference--there will also be stigmas among players to go after what is thought to be OP. Even if perfect balance was achieved someone somewhere would be trying to find what is OP. This is something that takes a cultural change and that takes a lot more work than just coding. Mighty for instance mentioned things that are done on PS which just don't work or aren't as effective on PC. (This isn't saying one system's playstyle is better, just the fact that some tactics work on one system and not on another due to the culture of the players.) A clear and simple example is that of turning gears. On USPC it is considered an insult where as on the other servers it is not--this is something that started wayyyy back at the beginning of DCUO on USPC and will take a culture shock (IE server merge) to change it.

Regarding current powers in need of balance I agree that Nature, Rage, and HL need some tweaks, however the fundamental problem really is the DPS (damage per second) as a whole. The devs need to dial this back and cap it as it is still imbalanced and NO single attack should do over 9k damage under current HP.

let the bitterness run through you.

Lol, I appreciate that. Cogging is an insult over here, too, I just think there's a maturity/respect disconnect. I don't cog often, but if I do, there was a reason. Often it's because you tried to cog my partner, or me, or you're popping off in versus chat mid-fight. Or you're hovering above the node and at the edge of range spamming an AM. That'll usually earn someone a slower revive. I look at it like baseball. There's an unspoken decorum, and if you cross that line because you show up me or my guys, or you come into second base spikes up on an easy force out? You're probably gonna wear the next one.

Full disclosure I have kicked at least one guy out of the league for repeatedly cogging in a friendly intra-league scrim. For some of us that **** just doesn't fly.

Honestly my only expectation is to actually kill my opponent after 1 counter ALA Rage/HL/Nature. If you can teach me a 2 second combo like outrage/chain that mental has, then I'll drop this whole thing.

I don't know if you've tried playing NON-Am mental during season 3, but you know that our Might casts actually don't do any damage AND eat a ton of power. Pyrokineis and TB (the old season 2 staples) eat 1/2 to 3/5 of your power bar. Same with the shields. Mental has no pets, no precision combos, no way of dealing big damage. I think Menace is the one "ok" thing we have, since it can cause random panic. So you would need 2x the reads as an OP power in order to beat them. Please correct me, if I misrepresented how it is.

I saw that a lot of other powers CAN actually use their powers in PvP, and a non AM loadout can't exactly do the same.

None of these powers can kill an enemy after one counter. They can come close but require very precise timing to do so.
Just like every other might power. Just like pretty much everything else. Why would you want Pets anyway. So just like most powers in this game? You are playing it wrong. Hint use your weapons, I know it sounds primitive to have to use a weapon but give it a try.

Similar to why a lot of folks use Robot Sidekick, having a pet is a useful tool in PvP. Even Snow Devil is great.
I agree that the balance pass for power costs affected everyone, but other powers having combos can definitely get more utility from their power casts. Our power casts have very little damage, eat a ton of power, and can't set up anything ALA grasping hand, rage combos, or even celestial's admonish/Consume soul.
If weapons are so great then why are people complaining about there being OP powers? Do you think weapons are just as good as the OP powers? Maybe you have a different view of the pvp landscape than me.

Weapons are great and can greatly affect the flow of the battle. PvP requires a balance between weapon and powers. You cannot hope to solely win with just one. Even Rage and Nature can't win without utilizing weapon combos against an equally skilled opponent.
If you are trying to spam powers and AM and hoping it does something, then the fault is on you not the game. Way too many people have a PvE mindset in PvP.
By "other" powers you mean 3 power sets right? Why do you try so hard to make it sound like that Mental is the only power can cannot use their powers. It is no brainier that Prec/combo powers have always had an advantage in PvP.
Grasping hand alone does not do much damage, same with Celestial combos unless they are utilizing their AM's consume soul won't hit that hard even by itself it has a fairly lengthy animation which leaves their vulnerable to damage. Rage combos do hit hard but they also have vulnerabilities.

I'm not expecting only the AM really. Before the update, I was still using the AM. but then, you can really only use it to finish off an opponent. Ala under 40% life, you can start the sequence to try and kill, because if you don't kill them with the AM, you are dead. Now, you can't even use it to finish off someone.
I'd take what grasping hand and consume souls utility over anything that mental has TBH.
I don't know if you have a mental toon in PvP, but I'm curious on what your observations on it.

I leveled up a mental toon to test out it in PvP. I used HB and have no difficulty fighting any one to be honest. Be it HL or Rage, but they were bad enemies to be fair. I simply use powers as a method of clipping, mask resonance behind counter immunity and simply use the AM whenever I feel like it is enough to kill the enemy if I get countered I have grandeur or my trinket to pop me back up to fight.

Ok, i'm going to answer this as calmly as I can. The only utility that consume souls provides on it's own is a pull and small might based DoT. Meanwhile mental has a breakout from being countered which also acts as a CC immunity (Grandeur), an on-hit panic and extra damage which can be amplified by Power Interactions (Menace), a 35% supercharge that provides CC immunity and heal/shield, A multitude of shields and a multitude of DoT's. All of these things (Except possibly the DoT's) are things that celestial does not have.

Hell, if you really wanted a pull just use the lasso, so I can wholeheartedly say that you do not mean that.

Any good Rage or HL player would just start their own chain when they see you using your AMPs. Thus you are getting interrupted (unless you popped grandeur before) but even then since the damage is so bad that it's not even worth the fact that you are getting lunged at the end of it.
Against bad players, I can use an all iconic/movement loadout and beat them fine. Against competent players, you can't really use the AM, BUT they can use their DPS mechanics (combos/pets/self heals/etc).

Consume soul = Mesmerizing Lasso. Noted

Rage cannot interrupt unless in savage state. It is incredibly easy to knock them out of it. Same with HL players. The only problem with HL and Rage is their damage not being equal to the risk.
That is only if you let them. After a while of countering their mechanics they will be forced to use weapons [If they are competent].

If you learned to read a bit more you would understand that is not what he meant.