Stats Revamp 1.7: Gadgets

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Power interactions feel very inconsistent on Gadgets right now.

Fear Gas will remove the Burning PI if you set it up. It doesn't remove Burning PIs that other players have setup.

Implosion Mine removes any Frostbite PI that has been setup by anyone.

Stasis Field removes any Electrify PI that has been setup by anyone.

If you have multiple Gadgets players in the group, this arrangement can be problematic depending on loadouts. Gadgets players will miss getting PI damage and control effects depending on who is casting what.

First the things I'm happy with, to get these out of the way:

• Stealth being a detaunt by default is great.
• Photon Blast not using PI anymore doesn't particularly excite me but it's a neat simplification especially considering that the alternatives are to either use only one PI (which means locking the execute behind that PI) or using multiple PI (at which point it's mostly automatic instead of tactical)
• that's it

Now the things I'm not happy with:

Battle Drone being a generic group shield SC in troll stance is a major letdown for me. This used to be one of Gadgets' unique mechanics and you turned it into another copy paste troll power as if trolls weren't similar enough already. While you're at it you may as well turn Neural Neutralizer into a generic self shield or just remove individual troll powersets altogether and instead let everyone have a shared pool of 6 powers when they switch to troll stance.
Get rid of the group shield and let it deal some decent damage instead to give us back one of our unique tools.

Taser Pull being a debuff. I thought people were vocal enough about pulls being debuffs with Mental a couple of months ago. Pulls and debuffs are different functions for different situations and should be treated as such.

Suppressor Turret still being on the list is somewhat baffling to me. In its current form it may just be not there at all because it's utterly useless. I can see three different ways to fix it:

• Make it a permanent damage pet like Robo Sidekick.
• Make it temporary damage pet like Swarm, with a cooldown that allows for >100% uptime. 12s cooldown with 15s duration would be ideal.
• Make it a permanent AM-type pet like Crystal, with a new power used to recharge it.

Basically, anything to let it have more than 50% uptime. Also, don't let it setup PI. A pet that sets up some random single target PI once in a while has zero usefulness to me. None at all. In the long history of DCUO, no one ever said "I'm going to bring Suppressor Turret so it can setup my PI, so I don't need to setup my own PI". No one ever did that and no one ever will. If you keep Turret as a "PI setup" pet then you condemn it to eternal uselessness.
The simple fix here is to have it utilize some of Gadgets' PI instead of setting them up. If you want to get tactical, make its ranged attacks use different PI than the melee attacks so that there is a choice to make. Flamethrower utilizes frostbite, Grenades utilize dazed.

Now to the main point. The PI web is a complete mess now. I liked the former PI web because it had a stable core of Napalm, Gauss, Cryo Foam, and Fear Gas of which each utilized two PI and caused another. That allowed for a fluid transition between different PI types:

• To get from burning or electrify to daze or frostbite, we can use Fear Gas or Cryo-Foam respectively.
• To get from daze or frostbite to burn or electrify, we can use Napalm Grenade or Gauss Grenade respectively.

This core of "bridging" powers has been taken apart completely. Now the transitions between PI are disjointed and complicated:

• To get from electrify to daze we have to encase targets with Stasis Field. Stasis Field does not daze targets that aren't encased successfully. Even if the targets aren't dazed, Stasis Field will trigger the "electroshock" reaction and consume the electrified PI.
• To get from frostbite to daze we have to use Implosion Mine which also happens to encase frostbitten targets. Unlike Stasis Field, Implosion Mine dazes targets even if it doesn't encase them. Just like Stasis Field, it will consume the frostbite PI though via "freeze" reaction.
• To get from burn to daze we have to use Fear Gas which, again, consumes the burn PI via "detonate" reaction. The good part here is that unlike Stasis Field and Implosion Mine it does not consume burn PI that other players have setup.
• To get from daze to electrify we have to use Taser Pull which will trigger the "electroshock" reaction.
• To get from electrify or frostbite to burn, we are given the "option" of using encasements via Stasis Field or the "freeze" reaction and then use any of the burn powers to trigger the "detonate" reaction.
• There is no direct way to get from daze to burn or frostbite.
• There is no direct way to get from electrify to burn or frostbite.
• There is no direct way to get from burn to electrify or frostbite.
• There is no direct way to get from frostbite to burn or electrify.

So there are multiple problems here.
Encasements: The prominence of encasements is irritating at best, disastrous at worst. A damage role character can't usually encase enemies. Even in situations where you can, enemies become immune to it really quickly at which point you're SOL if you actually were naive enough to build around encasements. Even ignoring that, there are still the old issues with encasements, namely getting knocked around the room by physics and blocking other players' damage and control effects.
Encasements are alright as a niche mechanic that can be useful sometimes and blown up quickly at other times, but they are absolutely terrible as a core PI mechanic for the powerset. If the greatest concern about Gadgets was pacing, then encasements are the last thing you should have added more of. This is the most disruptive playstyle you could have come up with.

PI consumption: PI consuming isn't a problem in itself. In fact, I welcome it as a way to make PI converters tactical choices that remove old PI and require me to reapply them if I need them again. "bridge" powers or converters become a point of no return so that I can't just rapidly apply four different PI and benefit off all of them.
However, this becomes a major problem in the cases of Stasis Field and Implosion Mine. These powers remove the electrify/daze PI respectively, even if they have been setup by other players. That means that multiple Gadgets players fighting the same target will frequently disrupt each other's rotations if using one of these. Not using either isn't a particularly viable option since, again, these are now the core of the PI web.
I would have no problem with PI consumption if they all worked like Fear Gas does in that they do not remove PI that other players have setup, but do remove your own PI.

Missing links: Multiple PI transitions are now missing or are just possible indirectly via the encasement -> detonate chain that isn't viable in regular group gameplay.

Burn: The only way to setup burn now is Sticky Bomb which is a 300 cost power. The powers that utilize burn are all 100 or 200 cost. A 300 cost setup power is weird and neither Napalm nor Thermite Mine setting up burn (which is literally their theme) is even weirder. This doesn't feel thematic and it doesn't feel practical either.

Frostbite: Building around frostbite is clunky at best since one of the powers is a once in 6 seconds dot field and the other consumes the PI, encases targets, and transitions to daze.

Electrify: The only way to even set this up now is via Taser Pull which is a transition power in itself as well as a pull which makes building around electrify utter garbage for trolls especially. To be fair, that applies to the encasements as well so I'm not sure what Gadgets trolls are supposed to do now apart from spamming Power heals, considering everything else they could do will be a major disruption for the group. Again, the OG electrify applicator (Gauss Grenade) has been turned into a utilizer.

Daze: Oh boy. With the converter powers all leading to daze, the web is now skewed towards it more than ever. This is ironic considering that daze was basically non-existant for Gadgets originally. This wasn't balanced in the previous builds but now it's basically impossible to build without daze in the center. It's even more ironic that there are two "vanilla" daze applicators (Decoy and Neutralizer) and both are super long cooldown utility powers that aren't really made to apply PI primarily.

So after I just trashed basically everything that has been done with Gadgets in this build, here are my suggestions for how to fix the PI web.

1. Restore the core. Give us a PI transitioning core like we had before with Napalm/Gauss/Gas/Foam. It doesn't have to be those four although I think they were quite fitting since they have been core Gadgets powers since forever. Each of these PI bridges should benefit from two PI and apply one. It would be fair for them to consume the PI instead of just utilizing them IF they do not consume PI that other players have setup.

2. Give every PI a "spammer" and a "finisher" exploiting power. Each PI should have one 300 cost utilizer with a 2.5-6 second cooldown here as they did before. Each PI should also have one 100 cost utilizers with a <1s cooldown.

With 2. it would be possible to build around one single PI type, either a faster spammy rotation or a slower finisher rotation. With 1. it would be possible to build multi-PI rotations.

3. Move encasements and other niche effects into the leaves. By special effects I mean things like Taser Pull, Holo Decoy, or the freeze reaction. These aren't viable for regular unlimited use! These effects should be used selectively and tactically instead of forming the core of a PI rotation. Do not keep them as PI transitioning powers but instead let them either setup or utilize a single PI.

I would like the PI web to look something like this:

This is basically the 1.6 graph with some minor changes. Every PI has a spammer and a finisher option. The transitioning core is intact (consumption of previous PI may be acceptable). Encasements are confined to "leaves" and are not core parts of PI transition. Burn and Frostbite do not have dedicated setup powers here but could be replaced by iconics if needed. Utilizer powers are more important since those would be used more often whereas setup powers would only be used once and then replaced by transitioning powers in subsequent rotations.

I think it is at level 21 or 22

Question
Is Fear Gas supposed to produce an explosion and extra damage when the Electric PI is setup? Here's a demonstration:

Rather it go back to 35% SC with more power out than other controller supercharges and do neither damage nor have shield. No one's going to use battle drone in a raid for damage and it was pathetic as it was beforehand. If the small damage it had was compensation for the power out reduction it had relative to other controller powers, having it actually do major damage would be useless as a controller for power out. If anything turn it into a two-option supercharge where you have the option to have drone be a full on damage out pet for a set time period with aoe attacks or really hard single target moves or summon a weaker drone thathas tremendous power over time.

Feedback
Some comments on various things:

Battle Drone
I'm ok with Battle Drone having a shielding component. The current "super shield" effect is more helpful than the meager damage bonus it provided previously in Controller role. I don't know if the shielding component is working correctly, but it is very nice.

Frostbite
The Frostbite side of Gadgets has been retooled to focus extensively on creating Ice encasements. I've been trying this out in group content and it just doesn't work very well. Damage role players don't have enough Dominance to setup the appropriate control effects. That makes Frostbite encasements a Controller-only mechanic. The combination of powers you have to use on Controller side is rather high on control effects to get Ice encasements. This translates into enemies mobs breaking out faster which negates any attempts to setup Ice encasements. Even then, setting up an Ice encasement is of dubious use. Detonating an Ice encasement with an Encasement Buster like Sticky Bomb does not provide any damage benefit. It just means you can continue doing damage like you normally would. So, what's the point of setting up Ice encasements using Frostbite effects? I know Ice encasements were part of Cryo-Field in previous builds, but it never really worked very well due to the requirements involved (see previous page).

Burning
The Burning powers now focus on the "Detonation reaction." As described in the Frostbite section, encasements are hard to setup and you don't get any damage bonus from detonating them with a Burning power. From what I've seen, only Self-Destruct Signal provides any sort of damage bonus and that only works with Stasis Field. I appreciate that Encasement Busting functionality was added to certain powers since it makes it easier to deal with Stasis Field encasements. However, Encasement Busting shouldn't be a primary focus of Gadgets. Encasements are too situational to be useful in general gameplay.

As for the Burning powers themselves, I'm not a fan of the current arrangement. Sticky Bomb - the most expensive Burning power - is now your only means of applying the Burning PI. Thermite Mine is awkward to use as a spamming power now that its cooldown starts after the progression bar has completed. I didn't like using it in group content. The damage range was low and Burning bonus was meager. It felt like a waste of a slot. Fear Gas was the power that made the best use of the Burning power interaction, but it consumes the interaction on use.

Stasis Field
Stasis Field went from being useful in 1.6 to being a nuisance in 1.7. Here is a brief list of problems I'm having with Stasis Field:

• Stasis Field is now an AoE encasing power. If you're trying to use it as a SC Generator in Controller role, you need to pair it with an Encasement Buster. Otherwise it just ends up being a giant nuisance with large numbers of encasements rolling around.
• The debuff was removed from the Controller version. This greatly decreased its utility for Controller role.
• The Dazed power interaction is only applied if you are able to encase an enemy. That's a real problem for Damage role. Also an issue for Controller role if the enemy has control immunity.
• It consumes any Electify power interaction on use. This is a problem if you're playing with other Gadgets players.

Overall
I've been play-testing Gadgets for a large-portion of the weekend and I haven't felt very comfortable playing it. The Frostbite and Burning side of Gadgets feel like they should generally be avoided. The way power interactions are consumed now by certain powers makes Gadgets feel more disjointed than in 1.6. As Crimson Mayhem pointed out, there are some missing conversion links between the power interactions that only adds to the disjointed feeling. As long as you stick with the Dazing and Electrify powers, you can put together something that kind of works. I can't say I was having much fun playing it though. I felt very limited in my options with the new power interaction arrangement.

I'm not saying it should be like it was before. Both its Power out and damage were pathetic. What I'm saying is I'd like it to be different from the generic group shield SC. Making it a 35% with neither damage nor shield is something I could live with. I'd prefer if it were 50% with equal Power out to the other SC but much higher damage output so that its actually noticeable. That way it would distinguish Gadgets as a more offensively focused trolling powerset.

Feedback
I ran a few T8 alerts tonight in Controller role. I mostly used the following loadout:

• Cryo-Foam - Defense Debuff
• Paralyzing Dart - Offense Debuff
• Stasis Field - SC Generator
• Distract - Shield
• Defib - Group power heal
• Battle Drone - Supercharge

I tried out a few other powers, but stuck with that one. We used a balanced CR 201 1/1/1/1 group. Here are some notes from those runs:

1. Taser Pull Debuff - Tanks do not like it when you keep pulling mobs away while trying to apply a defense debuff. I initially used it in place of Cryo-Foam and it just wasn't working out at all. Our tank kept having to regroup the mobs that I was pulling with Taser Pull.

2. Encasements - The combination of Cryo-Foam/Stasis Field generated a lot of encasements and the mobs were aggressively breaking out of the encasements. My observation was that it wasn't worth it to waste a loadout slot on an Encasement Buster with these breakout profiles. Either you won't have time to cast the Encasement Breaker or the mob will have control immunity most of the time.

3. Defibrillator and Power Costs - I was really noticing the updated 300 base power cost for Defibrillator during my runs. I was using sodas more often compared to 1.6 to replenish my own power bar. Due to the increased costs, I had to stop clipping my debuff casts with Defib at several points. I was Hybrid specced with a heavy emphasis on Power in my gear mods. Controllers can't spec into extra Power with their SP unless they want to forgo Vitality/Dom for Might.

4. Battle Drone - The shield component on Battle Drone saved my group from wiping a few times during our runs. It was really useful on the first boss of War Crimes when trying to rally people that were standing in front of Infantry.

5. Stasis Field - In 1.6, I was mashing my SC Generator as often as possible because Stasis Field was pretty awesome. It was a debuff and it setup the Dazed power interaction more reliably. With the increased power costs on Defib, I only found myself using it when I was trying to explicitly build supercharge. The damage output was low and the encasements just didn't seem like they were worth the trouble.

6. Content Length - This is more of a general comment. Even at CR 201, running the Age of Justice content took a while. It was pretty easy to zoneout on 8-10 minute long boss fights. As a Controller, I didn't have much to do except debuff, try to keep the group powered, and maybe rally people. Those long fights made the game feel very tedious. I didn't have enough open loadout slots or spare power to put together a more offensive-oriented Controller build.

Gadgets need a aoe power that sets up electrified pi. Also the whole power set is confusing now lol

We have Taser Pull for that now. Yeah, it's terrible.

I think Gadgets needs more aoe powers to help lock down, stun or damage large groups

Have you read the patch notes and played Gadgets on test? Two of our single target powers have just been converted to aoe and it's virtually impossible to actually make a non-aoe build now. If anything, we need more single target options.