(a) At-will powers are junk.
The rogue in particular had difficulty with his at-wills. He wanted to use his Sly Flourish ability, so he rolled a melee basic attack.
This sounds like a nasty presentation issue. And there is one there. The Essentials Thief is much easier from that perspective, and so are the other e-classes.
The druid was just a mess. He got the basic idea of at-wills (and used his flame seed power to some effect), but he was really lost when it came to wild shaping and using his at-will attacks, especially when he could use them on AOOs as a basic attack.
*wince* I know why the PHB 2 druid was made the way it was. It's quite obviously attempting to cover much of the territory staked out by the 3e druid and slightly paranoid not to repeat the overwhelming power of the 3.5 druid. The druid
really isn't a class I'd recommend for beginners.
In summary: there need to not be at-will special attack powers. As it says in the Bible: "Let your basic attack be a basic attack."
As a wizard, ewww. I want a variety of at will spells. As a monk I want my at will approaches. I thrive on flexibility and versatility.
As a fan of Essentials, this is mostly a solved issue with the post-Essentials martial classes. Variously:
The Fighter has a melee basic attack with At Will Stances that modify it until you enter another one. The same applies to the Scout (Two Weapon Ranger).
The Thief has a melee basic attack and At Will tricks that allow them to move and that impact their attack until the end of the turn. You use your move action to set up your attack.
The Hexblade has one Melee Basic Attack At Will and one Ranged Basic Attack At Will. No confusion here at all.
(b)The striker role should not exist.
In the combat, the strikers did the majority of the work. My warpriest hit a few times, doing a paltry 1d6 + 3 damage. The gloomblade, on the other hand, was doing 1d10 + 7 damage, and the rogue (when he finally managed a sneak attack) was doing 1d4 + 2d6 + 6 damage. There wasn't much in the way of healing needed in the battle, so I felt somewhat useless. Also, the druid's flame seed did pitiful damage.
Here I disagree. There needs to be a "vanilla" role. And doing a bit of extra damage in place of cool stuff is the best way to get there. A defender who gets provoked normally outdamages a striker, and healing can be a gamechanger. But strikers and controllers being merged is definitely something to be thought about.
As for the flame seed, it's meant for clearing out chaff. Not the one I'd choose (that would be Magic Stone or Grasping Tides). But the way you use flame seed is that minions have one hit point. You hit a target in the centre of the minion mob and all minions around him are torched automatically. In a fight against ordinary enemies it's pretty weak. In one that's minion heavy it's worthwhile (and would, I believe, have been the only at will power the party had capable of killing two enemies at once). This is one use for controller at will powers - options, options, and more options. Playing a controller IMO is like using a swiss army knife - you have an interesting collection of tools, and hope that one of these oddly shaped things is right for the job.
You have IMO a classic problem with healing in that party - you have too much of it. Two leaders out of five is just too many in any game I've been in. One leader as a panic button is great. Two? Not so much. Between you you're going to take the tension out of the fight.
(c) Round-by-round tracking sucks.
Agreed. In each specific case I can see why it was done that way. But this is a case were it would be better to go for less simulation.
(d) Forced movement is awesome.
Very much so! Especially if you have interesting terrain. One of my maxims of 4e combat is that monsters belong in their own pit traps. If you're going to have a battlemat at all, forced movement makes it sing.
However, IMO, 4e has made basic attacks so ineffective in many cases that they tend to get neglected to the point were melee PCs don't even bother having a decent option for a ranged attack or vice versa.
This isn't my experience for the melee PCs. If you're strength based you carry javelins. If dex based, you carry a bow or a couple of throwing daggers. And if you're based on something else unless you're a battlemind you have a ranged at will.
As I mentioned in the 4e/5e hybrid thread, I think there is something else horribly wrong with at-wills...even when you know how to use them, for everyone (other than strikers), they suck. A first level fighter doing d12+5 damage will take about 3 hits (and about 4 rounds) to kill a 1st level mook. When a fight is down to characters using at-wills, it has become boring because everyone feels like they are shooting tanks with rifles.
When you're down to at wills, the battle should be almost over. Also I can not think of
any characters I've played who had at wills that all sucked. Thinking of my various non-strikers:
Berserker: Aggressive Lunge (ersatz Tide of Iron), Stalk and Strike. Forced movement is awesome. As is an extra shift mixed with a defender aura to get right into where the enemy doesn't want me.
Bard (multiple): Guiding Strike, Vicious Mockery, and Jinx Shot. Vicious Mockery is one of the most fun powers in the game, OK, so mechanically it isn't great. But it's Vicious Mockery. Guiding Strike gives everyone a 2 point bonus to hit. Worthwhile. Jinx Shot is fun. Knocks people over if they mess up.
Invoker: Hand of Radiance boosted by Power of the Moon. How can you not like a triple target attack-and-debuff. Often preferable to my encounter powers.
Paladin: You have a point. One of my two at wills was an MBA and the other was Enfeebling Strike.
Warlord: Brash Assault, Commander's Strike, Direct the Strike. Commander's Strike/Direct the Strike: Give the striker a basic attack instead of taking one myself. Fun - and powerful. Brash Assault: Attack my enemy and offer him a chance to hit back. If he does then the striker gets a swing. As possibly does the defender. Backed by me in character bombarding the enemy with insults. Great fun.
Wizard: Freezing Burst and Storm Pillar. There were times I used
both these powers in preference to my encounter powers. Storm pillar is very situational (and very nice when it works). But freezing burst was an at will AoE that did decent damage, slid people, and that I could fairly happily ground-zero with two cold-resistant party members.
But what links almost all the at will powers I pick is that they aren't simple stabs.
