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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mesh Hong" data-source="post: 5323408" data-attributes="member: 73463">Thanks for the detailed response, I very much appreciate it.I would usually reply with quotes and deal with one issue at a time, but it might be a bit difficult with your post so I will just lay out my discussion here instead.Stage 1 Elemental Cascade.The standard single target damage for a level 8 brute is 2d8+7 x 1.25 = 28 (rounded down). A solo or elite should at the very least be able to attack twice in a round at that damage, in this case that would equal 56 HP max damage and by my calculations an average damage of 38. Elemental Cascade is 4 attacks for a maximum of 12 damage each plus effects. That means that if it hits with all attacks and scores maximum damage it will do 48 +5 ongoing fire for a grand total of 53 damage, and by my calculations an average of 31+5 ongoing fire. This means that damage wise Elemental Cascade is slightly suboptimal, especially when you consider that it is 4 attacks. Having this as 4 attacks means that it is unlikely that it will hit its target with all 4 but it should hit with at least 1 and hopefully 2 or 3. Elemental Cascade is also an encounter power and the only power the Guardian has to target the same PC more than once at a time. Rainbow WavesLooking at it again I think that Rainbow Waves might be more troublesome than Elemental Cascade. The secondary effect of either blinded or dazed are just as bad as each other and are almost certainly too much for a heroic level brute, they would be a lot more reasonable at high paragon or epic. I think the secondary effect should be replaced with; on hit the target is pushed 2 squares. This would keep the utility of the power as assured damage and a push to a greater or lesser extent depending on hit or miss. Bloodied TransformationWell the daze effect requires a hit (with a -1 penalty to accuracy) so it is by no means automatic. The effect is also until the end of PCs next turn, this means that depending on actual initiative a PC might end the dazed effect before the monsters can act. Only the PC that triggered the Bloodied Transformation is guaranteed to be dazed when the monsters act if they are hit. As to players hating being dazed or creatures having an on death attack we are probably going to have to disagree. Being dazed for one action isn’t denying the players their action, they still get one, and the daze effect is one turn only so personally I don’t see this as a problem. As to the on death burst you could describe the crystalline creature cracking and fracturing as it takes damage, maybe fissures slowly open in its surface that radiate coloured light. This would hint that it might be liable to explode. But as the explosion itself doesn’t actually do any damage as it is an optical effect they really don’t have anything to grumble about.  Stage 2,3,4 One thing to consider when assessing stages 2, 3 and 4 is that the PCs are only facing 3 creatures worth of XP value at the same time, no matter what combination of creatures they trigger. This means that XP wise all other things being equal these should be relatively simple encounters. What ups the threat scale is the design of the creatures and the resource drain from a much longer than usual encounter. Shifting Stalker I know what you mean about Stinging Haze, a 10 damage aura is potentially very nasty at heroic tier. But it is most likely that any Stalker will only have it active one round at a time so it has only a limited window of threat. The problem might be if more than one Stalker has the aura at the same time as auras now stack. Coupled with Fey Step it might be possible to deliver quite a nasty aura bomb given the right conditions. I would have thought that a groups natural instinct would be to concentrate on a single creature at a time, so they should make short work of one of the Stalkers which reduces their overall threat. Of course it then leads to more trouble which will give the PCs plenty to think about. The Stalkers on death trigger that transforms it into 5 Motes of Light is a burst 3, attack vs. Will; on hit grant combat advantage until the end of next targets next turn. The first time this happens there will be 2 Stalkers who might be able to capitalise on this, but at burst 3 you certainly aren’t going to hit all the PCs so I don’t see it as that much of a threat. On reflection though I think burst 3 might be a little large (after all that is 7x7 squares), burst 2 (5x5 squares) would probably give enough room to place 5 Motes of Light and ensure they were initially closer together to allow a window of opportunity in blasting them while they were bunched up. Mote Of Light Force repulsion is a triggered attack when missed by a melee attack. It is an attack that does no actual damage but might lead to a bit of comedy pinball action and deposit the melee PC far away from where it was. It is a power designed to keep things active and dynamic on the battlefield. Tragically of course it only activates on a missed melee attack so it might never happen. My original intention with this attack is that it could try and bounce PCs into the grabbing undergrowth, but bouncing them into an aura would be good too. I don’t think the PC would take damage if they were pushed into an aura until the start of their turn, and by then the Stalkers aura might have gone away due to its random nature. Emissary of the ThirdI am not sure about your assessment here, I don’t think the PCs have been taking any burst or blast damage since stage 1 when the first of these guys show up. The Stalker has no damaging blast or burst attack and neither does the Mote of Light. I think the biggest threat would come from Word of Command, but as it is a recharge power and isn’t a full Dominate I think it should be OK. The danger of course is that PC attacks can be quite nasty, but turning allies against each other strikes me as a very Fey thing to do. Again it is 5 PC vs. 3 PCs worth of monsters and by the time the first Emissary turns up the PCs should have recognised the pattern and will hopefully concentrate on the Emissary to see if it is the end of the chain or not.ConclusionI have probably missed a couple of your points, but please come back to me any further assessment. However you have certainly highlighted a couple of issues resulting in the following changes: Rainbow Hue GuardianChanged Rainbow Waves on hit effect from blinded/dazed to push 2 squares. Shifting StalkerChanged Motes of Light burst area from 3 to 2 Admittedly that is only 2 changes for now, but I am open to further discussion.</blockquote>

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