My Top 3 Gear Set Concepts (All Team-Based Bonuses)
My top 3 gear set concepts each have the same basic feature in common - a team bonus that makes it desirable to have an agent running the set as part of a team.
1. Sentry's Call: The 4 piece Sentry bonus is arguably the most important team bonus in the current version of the game. The fact that I can mark enemies for a 15%-45% damage bonus for our entire team has a profound influence on a team's ability to make things happen in the game. One agent running 4 piece Sentry and marking enemies for the damage bonus is often the difference for success vs. failure in the current game's most challenging content, such a farming the 4 horsemen on heroic.
2. Tactician's Authority: The 4 piece Tactician bonus is nearly as important in team play as 4 piece Sentry. Having an agent who runs 4 piece Tactician on a team sets up the team to have a pulse and smart cover that is backed by 50,000+ base skill power - plus the 4 piece skill power bonus meter that fills due to the damage done by the entire team. Having an agent with 50,000+ skill power on the team constantly puts the team in position to have the substantial damage buff/damage protection that is generated from the constant use of pulse and smart cover. From my experience with the game, the difference between a decent team that struggles with the most challenging content (heroic incursions, heroic underground, level 35 enemies in the DZ) and a strong team that can handle the most challenging content is the team's ability to use the Tactician's damage buff/damage protection. The decent team tends to ignore smart cover - which inevitably leads to a team member falling and then dying - which then soon results in the team failing the challenging content. The strong team uses smart cover to its benefit, thus making the Tactician bonuses incredibly valuable.
3. Reclaimer: The 4 piece Reclaimer bonus, while not as essential as Sentry or Tactician, also provides a great boost for team play. An agent who is running with 4 piece Reclaimer and is skilled at selecting which consumables to provide to the team (at strategic/appropriate times) is a great teammate. In addition to providing exotic damage or a damage bonus to elites, etc., the agent's teammates see almost constant visual evidence of the team member's contribution while the bonus is active. The challenge with Reclaimer is that agents do not always understand when and how to use the various consumable bonuses. An agent who is experienced with running Reclaimer (and also has reasonably high skill power for a shorter cooldown period) makes the game fun for the entire team.
For me, the "ultimate" mix of gear sets on a team is two agents running 4 or 5 piece Sentry, one agent running Tactician and one agent running Reclaimer. Having two agents generating 15%-45% team damage bonuses in conjunction with a pulse and smart cover backed by +50,000 skill power and a skilled Reclaimer providing explosive bullets or water truly allows each team member to make a substantial contribution to what we are trying to do in the game. While this powerful mix of teammates can make certain parts of the game "too easy" (such as the daily and weekly HVTs), the team is still challenged in heroic incursions, heroic underground and in battles against tough level 35 bosses in DZ supply drops and DZ 05/06.
Moving forward, my hope for the 1.4 update is that you step back and rethink some of the bonuses for the other gear sets. If some (or even all) of the 4 piece bonuses for the other gear sets offered other interesting and useful team bonuses, these gear sets would be used much more often. I can expand on ideas for additional 4-piece gear set team bonuses for the currently less popular gear sets if this is something that you want more feedback on in the coming weeks.
1 people found this helpful