[Powers] Making Affliction- and DoT/Cyclic-based characters viable and effective

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

It is a personal observation of mine that building characters based on Affliction and 'DoT' (i.e. Cyclic) attacks is largely a matter of flavour, with greatly reduced efficiency. Interesting 'debuff' Afflictions are not all that useful compared to a low-cost Stunning one, or a rapid-firing Paralyzing/Sleeping/Heart-attacking one. Cyclic attacks at combat-usable rates are so expensive that it is often better to just dump more damage all at once through either high skill and RoF, or just bigger initial damage. The effect is even more pronounced with abilities discounted below 100% cost before adding Cyclic.

Is the 'afflictor' a purely fluffy kind of character, or is there a way to make interesting affliction cost-reasonable?

Thanks in advance!