CBeet

I now wish to see a fulcrum shifted to damage cap Brute use a Very Rare Ion Judgement against 3 AVs.

There is a character I wish to make. I have powers, a costume, a great name and the want to level them.. I've been wanting to make them since I managed to get on the computer just after the account server went poof.

I am not amused, especially as Peregrine appears to have eaten my Incarnate so I can't carry on with that either.

In combat powers, procs only have one chance to activate
In toggles/autos, it's one chance every 10 seconds

Far as I can see, it's WAI. Personally, I'd take out the procs and slot it up for more damage/recharge. You want at least 95% enhanced damage and 85% enhanced recharge. Ideally, 95% for both. A good way I've found is slotting 4 Thunderstrike, 1 dam/end/recharge from any set and 1 proc into Burst and Slug, the +acc should be enough when combined with Tactics for FA to be slotted for 3 dam 3 rech (on a budget build, if you've no Tactics then replace one dam with an acc/dam IO).

2-3 recharge and as many procs as possible IMO.

All that's needed is something which pops out of a character's arms/wrists as a custom weapon which can only be tied to custom animations, with only an option for one or the other. Put like that, yes it could be a lot of work (I don't know, without dev input none of us do), but would also open up two-handed alternatives for Broadsword/Warmace/Battleaxe, weapon-based animations for elemental sets (Magic books, wands, staffs, guns, melee weapons, relics etc) and also open up sets for alternate concepts, like the suggestion at hand;

Wrist mounted 'guns' could be replaced with floating runes or a magical effect which fires the AR powers, magic origin!
A mutated growth, a vent or skin-coloured tube, science and mutant origin! Natural if you're an alien
Transparent outlines of tech gloves or outlandish weapons, for psychics/Green Lantern fans!
Full lower-arm covering guns, a whole range of them, for your Mega Man/Metroid Prime combat, Freakshow even!

Theoretically, if such technology is programmed in it could also lead to things like customised Mastermind pets, alternate Granite Armour animations/visuals and who knows what else that I've missed.

Poison for Corruptors/Defenders/Controllers, who wouldn't want that? Okay maybe not Defenders/Controllers, some sort of blueside equivelant - Curses? Strategies? (Preemptive GR argument counter-argument! Empathy vs Pain)

Let's be honest, changing Poison over for the others only really needs one power changed, even then it's a simple case of it being a targetted AoE debuff ala Lingering Radiation or timed toggle debuff like a mish mash of Darkest Night and Phase Shift, so let's get onto something meaty. I would like a poison blast set, a series of lethal/toxic/psi damage blasts based around slowly weakening the enemy with stacking debuffs and DoT to build up to impressive spike damage, if you can get everything in use at once. Consider it a blast equivelant of Dual Blades.

Combos will be done in simple one - two - threes, with the third being the power Catalyst, whose effect will be based upon the previous two powers.

Catalyst replaces the set's snipe, cost no endurance and has an 8 second recharge but applies a stacking 20 second self -recharge (15%) with use.

Hallucinogen ST minor psi damage, minor toxic DoT, 20% chance for mag 2 confuse (5s), 20% chance for mag 2 fear (5s), very fast recharge

Choke ST moderate Toxic damage, minor lethal DoT, 10% chance for mag 2 hold (5s), 20% chance for mag 2 stun (5s), fast recharge

Fumes Cone minor Toxic damage, moderate Toxic DoT, slow recharge

Infect Chaining Long Moderate Toxic Dot, moderate lethal damage after DoT, slow recharge

Catalyst Targetted AoE finisher, applies special effect, fast recharge

Aim

Intoxicate ST minor Toxic DoT, 80% chance to stun, slow recharge

Wither ST extreme Lethal(60%), Toxic (40%) DoT, Blazing Bolt level damage over 6 seconds, very slow recharge (20 seconds?)

Plague Chain extreme Toxic DoT, Blizzard level damage over 10 seconds, DoT stops enemies dying instantly so the chain will work, self -end/recovery nuke crash, foe -tohit (15%) -damage (20%) -recharge (25%), average Nuke recharge, debuffs last for 10 seconds


Combo Effects All effects are Targetted AoE

X + Infect
Hallucinogen - 5s mag 2 Confuse
Choke - 50% chance for vomit hold
Wither - Minor Toxic DoT

X + Fumes
Hallucinogen - 5s mag 2 Fear
Choke - 50% Chance for vomit hold
Intoxicate - Knockdown

X + Wither
Hallucinogen - 5s mag 2 Confuse, Withered enemy PBAoE taunt so confused enemies attack them
Choke - 75% chance for vomit hold
Infect - Moderate Toxic DoT

X + Plague
Hallucinogen - 7s mag 2 confuse, minor Psi DoT
Choke - 5s mag 2 hold, minor Lethal DoT
Fumes - Knockdown, -10% damage
Infect - 50% chance for vomit hold
Intoxicate - 5s mag 2 stun, -5% tohit
Wither - Moderate Toxic DoT, 15% -resistance


Bonus set! Strategist, support set for Defender, Controller and Mastermind, Defender numbers.

Belittle Envenom clone
Counter Actions Weaken clone
Inspire PBAoE Clear Mind clone, much higher endurance, same recharge
Chain of Command Chaining ally buff, +damage (10-20%) +tohit (5-10%), 30 second duration, 120 second recharge
Battle Plan Targetted area team buff, technology of Tar Patch, +runspeed (30%), +recharge (20%), +tohit (5%), 45 second duration, 120 second recharge, does not stack
Bear Pain ST Ally ressurect, 60 second recharge, self damage/-heal like Absorb Pain, ressurects to 20% health and endurance
Rally the Troops Team recall like the Veteren power, 90 second recharge
Defend the Flanks PBAoE ally +defense AoE (20%), 40% defense debuff resistance, protection to fear, repel and knockback, 30 second duration, 180 second recharge
Victory Assured PBAoE ally +defense to Melee/Ranged (20%), +recharge (40%), +regeneration (500%), +recovery (150%), 30 second duration, 300 second recharge

Well let's face it, it's not like the animations aren't already there or easy to imagine/find references for.

Something like this really needs to be in

I wouldn't say it'll make such a task easy, but for those who can do it or are close to, it'll just make the task easier.

Sounds suspiciously like something from some other game which may have come out not long ago..

Putting that aside, I'm going have to disagree. The main aspect of the game which appeals to me and, I think, most others, is that it's our original characters who are the signature Heroes/Villains in *our* story (even if it's running on well run tracks). The only real uses I can see for this kind of system is repeatedly faceplanting as Statesman for a giggle and reaching the elusive 1500 badges as no doubt a long string of badges are tacked onto each character you can choose from.

Unless I've entirely misunderstood?

Only changes I think think of for Poison would be changing Alkaloid to a normal click rather than having projectile time, makes it near impossible to throw a quick heal when there may be a couple seconds delay.

Then up the ST debuffs by 20-30% (maybe make it unresistable too?), higher than the perma-able AoE debuffs of other sets, but you know it's ST, high endurance and longish recharge. I don't want to throw out all my debuffs on an AV, lose a third of my endurance then find that a Dark Miasma has completely locked down everything else with debuff/control, plus applied pretty much the same debuffs to the AV too.. Because they were in the radius.

Finally, Noxious Gas changed to a toggle. Same recharge, maybe a 120 second cutoff point, endurance drain on par with Telekinesis. Toggling to a henchman is fine, if the debuff does it's job then they shouldn't die often, right? And toggling it to another player just stinks of overpowered.

Poison Trap can be used as an escape tool (in theory, not tried it that way) so I don't really mind it being skippable, sets need them for flexability and eccentricity. The ST focus of Poison isn't an issue to me, that's what it's there for, ST juggernaut, except most other debuff sets do it better due to it being AoE or higher numbers.

Even Trick Arrow's got most of the debuffs of Poison but they're all AoE, and it can put down AoE -30% res/AoE hold/AoE fire patch, at similar end + recharge numbers of Poison.. We all know what kind of reputation TA has, the only thing making Poison stand out compared to it is the small slow heal and ally ressurect/mez prot, only really shining for debuffs once Noxious Gas is in play for the brief moment it's available.

I have lost count of how many times I've pulled Romulus and his Nictus with Fire Ball on my Blaster or Scrapper while screaming 'TACTICS!' before the team knows what's going on.

Also can't remember the last time it didn't work in getting the team off their bums and steamrolling Rommy with ease.

P.S. I usually do it because if I don't, someone will beat me to it and it's fun.

For great AoE I can suggest combining Electric Melee and Fiery Aura, any of the combinations work, just depends on how you want it to play out. I'd suggest Tanker, as the AoE damage is high enough anyway to warrent it being slightly lowered for the extra survivability. You don't do any damage when you're dead (unless you have Rise of the Phoenix).

Quality over quantity in terms of how many Incarnate levels I'd say.

Quantity over quality (usually) for customisation.

No Doctor Vahzilok? For shame.

..Randomly rolled 2 LotG 7.5% recharge with the merits.

As many as you can afford generally. Chance for knockdown and 3 damage procs (the -recharge proc is useless) are possible, one of the damage procs is a PvP IO so quite expensive so just sticking to knockdown, energy and smashing damage still makes it a pretty funny power to proc.

On the subject of speed runs, I find them usually reserved to evening TFs, for people who're back from work and want to just get the merit grind out of the way for the evening and save the real gameplay for the weekend, or those who have an hour or so to play and want to make the most of it.

What I find though, when I'm on a TF with the regular bunch of folks I hover around, we do speed runs anyway. With IOs, Incarnates, veteren rewards and sheer amount of time learning how to play the game, we can plow through enemies on the way to the objectives and pretty much complete (sometimes +4) TFs in record time.

And we're just the roleplayers, power gamers have no excuse for 15 minute speed runs when you can do it in 40 and get inf from enemies/purple drops/incarnate shards other than time constraints IMO.

My favourite is most certainly Full Auto, it just feels like a real oomphy attack.

Then my numerical side team up with the part of my brain which goes "Ooooh cool!" and puts Rain of Arrows and LRM in close second.

HoB is way too flashy for my liking, and has too many cons for a crashless nuke IMO.

Time Bomb is at the end because it's got more cons than HoB and less pros too.

Trick Arrow also debuffs everything else Dark can, in an AoE, plus -def, -perception, an AoE hold and AoE attack (Oil Slick Arrow when lit).

Trick Arrow also has Acid Arrow, another -res for a total of -40% in an AoE (as a Defender), plus the power has -def and some toxic DoT which can be abused for procs (chance for knockdown, 4 chances for damage, chance for +tohit and chance for another -20% resistance) all on a 20 second recharge at base. Acid and Disruption Arrow can both be thrown out in 2.5 seconds(ish).

Dark one-ups by superior -tohit and healing/ressurecting, Trick Arrow is there to stop the enemy from being able/alive enough to take anyone out in the first place. It also looks cool.

If I had the patience, I'd build my Bane something like this:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Bane Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Bane Spider Training
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
------------
Level 1: Bash T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(3), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(3), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), T'Death-Dam%(7)
Level 1: Bane Spider Armor Upgrade S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A)
Level 2: Combat Training: Defensive DefBuff-I(A)
Level 4: Wolf Spider Armor S'fstPrt-ResKB(A)
Level 6: Build Up RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(7)
Level 8: Boxing Acc-I(A)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers GftotA-Def(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(11), GftotA-Def/Rchg(11), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(13), DefBuff-I(13)
Level 12: Pulverize T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(15), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(15), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), T'Death-Dam%(19)
Level 14: Poisonous Ray Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg(21), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23), Achilles-ResDeb%(23)
Level 16: Tough Empty(A)
Level 18: Shatter C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(25), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(25), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29)
Level 20: Weave GftotA-Def(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(29), GftotA-Def/Rchg(31), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(31), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(31)
Level 22: Mental Training Run-I(A)
Level 24: Cloaking Device DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(33), EndRdx-I(33)
Level 26: Placate RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(33)
Level 28: Surveillance ShldBrk-Acc/DefDeb(A), ShldBrk-Acc/Rchg(34), ShldBrk-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(34), ShldBrk-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 30: Tactical Training: Leadership AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(34), EndRdx-I(36)
Level 32: Crowd Control Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(36), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(36), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(37), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 35: Maneuvers GftotA-Def(A), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(39), GftotA-Def/Rchg(39), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(39), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(40)
Level 38: Call Reinforcements C'Arms-Acc/Rchg(A), C'Arms-Dmg/EndRdx(40), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), C'Arms-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(42)
Level 41: Mace Blast Dev'n-Acc/Dmg(A), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg(42), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 44: Shatter Armor C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(45), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 47: Summon Blaster C'Arms-Acc/Rchg(A), C'Arms-Dmg/EndRdx(48), C'Arms-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48), C'Arms-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(48)
Level 49: Combat Jumping DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(50), Jump-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 1: Sprint Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(46)
Level 2: Hurdle Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(9), EndMod-I(9), P'Shift-End%(43)
------------



Surveillance - Summon pet - Build Up
Shatter, Shatter Armor, Poisonous Ray, Placate, Shatter.
That's +80% damage to self and potentially -60% resistance to the target for the final Executioner's Strike.

That's either a dead boss or an EB missing a few limbs, makes a nice dent in AVs too. The build is softcapped in combat with enough raw damage and recharge to make Blasters cringe and two pets who can be cycled between, there's also a health chunk of +hp, +end and +recovery. Musculature Alpha for more DPS, Spiritual for faster distractions (pets). I think it's within budget, and if you have them handy, replacing CD and CJ's slotting with LotG Defense, Defense/End and global recharge will work nicely.


Edit: Forgot the chunk:

I'm expecting something which will bump up player stats to be on par to those of an AV - Increasing the HP/regen cap, damage/recharge cap, resistance/defense cap and endurance/recovery cap while also granting a bonus to each, but not to the caps, with the Ultra Rare offering something like this:

+2.5k added to HP cap, 500% added to regeneration cap. 1k hp automatically granted (1.5k to Tanker/Brute), 200% regeneration automatically granted (400% to Tanker/Brute)

+300% to damage cap, 100% to recharge cap. 100% automatically granted to damage (150% to Blaster and Stalker), 50% to recharge (75% to Dominator and Controller)

+20% added to resistance cap, 100% added to defense cap. 30% resistance to all damage automatically granted (40% to Tanker/Scrapper/Brute/Stalker), 30% defense to all damage and positions automatically granted (45% to Tanker/Scrapper/Brute/Stalker), resistance caps only go up to 99%

+50 added to endurance cap, +100% added to recovery cap. +20 endurance automatically granted (+30 to Defenders and Corruptors), +50% recovery automatically granted (+75% to Defenders and Corruptors)


OR

Purple triangles of doom clickie with increasing level bumps (T1 +0, T2 +1, T3 +2, T4 +3, letting you get to level 54 with the Alpha Slot)

Based on this thread which I don't want to ressurect.

The Snipes

Small tweaks for the sometimes little used snipes. While serving their general purpose of being able to pick off a single target from a long distance, I often hear people skipping or avoiding snipes because AoEs are generally 'better' (I don't think this, just what I hear, here free to correct me).

What if snipes applied AoE effects? They keep their current damage, have a few seconds added to the recharge, but also do:

Ranged Shot and Sniper Rifle are turned into very small cones, like Piercing Rounds, 3 target limit.
Moonbeam's -tohit made AoE
Zapp adding a jumping chain for Charged Bolts damage, with end drain
Sniper Blast with an AoE knockdown
Psionic Lance with an AoE -speed -recharge
Proton Volley's -defense made AoE, perhaps with a very small -resistance too
Blazing Bolt with an AoE fire DoT equal to half of Fire Ball

Those which don't do damage wouldn't draw aggro, so a clean pull can be made by them still. Shoot the idea down if you want, but at least think about it or come up with your own idea/s for how a Snipe can be more fast-paced CoX friendly, hopefully with more care for the lone target pull.

And Other Interruptables

Gun Drone, Time Bomb, Crashing Nukes (interrupted by death).

I cannot say how useful Gun Drone could be for a smart Blaster, your own little tank, a large Defiance buff to try and make up for the lack of Build Up (but still not enough, sorry), a little damage on the side.. But it takes so long. Stops in a fight are boring as that's what they are, stops, pauses, breaks from the fun and meat of the game.

Time Bomb is like Gun Drone, without it really being useful. The amount of damage it does can be done in the amount of time it takes to be put down and explode anyway, especially in a team environment which equates to roughly 90% of gameplay with plenty more team-based activities on the way.

And there're the nukes, panic buttons or quick mob-sweepers, they are really good at what they do but sometimes, just sometimes, not quite fast enough. I don't care about my character's death, if I go down I've usually got a trick up my sleeve (thanks to years as a Blaster) or an ally to rely on, but I would much prefer if nukes can be relied on to take down a group.
As it is, the crash itself can be a problem with the current state of gameplay (Fast! Action! 15 minute ITFs!) but not an issue, I find it a fair trade-off for exploding everything, but can the Self-Destruct code be put over to set based nukes so that, if you happen to die during the animation, the damage is still done? As a squishy, when you find your health is low there's usually only a split second between the realisation and eating floor. Death is not the problem, waiting after exploding isn't the problem, being unable to utilise an ace up my sleeve due to long animations is.. Well, annoying at best admittedly, maybe not as big a problem as others, but it irks me.

And Other Interruptable, but shorter

I think the cast time for Gun Drone needs to be halved due to it being boring
I think Time Bomb either needs to be instant cast with the current count-down or turned into an Omega Maneuver clone due to it being boring and ineffective
I think Nukes with crashes should still do their damage even if you die during the animation because it's annoying (but not too important)

Please add your own evidence and thoughts on why I am wrong and add your own ideas and interpretations of my thoughts.