Oathbound

It's not uncommon for single target and aoe variations of the Immobilizes/Holds to have extremely similar names.

e.g.
Crush -> Crushing Field
Gravity Distortion -> Gravity Distortion Field
Dominate -> Total Domination
Confuse -> Mass Confusion

Also, don't Faraday caged Protect you from electrical discharge/fields?

Not that I'm really opposed to using a different name, just that I rather like Nikola Tesla... I avoided adding a Tesla Coil power, because the set already had 2 powers with Tesla in their name.


(Note the name of my Grav/Elec Dominator in my Signature.)

Mostly I just wanted to use Lightning Rod's animation somewhere in the set.

The set's emphasis would be End Drain as a secondary control type, and the end drain of the set is all geared towards melee range so I figured it would make a useful tool for getting into melee range quickly, and negating a fatal alpha strike from it.

It's more of a reverse Wormhole though. Instead of bringing the mobs to you, you take yourself to the mobs.

Took your original proposal, and changed it a bit based on my own ideas, and the suggestions of others.


1) Electric Fence - Single target immobilize

2) Tesla Cage - Single target hold

3) Electrifying Fences - AoE immobilize

4) Short Circuit - PBAoE Damage, -Endurance, -Recovery

5) Static Field - 20'Radius PBAoE toggle: -Endurance, -Tohit, -Speed, 30% chance for Sleep

6) Electrostatic Discharge - Location AoE Disorient, Knockdown, self Teleport (Uses Lightning Rod animation/effects)

7) Tesla Field - AoE hold

8) Energy Cascade - AoE Damage Special, End Drain special, Ally +End Special. Deals damage and drains endurance from each target within the radius, for each target within the radius, and restores endurance to any allies near your target. (Technical description; Spawns a pseudo-pet for each foe within the radius. Each pet fires off a pbaoe Damage/End drain/Ally +end power then despawns. Net result is that vs a single target you drain a little end and deal a little damage, but vs multiple targets you deal a fair share of damage and drain a significant amount of end.)

9) Voltaic Construct - Super Sparky/Voltaic Sentinel on steroids. An actual targetable pet akin to other controller tier 9s, can use the Cap Gremlin model people love. Has Charged Brawl, Havoc Punch, Lightning Strike and summons Voltaic Sentinel.


Got rid of the extra aoe hold, added a bit more distinction to the set, and buffed up VS to an actual pet.

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In almost 3 years of playing I have never one time noticed any "Defense Boost" while using it.

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Ah... well, then, try clicking on "Powers" then "Combat Attributes" then checking out "Defense," and compare hover up versus hover down.

The combat attributes tab is useful for determining the effects of powers on your overall performance. If you can grok the math.

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I highly doubt Bad is being literal, but rather that he or she means that it has basically no noticeable effect on your overall damage mitigation in actual game play.

I like the set, all the way up to the giant wasp(rachelthulu)/bee(J_G). Giant insects just seem soo..... cheesy.

Since you have the spiffy little pets and pseudo-pets, how about something unique among controllers for a Tier 9, a self armor. This would make it so that instead of getting a pet at 32, you "become" your pet.

You could use the Cloak of Shadows/Power Surge costume model, with added insects to look like a human shaped mass of bees.

The power would be a "Granite Armor like" toggle that offers the controller themselves decent defense, with some penalties, something like:

Tier 9 Social Order: Summons a colony of bees to protect you. Provides moderate defense against all damage types except psionics, as the mass of drones absorb the impact for you. Additionally, since your mind is linked to the greater hive any psychic attacks, and controlling effects used against you are greatly weakened as they are spread out amongst the colony as a whole. Foes that get too close risk being stung, dealing minor Toxic damage over time, and slowing their movement.

Numbers of say:
12.5% defense to Smashing and Lethal
10% defense to Fire, Cold, Energy and Negative
20% resist to Psionic
6.92mag protection from Hold, Sleep and Disorient
20% chance for 3*0.1scale DoT (power ticks every 0.5s standard for armors)

Penalty wise It wouldn't need all the penalties of GA because it's nowhere near as potent:
-35%speed (same as stealth pool power) and say
-50%range (This serves to push you in closer to melee range, to counter the possible "Tankmageryness")
I wouldn't include a damage or recharge penalty, because control sets already tend to have a great many long recharge powers, and their damage is already fairly low.

The numbers may seem rather low, but they would have to be given that Controllers have a support secondary to stack with it, and Dominators potentially add solid damage on top of the mitigation.

Some groups also seem to spawn bosses far more frequently, and on lower settings/team sizes than others.

Lost and Banished Pantheon immediately spring to mind.

While I've never had missions of -entirely- lieutenants, I have had missions with only 1 or 2 spawns that -weren't- lieutenants.

Ignoring the whole HEAT/VEAT parity clause:

*There seems to be a TON of build in redraw across basically all of your proposed Archetypes. Arachnos Widow/Soldier powersets were designed to avoid such issues by utilizing the same weapon for all of their offensive abilities within each set. The baseline PPD, PPD Officer, baseline Longbow, Longbow SpecOps and Longbow Warden all have either a secondary weapon or unarmed subset for their melee attacks, forcing a considerable amount of redraw which will negatively impact the performance of all of those builds.

*The Hardsuit look fairly resonable, however there seems to be an issue with each of the subsequent "Armor Suits" effectively invalidating the previous version. CoH has always been a game built upon powers (more or less) -always- being useful. From level 1 to level 50. I would recommend altering the protection they provide so that each defends against a different pairing(set) of damage types, and removing the inability to stack with one another. Recharge numbers on these powers would also help to determine JUST how effective each power is (Downtime vs Uptime).

*Some sets seem to have an overabundance of powers to chose from, while others have a distinc shortage. Hardsuit attacks are a prime example of this. Without resigning yourself to chosing a significant number of attacks from the Baseline primary there's no possible way to form a cohesive attack chain (again lack of recharge numbers doesn't help clarify this any). However, if you DO pick powers from the baseline primary you're now in the posistion of having ecessive redraw because baseline powers are not compatable with the hardsuit attack method.

*Some powers just don't make much sense (Either in the set, or where they are within the set). I get that you're trying to make them more support oriented vs Soldier/Widow offense/personal defense, but it seems rather clunky as is. PPD Officer; Resuscitate and an auto resist buff as a part of an almost purely debuff/control primary seems completely out of place. PPD Officer's PPD Cop summon power also comes exeptionally late, and while I realise it's part of the branch set so you will have it from the start of your PPD Officer career, if you exemplar you lose all of your secondary powers, eliminating the entire FEEL of the branch. I would recommend setting it as a level 1 power, that way if you exemplar below branching level you lose most of your pets, but maintain the branch Identity.

*Longbow SpecOps have 6 toggles to manage, and no endurance recovery or management tool of any type. Even given the same VEAT endurance discount for the leadership powers that puts the base end cost of their toggles at 1.41end/sec. Almost twice the end cost of armor sets such as Invulnerability, Super Reflexes, Shield Defense, Ninjutsu, and Willpower.

*Longbow Warden support sets seem to be an amalgamation of power from different sets, thrown together with no rhyme or reason. The set lacks any attempt at a theme other than "Some Longbow mob somewhere in the game uses this." Additionally, the Warden Training set seems to also have a few powers comepletely out of left field. An auto self armor, and an aoe immobilize in an otherwise fully support oriented set.

Beyond those specific issues I have with the current proposal, I'd just like to mention that Longbow are bland and generic and In my opinion at least, not deserving of Epic Archetype status.

PPD are cool though.

Sleeps and Stuns are two of the more common types of Mez in the game.

If a mob group HAS mez, it's basically guaranteed to have a sleep or a disorient. Even if they don't have true Mez powers, there are many melee attacks that have a stun component.

Particularly at the higher end of the game, you WILL be spamming that power for the protection it offers, instead of the heal, effectively meaning that you wont have a heal.

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How would you feel if I took your national flag down from a flagpole, threw it down on the ground and walked all over it? Or I shot several holes in it? Stuck my finger down my throat and vomited all over it? Put on a set of Kung Fu Tiger Claws, and ripped a bunch of holes in it? Took a knife and stabbed and ripped it several times? Burned it? Threw acid on it? Dumped a bunch of raw sewage on it? (Which would include human feces, among other things.)

You really have no problem with that?

Because if you wear it as a cape, that's just a few of the things that are going to happen to it.

If you really have no objection to defacing the flag of your country that way, what kind of message are you really sending about how you feel about your country?

Respect for your country and for the flag that represents it includes NOT putting it in a situation where you know it will become soiled, torn, burnt, befouled or otherwise defaced. Wearing it as a cape would most certainly be putting it in such a situation.


Look up the colors and the flags of nations you want to have your characters come from, and use those within the costume creator to associate them with those countries. But if you wouldn't be comfortable seeing the flag of your own nation torn, burnt, soiled and defaced as a part of someone's costume, then you should extend the same courtesy to the flags of other nations.

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I just feel the need to point out that for centuries armies carried the flag of their nations into battle, well knowing that (many of) those things could well happen to the bearers, and indeed the flag itself.

So frankly I don't agree.

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Could definitely do something like that based on the oil-slick coding...

I'd love to see something like this implemented heroside. Give the Villains a similar set with more DoTs, similar animations, and Acid ranged attacks. =-3

Then let me make an Acid/Poison Corrupter, Darn it! >_<

-Rachel-

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Given Powerset Proliferation, I don't see the Devs ever doing any Side-specific sets anymore. (Some exceptions of course, summoning sets, manipulation sets, etc.)

There are already powers Blueside that utilize acid (Acid Arrow), Poison (Poison Gas arrow) and narcotic effects (Tranquilizer Dart).

I think that an Acid Blast set would be perfectly fine on both sides of the fence, and I can't think of any reason why Water would be blue side only.

In short: Yes to both on both sides.

Frankly, There's already and entire set of Martial Arts kicks.

I like Jump Kick because it's silly and cartoony.

I suppose I'll have to be the lone dissenter in the pack, and say I like Jump Kick's animation.

Change for change's sake is bad. *cough*red lightning/villain invulnerability*cough*

(QR)

Here's an example of the type of modification I think that a the ATs would need to their support sets:

This set is based off of Cold Domination and focuses primarily on PBAoE effects.

Coldfront (Cold Domination)
1) Refresh - PBAoE Click - 25' Radius - 8second Recharge - 30second Duration
11% Heal
+Resist 5%Fire/Cold [unenhanceable][Stacks from same caster]

2) Frozen Shell - PBAoE Click - 25' Radius - 15second Recharge - 240second Duration (Based off of Ice Shield/Glacial Shield)
+Defense 10% Smash/Lethal/Melee
+Resist 7.5% Cold
+Resist 5% Fire

3) Frigid Aura - PBAoE Toggle - 25' Radius - 10second Recharge (Snowstorm)
-Speed/Recharge 50%

4) Glacial Shell - PBAoE Click - 25' Radius - 15second Recharge - 240second Duration (Based off of Ice Shield/Glacial Shield)
+Defense 10% Energy/Negative/Ranged/AoE
+Resist 7.5% Cold
+Resist 5% Fire

5) Arctic Fog - PBAoE Toggle - 40' Radius - 15second Recharge (Straight Port of Arctic Fog)
+Stealth
+Defense Melee/Ranged/AoE 3.75%
+Resist Fire/Cold/Energy 15%
+Resist Speed/Recharge debuff 60%

6) Biting Cold - Ranged Click - 70' Range - 90second Recharge - 30second Duration (Infrigidate and Benumb)
-Regeneration 500%
-Defense 25%
-Speed/Recharge 62.5%
-Damage 50%

7) Frost Coat - PBAoE Click - 25' Radius - 480second Recharge - 120second Duration (Frostwork)
+Max Hitpoints 44%
+Resist Toxic 15%

8) Arctic Freeze - PBAoE Click - 15' Radius - 30second Recharge - 15second Duration (Variation of Sleet, ended up just going with a PBAoE Arctic Breath, which was based of sleet/freezing rain anyhow)
10x 2.54damage over 10seconds
-Defense All 30%
-Resist all 30%
-Speed/Recharge 40%

9) Heat Loss - Target AoE Click - 15' Radius - 360second Recharge - 90second Duration Buff/30second Duration Debuff (Straight Port of Heat Loss)
Foe -Speed 30%
-Recharge 300%
-Resist All 30%
-Endurance 33%
Ally +Endurance 20points
+Recovery 50%


The defense Buffs (Ice Shield and Glacial Shield) are changed into PBAoE powers, so they affect your character as well, but at a slightly lowered value. Combined with the fact that you DON'T have the added safety of being able to stay at range, I think it's fine that way.

I altered almost all of the powers to be PBAoE effects, since the design of the archetype puts them right in the thick of things anyhow.

I didn't change Heat Loss at all, because if it functions the way I think it does (Like Fulcrum Shift) it pushes you into melee if you want the full benefits from it anyhow. (My Cold defender is only level 18ish so I'm not too sure.)

*Frostwork as is with 3 Recharge SOs slotted can be on 1/2 of an 8man team full time, so I swapped it out to being on the Full 8 man team 1/2 the time)

EDITED: to remove an unnecessary note about soemthing I changed anyhow.

Forcefield and Sonic seem to me like they would be two of the sets that make the MOST sense on a melee/support character, as they're the only ones that offer any substantial personal defense that's NOT entirely dependent on mob placement (Being within the radius of your debuffs) or mob debuff resistance (Archvillains and the like, who'll shrug off your debuffs AND smack you good with their AoE and hard hitting melee attacks.)

I would actually like to see melee/suport, or support/melee character types, but there are some things that I think should be different.

First, UGH to scaling Status protection. Especially the Daredevil one.

Assuming the Daredevil is being the team's agro sponge, by time the Daredevil has any meaningful amount of status protection, they're as good as dead anyhow. Also, this puts you in the situation that in order to maintain your debuffs against mezzing enemies (basicaly all late game groups) people can't heal you, and you can't heal yourself. Meaning either you faceplant because you can't maintain your hitpoints, or you faceplant because you can't maintain your debuffs/buffs.

Second situation is that you're NOT the tank for your team, so you're not taking much damage, and thus have no status protection. HOWEVER you have to be in melee range, which means every single aoe control used on your main tank is going to hit you, shutting you down entirely.

Just make it a middling value of permanent protection. Say 4-6points.



Second, I actually think that most, or even ALL, support sets SHOULD be specifically reworked for this Archetype, not ported in as is.

Hurricane for instance is an exceptionally counterproductive power for an archetype that relies on melee attacks. As would be any mass Knockback type powers; Repel, Repulsion Field, Sonic Repulsion, Force Bubble, Gale. As well asl any powers that cause scatter; Freezing Rain/Sleet, lit Oil Slick Arrow. And to a lesser extent certain other powers such as Force Bolt, Lightning Storm and Tornado.

(I actually have done quite a bit of thinking on this subject and have some sample power layouts written down. I'll add a mock up of what I think it should look like once I get it typed up.)

Frankly I'd be happy if, at the very least, I could have a normal cape on my male widow. (Though I say if people want buttcapes on theirs, by all means.)

I realize a normal cape may have to attach differently for widows due to the back spider detail thingy, but Soldier and Bane capes already do.

This stuff's so awesome.

Awesome stuff.

Seeing people make great pictures always makes me wish I kept practicing my drawing, so I could do stuff like it.

Perhaps I'll dig my supplies out of.... wherever the heck they are by now... and waste some paper lol.

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Oh, that's just mean!

My vote's going to go to Obsidius...cuz us art virgins gotta stick together!

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Yay for art virgins!

Umm.... I guess I'll vote for my fellow Sacramentan art virgin, Manoa.

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If the queue is still open...

Oathbound


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PS - this link is not working.

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Err... yeah I reorganized my photobucket account some.... woops.

Is fixed.

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I have a name... and that's it. Heroside.
Name is Oathbearer.
Something magic-y...
I just don't have a AT or powerset yet.
Any suggestions and/or costume ideas?
I have the Wedding, Valk and Cyborg packs, with 30 month vet reward, if that helps.

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<.< >.>

Forcefield/Psichic Defender... but I'm Biased.

(And I apologize ahead of time if you actually take my advice)

EDIT: And no, while I do love Mercedes Lackey dearly, that's not where my Forum, or Global handles came from, and the Oathbound character isn't based on anyone in her books.

Soloed (with shivans) Adamastor on my (then level 42) dark/ice.

I don't think I could take him just by myself as he's got 25% cold resist, and doesn't seem to like staying on my Tar Patches too well.

Very interesting way of doing it...

Nice piece there. I'm already jealous lol.

*Runs to post as many screenies of his own characters as possible in any pertinent threads*

<.< >.> what?

(i kid, i kid)

One would think that, with the exceptions of Gravity and possibly Mind control, each secondary should yield the same (relative) added result for each Primary it's paired with.

**I'd say that Gravity and Mind both use more powers as a part of their attack chain, Mind's might activate fast enough for it not to matter, but Gravity's certainly will make using the more active secondaries (kinetics for instance) problematic (Please for the love of <insert deity> can you speed up Propel???).