Raithnor_Mal

Random Thought: What about the idea of making all Single Target team buffs and debuffs be targeted AoEs? The AoE buff/debuff wouldn't be a strong as the target buff, but could also affect the Defender. Existing AoE buffs/debuffs are unchanged.

I know, I know: Buffs/Debufs aren't the problem and on Defender teams this would get stupidly broken.

I guess the problem is: Should the Denfeder Inherent assist in the Defender's primary job of Buffs/DeBuffs or should it assist the defender when he has to solo?

If it's to solo that's why I suggest Corruptor values minus scourge, maybe accounting for the Defender's better buff numbers, so maybe a 5% boost than a 10% one.

Take this for what it's worth: I run one of each AT, of the basic ATs I found the Defender was the hardest to solo in the early levels. I was running a Sonic/Sonic so I was taking advantage of the secondary effects of the set. I still remember how aggrivating it was to do a simple clockwork mission in the sewers in the lower levels. You have to also understand that my first (and often favorite) character was my Rad/Rad Corruptor, so it's not like I was going at the defender completely cold.

Soloing my Peacebringer in the early levels felt similarly anemic before the buffs were implimented.

Venture,

What are your criteria for taking existing mobs and "rebranding" them as something else? Can you rework the mobs as something new or are they forever what they are supposed to be according to the game canon?

Example: If I wanted to reuse Malta Titans as part of a custom faction, because they have the look and types of powers I'm looking for, can I rename them, rewrite the info on them, and not get beaten over the head with "Well they're still Malta Titans" as part of one of your reviews?

Just to let everyone know, I'm spitballing ideas. So I am aware that they may be unbalanced or outright broken., but if they get people thinking then it's served it's purpose.

How about this idea: For every Buff the Defender casts that affects another player, a percentage of the Buff comes back to the caster.

I know it has holes: It doesn't help Debuff-only sets like Trick Arrow and on full teams buffing eight people could have problem unless they don't stack. Note this wouldn't affect powers that buff you and everyone around you. So it's less useful on sets like Empathy which has a lot of PBAoE auras.

How about this as a companion: Defender DeBuffs can "Critical" on enemy mobs where there's a 5-10% chance for extra debuffage. Maybe you could go as far as extending that to the Defender Blast sets. In that regard Archery gets left out, unless you could have a random "To-Hit buff" applied per attack.

That's almost the approach you have to take: Something for the Buffs and something for the Debuffs, or a global approach like "more base damage".

Keep in mind Kheldans got a buff to human form damage scale similar to the damage buffs Blasters, Stalkers, and Dominators received.

My biggest suggestion is to make Defender Damage equal to about base Corruptor Damage, the Corruptor has Scourge and the Defender has better Buff numbers.

I agree Vigilance should be reworked but I have no clue on how to rework it so it affects all sets in a similar way. How about a reverse of the Blaster idea? Blasters can shoot while Mezzed, Defenders can Buff while Mezzed. Limit it to being able to use the first three powers of the primary set.

That's all I got.

Here's an idea for replacing Conserve Power:

Jump Start - Self Rez with optional PBAoE Stun similar to Soul Transfer or perhaps an END drain to all enemies in the area.

Aid Self is of questionable use. You really can't use it as a combat heal in large teams, and it reqiuires another power choice as a pre-req. In mission with smaller mobs it's less critical as you can take your time between mobs. Sure, you can loss some fury, but you have to balance fury generation with what the character need to be effective.

If you want fly as a travel power park your character in Grandville and/or buy Jetpacks. Air Sup does help with with Mitigation, but you can also get the Kinetic Combat IO proc to help.

One thing I did do was get a Jump +stealth IO and put it in combat jumping. It helps you approach a mob and at least you can get Fire Sword circle off before they attack.

Also try to slant your enemies towards Energy users and away from S/L users. Clockwork, Mu, Circle of Thorns Air Casters, Rikti, Freakshow, a good chunk of Crey, Lost also work, Kheldan PPD are especially fun. You'll find in the 40s-50s you can get away with obscene things on Positron and similar energy-based Heroes.

I run a Archery/Devices blaster. He doesn't quite put out the same damage as an /NRG would, but it is versitile.

One notable accomplishment: I was able to drop Mako on an STF through his Elude.

Now that I16 is going to have alternate animations selections I'd like to put together a list of animations that you wouldn't normally think of. Mostly it's to cutdown on redraw and add a little versimiltude to the weapon-based ranged attacks.

Soldiers of Arachnos

Wide Area Web Grenade - Rifle or Mace
Web Cocoon - Rifle or Mace
Build up - Rifle or Mace

These two would be nice, but I could understand if the Devs said "No"
Frag Grenade - Rifle or Mace
Venom Grenade - Rifle or Mace

Black Scorpion Patron Set

Web Envelope - Rifle, Mace or Bow
Web Cocoon - Rifle. Mace or Bow

Munitions Master Epic Set

The "Bow" version of the powers would be Trick Arrows.

Cryo Ray - Rifle or Bow
Sleep Grenade - Rifle or Bow
LRM Rocket - Rifle or Bow

Trick Arrow Set

All - Bow or "Rifle" - The idea here is that the Frankengun fires Harpoons/Crossbow bolts with specialize ammo.

One idea to promote synergy with Trick Arrow would be the idea of "Bow" animations for the various "Elemental" sets. "Fire Bows", "Ice Bows", "Psionic Bows", etc. This would include the Dark (and presumably fire) attacks from the Necromancy and Demon sets.

There are probably similar powers I'm missing that would benefit from animations beyond the typical "Punches for MA" and "Different punches for SS", but that's the point of this thread.

One neat idea would be for the Munitious mastery powers to have Bow or Grenade animations as opposed to Rifle ones.

Like I said before this isn't a "MUST DO IT NAO!"-type request. This is more of a "It would be nice if you could do it" -request.

Faction: Hero
4 missions
Level range: 35-40
no EBs or AVs

Reviews welcome

Here's an idea I had for Masterminds, it would take a lot of development to make it would but I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in the idea.

Here's how it works:

The mastermind primary is split into two sub powersets: Minions and Weapons. The Minion sets would have all of the powers that relate to the various Mastermind summoning and buffing powers. The weapons sets would consist of the three attacks that make up the personal attacks of the Mastermind. Nothing changes in terms of when the Mastermind gets the various powers.

Example: Taking Archery attacks without having to play Ninjas. Selecting Pistol attacks while also summoing Mercenaries.

The idea is you could pick a weapon more in line with your seconday if you choose too. Sets that come to mind are Trick Arrow, Dark, and possibly Thermal if the Demon summoning set has basic fire attacks.

It's not a small thing, but it might make MMs more interesting.

Raid Suggestion

Rularuu the Ravager in his 200 foot tallness in a Co-Op area of the Shadow Shard.

Only the first two arcs 5-10 and 10-15 are unique to the WS/PB. After that there's no real difference between the 2.
The 1-5 stuff is similar to the random jobs the first contact has you go do.

I basically did all of the arcs on my PBer and only bothered with the first two arcs on my warshade.

As for the VEAT arcs... I do agree that they're more like a side trip than anything else. However I do like the fact I can run some of the early missions and run a contact or two without worrying about outleveling him or the Mayhem missions.

I'd be really happy if they reordered the secondary powers a bit. Say, swapping Orbiting Death with Stygian Circle.

[ QUOTE ]
I just had idea. I think a fix to ElA can be provided in the form of an adjustment to Power Surge. From what I understand, the idea behind Brutes is that they have more difficulty in the early stages of leveling, but can eventually reach Tank-levels of protection later on.

What do you think?

[/ QUOTE ]

I like the idea, although maybe instead of a Granite-toggle approach maybe more something like what happened with Moment of Glory. Shorter Duration, Lower Bonuses, Shorter Recharge, but no negitive effects. Something more designed as an "Alpha Soaker" rather than a "God Mode"

Looking at Power Surge a Regen bonus might be appropriate. Since at that point you are effectively Electricity. Either that or get rid of the HP Crash and keep the END crash.

Before the Longbow Disruptor Grenades got nerfed, it was not uncommon to be killed in Power Surge mode.

[ QUOTE ]
A mez in the taunt aura is the last thing I would do to change a set. For balance reasons, the endurance cost would likely need to be increased, which would annoy me as lightning field is quite the significant source of AoE damage, which in my in-game tests can comprise 1/4th the potential AoE damage, nearly equal to Ball Lightning. A stun effect would drastically cut down on my damage potential, as stunned minions do the drunk walk away from me. Now, I can use a power like electric fences to lock them in place, but that only solves the problem at 41+, whereas the power in question is available at 2, often not fully utilized until after stamina. Stuns without an immob or -speed are very annoying.

[/ QUOTE ]

How about a sleep effect then? I know it sound self defeating, but anything that interrupts the enemies attack chain is damage mitigation.

I agree Conserve Power is lacking and needs to go.. somewhere else. I doubt that will happen when they port the sets over. Everything that's getting ported over this issue was "Minimal Effort" powersets, where you plug in the new ATs numbers and go.

Maybe when the get around to re-arranged the Epics and Patrons again they'll make some changes. I'm not going to hold my breath.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Suggestions to fix electric:

[/ QUOTE ]

Fixed. It may look minor, but you need to get the set name right if I'm going to believe you know what you are talking about. I'm inclined to believe you haven't played the set. The same thing applies with the next word in bold.

[/ QUOTE ]

Level 48 Fire/Electric brute in point of fact. which I had just finishied playing him when I scribbled down these ideas. I was more interested in getting these ideas down, before I forgot about them.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Add a minor Mez affect to Lightning Field and/or Power sink. Mezzes minions, chance to Mez LTs.

[/ QUOTE ]

1) Lightning Field is a taunt aura that deals damage. It helps keep my enemies near me so I can SMASH. Mezzing minions makes them do the drunk walk away from my SMASH.

2) Minions are the least of my worries as an Electric brute. They might add up, but I rely on their attacks a lot for ease of fury generation. When I have trouble on an electric brute, it's facing a +3 boss that hits very hard.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm being realistic with my suggestions. Which means modifying existing powers slightly without radically changing the theme of the set. I'm think more proactive defense than reactive defense. I know Mezzing can cut down on Fury generation, bur Fury is of no use when about 8+ Longbow Minions and LTs gun you down in a hail of bullets, often through Power Surge. Bosses and AVs are still a problem, but then they're supposed to be.

[ QUOTE ]
Electric Armor needs more consistency in its survivability, not another long-recharge click power. I have powersurge (if I actually take it) for survivability. The power you sound like you're suggesting is Regen's instant healing. As cool as that power is, I wouldn't want it. I'll repeat what I said - Electric Armor needs a more consistent means for survivability.

[/ QUOTE ]

It does, but there are limited ways to provide that and still have it make sense thematically. Your Ionization power is interesting, but it's not likely to happen since it's too much of a change.

[ QUOTE ]
The issue with Electric Armor is two-fold:

1) For Soloing, electric armor does not have the health gain to maintain fury once you run out of greens. On a team, you WILL definitely run out of greens. Soloing, the same thing does happen. Therefore, a method of recovering health will do much in this respect.

2) For teaming, electric armor does not have the survivability to lead an 8 man team at relentless - if the team is not providing solid mitigation. To increase survivability, the resists of certain areas should be increased - particularly smashing and lethal. 5-7% should be enough, though this may cause some issues when ported over to Tankers with their better resist values (they'll probably then be able to cap S/L/E).

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree on both points, but 5-7% won't do very much S/L-wise. My Fire/Electric had to take Tough to be more survivable, and he still can't handle S/L based enemeis very well. At least not on large team where he's expected to tank.

[ QUOTE ]
Therefore, I am suggesting two changes to Electric Armor:

Remove Conserve Power and put it in Scirocco's PPP and in its place is:

Ionization: You drain the defeated foes around you of their mental energies, refreshing your armor. The more powerful the defeated foe, the greater the strength restored.

This ability allows electric armor to recover after the fight is over so that the downtime between fights is reduced.

Also, by increasing the S/L resists, the ability to build an electric brute to survive alpha strikes is much easily attained. Sure, one can invest in IO sets (I have two level 50 electric brutes that are heavily invested in), but it should not be necessary. Electric Armor with just SOs really does pale in comparison to the others.


[/ QUOTE ]

It's an interesting idea, but I'm doubt it's going to happen. It's too much of a change to the existing powers.

Suggestions to fix energy:

Add a minor Mez affect to Electric Field and/or Power sink. Mezzes minions, chance to Mez LTs.

Add a +regen bonus to Conserve power and call it Overcharge or something similar. Make similar changes to other versions of CP.

Give Mu brutes/SOAs a version of EMP as the "Epic power" an alternative could be Electric Shackles/Tesla Cage.

I was wondering what the travel power of choice in Zone PVP was. Is it still SJ + SS or did the PVP changes take that out?

I have an old Stalker who used TP (but not TP foe, I'm not that cheap) which is pretty much useless for PVP now. So I'm thinking of a respec. He's a Ninja Blade/Ninjutsu stalker.

This is directly taken from Myers' paper:

[ QUOTE ]
But, from Twixt’s point of view, droning and other sorts of aggressive teleporting were quite useful to delay or otherwise thwart villain intentions, particularly in cases where the villain contingent out-numbered hero players within the zone. Therefore, Twixt used the teleport-foe tactic whenever necessary and available; and this single tactic was considered his most severe breach of social etiquette.

[/ QUOTE ]

He didn't "Play to win", he played to make other people lose. His justification was: "It's not expressly forbidden in the EULA and TOS."

I'm sorry, Droning, as it used to be, was poor game desgn that couldn't be addressed by the Devs until recently. It's one of the many reasons PVP in CoH/V was, and continues to be, a marginal part of the game.

He's written two other papers on CoH/V this was the one dealing with PVP.

Myers, D. (2007). Self and selfishness in online social play. In Baba, Akira (Ed.), Situated Play, Digital Games Research Association Conference Proceedings (pp. 226-234). Tokyo: University of Tokyo
http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07312.58121.pdf

Myers, D. (2005). /hide: The aesthetics of group and solo play. Paper presented at the Changing Views: Worlds in Play, Digital Games Research Association Conference, Vancouver, Canada, June 16-20, 2005. Retrieved February 29, 2008 from http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06276.04321.pdf

EDIT: Added link for second paper.

I was wondering if it was possible to take the standard Mastermind pets and have them as standard, stand-alone, critters.

The reason I ask is because if I ever wanted to do a mission Arc where a Mastermind is the ultimate bad-guy I'd want the map to reflect his control over an army of critters rather than the just the normal six pets PC MMs have access to. (I see the PC MM an abstraction for game balance purposes.)

If it's not currently possible then my question would be then for the devs to see if it would be possible. One idea would be to give them 3/4 of normal MM supremacy bonuses to make them worthwhile enemies.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure Shakespeare could have used that advice.

[/ QUOTE ]

Shakespeare never had to work in an audience-interactive medium which is what MA is.

You have to make it fun to play, because the majority of the time spent with the arc is going to be spent running the missions in the arc. You could write the most meaningful arc in the world and it doesn't mean squat if the all of the LTs are as durable as bosses, it just becomes dullness and slog.

After that you have to make the plot be coherent, and optimally, not treat the reader like an idiot.

Venture, considering the arcs you've reviewed and sampled. How many of those even get that right? Take that a step further, how many of the Dev-created content gets that right?

The only constructive thing I could suggest is if you could suggest tips on giving the arc a theme. Take an arc that's JABOSTH and try suggest ways to fix it so it isn't JABOSTH.

If I ever decide to subject my Arc to be reviewed by Venture and the worst thing he says about it is JABOSTH I'll be happy with it. I find it hard enough to make sure the overall plot makes coherent sense, so trying to shoehorn some deeper meaning to it is out of the question.

If I wantd to write morality plays I'd be writing Star Trek episodes.

TL;DR version: Heroes - Stop what the bad guys are doing. Villains - Have a masterplan and obliterate everyone between you and it. Co-OP - There's a big enough bad that kills all life as we know it. Everything else is just set dressing and wardrobe.

I took pulsar as one of my last powers. I agree that the numbers on it stink on Ice, but you can get a little creative with it.

For Accuracy: Hit Buildup first
For Stun Magnitude: Hit the Vanguard accolade

This is mostly directed toward War Witch and the Devs tasked with zone design. If ever feel the neat to create new buildings, consider the possibility of adding a Museum to Paragon city. Or at the very least create more generic office building similar in design to the Freedom Corps Building in Galaxy City.

The AE centers are very nice, and so is Wentworths, but a good chunk of the city looks very much cut and paste after a while.