Steampunkette

Firstly!

Incredibly Sticky Wicket from the legal department's PoV. Contracts to anyone who submits anything that gets accepted, possible reimbursement, and if they decide NOT to implement -your- version of dual chainsaw defense and instead design their own there's a whole legal battle on the back end based on who designed it first.

Secondly.

Manhours. It would take a ton of time to check balance metrics and design against the various player submitted powersets. Likely more than are currently used to design powersets from scratch.

Thirdly!

Most of the talent on the internet is poor. Very poor. Go to Elfwood and flip through all the artists you can stand to. How many had okay art? How many had great art? How many had art that made you want to gouge out your eyes with a twizzler? Think of that. Now make that your -job-. Sifting through a metric ton of garbage every day trying to find the handful of good ideas and well designed powersets.

So yeah. PROBABLY not going to happen.
-Rachel-

You do realize that the only power I was suggesting an endurance change for was Granite Armor itself, rather than the others..?

In which case it doesn't change the lower level playability any, but I find it's lower levels not that bad, personally. *shrugs* If you want to address that how about shifting even more of the difference out of Granite Armor into the rest of the set?

As for you ad hominem attack...



So there ya go.

It'd be prohibitively expensive to run ALL of Stone Armors toggles (including Granite) at the same time, but the player could turn on Granite and Magma for handling primarily fire/cold enemies, or Granite and Rock for Smashing/Lethal. But turning them all on and running amok would be a bad idea for long-term survivability since you'd end-drain yourself.

-Rachel-

Lower Granite Armor's numbers so that, if using the rest of the power set at the same time, it equals out to "Granite Armor" numbers. Remove the "No other armors" portion. Remove the -speed and the -damage. Add +jump. Increase the end cost in order to make it prohibitively expensive to run all the armor toggles AND Granite armor at the same time for any length of time without some serious end boosting.

There ya go. Just fixed most of the perceived problems with it while also keeping it mostly balanced.

-Rachel-

RP Teaming > Base Editing > MA Playing > Base RP/Standing RP > Badge Hunting > Base RP/Standing RP while Base Editing > MA Arc Creation > Running around lower level zones on higher level characters playing with Knockback powers >Non-RP Mishing > Arena PVP with Friends > Going AFK to take care of my disabled mother's wounds or empty her potty-chair > PvP


That's me, right there! =-3

-Rachel-

I'd be against Rewriting lower level content.

I'd be fine with updating the character models to accommodate the new Ultra Mode capabilities of the engine.

-Rachel-

Yes. But they must also come with inspiration-colored Pez.

I'd also like some Inspiration-designed Hard Candies. Whether they're mints or two-flavored cream-centered candies is unimportant!

-Rachel-

Brawler, Castle, and I think Posi have all commented on this at some point or another. In fact I think it's in the Q&A on the North American and European test servers as well as the CoH Formspring.

They'd -love- to change it over to being player clones. Even the "Phantasm" and it's Decoy. They're concerned over the player outrage, however, that would surely come from the segment of illusion controllers who like their nameless and faceless minions, especially after i16 let them color the things.

However it's POSSIBLE (if not probable) that Castle might offer up a dual-option for those powers in the future (not even Soontm!) but it's a pain in the neck to do.

-Rachel-

You want it Alphabetically?

Fifth Column Soldiers: Sure the base minions may have ONLY ranged attacks, but when an enemy has both melee and ranged attacks it invariably is safer to get out of melee. The "Fist" branch of each enemy tier, Mek Men Energy fists, Night Wolves, Wolfpack Robots, and Krieger Kicks, for example.

Arachnoids are terrors in melee range. Especially the Super Arachnoids. At range they do far less damage.

From the Wolf Spider Tac Ops and Blood Widows all the way up to Bane Spiders and Night Widows, Arachnos is lethal in melee. Arachnobots with their flaming, toxic, or merely slashing claws... Heck! Even Crab spiders do more damage with their arm lash attacks than with their energy blasts or leg-bullets!

Axis America only really has one unit with melee attacks, But the Unteroffizer without a shadow of a doubt deals more damage with it's kicks than it's Incendiary ammo.

The Banished Pantheon only has a handful of melee attacks mixed in with musketfire. But those Clubs and Tomahawks do dish out some mean damage. Not nearly as much as the Avalanche Shaman's Tremor, or the Totem's Arm Smash for sure! But more damage than the muskets.

Bat'Zul's minions really only ever have their single bite attack, but it does more smashing damage than their firey spit, to be sure.

The Cabal are best known as one ofthe few enemy types that uses flight and ranged attacks effectively! But for those who've ever closed on them, even the minions have Storm Strike and the LTs also have Charged brawl, both of which do more damage than Lightning Bolt.

I guess the Cage Consortium would be your example of "Turning it on it's ear" by being an exception... But even in their case quantity of melee and ranged attacks means they dish out more total damage in melee than at ranged.

Them and maybe the Cap Au Gremlins? Though, again, Charged Brawl and their Suicide Explosion are both -melee- ranged abilities, even if they don't do as much damage as the ranged attack.

The Carnies are a fun group for this. Everyone remembers them for their psychic, fire, and energy damage. But the Harlequin Fencers are a great example of higher melee damage per hit. Then again so are all the ranks of Strongman, and Seneschals hit harder when swinging their fiery torches. The ring Mistresses are another example of an enemy type -without- melee attacks. Not even brawl!

Do I -really- need to go through this with the Cimeroran Traitors? Pilum: Nice Damage. Sword: Awesome Damage. Even the Immunes Engineer has "Push Back" a melee Extreme damage power.

Now the Circle of Thorns pretty much puts this maxim on it's ear! Except for the Thorn Wielders, Spectral Demons, and Behemoths. Oh! And the Hordeling Berserkers.Oh... And Ruin Mages, too. since the only two melee attacks they have do far more damage than their single target hold Or immob. Unless you want to include the Circle Mage "Kamikaze" attack. In which case -all- of them do more damage in melee than at range.

For the Civic Squad *snickers* Max Action tears people up in melee, being a Martial Artist. Though those two shuriken attacks sure are -fierce- am I right? Though Eletrixie's only melee effects are Thunderclap and Thunderous Blast... Which I freely admit is a MELEE AoE.

Clockwork: Charged Brawl does nearly twice the damage of charged bolts, split between smashing and energy. Every unit has it. The Princes also have a "Pummel" attack which does more damage than Charged Brawl does. In Melee they hit harder than at range.

Contaminated: Their attacks actually do LESS than similar attacks from same-level enemies. But since they're limited to the tutorial it's understandable... Though, still, "Pipe" does more damage than "Throw rock"

Corallax, with their Coral clubs, Heavy Brawls, Coral Smashes, Haymakers, Coral hammers, Stunning blows, and Heavy Stunning Blows -WHALLOP- enemies in melee, while at range they tend to fling urchins and other lower damage attacks.

The Council are a Reskinned 5th Column.

Council Empire are the same as the Axis America with the addition of a boss-level enemy in the "Archons". their Missle Launchers do a -lot- of damage, but their Eagle Claw hedges it out... Especially combined with Crane kick, Thunder Kick, Crippling Axe kick, and Dragon's Tail, all of which can be used with the Missle Launcher in melee, but not at range.

Crazed. Their Axes, knives, and baseball bats all do more damage in melee than their revolver shots. The LTs have no melee attacks outside of "Brawl" but the Bosses have Haymaker which trumps their SMG in damage, by far.

And then we get into Crey... From the lowliest Riot Guard with his Stunning Baton, Brawl, and Pistol attacks to the most powerful Paragon Protectors, Melee damage rules in Crey! Even the Radiologists and medics have Brawl, their only attack power, Geneticists, too. I guess the Research Assistants do better damage at range with their sleep attack..? No? Okay. The Researchers and Scientists -actually- do more damage at range! But still have Brawl helping to fill out attack "Chains" in melee, so they do more damage (total) in melee than at range... The vigilants, infiltrators, and Tanks all have great melee attacks and puny ranged ones, though the Chief Cryo and Plasma Scientists are exceptions... Public Relations have their Crane kicks which hurt more than their pistols... The Crisis units, Juggernauts, and Eliminators do more damage with their ranged attacks... So they're exceptions. But they do more Damage per Second in melee, with interchangeable melee and ranged attacks. Sharpshooters are better at range, but the Crey Protector and the second tier of Tanks are better in melee. ALL The Paragon Protectors dish out better melee damage than ranged with their claw or energy attacks, fire melee, dark melee, or spines. Even the Scorpionoids dish out more damage in their energy melee attacks than they do with their tail-blasts. The Burn Protector -almost- fails to hold up the maxim, until it turns into a Demon, though even before that quantity of attacks means melee is more dangerous than ranged. And the Shining Light's Thunderstrike quickly trumps it's Lightning Bolt and Charged Bolt attacks.

Devouring Earth. Do I -really- need to go into this one? Their melee is far more deadly than their range.

Dockworkers... Overall the group is more melee-oriented and dishes out impeccable melee damage.

Dopplegangers don't really work in a comparison, generally speaking, since they have player rather than set powers.

And I think that's where I'll stop. I never got into the Family, the Rikti, Redcaps, Legacy Chain, Outcasts, Trolls, Slag Golems, Igneous, Shivans... In fact I went through less than a third of the enemy groups in the game, in alphabetical order. The point is: With Few exceptions enemies with both melee attacks -and- ranged attacks dish out more damage with their melee attacks and, without exception, dish out more damage in melee since they use both melee and ranged attacks in melee.

If you want to get into the "AoE Attacks Argument" I generally count AoE as either Melee AoE or Ranged AoE. And almost without exception melee AoE does more damage than ranged AoE, but both do less damage then melee or ranged attacks, respectively.

-Rachel-

15%-20% defense isn't a defensive set, either.

A Super Reflexes scrapper can have 29.25 defense (Ranged, Melee, AoE) without dipping into IOs or Pools outside of Elude and have damage resistance to fall back on, when low on health. With Elude they softcap their Defense without issue.

An Invulnerable Scrapper can have a standing Damage Resistance of 45% to Smashing/Lethal just on SOs. Plus extra hit points/healing at a click and Defense/Accuracy bonuses if enemies are in melee. With Unstoppable up they cap their damage resistance easily.

These are the two sets I think best exemplify Defense and Damage Resistance powers, respectively. Add in the ability to avoid half or more of an enemy's attacks and you've got a scrapper who takes even less damage. Lower their hit points? It'll help, some, to be sure. But it won't solve all the balance issues the AT would have against the NPCs in this game. And you'd have to keep them from taking Regen, since without all those luscious HP regen rate boosts would be nearly useless as a survival tactic.

-Rachel-

Enemies do more damage in melee than at range.

This is the rule. there are a handful of exceptions. But Enemies dish out more damage in melee than they do at Range. Players do not always follow this rule. Enemies also tend to have more melee attacks than ranged attacks, and generally aren't shy to use Ranged attacks while in Melee.

So 22.5% damage resistance at range is more useful than 22.5% damage resistance in melee. Due not only to the lower damage per attack, but also the number of attacks being thrown off in an attack chain.

DPS is mostly irrelevant when the defensive utility of Range is added on to Defensive Sets. Defensive Sets are given to characters in melee to protect them against the higher damage melee attacks -and- the longer attack chains coming at them.

If a Blaster can "Kite" enemies from range and destroy them without dying, the AT you're suggesting would do the blaster's job better. Not more effectively, but better, by being able to avoid death far better than blasters who already do it through maneuvering and careful consideration.

If an enemy in Melee is throwing off an attack that does 100 points of damage and the player has 22.5% damage resistance, the player only takes 77.5 points of damage. An Enemy throwing off a ranged attack will generally do only 70-80% of their ranged attack damage. Assuming they deal 80 damage, the player takes 62 points. In melee enemies can throw off their ranged attacks interchangeably with their melee attacks, too!

Maybe if I say it enough times people will understand it...

-Rachel-

The SPEAR utilizes an old 1970's supergroup base that was abandoned after the remaining members of the team were killed by Recluse and his minions. It's located out in the Northern end of Nerva Archipelago, a small island with a hollowed out mountain. The entrance is magically concealed to appear as part of the mountain with a force-field which can be passed through by SPEAR Operatives or anyone carrying a SPEAR comm device.

The entry way is made to look like a Cave or entry hall of an Oranbega ruin, and leads either north, to the Medbay, or west, to the teleporters. From there the base is incredibly linear to avoid people getting lost.

-Rachel-

We're not even discussing the main topic, are we..?

Again. The powersets would have to be incredibly well designed to take into account the higher than average damage of melee attacks, especially from Bosses and Lieutenants, before the AT would be plausible.

-Rachel-

Soooo happy I am mostly going Loyalist. =-3

-Rachel-

TankMage! XD

However I mostly agree with Eiko on the Assault (or Manipulation)/Defense AT. Lower the numbers on the defenses -slightly- and it'd be good and balanced! Though the Tankmagery thing isn't about AT Balance, it's about gameplay balance. The ATs are inherently imbalanced. They're designed not to be the same homogeneous level of simplicity. But a straight Ranged/Defense AT would, in fact, be overpowered when it comes to fighting enemies, making the game a cakewalk, and ruining the fun inherent to challenge.

So yes. I'd love to see a nice, fun, Assault or Manipulation/Defense AT. No. I don't want to see a Blast/Defense AT.

That said. the AT suggested here (Melee/Defense with Control sprinkled in) is incredibly underwhelming. The player would die. Often. Repeatedly. Without much defense an AT that dishes out it's damage in melee is going to have problems. Tossing in a few stuns or KB effects isn't going to be enough to save them. Dominators focus on control with a secondary utilizing ranged damage with a few melee attacks.

-Rachel-

This r srs suggestion!

The concept is just how it sounds. Firing multicolored beams at the target. Initially "Rainbow" Blasts, but with power customization you could give the power two colors and it would create a blended spectrum between the two. Kind of like how using Dark Miasma's shadowfall creates a blend between colors.


The spec in the sky

Now there would be two "Catches" for the powerset. Firstly I don't imagine "Rainbow Blast" as a single beam of rainbow striated light. I imagine it, primarily, as a series of multicolored ribbons of light moving towards the target in arcs. Similar to Ghost Widow's "Hold" Patron power. The arcing light flying towards and engulfing the target. Just change the arc so that most of the powers hit the target directly. The second "Catch" is that Rainbows don't naturally do damage or have any secondary effect. In light of this I suggest that each power in the set have a 5% chance of granting one of the other "Standard" secondary effects. 5% chance of slow (ala Cold) or -rec (like electric), etc.

So! Without further ado.

Tier One: Rainbow Shot; Single Target Ranged Minor Damage (Special Color Effect). Simple, clean, Effective. Extend one hand, fling energy ribbons, move on. Recharge: Very Fast, End Cost small.

Tier Two: Rainbow Blast; Single Target Ranged Moderate Damage (Special Color Effect). Again, very simple, almost "Standard" for Blast sets. Two handed Rainbow Blast. Recharge Fast, End Cost Low

Tier Three: Prismatic Wave; Cone AoE Moderate damage (Special Color Effect). Similar to Energy Torrent, but likely the animation of "Lift" yank both hands up and send a high-arcing energy wave-form which undulates towards the targets. Recharge Moderate, End Cost Moderate

Tier Four: Spectrum Sight; Single Target Ranged Minor Self +Acc +Dam Damage (Special Color Effect) Ranged Follow Up. Small damage boost (10-15%) moderate Accuracy boost (35-40%) This would be the one power in the set that fires a single striated beam of light at the target, using the same animation as Eye Beam from Radiation Blast. Recharge around a minute, end cost moderate.

Tier Five: Color Sphere; Targeted Range AoE Moderate Damage (Special Color Effect) Fireball Effect. I'd suggest a new animation for this power, combining the Kinetic Melee energy ball formation with the Poison secondary's "Alkaloid" Lob. Recharge Long, End Cost Moderate.

Tier Six: Prism Fall; Ground Target AoE High Damage (Special Color Effect) You cause a Rainbow to touch down in the area designated. Same character animation as "Rain of Fire" with a single application of damage. Recharge Very Long, End Cost High.

Tier Seven: Prismatic Burst; Short Range Single Target Superior Damage (Special Color Effect) Again, the Kinetic melee "Rainbow Ball" formation thrown short-range into the target. Functions as Energy Burst. Recharge: Long End Cost: High

Tier Eight: Color Drain; Point Blank AoE Self +Regen +Recovery Enemy -Regen. Uses a similar animation to Personal Force Field, steals enemy regen to give the player health and end over time. Could also use the "Desaturation Effect" to cause the player or player's team's colors to fade out, then back in, if they've got the option on in the menu. End Cost Low, Recharge Very Long.

Tier Nine: Rainbow; Ground Target AoE Taunt Damage Extreme Self Teleport Self -End Self -Recovery (Special Color Effect). Inverse Lightning Rod. You call down the Rainbow in the form of a Pet Power which Taunts all enemies in a 30 foot burst of itself, has a short delay (.7 seconds?) , then animates as a rainbow. Player teleports immediately after choosing the ground target leaving enemies moving to where he or she was just before the rainbow comes down in the area. Recharge: Very Long, End Cost: Moderate

So! Wholly new set, mechanically different from most of what we've got in play at the moment, new thematic appearance would play well into "Magic" characters, and it still fits within the basic outlines of a blast powerset's requirements (two single target attacks in the first tier, two or more AoEs, etc)

Don't tell me it can be done with Energy Blast. It can't. The idea, the theme, could. But the mechanical differences and animations I've supplied could not be done with Energy Blast. It's like saying "Who needs Katana, when we've got Broadsword!" Or "Willpower? Feh! We've got Invuln!"

-Rachel-