Witch_Engine

Once upon a time, amid suggestions of adding new archetypes to the game, I recalled one dev (I cannot remember which) stating that unless a gap in playstyle/power combinations could be found and adequately presented, there was no need for new archetypes. While I agree with that sentiment, and don't neccessarily feel anything will come from this, it got the wheels in my head turning, and I began thinking, what holes in playstyle DO we have?

To that end, I collected my thoughts and consolidated them into two archetype ideas - one for heroes, and one for villains, to give options that are not only currently found nowhere in the player experience, but more importantly, ones which give interesting dynamics that fill missing holes in their side's classes, respectively. I use 'he' in their descriptions only for simplicity - no gender preference is implied.

Numbers and comparisons aren't meant to be taken as solid or final judgements - they're just sort of approximately where I see them in a balance perspective, but obviously, were the classes to exist, playtesting and seeing them in action would better determine what tweaks and modifiers would be needed. Anyways, if I haven't bored you to death yet, here they are, for your thoughts, consideration, and, quite possibly, knowing these boards (heh), vitriol:

The Leader - a commander of men, shining example of cunning, strategy, and discipline, and inspiration to the masses, and the Oppressor - a brutal tyrant, rationing out power and stamping out those who cross him, acting as judge, jury, and executioner.



The Leader
Heroic Archetype

The Leader is an archetype who is a paragon and inspirations to others. His natural panache and keen tactical mind has attracted other heroes and do-gooders to his side, and his ability to lead by example is a stark contrast to the Mastermind's 'do as I say, not as I do' methodology. He can most closely be compared to the Crab Spider, but the Leader is a more tactical fighter than a Crab could ever hope to be - sacrificing some protection and buffing/debuffing for greater damage, control of his followers, and adaptability under pressure.

Primary: Assault
Secondary: Pets

Leaders have respectable ranged and melee damage modifiers - notably lower than that of a Blaster or Scrapper, but higher than that of a Tanker.
Leaders have Defender level modifiers to the Leadership pool, but Blaster level modifiers to all other buff/debuff powers.
Leaders have Scrapper level modifiers on armor powers.
Leaders generate more aggro than a Defender, but less than that of a Scrapper.
Kheldians of both varieties gain a 10% discount to endurance costs of all powers for each Leader on their team.

Design Philosophy:
The Leader is the Scrapper to the Mastermind's Tanker - a fast-playing, aggressive pet user, as compared to the more methodical and safe approach of many Masterminds. While a Mastermind will take the defensive role, allowing his pets to do most of the work, the Leader is at the forefront, dishing out punishment with a variety of impressive attacks, while his pets form a more supporting role, as additional damage and support to the Leader, instead of the other way around. He fills a hole in heroic archetypes - that of the offensive-driven (as opposed to support-driven) pet user.

Like the Blaster, they are a purely offense-driven class, and have little in the way of personal protection, however, their protections are somewhat better as an offset to their more limited numbers of ranged attacks, lower damage, and limited secondary control effects. When pets are factored in, they are comparable in damage to a Scrapper, but less outright survivable. The tradeoff for the much more limited defenses, is of course that their pets can simultaneously attack multiple foes, and many can do so at range.

The Leader's true strength lies in options and adaptability - being able to use their pets to attack multiple targets at once, spreading damage across a large area, or focusing all their attacks on a single foe which they are also attacking, to reach truly impressive damage, with the separate endurance of their pets allowing them to fight in both these ways more efficiently. Tactics in battle - the Leader's potential versatility and ability to change their fighting playstyle instantly to the situation - is their core strength. Like Kheldians, they are a jack of all trades style class - master of no single discipline with tools to handle any scenario (though no crowd control, and a particular specialty through their pets).

Through use of their Charisma inherent (described below) an aggressive playstyle is encouraged, and further increases their tactical options, giving them a unique spot on the hero team as a special sort of toolbox tactician. A good leader is not only a boon to the damage of the team, but in short bursts can give them the specific sort of edge they need to overcome any situation - so long as their inspiration supply holds out. The closest analog to this Archetype is the Crab Spider, however, they comparatively rely more on their pets and inherent, and have considerably less defenses.

Inherent:
Charisma - Whenever the leader uses an Inspiration, all allies within 20 feet of the hero gain 10% of the benefit of that inspiration, with his pets gaining 20% of the inspiration's benefit, instead. This does not work on Awaken, Will of the Earth, or Ambrosia inspirations, nor on presents which award influence, temp powers, or other non-buffing prizes. When used with a Break Free, the duration of the inspiration is reduced instead of the intensity.

Charisma allows the leader to bolster their team - while not to the extent of a Defender or even many controllers, they can do it in much more adaptable ways, as is befitting their tactical nature. As an explicitly inspiring figure, it makes sense that their own Inspirations are a potent force for the team. With inspirations, they can make the team hit harder, last longer, or even break free of control for those precious few seconds to use a power which saves the day.

Charisma is also designed to allow the pet aspect of the class to run efficiently. Leaders do not gain the ability to buff their pets through their powersets directly like a Controller or Mastermind, nor do they have the controls of a Controller or Dominator to help keep them alive, nor even the Mastermind's Supremacy to motivate their pets into action. Instead, they have a greater potential to boost them than all the others combined, but it must be done in calculated bursts - as the quantities of inspirations are limited. This forces a more aggressive playstyle than that of other pet classes - by design. A proficient player will want to get the maximum use out of those inspiration buffs by continuing to press the assault, as well as to generate more inspirations to keep the cycle rolling - an ideal setup for the design philosophy behind the Leader.

Powersets:
The Leader has the following Primary Powerset options:
Earth Assault, Electricity Assault, Energy Assault, Fiery Assault, Icy Assault, Psionic Assault, Thorny Assault.

These are identical to those found on Dominators, except of course they do not have any effects affected by Domination, and Power Boost on all powersets which have it has been replaced with Build Up.

The Leader has the following Secondary Powerset options:
Robotics, Ninjas, Soldiers (reskinned Mercenaries with a conventional military theme), Einherjar (reskinned Necromancy, with a nordic Valhallan spirit/valkyrie theme), Heroes (reskinned thugs with a superhero theme. Gang War could call on either generic Longbow or Vanguard looking heroic types in keeping with existing heroes encountered on Safeguards and in the RWZ.)

These sets have some important changes made to them, to fit with the Leader's design and playstyle philosophies, as well as to prevent redundancy in certain powers:

The four attacks in each set have been removed.
The attacks have been replaced with powers that fit the general convention outlined below, though each may have varieties in the specifics of how they operate. In no particular order:
1. A toggle which grants resistance or defense to three or more damage types, comparable to Arachnos patron armors.
2. A toggle which grants resistance to all damage types, to the Leader and all allies in an area - functionally identical to Maneuvers in the Leadership pool, but for resistances instead of defenses.
3. A passive power which grants resistance to all damage types, defense to all positional types, increased max HP, or some combination of the three, as well as mag 4 mez protection, similar to the Arachnos Soldier passive armors or High Pain Tolerance.
4. A self-heal, be it similar to Siphon Life, Healing Flames, Dull Pain, etc., as based on the theme of the set.

The Oppressor
Villainous Archetype

The Oppressor is a dominating figure - a weilder of fearsome fighting abilities, and possessor of gifts which advance his chosen to incredible strengths, or drive the weaklings before him into the dirt. Unlike the Defender of the heroes, the Oppressor primarily uses his or her gifts to first boost his own abilities to crush those before him. Others may recieve these blessings, but only to aid the Oppressor in utterly dominating his foes. Compared to the Corruptor, his closest analog, he plays a dangerous game with higher risks and rewards - his buff/debuff powers are more impressive, and he does more up-front damage (though Scourge catches the Corruptor up as a foe crumples), but cannot afford to play it safe like the Corruptor, and must do his work in the thick of battle alongside the Stalkers and Brutes.

Primary: Buff/Debuff
Secondary: Melee

Oppressors have slightly below Dominator level modifiers on melee powers, and Defender level modifiers on ranged powers.
Oppressors have Defender level modifiers on buff/debuff powers, including pool powers.
Oppressors have Corruptor level armor modifiers.
Oppressors generate more aggro than a Corruptor, but less than that of a Scrapper.
Kheldians of both varieties gain a 10% discount to endurance costs of all powers for each Oppressor on their team.
On a Barracuda strike force, Oppressors gain the same special power as Masterminds.

Design Philosophy:
The Oppressor gives villains the one major powerset option they truly lack - a primary-level buffing/debuffing option on the level of the Defender, while still maintaining the villain theme of classes being more combat-focused and damage-capable than their heroic counterparts often are. The parity of buff and melee is a combination currently found nowhere in City of Heroes outside of limited application in certain Arachnos Soldier/Widow setups, where the buffing still takes a back seat to their personal attacks and armor, and is limited to essentially a single flavour of application for each of those two archetypes.

Compared to the Dominator, they have a similar playstyle - utilize their primary powers to aid the team, then move into the thick of battle to add to the carnage. Unlike the Dominator, however, they do not have the protection intrinsic to control powers, instead, they use their buffs and debuffs to overwhelm the enemy, ideally in a team setting, and crush the enemies quickly, rather than safely. Speed is their game. Compared to the Corruptor, who they share much in common with, they are more front-loaded, and arguably more dangerous to play. They are required to be in a more risky environment to use their attack powers and make best use of their inherent ability, whereas the Corruptor can easily hang back, buff allies from a distance, and pick off foes from safety with scourge. The tradeoff is a faster (arguably more exciting) playstyle, and more potent hits in the opening of a battle, where they have a chance to really make a difference.

Corruptors and Oppressors compliment each other wonderfully - the Oppressor leading the offense with the Corruptor supporting him in the early fight, with the Oppressor's slightly superior aggro generation, and his own support abilities, keeping the foes away from the Corruptor in late fight, allowing the Corruptor to focus on Scourge without having to worry about the team losing support.

The inherent ability of the Oppressor (as detailed below) is designed to further bolster this 'aggressive support' philosphy - while on the surface, its primary function is to simply afford the Oppressor a reasonable survivability while remaining primarily in melee range, on a purely thematic level, it fits their concept beautifully - a group of enemies may appear to get the drop on the Oppressor, and as they move in for the kill, the Oppressor breaks free of their confinement and unleases a torrent of speedy attacks, felling them (and then returning to 'weakened' status after they fall).

Inherent:
Shock and Awe - For each enemy, up to 8, within 10 feet of the Oppressor, the Oppressor gains a 3.125% bonus to global Recharge rates, 5% bonus to all resistances, and 1 mag Mez protection, for a maximum possible bonus of 25% recharge, 40% resistance to all, 8 mag mez protection. Obviously, as foes and the Oppressor move around in combat, this number will fluctuate. This forces the Oppressor to remain mobile in combat, seeking to always remain close to foes, while simultaneously trying to avoid a direct, focused assault on their person.

Shock and Awe allows the Oppressor to effectively operate in the more dangerous melee environement than other 'squishy' classes, despite being, at their core, still a 'squishy' class for most intents and purposes. While the sliding protections it offers gives them the ability to absorb some stray hits or PBAOE attacks used by larger foes, it still preserves the 'squishy' feel by not allowing them to safely maintain aggro or sustained direct attack without assistance. In essence, it lets them function adequately as a melee-centric support class without having to resort to the conventional armor sets, or the crowd control of Dominators. Compared to the control options of Dominators, or the ranged options of Corruptors, their inherent should afford them comparable levels of survivability, albiet in a different way.

Because of their relative fragility, the recharge bonus of Shock and Awe is alternative solution for a method to keep their performance up in dangerous situations, compared to the lowered endurance inherent of Defenders, or the increased damage of Corruptors, Stalkers, Brutes, Scrappers or Blasters. In fitting with the theme of the Oppressor, this aspect of their inherent allows them to more quickly buff allies/debuff foes when in danger, or to unleash strings of attacks to quickly end the fight - an option that makes both primary and secondary focus choices in these situations viable, instead of merely focusing on the damage aspect like most other classes, or the buffing aspect like Defenders. As it is a sliding scale based on the number of nearby foes, it is a controllable, variable range of aid that is proportional to the risk - the higher the danger, the greater the reward, but also the faster the Oppressor burns through endurance.

Powersets:
The Oppressor has the following Primary Powerset options:
Dark Miasma, Force Field, Kinetics, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Pain Domination, Poison, Traps

These are identical to those found on Defenders, Corruptors, and Masterminds, where found, in that order of priority where sets may differ. Noxious Gas in Poison would also have to be changed to something more appropriate as they do not have pets.

The Oppressor has the following Secondary Powerset options:
Broad Sword, Claws, Dark Melee, Dual Blades, Katana, Martial Arts, Super Strength, Stone Melee, Spines, Battle Axe, War Mace

The initial pool of Oppressor attacks focuses primarily on damage through physical impact, rather than more flashy elemental attacks.
These are identical to those found on Scrappers and Tankers, except that instead of Taunt/Confront, they have a single target Undermine power: a -20% Resistance/-20% Defense debuff, with a 60 second recharge, a 1.5 second activation time, and which lasts 15 seconds.

Aggelakis, as I've said, I cannot do either. The option simply does not exist.

I'll call customer support tomorrow.

As I mentioned, I do not have an unsubscribe link, and I have to cancel the account AND purchase time in order to add the credit card. The 'add a credit card' link only appears, for some unfathomable reason, near as I can tell, if you already have a credit card on the file.

I do not have a recurring paypal subscription, and I am paid up for well over a year once my award for winning their contest earlier this summer is applied, so waiting that long for it to run out is silly, as is buying more time when I have that much banked up already.

This is what their support section says:

To cancel the subscription for a single game account and leave your credit card information on file, use the following instructions:
1. Log into NCsoft Account Management.
2. Click the Game Accounts link on your NCsoft Account Management page.
3. Select the game account you wish to cancel from your list of game accounts.
4. In the Actions section, click the Cancel Subscription button.
5. Review the warning message text and click the OK button if you agree.
6. You may be prompted to complete a brief deactivation survey. You can fill it out if you want to.

I cannot finish step 4, because there is literally no Cancel Subscription option in the Actions section for my CoH account.

I'm stuck in a bit of a catch-22 here, it seems. Perhaps I am missing something obvious - any help would be appreciated.

I would like to purchase additional AE slots on my accout, and it will not let me enter a card in the in-game store interface. In order to do buy the slots, I need a credit card on file. However, I paid for my account time via Paypal, not credit card. The link to add a credit card to my account which normally appears for credit-card subscribed members is not there on my account options, at all.

According to the NCSoft support, the only way I can add a credit card to my file is to first cancel my account, and then chose a credit card as the 'add a card button' should appear at that point. There are two problems here:

1) It will not let me cancel the account at all. Paying through paypal seems to have put me in this bizarre limbo where it won't let me add a credit card because I'm subscribed, but not cancel my account service because I'm not subscribed (it seems to only check credit card status).

2) I have an option to add my card immediately by purchasing additional game time, without having to cancel, however, I can't just add the credit card. I MUST purchase at least one month of game time with that credit card if I want it on file so I can buy the AE slots. Forcing me to buy additional time to use the shop is ridiculous.

If anyone knows a way that will just let me add my card so I can do this, I'm all ears.

Confirmation bias, I'd imagine.

It amazes me that people can take a thread about not taking a game so darn seriously, being generous with your ratings while still providing constructive criticism (just changing your tone and demeanur about how you present yourself), and using the broken and meaningless ratings system to help players through it instead of dump on them, and still bloat and distort it to the absolute most extreme possible interpretation of the idea (yes, yes, I know, it's the internet and only the extreme interpretation is the one ever considered) in order to get offended or snarky about it.

P1 - "People could stand to be kinder to each other"
P2 - "I find that notion patently offensive! Sass and snark engaged good sir!"

Bleh, I give up.

You should note that I repeatedly said there's nothing wrong with constructive criticism, and never did I claim to be more 'moral' than anyone else. My stance is, and will remain, that this is a social game, and if you can't be bothered to be polite or constructive, then you're contributing to a toxic environment for what is supposed to be entertainment. Writers put themselves in a vulnerable position already in this game - tearing into them with acid and bile instead of constructively trying to help them does nothing to help the architect in any sense of the word. All it does is perpetuate a cycle of bitterness and cynicism. Am I upset with hollow, blatantly wrong, or destructive criticism? Absolutely. Insinutating I am hurt from a negative opinion though, is laughable. I recieve -constructive- negative criticism about my arcs all the time. I have even sent rather large thank-you notes and in-game messages to those people. The difference between constructive and destructive attitudes is the real key.

You're right about me not wanting 'quality' writing. What I want is 'fun' writing. Did I enjoy myself? Was the arc amusing? Did it have a neat moment or hold my interest? Well then, mission accomplished, because if you're not having fun, why would you continueto play the game? I'm willing to overlook a lot if something is enjoyable. Why? Because isn't that why we're here in the first place playing? To enjoy ourselves?

Finally: What useful thing have I done? I played a few arcs today, sent positive feedback to them, gave them a bunch of stars, and brightened up their day. Made them feel appreciated for daring to put their work out there on the off chance maybe someone else will see it and try it, and have a good time. Maybe even bumped their arc up from doing it so that others might see it too. To me, that's an infinitely more productive use for my time than gnashing my teeth and trying to bend stories, or the AE itself, to my whims.

If you knew he had you on ignore, why would you come in and troll up his thread? This is the exact sort of thing we're talking about. It's thriving on hate and negativity, in a social, community game. If you can't bother to be nice and supportive of peers in a video game, I don't know what to say. It's such a simple thing to be helpful and constructive, and yes, selfishly kind for no real reason at times in this game, because it really doesn't cost you anything except a few moments of time.

This game is no different than playing Mario Bros., or heck, even checkers, the only difference is you're interacting with hundreds of strangers and friends. The mindset that it's somehow serious business boggles my own mind. If I wanted to watch supposedly grown adults rant and wail angrily about a game, I'd go watch little league games.

The system is pretty much universally agreed upon as completely broken, since everyone's personal definitions of 'substance' and 'quality' are wildly different. If the system is of no real value or use anyways, might as well use what's there to brighten someone's day rather than rain on it, because either way you're contributing to a system that doesn't work, it's just how you're doing it.

I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic, but he actually had a pretty good point in his cynicism, even if he didn't realize it. If it wasn't for dev's choice and player's choice, people would probably be a lot less horrible to each other in regards to AE content since there'd be no reward attached to it, and therefore less incentive to bash at them if you have a problem with them.

The "For Fun" section of the boards sadly tends to have some of the most negative and aggressive attitudes of all. "Fun" it seems, has lost a lot of its meaning these days. Fun is serious business indeed.

Gale - I would argue that right from the get-go things in the arc aren't 'right' and it starts breaking down way before you see the Clockwork King.

...but you're right. I'm never going to convince these people of anything, and they seem to want to do everything in their power to ensure they're completely miserable with it, so what can you do, really.

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To address a few concerns:

(tl;dr)

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Okay, seriously, you're not doing yourself any favors now. You wrote a pretty good arc and did a great job using the MA tools to implement it. A lot of people love it. Some people don't like it or are critical of it. Let the arc stand on its own. Don't try to "explain" things that people "aren't getting". Igonre the little voice that says "but only if they *understand*, I'm sure they'd all come around and we could all be great friends!".

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I wasn't trying to do that at all. I addressed only points that were either something I couldn't change because of the limitations of AE, something they missed in dialog, or my thought process behind why I did something that ultimately doesn't matter one way or another, and came down to personal preference.

I don't claim my arc is brilliant, quite far from it, actually. When it was created, it was a silly arc for me and my friends, that just happened to catch on big with some people. I find it more amusing than not that some of the reviewers analyzed it far more obsessively than I did when I wrote it. The one thing that DOES bother me, is simply when they complain something isn't explained in the arc when I specifically have dialog there that does, because it says to me they're either not reading that dialog, or ignoring it, to try and create a problem where none exists.

Policewoman - like I said, I know it's simply a matter of exposure and people who wouldn't have sought out the arc on their own playing it because of that, and, broken record time - my joke about it fell really really flat.

The board are serious business!

Except of course the Rikti raids, and the hero respec trial. And, if I cared to check, I bet I could find a handful of story arcs where you do it too.

You're still ignoring where I pointed out all the dialog you ignored then ranted that something wasn't addressed in the mission when it was. Please don't be so selective with what you're arguing here, I'd appreciate your feedback on those points.

Eva - I actually agree completely. The arc IS overhyped at this point, and I mean, saying that as the writer is pretty damning. There is no way it can live up to the insane scrutiny it's getting because I seriously didn't ever in a million years think anyone would take ANYTHING in this game this seriously, let alone my dumb arc.

The cartel plot thing was a joke since yes, it's pretty obvious that the hype of having the forum big names all over it has brought a ton of people in with a much more critical eye than the previous players. Apparently the joke fell completely flat. No, I do not actually think that there's any conspiracy or cartel affecting my arc, I think if anything, it just can't live up to people's expectations now after the somewhat damning BEST ARC EVER start this thread had.

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Oh get over yourself. Almost no one makes it past the 100 vote mark with a 5-star average, you weren't anything special really to begin with. Next are you going to blame the person who started this thread and began hyping the arc up on your behalf?

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Oh for the love of - that was a joke at the end there. Sorry master Lazarus, I've learned my lesson, I will never attempt to lighten the mood with humor again.

I simply said it had precident. Nowhere diud I say you do it all the time, just that it's not out of place AND had been done before in game. Note that you also destroy bombs by punching them every third story arc, too. That makes about as much sense.

What about all the other complaints you had that I addressed? If you're going to overanalyze the arc, I would at least think you'd have the courtesy to follow the dialog in the arc before complaining something doesn't make sense.

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Seriously Witch Engine, just apologize for your arc kicking Venture's dog, and the healing can begin.

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That won't solve anything, since it's reached the point where the entire MA Forum has started arguing with Venture. Actually if anything, this is getting Witch Engine tons of exposure.

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While the rating of the arc drops. Law of Averages has already taken hold.

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It's funny actually, because near the start of this thread, the arc had over 90% 5-star votes, and nearly a hundred votes. Once the 'forum cartel' folk latched on, it all of a sudden got hit with a bunch of 1 and 2 star votes that have been coming in in bursts. But not before, and the arc had literally been around months, and hadn't been advertised at all. My supergroup has 4 active players, and my coalition has another 6-8, so I know those prior masses of 5-star votes weren't from them. We're a small crew.

The lesson here is, don't dare upset the Forum Cartel because apparently they've got connections. :P