Dechs Kaison

Take traps. Have it all.

Lost curing wand has the same bug.

I suspect it is the same for any staff power.

Just noticed the wiki page myself.

If true, hail of bullets just went from decent power to awesomesauce.

The devs have said that making an AT unlock at 50 was a mistake.

They are not epic like a badge or prestige. Epic means "tied into lore." Nothing more than that.

Unlocking at 50 created this air of "epic means uber" when it doesn't. I'm glad for the change.

Also, it's not like getting a 50 is all that difficult anyway.

For a long time now, I've wanted to see a "defensive" set that really was just a lot more offense. Technically, shields and fire hold the spot as aggressive defense, but somehow that wasn't enough for me. What I originally thought up was a set that says "I don't care what happens to me, I'm going to get you." I actually suggested something like this once before, but I've done some reworking since then. The first iteration was very much an "I want to die" set, which seems really fun in theory, but in reality it just doesn't work. For one: Tanks can't use it because it begged for defeat. Similarly, it would harm brutes and their fury.

So here's the remix. This version is a balance of doing extra damage and living on the edge. I'm combining some elements from the Super Reflexes, Willpower, and the old Defiance, as well as adding some new powers in the hopes to create a very unique set that can be exciting to play.

What I've settled on for a theme is a berserker. This set should be most appropriate for scrappers and brutes, less so for stalkers and tanks, but still doable.

(Tier 1) Perseverance - The berserker has a strong drive to see his enemies fall, and feels less pain than most because of this drive. Sensing the end only makes him stronger, and as he comes closer to defeat, his perseverance shines. I imagine this being the largest source of the set's survival. This power should grant a minimal (10-15%) resist to all damage that you can enhance, plus a scaling portion of resist that starts to increase at 75% health. The increase should be logarithmic in that it leaps fairly quickly until 40% health and then slowly climbs the rest of the way to the max at 20% health. In my mind, fully enhanced and at 20% health scrappers, brutes, and stalkers should have about 75% resist all total from this power; tankers should be at or close to their 90% cap.

What this should do is create a "comfort zone" at about half of the health bar. At full health, you'll be easy to damage, but once you're down under that yellow line of halfway, your resists are enough that natural regen brings you back up. Just over half, though, and you get hurt some more. A kind of equilibrium will be reached.

(Tier 2) Battle Cry - The berserker emits a deafening shout, invigorating himself while knocking back and terrifying his foes. This power will be the second largest source of survival for the set. I see this power not as a heal, but a short term regen buff that has a PBAoE knockback(down) and chance for fear that does no damage. When things get ugly, you can click this to get some space and regenerate some health.

(Tier 3) Adrenaline - You don't have a particularly large vocabulary, but "tired" is certainly not a word you know. You refuse to let fatigue slow you down. This grants the same recovery bonus as stamina, which is two thirds that of quick recovery from willpower and regen, but layers murky cloud value recovery debuffs and end drain resistances on top.

(Tier 4) Resilience - Able to shrug off things that should keep another person down, the berserker is undaunted by fear and other effects. Standard mez protection toggle without resists or defense added in. What it should also have is resistance to tohit and perception debuffs.

(Tier 5) Unnerving Presence - Merely standing in the presence of a berserker inspires fear. Those that face him often break eye contact and find it hard to land a blow with full strength. I really liked the name of this. It's a toggle taunt aura that provides some mitigation. I want this toggle to have a PBAoE -tohit and -damage, but it might be too powerful because it helps the whole team. If it were only one effect, I think -damage would be more fitting. Perhaps a minor chance to cause low magnitude fear for flavor.

(Tier 6) Frenzy - The signature of a beserker is his frenzy. As a berserker sustains damage, he becomes more determined to defeat his foes. His desire for combat is strong, though, and suffers when not immersed in combat. Toggle power with two effects. The first effect is a -15% self defense debuff if your health is above 75%. The second is a scaling damage bonus similar to the original defiance. Damage bonus starts at 10% once health is under 75%. I think a linear scale will work best, increasing to 200% damage at 20% health. Considering the benefits of a fully saturated Against All Odds, I do not think this is out of line. The debuff helps you get into the damage buff range, but disappears once you start taking that beating.

Why didn't defiance work on a blaster? I believe it's because a blaster can't hang on to that last shred of life. This powerset will be able to leverage the damage buff. Think back to that equilibrium point of half health. At that equilibrium, you get a constant 100% damage bonus, which is nothing to scoff at. Again, this is on par with saturated AAO.

The way I designed this to work is to stay at that equilibrium, but if a player decides to toe that line, he can get in over his head and be almost defeated for the maximum bonus. It's a high risk, but the resistances should allow him to hang on a little longer and the damage bonus will allow him to beat up the boss/LTs quickly.

(Tier 7) Hasty Assault - A good Berserker is quick to position himself, quicker to strike, and resists attempts to slow him down. Quickness clone, complete with resistance to speed and recharge debuffs.

(Tier 8) Walk it Off - A true berserker never stays down for long, and defeat offers only further encouragement. I'm thinking a simple self rez, no buffs with it here, but the recharge should be relatively short. It'd be nice if the animation had the character dust off his shoulders or something to that nature.

There was an idea to add fear to this, but I think I've taken care of that with the Battle Cry. Get up, click to knock 'em back, then toggle up and start smashing again.

(Tier 9) Death Wish/Final Gambit - Every berserker seeks the glory of a battle against insurmountable odds. They desire to be overwhelmed and take down as many foes as they can before the end which is sure to come. In this state, the berserker is all but impossible to defeat while he attracts as many foes as he is able. In the end, however, the exhaustion from this causes the berserker to collapse. The way I envision it, this is the godmode tier nine to end all, balanced by a crash like no other. I think it should be massive buff to resistance and defense to all damage types, along with a huge area and high mag PBAoE of taunt.

The first version of this powerset had a power that would do PBAoE damage when you died, but after some suggestion, I'd like to roll that into this power. Think of it like a blaster nuke scale damage (not the same damage as a blaster's nuke, mind you, I mean the same scale for whatever AT this set is on) when this power crashes. Two or three minutes of nigh perfect invincibility and a nuke when it's done. How is that balanced? Because the "crash" of this power is defeat. Unstoppable's crash leaves you to die, this actually kills you. No amount of inspiration gobbling or accolade popping will save you. That's the balance in the power. You will die.




My concerns: Personally, I feel that there isn't really a throwaway or skippable power, which may be a problem. Most people skip the self rez in a set, but with the "on the edge" feel I've tried to create, I get the feeling that it will be necessary.

Perhaps berserker is too narrow of a theme. Can you think of something that fits the theme but may be a bit more broad? Really it's just a name, people will RP things how they like, but still.

I know I didn't give the set any glaring holes either, but I reason that this is balanced by the fact that the greatest mitigation is only possible very near death. Also, this set will suffer greatly from burst damage and critical hits. Trying to be objective, I think this is in line with the current balance of power. Thoughts?

I worry that someone would softcap the set to S/L or melee and be able to live too easily on that edge. The game isn't supposed to be balanced around IOs, but I'm trying to account for them and not allow super game breaking stuff.

I am unsure what to do for stalkers, but I'm thinking I would get rid of the taunt aura, move the first four powers up one tier and put hide as the tier 1 power.

Well, there you have it. Where does this fit in to the current game balance? Do you see any potential game-breaking abuse of the powers? What problems do you see with the set? Is it unique enough to be its own set, but broad enough to appeal to a large portion of the player base?

Would you play it?

Signed so hard I need a new monitor.

So the story behind this is I was tired of my dark armor tank that wouldn't die but couldn't kill much of anything else either. I wanted more offense, but I didn't want to go all the way to a blaster. I still wanted to stand toe-to-toe... at least for a little while.

The tanker already had fire melee, so the theme could be kept by making a scrapper with fire melee and fiery aura. Two build ups, burn, and a nuke of a self rez. Looks good to me.

It came up in conversation in another thread, but here was Bill Z's take on it.

Cthulhu fhtagn