Dr Harmony

I do like the idea of a defensive set with different modes that you switch between during combat. However, I don't think that changing resistances or defence is the way to go.

At best, this makes you change once per mission. Say you're doing Croatoa, you'd switch to Fireproof mode to fight a map full of pumpkins, then S/L mode to fight the Tuatha, then E/N mode to fight ghosts.
At worse, you end up covering your bases as best you can - Say S/L mode with Freakshow and then maybe switch to Energy mode if you're cleaning up one last Super Stunner.

Dark Armor used to be like this I believe, with mutually exclusive toggles (before my time) and it got changed because it was no fun.

What might work, and this is just a germ of an idea, is a switch between offensive and defensive modes.

Say you have a toggle that can be a shield or a damage aura, but not both. You'd start each fight in defensive mode, and then work out the safe time to swicth to offence, giving you some good risk vs reward decision making in combat.

Or a long recharge shield toggle (say 40 second recharge) that creates a decent splash damage when its turned off. Once again, by using this attack you risk being vulnerbale for a bit afterwards.

Similarly, your Focussed Attack power could act as a safety power (eg a debuff or hold) or as an offensive power (damage or -Res) depending on your mode.

I like where you're going with this and your Psi aura idea, but I think its worth thinking about what decision the player would have to make mid combat, and how to make that fun. Risk vs reward seems like the obvious one there.

You can currently tool up a melee character with conventional firearms pretty well.

Craft the Revolver and Hand/Stun Grenades.

Run the Freakshow mission that gives you the 75-shot Confiscated Beanbag rifle in Ouroborus (5 minutes tops).

Run the second Striga arc in Ouroborus to get the Holy Shotgun Shells (75 shot knockback and damage) in the second mission and then quit. (maybe 10 minutes?)

All good, this reinforces Gravity's niche as a single target damage Controller set.

But it does nothing to address the lack of area control. It sounds like Wormhole still has a long animation, sub-par radius and opens you to return fire while using it.

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I often do, but it really should be my choice, and not a choice foisted on me by the developers.

For example, I often stick the Stupefy knockback proc in Thunder Kick. A 20% chance to send enemies flying with my basic Tier 1 attack is not conducive to maximum damage per second, but it looks great. That's all cool because I've chosen to do that.

Dual Pistols, however, I think, is held back by overly long flashy animations. These are not optional on a per-player basis.

If you're looking to complement a bunch of melee characters for group content, might I suggest a /Sonic Blast Defender?

Your secondary will provide more -Res debuff than any Defender primary.

Pair it with Kinetics, which is a very melee-friendly primary to further amplify your team damage boost. The downside to this combo is its less survivable than some other Defenders, but you shouldn't need that with all the melee characters around.

I always imagined that Portal Corps do find worlds like this, but they don't feel the need to tell the local freelance superhero community (ie the players) about them.

We're just called in for the dangerous parallels.

OK. You dont give numbers for your set, but my impression was that the three main resistance powers (to Melee, Range and AoE) would be roughly equal in value. If that's the case, you end up with a character who resists all attack vectors by the same amount, say 50%.
This is exactly equivalent to resisting all damage types by 50%. There is literally no difference.

The current defence powersets actually use the fact they have vector and typed defence.
Parry adds Melee defence, because deflecting close attacks but not ranged ones or bombs makes sense.
Ice Armor deflects physical attacks, but not fire attacks, which combined with its lack of fire resistance gives it a hole that makes sense.

If you add positonal resistance as an idea, you'd need to answer these questions:

How do typed and vector resistances stack? Is it like defence, where you take the higher value and apply it? If you add them both can you easily get overpowered results?

What about Sonic Resonance? It currently buffs typed resistance to S/L and F/C/E/N. How will this stack with say Melee resistance? Do we need to add Melee resistance and Ranged/AoE resistance to the ally shields?
(Force Field used to only add typed defence, which meant it helped Ice tankers much more than SR Scrappers, so these oversights do happen.)

What about Thermal? It adds typed resistance to allies, but favours Fire resistance and gives little cold resistance. What should it add?

What does Tough do? Adds Melee rsistance too?

The Eye of the Magus/Demonic accolade power add resistance to all except Psi. Should it also add vector resistance?

If all the above gained ranged resistance, you've just made Carnie Ringmistresses and their ranged psi attacks much less dangerous. Do you want that?

The Vanguard Psionic Shield, available for Vanguard Merits, adds some Psi resistance. What should we do here? Its probably OK to leave it as is..

Most importantly, what else have you forgotten?
Mystic Fortune buffs?
Self Mutation?
Base empowerment buffs?
What other little used power has suddenly been nerfed or boosted unintentionally by adding this new mechanic.


Is this work really worth it for a set whose only new feature is that you resist AoE damage less than other vectors during the levelling process? I don't think so.

I would highly encourage any tourists in the Rogue Isles to pick up the Demonic accolade while they're there.

Do a 2 mission Ouroborous arc that unlocks at 35, pick up a few exploration badges, and kill 100 Hellfrosts as you run round Potter's Field in Sharkhead, about 8 times.

Its much easier than the hero equivalent, and offers you pretty much complete invulnerability for 1 minute out of every 25 (or less with recharge bonuses). It can be very useful for taking out tricky Elite Bosses in your Patron arc in fact.

If you like Shadow Meld or Scorpion Shield, you'll probably like this.

What would be the point of adding Positional Resitance?

If you have a toggle that adds resistance against each position (Melee, Ranged and AoE) you're in exactly the same position as if you had, say, a S/L toggle, a F/C/Tox toggle and an E/N/Psi one.

All this accompolishes is letting someone make a build where they skip one of these toggles, eg you decide to let yourself be vulnerable to AoE attacks.

How many times do you do that with existing armor sets? I find I always take all major powers to cover all bases. Sometimes I'll delay one power a bit, but its not a particularly exciting part of my career where I'm vulnerable to fire or whatever, its just work in progress.

No, I don't think that I would.

I don't have any character concepts in my head that call for either. If I did, I'm pretty sure I could execute them with existing sets like Fire Melee/Armor or Energy Melee/Aura.

It would have to do something interesting in terms of its game mechanics to really draw my attention.

I do agree that the IO system could use more genuine choices. The effectiveness of different bonus types seems to be way off.

Currently, the big two are Defence and Recharge - they can transform a character.

Accuracy, Recovery, Hit Points and Regen for sturdier melee-ers, these are not bad, sort of quality of life enhancers.

Other bonuses tend to be negligible. For example, my Stalker has accumulated +Damage in set bonuses using over ten high quality sets, and to be honest I haven't really noticed the difference.

My main criticism would be that I tend to use the same sets again and again. The only non-obvious choices I ever seem to make are Defence vs Recharge: Kinetic Combat vs Crushing Impact, and Thunderstrike vs Decimation. Except for that Stalker. If I'd accumulated twice the damage bonus I'd , I'd maybe go that route again on other characters.

Absolutely not.

The invention system adds a completely optional layer of complexity to the game. Without it, I doubt I would have come back.

I enjoy not being forced to rely on other players. It doesn't mean I don't team. Last night I recruited a mixed group of newbies and a couple of other veterans and dragged them round Atlas Park for some fast and furious XP while I did my hero tips (which I run at +1/x6 on my own of no-one joins me). We chatted, fought crime together, and had fun. I couldn't have done this without IOs - I'd have been having to pick teammates much more carefully.

I'd much rather team-mates were there for the social side of the game rather than because I'm afraid to set foot in a mission without a Tank and Support, or incapable of doing enough damage on my own.

When you get to 50, you can put the Ragnorak Chance for Knockdown into Crushing Field (as well as the Gravitational Anchor Chance to Hold.)

It's amazing.

With procs and uniques it's generally better to get them as low level as possible.

The two exceptions I can think of are Luck of the Gambler +Def/+Global recharge and the Steadfast +Res/+Def, which both combine a level-independent global effect with a normal level-dependent enhancement value that goes up with level. For this reason, a tricked out level 50 (the big spenders) will often want the highest level of the enhancement to squeeze out a few more points from it.

For actual damage or status procs, lower is almost always better, just because lower level characters can slot them.

Yeah, Aedon was right. 2 Merits per recipe, times two again for two recipes, that does equal 4 times the conversion cost, or 80 million.

Random rolls can be good, I had some good ones recently. I guess with them the question is how pissed off you'll be if they don't turn out well. If you're already rich, it doesn't matter too much - if you need the influence now to get some stuff, the safe bet is maybe better.

Energy Blast, and to a lesser extent Energy Melee.

I love knockback.
I love the classic 60's visuals of the set, and they fit in very well with the science-y spandex genre that my characters inhabit.
Both sets look and feel very powerul.

Pick up the Brute Mu mastery pool at level 35 - you'll get three ranged area attacks and a single target Lightning Bolt. Go Kinetic Melee for an extra single target attack and Repulsing Torrent. (If you're a knockback hater dont use it until you have Electric Fences from Mu)

For an armour set you wnat one with a disposal Tier 8 and 9, so you can start taking patron powers at level 35 onwards.

I'd recommend a Kinetic/Electic/Mu brute maybe?

I think so. 100 merits buys you 2 hero merits, not 1.

240 merits = 1 recipe = 100 million

OR

200 merits = 4 hero merits = 2 recipes - 40 million (conversion) = 160 million

You save 40 merits and make 60 million more.

The three most expensive recipes I can think of are:

Luck of the Gambler: Def/+ Global Recharge (varying levels - 50 gives a bit more defence, lower levels are good for levlling builds )
Kinetic Combat: D/E/R, level 35
Miracle: +Recovery unique, level 20

If you're looking to raise money, buy these with Hero merits and sell them for over 100 million each.

These cost either 240 merits or 2 Alignmnet Merits (= 100 merits + 40 million), so it would probably be worth converting normal merits to alignment ones to buy these.

I'd give Sonic/Mental a look as an alternative. You get decent controls comparable to Psi Blast and much better area damage.
It isnt hard to think of rings coming from your face as psychic attacks, especially if you color them. The cones from Sonic and Psychic Scream work very nicely together, and you're now outputting a mix of Smashing, Energy and Psi, so you have no obvious problem enemy groups.

If you dont like the Sonic Blast sound FX, dont do this obviously.

I have to admit that I havent actually played Psi Blast, but the numbers put me off - it really does look like a sub-par set on paper.