Ethric

At capped recharge (+400%, cap is 500%), you can have only a 20s (+ godmode's activation time) downtime, so you can get to use Phase Shift in between that.

There's no way you can get this perma solo. You'd need an Empath with perma AB on you, and you'd have to have ridiculously high +Rchg bonuses behind that, too.

However, I'd recommend Invulnerability (crash has no -recovery) or Electric Armor (+Rchg from LR, Tanks can get capped resists from adding psi res) for such a project.

Brutes are also less affected by the damage debuff in Granite because of Fury. The percentual decrease in overall damage is laughably small compared to what Tankers experience.

Hmm, yeah. True. Agreed on all points.

Back to the drafting table. >_>

Warning, this is long-ish.

My suggestion below is intended to make the Defender more interesting as a support Archetype by giving a more dynamic inherent (like Corruptors and Controllers with their dual roles) while retaining the Defender's teaming focus while promoting the use of the Defender's secondary.
This new inherent is to replace the old Vigilance. Values presented here are not final, I hope that people will try not to seek a certain loophole in the suggestion and therefore attack the whole suggestion. The numbers are just giving direction to this suggestion, and what I feel is balanced.


The new Vigilance

The Defender's focus has always been the team, as such an inspiring character, the Defender can inspire his teammates from almost certain defeat to victory. While Vigilant, every time the Defender uses an inspiration, a portion of that bonus will be awarded to teammates in a wide area. The Defender can attain Vigilance by using his or her powers, secondary powers granting more.


Technical information:

• Vigilance bar added (from 0 to 100), which rises in a similar way as Domination does: by attacking while Vigilant. Using Primary powers activates "Vigilance-mode", which enables gaining Vigilance from attacks. You can't "stack" Vigilance-mode, it can only be refreshed. The bar slowly diminishes, similar to Domination and Fury.

• Using an inspiration uses 25 Vigilance points. Along with normal effects, 50% of that bonus will affect teammates only in a 60' radius (same as Leadership powers). This limits the "popping chain" to 4, and is to keep force multiplication in control, while not being useless.

For example, the Defender has attained 60 points of Vigilance and uses a Righteus Rage and a Respite. The Defender gets a +50% damage buff for 60 seconds and recovers 25% base HP, as usual. The Defender's teammates, on the other hand, get a +25% damage buff for 60 seconds and recover 12.5% of their base HP.

The Defender can utilize the new Vigilance to act to a sudden threat quickly to keep the team standing, or keep the team going steady and safe. As the inherent is quite powerful in a large team, it doesn't grant any benefits to solo Defenders (just as the current Vigilance doesn't). The inherent forces choices upon the Defender: to use the inspiration now for personal benefit and 'waste' 25 points of Vigilance, or save it for when the team needs it?

The Vigilance can be used to patch weaknesses in primaries: Dark Miasma can grant the team temporary mezprotection through using Break Frees, and Force Field can help offensively by using Reds. Vigilance does not work with special inspirations like Kora Fruit or Holiday inspirations (which give boosts in AoE anyway), and using these inspirations does not use Vigilance points.

I personally feel that the Vigilance points granted by powers should be tailor-made, not by any formula (á la Defiance). As general rule though, secondary attacks should grant more Vigilance (so even non-offensive Defenders can feel that attacking is useful). More powerful attacks grant more Vigilance, so the Defender with only the tier 1 attack from the Secondary doesn't benefit as much from Vigilance than a Defender who uses a more balanced mix of Primary and Secondary powers. The idea would be that an active Defender would be able to get 50 points of Vigilance every minute on average.

If possible, using Primary powers should act as enablers for the Vigilance gained from attacks. This is to prevent rewarding Defenders neglecting their primary and only attacking. The duration I feel is right for "Vigilance mode" to be activated per primary power, should be somewhere around 20 seconds (AoE Heals would grant less time for "Vigilance-mode", to make annoying aura-rocking a less viable tactic). Applying Single Target shields would grant the longest duration of Vigilance-mode: 60 seconds. This is to reward this rather choresome activity, and most ST shields are plenty good of their own so that the Defender has "done his or her part". Again, these durations (and values) would be subject to change.

As an added bonus, Nukes would fill Vigilance by 10 points per target, excluding Full Auto and Rain of Arrows, which would be treated as regular attacks. Many Defenders skip Nukes for the lack of damage despite using the whole endurance bar, this is to make them more useful.

Graphical effects I'm not sure of, I feel that the effects should be as silent as set bonuses currently are. So that there aren't sudden "VIGILANCE"-words popping over people's heads or inspiration chomping animations. Just the silent increase in damage (or other boosts) that could be observed via Combat Attributes. Using Greens would produce in visible heal numbers, though.

Also, I know that force multipliers in general are overpowered in this game (on teams), but I think Defenders deserve some love. Corruptors and Controllers have quite powerful inherents, why not the Defender? Maybe force multiplication should be nerfed, but that belongs to another thread or suggestion.


That's all I can think of right now. Smell over -or underpowerdness? Why? Compared to Corruptor or Controller? Any adjustments? Why?

On a video screen that mother spider with little spiderlings are just adorable.
However, if I saw that thing crawling on the floor, I would just go "Oh gawd what is THAT?"

Also, I had found out that I had been living with a spider for at least a few weeks when I checked the insides of my then unused reading lamp. The poor thing escaped when I turned the lamp on. D:

Just make scythes as custom weapons for Battle Axe. If I'm not seeing things entirely wrong, the haycutter's blade should face the right directions correctly.

edit: OR MAYBE PEOPLE WANT SOMETHING LIKE THIS.

I've always thought it'd be cool to control some NPC's movements and actions against a hero/villain team, be it a Sapper with free thought or a Succubus that would strike from the ceiling.

I only wish for KB to make damage when the enemy hits the wall or any other object.

Also, KB increase from damage buffs.

Dress up as one of Rikti, then go do the Vanguard arcs. Preferably in +4/8 difficulty.

Someone should do an animation out of these.

It depends on if those other things need extra slots.

Power Thrust is the closest thing to the old ET, damage slotting it would keep the memories golden.

The redraw issue is going to be fixed Soon™.


In the meantime, if you Brawl an enemy with the Mace drawn, you'll smack the enemy with it.

8 Stalkers that AS a spawn...

- 60% unresistable, unaffected by Purple Patch Tohit Debuff.

- 90% of the spawn under a mag 5 Fear, affecting bosses as well (if they're even alive at this point).

- Plenty of opposition dispatched before the fight even has begun.

Call it bugged or WAI, when I get those guys out my DPS rises thanks to increased criticals and the Spiderlings' own contribution.

There might be a cap to crit chance, but I don't know about that, really. I don't team up with MMs on my Stalker very often, and even then they will be Robotics or Thugs.

I'd recommend getting the Spiderlings anyway, esp. if you are going to invest in +Rchg.

Fury inherent, as per CoD: "Rage_Strengthen" has a 10' radius aura checking every 10 seconds. I remember seeing a thread concerning this a long time ago.