Mad Grim

All I want for christmas is Toggle Suppression.

I made a Praetorian Water/Time Corruptor, and my friend made a Water/Electric Blaster. Both of us like the set, especially how it looks. Stacking whirlpools is a blast, especially when they start scourging.

Dehydrate is one of my favorite powers in the game now. It is incredibly fluid looking, the hand movements for it are just better than you normally see in this game. The power itself is good too, good damage and a heal over time meshes well with Time's heal. Basically gives me a constant regen.

Water/Time means that they enemy really can't run away. 25 currently, I do see Steam Jet being a problem, as currently I stay in the center of the crowd.

Mechanically this is a fantastic buff.

Thematically I will sorely miss my apocalyptic end-all blast.

At least they'll keep the epic look.

Overall feeling of happy acceptance, looking forward to it.

Wind blast would be great!

Copyright infringement isn't a real problem. The game already handles stuff like this by deleting the offending characters, due to stuff like wolverine claws and a storm set existing.

Light blast with solid lasers would be cool as well.

1. Lock AIB in a room with Photon Seekers, use whatever comes out

2. Lock THB in a room with Pulsar, use whatever comes out

3. Toggle suppression

Answer me this: What would you or anyone else lose if soldiers were added and mercenaries buffed?

Now this: What if we just gave up on mercenaries and added soldiers, how much would people lose then? I'll answer this one: an entire powerset.

That is what I'm going off. With your idea you are completely replacing a set that some people like, with a set they may not like. There is a reason they have never done this: its stupid. You aren't trying to fix mercs, you gave no suggestions for trying to fix mercs- you gave suggestions akin to a new powerset replacing mercs. Just because my view differs with yours doesn't make it "weird complaining".

Yes, those are all problems with mercs, problems that my suggestions (the ones you seem to be ignoring) would help to fix. They aren't irreparable; if you take the time to look you can see many ways in which they can be improved without replacing the whole thing. I'm not accusing you of any ulterior motives or attacking you in any way, I am simply disagreeing with your view.

I realize I failed to address the medic: give him a fast recharging AoE heal, take away his brawl attack, take away his grenade or turn it to knockdown. Give him fast recharging Empathy buffs that he won't use on those that already have them.

There, problem solved without burning him and sticking another soldier in his place. All of the other problems you stated I already addressed. Without attempting to remake the entire set.

Also, I disagree with any suggestion that involves taking an existing enemy group and turning it into an MM set.

Khorak, you are assuming that everyone agrees with your view of soldiers. And yes, if you just introduced soldiers without buffing mercenaries no one would use mercenaries. That is not what I'm suggesting. I'm saying buff mercenaries instead of replace it with a completely different powerset, since perhaps some people like having Rambo. What you are saying is "I think this set is rubbish, the design is rubbish, everything sucks, everyone has to agree with me!" so instead of fixing it like they have done with every other buff in the history of the game, you want them to replace it with your vision of soldiers. Your vision seems to be based around what is real, despite this game not being real. I'm not saying these guys shouldn't exist, I'm saying they shouldn't completely replace Mercs, because then you'd have a lot of pissed off Merc players.

And if you'd read the post, I gave suggestions to help fix Mercenaries. And as for an airstrike not being plausible in a gave, could just go with you throwing out a bunch of bombs yourself.

And yes, Oni seems out of place in the ninja set, especially since his face looks like the designers got drunk and went comatose while drawing it. Oh, and yes, I have suggestions for Ninjas too:


First of all, their T7 power should be changed. Perhaps it is just because I always pair nins with an active secondary, but I stop using Smoke Flash in the mid 20's. It costs too much endurance. You could conceivably give them something like Gang War instead, with a few alterations. For instance- ninjas strike from the shadows, yes? Then make the ninjas that appear have Hidden on, and give them only melee attacks. This way, they all strike out with a critical at the same time. Have them stick around about 2/3 the time of the Gang War thugs. Give them higher damage but lower health. In this way, not only do Ninjas gain a place to put more of those pet uniques, but they further cement their place as the MM damage kings.

Well that's my first idea for them, my second is this: Giving each ninja the inherent Conservation of Ninjitsu, which works thusly: In any martial arts fight, each side has only a finite amount of ninjitsu in a given encounter. Therefore, one ninja is death incarnate, while an army is nothing but cannon fodder. So give all the ninjas a weakened Vengeance ability that goes off when they die, much like Nemesis lieutenants. The fewer the ninjas remaining, the harder they are to kill and the harder they hit. This effectively turns their squishiness into a weapon.

Installing one or both of these suggestions would make Ninjas an actual force to be reckoned with, as they should be. If both, then of course the extra T7 ninjas should NOT have the vengeance power. Also, make the Oni better at prioritizing, either take away his sword or teach him to use it with one hand and throw fire with the other.

Perhaps give them an optional costume update. Put a drop down menu in the power customizer to choose between different models. Currently, yes, they look like crap. Same with mercs. But again, optional. And no, making you do it when you respec is not optional, because then you could never change your build ever without converting to the new version.

Oh, and yes, both a medieval set and a cloning set would be awesome.

I would recommend the Ninja/Time. The Ninja/FF will be able to get them loads of def but little other mitigation and no heal. Time gives nearly as much def (if you are willing to get Mace Mastery it gets absurd), tohit and damage debuffs, recharge debuffs, holds, and run speed debuffs as well as a serviceable heal. The good thing about the heal is that it is over time, so if you use it just before they take extreme damage, rather than waiting for it to recharge they'll just heal back up. Also, Time offers damage buffs for your nins, and a massive AoE def/res debuff for your enemies for quick killing. And said enemies will not be able to run due to two layers of caltrops, Distortion Field, and Time's Juncture.

Time is just about the only thing able to consistently keep ninjas alive. I've actually got a Nin/Time as my main. So yes, I'd recommend Time over Force Field.

If you are set on sonic, I'd recommend Beast.

-Beast has innate res to stack with it
-Beast has innate def for when your res can't go any higher
-Beasts have innate heals except for the two normal wolves
-the T7, Fortify Pack. With no slots and the full 10 pack mentality (which you get within the first 10 seconds of a fight), you gives them 15% def and about 500% regen. Their natural def is 12%. Add in a def IO and maneuvers, your pets are nigh invulnerable killing machines.

I do not like the idea of replacing mercenaries. Rather than go out and buy a new toy, break out the duct tape and fix what we have. How?


Serum is almost universally regarded as suckish. I've personally never tried Mercs so can't comment. However, here be an idea to replace it: Air Strike. You hear a plane fly overhead and bombs drop on parachutes. Each bomb acts like a pseudo-pet so you can slot RIP IOs in it. The bombs do high damage and knockdown, so provides some mitigation too. They would take a bit of time reaching the ground, and would probably be used like Seeker Drones- and alpha absorber. Make the Soldier's Full Auto a wider cone. Shorten the recharge on all of Spec Ops' support abilities by a ton. Take Flash Bang down to 35 seconds and increase the stun. Change Rifle Butt to the ranged stun in Assault Rifle so they run in less. Tear Gas should have a recharge of ~60 seconds and the damage debuff should last the same. Increase the damage on SCAR Snipe. Increase the Immob on Web Grenade so it can be perma without enhancements. If these guys are supposed to be the support then make them actually be support! Also, you should probably change all of the knockback to knockdown, the scatter really hurts damage. Most of their AoE is cones.

Voila, they are now strong. Oh, and still mercenaries. Your idea is basically designing a set from the ground up anyways, so instead of replacing what we have, just make it a new set- soldiers. Which are different from mercenaries.

More I look at this set, more it doesn't seem OP. At first glance it is, the powers are powerful. But much of it has to do with positioning and thinking, much likes traps. Really, that is what this strikes me as- magic traps. And I like that.

Purely aesthetic suggestion- perhaps Rage Orb should start small and grow rapidly as it taunts, then when it explodes all the enemies hit with it have a smaller version appear somewhere on their body. Just to make it more obviously DoT

Pirates!

First tier- Scallywags. They have cutlasses and blunderbusses, one in each hand. High single target damage, maybe a few cones and a single PBAoE.
Second Tier- Cannoneers. They have giant cannons that do lots of AoE damage and burn patches, but are slow to fire and have rather lower single target.
Third Tier- First Mate. Powerful buffs and debuffs, controls, leadership abilities. Also has a cutlass and pistol, with fewer but stronger attacks than the Scallywags.

The T7 power should be Keelhaul, where a giant ship appears out of nowhere and runs over your targets.

Or maybe Stormy Seas, a TAoE pulsing knockdown power with large waves.

Yes, yes, it should be an MM set.

But yes, yes, it is OP. It basically takes the greatest powers from a bunch of other sets and makes them cooler. I guess you could make the recharge and end costs high, but there is a fine line there between OP and Unplayable.

Did it with my Ninja/Time before I started to IO him.