MisterD

Beast Mastery

When this set was announced, way back whenever, I was not very excited. In fact, of the ‘new’ sets (Dual Blades and up), it is easily the set I didn’t care about. This was partly due to the look of the set, and also comments I read on the forums.
But hey..world ending and all..so I figured I would buy it with my last few points and give it a crack. I got it earlier this month, and have been playing it. Just dinged 50, and thought I’d make some comments on it.


Visual.

I don’t like how the pets look, not really. The Wolves are the worst..I think they just look pretty crap. Not so much ‘badly’ don’t as not fitting at all in the CoX theme. Or what I see as the theme. I just see it as the devs getting seriously too excited about their 4 legged rig.

The Dire Wolf looks..ok. Perhaps cause it is more Beast like..as opposed to just a damn dog. Or lion. And on THAT issue..why is the power called Summon Lions..and then they spawn as..Lioness? Really?

Also, as good as some of the 4 legged animations can be..a lot are just..crap. In particular, a lot of the time when ordering pets in a new direction, they just magically spin and rotate on the spot, all 4 legs locked still. I honestly can’t recall how other pets move, but I am almost sure my other MMs (necro, demon, bots) do not have this issue. Perhaps due to being two legged and less complex animations. Not sure.

Also, I think the 3 above MMs spoiled me, but one of the BEST things in this game, was how, when upgrading pets..you could see it. Grave knights get armour and big glowy swords, bots sprout huge missile racks, demons eyes glow and the trial fire.
But..Beasts..umm..wtf? I think the dire wolf’s eyes glow, a bit. That’s IT. GJ art team.

In the good column..The do have some REALLY nice animations. There is s semi pouncey type jump they do, when attacking, that looks great. My fav though is a Lion (sorry! Lioness) attack, where they stand on their forelegs, and do like a 1,2,3 slash with their claws. It looks great..really vicious> There is also a sort of graphic overlay for it, showing claw strikes in the air. Looks cool.


Personal attacks and Fluff powers.

All the MMs have these. Some personal attacks are ok. I think the whip ones can be all right, mostly due to the damage type. A lot of other sets have just lethal or smash damage..which, combined with the lousy base damage, make then worse.

The Beast attacks are like that..all lethal. The hawk has some nice KB in it, and all of them have pretty animations. The gimmick as it were..is that the attacks all add this Pack Mentality..which is a stacking damage bonus and crit chance for the pets. Which sounds great..till you see it is only 2% damage each time. Given most pet attacks are like..50 damage..2% of that, lethal damage, against a resistant baddie..not much! But better than nothing I guess.

The +crit chance does seems to help though, and I see they critting a LOT. The fluff power is Fortify Pack..that adds a stacking +def/regen to pets, depending on how many stacks of PM you have. The values are pretty good..and with a few stacks, its +14% def to all for 60 secs. Trouble is..after that, they cant crit or get the bonus damage.

The power sounds ok..and just owning it lets your pets crit more...but..the amount of times I have used it up to 50, I could skip it. In no way is it crucial like Gang War. Even worse, it can;t take the Rech pet sets.

I think it is..hit and miss. Good in a way, that the personal attacks can help your pets indirected, and the Fluff power works together..but it really is a ‘gimmick’ effects. And not a greatly improving one.


The Pets.

I think all I have read was pretty correct. Especially Reppu’s threads. The damage is all lethal but for the Dire Wolf. He does have some ok stuns and cones, but, compared to the utter crazyiness of AssBot, or the good damage + control of Demon Prince? Just seems..average. very.

The pets do have some nice stats..11% def to all, and a Tri type resist, fire cold lethal.
They do seem to lack some attacks though, and the complete lack of ANY range on the t1 and t2 pets is utterly retarded. If a zombie can at least get a vomit, surely a wolf can get a ranges tail swipe. It also makes it very easy for the pets to aggro, when running in (they have to get RIGHT next to a target) and even more so when chasing someone down.
Also, the heal they get..Lick Wounds. I think this power is broken, sucks, or both. I have only seen it happen ONCE and it does jack. Compared to say..bots and their ally heals, or demons and that heal..just utterly shite. Even zombies and their brainless timing for life drains are better.

They also get a few ally +dam/def buffs which..really don’t suddenly make them awesome. At all. Also, because they are long recharging pbaoes, quite a lot, they miss each other. Again..compared to the Prot bots bubbles and demons Ember shield..just crap. Added that those two examples buff YOU, the player..and..well..nothing special.

Overall..very average set. With serious issues with no range, no constant buffs and broken healing.

What a tard. And this is why most people hated pvp..dicks like YOU. Sure I have seen Aimz get fired up and pissy..just as I have seen about everyone in RV do the same..include you Evo. Get over yourself. And if she sucks SO much, and you won..wow, you can beat a bad player? That must be hard right?
Get over it, move on.

Yeah it was the Tents I think Leo.
I like that..Stadium too.

Ah, cheers Leo..I thought that might have been the case. Was about to boot up Test and hunt for it. lol.
Nice looking zone..but..as other's have said, 'another' zone for blue? With so many almost dead?

They sure love their lil water trenches here...can see quite a few buildins from the new AP also.

What are those water lumpy things, when you fly nearish to the outdoor lake (middle of imp city clone)? Is it just not formed, or something else?

Hospital looks great..the big yellow logo looks awesome!

Was looking at a comment in the YB link..people saying you cant see this, except on test? But..is it? I sure didnt see a new zone..

Agree with all of these.

Anyone who has been on Test will know that the (I forget teh name) IPU? are completely insane. Its like fighting the vanguard (with their debuffs and OP attacks) combined with the high lvl Resistance mobs (with teh target drones and -def) combined with a whole bunch of brand NEW powers that we have never seen before..and seem made just to kick your *** asap.

KoA suck too. I think the stacking Caltrops fix helped a bit..but as someone pouints out, it is way way unfair to MM pets. Oh, I can order my pet to jump of a building the ***** slap Tyrant? Can I make him stand on tacks? No uh!

The new Incarnate mobs in DA were pretty tough, but it was more..tough and a challenge, as opposed to things like that BS Scramble Thoughts arachnos has.

Longbow were, and are, generally really tough. Small mobs, not too bad, but when your in a full team..they can wipe it faster than almost anything. The Null nades are way OP, and simple stupid for any Resist base melee. Also a reason we should have got a DebuffRes..to -res.

Try playing a different toon Leo. You admit PA is overpowered..then brag about having no trouble with ANY mob? Try hami.

I remember Lloyd and Roland also.

I think just about every personal GM interaction I had had since I started, has been good. That is, when a GM comes into your mission etc, not just an emailed reply.

I seriously can not remember if it was Lloyd, but one time during a Numina tf, we kept getting the damn Supernatural events, in zones we had to hunt in. After waiting 10 mins for one to finish, them getting ANOTHER right away, for the next zone, I was not waiting..so I petitioned.

And the nice GM came along. Naturally, because I am evil, I made a lil story up about how half the team were running out of time, just to play on the heart strings. The GM was really nice about it though, and was laughing when I begged him to finish the mission.

Em/Da Brute for me.

I made him just after the IO system came around and I think most of the reasoning behind the sets was Energy Transfer being insane, and -kb IOs letting me go without accro. He became one of my most fun and most played toons, did pretty much everything with him. Well..everything that we had back then.

This was back when IOs were..not really expensive as such, but more 'rare' because it was all so new and the market wasn't full. Combined with no alternate ways to get stuff (reward merits, alignment merits, converters, etc etc) it took a bit longer to trick him out. That and I was not very rich.

He was so fun though. And VERY survivable. I remember a heap of pug teams as I was heading to 50, and I'd end up the last one alive, with 'tougher' sets like invul and stone face planting. Admittedly..a lot of these cases were vs Psi..but serves the silly right for not being prepared.

A few epic fights stick out in my mind. Me and a friends SS/EA brute versus a Hero class Manti and Posi in the dark watcher's arc. I think he was 52 or 53, and us with no lvl shifts etc. Not to mention how much dark hates energy attacks..

Another was me and a friends fire fire dom verses Setheno. For those who don't know, he is a giaaant snake AV in Grillo's arc. Mind control, psi attacks, toxic, regen powers..nasty stuff. Took us awhile but he finally died.

Funnest moment was Bruting the RSF. Back when we had no namby pamby incarnate powers or shifts, or Hero ATs. Just one brute herding all 8 54 (or it may have been lvl 53, I forget) heroes to teh boot, and game on. Pretty sure it was a perfect MO type run too.

I even Pvp'd with him quite a lot, and I must say, he was damn good. This was almost all zone pvp in RV and all old pre i13 pvp. He really did well..due to ET hitting like a ton of pink bricks and TF just stunning everything for 15 seconds. I teamed a lot with my brute and dom friends, and we were pretty awesome. I just loved having some so called pvp 'leet' person laugh at the silly DA brute, and rush over to attack me, only to get Feared by Cloak of Fear, cop at ET to the face, right before my Dom ally zoomed in and held them, along with a KO blow to finish it off. Was even more fun when they added Webnade to the patron pools.


Worst moments...3 of them.

Fighting the Vanguard for the first time every, and getting utterly destroyed by 3 minions faster than entire mobs of other factions could kill me.

Fighting Romans, again, for the first time. I didn't die as fast..but they tore me up, and their stupid aoe def was making all my toggles miss.

When those utter utter pricks nerfed ET. And my favourite toon went unplayed, before being moved to a dead server to make space.

As cool as the Editors looking for personal stories is..

I am more interested by this Fansy guy. He was griefing, on a No Rules server? Not sure which is more retarded...MAKING a no rules server in the first place, willingly playing there, playing there for the express purpose of pissing people off, or those idiots on the server who complain about something.

Still..sounds like our very own Twixt was worse.

That sounds like fun.

I remember years back, a few months after the RWZ was redone (with contacts and raids), me and a friend were killing lvl 54s in the zone and went on to fight some pylons. I think..this was before IOs, or just after, but we only got a few down before getting bored and inviting more friends. Ended up a big raid.

About a year or so back, I wanted to do a single team raid and got 7 friends to join me. We each parked Alt toons by the bomb gates, cause it would not let us tag them, even if we quit the team.

This was on Freedom, so of course we ended up with a few hangers on popping up, but it was basically just us. Really fun.

Did you guys end up getting the GM out?

I can't believe he started the thread again. The guy was such a ******* tool.

Down for me atm too. Checking the server status page shows a few normal servers as Unknown also.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=297443
My wind control, based on the wiki details.

Thanks Leo! I tried to be realistic and fitting stuff in..as well as going towards making us bad ***. I didn't really understand how Genesis 'could' be a debuff, given the word..hence the Origin tie in.
And we really do have nothing else for them.

Thanks for reading through it all!

Rad Melee sounds neat.
Didn't like how the first two attacks were smash/energy though..we SO have enough with that combo. Besides, the set seems more toxic, as radiation/Contamination, then just 'energy.'

Contaminated sounds like a special effect from each attack, causing aoe damage to anything nearby. Very cool.

Sorry to make a long post, but for those who just want to see what the powers sound like and not all the details..

Contaminated Strike
Melee, Light DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe -Def, Special
You charge your fist with harmful radioactive particles and quickly strike your foe dealing Light Energy and Smashing damage as well as reducing their defense. Affected enemies have a small chance to be affected by the Contaminated effect. Hitting Contaminated foes with single target Radiation Melee powers cause a small burst of damage to foes near the target. Damage: Light, Recharge: Very Fast

Radioactive Smash
Melee, High DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe -Def, Knockdown, Special
You channel a greater amount of radiation into your fists and deliver a hard hitting blow that deals Moderate Energy and Smashing damage to the target as well as reducing their Defense for a short time. Affected targets also have a chance to be knocked down and have a moderate chance to be affected by the Contaminated effect. Hitting Contaminated foes with single target Radiation Melee powers cause a small burst of damage to foes near the target. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Fast

Proton Sweep
Melee Cone, Moderate DoT(Energy/Toxic), Foe -Def, Special
You release a cloud of deadly radioactive particles in front of you inflicting Moderate Energy and Toxic damage over a short time as well as reducing the targets' defense. Affected enemies have a moderate chance to be affected by the Contaminated effect. Hitting Contaminated foes with single target Radiation Melee powers cause a small burst of damage to foes near the target. Damage: Moderate, Recharge: Moderate

Fusion
Self +DMG, +To Hit, Special
Fusion boosts your damage and chance to hit moderately and also causes your next few attacks to have a 100% chance to inflict Contaminated on your enemies. Recharge: Very Long

Radiation Siphon
Melee, High DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe, -Def, -Contaminated, Special
You pummel your foe with a deadly smashing attack dealing High Energy and Smashing damage and reducing their defense. Hitting Contaminated targets will also heal you for a large amount of health over 3 seconds and remove the Contaminated effect from the target. However, uncontaminated targets have a moderate chance to be affected by the Contaminated effect. Hitting Contaminated foes with single target Radiation Melee powers cause a small burst of damage to foes near the target. Damage: High Moderate, Recharge: Moderate

Taunt

Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Taunt

Taunt foes to attack you. Useful to pull enemies off allies and keep them attacking you to raise your Fury. A To Hit check is required to Taunt enemy players, but is not needed against critter targets. Recharge: Fast

Irradiated Ground
Toggle, Minor DoT(Toxic) Patch, Foe -Def, Special
While active you will scorch the earth beneath you leaving toxic clouds of radioactive gas in your wake. Foes that enter these clouds will suffer Minor Toxic damage, have their defense reduced and also have a tiny chance of being Contaminated. Hitting Contaminated foes with single target Radiation Melee powers cause a small burst of damage to foes near the target. Damage: Minor, Recharge: Moderate

Devastating Blow
Melee, Extreme DMG(Energy/Smash), Foe -Def, Disorient, Special
You hammer your foe with a brutal smashing attack charged with a lethal dose of radiation. Your target will suffer Extreme Energy and Smashing damage, will have its defense reduced and will be disoriented for a short time. Affected enemies will be affected by the Contaminated effect. Hitting Contaminated foes with single target Radiation Melee powers cause a small burst of damage to foes near the target. Damage: Extreme, Recharge: Long

Atom Smasher
PBAoE, High DMG(Energy/Toxic), Foe -Def, Disorient, Special
You charge up a dangerously unstable amount of radioactive energy into a single fist before driving it into the ground and causing a small explosion. Foes caught in the blast will suffer High Energy and Toxic damage and have their defense reduced. Enemies also have a moderate chance to be disoriented for a short time. Affected enemies have a small chance to be affected by the Contaminated effect. Hitting Contaminated foes with single target Radiation Melee powers cause a small burst of damage to foes near the target. Damage: High, Recharge: Long

Sounds cool!
Oh, love the power icon colors for both too. They would have been fun.

Wrapping it all up in a big overpowered package, with a bow.

So looking back, we would be getting..

Judgment: Aoe nuke
Interface: Proc damage
Lore: Pets
Destiny: Aoe team buffs
Hybrid: Personal timed buffs
Genesis: Aoe debuffs
Mind: Aoe mez
Vitae: Passive personal buff
Omega: Uber haxs and attacks.

And thats like..everything I think? As well as an I-Attack Chain of a nuke, melee, range, aoe mez, pbaoe, and proc damage!



I hope you enjoyed my Incarnate System wrap up. I really do wish we had of got to see it all through. Remember..things worked the way I say..because..I say it.

But if you have some great ideas for how something could have been done, share away!

Oh, and Thanks to Kitsune, who kindly deleted his/her TOTAL NINJA post that was snuck in early.

Omega.

Woot, we are here..the end of the road! The road to freakin’ awesome.

I hope you have enjoyed my ideas and power suggestions, and that they sparked off some ideas of your own.

In the meantime..this power WILL be Overpowered. Isn’t that the whole idea?

And of course, we have to assume that EVERYTHING we got till now may have been invalidated by Battalion powers and coming Mob types.

This power is a click, similar to Hybrid, as passive would be seriously game breaking for all the content we have till now. Sure, it would be fun for a bit..but..

My main inspiration for this is the first Alpha arc mission, when we are powered up to all hell, and the Blood Coral mission, with similar effects.

I will also go into a bit of detail about why the power does what it does.
So..without further ado..

Omega.

Tier 1. Form of the Omega.
Click Toggle, 20 sec Duration, 20 min Recharge. Max HP x10, +Rech, Rec, Regen, Range, Mez Prot, Mez Duration.

Yes, times TEN. One of my biggest pet peeves in game is how, even though we are a super god like incarnate being..a simple BOSS can have more hp than me. Not to mention a ‘normal’ AV, with 30k. And don’t even mention incarnate AVs with 150k. Hmmm perhaps 10x isn’t enough!

Regardless, the idea is to make US of a similar ‘damage soak’ level. As in..just take an attack for 2000 damage on the chin, instead of drop dead. It would work off Max and current HP, cause..why shouldn’t a Godlike Tank, have more haxzor hp than a Godlike MM?

So at 10x..you get an MM with 8000 hp, a Corr with 16,000, Scrapper with 24,000 and so on. Regen IS affected by this, but maybe to a lesser degree than it ‘would’ be, at the proper ratio.

All coupled with Huge mag Status prot, capped recharge and recovery, and 5 times Mez duration.


Tier 2 and 3. Shield of the Omega/Hand of the Omega.

Shield: Click Toggle, 40 sec Duration, 20 min Recharge. AT Cap Resist to all, +100 Def to all. Extreme Damage Melee attack.

Hand: Click Toggle, 40 sec Duration, 20 min Recharge. 2x AT Damage Cap, 20% Unresistable Damage, +75% of New Damage Total to all damage. Extreme Damage Ranged Attack.

These powers would be the first branch of the Omega tree, so you would make Form, then have the choice to pick either Shield or Hand, depending on what you want. A tank is going to have less need for capped res, when he is getting 30k hp!

The Shield caps each AT at their specific cap to Resist, and adds 100% def to all. The Hand doubles your AT damage cap and makes 20% of this new cap, unresistable damage. In addition, it applies a 75% damage buff, right away. So there is still room for those 10 reds you are carrying.

The powers appear exclusively, so if you pick the Shield at T2, then Hand appears at T3, and vice versa. The T3, whichever it is, extends the duration of the power to 60 secs. All 3 powers ‘stack’ with each other to, meaning at T3, you have Form, Shield and Hand, ALL in the one click power.

The two Attack powers, melee and ranged, would be extreme damage, around 400 like Judgements, and have a Recharge of 2 mins, when you get the FIRST one. Picking the 3rd tier (so both attacks) increases that to 1 minute recharge. This is when you do NOT have Omega Active too, so it’s a One min cooldown big bad attack.

As for the type of damage..hmmm...uh. It’s Omega Damage. Unresistable by anything. But it will NOT be buffed by anything, except having Omega Active. Obviously..when it IS Active..a unresistable extreme attack, buffed by The Hand? Whap.


Tier 4. Essence of the Omega.

Click Toggle, 90 sec Duration, 20 min Recharge. +5 Level Shift. Extreme Damage PBAoe.

Yes, you read that correctly. A plus FIVE level shift. Taking us to Level 50+10.

Why? Because it would ROCK. Duh. And again, no idea what would have happened with the Battalion. But mostly..

Cause I am jealous. Going back to my comments on the x10 HP, the same thing applies here. Even though we are getting more and more powerful, there IS always something better. But..better in the game NOW. Not coming soon, not planned, but right now..when we are meant to be the most super awesome darn tooting super being there!

Of course, things like Cole and Hami get a bit of a pass, since ones the Wells Champion and Hami is well..um..yeah, a cheat? All those other Hero/AV’s though??! WTF. I am a damn Incarnate people! Why does an even con Elite Boss version of Ice Mistral still use ice blasts for like 8 times the damage I can ever do? I call shenanigans.

Hence the +5 Shift. Level 60, double damage, huge hp, max toughness, unresistable damage? ****, yes. Cop that Ice Mistral.

That is also why it would almost certainly HAVE to be a click power. Having that constantly would explode things.

Vitae.

A Latin word, meaning or pertaining to Life. My friend Google told me so. So..something to do with Life. No buffs, too many of them, no debuffs. Healing to death maybe? Nope..I think, another Passive power, working on our Vitals, our Life.

Looking at our life, in power form, we have the basics of...

Hitpoints, Regeneration, Recovery.

I guess you could also take it into things like Toughness, as it pertains to +def and res, but that seems a bit unfair to non melees that don’t have that, all the time. Whereas..we all always have the 3 above.

Hp and regen are closer related as is, and like the Destiny power, boosting one boosts the other (so I guess if you just wanted the ‘most’ buffs, you would pick hp, since that works for regen too) so I think I will have to wave my wand and say..

These buffs work on the stat and nothing else. That is..picking the HP tree will have NO effect on regen. How does that work? No idea. It does, be happy. Or sad, if you wanted it to.

The regen and rec trees also had a Debuff Res to that stat, while the HP tree adds Absorb if you hit your natural hp cap. I guess that would work with hp powers, so a regen using dull pain and hitting the hp cap ‘himself’, and then picking HP, would get Cap + Absorb, rather than nothing at all. And when/if dp wore off, his hp is no longer capped, so the Vitae power provides vanilla +hp.

This power would also provide another +1 Level Shift, in the same way that Lore was a shift, after unlocking the previous, non shifty power. So you would be 55 here, with Alpha, Lore, Destiny, Mind and Vitae.

Vitae: Body.
Passive, always on. Core/+Large HP, Minor Absorb. Radial/+Moderate HP, Moderate Absorb
Obviously, in the Regen case I mention above, picking core is pointless..since your capped. While the radial gives the better absorb. For say..an MM, who can get nowhere near his hp cap, alone, the Core version is better.

Vitae: Soul.
Passive, always on. Core/+Large Regen, Small +Res Debuff Regen. Radial/+Moderate Regen, + Large +Res Debuff Regen
It seems a bit on, tacking the small Resist with the large regen. But this serves to stop ‘A Regen’ taking the power, getting more regen (his number one mitigation) and then making himself almost immune to being debuffed that way. Whereas the person will average regen, say a brute with decent hp on a non ‘regen-y’ set, could get some more regen, and since he doesn’t rely on it, a strong resistance to losing that small amount he has.

Vitae: Mind.
Passive, always on. Core/+Large Recovery, Small +Res Debuff Rec. Radial/+Moderate Rec, + Large +Res Debuff Rec
Similar to above. Stops someone with decent recovery taking the core, getting end better end, as well as becoming almost immune to losing it. And the person who only wants some better rec, can also gain a good protection from losing what they have.

Mind.

So, debuffs, aoes, team buffs, pets, personal buffs, personal damage, personal buffs. What is left, and fits the bill?

Mind to me..would be controls, mitigation, mezzes. Obviously some sets already have mezzes (I think we can all get a patron/epic hold at the least) in large amount, and this would encroach on their area...but..ALL the other powers do it to various degrees. So why the hell not?!

Similar to Genesis, you don’t want the Mez here to replace ‘normal’ Mez ATs, but still be good enough. Going along with the other powers, a 2 min recharge sounds about right, as this would fill in gaps in Controlling ATs mez powers, and be a nice panic/utility for other people.

As I recall..the Mez tacked onto Judgments is 10 secs, and most aoe hold powers in our sets are 15 secs, so a duration of 20 secs seems about right. The max targets would also have to scale from ONE at T1, up to 10 at T4 Radial, with Domination and Overpower having NO effect on them (same way you can’t get a Judgment Crit). Accuracy would be high at T1, decreasing a little as you progress up, but still never going as low as existing mass holds do (since we can’t slot it).

Core and Radial. Hmmm..Core I think would have longer duration, and perhaps a high chance of a mag 4 Mez (Judgments are..20%? I think, for their Mez). Radial would get some additional targets and a debuff effect in line with the origin/type.

I am trying to think how different versions of the power could work with our damage types. If its mind..how can we have say..a Mind hold that does fire damage, and a Mind doing cold damage? Perhaps it shows us keeping a ‘cool head’? Maybe Origin powers again, with the 5 different ones? Because NOT having extra effects (meaning the Mez is ‘just’ psionic) presents the same problem as Dominate, with no positional tag. And it is also boring to just have a Mind/Psi/Core and nothing else!

So I think I will fit the power into the Origins somehow. After all, a super with a ‘natural’ background, would see the world in a different way to a Mutant, and approach problems (even if the problem can always be related to ‘kicking some guys ***’) in a unique (ish) manner.

Obviously with fitting them into origins, you do NOT get a choice as to which you make. Does that make it a bit unfair and rigid? Perhaps. Maybe..an ‘Origin Respec’ could come into it, since again, Origin really means jack all.

No..wait. It does NOT matter. AT all. Some Natural character using a Mutant mind (for example) is just an extended Incarnate related ability, and shows how the person can use their growing power to bridge and cross into other areas and fields. Done, problem solved..and no annoying power constraints.

This power would also provide another +1 Level Shift, in the same way that Lore was a shift, after unlocking the previous, non shifty power. So you would be 54 here, with Alpha, Lore, Destiny and Mind.

They will also do damage, something that is lacking in AoE mez powers, and a –Regen effect, improving up the tiers, to make them useful on hard targets. This also gives they a type and a position.

Natural Mind.
Target drop aoe Hold. Core/+Mag chance, +Duration, Default targets, High Lethal/Smash. Radial/+Targets, -Def, Moderate Lethal/Smash

Technological Mind.
Wide Cone aoe Hold. Core/+Mag chance, +Duration, Default targets, High Eng/Neg. Radial/+Targets, -To hit, Moderate Eng/Neg

Mutated Mind.
Target aoe Hold. Core/+Mag chance, +Duration, Default targets, High Toxic. Radial/+Targets, -Res, Moderate Toxic

Magical Mind.
PBaoe Hold. Core/+Mag chance, +Duration, Default targets, High Psi. Radial/+Targets, -Dam, Moderate Psi

Scientific Mind.
Chaining aoe Hold. Core/+Mag chance, +Duration, Default targets, High Fire/Cold. Radial/+Targets, -Speed and Rech, Moderate Fire/Cold

Genesis.

In the Loregasm thread, one of the guys talks about how there were planning on making this a debuff/buff type power, similar to tar patch or accelerate metabolism. Hmmm..I see.

Actually..no, I don’t see. Checking the definition of the word itself..I get..

Noun: The origin or mode of formation of something.
Synonyms: origin - birth - rise - provenance - origination

Does that say ‘buff/debuff’ to you? And buff, come on..we already have Destiny aoe buffs, Hybrid personal buffs, Interface personal Buffs. We are swimming in Buffs!

But what we don’t have..are Debuffs. Aside from the small ones in Interface, and the moderate but short uptime ones in Judgments. So..debuff is it!

Now I really don’t LIKE the idea of giving everyone a Tar Patch power, at least not on the usual debuff levels and recharge. As well as being too powerful, the layered debuffs would be screen drowning, and step on the toes of support ATs, too much (yeah I know..aoe nukes step on blasters toes too..but we like making things go boom).

In my wisdom then, I would limit the debuffs to a max targets of 10, increasing up from single target at T1, with a 15 second duration (less than some –res debuffs, at 20 secs) with a value of -15 Resistance, and 2% Unresistable –res, stackable from Leagues up to 5 times. That would mean a team with 5 of them, and other sources of –res, COULD get the resists of a T9ing AV down..to Zero. Fun. And a recharge of say..um..2 mins again, in line with all the other Timed powers.

How to tie that in with the word itself? Well..think about it, what is the FIRST thing we have to pick when we made our characters? (I really hope it IS the first, I’m too lazy to go check)

The Origin! And what is the first power we get? An origin attack power. Sure, it’s piss weak trash, but it’s the first. As for the origin itself, it means absolutely nothing besides which enhancements we can use and which stores to unlock. And IO’s killed that off to a degree (which I think is a bit sad..ALL those So’s have unique names and pics..that is a damn lot of creative work).

Even though they removed the Origin story lines from Blueside, I think it is still important. And it isn’t the origins ‘fault’ the arcs sucked..they needed an update. Not to mention, the Origin of Power arc.

So we have..

Natural, Mutant, Technology, Science, Magic.

Which, in keeping with our very creative naming conventions..become Natural Genesis, for example. Maybe with something added for spice. For anyone who cares, I pulled the names from the Origin definitions in my CoV manual. They sound fitting.

Genesis: Natural Ability
Genesis: Technological Gadget
Genesis: Mutated Awakening
Genesis: Scientific Wonder
Genesis: Magical Force

Now, for the debuffs. I looked at the ‘main’ aoe type debuffs in mids (for fenders) and came up with..

Tar Patch
Sleet
Acid Arrow
Melt Armour
Acid Mortar
Enervating Field
Disruption Field
Slowed Response
Freezing Rain

Ok..Sleet and Freezing..same thing. Likewise with the Acid powers. Disruption is similar to Enervating, as is MA to SR.

Tar Patch, Acid Arrow/Acid Mortar, Sleet/FreeRain, Disrup/Enervating, Melt/Slowed

Ta Da! Five debuff ‘types’, to go with our Five Origins! Excellent.

Let’s match em up! I gave them each a ‘second’ name, just cause..um..I liked it? The other names are taken from common words used in that Origins SO enhancements and the debuffs I am basing each on. Somewhat.

(UnR res is Unresistable Resistance debuffs, as mentioned above, for Avs)

Genesis: Natural Ability
Military Acid. (Acid arrow/Mortar)
Target AoE. Core/ -Res, -UnR res(moderate). Radial/-Res, -UnR res (small), Smash/Lethal Dot.

Genesis: Technological Gadget
Wetware Destruction.(Melt/Slowed)
Target Chaining AoE. Core/ -Res, -UnR res(moderate). Radial/-Res, -UnR res (small), Energy/Neg Dot.

Genesis: Mutated Awakening
Catalytic Disruption. (Disrup/Enervat)
PBaoe. Core/ -Res, -UnR res(moderate). Radial/-Res, -UnR res (small), Toxic Dot.

Genesis: Scientific Wonder
Exposing Elements. (Sleet/FreeRain)
Wide Area Cone. Core/ -Res, -UnR res(moderate). Radial/-Res, -UnR res (small), Fire/Cold Dot.

Genesis: Magical Force
Joule’s Decay. (Tar Patch)
Drop Target AoE. Core/ -Res, -UnR res(moderate). Radial/-Res, -UnR res (small), Psi.


Giving us a final list of...

Genesis: Natural Ability. Target AoE. Core/ -Res, -UnR res(moderate). Radial/-Res, -UnR res (small), Smash/Lethal Dot.
Genesis: Technological Gadget. Target Chaining AoE. Core/ -Res, -UnR res(moderate). Radial/-Res, -UnR res (small), Energy/Neg Dot.
Genesis: Mutated Awakening. PBaoe. Core/ -Res, -UnR res(moderate). Radial/-Res, -UnR res (small), Toxic Dot.
Genesis: Scientific Wonder. Wide Area Cone. Core/ -Res, -UnR res(moderate). Radial/-Res, -UnR res (small), Fire/Cold Dot.
Genesis: Magical Force. Drop Target AoE. Core/ -Res, -UnR res(moderate). Radial/-Res, -UnR res (small), Psi.

Hybrid.

Current listing.

Assault. Core/+Dam, +Dam stacks. Radial/+Dam, +2Hit stacks

Control. Core/+Mez res, +mag, Psi proc. Radial/+Mez res, Fear, Immob, Stun

Melee. Core/+Regen, +Regen,Res, Status, stacks. Radial/+Regen, +Regen, Def, Status stacks

Support. Core/End discount, +Acc, Dam, Def, Special, 2x pets. Radial/End discount, +Acc, Dam, Def, Special

Hmmm. Again, not sure here. They all work pretty well, and leaving aside the whole ‘always on vs semi on’ issue, they do some neat things. And, they do cover 4 of the main ways we want to improve characters. I think all I would do here is tweak the Control one, that seemed really lacking to me, and give it a +mez duration passive ability, in line with..Controlling.

So..Hybrid unchanged!

Destiny.

The current ones.

Ageless. Core/End, Rech, Rec. Radial/End, Rech, Debuff res
Barrier. Core/Def, Res. Radial/Def, Res, Ally Rez
Clarion. Core/Status prot, full. Radial/Status proc, partial, +Special
Rebirth. Core/Heal, Max hp. Radial/Heal, Regen
Incandescence. Core/+Heal, kb, stun. Radial/+Heal, Stealth, Speed, kb, stun

I have no idea what other 3 things could be added, to keep up with the 8 Options per slot theme. They all work well and cover pretty much everything. I think a few tweaks though..Incan being the ‘worst’ just cause it’s so fiddly to use. And people hate you.

I also think we could stand to have an Offence type Destiny. Maybe it is not in keeping with the slots theme (which is..not sure? Team buffs? Giving us more dam IS a buff) but hey!

Oh I forget. ALL destiny powers get a lower (75, 50%) value, for the caster. It is a team buff..let’s have people use it as one.

Changes...

Barrier. Core/Def, Res. Radial/Res, Def
How does a ‘barrier’ rez people? No idea, but it’s silly. Also, swap the values..Core gives MORE def than res, Radial gives more res than def. Not both equally, since they aren’t. And not every build wants or needs both.

Rebirth. Core/Heal, Max hp mk2, ally rez. Radial/Heal, Constant Regen, ally rez
Fixing the max heal to be less ******. More Constant regen, instead of a Huge burst of it, then low amounts. After the Heal the power gives, you don’t really need huge regen, right then. The power is called Rebirth..give it a Rez. Duh. Added bonus..if the Rez ‘hits’ someone, it will buff the personal stats for +hp/+regen, to encourage people to WAIT and use it intelligently.

Clarion. Core/Status prot, full. Radial/Status proc, partial, +Special
As it is, except to remove the Taunt and Placate resists from the power. They are not really a ‘status’ and this fits with a later power..

Incandescence. Core/+ Large Heal, aoe stun. Radial/+Moderate Heal, Speed
No more teleport or enemy kb. The TP just annoys basically everyone, and the kb then annoys melees, after they get tp'd. The core would give more –heal res to the radial. No more stealth to either.

Lethality. Core/+Dam, +Acc, +Taunt, Placate res. Radial/+Acc, +Dam, +Per
An Offensive Destiny. Why not..it’s a team buff after all. Core gives more damage as opposed to acc, as well as resistance to taunt and placate, as you focus so much on doing damage, you ignore anything else. Radial would be more Acc than dam, for the builds who want that, as well as a +Perception, as you miss nothing going on around you. Also makes sense (to me) because most melees get +per, and a lot of damage AT's take leadership (with +per) anyway. You are also a lot more likely (usually) to get taunted or placated on a melee. On the flip side, having no +per on a supporty type AT can be bad, as you go Blind, and can’t control or debuff. Also, their ‘attack’ powers are often much weaker, so more damage for them would be of less use, will acc would be great to have.

Safety. Core/+Intangible, +Chance for Phase. Radial/+Intangible, +Stealth, +Small chance of Phase.
Not sure about this but..Using the power would make everyone it hits Phase Shifter for a small time, while STILL being able to use all powers (how that would work, no idea. It just does). Then for the rest of the duration, up to 2 mins, attacks directed at you would have a change to go up against a Phased flag, and fail. The radial would have a longer initial phase, smaller chance of phase for the duration, as a constant stealth effect. This would give us a ‘better’ panic mode Destiny power, because all of them, +heal/regen, +toughness (def/res), +status rez, +healing, +rech (using our other powers more), +offence..they can all be Win buttons. But they won’t 100% flat out save you. That’s where Safety would slot it, letting you use it and KNOW that no one can die. Then to provide extra ‘not dying’ chances. Could use some work, could be utter twaddle.

So we end with..

Ageless. Core/End, Rech, Rec. Radial/End, Rech, Debuff res
Barrier. Core/Def, Res. Radial/Res, Def
Rebirth. Core/Heal, Max hp mk2, ally rez. Radial/Heal, Constant Regen, ally rez
Clarion. Core/Status prot, full. Radial/Status proc, partial, +Special
Lethality. Core/+Dam, +Acc, +Taunt, Placate res. Radial/+Acc, +Dam, +Per
Safety. Core/+Intangible, +Chance for Phase. Radial/+Intangible, +Stealth, +Small chance of Phase.