Oathbound
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Quote:Springing off of that I posit:Originally Posted by Lothic
I think this all mostly boils down to the age-old idea of "do you play characters for their concepts" or "do you play characters that are geared towards maximizing their in-game stats"? If the main thing that matters to someone is max DPS then they're not likely going to play an Electric Blaster - but then again that same person is probably not going to play most Defender or Controller types either. *shrugs*
Will someone who plays for numbers play Electric Blast, with it's inferior performance (perceived or provable, doesn't matter)? That answer is obviously no.
Would someone who plays for theme not play Electric Blast if it's numbers were improved? I seriously doubt that it would matter to them. There's no way I would ever sympathize with anyone who said that it hurt their enjoyment of a set, for that set to be made better numerically.
So the final question becomes: Why not improve Electric Blast so that both camps can be happy with it? -
Quote:Power tier isn't really that much of a determining factor for performance/balance. If it were then Freezing Rain (Tier5 in Storm) wouldn't be slightly better than Sleet (Tier8 in Cold). Powers are balanced primarily on a set by set basis, rather than power vs power.Originally Posted by Roderick
I don't take VS because I find it nearly useless. It has to be summoned too frequently, and at BEST can fire 10 shots of my T1 blast. But I don't want it replaced. I want it fixed, so that it's useful. I know asking for a Gun Drone is too much, because it's a much lower level power, but I want it to be something better than a the Clockwork Connection power Penny Yin gives you.
I think buffing Tesla Cage is a fair place for improvement - look at Ice Blast. It gets the standard T1 and T2 blasts, a strong third ST blast (Bitter Ice Blast), a ST hold roughly equal to Tesla Cage (Freeze Ray) AND a ST hold roughly equal to what I'm suggesting Tesla Cage gets changed to (Bitter Freeze Ray).
So, why not buff BOTH Voltaic Sentinel AND Tesla Cage - two powers that aren't taken that often (in my experience, at least)? But I didn't make this thread about VS - I made it about TC, because I think that this change would be enough to push Electric Blast above the "doesn't suck" threshold.
Feel free to ask for an "Electric Gun Drone" if you feel the set needs it. If the Devs likewise came to feel that it was needed, Gun Drone being a tier9 and VS being a Tier8 would be irrelevant. (Additional note: VS is also a Tier9 power for /Electric Assault Doms... and Electric Assault needs almost as much help as Electric Blast.)
Personally, I've always been in favor of just making Tesla Cage a 3rd blast a la Cosmic Burst. That may change depending on what all the Devs do with Electric Blast come beta, but until then I still support the idea. -
Quote:Honestly I think that Ghost Widow should turn on him and attempt to seize control of Arachnos herself.Originally Posted by DeviousMe
While I can't really see Arachnos being shaken up like this without someone taking out Recluse (or at least his lieutenants; sure, the big man has all the power of Tartarus, but he's still just one guy and can't be killing people everywhere at once), I have to say I really do like some of these ideas - especially the rework of Sharkhead.
Her very existence is tied to the well being of the organization that Recluse is squandering away, and it would be much safer for her if she were the one in charge. Any decision she makes as head of the organization must be in Arachnos' (and thus her own) best interest. -
Quote:The Cold shields also buff both, despite Ice Armor only buffing typed.Originally Posted by CBeet
The current Forcefield bubble buffs have them all, so I didn't want to break continuity.
Reason being that outside buffs need to increase both in order to be equally effective whether buffing an Energy Aura character or a Super Reflexes character. Personal armor sets don't buff both (except some individual powers such as Cloak of Darkness), they focus on one or the other.
Ultimately I think that Energy Aura is essentially Forcefield Armor (they could "simply" add bubble FX options to the set), and EA is going to serve as a large hurdle for any push to add a unique FF armor set. -
I'll echo the general sentiment that I don't (wouldn't) mind when promotional items I've earned are made available sometime later.
I don't feel it undermines or devalues me/that item in any way. I've already had those items and gotten plenty of enjoyment from them, who am I to block others from the same? -
Quote:Well see, that's what the repeatable purchases are supposed to be for. It's just that none of the options are really that appealing at the moment.Originally Posted by Evil_Legacy
Yeah I think that's a good idea as some point there will be nothing left to buy with them tokens unless they add another tier.
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Eh, I dunno. It doesn't seem terribly unreasonable.
The current repeatable purchases have an approximate "value" as follows:
5x Super Packs - 400Paragon Points (80each)
25x Enhancement Boosters - 750PP (30each, based on 30 for 900points)
8x Enhancement Unslotters - 720PP (90each, based on 5 for 450points)
8x XP Boosters - 720PP (90each, based on 5 for 450points)
8x Windfall - 720PP (90each, based on 5 for 450points)
5x Signature Summon - 250PP
That said, I certainly wouldn't expect to get a very high conversion rate.
250 (Lowest point value among current options)? Maybe.
400? Unlikely.
The ~750 points the Enhancement Boosters are valued at? Not a chance. -
Quote:I think that would require a different lower body category, like the Robotic Arm chests have.Originally Posted by BrandX
Another suggestion that would work great with this set, but not sure if it's possible...
Take away one pant leg!
Not having one pants leg would require being able to select the underlying leg type, which none of the current leg options support.* Otherwise either only "human" characters could use the part, or they would have to make a great many versions of the one-legged pants to support all the possible leg styles. (Skin, Fur, Reptilian, Zombie, Stone, etc.)
*Except the Kilts(skirts)/Shorts category, but I'm not sure how well that would work with having to model the pants around existing leg geometry for the side with its pant leg still. -
Quote:Honestly I think it would be a good thing. Currently ATs with unique powersets get limited support because time spent on them only benefit a small portion of the player base.Originally Posted by Nekomata
i like the 'Assault/Armor' suggestion, and I'm kinda surprised they haven't done something more with assault
Adding new ATs that utilize those same sets means that Dev time spent on those sets benefits a larger portion of their customers. Meaning that the existing archetypes that use those sets might get a more equal share of resources, since they're no longer outliers. -
Quote:Well, he said AT's, so unless he's talking about something belonging to an archetype ( /grammar nazi), I must assume that that is plural.Originally Posted by Codewalker
Running that through a dev^H^H^Hcommunity relations translator, that could be technically (brtually?) true in both the cases that said ATs have been shelved, or that they're already finished...
Given that we only "know" of one AT, then technically it would be correct. They wouldn't be working on archetypeS, as there aren't two or more of them.
Or it really could be shelves/scrapped, which I would be very disappointed about.
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Quote:Wait, what? I don't remember these pieces!Originally Posted by Goliath Bird Eater
The pieces you're referring to were called either Beast Fur or Monstrous Fur. There were a couple of variations for the shoulder pieces, as well as an accompanying chest item.
I've only been able to Google up some pics that players have posted in other threads pertaining to lost costume bits:
Why on God's green earth were they removed and for the love of all that's holy CAN WE HAVE THEM BACK?!?!?!?!
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Quote:Really I was mostly joking with that line, though I almost would say that Dark Miasma has better control than Ice Control does.Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
I really don't agree with that. It's a nice supplement but Arctic Air + Ice Slick is still much better than just a PBAoE fear. Skipping Ice Slick for this power, like one person above did, is IMO probably not a strategy for most people.
Of course, you can combine them all together, which is probably the best option.
It almost sounds like popular opinion is Ice Control has less control than, say, a Blaster or maybe even a Dark Miasma Defender, which is IMO not really the reality. It is somewhat worse than other controls sets but I really don't think the is as bad as a lot of people say. -
Quote:I think those are just the Resistance boots, given that no new boots are listed in the OP.Originally Posted by SerialBeggar
Are those real shin-high boots or are the jeans just short?
Also, do you think you can fit in a ripped, blue tarp cape?
The shin pads are just part of the pants.
Edit: Also in agreeance with some previous posters, can we please get a clean version of the mask? It is the only actual full face mask that Males/Huge have access to and having it be so concept specific, due both to it's being a hockey mask and it's condition, really sucks. (Seriously, when are we getting male versions of the CoL masks?) -
Quote:I'd say that depends.Originally Posted by Xarei
With the new version of Mids supporting Nature Affinity, I'm trying to come up with a build for a new Controller. The two Controller Primary sets I'm looking at (for flavor reasons) are Ice & Electric, and I'm trying to figure out which has the better synergy.
Nature Affinity seems like the sort of secondary that would encourage an up-front style of play, with Wild Growth, Wild Bastion, Entagling Aura and Overgrowth all being PBAOE. At first glance, it would seem that both of the primaries in question have PBAOE toggles that nicely compliment that style. Ice control also has Glacier for PBAOE hold stacking, but Electric control might get more benefit from the buffs and AOE heal since it gets 2 pets.
So, any thoughts on which would work better?
Wild Growth, Wilda Bastion and Overgrowth are all long recharge clicks that don't require your to stay within close range. Conversely Regrowth, the set's primary heal, is a self-targeted cone which requires you to remain on the exterior of the group to be effective.
Entangling aura is an outlier, and IMO not a good fit for the rest of the set. That said it could be useful for stacked PBAoEs. I'd imagine the end drain for Ice/Nature would be fairly punitive though, certainly pre-Overgrowth.
I'd ultimately say that Nature Affinity will pair better with ranged capable sets such as Mind, Earth, Gravity and Dark.
IMO, YMMV, etc. -
Quote:Well, yeah. It really is terrible right now.Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight
It only works for Doms though. Domination + Power boost gives it the duration and mag needed to make it effective. Outside Dom and power Boost it deserves its maligned fate.
Fortunately it's getting a buff in i24. (Reduced end cost, higher accuracy, larger radius, mag3, available at level 14.) Unfortunately, that just means it'll overshadow Ice's inherent control more.
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Quote:That effect is completely separate from the other effects of the power. It's the Afraid effect. All fear powers used to cause fleeing, but it was hated by the players so the Terrorize effect was added and all "Fear" powers became Terrorize.Originally Posted by Premonitions
Just to kind of throw my hat in. I wonder if the "run away" effect gained in things like caltrops is possible to be enforec without the Slow?DoT effect. Because an Toggle or Hybrid toggle aura that causes that effect with some of the self-buffs of current Unyielding would be pretty cool. I'd especially love it if it made you Walk(but doubt it would)
You could have a power that was nothing but Afraid... though there's no reason to believe it wouldn't be just as hated as it was years ago. -
Quote:It's a sad state of affairs when a pool power... a notoriously maligned pool power... replaces your in-set control.Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight
I think I know what it is too. DarkCurrent's ideas are good but I found a way to get the missing mitigation that I needed. Much earlier than incarnates.
My Dom is an Ice/Earth/Ice permadom.
What did I change about my build? I dropped Ice Slick, I dropped Shiver, and I dropped the medicine pool. I picked up Frostbite, power boost, and the presence pool.
As you may remember from my previous discussions I use Flash Freeze as an every spawn control. To prevent an Alpha, adding enough range to get to 80+ to the nearest target, is enough to stop the Alpha provided Domination is up (this is because it will one shot sleep a boss. If the boss isn't slept the rest of the spawn chain aggros immediately).
After Flash Freeze I move into melee range, using Block of Ice and Seismic Smash on any unslept targets on the way. When I am in the center of the spawn I use power boost and Invoke Panic. The time this takes allows the confuse in AA to take hold.
I follow up with, believe it or not, Frostbite. I discovered that the problem with AA is the fear in it. The mobs will move to the edge of the radius and stand just outside it, plinking you to death with ranged attacks while you are gobbling down end to run AA and getting no benefit from it. It actually scatters the spawn albeit very very slowly.
I slotted Frostbite for immobilize duration. With Dom up and the remnants of Power Boost it lasts a long long time but only 12 seconds of it comes with KB protection for the mobs.
I then follow up with Sleet and the mobs will begin flopping while immobilized, confused, and terrorized.
Glacier is usually up every others spawn so no worries there.
Those changes let me switch from struggling on +1/x4 to low risk on +3/x6. I went with Alpha Cardiac Radial Paragon as that not only solves the endurance issue it increases the terrorize and sleep durations. Adding in the Contagious Confusion proc let me bump to +3/x8. All of that lets me select other useful options for all the rest of my incarnate powers.
The change that needs to be made is that the fear in AA needs to be converted to a mag 3 terrorize. The mobs stay in the radius of AA that way and they are affected by layered controls. -
Quote:For the Singularity bit, if you're talking about doing this recently, that's because they switched Wormhole to no-agro. As far as the mobs are concerned only Singularity attacked them.Originally Posted by Erratic
Given how often I am wormholing things on top of the Singularity pet, perhaps I have a somewhat twisted view of how horrible Wormhole is for its knockback. Certainly things that have been tossed about by Singularity seem to be angry with the Singularity.
But even before I had Singularity to summon on top of mobs or drop mobs onto with Wormhole, Wormhole certainly didn't strike me as horrible. Sure its going to toss things about a bit, but in the moment of their arrival you can have queued up another control (typically for me Crushing Field).
I guess I don't think of Wormhole as a method of control, which arguably lends to your point, but rather think of it as a way to split a spawn up since hopefully some of them will be left behind and of those that don't get left behind I am applying a control to some of them.
For the Wormhole as control part, that is in fact a major issue. If people don't view Gravity Control's primary control power as a control, then something is very, very wrong. -
It's just you.
Seriously answer:
Mental Blast on Blasters is the typical tier2 power in just about ever way. Will Domination (and any power that is not a tier1 or tier2) is not bound by the forced activation time, so it's activation is pretty much irrelevant.
Is Mental Blast's activation longer than Will Dominations? Absolutely. But as a non-tier1(2) blast that has no bearing.
Fireblast's activation is also longer than Blaze's. Ice Blast's activation is longer than Bitter Ice Blast. Hydro Blast's activation is longer than either version of Water Jet.
Edit: Now, on Defenders there's more room for debate, as Mental Blast is a terrible tier1 that every /Psi Defender gets saddled with. Can we please swap this out for Psionic Dart already? -
Yeah, as it stands Ice needs something. Whether or not it breaks the cottage "rule" or not (they've done it a few times now, why not for Ice).
Just about any change would be a marked improvement, considering how the set currently performs.
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Quote:Honestly I'd forgotten about them removing the heal from Energy Drain (probably because it was such a poor heal anyhow (3%per target)). Though Energy Drain is still an End recovery power. It just had it's crappy heal per target swapped to defense per target when they converted Conserve Power to Energize.Originally Posted by DarkCurrent
I was kinda thinking that, but if they added the dmg to ice slick those enhancements for flash freeze could just be moved over (in case anyone was silly enough to slot FF as a dmg power). Then FF would take only the sleeps (might take slows, too). So you're just moving dmg from one power to another. I don't see that any different from what was done with nrg armor (or maybe it was elec) where the heal and end recovery powers were moved (energize?).
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Quote:You would think it'd be easy.... but it breaks that one oh so infamous rule. (Because it removes functionality, and enhancement/set types).Originally Posted by DarkCurrent
Oh, btw, can't the devs move the dmg from the sleep to ice slick?
Frankly At the very least they should flag Flashfreeze as no-agro like they did Wormhole in Gravity's last pass. That would get rid of that oh so annoying alpha strike to your face before FF takes hold. World of Confusion already sets precedent for powers with (trivial) damage being no-agro. -
Quote:I'm sorry that some of us don't consider unmitigated chaos fun.Originally Posted by Mad Grim
This will fix wormhole for the people that have a vendetta against KB, and keep the KB for the people who like to have fun.
Honestly not everyone who thinks KB in wormhole is terrible design simply have it out of knockback.
I'm fine with knockback in Hand Clap (and variants). I'm fine with knockback in Gale and (sonic) Shockwave. I'm fine with knockback in Repulsion Field and Repel. I'm fine with knockback in powers like Force Bolt and Power Push.
I'm fine with those because those powers are for knockback.
Having knockback tacked on to your primary control powers was a stupid decision from the start. It serves no purpose but to unnecessarily hamper the use of the powerset's primary control. -
Quote:That's no longer going to be an issue. The single target taunt is being eliminated.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Same for Presence, actually. Why do I have to take a taunting power if what I really want is a fear-inducing power, instead?
Presence will be:
Pacify - Single Target Placate
Provoke - AoE Taunt
Intimidate - Single target Fear (Increased to mag 3, chance for mag4, reduced end cost.)
Invoke Panic - PBAoE Fear (Increased to mag3, reduced end cost, increased Accuracy, increased "range" (I assume the mean Radius as it's a PBAoE))
Unrelenting - Self +Damage, +Recharge, +Recovery, HoT, Self Rez if defeated.
Unrelenting honestly seems entirely out of place to me. In a pool dedicated to agro management and control you get a self buff?
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Sonic Resonance: Turn Sonic Siphon into a true siphon. Have it apply a non-stacking +Resist buff to the caster for say 30seconds.
Use the new redirection tech with Disruption Field and Sonic Repulsion so that you can target an ally and get the current effect, but can also target an enemy and use it as a standard anchor toggle debuff (Have Sonic Repulsion do a reduced chance of knockDOWN when enemy targeted).
Reduce Liquify's recharge to 120s.
Force Field: Increase Force Bolt's damage to 1.0scale (from 0.1scale).
Condense Deflection Shield and Insulation Shield into a single power, "Force Barrier."
Add a "Force Redirection" power in Insulation Shield's old spot; PBAoE Foe -Damage, PBAoE Ally +Damage +Absorb/target. This gives FF a more thematic way to increase damage, in lieu of a -resist buff which doesn't seem to fit the set concept-wise.
Reduce Repulsion Bomb's animation to 1.67s (same as Neutron Bomb, which uses the same overhand-toss animation, just faster).
Electrical Blast: Raise Short Circuit's damage or considerably reduce it's activation time (the 2.03s Healing Aura animation would work alright, or the Engulfing Darkness one works too).
Convert Tesla Cage into a Tier3 blast a la Cosmic Burst.
Cut Voltaic Sentinel's activation time and end cost.
Ice Control: Increase Arctic Air's chance for confuse by a sizable amount.
Add flags to Frostbite and Ice Slick so that if one of other power is used on targets already under the effects of the other power, they get added functionality. Using one power on targets flagged by the other power will stun the affected mobs for a short time (3mag for 5ish seconds, non-stacking).
I suggest something like this because I don't want to remove functionality that existing Ice Control characters already have (Frostbite negating potential scatter from powers like Gale or Tornado); but so that should they be on a team where someone keeps throwing out an immobilize that breaks their Ice Slick, they themselves can use Frostbite to re-establish mitigative control.
Ice Melee: Fix Freezing Touch's damage! There is ZERO reason for this power to have DRASTICALLY reduced damage when other sets get powers like Seismic Smash and Crushing Uppercut, which get hard control WITHOUT suffering massive damage reduction. Increase it to 2.76scale over 3.1s (from it's current 1.68scale/5.1s).
Honestly I feel like if Freezing touch would just get fixed, Ice wouldn't be that bad off. Between Frost and Frozen Aura it has pretty decent AoE, but Freezing Touch is the crown jewel in Ice Melee's joke of a single target chain.
Gravity Control: Yes. Still. Dimension Shift will never be anything more than a niche power, and the set's actual "every spawn" control power is hamstrung by it's own ridiculous secondary effect. Wormhole's massive knockback turns a critical control power into an at best situational use control tool, when the set is completely lacking in other control options already. Seriously. Convert it to knockdown.