T_Immortalus

I solo mostly, and immobilize is awesome.
I want to keep those higher damage melee attacks, and their chance for stun, well away from me.

I've learned to play very well using strategies that apparently seem stupid.

Have you even looked at Illusion Control's graphics and animations in the character creator?
That is perfect for you if you want something like Dazzler.
It's just rather different to play than pretty much every other character.

Yeah, but there aren't many easy ways to get it, especially at lower levels.
Maybe that is a good thing that there is less time travel though, because that could be very bad for everyone if any low threat thug could go and change history.

Yeah, but you have to finish the arc all the way through defeating Protean, an elite boss(tip: he has almost no range so hover+blast him from above where he can't reach).

The arc I am talking about in Grandville is after the patron arc. You do the patron arc(I highly recommend choosing Scirocco for his story and later respeccing into another patron's powers if that matters to you) and end up going through many trips through time, eventually fighting Lord Recluse in the future.

Or look it up on http://www.badge-hunter.com/index.php?/page/maps.php and the wiki for a picture of the location for exact placement.

They were arbitrary numbers meant to serve as examples of what I am looking for.
I imagine real times are closer to an exponential scale rather than an additive 5 seconds per rank.

LOL
That's pretty much the idea, but on a Tanker or Brute.

I want to do this on something safer. Brutes tend to be my favorite because of this and the amount of damage they do once Fury has built up.

The problem I perceive is if such a "passive attack" set were given to the melee archetypes with their "always on" defenses would turn them into statues in combat. They would just stand there as damage auras finished enemies off. Such a set could easily be overpowered or underpowered in such a situation, unless there is a better way to get the same "passivity" without it being "always great" or "always horrible".

I'll definitely give this some thought because it is a fun idea.



The closest things I could think of to this idea were illusion control and force field masterminds, but those are still more active than my idea. I would like something more reliant on myself as well, not pets.


And in regards to the spines suggestion:
I never thought of spines, but I hate the graphics of that power, so no surprise there.

I really would like a lot of sets if I could completely change the graphics. For example, it would be really cool to change some of the "instant effect" powers, such as gravity control's first 2 powers, into a fire graphic for some "firestarter" instant flame-ups with the gravity secondary effects. I can't think of any other examples right now, but the defensive sets would be prime candidates for this sort of customization, as well as the identical axe/broadsword/mace sets with almost identical secondary effects such that they could be just one set with the 3 sets of weapons all available for customization and maybe secondary effects controlled by toggles like Dual Pistols has ammo changing.
(Edit: I actually wish they would just nuke Axe, Broadsword and Mace then combine them into one set with toggles like Dual Pistols to change the secondary effects between the 3 used for those sets(defense debuff, knockback, stun).

I laughed heartily at your avatar. That really would have saved Inigo Montoya a lot of time and energy, though he wouldn't be using it as a strengthening mantra then.

You should try /Force Field then. That is the most "watch the show" mastermind ever while you toss out the occasional Aid Other and whatever else you want. /Sonic Resonance may also work the same, though resistance is very different for pets.


Edit:
Anyway, you want a Fire Blast corruptor for the phoenix theme. That is definitely the perfect character for that, in my opinion.
I would suggest probably Kinetics as a secondary for it, here is why:

1) Transfusion/Fulcrum Shift/Siphon Power/Transference
"You rise from the ashes of enemy fire to come back strong as you weaken them for your vengeance!"

2) Siphon Speed/Inertial Reduction/Speed Boost
"You possess the fiery speed of the phoenix to use as you wish as you gain even more fiery speed from your surroundings!"

3) Repel
"Your mere presence pushes enemies back as they cannot stand your fiery power!"

Those are just some ideas.

Maybe you're right.

I just got this idea where I would really like wade into a group of enemies and "my mere presence negatively effects them because I wish it so".

I started trying to come up with an idea for how that would work, where attacking would be less of a "punch and kick and blast" thing and more of a "environmental damage from standing within a small mobile storm/fire/etc" or "too close to a radiation source".

It would need to be able to defeat enemies without defeating them too easily, hence not too fast so that survivability is not an issue, so it would likely work best on a Tanker that is meant to take time to defeat enemies.
It also would probably rely on at least 1 good damage aura meaning it likely wouldn't be best on a squishy that has that damage aura turn off all too often in melee. It could even work best on a custom archetype designed to support it.



Edit:
I know a passive set would be boring without an active set to compliment it, so I imagine my idea would be like a reverse-Tanker(active defense/passive attack instead of passive defense/active attack) that would actively manage survival.
I guess the most apt analogy would be a healer that only heals himself, while actually dealing damage as a Tanker or Brute or something.


How cool would that be?

Then how do they weight secondary effects and defense/resistance/regen for reducing an attack's damage and increasing recharge because it has a secondary component that either increases damage or increases safety?

I guarantee they at least have a "this feels right" amount of maximum DPS, likely on a Blaster, from an all damage set like Fire Blast that they have set as a maximum that every other character has to do less than to varying degrees based on the other effects they have.

It's like what if Blasters had Tanker primaries as their secondaries? That would be completely unbalanced and thus the Blaster would need damage reduced, probably to Tanker levels, or would need the defenses and other effects reduced back to Blaster levels.

Well, that avoids the whole "enemies/time" ratio to just go straight to "rewards/time", but those enemies in that mission are still designed for a certain "enemies/time"/"rewards/time" ratio.



Anyway, I remember some 2-3 years back a developer was talking about the design of a new set where they had to make sure it wasn't too fast at defeating enemies or too slow.
It doesn't matter that I know what their design/balance goals are when it is obvious that we aren't meant to defeat enemies too fast and how slowly we defeat them is dependent on how safe we are.

Those enemies are still balanced.

But, let's assume an enemy that has no resistances and a player set with no secondary effects(so no need to reduce the damage for balance).
(Edit: like Fire Blast against maybe Family)



Edit:
The enemy attack values don't matter as well. This is all about how fast that enemy drops, which is later altered through defense/resistance/regen to make them tougher if they need to last longer to beat a player.
Essentially, enemies are also expected to do a certain DPS the same as players, modified according to how risky/safe they are.

Edit 2:
It seems the Circle of Thorns minion that is used for damage farming while resting is a good example. That enemy does a very predictable DPS while the player has effectively zero mitigation besides max regeneration.

Well....

Rewards/Time is balanced around a certain amount of enemies being defeated/mission completions which is based on the fact that people will blow through as many enemies/missions as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Therefore....

Rewards/Time = Enemies/Time ....mostly.


I know some characters are based more around being safer, and thus defeating enemies slower to balance that out, but there probably is a "standard speed" they modify the numbers from based on the amount of risk vs safety.

Look at Tankers versus Blasters for example. Blasters are extremely risky and defeat enemies much faster than Tankers, but Tankers are much safer so that they can afford to take longer to defeat enemies.
That is how it is supposed to be, but that was supposed to be enforced by endurance usage, which didn't turn out to be that effective at metering fights(i.e. Blaster defeats faster but sits between fights recovering endurance for long enough to balance it).

I'm just curious about a general number, at least for Blasters and Tankers, of expected enemy defeat times for each rank of enemy(their rank determines everything for enemies, including health and damage).
That will make it a lot easier to come up with at least 9 powers following my general set concept idea.

How about the "bum" complaining that the penny you gave him isn't enough to buy any food at all?

There is always a minimum value.
You would be called "cheap" for giving the "minimum"(or less if you can).


It's funny how the double standards come up.
It's like the old saying "beggars can't be choosers" being applied to giving a starving person moldy rotten food with maggots and tapeworms in it to where they are "dead if they eat it, dead if they don't".

It's not about being "picky"; it's about being decent and fair and wise.


I wouldn't give a starving man something as harmful as starving or not enough to get a cheap meal at least, though I would rather feed him than give him money as that accomplishes the goal without opening it up to a scam by somebody who ends up begging up to a hundred thousand dollars a year or more.

If you don't give "enough", without giving "too much", then it just defeats the purpose and makes you look "cheap" and sometimes even looks insulting to the recipient.


Edit:
I can't wait to see people bring up the obligatory "the bum should get a job" in response to this despite the facts that I didn't bring it up originally and "getting a job" requires "being hired by somebody else who can be picky due to having more than one person to choose from".
We can't just live off the land and farm these days because of the "wonderful" concepts of "owning land" and "trespassing" and "theft of property" being applied to food in fields.(saying nothing of finding adequate, and legal, shelter as well, which is much more difficult than finding food)
That is a whole other topic though so I'll leave it at that and just say:

Think before you spout what you think is "common sense" because it may not be that simple anymore or may not apply at all.