Voxen

There are plenty of existing powersets that fit one origin over the others--e.g., Devices--and most players don't immediately go out and make five new characters, one of each origin, for each new powerset. Even if that was the case, there's no reason a magic-wielding (fire-melee) Tank, for example, couldn't be trucking around in some power armor he stole from Vanguard.

Add to that the fact that the Origin system has little-to-no impact on the game, and is essentially useless, and I'm inclined to "meh" the origin-based criticism.

Still the "what's the point?" argument is pretty strong--you could certainly make a robot-suit looking guy and give him SR (or WP or SD or...) and call it a day; Most players probably have at least one alt in medieval-looking armor, and so on.

Still, I think the concept is justified. First, there's room for another FX-light set, like Willpower, as long as it is distinctly different. To make a Body Armor powerset to be interesting, you'd have to design it with genre sensibilites. A guy in a suit of armor is still a guy, which means he's got vulnerabilities, but the suit can make up for that in clever ways.

As such, if I were designing a new, body armor/powered armor based set (I'd just call it Armor), I'd give it a mix of defenses: Thematically, it could be cool if it was a hybrid of defense and resistance (but hell to slot properly) but a more balanced approach would be to look at each damage type and think about how the armor would mitigate it (if at all).

E.g., Heavy Plating could offer high resistance to smashing damage, but less resistance to lethal damage (as it is more likely to pierce the suit), as well as reduce KB. Magnetic Shielding (another toggle) could offer defense versus lethal and energy, thematically deflecting them away--but the shots that get through HURT. Something along the lines of Insulation Mesh dramatically reduce cold and fire... Perhaps an Environmental Containment system could provide unparalleled defense vs. toxic damage but the set could be weak to Negative Energy and especially Psionic damage.

You never want your armor to run out of juice and it'd probably be toggle- and endurance-heavy. However that price is more than made up for the benefits it can provide--increased strength (+dmg), targeting (+tohit, perception), and mobility, perhaps. It would probably end up looking like a typed (instead of positional) version of SR, but I'm sure the devs could think of a really unique power or two.

What to do with the Taunt aura is my most troublesome design point. I really don't know; I like the idea of an end-draining aura, or more precisely, an endurance-cost-increasing one, but Armor might not be the set for it. Perhaps it could have some built-in defensive mobility, automatically adjusting for incoming attacks--i.e., a to-hit debuff aura (seen that a few times, however...). Maybe just add a taunt effect to the targeting/mez protection toggle and call it a day. I don't think every defense set needs an Invincibility/Rise to the Challenge/Against All Odds-type power.

Every year or two I get back into CoH for a few months--with only my ever-increasing pile of Vet badges to remind me how much money I've spent on hiatus--and since I've finally been busy getting into Alpha and beyond, it's about time again for one of my power speculation threads.

I've been quite successful in the past; I predicted willpower almost power-for-power, dual pistols and dual blades (but kudos on the cool combo system) were gimmes. But you don't care about that. So here's my list.

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RANGED sets:
Most likely to see: None. We "just" got one, in issue 17.

I'd like to see: Pulse Rifle, like the ones MMs use. I'd design it to be ST-heavy, good against AVs. Maybe the ability to swap between Energy (+Kb/disorient) and Negative Energy (-Acc or -Res). I threw around ideas for this and envisioned a Rage-like long damage buff with a crash: Overload.

Demon summoner's Lash would be silly but pretty sweet too.


BUFF sets:
Most likely to see/I'd like to see: Battle Orders, or something along those lines. We already see the Cimeroran bosses buffing up their allies and a "Super Leadership" buff set would be exceptionally cheap to produce--I bet they could re-use all of the animations needed. They could even re-use powers like Surveillance and copy paste Storm Walk and Steamy Mist--though I'd prefer an Infiltration power that did something cool like +Perception +Range. This set could also have a self-rez with built in Vengeance.

Time Manipulation could be an interesting one too, but probably hard to implement. I've spent hours brainstorming power lists for TM (usually as I fall asleep) and they never look the same when I'm done.


MELEE sets:
Most likely to see: None. I haven't even rolled up a Kinetic Melee alt--and that's a lot of animations.

I'd like to see: Some sort of "bestial rampage" set with brutal DoT and -Regen attacks--another solid choice for fighting AVs, as well as a thematic set for all those werewolf/Animal Pack characters. It would work well as a Street Fighting set for players that aren't interested in SS or MA. The Tier 5 soft control power (e.g. Hand Clap) could be a short Fear with -RES or -tohit to make it stack well with many secondaries.


CONTROL sets:
Most likely to see: This is a toughie. Probably some sort of Netherworld Binding (i.e. Dark Control) since the graphics would easily be pulled from other sets--though this is more likely if they decided to re-tune Dark Miasma as a secondary for controllers.

I'd like to see: Force Fields, a control-heavy powerset with real battlefield control (more Wormhole, less Propel); these guys could pull all the bad guys into a clump and create walls/balls of energy to physically block foes in hallways/corners. But maybe that'd be too boring?


DEFENSE sets:
We might see: Body Armor. A tech-themed set with nice S/L resist and moderate positional defense. It could have an endurance-draining aura toggle. And seeker drones. I'd make it weak to psionics and have cool, "laser grid"-style graphics.


Blaster SUPPORT sets:
Most likely: Void Manipulation (A.k.a. "Dark Manipulation). Lots of powers and animations can be re-used here. Dark Melee attacks and toned-down Dark Miasma-esque support powers would be nice. What blaster doesn't want Dark Fluffy or even Siphon Life? Once again, we're much more likely to see this one assuming they re-tune Dark Blast and proliferate it for Blasters.

What I'd like to see: Cybernetics. Cybernetics could combine Super Strength-style attacks with some interesting (primarily Melee) soft control and debuffs, along with +Stealth. They'd get Quick Reload, a short-duration major recharge buff.


Dominator ASSAULT sets:
Most Likely: I'm at a loss here. Hopefully something keyed as a cool secondary to a shiny new Control set. Again I'll suggest something along the lines of Dark Assault, acknowledging that Dark Everything seems pretty unlikely.

I'd like to see: A dominator-tweaked version of Cybernetics (see above). Sort of a stun-heavy Super Strength, or the Devices of Assault. I know "Cybernetics" doesn't scream "ranged attacks", but those could be replaced by hefty debuffs (e.g. Surveillance) and build up-/power boost-type self-buffs.


MM PETS:
Most likely: None. Demons are still pretty new...

I'd like to see: Duplicates. I'm not a hardcore MM player but I think this one is the one people have been clamoring for a while (as a MM set, as a control set, as a buff set, as a defense set...). Duplicates would be a great Melee Mastermind. It'd be super cool if instead of 3/2/1 pets they received 1/2/3, (or even 1/1/1) with more survivability than your typical tier 1/2 MM pet. Just imagine rushing up to a boss and helping three copies of yourself beat him down--that is a MM I would enjoy playing.

In my experience, the -Tohit from Diamagnetic is a nice power for survivability, but the -Regen is just a joke for fighting AVs. Fighting Ms. Liberty, (solo, SS/EA brute, she was lvl51) at best the -Regen was stacking at about -.07. Not enough to make a dent. The Envenomed Dagger temp power is more effective.

I haven't started into Reactive yet, but unless they make Diamagnetic more effective I think I'll have to once I've unlocked my first Barrier.

I would like for my low-level characters (Level 10+) to be able to purchase early SOs using Merits or Tickets. I realize that typical players would quickly out-level them, but for those who've turned off XP or advance slowly for other xp-pact or similar reasons it would be nice to outfit our characters more effectively.

At high levels, 8 merits for a SO is questionable since influence is cheap and IOs are strictly better. However, at low levels, it would be a neat perk to be able to purchase SOs, letting players trade Merits for a bit of oomph over the next few levels, and giving them something interesting to buy with the merits for their first few story arcs or holiday monsters.

I would gladly pay 1000+ tickets for a level 13 SO, and reluctantly pay up to say, 20 merits for one, though I think the current 8 seems pretty fair. Thanks for your consideration.

To sum up:

Energy Aura is already awesome. Maybe a little lackluster for stalkers, but I don't have enough experience with it to comment.

The set has a couple potential drawbacks, being hit mitigation (be it healing or resistance) and vulnerability to psi and untyped toxic damage. I13 brings a baby heal into the equation, making the set even better than it was.

Reading this thread it becomes apparent that every Brute who has a problem with this set failed to take Energy Cloak. Not only does EC provide a decent bonus but the stealth effect is a powerful defense that metrics alone can't describe.

If you think EA and SR are identical, you just haven't played both. Sure they have related powers, but EA offers far more utility at the cost of a small amount of defense. The case could be made that SR is better, but EA is great as it is, and improving it to match SR would likely cause bigger unbalances with other powersets.

Well I appreciate your guide, because the search function on the boards .. could use improvement .. and I can't even find a normal WS guide that's written since i10, and i've been trying to find all I can about Dwarf form. I like the 3 procs idea, sounds good. But really really expensive.

As a typical optimizist who uses sites like Tomax's power quantification guide and Mids' Hero Designer, "Real Numbers" numbers seems like a worthwhile addition to the game.

However,

Care should be taken not to alienate casual players with the extra information. Right now, one of City Of Heroes' strengths over any other MMOs is that it lets players really specialize their character and overtly discourages number crunching. Putting too much emphasis on the tiny percentages will detract from the player's investment in the character (replacing it on the numbers).

For example, the sentiment "I'll hit you ten times before you hit the floor, vile demon!" becomes "Flurry has such crappy DPS. I guess I'll pick Hasten".

My suggestion is to at least keep the "real numbers" out of the level-up screen. Players should be able to check out their stats and tweak to their hearts content if they want to, but if you put the statistics on the power selection screen, it's inevitable that every /Dark will take Gloom over Dark Blast just because 'it does more damage', and so on.

Removing the line between numbers game and heroic experience could destroy the one advantage CoH has over its bigboy competitors. So be careful.

According to your data (and consequently Mids' Hero Designer), Scrapper's /Super Reflexes Quickness and /Electric Armor's Lightning Reflexes accept fly speed enhancements, but are not affected by them, as the fly speed bonus purportedly ignores enhancement.

Are the data accurate? If so, has the bug been reported? I don't have a high enough /SR or /Electric Armor to copy to Test and try it out myself.

Although it is unlikely affecting many players--as multiple enhancements in Swift (a power with comparable base bonus to fly speed) provide a nearly intangible benefit--it would be unfair for a person to spend enhancements/slots in fly speed and get absolutely no benefit.

My experience with the 'Grant Invisibility' is that the stealth granted is not effective enough to be worth the salvage cost in PvE. But, since it had no endurance cost and no speed reduction, I suppose it's just a perk for those PvP-heavy SGs who can afford to spend the salvage.

The one hour duration is greatly appreciated: 15 minutes was simply eaten up by travel time.

Finally, while the effects are nearly unnoticable, (increase jump is simply jump distance/speed, correct? a jump height enhancement would be more useful in my opinion) it still feels good to have a temporary inherent bonus.

I have only used Bodyguard in PvE, but I think it's an excellent ability that allows more choices for a MM in terms of power selection. It is now possible to create a fun, effective mastermind even if you choose to focus your powers/slots on attacks and the secondary powerset. (MM attacks still have slightly high endurance costs, in my opinion, but that's an issue for a different thread.)


I think that the trade-off of having to have a pet in defensive follow (giving up some control for better defense) is a fine price to pay for the benefit it provides. It's probably a good idea to limit the behavior of the melee pets (ninjas, zombies) so they don't run off and leave the MM stranded, but I prefer the ranged pets and have little experience with that.

Since I have not PvPed with a MM in Issue 7, I can only imagine that in the confines of the arena, it's an incredible advantage (or at least balancing factor, since pre-bodyguard MMs in the arena were two-shotted by any heavy-hitter archetype) to have effectively four times as many hit points.

To sum up, I have no problems with bodyguard, and really appreciate the build flexibility it provides for those MMs who want to focus on their personal offensive capabilities instead of those of their henchmen.

After some consideration, I think you might need to multiply the Brawl Index by eighteen instead of nine to get the correct Damage Value for an attack.

I was basing the conclusions I had come to (the same as yours, that BI should be multiplied by 9 for easier comparison and correctness) on the recent information we've been given about the Patron Power pools (currently viewable on test); But since what i've seen relates to the damage a brute would do with a ranged attack, and brutes have a base ranged damage of .50, the numbers listed for the brute's ranged patron powers are 1/2 of the actual DV.

So, for example take the information we've been given, a Brute gets Gloom, does 44 damage at level 40.

Brutes have a ranged damage of 50% "normal", so Gloom's DV should be represented by 88, not 44.

And of course, divide 88 by 18 and get 4.88, the B.I.

But then I got to thinking... What if the current B.I. value of Gloom is based on either the .75 of Corruptors or the .65 of Defenders? That would imply that the actual DV of Gloom is either 117.33_ or 135.384etc etc. So that's pretty ugly.

It should be noted that the damage values of every attack (when you multiply its BI by nine), e.g. Brawl = 9, DB's Gloom = 44, match exactly with the numbers listed in the I7 villain patron powers, and therefore it is 99% likely that the developers use these numbers to compare powers.

So now everyone will move to adopt the DV (Brawl Index * 9) system at once, right?

I see a lot of MM's on that have constructed their characters look nearly identical to their henchmen; is there a guide or a post anywhere that tells people how to do this? (Personally, I think it'd be cool to make a stalker that looks like Jounin (without those cool double swords).) I know it's a compare-and wear affair, but it'd be convenient if someone who'd done it had written it down somewhere.