Proliferating and Improving EA and ElA

With i14 now live, I've been thinking about the future. Specifically, about future editions of Power Proliferation. Even more specifically, I've been thinking about Energy Aura and Electric Armour.

Both of these sets have a problem when it comes to proliferating them to both Scrappers and Tanks: Conserve Power. Conserve Power shows up as an Ancillary power for both hero-side melee ATs and that means that it must be removed from ElA and EA before they can be ported over.

But what should they be replaced with? If it is replaced with something too good, the Brutes and Stalkers will complain about being shafted. If it is too bad, well there isn't a problem except that Game Designers shouldn't really be adding bad powers deliberately.

There is an opportunity here, though. Both EA and ElA have been much maligned as poor defensive sets. EA recently got a buff, but most agree that it wasn't really enough. Also: Both of these sets have a really good Endurance refill power (Energy Drain and Power Sink), what do they need Conserve Power for? So what if we combine these concerns and come up with a single solution? I believe that to be the ideal solution.

Of course, when we talk about replacing a power from an existing set we bump up against the "Cottage Rule". So we need to take that into account as well.


My suggestion to buff EA and ElA, and make them more Proliferation friendly is as follows:

Energy Aura->Conserve Power
Replace Conserve Power with Zero Point Power Supply.
ZPPS is an auto power with +30% End Discount, and a 30% chance for a 10% Heal (Enhanceable) every 10s.

This power provides the equivalent of an SO's worth of EndRedux to all powers at all times. It is lower than what Conserve Power provides, but since it is on all the time and CP has such a long recharge the new power will provide more benefit than CP. The heal is irregular, but combined with Energy Drain, it should be just enough to keep and Energy Aura user upright through a tough fight.

If the Chance for Heal is deemed to strong or just too weird it could be replaced with a minor +HP effect (~10% enhanceable).

Electric Armour->Conserve Power
Replace Conserve Power with Static Refill.
Like the EA change, Static Refill has a +30% Endurance Discount effect. It differs in it's other effect, though. Static Refill would have a small (~200% enhanceable) Regeneration effect. This provides the extra oomph to ELM, giving it a way to recover from injuries without making it unkillable.


What does everyone think?

I'd give the Elec Armor version to both, maybe.

Me and my small cadre of game designer wannabe friends have discussed possible solutions before and we seemed to center in around adding passive regen to both sets.

Actually, I'd like to see ElA's Powersink (and only ElA's) get the Energy Drain effect. Or replace CP (on both) with a DP clone.

CP is completely redundant with Energy Drain/Power Sink, and if replaced with DP, would be used much more.

Unfortunately, wholesale power-replacement is not fondly looked upon by the playerbase and very rarely used by the devs (see Grav control, losing Fold Space as Tier 9 for Singularity. That's the *only* one that's ever gone through, and it was ages ago, Issue 1, IIRC).

Yes, the Cottage Rule is why I suggested the changes I did. The 'new' powers I've put up there are close enough to CP that they (hopefully) don't qualify as a Cottage Change. Maybe a Garden Shed Change, but not Cottage.

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Me and my small cadre of game designer wannabe friends have discussed possible solutions before and we seemed to center in around adding passive regen to both sets.

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Specifically, I wanted to see some added to the passives, making them a little more valuable (Grounded is okay, since it offers ElA its Knock protection, but the EA passives are still a little too weak).

As for CP, on top of its current stats, I've been thinking that it could either get another regen bonus, or it offer either Defense or Resistance, depending on the set. EA would get Resistance, and ElA Defense. It offers some extra mitigation, but it won't stack to a point that it becomes a second Tier 9.

Correction, Wholesale power replacement isn't fondly looked upon when a set has been released.

With Proliferation(before live release) changing powers isn't a bad idea. Case in Point Stalker Electric Melee, It was originally going to have Thunderclap, and a lot of the powers were shuffled around quite a bit before it was ever released.

Aye, but if Tanker and Scrapper ElA had a DP clone (Let's call it Electro-heal) in place of Conserve Power, can you imagine the hue and cry from Villains? They'd take "Devs Hate Villains" to a whole new level!

This topic can be discussed in the sticky EA thread in the brute forum. It's ok to be discussed here as well. But the sticky won't die for a while and you don't need to bump it. Although EA has been "fixed" by the dev, a lot of the ideas there are actually more suitable for proliferation.

There is no cottage rule for proliferation. The idea behind the cottage rule is that the dev don't want to substantially change a power that a player has already picked. Since no tankers or scrappers can pick any power from energy aura yet, there will be no cottage rule here. But of coz, replacing a power by something else will make energy aura a different power set technically.

Just had a thought for how to proliferate EA

Copy Brute Version, Replace CP with Repel.

EA gets proliferated,theoretically becomes more survivable and no one cares about the changed power that 95% of the new EA users will skip.

So your plan is to replace one power that you think everyone skips with another power that everyone skips?

The point is to proliferate a set without causing any backlash and removing redundant powers.

The OP points out that Both ELA and EA have conserve power, both Scrappers and Tankers can get Conserve power in their Ancillary pools(Specifically Body Mastery)
A general rule of proliferation is to avoid making new powers.
by replacing Conserve Power with Repel, Villains won't complain much, the redundant power is removed and you can get the set proliferated no problems. Repel would also increase survivability slightly because enemies can't attack if they're knocked down.

The OP was also trying to make the argument that changing CP for villains would be beneficial to both sets as well. Lets face it, neither ElA or EA would be popular sets for Scrappers or Tanks unless they get a bit of love. Why not give them that love and let the Villains benefit from it too?

Also: Repel is a craptastic power for a melee AT. Radial knockback is not a popular thing for Tanks or Scrappers.

I would love to see any changes made go for both sides,although I didn't see that in the OP. However history shows that power set changes don't happen to live sets (Exception Grav Control) When Brutes got SR and Evasion was moved down in the power tiering Scrappers and Stalkers didn't see that same movement.

(QR)

To be nitpikily technical... it's Repulse for EA, not Repel... and it would be the most craptacular power ever for Tankers.

EA lacks any type of Taunt Aura, I would think in the case of Tankers that is what CP would be replaced with.

Perhaps instead take Repulse, and drop the magnitude down to 0.67 (knockDOWN instead of Back), lower the end cost to 0.52/s with no extra per-mob cost, and drop it from guaranteed to a 30%chance of. Add in Taunt.

I'll make an EA/DM Tanker no matter what they put in CP's place, but where I might have actually taken CP, or a modified version of CP, Repulse is entirely counterproductive for a melee AT, especially a Tanker without a taunt aura.

As far as ElA goes, either a Heal, hitpoint buff or Regen needs to be added for Tankers. Brutes weren't designed to be the CoV agro sponge, but Tankers were. They need some method of HP recovery in order to deal with the sustained incoming damage Tankers are subjected to.

@Oathbound & @Oathbound Too