Fix Group Flight

As most of you probably recall, flight used to have a tohit penalty and no suppression. The tohit penalty was removed and suppression was thrown in. It's endurance cost was also lowered so it didn't suck your entire bar dry in 40seconds of use.

And then we have group flight. A power which would actually be a pretty neat (if somewhat odd) tactical and useful in various situations if not for one thing: It has a tohit penalty of 25%.

25%

That is completely ridiculous. /Dark users would kill to have that kind of tohit debuff potential in one or even three separate powers. Group flight has a bit of a speed penalty given to others in its radius, which makes it questionable in terms of a group travel power. What makes it useful is the manueverability it affords a group in combat. The power is designed in such a way that it benefits large teams by giving them limited immunity to knockback/knockdown, targetted slow powers, (such as Knives of Artemis caltrops) and the option of maintaining distance for ranged superiority. Imagine fighting an Archvillain or a GM using group flight. It neuters their ability to counter ranged archtypes like Blasters, Corrupters, Controllers and Dominators. Group Flight would see a great deal more use if it didn't have such a gigantic penalty attatched to it. So my suggestion boils down to this:

Remove the 25% tohit debuff penalty in group flight.

Add suppression to group flight.

Either increase the personal end cost of a single person using group flight, or decrease the cost but spread it out over the entire group for each person being affected by it.

With the upcoming change allowing Mastermind pets to zone with you, I've considered actually getting group fly for my cadre of cannibals.

I'd never use it in combat though...

My only fear is that they'll constantly fall out of it. In my 4 and 1/2 years of playing I've taken fly on virtually all my toons. Not once have I thought about taking GF.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've EVER seen it used...

Lets see a show of hands if you've even used it!

I don't care much about the ToHit. I'd never use it for combat, personally.

I'd just be happy if you could run Group Fly with Swift/and FlySpeed bonuses and not lose your passengers. It completely defeats the purpose.

Not that I disagree with your premise (fix GFly), but...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paradigm_Shift 25%... Dark users would kill to have that kind of tohit debuff potential in one or even three separate powers.

They don't need to kill. Dark Defenders get 18.75% base from both Darkest Night and from Fearsome Stare (~28.125% after slotting). Dark Servant's* Chill of the Night is -30% before slotting, and his Darkest Night + Twilight Grasp + Tenebrous Tentacles together (three separate powers) are -25% before slotting.

* And this is Dark Servant for Defenders, Corruptors, and Masterminds

Even if they would change it to what you are proposing I probably still won't use it. I rather have they throw group fly out and replace it with something else.

Group Fly shoul dbe changed so that allies within a radius gain the flight ability for a limited period of time that they can toggle on or off themselves.

the ability only lasts a few seconds (say 10 or 20) and is automatically renewed if you are within range of the initiator.

this way, if you "fall out" of the area of effect you have 10 or 20 seconds to catch up and recharge

Group Flight = Utterly Useless.

I've never seen anyone use it. I've never used it myself. I did pick up the Kheldian version on a 2nd build for my PB, but have never seen the need for it...Ever. Well, were I a jerk and wanted to grief people a bit, there's a use...

What could replace it...? I think an extremely fast version of flight (Super Sonic Flight) where you rocket across zones would see some use. That you have to have two power picks to get it would provide some balance against other Travel Powers (also make it an endurance hog)

I've got a better idea.... Add in a "reverse Force Bubble" effect on all users within its radius so that you CAN'T fall out, the primary user of the power pulls you slowly near them, and you CAN get out IF you choose to "swim against the stream" so to speak.

And, yes, take out the -ToHit, it's stupid and pointless.

I think there's so much "negative press" against Group Fly that they ought to consider simply removing the To Hit penalty from it without applying any other kind of penalty to take its place.

The reason they never applied the travel suppression "solution" to the power in the first place was that it would make people fall away from the user so much more badly than it already does that it would be totally unusable. Travel suppression could never be an alternative for the power as it works now.

I understand that removing the To Hit penalty without applying travel suppression to take its place could potentially make GF better than regular Fly for personal use, but I think that would be balanced by the fact that GF still costs more END than regular Fly and would still have the difficulties of 'interfering' with teammates if you didn't want it to.

As it is now Group Fly basically has far more disadvantages than advantages. That's why no one likes it. I feel removing one of its big disadvantages would make the power more desirable without making it overpowered.

I used to have group fly with my MM for taking my flunkies with me while scouring outdoor maps (which I loathe), and it was a pain in the neck, I had to constantly tell my minions to run(fly) ahead of me or they'd fall too far behind, and thus to the ground.

I respeced out of it when they introduced AOE upgrades, Now I dismiss/resummon them.

My understanding is that Fly is as fast as it'll ever be.
The Dev's have stated that making Fly any faster poses problems with peoples machines not being able to handle it. Apparently SS doesn't have this problem because of the XY axis deal.

Granted, when they were saying this they were also saying power customization was impossible with the current engine the game used. So who knows whats changed since then.

I'd personally love an Afterburner though!

Make it a AoE buff like Inertial Reduction, or even a ST buff. 90-120s up time otherwise works identical to normal fly (lower max speed). Make it easy to remove for those who don't like it (either by r.clicking the icon or with a new /macro command).

St would be best for teams but AoE would be better for MMs... ideally it'd function differently depending on who was the target...

I'm glad someone started this thread because I had plan to start one myself. Group Fly would be a great power if the Devs would fix the follow issue on it. I don't understand why a power that could be so potentially great, especially for MMs, has not been changed. And as other posters have said already, now with the ability for MM henches to zone this would be a fantastic time to make this change as well!