Clone/Illusion Defense

Really wanted to pitch this idea. I figured that if self duplication were to be put into this game, it would be in the form of a defense set. Here are the Pro's and Con's I thought of for this set.

Pros:
+ Duplicates can assist with extra damage.
+ Any damage that impacts the pets, is damage migrated.
+ High self AoE Defense, low resists and regeneration. Medium sized heal.
+ AoE Team buffs and heals greatly improve performance.

Cons:
+ Very active defense. Many click powers used to take full advantage.
+ Without duplicates, survival is extremely sub-par.
+ Mez protection is attached to self heal, and enforces henchmen creation and rebuffing.
+ Difficult to take advantage of single target team buffs.

Ideally, the clones/duplicates look identical to yourself, and use 1-3 melee powers of your offensive set, with an upgrade to access an AoE attack or stronger attack. Although, if the tech isn't there to make self copies in a power, then this can simply be an illusion substitute.

I figured also that a stalker version of this might be possible.

I didn't add any specific numbers where I could as a set like this can be tough to balance. Ideally the damage output of the duplicates are just high enough that you wouldn't consider being just a mastermind with a melee attack set.

I hope you enjoy.

Duplicate - Click - Create one copy of yourself (henchmen). The max number of duplicates scales up as you get to higher levels, with a 2nd duplicate at lvl 12, and a 3rd at lvl 22.

Combat Focus - Toggle - Increases resistance (except Psi and Toxic) and accuracy of you and your clones. This also increases all duplicates movement speed.

Stun Double - Click - Teleport to the closest duplicate and destroy that duplicate. You are healed a moderate amount and are granted a short duration mez protection and resistance. Can be used while held/sleeping/stunned. If no duplicate exists, power will fail to execute.

Copy Concentration - Toggle - Your regeneration is slightly improved, but your henchmen regeneration and max health is extremely improved. While this power is active, your duplicates will create additional threat.

Quick Split - Click - Quickly create your maximum number of duplicates. All new duplicates will taunt nearby enemies while you placate them. Long Recharge.

Shared Vision - Auto - For each duplicate you have out, you get a significant AoE defense bonus. Each duplicate also receives a bonus to AoE defense.

Trade Tactics - Click - Upgrade henchmen to add more attacks.

Reinforce Duplicate - Target Henchman Toggle - Target henchman will gain a large boost to all resistance and damage. After 30 seconds, this toggle becomes really expensive to maintain.

Copy Rush - Click - Must target enemy. Create 10 lesser duplicates for a short duration. Lesser duplicates are not as strong as normal ones and cannot be directly controlled. Long unchangeable Recharge.

/no to clones.

Haven't the devs already listed clones as one of their 'Stop asking us to kick ourselves in the crotch' topics?

Possibly, but they said that about power customization too.

I wouldn't really expect this set to be adopted. I'm not that niave.

Thank you for speaking on behalf of the community of the interest of this thread type. I had no idea there were people playing this game that were 'diehard' fans of this. I'm not even a diehard fan; just thought it would be neat to see implimented.

Also, I really don't see clones/copies/etc. being anything but defense (outside of a special AT). It certainly isn't a melee, ranged, buff/debuff, or control set. The only thing that would come close is the mastermind, but that's far from fitting either.

While I have to agree that clones are a big no-no, even without the code problems that would entail, the idea of having a pseudo-PA based melee defense set is majorly intriguing.

I'm not saying it's a great idea, just that at first blush it sounds like it would be tons of fun.

First scrap the idea that the pets are MM-style pets or that you have any real control over them. Assume they're much (!) more like Phantom Army. I'm going to plop out some other power concepts here and hope nobody gets angry with me for thread-jacking. Keep in mind that I'm thinking of this as a tanker set for the levels I'm listing. They'd obviously be different for other ATs.

• 1 -- Displacement: Toggle makes you fuzzy and indistinct so you're harder to hit (small +def to melee, larger +def to ranged, no +def to AoE).
• 1 -- Mimic: Click summons 1 - 3 phantom decoys (like Phantom Army except you only get one at level 1, 2 at level 6 and the third at level 18). These decoys stay close to you, however, never getting more than 10 - 15 feet away (maybe? what do you think?) and all damage they do gets healed back (it's all illusory). These, however, have hit points and can be defeated, although they do have some good defense or resistance, or both maybe.
• 2 -- Mesmerism: Toggle makes your image waver in a hypnotic fashion, disturbing the aim of those attempting to attack you (small +def to ranged, larger +def to melee, no +def to AoE).
• 6 -- Bright Lights: Click power causes your Mimics to fire off a massive burst of bright light, causing all nearby foes to be temporarily blinded (short duration -perc, medium duration -acc).
• 8 -- Shifter: Toggle power causes you to become slightly out of phase with normal space. While this doesn't make you untouchable, it does make many non-focused attacks bypass you (+def to AoE only).
• 12 -- Swarm: Click power triggers a massive release of small (say ten that look like imps?) mimics for a short while.
• 18 -- Protected: Toggle power with high end cost that makes your Mimics work like Bodyguard mode for MMs.
• 26 -- Black Light: Toggle power makes you and your Mimics invisible and makes your Mimics unable to attack while the toggle is active.
• 32 -- Hypnosis: Click power makes you and all your Mimics put off a pulsing light (which wouldn't actually pulse because we don't want to trigger any seizures in players) causing all nearby enemies to go into a deep sleep and thus be unable to defend themselves (AoE Hold of tiny mag and sleep of larger mag).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha ...I have the patience of a coffee-fueled flea...

That would certainly be neat for a more 'illusion' style. The only problem I see is that there is no mez protection, and the bulk of your protection is in 2-4 powers. You could easily skip the control, debuff, and stealth power. This set might be impossible to use in AV/Monster fights.

In the set I made, for AV fights, you could use the single target pet buff (+ the all pet buffs) to have it tank, but you'd have to still watch out for their massive AoE attacks as they can cripple you, and you may have endurance challenges. Plus the pets won't have mez/kb protection.

Agreed that the lack of mez prot in my set would be a huge weakness. Given the size of the +def by the end, however, and the fact that the decoys would be taking the large majority of the hits, I think the set needs some kind of major weakness to make it remotely balanced.

I agree about the stealth/invis power, though. That was tossed in because I couldn't think of anything else to put there. Theoretically the change to some of those powers could go something like this instead:

• 8 -- Swarm: Click power triggers a massive release of small (say ten that look like imps?) mimics for a short while. Other Mimic affecting powers on this list cannot affect these mimics.
• 12 -- Shifter: Toggle power causes you to become slightly out of phase with normal space. While this doesn't make you untouchable, it does make many non-focused attacks bypass you as well as making you highly resistant to confinement powers (+def to AoE only and +prot/res to most mezzes).
• 26 -- Hypnotism: Click power makes you and all your Mimics put off a pulsing light (which wouldn't actually pulse because we don't want to trigger any seizures in players) causing all nearby enemies to go into a deep sleep and thus be unable to defend themselves (AoE Hold of tiny mag and sleep of larger mag).
• 32 -- Phantom Upgrade: Click power turns your Mimics into true a Phantom Army (just as the Ill 'troller power). When used, however, the Mimics/Phantom Army will disappear after 60 seconds (the duration of Phantom Army).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha ...I have the patience of a coffee-fueled flea...