I'm feeling Inspired

Here are some basic premises behind this post:

1) When old school Kora Cave missions went away, the devs hinted we'd see new types of Inspiration.
2) When Heroes and Villains couldn't Trade, it was hinted we'd see new Inspirations.
3) When the Inventions system launched, it was hinted we could potentially make anything, including (you guessed it) Inspirations.
4) There are certain buffs that don't work well as a flat out Inspiration like we're used to.
5) We still haven't seen new kinds of Inspirations
6) I would like to see new Inspires that increase the number of available choices for playstyle.

Global vs Specific buffs
So here we go. The first new category could involve buffs that are 'too strong' to be global buffs, but would work well on a limited basis.
- Currently, Masterminds can drag Inspires to their Minions.
- We also have at least one Inspire that waits around for something to happen then triggers (Christmas Debt Protection).
- We also have non-stacking buffs and buffs that lock out rebuffing for a certain window after their used (Mystic Fortune and Wentworth TP).

What I'm suggesting is similar technology to those things. Inspirations that get dragged onto a specific power and apply to that power alone for the next time (or times) it is used.

- Recharge: Most people realize a flat out stackable Global Recharge buff would be too strong. However how many times have you felt "If X had just recharged, I would have lived through that fight" So how about a drag and drop Inspire that instantly recharges the power then blocks another of the same Inspire from being used on that power for a certain time (for balance).

- Piercing: Currently the Defense equation looks at an attack and applies the highest Defense applicable. If possible, a Piercing Inspire would change it so if the attack hits, it checks the lowest applicable Defense.

- Phasing: This one may not be strong enough to be considered a Specific, and could work better as a global buff, but it would be cool to have a buff that lets attack(s) hit a Phased target.

- Targets: a short term increase to the Target Limit of a given power.

- Autohit: self explanatory, the attack will hit the next time it's fired, or for the next X seconds. Or at least has a bounded max toHit.

Those are the first 5 ideas I have. I'll write some more once I think on them more.

I'd love to see any of these implemented, and I'd love to see more done with the game through Inspirations as a mechanism. Imagine if you will costumes that are in fact triggered by inspirations, or abilities that let us roleplay our way through a mission allowing us to pick our fights, or resolve the mission goals in other ways. Inspiration may even be the key to adding a true "object" inventory to CoX... and then, the sky's the limit.

More likely though, none of this will happen, because like they always say, we can't have good stuff!

It's an interesting idea.

It would need a LOT of work though to come up with acceptable effects that aren't too unbalancing.

A couple of examples just gleaned from your examples:

Auto-Hit: pretty much invalidates any defense based powerset in PvP.

(I guess it could be changed to be auto-hit AND non-resistable though...then anyone with any kind of personal protection gets equally screwed by it, which might be acceptable)

Piercing: really unbalanced.

For instance, my (hypothetical) SR scrapper normally has 30% defense to Melee attacks. However, due to IO bonuses, he also has 4.3% defense to Smash/Lethal. Your piercing attack would then use the pathetic 4.3%. However, if he didn't have those IO bonuses, then the only defense he had would be the Melee, rendering the Piercing effect non-functional...unless 0% defense would be considered the "lowest" in which case you've just replicated Auto-Hit.


But, overall, new 'effects' to apply via inspiriations and possibly loooong recharge temp powers could be rather interesting. Like everyone else, I doubt that this kind of change would go through, but it's not a bad idea.

I like the idea. Although, to make them balanced they would have to be "drop only" inspirations, i.e: you can't convert three of X into one of Y for these ones and that the actual drop rate is rare.

How about also, AT-specific inspirations?

Have contacts throughout the City and Isles that give neverending missions, similar to Meg Mason or the guys in the Shadow Shard. However, each of them are tied to a specific AT. Within these missions, you get inspirations like normal, however, each mission can also drop AT-specific inspirations.

Things like:

Tankers: 60-foot radius taunt, for those "oh ****" times

Controllers: All controls last 1.5x their normal length (50% increase in duration)

Defenders: Grant random inspiration to all teammates in range

Blasters: Either a Defiance 2.0 boost, or allowing them to use the Tier 3 primary power and Tier 2 Secondary power while mezzed

Scrappers: Double the critical chance on all primary set powers

Dominator: 25% increase in duration of mezzes, 25% damage boost

Corruptor: Increased chance to Scourge, and earlier Scourge start

Brute: Increased speed for Fury generation, or slower decay of it

Stalker: Global Recharge buff, decreased time to get back to Hidden status

Mastermind: Gives random inspiration to all pets in range

Yeah, Origin Specific, Archetype Specific, and even Powerset specific Inspires was something I was thinking about writing on later. Good Stuff.