Inherent Buffing (my worst idea yet)

So lately I've been thinking and notice that a lot of people tend to complain about how some of the inherents work for some ATs (defender namely, though I personally love vigilance for when I really need to heal spam on a team) and that some ATs, like Blasters, Doms, and Controllers get two inherent effects instead of just one.
To this end, I've come up with a small series of ideas to add to existing inherent powers for the ATs, though to be honest, some of the specific numbers and details I'm not clear on, so please remember that any specific numbers are list are basically arbitrary. So that's said, let's begin the inherent modification with...

Warshade and Peacebringer: Dark Sustenance and Cosmic Balance, this inherent encourages Kheld players to team up, and while that's not a bad idea, people often say there's not much a reason for other ATs to team up with them, and if I recall, for the longest time, Kheldians did not benefit from having fellow Kheldian players join, to this end I propose this simple change- In addition to the benefits gained by the Kheldian player, these bonuses are given it's teammates as well, after all, a Kheldian is a symbiotic creature (mostly) so Dark Sustenance and Cosmic Balance should reflect that they give back as well as gain.
Also, I propose changing the benefit Kheldians gain (and would give with this modification) from teaming with one another: For every Kheldian on the team, you gain a 5% resistance to the Special Quantum Damage from Quantum array guns. Now this bonus might seem small, but consider that with this change, it would mean that not only is the Kheldian gaining this resistance from being with a fellow Kheld, but also benefitting from the bonus they're giving they're Kheldian teammate. So on a team with two Kheldians, you gain a 10% resistance, and on a team with three Kheldians, it's 15%, and so on. (Cue the 8 man team of Kheldian ATs asking "What now, b@#$%?" to the next quantum gunner they fight)
(Though I suppose all this is moot since Kheldians generally end up with several different inherent powers)

Defenders: The current system isn't so bad, especially on smaller teams, so let's throw something else in to make it worth while, eh? I propose a chance for "Special Critical", basically everytime they use a power that buffs, debuffs, or heals, they would have say... A 15% change of that buff or Debuff's effectiveness be boosted by 30% for its duration.

Tankers: I hear people say that Gauntlet isn't enough, and as someone who's played a tank solo ("lol, lrn 2 play tank" I know...) I can say gauntlet can't get you in a few more jams than help you out with. Also, one an eight man spawn, the numbers can easily get overwhelming if the DPS isn't fast enough or the support misses a beat (which I know isn't the support's fault), so for this I propose this addition to Gauntlet: a PBAoE aura (non-taunting) where for every opponent that's engaged on you, you gain an 8% resistance to all debuffs capping out with ten opponents for an 80% resistance to debuffs.

Scrappers: Well, I know they say "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" but the point of this isn't that the inherents are broken, just that other AT's should be allowed a secondary aspect of an inherent, so my proposal is that similar to a Blaster's damage buff per-attack, only to bring out the absolute DPS of a scrapper, every time they attack, they could gain a small recharge buff for a short duration, possibly a small end discount too since this would theoretically mean, even an a claws/regen/fitness with body mastery's physical perfection and conserve power going and no toggles one would still end up sucking wind, depending on the duration and strength of the buff.
Also, depending on the strength and duration of recharge buff, the possibility should be kept open of it not effecting secondaries, lest we get double stacked Strength of Will or perma-Moment of Glory, and this is just considering the tier nines.

Now we're on villains...

Brute: They about have the same options for aggro management as a Tank with the exception of Gauntlet, and in the end, a Brute is still more delicate than a Tank, and besides, they're damage dealers, and while they do have their own taunt in their attacks (the poke-voke), I would like to propose that on a Brute's single target attacks, the would still have a small chance (Say maybe 5%) of whacking one or two additional enemies within five feet of their target for half or maybe a quarter of the damage of the power they used, with the possible addition of this only being possible if their fury is at a certain percentage. (After all, those shock waves from SS seem like even they'd hurt to be too close to) This is inspired by the Left 4 Dead's Tank ability to smack multiple survivors and works with the Brute's concept of being the incarnate of awe-inspiring force.

Corruptors: For corruptors, they would basically get the "special critical" for my defender idea, however, it would be linked with scourge going off, and rather than it applying to only one power, it would be a short global buff (lasting for say... 7 seconds), so if you work fast enough, you can lay down multiple boosted debuffs and buffs on enemies and allies.

Stalkers: This is more an overhaul of the whole inherent, to start with, Assassination would be buffed (or debuffed, depending on your views) to deal a set percentage of damage depending on the opponent's rank. From a proper assassin's strike, minions would lose all their HP on a connecting blow, Lieutenants would lose 50% of their max HP, bosses would lose 25%, EBs would only lose 15% and AV's 10% to prevent and all stalker team from just soloing Statesman with a simultaneous AS. Though to be honest, I'm not entirely sure how to stop something like say; a level 6 stalker from going around, popping yellows, and ASing something way higher level than it. (One idea is to scale the damage percentages down based on how many levels higher the enemy is to the stalker starting from +2. So a minion would only lose 50% HP from the AS) Furthermore, an assassin's strike would have the benefit of significantly stronger secondary effect that matches the set, for example, the standard ninja blade defense debuff is -7.5% to defense, when Asssassin's Blade is used, in addition to the damage, it would also inflict a -15% defense debuff. The fear effect would remain. (I'm not sure what would be done for claws and Dual Blades which lack any standard secondary ability)
(For purposes of PVP, I'm not sure whether AS damage should be calculated normally or if it should be treated similar to AVs)
Another problem with this is that it would effectively negate the need for damage slotting on the Assassin's X powers.

Masterminds: This is really tricky since in the end, it's the pets' inherent abilities that really make the MM than just Supremacy (though it does help a lot), but to this end, I propose that the number of the MM's henchmen should also benefit from their numbers and possibly their upgrade state. For each Henchmen summoned, they gain a 1% defense buff and gain a 7.5% Resistance to all mezzes and debuffs for each upgrade. (So really, a fully upgraded henchmen would only have about 15% resistance to those things in spaces they do not have)

Soldiers of Arachnos: No clue, honestly.

In closing, if this seems like a good idea, you might wanna talk to a doctor, or maybe I did get something right, but all in all, try not to take this too seriously, and I'm not holding my breath for this so I wouldn't advise you try.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

If the kheldian buff inherents were made into aoe auras, the numbers would have to be reduced to retain some semblence of balance. Consider that a single kheldian on a team with say three tanks and three blasters would be giving the entire team 60% damage and 30% resist all. That's better than some defenders can manage. Add a second kheldian to that team and it becomes 120% damage, 60% resist all and 20% slow resist. So yeah, it'd get very unbalanced very quickly.

E:

Honesty, Vigilance is about being /vigilant/ and adapting to specific needs...

... but Vigilance as it stands is custom built for Empathy, and benefits the other primaries not at all.

Really, Vigilance should change depending on the Defender's primary to be more suitable to that primary:

For example:

Empathy would keep the current Vigilance (the end discount for injured people)
Forcefields would really benefit from a global self-damage buff (10-15%) since Forcefields is unable to debuff enemies for more reliable damage. (we'll call this 'vigilance 2')
Kinetics could offer the defender a low-mag (say mag 3) immobilize / hold protection
Cold Domination could get a permanent HP increase (which is thematic, and Cold doesn't really need help as far as I can tell)

and finally

Radiation could automatically respec you to the Sonic secondary when you start the game (haha, I'm joking, really--Rad just doesn't need the help so perhaps it'd keep vanilla Vigilance too)

The downside is, setting up a bunch of different powerset-based 'Vigilances' would be a lot of work. A lot of work.

... but other then Vigilance and Gauntlet, I really don't see any issues with any of the inherents as is; especially with Defiance's recent buff. If tanks got a small, say, 1% bonus to defense for every enemy beyond the first that was attacking them (as the enemies get in each other's way--like invincibility except capping at maybe 6% or so), that might help 'em out a tiny bit in those total-party-wipe situations.

Regarding the Defender's inherant, I do agree that it's fairly underpowered for an AT designed to protect and /defend/ the team. I've had my own ideas on how it could be improved that would make the Defender break teams out of critical situations. Currently they receive a endurance discount for powers, this is good for heal spams.

But I would also think that boosting their secondary effects and giving a heal bonus to those who can heal. Increased Magnitude to Knockdown and debuff effects, increased duration for buff and debuff effects and a boost to healing powers by a percentage.

Since the power doesn't work solo, and that the average team health has to dip pretty low for it to have maximum effect, this would allow the Defender to do what they do best, defending weak team-mates with improved healing and fending off attackers with improved attack effects.


I also felt that the Scrapper's inherent could do with a tweak to get them in line of the Stalker's maximum critical ratio. They get 5% for minions and below, and 10% for Lieutenants and above. Maybe it would be nice if Elite Bosses and above got a 15% chance. 5% isn't much but it would make Scrappers feel more like the 'against all odds' fighters their inherent embodies.

With Vigilance I'd say it'd make more sense to provide a small recharge buff to the defender on top of the reduced end cost for when team members begin to lose HP.

As it stands I'm never sure when Vigilance starts to kick in as I have one Kin, one Rad and one Dark defender - these sets always seem to survive and help the rest of the team survive without the inherent kicking in (okay, not always but you get the picture )

Another suggestion would be (either for Khelds or Defenders) provide an aura of Secondary Buff (so like a Power Boost aura) as part of the general inehernt. So when your teammates are near you their secondary effects are boosted: Defense Debuffs, Buffs, To Hit etc are increased. This obviously wouldn't affect -Res or +Dam powers as those are not considered Secondary Effects.

And a final suggestion for Vigilance - give either a global mez protection or a global mez resistance buff to a Defender when other teammates are in trouble.

Gauntlet - hmmm, not sure. No point in increasing survivability by any means in terms of secondary effects in my opinion as each Tanker set has that covered in some way. For example if you increased defence then some powersets would be at an unfair advantage over others.

Does Ice Armour include a recharge debuff in any of its powers? If not then perhaps that could be a Secondary effect applied to Gauntlet? If it does then Ice would suddenly become very powerful.

Nope, I have no idea what to do to Gauntlet without unbalancing a lot of stuff.

And that works for every Archetype except defenders, because Defenders are inherently more varied because of the massive differences inherent to their primaries. Ideally, I think defenders should simply get a damage buff while solo, and an endurance discount that scales to the number of people on the team; which doesn't penalize the sets without healing for preventing most damage before it happens (i.e., Forcefields, Sonic, Cold, Fire, Dark, etc). The downside to this is it makes Rad/Sonic even more attractive for soloing.

But this is a speculation thread about buffing the inherent abilities in general; and therefore I'm speculating.

I almost didn't even go into this thread due to the title.

Was anyone else wondering why the OP put forth his "worst idea yet"? I think generally people want to put out their better or best ideas.