High Risk/Reward Defense Set

If you've ever played Metroid Prime 3, you're no doubt familiar with Hypermode. Hypermode basically makes you super-powerful whenever you downright want at the expense of some health. However, whether you use up all your health on it or not, misuse of the ability can lead to your own death.

If you've ever played Super Smash Brothers Brawl, you're probably familiar with Lucario. In Brawl, the damage and launch power of Lucario's attacks is directly related to the amount of damage he's taken (and his current ranking in the match). The worst off he is, the stronger he is. But to achieve maximum power, you have to be in danger of getting sent to your doom in the next hit.

There's also a ton of other examples one could draw up, but we'll leave those on TVTropes (whichever page something like the above and below you'd find this kind of stuff on).

Basically, back playing MP3 I decided it'd be neat to see a Hyper Mode in CoX. I made a tier-9-like armor-set power, but then decided it needed a powerset to go with it. So, I went and made up a Phazon Armor powerset for amusement. I recently dug it up out of my text files and decided that maybe it could exist in-game. So I retooled it to something that wouldn't be a copyright violation, creating Radiation Aura. I picked a nuclear theme because it was the closest I could think of to an unstable armor set, but any other theme could be applied as well.

Anyway, first the power set with more details below it. The power names are whatever I could come up with. I personally think they suck, but I can't think of anything better, sadly. Also, I'm not a numbers guy, so I didn't even try to figure that out. If this ever made it into the game, I'd trust the experts to handle that.

Edit: Made adjustments per comments made. Also threw in some numbers, using existing power sets as reference. Numbers are for level 50 Scrappers, unslotted. I'm sure they're borked in some way.


Electron Shield - Toggle: +Resistance (Smashing, Lethal, Energy), +Protection (Stun, Immobilize), -Health

Self: +25% Resistance S/L/E, +10.5 Stun/Immob Protection, -10% Max HP
Costs .13 end/sec, recharges in 2 seconds

While this power is active, Electron Shield gives you good resistance to Smashing, Lethal, and Energy damage as well as protection against disorient and immobilization effects. However, the shield is unstable and therefore you will be slightly weakened while it is on.


Unstable Reaction - Passive: +Resistance (All, Special), +Damage (All, Special)

Self: 20% Resistance All at one extreme (10% hp or less) and 10% damage buff at the other (90% hp or more). Each 10% HP change would do -1% damage, +2% resistance, assuming you were loosing health

The instability of your powers causes them to change depending on how healthy you are. While your health is high, you will inflict more damage. However, as you loose health, your damage bonus will diminish and will be replaced with resistance to all types of damage. This power is always on and costs no endurance.

(I'm having second thoughts here. Maybe gutting the resistance from this power and instead do scaling damage for lower and lower HP, similar to SR's scaling resistances, may be a better option? Granted, old Blaster Defiance wasn't popular for a reason...)


Proton Shield - Toggle: +Resistance (Fire, Cold, Negative Energy), +Protection (Sleep, Knockback), -Health

Self: +25% Resistance F/C/NE, +10.5 Sleep/KB Protection, -10% Max HP
Costs .13 end/sec, recharges in 2 seconds

While this power is active, Proton Shield gives you good resistance to Fire, Cold, and Negative Energy damage as well as protection against sleep and knockback effects. However, the shield is unstable and therefore you will be slightly weakened while it is on.


Mutagenic Aura - Toggle: Foe: -Resistance, - Defense, + Damage, Taunt

Foe: -10% Resistance All, -10% Defense All, +15% Damage, Mag 3 Taunt for 16 seconds
Costs .208 end/sec, recharges in 10 seconds

While this power is active, you are surrounded by mutagenic radiation. This radiation has a debilitative effect on foes in melee range, making them more susceptible to attacks. However, the mutation will also cause them to grow stronger, increasing the damage of their attacks.


Neutron Shield - Toggle: +Resistance (Toxic, Psi), +Protection (Hold, Confuse), -Health

Self: +25% T/P Resistance, +10.5 Hold/Conf Protection, -10% Max HP
Costs .13 end/sec, recharges in 2 seconds

While this power is active, Neutron Shield gives you good resistance to Psionic and Toxic damage as well as protection against hold and confuse effects. However, the shield is unstable and therefore you will be slightly weakened while it is on.


Meltdown - Click: -Health, + Recovery, + Defense (All)

Self: Deals 25% special, unresistable damage, +10% defense for 60 seconds, .3 Recovery for 60 seconds
Costs 10.4 endurance, recharges in 240 seconds.

You can cause a small internal explosion of energy within your body. While this blast is harmful to yourself and will cause damage, the energy released will temporarily give you a boost to your endurance recovery and will create a small shield that will deflect all attacks.


Nuclear Rearrangement- Click: +Health, +Endurance, -Health, -Endurance, Special

The mutagenic properties of your powers allow you to adjust your molecular structure on the fly, enabling you to exchange your health for endurance and vice versa. Whenever you use this power, you will swap the percentages of your maximum health and endurance.

(For example, if you have 10% health and 70% endurance, using this power will exchange them, giving you 70% health and 10% endurance. If this isn't possible, perhaps it could be based on "tiers of health and endurance" similar to how SR scaling resists operate. For example, if HP is in the 30-20% tier and end in the 70-60% tier when this power is used, then HP would be set to 70% and endurance 30%)


Atomic Reconstruction - Click: Self Rez, +Damage, +Recovery, +Recharge, +To Hit

Self: +30% damage for 90 seconds, +2.5 Recovery for 90 seconds, +60% Recharge for 90 seconds, +20% ToHit for 90 seconds.
Recharges in 360 seconds (longer than most rezzes to account for the recharge bonus)

Should you fall in battle, you can give yourself a boost of atomic energy to rebuild your body and ressurect. The boost is so strong that not only will you be briefly invulnerable and protected from XP debt, but the energy will linger, giving you additional damage, endurance recovery, recharge, and to-hit.


Overdrive - Click: Self +Damage, +Recharge, +To Hit, +Resistance (All), +Defense (All), +Health, +Endurance, -Recovery, Resistance (Endurance, Recovery, Endurance Discount)

Self: Full heal HP and End, +70% Resist All for 90 seconds, +70% Defense All for 90 seconds, +50% Damage 90 seconds, +30% To Hit 90 seconds, +50% Recharge for 90 seconds, 100% Resistance Endurance, Recovery, and Endurance Discount for 90 seconds. After 90 seconds, HP is adjusted to match remaining endurance (or the tier below if direct % matching is impossible).
Costs 2.6 endurance to use, recharges in 330 seconds. Is unaffected by recharge like Strength of Will and One With The Shield.

You can super-charge yourself with energy, making you nearly unstoppable. While Overdrive is active, your damage, recharge, to-hit, resistance to all damage, and defense to all damage will be significantly boosted. Additionally, your health and endurance will be fully restored when activated. However, due to your powers' instability, you also become immune to all endurance, recovery, and endurance discount buffs and your recovery will also shut-off. While Overdrive costs little endurance to activate, you will be left at least incredibly weakened and exhausted from the effects, or may even die. If you are alive, you will be unable to recover health or endurance for a short while.

(There's a reason for the anti-endurance/recovery. When Overdrive crashes, your health will drop to match whatever percentage of endurance you have left. Consequently, if your blue bar is empty, you die. It's an extremely high risk, but Overdrive should be rather powerful to compensate. Plus, you also have a rez anyway. Finally, if direct %s don't work, see note for Nuclear Reconstruction for an alternative.)


Unslotted totals for a level 50 Scrapper, ignoring the Tier 9, and self-rez effects.

25% Resistance to all (45% at 10% HP, 35% at 50% HP)
-30% Max Health
.598 end cost/sec
10% Defense to all (with Meltdown up)
3 end recovery/sec (with Meltdown up)
10% Damage at 100% Hp, 5% at 50% HP


With Atomic Reconstruction (90 seconds)

25% Resistance to all (45% at 10% HP, 35% at 50% HP)
-30% Max Health
.598 end cost/sec
10% Defense to all (with Meltdown up)
5.5 end recovery/sec (with Meltdown up)
40% Damage at 100% HP, 35% at 50% HP, 30% at 10% HP
60% Recharge
20% To Hit


With Overdrive (90 seconds and then crashes)

95% Resistance to all (115% at 10% HP, 105% at 50% HP)
100% Resistance to Endurance, Endurance Discount, and Recovery
-30% Max Health
.598 end cost/sec
80% Defense to all (with Meltdown up)
0 end recovery/sec (even with Meltdown up)
60% Damage at 100% HP, 55% at 50% HP, 50% at 10% HP
30% To Hit
50% Recharge

With Atomic Reconstruction and Overdrive (Probably be really rare, but yikes! 90 seconds still anyway)

95% Resistance to all (115% at 10% HP, 105% at 50% HP)
100% Resistance to Endurance, Endurance Discount, and Recovery
-30% Max Health
.598 end cost/sec
80% Defense to all (with Meltdown up)
0 end recovery/sec (even with Meltdown up)
100% Damage at 100% HP, 95% at 50% HP, 90% at 10% HP
110% Recharge
50% To Hit


Yes, the set does sound really powerful. Resistance to all attacks with no holes? Defense on top of it? OVERPOWERED! Right? No! This set puts your health directly at risk. To run your shields, your health goes down. Some other powers cause you damage to use or make you take more. Even with all your safety, to be at your best, you're hurting yourself. The power is strong, but it comes with a cost.

First, the player is more or less forced to take all three armors by splitting up the resistances and mez protection among them. The three common mezzes: sleep, stun, and hold, are each on a different armor. Want complete protection? Gotta take them and run them. The three powers all reduce the player's maximum health, making them a bit squishier. A player can sacrifice mez protection and resistance by not running one or more toggles at any given moment to keep their health higher. Choosing which toggles to run may very well be a requirement to playing the set well.
Of course, accolades and IO slotting can help offset this weakness. However, I'm not aware of any weakness IOs can't offset.

Second, health is a resource in this set. The three toggle shields all reduce health in exchange for protection. Meltdown hurts you to give you a very strong boost. Mutagenic Aura makes your enemies easier to kill, but they hit you harder. Overdrive can kill you if you abuse it.

Third, since health is affected by the main powers, I figured, why not have some other powers play with it? Unstable Reaction gives you more damage while the green bar is good, but makes you tougher when you're weak (though it may be more interesting if this was reversed, hmm). Nuclear Rearrangement lets you use your health to refill endurance, or vice versa, making it a very tactical power. And, of course, since you're sure to kill yourself at least once with the powers, and death is the ultimate risk, might as well give a rez with a big reward for using it attached.

Fourth, the set eases you into it's risks a bit. You only start off with a small reduction of health that shouldn't make a big difference early on. As you progress that chunk from armor gets bigger and bigger and you can choose to loose a bigger chunk too, but you can benefit from it. Enemies can start hitting you harder, but you are much more easily able to kill them before they hit you too much. You can burn some HP to make yourself stronger. And finally, you can become virtually unstoppable for a minute or two at the risk of killing yourself at the end.

The whole concept here is that this set is risky to use because it makes you a threat to yourself. Consequently, it's quite strong. Not everyone will like it, I'm sure. CoX already offers plenty of much safer to use sets (aka all of the ones in game). I think it'd be quite nice for players looking to raise the stakes and reap benefits from them. Not all teams would appreciate the crazy, nuclear powered Scrapper on their team, but then again not all teams appreciate any currently existing powerset anyway.

And now to step back and let people rip the set apart. After all, I hardly doubt it's perfect. My biggest worry is that the engine can't handle some of the powers, like the health/end swapping.

Health + Physical Perfection + IOs
(Not to mention Freedom Phalanx Reserve, Task Force Commander, Portal Jockey, and even more IOs)

Edit: Also, I don't believe that Nuclear Rearrangement is possible within the powers system.

Not a big fan of this kind of set, but it might work if instead of constant damage, each toggle gave a -Max HP debuff instead. Also means your screen won't be spammed by tons of -3s.

Have you considered exchanging the self-damage for a maxHP percentile drop? That way you're not taking damage from the power itself, but any damage the enemies hit you will make itself felt.

An open letter to NCsoft

-Max HP? Now why didn't I think of that? That'd fix the issue of simply out-regenning the debuffs on the toggles and still achieve the same general gameplay effect. The resistances would need to be good though so turning them on isn't a deathtrap for the lowbie Scrapper/Brute/Tanker/maybe Stalker (replace the aura with Hide, move it to tier 1 and shift everything else up accordingly).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper Edit: Also, I don't believe that Nuclear Rearrangement is possible within the powers system.

That, and Overdrive's crash, are what I'm worried about not being possible. It can tell what % of health you're at, according to SR's scaling resistances, so it might be possible. It'd suck if it wasn't possible though, as Nuclear Arrangement, to me at least, just sounds like a fun power, even if it was in a more sane set.

Though, as an alternative, this just hit me. If it can't work, then maybe adjusting the skills based on %ranges? For example, if you use Nuclear Arrangement, it checks your HP and End %s and sees what ranges they're in (like, say, 10-20%). It then sets your health and endurance into the ranges the others are in (if old/Paragon Protector MoG is any indication, something like that should be possible). For example, your health is in the 30-20% range and endurance in the 70-60% range. Using the ability would set your current health to 70% and current endurance to 30%. Overdrive's crash could also use the same mechanic, with death being assigned at the end if you're at less than 5% or 10% endurance. Based on what I know about current mechanics, that seems more likely to work using the current engine.



Anyway, I'll make some edits to the original post with that -maxhealth suggestion and the alternatives I just came up with. Well, after I glance at City of Data and look at some other armor set's numbers so I can invent some. I have a feeling the numbers I'll come up with will be borked in some way.

And yeah, I didn't think of looking there earlier either.


Edit: Added numbers. I was also hit with the idea that Unstable Reaction might better work as a version of the old Blaster Defiance? Granted, players didn't like it, but maybe it might work better here? On the other hand, I do think giving the player an incentive to keep their health up might be the better idea. Hmmm...

I know that old MoG didn't care what your current HP was - the issue with it and PPs is that it heals them to max, then does a set amount of "damage" thus stealing XP.

True, forgot that it did the full heal. But I also forgot rezzes set your health and endurance to specific percentages. Maybe that could be used here in a fashion?


Also, added some numbers, based on an unslotted level 50 Scrapper. I'm sure they're screwy somewhere, feel free to point them out.

Additionally, I was also hit with the idea that Unstable Reaction might better work as a version of the old Blaster Defiance? Granted, players didn't like it, but maybe it might work better here? On the other hand, I do think giving the player an incentive to keep their health up might be the better idea. Hmmm...