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Did someone with SC steal a kill from you? You hate on it in alot of your posts.
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Originally Posted by Umbral
Or it could just have been a matter of the devs not factoring in root time (i.e. animation time; as far as I care, it's a semantic difference between the terms that is easy to differentiate based on context) back in those days. There's a reason the dam/rech/end formula doesn't account for animation time at all. The devs didn't realize that it was actually important.
The question about Shield Charge (which I really wish Castle would weigh in on one of these days, because, honestly, no matter how you look at it, it's either way stronger than it should be or everything else is way weaker) isn't so much a question of low root/animation time (which is what BIB and Blaze "abuse" to achieve such incredible performance) so much as a question of whether the dam/rech/end formula can properly be applied to powers of that kind and whether there should be any "penalty" levied on the power for it being in a defense set (of which there is actually a large degree of precedent for). |
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Would it break the balance of the power if the bonus damage were irresistable (and impervious to buffing/debuffing, enhancement, etc)?|
Originally Posted by Arcanaville
This is sufficiently complicated that the best way to do such a thing, if you were to ever want to try, might be to make a power that:
1. Delivered its base damage. 2. Delivered its bonus damage. 3. Delivered a zero damage effect that only delivered its effect if the target was at zero health, and whose sole effect was to deliver the "Executed" message. 4. Delivered a heal which immediately healed back its bonus damage. In that exact order. But there's enough voodoo in the combat timing of events to make this very twitchy to pull off correctly. I'm not sure if anyone alive currently knows with certainty the minimum event interval the combat engine will honor both the ordinality and the dependency of (which is a sufficiently complex question it would take a couple of pages of text just to explain what the question means). |
1. Deliver damage. If target was unaffected, done. If not...
2. Check target's remaining hp; is it below (warning: arbitrary numbers; .8 hp x target level)? If not, done. If so...
3. Deliver Floaty text: "Executed!" Deliver unresistable hp damage equal to (1 x target level).
Obviously, there is some amount of damage that is too large and unbalancing and some amount that is too small and thus unappreciated (but still more than there is now), but I don't know if we would hit a 'happy medium' or 'uncanny valley' looking for it.
Also, something with enough regen might regen during the execution of the power? That should be rare enough to be acceptable?
I can imagine the fun some players would have trying to finish off Hamidon with an Executioner's Shot.
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
Or we could solve it by changing the floaty combat text to;
EXECUTED?
I know, I'm a genius.
Wouldn't it be more fun (and easier, and less game-breaking) if you could only execute minion-class NPCs?
I.e., if the target is a minion, and its health is below 50%, then Executioner's Shot HAS A CHANCE to out-right kill the target with untyped damage, and displays the floaty text.
I'd be more than happy with that!
Or we could scale it for different classes (and limit them only to Minions, Lt.'s, and Bosses). I.e., if Boss is below 15% HP, attempt execution. If Lt. is below 30%, attempt execution. These would be just arbitrary numbers.
And of course, I don't think this should be enabled for monsters, AVs, or in PvP.
I'll support this change to executioners shot so long as when I use shout in the same situation it summons a small train that I hop on and ride to the next spawn...
deal?
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I'll assume I have the right to authorize this. |
Originally Posted by Frosticus
I'll support this change to executioners shot so long as when I use shout in the same situation it summons a small train that I hop on and ride to the next spawn...
deal? |
Deal.
I'll even throw in Amplify becoming a toggle.
I haven't played Dual Pistols post-beta so I can't comment as to the relative strength-weakness of the power and whether a buff is needed, however, having a critical/bonus damage that triggers if the enemy is below a certain HP threshold (5%?) and a little popup that notes that it's happened (Executed!) would be very cool and thematic for the power.
However, Corruptors are one of the classes that get access to dual pistols, so there might be the issue of there being some overlap between this and scourge.
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I'm not entirely sure how you can construe "a lot" from the remarkably scant number of my posts that have to do anything with Shield Charge, but the main reason I have a problem with it is that, as I see it, it's too strong and thusly imbalanced. I have a strong dislike of Rage and Granite Armor as well, and I'm reasonably sure I've made more posts decrying either of those powers than I've made concerned Shield Charge.|
Originally Posted by eryq2
Did someone with SC steal a kill from you? You hate on it in alot of your posts.
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I dislike imbalance, not any specific powers, though I make a point to point out powers that go outside the bounds of balance (as I see it), especially when you're dealing with a power as godsmashingly potent as Shield Charge (especially when there are comparable powers in actual damage oriented sets that are outright weaker, which is why I've asked Castle for some explanation as to Shield Charge compared to Lightning Rod) or as notoriously weak as the earlier version of HoB (especially when there are comparable powers that are outright stronger, which is where I got the numbers that are now used for HoB's damage).
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Only in that they would have to decide whether to check for Scourge before or after the bonus damage from the Execute.
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Originally Posted by Scientist_16
However, Corruptors are one of the classes that get access to dual pistols, so there might be the issue of there being some overlap between this and scourge.
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Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
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The generic answer to this question is almost always "yes" because making powers unresistable in PvE means the devs cannot use resistances to make encounters stronger with reliable consequences. Against a target with 90% resistances the bonus damage would be, in effect, ten times stronger than normal.|
Originally Posted by Kitsune9tails
Would it break the balance of the power if the bonus damage were irresistable
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Devs also sometimes give something 100% resistances to either temporarily or permanently make it impossible to destroy in some circumstances and unresistable damage would bypass such situations, forcing the devs to change all of those circumstances in some way to make them work as intended (cf: oil slick arrow).
In general, unresistable PvE damage for normal conventional player powers is an off-the-table option.
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Okay, I can see that. Hence the timing voodoo. Hmmmm...
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
The generic answer to this question is almost always "yes" because making powers unresistable in PvE means the devs cannot use resistances to make encounters stronger with reliable consequences. Against a target with 90% resistances the bonus damage would be, in effect, ten times stronger than normal.
Devs also sometimes give something 100% resistances to either temporarily or permanently make it impossible to destroy in some circumstances and unresistable damage would bypass such situations, forcing the devs to change all of those circumstances in some way to make them work as intended (cf: oil slick arrow). In general, unresistable PvE damage for normal conventional player powers is an off-the-table option. |
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
See also "Taunt?"