New Powerset: Probability Manipulation

Description: When things seem to go right for the heroes and all wrong for the bad guys, you'll likely be there. This hero is has the unique ability to affect luck itself by manipulating probability fields. The heroes will find themselves getting lucky shots in while villians will inexplicably miss. Your friends will be the recipients of good fortune while your enemies receive calamity.

1. Bad Karma - enemies frequently miss the target of attacks; cone -> enemy, accuracy debuff
2. Lucky Shot - allies frequently hit their targets; single target -> ally, accuracy buff
3. Cursed Luck - Enemy will suffer a random number of random powers to not work for them; single target -> enemy, abilities disabled
4. Serendipity - Ally's attack will happen to hit an enemy's weakest point; toggle aoe -> allies, enable or increase chance for critical hits
5. Random Misfortune - Enemies will suffer an accident, ex. hit by car or cart of equipment or stuck in head by flying debris or slips or trips; toggle aoe -> enemy, chance for knockback, disorient, or knockdown depending of type of accident
6. Lucky Break - Status effects on allies stand chance to be broken early, ex. ally will suddenly awake from sleep, will snap out of confusion or wiggle free of a hold; aoe -> allies; chance to clear negative status effects
7. Haphazard - Enemies stand a chance to accidentally hit each other with attacks; aoe -> enemies, ability redirection (or confusion)
8. Morale Booster - Seeing a battle go in your allies favor by your presence on the team increases their spirits and confidence; passive -> allies, minor buff to health regeneration and endurance recovery rates as well as a minor damage buff
9. Calamity - A random meteor crashes down on the enemy; targeted aoe -> enemies, smashing and fire dot as well as knockdown

Uh, you know most ATs don't get critical hits right? While this sounds interesting, I somehow don't think it'd fly. Most I don't think they have the tech to selectivly disable powers. And if they did implement that, I can picture the outcry over it now. A random chance to clear mez also probably wouldn't fly. Why would you give an accuracy debuff rather then to-hit debuff? All told, while interesting I somehow don't think this would work as you envision it. And I can see the outcry over yet another cone or aoe confuse now. My plant/fire dom already gets chewed out for using Seeds of Confusion. And my illusion/ta troller gets chewed out for using Decieve during nasty fights. The perception is it nukes their xp.

Cursed Luck is a bit OP. Enemies in PvE tend to have few attacks, so even if you only disable one, you could be disabling their big one that makes them tough.

Look at the ITF. Your one power has put the Healing Nictus out of action completely.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoodooGirl [*]Watching out for the Spinning Disco Portal of D00M!*

Not to mention, what if the random number generator decides it negates say, 16 powers in a PvP fight? Or if it just happens to disable most of the other players attacks, or all of their defenses

With the toggle to give your team 'increased crit chance'... What if no one on the team HAS a crit chance. Remember that most people wont have this mechanic. And I could see so many potential bugs with it. Including but not limiting this toggle disabling or lowering the crit chance of scrappers, stalkers, and reducing the chance for Scourge on corrupters. Does it only work on attacks? Or would it give all controls, buffs, and debuffs a chance to crit for twice the effect?

I like the idea of a "Probability Manipulation" power set, but I think the OP's is alternatively overpowered, or incredibly difficult (if not impossible) to implement in the game system as it is.

Here's how I would change things up:

1. Cursed Luck - Enemy will suffer from poor luck, making them easier to hit, and strike with less force; single target -> enemy, Defense and Damage Debuff.
2. Lucky Shot - allies frequently hit their targets, and see things they might have otherwise misssed; single target -> ally, To Hit, +Perception buff
3. Bad Karma - enemies frequently miss the target of attacks; cone -> enemy, To Hit debuff
4. Serendipity - Ally's attacks will strike an enemy's weak points, and in turn, are less likely to be struck; PBAoE -> allies, +Dam, +Def (+7.5% to all at base?)
5. Random Misfortune - Enemies will suffer from a random affliction; targeted aoe -> enemy, those hit will suffer from a long duration, random debuff - Defense, Resistance, Damage, To Hit, or Recharge. Each enemy successfully hit gets a separate check for which debuff.
6. Lucky Break - The flow of battle turns toward your allies as the opponents seem unable to land a significant blow. Furthermore, negative status effects seem to fade much quicker; PBAoE -> allies; +Res (all), +Status Resistance (All)
7. Haphazard - Enemies ranks are thrown into chaos as chance seems to fall against them; Toggle aoe -> enemy; alternating pulses (every second) of Mag 2 Confuse (2-3 seconds) or a Mag 2 Fear (2-3 seconds), each with a 33% chance of an additional Mag 1 of the appropriate status.
8. Morale Booster - Seeing a battle go in your allies favor by your presence on the team increases their spirits and confidence; Toggle PBAoE -> allies, minor buff to health regeneration and endurance recovery rates
9. Calamity - A random meteor crashes down on the enemy; targeted aoe -> enemies, smashing and fire dot as well as knockdown

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I may like the idea of a Probability Manipulation set, but I think that actually leaving too much up to the RNG is just asking for trouble. better to go with defined effects that mimic good or bad luck.

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Yeah the sets still probably overpowered... I think someone with a better idea of the numbers behind the game needs to go over it...

i've always used Radiation Emission as my stand-in set for probability control. The two debuff toggles are easily conceived as probability manipulation. Radiation Infection actually does increase the chances of you hitting affected enemies and decreases their chances of hitting you. Enervating Field can imagined as causing enemies to fail to get in solid hits and causing allies to hit weak points. At least that's how i conceptualized it for my Rad/Dark Defender.

Still, a probability manipulation set (or three) would be interesting. The biggest difficulty is keeping it balanced and distinctive from already existing sets.