New AT Ideas - Commander (Hero) and Saboteur (Villain)

Commander - Hero AT

Medium Damage (Damage Scale: Melee 0.8, Ranged 0.7), Medium Hit Points (Base HP: 1070.9, Max HP: 1606.4)

Inherent Ability: Tactician - Grants a damage and to hit bonus for the commander and pets for each companion (1st tier pets) set to aggressive. Grants a defense and resistance bonus for the commander and pets for each companion set to defensive or passive.

Primary: Assault - melee and ranged attacks
Secondary: Command - summon and support powers

Assault:
• Earth Assault
• Electricity Assault
• Energy Assault
• Fiery Assault
• Icy Assault
• Psionic Assault

Command:
• Earth Command
• Electricity Command
• Energy Command
• Fiery Command
• Icy Command
• Psionic Command

Basic Layout of the Command sets:

1(1): Call Companions - Summons one companion at level 1-9, two companions at level 10-23, three companions at level 24+. The companions are always one level below the commander's level. The companions have limited damaging attacks but excel at buffing/debuffing and controls.

2(2): PBAoE Debuff/Damage Aura Toggle - Every command set gets access to a PBAoE debuff/damage aura toggle.

3(4): Tactical Training - Toggle: PBAoE, Team +def, +dmg, +to hit, +perception; Every command set gets access to tactical training which buffs the teams defense, damage, to hit, and perception by a small amount. I am thinking around 3% def, 7.5% dmg, 5% to hit.

4(10): Companion Training - Every command set gets access to companion training which grants the companions and sidekick more abilities.

5(16): PBAoE Defensive Toggle - Every command set gets access to a PBAoE toggle that grants a defensive buff (res, def, regen, etc), mag 4 mez protection (stun, hold, immobilize), and additional effects based on the set.

6(20): Confront

7(28): Call Bodyguards - Summon temporary bodyguards that take a portion of the damage for the commander. They can't be attacked, they can't attack directly, and they can't move but they stay by your side for the duration. When you are hit they disperse a small (10 ft) nova blast of damage with secondary effects based on the set (5-6 second cooldown). The commander also gets temporary knockback protection (4 pts) while this is active. Looks like two floating orbs of energy (effect based on the set) that orbit around the commander. 30 second duration, 2-3 minute recharge.

8(35): Call Sidekick - The commander calls his number one fan and apprentice to come and fight alongside him. The sidekick is always one level below the commander's level. I would like to include the option to create the costume for the sidekick or maybe do some sort of doppelganger feature but make it the opposite gender.

9(38): Companion Upgrade - Every command set gets access to companion upgrade which grants the companions and sidekick more abilities.

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Saboteur - Villain AT

Medium Damage (Damage Scale: Melee 0.8, Ranged 0.5), Medium Hit Points (Base HP: 1204.8, Max HP: 1606.4)

Inherent Ability: Affliction - The saboteur loves to cripple enemies and watch as they suffer. The saboteur's mind is cleared and focused on his victims, their suffering empowers him. Nothing will keep him from enjoying it. Each time the saboteur debuffs an enemy (with a primary power), the saboteur gets a damage buff and protection from holds, disorients, sleeps, fear, and confuse. The duration is based on the duration of the debuff and gives 5% damage and 2 mag mez protection, stacks up to 3 times. Cannot get more than 1 stack from a single power, using the same power again while the buff is still active will reset the timer for that buff and not grant a 2nd stack.

Primary: Debuff
Secondary: Melee

Debuff:
• Radiation Emanation
• Poison Epidemic
• Dark Enfeeblement
• Thermal Debilitation
• Cold Desolation
• Sonic Dissonance
• Gadgets
• Mental Debilitation
• Energy Siphoning
• Electric Discharge
• Pain Emission

Melee:
• Katana
• Broad Sword
• Claws
• Dark Melee
• Electrical Melee
• Martial Arts
• Fiery Melee
• Dual Blades
• Ice Melee
• Energy Melee
• Spines
• Kinetic Melee

The debuff sets are all debuff/control (no heals or direct ally buffs). I made powers for all the sets I listed but I am always going back and tweaking them. The final power in most of the sets are short duration extremely powerful debuffs with long cooldowns.

The numbers are of course not set in stone and I actually go back and tweak the ATs all the time but I finally decided to just post them anyway for feedback.

Interesting ideas. Some general thoughts:

Commander:

I think this could work reasonably well. My only real suggestion here would be to make the pet sets variants of the MM sets rather than completely new. From a development point of view the pets in these sets are very resource intensive to create (which is why there are so few sets relative to the other types) so I would say MM bet sets where the three blast attacks are replaced with appropriate buff/debuff powers would make more sense.


Saboteur:

Again this has the problem of needing unique sets, admittedly like manipulation and assault sets they would draw heavily from other sets (therefore reusing art resources). However from a balance point of view I don't really see it working. Melee sets are all paired with armor sets for a reason. Melee characters take more damage and are subject to more mezzes. Note that both Dominators and Blasters (who have both ranged and melee attacks) get at least limited mez protection.

I like the idea of a Debuffing/Melee Archetype. Dominators almost have that niche filled, but it would be nifty. I don't like the Hero idea though. There are plenty of ATs and even powersets that gets pets (Or Psuedo Pets)..

Electric Blast (Voltiac Sentinel)
Dark Miasma (Dark Servant)
All Villain epic pools have a pet.
Storm Summong (Tornado, Thunderstorm)
All Control Sets bar Mind Control
Warshades (Dark Extraction)
Masterminds
And the list goes on to include Traps and Devices.

So ba humbug to you pet-lovers. I eat puppies.

The Commander sounds like it has potential. I would suggest that the first two Companions specialize in debuff with the third Companion provding a direct player buff at the higher levels when it becomes more important. I would also give all three of them a ranged attck preference and leave the melee attack preference for the sidekick.


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I changed the Saboteur's inherent and I like it. I think it works well for the AT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood Take a look at the AT list, excluding the EATs only one AT has a truly unique powerset type and it has the fewest powersets of any AT (Manipulation and Assault sets are technically unique but they draw heavily from other powersets). The devs made ATs reuse powersets as much as possible because there is a LOT of work that goes into making a new powerset so it makes sense for as many ATs as possible to be able to use it.

Yes I realize it takes a lot of work but I don't think these set would be that difficult or time consuming to make. The assault and melee sets are already made so those wouldn't be a problem. The debuff sets are mostly made up of current powers, a small portion are unique and wouldn't be that difficult to complete.

The command sets would probably be the most work but still wouldn't be that bad. Five of the powers in all the sets would require little effort because they are either already current powers or could reuse an animation/effect. The upgrade powers would be fairly simple as well. The only powers that would require a bit of work would be the pets but overall I don't think they would be difficult if they did it a certain way.

I had several ideas for the pets that wouldn't require much work, for example: the companions could use similar costumes like Phantom Army with slight modifications based on the set (ice, fire, etc) or they could actually be elemental beings and reuse certain pets (jack frost, fire imps, etc). These are just a couple ideas that could make the companions fairly simple to make. The sidekick on the other hand I would want to be unique (see my original post) but they could do something similar to the companions if they were lazy.