Tanker Primary: Radioactive Aura

I've been toying with an idea for a while and figured I'd finally suggest it for feedback. There are tons of comics characters/monsters/villains/heroes whose powers are based on radiation exposure, etc. This would be a defensive powerset that fits that concept, and offers a very unique form of protection. It only offers a mild mix of defense and resistance, and instead relies heavily on weakening your surrounding enemies with radioactivity to remain alive, and heal whatever damage they do do. Ive included suggested numbers for each power, as well as a running total at the bottom. These totals are assuming an unenhanced, complete set of the powers. I also included comparable totals from a couple of other defensive primaries for comparison.

This would primarily be designed as a Brute Secondary/Tanker Primary, though I'm sure scrappers and stalkers could find a way to make it work as well.

So have at it! Sound interesting? If so PM a Dev and let them know! ;-p Also feel free to suggest changes to number values, etc. This is definitely a rough draft. I know having the damage aura as one of the first two choices seems unusual (I think only Dark Armor does that right now) but because it's also a damage debuff, it felt "right" for this powerset.



Radioactive Aura:

Your body oozes with radioactive energies. These energies mutate the cells within you, healing you and giving you mild protection from several types of damage, while at the same time weakening enemies around you. Unlike other tanker primaries, Radioactive Aura relies heavily on its ability to weaken the enemies around to protect yourself and your teammates.


Ionizing aura: Ionizing particles seep from your body at high levels, weakening the bodies of your foes. In addition to causing minor burns to your enemies, their attacks are weakened while affected. PBAoE Minor DoT (fire), -DMG. (ticks of 5points of fire DMG, -10% DMG) Foe Taunt. (This would be less damaging than other damage auras because of its debuffing affect.)

Polymerization: The radiation within you ignites a chemical reaction which hardens your skin by forming a strong chemical bond. This polymer can deflect damage or lessen its effects. This power grants you Resistance to smashing and lethal damage and defense to Area of Effect attacks. (+ RES (Smash/Lethal 10%), + DEF (AoE 10%)

Infrared pulse: You emit pulses of infrared radiation which allow your body to heal faster then normal. Each pulse heals you slightly and grants you resistance to toxic damage. Self Periodic Heal. (ticks of 5% heal, + 25% RES Toxic)

Absorptivity: The bond your body has with radiation has given it an incredible ability to absorb various forms of energy and increase the damage you can withstand. As such, you've gained resistance to fire, cold, energy, and negative energy attacks and a boost to your maximum health. This power is always on and costs no endurance. (+Res 8%, + Max Health 15%)

Immunity boost: Your radioactive energies have boosted your body's immune system. This hyperactive immune system heals your body and grants you resistance to sleep, hold, disorient, and toxic attacks as long as you keep this power active. (+Regeneration 60%, + RES Sleep, Hold, Disorient, Toxic, immob, sleep, confuse Mag 7)

Photodisintegration: You emit extremely high levels of gamma energy, decaying the atomic particles around you. Enemies within range find their bodies decaying, weakening their damage and their damage resistance and have their movement and attack rates slowed. (PBAoE Foe -DMG, -RES, -Spd, - RCH.) (-25% DMG, -20% RES., -15% Spd. and recharge)

Photofission: The gamma rays in your body can split a nucleus, releasing nearly limitless amounts of energy. Your recovery and recharge rates are greatly increased as your become almost inexhaustable. (Self + Recovery 40%, + Recharge 20%)

Spectral Pulse: Spectral radiation emits from your body in chaotic ways, making it difficult to see you directly. Foes using ranged attacks are more likely to miss, and foes in melee range will have difficulty focusing. While difficult to see directly, you are still visible and will alert foes with your presence. (+Def Ranged 15%, Foe -Tohit 7% melee)

Black Body Radiation: Your body becomes both the ideal emitter and absorber of all thermal radiation. As such, you reflect no light and become nearly impossible to see and hit, increasing your defense drastically. This power also grants you strong resistance to fire, cold, energy, and negative energy based attacks. When this radiation fades, your recovery and recharge rates will be severly hampered for a brief time, though your regeneration rate will be greatly increased as your body attempts to heal any damage done. (Stealth, +Def, + Res (Fire, energy, neg energy.) (+72% Defense (all types), +72% Resist (Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative Energy) (+120% Regeneration for 60s, -200% Recharge and recovery for 60s)

Enemy debuffs:
-35% DMG Foe
-7% Tohit Foe (melee)
-20% Res Foe
-15% speed Foe
-15% Recharge Foe

Self buffs:
+10% Resist S/L
+8% Resist Fire, Cold, Energy, Neg Energy
+Mag 7 Resist Sleep, Hold, Disorient, confuse, immob,
+75% Resist Toxic
+15% Ranged Def
+10% AoE Def
+5% Heal every 2 seconds
+60% Regeneration
+15% Max health
+40% Recovery
+ 20% Recharge


Comparison to totals from unenhanced Shield Defense
Enemy debuffs:
-7% damage

Self Buffs:
29% melee def
29% Range Def
29% AoE Def
15% Resist S/L, Cold, energy, neg, fire, toxic
+10% Max Health
Mag 12 Resist Disorient, hold, immob, sleep, fear, confuse, repel, knockback, defense debuff
+10% DMG

+1 Superior Attack instead of damage aura


Comparison to totals from unenhanced Willpower

Foe Debuffs:
-3.5% Tohit Melee

Self buffs:
+7.5% Resist all damage
+29.5 Resist S/L Psionics
+100 (or more)% Regen (more if fighting more than 1 foe in melee range)
+10% Def Psi
+ Res Mag 13 Sleep, Confuse, etc.
+ 30% Recovery
+ 20% Max Health

Comparison to totals from unenhanced Dark Armor
Foe Debuffs:
-5% Tohit (melee)
Mag 2 Fear (melee)
Mag 2 stun (melee)
Mag 30 Stun (self Rez)

Self Buffs:
+ 30% Resist Smash/Lethal, fire, cold
+20% Resist Energy, Neg Energy, Toxic, End drain
+Mag 13 resist Psi, Sleep, Disorient, Hold, Fear, Immob
+30% Self heal
+5% Defense all
+35ft Stealth
+60% Perception
Special Self Res

This powerset also has 2 minor damaging powers and the self rez does damage and has a Mag 30 stun.


As you can see, other sets are more directly "protective" (shields offers much greater defense, Willpower offers much greater regeneration and resistance to several types of damage, and dark armor offers greater resistances to all damage as well as a small self heal. What Radioactive Aura offers that would make it unique is the ability to debuff the incoming damage. This may not benefit the tanker directly as much as innate resistance or defense, since alpha strikes would hurt more. This is a costly fact, but once the debuffs kick in the tanker would become much more survivable and so would his teammates, as enemies are actually damaging them less as well. The self heal and regeneration boosts would be designed to help the tanker survive long enough for the debuffs to kick in to their full effect. Once the debuffs kick in, enemies will be doing much less damage with each attack, be slightly less likely to have their attacks hit, and will be attacking less due to a mild recharge rate reduction. This will, in the end, make the tanker even out with others for personal survivablity but will give an increased level of protection to his teammates.

Likewise, the tier 9 is unique in that it has a "crash" that hurts, but won't be as likely to get the tanker getting killed as, say, the tier 9 from Invulnerability. When Black Body Radiation wears off he essentially becomes unable to attack, with little end and his recharge rate floored, but can still take heavy damage due to his drastically increased regeneration. Again, this makes him much more useful for teams as he can still hold aggro even though, at that point, he can't dish out much damage. Popping blues won't help as, even though he could fire off a few attacks using them as a source of end, the powers won't be recharging fast enough to use them. As such, I felt that there was no need to worry about making this "unaffected by recharge rate boosts" since most people would hate the idea of being unable to attack for 60 seconds unless in a battle with a very heavy hitter. I toyed with the idea of getting rid of the end crash altogether, allowing him to keep all of his defensive toggles on, and having all of his non-defensive powers become disabled for 90 seconds, but wasn't sure if that was too drastic.


So, what do you all think?

Wow, just wow. That's alot of well thought out information there, and anyone willing to put that much effort in their post deserves a merit. As such, I like your idea, it takes a new spin to the tanker theme. My only two questions for you however are..

1) How well do you think it'll be able to take alpha damage?
2) How well will they manage against AVs?

I see that the set has alot of +HP and +Regen, is that it's defining factor? Sought've like the regen of tanks, but with a twist?

P.S. Sorry, I know that's 4 questions but I'm just really curious.

It's very toggle heavy. Am I right in thinking everything but Black Body Radiation is meant to be a toggle?

Black Body Radiation isn't going to happen. It's Tanker Elude (if Tanks could get Elude) on top of Power Surge, without the complete crash of both of those powers. It should probably only do the +Def or the +Res and it's still going to be a complete crash: -100% end, -1000% end rec and quite probably a self damage component too.

The +Stealth part seems trivial at best. There's no real point to it, better to just remove it.

I think the "no attacking, but okay defense and regen" sort of like a high powered Rage crash is an interesting idea, but it would involve a much weaker tier 9.

I would guess that Infared Pulse would probably be better off as Healing Flames clone, as this set looks weak on taking alphas. It's going to need that boost to survive.

Immunity Boost is underpowered. All melee sets provide mag 10 protection for KB/KU and mag 13 for other mezzes. (Assuming the set protects against that type, of course) The set could be a liabitlity when facing mez heavy foes.

The Confuse protection is a little odd. Right now only two sets provide Confuse protection; I'm not sure how being radioactive is going to keep you from being confused.

Photodisintegration as a toggle is way overpowered. Even as a click it's probably overpowered. -20% Res to your foes is almost the equal of having a /Sonic Corruptor or Controller following you around and keeping Disruption Field on you. (They're at -22.5%) For comparison that power, also a toggle, can only be use on another player and costs 1.04 End/Sec. Doing -Res makes every attack more powerful; it's a very large force multiplier.

Photofission: Wow. That's Quickness combined with an improved version of Quick Recovery. I suppose with all these toggles plus the recharge boost you're really going to need that much end though. Still I have trouble seeing it happen, especially as a toggle. If it happened at all it would be click with a long enough recharge that it would be impossible to perma.

I know you were thinking of Tanks, but giving this set to a Brute or a Scrapper would toss all balance out the window. The +health, +regen, +recovery, and +rech combined with the foe -Res would have them eating 8 man spawns even faster then they do now. A SS/Rad Aura Brute would make Castle cry.

I do want to echo Rowdy and say that it was cool that you took the time to compare numbers like that, but I think you picked the wrong sets for comparison. It felt more like you should have been looking at Electric Armor to me.

First, thanks for the feedback and discussion. Its interesting thinking this through with others.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldeb No, it doesn't. Power Surge

You're correct. I was thinking of Moment of Glory from the Regeneration powerset, which offers 70% Defense and 70% Resistance (to smashing.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldeb For a tier 9 power that boost resistance by 70% look at Unstoppable, which does that at the trade off of having a crash without the regen boost.

I could also look at Electric Armor's Power Surge, which is an example I used. It offers 70% resistance, also gives an additional recovery boost, and when it "crashes" it sets off an EM Pulse hold. Its crash only lasts for 20 seconds, and with the EM Pulse you can usually pop an insp or two while they're held and get right back in to the fray to last you the 20 seconds that your recovery is shot. Essentially you never need to leave the fray. At worst, you have to rest for five seconds to recover fully. This tier 9 would offer the same level of resistance as Power Surge or Invul, without the recovery boost of either, and its crash will be unable to fixed via insp usage. This is a trade off for still being able to hold some aggro after the crash because of a temporary increase to regeneration. I'm not seeing the overpowering if we removed the defense aspects, which I would easily agree to do now that I realize what I'd confused. That being said...

I wonder if, given the nature of the powerset, it wouldn't be better served by a tier 9 that perhaps offers less damage resistance and replaced the recovery boost of others with an HP boost. Perhaps a 30% resistance to Smashing/Lethal (similar to Shield's or Willpower's), a 70% resistance to fire/cold/Energy/Negative energy, coupled with a 25% HP boost. It would keep in line with the concept, your body is using all ambient radiation efficiently enough that you're essentially able to absorb energy based attacks (hence the high resistances), and use that energy to enhance you physically (the HP boost). Smashing and Lethal resistances at that point would only be at 40% resistance, but you'd still have the foe doing 35% less damage with each hit, and be temporarily up to an additional 40% max health. This puts it close to on par with other tier 9s while still being unique and fitting with the theme. By the way, I know you were worried about brutes, but imagine how annoying a -100% recharge rate for 60 seconds would be for fury. The brute will be alive due to his regeneration after a crash, but won't be mowing through mobs by overusing this power.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldeb I didn't say it would be; I intended it to be more balanced.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you're referring to there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldeb Then you're wrong. -Res is a big force multiplier. That -20% Resistance is the equal of a +40% damage boost. 100 damage attack against 50% resistance equals 50 points net damage. 100 damage attack against 30% resistance equals 70 points net damage. 100 damage attack +40% damage boost equals 140 points of damage. 140 damage attack against 50% resistance equals 70 points net damage. Now put two or more of these Rad Auras on a team. Consider that the entire team is going to benefit from that boost. It doesn't take long for a permanent Fulcrum Shift like effect. Add in an actual damage boost and things get a little crazy. Even if you don't let the power stack between multiple users that's still a 40% damage boost for the entire team. The game is certainly designed to allow that kind of stuff, but it requires multiple teammates to do it. This set allows a pair of Tanks/Brutes/Scrappers to not only pull off the boost themselves, but take full advantage of it on their own.

I think your logic is flawed, though I understand your concern. Look at Electric Armor. If you had two electric armors running on a team you would have floored endurance on all mobs, every spawn simply by two people using Power Sink (base -40% end drain, and -%100 recovery from each user.) That means almost no attacks toward the entire team. Look at Shield Defense. It offers an 8.5% defense buff to every team member in a 15 foot radius. Now if you had two shielders on a team, that would be 17% defense to all attacks just from them standing around. Add in a third and suddenly you're at 25.5% defense for every team member without anything else going. Dont even get me going on Dark Armor. Two dark armors on a team and you have constant mag 4 stun and fear on all mobs, and -10% tohit just by having them stand in the mob. I know two people who made two Dark Armors just to run them together to do this. But you can't design a powerset based on what would happen if multiple people are using the same powers. What happens when you have a team of mutiple bubblers? Or two rad defenders? or have two or more VEATs on your team. You end up with the same issues, only at even greater percentages. Also keep in mind this is a temporary debuff lasting only as long as they are in melee range of the tanker. Like Shield's -dmg or sonic's -res aura, it isn't gamebreaking.

That being said, as I said, I would be ok with either lowering the -res (perhaps to something more close to melt armor, say 8%) or simply replacing it with a -tohit component (say, -3%) or upping its -recharge (a total of -25%). The key idea here is that this power is what begins to make up for the weaker defense and resistances of this defensive primary. In that mindset, the -acc or -recharge actually makes more sense. Having this power have a -dmg component and a -recharge would fill in the weaknesses of this set while still offering some benefit to the team.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oldeb Oh! You're making a melee defender! I don't think you're going to be able to do that based on an existing AT. You'll need a Buff-Debuff/Melee based AT. Trying to do this with a Tank or Brute is either going to make you too weak to absorb any damage or too powerful from all the self buffing.

Electric Armor is an incredible debuffer, and one Electric Armor player can usually leave a spawn almost entirely sapped of endurance. This aids the entire team, and it still offers massive resistances for self protection. Shield Defense offers the team an 8% defense buff and also lowers the damage output of foes by 7%. This aids the entire team and it still offers massive defense for self protection. Willpower gives a -3.75% tohit debuff to enemies. This aids the entire team and it still offers heavy resistances. Dark Armor has a -5% tohit, a mag 2 stun, and a mag 2 fear to enemies. This can REALLY help a team (since enemies that dont attack at all dont kill, and even when they DO attack they are more likely to miss) and still has heavier resistances, some defense, and a self heal. That's four defense sets that already debuff enemies and/or buff teams. This set is only different in that it's trading its heavier resistances for more debuffing. Not defender level debuffs, mind you, and only debuffs for those foes who stay in melee range of the tanker, primarily as his means of self protection, but benefitting the team in the same way as the powers above.



So what are you thoughts on the changes I've suggested, or what suggestions would you make for making it more balanced in your opinion?

Thanks again for the discussion.

IF the changes Ive talked about with you were made, these would be the numbers.

Enemy debuffs:
-35% DMG Foe
-7% Tohit Foe (melee) (or -10% Tohit if change is made to photodisin.)
-8% Res Foe (OR an additional -25% Recharge FOE, or an additional -3% tohit)
-15% speed Foe
-15% Recharge Foe (40% if change is made to Photodisin.)

Self buffs:
+10% Resist S/L
+8% Resist Fire, Cold, Energy, Neg Energy
+Mag 10 Resist Sleep, Hold, Disorient, immob,
+75% Resist Toxic
+15% Ranged Def
+10% AoE Def
+5% Heal every 2 seconds (or +25% HP for 10 seconds, recharge 45 seconds with suggested change)
+60% Regeneration
+15% Max health (+40% every 45 seconds with above change)
+40% Recovery
+ 20% Recharge

By the way, I know you were worried about the higher regeneration and recovery rates on a brute or scrapper, and I wasn't sure if that was primarily because of the -res component of Photodisintegration adding to their damage output. If it was more about the regen being over powered, currently an electric armor brute can get to near perma energize fairly easily with IOs, which gives it an almost 400 HP instant heal, 40% MORE regeneration than is suggested here (100% base, not enhanced), and also a 60% end cost reduction (base). That doesn't include powersink for even more end boosting. Likewise Willpower brutes can easily get to over 250% regeneration with fast healing and High Pain Tolerance, with Rise to the Challenge thrown in it can reach over 400% recharge, and they have Quick Recovery.

Sorry Rowdy, I wasn't ignoring you.

Alpha damage will be an issue, though Im thinking the change to infrared pulse would help with that (making it a clickable +max HP boost as opposed to a pulsing self heal.) Any other suggestions?

As for AVs, it SHOULD do about the middle of the road compared to other sets. It won't be a willpower or Shields tanker, but it also wont be a fire tanker or dark armor tanker when it comes to AVs. It has increased HP to deal with their heavy blows, and each blow will be doing 35% less damage than normal. Likewise it has increased regeneration and except for AVs that resist recharge debuffs, it will be getting hit less often. My hope was the between the higher HP total and the increased regeneration, couple with the -dmg effect on the AV, it would be able to stand toe to toe with most of them. Depending on which offensive powerset you took, that could help as well (dark's heal for example, or ice's added recharge slows.) If I DO make the switch from the pulsing 5% heal to the clickable HP boost that might hurt it in longer fights like AV fights, since I was thinking thats were the 5% every couple of seconds would come in handy. I wonder if combining the two as a toggle that gives a periodic 5% heal (perhaps slower pulses) combined with a milder HP boost (say 20%) would be the best option, giving you the ability to take an alpha strike without dying instantly, letting your debuffs kick in, and quickly recovering some of your HP in the process.

How does that sound? Overpowered or fitting given its inherent weakness in dealing with alpha strikes?