Suggestions about Stone Armour.

Honestly there's one change I want more than anything for my stone brute.

Customizable granite armor.

Even coloring it would appease me.

Killing the slow on rooted would be nice, sure, but that kills the very premise of being "rooted" to the ground.

Aside from killing the Rooted movement penalties and making the set more viable outside of Granite, I'd like each armor to have minimal graphics option. That would let you more easily integrate the armor into your costume (or remove it altogether).

I forgot to mention. In Australia, "to root" is slang for "to have sex with".

The word "rooted" therefore translates as "screwed" or stronger equivalents, eg "We were going to drive to Melbourne but his car was rooted."

I feel a strong sense of poetic resonance thinking about that in relation to this power.

First: I have posted some suggestions regarding Stone Armor for stalkers in the big powersets thread up top. Probably not useful for this case, as i could and did ignore the cottage rule but perhaps someone wants to take a look?

Second: I kind of like the concept of Granite being a choice, an alternate mode of playing. But for the choice to work, both options should be roughly equal "when everything is counted" while having situation specific benefits/drawbacks. I (and others, apparently) think the current situation is unbalanced because Granite adds more than it removes. Since the benefits of Granite are a big, important "cottage" (as in, the rule) that many live in, this would be best achieved by buffing non-Granite toggles or increasing the drawbacks of Granite. Or a mix of both.

Third: I do not mind the non-granite mode having many toggles and therefore high end cost. End cost can be built around, even with SOs. But higher end cost should translate to more benefits. Since Granite is the survivability mode, those other toggles should provide benefits other than survivability. Of course survivability still needs to be high enough to perform the primary function of the powerset - staying alive.


Here are the changes I would make. Presented as a whole, it includes suggestions others have already made.

Rock Armor
Add Smashing/Lethal resistance. Concept: being covered in rock protects the character by absorbing some of the impact of those attacks that do hit. Purpose: increase non-Granite survivability, especially at the lower levels.

Mud Pots
Allow the immobilize effect to stack a few times so that, given time, it can affect Lts and maybe Bosses. But not EB or AV/Hero type enemies. Purpose: if it costs more then it should do more and the current effect is just not enough.

Rooted
Remove the speed/travel restrictions. Move some of the status effect resistance from Granite to here. KB, immobilization and end drain resistance as well as regen increase only work when character is on or near the ground (like Grounded). Purpose: leveling up and getting a new power should feel good. Non-Granite should be "good enough" against status effects, while Granite will still have an edge for extra mez-heavy situations.

Brimstone Armor
Add effect: extra fire damage on all attacks. Like Fiery Embrace but with significantly lower values because this is a (primarily) defensive toggle. Purpose: make it more useful, especially against non-fire/cold using enemies.

Crystal Armor
Add Fire/Cold/Energy/Negative resistance. Concept: the crystals absorb/dissipate damage, except physical which makes them shatter. Purpose: increase non-Granite survivability. Make this power useful in more situations.

Minerals
Add a +to-hit effect. Concept: increased clarity of thought makes it easier to target enemies. Purpose: Make this power useful in more situations.

Granite Armor
As written above, move some of the status effect resistance to Rooted.
Make this power disallow friendly (including self) teleport and grant enemy teleport resistance.
Have the damage reduction combine in a multiplicative way with enhancements and buffs instead of additive.
Make this power cap run speed at the base (where base: speed with no powers chosen and without the effects of inherent fitness).
Keep endurance cost as is, but have the power impose an ongoing recovery debuff.
Purpose: the drawbacks of Granite should be significant and noticeable even at high levels of performance (IOs etc).

again, a significant change to granite that would disallow tp of all types would be extremely unwelcome

the granite effects already are noticeable at high lvls cause i am still slower than the rest of the team, cannot jump, noticeably lower global rech than outside granite

the dmg debuff doesnt really affect me anyway since i use a stone armor brute so the fury makes up for the -dmg

i support a removal of the run speed debuff from rooted, but i am very against any significant changes to granite

while IOs can lessen the effect of granite armor they cannot get rid of them, and they are still noticeable at higher lvls

I agree that Rooted's speed penalty is a bit much, but two slotting the Aegis Armor set adds 5% run increase, 2 slot regen tissue adds 4% run increase, 2 slot of the Perf Shifter set also increases movement, and there are the Gift of the Ancients 7.5% run increase IO's.

My stone tank and 2 stone brutes all have about 90% run increase which negates Rooted's 90% penalty. So in Granite only mode I have 20% more run speed, in Rooted I am at normal speed, in Granite+Rooted I only suffer the Granite penalty.

The rooted speed penalty can be overcome, takes some inf to do it but can be done. That being said I wish we could power custom granite armor.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Theres also NO other set in the game that causes you to be defeated by the common street curb or low step.
"Noooooo, curse you six inch high pavement! Now my nemesis can escape to safety, while I desperately try and find a 4 inch high pavement that I can actually step up onto!"

Being forced to take teleport to even navigate, and having jump disabled? Major lame. No other set forces you into that situtation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Honestly... my war mace/stone brute has absolutely zero problem dealing damage in granite armor. I've been able to solo giant monsters and AVs that have no psionic attacks.

I often joke about needing to be nerfed because I use pretty subpar IOs and still hit things for a minimum of 180 with my weakest attacks (300-500 being the highest), having a constant chain of attacks going. I have zero purple IOs, keep in mind, not one.

There's two things I want changed about stone armor, and neither of them would require breaking or "looking into" things.

1. Customizable Granite

2. Fix my dern sit emotes in granite armor already. I'm tired of becoming an amputee when I sit.


The simple fact that you people are not grasping is that Stone Armor is not for everyone. If you can't play it well, have a bad build, or slot like a monkey with a keyboard, then of course you're going to have a bad playing experience. I, and many others, have few issues with playing Stone Armor characters as they are now, and playing them well I might add.

If it was honestly considered to nerf granite armor in favor of buffing something else I would be one of the people crying the loudest about it, because I think it's a silly idea. Honestly most of the consensus in this thread seems to be that you guys don't like running slow and being unable to jump and fly. I see your argument and I raise you this: I hear invulnerability is fun.

Would you people honestly be happy if non-granite armors were buffed? I really don't think you would.

I'm all for taking a look at the Stone Armour set. As long as Granite is left alone, manky run speed and all.