Poison. Fix it!

Poison. It is a beast of burden, and one not needed.

Aklaoid = Crap. O2 burst would do it better and it's not situational, it's just not needed. Combine the effects of Antidote with this and then we have a power. You have to take this and well, it's not feasable on teams at all. It's - res to toxic is ok, but other sets will do it better making this heal not neccessary.

Optional Fix.

Alkaloid can target friends and foes. On friends it effects as O2 burst with a + Toxic resist buff. On foes it strikes with a - resistance to Stun, Imob, sleep and weakens against toxic damage effects. Dual purpose makes it usefull and makes it desirable. It would not damage the enemy however. Just a debuff.

Envenom = Good. Leave it alone

Weaken = Good leave it alone or, make it a cone. Weaken some of the effects, but allow it to compete with rad or alternative debuff set. Keep the Enruance the same and the recharge the same. It's high endurance and high recharge already, but by lowering the demonimination of the effect a cone woud make it more user friendly and again compete with other sets.

Neurotoxic Breath =Fine, does not do a better or worse job than other sets. But it can be left alone.

Elixer of life = Leave it alone

Antidote = It's fine, but shouldmesh with Alkaloid. Should be replaced with Halucenigen. = Confusion with a -Defense thrown in for good measure.

Paralytic Poison =Ok. Finally something usefull beside envenom and weaken (even though weaken should be a cone)

Poison Trap =Skippable. If this was stun gas or had a cool vomiting emote then ok, but a sleep? No. Not a reason to have this. Stun yes. Stun would make sense. Stun Stun Stun.

Noxious Gas = Ok. I don't hate it nor love it and I see it's benefit and one of the only true henchman power buffs. So it's interesting because of that fact. I would not change it. It to me seems as though it is a definate signature MM skill, while other sets dont really offer this type of thing. Arguably though I would love to see this behave like Sonic R, where I had the option to throw this also on a melee toon. Although if used in that fashion you could then reduce the effects when not applied to a henchman.

Those are my suggestions. No anything fancy. I don't know if others aggree or not, but I welcome all input.

given that a large number of players ask for Poison to be proliferated to the other debuffing archtypes on a regular basis, I'd say you have your work cut out to prove that there was anything wrong with the set to begin with.

If /Poison was an AT it'd be a Stalker - devastating against single targets but not really bringing anything special to a group. I like the set and have played it to 50, but it is flawed in a couple of ways.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyx Antidote = It's fine, but should mesh with Alkaloid. Should be replaced with Halucenigen. = Confusion with a -Defense thrown in for good measure.

I really like this idea. Antidote as is is decidedly meh. This sounds fun and trippy.

Poison Trap is just rubbish. An AoE sleep that the pets will wake 'em out of in seconds, and an 'infrequent' hold effect. For a tier 8 power that's pathetic and a waste of a power pick. Is there really a good reason why we can't just get /traps version, considering it's only tier 6 and is far far better?

Poison Trap should be the same as the one in Traps. Now that is a worthy power.
And yeah, the ST heal is pathetic.

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.

I wouldn't call Alkaloid "crap." It should, however, either be faster, cost less END or heal more. Or some combination of the above.

See cottage rule re: "replace a power."

And yes, /poison's poison trap does indeed suck. On the one hand, I'm happy to have a skippable power. On the other, I'd like to have it *work.*

See my Guides and Tutorials

Poison definitely needs some love.

If I had my way, I'd move Alkaloid's toxic resist to antidote, and add a +perception and -kb. It's text would be modified to say: When used correctly, poisons can heal as well as harm. Alkaloid consists of just the right ammount of amino acids to safely heal a single targeted ally. The Alkaloid also improves the target's senses, making them more perceptive and improving their balance.

I'd allow for Neurotoxic breath to accept hold enhancements and IOs

I'd add a tohit debuff to PGT and remove the interrupt

And I'd lower the recharge on Noxious gas. I personally think the set is balanced around NG being active, and think it would be best to make Noxious Gas Perma-able. However, I would not increase the duration. Lowering the recharge to a perma-able level instead, would increase the EPS from using the power.

Poison has 2 problems; lack of mitigation vs. groups, and the fact that other sets share or even outrank its debuffs, but do so to 16 targets.


.................................................. ........................
Envenom: part of the main debuffs, but has one weakness: it is unstackable. When used vs. AV's and such, a limited focus debuff should shine, but they resist much of its effects. Also, other sets have the same -def/-res effects, but do so vs. crowds.

Solution: make this partly or wholly unresistable. (See: siphon speed.) This makes poison catch up big time against the times when a single target debuffer is needed, making it the strongest single-target debuffer. Which makes sense, as it is far more concentrated, and will not hit other targets.
.................................................. ........................
Poison trap: This trap has a long interrupt, need close-up foes to trigger, and its soft control is not persistent. The -end is not enough to drain foes, making it impractical for most situations. Likewise, in a set that has no means of reliably softening the blow of a large crowd, the only crowd control it has can barely be used.

Solution: Make this a short range 'trap' power, (15ft?) with a shorter interrupt and a persistent sleep, -recovery, and -end effect.

The range is because a poisoner is in all other cases ranged, and has little self-preservation for any placement that would involve nearby threats. Yes, I know traps are meant to be an 'ahead' power, but this softens it into a unreliable but not undoable combat power, better done before battle. Plus, since traps don't cause aggro, it makes it easier to set up for maximum effect. basically, the poisoner prepares then tosses out the trap. Interrupt is the prep time.

The sleep/drain makes it still unreliable, and keeps in from a complete lockdown- but allows it to function as mitigation. This is in keeping with the 'not good vs. groups, better at bosses' mold. The sleep ticks would be slow, and short lived. the -recovery would be strong, but the -end weak. So foes would not regain energy, but would be sapped slowly. The sapping could drain them to 0 end, but only in the gas cloud, after extended time.

So, the player could hold back/run for maximum mitigation, or could attack breaking the sleeps, relying on the slower sapping for threat relief. This is unlike other sets that do not have to hold back to get better mitigation. Again, plays to the 'weak versus crowds,' without lacking any reliable crowd mitigation.
.................................................. ........................
Noxious Gas: poison waits until 38 for an 10 target, 20 second debuff on a 5 minute timer. With this power active, poison is indeed the toughest debuffer. It can't be relied upon, making other debuff sets more potent versus single targets and crowds.

Solution: make this into a toggle, even if it means weakening the effect a bit. making it an ally rather than henchman buff would make it far more practical, as humans could use it better, and are not prone to as quick of deaths. A live target to toggle on is key when fighting foes that can kill henchmen in a couple hits. Note: this should stay at the 10 target max. limit, unlike others that are 16. Again, limited target focus, stronger effects.
.................................................. ........................


With those 3 tweaks, the set becomes the best debuffer, but only vs. very limited targets. Well, since it makes many sacrifices for its very limited but potent debuffs, this is balanced. It also gives the set some more large group tools, while staying sufficiently behind all other support sets against mass mobs. (Which is fine as long as it surpasses them against single targets.)

Seldom, unless I'm mistaken, it sounds like you're saying just to make the -Regen in Envenom stackable, but the -Regen is can already be stacked, though the -Def and -Res cannot.

Ok so not all of my suggestions would work. I do no the cottage rule, and while I never liked rules and sometimes some cottages, I think the powers need a revisit.

Perhaps my main issue is Alkaloid. I don't mind Poison trap being skippable. Many powers have a skipable power or two.

But Alkaloid should be made like O2 burst with a DOT heal and the effects of Antidote, and antidote should be Halunigen. A confuse effect. That would at least allow for one alternative control with a poison theme. with a - defense or hit afterwords for a short duration while the enemy becomes more focused.

Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!

Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYc05gZFly0

@SpaceNut - My 50s, AE arcs and current projects at ParagonWiki

Only changes I think think of for Poison would be changing Alkaloid to a normal click rather than having projectile time, makes it near impossible to throw a quick heal when there may be a couple seconds delay.

Then up the ST debuffs by 20-30% (maybe make it unresistable too?), higher than the perma-able AoE debuffs of other sets, but you know it's ST, high endurance and longish recharge. I don't want to throw out all my debuffs on an AV, lose a third of my endurance then find that a Dark Miasma has completely locked down everything else with debuff/control, plus applied pretty much the same debuffs to the AV too.. Because they were in the radius.

Finally, Noxious Gas changed to a toggle. Same recharge, maybe a 120 second cutoff point, endurance drain on par with Telekinesis. Toggling to a henchman is fine, if the debuff does it's job then they shouldn't die often, right? And toggling it to another player just stinks of overpowered.

Poison Trap can be used as an escape tool (in theory, not tried it that way) so I don't really mind it being skippable, sets need them for flexability and eccentricity. The ST focus of Poison isn't an issue to me, that's what it's there for, ST juggernaut, except most other debuff sets do it better due to it being AoE or higher numbers.

Even Trick Arrow's got most of the debuffs of Poison but they're all AoE, and it can put down AoE -30% res/AoE hold/AoE fire patch, at similar end + recharge numbers of Poison.. We all know what kind of reputation TA has, the only thing making Poison stand out compared to it is the small slow heal and ally ressurect/mez prot, only really shining for debuffs once Noxious Gas is in play for the brief moment it's available.

Personally, I'm getting increasingly sick and tired of "kneel down and stroke the ground" summon powers. In a game as fast-paced as City of Heroes, being rooted down in place with an interruptible power you can only place vertically under your own butt is just annoying.

Personally, I feel all such powers need to be changed to tossable, self-deployable gadgets, and yes, that does indeed include things like Time Bomb and Trip Mine, Specifically, I feel that Poison Gas Trap needs to to be turned into this. Throw out a poison vial with the same motion as Alkaloid and have it stick to the ground where you summoned. If there are enemies around it, it activates immediately. If there are no enemies, then it waits until there are.

To me, this would be an easy solution to any problems with Poison.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.