One-cast-to-all for Support Powers

I think they need to be cautious about how they do it, but I agree something should be done.

I should add that the single power that stands out to me the most as an example of balance by frustration has to be Speed Boost. I think the design intent of that power was to keep the duration low enough that people would only cast Speed Boost on a few party members as needed. However, the boost it gives is so beneficial that the design intent backfires and turns the power into a rusty nail for the player to stick themselves over and over. What is going on with speed boost is exactly what would happen if there were a power that gave teammates capped resistance but only lasted 60 seconds; the buff would be too good to pass up, and the entire "strategy" would revolve around that team member hitting it on a macro.

The problem is, I don't think this would work very well. First off additional powers wouldn't inherit the base power slotting and if you allowed them all to be slotted that would actually be a pretty substantial buff (since you could slot one power to use and use the base slot on the others for a global IO). Secondly you need to avoid the issue of "double dipping". A single power can be tagged to not stack with themselves but I don't know if the devs can make a power not stack with other powers but only when cast by the same character.

I think you might be able to do something toggle based where the power grants 15% defense for 240s and, if a toggle is active, grants a second "tic" of 15% defense for 240s after 240s but that would be a bit cludgy.

I'll also add, as I commented above that I think increasing the duration is the wrong option. Making it so that you have to be near them once every 4 minutes feels about right to me.

To start with, let me say that I'm no programmer and I'm just making educated guesses at best.

When playing my Dual Pistol Hero I click on one of the special ammo Icons and they do in fact continue to use whatever enhancers are in each attack power (accuracy, damage, endurance, recharge, etc), so I'm just guessing that for shields, they would do the same, only "override" duration and endurance cost depending on which Icon you selected (x2, x3, or x4).

If it turns out that it can't work this way, oh well, I gave it my best shot (pun intended) at coming up with the most reasonable and least intrusive way to fix this problem that I could.

7 hours?! Now that's some forum lag...

The simplest argument that this wouldn't be game breaking is all the destiny incarnate powers are exactly what is proposed. AoE mez protection, AoE recovery buff+recharge, AoE defense power, or Clarion, Ageless, barrier. There was never any good reason for these to be cast one at a time on the team except to give teams a reason to dislike the buffers.

The way they Dual Pistols Swap Ammo powers work is that all of the DP powers have a set of "proc" effects that have either a 0% or 100% chance fo activation depending on which ammo power is selected. The ammo powers do not change anything about the DP powers, the DP powers change themselves based on what buffs you have active.

So for example using pistols is used with Lethal Ammo the game implements the following effect:
43.79 Lethal damage
100% chance of 18.77 Lethal damage
Defense -0.07 for 8s
0% Chance of 18.77 Fire damage
0% Chance of 18.77 Cold damage
0% Chance of 18.77 Toxic damage

When you activate Fire Ammo it implements the following effects:
43.79 Lethal damage
0% chance of 18.77 Lethal damage
Defense -0.07 for 8s
100% Chance of 18.77 Fire damage
0% Chance of 18.77 Cold damage
0% Chance of 18.77 Toxic damage

Essentially the Swap Ammo powers themselves do absolutely nothing. Instead when a power is activated it sets it's proc chances based on the swap ammo setting. Such a system could be implemented to increase the duration of FF powers (as I mentioned above). However that doesn't change the fact that for various reasons I consider increasing the duration to be a bad idea.

Except (a) the content's starting to get geared toward them, (b) they're designed FOR teams of 12-48 and (c) the very problems mentioned occur with them. You can't skip someone in range who - as mentioned before - has a problem with the buff graphics (or other reason.) You can't skip around a buff order. One shot and you have to wait for it to recharge (and hope you get everyone you meant to the next time.)

And "Except to give teams a reason to dislike the buffers?" Weekly task force is that supposed to mean, exactly?

See my Guides and Tutorials

Basically what WOW does. I havnt played the new expac, as of LK, many of the buffs at max level, when targeting a player also buff everyone in their team. If your 5-maning it thats one cast for each buff. If your raiding one cast for each team. Of course in wow most buffs dont stack, on the other hand 20 min is very short for a buff, most are at 1 hour.

The difference between the single and group buff is the cost of a reagent, which is to say a very trivial amount of gold.

The single target version of those buffs still exist (as I recall 30 min duration) and are useful in case someone gets dispelled or deaded.

As of the last time I played WOW if the buffer leaves the team/raid the buff goes with them. Simple enough.

A) We are talking about a change in mechanics of casting a power not a change in the power.

B) How does that impact anything ? Especially when you consider that a team with 8 tier 3 destinies really isn't going to gain all that much from buffers with possible exception of kins ?

C) Goes right to your next question "And "Except to give teams a reason to dislike the buffers?" Weekly task force is that supposed to mean, exactly" People get upset with buffers for missing them not missing giving them the wrong buffs etc.

The buffer can announce they are buffing. It then becomes the responsibility of the people that want or don't want the buff to take the appropriate action.

From the OP:
So, yes, it is talking about a change in the power, which would go hand in hand with casting it. Destinies, blah blah blah, only matter @50. My FFer deals with them from level 1.


And if I miss someone with FF (they're out of range, for instance,) I can turn around and hit them with it out of order, like I said, Or if someone has issues with a bubble, SB, what have you, I can skip them. Can't do so particularly easily with that AOE.

If someone gets "upset" with being buffed fifth instead of third, they need to sit back and relax. Or maybe it's your perception. Speed boost aside, I have yet (since issue 3) to see anyone get particularly bent out of shape over my buffing, and I play a LOT of buffers.

Right. And the NPCs will so nicely stand aside and stop fighting so everyone can arrange themselves perfectly JUST as the buffs come up. Nobody announces buffs in the middle of combat, or just "combat buffs" to hit the most people, nope. Never happens.

See my Guides and Tutorials

THANK YOU!! soooo much for the neat clarification! People went off the tangent a bit in some of the posts.

If I filter out the off-topic discussions, I think most of us agree that it will be a good quality of life improvement if the casting/buffing mechanism is to be changed. I know some would prefer to keep using the current one-to-one casting mechanism; and some fear that an AoE casting would give them the buff(s) they don't want (on this point, mostly because of some buffer use horrid colours for the already headache inducing shields; or more specific case, the +recharge component of a SB).

I believe that the change I propose here is going benefit more people given the current direction of the development of CoX gameplay: faster, bigger groups, more dynamic. That said, compromise can be made on technical ground to cater those who prefer the existing one-to-one mechanism.

Lets just look at shield buffs for now and leave mez prots and SB aside; and all buffs mentioned here are self-excluding from the point of view of the buffer (I still don't understand why people think changing it to an AoE cast would mean changing it to self-including as well - I have never even hinted that). Originally I suggested to have a MM-upgrade style mechanism. Although I did not spell out the details exactly, a MM-upgrade style, in my mind, is essentially: click on one recipient (say a tank at the front line or a group of blasters huddle up at a distance) and everyone else, including the recipient but excluding the caster, within a certain radius will receive a shield. Some mentioned that endurance usage would be a problem. In my view, it needs not be. Testings are needed to find an acceptable balance between endurance, recharge, range, and radius. But at this stage, in principle, this is how an AoE cast would look like.

Then someone suggested a Terra-Volta-bubble-machine style of mechanic. I found it quite interesting and conceptualised some details. Essentially it is to change the click-cast mechanism to a toggle mechanism, which will be similar to Grant Cover from Shield Defence. Some people wrongly assumed that it would be a Dispersion Bubble style toggle and went on and on about it. It would not be a self-affecting toggle and I would prefer the toggle to be invisible. Leaving the consideration of end usage to a later day, I think this mechanism is going to benefit the buffer most as it gives him more time to do something else - essentially a care-free mechanism. At the same time, it will benefit the recipient in a way that, so long as the toggle is running, he can go near the buffer to get his shields. It is a win-win situation. The problem is that some recipient may not want certain kinds of shields for whatever reason; then they have to keep avoiding the caster.

So, I suggest an 'Opt-Out' function for buff. Perhaps add to the Team or League windows an 'Opt-Out' button whereby one can choose to not receive any shield-buff from the team. This is opinion one. Opinion two would extend the Opt-Out further to everyone else. So never again would you get any headache inducing buff that you don't want at all. Finally opinion three would be just to disable the graphic of the buff - as in you still get the defence/resistance bonuses from the shields; you just can't see they are there. Option three is my favourite.

Back to the casting mechanic. Finally I suggested to use the ML/RAs style mechanic. To be fair, it is just the same as the abovementioned MM-upgrade mechanic but with the centre of origin back to the caster himself (and again, the caster will not be affacted by the cast). Someone quickly point out that this mechanic may leave out those who are out of range. It is not a new problem anyway. ML and RAs have a longer recharge so missing out seems to be an obvious annoyance. For the new mechanic, a careful balance between end, recharge and range will easy mitigate the problem. Besides, as mentioned above, the caster can always announce it before casting the buff - like some people alreay do with their ML and RAs.

So there you have it: 3 suggestions for a new shield buffing mechanic. Most of the problems discussed so far can simply be resolved by adjusting end usage, recharge and range to an acceptable level. And a minor adjustment of playstyle. I still believe that benefits of an AoE casting mechanism outweigh all the problems it might have.

I think you read wrong.

I propose the change in the mechanic, or the methodology, in doing something; not the substance itself. What I was saying was similar to suggesting people to use folks and knives to eat steaks instead of chopsticks. I never say I want a different steak to go with my folk and knife.