Just a fun idea I had when posting in another thread. I know it's been suggested before (I remember reading it once but it had to be pretty long ago).
Anyway, with the advent of new content with bosses that have 'signature attacks', so this is a 'kinda signature attack' by means of combining two of your powers together. And just like when bosses like Odysseus uses his Fist of Vulcan attack, your signature attack too has Red Letters that pop up over your head when used.
-Specifics-
Content Unlock: I suppose, just like the cape and auras, there be a contact and a set of missions that unlocks this option at around lvl 32 (the level you gain access to your primary tier 9 power). I think this should be reliant on your origin, so Mutant/Magic would have a certain arc, Natural/Tech could have another, Magic/Natural, Science/Tech, Science/Mutant and so on. So you'd have 2 branching options. Why? For more content! note: I think the option of 2 combination powers (so you could run both arcs to unlock or just run 1 twice) rather than just 1 wouldn't too over-the-top. But I could imagine the red-letter spam might get grating so perhaps the option to block other's and perhaps your own too.
Customization: First of all, some UI that lets you access this option would be needed but overall, it'd be pretty simple. You choose a 'Dominant' main power and a 'Recessive' additive power. You would use the animation from the dominant power while the effect of both dominant and recessive would simply be added, their custom colored FX and all. Lastly, the naming. You have a spot to type out either the name of the signature attack (Acid Monsoon!) or some words describing what you're doing (~Draws in Souls~) which would pop up over your head when you activate it. You could change the words whenever but to change the combo would require a respec.
Balance: Well, this probably isn't. But besides that, this gives you the option of activating 2 powers in the time of 1 animation. That said, it's not a free shot to tack on Total Focus to Brawl for a 1sec animation. Oh no...
-The activation time would be 'overlapped' in that, it'd be like if both powers activated together. In simpler terms, the resulting combination would take the longest activation of the two even if the dominant animation is shorter (you'll just be 'paused' while it's finishing). There'd also be a short 'pause' at the beginning while the words pop up. This is for balance concerns...
-Endurance would take the enhanced endurance of the more costly power of the two while discarding the cheaper. So, you *do* get off cheaper but not scott free.
-Recharge...To use the combination, both powers in the combo must be recharged before activating the combo button. Just to clarify, you can still use either power separately, so no loosing options. Once the combo button is used, it causes both powers to be used simultaneously.
-Clicks only. For balance purposes, this is combining the activation of clicks, not toggles, passives, toggles/passives, toggles/clicks, etc.
-Examples Combos-
-Force Field: Deflection Field + Insulation Shield = Absolute Defense! (Your buffer can use this combo to buff faster and cheaper!)
-Assault Rifle: Slug + Sniper Rifle = Steady Shot
(You don't have a heavy hitting tier 3, but you can combine your highest damaging regular shot with the snipe for a 'non-interrupt' shot...but it'll take a while to go off)
-Ice Melee/Fire Armor: Ice Slick + Burn = Hot Ice
There's some other interesting combos that are more for convenience rather than power/efficiency that I can think of, like combining regular ammo with piercing shot so you always get the -res debuff, but interested to see what combos others can think of that'd break this system.
Overall, I find, for support characters, this would help them speed up the process to get more done faster. For crowd control, you could combine AoE and ST control to kill 2 birds with one stone (faster control = less getting hit). For damage dealers, this gives players that choose lots of attacks (I certainly do that on many of mine) vs fewer + recharge bonuses more bang for their buck. For the conceptualists, doing outliers like combining controls/debuffs with attacks or those that pick up concept pools could fill out out their look somewhat.
another note: It'd be cool if the dominant power's animation played normally for the character while you've got the option for a 'phantom you' to animate the other at the same time.
Just a fun idea I had when posting in another thread. I know it's been suggested before (I remember reading it once but it had to be pretty long ago).
Anyway, with the advent of new content with bosses that have 'signature attacks', so this is a 'kinda signature attack' by means of combining two of your powers together. And just like when bosses like Odysseus uses his Fist of Vulcan attack, your signature attack too has Red Letters that pop up over your head when used.
-Specifics-
Content Unlock: I suppose, just like the cape and auras, there be a contact and a set of missions that unlocks this option at around lvl 32 (the level you gain access to your primary tier 9 power). I think this should be reliant on your origin, so Mutant/Magic would have a certain arc, Natural/Tech could have another, Magic/Natural, Science/Tech, Science/Mutant and so on. So you'd have 2 branching options. Why? For more content!
note: I think the option of 2 combination powers (so you could run both arcs to unlock or just run 1 twice) rather than just 1 wouldn't too over-the-top. But I could imagine the red-letter spam might get grating so perhaps the option to block other's and perhaps your own too.
Customization: First of all, some UI that lets you access this option would be needed but overall, it'd be pretty simple. You choose a 'Dominant' main power and a 'Recessive' additive power. You would use the animation from the dominant power while the effect of both dominant and recessive would simply be added, their custom colored FX and all. Lastly, the naming. You have a spot to type out either the name of the signature attack (Acid Monsoon!) or some words describing what you're doing (~Draws in Souls~) which would pop up over your head when you activate it. You could change the words whenever but to change the combo would require a respec.
Balance: Well, this probably isn't. But besides that, this gives you the option of activating 2 powers in the time of 1 animation. That said, it's not a free shot to tack on Total Focus to Brawl for a 1sec animation. Oh no...
-The activation time would be 'overlapped' in that, it'd be like if both powers activated together. In simpler terms, the resulting combination would take the longest activation of the two even if the dominant animation is shorter (you'll just be 'paused' while it's finishing). There'd also be a short 'pause' at the beginning while the words pop up. This is for balance concerns...
-Endurance would take the enhanced endurance of the more costly power of the two while discarding the cheaper. So, you *do* get off cheaper but not scott free.
-Recharge...To use the combination, both powers in the combo must be recharged before activating the combo button. Just to clarify, you can still use either power separately, so no loosing options. Once the combo button is used, it causes both powers to be used simultaneously.
-Clicks only. For balance purposes, this is combining the activation of clicks, not toggles, passives, toggles/passives, toggles/clicks, etc.
-Examples Combos-
-Force Field: Deflection Field + Insulation Shield = Absolute Defense! (Your buffer can use this combo to buff faster and cheaper!)
-Assault Rifle: Slug + Sniper Rifle = Steady Shot
(You don't have a heavy hitting tier 3, but you can combine your highest damaging regular shot with the snipe for a 'non-interrupt' shot...but it'll take a while to go off)
-Ice Melee/Fire Armor: Ice Slick + Burn = Hot Ice
There's some other interesting combos that are more for convenience rather than power/efficiency that I can think of, like combining regular ammo with piercing shot so you always get the -res debuff, but interested to see what combos others can think of that'd break this system.
Overall, I find, for support characters, this would help them speed up the process to get more done faster. For crowd control, you could combine AoE and ST control to kill 2 birds with one stone (faster control = less getting hit). For damage dealers, this gives players that choose lots of attacks (I certainly do that on many of mine) vs fewer + recharge bonuses more bang for their buck. For the conceptualists, doing outliers like combining controls/debuffs with attacks or those that pick up concept pools could fill out out their look somewhat.
another note: It'd be cool if the dominant power's animation played normally for the character while you've got the option for a 'phantom you' to animate the other at the same time.