Cap AV Resistance at 95%

Okay, yeah, I can be gripey. There's a lot of things I post about when I don't like 'em. But when I'm playing, I'm generally more upbeat and open-minded than I am on the forums. However, there's one thing that freaking bugs me, to the point of being a major annoyance, even in-game, so bear with me, I gotta lay it out:

What, exactly, is the point of making enemies entirely immune to one or more forms of damage? Particularly, the forms of damage that players will most commonly be using? This has been around, granted, since time immemorial (at least i1, based on the powers I've seen), but it drives me absolutely nuts. Giving Unstoppable to an AV and making them immune to damage doesn't seem to accomplish anything other than making a fight three minutes longer. It doesn't add any sort of challenge; if the AV wasn't acting as a serious threat before going Unstoppable, then it's no more of a threat afterwards. Heck, it's practically the opposite. If my end's running low, it's a perfect time to fall back and Rest, since attacking or ignoring them will have the same ultimate result.

...and yeah, Marauder was the straw that finally broke the camel's back here. I was on a Lambda raid last night that spent as much time just sitting and waiting for his Unstoppable to end as we spent on the entire rest of the fight. He's not the only one, though. There are a good number of others that suffer this same issue, Honoree and Reichsman to name just a couple, and they're just as un-fun.

So it comes down to what's on the subject line: provide a hard, less-than-100% cap to enemy resistance. 95% seems fair, but, heck, I'd be fine with 99. Just give us something outside of a reason to go afk for several minutes.

So all this is "gimme, gimme, gimme", I admit. I'm asking for the tedium to be taken away from AVs, but I offer them nothing in return? Well, I do have a suggestion there, too.

It seems like the (missed) point of adding Unstoppable is to give an extra level of challenge at the 11th hour, and that's certainly a cool idea. However, as noted, it just makes them tedious in the end, not challenging. So here's my suggestion: all AVs with Unstoppable? Just replace the power. With Rage. Most Invulnerability AVs conveniently have Super-Strength as well, so it stays thematic, and I think a boost to offensive capabilities would be a much bigger "oh crap!" for most teams as well, really. Alternatively, give some sort of -Special aura power that weakens buffs around them for the duration. That could give them sort of a rising-to-the-occasion, you're-tough-but-I'm-tougher feel. Either one would be an effective way to turn a stomp into an uphill battle without just making it feel like the intent is to sit around and wait for the battle to end.

Yeah, most AVs just wind up being 'Wait till they crash and then gank them' AhemVALKYRIEahem!

They don't even do particularly scary damage on most teams these days.
Rage, now? Or a scaling 'lower the health the higher the damage' auto power, which might work better.
I say this as a Bots MM who gets one shotted by most AVs anyway, mind

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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.

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

Agreed, 100% resists just wastes time without adding anything to the fight. If there were some in-game way to strip them of the buff then I could see the point.

Well, for those who hit the 100% resist, isn't it only Lethal (maybe Smashing) damage only?

I'd be more okay with this 100% Lethal resist, if they threw in some enemies who had 100% Energy or Fire Resist, so my Lethal Damage scrapper can go \o/ I'm here to take down the baddie for you!

Smashing too. Nothing like critting Marauder for 0 + 0 damage.

He could hit 100% before Lambda, but I agree that 100% is a little ridiculous when you put a Master Of badge behind it.

Either the enrage or his unstoppable will put him at 100% smashing/lethal resist on their own. It wasn't such a big deal until I20 because you just wait for it to wear off. But now in the Lambda trial there's not one but two badges which require you to leave him enraged for the whole fight. Which in turn renders most scrappers as well as some sets in every other AT except controllers utterly powerless to do anything to contribute. So much for bringing the player and not the AT, huh?

It would be nice to incorporate a more animative or emotional response, especially with all the "Rarr <insertnamehere> is mad, I smash" and nothing happens. I like that Marauder jumps about after a while, it would be nice if this was randomized as it loses purpose after many runs.

Perhaps they could add a Fury bar like Brutes whereby Damage increases as Health decreases, a sort of maddening effect for villains or a last stand effect for Heroes.

Fury

I don't think there's anything wrong with a 100% resist cap if it's used creatively. Just having 100% to nearly all for 3 minutes when already low on health...yeah, that's pretty pointless.

I like Technobot Alpha's idea. As the Hero/AV gets weaker, the more damage they do. I think some form +ACC would be good too. There's no point in having +DMG if the Granite Tank (or any other defense-based set) is stood there going "Can't touch this!"

Agreed, a 95% resist cap for AVs would be grand.

I do get sick and tired of large numbers of AVs 100% resistance to Smashing/Lethal or atleast resisting it uber-heavily.

As someones said above, I wouldn't mind if there was variety and some AVs were 100% resistant to fire etc. but it is ALWAYS Smashing/lethal which frankly neuters more powersets across a large number of ATs than any other resistance.

I imagine Mother Mayhem, when we fight her, might be like a reverse Marauder, Highly resistant to Psi but weak against smashing/lethal (like Carnies).

A Rage-like timed damage (and maybe even recharge) boost would be good, but not the to-hit bonus.

The devs have already spent way too much effort on crippling any Defense based powerset to then go and add an additional +20% to-hit on top of that.

Personally, I happen to find 100% resistances to be a cheap and unimaginative approach to enemy design. All this does is say "You there who only have lethal damage. Go sit down, have a sandwich, watch some TV and come back later." It reminds me of ye olde Hamidon raids where I was told that, at this particular time, I could contribute nothing to the fight and should just wait a while.

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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.

Frankly, I think AVs should have their AI tweaked - consider Protean, for example. He's not particularly powerful in terms of raw stats, but he does have a trick up his sleeve that makes him much more of a problem if a team just mashes on him like any other AV. Giving other AVs {and GMs because why not?} similar requirements for, well, alertness would make them that much more interesting to fight.

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