Powerset Idea: Pulse Rifle

(Some ideas in this powerset were taken from Voxen's ideas. Don't sue me!)

PULSE RIFLE: You wield a high-tech energy rifle! This weapon is excellent against single targets, but has some area suppression ability.

1: Pulse Blast: Ranged ST, Minor Energy Damage, -Def, 4s recharge
This Pulse Rifle can fire a long range laser pulse. Deals moderate Energy damage and pierces your enemy, lowering their Defense to further attacks. If Reverse Polarity is toggled, the attack deals Negative Energy damage and can strip away your enemy's Resistance.

1: Pulse Burst: Ranged ST, Moderate Energy Damage, -Def, 8s recharge
This high powered laser pulse from your Pulse Rifle takes more energy to fire, but causes much more damage than a standard pulse and can lower your enemy's Defense to attack. If Reverse Polarity is toggled, the attack deals Negative Energy damage and can strip away your enemy's Resistance.

2: Pulse Spray: Ranged Cone (50 ft, 60 degrees, 10 targets max), Moderate Energy Damage, -Def, 16s recharge
Sprays several pulses of energy from your Pulse Rifle in a cone, causing moderate damage and lowering your enemy's Defense. If Reverse Polarity is toggled, the attack deals Negative Energy damage and can strip away your enemy's Resistance.

6: Reverse Polarity: Toggle, Swap Effects, 0 end/sec
The energy polarity on your Pulse Rifle can be reversed, causing your Energy attacks to deal Negative Energy damage and their secondary effects to be changed. Most attacks will peel away your enemy's Resistance rather than pierce their Defense.

8: Energy Grenade: Ranged AoE (15 ft radius, 10 targets max), Moderate Energy Damage, Mag 2 Stun (or mag 3 immobilize), 16s recharge
Launches an Energy Grenade at long range from your Pulse Rifle. The energy from this explosion can Disorient some targets in the affected area. If Reverse Polarity is toggled, the attack deals Negative Energy damage and will Immobilize most enemies.

12: Stun Blast: Ranged ST, Minor Energy Damage, Mag 3 Stun (or mag 3 hold), 20s recharge
You can fire a low-power burst from your Pulse Rifle that deals little damage, but can Disorient your enemy and prevent them from attacking. If Reverse Polarity is toggled, the attack deals Negative Energy damage and will Hold your enemy as they crumble under its power.

18: Pulse Beam: Ranged ST, High Energy Damage, -Def, 10s recharge
The Pulse Rifle can fire a high-intensity, short-range beam that deals high Energy damage and leaves your enemy open to attack. If Reverse Polarity is toggled, the attack deals Negative Energy damage and can strip away your enemy's Resistance.

26: Pulse Lance: Sniper Cone (1 degree arc, 5 targets max), Extreme Energy Damage, Knockdown, 20s recharge
The Pulse Lance is a powerful piece of hardware. It is very accurate and has a long range. The impressive energy burst can pierce through multiple enemies and leave them to collapse on the ground in pain. Like most sniper attacks, you must take your time to aim, so this attack can be interrupted. If used in conjunction with a targeting drone, the Pulse Lance will do additional damage. If Reverse Polarity is toggled, the attack deals Negative Energy damage and the immense pulse will completely knock affected targets out, putting them to Sleep.

32: Supercharge: Click (2m duration), Self +dmg, +recovery, Delayed self -dmg (-1000% for 10 seconds), -end (-50), minor fire DoT, 4m recharge
Your Pulse Rifle can be Supercharged, substantially increasing its damage output as well as the rate at which it regains power. However, the weapon can only take so much, and will eventually overheat in your hands, draining you of power and dealing Fire damage to you. You will be unable to deal significant damage with the weapon until it cools back down.

Not liking the lvl32 power choice.

Looks pretty cool. One thing stuck out to me though: isn't NE already less resisted than Energy? I think if it also has a much more useful secondary effect than no one will want to use positive energy, except maybe when fighting ghosts.

Also, and this isn't a personal peeve but an issue I think the devs might have with it, isn't the usual side effect of NE -to-hit and energy KB? I'm not familiar enough with the changes over the ages to know how faithfully they stick to this so I have no idea whether this is a non-issue or a serious sticking point.

The idea is that the negative energy is not so much "darkness and netherworld" as it is "reverse energy". It strips away the armor or hardness of an enemy or object, whereas the more focused "positive energy" simply pierces them and leaves an opening for attack. Also, Peacebringers and Crab Spiders do Energy damage that has a -def component, and Warshades do negative energy without -tohit.

However, I could always reverse it. Energy damage with -res and negative with -def. It'd give people a bit of a reason to switch up more often, but the Reverse Polarity power is more there to provide an extra bit of damage a la Swap Ammo and Incendiary ammunition over the standard ammo. Alternatively, I could give Reverse Polarity's toggle endurance drain, representing the power drain necessary to keep the polarity swapped.

Quote:

Originally Posted by _AzA_ Not liking the lvl32 power choice.

I wanted a shift away from more traditional tier 9s. It's pretty much a modified Rage power. +Damage and +recovery for a while, then you get hit with -dmg, -end and a small bit of fire DoT (not significant enough to be a major threat, but can put you in a bad spot).

I /unsign this pulse rifle powerset until the tier 9 is changed into an orbital laser cannon. Though I congratulate that you remembered to give it a "stun" power.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

To be honest, it sounds pretty "meh". All of the relatively new powersets have had a "gimmick" to differentiate them from the older sets, and this just looks like a {negative} energy reskin of Assault Rifle.

An open letter to NCsoft

It resembles Kinetic Melee more, essentially being a longer-lasting build-up. Coming in at Lv32 is far too late to bring in a power that basically defines the set mechanics.

An open letter to NCsoft

Not really, it's functionally identical to rage aside from doing a fire DoT instead of the -def that rage does. Still, this is one of the better suggestions I've seen for a pulse rifle set. Somehow I doubt they'd give a blaster a rage clone, though. Considering that's one of the things that always gets brought up in discussions of proliferating super strength to scrappers, is that they'd do way too much damage with rage going all the time.