Discussion: The Intrepid Informer: Issue #9

We like mixing things up a little when it comes to the Intrepid Informer. One week we'll be telling you about missions, the next we'll offer you an insight into new features, and sometimes we'll enjoy giving you a sneak peek into new earth shattering powers.

This week is definitely a case of shattering powers although not of the earth sort. It is time to let our ingenious Powers specialist Phil "Synapse" Zeleski share with you an insight and a few tips and tricks about the Time Manipulation Power Set!


Introduction to Time Manipulation
by Phil "Synapse" Zeleski

Hello. Phil "Synapse" Zeleski here to talk to you all about the new support set Time Manipulation and go into detail on each individual power within the set. This power set is a primary power set choice for Defenders and a secondary power set choice for Controllers, Corruptors and Masterminds. This power set is a sort of jack of all trades. It can heal, buff, debuff and even control foes. Time Manipulation brings a new mechanic to the table with the Accelerated and Delayed effects. Accelerated is placed on an ally when Temporal Selection is used. Allies benefitting from Accelerated will receive additional healing from Temporal Mending and Chrono Shift. Delayed is placed on foes when they are struck by Time Crawl. While Delayed all offensive powers within the Time Manipulation set are more powerful than normal.

Powers

Below is a list of powers found within the Time Manipulation power set as well as their short description, long description and some designer notes. Keep in mind that these powers and their descriptions are subject to change through our beta process.

Time Manipulation

By gazing into the flow of time you are able to manipulate time itself. Time Manipulation allows the wielder to inflict crippling debuffs, buff and heal allies and also be able to empower effects on single targets through careful use of Time Crawl and Temporal Selection.

Time Crawl
Ranged Foe, -Speed, -Recharge, -Regen, Special

You're able to dramatically slow the time around a single enemy, reducing their movement speed and attack rate. Time is slowed to such an extreme that their wounds will take longer to heal, reducing their regeneration rate. Time Crawl applies the Delayed effect on its target. Debuff and control effects from other Time Manipulation powers are increased on targets affected by Delayed. Recharge: Long

Designer's Comments: Time Crawl is pretty critical to the set. It places the "Delayed" status on your target causing other Time Manipulation offensive powers to be more effective than normal. That aside, it provides an excellent debuff to the target's regeneration, movement and attack rate.

Temporal Mending
PBAoE, Ally +Heal, Heal Over Time, +Res(Slow, Regen Debuff)




You mend the wounds of yourself and nearby allies by placing your bodies in a past or future state where they are far less injured. Temporal Mending will immediately heal its targets and continue to heal them for an equal amount over the next 6 seconds. Additionally, affected allies will gain some resistance to slow effects and regeneration debuffs. Allies affected by the Accelerated effect will receive additional healing from this power. Temporal Mending will apply a regeneration bonus instead of heal over time for a short while if the user is in a PvP zone. Recharge: Long

Designer's Comments: Temporal Mending is a fantastic heal. It has a decent upfront heal that happens instantly and then a moderate healing over time effect to all nearby allies. Not only that, but it also grants the user a small amount of resistance to slows and regeneration debuffs. The catch is that it has a much longer recharge time than similar team heals. This power will have a 50% bonus when affecting targets that have the Accelerated effect.

Time's Juncture
Toggle: PBAoE Foe (-Damage, -Speed, -To Hit)

You create a time dilation field around you causing enemies who get too close to be slowed to a crawl, their movement speed, damage and chance to hit will be decreased substantially. Enemies affected by Delayed have these affects increased. Recharge: Slow

Designer's Comments: When it comes to boosting survivability, Time's Juncture takes the cake for the set. It significantly weakens incoming damage from nearby foes by both reducing the enemies' damage and their chance to hit. This allows the player to get into the thick of combat more easily than some other power sets. This power is 20% more effective when used on targets suffering from the Delayed effect.

Temporal Selection
Ally, +Damage, +Recharge, +Regeneration

You distort time around an ally, selecting a period of time where their abilities are at their highest. Their damage, attack rate and regeneration rates are dramatically increased for a brief period. This power places the Accelerated effect on the target. While this is in effect, the target has any healing and healing over time effects from Temporal Mending or Chrono Shift significantly increased. Recharge: Very Long

Designer's Comments: Temporal Selection is another pivotal power. Not only does it significantly boost the target's damage, attack rate and regeneration, but it also applies the Accelerated effect. This special effect will cause affected allies to receive a 50% bonus from Temporal Mending and Chrono Shift.

Distortion Field
Ranged (Location AoE), Foe(-Recharge, -Speed), Chance for Hold



You can choose an area to slow the flow of time down to a crawl. Enemies who enter the field will have their attack rate and speed slowed dramatically. In addition, affected enemies might become held as they are frozen in time. Targets affected by Time Crawl will have the chance to be held increased. Recharge: Very Long

Designer's Comments: Distortion Field is an example of a control power available to the set. What's great about it is that it can hold lesser foes briefly and to make sure there's a greater chance of this hold happening, their movement speed is reduced keeping them in the Distortion Field longer. To top it off, it also reduces their attack speed. That means less damage coming at the caster and their allies. This power's chance to hold is increased by 50% on targets that are Delayed.

Time Stop
Ranged Hold, Foe -Regen, -Heal

You trap your target within the flow of time causing them to be held helpless. Even those resistant to the effects of Time Stop's hold will still have their regeneration rate and healing effects reduced for a brief period. Targets affected by Time Crawl will suffer from a more powerful hold; however its benefits are brief. Recharge: Long

Designer's Comments: Time Stop is a unique hold power in that it can even lock down bosses, who normally require two applications of holds powers. This will only occur if the boss is also Delayed. Targets affected by this power, regardless if they're actually held or not will have their regeneration rate significantly reduced as well as have any incoming healing diminished as well.

Farsight
PBAoE Team, +To-Hit, +Defense(All), +Perception



You give your allies a brief glimpse of the future and what is to come. This provides you and your team a moderate increase to your chance to hit and defense for a short period of time. Recharge: Very Long

Designer's Comments: Farsight is the quintessential buff power for the set. It provides a good sized boost to defense to all nearby allies as well as a moderate increase to chance to hit, what's not to like about that?

Slowed Response
Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe -Defense, -Resistance



You manipulate time around a targeted foe causing their reflexes to become slowed and sluggish. This causes them to have decreased defense and damage resistance. A target affected by Time Crawl will suffer from a more powerful effect. Recharge: Very Long

Designer's Comments: Slowed Response is a great for weakening enemies' defenses. This is useful when your party needs to deal additional damage to a group or to soften up some foes with tough defenses. Slowed Response's potency is increased by 20% if used on Delayed targets.

Chrono Shift
PBAoE, Team +Recharge, Heal, +End, Moderate Healing over Time, +Recovery



You cause nearby allies to act more quickly by allowing them to slip through the time stream seamlessly. When Chrono Shift is activated, you and nearby allies will immediately recover a portion of your health and endurance. Chrono Shift will greatly increase the Recharge Speed of nearby allies for the duration of the power, additionally for a short while the flow of time will constantly undo a portion of your allies' wounds causing them to periodically recover health and recover endurance. An ally affected by Temporal Selection will recover additional health from Chrono Shift. Chrono Shift will apply a regeneration bonus instead of heal over time for a short while if the user is in a PvP zone. Recharge: Very Long

Designer's Comments: Chrono Shift is a tremendously useful buff for all nearby allies. It can help you recover from a nasty situation where massive damage has been dealt or your team's endurance has been sapped. Alternatively it can be used preemptively so your allies have a heal over time effect when they enter combat. Regardless of how you use it Accelerated targets will gain a +50% bonus to the healing they receive and all targets will receive a hefty bonus to their recharge. This includes the caster. This can really take the sting out of the long cooldown on this and other powers within the Time Manipulation set. However, this power has a very long cooldown time.

Tips and Tricks

Below are some tips and tricks that may suit your play style. This is by no way the definitive method to playing this power set. These are merely designer observations from both designing the set and playing it extensively.

• Defensively, Time Manipulation is best suited for proactive use. So, pop your heal over time powers in between fights, that heal over time can spill over into the beginning of the next combat, which means additional damage mitigation. That said, both Temporal Mending and Chrono Shift can help keep a Team or League on their feet, although their long recharge times make this a bit trickier than with other sets with team heals.
  
• Use Time Crawl often and early on targets that pose the greatest threats to your party. So, Bosses, Elite Bosses and Arch Villains make great victims of this power. This means that they're not only attacking less (thus dealing less damage), but also regenerating less health over time in combat. Getting as many targets that can suffer from Delayed as possible, thus empowering your debuffs, is key!
  
• Use Temporal Selection on allies that you need to keep alive and/or those you want to deal more damage. It will place Accelerated on your allies causing Temporal Mending and Chrono Shift to heal for significantly more health.
  
• If you've got Time's Juncture slotted for To Hit Debuffs and you have Farsight running on yourself you can likely charge into the thick of combat and survive better than other support sets. This is due to Time's Juncture -To Hit and -Damage debuffs and Farsight's synergistic Defense buffs.
  
• You can lock down bosses with Time Crawl and Time Stop. As Time Crawl will apply Delayed on the foe which causes Time Stop's hold effect to be strong enough to stop most bosses. Be mindful of the hold's duration as it is brief when used on tougher targets.
  
• Don't underestimate the effectiveness of a well placed Distortion Field. Using it at a choke point can devastate a group of enemies as they'll be forced to slog slowly through a field that reduces their movement, attack rate and even has a chance to hold them briefly.
  
• Lastly, you can benefit from other Time Manipulation character's Accelerated and Delayed effects! This means that your heals will be more effective on allies that are affected by other characters' Accelerated effects and your debuffs will be more effective on foes that are affected by other characters' Delayed effects.

Themes

When determining the visual themes for the power set we decided to stick with more abstract shapes like swirls, portals and motion lines instead of going with very specific themes like clocks. The reason for this is that we really want our power sets to fit a greater number of character themes than simply "Time Guy". Maybe your character traverses time and space through use of artifacts or mere force of will, perhaps they are an alien who would not use clocks, maybe they're a hero from the distant future sent back in time to accomplish a task. One great thing about this power set is that it can easily fit into most origins and due to its visual themes can fit into a greater number of character concepts. Whether you're a time traveling wizard, a steam-punk master of highly advanced clockwork, an alien who can fold time and space, or just about anything else you can dream up this power set will accommodate your time traveling needs!

Phil "Synapse" Zeleski

Join in the Community discussion now!

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A really fun set to play! The quality of these new sets being made is outstanding!

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Playstation 3 - XBox 360 - Wii - PSP

Remember kids, crack is whack!

Samuel_Tow: Your avatar is... I think I like it

Omg, this is gonna force me to re-roll my chaos witch that I JUST started and got totally into. But it looks like it will be perfectly worth it! Yay Time Manip!!

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I guess with this set, any character could be a time lord

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So will Time Manipulation be the official powerset of the Menders now?

But seriously, I like the sound of this set. I'm not normally big on control related playstyles, but I do have a couple characters like it. And this will be the next one.

You guys are going to some really fun places with the new powersets lately. Thanks for the great work!

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What, no caging powers?

Thematically, one would fight.

And it might be a kick in the pants to improve how caging powers work.

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1. Time Crawl - Recharge: Long
2. Temporal Mending - Recharge: Long
3. Time's Juncture - Recharge: Slow
4. Temporal Selection - Recharge: Very Long
5. Distortion Field - Recharge: Very Long
6. Time Stop - Recharge: Long
7. Farsight - Recharge: Very Long
8. Slowed Response - Recharge: Very Long
9. Chrono Shift - Recharge: Very Long

Well, it looks like this powerset will be easy to slot out: all recharge enhancements

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Teams are the number one killer of soloists.

Slow seems to be an underutilized debuff. I know my ice blaster likes it, but I hope that more foes are affected by this set. There's a lot of enemies that seem to shrug slow effects off. I guess the Delayed mechanic will aid that.

Interesting to see how this set will stack with other power sets.

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Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.

Minor nitpick... Time Crawl in your post has no icon, and the icons for Farsight and Slowed Response are swapped (in addition to the Slowed Response icon being cut off).

/OCD off

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Will Mastermind pets be changed so they can benefit from the +Recharge in this set?

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68 Level 50s, all made the old-fashioned way.
Original: Quasar Lad - Fire/Kin troller. Latest: Asp Kicker - Grav/Poison troller.
Completed the "Full Alty Challenge" - level 50 in every archetype, and "Alty's Ultimate Power Challenge" - level 50 in every available powerset in the game.
Member of the Repeat Offenders

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Member of Repeat Offenders. CoX Evolved.

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