New Archtype

I had this idea for a new AT. Lately I have been reflecting on my playstyle preferences and builds. I came to these conclusions:
1. I really like to play ranged dmg sets. they are flashy in visual and sound fx, and offer a large variety of effects and powers.
2. i do not like having to play ranged dmg sets on At's that are eighther designed for team play, and thus have gimp dmg in exchange for team based powers or have really high dmg in exchange for poor survivability.
3. in the modern game, there is no reason ranged dmg sets should be forced to be tied to some major drawback in either soloability or survivability.


As a solo player, I feel there is a large hole in the coverage of the AT's in regards to ranged dmg sets. doms, corruptors, defendors all have eighther gimp dmg due to it being a secondary role alongside team play powersets, or in the case of doms mechanics i dont really enjoy and powersets that have to much "not ranged dmg" type powers.
Blasters solo well, for about the first half the game. Then the survivability issues start to show.

this is not to say the current AT are poor. they are interesting, diverse and enjoyed my many. it is as I say above, there is playstyle hole.

I enjoy Brutes and scrappers. I enjoy them more for the playstyle then anything as some of the sets arent particularily flashy(though some are). i like that there is no need (mostly) for some kind of goofy movement tactics, or positioning, or tactical breakdown of a spawn. The threat of defeat is not brought by failing at some particular elaborate or specific tactics, but more so by simply biting off more then you can chew, or moving to fast, with occasional surprises thrown in by mob AI or spawn make up. So, why not a form of ranged dmg that can achieve a similar playstyle?

Bottom line- the current ranged dmg AT's have too many gimicks to allow success. blasters have positioning, hoverblasting, aggro managment, etc. Doms have the domination mechanic. Corruptors and defenders have primaries/secondaries focused on team play. I want an AT that can simply be a self contained straight forward fighter- that uses the ranged dmg sets as a means to fight.


To that end I came up with an AT that could do so. it would be balanced by base modifiers and caps. Primary: ranged dmg. secondary: armor sets.


"ZOMG Tank Mage!!" you cry. So that is obviously the biggest concern. Lets look at that.

I would propose the primary: ranged attack would be limited in these ways
1. low base values
2. much lower dmg cap then blasters
3. Fury type mechanic implemented
4. Range values reduced.
This would accomplish a few things:
Blasters stay the dmg kings with both much higher base values and cap
Low base values and fury work on brutes very well. it would work on a ranged set similarily, possibly better. lets look at this.

Range is it's own type of defense. Lowering the base range of powers would similarily lower this defense. on top of this, most foes dont have a full array of ranged attacks. So, for the new AT, keeping foes at range may be safer, but it would also reduce attacks, and lower fury generation. So, safe vs dmg output remains balanced in this way. Furthermore, if one were to use ranged holds(freeze ray etc) it would further reduce incoming attacks and fury generation. In short, the safer the player chose to play, the longer the fight would end up being. if one were to play with the techniques used by current blasters etc, (maximum kiting, soft controls etc) fury generation would suffer heavily. It is also important to note that building fury with ones own attacks favors faster animations, and on blast sets, the hardest hitters have somewhat long animations to go with them.

So then, lets look at the secondary: armor sets
These would need these considerations:
1. Lower base values
2. Lower caps for resists
3. HP cap could be used as a balance tool
4. Epic power pools should not offer more mitigation, only soft controls or melee dmg
Lets look at these.

lower base values- lower overall armor values would be supplemented by range as a survival tool. lower base values also keep things like IO bonuses in check. Lower resist caps keep team buffs from making the character a tank mage. The def cap would remain, and indeed, a character with a def set could try for soft cap. A /sr for example. However, low base values means a soft cap build would require much more dedication then a comparible scrapper or brute to achieve. In this way, high survivability def builds would sacrifice power choice and utility/dmg/etc to achieve their high def.
HP caps would be used to balance sets like /regen. Lower HP means less regen over time. Lower HP in general reduce survivability.
It is important to tie in reduced range of blast powers here: reduced range means the foes will close to melee range more quickly compared to other ranged blast AT's, increasing threat.

I believe these parameters can be tweaked sufficiently to make a balanced AT. Said AT would offer less dmg then a blaster, less team freindly then a defender or corruptor(no force multipliers) and much less crowd control then a dom. The new AT would offer solo ability on par with scrappers and brutes, while caps in place would keep the AT from becoming a tank mage on a team. The playstyle offered would be more comparable to a scrapper or brute: straight forward fighting- except with ranged dmg sets instead of melee.

I do not see why a straightforward playstyle like this would be unattainable. An AT like this would be a first choice for a solo player wanting to play all the various ranged dmg sets. Other ranged dmg AT's would bring more for a team, be it dmg, buffs, control, etc. other ranged dmg At's could surpass performance of this new AT, especially at the hands of skilled players. But this new AT would play much more simply then existing AT's, and offer an experiance with less frustration to a solo player.

What you're looking for can be found in a Bubble defender or Corrupter.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Here is a list of ranged blast sets:

Fire blast
ice blast
dark blast
psi blast
rad blast
archery
assault rifle
beam rifle
dual pistols
electric blast
sonic blast
energy blast

here is what you have offered me:
Crab spider
AT where 90%of primary or secondary is useless outside of a team
Shapeshift mechanics where the high dmg output is saddled with a major survivability drawback, or vice versa. human form still gets mezzed and killed easily. Keybinds are needed for efficient play. not really a simple playstyle.
high lvl IO build



This is why i suggested this in the first place. you have offered me the same crappy conventional workarounds to my dilema that have been around for years. There are 12 blast powersets(outside of epic AT's) and the only way to play them is to either play a high risk blaster, or a team AT. I am looking for a ranged attack scrapper or brute, to put it simply.

I have played your suggestions. They are fun in their own right. They are good AT's, I wouldnt change them. they are not what i am looking for. I want to make "Captain blasto" and not have to have giant legs coming out of his back, or turn into a space squid. I want to have a secondary that has more then 3 powers that do something for me solo. I do not want to rely on a lvl 50 IO build to achieve these goals.

basically, i am fully aware of the conventional wisdom and I want something new that can achieve this goal out of the box without gimicks or drawbacks or the need for a high level Io build that draws from as many pool powers as possible and uses unconventional slotting and power picks as IO mules.

The niche you want was filled by VEATs, ranged attacks with mez protection/armor.

Would be nice to have a less focused theme AT that has similar effects.

That said, they seem to want things to have a cleanly crafted AT niche, and I'm not sure it would make it through marketing to introduce an AT like this, as cool as it would be. But maybe, just maybe.

The VEATS solo fine, but you're right, they lack in concept. Fixed origins arent so much a problem as that you're just stuck with Backback, claws, rifle or psi powers as your weapons.

The fact that they have team buffs are not a problem tho, as they also buff themselves.

However this did get me to thinking...

Melee/Debuff

Inherent: Mez Protection (Hold, Immobilize, Stun, Sleep)

This covers the mez protection aspect of being in melee, without having to change up the Buff/Debuff sets.

Still be knocked about yes, but that's what Acrobatics, defense, KB resist IOs are for, or of course a combination of them.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "TankMage" yet...

I think a properly balanced Ranged/Armor archetype would be a great idea.

As people have pointed out, you can already have them via epic archetypes or Force Field or Traps Defenders, and they don't over-balance the game.

The power sets for both primary and secondary already exist, so balancing would not require set-by-set fine tuning, but more a case of getting the archetype scalars for damage and defence right.

So looks like its a lot of return in terms of new concepts that players can make, for relatively little developer time.

[EDIT] Rangle - Eldagore mentions Tankmages in his original post. He points out that he's not asking for something overpowered, but balanced, so as not to tread on Blaster's or Scrapper's, or anyone else's toes.

I'd like to play a Archetype where I could be wielding dual swords one minute and then dual pistols the next, or shooting arrows and then finishing off with a katana. There would be no armours but the melee attacks offer +def and +res (parry and deflection) and the ranged attacks could offer -dam or any type of control (suppressive fire and control). Not quite as good as a Scrapper because lacking in any alpha taking at start and not quite as good as a dominator for control but soloable because it starts ranged, some control there then closes in and uses melee giving it def and +res.