Proposal: Hybrid Archetype

The problem is determining which AT should have what Max Value limit.

For Damage: (highest to lower)

-Melee Sets. AT's that use it, and the guesstimate for Max Value limit:
1- Scrappers = 1,300 Max Dmg Value limit (w/ no Crit.)
2- Stalkers = 1,300 Max Dmg Value limit (w/ no Crit.)
3- Brutes = 1,200 ... (w/ no Fury)
4- Blasters = 1,200 ...
5- Dominators = 1,100 - 1200 ... (held targets take more Dmg)
6- Tanks = 900 - 1100 ... (lowest, but they get Great Defense)
(even though Blasters have no defense, sadly they dont always have the best Melee Dmg output, but they do have ranged to add to their Dmg output)

-Blast Sets. ATs that use it:
1- Blasters = 800 - 1000 (melee adds to Dmg output)
2- Corruptors = 800 - 1000 (Buffs/Debuffs adds to their Survivability/Dmg/Etc..)
3- Defenders = 800 - 1000 (Buffs/Debuffs adds to their Survivability/Dmg/Etc..)

No... we cant have Ranged be too powerful. Thats just wrong. Just like allowing a Stalker into a PvP zone!

That's funny, I haven't felt underpowered on my Street Justice characters at all.

I know it burns a lot of endurance, and I also understand WHY it does. The powers don't cost more endurance than other sets, it's just an extremely FAST set, so you're firing off more powers in the same amount of time as other sets. The set that is closest in terms of speed is Claws, and Claws gets an endurance discount as part of the special features of the set. Street Justice gets it's combo system, so it's not going to get an endurance discount as well.

I still don't think your hybrid AT idea is going to fly. It is HIGHLY unlikely that the devs are going to be willing to sit down and rebalance every single offensive power in the game to take into account Every. Single. Possible. Combination.

Because that's exactly what they would have to do. They would have to take all of the hundreds of available combinations that would arise if you combined 2 powersets into account when balancing the powers for this hybrid AT.

By comparison, when they design a completely NEW powersset, they only have to take into account 9 powers and 4 ATs at MOST. They don't take secondaries into account very often, if they did certain primary and secondary combinations would not be so much more powerful than others.

You're asking them to balance hundreds of powers in every possible permutation of power combinations that can occur when you smash 2 sets together. And then you're asking them to take all that balancing and shoehorn it ino a completey new AT with entirely new mechanics. All so people can create incredibly overpowered or incredibly gimped characters.

The game worked very much like that in beta. It doesn't work like that now, and hasn't since the early stages of Alpha testing. There's a good reason for that, and you seem completely unwilling to accept that there is a good reason for the game to work like it does.

If you're really that gung-ho about it, do the work yourself. Balance every single power in the game in every single combination that would exist.

The simple addition of Rage to powers that were not designed with it in mind is going to break things horribly. Did you realize that all the attacks in Super Strength deal less base damage than attacks in other sets, because the entire set is designed around Rage being consistently used? Now add Rage to the attacks in say, Fire Melee without adjusting their base damage and see what happens. Voila, instant overpowered character.

You know what else that means? You would have to have 2 different base damage values for every power that is NOT in Super Strength to make sure things are balanced when you combine them. The simple fact that Rage exists, and is easily made permanent (and is stackable) breaks things in bad ways when you start thinking about adding it to other powersets.

I notice that you don't want people mentioning Fulcrum Shift or Criticals or Fury. That's ridiculous. You HAVE to take those powers into account when you balance things. Much like Rage, the fact that they exist means you have to look at what will happen when you combine every power you can combine with it.

Example: Why do you think Fulcrum Shift s only available on relatively low damage ATs with low damage caps? Because it would be broken to give that power to brutes with their 675% damage cap. A Defender deals about the same damage as a brute before you add Fury, and their damage cap is only 300%. Give the ability to hit a higher damage cap with no outside help, with higher base damage to a hybrid AT that you can cherry pick powers on, and you have the potential for some of the most broken things ever seen in the game.

When you design things like this, you can't just ignore things like Criticals, Fury, and Fulcrum Shift. If you a\balance things while ignoring them, bad things will happen when you add them.

Honestly, I'm not too worried about it though. The devs would have to be pants-on-head imbeciles to implement your idea. And fortunately, they aren't.

Actually, isn't the Incarnate System essentially a 'pick and choose what powers you want' system?

With the whole balance thing, this could be a good idea. Now I can finally have that Dual Pistols, Assualt Rifle Soldier I wanted!

Heck, with all those powers, maybe the level cap should be raised. Ok probally not, though i still wish we MM could have 2 types of pets.

Maybe MM can have two sets, but choose for each tier. For the low level Minion have Mercenaries' soldiers , then go with thugs' Enforcer and Bruiser for the other two tiers. Then that be overpowered with all the AoE you could add if you just did a Thugs MM with a Assault Bot instead of a Bruiser.