Suggestion for Tier 9 "crashing" Armor Powers

Recently, I've seen a lot of discussion about changing the "crashing" Tier 9 powers so as to either remove the crash entirely, or make them work more like Willpower's "Strength of Will". I am fairly ambivalent about any such change, particularly if it reduces their bonuses. However, I think that there's a change that could be implemented that wouldn't require the powers to lose anything. Namely:

Make Tier 9 "crashing" powers work like the Hybrid pseudo-toggle

Here's my reasoning: I use Tier 9 powers on a lot of my characters. They're great panic buttons in solo play. The problem is that once you've used the panic button and hopefully dealt with the danger you end up making one of two, less than stellar choices:

1. Jump into the next mob and keep your fingers crossed that you kill them all before you crash; or

2. Sit around like an idiot waiting for the crash to happen.

This is annoying in solo-play, and incredibly frustrating on teams. Teams don't generally like to stop and wait 1-2 minutes for you to crash and recover. If you're the tank, there's a good chance you might face-plant while fighting the next mob, possibly taking your teammates with you. Even if you aren't taking the alpha, the odds are high that you will die if you continue to fight, particularly if you are relying on Power Surge or Unstoppable. On the other hand, if you were able to CHOOSE when you were going to crash, you could quickly get back into the game, pop a few inspirations and not force your team to sit around waiting out your power. The Hybrid pseduo-toggles have the perfect mechanism for making this work. You could hit your panic button, kill the mob, and then purposely crash, so that you could recover faster and return to combat.

Thoughts?

Or you could make them like nukes and not crash at all.

I think the problem with some of them is that they give you more of what you already have, and that's not always useful. An SR/ Tanker can get to the soft-cap for Defense easily. Why have a T9 that gives you even MORE Defense?

I would think that a decent change to them would be to give the Resistance-based sets a Defense T9, and vice-versa. But of course that would hit the cottage rule square in the face.

I think the long recharge time-limited toggle is an excellent idea.

I agree with Comrade, that once activated they currently lead to two annoying outcomes. This is not so much a case of balancing a power with a penalty as blancing a power with irritation, which is a bad thing.

i think any change to the tier9 powers would be a good one, i rarely ever use it thanks to t4 barrier destiny incarnate. seems like the tier9 crash isnt worth the 3minute buff.

I like MoG for Regen and the T9 for stalker Ice Armor best (Icy Bastion?)...honestly.

Even though the SoW type powers are more useful, I still hardly use them. Maybe that is just silly, to have the power and not use it..but..I find it easier (and usually better) to just pop a luck or two. Obviously..you may not always HAVE lucks..but your tier 9 may not always be up either.
I like how Shields t9 offers something you dont normal get..+hp. Likewise, the ice stalker set gives a big +res and regen, shoring up a weakness (not a bad weakness, ever set needs a few) in the set.
As someone else said, that is a big problem with SR, which just gets more def, to layer on def.
However, giving each set a tier 9 that just covers all its holes..not a good idea. Maybe thats why the ice one is good? It is a shorter duration and rech right?

In another thread, I was talking about giving the tier 9s some more thematic stuff. Like..

Unstoppable could provide a chance for kb/repel, as you push your way through crowed of baddies, like a Juggernaught-y effect.
Power surge could give attacks a small +elec damage proc, since you are just a ball of power.
Sr would perhaps be some regen, as you speed up your metabolism and reflexes so much, your wounds heal quicker.
Giving Dark the ability to soul transfer when not dead would be great to, perhaps with a bit of a +recovery buff (like um..that power in dark affini) to help offset the end hunger of dark.
Fire..um..IF they could use the rez when alive..maybe like..channel the power of the pheonix and get some absorb?

So... aside from the person who is going all half-cocked about Hybrid... which is totally tangential to the discussion at hand, it looks like most folks like this idea. And, why he didn't just say "this change is unnecessary" instead of tirading I will never understand.

I, too, think this is an excellent idea (assuming that the Devs don't remove the crash and rebalance the powers anyway).

Personally, I think that removing the crash totally is a better option, but I definitely like this suggestion to aid in the management of said crash.

Seriously am I the only person who can see this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tpqT...6&feature=plcp from 25:52

A power that works differently while dead than alive.

I'm thinking _Klaw_ is talking about the "Crash Protection" effect listed in Unrelenting's short description, which the speaker (who is that? I don't watch the coffee talks) says we should look at "very carefully" to for a clue about other changes they haven't discussed yet.

Which is, uh... that is very interesting, actually.

I'd totally support a change that allows the crash to hit early. No down side, all upside. But no serious balance changes needed..

I'd be game for this. I might take em a bit more often, then, but it wouldn't greatly change my outlook. For some alts, I'd just not fell I needed them still. I think like someone suggested, SRs t9 would still be mostly worthless after a certain point.. If SRs t9 also triples the effet from the scaling res bonus, then.. Well, that's a different story.

But for Invul and Elec, I'd take em a lot more often..

Oh, hell yes! I've been waiting for this topic to surface!

With the changes to the nukes coming, I think it's about time this game sees an end to crashing powers forever. People have stopped taking them and don't bother with ever slotting them. It would need rebalancing, and here's what I suggest for it:

1) Cut the base recharge time by a quarter for long-charging powers like Kuji-In Retsu.

2) Change the complete endurance crash to a minor endurance loss.

3) Decrease the duration down to a minute and change the defense bonuses to either regen or resist.

Crash management would be sexy as all get out. I'd be ok with the crashes if we could make it happen whenever. I could also get behind crashless t9s too. But man managing the crash would be so sexy (I'm looking at you Electric Armor).

I'm not sure that just controlling or even removing the crash would be enough to get me taking my Tier 9s (though the latter would certainly help). These powers all need some serious rethinking. They are, on paper, some of the most powerful abilities in the game, yet they rarely appear in any builds posted on the forums. This implies that the benefit isn't worth the cost, either in reality or perception.

Why?

1) We all seem to prefer reliable defensive powers. If we can survive when the power is down, why spend a slot on it? If we can't, then the power probably isn't going to last long enough for our needs, so we have to back off anyway.

2) The crash. This ensures that we're locked into that three minute time frame. If I even suspect that my team can't get that AV down in three minutes, I'm not going to risk hitting the Tier 9. If I do and the clock runs out, my toggles drop, I go splat, and my team may go with me.

3) They don't exist in a vacuum. Once the rest of the set is taken into account, the power may not provide much advantage. It either has the same gaping hole as the rest of the set (Unstoppable) or provides more of something we already have in plenty (Elude, Retsu). For a soft-capped SR free from defense debuffs, Elude does pretty much nothing to enhance survivability.