How can we make the power armour gatling gun guy work?

Just a thought on this...

Take a Soldier. Replace Rifle with a new weapon skin (gatling gun), use the tailor to make Armor to fit. There you go!

Fits perfectly in line with what we have currently available without being a TankMage (unless you consider Soldiers TankMages).

I've been mulling this over for years (and just caught up on this thread so I can post), and here's a quick rundown of what I've thought of. Please feel free to refine it or pick it apart.

The idea behind this is that most powered armor users in comics, at least the ones who are stars and who we get to see the behind-the-scenes stuff, have to redirect power to this system or that as needed. Whether it's a new AT with new unique power sets or just a mash-up of Blast/Armor or Assault Armor, here's what I suggest.

The AT has a naturally low Regen and Recovery. The idea here is that most powered armor suits require a power source that can be used up and needs to be replenished in whatever way. Now to counterbalance this, the AT has high damage (Blaster-level or slightly below), but the damage they do decreases directly as their END does. When your end is full, you do full damage, but as you attack each successive attack is doing less and less damage. This is a harsh trade-off as the AT has low Recovery to begin with.

Also, the AT has high defenses (either Tanker-level or slightly below), but, you guessed it, their resist or defense or whatever percentages decrease directly as HP decreases. Full health, full defense, low health, low defense.

The final piece of the puzzle is the inherent powers given to the AT. The idea behind the inherent powers is the aforementioned redirection of energy ("Divert all power to shields", etc.). The AT has two mutually-exclusive toggles. I don't know if it's possible to have a toggle that gives one instant benefit and then a second benefit that lasts as long as the toggle is on, but let's pretend it is. One toggle is an unenhanceable self heal that heals you when it's clicked on and also gives a sizeable +Regen boost, but also a -Recovery as well. The second is the exact opposite: immediate END boost, with +Recovery and -Regen.

So Blaster-level damage that decreases the more you attack. Tanker-level defenses that decrease the more you ARE attacked. Having to micromanage your HP and END is a pretty good tradeoff for the above, I think, and you have two toggles that let you switch between offensive and defensive modes. Could all the penalties for high damage and high defense be mitigated with IOs? Yes, but IOs let every AT do things they weren't necessarily meant to do.

Anyway, that's how I would do it. It could definitely use some fleshing out, but that's the idea for a Powered Armor AT I've had rattling around in my brain for about 7 years (although mine didn't necessarily have a gatling gun )

Say hello to my little friend!

Interesting read so far. I'm not totally convinced there is enough wiggle room for a Ranged/Defense AT though. Not without some significant gimmick/drawback to keep Blasters relevant and that runs the risk of creating an AT locked into a narrow play-style or role.

However, the fact that as part of the Blaster upgrade several blaster powers are having their ranges increased might mean that the PAGGG could fill a gap with mostly short to medium range attacks and relatively high defense. On the other hand, melee range has been increased in recent times, especially in sets such as Staff fighting and Titan Weapons. Add in the additional ranged attacks in Sorcery and likely future Power Pools, and it looks like the design space for the PAGGG is being squeezed from both sides. In fact, a 'Power Armour' Power Pool set seems a fairly probable Tech counterpart to Sorcery.

I'm wondering if an entirely new AT is a bit of overkill to try and capture the particular 'ranged brute' playstyle you seem to be striving for, especially when existing ATs already offer a wide range of experiences, many of them coming close to the Ranged/Def AT mechanically. Why not just make 'range' the gimmick for a powerset for Brutes and Tanks (and possibly Scrappers and Stalkers also)?

Mechamorph
General Overview: This powerset represents a mech exoskeleton that has two modes - Mobile Assault and Turret Defense. It utilises the new 'conditional' tech that enables powers to have different effects, damage, effects and even animations if a certain condition is in place.

In Mobile Assault mode (which is the default) the powers revolve mostly around short range, powerful self-targeted cone or pbaoe attacks that don't require a target. This reflects the mech's relatively poor aim which in motion and adds an element of tactical movement to maximise the effectiveness of your attacks. Think 'spray and pray' gatling gun, flamethrower, etc. Power animations include modular 'pop-up' weapons from arms or shoulders (think the 'bloom-launcher' from Nature Affinity as an example). These powers do NOT accept Ranged enhancements or sets.

Turret Defense is an interruptible toggle (don't know if these are possible?) with a relatively long animation that transforms the character into an immobile turret with longer-range (still shorter than Blasters) single-target attacks (rail gun, thermal lance, missile, etc.) and strong damage/mez resistance. The drawback of Turrent Defense mode is that it drops most other toggles, leaving the character vulnerable if they want to go back into Mobile Assault mode.