Blackfeather

Glad you like the proposed concept! And as for a petless T9, it did get me thinking, and I came up with this: T9: Gleaming Sphere You summon an immobile, shining sphere of light that surrounds your current location, preventing anything inside from being seen from the outside, and vice versa. Area of Effect powers may still damage those obscured by the sphere. The luminous intensity within the sphere can cause enemies to take minor Energy damage, have their chance to hit reduced, and even cause them to exit the area if possible. Damage Minor DoT (Energy) Recharge Long (120s) Duration 60s Minimum Level 32 Effects Summon Sphere: Location (PBAoE) Foe -To Hit, Afraid (Mag 50) Enhancements Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Recharge Enhance To Hit Debuff Set Categories Melee AoE Damage To Hit Debuff It's pretty similar to Gravity Control's Dimension Shift, except just blocking line of sight instead of outright stopping entities from being affected by things. I figured it might have some neat applications, such as preventing outside enemies from attacking, or providing a safe zone for allies to stay inside. I was also inspired by Assault Rifle's Ignite, with its powerful Fear effect; since Light Control has an immobilise, it's easier to regulate if that's not wanted. Would be interested in hearing your thoughts on it, and whether it'd be something that you'd find useful!

Hey all! After writing up a proposal for Insect Control, I’ve decided to try and create another Control powerset, and decided to fill an obvious elemental gap – there’s a lack of Control powersets in general, so I’m trying to do my part to help resolve that. As a secondary goal, I wanted to make Light Control relatively unique, while still maintaining a decent amount of lockdown despite its larger amount of non-standard powers. Given this decision, I’d definitely be interested in hearing everyone’s thoughts on this: is it too divergent/weak/overtuned/unenjoyable? Special Effect: Illuminate Similar to how Time Manipulation's Time Crawl inflicts the Delayed effect on enemies, Light Control's Ray of Light and Dazzling Glow inflict the Illuminated effect, enhancing the strength of some of its powers on the targets it's applied on. The idea behind this was to allow for stronger amounts of control against enemies that require it. The affected powers are as follows: T1: Ray of Light, bonus damage T2: Dazzling Glow, Mag 3.5 Sleep -> Mag 7 Sleep (+3.5) T3: Radiating Ties, Mag 3 Immobilize -> Mag 4 Immobilize (+1) T4: Blinding Halo, Mag 2 Hold -> Mag 4 Hold (+2) T6: Incandescent Eruption, bonus damage T7: Prismatic Field, 2% chance Disorient -> 4% chance Disorient T8: Luminous Distortion, 2% chance Confuse -> 4% chance Confuse Design Rationale Light Control's powers were made to primarily work at close range, with their long range powers being either single target, or soft/temporary control. Additionally, the main power of this set (T4: Blinding Halo) is meant to not only gradually lock down nearby enemies, but help draw their attention to the user by reducing their range, away from other allies: a very 'selfless' powerset by way of taking up more enemy time. The -ToHit in several of Light Control's powers is meant to synergise with this intent, making it a little harder for enemies to hit the user. Their up-close-and-personal approach is also supplemented with a few weaker location based powers, either for layering on top of their current controls, or for distracting additional mobs. Light Control Power Table Power Level Effect Ray of Light 1 Ranged, Moderate DMG(Energy), Foe -To Hit, -DEF(All), Special Dazzling Glow 1 Ranged, Moderate DMG(Energy), Foe Sleep, Foe -To Hit, Special Radiating Ties 2 PBAoE, Minor DMG(Energy), Foe Immobilize, Foe -To Hit, -Fly Blinding Halo 6 Toggle: PBAoE, Foe Hold, Minor DoT(Energy), Foe -Range, -To Hit, -Stealth Twilight 8 Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe -Visibility, -To Hit Incandescent Eruption 12 PBAoE, Minor DMG(Energy/Smashing), Foe Knockdown, Chance for Disorient Prismatic Field 18 Ranged (Location AoE), Minor DoT(Energy), Foe -Speed, -DEF(All), Chance for Disorient Luminous Distortion 26 Ranged (Location AoE), Foe Attract, Chance for Confuse Shining Motes 32 Summon Motes: Melee, Minor DoT(Energy) Powers T1: Ray of Light You generate a luminous beam of light and fire it at a target, dealing Energy damage to them. Its brightness can temporarily reduce the chance to hit of your foes, along with their defences. Additionally, Ray of Light applies the Illuminated effect on its target, and deals additional damage to enemies who are already Illuminated. Damage Moderate (Energy) Recharge Moderate (6s) Minimum Level 1 Effects Ranged Foe -To Hit, -Defense(All), Special (Illuminate) Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Recharge Enhance Range Enhance To Hit Debuff Enhance Defense Debuff Set Categories Accurate To Hit Debuff Defense Debuff Ranged Damage To Hit Debuff T2: Dazzling Glow Causes a dizzying array of light to appear before a foe. The target is left mesmerized and illuminated by the display, even as its brightness damages them, though subsequent attacks will free them from this effect. Enemies powerful enough to resist this effect will still have their chance to hit reduced. The strength of this Sleep will be increased when used against targets illuminated by Ray of Light or Dazzling Glow. Damage Moderate (Energy) Recharge Moderate (6s) Duration 55.88s Minimum Level 1 Effects Ranged Foe Sleep (Mag 3.5), -To Hit, Special (Illuminate) Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Recharge Enhance Range Enhance Sleep Enhance To Hit Debuff Set Categories Accurate To Hit Debuff Ranged Damage Sleep To Hit Debuff T3: Radiating Ties Beams of light spring forth from you in all directions, trapping nearby foes in an array of blinding incandescence, rendering them immobilized. Enemies powerful enough to resist this effect will still have their chance to hit reduced. The strength of this immobilize will be increased when used against targets illuminated by Ray of Light or Dazzling Glow. Damage Minor DoT (Energy) Recharge Moderate (8s) Duration 27.94s Minimum Level 2 Effects Point Blank Area of Effect Foe Immobilize (Mag 3), -To Hit Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Immobilize Enhance Recharge Enhance To Hit Debuff Set Categories Accurate To Hit Debuff Immobilize Melee AoE Damage To Hit Debuff T4: Blinding Halo While this power is active, you are surrounded by a bright halo of light, reducing the chance to hit and range of nearby foes. The halo is so bright that enemies may take Energy damage over time, inhibit their stealth capabilities, and even blind them to the point of holding them in place. The strength of this blind will be increased against targets illuminated by Ray of Light or Dazzling Glow. Damage Minor DoT (Energy) Endurance 1.04/s Recharge Slow (15s) Duration 7.45s Minimum Level 6 Effects Point Blank Area of Effect Foe Hold (Mag 2), -To Hit, -Stealth, -Range Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Hold Enhance Recharge Enhance To Hit Debuff Set Categories Accurate To Hit Debuff Hold Melee AoE Damage To Hit Debuff T5: Twilight Draws light away from all foes near your target, inhibiting their vision. Most foes will not be able to see past normal melee range, although some may have better perception. If the foes are attacked, they will be alerted to your presence, but will suffer a penalty to their chance to hit. Recharge Slow (15s) Duration 60s Minimum Level 8 Effects Ranged (Targeted Area of Effect) Foe -90% Perception, -To Hit Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Recharge Enhance Range Enhance To Hit Debuff Set Categories To Hit Debuff T6: Incandescent Eruption Light swells out of you in a powerful burst, knocking enemies to the ground and dealing some minor damage. Some foes may even be disoriented for a short period of time after the blast, overwhelmed by its luminosity. Incandescent Eruption can deal bonus damage to targets illuminated by Ray of Light or Dazzling Glow. Damage Minor (Energy) Recharge Moderate (10s) Duration 6s Minimum Level 12 Effects Point Blank Area of Effect Foe Knockdown, Disorient (Mag 3, 25% chance) Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Knockback Enhance Recharge Enhance Disorient Set Categories Knockback Melee AoE Damage Stuns T7: Prismatic Field A painfully bright field of light appears at an area of your choice, dealing minimal Energy damage to foes inside of it. Enemies inside this field will have their movement dramatically slowed, and their defences weakened as they attempt to navigate with their perception compromised, with a chance of even becoming disoriented. Targets illuminated by Ray of Light or Dazzling Glow will have their chance to be disoriented increased. Damage Minor DoT (Energy) Recharge Long (60s) Duration 45s Minimum Level 18 Effects Ranged (Location Area of Effect) Foe -Speed (90%), -Defense(All), Chance of Disorient (Mag 3, 2% chance) Enhancements Enhance Damage Enhance Defense Debuff Enhance Disorient Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Range Enhance Recharge Enhance Slow Set Categories Defense Debuff Ranged AoE Damage Slow Movement Stuns T8: Luminous Distortion You twist the way that light behaves in a selected area, deceiving foes into moving towards it. Enemies caught in this distortion may even become confused, targeting their allies by accident as their perception is warped. Targets illuminated by Ray of Light or Dazzling Glow will have their chance to be confused increased. Recharge Long (60s) Duration 45s Minimum Level 26 Effects Ranged (Targeted Area of Effect) Foe Attract, Chance of Confuse (Mag 3, 2% chance) Enhancements Enhance Confuse Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Recharge Enhance Range Set Categories Confuse T9: Shining Motes You concentrate light together to create three Shining Motes at a target location. Shining Motes are fragile and have little intelligence of their own, instinctively moving towards enemies, damaging all those close to them. Upon expiring, they explode in a small but powerful brilliance that knocks down nearby enemies, and may disorient them. Shining Motes can be healed and buffed like any teammate. Damage Minor (Energy) Recharge Very Long (240s) Minimum Level 32 Effects Summon Motes: Melee Pet Powers Fly (Auto: Flight) Nova (Post Defeat: PBAoE (Energy), Foe Knockdown, Disorient) Shining Halo (PBAoE, DoT (Energy)) Resistance (Auto, Res(E25 N25, P25), Res(Immobilize)) Enhancements Enhance Accuracy Enhance Damage Enhance Disorient Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Recharge Set Categories Knockback Pet Damage Recharge Intensive Pets Stuns Alternate Non-Pet T9 Credit goes to @MTeague for inspiring me to write this up here, for a petless T9 power. While I've posted this alternative later in the thread, I'm pasting it over here too. T9: Gleaming Sphere You summon an immobile, shining sphere of light that surrounds your current location, preventing anything inside from being seen from the outside, and vice versa. Area of Effect powers may still damage those obscured by the sphere. The luminous intensity within the sphere can cause enemies to take moderate Energy damage, have their chance to hit reduced, and even cause them to exit the area if possible. Damage Moderate DoT (Energy) Recharge Long (120s) Duration 60s Minimum Level 32 Effects Summon Sphere: Location (PBAoE) Foe -To Hit, Afraid (Mag 50) Enhancements Enhance Damage Reduce Endurance Cost Enhance Recharge Enhance To Hit Debuff Set Categories Melee AoE Damage To Hit Debuff It was definitely made with the idea of it being niche-but-potentially-potent in mind. Would be interested in hearing what others think of it as well!

All Blasters play like Stalkers...it counts as stealth if there's nobody to report around the explosion radius, right? 😁

I get an error about being unable to equip Incarnate powers, saying that I've activated a power/been attacked too recently to be able to do so...how long is this time-out? I've logged out and back in, waited for a few minutes and so on. Do I need to deactivate my toggle powers? Here is my build for reference - not sure if any powers/enhancements might be interfering with this: build.txt

I definitely like the Rune FX update! Really thematic on my characters, but more options never hurt. 😁

As in, I like having a way of dealing continuous DoT that isn't tied down to having to get up close to someone. 😄

As in, making Singularity's Lift power knock enemies up towards it? That'd be neat.

Oh! That being said, it'd be nice if Enflame had a larger radius/target cap. I like how it's a DoT toggle power that isn't relegated to an armour powerset, pretty unique.

Definitely liking the changes here. Rune's shorter recharge time's nice for me - I've always used the power reactively and now I don't even need to slot it for recharge. 😄

Off the top of my head, Strength of Will and One With the Shield work the same way.

Heya @Gulbasaur! Saw this post of yours here: Would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this proposal, given its contents - would it be something you'd be interested in using, have thoughts of your own on what you'd add/modify, etc.? I'm all ears, as always. 😄

Hey there, thanks for all of your viewpoints on this topic! I'll do my best to voice my own thoughts on them. I think when making assertions - especially ones that go against conventional and established knowledge - it's important to support them with evidence confirming that said points are accurate ones to make. In summary (and do correct me if they're inaccurate!), your post appears to assert that: Game content is no longer balanced around SO enhancements Before IOs, support archetypes had practically no survivability (quote: "no way to survive"/"die all the time") The IO enhancement system was established to resolve this lack of survivability Therefore, IOs are necessary for non-melee archetypes to survive The first assertion I've seen brought up in this thread before - but I've yet to see compelling evidence of this outside of citationless statements, unfortunately. Evidence that the game is indeed balanced around SOs however, is quite easily found; indeed, I cite a post saying so from one of the current devs, @Captain Powerhouse in my OP: Additionally, even the newest HC story arcs have been tested using SOs, which I've mentioned over here - so it's certainly something that's still being upheld. There's also quite a number of compelling posts on the forum that explain in which ways the game is balanced around SO enhancements, such as from @Luminara over here. I think it's certainly very insightful, and worth looking into if you haven't already! As for your following points, that is, relating to the suggestion that support archetypes are unable to survive without the benefit of IO sets, and that the invention system itself was designed to resolve this...I think that requires more evidence to reliably claim, ideally a citation from one of the devs at the time, especially since because I can think of a few examples that run counter to this. For instance, @Coyotedancer has stated before that plenty of characters run around without IOs, and function perfectly well, and I myself have seen a number of such players in teams who do so as well (and yes, some were support archetype characters). They certainly were not "dying all the time". One point that I see being brought up fairly frequently across threads such as these ones is that for some players, the IO system makes their support archetype characters feel less significant - @MTeague has a good example of this over here. I think it's important to consider that given your own concern about such archetypes being disproportionately affected by different difficulty options, it might be worth considering the idea that IOs and the set bonuses they bring can have their drawbacks as well as benefits for some players, because each player gets something different out of the game. Whew, this turned out a bit longer than I anticipated. But hope this all makes sense! 😄

I can't rely on controversy and clickbait to do the work for me! Only radical proposals have that privilege. 😏 I do agree that the introduction of further options would be neat for sure, and that there's a ton of player variation in terms of slotting, skill levels, power choices, and so on. It's also true that the forums aren't always representative of the actual playerbase - the 1% rule applies here as it does in any internet community, after all. I actually play on Everlasting myself, and I can definitely confirm your own experiences with my own. Thankfully, a Notoriety option like this one wouldn't really have an effect on players with common IOs/SOs - and procs would still apply under this as well. The game is, after all, balanced around SOs, and I don't think that's going to be changing any time soon (indeed, per one of my posts, the new story arcs have been purposefully tested using them). The way I approached this Notoriety option was as a means to provide some further challenge for those PermaL33T Captains and Soft-Cap Sidekicks - for those asking for more challenging content...well, they've an entire game they can look to with the help of this. Plus having an easy way to test out story arcs to see if they're too easy/hard while using IO builds would be neat too. Thank you for your response! 🙂

Hey there @Fayre! I saw this post of yours here: Given its contents, I'd definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts on this proposal if you're up for it, or any additions/modifications of your own! 🙂

Also going to ping @Coyotedancer on this topic - hello there! I've seen your posts around the forum, and was wondering if a proposal like this would be of any interest to you. Definitely would be happy to hear any thoughts you might have, if so! 😄

Hey there again, thanks for sharing some of your experiences! I do think this is a nice reason as to why a Notoriety option would be ideal - I know I personally prefer regular pick-up groups as opposed to Flashback missions for convenience's sake. Add onto that the lack of enhancement bonuses, and it makes for a mission where missing is quite common (personally not my jam, and I imagine the same for a great deal of others). That being said, how used such a feature would be is speculation on either side if it's yet to be implemented...though I'd say the benefits of it being used for easy story arc testing is a boon in of itself, and further options are always nice.

Hey there, thanks for dropping by! A big part of this proposal's definitely its opt-in nature, so as to not disrupt players who aren't interested in such a feature, while also making it as accessible as possible for those who do want something like this. From the posts through this thread, it does look like there'd at least be some people interested in giving it a shot, and for those who aren't, they're mostly happy with it just being an option. As implied in my original post, I'm pretty heavy into IO builds myself, and I definitely enjoy the flexibility they introduce into the game as a result of them. But I can definitely empathise with the forum posters asking for further challenge in a game system that's primarily balanced around a much less potent gear system (i.e. SOs). So having an easy way to tune the difficulty of missions accordingly would be neat, I think. Thanks again for your thoughts! 😄

On a slightly different tangent, have you taken a look at @Galaxy Brain's recent testing over here? I think it's pretty interesting seeing the impact that procs have on the game - and further suggests that this Notoriety option's a nice middle between an SO build and a full IO build, which was kind of the intent.

Slightly off topic, but if you had the means, what kind of mechanics would that entail, out of curiosity?

Thanks for your thoughts on this proposal! Indeed - part of the reason why I thought this Notoriety option would be something neat was to make it easier for people to try out on a whim as opposed to having to slot a specific way, or organise things in advance: it'd just be a team and go kind of deal (so long as people are coming in knowing what settings are going to be used beforehand of course!). At the very least, I do think it'd be worth implementing for people looking for more challenge in CoX without having to go and fight specific mobs or create a whole second build. And of course as mentioned before I do think it'd be a neat means of testing out new story arc content to make sure it's not too difficult (i.e. balanced around SOs) without having players go out of their way to slot accordingly - as someone that uses full-kitted IO builds, a Notoriety option would be much more convenient for sure. 🙂

I've been using Teleport Target for easy repositioning myself.

Going to give @DougGraves a ping - heyo! Seen you around the forums here and there, and thought this suggestion might be of interest to you given your posts on game balance/teaming and so on. Would be glad to hear your thoughts about this proposal, whether or not this might be something appealing to you and the like, or even if you've got some additions of your own! 😄

I'm just gonna leave this here. 👀

I will say that I do prefer Rune of Protection granting resistance even when used while mezzed, if only because I use the power as an emergency button for when I really need it (i.e. when a mez gets through my lockdown/damage/debuffs), so the lower uptime is less of an issue for me, while the more reactive nature of my use case means that the resistance boost'll be relevant for me. I actually didn't know that was the case...I do look forward to hardcapping my resistances after breaking free from a mez. Just putting out a counterpoint as to why I'm personally happy with the change - but I can definitely understand why it could be a problem for some builds (I think Meltdown/RoP cycling's a thing for instance).

Customisation for Ninja Run, very nice, thank you, devs! Though I can't help but post this again. 😅 Hopefully this doesn't get annoying! Just would be neat, is all.