Sakura Tenshi

I want to preface this by saying that I actually think Super Reflexes is overall an okay set and perfectly balanced. It's not top-tier, end-game godmode like some other armor sets in the game but, honestly, not everything has to be. That stated, there's also the fact that the numbers I'd proposition are purely examples as I'm not a theorycrafter and am a rare breed of 'Asian who sucks at math', so feel free to suggest better numbers. Lastly, I would like this to be a bit of an open discussion so feel free to hijack the thread with your own ideas and proposals, even if we've probably heard them before. Let's get started: 1. Buffing Practiced Brawler Now, I just want to say, as someone who has switched from a /SR main to a /Will main: I DO NOT WANT PB TO BECOME A TOGGLE. I've lost endurance, and with it, my mez protection which consigns my brute to instant death from lockdown, where as I've been able to recover from end flat-lining on SR and other click mez protects. However, it is extremely 'basic' compared to other click protections, /nin offers psionic resistance, which can be stacked to resist cap even (another reason not to disrespect click based mez protects), meanwhile, /shield's mez protection provides total mez protection (something neither SR or Nin can boast) and does boost defense debuff resistance, which is helpful on a kind of 'jack of all' set like Shield. So here's what I might consider adding to Practiced Brawler either as individual buffs or all together. +1000% Placate/Taunt Resistance: conceptually, a the power name would suggest one is an experienced fighter, and as such perhaps you'd be able to ignore distractions like attempts to placate or pull your focus from your intended target. Mechanically, this is because placate is VERY annoying on high defense characters as the placater will lock you out of attacking them and if they're the last one in the mob, you can just end up in a staring contest for a minute or so as they whiff and keep whiffing. Possible gravy addition: the taunt/placate resist becomes a team buff each time you activate it so your team is similarly not stuck. +25% endurance discount: Perhaps another benefit of a practiced brawler is learning to pace yourself for the long haul of the fight, or even you've just grown so used to keeping up your guard it's not a big drain as it would be for others. Mechanically: for some reason /sr feels oddly endurance heavy for a set with three toggles. I have no idea if it's just me but compared to other sets like invul and all that, end poofs pretty fast. Shorten recharge to be permanent out the box: pretty self explanatory. 2. Altering the passive resistances Agile, Lucky, and Dodge start to give you sliding resistance scales for all damage types except toxic and psionic (which is now a somewhat dated concept for this server) starting at 60% of your max HP and caps effectively when you're at 1% to... 60% resist to all but psionic and toxic. Now, maybe it's not so bad if you're not a scrapper or a stalker except it definitely is. Tanks would have about 68.4 HP at this point and at level 50 would be killed with brawl from your average Council mook. It gets a little better if you've invested in IOs, but this game is not, and has never been balanced around IOs and IOs should not be needed to complete any given powerset. So, my proposals would be as follows: Front load a solid percentage of resistance into each power, perhaps only for a pair of damages, say 10% (on tanks for example) per. With the ability to slot resistance enhancements into the power. Start the resistance scaling sooner and cap it sooner as well: let's say the resistance scaling starts at about 90% or 75% HP, just when you're starting to bleed and stops at about 40% or 25% HP, with the scaling resist component adding about 40%. A lot less, yes, but you'd have far more HP and be getting more resistance for remaining HP than current. 3. Improvements to Elude This is not an issue necessarily unique to Super Reflexes, but indeed, many of the old armor sets still have the old '90 or so seconds of godmode followed by instant death crash'. It's something I feel can be a take or leave it, though I understand a lot of people seem to just end up leaving it, even if they're not aiming for a super optimal build because the cost of the crash is often too steep to accept. Plus, I think the biggest issue is that even without IOs, it's not that hard to cap defense on SR and all Elude does is give more of the same, which might make some thematic sense, but I think it could be better. Shorten Duration, reduce defense buffs, eliminate crash, reduce recharge rate but make it unaffected by further recharge reduction: my rough number ideas would be - 45 second duration, +30% defense to Melee, ranged, AoE (tanker scaling), Rech time: 300 seconds (unenhanceable), recovery and movement buffs would be unchanged. Additional buffs (self): +Recharge (40%, this is part of why I'd have the recharge rate for elude locked), and +20% ToHit buff. These additions are meant to play on the idea of going into a sort of 'ultra-speed' mode, tohit being because it's much easier to target enemies when they move so slow in relation and a recharge buff to stack with quickness for maximum attack spam. Additional debuffs (foe): -Spd, jump, fly, recharge, and tohit and a magnitude 2 hold chance in an aura extending in a 35 feet around the user for the duration of Elude. Basically adds martial combat's 'reaction time' to Elude's effects. And in summary this adds a sort of offensive boon to elude on top of its defensive features. Anyway, that's my musings, I await the ratio'ing. I can't say for sure how much or how little these could or should be implemented, and I do think of legacy powersets, SR's probably one that's doing among the best, especially with defense changes and the level requirement reduction. But it's always had a softspot to me since live where I can never not think of how I'd wanna make it better.

I mean, given the framework for the design of Crey (which the additional mobs partially inherited) dates back to issue 0 on live under Jack Emmert: yes, you're supposed to be softlocked from content without a team by their own logic. Edit: Also, if I recall, ordinary bosses were originally not meant to be solo fought under Jack Emmert's design philosophy. Heck, he didn't even want people being able to take on more than four or five minions. Now obviously, things changed even back on live, but like so many things and as with many games, we're stuck dealing with the legacy of old design concepts which are not necessarily true.

As someone who played a katana/sr scrapper on live, I’m just going to say that while I understand why lethal is so commonly resisted, it doesn’t feel like good gameplay design that it’s also so highly resisted. I get it: superhero game, no one just shoots Superman, but gameplay trumps “realism” and making lethal damage options effectively noob trap choices is really crappy. now that all being said, I understand there are plans to look at the game and mob designs to be a bit more evened out, and there are probably going to be ongoing tweaks with existing sets in the future. for my own personal suggestion to this, I’m sort of half and half, I’d want to suggest lethal damage sets getting a buff, but only because it’d theoretically be less work intensive than going through every single mob in the game to normalize resistances and such. But generally I feel like unless an enemy is an AV, there’s no reason they should have more than 40% resistance to anything.

I, too, wish to be a spess mareen.

In some ways I feel like VEATS are overtuned, especially compared to HEATs who suffer a lot for their ability to have armor and ranged attacks, but I do see why some people feel otherwise, I mean Fortunata, while they do have a pretty spammy and strong nuke, also have a kind of limited amount of AoE damage period, and ironically all their single target attacks to my recollection lack a bit of burst damage, plus, the Inherent really sucks and honestly seems like it was tacked on purely because the live devs were like "oh, yeah, they need an inherent, uhhh... let's give them a crappier version of Fitness!" Anyway, here's a few of my own rough suggestions within my kind of narrow experience band of playing VEATS (I've only really played Fort and 'Huntsman') New inherent - Survival of the Fittest: Arachnos’ Darwinist teachings instill nearly sadistic sense in its best soldiers. Anytime you defeat an enemy you will be healed for a small amount of HP depending on the strength of your Target and recover an amount of endurance. (2.5%hp/5%end-minion, 5%hp/10%end-Lieutent/boss, 20%hp/100%endurance for EBs and stronger) Additional powers for Arachnos Soldier - Sniper Rifle at level 22 and Full Auto at level 26* *Yes, I get this basically invalidates Assault Rifle as a powerset but dammit, I hate the Frankengun! Giving VEATS (and HEATS) access to APPs, figure sharing with Sentinels seems like it might work with some power selection tweaks.

It's a topic that's been beaten to death, but I just wanna give my hot take: I don't mind tough and weave being where they are as they are. I just want the attacks to be freely available and improved/alt animations for punch and kick. Edit: man, I was expecting thumbs down. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who loves the idea of a "Brawl: the full chain" for those times you want to say 'screw super powers, I'm punching you in the face!'

If they don’t track their caster, why does the Sky Raider Engineer shield projector change sides only if the caster engineer has been confused, even after it’s been summoned?

Also, if you want to see shield and blast sets, try it in AE. It theoretically happens but several times the attack itself won’t animate properly besides the effect or the shield vanishes to accommodate and it’s not consistent which one happens. Now there are times when it works just fine, presumably because, as mentioned, they’re animations that are already added in through Epic PPs. then there was the la creaturea I spawned amine time when I gave an AE boss dual pistols and shields. Dios mio… his guns kept getting locked halfway into the spinning draw animations while bullets emitted from his chest.

While I do agree with the idea of replacing one of the Ms. Libertys, preferably with Back Alley Brawler, I also should note Ms. Liberty isn’t a unique instance of having two copies in the open world: Penelope Yin has both a contact for a normal arc and her TF replacing Sister Psyche. A bit more confoundingly is that the TF occupies only the next level range up from Penny’s arc in Faultline. I suppose the overall best change would just be to put Faultline Penny on contact phasing so she’s only present when you are taking her arc. But I notice contact phasing doesn’t seem to be done too often by the current team so it might be too complex.

@Luminara is this still Excalibur or are talking about Caliburn the Sword in the Stone? Or are you one of the people who doesn’t accept Arthur having had a sword before Excalibur? side note: given Arthur historically fought the Saxons and a Viking tactic was designing their shields to be soft enough for swords to get stuck in, it does make sense that a mythically strong sword would just split the shield and the person behind it all the same.

I mostly used metallurgy as a bit of a shorthand. But, basically, yeah. I’m just saying Excalibur would not be confined to being a one-handed sword, it might not even be confined to any single form. If I’m recalling a wiki article right. Excalibur’s etymology is thought to mean “Steel Cutter”. So it may wel be that whatever medieval times people thought it was made from, it’s possible they already were imagining of something better than steel. if we were to go by pure in-city of-verse thoughts, I might wager Excalibur is an Impervium blade, given one of the things, as I recall of the lore, is that Impervium is so strong you need magic to shape it.

I feel like I should clarify that while I would like content levels of access to open up across the board, I bring up the Hollows specifically because the contacts tend to have a very narrow level band relative to the length/exp rewards of the arcs, and as mentioned, Talshaak is especially bizarre with only having a level range of 12-14: two levels.

Just throwing this out there, I know there's options like 'turn off EXP' and ouroboros, but I remember from back on live an attempt to actually try to go through the Hollows arcs from 5-14 and by the time I finished Julius the troll.. I had outleveled Talshak the Mystic (who is a narrow 12-14 contact). I do know Trolls and outcasts can go up to 20 thereabouts, not sure about the Minions of Igneous. Still, I'd like to say this could be something worth looking into just as an alternative to going into Kings Row's far more generous arc ranges.

No, red, like the nice, warm color offices instead of those sterile, pre-2000s Apple hellscapes in Paragon and Praetoria.

Just to preface, this isn’t exactly a pressing suggestion, more just some random musings on power pools, also a declaration of love for Fighting Pool’s attacks, so feel free to /jranger me if you disagree. let’s have fighting pool powers have synergy with other pool attacks! Some specific ideas include having crosspunch can add a chance to chain attacks from Flurry of the Speed Pool, reflecting the ability of smacking nearby foes with your flurry of punches. Next synergy idea would be crosspunch increasing the target cap on Spring Attack from leaping (probably something small like by only 3 targets?). Last fighting pool synergy idea would be for boxing and kick to increase Air Superiority from Flying’s damage but also add a stun component for when they do get up. I’ll talk about Jump Kick when it gets a better animation. Though here’s a weird idea of synergy: seeing as you can only get one, what if the “super armor” power of Force of Will, Experimentation, Sorcery (and others when they’re added) granted some relevant damage process to pool power attacks for their active duration? Like toxic for experimentation, psionic for Will, and energy with Sorcery? It’s out there but just a random thought. I will now make my own attempt at a Sidearm power set. For a bit of context I would say the side arm set would operate on different attack modifiers depending on the AT using to let them be quasi-viable but also not make it feel like one AT massively benefits more from a set that’s nearly flavor. Also the range of all ST attacks would be 60 ft than normal 80. Pot Shot - (Minor Lethal damage, Recharge:fast, single target ranged, foe: -def.) you fire a quick shot from your sidearm dealing minor lethal damage at a range. Down the Sights - (Moderate lethal damage, recharge: moderate, single target ranged, foe: -def, chance (30%) for knockback) you take a carefully aimed shot with your side arm dealing moderate damage with a chance to knock your target off their feet. Hair Trigger - (Click, duration: 30 seconds, Self: Rech(special), -acc, -endcost(special), recharge:long) activating this power allows your Sidearm pool powers to recharge instantly and have a moderately reduced Endurance cost for the duration this power is active. You must have at least 1 sidearm power before you can select this one. (Recharge of this power is unenhanceable.) Richochet (minor lethal damage, recharge: moderate , single target (chain up to +2) ranged, for:-def) You fire a shot from your side arm in such a way it has a chance to richochet off the initial target and strike up to two more enemies! You must have at least 1 other sidearm power before you can select this one. Fan The Hammer (moderate lethal damage, recharge:slow, Cone (40 ft, by 30 degrees) ranged AoE, foe:-def) you quickly fan the hammer of your sidearm allowing you to rapidly shoot in an arc in front of you dealing moderate lethal damage. You must have at least 2 sidearm powers before you can select this one.

While I do feel like the guy did add atmosphere to Pocket D, I’m pretty sure his constant presence wasn’t even intended by the live devs as the guy had an absurdly high spawn chance compared to every other non essential NPC and this included the Bartenders! And yes, constant intermittent barfing can be distracting and annoying when you’re trying to RP and not everyone enjoys the blue side bar. Though admittedly these days we have Blackbeard’s for Redside BaRP.

Funny enough, Miss Liberty's Excalibur could be argued as the most 'historically accurate', since Excalibur would have been a sort of short, onehanded, iron sword likely based off Roman or Anglo-Saxon design. That said, depending on the version of the myth you subscribe to or is used for City of, Excalibur was a sword created by the benevolent Fey and blessed by God and so who knows what metallurgy would be behind it.

I also recently posted some suggestions for future prismatic particle items in the appropriate forum, one of which being a Embiggen to contrast with the shrink, and that will probably be very useful for anyone who wants to make a mecha character. Or a giant. also hard to say what the limits are on these, we do have disc jockeys who have no legs, so I do wonder if this could lead to getting snakes as a costume?

Prismatic costumes are pretty cool for some concepts: your character is a shapeshifter your character (especially if they're a stalker) rely on disguises for stealth, or maybe they're just a generic mook who has mook'd for a bunch of different gangs. Go 'naked' under the costume so it looks like your character suffers a wardrobe malfunction ala samus aran on defeat. (bonus points if you're using the PPD Shell) Just wanna live that NPC look you can't reasonably do in the creator (Warhulks, DE, etc.) Make yourself smaller than possible in the editor get some conceptual aura effects you can't due to powerset selection limitations (I want photosynthesis for Gaia Redeemer since, well, as his name implies, he's a nature warrior) or use it for multi-layering auras and effects!

Honestly, I'd be happy with just 16 or 20 feet. Also, secret confession: I suggested it for people who dream of playing Mecha characters and are jealous Malta and Arachnos have been able to somehow squeeze Zeus titans or Toxic Tarantulas into offices all these years. @biostem and @Clave Dark 5 Oh, my goodness, I can't believe I forgot about DUST and Tuatha, the latter especially since I had thought about what other Croatoa mobs could be done (and I had thought we already had a Fir Bolg costume, seems we don't) And eee! My dumb suggestion was noticed by senpai Cobalt!

Basically a thread for costumes we'd like to see added to the Prismatic Aether Particle. Just realized I don't think I've seen one put up so might as well start once since I got some ideas. Standard tier costumes: Banished Pantheon Defiler Cimerorans - Imperious Centurion (This would be one of the Imperious Centurions who have unique parts like the toga-skirt and back disc, I figure.) Council Zenith Mech Man Talons of Vengeance Oracle (Shadow) Wyvern Wing Sting Agent (with working jetpack!) "Vintage" tier Costume: (these wouldn't actually be old models since lost, but this feels like a fitting tier to put MM pet costumes into. As a side note I imagine the costumes would recreate the appearance of a fully upgraded MM pet for the user) Demon Summoning Mastermind - Abyssal Prince Ninjas Mastermind - Oni Zombies Mastermind - Lich Zombies Mastermind - Grave Knight Premium tier costume: Embiggen! (Figure we have 'mini' so how 'bout one that lets us be +50% or double the maximum size we can make in the editor?) That's all I can really give off the top of my head since I'm not sure if there's any specific stipulations about the limits of the costume tech. I mean, I didn't think the Nemesis War Hulks or BP Devoured would be able to happen, but we got them. We also have the Freakalok Discjockey, so maybe I should have included Snakes or the lamia of the ToV, but still not sure if there's a limit, so I mostly stuck with 'safe' choices. Not sure if MM pet costumes would be acceptable also, the devs might think it'd cause 'too much confusion', though I also feel like if Riptide and Doc Buzzsaw are on the table, maaaybe MM pets or even other signature NPCs could be too?

Not a whole new set, but I’d love it if katana and broadsword had some built in -res power to slightly compensate for lethal being resisted by @&$%ing the everything to the nth degree as if the live devs design philosophy had been “you picked a lethal damage dealing set? Screw you!”

Kind of did? A friend from back on live mentioned Katana used to just be broadsword with a different model and did less damage. Later it got faster recharge, unique (and quicker) animations, and lower end cost in compensation for its lower damage. Though the idea of this is sort of a flip where it'd be allowing weapon models and animations (with some tweaks to animation speed) to be used for the other. Sort of a power/animation customization wholesale package in addition to weapon customization itself. Are you suggesting a sort of 'alternate animation style' that would turn archery into basically a 'marksman rifle' set? It could work within this idea, it would involve changing the power 'particle effect' like arrows to a bullet.

it's unfortunately not that easy. Desdemona and Mother Mayhem's costume pieces are designed explicitly for their bodies and to be used as a whole. I messed around with them in DevIcon and you can see a lot of geometry holes if you don't use each piece. On top of that they don't color very well either. A funny example though of weird NPC modeling tricks is that Reichsman is missing most of the top part of his head due to his cap being so flat at the top, I think it was also done so the brim of the cap would almost completely cover his eyes. But really its funnier to say Marcus Cole needed a lobotomy to join the Column.

Okay, so I want to preface that I don't even know if this could be called a suggestion, so much as just searching for discussion and feedback. I don't know how feasible it would be from a development standpoint either. The gist of the idea is to basically give some sets, pretty much mostly weapon oriented ones, some 'alt-styles' that roughly change up how the animations would go but not anything mechanically (so not animation mechanics either), some example ideas include: Tactical Archery -> Tactical rifle: for someone who uses AR and even beam rifle, or just wants a more 'weapons' oriented secondary but like the utility munitions concept. This basically would make Tactical Archery blaster secondary attacks be fired from an assault rifle model as various types of grenades. Shield Defense - Shieldless 'Shield Defense': Pretty self-explanatory. Basically a version of shield where you don't have extra costume part and thus could pair it with other powersets* Broadsword -> Two-handed Warsword: Basically the slower, smashier numbers of broadsword with the two-handedness of katana. Customization would be the same, animations would be recycled but timing would be slowed down to match better. Katana -> Fencer's blade: Basically the flipside of the above, broadsword's animation sped up, and its customizations applied to katana's speed for a more 'fencing'-esque feel. And those are the four major ones that popped into my head. Now some of you might say "if you want the mechanical benefits of the powerset without the visuals then suck it up and accept the visuals!", and, well, really I can't argue completely with that, though I do feel such options could open up some great concepts. Now in-programming terms, I'm not sure if you'd pick these options when you pick those powersets or if it'd basically just end up being a largely copy and paste 'new' powerset entirely that shares mechanics. But there's a lot of uncertainty with this and that's why I'm just throwing it out there to ask what people even think of such an idea. *Shield might be an issue though since, I don't remember where, but I think the live devs had mentioned that they had partially balanced shield defense itself around being unable to pair it with certain powers like claws and katana, and balanced some later powersets around whether they would be able to be paired with shield or not.