KelvinKole

Simple, but I couldn’t find the answer. Can I buff Singy with the sonic shields, disruption field, and sonic repulsion? Trying not to be disappointed after 32 levels by finding out I can’t buff him.

Finally got my grav/thorn respeced to be able to use this. What a freakin game changer. I barely need to do anything else other than position Singy in the middle of a mob. He pulls them together, knocks them down, throws out controls. I can finally live my best life as Thorn Blaster!

Im not particularly bothered by knockback, and don’t really play any characters that heavily utilize it, so I’ve abstained from commenting here. But, in a lack of restraint, here goes something. … Is the problem a lack of control over when a particular power does knockback? Sets like energy blast have it coded in to all of the powers, but sometimes either the player or their teammates doesn’t desire that effect. However, other than standing completed idle, or I guess slotting kb to kd in every power, and energy blaster doesn’t have control over it. If there was a mechanic that allowed the player to have better control over it, would that help? Let’s say all energy blast powers were changed to only do knockback when the player was within X range of the target. If I’m less than X, my powers will do knockback so I can get things out of my or an ally’s face. If I’m greater than X, my powers will not do knockback (but maybe have a different effect). Some specific powers with intentional 100% chance to knockback would not be changed, so players can still count on those for the desired effect no matter what (torrents, bonfire, gale, etc).

I kind of hate seeds of confusion and don’t think that should be the standard for anything. I’m sure it’s fun for the people using it, but having every group in a mission not even fight back is little too….belittling. Like why am I here.

I did say they were probably bad ideas…. But honestly I thought we were talking about new content to challenge and engage level 50s who have surpassed what the game can offer. I think the 1-50 journey is fine and wouldn’t force all of this on everyone.

This is absolutely true on a scrapper, where their base damage capability is highest in the game. They don’t need procs and have very little to gain from them. Defenders, corrupters, tanks, trollers…those guys can reach previously unreachable dps levels with procs. All that said, I don’t even think there’s anything wrong with that. As I’ve said, the “problem” is really a select few procs and powers. I don’t believe there is a systemic issue with PPM.

Absorption and a -repel is all the set needs, IMO. I don’t particular care where they go and will leave that to the far more qualified in this thread. Absorption just makes sense thematically and provides a much needed second layer of mitigation. -repel, like the singularity changes, is something fun and rare that also makes sense for the set. You create a collapsing field around your target that pulls surrounding foes inward.

You can also drive engagement through new game mechanics that don’t necessarily make things more difficult but require a change in player awareness and behavior. Super Stunners, for example, don’t resurrect if there’s not players in range when they die. I use Kai Push a lot in the Pen Yin task force to move them away from the team right as they are about to die so they can’t Rez and sapp us all. Most teams just huddle around them as they die and power through it, but make the resurrection deal more damage or inflict a mag 20 hold or something and player behavior starts to change. As a few ideas, we could create enemies that can’t take damage unless under a status effect, Warhulks could do double the current damage when they explode but don’t do any if they are held when killed, council wolves could have a velocity effect that increases their damage as the move, cot mages could blow up the corpses of surrounding minions, sky raider porters could take a nearby player with them when they go (lol!). these are probably all bad examples, but I think you get the point. Difficulty is only one way to improve engagement, there’s lots of ways to force consciousness and strategic play.

Really, when I hear people say they want more challenging content I think what they really mean is they want more engaging content. Steam rolling is not engaging, and so it’s boring. You can mess with the difficulty settings all you want, but fighting +6 or turning off inspirations doesn’t improve the engagement level. It just makes things take longer and becoming annoying. The only sure fire way to make the game more engaging, by making it more challenging, is to rework the NPCs. Player characters have levels of power creep that enemy mobs never got. They need higher damage scales, higher hit chances, access to better buff and debuff abilities, etc.. Arachnos, as an example, can challenge teams with exotic damage types, debuffs, end drain, critical damage, and nukes. That’s really the model for how to do it.

This is beginning to hone in on a problem statement and I like it. There’s a small number of procs, like Gaussians and force feedback, that overperform due to the PPM system. Similarly, there’s a small number of powers that also overperform with proc slotting. The discussion should really be around those outliers and not the PPM mechanic as a whole.

That’s pretty nuts. Well done.

I’ll latch on to one thing I agree with and comment. I do think creating proc bombs out of powers like radiation therapy, dna siphon, etc. is a bit of an exploit on a power that does minuscule damage and simply accepts damage enhancements. These powers probably just shouldn’t accept damage enhancements and/or sets, which reduces the amount of procs you can cram into them. Not a proc mechanic issue, just an issue with which elements of these powers are enhanceable or the sets it’s allowed to take.

Here is what I current have drawn up. I was able to get to incarnate soft cap for S/L/E/N with 6 targets on Energy Absorption, and basically capped Fire and Cold (duh) resistance. It feels good enough, but not great with some obvious holes in toxic and psi. If anyone has a better framework for Ice in particular, I'd like to take a look. This combo is super fun though; I love the character. This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.0.4.7 https://github.com/Reborn-Team/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Magic Tanker Primary Power Set: Ice Armor Secondary Power Set: Street Justice Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Frozen Armor (A) Reactive Defenses - Defense (3) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance (3) Reactive Defenses - Endurance/RechargeTime (5) Reactive Defenses - Defense/RechargeTime (5) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime (7) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage Level 1: Initial Strike (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage (31) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance (31) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge (33) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 2: Heavy Blow (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage (17) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance (19) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge (33) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 4: Chilling Embrace (A) Endurance Reduction IO (7) Endurance Reduction IO Level 6: Sweeping Cross (A) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage (9) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Damage/RechargeTime (19) Superior Gauntleted Fist - RechargeTime/+Absorb (39) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (40) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (40) Superior Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 8: Permafrost (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (9) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (11) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance (21) Impervium Armor - Resistance Level 10: Wet Ice (A) Endurance Reduction IO (11) Endurance Reduction IO Level 12: Icicles (A) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage (13) Superior Might of the Tanker - Damage/Recharge (13) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (15) Superior Might of the Tanker - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (15) Superior Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (17) Superior Might of the Tanker - Recharge/Chance for +Res(All) Level 14: Hoarfrost (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal (27) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance (27) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime (29) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime (29) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance (31) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb Level 16: Taunt (A) Empty Level 18: Glacial Armor (A) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime (23) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance (23) Reactive Defenses - Defense (25) Reactive Defenses - Endurance/RechargeTime Level 20: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (21) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (43) Kismet - Accuracy +6% Level 22: Super Jump (A) Jumping IO Level 24: Boxing (A) Empty Level 26: Energy Absorption (A) Reactive Defenses - Endurance/RechargeTime (42) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime (42) Reactive Defenses - Defense/RechargeTime (42) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance Level 28: Spinning Strike (A) Artillery - Accuracy/Damage (37) Artillery - Accuracy/Recharge/Range (37) Artillery - Damage/Endurance (37) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage (39) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff (39) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 30: Tough (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (33) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime (34) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (34) Unbreakable Guard - Endurance/RechargeTime (34) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP (36) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance Level 32: Combat Readiness (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up Level 35: Shin Breaker (A) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage (36) Overwhelming Force - Endurance/Recharge (36) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (46) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (46) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 38: Crushing Uppercut (A) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Recharge (40) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage (43) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (43) Hecatomb - Damage (45) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative) (45) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal) Level 41: Weave (A) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance (45) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime (50) Reactive Defenses - Endurance/RechargeTime (50) Reactive Defenses - Defense Level 44: Mu Lightning (A) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage (46) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/RechargeTime (48) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (48) Superior Winter's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (50) Superior Winter's Bite - Damage/Endurance/Accuracy/RechargeTime Level 47: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (48) Recharge Reduction IO Level 49: Hibernate (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Sprint

I’m in the camp that doesn’t think we have the problem fully defined, and therefore not going to try and make suggestions. I saw some points earlier about specific thoughts Capt. Powerhouse has, but those seem easily addressed without sweeping changes to the ppm mechanic as currently written. if the problem is proc bombing some attacks, there’s a fix but I’m not sure there’s really an issue there . if the problem is buff procs are too easily obtained through aoe, there’s a fix but it’s not the same as fixing proc bombs. if the issue is low recharge attacks have really poor proc rates, there’s a fix but it’s not the same as either of the above. define the problem, hypothesize solutions, test a solution, then act. The problem here seems to be painted with too wide a brush.

Find Mother Mayhem and commence my courtship display.