Maelwys

To be fair, it didn't "arise" as much as... "Bounce Back" 🏀 💥 🥁

I don't often Necro (even on a MM!) but a recent thread about people enjoying/not enjoying knockback got me thinking about the viability of the "Big Red Ball" idea; or at least the potential effort involved in implementing it on Homecoming. AFAIK no new code would need to be created; aside from creating a new character model for the ball itself they could just reuse existing tech. Within First Ward, there is a mob called the Seed of Hamidon. Whenever you approach it, you get granted a Temporary Power (Buoyant Membrane - effectively "Group Fly"). In fact there are a few other instances where merely being in the vicinity of something grants you a temporary power (like the First Ward/Night Ward "Shunts"). And Temporary powers don't have to be "clicky" abilities; or even toggles. They can be completely passive "autos" that in turn grant other powers and set bonuses. So... (i) Make a new Big Red spherical critter. (ii) Give that critter Mag 100 immobilize; immunity to all damage and -10000% resistance to Knockback and Repel; plus a passive large-radius PBAoE ability that only affects players (and their pets if you like). This passive ability grants any target affected by it a Temporary passive auto power; which in turn adds a 100% chance for Knockback (or repel) to all their attacks - exactly the same way as Interface Incarnate ability status effects and the the Stupefy: Chance for Knockback IO currently functions. However this Knockback effect will only kick in if the target of an attack is the Big Red Ball (using the same mob-specific targeting code as other powers like Thug Enforcer Maneuvers ).

OK. Can we have a Big Red Ball yet? ⚽ 🦶 ❔ ❔ ❔ (https://forumarchive.cityofheroes.dev/topic/114967 for anyone that doesn't get the reference...)

I've always liked the Vanguard Katana as a Lightsaber; despite the fact they've since added "proper laser swords". Unfortunately I think the only way you can get access to it on a non-melee AT is via the Ninja Training Blaster secondary or the Weapon Mastery Sentinel Epic pool.

...and just like in the movie, it's imaginary food! 😹 AFAIK there are definitely some build combos and some situations where Stalkers will be sitting on a higher average ST damage than Scrappers. Team size boosting crit rate and specific powersets (like Energy Melee and Staff Melee) really benefitting from Assassin's Strike; for example. An "average" Stalker versus an "average" Scrapper however is tougher to call. So I'm going with "it depends (tm)" Can we get back to Brutes now? Poor guy's currently face down in a trifle.

I did wonder if an effect that reverses radial knockback might be viable... so that instead of being hurled away from the central point of an AoE mobs would instead get pulled towards it. The revamped Battleaxe PBAoE has something similar (Axe Cyclone - essentially "knockback plus inverted repel") even if it was recently nerfed. There's probably a Spaceballs meme in there somewhere...

Pretty much. The main difference is that there'll be a (small!) chance for procs to kick in twice in a row without running up against the typical pseudopet 10s lockout window. Binomial Distribution suggests a 30.92% likelihood of a 3.5PPM proc kicking in "at least once" over 11.264 seconds... but a 2.85% chance of it kicking in twice. And in the (admittedly unlikely!) event that happens; an Achilles Heel Proc will refresh its own duration and a damage proc will just deal damage again. It's one of those very minor differences that most people will never notice or care about but my OCD demands that I highlight with a "well, technically..." 😛

/Rad Dominator? It's not traditionally seen as a high-end set, but an Arsenal/Rad can be hilarious. Big melee blapps that proc well; regular self-heal, nigh-unkillable tankpet. There are a few threads extolling the virtues of Domi /Rad out there - found this with a cursory look. A Radiation Blast/Atomic Manipulation Blaster (essentially "Rad/Rad rebranded") is another option... Force Mastery for Force Bomb + FF Proc shenanigans? 😂

FWIW, I distinctly recall multiple occasions where our SG/Coalition teams refused to let certain characters join because they were simply too annoying for the rest of the (admittedly mostly melee) squad to deal with. And that was despite everyone being very fond of the player behind said character. A certain Energy Blaster springs to mind... 🙊 These days? Admittedly I don't see that sort of bias vocalized anywhere near as often; but then I don't get the chance to actually play anywhere near as often as I used to. I will say though that I've never ever seen a player get denied access to a team or kicked for spamming KnockDOWN powers. The weirdest related kick I've seen was for a KnockUP power - a Waterspout user who was apparently intentionally trolling on a MLTF. 🤷‍♂️

Bad Players are bad. Bad Players plus knockback powers consistently result in ongoing annoyance to other players (who may or may not also be Bad). AFAIK it's the only power secondary effect that can be actively harmful. The only other abilities I've ever seen generate more annoyance than a badly utilized AoE Knockback ability is a badly utilized "Phase Shift" power like Sonic Cage... and at least then the bad (very bad! no cookies for you!) player is leveraging that ability's primary effect! The first toon I played that had substantial Knockback was a Peacebringer; back in issue 7 or so. In those days we didn't have any KB>KD IOs and you had to learn "good positioning" - flying above things so that they ragdoll into the floor instead of away from the tank; rotating around the combat encounter using unsuppressed movement to knock things inwards instead of outwards, etc. etc. I'm keenly aware that it's certainly possible to use KB-laden abilities without setting the rest of the team's heads on fire with sheer rage. And I appreciate the addition of individual KB>KD IOs... but I still get annoyed by the notion that players can't just choose to globally convert their own KB into KD without paying an "enhancement tax" in every power. As @Ukase mentions; many builds unfortunately just don't have that much slotting leeway. Meh.

^^ Case in point! 🙈 We could flip that around: "Knockback lovers have small, underdeveloped frontal lobes. They love imposing their sub-standard playstyle choices on others and especially enjoy trolling teams that were previously blissfully steamrolling through content without having their targets unceremoniously punted away from their melee attacks, PBAoEs and debuff patches." 😛 More seriously; it's true that some specific players are quite capable of leveraging knockback to clump rather than disperse enemies. And the introduction of Combat Teleport (and the addition of Knockback Resistance to most AoE Immobilise powers) has somewhat lessened the negative impact of 'uncontrolled' teammate-induced Knockback. However a bad knockback player can still be a major PITA on a team; and mechanically speaking KnockDOWN provides almost as much mitigation as KnockBACK but without all the hate and vitriol. So I personally will almost always choose to convert KB>KD - as a courtesy to my teammates even if it doesn't make much difference to my own toon. And whilst I haven't personally ever booted anyone off a team I'm leading for using Knockback badly (even back in the old days), I have used several of them as "Vengeance Bait".

Bear in mind that not only is it calculated for each creature individually... but it's each creature individually per copy of the mortar. It's not uncommon to have 2-3 mortars out; each of them getting a separate chance to apply the proc. AFAIK it works out at a 16.886% chance per mortar every 5.632 seconds; since Acid Mortar isn't a regular pseudopet but a proper pet with its own "Acid Mortar" subpower (which is a "clicky" AoE attack with 8ft radius and a Target Cap of 16).

FWIW I fired up an old laptop (an ancient HP with a crappy built-in GPU that just about runs Win10 with 8GB RAM). CoH was using ~2300MB in Kallisti Wharf. Atlas Park was ~2125MB, Dark Astoria and Talos Island were both about ~1940MB. Ouroboros was ~1700MB. The Chanty (despite the size!) was ~1720MB. Zoning into Kallisti did take a bit longer than the others (and the FPS was a smidge lower) but from what I can tell it's not using a huge amount more RAM. I'm still pretty sure this game could run on a Toaster if you plugged it into a dial-up modem.