ThatGuyCDude

The classic Force Field bubble around the character would be a nice aura, doubly so if it's got a Combat Only option. If it had multiple location options, too, like a small one that's head-only or bubbles that only go around the hands, that'd be a bonus. Probably too much work for that, though... just the single bubble would be enough.

I guess we could drop the crash, since Fury generation would be inhibited by reduced incoming hits. I was concerned that without some sort of penalty the crowd control granted would be unfair to Controllers and Dominators, especially in leveling content where they don't have access to anything nearly as good. It evens out around level 20 [and drops off to half-competition beyond that], but that 10-20 range would hurt MORE for those archetypes due to this change. I wonder if the objections would still be so vocal if Roar continued to provide the Build Up damage and toHit bonuses? Therein lies the problem: if it's a straight race for damage then the Brute is going to lose out for Critical hits. If damage is the only thing considered in the adjustment, then the melee archetypes are simply playing Hot Potato with the bad penny. Stalkers don't have this problem because they have a mechanic unique to them: easy-access effective stealth for scouting and an on-demand major critical. Tweaking Fury's interaction is going to come across as a passive change, and won't change the identity of the archetype [even if you come up with something bizarre like Fury rating -> Crit Chance, Crits drain Fury]. A crowd control or a debuff to be a swing-support is a direction they can move in: yes, Tanks were there before, but the Brute damage boost mechanic in place is better equipped to handle the lower output tradeoff of being an off-support archetype, and that utility would be enough to nudge them into consideration on teams: not just at endgame content but throughout the game. It's also not really a 'new' power, it's a proliferated power from a Controller set: specifically the T7 "Gravity Distortion Field" with hold alone at half targets/duration. If it was a rider on the existing Build Up mechanic, would the objections be as strong? ...Maybe Brutes and Sentinels need to share the same thought space. If the Sentinel activated inherent was an AoE debuff instead [centered on current target], Brutes could get something similar on their Taunt. Then the choice becomes threat (Brute) or range (Sentinel).

Rolling a magnitude boost to 4 is part of the Controller/Dominator archetype bonus. I wasn't sure it was fair to give that same effect to this new Brute power. Perhaps as a chance roll if a certain Fury threshold is met before use, like say 60 points? Or a roll with higher and higher probability the higher the Fury bar is when the Roar is activated? The reason for replacing Build Up was two-fold: (1) In a team, when pressing against the damage cap, a Brute gets little opportunity to benefit from Build up, and (2), Build Up is shared between Scrappers, Stalkers, AND Brutes, often in a copy-paste format. To distinguish Brutes from Scrappers, it helps to reduce the number of powers they have in common. Brutes need the Taunt to fill their Tank role (although they aren't as good at it as a Tanker, in part due to their target cap which I'd rather NOT be touched). While it could be changed, adding a crowd control to a Taunt would make it ineffective, especially in content where it is necessary to lead a taunted foe to an advantageous position (such as "Not standing in pink death circles"). That's not to say that Taunt shouldn't be changed in another way for Brutes, perhaps with a heavy debuff matching their power's theme? So Dark Melee Brute Taunt would have -ToHit? Draining the Fury bar is the crash penalty for having such a potent Control at such a low tier: other classes get holds like this much later in the game and while they affect more targets, they have a higher recharge time to match. It's thematic to the power, too... the Brute lets their fury out and that petrifies their foes. Mechanically, the power is intended as a panic button and signifies a switch in role from Damage Dealer to Tank (or Controller, rather), so the damage crash dovetails with that idea. Changes involving Auto Powers are much harder to notice on the player end: they fall under the umbrella of spreadsheet balance. The other thread talked about "Big Click" powers that feel like they have a definite impact on gameplay, which is the goal of a Brute rework. We want the change to be dramatic and noticeable... we want the player to FEEL it when they smash that Roar button.

Doh! I forgot a line. After all that prep time, I forgot a line! It's 20 foot radius centered on the user, the range of 0 feet indicates it's a point-blank effect. The City of Data website lists PB powers in this fashion. @Vanden Any damage buff shunts the problem onto Scrappers. Any defense buff shunts the problem onto Tankers. The goal here is to sidestep that by giving Brutes a role mechanic neither Scrapper nor Tanker ever explores... a full control power.

Brutes are the topic-du-jour this weekend, and the debate has been how to make them stand out from the other Melee archetypes. Moving towards damage shoulders Scrappers aside, while moving towards defense does the same for Tankers. What can be done about this dilemma? Well... I believe this table is in need of a third leg: let's nudge Brutes towards the Control role by replacing the mundane primary T4 Build Up with something more engaging. Enter Roar, a Brute-only Hold. Roar recharges more quickly than the traditional Controller/Dominator mass-hold, but applies to fewer targets, has shorter duration dependent on the current Fury value, and empties the Fury bar. The idea here is to disable the enemies closest to the Brute in the middle of a scrum, thereby trading personal damage potential for damage protection... not only for the Brute but for everyone in the team. This will hopefully help to improve the Brute's appeal as a flex-role without diminishing the call for competing melee archetypes. [I pitched a very short version of this in the "Identity for Brutes" thread, but wanted to elaborate on the idea without derailing the other discussions in that thread.] Roar (Brute PBAoE Hold) Gathering all of your Fury in your chest, you let it out with a mighty roar. The sheer force of your rage is of such magnitude that it leaves your opponents paralyzed, held fast in their boots like deer in headlights. The duration of this hold is increased the more Fury you have, though releasing this roar lets all of your Fury out (causing your bar to empty). Recharge: Very Long Roar Statistics (First pass, numbers flexible) Available Level: 6 (8 for Claws and Dual Blades) Click Power Accuracy: 0.8 Range: 0 Feet [Compare to 60 for similar powers] Radius: 20 Feet Cast Time: 1.97 seconds (Invoke Panic animation) Animation Time before Effect: 0.567 seconds Endurance Cost: 20.7 [Compare to 15.6 for similar powers] Recharge Time: 150 seconds [Compare to 240 for similar powers] Max Targets: 8 [Compare to 16 for similar powers] Eligible Enhancements: Hold Duration, Endurance Reduction, Recharge Reduction, Accuracy (Damage for some) Eligible Sets: Melee AoE, Holds, Brute Archetype Sets Normal 100% chance on Targets for (Current Fury / 10) second Hold (Mag 3) [if target>enttype eq 'critter'] 100% chance on Targets for (Current Fury / 25) second Hold (Mag 4) [if target>enttype eq 'player'] 100% chance on Self for Fury -100 Claws (Additional) Tier 5 instead of Tier 4 Name changed to Clawing Fury Animation changed to match Claws.Spin 100% chance on Targets for 15 points of Lethal damage (all affected targets) [if target>enttype eq 'critter'] 100% chance on Targets for 30 points of Lethal damage (all affected targets) [if target>enttype eq 'player'] Dark Melee (Additional) Animation changed to match Dark Melee.Touch of Fear Dual Blades (Additional) Tier 5 instead of Tier 4 Name changed to Typhoon's Fury Animation changed to match Dual Blades.Typhoon's Edge 100% chance on Targets for 15 points of Lethal damage (all affected targets) [if target>enttype eq 'critter'] 100% chance on Targets for 30 points of Lethal damage (all affected targets) [if target>enttype eq 'player'] Kinetic Melee (Additional) Name changed to Siphoning Roar Animation changed to match Kinetic Melee.Power Siphon Set Mode (Siphon Mode) (Self Only) every 1 second for 25 seconds [Duration adjusted for extended cooldown] Radiation Melee (Additional) Name changed to Fission +100% Global Chance mod (Self Only) for 10s [Guaranteed Contamination Proc] Staff Fighting (Additional) Name changed to Roar of the Storm Animation changed to match Staff Fighting.Eye of the Storm 100% chance on Targets for 8 points of Smashing damage (all affected targets) every 0.4 seconds for 2.3 seconds, with an additional 10 Smashing/Psionic/Energy damage and -7.5% resistance/recharge/defense after 1 second with Perfection of Body/Mind/Soul 3 [if target>enttype eq 'critter'] 100% chance on Targets for 12 points of Smashing damage (all affected targets) every 0.4 seconds for 2.3 seconds, with an additional 15 Smashing/Psionic/Energy damage and -7.5% resistance/recharge/defense after 1 second with Perfection of Body/Mind/Soul 3 [if target>enttype eq 'player'] Savage Melee (Additional) Apply "Grant Power" (Self Only) = Temporary.Powers.Temporary Powers.Savage Melee Blood Frenzy.Stalker (5 copies) Apply "Revoke Power" (Self Only) = Temporary.Powers.Temporary.Powers.Savage Melee Exhausted Street Justice (Additional) Apply "Grant Power" (Self Only) = Temporary.Powers.Temporary.Powers.Combo Level 3 Apply "Revoke Power" (Self Only) = Temporary.Powers.Temporary.Powers.Combo Level 1 Apply "Revoke Power" (Self Only) = Temporary.Powers.Temporary.Powers.Combo Level 2 Super Strength (Additional) Name changed to Fury Clap Animation changed to match Super Strength.Hand Clap 100% chance for Mag 5 KnockUp 50% chance for Mag 1 Disorient [if target>enttype eq 'critter'] Titan Weapons (Additional) Name changed to Fury Momentum Animation changed to match Titan Weapons.Build Momentum Set Mode (Fast Mode) (Self Only) for 16 seconds [Duration adjusted for extended cooldown] [Power statistics modeled based on information from City of Data]

Right, I used the wrong term. It would be a high-magnitude Hold, the kind that deactivates toggle powers and prevents the targets from acting at all, not a Sleep or a Disorient. There's a bunch of synonyms for similar effects that do varying degrees of the same thing, and sometimes I get them mixed up. The power descriptions aren't consistent about them either, which makes the matter more difficult to keep straight. The drawback is the Brute only has one of them, in this one power, and they dump their damage to use it.

Nudging Brutes towards control as well would give them a great deal of distinguishing identity from the other three (point five) Melee Archetypes, and I believe it could be done without risking stomping all over other controller roles: the key is in replacing Build Up. Build Up is boring (press button, damage up, wait for button). Build Up on Brutes is especially boring. Let's dump it for a Fury spender... a point blank area of effect crowd control stun hold "ROAR" with more duration the higher the Fury bar was before you emptied it. It'd make the power a panic button, boost survival of the Brute AND the team without hammering more defense or resistance, and force the player to actually monitor their Fury bar and refill it after hitting their panic button. ^EDIT^: Not a stun, a hold.

My own Brute is a Savage Melee that uses no spenders so that Blood Frenzy grants the highest recharge possible, so I can see the appeal in a bonus to recharge. Still... Brutes are supposed to fill the tank role and they're sometimes MUCH squishier than Tankers, so some kind of crowd control ATO proc like Fear or Knockdown could be called for, or even a +Max HP proc. It's an area that none of the other archetype enhancements have explored yet. If it applies rolls to all the Primary powers when slotted, even better to tell Brutes apart from Tankers in a team. The Fury boost is supposed to be about damage, though. Hmm.... Some sort of debuff proc that drops the target's Defense or Resistance (or both) could work too, again either as a high probability on the slotted power or a low roll on all powers once slotted. I suppose that's a bit like the removed Tanker bruising effect, but is that really so terrible a mechanic?

The 'punch really fast' power Flurry in the Super Speed pool has a cool and entertaining animation, but feel slower than basically every other attack because it roots the player in place and its animation can't be interrupted. Most other powers now let the player move on to the next attack roughly halfway through their animation and don't snare them to the ground at all... Flurry should do the same. To put this into context, the pool power Flurry and the pool power Jump Kick deal essentially identical damage and have roughly the same probability of triggering their rider effect (knockdown for Jump Kick, disorient stun for Flurry). Both are rotation filler powers, but Jump Kick is vastly superior to Flurry by the simple fact that the player may activate another power before the flip-back portion of the animation plays out, and they're free to move around while the animation is running. By comparison, Flurry clamps the player to the ground... they can't even run away if the attack misses or puts them in danger. Worse, it doesn't even clamp the target for the full duration; they break free and start punching the player's face while the animation continues to flail in place. Removing the root effect would improve the feel and effectiveness of the power greatly, perhaps even taking it off the burning heap for people other than pool-power challenge players.

Playing a WarShade for the first time and I found it odd that the Warrior faction would ever consider taking, firing, or using the Quantum guns--they violate their core principles as a gang. Maybe a mob from another gang should be swapped in where a Warrior Quantum Gunner would spawn (like a Family Quantum Gunner or a Galaxy Quantum)? Or maybe content with the Warrior faction just shouldn't spawn Quantums at all, like the Clockwork don't? This is mostly a verisimilitude nitpick, but I thought I'd bring it up anyway.

What about an Autumnal Blast or a Leaf Armor? Some sort of slashing wind set that uses bits and bobs from the leafy path animation? Or, if that's too narrow for a whole power set, maybe seasonal powers? Leaves/Lethal/DoTs for Fall, Flowers/Toxic/Disorient for Spring, Sunshafts/Fire/Blind for Summer, and Icicles/Cold/Slow for Winter? Spans a lot of damage types like Dual Pistols does, but wouldn't spend much time on any one of them.

I like both ideas... Prestige utility toggle powers "Disable: Swift", "Disable: Hurdle", "Disable: Health", and "Disable: Stamina" sold (or given for free) from the START vendor that cost no endurance and apply -SPD, -Leap, -Regen/Sleep Res, and -Recovery respectively (in an amount to counteract the unslotted versions of the inherent powers), and a new Travel IO set which applies negative values when slotted for the same purpose (Call it "Molasses"). Heck, it can even have identical set bonuses to Celerity if you like.

If it's overhealing on average at 6 targets out of 10, wouldn't the reasonable change to balance be to reduce its healing and its endurance cost equally by 33%? So a baseline of 375 HP per target for 22.5 END? It looks like an even exchange, but it'd be a net buff because the HP gain is otherwise wasted and thus the extra END is wasted too. I'd consider suggesting something more exotic like increasing Max HP per target hit (as a counter to Oppressive Gloom's -Max HP), but that's just hitting a different cap, isn't it?

I ran into a similar problem. The mission was part of the WarShade epic archetype questline "Fear and Loathing on Striga Isle". The mission was "Catch Archon Saagar & Voight". Running at -1 x 1 at level 25, there were two Council entities boxing with each other, with one "Vortex Cor Leonis Adjutant" minion at level *30*.

I was actually advocating for LESS Energy protection, as a gap in the armor like other armor sets have gaps. While Rudra's point about distilled and rain water is relevant, having wet or drenched skin reduces its electrical resistance. It's also a common video game trope that lightning beats water. The power I'm talking about is Nebulous Form from Umbral Aura, it sets intangibility in thirty-second intervals on the WarShade. I was actually picturing it playing out like the Master Illusionist Boss from the Carnival of Shadows faction [specifically the power Phase Shift], where the character periodically shifts in and out of intangibility thereby ignoring (auto-evading) hits. It's not a 'resist everything then crash' power, but that's why I pitched it: to set the armor apart from others already available.