Alchemystic

Since we're short on melee and support powersets, figured I would try and adapt some of the Light/Void powerset stuff to fit that, which shouldn't be too hard really. I'll also throw in Void Control, since a lot of Warshade powers come with some sort of mez element to them (Illusion Control seems pretty close to what I'd consider Light Control so I can't think of much else for that). The melee powersets shouldn't be too hard since they borrow assets form existing powers, since most melee powers involve applying very basic FX over a suite of repeatedly used animations, but the new support powersets would likely need way more work in terms of FX and animations to really bring out their aesthetic. Light Melee - Light Barrage: Same general FX of most PB powers, dealing light Smashing/Energy damage - Luminous Smite: Same FX as Radiant Strike, this melee power does moderate Smashing/Energy damage and reduces enemy Accuracy - Photon Scatter: Same FX as Proton Scatter (closer range), this power deals moderate Energy/Psi damage in a melee cone and reduces enemy Accuracy - Build Up: Standard build up power, using the same FX as 'Inner Light' - Taunt/Placate/Confront: Standard aggro management power - Flare: Same FX as Solar Flare, this power does moderate Energy/Psi damage in PBAoE and reduces enemy Accuracy (Stalkers get 'Assassin's Flash') - Shining Ray: Same FX as Gleaming Blast (closer range), this short range power does high Energy/Psi damage and reduces enemy Accuracy. - Brilliant Strike: Same FX as Incandescent Strike, this melee power does superior Smashing/Energy damage and reduces enemy Accuracy. May also hold foes - Radiant Burst: Same FX as Pulsar, causing nearby foes to take high Energy/Psi damage and have their Accuracy reduced. Affected foes may sleep much like Blind Light Affinity - Healing Light: Same FX as Pulsar, healing all nearby targets in a PBAoE - Light Burst: New power that works much like Flash Arrow, reducing ToHit and Perception of foes, uses similar FX with some PB stuff added in - Light Aura: Same FX as Shining Shield, grants resistance to Smashing, Lethal and Energy to a nearby ally - Luminous Touch: Same FX as Glowing Touch, healing a nearby ally and increases their MaxHP for a short while - Glowing Aura: Same FX as Thermal Shield, grants resistance to Fire, Cold, Energy and Negative to a nearby ally - Radiance: Uses generic PB FX on the target's head, grants resistance mez effects and a perception boost to a nearby ally - Rekindle: Same FX as Restore Essence, revives one fallen ally and increases their damage and regeneration - Brilliance: Same FX as Flash, holds one enemy and deals no damage - Mirage: New power that slowly chains between foes and placates them, while also reducing their accuracy and perception, has a small chance to confuse. Creates PB eye FX on affected foes Void Melee - Shadow Punch: Same general FX of most WS powers, dealing light Smashing/Negative damage - Dark Strike: Same FX as Black Dwarf Strike, this melee power does moderate Smashing/Negative damage and reduces enemy Defense - Nebulous Burst: Same FX as Gravitic Emanation (closer range), this power does moderate Smashing/Negative damage in a melee cone and reduces enemy Defense - Build Up: Standard build up power, using the same FX as Stygian Circle (Self only) - Taunt/Placate/Confront: Standard aggro management power - Void Pulse: Same FX as Sunless Mire, this power does moderate Smashing/Negative damage in PBAoE and reduces enemy Defense. (Stalkers get 'Assassin's Void') - Creeping Void: Same FX as Gravitic Emanation (closer range), this power deals moderate Negative DoT and slows down foes and reduces Defense - Void Slam: Same FX as Black Dwarf Smite, this melee power does superior Smashing/Negative damage and reduces enemy Defense - Crushing Grasp: Same FX as Gravimetric Snare, this melee power does high Negative DoT and immobilises the foe while reducing their Defense Void Emission - Gravitic Bolt: Same FX as Shadow Bolt, projecting a Defense/Speed debuff at your foes - Void Aura: Same FX as Gravity Shield, grants Defense to Smashing, Lethal and Energy to a nearby ally - Nebulous Aura: Same FX as Penumbral Shield, grants Defense to Fire, Cold, Negative and Energy to a nearby ally - Stygian Shroud: A new power that works as an AoE stealth power with minor Defense to Melee, Ranged and AoE as well as resistance to Speed and Defense debuffs - Quantum State: Same FX as Twilight Shield, granting mez protection as well as resistance to enemy teleportation and placate - Gravity Anchor: A new toggle power with similar FX to Dark Extraction. Anchors to a foe and Reduces Speed and Defense of enemies within range - Leeching Miasma: Same FX as Eclypse, draining nearby enemies of endurance and slowing them down - Black Hole: Same power from Dark Miasma/Affinity, with the FX of Inky Aspect instead. - Grasping Shadows: A new power that has a chance to hold foes in an AoE and heavily reduces their Defense, Perception and ToHit Void Control - Void Grasp: Same FX as Gravimetric Snare, immobilising a single foe and dealing moderate Smashing/Negative DoT - Gravity Shift: Same FX as Dark Extraction, lifting a foe into the air and slamming them down to deal high Smashing damage - Crushing Void: Same FX as Gravity Well, holding a single foe and dealing moderate Smashing/Negative DoT - Void Snare: Same FX as Gravimetric Snare, but on multiple targets, dealing light Smashing/Negative DoT and immobilizing foes - Slowing Miasma: Same FX as Stygian Circle, creating a patch on the ground that slows down foes and reduces their Defense - Antigravity: Same FX as Unchain Essence, acting identical to Mind Control's 'Telekinesis' power - Pull of the Void: Same FX as Eclypse, creating an area that pulls in enemies much like Singularity. Enemies that leave the field may be teleported back - Abyss: Same FX as Stygian Return, holding all foes within the field much like Crushing Void, but deals no damage - Stygian Entity: Summons a pet. The Stygian Entity uses the same rig as the Hellfire Gargoyle, but looks like a cloud of nebulous energy. Has access to Void Melee/Blast attacks

Jokes on you I'm Irish 😉 But I like the idea of a melee powerset similar to a 'Sonic Melee' concept that actually makes more sense that just screaming down people's ears

At this point the genie's already out of the bottle, but that doesnt mean there shouldn't be rules for what people can wish for 😉

I'd say OPAF and broken are pretty synonymous

You don't fix something by breaking it more

I'm wary of anyone using a "wider variety of builds" as reasoning for this kind of change, because historically it translates to "I want fewer limitations so I can make obscene game-breaking metabuilds"

Is this a Tekken reference I see here? 👀

Sonic Thrust 👀

I believe that was on the old server Infrastructure, which has since been updated to handle more intensive activity.

Oh now look what you've done

Maybe we should look at the individual Sentinel powersets and how they're utilised in other archetypes, instead of directly comparing Sentinels to Blasters or Scrappers. Blast: Blaster - Huge focus on damage output when paired with Manipulation powersets. It's safe to say that the Blaster deals more reliable damage than the Sentinel but struggles to survive. Defender - Not the strongest AT but they're more focused on wearing down their foes with debuffs or helping allies. Not as much damage as the Sentinel, but make up for it by ensuring the team can soak damage for them. Corruptor - Another strong contender for damage output with some benefit from debuff and ally support. Probably more reliable damage thanks to Scourge and likely just as likely to rely on others to protect them. Armor: Scrapper - Mostly damage focused but can serve as a stand in for a Tanker or Brute if necessary. Probably more reliable than Sentinel in both damage and survivability. Stalker - Stronger damage output, but not as durable as the Scrapper. While they do more damage, I think they have almost equal survivability. Tanker - Made to hold the aggro of massive mobs while enduring their damage. Less damage for sure, but far greater survivability. Brute - More durable than the Scrapper but without as much mob control as the Tanker. Definitely deals more damage and better built for survivability. It would seem that on most fronts Sentinel would be outclassed in terms of raw damage output by a majority of archetypes that share one of their powersets, so I think focusing on how to make that secondary more useful could be a good direction to go in. They're going to be more survivable than Blasters, Defenders and Corruptors, at least on paper, which is what I think should set them apart. To that end, I think opting for the Tanker approach might work nicely here. While I don't expect them to be able to match Tankers in terms of how much aggro they can handle, their ability to keep their distance while having armor to offer them a little more protection means they can likely take more aggro than other ranged archetypes, and perhaps even Scrappers and Stalkers. So my two cents would be to simply raise their target and aggro caps. Not enough so that they outperform Tankers in mob wrangling, or Blasters in damage output, but enough so they sit nicely between the two archetypes and serve a nice little niche no other archetype does. As for their Inherent power? That should play an important part in realising this design. With the increased AoE we're likely going to see an increase in damage, and a focus away from single target damage, so Opportunity in it's current state would likely not be a good fit. Perhaps we can play on the theme of debuffs similar to Opportunity? Maybe as your Opportunity bar increases, your single target attacks deal a scaling debuff to enemy AoE defense.

Even though sometimes I come out of it a little singed, I'd like to send thanks to @GM Impervium and @GM Widower for their work fighting the fires that breakout when a thread turns from a roast into an all out flame war.

I've heard that collars and similar neck accessories from Shoulders and Detail2 options are going to be moved over to their own category at some point, as are horns and similar features from Detail1 so they can be used alongside various eyewear.

I know this is a thread promoting hero patrons, but I think we should definitely look at more villain options too. To that end, I've been looking through possible patron figures on either side that could help achieve this, and did my best to try and balance the scales according to the size of the hero group considered. So let's see... FBSA - Team of 5 ELITE DATA SERAPH MAGI GIFT Villain Counterbalance: Red Widow Freedom Phalanx - Team of 6 Positron Manticore Synapse Numina Citadel Penelope Yin Villain Counterbalance: Red Widow Lord Recluse Vindicators - Team of 9 (or 10) Ms Liberty Valkyrie Infernal Swan Luminary Malaise Mynx Woodsman Aurora Borealis Back Alley Brawler (Possibly) Villain Counterbalance: Red Widow Ice Mistral Silver Mantis Barracuda Wretch Lord Recluse (Possibly)

At first I thought you meant the 'Blue Bar' in Pocket D and somehow it still made sense to me.

At present, the villain patron pools mostly seem to provide energy or negative damage, with a teeny bit of lethal and toxic. Having hero patron pools that cover other damage types would be nice.

The FBSA might not be a bad call, actually. It's a different direction to how villain Patrons work, but there's a lot of potential there. It'd be a tidy way of implementing Hero Patrons in a way that doesnt result in multiple instances of existing characters (Ms Liberty and Penny Yin have two instances already). It'd be nice to return to the FBSA after humble beginnings in City Hall, and would mean a little more spotlight on the five branches that operate under them for a change. We could even put these five new patron contacts in the vacant room in the Statesman Plaza building in Kallisti Wharf, remodel it to be a new FBSA headquarters. As for the issues with origins? I wouldn't want to lock players out of what arcs or pools they can choose, so maybe just a change to dialogue depending on origin might be all we need. Though, as you said, that makes five new hero patrons compared to the four villains have currently. Perhaps including Red Widow as a new Patron could work? She's technically an Arachnos lieutenant now, right? Not like she's doing much right now anyway, so a new Patron arc/pool could flesh her out more, potentially as a traditional Widow-based pool to counter Black Scorpion's Soldier-based pool.

Hero Patron Pools have been discussed in the past, they were even one of the HC Weekly Discussions back when those were a regular thing, so it's definitely something that's on HC's radar. I'd love to see some HPPs, but the question is who are the best candidates for the role? Freedom Phalanx? Vindicators? The New Praetorians? I suppose any could work really, but regardless of what group is picked, they would likely outnumber the villain patrons. Do we stick to just 4 heroes, or do we also expand on the villain side of things to compensate?

Dark/SJ Tanker seems like a good thematic fit, or MA if you wanted to focus entirely on kicks 😉

You yourself cited that Defenders and Controllers had the same healing scales until issue 3, what you neglected to mention was that Defenders were the ones who received the increase. Youre the one obfuscating the facts here, stop trying to gaslight people.

If we're strictly sticking to the example of Empathy, then we should also consider Ressurect and Regeneration Aura, which definitely have a broader gap in levels between archetypes. But that's if we're just looking at accessibility. You already made the point that Defenders have higher healing scales, which is enough of an argument to say they perform better than Controllers in that regard. Refuted or not, the point remains that it offers more benefit to healing powersets than others, even if that wasn't the intended effect. So long as we agree that it's your word against mine, sure. A lack of empyrical evidence lends itself to neither side of the argument, so unless you can provide something tangible to refute me, then we're at an impasse.

Even before healing scales changed, Defenders still had the significant advantage of accessing healing powers sooner than Controllers, which made them the preferred choice for healers. The move to increase healing scales for Defenders during issue 3 further solidified their position as the primary healing archetype. If as you say the inherent power had no tangible effect on primaries like Force Field or Trick Arrow, then we can assume that it does benefit primaries like Empathy and Radiation, which seems to support the concept "healer bonus" I'm offering an eyewitness account of events, I'm not beholden to provide anything else.

Not exactly true. Defenders were originally the only archetype with decent healing output, and their inherent power (Vigilance) was directly tied to the team's health. With access to powersets like Empathy, Radiation Emission and arguably Dark Miasma, Defenders were pigeonholed into being the dedicated healing archetype, and players who didn't choose from these powersets were often rejected by teams. It wasn't for a long time until Defenders were really recognised as anything else, and even to this day they are still the best choice for optimising healing output.