Alchemystic

Taking the unique powers from Beast Mastery and turning them into a new support set is a fantastic idea! It'd be nice to see more 'natural' themed support sets included in the game. Theres probably plenty of unique FX tied to Beast Mastery alone, and probably even a few things that can be borrowed from Ghouls to help visualise it too, so I think it's definitely a set that can be recycled from assets already in the game quite easily. The addition of a stance mechanic is quite interesting too, it's certainly help set it apart from other support sets and play on the whole theme of being adaptive, so I'm all for it!

I'd like to see something like this implemented, but there has to be enough content in each zone in order to advance your levels that far. If the missions in each zone can take you from 1-10, 10-20 and so on then it won't be a problem, otherwise there may have to be more stuff added in to help pad it out so you can level through it all the old fashioned way.

Praetorian characters are a rarity these days, and one of the major reasons for that is that the whole Going Rogue chapter of the game came to a close. Making a new Praetorian character means reliving the events of the past, nothing you do is considered part of the present narrative anymore, and until Praetoria gets restored in the story (which I dont imagine happening soon), maybe an alternative start for Praetorian characters could help bring them into the present setting. So, how do we do this? I suggest we create a new second tutorial option for Praetorian characters (which can be skipped of course) where the character begins his career as a refugee on Primal Earth. You'll start in a slice of Khallisti Wharf where contacts will brief you on the events of the fall of Praetoria. You will have to visit each one in order to learn of the major events leading up to your displacement. Armed with this knowledge, you intervene in a fight that has broken out in the camp between former Loyalists and Resistance supporters, and depending on which side you defend will determine which one you will take as your alignment. You will be tasked with defeating X amount of Loyalist/Resistance extremists before returning to your contact once again. After which, you will then be approached by representatives of your new faction, each presenting an idea to leave the camp and make their own way in the world, each one declaring that they're either going to remain in Paragon and protect their new home, or leave for the Isles where they can take what is rightfully theirs. Once you've decided on your path, you will leave the camp, only to be ambushed by a boss who chose the other path, and you will need to defeat him before you progress into the open world. In addition to this new tutorial, Praetorian alignments will be tweaked so that they work much the same as standard ones, allowing you to retain your alignment and play it in Primal Earth and gain access to Alignment Powers, and later you can make the choice to take on traditional alignments (Null the Gull will allow you to swap back to Praetorian again after if you so choose). Below is what I think works as a 'best fit' conversion of Praetorian alignments; Resistance (Warden) = Vigilante Resistance (Crusader) = Villain Loyalist (Responsibility) = Hero Loyalist (Power) = Rogue Of course, this isn't to say you are locked into these choices, they are just representative of what Alignment Power and Zone access you will have until you change your alignment via tip missions or Null the Gull. It also means being able to retain use of the unique Praetorian titles that are otherwise lost when you proceed to Primal Earth. Once situated in Atlas Park or Mercy Island, you will be able to progress through the core game as normal, but your badges, titles and alignment will be that of a Praetorian character from then on. Of course, skipping the tutorials will prompt you with a choice of where you wish to start; Praetoria or Primal Earth, and you can enter the game right away with all the benefits listed above. In addition, when playing through Praetoria and reaching the point where you journey to Primal Earth, you will be able to keep your Praetorian alignment instead of being changed to hero/villain as you would before. There will be a new contact situated outside the starting area who will allow you to change to hero/villain right away, and also change you back to Praetorian alignments if you prefer. For Primal Earth characters, this character will not offer these choices to you, and neither will Null the Gull.

Its come up a few times and the main reason is game health and balance. Right now, the game is arguably too easy for most people, and a lot of that is down to the fact that they can create builds through clever use of pool powers in order to maximise their effectiveness. Having access to all pool powers without restriction would create a scenario where these kinds of builds are not only easier to create, but also far more powerful. And since the difficulty pacing of the game is at a standstill, there's going to be a lack of content that can challenge players enough to merit this kind of change, so we would effectively lose more than what we would gain.

I'd argue that the same can be said for CoH, for the most part. I've found that even if the traditional role of playing support for DPS/tanks starts to become less of a necessity in late game, support archetypes can still cooperate with each other to great effect, which debunks the whole 'supports need non-supports to fight their battles' argument.

That's how support characters work in literally every video game ever.

This "fix" seems more like a performance tweak for solo play. And considering support classes are supposed to... support, well this very much defeats the point. Your 'personal protection' so to speak is the teammates you empower, who are better able to deal damage or hold aggro than you are. You can increase your own survivability by simply picking any of the resist/defense powers in your ancillary, or other power pools. Playing a support who can defend himself just as much as his allies flies in the face of what a support is meant to be. If you want to play a class that can stand toe to toe with difficult mobs, and still provide a little support, then play Sentinel, Tanker or any of the Epic Archetypes. That, or come up with a build that focuses on maximising what protective powers are already available to you. So I dont think support classes "need help", they do the job they were made for very much as intended, and their ancillary/pool powers, incarnate abilities and enhancement sets help do the rest.

I think this may be an unintended FX bug, because if I remember right, the power is supposed to have similar visuals to Shadowy Presence, which isn't broken.

Any idea what day job power would be associated with it?

@Jimmy if 'Stealth' wins out, then does that mean that Illusion Control's 'Superior Invisibility' just becomes... Invisibility?

I had a similar idea some time ago when Mirror FX first came out, see what you think!

On the topic of guns and natural-themed ancillary powers, we could use more gun! Following on from Munitions Mastery for Dominators, I've decided to borrow some of the powers from the various Rifle themed powersets earlier in the thread (Munitions, Rifle Assault and Tactical Rifle) as well as the existing Munitions Mastery, Arachnos Soldier and Assault Rifle powersets. Munitions Mastery - (Sentinel) - Wide Area Web Grenade: An AoE immobilize as is customary of Sentinel Ancillaries - Bayonet: A strong melee attack which is also in line with the Sentinel formula - Cryo Freeze Ray: A good hold power that has decent range, which fits in nicely here - Ignite: With a lack of PBAoE attacks from rifles, Ignite fills a similar purpose - Surveillance: Without any direct buff powers, a debuff power can instead be used here Rifle Mastery - (Controller/Dominator) / - Slug/Surveillance: A customary ranged attack for Controllers, and a debuff power for Dominators - M30 Grenade: An AoE attack that fits in nicely with most Controller/Dominator ancillaries - Body Armor: Some personal protection in the form of an autopower - Targeting Drone: Another personal buff power, similar to Primal or Mace Mastery - Flamethrower: A heavier attack power that gives a this ancillary a unique niche Assault Mastery - (Defender/Corruptor) - Cryo Freeze Ray: A powerful single target hold seems to fit nicely here - Sleep Grenade: An AoE sleep power, similar to Psychic Mastery - Body Armor: Some personal protection in the form of an autopower - N2 Cannon: Inclusion of a soft control power could go well here - Targeting Drone: Another personal buff power, similar to Power or Mace Mastery Gun Mastery - (Scrapper/Stalker) - Slug: A heavy blast power with good range capability - Sleep Grenade: An AoE mez power, I chose sleep because it benefits Stalkers - Sniper Rifle: A sniper power, which is more common for patron power pools, but works nicely here - Surveillance: A heavy debuff power that doesn't break stealth, ideal for stalkers - Targeting Drone: A self buff power, works much like the one from Weapon Mastery Firearms Mastery - (Tanker/Brute) - Electrified Net Launcher: A single target immobilize which is common for Brutes/Tankers - N2 Cannon: Some more soft mez, filling a similar role to Arctic Breath - Cryo Freeze Ray: A good single target hold, which is customary for Brutes/Tankers - M30 Grenade: Some good AoE damage potential looks to work nicely here - Targeting Drone: Not too common for Brutes/Tankers, but it works for other Melee ATs so why not

True, but this is already the case for Defender, Peacebringer, and Warshade inherents.

I believe an archetype that had both armor powers and buff/debuff powers was experimented with some time ago, hoping to merge the two into a single powerset (much like how Manipulation and Assault powersets borrow from other powersets). Ultimately it was set aside for a number of reasons, but I think the major one was endurance upkeep. Having several armor toggles on at the same time meant that cost heavy buff/debuff powers would drain you dry real quickly. Other flaws in the design were pointed out, like how support powersets were so vast and varied that it became a balancing nightmare trying to figure out the right approach to an archetype like this. Other than that, no matter what they did with the idea, it would always be a less effective version of Defenders or Tankers, and there wasn't much to help the archetype flourish, as it had no unique selling point that made it a viable pick. I think, ultimately, you would have an even harder time with a pure armor/support archetype. Not only for the above reasons, but having no means of attack/containment will make it near impossible to defend yourself. A good alternative to a pure Armor/Support setup would be to create a whole new powerset type. Perhaps fitting the 'cleric' theme would be an Armor set that was AoE based, so when toggling on your protection, nearby allies would benefit from it too. Obviously, it would need to be balanced in such a way that you cant just turn a team into a party of tanks, but you'd still be able to provide frontline support where Defenders and other support archetypes struggle to last in a melee engagement. As for the inherent? perhaps a stacking endurance discount for each nearby ally (but not pets) would fit here, allowing your endurance heavy toggles to be run more efficiently, and encouraging the player to mingle with his allies and protect them. With that in mind, maybe Assault or Manipulation would serve as the other powerset in this archetype, allowing you to move between range and melee to keep ontop of your allies.

Then slotting procs into caltrops isn't going to produce the desired effect anymore. The PPM change was made to level the playing field, so that powers with high tick rates or fast recharge are no longer able to trigger procs in such a high volume. But, in turn this allows powers with higher recharge rates to guarantee delivery of procs, so they're far more viable than they used to be.

do you mean the conversion from proc chance to procs per minute?

I wouldn't mind seeing the Praetorian Police integrated into both the Paragon Police and Rogue Isles Police, like so;

Following on from this thread; What do people think of the idea of a dedicated 'Heavy Weapons' powerset? Obviously it's going to share some overlap with Assault Rifle, but hopefully I can give it more of a distinct heavy weapons feel that distinguishes it from other weapon powersets. In order to do that, I want to introduce a new mechanic for this powerset; Heat Stacks of Heat build up as you use certain powers, giving them increasing fire damage the more stacks you have, but at the cost of costing more endurance. Heat can be lost over time by allowing the stacks to wear off on their own, or mitigated by activating 'Focus Fire'. Heavy Weapons - Chain Gun: A power belonging to chain gun wielding NPCs, delivering a burst of damage that reduces enemy defense. - Snap Shot: A power belonging to the Resistance Heavy Barrel, firing a heavy round from your weapon that deals good damage (default tinting is fire yellow instead of plasma blue). - Chain Gun Burst: Another chain gun power that fires a cone burst spread over multiple targets. - Auto Cannon: A power that fires a few heavy shots like those of low-tier Howitzer turrets, dealing high damage has a chance to knock foes back. - Focus Fire: A power that works like Aim, but prevents Heat from building up or being lost for a short duration. - HE Round: Another power belonging Resistance Heavy Barrel, firing a round that explodes on contact and deals AoE damage and fire DoT (default tinting is fire yellow instead of plasma blue). - Cannon Volley: A rapid blast like that of high-tier Howitzer turrets, delivering very high DoT with a chance to knock foes back. - AP Round: A Resistance Heavy Barrel power, firing a piercing round that has a narrow cone and can knock foes down (default tinting is fire yellow instead of plasma blue). - Chain Gun Auto: A power similar to Full Auto, but uses the FX of the chain gun version, delivering superior lethal DoT.

I was gonna make a new powerset suggestion over on my other thread supporting the idea for a 'Heavy Weapons' blast powerset, but then I figured I'd also suggest porting over heavy weapon skins over to Assault Rifle, Munitions Mastery, Mercenaries and maybe Arachnos Soldier, Beam Rifle and Robotics. Given that a lot of 'Heavy Weapons' in this game actually use the same animations and FX of Assault Rifle, and just have different weapon models to portray them being bigger and badder, I figured it may just be easier to request that some of these weapon models are ported over to the current weapon sets so players can make use of them too. All that these new weapon skins require is for the location of the 'barrel' to be positioned differently to normal guns. So, here's a few weapon skins I can imagine fitting this concept rather well; Chaingun Cannon Heavy Barrel Grenade Launcher Flamethrower Rocket Launcher DUST Cannon

As I mentioned in the Plasma Blast/Particle Blast post, I intended to rework the old Arsenal Blast powerset in order to give it a unique identity once more. I kept the Anti-Matter attacks that were unique to the Praetorian Clockwork, as you may notice I didn't use them in the new powersets above (mostly because they didn't fit too well with the overall theme). That being said, I did manage to find something those powers pair nicely with, thanks to a nice tip; So, if you go back to the original Arsenal Blast post (which I'll include below) you'll notice that it's been completely overhauled to use material from Robotics, instead of focusing solely on Praetorian Clockwork. I think now Arsenal Blast fully captures the robotic/powersuit style I was aiming for, and the Particle and Plasma powers borrowed from Clockwork/IDF provide plenty of material to help shape their own identities moving forward.

That's understandable, I was hoping since the Homecoming team have fixed some pretty large issues in the past (bases, costume asymmetry, invisible katanas/bows) we might have a shot at fixing the problem.

Hopefully it's as easy as putting in more weapon slots, right? Or changing these slots so that none of them overlap?

Looking back on one of my older ideas, I realise I might be able to do more with it. So, I'm gonna do a pro gamer move and recycle one of my own powersets and attempt to split it into two different ones. That powerset is Arsenal Blast, which was a powerset created solely from Praetorian Clockwork NPC powers. I managed to squeeze a good few powers from their portfolio into the powerset, but there were some that didn't make the cut. However, after poking around other NPC groups (in this case IDF/WarWorks) I found a few more powers that could mesh rather well with the material from Arsenal Blast. So I'm gonna try and divide Arsenal Blast into two new blast powersets; Plasma Blast and Particle Blast. (I may edit Arsenal Blast in the future to help separate it from these new ideas and use other material to remodel it). Yes, I know, MORE energy based blast sets, but I'm thinking that the Plasma Blast powerset should instead be Fire/Energy, which makes far more sense considering a lot of the power descriptions make note of 'burns' and 'heat'. Plasma Blast - Plasma Blast: A basic blast power taken from the Praetorian Clockwork, dealing light fire/energy damage. - Charged Blast: Another heavier basic blast power taken from the Praetorian Clockwork/War Walkers, dealing moderate fire/energy damage. - Plasma Spray: A power shared by Clockwork and DUST, spraying plasma in a cone and dealing decent fire DoT. - Plasma Burst: A renamed version of the ACU's 'Plasma Rifle Burst', dealing heavier damage to foes. - Plasma Detonation: A power used by various IDF/Clockwork, firing a plasma projectile that explodes, dealing fire/energy AoE damage. - Welding Ray: Another Clockwork power that deals good energy damage, but also heavily debuffs enemy defense. - Plasma Bolts: Renamed version of War Walker's 'Particle Burst', cascading plasma do deal heavy fire/energy damage. - Plasma Grenade: Another renamed ACU power, originally 'Chemical Grenade', delivering a grenade that explodes into a fire DoT field (instead of toxic). - Plasma Full Auto: Another ACU power, which can be retooled to serve as a good T9 cone power with heavy fire/energy DoT. Particle Blast - Particle Blast: A power taken from Clockwork, blasting foes with crackling energy, dealing light energy damage. - Ion Bolt: A new power that uses the same FX as 'Jolting Chain', but instead deals moderate energy damage to one enemy. - Particle Spray: Another Clockwork power, spraying crackling energy in a cone and dealing energy DoT. - Particle Blast Barrage: A power unique to Clockwork Menders, delivering a heavier blast of energy DoT. - Particle Burst: An AoE particle attack used by Clockwork, providing greater energy damage in an area. - Particle Stunner: A disorient power shared by a few different Clockwork, providing some light mez to the powerset as well as some light energy damage. - Ion Ray: Another new power, this one using the FX of 'Ionic Judgement', but without the chaining effect. Deals superior energy DoT. - Energy Pulse: A new power that uses the same FX as 'Paralysing Blast', dealing heavy energy damage in an AoE with a high DoT effect. - Ion Storm: Another new power that uses the electrical 'Self Destruct' FX of BCUs, creating a PBAoE blast of energy that deals extreme DoT.

No need to apologise! We all have goofball moments. But you raise a good point, all these elf names sound the same 😅

Unfortunately not. Sylvanas is a WoW character who became increasingly present in the game, much to the chagrin of others, all because a writer became quite infatuated with her. And that same problem was slowly creeping into CoH in regards to Fusionette.