Shin Magmus

What, you don't "like" needlessly needing to keep clicking the power to prevent the stacks from dropping, but having to track the remaining buff duration randomly because of the adaptive CD? Click Buttons is the most "fun" part of the powerset! Clickem Buttons!

You use enhancements that drop?

I'm going to go ahead and preempt the most likely contrarian response as well. Before someone replies "the arbitrarily lower debuff values are good because the Sonic Assault is balanced around Disruption Aura's -Res", that's like claiming that Dominator Bitter Ice Blast should be arbitrarily weaker just because it has a damage aura, or that Dominator Seismic Smash should be nerfed just because that set has a damage aura. No.

Everyone, in light of the Sonic Attack Blast changes simplifying the set and normalizing the debuff values on the various Ranged ATs, I've found some intentionally undertuned powers in Sonic Assault. Dominators have higher debuff scalars than Blasters across the board. Doms don't debuff as well as Controllers/Corruptors do with most stats, although they share the same -Res debuff scalar, but Doms debuff better than Blasters. This is non-debatable and something you can see by comparing shared powers across the ATs, as well as fitting the design of Dominators as a class and their more-supporty Epic Pool options than Blasters. With that out of the way, here are the debuff values for the same Sonic powers on each AT: Corruptor Shriek: -11.25% Res for 8s Dominator Shriek: -7.5% Res for 8s ??????????????? Blaster Shriek: -9.75% Res for 8s Now for comparison, let's look at Weaken Resolve: a true shared power that accurately reflects AT scalar differences. Corruptor Weaken Resolve: -7.5% Res, -10.0% Def, -5.0% ToHit for 15s Dominator Weaken Resolve: -7.5% Res, -7.5% Def, -3.75% ToHit for 15s Blaster Weaken Resolve: -6.5% Res, -7.0% Def, -3.5% ToHit for 15s Conclusion: The base values of the 3 ranged attacks in Dominator Sonic Assault do not follow established design principles or AT scalars. These powers also have mismatched debuff durations with their identically named powers in Sonic Attack: Shriek is the same duration but Scream and Shout are different. Recommendation: normalize both the debuff value and the debuff time of Dominator Sonic Assault powers to match Sonic Attack. Buff Sonic Assault ranged attacks from -7.5% Res up to either -11.25% Res (Dom AT Scalar) or -10.25% (Interpolation point between Blaster and Corruptor). Additionally, match Sonic Assault debuff durations to the same powers in Sonic Attack: 8s for Shriek, 8s for Scream, and 10s for Shout... or maybe 9s for Scream on all versions just for the consistency of it being longer than Shriek.

There's still time to cut down the 3s animations on Illusion Control Flash and Radiation Armor Ground Zero. One of these powers is *still* going to be skipped even with adaptive cooldowns, because it is a melee range damage-less, debuff-less CC that takes a year to cast. The other power (Ground Zero) has been needlessly slow for a long time, which many players assumed was because it was overpowered. Now that Ground Zero is getting brought into line by being heavily nerfed, surely bringing the snail animation in line with the rest of the game is not a big ask? Instead of sticking to some archaic notion of "powerset as a whole" reasons to why good powersets aren't allowed to receive "buffs", maybe just trust the players here and speed up the animations?

While Jubilee is still the absolute lamest of the X-Men, her powerset is in a workable state now. Having played around ToHit debuffs for most of my CoH career, I can easily envision a scenario where my Controllers or Doms can safely solo purely off the back of Glittering Column, Hypnotizing Lights (proc-bombed as an attack but used for the Sleep, same as Symph Control), and chilling with Incendiary Aura. It's unfortunate that the set doesn't have a traditional reliable 16 target AoE Stun, but that won't actually impede my ability to survive. As long as you understand that you're leveraging debuffs as much as mezzes, it works.

I feel like it's more likely for the devs to re-use Blaster assets and just give Doms a set with Aging Touch, Future Pain, and End of Time. I guess we can dream though, for Grav/Grav Doms instead of having to settle for Grav/Energy.

Are the changes from the last release candidate hidden or something? I can't see anything highlighted in blue or green, nor the text that Maelwys somehow found in the previous comment? What am I looking at?

"We felt that players were having too much fun with the utility and control we added to this powerset, so we took it away because we could, lol."

I feel like there's certainly the possibility to add stuff to G-Force: +strength to Slow effects shouldn't be that hard to add. It looks like Charge Up grants 4/5ths of the Dmg buff and ToHit buff effects in exchange for the secondary effect. Could copy that stat template and have G-Force grant +25% to all Slows for 10s, there might even be some super combo bullshit possible with strong slows in Time Manipulation or Blaster secondary powersets.

Hi there, I'm the Mr. Shin who likes good powersets and fun things. This is my pitch for Gravity Blast, which would be a thematic pairing for Time Manipulation on Defenders/Corrs, but honestly I just want all the ranged ATs to have access to Propel. The idea for this set is quite simple: there are people who really like Propel from Gravity Control, and who have always wished for a Gravity Blast set. Many aspects of Gravity Control are extremely appealing, but Gravity Blast needs a niche to set it apart from its peers in the crowded ranged damage space. I suggest the same thing that Gravity Control, and later Battle Axe, brought to the table. First, all Gravity Blast attacks will apply a powerful debuff to Running, Jumping, and Flight speeds as well as a debuff to Jump Height, but not affect Recharge Time at all. A good approximation would be for a Gravity Blast power to slow movement and reduce jump height twice as much as an equivalent Ice Blast power. Naturally this means that all Gravity Blast powers accept slow sets, and can be globally enhanced by a choice such as Intuition Radial Alpha. Higher tier attacks slow for longer durations. Two specific powers will also inflict -Fly, allowing you to ground those pesky fliers. Second, Gravity Blast will have one of its AoE attacks be an AoE inverse-Repel power, named "Trawl" by the Homecoming Dev Team. This will be roughly analogous to a ranged version of Axe Cyclone, allowing players who like that kind of enemy-condensing support to have this tool available on ranged ATs as well as melee ATs. ============================================================================================= T1 - Gravity Bolt (Tier 1 Blast, Single Target) Ranged, Minor Smashing Dmg, -Spd: 80 ft range, 6 sec -Spd duration, 4 sec CD Pretty generic early attacks, this is your fast-but-weak option. T2 - Gravity Blast (Tier 2 Blast, Single Target) Ranged, Moderate Smashing Dmg, -Spd: 80 ft range, 10 sec -Spd duration, 8 sec CD Pretty generic early attacks, this is your slow-but-strong option. T3 - Propel (Tier 3 Blast, Single Target Damage and Knockdown, AoE Knockdown-only) Ranged, High Smashing Dmg, -Spd, 100% Knockdown, 80% Knockdown AoE: 10 ft radius, 80 ft range, 12 sec -Spd duration, 10 sec CD Finally, Blasters can use Propel! This is just Propel with more damage but with the Knock effects reduced. It will damage and guarantee Knockdown on the primary target, but have only a 80% chance to Knockdown up to 4 secondary targets in the area (affecting 5 targets total), although it won't deal any damage to them. Naturally this power will still summon random crap, and continue to stack up different objects around the area if used repeatedly in a fight. This is the only power in the set with KB magnitudes lower than 1.0, meaning this is traditional "Knockdown". T4 - Graviton Burst (Primary AoE Attack) Ranged AoE, Moderate Smashing Dmg, -Spd: 15 ft radius, 80 ft range, 12 sec -Spd duration, 16 sec CD This is analogous to Fireball: it's just a good AoE attack with a fast animation and good DPA: no gimmicks. The ability to take multiple AoEs with strong movement slow effects is important to the feel of the set. With a 12 sec duration on the slow, this is an effect you can refresh to maintain permanently on up to 16 targets. T5 - G-Force (Self Buff) Self +ToHit, +Dmg (All): 10s duration, 90 sec CD G-Force is just Aim. Uses standard values for Aim across all normal Blast powersets, effects vary slightly by AT based on their scales. Alternatively it could also enhance all Slow Movement powers from the user for 10s, similarly to Charge Up in Elec Blast. Obviously it will still grant +Range only on Sentinels. T6 - Gravity Slam (Tier 4 Blast, Single Target, Knock Up -> Vectored Knock Down) Ranged, Superior Delayed Smashing Dmg, -Spd, Knock Up -> Vectored Knock Down, -Fly: 80 ft range, 12 sec -Spd duration, 12 sec CD Imagine Lift or Levitate, but angrier! The Homecoming Devs have created a new system to apply vectors to Knock and Repel effects, but so far none of the existing powersets seem to have a true "Slam" power, and I'd like to see one. Gravity Slam executes vectored Knock Up, then vectored Knock Down (the inverse of the previous vector) 0.8 seconds later, then deals damage 0.5 seconds after that. With sufficient coding and bug-testing, it should be possible to fine-tune the timing so that this power almost always deals damage when the target hits the ground, consistently. Gravity Blast does not have a Hold or Stun attack, but it has 2 attacks with the soft control of knocking the target off their feet instead. T7 - Event Horizon (Secondary AoE Attack, trades damage for utility) Ranged AoE, Light Smashing Dmg, -Spd, Trawl Inward: 15 ft radius, 80 ft range, 15 sec -Spd duration, 18 sec CD This power has lower damage and a longer animation than Graviton Burst, but it will suck nearby enemies inward toward the primary target. Additionally, it applies a stronger Slow for a longer duration than Graviton Burst. Combined, these two powers will output a satisfying and powerful 1-2 combination of damage and enemy-condensing effects that are sure to please a crowd. Furthermore, the primary target of Event Horizon is instantly affected by an unenhanceable, unresistable Immobilize/Resistance to all Knock effects for a short duration, roughly 1-2 seconds. This hidden aspect of the power will prevent the primary target from moving (or being moved) during the Trawl effect. This is important to prevent fringe cases where the power could pull enemies towards an actively moving target, resulting in unanticipated chaos. T8 - Graviton Beam (Narrow Cone, Damage Over Time, -Resistance) Ranged Cone, High Smashing Dmg Over Time, -Spd, -Res(All): 5 degree arc, 80 ft range, 15 sec -Spd/-Res duration, 14 sec CD I like the idea of a concentrated gravity beam that makes the target so heavy that their own weight is crushing them. This power is analogous to Piercing Beam and Piercing Rounds. It is a cone, but one so narrow that it is not meant to reliably hit multiple targets: even if it does, it only has a 3 target cap. The main use of this power is to be a single target attack that also debuffs the target's resistance, softening them up for further attacks. These powers accept Ranged AoE sets and can therefore slot the Annihilation -Res proc to boost their total debuff effectiveness. T9 - Terminal Velocity (Nuke, Massive AoE Knock Up -> Vectored Knock Down) Ranged AoE, Extreme Delayed Smashing Dmg, Knock Up -> Vectored Knock Down, -Spd, -Fly: 25 ft radius, 80 ft range, 20 sec -Spd duration, 145 sec CD A.K.A. Mass Gravity Slam, Gravity Blast's Nuke will be a very angry version of a similar power such as Geyser or Mass Levitate. Terminal Velocity will use the same mechanics and timings as Gravity Slam, but deal significantly more damage and affect up to 16 targets in the standard 25 ft radius used by Nukes. However, since this power inflicts delayed damage it will open you up to counter-attacks in situations where the targets are immune to the initial Knock Up. In all other situations, this power should be safe to use as an "opener" and instantly defeat weaker targets before they can get back up and attack you. Note that the delay should only exist to sync up damage with the slamming effects, not lasting longer than ~2 seconds, which is still a full 3 seconds faster than Meteor. ============================================================================================= That's it, please feel free to let me know what you think.

Just FYI, putting certain unique IOs like Numinas (but not Preventive Medicine) into a late power pick post-lv40 like Physical Perfection, instead of in Health at lv2, kills your slots if you exemplar. The IOs function identically in either power, but any time you exemplar down and lose access to Physical Perfection you also lose access to those slots you put into it. Just a bad habit that will make you weaker if you ever decide to run a Yin TF for example.

The only reason that my Rad Melee Brute does anything of value, at all, outside of AE (after nerfs to Rad Melee, Brute Burn, and Brutes in general), is that I have powers like Atom Smasher slotted with 1 Hami + 5 dmg procs. Proc-bombing bad sets is the only way to currently get decent performance out of them. Procs are also still optimal in good sets like SS, but the proportional difference is lower. However, this means that my extra shitty character is also completely devoid of set bonuses in these powers, which does hurt.

It comes down to the devs remembering to change ALL of the component powers' allowable enhancement sets. I only brought it up as a reminder, I'd like to slot Cloud Senses into the power too. I just also want it to actually work when I slot it.

Because that's what the HC devs wanted when they initially buffed Tankers, and still want even now in spite of the uneven and confusing nerfs. Their exact words in multiple posts are "AoE Specialists", Tankers are going to be better at using AoEs than the other ATs. Although if the AoEs do piss-poor damage, then that won't be enough. Tankers were buffed originally because nobody played them at endgame. Having the highest health and mitigation didn't matter, at all, to any good player. Brutes have the same caps, and could be buffed to reach those caps and hit the same mitigation as Tankers. Not only was that true in the past, but it will still be true after this patch goes through. This means that, despite what lower level and casual players may say, Brutes and Tankers have roughly the same survivability on end-game teams and especially on Advanced Mode team comps. So the choice between the 2 ATs really comes entirely down to which one does more damage, and that is why Tankers were not made and not played. Keep in mind that there are speedruns where the main tank is a Scrapper with Confront, and Brutes/Tankers are nowhere to be seen. The scale of this problem goes further than you might think.