Redlynne

We'd obviously need playtesting to determine the validity of this opinion (of course), but a simple default stance change for all Crab pets would make some sense if controls are not available. Putting the pets on Defensive+Follow as their default stance, rather than Aggressive+Follow, would be an improvement ... even if Soldiers of Arachnos do not get Bodyguard mode. Having the pets WAIT to attack until the Soldier gets attacked first would improve their survival potential, rather than having them simply charge blindly forwards upon entering aggro range on a suicidal kamikaze towards $Target(s) and then forcing the Soldier to try and keep up (to keep them alive) as the pets just go on a suicidal rampage would be ... better. Part of the reason why I say that is because (conceptually speaking) you want the PC to be leading the pets, not following them into battle. Switching from Aggressive+Follow default stance to a Defensive+Follow default stance would accomplish this, just from a behavioral standpoint.

Crushing Field is a 30ft Target AoE that costs as much endurance to cast as 24 seconds of Time's Juncture being toggled on (at equal amounts of Endurance Reduction). All you have to do is "get close enough" to the fliers to ground them.

Time's Juncture includes a -1.6 Fly modifier ... along with ToHit debuffing and Damage debuffing of $Targets ... so I don't "need" Crushing Field in order to AoE ground fliers.

Or The Hollows ... or Faultline ... or Crey's Folly ... or Dark Astor- wait, they never even tried to fix Dark Astoria did they?

Well, maybe not endless ... but certainly in excess of 1050 ... which might as well BE endless as far as we Players are concerned ...

Well, there's wishful thinking ... and then there's pie in the sky. This is requiring pie in the hard vacuum of deep space. Color me skeptical that it can be done.

LINK There might be a notion or few you'd want to borrow for yourself ...

I have NO IDEA how this is even theoretical given the limitations of the underlying game engine and game mechanics.

UPDATE I'm thinking this might count as something of a DEFENSIVE Proc Monster discovery that will become relevant to almost every single Time Manipulation build out there, if my surmise on how all of this works is borne out in testing. No I haven't tested Entomb in Distortion Field in game yet. Any volunteers?

I'm biased.

Uh ... Telekinesis ... is "perfect as is" ...? Fire the Non-Sequitron at full power ...

Got you both covered.

Test drive on Mind Control first before reviewing options for proliferation outwards. TEST TO VERIFY.

Yes. The alternative would be to rig things more like Time Crawl where only your Levitate affects only your Telekinesis.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that adding Mastermind pet command controls to Arachnos Soldiers (only, not Arachnos Widows!) so as to better manage and tactically CONTROL pet behaviors would go a long way towards improving pet performance. Being able to "give orders" in order to use Aggressive, Passive, Defensive stances along with Attack, Stay, Follow commands would open up a LOT of critical opportunities for strategic and tactical gameplay for Arachnos Soldiers. I would even go so far as to say that building in a Bodyguard Mode functionality for Arachnos Soldiers to help keep their pets alive longer would be a big help, since it would promote "Formation Fighting" with the pets to help spread the pain of incoming damage. However, one change that I would want to make to an Arachnos Soldier Bodyguard Mode system would be to slightly alter the damage sharing formula. For Masterminds, the pets each get 1 share of the incoming damage, while the Mastermind gets 2 shares ... so with 6 pets out the Mastermind is dealing with a 1+1+1+1+1+1+2=8 shares damage formula where the Mastermind takes 25% of the incoming damage. For Arachnos Soldiers, I'd bump the Soldier to having 3 shares, not 2 like Masterminds do ... so with 6 pets out the Arachnos Soldier is dealing with a 1+1+1+1+1+1+3=9 shares damage formula where the Arachnos Soldier takes 33% of the incoming damage.

Check the date.

Finally ... the dream can come true!!

We make every pretense of competency around here ... 😎

Why aren't you using Mystic Flight instead so as to Teleport to where you want to get to in a hurry in PvP?

There. I posted. I blame you entirely, @Blackfeather ! 😠

First, credit where credit is due. Major objectives of this post are to recover ... THIS ... kind of performance from Telekinesis ... And to reshuffle the effects that Mind Control can make use of for Containment for a better self-synergizing mix. The first thing to notice about Mind Control (for the purposes of making slight alterations better aligned to the powerset) is how Containment is implemented in various powers inside the set. The following coding appears on all of the damaging Mind Control powers ... Mesmerize, Levitate, Dominate and Terrify ... and indeed practically every Controller power that deals damage: PvE damage effects If (target.kImmobilized > 0) or (target.kHeld > 0) or (target.kSleep > 0) or (target.kStunned > 0) or target.hasTag?(IncarnateBoss) PvP damage effects If (target.kImmobilized > 0) or (target.kHeld > 0) or (target.kSleep > 0) or (target.kStunned > 0) What this coding is doing is checking to determine if the $Target is ... Immobilized, Held, Sleeping or Stunned ... the stock and standard conditions for Containment damage to be applied. So if any of those conditions are met, then Controller primary damage powers add extra damage, producing the Controller styled "conditional critical hit" that is the Containment system. I propose that this basic expectation of what is used to enable Containment bonus damage be slightly modified. Here are the modified parameters I would replace the above coding for Mesmerize, Levitate, Dominate and Terrify (only!) with: PvE damage effects If (target.kHeld > 0) or (target.kSleep > 0) or (target.kStunned > 0) or (target.kTerrorized > 0) or target.hasTag?(IncarnateBoss) PvP damage effects If (target.kHeld > 0) or (target.kSleep > 0) or (target.kStunned > 0) or (target.kTerrorized > 0) Everyone see what I did there? I removed the parameter for Immobilize and replaced it with a parameter for Terrorize ... because Mind Control doesn't have any powers that Immobilize, but does have a power that will Terrorize. Additionally, just in terms of thematics, Mind Control as a powerset DOES NOT CARE if a $Target's movement is impaired (Immobilize and/or Slow), since Mind Control affects the MIND ... not the BODY ... of $Target(s). It should therefore go without saying that Mind Control is a battlespace of the mental/psychic, rather than a battle for control of the (merely) physical. In that context, whether a $Target is Immobile (but still otherwise able to act freely) is quite irrelevant to Mind Control powers. Think of Terrorized status as being "Immobilization for the Mind" and the change will make enough sense for almost everyone reading this post to understand. Implementing this for Mind Control would be so trivially easy that I'm presuming it could be done by a dev with access (or me, if I had access and knew where to do it) in less than 5 minutes. It would (I presume) be as simple as doing a copy/paste to replace coding on a mere FOUR POWERS in Mind Control using what I have posted above for the "copy" part. S imple E asy E ffective ... not being done ... ... yet ... The other major change that I would make would be to massively overhaul Telekinesis in ways that are inspired by the Impact system implemented for Gravity Control, albeit with a SLIGHT variation to implement the sort of idea into Telekinesis properly. So the first thing to understand is how Gravity Control set up the interaction between Gravity Distortion, Lift and Propel were coded. In Gravity Distortion, one of the power effects that you'll see is the following: Add token GravityDistortion You then see the corresponding programming on Lift and Propel: If now - target.TokenTime(GravityDistortion) < 12 What this does is apply a "timestamp marker" to the $Target that records WHEN Gravity Distortion was used on the $Target, which is then relevant to the Lift and Propel powers for Impact. For the extra damage for the Impact to occur, the use of Lift or Propel needs to be within 12 seconds of when Gravity Distortion was last used on the $Target. That's how it works. It just compares the current time to when Gravity Distortion was used, and if that time span between Now and Then is less than 12 seconds, Lift and Propel do extra Impact damage. Note that this means that it is perfectly possible to "wait too long" after use of Gravity Distortion, while a $Target continues to be Held, and not be able to gain additional Impact damage, even though the duration of Gravity Distortion's Hold has not yet expired. What matters is that there is a window of opportunity (12 seconds long) after use of Gravity Distortion to get extra damage from Impact, and if you want to repeatedly score extra Impact damage you will need to recast Gravity Distortion faster than once every 12 seconds on the $Target. So this is one Known Working Technology™ already implemented in game by Paragon Studios to link different powers within a set together so as to produce additional effects when powers are used in tandem with each other. So ... Telekinesis. Here is how Telekinesis is currently written up at the Wayback Machine for City of Data: What this does is costs 3.12 endurance per second to activate twice per second for a 1.397s (PvE)/0.75s (PvP) mag 3 Hold that does not stack with itself (to prevent the mag from exceeding 3) and applies a (mag) 1 Repel once per second (because the Repel does not stack with itself) for as long as the toggle is sustained. The most glaring INSULT to be found in this set of parameters is the Max targets hit set at ... A MERE FIVE(!) ... when other AoE Hold powers, such as Nature Affinity's Entangling Aura has a Max targets hit of 16(!) on a power with a 15ft radius and an 0.832 endurance per second cost. But the real kick in the face is the Repel factor ... that can't be controlled or turned off. This is just flat out BAD GAME DESIGN and it should have been fixed a decade ago (at least!). So here is what I propose be done to Telekinesis here on Homecoming. Everybody (who cares about this) ready? Here are the changes I'm introducing to (my version) of Telekinesis: Endurance cost reduced from 1.56 per 0.5s activation (3.12/s) down to 1.125 per 0.5s activation (2.25/s). Radius increased from 10 feet to 15 feet to prevent Levitate from throwing $Targets out of the AoE with Levitate's base 12.463 Knockup effect. Max targets hit increased from 5 to 16. Repel effect keyed to and triggered by use of Levitate on $Target while Telekinesis is toggled on. If now - target.TokenTime(Levitate) < 2 By "outsourcing" the keying of the Repel effect to only last for 2 seconds after using Levitate (note that Levitate delays its damage for 2 seconds natively), amounting to 2 "pulses" of Mag 1 Repel affecting the $Target (once while going up and once while falling down) the endurance cost for the Repel effect can also be "outsourced" onto Levitate as well. Levitate costs 6.864 endurance to cast, has a 6s recharge and a 1.87s cast time (not arcanatime). 6.864 / (6+1.87) = 0.872 endurance per second 3.12 - 0.87 = 2.25 endurance per second So although the toggle endurance cost of (my version of) Telekinesis is lowered, if Levitate is used continuously to Repel $Targets then the endurance cost over time remains broadly similar to the legacy 3.12/s rate. By keying the Repel effect of (my version of) Telekinesis to the (obviously) telekinetic attack power Levitate, it becomes possible to "herd" using (my version of) Telekinesis (albeit slowly) and "sculpt" the relative positions of $Targets within the AoE around the anchor in a much more deliberate and controlled fashion ... unlike the legacy behavior of decidedly UNCONTROLLED Repel that can't be disabled without toggling off (legacy) Telekinesis. However, this change will necessitate an update to Levitate in order to complete the upgrade in functionality of Telekinesis. Here is what needs to be added to Levitate: Add token Levitate THAT'S IT. That's all you need in order to turn Telekinesis into a power that almost everyone who plays Mind Control will want to have, to add to their arsenal of controls ... rather than something that most Mind Control Players will skip without a second thought. The only other things that I would ask be done with Mind Control would be ... To raise the Accuracy modifier of Total Domination and Mass Confusion (0.8) and Terrify (0.9) up to being a consistent 1.0 for all three powers. ALL of the other powers in Mind Control have an Accuracy modifier of 1.0, 1.1 or 1.2 (and Telekinesis is autohit, of course) ... and the powerset fluff text includes this: It's time to actually deliver on that promise. 💫 Reduce the recharge time for Total Domination and Mass Confusion from 240s to 180s (because ... NO PET adding to control potential). I'm pretty sure that @Captain Powerhouse could implement this proposal for the next Page update with relatively little difficulty (because I've done the hard part for him). However ... TESTING the effects of these changes would be another matter entirely, and I figure that's going to be a FAR MORE COMPLEX TASK than simply editing a few parameters in the powers database. And just because I can hear the Mind Control Dominators salivating over the possibilities already ... I would recommend that these changes I've enumerated here be implemented first for Controllers only, so as to thoroughly test and proof them before porting the (relatively simple coding) changes over to Dominators as well. My rationale here is a one that some of us may have heard before in a very different context ... TRUST BUT VERIFY. It's going to be a LOT easier on the Homecoming team to "road test" the ideas I've presented here on Controllers first so as to prove out the functionality and ensure there aren't going to be any unforeseen edge cases that inter(re)act weirdly with other things causing stuff to break (horribly). The spaghetti code base is NOT in the best of shape (to put it mildly, pass the marinara sauce please...) and in terms of Risk Management it would be so much safer to do more controlled testing on Controllers (no pun intended, but it happened anyway...) before proliferating these changes to Dominators. Once there is confidence that what I'm presenting here won't throw things into chaos(!) ... THEN the path would be clear to porting these changes over to Dominators with confidence. Of course, the Homecoming team has a tendency to implement changes to powersets to all Archetypes simultaneously, so they might not NEED to do a two step process to prove things out on Controllers first before porting all of the changes over to Dominators ... in which case, double yay. But I'm not going to "volunteer" them for that level of code writing AND playtesting needed up front when I have no idea what their development schedule looks like. So on this point I'm merely trying to Play It Safe™ and be conservative in my expectations in order to keep things both SIMPLE and easy to manage (go figure, eh?). So yeah ... perhaps TEST TO VERIFY would be a better way of framing my thinking on how quickly to proliferate these changes to Dominators after Controllers. Remember kids ... logic is the best way to come to the WRONG conclusion with confidence! Your turn ... Homecoming team ... ✨

Even if she's an intergalactic princess, you're still expected to do household chores.

I'm thinking of something ... different ... in execution. Will try to post later today.

Stealing the ... seeds of confusion(?) ... that have germinated from this idea into an overhaul urban renewal of Telekinesis that will be AWESOME ...