PoptartsNinja

Alright, I'm in a weird mood so let's see if we can't Eco-Friendly Powerset Recycle a VEAT. Arachnos Soldiers have always been a weird mix of weapons, battle armor, psychic powers, surprise leadership buffs, and weirdness. Y'know what other villain group all of that applies to? The Rikti. The Path of War leans more heavily towards tanking than any of the current Arachnos powersets, with a dash of mastermind and some minor controls/debuffs for flavor. Since "whirling weapon" powers look terrible with the Rikti models, the Path of War doesn't get one but instead steals the on-death PBAOE from the Heavy Assault Suit as a normal click power and a bunch of standing cone attacks from Hro'Dtohz. The Path of the Mind leans heavily towards controller, with some blasting, melee, and surprise team buffing. Since no Rikti have confuse, the Path of the Mind eschews confuse powers in favor of holds and a buff that turns them into a mini-Dominator for 10 seconds. Unfortunately the Rikti don't have a lot of powers to choose from on their base troopers, so I had to steal a few from the Heavy Assault Suit. All of the damage descriptions are taken from the Wiki and would of course need to be adjusted for balance. Rikti Infiltrator VEAT Inherent: Conditioning No need to rock the boat, no need for anything special. Conditioning is good enough. Rikti Infiltrator - Unlocks the Rikti Pistol and Rikti Sword right-hand weapons 1 - Pistol Blast Ranged, Moderate DMG(Energy), Foe Disorient 1 - Rikti Sword Melee, Moderate DMG(Energy/Lethal), Foe Knockdown 2 - Heavy Pistol Blast Ranged, High DMG(Energy), Foe Knockdown 6 - Radiant Aura PBAoE, Team Heal 8 - Fusion Pulse Ranged (Narrow Cone), Moderate DMG(Energy), Minor DoT(Energy), Foe -Resist(All), -Regeneration 12 - Greater Rikti Sword Melee, High DMG(Energy/Lethal), Foe Knockdown 12 - Mass Hypnosis Low-Accuracy, Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Sleep 18 - Fusion Explosion Ranged (Targeted AoE), Light DMG(Energy), Minor DoT(Energy), Foe -Resist(All), -Regeneration Path of War - Unlocks the Rikti sword-blaster combo weapon which modern Rikti use to avoid constant redraw: that's the sword that's also a gun, it's currently not available to players 1 - Blade Eviscerate Melee, Moderate DMG(Energy/Lethal), Foe Disorient 1 - Rifle Blast Ranged, Moderate DMG(Energy), Foe Knockback 2 - Touch of Fear Melee, Foe Fear, -ToHit 6 - Build Up Self +DMG, +To-Hit 8 - Sweeping Laser Ranged (Cone), Moderate DMG(Energy), Foe -Defense 12 - Heavy Blast Ranged, High DMG(Energy), Foe Knockback 12 - Blade Slice Melee (Cone), Moderate DMG(Energy/Lethal), Foe Disorient 18 - Blade Swing Melee, High DMG(Energy/Lethal), Foe Disorient 22 - Taunt Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Taunt 26 - Blade Carve Melee (Cone), Heavy DMG(Energy/Lethal), Foe Disorient Path of the Mind 1 - Repulsion Strike Melee, Moderate DMG(Smash), Foe Repel, KB (functionally the same as Martial Combat's Ki Push) 1 - Mental Blast Ranged, Moderate DMG(Psionic), Foe -Recharge 2 - Dominate Ranged, Moderate DMG(Psionic), Foe Hold 6 - Mental Domination Self +Magnitude(Hold, Sleep), +Duration (Hold, Sleep) (Like Power Buildup, except it actually boosts magnitude by +1 or +2 a bit like a mini-Domination) 8 - Psychic Scream Ranged (Cone), Moderate DMG(Psionic), Foe -Rech 12 - Levitate Ranged, Moderate DMG(Smash), Foe Knock Up 12 - Mind Probe Melee, High DMG(Psionic), Foe -Rech 18 - Psionic Lance Sniper, Extreme DMG(Psionic), Foe -Rech 22 - Terrify Ranged (Cone), Minor DMG(Psionic), Foe Fear(Special) 26 - Total Domination Low-Accuracy, Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe Hold 28 - Mass Levitate PBAOE, High DMG(Smash), Foe Knock Up Infiltrator Training 1 - Rikti Infiltrator Armor Auto: Self +Res(Smash, Lethal, Energy, status effects (Same as Wolf Spider Armor but without the total Sleep immunity)) 2 - Combat Training: Defensive Auto: Self +DEF(Melee) 4 - Combat Training: Offensive Auto: Self +ACC 10 - Tactical Training: Maneuvers Toggle: PBAoE, Team +DEF 16 - Tactical Training: Assault Toggle: PBAoE, Team +DMG, +Res(Taunt, Placate) 20 - Tactical Training: Leadership Toggle: PBAoE, Team +ToHit, +Perception, +Res(Confuse, Fear) 22 - Mental Resistance Auto: Self +Res(Psi, Energy), +Def(Psi, Energy) 30 - Call Reinforcements (Summons 2 Allied Rikti Drones) Path of War Training 1 - Command Armor Auto: Self +Res(All DMG but Negative, status effects), +HP 24 - Reinforced Shielding Toggle: Self +Res(Disorient, Hold, Immobilize, Sleep, All DMG but Negative) 24 - Fusion Overload PBAoE, High DMG(Energy), Minor DoT(Energy), Foe -Resist(All), -Regeneration 28 - Monkey Portal (Summons an LT-Ranked Rikti Portal with a 20 second duration. The portal summons 2 Rikti Monkeys every second for the duration, to a maximum of 6 Rikti Monkeys at a time) Path of the Mind Training 1 - Dispersion Bubble Toggle: PBAoE, Team +Res(Hold, Immob, Disorient), +DEF(All) 24 - Accelerate Metabolism PBAoE, Team +Speed, +Recharge, +Damage, +Recovery, Resist(Hold, Immobilize, Disorient, Sleep) 24 - Indomitable Will Toggle: Self +DEF(Psionic), +Res(Disorient, Hold, Immob, Sleep, Fear, Confuse, Repel, Knockback) 28 - Drain Psyche PBAoE, Foe -Regen, -Rec, Self +Regen, +Rec

It's actually even harder for tanks, brutes, and etc. to earn the damage taken badges in normal play due to their resistance/defense toggles. It's a weird perverse scenario where the thing they're best at (mitigating incoming damage) is the thing they get the least credit for doing, because those badges don't track incoming damage they track how much that incoming damage made your healthbar move.

These and the healing badges are the worst in the game. They were explicitly put in by Jack Emmert as a middle finger to badge hunters. He wanted them to be basically impossible to earn via normal gameplay. Sitting in a fire for a week straight because Statesman was grumpy one week back in 2004 is pretty abberant game design. All those badges could use a review and a change from an exponential progression to a linear one that, say, topped out at 1,000,000 damage taken. A player might actually take a decent percentage of that 1,000,000 damage in normal gameplay.

If you're looking for an AE to run missions or RP teams from, I'd suggest using the ones in little-trafficked zones like Faultine, the Rikti Warzone, Brickstown, or Skyway City. They get so little traffic that you probably won't see another person at all, so they're great meeting places for an AE mission team or RP team to run an arc or two without anyone, farmer or otherwise, bothering you. If you're looking to make an AE mission without being annoyed by power sound effects, you can go into the the Quiet Room, which disables all powers (auto or otherwise). It's accessable via the 'Studio B' door next to the mission portal:

Detention Bubble.

Tanker Martial Arts Warrior's Provocation doesn't have the same on-hit effect as other taunts. It still taunts, but there's no visual indication whether or not the taunt was successful. Regular Taunts get the headsparks Warrior's Provocation gets nothing

Character name: Alex St. Croix Global: @Thunderchild Base or SG Name: Crash Castle Shard: Everlasting Passcode: CRASHCASTLE-26019 Item Count: 3823 at time of application, may be a little higher or lower because I tend to fiddle with things as the mood strikes and/or my frustration with base drift mounts Category for Contest: RP Base Under 7K Items Other associated contributors: None Additional Info / Must-See Areas of Note: A Freakshow-themed castle in Crey's Folly. Check out the scenic water purifier, fight club, car-tapult, outdoor stage, or even the dancefloor!

They're not asking for auras, they're asking for existing costume options like the Cyclops Visor to have an alternate option with a paint swatch that works the same way Spectrum and the Cyborg eyes do. I'm all for that. That's a fun idea to proliferate that adds options but doesn't require making actually new models. There're a lot of parts that could use the Spectrum treatment. I'm sure there's a technical limitation taht prevents it or something, but the 'circuitry' texture pattern could use a "glowing" version too.

Just like with traffic, adding capacity doesn't decrease congestion. Adding storage capacity won't decrease your need to store inf, and if you're storing billions of inf the problem is a lack of anything worthwhile for you to spend that inf on. Part of that has to do with how bad the game's IO drop rates are, that a "complete" character often needs to spend half a billion inf or more just to feel capable of attempting the new hard mode content. The amount of effort it takes to farm 3-4 purple IOs on a single character is roughly equivalent to the amount of effort it takes to level from Level 1 to Level 50; but the amount of inf you'll make for that effort is often enough to buy more than just 3-4 purple IOs. I also understand people just like to hoard because bigger numbers make people happy. Now, we can't really have a "throw inf into a hole, get a badge" solution because the moment the last badge is achieved people will stop throwing excess money into a hole. We could add special IOs that are functionally identical to the normal ones but have a special rim and cost 10x as much, but once you've got a character fully kitted out with prestige IOs you're right back to needing storage capacity. Prismatic Aethers were supposed to be a time/inf sink but the number of things you can buy with them are still limited; and because they rely on the AH most of the money spent on them (90%? I forget what percentage the AH takes) stays in the economy. Would anything make you want to spend some of your billions of stored inf? Would you spend a variable amount of inf to have one of the generic hero statues in the city replaced with a statue (or statue-sized hologram if that's easier for the devs to program) of your character? Something where you could bid inf on but if someone came along and outbid you they could replace you? I could see that being fun but I could also see that causing bitter rivalries to form. I could also see that eating up a lot of dev time since the server would have to accept costume files and you'd essentially be spending billions of inf to upload your costume. Or, what if your new storage option was itself a form of influence sink? Would you still buy 'storage salvage' if it cost more to buy than you could resell it for? Like, let's say one salvage piece cost the maximum amount of inf a character can carry (999,999,999?) but you could only sell it back for 500m? It would give you a safe way to store the inf that didn't wholly rely on the mailbox or the AH, but you'd effectively be paying a luxury tax to do so.

Regen's biggest issue is that only Moment of Glory gives the actual regen powers time to work. Everything else requires dipping into pool powers since regeneration on its own is really slow. It could use a +absorb-over-time toggle, like a stronger version of Blaster Martial Combat's Reaction Time. Give it some fairly small stacking absorb tics but a high cap (say 50-60% max HP?) so it can spend a little time out of combat between fights bolstering itself up. Absorb is a slightly weaker version of +max HP but coupled with +absorb over time it also becomes a weaker version of a heal-over-time power where even in an extended fight mobs have to chunk through some absorb HP before they hit actual health with each attack. That would give the set's regeneration a chance to actually do its job. Coupled with moment of glory to give you a chance to regen and reacquire absorb stacks and I think that winds up being fairly elegant. Stick 15-25% +absorb on reconstruction to make it even more of a buffer power and I think you wind up with a set that's still killable while also feeling much more durable. At that point the hard-ish choice between defense and resistance also becomes a little clearer since defense gives absorb-over-time longer to build up.

Manipulation/Manipulation, just be the weird single-target pseudo-control half-melee jack-of-some-trades you always wanted to be. It even comes with a built-in name: the Manipulator!

That would be a real challenge, since NemSys Archtecture has a stranglehold on building design in Paragon City. The city loves them because they file all their TPS reports with clockwork precision but their designs are more like the same 30 or so general designs configured in slightly different ways that resemble works of brutalist art more than functional architecture. I really think there must be some sort of NemSys plot going on behind the

This is too definition-dependent to be answerable, so: it depends. I'm assuming you're looking for a mix of survivability and damage, and the ability to solo at +4/x8? In that case, the answer becomes powerset dependent but scrappers, tankers, and brutes are all pretty equally capable of running solo +4/x8 if they feel like it. Defense sets tend to be stronger on scrappers since they have the same soft cap as tanks, while resist sets tend to be stronger on tankers because 90% is more than 75%. There are a small number of attacks in the game that are auto-hit that negate defense-based sets; and there are a small number of attacks that deal untyped damage that bypass all resistances; but both are only really common in endgame team- or league-based content and aren't things you'll usually encounter solo. The key to remember is that building a tank for damage doesn't preclude the tank from having strong defenses; and building a scrapper for defense doesn't mean it's not also built for damage. Ideally you want to be doing both. What's more important than looking at attack and defense values are looking at and comparing the utility tools in the sets you're considering soloing with. Powersets with built-in health and/or end-management tools tend to be more solo friendly than powersets without. For example: Due to its higher innate defense debuff resistance, Super Reflexes is probably the stronger powerset in teams that can help SR manage endurance; while Ninjutsu's built-in end management and heal means Nin has an easier time recovering from an unlucky streak when soloing. Likewise, Electric Armor's ability to casually cap all resistance types except Negative and Toxic is very powerful, but the long cooldown on Energize means it has a harder time recovering from chip damage than Radiation Armor which has much stronger and faster-recharging health management tools.

What factions are your favorite to play against? Freakshow, Council/5th, Nemesis, Rikti, and Praetorian Resistance because they shoot more blue lasers than Cobra. What factions do you hate playing against? Scrapyarders / Dockworkers because they're just guys upset about how hard it is to do an honest day's work in the Rogue Isles; Praetorian Clockwork because they're visually uninteresting on their own; and the Luddites because they're just so interminably boring. Legacy Chain may not have any staying power but at least they've got goofy hats, Luddites don't even have that. Oh, and Prisonsers. The Zig is a concrete eyesore and leaks like a sieve. The whole thing should be reskinned as a gargantuan Blade Runner-esque corporate headquarters for Crey (with identical geometry). You can even keep calling in the Zig, just make it the Crey Ziggurat. Which factions have the best lore? I want to say Freakshow but I think their lore could use a little tweaking (the Freakshow as they currently exist are perfect for the Rogue Isles, but I think Paragon City's Freakshow are the OG and could use a little more development). Devouring Earth and Nemesis are good, the Rikti are well-developed, Malta are appropriately creepy. What about factions where the lore is lacking? Longbow. They're trying really hard to be GI Joe but instead they're usually just in places they have no business being. Longbow should be restricted to Nerva (since half of it is U.S. Soil) and replaced with the Hero Corps nearly everywhere else. What if any tweaks would you have for a faction group? Paragon City Freakshow and Rogue Island Freakshow should be differentiated, lore-wise. Rather than being weird drugged-out anarchists, the Paragon City Freakshow should be Rikti War vets the war never really ended for. Excelsior started as a military anti-rejection drug for cybernetics and so it would stand to reason that a whole bunch of poor guys might've gotten hooked on it during the worst of the fighting or to cyber up after an injury. It would explain their love of building fortifications and NOISE; and would explain why they're holed up in Crey's just outside the RWZ. They should really have war spawns with Rikti in Crey's Folly and probably shouldn't really care about the Warriors as rivals when they're more like convenient punching bags which, hey, given the way the spawns in Talos Island work that already seems to be the case. Rogue Isles Freaks should be more like the current Freaks: young anarchists who maybe aren't thinking everything through but they're copying a "badass" aesthetic, smashing things with hammers, and bringin' the fight to the Spiders. They cyber-Anarchists should really hate Arachnos more, is what I'm getting at. It's a pity Mercy Island's such a low-level zone because it'd be a perfect recruiting ground for the Rogue Island Freakshow. Reskin the low-level Hellions and Skulls as Freakshow recruiters trying to convert the Contaminated and you've got a pretty strong low-level storyline. What about interactions of faction groups with each other, ie. faction v. faction alignment? As above, I really think the Rikti and Freakshow should be in-game rivals. Freak Tanks make so much more sense if they're trying to compete with Rikti plasma weapons. You don't need to turn yourself into a walking sledgehammer to fight a guy in a leather jacket with a battle axe. I'd also see the Freakshow being easy prey for Malta, because they're a bunch of battle junkies who have pre-soaked their brains in chemicals that make it easy to cram their gray matter into big blue battle robots. What do you think about various versions of the factions whether they are blue side, red, gold? Do you see a difference? I enjoy when there are lore differences between the same/similar factions in different places. Paragon City's family vs. Rouge Islands Mooks should really be the ideal, which is why the lack of any discernable difference between PC and RI Freakshow stands out so much. The only arc that implies there's any difference is Ms. Francine's.

Having functional, reliable T9s with less bonkers values and greatly reduced/outright removed crashes would benefit Brutes quite a lot, I think. Since many T9s grant a recovery buff for the duration--and since Brute effectiveness goes up the longer they can stay in combat--being able to pop the T9 every 5 minutes or so without worry of dying instantly the moment the crash hits would be a pretty significant QoL change.

It's funny, but not very good. It can immob multiple things if they're in the initial burst; but can't immob bosses on its own.

What currently existing attacks could we cannibalize into a Battle Rifle set? Let's assume, just for the sake of it, that the underslung grenade launcher is still OK. T1) Single Shot T2) Burst T3) Heavy Burst T4) M30-Grenade T5) Aim T6) Snipe T7) Bullet Barrage (Source: Commando w/ Tactical Upgrade) as like a single-target full auto for a heavy single target damage attack? T8) I want to put Surveillance here but I think it's in one of the PPPs. Stealing the Mercenary Commando's flashbang grenade seems wrong for a blast set. Venom Grenade is definitely out. I feel like the set needs something to help with lethal resistance, so we'll say Acid Grenade a small (4m?) aoe minor damage with -Resistance(lethal) T9) Full Auto? Full Auto Sweep (Full Auto with a much shorter but much wider (120 to 180)-degree cone so it's not just a 100% carbon copy) Some problems I see with this theoretical set: - All lethal damage, unless you sneak some smashing into M30 grenade. The set really needs a way to do some -Resistance(Lethal) for the endgame but absolutely shouldn't get Venom Grenade, which should stay unique to SoA. - Most of the damaging powers (burst, heavy burst, bullet barrage, and full auto) are DOTs which means recharge time is less important than animation time. - Comparatively poor AoE And, since we're at it Resistance Rifle for people like me who would love a chance to shoot those pretty blue pew pew lasers at people (and since the odds of us getting a resistance PEAT are basically nill) T1) Single Shot (Lethal/Energy), Foe -Regen T2) Burst (Lethal/Energy), Foe -Regen T3) Covering Fire (Lethal/Energy) Cone, Foe -Spd, -Rech T4) Overcharged Shot (Energy) Targeted AoE, small fire DoT T5) Resistance Targeting Drone (toggle: self +perception, very minor +ToHit) or Aim if this is OP T6) Aimed Shot (Lethal/Energy) Snipe, Knockdown T7) Fusilade (Lethal/Energy) Cone, Foe -Regen T8) Photon Grenade because I ran out of Resistance attacks and didn't think we needed Covering Fire, Fusilade, and Heavy Burst, but Heavy Burst could also work as a no-frills high damage cone. T9) Orbital Lance (Energy) Targeted AoE Knockdown And since we're adding more rifle sets, let's look at a minimal-redraw Blaster secondary for rifle sets. This is designed to put the gun away as few times as possible but unfortunately not really usable for sets that don't have a gun. I wanted to avoid stepping on Devices/Traps so no mines. This only really works if we wind up with enough rifle sets to make giving them a dedicated "Manipulation" set worthwhile Having trouble thinking up a name for this one. CQC Training? Commando? Survival Specialist? T1) Toxic Web Grenade single target immob+DoT, fired from the rifle T2) Pummel secretly the most fun power in the game T3) Cryo Grenade single target hold, fired from the rifle T4) Build Up (builds a small house at the user's location) T5) Muzzle Strike Bayonet's animation but smashing/knockdown because very few of the non-Arachnos assault rifle models have visible bayonets. T6) Survivor (Auto: +MaxHP, +recovery) stolen from the Praetorian Resistance and tweaked T7) Flashbang Grenade Targed AoE -Perception, -Acc, chance for Mag2 stun (definitely generates aggro Flash Arrow), fired from the rifle T8) Combat Reload Immediately recharge all primary powers (fixed 300+ second recharge?) T9) Buttstroke Pummel but with the damage cranked up to 8 (not 11, because pummel is fast compared to things like Golden Dragonfly and Total Focus) and no secondary effect I think Build Up is the only thing that puts the gun away. Unfortunately we can't really do Bayonet for one of the melee attacks because only the Vanguard Rifles have those and pummel is the only other "hit them with the gun" power we have. Fortunately, Pummel is great. Depending on how wonky the animations are it might be possible to steal one of Staff Fighting's animations for a PBAoE with the gun, but I expect that would look incredibly silly so I kept all the melee single target.

AR isn't a bad set, it's just a weird set. I'd personally trade beanbag for Aim but I haven't really missed Aim or Build Up on my AR/Nin Blaster. It's actually kinda liberating not needing to worry about them, honestly. I'd say the only power in AR that's in need of actual help is Flamethrower; which has the same problems as all the fire/ice breath attacks: namely a long rooting animation and anemic damage (as well as weird start-up time on the damage tics, which sometimes don't even start triggering for 2-3 seconds based on the enemy's range). At the same time, buffing Flamethrower means buffing every enemy that also has Flamethrower because it's such a bad power it makes for a good filler attack for low- and mid-tier mobs so a lot of enemy groups have it. Imagine Longbow or Council with buffed, actually dangerous Flamethrowers.

Elec Armor's crash is the worst in the game -90% hp, -100% end, -10000% recovery, all of the others are some lesser combination of those effects Invuln is -90% hp, -100% end Elude, Kuji-in Retsu, and Overload are -100% end, -10000% recovery Even keeping what they're currently doing 100% the same with no changes, but toning down the resist/defense values in favor of toning down the crashes would be a huge improvement to the worst offenders.

Ah, my mistake. I could've sworn I heard it was checking both at some point, but just using the strongest makes sense. In that case, my suggestion for Elude would be to cut the power down to 15%-20% positional defense and remove the crash; and my suggestion for Overload would be similar (10% to most typed defense, but to add +30% to Psi/Toxic which Energy Aura supplies very little of) I know that you don't intend it this way, but this is a false equivalence. The Devs spending a few hours or even days reviewing the numbers in the old-fashioned armor T9s doesn't preclude them from working on incarnates if that's what they want to be doing. Making the T9s more attractive by toning down some of their utterly bonkers armor/defense numbers in exchange for softening their crashes won't somehow lock us out of ever getting Genesis, Mind, or Omega.

That's why I'd like to turn them all into emergency heals that just happen to be usable as a Self-Rez if you wait too long to click on them. Imagine popping Soul Transfer at 30-40% HP for a chunk of health and nice, long-duration mag 3 stun that stacks with oppressive gloom? Just bam knock a whole spawn senseless when it seems like things might be going south and use the next 12 seconds to clean them up. They're a utility tool, which means their implementation can be quite varied. They either perform something the set already does in a different way (Parasitic Aura), shore up defenses while offering timed benefits (Meltdown), or offer a way for a set to do what it's best at with a little reassurance that if something does go wrong you have something to fall back on (Phoenix Rising). I wanted to avoid making them all set replacements because I feel that often doesn't really mesh with the feel of the set or even the power in question. If Elude offered a big chunk of damage resistance or was a long-duration heal-over-time it would definitely be more immediately useful to SO-only builds than the current incarnation but at the same time it wouldn't really feel like Elude. By changing Elude's defense from positional to typed we can take advantage of the fact that the ToHit formula rolls against positional defense then rolls again against typed defense and if either of them are a miss the attack misses. By offering Super Reflexes a way to temporarily take advantage of both of these defenses Elude would still be very useful even if the full strength of the typed defenses it provides is somewhat less than that provided by SR's normal positional defenses.

This is half-suggestion but also half-review of the armor T9s, and how they compare to the rest of the sets they’re sourced from. This thread is not here to compare the T9s against one another (except in situations where they're almost exact carbon copies like Elude and Kuji-in Retsu). The purpose is to take a good hard look at the ‘capstone’ powers of the armor sets to see if they bring any real benefit to their own powerset or if they're completely overshadowed by the things the set is already doing. I personally believe that every T9 has something to recommend it but I also believe a good many of them are outdated or were designed based on a very bad assumption about how City of Heroes would be played. Some just don’t offer enough utility to justify their downsides and others just provide too much of something a set is already doing quite well. As we review these, it’s going to be important to keep in mind that there’s a sharp difference between a modern T9 and an older one. The OG CoH devs didn’t expect or intend for players to run more than one toggle at a time, they expected people would swap between them situationally and so a lot of the original T9s are meant to replace rather than supplement the set they’re from. This is most visible in Granite Armor, but persisted due to inertia and applies fairly universally to pretty much every armor set until the addition of Willpower and Shield Defense. This is part of the problem with the Armor T9s in general, and why some of them feel so badly flawed. It is these T9s that primarily need our attention and I’m going to do my best to offer ideas for each one that I feel are 1) achievable and 2) don't breaking the overall ‘feel’ of each power. Best In Show / The Mostly Modern T9s Bio Armor: Parasitic Aura It’s a modern T9 which means rather than being an “emergency” power, it’s basically a core power for the set. Parasitic Aura is one of Bio Armor’s three major recovery tools, and it’s the most powerful of the three. It’s one of the best T9s in the game. Bio Armor: Parasitic Leech It’s a 40ft cone version of Parasitic Aura, to make it easier for Sentinels to make use of it without forcing them to rub their faces all over a mob. Commentary: Parasitic Aura and Parasitic Leech are the sort of T9s other T9s should aspire to be. For many T9s I’d advocate switching to a flat recharge timer that’s unaffected by recharge reduction, but Parasitic Aura/Leech don’t need that. They’re 100% fine. Radiation Armor: Meltdown Another modern T9, it gives +resistance to a set that usually doesn’t fully cap most of its resistances and the resistance it provides is a reasonable value (20% tanker values). It’s also got a solid (about one equal-level SO’s worth) damage boost and crash is an extremely reasonable -10% end / -10000% recovery for 10 seconds. Meltdown makes you fight harder while it’s up and then you enter a brief cooldown period where you either have to tank whatever’s left over for a few seconds or, more likely, everything’s already dead and you can recover in peace. Minor Suggestion: 480s flat cooldown is pretty reasonable for everything it offers, but it would probably be fine at 300s. 5 minutes is still a long time to wait for a power to recharge and is more than enough to guarantee Meltdown won’t be available every spawn. Fiery Aura: Phoenix Rising A huge improvement over Rise of the Phoenix, Phoenix Rising is a nice burst of healing and AoE damage that encourages Fiery Aura to ride that thin line between victory and disaster. It’s pretty much perfect for the set. You get damage and a heal coupled to some knockback and stun or you can save it for when you drop to reset. Commentary: I wasn’t sold on this when I first saw it but it’s great, Phoenix Rising is such a great tool now. It really fits the set, and it’s pretty to boot. Willpower: Strength of Will Strength of Will is really one of the first of the modern T9s. Rather than trying to replace the entirety of Willpower, Strength of Will is there to give the rest of Willpower time to do its job, offering a nice solid recovery boost in addition to shoring up Willpower’s physical defenses for a bit. Its crash is a on the harsh side of reasonable Commentary: Strength of Will is always useful. The -50% end crash is harsh but reasonable since it’s not coupled with a recovery or HP crash. It’s the sort of crash that could get you into trouble when it triggers, but if it actually does you probably weren’t winning that fight anyway. Shield Defense: One with the Shield Shield Defense is another one of the earliest modern T9s, and it’s really good. Its crash is a harsh but fair -60% end, it adds some extra resistance to a set that primarily relies on positional defense, gives bonus max HP, and gives another source of status protection in case you forget to click on Active Defense. Commentary: I can’t really think of any improvements for One With the Shield. 360s fixed recharge feels a bit on the high side but still reasonable. Ice Armor: Icy Bastion A more modern take on Hibernate for Sentinels only. Icy Bastion is a nice little bump of damage resistance, regen, and recovery for 30 seconds. Commentary: This seems pretty solid to me and it looks like it fills an actual niche. It’s more akin to Moment of Glory for Ice Armor than Hibernate but that's not a bad thing. If it buys the user an extra 30 seconds of blasting it's done its job perfectly, and even if it doesn't it's crashless which is rare for a +resistance T9. OK but Could Be Better Dark Armor: Soul Transfer Soul Transfer is a 12 second Mag 30 stun that just so happens to be stapled to a self rez. When you need it, it’s basically a nice soft reset on a fight buuuut… self-rez powers have bad reputations for a reason, and this one’s attached to Dark Armor. Dark Armor is an incredibly tough and survivable set. Between defense, resistance, -ToHit, soft CC auras, and a self-heal that’s effectively a full heal if even two enemies are standing next to you, the odds of you ever having to use Soul Transfer are slim to none. Suggestion: Give it the Phoenix Rising treatment, so it can either be used in its current state as a hard reset self-rez or be activated early to turn it into a second ‘emergency’ self-heal. The stun would probably have to be reduced to mag 3 or so on the ‘still alive’ version but that would stack with Oppressive Gloom to stun even bosses for a few seconds. If the stun alone isn’t enough of a secondary effect, maybe add a mag 3 fear to the ‘still alive’ version as well so it also enhances Cloak of Fear, that way people can run their status effect toggle of choice or even get a little extra safety from running both. Ice Armor: Hibernate Hibernate is in a weird spot, because I don’t feel like it’s a bad power but I also don’t feel like it’s particularly useful for Ice Armor. It was designed back when the devs expected players to use rest after every other spawn as a way to rest quickly and safely; but that design philosophy is extremely dated now. Ice Armor already has some good HP management in the form of Dull Pain, and endurance management in the form of Energy Absorption—but at the same time, Ice Armor has always been a weird hybrid defense/resistance set where it feels like the chance of something going wrong is always right there. Suggestion #1: Make Hibernate also self-rez, with debt protection and the whole nine yards, with an initial burst of health/end and the option to detoggle early or keep hibernating to take advantage of the +regen and +recovery. This just gives it a little more attractiveness as a utility power. Suggestion #2: Give Hibernate a taunt aura to invite nearby mobs to continue attacking an invulnerable target. This would probably need to be reduced in power (so there’s an increased risk that someone doing heavy blasting might pull aggro) but it seems like having a way to recover from a bad luck streak while still tanking could be very handy. Invulnerability: Unstoppable Invulnerability is a mixed resistance/defense set, and as such has a harder time capping some resistances than some other pure resistance sets. Unstoppable is an old T9 that was built assuming players would only be running one or maybe two toggles at a time, so its values are totally out of whack—but it actually does provide a useful service to the set by letting invuln temporarily cap its weaker energy/negative/fire/cold resistances. It also adds knockback protection and repel resistance, the latter of which is pretty rare and fitting. Unstoppable’s crash is the absolutely brutal -90% hp / -100% end crash and is probably the #1 reason why it rarely gets used. Suggestion: Switch the recharge to a fixed 300s and lower the non-Psi resistance values in Unstoppable to about base 20-25% at Tanker values (Psi can stay at 35%). Maybe even remove the smashing and lethal resistance entirely since your average invulnerability tanker probably has both capped. Then add 100% slow resistance and 100% recharge debuff resistance (Unstoppable means Unstoppable), and add a +50% or so recharge boost while it’s up. Maybe even add a unique interaction with Titan Weapons to give it permanent momentum while Unstoppable’s up. You become tough and strong and brutal for the duration, taxing the +recovery bonus Unstoppable already has. Then tone down the crash from 90%hp / 100% end to 50% HP / 50% End. It’s still a hefty crash but puts you in a recoverable situation and may even qualify as a soft reset depending on how low your HP got while you were smashing things up. This keeps the overall feel of Unstoppable the same while giving it more utility and stopping it from being a death sentence if it drops while there’s still a enemies around. Regeneration: Moment of Glory This is probably going to surprise some people, but hear me out: Moment of Glory is actually pretty OK. It offers high-value defense and resistance to a set that has neither of those things and generally just buys time for regen to do its thing. That the rest of regen generally isn’t great isn’t Moment of Glory’s fault. Suggestion: Moment of Glory can be cast through fear but doesn’t protect from it, and it probably should. It makes you nigh-invulnerable when you’re Scrappin’ which sounds like a pretty good reason to be fearless to me. Some slow resistance would also fit thematically, since you’re basically putting everything on the line for the duration no matter how much you get hurt in the process. The +recovery is useful but such a short duration it might be better to swap it for a flat +100 end right at the start so you’re essentially fresh and ready to fight as hard as you can. Back in the day ‘Eternity of Glory’ was a thing, but with only a 15s duration MoG could probably be dropped from 240s flat cooldown to 180s flat cooldown. A 3-minute cooldown for a 15 second duration feels good, if we keep the 4m cooldown adding an extra 5s duration would also be pretty ok since that would be 5s uptime per minute of downtime. Stone Armor: Granite Armor Granite has always been an odd duck. It’s extremely strong but at the same time suppresses the other toggles in the set as well as all running, flying, and jump toggles. It’s powerful with a built-in downside, and recent changes (letting it suppress other powers in the set rather than outright detoggling them) have made it a lot easier to pop in and out of Granite as needed. Suggestion: Granite trades movement speed for durability, but I really feel like the tools it offers have grown outdated. The damage, recharge, and move speed debuffs could all be cut in half and they’d still feel punishing. I’d personally advocate for the removal of the damage debuff entirely, discouraging players from using their actual attacks feels bad. I'd actually contend that the the recharge penalty is plenty on its own and Granite could use an inherent damage buff to compensate (you attack more slowly but your attacks have the weight of a whole mountain behind them). Likewise, even though Stone Armor has an inherent move-speed debuff I think it could also use slow immunity. You’re being slowed down by the ton of rock you’ve covered yourself in, a few metal spikes on the floor or a patch of sticky spider glue aren’t going to bother you. Forcibly capping Granite's movement speed at the non-fitness run speed (the way the Pay2Win vendor's Disable All Powers power does) is likewise probably enough of a movement speed penalty. Stone Armor: Geode Geode replaces Granite for Scrappers, Stalkers, and Sentinels. I haven’t had a chance to play with Geode yet, but it feels like “hibernate, but fragile.” Suggestion: Granite-less Stone Armor feels like it’s in the same boat as Ice Armor, so Geode is a pretty good fit. Since it’s primarily for Scrappers, Stalkers, and Sentinels a taunt aura doesn’t really seem to fit either. This is another contender to turn into a “can also be used as a self rez” for added utility. In Dire Straits Electric Armor: Power Surge Why is this down here when it’s basically a carbon copy of Invulnerability? Because unlike Invincibility, Electric Armor is a pure resist set which makes Power Surge total overkill. Even without IOs, Electric Armor can pretty comfortably cap Smashing, Lethal, and Energy just by adding tough. Power Surge’s resistance values are +60% to negative, +70% to Smashing, Lethal, Fire, Cold, and Toxic, and a hilarious +80% to energy (a resistance Electric Armor will generally push to 120% or so without any outside interference). Aside from resistance to the extremely rare Toxic damage, which is Elec’s “traditional weakness,” Power Surge just doesn't bring anything to the table… and it has a 90% hp / 100% end / -10000% recovery crash which is undeniably the worst in the entire game. Suggestion #1: I feel like this is the strongest idea so I’ve put it first. Set a 300s fixed recharge, then reduce most of the resistance values across the board to 20% (tanker values), and Toxic to 35-45% or so since Electric Armor has no inbuilt toxic resistance. Then add a hybrid-style energy damage proc (50% base attack damage as additional energy damage?) to all player attacks, since you’re a zappy electrical gremlin and even powersets with weapons convert the weapon to energy for the duration. Then tone down the crash to 50% hp / 50% end / -1000% recovery so again, it hurts without being a death sentence. That should give Power Surge enough resistance to approach caps without necessarily reaching them, making Power Surge a bit of a damage race T9 rather than a T9 that protects the user with a concrete wall (then bulldozes it over on top of them). Suggestion #2: Nearly identical to the above, except rather than a crash this should reverse Elec’s normal strengths and weaknesses. Apply a -50% energy damage resistance debuff for the duration for, so energy resistance becomes a vulnerability while you’re a gremlin but the power ends without a crash. Suggestion #3: Dump all resistances except toxic and apply 20-30% typed defense to Smashing, Lethal, Energy, Fire, Cold, and Psi (and then maybe 10%-15% defense to Negative) to simulate attacks passing straight through you without causing any harm. Elec currently doesn’t have any +defense powers so Power Surge would be a decent candidate and that would give it a nice survival buff that’s usable with or without set bonuses. It just feels like a lazy solution, and still needs the crash toned way down or nobody will use it for anything more than a LotG mule. Suggestion #4: At its current resistance values Power Surge could easily be made into a Granite Armor-esque toggle (slotted with an actual resistance set it caps all damage types except Psi) but people like seeing their characters and Power Surge would look pretty bad with the rest of Electric Armor suppressed. It would also probably need end drain resistance, but at that point I feel this runs the risk of obsoleting most of the rest of what is already a really strong powerset. Power Surge, build for melee defense, then tank four-star Rommy forever? No thanks. I’m just mentioning this option because this is the only ultimate in the game that could be made similar to Granite Armor. Super Reflexes: Elude Oh look, more overkill! Super Reflexes already soft-caps positional defenses with ease which means Elude’s biggest contribution 99% of the time is a run speed / jump height boost and some +recovery. It’s got a very harsh crash with 100% end / -10000% recovery. Suggestion: 300s fixed recharge. Then change Elude’s +60% positional defense to +20% typed defense (smashing/lethal/energy/negative/fire/cold/toxic/psi). Maybe leave out Toxic/Psi if you want to keep its weaknesses on par with EA. This gives Super Reflexes more opportunities to evade rather than just pushing the set’s already sky-high evasion to the moon. If you want to get fun, since Elude is all about mobility, have it phase shift the player so that they can move through allies and enemies with no collision detection for the duration. Pets blocking a door? You’re so elusive you can slip through anyway! Then tone down the crash. Just -10000% recovery seems like plenty but maybe -10% to -50% end too. Suggestion Revamp: Since defense doesn't work quite the way I thought, I'd instead advocate lowering the numbers from the crazy +60% positional defense to a more reasonable 20% (tanker values) and removing or toning down Elude's crash, then maybe adding something fun to keep the theme of Elude being a high-mobility T9 by adding no-collision for the duration. Ninjutsu: Kuji-In Retsu This is literally just elude with worse Defense Debuff Resistance. Suggestion #1: It feels lazy to just copy my suggestion for Elude, but that’s suggestion #1. Switch the positional defenses to a lower value of typed defense to give the set twice the opportunity to evade well. 300s fixed cooldown. Suggestion #2: There has to be something appropriately ninja-y we could do with this. Keep the DDR since Ninjutsu has difficulty getting Defense Debuff Resistance natively; but dump evasion entirely. Shorten the duration to 30-60 seconds or so and then: what if, instead of boosting survivability, targets struck by an attacker with Kuji-in Retsu active received a unique stacking debuff with a short (5 second?) duration that stacked up to 3 times and refreshed all stacks each time the target got hit (encouraging the user to focus on one target exclusively for as long as possible). Each stack should grant something like 20/40/60% bonus crit chance (even for ATs that don’t normally crit) vs. that specific target for each debuff stack so long as the attacker still has Kuji-in Retsu active. That would give Ninjutsu a way to just go ham and burst down that one hardened target because there’s more than one way to outlast an enemy. This would turn Kuji-in Retsu into more of a counterpart to Moment of Glory and help differentiate it from Super Reflexes. Energy Aura: Overload Slightly more forgivable overkill since Energy Aura doesn’t naturally soft-cap Psi and Toxic defense. It’s got the standard 100% end / - 10000% recovery crash as the other defense sets, soft caps all typed defenses (except toxic and psi), and has a +max HP buff. Overload's max HP buff would make it pretty good if it weren't for the total end crash. Suggestion: 300s fixed cooldown, then switch the defense to 20% (tanker values even though EA doesn’t have a tanker proliferation) positional (melee/ranged/AoE). Like Elude, this would give Overload more opportunities to evade well rather than just taping ‘soft capped’ over all of the typed defenses. I think the +max HP is enough of a secondary bonus that Overload probably doesn’t need anything else. EA has amazing end recovery tools so an endurance crash doesn’t feel appropriate, maybe switch to a -50% hp crash? Suggestion Revamp: Since defense doesn't work quite the way I thought, I'd instead advocate lowering the numbers from the crazy +45% smashing/lethal/energy/negative/fire/cold defense to a more reasonable 20% (tanker values) and removing or toning down Overload's crash. Then I'd add Toxic/Psi defense +30% because Energy Aura has very few ways to get either and having a way to temporarily get both would be handy even endgame. And, while we’re all here, since there’s only two of them, let’s take a quick look at other self rez powers to see if they could be given the Phoenix Rising treatment. Regeneration: Revive It’s a self rez and that’s pretty much it. It’s the most basic self rez in the game and it also does nothing to buy the user any time to retoggle or pop dull pain or anything of the sort. A better version of this power already exists for Sentinels, called Second Wind. Second Wind already has the Phoenix Rising treatment so I’m not talking about it. Suggestion #1: Copy Second Wind over to other ATs with Regen. Suggestion #2: It should be pretty terrifying watching someone you’ve killed stitch their wounds together and stand up again. Add a PBAoE fear component to Revive and allow it to be used either as an emergency heal (with PBAoE fear) or as a self-rez (with PBAoE fear) buying the user 12-ish seconds to get their feet under them again. Then change the name to Revivify. Suggestion #3: Turn Revive into a self-rez with a heal-over-time component like a core power version of the Presence Pool's Unrelenting. Then you can either pop it while alive for a quick burst of healing and some healing-over-time or use it while dead to get back up and quickly heal up while soaking incoming damage. Then change the name to Revivify too, to make it clearer that this isn’t just a self rez anymore. Willpower: Resurgence You self rez and get +damage/+ToHit for 90 seconds, then -damage/-ToHit for 45. Suggestion: Yeah, this feels like a strong contender for Phoenix Rising treatment. Keep the +Damage/+ToHit values constant, but scale the duration of the buff (and debuff) so you can pop it early for health and a short-duration damage boost (and shorter duration debuff) or wait until you’re critically injured/dead for longer duration buffs So, what do you think? What are your thoughts on the current T9s? Which ones do you like and take? Which ones do you skip or use as proc mules? Do you have any suggestions for improving one or more of the T9s? I tried to keep the ‘feel’ of the current T9s intact but I know I haven’t considered every angle. There are bound to be growing pains no matter what, so I’m hoping this suggestion thread can at least help our wonderful Volunteer Devs narrow down which T9s are the least useful.

These options all sound like they'd require more dev time than just adding +20 or +40 to every pet's run speed. NPCs and pets were slower than player characters at launch and to my knowledge they've never had their speed boosted. A passive perception buff to all 'civilian' (i.e. non-combat) NPCs would be nice, too. Just a nice +1000% boost so stalkers don't have to disable the core power of their set. If I was a normal civilian being abducted by stinky sewer wizards, brain-stealing cowboys, or the laser mafia I know I'd do my best to keep my eyes on my rescuer. If there needs to be a fluff reason "We've given all of the heroes in the game walkie-talkies so they can guide civilian NPCs even while invisible" works for me.

Elec can pretty trivially cap all resists except Negative and Toxic, and can get Negative resist up to nearly 70% in the process. ElA's weaknesses have traditionally been its lack of built-in HP management and its toxic damage hole. The "self-healing hole" has been filled a bit since Energize is now a pretty hefty heal (on an equally hefty cooldown). Would I mind if Elec got buffed? Heck no, it's one of my favorite sets in the game, buffs are always welcome. Do I think it needs a buff? No, it's already a really strong resistance set, especially on tankers. Is Radiation Armor better? Yeah, most of the time, but that's like comparing a gold medalist to a bronze medalist at the Olympics. Sure, a gold medal's better, but any medal at all is still pretty great. Power Surge does suck, though. I think most of the armor T9s need to be overhauled, but especially any that still have an HP crash. My pie-in-the-sky never-going-to-happen total fantasy wishlist change for Power Surge would be to turn it into damage booster with a built-in downside that plays with one of the set's nominal strengths: Rather than boosting resistances (which ElA doesn't need 99% of the time), instead have it apply -80% or so (tanker values, reduced for Scrappers/Stalkers since their cap is lower) energy damage resistance debuff (maybe enhancable with resistance sets to push that down to -50% or so, so it doesn't break current builds); then have it apply a Hybrid-like energy damage proc to all of your attacks for the duration. It's still an "Oh Shit" power, but it changes it from an "Oh shit, I need to cap negative energy defense" to "Oh shit, I need to kill this stuff fast so it doesn't kill me!" Since Power Surge turns you into an energy gremlin, it stands to reason that outside sources of energy should disrupt it but at the same time--you're an energy gremlin, that shouldn't just be for defense. It would also give the set a reason to have hilariously over-capped energy resistance and make it less of a carbon-copy of Unstoppable with 'smashing/lethal' and 'psi' scribbled over with 'energy' and 'toxic.'

Back in the day, Full Auto's target cap and damage were reduced to compensate for it being the fastest recharging Ranged Attack T9. It's the only T9 that can only hit 10 targets, all the others can hit 16 Even though comparing powersets to other powersets is an apples to oranges situation, I still feel compelled to make the comparison: Full Auto has 50 lower base damage than Rain of Arrows (~179 vs. ~225), less inherent accuracy (101% vs 120%), a longer animation and root time (2.5s vs. 2s), and it's a comparatively difficult to use narrow (20 degree) cone instead of a fairly forgiving radial AOE. Full Auto's only real advantages over Rain of Arrows is a tame end cost (15.5 end vs. 20.8 end) and the fact that you don't need to write a macro to fire it off quickly. Comparing Full Auto to the rest of Assault Rifle, I don't see any compelling reason why Full Auto and Flamethrower should have similar target caps. I can't really envision a scenario where increasing Full Auto's target cap suddenly pushes Assault Rifle up to an S-Tier powerset, especially if you bump up its end cost to 18-20 or so to compensate. I do feel the extra target cap might make it a more attractive power for Defenders and Corruptors trying to squeeze a little extra AoE damage in between buff/debuff cycles. What are your thoughts on Full Auto? Am I missing something obvious?