Steampunkette

I actually really like the concept, whether it's force bubbles or some other visual/narrative mechanic. It's a neat concept for a defensive set that I find very interesting. I also like that it provides +Resistance to Hold/Immob/Knockdown, not protection like some people in the thread are saying. That said, it's still an unusual take at best. Focused Shields, however, does not work within the CoH Engine. The power cannot check all nearby enemies to see if any of them have Vulnerability on them, then increase defense against that single target. Consider, instead, a stacking Absorb shield, something like what Sorcery pulls with Spirit Ward. A toggle which provides stacks of +Absorb every second or so, capping out at 10 stacks or something. It would definitely fit into the themes of force-fields as ablative protection, rather than perfect shields. Phase Modulation, in particular, is a -very- cool concept! However, you cannot enhance a power for both Defense and Resistance. So if you had Softcap defense from slotting and toggles, swapping to a different Phase Modulation would result in your Resistances being equivalent to an unslotted version of the powers. Granted, you could make the Resistance levels very high to offset that, but then what's to stop me from skimping slots in my defenses and just leaving Phase Modulation on, forever, to have high Resistance with no investment? There's just no clean way to swap between the two modes. I also feel like the S/L/M toggle would be very easy for a Sentinel to ignore. Just grab the Ranged/AoE/Fire/Cold/Nrg/Neg toggle, slot it to heck and back, and take fly or hover. Preferably both. You've stacked this power way too hard. Let's try something a little different: 1: Focused Shields Gain an Absorb shield equal to 2% of Max HP every 1.5 seconds, stacks up to 10 times, oldest stack is lost when new stack is gained. 2: Deflection Shield S/L/R Defense. Let's say 13.88% S/L, 8% Ranged. Toggle. 3: Insulation Shield F/C/M Defense. Again, 13.88% for typed, 8% Melee. Toggle. 4: Damping Core Resistance to ToHit, Recharge, Slow, End Drain. Passive. 5: Phase Modulation Mez Protection, Grants 2 stacks of Focused Shields. Click. 6: Repulsion Field N/E/AoE Defense at 8%, Repel at the cost of 1 end per target per tick. Toggle. 7: Dispersion Core Defense All 3% and +Res Hold/Immob/Stun. Passive 8: Pulse Feedback Matrix PBAoE Repel+KB, Grants 2 stacks of Focused Shield. Click. 9: Force Overload Resistance (All but Psionic) Mez Protection, Grants 10 stacks of Focused Shield. When it runs out, -50% Max HP Debuff and -50% Max Endurance Debuff for 15 seconds. Click. Now we have a set where people have a choice on Set Bonuses to go for Typed at a reasonable level or Vector at a slightly harder to achieve value. Where Ablation is a core function of the set's identity and overall survivability through click+Absorb, and where the click +Absorb functions tie into a capped system mechanic making it possible to 'waste' clicks if your absorb is already capped, encouraging active maintenance of +Absorb effects. But. We have the narrative issue of it being "Too similar" to Energy Aura in conceit if not function. So let's shift up some names. 1: Ablative Pattern (Animation: Wrist Keypad Tapping) 2: Deflection Matrix (Animation: Leadership Chestthump) 3: Insulating Aegis (Animation: Aim/Build Up alternate animation "Charge") 4: Damping Core 5: Phase Modulation (Animation: Tough "Flex") 6: Repulsor Field (Animation: Fire Shield arms up head back) 7: Dispersion Core 8: Pulse Feedback Matrix (Animation: Stalker EA Disrupt) 9: Overdrive (Animation: Power Surge, Overload "Clench Fist") And then let's call it "Integrated Defense". For particle effects we can do translucent floating shields anchored to the forearms, legs, back, and chest. With the power customization option of having those fields rotating rings of runes or more technological in appearance. That way people get to choose which one better fits their Magic/Mutant/Natural/Science/Tech character.

You can also buy these badges in Oroborous.

Would also be nice to have some of the Praetorian signs up. Like the coffee shop. Makes an area feel more... fulsome.

All attacks are designated "Melee" but have a 15ft reach. Tier 1) Corruption. Just take off the Ranged component. Tier 2) Lash Tier 3) Garrote (Hell on Earth Animation, functions as Assassin's Strike with a different name) Tier 4) Build Up Tier 5) Placate Tier 6) Crack Whip Tier 7) Burning Rage. Turns Lash and Corruption into Cones with 5 targets. Click that lasts 20 seconds. Tier 8: Hellfire. Passive. Causes Corruption and Lash to sometimes spawn a flame patch for ticking damage on your target, Crack Whip to become a PBAoE with a 10 target cap. Tier 9) Hellions. Click that causes next Garrote to spawn 5 flaming minions that have a damaging aura and follow you. Burning Rage uses the animation for Blazing Aura. Hellions uses the Seishinteki Kyoyo animation. Both add flames in the same style as Demon Summoning for particle effects.

Do what you want, Zac. And people don't always use the quote tool 'cause people don't always use any tools. Sometimes people might think it's fairly evident who they're talking to, or what they're talking about, and who else is involved in that particular aspect of the conversation. Sometimes that isn't always clear, but asking for clarity and getting it should probably be good enough in situations where confusion arises.

If the only thing in the thread that gets discussed is what is in the OP and all other topics or tangents are irrelevant, verboten, or otherwise not to be considered, why are you bothering to discuss what I've said in this thread? I know what the OP wanted. There is a reason I didn't quote the OP in the continuing discussion when I expressed the problems of just expanding the height slider. What else do you hope to come to understand or communicate with this line of inquiry?

Read more. FrozenSolid brought up the height slider. OP talked about it with FrozenSolid. I responded on that basis.

Changing the height scalar to go to smaller levels would function in PvP zones, however. And was suggested as an alternative to a new Mini Mode. It doesn't matter if you, personally, won't PvP with it. If it is an option, people will do it.

So there's three issues with this suggestion: 1) Hard limits on scaling. The game has 'em built in and it won't allow characters to exist above or below certain values. 2) Bounding box. No matter how big or small your character is, your bounding box is the same. You take up the same amount of space at 4ft tall as you take up at 8ft tall. So you couldn't pass through openings that look small enough for your character. 3) Targeting. While your bounding box remains 6ft tall, you can only be targeted by tabbing or clicking. Tiny player characters in PvP would be incredibly difficult to target. Especially if they headglitch behind cover while making ranged attacks, since you would be unable to target them in return.

For RP purposes, perks and flaws add character depth. For MMORPG Mechanics, perks and flaws wildly skew game balance unless carefully implemented and maintained. And every perk and flaw creates another layer of permutations on what a character can be and do in the end. "My character has the weakness to magic flaw. That's why I only run Council missions at high end so I get all my perks and none of my flaws" would be a really common sort of playstyle, too.

Nope. Sleep breaks entirely. Fear gives you a 1 second window after taking damage once every 3 seconds or so. And if you take damage 10 times inside those 3 seconds you don't get to act until the 1 second window is available. If you are asleep and get hit the sleep effect ends, completely. It's why most people skip using sleeps in any kind of team-content, and practically only use sleep in solo content to sneak past groups. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Sleep https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Fear If you're asleep-awake-asleep it's because they put sleep on you a second time.

Disorients are Stuns. They're just two words for the same thing. Sleeps break too easily with additional damage. As far as Slows that's not really a control effect, but a debuff. The difference comes in the kind of mitigation you get. With a -Recharge or a -Damage debuff, or +Defense or +Resistance buff, you're gaining relative damage mitigation. Reduced incoming damage. But with a hard control, including Sleeps, you're getting -absolute- damage mitigation. Because no attacks are being made while the controls are in place. That said: Icy Assault actively applies slows and -recharge as a secondary mechanic as it stands. Martial Assault gets Caltrops, but also Knockdown from Spinning Kick and Dragon's Tail. Psionic Assault does no movent slow, but much -bigger- Recharge debuffs than Icy. Electrical Assault Saps. Energy Assault Knocks enemies back. Sonic debuffs Damage Resistance and some powers have a chance to hold the target... None of these things would be removed from the Assault Sets under the above suggestion.

While I definitely agree that it would be easier to make an Assault/Defense damage dealing character than a tank, I do think this would work as a concept. There would absolutely be some issues with the optimal play a lot of people strive for. Runners and patch-placement issues would take some effort to get around. However the game isn't designed to be played exclusively at the cutting edge. We have Knockback for a reason and while you -can- mitigate it with IOs, it isn't required to enjoy the game. Indeed, I think it's more fun -with- knockback, even if it isn't optimal. I feel like a ton of players would make a Skirmisher if it was made available. I don't think it would be anywhere near the most played Archetype, and certainly wouldn't -replace- Brute or Tanker... But the option for a new playstyle, and potentially shifts to the meta to accommodate new playstyles, could be interesting.

How about this instead: Healing Aura: Minor HoT component added. Heal Other: Cut half value, make it 2/3rds more healing through HoT. Absorb Pain: Just a massive Absorb instead of a heal. Resurrect: PBAoE usable while dead. Clear Mind: Increase duration by 45 seconds. Fortitude: Targeted AoE Toggle. Provides normal Fortitude to main target, lesser Fortitude to allies within 15ft. Recovery Aura: No Change Regeneration Aura: No Change Adrenaline Boost: No Change

Skirmisher Archetype Primary Powerset: Dominator Assault Secondary Powerset: Sentinel Armors HP: 1400-1500 Max HP Cap: 3,000 Melee Damage Scalar: 1.0 Ranged Damage Scalar: 1.0 Maximum Damage Buff: 500% at 21+ Epic Power Pools: Support/Control, Sustain Inherent: Skirmish When you make a ranged attack you gain 1 stack of the Skirmish buff for every 15ft away from the target you are at the time of casting, minimum of 1 stack. Ranged AoE attacks determine distance on your primary target. You can have a maximum of 12 stacks at a time. Melee attacks consume up to 3 stacks of the Skirmish buff, or 5 stacks for Melee AoE, and gain a scaling damage bonus based on how many stacks are consumed. If the maximum number of stacks of skirmish are consumed by the power, the melee attack triggers a control effect at Mag 2 with a short duration. The type of control is based on the powerset. In addition, all of your attacks generate additional threat in an area around your target. Archetype Uniques: Mag 1 Control Proc, Two stacks of Skirmish on hit. What's the Design Goal? Conceptually speaking this is an Assault based Tank archetype for something different from the traditional Brute/Tanker gameplay of "Jump into melee, hit attacks until things are dead, maybe hit a self heal" The goal is to keep them moving into and out of melee in order to disrupt the standard gameplay loop and create a more active gameplay style. By using Sentinel defensive powersets we ensure the AT doesn't have scaling defensive capabilities (or damage boosts) based on how many enemies are within 10ft, this ensures you don't feel "Bad" for not being surrounded and at full saturation of your taunt aura that gives you +Dam, +Def, +Rech, or whatever. It also opens up the relative importance of Cone-Based survival powers such as Rebuild DNA to further incentivize moving to range to maximize target counts and potentially gain more stacks of Skirmish. Powers like Dark Armor's "Obscure Sustenance" or Energy Aura's "Energize" could be retooled to be cones or targeted ranged AoEs as well. Why Assault? Underutilized and really cool, conceptually. Right now there is only one archetype which utilizes Assault powersets, meaning any design spent on an Assault set is dev time devoted exclusively to a single archetype, just like Manipulation sets for Blasters. By spreading that out a little, we get more options for Assault sets, and increase the impact of developer time in designing, and animating, more assault sets. On a personal note: I'd still love to see Kinetic Melee transferred practically whole cloth into an Assault set, with Concentrated Strike turned into a Snipe with a fast moving projectile, and Focused Burst's animation time cut down a bit. What are the Intentions of the Inherent? Firstly, it encourages long range opening attacks rather than the use of abilities like Fold Space to initiate a fight. For example imagine a Martial Arts/Ninjutsu Skirmisher opening a fight by using Masterful Throw to get an out of combat snipe off, followed by Explosive Shuriken, then hitting Combat Teleport with the smokebomb alternate animation before dropping a nice Dragon's Tail. At maximum range (150ft) Masterful Throw immediately provides 10 stacks of Skirmish. Explosive Shuriken only has a range of 80ft, so provides only 6 additional stacks of Skirmisher. You quickly reach the cap of 12 stacks so Dragon's Tail applies a Magnitude 2 Stun to all enemies it hits alongside the knockdown effect, and deals increased damage. Spinning Kick eats another 5 stacks and adds an additional stun to 2-3 enemies, possibly briefly locking down a boss. You're down to 2 stacks of Skirmish and possibly surrounded by stunned enemies. And then you're dumping stacks with Thunder Kick and more Storm Kicks. You can still use Trickshot or Shuriken throw at point blank range to gain 1 stack of Skirmisher per use, but without at least 3 stacks you're not able to apply additional stuns with Thunder Kick, and without 5 you can't stun with Storm Kick or Dragon's Tail. And since Sentinel Armors tend to provide less total defense than the Brute or Tanker versions, you're comparatively vulnerable when you're not adding control effects to reduce incoming damage. So "Ninja, Vanish" your way out of combat to throw off a couple more ranged attacks, then teleport back in to resume the melee fighting. In this way, the inherent encourages moving back -out- of melee, in order to build up fresh stacks and increase your overall damage and survivability when you dive back in. Your mileage will vary, of course, depending on which specific Assault powerset you're using for a given character. Energy Assault will probably focus mostly on single target attacks to build and spend stacks of Skirmish since they only get Whirling Hands as an AoE attack at all. Though when moving the Assault set over the devs could certainly remove Power Push to move several attacks to earlier levels and add in Energy Torrent or Explosive Blast. Or just bring in Power Crash for more melee AoE. And since the stacks you gain are based on the distance between you and your primary target, cones fired at melee range against targets who are in your face still only grant you 1 skirmish rather than the skirmish value of the person 40ft away that you hit. So jumping out is almost mandatory. How Would the Inherent be Implemented? Unfortunately, like Street Justice, each power that consumes stacks would need to have the bonus damage value baked in on a per-stack basis. They'd also need the information on what control effect and how long it lasts baked into the power as well. On the plus side, this gives us some interesting options to make sets different while using the same mechanic by granting the powersets a specific control effect separate from other powersets. On the positive side, because these functions are baked into the individual power, they could be made enhanceable. Ensuring that the archetype's inherent scales. How much additional damage, though, is the big question. For Street Justice you're looking at 5% for the first combo point, a further 7% for the second combo point, and another 13% for the third combo point for a total of 25% more damage on your attacks. I think that might be a bit much for an inherent, especially one where you control the stack build and expenditure. Something closer to 4% per stack, 12% maximum for Single Target, 20% maximum for AoE, might be better, overall. Why make the controls different? Theme, mostly. Each Assault set provides a specific control effect which reinforces it's theme in order to stack controls effectively, rather than having every melee attack do different types of control. This also makes the sets feel different from some of the other sets within the Skirmisher archetype. Arsenal Assault: Stun Dark Assault: Fear Earth Assault: Stun Electricity Assault: Hold Energy Assault: Stun Fiery Assault: Hold Icy Assault: Hold Martial Assault: Stun Psionic Assault: Confuse Radioactive Assault: Hold Savage Assault: Fear Sonic Assault: Confuse Thorny Assault: Fear 3 Fear, 4 Stun, 4 Hold, 2 Confuse. This also encourages teaming with Controllers and Dominators, to whom you can provide additional stacking, though potentially incompletely, in order to lock down groups. How does it Maintain Aggro? Without a standard taunt aura mechanic, and with no built-in taunt to the Assault Powersets, the Skirmisher is going to rely on a Gauntlet style aggro gathering mechanic in order to maintain aggro. It's certainly possible and potentially reasonable to downgrade that punchvoke down to pokevoke, like Brutes enjoy, but depending on powerset that might make crowd-aggro control practically impossible to maintain. Energy Assault, for example, currently has no ranged AoE and only a single melee AoE. With the ability to make ranged attacks baked into the primary powerset, I feel strongly that removing a ranged power to add a taunt to the powersets is overkill when the inherent could provide punchvoke. Particularly since any enemy that slips aggro and goes off to attack the Defender or Blaster is an opportunity for the Skirmisher to gain some additional skirmish stacks by lobbing a ranged attack at the runner while remaining in melee with other enemies that are currently aggroed. How would you structure the Epic Power Pools? I'd actually probably structure them a lot like: 1) AoE Immobilize, probably as a cone. 2) Debuff of Speed and/or Recharge, probably as a PBAoE or dropped pseudopet. 3) AoE Buff or Heal (Defensive) 4) AoE Buff or Debuff (Offensive) 5) Signature Power The first two powers give you a choice on how to keep enemies corralled in an area so you're better able to keep them at range while you're building your Skirmish stacks. Different APPs could put these two in a different order, or even bounce one up to 3rd or 4th slot in the progression. The second two powers help to define how you aid your allies to keep them alive or make it easier for everyone to fight your enemies. Something like Rejuvenating Circuit or Link Minds would go in the Defensive slot, Melt Armor or Tar Patch would go into the Offensive slot. The Signature power is your Soulstorm slot. For most other sets it would probably be a Sustain power. Providing Regen, Recovery, more Max HP or Endurance... For an example, consider the following Leviathan Mastery pool: 1) School of Sharks (Cone Immobilize) 2) Arctic Breath (Cone -SPD, -RECH, -DEF, Knockdown) 3) Shoal Rush (Targeted AoE -DEF, -SPD) 4) Soothing Wave (Cone Team Heal, Enemy -DAM) 5) Summon Coralax (Pet) Three really good reasons to jump out of melee, one of which allows you to better target an AoE heal on your teammates while debuffing enemy damage. And two of those reasons to jump out of melee keep your enemies clustered for when you dive back in. What would the Archetype Invention Sets be? While I'm certainly in no position to go over every set bonus for each set, I did outline the Uniques above. Let me explain a bit more: For the first one we've got a proc chance to just straight up apply a Mag 1 control effect. While this would affect most minions it would not affect Lieutenants, Bosses, or stronger enemies without stacking. However, since it's a Proc chance, you have a chance for your ranged attacks, or ranged AoE, to apply control, which they normally can't do. This would make stacking more viable, and could allow you to reduce Alpha strike damage when you initially engage. Largely invisible in gameplay, it improves your survival. Could have it apply to the power it's slotted into, or have it be a global proc chance. Have it apply 1 Magnitude of all the available control types simultaneously for stacking purposes, and give it a short duration. The second unique would allow any power it's slotted into to provide you with two stacks of Skirmish when it hits. Whether melee or ranged. This could be a good way to ensure your 'building stacks' phase functions better by slotting it into a ranged power so even if it's used at close range you get at least 3 stacks... Or you could slot it into a melee attack, so that after you spend 3-5 skirmish stacks you immediately recover two, allowing you to extend your 'in melee' time. "Important" set bonus: Control Duration increase. Somewhere in the set bonuses, there should be a blanket universal control duration increase, just like the Sentinel sets have a global +Range buff. Nothing huge or crazy big, but something fun as a treat. But what if that's Too Much Control? There's certainly a distinct possibility that being able to throw out Mag 2 controls with almost every attack you make being too dangerous if you maximize your time jumping in and out of combat to respectable ranges and maintain consistent uptime. However that could also be heavily mitigated in one of three ways: 1) Reduce the magnitude to 1.5. Now you still trap minions with your first control effect, but lieutenants are unaffected, and both bosses and lieutenants require a second hit to lock them down. Any enemy group with control protections, like Arachnos, takes more time to lock down, still. And your windows are vanishingly small. 2) Alter the amount of time the control effect lasts. A 10 second control is powerful, a 3 second control is much less powerful. Especially since you can't enhance for Control Duration. 3) Narrow the power selection that provides the control effects at maximum stacks to one melee AoE and one melee single target power. This one does run the risk of hitting the same wall as the original Sentinel inherent, however. Would this AT be Useful at High End? It really depends on how high end you want to go. For Radio Missions and Task Forces? It would certainly be a perfectly fine tank. A few team buffs offsets the lower defensive values and coverage of the Sentinel armor sets. Even in the Incarnate TFs they'd be quite capable of serving as tanks for a group. Again, a few buffs close up any gaps and they're able to handle the rough stuff. 4-Star TFs might be a little more dicey. 4-Stars are built around characters having big defensive numbers which Barrier and Support characters can provide, but the control effects from the Skirmish inherent would be essentially invisible due to the resistance to controls of most 4-Star enemies. In the event that the control-stacking aligns well, however, you'd have a tank which can reduce incoming damage significantly. More importantly, however, it would increase the viability of bringing a Controller or Dominator to a 4-Star TF without feeling like you're facing quite as significant of a tradeoff in capabilities. Due to the tank's ability to regularly provide control effects to help shut down enemies, even Archvillains to some degree, the tradeoff of strict damage increase to reduced damage intake could be worthwhile. Particularly if the Controller in question has the Kinetics or Marine secondaries. That said, they'd definitely be rough for specific fights. Like the Dr. Aeon 4-Star TF rumble with all of the important Vanguard characters in one small room. High movement tactics in that situation could result in serious problems. But what about Brutes? Brutes are in a pretty bad way, it's true. They're a tank with better single target damage than a Tanker when maxed out on +Damage, but a significantly lower target cap and range/area of their attacks. Add in that their inherent, and thus their archetype proc for +Fury, is badly broken. The quick jump to 85 fury and the insane difficulty of getting more than 85 fury means they should probably just get pushed up to 1.0 Damage Scale and get some other inherent, entirely. They really just need an outright overhaul. Making a different Tank AT wouldn't change that. While dev time is a limited resource and Brutes do need overhauling, I think increasing the playstyles available to tank is a worthwhile goal. Please don't derail this thread into complaints about Brutes. But what's the Fantasy Inspiration? Perhaps surprisingly to some... Batman, Spider-Man, Venom, the Flash, Black Canary, and more. Yeah, Batman's an expert martial artist and Spidey can fling a car. Both of them still fall back to throwing Batarangs and Web Shots when facing strong opponents, deploy control effects, and can't actually take many hits from your Doomsday or Rhino type characters. The Flash is, obviously, a high movement character who combines super-speed punching with tornado blasts or thrown objects. Black Canary's sonic cry is a show-stopping number but she's also a really strong martial artist who mixes it up in fights though that's probably an excuse for the artists to draw a hottie in fishnet stockings doing high kicks. And while Venom is often thought of as a Brute or even Tanker, he uses the symbiote to make ranged attacks throughout his career, including webbing enemies up in black gunk so he can close the gap. All the symbiotes do something similar, though some tend to make the attack sharper than others. And Batman, Spidey, the Flash, and others are often running distraction games to 'Tank' enemies away from vulnerable people or even their own allies to set other characters up for success.

Y'all... Damage Resistance Debuffs being resisted by damage resistance just keeps them in parity. Let's say you've got 50% Damage Resistance and I debuff you by 20%. 50% of 20% is 10%, right? So you go from 50% Resistance to 40% Resistance. Which means you go from taking 50% incoming damage to taking 60% incoming damage. Which is 20% more damage than you were already taking. 20% or 1/5th of 50 is 10%. The purple patch -does- impact it further. But it impacts it further in the same way as it does when you hit harder. So if you're hitting with a 20% debuff and the target has a 90% resistance they resist 90% of your debuff, leaving you with a 2% damage increase. (Which is 20% more damage than the 10% they're currently taking). Drop it down by .48 and it's 1.02% more damage from your perspective... But still a 10% damage increase to your target, relative to the damage they're currently taking. Now if you wanna argue the damage resistance debuffs are bad and need to be bigger... well... Not really. Because they stack, directly, with damage buffs on your team and make them hit even harder than they would, otherwise. Which is already enough.

A mastermind without their ninja (or thugs, or mercenaries, etc) is soon to follow them. But in the media, that's not exactly true. The conservation of ninja, whether heroic or villainous, clearly indicates that the fewer ninja on the battlefield, the stronger and more skilled the remaining ninja will be. This is also born out in other parts of CoH, when you have to fight your way to the AV through minions, lieutenants, and bosses to challenge the much stronger leader. I would like to suggest a slight change to Supremacy. One that will smooth out MM gameplay in general without adding extra power to them, overall. A passive power which provides 60% additional damage, and a 30% endurance discount. Yet for every minion, 10% damage and 5% of the discount is removed. This can help smooth out standard MM gameplay when a few of their minions die, allowing them to do a bit more damage. It also supports the conservation of ninja principle, and has a third benefit: It improves some less than optimal builds in a marginal way, increasing the number of ways you can play a mastermind. The "Boy and Big Robot" build would enjoy the boy gaining a 50% damage buff and a 25% end discount. The "Top 3 Minions" build would enjoy a 30% damage buff and a 15% end discount. The "Minionless Mastermind" would get to swing a whip that still does fairly bad damage at +60%, and costs less. It also tracks with their end cost increases for their support powers (Infrigidate costs everyone 10.4 end, but Masterminds 13, for example.) The extra 30% end costs exists to offset the additional 6 attackers the MM can bring, but if they don't have the 6 minions it's a burden on top of their precarious situation! However, this change does not A) Increase the ability of a Mastermind beyond it's current levels. You're always better with your pets, you're just less trash without them. And since it's a damage bonus applied to your character it counts toward the cap. A Whipstermind on a team with Fulcrum Shift doesn't deal any more damage than they currently do, which remains very low. Slightly less expensive, though. And a full clear of 8 Masterminds on the ITF will deal precisely 0 points more damage than they currently do. B) Make lower minion builds optimal. Even with a +60% damage bonus on your 3 core attacks and the entire Fighting Pool your base damage is still 0.55. So you're at a massive disadvantage without your minions, even before considering your force-multiplication abilities in your secondary that aren't having full effect without your minions to take advantage. It does make lower-count MMs slightly more attractive in team situations due to the issues of NPC AI and character count on the screen, just for reduced confusion. Conservation of Ninja. It's a solid quality of life improvement for MMs (particularly in the summoning phase when you start out with a 30% end discount) that essentially self-balances their damage and force-multiplication against the number of minions they have active!

We have Robot Arm 1, which replaces your upper right arm with a robot bit and allows you to change your gloves and chest independent of the upper arm. We have Robot Arm 2, which replaces both of your upper arms, and allows you to change your gloves and chest independent of the upper arm area. We have Robot Arm 3, which replaces your right arm, entirely, including some unique full-arm options, and allows you to change your left glove and chest independent of the right arm. So how about Robot Arm 4... Which makes both arms fully replaced? Mostly I just wanna make a character who gets the Cybertech Arm options on both sides, but I bet there's a few people who'd -love- to have the Fire and Ice options on both sides, too!

So hey! Peacebringers suck. Really badly. At every role. There's no reason to take a PB on a 4 star unless they're doing the animation-canceling damage dump that you already intend to fix. Without even that function, PBs will be essentially a carry in 4-stars since they're not as damaging as even a Dominator, marginally more durable than a Scrapper, and have very little in the way of support or control to offset their greater weaknesses. Yes, they can form-change into a Squid to do good ranged damage, but 4 attacks in exchange for suppressing all toggles and being unable to use pool powers or anything is a wild exchange. So my suggestions are as follows: 1) Give 'em .95 in humanform for both ranged and melee damage. So they're still stronger in their forms, but with less versatility, and the humanform is at least useful. 2) Give them a 500% damage cap like damage dealing archetypes. This gives them a higher ceiling to make them more attractive to Kinetics-centric teams. 3) Give them Brute HP values. Bigger than a Scrapper, less than a Tanker, to reflect their reliance on Damage Resistance. And the big one, probably the most controversial: 4) Kill Cosmic Balance as a single inherent and give them three toggled inherents with a 0 end/sec cost. The choices are Offensive, Defensive, and Balanced. Offensive toggle provides procs in the same way Shinobi does "Critical Hits". Defensive adds Punchvoke to attacks and a regen bonus. Balance is basically Cosmic Balance. The goal, there, is to essentially allow you to pick what Archetype you're calling on from the various previously-bonded characters. Even in the different forms. And then, since you plan to do the same kind of mechanics-fix with Warshades... Buff them up this same way. Only make their offensive toggle Scourge instead of Crits and their Defensive toggle provide straight healing per attack instead of regen to play up the "Lifesteal" identity. The end result? 1) Humanform PBs aren't as bad at survival as before, though a Brute is still going to be more survivable and deal more damage when capped (.95x500 is 475, .75x700 is 525) 2) PBs in general will have a better functionality as off-Tanks, but still lake the Aggro-Aura of even a Scrapper. 3) Being in humanform won't be as much of a DPS detriment, though a Blaster, Brute, Scrapper, Sentinel, or Stalker will still do more damage. 4) In Squidform they'll be able to "out-damage" Blasters while capped, but only have 4 attacks, and not be as able to cycle or specialize in ST vs AoE. Especially since Bright Nova Bolt does tiny piddly damage. These changes are also a ton easier to implement than the "Use all Powers in All Forms" suggestions, since they focus on changing up the AT's scalars rather than digging through spaghetti code.

Yes. That's rather the point. That portion of the community would haaaate this powerset and think it's the worst and the rest of us would go have a ton of fun flinging enemies around like ragdolls!

I call it "Chessmaster Control" Power 1: ST Knockback. Power 2: ST Knock Toward. Power 3: Ground Target AoE Knock Left. (If left isn't an option, knockback) Power 4: Power Build Up. Increased Knockback and adds big damage to these knock powers. Power 5: Targeted AoE Knock Right. (If right isn't an option, pulsing knockdown) Power 6: PBAoE Knock to Caster. Power 7: Cone Knockback with massive magnitude. Power 8: Ground Target AoE Pulsing Knock Up and Center. (Animation, flipping the chessboard) Power 9: Pet: Holographic Queen. Do the "Low Rez" body model and then slap one of the crowns onto it. All of it's attacks (Whirling Sword, Headsplitter, Slice, Disembowel) do big knock. Some is back, some is up, some is in. All the powers make black and white squares appear near the target, and then you get a 'gold' line to show where the bishop is moving, or a straight line for a rook, or the L of a knight, etc etc etc. The Tier 2 Knock Toward can be en passant! (This is actually a semi-serious suggestion. It would be interesting to play, but probably a nightmare to balance.)

So... out of curiosity, I zoomed WAY IN on the Crey Biotech image. I recognized Amanda Vines, Dean MacArthur, Jessica Flores, and a few others at the press event... Where is that from, and what's it meant to represent?

Eh. Not my monkeys, not my zoo. If the dev team want people to go to other zones to experience the game world, and they all go to precisely one zone, and that's acceptable, surely allowing them to go to various other zones to experience the game world shouldn't really be a problem. It's up to them to continue their argument that AP should not be the zone people level in, not me. The issue, there, is that people level using papers and radios. Which is why they stay in the zone you're in. A level 15 character getting sent to Talos Island is going to be bouncing to the hospital, repeatedly, while trying to get to their mish.

Okay... So leave Atlas and Mercy out. Problem solved!

With the AE you stand inside a single building entering and exiting a column of light. At least with papers you'd be running around the zone fighting crime!