Steampunkette

You're still looking at a situation where we'd see practically no new content in the pipeline due to the massive quantity of work required for several years. Powers would be working on it. Backend would be working on it. They'd need to find and bring on animators and 3d Modelers to get the animations created. The sheer quantity of work required is just not worth it for the relatively small benefit, which even you acknowledge would be limited to specific characters. That's just too much work for too little gain. That's tearing down a mountain to put it back in the same spot but with the mountain's peak slightly further south so sun falls on the valley 2 minutes earlier every day.

See my above post. The amount of underlying code and design work would be an incredibly massive undertaking for a very minor benefit that only a handful of characters would enjoy. It's just not worth it from a cost/benefit perspective.

Oh, nah. That was all of them, really. Just way too big an investment for way too little benefit. There's still Champions Online, out there, for people who want to chuck trucks, too! It was built into that game from day 1.

Damn! You're right. Same with Shield Charge. However, Savage Leap, at least, has an interesting interaction with target of target!

Very True! However I think ground target area of effect can bypass the door, too. It's been a -long- time since I've been in that situation. Oh. You know what? I bet teleport-attacks would still work, too? Shield Charge, Lightning Rod, Burst of Speed, Savage Leap... So long as your buddy is targeting the bad guy, still, after he goes through the door, target your teammate and do the teleport attack -to- them, and hit the guy behind the door!

Check the color channels. I learned the hard way that only one of them makes the glow actually happen. And the Tailor keeps defaulting various pieces on costume edit. Notably holstered dual pistols, some trench coat options, etc.

The game doesn't have a real distinction between "Wall" and "Floor". It's all just surfaces. Put a floor tile so it's vertical and you can't walk on it 'cause there's only so steep an angle you can be on. There's also no "Collision" code in the game, for similar reasons, which is why when you hit someone with repel when they're pressed against a wall they keep doing the arm flail animation while floating there before falling. And so it's an unreasonable suggestion? Like. What? You want them to put all additional powers/mechanics/etc on hold for the next 2-4 years and focus their attention on cracking a walnut so big that a paid staff of 200 employees was like "Hah! No."?

The cars you see parked in parking lots in CoH are not interactable objects, they're part of the map. Sure, they're "Objects" in the map design sense, but so are sections of the War Walls and buildings and the hills. Even if there were an easy way to flag them "Throwable" you'd then need to move onto the second hard part... Telling the game engine what that means. City of Heroes is built on a game engine over 30 years old that wasn't designed for destructible environments. In point of fact, I don't think there were any games at that time that sought to have malleable environments. So you'd need to build up a massive code base within the spaghetti that is CoH to tell it "This is what a throwable object is". We're talking "Expansion Territory" levels of new code. Then, someone will have to go through every map in the game, including mission maps with cars and any other object that the devs want to be throwable and delete every object on those maps only to replace them with the new Throwable version of the object. Then we'd need an animator to go in and design an animation for lifting objects. An animation for carrying an object while walking. An animation for carrying an object while running. Eight more animations for carrying an object while running forward-right, right, backward right, backward, backward left, left, and forward left. Then more for jumping while carrying an object. Then at least ten more for flying while carrying an object. Then another two for Teleporting while carrying an object. Then another nine for swimming while carrying an object. And then triple it since there's 3 body types that all need the animations. And then animations for throwing an object while standing, jumping, or flying. Then they have to go into the super strength powerset and figure out where to put the "Can now interact with throwable objects" tag on the powers. Then they have to go through the various possible thrown objects and determine how much damage they do, how much of an area they hit, how many targets, etc. And create an individual power for every thrown object in the game to trigger when it gets 'Thrown'. And then create throwing animations for every object. ALL of this, just so Superstrength Characters can ignore their powerset to instead run around the area grabbing every item they can find to chuck them at enemies instead of bothering with things like "Recharge Times" or "Endurance Costs" or other balancing metrics. It would certainly be cool. But the amount of effort involved is flatly insane for the benefit of only a handful of characters within a handful of archetypes. Heck, I'd posit the effort would be insane for any game not designed from the ground up to allow for it even if -everyone- got the power to throw any object on the map.

While I recognize it would make attack powers in these sets HYPER ATTRACTIVE powers for certain ATs (Tankers, Corruptors, Etc) they'd still be limited use abilities with cooldowns and endurance costs and the like. That said, I didn't consider the case of Brutes, specifically, and their huge damage bonus generating abilities. So it's certainly worth considering. I suppose, in the end, the main issue is, of course, the sheer workload OPP would have on the dev team if they needed to have a unique, or semi-unique, list of powers for each archetype. So I'm definitely willing to bend on the Scale 1 power across the board. Though I definitely feel like the powers would still need a significant value equal to or above the value of the archetype's primary/secondary powerset choices as otherwise you'd simply never take them. Still. That's really a matter tied to the individual archetypes. However I was also referring to Scale 1 Armor, Support, and Control powers, by which I meant "Tanker/Defender/Controller" level for increase and duration of control. Anyway, yeah. I agree. It'd have to go through some balancing and wind up just as 'over' as other Epic Pools related to individual powers. After all, if a Scrapper EPP snipe was built exclusively off their ranged damage scale to be in line with their archetype, no one would take it and make it part of their core rotation. (Scale .5) So thank you for your input, @LightMaster! I agree. I would like to now take a moment to talk about the cooler part of this concept: Exploring the story a bit more. The Police storyline could be one of those stories about corrupt cops, sure. Or it could lean a bit more Punisher. That your Vigilante signs on with the police and immediately starts eliminating rather than arresting threats. Cue the captain trying to come down on you, hard, for your recklessness, and the rest of the department rallying on your behalf. Really good options for a storyline, or two, there! Wyvern could explore Manticore's continued journey toward becoming a villain through Wyvern's perspective. Having the player join Wyvern to hunt down criminals and deal with some of them becoming uneasy with how aggressive Manticore is becoming with supervillains. Yeah, Wyvern is there to kill Arachnos soldiers and particularly powerful threats, but Manticore could be more violent or cruel with it. Could even get ousted in a coup and become a target -of- Wyvern which would be a cool conceit. Talons of Vengeance could have the vigilante working with the Fates to punish oathbreakers, liars, and betrayers! A much more mystical path for the Vigilantes, gaining magical powers in order to hunt down and deal with some of the worst criminals there are. At least, what's how the story would read. You could even hunt down members of the other organizations listed here in order to gain your OPP! Bringing down cops who failed to protect people, or Wyvern agents who suffered attacks of conscience! And then the Midnight Club would be the closest to 'Hero' there is for the Vigilantes. The storyline focuses on recovering magical items or fighting magical threats. The vigilante part is in what you -do- with them once you get them. Killing of threats, destruction of artifacts! Unless it's too strong to destroy, then you contain it in the Midnight Club's library and stuff. For Crey it's all about getting them FAT STACKS! Rather than fighting you, Countess Crey offers you cash to work for her company as an in the field asset so you'll stop destroying and stealing her shit. The whole thing is stealing from other companies, covering up messes various scientists made, and doing corporate sabotage on other groups while getting paid! Aeon's kind of the same, but less scrupulous. He treats you as intellectually deficient and mostly just sends you in to -wreck- other people's stuff. You're muscle, nothing more. Only eventually you give that nerd the wedgie he deserves and get better treatment by the organization, and better pay. And also assignments far away from Aeon who is now afraid of you. Gold Brickers would be all about amassing power and wealth in a much more personal and direct way. Less getting ordered around by Princess Zoe or the Golden Roller, more getting 'opportunities' to go out and get rich. Where the Police arc is kinda traditionally radio missions where you kill people, until the Captain turns on you, the Gold Brickers arc is more paper missions where you -don't- kill people... Except you haven't been kicking back a cut to Langston Corp, and have instead been skimming. And you have to deal with the consequences of that while maintaining your position. And then the Midnight Club is really similar to the Vigilante version... Only you're specifically -not- killing the threats but getting rid of them by sending them to the Isles or something. And instead of destroying or returning artifacts, you sell them off and report them destroyed. 'Cause you gotta get that money! The arc ends with you being kicked out of the Midnighters like Darrin Wade was, but you walk away wealthier and with magic you stole along the way!

Heroes get Epic Power Pools themed after specific abilities. Villains get Patron Power Pools themed after specific Arachnos Leaders. So how about Rogues and Vigilantes get some epic pools tied to the lore of specific groups? Vigilante: PPD or Blackwing (Kallisti Wharf has their headquarters, looks like they're cops?) Wyvern Knives of Vengeance Rogue: Crey Biotech Aeon Industries Gold Brickers Both: Midnight Club The Police could grant some of the cool blast powers from the Praetorian PD, Force Nets, and the like. Also things like Acid Mortars and Flashbangs and other stuff the PPD SWAT gets. Summon a Hardsuit for the capstone. Wyvern could do a lot of archery, sure. But also some martial arts and maybe a "Jetpack" power which gives you a fast fly speed with hover precision and no dropoff in combat. Add in some Katana stuff to represent the Praetorian side of things, too. Knives of Vengeance for cool big flashy elemental powers and stuff! Crey could be an EPP based around chemicals and snippets of bio armor and stuff. Add in some Spines style attacks while you're at it for ranged/melee options to let players modify their genetics. Aeon could be all gadgety but, like, FREAKY gadgets. Like throwing a taunt pet tornado out, or a portal that spits out minions that don't do much damage but swarm enemies. Plus Beam Rifle type stuff, too! Could have the Capstone be summoning a copy of yourself (Using Phantom Army Tech) that only uses powers from the Aeon power pool and/or Beam Rifle options. Gold Brickers all about the Sonic Power and the ability to harden up your skin for the explanation of their protective powers. Maybe even include the ability to D-Rift in some backup! And then the Midnight Club exists specifically to be an Epic Magic pool. Could summon the sentient spells from Praetoria as a capstone... And then here's the big trick that separates this power pool type from other power pools: There's only ONE for each of the different groups. And the powers ignore AT Modifiers. They're all, always, Scale 1. There's no Controller-specific Midnight Club power pool, no Mastermind-specific Aeon power pool. What they give, they give everyone, and it doesn't get better or worse based on your AT. That does mean some OPPs could wind up 'Better' for some archetypes than others. Also means they could wind up being worse if they've got a bunch of ranged attacks and you're on a Blaster. So. Include power-choices at a couple of points to allow -some- customization of the OPP to a given character.

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.