Steampunkette

"You gain" is not "Your Team Gains". The RoboPet powers provide a buff to you while toggled on. Not your team. Where are you even getting that from? As to "Nobody Uses" I beg to differ. I certainly use SOs for most of my character's career. Only those who hit 32 get generic IOs and only those who hit 50 and I'm deeply invested into playing get IO Sets. Until we get a Datamining Check on what portion of the playerbase uses IOs, and what level ranges they're more common at, that's entirely conjecture on your part.

Performance Serum Ignores Recharge Rate changes. I feel like I need to put that above the powerset in big red letters with the number of people who are like "You can easily double or triple stack it!" And yes. I did put it in Comic Sans to make it uglier and harder to ignore. The answer to Performance Shifter is simply "Don't let it take Endurance Sets". Bam. Problem solved. Though the intention of the Pet Toggles was to not allow them -any- enhancements, similar to Bio Armor's three toggles, rather than re-enact Peacebringer Style Slot Starvation. No end cost. No slotting. Just present, providing some team utility. And, again. Powersets are designed based on SOs, not IOs.

Ostensibly! But faceplant once and you're back down to 0% S/L Resistance until it recharges, then 33% for 5 minutes after that. Of course, in team content there's usually someone buffing survivability, so even 1 stack of Body Armor can be more than enough to keep you going just fine, letting you hold onto the recharged Body Armor for 5 minutes 'til it runs out instead of stacking it, creating 'danger leap-frog' where going down within a 5 minute window is crippling and a different 5 minute window is no big deal. But it's that, a modicum of regen, some absorb, and 13% Ranged and AoE Defense. So even with that power being comparatively strong, the rest of the set is only going to augment it, not protect you from everything.

How about just flat out "Invisible Weapons" in general? Yeah, it might look dumb for someone to swing an invisible Broadsword, sometimes, but Warmace could make a pretty interesting 'Superstrength Alternative" with big uppercuts and a whirling-strike and stuff. Just make, like, an "Inside the fist" weapon model that scales to be smaller than the player's fist based on the player's height.

Making new missions is the cheapest 'cause you've got a ton of people willing to write endless stories just for the sake of seeing their work become a part of the game they love. Taking AE Arcs that the playerbase has reviewed and tying them to in-world contacts and mission doors takes a lot less effort than building a powerset. A powerset needs: Data Entry for Each Power Individually (Which is not copy-paste) UI Changes to accomodate the new powerset in the appropriate archetype lists Icons and Descriptions Animations FX Balance Passes

67% with a 5 minute waiting period for stacking. Before that, it's 33%

Normally a click based power has a lot higher bonus than 22.5% Resistance (Or the 15% to Energy), so I shaved some off, there. And set a high animation time so if it popped in a fight you'd wind up standing stock still for over 2 seconds. But since the game is Balanced around SOs what you'd be looking at is a fairly high end cost click with a long animation time leaving you with a 33.75% Damage resistance for the first 5 minutes before it recharges, again, and brings you up to 67%. And if you die, you better hope it's close to recharged when you drop, otherwise... And if you didn't slot 3 recharges, you're only going to have short duration good defenses. So while it's strong... it has drawbacks to help balance it. An Autopower that is just flatly stronger than other autopowers doesn't -have- drawbacks. Also... Tier 9s tend to do either big bonuses to a few things (like in the 60-80% range) or 30% to almost everything (Generally they leave a psi hole). This is less than that and applies to 3. Performance Serum ignores Recharge Rate Changes. You can get all the IO Sets you want, it won't make it stack more than 1/3rd of the time. And 200% Regen at 50 on a Brute is only 19hp/sec. It -sounds- a lot bigger than it is, but baseline is 6.5hp/sec. Until you get up to about 500-800% it's really not a lot. And yup! Pets. One that deals no damage but throws controls, one that deals no damage but throws heals, and one that deals a little damage and does nothing else. I figured it'd be interesting to see which ones get played in which situation since they're mutually exclusive. I should probably put a recharge rate one those that's fairly high...

It's meant to be! Because between it and Ranged/AoE defense, the set has no real defensive abilities. Until 22, it's a good solid defensive power, basically. Then it becomes powerful. And with enough Recharge Rate Boost from enhancements, it'll become great! But it's still -only- S/L/E. And thanks to it's setup it basically precludes Hasten since you can only autofire one power and you're gonna wanna 2-3 stack the Tier 1 as much as possible and keep the Mez Protection up. It'll be a set that could benefit really well from Hasten... but makes it hard to -use- Hasten. And I think that's a good idea.

I actually waded into the idea and came up with this: Shifting the focus off "Always On Autopowers" and onto "Long Duration Clicks" You still get the benefit of not constantly spending endurance throughout your fights on 2-3 toggles and the odd click. But you wind up with 2 toggles (3 if you count the Pet but it's set up like the Vanity Pets so there's no actual cost to it at all), 2 long time clicks, and some nifty secondary options. But it's -absolutely- going to cost you your Auto-Fire button on one of your two clicks (I'd recommend the Tier 1 armor power) and make it really hard to fit Hasten into the build because of the amount of clicking you'd spend trying to keep it, your armor stacks, and your mez protection active (Which is why the Mez has a 1 minute overlap!) Opportunity and Focus cost rather than Survivability.

Drat!

Could also pick up the new FoW powers to add in some variety and range! The cone is -wide- and applies debuffs and procs nicely.

Second Build. Every character has the option of utilizing a second build for their character, entirely separate from the first in terms of power selections, slotting choices, and enhancements. Set up a "Huntsman" or "Bane" second build. Then swap to it when you don't want to have the backpack. When you want to get back to Crabblasting, swap builds.

I'm talking about putting them into the regular missions and the Open World. No amount of AE Editing will allow me to street sweep Goldbrickers in Steel Canyon.

@Koopak is a good choice! Also @Steampunkette ... Oh wait! Dat's meeee! 😄 Add me to your global list and I'll get you introduced to some people, tonight, when I get off work in 4 hours or so!

Well sure! But I was thinking that I could make an Earth/Stone Brute and take the Earth Mastery Epic Pool to stunlock crowds of enemies by using Control Hybrid to keep adding stacks of Stun after a single Stalagmites use. Or I could make a SS/Shield Brute with Maneuvers, Assault, and Grant Cover and be a Team-Buffer using the Support Hybrid. Or just go Spines/Fire and throw out a ton of extra damage with Assault ticking on all kinds of Toxic Attacks and Flaming Damage. Or use Melee Hybrid to shore up the weaknesses of Willpower while I focus my set bonuses mostly on dishing out more damage or making my character run faster or whatever. The only way for a MM to get AoE control to rack up -some- use out of Control would be Soul Mastery and Trow Fish. And even then it would only be an Immob rather than a Stunlock. Just interesting to realize how SoL Masterminds are because of their specific mechanical design.

I know this has been done to some degree, already. But I'd like to see more Noise Freaks in missions both Hero and Villainside in their level range. And Meat Doctors Blueside. I'd like to see Sneaky Swipers and Shadowtanks and Rikti Freak Zappers blasting green lightning at everything that moves. And make it so that these things are all OVER Sharkhead and stuff! Create a Storyline where the Marcones and the Winters are at war. Call it the Winter War! Bring Marcones to Paragon and have them trying to get a foothold in Talos or Indy. Have the Winters start roughing up punks in Port Oakes as they work toward St Martial. How about bringing the Goldbrickers to Paragon? They work for Aeon, Aeon built Architect Entertainment with Crey Funding, and the Goldbrickers are his boys. How about adding Supatrolls to Troll Mishies rather than keeping them exclusively for the Rave Events that nearly no one participates in? Obviously there's some stuff that wouldn't work cross-side, or inside/outside of missions being swapped, like the Coralax who are devoted to the Leviathan or the Council Empire being outside Council World or the Rulu-Shin being...well... anywhere. But there's room for a ton of variety to mix things up!

Ohhhhh that's -brilliant-! Tanker getting 6% Resistance from a Body Armor autopower, Scrappers getting 4.5% Resistance on an Autopower... It's not a TON but it could mean the difference between Capping S/L or not. Could also play with Permanent Damage buffs? Things like "Reinforced Stikes" autopower that add +5% damage. Or even typed damage, so Reinforced Strikes only adds the +5% to attacks with an S/L Component, like the IO Set Bonuses? Give the set a later power that boosts the lower level powers, like the original suggestion, so that it plays into the Boxing/Kick/Crosspunch setup. Then you could combine this kind of set with something like Ninjitsu to get a more well rounded Gadget and Armor style concept going!

The Invincibles has a Subgroup called The Protégés. (We don't bother with the accent mark in game, obviously) We have actual in-character classes for characters to attend in order to reinforce the theme. Some classes are sitting around in a classroom in the school within the supergroup base (Which is laid out like a city zone) learning about Villains, Enemy Groups, or Morality. And there's even been mention of "Pop Quizzes" that could test your knowledge of CoH's History in a minigame sort of way with Influence Prizes. You know, 'cause Influence may function as currency, mechanically, but narratively it's literal influence on the world around you.

Performance Serum ignores recharge rate changes. You can get 1 minute of overlap 'cause the Cooldown is 3 and uptime is 4. But that is mostly there as an "Oh, oops." cover. Adrenal Harness only gives you 20% at full health. To get 200% you need to be at 20% of your maximum HP, with a sliding scale between those two points. Like the Scaling Resistance in Super Reflexes.

Easy to cap Resistance to S/L I'll give you. Ranged/AoE being easy is a -touch- of a stretch since there's few Defense/Resistance powers in the set to try and stack set bonuses. But half the Regen of Regeneration? What're you smoking and can I have some? It gets a maximum of 400% regen if it's at 20% or lower HP. Though if it were slotted I could see how it'd hit 600% regen with full slotting... It's still closer to 1/3 than 1/2. And still requires you to be really low on health to get that big of a benefit. Though you're at least somewhat right. I think I'll make the Regen Portion of both Performance and Adrenal only half-enhanceable. Also bear in mind: Either you're auto-firing Hasten -or- Body Armor -or- Performance Serum. Not two, and certainly not three. Even though this is a powerset which would -heartily- benefit from the Hasten power being on autofire.

I earnestly don't think there's a way to do that without retooling the AI and handing them an unlockable copy of Assault Hybrid. ... and that is one mire I don't think our Devs will want to wade through, much less to that small a result. It never occurred to me, before now, just how -limited- a Mastermind's Hybrid options actually were. Control and Hybrid are all but useless for them. The only things worth half a damn are Melee (For Tankerminds Only) and Support. Though for what it's worth, Support can grant all your pets a 12% damage, defense, accuracy, and mez buff... which, y'know... Nothing to sneeze at!

Yeah... my numbers are a little different. Assuming full saturation, and unslotted health, the Willpower character has 968% Regen which is 69.96 HP/Second and a max HP of 1733. They also have an end recovery of 3.06/second and a self-rez to play into their survivability. They also get a ToHIt debuffs baked into their Taunt aura which is useless against AVs but provides a 5.85 ToHit debuff giving them more "Defense" after a fashion that you don't seem to be accounting for. They also have a Tier 9 that jumps them up to 64.4% S/L Resistance, 46.8% Psionic, and 23.4% everything else. The powerset on it's face takes about 1/3rd of the damage anyone without a defensive powerset would typically take, recovers vastly more quickly than most sets with a bit of running, and it's T9, while on a long cooldown, has the lightest slap on the wrist crash in the game since it also provides a further 30% Recovery while it's up (3.56 end/sec) And I can't stress this enough: This is the weakest defensive powerset in the game. Without IOs and Sets it's tissue thin and swift to drop if you're not playing defensively. With Tough, Weave, Combat Jumping, and Set Bonuses? It shines like a crazy diamond 'cause it just does not run out of endurance... You're aiming -below- that, and shifting toward Debuffs and Controls. I get the impetus... I just think you've gone about it the wrong way. Aiming for Autopowers as a basis isn't the way to go.

This powerset is meant to play with the idea of Clicks, Recharge, and Low-Endurance Cost abilities under the identity of being useful for Natural heroes who use a little tech or some magic items. The most basic and Signature ability being Body Armor itself. Designed to be stackable pretty much immediately, with a generous duration, it provides decent Resistance on it's own, but quickly ramps up to providing very high S/L/E Resistances even without IO Slotting or Set Bonus Juggling. Due to it's nature, it would actually be less beneficial to slot it with full resistance sets as they rarely have as much recharge slotting as this power would actually benefit from, shaking up that dynamic, as well, and encouraging at least a bit of Frankenslotting. The only other "Standard" Defensive power the set provides is in the Defensive Drone power. Most attacks the player is likely to run into keying off of Elemental, Exotic, or Energy damage are Ranged or AoE attacks. There are obvious exceptions in the Circle of Thorns using Dark, Fire, and Ice attacks, or the Hellions and Skulls flinging Fire Melee and Dark Melee attacks, but that was my logic for making a single defense based toggle the only source of defense for Non-Physical attacks. Ablative Armor was just me hopping onto the Absorb Train. Toot toot. It's a nice and simple effect which affects gameplay in interesting ways. The rest of the powerset is designed largely around the idea of Utility. Stealth/Team Healing/Damage in the Pet Powers. Speed Boosts and Recharge Rate changes in the Mez Protection and Regen powers. A Self Rez with a stun component, and a Tier 9 power meant to let your whole team run away from a bad encounter rather than faceplanting. Even the Power Pack ability is meant to largely be a quirky and interesting power which alters the Utility of your character. Did Power Pack pop? Might be a good time to use the Buff/Debuff powers from your Epic Pool, or try to burn down a boss while you have extra damage and defenses, or use a Temp Power or Epic Pool Power that lays down a Control effect. I don't sincerely think this powerset is likely to be made. But it's an interesting thought experiment at the very least!

Level 50 Scrapper with SOs: 22.5% Resistance to S/L/F. 45% Resistance to Cold. 33.75% Resistance to Nrg/Neg. 22.5% Resistance to Psionic. 11.25% Defense to S/L. 16hp/sec regen (Including Unslotted Health) This is the durability of your average cobweb at 50. And they'll be setting aside their damage dealing for 3-7 seconds near the start of every fight on Flashbangs, Caltrops, Self Healing, and Stuns to try and survive the Alpha Strike of any group. Yeah, Puma, there are cases where the Standardization is put aside to fit Concept. Hardened Carapace has part of it's bonus deferred so that the Defensive Toggle can boost it up, the Efficient Toggle can shift Healing up, and the Offensive Toggle can be good for dishing out the DPS. And yeah, some powers have lower values from their Autopowers... Those powers tend to cover 3-5 different things (Or in the case of the 5.63% example: EVERYTHING plus some extra HP). Wanna know why Radiation Armor gets the 30% Fire/Cold/Nrg/Neg toggle? Look at the entire set. Instead of having a series of toggles and autopowers that provide comprehensive defenses the set relies on 2 Toggles (Okay, 3 if you count the Mez Protection providing a token amount of Psi/Toxic) to provide all the defense boost it's going to get. Everything else is a Click Gimmick, Self Heal, or a Damage Toggle. It relies more on damage deferral (Absorb) and damage recovery (Regen/Healing) than it's defensive values. Those things work in fights with AVs. Caltrops won't. Stuns won't. Smokebombs won't. I'm saying it's not going to have enough defensive ability. A Tanker with this set needs to be able to stand to to toe with an AV because all the other Tankers can. As it stands? Someone using this powerset would become very familiar with the different textures and patterns of Paragon Office Carpets.

Autos are 7.5% because it's Standardized. Because you're not spending any endurance on it, 7.5% is what you get based on the balancing metrics the Devs put into the game in the first place. Yeah, we could break the rules for your specific set to spend almost no endurance whatsoever... but why -should- we? So you can have a set whose gimmick is "Low End Cost"? We've got Regen and we've got Bio Armor and we've got Willpower. We're covered on that gimmick. All of them, by the way, also have good defensive values. And nah, I'm not saying "Without Enhancements". I'm saying 60% for a Scrapper/Brute as an SO Baseline would be cool. Strong enough to over halfway resist the most common damage type in the game. And Controls are all 'Fun' but there's a variety of enemies that Stealth and Debuffs have minimal effect on. Also Bosses and EBs. Unless you're intending this armor set to be used -exclusively- by Scrappers and Stalkers who just feel like being basically defenseless, it's got to be able to tank Recluse as a Defense Set for Brutes and Tanks. Yes, all of them should be able to tank AVs. Every Tanker should reasonably be able to fill that role in a group. Solo him? Heck no! But stand toe to toe with him (Or 15 basic Council Mobs or whatever) with nothing but SOs? Yeah. The concept (Armor set that is just normal armor in concept rather than superdodging or setting yourself on fire or something) is cool beans, to me. But your implementation is /Jranger.