Steampunkette

Honestly... breaking the Cottage Rule for Group Fly seems like the best idea. Turn it from a Toggle into a 45 second pulse that is, out of the gate, permanent with an 8 second overlap, make the cost 1/3rd of your bar, make the end cost ignore external changes or even internal changes. Have it apply a fly buff to all targets within the area like it's Mind Link or something, allow Flight Speed Slotting, and away you go.

That's a bit more complicated... "Afraid" was supposed to be a compound mechanic which caused NPCs to both cower in fear, if cornered, and run away, if not. But the AI would just repath around anyone cornering it and run away, regardless. It also tended to not have a long enough duration for it to really matter. These powers were altered during Issue 2, shortly before Issue 3, that is to say -early- in the game's life, when the Afraid Mechanic was modified whole cloth. Now it is the 'Fear' mechanic, and everything is cornered all the time. The "Cottage Rule" would hardly have been reasonably applicable at that early time.

There will always be people who aren't willing to argue in good faith. They'll throw logical fallacies or sea lion about 'til the entire point is lost in so many irrelevant questions that digging it out requires a backhoe. And oftentimes those people will try to take over the thread. Dominating any discussion through flurries of posts that derail and accuse, mislead and waste time, seemingly intent on wearing the people actually discussing the matter down to the point that the discussion just dies off. From page 1 it was appeals to emotion, slippery slopes, and ad hominem by page 3. Degenerate is probably the wrong term for what this thread has done. But hey. At least we reached the idea of testing sets in the AE using OBS to monitor times for direct comparison. Because the balance of the game has always, invariably, come down to a single simple metric: Time to Kill < Time to Die

How y'all dodge the question is SO IMPRESSIVE! They turn it from a simple math question to a hilariously blatant "Well maybe it's about -skill-! Did you think of that?!" turnaround to present the question as shallow or uninformed when it's coming from the current 'Lead Dev' for Power Design and Balance. So here's the question reframed: If all the powersets, save one, performed right about the same level, only separated by a couple percentage points up or down from 100%, but one remained around 30-45% more effective, regardless of skill, situation, slotting, or other incidental factors: What would you do about the single overperforming set?

I never tried to solo a TF, before... But I can vouch for Hopeling. Back in the day, my husband and I would grab one or two friends and then run the 6 person plus TFs. We'd just ask a couple SGmates or randos to join the team long enough for us to start it, then they'd bail and we'd run it, start to finish. I know people who DID solo several task forces back then. Particularly the ITF. Biiiiig bragging rights for the 30 seconds it took for people to read you bragging about it, type in 'Gratz', and forget that it was a thing.

Momentum would be the easiest implementation. Can't use Follow Through without Momentum, just change Momentum to 'Bullets' or 'Shells' and go from there. It would let players at low levels 'Fan the Hammer' to quickly take down a couple of minions or an LT, then reload to take out the rest. Then wait to reload, again with no 'bullets' left. ... now I just wanna design this mechanic into a full on 'Gunslinger' powerset...

I get that, but there's also just "Defense Bonus" and "Resistance Bonus" IOs, like Edict of the Master. Is it the same thing as the Expedient Reinforcement buff or is it -exclusively- the pet that it's slotted in? They've got a different description is the reason I ask. Edict of the Master is just "Defense Bonus" where Expedient Reinforcement is "Resist Bonus Aura for Pets" On looking it up on Paragon wiki it seems like there's no difference... which makes me wonder why the hell they used different language.

Alternate suggestion: Ammo Based Shooting Powerset. When you take the Pistol power you get a free click based power with a moderate recharge time. This power is "Reload Bullets". This power grants you up to a maximum of 6 stacks of "Pistol Ammo" and 2 stacks of "Rifle Ammo". These powers do nothing on their own. The Pistol Power itself gets an animation reduction to make it faster, and no recharge time. But it can only be used if you have a "Pistol Ammo" buff, and each shot removes 1 stack. Dual Pistols takes 2 stacks per use. When you take the Shotgun Power, you get another free click based power with a moderate recharge time. This power is "Reload Shells". You get 4 stacks of the "Shotgun Shells" buff when you click the Reload Shells button. Using the Shotgun uses 1 shell. Super Shotgun uses 2 shells. The powers have no recharge times. Heavy Assault Rifle uses the Rifle Ammo, so you only get 2 shots before you have to reload it. And then leave the rest of the powers normal when it comes to recharge times and activations. Obviously the relative availability of Pistol, Rifle, and Shotgun shots means those powers need to take a slight hit in overall damage, but I think it would be a neat game mechanic for the set to have a sort of 'pseudo-burnout' power that ignores recharge rate changes to give back your use of certain abilities. Or if possible just make "Reload Bullets" and "Reload Shells" freebies at level 1 regardless of what power you choose. Whatever works!

Also: Control Core Embodiment, baybeeeee! Gonna extend my holds and immobilizes for eternity while also doing extra damage! ... shit. Do pets get the benefit of Hybrid abilities?

Question! The "Defense Aura for Pets" is all my pets but "Defense Bonus" is just for the pet it's slotted in, right?

Definitely going to look at some different slotting strategies based on your suggestions, here! But I'm keeping the Tentacles. They're for RP purposes, rather than effectiveness. I am dork.

"Hold This Position" Temp Power. Targets Pet-Class Allies Only, TAoE Mag 100 Immobilize, Range 50ft, Area 15ft Radius, Toggle Duration, 0.01 End/Sec. Use the same code to make it affect only the Caster's Pets as the Upgrade Powers. Could work as a kludge.

Superjump doesn't have them floating off the ground at all times. Zombies that permanently fly. Every Thug off the ground by 5 inches. It might fit for a "Drone" or "Robots" powerset, but the rest? Not so much.

Part of the problem is that NPCs with fly are on a binary. Either they're flying or they're not. There's no AI protocol for 'Toggle on Fly now.' and 'Toggle Fly off, now." And creating such an AI routine would be an INTENSE pain in the ass. Group Fly does work on pets, it just takes a few seconds for it to get them. The problem is their Follow AI keeps them on a bungie longer than Group Fly's area of effect so that they don't crowd doorways as bad as they otherwise would. So once you start flying it's only a matter of time before they plummet. There is no solution short of a targeted fly buff power with a longish duration.

There's that... but it's also a matter of using a scalpel to cut your steak. Just because it's designed to cut through cleanly doesn't mean it's the most efficient. TW has high end costs where Spines doesn't. And those damage auras can be loaded up with a -mess- of Procs for more automatic damage without a player even touching the keys.

We're not trying to represent the Defensive Power of these powersets. We're trying to ascertain their primary combat capabilities. DPS, Average time to Kill, things like that. We should use minimally effective custom NPCs because we're not trying to test a player's ability to run away and recover or pop a tray of inspirations or use temp powers or any of that. We're testing the capabilities of the Attack Powersets. It's true that Brute Damage is more variable than a Tanker's, but a Brute's ramp up should be 'about' the same for any given test, since they'll be on SOs it's unlikely to get above the 70-75% degree. Less so with an x4 group sizing. As to the Blaster PC: We can just dual-box a second account, follow, autofire Energy Torrent. Every 12 seconds the placement of enemies will change is the result of that method.

"No Inspirations" seems fair. And it would have to be the same two players testing every powerset. Perhaps put express limits on the Evil PC as to how much scatter they're allowed to do. Like only directional, nothing Radial. Energy Torrents only, but no Recharge Slotting. Hell... Have the Blaster on follow with Energy Torrent on Autocast, targeting the player being tested. Straight lines away from the Brute. I say Brute 'cause I wanna see Superstrength in this test. I have Wednesday and Thursday off this week as well as OBS. I could load up Justin and dual-box my husband's account, set us both up and start the tests?

You wouldn't be able to set it on a different costume slot. It would be a wholly different powerset that you select at character creation and get stuck with the rest of your career. There's no way for the game to remove your current powerset and replace it with another. It's basically 'Baked In' to your specific character the same way powers are baked into specific Powersets. So even if they made 5 Broadsword powersets with just the elemental types and psionic, you'd still be stuck with just one type for your whole career on that character.

I agree with -almost- every point, here. The one I disagree with is the Blaster NPC. I meant a Blaster PC with no slotting but accuracy and maybe endurance. Someone who comes in with the express intent of disrupting spawns to see if the change is significant or if the added damage offsets the loss in the overall time of the encounter, and whether some sets perform better than others in those situations. Things like Titan Weapons' long reach or Kinetic Melee and Claws's Ranged Attacks or Foot Stomp's giant area. By doing it in the baseline with just the tested character we'll get an idea of ST and AoE attacks, but the benefit of longer ranged abilities will be at best obscured. Let's find out how much impact they can actually cause.

The KB to KD enhancement functions by Debuffing your power. It takes what's there and sets it to 0.67. It does this for any power because KD is a singular value: 0.67. 'Half' is a relative value. It depends on the individual power. So a single 'One size fits all' solution won't work. You'd need to go into the powers database and create a buuuuuunch of modifications to the powers themselves to create an 'If this, then this' logic for each and every power and for each and every 'damage changing' enhancement.

Oh! We could call their Build Up 'Fan the Flames' and have it apply or refresh 5 stacks to all enemies within 10ft (Max of 10) in addition to the normal BU effects. Wouldn't let you chain off chains or anything, but it would let you instantly mark your target for AoE devastation.

How aboooout... Oh. -Res for some powers and -End for others? Call it an 'Overheating' mechanic where you basically go for a Melt Armor and Heat Stroke sort of concept? Or we could make the powerset -completely- Single-Target... but then add a growing AoE effect to every power. Call it 'Wildfire'. Every time you hit your target you grant your target a stack of Wildfire. Wildfire stacks up to 5 times, but does not get refreshed with new hits, sort of like Savage Melee's Frenzy. When you hit a target with Wildfire on them, it chains a portion of the damage to another target. With two stacks it chains to 2 targets. 3 stacks to three, and so on. And then have a few powers that double the chain effect. Hit with the 'AoE' attack (still single target) on a target with 5 stacks and it chains to 10 targets. Could call that attack: Spreads like Wildfire.

So we'd still have 'Dark Melee' but we'd create something like a 'Shadowfighting' powerset? I could be down with that. New powersets that use old themes in new ways. Could have some of it's attacks use Savage Melee animations to represent things like Vampires or Shadow Demons but with Dark or Soul Noir VFX tied to them on the impacts? Or a Flaming Fighter powerset that takes powers from Street Justice and Radiation Melee, adds fire effects to them, and such? Could even coat your hands in fire like Fire Blast does when you ready an attack.

We could start with a battery of tests on the Asteroid Map with minimally effective NPCs. How much damage they do is irrelevant. No ambushes or hostages or anything, just the basic map plain as can be. We'll still get runners and such, and an open area to chase them in. After all, titan weapons or broadsword if there's a box in the way you still jump over it or run around it, so it's kind of irrelevant. 5 tests each with each melee type, recorded for duration mapping. Then we send the players in with either an Energy Blaster slotted -exclusively- for Accuracy, Endurance, and Recharge with SOs or a Peacebringer slotted the same. That'll adjust for knockback style mechanics. Do another 5 for that battery, recording it as noted, and compare times.

Sort of a Sorcerous Melee? OH! Or just "Elemental Melee"! Make all the sets use fairly generic particle effects that could be colored different ways and have the first and second powers of the set both be an attack and a 'Grant' power, like Adaptation or Swap Ammo, where you get the additional types. Have the first one be Fire/Ice, the second one be Energy/Negative. Have the attacks normally do Crushing damage and then the admixture powers change them in toggle format. People who are really dedicated could color their attacks differently and use macros to toggle-swap when they attack with a given power? Might be nifty, but it'd also feel very generic in the end... Me? I like the different styles being what they are, and then I just recolor and roleplay.