Force Redux

It would be interesting and perhaps easier to balance if the last 4 incarnate abilities only worked during specific new trials or incarnate content.

Reworking it into a co-op zone would be much better. Little impact to existing heroes. Opens another zone to villains, and Striga is definitely a great candidate by way of flavor to have Arachnos sink it's claws into.

QFT +1 I'd hoped this would be fixed by now.

That's a fun idea! Three imps (pure ranged dps). Two slightly larger jacks (ice shield buffers, dps) Ones oversized Stoney (bruiser)

Phantasms and Duplicates would certainly be the low hanging fruit here 🙂

Robots/FF - indestructible tank. Classic. */Time - anything works terrific with time. Thugs, Demons, Robots are your top tier**. Necro/Dark. The sheer control and debuffs are incredible. And so much room for procs. **Beast/Time is not the community top pick, but IMO it's tied with my Thugs/Time for overall disgustingly effective damage monster. Time loves melee. Beasts love melee. You don't need to use Fortify Pack, so your damage stays buffed. The pets are always where you expect them to be, right next to you. And they are so quick and responsive, its easy to joust with them, even in TinPex with Battle Maiden and her blue flames of death. Highly recommend this combo. I went Leviathan for the shark immobility and armor, though I admit it was partly for flavor. I find I do not need Power Boost at all.

I'll be at work at the hospital, so good hunting on Friday!

FF is excellent at what it does. But Time is way more versatile. FF has AoE status protection from early on (freeing up an eventual Destiny pick). This is the big draw. It's why you want FF mechanically. FF offers End drain resistance. FF offers non buffable but significant Toxic resist. Everything else can be situational at best. I personally like PFF as a replacement for stealth and a panic button. Albeit not one needed much. It can also help shed Defense debuffs. Time is busier. FF is more relaxed. I personally prefer FF on my 50+3 Robot MM, and prefer Time on my 50+3 Beasts MM. I have extensive play time on my FF/Sonic 50+3 Defender as well. FF could use since love (some absorption in Dispersion, extra damage in its two attack powers, some DDR in the shields, the phase power acting like Gravity's would do it). But it's still as serviceable set. Many people spend hundreds of millions of influence to get their defenses capped but have no way to prevent them from being debuffed. Extra defense is always useful, particularly on some trials.

I'm Pacific Coast, Oedipus Tex. Would love to give it a try. Might need to level a cold first tho. Server?

This is awesome! I've wanted this for.. years...! This really helps me come up with better concepts for Illusion. The masked crusader phantoms always limited me.

No super speed or acro tho?

Yo, I heard you like heals with your heals...

Awesome, ty. I'm particularly interested in Cold and FF's procs. 🙂

How would porting Sentinel Regen back to the melee ATs perform? Because it's great on sents.

BTW, I love this game. That we can even have discussions about playing it in 2020 tickles me to no end. I still pinch myself now and again. 😃

On a side note, I have 3 incarnated Time characters and 2 incarnated Force Fielders. They are all fun, for varying reasons. Defense values don't seem to mitigate the fun factor for me. Where FF shines now is lowbie TFs, where FF can still impact team toughness. But on an MSR or TinPex we're all equally meaningless. Oddly enough it's the same feels for my Time MM, except Farsight is less available then bubbles. The problem isn't Dark Affinity or Time Manipulation. It's that Force Field had been neglected and was designed in a time when development and vision for the game has not been fully tested against players and actual non beta gameplay. What Jack and Co. Thought was important about group dynamics before launch was misaligned with the actuality. Non stacking armors. Toggle debuffs. Knock back. Solo ability of ATs. Force Field suffers from it's heritage. It needs improvement. Buff. Don't nerf. (Again, caveat that Fade shouldn't be buffed by Boost and that I'm open to the idea of FS getting some resistance in trade for same).

I don't agree 100% with everything Oedipus, but I do appreciate your thoughts behind your suggestions. Thank you.

I actually agree. I have four time characters (3 MMs, 1 Controller) and only one has Mace/Primal. It's not a must have, though it's nice. My statement has been is that the powers themselves are fine. If there's any review it should focus on Power Boost, and how it buffs some powers.

It's not free. It's a power pick. It costs time and End. It comes at a certain level, and may not always available. There are opportunity costs, such as animation lock. But by all means, use hyperbole and snark.

Probably. It was part of the OTs ruminations. I'm with you in that PB should maybe be looked at. Particularly for Fade. Maybe for Farsight. Fade is clearly a bug, based on it's having resistance. If Farsight loses boosting, it should have a resistance added. Possibly speed and recharge reduction resistance and some DDR? I dunno. But the base powers by themselves are fine.

The proposition is to not only keep PB from boosting the powers, but to nerf the base powers themselves. Reasons have been given. If you don't wish to acknowledge it, that's entire different.

The base values of FS are fine. I can agree that PB overtunes what are otherwise reasonable numbers. The problem is Power Boost, not the base powers (if there is indeed a problem, which I will leave for debate). Do realize that FS and PB come at a cost: Click powers. There's a time and effort tax to maintaining them that toggle armors do not have. They come much later in a build than armors. These do not exempt very well. If the focus is end game only, then the sheer amount of Def available with Destiny, Hybrid and Agility Alpha also needs to be nerfed. They require very little effort to obtain and trivialize many of the base defenses listed above. At end game, everyone's Def capped, can hit +4s reliably, has high recharge, can nuke stuff, have pets, and access to various powers that rounds out their builds. No one is needed, and many ATs are irrelevant. No one needs my Tanker. No one needs my Controller. They certainly don't need my MM. The end game is specifically designed to be trivialized. You can go out of your way to make content more difficult, but overall the result is a lot of super powered characters that are homogenized. However, when I exempt down on my Thugs/Time I often have no access to PB, and sometimes no access to FS. My Tanker and Sent, however, tend to keep their armor toggles when exempt for most content. Access to these Defense numbers is not equal. And at end game, it doesn't just matter.

Sounds like FF needs the attention, not TM.

Everything's already easy. How many OP combos do we have? IOs? Incarnates? Don't punish fun. Promote it. This is a super hero game. One resurrected from death. Let's enjoy it. PS - I'm all for fixing Fade's flag. That's a clear bug.

For the record, I'm sure not every build uses PB, nor should they incur a nerf because Mace is popular. There are other factors to examine outside PB. I for one do not use Mace for two out of my three Time characters. I.e.: Beast/Time/Leviathan Zombies/Time/Soul Thugs/Time/Mace.