New Archtype: Warsuit

[dragonhawk777]

The AT idea I had was for an armored type AT that is a mixture of offense and team utility.  Basically a mixture between a Defender/Corruptor and Blaster/Sentinel, sort of War Machine from the comics, but with more utility.  Now this AT would take a bunch of work from the devs for its look as the centerpiece would revolve around (ability and animation wise) its shoulder launchers.  So the devs would need to take the Pretorian rocket launchers packs and put them in the costume creator  Then develop some gloves that would have arm cannons attached.  The arm cannons are a bit more flexable appearance wise because you could have the attacks animate from gloves like current blaster attacks do, but arm cannons would both look cooler and fit the ATs theme a bit better.

 

So the primary would be ranged attacks, with the secondary being personal defenses and team utility.  The inherent (for lack of a better term) would be a bit different as it would be an active ability vs a passive one.  It would be Mode, and you would swap between defensive mode and offensive mode.  The way modes would work from a numbers standpoint is this.  So with 0 modifiers you are able to achieve the following with IO sets 1000 dps, 30% resistance, and 40% defense.  If you are in offensive mode you gain nothing for your defenses but you gain a modifier for your dps, but a lower modifier for your defenses.  So your dps modifier could be 1.125 but then your defense modifier is 0,75, thus your dps goes up but your defenses are reduced.  In defensive mode its reverse so then you could have a modifier of 1.25 and a damage modifier of 0.8, so your resistance and defenses go up but dps is lowered.  Keep in mind these numbers are for illustration purposes and I am not saying they need or should be the exact numbers the devs should use.  This would also apply to the debuffs on dps attacks so in offense mode the debuffs might only be 10%, but in defensive mode they would go up to 30%.  

 

To prevent quick swapping between modes that would be a shared cooldown and an endurance penalty with a recovery crash preventing you from jumping back and forth between modes.  So if the group needs a tank you would go into defensive mode or stay in offensive mode if they want more dps.  Somewhat like Peacebringers and Warshades swapping forms.

Defensive Mode:  Defenses up and debuffs increase, DPS down.

Offensive mode:  Dps up, defenses and debuffs decrease.

 

Primary abilities:  

Arm Laser:  Fire a laser from your arm cannon (single target).

Dual Lasers:  Fires a laser from both arm cannons (single target).

Grenade launcher:  Fires two grenades from each shoulder launcher (targeted aoe).

Flame Thrower:  Arm cannon fires a flame attack (cone).

Missile Barrage:  Shoulder launcher fires a salvo of rockets at target (aoe).

Plasma Cannon:  Arm cannon fires a plasma beam at target (single target).

Penetrator Missile:  Fires a missile at a target and will damage any other enemies in your path.

Heavy Barrage:  Shoulder launchers fire a full salvo at target (targeted aoe)

Full Assault:  You fire all your weapons at the target (targeted aoe).

NOTE:  Arm cannon attacks debuff the targets resistance and shoulder launcher attacks debuff defenses.  Full Assault debuffs both.  The debuff is nonstacking but can be kept up on the target with enough recharge reduction.  You can stack the debuffs with another player, just not yourself.  So if a Rad Defender had a target debuffed your attacks would still add to the debuff.

 

Secondary Abilities:

Armor:  Resist smashing/lethal damage.

Heat Shielding:  Resist fire/cold damage

Healing Drone:  Releases aargeting Drone:  Boosts hit chance and recharge. drone that will fly out and heal teammates.

Reflective Armor:  Resist dark/energy attacks.

Scramble Drone:  Releases a drone that removes status attacks on teammates and protests them from more for a time.

Force Field Drone:  Releases a drone that places a force field around a teammate.

Targeting Drone:  Provides a To Hit and recharge buff to the entire team.

Shock Net:  Armor fires an electrified net that traps enemies (aoe stun).

Barrier:  Provides a barrier that protects you and your teammates.  Raises defenses and resistances, bypasses soft caps.

 

EDIT 1:  Got rid of some of the personal defense abilities and added more team utility powers.

EDIT 2:  Changed the initial paragraph to reflect the more team utility direction I want the secondary power set to be, and to rearrange some of the secondary powers.  I also changed Long Range missile to Penetrator Missile, so it is no longer a snipe but will damage any enemy between you and the target.

Edited November 26, 2019 by dragonhawk777

[biostem]

This seems super specific, and probably better suited to an "integrated weaponry" blast set.

[Zepp]

This sounds like it could either be an EAT, or two new sets. This is basically a Sentinel.

[dragonhawk777]

3 hours ago, Zepp said:

This sounds like it could either be an EAT, or two new sets. This is basically a Sentinel.

I was thinking it was a bit too much defense oriented myself I am thinking of changing some of the powers so its more support oriented so maybe keep the resistance abilities and lose the defense ones.  Maybe replace them with some support abilities like an AoE heal, or a pbaoe ability like clear mind.  i wanted the secondary powers to be a mixture of defense and support, but was thinking leaned too much on personal defense and not much for team support.

[dragonhawk777]

7 hours ago, biostem said:

This seems super specific, and probably better suited to an "integrated weaponry" blast set.

The primary certainly is but I am trying to do more flexibility with the secondary so its a mix of tanky and support.  i didnt make it just a power set because it centers on specific costume parts, like the Arachnos Soldier and the crab backpack.  Making it just another blaster/defender/corruptor power set but still requiring you to take certain costume pieces just didnt seem to work.

 

I think the primary is in pretty good shape and i like the idea of the AT providing the debuffs through attacks rather than by just dropping fields on a target, such as what Rad and Dark do, but admit the secondaries can use some work.  I am thinking of losing the defense buffs and making them more team support abilities, so you get a better mix of personal survivability and team support without the AT being too op.  So i welcome some ideas on improving the secondaries.

Edited November 20, 2019 by dragonhawk777

[biostem]

13 hours ago, dragonhawk777 said:

The primary certainly is but I am trying to do more flexibility with the secondary so its a mix of tanky and support.  i didnt make it just a power set because it centers on specific costume parts, like the Arachnos Soldier and the crab backpack.  Making it just another blaster/defender/corruptor power set but still requiring you to take certain costume pieces just didnt seem to work.

 

I think the primary is in pretty good shape and i like the idea of the AT providing the debuffs through attacks rather than by just dropping fields on a target, such as what Rad and Dark do, but admit the secondaries can use some work.  I am thinking of losing the defense buffs and making them more team support abilities, so you get a better mix of personal survivability and team support without the AT being too op.  So i welcome some ideas on improving the secondaries.

Well, the attacks could entail a little gun turret or other device "popping out" of you, kind of like spines, then firing off the attack.  There are some blaster secondaries that are more toward the self buffing side than additional melee attacks, or you could go with a sentinel...

[FDR's Think Tank]

If you are stuck between wanting support and defense buffs, you could make it so the set has drones/pods/sprites that it summons for it's secondary that follow the war machine and give a defense buff to him and his allies. It would be a simple pet summon class, but the pets would all be without attacks. This sets it apart from Sentinel without making it too much like Dominator or Controller, who have the attack/support role as well.

 

You could have an inherent that boosts your primary powers the more support pods you have in range... A triangulation targeting or powered up effect.

 

[dragonhawk777]

I like the drone idea for buffs and heals.  I think I would keep the armor skills but could change the heal and defense skills.  For a heal I was thinking a drone that flies out and does an AoE heal.  So you would target a teammate and the drone would fly over him periodically projecting a cone of healing energy down on him and anyone around him.  Another drone could fly out and do the same with a force field to buff defenses and a third is one would fire out a scramble beam that would clear any status afflictions on the chosen target.  The drones could be destroyed which could help with balancing.

 

The inherent is interesting but I kind of like the idea of swapping roles with the Mode selector.  Aside from slotting influencing how you are going to play the AT having to swap modes means you have a harder time doing everything.  Plus it could make for some great "oh crap" stories as the Warsuit players saves his team at the last moment by swapping roles and pulling off an emergency heal or tank while the team recovers.

[biostem]

51 minutes ago, FDR's Think Tank said:

If you are stuck between wanting support and defense buffs, you could make it so the set has drones/pods/sprites that it summons for it's secondary that follow the war machine and give a defense buff to him and his allies. It would be a simple pet summon class, but the pets would all be without attacks. This sets it apart from Sentinel without making it too much like Dominator or Controller, who have the attack/support role as well.

 

You could have an inherent that boosts your primary powers the more support pods you have in range... A triangulation targeting or powered up effect.

I haven't played it firsthand, but over at Rebirth, they are working on a "Guardian" AT, which is basically assault primaries + support/armor secondaries...

[Megajoule]

Looks like I have to say it again:

Not every concept needs or deserves its own powerset and/or AT.

[Haijinx]

9 minutes ago, Megajoule said:

Looks like I have to say it again:

Not every concept needs or deserves its own powerset and/or AT.

Yep

[Haijinx]

Not only that, but the whole thing is OP

 

It has 4 targetted AOEs, a cone, 3 ST blasts and a snipe.  

 

Then its secondary has shields for all major damage types, and it heals / FF / removes status on allies.  And the presumably temp T9 buffs self and ally resist and defense that "bypasses soft caps." 

 

Then the inherent lets you choose whether you are a Blaster/Sent/Corruptor OR a Defender with multiple epic shields.

 

The only thing missing is Self Status protection, so presumably you'd  want to team with another one of these.

 

Which shouldn't be hard since everyone will be making them. 

 

[dragonhawk777]

How OP it would be would depend on the numbers.  Nobody says a Defender is op in its damage so depending on what damage modifiers for the class would be would depend on how op it would be.  Plus you have to take into account the mode swapping.  So swapping into defensive mode would boost the ATs healing, buffing and defensive capabilities you could assign low modifiers to keep its offensive damage lower, making them more for keeping the debuffs on the targets than actually killing it.  In offensive mode the inverse can be made to be true, where the AT is much more of a glass cannon and the team buffs/heals it provides very small, but it does more damage, thus making it more blaster like.  Yes the balancing could be very tricky, but it is hardly class breaking.

 

I would also note that the class does lack anything like Aim or Buildup so you cant really alpha strike like many other classes can.  The idea is for the AT to keep up constant damage so that it maintains its debuffs on the target or targets.  Also baring Barrier none of the buffs or heals apply to the Warsuit they are strictly for teammates.

Edited November 25, 2019 by dragonhawk777

[Doc_Scorpion]

2 hours ago, dragonhawk777 said:

Nobody says a Defender is op in its damage

Which is completely irrelevant to the AT under discussion - which is an overamped brute/scrapper with a few defenderish powers tacked on very obviously as an afterthought.

As you yourself say:

On 11/19/2019 at 4:03 PM, dragonhawk777 said:

The AT idea I had was for an armored type AT that just screamed destruction and terror.  Basically a mixture between Brute and Blaster, sort of War Machine from the comics.

 

[dragonhawk777]

16 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

Which is completely irrelevant to the AT under discussion - which is an overamped brute/scrapper with a few defenderish powers tacked on very obviously as an afterthought.

As you yourself say:

 

Considering an entire powerset is dedicated to ranged damage I fail to see how its irrelevant.  What is irrelevant is the initial description of it being a mixture of a blaster and brute.  You clearly didnt follow the whole thread because I moved the AT away from a brute/blaster mix to more of a defender sentinel mix, so no the defenderish powers were not an afterthought.  I have updated my initial post to better reflect the direction I would like the AT to go.  So in offense mode it is much like a Sentinel with some defenses, and low team utility but very good ranged damage and in defense mode he is like a tanky Defender, who can provide a wide variety of buffs and debuffs, and is also tankier to better survive the increased aggro he will generate.  Doing both heals and dps is sure to be a big aggro generator, and since there is no to-hit debuff on the power sets the AT uses armor to help him survive.

[Doc_Scorpion]

29 minutes ago, dragonhawk777 said:

Considering an entire powerset is dedicated to ranged damage I fail to see how its irrelevant.  What is irrelevant is the initial description of it being a mixture of a blaster and brute.  You clearly didnt follow the whole thread because I moved the AT away from a brute/blaster mix to more of a defender sentinel mix, so no the defenderish powers were not an afterthought.  I have updated my initial post to better reflect the direction I would like the AT to go.

I did read the whole thread - and especially the power sets.  With the bulk the defender'ish' powers (in the secondary set) coming in the teens and beyond, that gives the impression that they're an afterthought rather than the main focus of the character.  If you want this to be a defender'ish' set, then (IMO) the distribution of powers needs to be improved.

[dragonhawk777]

47 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

I did read the whole thread - and especially the power sets.  With the bulk the defender'ish' powers (in the secondary set) coming in the teens and beyond, that gives the impression that they're an afterthought rather than the main focus of the character.  If you want this to be a defender'ish' set, then (IMO) the distribution of powers needs to be improved.

Ok fair enough.  I did all the personal defense items first because it seemed team powers were better used later on.  Particularly since everyone just seems to run DFB or DIB for early content nowadays.  I can move a few things around to provide some utility earlier on though.

[Doc_Scorpion]

3 minutes ago, dragonhawk777 said:

Ok fair enough.  I did all the personal defense items first because it seemed team powers were better used later on.  Particularly since everyone just seems to run DFB or DIB for early content nowadays. 

To maintain the theme, even if they do DFB/DIB, they should still hit their late teens/early twenties (I.E. when they exit DFB/DIB) with some team usefulness.
 

[dragonhawk777]

I moved up both healing drone and scramble drone so there is a bit more team utility earlier.  I think you can heal teammates by level 8 now and give them Clear Mind by 12 or 14.  I think the defense buff would be around 20 or so.  I also made Targeting drone a team buff rather than a personal one, but made it come later.  The powers are not exactly Defender tier accessable, but then again the AT is a bit different than a Defender or Corruptor.  Its biggest use would be more in terms of debuffs vs buffs and that it can do from level 1.

[FDR's Think Tank]

If you make the Defensive Powers Primary and the Ranged Damage as Secondary, I could see this class being more like a heavy gunner type... which fits with Warsuit. Other alternatives for set mechanics could revolve around heavy weapons type mechanics. This might help set it apart from the existing Sentinel set, which already has an "Offensive"/"Defensive" opportunity mechanic and it still has people asking for Archetype buffs. Here are some ideas for "Heavy weapon" mechanics....

 

Deploy-  Character gets a significant bonus by sacrificing mobility.

              1. The mobility can either force the character into take a speed debuff.... or fully lock the character down when deployed. This could be made to vary between individual power sets to help create playstyle variety.

              2. The Bonus gained would be To-Hit/Range by default, but could also alter the attacks instead, giving a character large cones or mortar aim AoE, or even change the attacks to melee style PBAoE.

              3. For especially big guns, your character could even have the gun/power strapped to his back, unable to use it until he deploys. This would be a very extreme application of the concept and need to only apply to higher tier powers. For his early attacks, his pop-up guns would need to still fire outside of deployed mode.

 

  ~This can be used to express a variety of mode alterations which really aligns with the idea of a "Warsuit", whether it's Magic, Technology, Evolution, or whatever. It might mean some sets would lose range in deploy mode and become dedicated "Self-Nukers". For Example: Ironman is usually ranged with armor, but if he gets into a critical close combat situation, he has lots of energy blast self nukes, for instance. Meanwhile Warmachine has chainguns, missle launchers, and even mortars that he can deploy at a reduced movement speed for additional range/accuracy. They are both classic Warsuits, but have vastly different ranged weapon systems.

 

Spin-Up- Character is able to shorten animation times between attacks but risks overheating.

              1. The first way to express this is to give the character a built in or alternate aim power that activates a modified effect. While active, the animations for attack would be reduced/chained together to eliminate drawtimes an let the character unload a barrage of ranged damage. However, the character would experience a "crash" afterwards with increased cooldown times on all ranged attacks. (This encourages them to take some melee perhaps, or back off the main front of battle.)

              2. The Second method to express this is for them to have a charge up bar like brutes. They would charge up faster than brutes, but being hit by enemy fire would remove charge, rather than add it. When fully charged, they could activate a power that would reduce cooldowns and keep all weapons deployed for rapid fire/no draw animation for a set period.

 

 ~With the pop-out weapons you are suggesting it would look really hardcore to be in "Spin-Up" mode, like when the Mask pulls out a bunch of heavy weapons all at once. Characters could move around freely, but all pop-up weapons would be locked in activation for the duration.

 

Another aspect to consider with Warsuits is that since they are armored classes, whether you make it primary or secondary, they don't need the long range as much. However,  you can toy with Deploy or Spin-Up giving them longer range when they are in mode.... with decreased armor. Meanwhile, while out of mode, they can tank... but where is the TAUNT? Consider giving them a defensive ability, even.

 

Overwatch- Character automatically defends his teammates. When they are attacked, he has autofire cannons that retaliate and draw aggro from the offender.

                 1. The first way this power could operate would be as an early teammate target toggle. This would provide a very FOCUSED defense of critical team members. You could defend the team healer, defend a blaster, defend a Controller, or play petty mindgames with the team tank by trying to steal all his aggroed mobs. This may have an ammo count before being exhausted or have a limit to how often it procs... but it's definitely an Defensive style autocannon.

                 2. The second version of this would be a Defensive Toggle that creates an AoE around the Warsuit where Mobs are damaged when they attack an ally. Like the first method, this doesn't defend the Warsuit at all. It purely defends teammates. However, it lets you play zone defense for multiple teammates, as opposed to option one.

 

Covering Fire- Character launches a hail of bullets to provide cover for allies and draw aggro.

                 1. This can be a Cone taunt. If in a defensive set it would have weak damage with some debuff on affected mobs. If part of the attack set, it would likely do more damage and require a longer cool down.

 

Any of these ideas could be used... separately or in combination even. But it might help outline a really strong case for a tankish character with ranged attacks. I think a ranged scrapper is a hard sell, since we already have Sentinel and it's fairly controversial right now. I hope this also doesn't collide with the Guardian AT which I didn't realize already has a drone/pod mechanic.

[Zepp]

I'll add this to the compilation thread soon^tm, when I get my internet up and running (and don't have to post from a work computer).