Patch Notes for February 25th, 2020 (Issue 26, Page 5 - Build 1)

[Trickshooter]

6 hours ago, The Curator said:

 T9: Amp Up (Ranged, Ally +Special, +Recharge, Self -Static)

I know this icon is technically correct, but the Power Boost icon is so meh for a tier 9 power. Would you consider making it the multi-buff icon of like Fortitude or Vengeance? I realize that it's currently only used on powers with +Damage and +Defense, though. Or maybe a damage icon since that also is associated with adding a damage type, like with Fiery Embrace?

 

Anyway, looking forward to testing a new Defender powerset!

[Novacat]

On Corrosive Vial:

Is -def even a thing anymore past level 30-ish? The more I use it the more it feels like anyone can just take two steps out of the patch - unless you absolutely follow up with an immobilize. If it was a 'cloud' that stayed around with the target for a few seconds that would be different, but as is the vial feels like it's lacking something. Not wildly underpowered just, "not quite there" out in the field.

[Brutal Justice]

54 minutes ago, DatBooster said:

I have a strong concern about bloat in the dark melee set. I dunno if bloat is the right word for it, but we're already factoring in so much crank damage with how dark melee's T8 is part of its base rotation in most builds.

Amping Dark Consumption to a nuke-level attack means that, in a theoretical situation, someone would ideally pop Soul Drain, get upwards of 40-50% bonus damage, and immediately rip out with an Extreme nuke and annihilate an entire group. 
On top of this, let's take a theoretical build, a Dark Melee/Shield build, where we also have Against All Odds to the mix, adding another big chunk of damage bonus. It might just be too much giving to Dark Melee. Let it have some AOE difficulty, but keep that sweet Shadow Maul cone boost. 

I share the same concerns.  Dark melee had lower aoe potential because of all the utility from the set.  With these changes it will become the do everything set.  

 

People will absolutely be using dark consumption at full end, well, minus the end used for soul drain. Not only will the set be able to nuke mobs, it will be able to heal itself with one of its best attacks, apply -to hit with each attack, restore its end if low, apply fear and a large -to hit, and majorly boost its damage.  

 

The change to shadow maul is probably fine on its own.  The change to dark consumption is gross power creep.  @Auroxis brought up electric melee.  What will electric melee do that dark doesn’t do better?  Dark melee was the best at what it already does.  Now it’s just the best overall pick.  Dark blast has lower damage than the other blast sets because of its utility.  Is it going to have moonbeam turned into moonboom an aoe snipe?   

 

Honestly, shadow maul should just be increased to a 60degree cone and maintain its current damage scale.  As of now it’s a solid attack if you hit at least 2.  Increase its radius slightly to reliably hit 3 and it becomes a great attack.  This leaves dark melee with great single target and slightly increased aoe potential, without sacrificing much in your single target rotation.  The dark consumption change is just messed up.  

[Jon]

Alternative name ideas for Shock Therapy that don't have an extremely negative connotation to members of the LGBT community:

 

Synaptic Rejuvination

Electric Stimulation

Static Discharge

Bioelectricity

Circuitry

...etc.

 

Just sayin'. Cool update though.

[LQT]

20 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

How long is the duration on Adrenal Booster

 

1 minute duration with a 10 minute cooldown. 

[Vanden]

Really cool to see Bombardment being added to the game! I am surprised to see that it has the exact same enhancements as Obliteration, though. In the thread where Bombardment was conceived, Leandro encouraged me to differentiate it from Obliteration, and I obliged, but this version is much closer than what I proposed. It still looks like it’ll be a great set though, I’m looking forward to trying it out!

[Solarverse]

My thoughts. I love these patch notes, very excited! That wowed me completly.

 

My negative thoughts. A bit long of a recharge on Shadow Maul.  I foresee that upsetting some players. 16 seconds is a long time, I could see adding a couple seconds to it, but adding double the recharge time is a bit much.

 

The change to Dark Consumption is just another Wow! I can't wait to try this out! I don't think the endurance leech reduction will hurt too much, will have to play it to see, but I am thinking in most situations it won't even be noticed as long as players use it to attack more than just a couple of baddies. However, where I can see it going wrong is if somebody uses it to teleport to the mob to gain much needed endurance, and somebody scatters the mob with a knock back right before you trigger the power, you'll teleport to the location and get next to nothing. Like I said though, I'll have to play it and reserve any further thoughts for that time.

 

All in all, I fricken LOVE this new patch, great job, Devs! And thank you!

[SinergyX]

Dark Consumption

Maybe it's me, but wouldn't it be nicer to leave that power, yet replace the dmg/acc one with the warshade lobster one? 20sec CD aoe, which kinda more normalise aoe dmg across sets. (they either 16 or 20sec)

[Sailboat]

38 minutes ago, Robotech_Master said:

Broadcast isn't server-wide, the way Help and LFG are, and General will be.

 

Oh. Didn't realize that -- I'd have called a zone-only channel "Zone," myself.

[Apparition]

On paper, Shock Therapy (cool name, BTW), sounds like it will be a great support set for Rikti mothership raids, between the AoE mez protection, energy and psionic damage protection, AoE resurrection, and heal.  The only suggestions (again, on paper), I can make would be to add -regen to Discharge and add additional +damage to Amp Up.  That will allow it to be a better offensive support set and to better compete with the other newer support sets.

 

I look forward to trying it out over the weekend.

Edited February 25, 2020 by Apparition

[Sailboat]

Yeah, Dark Melee is already regarded as a strong set.  Buffing its AoE by a lot (Shadow Maul) and then a hell of a lot (Dark Consumption) would seem to be leaving other puny sets in the dust.  How will Martial Arts rank against this behemoth?

[Ruin Mage]

This isn't the place to make requests/suggestions that aren't in the patch notes, Baney.

[Wobegone]

8 minutes ago, Vanden said:

Really cool to see Bombardment being added to the game! I am surprised to see that it has the exact same enhancements as Obliteration, though. In the thread where Bombardment was conceived, Leandro encouraged me to differentiate it from Obliteration, and I obliged, but this version is much closer than what I proposed. It still looks like it’ll be a great set though, I’m looking forward to trying it out!

I love the set bonuses, but wish it had a bit more end reduction.  Still, I like it.

[Replacement]

I have not played with Shock Therapy yet but:
 

I like the idea of the "chains to additional targets for each Static stack" but I implore you to level off the benefits for every target 2+.  It's worded like "each chain gives successively less benefit" and that will feel crappy when we cannot control the chain order.  I suggest a large bonus for primary target and a lesser version for all chained targets.

[Baney]

8 minutes ago, Shadeknight said:

This isn't the place to make requests/suggestions that aren't in the patch notes, Baney.

I forgot what thread I was in. Thanks. 

[Fire Chief]

Diggin' the Shock Therapy set hope to try it out just remember electricity follows the path of least resistance 😛

[Vanden]

8 minutes ago, Ignatz the Insane said:

I love the set bonuses, but wish it had a bit more end reduction.  Still, I like it.

Yeah, having Acc/Dam and Dam/End/Rech  IOs instead of Damage and Acc/Rech IOs would balance it out nicely.

[Replacement]

Shock Therapy T8: (restore Ally Endurance) This would be awesome early on but seems a bit useless/niche in high-level play.  Am I missing something with this assessment?  An easy fix would be moving it earlier into the set (Tier 6-7 would have it online while your teammates may still actually have End struggles).

 

Suggestion: I think something like +End Drain Resistance would also go a long way, here.  Something to make your team a little more robust vs Sappers instead of simply recovering from them after they've all detoggled.

[Doomrider]

42 minutes ago, Mr.Sinister said:

I share the same concerns.  Dark melee had lower aoe potential because of all the utility from the set.  With these changes it will become the do everything set.  

 

People will absolutely be using dark consumption at full end, well, minus the end used for soul drain. Not only will the set be able to nuke mobs, it will be able to heal itself with one of its best attacks, apply -to hit with each attack, restore its end if low, apply fear and a large -to hit, and majorly boost its damage.  

 

The change to shadow maul is probably fine on its own.  The change to dark consumption is gross power creep.  @Auroxis brought up electric melee.  What will electric melee do that dark doesn’t do better?  Dark melee was the best at what it already does.  Now it’s just the best overall pick.  Dark blast has lower damage than the other blast sets because of its utility.  Is it going to have moonbeam turned into moonboom an aoe snipe?   

 

Honestly, shadow maul should just be increased to a 60degree cone and maintain its current damage scale.  As of now it’s a solid attack if you hit at least 2.  Increase its radius slightly to reliably hit 3 and it becomes a great attack.  This leaves dark melee with great single target and slightly increased aoe potential, without sacrificing much in your single target rotation.  The dark consumption change is just messed up.  

The patch is 7 hrs old and people are already calling the changes to DM a bit OP... unbelievable. 🤣 In a world where TW exists...

One thing I will say, is the changes to dark consumption as written in the OP are a bit misleading at least as far as I can tell. The tool tip for dark consumption still reads 8' radius, so unless the tooltip just didnt get updated, it's not lightning rod like at all in terms of power range and it has no TP function. That and Shadow maul is a still a melee cone, so while the changes will definitely make it better, it's still going to favor sets with a taunt aura to really maximize this and more easily allow mobs to bunch up for that *potential* 10 target max.

HC Devs: Dark Melee changes!
Everyone: 

Edited February 25, 2020 by Doomrider
hilarity.

[Waypoint]

Out of curiosity, will there be any changes to -recovery/no endurance on the AI? It generally doesn't seem like 0 endurance affects them at all. It's my one hang up to the set. It definitely feels niche, but it seems like kinetics will do a better job (minus the +special).

[ScarySai]

7 hours ago, Tater Todd said:

*Me trying to reading the patch notes*

I was already considering remaking my dark/shield, this is honestly going to make it god-tier.

 

I won't complain. Also, new sets are looking amazing for some of my builds.

Edited February 25, 2020 by ScarySai

[Vanden]

3 minutes ago, Replacement said:

Suggestion: I think something like +End Drain Resistance would also go a long way, here.  Something to make your team a little more robust vs Sappers instead of simply recovering from them after they've all detoggled.

Yes, this and -Recovery resistance would be grand. An electric-themed Buff set is the perfect place to put those.

[Replacement]

41 minutes ago, Mr.Sinister said:

I share the same concerns.  Dark melee had lower aoe potential because of all the utility from the set.  With these changes it will become the do everything set.  

 

People will absolutely be using dark consumption at full end, well, minus the end used for soul drain. Not only will the set be able to nuke mobs, it will be able to heal itself with one of its best attacks, apply -to hit with each attack, restore its end if low, apply fear and a large -to hit, and majorly boost its damage.  

 

The change to shadow maul is probably fine on its own.  The change to dark consumption is gross power creep.  @Auroxis brought up electric melee.  What will electric melee do that dark doesn’t do better?  Dark melee was the best at what it already does.  Now it’s just the best overall pick.  Dark blast has lower damage than the other blast sets because of its utility.  Is it going to have moonbeam turned into moonboom an aoe snipe?   

 

Honestly, shadow maul should just be increased to a 60degree cone and maintain its current damage scale.  As of now it’s a solid attack if you hit at least 2.  Increase its radius slightly to reliably hit 3 and it becomes a great attack.  This leaves dark melee with great single target and slightly increased aoe potential, without sacrificing much in your single target rotation.  The dark consumption change is just messed up.  

I think it's pretty clear:

Tanker changes highlighted massive differences between the sets vis a vis aoe performance.  I'm guessing Dark Melee was buffed first because a) it underperforms in aoe and b) is early in the alphabet.

 

Other sets will get adjustments, I'm sure, but I gather the focus right now is reducing the huge parity gaps for Tankers, specifically.

[Blackfeather]

2 minutes ago, Vanden said:

Yes, this and -Recovery resistance would be grand. An electric-themed Buff set is the perfect place to put those.

I believe Faraday Cage does provide -Recovery resistance by the looks of it - not sure how much it provides though.

[Replacement]

6 minutes ago, Waypoint said:

Out of curiosity, will there be any changes to -recovery/no endurance on the AI? It generally doesn't seem like 0 endurance affects them at all. It's my one hang up to the set. It definitely feels niche, but it seems like kinetics will do a better job (minus the +special).

There's a really good post around here... somewhere that spells out how this all works.  The tl;dr I got from it was that once you get someone out of endurance, -recovery is the debuff you need to make sure you keep running.

 

I'd love to see some reduction in AV resistance and EB/AV max end to make it a bit more viable though.