Focused Feedback: Shock Therapy (Build 1)

[Jimmy]

Please use this topic to discuss the new Shock Therapy support set.

 

Extract from the patch notes:
 

---

 

New Support Powerset: Shock Therapy

"You are able to control and manipulate electricity to aid your allies and weaken your enemies. Some Shock Therapy powers build Static, which increases the number of targets your Circuit powers can chain to. Others consume Static to increase their effectiveness while also restoring a small amount of your health and endurance."

• A shocking new support powerset brought to you by @Cipher, @Jimmy, @GuyPerfect and our resident powers guru @Captain Powerhouse.
• The set has been built around chaining powers and a stacking / combo system that's similar to those found in many of the more modern melee and ranged damage sets, with a focus on wide variety of buffs for the whole team as well as damage and endurance debuffs for your enemies.
• Shock Therapy also introduces and makes use of a brand new mechanic which allows powers to dynamically change the number of targets they can hit - in this case, the four Circuit powers hit more targets for every stack of Static that you currently have.
• The set is currently available only as a Defender Primary. It will be ported to other support ATs after testing and feedback.

Powers

•  T1: Shock (Ranged, Foe -End, -Recovery, -DMG, Self +Static)
  • Strike a single foe with a highly-charged electrical shock, draining some endurance and moderately reducing their recovery and damage output. Shock grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Moderate
•  T2: Rejuvenating Circuit (Ranged (Special), Ally Heal, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of healing energy between yourself and two nearby allies, healing them for a small amount. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to an additional ally. Each successive jump along the chain will heal the next target for less. Rejuvenating Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Moderate
•  T3: Discharge (Ranged (Targeted AoE), Foe -Dmg, -End, Self -Static)
  • Discharge all stacks of Static to unleash a field of electricity around the targeted foe. This will drain endurance from nearby enemies and reduce the damage that they deal for a short while. The endurance drain effect of this power increases in strength with the number of stacks of Static you have. Discharge will consume all stacks of Static, and each stack consumed in this way will restore a small amount of your health and endurance. Recharge: Slow
•  T4: Empowering Circuit: (Ranged (Special), Ally +DMG, +Special, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of empowering energy between yourself and two nearby allies, increasing their damage output and the secondary effects of their powers. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to an additional ally. Each successive jump along the chain will empower the next target for less. Empowering Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Slow
•  T5: Faraday Cage (Location (PBAoE), Team +Res(Status, Knockback, Energy, Negative, Psi, -Rech, -Rec, -End))
  • Create a large energy barrier at your location which protects allies from status effects, knockbacks, energy, negative and psionic damage, and recharge and recovery debuffs. Recharge: Slow
•  T6: Insulating Circuit (Ranged (Special), Ally +Absorb, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of protective energy between yourself and two nearby allies, granting them a small protective shield. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to an additional ally. Each successive jump along the chain will shield the next target for less. Insulating Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Slow
•  T7: Defibrillate (Melee (Targeted AoE), Ally Rez, Self -Static)
  • Strike a defeated ally with a highly-charged jolt of electricity, reviving them and any other nearby defeated allies. The amount of health and endurance allies revive with scales with the number of stacks of Static you have. Defibrillate will consume all stacks of Static, and each stack consumed in this way will restore a small amount of your health and endurance. Recharge: Long
•  T8: Energizing Circuit (Ranged (Special), Ally +End, Self +Static)
  • Create a circuit of pure energy between yourself and two nearby allies, restoring a small amount of their endurance. Every stack of Static you have will cause this power to chain to an additional ally. Each successive jump along the chain will restore less endurance to the next target. Energizing Circuit grants 1 stack of Static. Recharge: Slow
•  T9: Amp Up (Ranged, Ally +Special, +Recharge, Self -Static)
  • Empower an ally with raw energy, causing all of their abilities to unleash chained bolts of electricity at nearby foes. These bolts drain a small amount of endurance and have a chance to knock up the target. Amp Up also moderately increases their attack rate and greatly boosts the secondary effects of their powers. Their power effects like heals, defense buffs, endurance drains, disorients, holds, immobilizes and more, are all improved. The recharge bonus of this power increases in strength with the number of stacks of Static you have. Amp Up will consume all stacks of Static, and each stack consumed in this way will restore a small amount of your health and endurance. Recharge: Very Long
•  Static (Circuit Boost, +Movement Speed)
  • Every stack of Static you have increases the number of targets your Circuit powers can chain to, as well as increasing your movement speed by a small amount, up to a maximum of 5 stacks. Casting Discharge, Defibrillate or Amp Up will consume all stacks of Static. Consuming stacks of Static will restore a small amount of your health and endurance.

[Jimmy]

Responses to the feedback so far (as always, this is still in beta and everything is subject to change!):

 

Teams with pets / random chaining

The set was balanced with the random chaining in mind, and we were concerned about the potential for this causing issues on teams with pets but we were interested to see how the set fared as-is. However, we agree that some changes are needed here, so we're making the following adjustments to the four Circuit powers in an upcoming patch:

• At 5 stacks, the maximum target cap will be 255 instead of 7
  • Target cap at 0 to 4 stacks remains unchanged
• We're investigating the possibility of prioritising players for each jump
• The strength falloff per target will be adjusted
  • The strength falloff is now -25% per jump instead of *80% per jump
  • The strength falloff now caps at -50%

 

Target	Original Strength	Adjusted Strength
1	100%	100%
2	80%	75%
3	64%	50%
4	51%	50%
5	41%	50%
6	32%	50%
7	26%	50%

 

Lack of offensive power

Shock Therapy is a hybrid buff/heal/debuff set with a primary focus on buffs. At this time we don't feel additional offensive / debuff power is warranted beyond what the set currently has (+damage on Empowering Circuit, -end on Shock, Discharge and Amp Up and -damage on Shock and Discharge).

 

Endurance drain in PvP

This will be looked at, but may not make it into the next update.

 

The name of the set

We appreciate the concern here and are actively monitoring the feedback. We're going to discuss this internally and will update you when a conclusion has been reached. 

[DMW45]

As I said in the main feedback thread, I feel like there's going to be problems with this set on teams with pets.

 

Do the powers focus on jumping to targets not already buffed, or would there be the problem of heals going to full health pets/teammates, and buffs simply jumping to the same people and not new ones?

[Jon]

I mentioned this in the other thread, but with regard to the name -- 'Shock Therapy' is a term with some pretty extreme negative connotations for LGBT people due to its historic use as a cruel, inhumane, and ineffective medical treatment for homosexuality. I highly recommend changing it to something a little bit more neutral and unoffensive. It'd be like creating a lasso powerset and naming it 'Lynching'. It's just bad form.

[Erydanus]

I agree the name is extremely bad, even threatening. 

[DMW45]

I wouldn't go that far.

 

I do think the name should be changed--there's even already a villain in game with the name Shock Treatment.

[Replacement]

1 hour ago, Jon said:

I mentioned this in the other thread, but with regard to the name -- 'Shock Therapy' is a term with some pretty extreme negative connotations for LGBT people due to its historic use as a cruel, inhumane, and ineffective medical treatment for homosexuality. I highly recommend changing it to something a little bit more neutral and unoffensive. It'd be like creating a lasso powerset and naming it 'Lynching'. It's just bad form.

I... Don't really want to this to become a big thing, but when I consider that Electroconvulsive therapy is still in use today, it seems to me the term you should be demonizing (AND RIGHTFULLY, because it's terrible) is Conversion Therapy.

 

Same words in a different order: I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with Shock Therapy. But "Shock Therapy as a means of Conversion Therapy" is a different, and much worse story.

Edited February 25, 2020 by Replacement

[Replacement]

As for the set itself, just to have it in the correct spot:

1. The diminishing returns on each jump is going to feel bad when we can't control the exact bounce order. I strongly suggest having a normalized "secondary target" effect.
2. I am concerned about the usefulness of Energizing Circuit.

[Errants]

Also jumping in on wanting a different name for the set, due to less than ideal connotations with quiltbag rights and Mental Health rights.

Ionic Balance

Electrical Support

Ionic Support

Sapping

Potentiated Support

Electrical Potential

 

etc...

Edited February 25, 2020 by Eran Rist

[Bossk_Hogg]

So I rolled up a Shock/Electric defender. Electric blast kind of sucks on defenders due to 1) no AT specific scaling on end drain (hint hint devs) and 2) being electric blast. But I figured I would test the combo most likely to be rolled. Chose Shock as my starting power

 

Galaxy Tutorial was a slog, and highlighted how low utility Shock will be. A single target debuff is pretty bad, given COH's AE centric and mass combat focused nature. The end drain will continue to be nigh worthless as anything will be dead before it matters in regular play. The - damage is nice, but is single target. It compares unfavorably to corrosive enzymes, which has - damage resistance, siphon power which provides a damage buff, and weaken which has an ae component and -to hit. IMO it should chain to provide early support.

 

Got out of the tutorial, onto Atlas! Helped Matthew Haberty and then chose Sondra Costel as my second contact. I'd picked up Rejuvenating Circuit at 4, and wanted to test it out on Icedrone. Sadly it doesnt chain to yourself. So great, a targeted heal w random secondary targets that excludes the caster for some reason.  

 

Leveled to 6, got empowering circuit. The text kind of reads like it will affect you, but nope, another ally only power. The damage buff is kind of underwhelming compared to Siphon Power which will hit more of the team without fiddling with stacks of Static. The +special is interesting, but notably excludes +defense, so you can't act as a buff bot's buff bot and boost force fields. Boo-urns. The control boosts may be good on a team, at least until control becomes more irrelevant in the march to City of MOAR AE DAMAGE.  Devs take note - this particular power is going to skew early info on this set, due to the large numbers of shock defenders rolling around buffing each other with this power, and make it seem like end drain is much more effective than it is. I'm hoping to avoid the repetition of TA and Sonic's beta test, where due to the proliferation of defenders on teams the sets came out underpowered.

 

Decided to run Shining Star for old time's sake. Got to the "Defend shining Star Base" mission, and you can't use Empowering Circuit or Rejuvenating Circuit on Dillo or Twin Shot, despite them being ally combatants. You CAN use it on Grym or Flambeaux, so not sure what the deal is. Also Proton... the code is Alpha One Prime? That's the kind of thing an idiot would have for their luggage combination!

 

After lunch I'll bump myself to 12 and run some KR arcs. But looking ahead,, this set seems like crappy Kinetics. 

[Bopper]

12 minutes ago, Replacement said:

As for the set itself, just to have it in the correct spot:

1. The diminishing returns on each jump is going to feel bad when we can't control the exact bounce order. I strongly suggest having a normalized "secondary target" effect.
2. I am concerned about the usefulness of Energizing Circuit.

I feel the same way. I think the diminishing returns can be removed and just let the static mechanism jump to more allies. If there's an OP reason for not doing it this way, I'd like to know what it is.

 

Also, I agree a T8 that only grants endurance feels meh. At least throw on a recovery buff. Otherwise it's just handing out blue insps as a power.

[HelBlaiz]

Circuit Conduction, maybe? I'm not personally against the powerset name, but there does seem to be a fair amount of criticism of it.

 

Gameplay wise, I haven't been able to play much of it yet. Only had a short bit of time between waking up and going to work. I can already tell the tier one doesn't recharge as quickly as I'd like, but that's what enhancements are for.

[Super Atom]

The name isn't good. Other things aside it just doesn't fit it sounds like an ability not a name for a whole set.

 

Forcefield

Emapthy

Sonic resonance

Cold domination

Pain domination

Radiation emission

Thermal radiation

SHOCK THERAPY.

 

Just doesn't flow well with the naming convention of power sets.

Suggestions - (I'm not good with names)

 

Static Emission

Electric Resonance

Electric Affinity

Static Flow

 

The set itself seems to be ok but I'd like if -end had a better purpose. Maybe a sleep effect if they have 0 endurance or something.

[Vanden]

How about Electrical Aid? Something with “Electric” would be good, so we can have “Elec/Elec” Defenders.

[Trickshooter]

 

Just now, Super Atom said:

Just doesn't flow well with the naming convention of power sets.

I agree. The name is punny, and is a clever way to describe the theme of the set (electric themed support), but that's not how the other sets are named. They're named mostly straightforward. Shock Therapy fits more in the naming convention of a power within an electric themed support set.

[johnnysc]

How about Surge Protection?  (I'm perfectly fine with punny names)

 

I'd like to see a poll to help narrow down name candidates.  It doesn't have to be binding - the HC team could make the final decision, but it could be a fun community exercise.

Edited February 25, 2020 by johnnysc

[siolfir]

5 minutes ago, Super Atom said:

Electric Affinity

I kindof like this one. It's not a "that's it!" type of reaction, but Electricity Manipulation is taken already, and tacking Affinity on the end sounds better than tacking Support on the end to me.

 

Unfortunately, my brain isn't feeling all that creative at the moment to try to come up with alternatives.

 

[Trickshooter]

1 minute ago, johnnysc said:

How about Surge Protection?

 

I'd like to see a poll to help narrow down name candidates.  It doesn't have to be binding - the HC team could make the final decision, but it could be a fun community exercise.

That's cool, but also sounds more like a power that could be in the set, rather than the set name.

 

I also like @Vanden's suggestion to keep at least "Elec" in the name.

[johnnysc]

1 minute ago, Trickshooter said:

That's cool, but also sounds more like a power that could be in the set, rather than the set name.

 

I also like @Vanden's suggestion to keep at least "Elec" in the name.

Then I'll go with my earlier suggestion in the other thread:  Electrolysis (if we can add the -hair mechanic to the game)

[Jimmy]

Response to some of the initial feedback has been posted above after the OP 🙂

[Trickshooter]

2 hours ago, Jimmy said:

We're investigating the possibility of prioritising players for each jump

Is it possible for the jump to prioritize either players OR pets, depending on the initial target selected?

[DMW45]

Interesting.  Given the 255 targets at Static 5, it makes the effective AoE of the buffs almost limitless as long as people are close enough to chain for it (imagine a few of these guys in incarnate trials, etc), so I do believe something like the adjusted strength may be warranted, but I'm not certain.

[Lazarillo]

The animation for Defibrillate makes makes me laugh, in a good way.

On the other hand, I'm not much for the do-the-whammy animation on Empowering Circuit.  Any chance of it getting an secondary animation?

[ScarySai]

I think the complaints about the name being 'insensitive' are a serious reach, but I will say that I don't really care for the name. 

 

Basically, leave it as Shock Therapy unless you think of something better. Set certainly looks interesting, especially if the pet problem is addressed in some form.

 

Speaking of pets, I kinda want to see this on masterminds.

Edited February 25, 2020 by ScarySai

[Replacement]

7 minutes ago, DMW45 said:

Interesting.  Given the 255 targets at Static 5, it makes the effective AoE of the buffs almost limitless as long as people are close enough to chain for it (imagine a few of these guys in incarnate trials, etc), so I do believe something like the adjusted strength may be warranted, but I'm not certain.

It could still be flagged for party-only, meaning the 255 limit is just a way to say "no amount of pets could possibly slow you down."