Focused Feedback: Electrical Affinity - Powers (Build 4)

[DMW45]

Personally, I wish Static had a little more of an impact on the other powers.

 

Like maybe making Shock jump a couple of times at higher static, increase the aoe of faraday cage, etc.

 

Nothing too major, just small oddball effects that, when taken together, add up a little.

 

All that said, I really like how it's basically 'Support Fury' now.

Edited March 8, 2020 by DMW45

[Bopper]

2 hours ago, oedipus_tex said:

Insulating Circuit

• This is drastically improved versus the 20 second duration version. Just that inclusion of 10 extra seconds makes a huge difference
• That said, with the duration increase, I think Recharge should be longer than just 20 seconds. I'd recommend going with 45-60 seconds so you at least need to slot some Recharge to get it perma. This is because this will be slotted with Heal IO sets in most cases, and Recharge is the only other meaningful slotting in this power than Heal/Absorb (and arguably End Redux).
  • When I commented about duration last cycle I was thinking around 45 second shield/120 second recharge. This is much more generous. I'm not complaining. It's just that the addition of those 10 seconds (iwhich is actually the full the duration of Build Up, and brings Insulating Circuit to the duration of Drain Psyche) radically improves the power.
• In other words the power at base seems as good as its supposed to become after IOs and a great build. I don't mind that necessarily, but it's not how most buff/debuff powers are designed.

 

Unless the absorb shield gets a major buff (which it somewhat can't because eventually you run into the max absorb cap of a Defender's base HP), increasing the recharge and duration further is just nerfing the power.

 

The power at best does ~520 HP with enhancements on a single target, 390 HP for the next ally in the chain, and 260 HP for the rest of the team. Those numbers over 45 seconds (or for 30s for that matter) isn't amazing, so increasing the recharge large enough to require full recharge enhancement and additional global recharge to only provide a 260-520HP shield every 45 seconds is useless. The appeal of the power now is the ability to quickly reapply it when the shit hits the fan. I actually preferred is as a 15 second recharge with 20 second duration for that very reason, but that might have been too OP potentially, so where it's now might be a fair compromise between not being too OP while also not being too clicky with its reapply.

 

[EmperorSteele]

Yeah, Shock doesn't seem to do anything at such a low level, but you can't even use the heal on yourself, sooooo, I see your point!

As for actual feedback, is there any chance the hit box on the sentinel can be made bigger? I have a hard time clicking on it/selecting it to heal in the middle of combat.

EDIT: part of this seems to be that, depending on the angle, the center of the sentinel doesn't line up with the center of the hit box...

edit 2, oh, my cursor doesn't show up in these screen shots. grr, let me fix that! Edit 3: I don't know how to fix that. Just, rest assured, in that second shot, my pointer is in the dead center of the "ball" that makes up the pet's body.

Edited March 8, 2020 by EmperorSteele

[Wavicle]

1 minute ago, EmperorSteele said:

Yeah, Shock doesn't seem to do anything at such a low level, but you can't even use the heal on yourself, sooooo, I see your point!

As for actual feedback, is there any chance the hit box on the sentinel can be made bigger? I have a hard time clicking on it/selecting it to heal in the middle of combat.

You're better off creating a macro to target it.

[EmperorSteele]

7 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

You're better off creating a macro to target it.

I do not know how to macro! I've tried to learn, but it's *points up and makes a grand sweeping motion* WAAAAY over my head!

[Bopper]

10 minutes ago, EmperorSteele said:

Yeah, Shock doesn't seem to do anything at such a low level

It's a -37.5% damage debuff. Why does everyone assume that's insignificant at low levels. It's equivalent to a 37.5% resistance to your enemy of choice. Plus the duration is long enough to apply it to multiple enemies if needed.

[EmperorSteele]

2 minutes ago, Bopper said:

It's a -37.5% damage debuff. Why does everyone assume that's insignificant at low levels. It's equivalent to a 37.5% resistance to your enemy of choice. Plus the duration is long enough to apply it to multiple enemies if needed.

At level 3, I have 120 hit points. A level 3 Hellion minion hits for 7 hit points. and so the debuff brings that down to... 4.4-ish. That's not exactly a game-changer. At higher levels, oh god yes, that debuff will be a life saver. but at low levels, you're better off just spamming heals.

However, you bring up a good point vis-a-vis duration and recharge, but so far I haven't found myself wishing I'd taken that power instead of the heal.

[Bopper]

2 minutes ago, EmperorSteele said:

At level 3, I have 120 hit points. A level 3 Hellion minion hits for 7 hit points. and so the debuff brings that down to... 4.4-ish. That's not exactly a game-changer. At higher levels, oh god yes, that debuff will be a life saver. but at low levels, you're better off just spamming heals.

However, you bring up a good point vis-a-vis duration and recharge, but so far I haven't found myself wishing I'd taken that power instead of the heal.

It sounds like you'll sap that enemy dry long before he'll ever kill you. Also effective, especially given that the enemy would require applying 60% more damage than usual to finish you off.

[Wavicle]

35 minutes ago, EmperorSteele said:

At level 3, I have 120 hit points. A level 3 Hellion minion hits for 7 hit points. and so the debuff brings that down to... 4.4-ish. That's not exactly a game-changer. At higher levels, oh god yes, that debuff will be a life saver. but at low levels, you're better off just spamming heals.

However, you bring up a good point vis-a-vis duration and recharge, but so far I haven't found myself wishing I'd taken that power instead of the heal.

It's not that useful against minions, true.  It's VERY useful against Bosses.

[JayboH]

1 hour ago, Bopper said:

It's a -37.5% damage debuff. Why does everyone assume that's insignificant at low levels. It's equivalent to a 37.5% resistance to your enemy of choice. Plus the duration is long enough to apply it to multiple enemies if needed.

This.

[Draeth Darkstar]

2 hours ago, Captain Powerhouse said:

Traditionally, of the first two powers, the one that has the most impact while solo at low level is the one that gets stuck at T1.

But, also traditionally, any set that has an AoE heal has it first, and it's plenty impactful solo with Galvanic in the set.

[JayboH]

21 minutes ago, Draeth Darkstar said:

But, also traditionally, any set that has an AoE heal has it first, and it's plenty impactful solo with Galvanic in the set.

Traditionally, but not always.  Time Manipulation.  I don't count Traps since that's an AOE regen.

[Galaxy Brain]

God I wanna play a bots/elec MM now

[Wavicle]

1 hour ago, Draeth Darkstar said:

But, also traditionally, any set that has an AoE heal has it first, and it's plenty impactful solo with Galvanic in the set.

Other aoe heals are usable solo at lvl 1

[warlyx]

less spamy thats good ! good changes overall 😄

[JayboH]

Remember, what you are seeing is the STRONGEST version of this set.  Defenders get the highest numbers for support sets, so do you think weakened versions will be viable in its current state?

[Zeraphia]

I like Faraday Cage, and now actually playing around with Elec before forming opinions and testing around with it rather than just looking at the set on paper, I see the gems in this set despite my initial reaction being underwhelmed with the details in its powers.

 

I understand how this set is clearly not going to be the next Kinetics or Rad and that's totally okay, I get it 100%, and I wasn't going in expecting to be "wow'd!" by it. I beg, please do not attack me and say I'm making an upward comparison of this set against others as a whole, this is purely just a recommended rework of one of the powers...

 

Faraday Cage. Instead of a self-anchor PBAOE I would recommend that it be changed to a PBAoE buff to all players within its radius for an extended period of time (like nature's Wild Growth or Time Manipulation's Farsight) or a toggle (like FF's Dispersion Bubble) instead of the self-anchoring in one location at a time mechanic.

The reason being for this is that in a given situation in which you're in a mission for a team, they will often rapidly move out of the bubble and other than a few instances of a very hard fight with no movement mechanics (as new content is created such as iTrials and TF's like Apex/Tin Mage, there are definitely movement mechanics being introduced) and this doesn't mesh well with it.

Further, another point of discussion is the fact this power could potentially lead to some unwanted deaths in a solo situation, for example, you're fighting a melee-based group (warriors comes to mind) and you feel compelled to either stay within the bubble with no slows given by the primary to stop them from coming toward you and hurting you or move out of the bubble and lose its resistances and status protections. As such, changing it to a toggle or cast for an extended period of time would help this set out very much in terms of soloing content.

With it in its current state you will be forced to repeatedly cast it over and over every 25' feet to have it become a permanent benefit whereas many sets have this same type of power as a toggle and do not have to be forced into casting it. This in turn leads to attack chains not being able to be fully realized, you aren't given the permanent protection that (the majority) of other support sets are given, and it has very limited utility for the ways in which the game is currently being designed for later content.

 

I'm going to compare the use of Faraday in its current state against other defender AOE teammate buffs to demonstrate a point (however I am not calling the set "bad" or saying it is worse than something else I'm also not comparing the bonuses it gives, merely the practicality):

 

Recovery Aura/Regeneration Aura - Cast AOE, has long recharge cooldown but with IOing is able to be made mostly-permanent, is much more mobile friendly, only has to be cast after its duration expires, the buff lingers regardless of how far away your teammates are from you as long as you were in its radius when cast, permanent benefit in solo situations, same radius.

 

Sonic Dispersion - Toggle AOE, does not have to be recast, is the same radius, and is much more mobility friendly, also is always on.

Dispersion Bubble - Toggle AOE, does not have to be recast, is the same radius, and is much more mobility friendly, also is always on.

Shadow Fall - Toggle AOE, does not have to be recast, is a larger radius, and is much more mobility friendly, also is always on.

Wild Growth - Cast AOE, has a long recharge cooldown but with IOing is able to be made permanent without difficulty, is much more mobile friendly, only has to be cast after its duration expires, the buff lingers regardless of how far away your teammates are from you as long as you were in its radius when cast, permanent benefit in solo situations, same radius.

Arctic Fog - Toggle AOE, does not have to be recast, is a larger radius, and is much more mobility friendly, also is always on.

Accelerated Metabolism - Cast AOE, has a long recharge cooldown but with IOing is able to be made permanent, is much more mobile friendly, only has to be cast after its duration expires, the buff lingers regardless of how far away your teammates are from you as long as you were in its radius when cast, permanent benefit in solo situations, same radius.

Steamy Mist - Toggle AOE, does not have to be recast, is a larger radius, and is much more mobility friendly, also is always on.

Farsight - Cast AOE, has a long recharge cooldown but with IOing is able to be made permanent without difficulty, is much more mobile friendly, only has to be cast after its duration expires, the buff lingers regardless of how far away your teammates are from you as long as you were in its radius when cast, permanent benefit in solo situations, same radius.

Traps - Destructible drone, acts a pet but provides essentially the same thing as Dispersion Bubble

Kinetics/Poison/Thermal/TA - Not really a comparable one to the other sets, they either work more with debuffing an enemies or targeted AOE buffing sans Inertia Reduction which is a Cast AoE that's a permanent buff to allies but I don't think they're really comparable.

 

Faraday Cage - In comparison to all of them that have these types of powers is much more disruptive to attack chains, is much less mobile friendly, and has much more limited use on teams. 

 

Side note while I may not slot it like this, I did test Power Transfer's heal proc in Energizing circuit and I can say that it is a rather beefy heal with that proc and a decent amount of teammates.

Edited March 9, 2020 by 33053222

[Bopper]

17 minutes ago, 33053222 said:

ground location PBAOE

Last I recall, it's a self anchor PBAoE, so if you're flying, it anchors to your location in the air. Pretty cool effect, actually.

[Zeraphia]

2 hours ago, Bopper said:

Last I recall, it's a self anchor PBAoE, so if you're flying, it anchors to your location in the air. Pretty cool effect, actually.

It's interesting and a cool effect! It just doesn't seem like it will keep up with teams very well or be that useful in a gameplay environment sans very hard long fights without mobility required and can lead to some unfortunate solo deaths because you may run out of the cage accidentally or possibly feel as if you need to stay in the cage and melee-based opponents start thrashing you because of it (the set also doesn't really "slow" enemies by itself to slowly prevent them from getting to you)... which is why I kind of think it should be a toggle like FF's Dispersion Bubble or a cast like Nature's Wild Growth or Time's Farsight.

 

I corrected my original post to give it some more insightful details and more thorough explanations.

Edited March 9, 2020 by 33053222

[Leogunner]

2 hours ago, 33053222 said:

It's interesting and a cool effect! It just doesn't seem like it will keep up with teams very well or be that useful in a gameplay environment sans very hard long fights without mobility required and can lead to some unfortunate solo deaths because you may run out of the cage accidentally or possibly feel as if you need to stay in the cage and melee-based opponents start thrashing you because of it (the set also doesn't really "slow" enemies by itself to slowly prevent them from getting to you)... which is why I kind of think it should be a toggle like FF's Dispersion Bubble or a cast like Nature's Wild Growth or Time's Farsight.

 

I corrected my original post to give it some more insightful details and more thorough explanations.

I call that a weakness. 

 

Every set should have its downfalls if they get their advantages. Even better if you can turn those disadvantages into strengths with proper planning... Maybe not in all circumstances but more often than not. 

[Apparition]

Faraday Cage is superior to both Dispersion Bubble and Sonic Dispersion in numbers.  It makes up for that by being a self-anchor PBAoE that you need to recast. 

 

If you turn it into a toggle, then you would have to lower its strength or there would be no point in Dispersion Bubble and Sonic Dispersion at all. 

[Bopper]

5 minutes ago, Apparition said:

Faraday Cage is superior to both Dispersion Bubble and Sonic Dispersion in numbers.  It makes up for that by being a self-anchor PBAoE that you need to recast. 

 

If you turn it into a toggle, then you would have to lower its strength or there would be no point in Dispersion Bubble and Sonic Dispersion at all. 

 

12 minutes ago, Leogunner said:

I call that a weakness. 

 

Every set should have its downfalls if they get their advantages. Even better if you can turn those disadvantages into strengths with proper planning... Maybe not in all circumstances but more often than not. 

I agree with both of you. The closest power I've seen to Faraday Cage is Sonic Dispersion. FC gets 50% more protection in its Hold, Stun, and Immobilize protect while also offering protection for Knockback/up and all other forms of mez. Plus it provides psionic resistance. Overall, the fact it is a non toggle I view it as a small tax to pay. You are more than capable of instantly reapplying it wherever you go, but I can understand that becomes a boring gameplay experience being a walking faraday cage dropper.

 

If there is one compromise I can suggest, perhaps make the duration of the effects of FC last for 5-10 seconds. That way if you leave the cage, you can go a short while without having to reapply it instantly. But I dont want to see it become a toggle. I love the look of a floating ball of protection in the sky, it gives new flavors to the game that aren't the same cookie-cutter powers we tend to get, and it requires new creativity in how you use a power like this. 

[Zeraphia]

32 minutes ago, Apparition said:

Faraday Cage is superior to both Dispersion Bubble and Sonic Dispersion in numbers.  It makes up for that by being a self-anchor PBAoE that you need to recast. 

 

If you turn it into a toggle, then you would have to lower its strength or there would be no point in Dispersion Bubble and Sonic Dispersion at all. 

Actually Faraday Cage is completely equitable in terms of resistance to Sonic Dispersion, they both provide 15% resistance and are the same radius. Faraday provides more mez protection however (12.98) vs (8.65), and provides protections to other mezzes that Sonic does not and mez resistances. 

 

Comparing Faraday (resistance) to Dispersion Bubble (defense) is apples vs. oranges in terms of their numbers. However, much like Sonic, Faraday provides more mez protection however (12.98) vs (8.65), and provides protections to other mezzes that Force Field does not and mez resistances. 

 

In both scenarios the only advantage it has is its numbers in mez protections and unique protections to KB/KU/Sleep/Repel. I'd gladly trade the ability for it to be much more mobile than those protections that are either easily shored up by IO's or are given pretty easily through personal protections or rarely encountered. 

 

There is plenty of point in Sonic Dispersion and Dispersion Bubble, being that they are in different sets and thus will have different things. You aren't getting the Sonic debuffs, and you're not giving the complete ease of softcap defense that FF provides in Electrical Affinity, that doesn't invalidate them or make one or another set automatically inferior.

 

-- I also really like @Bopper's suggestion and I think it's a fair compromise at least and would really help and make my main issues not totally disappear but alleviate a lot of the headache I'd foresee with this set.

Edited March 9, 2020 by 33053222

[Replacement]

Finally playing with Electric Affinity.

 

First big thing I want to say: I don't see why people keep wanting Faraday moved to a Toggle.  It's really cool and unique how it is.  It also paves the way for future content to work in a similar way and develop a natural synergy.  It's obviously too late now, but this is how some of the Leadership buffs should've worked (location based as you "call out" where to rally).

 

There is no way recasting to move the buff could ever compare to the tribulations Traps has to go through.  Feels like we've been asking for Triage Beacon to get duration and recharge halved since 2007...

[Jimmy]

In general we're quite happy with how Faraday works right now. As pointed out in several other posts, it is a bit stronger than other comparable powers, and has its downsides too.

23 minutes ago, Bopper said:

If there is one compromise I can suggest, perhaps make the duration of the effects of FC last for 5-10 seconds. That way if you leave the cage, you can go a short while without having to reapply it instantly.

Nice idea - I'll take a look at this tonight.