Focused Feedback: Electrical Affinity - Powers (Build 4)

[Leo_G]

1 hour ago, csr said:

I'd say Domination is the main cast-while-mezzed power.  Add Kuji-In Rin and Inner Will to the list as well.  And I believe Indomitable Will from the APPs (Controllers and Dominators) can also be cast while mezzed.  There are actually quite a few of them.  (And should be a few more, as I think all the "classic" T9s from Armor sets should be cast-while-mezzed.)

I encountered this question before.  Indomitable Will from APPs can't be cast while mezzed.

[Bopper]

10 minutes ago, Leo_G said:

I'd frankly say 30sec recharge 90sec duration is more fair considering it shouldn't be hard to bring that down further.  15sec recharge is still bonkers with a 90sec duration.  And it might have a more approachable window to penetrate rather than just being immune to mez.

 

I guess when I look at powersets, I look at them from an angle of fighting against them too and the current numbers kind of feel unfair.

I believe the purpose for shorter recharge is for frequent movement. A 30 second base means possibly a 10 second cooldown at end game. If you're hopping from one mob to the next, or simply in a situation that requires you to be mobile, then having the ability to recast quickly is necessary. It's still a tax to have to recast it frequently in those situations, but it doesnt prevent you from being effective.

[Shocktacular]

I'm not on the beta server, but this sounds like it could be interesting.
I'd just like to know... can the chain powers chain back to you or do they only chain among teammates/allies?

[Bopper]

1 minute ago, Shocktacular said:

I'm not on the beta server, but this sounds like it could be interesting.
I'd just like to know... can the chain powers chain back to you or do they only chain among teammates/allies?

They can come back

[Shocktacular]

1 minute ago, Bopper said:

They can come back

All of them, or just certain ones?  And, can you chain them off of the sentinel?

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Shocktacular

[Wavicle]

3 minutes ago, Shocktacular said:

All of them, or just certain ones?  And, can you chain them off of the sentinel?

 

All the circuit powers can chain to the caster and yes can chain from the sentinel to the caster or teammates or other pets when solo or teamed.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Wavicle

[Shocktacular]

Just now, Wavicle said:

All the circuit powers can chain to the caster and yes can chain from the sentinel to the caster when solo.

😮  I AM SO READY FOR THIS SET!!!! 

[Bopper]

3 minutes ago, Shocktacular said:

All of them, or just certain ones?  And, can you chain them off of the sentinel?

 

The circuits do. If you like, go to the first page of the comments on this topic and scroll down to a list I made where I put all of the effects/numbers for each power in spoiler blocks. Look through there, and anything that says it is ChainTarget can chain back to you. 

 

The sentinels main purpose is for you to chain off of him, so yes, pets can be affected by the chain as well.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Bopper

[Shocktacular]

I'm totally psyched for this now!

I know it'll be a FotM, but still...!

Edited March 10, 2020 by Shocktacular

[Bopper]

2 minutes ago, Shocktacular said:

I'm totally psyched for this now!

I know it'll be a FotM, but still...!

I'm excited too. I really enjoy the new chain mechanic

[Shocktacular]

Any thoughts on the best secondary to go with this?  I'm naturally thinking of electric blast, but I'd like to hear your ideas (since you've actually played with it).

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Shocktacular

[Bopper]

14 minutes ago, Shocktacular said:

Any thoughts on the best secondary to go with this?  I'm naturally thinking of electric blast, but I'd like to hear your ideas (since you've actually played with it).

 

I haven't played enough to have too much of an opinion. But the combo I liked, and theory crafted, was an Elec/Dark/Soul defender. I liked the combo of tohit debuffs to go with the -damage, resistance, and absorb in Electrical Affinity. I went with Soul thinking power boost might beef up the heals/end/recovery of elec, and I thought Power Boost would beef up my tohit debuffs even further. Figure I go Musculature Alpha for the tohit debuff, and end recovery.

 

I went with a complete support build, and I was able to get softcapped range defense with capped S/L defense and plenty of recharge. But the damage is nothing, like I said, pure support.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Bopper

[Jimmy]

10 hours ago, Bopper said:

Can you clarify that the 5 second intervals used for static build up is not the same activation period for Faraday Cage? I would hope the effects of Faraday Cage will tick every 1 or 2 seconds, which will allow those inside the bubble to leverage the newly proposed 5 second duration to leave the bubble temporarily. 

The Static granting component is a new power that the pseudopet has, unrelated to the defensive buff. The buff still ticks every second and lasts for 5 seconds (non-stacking) if you leave.

[Number Six]

4 hours ago, Wavicle said:

All the circuit powers can chain to the caster and yes can chain from the sentinel to the caster or teammates or other pets when solo or teamed.

That’s correct and is also why it won’t be changed to untargeted “chaining from yourself” behavior as is sometimes suggested.

 

The first target gets a much more effective version of the buffs/heals/etc than subsequent targets, allowing you to choose who really needs the single target equivalent while still delivering AoE.

 

The intent of bouncing off the pet is that the maximum effect you can apply to yourself is the same numerical value as the second target gets. In keeping with the theme of other support sets, you cannot buff yourself as effectively as you can buff others.

[FaintCinder]

Can't get on at the moment.

 

Can anyone confirm if these chain powers work like all other buff/heal powers in the game where if you're targeting an enemy and you use the move, it will cast on that enemies' target? I seem to remember that not being the case, whether I tested it or someone mentioned it.

[Parabola]

6 hours ago, Shocktacular said:

I'm totally psyched for this now!

I know it'll be a FotM, but still...!

Being a contrary sort I often use the arrival of a new powerset to play things that will benefit from having that powerset around rather than play the powerset itself. As we are probably going to be awash with new defenders and controllers when this hits live it might be the time for me to pick up a blaster or a tank. Something end heavy would seem appropriate to get full benefit.

[ajlee209]

13 minutes ago, parabola said:

Being a contrary sort I often use the arrival of a new powerset to play things that will benefit from having that powerset around rather than play the powerset itself. As we are probably going to be awash with new defenders and controllers when this hits live it might be the time for me to pick up a blaster or a tank. Something end heavy would seem appropriate to get full benefit.

Honestly I think the AT that will benefit from this the most is Doms. The +special in the T9 is a major boost and overall the set is great for them. You get +damage, +recharge, plenty of heals etc. 

[FaintCinder]

15 minutes ago, ajlee209 said:

Honestly I think the AT that will benefit from this the most is Doms. The +special in the T9 is a major boost and overall the set is great for them. You get +damage, +recharge, plenty of heals etc. 

I don't think the +Special will be that big of a deal on Doms because things are dead typically before the mezz wears off. Dom's with Domination already have really long durations on their mezz's.

I recall there being some posts saying that the Elec Affinity +Special buffs were lacking Defense. Idk if that has been fixed or if it was on purpose. Because if it does indeed buff Defense, then it's going to be huge for any set that gives defense buffs, including Maneuvers/Weave. Outside of that, my personal take on the +Special buffs is that it's a support set that works very well with OTHER support sets. Buffing the Defense numbers of Ice Shields, the Heals of Emp, the -Def and -Tohit from Rad/Poison, etc etc. Obviously there's several powers in the game that do all those things, but I just really like the idea of it being a set that yes, buffs the entire team, but specifically, severely buffs your fellow support on the team. 

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by FaintCinder

[Galaxy Brain]

Once the tweaks are done, will this be ported to other support ATs?

[FaintCinder]

 

4 minutes ago, Galaxy Brain said:

Once the tweaks are done, will this be ported to other support ATs?

13 hours ago, Jimmy said:

 

With one more potential improvement that's still TBD. Assuming all is well after this round of updates we'll then likely move on to proliferating the set 🙂 

Yes 😃

[Fritter Chicken]

13 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Heads-up on what will likely be the final set of changes:

• Faraday Cage
  • Standing inside your own Faraday Cage will grant you a stack of Static every 5 seconds
    • This is to help build up larger stack counts for iTrials and raids
  • The buff will persist for 5 seconds after you leave the bubble
• Defibrillate 
  • Now drains Static again, and will apply a debuff to all nearby enemies that scales off your current stacks (the specifics of the debuff are still being decided)
    • We feel the Static spending mechanic makes sense on this power only - it's very much an "oh crap" moment power, so sacrificing stacks to turn the tide of a battle will create some exciting moments
    • This also gives the power a slight downside to counterbalance the fact it's an AoE rez that can be used at any time
    • The rez is always max strength regardless of stacks
  • Can now be triggered on both enemies and allies (but the AoE only impact dead allies and living enemies)
• Plus a bunch of fixes

With one more potential improvement that's still TBD. Assuming all is well after this round of updates we'll then likely move on to proliferating the set 🙂 

 

Wait. 

 

Did you actually read my rant on why [Fail-To-Use] powers SUCK? 

 

For those who are wondering this was what I posted when first testing Electrical Affinity for beta feedback: 

 

Okay, initial complaint on Defibrillate is the same complaint with a number of pre-existing rezzes in the game.

 

They do nothing unless your teammate is dead... and since the point of your powers is to keep teammates ALIVE... it feels like kind of a sidelined insult that you ONLY have a power that DOES SOMETHING when you Fail At Your Job. That probably wasn't ever the intention of the [Work Only When Dead] powers, and maybe I'm bitter. Maybe I'm bitter from one of Fire Armor's strongest attacks requiring to fail at tanking, one of Dark's strongest stuns requiring to fail at tanking, Empathy to fail at healing, Therm Rad to fail at healing buffs and debuffs, and so on.  Maybe I took too much joy from Nature Affinity FINALLY giving the player a Rez power that didn't require the player to fail at their task and thought that was going to be new normal... and at some point all of the [Fail To Use] powers would get revisited as PowerHouse found time to look at them. 

 

I like the concept of running up to players and hard paddling them... (sometimes I do have to jump in front of a joke)... but as an actual play mechanic? That makes Defrib the Easy Skip Power.

 

Okay, a bit more feedback on the set itself. 

 

I paired my Electric Defender with both an SR/DB tank and a MA/Bio scrapper. 

 

For the most part, just while leveling up, most of the set feels solid, but it's not like I was giving the chaining a workout with just a single teammate. Where it doesn't really feel all that solid is the Anti-Mez and Revive, of which I already ranted about on the revive. 

 

My issue with the Anti-Mez is that it's delivered as, no pun intended, a static field that players can move in and out of. Kind of like [Dimension Shift] it then becomes, well, extremely situational. You just can't fire off [Faraday Cage] and give your team a few seconds Anti-Mez as they rampage around, and you can't be like a Sonic or FF and be able to provide Anti-Mez on demand.

 

Well, at a high enough recharge you could. 

 

So I started thinking about maybe addressing other issues that kind of burbled to the forefront. The Electric Set is weak on actual enemy debuffs, or rather debuffs that directly impact hardened targets, and preemptive mitigation.  

 

From my own experience with a Kinetic/Elec defender, it never mattered that I could completely drain the endurance of any enemy, up to and including Hamidon in LGTF, every enemy would just cheat and launch an attack with a single point of endurance. Okay, fair point, I haven't tried endurance draining as a debuff strategy since I18 and at some point maybe the enemy cheating was fixed and I just didn't notice the patch note because I didn't care. Endurance Draining did not, at least in the testing I did today, come across as a viable strategy. Enemies still seemed to be capable of doing whatever they wanted whenever they wanted regardless of their endurance counts. To be fair though, I wasn't using an optimized endurance sapping build, and only [Shock] has an actual Recovery debuff listed. 

 

As far as preemptive mitigation, outside of the Psionic Resist component in [Faraday Cage] and the [Absorb] in [Insulating Circuit], there isn't anything to really buff up a team before charging into battle. While adding more Resist components might make sense thematically, that might push an Electric Set outside of a wheelhouse. 

So, putting this together, ideally I'd like to see the set offer something that offered a more tangible Enemy Debuff, a more tangible Friendly Buff, but something that sticks within what the set already has. I'd also want to make [Defibrillate] useful outside of applying hand paddles. 

 

To make [Faraday Cage] more useful as an anti-mez outside of hard-stands, I'd add it to the Static Counter. At full stacks triggering [Faraday Cage] would cause all friendlies caught in the activation to gain the buff(s) as a shield.  

 

To better address hard-stand scenarios I'd suggest synergy between [Faraday Cage] and [Defibrillate]. Turn it into a Combo. Trigger a Full Stack [Defibrillate] inside an active Faraday Cage and the field gains a High Regeneration or High Rate of Absorb for all friendlies, and a Special/Secondary-Effect debuff against foes. Basically an inverse of [Amp Up].


I think those changes might put the Electric Set more towards the Nature Affinity side of a good set, then the Seriously Needs A Revamp from the Ground Up Empathy side.

[Jimmy]

 

Finally made it easier to click on 🙂

[JayboH]

...but I would seriously suggest everyone turn on the pet window anyway, even though it will be easier to click the pet now.  It still gives you info on if the pet is still alive, what health it has, and what buffs it has, on top of being able to click on the pet using the window for heals and such.

[oedipus_tex]

You know, I can't decide if it would be overpowered in this particular set, but a second option for Defibrillate would be to allow the caster to use it while currently dead. It would track with the "Haha you thought you got me!" theme present in Faraday Cage that lets users bust out of practically any mezz, 

 

On the other hand, I kind of dream of a "Rezz power pass" where the developers improve the rezzes across all the sets, and part of me feels this particular ability belongs to Empathy.

[FaintCinder]

New Question (from me at least that I haven't seen mentioned) - FYI not on home computer, so can't check these things specifically at the moment.

 

Is +Special supposed affect Absorb powers? I remember it not affecting the Power Pool Power from Sorcery, but that could have been a bug? Does it affect the Absorb from Nature? Last I checked on Insulating Circuit, it does in fact affect it, dramatically increasing the Absorb shield that it grants.

 

Just looking for clarification on that. Although I don't think it needs to be ask, I'll ask to double check...but all +Special is the same, correct? Just the numbers being varied, but they affect the same stuff? So the Power Boosts you can get from Corr, Defs, Controllers, and Dominators, as well as the +Special from Elec Affinity?