Stone Armor, Assault Rifle & Merceneries Revamp Suggestion

[Purrfekshawn]

1. Stone Armor

Make rooted NOT slowing character, and NOT disabling sprints, flight, jump other travel powers. Generally when l first met Stone Armor characters/descriptions (before reading detailed descriptions) l was under impression that Rooted is just Mez protection power any defense powerset has, without horrible disadvantages. l understand that Granite Armor slows character seriously, but its overprotection justifies that. Rooted stats (except for self-slow) looks like an usual Mez-protection power, it's NOT move powerful than any other mez protection of any other set. So yet no other mez-protection gets self debuff, but Rooted has.

This leads that any Stone Armor tank is forced to play in a fortress style, with Granite Armor with amazing defenses, but only tiny lil' capabilities to move (or use Teleport), and renders most of Stone Armor powers useless or some IO mules. That's such a waste for all that awesome Visual effects Stone Armor powers have (Rock Armor, Brimstone Armor, Crystal Armor, Minerals)! Yet they are never to be shown, as players are tecnically forced to play Granite fortresses. To play with other Stone Armor armors (non-Granite) is NOT an option right now, as Rooted will slow you anyway, and you CANNOT skip Rooted because tank CANNOT go without mez protection, and there is NO mez protections in the set except for Rooted power.

 

Suggestion:

1. Remove all Slows/Travel Disables from ROOTED. Add the slow that is usually granted by Rooted to the Granite Armor (so its overall speed is not getting buffed, but l don't suggest nerfing any if its stats/capabilities either). Maybe (on dev flavor) make it so, that some bonuses from Rooted are granted only when character touches ground (like Electric Armor's Grounded power), but it's on designers' choice. Example: +50% regen Rooted grants always, and other +50% regen only when character is near the ground (this will cover most cases anyway). Also Granite Armor may get extra looks (e.g. Sardonyx Crystallic, tawny-colored etc...).

 

2. Assault Rifle/Mercenaries

These powersets are generally considered to be very weak. They deal very little base damage, and damage type is Lethal, that gets resisted by many enemies seriously.

 

Once l came up with an idea, that it should get a mechanic that would help with that and be theme fitting at the same time. It's Armor Piercing mechanic. Theme wise, isn't it, rifles really were designed to be able to pierce enemy's armor. That's why having it in game would both add extra impression of the set and boost its usefull ness. And l can imagine it would work without necessity to remake current game engine in a following way. Let's look at example of Slug Assault Rifle power. Currently it does:

 

XX.XX lethal damage on target

25.00%% chance for X.XX magnitude knock on target

 

But how to make it so it would partially ignore enemy's resistance to Lethal damage? Previously there was one bugged effect with enemy's pet Tar Patches, that its -RES effect was Unresistable, resulting bigger -RES effect that it's intended to be. But what if make that Intentional effect for the new Assault Rifle/Mercenaries attacks? Let's see what the new Slug would look like:

 

-30.00%% resistance to lethal damage for 0.50s on target

Ignores buffs and enhancements

unresistable

XX.XX lethal damage on target after 0.25s delay

25.00% chance for X.XX magnitude knock on target after 0.25s delay

 

Making it 0.25 ensures that it will last only couple of time frames and the damage will be applied exactly within that frame when -RES is applied. What would it do at all? Letz imagine you're attacking an enemy with 0% innate Lethal resistance. -RES that applied by Armor Piercing mechanic will make its lethal resistance -30% total, which would make total multiplier of applied damage x1.3 of normal.

Now letz imagine we're attacking an enemy, that has 70% resistance to lethal damage (it's what Reichsman has, without his Unstoppable buff he casts at low HP). Because -RES is unresistable, it won't get lowered with Reichsman's innate -RES and won't become 9%. It will stay 30%. And after the subtraction total enemy's resistance will become 40%. That means you will do 60% of listed Lethal damage to the enemy. While without Armor Piercing debuff you would deal only 30% of listed lethal damage. And that makes Armor Piercing mechanic deal damage x2.0 of normal!!! That's why the damage, new Assault Rifle would do would be more effective on enemies with high Lethal Resistance, rather with low Lethal Resistance and effectively reduce effectiveness of their armor. Which is why it's called "Armor Piercing"!

Naturally base damage Assault Rifle deals needs to be reduced accordingly, maybe not by 30%, but by about 20%, so it won't become OP. To stay same it needs to be reduced by 1-1/1.3≈0.23%, but it would use some buff, and as you attack mostly level 54 enemies, those are +3 level higher than you (u've level shift +1 from Alpha incarnate in most content) the debuff effectivenesses are usually 0.67%. But IIRC it does NOT apply to unresistable effects, and there's also other flag for that - ignore Level Difference, and yeah don't forget about "Ignore Level Difference" flag for Armor Piercing mechanic.

 

This new mechanic also would have an extra effect that if the 2 or more Armor Piercings occur at the same time frame the attack power will be SIGNIFICANTLY boosted. But lMO that would be not fixed or changed somehow, but compose the extra flawor of the set. It's like - the subsequent bullet hits an enemy in the spot where previous one already had pierced enemy's armor. Naturally that hit will hurt alot more.

 

Burst would become single hit attack, instead of multi-hit, while Full Auto grant unresistable -RES to lethal damage for the whole its duration, as it's the Nuke after all. Mercenary's Rifle and SMG attacks would get these effects as well. As an alternative or addition to the effect, Assault Rifle power may grant a "power" on its target called "Armor Pierced" (+Floating Text). The power "Armor Pierced" would grant its owner unresistable -XX.XX%% resistance to lethal damage as well, and be short-lasting (last 5 seconds or so), but naturally no more than one of that effect from any source could be applied to the target.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Purrfekshawn

[Outrider_01]

14 hours ago, Purrfekshawn said:

as players are tecnically forced to play Granite fortresses.

They are not forced, its just a better option.  Unlike most armor sets; Granite gives +15 Def vs the 6 most common damage types while granting 37.5% resist vs 6 common damage types + Toxic.  On a toggle, no long duration recharge.  6 slots for 6 IO and you are half way to the resist or defense cap; in one power for .15 endurance after enhancement endurance reduction.

 

The closest example I could think of for a better alternative is Ice armor /Icy bastion on sentinels, 30 second duration all resist, +regen, +endurance recovery.  Something like that for Granite; maybe +resist so the defense toggles work (probably have to rebalance their +def percentage), +regen, and +damage maybe because "hit like a 2 ton boulder".

[Purrfekshawn]

7 hours ago, Outrider_01 said:

They are not forced, its just a better option.  Unlike most armor sets; Granite gives +15 Def vs the 6 most common damage types while granting 37.5% resist vs 6 common damage types + Toxic.  On a toggle, no long duration recharge.  6 slots for 6 IO and you are half way to the resist or defense cap; in one power for .15 endurance after enhancement endurance reduction.

 

The closest example I could think of for a better alternative is Ice armor /Icy bastion on sentinels, 30 second duration all resist, +regen, +endurance recovery.  Something like that for Granite; maybe +resist so the defense toggles work (probably have to rebalance their +def percentage), +regen, and +damage maybe because "hit like a 2 ton boulder".

l don't suggest changing mechanic Granite does, so players could keep their current Fortress-like playstyle, if they like it. 37.5%/15%? Last time l checked it was 50%/20%, because l went Tanker for bigger AoE radius (l decided that would especially rock for Fold Space) and Target cap. And yeah, almost everything is CAPPED on that character, even PSI resistance capped at 90% all the time due to various enhancements.

 

The only thing l suggest is change Rooted, so it won't have its disadvantages (self-slow) anymore, moving all of them to the Granite Armor, so players who picked Stone Armor could play in a NON-FORTRESS style like any other tank. Currently it's NOT an option, because:

1. A tank cannot go without mez resist.

2. To achieve mez resist you have to use Rooted.

3. If you use Rooted you're fortress.

4. If you're fortress you're fool if you don't pick Granite Armor.

5. If you run Granite Armor all other armors in the set are useless or just IO-mules.

6. 50% of Stone Armor potential is wasted.

 

Which is why l stated you're forced to play Granite if you're Stone Armor, and that's the reason l suggest rework Rooted taking away all of it self-slows, so players with Stone Armor get 2 options to play (Fortress style and non-Fortress style), because more options is always better than less.

 

[arcane]

Not disagreeing with anything here necessarily but IMO assault rifle’s biggest issue is having ALL of its later powers use obscene 4 second animations and getting nothing particularly powerful in return for that absurdity.

It might be possible to make such awful animation times yield a worthwhile return, but not with these substandard narrow cones and a tiny patch.

[Razor Cure]

12 hours ago, Purrfekshawn said:

1. A tank cannot go without mez resist.

2. To achieve mez resist you have to use Rooted.

3. If you use Rooted you're fortress.

4. If you're fortress you're fool if you don't pick Granite Armor.

5. If you run Granite Armor all other armors in the set are useless or just IO-mules.

6. 50% of Stone Armor potential is wasted.

 

Which is why l stated you're forced to play Granite if you're Stone Armor, and that's the reason l suggest rework Rooted taking away all of it self-slows, so players with Stone Armor get 2 options to play (Fortress style and non-Fortress style), because more options is always better than less.

Point 1 and 2.

Wrong. In the case of Stone Armour, wrong.

My stone tank does NOT have rooted. Because I get mez prot IN granite, and the extra from rooted is pointless in 99.99% of cases. Sure, extra regen and end drain res..but meh. Does regen really matter when Granite is going? lol

 

5 and 6.

Totally agree.

 

[Purrfekshawn]

2 hours ago, Razor Cure said:

Sure, extra regen and end drain res..but meh.

Go try to solo +4 Arachnos or Carnies. Or better Malta.

 

[Razor Cure]

14 hours ago, Purrfekshawn said:

Go try to solo +4 Arachnos or Carnies. Or better Malta.

Take an end reducion ALpha, Destiny OR just..you know..have some half decent slotting?

And of course, the huge def and res of Granite wont help? Well besides the psi.

 

ALso..what? NOT being able to solo and +4 and 8, vs perhaps the worst 2 mobs for a particular armour to face..means it is weak? Lol@that.

 

Not arguing stone doesnt have major issues, but it definitely (especially on a tank) does not need its mez prot toggle.

[Purrfekshawn]

23 hours ago, Razor Cure said:

Take an end reducion ALpha, Destiny OR just..you know..have some half decent slotting?

And of course, the huge def and res of Granite wont help? Well besides the psi.

 

ALso..what? NOT being able to solo and +4 and 8, vs perhaps the worst 2 mobs for a particular armour to face..means it is weak? Lol@that.

 

Not arguing stone doesnt have major issues, but it definitely (especially on a tank) does not need its mez prot toggle.

Why make yourself not able to win in circumstances you can make yourself able? What's the point of making a character weak instead of strong?

We would recommend skipping Rooted to no one BUT, at some circumstances where Rooted is not much needed a player could just switch it off, so a character would move faster. Example is Council PI farm or ITF, but even at ITF it's highly questionable because it's -DEF Debuff Resistance on top of everything. If the character uses Teleportation to move switching Rooted off makes few to no sense in any occurrences.

 

But however, the semi-Fortress-like playesyle with average speed debuff (vs very high speed debuff which's Granite+Rooted), letz do it another way:

1. Make Rooted be activatable with any Travel Powers, flights, jumps, etc.

2. Rooted slows those slow character ONLY apply when Granite Armor is active.

3. Alternatively Rooted may get its slows moved to Granite Armor, but these Granite extra slows activate only when Rooted is active.

 

This will result in following chart:

No Granite, No Rooted - CHANGES: NO - character summary speed is as it currently is.

No Granite, Rooted - CHANGES: YES - character is NOT slowed, jump is NOT disabled, travel powers ARE activatable.

Granite, No Rooted - CHANGES: NO - character summary speed is as it currently is.

Granite, Rooted - CHANGES: NO - character summary speed is as it currently is.

 

And in overall it will enable a Stone Armor character play in 2 different playstyles - in dynamic Tank style, without speed crippling, with Rooted, Rock, Brimstone & Crystallic Armor & Minerals, similar to any other Tank. Or in slightly-more-than-completely-immovable Fortress style with Granite Armor and (maybe) Rooted, but being amost implossible to be defeated. Perhaps some player may even make 2 different builds for that.

 

[Purrfekshawn]

On 12/24/2020 at 11:33 PM, Purrfekshawn said:

2. Rooted slows those slow character ONLY apply when Granite Armor is active.

 

Well it seems Devs have done this exact thing.

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/tags.html?tag=graniteroot&q=affects

l appreciate this, lMO it makes the set overall way better.

 

And yeah, Stone Armor seems to have now whole 2 styles to play - as a Granite Fortress or not fortress.

[GM Crumpet]

locking this necro post