Mechanically, what playstyles are missing from CoH that you'd love to see?

[Galaxy Brain]

Great place to start reading:

 

 

 

So, CoH covers TONS of concepts already! Melee Weapons, Hand to Hand, Elemental abilities, different forms of self defense, different ways to protect others, and the ability to customize damn near everything about it! However, outside the Aesthetics there are also the mechanical differences when it comes to how a character operates.

 

Yes, many sets have the same "building blocks" (t1 blast, t2 blast, t3 blast / immob, hold, aoe immob / SL shield, Auto Power, Mez protect power / etc per set type), but key powers really hammer in the playstyle / mechanical hooks:

 

 

Energy Blast	All attacks deal knockback, you get to play around with this positional advantage
Beam Rifle	Tag enemies with an effect, and all other attacks do bonus things
Fire Blast	All offense, all the time. No tricks, just raw dakka. This also means no safety outside defeats!
Dark Control	Have multiple pets through possession, temp pets and a true pet (also -Tohit)
Electric Control	Control enemies by sapping their endurance and severly limit their options
Plant Control	Offensive control with great raw damage, and a key power that snowballs the more enemies you fight
Cold Domination	Defend your allies primarily by bolstering their defenses, and debuffing enemies
Nature Affinity	Sustain the party through stacking multiple heals that feed off each other over a fight
Time Manipulation	You can choose 2 targets: 1 gets extra benefits from your buffs, 1 gets extra detriment from your debuffs
Street Justice	Chain successful hits to build a "Meter" that is spent on powerful augmented attacks
Ice Melee	Slow down enemies that you strike, as well as inflict minor crowd control to provide a mix of defense and offense
Super Strength	A set that revolves entirely on maintaining an incredibly powerful buff that also has some consequences to monitor
Invulnerability	A healthy mix of Resistance and Defense, it lets you be passively tough vs most all content though with an Achilles heel you need to be aware of
Bio Armor	Choose different stances to adapt to the situation at hand
Stone Armor	The ultimate defense, but with penalties that you need to work around as a player
Radioactive Assault	Combine different powers in tandem to create new effects on enemies
Energy Assault	On occasion get powered up, allowing you to unleash a super move
Thorny Assault	Trade ST output for being able to spread damage everywhere!

 

 

Etc, etc. Some sets are more straightforward, but they still have a mechanical edge over others such as Martial Arts being relatively straight forward but uniquely able to mix in a lot of status effects on a single enemy.

 

What do you feel is missing from the bunch? What would you love to see?

 

[Coyote]

I'd like to see two things added:

 

1) MM options for melee-range personal attacks. Ninjas especially should have the option to go down a Martial Arts tree rather than an Archery tree.

2) Buff/Debuff sets matched with melee-range attack sets (the attack sets would probably need to include a small amount of mez protection). I'd like to see someone mixing daggers and poisons, ice swords and frost shields, etc.

[Galaxy Brain]

1 minute ago, Coyote said:

I'd like to see two things added:

 

1) MM options for melee-range personal attacks. Ninjas especially should have the option to go down a Martial Arts tree rather than an Archery tree.

2) Buff/Debuff sets matched with melee-range attack sets (the attack sets would probably need to include a small amount of mez protection). I'd like to see someone mixing daggers and poisons, ice swords and frost shields, etc.

 

One thing that just hit me was using melee range as an excuse to make a buff/debuff WAY stronger. As a squishy, having to run up and tag somebody seems like a fun risk/reward. The only one that comes to mind right away is Elec's Defiblerate (spelling lol)

Edited March 15, 2021 by Galaxy Brain

[Luminara]

Travel power combat sets.  Flight could circle an enemy and swoop down for one attack, pick up a critter and drop it from a height for another, etc.  Leaping could perform multiple types of kicks and attacks involving parkour.  Combat which actively utilizes travel powers, rather than simply exist in the same game with travel powers.

 

Unfortunately, I suspect most of the attacks would be slow, in terms of animation time, and extremely unpopular.

[Alchemystic]

I'd love to see more powersets with the 'splash damage' mechanic, in which a single target takes full damage, while those around them take a smaller percentage of that damage. Sorta like a 'soft' AoE effect, I guess!

 

Perhaps on some sort of blast set, where many of the single target powers having splash damage on them. Obviously, this would make a powerset with lower single target DPS, but higher AoE DPS, something of which I'd very much like to see.

[Bill Z Bubba]

Assault/Debuff is one I would love to see, specifically where the debuffs are pbaoe and act as armor.

[Galaxy Brain]

Just now, Bill Z Bubba said:

Assault/Debuff is one I would love to see, specifically where the debuffs are pbaoe and act as armor.

 

Do you mean as an AT, or an Assault Set that comes with nasty debuffs?

[oedipus_tex]

I've been storyboarding a powerset called Colossal Blast where the powers animate very quickly but have a chance to blow the caster backwards. Not sure I'll actually build it but I find the idea of it funny, even if it only ends up becoming a powerset enemies use.

[Bill Z Bubba]

15 minutes ago, Galaxy Brain said:

Do you mean as an AT, or an Assault Set that comes with nasty debuffs?

 

Archetype.

 

Edit: would probably be a drag attempting to balance with the way debuffs function against high level enemies, though.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Bill Z Bubba

[Luminara]

9 minutes ago, oedipus_tex said:

the powers animate very quickly but have a chance to blow the caster backwards

 

Porn?

Porn.

 

👍

[gamingglen]

53 minutes ago, Tyrannical said:

I'd love to see more powersets with the 'splash damage' mechanic, in which a single target takes full damage, while those around them take a smaller percentage of that damage. Sorta like a 'soft' AoE effect, I guess!

 

Perhaps on some sort of blast set, where many of the single target powers having splash damage on them. Obviously, this would make a powerset with lower single target DPS, but higher AoE DPS, something of which I'd very much like to see.

 

I like.  This might be doable with IOs, either a new set or add an IO to existing sets*.   When IOs were first announced I thought they would be a lot more encompassing of abilities then they ended up to be.

 

* Why limit sets to 6?  Why not 7 and you have to decide which 6 out of 7 you want? 

Yeah, I can hear the whining already: "but I want them ALL!!1!!!1!!!". 😉 

[TemporalVileTerror]

I plan to do a bigger write-up of my thoughts, but tonight is (virtual) tabletop roleplay night for me, so I won't have time to compose everything I want to say on this subject just yet.

 

In the meantime, four mechanics I would like to see explored:

 

1:  Dopples in a Survival Set.  

Tier 9 allows you to drop two replicas of your character, who stand and Taunt.  Pressing the Tier 9 Power again before the Dopples' timer run out, you swap places with your closest Dopple.  Tie this in to a Set which focuses on Positional Defense and built-in Combat Teleport.

(Quantum Defense.  Great for speedsters, time travellers, and teleporters!)

 

2:  AoE Mode Toggle Set.

A Blast or Control Set where pretty much every Power is Single Target by default.  However, activate the Toggle (likely unlocked at Tier 4 / Level 6 Primary / Level 10 Secondary) and suddenly you're using three times the Endurance per Power, BUT those Powers are now AoEs.

(The Grenade Control Set that I never finished working on would have been based on this gimmick.)

 

3:  Limited Ammo Set.

Blast or Assault Set where the Ranged Powers share a single overall cooldown, but each Power can draw from a number of Shots before that cooldown gets triggered (like Combat Teleport / Jaunt).  Build Up would be replaced with Reload:  Pop it to reset the cooldown on the Ranged Attacks, and get a little Damage Buff too for your trouble.  The Set would also need some "filler" Powers, just so not EVERYTHING is tied to that one cooldown.  Works best with an Assault Set, since the Melee Powers could operate without the Ammo.

(Hello Shotgun Assault!)

 

4:  Delayed Gratification Set.

Press a Power once to start charging it up.  Press it again to Activate it.  If you Activate before it's fully charged, then you get slightly-below-average Damage per the general average DPA calculations.  If you let the Power FULLY charge before Activation, then you not only get bonus Damage, but also a Status Effect.

(Honestly, this is what I think would have made Titan Weapons -fun,- at least for me.  The existing Momentum mechanic is more of a "start-and-stop" halting gameplay, and that's not really my jam.)

[Techwright]

5 hours ago, Luminara said:

Travel power combat sets.  Flight could circle an enemy and swoop down for one attack, pick up a critter and drop it from a height for another, etc.  Leaping could perform multiple types of kicks and attacks involving parkour.  Combat which actively utilizes travel powers, rather than simply exist in the same game with travel powers.

 

Unfortunately, I suspect most of the attacks would be slow, in terms of animation time, and extremely unpopular.

Unfortunately, some of what you describe would not be functional in the caves and tight corridors of City of Heroes.  Now a "wall crawler" travel power might work towards that parkour concept, even in caves, but that would likely take an exhaustive amount of coding to change surfaces to adhesive ones.

[Lazarillo]

5 hours ago, Coyote said:

1) MM options for melee-range personal attacks. Ninjas especially should have the option to go down a Martial Arts tree rather than an Archery tree.

In general, I'd like to see an approach to MMs/pets that gives more a sort of "lead from the front" feel.  That may necessitate an entirely different AT, though.

[Cutter]

5 hours ago, Luminara said:

Travel power combat sets.  Flight could circle an enemy and swoop down for one attack, pick up a critter and drop it from a height for another, etc.  Leaping could perform multiple types of kicks and attacks involving parkour.  Combat which actively utilizes travel powers, rather than simply exist in the same game with travel powers.

 

Unfortunately, I suspect most of the attacks would be slow, in terms of animation time, and extremely unpopular.

 

[Snarky]

ranged blasters.   the entire archetype was built from the ground up as a blapper and some comedian slapped the Ranged label on it.  has pissed me off ever since.

[Shred Monkey]

A pet class where the player has decent ranged damage and a pet that can actually tank.

[Normal Thomas]

On 3/15/2021 at 1:41 PM, Luminara said:

Travel power combat sets.  Flight could circle an enemy and swoop down for one attack, pick up a critter and drop it from a height for another, etc.  Leaping could perform multiple types of kicks and attacks involving parkour.  Combat which actively utilizes travel powers, rather than simply exist in the same game with travel powers.

 

Unfortunately, I suspect most of the attacks would be slow, in terms of animation time, and extremely unpopular.

I'd love to see melee sets based around Super Speed and Teleport. My own rough draft of Super Speed Melee is built around "building speed" with attacks. Certain attacks give you a stacking recharge bonus, which can then be expended on two attacks in the set to give them a higher target cap or more damage. Overall, would love to see more melee sets that creatively use range and teleportation.

[Techwright]

I'm trying to recall:  is there one where the powers focus on stuns and heavy stuns in the same way that energy blast specializes in knockback or ice focuses on slows?

[TemporalVileTerror]

Martial Arts, back in the day (and I want that day to come back, goshdurnit!).  Energy Melee.  War Mace.

[PeregrineFalcon]

15 minutes ago, Techwright said:

I'm trying to recall:  is there one where the powers focus on stuns and heavy stuns in the same way that energy blast specializes in knockback or ice focuses on slows?

Energy Melee. Every attack has a stun or chance to apply a stun.

[TemporalVileTerror]

So, expanding my thoughts for @Galaxy Brain et al to consider using in the original post of this thread . . . 

 

Categorizing the Mechanics of ALL Power Sets

This first stab is not at all comprehensive as I'm going to post with just the Melee Sets first, but I'm taking the shot at the goal of having this done up for all Sets . . . some day.  

I welcome everyone to explore my methodology and expand, or write their own.

 

 

I'll admit straight away that these are based on the in-game "Show Info" panels, and do not appropriately factor in things like Build Up versus Rage, or other similar factors which very likely shift the values in the DPA categories significantly.  Additionally, I'm aware that the info in the in-game Info panels aren't truly accurate to begin with, since things like Fiery Embrace or "Chance for" conditionals severely skew these values.

 

Still . . . as a loose snapshot, I hope this examination of the mechanics of various Power Sets is at least an informative talking point in this discussion.

 

What do you folks think?  Should I try to expand on this, or are there too many errors and too many subjective viewpoints to really make it fruitful?

[Nemu]

Aura builds - think path of exile righteous fire, your damage aura does all the killing and the other powers supplement it, change it's effects, etc...

Aura bots - for those people that don't want to do damage but provide as much team support as possible, have at it!

Channel builds - charge and hold down an attack to keep attacking and drain resources while doing so, would love to have full auto be something like this.

 

[TemporalVileTerror]

Two additional columns I added to that chart are:  with Ranged Attacks, and with Mixed Damage Types.

 

Which reminds me of another game mechanic I would like to see:

Attack Sets with Randomized Damage Types.

Such as the idea for Elemental Assault; where each time you attack, your Powers activate with a randomly selected Fire, Ice, or Energy Damage Type.  Fun for chaotic character concepts, like sorcerers and mad scientists!

[Galaxy Brain]

One we kinda see is /Energy Manip for blasters with a "Super Boosted attack" set.

 

Specifically, it grants you a big array of self buffs that do different things that you can either go nuts and stack them all, or alternate between. On top of this, the stun power changes radically based on what buffs are active. 

 

Id really like an attack set based around this with say, only a few actual attacks but then a bunch of conditional powers that change how those attacks work.