Focused Feedback: Power Changes (Release Candidates)

[Jimmy]

1 hour ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

However, if you're not going to pay any attention to our opinions, if you're not going to tell us why you're nerfing a power, if the changes are going to just go live no matter how many people dislike it, then what's the point of even having a feedback thread at all?

Again - we are paying attention. That doesn't mean we have to agree.

Plenty of changes we thought were good ideas have been rolled back or adjusted because we did agree with the feedback. This just isn't one of those cases.

 

1 hour ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

For me the change to RoP falls in the "whatever, doesn't matter to me" department. A LOT of others clearly feel differently. Why can't you give them a detailed explanation of why you're nerfing RoP? Why "going forward", why not now?

We will, soon, just been a busy couple of days.

[Jimmy]

Hey all - we've posted some context for the Rune of Protection changes in this thread. Please post any further feedback relating to RoP there instead. Thanks!

[ScarySai]

3 hours ago, Carnifax said:

Another counter-proposal. 

I think adding kb>kd to crushing would solve the problem entirely. 

 

More interested to see how the next build refines singy before getting into overly complex suggestions.

[StratoNexus]

On 3/25/2021 at 6:22 PM, Wavicle said:

To be frank, all of those animations are also too long.

I certainly agree on Combustion and Short Circuit. Fire Sword Circle and most of the Whirling powers feel OK to me.

 

One problem with lowering Hail of Bullets down this far is it doesn't leave so much room for the other AoEs to still be flashy if it is ever decided to adjust them. I'd love to see those 3 second animations dropped down to the 2.5 to 2.67 like the Whirling powers, but that is still longer than the current HoB animation.

 

I am all for a lower animation time. I still think they went too far. Please consider cutting one half to one second off, not 1.7 seconds. The more I play on live and then occasionally switch back to beta to test, the more I dislike the stutteriness of the new animation. The old one flows, with a really good rhythm. The new one is not long enough to set a rhythm.

[kelika2]

On 3/28/2021 at 10:27 PM, Decaying Rose said:

 

Would it be possible to also cut down on the animation times for the summon powers in Mercenaries?  That radio really takes a long time.

I vote for this as well

[RageusQuitus2]

On 3/30/2021 at 8:46 AM, ScarySai said:

@Keleko

 

Wormhole on top of singy, failing that, resummon.

 

This change has made my grav/storm much more effective. Any team that complains about it when KD IOs are in use is nuts and should be ignored.

Doesnt singularity have repel?  Like hurricane kb to kd doesnt help.

[Rejolt]

13 hours ago, StratoNexus said:

I certainly agree on Combustion and Short Circuit. Fire Sword Circle and most of the Whirling powers feel OK to me.

 

One problem with lowering Hail of Bullets down this far is it doesn't leave so much room for the other AoEs to still be flashy if it is ever decided to adjust them. I'd love to see those 3 second animations dropped down to the 2.5 to 2.67 like the Whirling powers, but that is still longer than the current HoB animation.

 

I am all for a lower animation time. I still think they went too far. Please consider cutting one half to one second off, not 1.7 seconds. The more I play on live and then occasionally switch back to beta to test, the more I dislike the stutteriness of the new animation. The old one flows, with a really good rhythm. The new one is not long enough to set a rhythm.

Yes! Peacebringer's AoE stun is the same animation (and it's only mag 2!) as combustion, short circuit and Illusion's AoE Hold.

 

Edited March 31, 2021 by Rejolt

[ScarySai]

16 minutes ago, RageusQuitus2 said:

Doesnt singularity have repel?  Like hurricane kb to kd doesnt help.

 

It stops hurricane from knocking back, but it still pushes things outwards. Singy's repel power is more of a knock on contact, so kb>kd ios make him go from a great pet to a godlike control power.

[Zandishere]

Stone/Mace Tanker Test

[2353.1 0.0 -3838.2]
Entering Eastgate Park.
[2471.1 -3.7 698.2]

Superleap. infiltration, sprint, combat jumping (and rooted no effect)

One jump with double jump triggered along the way, hits the ceiling limit (several times) and goes for 3140 ft ???!

   How about we shave some of that back and have Rooted no touch the Granite like it says it does. Combat Jumping and Infiltration should still be allowed to be active, just no buff to jumping --the one is all defense and the other is supposed to help all movement, stealth and def --just remove the jump.

 

Rooted jump penalty comes back off and on in Granite...

Level 50 with IOs across powers

I must admit letting a Granite armor, Rooted tank do a Spring Attack is hilarious.

[Carnifax]

19 hours ago, RageusQuitus2 said:

Doesnt singularity have repel?  Like hurricane kb to kd doesnt help.

On Live Singy has Repel, which is the Kinetics power which does knockback (but no repel). 

 

Hurricane is the Storm power has a repel and a chance to knockback. 

 

Perfectly clear 😂

[naraganeun]

How in the world did you guys program a reverse repel?! a circle of invisible repeling pseudopets? flying pseudopets casting Telekinesis on mobs inside the radius?  😂
Absolutely loving this singularity change.
It's clumping mezzed L54 bosses into one place like a proper tank.

We might have to take a look at options for sound effects on the pet, it hurts my ears a bit with a large group of mobs. 😅
And of course like others have mentioned, positioning and recharge options so we don't accidentally pull mobs off the tank and onto the squishies near the pet. 

[ScarySai]

I imagine the pet acting as an anchor makes it easier than say, a patch type power.

[Carnifax]

On 4/2/2021 at 5:54 PM, ScarySai said:

I imagine the pet acting as an anchor makes it easier than say, a patch type power.

Should be pretty much the same thing really. Both spawn an entity with an aura power. It's just that with the pet it's not invisible, unkillable and has a Kill after X seconds and is immobile (I've seen spirit trees "forget" the immob part and start moving around. It's creepy!)

 

[Starhammer]

First off, I can't than you enough for the Disruption Arrow graphics change. Its triggered seizures for me before. I like the power effects though, and look forward to actually being able to use it 🙂

Secondly, I'm disappointed in the change to Rest allowing it to activate while airborne. Personally, I play with an XBOX pad, and use extensive keybinds, in this case having powexectoggleon Rest in a bind combined with +down. It allows me normal movement while flying, and turns on Rest when I'm not (and can't move down anyway). If I need rest, I just have to deactivate Flight. With this change, I have to find another place for Rest, since it just can't coexist peacefully on the same button anymore, and there's aren't enough buttons to begin with. I will end up just going without easy access to Rest as a result (keyboard usage is just not physically convenient, I really don't need replies with ideas of where I can bind it to). I get it, and doubt my inconvenience of this issue will outweigh the convenience of those who want this change. I'm just letting you know it doesn't work well for me and why.

Everything else looks great. Looking forward to seeing how I can benefit from these changes.

[Acroyear]

Second Request: Please do not speed up the animation for Hail of Bullets. Doing so ruins the epic feel of the power, much in the same way Total Focus was diminished in coolness when it too was unnecessarily sped up. Faster is not always better. 

 

Thank you.

[Arcanum]

Build 4 - April 6th

 

 

Powers Changes

Power Animation & Rooting Update

• Power animation time and rooting time have been decoupled - meaning that powers now decide how long they should root the character for, not the animation
  • This greatly increases our flexibility in making adjustments to power timing, animations, and rooting, and also fixes various issues surrounding animation cancelling
• The following powers will now never root during their activation:
  • Ally-targeting abilities that do not hit enemies (eg: Healing Aura, but not Twilight Grasp)
  • Self-only abilities that do not hit enemies (eg: Build Up, but not Soul Drain)
• The following powers will still root during their activation (and will do so more reliably):
  • Any power that applies any kind of effect to enemies (this includes attacks as well as taunt and damage auras)
  • All powers that summon other entities
  • All interruptible powers (snipes/assassinations/etc) will now root for their uninterruptible window
• Weapon redraw should no longer cancel attack animations
• In addition, many powers with excessively long cast times have been sped up (listed below)

Mastermind Summons & Henchmen Buffs

• Mastermind Henchmen Summons have had their recharge times reduced:
  • T1 Henchmen: reduced from 60s to 5s (25s in PvP)
  • T2 Henchmen: reduced from 90s to 10s (35s in PvP)
  • T3 Henchmen: reduced from 120s to 15s (50s in PvP)
• These summon powers are no longer affected by recharge buffs or debuffs
• Mastermind Henchmen Summons have had their endurance costs reduced:
  • T1 Henchmen: reduced from 19.5 end to 5.46 end
  • T2 Henchmen: reduced from 19.5 end to 9.62 end
  • T3 Henchmen: reduced from 19.5 end to 13.18 end
• Henchmen upgrade end costs have been reduced from 22.75 to 11.375
• Note: This were some quick low hanging changes to help Masterminds out a bit, we are currently investigating further improvements to Masterminds for the future

Demon Summoning

•  Summon Demonlings
  • Cast time reduced from 4s to 2s
•  Summon Demons
  • Cast time reduced from 4s to 2s
•  Hell on Earth
  • Cast time reduced from 4.03s to 2.03s
•  Summon Demon Prince
  • Cast time reduced from 4s to 2s

Assault Rifle & Mercenaries

•  Ignite (All Versions)
  • Cast Time reduced from 4s to 2s
•  Full Auto (All Versions, including Henchmen)
  • Cast Time reduced from 4s (or 6s) to 2.5s (Mercenary Commando actually took a whopping 6s before!)

Stone Armor

•  Rooted
  • No longer applies any movement debuffs to the caster
  • No longer suppresses travel powers
  • VFX has been toned down slightly as it no longer represents you being glued to the ground
•  Granite Armor
  • This power now disables all Flying, Running and Jumping toggle powers

Ninjitsu

•  Scrapper > Shinobi-Iri
  • This power no longer grants movement buffs (as they would be absorbed into the new stacking mechanics)
    • This power no longer accepts Jump, Run and Universal Travel enhancements
    • The buff has been toned down and moved to Kuji-In Rin
  • Stealth crit mechanic has been significantly improved
    • Now kicks in after 8s of no combat, rather than 20s
      • This allows the bonus to be used every encounter without requiring you to stop for 20s
    • Stealth crit chance for single target attacks is now 65%
    • Stealth crit chance for AoE attacks is now 30%
  • Power icon updated
•  Sentinel > Shinobi-Iri
  • This power no longer grants movement buffs (as they would be absorbed into the new stacking mechanics)
    • This power no longer accepts Jump, Run and Universal Travel enhancements
    • The buff has been toned down and moved to Kuji-In Rin
  • Stealth damage buff has been doubled from +20% to +40%
  • Power icon updated
•  Scrapper | Sentinel | Stalker > Kuji-In Rin
  • This power now grants a small run speed and jumping buff (and as a click power, this will stack with all other movement buffs)
    • This power now accepts Jump, Run and Universal Travel enhancements
  • This power now accepts damage resistance sets (which will improve the psionic resistance component)

Dual Pistols

•  Hail of Bullets (All Versions)

  • Cast time reduced from 4.17s to 2.47s

  • Adjusted Hail of Bullets animation

• The text description for Dual Pistols powers have been updated for readability, if no issues are found with these descriptions, other powers will follow similar formatting

Other Powers Changes

•   Snipe Powers
  • Fast (in-combat) snipes have had their ranges normalized to 80ft (and 100ft for Psi)
    • Slow snipes are unaffected and retain their increased range
  • Scrapper & Stalker epic snipes only: Internal cooldown reduced from 24s to 12s
    • This change has been rolled back
•  Phase Powers
  • No Phase suppression window for all powers (PvE and PvP) has been reduced from 2 minutes to 90 seconds
•  Inherent > Rest
  • No longer has a recharge, making it easier to use at low levels
  • No longer accepts recharge reduction enhancements
  • It should now be a bit harder to accidentally move and interrupt Rest before it begins properly
  • Can now be activated in the air, but you will fall to the ground once Rest is fully active
•  Hibernate (All Versions)
  • This power no longer de-toggles flight powers, but will still suppress flight
•  Sorcery > Rune of Protection
  • Duration reduced from 90s to 60s
  • This power now grants damage resistance even if you use it whilst mezzed (previously only the mez resistance component would be granted)
•  Sentinel > Mace Mastery > Focused Accuracy Coordinated Targeting
  • Unlike other versions of Focused Accuracy, this power is a team buff
  • To distinguish it from other versions of Focused Accuracy, it has been renamed to Coordinated Targeting and now has a new icon

•  Electrical Blast > Thunderous Blast (All Versions)

  • Cast Time reduced from 3.7s to 2.93s

•  Radiation Emission > Choking Cloud

  • Cast Time reduced from 3.47s to 1s

•  Darkness Manipulation | Dark Armor > Death Shroud (All Versions)

  • Cast Time reduced from 3.47s to 2.47s

•  Ice Manipulation | Ice Melee > Ice Patch (All Versions)

  • Cast Time reduced from 3.47s to 1.57s

•  Beast Mastery > Summon Dire Wolf

  • Cast Time reduced from 4.67s to 2s

•  Sentinel > Bio Armor > Athletic Regulation

  • The stance benefits of this power have been modified

    • Note that this power always provides +Run / +Fly speed and -Defence resistance, only the stance bonuses have been changed

  • Defensive:

    • Before: 65% Resistance(-Run/-Fly)

    • Now: 40% Resistance (-Run/-Fly) (reduces the strength of speed debuffs)

  • Offensive:

    • Before: +227.5% Run Strength / +88.7% Fly Strength

    • Now: +14mph Run Speed / +14mph Fly Speed (a flat increase to movement speed in and out of combat)

      • Fixed missing fly speed buff

  • Efficient:

    • Before: +113.75% Run Strength / +44.36% Fly Strength / 32.5% Resistance (-Run/-Fly)

    • Now: +33% Run / Fly Speed Strength (increases the strength of all your travel powers - essentially a free SO in every run / fly power)

•  Jump Pack +  Steam Jump +  Double Jump
  • Improved the reliability of the mutual exclusivity mechanics for these powers

•  Gravity Control > Singularity

  • Singularity will now slowly pull enemies towards it, allowing it to make much greater use of the Repel effect

    • Gravitational Pull (Pull power)
      • Fixed display name
      • Now uses the icon for the Singularity summon to make it easier to see in PVP
      • Radius reduced to 45' in PVE, 30' in PVP
      • Now requires line of sight
      • No longer alerts enemies
      • Increased reliability of the pull effect
    • Repel (KB power)
      • Can now only knock a given target once every 4 seconds
      • No longer has a lower chance of hitting targets when a KB>KD IO is slotted
      • Sound fx when repelling an enemy is now quieter
•  Temporary & Prestige Costumes (aka Halloween Costumes)
  • These costumes are no longer mutually exclusive with stealth powers (they never provided stealth)
•  Inherent > Walk
  • No longer disables all other powers
    • Still disables all travel powers
  • Now applies Only Affecting Self
  • If you want to easily toggle all your powers off, a new /powers_togglealloff command has been added
•  Trick Arrow > Disruption Arrow
  • The visual FX for this power has been changed to alleviate headaches being induced by the old VFX
  • Due to the health implications of the old VFX, this is not an optional change
• Freedom Corps > Nullifier > Sonic Grenade
  • The visual FX for this power has been changed to alleviate headaches being induced by the old VFX

[Parabola]

58 minutes ago, GM Arcanum said:

 Sorcery > Rune of Protection

• Duration reduced from 90s to 60s
• This power now grants damage resistance even if you use it whilst mezzed (previously only the mez resistance component would be granted)

This has been superseded now hasn't it?

[ROBOKiTTY]

Can we get another option to toggle power suppression? Walk is primarily used by RPers, and a useful function is that it suppresses health, stamina, and other passives that people slot performance shifter/panacea procs in. Without the suppression, green numbers will be constantly ticking in RP.

 

Dunno if I'm the only one, but when I go afk for extended periods, I turn on walk so performance shifter/panacea spam doesn't blow up my log files.

[arthurh35353]

25 minutes ago, ROBOKiTTY said:

Can we get another option to toggle power suppression? Walk is primarily used by RPers, and a useful function is that it suppresses health, stamina, and other passives that people slot performance shifter/panacea procs in. Without the suppression, green numbers will be constantly ticking in RP.

 

Dunno if I'm the only one, but when I go afk for extended periods, I turn on walk so performance shifter/panacea spam doesn't blow up my log files.

I know that I use it to turn off almost all powers, including incarnate autos. I'm not 100% sure on my thoughts on this yet. My SG uses it to turn off all the aura except your actual costume auras at times for pictures.

[Derek Icelord]

On 3/20/2021 at 9:54 AM, GM Arcanum said:

•  Inherent > Walk
  • No longer disables all other powers
    • Still disables all travel powers
  • Now applies Only Affecting Self
  • If you want to easily toggle all your powers off, a new /powers_togglealloff command has been added

 

I'd rather this not be changed. One of the benefits of Walk (which was added purely for RP) was it disabled Health, which is frequently slotted with a +HP IO that continuously pops green numbers above a player's head. Since Health is an auto power given to all characters at level 2, a command to turn off all toggle powers wouldn't work.

[naraganeun]

14 hours ago, GM Arcanum said:

 Gravity Control > Singularity

• Singularity will now slowly pull enemies towards it, allowing it to make much greater use of the Repel effect

  • Gravitational Pull (Pull power)
    • Fixed display name
    • Now uses the icon for the Singularity summon to make it easier to see in PVP
    • Radius reduced to 45' in PVE, 30' in PVP
    • Now requires line of sight
    • No longer alerts enemies
    • Increased reliability of the pull effect
  • Repel (KB power)
    • Can now only knock a given target once every 4 seconds
    • No longer has a lower chance of hitting targets when a KB>KD IO is slotted
    • Sound fx when repelling an enemy is now quieter

So upon further testing, I see a bit of an issue with how siggy can partition groups. It might just be my perception, but there is an variance in how strong the draw-in effect of Gravitation Pull brings in mobs. The closer to siggy the stronger the draw-in.
because of the 60ft to 45ft radius change, this exacerbates the issue of siggy splitting groups, this is maybe because siggy likes to sit at least 60ft away.

As you can see in the image, siggy has split a clump of mobs into different sections:
from left to right, the mobs that are within siggy's range but not the pull, the mobs in the weak succ zone, and lastly the mobs that succumbed to the strong succ zone.

This of course still happened with the original 60ft radius, if siggy chooses to attack one of the mobs on the outside of the group it happens again--only the stronger draw-in zone is proportionally bigger, making it less likely for mobs to sit in the weak zone.

I'm not sure what a solution for this could be. Perhaps a lower cooldown on siggy for readjusting positioning, and 5 second resistance buff to give us a chance to rebuff it?

edit: found somewhat of a workaround, you can TP your siggy around with team tp or teleport target

 

Spoiler

or maybe just toss out Dimension Shift in favor of a stationary Gravitational Pull patch😈 😈

 

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by naraganeun

[Carnifax]

6 hours ago, naraganeun said:

I'm not sure what a solution for this could be. Perhaps a lower cooldown on siggy for readjusting positioning, and 5 second resistance buff to give us a chance to rebuff it?

The solution is to put the cool effect into a cool new power where it fits. Like I said originally Singy isn't a good fit for this effect specifically for this reason. It turns him into a Spawn Splitter. 

 

A placeable patch / pseudopet would be ideal, even if it's one spawned on top of your target (for example if you added it to Crushing Field or GDF the epicentre would be spawned on top of the target you fired it at). 

 

The only time this IS a good fit for Singy would be if everyone slotted him with KB2KD and you tend to resummon him in the middle of spawns a lot (because then you're using him as the "placeable patch / pseudopet" I described above). For anyone else he's more disruptive than he was. 

Edited April 7, 2021 by Carnifax

[Subber]

It looks like Shield toggles, for some reason, override Walk animation, so when you toggle on Walk and any Shield toggle at the same time, instead of Walking with your shield out, as you'd expect, you're instead running in slow-mo, with your shield out.

 

This behaviour is consistent, no matter what stance you use, you end up with default run cycle.

[Heatstroke]

Speaking of Animation time. Meltdown in Rad Armor.  Is there any chance that power can have its animation time reduced?

[Zepp]

I like the use of vectoring in Singy's repel effect. However, I was wondering if the KB could be given a similar vector.