Focused Feedback: Enhancements

[Booper]

This is a Focused Feedback Thread

• Please note that Focused Feedback threads are heavily moderated to ensure they remain on topic.
  • Any off-topic posts in these threads will be removed without warning.
  • The thread will be locked when no more feedback is required, but you are more than welcome to continue the discussion in a new thread.
• The most up-to-date version of the changes will be listed in the first post.
• The changes in each build will be posted as replies.
  • Changes from the previous beta build are listed in green.
    • Green text will become white text in the next set of patch notes.
  • Any changes or fixes that are only relevant to the beta builds are listed in blue.
    • Blue text will be deleted in the next set of patch notes as it is only relevant to highlight changes between beta builds, not a changes from live.
  • Known issues are listed in purple.

 

---

 

Invention Origin Sets

Ice Mistral's Torment

A rare 6-piece Slow Movement IO set that emphasizes the enhancement of damage attacks. This set has a level range of 20-50 and includes a damage proc (cold, 3.5 ppm). Its level 50 pre-E.D. enhancement values are: 39.75% accuracy, 92.75% damage, 66.25% endurance reduction, 45.05% recharge reduction, and 53% slow movement.

• Enhancements:
  • Endurance Reduction / Slow
  • Damage / Recharge
  • Damage / Slow
  • Accuracy / Damage / Endurance Reduction
  • Accuracy / Damage / Endurance Reduction / Recharge
  • 3.5 PPM Cold Damage Proc
• Set bonuses:
  • 2-piece: (Small) 1.125% Max HP
  • 3-piece: (Moderate) 7% Accuracy
  • 4-piece: (Large) 10% Slow Resistance
  • 5-piece: (Large) 6.25% Recharge Time
  • 6-piece: (Huge) 3.75% Defense (Area) and 1.875% Defense (Fire/Cold)

Hypersonic

A rare 4-piece Flying IO set that includes a unique IO that will grant your character a power mod that provides +2.0 fly protection when using the fly power it's slotted in. This set has a level range of 15-50 and its level 50 pre-E.D. enhancement values are 95.4% flying speed and 68.9% endurance reduction.

• Enhancements:
  • Flying 
  • Endurance Reduction / Flying 
  • Endurance Reduction
  • Flying / +Fly Special
• Set bonuses:
  • 2-piece: (Small) 1.125% Max HP
  • 3-piece: (Tiny) 1.25% Defense (Ranged) and 0.625% Defense (Energy/Negative)
  • 4-piece: (Huge) 4.5% Damage Resistance (Energy/Negative) and 7.5% Mez Resistance (All)

Launch

A rare 4-piece Leaping IO set that includes a unique IO that will grant your character incredible leaping potential while using the jump power it's slotted in. This extra leaping effect will grant your character +8 feet of jump height and +40 feet of maximum jump height for 120s (if click power) or until the jump power is toggled off. This set has a level range of 15-50 and its level 50 pre-E.D. enhancement values are 95.4% jumping speed/height and 68.9% endurance reduction.

• Enhancements:
  • Jumping
  • Endurance Reduction / Jumping 
  • Endurance Reduction
  • Jumping / +Jump Special
• Set bonuses:
  • 2-piece: (Small) 6% Regeneration
  • 3-piece: (Tiny) 1.25% Defense (Melee) and 0.625% Defense (Smash/Lethal)
  • 4-piece: (Huge) 4.5% Damage Resistance (Smash/Lethal) and 7.5% Mez Resistance (All)

Thrust

A rare 4-piece Running IO set that includes a unique IO that will grant your character the ability to resist run speed debuffs when using the run power it's slotted in. This extra run speed resistance is 20% and will last for 120s (if click power) or until when the run power is toggled off. This set has a level range of 15-50 and its level 50 pre-E.D. enhancement values are 95.4% running speed and 68.9% endurance reduction.

• Enhancements:
  • Running
  • Endurance Reduction / Running
  • Endurance Reduction
  • Running / +Run Special
• Set bonuses:
  • 2-piece: (Small) 1.5% Recovery
  • 3-piece: (Tiny) 1.25% Defense (Area) and 0.625% Defense (Fire/Cold)
  • 4-piece: (Huge) 4.5% Damage Resistance (Fire/Cold) and 7.5% Mez Resistance (All)

Warp

A rare 4-piece Teleportation IO set that includes a unique IO that will grant your character heightened spatial awareness when using the teleportation power it's slotted in. This extra effect provides a 20% increase to perception radius and will last for 120s. This set has a level range of 15-50 and its level 50 pre-E.D. enhancement values are 53.4% range and 68.9% endurance reduction.

• Enhancements:
  • Range
  • Endurance Reduction / Range
  • Endurance Reduction
  • Range / +Perception Special
• Set bonuses:
  • 2-piece: (Small) 2.25% Damage Resistance (Psionic/Toxic) and 3.75% Mez Resistance (All)
  • 3-piece: (Small) 1.75% Endurance Discount
  • 4-piece: (Huge) 7.5% Range

 

D-Sync Origin Enhancements 

Completion of the Dr. Aeon Strike Force will give players the option of selecting a new enhancement category as a reward called D-Sync Origin Enhancements (DSO) once every 18 hours.

 

 

These enhancements are parallel to Hamidon/Titan/Hydra Origin in strength and can be combined with those types to increase their level up to a maximum of 53.

However, the DSO enhancements have several new combinations of boosts (In addition to previously existing combos). These new combos have a higher drop weight than the older and you will have a higher (but not guaranteed) chance to receive one when selecting this reward option.

The new combinations are as follows:

• Endurance Modification/Accuracy
• Endurance Modification/Recharge
• Accuracy/Range
• Damage/Endurance
• Damage/Recharge
• Heal/Accuracy
• Heal/Recharge
• Slow/Recharge/Endurance
• Threat/Accuracy/Recharge

[Zed]

Hello

Thanks again for your hard work this. 👍
Minor issue: the launch "smoke" on its icon gets out of the pod circle, and out of the IO border.
Sorry... didn't notice this until i could see a larger picture.

[AboveTheChemist]

17 minutes ago, Zed said:

Minor issue: the launch "smoke" on its icon gets out of the pod circle, and out of the IO border.

The Launch icon does extend slightly beyond the pog boundaries (which isn't unusual based on the icons I have dealt with) but based on what I am seeing when overlaying the icon & pog on the IO border, it does not extend beyond the IO border.

[Seroster01]

I'd like to put in a request for an Accuracy/Endrdx DSO to be put on the list of new combos. There are A LOT of situations where I want a strong acc & endrdx boost for a power that either does no damage or has reached the ED caps (my /Time MMs could reallyuse it!). Thanks!

[Dispari]

Okay, here we go real quick.
 

Ice Mistral: I like this one, it has good set bonuses and it has a cold damage proc. It nearly hits the 95% damage number and I could easily see people using it in place of stuff like Decimation or Crushing Impact. Only real downside is not many people can slot this set.

Now, on to the travel ones... hoo boy. I'm gonna go with "good idea but badly executed."

First of all, the set bonuses are pretty meh. I suppose the 4-slot bonuses are pretty large RES values but I'm not over here 4-slotting my travel powers without good reason, you know? And since they're all different you're probably funneling minmaxers toward jump-based sets for that big S/L bonus. I doubt people are going to excitedly flock to that range bonus teleport gets. Maybe they should just all top off with the S/L? People aren't going to 4-slot two different travel powers. And if they do, whatever.

But more importantly, the uniques are lackluster. If I go for a unique in my travel power, it really needs to wow me. Something like LotG, Zephyr KB protect, Winter's Gift, or stealth is going in that slot otherwise. Most of these only apply in niche situations, like only when I'm being debuffed by something specific, and the powers they're in have to be on. For fly or jump maybe you can put them in Hover and Combat Jumping, but since they won't go in Swift, Hurdle, or Sprint, the run one would have to go in something like Super Speed. So, I only get that bonus while Super Speed is on? So never in combat at all?

So, first off I'd say, these should be global bonuses that are always on. And secondly, they need to be better. Yeah, I know that they're paired with a move speed bonus, so you're still halfway boosting your travel power, but does that make it worth it? I don't think so. I'm not scrambling to find a slot for 8 feet of jump height.

I would love it if these sets were better. I would love it if I felt a serious temptation to slot these sets. To start I'd probably say the run resist needs to be 40%, if not 60%. I mean, warwolves zip around with 100% resist to run, jump, and recharge. Those jerks.

[Heatstroke]

Why is there no Damage/End Mod DSO? This seems like a natural to me. 

and who 4 slots travel powers?? Seriously...

[Tailcoat]

It is neat to have travel sets, but yeah, I'm not sure how useful 4-slotting travel powers is. I'm curious about Perception. Does anything that enhances perception make a real difference? I feel like characters can see pretty far already so I wonder if I'm missing an understanding of something.

[Mezmera]

I'll have to concur with @Dispari about these sets.  

 

Ice Mistral: good set, could use one with dmg/slow so pretty well done here.  

 

Travels: the first bonus needs chopped off and the last two moved up a notch.  Not many people should be wanting to devote 4 slots to a travel unless you're the flash and even then his fancy unique IO is time travel.  The uniques aren't enticing to slot.  

 

D-Sync: neat and all the same as the rest of those special enhancements with a few special divergent ones but none that look all that more valuable than the regular Cyto's.  I'd like to see this have 1-2 really good unique ones that are so attractive you almost HAVE to slot them.  In fact I'd like to see each of those Hami's, Titan's, etc. have 1-2 special ones of their own only dropped from those events.  

 

Great intent overall but the travel ones are a little lackluster I agree.  

Edited November 6, 2021 by Mezmera

[Peacemoon]

I think the travel sets are really held back by the fact the travel powers themselves don’t really need enhancing that much, and are mostly used as mules for global bonuses. So you are really looking at two things to make the sets more enticing: unique global bonuses and set bonuses.
 

The slow/jump/fly resist uniques are interesting, but not many people fight with a travel power switched on, so a global bonus would be better.

In order to promote slotting the set I would actually upgrade these sets to epic and increase the set bonus’ power accordingly. That would instantly make them interesting, and there aren’t any epic travel enhancements so it would grab people’s attention and really compete with what else is on offer. 
 

I would focus the bonuses more on big QoL issues, such as  endurance. For example a hefty end redux set bonus would be useful on builds which suffer from endurance issues, and I could see how devoting two enhancements for that would be a competitive trade. Also +range is a set bonus you don’t see much of. These types of bonuses would be more aesthetically suitable to the idea of travel powers, and really add some hard choices for more utility. 

 

Finally having four sets with different bonuses might make travel powers become less of a free choice, as if one set every becomes too dominant, for example if the jump set has a great bonus, then it might make people feel forced to take a travel power they didn’t really want to. I would keep the names but switch them all to universal travel sets. The names actually could fit with any travel power anyway, and then you have to worry less about one set being better than the other! 

Edited November 10, 2021 by Peacemoon

[GraspingVileTerror]

Like others here, I feel no pressing need to use any of these new Travel Sets.  Nothing about them seems particularly appealing.  At most, it feels like they'll just interfere with my current Converter roulette routines.

 

I'm guessing the D-Syncs are supposed to be restricted to level-50 characters?  Might be worthwhile to explicitly state what level(s) they are meant for, so it's unambiguous for all players.

 

The Ice Mistral Set seems like a good opportunity to explore a thought I've had recently.   I'm still compiling my personal-use data on Set Bonuses, but I've noticed that VERY few Sets use the 2.5% and 3.75% Recharge Bonuses, and most of the ones that do apply them at the 5 Piece Bonus.

For your consideration, what if Ice Mistral's Torment offered the following Set Bonuses:

2-piece: (Small) 3.75% Recharge Time
3-piece: (Moderate) 7% Accuracy
4-piece: (Large) 10% Slow Resistance
5-piece: (Large) 1.875% Max HP
6-piece: (Huge) 3.75% Defense (Area) and 1.875% Defense (Fire/Cold)

 

or

 

2-piece: (Small) 3.75% Recharge Time
3-piece: (Moderate) 1.5% Max HP
4-piece: (Large) 10% Slow Resistance
5-piece: (Large) 9% Accuracy
6-piece: (Huge) 3.75% Defense (Area) and 1.875% Defense (Fire/Cold)

 

I kind of like the duality of Slow Powers which grant the player an early opportunity for Recharge Bonus, but naturally scaled to a lower bonus value to balance it out.

It would certainly make this Ice Mistral's Set and Slow Powers in general more appealing to me.

And if not Ice Mistral's, then perhaps this kind of model can be examined with future Sets.

 

Hell.  Split the difference.

Give 2.5% Recharge or 3.75% Recharge on the 2-piece bonus for any of these new Travel Sets, and I would actually consider grabbing Travel Powers for reasons other than character concept.

[JayboH]

The cold damage proc is hopefully a sign of things to come.  There is not enough for this damage type in my opinion, that being Interface proc choice and damage auras (Icicles.)

[Dispari]

12 minutes ago, JayboH said:

The cold damage proc is hopefully a sign of things to come.  There is not enough for this damage type in my opinion, that being Interface proc choice and damage auras (Icicles.)

Totally off topic but I super agree, would love a cold damage interface.

Anyway, on topic, as others said travel powers just don't need that much slotting. The existing sets are all 3-pieces, should not these ones be as well?

[Glacier Peak]

Others have pointed out that travel powers aren't often used in combat, in fact they are suppressed while engaging in combat *(briefly, while not PvPing). I think that's the right way to look at the travel specific IO sets. Do they improve the ability and also add bonuses that are unique to each IO set travel power respectively? Yes, I believe so. 

 

As the point has developed in this thread, why dedicate slots to a travel power? Why balance the potential reward of 4-slotting a travel power versus 4 slotting another power that can provide better bonuses catered to the users build objectives? The answer is in the question - players are given the option, the flexibility, the mechanisms to make their character how they want them to. Some players don't care that their 4 slots could be utilized in a different power to add more bonuses - they just want their travel power to be the best it can be. And that can be achieved by slotting each travel IO set to the corresponding travel power.

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Glacier Peak
Edited *

[SuperPlyx]

On 11/2/2021 at 2:05 PM, Booper said:

These enhancements are parallel to Hamidon/Titan/Hydra Origin in strength and can be combined with those types to increase their level up to a maximum of 53.

 

Question about this, currently you can only combine HOs with similar sets, i.e. acc/dam will only combine with acc/dam.

But these new DSO have stats that HOs do not. So how would HOs combine with those?

 

Also wanna say how great I think these DSO are, I just suggested changing HOs to more useful stats. 

[Peacemoon]

5 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

Others have pointed out that travel powers aren't often used in combat, in fact they are suppressed while engaging in combat *(briefly, while not PvPing). I think that's the right way to look at the travel specific IO sets. Do they improve the ability and also add bonuses that are unique to each IO set travel power respectively? Yes, I believe so. 

 

As the point has developed in this thread, why dedicate slots to a travel power? Why balance the potential reward of 4-slotting a travel power versus 4 slotting another power that can provide better bonuses catered to the users build objectives? The answer is in the question - players are given the option, the flexibility, the mechanisms to make their character how they want them to. Some players don't care that their 4 slots could be utilized in a different power to add more bonuses - they just want their travel power to be the best it can be. And that can be achieved by slotting each travel IO set to the corresponding travel power.

 

I don’t disagree completely but there are already enhancement sets that allow for this. These new sets don’t really add much that wasn’t available before.

[Hew]

I have multiple chars 4+ slotting travel powers. I find that launch and warp are both great sets, and a global bonus to +range isnt something that is really out there. My combat teleport is slotted with tohit +percep, warp +precep, warp range, and warp range/end. I also have some bits of thrust in there as well for the +recov in my infiltrate (which is 6 slotted full of dooooom).

 

There are plenty of reasons to slot these. I think a broader view of the page needs to be taken into consideration. The flashback and ASF challenges alone point out a need for a diverse, non-soloist driven team composition to really succeed. Challenge modes will strip you to your undies, so you wont be temp-power-traveling AT ALL, so might as well get some use out of your actual travel powers with a slot or two beyond nothing...

[Dispari]

6 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

The answer is in the question - players are given the option, the flexibility, the mechanisms to make their character how they want them to. Some players don't care that their 4 slots could be utilized in a different power to add more bonuses - they just want their travel power to be the best it can be. And that can be achieved by slotting each travel IO set to the corresponding travel power.

That's perfectly fine, and I'm not trying to discount people building characters how they want without the goal of minmaxing. But you can have both at the same time. The set can be good for people who just want to zip around with a good fly power AND still be desirable for other people to pick. They're not mutually exclusive concepts. The uniques being better and the set bonuses being better would have no negative impact on the person you're describing, but would make the set more appealing for everyone else at the same time. There's no benefit to anyone for including unexciting sets in the game just because SOMEONE will pick it.

Plus, if those people want the best travel power, they can already accomplish that by slotting 2x level 50+5 IOs in it. And for 2 slots less than any of these sets. And if the goal is for the sets to appeal to people who love travel powers, the bonuses shouldn't be desirable combat/farmer bonuses. They should be things like a +9% bonus to all move speeds or an increase in your speed cap. Or a jump benefit for Super Speed because all the +run in the world isn't going to help you in Grandville.

[TheDreadnought]

The Launch Unique appears to persist as long as the power is active--this includes if you unslot it while the power is still active and replace it with a Blessing of the Zephyr. It persists through zoning, but goes away after logging out and logging back in.

[Zed]

There's something else about D-Syncs, all their icon are the same.

Unlike HOs and the like there's no way you can make any difference between different types, the D-Sync machine fills the whole space inside the ring.

 

(Zoomed in)

 

There's still a bit of room between the core and the outer rings, and the outer part. I wonder if it's enough to actually see something ?

 

An (awful) attempt (30x30), Acc/Dam:

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Zed

[DougReyn]

Found some time to do some build testing witht the new Ice Mistral Slow set.

(Disclaimer: I look at this from a build maxing pov)

 

I love the cold damage proc. It can replace the impeded swiftness smashing damage proc in all my builds immediatly.
On some builds i could even use it in addtion adding even more proc damage

 

As for the set bonuses and enhance values it's a bit so-so

 

On ranged ST attacks (like Ice Blast) it competes with Decimation for the main recharge set bonus:

• Decimation has moderetly higher recharge (62%), Ice mistral a bit more damage.
• On Set bonusses i feel Ice Mistral is better. The extra accuracy is always handy, and having a useful 6pc bonus is a nice option

On Ranged AoE attacks (like Ice Storm) it competes with Positron's Blast:

• Ice Mistral has better recharge (Positron only has measly 26%) and the extra slow really helps here.
• Positron has the better set bonuses: 2.5% recovery and 2% extra accuracy (7vs9)
• Procs are bad in rain powers, so the 6pc bonus is probably not that important

On Melee AoE (like Ice Sword Circle) it competes with Obliteration:

• Obliteration has way better recharge (89 vs 45), but also a lot less end reduction (18.5 vs ~60)
• Obliteration has less global recharge (5% s 6.25), but more accuracy (9vs7)
• Obliterations 6pc bonus is usually more desirable (3.75 melee defense), making it one the few sets that offer both defense and recharge

 

"Other" Powers:

 

In general slow powers (like Chilling Embrace) I see it competing with Tempered Readiness:

• Ice mistral has more global recharge, but Tempered has also ranged defense

 

Did I miss any powers that could make use of it?

 

Overall I think this set has it's uses, the cold proc is great, but it is not a must have set. I think that is well designed.

 

Travel Power Sets:

 

I have not tested the travel power sets, but the set bonuses are not appealing to me, and I would not 4-slot travel powers for them.

 

I can see myself using the flight/flight prot IO in hover, as i usually have one flight speed enhancement in there lately. Or in Evasive Maneuvers if I can spare the slot.

 

I think in order to make slotting 4 pieces of these you really need to buff the 4pc set bonus quite a lot. Maybe something like 5% Res(ALL)?

 

 

 

[Dispari]

On 11/6/2021 at 8:49 AM, TheDreadnought said:

The Launch Unique appears to persist as long as the power is active--this includes if you unslot it while the power is still active and replace it with a Blessing of the Zephyr. It persists through zoning, but goes away after logging out and logging back in.

I think all enhancements do this. The game isn't really designed to check to see if slotting for your power has changed while you're still using it. You can have the same thing if you summon MM pets and change what uniques you do/don't have slotted. It won't update until you dismiss and resummon.

[Dispari]

2 hours ago, DougReyn said:

Did I miss any powers that could make use of it?

It seems good for melee ST. Its main non-purple competitor for recharge would be Crushing Impact, which it beats in the recharge department. There isn't currently a 6.25% recharge for melee. The HP and accuracy bonuses are the same, so it comes down to how much you need that 1.5% S/L RES. If you only care about recharge, it's the clear winner. It even has a damage proc to make use of. Granted this only applies to Ice Melee and some of Icy Assault, but I could see Doms being happy about the recharge potential.

You also mentioned it AoEs. Competing with Obliteration, that loss of S/L RES is rough but it does have more recharge overall. You also mentioned the end difference -- I think that's even more important. For sets like Obliteration or Posi, that 18-47% end slotting can be painful for already expensive AoEs. 66% is a lot more enticing and I'd probably lean toward that for anyone who can slot it. It will also be the best option for Mud Pots and Hot Feet (and any others that exist?), I believe. It has the highest available endurance reduction. Obliteration leaves it painfully expensive, other options don't give any recharge, and Armageddon has never been really exciting bonuses IMO (at least compared to Apocalypse). I think the main reasons you'd want to not slot it would be to use Avalanche or Cleaving/Eradication for ranged DEF, assuming you don't need the recharge.

For powers that can ONLY slot slow sets, like Tar Patch, it seems like the best option available. Not that I think 5-slotting Tar Patch is a good idea, but it's certainly a possibility. Mostly, it has better 2-3 slot bonuses (unless you want that S/L from Impeded Swiftness), and the proc is the best of the bunch. You're right though, I'll probably swap Chilling Embrace's proc to cold damage and call it a day.

So I guess it's fitting this set is going to mostly benefit ice Doms.

[Vanden]

On 11/2/2021 at 3:05 PM, Booper said:

a unique IO that will grant your character the ability to resist run speed debuffs when using the run power it's slotted in.

 

This is cool, but I need to point out that one of the most infamous Slow-ers in the game, Tsoo Blue Ink Men (and anything that directly copies them, like the ninjas in the Summer Blockbuster trial), have a Siphon Speed with an unresistable movement Slow debuff. That means that anyone hoping this IO will help against those foes is going to be sorely disappointed. They've long been a major bugbear for anyone hoping to get some good use out of slow resists. Any chance that Unresistable tag could get removed?

[Hew]

On 11/5/2021 at 9:06 PM, Peacemoon said:

I think the travel sets are really held back by the fact the travel powers themselves don’t really need enhancing that much, and mostly are used as mules for global bonuses

 

This is sad but true. Even as I slot warp into combat teleport, im still only slotting 3 and leaving the 4th slot for the tohit +percep. My infiltrate is all uniques and globals. 😐

 

Very sad. This is a broad, systemic "problem" depending on your point of view, but I don't think powers were ever intended to be picked solely for their mule or proc capacity. The fact that I do it myself because of the massive outsized gain, even in a power you picked ONLY to mule and never ever actually use, is nigh impossible to pass up. 😕

[Peacemoon]

21 minutes ago, Hew said:

 

This is sad but true. Even as I slot warp into combat teleport, im still only slotting 3 and leaving the 4th slot for the tohit +percep. My infiltrate is all uniques and globals. 😐

 

Very sad. This is a broad, systemic "problem" depending on your point of view, but I don't think powers were ever intended to be picked solely for their mule or proc capacity. The fact that I do it myself because of the massive outsized gain, even in a power you picked ONLY to mule and never ever actually use, is nigh impossible to pass up. 😕

I don't think there is anything distasteful about slotting travels with global enhancements, thats just clever gaming. 

 

My point is though that travel sets should be 2-3 slots max, with 1 unique, and an inticing set bonus for doubling it up with one of the other enhancements.

A lot of people slot 2xZephyr into travel because of the ranged def bonus it gives with 2 slots. So there is definitely a formula that can be appealing.

 

I think a 4 slot set is asking for too much of people personally.