Focused Feedback: Various Power Changes

[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.

 

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Power Changes

Earth Control [Focused Feedback]

All versions of the following Earth Control powers will reflect these changes, including critter and epic pool versions:

• Stone Prison
  • Cast time reduced from 1.93s to 1.23s
  • Note this will also affect PvP damage
• Stalagmites
  • Cast time reduced from 2.1s to 1s
  • Note this will also affect PvP damage

 

Electrical Affinity

Slimmed down hit effects on Electrical Affinity powers than can affect a large number of targets to improve performance on machines that struggle with a lot of particle effects.

 

Gravity Control

The power FX system has been enhanced to be able to synchronize certain RNG-dependent effects. The most visible effect of this is that Gravity Control's Propel will summon the same object on everyone's screen.

 

Robotics [Focused Feedback]

Protector Bots > Force Field

• Protector Bots will only target their owners.
• Only one of them will ever buff, and buffing the owner will result in the owner, and all its henchmen, being protected by the Force Shield.
• Scale increased from 0.75 to 1.3, this is slightly weaker than having the two Protector Bots slowly buff everyone, but at the same time, now both Protector Bots get to benefit from the same buff as everyone else, and don't waste time refreshing buffs on every target they see.

 

Sonic Manipulation [Focused Feedback]

Power Changes

• Strident Echo
  • This power should now be able to hold lieutenants
• Deafening Wave
  • This power can now hold most bosses and lieutenants for either its duration or until attacked again.
• Earsplitter
  • This power can now hold most bosses for either its duration or until attacked again.

 

Savage Melee Bug Sweep

Numerous bugs were recently discovered. The main summary of these bug fixes is this:

• If a power had an extra DoT, it was removed
• If a power was doing the wrong damage, it was fixed (per the design formula). This includes PvE, PvP, modifier tables, Fiery Embrace, and Critical Hits.

 

Fixes

• Hemorrhage
  • Fiery Embrace was only doing 45% of the upfront 0.76 scale damage (0.342). However, this effect should be using the design formula's scale (2.6) when calculating its 45% damage effect.
    • Changed Fiery Embrace effect's damage scale from 0.342 to 1.170.
• Savage Strike
  • Fiery Embrace was only doing 45% of a single tick of damage. The Fiery Embrace effect was changed to perform the same 2-tick DoT as Savage Strike at 45% scale. This power also has an extra DoT effect in PvP which it should not have had. Finally, Scrapper's crit damage was only doing the equivalent of 1 tick of damage as opposed to the full 2 ticks of damage.
    • Changed Fiery Embrace effect's duration to 0.4s and its period to 0.35s (2 ticks of damage instead of 1 tick)
    • Removed the extra PvP DoT.
    • (Scrapper Only) Critical Hit damage increased from 0.380 scale to 0.760 scale.
• Shred
  • The damage was set too low per the design formula. Also, the PvP damage was set to nearly half of what it should have been set to.
    • Changed PvE damage scale from 0.195 to 0.210 (6 ticks total: 1.17 scale to 1.26)
    • Changed PvP damage scale from 0.1479 to 0.2991 (6 ticks total: 0.8874 to 1.7946)
• Rending Flurry
  • For some ATs, the endurance cost on the redirect versions of Rending Flurry (Normal and Large) was set too high. Also, some of the PvP damage effects were still using the wrong modifier table. Finally, some versions of Rending Flurry had an extra DoT effect that it should not have had.
    • Changed endurance cost from 20.8 to 13.52.
    • Changed PvP Damage to 1.127 (Melee_PvPDamage)
    • Changed PvP tick damage from 0.095 scale to 0.0901 scale (per the design formula)
• Maiming Slash (Scrapper only)
  • PvP damage was set too low. Changed PvP damage scale from 1.2839 to 1.4188 (per the design formula)
  • Changed the PvP tick damage from 0.1025 scale to 0.1135 scale (per the design formula)

 

Portable Workbench

• This is now a mobile NPC that will follow the player around.
• No longer uses world collision.
• Can't be used to trap NPCs.
• No longer has a funky hitbox / hand icon to open the crafting interface.
• Is a pushable pet, so players don't collide with it and just shove it out of the way.
• Doesn't explode and leave debris when dismissed.

[Outrider_01]

Savage Melee td;lr - Mostly Firey Embrace buff, nerfed damage dots 🤬, and an endurance reduction?

 

What exactly was the dot effect reduction?  Like a single tick removed or the damage lowered?

 

Cause my Savage/Fire farm brute sounds like its going to rock, wreck, rattle, and roll.

 

And can electrical affinity get something like that Blaster Shock buff, Static alone just increases the target cap and area coverage compared to the other AoE splash heals.  Something like a bonus heal if it arcs between two players; like how Ion Judgement does the bonus damage but its a heal.

[Peacemoon]

Loving the fact that Propel's object will now be synchronised between players. The fact this never did was really immersion breaking, and always a bit naff! Great change!

[Fira]

I'm a bit confused - always assumed that the T2 bots double-shielding was a bug, since they only do so to select other pets - and not the MM nor each other.

 

Unless i'm missing something, given a shield currently hits 12.57% def on my MM @ 50 and with Nerve/Agility, that would mean MM & T2s getting basically 9.2% all def extra for free ?

 

That ... really sounds like a bit much for something that is worded as being Quality of Life changes

 

Edit: Don't get me wrong, i'm grateful for the fact it's more consistent, i'm just a bit confused by the effective increase

Edited November 5, 2021 by Fira

[Peacemoon]

As for activation times for Stone Prison and Stalagmites - interesting changes. It would be good to have some more changes like this to the other control sets; it sounds like these changes were made more with the epic power pools in mind. Not everything needs to be standardised of course, but some outliers could be tweaked. 

[Player-1]

8 minutes ago, Fira said:

I'm a bit confused - always assumed that the T2 bots double-shielding was a bug, since they only do so to select other pets - and not the MM nor each other.

 

Unless i'm missing something, given a shield currently hits 12.57% def on my MM @ 50 and with Nerve/Agility, that would mean MM & T2s getting basically 9.2% all def extra for free ?

 

That ... really sounds like a bit much for something that is worded as being Quality of Life changes

The Protector Bots would used to bubble the other pets one by one, so they would put one bubble on the other protector bot, and one on all other bots (x2 for two bots). This would take a tremendous amount of time that has been shortened down to one application for just under x2 the base amount as before.

[Fira]

12 minutes ago, Player-1 said:

The Protector Bots would used to bubble the other pets one by one, so they would put one bubble on the other protector bot, and one on all other bots (x2 for two bots). This would take a tremendous amount of time that has been shortened down to one application for just under x2 the base amount as before.

 

Oh yeah, i get that. It is really a nice change since it did take a long time and would be inconsistent, plus the bubble actually uses quite a bit of end and especially T2s are starved there

 

My confusion is primarily regarding the fact that the MM and Protector Bots were previously only getting one bubble, not two, so it's a very high defensive increase for them

Edited November 5, 2021 by Fira
typo

[BALAKÉ]

can you guys pleeeeeeease reduce the cast time for Arcane Bolt?! it's strong i love it but God it takes too long to cast...ALSO can you please make it so that enflame doesnt make AV's run away? ok thanks.

[arcane]

42 minutes ago, cohoriginal said:

can you guys pleeeeeeease reduce the cast time for Arcane Bolt?! it's strong i love it but God it takes too long to cast...ALSO can you please make it so that enflame doesnt make AV's run away? ok thanks.

Arcane Bolt is great as is since last buff. Lowering the activation would make it too strong for a pool power.

[AlexEquinox]

On 11/2/2021 at 4:04 PM, Booper said:

Portable Workbench

• This is now a mobile NPC that will follow the player around.
• No longer uses world collision.
• Can't be used to trap NPCs.
• No longer has a funky hitbox / hand icon to open the crafting interface.
• Is a pushable pet, so players don't collide with it and just shove it out of the way.
• Doesn't explode and leave debris when dismissed.

 

Absolute garbage, I need to be able to trap people.

[Replacement]

3 hours ago, arcane said:

Arcane Bolt is great as is since last buff. Lowering the activation would make it too strong for a pool power.

Source? /Looks at poster's name.

 

As you were!

 

(Arcane is super right. I just wanted to make a dumb joke)

 

5 hours ago, Outrider_01 said:

Savage Melee td;lr - Mostly Firey Embrace buff, nerfed damage dots 🤬, and an endurance reduction?

 

What exactly was the dot effect reduction?  Like a single tick removed or the damage lowered?

 

Cause my Savage/Fire farm brute sounds like its going to rock, wreck, rattle, and roll.

 

Almost all buffs. It looks like only one power lost an extra instance of DoT - and even then, only in pvp. Everything else is FE buffs, crit damage buffs, base scale buffs.

 

@Galaxy BrainBrainBrainBrainBrainBrainBrainBrainBrainBr 

If you get time, you really might want to run Savage again. I'm concerned.

Edited November 6, 2021 by Replacement

[Outrider_01]

6 hours ago, Replacement said:

Almost all buffs. It looks like only one power lost an extra instance of DoT - and even then, only in pvp. Everything else is FE buffs, crit damage buffs, base scale buffs.

Ran a bright map at 3/8 on Brainstorm, seemed faster. Going to try a 4/8 when I got a chance, need a respec to toss stealth as it makes it near impossible to AFK with the Invisible buff.

[JayboH]

9 hours ago, Outrider_01 said:

Savage Melee td;lr - Mostly Firey Embrace buff, nerfed damage dots 🤬, and an endurance reduction?

 

What exactly was the dot effect reduction?  Like a single tick removed or the damage lowered?

 

Cause my Savage/Fire farm brute sounds like its going to rock, wreck, rattle, and roll.

Trying to remember because it's been a good while, but I think the DoT's were lessened but not the total damage, that is, outside of bug fixes.  I assume that means DoTs just hit harder per tick.  The downsides would be interruptibles and sleeps I guess, because if the player is mezzed you are still doing the same damage for the shorter DoTs.  Don't quote me on any of this though

[Bopper]

10 hours ago, Outrider_01 said:

Savage Melee td;lr - Mostly Firey Embrace buff, nerfed damage dots 🤬, and an endurance reduction?

 

What exactly was the dot effect reduction?  Like a single tick removed or the damage lowered?

I can probably help explain the patch notes as Zenblack and I were the ones who reported these bugs half a year ago. I will copy/paste the patch notes above and I will use a color system to showcase what was a big buff, small buff, small nerf, big nerf.  To summarize, you will see:

• 1 big nerf to an extra PvP DoT,
• 1 small nerf to a PvP DoT,
• 3 small buffs (1 PvE, 2 PvP)
• 5 big buffs (1 PvE and PvP, 1 PvE Scrapper, 1 PvP, 2 Fiery Embrace)

To answer your second line of questions:

What was the DoT effect reduction? Answer: Savage Strike had two DoT effects in PvP so the extra DoT effect got deleted. Rending Flurry was doing just a little bit too much DoT damage in PvP, so the tick damage got scaled down slightly.

On the flip side, DoT ticks got buffed for Shred. It was slightly increased in PvE, and it got doubled in PvP. Also, Maiming Slash had its PvP DoTs (and up front damage) increased slightly.

 

So the Savage Melee td;lr should say: Several Fiery Embrace buffs/changes, several powers having their damage scales fixed (both buffs and nerfs, mostly for PvP), and a large endurance reduction cost for Rending Flurry.

 

 

---

• Hemorrhage
  • Fiery Embrace was only doing 45% of the upfront 0.76 scale damage (0.342). However, this effect should be using the design formula's scale (2.6) when calculating its 45% damage effect.
    • Changed Fiery Embrace effect's damage scale from 0.342 to 1.170.
• Savage Strike
  • Fiery Embrace was only doing 45% of a single tick of damage. The Fiery Embrace effect was changed to perform the same 2-tick DoT as Savage Strike at 45% scale. This power also has an extra DoT effect in PvP which it should not have had. Finally, Scrapper's crit damage was only doing the equivalent of 1 tick of damage as opposed to the full 2 ticks of damage.
    • Changed Fiery Embrace effect's duration to 0.4s and its period to 0.35s (2 ticks of damage instead of 1 tick)
    • Removed the extra PvP DoT.
    • (Scrapper Only) Critical Hit damage increased from 0.380 scale to 0.760 scale.
• Shred
  • The damage was set too low per the design formula. Also, the PvP damage was set to nearly half of what it should have been set to.
    • Changed PvE damage scale from 0.195 to 0.210 (6 ticks total: 1.17 scale to 1.26)
    • Changed PvP damage scale from 0.1479 to 0.2991 (6 ticks total: 0.8874 to 1.7946)
• Rending Flurry
  • For some ATs, the endurance cost on the redirect versions of Rending Flurry (Normal and Large) was set too high. Also, some of the PvP damage effects were still using the wrong modifier table. Finally, some versions of Rending Flurry had an extra DoT effect that it should not have had.
    • Changed endurance cost from 20.8 to 13.52.
    • Changed PvP Damage to 1.127 (Melee_PvPDamage)
    • Changed PvP tick damage from 0.095 scale to 0.0901 scale (per the design formula)
• Maiming Slash (Scrapper only)
  • PvP damage was set too low. Changed PvP damage scale from 1.2839 to 1.4188 (per the design formula)
  • Changed the PvP tick damage from 0.1025 scale to 0.1135 scale (per the design formula)

[Outrider_01]

10 hours ago, Bopper said:

can probably help explain the patch notes as Zenblack and I were the ones who reported these bugs half a year ago.

Awesome.  SM is pretty much my go to melee set, fell in love with it for my SM/Fire brute and now running random characters I don't finish but got plans for; eventually.  Hope the endurance reduction was the problem, my SM/Electric brute would be choking on endurance every 45ish seconds even after using the heal/endreduc power.  Like, a fat man going down hill fulll speed carying another fat man gasping for air; that kind of endurance problem.  Also hope it fixes my Dark/SM dominator, works ok but it has endurance issues as well but it doesn't click into a playable format.

[plainguy]

On 11/5/2021 at 3:31 PM, Fira said:

I'm a bit confused - always assumed that the T2 bots double-shielding was a bug, since they only do so to select other pets - and not the MM nor each other.

 

Unless i'm missing something, given a shield currently hits 12.57% def on my MM @ 50 and with Nerve/Agility, that would mean MM & T2s getting basically 9.2% all def extra for free ?

 

That ... really sounds like a bit much for something that is worded as being Quality of Life changes

 

Edit: Don't get me wrong, i'm grateful for the fact it's more consistent, i'm just a bit confused by the effective increase

 

On 11/5/2021 at 3:40 PM, Player-1 said:

The Protector Bots would used to bubble the other pets one by one, so they would put one bubble on the other protector bot, and one on all other bots (x2 for two bots). This would take a tremendous amount of time that has been shortened down to one application for just under x2 the base amount as before.

 

On 11/5/2021 at 3:53 PM, Fira said:

 

Oh yeah, i get that. It is really a nice change since it did take a long time and would be inconsistent, plus the bubble actually uses quite a bit of end and especially T2s are starved there

 

My confusion is primarily regarding the fact that the MM and Protector Bots were previously only getting one bubble, not two, so it's a very high defensive increase for them

 

The Protector Bots are only getting a benefit because of how to worked out. 

But overall  it is LESS defensive numbers. Mind you by .20 .. 

 

 

[Trike]

7 hours ago, Outrider_01 said:

Awesome.  SM is pretty much my go to melee set, fell in love with it for my SM/Fire brute and now running random characters I don't finish but got plans for; eventually.  Hope the endurance reduction was the problem, my SM/Electric brute would be choking on endurance every 45ish seconds even after using the heal/endreduc power.  Like, a fat man going down hill fulll speed carying another fat man gasping for air; that kind of endurance problem. 

Same. Playing my SM/Elec Brute last night was a real exercise in frustration due to the End issues, particularly against Freak stunners. The only silver lining was that I got the middle two debt badges. 😐 Not having all the toggles drop constantly would be a delight. Parking him until this goes live.

[Maelwys]

Thought I'd give some direct feedback here rather than just in the Mastermind forum:

The proposed fix here feels like a bit of a cludge.
It brings the Protector Bots into line with the others, but it also buffs their MM's own defence and lowers the overall defence of the Assault Bot and Battle Drones. It's simultaneously adjusting too many numbers for my liking.
Bots/ is a top tier powerset already - surely it doesn't need to buff the master's defence any higher than it already does?
 

If the the goal here is to reduce Bots/ setup time and bring the defence of the Protector Bots into line with the others; then perhaps a better tweak would be to make the Protector Bot bubbles function similar to how the Ember Demon's resistance shields work? e.g. use two effects for the Protector Bot bubbles, one that only targets Robotic Henchmen (AoE 7.5% base defence that stacks twice; call it 'Force Shield') and the other that only targets the player (Single-Target 7.5% base defence that doesn't stack, call it 'Force Shield Owner') --> Job done! 🙂

To my mind the most unfortunate side effect of the proposed change will be that unless you've got a secondary that has some extra form of defence buff, now none of your henchmen will be capable of permanently hitting the softcap.

Example: my Bot/Kin has Maneuvers and an Agility Alpha and both +PetDefence uniques and two +5 level 50 Defence IOs in Protector Bots. The Assault Bot and Battle Drones sit at 40.02% Defence. So with Barrier, they get bumped over the 45% softcap mark permanently.

Without Barrier Running:

With Barrier Running (about to expire, at 119 seconds):


 

These upcoming changes mean that those henchmen on my Bot/Kin would end up sitting just a few percent shy of the softcap (they'll lose 3.42% defence, so the final total will be 42.6%), which is a little bit annoying for soloing things. Whilst the Protector Bots will become level with the others (currently they only hit 33.22% defence with Barrier running) they don't tend to pull as much aggro as the Assault Bot or Battle Drones in the first place.

It will however also mean that the Henchmen take much less time to buff themselves up at the start of a mission; and my MM themselves will also gain a bit of extra +Defence% that they don't currently need, so I may be able to drop some set bonus slots and work some extra Damage Procs in.

Overall I suspect that my DPS will rise a bit, but my survivability will drop slightly (at least when soloing).

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by Maelwys

[Glacier Peak]

Workbench group designation is sticking kind of oddly in the Target window...

 

[caveat emptor]

When I drop a workbench most of the time it's not for my own use.

I drop it for others and then leave the area, so I don't want it to follow me.
if people are using it so frequent, how about cutting the recharge time down instead, but keeping it stationary?

not being able to block paths is good though

it doesn't change anything in game, but I liked it exploding and leaving debris when it was done

[Dispari]

I might slightly miss being able to summon the workbench and sit on it like a portable judgement chair, but I'll make do.

Some of its details are a bit unusual, might be worth tweaking. You can also rename them, not sure if that's intended (but it's fun). Also this is just a thought, but if we're going for making it as convenient as possible, maybe it should just be a toggle? When I do a lot of crafting I have to summon it over and over again.

Edited November 9, 2021 by Dispari

[SeraphimKensai]

Since all the work with earth based powers, any thoughts to removing the need to be on the ground for Stalagmites? Seems like a decent QoL change to benefit say a hovering controller/domi as all other earth control powers can be used in the air.

 

 

[ScarySai]

On 11/7/2021 at 5:29 AM, Maelwys said:

Example: my Bot/Kin has Maneuvers and an Agility Alpha and both +PetDefence uniques and two +5 level 50 Defence IOs in Protector Bots. The Assault Bot and Battle Drones sit at 40.02% Defence. So with Barrier, they get bumped over the 45% softcap mark permanently.

 

Your pets are already softcapped, I'm pretty sure the call to arms thing is a display issue.

 

Edict used to bug out like that a few patches ago, I'll see if I can make a bug report for call to arms.

[Maelwys]

1 hour ago, ScarySai said:

 

Your pets are already softcapped, I'm pretty sure the call to arms thing is a display issue.

Edict used to bug out like that a few patches ago, I'll see if I can make a bug report for call to arms.

They're currently perma-softcapped whenever i'm running Barrier.

 +4.42% from Maneuvers
 +5.00% from the Edict of the Master +Def Unique
+12.80% from the first Protector Bot Bubble

+12.80% from the second Protector Bot Bubble
 +6.00% from Barrier Core Epiphany (+5% regular with an extra 20% added to it from the Agility Alpha Slot is +6% total)
 +5.00% from the Call to Arms Unique

Subtotal = 46.02% Defence (as per the second screenshot)


But (unfortunately) they will stop being softcapped if the proposed changes go live.
 

 +4.42% from Maneuvers
 +5.00% from the Edict of the Master +Def Unique
+22.19% from a single Protector Bot Bubble (12.8/7.5*13)
 +6.00% from Barrier Core Epiphany
 +5.00% from the Call to Arms Unique

Subtotal = 42.61% Defence.

The totals in each of the positional defence categories in my screenshots are correct. The defence from the Call To Arms unique is already getting added at the very bottom of each of the positional defence categories. It's just that it is being lumped within a subheading named "Base Defence" instead of being listed individually.

It's only a few percent, but the difference between softcap vs nearly-softcap is pretty major. Hence my suggestion that if this is intended as a quality of life change... then surely it would be better to just change the defensive numbers for the Protector Bots; rather than the MM or the other henchmen.
And as far as I'm aware (from my own experience tweak my i24 test server) the most straightforward change would just require duplicating the Force Shield power and flagging one of the copies as [AoE/only affects robotic henchmen/stacks from different sources]; and the other as [ST/only affects owner/never stacks from any source]. That'd mean the Protector Bots would just need to throw up a single bubble each once every four minutes as an AoE (2x 7.5% base, affects all henchmen) plus one of them throwing another on their owner (1x 7.5% base, affects the player). The stat magnitudes would't need touched, so it'd solve the start-of-mission-setup delay and Protector Bot +Defence issues without affecting anything else.

[ScarySai]

2 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

They're currently perma-softcapped whenever i'm running Barrier.

 

Oh, my mistake. I skimmed over barrier being active in my morning rush.