Focused Feedback: Seismic Blast

[Booper]

 

Seismic Blast

New primary for Blasters and Corruptors, new secondary for Defenders.

 

You can manipulate earth and stone to defeat your foes. The crushing force of many Earth Powers can reduce a target's Defense.

 

Being of the Earth, you are the most powerful while on the ground. While grounded, your attacks increase Seismic Pressure. As your Seismic Pressure increases, the cooldown of other Seismic Blast attacks is reduced and your chances of triggering Seismic Shockwaves around you also increase. These Seismic Shockwaves will have a chance of knocking back foes and, while standing on the ground, empower some of your attacks. Rock Shards will have its area and damage increased. Seismic Force will cooldown in half the time. Stalagmite will deal a large amount of damage.

•   Encase  Ranged, Light DMG(Smash), Foe -Jump, -Fly, -DEF

  • Encase a foe in stone for a short moment, dealing damage and lowering their defense. They will also become heavy, limiting their ability to jump and fly for a short time. 

  • Encase grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

•   Shatter  Ranged, Light DMG(Smash), Foe -Jump, -Fly, -DEF
  • Cover a foe in stone shards and shatter them, inflicting light damage and lowering their defense. They will also become heavy, limiting their ability to jump and fly for a short time. 

  • Shatter grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

•   Rock Shards  Ranged Cone, Light DMG(Lethal), -Defense, Special
  • You launch a volley of stone shards at your target in a sweeping cone. These shards stab into the target, causing lethal damage. They will also continue to suffer additional lethal damage over time.

  •   If affected by Seismic Shockwaves, this power will halt the shockwaves, the up front damage will be increased and damage over time accelerated, foes will be knocked down, range will be increased to 80ft and arc to 50 degrees.

  • Rock Shards grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

•   Entomb  Ranged, High DMG(Smash), Foe -Jump, -Fly, -DEF

  • Entomb foes in a big boulder, dealing high damage and lowering their defense. They will also become heavy, limiting their ability to jump and fly for a short time. 

  • Entomb grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

•   Seismic Force  Self +To Hit, +DMG, +Special

  • Greatly increases the chance to hit of your attacks for a few seconds. Slightly increases damage.

  •   If affected by Seismic Shockwaves, this power will halt the shockwaves and Seismic Force will recharge in half the time.

•   Upthrust  Targeted AoE, Light DMG(Smashing), -Fly, -Defense, Chance to Knockdown
  • You channel seismic energy into the earth, causing a micro-fault to erupt under your target. This causes a shard of rock to thrust upward out of the ground, dealing smashing damage and lowering their defense. Affected foes will become heavy, limiting their ability to jump and fly for a short time. The force of the eruption can knockback enemies.

  • Upthrust grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

•   Tombstone  Sniper, High DMG(Smash), Foe -Jump, -Fly
  • Create a giant pillar of stone, creating a Tombstone around your target dealing extreme damage and limiting their ability to jump and fly for a short time. 

  • This is a sniper attack, and is best fired from a distance as it can be interrupted. If you are engaged in battle this attack becomes instant-cast. If you are not engaged, it will do bonus damage.

  • Tombstone grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

•   Stalagmite  Ranged, Variable DMG(Smash), Foe Disorient, Special
  • You can cause a Stalagmite to erupt under an enemy dealing minimal Lethal damage and Disorienting them for a good while. You must be on the ground to activate this power.

  •   If affected by Seismic Shockwaves, this power will halt the shockwaves and deal extreme damage. Bonus Damage is only 2/3rds enhanceable.

  • Stalagmite grants one stack of Seismic Pressure.

•   Meteor  Ranged (Location AoE), Extreme DMG(Smashing) Foe Knockback
  • You call down a meteor strike from the sky at a specified location. All targets within 30' are caught in the blast radius, taking extreme damage and being knocked back.
  • Note: This power uses the knock vector system. You'll notice the foes will be knocked up and back.

[Vanden]

Copying some feedback from the CB:

 

Alright, this is really nitpicky, I know. Sorry. But the icons for Meteor and Tombstone: I don't like them. City of Heroes is far from the only game that uses unique icons for every power; however, it differs from most games in that the icons are descriptive, rather than evocative. Say you had two different powers; one is an attack that the fluff text says is a knife attack that causes bleeding, another is an attack that the fluff text says is a subtle jab with a poisoned needle. Both abilities would be pretty similar; a melee attack that does extra damage over time. In another game with evocative icons, like World of Warcraft or Divinity: Original Sin, the former might be indicated with a picture of a bloody knife, while the latter might have a needle with a drop of a sickly green liquid forming at the tip. In CoH, however, they'd both just use the symbol, to indicate a damage over time effect. It's part of CoH's design to quickly indicate to the player what a power does without using words. Tombstone and Meteor, however, are using evocative icons rather than descriptive ones. Me, I had no idea Tombstone was a sniper attack until I read the description closely.

TL;DR I think the powers should continue the trend set by the other sets and use the typical Sniper and Nuke symbols for their icons.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Vanden

[garvisdol73]

Hello.  Is this set planned for Sentinels also?  Thank you.

[Captain Powerhouse]

2 minutes ago, garvisdol73 said:

Hello.  Is this set planned for Sentinels also?  Thank you.

 

At some point, most likely not in time for Page 3. Sentinel sets need customization and that is best done after the set has any and all quirks an features finalized.

[Wavicle]

26 minutes ago, Vanden said:

Copying some feedback from the CB:

 

Alright, this is really nitpicky, I know. Sorry. But the icons for Meteor and Tombstone: I don't like them. City of Heroes is far from the only game that uses unique icons for every power; however, it differs from most games in that the icons are descriptive, rather than evocative. Say you had two different powers; one is an attack that the fluff text says is a knife attack that causes bleeding, another is an attack that the fluff text says is a subtle jab with a poisoned needle. Both abilities would be pretty similar; a melee attack that does extra damage over time. In another game with evocative icons, like World of Warcraft or Divinity: Original Sin, the former might be indicated with a picture of a bloody knife, while the latter might have a needle with a drop of a sickly green liquid forming at the tip. In CoH, however, they'd both just use the symbol, to indicate a damage over time effect. It's part of CoH's design to quickly indicate to the player what a power does without using words. Tombstone and Meteor, however, are using evocative icons rather than descriptive ones. Me, I had no idea Tombstone was a sniper attack until I read the description closely.

TL;DR I think the powers should continue the trend set by the other sets and use the typical Sniper and Nuke symbols for their icons.

 

I second this. The icons should indicate what the powers do, just like almost every other icon in the game.

[arcane]

I like the shiny special icons tho! Would people really be struggling to remember what a couple of unique power icons do?

 

Also note I’m pretty sure the Meteor icon at least is already a part of the live game. Think it’s my icon for casting Bonfire on target.

Edited November 5, 2021 by arcane

[Veloice]

Really enjoy the feel of this set after some very basic testing - it's not slinging rocks around as I expected, but still very, very cool, and a set I've waited for conceptually for a while.

 

One nitpick - the Seismic Shockwaves buff is quite visually distinct, and can't be recoloured or changed at all. It's always brown, rock-like waves eminating from your feet. Given how frequently this procs, it'd be nice if we had an option to recolour it to fit with the customisation we can do with the actual powerset, or make it less visually overwhelming. (I have no idea how complicated either option is.) As it stands, it conflicts quite a lot with any other colour customisation options beyond the default.

 

Other than that and what is said above, pretty cool!

[EscherVox]

Remember when Tanks and Controllers were the only stone throwers?  Pepperidge Farm remembers... 

 

Hehe, I welcome our new Blasty Stone Throwing Friends!  Kinda thinking about rerolling my stone stone tank as a stone stone scrapper now... 

[Replacement]

2 hours ago, Vanden said:

Copying some feedback from the CB:

 

Alright, this is really nitpicky, I know. Sorry. But the icons for Meteor and Tombstone: I don't like them. City of Heroes is far from the only game that uses unique icons for every power; however, it differs from most games in that the icons are descriptive, rather than evocative. Say you had two different powers; one is an attack that the fluff text says is a knife attack that causes bleeding, another is an attack that the fluff text says is a subtle jab with a poisoned needle. Both abilities would be pretty similar; a melee attack that does extra damage over time. In another game with evocative icons, like World of Warcraft or Divinity: Original Sin, the former might be indicated with a picture of a bloody knife, while the latter might have a needle with a drop of a sickly green liquid forming at the tip. In CoH, however, they'd both just use the symbol, to indicate a damage over time effect. It's part of CoH's design to quickly indicate to the player what a power does without using words. Tombstone and Meteor, however, are using evocative icons rather than descriptive ones. Me, I had no idea Tombstone was a sniper attack until I read the description closely.

TL;DR I think the powers should continue the trend set by the other sets and use the typical Sniper and Nuke symbols for their icons.

Compromise: add a crosshair to the tombstone. I was going to suggest behind the tombstone but on the tombstone - like where the name would go - is cracking me up.

 

For Meteor, are the borders correct? Because if so, I think it's better to keep the current art.  It's a t9 nuke and deserves to break the rules to be special.  We all get it deals damage, it's a rare attack, so why generic it?

[JayboH]

I like the unique icons and hope they stay.

 

My only nitpicks on the most recent patch was that Upthrust and Meteor were just a hair on the slow side and might end up corpse blasting on the regular - otherwise the set feels pretty good.

[Captain Powerhouse]

There is precedent for unique power icons that goes all the way to launch

[chromeknickers]

So, this might be a bug, but when I first made the toon Seismic Shockwaves worked - the powers highlighted, changed icons, etc; however, when I respec'd my toon to switch out a power (no, the one power I switched doesn't affect the combo/build-up), Seismic Shockwaves no longer works. It doesn't build up, change icons, or do extra damage, etc. I tried to build it up but nothing happened (no orange highlight, etc). Before the respec, it worked perfectly. Just a heads-up on a potential bug or another example of my horrible luck in game.

[Vanden]

43 minutes ago, Captain Powerhouse said:

There is precedent for unique power icons that goes all the way to launch

 

Force Bubble just has the repel symbol. It might be the only power with that symbol (at least in the base game), but repel is all it does, so that means it has the symbol for repel, by default.  Crushing Uppercut shares that symbol with all the combo finishers in Street Justice, so it's meant to indicate the powers in that set that are combo finishers. As for Savage Melee, it never went to beta before the shutdown, but if it had you can bet I'd've been there raising a stink about the symbols.

 

Tombstone and Meteor don't have any unique effects; Tombstone is a standard snipe and the only thing really different about Meteor is the delay on it doing damage, and neither even interacts with the Seismic Pressure mechanic.

[GraspingVileTerror]

I'll echo that the Tombstone icon is . . . not ideal, snipe or otherwise.  It just looks muddy and nondescript, and doesn't really explain what the Power does.
I can live with the Meteor icon, since it at least is "readable" in terms of what a player might expect from it, even if it isn't as unambiguous as it should be.  

And since the Homecoming mantra is apparently "as good as or better than Legacy/Retail," I think pointing to examples that were below even their own standards for Power Icon readability isn't a great idea example to try and justify these two anomalous Power icons.

[InfamousBrad]

18 hours ago, Booper said:

Seismic Shockwaves

 

I've found two bugs with this power so far. At least, I think the second one is a bug.

 

1. Hovering over the Seismic Shockwaves buff icon shows that it grants knockback protection -- but it doesn't. Confirmed via the combat attributes window, and by being knocked back by multiple mobs while it was up. Either the hover text is wrong, or the self-buff isn't applying correctly.
    
2. Despite the fact that it's not a damage power, it "notifies" mobs, which wakes them out of sleep. Which means, for example, if you run in and fire Salt Crystals while Seismic Shockwaves is up, it immediately nullifies the AoE sleep. I feel pretty strongly that Seismic Shockwaves should have "Notifies enemies" set to false.

[JayboH]

41 minutes ago, InfamousBrad said:

 

I've found two bugs with this power so far. At least, I think the second one is a bug.

 

1. Hovering over the Seismic Shockwaves buff icon shows that it grants knockback protection -- but it doesn't. Confirmed via the combat attributes window, and by being knocked back by multiple mobs while it was up. Either the hover text is wrong, or the self-buff isn't applying correctly.
    
2. Despite the fact that it's not a damage power, it "notifies" mobs, which wakes them out of sleep. Which means, for example, if you run in and fire Salt Crystals while Seismic Shockwaves is up, it immediately nullifies the AoE sleep. I feel pretty strongly that Seismic Shockwaves should have "Notifies enemies" set to false.

Number one I reported before, it's just a text change from an earlier build.

 

Number 2 - is it Mud Bath or Shockwaves that is waking them up?  I saw your other post.

Edited November 6, 2021 by JayboH

[Wavicle]

1 minute ago, JayboH said:

Number 2 - is it Mud Bath or Shockwaves that is waking them up?  I saw your other post.

 

Seems to me the basic choice of giving a Blaster a Sustain Toggle with a PBAoE effect that wakes enemies AND a PBAoE Sleep is kind of questionable. Does Mud Bath really wake enemies? If so how is one supposed to make use of Bath Salts--I mean Salt Crystals?

[JayboH]

Just now, Wavicle said:

 

Seems to me the basic choice of giving a Blaster a Sustain Toggle with a PBAoE effect that wakes enemies AND a PBAoE Sleep is kind of questionable. Does Mud Bath really wake enemies? If so how is one supposed to make use of Bath Salts--I mean Salt Crystals?

I bet it's Shockwaves, if it is Mud Bath I want to know though because that would be a really weird bug.

[Razor Cure]

Regarding the power descriptions. I hope there are not..set in stone (HA)..cause it seems like nearly every power has a variation of 'encase the target in stone.'

[Replacement]

Just want to clarify - "Notify" and waking up targets from sleep are two separate things.

 

I don't understand Sleeps, but they are disrupted by knocks and repels - regardless of Notify status.  They can set up targets to just not be affected by the Shockwaves if they're asleep though - I think Ice Manipulation or Assault does this.

 

Meanwhile, I don't know of any Slow effects that are set to Notify (e.g. all the ones I know about) waking up targets, so yeah that would be weird.

[JayboH]

5 minutes ago, Replacement said:

Just want to clarify - "Notify" and waking up targets from sleep are two separate things.

 

I don't understand Sleeps, but they are disrupted by knocks and repels - regardless of Notify status.  They can set up targets to just not be affected by the Shockwaves if they're asleep though - I think Ice Manipulation or Assault does this.

 

Meanwhile, I don't know of any Slow effects that are set to Notify (e.g. all the ones I know about) waking up targets, so yeah that would be weird.

Confirmed via ice/ice scrapper.  I turned off Icicles, hit Frozen Aura, watched them not wake up from Chilling Embrace, but then when I dropped Ice Patch they woke up.

 

...and they should wake up after falling on their butts IMO even though they aren't taking damage, simply due to the nature of what is happening.  I doubt I could stay asleep if I fell on the ground after all.

 

So if Mud Pots is the culprit and it is not Shockwaves, we really need to know.

[Wavicle]

Just now, JayboH said:

So if Mud Pots is the culprit and it is not Shockwaves, we really need to know.

it’s still a problem if it’s shockwaves, I guess just not as much of a problem…

[JayboH]

Just now, Wavicle said:

it’s still a problem if it’s shockwaves, I guess just not as much of a problem…

Well, it isn't a problem at all - because then the set isn't fighting against itself.  It's a side effect of the player pairing it with Seismic Blast. 

[Wavicle]

Just now, JayboH said:

Well, it isn't a problem at all - because then the set isn't fighting against itself.  It's a side effect of the player pairing it with Seismic Blast. 

I’d still call that a problem for thematically paired sets to go against each other.

[JayboH]

Just now, Wavicle said:

I’d still call that a problem for thematically paired sets to go against each other.

It trades at best - one cc for another.  You may have a point about synergy but it's not a bug at any rate - if it is Mud Pots then yes it is a bug and a problem.