Focused Feedback: Seismic Blast

[ForeverLaxx]

5 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

 

Gotcha. Sorta like how Water Blast eh?

I think it's more a commentary on the set not really throwing rocks to hit things.

[SuperPlyx]

2 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

Sorta like how Water Blast eh?

Hmm, beside Geyser and Burst all the attacks are water projectiles so not seeing the similarity.

[Erratic1]

3 minutes ago, ForeverLaxx said:

I think it's more a commentary on the set not really throwing rocks to hit things.

 

2 minutes ago, SuperPlyx said:

Hmm, beside Geyser and Burst all the attacks are water projectiles so not seeing the similarity.

 

Geyser, Burst, Whirlpool, and Dehydrate...nearly half the powers in the set.

 

Edit:  Steam Spray is arguable but you are emitting something towards them so I will let it slide.

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Erratic1

[SuperPlyx]

Ok, we disagree 🙂

[ForeverLaxx]

1 minute ago, Erratic1 said:

 

 

Geyser, Burst, Whirlpool, and Dehydrate...nearly half the powers in the set.

Dehydrate "pulls" water out of the target, so there's a "beam" of sorts in that regard. Whirlpool is just a damage zone that other blast sets have like Rain of Fire or Ice Storm.

[Erratic1]

1 minute ago, ForeverLaxx said:

Dehydrate "pulls" water out of the target, so there's a "beam" of sorts in that regard. Whirlpool is just a damage zone that other blast sets have like Rain of Fire or Ice Storm.

 

There is a connection but I expect a blast to go from me to them, not suck from them to me. That other power sets have zones is in line with being a "blast"er but its not really blasty--something radiating away from a fixed point or smaller volume.

 

 

6 minutes ago, SuperPlyx said:

Ok, we disagree 🙂

 

Of course its subjective and so nobody has to be wrong.  🙂

[shaggy]

I agree that Seismic is a lot closer aesthetically to a control set than a blast set, but I can appreciate that that's part of the flavor. If in the future we could get a traditional stone "blasting" animation for a couple of powers, that'd be nice for the folks that prefer that fantasy. Personally, I'd rather have that over the first two blast powers just for variety's sake.

[ScarySai]

Seismic blast has some interesting experimental mechanics that are strong in theme, but weak in usability/practice.

 

Buffing it considerably would at least make it not a dud, but I for once wouldn't mind it being rolled back to be redesigned from the ground up.

[Greycat]

1 hour ago, underfyre said:

I'd say the attack names sound like controls more than blasts. Additionally, there doesn't seem to be many projectiles either, so it feels even less blasty.

 

This is about right.

 

I don't mind the lack of projectiles, but the names *and* power descriptions of several powers I can see throwing people, since it sounds like they should also be doing some sort of hold - which they don't.

 

(In short, if you tell me I'm "encasing" someone in something, especially since I've played a lot of 'trollers and doms, I do half expect it to be a hold - even if brief and/or unenhanceable.)

[Greycat]

Also... I can see the ... yes, I'm forgetting the name right now, the auto-KD becoming an issue. It's out of the player's control, which is not a good thing. Mind you, I like knockback in the sets that have it (barring pets) because most of the issues with it can be dealt with by the player paying attention and using the power slightly differently - positioning or whatnot. (Which is why the "barring pets" caveat. Much harder to control when and where *they'll* do KB, and pets are usually where I'll put a KB-to-KD IO.)

 

This one's out of the player's control (unless they're choosing to sit and do nothing.)

 

While generally not an issue solo, as even -1 enemies don't get knocked *Back,* there are times this will come into play:

 

- If you're doing it with another player's KD (say, an ice patch, or close to another seismic blast user,) in theory the mag could stack and turn it into knockback, and

 

- fighting enemies with no -kb resistance, like Clockwork. Get into melee range, this kicks in, suddenly they're scattered. While right now I believe only primal (and maybe psychic, which you only see in one mission at higher level) clockwork are the ones with this particular enemy group quirk, it doesn't preclude others showing up. Or this being annoying in, say, Posi or Synapse or mission teams vs Clockwork.

 

Also, early on at least, there's no indication this is *going* to kick in. No bar, no rings, no anything immediately obvious. (Maybe up in the buff icon bar, but I don't tend to look up there.) Which makes it harder for the player to do anything to mitigate it.

 

Last, given how people are with Kheld shapeshifts and the like, I could see the constant, uncontrolled boom...boom...boom of an active seismic blaster being considered annoying, even with screen shake off.

 

In short, while I Get "why" on the effect and it's a neat idea... the execution of it I think needs to be rethought a little. (So far - granted with only a little play - I'm interested enough to play with the rest of the set and likely roll at least one on live. But the "bonus" effect...ehhh...)

 

What I'd do instead? Instead of knockdown, make it a slow. When soil vibrates, it can liquify, after all, making it harder to move through the looser soil. It's less disruptive of an effect, still has a defensive component and is still thematic.

[Vanden]

10 minutes ago, Greycat said:

- If you're doing it with another player's KD (say, an ice patch, or close to another seismic blast user,) in theory the mag could stack and turn it into knockback, and

 

This is the big problem with the new Knock implementation. It's very easy for Knock from multiple sources to stack and turn knockdown into knockback. In the old system, that was nearly impossible, outside of, IIRC, putting knockdown procs into certain patch powers. I think fixing that should be a priority for the team.

[Captain Powerhouse]

 

12 hours ago, Wavicle said:

Except you have no control over Shockwaves. If you choose Seismic Blast a PBAoE Sleep is simply impossible for you to make use of in most situations

 

I have plans to make Shockwaves not hit sleeping targets. It just missed having that change ready for Brainstorm.

[WindDemon21]

58 minutes ago, Vanden said:

 

This is the big problem with the new Knock implementation. It's very easy for Knock from multiple sources to stack and turn knockdown into knockback. In the old system, that was nearly impossible, outside of, IIRC, putting knockdown procs into certain patch powers. I think fixing that should be a priority for the team.

I've been saying this for YEARS. They need to make a ll KD and KD procs mag 1 or less so they can't stack. Especially elec control with the gremlins and the winter pbaoe set with the kd proc and powers like dragons tail. They also need to relook at all KB procs like the melee and stupefy one, and make them like OF where they do kb-kd AND KD (not kb)

[Tacheyon]

So I rolled up a Earth/Storm Corruptor (man that feels weird to type) and my first impressions using only basic IO's no Incarnates.

 

Meteor - 11/10 Power, would use again.  This is hands down one of the best looking powers I have seen in game.  While the activation is a bit long I am not complaining as it's either a great opener or at least one after the you stun the mob.  As well the damage is great for a nuke. 

But I am curious as to why there is no fire damage element to it?  I think a meteor being brought down from space would have some heat along with it.  It would also break up the set from being all Smashing damage.

 

The rest of the set is a mixed bag.  The damage seems a bit low, which is not good as Smashing damage is also highly resisted.  Outside of Meteor things don't seem to hit as hard.

 

As some people have said before the lack of an actual projectile in some cases is almost subliminally disorientating.  Not tracking something (even instinctively) throws you out a bit. 

 

But when the animations do hit they seem abnormally large, even on normal size mob.  Now I play Earth Control and can relate to huge animations killing my gfx card, but on the bigger mob types.  Not on the small ones.  I hesitate to even think what this will look like on a full TF.  Maybe reducing the size of the 'hit animation' on mobs would be something to look into.  Although maybe I am the only one who thinks it.

 

Overall I do like the set and thank you for adding more powers.  But I think there is a fair bit of work left to do on it.  Then again that is why we are in BETA!

[Wavicle]

2 minutes ago, Tacheyon said:

As some people have said before the lack of an actual projectile in some cases is almost subliminally disorientating.  Not tracking something (even instinctively) throws you out a bit. 

 

I have to agree with this. The animations on Encase, Shatter, and Entomb (that's all I've tried so far) are very strange and seem kind of unfinished.

[InfamousBrad]

Tiny little text glitch having to do with Tombstone. On the Enhancement screen, if you hover over it, it says it has base accuracy 1.0. If you open the Info panel, it shows the correct base accuracy, 1.39.

[Rodion]

The effects for several of the powers are way too obtrusive. They create large stone objects that completely obscure the target and any nearby characters. The Talons of Vengeance have a power that does this and really despise it. Having a teammate using it on the targets my melee character is engaged with over and over will be very annoying. Two seismic blasters repeatedly hitting targets engaged with melee characters will effectively blind the melee players.

 

I think the lesson from Electrical Affinity should be reiterated: the graphic effects should not be overdone, they shouldn't be too distracting and they especially shouldn't interfere with other players seeing what's going on.

 

Salt Crystals doesn't seem to do anything. There's a sound effect, but no graphics, and the targets seem completely unaffected. Since it's supposed to be autohit I have it slotted with three sleep IOs, no accuracy.

[Player-1]

What are everyone's thoughts on the Seismic Pressure mechanic? Have you found it happens often enough? Does the aura give you good benefits?

[Wavicle]

1 minute ago, Player-1 said:

What are everyone's thoughts on the Seismic Pressure mechanic? Have you found it happens often enough? Does the aura give you good benefits?

I find the mechanic itself to be available frequently and useful when in close proximity, but the graphics can’t be color modded (which is understandable, but perhaps then they should be colorless?), the sound is a bit much, and the screen shake is way too much.

[InfamousBrad]

3 minutes ago, Player-1 said:

What are everyone's thoughts on the Seismic Pressure mechanic? Have you found it happens often enough? Does the aura give you good benefits?

 

Level 19 seismic/stone blaster and I'm averaging about 50% up-time on it, which is awesome. The info window says it's 7% chance per pulse to knock down, but the pulse rate is fast, like once a second, which means that every enemy is getting knocked down about every 7 seconds while it's up -- which is consistent with what I'm seeing, and suggests that it's auto-hit, which is crazy-good. Combined with the 15' radius, which also seems really generous?

 

I want it to go live just the way it is (with the fix for it breaking sleep, of course). I hope it's not considered too good.

[ScarySai]

6 minutes ago, Player-1 said:

What are everyone's thoughts on the Seismic Pressure mechanic? Have you found it happens often enough? Does the aura give you good benefits?

 

I like the idea of the mechanic a lot, but I feel like there's too few powers that benefit from it, and the empowered powers themselves (especially rock shards) aren't very impressive.

 

Outside of those empowered windows, I still feel like the set could stand to hit a bit harder. I really want this set to be good, a few buffs and changes are still needed.

Edited November 6, 2021 by ScarySai

[InfamousBrad]

2 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

the screen shake is way too much

 

There may need to be a power-customization option somewhere for this, because I know there are people that screen-shake makes sick, but without it, I would have a hard time telling if that visual effect was coming from me or not.

[xColdxFusionx]

1 hour ago, Rodion said:

The effects for several of the powers are way too obtrusive. They create large stone objects that completely obscure the target and any nearby characters. The Talons of Vengeance have a power that does this and really despise it. Having a teammate using it on the targets my melee character is engaged with over and over will be very annoying. Two seismic blasters repeatedly hitting targets engaged with melee characters will effectively blind the melee players.

Seconding this notion. Tombstone and Updraft in particular are absurdly large and disorienting, even as someone using it.

[Underfyre]

51 minutes ago, ScarySai said:

 

I like the idea of the mechanic a lot, but I feel like there's too few powers that benefit from it

 

I personally don't like how many which powers benefit from it, probably because "benefit" means the power resets. Rotationally I'd rather use Rock Shards over Upthrust, because damage, but doing so frequently put me in the position of "wasting" my Shockwave stacks instead of using them on the Seismic Force I would have otherwise.

Edited November 7, 2021 by underfyre

[Wavicle]

1 minute ago, underfyre said:

 

I personally don't like how which powers benefit from it, probably because "benefit" means the power resets. Rotationally I'd rather use Rock Shards over Upthrust, because damage, but doing so frequently put me in the position of "wasting" my Shockwave stacks instead of using them on the Seismic Force I would have otherwise.

the question seems to be: should the mechanic reinforce basic play or should it offer a situational choice?