Focused Feedback: Seismic Blast

[WindDemon21]

Just now, Wavicle said:

Side note: I think the reason this was given only to Blasters is because defeating the enemy before it reaches you is more important on the class with no CC, Armor, or Buffs.

Yeah I can see that, though thought it did and would like to see it on other AT's still, but at least defenders get decent range bonuses in the ATOs. Other classes already have a lot less damage than blasters so i'd figure that's more of their benefit versus the range.

[Vanden]

I'm liking the new Tombstone icon.

[Disturbia]

Where's the -Def for Tombstone, Stalagmite, and Meteor? Where is the +Dmg for all the attacks like all other blaster sets have, or is it working and just not in the tooltips? To be frank, Meteor is kinda garbage. Why does it have a 2:50 min cooldown like the other longer nukes without any benefit? It literally only does damage, and will even have to sacrifice a slot to turn KB into KD. Please add -Def to the nuke, as well as lower the cooldown to either 2:05 min or 2:25 at least.... Also Entomb is kinda slow, 1.67 sec would be nicer but no big loss if not. 

[Replacement]

I seriously don't understand people converting Meteor to Knockdown.  If you really insist, use your Overwhelming Force to at least keep damage.  But personally, I prefer to kill everything right out the gate.

 

If you expect several things to survive, try Meteor > Upthrust.   Upthrust acquires targets immediately but due to the travel time, does not alert them until the moment Meteor is blasting everything apart.

 

If you expect one beefy thing to survive, try Meteor > Slow snipe.  YEP!  Since Meteor is summoning a pet, it doesn't flag you for combat and you are free to slow snipe.  Unsurprisingly, this timing also aligns with the meteoric arrival.

 

-----

 

FYI folks, Seismic Shockwaves is currently bugged.  If you were running around feeling like the Shockwaves effect is only good for eating, pretending it's just level 3 Tidal Force - there's a reason.  It's not doing its knock aura at all.

[Booper]

Release Candidate 1 Updates:

 

Seismic Blast [Focused Feedback: 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 decrease the cooldown of all recharging Seismic Blast attacks by a moderate amount. Stalagmite will deal a large amount of damage.

Seismic Shockwaves:

• Now lasts for 45s or until consumed (was 15s previously).
• Fix: The knockdown aura was unable to be granted, this should now be remedied.
• Seismic Stress (the mechanism used to proc Shockwaves) has been renamed to Seismic Pressure.
• Seismic Blast attacks now grant 2 Seismic Pressures (Earth Manipulation attacks still grant 1 Seismic Pressure).
• Seismic Pressure's chance mod increased (will now take 2-5 Seismic Blast attacks to trigger Shockwaves).
• Maximum number of knockdowns reduced to 5 per second.
• Chance for knockdown reduced slightly.
• Knockdown suppression increased to 10s.
• Knockback Aura should only be active and visible while on the ground, not while jumping or flying.
•   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 two stacks 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 two stacks 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 60ft and arc to 40 degrees.

  • Rock Shards grants two stacks of Seismic Pressure.

  • Updated VFX for Empowered Rock Shards.

•   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 two stacks 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 will decrease the cooldown of all recharging Seismic Blast attacks by a moderate amount.

  • Fix: Previously Empowered Seismic Force was not consuming Seismic Shockwaves.

•   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 two stacks 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 two stacks of Seismic Pressure.

  • (Blaster Only) Both Quick and Normal Snipes now provide a 50% range buff for 10s.

  • Updated VFX

•   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. 

  • Stalagmite grants two stacks of Seismic Pressure.

  • Updated VFX for Empowered Stalagmite.

•   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.
  • Fixed Corruptor's Scourge Damage. It was doing 100% Scourge damage, it's now doing the intended 50% Scourge damage.

[JayboH]

Empowered Stalagmite's icon really threw me at first, I thought it was my nuke in the tray for a second.

[Ukase]

A minor thing...The Seismic Force ...inherent, I suppose is the right word. The spawning of a mini-earthquake that bounces certain npcs susceptible to KD/KB, it seems to follow the character out of zone. Not sure what a chore that is to adjust, or if it should be adjusted. 

As someone who plays blasters, the ease that this pops is nice, but maybe it's too much. I'm still tinkering around with it, but my initial reaction: 

1. The first couple of attacks in the primary...well, they're not a blast, are they? I see no rocks propelling towards the npc. I see the damage, of course, which is the main thing, but if there's no rocks hurtling towards the npc, may as well play any of the other blaster sets, right? Maybe it's my graphic settings being set too low. 

2. It's not real clear to me what causes this seismic force to spawn. It is clear that with Trolls,(level 7, both of us) it doesn't work consistently. They'll get in melee, hit my character, and then bounce. Maybe their attack was queued by the system before they entered melee. No idea. Just seemed odd. 

 

[Wavicle]

2 minutes ago, Ukase said:

1. The first couple of attacks in the primary...well, they're not a blast, are they? I see no rocks propelling towards the npc. I see the damage, of course, which is the main thing, but if there's no rocks hurtling towards the npc, may as well play any of the other blaster sets, right? Maybe it's my graphic settings being set too low. 

 

they aren’t projectiles. the rocks appear On the enemy. You aren’t throwing rocks, you’re manifesting them.

[Ukase]

54 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

they aren’t projectiles. the rocks appear On the enemy. You aren’t throwing rocks, you’re manifesting them.

That's my point. May as well be an earth controller, no? (granted a lot less dps)

[Wavicle]

14 minutes ago, Ukase said:

That's my point. May as well be an earth controller, no? (granted a lot less dps)

 

I'm not really sure why you feel that all Blasters MUST have projectiles. These are ranged attacks, they aren't projectiles but they are still ranged attacks. A little variety is good, both in powers and in animations.

[Ukase]

8 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

 

I'm not really sure why you feel that all Blasters MUST have projectiles. These are ranged attacks, they aren't projectiles but they are still ranged attacks. A little variety is good, both in powers and in animations.

Fair point. It just makes sense to me. 

[Aurora_Girl]

19 hours ago, Ukase said:

That's my point. May as well be an earth controller, no? (granted a lot less dps)

 

This, 100%. The animations are not blasty, they're control. I doubt I'll play the set, same issue I have with DP. Animation dumbness. 😭

[Ukase]

So, I bumped my stone/stone blaster to level 20. Was looking forward to seeing the snipe. 

Quite a bit of a let down, graphically. 

I am not smart enough to know what the solution is, but for me, that ain't it. 
In my mind, it would have been more of a sling-shot type deal. If you recall the David vs. Goliath story, a slingshot, properly used, is no joke. But this ...odd display of rocks forming out of mid-air, converging upon the npc, instead of forming from the hands of my character..or out of the ground through some odd force of will...just isn't really what I had in mind. 

Please understand - I'm not someone who really cares about costumes. Nor am I someone who cares about animations, unless they take longer than I think they should. (like kinetic melee, which is the worst set in game for dreadful animations, with DP pistols "nuke" being a close second)
It's just my opinion on how it looks. The one shotting of an even level minion, with only 3 slots in it...I'm good with that, lol. 

This is a "Seismic" blast primary. There should be stones blasted from the hands or something the character is holding. For the secondary, Earth manipulation, I can more understand rocks appearing from mid-air. 
I can't imagine how hard it must be to come up with several attacks that do varying amounts of damage, but have different types of animations. So, I am not sharing this to complain, but to give feedback. I reckon most wouldn't complain if left as is, but I think it could generate more "cool" points if the animation were more like the Propel from the grav control primary, only with rocks of various sizes, instead of weather vanes and pianos. 

[DZKFire]

I like the non projectile style it has TBH. It would be a dream come true if a similar style was ported to Ice, Lightning & Psi blast.

 

Well, at least Psi has TK "Blast" which does not have a projectile but it feels really blast-y still.

[Menelruin]

This is super low-priority, and just wishful thinking, but IMO it'd be awesome if the whole set had animation options where the attacks fall onto the target from above, so you could potentially RP the whole set as "SUMMON THE METEORS!"

[Techwright]

I'm enjoying the Corrupter Seismic Blast set.  One request if I may (and I apologize if I've duplicated something.  I read as fast as I could into 8 pages of material, but I'm up against the family supper time):  Can something be done about the volume of Seismic Shockwaves?  Admittedly I've heard this sound from earth control powers, but for some reason it grows very annoying when emanating from my corruptor, especially since SS has triggered so frequently.  I'd be happy with a reduction in sound, or a toggle under options.  Realizing neither of those may be practical, might I ask that the COH Modder community come up with a reduced sound or a mute on SS?

 

Again, fun set! At least so far as I've gotten.

[Razor Cure]

The disconnect between the activation and the actual HIT time of Upthrust seems awful. The power fires off fast. then..waiting..waiting..waiting..oh NOW it hits.

Both basic Aoes are also only Light damage? I know Shards can do extra damage, but it seems  really crappy to have such low damage aoe, especially when, as others are saying, its seems harder to time the extra damage procs here, than in other sets (like Water Blast).

Agree with Tombstone..a snipe power in a rock throwing (kinda) set just seems silly.

Another comparison with WB..cold/smash damage, AND two powers in teh set do Fire damage. Plain smash or lethal, on anything but blasters or scrappers is generally gonna feel weak as hell.

[CountVampyro]

On 11/5/2021 at 3:05 PM, 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.

One thing you may not have ever noticed is that all powers have indicators as to what they do built into their corresponding icon.  For example, the Tombstone has four white rectangles evenly spaced along the border of the icon to indicate it is a ranged attack, as Stalagmite and other ranged attacks do.  (Maybe a boresight target in the tombstone would be useful to show it is a snipe attack though).  The Meteor icon has two small dots at the bottom to indicate it is a placed target attack.  The Rock Shards have a long curved bar at the top of the icon to indicate it is a ranged cone attack.  And so on...

 

These type of indicators have been around as long as I can remember, so the new power set icons follow the same pattern.  So, you really do have a way to tell what each power does, but just never knew.  Now you do!  

[arcane]

Only tweak I’m thinking about following my first build is swapping out Stalagmite for Vengeance and the extra slots for elsewhere. The DPA is nice but not nice enough for the inconsistency. Would’ve needed to feel like Energy Transfer level damage to justify such a situational attack.

 

Speaking of activation delays, Meteor -> Upthrust -> Pyronic is amazingly fun AoE burst.

Edited November 28, 2021 by arcane

[laudwic]

Played this set on live, thank you for making it.  I skimmed the prior 8 pages, didn't see this brought up:

 

The -Def attacks are not putting on the defense debuf icons on enemies.   Shouldn't they be?

 

Edit:  Shouldn't the listed damage for Shatter be Moderate instead of light?

Edited November 30, 2021 by laudwic

[Zugzwangz]

Siesmic Pressure keeps disappearing during DFB. One second I'm accumulating it and the next it's just gone... And no, it's not turning into Seismic Shockwaves. It's literally just going away. Another Blaster with the same powerset didn't experience this problem, however. 

[Venture]

is there an issue with seismic pressure or am i not getting the mechanic? sometimes i don't generate any stacks and then others they just disappear after 2 or 3 without any benefits?

it seems initially they were stacking and allowing me to proc the special effects and have the knockdown aoe but this tailed off after a few dfbs - maybe by level 10 ish

Edited November 29, 2021 by Venture

[Venture]

k, it seems fine solo - is it possible there's an issue if two seismic blast characters are on the same team?

[Erratic1]

3 hours ago, Venture said:

k, it seems fine solo - is it possible there's an issue if two seismic blast characters are on the same team?

 

Just had this problem in a Yin TF where I got no pressure the entire run. 

 

But I was on a team with another seismic character and had no issue last night. Will also note the other seismic character on the Yin reported no problems.

[Erratic1]

Now in a Posi 1 with nobody else having any Seismic sets and not generating pressure.

 

Edit: Ahh, a problem from exemplaring down.

Edited November 30, 2021 by Erratic1