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Posted
46 minutes ago, Spectre7878 said:

I tried putting the KBtoKD in Repulsion Field and they dont knockdown at all. I stood in the middle of a mob and they dont fall down. On live they do with the Proc

 

Just tested this on Brainstorm. It DOES work, but like I said the KD chance is very low. IMO the new Repulsion Field is more useful without the KB2KD in it.

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Posted

My wish list for Force Field. I agree with all the people saying -resist feels just like a copy paste.

 

Overall, FF is very knockback-dependent. What foils knockback? Fly does. I want a -Fly on Force Bolt, Repulsion Field, Repulsion Bomb and  and Dampening Bubble.

 

FF Powers that move stuff around are foiled by fast opponent. I want a slow effect in Repulsion Field and  and Dampening Bubble. That last one would be amazing, a large slow bubble. Similar to the one in the blaster's /Martial or &cold, but larger and more powerful.

 

I don't think Force Bolt and Repulsion bomb needs to debuff resistance, I think they need something similar to damage. The problem here is that the Defender AT that is supposed to be strongest with this, having it as a primary, doesn't get decent damage out of damage. So how about a -Hp debuff? Targets are woozy and are easier to take out for a little while? Somewhat like Spectral Wounds in that it wears off, only Hp debuff instead of damage. Similar to -Res in effect, but not a copycat.

 

I agree with those thinking the bubbles you put on others could give the grey bar extra life whose name escapes me now at 1 am. This would give FF a pseudo-heal, as you can reapply the bubbles to grant more grey bar when you see people getting hurt. It would also create sort of a theme, you increase hp and you reduce hp.

 

Finally and most important, Dispersion Bubble should protect from sleep. I don't understand why it has this achille's heel now that Faraday Cage exists.  Perhaps a -damage debuff on enemies inside the bubble?

 

 

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Posted (edited)

I agree that, thematically, force field should be about buffs rather than debuffs, which is why I favor DDR and absorb as its primary components. We are presently getting one of those, but I do think it is on the weaker side for the hallmark defense set. I like the -fly suggestion above for force bolt. I DO like the - regen resistance, -to hit resistance, and slow resistance offered in dampening bubble (as I said, not the greatest fan of that power), but, thematically, I think they find a home in some other powerset better and that absorb has a thematic home in forcefield. I would happily trade those out, as well as all of the debuffs, for DDR and absorb, which, again, I think are natural fits for force field. 

Edited by Sarn
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Posted

I did some testing on Beta and here are my observations

TL;DR – The core ideas are really good but they could use improvement.

Force Bolt (now Repulsion Bolt)

This is a good change with the recharge reverted. It gives FF an ability to add a debuff to targets who would ignore the KB.

Detention Field (not in Patch)

This needs to be changed to a toggle like Dimension Shift. The single target nature works given the Mag 5 Intangible, but you need to be able to drop it when needed or it becomes an “Oh sh—” power only. Teams do not sit still for most spawns for 30s unless it’s an EB or better and the power will not work on them. Alternatively, this power could be dropped (see below).

Dispersion Bubble

This a great fix and long overdue.

Repulsion Field

The removal of the End cost per target is great. It makes it a power that you can keep running.  The AoE is too small though. With the 25’ radius it protects the FF toon well, but anyone else is only protected in the semicircle behind the FF toon. The reduced radius makes it way too easy for enemies to run around the front exposing the other toons making much less effective when in large rooms or outside.

The combination of the two old toggles does reduce your End drain a little but it’s not significant enough to lose all the area lost by collapsing Force Bubble. It would be great if this came with an additional toggle to boost the AoE back to it’s original radius with the additional End cost.

Alternatively replace Detention Field with this power and replace it with the old Force Bubble.

Repulsion Bomb (now Force Bomb)

This is a good soft control power with the vectored KD. However, with the reduction in the Stun and Damage, the AoE should be increased from 15’ to 20’. I would say more but with the -Res it would be too much given the recharge.

Force Bubble (now Damping Bubble)

I didn’t get the chance to test this fully, but I did see benefits from it and the numbers look good especially for Hard Mode and iTrials (where you can cover a lot of a league). My only reservation is the length of the recharge. I would trim the recharge down to at *least* 60s to allow it to be used on more spawns. Keep in mind that I’m basing this these comments on the casual player who will be using SOs or Generic IOs. Fully tricked out toons are going to have this up all the time anyway.

 

Posted

The -res has not been reverted and I'm really curious 1) what problem with FF, exactly, this change is meant to fix, and 2) why the game needs more -res flying around in any form when debuff sets are already overwhelmingly powerful and mobs are already falling over before non-meta builds can get off key powers.

 

Do certain people feel the set lacks offensive power? Well, that would be like criticising a mallet for not being pointy enough; it's a complaint that should be dismissed out of hand without any consideration. This change is comparable to adding healing arrow to TA, except worse, because -res is far stronger than heals ever will be in this game.

 

To compound this, -res is a debuff that jives neither with the set's mechanical nor conceptual identity (as a defensively oriented, force field wielding set).

 

By the way: debuff sets with aoe -res powers have them on recharges of 90s or more. Repulsion bomb's is only 30s. If this disastrous change needs to go through, the recharge of repulsion bomb needs to be lengthened to reflect how it is now sleet-lite (Force Bolt's recharge could use a look-at too).

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Posted
1 minute ago, Zect said:

The -res has not been reverted and I'm really curious 1) what problem with FF, exactly, this change is meant to fix, and 2) why the game needs more -res flying around in any form when debuff sets are already overwhelmingly powerful and mobs are already falling over before non-meta builds can get off key powers.

 

Do certain people feel the set lacks offensive power? Well, that would be like criticising a mallet for not being pointy enough; it's a complaint that should be dismissed out of hand without any consideration. This change is comparable to adding healing arrow to TA, except worse, because -res is far stronger than heals ever will be in this game.

 

To compound this, -res is a debuff that jives neither with the set's mechanical nor conceptual identity (as a defensively oriented, force field wielding set).

 

By the way: debuff sets with aoe -res powers have them on recharges of 90s or more. Repulsion bomb's is only 30s. If this disastrous change needs to go through, the recharge of repulsion bomb needs to be lengthened to reflect how it is now sleet-lite (Force Bolt's recharge could use a look-at too).

 

The problem it fixes is FF was the ONLY Support set with no way to increase team damage. The amount of -Res is not anywhere near as strong as Sleet. These changes bring FF in line with other sets.

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Wavicle said:

 

The problem it fixes is FF was the ONLY Support set with no way to increase team damage. The amount of -Res is not anywhere near as strong as Sleet. These changes bring FF in line with other sets.

 

This argument is flawed.  Force Field increases survivability - and therefore increases team damage indirectly.  Having additional defence empowers team-mates not to be dead in the next ten seconds.  The next ten seconds will see team-mates, in all likelihood, pushing offensive power buttons as opposed to defensive ones of their own.  Dead team-mates are a DPS loss.  

 

There is no requirement for sets to be identical.   Unless someone is lazily pushing a PvP balance requirement onto a PvE rebalancing...

Edited by Tath99
bad sentence.
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Posted
Just now, Tath99 said:

 

This argument is flawed.  Force Field increases survivability - and therefore team damage indirectly.  Having additional defence empowers team-mates not to be dead in the next ten seconds.  The next ten seconds will see team-mates, in all likelihood, pushing offensive power buttons as opposed to defensive ones of their own.  Dead team-mates are a DPS loss.  

 

There is no requirement for sets to be identical.   Unless someone is lazily pushing a PvP balance requirement onto a PvE rebalancing...


it is not flawed. just because I didn’t use the word directly. There is no requirement for sets to be identical, there is a requirement for Support sets to Directly increase killing speed.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Wavicle said:


it is not flawed. just because I didn’t use the word directly. There is no requirement for sets to be identical, there is a requirement for Support sets to Directly increase killing speed.

 

Really?  Care to quote your source?

 

You can't.  There isn't one. 

 

There is no requirement for support sets to "directly increase killing speed."

 

 

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Posted
51 minutes ago, Wavicle said:


I don’t need to quote a source. The evidence IS the change. The fact this was done indicates that the Devs believe there is such a requirement.

 

It's 'a' change.'  But that change isn't immutable truth (ergo: we're in beta and the HC devs presumable want our opinion on the potential changes) and does diverge from the original Cryptic vision of the FF power set.  It's Faraday 2.0 and all the poorer for it.

 

Each Support set goes about its empowerment in different ways.  That's the beauty of City of Heroes debuff/Buff classes.  The sheer variety.  There is no requirement to make them homogenous.  

 

Kludging two powers into one (Repulsion and Force Bubble) when the per mob penalty could be (and has been) easily removed and the 'Dampening' field power could just be rolled into the iconic Force Bubble 'hard edged' buff power.  You'd have debuff and hard buff in one power that way.  (If the devs feel that is allowed.)  These changes are at the behest of the devs.  

 

Simple tweaks to Repulsion and Force Bubble are simple fixes.  One end based.  The other, rolling in some debuffs.  What goes with Force Bubble?  Slow debuffs.  A sliding Knock over scale for mobs the closer they get to the epic centre.  Two simple debuffs.  Three if you included Slow Debuff protection, -acc as well given the struggle to aim within such a 'repulsive' environment.

 

Play style wise.  The 'drop it' debuff change rather than the far more in keeping dynamic toggle that rolls with your combat is a backward step.  Completely unnecessary.  (Eg. The Def/Insul' shields travel with the buffed...as does Dispersion and so should Force Bubble.  The original design is dynamic and diverse variations on hard edged combat.

 

Azrael.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Wavicle said:


it is not flawed. just because I didn’t use the word directly. There is no requirement for sets to be identical, there is a requirement for Support sets to Directly increase killing speed.

 

It can be direct or indirect.  The beauty of the diverse Cryptic Defender AT power diversity.

 

Azrael.

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Tath99 said:

 

This argument is flawed.  Force Field increases survivability - and therefore increases team damage indirectly.  Having additional defence empowers team-mates not to be dead in the next ten seconds.  The next ten seconds will see team-mates, in all likelihood, pushing offensive power buttons as opposed to defensive ones of their own.  Dead team-mates are a DPS loss.  

 

There is no requirement for sets to be identical.   Unless someone is lazily pushing a PvP balance requirement onto a PvE rebalancing...

 

Having DUO'd FF twice with Tath on Live and on HC, we're well versed in the kinetic play style of Force Field.

 

To lose such a pivotal and dynamic power in Force Bubble is a huge reversal to its dynamic, hard edge control style of defending.  Worlds away from Electrical Affinity.

 

FF has all the tools at hand to keep team members alive from the super Def/Insul buffs (which I could self buff those...if the Devs are serious about helping defenders climb up from the 'bag of grapes' category...) which provide a huge dollop of defence numbers to the authoritative Force Bubble to directly intervene, 'tank' style (a ranged tank...so to speak) in matters of buffed protection.  Direct.  To the point.

 

We don't need it replaced by a mushy, static, backward facing field that 'just sits there.'  Just roll the dampening field debuffs into Force Bubble.  We get the debuffs (-speed on mob, slow debuff protection from the blammed Arachnos..., some -acc due to the forces applied within the bubble...) from 'Damp' and keep the Dynamic Appeal of Force Bubble.  (So those who have yet to master its virtues, can try practicing with it some more.)

 

Azrael. 

 

 

Edited by Golden Azrael
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Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Wavicle said:

 

The problem it fixes is FF was the ONLY Support set with no way to increase team damage. The amount of -Res is not anywhere near as strong as Sleet. These changes bring FF in line with other sets.

 

This stretches credulity.

 

FF has no way to increase damage for a team.  'Not true.'

 

You put twin bubbles on a fellow team member (hello Mr. Blaster) and you 'directly' - indirectly increase the blaster and team's damage output.  Turning the team from a death train to Atlas HP care of the Hollows to a runaway train of victory.

 

Dispersion adds a layer of protection.  Detention directly stops a boss allow the trash to be hoovered up much quick-o without the boss laying out a squishie on a team.  I'd be in favour of a toggle feature for Detention Field as suggested by one of my global friends.  Good idea by them.

 

The -res is inconsequential as the FF is not a -res' set?  It has powers which directly impact combat and a team's ability to survive.

 

The debuffs can be split into two types.  And thrown into Dispersion (which could do with some debuff tweaks, I'd accept that...stick any -res into this or the Force Bubble) and put the other debuffs re: slow for mobs/ slow protection, -acc into Force Bubble.

 

The tweaks needed (if we agree that that we need -res and debuffs in the set and not all of us do...) don't have to have such catastrophic play style changes.  Just roll them into what is already there.

 

Much ado about nothing.

 

Azrael.

Edited by Golden Azrael
Posted
6 hours ago, Griffyn said:

I did some testing on Beta and here are my observations

TL;DR – The core ideas are really good but they could use improvement.

Force Bolt (now Repulsion Bolt)

This is a good change with the recharge reverted. It gives FF an ability to add a debuff to targets who would ignore the KB.

Detention Field (not in Patch)

This needs to be changed to a toggle like Dimension Shift. The single target nature works given the Mag 5 Intangible, but you need to be able to drop it when needed or it becomes an “Oh sh—” power only. Teams do not sit still for most spawns for 30s unless it’s an EB or better and the power will not work on them. Alternatively, this power could be dropped (see below).

Dispersion Bubble

This a great fix and long overdue.

Repulsion Field

The removal of the End cost per target is great. It makes it a power that you can keep running.  The AoE is too small though. With the 25’ radius it protects the FF toon well, but anyone else is only protected in the semicircle behind the FF toon. The reduced radius makes it way too easy for enemies to run around the front exposing the other toons making much less effective when in large rooms or outside.

The combination of the two old toggles does reduce your End drain a little but it’s not significant enough to lose all the area lost by collapsing Force Bubble. It would be great if this came with an additional toggle to boost the AoE back to it’s original radius with the additional End cost.

Alternatively replace Detention Field with this power and replace it with the old Force Bubble.

Repulsion Bomb (now Force Bomb)

This is a good soft control power with the vectored KD. However, with the reduction in the Stun and Damage, the AoE should be increased from 15’ to 20’. I would say more but with the -Res it would be too much given the recharge.

Force Bubble (now Damping Bubble)

I didn’t get the chance to test this fully, but I did see benefits from it and the numbers look good especially for Hard Mode and iTrials (where you can cover a lot of a league). My only reservation is the length of the recharge. I would trim the recharge down to at *least* 60s to allow it to be used on more spawns. Keep in mind that I’m basing this these comments on the casual player who will be using SOs or Generic IOs. Fully tricked out toons are going to have this up all the time anyway.

 

 

Broadly balanced comments.

 

The end cost change to Repulsion, is, of course, welcomed.  The amalgam of Replusion and F Bubble is not.

 

I'd agree with making the radius of Force Bomb more 'rangey' like Meteor.  Not as catastrophic as Meteor but far more impactful with radius than currently is.  A bomb.  BOMB.  Still feels like a beach ball of ballet mild boom power.

 

I guess my main gripe is Force Bubble.  It and Repulsion do slightly different jobs.  Giving Force Bubble some debuffs and loosing the end penalty on Replusion are simple matters to address rather than the current and convoluted mish mash.

 

Azrael.

Posted
3 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

Claiming that a defense buff is a damage buff is really ridiculous.

I look forward to these buffs.

 

Very glad the unnecessarily enormous Force Bubble has been shrunk down, and very glad to be finally getting some actual offensive debuffs.

Finally a reason to play the set.

 

It indirectly turns to direct damage.  That's fairly simple logic to understand.  A blaster who has a big dollop of defence to not get put in a HP box...return to sender style can instead directly damage with 'relative' impunity.

 

You may look forward to these 'buffs.'  I might.  If they were more simply and straightforwardly applied.

 

There have always been reasons to play the Force Field set.  The great defence numbers (especially if you play in Duo) you can walk the game with.  It can elevate defenders and blasters alike with those defence buffs.

 

As to the 'uncessarily' large Force Bubble.  I used to think that.  But mastering the Force Bubble can take time.  It can directly influence combat solo or in teams.  Not for the clumsy.  That's where the practice and experience comes in.

 

Even FOrce Bolt pinging mobs around has it's place.  As does the Detention Field (make it a toggle?  Sure...I can see that...)to remove bosses swaggering around...

 

PFF.  A show pony?  Oh crepe power?  Or a taunt and diverge power?

 

Azrael.

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Posted (edited)
47 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

The set needed something to contribute more when people weren’t in danger. That was the problem. That has now been fixed.

 

 Force Bubble can be learned, but making it useful on a big team is a chore and a half.

 

They tried Detention as a toggle and it was even more niche instead of less, so they’ll come back to it later.

 

The set didn't really need to contribute anything when people weren't in danger.  It's a buff set...  It simply did what it said on the tin.  It allows 'weaker ATs' some solid protection via layers of defence.  And hard edge protection through judicious and skillful application of harder edges buffs (which ofc, may irritate others.)  There doesn't need to be 'another' mish mash of debuff numbers (nice though they appear to be but somewhat clumsily applied when a fine tuning approach would have been 'better.'  So 'fixed' is a 'point of view' that will be debated.

 

Most things on a big team are a chore.  IN that scenario it's about the speed of the mob wipe.  Which can sweep past some of Force Field's nuances.  But that's my own bias and preferences leaking into this thread.  I've seen Force Bubble used to great effect on medium and 'big' teams alike.  By people who knew how and when to apply it.  And it's great for pulling or pushing on smaller (or larger) teams.  Not every team has a 'tank' on it, so having 'tanking' like powers to create a temporary rangey tank is useful.  The power of intervention is what Force Bubble has.  FF has hard buffs to elevate and intervene.  The inside and out nuances of the set may not be liked or appreciated by everybody.  Nor does it have to be turned into an inoffensive soft debuff Tier 9 (I feel increasingly of the view that the debuffs should just be wrapped into Dispersion Bubble.  It seems to be the ideal place for them.  And just put some slow mob and slow debuff protection on the Force Bubble.  Neuter the expensive end requirement of Replusion.  Job done.  Toggle Detention Field is you must.  I can live with all this.  If they're put in the correct places.  Rather than dismantling things.)

 

A mushy debuff static bubble that will get 'ran past' an 8 man roller team is a solution that didn't fixing on Force Field.

 

I didn't catch the Detention Field as a Toggle.  I'm quite happy with it as it is.  But I can see the reason for toggling that.  Niche powers are allowed.  That apply solutions to different problems.  Rather than debuff and wipe things out in Rikti Tower crushing speeds.

 

There are different ways to play the game and the Force Field set uniqueness represents a different point of view.

 

I'm not against debuffs coming into the set, but I understand Tath's deep reservations into whether these are required on a hard buff set or dismantling a sound Tier 9 power to do so.  It's already an excellent buff set.  Just put the debuffs into Dispersion.  It's a power which seems far more qualified to handle sweeping debuffs. And, yes, put any speed penalty for mobs or slow debuff protection into Force Bubble.

 

And if you're going to call something a 'BOMB' at least let such a force 'bomb' behave like it with a good scattering of mobs around the room.  (That may not please a tank or scrapper who have to chase the resulting debris...)

 

Azrael.

Edited by Golden Azrael
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Posted

I think the devs are trying to address the two main things that made Force Field unpopular: one is the lack of damage boosting abilities, the other is the fact that its main feature, + defense, isn't seen as a valuable effect by teams of already capped death machines nuking everything out of their way. 

 

To solve the first issue -res was added to a couple of powers. So in a team you can improve dps, and eventual soloers choosing FF can actually deal reasonable, although still not spectacular damage to lieuts and perhaps even a boss. 

Having said that, i still don't think Force Fields should get -res attached anywhere. It's a logical change from some points of view, but:

a) it doesn't fit the theme or the concept at all. since when does a force field amplify the damage taken by a target? a barrier STOPS damage from being taken, not the other way around. What FF should excel at, is getting unparallaled levels of protection. The set should be the king of damage mitigation, what it needs are tools to achieve that, not getting res dubbufs.

While it's true that personal dps might be anemic for some combo, most notably those blast sets that cannot slot many procs, i think the issue there lies in the way defender attacks are designed and not in FF itself. More damage, if really is needed, could come from turning force bolt and repulsion bomb into decent attacks and not only control tools: after all, the only way a force field can be used to destroy things is to RAM those things with the field. Gravity is a control set that trades some of its control for raw damage, and that places it apart from other sets, giving it an unique feeling. Force Field could be the set that trades debuffing for smashing things around.

b) to reinforce what said above: damage mitigation should be main focus. when a rad, cold, storm, dark etc join a team, everyone thinks " oh wow, we'll really crush those enemies now". When FF joins the thought should be " oh wow, we are going to be really safe and unstoppable because all those debuffs and aoe and thousand of points of damage won't scratch us".

You could argue that such a level of protection is superfluous for those teams that atomize everything in seconds, but the same goes for debuffs: if they are alredy destroying everything with ease, do they really need more -res?  and that leads to the implementation of hard mode and atrocious levels of damage, wich, again, FF should be the perfect tool to counter.

c) i honestly think there is already a vast overabundance of debuffs everywhere in the game, even -res. you get it from powers, you get it from procs, primary attacks, pets, lore pets, coffee machines. those 90 year old grannies struggling with outcasts in steel canyon carry debuffs in their purses. Sincerely, it's more than enough.

 

Now, some thoughts about powers:

the change to dispersion bubble is nice and very welcome.

Detention Field: i think the devs might be trying to give us even too much in this case. the atrocious drawback of this power is that you can't turn it off when it's not needed anymore. Turning it into a toggle would solve the problem and change it into a power worthy of being taken and used. perhaps that is not an optimal solution and people want more and you have better ideas: that's fine, but it could come in later patch. for the moment, i think most would be very happy with just being able to shut down the occasional nasty boss.

Force bubble/repulsion field and etc: i don't know. i rarely used them before, and i havent' tried those on beta, so i cannot speak for this one. 

The tier 9: it's not bad, but -special is not enough to make a true t9. This power should offer a BIG protection, or be a BIG obstacle for the enemies, or  a mix of both. as it stands it's not BIG enough.

 

as for the set as a whole: many good suggestions have been made and considered. i agree with them. high DDR and absorption wuld be excellent additions. Those softcapped death machines i spoke of earlier? they can still be killed by debuffs. and when they fail, they are going to fail HARD. debuff resistance would be something that even them wouldn't refuse. I have many characters that can afford to jump into the fray without the need to wait for Farsight, or ice shields, or buffs and etc. but if i knew they were going to give me stacks of DDR? i'd definitely want them.

 

I appreciate and respect all the effort and thought that's been put into this. Force Field is not easy to "fix" and turn into an appealing set again. Yet it's a very unique set with a special flavor that cannot be found in any other game and i think most people playing it chose it exactly for those reasons. In fact it was the curiosity to see how it worked that dragged me to CoH in the first place. I really do hope to see it turn into the top protection set someday, somehow.

 

 

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Posted
10 minutes ago, Astralock said:

Considering that Page 5 is going live in a couple of hours, this is all really moot.

I actually hope not. I dusted off an old FF/Elec that I had stalled out with in the 40s. Decided to play him to have some fun with Force Fields before the set gets mangled to something I don't recognize. Had an amazing time pinning mobs to the door Trick or treating, keeping the mobs off the team while we did banners and enjoyed soloing even. Going to miss Force bubble a lot.

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