Best (and worst) thematic powersets

[twozerofoxtrot]

On 11/20/2022 at 6:14 AM, pawstruck said:

Which powersets in the game represent their theme ... worst ... mechanically.

 

 

Hot take 🔥  but I think Super Strength is mechanically the worst representation of its theme.

 

Not to be confused with having the worst mechanics.

 

When one imagines the vast breadth of Superstrong characters in all of illustrated fiction, how many of them hit like a wet noodle unless they pump up on RAGE, only to deflate again in a few minutes and become even weaker and more defenseless than before?

 

Superman?

Hulk?

Rogue?

 

All get their super strength from different places, and Hulk even rages in a way that makes sense in a pre i24 Rage 'fix' way, but none of them access that power in a way that aligns with Super Strength on Homecoming today.

 

The current incarnation of the Super Strength is thematically way out of bounds. If you don't pick up a single power you're basically Super Normal.

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by twozerofoxtrot
I "it's'd" when I shoulda "its'd"

[Major_Decoy]

47 minutes ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

When one imagines the vast breadth of Superstrong characters in all of illustrated fiction, how many of them hit like a wet noodle unless they pump up on RAGE,

There are at least two things that speak to the game developers having played D&D. The d20 hit chance, where a 20 always hits and a 1 always misses and Rage.

 

Super Strength rage has more influence from Barbarian Rage than from Super Hero comics.

 

Not to say that there aren't examples of Superheroes raging in comics, it's just that, traditionally, that's the Super-hero ceasing to hold back, being too angry to pull their punches.

[Major_Decoy]

Which is not to say that I want a "get so angry I stop holding back" power. I mean, that sort of power is better suited as something you get as part of a story arc, like to fight Leon at the end of Laura Lockhart's arc.

 

Thematically I don't think there should be a "I press this button to get so mad I stop controlling myself" button. That's the kind of thing that makes you an NPC.

[Kaigai Sticky]

On 11/19/2022 at 5:33 PM, ZorkNemesis said:

Spines for me isn't a good themed set.  Part of the issue is simply the poison aspect of it which works fine for a venoumous creature theme but doesn't work as well if you're aiming for something like iron, stone or ice barbs.  I have a Spines/Ice Scrapper and the poison just comes across as an anomally when I was going for ice shards.

 

Same, if I am not mistaken Silver Mantis uses a version of spines without the poison effects.

[pawstruck]

8 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

 

Hot take 🔥  but I think Super Strength is mechanically the worst representation of its theme.

 

Not to be confused with having the worst mechanics.

 

 

Oh man, I forgot about SS. Fully agree. I don't think the animations or the mechanics "feel" like super strength. Titan Weapon does the "oh shit that's gonna hurt" thing better, and Street Justice the "that's how I'd fight if I had superpowers" jam.

 

Rage feels like a beta version of Brute's Fury that they just couldn't figure out yet.

[Tiger Shadow]

8 hours ago, Major_Decoy said:

Which is not to say that I want a "get so angry I stop holding back" power.

 

I figure that's best represented by popping a bunch of red inspirations, they even have 'rage' in their names.

[Yaliw]

One of the few powers that takes me out of a powerset is the Oni from Ninjas. The Oni feels so out of place. I want to be stealthy and have stealthy bois running around doing stealth sutff. Meanwhile the Oni is lighting everything on fire- even making it rain fire. It feels so out of place. It's a cool minion, just the odd one out.

 

Meanwhile Nu-Necromancy is spot on. I got zombies, I got ghosts, I got zombie ghosts... it's great.

[Zep]

Looking at builds I have:

In terms of theme, Elec/Elec Stalker or Dominator.

Anything Electric with Storm aka Storm Electric Defender.

Robotics/FF Master Mind

DP/Dev Blaster - tech all the way

[Marshal_General]

Every time I see a certain staff animation I expect the bad guy to go, "Nice moves! Can you also do the Caterpillar?"

[Zect]

On 11/23/2022 at 2:06 PM, Major_Decoy said:

There are at least two things that speak to the game developers having played D&D. The d20 hit chance, where a 20 always hits and a 1 always misses and Rage.

 

Super Strength rage has more influence from Barbarian Rage than from Super Hero comics.

 

I don't have a handy source for you right now, but there is an interview with Cryptic out there where they say that they wanted to make an MMO, but ran into the concern that fantasy MMO's were really common. So they looked at superheroes, which was a relatively unexplored space at the time, and settled on that theme instead.

 

Cryptic never set out to make a superhero game from the get-go; they set out to make an MMO, one in the pre-WoW revolution, d20-inspired mold, and put a superhero skin on it to stand out. Knowing this makes a lot of game design decisions make more sense in hindsight.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Zect