Specialized Pools Discussion

[Disruptor]

Talkin' Sorcery, Experimentation, Force of Will, Gadgetry and Utility Belt. Feel free to add your thoughts.

 

I'm not 100% but I kinda remember Sorcery being available on Live, correct me if I'm wrong. That said I'm nearly certain we never saw the other four pools before the game shutdown. And I know Sorcery has been slightly reworked on HC which was welcomed.

 

 

Also I kinda of remember Gadgetry and Utility Belt being available on HC when it first launched. Am curious are these being reworked? If I'm being honest Gadgetry was a bit underwhelming, it had blast drone and drone barrage but they weren't drones at all their animations were just energy blast-like animations from your hands. These attacks did do -Regen. I thought Force Barrier from gadgetry was interesting and it had Jetpack w/ Turbo Boost as travel but feel like there is a lot of overlap between this and Fly, curious how they could make Jetpack more unique. Maybe it could leave a small burn trail when activated near the ground or it deals damage over time in a cone behind you? IDK just spitballing. 

 

Utility Belt and Gadget both had a web nade-like move in Bolas & Nanonet, def think if both these pools were to return one of these moves could be changed a bit as they are nearly identical. Flying Strike was a charge/teleport aoe move from Utility Belt which I dont really understand how its "utility belt" related other than Batman has a utility belt and he does a similar move.

 

 

I understand why Utility Belt and Gadget arnt currently available, specifically Gadgetry felt unfinished when I played it. And as someone who loves gadgets/tech/trap type characters I was pretty underwhelmed as a whole with both UB & Gadgetry.

 

On another note, you can only have one of these pools at a time on HC but I am not so sure thats how it is/was on other servers. Maybe I'm misremembering but I coulda sworn I played a char w/ all four except Sorcery somewhere. Specifically for silly fun I took Life Support System, Force Barrier, Adrenal Booster and Unleash Potential but it was at a huge cost of other pools and power choices

 

I really like Experimentation Pool especially the animations on Experimental Injection, Corrosive Vial and Adrenal Booster.

 

 

[Player2]

41 minutes ago, Disruptor said:

I really like Experimentation Pool especially the animations on Experimental Injection, Corrosive Vial and Adrenal Booster.

 

I really, REALLY wish they would give that Experimental Injection animation to the Medicine pool for the Injection power.  I mean, at least as an optional animation or something.

[Glacier Peak]

The Experimentation Pool, the Sorcery Pool, the Force of Will Pool powers were all heavily modified from their versions on Live (if they could be considered that by being unreleased or in various stages of beta testing).

 

I'm pretty supportive of the way the Homecoming team has developed these Pools. A mix between Travel Pool Power and a useful T4. 

 

Edit: Just wanted to add that there has not ever been a Gadgetry or Utility Belt Pool power set on Homecoming. Those unfinished sets are accessible on OuroDev solo servers with dev tools, or perhaps on other CoH servers, but not on Homecoming. 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Glacier Peak

[Tarrquinn]

I never really found the Origin Pools to be that useful tbh, especially after the Travel Pools got reworked. Mystic Flight doesn't come with Hover or Evasive Maneuvers, so its still janky. Mighty Leap is alright, but misses out on Double Jump. And I don't like Super Speed, so Speed of Sound doesn't appeal to me at all. The attack powers I didn't really have much need for, but I often play Corruptor or Scrapper - characters that don't lack for attacks. And the final buffs are.... meh. Not bad, but not worth investing 3 powers in to get. I've tried all 3 Origin Pools before, and I ended up respeccing out. I like the idea behind them, but I don't really find them worth the investment.

[MTeague]

It's the fine line between not making them OP and not making them of questionable worth. I'm pretty happy with them as they stand. 

I would not mind if toxic dart got a little love, but it is a T1 pool attack, so it's never going to be something to write home about. 

 

I am hoping the remaining two Origin Pools become available "soon", but I can be patient. 

[tidge]

I've used both Sorcery and Force of Will, on different characters obv. I have a couple of characters for which the animations feel out-of-place, but for the characters for which the animations match the costume themes, I really like them.

 

If there is one regret I have about the page 5 change (to when primary/second powers can be chosen) it is that it has become easier to ignore experimenting with the diverse power pools. Overall, I still see page 5 as a big win... especially since it allows deeper dives into the epic/patron pools.

[Snarky]

I tend to only go deep once in a while on pools. If I have the power picks available.  Rare

 

Concealment: Stealth, and I love the phase shift power for racing through Rularuu or Rikti maps. The second pick to bet there is always garbage

 

Flight, sometimes go deep.  The precise maneuver on the last power is great 

 

Leadership, yawn, but when i go three it is +Def, +Dam, +Acc never veng

 

Sorcery. Love the mez prot.  So painful to get there.  Give up hyper fly speed on Fly for a useless TP and a truly yawn attack

 

Force of Will.  Yawn opener, Like the cone, I like cones, and the End power can be useful rarely, nice option.  Overall I have gone into it…..once

[gamingglen]

I find Sorcery to be lacking. I'd rather take the Flight Pool for my travel power. But, on a couple magic-themed characters I have used it. I do not like the teleport part of Mystic Flight; too much busy work for little gain. I'd rather sit back and read an in-air magazine 😄 . I also feel that way about the Teleport pool in general. I've tried it once, respec'd out of it, and never took it again.

 

I discovered something about Arcane Bolt - after watching some anime of magic-using sword-wielding characters, I took this power with broadsword & shield scrapper. I love the quick animation of Arcane Bolt, probably because a shield prohibits the usual way-too-long hand motions of the regular animation. One of these days I'll add more slots to it and then maybe it will amount to something. It is useful to blast those chumps who run away with a sliver of health left.

[MTeague]

For Sorcery,

• I'm not a huge fan of Arcane Bolt. It can work and for controllers with Containment, it does not suck. But neither is it the Most Amazing Thing Ever. 
• Conceptually, I like Spirit Ward, and that's usually my 2nd pick after Mystic Flight.  It's been handy every so often to place on an NPC who's supposed to live, and it's easy to tag a squishy teammate with it.  They may run zooming out of range, but hey, I tried. 
• Visually, I love love love Enflame, esp with the flames custom-colored to match a theme. In practice of actually contributing damage, the power may or may not be worth beans. I haven't looked because I don't want to give up the power. 

 

[High_Beam]

I want Grenades.  An entire Secondary of Grenades.  I don't care if its just Trick Arrow ported over I just want to throw small cans of whoop-a$$ at bad guys.  So totally unfair.

[InvaderStych]

Jaunt's endurance cost is out of bounds.  13.xx against 9.xx for Translocation and 5.xx for Combat Teleport.  Double the cost of CT (11.xx) would be out of bounds enough: slotting CT for Range eliminates half of Jaunt's range advantage.  At worst it should be the same cost as Translocation.

 

The cost of Jaunt is <too damn high meme goes here>.

[JasperStone]

2 hours ago, High_Beam said:

I want Grenades.  An entire Secondary of Grenades.  I don't care if its just Trick Arrow ported over I just want to throw small cans of whoop-a$$ at bad guys.  So totally unfair.

What if they were at the P2W

5 Cans of WhoopA$$  for 10,000 inf

[Tiger Shadow]

2 hours ago, High_Beam said:

I want Grenades.  An entire Secondary of Grenades.  I don't care if its just Trick Arrow ported over I just want to throw small cans of whoop-a$$ at bad guys.  So totally unfair.

 

For Sentinels and three of the melee ATs, a grenade secondary would be Grenade Armor. This idea has my support.

[Snarky]

3 hours ago, High_Beam said:

I want Grenades.  An entire Secondary of Grenades.  I don't care if its just Trick Arrow ported over I just want to throw small cans of whoop-a$$ at bad guys.  So totally unfair.

You can buy 3 different types at P2W.  Fun during DFB!

[Frozen Burn]

On 11/19/2022 at 9:22 PM, Disruptor said:

Talkin' Sorcery, Experimentation, Force of Will, Gadgetry and Utility Belt. Feel free to add your thoughts.

 

I'm not 100% but I kinda remember Sorcery being available on Live, correct me if I'm wrong. That said I'm nearly certain we never saw the other four pools before the game shutdown. And I know Sorcery has been slightly reworked on HC which was welcomed.

 

 

Also I kinda of remember Gadgetry and Utility Belt being available on HC when it first launched. Am curious are these being reworked? If I'm being honest Gadgetry was a bit underwhelming, it had blast drone and drone barrage but they weren't drones at all their animations were just energy blast-like animations from your hands. These attacks did do -Regen. I thought Force Barrier from gadgetry was interesting and it had Jetpack w/ Turbo Boost as travel but feel like there is a lot of overlap between this and Fly, curious how they could make Jetpack more unique. Maybe it could leave a small burn trail when activated near the ground or it deals damage over time in a cone behind you? IDK just spitballing. 

 

Utility Belt and Gadget both had a web nade-like move in Bolas & Nanonet, def think if both these pools were to return one of these moves could be changed a bit as they are nearly identical. Flying Strike was a charge/teleport aoe move from Utility Belt which I dont really understand how its "utility belt" related other than Batman has a utility belt and he does a similar move.

 

 

I understand why Utility Belt and Gadget arnt currently available, specifically Gadgetry felt unfinished when I played it. And as someone who loves gadgets/tech/trap type characters I was pretty underwhelmed as a whole with both UB & Gadgetry.

 

On another note, you can only have one of these pools at a time on HC but I am not so sure thats how it is/was on other servers. Maybe I'm misremembering but I coulda sworn I played a char w/ all four except Sorcery somewhere. Specifically for silly fun I took Life Support System, Force Barrier, Adrenal Booster and Unleash Potential but it was at a huge cost of other pools and power choices

 

I really like Experimentation Pool especially the animations on Experimental Injection, Corrosive Vial and Adrenal Booster.

 

 

 

Sorcery and Force of Will were on live, but I don't remember if Experimentation ever made it - I think it was on the cusp to be released right before the game shut down, which is why it was easy for HC to add it in when the game came back.  I could be misremembering, though.

 

Gadgetry and Utility Belt have never been out on Live or HC.  The original Devs never had them far enough to be released and the HC team hasn't developed them enough yet either.  I hope they do!  I've been wanting these pools to be out since the announcement of them during Live.  So, if you've played them, then it's been on another server.  So the only discourse you'll get here is "release them!" unless someone has been on those other servers too to experience them.  

 

And as for playing all the utilities together, that's on another server too.  As it was on Live, you couldn't have more than one, but they decided to unlock them.  HC has so far stayed true to Live, in that regard, keeping that as 1 only per character.  They may decide to unlock them in the future, though.  That's the thing with all the different servers/versions out there - if you run the game, you can do whatever you want with it.  

 

 

[BurtHutt]

I usually use a handful of pools. It's standard to get Hasten, Boxing/Tough/Weave, Maneuvers and maybe even Combat Jumping. 

 

I've strayed on the odd toon to try out these other pools (Sorcery, Will and just taking a look at Experimentation). I've used a few others here and there.

 

None of these are game breakers or must haves and I don't think they're supposed to be. I guess they're a fun little add to your toon and give you some variety. I still don't get why we don't have other sets like Utility Belt and so on.

[High_Beam]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

You can buy 3 different types at P2W.  Fun during DFB!

True plus the ones you can get as temp powers from mayhem or other missions.  I tried once to do that.  I had to seek therapy.

[Carnifax]

17 hours ago, MTeague said:

Visually, I love love love Enflame, esp with the flames custom-colored to match a theme. In practice of actually contributing damage, the power may or may not be worth beans. I haven't looked because I don't want to give up the power

It wasn't worth the beans. Now it kinda is.

 

On controllers & MMs you need to proc it to make it worthy (controllers don't get containment from it for some reason). Other ATs it's worthwhile without being OP. Think Domis might be the best for it because Domis usually lack AoE and tend to have a pet to plonk it on. Depends if you wanna go that deep into Sorcery. 

 

One place it's really good is the Summer Blockbuster. I had it on my Water/Dark, parsed out the results and it excelled there.