More Toxic/Poison sets!

[Greycat]

So, for those of us who like playing with poisons, we only have ... poison. There's nothing that directly matches, thematically. Sure, you can argue for plant control, somewhat, and spines if you *really* like bananas, but... More toxic sets might be fun.

 

Generally I'd see these having an effect of gradually (or quickly) wearing down an enemy's defense/reisst, and having it keep stacking (if it's mechanically possible, possibly starting to add DOT after some point. I'd suspect it is possible, due to things like disintigration and scourge.) Stunning and otherwise disabling the enemy would also be fully fitting as they react to noxious gasses and the like.  While these aren't full set descriptors with powers and such, a few rough thumbnails follow.

 

Toxin Blast -

Does both Toxic and Smashing (from the projectiles hitting you) damage. It's interested in both weakening the enemy and keeping them at range, so things like (say) a toxic pool as part of an AOE that slows the enemy and/or stuns (from the smell) or holds (maybe on stacking) would fit. To deal with resistances, *maybe* we could have something like Swap Ammo which lets you go more towards smashing or more towards toxic damage (or balanced) as options would be useful.

 

(And yes, animation wise I could see regular blasts, "lobbing" some of the attacks, or - yes - even the poison pool's spitting options for animations.)

 

Toxic armor -

OK, so other than "let's make more sets" I've got a different personal interest in this. Before COH came along, I had a character - inspired by Dennis Cuzinski in the New Universe D.P.7 series - who basically had this. Due to a mutation, he just started oozing toxins. He could make "spitballs" (which, thanks to the rules of the system being a bit silly at times, I managed to destroy a bunker with once...) and could walk into a room full of enemies and, in his words, just "smell bad." The noxious cloud he could create could blind or incapacitate enemies, as well as eat through armor and weapons (and his clothes, and bulkheads...)   When I came to COH in i3, my first character - Memphis Bill - was an attempt to come close to him, but the only sets I had at that time turned him into a fire/SS tank. Dark armor has otherwise been the closest to the "ideal" him... but I'd love to make this come to life.

 

So that bit of preamble should give some idea of what the set would be like. Mostly resists - incoming fire literally melts, after all - as well as PBAOE damage and control, probably working with other powers in the set to give "more." Player regeneration and health would continue improving as you picked more powers up (probably as a mix of a dedicated power and synergy with others) since you get more resistant to your own body trying to eat itself with those same toxins. A somewhat control-leaning tank.

 

Toxic Control -

My main thing here is "just how do we *animate* this to show control?" Some things - stuns, choking, and a similar "toxic pool" as mentioned before are easy, but this might be a graphically boring set, honestly. Possibly having "fumes" rising from the enemy (singular or in groups) to show where the area of effect is, and/or "bubbling" around their feet. Also possible in here is a slow/small DOT/-tohit "cloud" (with chance of confuse) using a non-stealth-inducing version of Steamy Mist's graphics to show the area of control.

 

Other than that, it'd be a fairly standard control set with the debuffs we've been going with with the other toxic sets. Pet? ... *shrug* I don't know, something ooze-y?

 

Toxic Melee

The one that's really "how do we make this look like... toxic melee? What would a toxic melee look like?" AOEs and cones would be "sprayed" or "splattered," of course, and likely build on each other for damage (and work in synergy with any other toxic powers to build damage even on top of their powers that have -res side effects) but other than that... yeah, hadn't really developed this much. 😉  It and the blast, of course, would contribute to the assault version on doms.

 

 

Just rough thumbnails of an idea for another thematic branch of powers to go along with Poison.

[Wravis]

Anything is toxic with the right personality!

I second this suggestion. Make it work and make it happen!

[Sakura Tenshi]

While only tangentially relevant, I've always thought radiation blast should have toxic as a secondary damage type to help distinguish it from electrical and energy blasts a bit more. Also because thematically it's radiation "poisoning". We even do see a bit of the logic being followed in a few radiation assault, melee, and armor powers with some of them dealing toxic secondary damage or even pure toxic.

[biostem]

Between the poison animations and the slime aura, a blast set should be pretty easy to accomplish.  Maybe give the attacks very watered down version of the poison debuffs, in addition to the toxic damage.

 

I wonder if, (besides mez protection), an all-debuffing armor set could work.  It'd definitely be something interesting to try.

 

As for toxic melee - do something similar to savage melee, only much heavier on the debuff side effects than on the "blood frenzy" mechanic.  Alternatively, maybe you have to "expose" or otherwise render the target vulnerable, (vis some of the powers), before you can infect them with the toxins...

[Player2]

1 hour ago, biostem said:

 

I wonder if, (besides mez protection), an all-debuffing armor set could work.  It'd definitely be something interesting to try.

 

My dream for a Storm Summoning armor set...  Storm Armor!

 

Little bit of defense and resist from the Steamy Mist covering, then debuff and mitigate..

[Zepp]

8 hours ago, Player2 said:

My dream for a Storm Summoning armor set...  Storm Armor!

 

Little bit of defense and resist from the Steamy Mist covering, then debuff and mitigate..

Hmmm... I need to get to MIDS to work out a Storm/Rad Blapfender...

[Uun]

4 hours ago, Zepp said:

Hmmm... I need to get to MIDS to work out a Storm/Rad Blapfender...

I haven't recreated him on HC, but one of my mains on live (dating back to I3) was a Storm/Rad defender. I can count on one hand the number of others I've seen and have fingers left over.