Ideas for Several revamps

[Sovias]

Hello, I've got a few suggestions for quite a few different topics that could probably be their own post but to avoid dumping a bunch of posts I decided to post them all in a list.

 

Firstly a Weekly sort of lets say.. zone focus While collecting some exploration badges I noticed some of the maps are very cool but relatively unexplored and empty. An example would be Crey's folly, while roaming around looking for badges there was a lot of neatly designed areas that would have been fun to roam, explore and fight bad guys with friends, but as far as I could tell there wasn't really much content there and lets be real at any level over 10 who is going to roam a map to fight mobs and grind for xp and influence.

So here's the idea.

have a weekly event where the mobs in the zone change to those level shifted mobs like when there's a rikti invasion or clockwork in kings row sort of deal give a slight bonus to xp in the zone and give some form of small chance of merit drop in the zone to entice people to jump into places and group up to fight crime, it would be good xp for people trying to level up and it would bring in people on the higher levels to farm for some merits. maybe even throw in some repeatable sort of radio/newspaper missions to facilitate the rewards. it would change up the normal routine a bit of farming AE and running the same few TF's every day there would be LFG for Founders Falls Weekly or Eden or whatever the weekly cycled map would be. I think it would be fun to revisit some of these areas that are normally just a pass through for badges or just generally dead zone. obviously there is content in these zones already but typically its a quick pass through before you're on to the next i feel like this would also provide a more social friendly alternative to AE farms. AE farms server a purpose but i think if there was more options with slight boosts and benefits more people would be drawn to other zones and get to enjoy the maps the game devs made.

 

Next id like to suggest some power and set revamps.

 

Brutes and Fury - It seems to me like brute have sort of become the "main character" of this game. Other than their farming potential they can very easily solo most content. I feel like brutes were supposed to be a sort of opponent to Tankers where they still fit the role of tank for villain content but operated differently to the way a typical tanker would. it seemed that their design was initially supposed to be slightly worse at tanking than tanks but slightly better at damage but what they ended up turning out was same tank resistances and dmg near equivalent to scrappers. I think brutes need a slight drop to their resistances to 85% vs 90% and to make up for it tweak the way fury works. right now fury seems to just immediately be full and stay that way most of the time its sort of just a free nearly double dmg bonus passively instead i think there should be a sort of health element added to the mix the lower the health of the brute 75% or less the larger the damage bonus maybe even a scaling increase at extreme low levels like 25% or less health, increase the dmg scaling from 0.75 to 1.0 that puts the brutes focus on trying to maintain a lower health level to keep those high damage numbers and its riskier to maintain those high numbers. or just increase the fury damage bonus but make it much slower to accumulate. there have been recent changes to tanks to buff them into a more tanky role which i feel was needed but there also was some sort of damage boost to try and put them on par a bit more with brutes which i think was unnecessary i think tanks should be the best at defending with minor dmg where brutes are the inverse.

 

Rage - Right now rage seems to be one of the worst build up's I've seen lots of complaints about the rage crash and no longer being able to stack rage to avoid the crash etc. I think rage should be revamped to where it acts like the incarnate toggles that are active for a time before going on cooldown, and while you toggle rage on you gain stacks of rage for each attack you perform, so lets say rage last for 15 seconds you toggle it on and gain 15% dmg bonus and a 15% increase in end cost for attacks. (these numbers are irrelevant and could be anything) then every successful attack after the first toggle gives you another stack of rage increasing dmg and increasing cost at the high end you could be pulling some serious dmg numbers while having to pop blues in order to maintain those numbers before the stacks fall off at the end of the toggle duration then it goes on a cd. this way the "crash is sort of built into the power while still being manageable but mechanically makes sense you're in a rage causing you to do more damage while also exerting more energy in the process. it doesn't make a whole lot of sense the way it works now.

 

Regen - its in a weird place right now my first ever character was a regen scrapper. right now it just feels weird to play instead of a regen character it more feels like a self targeting empathy character. the regen numbers are just in general pretty low for a regen class without Instant healing anyways. with every regen power and bonus i can get my hands on the base regen is about the same as i can get on a lot of non regen classes. an example being devices blaster. I'm thinking something along the lines of a auto power that lets healing beyond 100% health turn into absorb I think the class should lose its resistances and focus more on healing power the way it should survive is from healing and regen its health should where it gets its survivability not from set bonuses and resistance powers. I'll be honest I don't have a straight up fix for this powerset but the way it feels right now just isn't regen to me. 

 

Dark Melee - This is a pretty cool and versatile set honestly, it has healing an amazing build up power, great end recovery power and nice dmg but i feel like the one thing the set doesn't do well is what darkness is supposed to do and -chance to hit. It seems to barely work ever, I just think it needs a buff to -To hit really. it feels like in order for this set to perform its to hit role it has to be dedicated too much into that area with enhancements.

 

Mind Control - back on live I remember this set being considered one of the best for pure control but now it seems lackluster and for mind control as a concept it seems pretty lacking there are confuse and mass confusion but thats less a mind controlling and more of a illusion set in my opinion since they are confused into thinking their allies are enemies. instead i think like other control set this should be more pet oriented, have a strong single target mind control power that turns a foe into a controllable ally, like force them to be a pet with the attack follow and passive buttons like in normal pet windows this would also help solve the confused enemies defeating each other not providing xp the pet should contribute towards xp if im not mistaken by default. and for mass confusion instead make it more of the enemies shifting alliances to red for each other and yellow to players like the loyalist mobs in praetoria. also mass sleep just seems crappy as a control skill unless ur trying to sneak past enemies. Also i dont see why total domination cant do any dmg like the single target one does.

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Sovias
got back from dentist added tank acknowledgement

[Rudra]

4 hours ago, Sovias said:

Brutes and Fury - It seems to me like brute have sort of become the "main character" of this game. Other than their farming potential they can very easily solo most content. I feel like brutes were supposed to be a sort of opponent to Tankers where they still fit the role of tank for villain content but operated differently to the way a typical tanker would. it seemed that their design was initially supposed to be slightly worse at tanking than tanks but slightly better at damage but what they ended up turning out was same tank resistances and dmg near equivalent to scrappers. I think brutes need a slight drop to their resistances to 85% vs 90% and to make up for it tweak the way fury works. right now fury seems to just immediately be full and stay that way most of the time its sort of just a free nearly double dmg bonus passively instead i think there should be a sort of health element added to the mix the lower the health of the brute 75% or less the larger the damage bonus maybe even a scaling increase at extreme low levels like 25% or less health, increase the dmg scaling from 0.75 to 1.0 that puts the brutes focus on trying to maintain a lower health level to keep those high damage numbers and its riskier to maintain those high numbers. or just increase the fury damage bonus but make it much slower to accumulate. 

As often as Tankers have been buffed and Brutes have been nerfed since proliferation? Hell no. (Edit: Especially tying Brute Fury to their health. I hated Blaster's Defiance 1.0. I absolutely in no way want to see Brutes get a failed system in place of their Fury.)

 

4 hours ago, Sovias said:

Dark Melee - This is a pretty cool and versatile set honestly, it has healing an amazing build up power, great end recovery power and nice dmg but i feel like the one thing the set doesn't do well is what darkness is supposed to do and -chance to hit. It seems to barely work ever, I just think it needs a buff to -To hit really. 

With the exception of Confront, Dark Consumption, and Soul Drain, every power in Dark Melee has a -ToHit component. Shadow Punch, Smite, Shadow Maul, Siphon Life, and Midnight Grasp all impose -5.63% ToHit on affected targets. Touch of Fear imposes -11.25% ToHit on affected targets. You can slot all 6 of those powers with ToHit Debuff or Accurate ToHit Debuff enhancements/sets to make those -ToHit effects even more effective. Dark Melee is fine with its -ToHit.

 

4 hours ago, Sovias said:

Firstly a Weekly sort of lets say..  While collecting some exploration badges I noticed some of the maps are very cool but relatively unexplored and empty. An example would be Crey's folly, while roaming around looking for badges there was a lot of neatly designed areas that would have been fun to roam, explore and fight bad guys with friends, but as far as I could tell there wasn't really much content there and lets be real at any level over 10 who is going to roam a map to fight mobs and grind for xp and influence.

So here's the idea.

have a weekly event where the mobs in the zone change to those level shifted mobs like when there's a rikti invasion or clockwork in kings row sort of deal give a slight bonus to xp in the zone and give some form of small chance of merit drop in the zone to entice people to jump into places and group up to fight crime, it would be good xp for people trying to level up and it would bring in people on the higher levels to farm for some merits. maybe even throw in some repeatable sort of radio/newspaper missions to facilitate the rewards. it would change up the normal routine a bit of farming AE and running the same few TF's every day there would be LFG for Founders Falls Weekly or Eden or whatever the weekly cycled map would be. I think it would be fun to revisit some of these areas that are normally just a pass through for badges or just generally dead zone.

There actually are missions that send players into those zones. Some are instanced missions so players just race to their mission and others are street sweeps so players avoid them. They do exist though.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Rudra

[Sovias]

37 minutes ago, Rudra said:

As often as Tankers have been buffed and Brutes have been nerfed since proliferation? Hell no. (Edit: Especially tying Brute Fury to their health. I hated Blaster's Defiance 1.0. I absolutely in no way want to see Brutes get a failed system in place of their Fury.)

 

With the exception of Confront, Dark Consumption, and Soul Drain, every power in Dark Melee has a -ToHit component. Shadow Punch, Smite, Shadow Maul, Siphon Life, and Midnight Grasp all impose -5.63% ToHit on affected targets. Touch of Fear imposes -11.25% ToHit on affected targets. You can slot all 6 of those powers with ToHit Debuff or Accurate ToHit Debuff enhancements/sets to make those -ToHit effects even more effective. Dark Melee is fine with its -ToHit.

 

There actually are missions that send players into those zones. Some are instanced missions so players just race to their mission and others are street sweeps so players avoid them. They do exist though.

How do you feel about brutes right now in terms of  balance? I feel like instead of fitting a into a role they are kinda just THE role. I do think the tanks needed a buff but the dmg buff tanks got also wasnt where it was at, i do like the larger aoe's and higher aggro that felt right.

 

While there are missions in those zones the time in lots of them are brief and the idea is just to kinda breathe some life into some zones that didnt see much life and give more content to do that can kinda go on a rotation to keep things fresh it doesnt have to be just the fewer visted zones either it could roll around to hollow or atlas as well just to get some more people roaming zones.

 

What do you think about the rage change suggestion?

[Rudra]

16 minutes ago, Sovias said:

How do you feel about brutes right now in terms of  balance? I feel like instead of fitting a into a role they are kinda just THE role. I do think the tanks needed a buff but the dmg buff tanks got also wasnt where it was at, i do like the larger aoe's and higher aggro that felt right.

I see Tankers more often than I see Brutes. And I see comments in chat to play a Tanker (instead of a Brute) when new players ask for help or when they ask if they should play a Tanker or a Brute, never advice for that player to play a Brute. I play Brutes because I prefer getting my attacks faster than my defenses, but that is me. So I just don't see what you are talking about. (Edit: And my brutes never have a full Fury bar. They stop gaining at 90% or so. And they routinely hover around 60% depending on map layout. And considering that Brutes have a lower base damage compared to Tankers specifically because of their Fury mechanic, and that Tankers can easily max out their resists whereas Brutes have to work at it, I am very opposed to your take on them.)

 

16 minutes ago, Sovias said:

What do you think about the rage change suggestion?

I am intentionally avoiding the Rage discussion.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Rudra

[Greycat]

"Weekly levelless zones" - eh. Honestly I tend to find this sort of thing painfully uninteresting (along with the "add a GM!" - giant bags of hit points just aren't that interesting.)

 

Thing is, if you're looking at hazard zones - and don't forget, most are only blueside, red and gold don't really have an equivalent - there's serious storyline potential there. Faultline got a massive makeover on live - and yeah, it was a lot of work, BUT part of that was doing a lot of geometry makeovers on the map and environment. Crey's, for instance, has a few possibly interested factions (Crey, obviously, looking at their labs, the Devouring Earth would probably like to turn it into the next Eden - or just destroy this giant pollutant puddle - and it's right next to the RWZ) that could have storylines built around them. Eden can be more than just a place to do a tailor mission and pass through on the way to a Hami raid. Perez.... we can hand out flamethrowers.

 

My "dream project" since live - and it won't happen here, we'd basically *need* a staff like we had on live - would be a multi-issue reclaiming of Boomtown, starting with fighting to protect the area near the entrance as it gets rebuilt, then pushing in to the rest of the zone - like every third issue or page or whatnot in HC terms would have a bit more "reclaimed" Boomtown, but we'd have to start (say) escorting workers to the new site and defending them, undertaking missions to see just what's been rediscovered (or what's being planted to hamper progress,) etc.  In other words, instead of going "one issue, it's a wreck, next issue, all fixed and pretty!" we'd get to see it evolve and be part of it.

[Uun]

19 hours ago, Sovias said:

How do you feel about brutes right now in terms of  balance? I feel like instead of fitting a into a role they are kinda just THE role.

I don't think this is true at all. While brutes solo very well due to their mix of damage and survivability, they don't really serve a vital team role. Tanks are superior for aggro management  (and AoE damage) and several ATs are superior for DPS. I rarely see a team leader recruiting for a brute. Brutes are largely fine as is and certainly don't warrant nerfing their resistance cap or fury.

[TheZag]

Id be down for a creys folley revamp.  Its the only zone i havent been able to explore yet and a revamp is almost guaranteed to grant that opportunity.