Unpopular idea - alternate group wide player buffing.

[Zewks]

(TLDR version in quote box)

 

I dont play a lot of Defenders, corruptors, or controllers (or even MMs for that matter).

 

A large part of this decision not to play them, is just the sheer amount of "prep time", and finagling with the controls and UI that has to be put in every 3-4 minutes of gameplay.

 

I started my MMORPG experience with Asherons Call 1, so Im no stranger to "the buffing process". Casting all those short lived buffs on your character and then on each armor piece you had (head, chest, upper arms, lower arms,  hands, legs, feet - unless you wore a full body robe which reduced this to just head, body, gloves and feet). Took you a solid minute (including potential spell buff fizzles) to fully buff yourself. Only to then jump into a dungeon for the 9 remaining minutes you had to try to fight a bit and still get out with the buffs just wearing off to repeat the process.

 

Now CoH isnt quite this bad 😛

 

However, take something like Cold Domination. In a full group, thats 2 powers per person you have to cast every group member, for a total of 16 power usages. With cast animation and lag, its about 1.5 seconds per power usage. This means fully prepping your team is going to take a solid 24 seconds assuming you arent wasting any other time. And at lower levels, end can be an issue, causing you to pop some inspirations, or wait a few more seconds for end to recharge.

 

And this is a process that you have to repeat every 4 minutes (or closer to every 3.5 minutes).

 

TLDR:

 

Quote

 

My "Unpopular?" idea for the devs is simple:

- Create a companion power to go with these types of powers. A power that provides the same buff, but to everyone on the team at once.

- - This power could drain 50% of the players Endurance

- - This power wouldnt be usable in combat

 

 

This would dramatically help with the slog of "prep time" required for these types of support powers (MM's might enjoy it as well), but it would still keep the normal single target powers useful for in combat situations. IE: Say the powers drop but people arent paying attention. Now its up to the support player to pull a clutch save and get the buffs up and running in the middle of combat, one at a time.

 

Now this is just my personal opinion. I know id be much more willing to play these types of power sets if the "prep time" wasnt as annoying. Im sure others probably disagree, but it would still be interesting to hear thoughts from those with experience playing these sets, and those who might be staying away from them.

 

 

Edited February 26 by Zewks

[DougGraves]

I'm  not familiar with  cold domination.

 

Originally buffs were by individual.  But most that were intended to be group buffs were changed to hit an aoe.

 

So with speed boost I can target one player and it buffs everyone around them.

 

There are some buffs with longer recharge that are not intended to be used on everyone.

[eiynp]

Cold buffs (and most/all similar spammable buffs) are aoe also

 

OP may wish to like, actually give some of these ATs a go before solving any more of the problems of yesteryear

[biostem]

Try pain domination - you get a HoT aura, (def/corr only, MMs get a regen one).  You also get a +res/+tohit+dmg click that can kind of be made perma and just left to autofire, (may need the LotG global recharges and some set bonuses to truly make it so).  You can also go with the various leadership toggles, or just roll a SoA/Widow who gets copies of them in their secondary.

Edited February 26 by biostem

[Psyonico]

The buffs that are meant to be cast on everyone are already AoE, they just don't affect the caster.

[Mopery]

I don't play this powerset, but let me tell you how it should work? 🤔

[Greycat]

3 hours ago, Zewks said:

thats 2 powers per person you have to cast every group member

 

It already does apply as an AOE. Has since live.  There are *very* few buffs that don't (Clear Mind, for instance,) and those don't need to be applied to everyone generally. Don't know where you're getting your information, but ... maybe don't get it from there.

[Zewks]

Thanks for filling in the (snarky) details for me.

 

I mean, I admitted my ignorance in the post, I never played these sets.

 

What I was mostly going on was watching others who WERE playing these sets, and how they seemed to always take a good chunk of time getting everyone all buffed up.

 

Guess Ill pay more attention to exactly what they are doing next time 😛

[Glacier Peak]

I main a Cold Domination Corruptor and have enjoyed the convenience of AoE buff effect for the shields since they were introduced. The only other buff, Frostworks, is still a single target application, but it's not recharging in 1 second either so that's okay. 

[Uun]

This was implemented in Issue 20.5 (2011).

 

Group Area Buffs

To make buffing easier for Teams and Leagues, these buff powers now affect all the eligible characters within a 30-foot-radius around the targeted character. (Previously, you had to target and buff each individual character to use these powers.)

• Cold Domination (Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors): Ice Shield and Glacial Shield
• Force Field (Defenders, Controllers, Masterminds): Deflection Shield and Insulation Shield
• Kinetics (Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors): Increase Density and Speed Boost
• Sonic Resonance (Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors): Sonic Barrier and Sonic Haven
• Thermal Radiation (Controllers, Corruptors, Masterminds): Fire Shield and Plasma Shield

[UltraAlt]

20 hours ago, Zewks said:

A large part of this decision not to play them, is just the sheer amount of "prep time", and finagling with the controls and UI that has to be put in every 3-4 minutes of gameplay.

 

I do a lot of alt jumping and standardizing control setting for all characters go a long way.

 

Layout explanation

 

new tray position/layout

 

20 hours ago, Zewks said:

However, take something like Cold Domination. In a full group, thats 2 powers per person you have to cast every group member, for a total of 16 power usages. With cast animation and lag, its about 1.5 seconds per power usage. This means fully prepping your team is going to take a solid 24 seconds assuming you arent wasting any other time. And at lower levels, end can be an issue, causing you to pop some inspirations, or wait a few more seconds for end to recharge.

 

For the shields, if teammates are near one another - one caste will shield all those within range.

 

When running a shielding character, I generally open the team Icons so I can see who wasn't shielded before activating a shielding power for the 2nd time.

 

19 hours ago, DougGraves said:

Originally buffs were by individual.  But most that were intended to be group buffs were changed to hit an aoe.

 

👍