Brainstorm: New Archetypes

[ThatGuyCDude]

Much like the Sentinel utilizes and modifies existing powersets to create a new play style, let's brainstorm ideas that shuffle existing assets to create new archetypes.  WARNING: These ideas are probably going to be terrible--you have been informed in advance.

 

Cannon (Ranged Damage) [DUD.  See Ravager instead]:

Spoiler

Primary Power Sets: Assaults

Arsenal Assault, Dark Assault, Earth Assault, Electricity Assault, Energy Assault, Energy Assault, Fiery Assault, Icy Assault, Martial Assault, Psionic Assault, Radioactive Assault, Savage Assault, Sonic Assault, Thorny Assault

Secondary Power Sets: Blasts

Archery, Assault Rifle, Beam Rifle, Dark Blast, Dual Pistols, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Fire Blast, Ice Blast, Psychic Blast, Psychic Blast, Radiation Blast, Seismic Blast, Sonic Attack, Storm Blast, Water Blast

Archetype Bonus: Shattered Glass

When you use a Blast attack, your next Assault attack builds Shattered Glass.  When you use an Assault attack, your next Blast attack builds Shattered Glass.  Shattered Glass increases your damage output and DECREASES your resistance to damage.  Shattered Glass deteriorates over time and empties if you are felled.  EDIT 3/2/24: Like a fully automatic rifle firing continuously, the speed at which you launch your powers generates a dangerous amount of heat which melts away at your very being... when using a primary or secondary power you suffer a small portion of the damage you inflict (as a secondary hit subject to your resistance and defense).

 

The Cannon combines the damage-dealing components of a Dominator and a Blaster.  This would result in GOOFY amounts of high-hitting damage abilities, huge energy starvation, and a fragility that makes a Defender look sturdy by comparison.  The Cannon is effectively the ranged equivalent of a Stalker: you bring it down in your opening salvo or you turn to jelly.  The archetype would not work well solo but would be astounding in teams, provided there's control support and threat mitigation in the party.  EDIT 3/2/24: To further distinguish this archetype from its two components, a self-damage recoil would be added to attacks.  The Cannon can melt things, but will melt too in the process.

 

EDIT 3/4/24: Ravager (Melee Damage, Ranged Damage)

Primary Power Sets: Assaults

Arsenal Assault, Dark Assault, Earth Assault, Electricity Assault, Energy Assault, Energy Assault, Fiery Assault, Icy Assault, Martial Assault, Psionic Assault, Radioactive Assault, Savage Assault, Sonic Assault, Thorny Assault

Secondary Power Sets: Melee

Broad Sword, Claws, Dark Melee, Dual Blades, Electrical Melee, Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, Ice Melee, Kinetic Melee, Martial Arts, Ninja Blade, Psionic Melee, Radiation Melee, Savage Melee, Spines, Staff Fighting, Stone Melee, Street Justice

Archetype Bonus: ???

???

 

During Mission Archetype testing of the primary/secondary powerset pairings, the Ravager archetype became an apparent front-runner.  Initially engaging in heavy ranged suppressing fire, as packs approach the Ravager they then crumble to his devastating close-range attacks.  To the Ravager, offense is the best defense: while frail, targets never get an opportunity to land a hit.  Not sure the Ravager needs an archetype bonus with such an impressive power pairing, though perhaps it needs to remain some kind of penalty like recoil damage.

 

Commander (Tank, Pets):

Primary Power Sets: Armor

Bio Armor, Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Fiery Aura, Ice Armor, Invulnerability, Radiation Armor, Shield Defense, Stone Armor, Super Reflexes, Willpower

 

Secondary Power Sets: Summons

Beast Mastery, Demon Summoning, Mercenaries, Necromancy, Ninjas, Robotics, Thugs

Archetype Bonus: Strength in Numbers EDIT 3/2/24: Rally

Sidekicks (Henchmen) and Pets under control of the Commander and within 60' of the Commander send half of the damage they would take to the Commander (cannot be toggled off, but damage funneled is a separate hit subject to the Commander's own Defense and Resistance).  In this same range, these units have increased Threat generation.

 

Like the Mastermind, the Commander's damage comes from the minions he controls... though the Commander's minions deal a lot less damage by comparison.  However, the Commander's minions serve as group aggro, funneling single-target damage back into an easily healed and durable Commander.  Their vulnerability is AoE damage, which gets concentrated back into the Commander and fails to benefit the rest of the team with protection.  EDIT 3/2/24: Long fights are a weakness for the Commander.  While they are significantly more durable than a Mastermind, they cannot repair their pets in combat.  This runs the risk of dropping aggro if the pets are defeated.  I can't come up with a good solo answer to this problem (short of pets sharing inspirations with their owner, which should be a Mastermind mechanic too)... the Commander is thus dependent on support for big fights.  EDIT 3/4/24: During Mission Archetype testing of the Commander's primary/secondary power pairing, the build demonstrated acceptable durability.  Lack of support didn't seem to slow the Commander, who simply resummoned minions as they fell.  However, when the Commander's health was depleted and all of his minions perished with him, the rest of the party was wiped out by the threat drop.  This is an acceptable result for a tank death and the build shows remarkable promise, even without the archetype bonus.

 

Mediator (Support, Melee Damage) [OVERPOWERED.  See Redeemer instead]:

Spoiler

Primary Power Sets: Support

Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Electrical Affinity*, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, Nature Affinity*, Pain Domination, Poison, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Thermal Radiation, Time Manipulation, Traps*, Trick Arrow*

*Do not synergize well with Archetype Bonus

 

Secondary Power Sets: Melee (Stalker Variants, EDIT 3/2/24: but Haymakers instead of Assassin Strikes)

Broad Sword, Claws, Dark Melee, Dual Blades, Electrical Melee, Energy Melee, Fiery Melee, Ice Melee, Kinetic Melee, Martial Arts, Ninja Blade, Psionic Melee, Radiation Melee, Savage Melee, Spines, Staff Fighting, Stone Melee, Street Justice

Archetype Bonus: Triage

The Mediator Redeemer may use any 'target ally' ability on themself, even when it would otherwise be impossible to do so.  When using a melee damaging ability, there is a small chance (based on critical rate) that a support ability will instantly come off-cooldown.  EDIT 3/2/24: the Mediator Redeemer experiences mini-bursts of recharge reduction to their primary powers (like the Hasten effect from the Speed power pool).

 

The big deal with the Mediator is Triage.  Based on the luck of the draw, important support powers can be pulled off-cooldown by joining the fray.  However, like Defenders, the Mediator is fragile, and UNLIKE Defenders they do not get an endurance discount.  Pulling abilities off-cooldown risks endurance starvation, so the Mediator must decide when to fight and when to support the team.  EDIT 3/2/24: To maintain the general balance structure of long and short cooldown actions, Triage could instead cause mini-bursts of recharge reduction to primary powers.  EDIT 3/4/24: In Mission Architect testing of this primary/secondary pairing, the Mediator proved to be ridiculously overpowered.

 

EDIT 3/4/24: Redeemer (Support)

Primary Power Sets: Support

Cold Domination, Dark Miasma, Electrical Affinity*, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, Nature Affinity*, Pain Domination, Poison, Radiation Emission, Sonic Resonance, Storm Summoning, Thermal Radiation, Time Manipulation, Traps*, Trick Arrow*

*Do not synergize well with Archetype Bonus

 

Secondary Power Sets: Assaults

Arsenal Assault, Dark Assault, Earth Assault, Electricity Assault, Energy Assault, Energy Assault, Fiery Assault, Icy Assault, Martial Assault, Psionic Assault, Radioactive Assault, Savage Assault, Sonic Assault, Thorny Assault

Archetype Bonus: Triage

Using any secondary power (the damaging Assaults) causes a Redeemer to experience a surge of Triage, granting significant recharge boosts to his primary powers (the support skills).

 

Redeemers are fragile like Defenders but have harder-hitting attacks.  The accelerated recharge from Triage triggered by engaging in combat makes their support skills more readily available, but like the similar pool power Hasten it risks energy starvation.  In Architect testing of this power pairing, the Redeemer was excellent in teams but struggled in a duo.

 

TL, DR: Bad new archetype ideas for a glass cannon, an aggro crowd, and a punch healer.

Edited March 4 by ThatGuyCDude
3/4/24: Work in feedback ideas

[temnix]

I like the first two. I would rename Cannon to Monitor, though. Monitors were enormous floating batteries in the early days of steamships. They usually had one huge artillery tower or many small fixed cannons around, and they had the sailing qualities of a brick. They would not be allowed into open sea for fear of capsizing. Unlike your Cannon, though, they were excellently armored. My concern when it comes to balance is that teams know to keep Blasters in the back, out of harm's way, already (Blasters themselves know it). Adding another strong if vulnerable shooter to the back lines would not make fights more difficult for them, especially if the character slots Range Enhancements. He could bombard the enemy from the entrance door. But if you change Shattered Glass (too particular) to Collateral Damage and make it so that this damage is AoE but indiscriminate, i.e. allies can suffer too, then it would be a question of whether the team wants to be subjected to friendly fire. In other words, then it would be interesting. Give the Monitor the best shooting distance of all Archetypes, but correlate Collateral Damage with it. Monitors could specialize in acting the howitzer with bosses, for instance, while everyone else keeps out to the sides, fighting the rank-and-file and distracting the boss when he rushes towards the Monitor.

 

For the second concept I insist on new minion choices. It should be some people obviously less proficient than demons and ninjas: Militia, for example (badly and ridiculously armed civilians of today), Peasants (sickles, pitchforks, clubs... rags), Apparitions (nearly immaterial phantoms and poltergeists), Snewts (goblin-like runts), Gizmen (glue-chicken-and-duck-tape robots), Vermin (big cockroaches, caterpillars, gnats), Footballers (quarterbacks, halfbacks etc.) or Ceremonial Guard (slow, stiff and lumbering). But the principle connecting them to the Commander should be that their effectiveness and hit points correlate to his. They can never have more percentile hp than he currently has, and if he is incapacitated or defeated, they run about in panic (by the way giving him a unique chance to recover or resurrect himself and slink back). On the other hand, his Inspirations pass a small boost onto them.

 

And for the third: why not speed up recharge of support powers all the while the character is attacking in melee? I would use Redeemer for the name. He rushes in and turns the situation around for the benefit of his friends.

Edited March 2 by temnix

[Lockely]

I really like the Commander living up to the original "intention" of redside tanking at CoV launch. MM has since evolved into something entirely different and I know people who enjoyed that strange original role for them back then.

[megaericzero]

Love the ideas.

 

Commander makes a great inversion to Mastermind. My only concern is that - even if you absorb a huge portion of incoming damage - your lack of a dedicated support set means damage henchmen do take is probably stuck for most of the fight and you don't have buffs/debuffs to help prevent damage before it happens or heals to undo it so they may get whittled-down in fights in late-game content or if you try to act as a tank for a large team. The inherent being reverse-bodyguard works but perhaps better as an insurance policy against AOEs and stray foes while the Commander themself takes the main aggro. (Also, since most inherents are a single word, maybe Rallying instead of Strength in Numbers?)

[Rudra]

9 hours ago, Lockely said:

I really like the Commander living up to the original "intention" of redside tanking at CoV launch. MM has since evolved into something entirely different and I know people who enjoyed that strange original role for them back then.

Uhm... no, MMs haven't. Yes, there are several ways to play a MM, but if you want to tank with one, you very much can. I typically run my MMs in that capacity. (Edit: If they lose their pets, they are in deep, deep trouble, but that has always been true of MMs.)

Edited March 2 by Rudra

[ThatGuyCDude]

Updated the original post with some of the ideas from your feedback.

Cannons suffer recoil damage from their attacks, so if they aren't careful they can blow themselves up.

 

Mediators renamed to Redeemers, receive cooldown reduction bursts to their primary powers rather than full cooldown removal when using secondary powers (think like Hasten from Super Speed).

 

No change to Commanders, but the comment about pet durability stands.  I believe all inspirations should spread to subordinates for all pet users (including Masterminds), but I couldn't come up with a mechanic specific for Commanders to address the lack of support powers.  Maybe one of the armor powers could be replaced with a healing AoE that only applies to their pets?  "Authority"?

[megaericzero]

25 minutes ago, ThatGuyCDude said:

Maybe one of the armor powers could be replaced with a healing AoE that only applies to their pets?  "Authority"?

It's certainly possible. Shared power sets don't have to be copied 100%. Sentinels and Stalkers already change a power in every armor set they get to fit their roles better.

[Sunsette]

I like the Commander and Redeemer.

 

Blaster and Sentinel already have major identity overlap that's not completely resolved (if much better than it used to be) and I think Cannon would exacerbate the problem without adding much though.

 

I might suggest Redeemer gets assault sets instead of pure melee sets because the Stalker/Scrapper/Brute field is also congested. Power-Up pairs neatly with support sets.

Edited March 3 by Sunsette

[ThatGuyCDude]

Hmm... Assault is a better fit for Redeemer now that I look at it, good call!  And now I'm picturing Cannon with Melee and Assault instead of Blast and Assault... that could be a promising combo with a diverse spread of close and ranged attack powers.  Gotta think on that a bit, but maybe turning Cannon into 'Ravager' or something synonymous--keeping it an 'all damage, no defense' archetype but throwing it in both range categories--would lead to more varied team dynamics with the archetype.

I think I'll try to test some of these ideas in the Architect system with elite bosses, see how that pans out.

[Sunsette]

I'm just kind of skeptical of an all-damage no defense in general. That was the original concept for the blaster and it was extremely hard to play in most contexts, leading to the multiple revisions and buffs blasters got. A melee-heavy version of that, subject to way more casual fire, just seems like frustration bait. And then if you make them survivable, you open up new cans of worms -- blasters are extremely high-performing now at the top end of play because of those changes and buffs, while still notoriously squishy for most players -- they have the widest and most even spreads in performance quality of all ATs now, I'd guess.

 

Still like the other two though! 😄

 

With further consideration, I'd want to adjust triage to provide some sort of controllable benefit to others.

• Making target ally powers target self might be difficult since there's no way to target yourself in this game, so you're dealing with every power at best having a redirect based on whether you have a friendly targeted or not. It also leads to potential monster builds with some solo sets, and the only way to balance this would be to tank the melee damage output dramatically, which is not always fun.
• Uncontrollable and random inherents are kind of boring, honestly; see scrapper.

 

Not immediately sure on a replacement suggestion though.

Edited March 3 by Sunsette

[temnix]

This is all being very theoretical, but I think the feature that can make the Commander stand out is a different relationship with minions. It is not interesting enough to have a power that simply heals them or something like that. And this type needs distinct minion groups, intentionally less impressive. Militia, makeshift robots etc. are all possibilities. There could be more summonable minions to control at once, for example (it's disappointing that Masterminds only get three goons - not exactly Shredder and robot ninjas... quite some time later they get another, but it's never an impressive presence). Commanders' minions could be much weaker, but the starting power could summon four of them. And if the idea that their maximum percentile hit points are the same as the Commander's at all times is in, that would make them even more fragile and put the pressure on the Commander to stay alive and command instead of wading into fighting as I have seen Masterminds do. Combine this with Inspirations passing on, at least in part, and you have the beginning of an original Archetype.

 

On the other hand, there is a remaining noun in the English tongue still unused: Interceptor. This could be a version of Redeemer for villains.

[Lockely]

1 hour ago, temnix said:

This is all being very theoretical, but I think the feature that can make the Commander stand out is a different relationship with minions. It is not interesting enough to have a power that simply heals them or something like that. And this type needs distinct minion groups, intentionally less impressive. Militia, makeshift robots etc. are all possibilities. There could be more summonable minions to control at once, for example (it's disappointing that Masterminds only get three goons - not exactly Shredder and robot ninjas... quite some time later they get another, but it's never an impressive presence). Commanders' minions could be much weaker, but the starting power could summon four of them. And if the idea that their maximum percentile hit points are the same as the Commander's at all times is in, that would make them even more fragile and put the pressure on the Commander to stay alive and command instead of wading into fighting as I have seen Masterminds do. Combine this with Inspirations passing on, at least in part, and you have the beginning of an original Archetype.

 

On the other hand, there is a remaining noun in the English tongue still unused: Interceptor. This could be a version of Redeemer for villains.

 

My only concerns with this is I've experienced a ton of lag and slow down on map missions with a lot of pets and psuedopets in the mission.

 

Adding more might cause even more chugging. I'm not sure if there's an internal limit per character or anything.

[ThatGuyCDude]

So I ran some Mission Architect tests on the proposed archetypes, based on their power pairings.  My tests were with Boss-rank allies, and I refrained from attacking to let them 'team' by themselves.  All archetype test characters had access to every power in their respective pools, and I tested on Characters x 3 with a team of three so the challenge would match the size of the party.

Commander (Thugs + Willpower)

The Thugs Commander was certainly more durable than a Mastermind, and did a competent job holding aggro with the built-in AI.  In tests where the team consisted of my Stalker and the Commander against a comparable force, he did a good job keeping enemies off of me (though the screen DID get rather crowded, especially when the Commander was fighting his enemy copy).  Not being able to heal his adds didn't seem to slow him down: he simply replaced them as they fell.  However, when HE ran out of HP, they all died with him and the battle took a deadly south turn.  This is consistent with what is expected of Tank gameplay, so I believe this archetype would hold up very well as a player option.

 

Cannon (Water Blast + Fiery Assault)

The Cannon was boring.  As a boss, he died almost instantly without posing any real threat to me solo or against the test archetype team.  I didn't bother rotating this archetype into the team because the boss test was so disappointing.  Blast + Assault is thus a bust and I'd say this archetype belongs on the cutting room floor.

 

Ravager (Battle Axe + Fiery Assault)

The 'revised' Cannon, however, is a MONSTER!  Solo as a boss, this guy could easily one-shot my Stalker repeatedly.  In a three-man archetype party his frailty was easily overcome with the aggro control and support of the other test archetypes.  Of the three archetypes I tested in a two-man team with my Stalker, Ravager was also the most successful result.  While he eventually died, he did far better handling groups of Circle of Thorns mobs than the Redeemer.  The ideology here is that Offense is the best Defense: an aggressive strategy of blasts followed by devastating melee attacks once the enemy gets close makes for an exciting battle.  I believe this archetype would hold up very well as a player option.

 

Mediator (Forcefields + Martial Arts)

The Mediator as a boss was DEVASTATINGLY effective.  Impossible to hit, and slamming with his own attacks, the Mediator mopped the floor with me solo, AND with the three man test archetype team.  This power combination is absolutely busted, so much so I didn't bother cycling it into the test archetype team.  Power fantasies like this are fun for a little while, but would be boring in the long run.  Thus, Mediator is a bust and I'd say this archetype belongs on the cutting room floor.

 

Redeemer (Pain Domination + Electric Assault)

The 'revised' Mediator wasn't quite as combat imposing as his kicky counterpart.  The combo of assault powers and support healing worked very well in the test team, especially in keeping the Commander's thug shields up and running.  When I ran with Redeemer in a two-man with my Stalker, though, the poor guy got clobbered.  He was able to handle a few packs, but then ran off and pulled the whole map.  This is more a problem with the AI than the archetype, though, but it does indicate that this sort of power pairing needs SOMETHING to support it; likely the cooldown reduction bursts already suggested as part of the archetype.  With some finessing, I believe this archetype would make a compelling option for players.

Edited March 4 by ThatGuyCDude
Typo

[Sunsette]

The one thing I'd want to keep in mind with your tests is that part of building an AT is scalars, and also that powerset varies performance a lot -- I don't know about for enemies, but with players a lot of the weapon melee sets offer passive riders that can up survivability dramatically. Force Fields is definitely number one on my list of concerns as an outlier, though, and it'd be something I'd probably want to tweak or avoid implementing for such a support AT.

[FrozenSolid]

Rather new to the game, but I find it rather surprising there isn't a Melee / Support archetype... Can't have all of the freedom in character creation I suppose... Though some of the support sets would have very bad synergy with melee, specifically anything with knockbacks and repels... Maybe as a bandaid fix not giving them access to Force Field, Kinetics, Storm Summoning or Sonic Resonance

[strangething]

On 5/18/2024 at 12:12 PM, FrozenSolid said:

Rather new to the game, but I find it rather surprising there isn't a Melee / Support archetype...

 

I had an idea about how to make that work.

 

Imagine a new category of power sets that combine defense and support powers. Just like how Dominator secondaries combine melee and ranged dps powers. The new AT takes its primary from this new hybrid category, and its secondary is melee dps.

 

Basically take a defense power, and replace most of the toggles with AoE buffs. Mix and match powers from a matching Defender primary as needed. So the set is a mix of self-protection and team support. This is easiest to imagine with defender powers that give out heals, defense, or resistance buffs, rather than debuffs. But there are a lot of defense powers that give you a debuffing aura.

 

Energy Defense: Energy Aura & Force Field -

Ice Defense: Ice Armor & Cold Domination

Healing Defense: Regeneration (or Willpower) & Empathy

Fiery Defense: Fiery Aura & Thermal Radiation

 

Some defense power sets don't jell as well with their support analogs, and would take more work to integrate.

 

Dark Defense: Dark Armor & Dark Miasma

Electric Defense: Electric Armor & Electrical Affinity

Radiation Defense: Radiation Armor & Radiation Emission

 

The AT would possibly be a little tricky to play, since you have to keep restoring the buffs on yourself to stay tough enough to survive melee, while also keeping an eye on your allies.

[Shin Magmus]

     Personally, I think the game already has an issue with too many Archetypes and redundancy.  Sentinels are not in a great spot, in either power level or identity (ranged Scrapper is a bald-faced lie), and there are other ATs in serious need of help next before any new stuff.  Both MMs and Khelds are on the devs' radar for reworks already: much-needed reworks that I still appreciate.  VEATs just got their big buff patch and are much better off for it.  I'd rather see the stuff we have now ALL BE USEFUL and endgame-viable, than see more new ATs.

 

     Human-only Khelds operate at a level of weakness that is inexcusable and unmatched by any other AT.  At the very least, I'd hope that gets fixed before they release another new AT.

[Videra]

To quote Shin, uh.

I'm not going to do that, but yeah, nah. Shin's pretty much got it pegged. We don't need a new archetype right now. Or ever, really. Fix what exists, but actually fix the bad things, don't just randomly nerf strong things when Archery exists and is turbo bad, lmao. I'm sure the powers devs would never do that.

Edited May 21 by Videra

[Purrfekshawn]

Vindicator

Primary Powerset: Melee Damage

Secondary Powerset: Support

Inherent: Vindictive - utilizing any Secondary Set power grants Mez protection to self (all mezzes). The values are not too much, but they stack. The durability of mezzes increases with Tier of the Support powers.

Has 500% Damage cap, and multiplier of Melee damage a bit lower than Scrappers (about 1.1x). Can't crit unlike scrappers though, but still pretty fierce melee fighter with ability to provide support to the team (which's good on Hardmode content).

 

Some powers're reworked - for instance Dispersion Bubble and Sonic Dispersion may grant ticking +ABSORB to the team instead of Mez protection to the team, and Pain Domination Soothing aura may be reworked to Click Temporary PBAoE regen buff, so it grants Mez protection to self.

[Neogumbercules]

3 hours ago, Shin Magmus said:

     Personally, I think the game already has an issue with too many Archetypes and redundancy.  Sentinels are not in a great spot, in either power level or identity (ranged Scrapper is a bald-faced lie), and there are other ATs in serious need of help next before any new stuff.  Both MMs and Khelds are on the devs' radar for reworks already: much-needed reworks that I still appreciate.  VEATs just got their big buff patch and are much better off for it.  I'd rather see the stuff we have now ALL BE USEFUL and endgame-viable, than see more new ATs.

 

     Human-only Khelds operate at a level of weakness that is inexcusable and unmatched by any other AT.  At the very least, I'd hope that gets fixed before they release another new AT.

I agree with you and I really wish they would take the range and target cap nerfs off sentinel and give them a decent inherent.

 

That said I would also love a hybrid melee/support primary, Mastermind secondary AT, so I'm a bit of a hypocrite.

Edited May 21 by Neogumbercules

[AmbiguousOmen]

9 hours ago, Shin Magmus said:

     Personally, I think the game already has an issue with too many Archetypes and redundancy.  Sentinels are not in a great spot, in either power level or identity (ranged Scrapper is a bald-faced lie), and there are other ATs in serious need of help next before any new stuff.  Both MMs and Khelds are on the devs' radar for reworks already: much-needed reworks that I still appreciate.  VEATs just got their big buff patch and are much better off for it.  I'd rather see the stuff we have now ALL BE USEFUL and endgame-viable, than see more new ATs.

 

I tend to agree with this. The Brute/Scrapper and Defender/Corruptor identities are already blurry enough that I'm not sure more archetypes would help.

 

I have however wondered at times if the fact that Scirocco, nominally the signature Corruptor, so prominently wields a sword means that Corruptors were intended to be Melee/Support at some point in the design process. It's the one combo that I think might feel truly fresh.