New Inspirations: Range, Cooldown

[ThatGuyCDude]

While I was browsing the auction consignment house, I noticed an inspiration that grants the user temporary invisibility (Conceal.  The wiki says it's obsolete, but it's still got active sales).  That got me thinking that there are other mechanics with which the inspiration system doesn't interact.  I began to wonder if some new multi-stage inspirations were possible, called for, and potentially useful/entertaining.

 

Need that extra bit of buffer between you and the opponent?  Use a Ranged inspiration (Reach, Stretch, Snipe, Sharpshoot) to get a temporary bonus of 25%, 33%, 50%, or 100% to the range of all appropriate powers.

 

Frustrated your big move isn't ready for the next pull?  The Cooldown inspiration (Ready, Prompt, Swift, Instant) would boost recharge rates by 5%, 10%, 15%, or 30% for its duration.

 

I also considered suggesting a Speed inspiration for run/jump/flight speed, but I think that would end up being vendor fodder.  Others like Taunt/Placate duration and Hold/Slow duration only impact archetype-specific mechanics and again likely run the risk of being vendor fodder.

 

I don't know about other players, but I frequently use inspirations to fill in gaps in my enhancements.  For that reason, having Range and Recharge in the list of consumables seems appropriate, as they are enhanceable traits that are relevant to every archetype.

[Rudra]

The active sales for Conceal should be a false display. To the best of my knowledge, you can't buy it.

 

Edit: I just checked it. There are open bids for it, but no sales. There is also no history for it no matter how many times I click Find. So those open bids are just never going to get filled because like the wiki says, it is obsolete. So you won't find it at any vendor and it doesn't drop from mobs.

Edited March 10 by Rudra

[Saiyajinzoningen]

Ahh @Rudra I love you man (platonically) 

and your knowledge about the game is virtually unmatched but

sometimes you cant see the forest for the trees

 

This is a splendid idea @ThatGuyCDude

I'm not too sure on the specific inspirations but 

I like how the Hamidon inspirations are used

A specific insp for a specific purpose

here's an example

 

The Devs release an Icy Hell stage

Ice chars who have cold resist take extremely minor constant damage

Others who don't have cold resist take much more

defeating foes drops a cold resist insp that lasts i dunno 15 mins.

The insp maxes your cold resist and can be used even outside of that stage

to help with dealing with frostfire or whatever

of course this can also be a Volcanic stage or a thunder prison

I think a shadow stage already exists but my memory is failing 

 

(while recharge insp would be amazing it may be a little too overpowered.

Considering how insps work, it could be stacked which would lead to spamming T9's)

[Uun]

Some of these can be crafted as Empowerment Buffs in your SG base.

 

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Empowerment_Station

[Rudra]

13 hours ago, Saiyajinzoningen said:

Ahh @Rudra I love you man (platonically) 

and your knowledge about the game is virtually unmatched but

sometimes you cant see the forest for the trees

 

This is a splendid idea @ThatGuyCDude

I'm not too sure on the specific inspirations but 

I like how the Hamidon inspirations are used

A specific insp for a specific purpose

here's an example

 

The Devs release an Icy Hell stage

Ice chars who have cold resist take extremely minor constant damage

Others who don't have cold resist take much more

defeating foes drops a cold resist insp that lasts i dunno 15 mins.

The insp maxes your cold resist and can be used even outside of that stage

to help with dealing with frostfire or whatever

of course this can also be a Volcanic stage or a thunder prison

I think a shadow stage already exists but my memory is failing 

 

(while recharge insp would be amazing it may be a little too overpowered.

Considering how insps work, it could be stacked which would lead to spamming T9's)

So let's try addressing a few of these trees. We can set aside the Conceal inspiration because I've already addressed it. Instead, I'm going to address the other inspirations.

 

Recharge reduction inspirations: Recharge reduction has a limit of +400%, which is 1/5 the recharge time of any given power. So you can have a character running around spamming Inferno for instance every 29 seconds. Not using Hasten or counting the recharge reductions I have slotted into my powers, my characters average +62.5% recharge reduction as a global effect. Slotted enhancements are around +92-98%. Anyone taking Hasten gets another +70%. Using a 95% slotted recharge bonus, that's +227.5% recharge. So popping recharge inspirations makes it very easy to get that nuke down to an every 29 seconds use. I can't speak for the devs, but I'm not inclined to think they would be in favor of that.

 

Range inspirations: Range has a limit of 500%. For a Blaster's regular attacks, that is a range of 400 feet. Their snipe would hit out to 750 feet. This would let a ranged character pick off any GM or other critter (short of maybe Hamidon or any fliers that can pursue them) from a point of absolute safety.

 

So between the recharge reduction and range inspirations, I think adding those inspirations would be too powerful. Now, as far as your additions go? As @Uun said, those can already be crafted at any empowerment station, and the empowerment station buffs last for an hour and a half. While I am not opposed to those inspirations per se, adding them will reduce the likelihood of having sufficient inspirations on hand to merge into an inspiration you actually need, and for a maximum of 90 seconds depending on whether they use the standard 60 second duration for most inspirations or the variable duration of the mez protection inspirations. So I would say it is far better to just craft those at an empowerment station.

 

I am not trying to imply or say you do not already know the things I am stating in this post, but I feel I need to present them as a reference for why I am approaching this the way that I am.

 

Edited March 11 by Rudra
Edited to correct "enhancements" to "inspirations". And again to remove list of current inspirations and their limits.

[ThatGuyCDude]

Thank you for the numbers, Rudra.  Wouldn't it be impractical to keep that up, though?  The inspirations only last a minute, and getting to that cap means stacking a bunch of them; you'd only be able to run it for about five minutes max before you'd have to go and get more, not to mention the recharge one would tank your endurance bar.  Putting them on duals or party-wides would be a terrible idea, but as normal-sized inspirations and the Ding inspirations...?

The range numbers are probably too high, though, I used the Enrage inspiration family as the template for those percentages.

[Rudra]

2 hours ago, ThatGuyCDude said:

Thank you for the numbers, Rudra.  Wouldn't it be impractical to keep that up, though?  The inspirations only last a minute, and getting to that cap means stacking a bunch of them; you'd only be able to run it for about five minutes max before you'd have to go and get more, not to mention the recharge one would tank your endurance bar.  Putting them on duals or party-wides would be a terrible idea, but as normal-sized inspirations and the Ding inspirations...?

The range numbers are probably too high, though, I used the Enrage inspiration family as the template for those percentages.

In the end it is up to the devs to decide. However, you can carry 20 inspirations in your inspiration tray and your e-mail limit in your e-mail. Plus you can still merge inspirations into any other inspiration of the same basic type. (That is 3 smalls into a small, but not a team, multi-, special, or medium+.) So you can feasibly, not likely but feasibly, keep your ranged character going on just range inspirations or recharge inspirations. (And if you keep the occasional blue, the recharge inspiration isn't a problem even if all you do is spam your nuke every 29 seconds.) This is partially offset by the fact adding two more inspiration types would dilute the inspiration pool, slowing down the ability to merge into what you need instead of what you have. So who knows, I think they are too OP, but maybe the devs won't and will think they are a good idea.