AT Suggestion: The Bulwark

[biostem]

I'm sure something similar has been proposed before, but here's my take:

 

"The Bulwark" - You lead a squad of loyal minions from the front, serving as an example to them, with your deeds and actions spurring them on.

 

Primary: Summon (with modifications)

Secondary: Melee

 

Special ability is "Feedback" - When you get attacked or damaged, your henchmen get a damage and tohit buff.  When your henchmen deal damage, you get a regen and attack rate buff.  This AT would also have a single-target taunt effect in their melee attacks, similar to Brutes and would use their melee sets in general.  (The specific buffs and values are subject to change, of course.)

 

Instead of the personal attacks that'd normally be found in the pet sets, there would be thematically appropriate armor powers.  For instance, instead of Necromany getting dark blast, gloom, and life drain, it'd have dark embrace, murky cloud, and obsidian shield.  These removed attacks would instead be migrated over to a selection of ancillary pool powers for Bulwarks.

 

My initial take on the associated armor sets:

Necromancy - Dark Armor

Ninjas - Ninjitsu

Demon Summoning - Fire Armor

Robotics - Energy Aura

Mercenaries - Invulnerability

Thugs - Willpower

Beast Summoning - Super Reflexes

[CrusaderDroid]

Ooh. Toyed with a similar idea myself. I'm definitely in support of the concept, since you can field a different set of pets if you're in melee and can take a hit instead of being ranged.

 

My own personal idea was to combine melee sets with armor sets instead of combining armor with pet sets. I think this might work too, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

I guess the two big things to watch out for are how MM's pets are balanced around the MM playing support from afar and not fighting in melee, and that you don't end up dealing absurd damage since you have a full attack set on top of at least 6 other bodies taking shots at the enemy. I think if you're going to be going into melee, you probably want entirely new pet sets for this instead of swapping out powers on existing sets, so you can rebalance the new pets around your melee combat.

[biostem]

15 minutes ago, CrusaderDroid said:

I think if you're going to be going into melee, you probably want entirely new pet sets for this instead of swapping out powers on existing sets, so you can rebalance the new pets around your melee combat.

In general I don't disagree, but from a practicality standpoint, I don't think we're going to see entirely new pet sets created anytime soon.

[ThatGuyCDude]

I think Robotics should be paired with Electric Armor instead, but otherwise I love the idea.  Would probably work better than the similar archetype I suggested that was Summons/Armor out of the box.

[biostem]

1 minute ago, ThatGuyCDude said:

I think Robotics should be paired with Electric Armor instead, but otherwise I love the idea.  Would probably work better than the similar archetype I suggested that was Summons/Armor out of the box.

Hmmm... I'm not sure about electric armor, especially since the protector bots use force fields, which seem closer to energy aura.

Edited March 20 by biostem

[ThatGuyCDude]

Ah, you're right.  I was picturing the aesthetic of the Clockwork, but looking at Robotics again their machines are of sturdier manufacture.

[TheMoneyMaker]

3 hours ago, biostem said:

In general I don't disagree, but from a practicality standpoint, I don't think we're going to see entirely new pet sets created anytime soon.

But you think the ranged attacks are likely to be made into pool powers?  Would they be available to eveyone or coded to exclusive to the bulwark?

[biostem]

4 minutes ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

But you think the ranged attacks are likely to be made into pool powers?  Would they be available to eveyone or coded to exclusive to the bulwark?

My initial intent was to have them made into the APPs for this proposed AT.

[TheMoneyMaker]

Just now, biostem said:

My initial intent was to have them made into the APPs for this proposed AT.

That would make more sense.

[biostem]

2 minutes ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

That would make more sense.

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see the whip or bird attacks proliferated to other ATs, but I think that's a discussion for another thread...

[TheMoneyMaker]

1 minute ago, biostem said:

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see the whip or bird attacks proliferated to other ATs, but I think that's a discussion for another thread...

Dominators did get the bird attacks.  I'm surprised that the whip attacks haven't been incorporated into an Assault set yet.

[Player2]

11 hours ago, TheMoneyMaker said:

I'm surprised that the whip attacks haven't been incorporated into an Assault set yet.

The whips are flamey and there's already a Fire Assault set. 

[biostem]

7 hours ago, Player2 said:

The whips are flamey and there's already a Fire Assault set. 

While they may appear to be fiery, they actually deal toxic damage and are described as "hellfire" and causing corruption, so it could work as part of a toxic assault assault set...

[Player2]

19 hours ago, biostem said:

While they may appear to be fiery, they actually deal toxic damage and are described as "hellfire" and causing corruption, so it could work as part of a toxic assault assault set...

No Toxic Assault unless we get a Toxic Blast, too.

 

I have spoken.

[PeregrineFalcon]

1 hour ago, Player2 said:

No Toxic Assault unless we get a Toxic Blast, too.

 

I have spoken.

Motion sustained!